Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
A/N: Set after the season two finale. It's on the shorter side since it's my first attempt at writing anything for this fandom. I'm just trying to get a feel for the characters and see what works and what doesn't. Hopefully I did alright!

"You fucking bitch."

Piper instantly turns around in the shower stall, backing up against the wall and using her hands to cover up as much of her body as she possibly can. It's not like she has any modesty left after this stint in prison, but some habits just refuse to die. Water from the showerhead drizzles from her hair and into her eyes, leaving her squinting to make out the intruder.

But it doesn't take 20/20 to identify a sight engrained into her memory forever. The dark hair somehow still styled impeccably, the immaculate makeup, the confidence radiating even brighter than the neon jumpsuit—

"Alex?"

The woman crosses her arms, and a perfectly stenciled eyebrow shoots upwards. "I don't know why you sound so surprised."

Oh shit. Her brow creases in faux oblivion. "Why wouldn't I be surprised? I thought you'd be long gone by now."

"Cut the crap, Piper," Alex dryly retorts. The accusation and venom lacing her words are very, very clear. "I know you're the reason my probation officer busted me."

"Fine," she replies, dropping her hands away. The way Alex's eyes trail downwards doesn't escape her. "I did it. Is that what you want to hear? I turned you in, Alex. It was all me."

But then Piper abandons her bravado, taking a halfstep back to get away from the anger now emanating from Alex in almost-visible waves. It's the type of anger that she hasn't seen from Alex in a long time. Not since she accidentally caused a deal to fall through with one of their biggest buyers in Dubai back in the early days.

"But why?" Alex finally asks. She steps forward, obviously not caring about the water slowly creeping up her pantlegs. "Why'd you do it, Piper? Were you really so jealous of the fact that I got out and you didn't that you had to rope me back in here? Is that it? Or do you really think the world still revolves around you? God. I have never seen someone make sure they pull everyone down with them when they spiral out of control quite like you do. It's a gift. A terrible, shitty gift that you dish out like candy."

Her glance darts from one dark eye to the other, finding the anger there and challenging it until it falls away to a hurt born from betrayal. That kind of emotion emanating from Alex may just be worse than the anger. She reaches out to cup Alex's face, but stops short and drops her hand completely away. "You said you were lonely. And scared," she reasons softly. "I was scared for you, Alex. I didn't know what else I could do to protect you."

"So I'm supposed to believe you did this from the goodness of your heart?" Alex scoffs just loudly enough to be heard over the shower. "For fuck's sake, Pipes. Drop the good girl act already. It's been old for a really, really long time."

"Believe whatever you want," she quips, recrossing her arms. "But at least you're not hiding from Kubra in some tiny shithole apartment by yourself anymore."

"No, you sure are right about that," Alex fires back. "Now I just have to worry about getting slocked in my sleep. In what world is that any better?"

Silence falls between them, broken only by the water still cascading on her hair. Alex has every right to be mad. Piper definitely understands where that anger is coming from; it's exactly how she felt when she found out Alex turned her in all those months ago. But in time she hopes Alex will forgive her just like she forgave Alex. Because for the first time in a really, really long time, she did something that wasn't solely for herself. Albeit still a little bit selfish, but at least not completely so. Here Alex will be protected by fences and guards and cinderblock walls and, most importantly, by Piper herself. Where she was helpless to protect Alex before, at least she can try now.

"In the world where we get through this together," she finally answers. The space between them grows smaller as she steps closer to the other woman. "I felt so helpless in here. I was…I was so worried about you, Alex."

"You sure have a fucked up way of showing affection," Alex replies, though these words land softer than the ones before them. Affection slowly begins to creep into her eyes as she, too, takes a step forward. "Anyone ever told you that?"

"Maybe once or twice." Piper grins quickly, before it fades away to concern. She never quite envisioned what would happen once her plan to get Alex back in here actually succeeded. "Do you hate me?"

Alex exhales forcefully, crossing her arms in that I'm pissed that I'm not more pissed about this kind of way. "No."

Her brow inches upwards cautiously. "Do you still love me?"

Alex petulantly replies, "No."

While Alex was all hardass drug-pusher to everyone else, the woman was helpless in hiding true emotions and intentions from Piper—something that she's glad hasn't changed. Now especially. She fights away a grin, stepping closer still. "Sure about that?"

Alex fights away a grin of her own. "No."

Only a breath apart, she loosely places her dripping arms around the starchy shoulders of Alex's jumpsuit. The smile on her face fully emerges now, half-playful and half-suggestion. "Well while you're figuring it out, we could always," she shimmies her shoulders, "you know."

"Fuck?"

"That's usually what that facial expression means."

Alex's hands ghost down her bare, slick slides, pulling her closer. Her voice drops to a whisper as she leans in, "This doesn't mean the conversation is over."

"Oh no," she replies, her brows scrunching lightly. "I hope for many, many more conversations."

Their lips brush then, tentatively at first, and then full out I hate that I love you this much, you little shit kinds of kisses, with teeth scraping lips and heavy breathing and fingers clawing against either orange jumpsuit or bare skin as each frantically fights for more, harder, now. Despite the lack of privacy, the orange jumpsuits, and suspiciously mold-like fuzz on the shower floor, Piper has never, not once, felt more at home than she does right at this second.

"Jesus, Pipes," Alex exhales, pulling back briefly. She licks her reddening lips before grinning. "You're something else. Know that?"

"I missed you too," is the breathy reply before their mouths are occupied with something other than words once again.

Luckily it's late enough that they've missed the pre-lunch shower rush. Alex fumbles behind Piper until the water is effectively shut off, and then presses Piper back into the cool tile wall. Her hand trails down slick flesh, from collarbones down to slick breasts. Alex kisses her neck like that—the way that makes her thighs shake and toes grip against her duck tape sandals, causing staccato moans to slip from her lips. Dusky nipples stand taut from arousal and cold-air chill, to which Alex takes full advantage, pulling and rubbing and softly rolling them between her eager fingertip, wrenching deeper moans and gasps and tremors from Piper than ever before.

It's raw and real and, if only for a moment, takes them outside the walls of this godforsaken prison.

Alex's hand slides further down, past the bumps of ribs and supple swell of soft stomach, and lower still until she's touching soft curls and an unfathomable, indescribably warm heat.

"Oh god," Piper gasps, jerking away, but somehow simultaneously collapsing forward for more. "Oh god, oh god, oh god," she chants, her words hotly landing against the skin of Alex's neck as long fingers intimately explore and caress, but still not giving or taking all that they can just yet.

"Alex," she pleas, shifting her legs to open wider and thrusting her hips forward to seek more. "It's not…like we—oh god—have an infinite…amount of time here."

The taller woman grins wickedly. "I'm just waiting on you to say it."

"Say it—" Piper squints as she tries to find words in her sex-fogged mind. "Say what?"

Alex presses her fingers shallowly inside Piper teasingly, but quickly pulls them back to resume their idle exploration. Her breath tickles damply against Piper's ear. "C'mon. Say it. Say it so I know this is real."

"What?" Her eyes lock with brown. It's not hard to see the vulnerability there. The love. She presses her lips against Alex's own. "I love you," she knowingly whispers, and then between kisses, "I love you. I love you. I love you."

The resulting smile from Alex as she leans in for another kiss is one worthy of the free world. "I love you too."

"You better," she answers playfully. "Otherwise dragging you back in here would've been for nothing." Then she pulls Alex closer, making sure the woman presses flush against her skin, against the space between her legs, leaving very little room to misinterpret the suggestive move. "I wouldn't mind getting past the telling and into the showing now," she says to the unanswered question posed by Alex's raised eyebrow.

Alex chuckles lowly. "Yes ma'am," she replies.

And then the onslaught begins. One finger, and then two, slip inside Piper, easily working up to a fervent pace, both taking and giving and leaving her gasping for breath.

She holds onto Alex as desperately as Alex is holding on to her, every movement of her body matching the pulsing thrusts being driven into her with a zealousness she hasn't felt in months. Piper focuses on every touch, ever tease, every breath, allowing them to enhance the impending orgasm growing in every inch of her body, throbbing out from her core to every digit, leaving her overwhelmed both physically and emotionally, but still, she can't help wanting more.

"Harder," she gasps, grasping at the ass of Alex's jumpsuit. "Ha—oh sweet god," she nearly growls as Alex does that. That thing that sends her absolutely reeling every single time.

And sure enough, she comes mere seconds later, one hand tangled in Alex's hair and the other still clutching at Alex's ass, unable to stop the whimpers slipping through her lips as she rides out wave after wave of uninhibited ecstasy. Boneless, limbless, everything but emotionless, she falls forward against the other woman, burying her nose against Alex's neck and breathing in the faint traces of Alex-scent that still linter there untouched by the stale smell of prison.

"I've missed you," Piper repeats, and her lips brush against Alex's skin. "I really mean that. I was so...I wasn't me without you here."

And though that could be misconstrued as the emergence of the old selfish-Piper, Alex knows better. She knows because, even though she was on the outside of this place, that was exactly how she felt without Piper in her life.

"I know," she whispers into blond hair, cradling Piper safely against her chest. "I missed you too."

But before it can get too sappy, the jangle of keys sends them flying apart, Piper to the far corner of her shower stall and Alex all the way to the sinks, both stifling laughter as best as they can.

"You owe me," Alex mouths pointedly with a smirk playing at the corner of her lips, right before the correctional officer strolls inside. She knows it's an unnecessary declaration, though.

If there's one thing she's learned in the past year, it's that Piper always gets even.

Always.