SEVEN

As Phoebe and Katrina entered the attic, Cole was casting an energy ball at the prison he was in. Phoebe sighed, just as she had earlier suspected he was testing the strength of the cage.

"Well, I'm glad to see you finally came to your senses, sweetheart. Katrina? What are you doing here? Oh, I get it. Very ingenious, Phoebe. You didn't want Paige. Yeah, that would be a bit awkward. You want Katrina to join us. Good choice."

"You see how he is? And he's getting worse. He hit on Darryl, a policeman friend of ours. He even hit on Leo. Please, you have to do something."

"Don't worry, I will. Hello, Belthazor. Your, uh, girlfriend tells me you've been acting a bit strange lately. How do you feel?"

"I feel great. Ready to take on the world. Fantastic. Never been better. I keep telling them there's nothing wrong with me but they won't listen. Phoebe, come on. Let me out of this prison. Please, sweetie? I'll be good, I promise," Cole coaxed.

Katrina removed a crystal from the bag she was carrying. After studying the cage for a moment, she passed her hand over the crystal she held and murmured an incantation. Phoebe flinched involuntarily.

"What are you doing?" she asked nervously.

"Relax dear, this is a diagnostic crystal. I'm simply calibrating it to function through the cage. I assumed releasing him wasn't what you had in mind right now."

Phoebe nodded and Katrina raised the crystal and passed it the up and down the length of Coles' body. The crystal began to flash different colored lights.

"Hmmm," said Katrina. "Blood pressure is up. Respiration is faster than normal. Pupils are dilated. He's perspiring more than normal. And there are elevated levels of tinoxin and buteronin in his bloodstream."

"Is that serious?" Phoebe asked worriedly.

"No, not normally. It's a perfectly natural reaction to demonic males when they go through puberty. It's just extremely unusual in someone as old as Belthazor."

"That's ridiculous," said Cole. "I'm no adolescent. You just let me out of this cage and I'll show you how much of an adult I am. Rrrwww."

"Puberty? Wait a minute, are you telling me that Cole is going through puberty?"

"Not at all. I'm saying he's exhibiting all the symptoms of a demonic male adolescent going through puberty. Obviously that's not the case with him. But something is affecting him in much the same manner."

She reached into her bag and pulled out another crystal. As before she scanned Cole's body. This one reacted very similarly to the first crystal. When she had finished she studied the crystal closely for a few minutes.

"Okay, I think that will do it. Belthazor, I need to talk to Phoebe alone for a minute. Why don't you wait right here and we'll be back shortly."

"Sure, no problem. Just don't take too long."

Phoebe and Katrina went back down to the kitchen. Piper, Paige, Leo, and Grams were waiting expectantly.

"Well, did you find out what's wrong with him?"

"She says he's going though puberty," Phoebe said glumly.

"No, I said he was exhibiting many of the same symptoms. I've been treating Belthazor for many years and I can assure you that's not the case."

"So what is wrong with him?" Paige asked.

"Nothing's really wrong with him. He seems to be infected by something. I did detect a foreign substance in his blood. My guess is that he's ingested something that's had this affect on him."

"Well, just give him an antidote," said Piper.

"It's not quite that simple, I'm afraid. You see I don't know what it is he's ingested. Unless we can figure out what it is there's no way I can prescribe an antidote. And he is getting worse. The elevated functions are continuing to increase."

"Okay, so we just have to figure out what he's taken," said Grams.

"I doubt he would take anything deliberately," said Phoebe. "Maybe it was something he accidentally ate or drank. Or something he didn't know would have this effect on him."

"That's possible," said Katrina. "Occasionally some demons do have an unusual reaction to something that doesn't react the same way in other demons. It's also possible he's developed an allergy of sorts to something that hasn't effected him like this before. If we can figure out what it is that's causing this I can try to figure out an antidote for it."

"When did he start acting like this?" Leo asked.

"A couple of hours ago at the party," said Phoebe.

"That would be about right," said Katrina. "I can't be certain without further tests, but it appears that whatever is effecting him has only been in his system for a few hours. What kind of party?"

"A Christmas party at his law firm," said Paige. "But that doesn't make any sense. There wasn't anything at the party that should have effected him like this."

"You never know," said Katrina. "As I said, it's possible he's developed an allergy to something. Now, did he eat or drink anything at this party."

"Yeah, some," said Phoebe. "Like everyone else. But we all ate and drank the same things."

"No, we didn't," said Piper.

"Oh, wait, you're right," said Phoebe. "The brownies that Sherry Johnson gave him. She wouldn't let any of us try them. She said it was a tradition that they be only for the person they were given to."

"Hmmm," said Katrina. "It's possible there was something in the brownies that effected him. If I had one of the brownies to examine I might be able to figure out what it is."

"Cole put them in his office," said Phoebe. "Paige, why don't you orb there and get one of them. You should be able to do it without anyone seeing you."

"Good idea," said Paige. "Be right back."

Paige orbed out of the kitchen.

"Now when she gets back I'll just analyze the brownie and see if there's anything in there that could cause this affect in Belthazor."

"We prefer to call him Cole," said Phoebe. "If you don't mind."

"Certainly," said Katrina. "Cole. How long do you think it will be before your sister gets back?"

Suddenly Paige orbed back into the kitchen. She handed one of the brownies to Katrina. Katrina took another crystal out of her bag and scanned the brownie with it.

"Well, there's nothing in here that might cause that kind of reaction. They appear to be regular, normal brownies."

"So we're back where we started from," said Piper.

"Maybe not," said Phoebe. "Remember, Sherry insisted that Cole try one of the brownies. There may not be anything in these but what if she put something in the one he ate?"

"Why would she do that?" Leo asked.

"Well, she did seem rather infatuated with him," said Paige. "So I doubt she was trying to hurt him, of course if we knew what then we might know why she put something in it."

"Okay," said Piper. "Leo, you'll need to bring Sherry here. Once we get her to tell us what she put in that brownie you can use the memory dust to erase her memories of all this."

"I'm not really supposed to do that, you know that," said Leo.

"Special circumstance, brother-in-law," said Phoebe. "Now go. I want the old Cole back and this seems to be the only way to do it."

"Here," said Paige, handing Leo a piece of paper. "I figured if she did put something in the brownies we'd have to get her to find out what. I took the liberty of getting her address while I was getting the brownie."

Leo took the piece of paper and looked at it. Then he looked at the sisters and orbed out of the kitchen shaking his head. He knew better than to argue with them when they had their minds set on something. He just hoped that if the Elders found out what he did that they would understand.