A/N: This fic was the result of a challenge called "The Night We Never Met," wherein two characters who never met in a fandom do meet. In this case, I went for Cole and Chris. Takes place immediately after the ending of "Seven Year Witch."

With a last wistful look at the door behind which he knew Phoebe stood, Cole let himself be pulled back to limbo, where he'd spend the majority of the past two years. For the longest time it had been absolute nothingness, no awareness of time or space, but as the months passed, his powers slowly began to return to him. Even vanquished to this place, his will was strong enough to survive and grow in strength. One of the first things he did was to transform the nothingness into...something. The old familiarity of his former penthouse seemed the obvious choice. It helped make the isolation a little more bearable.

He sat down on the couch with a sigh. Seeing Phoebe had been more painful than he thought it would be. He had tried to brace himself, but nothing could prepare him for the vivid rush of memories of both pleasure and pain, of her kisses and her curses. A hundred questions filled him with turmoil. If she'd known he was there, how would she have reacted? Angry screaming? Did her hatred still burn so strongly? If he ever managed to truly find a way out of here, would she just try to vanquish him again? Did he imagine that she had looked right at him, as if for a fleeting moment she sensed he was there? Did he dare hope some bond still existed between them?

"Nice job. Thanks."

The voice startled him. As his powers grew, he'd ventured out of this prison from time to time, sending his spirit to the plane of the living, but no one came here. Solitude was part of his fate. "Who's there?" he demanded.

Pale blue lights swirled beside him, coalescing into the form of a young man with dark unkempt hair. "Sorry, didn't mean to scare you," he said.

"You don't scare me," Cole said, sizing up the new arrival. "You're just a boy. Who are you? How did you get here?"

'Chris," he said. "Chris Halliwell. Or I will be him. Or something. I'm not sure, this is all very weird."

"Chris Halliwell is an infant," Cole said.

"I'm his future self," Chris said. "Or a possible future self. Like I said, it's weird. I got killed as I was being born and then I ended up here. I think I'm part of what he could be but I'm just a little displaced. Time travel and paradoxes make my head hurt."

"So what do you want from me?" Cole said, not entirely convinced.

"I just wanted to thank you," Chris said. "You saved my mom and dad. But I gotta ask -- how did you do it?"

"Does it matter?" Cole said wearily.

"I'm just curious," Chris said, "and it's not like we have anything else to do around here. Unless you get cable."

Cole smiled slightly despite himself. "No, no cable. All right, if you really want to know..." For some reason, the thought of sharing his experiences with someone seemed a relief right now, even if he wasn't sure "Chris" was who he claimed to be. "When I was vanquished, I ended up here. Purgatory, limbo, whatever you want to call it. I don't know if this was supposed to be some sort of punishment, or that part of me was strong enough to cling to some semblance of life, like my soul was in the wastelands. It was nothing for the longest time. I had no idea how much time passed, but I began to grow stronger...aware of my surroundings or lack thereof. I figured out how I could leave here and visit the living world invisibly."

"Did you watch Phoebe?" Chris asked.

"Where do you think I went first?" Cole said with a heavy sigh, closing his eyes. "But she...was with another man. Do you think I wanted to see that? So I stayed away from her and her sisters. Seemed the best thing, really. A 'Hi, honey, I'm home,' would've just gotten me another vanquish, and I had no desire to find out if a third time was a charm. Then about a year ago on one of my forays from this place I ran into Drake -- he's always had a sensitivity to the spirit world, so he could see me when others couldn't. He told me how he wanted to become human, and I told him about the Sorcerer. I'd considered taking the Sorcerer up on his deal myself a few years back, but I didn't like the cost. Drake was more willing, obviously."

"Go on," Chris prompted.

"A few weeks ago I learned about the failed attempt at Utopia," Cole said. He opened his eyes and peered at Chris. "I thought your mother was the smart one. What the hell was she thinking?"

"Hey, don't ask me," Chris said. "Dead, remember? And baby me couldn't put up much of a protest."

"Well, the Avatars do have a way of influencing people to do what they want," Cole said. "The choice may not have entirely been theirs."

"You've dealt with them before," Chris said, raising an eyebrow in a way that evoked his mother.

Cole nodded. "They claim to be neutral, but they prey on desperation. They manipulated your father just as they manipulated me. And I knew the Elders wouldn't be pleased with what your father did, to say the least. So I spied on them, found out what they were planning -- and found out Odin planned to cheat. At the same time I checked in on the Halliwells and saw how Phoebe's love life was, well, a thing of tragedy, and much as it pained me to see her with another man, I didn't want her to live in misery. So...two birds, one stone."

"So...you sent Drake?" Chris asked.

"Yes. He told me he owed me for pointing him to the Sorcerer and making him human, so I called in the favor," Cole said. "I sent him to watch over Phoebe and her sisters, and to let me know when things with the Elders were coming to a head. Then I sent the Thorn Demons..."

"You did that?" Chris said, shocked.

"I suppose that might rank as not one of my finer moments as well," Cole mused. "But it was necessary. I knew the Elders would cheat and muddle Leo's thoughts and pull him to their side, remember. But I also knew that the bond between your parents was strong enough that nothing the Elders did could prevent him from feeling her death. What I did was necessary, but somehow I doubt your mother would see it that way."

"You...might be surprised," Chris said slowly.

"The Charmed Ones have always jumped to condemn me before, why change things now?" Cole said.

"Because they learn from their mistakes," Chris said. "You saved my mom and dad's love. You restored Phoebe's faith in love."

"Doesn't matter much to me here now, does it?" Cole said a little bitterly.

"Then why did you do it?" Chris asked.

"Because...because..." Cole stood and began to pace restlessly. "Because I shouldn't care, but I do. I want Phoebe to be happy, even if...even if it isn't with me. Piper and Leo were family to me once. Maybe I felt like I owed it to them after what I put them through."

"When you became the Source?" Chris said.

"When the Source possessed me," Cole corrected. "It was never my choice. I wasn't strong enough to stop it. No, when I came back..." He sighed. "I put your mother through hell. I wasn't...entirely myself."

"Well, if I can be forgiven for handing my mom over to an evil spider bitch and beating the crap out of my dad, maybe they can forgive you, too," Chris said.

Cole smiled wryly. "Doubtful. History has proven otherwise." He sat back down on the couch and leaned back. "So tell me about the future," he said, abruptly changing the subject. "Or, let me guess, it's forbidden."

Chris shrugged. "Doesn't matter much now. The future has already changed from what I remember it to be, so where's the harm? You get out of here. Permanently."

"Of course I do," Cole said, unsurprised. Once he set out to do something, he rarely met failure. Unless it involved Phoebe. "When?"

"Not sure," Chris said. "Within a year from now, I think. And, uh, Phoebe freaks."

Cole sighed. "Again, not surprising. I should know better than to go near her."

"Yeah, well, but she gets over it," Chris said. "I was pretty young but I kinda remember a lot of screaming and crying. But then you get back together. Phoebe always said you were patient and gave her the space she needed to adjust and realize she was still in love with you. And you have a daughter. Melinda."

For the first time in many months he felt real hope. He sat up straight, looking at Chris in surprise. "We do? We have a baby? A little girl...?"

"Yeah...," Chris said slowly.

"There's more," Cole said, picking up on his hesitation. "Tell me."

"It doesn't matter, it won't happen now," Chris said evasively.

"I want to know anyway," Cole insisted.

"All right," Chris said slowly. "In my future, Wyatt turned evil. Melinda and I tried to stop him. He...killed her."

"I'd never let that happen," Cole said.

"Yeah, but you were already dead," Chris told him. "So was Phoebe."

"How?" Cole demanded.

"Some demon called Zankou," Chris said. "He was imprisoned but got released when Melinda, Wyatt, and I were all just kids. He tried to set himself up as the new Source, and of course he came after the Charmed Ones. You stopped him, but he killed you. For real this time. Phoebe totally lost it and went after Zankou alone to vanquish him, and he killed her, too."

Cole calmly digested this. "But our daughter was safe."

Chris nodded. "For a few years. Until Wyatt asked her to join him and she said no. She was pretty powerful, and he wanted her power joined with his. I didn't get there in time to stop him. That's when I decided to go back in time and try to change things so he didn't turn evil. I didn't know if it would work, but I had to try."

"And you think you succeeded?" Cole asked.

"Yeah, looks like it," Chris said. "Dad never became an Avatar in my future. He just abandoned Mom for the Elders. And this time around, you stopped the Elders from putting him on that path again."

"But...Zankou is out now," Cole said. "And he's after the Charmed Ones."

"He is?" Chris said in surprise. "It's too soon...they aren't ready to deal with him. Dad's there, but he's human now."

Cole leaned toward Chris. "You said I get out of here. If Zankou is out sooner than he should be, then I don't have to stick to your timeline, either."

"Yeah, but don't look at me," Chris said with a helpless shrug. "I don't know how you did it. Whenever you and Phoebe told me about it when I was a kid, it was all the power of love and how love transcends every plane of existence, and all you need to do is believe in it with every fiber of your being, and then you two would get all mushy and it was kinda gross."

"I won't let Zankou kill the Charmed Ones," Cole said. "I won't let him hurt Phoebe."

"Then you gotta get out of here," Chris said. "But remember what I said about patience and space. And if it helps any, Mom was on your side. Talking to her first might help."

"She was on my side?" Cole repeated.

Chris nodded. "Yeah, she was." Blue lights began to shimmer around him. "And I think that means my time here is up. Nice talking to you again, Uncle Cole. And thanks."

"Thank you," Cole said as Chris vanished. He looked around the replica of his living room. This place held him prisoner, and he'd become resigned to his fate. No more. He would find a way out of here. He would protect Phoebe and find a way to create some of the future Chris promised.

Piper gently rocked Chris against her shoulder. "Well, that was fun, wasn't it?" she said to her baby. He cooed at her in response.

"Did it work?" Leo asked, looking at her questioningly. "That didn't seem to take very long."

She nodded. "I think so. I saw him. Spells can be a lot like cooking...one part vision quest, one part inspiration spell, dash of finding a lost love. I thought I would go to him, but not quite." She looked down at Chris. "It was Chris, his older self. I was there, and I could influence him a little, but since I was holding him when I cast the spell, I guess it picked him to send instead of me."

"Chris was there? He's all right?" Leo said.

"Chris is right here, and he's fine, and he's going to be fine, aren't you, sweetie?" Piper said, tickling Chris and making him laugh. "The spell manifested as the future self we knew. I don't know if it was really him, but I think it was a part of him, part of who he will become. He just has to grow up a little first."

"Are you sure what you did was a good idea?" Leo asked.

"Cole saved us, Leo," Piper said. "We owe him. And I've been doing a lot of thinking. We let our fear get the better of us when he became the Source. He was family, and he deserved better. He didn't need to help us, but he did. And he's taking the blame about everything that happened into himself to protect Phoebe...to protect all of us. I think we owe him this...one more chance."

"Do you think it will work?" Leo said. "He'll come back?"

Piper nodded. "His love for Phoebe is the most powerful motivation in his life. He'll free himself to save her and their daughter."

"You don't know that they have a daughter," Leo reminded her.

"We know Phoebe has a daughter," Piper said. "And frankly, I'd rather Cole be the father than some of the losers she's brought home. Honestly, a half-demon is better than a lot of those guys. Plus look how she was falling for Drake. Totally a Cole substitute. She still loves him. That's why none of these other relationships have ever worked. She's been trying to find Cole again. And I'm going to give him back to her."

"If she finds out you helped him come back, this could backfire," Leo warned.

"She won't find out. And I'll tell her when she's old and grey and has grandchildren at her feet. There's no way she could be mad at me then." She smiled at Leo and moved closer to him, leaning into him and resting her head on his shoulder, cuddling Chris between them. "Love conquers all. We're living proof of that. Cole taught me that, and I'm repaying the lesson. Stop worrying, everything's going to work out fine."