"I've got to see Alex!" Chapman screamed, nostrils flared as she did her best to push past the two tall guards that kept her back as she saw the raven-haired inmate get carried away, on an old gurney, face ashen and attired drenched in what was, unmistakably, bright red blood. What a fool she had been when she threw what she and Alex had had away for a few, albeit heated, kisses with this girl that she didn't even know ── someone she didn't have the same 'history' with as she did with Alex Vause and who had used her for money only.
When Piper had at last left her 'tattoo place' and discovered that all of the hallways were utterly deserted, the blonde had noted that about half of the staff was gone and that at least the majority of the inmates, if not everyone, had taken advantage of that to go play in the lake that was just not part of the Litchfield grounds but had for one reason or another, quite suddenly, become accessible. Part of her had been very well aware that it wouldn't last, of course, but still, the blonde had decided to just 'join in' on the reprieve, however temporary, for however long it would take until back-up came and until a count was ordered by said back-up.
Of course, she had noticed that Alex wasn't at the lake, with all of the others, but Piper hadn't been worried, until count and until she was the only one who wasn't there. Only on suggestion of the officer who had had to watch the women in the greenhouse, who thought to mention Alex had stayed back to sweep, they had gone to check the garden... and discovered Vause upon the still-dirty wooden boards with two bullet holes close the heart, barely alive, having lost a lot of blood. The Alex she had met was the kind of woman who would have tried to sneak off and escape when she saw the chance, but not the Alex who had had a brief taste of freedom once again and had had to return to jail, after Piper's little call, and had cried many nights over it.
This is all my fault, Piper thought. Of course, Kubra wouldn't have let prison walls stop him. At that moment, as tears streamed down her face, Piper Chapman wished so desperately that she had just listened to the raven-haired woman, rather than call her a 'paranoid bitch', when she told her Kubra would do this, would have her killed. "I have to...!"
"All you have to do right now is get back, and stay back!" an exceptionally tall and dark guard she didn't recognize spoke, "She's off to the hospital, and you're not allowed to go with her ── deal with it. You'll hear it when they have news."
As Piper watched the way her ex was pushed in the ambulance, watched as it drove off with its siren loud and blue light very bright, she had this strong, inexplicable feeling, that she would never ever see Alex Vause again, at least in this life, and that she would never get a real chance to apologize for her behavior, for being such a bitch.
She was proven right the next day when two officers came to clear Alex's bunk of all of her things and near-casually mentioned that Alex Vause had died while on the way to a hospital when Piper, and others, asked what was going on. She didn't get the chance to grab a reminder of Alex, like the little hairpin Piper had given to her, the one that had suited her so well, or any item that could remind her of the 'good times' rather than the fact that she, Piper Chapman, had been a bitch to the woman she loved the last days of her life ── the woman she would never ever get to say 'I'm sorry. I love you.' to anymore.