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Chapter 17: Two Become One
Leo and Eric pulled up to the apartment complex and got out of the unmarked police car. Close behind them was officers Hernandez and Thomas. They were here o see if any tenants had seen or heard anything about the murder that happened in the parking lot the previous night.
On the first floor, the team split up. "Hernandez, Thomas, take the apartments to the right. Trest and I will take the left."
Out of the eight apartments interviewed, only six were home and no one claimed to seen a thing.
They moved on to the second floor. As they climbed the stairs, they heard yelling. They climbed the stairs and heard the shouts grow louder. They were coming from the first apartment on the right. All four police officers surrounded the door. Leo knocked on the door. "Police. Is everything okay?"
The yelling now turned into blood-curdling screams. All the officers drew their weapons. Leo pounded on the door. "Police! We're coming in!"
He tried the knob, but it was locked. Leo nodded and Eric kicked open the door. Leo was the first to enter, weapon drawn. To his right was a closet, and to his left was nothing but wall. Leo saw the man holding a gun to the woman's head. He reverted his aim towards Leo who rolled to the left. Leo was back in a crouching position after he rolled, but the gunman paid no attention to him. He was firing off shots at Hernandez and Thomas who just entered. Leo watched them drop to the floor.
"No!!" Leo screamed.
Upon hearing Leo scream, the gunman turned towards Leo. He began shooting, but Leo was able to take cover behind the wall leading to the hallway just in time.
"San Francisco Police Department! Put your weapon down NOW!" he heard Eric yell from outside the doorway.
"Eric!" Leo yelled. "Get out of here! Go call for backup!"
But Eric, as immature and unreliable he was in his personally life, was a top class officer. His partner was in there, and he was not going to leave him.
Eric came in shooting. The gunman shot back, letting the woman he was holding hostage fall to the floor. She hunkered down in a corner, away from the line of fire. Now that the woman was out of the way, Leo had a clean shot. He took it, landing two in the gunman's chest. A last bullet flew out of the gunman's gun, getting so close to Leo it cut his skin, burning. Leo didn't even notice. He didn't even check to see if the gunman was alive. He wasn't moving, so Leo didn't care.
Leo quickly called in for backup and began to check on the other officers. Hernandez was dead. He took a shot to the chest, directly to the heart. His heart was instantly pierced, resulting in minimal bleeding. Thomas had taken a bullet to the jugular. There was no chance of his survival. He was dead on impact.
Tears were now streaming down Leo's face. These were his coworkers, his friends. He was thoroughly crying by the time he made it to Eric, expecting him to be dead.
"Leo," Eric cried out in a weak voice. Leo rushed to his side and bent down to him, cradling his head in his lap.
Eric tried to say something, but Leo wouldn't let him. "Save your energy. Help's on the way. You'll be fine." Leo could hear ambulance sirens in the distance.
Eric began to shake, almost spastically. Leo took off his jacket and pressed it against his abdomen wound.
Please, hurry, Leo pleaded with the approaching sirens.
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The telephone rang and Piper went to pick it up. "Hello?" Piper asked in a cheerful voice.
Phoebe, who was passing by, said, "You are to goddamn cheery."
Piper's cheerfulness ended when she heard Andy's voice on the other end. "Piper, there's been a shootout."
"Oh my God! Leo." Piper sat down on the couch. Phoebe, hearing Piper's end of the conversation, sat next to her on the couch.
"Two officers with him were killed. Eric is in the hospital in emergency surgery. They don't think he'll make it."
Phoebe, who could now hear Andy's voice through the phone, let out a sob.
"But Leo?"
"He's unhurt. Just a bullet graze. But, Piper, emotionally, he's a wreck. He needs you."
"Where is he?"
"He should be at his apartment. They wouldn't let his stay at the hospital."
"I'll go straight there." She hung up and turned to Phoebe. "I'm so sorry."
"I want to go to the hospital," she said, a note of desperation in her voice. Almost close to hysteria.
"Okay. I'll drop you off on the way to Leo's."
Piper drove hurriedly, over the speed limit by at least twenty miles at all times. She dropped Phoebe off at the hospital and headed towards Leo's. Once she parked, she saw his car and knew he was home.
She had no clue what apartment he was in, so she looked on the mailboxes. Apartment 301. As Leo was reading the mailboxes, a little kid came in and unlocked the inner door with a key. He even held open the door for Piper. "Thank you," she said.
As she climbed the stairs to Leo's apartment, her worry for him grew. What could she do to help him?
But before she knew it, she was at the door, knocking. Leo answered the door in pajamas, hair ruffled, eyes bloodshot and red-rimmed.
"Oh, Leo." Piper said and she embraced him.
Leo didn't say a word. He just hugged her close and cried on her shoulder.
Being a foot shorter than Leo, Piper led him to the couch so Leo didn't have to hunch over.
Piper sat on the couch and held him as he cried, much like the way he held her in the park.
After a while Leo clamed down a bit. "Why are you here?" He wasn't ungrateful, just curious.
Piper kissed his forehead, his eyes, his lips. "When Andy called me and told me there had been a shootout, I thought you were dead. I couldn't take it. I couldn't live without you." She once again kissed his forehead, worked her way down to her eyes, and this time when she met his lips, he kissed her back.
Piper leaned back on the arm of the couch, Leo's head on her lap. She ran her hands through his hair as he told her of the day's events. "I held Eric as he died," was how Leo finished the tale.
Piper tilted back his head, forcing him to make eye contact with her. "Sweetheart, Eric didn't die. He's in surgery."
"But he won't make it. It's my fault. He came in after me."
"Don't talk like that. Eric will make it through. It wasn't your fault. Eric would have gone into that apartment regardless if you were there or not. So stop talking like that."
Leo took her hand and kissed it. "What would I do with out you?"
Piper smiled, brushing loose hair behind her ear. "What would I do without you?"
Leo kept kissing her hand, working his way to her fingertips. When he finally made it to her left hand, he realized something missing. "Where's your ring?"
"I took it off."
"Why?"
"Because it was time."
Piper saw him smile.
Her cell phone rang and she reached for her bag on the floor. "Hello?" she answered.
It was Phoebe, telling her there was no change in his condition.
"Piper, I'm scared. He's no better."
"But he's not worse either. Just keep a clear head. It won't help him any if you lose it."
She finished her conversation with Phoebe and turned back to Leo and repeated the conversation.
"Do you want to go to the hospital?" she gently asked him.
"No. If I'm in a hospital too long, I tart to have a panic attack."
Piper was surprised. Was it possible a man as big and strong as Leo could have a panic attack? "Why?"
"My mom died in childbirth with me. When I was nineteen, my dad died of a heart attack in the hospital. They weren't able to save either of them. My parents were wonderful. I don't remember my mom, but my parents made videotapes before I was born. My mom was so beautiful. She talked about all the plans she had for me. All the stuff she wanted to do with me. She never got to do any of it." His voice was thick with emotion. "What happened to your mom?"
"She drowned in a lake at our summer camp. I was five when they told me I wouldn't see her anymore. I didn't understand at the time. But Prue was there when they… when they dragged her body out of the lake. I think that's why she's so protective of Phoebe and me. She's seen death up close."
"I'm sorry," he said, still kissing her hand. He turned over her hand and kissed her palm, right along her scar. "Is that from Toby?"
Piper drew her hand away, surprised. "How do you know about that?" She never told him about the incidents with Toby.
He sat up and faced her. He looked at her sheepishly. "After you told me about Mark, I was interested and looked up the old files. I also found the files about Toby, about what he tried to do to you." He put one hand on her face. "I'm sorry he tried to hurt you. I wish you had never gone through that."
Leo held her hands and traced the scar with his thumb. Piper kissed him, adding more passion as the kiss continued. Leo's hands were exploring the skin underneath her shirt as her cell phone rang. Piper was tempted to let it ring, but answered just in case it was Phoebe. It was.
"He made it!" Phoebe exclaimed in a cheerful voice. Piper could tell her sister was crying with happiness. "He's still unconscious and the doctors say he's not out of the woods yet, but he survived the surgery. That's something to hope for, isn't it?"
"Of course it is. He'll make it." When did I become a goddamn optimist? Piper wondered. When did she become so sure everything would have a happy ending? God knows she had enough events in her life to prove the opposite. It was Leo. Leo turned her into a person with a better outlook. She hadn't realized it, but she had become a cynic in the last two years.
Piper hung up with Phoebe and looked at Leo. He could tell by the expression on her face that Eric made it.
Piper, who was straddling Leo's hips, said, "Leo Wyatt, you have turned me into a goddamned optimist."
"Is that a bad thing?" he said with the first genuine smile she had seen out of him all day.
"I guess not," she said, teasing him. His hands were once again exploring her skin, working their way from her back to her front. Piper leaned down to kiss him, but one of her hands touched the sore area of his side where the bullet grazed him.
Leo sucked in a sharp breath and both of them went tumbling off of the couch. Leo landed on top of Piper, who whapped her head on the floor with a solid thud. Leo pulled himself up onto his elbows.
"Are you okay?" he asked her as she rubbed her head. She sat up as far as she could with Leo on top of her.
"I'm fine. You?"
"Never better." He looked at their positioning on the floor, him on top of her. He smiled. "I have you just were I want you."
"Do you? Always have to be on top, huh?"
Leo kissed her and she passionately returned the kiss. "Maybe we should go to the bed," Leo suggested huskily.
"Okay," Piper said breathlessly.
Piper didn't recall how they made it to the bedroom without breaking the kiss, but they did and their clothes were soon gone, the two of them melting into one in a timeless act of love.
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Author's Note: This is my favorite chapter so far. Please review and let me know if you agree. I was going to kill Eric, but I had a bout of sympathy for Phoebe and decided against it. So let me know what you think of Piper and Leo.