AN: OMG! "The Cardinal Rule" almost has 200 reviews. Just less than twenty more! Oh my God, I love you people. Oh God. Anywho, I got such MIXED responses when it came to which story to do next, and I'm thinking that I may just surprise you with something I didn't tell you about. HINT, HINT…

Piper flung the front door to the house and lifted her face to the sunlight. Skipping out to the mailbox, she opened it up. She was inexplicably happy, a weird elation welling up inside of her. She started singing to herself. It took a moment, as she pulled out the mail, before she realized that it was the song that she and Leo had been dancing to two weeks before. Skipping back up the walk, she flipped through the mail, shamelessly meddling. Leo actually liked it when she looked at his mail. That way, instead of a formal letter giving him horrible news, she could break it to him, gently. Thankfully, nothing looked horrible.

Piper reopened the door, blessing the cool blast of air conditioning. "Leo, I got the mail."

Leo, rising from a stool in the kitchen, took it from her hands. "There's nothing bad is there?"

She shrugged. "I don't think so." Nodding, he thanked her and walked back to the counter.

Piper sat beside him, and watched the tension in his shoulders build, then release as he saw that none of the mail held bad news. "Um, Leo, I was thinking… You're going to need a place to live soon, and, well, nobody's ever at my house. Well, Phoebe's in and out, but mostly out, you know, she and Bret a getting very serious. Anyway, I'm just saying that I'd hate for any period of time to see you and Emma homeless and since we've been thinking about—"

"Decided on." He broke in.

"Having a baby," she went on seamlessly, "I think we need to move in together, you know, in a place where I won't be running back and forth for clothes, and you won't either." She pursed her lips. "What I'm trying to say here is this: Leo, push your pride out of the way because, frankly, you need a place to live, I've got one so, are you gonna accept or what?" She finished bluntly, one hand on her hip.

Laughing, Leo pushed her hair off of her shoulder. "You know, I think I will accept."

Piper, laughing too, kissed him. "You, Leo Wyatt, are my kind of man."

88888888

Later, after dinner, Piper and Emma took a walk, both looking forward to the sunset. Hand in hand, the girls started around the block. "Emma," Piper began slowly, "your father and I are aware of he fact that you are quite intelligent, and I am going to be frank with you." Emma nodded. "Your father and I are thinking of having a baby."

"He told me that."

Piper's face registered mild surprise. "Did he?" The question was obviously rhetorical, so she kept going. "Well, did he tell you that we are thinking of living together?"

Emma looked thoughtful for a moment. "But we already live together. You, me and Daddy."

"You're right, Emma. But how would you feel about you, me, your daddy, and a baby?"

"I think that's what Daddy calls 'a white picket fence life'." Emma said seriously.

Yep, with Holly Homemaker and Big Corporate Hubby. "Your dad is a funny guy."

"Do you love him?"

Piper was startled. Well, you could always count on a child to be candid. "Yes. I do."

"I hear him sometimes." Emma said with a grin. "He made up a song. He only sings it when he thinks nobody's listening. Or when he reads the paper, but then, he's so quiet, you can't hear him anyway. Anyhow, it's not very good, but you can tell he likes it by the way he smiles when he sings it. He like that, sometimes."

Piper nodded in agreement. "Yes, he is."

"Anyway, I know he loves us, because, he says so in the song. It's not very good, but that's okay, 'cause it's homemade and that's the best stuff, right?" She smiled up at Piper.

Piper smiled back. "You know what? For a kid, you got an awful lot of smarts."

"I try."

Grinning, Piper saw how close they were to the house. "Race ya!"

Laughing wildly, they ran towards the house. As expected, Emma won.

88888888

Sweat covering both of their bodies, Leo rolled off of Piper and collapsed beside her, panting heavily. There was something extremely sobering about an orgasm. It was like, at that time, everything came to you a clear burst, like, you suddenly knew how to make all the right decisions, and you knew exactly where life was taking you. When Piper told Leo this, he laughed.

Pouting, Piper rolled away from him and didn't bother to cover herself with the thin sheet. "Jerk." She muttered.

Still chuckling, Leo wrapped an arm around her waist. "Sorry. It's just that, well, I've never had one like that before."

Piper raised her eyebrows and rolled to face him. "Really? Well, they say that the female orgasm is more intense than the male's."

Leo shrugged. "Maybe. But all I know is, whenever…" he stopped. "Whenever I'm with you, it's like, I get this weird feeling of like…I don't know, happiness? Maybe…"

Piper laughed and tangled her hand in his hair. "Leo, you're a jerk."

"Thanks." He murmured dryly. "Hey, I was thinking, maybe we should go out to dinner tomorrow. I can get Kerry to baby-sit Emma…"

She narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "Why?"

Leo sighed and traced his hand along her elbow. "Well, I'm really sorry about the other night. I knew that you couldn't just sit around and wait for Emma to wake up and I've fu—uh, screwed up a lot lately and well, I want to make it up to you. I was thinking we could go to Marco's. It's the only really romantic restaurant in town."

She propped her head up on her elbow. "Marco's is—relatively—expensive. I'm a cheap date, you know." Her eyes were oddly knowing.

"It doesn't matter, I screwed up. You deserve better."

She pulled him down for a kiss. "Thanks."

88888888

Piper and Leo giggled and kissed as they made there way out of the car and up the driveway to the house. The dinner had been wonderful—and better budget-wise than either of them had expected. Kissing again, Piper pushed Leo away with a tiny laugh. "Hey, Leo, we forgot to check the mail."

Leo glanced to the mailbox, her, back to the mailbox and her again. "Well, would you look at that?" He laughed. "We can get it in the morning."

"Are you kidding?" she asked him. "When it could be Ed McMahon calling?"

Leo held her hips from behind as she walked over to the mailbox, kissing her neck, trying to lure her away from the mail. "Come on. Inside..." He sang in an eerie voice.

"Gross." She giggled, opening the mailbox. "You sound like something weird from the Twilight Zone."

"Inside…" he sang again.

Laughing, she cracked open the box and sexily covered Leo's eyes with one hand, flipping through the mail with the other. "Let's see…" as she flipped though the mail, he kept trying to kiss her neck. "Wait, Leo, stop…" Suddenly her tone was sober. "Look."

He pushed her hand away from his face. "What it is—" He stopped short. It was a letter stating he had to a appear in court for a custody hearing. His Emma…

88888888

Later, that night, when everything was still, Piper, Leo and Emma were curled up in Leo's bed. Emma, dreamt of dollies and candy. Piper, had a frightening dream about losing Leo and Emma to a black abyss her dream had named Fear. And Leo…Leo had a nightmare where there was nothing. Which was exactly what he would have if he lost Emma.

AN: Okay, so, in the upcoming chapters, we'll get to see a lot of emotions, with Leo and Emma and Piper, so I think you'll like it. We;'ve go tsome good stuff coming up guys, so to keep it coming: PLEASE REVIEW!