Piper sat on the sofa and glared at Mrs Harris.

Cassy was holding her mom's hand and giggling.

Piper had said she didn't want a fuss over her birthday.

Truth be told all she wanted to do at the moment was go up to her bed room, curl up and cry.

She didn't want to be sitting here with all these people.

Even if they were her friends.

Natalie.

Nathan.

Darryl and Sheila.

Rick and Maria.

She didn't want to be around them.

It reminded her of what it had been like before too much.

Leo should be sitting with her.

Holding her.

Loving her.

He must hate her now.

Dan and Martin walked in to the living room from the kitchen.

"Hey Piper," Dan sat down on the arm of her chair. "Cheer up. This is meant to be a party."

Piper shrugged and sank into the chair.

"Presents." Cassy said brightly. "That'll make you smile."

"Oh, I got one." Nathan said. "Open mine first."

Piper reluctantly took the large box he handed her and began to open it.

She felt so much like crying.

It was taking all her energy not to let lose the tears and whimper and sob pathetically in front of them.

"Want to give me a hand here Cass?" She asked struggling to keep her tone even.

"You need a hug." Cassy said.

She left here mother's side and walked over to Piper and wrapped her arms around her neck.

"You're all better now." She told her.

Piper laughed bring the tears dangerously closer to spilling over.

Cassy ripped off the wrapping paper.

Piper opened the box and tears got lose.

The box had male shirts in it.

Shirts she recognized instantly as Leo's.

She picked one up and hugged it close to her cheek.

"It's appalling," Nathan said with a mysterious glint in his eyes. "School security is so slack these days."

"You stole the shirts." Ali said. "And they say the youth culture are getting better."

"Piper needs them a lot more than Leo right now." Nathan said simply.

"Alright Cassandra," Martin clapped his hands together. "Bed time. Mommy and daddy are both going to put you to bed tonight. Let's leave Piper alone with her friends."

"But dad." Cassy whined.

"I'll come see you when I come up Cass." Piper promised.

"But the present." Cassy protested pulling on her father's arm.

"What present?" Piper asked.

She was going to stop the tears and put on 'the every thing's alright with Piper so please don't worry show' until Cassy was out of the room.

"This." Cassy said.

Martin pulled out a giant teddy bare and Cassy handed Piper a card.

"Wow!" Piper exclaimed.

"He's your new friend." Cassy said. "You can call him Leo. He'll be able to hug you now when you're lonely."

"Or Brad Pit." Natalie suggested.

Cassy laughed wildly.

"And we paid for you and your sisters to go have a day at the spar when you feel like it." Ali said. "Now daughter of mine give Piper a kiss good night and get up those stairs to bed."

"Okay." Cassy hugged Piper. "Night Piper." She kissed her stomach. "Good night baby. I can't wait to meet you."

"Night, night angle." Piper said softly. "Put Brad on my bed for me."

"Okay." Cassy said. "See you in the morning. Good night Piper's friends."

"Good night." The teenagers said together.

"Sweet." Sheila said. "Is the only word."

"Don't," Darryl said. "She's the same age as your little cousin. Demonic is the only word to describe kids of any age."

"Hey!" Piper protested. "That's my little charge you're talking about."

She scrunched up some wrapping paper and hurled it at him.

"So you like?" Nathan asked.

Piper nodded.

The tears began to spill again.

"Come on," Nathan wrapped her in to his arms. "I gave you those to make you smile. Not cry again."

"And again." Natalie said.

"And again." Dan said.

"And again." Daryl said.

"And again." Sheila said.

"And again." Rick said.

"And again." Maria said.

"Look I can't help crying." Piper snapped. "My emotions have been pertinently screwed since I got pregnant."

"No," Rick grinned cheekily. "That's how you got pregnant."

Piper couldn't help but smile.

"Bad joke," Rick held his hands up above his head. "But in my defense it did make you laugh."

"Thanks Nathan," Piper said putting a positive tone in to her shaky voice. "You're such a loveable rouge."

"I aim to please." Nathan said.

"Okay," Natalie produced a bag full of presents. "More presents."

"Aren't your sisters meant to be coming?" Dan asked.

"Yhea," Piper dabbed at her damp cheeks with the back of her hand. "But they weren't as found of the wonderful plan that Nathan thought up as we all were."

"Speak for your self," Dan said. "If a word of that ever gets back to my dad I'll be in for it. You know a slow painful death."

"Nothing compared to what Grams is gona do to me." Piper said the tears starting up again.

"You told your sisters?" Sheila asked.

"Not about the plan." Nathan hid behind the sofa. "Prue used to be a cheer leader. She'll set the demons at school on me now. She was the head cheer leader, complete evil. She must be stopped. I'm dead."

"You insult the girls so much I can already hear the gates of hell creaking open." Darryl said.

Natalie hushed the others.

"Come on Piper open up these presents. We've gotta be up for school in the morning."

"Then I get to go lock Mr Anderson in a small room with Phoebe." Rick said. "Or I might just throw him in a pit full of crocodiles."

"I love, love, love, love, love, love all your evil ideas Rick." Piper beamed. "You should set the kids from the nursery on him. Yes, before you ask Natalie, I do know you were behind that evil little plan. Cassy spilled her guts."

"Hey!" Natalie protested. "That was her idea, not mine. They were all conspiring against you. They had this little group, the lets get Piper and Leo back together because Piper's so miserable and depressed and weepy and is always crying group."

Piper burst out laughing.

"They never did."

"They did too." Natalie insisted. "I don't want to tell you about my cuisine Jasmine threatened to do if Leo didn't pick her up from school."

"Okay," Rick said. "Let's not talk about Leo for now."

Piper desperately wanted to talk about Leo.

She wanted to break down crying.

To tell them how she'd made the biggest mistake of her life.

Scream at them about how she should have told Leo.

Screamed at them about how they should have told Leo.

How they should have forced her into telling Leo.

They shouldn't have let her lie to him today.

Dan should have lay down and taken it.

Admitted to being the father of a child that wasn't his when all he'd done was kiss her.

Weeks after she knew she was pregnant on the night she had met him.

On a night when she'd been alone and desperate for Leo warmth.

For Leo's comfort.

For his arms wrapped tight around her.

For him to promise him every thing was going to be alright.

She wanted to start crying in front of them.

Sob.

Sob until one of them called Leo.

Until one of them called Leo and made him come over here.

Leo would come over and wrap his arms around her and hold her close and hug her and cuddle her and kiss her and tell her all about how he was going to take care of her and their baby no mater what happened.

That's all she wanted to do.

But she couldn't do that.

That afternoon she had prayed for some one to tell her what to do.

Make her decisions for her and make her stick to them.

That is what her friends had done for her.

They'd done exactly what she'd needed.

No.

It hadn't been what she needed.

It had been what she'd wanted.

No.

That wasn't true either.

It had been what she thought she had needed.

What she thought she had wanted.

What she had wanted was Leo.

He was still what she wanted.

To be in Leo's arms.

Pressed against his chest.

Close to him.

But now she had made her decision.

She had to stick to it.

She was going to stick to it.

So fighting back tears she plastered on a large fake smile and turned her attention to her friends.

They all seamed to put the teary eyes down to the whole pregnancy thing she was going through.

She began to open her presents.

Dan had brought her a stack of CDs.

All sound tracks from the films that made every one cry but Piper thought were hysterical riot laughs.

Ghost.

Love Story.

Evita.

A few other tear jerkers.

And of course, Titanic.

She was given make up from Darryl and Shelia.

Rick and Maria gave her bubble bath, nice cozy jumper, some scented candles and a good book.

"You need to read some thing other than your study guides." Rick said gently. "You're all my mom talks about. She keeps asking me why I can't be more like you."

"Mine to." All the others agreed at the same time.

Piper buried her head in to a cushion.

She couldn't stop her self laughing.

Unfortunately the laughing also caused her tear to escape in their hoards.

She through the cushion at Rick.

Her friends all looked worried.

Natalie the most.

With Dan and Nathan being a close joint second.

Dan was sat on the arm of her chair.

He cradled the back of her head in his hand.

Her whole body tensed.

He was holding her head the way Leo always did.

The way Leo did when they vegged out together, cuddled up on the sofa watching some old black and white film or western with Phoebe and Prue.

Just like he did when they lay in bed together.

His not Leo.

She had to remind herself of that fact.

His Dan.

His Dan.

Dan.

Dan.

Dan.

Dan.

She chanted mentally.

She shook her head pretending to laugh knocking Dan's hand away.

Natalie closed Piper's fingers around a small neatly wrapped box.

Piper opened it.

She found a love heart silver locket.

"Open it." Natalie said softly.

Piper looked around her and suddenly realised how close her friends were to her.

Natalie and Maria were knelt at her feet.

Rick sat on the coffee table just behind them.

Darryl and Sheila stood behind her.

Nathan and Dan sat on either arm of the chair she was sitting on.

She had their support.

She knew she could do the single mom thing.

She always had.

But with their support it was going to feel a little easier to face with out Leo.

Now that he was defiantly out of her life.

Now that she was having another man's child.

Or at least she was in Leo's eyes.

That's all that mattered.

Piper's eyes slowly traveled from Natalie's back to the locket.

In side their was a picture of Piper and Leo cuddled up together.

The other side was empty.

"For you to put a picture in when the baby's born." Natalie explained.

"Thank you." Piper said.

She put the locket around her neck and held it in her fingers for a moment.

"Also," Natalie produced a bag. "When I brought that I kinda saw these and couldn't resist."

"Jasmine's present." Dan reminded her.

Natalie explained how the kids from the nursery had pooled their pocket money to buy Piper a foot spa.

It was sweet of them.

A few moments later her friend all realised how late it was, nearly 11 o'clock on a school night and how all their parents would decapitate them.

"Oh wait a minuet please." Piper said. "My sisters have obviously disowned me."

"Sweetie." Maria said.

"Could you just take some letters in for me?" Piper asked.

Natalie nodded.

"Of course." Sheila said.

Piper quickly scrawled three notes.

One for each of her sisters.

Prue.

Phoebe.

Paige.

She didn't write one for Grams.

She wasn't talking to her.

She'd tried to kill her baby.

"Just give these to Paigey please." She instructed.

All her friends left, each leaving a kiss on Piper's cheek and whishing her happy birthday.

She looked down at the bag in her hands and pulled out a baby grow.

Tears streamed down her cheeks.

She didn't try to stop them.

Sorry this has taken so long to update.

I've been suffering with writers block with this chapter.

Please review and I'll update as quickly as possable.