Faded Fragments
part 14
"You're late."
Phoebe Halliwell haphazardly set her bag down upon the wooden chair that accompanied the dinner table, heaving a deep breath, as she calmly straightened her hair out of his viewing range, removing the creases she'd received in the scuffle from her clothing. "Rough day at the office," she muttered quietly. "Nothing I couldn't handle though."
Clay shot her a winning smile, as he sipped lightly from the can of beer that sat to his right, his other occupied with a crisp white sheet of paper that oddly enough had held his full interest until her entrance had taken place only minutes earlier. "Really? Marisa was telling me you've got a new client."
"Yeah. No. Well....I don't exactly know if client is the word you're looking for there."
He raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"
"Can't really say I'm interested in anything he's trying to sell."
"But I thought that was your job. Coming up with new-"
"It is," she cut him off. "I just....it isn't- it shouldn't concern me right now, because it's really not all that important to begin with. Alright?" She considered a moment, trying once again to block the emotions that fought to claw their way to the surface of her mind. "Matter of fact, I'd just as soon forget about it altogether."
He shrugged, clearly still aloof on the entire subject. "Okay, fine, works for me. Got something here I'd love to talk to you about, anyway."
"Which is?"
"Of course, I'd probably be a little more overjoyed at the prospect, if you weren't so distracted yet."
She flushed before she could stop herself, stubbornly crossing her arms over her chest. "I'm not distracted, Clay."
"Phoebe, a strange man came to your office today, and you're going to stand there and tell me you're completely okay with that?"
"Why shouldn't I be?"
"Marisa said you seemed a bit out of it at the office, too."
"Yeah, and are you going to keep believing everything Marisa says to you? You and I both know she's the queen of town gossip, Clay. Just look at the number of guys she snags in a week alone. It's definitely off the charts-"
"Hey, I'm not jealous. But just out of curiosity, is there any reason I should be?"
"Who said anything about jealousy?"
"Alright. Look. I'm just going to come right out with this, okay? I've put a lot of thought into it, and I'm just going to say it. I may be going out on a limb here, but I'm going to say it. Phoebe, we've been through a lot these past few months, and sooner or later, I knew we'd come to the point where sacrifices have to be made, and- you...you know how important you are to me, and how you're hugely responsible for making me the honest man I am today. I probably would never have gotten this far, if it hadn't been for you."
"Are you pitching an ad, or should I just give myself a great big pat on the back?"
"I'm pitching an offer," he corrected.
"An offer?"
"Phoebe, I was given an opening in New York. A good opening...a job offer? With benefits. Seems to me they could really use a guy of my caliber to fill their position there."
She chewed thoughtfully on her bottom lip, as her eyes fell instantly to the floor, abruptly breaking away from him. She could almost sense herself crumbling into a million pieces, as her body kept willing itself to physically shatter. "I see," she managed rather nonchalantly.
"It's probably not gonna be for awhile yet, but I have some time to think about it. I know we have a history in New York, and funny as it may sound, maybe I would be just as stupid to walk away from this, as I was to walk away from you. And with all things said and done, I now have you, and...in the grand scheme of things, maybe it wouldn't be so bad to expand on that little bit of history."
"If it means that much to you, I can't stop you," she concluded.
"And if it means that much to you, you'd know I'd do almost anything to be where you are right now- where you'd like to be right now."
"And it's here," she whispered.
"But you said it yourself. You have no ties to your sisters anymore- at least...no ties that could be holding you back. And maybe it's just what you need right now. Maybe, though it all, we both do, Phoebe. A chance to re-invent ourselves and start fresh."
"Yeah, and is it really about me?"
He randomly flicked the piece of paper down upon the coffee table, where he watched it nearly slide off the polished glass surface, almost tumbling to its doom. "I don't understand."
"You gave me a choice," she continued, "and yet it'll always be about you, Clay. You just said it. You can't talk your way out of this one, because I can see it's what you really want." She paused a brief moment, nervously sinking into a seat beside him. "For yourself."
"So you're questioning what I feel for you. Again."
"Isn't that a natural assumption when you go and give me something like this? The only natural assumption?"
"Look, maybe we should just talk about it tomorrow," he volunteered. "Like I said, it's late, and you're probably beat from work, so maybe it's just better to bring it up tomorrow."
"I think I might go see Piper after my shift tomorrow," she filled him in, absentmindedly offering a tense shrug.
"Piper?"
"One of the sisters you just mentioned?" she found herself quipping rather sarcastically.
"Phoebe, I'm not the bad guy, alright? And when I see change, I like to think I either go for it, or I- c'mon, you're the only woman who ever had that ability to...to bring me back to my senses. So if you think this is a wrong move on my part, maybe it is. Maybe I just haven't thought hard enough about it make a damn lifelong decision."
"Which you were never any good at," she announced abruptly. "I'm going to bed."
"Does it scare you?" he returned.
"Does what scare me?"
"Commitment," he finished, his eyes meeting hers dead on. "Our relationship? Does it-"
"How can you still trap me with that stupid question, when I've overlooked quite a few of your little indescretions that hardly made you legit? How can you even ask me that, when I stood by you over that stupid urn, and- you know what you took on with a woman like me, and I am not going to just stand by and watch my life go downhill, while you sit there on your high horse and prosper, Clay. I thought you cared. I thought you knew I mattered."
"And I do, dammit! Why do you think I credit you with saving my ass?"
"So that's all I am to you...is that it? An...ass saver? How appropriate."
"No, that's not it. You're more than that."
"Oh really? Because sometimes I still wonder if you have yet to prove it."
"Phoebe-"
"You can take the couch," she replied simply, her face entirely expressionless, as she began to head upstairs.
**********
"Do you think sometimes things are supposed to happen?"
Cole Turner gave his small daughter a steady glance as he quietly pursed his lips, his lean frame perched at the edge of the long bed, a hand moving its way across his scruffy visage. "Like what kinds of things, sweetheart?"
Alex shook her head then, as she heaved a short sigh, her tiny arms forming a slight shrug. "Like for a reason, Daddy. You know, that some things should happen because that's how God wanted them to be."
"Ally, you make your own decisions in life. Not some higher power that's otherwordly, or...or not versed of this earth. Some might believe...seem convinced we've been fated for a different existence, but I guess nothing's entirely for certain unless you will it to be."
"Do you believe that?"
"Of course I do," he whispered. "Sometimes you have to."
"Why?"
"Well...to keep yourself going. To keep yourself sane...and, well....I guess- look, you can only hope you haven't strayed off the path you've chosen, and if you have, you have to repair the cracks in time and have faith that you can find your way back again."
"But what if a path chooses you?"
He mockingly put on a rather serious face, as he jokingly crossed his arms in front of him, throwing out a slightly crisp and accurate British accent. "Alexandra Turner, if you still don't believe you are the luckiest girl in the world right now, I simply don't know what else I can do to convince you."
She giggled softly, as she calmly laid her head against the pillow that had been propped to her liking upon the matress.
"Anyway, you've already seen people can choose who they want to be. Just look at me."
"Yeah," she mumbled. "And I think I have a pretty good idea of what you were like before when you tried to make like you turned evil that one time."
He nodded. "We've made it through worse than this."
She gently shook her head, a frown quickly overshadowing her laughter then. "No, we haven't, Daddy. This is worse than last time."
"Last time...."
"Remember when Mommy kicked you out and you'd- remember that day you came and picked me up for school, and I learned about my powers not long after? You and Mommy were still mad at each other, but at least she still knew who you were, and she wanted to talk to you."
"Ally, that's not the-"
"I know it's not the same. That's what I was trying to say, Daddy. I was sad about it, because you weren't living in the same house, but it wasn't like she lost her memory."
"And I'll have you know, young lady, that I am making great progress with your mom, as we speak. Your dad isn't only considered charming, just because he's with a Charmed One."
She smiled, her eyebrows easily raising themselves, as she tried to look hopeful. "Did she say anything about me yet?"
"Mmm...she doesn't even know who I am."
"Still?" she whispered.
"Still," he echoed. "But that's not to say we-"
"I like to pretend sometimes," she whispered again. "You know, like imagining I'm not really where I am...that I'm...that I'm not really a girl who has the powers I do. That I'm someone who has normal parents and normal brothers and sisters...a normal family. But I think- I know, that it somehow can't be right. I can see it, but I can never get there. And sometimes I don't even want to, Daddy. I just don't think there's any reason to try. But then I see my friends, and I....I kind of always wonder why I have to be so different."
"And you think being different is bad?" he added quietly, wincing briefly.
"No."
"Ally-"
"That's just it, Daddy. I can imagine, but I can't get my vision to come to life. Not really."
"Well, if it's something that requires you to be anything at all like Catrina, I'd like to say you need a second opinion."
She laughed, crawling across the bed, so she was much closer to him, her face suddenly full of life again. "She still talks too much."
"My point exactly."
"And I think she's kind of one of the reasons why I wouldn't like a normal family."
"Is that right?"
"Yeah, I mean, her dad's just so boring lately!"
He grinned. "See? Just one of the advantages to having a slightly cooler dad with superpowers and a demonic past."
"Not slightly. Way cooler," she emphasized softly.
"Can't argue with that," he noted, as he felt a pair of tiny hands go around his neck, hugging him close, a small kiss being pressed to his cheek.
"I love you, Daddy."
"Right back at you," he said, his voice just below a whisper.
"I'm glad you're here. I'm sorry if I haven't said that enough since we came here. But I'm glad. And I'm also glad about Aunt Paige and Aunt Prue. Not too sure about Aunt Piper though."
"She'll come around," he assured her. "It's just that sometimes we've lived life a certain way for so long, that we start to think we might just have another calling."
"And Aunt Piper thinks hers doesn't involve Mommy?"
"Yeah, well, I guess that's one way to look at it."
"So what happens if Mommy never comes back to us?"
"Look, why don't I....tell you a bedtime story, and we can finish talking about this tomorrow. Okay?"
"Daddy, what was it?"
"What was what, sweetie?"
"What happens?" she pressed.
"You said you didn't believe in bad heroes, right?"
"Yep, don't exist," she stated quickly, throwing him a tiny smirk.
"Then you shouldn't have-"
"Daddy, were you once a bad hero?"
"There's no such thing-"
"But you wouldn't have told that to me if you didn't mean it," she protested.
He gingerly pried her fingers from around his neck, edging her head back to the pillow, as he began to gather the rumpled sheets from around her, slowly bringing them up from the foot of the bed. "Sometimes there's a different kind of hero," he explained. "A hero who can still do what's right, even if something bad happens to him. Alright?"
"I don't get it."
"How about you try and get some sleep, hmm?"
"Am I gonna wake up in the mud again?" she asked suspiciously.
"I'll tell the mud man you're not interested," he promised, chuckling softly to himself.
"Okay, good. Because that was really....scary...." As she drifted off, finally content with shutting her lids, he stood there a moment longer, studying her. He could take back a lot of what he'd accomplished in his life before she'd come along. But if it was one thing he never would, it was the little girl who had made him into the man he never thought he was capable of becoming upon her arrival. It was the man his wife had allowed the little girl to make him, to shed him of the being he'd best forget. The demon he was determined to let stay buried forever.