"You ain't worthy of nobody's love!" the meth head "angel" screeched. Piper knew that it was true, she had once again abandoned Alex for the safety of a boring life with Larry only to realize, too late of course, that she didn't really want the boring safety, she wanted thrills and passionate love that she could only find in the warmth of Alex's love.
Piper sprung forward, the realization of how true Pennsatucky's words were made her see red, the anger that she felt for not only herself, but for the redneck who brought it to her attention was now rhythmically smashing the woman's remaining teeth in. Piper lost all track of time, all that she could see and feel was the pain of her broken heart and the motionless woman below her. In that moment nothing made sense, and she was so distracted that she failed to notice the door to the building. The next thing she knew, piper was wrapped up in Alex's crying, shock and realization finally setting in as Alex demanded answers as to what she had just stumbled upon.
Piper told Alex all about her conversation with Larry earlier that day and then about her skirmish in the shower with those Jesus freaks. She described walking away from Alex's bunk and sitting at the Christmas pageant until it became too much for her. Alex cooed in Piper's ear, assuring her that everything would be okay. But the two of them bot knew that despite Dogget having initiated the fight, Piper would be spending time in SHU and possibly being sent down the hill for the brutal beating that she had inflicted. As much as she craved Alex's company in these last few moments before her crime would be discovered, she couldn't risk Alex taking the fall for this, so she stood up and begged Alex to go back inside and act like she hadn't seen a thing. Alex understood that Piper was showing that she was no longer only thinking of herself, and though it pained her to leave Piper in this mess all alone, she started back towards the door. With the door held open she turned to Piper, "I still love you kid, and I always will. I'm so sorry that turned you away the other day, I had no clue how much you were hurting. I thought that I needed time to get over you, but that won't ever happen for me. Don't go too crazy in the box, I'll be right here waiting for you when you come back. I'll miss you kid." And with that Alex was gone.
Piper stood outside in the snow staring down at Dogget's unmoving body for what seemed like years. She figured that eventually the CO's must have realized that she was missing at evening count and had come looking for her because out walked Bennet and Fischer who with shocked expressions interrogated her and then hauled her right back to her worst nightmare. Being alone with herself in the SHU.