Okay, so I've been thinking about it, and there are several more episodes in the third season that I guess I need to include in this. I didn't want to rewrite Bride and Gloom, so I sort of created my own episode here to replace that one. Some things are the same, some not.

"Hey." Prue said, looking up when Cole shimmered into the kitchen. "Coffee?"

"Thanks." He said, taking the cup from her.

"Piper's at the club." He nodded.

"Yeah, I'm only stopping in." Prue frowned.

"Where do you go all day when you're not here? It's not the underworld is it?"

"Careful, Prue. You almost sound worried." She rolled her eyes.

"I'm serious." Cole raised an eyebrow.

"You're always serious." She crossed her arms and glared at him, and he sighed. "There are a lot of places I can shimmer to, not all of them in this plane. It also keeps the bounty hunters confused if I'm not here all the time."

"So, you just spend all day dodging bounty hunters?" He shrugged.

"Sometimes. Sometimes not. I can't just sit here, it would drive me insane, and it's not like I can get a job in the mortal world."

"Yeah, that's true."

"Hey." Phoebe said as she walked in, going over to the cabinets to get a cup. Cole set his down, about to leave.

"Oh, Cole." Phoebe called before he could shimmer out. "Piper tell you we're having a dinner tonight to celebrate Prue's engagement?" She grinned at her sister. "You are coming right?"

"Uh, sure, I guess." He shrugged again and shimmered out.

"Hey." Cole wrapped his arms around Piper from behind and she grinned.

"Hey. You're here. Staying for dinner?"

"I guess I have to now, since your sisters invited me too." Piper turned in his arms, looking up at him.

"My sisters invited you?" He nodded, and she smiled. "Don't look so surprised. You've been living here for two months. You are a part of the family now, and they see that too."

"Yeah…it's just strange." He said with a small frown.

"Yeah, well. You'd better get used to it, because I'm not letting you go." He smiled, kissing her.

"We can set it up here." Phoebe said, grinning. When she turned, though, she let out a sigh and rolled her eyes. "Oh, come on guys. Work with me here." Piper and Cole were sitting on the stairs, close to each other and talking.

"Alright." She clapped her hands, walking over to them when Cole leaned in to kiss Piper. "Break it up."

"Sorry." Cole cleared his throat, wrapping an arm around Piper's shoulders. "What were you saying?"

"Oh, never mind. Prue and Leo are probably waiting for us at the club anyways."

"Right." Piper stood up, and wrapped an arm around Cole's waist. She giggled at something that Cole said in her ear. Actually giggled.

"You guys are killin' me here." Phoebe muttered, though she doubted that either of them heard her.

"It's funny," Phoebe said later, smiling at Prue and Leo, who were out on the dance floor before turning back to Piper. "I know Prue's the oldest but I always thought you'd be the first to get married."

"What do you mean?" Piper asked, frowning at her.

"Oh, please. You were always the one dreaming about it. You were the one who was looking for the long haul in every guy. You were the one who kept Mom's wedding album." Piper shrugged.

"Well, you don't have to have to get married to have that."

"Yeah, but it's something that you've always wanted." She pressed.

"Shouldn't we be talking about Prue's wedding and what we need to do?" Piper asked.

"Sure." Phoebe dropped it. She knew that Piper was worried too. Cole had shimmered out before they had even gotten out of the manor after a bounty hunter attacked.

"Hey." Piper's surprised voice broke her out of her thoughts and she looked up to see Cole walking over.

"I thought you said you'd be gone for a while longer; lead them away from the manor." Phoebe frowned at him. He shrugged.

"I think we're fine. They were pretty easy to lose." He turned to Piper. "Can we talk?"

"Sure." She frowned as well, but stood up, following him back to her office in the back. He spun her around as soon as they were alone and dipped down for a kiss. Piper frowned into it and broke away almost immediately. Raising her hands, she used her powers, blasting him into the opposite wall.

"Who are you?" She asked, her voice turning deadly.

"What the hell is your problem?" He stood up. Piper backed up another step and raised her hands in warning.

"Nice try." She said. "You really think I recognize the fact that you aren't him?" He laughed, and changed form. A shorter man with darker hair stood before her.

"That's funny." He said. "He noticed it too." Piper faltered, stopping herself from using her new power again.

"What?" He smiled at her, and stepped closer.

"You know, when he came back to the manor looking for you. Had a little surprise waiting." Piper's heart sped up and she stepped back again, preparing to get out, to get to her sisters.

"What did you do to him?"

"Oh, he's alive. For now, at least. He'll stay that way if you come with me." Piper hesitated, torn between an overwhelming fear for Cole's life and the uncertainty that he was telling the truth, and that even if he was, she should still get her sisters, she shouldn't do it this way.

"You won't be able to kill him." She said, trying to make her voice sound more confident than she felt. He shrugged.

"I don't have to. You don't come with me…all I have to do is hand him over to the Source." He reached out a hand to her. Piper hesitated another moment before taking his hand.

"Where is Piper?" Prue sat down next to Phoebe, who shrugged.

"She and Cole went back that way." She gestured towards the office.

"Okay, can you go get her? We need to discuss a few things about the wedding you know?"

"Do I have to?" Phoebe looked back towards where they had disappeared to with a grimace. "Who knows what they're doing back there." Prue shrugged and Phoebe sighed. "Fine." She walked back there, but didn't simply go inside.

"Hey, guys? I'm coming in!" She called. "You better break up whatever you're doing!" Frowning when she didn't get a response, she opened the door.

"What's up?" Prue asked when Phoebe walked back over, still frowning.

"They're not back there."

"Maybe Cole shimmered them back to the manor." Leo suggested, making Prue roll her eyes.

"Which means they'll be…indisposed for a while."

"Maybe." Phoebe said, still frowning, unable to shake the feeling that something wasn't right.

When Piper and the warlock reappeared, they were in a place that she didn't recognize. There was an altar of sorts a few feet away, but they were the only ones in the room.

"Where is he?" The warlock laughed at her.

"Do you really think that I caught Belthazor when the Source couldn't even do it?" He asked. Piper stepped away from him, about to blow him up, or at least try when something smashed into her head from behind, and she fell to the ground.

"I'm tellin' you, something doesn't feel right." Prue turned to her.

"Well, Cole would never hurt her, we know that. So, until we find proof, I don't think we should panic." They both jumped when Cole shimmered in beside them.

"How's that for proof?" They both turned to Cole.

"You didn't drop by P3 to talk to Piper earlier tonight by any chance did you?" Prue asked him. Cole frowned, shaking his head.

"And lead the bounty hunters to Piper's club? I'm not suicidal, Prue." She didn't smile at the joke, too worried all of the sudden.

"This is bad." Phoebe said, Prue nodded.

"You're sure that they will find us?" He asked, staring at Veda.

"Oh, they will. This place is blocked from good magic. Their whitelighter will not be able to sense her, but Belthazor will be able to find it."

"How can you be sure he'll come alone? We can't fight all of them." Veda smiled.

"He'll want to change her back, won't he? This ritual will ensure that they won't be to cooperative. With the charmed ones evil, the book will be easily taken, and Belthazor will pay."

"The elders don't know anything." Leo said, walking over to Prue. She was flipping through the book, frowning. "Hopefully, Cole can find something. Thought you said there was nothing in the book." He came over to sit next to her.

"There wasn't. But now there's a whole lot of weirdness. Check it out." Leo frowned, looking at the spell she had turned to.

"Hemlock killing spell? That doesn't belong in here."

"But it does have possibilities."

"Prue..." She shook her head.

"Sorry, I just..." She disappeared off the couch. Leo sat, shocked, for a moment. He was about to go find her when Cole shimmered into the room.

"Where are the girls?" He asked. "I found out-"

"We have bigger problems." Leo cut him off. Cole followed him into the kitchen where Prue was waiting.

"You blinked." He told his fiancé.

"What?" Cole asked, looking from Prue to Leo.

"I did not." Prue said. "Only warlocks do that."

"You did." He argued as Phoebe came into the room.

"What's going on?"

"Your sisters blinking." Cole rubbed a hand on his forehead, his worry for Piper growing by the minute as he listened the Prue, Phoebe and Leo. He grabbed Leo's arm when the girls blinked out of the room.

"You're not going to get through to them like this. We need to find Piper."

"Well, unfortunately, I can't sense her and the elders can't find her either."

"But I can." Cole said, stepping closer to Leo and watching the door warily. "It's what I came to warn you about. There's a warlock after them. She has the power to turn Piper evil, Prue and Phoebe along with her."

"Obviously it's working." Cole nodded.

"She'll be after the Book of Shadows. Warn the girls. Even in their new...state, we don't need Veda getting her hands on the book."

"Where are you going?"

"I'm going to find Piper. Vanquishing Veda is the only thing that will turn them back to themselves."

Cole knew that she would be waiting for him. He knew Veda, had worked with her once, and he knew how much she hated him. Guilt ate at him because he knew that the reason she had taken Piper was because of him. He had ruined one of her plans because it interfered with his, in the process making her look bad in front of their superiors. She had been knocked down in the chain of command drastically because of him.

Not willing to wait any longer, Cole shimmered into the place, staying towards the door for now. He saw Piper, lying on the altar.

"Like the new look?" A voice said from his right. He turned.

"I'm going to kill you." He said, glaring at Veda. She smiled.

"I don't think so. You really think I'd be working alone?" Cole shrugged, shimmering out when another warlock attacked from his left. He summoned an energy ball, sending it at the warlock as soon as he reappeared.

"Did you really think it would be that easy to kill me?"

"No, I didn't." Several other warlocks blinked in. Cole backed up a little, preparing another energy ball. He managed to vanquish one of them before they attacked. One of the others knocked him off his feet and Cole sent him flying. That was when he felt a sharp pain in his side. He looked up at Veda, and she grinned before yanking the athame out of his side.

Cole shoved her away, getting to his feet, but swaying a little as he did so. Veda nodded to the other warlocks, who blinked out of the room. Watching Veda warily, Cole put a hand to his wound. It wasn't too deep, not life threatening. But his vision did waver and his knees buckled. A few seconds later, he found himself on his back on the ground, staring up at Veda. He tried to shimmer, or form an energy ball, but couldn't.

"Poison." Veda said, holding up the athame. "I made it especially for you. It'll eat away at your human half until it destroys you. It's a slow death, and a painful one." She smiled when he glared at her, and crouched down next to him. "Be happy, Belthazor. Your witch will live on, in the position that was meant for you, of course. In the service of evil."

"But Leo's power was blocked. He couldn't find her." Prue reminded Phoebe.

"That's because he was good, and we're evil." Prue nodded.

Veda blinked back into her sanctuary, clutching her wrist. She glared over at Piper and then Cole, who was barely conscious. Angrily, she walked over and kicked him in the side where she had stabbed him. He groaned and looked up at her. When he saw the state she was in, he smiled through the pain.

"They're going to vanquish you." She glared at him, kicking him again.

"I still have their sister. They'll lose. And even if they win, you'll still die." She walked over with the Book of Shadows and looked for a spell that would keep her alive.

"Wow." Phoebe said as she and Prue both blinked into the room. She could see Piper lying before the warlock that they had caught earlier. They started forward as the warlock chanted a spell from the book.

"You're too late." She said, closing the book and looking at Piper, who got up off the table. "Kill them."

"Piper..." Phoebe was thrown into the far wall, followed by Prue. They scrambled up. An athame appeared in Piper's hand, and she was standing in the way of Veda. They were trying to find a way to get around her when Piper was barreled into from the side by Cole and the athame went flying.

Using her power, Prue sent it flying from the ground and it buried itself in Veda's heart. She screamed as she was vanquished and Prue and Phoebe both wavered.

"What the hell?" Phoebe said.

"I think we're back." Prue said. Piper had stopped fighting Cole, and she turned him over on his back. Her eyes widened when she saw his wound and realized that he was barely breathing now.

"Cole?" She looked up at her sisters, desperation in her eyes.

"Oh, god." A realization hit Prue hard. She had been about to call Leo when she realized that he wouldn't hear her. That they had...

"Can you get Leo?" Piper asked. "Maybe he could-" Prue shook her head, tears falling now.

"We killed him." Phoebe said. Piper looked from one to the other before turning back to Cole. Phoebe wrapped an arm around Prue. How could one day go so wrong? They had killed Leo and now Cole was dying as well...Phoebe turned when she saw something out of the corner of her eyes and Leo formed not far away. Relief beyond anything she had felt previously had her smiling and she turned Prue.

"Leo." Prue raced over to him and threw her arms around him. "You're okay."

"Vanquishing Veda reversed all the evil you guys did." Leo explained.

"Prue." Piper's anguished cry reminded her of what was going on and her and Leo went to stand opposite her.

"Heal him." Prue said. Leo hesitated, kneeling down.

"I can try, but you know I can only heal his human half."

"Just try, please." Piper begged. Leo nodded, and held his hands over Cole's wound. The familiar glow appeared and the wound got smaller. To her relief and surprise, Cole jerked awake a few seconds later. Leo stopped before he got to Cole's demonic half, and smiled up at Piper.

"It worked, I think. The poison, whatever it was, it was attacking his human half." Piper gave him one grateful smile before she was hugging Cole fiercely.

"So, you worked with her?" Piper asked, lying next to Cole. He nodded, and she saw guilt flash in his eyes.

"This is what I was afraid of, Piper. Veda hated me, and she took it out on you." Piper put a hand on his cheek.

"I told you that I'd fight to have this, and what happened doesn't change that. Everything worked out alright. I'm fine."

"She could have killed you."

"But she didn't. I'm not the one who nearly died today, Cole. Going in there alone was reckless."

"Maybe so." He said, hugging her to him. "But I'd do it again if it meant keeping you safe."

"And I'll fight off a hundred warlocks to keep you here." She said right back. "Don't worry so much. We're together, that's all that matters. No one's going to change that." She smiled, resting her head on his chest."

"I love you." Cole said, kissing her hair. Piper's smile widened.

"And I love you. Always will."