This is my first Charmed Fic. I want to say first thing, that while I am a huge fan and supporter of Phoebe/Cole, I am a huge advocate of unusual couples and Phoebe/Zankou is perfect, plus, in Phoebe's vision, her daughter was dark-haired and she didn't look like Leslie and Phoebe would never take Cole back. So I just made a guess and this fic was born. Paige/Kyle and Piper/Leo are also in this fic. Enjoy!

Phoebe looked around, everything was here for Wyatt's birthday party. Her eyes fell on a picture of her and Cole, her heart ached briefly for her lost love, then she idly wondered what would happen should her demonic ex-husband meet her two-year-old nephew.

"Chaos." Phoebe muttered.

Paige looked up from printing invitations on Phoebe's laptop. "What was that, honey?" she asked.

Phoebe shook her head "Nothing, Paige." she smiled faintly.

Paige looked unconvinced, but turned back to the computer.

Leo ran into the room looking frantic.

"What is it, Leo?" Paige asked, getting up, just as Phoebe's laptop blew up.

"Demon!" he yelled and ducked a fireball. Three demons walked in and blew the decorations up and threw another at Paige.

"Fireball!" Paige called for the fireball and threw it back, it vanquished the demon, but the other two shimmered out.

"The decorations! My laptop!" Phoebe cried in dismay at the wrecked items.

"Zankou, you think?" Paige asked.

"I don't think so." Leo shook his head as he replied.

"And why not?" Phoebe demanded, looking at her ruined laptop and the decorations, she was thinking not only about Wyatt, but about her column.

"I had nothing to do with this, I'm dealing with problems of my own." Zankou snapped. He looked awful, his hair was singed and his clothes were ripped.

"Like?"

"Being attacked at every turn. I was thinking it was you three, until I saw this." he gestured at the mess.

"Oh, really? And why should we believe you?" Paige demanded.

Zankou opened his mouth to retort angrily, but thought better of it and controlled his temper. "Now why would I do something so stupid as to come here, when it was me? Do you think I'd really do something like this to myself? Or have someone else do it? Do I look that stupid to you?" he growled, very nearly controlling his temper. Phoebe stepped in.

"Come on, everyone, relax. Paige, you and Zankou stay down here, Leo and I will check the Book. And try not to kill each other." she warned as she and Leo disappeared upstairs.

Zankou stood stiffly as Paige sat down on the couch, she glanced in irritation at him. "You can sit down, you know." she said.

He sank into a chair, exhaustion evident. "Who were the decorations for?" he asked, trying to be civil. Then looked around curiously.

"Wyatt's birthday party, now what are we gonna do?"

"Let me."

"What?"

"Since good is obviously bound by the Personal Gain rule, let me fix it. Its the least I can do for suspecting you, when you ladies obviously didn't do it." Zankou shrugged and waved his hand, the decorations and Phoebe's laptop were fixed.

"Cool."

"Very." he leaned back in the chair.

"We have an idea whodunit." Phoebe called, Zankou sat up.

"Whodunit?" Paige asked with a grin.

"Barbas."

"Again? Didn't we already vanquish him?" Paige asked in disgust.

"He did say he'd come back." Phoebe shrugged.

Leo glanced at the clock, then at the decorations. "Shouldn't Piper, Wyatt and Chris be back by now? And who fixed the decorations?" he asked, the first worriedly and the second curiously.

Zankou raised a hand slightly. "I did, it was no problem. I figured I had to apologize somehow for suspecting you three, so..." he shrugged. Phoebe smiled.

"And my laptop too, thank you." she grinned, he looked at it closely for a minute.

"That was a happy accident."

"Yeah, I would loved to have seen how you would have explained that to Elise though," she did an impression of Phoebe. " 'My laptop's, uh, hard drive exploded. Heh, heh.' " Paige smiled and Phoebe looked indignant while Leo chuckled and Zankou only smiled.

"Anyway, back to the subject," Phoebe prodded gently, they nodded and returned to the subject. "Where were Piper, Wyatt and Chris going?" Phoebe asked.

Leo looked worried. "To Chinatown to restock our herbs."

"Maybe they got stuck in traffic?" Paige put in helpfully.

"It's possible, lemme try Piper's cell." Phoebe left the room, leaving Leo, Paige and Zankou in an uncomfortable silence.

"So what's your history with Barbas?" Zankou asked, Leo grimaced.

"Not pretty, that much is sure. The first time we ran into him was on Friday the 13th, he tricked Phoebe to a house, she was working at a real estate office at the time, by pretending to be interested in buying it, he almost drowned Prue, but she swears that their mother saved them. Prue vanquished him that time, then when a hit was ordered on the girls by him through a mortal, Prue had to go undercover to get him, he got away that time. It's been a mess since, then he popped back up and tricked Paige into giving him Cole's powers after Cole stripped them. Cole took them back, when he didn't have to and vanquished Barbas, again. He convinced the magical council to take Phoebe's power, and I'll say this now where she can't hear me, it was actually for the best, anyway, he was released from purgatory. Then he showed up again and helped Gideon," Leo snarled the name. "Helped Gideon kidnap Wyatt and kill Chris. Or, big Chris. Then he tricked me into killing another Elder. It's never been easy." Leo shook his head.

"I see what you mean." Zankou said sympathetically, Paige shook her head as Phoebe walked in.

"She is stuck in traffic."

"Well, that's a relief." Leo sighed, unfortunately the relief didn't last long, when a familiarly chilling voice echoed from the sun room.

"But that's not the least of your worries." Phoebe swore vehemently. Barbas appeared with a smug grin.

"Ah, ah, watch your language." he said and threw a fireball.

Zankou intercepted it with one of his own and threw his own at him, Barbas flamed out. With a snarl, Zankou tried to flame out as well, but ended up back at the same place.

"What the hell?" he looked at Paige, Phoebe and Leo.

"I'm blocking you, you can't get out." Barbas said smugly.

"Damn." Zankou echoed Phoebe from before.

"Now what?" Paige asked rhetorically.

"How did you beat him the first time?" Leo asked.

"With Cole's help." Paige admitted.

Phoebe's eyes widened. "I have an idea."

"We can't summon Cole, he's dead."

"Not Cole, but what about Grams?" she suggested.

Paige blinked. "Think it'll work?"

"All we can do it try, come on, let's get to the Book." Phoebe said as she and Paige raced upstairs, Leo and Zankou followed more slowly.

"Is it always like this?" Zankou asked. Leo nodded.

"Usually."

"No wonder we always lose."

Leo laughed...

Phoebe finished lighting the candles as Zankou and Leo stood back.

"Hear my words, hear my cries, spirit from the otherside, come to me, I summon thee, cross now the great divide." Paige and Phoebe intoned, white orbs swirled and Grams appeared and walked out of the circle, and embraced Paige and Piper.

"My girls, wheres Piper, Wyatt and Chris? And whats he doing here?" she asked, pointing at Zankou, who muttered something under his breath. Penny looked at him the same way she did when the girls were in trouble and weren't telling her.

"What was that?" she asked, Zankou replied quickly, though he didn't know why.

"Nothing." Leo snickered, Penny turned that same look on him.

"Something funny, dear?" Leo hurriedly shook his head.

"Nothing." it was Zankou's turn to snicker. Phoebe smiled at the two. Grams had that affect on everyone.

"Now, what's wrong?"

"We're trapped in the manor by Barbas."

"Oh, him. A simple power of three spell will do the trick. Now, where's Piper and the boys?"

"Stuck in traffic." Paige said. Penny sighed.

"So you girls summoned me because...?"

"We need your help."

"Ah, so, what exactly do you need my help with?"

"Writing a spell to get us out of here." Phoebe offered.

"You have a perfectly good demon, right here, use him." Penny said and gestured to Zankou, who looked indignant and about to say something really stupid, when Leo elbowed him.

"Don't start, you won't win." he warned. With a frustrated look Zankou snorted and closed his mouth disgustedly.

"Smart." Leo said in a low tone, Zankou shook his head.

"Well, now that that's settled. What did you have in mind?"

"We were kind of hoping you could help." Paige said with a small grin. Penny shook her head.

"All right, get something to write on, we have a spell to whip up. Phoebe, Zankou, go start a potion. Paige, Leo and I will write the spell." Penny said. Phoebe and Zankou both nodded and headed for the stairs, but Penny stopped them.

"You might want to Shimmer or Flame or whatever it is you do instead, he's probably waiting at the stairs." Penny added as an afterthought, Zankou nodded, put a hand on Phoebe's shoulder and flamed them to the kitchen...

"Hand me the Thyme." Phoebe said and held her hand out, Zankou looked in the cabinet.

"You don't have any."

"Stop being funny."

"I'm not, I'm serious, you don't have any." Zankou said, Phoebe turned around in surprise, then groaned.

"I forgot, that's what was Piper was doing in Chinatown, we needed more supplies."

"Now what?" Zankou asked rhetorically. Phoebe sighed.

"We'll have to wing it, What do we have?"

"Lets see, Ginger, Echinacea, Goldenrod. Goldenrod?" Zankou asked with a grin.

"Piper uses it for a little color in the cabinet."

"Ah. Okay, um, Toadstool, St. Johns Wart and Clover. Oh, and Dandelions. Why Dandelions?"

"Piper wanted to try making Dandelion wine, Grams used to."

"That explains quite a bit." Zankou chuckled, Phoebe shook her head.

"Demons."

"Witches."

"Anyway," Phoebe said loudly. "Get 'em down and I'll see what I can do with them." she sighed.

About an hour later, Zankou was sitting at the table, watching Phoebe make a potion, or trying too. It kept blowing up in her face.

"I still think you're putting too much St. Johns Wart in." he suggested for the third time.

"Hey, we still have some nutso Cole vanquishing potion left, all three kinds of them, don't make me use them." she warned. Zankou raised his hands in surrender.

"Sorry. Hey, that's not a half-bad idea."

"What, vanquishing you?"

"No, trying to combine the potions. It might work. Where are they?" he said, getting up from the chair.

"In the freezer." she said and pointed to the Fridge. Zankou opened it and raised both eyebrows, there were enough potions here to last an eternity.

"Which ones?"

"All of them."

"Geez, expecting an army, were you?" he asked as he pulled three out.

"No and no, all of the potion bottles." Phoebe replied.

"You three were crazy." he shook his head.

"Nope, just really irritated at Cole at the time."

"And what about me? What am I? Chopped liver?" Barbas asked. Zankou whirled and hurled an energy ball at him, Barbas ducked and chucked an energy ball at Phoebe. It caught her in the leg, she yelped. With a snarl, Zankou threw two this time. Barbas flamed out and both hit the wall, leaving scorch marks. He hurried over to Phoebe.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, I just wish Leo could still heal us."

"Me too." Zankou muttered to himself and helped Phoebe to a chair...

To Be Continued...