'Okay Darryl I hear ya. I'll round up Paige and we'll get right on it, just as soon as I finish this little bit of paperwork… Okay, okay, I said I would.' Phoebe protested, cradling the phone against her shoulder whilst tapping on the keyboard in front of her with her right hand and reaching for her coffee with her left. 'Yes I got it, a coven, scorch marks…'

'Dammit' Phoebe cursed as the cup slid away from her hurried fingers, spilling the dark brown liquid all over this week's 'batch of 'Ask Phoebe' letters.

'Look Darryl I've really gotta go', she insisted, dabbing futilely at the letters, with a tissue. 'I promise we'll look in to it. Okay bye.'

'Urrgggh' Phoebe groaned as she hung up the phone and surveyed the devastation that was her desk. 'Just what I need another demon up to no good! Like I haven't got anything better to do, like I don't know maybe write a highly successful advice column or pick out the Christmas decorations for P3.'

Today had gotten off to a bad start and things had gone from bad to worse. Tired from two many nights of interrupted sleep, she'd ended up oversleeping and being late for work. When she'd finally made it in Elise had been on her case about this week's column, and now Darryl seemed to think there was a new demonic threat in town. There just weren't enough hours in the day right now. Disgruntled, she wadded up the soggy tissue and threw it in the general direction of the trashcan.

'Whoah' Cole exclaimed as he dodged the missile, which flew past him and out of the open office door. 'Is this a bad time?' he asked, a smile twitching at the corner of his lips.

Phoebe groaned. Just when she'd thought her day couldn't get any worse, here he was the perennial thorn in her side. 'It's always a bad time with us Cole' she said bluntly, taking off her glasses, and treating him to her most formidable glare.

The smile disappeared from his lips, and his handsome face was marred by a frown, but he recovered quickly. 'You don't mean that Phoebe. I know you don't.'

'Look Cole, I'm kinda busy so if you could maybe speed things up here, I really don't have time for your games right now' Phoebe protested, risking a glance through the office window to check if Elise was in the vicinity. Her editor would not be pleased if she caught Phoebe wasting time on idle chatter when she had a fast approaching deadline to meet. What with all the hours she'd been putting in at P3 lately, plus the usual Charmed duties, she was way behind at work.

Luckily Elise was caught up talking to Karen over on features, and hadn't noticed that Phoebe had company. She thought about closing the blinds so that Cole couldn't be seen, but decided against it. She needed to stay aware of Elise's movements; she didn't want her editor bursting in to the office unexpectedly. If she could just get rid of Cole quickly, maybe it would be okay.

'This isn't a game' Cole said, suddenly serious. He moved over to close the door ensuring that they had a little privacy. 'This isn't a social call Phoebe, I'm here to warn you.'

'Warn me?' Phoebe looked at him warily, her senses suddenly on the alert, all thoughts of Elise and the impending deadline gone. 'What have you done this time Cole?'

'I'm serious Phoebe' Cole exclaimed, taking a step towards her.

'So am I Cole' Phoebe glowered at him. She felt a lurch of panic, last night's dream coming back vividly. Whatever Cole was up to it wouldn't be good, and it was the last thing she needed this close to Piper's due date. So far they'd managed to hold the forces of darkness at bay, but the nearer they got to the birth, the more nervous Phoebe felt. She'd sworn to herself that she would do everything possible to keep Piper and the baby safe, but with so many demons, warlocks and darklighters out there it was a daunting task. What if she couldn't protect them? What if she lost another sister? All week she'd had this feeling that something really bad was coming, was this it?

'Okay', Cole relented, holding up his hands and stepping back to indicate that he didn't mean any harm. 'Look Phoebe this isn't about us okay, it's about you, you and your sisters. You see there's this demon that wants you dead.'

He looked at her intently. 'I know this guy Phoebe; he could actually pull it off. I really think that the Charmed Ones are in danger.'

'When aren't we?' she muttered under her breath, immediately relaxing. It was just the usual run of the mill demonic activity and he was using it as an excuse to come over-again. She sighed irritably. 'First Morris now you, what is it with everyone today?'

Cole frowned 'Morris?'

Phoebe rolled her eyes 'Yeah he just called, something about a local coven being destroyed, energy balls, yadda, yadda, yadda.'

'A whole coven?' Cole asked in alarm.

'Mmhmm' Phoebe confirmed absently, discretely reaching for her pen to carry on with her work. She had to get this done, and then she needed to finish picking out the decorations for P3, which should have been done weeks ago. She'd lied to Piper, told her that it was all under control, she didn't wanna give Piper any excuse to go back to work. She wasn't exactly comfortable with the lie, even if it was done with the best intentions. What Piper needed right now was rest and lots of it. She'd already messed up by keeping her sister awake with her recurrent nightmares; she had to do better than this. Phoebe had made it her mission to ensure that for these last few weeks of her pregnancy, Piper would have a completely stress free existence and so far she was failing miserably.

The sooner she got down to P3 and got those decorations picked out the better, and then of course she would have to check out Darryl's crime scene and that could only lead to more work, the crime was bound to be demonic. There was no way Darryl's murder would be of the human variety she just wasn't that lucky. She sighed heavily, wondering how on earth she was gonna get it all done. She'd planned to get the column finished this morning, and then she and Paige were going to do the decorations this afternoon, but the morning was almost over and the column still wasn't done. If she could just get it finished off now, and then she and Paige could swing by the crime scene before they went to P3, or would it be better to go to P3 first…

'And he definitely said energy balls?' Cole asked anxiously, interrupting her musing.

'That's right' Phoebe said brightly, only half of her attention on Cole as she debated how to answer the query from a reader who had found her boyfriend in bed with her sister. She chewed the end of her pen thoughtfully as she tried to compose her opening sentence.

'Don't worry Cole, Paige and I have got this totally under control. I'm heading over there right now just as soon as I get this column finished' she reassured him, hoping he would take the hint and leave.

'I've gotta go' Cole said abruptly, his face creased with worry. 'It's worse than I thought. I knew I could feel a shift in the balance, but I didn't think it was this bad.'

'A which in the what?' Phoebe asked, putting down her pen and finally giving him her full attention. She screwed up her face in confusion 'Cole, whatcha talking about?'

'I'm talking about the end of the Charmed Ones' he said, and with that he shimmered out leaving Phoebe completely alone.

'Cole wait' Phoebe protested, but it was too late, he was gone. Suddenly appearing in his place was Elise. Phoebe who hadn't noticed her editor opening the door, shrieked in surprise and almost knocked over what remained of her coffee.

'So' Elise looked at Phoebe expectantly 'How's this week's column coming?'

'Almost there.' Phoebe lied, smiling weakly.

Elise nodded her approval 'Good. When you're done just drop it on my desk.'

'No problem' Phoebe responded a little too brightly, the fake smile still fixed on her face. As soon as Elise had gone she dropped the smile and reached for the phone dialling quickly.

'C'mon, c'mon pick up' she muttered as she listened to the phone ringing out. Finally she got through. 'Paige, I think we're gonna have to put the Christmas decorations on hold.' She grimaced 'Again. Listen something else has come up.' She put the emphasis on the 'something,' hoping that Paige would take the hint. 'Better get here right away' she added just to be sure.