Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Phoebe lay curled up on one of the squishy arm chairs, waiting for her mind to catch up with her body. Physically, she was in the manor living room, but mentally, she was still trapped in a cage in the Seer’s lair, watching the coronation of The Source, feeling her impending death creep closer and closer. But even in that moment, she had felt a sense of optimism, some seed of hope she hadn’t felt in a very long time. She ran her hand over her stomach. She still wasn’t showing yet.

“How many times have we vanquished the Source now?” Paige asked.

“Three.” Phoebe shot back, not missing a beat. “But who’s counting?”

“Did we get him?” Paige directed the question at Leo, whose face promptly split onto a grin.

“I think that'd be safe to say based on how the Elders are reacting,” he smiled. “It's like a holiday up there. They still can't believe you did it.”

He directed the final sentence to Phoebe, who smiled in return.

They had vanquished The Source, yes, and that was an accomplishment on its own, but there was to that. Phoebe was possessed by The Source and lived; no one else held that title. Well, almost no one else. She touched her stomach again.

“Well, I gotta say after all this, I'm still looking forward to having a good baby in this house,” Leo continued jovially.

Phoebe leaned down and spoke to her womb. “Uh-oh! No pressure little man!”

Everyone laughed, softly, and then silence fell again.

Piper studied her sister. “How is he?”

“I don’t know,” Phoebe responded. “Good. He feels… I don’t know, before, when The Source was inside, it just felt like this black hole of evil. Totally soulless. But now-” Phoebe paused as the tried to find the best way to articulate. She took in a deep breath.

Paige reached over to her sister, resting her hand on Phoebe’s knee. Phoebe took her hand, giving it a squeeze. She smiled.

“It’s like a weight I didn’t know I was carrying has been lifted,” she explained. “He feels… good.” Tears pricked at the back of Phoebe’s eyes. She had been in the dark so long she had almost forgotten what it felt like, to be loved, support, to be good.

“Well,” Paige announced, “If that baby’s so good he can overcome The Source, I can’t wait to see the type of stuff he’ll get up to as a fully grown witch!”

Phoebe chuckled ruefully. “Oh, god. I’m gonna have to raise a magical baby!” It wasn’t a premonition, but she could already see the mischief her son would get up to - hell, in her youth had Phoebe stirred up trouble every which way, and she didn’t even have powers then.

Piper got up and sat on the arm of the chair Phoebe was nestled in. She reached down and stroked her sister’s hair. “You’re not alone, sweetie. We’ll be with you every step of the way.”

Paige, still holding Phoebe’s hand, gave it another squeeze. “Yeah, we’re going to be the best aunties this world has ever seen! No one’s gonna get to your little guy.”

Phoebe couldn’t help it; a single tear fell from her eye. She nestled closely to her sisters.

“I love you guys.” Phoebe’s voice wavered through tears. “I love you so much.”

“We love you too,” Piper whispered.

Chapter Text

Phoebe leaned against the kitchen counter, morning rays illuminating her paper. A mug of coffee sat beside her, but no attention was paid to it. Rather, Phoebe diverted her full attention to an “Ask Phoebe” column dated back to a year ago; she was so engrossed that she didn’t even notice Piper enter the kitchen and fix herself a bowl of cereal.

“Whatcha reading there, sis?”

Phoebe started at her sisters voice, and small flames leapt from her hands, igniting the paper.

Piper jumped and quickly froze the newspaper, midway in a fall to the counter, with small flames licking each side.

Piper and Phoebe study the paper, leaning in - but not too close.

“I thought The Source was out of your baby,” Piper commented.

“He is,” Phoebe responded. “I think this is just the baby.”

“Uh-huh.”

Paige stumbled into the kitchen, still bleary-eyed, and made a beeline for the coffee machine. She poured a mug, eyes shifting into focus on the newspaper.

“Uh-oh,” she said, turning to Phoebe. “You’re not going to try to throw me out a window again, are you?”

“Paige!” Piper scolded.

Paige shrugged. “What? It’s a valid concern!”

“I don’t think you need to worry about that,” Phoebe said, eyes still on the paper. She positioned her hands slightly above the still-frozen flames, as if strategizing how to pick it up. “It didn’t feel evil or anything, it just… happened.” 

As Phoebe moved to pick up the paper, her hands glowed a soft blue, and the flames turned to ice.

Phoebe promptly pulled her hands back in shock, looking at her sisters.

“Did you guys do that?”

Piper released her freeze and the paper fell to the counter with a thud. The ice on the edges cracked a little bit on impact.

“Wasn’t me,” Piper said.

The two sisters turned to Paige, who put her hands up in a gesture of surrender. “I didn’t do anything.”

Phoebe’s hand fluttered to her stomach. “It must have been the baby.”

“Well, where’d he get that power?” Paige inquired.

Phoebe cocked her head at her sister. “Prue,” she replied softly.

“Huh?”

“In her past life,” Phoebe explained, “she had power over ice. Cryokinesis.” Phoebe turned to Piper on the last word, searching for confirmation.

Piper didn’t register this; her eyes were still on the newspaper. “Okay, but what does it mean?” she asked.

“I mean, Prue was a good witch in her past life, so I think it means that the baby is also g-”

“No! Not that!” Piper interrupted. “What does it mean that the baby still has its powers from inside the womb?”
“Oh.” Phoebe paused to think. “I had powers in the womb, though, didn’t I?”

“You did?” Paige asked.

“Okay,” Piper responded, “but you gave Mom a premonition, you didn’t make her levitate!”

Phoebe frowned. “I’m not seeing the correlation.”

“I’m saying,” Piper explained, “the whole cryo-, pyro-kinesis thing is a lot of magic! A lot more than a single premonition.”

The kitchen was silent as the three witches let the thought percolate.

Phoebe was the first to speak, albeit quietly. “You don’t think… I mean, he’s not still in me, right? The Source?”

Piper raised her brows, neither a yes nor a no.

“Cole was The Source when…” Phoebe became quiet again. She held her abdomen. “He is half-demon, at the very least.”

“Okay, well I don’t think that necessarily effects anything,” Paige retorted.

Her sisters turned to face her, incredulous.

“Okay, maybe I'm a little biased because I am, in fact, adopted,” Paige explained, “but I really think there's something to that whole nurture versus nature thing and predicting how a kid is gonna turn out. You know, the classic environment versus biology argument.”

“Yeah,” Piper chimed in. “And no one’s going to be raised in a better environment than that little guy.”

The worry begins to melt of Phoebe’s face. “Okay.” She smiles. “Thanks, guys.” Her sisters offered coos of affection as Phoebe grabbed her purse off of the kitchen table. “But now I have to get to work before the environment this baby is raised in is that of a single, unemployed mother.” 

“Yes! Go! Go!” Piper called, as her sister exited the kitchen. She watched as Phoebe left, then waited a few beats, still perfectly still, before turning to Paige. “Okay, I’m worried.”

“About Phoebe or the baby?”

“The baby, Paige, what if there’s the Source left in it?”

“I stand by what I said, I think that-”

“LEO!” Piper hollered, cutting Paige off.

Paige winced at the volume and the sudden bright light that filled the room, and grumbled into her coffee mug.

Leo, now fully materialized in the kitchen, turned to his wife. “What?”

“Is there a way to confirm that Phoebe’s baby is Source free?” Piper asked.

“I don’t know,” Leo responded, “but I can check ‘up there’ and see what they know.”

“Yeah, do that,” Piper said. waving him off as he orbed out of the room. She turned back to Paige, who was in the midst of drinking her coffee.

Paige, face still in her mug, said, “I think the baby’s gonna be fine.”

Piper rolled her head back to the newspaper that was beginning to thaw. “He better be fine,” she said. “Or else.”