Piper yawned and squinted at the light that came through her bedroom windows. She slowly pulled the covers off herself and got out of bed. She glanced back at the bed and saw that Leo was not there. She decided that he had probably been called away by a charge and hadn't wanted to wake her. Ever since she had gotten pregnant she seemed to need a great deal more sleep. She pulled her robe on and went down the hall to see where everyone was. She slowly made her way into the kitchen, where she found Paige leaned up against the counter nursing a cup of coffee. Paige gave a slight nod to acknowledge Piper, which Piper did not take personally since she knew Paige was not a morning person and that without several cups of coffee was not gonna talk.
"Where's Phoebe?" Piper asked finally taking in that her other sister was not there.
"Well, lets see" Paige said, her voice sounding upset, which surprised Pipe until she heard the rest of what Paige had to say. "She never came home."
"What?" Piper asked "What do you mean she never came home?"
"As in did not come into the house" Paige said sarcastically.
"Very funny" Piper said "It's too early for sarcasm. So where is she?"
"Well my bet, as disgusting as the thought is, is that she's at Coles" Paige said sounding disgusted.
"Oh, well that's alright. If she is not back in a couple hours I'll call her on her cell. But I'm sure she's fine, Cole would never allow anything to happen to her" Piper said.
"Uhhuh" Paige said and she walked out of the kitchen.
"Where are you going?" Piper asked.
"I'm going to the book, to look up protection spells. If there is going to be a demon living in the house then I'm gonna need them." Paige said.
"I don't think that's necessary" Piper said sounding annoyed.
"Well I do think so, so I'm gonna do it regardless of what you think. I was right last time and no one believed me, so I think I'll trust me instincts again this time" Paige snapped.
"It's not your instincts that are making you uneasy with Cole, it's your emotions, there's a difference" Piper said sternly.
"Whatever" Paige said and turned and went up the stairs towards the attic.
Piper sighed thinking that the future was gonna be interesting. This was proved true as seconds later Cole, Phoebe and a bunch of suitcases all faded in.
"Good Morning Piper!" Phoebe said cheerfully.
"Maybe so far, but wait till Paige crosses your path and that will all change" Piper muttered.
"What was that?" Phoebe asked.
"Oh nothing, I just think it's insane to be cheerful at this hour" Piper said quickly.
Phoebe just shrugged. And Piper looked up at Cole realizing she had been ignoring him. She took a deep breath and said "Good morning Cole. Welcome back."
"It's good to be back" Cole replied looking wary.
"I'll be right back" Phoebe said and left the room.
Piper gave him a slight smile trying to convey some type of friendliness in her smile. Apparently she managed, since he seemed more at ease.
"So I assume that Phoebe already told you that she wants me moving in here?" Cole asked.
"Yes she told us" Piper said.
"If you don't want me here Piper I'll go" Cole said.
Piper paused and finally said "I'm fine with your being here Cole. Phoebe explained about your being possessed, and I've been possessed and turned into so many things that I certainly know how impossible it is to fight that. As such I'm willing to give you another chance, and not just for Phoebe's sake. Before all the bad stuff started happening I liked you as a person for yourself, and willingly accepted you into this family. And I feel that I owe you a second chance as much as Phoebe."
Cole looked shocked and then pleased "Thank you, I really appreciate that, and I won't blow it this time, and I won't let anything else blow it for me."
"Good, just so long as you make Phoebe happy we'll get along fine." Piper said. And turned to see Phoebe behind her beaming.
"Thank you" Phoebe said .
Piper just smiled and shrugged. "I could hardly let my baby sister be unhappy."
Phoebe smiled, and then heard a thump from upstairs and her smile faltered. "Now all I have to do is get Paige to accept it" she said sounding sad and weary.
"Don't worry, she'll come around" Piper said.
"I hope so" Phoebe said and Cole nodded.
Piper did some quick thinking and decided maybe it would be best to get out of the house so that Paige had more time to deal with this. So she said suddenly "Why don't we go out to breakfast and catch up?"
Phoebe gave her an odd look, that said she knew there was more to this than Piper was saying. But all she said was "Sure that would be great, that ok with you baby?"
Cole nodded and said "Sure why not, I'm not in any hurry to see Paige, so ya lets go out."
Piper couldn't help but smile at Cole putting his finger on things so quickly. "Alright" She said "Let's get our coats and go. I'll call Leo and see if he wants to come. I'll meet you in the car."
"Ok" Phoebe said and grabbed Cole's hand and went out the door.