Ch.22

Piper was sitting in the living room of the house she and Leo had gotten about 4 years ago. When she first got back to San Diego, she had noticed that nothing changed, not that she had really expected anything too. Her father was kind enough to keep the house for them and eventually bought it and gave it to her. Now, it was 7:15 at night. She was sitting there, holding and smiling at her 2-month-old daughter as she nursed her. After a couple of minutes, there was a knock at the front door. Piper got up, put Emily in her bassinet, buttoned the first few buttons of her pajama shirt and went to answer the door.

"Hey Jake," she said, opening the door. Jake was her step-mom's, Angela's, nephew. They had met two months ago, when she had first got back. She was just friends with him, but had a feeling he had more feelings then that for her.

"Hey, I just wanted to come and check that everything was ok here," Jake replied.

She just smiled before saying, "you know, that was the stupidest reason I have ever heard." He too just smiled. "Plus," she added, "we're family now. You don't have to have a reason to come over." He stopped smiling when she had said family.

"Yeah, family. Well, I just wanted to see you guys," he replied.

"Ok, well, Emily's in the living room in her bassinet. I have to go get ready for bed. I'm going to go take a shower. I'll be back down in about 20 minutes," she said, walking over to the stairs.

"Ok, I'll watch her for you," he said.

"Thanks," Piper replied, before going upstairs.

Twenty minutes later, Piper walked back downstairs. Piper smiled as she walked over to her baby.

"Hey Emily," she said, picking her up. She looked up at her mommy with those big, green eyes that reminded Piper so much of Leo. As Piper stood there, smiling at her, she started to fuss, which snapped Piper out her zoning out.

"Piper, are you ok?" Jake asked, worried.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she replied, calming her daughter.

"Ok," he started, but was interrupted by knocking on the front door.

"Come in," Piper yelled, still calming Emily. The door opened as she turned to see who it was. When she did, she stood there shocked, as he did too. There was Piper, holding a baby, with a man he didn't recognize standing next to her. He didn't put two and two together and realize that the baby couldn't be that man's. All he felt was his heart breaking. "Leo?" Piper asked.