Part Two

Phoebe sat on the grass, hugging her knees, and watched the sunset. Although the park was still crowded, this favorite spot of hers was in a more secluded area near a shady cluster of trees. She should've spent the late afternoon shopping with Piper but meeting Darryl had really thrown her. By the time she'd been more than half-way to meeting Piper, she changed her mind and rushed back to the security of this spot with its serene view of the Golden Gate Bridge.

"Phoebe?"

As always, her heart skipped a beat at hearing his voice and, when she turned and saw him standing beside her, she calmly questioned her ex-husband, "Do I know you, sir?"

"I'm not sure," he narrowed his gaze down on her, "do you?"

"Whoa, heavy answer," she commented in surprise. "I know it's been that kind of day but I thought you might be in a bit more of a playful mood especially when you're wearing that black dress shirt with the open collar you know I love."

He automatically looked down at his outfit but, just as quickly, snapped, "I'm not here to model clothing for you."

Phoebe ogled him appreciatively, "That's too bad, 'cuz I remember you lookin' mighty fine in quite a number of outfits." But her grin faded quickly, "God, what a day…" She realized he was still glaring at her and she warned, "I said I've had that kind of a day and I really don't want to argue with you so either play along or disappear."

"What are you talking about?" he frowned. "Look, what's wrong? What are you doing here?"

She rolled her eyes and waved her hand around her, "What's it look like? I'm sitting here watching the sunset, enjoying the peace, which, I might add, you are on the verge of ruining for me."

"This isn't you," his frown deepened.

"Isn't it?" she countered. "I've always loved quiet moments like this, taking in God's beauty."

"Phoebe…"

"Cole…" she smirked.

"Dammit, Phoebe, this is serious!"

"Phoebe is dead!" she angrily blurted. And, as if realizing the implication of what she'd just said, she repeated in a sadder tone, "She's dead…"

"No she's not!" he argued. "You think you've buried her but she's still here."

She shook her head, her 'new' long hair spilling out around her face, and she quietly told herself, "She's died so many times I've lost count…"

"Go back, Phoebe," he instructed.

"I'm fine where I am, thank you very much. What," she challenged, "you think I can't take care of myself in the park after dark without using magic?"

"I know you're perfectly capable," Cole declared. "But you also can't deprive yourself of the magic. It's always with you. It's who you are."

"Who I was," she corrected.

He repeated his earlier question, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," she quickly replied, "everything…I don't know," she sighed. "I'm tired, so tired of it all…I wish things were different…I wish I could turn back time…"

"So you wouldn't have found the Ouija board and discovered your powers?"

"So I wouldn't've fallen in love with you…" Phoebe whispered.

It was a moment before he quietly wondered, "Do you really mean that?"

"Everything would've been so different…" she continued as if she hadn't heard him. "I might not be sitting here now in some strange body with a total lack of direction in my life."

"You've lacked direction before…"

"Not like this," she maintained in a tired voice. "If we'd never've gotten together, I might've been happy…"

"You might have been dead!" Cole barked. "Did I…did I hurt you so badly that you can never be happy again?"

"No," she admitted with a sigh. "I was happy. I found love again. It wasn't anywhere near the same what we had but it was real. But love, it doesn't stay, not for me…" She looked up at him and added, "I'm tired of sacrificing myself. I'm tired of starting over. I'm tired of hoping…"

"Hoping for what?" When she didn't respond, he inquired, "What about your sisters? Why don't they know how unhappy you are?"

Phoebe shrugged, "Piper's happy. She's enjoying her new normal life and deserves her peace. I won't complicate it for her by wishing I could go back to my old unstable, unreliable one…"

"What about Paige? I can't believe she hasn't sensed anything wrong."

She nearly smiled thinking of her enthusiastic younger sister, "Running the school was so good for her that she's decided to go back to school for a degree in teaching." She sighed again, "We're really lucky that Leo and Dad were able to help us get false ID and transcripts or none of us would be able to move on."

"So why haven't you?"

"I'm taking a break," she explained, though it came out more as a question than a statement of fact. "Things were so crazy in the end with Zankou and I suppose I could still go for that advanced psych degree but now…I don't know, what's the point? I don't have my advice column anymore, or the radio spots or interviews."

"So what have you been doing?"

"I come here a lot," she admitted, wishing she didn't sound quite so embarrassed about it. "I spend a lot of time thinking…remembering…that's why you're here."

"It is?" he asked with surprise.

"Of course," she replied in a matter-of-fact tone. "Cole, you always come to me when I'm lost. But, I guess depending on my mood at the time, you either remind me of why I hate everything about us and you somehow manage to convince me to react strongly and with purpose about whatever's bothering me or else you…"

"Or I what?" he prompted when she stopped speaking.

"It doesn't matter," she shook her head. "Look, this's just one of my down moments but you can disappear now. Go back to the rest of my memories. I've seen you, talked to you. I'll be okay now."

"You're not okay and I'm not a memory, Phoebe," he softly insisted.

"You're right, you're more than a memory, you're a part of my imagination," she smiled sadly. "See, Cole, today's your luck day. Today you're wonderful and sweet instead of someone I wish I'd never met."

He gazed at her with haunted eyes, "I'm so sorry for what I put you through, for what I keep putting you through."

As always when she imagined him, he said what she wanted and needed to hear. But for the first time in a long time, she confessed aloud, "Seems you never hear me apologize so I'm sorry, Cole. I'm sorry for hurting you and for letting you down. I'm sorry I wished we'd never met." She tried smiling for him, "We'll talk more next time but you really should be going now. Imagination time's over and it's back to the real world for me now."

"Honey, you're not listening to me. I'm not a memory or a figment of your imagination. I'm real. And you have to go back," he urged.

She smiled to herself at his use of that term of affection. Maybe it would prompt her now to recall other times he used it, happy times. She turned back to gaze at the sunset and decided, "I think I'll stay for a while…"

"You can't!"

"Sure I can," she sighed, "it's quiet and peaceful and I'm feeling melancholy and want to stay."

"Go back to your sisters," he pleaded as he quickly knelt next to her.

"In a while…" Why did her voice sound so far away?

"There's no while for you, Phoebe," he stated. "You have to go. Now."

He sounded so desperate and she turned her head to look at him. "All right, Cole, what's going on? What're you so worried about? What're you trying to get me to remember?"

He took a chance and put his hands on her shoulders. Ignoring her shocked expression, he requested, "Look around you, Phoebe, this isn't real."

Confused on so many levels, she argued, "Of course it's real. I don't understand. How are you touching me? And what d-- Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

She looked around and told him, "I hear Piper." Phoebe scrambled to her feet and continued scanning the area, "She's calling me but she sounds so far away…" She took a few steps back, "I thought she said she was going home since I didn't meet her. What's she doing here?"

"Answer her, Phoebe," he anxiously instructed as he stood. "Tell her you hear her."

Something was definitely off and she turned back to face him, "Cole, what's going on?"

"Baby, please, if you ever loved me, go back to Piper now before it's too late…"

"Too late for what?" she wondered. "Cole, where --" She didn't get any other words out as the park scenery shifted and spun. Dizzy, she squeezed her eyes shut and blindly reached out as she lost her balance.

"I'm here," he assured as she latched on to his shirt and he anchored her by her elbows.

"What's wrong with me?" she murmured as he steadied her and the world stopped spinning. She slowly opened her eyes and was stunned to see that she and Cole were standing in broad daylight in the middle of an intersection. On the sidewalk opposite them, a car was smashed into a mailbox, the driver slumped against the inflated airbag. On the ground, a young woman knelt crying over a body.

Phoebe tried to move forward but Cole held her back. And that's when she recognized the young woman. "Piper?" she gasped. She struggled against Cole's arms but he was blocking her view. "Let me go, Cole. What's going on? Piper, what happened? Are you okay?"

It wasn't until that moment that she realized that neither Piper nor anyone on the street could see or hear them. "Cole," she fearfully began, "what's going on?" But before he could answer, she recognized the bottom of the skirt on the body that Piper was now cradling and she instinctively backed up right into him, "Ohmigod, ohmigod, Cole, that's…that's…that's me! Cole, what's going on?"

He immediately pulled his trembling ex-wife into his arms, something he'd longed to do from the instant he'd found her. He spoke in a soothing tone, "Easy, Phoebe, you're safe. You're with me. "

"What? But that's not possible. You're…you're…gone…that alternate reality…this isn't…no…" she stammered in disbelief despite the fact that his arms felt so real encircled around her.

"It's limbo," he informed her, "where Piper was not too long ago. It's where you don't belong. It's why you have to go back."

"Limbo? But I, I can't be dying, I don't remem-- Ohmigod, the little girl," she suddenly panicked, "the car was…the little girl…Cole, there was a little girl. Where's the little girl?"

Cole pointed to the sidewalk where a young man sat comforting a girl who appeared to be about four or five years old. "She's safe, Phoebe, you saved her."

"I changed my mind," Phoebe recalled in a shaky voice, "I didn't want to meet Piper. I wanted to go back to the park. The little girl, she didn't see the car. It was coming so fast, through the red light, it was going right for the sidewalk, she…she didn't see it coming."

Cole kissed the top of her head, "You may not consider yourself a Charmed One anymore but you're still a witch and you still protect the innocents."

"She's a little girl…Anyone would've done the same," she whispered. "I didn't need magic."

"Didn't you? It was your power of levitation that helped you push her out of the way in time," he explained.

"But I can't levitate anymore," she told him.

"I told you before, the magic is still a part of you. It always has been." She was shaking her head and he insisted, "That little girl would be dead if not for you. Don't you see, you're needed here. You still have so much to give, so much love…" He indicated to Piper who was desperately encouraging her sister to hold on, "Listen to Piper. Go back and live your life and be happy, Phoebe. Be the strong woman I remember and love. Find her again and be happy…" He gently twisted her around in his arms and kissed her tenderly on the lips, "And I do love you, Phoebe. I always have and I always will."

"Cole, I --"

But he didn't want to risk hearing her claim she no longer felt the same so he interrupted her by abruptly releasing her from his arms and requesting one last time as he stepped back, "Be happy."

"Cole, wait, I want y--" But somehow he'd already progressed far enough away from her and she found herself torn from watching him with gazing at Piper who was begging her to stay. And Phoebe realized that her window of opportunity was slipping away. "Be happy?" she asked herself as she looked down at the surreal scene of Piper holding her body. She knelt and whispered in Piper's ear, "I love you, Piper." And then she called out to Cole who immediately turned back to her, "I'll be happy, I promise!"

From the distance, Cole watched wistfully as Phoebe's spirit merged with her body and gasped for breath in Piper's arms. Satisfied, he turned away and began to fade from the scene when he suddenly heard her call his name. But she'd been so badly hurt, she couldn't have had the strength to call him like that. "Phoebe?" But her voice sounded even more clear and strong the second time he heard his name and he spun back to the scene, "No! Phoebe, what're you doing?"

She smiled patiently as she stood beside Piper who still cradled her own body, "I'm doing what you wanted."

"No," he argued as he unconsciously backed away several steps, "not this. Not like this. You need to live."

"I need to be happy," she declared, "and this will make me happy."

"Please, Phoebe," he begged as he began rushing to her, "you don't have any time left. Go back. You have a destiny to fulfill. You have a little girl of your own waiting to be born."

Not questioning his knowledge, she sadly commented, "Not every premonition is meant to come true. And it's past time that I made peace with it. As for my destiny, I think I've fulfilled that several times over."

"You don't belong here." Cole worried that he didn't sound as convincing as he needed to be because a part of him was already screaming for her to stay.

"Here," she reached out to him, "is exactly where I belong. I told you I found peace here and that was before I knew I was in this limbo." But when he remained at a distance, she dropped her arms to her sides, scanned the intersection, and still said, "The Zen Master said this was a peaceful place and he was right." She gazed directly at him, "I've found my purpose, Cole. It's here, in this limbo, with you." When he didn't speak, she nervously added, "If you'll have me that is…"

He watched Piper and knew Phoebe only had seconds left to make her choice. "There's no turning back. Please, Phoebe, think of your sisters."

She focused on Piper and smiled sadly as she promised, "I'll see them again. The Elders don't rule here."

"But there are other rules," he warned. Maybe this was the way to change her mind. "Things are different here. There's a job that needs to be done and it isn't always pretty or end happily."

"It doesn't matter," she shook her head, wishing she could comfort Piper. "You'll teach me what I need to learn. I'm a quick study, sometimes anyway. But I'm not changing my mind, Cole. Not this time. And I will find a way to see my sisters and explain…So," she turned back to him, "will you have me stay at your side?"

"It's not a temporary gig," he quietly informed her, unsure if he was truly happy or not with her decision.

"For as long as you're here," she clarified, "for eternity even."

Cole didn't speak but, after a moment's hesitation, finally held out his hand to her.

Without a second thought, Phoebe grabbed it and squeezed it tight.

And then his worried frown finally turned into a genuinely happy smile.

She smiled radiantly at him in return before she giddily leaped up into his arms as they faded from the street.

And in the midst of her grief while cradling her sister's bloody and broken body, Piper could have sworn she heard Phoebe's whispered voice, "I love you, Cole…"

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