The television show "Charmed," including the characters of Piper Halliwell, Phoebe Halliwell, Paige Matthews, Leo Wyatt, and Cole Turner, is copyrighted by Spelling Television, Inc., a subsidiary of Spelling Entertainment Group, Inc. The character of Dr. Charles Eppes is copyrighted by someone who owns the television show "Numb3rs," which I would know if the networks didn't mutilate the closing credits of television shows.

Incidentally, quick thank-yous that I should have done much earlier to Robyn, who helped me get over a plotting hump that stymied me on this story for two years, and to Philip, my source for all things scientific; anything Charlie Eppes said that sounds intelligent is due to Phil, anything he said that sounds, uh, not, is due to me.

With a step Phoebe was in Cole's arms and they were kissing as passionately as lovers ever kissed who were trying to forget everything around them.

Piper held the athame still, exchanging a look with Leo. Paige looked at the floor, her pale skin suddenly tinged pink around her eyes.

Cole broke it first, putting Phoebe gently outside the cage, but holding on to her arms and looking in her eyes.

"We'll find a way," he said, and Phoebe knew he was speaking to the Phoebe who could no longer comprehend him. "We'll never give up. We'll find a way."

He released her. They each took a step back. Piper knelt to finish drawing the line of light. She touched the athame to a crystal; the cage flashed, and Cole was gone.

Piper looked up. "No boom. Did I do something wrong?"

Leo was smiling. "No. The tremor meant a cosmic disruption. No tremor means everything is as it should be."

He glanced at Phoebe. "That is – "

Phoebe nodded. Her eyes were wet, but she wasn't crying. "You're right. Everything is as it should be."

"What did he mean, 'We'll find a way'?" Paige asked.

Phoebe cleared her throat. "Something in his reality. I'll tell you all later."

Leo helped Piper up and bent to begin picking up the crystals. Then he straightened and said, "Rats."

"What's wrong?"

"He's still wearing my shirt."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Exhausted, Piper leaned her elbows on the Book of Shadows and closed her eyes. "Paige, you really need to go to bed."

Paige was dangling a crystal point over a book of maps. The table beside her was littered with potion ingredients, a cauldron, and spells hand-written on scraps of paper. "OK. I'm just going to try Southern California one more time. I've figured out a way to account for the false reading we always get from that stupid Hellmouth near Los Angeles."

"Looking for somebody?"

They both looked up and exclaimed, "Cole!" Paige continued, "Where have you been? I must have scried wrong somehow. What happened to – "

"Wait, wait," Piper said. "What's Phoebe's favorite color?"

"Now? Or – before? Before, she switched favorite colors almost monthly. Now, it's sky blue."

Piper sighed and closed the book. "Welcome back."

"What happened to your coat?" Paige asked. "Your throat is bandaged!"

"Your head is bandaged," he retorted.

"Major laceration, minor concussion," Piper said. "The emergency room doctor told her to go to bed and rest. So of course she immediately came up here and started scrying through the world atlas. What happened?"

"I'll tell you all about it, but first," he produced the plastic bag, "you might want to refrigerate this."

Piper went to him for a closer look and made a disgusted sound. "Eeu. For what, a snack?"

"For a potion. This is a piece of the Seer's flesh."

There was a moment of nearly awe-struck silence. Paige went over to look at the bag.

"All right," Piper said, "now I really want to know – "

A hoarse screech ending in a drawn-out wail sounded clearly from the bedrooms below. Looking at the sisters, Cole saw, yet again, the expressions worn into their faces during the three years of the ordeal: Piper trying, trying not to be irritated or angry, to be unendingly sympathetic; Paige, her shoulders rounded, looking as if the cry had canceled anything good that she could ever do.

"She's had a bad night," Piper said. "She saw the Seer, and she saw you vanish. Leo stayed with her while I took Paige to the hospital, and he managed to reassure her a little, but – "

A sharp cry this time. Paige flinched physically.

"I'll go on down to her," Cole said, "but I need to tell you something first. We get so worn down around here, I think sometimes you forget that you're the best damn witches in – well, in this reality. In more than a hundred years, I've never known better. When I tell you what happened tonight, it'll remind you. There's nothing you can't accomplish when you set your minds to it, and I'm including Phoebe in that. We're going to vanquish the Seer. Then we're going to heal Phoebe. I know it."

"What – " Piper began.

"I'll tell you later. I have to go to Phoebe."

Paige took the bag from him. "And I have to get started on the vanquishing potion." She held a hand to the back of her head as if it hurt, but moved briskly toward the door.

"Miss Paige, the doctor s – Oh, forget it." Piper followed her.

Cole shimmered into the bedroom he and Phoebe shared. She had levitated to an upper corner of the room, her back pressed against the wall, her eyes wide, and she was screaming again as he appeared. When she saw him, the scream choked off.

"I'm here, Phoebe," he said gently.

"Are you a dream? Am I dreaming?"

"No." He smiled. "Come on down and I'll pinch you so you know."

She came down, but remained pressed into the corner. "Move away from that wall. The one with the knife is in the wall. He tried to stick me with it."

Cole looked. "I can't see him, Phoebe."

She gave a long-drawn, shaking sigh. "One of the Invisibles."

"You know how we vanquish those."

"Invisible weapons. I tried, Cole, I concentrated, but it was so dark and the knife was shining – "

"Ssh." He sat down on her bed. "I know you did the best you could. It's been a scary night. We'll vanquish him together. Ready?"

To his surprise she sat beside him, pressing her back to his chest as if he were another stabilizing wall. He put his outstretched hand before her face, palm up, as if holding a fireball. She blew across his palm shakily, and he rolled his hand over and extended his fingers at the wall as one rolling dice in slow motion. "Gone."

Another surprise: she held on to his arm, resting her head next to his, still looking at the wall. "I do see them, you know, I do see them."

"I know."

"I saw – her, I saw her, and you vanished."

"I had no choice. But I'm back now."

Her head turned slightly; she was looking at his bandaged throat. "They hurt you too."

"Not very much."

"Maybe – maybe – "

She turned slightly to face him, blurting it out with every ounce of courage she had. "Maybe if you went away, they wouldn't hurt you anymore. I know they're only after me. You wouldn't have to fight them for me and you could find someone who – who – "

"Don't even say it. Don't. I love you and there's nowhere else in the universe, in any universe, I'd rather be than here with you." He put his arms around her, and for once his touch stilled her shaking instead of starting it. "I'm staying right here. I'm staying right here."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Piper lay luxuriantly across the sofa in the living room, her eyes closed, her head in Leo's lap as he stroked her hair. Paige sat in a nearby armchair, a cup of tea on the end table beside her, her eyelids drooping.

"I'm still a little insulted," Piper said, not actually sounding insulted at all.

"Piper, Chris can't even talk yet, and he didn't wake up when you put him in his crib." Leo's chest expanded visibly. "It just so happens that Wyatt woke up enough to say 'I love you, Daddy' when I put him in his bed."

Piper smiled.

"Oh, and the elf from Magic School Security is at the Amberleigh Hotel, fritzing up the tapes of the security cameras starting about a half-hour before you arrived."

"This late? Poor guy."

Leo chuckled. "He loves field work."

"That leaves only one loose end, secrecy-wise. Should we dose Dr. Eppes with memory dust, Paige? He'd just think the beer made him so sleepy that he didn't remember going to bed. Or bruising his chest."

"Hm?"

"OK, beddy-bye."

"No, really, I'm awake. What were you saying?"

"Memory dust for the good doctor?"

Paige took a sip of tea. "I don't think so. I have the feeling, I'm not sure why, that he's someone who can keep a secret."

Piper raised her head and opened one eye under one arched eyebrow to look at Paige. "You just don't want him to forget you." But then she relaxed her neck and dropped the subject.

Phoebe walked past from the kitchen, carrying a glass of warm milk. "Goodnight, all."

"Phoebe?" Piper sat up. "Do you need to talk?"

"No. Really, I'm fine. I know now how close Cole came to turning it around. I wish he'd had just that little extra bit of strength. But if he had – "

She looked at Paige, who even half asleep had an air of self-confidence, and at Piper and Leo, so relaxed, and felt the warmth of the glass in her hand, the only sedative she herself would need to get to sleep that night –

"Well, you never know, do you?" she said almost to herself. "Anyway, we know that somewhere, there's a Cole who did turn it around, and he's a good man. And she needs him more than I do."

"Who does?"

"The other Phoebe. Like I said, I'll tell you tomorrow. I just want to be alone for tonight. Sweet dreams."

"Goodnight, Phoebe." Piper watched Phoebe walk down the hall as she said, "And you should probably hit the sack too, Paige, before you fall asleep in that chair."

"Too late," Leo said.

Paige was sitting bolt upright, her head over on one side, eyes closed, breathing deep and even.

"It's pretty amazing," Leo said.

"Uh – which part?"

He indicated the old mantel clock. "You brought Cole and the boys to Magic School a little after 7:30. You've found out about an alternate reality, vanquished two demons, fought the Seer, saved an innocent's life, and sent Cole back to his own reality in something over three and a half hours."

"Heck, that's nothing. To a subatomic particle, a second is an eternity."

"Is that so?" he said, like it was the most fascinating thing he'd ever heard.

She giggled. "According to Dr. Eppes."

Leo gathered her up, and her arms slid around his neck. "What does he know?" he said, just before he kissed her. "To a pair of soulmates, eternity is only a second."