December 31, 2006 – 6:30 p.m.

Cole.

Phoebe stood behind the bar organizing the glasses, unable to keep the images of him in the club from filling her vision. She smiled, just for a moment, when she pictured the demon wearing angel wings. What a night that had been.

She glanced around and saw the few staff members helping set up, as well as Paige and Henry busy with their tasks. She straightened some of the liquor bottles, letting her hand rest on one, cringing when she recognized it as a favorite of Cole's.

She quickly pushed the bottle into place and grabbed a cloth to wipe down the bar. Her hand stilled when she suddenly wondered if Cole was the reason she had rarely visited P3 in the past few years. For so long she'd used work as her excuse, that she had to keep up with all the mail or make up for missing work due to "family emergencies," that it was almost routine not to go. Not once had it occurred to her that she might have been avoiding the place because of him.

P3 was Piper's livelihood and it was doing okay as she tried to balance motherhood and Charmed business. And not once did she complain that her sisters no longer helped out as they once did. She simply accepted the help when it was offered. Phoebe frowned with guilt as she thought of all the times she could've helped but made excuses instead.

Her hand began moving on its own as she grew more distracted by these unnerving thoughts. It's not as if she'd never set foot in club again but, being honest with herself now, she realized that if Piper didn't make an issue of being overwhelmed or of hosting a major event, Phoebe didn't volunteer and didn't spend her free time there.

Apart from minor superficial changes, P3 was the same club it had been since it opened. In fact, Phoebe preferred its intimacy to the wildness often present in the more prominent clubs in the Bay City area. She'd always been proud of Piper for making it something like a hidden gem of the club scene.

But as she now looked around the empty club, she further admitted to herself that, despite it all, P3 felt different. And not even dancing with Coop there changed that feeling in her. In fact, she felt a little lost being there. And she'd never felt that way before, at least not before Cole had been gone from her life.

Scrubbing at the fairly clean counter, she reminded herself that Coop was in her life now. She was building a future with him and had no reason to feel lost at all, and certainly not in her own family's business. It wasn't as if they'd lost P3.

But what if she'd had? What if that was the root of her issues with the club? What if that was the true reason spurring her idea of turning P3 into a café? If P3 was completely renovated or in a different location, wouldn't she hang out there more often? What if it was all some subconscious desire just to avoid memories of Cole?

She'd never thought of P3 as their place. For some odd reason, that spot was, in her mind, the mausoleum. But she hadn't been there in years. And it wasn't as if she even had so many memories of Cole there, just that it was the place she'd felt most safe with him, safe with him from both sides, safe to love him. It almost made her wish she did have more memories of that place, happier ones.

She didn't shrink from her memories anymore, not after that trip she'd taken with Coop to see her past loves. He'd managed to break through the shield she'd unknowingly built around her heart. With his help, she slowly accepted that it wasn't wrong to have loved Cole or to have been loved by him. It was something to cherish. But it wasn't easy because the memories still brought sadness, the tinge of tragedy, so she didn't allow herself to be often overwhelmed.

And that's why it probably hurt more when the memories caught her by surprise. Needing to use the bathroom and being hit with the images of sharing a bubble bath with Cole while tossing Grams's ring down the drain; or helping Piper get back into fighting shape after Chris's birth by working out in the basement and seeing a flash of Cole standing there, poised with the sword, sweat gleaming on his bare chest.

She'd never hidden from the manor and all the memories of him there. And there so many; all the arguments, the laughs they shared, the times they'd made love. But the manor meant home to her and it was a good thing the memories hadn't scared her away. She didn't want to think what would happen if she couldn't think of the manor as home.

Even during the brief time she'd lived in the penthouse, home had meant the manor. She paused a moment from wiping the counter and pictured the penthouse in her mind. It had been such a change from the old-fashioned coziness of the manor and yet she'd still been happy there. Because the penthouse was where she'd intended to start forever with Cole, the man she'd loved and married. She hadn't set foot in the penthouse since the day she went back to pack his things but her memories there, just as in the manor, didn't make her feel sad and lost, not like being at P3 seemed to do.

Maybe P3 was more special than she realized. She closed her eyes. Other than the manor, it was the only place left that she could still visit, where the many memories of Cole felt nearly tangible.

Phoebe felt a chill and opened her eyes. It was almost as if she could feel him, even now, after all this time. Her eyes darted to the booth that "belonged" to the sisters. All those times she'd been nestled in his arms while they watched the action on the floor. She rubbed her arms and closed her eyes again. She could almost feel his arms wrapped around her.

For a split second she wished it was true and then guilt snapped her eyes open. Cole was gone. He was in the past and she was making her life, her future, with Coop. Her fingers clenched the rag as she tried to stop the sudden assault of memories on her mind, one image after another of Cole, of herself and Cole, in the club.

Her eyes stung with unshed tears when she saw herself dancing with him alone in the club, dressed in World War II-era costumes. "Stop," she ordered herself and squeezed her eyes shut.

"Hey, you okay?" Paige grabbed her sister's hand. She held it firmly in an effort to stop it from trembling, "Phoebe?"

"I'm fine," Phoebe sniffed, pulled her hand free, and swiped at her eyes. "I'm gonna get the confetti. Piper had some locked in the supply closet from last year."

"Why would she lock up confetti?"

Phoebe shrugged and dropped the cloth on the counter. "The key's in her office, I'll get it."

"Let me orb you to Coop," Paige offered instead.

"I told Piper I would take charge tonight."

"Honey, it's New Year's Eve, your first with Coop. Henry and I can manage the party on our own, no problem."

"Thanks, Paige, but Coop's busy," Phoebe countered. "I'll be back in a minute. Y'know, we're making quick progress here. Piper said to open the doors at 7:30 but we could be ready by 7:00. Think we can manage?"

"I guess. There's plenty of booze and I don't think an extra half hour will make much of a difference."

Phoebe nodded, "Be right back."

"Hey, Phoebe," Henry greeted as she passed him. He looked to his wife a moment later, "Is she okay?"

"No," Paige replied as she leaned into her husband for a hug. "But she won't talk to me or Piper about what's bothering her. And something is, Henry, I know it."

"Maybe you two should back off the marriage thing," he suggested.

"She said they haven't discussed it, that they're not ready."

"Maybe they're not."

"That's ridiculous," Paige lightly slapped at his arm and pulled away. "He's a Cupid. He'll be the perfect husb-"

"And what do Cupids know about being husbands?" he interrupted. He held up a hand, "Oh, I know they've helped guide husbands but what do they know about being husbands? I know I was worried before I married you. I loved you and wanted to be a good husband -"

"And you are," she kissed him, wrapping her arms around his waist. "The very best."

He smiled and continued, "I'm just saying that until we were married and living together as husband and wife, I'm not sure I really knew what to expect. Even now there are times I wonder if there's some marriage rule I'm missing. And I'm mortal. Can you imagine what it must be like for a Cupid who deals with marriage all the time?"

"A bit scary, I guess," Paige considered. "And I guess maybe Phoebe hasn't had much luck with marriages considering her dark ceremony to the Source of all Evil and her elopement to Dex while she was caught in Billie's spell."

"Give her time," Henry suggested. "All that matters is that they love each other and are committed to each other."

"She says they are," Paige sighed.

Henry kissed the top of her head, "Then back off and let them figure it out."


Phoebe growled in frustration. The middle drawer of the desk where Piper kept the key to the closet was stuck. A call to Piper didn't help as she was told the drawer had been working perfectly fine the day before. Once again, she gripped the handle and pulled but it remained stuck. "Dammit!"

She stared at it a moment before deciding that she might be able to shove the drawer open if she tried pushing it from the inside. So she opened the top drawer as far as it could go and slid her hand down into the middle drawer.

But there wasn't much room for her arm to maneuver and she couldn't grip anything to push the drawer open. As she pulled her hand out, she yelped from a sudden pain in her index finger. "Paper cut," she muttered as she watched the small cut well with blood. She grabbed a bandage from the open top drawer and wrapped it around her fingertip.

She was about to slam the drawer shut when she spotted a piece of paper sticking in the track of the drawer. Realizing it was likely the cause of the jam, she tried to pull it out. It felt like photo paper and she didn't want to damage it but she still gave the paper a tug. She heard a soft rip and immediately stopped.

She awkwardly reached in with both hands and tried again. After a few seconds, she felt the paper give so she put a bit more energy into pulling on it. Suddenly, it was free but in the process she banged her knuckles on the edge of the desk. "Ow!"

Unfortunately, at the same time, the photo tore, nearly in half. Staring at the white side, she turned it over and gasped in recognition. Her own copy of the photo was framed and sitting on her bedroom dresser with a number of other family photos. But her heart still pounded as the memory of that Halloween night flooded her mind.

Prue had just come back to the bar telling them about Mitch and his amazing resemblance to Micah, not just in looks, while she had excitedly announced that Cole, that angel, had just left and promised to call her the next day. Piper teased them both about falling in love and then insisted that Leo take their picture. Phoebe was sandwiched between her older sisters; all still wearing their seventeenth century dresses. The love between the sisters had never been more evident and it was one of Phoebe's favorite pictures of the three of them.

Her eyes filled with tears. That night had been so special for them, for her in particular. Of the three, she was the one who so readily embraced being a witch and that night, that time spent in the past learning about the origin of their powers, of their heritage, meant so much to her. She remembered Prue's face when she'd finally come in for a landing on her broom. Prue had been glowing with pride and Phoebe had never been as pleased by her big sister's approval.

Her heart ached with the memory, again tinged with tragedy due the loss of that big sister, but, even as she touched Prue's face in the photo, it was Cole's face that was so vivid in her mind. And he wasn't even in the picture.

The photo slipped from her fingers and Phoebe watched it flutter to the floor. Her head was already pounding in synch with her heart as she recalled Cole's part in their visit to the past. His machinations. It all jumbled together. So much pain. And so much love. "That damned apple peel," she whispered.

She'd taken it as a sign that Cole was her true love. She squeezed her eyes shut as a conversation with Cole, a year later, played in her mind. That quiet conversation, lying in his arms, where he confessed that it was that very moment of spying on her that crystallized his feelings for her even if he didn't know it at the time.

And yet, here she was now, years later, in love with a different man whose name just so happens to also begin with a "C." A man so completely opposite from the first and yet loves her just the same, if not more. A man whom Destiny assured was a blessed future.

She gasped for breath as emotions swirled violently within her. For a moment she was dizzy and thought she would pass out. It was overwhelming her, all the love, the pain, the despair. "I need to get out of here," she whispered as she ran out.

"Phoebe!" Paige shouted as Phoebe ran past her, straight for the stairs.

But Phoebe couldn't stop, she merely called back in a quivering voice, "I, I need some air…I'll be back soon."

Henry held back his wife. "Give her time."

Paige was about to ignore him and orb out anyway but, looking into his eyes, she realized he was right. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and said, "There's no sense in worrying Piper so let's get the key to the closet, get the confetti, and finish getting ready so we can open."

Just as they turned away, Coop appeared in front of them. "What happened? How bad is she?"

"How did you know?" Paige wondered.

"I felt her pain. Paige, tell me. It's not like before, is it?" he paused as the memory of Piper telling him that Phoebe had been killed flashed in his mind. "No," he realized when he easily sensed Phoebe's presence, easing some of the panic, "Phoebe's not dead."

"Of course not," Paige quickly assured him. "But something did happen that caused her to run out of here like a -"

"She's still here," Coop insisted.

"She ran out not two minutes ago," Henry confirmed.

"That's not right," Coop frowned. He closed his eyes and turned in the direction of Piper's office. "She's in there."

Paige shot her husband a worried looked and chased after Coop who was already rushing towards the office. And when he threw open the door, she froze in shock when they found Phoebe lying unconscious on the floor.