99 Percent

Leo was with Cole when he got the results. The doctor hadn't found anything disturbing in Cole's blood. It seemed like magic shielded itself from the discovery through modern technique. So the dust wasn't needed. Leo was relieved and left.

Cole still sat in the waiting room in the practice of the physician who had done the blood examination. He starred at the examination results in his hands. There it was black on white.

"Probability that Cole Turner is the father of Grace Haughton: 99 percent"

The explanation of the examination taken and the laws of genetics leading to the above result were spread over three more pages, but Cole saw only this one sentence.

It meant he had a daughter. It meant he suddenly was a father. He never thought he would be after breaking up with Phoebe.

He had to figure out what that meant. Best to start with the mother. He tried to remember a woman named Haughton. It must have been shortly before he had left for the east coast. It took some time but then it all came back to him.

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Flashback.

He had been very down after the incident with the true-desire-spell. Paige and Piper both had acknowledged their deeds towards him. They had talked and found some kind of closure more or less, but not Phoebe. Despite that Phoebe had learnt that he was her true desire she had stayed with that other guy. She had never been good at admitting a mistake or giving in gracefully.

It had almost driven him insane. He had had some very bad days and the Avatars always coming after him, trying to lure him to their side hadn't helped either. They had been another reason why he had left San Francisco. For whatever reason they were concentrating their powers there. So by moving he had pushed himself out of the line of fire.

Around this time Darryl had invited him to an office celebration out of pity, to get him out of his brooding. He had followed the invitation only because he had thought of the advice Miles had given him about trying to go on with life. He still valued Miles' advice, even if it hadn't worked out for him until now. Maybe he wasn't trying hard enough. Or he was trying too hard.

At the office celebration he had meet Linda Haugton. She was a cop and also a friend of Darrel. Darrel introduced them and he started some small talk with her. They had helped themselves to some beers and chatted about Cole's court cases and Linda's police work. He could tell she was attracted to him, and she was an attractive woman herself. Tall, slender, worked out body because she liked being a street cop. Long hazelnut brown straight hair and a pair of sharp grey eyes.

Then they had gotten to more serious stuff, as Linda learned that he was the ex-husband of ASK PHOEBE. Not that Cole had mentioned it, one of Darryl's colleagues had spilled the beans. Linda was a real fan of Phoebe's column and pestered Cole with questions about her. Cole had lost it with her, not able to detain his hurt when talking about Phoebe. At first Linda was offended by his outburst, but then she understood. She disclosed that she was hurting herself over her boyfriend who had left her for some other woman. That had been the moment they had made some kind of connection.

They spent the evening talking on how to go on after a break-up. Mainly it was Linda talking and Cole listening. When Linda offered he took her home. Cole had hesitated only shortly. He thought of Phoebe. But Phoebe was with another man. She probably didn't even think about him anymore. He hadn't any commitments to anybody and felt the desperate need to be comforted by some human touch, to not feel like an alien. Linda felt as desperate about going home alone to her lone dark apartment, that's why she invited Cole to come with her.

They spent the night together at her apartment fighting their sorrow with the solace of the closeness of another human being. Relishing in the feeling of not being all alone they clung to the other's warm body. It was the first night after a long row Cole slept till the morning. He tried to leave the bed without Linda noticing, but she woke up. They agreed that it hadn't been more than a one-night-stand and Cole had left her apartment assuaged. He hadn't met her ever again.

Flashback End
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Cole took out his mobile phone, searched for Darryl's number and dialed it. He needed to talk to Linda. Maybe he could sort out the child support question with her without going through with a trial.

"Inspector Morris," Darryl's voice answered.

"Hi Darryl, Cole Turner speaking. How have you been?" Cole said cordially.

"Cole! Why are you calling me? You didn't do anything crazy?" Darryl asked peevishly.

Cole never called him without a reason and Darryl was used to not liking the reason. Besides Cole had been gone from the city for some time now, and Darryl would have to lie to say he had been sad about that.

"I'm fine Darryl, thanks for asking," Cole answered equally irascibly, "I need you to help me with something."

"I'm not talking to Phoebe for you," Darryl cut him short. "Nor cover for you in any way."

Darryl didn't want to get near magic for good reason. Magic had almost brought him to Death row, and Cole was brimful with it.

"In fact Darryl I only wanted you to give me the phone number of Linda Haughton. That's nothing bad, is it? You know you introduced us at the office party over a year ago." Cole chose to ignore the side blow about Phoebe.

"Why would you want her number?" Darryl was suspicious. As far as he knew, Linda and Cole hadn't shared some kind of friendship.

"I just wanted to talk to her Darryl. Catch up on old times as to speak." This wasn't really a lie since he wanted to talk about the past and of course the future of his daughter.

"I can't give you her number," Darryl said with some sadness slipping into his voice.

"Darryl, I know she wouldn't mind. But if you insist, you could give her my number. Than she can decide to call me." Cole was getting upset with Darryl's stubbornness.

"Cole, I'm sorry to tell you this. But you can't speak with Linda. She is dead." Darryl finally broke it to Cole. Her death had hit him hard. She had been one of the best cops in the department and always a good pal.

"What do you mean by dead?" Cole couldn't quite believe he had understood correctly.

"She was shot some weeks ago. We are still investigating it, but it looks like an order murder. She arrested many bad guys in the last year. Seems one wanted to pay her back."

Cole was silenced. The whole paternity case started to make sense. Linda was gone and the court was searching for the father of the half orphan. She must have put his name somewhere, probably her last will or something. That's how the court had found him.

"Cole?" Darryl wasn't sure he was still there.

"I want to help with the investigation Darryl," Cole offered, "I … liked her. If you can make use of my …special talents… in any way, just give me a call. You have my number, right?"

"Cole, I don't want you to use your special talents, and I certainly don't want you to interfere with a police investigation," Darryl refused heatedly.

"And I don't want a cop killer to go free. Especially when I knew the victim. Just for the case you don't find the suspect, let me know. I guess I will be in town for some time," Cole insisted. He felt he owed it to his daughter to find the murderer of her mother.

"Great," Darryl muttered and hung up. Then he stared at the cell phone in his hand.

"You are not going to like this," Darryl sighed when he started typing Phoebe's number into his cell. He had to warn the Charmed Ones about Cole's reappearance in the city.

Cole looked around him. The other patients in the practice stared either openly at him or pretended to not have listened to his phone call. He left the practice hurriedly and blurred to court as soon as he found a secluded corner.

Now that the mystery about the paternity case had been lifted, his mind started to formulate a plan for the next steps like he would have if he still was a demonic assassin.

First he was going to file for full custody of his daughter. With the results of the paternity test in hand, it shouldn't be a big problem. Then he had to find out if Linda had any relatives or siblings who could want to have custody of his daughter too. Then he was going to find out where Grace was and go to meet her for the first time. He felt some long missing energy run through his veins, as he had a new mission to accomplish.

tbc
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What do you think about Cole being a Dad?
For all who fear now, you don't need to, there will besome nice Cole/Phoebe scenes though...