Chapter 3: The Good, the Bad, and the Cursed Part 2
"The thing is, they can orb into their charges' lives any time of the day or night…without us mortals even knowing about it," Victor Bennett, mortal, was saying to Leo Wyatt, Whitelighter, as the future father- and son-in-law 'bonded' over cups of coffee. "You can't trust the Whitelighters, Leo. They're sneaky little bastards."
Leo sighed. He'd known from the moment Victor had invited him that this would be an uncomfortable conversation. Of course Leo knew that Victor had good reason to distrust Whitelighters; they were involved in their charges' lives in ways normal mortals simply couldn't be. But it was only the one Whitelighter who had betrayed him by sleeping with his wife! And really, Patty was the one who had done the betraying. Sam had just…been in love. Like Leo was now.
But did that mean he had to listen to his fiancee's father slander everyone of his kind?
"Really?" the Whitelighter tried. "'Cause Piper says they're really, really good guys. More of, like, guardian angels."
Victor wasn't buying it. He'd had the same line fed to him, and look where that had gotten him. "That's the party line, Leo, but don't believe it," he warned the younger man. "You can't trust 'em. They have this tendency to fall in love with their charges. Before you know it, they've stolen your wife. The girls' mother, Patty? She fell for her Whitelighter."
Well, Victor would be right on one charge—certain Whitelighters (namely two) did have a tendency to fall in love with their lovely, caring charges. Sounding appropriately surprised, he asked, "Oh, I thought that happened after you two separated?" Of course, Leo already knew the truth. He just wanted to get a better idea of how badly Victor saw the betrayal. That would give him insight as to how to break the news to him. Or, better yet, have Piper do it. She was the one who had withheld the info in the first place.
"Oh, he was putting the moves on her long before we split up, believe me," Victor snorted, oblivious to Leo's true intent. He continued, "Anyway, you know, we never had a chance to get back together because of him. And, um, you know, then she died. Look, my point is, if you wanna…"
If his future father-in-law said anything else, Leo didn't hear it. That particular tingling feeling ran through his head. The sisters were calling him. And it sounded urgent.
"Uh-oh," he murmured. Something must have gone wrong with the situation involving the town, and someone was hurt.
"What?" Victor, of course, had no idea that at least one of his daughters was in danger.
Leo looked at him. "I have to go," he stated, praying this would all go better than how he feared it would. At least no one was looking at them right now.
The other man was confused. "Go?" he echoed.
"Yeah," Leo tensed up. Nervously, he said, "And I don't think you'll like the way I have to go, either."
Then he orbed out. The world around him faded in a swirl of bright light before it resolidified into the familiar living room of the Halliwell Manor.
Naturally, the first person he saw was Cole Turner. Or Belthazor, if he was the one who had caused the latest problem.
"What the hell are you doing here?"
"Forget about him, Leo," Prue ordered from her place behind Piper on the couch. "Phoebe's been shot."
"Shot?" Leo exclaimed. Of all the things he had been expecting, that hadn't been one of them. A demon attack, a household accident, yes…but not a shooting. Phoebe whimpered in pain from her fetal position on the couch and he rushed to her side. "How did that happen?"
Prue shook her head. "There's no time to explain. Can you heal her?"
Leo tried. He really, really tried. But no matter how much of the healing magic he forced out of his hands, none of it had any effect. The tiny bullet wound low on the left side of Phoebe's belly stubbornly remained open. And bleeding.
While Leo tried in vain to alleviate her sister's agony, Piper looked around. "Where's dad?"
"Seething, probably," Leo replied distractedly. He pushed one last surge of healing energy through his hands and into Phoebe's wound. Still no effect. With a sense of regret and hopelessness he couldn't even describe, Leo was forced to abandon his sworn task, or risk spending too much energy on a futile act.
Cole stepped closer, fearful of what this meant. "What's the matter, Leo? Why isn't it working?" he demanded, a tiny bit of fear making its way into his voice.
"I don't know," Leo admitted truthfully. He was as confused as any of them. This had never happened before. He instructed, "Phoebe, you gotta tell me exactly how this happened."
"I don't, I really don't know," Phoebe forced out through clenched teeth, hugging her pillow a little tighter. "I had a-a premonition and I felt Bo get shot and then I came out of it."
"Leo, can you heal her?" Prue interrupted. That was all that mattered at the moment.
Leo shook his head. Now he was starting to understand what had happened, and there was nothing he could do about it from where he was. "No, because Phoebe wasn't the one that was shot. Bo was."
The hell her sister hadn't been shot! Prue could clearly see the evidence with her own two eyes. "What are you talking about?" she demanded. "She's bleeding!"
"I know, but it's more like a psychic echo," Leo explained. "Phoebe is linked to Bo somehow. Whatever he feels, whatever happens to him, happens to her." Which was an incredibly discomfiting and terrifying notion. If Phoebe could get shot when Bo had been, then it followed that much worse things could happen to her without her ever leaving the couch.
Cole, who had much more experience with the supernatural than all the other occupants of the room combined, easily followed the Whitelighter's line of thinking. "Which means Bo must be magical, too," he stated. Seeing the sisters' confused gazes fall upon him, he elaborated, "The only way they can be linked is through their magic."
"I agree."
"We have to find Bo. Heal him," Cole continued, looking back at the woman he loved. If his eyes weren't failing him, and he was sure they weren't, she was fading fast. Whether or not Phoebe was the one who had been shot, she was still bleeding. The wound was small, and not in an area that was typically deadly, but the bleeding wouldn't stop. Phoebe only had so much time before she bled out. Cole couldn't let that happen. "It's the only way," he added.
But how were they going to do that? "Well, he's been cursed into a time loop with the rest of the town," Piper pointed out. "And we don't know how to get there, let alone where there is."
To Cole, the answer to that was obvious. He reminded himself that he'd been at this a lot longer than they had, albeit from the other side. "Well, it's gotta be a parallel plane existing in the same physical space as the town."
Prue glared at him. She didn't trust him as far as she could throw him—without her telekinesis. "You know, I don't think we need any demonic input right now."
Cole glared at her. "If I can help save Phoebe's life, you sure as hell do." Whether she liked it or not, he loved her sister as much as she did. Prue would just have to deal with that. Now that Phoebe's life was in danger, his involvement was not negotiable.
Leo, at least, understood that. He didn't have to like it, but he would accept it. "We're listening," he stated quietly.
"I move through different planes all the time. It's how I've been hiding from the Source," Cole explained. "Shouldn't be any problem to shimmer to Bo's plane and bring him back here so you can heal him."
Phoebe asked, a little breathlessly as that tiny hole in her side was stealing most of the air from her lungs, "Why don't you just take Leo with you and heal Bo there?" That made perfect sense to her. Quicker, which meant the searing pain in her side would be gone that much sooner.
"I can't." Leo might not mind…much…but the Elders would certainly take issue with it later. "I'm not allowed to work with demons."
Before anyone could suggest that he should break the rules, as they'd all done before, Prue did something that stunned them all. Looking for all the world like she was being forced to eat rotten meat, the oldest Charmed sister announced, "I'll do it." Everyone, especially Cole and Phoebe, stared at her in amazement.
"Prue…" Piper started, and trailed off. Couldn't Cole go on his own? And was leaving these two together really the best idea?
Prue sighed. "Look, I'm not leaving this all up to him," she jerked her thumb at the half-demon standing behind her. Cole snorted. Like he needed a babysitter when Phoebe's life and that of their child were at stake.
Piper was still uncertain. "What if something goes wrong and you get stuck in the time loop and don't get back before midnight?"
That was a valid concern, but not first and foremost on Prue's mind. "It's not the time loop I'm worried about." Cole didn't even bother reacting this time. Maybe her opinion of him would change once he helped her save Phoebe's life. Probably not. Prue was judgmental that way.
"You and Leo should go to the town and see if you can find anything to help break the curse," Prue suggested. To Phoebe, she ordered, "You hang in there, okay?"
Phoebe nodded weakly. She could feel her strength waning by the minute, but she still had some left in her. Without meaning to, her eyes wandered up to meet Cole's. Although he offered her no verbal reassurance, she could see it in his eyes. He would fix this. He wouldn't let her die. Despite all that they'd been through, Cole Turner still loved her. And she still loved him. At that moment, Phoebe wanted to tell him so but she couldn't with everyone else watching. So she just said, "Play nice, you two."
Cole smiled. He knew what she meant. Then he turned to Prue, and that smile turned into a smirk. "Gotta hold my hand."
"This already sucks."
The half-demon and the witch, previously mortal enemies and still enemies in some fashion or another, disappeared from the Halliwell living room. Phoebe willed her muscles to relax back into the softness of the couch. And tensed right back up as Victor Bennett charged through the front door, his fury plain on his face.
"Leo! You lying little piece of—"
Piper grabbed her future husband's hand and quickly stood up in front of him. Now was the time to make their escape. Besides, this just meant they were free to look for clues in the town while their dad looked after Phoebe. Perfect timing, really. She just had to get Leo out of here before Victor worked himself into greater heights of rage.
"Okay, Dad, not now. Stay with Phoebe. We'll be back," Piper hurriedly informed him, right before Leo orbed them out.
"What?" Victor looked at Phoebe for an answer.
She shrugged, and hissed when that tiny movement pulled on the bullet wound. "Don't look at me, I've been shot."
XXX
Prue glared at the back of Cole's head. The demon was downright insufferable. How did Phoebe put up with him? Sure, he'd managed to shimmer them into the correct time and place. Sure, she could understand the need to change clothes—outfits from 2001 kind of stood out in 1873. But did he need to suggest she should dress like a prostitute? Or make her feel more like a fool in front of a stranger? Or indicate she watched too many old movies? Of course, Cole probably liked holding his firsthand knowledge of the time over her head. Prue didn't like it at all. And now she had to watch him succeed where she had failed at getting information out of the very same bartender she'd embarrassed herself in front of. Just because she was a woman, too! They'd been in this place for less than an hour, and Prue was already missing her own time where women could now enjoy the fruits of the feminist movements…which would occur years after the time she was waiting in right now.
Their conversation with the bartender was rudely interrupted by the arrival of three cowboys in the saloon. At least one of them was armed, and Prue and Cole tensed. This could mean trouble.
Trouble arrived in the form of an older man entering the saloon right behind the three younger men. He was clothed entirely in black and carried an air of casual menace about him. Without even asking, the unusual pair knew that this was Sutter.
The man proved their suspicion was correct when he opened his mouth and yelled, "Where is he? Just so you know, I've taken the liberty to print up the evening edition." Sutter held up a newspaper, and Cole would swear that his heart stopped. The headline read 'half-breed to die at sundown.' "Just so you know how serious this is."
And it was serious, indeed. If Bo died, so would Phoebe. They didn't have until sundown. Cole's hands itched to throw an energy ball at the man who dared threaten the woman he loved, but he kept himself in check. They had to find out more about the situation first.
Sutter turned to face a young woman who was sitting at one of the tables. She appeared to be a Native American. The woman appeared to be young, but she carried an air of strength and calm that made her appear wise beyond her years.
"You know where your brother's hiding, don't you?" Sutter sneered.
The young woman met his gaze without fear. "Even if I did know, I'd never tell you. I'm not afraid of you, Mr. Sutter."
So this was Bo's sister. She could tell them where he was. If only they could get her alone and convince her to talk to them.
Sutter taunted, "Well, if you were smart, you would be. Of course, your kind are not, are they?"
Racist old bastard. Prue took a step forward. Cole grabbed her arm, stopping her from causing a problem before they were ready to deal with it. "Hold it," he murmured. "Plan is not to get involved."
Instead, they were forced to watch as Sutter turned one of his men on another with a knife. Fearful that she was about to watch someone (innocent though he wasn't) killed right before her, Prue shrugged off Cole's restraining hand and rushed forward. She shoved the offending cowboy away and wrapped the one named Cal's hand in her scarf.
Her sudden involvement was could have been their undoing. In short order, Prue had started a bar room brawl and very nearly a gunfight. Cole figured they were only lucky because Sutter decided that finding Bo was more important than killing them right then and there. They managed to leave the saloon unscathed with Bo's sister, Isabel. She explained the cause of the animosity between her brother and Sutter. Apparently the nasty old man was in tight with the railroads. He'd come to town a couple of months ago, promising its residents that he would make it a better place for everyone. But in exchange, they'd taken over everything. People had stood up to him at first, but then he had killed the sheriff. There had been no resistance ever since then. Except for one man.
"Why is Sutter after your brother?" Cole wanted to know. That was the pertinent question.
"Because Bo wouldn't back down. He kept fighting, trying to get everybody to take back the town," Isabel explained as she led them down the wooden sidewalk. These people were certainly different from the others. Perhaps Bo was right, and she could trust them.
"Sounds like a brave man," Cole commented. Too bad it seemed like that activism might get him killed.
Isabel nodded. "He is. Too bad the others aren't."
Prue chose that moment to join the conversation. "Isabel, we know that Bo is injured," she put forth. "We know that he's been shot. We can help you, but you have to trust us."
"I do. Bo said you'd come."
And there it was: the connection they'd been looking for. Bo was a psychic, much like Phoebe, although apparently his premonitions came during dreams instead of his waking hours. As Isabel explained, Bo had apparently inherited his gift from their father, who had died when they were very young. Their mother had not allowed them to talk about said gift when they had come to town. The older woman had feared they would all be crucified if the White Men had found out.
Prue remembered the time she'd had to watch Phoebe burn at the stake. She understood. "I know what it's like to have a gift that you have to keep a secret."
Cole understood as well. "And live in a place where you have to hide half of who you are."
Isabel nodded. She led them up to a trio of horses that were waiting, tied at the post. "Come, I'll take you to Bo."
"Where'd you get the horses?" Cole asked.
"I told you. I was expecting you."
Meeting Bo really ought to be interesting. "You know," Cole commented thoughtlessly as he swung up, "I still say we eliminate the threat first, kill Sutter. Probably break the curse anyway."
Prue looked at him. This was exactly why she didn't believe he could ever truly be good. "Yeah, well, we don't know that, which is why we need to get to Bo first," she pointed out. She paused and continued, "You know, Cole, if you want to try your hand at being good, your first instinct shouldn't be to kill."
Cole snorted. Maybe that was true, but Prue was coming from a decidedly different place in life than he was. And while she stood to lose her sister, she still didn't stand to lose quite what he did. He responded, "Yeah, well, maybe you would think a little differently if it was your first chance for a family in over a century at stake here."
XXX
Back in the future, Phoebe had now been lying in the same place on the couch for over an hour. The pain in her side had dulled somewhat, and that worried her. Either she was getting used to the pain, or her ability to feel it was fading. Given the fact that she hadn't stopped bleeding, Phoebe was inclined to believe it was the latter. Slowly, but surely, she was dying.
Victor came back into the room, holding a glass of water. "Here you go. Drink up." Phoebe tried, really. She could only manage a few sips before he strength failed her and he had to pull the glass away. A forlorn look must have shown on her face, for he asked, "What is it?"
"… It's nothing."
He stroked her hair. "Hey, I didn't come back into your lives just to be kept in the dark. I'm your dad, you can tell me anything."
Phoebe began to tremble. She whimpered, "I'm dying."
No. No, she couldn't be dying. Victor had been spending the last hour trying not to think exactly that. Phoebe had explained just about everything that had happened, including the part that a half-demon who was apparently her ex-boyfriend was currently helping her oldest sister save her. Victor wasn't too sure about that part. Weren't demons supposed to be the bad guys? In his admittedly limited experience, demons were not to be trusted. He just didn't have a choice at the moment. What he did know was this: he did not want his daughter to die. "Oh, come on," he tried to convince her otherwise.
Phoebe shook her head. "No, I can feel what's happening to me. It's like something…I can just feel it deep inside me. I-I can't explain it." She really couldn't. Dying was the strangest feeling. For her, it was going slow; she could literally feel both her life energy and her life blood draining out of her body. It was ironic. Now that she was dying, Phoebe found that it was the first time she could truly think clearly about the baby, with no dilemmas or uncertainty clouding her mind. Sure, its father had done evil things. But he was trying to save her right now. He had the capacity to be good. And so did their baby. It would have a much better start in life, surrounded by people who would love and care for it. If only the mother could live long enough for that to happen. With a start, Phoebe realized that she wanted to bring her baby to term, regardless of what other people (namely Prue) thought. She wanted the chance to be a mother, wanted Cole to have the chance to be a father. She just had to live long enough to make it happen.
"Your sisters are not gonna let that happen," Victor asserted, "I am not gonna let that happen."
At that moment, Leo and Piper orbed into the living room. Their expressions were grim. "How is she?" Piper wanted to know.
"She's gonna be fine," Victor told her. But there was a strong possibility that that wouldn't be the case, and they all knew it.
"We have to hurry." Piper held up the damning paper they had found in the saloon, the one that would spell out Phoebe's fate if they didn't do something to stop it. "We found out Bo dies at sundown, except I don't think Prue knows that."
"But we have an idea to let her know," Leo added. "Phoebe, if you're getting visions from Bo, maybe he could get one from you."
Phoebe shook her head, making the room spin. Her thoughts were becoming increasingly sluggish as death not-so-slowly approached. "I don't understand."
Piper explained it to her. "Phoebe, if you can will yourself to get a premonition about Bo's death, he might be able to see it, too, and then he can tell Prue and Cole that they don't have as much time as they think they do."
"But I thought you said you couldn't always get premonitions when you wanted to," Victor put in. They were placing all their hope on a plan they didn't know would work, and he didn't like it. He just didn't have a better plan.
"I can't," Phoebe confirmed.
Piper handed her the paper. "You can try."
XXX
Back in 1873, Prue, Cole and Isabel had arrived at Bo's hideout. Despite his instructions to his sister to trust them, Bo was still understandably suspicious of them himself. He hadn't had good experiences with White people. And he had been shot and in pain, making him much more paranoid than normal.
"We don't need your help," the wounded man snarled. "Just leave now."
Prue tried to reason with him. "Bo, my sister gets visions too, and she had one of you getting shot, alright? We're here to help you."
"And help her," Cole added. That was why he was here.
Bo wasn't convinced. His vision had not been very specific, and there was every possibility that the people before him were only imposters of the people he had seen. He pulled out a knife. "It's a trick. Sutter sent you. I know he did."
"No, they stood up to Sutter," Isabel tried to tell him. "You should have seen it."
Her words had no effect. "Just get out of here!" Bo yelled.
Cole glared at him. This was the thanks they got for trying to help him? "We're not going anywhere." Whether Bo liked it or not, he still had to save Phoebe.
Bo glared right back. He had never met anyone quite like this man before, but there was something wrong about him; he could tell. "I know that look," Bo tossed back at him, "Sutter's got it, too. You're evil. I could sense it."
Well, it was more likely that Bo could sense his demonic half. But demonic didn't necessarily equal evil. Cole was trying really, really hard to be good. It was just that, at the moment, it was proving to be a little harder than he thought.
"Alright, then, just look at me," Prue redirected the wounded man's attention to her. Clearly Cole wasn't helping matters, and she could totally understand why Bo wouldn't trust him. "You can't say the same thing about me, can you? Bo, this isn't just about you, alright? My sister will die, too. The whole town will if you don't let us help you."
"They think that something Sutter is going to do will trigger a curse. The kind that Father used to speak about," Isabel explained. She might not be gifted like her brother, but she was good at reading people. These people were trying to help, she could sense that. Isabel just needed to convince her brother of that fact, or all of their lives could be forfeit.
All of a sudden, Prue had an idea. Bo thought they were working for Sutter, trying to trick him. They had to prove him wrong on that count, and what better way to do it than to prove that they weren't so different after all? Supernatural people were well aware that they were a vulnerable minority, and tended to stick together in times of need. They were lifelong members of a very exclusive club, with only in-the-know members allowed, and were far more likely to trust another of their kind.
With this idea in mind, Prue took a deep breath and asked, "If we show you that we have gifts, too, will you trust us then?" She turned to Cole. "Show him."
"Show him what?"
Prue rolled her eyes. Men could be so daft. And the situation was so dire that she didn't even realize that she had just thought of Cole as a man and not a demon. "Your gift," she explained, exasperated, "show him your gift."
Although he wasn't too keen on showing his powers to a stranger he'd only just met, Cole would do just about anything to convince Bo to help them save Phoebe. And so he swallowed his embarrassment at being made to perform in a dog-and-pony show, and demonstrated his least threatening power: shimmering.
Ultimately, that was what convinced Bo that they were not Sutter's henchmen (and woman) come to kill him. There was no way a normal person could fake what Cole had just done, so unless Sutter had gone to hire some 'gifted' people himself (highly unlikely, as he didn't believe in such things), these were, in fact, the people he had foreseen coming to help them.
"Alright," he finally relented. He still didn't entirely trust Cole, but he did trust Isabel and, to a lesser extent, Prue. If their words were to be believed, time was running out for more people than just Bo himself. Trustworthy or not, Bo would have to let them help.
Prue grinned. Finally, something was going their way. Now on to the next step. "Alright, the first thing we need to do is get that bullet out of you," she told him, praying that she sounded like she had removed dozens of bullets before and knew what she was doing. Prue knelt down beside him and raised her hand over his wound. She paused, and warned him, "This is gonna hurt."
Warning delivered, Prue then concentrated on the tiny piece of metal that was her target. She visualized the bullet, trying to imagine exactly what it looked like and how far it had gone. Once she was sure she had a fairly good mental 'grasp' of the tiny metal object, she pulled.
Two things happened at once. The bullet flew out of Bo's flesh, causing him to thrash and yell in agony. One hundred and twenty-eight years in the future, Phoebe Halliwell did the exact same thing, arching her back and screaming herself hoarse as the wound in her stomach suddenly burned anew. At the same time, the premonition she'd been trying for finally came, and it was startling in its intensity. Both psychics, nearly 130 years apart, watched as a tall man in black whipped the helpless man on the ground, while his sister nearby cried at her brother's pain and her own helplessness while being restrained. Another shot rang out. And the premonition ended.
XXX
Still safely within the manor, Phoebe screamed and wailed hysterically. The wound in her stomach still burned in white-hot agony, and she had felt every emotion in that premonition as if they were her own. And they would be, if Cole and Prue didn't do something to stop it. It was overwhelming and Phoebe, stressed to her breaking point, just couldn't take it anymore.
Piper watched in alarm as her sister lost it. "Make it stop, make it stop!" Phoebe screamed, clutching her stomach as though it might be ripped right out. If she continued, she could easily wind up causing more damage to herself (and Bo), and make everyone's problems infinitely worse.
Not knowing what else to do, Piper threw her arms around her sister's thrashing form, trying to hug her for comfort and restrain her for safety. She barely managed to avoid being thrown off. "Phoebe!" she shouted. From the slight hesitation in Phoebe's movements, Piper thought she might have heard her and continued, "Phoebe, you have to calm down!"
Phoebe did hear her. But her body was going haywire and it felt like her emotions had followed its example. She was hyperventilating, and couldn't get enough air, and that scared her even worse than she already was.
"Breathe with me," Piper ordered, demonstrating several slow, deep breaths. That did appear to have an effect, but it wasn't as effective as she would have liked. In desperation, she added (perhaps without thinking that this could have the opposite effect of what she was looking for), "Think about the baby! You need to calm down for it, or you'll hurt it."
Piper must've read her sister's mind from earlier, when she'd been thinking along those same lines. Phoebe's breathing, along with everyone else's, did begin to slow as her sister's words registered. Yes. The baby. She needed to think about the baby.
Victor's breathing hadn't just slowed; it seemed to have stopped altogether. Baby? What baby? The shock value of those words alone should have been enough to stop his heart, and the part of his brain that was still functioning was surprised that they hadn't.
"Phoebe," Leo called softly, kneeling down beside her. Phoebe focused on him, her breathing now much slower than it had been only a minute ago. "Did Bo see your premonition?"
Had he? Yes, Phoebe thought he had; she was sure she had felt his emotions as he had watched himself be killed through her eyes. "I know he did, I felt him. Nobody did anything. They didn't help him. Nobody did anything," she babbled. Piper laid a calming hand on her back, ready to lead her through several more breathing exercises.
Victor, for his part, didn't know what to think. Demons and magic and death, oh my. "So what do we do now?"
"There's nothing else we can do but wait," Leo informed him regretfully. "It's up to Prue and Cole."
Anger surged through Victor's veins. "And you call yourself their guardian angel? What the hell good is a Whitelighter if all you can do is stand there and watch my daughter die?"
Phoebe and Piper tried to get his attention to calm him down, but Victor was on a roll. He continued, "And another thing! How did my daughter wind up pregnant? Why didn't anyone tell me about this?"
Leo ignored the last part of the rant; it wasn't his business to answer it. He did respond, "I am doing what I can to help by trusting Prue and Cole to solve the problem. Prue isn't gonna let Phoebe die, and neither is Cole."
"Oh, so now I'm supposed to trust a demon?" Victor demanded. "Is he the father?"
"Yes," Leo replied quietly, to both questions. Phoebe didn't look like she wanted to answer, and Piper was occupied comforting her, so he continued, "As much as I hate to say this, Cole loves Phoebe. He took a huge risk to come and try and prove himself to her and he will do whatever it takes to save her life. Both of their lives."
Victor took a deep breath, trying to get a hold of himself. "And how can you be so sure about that?"
This time, Phoebe did answer. She raised herself up as much as her failing strength would allow, and said firmly, "Because he loves us."