Part Five

Six Weeks Later - Mid-May 2006

Piper led Leo by the hand to the boys' room where she found Phoebe staring out the window. "Paige just left with Billie." Phoebe merely nodded and Piper glanced at her husband before telling Phoebe, "Honey, you don't have to baby-sit."

Phoebe spun around, "Are you kidding? After everything you've been through, you and Leo deserve a night alone." She dug into her pocket and withdrew her key ring. "Here, the one with the nail polish dot is the top lock."

Piper reluctantly took the keys from her sister, "Maybe we should hang out together."

Phoebe glanced at her newly returned brother-in-law and smiled, "There'll be time for that later. Go on, before one of the boys wakes up and you decide you can't leave."

"Thanks, sweetie," Piper hugged her sister, "for lending us your place."

Leo watched Phoebe as Piper hugged her. "It's not your fault, Phoebe."

"Leo…" Piper warned as she pulled away. Hadn't they agreed not to push Phoebe to discuss what happened?

"Isn't it?" Phoebe shrugged. "It was my idea."

"But we all agreed it was for the best," Piper reminded her. "And we tried, Phoebe, we tried to help Christy but she didn't leave us any choice."

"And it's Billie that pays the price," Phoebe bitterly said as she turned back to the window. "She'll never get those images out of her head. She'll never forget the curses her sister spat at her. She'll have to live with knowing what Christy became for the rest of her life. And she'll never forgive herself for letting Christy die."

"It wasn't her fault," Leo insisted, "any more than it was yours. Christy's fate was determined fifteen years ago and all you could do was make sure as few people as possible were hurt along the way."

"It's not fair, though, is it?" Phoebe muttered as she hugged herself.

Piper glanced helplessly at her husband before she sighed, "I guess it's a good thing that Billie never told her parents about Christy's return."

Leo nodded, "She'll be able to spare them that pain."

"But not the pain of her death," Phoebe quietly added.

Piper approached her sister and placed her hands on Phoebe's shoulders, "At least she'll be with them and they can find closure. They can mourn for Christy together and they'll heal together."

"Maybe…" Phoebe considered.

Piper squeezed her shoulders with encouragement, "Definitely. You know that we're here for you, right?"

Phoebe turned around, "I'm fine, Piper."

"Sure you are," Piper skeptically commented. "You worried yourself sick for weeks about this plan of yours, you had to juggle three interviews at work, you were the one who killed Christy when we were injured, and you were so badly injured yourself that it took Paige and Leo and Wyatt to save you, and if that wasn't en--"

"Enough," Phoebe quietly requested.

"That's right, leave all that negative emotional stuff in the past. It's time to look forward to the bright future."

All three turned in the direction of the newcomer, Piper's arms raised to attack.

"Easy there, Piper," he grinned, "I wouldn't want bits of Cupid flying all through the air."

Piper sighed, "Coop…can't you knock like normal people?"

"Get out…" Phoebe growled through gritted teeth.

Surprised by the tone of her sister's voice, Piper faced her sister, "Phoebe?"

But Phoebe ignored Piper as she glared at the Cupid before shoving him out of her way as she left the room.

Coop stared at the others in as much surprise and followed them as they hurried after her.

Piper called out to Phoebe as they flew down the stairs and just managed to grab Phoebe's sleeve at the bottom steps, "Hey, what's going on?"

"I don't want to talk about it."

Leo stared from one sister to the next and calmly suggested, "Maybe you need to talk about it. Piper said she felt something's been bothering you these past few weeks and --"

"Leo!"

He apologized to his wife but focused again on Phoebe, "If something happened, something we don't know about…"

"Did I do something?" Coop wondered.

Phoebe nearly cried, "Did you do something? This whole damn thing is your fault!"

Coop glanced at Piper and Leo in confusion, "I don't understand. I haven't seen you since your trip through time and I thought you were all better especially now that --"

"Shut up…" Phoebe warned.

"Phoebe, honey, what's going on?"

"You couldn't leave well enough alone," she accused Coop. "You had to convince me that I was soooo unhappy."

"You were," he maintained. "You'd closed yourself off to love and you were heading on a downward spi--"

"And like a fool I listened to you," Phoebe ranted, "and I opened my heart to love, to the pain, and now look what happened!" She began pounding his chest, "Look what happened…"

Coop grabbed hold of her wrists and supported her as she collapsed against him in tears. And he carefully lowered them both to the floor.

Piper knelt next to them and brushed Phoebe's hair with her fingers, "Honey, tell me what's wrong."

It took Phoebe a few moments to get the words out, words she hadn't been able to say aloud yet, "I'm…I'm pregnant."

Piper quickly glanced up at Leo before kissing her sister's temple, "Why didn't you say something before?" Suddenly she panicked, "Leo, when you healed Phoebe did you…"

Leo shrugged, "I didn't know she was pregnant and didn't --"

"I didn't miscarry," Phoebe sniffled, "I took a home test two days ago, right after they healed me. And the doctor confirmed it this morning."

"You shouldn't've gone up against Christy and those demons," Piper tenderly lectured, "certainly not alone."

"I wasn't sure, I thought, hoped, it was maybe only stress," Phoebe whispered to herself. She slowly looked Piper in the eyes, "But it didn't matter, I didn't have a choice. I was all that was left standing between Christy and Billie and I couldn't let Billie be the one to vanquish her."

"I still don't understand why it's my fault," Coop said.

Phoebe slapped his chest and tried to push herself out of his arms, "Because you're the one who told me to listen to him, to myself, and if I hadn't --"

Piper froze when she realized that Phoebe was talking about Cole. "You left out some details to your trip back in time."

"I couldn't tell you," Phoebe tearfully apologized. "You weren't there, Piper. You didn't know what it was like seeing him again, talking to him…I wasn't thinking…it just…it felt so right…and now, now we might all pay the price…dammit, I'm always doing this…"

Piper immediately pulled her sobbing sister into her arms, "Calm down, Phoebe, it's okay."

"How can you say that when I'm carrying the next Source?"

"Don't be ridicu-- omigod, you slept with Cole!" When Phoebe bursts into tears, Piper tried to think of anything that would help but she wasn't sure what that could be. "You didn't use protection?"

"I went with potions," Phoebe snapped, "not…God, how could I do this?"

Piper rubbed Phoebe's back, "All right, so you're pregnant. But, honey, if the baby was evil, you would've been able to tell already. You would've been --"

Phoebe shook herself free and unsteadily got to her feet, "You don't understand…Think about it, Piper, all I have is my power of premonition and it's nowhere near as advanced as it was before I lost it. So how could I vanquish Christy? I didn't have any potions on me and we should've needed a Power of Three spell…"

Piper nervously got to her feet, "Phoebe, tell me you didn't…"

Phoebe couldn't look at her sister, at any of them, as she recalled, "The fire shot from my hand so unexpectedly but it felt so natural. And you'd both been hurt and I couldn't let Billie leave with Christy and…" She burst into tears again.

Piper looked to Leo for advice, "Maybe it's not that bad…"

"Throwing fire, upper-level demonic power," Phoebe sniffled, "remember?"

"Talk to Cole," Coop suggested.

"I tried that and look where it got me," she retorted.

Leo nudged Piper, "Maybe he's right."

"Look, Leo, maybe being frozen froze some of your memory cells," Phoebe sniffed, "but Cole is gone now. He doesn't exist. And right now that's the least of my problems." She wrapped her arms around her waist, "It figures I'd ruin my life again…and yours…all because I couldn't resist him one last time…"

"You loved him, Pheebs," Piper commented sympathetically as she came up behind her sister, "maybe you still do…"

Phoebe shook her head, "Doesn't change the fact that this baby I'd seen in my future, this little girl I'd wanted so badly, is going to wind up destroying us all…"

"Not necessarily," Leo suggested, "because you're not taking any tonic, you're surrounded by your family, and you've learned from your mistakes. You're a stronger person now, Phoebe, and you'll be able to raise this baby and teach her to use her powers for good, not evil."

"This isn't how I wanted this baby!" Phoebe cried. "I wanted her conceived in love. I wanted to be in love with her father…"

"And you're not?" Coop argued. He stepped around Piper to face Phoebe and practically pulled her from her sister's arms. "You love him, Phoebe, just like Piper said. You love him and to deny that is to shortchange yourself and your daughter of something --"

"Shut up," she seethed, "this's all your fault!"

"Phoebe!" Piper quickly hugged her younger sister again and didn't miss Leo's expression. "Honey, I know maybe you're a little angry right now and you wish you could talk to Cole and --"

"I don't wish that," Phoebe insisted.

But Piper continued, "Talk to him, tell him about the baby. He loves you, Phoebe, he'd want to know."

"How would you know?" she scoffed.

Piper took a deep breath, "There's something I never told you about my time in limbo."

Phoebe shrugged, "What's to tell? You nearly died but trusted in Leo's love to save you. What's that got to do with me?"

"Because you were part of the reason I was there," she confessed. "I had my doubts about love being enough. I needed to be convinced that our love was strong and meant to be and that I had to trust in Leo's love for me."

"An old friend," Phoebe whispered as she held her sister's gaze.

Piper nodded, "I needed to be convinced to let love save me in order to convince you that love was worthwhile. He --"

"Don't…" Phoebe requested as she stepped away from her sister, "Don't…"

"I didn't know how to tell you," Piper shamefully admitted, "and when he didn't tell me I should…"

"It can't be true…"

"I'm sorry, Phoebe," Piper apologized, "I thought I was helping you move on by keeping it from you."

Phoebe couldn't breathe, "You're telling me Cole's alive?"

Piper shook her head, "He's in limbo, there's a difference."

"Well, well, well," Coop uttered in surprise, "there you go, classic example of love's eternal triumph over --"

"Shut up, Coop," Phoebe gasped, "all of you just…just leave me alone…"

As Phoebe ran up the stairs, Piper called out, "Remember what Grams taught us, Pheebs…"

Phoebe stopped in the stairwell and unconsciously rubbed her stomach, "Everything happens for a reason…yeah right."

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"Are you sure you don't mind?" Piper asked her husband.

"I'm not going anywhere," Leo assured her. "The Angel of Destiny told you that when they gave me back my wings. We'll have all the time in the world to catch up after we help Phoebe."

"Maybe we should wait for Paige," Piper considered as she looked over the spell she'd written.

Leo shook his head, "She needs some time alone with Henry."

"Go on, Piper," Coop encouraged, "the sooner Cole gets here, the sooner he can help Phoebe."

"So nice to be wanted by so many at the same time."

Piper glared at him, "If you could pop in at any time, why didn't you come earlier?"

"Missed you too, Piper," Cole grinned. "Leo, good to see you defrosted."

Leo shook his head with a chuckle, "Cole…"

But Coop was quicker to reach for and shake Cole's hand, "Congratulations, my man!"

Cole raised an eyebrow at Piper and Leo as the stranger pumped his hand enthusiastically.

Piper rolled her eyes, "Coop, Cole. Cole, Coop. He's a Cupid."

"A Cupid, huh," Cole's gaze narrowed as he forcefully removed his hand, "Where the hell where you last year when Phoebe needed you?"

"Yeah, I wasn't too crazy to learn they'd let her go unguarded for so long," Coop admitted. "She's quite special, that witch of yours."

"She's not my witch," Cole told him. Not any more. He turned to Piper, "Didn't Phoebe fall in love with the last Cupid that visited?"

"Not this time," she replied. "The last thing Phoebe's thinking of right now is falling in love with someone."

Frustrated, his hands clenched into fists, "Piper, she'll be lost if she doesn't open her heart…"

Piper glanced at Coop, "Oh, she has, Cole."

"But you just said…"

"I said she wasn't thinking of falling in love right now," Piper nodded, "because she's already in love."

"Well, that's good," Cole acknowledged a bit unenthusiastically. "It's what she needs. It's what I wanted for her."

"Good," Piper agreed, "because the guy she's in love with is you."

"Hit your head during this last battle?" Cole snapped. "I've been out of her life for almost four years and it didn't end happily-ever-after. The last thing Phoebe is is in love with me."

"You still love her," Piper gently accused.

"So?"

"So why can't she still love you?"

Afraid to believe Piper, Cole shook his head, "Phoebe was right about us. Love wasn't enough. I'd been so new to the emotion and it wasn't until after I was in limbo that I saw how destructive it could be and how much pain it could bring."

"Love is powerful," Coop told him, "but it's a gift."

"That I squandered," Cole quietly said.

Piper cautiously approached and touched his arm. When he looked at her, she informed him, "It wasn't all your fault. We were all learning and all reacting and the blame lies with us too." He seemed stunned and she added, "I don't know the details about Phoebe's visit back in time when you were Source but I do know you helped heal some of the wounds she hadn't been able to on her own. As ironic as this sounds, somehow, even as the Source, you got her to believe in love."

Cole's eyes widened as he suddenly recalled that odd evening. "I thought she'd been going through a couple of mood swings. It was so…Piper," he grabbed her arm, "why did you call me here?"

Piper saw the answer already reflected in his eyes, "I never used the spell because you showed up on your own." She placed her hand on top of his, "You know the truth, Cole. You know what happened that night. That's why you felt pulled here tonight."

Cole turned his gaze to Coop, "You wished me congratulations."

Coop nodded with a smile, "You love each other. Now you just have to tell each other."

"She's probably in her old room," Piper suggested.

"Her old room?"

Piper patted his hand, "A long story you don't have to hear right now."

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