I want this chapter to be powerful so I won't say much and take up space. Just a quick but sincere thank you to everyone who reviewed. Thanks for still reading! Now please don't hate me after this chapter, and please, please, please review! Just know that none of this is personal!

Chapter 20 - Up in Flames

"How's Piper?" Ron asked the next day as he passed his brother in the lounge at the station.

Leo shrugged. "Mixed up, I guess."

"Did she sleep?"

"No."

"…Did you?"

"She's scared," Leo said instead of answering his brother.

Ron sighed. "I know. We all are."

"No, I mean she's really scared. She could barely go through the house yesterday. She took one step into the living room and stopped dead in her tracks."

"Sometimes it's hard to go into a room where a crime was committed, especially if you know the person who was hurt."

Leo shook his head. "That wasn't what scared her so much."

"What do you mean?" Ron asked as he and Leo left the lounge. They walked down the hallway to the right toward the locker room.

"She's scared for me." Leo pushed open the door to the locker room. They went to their separate lockers and opened them.

"Well I can see that…" Ron was saying.

"She's—" Leo pulled his shirt off and reached into the locker for a different one. "She's scared that something bad is going to happen again…She said she was scared that if I found Dan, he would do something drastic."

"Like…"

"Like try to kill me," Leo said as he put the shirt on.

"What else is new?"

He almost laughed. "She's also scared that something will happen to her or her sisters…Or you guys…I don't know, she's just terrified."

"I think that's to be expected."

Leo sighed. "…When she stepped into the living room, she had this flashback, and when she came out of it, she was crying and she looked like she was going to pass out."

"Cortez?"

"Me."

"What?" Ron closed his locker.

Leo put on his police jacket. "She had a flashback of when I was shot."

"A few months ago?"

"Five years ago." Leo closed his locker.

Ron didn't say anything for a moment. They left the locker room and headed down the hall, past the lounge, and into the main room.

"Morning, Boys," was Amy's greeting.

Leo said nothing. Ron barely said hello.

"What's with you?"

Leo walked away to find Mike. Ron stayed back and looked at Amy. "It's Piper," he told her.

"Is something wrong?"

"Everything's wrong."

The next day, Saturday, Piper didn't leave the house. She didn't want to, and Leo didn't make her. Normally he would have gone to work for a few hours, but Piper hadn't gotten any sleep the night before. When she went to bed, she was wracked with nightmares, reminders that Dan was just oh-so-close to her.So Leo stuck with her that day.

"I hate this," she said at some point in the afternoon.

"I know," was his automatic response.

She shook her head. "No, Leo, no you don't. I hate being afraid and—and waiting. That's what I feel like I'm doing." She hung her head a little bit and spoke to her feet. "I feel like I'm just waiting for him to come get me."

Upon hearing this, Leo's heart broke. The strength in Piper's voice was drained and her usually bright smile was dulled. At that moment he knew she'd given up hope. "Don't say that," he told her as he moved up to her and took her into his arms. "Don't ever say that."

"Why shouldn't I?" she muttered.

He held her tighter and kissed the top of her head. "Because."

He felt her laugh more than he heard it. "That's not an answer."

"Well…Then…Because…Okay." He backed up a bit and looked down at her. He lifted her chin gently to look into her eyes. "Because your hope…gives me hope. If you give up hope then I'll give up hope, and who will help us if we're out of hope?"

She smiled. "Hope." Her eyes closed and she sighed softly. "It doesn't even sound like a word anymore."

They tried as hard as they could to let life go back to normal. Dan was unheard from in a few weeks, and soon Cortez was able to get back to work. The usual party was thrown at Hell's Haven,and Piper and Leo only really went to get their minds off of their troubles. And boy, did they have troubles.

The day after the Hell's Haven party, Leo stayed home with Piper. They didn't talk muchfor themajority of theday, and they didn't move around much either, just sat on the couch together or found some other place to lay. Piper ended up on the floor at some point, just staring up at the ceiling with Leo asleep on the couch with the dog. She fell asleep sometime later and when she woke up it was starting to get dark outside and her neck and back hurt. She sat up and groaned. "Remind me never to sleep on the floor again…" she muttered to no one in particular. That's when she noticed an arm draped across her legs. She looked down to see Leo lying on the floor beside her with his head near her thigh. Yukon was still on the couch but he was sliding off and his head and front paws were on Leo's back.

Piper smiled. This was good. This was natural. This was how it was supposed to be.

But it wasn't like that.

It wouldn't be…Not until Dan was dead.

For a while Piper just looked at her two roommates—her husband and her dog—and watched them sleep. Once in a while Yukon twitched and he whimpered as his paws started to move as if he were running. Leo, on the other hand, was a rock. He had barely moved and it had caused Piper to check for his pulse to see if he was still breathing.

When they finally stirred, Piper was up and moving around a little. She was in the kitchen reading a recipe book. Well, she was looking at the pictures at least. Leo wandered in and she looked up. "Hey."

"Hey…When did you get up?"

"Right between the shoulder pain and the neck cramp." She put the book down. "How'd you end up on the floor?"

"Same way Yukon did; I slid…and kinda fell."

Piper smiled. I think I'm gonna go over to Prue's for a bit…Phoebe's over there and we're just gonna hang out for a while…"

"Okay. Want a ride?"

"Naw…I'll just take my car."

Leo nodded. "Okay."

Piper walked up to him and gave him a quick kiss. "I was thinking…about hope…I like it."

"Oh yeah?"

She smiled. "Yeah. It's kinda nice, hope is."

"And love," he added.

She smiled again, a real smile. "Yes…Love is good." She stood up on her tiptoes and kissed him again, slower this time with a little more of the love that he'd been hinting at. "I love you."

"I love you." He repeated the words without hesitation and knew they'd never lost any meaning over the years. "I love you so much…"

She smiled once again but he noticed her tired eyes and pulled her to him. "That's good…I like to hear it, you know, now and then…" She kissed him again. "I'll see you later tonight." She started for the door with one arm in her coat.

"I love you," he said again as she walked out the kitchen door.

She turned with her hand on the doorknob to close the door behind her. She tried her best to smile again but she just couldn't quite make it. "Thank you." She motioned for him to come to her, and he did so that she could kiss him one more time. She seemed so sad, he could tell by every move she made and even in the way she kissed him. "I love you."

Hours later, when Piper checked the clock and realized it was almost midnight, she decided it was best to gone home. Halfway back from Prue's house, her cell phone rang. She dug through her purse with one hand and grabbed her cell. Unknown Number, it read on the screen. Her breath got caught up in her throat and a pang of fear twisted itself up in her stomach, but she pressed the talk button and put the phone up to her ear. She knew who it was even before he spoke.

Hours later, when Piper checked the clock and realized it was almost midnight, she decided it was best to gone home. Halfway back from Prue's house, her cell phone rang. She dug through her purse with one hand and grabbed her cell. , it read on the screen. Her breath got caught up in her throat and a pang of fear twisted itself up in her stomach, but she pressed the talk button and put the phone up to her ear. She knew who it was even before he spoke.

"Miss Halliwell…"

Her voice was shaky, it matched the rest of her body. "Why can't you leave me alone?" she asked weakly. She was already ready to cry.

"I thought we were having fun."

"We're going to find you. You know that? They're gonna find you and take you in and you're going back to prison."

Dan Gordon laughed. "Miss Halliwell, I thought what we had was real here…"

"I'm married, stop calling me that."

"Well I don't like to think about your husband all too much…" He laughed to himself, and to Piper it was one of the most disgusting, evil sounds she'd ever heard in her life.

"Please…" A silent tear ran down her cheek. "Just go away."

"But I've just begun having fun with you…"

"I'm not having fun."

"Too bad, then…Guess what I know? I know that you haven't been telling your little husband about how…often…we chat."

She started to shake even more.

"You don't get it, Piper…I want them to find me. And I told you to tell them about how much we talk…and I told you to tell your husband about when I visited you last week. Why didn't you tell them? Why don't you get some help?"

"You'll…You'll set a trap…You'll hurt him."

"…Do you remember our deal?"

Her head shook but she managed a nod.

"I'll take your silence as a no. Don't you remember, Miss Halliwell?" His words were slow and precise, planned, almost scripted. His tone terrified her beyond reasoning. "The last time we talked…I asked if you would tell him about…us. You said no, and remember? I asked you a question. Do you remember the question?"

At this point the tears were flowing freely and she was biting her lip so hard that it bled. She couldn't stop shaking. "Y—You—"

"I'll re-ask it then…I know you know I would have something set up for your husband and his friends when they found me…The question is…Is your husband's welfare more important than yours? Remember, Miss Halliwell? Do you remember what I told you would happen to you if you refused to comply?"

She nodded again. "Please…"

"No breaking deals."

"No, please…"

"You made the deal. Your husband's life or your own. Make a choice." His voice was hard now. Demanding.

Her head shook again. "I can't…" She barely heard her own voice. "Please don't hurt him…"

A sigh came from the other line. "Have it your way…It's a shame though, because I almost liked you better…Oh well."

She tried again. "Please…"

"It's a shame, too. You should have realized I'd put it in the car. Not thinking straight, were we now? Like I said…a shame. Anyway…Tick tock. Want to count down with me?"

She had no answer, just tears. Please…Please, no…

"Ten…nine…eight…seven…six…five…four…three—"

From Dan's end of the line, he heard a deafening explosion and the line went dead. He glanced at his phone. "Damn. I was off a few seconds."

Ten minutes later, back at the station, a large commotion broke out. A desperate call for help was coming over the CB radio. Everyone was crowded around Amy's desk, leaning against it or sitting on it, listening intently to the panicked call. The voice was from Cortez, who had come across a horrible car accident.

"It's big—it's—Oh, God, what the hell? God, another car just caught fire—" Cortez's voice was cut off.

Everyone around the desk leaned closer. They heard a loud explosion from the other end of the radio, then more yelling in the background of firefighters and officers. They could hear sirens wailing and cars honking.

Amy pressed the Out button on the CB and spoke into it. "Cortez, you there? What happened?" Static answered her. "Cortez?"

"Fuck! Oh, it just exploded! Oh God, we need backup down here, now!"

"Don't worry, Cortez, we're getting backup coming."

"There's flames everywhere and—Oh. Oh, oh my God...Is that...No, it—It can't be..."

Amy held down the Out button again, slowly. "...Yeah, Cortez...The fire department called in to confirm, and we checked it out..."

"Oh God...Does Leo—"

"He doesn't know."

"Oh God...Fuck!...Oh, fuck!...I have to go keep Leo away from here."

"He's on rounds."

"Good. Amy I need backup—seriously. There's so goddamn much traffic out here..." Cortez trailed off. "Shit, shit, shit..." he muttered. "This is not good..." His voice was panicked, his head was spinning. He was barely still standing.

"We'll get some people out there."

"I gotta go." There was another string of foul words following the short phrase, then a click signaling that Cortez was off the line.

Amy looked up. Everyone was very quiet. No one moved, no one wanted to. They tried to process what was happening, with no luck. Everyone had horrible headaches and stomachaches, everyone wanted to throw up and die at the same time. No one wanted to go out there and help. It was Adam who stood up and reanimated the officers around him.

"All right, you heard the man! He needs help out there! Get going!" A few people scrambled up and ran out the door. Leo's two brothers were two of them, as well as Ron's partner Jenny. "I'll stay and wait in case Leo comes back here," Adam said of himself. He leaned against Amy's desk, looking at the keyboard of her computer just as she was. They didn't dare make eye contact, for fear of each seeing the other on the verge of breaking down to tears. "What now?"

Amy sighed and flopped down into her chair. "What do we tell Leo?"

Adam shrugged lightly. "The truth, I suppose...Unless he finds out for himself..."

It wasn't a busy night. After Piper had left, Leo decided to go in to the station and put in a few hours. He and Mike checked all the hot spots for drug dealers and hookers, but not many people were outside on this particular Friday night. Prostitutes and drug dealers didn't normally do business in weather like this. It looked like it was about to rain. There was a 70 chance of rain, and the sky was turning red with late-night rain clouds. The streets were relatively empty and there were few cars.

As they were turning down Jefferson Street, five police cars sped around the corner toward them and flew down the street, lights flashing and sirens wailing. Leo grabbed the CB radio. "This is Car 18 calling Dispatch. Come in."

There was a short pause, followed by a second or two of static. Amy's voice came over the receiver. "Hey, Wy—" She sounded out of breath.

"What the hell just flew outta here?"

"Nu—Nothing. Are you coming to the station?"

"Later, I was actually gonna go take Mike home. His car's in the shop so I'm gonna take him across town—"

"Across town? As in taking the highway? Why don't you take the back roads? I hear they're fun at night. Or just come into the station. Please."

"...Amy what's wrong?" He was getting suspicious. What was going on? "Did something happen?"

"Just come into the station?"

"I will after I get Mike home. I'm out, Amy." Leo hung up the radio and glanced at his partner, who shrugged.

"Sounds like a surprise party."

They turned around in a parking lot and headed down a major parkway until they hit the highway, and turned off onto I-95. Five minutes later they hit a traffic jam. As far as they could see, both directions of traffic were backed up a couple of miles, and they started to get curious as they reached the twenty-minute mark of sitting in the squad car doing nothing. "I wonder what happened up there. Let's go see..." Leo maneuvered the car to the side of the road and drove in the median with his police lights flashing until they reached the cause of the traffic jam.

What they saw they couldn't have imagined. There was an insanely horrible car accident before them. It was dark outside but easy to see from all of the car headlights and flashing lights on squad cars and fire trucks. One car was in the middle of the road and was sitting on its roof. It was literally up in flames. Another car was on its side on the side of the median of the highway. It was burning and firefighters were struggling to put it out. A third car lay just touching the second. It wasn't on fire but it was smashed beyond repair. The noise of the flames could be heard and the siren noises were almost unbearable. The flashing lights were already giving everyone within earshot headaches.

"What the hell..." Leo muttered. He checked the clock. 12:30AM. He parked a ways away from the accident and turned off the car. He and Mike both stepped out of the squad car. They watched as a tow truck backed in to take away the smashed car. Leo glanced up at the sky. It was taking on more of an eerie reddish glow now. The rain was bound to come. They headed for the accident to see what they could do to help.

Cortez came seemingly from nowhere, making a beeline for them. He ran straight into Leo and pushed him back. "Leo, go! You have to leave!" A flash of lightning lit up the sky for a split second, then everything turned back to the strobe light-like flashes of cars and fire.

"Looks like you need some help here—" Leo tried to push past his friend.

"Leo, no!" The weather was in Cortez's favor; another flash of lightning illuminated the sky, and as the thunder boomed all around them, a thick sheet of rain came down on the highway and everyone on it. A quarter mile away, they heard firefighters cheering as they got some natural assistance with putting out the burning cars. Cortez took that time to shout into his radio, "Where the hell is my backup!" A fuzzy answer came through, and he held the receiver to his ear, but he couldn't understand the voice. When he looked up, Leo was running toward the scene of the accident. Cortez ran to catch him. Mike was forgotten. "Leo, you can't go up there!" Cortez yelled as he caught his friend and grabbed his shoulders.

"Why the hell not? What the hell is going on?"

"...Be—"

A firefighter from the scene of the accident ran up to them. "We can't get her out. The fire's too strong."

Cortez groaned. Bad, bad timing...

The firefighter looked at Leo, who was concentrating on trying to recognize the man through all of the protective gear he was wearing. Unfortunately all he could see was his own reflection in the black mask on the man's helmet. The firefighter put his hand on Leo's shoulder. Okay...Leo was confused, not stupid. He knew that move was sympathetic. The firefighter stared at him for a few more seconds, then turned and ran through the rain back to the burning car.

"What the fuck was that?"

Lightning cracked above them.

Cortez searched for the words to say what he had to say. "He, uh..." He glanced nervously from Leo to Mike, who had caught up to them. "He..."

Leo turned back toward the accident. Cortez was acting strange, he decided as he headed in the direction of the burning car. Firefighters and police officers were everywhere, like ants when you poured water over their hill. Each time one of the men and women looked up, though, time seemed to come to a standstill and the person would stop what they were doing to stare at him a few second. It made him nervous.

Mike caught up to him. "What's going on?" he asked, noticing the glances as well.

"I'm...not sure..." Leo had stopped walking. He was watching the flames of the burning vehicle as if in a trance. He was close enough to feel the heat from the flames. Through the hot glow of the blazing fire, something about that flipped SUV seemed too familiar to him...Almost like—

It clicked.

Leo turned to face Cortez, who was standing about twenty feet away. The rain was blocking his image a little. The light from the flashing vehicles allowed Leo to see his friend's sympathetic face...and he knew. He knew, but he refused to believe. It couldn't be true—it wasn't true. He ran toward Cortez. "Whose car is that?" he yelled over the noises around them. "Whose car, Cortez?"

Cortez just shook his head.

"Whose car!" Leo demanded. When Cortez didn't answer and his eyes filled with sympathy and hurt, Leo shook his head. "It's not her car...Damn it, Cortez, is that Piper's car?" he yelled, afraid of an answer but demanding one anyway.

Silence from Cortez.

Leo took a step forward and put it hands on Cortez's shoulders. "Tell me! Is that Piper's car?...Cortez, please tell me that's not Piper's car!"

Cortez said some words quietly as more lightning flashed around them and thunder boomed. Leo didn't hear.

But he wasn't stupid.

He knew what Cortez said.