Chapter 14 - Tick Tock

Leo woke with his arm around Piper's waist. Her back was to him, but he could tell she was still sleeping. It was a Sunday, so neither of them had to get up for a long time.

He kissed the top of her head and she wiggled closer to his chest. He tightened his grip on her.

She hadn't slept that well, waking up in a cold sweat in tears a few times that night. Knowing that Dan could return to the streets brought back bad memories for everyone, especially Piper.

He was surprised he wasn't in the same state, though he could attribute his self-control from breaking down to anger and shock that the parole board would actually consider such a thing. Actually, the dreams he was having had been going away, but he wasn't sure what was going to happen now. That didn't really matter, though. What mattered to him at the moment was that it was Piper who had been waking up from nightmares.

He moved his hand under her shirt on her side and over to her stomach. He could feel the scars.

He remembered, not long after it happened, she wouldn't let him near her. He could hug her and hold her hand and kiss her cheek, but that was as far as she'd let him go for quite a few weeks. He understood and kept his distance; he didn't touch her legs, her side, her chest, and especially not her stomach. She flinched and recoiled if his hand brushed up against her in one of those places. She let him kiss her anywhere from the collarbone up, but when they fell asleep she rolled away and didn't let him put an arm around her.

A couple of months after it happened, his hand had accidentally brushed up against her stomach and she'd winced as if it was painful and turned away. He had to admit, the sexual tension got to him and bothered them both immensely, but she had been traumatized too badly for them to even care for the first few weeks afterward. It was the later couple of months, when she was healed physically but emotionally scarred, when he would tell her she was beautiful and she would scoff at him and blame herself. That was what tested their strength as a couple.

The doctor gave her creams to help the scars go away as soon as she'd healed over. Soon after, she started to let Leo touch her again. She was still wary of letting another hand touch the scars, he knew that. But soon more of her confidence returned. She'd started to wear shirts that showed a little more of her stomach. After a time, he was sure she felt enough strength inside herself to let him actually see the scars.

He caught her in their bed at a time when she was wearing a nightgown, and lay down beside her. She was reading a book at the time, and without a word, he slowly pulled the nightgown up, past her hips and over her stomach, up to her chest. She had lifted off the bed a bit to help him, even, but immediately went back to her book.

It was the first time she let him examine her physical state after the attack. As she concentrated harder and harder on the book, he laid his head near her stomach and felt each scar, each gash, remembering the moment he had walked in and saved her, remembering the endless therapy afterward and the sympathetic eyes of the family.

The texture of the five scars was rough compared to her smooth, flat stomach. Light in color, almost white and pinkish, they greatly contrasted her tanned skin. Leo's finger followed along the path of the longest scar, traveling slanted past her navel and a couple of inches below. He stopped and backtracked, then traced the path of all five cuts.

Piper's breathing remained calm, though sometimes she shuddered in a breath and the muscles of her abdomen flickered from his touch. She reached up to turn the page in her book, even though she had stopped reading long moments ago. Leo caught her hand in his, trailing it slowly down so that he could make her touch her own scars, so that he could almost force her to acknowledge their existence.

When he released her, her eyes darted from him to the book. He hadn't looked at her, not even so much as a passing glance. His head was still by her side, and he was concentrating on her stomach. Shaky, she let him continue.

In truth, Leo wanted both to see the psychical memory and to let Piper know that it didn't change how he felt about her. He still loved her, but no matter what he said, she would not believe him when he told her she was still so beautiful.

His eyes journeyed down to take in her legs, and that was when, honestly, he noticed for the first time that she wore nothing under the nightgown. Intrigued, he brought his hand up to her chest, where the nightgown was somewhat bunched up. His hand ventured up under the material to the valley between her breasts, and he found her heartbeat and felt it quicken.

Without thinking, he leaned up and placed a kiss on her side, near her stomach. Wordlessly, he moved himself up and pressed a kiss to the hollow of her throat, feeling her breath hitch. He let his hand fall back to her side, and gently took the book from her. She finally got to look at him, and he took a moment to stare into her brown eyes. He leaned down to kiss her, once, briefly, then pulled back to test her reaction. She broke into a small smile, and he took that as a sign to kiss her again. His hand moved to span over the scars on her stomach, and they kissed a third time.

It was the first time in three months that they made love, and it marked a new beginning for them both.

She wasn't using the creams anymore, knowing that the scars were as gone as they would ever be.

Leo kissed the top of her head again. She'd come so far since last year, he was truly amazed she'd made it. They didn't talk about it often, just short conversations that came up now and then.

Piper didn't like to talk about it, he knew that.

That was fine with him.

By the next Saturday, no one had heard any news about Dan and the possibility of his parole. Piper seemed to be doing better, sleeping better at least. She was shouting back and forth with Leo now as she folded clothes in the living room. He was in the bathroom in their bedroom, having just gotten out of the shower. The bathroom door was open and so was the bedroom door, so they could shout back and forth.

"So guess where I got a job offering…" Piper was saying.

"Where?"

Piper giggled to herself. "Pricilla's."

Leo dried his face with a towel. "You're kidding."

"No, actually, I'm not. A girl at the restaurant ordered a drink and said, 'Ya know, you should go apply at Pricilla's…in case you want a second job, you know?' I just laughed," Piper explained.

"So are you going to take the job?" Leo asked. Pricilla's was the local equivalent to Déjà Vu Showgirls, a well-known "gentleman's club".

Piper laughed out loud. "I'm shutting you out," she said, closing the bedroom door. She grabbed the empty laundry basket and turned to go back to the laundry room when the doorbell rang. She set the basket back down on the couch and went to the front door to open it.

She looked shocked to see Victor. "Dad…What are you doing here?"

"I, uh…heard about the situation with…Dan…and just thought I might drop by…" Victor started.

Piper nodded slowly. She let her dad inside and they headed for the living room. At that moment, Leo walked out of the bedroom, still damp, with only a towel wrapped around his waist. "Honey, I think one of your sisters came by and stole more towels—" He stopped short, noticing Victor, whose mouth was half open in shock.

"Um…Dad decided to stop by…" Piper said quietly.

"Oh…Well…" Leo nodded. He pointed to the door behind him. "I'm gonna go get changed." He disappeared behind the bedroom door.

Piper laughed nervously.

In the next week's time, Piper started to wonder if maybe Dan wasn't getting out…but she knew not to get her hopes up. But she had other things on her mind tonight, thankfully. There was a large 10th birthday party dinner taking place at the restaurant, and they were short two waitresses, including Phoebe and Prue, who were both out on a sick leave.

"Hey there."

Piper looked up from behind the ordering bar. She smiled when she saw standing before her. Behind him, Leo and Mike were making their way into the restaurant. They were getting closer as working partners, and that was certainly a good thing.

"Cortez, what're you doing here? Wait, what are any of you doing here? It's Saturday night."

"Yeah, well, we got the night off," Leo answered. "Wonderful blessing from above. I think Adam's wife let him 'play' again."

Piper whacked her husband in the arm with a dishtowel. "Hey, hey, hey. Virgin ears!" she said, pointing to the children. "Have some discretion."

Leo pointed at himself and put on a confused face.

"Yeah, you." Her smiling face turned suddenly serious. "Now, can I talk to you guys in the back office?" All three men were bewildered. "Now. Please." She led around the bar counter and down a short hallway to her office in the back room. As soon as she closed the door behind them, she whipped around and said, "I've got a problem."

"What is it?"

"Somebody has been…calling…the restaurant all night."

"Who?" Cortez asked.

Piper sighed. "I don't know. Whoever it is, they just call, let it ring a few times, then when one of my workers or I answer, they just…hang up."

Leo was nodding slowly as he took the information in. "Okay…We're gonna stick by the phones, then, all right? If whoever it is calls back and says something, you let me know…There's caller ID on the back office phone, right?"

"Yeah, but he hasn't been calling that phone, and it's a different extension. The bar phones don't have caller ID."

"Did you try a call-back number?"

"Yeah. Private name, private number. I don't know who it is." Piper shook her head.

There was silence for a moment before Piper asked the question that had been plaguing her. "…You don't think…You don't think it's…"

Leo shook his head immediately, before Mike or Cortez could even think to respond. "No."

But Piper didn't seem convinced. She shook her head slightly at him. He pulled her into his arms and hugged her. When she sighed contentedly he planted a soft kiss on the top of her head.

Twenty minutes passed and the phone didn't ring. Thirty minutes. Forty. An hour later, as the birthday party was winding down, the phone in the restaurant rang. Piper, who was walking past, froze in her place.

"Transfer it to the back office, just don't pick it up," Mike said.

Piper pressed the Line 2 button, then nearly ran for the back to the phone. She sat down beside it and listened to it ring twice, as Leo, Mike, and Cortez followed her back.

"Answer it," Leo encouraged.

Piper stared at him, then picked the phone up with a shaking hand. Her eyes were locked onto Leo's as she put the receiver to her ear and said, "Hello?"

There was a pause. "Why, Miss Halliwell, how good to hear your voice again."

Her body was stiff. The blood drained from her face and her knuckles turned white as she gripped the phone. "Who…Who is this?" she managed to ask, but she knew. She knew his voice. It was burned into her memory.

"Don't remember me?…We'll have to meet for dinner sometime to…jog your memory, Miss Halliwell."

She'd been denying it, but she knew now she couldn't deny it any longer. Summoning all the courage she could muster, she said firmly, "Stop calling me that. I'm married, Dan."

Leo nearly fell out of the seat he'd barely sat down in. He stared at Piper, who was determined not to make eye contact with him. She was staring intently at the wall, her eyes already glistening with tears.

Dan continued on the other line. "Fine, fine…I just wanted to hear your voice again…You know, I've been dreaming about it for the past year…Have you been dreaming about mine?" he asked huskily.

"Wha—What do you want?"

The calm voice turned harsh. "I want you," he spat.

Her body jerked and her eyes closed. "Why?"

"Because, Miss Halliwell…Can't you see? I love you. I called earlier, to talk to you, but I'm afraid I'm a bit…shy…so I hung up." His voice was cool again. "After that taste of you I had once, I realized I wanted more. And now I can. I can have you all to myself…in time."

"You can't."

"Ah, we'll see," he said slowly, and she could literally near him smile. "And…just so you know…Call it a friendly warning…Might want to clear out the building. I heard from a source…You know…Tick tock, tick tock."

Click.

Shaking even more, Piper set the phone down in its cradle. Slowly, she turned to face Leo.

"Was that…" He couldn't finish.

She nodded. "We have to evacuate," she said as calmly as possible.

"Why?"

"Tick tock, tick tock. That means bomb, right?" Piper asked in a tiny voice. "Oh, God, Leo, there are children in here."

That was all they needed. Leo pulled Piper up to her feet as Mike and Cortez ran off to get the building cleared. Piper made her way out to talk to a couple of the mothers who had organized the party. She told them that she was sorry, but they would have to vacate the area.

"Please don't ask questions, and leave quickly. Just get the kids out…Now," she said pointedly, and they got the idea. Within a minute and a half, fifteen confused children and five mothers were gone. Sighing with relief, Piper turned to the rest of the eaters. "I'm sorry, but you'll all have to leave. We have a problem in the building, and we need to get everyone out as quickly as possible."

At first, no one moved. Then, slowly, the confused people started to leave. Piper glanced over at Cortez, who was calling in the Bomb Squad and backup.

"We need to get people out of the two buildings on either side of us, since they're so close," Leo said.

It took ten minutes, but by the time the Bomb Squad showed up, everyone was gone from Piper's building and the two on either side of it. The Bomb Squad went in to investigate, checking every crack and crevice for anything unusual. Piper was standing outside on the other side of the street with Leo. He was standing behind her, his arms wrapped around her waist to her stomach, and she was holding her hands over his. He was whispering to her, telling her that everything would be okay, that there was no bomb, no problem with the restaurant, that it wasn't Dan.

And she was telling him that it was Dan, that there could be something in the building, that it could explode. She looked around to the people all over the street coming out of buildings and other restaurants to gawk at the scene, then hung her head. "This is going to ruin business."

Leo and Piper didn't move for ten minutes. Then he walked her over to his truck and they sat on the back of the bed of the it for half an hour, not moving and hardly saying a word, just watching the commotion.

Two hours later, a member of the Bomb Squad approached them. He ran a hand through his hair and said to them, "We checked the place high and low…We're running another search now, but…There's nothing…We checked all the cars still in the lot, including your police cars and this truck. There was nothing any of us could find."

Piper shook her head. "He said…"

"Sometimes they lie," was all the man said.

"It was him…It was Dan, I know it."

"I've already got Adam ready to try trace the call," Leo told her. He looked up at the Bomb Squad chief. "Can I get some of my men in there?"

"We're gonna check it over once more. In about an hour, you probably can."

Leo nodded. When the man walked away he turned to Piper. "C'mon, we'll take the truck to the station."

"The station, why?"

"To file a report. If that really was Dan—"

"It was, Leo. I know it was."

"—then I'll need to check up on him, see where he is. I haven't heard anything about him getting parole—"

"Leo, you said he wouldn't. You said he wouldn't get out."

"No, I…I said it was fifty/fifty."

"He can't get out, Leo. He just can't."

"I don't know how he could make a call from prison, though…"

"It was him, Leo, I swear."

They ran into the station so fast that Amy jumped from her desk. "What the hell got into you two?" she snapped.

"Adam!" Leo yelled toward the back room, where Adam's office was. His hand was wrapped tightly around Piper's, and he wasn't about to let her go.

Adam came running. "What is it?"

"Dan—He contacted Piper."

It took Adam a moment to register this. "What?"

"He called at the restaurant and said there was a bomb in the building. The Bomb Squad has been in there and they're finishing up, so I need some of our guys to try to trace the call, see where it came from."

Adam nodded, but his attention was on Piper. "You okay?"

She shook her head. "Nope." She turned to Leo. "I want to call my sisters," she said weakly.

He nodded. "Use my phone."

She walked away to his office slowly. Everyone in the main room heard the door slam hard.

"What are we gonna do?" Amy was the first to ask.

"We find him."