Chapter 4. :) I tried to go a little more in depth.

Please excuse my fixation with time - I can't help it..

Sunrays were peeking through the small gap between the drawn curtains. Piper slowly opened her eyes. She felt rested at last. She had trouble falling asleep at first – she couldn't stop thinking about Alex. The way she just moved in with them out of the blue – it's quite hard to process. How long is she gonna stay? How are things gonna be now that she's here? The thoughts played in her head for a good while, but she managed to fall asleep before midnight.

She tried to lift her arms to stretch, but she was stopped by stinging pain shooting through them.

'Ow, fuck.' she cursed. Her harsh training caught up with her.

Every little movement was awfully painful. Regardless, she got up and walked to her wardrobe. After a couple of unsuccesful attempts to take off her top, she decided she was going to stay in PJ's for now.

According to the alarm clock, it was 9:04. Piper couldn't believe it. Nicky didn't come to wake her. She was probably hanging with Alex now. Thank you Mighty Lord.

She dragged herself to the kitchen, where Nicky was eating breakfast. When she saw Piper, a malicious smirk appeared on her face.

'Wow. You look like you just got hit by a bus.'

'Morning to you too.' Piper muttered.

'Red told me you looked like shit yesterday, but this is just plain evil.' She watched as Piper walked to her bar stool and sat down, grimacing with every move.

She positioned herself on her seat. 'Shit!'

'Where's the Sasquatch?' she asked when Alex's absence hit her.

'She's taking a shower.' Nicky showed a huge piece of a pancake in her mouth.

'You're having pancakes?' Piper was pretty surprised, considering Nicky couldn't even make an instant soup.

'With bananas, whipped cream and Nutella.' Nicky said excited.

Piper looked at her questioningly.

'Alex made them.' Nicky stuffed another piece in her mouth.

'Oh.' Piper said quietly. 'Better watch out for Anthrax then.'

'Hmm,' Nicky chewed the pancake, obviously enjoying it too much to even register Piper's comment. 'You know, she told me you were mean to her...' she swallowed 'and that you ate her lemon pie – which is wrong for more than one reason.' Apart from fucking up her diet again, Piper didn't see any.

'That's, I, I wasn't...' Piper tried to defend herself but then she thought about last night and realized that she was pretty mean. 'Okay, maybe I was...a little mean.'

Nicky shook her head. 'You're such an asshole sometimes.'

Before Piper could say anything, Alex walked into the kitchen. Her dark hair was wet, and she wore nothing but a purple bathrobe and slippers.

'Good morning, kid.' she scanned Piper with her eyes and smirked. 'Nice PJ's.'

Piper looked down and realized she's wearing her Scooby-Doo PJ's. It was her favourite cartoon as a kid, and when she saw them in a shop a few years ago, she couldn't resist buying them. She didn't wear them anymore, but all her other PJ's were in the laundry basket.

Piper looked at Alex. 'Nice...bathrobe.' Great comeback Piper...

Alex raised her eyebrows. 'Thanks.' she put on a smirk again.

'Oh, Chaps, I forgot to ask you something.' Nicky said, not giving a fuck about their little verbal exchange. 'Could you drive me to the dentist? I have an appointment at 10.'

'Sure.' Piper said. She tried to stand up, but the pain won again. 'Could you pass me the coffee?'

'Comfortable, are we?' Nicky asked amused.

'No, I just...I can't stand up.'

Nicky passed Piper her coffee and turned to Alex. 'You wanna come with us?'

Alex shrugged. 'It's not like I have anything better to do.'

'You could start looking for a job.' Piper said. She wanted Alex to leave as soon as possible.

'Piper.' Nicky cut in before the two would start an argument. 'Why don't you go to your room, and make yourself look like an actual person? We need to leave soon.'

'But I just started my coffee.'

'But we need to leave soon.' Nicky repeated.

'Whatever.' Piper said and stood up from her seat, cursing as her limbs burned from the movement. She took her coffee and went to her room to change.

They all got ready and got in the car. Before they left the house Nicky told Piper - 'Chaps, act civil.'

They arrived to the dentist's. There were a few people in the waiting room – an old lady reading a magazine, a young handsome man, and a bearded redneck. Nicky chuckled at the fact that his neck was actually red from the sunburn. She felt sorry for the dentist though, his teeth looked like they were rotting when he gave them a creepy smile. Probably meth. No dentist can save THOSE teeth.

They sat in silence for a while when Nicky broke it.

'Hey, you guys wanna hear a joke?'

'Bring it.' Alex said with a bored tone.

'Okay, so, why did Sally fell off the swing?'

Alex and Piper looked at her.

'Cause she doesn't have arms.' Nicky chuckled, but when she saw Alex and Piper's raised eyebrows her smile fell. The old lady looked up from the magazine. The redneck chuckled too.

'Oh, come on! You guys have no fucking sense of humour!' she fell back in her seat with crossed arms. 'Okay, I've got another one. Knock,knock.'

Piper rolled her eyes. 'Who's knocking?'

'Not Sally.' Nicky laughed again.

'God, Nicky. The only thing worse than your jokes are your pickup lines.' Piper said.

Nicky opened her mouth to speak but she was interrupted when the doctor's office's door opened. 'Nichols!' the nurse called.

Nicky stood up and walked to the door, giving Piper and Alex a stare before she walked in.

Alex started to read some magazines. Piper looked at the redneck.

'What are you reading?' she asked Alex, trying to distract herself when the redneck made a v-shape from his fingers and stuck his tongue between them.

Alex raised her eyebrows. She didn't think Piper was gonna speak to her. Well, not so...civil...anyway.

'An article about a newborn found in a trash can next to Walmart.'

'That's terrible.'

'Yeah, well, when the cops came they found out it was actually a burrito.'

Piper chuckled. 'That actually happens?'

'Seems so.' Alex said.

They fell quiet again. Piper was bored out of her mind after a good 15 minutes. Alex was still reading.

'So...' Piper started when the boredom became unbearable. Alex looked at her. 'How do you know Nicky? I mean, she told me you went to the same high school, but how did you, you know, became friends?'

'Well, long story short – we went to the same class, and we were both kind of misfits. We found each other.' Alex said.

'You were classmates? Aren't you 26?' Piper asked. Nicky was 24 so it made no sense.

'I failed two grades.'

'Oh.'

Alex was waiting for some rude comment on how stupid she is - failing two grades, but when Piper didn't say anything she was surprised.

'Aren't you gonna make fun of me?'

'Well, no. I failed three.' Now, this really surprised her.

'Seriously?' she chuckled.

'Yeah. That's why I started boxing. I wasn't good at anything else.'

'That makes sense.' Alex said. 'And...how do you know Nicky?'

'That's...a very long story. And there's no short version.'

'Every long story has a short version.'

'Well this doesn't.' Piper said annoyed. Alex didn't understand her reaction. Maybe she just didn't want to talk about it.

'What, was she a one-night stand? And then you became good friends and you moved in with her?'

'What? No.' Piper said and looked on the ground with a sad expression. 'We met at my parents funeral.'

'Oh. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to...' She didn't mean to trigger painful memories. She knew how painful it was to lose a parent. She witnessed it first hand. And Piper lost both.

'It's okay.'

'I lost my mom too.' Alex thought it was fair to tell Piper about her, since Piper shared such a personal thing with her – even if it was practically unwillingly.

Piper looked her in the eye. Alex looked back. They just sat there looking at each other for a while. They shared the same pain. Piper saw it in Alex's eyes and she felt naked. She bared a part of her soul for her. For Alex of all people. And she did the same.

The doctor's office door shot open and Nicky walked out.

'Hey guys, I'm done. They gave me a fucking Anesthetic. I can't feel the right side of my mouth. Is it fucking hanging? Am I drooling?' Nicky asked panicked.

'No, Nicky, you're not drooling and your mouth is fine.' Alex said.

She and Piper looked at her amused. After such an intense moment, that made them come back to their senses.

'Fuck. Shit.' Nicky cursed. 'The fucking needle was like this big.' she spread her arms to show.

'I'm pretty sure you're exaggerating.' Piper said amused. According to Nicky, the needle was about 12 inches long.

'No, I'm telling you Chaps, these people are evil. I'm officialy scared of the dentist now. Who knows what was in that fucking syringe.'

'Maybe they gave you rat poison. You could die any minute now.' Alex chuckled.

'You guys are both fucking with me.'

'Sure we are.' Piper said. 'Can we go now? I've gotta return some books to the library.'

They drove off, and on the way to the library, Piper was thinking about her moment with Alex. She felt like someone finally understood her pain. Nicky never did – her parents were both alive.

Alex thought about it too. Maybe she misjudged Piper. She thought she was a rich little bitch, who probably hated her parents and that's why she lived with Red. She thought she was boxing to make herself look special. The truth was though, that she indeed wanted to make herself feel special, but not for the reason Alex thought. It was because she wanted to be good at something. And Alex knew that feeling. She was underestimated her entire life by everyone around her, except her mom.

No-one said anything during the ride, Nicky sometimes bitched about her 'fucking bitch dentist', but other than that they were all lost in thought.