A/N: I pretty much made an executive decision to just have eight chapters and an epilogue. Longer note at the end.
Enjoy.
The Epilogue
A Year and a Half Later…
Alex had been thinking about this day for weeks. She had the ring in her possession for a few days but couldn't find a way to propose to Piper that she liked. The brunette woman was becoming impatient because she wanted this woman to have this ring on her finger already. They had discussions about whether they wanted to keep the rings from their first marriage but quickly decided that if they were to get married again, they needed a new symbol, something symbolizing this new beginning. Piper claimed she was content without being married. This was very surprising to Alex, but she soon learned from Polly that Piper had mentioned marriage quite a lot in the past few months.
Parker crawled by Alex's office door pulling his dump truck along with him. No matter how many times Piper told the small boy was told not to roll his cars and trucks down the hard wood floor, he just grinned that smug grin he surely learned from Alex and kept on. Piper didn't know why she bothered to tell him no, he always got his way anyways.
The raven haired woman soon got an idea as she looked on at her son. She would include him in the proposal. She knew Piper couldn't tell their son no, no matter how hard she tried.
Quickly getting up from her office chair, she stepped over the small boy who was still in front of Alex's office door and went to go see what her lover was up to. Alex found her woman in the kitchen loading the dishwasher. She was beginning to have difficulty bending over due to the rather large baby bump, but it was cute to Alex to watch Piper waddle around the kitchen.
This was perfect. The blonde woman's guard was down, she would never see it coming.
Alex and Piper had decided to have another child one day as they were walking around the New York zoo with Parker. The thought had been floating around Piper's mind for months now that everything had returned back to normal. She longed for Parker to have a sibling. Piper refused for her son to be an only child because she didn't want Parker to turn out like Finn; spoiled and demanding. As the family was observing the penguins, Piper blurted out the confession and Alex simply agreed. There was no explanation or compromise, just a simple agreement. Three weeks later, Piper had the first implantation procedure done, and three weeks after that, she found out she was pregnant. Alex was ecstatic and Parker on the other hand, didn't know what to think. All he requested was for the baby to be boy but the couple soon found out they were due to have a little girl at the end of spring. Parker had thrown a tantrum at the news of a little sister, and pleaded with his parents to change it. Little by little as Piper got further along in the pregnancy, Parker was warming up to the idea, but wouldn't interact with Piper's bump unless she grabbed his hand and set it on her stomach. Alex tried to explain that he was going to have to be a big brother and the responsibilities that would come with it, but he was more interested in the ice cream sitting in front of him. Piper and Alex didn't want to push the boy but she feared for what was to come after their little girl was here.
Alex grabbed the four year old and brought him into her office, shutting the door so Piper couldn't hear the plan.
"Mama!" Parker whined and tried to escape from his mother's grasp. He was flabbergasted that Alex had just interrupted his playtime.
"Hold on."
Alex sat down in the office chair with Parker sitting on her lap.
"Do you want to help Mama with something?"
Parker eagerly nodded his head up and down, forgetting what he was previously doing. Alex had his full attention.
Alex opened the drawer beside her desk, shuffling around a few papers, and pulled out the tiny, black velvet box. Parker craned his neck to see what was inside when Alex opened it. She took out the ring carefully and handed Parker the empty box.
"Okay. What you're gonna do is, you're going to take this little box to Mommy and say 'Please marry my mama.' Do you think you could do that?"
"Yep!" Parker grinned.
Alex left out her part of the plan in order to not confuse the little boy but was sure in her heart that her plan would work perfectly.
The small boy hopped off Alex's lap and ran into the kitchen clutching the little black box.
Alex could feel her heart rate increasing as she walked to the second entrance of the kitchen so she could be behind Piper on her knee when Parker gave her the ring box.
"What in the hell is wrong with me? Why am I so nervous?" Alex thought.
Standing just outside the kitchen waiting for her cue, she heard Piper acknowledge their son.
"Hi buddy!" Piper smiled as she closed the door to the dishwasher and started it.
Alex poked her head around the corner to look at the boy and gave him a thumbs up for encouragement.
Piper noticed the small box in Parker's hands.
"What do you have babe?"
Parker held the small box up to his mother and said those four words perfectly.
"Pwease marry..my mama."
Piper grinned at the small boy and took the box. Her excited expression fell smooth off of her face when she realized there was no ring in the box, but quickly knew Alex was behind her when she heard rustling and saw Parker reaching out behind her. Sure enough when Piper turned around, there Alex was on her knee in the kitchen, grasping the ring in between her thumb and index finger. Parker had nestled himself between Alex's arms as he stood mindlessly tracing the tribal band that Alex had tattooed on her forearm. A wide grin was plastered on the raven haired woman's face.
"What do you say babe? Will you marry me? Again?"
Alex and Piper both chuckled.
"Yes. I will marry you again."
The farther on in their relationship the pair got, the easier it was to open up and laugh about their past. Some parts hadn't been easy, but together they got past whatever hurdle they had to jump over. Piper couldn't imagine a life without her raven haired woman, she was her everything.
Alex smiled and slipped the two karat halo diamond with the diamond encrusted band on Piper's finger.
Piper bent down as best she could to kiss Parker who was already over the moment and was trying to get back to his trucks. The moment Piper pulled away from Parker, he ducked and ran out of the kitchen. When Piper looked back to Alex, she found the raven haired woman with a radiant smile. The blonde woman gave Alex a moment to stand up and wrapped her arms around her neck.
"I love you." Alex whispered looking deep into Piper's baby blue eyes.
"I love you too."
The shorter woman leaned up and captured Alex's lips in a tender kiss. The abundance of love that was being poured out into the single kiss, was endless. Piper and Alex's tongues weren't in a duel for dominance but waltzing together as if they were dancing. Alex moved to cup Piper's face in between her hands and broke the kiss but placed a few more pecks upon Piper's lips before breaking away completely. After concluding the kiss, Alex bent down to place a lingering kiss on Piper's bump.
"I think she's taking a nap."
Piper pressed a hand to the side of her bump to detect any movement.
"I'd sure hope so. She's wouldn't give you a break this morning."
"Four more weeks." Piper replied as she leaned over to lay her head down on Alex's shoulder, the reality of the engagement and the end of her pregnancy was finally hitting her and she was overwhelmed with joy. Alex smiled to herself and laid both hands on the side of Piper's bump, placing a soft kiss on the top of her head.
Two weeks later…
Piper was impatiently pacing back and forth in Red's living room waiting to be escorted down the aisle once again by her father. While out searching for Alex a new wedding band, the couple had decided to just have a small, intimate ceremony in the backyard of Red's house that was adorned with a beautiful flower garden and trellis of roses along the wooden fence. It was a very spur of the moment idea. Alex had proposed the idea to get married before their daughter arrived so they could be focused completely on her arrival. Piper immediately fell in love with the idea and had the details set in two hours.
There were nine guests in attendance not including the minister. Polly, Pete, Finn, Nicky, Lorna, Red, her husband Dimitri, Bill Chapman, and Parker were the lucky guests to attend the wedding. Carol Chapman wasn't able to physically make it due to her falling ill with pneumonia, but sent her felicitations and asked for lots of pictures.
Carol and Alex's relationship had become a better one in the past year. After a rather civil meeting on that particular Sunday brunch, the two could be alone in a room and have a simple conversation without an argument or have Parker as a buffer so that was a huge breakthrough. Slowly but surely, Carol was warming up to Alex as she learned about Alex's mother and what a great woman she was. Not to mention, the addition of another grandchild was helping the pair get along better, also.
Alex had chosen Parker to be her best man in the wedding. Nicky took the news better than Alex thought she would in all honesty. The crazy haired woman actually grinned wildly the first time she heard the idea. Nicky had been Alex's best man in her and Piper's first wedding and happily agreed to let Parker take her place. Alex figured Nicky could sit and take notes for if she and Lorna were ever to get married. Upon telling the thought to her best friend she got wide grin and a playful punch in the shoulder.
Parker had picked out a nice necklace for Piper to wear during the wedding and had taken pride in picking it out for the big day. When he walked into the living room of Red's house to present the necklace to his mother, Piper shed a tear to see her baby boy looking so sharp and handsome. The small boy was wearing black dress pants, a white button down shirt and a black vest accented with a black bow tie. The boy had even convinced Alex to give his beach blonde hair a small fohawk for the event.
"Is this for me?"
Piper sat down on the black leather couch so she could be closer to Parker's level and clutched him as close to her body as she could with the baby bump. The small boy rested his tiny hand on top of Piper's stomach, making his mother melt a little bit more.
Parker nodded his head eagerly into Piper's neck.
"I picked it out!"
When Piper pulled the lid off the rectangular box, she gasped and was greeted with a diamond pendant necklace that went beautifully with her engagement ring.
Parker looked on with a wide grin, ecstatic that his mother liked the necklace he had picked out for her.
"I love it, babe." Piper gave Parker a lingering kiss on the cheek and placed the necklace around her neck.
"Did mama do your hair?"
Parker just smiled smugly, a trait he had picked up from Alex, as he looked at his mother. Piper smirked.
"I take that as a yes." Piper laughed. "It looks super handsome on you. Maybe Red's granddaughter will show up later and she'll see how handsome you are."
Parker blushed as his mother teased him about the small crush he had on Red's six year old granddaughter. Laughing at her son's reaction, Piper brought him in for another hug.
Bill Chapman soon appeared in the room signaling that it was time for the ceremony to begin. Piper gave Parker another quick kiss as she handed him off to her father to be taken to Alex who was nervously waiting for her bride. When Bill reappeared, he hoisted his daughter off the couch and asked if she was ready to do this again.
"Yes, Daddy. I'm sure."
Piper smiled warmly at the older man. She could see his once brown hair was now almost fully gray and the stubble on his face was gray as well. The older man, placed a kiss on his daughter's cheek and walked her through the house to the back door. Piper could see Alex through the crack in the curtains, and she looked nervous but gorgeous in her black woman's pant suit that came just above her ankles to show off the black pumps she was wearing. Her hair was straightened and her secretary glasses were perched high up on her nose. Piper observed her turn around and talk to Parker, and Parker's face lit up. On the other side of the altar, Polly stood relaxed and ready to see her best friend walk down the aisle.
The walk to Alex was oh so familiar but felt so right. The pair locked eyes from the time the back door opened to when Piper was being handed off by her father.
Alex couldn't take her eyes off the beauty that was about to become her wife. Piper was dressed in an ivory strapless maxi dress. The way her curves were accentuated made Alex's mouth water. Pregnancy had only helped Piper's body and the raven haired woman loved it.
The ceremony was sweet and intimate. Piper and Alex exchanged vows they had written personally instead of ones they repeated as the minister said them. That alone made the wedding dearer to the heart. Tears were both in their eyes as they read what they wrote. Never once did the pair break their hand connection. It was their anchor and nothing could break the bond between them. The kiss was one out of a fairy tale, it was magical and sweet.
The pair was officially married once again and they intended to keep it that way. The love that surrounded the couple was impenetrable but contagious at the same time. Nicky Nichols even cried during the reciting of vows.
Later that night as the group of people fellowshipped and celebrated the newly married couple, Polly had talked Piper into letting her take Parker after the reception so she and Alex could have some alone time to celebrate their joining and to be kid-free one last time before their daughter's arrival. Piper had instantly taken the shorter brown haired woman up on her offer.
As the couple was bid farewell with everyone blowing bubbles at them, Alex couldn't help to feel so grateful for the friends and family around her. Bill hugged both women and gave them his and Carol's best wishes. The couple kissed their son once more before getting in Piper's BMW. Lorna and Polly had written 'Just Married' on the back. Alex laughed to herself when she could hear Nicky shouting provocative comments at her as she put the car in gear. Before driving off, Alex reached across the center console to grab her wife's hand and leaned over to place a chaste kiss on her soft lips. Piper looked on at her wife with a loving look.
Alex had offered to reserve a hotel room for the night when they had planned the wedding, but Piper felt she would be more comfortable in their own home considering how far along in her pregnancy she was. Wanting what was best for her very pregnant wife, Alex happily obliged to spend the night in their own home together.
"This feels so weird not having Parker with us." Piper commented as the pair walked into their house. The blonde woman gasped as she noticed that from the front door up to the bedroom, there was a path of rose petals leading up the stairs and into their master bedroom. "Alex. Oh my. Did you do all this?"
Piper was greeted with a smiling Alex as she turned around to look at the taller woman.
"Parker helped."
Alex shrugged and sensually ran her hands down Piper's sides and across her large baby bump. The younger woman placed her hands on the back of Alex's neck, interlocking her fingers.
"So you knew that Polly was gonna ask if she could take Parker?"
Piper raised an eyebrow catching onto her wife's trickery.
"She owed us a favor since we kept Finn last weekend."
Shaking her head, Piper reached up to kiss her wife.
"You're a clever one, Vause."
The couple had decided to relax in a warm bath together to unwind from the day's events. Throughout the day Piper had been feeling her body pull downward and was having slight contractions but thought nothing of it. Alex hadn't even stepped foot into the tub of water when Piper exclaimed her water broke. Sure enough, just looking at the water could prove the declaration.
The next four hours were a whirlwind. Alex had quickly driven Piper to the hospital and were admitted in ten minutes. Piper looked completely calm and relaxed besides the contractions but she was handling it like a pro. Alex on the other hand didn't know what to do. The blonde woman was sure Alex wore a rut in the floor from how many times she paced. Alex had expected herself to be nervous considering that she missed Parker's birth, but she had underestimated how nerve wracking it was.
When it came time to push, Piper gripped onto Alex's hand until Alex was convinced it was broken. It took a total of eight pushes to bring their daughter into the world. After the newborn was placed on Piper's chest and Alex cut the cord, Piper witnessed Alex be at a complete loss for words as tears streamed down her face.
The couple named their little girl Emma Diane Nicole Vause. She was all of six and half pounds and twenty inches long. Piper and Alex both couldn't choose one middle name so they opted for two. The small girl had slightly puffy, rosy cheeks and her lips puckered in her sleep just like Piper's did. Alex fell in love all over again when she held her daughter for the first time and it made Piper smile at
Parker's first visit was very emotion filled for the parents. The little boy was so overwhelmed at the thought of his little sister finally being here, he asked Alex to take her back to the store. What surprised Piper was that he held her for more than a minute. Earlier that morning she had bet Alex he would hold her for less than thirty seconds. Alex made sure to have gifts ''from Emma" to make him feel special and loved. The small peace offering helped, but the couple knew it would take time. Piper had been the same way when Cal was born, and she knew it was just as big of an adjustment for him as it was for her and Alex.
6 Months Later…
The family of four were on a picnic in Central Park enjoying their Saturday afternoon. Parker had insisted that Emma sit with him on the picnic blanket. The parents shared a nervous but hopeful look, and placed Emma in between Parker's outstretched legs. The small boy immediately wrapped his arms around her tiny torso and hugged her. Parker had warmed up slowly to Emma being around over the past six months and Alex and Piper didn't want to deny him a bonding session with his sister when he asked.
It had been over two and a half years since Alex had smoothly resigned from the cartel and her life couldn't be better. She knew what her priorities were, she had a fantastic wife, and two great kids. Never again was she going to give that up for something else. Nothing could equate to how she felt around her family and the love that was shared. They had a bumpy year and Alex felt confident that she could say her and Piper recovered fully and were even better from that once detrimental time.
The past two years had brought her wife back and also added a little girl to their family who was growing more and more into her personality every day, Parker was getting smarter and learning to read higher level books every week, and Piper was expanding Popi to the west coast. Alex felt complete and couldn't fathom spending another day without her family. It was a slow, emotional start but one step at a time, she got to where she desired to be.
A/N: Well, I hope that was satisfactory enough. Thank you to every single person who has left a review, favorited, or followed this story. I never thought this sort of premise would have such a positive feedback. So thank you for that.
There are no ideas floating around my head for another fic anytime soon. It will probably be this summer before I write again if I can come up with an idea that I can settle with. A monumental moment in my life is approaching rather quickly and I'd like to be focused on that. Hence why this story was only nine chapters long.
I appreciate every single one of you for taking the time to read this.
Drop me a review whether you thought it was completely horrible or a great read. I appreciate every single review.
Until next time.
