Disclaimer: I don't own Charmed.

Love

"What do you mean the barrier's gone? What happened to do that?" Phoebe questioned Coop. He'd asked Piper for a moment alone with her and had just revealed that the shimmering force field around her heart was no more.

"You faced feelings you'd buried. You stopped hiding from the pain you'd felt because of love."

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm a Cupid, Phoebe. Any emotions of love you feel, I see."

"Didn't I tell you not to peek into my feelings with your stupid powers?"

"That's my job," Coop replied. "How else was I supposed to know when you opened your heart to love again?"

Phoebe said, "Oh, I don't know. Maybe when I told you?"

"And were you planning to tell me? Were you going to say that when we were in the past and as you were talking to Piper the guilt and love you felt about and for your husband, which you'd never let yourself think about, had come out from their hiding place?"

"Ex- husband. And I have no idea what you're talking about," Phoebe huffed as she heaved herself onto a couch in her childhood home's living room.

Coop took a seat opposite her. "And here I thought that admitting it to yourself would make you able to admit it out loud, at least to a being made of love, like myself. No, don't interrupt," Coop said when he saw Phoebe's mouth begin to open. "It's OK. You don't have to say it to me. Like I said, I know what you're feeling."

"Stop doing that!" Phoebe burst in. "Do you know how annoying you are?!"

"I've heard rumors. Listen to me, Phoebe. What you feel for Cole, it's what all Cupids dream that the people they match up will find. And I can tell you, it's rarely a reality. That love, so strong and true, not everyone's lucky enough to discover it. And, even fewer are able to hold on to it. I know it hurt when it fell apart, when time and again something got in the way of your happiness. It's no wonder you closed off your heart. And, yeah, I know you've been in love after him. But, can you honestly say it was anywhere close to being the same?"

Phoebe didn't honor him with a response.

"Seeing him again, years after the fact, when you weren't expecting him, it triggered your emotions to come close. That's a good thing. No matter how angry you may be, at him, yourself, whoever, it's good you can finally face everything. This is why you haven't been able to hold onto love since your husb... ex-husband, I mean. You already found your true love, and already lost it. You know, denial really is an awful thing."

Phoebe finally spoke up. "That was a lovely lecture. Can I summarize it? I found who I was meant to be with; I murdered him, and know I'll never get anything that perfect again. When I let myself think of it, only a few seconds every once in a while over the last three years, I already knew that. So, thank the Elders for me, their Cupid has been oh, so helpful," she finished sarcastically.

"I never said you were meant to be with him. I don't know about that. I just meant that he was the great love of your life, but know that you're out of denial, you can find someone else to be with, someone who you can love just as truly-"

"But it won't be as perfect, as right."

"Phoebe, some widows and widowers find love again, and they love the second spouse just as truly as the first. They're just as happy. You can love two people like that."

"You're talking in circles. It's making me dizzy."

"Love is confusing. Though as a Cupid, I thought I could explain it more simply."

"You can't."

"Yeah, well."

"Look, I don't want anyone else. Did it ever occur to you why I stayed angry so long, why I didn't want to deal with this? Because I killed him, Coop. I had a chance to be so, so happy, and I blew it. No future love can ever measure up to what I had with Cole. I've never wanted to realize that consciously; it just makes it hurt more," Phoebe explained, trying to keep the tears from forming in her eyes.

"But he still exists."

"But, he's still dead, thanks to me."

"Love can conquer anything, as long as you trust it."

"I can't figure out if you want me to find a new love, not that it's possible, or if you want me to pine over Cole forever, which I've been trying to stop doing," Phoebe said exasperatedly. Then, she suddenly sat upright. "You don't think that... Maybe it's possible to bring him back; I mean he hasn't moved on. Maybe I can pull him out of Limbo. And if he'll forgive me... You think that could work, with the Power of Three?"

"The power of you and your sisters is legendary, but my specialty is Love. You'd know whether or not your magic can resurrect someone better than I would. All I know is that Love and Magic can both do amazing things, and if they're working together..." Coop let his sentence trail off.

"I have to talk to Piper," Phoebe jumped up. She faced Coop, "Thanks, really. You have helped."

"No problem," he smiled at her. "I think my work here is done. I'm gonna go."

Phoebe nodded. "Um, could you not tell the Elders my idea? They don't really like him, and I don't want them to know unless it's after it's too late for them to try to botch up my plan."

"You seem pretty confident now."

"When I set my mind to something, I usually get it," she said happily, but soon she sobered, "That's how I got him killed."

"Just trust in the power of love, Phoebe," Coop said before a frosty white glow covered his body and he vanished.

Phoebe turned to the stairs, "Piper!"