Faded Fragments
part 8
"Daddy? Can I have another one?" Alexandra Turner pleaded, calmly finishing off her vanilla ice cream cone with a great round of enthusiasm, her small hands abruptly reaching for a napkin in the holder to her left, as she neatly wiped her mouth clean of all spills, tossing it in the table's center.
He watched his daughter with amusement in his eyes, as he arched an eyebrow in her direction, the corners of his mouth tugging into a slow smile that seemed only meant for him.
He wasn't alone anymore. Not that he had ever been, prior to finding himself God knows where with Paige....but the minute he'd seen her standing there- the minute she had acknowledged him as the man he had grown to become in having shed his questionable upbringing, he somehow had an ounce of faith left that he might actually get through it with a very special little girl who doted patiently upon the simpler things in life. "Ally, you've had two already. Anymore and they'll-"
"Never be saving you extra trips to the dentist," Paige Matthews pointed out, giving her niece a knowing look, as she lightly scrunched up her nose. "Trust me, you're talking to the queen of lollipops over here."
"Which means it would be wise to stop talking to her altogether," Cole concluded softly.
"Look, I'm on board with making clothes magically appear and making credit come out of my ears to pay for this, but if you're just going to ignore this and pretend it never happened, you're a bigger failure than I thought."
"I'm sorry?"
"Oh, don't be. If you're just going to walk away, without knowing what you might gain, I guess it's safe to say it's entirely your loss."
"And what am I going to do?" he challenged her. "What other alternative do I have?"
"Talk to her. You've done it every single day of your strained existence."
"Yeah. That'll be good. While I'm at it, I'll also walk right up to her boyfriend and say, 'gee, looks like you've got my wife on your arm, and I'd really like her back now.' Brilliant, Paige. Never occurred to me."
"No. Just her. You corner her, get her alone, and tell her. She has to remember you. Nobody said she didn't."
"And...that's why she was practically making out with a stranger in the living room."
"Please, Daddy?"
"It'll rot your teeth," he replied simply.
"Where's Mommy?"
"Look, the point is, I am not going to go out there and waste my time if I've already seen with my own eyes that she's fallen out of love with me." He winced slightly, numbly scooping up a forkful of the chef salad that sat before him. He chewed thoughtfully, reaching for a glass of water. "All these years I thought I had her....really had her trust in me, she probably did it because she thought she was saving me. When in reality, she'd already moved on shortly after we had that dispute."
"And a little argument over the use of magic is not going to have Phoebe making a break for it. She never saw anyone in the time you split, and with all due respect, she was too much of a lady to ever let it happen. Translation? To let a man as gorgeous and unique as you walk out of her life, would be the biggest mistake she'd ever make. Her words, not mine."
"And I'm just supposed to take those words for it."
Paige gently took a sip of the soda that sat in front of her, carefully letting her eyes settle on his broken frame. "Yeah, and if I believed I really had something so special with someone that special, I'd sure as hell be up and out of here in a heartbeat trying to make that something work, pal. See, you don't understand just how weird this really is. You can't put it in perspective, because everything in your heart is telling you not to bother. But the truth of it is, if you never knew her- never loved her....I would never have met you. Yet here I am, plain as day, and it doesn't phase you worth a damn."
"No, it doesn't, because Phoebe's going to keep you around no matter what. You're her sister."
"How do you explain your daughter then?" she questioned, gesturing briefly towards Alex, as she merely leaned back into the booth, stubbornly crossing her arms over her chest.
"My...." His gaze had already fallen on the little girl once again, her eyes trained thoughtfully upward to gain his attention, her face a pure portrait of innocence, as her tiny fingers took to ripping apart a napkin, pieces haphazadly strewn about the table already, the mess having proved entirely unnoticeable only minutes earlier. Her hair was tucked back behind either ear, and her petite face remained set in a determined line.
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but someone that important doesn't come from anything but love. You'd be blind not to see it."
"Something's wrong, isn't it?" Alex guessed then.
"Sweetie, nothing's-"
"But you and Aunt Paige are acting all funny. And we wouldn't be here right now," she frowned, as she proceeded to overlap one hand with the other, "if Mommy didn't kick me out of the house."
He gre tense, as he turned to her. "What are you talking about, Ally?"
"I wasn't even all awake yet," she pressed. "But it was strange. I remember a man's voice....not you, Daddy. Someone else. I didn't know him. He kept talking to her, and she didn't even really know I was there- she didn't seem to know. It was like....it was almost like she didn't care about me." She drew those hands into her lap. "I said her name, and I thought....Daddy, Abby, and Ben weren't in the house with me. I don't know where they are. But they weren't there. I was scared. Then Mommy said something mean to me...something about finding me a good home? I thought I was at home. It was my bed, Daddy. The same bed. And I know you tucked me in last night."
"Oh my God," Paige whispered, her voice barely audible.
Cole didn't say anything, as he finally brought her close, an arm gently finding its way around her tiny shoulders, as he hugged her close, bringing his lips down to plant a kiss into her hair, offering a deep sigh, his countenance threatening to crumble at any moment. Holding himself together was a useless purpose before he even tried. Everything in him wanted to surrender and shatter like glass, that outer shell cracking itself open to reveal a dispair so profound, so accurately etched on his entire being, that the ramifications of it scared him to the point of never coming back. He may as well have submitted himself to an eternal void plagued with an equally doomed existence.
"Why would she do that?" Alex prompted. "Why would she act like she didn't know me, Daddy? I see her everyday."
"I don't know," he answered honestly.
"Do you know me?" she asked him softly. "Do you know me, even if Mommy doesn't?"
"Of course I do," he told her, his heart literally reaching out for her, as he could feel his voice reluctantly cracking against his will, the pain coming back into his chest again. "There was never a time when I didn't, Ally."
"Then what's going on?"
"You have to go to her," Paige added, her own composure struggling not to break. "Cole, you have to go to her, and tell her. Make her believe. If she's under some kind of spell, maybe we can snap her out of it. Maybe we can-"
"Dammit, Paige, we've already established that she wasn't."
"I know, but-"
"And where will you be?" he responded, a hint of annoyance flickering into his blues, as he shot her a random glance.
"I'm going to see if we can get to Piper. Maybe this has only affected Phoebe, and-"
"And it's still not doing anything to explain the house, or the new guy, or why my wife doesn't even recognize the fact that she once gave birth to a child and had a loving husband. Three children, Paige. So where are the other two? They couldn't have just disappeared into thin air."
"No," she mused, her fingernails drumming themselves absentmindedly along the wood, as she seemed to almost consider it a moment longer. "But you can't deny the fact that it's magically linked somehow."
"In what sense?"
"Okay, look, you have to admit, it's still plausible. If Phoebe were really in her right mind, she wouldn't be giving herself so generously to the clutches of another romeo."
"Romeo?"
"You get the point," she told him, lightly rolling her eyes. "In any case, it's the fact that we're perfectly sane right now, and her behavior is...well....not?"
"So then where in God's name is Prue in all of this? We haven't-"
"Wait. Let me get this straight."
"What now?"
She let out a small smile. "You're actually begging to see Prue, when less than a day ago you couldn't stand to be in the same room as her or you'd run away screaming? What part of this am I just not getting?"
"It's not like that. Contrary to your popular sector of undying beliefs, you've completely overlooked my intentions."
"Yeah, and contrary to whatever beliefs I could have possessed, that's just another part of the puzzle we haven't been able to get to yet," she surmised. "When it all comes down to it, maybe we should be thankful we seem to have gone untouched."
"Untouched?" he pressed weakly, nearly forcing out a fit of laughter, as he fought to sustain himself. "Paige, I've gone about as far from untouched as you can possibly imagine. Because when someone messes with Phoebe, they deal with me. It's as simple as that, and God help me, I wouldn't have it any other way. They've crossed a line, and that's all there is to it."
"Yeah, but preparing yourself for the worst isn't entirely out as an option," she reminded him.
"I can handle myself," he offered, maintaining a difficult sense of control, as he silently gritted his teeth.
"So you ask yourself," she sided. "You ask yourself, who is probably your biggest enemy out of everyone you've done business with over the course of your life...and you come up with someone who doesn't fit. Someone whose most apt to be called the odd man out."
"Man?"
"Demons?" she then suggested, shrugging. "Take your pick. Regardless, he's got you pegged for someone he can throw over the edge when the time is right. Who's got your vote, and what's his motive?"
"That depends," he mildly threw out. "I've pissed off too many demons to keep track. Could be anyone."
"Saying it is still in the realm of magic."
He shut his eyes. "I recently vanquished an old rival's brother the other day, but I hardly think that matters."
"For?"
"I'm sorry?"
"Why did you kill him?"
"Because his incessant babbling was beginning to run away with him. Why do you think? Different demons get on my nerves for different reasons. Try one."
"By which you mean he was going to talk to someone higher about a betrayal you commited ages ago?"
"It's not like that," he explained. "Demons...demonic associates remember you no matter where you go....what you are. There's no changing what you were to them at some point in your life, whether you've fully acknowledged that standpoint or not. You don't watch your step, you could be toast. End of story."
"So the remaining brother, who was he?"
"What is this, an interrogation?"
"No, but I thought we all agreed to only use our powers when-"
"Yeah, and the situation called for it, sue me."
"But you could have at least let-"
"I didn't tell Phoebe, because it had nothing to do with her. She had no reason to worry, and I wasn't going to spoil anyone's holiday spirit by telling a story of a past revisited, alright?"
"And far be it for me to judge you on it," she told him, holding her hands out in a defensive gesture, as she raised her brows.
"Daddy wouldn't do anything if he thought it would hurt me," Alex spoke up, her arms upon the table, as she carefully lay her head down on top of them, offering a small sigh. "It's not his fault, Aunt Paige. You can't blame him for that."
"Sweetheart, she's not blaming me, she's accusing me."
"Isn't that the same?"
"Well, mostly. But-"
"Daddy, I want to go home. I don't care if Mommy won't let us in, but I want to go home. I miss it."
"Soon enough," he tried, not quite sure he even had himself convinced by that particular promise, his hand reassuringly patting her back.
"I want to go now," she pleaded.
"We can't," he told her softly. "Not yet."
"She can't not know us forever, right?"
"Ally, you'll just have to be-"
"We're going to need somewhere to sleep tonight though," Paige confirmed. "If we're going to attempt anything here, I'm going to head over to the manor now, and see what's what. Wait until I get back, and then you can try with Phoebe."
He shook his head. "I'm coming with you."
"You're not making this any easier."
"Who said it's going to be? Whether you know it or not, you need me on this, just as much I need you. We're stuck with each other, remember?"
"Oh, don't bother reminding me. In fact, it's already permanently engraved in my memory, and I often feel I'm going to be sick just thinking about it."
"I should probably tell you the feeling's mutual then."
"But it would just be a waste of space," she murmured, as she lifted herself up, slowly stretching her arms above her head in the process. "And now that we've had our first conversation that might actually pass for normal, I think I now know what to get you for Christmas."
He raised an eyebrow. "I thought sister in laws were optional, excluding weddings."
"Unbelievable."
"Hey, remember back when I told you not to do me anymore favors?"
She groaned miserably. "Oh, how could I forget? It was the same day you failed to save me two times the embarrassment when you got yourself fired for seeking out....what was it you called it? Oh. Right. Justice. Pfft."
**********
six years ago "She's ours," she whispered back to him, as if reading his thoughts. "We made her. Together. She came from both of us."
He nodded, a hand gently lifting up the sheet that covered her, bringing it closer to her chest, as he calmly rolled up his sweater sleeves to meet his elbows, a quiet grin of his own spreading itself widely over his handsome features, his blues entirely full of light. "Yeah, but she's already as stubborn as you."
"Excuse me? I might just have to beg to differ with you on that, mister."
"She's got your determination, I can see it."
"And that's never a bad thing," she protested softly.
He laughed, bending down to gather her lips in a long kiss, his touch lingering upon her, as her hand reached up to trace a slender finger about his face, her cheeks slightly flushed.
"Thank you," she managed, her gaze still holding his.
"For...."
"Her. You. Everything?"
"I think she's going to be very outspoken and curious about life," he murmured, another smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.
"She already believes in a man she hasn't even begun to know."
He considered a moment, placing his hands sheepishly into the pockets of his jeans, his bottom lip thoughtfully overlapping the top. "That's because she probably already knows how much you mean to me."
Her eyes gazed into his, as she nodded, cradling the little girl closer to her, as she brushed a soft hand across the tiny one's forehead, finding miniscule specks of brown hair, which were only just beginning to grow. "I had your love," she honestly admitted. "That told me everything I needed to know."
"You had hope," he concluded.
"And it led me back to you."
He smiled. "Sometimes you just never know where you might end up, you know? Months from now, years from now...it's hard to say. But if I ever knew anything- about me...about us, for that matter....this miracle would never have come into our lives if we kept putting them on hold. And there were some things I just couldn't forgive myself for before. But if I had the chance to go back, and-"
"I wouldn't have changed anything," she murmured. "Not for the world."
"Not a chance," he agreed, his heart catching.
"Do you want to hold her?"
He hesitated for just a moment, before he reached over his wife. The little girl who had been quiet only minutes earlier, suddenly had the brightest grin on her face, as he cradled her protectively in his strong arms, a low giggle escaping her tiny mouth. Her green eyes widened, as she looked up at him, an instant recognition surfacing around her, those eyes dancing with a profound warmth of spirit. The joy on her face was clearly visibly now, as she calmly reached out a fragile hand, closing it around one of his fingers, eagerly letting out another little squeal. A foot slowly emerged from the confines of the blanket, a few toes wiggling in the process, as she now clapped those hands together in a gleeful approach, her focus refusing to be distracted by anything else. She was hooked.
Phoebe had pushed herself into a sitting position, a hand travelling through her brown hair, as she sat completely mesmerized by the sight in front of her, a sense of relief encasing her system with a small leap of contentedness. "You've got a fan for life," she sided, smiling.
"I think that's for Alexandra to decide," he whispered, turning back to his petite daughter, her expression still fascinated entirely with him.
"Oh, c'mon, she's already smitten with you. Guess she takes after her mom there."
"Well, I do seem to have that affect on women, hmm?"
She chuckled. "Or maybe she loves the fact that her dad's completely taken by her."
"Not going to dispute that...I don't think she would either. Would you, Ally? Little Alex, so innocent....what are you thinking in there?" He paused a moment. "If you're already scheming, little lady, it might be wise to knock some sense into that annoying cousin of yours." He gently angled his head down to kiss her cheek. "Because we both know she's got nothing on you."
"Cole," she hissed playfully.
"I'm just giving her tips for future reference. Nothing wrong with that."
"No. You're taking your dislike for my sister, and using it against a poor defenseless child. Somehow I don't see the fairness in that."
"Oh, she's not so defenseless. If I know this family, she's probably got a few tricks up her sleeve, even now."
"No tricks that she'll be using in public, in any case," she remarked thoughtfully.
"Mind if I give her a little tour and introduce her to the others? I'm sure they're still biting their nails like crazy out in the waiting area."
She grinned. "I think she'd like that."
"Don't worry. I'll put her in protective gear before she meets Paige. I mean, we have to take precautions somewhere, right?"
"Under normal circumstances, I'd hit you for that."
"Good thing these aren't normal circumstances then, huh?" He turned back to Alex, lightly placing his fingertips atop her head.
"We'll never be normal," she whispered, more to herself than to him, as she quietly eased herself back down against the pillows, her lids drooping slightly from exhaustion, as she lowered them into sleep. "But maybe that's not so bad."
"She's beautiful," he whispered, the small bundle clasped securely in her grasp, as he watched her lightly tug at one of the little fingers peeking out from beneath the soft, white blanket, the hospital bracelet sliding clumsily down her wrist. Her eyes were coated with smiles, as her lips matched them with an endearing sense of affection, her composure melting at the sight of something so fragile, but something that also very much hers. Theirs.