From All Sides
Chapter Six
Making Up Is Easy To Do

Beautiful roses filled the air with a delicate aroma and their colors were so rich and vibrant, red, yellow, peach, white and pink. Luxurious red velvet sofas were placed strategically near white walls, and elegant silver candle sconces bathed the area in a soft glow. The best designers on Trading Spaces or Changing Rooms couldn't come up with a room nearly as romantic and calming as this one. Even though Aphrodite wasn't in residence at the moment her aura was omnipresent.

Phoebe Halliwell Turner had admired this space the minute Aphrodite had first showed it to her. It was here where the associate goddess of Love came to think, mediate, and connect with her calling and her higher self. Phoebe had begun making sure the roses were kept fresh and that the candles were lit every day.

It was her small way of commemorating her great grandmother, for all she had done and would continue to do for lovers through the generations. It was also Phoebe's method of honoring all that Aphrodite symbolized, devotion, passion, and above all love. Here in this place, unpleasant memories, nightmares and enemies always seemed far away. Not surprisingly the reassurance it normally provided her with seemed missing today.

The times these kinds of troubling thoughts invaded Phoebe's mind were becoming rarer and rarer since that precious moment in time when she and Cole had first spoken their vows on the beach. Yet she still had unguarded moments when they crept in like now. Phoebe hated being so weak and emotional. She also knew that she should trust in her family. More importantly she knew she could trust Cole to guard their love at all costs. They had already won so many battles against evil and had survived so much together.

There were no guarantees, however, in this life for any man, woman, god or goddess. Sadly Phoebe thought that sometimes-horrible things simply happened which no being no matter how powerful could prevent. She felt herself shivering despite the reassuring atmosphere. One could only hope and pray that goodness and the Light would prevail when all was said and done.

Phoebe hadn't told anyone including Cole about her daily trips here but she wasn't surprised in the slightest when she heard a deep male voice from the entrance way ask, "so on a scale of one to a hundred how much crap am I in right now? Like should I expect to be picking out one of the guest rooms to sleep in tonight?"

"Yeah right," she replied to her beloved husband. She turned to face him and could barely suppress a soft smile. Cole looked like a little boy who had just been caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

"Like I'm going to spend the night freezing and lonely without my favorite security blanket. You know I can't sleep a wink when you aren't in our bed. I never have been able too since you first moved in with me. More to the point you are the one who screwed up not me. Why should I punish myself?" Phoebe asked rhetorically. She wanted to laugh out loud at the proud as a rooster expression, which flitted across his face at that remark. She wasn't going to let him off the hook that easily. Piper may have been right in terms of Phoebe being a sucker for love but she wasn't a complete sap.

"Besides I'm not even really angry with you or my sisters, okay maybe just a little, she said to Cole. "To be honest, however, I was more scared than anything else. When I had the premonition about Paige's escape and then couldn't find you, Piper, or Prue, anywhere in our corner of the universe, you can't believe the scenarios that ran through my mind. I thought my worst fears were coming true and that I was in danger of loosing not only my two precious sisters but also you, which would be even worse."

"It is not just idle flattery when I say that I can't imagine spending more than a few days apart from you let alone an eternity. "I don't mean to be a nagging or a clingy wife but please, please don't ever frighten me like that again. My heart literally cannot take it."

Cole came closer and pulled her into his arms. She buried her head against his heart and listened to its comforting cadence. It gave Phoebe all the reassurance she had been seeking earlier. "I'm so sorry my love for scaring you like that. Please forgive me and let me know, if there is anything I can do to make up for my temporary lapse in judgment," Cole whispered in her ear.

"Well there is one thing you could do that might make amends." "Anything," he offered once again. Phoebe reached for his hand and held on tight. "Come with me," she instructed. They exited through a doorway in the opposite wall into a huge garden. "So this is where all those roses inside came from," he commented.

Phoebe didn't reply. She merely closed her eyes and concentrated. A lovely multi colored quilt appeared on the ground. She let go of his hand only long enough to sit down upon it and free her long locks from their confinement. Then reaching Cole once more Phoebe drew him down next to her. "Unite us husband and convince me once more that our love will prevail," she instructed him. Cole quickly undressed both Phoebe and himself and then eagerly began to worship her body with his.