Loneliest Night of Her Life

Chapter IX

The next few days Piper had adopted a routine. She would wake up at 6, bright and early, and go into town. She'd get a small breakfast and then head to the local library.

She spent hours sitting there and going through old newspapers. She was trying to track what the Alliance has been up to for the past 20 years. She knew that the newspaper wasn't even half enough, but she was doing all that she could.

She was building a case. Journalist and lawyers are not that different really when it came to digging for info. She also made some phone calls to people she knew, contacts she would talk to, sometimes anonymously on their side. They didn't know much, but they promised to find her what they could. The last phone call she made was to Daryl, a cop back in San Francisco who worked close to Andy. She would have called Andy, but she didn't want her sister anymore involved that she already was.

She made the phone calls from her house, never using a cell phone or anything she could be tracked by. She'd spend her afternoon in the house, continuing her research and wrecking her brain, looking for something to frame Marshall with.

At 9 pm, she would head to the local bar, where she'd spend hours sitting by herself, or talking with nice strangers. She liked them. They didn't ask her where she came from or where she was going. They just talked, and drank.

Leo always called late and night, and Piper was always the one to phone her sisters.

So, a little paranoid, Piper picked up the phone.

"Piper, it's me." Leo.

"Oh, hey. You gave me a scare. Everything ok?"

"Piper, listen, I don't want you to freak out…" As soon as he said that, Piper's heart started racing.

"Leo…"

"There has been an incident at your work. Someone went trough your things in your office sometime during the night, and they took your laptop and trashed the whole place. Piper, you left your laptop at work?"

Piper took a moment to think. Yes, she did. But he wasn't asking, it was more of a 'I can't believe you did something so stupid' kind of a tone.

"Yes. Fuck. It's ok, I have a password."

"A password? Jesus, Piper, they don't do passwords… They have people who will get around it in less then a minute." He continued. "What was on there? Marshall related, I mean."

"There wasn't much, really… but I kept my research on there. Most of the things I had on paper, and I took those with me." Piper said, a bit relieved herself.

He took a moment before speaking.

"Good. It's not that bad then."

"And my office? How bad is it?" Piper asked.

"Piper… it's a mess. The whole floor. I was able to sneak in there with the rest of the officers and get by without showing I'm FBI. They took the place upside down. The thing is, the only things that are missing are form your office, and your boss… what's his name? Owl something… anyway, he's mad. But concerned, too."

Piper let out a sigh. In the past few days she managed not to think about what all the people back home thought of her disappearance. Aside from her sisters, no body knew. And now this… she can only imagine Owls' face when he walked into the place this morning.

"You there?" Leo's voice came through.

"Yeah. I don't know what to say."

"It's ok. Look, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to snap. How are you hanging on there? What do you do all day?"

"Nothing. Went to a couple of bars around town. There really isn't very much to do here. Leo, how long is it going to be?"

"You mean, how long before stop trying to track you down? I don't know. And I'm sorry to make the situation even worse, but I'm really at a loss. I don't know what to do… I try to eavesdrop, but it's hard to do without getting notice. And I'm afraid to tell anyone, because I don't know who to trust… I don't want to tell the wrong ears. It will only make matters worse. Right now I'm trying to find out where they meet. I don't believe that everything they do goes down here in the FBI Headquarters. It's not safe enough. There's got to be other places." Leo said.

"And what will you do when you find those places?"

"That's a fucking good question. I'll let you know when I figure out an answer." He said with defeat.

"Piper, I have to go, I have a meeting with Ochsner. Maybe I'll find something new. If not, I'll call you tomorrow, same time as usual. Sorry to alert you."

"It's alright. Thanks Leo."

When she put down the phone she went to the kitchen and sad down. She was planning to go get some breakfast, but her appetite was gone to hell.

Piper had been half asleep on the couch with some copies of newspaper articles from 1989 that she took from the library earlier that afternoon.

She answered the phone with a groggy voice. It was Leo again.

"What is it?" She asked.

"Piper, we have a situation."

She could hear a lot of other voices in the background. One of them was from a crying child.

"Who is that? What happened?"

"Someone came to your sister's home." Leo said, and the words rang in Piper's head like gun shots.

She san up abruptly and immediately recognize the crying voice. It was Melissa, Prue's daughter.

"Oh my god…" She could already feel hot tears blinding her vision.

"Don't worry, they are ok, all of them. Prue said that she opened the door to two men and they held out a gun… asked her questions about your whereabouts. Luckily your brother in law came from work just then and he had his gun. They fired one warning shot and left. No one is hurt."

They tears were now flowing freely down her cheeks.

"Piper, they left seven pennies. It's their official mark."

"The Alliance of Seven." Piper mumbled through tears.

"I'm so sorry…"

"Can I talk to Prue?" Piper asked.

Prue was on the phone seconds later.

"Prue… I'm so sorry… I… This is crazy, I'm coming back home, I can't believe it got this far…" She couldn't stand it. And she could still hear her niece crying, and it was tearing her heart apart.

"No, Piper, you can't do that. They will kill you… they're capable." Prue said. She sounded shaken, but her voice was as set as ever.

"There is no way. I won't let you or anyone else go through this because of me. I'm coming back."

"Piper, we're ok… I promise. Leo says this is exactly what they want, and I won't let them have you… Stop blaming yourself."

The words coming from her sister calmed Piper a bit. It was then that she realized that she'd been sitting with her knees on the floor.

"How's Melissa?" She asked, afraid of the answer.

"She's alright… just a little scared. She saw everything."

Piper tried hard not to break down crying in front of her sister too, because she had to be strong for her, not the other way around. But she couldn't stop herself. She was letting out all the frustration she'd been holding in all these long days.

"Prue, what are you going to do… They will come back…"

"Leo offered to put both us and Phoebe in protective custody, but I didn't want that. We settled for three men guarding us at all time. Following us around…"

"And you're ok with that?" Piper asked.

"Look, Piper, we're sisters, and we're all there for each other at one time or the other. When I had Melissa, and through all of Phoebe's breakups, and… when Danny left you. And we'll be here for you through this too."

"Prue, this is SO different…"

"Not another word Piper. You just take care of yourself. I'm gonna put Leo back on… call us."

"Say hi to Phoebe."

Leo came on a few seconds later.

"Hey."

"Hey."

"You ok?"

"I think so. What Prue said, about the guys who'll be sticking around them…"

"Yes, Piper, don't worry. We've arranged for a bunch of guys to watch over them 24/7."

Piper sighed. "Leo, I don't know how much longer I can go on here. Putting my family in danger… I can't even describe how horrible this is for me."

"I know, Piper, and I wish things were different. I'm sorry…"

"No, you shouldn't be sorry. If it weren't for you, I'd be dead about a week ago. I'm very thankful."

Piper didn't go out that night. After she finished on the phone, she grabbed a blanket and huddled on the couch, with an old movie playing in the background on T.V.

She's never felt so lonely. She gave up on trying to wipe her tears, and just let them flow freely.

It must have been hours before she fell asleep that night. The loneliest night of her life.