Disclaimer: I don't own Charmed.

Searching

Piper took in the empty room. "Maybe she's in the bathroom. Or the attic."

Paige paid no attention to her big sister rushing past her, presumably to search the house for any sign of Phoebe. Instead, she followed Cole into the room. "I don't... how could we not know? Piper and I have been downstairs all day."

Cole stopped pacing the room and looked at her. "You were too absorbed in yourself to bother keeping Phoebe safe."

"Now, wait. That's not fair. You know how much we love her and the baby. We wouldn't put them at risk."

"But, you did. Why didn't someone go with her when she went upstairs?" he demanded.

"Like she would've let us. And, anyway, where were you that you couldn't protect your own wife?"

"Trying to protect this whole family. I thought I could trust you with her for a few hours."

"She's not anywhere. That demon really did take her. We have to find her, now," Piper said as she scurried into the room, holding a map and crystal.

Paige turned her back on Cole. She grabbed Phoebe's brush from her dresser. "Here, scry with this."

Piper took the offered object. She dangled the crystal by it's string, waiting for it to stop over a point on the map she had laid across the bed. "It's not working," she said, several minutes later. "Why isn't it working?"

Paige, not having an answer, watched Cole staring intently at the wall opposite the bed. "What are you looking at?" She moved toward him and gasped as she saw black streaks marring the wall. "I didn't see those before. You don't think... that's not..."

"No!" Piper exclaimed. "She's alive."

"Cole?" Paige questioned, worried that the scorch marks meant Phoebe had been hit by a fatal energy ball.

He shook his head. "These marks, they look like what's left after I fire an energy ball."

"Other demons throw energy balls. They all look like yours."

"No," Cole corrected. "There are small differences in the scorch marks of each demon. No two are identical, but this looks a lot like mine."

"Phoebe can shimmer now. Maybe Prue gave her energy balls, too?" Piper suggested.

"It makes sense," Cole agreed. "Her markings would be similar to mine, I guess. Though I've never really compared the marks of a demon and it's offspring, so I can't be positive."

"So, that mark could still mean..." Paige started. It tore her up inside to even think of Phoebe being mortally wounded, but with the evidence in front of them, and no proof otherwise. "Scrying wouldn't work if our powers were gone because the Power of Three was broken."

Piper blew up a pillow. "Our powers are fine. That scorch mark must be from an energy ball Phoebe threw."

"Well, then why isn't the scrying working?" Paige asked a bit annoyed at herself for not thinking of trying out her own powers for proof.

"The place Phoebe's at must be magically guarded," Cole surmised, relieved that his wife and child were safe at least for the moment. He shimmered out of the manor before Piper or Paige could say anything else.

"I take it he's gone to search the Underworld again?"

"I hope he can find her. This crystal's useless," Piper said.

"Piper, Cole... he's been spending so much time in the Underworld lately. Could he... do you think he's switched again? I mean, maybe this is all an elaborate plan to turn Phoebe evil again. It certainly wouldn't be the first-"

"Paige!" Piper cut her off. "How can you say that? We know Cole is good now. And he's family. I thought you finally felt that way, too."

"I do," said Paige slowly. "But, with his past, it's only natural to suspect him."

"Have you forgotten that you were evil in a past life? So was Phoebe for that matter. And we've all made bad decisions in this lifetime. Why don't you suspect any of us of going evil?"

"It's not the same, Piper, and you know it. We all learned from our mistakes and grew, in good."

"So did Cole."

"He's a demon, Piper! No matter how much good he's done the past couple years, he was still evil not that long ago. You all act like so much time has passed and like he's changed so much. He's back in his original demonic form, now. The one he did evil with for over a hundred years. It's not so wrong to think that it might've all come back," Paige paused. "I've actually grown kind of fond of Cole. I forgave him for the Source stuff and what happened after he came back from the Wasteland and even admitted my errors in all that. It doesn't change what he did as Belthazor, though. It doesn't change his heritage. What's it matter if he's only half-demon and has a soul? He was raised evil. He was evil."

"Key word, Paige- was."

"Something like that doesn't go away so fast, or so easily."

"It wasn't easy. You've seen how he's struggled, and he started that before you even knew him. But he's overcome everything to turn out very good, despite being annoying sometimes."

"Look, I don't want it to be him, OK? I want to believe he's good. It's just that he spends so much time down there recently."

"Trying to protect us," piper defended the man she'd come to think of as a pesky brother.

"But he has all these old contacts, all these powers; he's smarter than most demons and most still fear his reputation. Yet he doesn't come up with very much information."

"He just found out Keilphorte's plan."

"And conveniently didn't tell us until after Phoebe had been kidnapped."

"These are the facts, Paige. Cole is good. Keilphorte, a legendary and dangerous demon, has taken our sister. He is the evil we're fighting. And, he knows what he's doing. He's good enough that even someone as good at this kind of stuff as Cole is can't find out his plans easily."

"If he's so good, how come we know his name? How come we know his supposed plan?"

"New demons aren't completely loyal to him. They don't keep the secret."

"Or it's a cover-up devised by Co-"

"Don't finish that sentence. We have no reason to doubt Cole and every reason to trust him."

Piper gathered the map and gem she's been using to scry with into her arms and headed out the door. "I'm going to go upstairs and try the "To Find a Lost Witch" spell and if that doesn't work I'll try some other things. You're welcome to help, but I won't continue this conversation about your unfounded doubts."

Paige sighed and followed Piper to the attic.

Phoebe glared at her captor as he continued putting shields up around the chamber they were in. She would have screamed at him, but her mouth was gagged. She would have kicked him or threw another of her daughter's energy balls, but her arms were tied behind her and her legs were pinned to the boulder she leant against with metal enhanced by magic. She struggled to get free, but knew it wouldn't do any good to be untied. She was stuck inside of a magical cage, much like the one she and her sisters had used to trap numerous demons.

Phoebe glanced down at her stomach uneasily. So far, she and her baby were unharmed, but she could only imagine what plans this demon had for her. Straightening up, she reminded herself that it would only be a matter of time before Cole and her sisters found her. Even with shields surrounding the place, she tried to communicate to Prue silently, your Daddy will come for us. We just have to be patient.

Looking at her bound limbs, Phoebe once more tried to free herself. She had total confidence in her family, but she was itching to throw an energy ball at her captor.

"You'll never get out," Keilphorte announced menacingly as he stood before Phoebe's cage. "In a few months I'll have what I want and I'll get rid of you."

Phoebe's eyes widened at his words. They confirmed her worst fears. His sentence made it clear it wasn't Prue's mother he was after, and her baby was due in only three months.