Chapter 2: The Good, the Bad, and the Cursed Part 1

Two weeks later, Phoebe slouched in her father's car, on the dusty ground of some California ghost town, as if she hadn't a care in the world. It was all a façade, of course. Earlier this morning, her father had called her and asked if she could come out with him to look at the place. Confused but eager to have something non-magical and relatively impersonal to do, Phoebe had accepted. Externally, she was glad to spend time with her father. Internally, she was still a mess. Almost half a month had passed since she had found out she was pregnant, and she still didn't know what she was going to do about the baby.

All magical things aside, Phoebe didn't know if she was even ready to have a child. She had spent the last two weeks agonizing over every aspect of the situation. She knew the baby was quarter-demon, but it was also three-quarters witch. Phoebe also knew, for a fact, that Cole did love her, which obviously meant he wasn't completely bad. Hell, he had turned his back and betrayed the evil he worked for, for her. It followed that their baby wasn't necessarily evil, either.

In an effort to gather more information, Phoebe had also researched abortion. Random facts about the act now bounced about her brain, but what really stuck with her were the images. The pictures of aborted babies haunted her dreams, and only served to complicate matters instead of clarify them. Her sisters were no help; Piper was trying NOT to chime in with her conflicted opinions, although it was clear that she wasn't happy with the situation. Prue was decidedly less pleased; Phoebe didn't even consider asking her for advice.

She had, however, asked Leo and Leo had gone to the Elders. They had said that the child's future appeared unclear in that vague, annoying way they had. Phoebe took some comfort in that they were not saying it was evil and should be aborted. Furthermore, they were being surprisingly non-judgmental of her not-relationship with Cole. That alleviated some of the tension, but it really wasn't helping her make a decision.

The car stopped, and Phoebe was distracted from her inner musings by the sight before her. Victor had called it a dilapidated old ghost town, but it wasn't nearly as bad as he'd described it. All of the buildings were still standing, and all seemed to be in a state of relatively good repair. The only thing that made it look any different from the set of an old western was the fact that, aside from them, it was completely and utterly deserted. It was eerie, really. Phoebe half-expected to see a cowboy stagger out of the saloon and realized with a start that, given the supernatural lives they led, it was a real possibility she would see just that.

It wasn't really a comforting thought.

"All right, Dad, spill it," Phoebe demanded as they climbed out of the car. "What are we doing here?"

Victor looked mock-offended. "What, can't a father spend a little quality time with his daughter? Especially after all the time we've been apart?"

And whose fault was that? Phoebe wasn't fooled. Ghost towns weren't really good father-daughter bonding places. If her dad had brought her out here, he wanted something; she just couldn't figure out what. Phoebe rolled her eyes. "Alright, I take after you, okay? I've inherited all your tricks, especially your fine art of fibbing."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Victor played dumb. He had, in fact, brought Phoebe out here for another reason besides the first one, but that first one was still a reason. Besides, he wanted to ask about Piper and her fiancé. "Tell me a little bit more about this Leo fellow, anyway. How did he and Piper meet?"

That seemed to be a safe topic. Knowing full well that it was a distraction, Phoebe still decided to answer. "Oh, it was a couple of years ago at the house. He was our handyman." Of course, Leo hadn't been just a handyman, but they hadn't known that at the time…

Victor frowned. "Piper's marrying a handyman?" He had nothing against handymen, but the handymen he had met didn't seem to have the highest aspirations in life. Moreover, it would be much harder for them to help support a family. Victor had no desire to see Piper wind up alone after a destitute husband walked out on her.

"Well, no, he isn't really a handyman…" Phoebe stopped and stared. Did he really…? "Wait, you do know…?"

Apparently, he didn't. Victor continued, "All I know is he's a nice enough guy who seems to know the big bad secret. Trust me, it's a lot better for a mortal to know he's marrying a witch before the wedding instead of after. Wish I had."

So he really didn't know! "Mortal. Right," Phoebe muttered, still in shock. Meanwhile, her mind was spinning, for once focused on a problem that wasn't hers. Well, it was, but only by association. How could Piper and Leo not have told their dad the true nature of their relationship? Victor might have walked out on them before, but still, he was back now. He'd said himself it was better to know more about someone before the wedding. How would he feel when he discovered his daughter was marrying a Whitelighter, the type of being he distrusted the most? Phoebe could only barely imagine, and what she imagined wasn't pretty. Not-so-fleetingly, she wondered what her father's reaction would be if he knew her ex-boyfriend was a half-demon? She couldn't imagine that at all.

Leo, Cole, her sisters, and two medical personnel were the only people who knew Phoebe was pregnant. Victor Bennett was potentially going to be a grandfather in the coming year, but Phoebe hadn't had the heart to tell him yet, for several reasons. Piper's upcoming wedding was one of them; Phoebe didn't want to take any attention away from her sister on her Day, especially since said sister was not too happy with her right now. The other, bigger reason was that Phoebe was worried about his reaction. The fact that his daughter was single, unemployed, and impregnated by a half-demon would probably make it a bad one.

But Phoebe wouldn't be able to keep it a secret from anyone that much longer. She was 10 weeks along right now, and she might start to show a tiny bit in just a few more. Phoebe wasn't even sure if she could abort. She didn't know if she tapped into the baby's powers to shimmer or if the baby was somehow protecting itself. If it was the latter, then it stood to reason that the fetus in her uterus could protect itself from an attempted abortion. How it would react, if that was the case, was something no one wanted to think about.

At that moment, Phoebe was once again distracted by a commotion off to the side. Startled, she spun around. Nothing was there but tumbleweed tumbling past. She shivered.

"What?"

Phoebe shook her head. "It's nothing." Actually, it was probably a ghost, but she didn't really want to bring up that possibility to her father, who was still a little nervous around all things supernatural. "I guess that's why they call it a ghost town, huh?"

"What do you mean?" Victor wanted to know. "Did you actually see something?"

It was the tone of his voice that made Phoebe suspicious, and reminded her that there was probably another reason for their trip out here. She whirled on him, "What do you mean?"

"I mean, like a premonition, or whatever you call it," Victor elaborated, feeling a little disappointed that they'd had to get to the point of the visit so quickly. He had actually wanted to spend a little quality time with his youngest. He sighed, "Alright, I confess. I brought you here hoping maybe you could give me a little bit of your help. I just didn't know how to ask."

All he had to ask was, "I need a little supernatural help at this place. Could you help me?" Phoebe couldn't help feeling disappointed that he hadn't trusted her enough to do that. She thought they had moved past that. "Magical help? Dad…"

Victor sighed, and looked around at the deserted, windswept town. "Well, this place seemed like such a good investment. Too good, actually. Made me think that all the stories were true."

That sounded interesting. "I'm biting. What stories?"

"Ghost stories," her father explained, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world (it was). "Something's been keeping people from investing and razing this place for over a hundred years."

"So what, you want me to do a little supernatural investigation?" To Phoebe, it was almost laughable. In comparison to all the other dangerous things she had dealt with in the past several years, a dusty old ghost town was something to sneeze at. Sure, the place was probably haunted; she doubted it was any worse than that.

Victor shifted uneasily. "Well, yeah. I thought you could do a little Feng Shui on the place and maybe see if there's anything going on."

Feng Shui? Really? "Okay, first of all, I don't do Feng Shui," Phoebe pointed out. "And secondly, I can't always get a premonition when I want to."

Of course, the supernatural chose that moment to interrupt her life yet again, as another loud noise echoed forth from the saloon. Phoebe stared at the doors. Nothing stared back at her. "Okay, now I definitely heard that."

Victor didn't. "Heard what?"

From somewhere inside the empty saloon, a glass shattered. Phoebe jumped. Her father, on the other hand, didn't react at all. "Okay, didn't you hear that?" she demanded.

The man beside her didn't have a chance to answer as another man, a cowboy, was thrown out of the saloon. He was translucent, and Phoebe could clearly see the ground beneath his body. Before she had a chance to examine him any closer, another, equally transparent cowboy walked out after him. From the look on his face, it was this second ghost that had thrown the first out of the saloon.

"You're a dead man, Bo," the second man snarled.

"Can you see them?" Phoebe hissed to her father. Mortals could see ghosts, too; that ability did not belong solely to witches.

"See who?" Victor shook his head. He could tell something otherworldly was happening, but he couldn't tell what. It unnerved him.

Phoebe ignored him, despite the fact that she had asked the question in the first place. Assuming that these were, in fact, ghosts, she tried to get their attention, "Hey! Hey, what's going on?"

Neither of the barely-present figures paid any attention to her words. In fact, they didn't appear to hear them at all. The second cowboy continued, "Nobody crosses Mr. Sutter."

Phoebe didn't even have time to blink before the fight began anew. He smashed the man named Bo in the face, causing him to lose his balance once more. The specter flew back and as he fell, he inadvertently fell right through Phoebe. As he did so, the young witch's face suddenly erupted in pain as the rest of her body shivered in response to a spirit not her own passing through her. She was vaguely aware of the sound of a gunshot echoing down the empty street. The ghost cowboys disappeared.

But the pain in her face did not. When Phoebe pulled her hand away from her face, Phoebe was only half-surprised to find it bleeding.

Victor noticed it, too. "Phoebe?" he worried, suddenly regretting their trip out to this place. "Phoebe, what's going on? Sweetheart, you're bleeding."

But how was she bleeding? Phoebe herself had not been struck, the ghost man named Bo had been. Her lip was telling a different story, though. That story was not a good one. She had no idea what had happened or what was wrong, but… "I wouldn't buy this place, Dad. Really, really bad Feng Shui."

The question was, what was causing it?

XXX

Back at the manor, Piper and Prue had just finished their preparations for the rehearsal dinner. Piper had even laid out a place for their absent mother, stating that if she couldn't be there in person, she would be there in memory and spirit. Leo orbed in, interrupting their sisterly moment but he didn't feel too bad about it. It wasn't every day that a man waited to eat his rehearsal dinner with his future wife.

"So, Leo, you nervous?" Prue teased. "I mean, only one more week before dum, dum, dum-dum," she hummed the beginning of the traditional wedding song.

"Thanks," Piper chimed in sarcastically. She could have done without the reminder to be nervous.

Leo shook his head. "Well, as long as no demons come bursting through that door, until then, I am fine."

Leo's timing was perfect. At that moment, Victor Bennett's voice called from outside, "Prue! Piper!"

He didn't sound happy. He sounded worried. Piper sighed, "You had to jinx it."

Phoebe came through the door, Victor right behind her, holding a handkerchief to her still-bleeding lip.

"Hey, Phoebe, what happened?" Prue asked in concern. It looked like her sister had been in a fight, albeit a small one.

"Oh, it's nothing, I'm fine. I just need an aspirin." Oh, wait, she was pregnant. No aspirin for her, then. "I mean, some ice."

"Dad?" Piper inquired, rather urgently. They so did not need this so close to the wedding, but such were their lives.

Victor shook his head. "I don't know what happened. One minute we're just walking around, the next thing I know she's bleeding."

Phoebe was the one who explained what happened, although her explanation of brawling ghosts was rather disjointed. Prue thought she had hit her head, but Phoebe knew she hadn't. She knew what she'd seen and felt; it just didn't make any sense. Not that much in her life ever did.

"Sweetheart, I never would have taken you there if I had any idea," her father apologized profusely.

Well, he had had an idea, but he hadn't known it could lead to anyone getting hurt. Phoebe forgave him. "It's fine, Dad. Really, don't worry about it."

Leo reached towards her to heal her, and Phoebe abruptly remembered one other important fact. She waved his hand off, saying, "No, I'm alright. Dad, why don't you go to the porch and get those town files. You know, maybe there's something in them that can help us."

As soon as he had left, Phoebe rounded on her sister and future-brother-in-law. "Dad doesn't know that Leo is a Whitelighter."

"What?" Prue and Leo exclaimed at the same time. Piper, at least, had the grace to look guilty. Phoebe wasn't the only one who could keep secrets in this family.

"Well, I've been meaning to tell him, but considering Mom had an affair with her Whitelighter, I didn't think he'd really be receptive to the idea," Piper defended herself. Somehow, the explanation had sounded so much better in her head than it did out loud.

Leo couldn't believe his fiancée had withheld that important little detail from her father. Wasn't it better that he had time to get over it before the wedding than surprising him with it after? "Piper, he's gonna kill me when he finds out," the Whitelighter exclaimed.

"Oh, don't be ridiculous, you're already dead."

XXX

Several minutes later, all three sisters had relocated to the living room to cluster comfortably around the Book. Victor and Leo had disappeared to grab a bite to eat, much to Leo and Piper's discomfiture. How long before he found out that Leo was a Whitelighter? Unfortunately, the sisters couldn't spare the brainpower to think of what to do then, as they currently had another problem on their hands.

Without warning, Phoebe doubled over, gasping for breath as she clutched her stomach. What had happened? It felt like she'd just been kicked in the stomach by a 300 pound demon. For a moment, she panicked—had the baby done something?

Prue and Piper rushed to their sister's side. "Phoebe? What's wrong?" Piper cried.

"I-I don't know," Phoebe gasped, straightening a little. The pain actually wasn't that bad, so much as it was startling. "It felt like someone hit me."

"Was it the baby?" Prue demanded.

Phoebe was about to answer that she didn't know when she remembered. The ghostly brawl at the town. The cut on her lip when she hadn't been the one to get hit. "No," she replied breathlessly, "I don't think so. I think it was Bo."

The two older sisters guided the younger one to the couch. Phoebe pulled up her shirt to reveal a blooming bruise on the right side of her abdomen. Piper fingered it gently. "It must have happened the same way you got the split lip," she theorized.

"But how?" Phoebe wanted to know. "He's a ghost. How could I get his symptoms?"

Piper shook her head as she returned to flipping through the book. "I don't know. I just wish I knew what I was looking for in here."

Phoebe bit her lip, trying to think, and then hissed as that aggravated the cut. "Um, the cowboy who attacked Bo, I think he said something about a guy named Sutter. Maybe he's a demon."

Or maybe he wasn't. Prue had been flipping through the town records that Victor had brought in, and thought she might have found something fishy. "Here," she said, pointing to the papers as she set them down on the table.

"Did you find something?"

Prue shook her head, confused. "No, it's more what I didn't find. There's nothing here dated past April 25th, 1873. It's like time just stopped."

"What do you mean, 'stopped'?" Piper's brow furrowed in confusion. "Like everybody died?"

"No, like time stopped moving forward, literally." Things became a little more clear for Prue. She now had an idea of what they were dealing with. "It wouldn't be the first time we've come across a time loop."

Phoebe shook her head; that couldn't be it. "No, we vanquished that demon." Hadn't they? It wouldn't be the first time a demon had come back from the dead, either.

Now that she had an idea of what to look for, Piper resumed flipping through the book. Bingo. "Maybe it's not a demon. Maybe it's a curse," she suggested, pointing to the page they were looking for. She read, "Certain spiritual traditions believe that a great evil or great injustice can be cursed into a time loop until righted."

"So that's probably why this is happening to me," Phoebe theorized, wincing as she moved. "Our job is to right the wrong." She just hoped they could right the wrong in time. Despite the fact that she hadn't yet made a decision, Phoebe couldn't help thinking that the last blow had been frighteningly close to her uterus. The potential effects on her baby were too frightening to think about.

Prue could see what she was thinking. "Have you decided what to do, yet?" she asked quietly. There was no mistaking what she was talking about.

"No," Phoebe replied unhappily. She looked her sister in the eye, and continued firmly, "but I don't want the decision taken away from me."

Her older sister might have said something more, but at that moment, the doorbell rang. Prue was the one to open it, and no one could have been more surprised at the person she found outside. And no one could have been more displeased.

"Hey, Prue, long time. Is Phoebe home?" Cole asked cheerily, holding up a bundle of flowers.

Those flowers were nearly scattered across the living room as Prue launched the half-demon into the air and threw him across the room. Phoebe and Piper spun around as flew behind the couch, landing roughly and just managing to avoid demolishing a table in the process. Cole stood up, feeling a little dizzy from a whack to his head. At least the flowers were alright.

Forgetting her own pain, Phoebe got up and ran to him, and then stopped. They weren't together anymore. How was she supposed to act?

Cole, for his part, didn't seem to be suffering from that same indecision. "Phoebe, hi," he greeted her happily, apparently quite pleased to see her. Or maybe he was glad no one had killed him yet, and had mistakenly taken it for instant acceptance into the family. Either way, he presented her the flowers. Phoebe stared at them; what was she to do with them? "These are for you," he added unnecessarily, seeing her hesitation to take his proffered gift.

Prue was not nearly so hesitant to voice her thoughts, clear as they were. "What the hell are you doing here?" she snarled. "Do you have some kind of death wish?"

Ah, had Phoebe not told them he was back? That would explain Prue's reaction. Or maybe she had told them. That would explain it, too, for entirely different reasons. "I need to talk to Phoebe," Cole replied calmly, watching those deadly hands. At least it didn't appear that she was going to use them to kill him right this very second. That was good, as he did not, in fact, have a death wish.

Temporarily reassured that her angry sister was not an imminent threat to his life, Cole refocused his attention on the woman in front of him. Phoebe was still staring him, having pushed the flowers away. "Phoebe," he asked quietly, cheerful façade dropped, "have you thought about it?" Or maybe what he was really asking was, 'have you made a decision?' By the look on her face and the tension and weariness that pervaded her entire form, Cole would guess not. He knew she needed space; he just wasn't sure how much time he could give her in a matter like this that concerned both of them.

Phoebe took a deep breath. She should have known he wouldn't have stayed away for very long; Phoebe wouldn't have, either, if their positions had been reversed. And of course she had thought about it. Every waking minute of every waking hour, indecision over what she should do had filled her mind. And she was really no closer to making a decision than she had been two weeks ago. "I need more time," she answered, just as quietly as he had asked the question.

Cole blew out a breath. "I know," he murmured, stepping closer for a good look at her split lip. Phoebe froze at his proximity. Should she stay, should she move away, should she…step closer? She had certainly missed the intimacy between them… Better to freeze where she was, rather than make a mistake in front of Prue. Not unaware of her internal battle but choosing to ignore it for the moment, Cole continued, "I just happened to be close to your dad and Leo. And I overheard what happened." So of course, he had shimmered over. There was a part of Cole that could scarcely believe it, but he was worried about the woman he loved. Having never experienced worry or concern for another person before she turned his life upside down, Cole hadn't known what to do about it but come right over to assuage the feeling.

Phoebe couldn't help it; the part of her that she couldn't fully show him was quite touched at his concern. "I'm fine," she assured him.

Of course, she wasn't the only one he was concerned about. "And what about the baby?" Cole wanted to know, giving her a pointed look.

Phoebe winced. "It's fine, too," she insisted, thinking she would have felt it if that last blow had caused worse damage. She reminded him, "I can't truly think about this when you're breathing down my neck about it, so I need you to leave for a little while. At least until I figure this out." Whatever 'this' was. At this point (no pun intended), Phoebe wasn't quite sure.

Prue raised her hand once more, quite willing to assist her sister in removing the half-demon from the premises. Piper grabbed it and lowered the offending appendage. "Do not destroy the table!" she ordered. In reality, what she was saying was, 'don't interfere!' This wasn't their business to get involved in right now, as Cole clearly didn't pose an immediate threat to them.

But something else did.

At that moment, the modern world around Phoebe Halliwell disappeared. Once again, she was standing in the empty street of that old ghost town, only it wasn't so empty this time. Once again, both of the ghost cowboys were before her, but they didn't look like ghosts anymore. They looked as alive as she. As the young witch watched, the same aggressive cowboy raised his gun and pointed it at the other man, who stood vulnerable in the very open street.

He fired.

Phoebe's body jerked. Her belly, which had previously only been sore, exploded in white-hot, burning agony. She was only vaguely aware of the one called Bo throwing a knife at the other man. The pain was all that mattered.

And then Phoebe was once again standing in the middle of her own living room. The vision had vanished. But the pain had not.

Unable to support her, Phoebe's legs buckled and she collapsed on the hardwood floor. Prue, Piper, and Cole all lunged forward, catching her just in time and lowering her safely to the ground. Phoebe barely noticed them. Her hands flew to her stomach, blindly searching out the source of the pain in an effort to make it stop. She found it, and when she pulled her fingers away, they came away bloody.

Terror blossomed from the pit of Phoebe's wounded stomach. "I think I've been shot," she gasped.