"I've never done it on my own," she said nervously. "I've always just helped Leo. I don't know if I can."
"Try," Cole pleaded. "You can do it."
Paige set the Dragon Blade down on the table, then put her hands over Phoebe. She closed her eyes, her brow furrowed with concentration, and a faint golden aura came from her fingertips. "She's still alive...barely," Paige said. "Trying..." But after a minute, she lifted her head, tears of frustration and sadness in her eyes. "I can't reach her. She's too weak. I think she's given up..."
Piper turned to Prue, starting to cry as she buried her face against her sister's shoulder. Prue held her tightly, looking sadly at Phoebe's still body. Most of the Halliwell ancestors had vanished, but Grams and Patty remained and they now approached the table, Patty still carrying the baby. He started to wail again as they drew near, picking up on the mood.
"Don't you leave me, Phoebe," Cole said softly, caressing her cheek. His tears fell unashamedly on to her pale face. He couldn't lose her now, not after all they'd endured. "I need you," he told her. "Your sisters need you. Our son needs you. Don't give up, don't you dare." He gathered Phoebe into his arms and stood. "Someone call an ambulance -- we can get her to a hospital. We need someone who can help her."
Then in a flash of white light, Leo was there, looking as surprised to find himself at the manor as everyone else. Piper wasted no time with an explanation she couldn't give. "Leo! Heal Phoebe!"
He was at her side in an instant, as Cole quickly set Phoebe down on the couch, cradling her head in his lap. Leo put his hands over her stomach. "She's lost a lot of blood," he said, focusing his powers. Cole firmly held Phoebe's hand, stroking her hair and whispering encouragement to her. Paige put her hands with Leo's, lending him her strength, and color slowly began to return to Phoebe's face. The blood covering her vanished. "She'll be all right," Leo said with a heavy sigh of relief. "She needs to rest. I did as much healing as I could, but she's still weak."
"Thank you," Cole said, his voice choked with emotion. He looked around the room. "Thank all of you. I don't know how you did it, but thank you."
"Blame Piper's temper," Paige said. "She threatened the Elders unless we got a little help, which we did in the form of the mighty Halliwell ancestors."
"The ancestral blessing sets a witch on the path to good," Grams explained. "The purifying effect was enough to drive the Source out, at least temporarily, before he got a foothold." She peered at the baby in Patty's arms. He had stopped crying and was now burbling happily. "I don't quite understand why he's a...he. That's unheard of. The Halliwell line has always been women." She sniffed at Cole. "Must be demon blood."
"That's...not nice...Grams," Phoebe said faintly, stirring. She struggled to sit up; Cole helped her, letting her lean against him.
"Take it easy, Phoebe," he murmured in her ear, wrapping his arms protectively around her. He almost couldn't believe they were here, safe and free of the Source at last. It was still sinking in, but all that mattered was that Phoebe was all right, and so was their baby.
The baby was first in Phoebe's thoughts as well as she held out her arms. "Can I see my demon baby?" she said, making a face at Grams.
Patty carefully put the cooing infant in Phoebe's arms. She leaned her head against Cole's shoulder as they both gazed down at him. "He's so beautiful," Phoebe whispered. "He's got his father's eyes."
The rest of the family crowded around them. The chandelier above them began to gently shake, and a pale blue light fell upon them all. "Does that mean magic is back?" Paige asked.
Leo nodded. "I think so. I think that means everything is as it should be again."
Phoebe lifted her gaze from the baby and looked anxiously at her sisters. "He's okay? The Source doesn't have him?"
"The Source is trapped in the Dragon Blade," Piper said. "Paige and I rewrote some of the body switching spells to put Cole's soul back in his body and stick the Source in the dagger. We knew if we kicked the Source out of the baby it would have to go back into Cole."
"We made them switch places," Paige said smugly. "And, ew, I just realized I had the Source down in my pants."
"What about Dad, is he okay?" Phoebe asked.
He's all right," Leo said with another nod. "We stopped the bleeding, and I was able to heal him when magic started coming back. Then all of a sudden I was here."
"How did that happen?" Piper said. "The Elders? Did they bring you here?"
"Maybe?" Leo said. "I really don't know. But something brought me here."
Phoebe looked around at her family. "I'm so sorry," she said. "For everything."
"It wasn't your fault, sweetie," Prue said, sitting next to her.
Phoebe blinked as if seeing her eldest sister for the first time. "Prue? You're here? How...?"
"Piper's not the only one with a temper," Prue said with a grin. "The Elders tried to tell me it still wasn't time for me to come down yet, but I convinced them otherwise -- that we needed the power of all the Halliwells to do this."
"I've missed you so much," Phoebe said, tearing up as she shifted the baby to one arm and tried to sit up to embrace her sister. "If only I'd been up here instead of down there...down there...oh god..." She started to hyperventilate, and the baby whimpered in protest. "What I did...down there," Phoebe said, hysteria rising in her voice.
"Piper..." Cole said, looking questioning at her.
She nodded, kneeling beside the couch and taking Phoebe's face in her hands. "Time in evil's power, this price cannot be paid. To set your heart at ease, make the memories fade." Phoebe looked about herself with wild panicked eyes, then sank against Cole with a sigh, falling into a peaceful unconsciousness.
Piper scooped up the baby and held him so that Phoebe didn't accidentally let him go as she fell into the restful sleep. "A memory spell?" Patty said. "Is that wise? She has to deal with what happened..."
"She shouldn't have to deal with it all at once," Leo said. "We can reverse the spell a little bit at a time. It will be better for her this way."
Cole stood, Phoebe in his arms, and moved toward the stairs. Turning back around, he said, "I'm going to take her upstairs and put her in her bed."
"I think this little guy wants to sleep, too," Piper said, gently rocking the baby as he yawned and closed his eyes. "There's an old cradle in the attic -- Leo, can you get it?"
Still unconscious, Phoebe gasped, tensing in Cole's arms. "Cole!" she cried. "No!"
"Did she just get a premonition?" Paige said, peering at her sister.
"Or a nightmare?" Cole wondered. "Will your spell shield her from those, Piper?"
Before Piper could answer, Prue said slowly, "Cole, come here." He looked at her questioningly, and she said, "Just do it."
He took a step forward, glancing over his shoulder. Behind him, frozen in place in the doorway between the living room and the dining room, Dragon Blade raised to strike, stood the Seer. "Good job," he said to Piper.
She blinked in confusion. "I didn't do that. I didn't even know she was still here!"
"Then how...?" Cole looked at the baby dozing in her arms. "No..."
"Most powerful source of magic in the world?" Piper reminded him.
"But he didn't know she was there, either, he's asleep!" Cole said.
"Something's watching over us," Paige said, scurrying over to pry the Dragon Blade from the Seer's stiff fingers. "Someone wanna blow her up?"
The Seer unfroze before Piper could raise her hands. She quickly took in the scene and her failure to stab Cole with the dagger, then shimmered out without a word. "Damn!" Piper said.
"She can't do much without that," Cole said, nodding toward the Dragon Blade. "We need to hide it somewhere."
Leo took the blade from Paige. "I can orb it into a mountain with the Grimoire," he said.
"Not the same mountain," Cole said. "On the other side of the world. Keep them far apart. Without them, evil is crippled. Not powerless by a long shot, but not as powerful."
"A victory is a victory," Paige said cheerfully. "And I say we party."
"Merlin."
"No."
"Gandalf."
"No."
"Harry Potter?"
"A thousand times no."
"Raistlin?"
Cole raised an eyebrow. "I thought he was evil."
Phoebe giggled. "I always thought he was just misunderstood."
They lay facing each other on their bed, the baby sleeping peacefully between them, as they tried once again to decide on a name. "He needs a powerful magical name," Phoebe had insisted.
"Shouldn't you be looking for a P name?" Cole asked.
"I think Piper has laid claim to the Ps," Phoebe said. "Besides, the Ps are more of a girl thing. Maybe another letter for boys? C?"
"We'd better agree on something fast. Paige has taken to calling him Damien," Cole said.
"Oh, no, we are not going to have our little angel growing up with an evil demon name complex," Phoebe said.
Cole brought his hand up to her face and asked hesitantly, "Does it worry you that I'm half-demon again?"
She rubbed her cheek against his hand. "That's not your fault, baby. You didn't ask for it, anymore than you asked to be the Source."
"You can make another power stripping potion," he suggested.
Shaking her head, she said, "No. Cole, sweetie, you kinda drove me nuts when you didn't have powers. You make a lousy human. Besides, I think you do have to be an angel or a demon to be a man in this family. Mere mortal men can't handle the Halliwells. Just look at Dad or any of Grams' many many husbands." She kissed the palm of his hand. "It's not the powers, anyway, it's how you use them."
Cole tenderly kissed her forehead. "Then I'm going to use mine to go downstairs and see if Piper is done with breakfast. I'll bring a tray up for you."
She pouted at him. "I can go downstairs to eat, you know. I'm not an invalid."
"Leo says you still need to rest," he reminded her. "You've been through a lot."
"I want to go downstairs and have breakfast," she insisted.
In a flash of white light, she and the baby vanished. Sick with sudden panic, Cole called her name, then shimmered downstairs to alert her sisters. He heard Piper shriek as he appeared downstairs. She stood in the doorway to the kitchen, a plate of pancakes frozen between her hands and the floor as she stared into the dining room. "How did you do that?" she said. "You scared the hell out of me!"
Phoebe sat at one end of the table, the baby awake and in her lap. "I don't know," she said, confused. "I wanted breakfast then here I was." She looked at the baby. "Did you do that, sweetie?"
"You're all right?" Cole said in relief, moving into the dining room.
"I'm fine," she said. Then she grinned and said playfully, "Hmmm...Mommy wants Daddy to come here and feed her grapes."
The white light flared again, and Cole suddenly found himself standing next to Phoebe's chair, a bunch of grapes in his hand. Phoebe laughed in delight. "Okay, Mommy wants Daddy to rub her..."
"All right, that's enough," Piper said hastily, taking hold of the plate of pancakes before it unfroze and hit the floor. She set it on the table. "Your baby is not a genie in a magic lamp. You, young lady, better watch your words if junior here is somehow granting your wishes."
"What about mine?" Cole said, feeling a little jealous.
"Don't sulk, baby," Phoebe said. "He spent nine months inside of me, of course he's tuned in to my wishes. I have a feeling eventually we're all going to watch what we say around him." She grinned up at Cole and winked. "Besides, your desires are torrid and perverse and not meant for a young child's ears."
"Hey, hey!" Piper said. "Or mine!"
"It does explain how the Seer was frozen," Cole mused. "You had a premonition of her stabbing me with the Dragon Blade, and he responded to it by stopping her? And he brought Leo to heal you?"
"Such a good boy!" Phoebe said, kissing the baby's belly. "So strong and mighty! Yes you are!"
Piper turned back toward the kitchen. "Breakfast is almost ready," she said over her shoulder. "Cole, can you give me a hand?"
Cole followed Piper into the kitchen. She poured several glasses of orange juice and put them on a tray, then paused before handing the tray to Cole. "I need to ask you something."
"What is it?" he said.
"I'm pregnant," she said. "I thought it was just stress, but I took a test this morning, and..."
"Piper, that's great," Cole said. "I know how much you and Leo..."
"Leo doesn't know yet," she said. "I haven't told him."
"Then why are you telling me?" Cole said, puzzled.
"Because..." She hesitated. "You didn't...you didn't...do anything to me, did you?"
"Do...what?" he said.
She blushed, unable to meet his eyes. "In the attic. You told me you could get me the baby I wanted."
He shook his head. "No. I didn't. Some of it's hazy, but...no. If you're pregnant you did it the old fashioned way, I assure you."
She sighed in relief. "Good. I just wanted to be sure before I said anything." She paused, then peered at him. "What do you remember?"
"The best answer here would be nothing, wouldn't it?" he said.
"Mmm hmmm," she said. "And just for the record, no shimmering into the bathroom without knocking first, got it?"
"Got it," Cole said solemnly, picking up the orange juice.
Paige and Leo soon joined them at the table. Prue, Patty, and Grams had lingered for as long as they could the night before, but Prue promised her sisters she would return as soon as she could for a proper reunion. The mood in the Halliwell manor was the lightest it had been since Prue's death, made even happier with Piper's announcement of her own pregnancy.
After breakfast Cole and Phoebe cuddled in the sun room as the baby napped in his cradle nearby. "This still feels like a dream," Phoebe said. "I can't believe it's all over...and that we have a baby."
"The nightmare's over now," Cole agreed, squeezing her tighter.
"Not entirely," she said wistfully. She turned her head to look at him. "The demons won't go away. And they'll be coming after him, won't they? They'll think they can make him the Source."
"Over my dead body," Cole vowed. "Anything that tries to come after him is going to have to come through me. I promise you, I won't let anything hurt him, ever."
"I'm going to hold you to that, baby," she said, snuggling closer.
Cole kissed the top of her head, savoring the moment of peace. He knew it wouldn't last long, that the Seer and others like her would soon make attempts to take his son. But for now he enjoyed the tranquility. Time for worry would come later.