A/N

I'm not sure how this story went from being a fluffy one shot, maybe two, to a full on story, currently lacking fluff...

Anyways, this chapter is really about Piper taking control. Also, thanks for the reviews, I always love reading what people think about my ramblings.

Enjoy :)

Chapter 7

Piper and Diane walked back into the apartment feeling completely drained and empty. The blonde walked past Nicky sleeping on the couch and headed straight for the bassinet where her daughter was sleeping. She picked Charlotte up and cuddled her against her chest, still trying to hold onto her tears.

It wasn't much longer before she felt a hand on her shoulder, it was Diane. Neither woman said anything, and stayed standing in the middle of the room.

0-0-0-0-0

Another hour had passed and Piper's sadness had slowly turned to anger. Diane was asleep in the bedroom with Charlotte while Nicky was still asleep on the couch.

Piper gripped her mobile and walked into Alex's office as she dialed Fahri's number, he had to know what happened to Alex.

It rang three times before he finally answered, "Piper, what can I do for you?"

"What the fuck did you do to her?"

"What the hell are you talking about? Is Alex with you?"

"Alex is in the fucking hospital!"

"What the hell happened?"

Piper could hear the instant worry in his voice. She knew he cared about Alex, but she still didn't like him.

"Someone shot her last night, she's in the hospital. The doctors... they're not sure if she'll make it."

She could hear his breathing coming through the phone line, but he wasn't saying anything.

"Fahri, are you still there?"

"Yeah, I'm here."

Fahri felt like his blood was boiling, none of this made any sense.

"Listen to me Piper, I'm gonna make some calls right now and find out what happened. I'll call you as soon as I know. But you can't say anything to the police if they try and talk to you, tell them you don't know anything."

"I don't know anything!"

Piper hung up the phone and threw it onto the floor. She'd have a quick shower and get dressed, all she could think about right now was getting back to the hospital.

0-0-0-0-0

Alex made it through the night, but her pain had gotten worse. Piper and Diane walked into the ICU unit, and saw a nurse injecting something into the IV line.

Piper's heart starting racing as soon as she saw the brunette lying there again, still not awake.

"Is she okay? Did anything happen?"

The nurse turned around to face Piper and Diane, she looked kind.

"She had a rough night, but she's doing a lot better now."

Piper stayed glued to the spot while Diane sat next to the hospital bed and wrapped Alex's hand in her own. Piper was not letting that nurse leave until she'd told her everything.

"A rough night?"

The nurse could see how worried Piper was, "Her pain levels were an issue last night."

Piper interrupted the nurse before she could keep talking, she was getting agitated.

"So you're saying she was alone and in pain all night?"

"She was in pain for a portion of the night. I know it's not easy to hear, but this type of injury can be very uncomfortable for patients. It can be a bit of a balancing act to make sure she's comfortable without going overboard. I've just given her another dose to help her rest."

Piper was desperately trying to hold onto her emotions, "Is she still in pain?"

The nurse gave Piper a smile as she walked away from the bed, "No, she's comfortable now. The doctor is coming to see her soon, he'll be able to tell you more."

Piper finally let the nurse leave and took a seat, "I hate hospitals."

Diane knew exactly how she felt, "I know sweetie."

0-0-0-0-0

The two women just sat there with Alex, not saying anything, neither of them had the energy to talk. A couple of hours had passed and Alex hadn't woken up at all.

Piper kept stroking Alex's face and talking to her, "I know how strong you are Al, you need to keep fighting this. I swear Charlotte was waiting for you this morning, she already misses you."

Diane looked across at the blonde and could see her getting agitated again, "You need to wake up, I won't fucking let you leave me like this."

For the first time since Piper and Diane had been there, Alex tried to open her eyes, but breathing hurt so much, all she could do was groan through the pain.

Piper was about to jump out of her chair and drag a nurse in there when Diane stopped her, "Hey, it's okay Piper, you need to stay calm. Getting angry won't help her, she needs you to stay calm, she needs you to stay with her. I'll go get a nurse."

Diane put a hand on Piper's chest until she could feel the blonde calming down, then she went to find a nurse. Piper dropped back into the chair and gently stroked her girlfriend's face, she was clearly in pain, "Your mum's gone to get someone, they'll give you something to take away the pain. I'm not leaving."

Piper could now clearly see the pain in Alex's face, she could see her breathing getting faster, and she could see how much every breath hurt. It wasn't much longer before Diane was back with the nurse and the doctor. The nurse was carrying a syringe that she immediately injected into Alex's IV, while the doctor started talking. Piper was glad to see it was the same guy from last night, Dr Russell.

He stood next to the bed and put a hand on Alex's arm, "Alex, it's Dr Russell, can you open your eyes for me?"

Alex eventually managed to open her eyes, but her eyebrows were furrowed and she had a grimace on her face. Piper was thankful that Dr Russell didn't rush her, and at least tried to sound kind.

"Is the pain all in your abdomen?"

The doctor kept a hand on the brunette while she nodded, she didn't have the energy to speak.

"Okay, we've just given you another injection to help with the pain, I know it hurts a lot. The good news is that there's no sign of infection, but we'll keep giving you antibiotics just to make sure, and I want to keep you on oxygen for now."

Piper could see her girlfriend's eyes slowly closing again, she hoped that meant the medicine was already kicking in, "Will she be okay?"

"Getting through last night was the first step, we'll be monitoring her very closely today. I can't give you any guarantees, but she's doing well so far."

Piper and Diane nodded their thanks and the doctor walked away to see his other patients. The blonde leaned in closer to Alex, "Al, can you hear me?"

The brunette nodded and opened her eyes again.

"Does it still hurt?"

Piper was so relieved to hear her voice, even if it was barely a whisper, "A little..."

Piper wanted to ask her what happened, but she knew Alex wasn't up for that yet. Right now she just wanted the brunette to focus on getting better.

"Your mum's here too."

Diane took a hold of Alex's hand again, gently rubbing her thumb over Alex's fingers, "Hey baby."

Diane felt Alex squeeze her hand, not wanting her to let go, before closing her eyes again. Diane looked across at Piper, hoping that she'd stay calm. She could see how frustrated Piper was getting with the whole situation, but she knew it was all coming from a place of love.

Piper was about to ask Diane if she wanted a coffee when her phone started ringing, it was Fahri.

0-0-0-0-0

Piper walked out of the ICU and into a small waiting area, "Okay, I can talk now. What did you find out?"

"A job went wrong last night."

His response sparked Piper's anger again, "Yeah I figured that out myself! You need to tell me what happened!"

"I can't tell you much more until I've spoken to Alex."

Piper was shouting into her phone by this point, "You won't be speaking to her at all if she dies! So tell me what happened!"

"Calm down! I don't want to have this conversation over the phone. What if I meet you at the hospital?"

"No, I don't want you anywhere near her."

Fahri sighed, "Fine, I'll text you an address for a bar near the hospital, what if we meet later tonight?"

Piper agreed and hung up on him, she wanted to kill whoever did this to Alex. In the last five years, everyone had grown to think of her as weak and pathetic, especially her own mother. But she didn't feel weak anymore, not after everything she had achieved with Alex in the last 12 months. She was determined to be strong for her family, she'd do whatever it took to look after Alex and find out who the hell did this to her.

0-0-0-0-0

The afternoon passed by slowly, Alex stayed asleep for most of it. The nurses came in regularly to check on her and give her more pain medication. Piper had already gone to find them twice as soon as she saw that grimace creep back onto her girlfriend's face. She didn't care how annoying they probably thought she was, she wasn't going to just sit there and watch Alex in pain without doing something about it.

Diane looked exhausted all day and refused to move from Alex's bedside. Piper knew exactly how she felt and didn't want to push her to leave, she knew how close they were. Piper was walking out of the hospital to go meet Fahri, and made a mental note to bring back coffee and food for Diane. She also wanted to stop by home and check on Nicky and Charlotte.

It didn't take long for her to get to the address Fahri had texted her. She walked through the front door and saw him sitting in a booth with a beer. Piper had no interest in drinking with him, she just wanted him to tell her what happened and get the hell out of there.

She slipped into the other side of the booth and waited for him to start talking.

He finally lifted his head and looked her in the eye, "How is she?"

Piper wasn't going to sugarcoat any of it for him, she wanted him to know that this job was destroying their lives.

"She's in a lot of pain."

"Will she pull through?"

"I don't know..."

That response was enough to make him look back down at the table.

"So what the hell happened last night?"

Fahri knew he needed to be careful about what he told Piper, but he knew Alex would tell her everything anyway, if she survived. Even though he knew Piper probably hated him, he didn't want to say anything to make Piper feel guilty about what happened.

"Alex was doing a job last night with another colleague, Aiden. It was meant to be straight forward, talking to some local competitors. But Aiden lost his fucking mind, he's the one that shot her."

Fahri stopped, wanting to gauge how much Piper would push him. He could see the anger in her eyes and instantly knew she wasn't going to make this easy.

"Why should I believe you?"

"Because you have no other choice. I met with Kubra, trust me, he's not happy with Aiden."

"And what the hell will happen to that asshole?"

"He's dead..."

Piper's eyes widened, "What?"

"Everything happened at one of our warehouses, the CCTV cameras caught everything. When no one heard from Aiden or Alex last night, a few guys went to the warehouse. They found Aiden's body."

Fahri didn't want to tell her about the brother and sister, or the fact that Alex was there to help kill them.

"You need to let me see that footage."

"It's already been destroyed Piper, we don't leave that sort of stuff lying around."

He could see her trying to process everything she'd just heard, he felt genuinely sorry for her.

"Look, I saw the footage. He turned his gun on Alex, she went for him and they both ended up on the ground fighting for the gun. She shot him while they were fighting, she probably thought he was dead. She went to leave but he'd managed to get the gun and shoot her. She managed to get to her car and drive away, that's how she ended up on the street."

Piper couldn't believe what she was hearing, that Alex was forced to defend herself like that, it made her feel physically ill.

"Will she get in trouble?"

"Kubra isn't mad at her for killing Aiden, he's pissed at Aiden for fucking everything up."

What Fahri didn't tell her was that Kubra saw Alex refuse to shoot the young girl, and that was something she would need to answer for.

"What about the police?"

"We cleaned up everything at the warehouse, the police don't know anything about it. All they know is that Alex was shot, they'll never link it back to Aiden, we've taken care of it."

Fahri didn't know what Kubra would do to Alex for not going through with the job, but there would definitely be consequences. He was pretty confident he wouldn't kill her, she made him too much money, she was still worth something to him. But Kubra was furious over what Aiden did. If Alex didn't kill him, Kubra would have.

"Piper, I need to see her."

The blonde shook her head, "No, you don't."

"Kubra has asked me to see her."

"Why does he even care?"

"He cares about his ability to make money Piper, that's it! I know you don't like me, but I care about Alex."

"No, you don't fucking care about her at all. You can tell him you saw her, and that she's in fucking agony. I am not letting you anywhere near her."

Fahri sighed, he couldn't be bothered fighting with her, "Fine, I'll tell him I saw her tonight but she wasn't up to talking. But I'll need to see her eventually."

"You can see her if she makes it out of the hospital, that's it."

Fahri nodded his understanding, "I know you don't believe me, but I really do care about Alex, let me know how she goes. I'll be in touch."

With that, Fahri finished his beer and left Piper sitting alone in the booth.