AN: Wassup! How have you been, my friends? Well, I've been fine thanks! Anyway, I just wanted to say thanks for all the lovely reviews! I love you guys mucho!

"Life, it's ever so strange

It's so full of change,

You think you've worked it out,

Then, BANG"

—Jem "Just a Ride"

That Thursday Piper walked up the hospital. The same woman, Lucy, was sitting at the desk in coral colored scrubs. "Hello." Piper said happily. Wordlessly, Lucy handed her a candy striper's uniform. "You can change over there. She pointed to a row of rods sticking out of the walls with curtains strung across them, into makeshift dressing rooms. Smiling, Piper walked over to the changing room and yanked the curtain closed behind her.

After changing—and deciding that she looked like a puffy candy cane and loved it—she stepped out. The back of two doctors greeted her as they conferred with Lucy. Lucy pointed at Piper and the doctors whirled around to face her. Piper felt her face going red. It was Coffee Guy!

"You!" They said in the same voice.

The other doctor, who was in his thirties with dark hair that shot up in sporadic patterns chuckled. "So, I guess you know each other."

Coffee Guy eyed her suspiciously. "You're the new candy striper?"

Piper frowned. "What, you got a problem with that?" she planted her hands on her hips.

"We'll have none of that." The other guy said good-naturedly. "I'm Dr. Greg Markovitz. This is my assistant, Leo Wyatt, part of the work study program."

Oh, so he wasn't really a doctor. "I'm Piper Halliwell." She said sweetly.

"Well, Piper," Greg said, "you'll be working with us in the ER."

Piper smiled weakly. "Does that mean there's going to be blood?"

Dr. Markovitz laughed heartily and he slung an arm over her shoulder and motioned for Leo to follow them. "Is there gonna be blood… I love this kid!"

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Phoebe was lying in her bed, music throbbing around her. The party had been really scary. That was a bad situation waiting to happen. She didn't want to think about what would have happened if Prue and Andy hadn't shown up. What those guys might have done to her. Just as she stopped the music to go get a drink, the doorbell rang. Piper was out volunteering—goody two shoes—Prue was meeting Andy for lunch. And Paige was…where was Paige? The doorbell rang again, followed by in insistent knock. Grams was grocery shopping.

Phoebe swore and jumped off the bed and trotted down the steps in her baggy shorts and frayed t-shirt that said "I Heart (love) Barney" on it. She yanked the door open, fully expecting Grams with too many groceries or one of Prue's friends. It was Blender Boy with his hands behind his back.

Phoebe gasped, then swiftly shut the door in his face. There was another knock, a heartbeat, another knock and then finally: "Look, I'm sorry about last night. I was super wasted. I just woke up with the bruise and I actually remembered what happened. Just please open the door.

Slowly, Phoebe creaked the door open. Blender Boy held out a bouquet of pretty yellow flowers mixed with baby's breath. "What do you want?" she demanded.

Blender Boy sighed. "To apologize."

Cautiously, Phoebe reached out and took the bouquet. "Apology grudgingly accepted."

He smiled. "I'm Cole."

She grinned back. "Phoebe. Not Freebie."

His smiled wavered. "Phoebe who loves Barney?"

Phoebe looked down at her shirt and her face redden. "Thanks for the flowers." And then she slammed the door on him again.

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Prue laughed at Andy's story about his dad in Portland when the waiter arrived with their meals. They dug into twin meals of shrimp alfredo. "Excellent." Prue commented as she twirled a noodle around her fork.

"So, really," Andy said, "how've you really been?"

Prue shrugged. "Andy, not much has changed." She took a casual sip of iced tea. "Really. I'm going to UCLA, like I've wanted to. I've still got three sisters." She shrugged again. "Well what about you?"

Andy slurped up a noodle. "Me? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. We can get some gorgeous weather up in Portland, but other than that…" he let the sentence die and sucked up another noodle.

"Where are you going to college?" Prue asked, grabbing a breadstick and pulling a piece off as she leaned back in her chair.

When Andy smiled, his eyes crinkled. "UCLA."

Prue nodded, though her mind was racing. Andy was going to her college? UCLA was hers. He knew that. He knew that she was going to get back together with him, so it wouldn't be romantic. What was he thinking? Bastard. UCLA belonged to her. She'd imagined herself trotting across the campus, waving to the cute guy in her biology class and that girl who always smelled like Miracle Whip. She hadn't imagined running into Andy in the cafeteria or in the laundry room. Listening to him ramble—and suddenly it wasn't so funny—Prue sucked a piece of ice into her mouth.

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So far the worst case Piper had seen was a guy who'd jammed a pencil into his hand and was in total shock. There hadn't even been any blood. She finished up the lunch rounds and found Greg—which was what he said to call her—and Leo—the insufferable dick—by the main desk where Lucy had been switched out for a teeny black nurse with long wavy hair named Ginny. The way Greg was leaned across the table gave her the distinct impression that he was flirting with Ginny, so she walked up to Leo, A.K.A. Coffee Guy.

"What to do now?" She asked.

He looked from the chart he held. "Did you finish the lunch rounds?"

Piper nodded. "Done."

"Then go on your lunch break." He said as if it was the most sensible thing.

Piper nodded and started towards the hospital cafeteria. Just then a gurney rushed by. A man was shaking and shivering and spewing blood from his mouth while various doctors and nurses made to stop the bleeding from the wound in his stomach. Piper could feel her own stomach give out. She streaked towards the bathroom, and dropped to her knees in a stall, leaving the stall door wide open. She heaved and vomit plopped into the toilet.

"Oh God, are you alright?"

Piper, still clutching her stomach, lifted and turned her head to see Leo standing at the stall door. "Get out." She muttered. "It's the ladies, you can't be in here."

He made a sound that crossed between impatience and scoffing. "Please." He said finally. "I'm a doctor." Pause. "Sort of."

Piper laughed faintly and leaned back, resting her head against the stall wall. "That's reassuring."

He chuckled too and squatted next to her as she closed her eyes. "But seriously, are you okay?" He sounded nice when he said it, worried even.

Piper nodded and opened her eyes. "Yeah. It's just…the sight of blood. It makes me sick."

Leo lifted his eyebrows. "Then why'd you volunteer at a hospital?"

Piper shrugged and kind of laughed at herself, waving a hand. "You don't want to know."

He just gazed at her for a moment, wondering how such a funny girl had ended up in such a serious business when the door swung open and a suspicious aristocratic woman came in and the moment was ruined.

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That night, all four Halliwell sisters sat around the kitchen, eating chicken, broccoli and macaroni and cheese. Grams, who sat at the table smiled at Piper. "So Piper, how was the hospital?"

Piper looked thoughtful as she chewed her broccoli. "Well, there was this guy who was bleeding everywhere and that made me puke—" She broke off as Paige gazed down at her plate as though it wasn't very appetizing anymore. "Sorry." She added and stopped talking altogether.

Grams looked over to Prue who was frowning down at her chicken. "How was your day?" she asked.

Prue lifted her glare from her kitchen to her grandmother. "Sucked." She said bitterly.

Grams raised her eyebrows, but didn't comment. She turned to Phoebe. "What'd you do today?"

"I learned that Barney only gets you in trouble." Phoebe murmured, fingering a yellow flower petal.

Grams shook her head and turned to Paige. "What about you Paige?"

Angrily, Paige stabbed a spear of broccoli. "Nothing."

The rest of their dinner was eaten in silence.