Alex deposited the empty tequila bottle in the park trash can. She steadied herself slightly on the metal structure before stumbling towards her and Piper's apartment.

She searched her pockets to no avail for the key to the outer door to the ground level entry. Finally, she leaned on a buzzer and wailed, "Pippppppppperrrrrrr. Piper I can't find my key. Buzz me up." She held the buzzer down again.

The downstairs door flew open to reveal a very pissed off Gladys. "Alex Vause! What are you doing? Do you know what time it is?"

Alex slumped against the open door jamb, head hanging down. "I lost my key."

"So you said Alex. I think everyone in the building knows. You stink. Where is your wife?"

Alex began to sniffle. "I don't know Gladys. I can't find my key."

Gladys rolled her eyes and briefly returned to her apartment returning with her grandson. "Lucky for you, my grandson moved in with me. I believe you know Billy. He's going to help you upstairs again. What are you going to do if you pull this when he's not here Alex?" Gladys rolled her eyes and motioned for her grandson to help Alex up the stairs.

Encouraging Alex to climb the stairs was not very fruitful so he pretty much had to carry Alex up the stairs. By the time he knocked on the door, Piper was dressed and waiting. "Gladys rang up. Thanks for dragging her up here. We really should meet up sometime when she's sober! I'll make her take care of you at Alley's."

Billy just frowned. "Where do you want her?" It seemed like Alex had spilled as much tequila as she had drunk and she stunk pretty badly. So Piper had him just deposit her on the couch. Before he left the apartment, he turned back to Billy. "Oh and Piper, Granny said she wanted another bag of your smelly-good soaps, she called them. Maybe you should double the size this time."

Piper nodded at Billy as he retreated back downstairs to his comfy bed. She propped Alex up there while she went to get a shirt. She easily changed Alex's shirt but when she tried to get Alex's skinny jeans off, they were not budging from her hips. So Piper did the best she could to make Alex comfortable by pulling off her boots and emptying her pockets.

Piper pulled out Alex's cell phone, her "lost" keys, and a crumpled sheet of paper. Curious, Piper straightened out the letter the best she could.

Alex,

I know you probably don't want anything to do with me, but I know I needed to try. Writing it all in a letter is a cop out so I'm asking if you'd meet me someplace so we can talk. I have a lot to tell you and I'm sure you have an earful for me as well. Anyway, here's my number. Let me know.

Lee Burley

Piper was in utter shock. While Piper knew very little about Alex's birth father, she was positive that Alex held a lot of resentment towards him. Him appearing out of the blue must have been a shock.

She softly grazed Alex's cheek with her fingers and kissed her forehead as she pulled the blanket over Alex. "Whatever it is, we can survive this together. I love you Alex."

The next morning, Piper could tell that Alex was not going to budge from the couch anytime soon. It was well after 4 am when she had gotten home, and this is definitely a drunk she needed to sleep off. Piper left a tall glass of water and three ibuprofens on the coffee table where Alex could see them when she woke up. She then wrote her a quick note to let her know she had gone into work.

Piper had purchased a fancy coffee maker for the shop as she and everyone seemed to live on caffeine. But because she needed a little more time to think before going to work, she ran by the coffee shop anyhow to pick up pastries. Piper wasn't quite sure how to address what she knew she needed to when she got to work, but it couldn't be avoided.

Everyone was busy working upon her arrival. She deposited all the pastries except for two then asked Diane to join her across the hall. Diane had a somber look on her face as they went into the office. Piper rarely closed the office door, so Alex's mom knew immediately something was going on.

"He showed up at the bar last night, didn't he?" Diane lowered her eyes and wouldn't look at Piper.

Piper was floored. When she gathered her thoughts enough to regain her voice, she spoke. "Wait, you knew? You knew he was in town?" Diane nodded. Piper reached over and grasped her mother-in-law's hand. "Mom, look at me. Tell me what's going on."

"Oh Piper. I asked him to wait, to let me prepare her for him being here. I can't believe he went there anyway. She must be devastated."

"Frankly I'm not sure devastated is the word I'd use Diane. She came home last night so drunk she could barely walk. She is still sleeping it off on the couch."

Diane shoved her chair back and began to pace in the small space. "I'm truly sorry Piper. You know I would never ever intentionally put my daughter in any type of emotional distress."

"Why don't you start from the beginning?"

Diane took her seat again and began to talk."

Alex groaned as she woke up to light streaming into the living room. "Fuck!" She immediately scrunched her eyes shut to block out the offensive light. Even the vibration from her cursing caused the pain in her head to intensify to say nothing of the crick in her neck from her night on the couch.

Eventually Alex was able to pull herself to a sitting position. She grabbed the pain killers and gulped them down with the entire glass of water. She fumbled to put on her glasses so she could read Piper's note then took them off again. She fell back on the couch, exhausted but no longer intoxicated. She was, however, extremely hungover.

Alex's bladder was about to explode, so she managed to draw herself up and stumbled to the bathroom. She splashed water on her face and did her best to pull her hair back. As she tottered her way back to the couch, she saw where Piper had emptied her pockets of her cell phone, keys, and crumpled letter. The letter. FUCK! The reason for her night of binge drinking hit her like a ton of bricks. Lee Fucking Burley. That bastard had nerve showing up in this town and in her bar.

xXx

Piper quietly entered the apartment to see that the crumpled blanket on the couch. She placed the bags of take out on the kitchen bar and went in search of Alex. She found her curled up on Piper's side of the bed, tightly holding Piper's pillow.

Piper laid down on Alex's side of the bed and wrapped her arms tenderly around her wife. She scooted as close as she could so that she could kiss Alex's cheek and hold her. Soon Alex stirred, opening her eyes to see Piper staring at her.

"Hey."

"Hey back. You okay?"

Alex shook her head and wriggled her body around so her back was against Piper's front. "Hold me?"

Piper pulled Alex into her and was quiet as Alex laid in their bed.

"He's here Pipes. In town."

"I know babe."

"How did he find me? Oh god, I need to call mom. She's going to be devastated. I can't let him do this to her again." Alex tried to pull herself up but Piper tightened her arms around her wife.

"Alex. No. Don't go."

Alex quickly flipped over, eyes wild. "What? Piper? What!? Did she know? Did my mom know he is here?" Piper was silent. "Pipes, talk to me. Tell me!"

"Babe, I'm not sure it's my story to tell." Piper could tell that this new knowledge upset Alex. She sighed deeply. "I talked to your mom this morning. Don't be mad at her Al. She tried to get him to wait until she talked to you. She's pretty upset that he didn't."

"Well I'm pretty upset that he's even fucking here." Alex flipped over to her back. "He can go back to hell for all I care. I'm not meeting him."

Piper knew enough to be quiet and keep her opinions to herself while Alex was being bad-tempered. "I brought lunch. Why don't we get some food into your stomach?"

"I cannot believe you went by the bar Lee." Diane was trying to keep her voice even and calm. "I asked you to wait and let me be the buffer." Diane paused as the man on the other end of the phone spoke.

Her voice raised in volume. "Lee, wait just a damned minute. You have no claim on Alex as your blood kin not to mention as your daughter. You were never her father. Do you know what she calls you? The sperm donor. That's how my baby feels about you. Your little stunt last night may have cost you any chance with Alex."

Diane again listened, her blood boiling. "I'll see what I can do Lee. No promises. Do not go by there again. I'm warning you or it's over."

Nicky was wiping down tables when Poussey and Taystee came in. All three stopped to do a quick shimmy and shake as they celebrated the previous night. "Girls… what are you doing here? It's your day off."

"Yours, too, Nic."

"Piper texted me this morning and said boss lady wasn't feeling well. Asked if I would open for her. Who am I to say no?"

Taystee looked at Nicky seriously. "Not feeling well, eh? Hungover as hell I'm sure. If she finished off that bottle of tequila like I'm sure she did."

"Before we get into the serious shit, how about last night? Are you two still on the high that I'm on?" Poussey was grinning from ear to ear.

"Hell yeah. I found a surprise in my tip jar when I got home." Nicky polished her nails on her shirt. "Know that redhead I've had my eye on forever? She left her number dude. Dude! I'm so pumped. Now I'm like a kid again and don't know how long I should wait before I text her. So P, what serious shit are you talking about?"

Poussey crawled up on a barstool. "So that band from last night. Death Maiden. The one that had boss lady all upset?" Nicky nodded. Taystee had obviously already heard the news. "I did some background on the band. If I remember the guy that came in right, he was the drummer – Lee Burley. Now I don't know this for sure, but the dates and time frame work out. But I think he's Alex's dad." Poussey paused to let that soak in.

"Her dad? What the fuck! Alex doesn't have a dad, does she?"

Taystee gave her a small shove in the chest. "We all have dad's dumb ass. There was only one instance of immaculate conception and I don't think it was Alex Vause."

"So yeah. I think that's why she took off like a banshee."

Nicky ran her hands through her mop of hair. "Dayyyyyyyyyum that's some serious shit. If it's true, he had a lot of nerve just showing up here. If he thinks he can just waltz into her life and shred it into a million pieces, he's wrong."

The bartenders chatted a bit more before Poussey and Taystee took their leave. They had made a pact to circle the wagons around Alex. As much as they all teased each other, they were a fiercely loyal group of employees.

With her hands on the wall, Alex ducked her hand down between her arms. The scorching hot water scalded her back as it beat out the rest of the alcohol from her pores. She was trying to use the pain of the water on her skin to remove the pain in her heart. She stood still in the water until it flowed cold, closing her pores.

Alex finally shut off the water and used her hands to wring some of the water out of her jet black hair. She blindly reached out for the large fluffy towel hanging on the hook next to the shower door. Blotting off her skin, she looked at her face in the mirror and saw the stress of the night before lingering in and below her eyes.

Despite having spent close to an hour in the water, Alex's mind was still spinning. While she was flabbergasted that Lee was in town, she was even more so that her mother knew and didn't warn her. At this point, Alex felt hurt more than anything.

After dressing, she dragged herself into the living area where Piper was patiently waiting on her. "Hey babe. Did the shower help?" Alex shrugged as she sat on a stool and motioned for a cup of coffee from the third pot they had plowed through today.

"Thanks for being here for me Piper." Piper nodded. "Is mom at work today? I think I need to talk to her."

"Are you sure that's a wise idea right now Al? You still seem pretty upset."

Alex glared at her wife. "You think? Hell yeah I'm upset. My mother is my best friend and she's betrayed me." Alex's voice began to rise. "How would you feel if I betrayed you like this Piper?"

"Whoa, whoa there Al. Chill. It's not Diane's fault. She asked him to wait until she had a chance to talk to you."

"You just don't get it. She KNEW Piper. She KNEW he was here and didn't tell me. How long has she known Piper?" At this point, Alex was standing, seemingly ready to strike out at something, anything to let out her obvious anger.

"This isn't my story to tell Alex. Calm down and then we can go talk to Diane together."

"No Piper. Tell me. HOW. LONG. HAS. SHE. KNOWN?" Piper had never ever seen Alex this angry. She was not afraid of Alex, but she was afraid for Alex. She wasn't sure how stable Alex was nor what she would do if she saw her mom.

Taking a deep breath, Piper stood and put her face right into Alex's. "Alex Vause. Take a deep breath. Calm the fuck down. We are talking about Diane. Your mother. The woman who gave birth to you, worked countless jobs to put a roof over your head and food in your belly as you were growing up. You need to calm down or you aren't leaving this apartment.

Piper rose the volume of her voice. "You will not say anything to your mother or do anything to upset her or you will have to answer to me. And you don't want to do that. Once you do talk to your mother, you will be kind. You will be cordial. You will be understanding. Don't test me Alex Vause. I will fight tooth and nail for your mother."

When Piper finally stopped her rampage, Alex's shoulder's slumped down as all the air left her sails.

Piper was breathing hard after screaming at her wife. Her heart was beating out of her chest as she realized that she had never ever yelled at Alex before. She immediately wrapped her arms around Alex. "Oh my god Al. I am so sorry. I did not mean to yell at you like that."

"It's okay Piper; I deserved it. I was literally seeing red. And you are right. It's my mom we are talking about and she deserves a chance to explain herself to me and for me to listen with love and respect." Alex wiped the tears from her eyes. "Thanks love."

Alex dialed the phone and waited for the voice on the other end to answer. "Mom, it's Alex. Can we do dinner?" … "Yeah Piper will be there." … "Yeah Mom. I'm okay. Thanks. See you there."