Coursing Through My Veins Like Fire
I've had this story half written since I first saw the show back in July but never posted it, mostly because it seemed vaguely similar to how other fics have started off and partly because I've been super busy. Anyway, here it is, its about 4-5 parts long and will hopefully be something I finish. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: OitNB does not belong to me.
Chapter 1: Find A Calm From the Wreckage
Four and a half months, that's what Lorna told her as she struggled to lift her weaken body into the backseat of the van. Piper is stronger than she should be, anyone who has spent time in the SHU would testify to the inhuman treatment and especially the disgusting food. But by some grace of God, she was occasionally slipped edible food. Nothing grand, just a sandwich not turned green by week old mold, a bottle of water and a few granola bars. In the beginning, Piper wondered how the guard new her favorite sandwich or her mayo/mustard preference but after taking the first bite, she no longer cared as long as she had a decent meal. It wasn't much but it really made the difference in the long run.
Good news is; Piper is halfway through her first year. Bad news, there could very well be many more years to come. Once she's settled, Lorna continued her idle chitchat, trying to ease Piper back into constant interaction with other people after spending four and a half very long isolated months in a hell of her own making. The ride from the SHU to the main gates of the minimum security ward was blissfully short. Piper sat still long after Lorna killed the engine and simply stared at the brick building and barb wired chained fencing. Piper knew she was damned lucky that she wasn't rotting away in maximum, though she wasn't quite sure of the reason she was spared that particular hell.
Lorna's rambling mentioned something about Pennsatucky's lawyers arguing against the meth-head being sent to max and in return the real criminal lawyer her parents must have hired managed to swing the same deal for Piper. Considering all the attorney had to work with was a hysterical statement about almost being murdered because The Lord doesn't love her, it's a miracle she's not strapped down in psych. At least that was something but she will need to meet this new guy to mount a proper defense if she ever wanted to see the outside of these walls within the decade.
"Since you already showered," Lorna gestures to her damp, tangled hair "breakfast is in a few, you maybe wanna meet up with anybody before we head down to the cafeteria?"
That got Piper's attention. Her head snapped up towards the dark haired girl with her ever present harlot red lipstick. From the small smile on Lorna's face Piper knew exactly who Lorna was referring to. Alex. Just the memory of a certain statuesque dark haired beauty has kept Piper somewhat sane the past four months. She almost smiled until she remembered the look of devastation on Alex's face when Piper revealed her choice in the library. Alex turned her away, she basically told Piper to fuck off of her.
And Alex was never one to make idle threats, she had thrived in the cutthroat business of importing drugs for an international cartel without ever having to resort to violence herself but that didn't mean that she didn't have a do-dirt-guy in her employ to carry out orders she couldn't get caught committing herself. When Alex said you were all but dead to her she very likely meant it. So Piper hesitated as Lorna held out her hand to help her out of the van, giving it a supportive squeeze and tugging Piper to the side door.
Not much has changed in her absence, Piper notes as she glances at the familiar white walls and worn linoleum floors. Crazy, no Suzanne, looks up when she enters and gives her a goofy wide-eyed smile.
"Greetings Dandelion." She gives Piper a half bow but doesn't attempt to come closer, just smiles and returns to her work of buffering the floor. Piper is almost disappointed that Suzanne didn't try to at least hug her or make an inappropriate remark about her titties and she wondered if that's how it's going to be from now on. Lorna treating her with kid gloves and her ex-prison wife barely wanting anything to do with her beyond a polite hello.
"Hi Suzanne," she replies but the other woman was already lost in her world of swirling thoughts and cleaning to pay her any attention. She shrugged it off and allowed Lorna to guide her to the cafeteria as the halls suddenly became more crowded with the early risers looking to get the fresh pot of coffee. Her stomach simultaneously grumbled and flipped at the scent of edible food and anticipation of her first sighting of Alex. She stood just inside the doorway searching the room for a figure that would be about half a foot taller than most and spotted her moving through the line, a tattered book in one hand and her tray in the other. It was so Alex that it brought a smile to her face and she didn't hear how the room hushed when she entered.
Her nosy fellow inmates glanced back and forth between Piper's still form and Alex's back, gleefully awaiting the moment when the not-lesbian duo would spy each other and the ensuing drama. Even Red, sat hunched over her breakfast tray appeared interested and Piper wondered how much about the deterioration of their relationship Alex has shared with the others to make them so curious.
Piper sucked in a breath when the other woman finally turned to make her way to a table but stopped short as her eyes swept past Piper's location and she did a double take. Nicky nearly bumped into the woman and made a snarky comment before her eyes also landed on the blond. Piper tried desperately to read Alex's expression but her pale face was utterly blank. She could see Alex shut her eyes briefly behind those dark rimmed glasses she so adored and just as the tiny bubble of hope tremored in her chest, Alex hastily placed her tray onto a table as she quickly walked towards Piper, her long arms opened in invitation. Piper let out a gurgled sob and made to step forward but was distracted by the blur of shiny red hair sailing past her and into Alex's awaiting embrace.
It seemed as though the entire cafeteria held a collective breath, watching this new turn of events. Alex crushed this strange woman, whose orange red hair clashed horribly with her prison issued day-glow orange jumper, to her body, rocking her from side to side and running her long fingers through the other girl's hair. She watched in horror as Alex pulled back to place a kiss to the girl's forehead then hug her once more, whispering softly into her ear.
C.O. Fisher cleared her throat and shot a sad sympathetic smile at Piper. Her voice taking on an authoritative tone, she ordered the inmates to separate and murmured a soft 'Are you alright, Chapman?'. When Alex didn't spare her a glance before leading her mystery woman to a table.
Piper tried to hold her head up high and allowed Lorna to place a hand on her lower back and guide her to the food line. She could hear some of the inmates snickering, there were a few 'damn that's cold' and more than one 'serves her uppity ass right' but it was the sincere apologetic looks from her friends that really hurt the most.
Four months is like dog years in prison time and she had suspected that someone who was so very desirable as Alex to have hooked up with at least one of the many women who threw her appreciative looks daily. She spent many nights alone in the SHU imagining Nicky's untamable mane lost between Alex's creamy thighs or even that young Latina who pretended to hate gays but whose eyes lingered a little too long when Alex leisurely wrapped her towel around her glistening body when stepping out of the shower.
She makes it through the line, barely making eye contact and nodding at the greetings of welcome back and let's Lorna push her into a chair across from Big Boo, little Boo nestled at her feet. She feigns a smile at Boo and quickly cuts her eyes to see Alex with her back to her, still holding the mystery woman's hand and lightly stroking her arm as she hangs on the girl's every word.
"Who's the hot ginger?" Boo inquires to the table at large, jutting her head at the pair that the entire cafeteria were pretending they weren't watching. "The Don knows she can't just call dibs on every fine piece of ass that waltzes through here, right?"
"The Don?" Piper questions. Her breakfast companions visibly squirm in their seats, each unwilling to explain why Alex suddenly has a new moniker, although The Don is a step up from Sasquatch or Lurch it's no less foreboding.
"It's just something people have been calling Vause on account of recent events. But getting back to the nube, she arrived early this morning. DEA dropped her at the gate, three man escort" Lorna leans over to conspiringly inform the table, "real quiet, barely said a word but she seems nice, she has kind eyes." they each take a moment to survey the new arrival, then collectively turn back to their gossip. "And clearly she knows Vause, am I right? Probably another one of her exes. Looks like you got some competition Nichols. The nubes always need lots of comforting." She giggles at that last part forgetting for a second that Piper was among that list. "Sorry honey." Patting Piper's arm she goes back to eating and intermittently gazing at the other table. "She's not even that hot."
Lorna's weak attempt to console Piper is effectively dashed by Boo's indignant snort.
"Fuck yeah she is, been a long time since I've seen a real redhead and her eyes are so blue! Mmm, Can't wait to bump into her in the showers tomorrow." Licking her spork lasciviously, Boo grins at the half disgusted, half amused expressions of her breakfast companions.
"Alex was never big on sharing," Piper mutters, eyes downcast as she pushes her spicy eggs around her tray, "that might put a crimp in your seduction plans."
"She shared you with Gary just fine."
"Larry," Piper lacklusterly corrects "and that didn't exactly work out well for either of us."
"Look breakfast is almost over, why don't we stop acting like we're in fucking 10th grade geometry class and go talk to Vause." Nichols stands up quickly and before the others can even form an objection, she's on the move, dropping her tray noisily across from the pair huddled together. This bold maneuver catches the attention of the neighboring tables who weren't already sizing up the new arrival.
"Hey hiya doing, I'm Nichols, friend of Vause's." Nicky calmly introduces herself. She ignores Alex's perturbed glare at her intrusion and grins at the
redhead.
"Jessica Montgomery, pleased to meet you." The girl responds with a sultry southern drawl, but not before checking with Alex to see if this person was really friend or foe. Per usual, Alex is back to wearing her mask of indifference after a scant show of emotion but her lack of response is answer enough.
"Ooh, a southern belle, where you from sweetheart?" Nicky leans forward, giving her most winning grin that usually has a girl aching within no time but the woman in front of her seems immune to her charm. It must be because of Vause, standing next to Wonder Woman, little Nicky with the big mouth and untamable hair doesn't have a shot in hell.
"Louisiana, originally."
"Yeah, we're kind of in the middle of something right now Nicky..." Alex says in her all business tone that Nicky knows better than to dismiss. But since she hasn't been told explicitly to leave, Nicky digs into her food with gusto and waves her hand for them to carry on.
"Far be it for me to interrupt Act II of Muncher's Theater, I'll just sit quietly and enjoy my huevos. You're not eating?" She asks Jessica, just noticing that breakfast ends soon and the new inmate has yet to get into the food line.
"I'm not much of a breakfast eater." She explained
"Here," Alex hands her a banana off of her tray and a slice of toast, "the first day is the worst, no need to go through it hungry on top of everything else."
"Yeah and be real careful how you decline food around here, last girl who inadvertently insulted the chef nearly starved to death before she was forgiven, ain't that right Vause?"
Nicky smirks as Alex sneaks a glance at Chapman over her shoulder. Her hard gaze softens momentarily until she forcefully tears her eyes away and back to Nichols.
"Jess isn't a pretentious yuppie douchebag asshole that complains about organic soy milk or cruelty free, grain fed beef."
"Well that didn't sound very person specific, at all" Nicky rolls her eyes at how obvious Vause's feeling for Chapman are.
"Is that...?" Nicky follows Montgomery's line of sight to the table she just vacated, her mouth hanging ajar at Alex's sudden twitchy demeanor.
"Yeah, so what were you saying about your appeal?" Vause abruptly changes the subject, making a show of focusing all of her attention to the redhead beside her.
"Right, my lawyer said that there's a good chance my sentence can be overturned with a different judge because there was no evidence that I was directly involved in Daniels crimes. They were more concerned about where a fourth year Resident got the money to fund six different international medical clinics. The forensic accountants went through every bank statement with my name on it and said it was clean."
"Then...what the fuck?" Alex shakes her head, completely lost.
"Apparently the accounts were too clean? The prosecutor suggested everything from embezzlement from the hospital to me being in bed with terrorists. That trial was a god damn joke! It's a miracle that I'm not locked up in the deepest darkest cell in GTMO."
"You're a doctor?"
Both women swing their heads in Nicky's direction wearing twin expressions of surprise. Nicky rolls her eyes, she was silent for less than three minutes and they really did forget she was sitting there. Though she shouldn't be surprised since it took shoving her hand down Alex's pants to get the woman to finally see her as more than a wise-cracking sidekick.
"Pediatric Cardiothorasic Surgeon." Alex answers for Montgomery, there's this expression on her face that can't be described as anything but unabashed pride.
"Damn, check out Doogie Howser over here." Nicky cracks, giving the younger woman an appreciative once over "so what, did Vause pimp you out too while you were in school?"
"Alex would never make me do that." Montgomery replies with so much certainty that Nicky is taken aback.
Using privileged young coeds was Vause's m.o., she'd even let it slip once to Nicky that at the height of her reign Alex had about thirty people in her employ. That seemed a bit too risky an operation to Nicky but apparently all of her people were loyal, she only ratted out the competition and those who were sure to fink on her to save their own skin. Too often Nicky wondered what the hell Chapman had done to make Alex turn her in nearly ten years after they broke up. When it comes to the blonde, Alex keeps their history under careful lock and key.
"Jess had absolutely nothing to do with my business." Alex gives Nicky a stoney glare.
"I'm sure Nicky didn't mean anything by it." Jess lays a hand on Alex's arm, gently soothing the sting of her words.
The bell trills, signaling an end to the morning meal as well as the staring contest between the pair.
"Right, sorry Nichols," Alex sighs
"No sweat, Vause."
"Move your asses inmates!" Mendez barks across the cafeteria
"Alright, I gotta head down to the laundry room but I'll meet you in your room before lunch, okay?" Alex rises to bus her tray. She gives the new inmate another quick hug and kiss on the forehead before the CO's can reprimand her.
"Go to work Lex I'll be okay." They walk out into the hall together then reluctantly split up.