A/N: Now that my story is PG-13, I can run my mouth with nearly no abandon!

Also, in response to the comment left by LozzieLiz, and also to the general sentiment I've been getting from a lot of my readers; I know my story doesn't deal with Cole and Phoebe nearly as much as you'd like to. Hell, it doesn't deal with Cole and Phoebe nearly as I'd like myself, in those chapters where they aren't really that featured. But I need those parts in my story; every character in this story counts, and I'm not going to under develop any of them. Just remember, whenever you get frustrated by the lack of Phoebe/Coleness, that the couple is pivotal in my story. As in, they are the center of it, even if it doesn't seem like it and even if it takes a good while to get there. But that's half the fun, isn't it?

Besides, even when Phoebe and Cole aren't interacting, they are thinking about each other in every chapter except for the second one. But don't worry about it; there will definitely be a lot more interaction between the two characters soon enough. So, for those who are anxious for a bit of Cole and Phoebe—your patience will be rewarded.

Enjoy!

Love's Intervention
Chapter Eleven: Invitations

"No, seriously," said Kevin, amidst bursts of laughter coming from his girlfriend and her best friend, not to mention himself. "The little old lady at the supermarket threatened to whack me off the line with her cane because I had eleven items on the ten-item express lane!" He shook his head as Ames clutched onto Phoebe to support herself from her laughter, a smile dancing across his face as well.

The three of them were sitting in the living room, Phoebe's body stretched out across the couch, with Ames and Kevin sitting close together on the shaggy rug on the floor. There were Chinese takeout cartons all around them; their dinner for the night. Ames finally recovered enough from her hilarity to give her boyfriend a teasing remark. "Imagine what the guys at the station would say," she said, pushing Kevin slightly.

"I don't want to, and they certainly won't find out," Kevin warned, pushing back. Ames pushed back again, and they soon collapsed on top of each other, laughing and experiencing one of those couple moments. Kevin looked up from where he was and grinned at Phoebe. "And you better keep your mouth shut too, you," he added, a twinkle to his eye.

Phoebe had to smile at the couple. Watching the two of them just made her warm and happy inside, especially when she remembered all the guys Ames had fallen in with during their time in New York. According to her diary, Ames continued to make little improvement when it came to her choice in guys—until Kevin came along.

Kevin was (and is, Phoebe thought with a tender smile) the perfect man for Ames, who had been searching for that someone all her life. He was an incredibly attractive man, which was what drew Ames to him in the first place. But that didn't matter—what mattered was how genuinely good he was to her, how they had clicked right away, how they had fit into each other's lives almost seamlessly, like they've known each other all their lives. And the love they shared—it was easy to surmise from the diary that though Phoebe was happy for the two of them each day, she had longed for a love like this as well.

Kevin was also an immensely good friend of Phoebe—another mark of how great his and Ames' relationship was. Every bad boyfriend of Ames Phoebe had immediately hated, and each relatively good and stable boyfriend Phoebe had liked and eventually befriended. Nothing, however, came as close as the friendship between Kevin and Phoebe. They were each other's confidantes, and they almost had the relationship of a sister and brother. Even now, Phoebe felt incredibly comfortable with him—in a few minutes, Phoebe didn't feel like they were strangers at all.

Ames, however, wasn't jealous at all; actually, she would beam with pride whenever she saw her best friend and boyfriend together. Much like Ames is beaming now, Phoebe thought amusedly, watching as Kevin started tickling Ames. Phoebe and Ames were always on another plane of ultimate trust—and besides, Phoebe never minded PDA that much, as Kevin and Ames rolled across the floor, their touches getting a bit more intimate. The same, thankfully, applied to Ames, or else they would've had a lot harder time living together.

Phoebe still sat there, waiting for them to either stop or progress further. The three of them frequently spent time together like this, and the couple would usually stop. However, if they both felt like moving on to the next step, Phoebe would calmly remove herself from their presence and do something else. Phoebe didn't mind at all, and Kevin and Ames knew it as well, or else they wouldn't do it.

When Phoebe saw the look on Ames' face when her head tilted slightly toward her direction, she knew that it was time for her to go somewhere else. Phoebe stood up, got out of their way, and gave them a quick final glance before grabbing her essentials and heading out of there. She didn't feel like staying in, for some obvious reasons; so, she headed out.

An hour and half later, Phoebe found herself in the Manor, having some dessert with Piper. Some of her famous gourmet macadamia chocolate chip ice cream, in fact.

First, Phoebe went out without any real purpose in mind, and so she wandered the commercial streets around her apartment. It was a part of the city that she didn't know; a bit more run down than the neighborhood the Manor was in, but it was generally a nice place, with very interesting stores.

One in particular caught Phoebe's eye, and she hurried in to check it out. It was a small shop with Wiccan objects for sale; but there were no witches in this world, were there?

Well, not quite. Phoebe made a point of going into the nearest bookstore and checking out their children's section; there were Harry Potter books, alright, by the shelf load. She even went online a bit to run through key terms such as "Wicca" and "witch" on search engines, and a large amount of sites showed up, promoting the Wiccan lifestyle. It wasn't a Salem-like culture, and it wasn't one that was totally unaware of magic and sorcery either. Phoebe had thought this piece of information through, and decided that what Leo must've meant when he said that this world contained no magic was that this world's magic didn't work. That meant that magic and demons were no more than a story in this world, no more than a novel or a TV show.

It still didn't stop Phoebe from buying five large purple candles and some incense from the little "Wiccan" shop. She didn't care that Leo the Elder told her there was no magic in this world; she didn't care that her own experiences told her it wasn't possible here. But that didn't stop a surge of hope from going through her when she saw that store. Magic was such a big part of life, and Phoebe didn't really realize how empty she was without it until it was taken away from her here.

After buying her supplies, Phoebe headed over to the Manor, since it was the only other place she could think of going to. If it meant that she had to deal with Dan, so be it. Phoebe was so not walking into Ames and Kevin having sex on the coffee table—she knew, rather explicitly, about Ames' love for cold hard surfaces.

But as it turned out, Phoebe didn't even have to worry about it. Dan wasn't home, and though in the beginning Phoebe thought it just meant he was late from work, she slowly began suspecting something else as the clock ticked away.

Phoebe took advantage of the lull that had fallen between them to ask Piper where he was. Phoebe's older sister, in response, sighed into her bowl of ice cream.

"At his friend's house," she uttered in a monotone. "Watching some sport or another. Probably boxing."

"Oh." Another silence fell between them. When Phoebe opened her mouth to say some neutral remark, Piper suddenly started talking, her voice fast and loud, like a dam bursting.

"He's always at his friends' house," she snapped. "Bryan, or Doug, or that idiot Johnson. And boxing—do you know how much that word pisses me off right now? It's not enough that he has to spend most of his free time—which, mind you, isn't a lot—talking to his friends about it, but me, too? During dinner, during breakfast—even in bed once, can you believe it? That was beyond—beyond­—disturbing." She sat back in her chair and jammed a particularly large spoonful of ice cream in her mouth.

Phoebe scratched the nape of her neck and looked away for a second. The second-to-last thing she wanted to do was to encourage the relationship between Piper and Dan; but Piper was in need of comfort, and seeing Piper upset was the last thing Phoebe wanted to do. She was depressed enough back in the real world, though she tried to cover it up. And not without reason, either: husband torn away from her, her child in danger of becoming the embodiment of everything she fought against and the still tiresome burden of being the oldest Charmed One all weigh heavily upon her shoulders.

So Phoebe patted Piper's hand and comforted; "Come on, now, Piper, it's just a newlywed's dispute. Every couple goes through this time, you know?"

Piper nodded glumly, though not totally acquiescing. "I know that, but..." she sighed again. "I never thought marriage would be like this, you know?" She put her left hand on the countertop and stared at the ring upon her fourth finger. "It was supposed to be—be like in fairy tales, or in romance books, you know? Maybe not even that, not to that extreme. But," she took off her ring. "I feel the same with this ring or without this ring. Isn't marriage supposed to make a woman feel different? Not even in the littlest bit?" She put the ring back on again. "I love him, I guess," she said, the degree of reluctance in her voice noticeable only to her sister. "And I know I sound paranoid and really stupid sometimes. I know I'm lucky. Dan's a great guy in all aspects, really, and the boxing thing doesn't bother me as much as I put on. But—it's just—isn't there supposed to be more? Just a tiny feeling in your heart telling you that he was the one?" Piper glanced tiredly at Phoebe. "You must think I'm a psycho obsessed with romance or something."

Phoebe shook her head. "No, actually, I don't think you are," Phoebe said, quietly. It was so hard to see Piper this way in this world, to know the reason for her suffering and to not be able to do anything about it.

The tone of Phoebe's voice made Piper look at her younger sister twice. It was a few seconds before Piper spoke. "I've missed a lot, haven't I?" It was more of a statement than a question. "You've changed so much Phoebe. Maybe it's the four years, or something, but—you're so much more quiet and reserved...I mean you seem so sad sometimes. And you're so serious...so...business-like."

"What, is that a bad thing or something?" Phoebe responded, more than a little indignant.

"I never said it was," Piper said soothingly. "It's just—what happened to the fun-loving Phoebe I knew, huh? What happened to your..." she struggled for words. "Happiness?"

"Hey, I'm still fun-loving and happy!" Phoebe protested. "But I just have more responsibilities now than I did before, that's all. And those come first."

Piper arched her eyebrows. "I was right. I really did miss a lot." Then she ducked, laughing, as Phoebe balled up a tissue and chucked it at her. "But seriously, though," Piper continued as they calmed down. "I never thought I would be the one to tell you this but—loosen up. You seem so tense!" Piper started to say something else when Phoebe's cell phone rang.

Phoebe immediately reached into her purse, somewhat glad for the disruption, and put it to her ear. "Hello?"

"Hi. Phoebe?"

Phoebe drew in a sharp breath as she recognized that voice. "Speaking?"

"It's me. Cole."

Phoebe gritted her teeth. "I know."

"Yes, well, I was thinking, that if you aren't busy, whether you'd like to join me to dinner tomorrow night? I could get us reservations at that new restaurant that's opening tomorrow, actually—The Silvertop, did you hear of it?"

"I have..." She had actually been to that restaurant a couple of times, though never with him; once with her sisters, the rest of the times with Jason. Phoebe opened her mouth to decline his offer when she looked over at Piper, who was looking back, her eyebrows back into their arched position.

Something came over her—Piper's accusations of her not being fun anymore, Kevin and Ames, the ring upon Piper's finger—but before she knew it, Phoebe was arranging a time to meet Cole at her apartment.

When Phoebe snapped her phone shut, her mind was in a tumble of thoughts. She turned to Piper. "That was me, making a date," Phoebe said, her voice coming out defiantly, though she was not nearly as composed on the inside.

"With Cole, I'm guessing?"

"Yup..." Phoebe bit her lower lip. She had totally forgotten that Prue went out with him before.

But the wide grin spreading across Piper's face told Phoebe she didn't have to worry. "Prue called me this afternoon. Told me he called her for your phone number and was going to ask you out." Piper laughed when she saw the totally confused look on Phoebe's face. "So basically, you don't have to worry about another Roger episode, OK? Prue actually thinks there could be something between the two of you—you and Cole, I mean."

"Really, now?" said Phoebe dubiously, not really believing it and quite not wanting to. If Prue was against them as a couple, then it would provide for an excuse to get out of the precarious situation that Phoebe dug herself into.

As Piper got up to refill their ice cream bowls, Phoebe tried to rationalize what she had just agreed to. Going to dinner with Cole may actually help her shed some light on what he was doing here, regardless of whether he was human or not. It would be like a business meeting—pop in, get some information, then pop out—with some food in between.

However, there was that small part of her that just laughed at her reasoning and waved it all away. Please, the little voice in the back of her mind said. You agreed to go to dinner with Cole because you wanted to.

It didn't help much when Piper came back and started gushing about how the Silvertop was described as the most luxurious and romantic restaurant to open in San Francisco.