"Good night my darlings" Phoebe said as she left the living room. As soon as she left the room she leaned against the wall, with her hands over her face, rocking slightly. She was making a valiant effort to not break down, she was fighting hard against the tears, but eventually they won out. And she slid down the wall racked with silent sobs. That was how Piper found her fifteen minutes later when she came to see what was taking so long.
"Oh hun, baby what's the matter. Come on lets go upstairs so we don't wake the girls, and you can tell me about it" Piper said softly.
Quietly she led Phoebe up the stairs all the way to the attic and pulled her down on the small sofa. She gave Phoebe a concerned look, seeing that she hadn't stopped crying and seemed to be becoming slightly hysterical.
"Alright baby, calm down, lets not have hysterics. Tell me what happened. Did you and Coop have a big fight?" Piper asked.
"There is not a me and Coop, not anymore" Phoebe got out through her tears.
"Oh" Piper looked surprised and concerned "Ok, so what did he do?"
Phoebe took a deep breath and made a great effort to calm down. She wiped her face of the tears that covered it and sat up a bit straighter.
"Well, it is not something he did, more something he did not do, but not exactly" Phoebe said and saw the bewildered look on Pipers face and decided to elaborate. "It wasn't real." She stated in a dead voice "None of it was real; it was all just another big plot of the elders to interfere in our lives. I'll give you this time they thought they were helping me and they thought that this was for the best, but they had no right to do this!"
"To do what?" Piper asked.
"To send someone down with a type of geas to fall in love with me." Phoebe said.
"What! You're joking surely, even the elders couldn't be the stupid" Pipe said in shock and horror.
"Apparently they can." Phoebe replied "And they did. They got his agreement while still up there. Then they wiped his memory and stick him with the geas to love me. They then sent him down here, under the lie that he was to find someone else to love me."
"Well, ok, so they made him love you. But if he did not know, and you fell in love with him naturally, they can't screw with that, they what's the problem." Piper said.
"It's not that simple. He did not choose to love me, he may have agreed to love and marry me when they asked, but he agreed for the greater good, not because of any interest in me. And apparently the reason that I fell in love with him so easily, was because cupids naturally attract love, that's why they don't actually interact with their charges usually, and why they don't stay in one place long. It makes sense I guess, now that I think about it, the other cupid we met stuck around for a while and I ended up falling for him too. Apparently it's just some cupid thing. And with the geas the elders put on him, it just added to that, because the love they made him feel for me made him change in certain ways to better fit me. So none of it was ever real."
Piper looked horrified and was clearly at a lack for words. "Hun, I...I ...I don't know what I can say to make this better."
"Ya, I'm not sure there is anything that can be said to make this better" Phoebe said sadly "I wasted eight years of my life with him, and now its over and I find it was never real in the first place."
"Hun, you just can't think like that, you did not waste those years, you got three beautiful daughters who you love more than anything out of those years." Piper said trying to cheer her up.
"Ya, I know. Thank god too, if I did not have them I don't know what I'd do, I'd have no reason to live" Phoebe said despairingly.
"Don't say that, you'll always have a reason to live, besides the girls you also have me, and Leo, and Paige and all your nieces and nephews who love you to death, who all would be devastated to loose you." Piper said.
"Yes, I know, which is obviously why I came here in the first place" Phoebe stated.
"Well your always welcome here, after all you own half of it too" Piper said.
"Ya, well I hope that statement stays true. Since I was kinda hoping to move back in here for a while. I just can't bear to go back to my place, there's too many memories that are associated with Coop. I was hoping to sell the place." Phoebe told her.
"Well, I want you here" Piper said "But I'm not totally sure that there is room for you and your girls."
"Ya, I know, I thought of that and I came up with a great solution. With the money I get from selling my place, I want to turn the basement into a room with a bathroom attached. I thought that we could put my girls and your Prue down there, its big enough for all of them and I'm sure they'd like it. And I'd take back my room which Prue is currently in." Phoebe said hopefully.
"Well, what will you do in the meantime?" Piper said, not actually answering whether she was ok with the idea.
"Well, I figured that we'd just kinda camp out for awhile. I thought that Philana could sleep in Prue's room, since they are the same age and best friends. And my other two could just sleep in the living room and I'll camp out up here in the attic. I can pick up an air mattress and clear out a corner. So what do you think?" Phoebe asked.
"Well" Piper paused, clearly thinking things over and considering the idea "Ok, why not, I can hardly turn you out. We'll have to hire contractors and get a permit for that kind of renovation, but I think we can do it."
"Oh thank you, thank you!" Phoebe said and then yawned.
"But I just remembered, we got off topic, how did you find all that stuff about Coop out?" Piper asked.
"Oh, I had a premonition of the past and saw him agreeing to it and them setting it up" Phoebe said her voice loosing all the cheer it had gained.
"Oh, well that makes sense. I'm just surprised that you did not get this premonition earlier" Piper said "Although maybe you only got it now because now is when you were supposed to leave him."
"What do you mean?" Phoebe asked.
"Well maybe you were meant to stay with him those eight years, because you were meant to have your daughters. I mean you had premonitions about her before you even had her, so maybe it was important that you had her, so the universe, or maybe one of the angels of destiny, kept you from seeing this premonition till now." Piper said.
"Maybe your right" Phoebe said and yawned again.
"Alright sleepyhead. We can talk more and work out more details in the morning. You're barely staying awake." Piper said laughingly.
"Ok, I won't argue with that, I'm too tired to argue anymore" Phoebe said.
"Alright let's go get your bed set up" Piper said and dragged Phoebe in the direction of the linen closet.