Disclaimer: I don't own Charmed. Some dialogue is taken directly from the show.

Discovering the Bird

Drake's Bird

"Think of me when you dance," Drake De'mon whispered to his companion, Phoebe Halliwell.

The two were on a couch in Magic School. Several yards behind them, hiding behind a row of chairs, two visitors from the future watched the tearful goodbye. A Cupid, called Coop, had taken the Phoebe from the future on a tour of her past loves. He'd used his mystical ring to teleport them into the past. His goal was to understand the heartbreak the witch had endured so that he could help to break the protective shield she'd put up around her heart. The Powers That Be, Elders, had sent Coop to help Phoebe find love. They wished to make up for any hardships the Halliwell sisters had gone through in the eight years since they'd become the Charmed Ones, powerful witches for the force of good. And Coop planned to fulfill his mission. He'd known her but a little more than a week, yet he could clearly see that Phoebe deserved love.

Their trip had already shown Coop several things that could've put his brunette charge's shield up. He'd seen a demonic love from a past life be vanquished because of his won evil and a mortal one from her current life unable to accept her magical destiny. Now, Coop and Phoebe were viewing her last meeting with another demon she'd been involved with. Drake, however, had always been good. A year before his death, he'd made a deal with a sorcerer so that he could become human for a full twelve months; it was his dream. Phoebe had met him three weeks before the end of his year. The relationship had never really had a chance to get off the ground, despite how much they cared for each other. That had been almost a year before Coop was sent to Phoebe.

The time travelers saw Drake do a Gene Kelly foot slide as he exited the room. As the doors shut behind him, the Phoebe of Drake's time said softly, "I'll miss you." She then stood up and made for a back exit, headed home. She had no desire to stay in the building Drake was about to die in.

When her past self had disappeared, Coop took Phoebe's hands, "I think I'm beginning to understand. Let's go."

Phoebe pulled her hands from his grasp, "Shh," she ordered, quickly walking toward the door Drake had previously gone through. "I think I hear something."

Coop looked puzzled, "Probably Drake, uh, leaving."

"No, it's voices. Hush," she placed her ear against the thick door and strained to hear through it.

"I couldn't have tasted life unless you set me up with that sorcerer. I just wish I could save you, too," Drake was saying. But, to who? Phoebe wondered.

"I've come to terms with my fate, especially now that I know it won't be Phoebe's, too."

"Oh, my gosh!" Phoebe gasped, recognizing the second voice.

"Phoebe, we really should go. This isn't viewing one of your past relationships; it's listening to a conversation you obviously haven't heard before. We can't risk changing the past," Coop cautioned over her intake of breath.

"It's not like I'm showing it to my past self," she whispered back. "My knowing more of the past won't change anything, not as long as I don't interfere in it."

"... pretty bold move sending in those thorn demons." Hearing Drake's sentence, Phoebe reached for the handle beside her and slowly wrenched the door open, praying for it not to make a sound and alert the past dwellers of her eavesdropping.

"I needed to be able to convince Piper to keep her faith of the love she and Leo share, so her example could help Phoebe do the same, find herself a true love. I had to risk it all for this one," Cole Turner explained.

"Understandably," Drake agreed.

Somewhere in the school, a clock chimed midnight.

Drake dropped to the floor.

Peering from behind the door, Phoebe had barely breathed since she saw him. Cole. Her ex-husband. The guy she'd once called the love of her life, her soul mate. The father of the baby that was stolen from her, stolen by his heritage, by demonic ways. The demon she'd turned to evil for. The demon who'd wanted to turn to good for her. The mortal who'd been possessed by the Source of All Evil. The insane, influenced by demonic powers individual. The evil that had ruined her life only a few short years ago. The evil incarnate she and her sisters had destroyed. The man she had loved. The man she had hated.

The man who was supposed to be dead. How the heck is he here? And, he talked to Piper? How could she not tell me? Is he alive? No, Drake said something about saving him, too. From burning for eternity probably. But, Drake was good. What is going on?! That evil, awful...how dare he interfere in my life after I killed him! And sending thorn demons after my sister, talking to demonic sorcerers! Phoebe thought in a rush, choosing not to acknowledge the beats her heart had skipped upon hearing his voice and seeing his form.

"Phoebe, who is that?" Coop's voice tore her from her thoughts.

"My evil demon ex."

"How many demons did you date?" he asked incredulously.

"Oh, I think you've seen them all now. He's the only one I married, though," Phoebe gestured with her hand toward the six foot two inches tall, dark, and handsome man talking to a now dead Drake. Ignoring Coop's shocked face, she focused her attention back on Cole and Drake.

"Ashes to ashes, huh?" Drake surmised.

"If it's any consolation, you did all that I asked for. You saved Phoebe's belief in love," Cole gratefully said.

"I did more than that, Buddy. I fell in love with her," admitted Drake.

"Understandably."

"Farewell, my friend." Drake reached for the heavens and was absorbed by bright, white lights.

Cole sighed once Drake had vanished. Then, he, too, disappeared.

"Why that arrogant, thinks he has any right to meddle in my life, should be dead, evil, jerk!" Phoebe ranted. She pushed the door out from in front of her hard enough for it to slam against the wall behind it and cause a loud echo to go through the long and empty hall she and Coop stood in.

"You know," Coop mused, "it kind of seemed to me he was trying to help you believe in love again, like I'm doing."

"What do you know?!" Phoebe yelled.

"Love," Coop shrugged. "I tried to get a read off him with my ring. I figured he must love you, despite being evil, like you say, otherwise he wouldn't go to all the trouble."

"And?" Phoebe demanded harshly.

Coop looked at her. "Why do you want to know?"

"Because," she faltered. Why did she want to know? "Because, that demon has no right to love me after what he did. And, if he still does, well, then, I, I hate him more!"

"I couldn't read him," Coop supplied flippantly. "Probably because he's a demon. They aren't supposed to love." He gauged Phoebe's reaction."

"Oh. Who cares? I can tell you how he feels about me. Or at least how he used to. Demon or no, he loved me; it was the only thing he never lied about it. I know he died still loving me. But, I doubt he still does. After all, I did kill him twice. Well, actually an alternate version of me did it the second time. But, I probably would've. I let the Source control him. When he came back to life, I kept rejecting him, telling him I hated him, and that, no matter how hard he tried, he could never be good. He was pure evil, always would be. You know what the last thing I said to him was? That I felt nothing for him, not hate nor love, and when I found a way to kill him, I swore I would, too, that I'd never look back at our relationship. Basically, that I regretted the whole affair. Who could love someone after they said that to them?"

"I feel like I'm missing so much of that story," Coop said. "But, I am confused. That little narrative was supposed to make me see an evil man, right?"

Phoebe stared at him, wondering how her story had turned around. Reviewing it in her head, she seemed like the bad guy. She hadn't meant to go into the mistakes she'd made in her and Cole's relationship. Like how she'd ignored the warning signs of something being wrong, and her sister Paige, when he'd been possessed because she didn't want to face more pain in their relationship. How she'd pushed him away when he found a way back from the Demonic Wasteland to be with her because she was still in so much pain and still so angry, mostly at herself over the Source incident. How she'd drove him mad with her rejection. Hurt him, not helped him and guided him on the path of good. Not dealt with the fact that he was hurting, too. How she'd blamed him for the loss of the child that she still wasn't sure had truly been evil, as the demonic Seer had swore. How her repetitive cries that he was evil had allowed him to actually let his demonic powers influence him into being just that, instead of controlling them as he had done so well originally.

Phoebe had buried the guilt, along with her love for Cole, years ago, so that she wouldn't have to deal with the guilt or with the throbbing pain in the heart that comes from killing your one true love. Shaking her head angrily, Phoebe snapped out of her reverie. She wasn't to blame for the failure of her love with Cole.

And she said so to Coop, who was still watching her so intently. "Cole seduced me in order to kill my sisters; he made me the Queen of the Underworld; he killed innocents, even after he'd sworn he was good; he was the Source's right hand man for a hundred years. He's a demonic legend. He's evil. He didn't deserve to love me, then, and he certainly doesn't deserve to now from wherever it is he exists." More accurately, I've never deserved to love him, Phoebe's heart chided her. Her mind couldn't help but agree.

Hearing her spiteful tone, Coop couldn't help but think that this wasn't the woman he'd studied and come to be quite fond of. Love and heartbreak can change a person though, he told himself. Especially when they're in such strong denial. He knew Phoebe wasn't a cruel person. Her heart was bigger than most people's. She protected the world and its innocents, but more than that, she truly cared for them. She'd just been hurt by love when she'd trusted it most. It had made her bitter. At least he knew where that shield had come from. That wasn't the only thing Coop was sure of, though.

"Take me home, now," Phoebe said, "please, Coop. No, better yet, take me to Piper. There's something I want to talk to her about."