Chapter 4 - Linger

"Phoebe, would you pass the ginger and the mandrake root?" Piper asked as she bent over the potion she was making to check if it was boiling yet. "Top shelf." she added.

Phoebe gave her sister an odd look. "Piper, I know where we keep ginger and mandrake root."

"I'm not sure what you know and what you don't anymore." Piper said.

"Look, I'm sorry for not being there when the demon attacked and I'm sorry for falling asleep in the basement, I just..." Phoebe started.

"No, it's okay." Piper said after taking a deep breath. "I'm the one who should be sorry, I know I shouldn't be snapping at all of you all the time, I just don't like demons attacking me on the one-in-the-million nights I could have spent with Leo."

"Oh sweetie, I know it's difficult for you but trust me - I know what you're going through. Try being called off a date with a boyfriend who is living across the world and who traveled all the way from Hong Kong only so that he can have a talk about where he thinks this relationship is going."

Piper gave her an apologetic look. "Oh yeah, that's right. I'm sorry, I totally forgot about that."

"Yeah, I know." Phoebe said and inhaled deeply. "This woman's really out to destroy all of our lovelives, don't you think?"

"I think all she wants is to have her own back." Piper said slowly.

"She's not having it." Cole said as he leaned onto the doorframe of the kitchen and observed the two sisters closely.

"Cole!" Phoebe and Piper both said in a surprised tone of voice.

"Just out of curiosity, how long have you been standing there?" Piper asked while adding powdered toadstools to the potion which immediately turned dark green.

"Long enough." Cole replied and walked into the kitchen. "What are you two doing?"

"Except for complaining about your demon bitch?" Piper asked. "We're making a potion to vanquish her sorry ass."

"Piper, she is not my demon, you know that." Cole said with a hint of guilt in his voice that only Phoebe could notice. "And I thought you said there was nothing on how to vanquish her in the Book?"

"There wasn't." Piper grinned. "I'm making this one up. It has to work."

Phoebe observed Cole closely. "You don't think the potion will be enough, do you?" she asked.

Cole raised his eyebrows at her, yet didn't ask how she knew what he thought. It was obvious to him. "That's just what I think, I'm not sure." he said. "But you know, she has been a demon for nearly as long as I have and since she must have known what she was getting herself into when she first decided to shimmer into this house and hurl energy balls around, I'd say she's bound to have found some sort of magical protection from spells and potions."

"What do we do then?" Phoebe asked.

Cole looked at her. "I may be able to kill her myself if I could get close enough to get a chance to do it."

Phoebe bit her lower lip. "I know you may, but the real question is - can you?"

Cole frowned slightly. "What do you mean?" he asked, more to buy himself time to think about the answer than to make her rephrase her question. He knew perfectly well what Phoebe meant when she asked it.

"I just mean..." Phoebe took a breath. "You two have history. I remember all too well what it was like to stand above the person you love and not be able to vanquish them."

Cole slipped her a small smile. "Phoebe, you loved me. That is why you were not able to vanquish me. I never loved her."

Phoebe shifted her gaze from Cole's eyes to her knees. "I know and I'm sorry I keep making you repeat that to me. I guess I just didn't wanna feel like all our past was just a lie."

Piper stopped making a potion and began looking at her sister and her former brother-in-law with raised eyebrows.

"None of it was a lie." Cole whispered and kissed her on the forehead gently. "You know that."

"Now let me get this straight... Are you Phoebe or is it the unconscious one?" The tall blonde demon asked as she walked into the kitchen. She smiled sarcastically at each of them but kept her gaze upon Phoebe.

Piper, Phoebe and Cole immediately got ready to fight at any sign of attack. "What did you do to Paige?" Piper asked angrily as she rushed out of the kitchen. Within seconds, they heard her calling for Leo. Phoebe was praying Paige was okay.

"Ah so I was right." Ciara concluded, not bothering to answer Piper's question. "The famous Phoebe Halliwell. The witch who turned a demon. My demon." she eyed Phoebe up and down. "To be honest with you, you are really nothing special."

"To tell you the truth - neither are you." Phoebe said in low, threatening voice.

"You lay a finger on her Ciara and I swear you'll wish you were dead." Cole said as he stepped in front of Phoebe.

Ciara smirked and moved closer to Cole, tracing a finger down his chest. "You don't scare me, Belthazor. You never did. We both know what happened each of the times you threatened to kill me."

Phoebe felt all the blood drain from her face. Now she wasn't just angry and offended, she was also jealous. She knew that was no time to be selfish but she couldn't help being jealous.

Cole smirked evilly. "That was over eighty years ago, this is now. If you want to do yourself a favor, you will get out of here now and not cause any trouble."

"Aww, too bad that's a no-can-do, honey." Ciara replied. "Phoebe and I have a score to settle and if she had the tiniest bit of pride, she'd leave you out of this."

"She's right, Cole - move." Phoebe said in determined tone of voice.

"I'm afraid not. This has nothing to do with you, Phoebe." Cole replied. "This is my past and this is therefore my fight."

"No, this is something I have to do." Phoebe replied and tried moving towards Ciara but Cole held her back.

"What Ciara doesn't understand and what she's making you think too is that you can't fight for my love. No matter how the fight ends up, I'm not going to love her." Cole said in a low voice.

"Oh but why not? I promise I'll be the best consolation you can get after Phoebe here dies." Ciara said calmly.

In the same moment Ciara threw an energy ball at Phoebe, Cole let go of Phoebe and sent one back at her. The energy balls met in the middle of the way and exploded. Suddenly, Piper ran into the room and threw the potion at the unsuspecting demon. Ciara just laughed and looked at Piper. "You Charmed Ones are really pathetic if you can't do better than that." she mocked.

"Uh-oh..." Piper started backing away slowly but Ciara hurled an energy ball, making her fly back into the hall. Cole used the opportunity to send a fireball at Ciara, hitting her in the back. She screamed but didn't get vanquished as they anticipated she would. She tried shimmering out but she only moved few feet from the place where she fell.

"Is that any way to treat an ex girlfriend?" she whispered, her voice still smooth and natural.

"No, that's the way to treat any demon who dares touching my family." Cole replied in low voice. "Especially Phoebe." He threw another energy ball at her but she managed to shimmer out in time.

"Shivery isn't dead at all." Phoebe concluded with a smile on her face as she walked over to Cole and hugged him. "Thank you."

"Anything for you, you know that." Cole replied, returning the hug whole-heartedly.

"We're okay, thanks for asking." Piper said with an amused expression on her face.

"Let them breathe, Piper." Paige grinned.

"The problem is she got away." Cole said, walking over to where she was standing. "And she is pretty powerful, to be honest. If she manages to find an Alchemist or a Witchdoctor willing to help her with that wound, she might be coming back so stay alert."

"Yes, I agree but until she does, I think we could hit P3 and celebrate a little." Paige smiled.

"Oh and does this by any chance have something to do with that cute guy whom you were flirting with in P3 two days ago?" Phoebe grinned at Paige.

"Maybe." Paige gave her sister a look, but smiled nevertheless.

"Oh speaking of guys, Jason has called you three times already, Pheebs." Piper said. "Either you are really good in bed or that guy is falling in love with you."

Cole felt his heart sink but said nothing.

Phoebe smirked. "Maybe it's a little bit of both." she joked, unaware of Cole's expression. "I'll call him tomorrow, I'm not in the mood for any of that tonight."

"Ok well I should get going." Cole said. "I still have some stuff to do in the office."

"Is that stuff really urgent?" Piper smiled. She was almost astonished by how friendly she was being with Cole but she didn't change her mind. "Because I was thinking of cooking something nice for dinner for the four of us."

"Didn't we already have dinner?" Phoebe asked cheerfully.

"Well now I'm hungry again. Sue me." Piper grinned.

"Watch it, missy, I just might. There's a good lawyer here." Phoebe smiled at Cole.

"Yes but in this one I'd be forced to take Piper's side." Cole said. "How can I sue someone who has just invited me for dinner in the middle of the night?"

"Traitor." Phoebe joked and Cole laughed. "So, are you staying for midnight snack?"

"Why not?" Cole smiled. "I live off the fast food, Piper's cooking will be like a remedy for me."

"I bet." Phoebe raised her eyebrows. "Fast food sure isn't the best food there is."

"Yeah, lot of calories." Cole agreed. "Which I spend on training, or would be spending on training if you trained properly."

"Cole, one evening - no demon talking and no training talking. Ok?" Piper asked to Phoebe's relief.

Cole smiled "Yeah, sure."

"Leo, would you do me a favor and open that champagne?" Piper passed the bottle to her husband and went to the kitchen.

Leo opened the bottle and poured the champagne in each of the four glasses, passing two of them to Phoebe and Cole and taking one for himself. He smiled. "It's weird how when Piper forbids us to talk about demons and magic, we hardly have anything to talk about." he said.

"Cole, could you come over here for a second?" Piper called out.

Cole raised eyebrows, wondering what Piper wanted from him but still left the room and headed towards the kitchen.

Phoebe laughed. "Sure we do have stuff to talk about. How's Piper's pregnancy going?"

"Good." Leo replied. "At first she was having a hard time with nausea all the day and all the dizziness but now it's passed so she's doing better herself." he smiled broadly. "I can still hardly believe we're going to have a baby."

"Yeah." Phoebe gave him a small smile. She still had a hard time getting over her lost baby. "You guys deserve it more than anyone does."

Leo gave her a sympathetic look. "You'll have your own kid one day, I assure you of that."

Phoebe laughed sarcastically. "That doesn't look too true from where I'm standing. There is no one I can imagine having kids with, Leo."

"What about Jason?" Leo asked. "I thought you guys were serious."

"Uh... Jason is..." Phoebe frowned. "He is not really the family type from what I can see. For all I know, he could be dating me just to get me into the bed because that's all we do so far."

Leo looked around uncomfortably. "Yeah well, that happens to some couples sometimes." He looked at his sister-in-law. "So you complain about him not loving you. What about you? Do you love him?"

Cole felt every muscle in his body contract, waiting for Phoebe to answer the question Leo asked her. He was never a believer but in that moment, he was praying to God that she says no. He knew that eventually she will fall for another guy but he wasn't ready to see her doing it so soon.

"Cole?" Piper's voice came from the kitchen. She smiled at him standing in the doorway. "You're not by any chance eavesdropping on my sister and my husband talking?"

"Who, me? Oh no, not at all, I was just..." Since he couldn't explain what he was doing, Cole just laughed a little and headed for the kitchen with Piper on his heels, wondering what Phoebe's answer to Leo's question was...

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Ok so I want to thank everyone who's been reviewing this story so far. I've started replying to the reviews recently so if there's someone whose review I didn't reply to - triple sorry. I just wanna thank you all for reviewing and liking what I wrote so far and hopefully I won't let you down. I'm sorry I don't update so often but I've really got a lot of things to do. Hope you guys understand. :)