Chapter 3

Alex heard her, she thought she was going crazy so she needed to see her for herself. She walked to the table where Piper was doing her laundry. This was real, she was real.

"Alex" Piper muttered pathetically. Alex looked at her with a mysterious look. She had to clench her fists to prevent herself from reaching out and stroking Piper's pale face.

"The rumours are true" Alex muttered. Piper was suddenly pulled out of her trance by Alex's raspy voice. She loved that voice, she had waited 18 months for this moment, the moment where they are in the same room again.

Piper let out a shaky breath that she didn't realise she was holding in, she didn't know what to say or what to do. She wanted to turn around and run away, but her feet wouldn't respond, it was as though they had forgotten how to move.

Here she was.

Frozen.

Alex's face was contorted with various emotions, anger, shock, sadness… maybe even relief. It took everything in Piper not to run into Alex's arm and apologise for choosing Larry over her. She wanted to apologise for so many things, but their problems were way to deep rooted.

A simple apology wasn't going to fix all of the fucked-up shit that existed between them, Alex's face suddenly broke out into a grin. The adorable dumbfounded look on Piper's face made her smile, that damn lost puppy look made her heart clench, "I should become a model if people stare at me the way you do"

Piper was once again, broken out of her trance, she closed her mouth and looked down at her dirty clothes, "Sorry what?"

Alex noticed that Piper diverted her attention to the dirty laundry, "You were staring", Alex pointed out. She didn't know what happened to Piper, but she was concerned. Piper looked skinner, which should be humanly impossible, "But I can't blame you for staring"

Piper smiled at this, it was the first, genuine smile that has formed since she had gotten out of MAX, she knew that Alex knew of the rumours, and she knew that Alex thought she had gotten out.

"So" Alex started to say, she was curious as to why Piper wasn't saying anything to her, "Why're you back here? Did you decide to steal from the liquor store to live up to your bad girl reputation? Or did Larry throw you under the bus to get onto my level of narcissism?"

Piper took a piece of paper and wrote down her name, she then stuck the piece of paper onto her laundry and shoved her dirty laundry into a bag. "Funny", Piper muttered as he proceeded to chuck the bag into the other basket filled with dirty laundry bags before looking back up to face Alex.

This time, her face held no expression, she felt a boiling anger in the pits of her stomach but she learnt how to keep her shit together, and she wasn't about to let loose now.

"Back here suggests that I got out of prison. I was sent to Max after the shit that went down with Pennsatucky" Piper saw the shocked look on her face, it was cute to see Alex Vause shocked. Alex Vause is never shocked, so the look on her face was priceless, Piper had to watch Alex in amusement, "Do you really think the officials would let me out when I fucked up an inmate's face?"

Alex knew that there was a possibility that Piper was sent to MAX for her violent outburst, but it was so much easier to be angry at her when Piper was living a perfect life with her perfect husband. Alex personally didn't know how fucked up MAX was, but she knew from what Nicky had told her, that MAX was so fucked up, the prisoners, the conditions, even the fucking guards were a lot more corrupted than Litchfield, and that's saying something.

"Fuck" Alex muttered, she mentally slapped her self. Her ex-lover just told her she spent 18 months in maximum prison, and all she can do is swear. Alex felt the sudden need to apologise to Piper for expecting the best outcomes, what was she supposed to say? 'I am so sorry for thinking that you were off living a perfect, WASP-Y life with your husband'

"Pipes", that pet name sounded perfect and heavenly to Piper when it come out of Alex's mouth, it naturally rolled off Alex's tongue, "I'm sorry". Alex once again, wanted to punch herself for how pathetic she sounded. She was still pissed that Piper chose Larry over her, but that didn't mean she didn't care about Piper.

Piper slightly stiffened, this didn't go unnoticed by Alex. Piper was slightly surprised to hear Alex apologise, "Don't", Piper didn't want to hear her apologies. Alex mistook Piper's stern voice as Piper being angry, but she wasn't angry. "I just meant, you don't need to apologise"

"We need to talk" Alex said, her smile faded and instead a serious look took over. This was the conversation that Piper wanted to avoid at all cost.

"We are talking right now" Piper knew how childish she sounded and Alex rolled her eyes and shot her an exasperated look.

"Pipes, a whole year has passed. The last time we saw each oth-"

Piper knew where this was going and decided to cut in, "Alex, you should know that I'm not with Larry. I haven't been with him since last Christmas and I know you told me not to come to you with my shit anymore so I promise that I will try to stay away from you because that's what you want right? For me to not come to you with my shit anymore?"

Piper was scared of the answer in all honesty, she didn't want to hear Alex telling her to stay the fuck out of her life, "That was over a year ago Pipes, I spent 3 months thinking that you were dead, until Pennsatucky told us you weren't, and I spent the rest of the year thinking that you were living your fucking WASPY life. And now you're back here, telling me that you were in fucking MAX for the best 18 months and you broke up with Larry…. So yeah, I spent a whole year being pissed at you but now… now I don't know how I feel", Alex adjusted her glasses. Piper smiled at the old habit, whenever Alex was confronting her own feelings, she would either pull her glasses up into her hair or she would have fiddled with the nose piece of the glasses.

"We still have a lot of shit to work through" Piper muttered, she looked at Alex who was looking down at her feet, "We can't keep jumping onto this vicious cycle of fucking each other, hurting each other, hating each other and then fucking each other again"

Alex nodded her head in agreement, "So what? We just pretend not to know each other?"

Piper was immediately alarmed by this, she didn't want to pretend not to know her. Well, she did decide very early on that she was going to ignore her, but now she was here, with Alex, alone in a laundry room. "Is that what you want?"

Alex flinched at this, "For fuck sakes. We're not in fucking high school. Yes, I want to be with you and I don't want to act like we didn't fuck numerous time in this hell hole. But I also know that the second we get back together, something shitty is going to happen that will cause us to have this-exact-conversation again"

"So, let's not fuck" Piper stated, Alex shot her a quizzical look, Piper let out a small laugh at Alex's expression, "We will take things slow. We are not allowed to fuck each other until…we both feel ready"

Alex stared at Piper with an unreadable gaze, Piper didn't want to fall into an uncomfortable silence so she turned around and started to leave. Alex wanted to call out her name and stop her from leaving. She wants to kiss her so badly but there was so many things fucked up in their lives. Alex walked around the table and caught Piper on the wrist.

"Jesus!", Piper shouted as she whipped around and instantly pulled out of Alex's grasp, quite aggressively. She just wasn't used to physical contact yet.

Alex instantly let go of Piper's wrist when she heard Piper scream. She didn't mean to hurt or scare her, "Shit Pipes". Alex saw a flash of fear appear on Piper's face, it was only there for a split second, but she immediately felt guilty for scaring her.

"Sorry" Piper apologised, "I'm not used to…you know, physical contact". Piper could feel a warm sensation on her wrist where Alex had just grabbed her, she hadn't realised that there was a bruise on her wrist from the hand cuffs. Alex's touch wasn't painful, in fact it felt as though her touch soothed the pain away.

Alex nodded her head, "Well, at least I know that you weren't touching anyone else while you were in MAX", her voice sounded sarcastic but there was an underlying message under that and Piper caught wind of it.

Piper flinched at her words but decided to flirt with her in order to cover it up, "Luckily for you, there was no Alex Vause for me to touch", Alex raised her eyebrows at her with a growing grin.

"Is Piper Chapman flirting with me?" Alex took a few steps closer to Piper, their bodies were almost touching. Piper's genuine smile grew too, this was not how she imagined this conversation going. This felt so natural, this is exactly what Piper wanted, the neutral atmosphere.

"Will you Alex Vause, accompany me to lunch?" Piper spoke in a gentleman-like-tone. Alex snorted at how dorky Piper was being, she could do this. Piper and Alex didn't need to have sex in order to have a strong relationship.

"Is this a lunch date? So much for taking this slow" Alex smirked, Piper scoffed.

"Hey" Piper said while pointing at Alex, "I said no fucking. I never said no prison dates. I haven't eaten since yesterday and I'm certain that prison food here is better than the shit they served us at MAX. So I'm going to lunch now, and if you so happen to be there with me, then it can be a prison lunch date"

Alex had a huge grin on her face. This feeling that they felt, it was so…natural.

Piper had walls up, it was made out of metal after being so emotionally close off for the past 18 months, but somehow... some how Alex Vause managed to break all of her walls down in a matter of seconds. Piper still had her own shit to work through, and Alex did to, but the both of them, together made everything so much easier.