AN: This chappy is a shorty too, sorry. Thanks so much to those who reviewed! I love you all. To the contest judges: (Everybody else, go ahead and read) Please read a nominated story and judges it on: Originality, Humor, Drama and Overall Goodness. Please rate these things (individually) from 1 (being the worst) to 5 (being the best) stars (Making the most stars a story could get being 20) and send it to my email or a review!

It was before seven o'clock the next morning that Piper and Leo rushed the hospital, both holding enormous cups of coffee, one near black—Piper—and one with way too cream and sugar—Leo. There was a Starbucks everywhere. He had the worst headache this side of the Mississippi and she had one to rival it. She'd been bouncing off the walls and quite frankly, he couldn't blame her, he could barely contain his emotions, though, instead of compulsively dusting the drapes—oh God, they would have to have a talk if they were going to be serious. The drapes?—he preferred to let loose a slew of curses every now and then. They both busted into the hospital—with a glare to the blonde nurse from before—and on to Emma's room.

When they got there, Leo opened the door softly, carefully. Amy was sitting at Emma's side and from the look of things, hadn't left since the day before. Leo's mother was there too, and was steadily giving Amy the Evil Eye and probably would until times got better. Hannah Wyatt was a fairly slim woman with graying red hair—who'd have thought it—and a fiery personality to match the graying locks. She was a spitfire right down to the meaning of the word and as she was getting up in age, she really liked it.

"Hey, Ma." Leo said quickly before sweeping into the room and taking the chair on the opposite side of Emma's bed.

"Leo." She said the words crisply, as if she didn't have time to refrain from her Evil Eye duties.

Piper came quietly into the room, and stood by the door sipping on the venti—large, damn Starbucks—coffee. "Hello, Mrs. Wyatt."

Hannah whirled around to face her. Her face was mix of surprise and welcoming. "Piper Halliwell!" She moved beside her and gave her a warm hug. Piper smiled and hugged her back. After a long moment, they pulled away. "Oh my goodness," Hannah continued, "I haven't seen you since, oh my, since that going away town picnic we had for you and your sisters!" She grinned. "So, how are Prue and Phoebe? They doing well, any romantic prospects?"

Piper smiled back. "Well, Phoebe's dating Brett Miller here in town and Prue's been married to Charlie Brenniman for…oh, geez, two and a half years now."

"That's good to know." She paused to give Amy the Evil Eye again. She dropped her voice to a conspiratorial tone. "So, Leo told me that you—"

"Shut up, Ma." Leo said slowly.

"Are getting serious." Hannah picked up dryly.

Piper's eyes flashed mischievously. "Did he?" She watched as Hannah nodded. "Well, he's right about that."

"So do I hear wedding bells?" Hannah had a simply awful glint in her eye, reminiscent of every crazy prospective mother-in-law to exist.

"Shut up, Ma." Leo stressed the words at his mother, but his eyes never left his daughter, her face too pale.

Hannah waved her hand dismissively. "So…"

"Ask him." Piper said smoothly. They both glanced at the only male in the room.

He immediately changed the subject. "Ma, where's Dad?" They all knew that Chris Wyatt had a spiked susceptibility to most illnesses, so it wasn't a good idea for him to be in the hospital, but the stubborn man he was, came anyway.

The subject change was effective because Hannah immediately started talking about her husband. "The stubborn old goat is right here in the hospital!" She said huffily. "The old mule… I told him not to come, but no, he has to play by his own rules, you know, live all dangerous-like…I think he's getting coffee." She turned to Piper. "Let's go find him, dear." Piper allowed herself to be herded out of the room.

Leo finally lifted his eyes from his daughter's face. At least she was breathing on her own. She was merely sleep, the doctor had sedated her, and she was supposed to wake in a little while.

"This isn't going to look good for you, Leo." Amy said, shaking her copper colored locks.

Leo glared sharply, his sea-blue eyes going dark with anger. "Since my child is right here, I'm going to keep this mild, but Amy, I swear to God, if you say another word I'm going to sic Piper on you."

Amy smirked. "What, you can't fight your own battles?"

Leo grinned sarcastically. "I don't believe in hitting women. But for a lady like you, I might make an exception."

Amy glared at him. "Bastard." And he just kept grinning. It was a nice way to keep the upper hand.

88888888

Down the hall at the coffee machine, Piper and Hannah had found Chris Wyatt. He was tall and lean, a little on the skinny side with a head full gray-silver hair, which had once been blonde. His eyes still held the captivating blue that made woman swoon and his smile still made women blush. If this was what Leo was going to end up looking like, she could live with that. Well, she could live with whatever Leo looked like. Beggars can't be choosers anyway. Chris was telling some story about Leo when he was a little boy. One that Piper hadn't been privy to, which was surprising in its own.

"And so, being the little brat that he was," Chris said, sipping bad coffee from a Dixie cup, "He smashed his head right into the table." He took another sip as Piper gasped. "Yeah," he stopped to make his hand mimic Leo's head and his cup become the table, "WHAM!" He chuckled a little. "Not that I didn't give him ice right away," he swirled his coffee, "but I told him, when he did that stupid shit, that he was gonna get hurt. Wham, bam, thank you, ma'am and he never did it again."

Piper chuckled. That was something she'd always liked about Chris. He was brutally honest but in such a way, you didn't really mind. "Well, at least that wasn't as bad as the time we were making out in your car and on the way home, he crashed into that tree." Piper winced and took a sip of her much more delicious coffee.

Hannah looked at her blankly. "He told me you were just getting back from a friend's study group."

Piper shook her head in bewilderment. "No…" she said slowly. "We'd been making out all night and….Oh my gosh, he was grounded that weekend wasn't he?" Piper smirked as realization came knocking. Duh, at that time, he was always getting grounded for one thing or another. Teenage rebellion coupled with teenage hormones kind of had that effect. Piper tuned back into the conversation as Chris mentioned something about coming to her club, having heard it was opening that night. Piper's face registered shock. "Holy shit," she murmured under her breath. "with this whole Emma mess, I totally forgot!" She dropped her cup into a nearby garbage can, then turned to leave. She turned back around to face them, looking guilty and chagrined. "But I can't leave…"

"Go." Hannah said, waving her hand dismissively.

"Are you—"

"Go." Hannah repeated. "I'll explain it to Leo."

"But he'll—"

"Damn it, girl," Chris said, "she said go, what more do you want? Exit music?"

Piper smiled a little. "No, thanks. Bye." She started down the hall with a wave and picking up the pace, dashed out of the hospital.

Back in Emma's hospital room, Leo's heart leapt as his little girl began to stir. Neither parent spoke for a moment, just sat. And then, Emma looked between the two of them said, looking at Amy, "Who are you?" she looked at her father. "Daddy, who is she? I want Piper. WHERE IS PIPER!"

AN: Annoying place to leave it, I know, but since I'm updating from somebody else's computer, it makes it near impossible. To the judges again: The next three stories to be nominated have been "Baby Baby" by halli-halliwell, "Payback" by What About Scout and this story, "The Cardinal Rule" (all three Piper and Leo). About this story, please just give me the results, but I will not judge at all. At all, this contest would be no fun if it wasn't fair.

Please, everybody, keep sending in your stories, and don't forget about the other categories. Please, nominate your stories, we would love that! Thank you all and please review!