"Phoebe is something wrong?" Cole asked watching his girlfriend pick up the pieces of the broken cupboard that her sister basically threw her into.
"No nothing's wrong, why would anything be wrong?" Phoebe asked quickly, dumping the last bit of broken wood into the bin. "Can you help me take this down to the basement, Leo will need to get new doors and shelves, but the frame looks salvageable."
Cole takes a breath and walks over to her, taking her shoulders and spinning her to face him. "Phoebe," he says knowingly and she sighs.
"Just please help me with this," she whispers softly, avoiding his eyes because she might break down if she looks into them. She pushes herself out of Coles grip easily and grabs a broom to start sweeping the carpets. "We should really find a way to protect the furniture from demons, they don't compensate us for all this damage."
"I don't think they really care," Cole mutters and Phoebe stops sweeping and looks up at him.
"Could you move it so that I can sweep there?" she asked and Cole squints at her because he knew she was going to say something else, instead he just nods and does as she asks leaving her to clean up the remaining bits of wood on the floor. "Just the lamp left, another broken lamp."
"Phoebe," Cole starts again but is cut off when she zips passed him with her broom and bin. "Leave it, we'll clean it up in the morning."
"No, I need to do it now," Phoebe says sweeping up after picking up the big bits. "I don't want Piper to come home to a mess when I could have cleaned up, you know that's what she and Prue used to get so annoyed with me about, I'd always leave the clean up to them, I'd do the battle but run away before the clean up, they used to complain about it but they always let me slack off."
Cole looked up then as she finally stuffed the broom back in the cupboard and looked around. "That's all of it," Cole said softly as she searched for something else to do, finally he grabbed her hand and almost gasped at the wetness he felt, "You're bleeding."
"Stupid lamp," Phoebe mumbled walking to the kitchen and pulling out a first aid kit. She let Cole clean her hand and bandage it up, standing as soon as he was done and walking back to the other room to see what else need to be done.
"Oh no you don't," Cole said following.
"Hey what are you doing?" Phoebe almost screamed as he picked her up and threw her over his shoulder.
"You need to stop obsessing," Cole told her as they made their way up the stairs. "It's driving me crazy."
"I am not obsessing," Phoebe argued pushing herself up so she could crane her head to look at him. "I want to be there when Leo and Piper come back."
"Leo and Piper are back," Cole said walking into her room and shutting the door before depositing her onto her bed. "They've been back for a while."
"What? Why didn't you tell me?" she asked making her way toward the door and Cole grabbed her around her waist and held her there.
"You weren't listening to me and they need to be alone," Cole said moving them both back to the bed and Phoebe frowned.
"Since when did you start knowing my sister better than I do?" Phoebe asked finally giving up and crossing her legs on the bed next to him.
"Since loving you meant I'd have to be around the whole family," he replied with a playful smile reaching out to touch her face and she leaned into his touch gratefully.
"I love you too," she said pushing him down so she could lie against him with her head on his shoulder and her arms tight around him. "I'm sorry Piper made you suffer."
"Like I said earlier Phoebe if facing my crimes helped you save your sister then I would gladly do it again," Cole told her pressing his lips to the top of her head.
"I should have saved her," Phoebe whispered and Cole smiled to himself, this was what was troubling her. "I should have saved Prue. When we were in the underworld I was so focused on saving you and then Piper that I didn't realize that the price for saving Piper would be losing Prue, I couldn't save one without losing the other."
"Phoebe none of this is your fault," he soothed, holding her tighter as she cried. "You couldn't have known that this was going to happen ..."
"But I should have," she said pushing away from him and sitting up, wiping furiously at her tears. "I have the power of premonition, the most useless of all the Charmed powers and of course it did nothing when I needed it most, when I needed to know that my sisters were in danger my stupid powers abandoned me, what use am I to anyone if I can't use them."
"Your powers aren't useless Phoebe, you weren't able to use it because you weren't meant to," Cole said quietly taking her hands in his and squeezing them lightly so he didn't hurt her more. "Prue was supposed to die so that Paige could come into your life, it's not fair but that's how it had to be."
"Is it bad that I wish Paige didn't exist so that we could have Prue back?" Phoebe asked in a small voice, looking up at him and choking back another sob.
"No, I know how much you loved your big sister," Cole told her as she dropped her eyes to her lap. "But wishing Paige away isn't going to bring her back, I'm pretty sure Leo is having this exact conversation with Piper."
Phoebe let out a small laugh and Cole smiled triumphantly. "Nothing is ever going to be the same again."
"It won't be, but you are a survivor, a Halliwell," Cole said pushing Phoebe's hair back from her forehead and tilting her head back as well so that he could look into her eyes. "You and Piper will figure out how to live with Prues memory and you will learn to love Paige and when the time comes maybe the elders will let you see her again."
"Do you think Piper hates me for not being there like I was supposed to?" Phoebe asks him softly as he let his forehead drop to hers. "For saving you instead of saving Prue?"
"I think she understands that if you weren't with me in the underworld she would be dead and so would Prue," he told her honestly. "Phoebe you did everything you could, we didn't make it back in time because of the Source, don't forget that, it was just ... meant to be."
"I used to love that phrase," Phoebe mumbled frowning through her tears. "But now it's just a reminder that she's not here."
"It's going to get easier," Cole told her wiping her cheeks as gently as he could. "It going to take time but you can't keep blaming yourself."
"I hate it when you're right," Phoebe said smiling and leaning in to kiss him.
"I love you Phoebe and I don't mind comforting you when you cry," he said when they broke away from each other. "But eventually you are going to have to stop being so strong for Piper and show her all this pain that you have bottled up maybe even talk to her about it."
Phoebe smiled sadly and looked away. "I love that you think that, I do, but I don't think me breaking down is going to help anyone," she told him patting his cheek. "Besides me and Piper had a little heart to heart last week, I think she knows, I'm always going to be there when she wants to talk."
Cole looked at her skeptically but nodded as if he accepted her answer, content to just hold her in his arms for a while she cried quietly for her sister. His precious Phoebe, he would give up everything for her not to feel guilty for not being there, to bring Prue back from the dead just so that she would be whole again.
He knew that Phoebe had her own way of dealing with things, a way that made sure no-one knew the extent of her pain. He was certain only he knew she cried every night for both her sisters, for Prue's death and Pipers pain, and how she wished that she could have died in Prue's place if only to let Piper keep their big sister with her instead.
He refused to believe that anything would have been better without her in the world but all he could do was assure her that it would get better, that Paige will eventually become an important part of their lives, that Piper will learn to deal with Prue being gone enough to accept another sister and that she will eventually heal.
A/N : Its been a while since I've written Charmed but after rewatching the series for the millionth time, I felt a little inspired
Phoebe's reaction to Prues death has never sat right with me because even when the actresses were fighting you'd never tell with the amazing acting especially considering how close Phoebe and Prue were in the 3rd season and I loved how their relationship grew, so this is just a little something during 4x02 after Leo orbs Paige and Piper to Prue's grave.
I know this is just scraping the emotion I wish Phoebe had felt, but I think delving deeper into that is more a sister thing and if I find the inspiration I might just try a Piper Phoebe conversation about Prue that feels more sincere than the 2 minute scene in 4x01
Please let me know what you think and if I'm off base with my feelings about Phoebes reaction or if you agree
Until Next Time (^^,)