Chapter Three

Piper dreamed. She dreamed that she was back in Paris and Alex was swimming with Kubra in the pool. She wanted to tell Alex to get out off there but couldn't. It was like she was frozen and could only watch as he got closer and closer to Alex. Alex was smiling at her, completely oblivious to the danger behind her. Over and over Piper dreamed similar dreams where Alex was in danger and she couldn't get to her. Eventually, she pushed through the fog of despair and fought her way back to the cold dank reality of her life.

"Chapman? You awake? Finally, I thought we were going to have to send you to the hospital," the nurse said. Piper blinked her eyes a couple of times and winced at the pain even that small movement caused.

"You have a concussion, you hit the back of your head when you passed out...making the whole head injury way worse."

"How...long?" Piper croaked out. Her mouth was thick and dry. Piper felt like she was trying to speak with felt wrapped around her tongue.

"You've been in the infirmary for three days now," he answered as he swabbed her mouth with a sponge. PIper licked at her lips and moaned at the wetness. 'No water just yet, you may just throw it back up. Let's take it easy and let the doctor have a look."

"Alex?" she asked but he just shrugged and walked away. She was lying in a room with other beds, the lights were crazy bright. She had no idea what time it was and it was very disorienting to her. She liked to know what was going on at all times. The worst thing about the SHU had been the lack of knowing the time. So she had devised a schedule based on the men that worked their shifts to keep track of time. It helped her to stay sane. She wasn't sure what was going to help her get out of this one and back to Alex.

"Vause wasn't brought in so she wasn't shot in the riot. If that is what you're worried about Dandelion. I mean, unless she was killed then I guess her body would have gone someplace else. I wonder where that would be?" Suzanne said from the bed next to Piper. Bodies? PIper's heart started to race and she tried to look up and around the room. Immediately it started to tilt and swim before her eyes. She could see Kukuidio beside Suzanne. Her face as all purple but not as swollen. Piper looked to see Daya sitting up and staring straight in front of her as if in a daze. She had a bandage on her shoulder. Abdullah was beside her, her back to Daya. PIper could tell it was her by the hijab on the nightstand. She felt her stomach turn Piper thought for a moment she was going to hurl...yet there was nothing in her stomach. She tried to push the bed guard down to get up. She didn't see Alex and she wasn't going to wait around to find out what happened.

"Woah...Woah Chapman...you can't get up. Concussions are very serious, I gave myself one once and it took me months to get better," Suzanne tried to sit up to help Piper back in bed and gasped out in pain when her broken ribs protested.

"Suzanne, stop it. Just call for the Nurse if she doesn't stop," Maureen said quietly from her bed. Piper slipped back on the bed and felt her muscles protest. She was stiff from not moving.

"Alex...I have to know. Please...please, I have to…" Piper swallowed hard and fought to control the pain. She may have blacked out because she awoke to hear only part of what Abdulah was saying.

"...others were around but I didn't see her there. After what happened to that prison woman, everyone was tazed or shot if you weren't in a prone position,"she finished.

"What did you see Alex?"

"She didn't get all of it," Suzanne explained. "She said that Alex wasn't in the main hall when it all went down."

Piper nodded then wished she had spoken. "Yes, we were together in the dorm. We were locked in and there was a scream…" Piper tried to remember and she was pretty sure that Tiffany and Alex left to go see what was going on when she tried to follow. It was all a blur. The Doctor came inside and no one continued. He examined her without even speaking. His hands were so cold she shivered. She couldn't help but think about Danny and hoped he warmed his hands up before he did exams. He was older and she didn't recall seeing him. He had a military air to him and it made her scared suddenly. All of the former military guards were a little fucking nuts.

"You have a massive concussion. At one point, I thought we may have to send you for an operation. There was swelling from your second fall. I understand the first blow was a frontal and your nose took a good bit of the force. We will monitor you here for a week and if there is no more swelling, we will see about returning you to the dorm. No work though for at least a month," he said in a flat tone. Piper tried to ask him questions about what happened. He ignored her and spoke to the nurse like she wasn't talking. He told him to follow the concussion protocol and to make sure she was given a copy of it when she returned to gen pop. He left after that and checked on Daya's dressing. The nurse pushed something in her IV and Piper felt like she was going to be stoned real soon.

"Please, Alex Vause...please, was she one of the causalities?" PIper pleaded with him. He frowned at her and didn't answer. She was so pissed at how they just ignored her questions she felt her face flush with anger.

"Goddammit! Answer me, mother fucker! I am a fucking human being, I was HURT while under your care, at least you could do is tell me if the love of my life is still alive!" Piper sat up as she said, it reaching for her IV to rip it out, maybe to strangle him. The movement and pressure of the blood pulsing through her head caused such pain that she started to see spots. She cried out in pain as she started to slump forward on to the bed rail.

"I thought you were a smart one Chapman," he said as she pushed her back in the bed and immediately started to fix her IV. Someone else was there then, holding her shoulders gently. "Abdulah get back in bed, you will open your leg wound."

"Shhh now, she is fine. You were in the dorm together and she is probably the one that got you help. We'll ask the prisoner that brings lunch today...calm down or you'll make it worse. She is fine, Vause is alive and well. Calm down Chapman," she repeated in a quiet tone.

Suzanne spoke up as well and PIper was barely aware of the nurse tightening her restraints. "Her name is Piper, call her Piper." Abdullah looked at her like she was an idiot for a moment. But did use her name to calm her.

"It's okay Piper, you will see her soon," she said then. The nurse wouldn't let her stay and Piper protested as she was pulled away with a feeble moan. Whatever they had given her was kicking in and Piper was beginning to feel all floaty.

"I'm fine, just let me help her. It's not like I can do anything for my friends being kept here against my will." Piper wondered what horrible thing happened to everyone and quickly forgot to worry about it as she started to see amazing colors behind her eyelids.

Piper was out of it during lunch. She vaguely remembered hearing Nicky's voice. She felt the pain and that is what really made her suddenly aware of her surroundings. She looked to the window far above Daya's bed and saw the sun was down. She blinked and pulled but her hands were cinched in leather restraints. She moaned in frustration and licked her dry lips.

"Oh hey, you seem more like yourself, unless the person that was talking about that yellow bird was the real you?" Suzanne said leaning over some towards her.

"I told you, Suzanne, she was whacked out on meds...she was yelling for Alex when she wasn't floating about in colors," Maureen said with annoyance in her voice that could be indicate that she didn't like Suzanne's attention to Piper.

"Suzanne….what...my hands," she mumbled.

"Yeah, you tried to pull out your IV and they always restrain you when you try that," she said as if she'd tried it many times. "Even if you are sure that it is radioactive truth serum they are pumping into you." She stopped talking as if her thoughts drifted.

Piper began to remember waking before...the doctor and her diagnosis. She also remembered that more than Poussey died. She felt the fear again and her heart started to pound. " Alex.."

"Geez, she is a broken record. Look that big haired girl...what's her name?" Maureen asked Suzanne. She seemed to be distracted though and didn't answer. "Nicky or something, she brought lunch. She started to tell us about what happened and the doctor came in making her shut up. But she seemed like she wanted us to know something would be coming at dinner..which is soon, so chill and shut the fuck up about Alex. Seriously, you've screamed her name all damn day." Piper didn't like her then. She couldn't help but push down the frustration. She didn't like restraints. On the ConAir flight and in maximum she had been moved around like an animal on a leash. She saw Alex restrained as well and it made her stomach twist and her eyes well. She had blinked them away and channeled her fear into insisting she must tell the truth. She pulled against her wrist cuffs. They were softer and Piper almost wished they were strong metal to bite into her flesh.

The nurse came and let her set up some in the bed. He told her she'd get soup and broth for the first few meals and gave her some water. She didn't bother asking him about Alex and she was still furious with him. He didn't seem to notice or care. He moved her table up so it was directly in front of her and Piper moved her hands to show him that she was restrained. "I will feed you tonight. If you don't cuss, fuss or try to pull out your IV, I will release you sometime tomorrow," he said in a slow enunciated tone. Piper clenched her jaw and knew she'd starve before she let that man feed her. Her head ached as her anger rose and she tried to take a deep breath to calm down. Alex. Alex was all she thought about. It had been that way really since they met again. Granted, Piper lost her fucking mind with the whole gangsta crap...but she thought she had a good eye on Alex. She thought she could do that because they were close to each other and no matter they'd always find each other again. She nearly lost her and right under her own stupid nose, Alex had to kill to survive. Piper couldn't stand that thought that she was alone again.

Piper looked across at Daya and she was still sitting in the same position, looking straight forward, her lunch wasn't touched. She could see that her face was damaged but she wasn't really there. "Diaz," Piper said. She didn't look over.

"She hasn't said a word or eaten a bite. I heard the doc say they will start feeding her intravenously soon," Abdulah answers. Piper looked at her questioning. "We don't know what all happened but they did a kit on her, you know DNA, gunshot residue and the like." Piper was reminded again that someone had died. She closed her eyes then to try and settle her mind. The sounds of the medical hall were completely different than the dorm hall. Suzanne started to mumbles some and then talk to Maureen quietly. She knew she'd go insane in that bed for a week if she didn't know Alex was safe. She must have dozed because she woke to the sound of cart wheels. She opened her eyes slowly and blinked. She could see someone hunched over in a prisoner's uniform putting food on a table.

"Don't bother, I don't want to be fed by the nurse," she croaked out closing her eyes again.

"Good, because I talked him into letting me do it….and maybe you can explain to me, how when you just woke up, you already got into trouble," Alex said softly, putting a small bowl on her table and sitting on her bed by her left hip. Piper's eyes shot open wide and she drank in the sight of her love. She looked tired and worried but her eyes glowed with that special look that was meant only for her. Piper took a deep breath and bursts into tears.