Disclaimer: I do not own Orange is the New Black or any of its characters.

Warning: contains spoilers. If you haven't seen season 3, don't read.

Chapter One: Lake Crazy

"You don't have to do this."

"Yeah, I do."

He reached for his gun.

Alex kicked him in the crotch and he yelled.

He punched her in the face. Alex saw stars and felt warmth begin to build and gush from her face.

The door screeched open. Lolli was standing there, the confusion that was always perpetually on her face changing to surprise. Luckily for Alex, the psychotic bitch was paranoid enough to be carrying a plastic fork shank in her underwear.

"Lolli, Help me," Alex said.

Lolli ran at him, and shoved the shank into his liver. He screamed. Alex raised the broom, and hit him over the head with it. He toppled to the floor.

"Lolli, hurry."

Lolli shoved the shank into his throat.

Blood poured from his neck and Alex began to feel lightheaded.

Lolli stood up, panting, holding the bloody shank at her side. "They must have found out you were working with me."

Alex pressed her fingers to her forehead, resisting the urge to faint. "Come on, we've got to get him out of here. If they find the body...if they find out who did this...we're going straight to SHU."

"Oh, that's no problem. We'll just take him to the lake."

"What?!" Alex eyebrow's creased together, assuming she was about to hear about another one of Lolli's delusions.

Lolli took Alex's arm. Alex made a face at the contact, but allowed herself to be steered outside before she pulled away, Lolli had just saved her life.

Lolli gestured to the fence. "Freedom!"

"Oh my god," Alex said smiling. "That's brilliant."

Alex helped Lolli drag the body down to the lake. A few heads turned to stare, but she was Alex, so no one asked her any questions. Most of the inmates were so caught up in the utter bliss of the water of freedom that they didn't allow themselves to be disrupted by the sight of death.

Alex narrowed her eyes, and scanned the crowds of people laughing and splashing about, taking their places in new religions...

Her heart started pounding. She couldn't see Piper anywhere.

She helped Lolli lower the body into the water. "Make sure it sinks down, bury it with sand." Alex didn't want to think of the body as a human being that they had just killed. From being a drug dealer, she had learned that when something was beyond help, it was better to think of it as a thing, rather than a creature. "I'll be right back. And Lolli -thanks so much for everything. You saved my life."

Loili beamed through her glasses, and Alex felt just a little better.

"You're my fellow agent, I was just doing my job."

Alex smiled in barely contained amusement.

Her happiness hardened on her face to stone cold determination as she marched toward Litchfield.

~A~A~A~

Piper sat on her bunk, fingering the white letters of her new tattoo. The skin around it had rose into red, little irritated bumps. She didn't regret the tattoo, it was part of herself. Weirdly, the pain of it had been the best part. Piper didn't want to get rid of it, but she wanted to edit it. To add an artistic element to the letters, maybe put black in them so they were more noticeable, or blot it out all together...

"Trust no bitch."

Said a dark, gorgeous familiar voice. Piper felt warmth travel down her neck before she even looked up.

Alex was standing over her, eyebrow raised.

Alex sat down on the bunk opposite Piper. "That's a nice tattoo you got there."

"I-" Piper was momentarily speechless. Alex had blood all over her face. What the hell happened to her? Then her eyes narrowed, why should she care? She probably just attack another innocent crazy person. "You shouldn't mess with me Vause. I sent Stella to SHU, you better watch your back."

Alex laughed, but there was a bitter note in it. "So Justin Bieber's gone? What, and she gave you the tattoo." It wasn't a question. Alex never needed to ask questions about Piper, she could read her like a book, almost always.

Piper looked down at the tattoo again, a slight pout appearing on her face.

"Piper," Alex said leaning forward slightly, and using Piper's preoccupation with her tattoo as an excuse to change the subject. "The fence in the field is down. I'm breaking out. I want you to come with me."

"Are you crazy?!"

Alex shook her head. "No. Actually I'm not." An ironic grin played at the corners of her lips. "You were right Piper, Kubra didn't send an inmate to kill me. But I was right too. He sent one of his hit-man to become a guard. If it wasn't for that crazy bitch Lolli, I would be dead Piper. Honestly, I should be dead." Alex raised her shoulders. "The only reason that I can think of that I'm not is, he must have thought it would be so easy to kill me that he didn't fully prepare himself." Alex let her shoulders down.

Piper's eyes were large. "Alex I- I'm so sorry I- I didn't know.. I didn't think, I really was trying to protect you."

Alex shook her head. "We can talk about it later. If you want to come that is. I'm not forcing you."

Piper's mouth hung open as she let out a sigh. Then she closed it, grit her teeth and met Alex's eyes. "I'll go with you, and this time, if anyone else tries to kill you, I swear I will kill them before they can even tense a muscle."

Author's Note: This is probably a one-shot. I wrote it because of the horrible cliff-hanger at the end of season 3. Orange always has the worst cliff-hangers. I don't know how the show will handle this, but if they kill Alex, I'm not watching season 4.