Chapter 3 - Stay alert

Phoebe let out a sigh of relief. "Thank God you're okay." she said quickly.

"We were beginning to think you weren't coming back." Piper said calmly.

"It wasn't an ambush, I was right." Cole said and sat into the nearest chair. "Even if it was, I could have handled it. It was just her. Only I needed some time to explain things to her."

"Okay, sorry we worried." Piper said, clearly not in the mood to listen to him. "I'm gonna go take a nap. Paige is at P3, Leo is still at the meeting with the Elders." she said quickly. "You two - behave." she uttered and left the room with no further ado.

Phoebe started examining her nails. She found that a lot easier than having to look at her ex husband. "What did you have to explain?" she asked. "If you don't mind me asking, of course." she added quickly.

"No, of course not." Cole replied in an awfully polite voice. He got up and leaned against the doorframe. "She just didn't seem to understand that my human half could only love one woman."

"Oh..." Phoebe sighed, now examining her nails even closer. "Lucky girl." she joked.

Cole smiled and looked around, not quite sure how to answer that. Then suddenly, he walked over to her and pulled her to the feet from the chair. "I'm waiting for you in the basement in ten minutes." he said with a wry grin. "Go change. If you dodge the training again, I swear I'll find you and shimmer you back here in front of everybody who might be there at that moment."

Phoebe chuckled. "I won't, I promise." she said, relieved that the subject was changed. As she watched Cole nod and turn to leave, she went after him. "Cole, I'm sorry I tried avoiding the training for so long."

Cole smiled, knowing that she couldn't see it because he had his back turned to her. "If you tell me why you were doing it, I might spare you my fury at the training and let you live after it."

"It was just really important, Jason came to town to suddenly..." Phoebe started quickly, trying to run through the taking to her ex about her present boyfriend. The situation between them was awkward enough even without it.

"I'm not talking about that, that's the only time I understand why you left." Cole cut her off, as eager to stop talking about Jason as she was. "I'm talking about all the times you stood me up in general."

"Oh, well..." Phoebe took a deep breath. "I don't quite understand it myself. I guess I just needed some time off, the trainings were exhausting me and took away most of my time. And since I know how important trainings are to you, I couldn't have very well asked for a break so..."

"Of course you could." Cole cut her off. "Quite awhile ago, you were the one who taught me that in spite of everything, there are things more important than training."

Phoebe nodded and looked down. "Yeah, I know. I just thought..."

"Next time don't think - ask." Cole said with a small smile. "Phoebe, we might be different people than we were before but that doesn't mean that we can't even have a normal conversation anymore."

Phoebe nodded. "I'll take that into consideration." she joked. "And I'll be in the basement in five minutes. You better be ready."

"No, you better be ready." Cole smirked.

"I'm always ready." Phoebe said cockily.

"We'll just see about that..." Cole said in a low voice and left the room quickly.

P

"You're always ready?" Cole mocked after Phoebe once again ended up on the floor, panting heavily. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"I am but you're just... You." Phoebe said after taking another deep breath in attempt to steady her breathing.

"The fact that I am me doesn't mean that you shouldn't be able to beat me." Cole said and offered her a hand to get up. "We've been training for such a long time, it would be a normal thing for you to beat me right now."

Phoebe took his hand and allowed him to pull her to her feet. "You've had over a century to practice, I've had less than two years, give me a break." she said, but nevertheless smiled at him. "What now, sword fight?" she asked.

"Are you kidding?" Cole chuckled. "You suck so much today that I'd probably chop your head off with a sword."

"Ha-ha." Phoebe mocked his sense of humor evilly.

"Come on, let's try again." Cole said and got into position. "Ready?"

"Nope." Phoebe replied and they started fighting again. This fight took longer than any previous one and in one moment, Phoebe felt so tired that it took Cole only a second to throw her to the floor again. He stood above her and grinned.

"And you say you don't suck..." he joked.

"You know what?" Phoebe grabbed him by the leg and pulled him so that he crashed down on the floor next to her. "Now we're even. I'd call this one a draw."

"No, I still won." Cole said, still lying on the floor next to her. "Because this last move wasn't fair."

"Everything's fair in love and war." Phoebe quoted.

Cole raised his eyebrows. "If this were a war, you'd be dead ten times by now."

"Honestly, if this were a war, we'd be on the same side." Phoebe said and rolled over next to him. She laid her head on his upper arm and closed her eyes sleepily.

Cole laughed. "Phoebe, we are not sleeping on the floor."

"Do you seriously have the strength to get up?" she asked without opening her eyes.

"Strength is what I always have. It's the will that's a problem for me sometimes." Cole replied and closed his eyes as well.

P

"Honey, is there something wrong?" Leo looked at his wife. They were lying together on the bed in their room, hugging tightly and were supposed to be watching one of Piper's favorite movies but Leo sensed something about his wife's behavior that evening.

Piper sighed. "I'm worried." she answered with a half-hearted smile.

"About?" Leo asked slowly.

"Everything." Piper replied. "I'm not good at worrying, through all my life Prue used to be the one worrying and I never really realized how hard it was for her until now."

Leo smiled. "Yes, but this isn't about Prue, is it?"

"No, you're right, it's not." Piper answered. "I'm mostly worried for Paige. Lately, all she's been doing was magic, fixing potions, studying the Book... Not that I'm complaining, of course. I've always found Paige way too carefree when it comes to magic but this isn't right either. She lost her balance and I know best what that's like because I've been there myself. We all were."

"Piper, you know Paige. She is like Phoebe, the only way for her to teach anything is to learn from their own mistakes." Leo said.

"I know that. But I also have a bad feeling about this Ciara chick. No matter what Cole says, I don't think I'll stop looking over my shoulder quite yet. It seems too easy to get rid of our demon-of-the-week that easily."

"Speaking both as your whitelighter and your husband - I think you're completely right on that one. The Elders know very little about her and though they don't seem that worried, I wouldn't put my guard down right away." Leo agreed whole-heartedly.

"I'm not as worried about her attacking me as I am about her attacking Phoebe or Paige. I mean, you said it yourself - Paige has to learn from her own mistakes. I just have to make sure she makes mistakes when we're in demon-free situation."

Leo nodded. "And why Phoebe? She can look after herself."

Piper sighed. "Phoebe hasn't really been herself lately. Apart from all the dodging Cole she's been doing, she's also becoming a little too reckless."

Leo narrowed his eyebrows, thinking about Phoebe's behavior lately. "I don't think she is. The only thing she has been doing a lot is avoiding Cole and frankly, I can't blame her. You know all the stuff they've been through and now they have to act like none of it ever happened."

"Who said they do?" Piper asked. "It was their choice to act that way. If I were them, the last thing I'd chose to do is that. Not only is it causing tension between them but it's also affecting the rest of us. I mean, come on Leo - when did you see Phoebe skip training or witch practice to go have her nails done?"

Leo smiled. "You might have a point there." he agreed.

"Of course I do." Piper smiled. "So if that demon attacks..."

"Piper!" Leo yelled as Ciara shimmered right in front of their television. She threw an energy ball at Piper and Leo and although the force field protected them from the direct damage, it still had enough power to send them flying to different sides of the room. She threw another energy ball at Leo which hit him on the shoulder, causing him to shout out loud in pain. Almost instantly, his wound healed. "Next time it'll be an arrow." she said, knowing they both knew what she was referring to. "Tell Belthazor this isn't over yet." she murmured and shimmered out.

"You were saying..." Leo asked as he walked over to Piper and helped her get up.

"I'm gonna kill Cole!" Piper yelled.

P

"Why is it that every time any demon wants to get their message across, they have to use force to do it?!" Piper ranted as she walked down the stairs into the living room. "I mean, couldn't she just come in through the door and ask us to tell Cole what she wanted us to?!"

"Piper, calm down..." Leo said slowly.

"Would you please quit telling me to calm down?!" Piper snapped. "I thought he said she won't be attacking anymore! What if she had attacked someone else?! I had the force field to protect myself and you're already dead but what if it was Phoebe?! Or Paige?!"

"They would have fought her off, Piper. This isn't the toughest demon you guys faced so far. Besides, I don't think she wanted us dead."

"Really?! 'Cause she's certainly had me fooled!" Piper said angrily.

"As you said, I think this is the only way she knows of making us deliver Cole this message..." Leo kept talking in calm voice in attempt to calm his wife down. He knew the way she was when the demon unexpectedly attacked, especially now that she was pregnant.

"Oh, I'll deliver him a big, fat message." Piper said with fake laugh and took Leo's hand, marching to the basement where she knew Cole must have been with Phoebe. "Besides, why couldn't she just find him and deliver him a message instead of using us as the mail service?!"

She stormed into the basement only to find Phoebe and Cole sleeping on the floor, completely unaware of their presence. Her eyes widened in shock as she walked over to them. She took a bottle of water that was standing on one of the chests and poured the water on their heads.

Cole and Phoebe jumped up and looked at Piper in shock. "Piper, what...?" Phoebe started.

"Nice training!" Piper said in falsely amused voice. "While you two were sleeping and doing hell knows what here..."

"Now wait just a minute!" Cole cut in. "We weren't..."

"As I was saying..." Piper cut in again. "While you two were sleeping, your little demon-ex attacked us in our room!"

"What?!" Phoebe and Cole yelled in unison.

"Yes, and she told us to tell you that this is not over yet, whatever that means." Piper said.

"I thought you said she won't be attacking anymore?" Phoebe asked Cole while grabbing a towel to dry herself from all the water Piper poured on her a minute ago.

"I thought she won't..." Cole said slowly. "I guess I was wrong."

"Well next time, try being a little less wrong because I for one would like to have a husband and a baby in the future!" Piper snapped and stormed out of the basement.

"I'll just..." Leo smiled and rushed after Piper.

"What do you think she wants?" Phoebe asked Cole as she passed him another towel.

"I'm not entirely sure but I do have a favor to ask you." Cole said slowly. "Keep an eye out for her, okay? If my suspicions are correct, you are the one she'll be coming after next."

"Why?" Phoebe frowned slightly.

"Because what she doesn't get by will - she'll steal by force." Cole replied calmly and left the basement, leaving Phoebe deep in thought.