What's In The Bag?

Chapter 3: Leo

Author's Note: Well I hope to wrap this story up as I said by New Year's Eve if not sooner. There are 2 more chapters left to go after this one. That's all. As always I do not own Charmed etc it is (c) to Constance Burge and WB.

Two sets of blue eyes were staring at the Halliwell sisters dumbfounded by their questions about the past. But more so, Cole mused to himself, the two men were constantly horrified by the way the sisters knew so little about the history of the very music and cinematic pieces that the three women enjoyed so much. 'Perhaps,' Cole continued to muse to himself 'Leo and I are more just irritated by the constant reminders about how old we really are compared to our female counterparts.'

It was a Friday night and so the two couples, Paige, and her friend Glenn who was in town for a few days, had decided to adventure to the little theater not far from P3's that was showing It's a Wonderful Life for the holiday season. The group had thought it would be perfect to go there for the 9 o'clock showing then go to P3's for drinks and conversation afterwards. It was a nice, simple evening after a hectic week of last minute holiday preparations to the club and shopping etc. It was the last full week before Christmas. Cole only had two people left to buy for but knew that the family stressed because they also had to get stuff mailed out for family and friends that lived out of state.
Piper had the extra stress of the fact that a few heavy hitting musicians had agreed to do a charity concert on Christmas eve. The proceeds were to benefit the local ASPCA animal shelter this year. Last year they had done it to benefit families in need, so this year Piper agreed to do it for animals in need.

After leaving the movie theater Cole Turner and Leo Wyatt were debating whether the movie It's a Wonderful Life had been in the top five of James Stewart's career or not. Cole had said that it was and Leo had stated that, even though it was a timeless holiday classic and great movie, James Stewart had made a few movies better than that. His top five differed greatly from Cole's. Paige piped up and asked what made James Stewart so amazing aside from the movie they had just seen. That was what warranted the dumbfounded stares from the two older men.

"Of course, we can't really talk like we are as old as we really are," Leo finally whispered to Cole to break him out of his reveries

"Oh. Right" Cole muttered then looked away from Paige and Glenn quickly. Leo let out a quick laugh before the two men let the rest of the group walk ahead of them. Cole sometimes forgot when there were others out in and about with them that he had to tone it down and watch what he said. Glenn began to give Leo and Cole a funny look which caused Cole to get agitated and have to fight the urge to yell at Paige's friend. In fact the only people, outside of the family, that seemed ok with conversations about their real ages and magical topics of any kind, were Sheila and Darryl Morris.

"You're still getting used to it," Leo began while patting Cole on the back quickly, in a friendly way. Cole smiled at the shorter man and nodded as Leo continued in a teasing tone "If it helps, I still forget that the girls are so much younger and have no idea what I'm talking about. It's nice to have someone who is older than me around. So, Thanks for that old man"

"Watch it Whitelighter," Cole playfully growled back in response. Then it was almost as if a lightbulb physically went off in Cole's head as his eyes lit up with a plan. The perfect present for his only male friend since he started dating Phoebe Halliwell and began trying to turn over a new leaf. It would cause laughter but also joy and that was what Cole was aiming for this holiday season. He had some research to do first of course.
Leo and Cole rejoined the rest of the group when Cole finally caught up he intertwined his fingers with Phoebe's and caught her eyes. When she saw the huge smile beaming on his face she couldn't help but smile in return to match his. She was glad to see Cole and Leo were getting along and building on a rocky start to their friendship. Leo wrapped his arm around his wife's waist as he began to match steps with Piper's pace and she pinched his arm in a flirty manner.
***

Cole once again was off on a shopping adventure and none to please about it. Last time he at least had Piper to accompany him but this time he was adventuring out alone again.

"Apparently, Christmas causes the antisocial and unsocialized to become masochists," Cole whispered to himself before pulling out his cell phone. In the back of his mind he knew that the point of these journeys was because of the real meaning of the holidays. He had never really experienced Christmas since he was a very young boy and so he wanted to show his new found family that he did pay attention to them, but more so, he wanted to prove to himself that he could handle being human. So here he went out into down town San Francisco once again to go shopping.

Cole Turner, the former bad ass demon, was taking a taxi and losing track of where exactly he was going. To be honest, he thought to himself, he had no idea what types of stores to go to to find what he had in mind. So he looked down at his cell phone and punched in one of the four numbers he called on a regular basis.

Paige Matthews was startled by the phone ringing this early on a Saturday morning. Generally no one called the house this early, like ever. Anyone connected to the club would call Piper's cell phone and anyone else knew the sisters well enough to not call before 10 am. If it was for Cole well most of his former colleagues did not use phones.
***

"Hello," Paige began groggily

"Paige?" Cole Turner said from the other end of the line
"This better be life or death," Paige said as she sat upright in bed. She glared at the phone with some shock and irritation mixed in. She then looked down at the clock and realized it was almost 10 am, but she was confused why Cole was out and about this early. "What do you want Cole?"

"Um, Well you are the best shopper I know. In case you forgot I do not really know my way around the shopping districts yet," The gruff voice answered from the phone and Paige let out a laugh

"Ah, the holiday shopping even affects demons I see," She shot through the phone, dripping with sarcasm

"Former demon," Cole growled not wanting to debate logistics with the youngest sister right now "Will you help me or not?"

"Fine," Paige growled back. His response to her comment had caused her own irritation to rise some more. She pulled on a robe and carried the wireless phone from her room down the hall. She opened Phoebe's and Piper's bedroom doors consecutively. Both of her sisters were tucked away in bed still so she had to give Cole props there. He left quietly and unnoticed to try and get away with shopping without prying eyes.

Cole was not misguided in his belief that Paige was the sister to call for help when it came to finding these particular gifts. For several reasons but three main ones came to mind. One, she wouldn't ask to join Cole for his shopping adventure since he was going so early; Two, she knew out of the way stores that would be likely to carry older media and gladly told him about it; Three; she didn't ask for details about what he was getting Leo because she could care less what Cole does as long as it isn't evil.
He smiled to himself as he paid the cab fare. The taxi had stopped on a small stretch of shops on Haight Street as Cole had repeated to his driver the directions after getting of the phone with Paige. He saw the couple of shops that Paige had mentioned in particular. His eyes glazed over at all the banners and people passing by when he saw the store sign Amoeba Music and in the front window was a display of classic vinyl records. He ignored the amount of people that surrounded him and pushed through the door before heading back to the records. Cole began shuffling through the alphabet, first looking in the C's.

As he thumbed through the records he admired their sleek black circular shapes and the art that went in to the earlier covers on records. They did not make music such an artful experience with the use of cds like the art that went in to making a record and the cover art that covered the cardboard the records came in. Cole settled on a Bing Crosby album before switching letters and looked for an album that came quite a few years after Mr. Crosby. He found a collection of Chuck Berry albums and picked two out.

"I know he doesn't like much rock and roll,but everyone loves Chuck Berry that was alive in that time period," Cole pondered to himself before heading to the check out. He made a wide arc and picked up a Judy Garland album to be on the safe side. Piper had mentioned when Cole asked that Leo liked Judy Garland. With four records in tow he paid the $34.97 before leaving the store.

"Now to find...ah there it is," Cole muttered before realizing an older woman was giving him a strange look "What?" Cole yelled startling the woman "Have you never heard of thinking aloud?" he added on quickly before crossing the street to calm himself and put as much distance between her and himself

Cole walked a block up from the music store and stopped at another, much smaller store. He let out a deep sigh, not realizing he had been half holding his breath. "I never thought I'd be yearning for Piper's company," he mumbled under his breath before heading in to the store entitled Stuf on Haight. He wasn't antisocial but he was still unsure of how to react in such a crowded place. As a demon they were only in groups when on big missions, but aside from meetings and outings of that caliber demons were pretty solitary creatures. It's true, Cole was a self-assured man but that was before he gave up half of himself, literally.
The store was just an odd collection of anything and everything just as Paige had described it would be. If he was going to find the older movies she said he'd most likely find something at this place. He took a few moments to collect himself and enjoy the fact that this place was less crowded than the others. His blue gaze took in the sights of displays before stopping at the section labeled movies and headed to the plethora of DVD racks. They were divided by time period and he immediately felt thankful for this place.

Cole took his time pulling out different movies and enjoying reminiscing about each time period in turn. He finally realized he needed to get back to the Manor before to long and so stopped at Classics from the 1960s. There it was at the top of the second shelf of DVD. Charles Bronson Collection. Cole pulled the DVD out and noted it had a collection of movies from the 1960s and 1970s with three discs in the box set. But it had the main two he knew that Leo enjoyed and that was The Dirty Dozen and The Magnificent Seven. He chuckled to himself thinking of the conversation right before Piper became a fury where Phoebe asked who Charles Bronson was.

After his final purchase he hailed another taxi to head home. 'I wanted to get Leo at the very least one shirt that wasn't plaid or plain button up. But I'll leave the Whitelighter's sense of style alone for now' Cole thought to himself. He hated all the plaid but knew Leo preferred it to the dress up shirts and blazers that Cole wore.
Cole felt proud of his shopping adventure but he was ready to be home with the people he could tolerate and the love of his life over all of these crowds of people he'd prefer to not be around at all. If only he had been able to hold on to that one power, and be able to conjure items out of thin air. It would have made this whole, miserable side of the human experience null and void.

To Be Continued