Author's note: Thanks for the reviews, guys. Keep them coming and I promise I will continue to update quickly.

One thing that makes the future so hard to predict is love. The loss of love, inspiration of love, pursuit of love and the strength of love can play a large role in the actions of people. It can come from nowhere and shift one possible future to another. The way we do or don't welcome it, exercise it, and nurture it can cause different outcomes.

For the Halliwell sisters love was as much feared as it was sought. They had lost their father and then their mother, past loves and possible loves so many times that each sister reacted differently. That night, the sisters each pursued love –some more effectively than others—in the hopes that one day they wouldn't have to suffer loss.

Their triple date had taken a turn for the worse when Phoebe's date canceled on her. The other couples were having a great time, but Phoebe was feeling the sting of rejection once again. She skipped coffee and desert for the comfort of home and was walking to the curb to hail a cab when she was grabbed.

"I need your help," a tall man with dirty blond hair said to her, writhing in pain.

"Let go of me." Phoebe tried to yank herself out of his grasp with no such luck; his hold was firm.

"Hate will destroy me and everything else if you don't help me."

"I am warning you, buddy," she managed to yell though thoroughly scared at this point.

"Phoebe, you gotta believe me. I know why you can't find love."

"Hey, you, let go of her," Dan said after noticing the event. He jogged down the street to rescue her but the man ran off.

"Are you okay," Piper asked when she and Prue caught up to her.

"Uh, yeah."

"What was that about," Prue asked.

"I'm not sure."

The next day, Phoebe woke up to an empty house and witnessed her eldest sister's walk of shame. She had spent the night at Brendan's place and had come home so that both could get some work done.

"You're gonna need a new lock on that back door," the man from the night before said interrupting the sisters' conversation.

"I'm getting rather used to you kicking love in the teeth," he said when Phoebe did a roundhouse kick to his face.

"Okay, who are you and what do you want?"

"More importantly I know who you are Phoebe. And that's why I'm here. I need your help. Charmed Ones kind of help."

"I will ask again. Who are you?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Try me."

"Well, for lack of a better name, Cupid."

Piper was back at the manor after hastily leaving Dan's house. She was still trying to figure out things were going with him, and the surprise present earlier that morning had completely thrown her. Coming out of her daydream, she tuned back into the conversation that was going on around her.

"…People's hearts, to waken love. See, but Drazi's all about hate and he's gonna use the ring to get in the same way."

"You're still gonna have to back up the Cupid claim," Piper informed him.

"Okay, fine," he said turning to Piper. "Dan," he said before facing Prue. "Brendan," he spouts out and turns to Phoebe. "Clay," he turned back to Prue. "Andy. My sincerest condolences. Eric in London, Alec in college," he listed and turned back to Piper. "Not Jeremy the Warlock, Joe in college, Barry in high school, Tim in eighth grade," and faced Phoebe again. "Ken, Kyle, Steve, Mike, Ken again, Brian, Joel, Martin, Peter, Paul, Tony."

"Okay, you know I didn't love all those guys, right?"

"Yeah, well, they wanted to love you but you're closed hearted. That's what sent them away."

"My closed heart? I do not have a closed heart," Phoebe said.

"Look, if people get the feeling that there's nothing there, then eventually it's hasta la vista, Phoebe. That explains the recent rush of canceled dates."

They continued to talk for a few minutes about the cupid's role in pairing their relationships before getting back to the point.

"We don't have time right now to debate the topic of your closed heart, Phoebe. We gotta finish the potion so we can vanquish Drazi before it's too late."

"Okay, so how are we supposed to find him," Prue asked straight and to the point.

"The same way he can find me. We can sense each other. We're connected in a cosmic way. There's a fine line between love and hate."

Cupid began to explain what would happen if Drazi was able to kill love. Later he clutched his heart in pain as one of his matches was undone using his ring, much like the pain a whitelighter experienced when one of their charges were in pain.

"It's Drazi. He's killing love."

The sisters found and confronted Drazi with a vanquishing potion later that afternoon. Without his ring, Cupid couldn't return to his real, and so once again Phoebe was home making potions instead of out on a date. Unknown to the group, Drazi was protected by the ring during the vanquish and was still out trying to kill love just as Cupid had killed Drazi's love.

At P3, Prue, Piper and their dates were having a great time. Prue and Piper went to the ladies room leaving the boys alone to talk.

"You know, Piper has this strange habit of sometimes just sort of vanishing. Does Prue do that," Dan asked Brendan.

Brendan considered his answer before replying. "Yeah, every now and then she goes off on her own to handle some situation or another.

"I figured that. Does it bug you?"

"It can be a little annoying when we're looking forward to spending time with each other but I know she has a lot going on so I don't bother myself about it," Brendan said. The truth was, Brendan wished that he could help the sisters. He wanted to protect Prue but without his warlock powers there was nothing he could do. He hated sitting on the sidelines but he trusted the girls.

"It's like time just stands still for seconds and when it starts up again she's like a total different person," Dan said.

Brendan held back a knowing smile as he thought of the witch and her ability to freeze time. Dan had no idea how right he was about that. Just then he saw Phoebe and the cupid enter the club. Prue and Piper joined them again and within the minute it took Phoebe to reach them Drazi had already done his damage.

Dan's face grew angry. "You know, why don't you just admit it. You're using me to make Leo jealous, aren't you," he accused Piper.

"Oh, can you just leave him out of this?"

"I'd love to. What about you?"

Brendan faced Prue. "Rebound guy? Is that it? What makes you think I'm gonna take this crap?"

"What, you think I'm just gonna jump at your demands? I told you I needed time to think it over and you just won't stop harassing me about it. Why don't you just drop dead," she yelled.

"I can't believe you're still threatened by him," Piper yelled at Dan.

"You think I'm an idiot? You think I don't know?"

The couples continued to yell at each other. "We are dating aren't we," Dan asked sarcastically.

"No, we're not. Not anymore. And you can have that back," she said throwing the necklace back at Dan.

" I'm sure Leo can replace it with something that means more anyway."

"Probably!"

Prue and Brendan were still screaming at each other. "I'm just glad that I never said yes to your stupid proposal!"

"Yeah, well, you and me both."

Piper opened the door to a very frustrated Brendan. "This had better be good," he said entering the manor.

"Am I supposed to know what you're talking about?"

Dan snorted. "Don't buy the innocent act. She pulls it all the time."

"I beg your pardon?"

"Just cut to the chase, Piper. Why did you call," Brendan asked.

"What? I didn't."

Brendan stalked over to the stairs and started yelling up them. "Prue, I wanna talk to you!"

"Isn't this your number," he asked reading off a page. '"Come to my house, ASAP.'"

Piper looked at him in disbelief. "That's really pathetic. Paging yourself?"

"Pathetic," he he repeated her insulted at the accusation.

Brendan shouted up the stairs again. "Prue!"

Piper returned her focus to Dan. "I'm sorry, I meant moronic."

"Why are you here," Prue demanded.

"You called."

"Oh, you wish."

Phoebe managed to patch things up between the couples. She reminded them about how they had felt the first time they had seen each other and how good things were before tonight. She sent Dan and Brendan to the store to pick up snacks while she and her sisters "talked".

"Okay, think you guys. Do you remember Drazi? Well, he's still alive and if Cupid's right, he's on his way here as we speak. Whatever bad feelings you had for Dan and Brendan, Drazi did it. He's twisted your relationships with hate."

"So what do we do now," Piper asked Phoebe.

"Exactly what you're doing right now. You let Dan and Brendan into your hearts."

Drazi appeared and grabbed Cupid. "Hello, lover boy," he said and plunged his hand into cupid's chest. "I should of finished you off the first time."

"Okay, so much for loving him to death. What do we do with him now," Piper asked after freezing Drazi.

"Same thing, only different," Phoebe answered.

"Been there, blew that," Prue said.

"Yeah, the only difference is the ring won't be protecting him..." Phoebe said taking the ring off his finger, "it will be protecting him," she finished and put the ring on Cupid's finger.

The girls finished the vanquish and each sister learned something special about love that day. For Phoebe, it took putting her sisters back together with their boyfriends to open her heart to love and all it had to offer. Piper realized that when you loved somebody you had to reassure them every once and a while because sometimes they were right.

Prue learned that love cannot be held in limbo. It must be celebrated and reaffirmed. She knew Brendan had struggled with accepting that their relationship wasn't just a means to an end for her. He wanted the same things she did; a home, children, and the comfort of having someone you love by your side. Brendan just wasn't sure if it was really him that she wanted, and not Andy.

The months after Andy's death had been hard on them. He wanted to comfort her, but it hurt too much to know that she had loved another man. There were constant doubts about whether or not they were together because they loved each other or because they were both trying to get through some loss of love; her childhood love and his only family.

Still, she struggled with taking that next step. Prue knew that she could argue 'til she was blue in the face that her sisters needed her and she just couldn't leave them yet. She also knew it was a lie. Her sisters were capable and intelligent and independent. They were her clutch. As long as she had to worry about them there was no need to jeopardize her safety net. Love hurt when it left and you got left behind.

Brendan and Dan had left after they finished watching a movie, and though Brendan had kissed her good night, his kiss felt broken. That had scared Prue more than anything else ever had. Hours passed; sleep never came. Eventually Prue learned a lesson that was better learned early than too late. That was why –at four o'clock in the morning—she knocked on Brendan's apartment door. He answered with eyes still covered in sleep; naked torso and white cotton boxers.

"I want to be your wife," she spit out and held her breath.

He pulled her inside and shut the door.