AN: Sorry 'bout the delay everyone, I actually had this chapter typed up, but then, I didn't get on the Internet for few days (relatives), but I'm back now, full of Music Choice Hit List, Pimp My Ride and Mr. Romance! (That'll only make sense to a few people, sorry!)

PunkRoxPixie: I'm working on Profiling Love, I really am, but I gave myself a really terrible ending place in the last chapter, so, it's taking a while, but I'm getting there! I read "Friends?" and it's really cool! This chapter oughta explain what's going on with Leo!

Jenna Sabina: Thank you!

Charmed4life: Answer your questions? No. But, only those who try prevail:-D Thank you, all will come out in the wash!

What About Scout: Maybe she did, maybe she didn't. I have to keep it secret! I can't wait to read the fic you're rewriting, I'm actually writing a fic where Piper and Leo divorced over some cheating and stuff and I sort of see some similarities, but they are two way different stories (I hope) so, whatevs! I'm glad you liked the part about Emma busting in, I thought it was realistic too. Thanks!

patrica: Wow, you've been with me for a long time haven't you? I love people like that. Anywho, thank you!

My Divinest: Oh. Hello, Amy. Thank you mucho!

niem: A new reviewer, awesome! Thanks!

charmedchick4eva: I love being evil! It means you guys are hooked! (I hope) :-P And what was Bret about to tell Phoebe about Amy…

LeoPiper-Forever: Bret? You think Bret was acting weird? Good guess, but no, fraid not, it's a very subtle weird! Like, talkative, weird.

heather1021: Yeah, Leo is a little afraid to love… Sad, huh? Thank you!

Alyssa Halliwell: Thank you! I was trying to do a lighthearted approached to a real situation. Do you think I did that? Oh, I hope I did that…

knatie: Thanks!

halli-halliwell: -does crazy dance- They all think I'm evil, they all think I'm evil! Woohoo! Thanks for your review, this chappy ought to clear some things up!

Chub: You guys crack me up! Thanks!

foureverCharmed: Here you go, here you go, read, read, please!

Magical Princess: Oh, they definitely got divorced, don't worry about that…but hey, that gives me a thought… Oh, and "Amanduh" was really funny, LMAO!

piperleo4eva: Nobody needs school. Everybody would be so much better off learning from the real world! Who cares if you can divide integers or whatever? Thanks!

Piper had wanted to go home that night. But Leo had begged her to stay. This is a bit wishy-washy, she thought as she watched his face look so peaceful in the moonlight. She traced her palm along his chest, down to his naked hips and back up to his lips, then repeating the cycle. He'd made wild, but meticulous love to her. The kind of love a man made when it seemed like it would be the last time. But why? Was he changing his mind? Could he not give her his heart? Had he ever said he would? Her head spun with a tired, yet restless dizziness. What if it was something much worse? What if he was dying, or something equally horrible? Then what? What would she do? More importantly, what would Emma do without her father and mother?

Piper sat up, breathing raggedly, one hand to her head, the other to her heart. Leo didn't stir. After a panicked moment, she relaxed a little. He would tell her if it were something that bad. Wouldn't he?

When Piper awoke again, it was morning. She reached for Leo. And found he wasn't there. She sat up in a panic. She looked around and saw a flower in a small glass vase, with a note attached. Wrapping the sheet around her toga style, she padded over to the dresser and pulled the note away.

Dear Piper,

I had a few things to take care of, a meeting if you will. I hope you don't mind my leaving, I'll be there as soon as I can. I should've asked you if you would watch Emma, but I didn't have time. Sorry. Anyway, like I said, I'll be there soon.

Love Always, Leo.

Her heart flip-flopped in her chest. "Love always". What did that mean? That he loved her always? Or did he write it because it was nice? Overanalyzing. She looked at the flower. Striped Carnation: Sorry I Can't Be With You. Well what the hell did that mean? Like, he couldn't be with her romantically, or he couldn't be with her at that moment? Overanalyzing again. Piper sighed and raked a hand through her hair.

The Seashell. What the hell kind of name is that for a hotel? That was Leo's thought's as he pulled up in front of the motel. It was somewhere between roach and passable. He stopped the idling car and groaned. What was he here? What was he doing? He was an idiot. A complete idiot. He opened the door and went to room 19. He knocked on the door of the hotel. It flew open. A woman rivaling his height, with large breasts and an impossibly small waist with hair just like Emma's smirked back at him. "Leo."

"Amy."

Piper had gone through the house retrieving varying messages in Flower Code, mostly, they told of how beautiful she was and how sorry he was. She came to the last one, sitting on the kitchen table, a Red Rose: Love. Simply that. And this wasn't your regular Joe shmoe kind of love, or the love of one friend to another. This was real and raw. Right there, Piper started sobbing over the flower, not even noticing the way her tears dropped to the velvet like petals, like dew.

"Where's my Daddy?"

Piper turned around mid-sob to see Emma standing a few feet away from her, a Barbie nightgown on and trailing a ragged teddy bear behind, her pretty coppery hair curling around her shoulders. "I don't know." Piper answered honestly, furiously rubbing tears away from her face.

Emma yawned. "Will you make me some food? Please?" She added politely. She clutched the teddy bear to her chest. "Miss Maggie too." So this was Miss Maggie.

Piper took a deep breath. Why had she been crying again? This child needed her. "Okay." She took another breath. Leo was okay, she was certain. "Just let me get something on more than a sheet."

Emma blinked. "Why do you and my Daddy sleep in the same bed?"

Piper blinked right back. What a question to field. "Um…"

"Do you love each other? That's what Daddy said grown-ups do when they love each other."

Piper nodded. "Yeah, I think so."

Leo strode past Amy into the hotel room and when she turned around to face him again, he had his arms crossed over his chest. "Okay Amy, what do you want?" He was brisk and curt, hoping his worst nightmares weren't coming for him. Amy blinked at him. She hadn't changed that much, her hair was cut in a pageboy flip, with a sort of pixie cut dash to it. Her breasts were bigger—obvious boob job—she'd been nipped, sucked, tucked—plastic surgeon much?—and her eyebrows were perfect arcs.

"I want you back. I want are life back, Leo." Amy moved to lie across the bed.

Leo just turned a little to continue training his hell-gaze on her. "I don't want you. I have everything I want. I have a wonderful daughter, a house, a car, a girlfriend who is more beautiful than you'll ever b—"

"You didn't used to mind my looks, Leo." Amy rolled over on her stomach, showing him a large expanse of cleavage. Great, he'd married a bitch and a slut.

He just sighed. "That was before your boobs got to be rock and your face had a constant look of surprise."

An eyebrow disappeared entirely into her bangs. "Harsh."

"Good."

She fixed him with a glare to match her stony bosom. "I'll get right to the point. I want Emma. She's my daughter too."

Leo's mind whirled. She'd completely and totally lost her mind. Was she kidding? Did he really expect him to give his child to the person he wouldn't trust her life with? "She's more my daughter than yours!" Leo yelled.

Amy narrowed her eyes. "Look Leo." She sat up. "I'm getting married and Harland wants to adopt Emma. If I get custody of her."

Leo's mouth dropped open, then his lips pressed tightly to one another. Somewhere, in the foggiest part of his mind, he realized she'd been teasing about wanting him back. Whatever. "There's no way in fucking hell I'm giving you my child." His perfect little Emma, he would fall apart without her.

Amy's glare got even icier, if it were possible. "Emma means more to me than anything. Harland's a lawyer; I'll fight you tooth and nail on this."

Leo stalked over to the door and wrenched it open so fast, he could've given himself whiplash. "Bring it the fuck on." He started out into the morning.

Amy appeared at the door. "Fine!" she screamed. "I'll take you down little by little by little until the judge has no choice but to give her to me!" She door slammed loudly, rattling the windows.

Leo let out a low hiss of breath. He slid into his car and with angrily shaking hands, started for home.

There was no doubt in Leo's mind as he arrived home, that Amy would tear him apart bit by bit until…What? He had no money, no house, no car—Piper would surely leave him—and no child? Leo opened the door to his car and climbed out. It was nighttime, he realized with a start. Piper was going to kill him. Pulverize. He glanced at the clock. It was past Emma's bedtime and he hadn't tucked her in. Another shining moment in his parental history.

He sighed, rubbed his face and started home. When he opened the door, he found most of the lights were off, and a dim shine was coming from Emma's bedroom. He started towards the room. He was greeted with Piper holding a sleeping Emma in her lap, rocking back and forth in the rocking chair that had graced Emma's bedroom since birth. Emma was really too old to be held like that, she was going on six… She was going on six! He would need to get her into school and… Well, he'd cross that bridge when he came to it. If he came to it.

Piper hadn't noticed him yet. It warmed Leo's heart, yet played at his guilt to know that she'd worried about him, it was all across her face. She was beautiful. He still wasn't a chauvinist, but she belonged with the home and hearth, she emitted that necessary warmth. Leo cleared his throat, a quiet casual way of getting her attention. She looked up quick, startled. Piper pressed a finger to her lips before lowering the sleeping girl to her bed and covering her with a blanket. Leo backed out of his doorway and into his room and waited for her.

A moment later, Piper rushed him and almost knocked him over, kissing him franticly. She grappled at his body, trying to be sure he was there. They kissed some more, hugging and inhaling the other smell. They hugged again and that was when she started talking.

"Oh my God, I thought maybe you were like John Travolta in that one movie where he breaks the mirrors and loves books and is dying, so he goes up on the hill to die by himself and that one lady he falls in love with comes to find him and—and—"

"Phenomenon." Leo responded, rubbing her back strongly, firmly grasping her body to his own.

She pulled back to sock him in the shoulder. "You asshole! You let me stay here all day, thinking that maybe you were dying or something and—" She stopped to land another solid punch to the other shoulder.

He grinned down at her. "Pissed, I take it."

"Damn straight."

He pulled her even tighter and kissed her again. "I'm sorry." He said a beat later. "There's just a lot of shit getting ready to happen and I was certain that you'd want to…"

Piper was puzzled. "Want to what?"

"I don't know, break up."

She started. She dragged him to the bed where they at the foot. "Leo," she said seriously. "What's going?"

Leo took a breath. "Amy's back. I got a message from her yesterday telling me to meet her at the hotel—motel—and I was so pissed about the whole situation, I was shutting everybody out at the picnic yesterday."

Piper frowned. "But everything you did was so final…"

Leo nodded and leaned back on his elbows. "Yeah, I know. Amy wants Emma back and there's no way in hell she's getting my child. But if I try and keep Emma, I'll probably lose everything, my house, my job, my car…Amy doesn't fight fair."

"What's that got to do with our relationship?" Piper asked, curling her legs underneath her.

Leo looked over at her and she could see in his face that he was going through a lot of self-turmoil. "Who wants a man who can't support himself!" He slammed his fist against the bedspread and was going red-faced. She could tell he was genuinely angry. "Now, I may be old-fashioned, but a man is supposed to go out and make the money for his woman! And his kids! And if he can't do that what kind of man is he! A man provides, drinks hard liquor and makes hard love!" He flopped back on the bed with a sigh, bouncing Piper briefly.

"Have you been drinking?" she asked his profile.

Leo raised a hand and kept his index finger and thumb mere centimeters apart. "A little."

She laughed and lay down beside him. "Leo, it'll be okay, I promise. I'm not going to break up with you."

He kissed her again. "What would I do without you?"

"Be single and sex-deprived."

Leo hugged her close, then kissed her softly. Maybe everything would be okay.

AN: That was an okay chapter, not my best work, but hey, maybe you liked it. I'm still working on "Profiling Love", "The Reunion", I'm sorta stuck on, but I'm getting there, I promise. I mean, I promise, I wouldn't leave you hanging! Plus, I'm also working on some stories, novels actually, about a young girl. It'll have at least like, 6 or 7 books and in a few years time I'll try and get it published. Who knows, maybe I'll strike gold! It's on Fictionpress right now, but I'm going to take it down and rewrite it, but if you guys want to check it out, just go to my profile, go to my Fictionpress account and click "Trials and Tribulations". That way, you can say you saw it there first! Love ya'll much, please review!