"Okay Cole, now we are here so I want an explanation" Phoebe snapped.
"Yes, I totally agree that's much more important than saving your sisters lives" Cole said sarcastically.
Phoebe looked shocked and then seemed to suddenly realize that both her sisters were wounded and bleeding. "Oh dammit, dammit!" Phoebe yelled.
"What?" Cole asked sounding annoyed.
"You said it yourself earlier, Leo is not a white lighter and can't heal them, and there is no one else who can save them!" Phoebe practically yelled, her voice heavy with hysteria and despair.
"Well don't Pipers kids have the ability to heal?" Cole asked.
For a second Phoebe looked thrilled and relieved and then the look faded and she said "Yes, but they are at magic school which I can't get to unless Paige orbs me there, and Leo can't hear my call now."
"Ok, so I'll shimmer you all there" Cole offered.
"You can't it's protected against demons shimmering in" Phoebe said.
"Oh, well…" Cole stopped clearly not having any other ideas.
"Oh god, I just have to sit here and watch them die, I can't do this, I can't loose both my sisters. How can there be no one to help me, god anyone please, someone hear me. Dammit! There has to be someone, why can't I think of anything. How can there be no one to save them" Phoebe sobbed.
"I wouldn't say no one" a voice said from behind her.
Cole and Phoebe both jerked around and stood speechless staring at the figure before them. Finally Cole managed to say "Prue?"
"In the flesh, so to speak" Prue Halliwell said with a smirk.
"Oh my god Prue!" Phoebe yelled and lunged at her sister embracing her in a life threatening hug.
The sisters stayed like that for what seemed like ages before Cole interrupted them by saying "Um guys, not to interrupt this touching display, but Piper and Paige are kinda bleeding to death over here. And while I don't know what help Prue will be, I still think our attention should be directed toward them."
The look of despair came back to Phoebe's face as she nodded and said "Cole's right Prue, it's great to see you but healing has never been one of your gifts, so I don't see why you think that having you here will save them."
"How exactly do you think I got here?" Prue asked.
"I don't know, I hadn't thought that far ahead" Phoebe responded.
"I was made a white lighter" Prue stated happily.
"Alright again, less talk more healing. Yee gods if saving them was left up to you two they'd be screwed" Cole said interrupting their talk again.
Prue looked rather sheepish as she nodded and bent over Piper and Paige and slowly healed them. Then she stood back, clearly to admire her work. Phoebe knelt down by Piper as she started to stir.
"Maybe you better hide, so you don't kill her from shock, be a waste of all that healing" Cole said sarcastically.
Prue shot him a dirty look and said "And why are you still here again?"
"Because Phoebe wants an explanation, and if I left she'd just try and summon me back, so I'm saving myself the trouble. Believe me I don't want to be here any more than you want me here. It's not like I'm gonna win a popularity contest around here." Cole muttered.
Prue smirked again at this and said "And speaking of killing with shock, seeing you would probably do the same."
"That's true, but you forget that may be my goal" Cole said with an evil smile.
"Ya right, I'll believe it when I see it, you're a regular softy, you don't have it in you" Prue said.
"Excuse me? Before you thought I was evil incarnate even though I was trying desperately to prove otherwise and now suddenly you've decided I'm harmless! What gives?" Cole asked.
"Well lets just see that being up there has allowed me to get a much more objective view on things and I saw everything that happened after my death, all of it, even the stuff my sisters don't know about. So I know you don't want to harm us, not you, well not when you're sane, which is not too often I'll give you but even so." Prue said with a grin.
"Gee thanks" Cole said "I'm not sure if I mean that for real or sarcastically"
"Probably both" Prue said
"Ya" Cole replied and looked over at the other girls to see how things were coming along there.
"I can't believe how close I was to loosing you" Phoebe said clinging to Piper "I nearly died when I thought I was gonna loose you."
"Ya, sorry 'bout that" Piper said looking confused.
"And you, next time don't rush into things, you nearly died!" Phoebe practically yelled at Paige.
Paige looked sheepish and said apologetically "Sorry about that, but hey, things turned out alright now didn't they?"
"Ya" Piper said and an odd look came over her face and she said "But wait, how did things turn out alright? I mean we were pretty badly hurt, so how are we okay now? We don't have an in house healer anymore, so what gives? And actually how did we get back here?"
"Well" Phoebe said looking excited and nervous "I have two surprises for you, one good and one I don't know."
Cole rolled his eyes and whispered to Prue "Three guesses as to which one of us is the good surprise."
Prue rolled her eyes back at him and suppressed a laugh "Gee I'm not sure, let me think?" They shared an amused look.
"Well what are the surprises?" Piper asked.
Phoebe looked nervous and said "Umm first surprise, Cole's back…"
"What!" Paige yelled interrupting her.
"…and he kinda came to our rescue and brought us back here" Phoebe finished.
Piper got a strange look and finally said in an amazingly calm voice "Well there must be more, last I checked Cole did not possess healing powers."
Phoebe shrugged and said "Well ya, the other good news it that we seem to have a new white lighter…"
Again she was interrupted this time by Piper yelling "And this is a good thing?"
In the corner Prue and Cole looked on and finally the silence was broken with "Okay have we suddenly gone invisible?" Prue whispered to Cole.
"I have no idea, you'd think that with the pronouncement of my arrival they would be looking around in suspicion trying to find me, but they seem to be kinda wrapped up in their own little world or something" Cole said.
Back over with the girls Phoebe was starting to look annoyed and she said "Would you guys let me finish a sentence, then maybe all the explanations would get done with faster!"
"Oh sorry, but I still need an answer" Piper said
"Yes I know, and I was getting to why this was a good thing. The reason the new white lighter is a good thing is first off, because obviously she saved your life and second because it's... Prue!" Phoebe said joyfully.
Now Piper and Paige glanced wildly around the room and their eyes lit on Cole and Prue in the corner and in an instant with a cry of joy Piper flung herself into Prue's arms looking for all the world like she never wanted to leave. Meanwhile Paige still sat on the ground now glaring at Cole.
"Oh Prue, I can't believe you're here, I thought they were never gonna let us see you again!" Piper said near tears.
"I'm sorry baby, it was not within my control" Prue said.
"I know, I mean I guess I do, I just missed you terribly" Piper said.
"Me too!" Phoebe added in.
"Oh hell even I missed you, or rather once Paige came around I really appreciated and would have liked having you around then" Cole said with a mischievous grin which got an answering slightly cruel grin back from Prue.
"Oh fuck off and go back to hell where you belong" Paige snapped.
"Wait a minute" Piper said "I get Prue being back here, but what the hell are you doing back here again?"
"I just knew you couldn't live without me" Cole said sarcastically.
Paige glared at him and snapped "You better be giving some real answers bud or else."
"Or else what?" Cole snapped back "Oh forget it I don't want to hear whatever lame threats you would attempt to come up with. It's not like I've been avoiding telling you, if I was trying to do that I would have taken off"
"Alright" Piper said "If you're not avoiding telling us, then why don't you tell?"
"Alright, everyone take a seat I guess, it may be a long story, and I have a feeling I'll be answering questions for a long time."
"Wait!" Piper said.
"Excuse me? First you were all at me to talk and now you want me to wait?" Cole said clearly irritated.
"Well I want Leo here for this" Piper said.
"And the children, I want to see my kids. Oh my god where are my kids?" Paige yelled.
"Calm down" Cole snapped again "They are asleep in their room, or whosever kid's room it is upstairs. They were pretty exhausted. They are a little battered but no worse for the wear. Eventually Prue might want to do a quick heal on all the scraps and bumps but there is nothing life threatening."
Paige looked slightly calmer but still suspicious and Piper finally said "Paige go look in on your kids and then go get Leo and the other kids from magic school. We'll wait to start this story till you return."
"Oh ya sure, why not, I've got all the time in the world" Cole said sarcastically clearly ticked off.
Prue laughed and said "Oh come on Cole, I doubt you have lots of terribly pressing things to do."
"True, but there are millions of places I'd rather be than here, hell I'd rather be almost anywhere" Cole said moodily.
Phoebe looked surprised and surprisingly hurt and said finally "Well that's tough luck; because you're just gonna have to wait."
"Ya whatever" Cole said turning away from her, which caused her to glare at his back.
"Alright, I'll go make some coffee, I think it may be a long night" Piper said and walked off to the kitchen. The other three just sat in silence waiting.