A/N: okay, I thought some of this chappie was a little... cheap. Especially the school thing. But I was out of ideas (it's hard to dish 'em out, people!) and I was thinking about our school's Fall Festival when some K-9 officers from our police department brought in their dogs.

It'd been two weeks since she went into a coma, and there was no change in the woman. Doctors pressed Rick with questions, but he never answered them.

He came into her room everyday, and promised that the second she woke, he would call. She'd given him a name and a number to call, but that was all as for family. She didn't even mention siblings or parents, just one person.

He knew her name, where she lived... Everything about her that the doctors could use. But he couldn't risk it. She'd also told him why she was there.

She reminded him not to call police. Never to call the police. For more than one reason. For too many reasons. And he respected that, but the police had come at the hospital's mention of a woman in her condition. But Rick had managed to fend them off, remarkably, and now that she was in a coma, and since the police could do nothing, they had decided to wait until she woke.

If she woke.

A few days before, though, they approached Rick with a drawn picture of the woman, saying that they would at least bring it around town and see if anyone knew her.

"Not worth it," Rick had said. "No one'll know her."

Two months. Piper had been gone for two months. Melinda had stayed with Leo for another night, but went back to Prue's after that. He wasn't ready for her. Not yet.

He tracked Dan everywhere he went. Since Dan had gotten out on bail, as well as a lack of evidence, Leo had since made a hobby of following him.

Everywhere.

But now, he was driving with Jo and Adam to a local elementary school. Zing, Kia, and Sam were in the back of the SUV. Leo was driving. It'd been a long time since he'd been to a school with Kia, so this was a good trip.

"Left up here," Jo said. She pointed.

"I know, I know," Leo retorted. He took it back immediately. "Sorry," he mumbled.

But Jo paid him no mind. Leo'd been edgy for a while now. It was one of the reasons that Melinda had gone back to stay with Prue. Besides that, Leo was never home.

"It's okay," she said. "We all--"

"I don't want to talk about it," Leo said.

"Leo..."

"I said, 'I don't want to talk about it."

Jo said nothing more. They pulled into the playground in the back of the school, where the kids would soon be. Leo was first out. Adam, on the other side, was second, and Jo climbed from the back seat and out Leo's door.

In the back of the SUV, Leo grabbed Kia's designating harness, and his coat. He took off his trench coat and replaced it with the shorter, black jacket with the radio on it. He only wore it when he had the dogs.

While Kia was in her kennel, Leo got the harness on her. He rolled up her leather leash. The leash was at least twenty feet long, and had a few knots in it for places to hold. He hung it on a side hook of the SUV.

Jo and Adam were done with their dogs at the same time as Leo. Kids started to come out of the school, each class in a line, the kids jumpy and excited. Zing and Sam were out of their kennel, pulling with all their might toward the kids. Kia was whimpering from her kennel.

"Shh," Leo told her.

"Zing," Jo threatened. He quieted. "Heel." He sat on her left side.

"Sam." Sam, an older dog than the year-and-a-half-old Zing and three-year-old Kia, knew what Adam wanted. He sat by his left side, quiet.

"Okay, kids, over here. Sit on the grass," a teacher instructed. The kids obeyed, chattering and talking, and squealing about the dogs.

As soon as the teacher had the thirty kids quiet, she motioned for more. When they were all outside, there were almost a hundred kids sitting on the grass. The teachers got them quiet.

"Now remember, kids, these police officers have busy schedules, so make it worth their while to be here. What to we say?"

Mostly in unison, the elementary kids recited, "At Washington, everyone achieves. No exceptions, no excuses."

"I see you have an enthusiastic crowd," Adam said. A few teachers laughed. "Okay... I don't really know where to start... Haven't done this in a while."

Jo took the lead. "My name's JoAnne Renshaw. I'm one of the officers on the S.F.P.D."

"I'm Adam Paulen. I'm the chief of the S.F.P.D."

"And I'm Leo Wyatt. One of the officers, like Jo."

"We're all with the San Francisco Police Department, but we're also part of the K-9 Unit, or K-9 Squad..."

"K-9 Team..." Jo mumbled.

"Any way you say it, we're three of five officers at the S.F.P.D. that have gone through training to apply for dogs," Adam said. "With a show of hands, how many kids have a dog?"

More than half the kids raised their hands.

"And how many people consider their dogs pets? Or part of the family?" Leo asked, taking a step away from the SUV. He held a hand in the direction of Kia to keep her quiet.

About the same amount of people raised their hands.

"These dogs are different, though. Jo and Adam take their dogs home to have pets after hours, but in the daytime, their doing a job. They find people, and find things people shouldn't have."

"But their our friends, too," Jo reminded the kids.

"Yeah, Kia's saved me a lot of times," Leo said.

"Now these dogs are trained-- bred-- for this job. They help people like we do. The only difference is they get paid in treats, and w get a salary," Jo said with a little laugh.

"This dog with me is Sam. Sam is five years old. I've known him since he was six weeks old, and he's been my partner for three years," Adam said, scratching Sam's ears.

"And Zing here isn't a real police dog yet. He and I are still in training. Zing gets to go with me places, and come home with me, but since he's only a year-and-a-half old, he hasn't graduated yet."

"And Kia..." Leo had Kia's leash hooked onto her, and let her jump out of the kennel.

"Whoa... Cool..." some kids said.

"Kia is three. I've had her for a year." Leo sat Kia by his side.

"These dogs have gone through so much training-- and so have we-- that they know all the commands in the book."

Some kids skeptically said, "Uh uh..." while giggling.

"No?" Leo asked.

"No!" the kids shouted.

"Okay... What can we do to prove this to you?" Jo asked.

"We'll need three volunteers." Hands shot up. "Um... Here, in the blue," Adam said. The girl stood up.

"How about... in the back? With the red shirt," Leo said. The boy stood.

"And... Right here, in the front."

The three kids came up front and stood by the dogs.

"What's your name?" Leo asked the girl.

"Lucy."

"Okay, Lucy, I need you to give Kia your hand."

Lucy stuck her hand out at the dog. Kia smelled her.

"Okay, now that she's got your scent, I'll just..." Leo turned her around. He pulled a blindfold from his pocket and blindfolded the dog, who sat motionless. "You run out in that yellow tube where no one can see you and hide inside of it."

Lucy ran off. Leo blindfolded the other two dogs.

"And you are..." Jo asked one of the two boys.

"Blake."

"Okay Blake. You run inside the truck. Here..." Jo led the little kid into the SUV and put him in the backseat, covering him with a blanket. "Now Zing won't know where he is."

"And you're..."

"Kevin," the second boy answered Adam.

"Kevin, you run as far as you can out into the field. Stop out by the monkey bars."

Kevin ran off. Leo took the blindfolds off of the dogs.

"Ready?" he asked Kia. He held up his hand. "Scent." Her ears perked up. She'd taken in a scent earlier. "Find it." Kia ran. The kids watched her run in the grass, her nose just above the ground. She circled the yellow tube Lucy was hiding in three times. Finally, the dog stuck her head in the tube and barked three times. She grabbed Lucy's shirt sleeve and pulled her out of the tube, thinking she was rescuing the person. They came back to the group.

"Good girl, Key," Leo said to the dog. He gave Lucy a dog treat. "Hold your hand out and let her take it," he instructed. Lucy did so, giggling as Kia took the treat. She sat down with her class, then.

"Sit, Kia," Leo said. She obeyed.

Next was Adam's turn. He instructed Sam with a hand command as well as a verbal one. "Sam, you ready?"

The eager dog barked once.

Adam told him what he was to look for. "You're goin' after a criminal, K Sam?"

Sam barked again.

"Go. Find him." Before Adam was finished, Sam took off, nose high in the air, opposite Kia's movements. He soon spotted Kevin and took off in the boy's direction.

He barked as he ran, and Adam whistled him back. Sam her to inspect Kevin first, but brought the boy back to them, obviously proud of himself.

"Sam," Adam said shortly. The dog's tail wagged furiously. He knew the tone Adam used. Flat. Simple. It meant a treat or play. Adam let Kevin give Sam the treat.

Last was Zing and Jo. Jo told Zing that he was finding a lost person. The young dog's nose went to work. He sniffed for humans around the car where Jo had led him. He scratched on the door, and Jo opened it. Zing leapt in. A second later, he barked.

A few moments later, the kids were lining up to pet the dogs. All three were sitting quietly, waiting for a command.

The kids got to pet each dog, a few squealing when Zing or Kia licked their hands. Sam nuzzled the many hands petting him, but didn't lick.

After the kids sat back down, teachers asked if they had any questions. Many hands flew into the air. Leo picked the first one.

"How old do the dogs have to be to work?"

"As long as they're over two, and under five, dogs can start working-- with the training, of course. The dogs at the S.F.P.D. just happen to all start working at two. They were picked from birth and trained from day one," Leo explained.

Adam picked another. "How much longer does Zing have to train?"

Jo picked that one up, saying, "Just another six months. He'll be a real police dog then."

One month, it had been, and the woman was looking better. Doctors predicted her awake before the end of the week. But anything was possible. There were three possibilities:

1: she wakes

2: she doesn't wake

3: she dies

"But we'll need a number to contact," a doctor was telling Rick.

"I'll take care of that. When she wakes."