A/N Starting a chapter with apologies seems to get common for me… I'm sorry for everyone who died waiting for this update, been a little crazy for me lately with personal stuff, friends (how dare I having those things) and the pride. And whenever I had the time to write I just couldn't bring myself to do so, just stared at the letters for an hour. Know that - sadly - delays will continue to occur. But I definitely want and will finish the story… eventually.

And regarding Stella you readers have spoken, I guess, I'm kinda relieved about that. So, to make it official: No Stella in this story! (Or probably any of my stories for that matter.)

Chapter 10
Panic II

Newark, New Jersey
Springfield/Belmont
01:02 PM

It is now a day ago that Alex learned about Piper's profession. She hasn't spoken to her since. The blonde tried to call her three times during the previous day, but Alex ignored her cell, not sure what to say or what to do.

She's back at the warehouse with Taystee and Megan, showing them how to pack a bag as her cell rings again. She put it on mute, but it makes a loud noise anyway as it vibrates on the wooden desk next to her.

Alex stares at the phone, but can't identify the caller because of the reflection, even though she's pretty sure who it is. As Taystee leans over the desk and stares at the screen, she wants to fuzz at her to stay away from her stuff, but instead just asks, "who is it?"

"Some blonde chick."

Alex sighs, nods and simply turns back to the bag, continuing with her previous task. The only number a picture of some blonde chick added to is Piper's.

"You ain't gonna get that?"

"Nope", she answers with finality and then gestures to Taystee and the bag, "and now come here, this is important."

While she shows them how to close the seams so that nobody would be suspicious, the phone ceases its movements eventually. A few minutes later it buzzes anew, but a lot shorter, indicating that she just got a message, probably also from Piper. That would be message number nine by now, none of the prior were read by her.

"Chick is persistent", Taystee mumbles and Alex only nods in agreement.

New York City, New York
Manhattan
DEA New York Division
01:09 PM

"No luck?", Piper hears her colleague asking as she comes back into their shared office. She still stares at the message she sent to Alex seconds ago. A simple Call me, please. Her earlier messages were all pretty similar to that one.

She's trying to reach Alex since her break yesterday, but the brunette never picked up or answered to any of the text messages.

"No", Piper sighs and puts the phone down on the desk before she plops down on her chair and grabs the closest file from the yet-to-read stack.

"Don't worry, Chapman, she'll come around", Nicky assures her and grabs a file from the same pile as well.

"What makes you sure of that?"

Nicky shrugs and opens the file, "she seemed confident in the bar."

"What do you mean with that?"

"Ah, come on, don't play the dumb blonde, blondie", Nicky sighs and Piper just glares at her until she continues, "the way she looked at you. Pure Confidence. Certainty. Like a lion looks at an antelope right before sinking its teeth in the soft flesh."

Piper stays quiet while she tries to remember Alex's eyes, always fixed at her own eyes or lips or any other part of her body. Whenever she was in Alex presence and looked at the brunette, the brunette glimpsed at her as well. Observing every step she took. Like a predator. And Piper was the prey.

But what now after her hunt was successful?

"Aside from that I hope she'll come around", Nicky pulls her out of her thoughts once more, "I really don't want to kill her."

Confused Piper looks at her colleague, "what?"

Nicky shrugs and turns her gaze back to the file in her hands. "I told her I'd kill her if she breaks your heart", she says nonchalantly and Piper can't do more than stare at her.

Chicago, Illinois
Southwest Side
Chicago Midway International Airport
08:14 PM

Alex sits in a leased car parked in a lot near the entrance to the airport, waiting for her two new trainees. They seemed confident when she gave them the packed bags yesterday. Or so they thought.

They weren't packed. She showed them how to do it so that they'd pass customs, but then swapped them with identical bags without any drugs or money in it. She wasn't going to risk goods or her freedom for a test run after all.

She gazes at the clock and then opens the app on her mobile to see when the plane is supposed to be landing. There's still time, plenty of time actually. Nearly twenty minutes until the scheduled landing.

So she gazes out of the window until her mobile rings. She looks down at the device in her hand and frowns. The screen is black, no vibration, no sound, nothing. Then she hears another ring and remembers her private phone in her handbag on the passenger seat.

She bends over and rummages in it until she finds the phone and grabs it. On the screen is the same blonde pictured who called her yesterday and the day before. Who left lots of messages for her. None of them she returned.

Alex sighs, she has to deal with her at one point. Now is as good - or bad, depending how you look at it - as any other time. So she accepts the call and reluctantly puts the device near her ear.

"Hello?"

Immediately after answering the phone she hears a relieved breath. "God, Alex, finally", Piper sighs in the phone, followed by a shaky laugh, "I was starting to worry."

"Hey, sorry, I…", Alex trails of and gazes out of the window again where everything is dark. A plane prepares for a landing at the far end of the airport as she tries to come up with something to say and comes up with a lame, "things have been a little crazy."

She just hears the steady breath of Piper for a few seconds who obviously doesn't really know what to say either. When an airplane flies over the car and fills Alex's ears with its loud turbines, just as she opens her mouth to break this uncomfortable semi silence, the blonde speaks up, "are you at an airport?"

"Yeah", Alex says and looks back into the direction of the terminal, "in Chicago, actually."

"I hope, you don't eat the garbage they call pizza over there", Piper says with clearly audible disgust in her voice, causing Alex to laugh slightly, but she doesn't comment the blonde's obvious hatred for deep dish. "What are you doing there anyway?"

"Business", Alex responds without hesitation and then kicks herself inwardly. She can't risk talking about her work with the blonde even in the slightest way. If she lets something slip, she's screwed. Big time.

"I thought you're on vacation."

"Well, you got called in on your day off, didn't you?"

"Touché", is all Piper says and then lets the topic drop again. Alex hears her take a deep breath before she continues with, "we should talk about that, by the way."

"Your day off?", Alex asks in faked confusion. Of course she knows what they should talk about. But she'd rather forget the entire situation and everything what comes with it right now.

"My job. Our last conversation wasn't really…", Piper trails off, but Alex knows what she means. They didn't clarify anything, not even the real issue. Alex just got quiet and Piper got frustrated before she all but stormed out to work.

"We should", Alex eventually agrees and then looks over to her other phone as it makes a beeping sound. She unlocks it and reads on the short notification that the plane landed. "But not now. Work needs my attention", Alex sighs and runs a hand through her hair, "I'll call you as soon as I can, okay, kid?" Her voice doesn't really sound convincing and she sighs again after she realizes that.

"Okay", Piper just says and then, after a short farewell, they hang up again. And Alex still doesn't know what to do and what to say when she'll call her. If she can find the courage to do that anyway. It'd be much easier if she could just disappear on the blonde. But how can you disappear on a cop?

Thirteen minutes later she gets the first text on her business mobile. It says Checkpoint One, exactly what she told them to write. After thirty-seven minutes the second text arrives and another seven minutes later she hears a knock at the window of her car. The two women smile wide smiles at her, their white teeth flashing in the dark.

She opens the door and steps out of the car. "Welcome to Chicago", is all she says as she heads to the trunk, opens it and deposits the two bags inside.

"Any problems?", she asks them as they all sit in the car and head towards a hotel she booked rooms for them earlier.

They decline immediately. "What's next?", Taystee asks.

"We stay at the hotel and tomorrow you'll travel to Europe, meet a colleague of yours and learn."

"And you?"

"I won't", is all Alex says and continues to drive them in silence. She'll stay the next days in Chicago, meet up with some clients Fahri asked her to meet, but that's none of the girls' business. She doesn't usually meet any of their clients personally or when she does not alone, but this is a favor for Fahri. And it's not bad to have the right hand of Kubra owe you something.

After that she'll wait for the girls to return and end the test run before heading back to New York together with them.

"So, how are they doing?", Fahri asks her on the phone the next day after the two girls headed to the airport to fly to their next destination, his voice crackles due to the bad line.

"Not bad. Actually this Taystee girl seems to be really good. A bit goofy, but determined", Alex has to admit, though she still doesn't like the fact that she was just passed to her without even asking.

"Good, then everybody will be happy."

"What's the deal with her, though?", Alex inquires.

"Vee wants her to learn."

That much she already knows. "And since when does Kubra was Vee says?", she asks irritated. Vee isn't that big of a shot in the cartel. She has influence, yes, but not enough to make Kubra even twitch. Aside from that she doesn't get why Vee wants a girl who is supposed to sell drugs to learn how to smuggle them from country to country.

"You need to ask Kubra for that."

She sighs and shakes her head thoughtfully. "He probably just knows it bugs me", she laughs softly, "this is my punishment for Leila."

"Probably", Fahri agrees.

New York City, New York
Queens
Astoria
01:49 PM

The tiny bell above the door chimes as Nicky opens it and steps into the small market with an integrated bakeshop. Piper follows suit with some files tucked under her arm. She puts them down on the next best table and then joins her colleague at the counter.

"Coming!", a female voice hollers from the back of the store moments before Red turns around the corner. Her green apron is stained with flour, her red dyed hair is hidden under a hairnet. She looks down at her apron and tries in vain to brush the flour off it while huffing.

Nicky made the suggestion that they grab their lunch at Dmitir's instead of the cafeteria.

"We don't have enough time for that", Piper protested at first. They needed almost their entire break to just arrive at the small market in Queens, so they definitely didn't have enough time to eat there.

"So? We'll just say we follow a lead or something like that", Nicky argued, "we need to get out of here for some hours. You need to get out of here", she clarified and poked the blonde roughly on her sternum.

Nicky wasn't wrong. They've been at the office for the last days without leaving for a lead or investigation even once, Piper herself even staying late, distracting herself with reading files and viewing the few evidence again and again without really getting closer to anything.

So she sighed in defeat and agreed, but not without grabbing randomly some of the files she didn't read yet. Nicky didn't comment that, but simply shook her head.

"Hey, ma", Nicky greets her mother of choice whereat Red looks up from her apron to stare into Nicky's brown eyes and forms a small smile with her red lips. Then her gaze switches to Piper.

"And you brought blondie", her tone is neutral. Piper never really knows if the Russian woman is happy to see her, or wants her to go. Or if she just has no opinion about her at all.

Granted, they had a pretty bad start when Piper told her that she isn't really that fond of the Russian cuisine. The woman who takes a lot of pride in her cooking, how Piper learned later, took it personal and since then tried her best to convince Piper of her culinary art. With success, Piper has to admit. Especially the breakfasts and sweets she began to devour with pleasure after a short while.

"Red", Piper simply nods at her and smiles her usual smile.

"What can I do for you?", Red asks and puts some see-through plastic gloves on.

The two agents order their lunch composed of some sweet baked goods and Red wastes no time to put the order together. "Priyatnogo appetita", she hands them the filled plates and then disappears to the kitchen again to prepare a, how she calls it, special treat for her daughter.

"She spoils you", Piper says dryly to Nicky as they sit down. Her colleague just shrugs and takes a bite of the food. Piper does the same and meanwhile skims yet another file she brought with her.

This one is about a drug cartel from South Africa, operating all over the world and known to be active in the USA as well, but none of the former evidence seems to be from the east coast. Whoever works for this cartel doesn't seem to do it around here, so she dismisses the file for now.

The file she takes next is distinctly thinner than the first, she sighs, full aware that that means, they won't have many evidence for this cartel. She opens it and skims it as well. The presumably leader is Kubra Balik, but there's not much known about him. He's a Turkish citizen and under surveillance, which rarely seems to work.

Every time some evidence pointed at him in the past, it simply vanished, same goes for witnesses. Whenever the DEA was on the verge of even remotely pinning him down, he disappeared and wasn't seen for months. But he was spotted at JFK only a few weeks ago, entering the country.

The rest of the file shows bad pictures of him and other people, one man with short dark hair and a mustache particularly often.

"What do you think about them?", Piper asks her colleague and tosses the light file over.

Nicky opens it and skims through the few pages and pictures, "not much in here."

"Exactly", Piper nods, "that means they're good."

"Or innocent", Nicky hands the file back to the blonde who just ignores the comment and puts the file aside as well, but not before marking it with a blank red sticky note, so she doesn't forget to put it on the possible-suspects pile when she's back at the office later.

A young blonde girl with cornrows steps close to the table and puts a teapot, two cups and a bowl with warenje between the two women. "Red told me, to bring you that", Tricia says. The girl isn't just one of Red's employees, she is one of her protégés and only here because of Nicky and Piper.

The two found the girl over a year ago on the streets of New York, wandering aimlessly around with dark eyes, glossy skin and twitching muscles. Her whole body trembled and not just because of the early winter's cold.

She practically radiated cold turkey and the two brought her to Red, because they knew that the Russian woman with disgust for drugs of any kind takes young addicts and street kids under her wing if she can afford it at the time.

And she took Tricia as well, which was good for Nicky and Piper as well since she could name some of the local dealers after her condition got better.

"Thanks", Piper smiles politely at Tricia, noticing how much better she looks contrary to the last time she saw her when her eyes still seemed kind of hollow and her skin hung limply on her bones like a wet towel on a line. She pours in some tea for herself and Nicky. Tricia steps behind the counter and begins to clean it, while Piper and Nicky enjoy their lunch further.

"So", Nicky eventually begins and puts yet another file away, "how are things with Vause?"

Out of the corner of her eye Piper can see Tricia look up from the counter, obviously paying attention to their conversation, but she doesn't give it a second thought.

"No word", Piper sighs and rubs her temple. She doesn't really want to think about her right now. It's been three days since the other woman told her that she's on a business trip in Chicago. Three days since she promised she'd call her.

But her voice was hollow, sick with guilt, she could already tell back then that she wouldn't receive a call from Alex anytime soon. She began to ponder for the reason of it, but didn't come up with anything good since she didn't really want to believe that her occupation could be a reason for this sharp retreat. Or the only reason at least.

"She will talk", Nicky assures her yet again with confidence in her voice, confidence Piper doesn't really share, so she just chooses to dismiss this topic and sticks her head back into the file she's currently holding.

That is until a "wow" is nearly whispered from across the room. Piper turns her head to Tricia who stares at them with wide eyes.

"What?"

"No offense", the girl says and walks across the counter to step closer to their table again, "but I never thought she'd get caught."

"Who?", Nicky asks confused and looks up from her file as well.

"Alex Vause. You're talking 'bout her, aren't you?"

Piper furrows her brow and drops the file, before she turns her whole body towards Tricia and tilts her head. "How do you know Alex?"

"I only heard about her through a friend", Tricia answers with a shrug, "said she's badass and doesn't slip. So I didn't think you'd get her."

Slowly it dawns on Piper what the other blonde seems to be talking about and her breathing gets heavier.

She thinks they arrested Alex.

to be continued…
Doubt