Faded Fragments
part 20
"So what the hell do I owe the unexpected pleasure to?" Seth Kellerman roughly drawled, quietly pouring himself a snifter of brandy, as he lightly cleared his throat. Giving the glass a faint swirl, he lazily bestowed the other man a tired glance, his long face appearing somewhat defeated, his hand shaking sporadically about the drink's smooth solid texture. Laughing, he slowly undid the first few buttons of his white dress shirt, giving the article of clothing a good yank, as he settled himself soundly into a nearby armchair overlooking the high rise penthouse.
"Have you lost your mind?"
"Can I..." He paused, taking another brief sip of the brandy, as his head fell back, falling onto the cushion behind him. "Can I have some time to think about that?"
"Your precious time is just as hopeless as your pathetic tactics in revenge."
"Oh, you have no idea, Thomas."
"We have kept a low profile for years," he continued. "And right now, it doesn't even seem to bother you that we have not only revealed ourselves to those three bitch-"
"Four."
"I beg your pardon?"
"There's currently four bitches in the running," he added, grinning sloppily. "Half sister witch makes four."
"Are you drunk?"
"Did you know I could have had her right where I wanted her? Before any of this happened, I could have had that immoral little witch right where the hell I wanted her? The little girl, too. Mommy's dead, and Alexandra will follow."
"You've truly gone mad," Thomas Rickman repeated, sizing him up with a complete look of utter disdain.
"I'm only halfway there," Seth pressed, uttering a low giggle, as he shut his eyes. "But it's just like Patrick said, Tommy boy. We can't stop now. It just isn't an option. If he was still bloody with me in that Godforsaken partnership, he'd be telling you the-"
"Your friend ratted you out," Rickman snapped, his tone increasing its volume. "He lied, and I got rid of him. Perhaps you'd like to be next, while you still have some of your sanity left about you?"
"What?"
"Your options are no longer what you think they are. Furthermore, you are not going to destroy a reputation I've worked my whole life to build, you worthless piece of good-for-nothing crap. I refuse to let it happen. I won't let it happen."
"So what're you gonna do, Tom? You gonna kill me too, is that it?"
"Like I said, the thought has crossed my mind on several occasions," he murmured. "I wouldn't rule it out, especially not now."
"Well, fancy that. You're a real pro now. A rebel without a cause?"
"You try my patience, Seth. And whether you can see it or not, we're only putting ourselves on trial here."
"How do you figure?"
"Celia was a valuable commodity, but her death wasn't the end of your petty existence. The proposal was simple. We ask Turner, he refuses, no harm done. We couldn't tempt him before, and we won't tempt him now."
"So what do you suggest?"
"A method that doesn't require you sacrificing your ass in the process."
"Dammit, Tom, I loved her!!!"
"Yes, and she was more concerned with resurrecting that tenacious imbecile from the grave, than she was forever doting on your barren carcass."
"This barren carcass nearly succeeded in ridding this world of that half breed demonic bastard."
"Nearly doesn't count as even almost," he retorted, allowing his lips to curl themselves in a frightening smile.
"And I really don't care anymore," Seth groggily returned. "Let them all kill themselves for what it's worth."
"Perhaps I should remind you that what you unleashed is not only magic, but demonic as well."
"Oh, no, really, Tom? Gee, my education just isn't what it used to be."
"Belthazor could resurface at any moment," he emphasized, lightly gritting his teeth. "Cole runs out of time, and we'll have a whole new problem on our hands. Belthazor was the Source's right hand man- he's both dangerous and willing."
"Look around you, you moron. There is no Source. He went poof and disappeared a long time ago. Live in the now. Besides that, our high and mighty demon fell for a high and mighty witch and shot that plan all to hell, anyway. We're going there in a handbag, so you might as well grab your seatbelt and enjoy the ride."
"Are you honestly just going to sit here and-"
"Yes, I am, Thomas. Would you like a cigar? Two, perhaps?" Smiling, he tore one free from the pocket of his suit, slowly reaching for the lighter that sat on the table to his left, eagerly touching it to his lips. "The night's young."
"You're no better than he is," Rickman sneered, his upper lip slightly curling, as he observed the gesture with a fraction of loathing on his part.
"Now on that, I beg to differ."
"You're feeding a mindless love- your love, Seth. One that should have died for you when she died. For God's sake, there's nothing left of her. Get a damn grip on yourself."
"We can bring her back," he replied simply.
"This isn't your fight."
"Oh, and suddenly it's yours? Where were you when we needed you, friend? Hmm? Good 'ol Thomas Rickman, he never lets us down." He chuckled. "And if I may say, you're as demonic as they come, if not more so than he is now."
"I wasn't the one who let Jake Randolph into the mix."
"And I don't believe Randolph will be showing what a disgrace he is anytime soon. You see, Tom, I failed to realize the hefty sum Patrick supplied him with well in advance, whether he came through or not. So with all due respect, old man, he was Patrick's deal- not mine. Therefore, I cannot and will not be held responsible for any further actions on his part. Case closed."
"Mr. Kellerman, I resent being called an old man when my capability seems to be well above yours at the moment. In fact, you'd be wise to smarten up, and take heed to my-"
"You don't have a damn thing to say that I haven't already heard. So why don't you do yourself a favor and shut the door on your way out."
"And what exactly are you planning on doing about this world?"
"The two of them are already falling madly as we speak. So unless you have your own solution that targets this directly, and you're prepared to help me do so, I'm afraid I must rest my case and call it a day."
"And how many days will you have left?"
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Yours are clearly numbered, Seth, as are Cole's. You equally share in the misery you wish to each other."
"Tom, he humiliated me on my own turf. I don't know about you, but there are some things in any world that you can't just let just slide if you expect to get anywhere."
"And where are you, Seth?"
"Kellerman and Rickman has flushed itself down the toilet. I guess I'm my own man now."
"There may be a chance of rebuilding-"
"And you only play it nice when there's something in it for you. You think I haven't learned anything in all our dealings together?"
"Let me make this as frank as I possibly can. If I get a hold of Turner first, I'll simply pleasure myself by killing him for the fun of it. Does that work for you?"
"Well, actually, yes. It does. Matter of fact, it might just come in time for my birthday. Never did have a wish come true before. So please. Let me know how it goes, and don't let me stop you."
"The consequences of what you've done could have been spared."
"Are you going to stop flapping that incessant jaw of yours so I can get back to wallowing in my own pity?"
"Your alias-"
"He let her see right through my alias," he snapped. "There's no use reprising my role of Henry Parkinson any longer, and as far as I'm concerned, he's nothing more than a mere figment of the imagination."
"But I believe her boyfriend would say otherwise."
"Tom, are you in or are you out? Stop playing games."
"Games. Now where's the humor in that?" Rickman shook his head, reaching over, as he rapidly pulled the drink from Seth's grasp, angrily tossing it aside, so that its contents splattered fondly over the off white wall behind him, watching with amusement as the glass lay in shards no more than a foot away from him, the carpet bleeding of brandy. He neatly clasped his hands behind his back, filling the room with a bright smile, as he moved closer to the other man, his eyes glowing a vibrant amber in color. He parted his lips, leaning close to his ear. "Know this. I am no more than five seconds away from knocking that cocky attitude right out of you, you selfish son of a bitch. If you want to live- if you want to cooperate, you'll hear my terms, and you'll comply by them. There isn't a choice. I have too much in the running to be beat down by an amateur. And that's all you ever were, Seth. An amateur. You're in love with your dreams, and you'll die for it. What you are, is nothing more than a tiny speck of dirt I can flick off my finger without a moment's notice, without a moment's hesitation. You could be gone in the blink of an eye and no one would miss you."
"So now you've taken to threatening me because I've intimidated you. How very mature of you, Tom."
"One breath and you're history," he mused quietly. "Don't push me."
"Sorry, Tom. I'm afraid I can't oblige. But you get props just for the hell of it."
"I'll be watching you," he whispered.
"So I gather this makes us mortal enemies now."
"That would work if I were mortal," Rickman offered simply.
**********
"Just can't seem to think of a decent place to start," he murmured, his blues watching the flames in the fireplace to his right, as his lips gently touched themselves to the glass of wine he held in front of him, lightly clearing his throat.
"The beginning," she urged.
"Well...I was the ADA assigned to a case you and your sister Prue had some involvement in, and both of you had banded together to save your friend Darryl Morris from something called a Guardian-"
"A Guardian was trying to attack Darryl? Darryl, our...policeman friend?"
"Yeah, well, I didn't exactly witness it firsthand, but I'd heard of what both you and your sister were capable of," he explained. "So when I got there, technically I already knew of the infamous Charmed Ones, and how they'd been wreaking havoc on my kind." He nearly smiled then, his mouth only meeting it halfway. "But it didn't stop you from eagerly volunteering anything you could share, and that's when I came to figure you into the equation- and how my getting close to you could come in handy if I wanted to destroy both you and your sisters. Apparently, God had something else in store for a half demon who failed miserably in his task. I mean, after that, I tried. I really did. I tried countless times- I even tried turning you against your own sisters. None of it worked. Maybe I didn't let it."
"Why?" she pressed softly. "If you knew what you were meant to do, and you truly believed you were evil..."
"We think we know, but we're not even close."
"So you were-"
"Not evil enough, considering you ended up being the one weakness I could never surpass."
"But what does that mean? Given what I am, who I am today, what went wrong between us? You say you met me that night-"
"I didn't say it was night," he cut her off, raising an eyebrow, as she randomly tossed her hands at him, shrugging.
"I assumed it was, because most attacks happen at night."
"Not for Andras, the spirit of rage," he offered. "Matter of fact, he got your sister Piper when she was already getting extremely pissed off at one of her homeowner's meetings. One you were supposed to help her cover, but didn't. Didn't sit too well. And when both of them ganged up on you, you went to me." He laughed slowly, shaking his head. "I was supposed to kill you that night- I had everything planned. It was a simple deduction, and I was sure you'd be the one to break the Power of Three. The most vulnerable, I'd called it."
"But?"
"But...you weren't," he finished admirably, giving her a slow grin. "I underestimated what love could do when you least expect it. I was inches away from taking that knife and- well, I couldn't. And I know what you're saying. That it could've been so easy, and they wouldn't have come after me for betraying them if I'd done the job and fled that night. Of course, much later, after I'd been injured going up against the three of you while possessed by Andras, you had Leo heal me, and I started to recover. But not before I'd killed The Triad. You knew my secret, every little bit of who I was, but you still loved me. It's...it's kind of like the way my little girl still loves me after all I've done. She knows- she sees the real me, Phoebe. She sees right through me, and yet I still haven't managed to get through to you."
"I don't have any recollection of you doing those things. None of them, Cole."
"Which is why you need to make yourself look past what you've become, and remember what you were."
"What happened after I found you out, though? I mean, how did I react? Did I say anything, do anything to hurt you?" She took a sip of her own glass of wine, crossing one ankle over the other upon the soft carpet, wiggling the toes of her bare feet, as she studied him with a nagging interest.
"You tried to push me away when I finally came back for you," he added, laughing. "But you needed my help in saving Prue, who'd been under the spell of a priestess named Dantalia. It would've taken over you and Piper...but...but even after you'd learned your lesson, you still thought I was a risk to you, if only because a part of me would always be evil. You didn't say those exact words, but I got the message. I wasn't prepared to give up just yet, and something inside me hated that. I mean, hell. The Source was preparing to send bountyhunter after bountyhunter at me, making me an unwilling sacrifice, and yet you still mattered more than my own life. I would have done anything for you."
"So..."
"So after I decided I wasn't going anywhere, I tried my luck and came right to the manor."
"Big mistake with Prue?" she guessed, her eyes lighting up, as she calmly leaned her head back against the sofa.
"Probably the biggest mistake I'd ever made, aside from falling in love with you," he told her. "But I still saved the day."
"You?" she gently teased, smiling.
"Well, me and Prue," he admitted a bit sheepishly, a nervous smile falling across his scruffy countenance. "We entered a time loop and fought the bad guys of the wild, wild west. I got to dress up like a cowboy. But she was sure one hell of a shot."
"Who would've thought?"
"Still, it won me over with you big time. I might be flattering myself a bit here, but once I got back, you even invited me to stay for your sister's rehearsal dinner."
"Rehearsal dinner? She was getting married?"
"Piper and Leo fought to be together and in the end, they were allowed to marry," he sided.
"Imagine that," she whispered. "And all this time, Piper thought it could never be- which is...which is probably why she hooked up with Dan, you know? Normal guy equals normal life, equals normal children, and a-"
"Life without magic," he prompted, finishing.
"And maybe it's more tragic than I thought."
"Phoebe, you-"
"It is," she cut him off. "Don't you understand? All this time I've just been going about my business, not giving a damn what happens to innocents who might need saving, or...or spells we might've had to write to prevent those innocents from ever being in danger. I screwed up, Cole. I let my own desires get in the way of what I was meant to do."
"No, you didn't. You married me- married, divorced, and married me," he cleared up, "and you have something to show for it, because where I come from, you never stopped caring about the people that needed you the most."
"But that's- how would you...why would you give in to me if I'm so horrible now?"
"You're not a horrible person, Phoebe."
"What went on before we married the first time?" she asked him, her mouth set in a straight line, as she set her glass down on the carpet, crossing her slender arms over her chest.
"Oh, it was nothing. A Source possession here, a vanquish there, a resurrection- well, technically, I never really died if you count purgatory."
"So I married a dead guy," she reasoned hopefully.
"You can't have children with a dead guy," he pointed out, then caught himself. "But then there's Leo, so maybe..."
"Children?" she whispered.
"You tried to take magic out of her life, when I wanted the magic in it. You won out in the end...at least for a little while, anyway. Then, when she was kidnapped by The Dark, we had to band together and help get her back. Of course, at that point, you weren't speaking to me any more than you would've liked, and yet by the time we were through, you still found you couldn't resist me."
"But I would've remembered a daughter," she concluded, more to herself than to him, clearly dumbfounded. "I would have remembered giving birth to her."
"It's nothing to be ashamed of," he said quietly.
"It was probably the best day of my life and I can't even recall what I did or said to her at the hospital, Cole."
"Trust me, she remembers. She remembers everything."
"The little girl you spoke of earlier- that's her, isn't it?"
He nodded, giving her knee a slight pat. "She's safe," he assured her. "She's with her aunt now. I don't think it's her that they want, but I guess you can never be too sure."
"I have this memory," she started then, her voice barely audible, as she met his blues entirely, staring hard into them, as she paused and proceeded. "I think it might be from childhood, or...I kind of think it is. I can vividly remember a girl of about ten- probably me. And she was wearing this crazy little shirt with big purple stripes. At first I thought it was ridiculous, because Grams would never dare dress me in something like that if she knew my reputation mattered..."
He laughed then, taking her hand without even realizing it, gathering it gingerly into his. "Never," he mused, grinning.
"But apparently she did," she continued. "And one day when she wasn't around, I somehow met this guy. I don't know why he was there, or even how. I just sorta joked about it back then, being a girl with big dreams and all, only now I can't help but think he looked strangely familiar. You ever have that happen to you before? I used...I used to call him my Prince Charming," she added, flushing quickly. "It was so stupid, but I found myself falling so much in love with him. He had this dark hair, and these incredible blues eyes, and he was dressed up all nice. He smiled at me. And to this day, I remember that smile."
He just studied her a moment, as a single tear trickled down his cheek before he could stop it, spilling out over their joined hands, a smile creasing his beautiful face.
"It was your smile," she told him lovingly, her face alive and dancing. "And I think that man was you. Up until now, I didn't see how it could be you, but it must be, it had to be. I remember looking at him, and secretly telling myself that one day I was gonna marry him. No matter what it took, I was going to see him again."
"Phoebe..."
"And it looks like I did," she whispered. "After all these years."
"You saw me when I was evil," he whispered back.
"Cole-"
"It's...not how I wanted you to see me," he interrupted, pulling his hand from hers, as he calmly swiped it against the leg of his jeans, tightly shutting his eyes. "I wanted you to see-"
"But I do see you. I see every inch of you. And that man I met before...he- he didn't try to hurt me, either. He protected me and he watched over me. He saved me."
"You saved me," he said hoarsly. "In ways you probably never thought you could."
"Can't we have it both ways?" she asked him, her eyes glittering, already on the verge of tears.
"And I don't want you to leave this life behind if you're already-"
"What would I be leaving behind?" she challenged him. "What would be so precious in this life, that it could compare to the next? I knew who I was in the one I shared with you, and I'm through pretending to be something I no longer feel I can justify."
"So what does that mean?" he quietly pressed, his voice just above a whisper.
"It means that I want to remember more," she urged. "I want to remember what we were like together."
"You're asking a lot," he proclaimed softly.
"Why? Is it so hard to-"
"You're asking for my soul," he countered, his face literally comprised of emotion, his thumb and forefinger tracing his own jawline.
"What have you got to lose?"
"You," he whispered. "Which naturally means everything, considering I nearly succeeded."
"I want to know," she breathed.
"We haven't got a lot of time left," he reasoned, his eyes suddenly growing sad, as he felt a pair of fingers trail down his cheek, pressing themselves fondly over the stubble.
"Then show me."
"Close your eyes."
"Is that some sort of a trick-"
"Close your eyes," he repeated, laughing now, as he began to move closer to her.
"Or what?" she asked playfully.
"You're ticklish," he surmised, "as I know well from experience, so if you don't mind, I'll just pick up where I left off-"
Her eyes finally shutting, she giggled then, immediately putting up both hands in front of her. "Won't be necessary, because I surrender to the cause. That is, if you still have one..."
He gingerly touched his lips to hers, hesitating for only a moment, until he felt her respond, giving herself wholeheartedly to the motion as best she could, a quiet sigh escaping her lips.
Her breath caught as she felt the hooded sweatshirt being tumbled carelessly off her shoulders, falling into an absentminded heap upon the floor, her toes curling as she felt a shiver run up and down her spine. He sat back, his strong hands coming to an abrupt halt as they rested on the fabric of her spaghetti strap, his blues gently observing her, his expression surpressing just the slightest wince, as he started to pull back, annoyed with himself.
But her hands closed over his wrists, giving them a tight squeeze, slowly nodding, her mouth set firm and confident, as her brown eyes gave him a glimpse of warmth and understanding. Without exchanging any words, she instead moved and lifted the white t-shirt off his head, revealing a strongly muscled chest, his arms surprisingly well defined. She smiled in anticipation, as his hands enclosed themselves on either side of her face, watching him glimpse her with that amazing blue. To her right, the fire was still blazing, it's red and orange hues sprouting small flames, as they crackled numbly against the broken pieces of wood, giving the room an air of familiarity and comfort.
As he let the last shirt slide free of her small and delicate frame, he felt her arms bring themselves casually around his neck, pressing their bare bodies together in one slow movement, as she planted a soft kiss upon the tip of his nose, letting her eyes gather the beauty of his face. She brought her legs easily around his waist then, letting their lips coincide once more, as she smiled deeply and knowingly beneath the soft kisses.