Despite it all, its still you – it always was, it always will be.

Chapter 10

Cole looked at Phoebe as her words kept going around in his mind "you are free, we are free." Could it be? Could he really be finally free? Free to love Phoebe, without worrying about his past coming back to haunt him? It seemed hard to believe that three years in limbo would be enough punishment for all the evil he'd done in the over the century that he was a demon in the service of the source. How could only three years ever be enough to atone for everything he'd done? Then again, who was he to judge what was enough and what was not? Maybe Phoebe was right, and she'd only been able to contact him now because the time was right; maybe only when he was ready would all the elements come together to enable her to contact him. Yeah, he knew it sounded far-fetched - like the universe kept tabs on his fate; then again, stranger things have been known to happen.

Phoebe saw his emotions as they crossed his face; everything from disbelief, doubt, hope and relief. "Cole, believe me. I know I'm right; you've paid your debts. We can be together now."

"God, Phoebe, if you're right . . ." he trailed off, too overwhelmed to be able to finish.

Phoebe smiled and stepped closer to Cole. She made to touch his face but stopped millimeters from it when she remember that he was not corporeal. She left her hand right there and looking into his eyes said "I know I'm right, Cole. I can feel it, here" and she pressed her hand to her chest on top of her heart. "I can't really give you a logical explanation or any concrete reasons why I know this, I just know that I do – it comes from the same place where my premonitions come from." She tried to explain what she herself wasn't entirely sure she understood.

"Are you saying you had a premonition?" asked Cole, trying to understand what Phoebe was saying; he really wanted to believe it'd be alright but he didn't want to get his hopes up and then find out that she'd been wrong and that he was still stuck in limbo.

"No, not exactly" Phoebe exhaled a bit frustrated by not being sure how to explained it. "It's not a premonition per se; I didn't have any visions or anything. It's just a very strong feeling I got as you were explaining why you thought you should stay in limbo. It's like when you know something it's about to happen but you don't know why, just that you know it. It's like a gut feeling, only more powerful – I know I'm right. You know that part of my premonitions are the feelings; I have to work out what the visions telling based on what the emotions I get from them – having developed empathy has sure helped with that. So, I'm used to just knowing somethings; yes, I usually have the visions to back me up, but they are not necessary. Like I said I can't give you any rational, logical explanation for my feelings; but then I'm a witch and you're a demon in spirit form, we don't really need logical, rational arguments, do we?" She finished with a slight smirk.

Cole looked at her and with a slight smirk of his own and a slight shake of his head replied, "No, I guess we don't at that. So, we can finally be together, uh? Who would have thought it? I had certainly given up hope."

"Yes, so had I. But you know what they say, good things come to those who wait. And we've certainly waited for quite a while. Besides after everything we've done for the side of good, I think it is only fair to think that the universe owes one."

"Well, I'm not sure whether anyone would agree that the universe owed me anything – they'd be more apt to argue I owe the universe – but I definitely agree that it owes you, and more than one; and if part of compensating you is throwing us together who am I to argue?"

"I'm glad you see it that way." Phoebe responded with a grin as wide and as luminous as Coles. "Ok, now all we have to do is find a way to bring you completely back. Any ideas?"

"No, not a one. You don't have any ideas about how to begin? No direction in which to go?"

"No, not really. I was just really focused in trying to get a hold of you. I hadn't really stopped to consider bringing you back to tell you the truth. Well, maybe that's not completely truthful, I'm pretty sure I had that idea at the back of my head the whole time but I just wouldn't let myself think about it consciously. Plus, I just found out today that you were in limbo, before then I had no idea where you were – so even if I had started to think about it wouldn't have helped much."

"You never know; but that's irrelevant since you never thought about it. Well, all I can tell you is that you probably will have to make up your own spell. I doubt that you will be able to find any ready made spell like the one you used to call me here. It'd probably have to be personalized so that you don't bring anyone else but me from the other side. There are a lot of people in limbo that would like to come back, let me tell you."

"Yeah," Phoebe responded, but it was obvious by the distracted voice and vague look she had in her eyes that she was thinking about something else.

"What is it something I said?"

Phoebe started and said, "What? I'm sorry, just thinking. I think I may have an idea where to begin but it will take a bit of time and I'm going to need the help of my sisters. Thankfully, they've already promise they will help me. I think it might be best if you leave now, I have a lot of work to do and you will just distract me."

"Ok, I'm going to take that as a compliment, if you don't mind?"

"That's how it was meant." She told him with a wink. "But seriously, I have to go confer with my sisters and I think it'd be better for my concentration and theirs if you weren't around. I promise I'll call you as soon as we figure it out. It could be a couple of days, though. If it looks like it'd be longer, I'll call you and let you know."

"No need for you to call me; I'll know if things will take longer."

"Ok, how could you know that? Cole have you been spying on us?" Phoebe asked in a very suspicious tone.

"No, of course not." At she continued to stare at him with narrowed eyes, he gave in as said, "I wouldn't really say that it was spying per se, really."

"No? And what would you say it was then?"

"Well, more like keeping an eye on how things were going on with you. Yeah, that's it" he continued in a winning voice, "I was just keeping an eye on things." He finished with a wide grin.

Phoebe just looked at him for a long moment and then said, "Ok, we'd better leave it there if we don't want this meeting to turn into a big fight and we'd also better not tell my sisters. I can guarantee you, they are not going to like knowing that you have been 'keeping an eye on things'"

"Well, to be precise I was keeping an eye on you and not so much on them."

"Ok, what part of 'let's leave things there so we don't get in a fight' don't you understand? Because if you think telling me you've kept an eye on me when you were supposed to be dead is going . . ."

"Ok, ok," he interrupted her before she could get really started in another rant. "I get it. Not the brightest idea I ever had, and we'd definitely not talk about it again."

Phoebe stared at him with narrowed eyes for a while longer, deciding whether or not it was worth making a big deal about it. At the end, she decided not to – she really was glad to see him again and that they've seen to solve their problems; besides which, if she was honest with herself, she'd have to admit that if she had been in his shoes she probably would have done the same and would have kept an eye on him. That's not to say that she had to admit that to him, oh no. She'd let him sweat it for a few minutes before she let hi off the hook.

About half a minute of having Phoebe stare at him without saying anything was enough to have Cole start talking to try and get out of the mess he'd apparently landed himself in. "Phoebe, baby, I swear I just came once in a while to see how you were doing. I didn't interfere with your live and I sure as hell had nothing to do with your sisters'. I swear, baby . . ."

"It's ok, Cole. Let's leave it there shall we?" Phoebe interrupted him before he said something that she would have have to take issue with just on principle; and Cole seemed only too happy in letting the subject drop right there.

"Ok, I guess I better be going now, right?" He asked with a hesitant smile, wanting to know that everything was right between them and not wanting to push his luck any further.

"Yeah, that'd probably be best. Don't worry, honey, we're ok, just don't do it again, ok?"

"I won't. I love you Phoebe. If anything goes wrong, please always remember that."

"I know, Cole. And nothing will go wrong, I know it. I'll call you when its time. I love you too."

"Bye, love."

"Bye, Cole"

Phoebe and Cole locked eyes and smiled at each other as he disappeared and went back to the spirit realm. After a few seconds of staring at where Cole had been, Phoebe turned and walked out the attic to go look for her sisters. She found them in the solarium.

"Hey, Phoebe that was fast." Paige greeted Phoebe.

"Was everything alright honey?" Piper asked her, somewhat concerned at the speed in which the meeting between her sister and Cole had finished.

"Yes, everything was fine. It was just that . . ."

"Yeah, did he do anything?" Paige seemed at bit too eager for Phoebe's taste.

"No, he did nothing wrong. Actually, it was me. You know, whenever I pictured that meeting I tried to image all the different possibilities, how I'd react, how he'd react, what we'd say. I imagined a dozen different ways but I never imagined what actually happened."

"Phoebe, what did you do?" asked Piper.

"I just sort of lost my temper, that's all."

"Sort of? How can you 'sort of' loose your temper?" asked Paige.

"Well, I completely lost it, if you want to get technical. It was just that after everything I'd gone through to have him . . ." Phoebe trailed off still a bit angered.

"What! Come on, Phoebe tell uswhat happened!" asked a very curious Paige.

"Oh, nothing much. Just that after he agreed we had to talk he asked that I promise him that I would let him go and would not try to contact him again, that's all." answered Phoebe in a sarcastic tone of voice.

"Oh, that's all, nothing much at all. So, how did you react? Because I'm guessing you did not like his plan?" asked Piper, also ina somewhat sarcastic tone of voice.

"Oh, I just let him know in no uncertain terms that that was not going to happen. That I hadn't gone through all the drama I'd just gone through just to let him go again. I mean the spell we just cast pretty much proves that we are soul mates, right? That means that he is it for me and that only him can really make me happy, and since I really want to be happy and fulfilled he just have to be here, no buts, ands or ifs about it."

"In other words, you told him that he was going to be coming back because you wanted him back and he pretty much had no say in the matter, right?" Piper translated what had really gone on, very amused at the idea of her sister telling such a powerful demon how his life was going to be from now.

"Yep, that was pretty much it." Agreed Phoebe, who seemed to calmed down as she too realized that she had just gotten away with telling Cole how he was going to live his life.

"And what did he say?" asked a curious Paige, who could totally understand why her sister had lost her temper and could definitely appreciate the way she had laid down the law to Cole. Paige was a firm believer in going after what one wanted and not letting anything stand in the way – not even the guy one wanted.

"Well, that's the thing. He laughed and told me that he loved me just like I am and that I should never changed. But then, he said that as much as he would like to be 'stuck' with me here, he didn't think it was possible."

"Why?" asked a very surprised Piper.

"You mean he gave up a chance to come back to live? Really!" If possible, Paige was even more surprised than Piper.

"Yes, well he tried to anyway."

"But, why!" insisted Paige.

"It seemed that he had finally realized the extent of all the damage that he'd done as Belthazor and he wanted to make amends. He figured his time in limbo was his punishment and he did not want to get out of it before he'd paid for everything evil he'd done in his life."

"Wow, that's . . . , well, that' really . . ." Paige was at a loss for words at Cole's attitude.

Phoebe however was not, "admirable, honorable, respectable? Any of those work for you, Paige?"

"Yeah, any or all of those would work just fine. I just never thought that I would use those words when talking about Cole, that's all."

"Really, because I seem to recall various instance in the past when those words worked just fine. In fact . . ."

But before Phoebe could really go off in her defense of Cole, Piper intervened. "Paige, Phoebe is right. There had been numerous times in the past when Cole has acted in that matter. So we really shouldn't be surprise; and I guess if I think about for a minute I'm not, really. But, Phoebe, Paige does sort of have a point too. However good he may have acted in separate occasions when dealing with us, those adjectives are just not some that would automatically be used when describing him – and you know that."

Phoebe took a big breath to calm herself down and agreed, "Ok, you're right. But that doesn't diminish what he's done, or rather what he intended to do."

Leo, who up until now had been quietly watching the sisters, spoke up. "No, it doesn't. But what do you mean 'intended to do'? Are you still going to go ahead and bring him back?"

"Yes, I am." As soon as she said the words she could see what her family thought about it. "Wait, wait; I know what you're thinking. If he still had to paid for his misdeeds, then there was nothing I could do – he would have to stay in limbo. But, you see, I'm pretty sure that he has already paid everything he had to pay."

"How can you possibly know that, Phoebe?" Piper asked what all of them were thinking.

"I'm not really sure how I know that, I just know that I know it."

"Did you have a premonition?" Paige asked.

"No, not really. I just had this real strong feeling while he was telling me that he had to finish paying his debts. It was like the weight of the world was being lifted from my shoulders; like I could finally breathe free. I'm not sure how to explain it because I'm not sure I understand it myself. You know how a lot of what we do is intuitive? Yes, there was a lot we had to learn but at the same time a lot of it is just doing what feels right in here" she put her hand over her heart, "and in here," this time she tapped her hand over her stomach. "Piper, when you're in the kitchen you just let your hands wander, right? Like grams told you?"

"Yes, you're right. I mean there are some rules guidelines I have to follow but for the most part I just follow my instincts. And before you ask, yes, it's the same when I'm making potions."

"I thought so. And Paige, when you're helping your charges . . .?"

"Yes, it's the same. There are some rules and guidelines but when it comes down to it, I do what feels right at the time. And it usually works too."

"And that's how I use my premonitions too. And its from that same place where we just know that something its going to work, that I got this feeling that Cole has paid his debts. Plus, I don't think I would have been able to even contact him otherwise."

"What do you mean?" Though Leo believed in Phoebe's feelings and didn't need any more convincing, he was nevertheless curious about what she meant.

"I mean that the timing of things seemed just too perfect, don't you think? First Piper chooses today to press me for what's been bothering. I've been depressed for about a year but she chose today. And after a year of denying there was anything wrong, I chose today to tell her about it. And then just as we finished, Paige entered and overheard us talking. And truthfully, if she hadn't I don't think we would have told her, at least not right then. Sorry, sweetie, but you know how you got when it came to Cole." Phoebe apologized to Paige with a smile.

"No sweat, I understand." The fact of the matter was Paige did get very narrowed minded when it came to Cole, and she could understand Phoebe not wanting to talk to her about it until she absolutely had to. Well, Paige understood this now, after she'd made her peace with Cole coming back, but she would have hit the roof had she heard this a few hours ago.

"And Paige overhearing us" Phoebe continued with her descriptions of how events had been just too perfect, "led her to have a talk with Leo, which in turn led us to the spell we used to call Cole. And Leo was probably the only that could have found that spell; because I had also looked in the Magic School library and had not found it."

"Well, it was in a pretty hidden spot. In fact I only came across it by accident a couple of weeks ago."

"See, that just proves my point. Even if everything else had happened before, it wouldn't have matter because Leo just found the spell. . ." Phoebe would have gone on with her explanation but Piper stopped her.

"Phoebe, it's alright. We believe you; you don't need to keep explaining. We more than anyone understand what you're saying. We're witches; we're in the business of believing the unbelievable."

"Ok, good. Then we can get on with bringing Cole back?"

"Yes. But I have a question. How do we bring him back? Do you have any ideas?" asked Paige.

"No, nothing too concrete anyway. But I was thinking that we'll need a potion along with a spell. I just don't think a spell alone will be powerful enough to give Cole his body back." As she said this, she turned to look at Piper.

"Before you ask, yes, I'll go and get started on a potion. Since we're not sure just what it is we need, I'll just let my hands wandered for a bit, shall I?" Piper asked with a mischievous smile.

"Great, there's no one whose wandering hands I trust more." Phoebe replied with an identical smile.

"I'm assuming you want him to have the same body. Or are there any changes you'd like to make?"

"No, his old body would work fine, just fine." This time Phoebe's smile was more wicked than mischievous.

"I thought so," Piper said with a laugh as she turned to the kitchen, "I'll be in the kitchen if anyone needs me."

Leo was about to follow Piper when he heard boys waking up from their naps, he started for their room as he said, "and I'll be with the boys, keeping them out of your way, shall I?"

"Thanks Leo, giving them both a kiss from me." Phoebe called out to him as he went up the stairs. Leo just waved his hand to let her know he'd heard her. With that Phoebe turned to her youngest sister and said, "Well, you and I are going to go read through all the spell books we have and see if we can come up with something that will bring him back, ok?"

"Fine with me; just lead the way." Phoebe put her arm through Paige, and together they went up to the attic.

It took them close to a week, during which Phoebe worked tirelessly and her temper got progressively shorter, but they finally came up with a potion and spell they were sure would work out.

"Are we ready?" Phoebe asked looking around the attic. White candles had been scattered throughout it, five of which had been placed at the end of each of the point of the pentagram that had been painted in the middle of the attic floor. In the middle of the pentagram a cauldron had been set with a burner underneath it to heat it up. All the ingredients for the potion Piper had come up with were already in it, and the burner had just been lit by Paige. She went back to where her sisters were standing around the pentagram and told Phoebe, "We're as ready as we'll ever be."

Piper agreed with her, "Yep, we're ready Phoebe."

The sisters then arranged themselves still around the pentagram but behind the bookstand, where the spell that Phoebe and Paige had come up was lying on top of the Book of Shadows. It had taken Phoebe and Paige quite a while to come up with the spell. While it had only taken Piper about three days to perfect the potion, it had taken Phoebe and Paige about a couple of days to just decide what approach they should use. They finally decided that instead of writing a whole new one, they would go through all their old spells and cut and paste a new onefrom them – they may not end up with an original spell but they'd end up with one that should work, besides they do things like that all the time and since they're using their own spells its not like they're plagiarizing. But even with using their old spells, it had taken them about three days to come up with one they both felt satisfied and confident with.

After linking hands with both her sisters, Phoebe took a big breath and said "on the count of three . . . one, two, three." And as one the three sisters starting chanting the spell:

Hear now the words of the witches, the secrets we hid in the night, the oldest of Gods are invoked here, the greatest magic is sought. In this time and in this hour, we call upon the ancient power to help, guide and empowered us to reach out through space and light,
and Be he far or be he near, Bring us he who used to be the demon Belthazor here.

Powers of the witches rise, Course unseen across the skies, Come to us who call you near. Come to us and settle here We call forth from space and time, matriarchs from the Halliwell line,
mothers, daughters, sisters, friends, our family spirit without end,
to gather now in this sacred place and help us bring this witch's love to grace.

Hear our words, here our cries, heed the hope within our hearts. As flame lights shadow, and truth ends fear, Love over death perseveres. Remove the chains of time and space; we call our powers our purpose now embrace. Three together stand alone here, Bound in live and power by our love for each other On that love we now ask to bring back this witch's one true love.

A time for everything And everything in its place
Return what has been moved Through plane and space.

Phoebe's part: Whither my love, Wherever you be,
Through Plane and Space Bring my love back to me

Because there is no greater force than love, no greater blessing than being loved and no greater power than loving, return Phoebe Halliwell's one true love. As we will, so mote it be.

As the sisters chanted the spell, the potion on the cauldron started spinning, the smoke started to come up and a wind that seemed to come from nowhere whipped it up and around the center of the pentagram. The sound the wind made seemed to get louder as the chant continued and the sisters had to hold to each other tighter and bring their hands up to keep the spell on its place as the wind became a furious mini-tornado in the middle of the attic. As suddenly as it all had began it ended when the last words of the spell were said. The only thing that moved in the attic in the aftermath was the brilliant white light that had taken the place of the mini-tornado in the center of the attic. As the sisters and Leo watched, the light started to take the form of a man and after a minute or so it faded leaving Cole behind, standing next to the cauldron.

For a while there was absolute silence in the room as all the occupants looked at each other and tried to come to grips with what had just been accomplished. While seeing Cole did not bring the same amount of consternation it had brought the first time, the fact that the sisters had managed to bring back some that had been in limbo did amazed all of them.

The first one to break the amazed silence was Phoebe. She disentangled herself from her sisters and run to Cole and did what she had been longing to do for about three years. She threw herself at him and kissed him as if she hadn't him seen him in ages – which come to think of it, she hadn't.

Cole caught her and whirled her around as he returned her kisses. Her sisters and Leo, who had been watching quietly off to one side, watched indulgently. They all knew all the hell both had gone through to be together and none of them could really begrudged them their moment. After a while Cole put Phoebe down and keeping her close to his side, turned to look at the sisters and Leo, who had by this time made his way to Piper and had his arms around her. With another kiss to Phoebe, who had both arms around his middle and her head tucked under his chin, Cole looked at Piper, Paige and Leo and with the utmost sincere voice simply said, "Thank you."

There was much he was thanking them for, and he could have gone on to list all the reasons but there was no need. They understood what he was saying. As always it was Piper who spoke up for the family; after looking at Paige and Leo she simply, "Welcome back, but if you hurt her again limbo won't be where you'll be going."

With a rueful smile and a shake of her head he said, "I never meant to hurt her or any of you, you know." At the incredulous looks this produced on Piper and Leo, he added, "well, not after I killed the triad. And you got to admit that I was never 100 committed to doing it before that either. But all that is in the past and I know I've promised this before but I'll do everything in my power not to hurt any of you."

"It's not that we don't believe you; but what about any ghosts from your past? Maybe you just won't be able to stop them, like before." Paige spoke up for the first time since seeing Cole.

"No, that won't happen. I've had time to think on this, and I think Phoebe was right. The only way you guys were able to bring me back was because I paid off my debts, that means that any ghosts from my pasts had been dealt with and won't be coming back to haunt me."

Paige looked into Cole's eyes for a while to see if he was sincere or not. What she saw in them reassured her; he seemed the same Cole he had been when she first met him – before the source had taken him over. And after looking at the joy in Phoebe's face, Paige let the past go and was able to sincerely tell Cole, "in that case, welcome back to the family."

Phoebe looked back to her sister from the shelter of Cole's arms and could only mouth 'thank you' to Paige as she realized that her sister had truly left the past in the past and was giving them her blessing. Piper's welcome had been nice and appreciated by Phoebe, but there had never been any doubt in Phoebe's mind that Piper would be ok with Cole; it was Paige's reaction at having Cole physically back that had worried Phoebe, but with those words most of Phoebe's anxiety had gone. With a final look and smile of thank to Piper, Phoebe turned to look at Cole.

Cole had been left speechless by Paige's welcome, something which amused Paige to no end. He looked down at Phoebe when he felt her looking at him and after giving her one more kiss, he turned to look at Paige again and again simply said, "Thank you," he then turned to look at Piper and added, "to both of you."

Leo then took his arms from around Piper, and stepping to one side offered his hand to Cole saying, "I guess I'm the only one left to welcome you; it's good to see you're yourself again." And with that Leo also showed his willingness to let the past lie and moved on from here.

Cole shook Leo's hand and said, "It's good to be myself again, and it's good to see you."

Phoebe could not believe it. She had the love of her life back and he seemed to have made peace with her family; it had been a lot easier that she had thought it would be. The week that they had needed to figure out how to bring him back had given everyone the space they needed to come to terms with the idea of having Cole back in their lives. Oh, Phoebe knew it wasn't all going to be this easy. Everyone in the family had very strong personalities and as such she knew that there'll be more than one disagreement and fight between them, but that happens in every family and they'll deal with that as a family. Plus, they also have to figure out how to re-introduce Cole back into society after supposedly having been dead for three years. But again they'll deal with that as a family.

Because despite everything they've gone through, and maybe because of everything they've gone through that is what they were: family.

The End.

AN: There it is -my first fic. I hope you guys liked it. I want to once more thank all of you who have left a review; you don't know how much I appreciate it. I also want to once again apologize for how long it's taken me to finish – no excuses to offer just an apology J I have a sequel in mind, but there are no promises as to when I'll have it out. Though I do think it will soon, as I have the first few chapters more or less written in my head. One last thing before I finish, I'm really glad that you guys liked the last chapter. At first I was going to go with a very emotional, almost tear jerker like chapter. But when I was writing it, Phoebe wouldn't cooperate. You know, I'll always read authors say that characters do this or wont let them do that, and I'm not sure I believed them – but its true. I think Phoebe was just tire of crying and decided that she was a strong, independent woman and was going to take control of her life and since I agree with that attitude I let her have it – I'm just glad you guys approved. Ok, that's it for author's note, my brother says I write them too long and no one cares but I have to say anyway, so I'll end this here with a final thank you for all of you who have follow this story – a second one will be coming soon.