Piper drummed her fingers on the steering wheel, willing herself to get out of the car.
Rain hammered against the sunroof, and when she closed her eyes, it sounded as though marbles were falling from the sky to damage the delicate paintwork of Cal's car, this aluminium armour she'd have remove before she could proceed.
She had borrowed the vehicle for the weekend, and the first leg of her journey was already at an end.
It felt too soon.
Staring at the building's sign, she supposed that her return to Litchfield had always been imminent, in one way or another.
Grabbing an umbrella from the passenger seat, she checked her phone once more.
It was 10:45; she was fifteen minutes early.
Piper released a sigh, exhaling all the tension that had built up over the week.
She'd never known a longer seven days.
From receiving the phone call last Friday, she'd had a countdown running on her mobile, crossing off each day in hours and minutes and seconds until suddenly, it was time.
Tired of waiting for the bad weather to abate, she pulled the handle and pushed open the door, mumbling a muted fuck as the rain hit her skin. It was now or never.
The prison was the same as it always had been, and although Piper had only left the facility a mere six months ago, it was somehow reassuring to know that nothing had changed in her absence.
Approaching the front desk with some trepidation, she cleared her throat.
C.O. Bell answered the call, surprise etched onto her ever-weary face as she did so.
"Chapman. Thought we'd seen the last of you. This another self-surrender?"
Piper laughed self-consciously, unsure how to reply. "Actually, I'm here to collect Alex Vause. She's being released today."
A smirk of recognition lit up Bell's features. "Oh yeah. You two still an item?"
Piper had always wondered how much the guards were aware of, and gave her best debutant smile in response. "We are. Happily so. Are you and O'Neill still..?"
Bell narrowed her eyes conspiratorially. "Actually, we're expecting." She patted her shirt-covered stomach with a satisfied air, before casting a glance over her shoulder at Maxwell, who shook her head and returned to her paperwork.
"Oh!" Piper paused, wondering whether to congratulate the C. not. She opted for the former, childhood courtesy serving her well. "Congratulations to you both."
"The women in my family have very young ovaries." Bell's statement was matter of fact. "My mother had me at 49."
Piper nodded, hoping to be saved from further details.
They eyed one another for a moment, the pounding precipitation preventing their approach toward a precipice of social awkwardness. After what felt like an age, Bell broke the silence once more. "I'll get Vause."
Piper smiled, gratefully. "I'll wait here."
Taking a seat, she began to count the minutes that passed.
Her fifteenth round of sixty seconds arrived, and Piper found herself involuntarily picking at the hard plastic chair.
What was taking so long?
A loud buzzing to her right broke her reverie, and O'Neill appeared, flushed.
"Chapman." He nodded slowly, holding open the mesh door behind him.
Pale, tired and much slimmer than Piper remembered, Alex Vause stepped forward, emerging from the shadow of the C.O. before her.
"It's a pity it's not a nicer day."
O'Neill remarked, casting his gaze to the window, as Piper used every ounce of her strength not to rush Alex where she stood. "This rain wasn't forecast until tomorrow, but then - "
Bell cleared her throat, making her presence known from the front desk that she had returned to, seeking silence from her significant other. She jerked her head in Piper's direction, raising her eyebrows, and O'Neill understood, stepping back.
"Oh, right."
Alex was the first to move, closing the gap between them in several strides, her arms around the blonde's neck as she pulled her in.
"Piper." She whispered, burying her face into her girlfriend's shoulder.
Piper embraced her, breathing in Alex's smell.
She'd never let go again.
Her own release day had been hard enough.
Alex broke away, hands reaching for Piper's and grasping. "Can we go?"
Bell interjected from the desk. "I've got some paperwork I need you to sign first."
The couple gazed at one another, neither acknowledging Bell's remark.
"Ladies."
Alex's eyes were pleading, and she seemed frozen in place. The roar of the rain was almost overwhelming, and Alex found that she was shivering in spite of herself.
She was out. Really out. For good, this time.
"Come on Al." Piper held her hand tightly, tugging her toward the sign-out forms that sat in plain sight, awaiting her signature.
The pen felt heavy in her hand as she held it, each curved letter consenting to her freedom.
"Okay, time to go." Bell passed Alex a paper bag, which was all but empty. Alex couldn't even remember what she'd been carrying on the day of her arrest, aside from a handgun. By the weight of the bag, there was nothing of any importance. "Have a nice life ladies."
"Why does this car smell like weed?" They had been driving in silence, hands held across the center console as though it was a completely normal gesture.
"It's Cal's car." Piper mumbled, by way of an explanation.
"Of course it is." Alex turned her head back to the window, gazing out at the waterlogged corn fields passing by, blurred by the raindrops glazing the glass.
They were forty-five minutes into their two-hour journey, and the drone of the engine had filled the empty cave of conversation.
"Hey, Alex." Piper glanced away from the road for a second, squeezing her girlfriend's hand to get her attention. Alex seemed distant at best, but smiled when she heard Piper speak. "Check the glove box."
Alex did as asked, leaning forward in her seat and opening the compartment with her free hand, cassette tapes spilling into her lap and the footwell as she released Piper's grasp to catch them.
"Jesus, Pipes. Your brother a hoarder of something?" She paused as she fumbled with the boxes, her fingers poring over the small handwritten print as she read. "Wait. Fuck." Alex sat back, her hot hands leaving warm blushes against the plastic casings. "These are mine."
Piper grinned. "I think, more appropriately, they're mine."
Alex took a moment to survey the scene, approximating at least thirty mixtapes in the avalanche of musical archives. "Are these..?"
"Every mixtape you ever gave me."
Alex began to gather up the cases, nudging her glasses up her nose to better read the comic-book style capitals along each spine: Piper's Birthday Mix (volume 2), I Love You (For Pussies); Alex was enthralled.
"You kept all these?"
"Of course I did." Eyes firmly fixed ahead, Piper reached out and laid a hand on Alex's arm. "I had this whole plan in my head. I was going to have one of the mixtapes ready - although I couldn't decide which one - and I was going to have it playing when we set off. I thought it might help you acclimatise. Or something."
Alex smiled in spite of herself. It was a sweet gesture, albeit with one major failing. "Let me guess, you hadn't noticed that there's no tape deck?"
Piper ducked her head, a little ashamed, her voice low. "I didn't realise until this morning."
"It's the 21st century Pipes, did you really expect to be able to play tapes in the car?"
Piper ignored Alex's comment and plowed on. "So anyway, I had to come up with this contingency plan. So," Piper smiled to herself, her left hand straying from the steering wheel as she dipped into the doorside compartment. "I made you this."
She tossed a plastic wallet containing a seemingly blank CD across in Alex's direction, causing the brunette to drop her handfuls of tapes as she caught it.
A scrap of paper caught her eye, cursive lettering listing the track titles. "It's the birthday mix you gave me in prison, except, on CD, instead of on paper."
Alex chuckled, sliding the album out of its cover and slipping it into the player.
Yaz's "Only You" overpowered the hammering rain effortlessly.
"You're such a fucking loser." Alex smirked fondly.
"Yeah, well." Piper ended, lamely. "You wouldn't like me any other way."
They were halfway through a forest, the city in sight on the horizon, when Alex placed a hand on the steering wheel. "Mind if we pull over?"
"Do you need to pee?" Piper had assumed Alex would want to be as far away from the prison as possible, back into daily human life before lunchtime. "'Cause there's a gas station in a few miles if you want to wait until then."
"Here's fine."
Piper slowed, pulling over at the side of the road, rainwater spraying in the ditch as they came to a stop. "Here?"
Piper turned at the sound of her seatbelt being unfastened, Alex's hand on the buckle as she slid her own strap back over her shoulder.
Leaning across the console, she pulled Piper in, her lips soft against her lover's.
This was their first uncensored kiss, and she half-expected someone to yell no touching from the back seat.
But the cry never came, and Alex felt the tension creep from her muscles with every second that passed.
Her hand in Piper's hair, she tilted the blonde's head to the side, trailing kisses down her neck as Piper sighed, content, a small smile blossoming.
"You know," Piper murmured, her lips lazy with longing. "We have a bed at home. A bed that we can share, and nobody will mind."
"Yeah?" Alex's hands found their way inside Piper's t-shirt, fingers tracing the outline of her ribcage as she traded lips for teeth, making her girlfriend moan.
She returned to Piper's mouth, heated kisses exchanged hurriedly.
There was still the haste that they had felt the last time, pressed tightly together in a supply closet, cutting it close at six minutes before count.
Now they had all the time in the world, but Alex couldn't - no, wouldn't - find it in herself to slow down. This was too good to be true, surely.
The leather seats creaked as Alex leaned forward, pulling Piper's shirt over her head in a practiced motion.
"Somebody could find us!" Piper's giggling undermined her message, and Alex refused to relent.
"The windows are steamed up. Relax."
Breathless, they separated for several seconds, and Alex ached from the lack of Piper's touch.
She found the handle beside her chair and tugged, reclining the seat back as she removed her jumper, skin bare underneath.
Piper sucked in a breath: the long nights she'd spent alone in her apartment, picturing the woman before her, had done no justice to the real thing.
"Fuck Alex, you're so hot." She wanted to blush at the crassness of the compliment, but at least it showed she was sincere.
Alex's only response was to smirk, and gesture towards her lap. "C'mere."
Piper scrambled over, clambering within the confines of the car until she was straddling Alex, head brushing against the low ceiling.
Despite the cramped space, Alex felt the opposite of constrained or claustrophobic. With Piper in her arms, for the first time in years, she felt free.
Pressing forward, Piper leaned into Alex, thumbs digging into Alex's clavicle as she pushed her back into the chair.
Alex took a deep intake of breath as Piper's weight shifted above her, the heat in the car building exponentially as their skin connected and their eyes met again.
"It is so good to see you." Piper breathed, further fogging up the windows as Alex grinned.
"How good?" As slowly as she could bear, Alex began to unbutton Piper's jeans, still aware of the countdown ticking away at the back of her mind.
She was waiting for the riot van to arrive - prisoner has escaped - and even though her abbreviated second sentence had come to a close, it didn't feel real.
If she couldn't feel the seam of her jeans digging into her thighs, or the curve of Piper's ass resting on her knees, she'd be so sure she was dreaming.
She reached the final button, and followed its undoing with her hand, sliding down into Piper's underwear.
Piper gasped from the contact, her hips rocking to meet Alex's fingers, the connection both dizzying and grounding at once.
Piper was a boat drifting out to sea, and Alex was her anchor - it had always been this way.
The only problems had ever occurred when Piper chose to uproot herself, and sail away, in Paris, with Larry, with Stella…
Her back arched as Alex brushed against her clit, bringing her back to Earth again. Sailboat, meet anchor. Anchor, meet ocean.
Alex released a soft moan as Piper's hand joined hers, urging Alex deeper until their fingers intertwined and slipped inside Piper's tight opening.
The blonde rolled her hips, riding their combined efforts, her free hand gripping the seat's headrest as she fought to keep her balance.
"It's so good, Alex. So fucking good." Each syllable was an effort, but she answered Alex's question all the same.
Alex straightened up in her seat, sliding her fingers in deeper until she was buried up to the knuckle, making sure to bring Piper along with her.
With her free hand cupping the back of Piper's neck, Alex pulled the blonde closer, their foreheads pressed together as she increased her pace.
Piper was panting now, her breathing rapid as the sound of blood rushed in her ears.
She had waited six months for this.
It wasn't even a matter of staying faithful to Alex - she hadn't even touched herself, not once.
She'd been saving it, like some stupid, preppy, purity ring princess. But fuck, it had been worth it.
She was coming closer now, her extremities tingling as the orgasm crept in, creasing her resolve to just last a little longer.
Alex thought she heard car tyres, wet rubber on a slick surface, but ignored it, breathing deeply as she tried to focus on the best fuck in recent memory.
She too had stayed celibate, preferring Piper's touch over any other.
She wanted to make Piper feel as good as she was able to, to devote every one of her senses to the cause.
Noting the tension in Piper's jaw, and the ever-tightening muscles around her fingers, Alex knew that she didn't have much further to go.
A pause, as Alex heard an engine cut off behind the them.
Piper's perspiration chilling her skin, as boots crunched over broken branches by the back wheels.
The silence that followed, stones steady underfoot as a black baton emerged through the cloud of condensation coating the passenger-side door, tapping against the glass.
Alex choked back a sob, her heart in her mouth. They'd come for her.
She'd known that this would happen, deep down. She'd been so sure.
Piper grabbed for her t-shirt as Alex removed her hand, tears smudging her eyeliner as she pulled her jumper over her pale body, the bitterness of bile rising in the back of her throat as she internally applauded herself for being so fucking gullible.
"I'm a fucking idiot." She mumbled, gazing into Piper's eyes for what she was certain would be the last time.
Piper pressed an index finger to her lips - the same that she had used on herself - and Alex could taste salt, and sweetness. Ocean, meet sailboat.
Rolling down the window, Piper peered out. A police officer met her line of sight, hat tipped low over his eyes to keep the rain away.
"Ma'am, can you step out of the car please?" He was smiling.
Opening the door gingerly, Piper slid out, her Converse wet through before her feet had even met the ground.
"Is this your car?"
Piper looked at Alex over her shoulder before responding. The brunette looked utterly broken, despair staining her face.
"I'm the driver Officer, yes."
"And do you know that this is a public highway?"
Alex was confused. Was he fucking with her while somebody else unclipped some handcuffs, ready for the capture?
She checked in the rearview, but the squad car sat empty, the road otherwise clear. She tensed in her seat, rolling the odds of fight versus flight around in her mind.
"Yes Officer, I'm aware."
Alex made motions to get out of her seat, but Piper placed a hand behind her, halting her progress.
"And are you also aware that any form of fornication, homosexual or otherwise - " He leaned around Piper at this, locking eyes with Alex before returning to his previous position " - that occurs on public land can be penalised by law?"
Alex's fists unclenched, irony seeping into her consciousness.
She almost laughed, so close had she come to falling apart, crumbling in the passenger seat of Cal's car like a kid picked last in class. Some parts of her past weren't so easy to block out, tiny flashbacks sputtering in and out as she took deep, anchoring breaths.
Piper cleared her throat, uncertainty edging in. "I… I did not know that, sir. I'm afraid I wasn't aware."
"Well then. I hope you ladies have learnt something today." Adjusting his belt, he began to head back to his car.
Piper called after him, her words a blur in the rain, hair plastered to her forehead as she called after him. "You mean you're not going to do anything?"
Opening his car door, he laughed, raising his voice to be heard over the din of the weather. "Consider this your final warning, ma'am."
Dipping his head, he slipped into the driver's seat, slamming the door behind him.
The sound of his engine muffled Piper's own journey back to the space behind the steering wheel, knuckles white as she pulled her own door shut, Alex mirroring the motion on her side.
"That was..." Piper ventured, her vocabulary failing her.
"Ironic?" Alex suggested, knuckling her sore eyes.
"Too close, I was thinking." Piper sighed, a sad smile etched on her face. "I just got you back. I don't want to lose you again."
Pinpricks of sunshine began to shutter in through the clouds, the rain softening on the roof as both women spoke at once.
"Can we just go home?"
"Let's get out of here."
Shy grins were exchanged as Piper ducked her head once more, Alex running a hand through her hair, laughter flickering like candlelight between them.
Piper turned the key in the ignition, extending her free hand across the center console once more. "Okay. Let's go."
The anchor was loosed, but ever-present. Piper knew that no matter what Alex went through, their connection was inevitable.
The worst of the storm was over. It could be smooth seas from here.
Alex tangled their fingers together, turning to Piper with a smirk.
"So, am I the only person you've had your fornication interrupted by law enforcement with?"
There was mischief in her eyes, and Piper cursed her for it.
"Yes Alex, only you."