Author: Pirate Turner
Rating: R
Summary: It was only a dream, but oh, how she aches for it to be real . . .
Warnings: Het, AU, Unconventional Pairing
Word Count: 1,036
Challenge: This began as an attempt to answer Cathie's Charmed challenge for 5-13-10 to give the Halliwell sisters a different White Lighter but overshot the word limit and grew into its own.
Disclaimer: Prue, Piper, and Phoebe Halliwell, Cole Turner, Leo Wyatt, Paige Matthews, this version of the Elders, the Charmed Ones, and Charmed are & TM Spelling Entertainment and any other respective owners, none of which are the author. Everything else is & TM the author. The author makes absolutely no profit off of this work of fan fiction, and no copyright infringement is intended.
Piper paced the attic nervously. Why were her sisters not here yet? Their whole lives were on the verge of changing, and yet Phoebe and Paige were dallying at the mall! She threw her hands up in frustration and jumped when a lamp exploded. "Damn!" she muttered under her breath, her brown eyes blazing, but she lowered her hands and made a solid decision to keep them down at her sides unless she needed her power.
She shouldn't need her power. She shouldn't be so worried about this. Yes, the Elders were mad that her marriage had failed. They'd finally granted Leo and herself the chance of a lifetime, or, at least, what she'd thought was at the time she'd been so head over heels for her White Lighter, and they had blown it. Leo had not turned out to be the man he had seemed, just like every single one of her boyfriends before him. With her luck in love, she should have known it would be too good to be true.
She couldn't just blame Leo either, Piper admonished herself as she heard the front door open. Had she not secretly fallen in love with another, a man who was not even hers to love but who, instead, belonged to her sister? Had she not done exactly what she and Prue had always berated Phoebe for doing and stolen her sister's boyfriend? One kiss, she reflected sadly. One kiss was all it had taken, and yet that kiss had changed not only her life but those of her family's as well.
Leo had every right to leave her after what she had done. She had been the one to fall to temptation, even if their marriage had already been falling apart. He had not cheated on her. They had been having problems, but he had still been true. She was the one, she finally admitted to herself, who had broken his heart with her one moment of weakness.
She looked up, batting the tears from her brown eyes, as her sisters rushed in. They dropped the packages on the floor, their mouths falling open in shock. "What?" Piper asked.
Paige pointed at something behind her, but it was Phoebe who finally managed to gasp and exclaim the answer. "Cole!"
"Cole?" Piper echoed. Even as she whirled around, Phoebe was running to the new arrival in their midst.
Phoebe leaped into Cole's arms and hugged him so tightly that she managed to spin herself around on top of him, but Cole gazed intently across the distance into Piper's brown eyes. Neither of them had ever told Phoebe of the kiss they'd shared, and clearly Leo also had not done so. Had the Elders not known? Piper wondered in disbelief. How could a Demon be a White Lighter?
"Baby," Phoebe thrilled, her hands cupping Cole's handsome face and finally blocking his gaze from Piper, "I don't know how you did it, but I'm so glad you did!"
"Are you?" Cole asked, his voice sounding so cold that Phoebe immediately looked hurt.
"Of course I am."
"You were so ready to kill me."
"We all were," Piper whispered.
"But you still hoped for better," he reminded her, looking back to her as he set Phoebe onto her feet. "You dreamed of me every night, Piper. I came to you in your dreams. I know you remember."
"I could never forget," she whispered, feeling her breath suddenly gone from her body. "I missed you so much, Cole!"
He crossed over to stand in front of her, Phoebe's mouth hanging wide open in shock. "And I you."
"But I don't understand . . . " Piper said. "How can a Demon be a White Lighter?"
"Because this Demon risked everything to protect you and your sisters," he told her, "and then lost everything he'd worked so hard for because he loved you."
He lowered his lips down upon her mouth and kissed her, gently at first. Piper's mouth opened, hungrily inviting his, and his tongue swept in to her sweet contours as he deepened the kiss. She clung to him, not understanding this miracle that had entered her life but desperate to keep it, to keep him, nonetheless. Time stood still as they kissed, and when at last his mouth lifted from hers, he remained so close that his forehead leaned against hers as he gazed down into her beautiful eyes. "I'm sorry," he whispered.
"For what?" she asked, her voice barely audible.
"For everything that's happened. For everything I've caused you to lose. For this. I should have stayed away, but I couldn't. I love you, Piper. I think, maybe, I always have."
"I love you too, Cole, but I don't understand . . . " Tears sprang to her eyes. "Why are you apologizing? We have our whole lives ahead of us!"
He shook his head. "My time is done. I only came to say good-bye."
"No!" she cried, not even realizing that her sisters were gone.
"I can't stay," he explained, "no matter how I wish I could. This is but a dream you're having. It was my only way to reach you." He caressed her face as he took in every lovely detail and did his best to commit it all to memory. At least he'd have his memories with this wonderful woman, the only one who'd ever truly loved him for him, to treasure as he spent eternity where he was going.
"Don't leave," she pleaded as she began to feel heat.
"I don't have a choice. If I did, if there was any way I could fight this, I'd stay with you forever. I love you, Piper!" He silenced her protests with a passionate kiss filled with longing and all the love he'd ever feel for her alone.
Then Piper woke screaming. "NO! DON'T GO, COLE!" She looked around her through the tears that filled her eyes and realized that she was alone in her bedroom. She pulled her knees up to her chest and huddled there, crying her heart out for what, and who, she knew she could never have. One day, she swore silently, she'd be with him again, and if she had to go to Hell to find him, she would.
The End
Author's Note: If you enjoyed this story, or any of my other writings, I hope you'll consider joining my friends and I at a brand new fan fic/art site we're creating called Ficcers Unite or a new challenge forum I've created call Calling the Muses. At Ficcers Unite, we welcome all fandoms, pairings (slash and het), and even no pairings at all, and we'll also be RPing a world where Disney and Marvel comes together in one universe. At Calling the Muse, we plan on having a challenge day every day of the week -- one fandom per day unless we get lucky and get more than seven fandoms -- issued by different people (one person per fandom); the challenges will be issued once a week every week. Charmed is one of the fandoms for which challenges are being issued. Come on over and check us out at ficcersuniteDOTproboardsDOTcom or .net/forum/Calling_the_Muse/75047/ today!