A/N: This chapter may be a little shorter than what you're used to for this story, but no worries—I'm already working on the next chapter and it looks like its gonna be a long one. Please review afterwards, and if you want to contact me feel free to do so at Intervention

Love's Intervention
Chapter Twenty: All Halliwell's Eve

In the parallel world, Phoebe stood in the kitchen of the Halliwell Manor, clutching a sharp knife in her right hand. She stared down at the basin of water in front of her, deep in contemplation.

Prue walked into the kitchen, her black hair tied in a loose bun so that wisps of hair fell on her face. "Hey Phoebe," Prue greeted her brightly as she headed for the refrigerator. She pulled out a carton of orange juice and set it on the kitchen counter. "You know what Piper told me after you fell asleep?"

"What?" Phoebe asked, still staring at the basin. She had spent the past night at the Manor, both to give Kevin a free rein to propose and to spend time with her sisters.

"She wants to take cooking lessons." Prue took a glass and poured herself a cup.

"Cooking lessons? For what? She knows how to cook everything."

"Not according to her she doesn't. She wants to learn how to cook Eastern cuisine, Asian food. It's the only thing she said she didn't know." Prue turned around and brought the glass to her lips, then saw the curious situation that Phoebe was in. "Phoebe, what're you doing?"

Phoebe turned to her oldest sister and gave a grin. "It's a magic trick."

Prue laughed. "Oh, right, its Halloween today, isn't it?" Prue set down her glass and went over to Phoebe. "How does this one work?"

Phoebe indicated to the bowl of apples that were sitting next to the basin of water. "It's simple. You blow on an apple peel while thinking thoughts of love, throw the peel into the water, and the peel will show you the first initial of your true love."

"Really? That's an impressive thing for the apple off of the corner market to know."

"Well, after all, apples are the fruit of knowledge," Phoebe replied. She took an apple with her left hand and held it out to her sister. "Wanna try?"

Prue laughed again and waved it away. "No, it's OK. I think I'd rather not."

Phoebe tossed the apple in the air and caught it. "What, don't believe in magic?" Phoebe tutted. "You should, you know. Especially on Halloween, when magic's supposed to be the strongest."

"Even if it can be proven to be true, I wouldn't do it," Prue answered. She acknowledged the surprise on Phoebe's face with a smile. "Personally, I think that there are some things that are better left up to life. I mean, if you know, it'll be constantly over your head, wouldn't it? If the peel turned out to be—say, an R—you'll be searching for a guy whose name starts out with an R. And say you meet a guy named Bobby, and you completely dismiss him, but it turns out that his name is actually Robert, and suddenly you're screwed out of your true love, aren't you?"

Phoebe let out a chuckle, but it was more out of astonishment than anything. "Wow, Prue—I never knew you felt like that."

Prue shrugged, a little uncomfortably. "I didn't really use to think like that. In fact, I didn't use to think about stuff like that at all, but a few—things changed my mind."

Phoebe stared at Prue so intensely that the older Halliwell began to feel even more uncomfortable. It was impossible that Phoebe knew about the near car accident—to the best of her knowledge, Piper never told her, yet, it felt like Phoebe did know. "What things?" Phoebe asked, so softly that Prue had to lean in a bit to hear.

Prue sighed and stood upright again. She might as well tell her, since she deserved to know, but to tell Phoebe, who seemed to really understand; that scared her a little bit. "I, uh, nearly got into a car accident. Three months ago." She saw Phoebe's eyes widen and gave another little shrug. "It was close…"

"Were you hurt?" Phoebe said in hushed voice, her tone frightened.

"I tore my clothes, but other than that, no not really," Prue answered, looking away. "But it did shake me up a lot. You can say that my outlook on life has been somewhat altered since then." Prue looked back at her sister. "So, yeah, when you told me the day before that things have changed—they did."

Phoebe began to stammer but Prue held up her hand. "Wait. I'm not done yet." Prue took a deep breath. "I don't know what has happened in your life these past three or so years, so I maybe the advice I'm going to give to you may be a little off, but…I think that you should give Cole—not to mention yourself—a chance. You seem to know that love hurts, that it especially hurts when it's ripped away from you." A shadow passed over Prue's face, but she shook it away and grasped Phoebe's left hand in both of hers. "But because it can be taken at any time, you have to grab it. You need to. It's there, Pheebs, everyone can see it, what you and Cole have. I mean, I don't know what the future holds for you two—I'm no fortune-teller—but how can you afford not to pursue it?"

Phoebe was looking at Prue, but the older Halliwell got the expression that Phoebe was thinking about something else. "Once you let love in, it'll never leave," Phoebe whispered, her left hand clutching her apple tightly.

Prue nodded, a little surprised but pleased. "That's wise, Phoebe." She let go of Phoebe's hand. "I know it sounds cliché, but you have to live your every day like it's your last. I mean, you never know." Prue laughed. "I can't believe that I, the oldest and the most responsible, am telling you, the youngest and the most spontaneous of us all, to take a few risks."

"Lover's leap," Phoebe commented, a wry smile on her face.

Prue gave her a puzzled look. "What?"

Phoebe laughed. "No, nothing—just thinking of this guy I used to know. Knew a lot about love, that man."

"A natural Cupid, huh?" Prue commented as she checked her watch. "Ugh, I'm gonna head for work, have a photo shoot today. Think about what I've said, OK baby sister?" Prue grinned and gave Phoebe a swift peck on the cheek before she headed out.

Phoebe turned back to her basin, her hand still gripping the apple. Slowly, ever so slowly, she raised her right hand and cut a peel of the apple, then put the apple down. She stared at the peel, closed her eyes, then blew. With her eyes still closed, she released the peel.

But even before she opened her eyes, she knew what the peel would say. She knew what was true; she knew it that Halloween so long ago, when she had tried the same thing in colonial Virginia. She knew it then, she knew it after the second vanquishing of the Source, she had known it this entire week.

Phoebe remembered what she had written in her advice column a few days after she realized her love for Jason. "Signs are only what you take them to be." She was writing in response to a woman who thought that her boyfriend of three weeks wanted to propose to her, but was thinking of the C shaped apple peel she had received when she was sent back in time to save Melinda Warren. A hoax, she had thought as she had typed enthusiastically at her computer. Jason Dean—not a single C in his entire name, yet she loved him, didn't she? And why wouldn't the apple peel be in a shape of a C? It was the shape that all apple peels naturally took.

She opened her eyes. C.

And suddenly, she knew. It was a C, simply because it just was. And it was a fact that neither magic nor the absence of magic could ever change. It could say anything else in the world, it could spell out the full name of another man, but it still didn't change what she felt. The man she was in love with. Not Clay. Not Colin. Not Charles. Not Robert, Bobby, Miles, or Jason.

Cole. Just Cole. Always Cole. Forever Cole.

Phoebe put down the knife, grabbed her purse, and walked out of the Manor.

As Phoebe closed the door of the house behind her, Piper crept into the kitchen, feeling as if she had invaded Phoebe's privacy, though she had no idea how. She had seen Phoebe perform some sort of ceremony or rite. Intrigued, Piper stepped up to the basin and took a fresh apple. Feeling a bit silly, she cut a rough peel, then put down the apple and held the peel between her fingers. What had Phoebe done again? Oh yes…Piper closed her eyes and blew on the peel, wondering why Phoebe had done this. Oh, Phoebe, Piper thought suddenly, still blowing on the peel. I hope you and Cole turn out OK. You two seem to really have something.

With that thought, Piper, who felt as though she had blown just about as long as Phoebe did, opened her eyes and stopped. Feeling a bit apprehensive, she dropped the peel into the water and watched. Nothing really seemed to happen—the peel stiffened somewhat and began to bend into a right angle, one leg longer than the other. Was this what Phoebe was looking for? Piper thought, confused. She looked at Phoebe's peel. It was curved, not bent like hers. Piper stared at the two apple peels for a second, then shrugged. She took the apple that she had partially peeled, bit into it, and left the kitchen, leaving the L-shaped apple peel to float alongside its companion.

The Elders looked amongst themselves, looked at Cupid, looked at the two visitors that had just explained the whole situation to them, looked back at Cupid, and looked back amongst themselves. The visitors had given the Elders and Cupid much information, but one detail was foremost in everyone's minds. Eaton was the first to speak.

"He's alive?"

His words set off a chain reaction; soon everyone was murmuring those two words in varying degrees of shock and awe. "He's alive?" "He's alive!" "He's ALIVE!"

"He's alive."

The Elders and Cupid turned to the visitor that had spoken. The Angel of Death sardonically smiled back, one eyebrow amusedly cocked and a twinkle in his eye that both boggled and terrified those in the Elder's Headquarters.