Title: Second Chances
Author: Kate R.
Disclaimer: As usual, I do not own anyone used herein.
Rating: PG13?
Pairings: Piper/Leo
Fandom: Charmed
Summary: Cole gets a second chance at life.
Second Chances
by Kate R.
Thunder crashed and rumbled and the sky was torn and split by lightening and Leo Wyatt stared at what he was seeing. What was Cole doing? What had be become? It seemed after the final rejection…after Phoebe claimed there was nothing worth saving in him Cole had shattered. Leo was now watching as he seemed to be tearing himself...and it seemed the world...apart trying to find something he'd lost.
"Where is it?!" Cole screamed. And Leo could see the tears coursing down his ex-brother-in-law's face. "What did I do with it? Belthazor, you promised it would be safe! You promised me!"
"Cole!" Leo tried to scream. "Cole, for mercy's sake stop! You won't find it if you destroy the world!"
Cole looked at him and all Leo saw was madness and pain.
"The world?" Cole asked. "What has this world EVER done for me, Leo? Everything I dreamed of was ripped away! I was possessed but you killed me without even trying to save me! I gave up my world for yours, everything I'd ever known for the promise you offered me and you rejected me! I couldn't even say I didn't like something or you'd threaten to send me away! What chance have I ever had? Born between two worlds through no fault of my own and raised in hell...what chance did I really ever have?!"
Leo heard the sisters gasp as he realized they understood. And he understood as well. What had the world ever given Cole but pain and hurt? What could they now do to make it better?
"Vanquish me!" Cole screamed. "Make it stop! It hurts! Gods all it hurts! Please!"
Paige's anger and hate filled eyes mirrored Phoebe's as she threw the potion. Piper stared at him as his eyes begged her to end it for him. She nodded.
She chanted the spell but her eyes weren't filled with hate, but more with compassion and forgiveness. Cole had never had a chance in life and he'd never had peace either. But now...maybe in death...he would have some measure of rest and peace.
"What is that?" Phoebe demanded as instead of purple fire, white light sheeted around the place Cole had stood and they realized the power being thrown up to meet it was Cole's own.
"END THIS FOR ME!!" They heard him scream as if begging a god he was sure did not care for him for one drop of mercy
As the light was hitting Cole, Leo froze as he received an emergency message from The Elders and the Founders. This was not the end. It was the beginning.
Finally, the light went away and Leo watched as the mound of clothes where Cole had been moments before shifted. Paige moved but Leo strode forward then and lifted from the pile of clothing a child. A child with Cole's dark hair and eyes.
There was spattered blood on him and he looked as if he'd been crying.
"Oh, baby," Leo soothed as the child gripped him around the neck. "It's okay now. Uncle Leo will take care of you now. I promise. Your mommy won't hurt you again."
"Leo?" Phoebe asked. "Who is that?"
"Cole," Leo snapped at her. Being given a chance he never had before. Hey, little guy, you okay?"
"Mommy killed daddy." The little boy said. "And she made me watch." And his eye overflowed with tears.
Leo pressed the child's head to his shoulder and looked at Piper.
"Take him home, Leo," she told him. "I'll take care of the clean up."
"Thank you, Piper," Leo said as he orbed out.
Piper looked at her other two sisters then. "Not. One. Word."
Part 2
When Paige orbed them back to the manor, they found Leo sitting on the couch with the little boy still in his arms. It looked like he'd cried himself to sleep and Leo jut stroked his head.
"Leo?" Piper asked.
"He witnessed his father's murder," Leo told them. "That's all he remembers. The One Above The Elders said they were going to give him a fair chance this time. A Chance we get to provide. This is the last one for you all too. You can't afford to screw it up."
"He's still half demon," Paige hissed. "You can't get around that nature."
"And the other half of him is human," Leo said. "And right now he is a frightened little boy who witnessed his father's murder. DO you understand that, Paige? He watched his mother murder his father. He's traumatized by it and I think he was as long as we knew him before. I am warning you now: If you do ANYTHING to upset or hurt him, Power of Three or Not, I swear I'll kill you myself!"
Paige gave him an irritated look and stomped off.
Leo sighed and kissed the boy's head as he slept.
"What are we going to do with him?" Phoebe asked.
Piper gave her younger sister a Duh look.
"We're going to take care of him. That's what we're going to do," she told Phoebe. "You and Paige don't have to help but you better not hinder either. I guess we put him in Grams' old room?"
"Yeah," Leo said. "We'll have to decorate it and get him some toys but yeah, that should work."
"Not to mention clothes that fit," Phoebe said quietly to herself.
Piper nodded and got out her tape measure. She measured the boy as he lay asleep in Leo's arms and soon had his sizes.
"Okay," she said. "You guys watch him. I'll run to the mall and get him some clothes."
Phoebe nodded and watched as Leo shifted the boy so he was higher on his shoulder.
"Do you know everything that happened to him before, Leo?" she asked.
Leo nodded. "I do but that isn't your business. Just know compared to his life you all had wine and roses," Leo said. "Don't ask Phoebe. Just...don't."
"Okay. I'll go put the sheets on Gram's bed and get the room aired out," she said. "Leo...I can't promise to help raise him...but I'll try not to hurt him either. I don't like the man he was but this...he's a little boy."
"Yes, he is," Leo, said. "And Phoebe, part of him, the mostly human part? Always was. You get the room ready for him. I think we're just going to sit here for a while longer until Aunt Piper gets home."
Phoebe nodded and Leo sat rocking the little one who whimpered in his sleep. "It's okay, Cole," he told the boy. "Uncle Leo will take care of you. I promise."
end part 2