Current mood:	good
Entry tags:	charmed, kajivar, reborninfire

Cyclamen ((Charmed - Cole Turner / Phoebe Halliwell))
Fandom: Charmed, canon until "Centennial Charmed"
Title: Cyclamen (Flowers, Part Four) ~ Interlude
Authors: kajivar/passion_muse and reborninfire/ashesofroses
Theme: Flowers #5 - Cyclamen (Resignation/Goodbye)
Pairing/Characters: Cole Turner/Phoebe Halliwell
Rating: PG
Word Count: 807
Disclaimer: These characters do not belong to us. They belong to Aaron Spelling and the WB, but we treat them better.
Critiques: yes
Summary: Phoebe realizes her rejection of Cole after he came back from the Wastelands was due to a final curse from the Seer. She travels to the Underworld to try to find him.

Part One | Part Two | Part Three


It was a few days before Phoebe could bring herself to tell her sisters what had happened in the Underworld with Cole. She was still hurting over losing him and it was hard for her to talk about him without her voice breaking.

"Does he know what happened?" Piper asked her softly as she held Phoebe close to her.

"He knows."

"Does he believe you? Does he know it wasn't really you."

Phoebe was quiet for a long moment. "I don't now for sure," she finally said. "He didn't say if he did or not."

"What happened?"

"He told me loves me... and then he told me goodbye. He brought me home and that's the end of it. He won't leave the Underworld... and I can't stay down there with him." That was when Phoebe broke down. "He's gone, Piper. It's really over between us this time."

"Oh, Pheebs." Piper had tears in her own eyes as she held her sister while she cried.

* * *

In the world of demons below, Belthazor's mood was not any better. He hid it from the demons who sought his audience, but it was hard to concentrate on the petty bickerings of a Swarm Demon king who felt slighted by actions of a group of Harpies when thoughts of Phoebe still danced on the edge of his mind. Sending her away had been for the best. They had already proven that they could not make their relationship work. A witch and a demon together was not meant to be. Doomed. She needed to move on and find love with someone else, a human -- though that passing thought made him twitch and accidentally shatter the glass goblet of wine he had been handed.

Besides, he reasoned, she was safer away from him. She could not stay in the Underworld, he knew that. Even if she wanted to, her sisters would not allow it. He would not allow it, too many demons would try to avenge the many things the Charmed Ones had done over the years. And he could not leave the Underworld, not now. The peace between the various factions of demons existed only as long as he was there to enforce it. If he were to leave, wars would break out and random acts of violence in the human world would become more commonplace.

He had a dozen reasons for why he had to stay in the Underworld. But it didn't ease the freshly renewed pain in his heart when he thought of Phoebe. "Goodbye, my love," he whispered, closing his eyes.

The Swarm Demon king paused and looked at him in confusion. "Get to your point," Belthazor snapped. "I grow weary of this conversation." He settled back on the Source's throne, trying again to focus on the business of the Underworld.

* * *

Phoebe was sitting at her desk at the newspaper office, staring at the column she was trying to write. It was hard to concentrate on an advice column for lovers when her own heart was broken. She kept trying to answer the letters she had received... but every time she started to answer them, all she saw was Cole's face as she watched him shimmer out of her life. Shaking her head, she dropped the letters on the desk. She couldn't do this right now. She just couldn't try and give love advice to strangers when all she could think about was the fact that the man she loved was alive... but didn't want to be with her.

She locked her office door behind her and started walking out of the building. She had told Paige and Piper she would come home after work so they could work on figuring out how to handle the latest premonition and threat coming their way. It was something that she should be completely focused on, but she hadn't really been able to concentrate on anything lately.

She headed out towards the park and walked around the lake. She was trying to relax and find her center again. She was a witch... a Charmed One. She had a duty to protect innocents and fight for good, not spend a lot of time thinking about the demon she was in love with.

"This really sucks," she said, staring into the water of the lake. "I have to get past all of this. I have to focus on my job. I have to stop thinking about him. I love him so much... but we can't be together."

It was getting dark by the time she started heading back towards the Manor. It was over between them and she had to accept this.

That didn't stop her from curling up in her bed and burying her face in the pillow she was holding as she cried. "Good bye, Cole," she said softly. "I love you."