Piper closes her eyes, closes them tightly and reminds herself to breathe, all shaky inhales and exhausted exhales. And the chaotic sound of car horns and chugging truck engines, of foreign voices behind walls and hollering from the street – all of it recedes for a moment or two, leaving Piper with just the echoes of the past three days rattling around her brain.
Echoes of sobbing confessions, of shattered vows, of slamming doors and the cold silence that comes with finally telling the truth.
"I don't know who you are anymore, Piper... How could you do this to me?" Larry's voice cracks with tears that threaten to fall, but his eyes are fixed on the ring no longer on her finger, on the symbol of their love forever tarnished. And Piper wants to say that she is sorry, that she never meant to hurt him, but her suitcase sits by her feet and Larry storms away from this house that was supposed to be theirs and 'sorry' doesn't mean much when a world is falling apart.
Echoes of her feet against that dirt road for the last time – her mother full of questions while her father stares holes into the floor, Danny's photograph standing in quiet condemnation as Cal hovers nervously in the hallway.
"Piper, have you lost hold of your senses? What do you mean you are leaving Larry? And who the hell is this Alex anyway?" Her mother is shrill, like always, but Piper is watching her father instead, waiting for him to saying something, but the words never come and her mother's gaze searches her out – worried and fractured and confused. And Piper wants to say that she is sorry, that she never meant to lie to them, but she is walking away and her walking turns into running and there's just no going back, not now.
It is the echoes of a life ending - deafening and damning – and, for a second, Piper wonders if her mother was right, if she has taken complete leave of her senses.
And yet Piper opens her eyes once more and she is raising her hand to knock on this door – she knocks twice, firmly, just to be sure – and then she listens closely; she listens closely to the delicate melody of some song being played beyond this piece of wood, she listens to the sound of someone walking ever closer, and then-
"Pipes...?"
-and then there's Alex, wide-eyed and almost frozen in place, as if she cannot truly believe that Piper is actually standing in front of her and maybe Piper can't believe it either.
Maybe this is the craziest dream ever and she's still stuck in a marriage, stuck in that hometown, stuck with an aching heart and no one to turn to. Maybe Alex didn't write that letter, the one folded and refolded and kept safe in Piper's purse, and maybe theirs is a love not worth risking everything over, maybe this is madness with a capital 'M'.
But then Alex is moving like a shot, barreling into Piper – all long arms and breathless words, syllables lost as kisses fall onto Piper's forehead, onto Piper's cheeks, onto Piper's lips – and yes, this is madness and this is crazy, but Piper is in love, so ridiculously and amazingly in love, and she cups Alex's face and she kisses Alex.
She kisses Alex like she always meant to.
She kisses Alex like she always wanted to.
She kisses Alex like they actually have a chance at forever with each other...
Alex tugging her along the alleyways, both of them laughing and dodging the raindrops. Alex, smelling of tobacco and tasting of bourbon, tumbling them into bed. Alex with the sunlight glinting off her hair, smiling as the ocean laps at their toes. Alex breathing softly as she sleeps, held securely in Piper's embrace. Alex and the ups and the downs, the good times and the bad times. Alex Vause and everything that goes with loving her, with really loving her.
...and all she can hear now is this moment – Alex saying 'I love you' over and over – and Piper is saying it back, peppering Alex's skin with a promise made so very long ago, and Piper thinks that maybe – just maybe – forever is merely the beginning for the two of them.
/ /
[end]
[ps - let's believe that they make it, okay?]