A take on Alex's reaction to her sentence and to Piper's arrival at Litchfield.
When her lawyer told her about her thirty years sentence, she felt the air in her lungs suddenly taking to much space. Where was her oxygen? The room was feeling smaller and smaller. The police came in, offered her a deal, adding up to years off her sentence if she gave up important enough people. It was a big fucking case, they wanted the whole operation to go down. Might as well help them, she didn't have anything to lose. She would have to describe people's role in the drug ring, and provide viable information which could implicate them. The officers left, waiting for her decision.
Her lawyer looked at her in silence. She nodded and they were called back in. She spoke then. Names were written down. Years were counted down. After she struck a deal, she was down to fifteen years. If she behaved well, she could make it out after eleven years. Eleven fucking years. Such a long fucking time. They gave her back her freedom for a few days, and all she wanted to do was call her mom and hear her mother's voice telling her it was all going to be okay, which it was clearly not, but even that comfort she could not have. Because of a stupid fucking aneurysm. So fucking unfair. The pain was still pulsing through her, even after eight years. So she called her girlfriend, shortly ending the call, and the relationship. She'd be stuck in a dump for more than a decade, might as well cut ties with useless feelings. Fuck.
So yeah, she'd done it. She'd named her. Piper fucking Chapman. A flash of blond hair. She thought she had forgotten, but the whole process of naming her made her remember all right. Those fucking blue eyes. It had all come back to her during the trial, but only now did her mind start whirling and mixing all those toxic memories and crushing open her barely patched-up heart. The feelings were still unbelievably powerful. When listening to her voicemail, she felt awful. But still so angry.
She took a taxi to get to her newfound "home". It must have been the guy's strangest place to drive someone to, but she didn't have any other solution. The ride was uneventful except for the weird looks she kept getting from the driver. When driving through the barbed wires of Litchfield penitentiary, Alex breathed in, knowing these was her last seconds outside a fucking shit-hole prison facility. She passed inspection and fuck if she hated it when a female guard brusquely patted her down and made her cough!? What the actual fuck. Not to mention the moustached fucking pig who winked at her and nearly managed to grope her tits after taking her picture. Fuck, she hated this place and it had only been a minute.
The first days were a whirlwind of ladies on steroids running around the prison, a lot of yelling and her generally getting lost along the never-ending, dull, icky-smelling corridors. Thankfully, an inmate called Morello, a Brooklyn chick judging by her thick accent, showed her around and introduced her to a crazy-haired woman Alex immediately liked, none other than Nicky Nichols. She was assigned to laundry duty with some crazy God-idling bitches. She laughed at Healy when he told her how much she was making by the hour. He did not laugh back. What a fucking nightmare.
Healy called her in his office, ogling her above his glasses when she showed up. He clearly didn't like her. He told her he had received a call from her "girlfriend" (he cringed when saying the word and Alex knew she was dealing with a homophobic dick), who wanted to come visit her. Linda and Alex had ended it but she didn't bother correcting him because she enjoyed his discomfort way too much. She accepted putting her on her visitors' list; not that anyone was lining up at the prison's doors to see her anyway. Linda could still be good company and if she insisted, Alex could use a hug right now.
Being welcome in Nicky's tight-knit group helped dampen the overall horrible experience that was prison. Days went by slower than she could have ever imagined. Linda was still in touch, sending her books and visiting, so some Saturdays she would sit across from a familiar face, they would talk and she'd get to feel a little bit more human, having normal, civilised conversations, with a normal, civilised person. Nichols invited her to tag along to NA meetings, and most days it helped.
A few months had passed at a gruellingly slow pace. The visits, the work down at the laundry and dinner with Nicky's posse didn't exactly fill her usually exhilarating lifestyle, even though some moments were nearly enjoyable.
Up until this one afternoon. She was headed to her shift at the laundry per usual, and then she spotted a mane of blond hair. The owner of the golden locks wore an orange suit. And Morello was there, showing them around, if she spotted her, she would definitely introduce her. And that was exactly what Alex did not want. She suddenly felt the urge to get the fuck out of their way.
Because what she had obviously not thought about for the last months, not hoped, not even a little bit, not even for a tiny second, could be happening. The blond woman could be The Blond One. If she lived in the prison's assigned district, if the judge had suggested this facility to the DSCC,... This could very well be happening and that was exactly why she didn't stand by long enough to check. But somehow she didn't need to. She knew. She felt the stupid inevitable magnetic pull, if that was a thing. Oh she was well and truly fucked.
It didn't take long for Alex to nearly cross Piper's path again. She spotted the orange suit adorned with straight blond hair right after dinner. She stood back, hiding her face behind a fucking brochure she had picked up at an NA meeting. She finally dared to direct her gaze to the girl, and yes, that was her. Fuck.
She looked totally out of place, lost and abandoned, a kicked-puppy look adorning her features, but that was the Blond One alright, standing not fifty feet away. Alex had pictured the day they would meet again in a totally abstract way, but never had she imagined what it would feel like seeing that face eight years after their disastrous break-up. Well, Piper's desertion if she wanted to be exact about things.
And, newsflash, it was a fucking mess in her head. Her heart was thumping at hundred miles an hour. Because Piper fucking Chapman was here, in the flesh, and suddenly she couldn't stop herself from remembering their history, especially, and weirdly, the sex (she was suddenly so turned on) and her mind was starting to compile buried images of sex with Piper with kinky scenarios involving the blond. As suddenly as it had started, rage started pouring in, blowing the sexual thoughts out of the way. It was all escalating too quickly in her mind. Was this what it felt like to suffer an emotional burnout? It certainly would be the end of her. She realised she was starting to hyper ventilate, and it took her at least a minute to get a handle over herself. By then, the girl had disappeared, but the angry lust left its print on her. She had to get it under control, goddamnit. Fuck this. Why did they have to end up together in this shit hole? The universe was clearly testing her.
"Imagine my surprise when I spotted you today- No."
"Fancy seeing you here- Fuck".
"Rehearsing your pick-up lines, Vause?". Fuck, just what she needed right now. Alex was muttering to her reflexion in the washrooms after the dinner she had skipped to avoid crossing paths with Her, when a smirking Nicky sauntered in.
"Shut up, Nichols" Alex scowled back.
"Morello tells me there are new recruits, dressed in their shiny new orange suits. There is one across my temporary bunk… Smokin' ! " Alex, who was facing her at that point, groaned. "Oh, so you have noticed them, and you're getting ready to make a move… I see. Better act quick, Big Boo will beat you to it."
"You didn't learn to hold your tongue during your time in the SHU?"
"Morello wouldn't want that". Nicole seemed way too proud of herself, and Alex groaned.
"Didn't see you at dinner, everything alright?"
"Yeah, just not hungry tonight."
"Alright, feel better Vause, and get some of that fresh pussy!"
Alex didn't bother to answer.
It was time for lights out so they walked to their bunks.
Alex didn't sleep at all that night, and the next morning she knew better than to go near Nicky's bunk, or the cafeteria, so she went outside and read, enjoying the morning peace before joining the meth-head posse of Jesus Almighty in the laundry room. She was about to head to work when she heard the door banging open. Jesus Christ it was Her. What was Piper doing with her tray? She didn't look okay at all. Shit. But maybe if she was in such distress she could use that opportunity to have the upper hand in the first conversation they would have after eight years, which she figured was inevitable in this facility. She didn't think twice and approached the blonde.
AN : Hi All, thanks for reading. Apologies for any typos or mistakes, no beta…
Nothing planned for future chapters for now, but that could change. Hope you liked it, please review !