There's an argument so bear through it as best you can. All will be well with Vauseman by the end of the next chapter. I promise.

Chapter 25

A few days later…

"Hi, Babe."

The brunette had stayed much later than usual at the bookstore due to a book signing she had scheduled last minute to boost the reputation a tad bit more going into the summer. Ever since the meeting with the contractor, Alex had tried to push it out of her brain and focus on what was in front of her, but it still nagged her like an annoying fly. It would just keep on finding its way back to Alex, buzzing around her head. The more it came up, the more she found herself busying herself at work.

Walking into the closet, after walking through the unusually quiet apartment, Alex found her fiancé folding the clothes that had been sitting on top of the island for a week, ever since Alex had proposed. She had also seen her toddler sprawled out asleep on her and Piper's bed. Everything had been so unreal and dream-like to Piper all week with the shimmering distraction on her finger. The blonde woman had barely gotten anything done at work or at home.

At Popi, the first couple of days, Polly would sit and gaze at the ring with Piper, but that wore off quickly and the owner constantly berated Piper for not getting anything done, even threatening to make her put it in her purse so she wouldn't gaze at it for hours on end. At home, Piper had almost burned dinner as she got lost in how the ring looked on her finger as she scraped the spatula around the skillet. Alex looked on from where she had been feeding Conner, shaking her head and trying not to laugh.

"Hi, Al."

"Did you get everything packed for this weekend?"

"Mhmm. Bags are already in the living room."

Piper finished folding the toddler sized, dinosaur printed pajamas before setting them in a pile and embracing her lover. Alex's arms automatically linked around Piper's tiny waist and her lips connected with the blonde's forehead, trailing down until she landed on her soft, pink lips.

"How was the signing?"

"Great, so great. Hectic, and crazy, but great. The signings just remind me of why we need a bigger space."

"You'll get there, babe."

Piper let go of her fiancé and turned back towards the laundry. Alex noticed that Piper's tone had changed at the mention of expanding the store. Earlier in the week when Alex had told her about how the meeting went, Piper had said maybe it was a blessing in disguise so they could focus on the wedding, but Alex couldn't focus on the wedding conversation. The only thing she remotely remembers from the conversation was that they had decided on early August for the wedding. Piper had recently started filling her head with ideas and they had only been engaged a week. It seemed like every other sentence out of Piper's mouth was about the wedding, but Alex could barely get the failed meeting out of her head.

Alex undressed out of her work attire into something more comfortable, and started to help Piper fold the rest of the laundry. The pair was quiet until Alex broached the subject of her store once again.

"I was wondering if you would go with me to look at spaces next week."

Piper looked up from placing her and Alex's laundry in their respective places.

"Al, I thought we were gonna go look at venues for the wedding? That's what we talked about earlier this afternoon when I called you about looking at outside venues. Summer weddings are huge up here, if we don't start looking now we're never going to get anywhere. I bet places are already booked up as it is."

"Piper we have two months to plan. We just got engaged last weekend. You said you didn't want anything big anyways, how hard can it be to plan a wedding? You buy some flowers, buy a dress, and walk down the aisle. How hard can that be to plan?"

Alex's tone was so nonchalant, Piper didn't know what to think. It was like she was completely overlooking the whole meaning of a wedding. A wedding to Piper meant two lovers planning a magical and unforgettable day; the start of their new journey.

Piper scrunched her eyebrows together and opened her mouth to speak but decided against it.

"What?"

Alex shrugged as she looked on at her blonde fiancé.

"Alex, planning a wedding is supposed to be a fun and exciting experience for the both of us. It's the beginning of a new chapter. This is our day, not just mine. A wedding isn't that simple to plan."

"Well then Monday after we get back from Massachusetts, we'll sit down and plan the whole thing. It can't be that hard."

Piper shook her head as she picked up a stack of clothes to take to Conner's room to bet put away.

"Alex, you're missing the whole point. If we wanted such a simple ceremony, we could just go down to the courthouse in the morning and get it over with."

"Piper we can't have a lavish, royal wedding like princess Diana did if that's what you're shooting for. I need to save money for the new location. I may not be able to get as good a deal like I did with the one we were trying to get into."

Those words stung to Piper. They stung so badly. Alex had practically just told her that work was going to come before their wedding. Plus, a new bookstore was more important than Piper getting the wedding she wanted. Piper had intended the wedding planning to be something fun where they both input what they wanted, not Piper planning the whole thing and Alex just showing up. A wedding to Piper was something so intimate and a journey for both partners.

"I can't believe you just said that…" Piper shook her head as she started to walk out of the walk-in. "Just worry about your fucking bookstore and I'll tell you what time to show up to the wedding. Don't you worry about a thing, Al. "

Piper's tone was full of hurt and sarcasm. Alex had quickly caught on to it as soon as Piper started to speak.

"Piper, that's not what I meant. All I said was that we can't spend tens of thousands of dollars on our wedding. I want to help, I want to give you the wedding you want, I just need to get all of the shit with the bookstore figured out. "

The brunette was getting defensive.

"Alex, you're not treating this as our wedding, you're treating this as my wedding. It's like you really do just want me to deal with all the planning so it doesn't add any more stress to your life. You've been putting work before your family here lately, Al. I understand your upset about how your meeting went, but maybe if you quit trying so hard, it'll come when the time is right. You're trying to force it. Focus on what's in front of you."

Alex was glaring at Piper from the opposite side of the island where she had opened the drawer to put away a stack of clothes. Her hands were splayed out on top of the white island and her glasses had been moved to the top of her head.

"Piper I can't help it-."

"You can help it, Alex. You fucking own the place, the business is booming, you act like the store is on the verge of being forced to close. Piper shook her head. "I want this wedding to be our experience, because it's not just me who's getting married it's you too. We agreed on a summer wedding, and that we wanted to go ahead and get married instead of waiting the year like everyone else does. That's gonna come with stress due to having to plan so quickly, and neither one of us has planned a wedding so we have to take that into account."

"Piper, that's bullshit. You we're engaged to Jake and you were in Polly's wedding, so you have to at least know something about the planning."

That was the final straw. The tears were beginning to prickle in her eyes, and the lump in her throat was starting to form, getting harder to push down by the second. Alex hadn't even gotten her facts straight before spouting it out. The brunette had brought up the past that Piper had made peace with, but this hit home.

"Alex…" Piper had to pause to contain the tears that were threatening to pour out of her blue orbs. Her voice was barely audible. "That's not even true…I wasn't engaged to Jake…We had briefly talked about it a couple of weeks before he passed…What's even shittier, was that when I was cleaning out his clothes from the closet to take to his mother, I found an engagement ring in one of his shoes. Do you know how broken I was after that? That's the father of my child, Alex. The father that he won't even get to meet or spend time with."

The first few tears had started to fall as Piper continued and Alex had to grip the edge of the island to not rush over and wipe them away. Piper was far too upset for her to want any affection from Alex. The more Piper talked, the more Alex understood she was in the wrong. All Piper wanted was this to be about them uniting as one.

"I had always dreamed about getting married to him after Conner was born and then having another baby and living the happy life. But that was all taken away from me and then four months later I met you. Alex, Conner and I love you, and you love Conner and I unconditionally just like Jake did. So it's only normal for me to want the same with you because we both haven't experienced any of this."

The blonde turned to walk out of the closet as soon as Conner had started to cry. He had woken up by himself, something he wasn't used to when laying in Alex and Piper's bed. Piper wiped the tears that had fell, tucked the laundry under her arm, and went to grab her son from the bed.

Alex stood still, glued to the island until she heard Piper close the bedroom door. The brunette could hear Conner's cries grow smaller the further down the hall Piper went. Alex figured she was taking him to the kitchen to get milk. Slamming the door to the still open drawer, Alex debated on going after Piper, but decided she need to gain her composure before doing so.

Everything was overwhelming her with how fast things were progressing. She had only proposed last weekend and Piper was already planning the wedding. Besides the wedding, Piper wanted a second baby, and soon at that. On top of all that, Alex was worried about her bookstore not being able to find a new location before it outgrows the current location. Alex did have to admit that she had been focusing more on work and less on her family. She was taking too much on at once, and couldn't seem to slow down.

Later on that night, after Alex put away the rest of the laundry in the closet, and taken a steamy shower, Piper quietly ventured back into the master suite. Alex's head automatically turned towards the door from where she was lying in bed in her robe when she heard it open. The blonde still had a now sleeping Conner on her hip. Her eyes head tear stains trailing down from them and her face was glum.

"Piper…"

"Not now, Alex…" Piper's tone was weak and dejected. "I can barely get him to stay asleep."

"Do you need some help?"

Alex figured it was the least she could do.

"No, thanks."

"Piper-."

"Alex. I got it. Okay?"

Piper grabbed Conner's blanket from their bed and exited the room once more.

The blonde hadn't even made eye contact with Alex. Making the brunette feel even smaller than she already was. This had been their first big argument since Alex had been caught with Nicky's drugs. They had been communicating less and less than they used to, a big part of their current problem.

The whole night Alex tossed and turned in the king sized bed. She was used to Piper's cold feet tucked under her legs, or her body closely entwined with hers. The sweet scent of Piper wasn't as strong due to her absence, leaving Alex to lay with her face buried in the blonde's pillow.

Deciding to risk facing Piper's wrath, Alex quietly exited the master bedroom in the early hours of the morning to get a glass of water, and was pleased to find the apartment dark, and quiet. As she tip toed into the kitchen and turned on the light, she could hear a faint snore from the living room. Walking into the living room and leaning over the back of the sectional, she found Piper laying on her side facing the back of the couch, and Conner was lying in between Piper and the couch tucked fast asleep under her chin. His little hand was lightly laying on Piper's cheek. In that way he was just like his mother, he needed skin contact with someone. Leaning over the back of the couch, Alex adjusted the blanket that was wrapped around Conner and grabbed a throw from the end of the couch to place over Piper. Brushing a gentle hand over the toddler's hair, Alex bent down and a placed a gentle kiss to his and Piper's crown.

Sleeping seemed far from her mind as she racked her brain on how to ease the stress and make things better. It was almost unrealistic at how things changed so quickly. One moment they were basking in the engagement bliss and the next they were drowning in the stresses of life and family.

The morning was tense and quiet as the pair loaded Pipers BMW, and started the three and a half hour drive to Massachusetts. What was supposed to be a fun, joy-filled weekend for Piper's birthday was starting out on a bad note. All that Piper knew was that they were meeting Jim and Barbara at their beach house, she had no idea that Polly, Pete, Finn, Alan, and his now husband Hector were all showing up to celebrate with them.

Alan and Hector had gone down to the courthouse and got married on their four year anniversary. Piper had sent congratulations and flowers from herself, Alex, and Conner. The blonde also kept tabs on how their surrogate was doing with their pregnancy. She was now three months along and the two men anxiously awaited their appointment to know the gender of their child.

After a stop at a convenience store to let Piper use the restroom, and a diaper change for Conner, Alex had tried to engage in an actual conversation with her fiancé instead of the small talk they had exchanged all morning. She wasn't even sure if they had said more than twenty words to each other all morning. Alex had barely slept, and it was a miracle she was able to keep herself awake while driving considering the quietness in the car. It was like Conner could sense the tension, so he opted to quietly watch Toy Story on Piper's iPad or sleep intermittently, occasionally calling out for one of the two women to look at an animal on the side of the road.

At one point, Alex's hand had brushed up against Piper's as they rested on the center console. The brunette had tried to hold the blonde's hand but Piper quickly retracted her hand and busied herself with replying to emails on her phone. It was taking every ounce of self-control to not just bring up the elephant in the room, but she wanted to keep it civil in front of Conner. If she or Piper became enraged or overwhelmed, so would he, and Alex didn't necessarily want to drive with a screaming toddler behind her.

The moment the family pulled up to the Massachusetts beach house, Barbara was waiting on the front porch for them. As soon as she hugged Piper and Alex, she knew something was wrong. Nothing got past Jake's mother, it was one of her WASPy superpowers. Not wanting to start the weekend off on a bad note, she led the pair inside and hoped to make the best of the weekend.

A/N: Everything will be fine, I won't let anything too major happen, but arguments do happen. The next chapter is already underway so look for that this week. I have finals so be patient with me.

Suggestions? Comments? Concerns?