To anybody reading my stories, I highly recommend you read any stories by kk24197 and Holly Shadow. I Love you're stories!

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Chapter 4: Protection

An hour later, Leo, Darryl Morris, another officer, and Piper, with Laurie asleep in her arms, sat in the interrogation room.

"What do you mean, the witness protection program?" Piper asked.

"It's program specifically designed for witnesses to crimes or people in trouble that need to be kept safe. Basically, they're given a new life. A new home, a new name, a new job…"

"No. I don't want to do that." She liked her job. Being owner of her own nightclub, P3, was the best thing. "I don't want to go into the protection program. I want to go home."

"I'm afraid that's not possible. McGunther is still out there. He'll come back for you and you're little girl."

Piper hugged Laurie closer to her. "There's no other choice?" She looked at Leo as she asked the question.

His look lingered on her face before answering. "It's the safest thing for you and Laurie. We can only assume the man that broke into your house was the man who committed the murder you witnessed. All we need in confirmation and we can get you into the witness protection program."

Another officer walked into the room. "No such luck, I'm afraid. The government refused them. The case isn't high profile enough."

The officers all looked at each other. "So what do we do now?"

All we silent before someone suggested, "Live-in protection?" All the officers nodded in consent.

"What are you talking about?" Piper asked.

"Live-in protection," Leo explained. "It kind of makes you a ward of the city. You'll live in a house with 24/7 police protection. An officer will even live in the house."

Piper looked at them as if they were kidding. "You're joking, right?"

"No, we're dead serious."

Piper nodded her head. "If you think it's best…"

She didn't even finish her sentence before the officers jumped into action. All but Leo left the room to do various actions.

Leo looked down at her and the sleeping Laurie. "It's for the best."

"I hope so."

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Piper waited inside the nondescript SUV while police officers checked the inside of the house. This is ridiculous, she thought. The SUV was parked outside of a two-story gray house.

The officers came out of the house and motioned for Piper to come inside. She opened the door and stepped out side of the vehicle. She pulled Laurie out from the car and held her in her arms. Her eyes were slightly open, but not enough to be totally awake.

"Mommy?" she asked in a sleepy voice.

"I'm here, sunshine. We're home."

Laurie just laid her head back down on her mother's shoulder. Piper followed the officer into the house. On the way through, the officer gave her the grand tour.

"To the right is the study and to the left the dinning room." He showed them past the kitchen and up the stairs. Piper had the first room on the left side of the hall and Laurie had the room across from Piper. Piper's room connected to the bathroom, which connected to another room on the other side. Piper assumed that was the room the police officer would be staying in.

"Who's the officer staying here?"

"Me," said a voice behind her.

Piper turned to see Leo standing behind her.

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Author's Note: For those of you who may be wondering, I have no clue if there is such a thing as live-in protection. Do I care? Not really. I just used it for a Piper/Leo situation. So if you're confused about what's going on, here it is. Piper was a witness to a murder, and the guy later broke into her house. She can't go into the witness protection program because her case isn't important enough. So instead she is going to live in a house under police protection 24/7. Leo is going to live in the house with her… wonder where that will lead. ;) :o) It's a clown!