AN: Hey guys… I'm so sorry it took me so long to update this time, I had a bit of a writer's block (an old excuse, I know, but I think that was my case this time). However, I came up with something fantastic that just came to me randomly and filled a missing spot in the heart of this fiction! So be prepared for some fun here… lots of mysteries and drama coming up. It's not much different form what I had originally planed; it's just a better version of it… and I'm excited now!

But until then…; How come the reviews from you guys keep declining each chapter? I hate complaining… but I'm just wondering. If you guys read, let me know what you think, weather you like it or not, I really do want to know if you don't… It will help me to fix some. Thanks guys… And thank you SO MUCH for those of you who do review! You all rock! (and all the rest of the readers as well of course).

Enjoy this chapter everyone!!

Chapter 4

OoO In Milan At Last OoO

Piper examined her ticket.

Gate: 17 B. Departure time to New York: 6:30 am.

It was now 6 exactly, and just enough time to find her gate.

Their first five hour flight was to New York where they would spend three hours before they have to catch a plane to Milan. Another 10 hours. Oh joy.

"Looking for gate 17B?" A deep male's voice came, and Piper jumped.

Above her, stood Leo Wyatt's all too familiar figure.

"Thank you for that. And I know very well where it is." Piper snapped, putting her ticket away, not letting on the fact that she was lost and had no idea where the gate was.

"Good then. Lead the way." Leo said, smiling, not even moving to any direction to help her out.

Piper stared at the three ways she could choose to go to. Her eyes looked for any signs that would say 'B', but none of them did. Damn.

The last thing she wanted was to look like a moron next to Wyatt. So she closed her eyes for a moment, took a breath, and started heading to wherever her legs took her.

Leo followed, saying nothing.

Well then, maybe I should trust my instincts more, Piper thought, sure she had chosen the right way.

"You know, the plane doesn't usually pick people up from the lady's room. And we don't have time for a potty break." Leo's voice declared, and Piper stopped as soon as she comprehended what he had said.

Damn instincts.

She turned back to him and sighed.

"Fine, Mr. Smart guy. Why don't you lead the way, oh wise one?" She asked.

He laughed, and said; "Well, why didn't you say you didn't know where to go?"

With that, they left towards their gate. It was on the other side of the airport.

"We're late." Leo noted as they were hurrying towards an already empty gate.

"Oh really? Well, why don't you tell me what you were doing on the other side of the terminal then??" Piper asked as they advanced towards the closing doors.

"I entered through the North doors." He said quickly. "Hi, sorry we're late." He told the lady at the counter.

"It's quite alright. Another minute or so the plane would have already been out of here." She ran the tickets in her computer and handed them back to Piper and Leo.

"Tank you." Piper said as brightly as she could, and headed towards the gate with Leo.

"Oh, and Mr. Wyatt?" The lady called.

They both turned around.

"I'm a big fan of yours." She said, smirking.

Piper rolled her eyes and continued inside.

---------

"More water?" The plane attendant asked.

Piper shook her head.

They were only about two or three hours into their flight to New York, and it couldn't have been worse. They ran into a nasty storm and the plane wouldn't stop shaking.

And shaking, and shaking… and shaking… and shaking… and shaking… Ohhh…

"Are you ok?" Leo's voice asked from the side.

Piper, nodded.

"You look pale." Leo noted.

"Flights. Not my favorite." Piper blurred out, and tried to focus on the wall of the airplane.

"The flight to Milan is a lot longer…" Leo reminded.

"Thank you, I know." Piper said.

They would land in Milan in the morning and with no time to complain about get leg they'll have to pick up Martini from jail, meet with Amsterdam's bank' administrator, Mr. Ronaldy, and his lawyer; Tony. Oh god.

After that, they set up a meeting with the detective that has been on this case up until now.

They were all in Italy because some of the money was found, invested in Martini's cigar company ("Martini's"), and that was the last straw that pointed all the accusing fingers at him. Piper didn't even know what Leo had in mind that could possibly save his ass.

Oh god, why is it so freaking shaky…

Piper realized she was holding the arm supporter tightly with her hand, her knuckles turning white, when another hand was placed above hers.

She looked up at Leo. He was staring at her with concern.

"Would you mind telling me how exactly are you planning on bailing Martini out of jail today?" Piper said, slowly pulling her hand to herself, trying to forget the uncomfortable situation she was just in.

Leo smiled.

"You'll see…" was all he said.

About three nauseating hours later they have finally landed in New York.

"We're here." Leo announced.

"Goodie." Piper muttered, and hurried towards the doorway out of the plane.

As soon as they stepped into the terminal, Piper felt alive again. She smiled.

"It's good to see you all cheery." Leo smirked as they waited for their luggage that was supposed to be brought to them personally.

"As long as I'm not stuck on a plane, I'll be very cheery." Piper said.

"I'm hungry. Let's go get something to eat." Leo concluded.

--OoO--

They were four hours into their flight to Milan.

The storm seemed to be following their tails.

He looked over at his partner and she had her eyes wide open, staring blankly at the turned off TV screen on the seat in front of her.

She was getting up about every twenty minutes to go to the bathroom, obviously not enjoying the flight much. Not that he was…

"You know, if you actually make pictures show up on the screen it will be much more interesting to look at." Leo tried to say with sympathy, but it came out a bit edgy.

"Shut up." Piper murmured.

"Sorry." Leo said, giving up on lightning up the mood.

"Do you want a pretzel?" He asked instead, holing up an inch high brown stick.

Piper stared down at it, and he saw her raw face crack into a small smile. There, she was such a beauty now… But the plane took a small shake down and Piper's smile was quickly wiped away.

"Damn storm." Piper muttered.

Leo looked out his small window. It was all just a gray mess; they were obviously in a cloud.

About an hour earlier he had checked on his laptop and he found that the storm in south Europe was only growing. He feared their flight back might be delayed… but chose to tell Piper later, she would probably freak on him.

He decided that starting a conversation would be a smart thing to do to distract her from the flight.

"So… are you ok with the fact that we'll be running against your ex?" He asked. What kind of a question is that? Hell; whatever happened to his 'inner charm'?

She stared at him. "I thought you used that one as something that would tempt me to do all this." Piper noted.

"I know. But I can't be sure…"

She looked away. "He called me a few days ago."

"On personal levels or because-"

"-He called when he found out I was running against him. He tried to persuade me not to. God, after six months, he suddenly calls like we never knew each other." Piper said.

He could tell that in her mind she was probably stubbing Tony with knives.

"But when your daughter, Brie, was born, didn't he-"

"No. He didn't. He doesn't even know her name." Piper said, and Leo realized he was adding salt to a fire that he didn't want to start up.

"It's ok Leo, you don't have to get all red faced." Piper smirked at him, and he smiled back.

"My face is never red. It's simply… pinkish. I think it's sexy."

Piper shook her head as if at a five year old, and headed back to the bathroom again.

--OoO--

It was long hours later.

Milan couldn't be seen as they were landing; everything seemed like one big gray covering the city, connecting it with the rainy sky.

Piper looked out the window as Leo was giving directions to the driver that was already waiting for them as they walked out of the airport.

It was 9 am, and a long day was waiting in front of them. Neither of them has had much sleep in the last 14 hours.

The jail Martini was staying at looked more like a five star hotel.

An officer led them to Martini's 'room', and unlocked it.

"Are you sure this is a prison?" Piper asked as they walking into his room. It was beautiful.

Leo smiled, nodding.

"Well, well, well… Ciao i miei amici!" Martini's voice came behind them, saying something in Italian that sounded like a 'hello' gesture.

"Martini, good to see you." Leo said, shaking his hand.

"Always, Leo. And what a pleasure, Mrs. Halliwell," Martini said, letting go of Leo's hand and placing Piper's underneath his. He gave a small kiss to the top of her hand and tilted his head slightly.

"The pleasure is mine, Mr. Martini." Piper said in her low pitched lawyer tone.

Leo left to talk with someone to work on getting Martini out of jail, while Piper settled down by a table next to Martini.

"Wine?" He asked, already pouring her some. Piper decided not to decline for the sake of politeness.

"Thank you."

"Lei è benvenuto." Martini said, and Piper gave him a confused glance. "You're welcome, caro" Martini translated.

Piper nodded with a smile.

After some traditional small talk, Piper decided she wanted to use the spare time until Leo gets back to hear some more about the case. She's hardly had time to do any research.

"Well, it's quite simple actually. I was in Amsterdam to promote my new investment in leather jackets," Martini started, and Piper noted the bright black long jacket he was wearing, one that jumped to her eyes together with his dark black hair and Italian-style mustache right when sthey came in. "Of course, I have an account in the bank, so I stopped by there… a few times I guess. I actually wanted to take out a bit more then usual, but they didn't let me. I didn't make a fuzz; I knew I could just do the same from here. I wanted to put 'a few' dollars aside and leave them in Amsterdam in my assistant's hand, just in case the leather jacket business would be in crisis. I left the next morning, and by the time I was back 35 million were sitting in my 'Martini's Cigars'. Honestly, if I wanted to rob a bank, I wouldn't put it in a company where any detective would easily find it." Martini marked.

"I'll pretend I didn't hear that last part." Piper added, and considered what he said. "I've heard something about the secretary at the bank… she was claiming that you two had something going on."

"The little prostituta! She says that I had SEX with her and made her believe that I was a 'good man', and later she saw me transferring those 70 million somewhere! Bullshit!" He exclaimed with his Italian accent.

That was when Leo came in, a smile pierced to his face.

The damn man managed to somehow bail Martini out.

"How the hell did you do that?" Piper asked as they were waiting for Martini in the limousine.

"I'm Leo Wyatt. I get anything I want." He smirked, as they saw Martini approaching them.

"Where to now?" Piper asked.

"Your ex."

They sent the limousine with Martini to a hotel, and used the car Leo had rented and asked to have waiting for them by the jail.

In about an hour they reached the building where they had a meeting set up with Tony and Mr. Ronaldy (the manager of the Amsterdam Bank).

As they walked through the hall, led by a secretary, Piper suddenly felt tense.

It was Tony… will she really be able to do it?

She has always been strong when it came to her work, but it never mixed up with anything personal before.

She didn't have time to think it over enough when the double doors in front of them opened, exposing a huge round table with places for about 20 people. In the far end set Mr. Ronaldy, and Tony. Oh god.

He looked just like he always did. His black hair was put away sideways, and he was even tanner then he was the last time she saw him. The suit he was wearing was black, with a blue tie. She remembered that tie. She remembered too much just from seeing him.

"Good day." Leo said, advancing towards the two.

Piper followed him, her mind completely in a different place from her body.

"Good day." Tony said.

Piper tried to release the breath she was holding.

Leo and Tony were now shaking hands, and she was shaking Ronaldy's, taking no notice of the man.

"Piper." Tony said, as his hand reached over to shake hers.

"Tony." Piper repeated in the same tone, surprised at how calm she managed to make it seem.

Her stomach were turning and making loops from the inside.

Why the hell did she think she could do this?

She froze.

She couldn't move a muscle.

She was doomed.

AN: And there you have it! Please take note of all the small details that Martini had mentioned… right now you still don't have enough to rely on, but soon you will see lot's of problems opening up, among them some personal ones for the two leading characters… Muahahaha!!

BTW; in the few days I couldn't make words be written down in this fiction I've started something new… I'll probably post it with the next chapter; it will be completely different from anything I've ever posted on here. You'll see. You won't get it confused with this one.

Review please --grin--