AN: Hello everyone… I'm glad those of you who reviewed enjoyed the last chapter… and I'm hoping the reason the last chapter only received half the reviews it usually does is because of all the problems in the site, there were couple of days where I couldn't review anything either (or update). Anyway, enjoy this chapter…….

Chapter 11

OoO Bad Times Ahead OoO

It didn't get any better in the morning.

Piper woke up with a sour taste in her mouth and a mind grating headache.

She only slept for three hours, and at six she was long awake. Her sisters were already in the kitchen when she came down, both staring at the dirty floor helplessly.

"Well, don't just stand there. Start cleaning." Piper ordered, and splashed water on the floor, then started scraping the dried blood off.

"Are you sure we shouldn't tell Leo about this?" Paige asked after about half an hour of cleaning in silence.

"No, please don't… The law is beyond him, he'll have to send me to jail…" Phoebe panicked.

"We'll all go to jail for moving the body." Piper mumbled, and with that another long silence took on.

At some point as Piper was leaning over to clean the blood off of the back yard porch she felt like she was suffocating and had to stand up to get some air back into her lungs.

She threw the mop she was holding to the ground and leaned against the wall next to her. It was emotionally draining and she knew that another moment of it and her legs would give up on her all together. The constant need to vomit wasn't adding any good to the situation either.

She walked to the kitchen and grabbed a glass which she filled with little water and lots of ice.

Instead of bringing it to her mouth, she leaned it against her hot forehead, letting the coldness suit her for a few seconds until even it felt hot.

"I'm so sorry…" Came a mumble behind her, and Piper turned around to find her sister Phoebe, traces of tears on her cheek.

Piper put the glass of water away and took a step towards her sister.

She did the only thing she knew was right to do; she pulled her little sister into a hug.

Phoebe started sobbing on Piper's shoulder, and Piper started feeling bad for snapping at her so much yesterday.

"Phoebe, it's not your fault." Piper said.

"Yes, yes it is… and I feel so damn stupid now… but I figured that if the neighbors would have seen him first in our back yard, it would be obvious who killed him…" Phoebe tried to explain, and Piper led her to the couch.

They set there for a few minutes, and Piper had to try hard not to break down herself.

When they pulled away, Phoebe was much calmer, but Piper felt numb. She wasn't familiar with the feeling, and it was making her hands shake against her will.

"Are you ok?" Phoebe suddenly asked.

"I don't know." Piper answered, hugging herself.

The ring of the phone filled the room. It stopped after the first one.

"Piper…" Paige started as she walked into the room with the phone in her hand. "It's Leo." She gave the phone over, and Piper cleared her throat before talking.

"Hello?"

"It's me." Leo's voice came, and that was enough for her to know that they found the body. "Piper… You need to come down to the police station. I'll be over to take you here in a few." He said in an apologizing tone.

"Wa…w… why?" She managed.

"I need you to identify a body." He said quietly.

"Okay." She whispered, and turned the phone off before he could hear her burst into tears, or say whatever it was that he was going to say.

But she didn't cry. She just put the phone away and stared at nothing in particular.

"What is it?" Phoebe asked in a small voice.

"They found him. Get rid of the curtains. I need to get dressed." Piper said without looking at either of her sisters, then rose form the couch and left upstairs.

The thought of facing Leo and having to 'identify' Ben's body made her cold, and she no longer felt the sweat on her forehead. Now she was just shivering.

She threw a warm sweater on and came downstairs just when there was a knock on the door.

Leo was standing outside, his hands in his pockets.

"Hey." He greeted, and Piper let herself out, closing the door behind her.

"Hey." She murmured in response, looking anywhere but at him.

She was usually swell at lying, but at that situation she couldn't even look into his eyes without saying something like 'Ben is dead!', which he obviously already knew.

"Piper… I'm really sorry you have to do this. Ben was… he was… murdered. And even though I'm pretty sure it's him, it's regulations to have a relative or someone along those lines to identify the body before we call him officially dead." Leo said.

She could see he wasn't very good at this. After all, not every day you find a body in a place like Lustville, not as far as Piper knew.

She tried to look surprised, but before she knew it she felt warm tears role down her cheek, which seemed to be enough to convince Leo.

He pulled her into a tight hug, then led her to his SUV which he drove down to the station.

She was taken to a back room where a man wearing all white –a doctor obviously- was standing by a huge table which had something big on it, covered with a huge white sheet.

And Piper knew exactly what (or to be more accurate; who) it was.

Leo had his hand on her shoulder even before the doctor took the corner of the sheet and removed it just enough to show Ben's blue and swollen features.

He looked even worse then he did that previous night.

Piper felt the sickening sensation shatter through her body again, and Leo quickly turned her to face him, and pulled her closer to him, leading her out of that room.

Rob was in the hall just as the two walked out, and Leo quickly grabbed the glass of water Rob was drinking and put it in Piper's hands.

She automatically took a slip of it.

She saw Leo nod to Rob, and he walked off after gently petting Piper's shoulder.

It was no surprise to find Ben as the one who the body belonged to, but seeing him again made it all the more real, and now there was no way it was all just a very bad dream.

--OoO—

He took her to his office in the end of the hall and closed the door behind him.

She set on the chair he offered her, thanking him.

Leo didn't know what to think.

Who could have killed Ben? Plenty of people; about thirty of them. But looking back at Piper he couldn't help but remember last night.

She was in such a hurry to leave… Could she possibly… Or her sisters maybe?

Leo hated himself for even having these thoughts; Piper was shaking in her own skin, and it couldn't possibly have been a show. He'd never seen her this way before.

He grabbed her into a hug again, and she accepted it thankfully.

No- it couldn't have been her. Piper wasn't a murderer.

The bullet Ben was shot with went straight through so they couldn't know what kind of gun was used.

And the worst thing about the whole fiasco was that they had no idea where to even start the investigation;

The medical doctor that has been checking the body for the last two hours said that the bullet was defiantly not enough to kill him; he probably lost a lot of blood, but it still wasn't enough, not in such a short time. They also found traces of tires on his skin, which meant someone hit him with a car first, but again- from his injuries, it couldn't have been hard enough to kill him, not even after or before a bullet. What else, was that he was defiantly thrown into the river after he was already dead. And then he was obviously pulled out of the water and drugged to where the Gravys found them.

None of that was making any sense. How the hell did Ben die then?

Leo turned his attention back to Piper who was much calmer and her tears subsided.

"You alright?" he asked her.

"Yeah, sorry." She answered.

"No, I'm sorry." He ran the back of his hand on her cheek and she closed her eyes.

That was when the door to his office was flung open and his daughter ran in.

"Honey, I asked you to wait in Rob's office…" Leo started, but Maggie cut him off.

"I saw you coming in here with Piper and wanted to say hi." Maggie explained, and turned to Piper who was drying her face with her palms.

Maggie tilted her head.

"Piper? What's wrong?" Maggie asked in a grown up carrying way.

"Nothing Maggs, don't worry." Piper said, forcing a smile.

Maggie looked down at Piper's hands and put both hers on one of them.

"Your hands are shaking." Maggie stated.

"It's fine, just a little cold in here." Piper assured.

But Leo could see that Maggie wasn't buying it.

"I think you need a hug." Maggie said, and didn't wait for an answer before she leaned forward and wrapped her arms gently around Piper's neck.

He saw Piper smile, and put her own arms around Maggie as well.

Maggie was an angel from heaven.

"Aright. Go back to Rob's office hon; I have to talk with Piper about a few things." Leo told his daughter.

Piper whispered "Thank you" in Maggie's ear, then let the happy girl bounce out of the room.

When Maggie was gone, Leo took a seat next to Piper.

"You ok?" He asked her, again.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Do you… um… know who did it?" She asked in a small voice.

"No. But someone tried hard."

"So… he was pushed into the river?" She asked, unsure. But not only unsure; she was hiding something and he hated that.

"Only after he was already dead. Before that; he was hit by a car, shot, then somehow died."

"What do you mean 'somehow'? You just said he was shot."

"The doctor says it couldn't have been enough to kill him. He'd be loosing blood pretty slowly, but even if he wasn't found until now it wouldn't have been enough to kill him. But he did die somehow, and then someone through him in the river. Then took him out, and dumped him by the court house, less then a mile down from your house." Leo said.

He saw her flinch, and wished that he didn't. Piper Halliwell –Vilma- couldn't be a murderer. She just couldn't.

"Can I go now?" She suddenly asked.

"Yeah. Come on."

And as he said it, the door to the room opened for the second time and Doctor Randal walked in.

"Heart attack." Were the words that came out of his mouth.

"What?" Both Piper and Leo asked in unison.

"Heart attack. That is the cause of death. He got a heart attack."

Not long after that Leo was driving a car with both Maggie and Piper in it.

She was silent the whole way to her house, and only turned to look at him when the car stopped by her porch.

"Thanks." She said, and he saw she was about to lean over and kiss him, but then looked to the back seat where Maggie was at and stopped.

"It's ok, you guys can kiss all you want; I won't look." Maggie mocked, covering her eyes.

Leo smiled at his daughter's slyness, and placed the awaited kiss on Piper's lips.

"Will you come to my baseball game tonight?" Maggie's voice came even before they had a chance to pull away.

"I thought you weren't looking." Leo said.

"Too late. Well, will you?" She asked again, directing the question to Piper.

"Listen hon, I think Piper would prefer to take the day off…" Leo started, but Piper seemed to have other plans.

"Yeah, sure." Piper said, even smiling some.

"Great. It's at four." She said, and leaned back in her seat, satisfied.

Leo pulled Piper's head closer to him and kissed her forehead, then waved to her as she walked back into the house.

If only he didn't have to take care of a murder investigation, he could have gone home with a clear mind and wait for his daughter's semi-finals game.

But the reality was that he had to drop his daughter at his mother's, then go back to the office and start making some calls, and then some house visits to several citizens who were blackmailed by Ben.

On top of the list was naturally Frank, who had a fight with Ben just that night, and seemed pretty angry and upset afterwards. In fact- he left not long after him, but Leo still had to check that when he'd do some questioning with the others later that day.

And he still had to close down on Frank about Piper's attack which was still seen as unsolved, seeing as there were no evidence against Frank whatsoever, or anyone else for that matter.

And so, he left Maggie with her grandmother who spent the five minutes Leo was home asking him about the body that was found (which naturally, all of Lustville already know about) and decided to just tell her right out that the body belonged to Ben, to save himself the headache.

"She killed him?!?" Keren asked, obviously referring to Piper, but Leo just shook his head in despair. No point to argue.

"No Ma. Look, I have tons of work, and I still want to make it to Maggie's game at four." Leo said.

"Fine, but don't forget about the council meeting tonight at seven. The whole town is going to be there this time, the Halliwells too." Keren said, and Leo sighed tiredly before planting a kiss on his daughter's forehead and leaving back to the station, where Rob was waiting for him to start the house visiting around the Lustville citizens.

Long day ahead.

AN: Don't hesitate, just review. I'm not afraid of bad reviews, so if you don't like something let me know.

Next chapter something pretty interesting and dramatic (in both a good and a bad way) will happen… and also some nice moments between Leo & Piper, and this time- Piper & Maggie too.