Note #1: Writing an OC is always a challenge, but when a reader refers to the entire Charmed cast as "Ben's family", I think it's fair to say that the author must be doing something write. Shel, I hope this chapter has enough Ben fluffiness for you. :-)

Note #2: Girl version of Chandler, I had to send the Scoobies back to Sunnydale to deal with the First, but don't worry, they'll be back in San Francisco in due time. And, no, I would never make Cole evil again! (or Spike, for all that matters)

Note #3: Everyone else who's been reading, I hope you're still around to read the rest of the story. Thanks for your reviews or, in case you haven't reviewed yet -- I know sometimes I don't -- for keeping the hit counter rolling. :-))))

- x x x x x -

Only when Leo orbed back in to Cole and Phoebe's living room did he realize that leaving Cole behind to shimmer with Erzsebet was a mistake; when he saw the horrified looks of Piper, Phoebe and Paige as they saw him return alone, the Whitelighter wanted to kick himself for his blunder.

Before Leo could explain that Cole was fine, Erzsebet shimmered in with him, and Phoebe flung herself into his arms, snatching him out of Erzsebet's shimmer as she threw her arms around him. The shock of losing connection with his mother's aura in mid shimmer dizzied Cole, and he gasped and instinctively hugged Phoebe back.

"Hey," he muttered, resting his chin on the top of her head.

"Are you okay?" Phoebe asked shakily, still holding him tight.

"Uh-hum."

As Cole felt the world around him come back in focus, it dawned on him what she had thought when Leo returned from France without him, and he grimaced and mentally cursed himself.

"I think I should've had Leo orb me back," he said.

Phoebe didn't answer and he craned his neck, trying to make eye contact with her even as she didn't raise her head from his chest.

"I scared you," he said remorsefully.

"Damn right you did," Phoebe muttered, but she was so relieved to have him come back to her in one piece that she failed to add reproach to her voice.

Cole smiled when she nuzzled his chest and pulled away from him with a sigh. He kissed her forehead affectionately before turning a wary look towards Erzsebet; he knew even before he looked at his mother that she was livid with silent rage.

Before he could say anything, though, Phoebe said, turning to Erzsebet:

"I'm sorry."

Having followed Cole's gaze as he turned to his mother, Phoebe had been somewhat shocked to recognize the blaze behind the demoness' dark eyes as something she could actually relate to. Phoebe knew from experience how intimate shimmering could be, as two souls momentarily merged into the spirit winds and with one another. She remembered the first time Cole shimmered with her, how she had felt nauseous as hell afterwards, and how she had later learned to enjoy those moments of utter intimacy with him. Being a mother herself, Phoebe could imagine how it would feel to shimmer with her son, and the brutal shock of suddenly having him snatched out of her shimmer.

"I should have waited until the two of you came out of your shimmer," she said tentatively. "I… I just…"

"Thought that I had killed him," Erzsebet said flatly, finishing the sentence for her. Then, turning to Cole: "This isn't a social function; what are all these people doing here?"

"They care about me, mother," Cole said, placing his arm around Phoebe's shoulders. "They're trying to figure out what's happening to me."

Erzsebet glanced briefly at the others and flicked her tongue, the idea of consorting with them clearly not appealing to her. Finally, she sighed heavily and turned to Cole again:

"Just start from the beginning."

Cole sat on the couch, taking Phoebe's hand in his, and, after a beat, Erzsebet sat on the stool that was nearest to him, her hands resting on her lap and her back perfectly straight, even though she didn't seem to be making any effort to keep it that way.

"My powers were unbound on December last year," Cole told her as Piper, Leo and Paige took their seats, too, "and father told me about me… us. Everything."

He watched his mother's face for any signs of commotion, but she just stared back at him, and he proceeded, a little disappointed:

"Father has been helping me, teaching me how to use my powers..."

"What are your powers?" Erzsebet asked, interrupting him.

"Same as father's," Cole replied. "Earth, air, fire and water."

"And you've been using them for two months now?"

"Yes," Cole said, nodding.

"So what has changed?"

"My powers…" -- Cole furrowed his brow, trying to find just the right words -- "Lately it seems that they've gone astray; I just can't seem to control them."

"You've gone through the process of learning how to control your powers before," Erzsebet reasoned. "What makes this time different?"

"It just… feels different," Cole said, shuffling his feet. "Wrong."

Erzsebet didn't say anything and just waited as he struggled to elaborate.

"Father told me that when you were pregnant with me, water boiled when you were angry," he said.

"Why?" Erzsebet asked, frowning slightly. "Has it happened to you?"

"Yes," Cole said. "And it's…" -- he, swallowed, instinctively holding Phoebe's hand tighter -- "It's sort of like it's me boiling along with the water. Like the magic is leaking out of me and part of me is oozing out with it."

"Father said that you felt off balance," he proceeded. "That's how I feel: it's like I'm pulled in all directions, and it's all I can do to keep myself together, when I was supposed to be focusing on controlling my powers."

Cole shrugged and looked at his mother in expectation, wishing he could explain it better but not knowing what else to say. He watched her intently as she pursed her lips lightly, seeming to be pondering his words.

After what felt like an eternity for the five people watching her, Erzsebet finally sighed and asked him:

"Are you able to summon your father?"

"Now?" he asked, perking up.

"No," Erzsebet said, checking her watch. "I should already be in Moscow by now." She caught sight of Cole's alarmed look and added coldly: "Not that it's any of your business, but I'm just going to be someone's cover up."

"I'll be back at…" -- she frowned at the watch and cursed under her breath -- "Stupid time zones… Three hours from now, whatever that means."

"Do not use your powers until I'm back," she told Cole sternly; then, without waiting for an answer, she shimmered out.

There was a perplexed silence in the room as they all stared at the now empty stool.

"Well," Paige finally said, "that was very enlightening. Not."

"If I shimmered out on her like this," Cole muttered, frowning, "she'd give me hell afterwards."

Despite the seriousness of the situation, Phoebe couldn't help but smile as she drew her arm through his and affectionately nuzzled his shoulder.

"Do you think she knows what's happening to you?" she asked him. "More important, do you think she'll tell us?"

"My mother does what she wants, when she wants," Cole said with a sigh. "Although I can understand how hard it must be for her to share information with witches," he admitted.

"You're the one who said she'd help rescue Ben," Paige reminded Phoebe. "You were right then; what do you think she'll do now?"

"I think," Phoebe said, carefully choosing her words, "that she'll do what she thinks is best for Cole." She hesitated, then added: "I just wish I could be sure that what she thinks is best for him is the same thing I think is best for him."

"Why don't you summon your father after lunch?" Leo said to Cole. "It won't hurt to know what he has to say before your mother arrives."

"Do you need help with lunch?" Phoebe asked Piper while Leo helped her sister stand up.

"Not really," Piper said with a smile, "but I could use the company."

"Vanessa has plans for the afternoon," Paige told them as she, too, stood up. "Should I bring Ben back home?"

"Yes, please," Phoebe said, tugging on Cole's hand to make him follow her to the manor. She had every intention of keeping her eyes on him until they knew for sure what was happening to her husband.

- x x x x x -

Cole glanced at his watch, his stomach doing flip-flops when he saw that it was already 2:45: his mother should be arriving any minute now. He raised his eyes to meet his father's again, and they shared a moment of silent understanding even as Benjamin kept talking to Phoebe:

"I initially thought that the dandelion would be a problem, but since you also added chickweed to the mixture…"

Benjamin jumped in place and momentarily lost his track of thought when Ben suddenly reached out and patted his calf. The toddler had been sitting on the floor next to his grandfather's chair, very busy putting things in and out of a plastic bucket, when it occurred him to check if today Grandpa Benjamin was being a ghost person like Grandma Patty or a non-ghost person like Grandpa Victor. With Grandpa Benjamin, you never knew.

"Hi!" Ben exclaimed, grinning at Grandpa Benjamin when his hand found the solidness of his leg. Non-ghost person.

"Hi there," Benjamin said with a smile, leaning towards the toddler and affectionately ruffling his hair.

Then, with the corner of his eye he saw Cole stiffen, and Benjamin perked up, following his son's gaze as Erzsebet shimmered in.

A charged silence fell over the room while everybody pretended not to be watching as Erzsebet and Benjamin stood before each other for the first time in more than a century. Benjamin never took his eyes off of Erzsebet as he stood up slowly, his warm gaze seeming to envelop her, and while she just returned his stare with an unfathomable expression, something on her face got Cole thinking of the mild ripple on the surface of the water when an earthquake occurs in the ocean deeps.

"Hi," Benjamin said softly.

"Hi." -- before Erzsebet could say anything else, Ben startled her by lunging towards her and wrapping his arms around her leg.

"Hi-hi!" he greeted her cheerfully. I knew you'd come back.

"I see you've already met our grandson," Benjamin said with a smile.

"Once," Erzsebet said curtly, remarkably composedly for someone who had a toddler securely attached to her left leg.

"Well, you seem to have made quite an impression on him," Benjamin remarked softly, looking at the chubby grinning face turned upwards to look at Erzsebet.

"He says 'hi' to anything that moves," Erzsebet deadpanned with a shrug, but she leaned towards Ben and smoothly scooped the toddler up.

"Now," she proceeded without missing a beat, shifting her gaze from Benjamin to Cole, "I suppose you have already brought your father up to date."

Cole had stood up upon her arrival, and he motioned for Erzsebet and Benjamin to sit down before he sat by Phoebe's side again, getting a funny feeling in his stomach at the sight of both his parents sitting side by side on the coach.

"Na-ah!" Ben started to lilt out of the blue. "Nananana…" he happily muttered to himself, toying with the silver bracelet on Erzsebet's wrist and oblivious to the commotion that this particular choice of phoneme was causing among the grown ups. "Na-na-nah! Na-nah..."

A wordless exchange between Phoebe and Cole quickly established that no, he had never taught Ben to call Erzsebet "nana" and, yes, even though they knew that the toddler was very fond of playing with sounds, there was something a tad uncanny about his timing.

Ben snuggled contentedly in Erzsebet's arms, not minding that she hadn't smiled at him, or even looked at him again after she took him in her arms: there were plenty of smiles in the arms that seemed to have been made to cuddle a little boy.

Despite all the love with which Patty, Victor and Benjamin showered their only grandchild at every chance they had, none of them had actually had a chance to be a parent to their own children. They had lost contact with their children during their early years, and thus never had to deal with the discipline issues, the sulky, punishing silences that could frazzle a parent's nerves, the seemingly never ending power struggles with an angry teenager who wasn't above playing the "I hate you" card. And while Ben knew nothing about those things, he somehow understood that Erzsebet, unlike his others grandparents, had already experienced parenthood to the fullest, and now just needed a little push to throw discipline out the window and spoil him silly.

"So," Erzsebet said as she turned to Benjamin, resolutely snapping herself out of Ben's charms, "can you straighten this mess out?"

"I'm afraid I'm still at the part where I try to figure out this mess," Benjamin said, arching his eyebrows.

"What do you mean, try to figure it out? Haven't we already established that he's off balance?"

"It seems I was thrown off by the water boiling episodes and jumped to conclusions," Benjamin said with an apologizing shrug. "After going over the potion that was used to vanquish his demon powers," he told her, showing the sheet of paper in his hand, "I must say it's flawless."

"So?" she said, starting to show signs of impatience.

"His demon powers were entirely vanquished," Benjamin said, giving her a slightly perplexed look, as he clearly didn't know where she was going with that line of thought.

"Benjamin, you're not making any sense!" Erzsebet snapped, causing Ben to stop fumbling with her bracelet and raise his head to give her a surprised look. "Not you," she said evenly, patting the toddler's head. "The other Benjamin."

"'Kay," Ben said as he turned his attention back to the pretty, shiny thingy. There sure was a way to make it come loose: he just had to figure it out.

"I know his demon powers were vanquished," Erzsebet said, turning to Benjamin again. "Why do you think he's off balance?"

"I can see where you're coming from," Benjamin assented, "but his powers were vanquished two years ago and…"

"… and things went downhill from there."

"If Cole's demon powers were entirely vanquished," Leo piped in, unable to refrain himself, "what does it have to do with his witch powers? He's human and…"

"No, he's not."

Leo was so stunned by Erzsebet's statement that it took him a moment to realize that Benjamin had spoke at the same time that she had. He turned to Benjamin, agape, but Cole reacted first and spoke before the Whitelighter could gather his wits.

"I, uh… Excuse me, what?" he uttered, turning to his father.

"Your mother is a demon," Benjamin said, giving him a surprised look. "Why would you think of yourself as human?"

"I am, was half human," Cole stammered, every bit as confused as his father, "because of you."

"And what am I, chopped liver?" Erzsebet asked sourly.

"Half human because of father, half demon because of you," Cole said, shooting her an impatient look.

"Oh, good grief!" Erzsebet snapped. "Get over the half and half thing already! You're not a damned pizza!"

"We've gone through this before, mother," Cole replied in the same tone. "I'm stronger than humans because I'm a demon," he intoned tiredly, like someone who had heard that speech in the past, "and I'm stronger than demons because I'm human. Well, guess what? Right now, I don't feel strong at all. As a witch I can't seem to control these powers that are starting to feel like a borrowed garment; as a demon, I was a danger to Phoebe, and to her sisters, and to the innocents they're supposed to protect."

"So, excuse me if I'm not exactly thrilled about my heritage," he concluded darkly.

Just as Erzsebet opened her mouth to reply, Ben gave the bracelet a particularly strong pull, making her wince.

"May I help you?" she asked the toddler dryly.

"My!" Ben proclaimed tugging on the bracelet again.

"Ben!" Phoebe exclaimed, mortified, jumping to her feet. "He needs to stop with this 'my' thing," she said firmly when Cole attempted to intervene.

"Ben, this is not yours," she told the toddler as she walked around the coffee table and towards him and Erzsebet. "It belongs to…" -- Phoebe hesitated, giving Erzsebet's aloof face a hesitant glance. "It's, uh…"

"Nana's," Benjamin offered helpfully.

"What!" Erzsebet all but shrieked.

"Nana?" Ben echoed, perking up. He liked the sound of it.

"Nana," his grandfather said, nodding and smiling at him.

"What do you think you're doing?" Erzsebet hissed, glaring at Benjamin.

"Nana," Ben said again, tugging on her blouse to get her attention.

"Don't say that," she told him, scowling, but the toddler giggled, amused.

"Nana!" he repeated, enjoying their little game.

"Don't…" -- Erzsebet heaved an aggravated sigh, glaring at Benjamin -- "See what you've done?"

Benjamin arched his eyebrows, giving her an innocent look that was very much like the one his grandson gave mommy and daddy after unrolling all the toilet paper off the roll, and Erzsebet huffed and rolled her eyes, while Cole watched them with something akin to fascination, taking in the dynamic between his parents.

Meanwhile, Ben had turned his attention back to Erzsebet's bracelet; he tugged on it again and whimpered when it still didn't come loose, his lower lip jutting out in frustration in a way that sent a shiver through Phoebe's spine. Earlier that afternoon she and Cole had spent more than an hour taking turns trying to lull the toddler to sleep, but for whatever reason Ben had been adamant about skipping his afternoon nap. Eventually they had caved in and resigned themselves to the fact that by mid afternoon Ben would be a basket case, at least until sleep finally got the best of him for a belated after lunch nap.

Now, Ben's mother gave him a concerned look, quickly weighing the pros and cons of him taking a nap at past 3 pm, while Cole's wife cringed at the idea of her mother in law witnessing Ben throw a full-blown temper tantrum.

"Come here, munchkin," Phoebe said, reaching out to take him from Erzsebet's arms, "you're way overdue to your afternoon nap."

"No," he whined, shaking his head vehemently and clinging to Erzsebet. "No no no no…"

Phoebe took a deep breath and closed her eyes, pinching the bridge of her nose and feeling like crying herself. She always did everything in her power to make sure Ben didn't skip a nap: if he did, he'd be cranky and prone to mood swings that would make any hormone raging pregnant woman look rather apathetic.

"Dada!" Ben suddenly exclaimed, trying to slip from Erzsebet's knees to the floor, and the demoness quickly reached out and helped him down, preventing him from falling.

"Ben, don't," Phoebe said, stopping him as he made a beeline to Cole. "Daddy can't…"

She didn't finish the sentence as Ben stomped his foot on the floor and burst into tears, trying to push her hand away even if he wasn't quite sure where he wanted to go anymore. He was just tired and frustrated and confused, and he wanted to stay here with the others but he also wanted to be somewhere quieter because suddenly all the voices were way too loud and the light was way too bright.

"Let me try," Cole said, standing up.

"Cole, he won't go to sleep without a fight now," Phoebe sighed, tiredly. "And you'll be needed here."

She managed to scoop Ben up, and the toddler stopped crying and even acceded to rest his head on her shoulder before he raised it again with a start, remembering that he didn't want to go to bed.

"No!" he protested indignantly, tears popping in his eyes again. "No, no, no!"

"Maybe we should take a break," Piper offered, knowing that any attempt to take Ben away from his parents now would only upset him further.

Phoebe looked at Cole and he placed his arm around her waist and brought her closer to him, smiling when Ben relaxed and mumbled contentedly in the warmth of his parent's embrace, reaching out a small hand to fumble with his daddy's collar.

"He needs his nap," he said, turning to Benjamin with an apologizing shrug. Then, giving Erzsebet a hesitant look: "Can you wait?"

"No," she said flatly, standing up.

Phoebe's sharp intake of breath didn't seem to bother her any more than Cole's hurt look did, and she walked towards them and reached out for Ben, saying simply:

"Just give him to me and go get everything ready in the nursery; I'll meet you there in five minutes."

"Say what?" Phoebe said, stiffening and holding Ben tighter.

"I don't have all day," Erzsebet said dryly. "He has already missed his nap time; it's not like you'll be able to placate him with a couple of lullabies."

She heaved a heavy, I-can't-believe-I'm-doing-this sigh and explained:

"I'll shimmer around the house with him while you get things ready upstairs, and that'll lull him."

Phoebe's eyebrows shot up as she turned a dumbfounded look from the demoness to Cole.

"It might work," he admitted, giving his mother a curious look. "It, hum, used to work."

"Nana!" Ben suddenly called out, choosing that moment to let go off Cole's shirt and throw himself full force towards Erzsebet, catching Phoebe off guard and almost making her lose her balance.

"We'll be back in a moment," Erzsebet said offhandedly as she took Ben from Phoebe's arms. "In the meantime," she told Benjamin dryly, "see if you can talk some sense into your son, since he clearly won't listen to me."

Phoebe let out a small yelp when Erzsebet shimmered across the room with Ben. As soon as they came out of her shimmer, the toddler looked around, bewildered. I was there, and now I'm here, but there were no funny blue bubbly thingies.

"O'b?" he tentatively asked Erzsebet, making the demoness drew a sharp intake of breath, her eyes widening in outrage.

"No!" she exclaimed indignantly. "Demons don't orb;" she told Ben, frowning. "Demons shimmer."

"Shim," Ben said, trying out the new word, while Erzsebet arched her eyebrows at Phoebe and impatiently gestured for her to start moving.

As Erzsebet shimmered out again, Phoebe flicked her tongue and headed to the stairs, frowning slightly.

"He'll be fine," Cole assured her, and she stopped at the bottom of the stairs and turned around to look at him.

"I know," she said quietly, nodding her head. She hesitated, then added, grimacing: "But I have a mother in law."

"As you've mentioned earlier today," Cole reminded her with a small smile, "the ultimate mother in law from hell."

As Phoebe sighed and made her way up the stairs, he sat back on the couch, shrugging and giving his father a sheepish look:

"Well, it's true."

"Just don't let her catch you saying that," Benjamin said with a good-natured smile. Then he added, in a soberer tone: "I think we'd better wait for your wife; she seemed quite puzzled, too. Even though," he said, giving Cole a curious look, "I can't possibly understand why."

"I'm afraid we're all pretty confused," Leo said, and Piper and Paige nodded their heads in agreement. "We all thought that the power stripping potion had made Cole human."

"I don't think any potion could do that," Benjamin said. "You see," he explained, "if Cole had been born human, and then turned into a demon…"

"Like a vengeance demon?" Paige asked.

"Yes, that's a good example," Benjamin said, turning to her. "I understand that if you destroy a vengeance demon's power center, they'll become human again. Although I must say I'm not aware of this having ever been accomplished," he added.

"I seem to recall it's been done a couple of times," Piper said, exchanging a look with her sister.

"So," Leo said, scratching his head, "what you're saying is that Cole's still a demon, only without his powers?"

"No," Erzsebet said, shimmering in.

"Is he asleep?" Cole asked as she went to sit by Benjamin's side again.

"Like I said he'd be," she deadpanned, and Piper arched her eyebrows, making a mental note to ask Sarsour if he'd like to baby-sit Melinda once in a while.

"I see you haven't made much progress," Erzsebet said, giving Benjamin a reproachful look, "if they're still asking about humans and demons."

"We were waiting for you and Phoebe," Benjamin said, unabashed. "Meanwhile, why don't you explain to me what you meant earlier about things having gone downhill after the vanquish of Cole's demon powers?"

"Yeah, that," Erzsebet muttered, nodding. "I gave it some thought while I was shimmering around the place, and I reckon you don't know everything that's happened during the past two years."

"Mother, what are you talking about?" Cole said, stiffening.

"You haven't told your father about the Source, have you?" she asked, scowling.

"What about the Source?" Benjamin asked, concerned, just as Phoebe was reentering the room.

"It's a, uh… a long story," Cole muttered, shuffling his feet, holding Phoebe's hand as she sat by his side and slipped her arm through his, "and I don't think it has anything to do with my witch powers."

"Your mother seems to think it's relevant," Benjamin noted, and despite the geniality in his voice there was also a note of resolve that reminded Cole that only a man with a will as strong as his mother's could have stayed married to her for five years.

"It happened a few months after my demon powers were vanquished," Cole unwilling told his father. "The Source attempted to destroy the Charmed Ones by unleashing the Hollow."

"What!"

"My words exactly," Erzsebet muttered.

"But that's insane!" Benjamin uttered, flabbergasted, turning to her with an incredulous look. "It's… it's more than insane; it's nearly suicidal."

"I know that, you know that," Erzsebet said dryly. "Intellectually challenged trolls high on yak urine know that. Too bad the Source never asked our opinion."

"Dear God…" Benjamin sighed, shaking his head. "So, what happened?" he asked her, gathering his wits.

"I don't know," Erzsebet admitted with a shrug. "I only saw the final outcome."

"The Source had already stolen the powers of Piper and Paige," Cole explained as Benjamin turned to him again, "and we knew he'd be coming for Phoebe's powers next. So, when the Seer offered me the chance to take in the Hollow and…"

"What?" -- Erzsebet's deceptively composed voice cut the air like a whiplash, and without thinking Benjamin reached out and placed his hand on her arm.

"Let him finish," he said, his brow furrowed as he watched Cole in shocked concern.

"I didn't ask for it," Cole said in a tight voice. "I never wanted it." -- Phoebe rubbed his arm reassuringly and he cast a grateful glance towards her -- "But it was the only way to stop the Source. I didn't know what else to do, and I never thought things would turn out the way they did."

"And how exactly did things turn out?" Benjamin asked, looking oddly short of breath for a man who had been dead for more than a century.

Cole swallowed hard, trying his best to remain detached and just state to the bare facts, to block the memories of how it had actually felt that night and during the ensuing months. Phoebe's hand was still resting on his arm and he reached out for it, his fingers intertwining with hers as she gave his hand a gentle squeeze.

"The void left by my demon self allowed the Source to survive his vanquish," Cole quietly proceeded. "His powers were absorbed by the Hollow when I was hit by one of his fireballs, and so was his essence when Phoebe and her sisters read the vanquishing spell. But when the Hollow was banished back to his crypt…"

"The Source remained with you," Benjamin finished the sentence for him. He sighed and was silent for a while, looking like a man who had been punched in the head. His hand was still resting on Erzsebet's wrist, but neither one seemed to notice it as they took in the meaning of Cole's words.

Cole looked at his mother and he was shocked to see that she, too, looked stunned, staring at the coffee table before her with a blank expression.

"Mother…"

"I told you to beware the Furies," Erzsebet said darkly, suddenly acknowledging Benjamin's touch and snapping her hand away from his. "I told you that necromancers are unreliable allies. I taught you how to recognize the breeds of dragons whose flesh is poisonous to our kind. But it never," she proceeded, glowering at him, her voice rising just the slightest notch, so subtly that he doubted the others even noticed it, "ever occurred me that I needed to warn you against the dangers of taking in a voracious, insanely powerful, magic consuming being."

"He did what he thought was best," Benjamin uttered in a low voice. Erzsebet shot him an angry look and he sighed. "I'm not saying that it was indeed the best thing to do. It was reckless and unwise," he said, giving Cole a pointed look, "but men wiser than I am have been guilty of making poor choices at the spur of the moment."

Benjamin reached out and affectionately touched Cole's arm, the thought of what his son had put himself through causing his voice to waver a little as he added gravely:

"But please, son, don't try that again."

Cole swallowed hard and silently nodded his head, painfully conscious that his desperate attempt to save Phoebe's life had nearly cost him his soul, and Phoebe's and Ben's as well, had he chosen not to take them out of the Underworld when he did. Also, it had ultimately granted the Source a few more months to spread evil through him. Cole gave his father a tentative look, and Benjamin patted his arm, saying gently:

"I'm just glad you're fine."

As if sensing Erzsebet's scowl, he turned to her again, flashing her a small smile that was gradually making his way back to his eyes as he willed himself to relax, reminding himself that his son was indeed safe and sound now.

"He was possessed by the Source of All Evil; I reckon grounding him now would be quite an anti-climax."

Erzsebet huffed in annoyance, but she relaxed her stance a trifle, and Cole blinked, astonished; for a second, he could have sworn that his mother was biting back a smile.

"So," she said, turning to him, "now that we've established that all your problems started when you lost your demon powers, can we proceed?"

"Okay," he said, nodding. "Why don't you start by telling me, once and for all, what I am?"

"O seventh, eighth and ninth circles of Hell!" Erzsebet snapped, throwing her hands into the air. She turned to Benjamin, and said, exasperated: "There's only so many times I can have this conversation: you talk to him now."

"Be patient with him," Benjamin said with a small smile, "stubbornness runs in both sides of his family." Erzsebet glared at him and he added: "And, if truth be told, this is the first time that Cole is faced with his heritage in its wholeness."

"I know that you want a name," he said, turning to Cole again, "a word that will establish your identity and explain your heritage. I'm afraid I can't give you one, though; all I can say is that you're the son of a witch and a demoness, no more no less. The features that you have inherited from me are intertwined with the ones you've inherited from your mother, and they can't just be isolated like you would boil salted water to separate the salt from the water."

"Just this morning you thought that the problem with me was that what was left of my demon's self didn't agree with my witch powers," Cole reminded him.

"This morning I was under the impression that the vanquishing of your demon powers hadn't thrown you off balance," Benjamin said, arching his eyebrows. Cole shuffled his feet, uneasy, and he asked gently: "Why didn't you tell me before, son?"

"I embraced evil for one hundred and fourteen years," Cole sighed, toying with Phoebe's fingers as he held her hand in his. "Crossing over was…" -- he grimaced, rubbing his temple -- "tough; and when I lost my powers, things became even worse. I just assumed," he said quietly, "that I had to try harder. That there was a part of me that still longed for evil, that simply didn't want to adjust."

"After more than a century of evil," Benjamin said understandingly, "I don't think crossing over could possibly be easy. But what you went through was more disrupting than just that. I mean," he said, turning to Phoebe, "no offense, but…"

"What do you mean, no offense?" Erzsebet protested, cutting him off. "Yes offense! It's a miracle she didn't kill him, just because she couldn't be bothered to learn her craft before meddling with things that she didn't understand."

"Phoebe only did what I asked her to do," Cole said tersely.

"You're a couple," his mother said acridly. "That means you're supposed to take turns in being stupid; if you both decide to act like morons at the same time, who the hell is steering this ship?"

"Don't talk about her like that," Cole warned her, frowning, causing his mother to draw a sharp intake of breath.

"Are you trying to tell me what to do?" she growled.

"It's my wife you're talking about, mother," Cole said firmly.

He stiffened on his chair and set his jaw, bracing himself for an explosion, but his mother's response got him off guard as she narrowed her eyes, glaring at him, but didn't retort.

"Very well," she finally said in a low voice. "Then I suppose she should be filled in all there's to know about you, so that she can stop you next time you're intent on pulling a boner."

She stared hard at him, as if daring him to tell her that she wasn't supposed to talk about him like that, either, but Cole chose to stop while he was winning and leaned back on his chair, saying simply:

"I suppose she should."

"Which leads me to my next question," Benjamin said, his look encompassing the others as well. "Are you following this so far?"

"A witch is a human being with magical powers," Leo said slowly, as he digested what he had heard up until that moment and added it to what he already knew. "If you take away a witch's powers, you'll have a man or a woman who'll never fulfill their destiny and who will probably go through life yearning for what they lost, but it won't affect their balance."

"But Cole's not human," he proceeded, scratching his chin, as Benjamin nodded his head, encouraging him to go on. "Nor is he a demon. It seems his powers have a greater significance to him that those of a thoroughbred human do."

"Or of a thoroughbred demon, for the matter," Benjamin said. "Cole's balance resides in his having both his demon powers and his witch powers."

"What about when I still had my demon powers but my witch powers were bound?" Cole asked.

"They were bound, but they were there," his mother said. "It wasn't enough to disrupt your balance significantly."

"What do you mean, not significantly?" Phoebe asked.

Erzsebet hesitated for a split second, as if she was about to snap at Phoebe for daring to address her, but she finally answered in a semi civil voice:

"I could feel this ripple in his aura every time I shimmered with him. But eventually he learned how to counterweigh it, and he reached a point of balance."

"So, now he just needs to learn how to counter balance the lack of his demon powers as well?" Phoebe asked hopefully.

"I'm afraid not," Benjamin said.

"Balancing his powers is essentially how he balances his mixed heritage," Erzsebet said. "And he can't do that if there are no powers there to balance."

"What about a potion? " Piper asked, concerned. "Or a spell? Something to make up for what he's missing?"

"I don't think it's safe," Leo said, scratching his head. "You'd need dark magic for this."

"What? Do you think evil is what I need?" Cole asked, giving him an upset look.

"It seems that you need a demonic power," the Whitelighter replied. "And white magic can't create a demonic power."

"The powers can't make you evil," Benjamin assured him. "It's all about the use you make of them."

"The Slayer's powers are rooted in evil, too," Paige piped in, "and that doesn't make her evil."

"Yeah," Cole reluctantly agreed, still not thrilled at the idea. He shifted on his seat, uncomfortable, the memory of taking in the Source's powers still painfully vivid in his mind.

Despite the urge to fix his balance, he was almost relieved when his mother shook her head, declaring:

"It doesn't matter, because it wouldn't work. This is not merely about some demonic power and some witch power," she proceeded as the others looked at her.

"You were conceived on the autumnal equinox," she told Cole, "born of a demon brought forth in the witch's moon and a witch whose powers were rooted in the elements."

"Witch's moon?" Phoebe asked, arching her eyebrows.

"What's an equinox?" Paige asked Leo at the same time.

"It's one of the two times of the year when day and night have the exact same length," the Whitelighter explained.

"As for the witch's moon," Benjamin told them, "the Celtic year was once divided into thirteen lunar months, one for each full moon during the year. The fifth moon was called Willow Moon, Witch's Moon or Moon of Balance."

Phoebe closed her eyes and rubbed her temples; vanquishing Cole's demon self had looked like such a perfectly good idea at the time! He was off the Source's radar, free to start a new life as a human. Except that he isn't human, is he? He's some very special and unique magical being whose highly refined balance you screwed royally.

She looked at Leo and the grim look on the Whitelighter's face told her that he, too, wished he had known more about his future charge, thus being able to give her better advice then. Phoebe took a deep breath and straightened up, determined not to let these dark thoughts stop her from helping her husband here and now. There'd be plenty of time later, for all of them to acknowledge their well-intentioned mistakes and learn from them.

"So," she said, resolutely turning to Erzsebet, "what does Cole need?"

"He needs his powers back," the demoness replied curtly.

"Can we restore them?" Phoebe insisted, ignoring the antagonism in her voice.

"You can't," Erzsebet said. "And you needn't."

She formed an energy ball in her right hand, skillfully making it revolve around itself as it hovered above the palm of her hand.

"There's more where that came from."