Chapter 6: All And Sundry

Piper opened the door of the studio that was stylishly painted, but short of furniture, in which Cole had been temporarily set up by the Elders. On the edge of the city, almost out of sight, it was in one of the buildings the whitelighters have used when they had to deceive people and look like normal people. Cole didn't exactly feel comfortable there, but there was nowhere else he could go at the moment. He didn't even decide yet if he was going to show up at the police station and declare himself alive.

"Want a beer? It should help with the breast milk," Cole offered upon her entrance and to her nod, he made his way through the still alien feeling studio to the kitchen and got her a bottle before sitting down with his own on the old settee that he also slept on in lack of any beds, not having the power to conjure one up anymore.

"How you doing?" Piper enquired, mostly out of politeness. She appreciated Cole didn't usually want to talk about how he really felt.

"I'm all right," Cole answered similarly politely. Maybe if he repeated those words often enough, he'd believe it himself. Nevertheless, he was grateful to Piper for asking, and for keeping on the lookout for him during the last couple of weeks he completed most of his assignments from the Elders. The hardest ones anyway, "thanks for everything, Piper. I do start to feel like I'm living a bit. What's with the briefcase?" He quickly changed the subject.

"Leo orbed down with it. Apparently he doesn't have time to see you as well, he only wanted to see his son briefly...a number of documents that are supposed to help you in your efforts to prove that Jonathan whoever wasn't a demon."

"I seriously doubt that," Cole smirked, not believing the alleged whitelighter's innocence for a minute, "but I'll do my job and let the jury of the gods decide once we have all the evidence," he took a glance in the case setting it down onto the floor.

"How did the other lawsuit go?"

"The arbitration award established that the territory was bona vacantia, but pronouncement was fined for the defendant ad infinitum for breech of some other contracts ceteris paribus."

"What?"

"You can have your land in the Colorado back."

"The Elders will be happy...I hope they are not going to give you any more assignments. You already carried out enough of them.

"Thanks," Cole was taken again by the genuineness in her voice.

"Oh, that was more against the Elders than in favour of you," she admitted.

"What's wrong with the Elders now?"

"Nothing. It's just Leo...I've given up on him a while ago and I wish at least he wouldn't come back from time to time in person to give us his orders! It's so demanding sometimes, keeping things together for Wyatt and the rest of them," she moaned to the one person she wasn't directly responsible for, "trying to be professional about it all when Leo comes. You know I really did try to make things right, to make them work. I guess a person can only try so hard…for so long," she complained not realising for a moment what she said could have been Cole's words as well about his relationship with Phoebe.

But instead of being stung, he made her look at him, holding her chin up, "I won't let you suffer! You're not alone. How about I help you and you help me? That way we can stop struggling by ourselves..."

"All right," she whispered, "thank you."

"No, thank you," he embraced her, and she squeezed him close in return. For a long time. This man who held her was so much unlike Leo. His way of thinking, his looks, his behaviour, his past, his hopes and dreams were poles apart from the whitelighter's, and yet his tenderness, his secure arms, and genuineness was the same. So much like she found herself powerless to stop herself from searching for his lips.

On touch, he jumped away, "Piper? I offered my support, but I didn't mean it that way," he said uneasily.

"Why? Phoebe? Or you don't wanna date outside your species anymore? Look, Leo is gone. I wanna move on."

"With me?"

"You're simply the next best thing. Wait, you're better. You'd never disappear on the one you love. I've seen it."

"Oh, God," Cole rubbed his forehead, "I never wanted to hurt you, the furthest away from me, I'm here for you whatever problem you have, demonic or otherwise. But you are well aware of the fact that I'm in love with your sister."

"Come on Cole. You're not. You think you are. She offered you something no one else did. Now look around. I'm offering that now, she's not wanting anything to do with you," she walked tentatively towards him and stopped in front of him, waiting for him to act. It was his turn.

Cole pondered for a second, than wrapped his arms around her once more. No matter how he tried to deny it, he needed her and she needed him.

tbc