Alex strolled into the restaurant and Nicky was busy serving a table. She cocked her head in acknowledgment when Alex walked past, giving her a smile. "Hey Boss, Red's in the kitchen cookin'up a storm."

It was nice to see the place so busy and Alex had to wonder if she should put more staff on to lessen the pressure on her friends. "Hey Red, How's it going?"

Red was leant over the stove top, her face was pink with the heat and she looked rushed off her feet. "Good, Alex. Very busy, but I'm expecting the lunch rush to be over soon. How's your head now my love?"

"Good thanks, actually, that reminds me, I'm just here to pick up the payroll and roster documents and then I'm going to help Piper move the last of her stuff over to my place. She's over at mine all the time now anyway so we figured it would just make sense for her to give up her apartment and come live with me."

"Well, I'm happy for you, bring Piper for dinner tonight, Alex, to celebrate."

"Yeah, Good idea, Red, I might do that!"

Alex grabbed the paperwork off the desk. "I'll see you later."

Alex smiled as she darted out of the door. She was greeted with Nicky pulling her into a bear hug.

"Stretch, how's your head? It's good to see you back, I've missed seeing your lanky ass around here."

"Gee, Thanks Nicky. My head's better. I'm heading over to Piper's to help her pack the rest of her shit and then she'll be all moved in, I'm gonna bring her over for dinner later, I doubt we'll feel like cooking once we have finished packing."

"I still can't believe she's managed to domesticate you, Vause."

"Yeah, yeah. Well I'm gonna go help her pack before she finishes it all herself, I don't think that would go down too well."

Alex headed into the bakery next door and picked up some pastries and coffee for their long day packing, she knew it would win her brownie points with Piper, especially as she'd been longer at the restaurant than she'd expected to be.

She pulled up outside the apartment and headed inside. "Pipes? I've brought some pastries and coff-"

Alex stopped dead in her tracks when she saw a small pool of blood in the kitchen area. "Piper? PIPES? Did you cut your hand on the box cutter?"

Alex was near frantic as she searched the rooms for Piper. Just as she was about to run out she noticed a small notepad on the countertop had been scrawled on. She picked it up thinking it must be from Piper telling her she'd gone to get some first aid or something and her heart stopped at what she read.

"She's mine. She always has been and always will be. If I can't have her, no one can. If you had left us alone it wouldn't have come to this."

Alex dropped the coffee and pastries in the kitchen haphazardly and bolted out of the door. She gunned it all the way to the restaurant and at the full on speed she burst in through the doors, people jumped and turned to see what was going on.

"NICKY! NICKY, OH MY GOD, YOU HAVE TO COME WITH ME RIGHT NOW JESUS FUCK." Alex was shaking and her eyes were wide with panic.

Nicky came bustling over, her eyes wide, wondering what she had done wrong.

"Holy shit Vause, calm down, you're scaring the customers.."

Nicky's demeanour changed when she realized how serious and panicked Alex was.

"What's going on?"

"Fuck, Nicky, you have to help me, that little rat Jew boy fucker. I swear to god, if he's hurt her I'm going to fucking kill him!"

"Ok, Slow down and tell me what's gone on."

"Fuck, Nicky, he's taken her. He must have been the one in the apartment the whole time and now I stupidly let Piper go there by herself and when I got there, there was a pool of blood in the kitchen and this note."

She handed the note to Nicky who scanned it with wide, horrified eyes.

"Jesus Christ, Vause you need to ring her friend. She said she knew Blondies ex, maybe she could get to him?"

Alex pulled out her phone as soon as Nicky had mentioned Polly. She dialled the number wondering why she didn't immediately think to call her first.

"Polly? It's Alex, I need your help…"

Alex hurriedly explained the situation to a gobsmacked Polly, she couldn't believe Larry was capable of doing such a thing and was sure it all had to be a big misunderstanding.

"Just get your ass down here, Holly, we need your help. Now."

Alex had purposely misnamed Polly in her temper and hung up straight after, not giving the brunette a chance to bite.

She tried Piper's phone several times before giving up. She was pacing back and forth, worrying about where that blood had come from and how horrified Piper would have been to learn it was Larry in her apartment.

She ungracefully slung herself into a booth, her legs bobbing up and down, her hands together in front of her closed eyes. Her glasses, she had pushed to the top of her head.

Polly came rushing in ten minutes later.

"Is someone going to tell me what the hell is going on?"

"I told you on the phone, Polly, I wasn't joking, what the fuck was he doing at her apartment, you said he'd gone back to Chicago. There was blood on the floor, BLOOD, Polly. What has he done to her?!"

Polly was internally panicking as much as Alex was but she chose not to show it.

"I'm going to call him and see if he picks up. If not, I think I have a pretty good idea of where he might head to."

Polly called Larry's number and it went straight to voicemail so Polly, Nicky and Alex all jumped into her SUV.

"Where are we going?'

"His parents have a lake house that's dormant most of the year, they literally only spend Christmas there and its fairly remote so no one goes near it. I think he might head up there. We can check, anyway. We need to come up with a plan incase they are actually there, though. We don't want to put Piper in danger. Larry's frame of mind is obviously not great."

Alex went full speed ahead with Polly giving her directions to the lake house and by the time they got there it was getting dark.

They had devised a plan on the way there. Polly was going to go in, act surprised to see him and tell him she had decided to scope out the lake house as a potential birthday venue for Pete. That was it would buy them time for the police to get there, if Piper was with him.

When they pulled up outside the house, Larry's car could be seen peeking out from behind it. "That motherfucker."

Alex was seething with rage but she was also terrified that he had hurt Piper. She knew she needed to get to the blonde and she had an overwhelming urge to wrap her up in her arms and protect her. She knew from Diane's death how quickly someone could be taken from you and she had no desire to lose Piper.

Polly approached the house and Alex remained in the car with Nicky. They could see her knock on the door and wait. It opened eventually and Larry emerged. Alex couldn't take it anymore and jumped out, storming towards the house, still out of sight but with a firm plan to take Larry out and retrieve her girl.

She could hear the surprise in Larry's voice at seeing Polly there.

"FUCK this, LET ME IN YOU LITTLE MOLE." Alex barged into Larry, her fist swinging into his face sending him stumbling backwards. She ran into the house and saw Piper laying on her side, still unconscious. She rushed to her but felt a searing pain in her head as Larry hit her. She fell back and tried to get up but he had jumped on her and was straddling her middle.

"SHE'S MINE. I DON'T KNOW WHO YOU THINK YOU ARE BUT SHE BELONGS WITH ME." Larry slapped Alex across the face, splitting her lip in the process. Polly was screaming.

"WHAT THE FUCK, LARRY. GET OFF HER!"

"SHE'S TRYING TO TAKE PIPER AWAY FROM ME, POLLY. I'M GOING TO FUCKING KILL HER."

His fist came down hard on Alex's head again and again she could swear she saw stars. It began to get harder and harder to stay awake.

"LARRY, STOP, YOU'RE GOING TO KILL HER." Polly was hysterical. Sirens started to get louder and Larry tried to bolt but Nicky was standing in the doorway blocking his exit.

"Just you fucking try it, buddy." Nicky warned as Larry approached her.

By this point Piper had started to come around and upon seeing the carnage around her, had started panicking.

Alex was lying on the ground barely conscious, blood pouring out of the head wound that had only recently healed, her nose and lip were bleeding, small droplets of blood dripping onto the floor beneath her.

Polly had rushed over to her and started to try and rouse her when the police and paramedics came in.

Alex had woken up in a hospital bed.

The first thing she saw was two Piper's sitting in the chair.

"Piper's?"

Piper's head snapped up at hearing Alex awake. "Alex? Oh thank god you're awake – wait, did you just say Piper's?"

"Why is there two of you? I-I'm gonna be sick."

Piper reached for a bowl and Alex began vomiting in it. The nurse came in to check on her.

"Alex, It's good to see you awake, you have been asleep since yesterday, you have a pretty bad concussion, honey."

Piper was rubbing her back and holding her hair behind her head. Alex had one stitch in her lip, her head wound had been re stitched and she had a pretty bad swollen eye. Piper was horrified to learn what had happened and although she had a bit of concussion and two stitches in her head, she felt ok. She knew she had to be there for Alex. She'd never seen her look so vulnerable.

After two days in hospital, Alex was allowed home and Piper thanked her lucky stars that even though Alex was still a little worse for wear (Her ego had taken the biggest hit, especially when she realized Piper had seen her puke) They were both well enough to go home.

Red, Nicky and Polly had been fussing over the pair, bringing them meals and checking they were ok.

They had spent the majority of the week in bed recovering. "Pipes, we need to talk about what happened."

"I know. Alex, I feel terrible that he hurt you." Every time Piper relived the moment she woke up, she could feel the rage burning inside her. She wanted to kill Larry for touching Alex and she also felt like she had let her down for not being able to protect her from him.

"Piper, You don't have to feel guilty. I just thank our lucky stars that Nicky had the incentive to think about Polly. She was the one who directed us to the lake house and I couldn't help but run in to you."

Piper positioned herself beside Alex and cuddled into her side, sniffling.

"Hey, Don't cry. Let's just put it behind us. Larry's for sure going to prison for this and we live together now, let's just recover, eat junk food, watch trash TV and cuddle."

Piper gave a slight giggle and immediately felt a bit better.

"I love you, nerd."

"I love you too, Pipes."

Polly was having a complete meltdown at the fact she had misread Larry. She felt so guilty that she had given Piper a hard time when she had split up with him.

"Pipe? You home?" She poked her head around the front door.

"Piper? Alex? Are you guys home?"

Piper came down the stairs with her hair all messed up.

Polly rushed to her and hugged her tight.

"Babe, I'm so, so sorry. I should never have given you a hard time. I didn't know he was like that, Piper."

"It's ok Pol, you weren't to know… We can move on now. I'm with Alex and although she looks a little worse for wear at the moment, we are happy together."

Polly gave her a weak smile, looking around, her eyes widened. "Piper, holy shit, this is quite a house you've scored here…"

Piper laughed out loud. "So I'm here with stitches in my head and poor Alex is upstairs in bed after she thought she had two of me (which I might add would have been awesome for her) And all you can think of is the house I've 'Scored'… Gee, thanks Pol."

Piper pretend punched her in the arm. "Come on, I'll show you around."

By the time they got to the bedroom Alex was fast asleep but Polly was shocked to see how bad her injuries were.

"Shit, Pipes, is she ok?"

"She's had a rough week, the doctor said she had a pretty huge concussion. She's been puking and she's had double vision but I don't think she's puked today, which is good. She just has to take it slow. He broke her new glasses too, so she's gonna have to get another pair."

"Do you want me to run down to the opticians and sort that out?'"

"Yeah, that would be good Poll. Thanks."

Just as they were speaking, Alex was beginning to stir.

"I'll get out of your hair, Pipe. Love you."

Polly retreated out of the room and Piper slid into the bed beside Alex. She stroked her cheek to sooth her back to sleep.

"Was that Polly?" Alex's voice was groggy and full of sleep.

"Yep, she's taken your glasses in to get fixed. Go back to sleep, babe."

Two weeks later, Alex was feeling much better and the swelling on her face had faded into barely visible green bruises. They had both decided to press charges against Larry.

Piper had decided she was going to try to reconnect with her parents one last time and she figured they would either accept that Alex was in her life or lose her for good.

They had settled on dinner at the weekend and Alex was nervous as to how it would turn out. The last time had gone so dramatically and although they had acted like assholes, Alex thought Piper needed her family in her life.

What Alex didn't know was that Piper had a reason for wanting to reconnect with her parents.

I just want to say, I'm not totally happy with how this chapter has turned out. I've re-written it twice and it's come out pretty much the same, so I'm gonna say this is how it's meant to be. Anything you guys would like to see happen in this fic? Suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Also, I love all of your reviews! Keep em coming :D Unless I come up with some more ideas, this fic, as it is atm, will only be another one or two chapters long.