AN: Hey guys… Here are some responses to questions that came up in your last reviews;
Many people are wondering; why the hell didn't Piper just tell Leo they moved Ben's body? Well, according to law, that's a crime, and Piper has only known Leo for what? A month? While her sisters she knew her whole life. Her commitment to them is greater; as strong as she might feel about Leo.
Someone mentioned that Chapter 10 seemed like too much, but I'm glad you changed your mind after reading chapter 11. This chapter will smooth things out too.
Oh, and don't I just love it when you guys get that feeling and all go "IS SHE PREGNANT?" lol. Well, this time; I won't response to that. Just not to get any ideas in your heads (one way or another). This time, I'll keep you guessing.
And I'm glad you guys like Maggie… I feel like I've accomplished something; you guys seem to understand how I wanted her character to be (a little girl with too much brains and trickiness), that was exactly what I was aiming for (and you'll see some more of that trickiness of hers in this chapter… Hint! Lol).
Anyway, enjoy this one… I have a feeling you'll like it. (You're probably wondering what the hell does that chapter name means… well, you'll see).
Chapter 12
OoO Electric Set Up OoO
Piper took her shoes off to feel the soft grass underneath her feet while walking towards the benches that were facing the baseball field, where girls from ages seven to ten were listening to their couches' instructions.
The benches were filled from up and down with parents/grandparents/friends/neighbors and so on, which was about half of Lustville.
Well, those people have SOME lives… Piper thought, and found an empty seat in the first row.
"You're a brave one." Leo's voice came behind her, and she looked up to see him staring down at her with his arms folded.
She shivered. He knew; he knew about Ben…
"Wha… What do you mean?" Piper mumbled.
To her great relief, Leo smiled, and set down next to her.
"No one ever sits in the first row, those baseball balls keep flying in this direction…" He explained.
"It's ok; I trust that none of the girls will try to kill me." Piper said, and as she did she realized how not funny it was. It's not like no one else has never tried to kill her before…
"Don't worry; I'll make sure nothing hits you." Leo smiled, and Piper had to return a smile to those enchanting lips.
He looked pretty tired, and she knew why; He's been on Ben's investigation all day.
As if on cue, Leo said;
"I'm pretty sure Frank killed him; he was the only one who showed any significant signs of real hatred towards Ben. And to think that he is running for sheriff next week… I'll have to have a warrant against him out by Friday, so that by Sunday in the elections everyone will know to think twice before putting that vote in. Unless… there is something you aren't telling me?" He suddenly asked, surprising Piper.
"And what's that supposed to mean?" Piper asked, feeling guilty for lying.
But she couldn't tell… she made a promise to her sisters, and family came first.
"I'm just making sure; it's an officer's job to do it." He said, and turned back to look at his daughter.
She was getting in position; ready to swing when the ball that would come to her direction, and seconds later the game begun.
Maggie was tiny compared to the other girls on both team, but she hit the ball hard and soon enough made her first home run.
Leo was shouting comments like the rest of the exited parents, and Piper had to smile at how sweet he looked.
"What?" He asked when he realized she was watching.
"Nothing." She shook her head, smiling.
He placed a kiss on her lips, and then turned his attention back to the game.
That was when they both saw Maggie swing with the bat, only to miss the ball and have it hit her straight in the forehead instead.
The girl stumbled backwards and fell down on her buttocks and palms.
Both Piper and Leo jumped to their feet.
"Damn." Leo said next to her.
The coach helped Maggie to her feet, and sent her out of the game to the benches towards her father.
The lady next to them gave Leo some ice which he put on her daughter's forehead.
"You okay Maggs?" He asked.
"Yeah, I'm good to go back into the game." Maggie immediately said.
"Good." Leo said, surprising Piper.
"Excuse me? You're just going to send her back in there like that?! Come here…" Piper pulled the girl towards her, and set back on the bench, Leo following her.
She put two figures on Maggie's forehead, and the girl winced.
Piper looked at Leo with an accusing look.
"That hurt?" She asked.
Maggie nodded.
"I don't think you're ready to go back into the game." Piper stated.
"Oh please Piper, don't spoil my kid…" Leo started.
"I said; she's not going back into the game. Understood?" Piper snapped, using the motherly instinct she's collected plenty from practically raising her two sisters.
Leo looked taken aback, but smiled.
Maggie smiled too.
"Thanks for coming. Did you see that homerun I made? Did you?" Maggie asked.
Piper smiled, and nodded. "I saw it alright. Where did you get your skills from, daddy?"
"Nah, Dad doesn't even know how to hold a ball." Maggie said.
"Excuse me?" Leo asked
"Admit it dad, even grandma plays better then you."
Piper looked a few seats up where Keren was staring at the trio, her eyes furious.
Easy grandma…
"Does not." Leo said, looking like the child out of the two.
"Right dad, keep dreaming." Maggie mocked.
"Did you hear that? Who taught her to talk back to me like that?" Leo asked, looking at Piper.
"You talk back to grandma all the time." Maggie said as a matter of fact.
Leo was left mute.
Piper only allowed Maggie back into the game fifteen minutes later.
"Thanks Piper, I feel much better. And look; now we all match!"
Piper looked at Leo and his black eye, then Maggie with the developing blue on her forehead, and remembered herself in the mirror. They really did match.
"Just like a family." Maggie said, kissed Piper's cheek and ran back into the game.
She left both her father and Piper stunned.
--OoO--
By seven that evening; all Lustville citizens above eighteen where in the court room for the council meeting.
The noise was unbelievable, and Leo spent the first half hour when everyone was talking at once looking at Piper across the room, who didn't look even merely amused.
"Alright; Quiet, Quiet!" The Mayor yelled, and after a few moments the attention was turned to him.
"Good. Now, if you may, I'd like to open this meeting by making sure we all know the main reason we are here tonight;
In the last week, Lustville has experienced events which it hadn't in probably over fifty years; a woman and a man were pushed into the Lustville River, only one of them lucky enough to survive." The mayor begun.
Leo saw Piper frown.
"Now, we all know that they were both newcomers, and that should be taken in consideration."
Piper sunk in her seat even lower. She clearly wasn't enjoying it.
"That is because they both pushed each other!" Keren's voice came from behind Leo, and he turned back to look at his mother with anger.
Hushed voices begun through the room. Obviously everyone was considering that idea, and Leo felt like shit when he realized he was considering it too.
"Of course, that's not any kind of accusation!" The Mayor assured, but everyone ignored.
The meeting went on for three hours, and by the end of it the people were clearly divided into two groups;
Against the Halliwells, or with them.
At ten, Leo drove the three famous Halliwell sisters back to their home after it was decided that there was no point in opening P3 that night.
"Really Piper, ignore them. They are just some motherfucking bitches who don't know what they're talking about." Phoebe reassured Piper, who was obviously not used to having that much people against her.
"Exactly. Like Keren." Paige pointed out.
"She's my mother you know." Leo felt like adding.
"So? She's the biggest bitch of them all." Phoebe said simply, and Leo saw no point in contradicting her.
He loved his mother, but sometimes she was as stubborn as hell.
As usually, Leo followed Piper home.
She was jumpier then she usually was, and he could hardly blame her.
So when they walked into her room and she casually lie on her bed, face down, Leo allowed himself to climb over her, and started pulling her out of her shirt.
"Look who's naughty tonight…" She mumbled somewhere into the mattress.
But Leo started massaging her back, and felt as her tense nerves started to ease up, and after a few minutes she was completely relaxed under him.
"You are a god, George." She said with admiration in her voice.
"How did you call me?" Leo asked, hardly noticing.
"George. It goes well with Vilma. Besides, you didn't think you're the only one who gets to call me names? Keep dreaming town boy."
Leo laughed.
It was true; at night, Piper seemed to forget all her worries, and Leo knew she had the same effect on him as well.
Vilma and George.
George and Vilma.
Sounds good.
"You having fun down there?" Leo asked at some point.
"Did you say something?" Piper asked back in a murmured voice, obviously full of pleasure.
"Alright, that's enough for one night. Now it's time we both had fun."
He turned her over to face him. Her eyes were closed, and her lips were curved into a beautiful smile. God, the woman was amazing.
Then the lights when out.
"What the hell?" Leo asked, looking around. The light from the hall that could be seen through the crack of the door seemed to be out as well.
"Piper!" one of the sisters called from downstairs.
"Oh. I don't whant to open my eyes. What happened now?" Piper muttered.
"The lights are out." Leo said.
"Shit." Piper sighed, and got out of bed.
Holding each other's hands, Leo and Piper walked each other down the stairs.
"Phoebe, Paige? Where are you guys?" Piper called.
"In the living room!" Paige called back.
"I'll go to the basement and see if I can get those lights working again." Leo said.
"Wait, I'll come with. We'll be right back!" Piper called to her sisters, and walked with Leo hand in hand towards the stairway downstairs.
"Do you know what you're doing?" Piper asked five minutes later when Leo was trying to figure out the fuels.
"It would be so much easier if the electricity in this house was normal." Leo said.
"It's not our fault that no one has lived here in a hundred years to update the place." Piper said, keeping the flashlight lighting what Leo was trying to fix.
"Wait…" Leo suddenly said, realizing something was utterly wrong…
"What?"
"Get back!" Leo yelled, and the both succeeded to move exactly two steps back before the large BOOM!
"Piper!! Leo?!" The sisters called from upstairs.
Leo realized he was thrown backwards and hit something painfully with the back of his head.
He pulled himself up into a sitting position, and saw the light went back on.
Two frightened sisters ran down the stairs.
"Oh god, what was that?" One of them asked; Leo was too dazed to notice.
Something in the back of his head reminded him suddenly that he wasn't alone.
"Piper?!"
He heard her groaned from somewhere behind him, and turned to see her lying on the floor, her face covered with black dust.
Her sisters were already there, helping her to sit up.
"What in the world just happened?" She asked, coughing.
"Someone messed with the fuels." Leo informed, getting up to his feet.
"Someone was here??" Paige asked, still hovering over her sister, who Leo was now helping to her feet as well.
"Oww..." Piper moaned. "Leo, I think I'm going to need another one of those massages of yours." She said, not quite sarcastically.
With the help of Phoebe and Paige, they went upstairs and collapsed together on the couch.
"Don't tell me someone is trying to kill Piper again?" Phoebe asked, worried.
Piper looked at Leo for an answer, and he had no other choice but to nod sadly, but furiously.
"I have a feeling that someone wants you dead bad, and now I'm almost convinced that it's Frank Tucker. Only he would have skills to play with the electricity like that. First thing tomorrow morning, I'm going to go down to that motherfucker's house and pull him to the police station like a dirty dog if he doesn't come himself. Actually, I'll be pulling him like a dog in both situations."
Piper put her hand on Leo's knee as if trying to calm him, but he could see that the relaxed Vilma was now long gone, and Piper herself was worried as hell. And scared. Damn Frank.
Piper's sisters set on the couch on both her sides, and Leo used the moment to lay out a plan for how he would act with Frank tomorrow, and all he could think about is choking the guy.
That is, if Leo will be able to get off that couch by tomorrow morning. As of now, his tail bone was killing him.
AN: You know the drill guys… hurry and review. This chapter had three important things happening; Maggie/Piper getting closer, the council meeting, and finally the second attempt to finish Piper off. I hope you liked it, I know I loved writing it.