"Alright, guys, now don't overreact, but I have to tell you something about Christmas tomorrow" Phoebe said.
"That is not the type of sentence I like to hear" Prue said.
"Ya, what's wrong?" Paige said.
"I just knew something was bound to ruin our first Christmas all together" Piper said sadly.
"Oh no no, it's nothing wrong, and hopefully it won't ruin Christmas" Phoebe said.
"Alright, enough with the suspense thing, just tell us" Prue said.
"Well, I invited Cole over here for Christmas" Phoebe said.
"What!" Paige exclaimed.
"Well, it's just that the whole dinner and movie thing went really well. We talked about work, and things going on. About demons we recently vanquished and about our likes and dislikes, all the usual things. But still it was just very one dimensional, I mean there was not a lot of depth. I mean we stayed off the subject of the future, of us, of you guys, of my family and divorce, and all that type of things. But still, even though we stayed away from all that I had the best time I've had in a long time. But still those things need to be discussed, and I thought that Christmas would be perfect. See I want him to meet my kids, and yours and get used to the family thing again. And also, I did not want him to be alone on Christmas" Phoebe told them.
"Well I'm all for it, I mean I was planning on dropping by his place and giving him his present, but now I guess I won't need to. Besides, I'm having Bane come, so its only fair if you can have Cole" Prue said.
Piper paused as though thinking about it and then said "Well if the soul mates bit is true, then most likely we are gonna have him at most of the future holidays, might as well get used to it sooner I guess.
"Ya, I guess its okay" Paige said grudgingly.
"Thanks you guys" Phoebe said.
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"Cole, you're here, great" Prue said opening the door and giving Cole a hug, which he returned. Then he picked up a large box, which had presents practically falling out of it.
"Merry Christmas" Cole said.
"Merry Christmas to you too. Wow, think you got enough presents there" Prue said.
"Ya well you have a large family" Cole replied.
"Oh god, don't tell me you actually got gifts for everyone" Prue said.
"Yep, even the kids, although I've only met Paige's, and even then they weren't conscious. So I kinda had to guess on that" Cole told her.
"I'm sure there all great, but you did not have to do that" Prue said.
"Yes I did, its good manners" Cole said.
"If you say so, well come in, you can put all the presents under the tree, that's were all the others are" Prue said.
"All the others? Haven't you guys opened all yours yet?" Cole asked.
"Oh no, its tradition to have a big Christmas dinner and then we open all the presents" Prue said.
"Oh, well that's interesting, so are Piper and Paige furious at Phoebe inviting me here?" Cole asked.
"Nope, actually they were okay with it" Prue said.
Cole gave her a disbelieving look and said "Ya right."
"Its true, go find out yourself, everyone is in the kitchen, so come on" Prue said and went to the kitchen.
Cole went and quickly put all the presents under the tree and then followed Prue into the kitchen.
"Cole" Phoebe said and came and gave him and hug and a kiss on the cheek.
"Phoebe good to see you, Merry Christmas everyone" Cole said awkwardly.
"Merry Christmas" Piper replied back.
"Anything I can do to help?" Cole asked.
"No, well actually you can help Leo get chairs" Piper said.
"Sure" Cole said and headed off.
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"So Cole, before we eat, why don't I introduce you to everyone" Phoebe said.
"Sure" Cole said.
"Umm obviously you know my sisters and Leo" Phoebe said.
"Um ya" Cole said and gave her a strange look.
"Well this is Bane, Prue's boyfriend" Phoebe said.
Cole shook hands with Bane and then said to him "Great to meet you" Then Cole paused and gave Prue and significant look and said "So how familiar is he with the family?"
"Oh don't worry, Bane knows all about the magic" Prue said.
"Oh, are you magical?" Cole asked.
"No, I've just have a lot of interactions with magic" Bane said.
"Anyway, moving on. You've kinda met Paige's kids, but I don't think you were introduced. So this is Phaedra, Priscilla and Henry Jr. Kids, this is my… umm well this is Cole" Phoebe said.
"Hello Mr. Cole" Phaedra said.
"Oh, you can just call me Cole, the Mr. bit is not needed" Cole said.
"And these are Pipers kids, Wyatt, Chris, and Prudence Melinda, who we call Mel now that Prue's back" Phoebe told him.
"Wait a sec, the oldest is clearly a boy, but when I umm… left, she was pregnant with a girl, what happened?" Cole said and then winced as though realizing that might not be a good question to ask.
"Oh don't worry Cole, I did not loose the baby, fate just had other plans for me and gave me a boy. We all assumed it was a girl since when I went to the future I had a little girl. We never thought to check, so Wyatt was defiantly a surprise, but a good one" Piper said.
"Oh, well good. Although I thought I remembered Phoebe saying that your line only had girls" Cole said.
"Well up till Wyatt there had been only girls for over a hundred years, but well I guess things change" Piper said.
"Boy, I bet your grandmother loved that change" Cole said.
Piper made a face and said "Ya, she was not too thrilled at first, but she got over it."
"Anyway, last but not least, Cole, these are my daughters. This is Philana, Paulette and Pegatha" Phoebe said nervously.
"Its nice to meet you girls, you're as beautiful as your mother" Cole said.
"Are you gonna be our new daddy?" the youngest, Pegatha, asked.
"What, no, I mean, you already have a daddy, I mean, umm Phoebe you wanna help me out here" Cole said.
"Girls, you still have a daddy, he's just not living here anymore" Phoebe said.
"Okay mommy" Pegatha said.
"Well I guess that sums up the introductions" Phoebe said.
"Good, then lets go eat" Piper said.
"Okay" Phoebe said.
"Finally" Paige said.
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"Well that was a wonderful dinner Piper, I always loved your cooking" Cole said.
"Thank you" Piper said smiling.
"Brown noser" Prue whispered.
"So who wants to open presents?" Piper asked.
"I do! I do! I do!" all the kids yelled.
"Okay, then lets go sit by the tree and then Paige can pass out the presents" Piper said.
They all headed into the living room, and the adults quickly took the couches while the children sprawled out on the floor.
They all waited, the kids continually asking if they could open theirs, till Paige passed out the presents.
Cole looked shocked to see that he actually had five presents in front of him.
Just as Pegatha was about to open her first present a pink light filled the room; and Coop appeared smiling.
Coop said cheerfully "Hey everyone, I just I'd stop by and see my girls on Christmas and bring some gifts and…" Coop trailed off as he turned and saw Phoebe sitting on the couch with Cole, who had his arm around her. He stared in shock at the sight of Pegatha sitting in Cole lap.
"Oh, Coop… ummm… this is Cole, I told you about him…" Phoebe said trailing off.
"Well ya, but you forgot to mention that you were back with him and that you were letting him fill my place with our daughters" Coop said sounding hurt.
"Look Coop its just not like that, I mean I'm just starting to see him. And I'm not planning on letting him take your place. He can hold Peg in his lap without replacing you, stop being ridiculous" Phoebe said.
"Ya whatever, here are my presents for the girls. I'm just gonna go, clearly I have no place here anymore" Coop said and Cole watched him slip a small present, that had Phoebe on the tag, back into his pocket, clearly seeing he couldn't give it too her.
Coop disappeared in another burst of pink.
"Well, that was awkward" Prue said.
"Ya" Phoebe said softly, clearly upset.
"Well kids, why don't you open a present each" Piper said to distract the kids and then she said "Look Phoebe, don't let him get you all depressed. You're divorced you have every right to date anyone you like. He was the one who played you; you've done nothing wrong, so stop with the mood. Its not becoming for Christmas."
"You're right, I'm not gonna let him ruin Christmas for me" Phoebe said.
"That's the spirit, now here, why don't you open this one from me" Paige said and Phoebe did just that.
Soon the kids looked very happy with the gaudy play jewelry that Cole had gotten the girls and the water guns that he got the boys.
Piper looked quite pleased at the cookbook that Cole gave her and Prue clearly liked the photography book he gave her.
Paige however looked quite bewildered at the gadgets sitting in front of her.
Finally she asked "What are they?"
"They are for your keys. See that big thing you hang on a wall somewhere and you attach one of the little things to each set of keys. And when you loose one you push the button on the thing on the wall and the thing on the keys makes noise so you can find them. I remembered back from when I lived here, how you always loose your keys, I thought this might help" Cole said.
"Oh, how clever, thanks" Paige said.
Leo seemed to love the tool kit that Cole gave him and then told him to open the present from him.
"You gave me a present? Is it from you and Piper or just you?" Cole asked.
"Just from me" Leo said.
Cole had a surprised look oh his face and then quickly opened the present to see two tickets to a football game.
"Wow, thanks. Can you believe I've actually never been to a sports game" Cole said.
"Ya well I thought that might be the case. I was thinking we could go together" Leo said.
"You want to go with me? Why?" Cole asked.
"Well, a couple reasons. First off, you aren't a bad guy, when you aren't evil or possessed. And second it seems you might be hanging around a lot again, and last time I kinda made the mistake of not really being your friend so much, so I was hoping not to screw up again" Leo said.
"I'm not sure I understood that, but thanks" Cole said.
"Here Cole, this ones from me" Paige said handing him a package.
"You got me a present?" Cole said astonished.
"Ya well don't make too big a deal of it" Paige muttered.
Cole opened it to see a black tee shirt that had Born to be Bad written on the front of it.
Cole gave Paige a look and she cracked up. Then he said "Well, its.. nice."
"Yep, I thought you'd like it" Paige said.
"Cole, this ones from me" Prue said and handed him a package that was neatly wrapped.
Cole opened it to see a beautiful framed black and white photo of him and Phoebe asleep on the couch in each others arms.
"Wow, this is amazing, I've never seen it before" Cole said.
"Ya, well I took it just before I died so it was never seen" Prue said.
Phoebe took it and looked at it and said "god, it's a great picture Prue."
"Thanks" Prue said.
"Well after that my present doesn't look so great, but here it is anyway" Piper said.
"I don't understand, why are you all giving me presents?" Cole asked.
"Well, that's just how it is" Prue said.
"We did not do a great job of making you part of the family last time, so I guess we've decided to try harder this time so things turn out better" Piper said.
"But I'm not still a part of this family" Cole said confused.
"Ya well, what with that whole soul mate thing, it just seems like there's a good chance of it in the future, so we're just making a preemptive strike" Prue said.
"Ya, so you gonna open my present or what" Piper said.
Cole looked curiously at the large box in his hands and then opened it and stared at the contents inside. Inside there were loafs of banana bread, cookies, what looked like chicken pot pie, huge bowls of soup, muffins and other goodies.
"Um what's this?" Cole asked.
"Well I figured that as a bachelor living alone, you probably did not eat great. So I thought food would be a good present. Most of it you can freeze and eat later" Piper said.
"Oh, thank you, what a nice thought" Cole said.
"Well here's my present for you" Phoebe said.
Cole eagerly took it and opened it. First he pulled out a very bold funky tie. Then he pulled out a book called, finding yourself. And last he pulled out a piece of paper and a pair of tickets.
"I got us a year's membership, or rather a year of tickets at the theater. That's eight different shows" Phoebe said.
Cole kinda had a confused look on his face, but then he smiled. Understanding that the tickets were more than tickets. They were her way of saying she felt that they'd be together that long.
"Thank you, I love them" Cole said.
Cole then reached under the tree and pulled out the last gift and handed it to Phoebe.
"Here, this is for you, from me" Cole told her.
Phoebe smiled and opened it. She gasped as she pulled out the white gold and diamond pendant of two hearts interlocked.
"Its beautiful" Phoebe said and slowly leaned over and gave Cole a soft quick kiss on the lips.
"I'm glad you like it" Cole said.
"I love it" Phoebe said softly.
"Good, Merry Christmas Phoebe" Cole said.
"Merry Christmas Cole" Phoebe said and smiled.