A/N: thanks to Caroline, Anarra, Piperleo4eva, OrbingPunk, Versatilecutie, Sci Fi Fan, line100, Charmed123, Charmedfreak37 and TKPiper for reviewing the last chapter. Hope you like this one...

Chapter 19

Phoebe could hear screaming everywhere; continuous. Her body shook and it was a few moments before she realized that most of the screams were from her, but she still couldn't stop them. In the near distance she saw Leo being held back by Police officers. He was struggling to get free and his eyes were fixed on the building in front of him; determination, loyalty and pain etched on his face.

Other Police officers were racing toward the building and an ambulance pulled up , siren blaring. But she couldn't hear it. All she heard was screaming and the empty ringing that the gun shot had left in its wake.

Paige stood next to Phoebe, gripping her sister's hand until neither of them could feel a thing. A million scenarios of what was going on inside ran through her head, and none of them ended well. Her face was deadly white and her whole body hurt.

Darryl was the first police officer to reach the room, what he saw completely overwhelmed him. There was too much to take in, there was too much to do. There was just too little time.

Piper lay slumped against a metal support pole, just off the centre of the room. Her hands were bound with tight rope, her face was unnaturally pale and dark circles framed her shut eyes. Her hair was matted, mixed with sticky blood in a small patch towards the back. The rest lay in wild tangles. Darryl was immediately struck by how different she looked from the Piper he knew and loved; she looked so vulnerable and still. What caused him the most pain, though, was that he couldn't tell if she was dead or alive. Cautiously he moved over to her, and gently rested a hand on her neck to feel a pulse. She was cold to touch and for a horrific moment he feared the worst, but then he felt a weak, but present, pulse beating faintly under her ghostly skin.

By now more police officers had entered the room, along with some paramedics. He shouted for the paramedics to come over and, once satisfied that Piper was in good care, he turned his attention to the rest of the room. Carter and Rees were on the other side of the room. A police officer was trying to handcuff and arrest Rees but the Rees was just too strong for the man. He shouted out and kept running back to a figure sprawled across the floor. The figure was Carter and he lay motionless in a pool of crimson blood. Out of pure panic and desperation, he had shot himself.

Darryl was in the same position as every other official in the small putrid room; he had no clue of what happened since Piper was taken. It caused his head to spin but he regained his composure and took charge.

Outside, it felt like an age had passed to Piper's family before the first people emerged from the building. It was two paramedics. Between them was a stretcher, upon which lay a thick black body back. Phoebe's stomach lurched. Her worst fears were coming true. She felt Paige's grip on her hand tighten and the two sisters were soon in an unyielding embrace. They shook with emotion and terrible realization. Leo couldn't believe it. Not for the first time in recent days, he felt his world crash down around him. But then...he felt relief. He saw hope. He saw another set of paramedics emerge from the building between them was also a stretcher and on the stretcher was Piper. He knew it was her even though she looked smaller and gaunter than she should. He pushed the police officers around him away and raced over to his wife and grasped her hand tightly, he didn't care what everyone around him was saying; he was never going to leave her side.

Paige saw Leo run. Then she saw what he saw and the emotion behind her tears changed instantaneously from pain to relief. Dragging a confused Phoebe behind her she joined Leo at Piper's side as they boarded a near by ambulance. She knew that what lay ahead of them was going to be tough, but for that moment she didn't care; she had her sister back and that was all that mattered.

A/N: I know this was a bit short and I'm sorry but I didn't want to go into the hospital stuff yet. Now... you might hate me but please don't too much! I'm just about to start my GCSEs at school (for those of you who don't know, they are about 14 exams over a 4 week period that I have been working for for 2 years and basically decide what I can do at college next year.) That means that a lot of my time is going to be spent revising which means there will be few, if any, updates over the next month. But the good news is that once I've done them I don't have to go back to school till September so I'll be able to update a lot more then. This also applies to Diaries but I'll try and update that in the next few days first. Sorry!!

Please review -it'll make me happy!