Authors Note: Wow thank you for all the reviews from last chapter, and I Hope you all enjoy this one as well. Once again I do not own any of these characters.

Just a couple quick shout outs.

Flint198- I am glad to see that you are enjoying this story

Haley Skywalker1999- Thank you so much for the follow, and hope you enjoy the rest of the story as well.

Shepherdinha- I have to agree with you on Alex's recovery, it did seem a bit unrealistic, but it was all wrote that way to set the plot for this chapter.

Now with out any further ado, here is Chapter 9, can't believe the story is this long when it just was just some simple idea that came to me one night while I couldn't sleep. Hope you all enjoy, and don't forget to review!


Piper looked down at her and Alex's conjoined hands and then looked back up at Alex before she just simply nodded her head, slightly afraid on what her girlfriend of so many years would tell her. Piper was afraid that she had finally blown the relationship and Alex was now ready to call it the end of them. But Piper had to put those thoughts aside to clearly hear what Alex was going to tell her, whether she wanted to hear them or not.

Piper was now looking at Alex and Alex was about to speak when suddenly she started coughing and gasping for air, while the machines were going crazy with all different sounds.

"Alex, baby…Help we need some help in here!" Piper shouted hoping that one of the nurses would hear and come running and then the unthinkable happened Alex started coughing up blood.

Piper ran to the door and opened it while still yelling for help when two nurses came to her aid. One nurse went in to help Alex, while the other tried to pull Piper out of the room. "Ma'am you need to wait out here." The nurse tried to tell her, but Piper fought her wanting to not be away from Alex's side.

A third nurse had come running and went to the nurses' station and made an announcement over the loud-speaker while pressing the code blue alert. "Dr. Martin you are needed in the intensive care unit a.s.a.p."

It seemed to all happen in an instant one moment Alex was fine and the next she is coughing up blood and Piper couldn't go anywhere near her. Dr. Martin had finally arrived on the floor and made his way to Alex's room.

One nurse was trying to console Piper and keep her calm while inside the room it was a totally different story. "I need an x-ray stat." Dr. Martin shouted out to the nurses' as he began to wheel the bed out of the room.

The nurse pulled Piper back when she saw the bed being wheeled out of the room, "No, please let me go with her." Piper shouted out as the hospital staff just continued to walk down the hall to an x-ray room.

"Ma'am would you like me to call someone for you?" The nurse kindly asked Piper "Would you like me to get you a cup of water, tea, anything?" The nurse added.

Piper shook her head no, and pulled out her cell phone and called Polly.

"Piper how is Alex, is it true is she awake?" Polly asked not even bothering with hello.

"She was awake, and then she said we needed to talk but now something terrible has happened. She just started coughing up blood, she is being taken to x-ray but they won't let me near her, or tell me anything." Piper said breathlessly to her best friend.

Piper heard Polly gasp before telling "I will be right there." Polly told her before she hung up. "Nicky lets go, something has happened." Polly told Nicky as they both made their way out the door.

Meanwhile Dr. Martin was reviewing the x-rays of Alex that were just taken when he made a shocking discovery. "How the hell did someone miss this? Get me an operating room now!" He shouted to everyone inside the room with him.

Piper was pacing back and forth in the hallway when she saw the bed that Alex was laying on be wheeled onto the elevator "Dr. Martin what is happening?" Piper stopped him before he could step on to the elevator.

"Ms. Chapman, Ms. Vause has internal bleeding. We are taking her up to surgery." He told her before the elevator doors shut before she could be told anything else.

Piper stood there staring at the doors, and for a second time in less than 24 hours, she felt like her whole world was crashing down. Piper stood there what felt like forever when she heard two voices behind her "Piper, Piper." Nicky and Polly shouted.

Piper turned around and just wrapped both her friends in a hug and began to cry.

"What's going on, Vause sounded fine when I talked to her." Nicky asked confused.

"I don't know, she has internal bleeding that's all I was told. She is in surgery right now." Piper told her friends just wanting this whole nightmare to be over, unaware that the worst was yet to come to the Vause-Chapman family.

After 15 minutes a nurse had come up to them asking if anyone would be joining them, and they told her right now no. So the nurse told them to follow her to the operating floor waiting room. While they were in the elevator taking the ride up to the floor the nurse finally spoke to Piper "So I heard Alex is an ex-con?" The nurse asked Piper and Piper looked at her confused.

"Excuse me, but how did you know that?" Piper asked knowing that, that type of information would not be in Alex's medical file.

"Some woman from NYPD named Julia told me that I had to worry about Alex that she was still an inmate. But that is when Alex told me had she been out for some time now. I told the woman she had nothing to fear, I use to work down at Danbury Federal Correctional Facility and that I knew how to handle myself." The nurse told her just before the elevator doors opened.

"Julia, who is this Julia? She is the same woman who called and told me about the accident at Alex's work" Piper asked out loud but to no one in particular.

"What did this woman look like?" Nicky asked the nurse as she followed her to the waiting room.

"She was in a suit, she had a badge, though I didn't get a good look at it. But she had red hair." The nurse told them "Well here you go, I will be up to check on you guys every hour or so." The nurse added before she made her way back to the elevator doors.

"Wait!" Piper shouted after the woman.

"You said you worked in the Department of Corrections?" Piper asked her once she turned around.

"Yes I did." The nurse replied back

"I know I shouldn't be asking you this, but can you call down to NYPD to see why this Julia woman was here to see Alex Vause?" Piper asked her hoping that the woman would help her.

The nurse was silent for a few seconds before she finally spoke "I really shouldn't, but I will see what I can find out. Between me and you there was something off about the woman, though I couldn't place my finger on it. I will let you know anything the minute I find out." The nurse told her as she got on the elevator.

"Thank you." Piper told her before she made her way back to where Polly and Nicky where seated.

"You okay there Chapman, regardless of what is happening with Vause?" Nicky asked her once she sat down between Polly and her.

"I'm fine, Alex told me she wanted to talk before she started to cough up blood, what if something happened? What if Alex is in trouble again and she hasn't told me? Not to mention this Julia woman who no one seems to know anything about is a red-head." Piper told the two woman next to her.

"I work with Alex every day, no one has come around asking questions. And Alex has been at work every single day." Nicky told her trying to calm her nerves.

"Yeah well even the nurse said there was something off about this woman." Piper said blankly trying to make sense of what was happening.

"Well she did say that she was a correctional officer, I am sure she knows a criminal or ex criminal when she sees one." Nicky added

"It just seems odd, Alex got sent a bomb in the mail, then this Julia woman called me, and now she showed up here. Something is going on, and Alex is keeping it from me." Piper said before she sat back in the chair and put her head in her hands.

"It will be okay Pipes, plus Alex wanted to talk to you, maybe that is what it was about." Polly said putting her hand on Piper's back.

"Yeah well a lot of good it will do now, she is in fucking surgery leaving with me fucking nothing but confusion." Piper snapped.

An hour had passed since, anyone had come out to talk to them or tell them what was going on when they heard the elevator door ding and saw the ex-correctional officer turned nurse make their way over to the group sitting in the waiting room. "So I have some news for you. Though it may not be good news, but it is news." The nurse told them now standing in front of them. "Would you like to talk privately?" The nurse asked Piper.

Piper shook her head "No it is okay, you can say whatever it is in front of them." Piper told her. "By the way I never caught your name." Piper also added.

"Oh that is right, with everything going on I must have forgot to mention it, my name is Rebecca, Rebecca Fischer." The nurse told them and she saw Piper and Nicky's mouths drop. "Is there a problem? Rebecca asked.

"Fischer, do you have a daughter?" Nicky asked

"I do, she is also a correctional officer." The nurse told them

"Is her name Susan?" Piper then asked.

"Why yes it is, do you know her?" and then it hit her Alex had been a prisoner at Litchfield where her daughter worked. "Oh Alex must have known her." The nurse added with a slight chuckle.

"Actually Nicky and I both did as well, we served time there too. Your daughter is too nice to be a correctional officer, no offense ma'am." Piper told her

"None taken, her father and I keep telling her that all the time, but this is what she wanted to do." The nurse told them unaffected by learning that Alex, Piper, and Nicky had served time. "But I talked to someone down at NYPD, and this is where it gets confusing they sent no one down to the hospital to document Alex's injuries, and they certainly didn't send anyone by the name of Julia. They asked if we had any security cameras after I told them she had a badge, I told them we did, and I am sending them a copy as we speak." The nurse told them but stopped when she heard her cell phone going off. "Excuse me, that is Detective Murphy now." Rebecca Fischer told them as she walked into the hallway.

"No fucking way, I can't believe that is Fischer's mom." Nicky said with a laugh

"Neither can I." Polly added having met Fischer quite a few times, and she had to agree she was a very nice and caring person.

Piper shook her head in disbelief, "Uhh hello did you two forget the big picture here? Who the fuck is this Julia woman, and how the hell did she know my number, the accident, and how the hell does she know Alex?" Piper said out loud to her two friends.

"I might be able to help with that." Rebecca Fischer said answering Piper as she made her way back over to the three women.

All three of them looked up at her and she sat down beside "Ms. Chapman." Rebecca began but Piper cut her off.

"Please call me Piper."

"Okay Piper, I don't mean to be nosy but I think I should ask it anyway, it might make sense with what the detective just told me after he saw what he did on the video tapes." Piper nodded and that was all she needed to know that she could continue and ask what she needed to ask "Why did Alex get sent to Litchfield?" Rebecca asked in a hush whisper even though they were the only ones in the room.

"She worked for an international drug cartel." Piper replied quickly, she knew Alex wasn't ashamed and she wasn't either.

"Did she work with or under some man named Fahri?" Nurse Fischer asked

Piper eyes widened when she heard the name and slowly nodded her head yes.

"Well we have our answer on who this Julia woman is, NYPD has tried to question her for months now but they can never seem to catch up with her. She and Fahri have their own ring now. Julia works for an international drug cartel Piper." The nurse told the three women who now had blanked looks on their face.

"Nicky did you know anything about this?" Piper asked her now even more confused than she was before.

"I swear to you Chapman I knew nothing." Nicky told her just as shocked as everyone else.

Suddenly they saw the door to the waiting room open and Dr. Martin appeared before them. "How is she doctor?" Piper was the first to ask.

"We were able to stop the internal bleeding; the x-ray technician oversaw the rib that punctured Ms. Vause's lung during the blast. She has a few broken ribs, and we were able to stitch up the lung just in time. I will be sure to talk to the tech, and be sure that there will be a punishment because I looked at the x-rays that were taken and there is no excuse that this went untreated. Ms. Vase really does have someone up there looking out for her; she has cheated death now twice in less than 24 hours." Dr. Martin told the group of women, who now had a look of relief on their faces.

"When will she be awake?" Piper asked him, now really wanting to talk to Alex more than ever.

"Once the anesthesia wears off, and she wakes up I will come and get you. Now excuse me I have a tech to find." Dr. Martin told them before he made his way through the door he just had come out of.

"Well thank god she is going to be okay." Nurse Fischer said "I am sorry to run as well, but I have to get back to my floor."

Piper stood up and shook her hand "Thank you so much for all your help." Piper told her with a slight smile.

"No need to thank me, if you have any other questions please feel free to come and find me." Nurse Fischer said before she too made her way out of the waiting room.

"Well thank god she is going to be okay." Polly said in a cheerful voice.

"Yeah thank god, because now she really has some explaining to do." Piper said with a hint of anger in her voice.


Authors Note: Don't forget to review!