A/N: Thanks for the reviews of the last chapter. There's a glitch on the reviews appearing since I first posted this story, so none of them are visible yet! Did I break it? ;-) Anyhow, we are starting to see more Piper and Alex at the moment - yay! I need them to iron some issues out before progressing the story so I don't have to think about so many plot lines overlapping. Hope you enjoy. Please leave a review, I love getting your thoughts back, thanks.

Monday mornings were the dread of most working people. Not Piper, and especially not Piper when she had a mission. Today she was up even before the alarm clock went off at 6am. She was looking forward to a run and put on her running Lycra to set off for the riverside path. Selecting a pumping dance anthems playlist, she set off at a steady pace and turned it up to a punishing rhythm towards the half way mark. Although her limbs were moving to the beat, her brain was moving to the beat of Alex.

What was she doing in the bar last night and how does she know Nicky? She obviously hadn't told Nicky that she knew Piper already, letting her make the introductions. Perhaps Nicky didn't know about Alex's history with drugs and she was hiding that from her as well as the years she and Piper were together. Does Alex know that Piper went to prison? Would she even care if she had?

Piper hit 6k on her running app and turned around to head back at a slightly less furious pace.

There were so many questions she didn't have the answers to yet that she really didn't want to face more from Polly about the appearance of Alex all of a sudden. She didn't know how and why she had turned up in Piper's life and as much as the temptation was definitely there, she couldn't tell her to fuck off and die before getting some answers. No, she would not say anything to Polly just yet or to Nicky about their shared past. Already Alex was becoming the same dirty little secret she was when they first started dating. Why did it always go this way with them?

She began her warm down routine and made her way back home to shower. As she was getting dressed for work, a text came through from Steve. He was in New York for a conference later this week and wondered if he was still OK to get a tour if she was going to be around. There was a Christmas market in Union Square which she had been meaning to get to, so taking Steve would be a perfect excuse. She texted back to say she was sure to be around and he could crash at her place if he needed somewhere to stay.

Piper headed into work on the subway and picked up some mince pies from the coffee shop on her way to the store. A little festive treat for the customers, or an emergency lunch if it was busy. The magazine adverts would be published now and the edition was being posted already. They should see the store get busier - especially with the free labour she had secured to post the other leaflets tonight.

"Good Morning Polly! How are you on this fine festive morning? I brought mince pies." Piper grinned sickeningly as she placed the bag on the counter.

"Hello little miss sunshine. I'm fine thank you..." She replied in a slightly less cheerful tone and through suspicious and narrowed eyes.

"What? The magazine gets posted today so we could be crushed by a stinky mob in need of seasonal soap products soon. I have decided our last meal will be minced pies if that happens. I know, I know. I thought of everything, but you don't have to thank me. You don't. But I could use your help on improving those poor attempts I made at bows on the gift boxes last week. They look like a drunk person prepared them."

Polly rolled here eyes and helped herself to a minced pie before opening the door. "Well, looks like the stampede had a lie in bed this morning. I guess they are more of an after lunchtime crowd around here hey?"

"At least we have the ammo set up though."

They did some reorganising in the window display to showcase some of the Christmas products before Polly left to get them some lunch.

Piper glanced at the stack of leaflets that were to be posted tonight, remembering that they meant Alex would be coming right to her door. She would know where to find her and see their business for the first time. It made her a little nervous and she couldn't help but hope Alex liked it. She knew the brunette wouldn't bother hiding her contempt or indifference about it if she didn't like it. She also wouldn't pretend to like it for the sake of saving anyone's feelings, least of all Piper's. Piper hadn't thought of sparing Alex's feelings when she dumped her within an hour of finding out her mother had died. Remembering that made Piper nauseous at how callous she had been on that day, knowing it would have shocked Alex to see her be so cold at a time when she had never needed Piper more. Fuck. She had spent a long time burying this, expecting to never have to confront these feelings again because she would never see Alex. Perhaps she should call it off tonight and forfeit the win for the sake of keeping her sanity. It seemed like a good idea last night to make Alex do something she would hate, but now it was a bit too real to have to see her in the flesh in the cold light of day.

Piper called Nicky to see if she could call it off.

"Hello Piper Chapman. What can I do for you?"

"Hey Nicky. I was thinking that maybe we should let Poussey and Alex off from delivering this stuff tonight. It's freezing outside you know..."

"Are you kidding? Alex has been trying to get out of this all day with her excuses, there's no way I'm letting her get out of this. She has asked me if she can pay for someone else to do it on her behalf too."

"Well, you know maybe that's not a bad idea. If she pays to send a proxy, she is still doing the forfeit in a way."

"Nope. I want photos of her posting soap store leaflets in the roughest neighbourhoods of Brooklyn, with the winter rain beating her down. I've been looking forward to this."

"A little too much by the sounds of it! OK, but if the weather gets worse, we can call them back in. They will be here after 6 right?"

"Yep. Don't be a pussy Blondie."

Piper hung up and accepted her fate. Looks like she was going to have to suck it up this time.

Polly returned with lunch and the afternoon sped by quickly with a lot of sales being rung through. The mince pies seemed to go down well too, so they might try and do that again since there were only 3 weeks until Christmas.

At 5:30, Piper said Polly could get away and she would finish up tonight. She was going to keep the store open a little later while the girls were out delivering the leaflets anyway and if a few more sales could be made to passing commuters, all the better.

Polly didn't need any persuading to miss the worst of the traffic, so she headed off and Piper was manning the store alone by 5:45. She made a few more sales before Poussey and Alex came through the door at 6:10.

Poussey was grinning as she walked through the store towards where Piper was standing at the counter. "Hey Piper, good to see you! Nice place you got here, smells like da bomb too!" She picked up some of the products as she stood looking at the shelves and smelled them deeply "Mmmm, I think I need to remember not to eat this stuff."

"Hey yourself. Thanks, we are still working some things out yet, but business is really starting to pick up for Christmas now. Yeah, please don't eat anything in here. We do have warning labels on there too in case you get hungry and forget." Piper smiled warmly before looking around at where Alex was.

Suddenly aware that the conversation had stopped, Alex looked up from where she was at the front of the store and walked over to them. "Hey, nice store." Was all she said, before looking at the pile of leaflets. "Those for us?" Alex held her hand out as though she just wanted to get the Hell out of there, not interested in the smalltalk.

"Yes, yes they are. Look, it was just a bet, if you don't want to go out there and do this then we can call it-"

"It's fine Piper. Just give us the leaflets. What area are we posting in?" Alex cut her off quickly.

"Yeah man, there's no way I'm punking out. I got pride you know!" Poussey chipped in.

"OK, well I certainly appreciate you doing this for us. If you can take this side Alex, this leaves you with this area here Poussey." She pointed at the little street map. "Most of these are apartment blocks, so you'll be done in no time I think. Come back here when you're done so I can warm you up a little. I mean make you a coffee or something to say thanks."

Alex took her share of the pile and nodded as she headed out, with Poussey following quickly behind.

"Wait! Say 'cheese'..." Piper snapped a quick photo with her phone for Nicky. "Proof that you turned up." Alex gritted her teeth and turned to get this torture over with.

It was 8pm and they still weren't back yet. Piper was getting hungry and a little worried that it was taking longer than expected. She was looking at take out menus when Alex pushed the door open half an hour later.

"Hey, you're back. Where's Poussey at?"

"Hey, she had a call to sort something out for Taystee so I said I'd finish up her batch so she could get back. Sorry it took a bit longer than planned."

"Oh, OK. You didn't have to do that Alex, we could have just called it off you know. But thank you."

"No worries."

They stood on opposite sides of the counter for a few moments, the silence becoming awkward as neither of them knew how to be 'normal' around each other.

"I was just about to order take out if you're hungry? I said coffee earlier, but I'm way past that since I haven't eaten since 1...Unless you need to be someplace else?" Piper was grateful for Alex delivering all of those leaflets for her and she also knew this was an opportunity to talk. She needed answers to some burning questions and didn't know if there would be another chance.

"Takeout sounds good. Um, are we eating here?"

"Yeah, if that's ok? Neutral ground and all that...Pizza or Chinese?"

"Pizza would be great. Listen, Poussey dropped me 20 bucks for finishing her round, shall I nip down the street for some beers while you order?"

"Yeah, sounds good to me. We can eat in the store room so the customers don't think we started selling pizza scented soaps in the morning."

Piper ordered the pizzas for delivery and turned out the front store lights to show they were closed. She picked up the chairs and took them into the stock room and liked up some boxes as a makeshift table. She was fine until she remembered she was setting up for dinner with Alex. The first time they had been alone since she abandoned her 4 years ago and there were some pretty big topics looming over pizza in the stock room.

Alex returned with the beers and put them in the store room. Piper suggested they have a beer in the front of the store so they could see the delivery guy arrive.

Alex twisted the caps off the bottles and handed Piper a cold beer. The brunette held her beer out and said "cheers". Piper hesitated to clink bottles "What are we toasting?"

Alex thought for a moment "New beginnings?"

"I'm not sure you can have a new beginning without closure on the old one." Piper said quietly while looking at her bottle.

"Well, I don't think 'heres to opening old wounds' is technically a toast Piper." Her tone was measured, but the hurt was there in Alex's words.

Piper winced at the comment and was about to suggest this was a bad idea when Alex walked over to the selection of gift boxes next to the counter. "The shop is looking really good. Are these the sets you've been promoting?"

"Thanks. Yeah, there are some bigger ones out back but these ones have been selling well. Hopefully we can sell even more after you posted all the adverts tonight. Thanks for doing that, I really do appreciate it." Piper smiled.

The pizza delivery guy tapped on the window and she went over to pay and lock the door when he left.

"Mmm, they smell delicious. Are we heading into the other room then?"

They picked up the empty bottles and sat in the stock room with the pizzas. Opening a fresh bottle each, Piper continued to tell Alex about their plans for the store when she realised it was her doing all the talking and Alex doing all the eating.

"What are you doing these days Alex? Why are you in New York?" Piper tried to keep her tone light, but Alex saw through that and knew it was a much bigger question.

"Why don't you say what you really mean Piper?" Alex looked her straight in the eye.

Piper closed her eyes for a moment and took a long breath. She wasn't sure if she was ready for the answers she might get to these questions. What if Alex was still working for the cartel? Would she even be staying in New York and what if she wasn't? Would Piper even care if Alex left her life again so soon after she walked back into it?

"OK. Why are you here?"

"Well I could answer that a hundred different ways. Do you want to be more specific? " Alex knew that Piper hated this direct approach and deliberately put her on the back foot.

"OK, let's start with why are you in New York?"

"I live here and I work here. Next?"

"Are you still working for Kubra?"

Alex flinched at his name and swallowed hard before answering. She knew this was the big question for Piper. "No, I'm not. I'm not working for the cartel anymore." Alex looked into Piper's eyes as she spoke so the blonde would know it was the truth and she could see her reaction immediately. Relief. It was definitely relief she saw.

"Really? It's not the kind of job you can resign from Alex..." Piper's initial reaction of being pleased to hear Alex wasn't dealing in drugs anymore was replaced by suspicion. Alex could see that this was going to lead to many other, more awkward questions and she decided to choose a less painful version of the truth for now. "Yeah, well I did and I have a legal job and pay taxes and all that shit now. When I'm not playing delivery girl for an ex-girlfriend who saw an opportunity for some forced humility that is."

"You think this is me taking some revenge by setting that forfeit up? Fucks sake Alex, it was a spur of the moment thing. Anyone could have thrown an idea in the air. Or you could have declined, but your ego is too big for that. You're just pissed that you lost. You always were a shitty loser."

"Well, that's enough 'new beginnings' for tonight I think. I'm not seeing any clean slates here, so I think I will try somewhere else." Alex downed the rest of her bottle as she rose to leave. She picked up her jacket and went to the doorway, but Piper was blocking her exit.

"Why are you really here Alex?"

"I told you. I work here. Im not playing these games with you tonight. This is exactly the kind of scenario where we hurt each other and neither of us is ready to deal with that. I know it's been a shock seeing each other and maybe it's just too soon right now to be doing this." Alex wasn't sure whether she was convincing herself or Piper with those words.

"I work here? Is that all you've got? You turn up in the same bar with the same people I'm out with one night out of the blue after 4 fucking years of absolute silence and that's all the answers you've got for me?!" Piper was livid that Alex was trying to run. That was Piper's speciality and she hated that the tables were turned.

"Yeah, I guess it is." Alex pushed past her and strode towards the door before Piper could stop her.