Thanks to all of you for being so understanding about my, uh...dillema (sp?). Especially thanks to psychokitty3 for the rambling speech, it's good to know I'm not the only one going through the "fic to novel" change...lol. So here's Chapter 13 (and it's long...) Hope you enjoy.

BTW, I've started to rewrite Love is a Myth. When I'm done and moved on a little from it, I'll start to repost the chapters with a new name and new problems and all that good stuff. ya know? So thanks for stickin' with me!


Chapter 13 - Family Reunion

I tried to turn Piper against meeting my closest friends. She couldn't be swayed. So we met Jack, Chris, Blake, and Ryan at Gloria's that Friday. It was packed that night, full of rednecks and hillbillies. It was a country bar just outside of town.
Piper followed me inside, holding tight to my hand. Jack stood up, yelled something, and called us over. We found them at the back table. They had two tables pushed together. All four of them were there, including Blake's girlfriend Heather and Jack's fiancé Lizza, short for Elizabeth. Six of the eight chairs pulled up were taken, and there were two next to each other that were empty. Piper and I managed to squish between the wall and the table to get to them.
"So this is the legendary girl," Chris observed.
Piper hung her coat on the back of her chair and sat down. I introduced her to everyone at the table. "Uh, Piper, this is Chris, Blake, Ryan, and Jack, old friends of mine. This is Elizabeth, Jack's fiancé—just call her Lizza. And that's Heather, Blake's long-time girlfriend who should just give up and marry his sorry ass," I said, directing my last words at Heather, who just laughed. "And yes, this is the legendary Piper Halliwell," I added, putting my arm around her shoulders.
When everyone was introduced to Piper and she thought she'd memorized all their names, they ordered us food and drinks. Jack was offering to pay.
The karaoke started and some good singers went up. Chris and Ryan put their names in. I was talking to Heather, who was sitting across from me, when I looked over and saw Piper flipping through a song book for people who want to choose a song to sing.
"What're you doing?"
"Looking for a song..."
"Which one?"
"Son of a Preacher Man."
"You gonna sing?" I asked.
She nodded and pushed some hair behind her ears. She hadn't looked up yet, she was still flipping through the "S" section in the book.
"Really?"
She nodded.


I had no idea Piper had such a voice.
She belted out every high note and low note there was and she worked the crowd, walking up and down the stage. She was truly amazing. Every day I learned something about that woman that impressed me.
When the song was over everyone was cheering and whistling. She walked back smiling and sat down modestly.
"You're awesome. I never knew you could sing."
"You never heard me sing?"
"No."
She smiled. The next time she got up, she sang a sad song, and the tempo was a little slower. Everyone with lighters got them out and swayed them in the air. When she was finished singing, the bar erupted in applause another time.
The next singer was the DJ, who was a good singer herself. She sang a slow song, and couples got up to dance. Piper stood up. "Come on."
We danced among all the other couples, but they didn't matter at all. I held her as close as I could and she rested her head against my chest as we slow-danced. I leaned my head down and took in a deep breath, getting the scent of her hair before the cigarette smoke from the bar covered it.
She sighed. "I love you."
"Good to know." I nodded. She looked up slowly and smiled. I kissed her softly. "I love you too," I told her.
She nodded. "Good to know."
Of course, Piper was a big hit with all of my friends and with the karaoke DJ. She told us to come back again soon, and Piper promised we would. At that moment I knew that going to Gloria's was going to become a tradition.
We drove home around midnight and went inside. Piper smelled her hair. "I smell like smoke," she said.
"I know, so do I."
"I didn't smoke a cigarette and now I smell like I smoked a pack."
It suddenly occurred to me that I hadn't had a cigarette in six months. Since I met Piper. I thought about that for a moment and said, "I used to smoke."
She hung her coat up. "Really?"
I nodded. "Not much, I wasn't a pack-a-day smoker, but it was enough to piss off my secretary. She made me quit, and kept on my ass about it for a while."
"I've never seen you smoke."
"I quit when I met you. Sarah stole my last pack just before I met you."
"Good for her. I don't like smokers that much...At least not when they smoke in front of me."
"Yeah, I never realized that I quit."
"You didn't?"
"No...You gave me something else to do."
She smiled. As she turned to go upstairs to our room, she patted me on the chest. "Glad I could help."


The next Friday, I was freaking out.
"Leo, calm down."
I looked up at Piper. "Why?"
"Because you're making me nervous."
I stopped pacing. "Sorry."
"Will you calm down? It's just a family reunion."
"Just a family reunion? Piper, you don't know my family."
"I'm not scared, why are you?"
"I'm not scared of my family. I'm scared for you."
She laughed. "For me."
I nodded. "My mother freaks out when I bring any girl home."
"How far is home?"
"Ventura."
"Oh, right...You told me that once."
I nodded. "Yeah, but she is just...weird...with any girl...Oh, God, you should have seen her around Michael when Ashley said they were getting engaged...My dad's okay...He tries to calm my mom down...Oh God and my aunt...My cousin's a freaking drunk—"
"Leo."
"Huh?"
"Calm down." She slung her backpack over her shoulder. In it she had stuffed a hair brush, two toothbrushes, and a change of clothes for both of us. I'd warned her that my parents had a huge pool so she also threw in swimwear. "Come on, it's about a four and a half hour drive."
I sighed. "Okay, hold on a sec." I checked Toby's automatic food and water dispenser and patted his head. "Be back tomorrow, Boy." He licked my hand.
Piper smiled at me, said goodbye to Toby, and pulled me out of the house.
Four and a half hours later, we were at my parent's house in Ventura. It was nine o'clock by then. I pulled into the driveway and killed the engine.
"Come on!" Piper said, jumping out of the car and going around to the other side to get me. I got out and led her slowly up to the front door.
I opened the door without knocking and led Piper inside. "Ma?" I called.
"Leo!" I heard her shout from the other room. She came running in from the kitchen to hug me. "Oh, I'm so glad to see you!" I hugged her and kissed her cheek. When she finally let me go she stepped back. "Oh, good, you did bring a friend. I was worried you'd come alone."
"Ma, this is Piper Halliwell, I've known her for about six months."
"Six months and not a word? Leo..." my mother, Kerry, scolded me as she shook Piper's hands.
"Actually we've only been together for three months," Piper said, confusing my mom. She smiled.
"Well it's good to meet you, Dear." Mom looked at me. "Ashley and Michael have already been here, but they've booked a hotel room for the night. Do you have a room, or..."
"No, Ma, we'll stay here."
"Oh, good! Here, come, your aunt is here with your cousins. We're all in the kitchen." Mom ran off into the kitchen.
Piper looked up at me and smiled.
"What?" I asked.
She just smiled wider. "Come on, let's go see the fam."
We went into the kitchen. "All this for me?" I teased, noticing all the food they were cooking. "Ah, guys..."
My aunt Pearl and my three cousins Matt, Brad, and Anna all looked up. "Leo!" I somehow survived the hugs and stepped back. I introduced Piper, who didn't seem at all nervous.
"Something smells good," she said.
"Oh, yes. We've got a turkey and a couple of pies and some bread baking...Do you cook?" That was my mother.
Here come the questions.
"Oh, I love to cook."
"Great! Mind helping?"
"Not at all."
Piper took to those people like they'd been her family all her life. She answered all of my mother's endless questions without hesitation, until Ma got to asking about Piper's family.
"I have three sisters, two younger and one fraternal twin."
"Where are your parents?"
That was where Piper hesitated. She glanced at me. I realized she never spoke about her parents or her extended family. I knew her mother was dead and her connections with her father were nothing, but she never went into detail.
"Well?" Ma liked answers, immediate answers.
Piper sighed. "My mother died when I was young, and my father walked out on my sisters and I not long after that. Our grandmother on my mom's side raised us. She just recently died, a couple of years ago."
My mother's face softened. "I'm sorry."
Piper brushed her off.
"No extended family?"
She shrugged. "I never tracked them down...I have a cousin I keep in touch with. We talk every now and then...But that's all."
From there the questions slowed, but Ma was determined to know Piper like the back of her hand. Piper didn't seem to mind much.
When Piper was done bonding with my aunt, cousins, and mom, she joined me for the grand tour of the little house.
"It's a three-bedroom, two bath..." I took her upstairs and down a hallway. "To the left, my sister's old bedroom..." I opened the door. Some old toys were still in the small room. There was still a twin-size bed, an old dresser, and a desk. The closet was open a little and we could see old clothes inside.
"Smells like mothballs," Piper said.
"I know, that's my mom's doings." We left that room and I showed her the small bathroom across the hall and then the bedroom at the corner of the hallway. "The room at the end is my parent's room. Always has been. The corner room on the left, that's mine."
We went into my old room. It had been painted but the bed wasn't moved from the far wall on the right. There was a TV on the right wall and a bathroom in the corner. There was a desk across from the door and a closet almost behind the door. Piper went right in.
"Nice," she said. "Cozy."
"It wasn't like this when I was fifteen."
She smiled and opened a dresser drawer. I went inside and closed the door behind me. Piper found something in the bottom on the drawer and held it up. "What's this?" she asked.
I took the little picture from her and looked at it. I smiled. "Amanda Hayes."
"The high school sweetheart?"
I nodded. "Yeah."
Piper smiled. "She's pretty. But blonde?"
"Yeah, back then I liked blondes."
"And now?"
"Now I just like you."
She smiled. "That's what you're supposed to say."
I nodded again. "I know."
She put the picture back at the bottom of the empty drawer and closed it. She looked up at me. "That's sweet, you know, that you still have her picture." She put her arms around my neck and I put my hands on her waist. "Keep my picture?"
"Do I even have one of you?"
She shrugged. "This is a family reunion. There's bound to be cameras."
"Well if I get a picture of you, I'll keep it twice as long as Amanda's."
She smiled. It was as if she wouldn't stop smiling that day. I was about to kiss her when she pulled away. "Wait, this is weird," she said.
"Why?"
"It's your old room. Who knows what kinda girls you had in here..."
I smiled. "Not in the past eight years."
She shook her head. "...I don't know..." Even though she still said she was weirded out, she let me kiss her. Soon she got used to the idea and the kiss got deeper.
There was a knock on the door and we both jumped. My mother opened the door. "Leo," she teased, "what did I tell you about having girls in your room?"
Piper looked up at me and smiled. I walked her out into the hallway. "Okay, then how about the hallway?" I said, kissing Piper again.
"Be nice," she told me.
"What? Weren't you close to your mom?"
"I hardly remember her."
"I know that, but what you do remember. Weren't you guys close?"
She thought, then nodded a little bit.
"Well if you can't remember too much, make some memories with my mom, she would love that. Consider her...your...step-half-mother-in-law twice removed."
She laughed and said, "Wouldn't that make us related?"
"Hope not." We both laughed. "Just consider her your...second mom. Not a replacement, but good enough to have some fun with."
"Oh, don't I feel special," she said sarcastically, rolling her eyes.
"Well you are. You should feel special."
She smiled and I kissed her. We walked down the hall and back to the kitchen.
At ten thirty, my aunt and my cousin Anna went home. Matt and Brad stayed, saying they would just stay the night. Of course Ma was overjoyed. She loved it when family would visit and stay at her house. I think she got a little lonely, with only Dad to keep her company.
Speaking of...I hadn't seen my dad.
"Where's Dad?" I asked Ma right before Piper and I went up to bed.
She laughed out loud. "Well it's about time you noticed."
"Well, with all the commotion..."
"I know, I know...He'll be in tomorrow morning. I'm going to pick him up from the airport at nine."
"Where's he been?"
"Business trip," she said, putting fake quotes around her words.
"He's retired."
"I know. He went fishing. Left Thursday night and went to a cabin with his brother." Ma sighed.
"Well don't wake us up to go get him, I'll wait for him to come here."
"I know, you don't get up before nine."
I nodded. "Right."
"Okay, I'm going up to bed...Goodnight."
"'Night, Ma."
She climbed the stairs and went to her room. I looked at Piper.
"Well?"
She smelled her clothes and her hair. "I smell like smoke again. Why does your aunt smoke?"
"I know, you're not used to it. A lot of my family members smoke."
We went upstairs. Matt came out of the bathroom in the hallway. We stopped. He looked at us. "You should seriously take a shower, get the mothball and smoke smell out. I swear..." He shook his head and walked across the hall to the room he and Brad were sleeping in. The door closed, but not before I noticed a sleeping bag on the floor. I assumed they'd played Paper, Rock, Scissors for the bed. Somebody lost.
"Well, I think I'll take his words to heart," Piper said, moving for the bathroom.
"Whoa, hold on...There's a bathroom in my room."
"There is? I didn't notice."
"Yeah, it's a stand-up shower."
She nodded. "Okay."
We went into my old room and closed and locked the door. Piper went straight into the bathroom. "Ooh, nice. I like it." The room had a sliding wooden door and she closed it most of the way. I heard her stripping down and saw the pile of clothes right by the opening of the door. She turned the water on and cursed it. "God damn, that's hot," I heard her mutter. I laughed and took off my shirt. "What?" she said.
"You're funny. Need some help?" I asked, changing into some shorts. I moved to the door then.
"Yeah...How do you work this showerhead?" she asked. I opened the door and went inside. I slid the door closed behind me. She looked up at me. "What're you doing?" She reached for a towel to cover herself.
"Hey, don't do that, I like it better without the towel," I told her. She smiled and slowly dropped the towel. I'm not sure how I kept my eyes off of her long enough to explain the showerhead. "Now..." I started, moving around her to get to the shower. It was a stand-up shower, no bathtub. I turned the water on and made sure it wasn't too hot. "There you go," I said.
"Thanks." She kissed me. "I'll be out in a few minutes."
I nodded and left the bathroom, sliding the door closed behind me. When she came out I was lying on the bed on top of the blankets, watching TV. I noticed her right away and looked toward the end of the bed where she was standing. She ignored me deliberately, but I knew she was blushing as I watched her dry off. She changed into a camisole and pajama bottoms slowly, exposing herself to my eyes with no shame. She rang her hair out and went back into the bathroom. I could hear the blow-dryer and waited while she dried her hair. She came back out and climbed into the bed.
"I'm tired," she said, turning onto her back. I rolled over and kissed her shoulder, working my way up her neck to her ear and cheek. She sighed. "Leo, this isn't right," she said.
"What isn't?" I rolled onto my stomach with my head between her shoulder and neck and draped an arm across her stomach.
"This...In your mother's house...It's weird."
"Piper..." I kissed her neck.
"Leo, please...It's too weird."
"Fine." I gave her one quick but thorough kiss and rolled back onto my stomach, my head between her neck and shoulder and my arm over her stomach. "Your loss."
She laughed.
The next morning, when we woke up, there was already a lot of bustling going on downstairs. My aunt and cousin Anna were back, my dad was there, and his brother was there too.
I threw on a shirt and Piper and I wandered downstairs, still half asleep. Everyone was sitting down for breakfast.
"They're alive!" Ma shouted as soon as we walked in. "I thought you'd never get up. Help yourself to some food."
"What time is it?" I asked.
"Ten...Oh, Leo, wake your cousins up, would you?" my mother's sister asked.
I nodded and left Piper to fend for herself in the kitchen. I knew she wouldn't have any trouble. I went upstairs and down the hall to my cousin's room. Matt was on the floor and Brad was on the bed, tangled up in the sheets. I glanced around the room and noticed that Matt had brought his paintball guns, probably wanting to go out to the paintball range near here for a game. I grabbed one and made sure it wasn't loaded, but the CO2 can was in it. I took the safety off and pulled the trigger. The can must have been out of air because it let off a bunch of loud bursts that sounded a lot like a machine gun. Matt and Brad jumped up screaming.
I started laughing and put the paintball gun down. "Get up." I went downstairs, where the others were staring at me.
"What the hell was that?" Ma asked.
"They're up," I said, getting a plate and going to the stove to get some food. I loaded up my plate and took a seat beside Piper. She was holding on a conversation with Anna.
My dad came in from the back porch. "Leo!" I stood up and hugged him. "Good to see you, Son. Oh, and who's this?" he said, noticing Piper.
"Dad, this is Piper Halliwell. Piper, this would be the infamous father."
"Good to meet you." They shook hands. "Long-time girl?"
I looked at Piper. I judged it as six months. She judged it as three. "Something like that," I said.
He nodded a little bit, obviously a bit confused, and sat down to eat.
The big backyard was packed by one o'clock. There was a large white tent covering the two long tables of food. There were three or four picnic tables under the huge oak tree. People were crowded around—aunts, uncles, and a lot of cousins and second cousins. Both my parents came from big families. My mom had two brothers and two sisters and my dad was the middle child of six. All of my aunts and uncles had children, and some had grandchildren. All of those people were there. My grandparents from both sides of the family were also there.
God bless Piper, she was so good. Everyone already knew Michael from the last reunion, but he and Ashley still had to deal with a lot of, "Oh my God! You're pregnant! Congratulations!" Piper had to deal with what Michael had to deal with at the last reunion—"And who's this?" "Oh, how long have you been dating?" "How'd you meet?" "Are you engaged?". She answered every question politely and made a lot of friends.
There were kids running around everywhere. There were adults talking and eating and grandparents squishing cheeks. Ashley soon got tired of all the questioning and congratulating and came to find me. I was under the tent, watching Piper. She was playing with a group of little kids, all of them at least four or five. There were about six of them and they seemed to be having the time of their little lives.
"She's pretty great, huh?" Ashley said.
I looked down at my little sister. "Yeah," I said, nodding. I watched Piper again.
Ashley suddenly smirked. "You love her, don't you?"
I snapped to. "Huh?"
"Piper. You love her."
I nodded.
"Oh, that's awesome! And I bet she loves you."
"Yeah."
Ashley smiled. "You guys are so cute together. It's really good to see you with someone, and Piper's a good girl."
I nodded again. "How're you doing?" I knew she loved being pregnant, but the weight gaining part of it all was really getting to her.
She shrugged. "Good enough. The people are getting to me, though. Now I remember why we don't do this very often." We both laughed. "Oh." She held her stomach and smiled.
"What?"
"She kicked."
"She did?" Recently, Ashley and Michael went to see a doctor and found out that the baby was most certainly a girl.
"Yeah, here." Ashley took my hand and put it on her stomach. "Feel?"
I nodded. I could feel the baby kicking. It was amazing, like nothing I'd ever felt before. "Yeah...That's..." I trailed off.
"Kinda scary, huh?"
"A little."
"I'm terrified of being a mother." After a silence, she added, "Uncle Leo." She laughed. "It doesn't sound right..."
I laughed too. "No...But I don't think the baby will care."
"You think I'll be a good mother?"
I nodded. "A great mother." I glanced at Piper again. How she kept those kids' attention for so long was beyond me.
"I think Piper would be a great mom, too," Ashley said.
My eyes shot back to my sister. "What?"
"You know...Just for future references..." She smiled and walked away.
Not five minutes later, Piper sent the kids off on their separate ways and came to find me. "They've got a lot of energy," she said.
"Yeah."
"They're fun though."
I nodded. "Yeah, they are." We were quiet for a moment. "Let's get outta here, just for a little bit."
She smiled. "Okay."
I led her out of the backyard and into a little patch of forest. There was a small stream running and it dropped onto a mini waterfall where one of the huge chunks of rock had broken off. Piper climbed onto the broken rock and I followed her.
"This is pretty."
"I used to come here all the time."
"I bet you brought a lot of girls back here."
"Not really."
"No?"
"Nah, this was my spot."
She nodded. "I like it here. Your family is nice..."
"Yeah, but if you get too much of them..." I shook my head.
"I think I know what you mean."
At five o'clock, everyone was gone. Piper and I stayed for dinner before saying we had to go.
"Oh, you can't go!" Ma exclaimed. "Stay the night!"
"How come you let Ashley go home and we can't?"
"Ashley's pregnant, that's different."
"And I have a dog that hates to be left alone."
Ma sighed. "Fine. But don't stay away too long."
"We won't. Promise." I hugged her and then hugged my dad. Everyone else had gone and Piper and I were last to go. "Ready?"
She nodded, but hugged my parents first.
"It was good to meet you, Sweetie," Ma said. Piper just smiled.
We got home around ten. Toby greeted us at the door. I checked the house for messes of any sort. The worst he did was chew up a newspaper that was lying on the floor.
"Good boy."
He wagged his tail.
Piper climbed the stairs and stopped at the top. "Leo."
I looked up from playing with Toby on the floor. The big dog was on top of me and I was on my back, trying to wrestle a bone away from him.
"I'll take you up on that offer now."
"Huh?"
"If you don't want to...Well...Your loss..." She turned and went up the stairs.
I pushed Toby away, jumped up, and ran after Piper. "Wait a second!" I chased her upstairs and was about to go into our room. Before I knew what was happening she'd grabbed me and pulled me inside. When I got my bearings we were already kissing.
The door swung closed.