Disclaimer: Not mine. Although I do own the first season on DVD, now… oh well.

A/N: So I was watching my DVDs of Charmed… and I watched whatever episode with Phoebe and Piper competing for Leo, and I realized that whenever one of them checked out part of his body, they did a camera close-up. I just found it funny. Maybe whoever designed the script (and the camera shots) had a bit of a thing for him? I mean, come on, the guy is incredibly cute. Anyhow, on with Chapter Three since I left you with a horrible cliffhanger…

And My Day Just Keeps Getting Better…

Prue nudged Phoebe. "I think we might want to leave these two alone, huh?"

Phoebe nodded, and the two crept down the hallway. Piper continued to stare at Leo and Leo continued to look at the floor.

"Love?" Piper whispered. "You love me?"

Leo sighed. "Yeah, I do." He looked up, locking eyes with her. "God, I love you so much. I'm not allowed to be with my charges, it's against all the rules. So, when we got to a point where I wasn't in control any more, I pulled away. I didn't know what else to do. I should have told you, really, I should have." By this point, Piper had retreated into her room to sit on the bed, and Leo was standing in the doorway. "And then I felt you dying, and it started to kill me, too. I couldn't get there fast enough. And I was almost too late. You don't know how much you scared me, when I healed you and then you still weren't breathing for a minute."

Numbly, Piper patted the bed next to her. Leo hesitantly sat down where she'd indicated. She still hadn't reacted to his laying his heart in her hands. Was she going to crush it or hold it?

Piper, meanwhile, was trying to wrap her mind around the concept. She'd always thought he'd just liked her, that they'd had passion, yes, but not love. Even before she'd found out he was leaving, she'd felt bad for loving him because she didn't think he loved her back. It had actually dampened the hurt, when he'd gone, because she thought it would have been harder to let him go and have to see him around if he didn't love her. But he did. And now he was back.

"How long are you back for?"

Leo shrugged. "That depends."

"On what?"

"On you."

"Me?" Piper put her hands to her temples. "Oh, god, not again."

"What?" Leo asked, frantically. He hadn't meant to upset her again.

"You're the second guy today who's made me the deciding factor in his travel plans."

Leo felt an unreasonable stab of jealousy. Of course she'd found someone else. It wasn't like he'd ever said he loved her before. "Someone else?"

She threw up her hands in disgust. "We went on three dates, and suddenly it's 'Piper, should I move out of town or not? I won't if you want me to stay.' And the whole time he was asking me, I was sitting there, wishing you were around." She didn't seem to notice what she was saying, and Leo waited with baited breath. "I was just there, wanting you to hold me and tell me it was alright. And then that kid got kidnapped and I felt so helpless…" She didn't move as Leo gently wiped the tears from her eyes. "I just wanted you to be there so I had someone to cling to. And then I had that dream… Oh, god, that dream. It was all nightmarish and creepy and I wanted to get out but I couldn't and I yelled for you and then suddenly I was here. And then I find out that you're not human, you're a whitelighter. I just don't know what to do…"

For the second time that night, Piper buried her head in Leo's shoulder. He put his arms around her, holding her tightly, rocking her gently back and forth. She was crying, and so was he, for all the things that had hurt her. "Shh. It's ok." He stroked her hair softly, as though she were a child. "It's going to be alright."

Piper pressed her face harder into Leo's shirt, wrapping her arms around his waist as tightly as she could. "Damn it, I really thought I'd gotten over loving you," she muttered.

Leo pulled back enough to look her in the eye. "What?"

"I said, I thought I'd gotten over loving you."

"Does that mean…?" He had to hear her say it.

"Yes." She blinked a few times to clear her eyes of tears. "I love you too."

Immediately, Leo leaned down to kiss her. When they both needed to breathe, he sat back with a smile. "So, want to try this again?"

Piper frowned. "But what about your whitelighter duties, the rules?"

"Screw the rules. I would rather break the rules than put either of us through that again."

A/N: Review, please. Hope you enjoyed it. This might be the last chapter, but I'm not sure.