AN: Thank you for all the reviews! This chapter is fairly long so…
Piper milled and dawdled around her kitchen for a good part of Wednesday afternoon, taking the day off work. She lackadaisically wiped down counters, mopped the floor and polished the wood, just grazing Lucille's handiwork. Finally, she dropped onto the couch to watch a rerun of Sabrina, the Teenage Witch. She chuckled at one of Salem's retorts before snuggling in to take a nap.
Not 10 minutes later, Leo came through the door, tossing his backpack and keys into an armchair. He smiled down at her and retrieved a blanket, tossing it over her lightly. It was then that she chose to stir.
"Hey, honey, here so soon?"
Leo frowned. "Piper, it's Leo not Da—"
She cracked open one eye. "I know who it is." She pulled him down for a passionate kiss. They again made love in the master bedroom.
For a while after that it got to be a very exciting routine. She would greet him at the door, they would go in the house and have sex anywhere, the bedroom, the bathroom, the living room, the kitchen, even in Dan's study, in his favorite chair. After that, they would sit or lie for a while, speaking, silent. Occasionally, she would roll into his arms and cry, he would never ask why, or whose fault it was, just hold her until she smiled, however watery, at him. Then, they'd dress, he would have his cigarette, and she would spruce up the spot of choice. After these tasks were done, they made a nice snack and sat together, watching a movie, or playing Monopoly.
The funny thing was, though it was scandalously marked as an affair, with your typical betraying partner and sex filled time, the two actually enjoyed each other's company, not just each other's bodies.
One afternoon, with the sun just setting down below the horizon, they sat together on the porch, swinging a little on the porch swing. They didn't show too much affection, well aware of the neighbors prying eyes. Inconspicuously, he took her hand.
"I have something to ask you." He said solemnly.
"What?" Piper asking, stomach turning over. She couldn't imagine what would come out of his mouth. She waved briefly to the elderly neighbor across the street, Mrs. Tillman.
"I want you to come away with me on a weekend. I've already found the perfect place. It's secluded enough to give a plenty of privacy, yet civilized enough to have a CPK."
She laughed. "That's not saying much. What will I tell Dan?"
"That you have some sort of conference."
Piper shook her head slowly. His face fell at her apprehension. "Leo, I…It's dangerous. Can't we just stay here together?" She gestured towards the house with her head, a suggestive smile gracing her lips. Waywardly, she slid her hand over his thigh, dangerously close to his private regions. He groaned, and wanted to take her right there. But in the proper, secretive fashion, they stood and walked into the house, where there goings-on were left up to the imagination.
-
Piper remade the bed and watched as Leo reentered the room. She was sitting on the side of the bed, holding Adam's photo in her hand, running a lazy hand over the diamond pendant. Leo frowned, pulling his tee shirt over his head. "Baby, what's wrong?"
Piper didn't say anything for a moment. "We were being very, very stupid. We felt happy and giddy and fulfilled." She paused. He knew she was talking about the night of her and Adam's accident. "You see, I was still a virgin up until that night. That night, we'd made love for the first time. It brought us closer, and gave us sort of an adrenaline rush, so to speak. We were on top of the world."
She her hand dropped into her lap before she continued. "So, we snuck from his room in the garage apartment and stole his parent's car." she smiled at the memory. "So we climbed in, and sped on our merry way. Then…" she swallowed tears. "Then, we slammed into a patch of trees over by the college. We shouldn't have done much damage, really, except maybe, racked up the car. But the police said it was a freak accident, one in a million, you know."
Piper stopped again, the throbbing headache she'd acquired, pounding dully against her forehead. "My shrink says that since I have nightmares about it, I developed narcolepsy. My way of punishing myself. That, or my way of trying to work through it." She shrugged, almost helplessly tossing the picture onto the table. "But what can you do?" She put on a smile for his benefit. She stood up, neurotically smoothing her tight black capris, doing the same to the cotton baby blue tee.
"You don't have to be brave for me." Leo said, looking up at her face.
"I know."
There was an anxious silence between them, resounding against the walls. "We could watch a movie." he suggested. Piper smiled, taking his hand.
"Ooo! Let's watch Selena!"
Leo smiled. It was a common denominator between them. They both loved the music and they found J.Lo thrilling as the title character. "Okay…Wait a minute. I think we kept it to long, Blockbuster will have a fit."
She rolled her eyes. "Come on, come on, come on, come on…"
-
Later that evening, after Piper's crying jag at the end of the flick and after a heavy make-out session, the couple was in the kitchen, going back and forth between kissing and making dinner. At the moment, it was kissing.
"Mmm…" Leo said, from his place leaned against the island, running his hands down to her hips. "I can't keep my hands off of you."
She pressed her forehead to his chest, hands moving to unbutton his shirt. "Ditto. We should probably stop." She said, pushing him over the counter, straddling him.
He laughed, an idle hand tracing a line from the side of her neck, down her cleavage. "Ohh. You set such a great example."
She laughed and climbed off of him. He rebuttoned his shirt and crossed over to the stove.
"I completely forgot about the food." She chuckled, bending over to peek in the stove. "Turkey'll be done soon."
Leo nodded, glancing at his watch. "Dan'll be here soon." Neither of them spoke.
"Piper, I'm home."
She winced. "Everyday, he yells my name." she said softly. "And I want to tell him to piss off."
"Hey, baby." Dan said dropping his briefcase onto the counter.
"I'm gonna go." Leo said. Piper watched with a painstaking gaze as he left the kitchen, whereupon she heard the door slam, assuming he'd stepped into the rainy San Francisco twilight.
Dan kissed her cheeks. "So…I was thinking, we could go out tonight." He paused suggestively, holding up a bottle of champagne. "Or, stay in."
Piper sighed, pulling the turkey out of the oven. "Dan," she began, once she'd straightened. "How come we never talk anymore? We used to talk."
Dan sighed. "Piper, let's not make this into—"
"No Dan! We need to have this out!" She angrily slammed the oven door closed. "We never talk anymore. All you ever want anymore is sex, sex, sex! We used to go out, and…double date with other couples—"
"That was before you got all weird on me!"
Piper glared at him. "Fuck you!"
"I wish!"
"This isn't about sex, Dan." Piper said, fingering the round diamond pendant. "I can't do this anymore."
"What? Fight? Have sex?" Dan threw his hand in the air dramatically. "My God!"
"Us." She said quietly. "This. Our marriage is a sham."
Dan just stood there with a looked conceived of being dumbfounded and angry. "What?" Piper watched his knuckles turn white, gripping the neck of the champagne bottle. At that moment, the neck shattered, sending bubbly and glass everywhere, lightly dotting her white cotton sundress. She gasped as he advanced on her. "You can't do this to me!" he yelled violently. She watched as he dripped blood on the floor from his glass bitten hand. "How dare you try an' leave me, ya STUPID BITCH!"
Piper let out a yelp and dashed past him. She scooped up her car keys and tried to open the door, hands shaking.
"Don't run, ya lousy whore!" Dan yelled, no more then a yard away from her.
Mildly, Piper wondered if he'd started drinking already. Dan was now at her side as she finally unlocked the door. "You get out!" He screamed. "I don't need your emotional ass around here anyway!" He raised his hand.
Piper's heart pounded painfully in her chest as fear and panic rushed form temple to temple. He brought an open palm down across her bicep. That just made her mad. Briefly, she looked down at the little bottle of mace attached to her keychain. Then she sprayed him with it. He let out a truly foul curse and she ran out into the wet night.
AN: Weird chappy, huh? Well, please don't think Dan overreacted, he has unsettled emotional issues as well. Sorta. (Do we really care?) Anyway, who do we think Piper'll run to? Please review!
