"I can't believe my baby girl is getting married. Are you sure about this? About Alex? You are so young. You just turned twenty-six. You could still find a good man who can give you babies and a nice life. You don't have to be gay. You are young, healthy and beautiful," Carol told her daughter as she sprayed her hair and checked the latches on the back of her dress one last time before pronouncing her ready to face her bride.

"Alex and I can have babies. And you were younger than I was when I met Alex when you met and married my father. So if you knew dad was the only partner for you at twenty then how can you say I didn't? I want to share my life with Alex. I know it in every fiber of my being. She's my soulmate. I love her and she's good to me. And I don't see how there's any difference here except her gender identity. And I'm not gay. I'm bisexual," Piper asserted as she looked at the reflection of her concerned mother in the mirror juxtaposed with her blissful happiness as she saw herself looking like a cross between a Flower Child and a Disney Princess, just as she had hoped when the thoughts of marrying the brunette sleeping beside her popped into her head when she was little more than a girl. Today, she was a woman who had seen the world and was strong enough to fight for what she wanted, for a dream that was uniquely her own.

"But, sweetie, you are marrying a woman so I really don't see how that works," Carol exclaimed.

"Because I fell in love with a human being named Alex who happens to be a woman. It doesn't make me gay, just like had I fell in love with a man who had every quality I love about my partner named Alex wouldn't make me straight. No matter who is on my arm I'm still bi," Piper replied, she wasn't going to let it ruin her day though. She was marrying Alex and nothing else would or could ever matter.

"Is she still lesbian, I mean how does that work, if one of you is gay and the other isn't?"

"She is still a woman in love with a woman. We are just two people in love in a mad world who are crazy about each other to give a rapidly decaying institution another shot at working in modern society. We aren't perfect but we are willing to do the work and go through life united."

"And her having been involved with drugs doesn't bother you?"

"I knew from the night we met. I never imagined I'd be married to a drug addict but I don't see that when I see her. I don't see an ex-heroin importer with her own ring of girls at her feet. I don't see a woman who abused drugs. I see the woman who is a survivor, who no matter what she does makes sure she's the best at it. Even if it means being the best drug dealer. That woman is now sober and at the top of her nursing school class. On all her evaluations she gets the highest marks and they always tell her she has a job waiting if she wants it."

"Is California still a thing," Carol asked in a judgmental, disapproving tone.

"Yes, we're putting the plans in motion for after graduation," Piper responded coolly.

"Just, sweetie, promise you won't do what your brother did when he moved to California. I only have one daughter and I know I haven't always let you know it and that's my failing, I didn't know what to do with this girl child who was the opposite of me in every way. I figured you would be my mini-me but that couldn't be further from what you are. I can't lose you," Carol admitted as Piper smiled in satisfaction in her ability to make normally resolute women crumble before her without doing anything special.

"As long as you at least try to accept me and the love of my life, to acknowledge that the only choice I made when it comes to having a female life partner was being true to myself and where my heart was guiding me and what it told me to do you will never lose me. I watched my lover lose her mother and the tailspin it caused and believe me I am in no more of a hurry to lose my mother as you are to lose your daughter."

"Did you know, what was her name? I'm sorry, I know I should know, sweetie, and I'll try harder to remember."

"Diane. Her name was Diane. And yes. She knew me and I knew her. She loved me and always made me feel at home. Whenever Alex could sneak away on a New England run she would stop in and see her mom. Even before we traveled together I met her. She flew into JFK late one night and I was living at Alex's apartment, taking care of her place, watering the plants when she was gone. She came home and told me she was driving down to see her. It was three in the morning and seemed so opposed to everything I had been taught but if showing up to your mother's house at five am was normal for them then I would go along with it. I didn't expect her to just unlock the door and start making coffee then plunk herself down on the couch while it brewed. I mean sure she bought the house but she didn't live there. I didn't know what to do or where to sit until she pulled my shirt until I fell on top of her body and she held me in her arms as we watched the morning news. And when her mom did wake up about half an hour later to us cuddling on the couch she just said, 'you must be Piper. I never thought my baby had it in her to fall for a girl the way she's fallen for you and you are somehow even prettier than she said you were.' I hate that she isn't here. She would have loved this day so much or it might have killed her anyway from the shock of seeing her baby girl get married."

"I'll bet she gave up on that dream long ago. I used to wonder how any parent could love a child who was gay or an addict, let alone one who was both. That seemed like failure in the worst way as a mother. But I love Alex. I tried hard not to but you are right she's smart and funny and loves and respects you in a way most mothers can only dream of their daughter being cared for. I can't replace Diane and what she was in either of your lives and from the sound of things I'll never be half the mother she was but I'm here for you. With one caveat."

"What, mother?"

"I still get to bug you about grandkids and then I get to bug you about having another until the third one comes along. I still want to see my daughter pregnant with a daughter of her own. To see her nursing her son. It's what women are built for, what they are intended for. I don't care if you want to be a working mother in a lesbian marriage, as long as you are a mother."

"Alex and I want kids. We want four, three feels too uneven and two not enough."

"Well, you will certainly have your hands full. I'm assuming you'll be having all four? Alex just doesn't seem the type."

"If Alex ever wanted to be pregnant she knows I would fully support it. I don't care how our children come to us, just that they do. And I hope that you would love our children no matter who their biological mother ends up being—whether me or Alex or some other woman we haven't met yet or may never meet."

"You two have considered adoption then?"

"Yes, we have. So many children have nowhere safe to go. Queer kids, children of addicts, kids who just have bad luck. Parents who can't or won't take care of their kids. Diane nearly considered giving Alex up. Either way it's a hard choice and Alex has medical training so we feel especially well situated to take in a special needs child."

"I've always said women who could do that are the true heroes of this world. I don't think I could raise a special needs child if I birthed it, let alone somebody else's or take in a drug baby. But I guess it's a sort of atonement for her sins."

"Yes, but that alone isn't enough. We just have that message in our hearts. It has more to do with Diane than it does with our past and the things we've all but gotten away with."

"Do you really think the FBI will never come after you?"

"They still could for a few more years but we aren't choosing to live our lives that way. We wake up every day and try to live our best, most honorable lives. We just want to live and love together as much as we can, for as long as we can."

"And you both are doing a wonderful job. You look so beautiful, Piper. I never imagined I'd have a daughter and then I saw the sort of girl you were and never imagined I'd see you as a bride. Let me go find your brother and father and get you married so I can start hassling you about grandbabies. I'm guessing it'll take a little longer than coming back from your honeymoon carrying a little extra souvenir."

"Yeah but that doesn't mean we won't still try just as hard as any other newlyweds who want a baby on the way before their first anniversary."

"Let me know if I can help the process along, after all you can't put a price on your only daughter giving you grandchildren. If you were married to a man and needed financial help to make me a grandmother I wouldn't hesitate to do anything in my power so why should it be any different when you're married to a woman."

"Welcome to the darkside. We have cookies, they have rainbow chocolate chips."

"Funny, Piper."

"Do I really look beautiful?"

"I've never seen you more radiant. And I'm sure Alex is going to be just as beautiful."

"Thanks, mom. Thanks for everything."

"It's against a true mother's DNA not to love her child. It's the great secret of motherhood and I shouldn't have told you until the moment I saw you holding a newborn in a hospital blanket but it'll be our little secret. You'll know soon enough anyway, of all my children you always were the most persistent. When you got it in your mind to do something there wasn't a force known to God or man that could stop you. I both loved and hated that about you, sometimes even at the same time," Carol kissed her daughter on the tuft of curled baby hair she was secretly especially fond of and gently touched her shoulder as she looked at their reflection in the mirror before she turned and left the room. Piper didn't acknowledge Alex's shared fondness for that particular golden lock, instead, she allowed her mother to think her daughter's smile was for her and not the woman it was in fact for, her beloved.

Once left alone, Piper unlocked her phone and started scrolling through pictures, looking at the favorite pictures of the two of them in her phone's camera roll, scrolling until she found her favorite picture of Alex in a black and white polka dot bikini. Piper remembered how she had begged Alex to wear polka dots just once and how many times they had gone back about whether polka dots were her thing. Of course, Piper won that argument as was typical. All she had to do was look at her with the right combination of lust and softness and she could literally have any part of Alex she wanted wrapped around her fingers in seconds. Piper was lost in thoughts of her beloved when she was startled by a light knock on the door.

"Piper," a male voice asked as she turned around rapidly.

"Dad! Hi, sorry I was just lost in a daydream."

"I was the same way when I was getting ready to marry your mother. Men don't really speak of such things but our wedding day is just as sentimental or at least it should be. You look beautiful. I never thought I'd be giving you away to your bride in a beautiful wedding dress but here we are."

"She's wearing a dress," Piper squealed as she nearly jumped out of her chair, "she must have told me a million times she was gonna wear a suit with a red bowtie!"

"You didn't know? Was I not supposed—just don't tell. I don't want to make her more offended then she probably already is with me."

"What did you do, dad?"

"I said something in a tone I shouldn't have. I was surprised to see her wearing a dress. When you told us you were with a woman named Alex I expected she would be a butch woman. I could have understood what you would have seen in that, the best parts of a man and a woman in one. Then this woman in more makeup than I've ever seen you wear and a dress with heels walked into my house. I wasn't prepared for that. She is beautiful and I have no doubt she will do anything to give you a nice life. Recently, I was playing golf with a friend at the club recently and he was asking me how his twelve-year-old niece could know she liked girls and asked me what if it's a phase. I told him maybe it is but at least she'll know you accept her no matter what, that she can come to you with things that are big and scary and if she is she'll know she's loved. I knew you weren't like most girls earlier than I wanted to admit. I wasn't surprised when you said you were dating a woman, a little bit when you said you were actually going to marry one but I never doubted you knew this was the person and lifestyle for you, only whether I agreed it was. As if that really ever mattered. So are you ready to meet your bride?"

"Is she really beautiful?"

"You sound like me on my wedding day. I couldn't wait to see what your mother looked like as a bride. I would have done anything for a little intel but nobody could have put into words what I saw when your mother walked towards me in that white dress. I made a lot of mistakes with her and I don't deserve to have her standing by me but she's stuck with me even when I haven't done the same. And I'm not going to tell you not to make mistakes, because you will and it's almost worse to try to do otherwise. Just don't say sorry if you don't mean it and aren't prepared to do whatever necessary to change. Own up to your failings. And be faithful. For God sakes, just never forget no other woman will ever love you like she does or care for your children like she can."

"Sounds like you had that speech prepared."

"I've had it ready since Danny first noticed a girl on the playground when you were still in your mother's belly. I just expected I'd be giving it to him, not the child everybody said was a girl who I was soon to hold in my arms. Let's go before Alex thinks one or both of us changed our minds."

"How do I look, daddy?"

"Like an angel, baby, like an angel," Bill held out his arm so Piper could grab his elbow as he led her towards her bride. Alex stood at the altar with their bridal party on either side and a female minister with closely cropped greyish-white hair beside her. She read from the Book of Ruth and a lesbian love poem the two liked, Alex had originally wanted lyrics to a rock song but Piper had put her foot down and then suggested a compromise, a lesbian love poem just subtle enough that her family and their friends to not figure it out yet obvious enough for their queer friends to easily grasp the subtext. Then Alex waxed poetic in a way that rivaled their seemingly perfect lesbian poem as she detailed the deep blue oceans of Piper's eyes and the honey curls of her locks. Piper didn't even try to best Alex's expression of love, instead, she told a story of love, forgiveness, and devotion before the two lit a tall white pillar candle with two long, small lavender candles.

"You shall now be as this flame, one for eternity and walking together until the flame of your lives burns out. I now pronounce you spouses for life. And this is my favorite part of any ceremony for queer women, you may now each kiss your bride. May you have many years of joy and laughter and wipe each other's tears and sweat-filled brows. Love is patient, love is kind, love is a treasure beyond all imagining," the minister told the couple as they looked deeply into each other's eyes and Alex pulled Piper close. That kiss felt like her first kiss, not just with Alex but anyone all over again. This kiss was the first one that mattered. She knew being Piper Vause wouldn't be easy but that it was the only life for her. Although, if she had known even what would have happened two hours later, let alone in the months to come she might have ran when she had the chance. When the storm clouds gathered as their wedding photo shoot wrapped up, they had assumed it was Diane's contribution to their wedding, that it was something sweet, not an omen of things soon to come.

Alex always thought she knew the signs of heroin use better than anyone yet when she saw her best friend's bloodshot eyes and pale skin she told herself it couldn't be. Nicky was just nervous to even be this close to a wedding. She was no longer in denial that Nicky was using and behaving recklessly after the credit card incident but she knew how much this day meant to both of them. Maybe she didn't understand gay marriage, maybe she never would but Nicky loved her didn't she?

Alex wasn't one hundred percent convinced she believed in marriage and all it stood for but it meant something to Piper. And it did feel good to say the words "my wife." To have people look at you with a different sort of reverence when you spoke of your upcoming nuputials. People treated you differently when you said you were married. And Alex liked it more than she ever imagined she would. She liked it when old people congratulated her and told her how special it was when they got married. At the brain injury home, there were a few guys who had wives and that devotion inspired her. She didn't know if she could do the things that she did for money for love instead. That was until she came home and saw Piper, who would inevitably napping on their couch because she still thought she could successfully wait up for her to come home from work and looked so peaceful and innocent. She knew she would do anything to care for and protect this amazing soul that chose to exist in her life. There was no sacrifice too great, nothing Piper could ever demand of her that she would refuse.

The brunette didn't love many people. She had loved her mother. She loved Piper. And she loved Nicky. That was pretty much it. Diane and Piper returned her love with the same intensity. Nicky though, Alex was beginning to think all the people who told her Nicky was incapable of love were right. Silvia and so many of her other forsaken lovers had told her and spread the word throughout the community that she was incapable of love and they had been so wrong. Alex could love, she could be a good person who helped people heal instead of enabling their vices—she just chose not to every chance she got. That was until one day she woke up and saw all she had to lose. She had always thought no price was too high for life on the edge but no high was better than fucking Piper as she moaned and her lips got so dry she could no longer scream her name or anything else, for that matter. Nicky had a good-hearted woman who was willing to give up her dreams to share their lives in the way Nicky wanted.

Still, when Nicky headed to the bathroom for the third time during their five-hour reception, Alex found herself following her. She couldn't say that what she saw was completely unexpected but it had still been surprising. Nicky had a line of white powder that looked like a mix of cocaine and crushed pills of some sort and two girls, one she knew from her meetings and the other she didn't recognize laughing as her ginger-haired friend prepared a line for each of them and they snorted it. The girl Alex didn't recognize seemed nervous, the type who hadn't done this sort of thing since her last kegger and even then never did it regularly while the other girl was a pro.

"Really, Nicky? Not only are you getting high at my fucking wedding but you are giving drugs to someone we both know is an addict?"

"Yeah, like you are Ms. High-and-mighty just cause you got sober and married into New England old money. You belong over here snorting lines, not out there waltzing and foxtrotting with your wife and her preppy Connecticut high society who think 'what spices are on this chicken' and 'what fabrics are the brides' dresses made out of' are scintillating conversation topics. It makes my skin crawl every time somebody says 'well, I guess two brides really isn't all that different. They look so in love or so beautiful.' Those people will never accept you. You will never be one of them. You are the descendant of the people who cleaned their houses and wiped their kids' asses cause they had better things to do, like lunch and tennis. And you are a lesbian. You will always be other. This," she made a line with the leftover remnants of the other two women's share of the drugs, "is where you belong, Vause. Come on, this is good shit. Think of it as your wedding present."

"I know good shit when I see it and that shit looks like shards of glass. You don't have any clue how to cut your drugs."

"Well, why don't you give us a lesson if you know so much?"

"I don't do that shit anymore. I have Piper. I'm a nurse. I love working with brain injury patients. All I want to do is go to work and help people with brain injuries then come home to Piper, a house full of kids and maybe a dog that I got ridiculously outvoted on. I'm not going to help you kill yourself, Nicky. If this is the life you have chosen for yourself I can't have you around. I can forgive the thefts and tell myself at least I know you are safe if you are stealing my meds or my wife's credit card. But trying to pull me into it, doing it at my wedding I can't forgive. You seriously couldn't stay clean for the most important day of my life? The day I needed my best friend the most? You need to leave, Nicky. Leave the wedding. And leave my life. I love you but you love this shit. At least I found something I love more than heroin. But you never will. And it hurts to realize that but it's true. I can't be there for you. I hope someday you can get it, that you can have a day like this and see love is all that matters. This shit will abandon you in the end and the sort of people you are surrounding yourself with will only be there as long as you are supplying them drugs and sex. Is that really how you wanna live?"

"It's not so bad, Is it baby," Nicky asked as she squeezed one of the girls on her ass while she kissed the other. Meanwhile, Alex looked on in disgust. She had done that same move and worse many times but to see Nicky do it made her so sick. And to see how the women both smiled flirtatiously like they had won some prize only made her disdain grow.

"All three of you, out of my wedding! And Nicky you have a girlfriend!"

"We have an arrangement."

"Yeah and yet I've never seen her kiss anybody other than you!"

"Yeah, that's kinda the arrangement," Nicky chuckled as Alex's brow furrowed and she shook her head.

"How was I ever friends with the likes of you," Alex muttered out loud as she washed her hands.

"How was I ever friends with the likes of you? Seriously, when did you become the type of lady who had to wash her hands every time she stepped into a restroom just in case anybody saw her and thought she had actually gone in there to pee? Bet you won't take a shit in public, because good Connecticut ladies don't poop."

"Fuck you, Nicky."

"Enjoy your boring marital sex with the most boring woman alive. Seriously, Piper makes me want to gouge my eyes out half the time. I would not want to have to come home to that every night."

Alex raised her fist before deciding the assault charge in front of an unknown amount of drugs wasn't worth the anguish it would put Piper through, instead, she pushed her against the wall just hard enough that it looked accidental and hissed in her face, "Don't you ever, EVER, talk about. My wife. That way! That woman has more class, devotion and beauty in her little pinkie than you would ever have even if you fucking tried your damndest! Piper is my world and yeah she's too good for me and maybe I'm not like her but she loves me and I love her. She's my wife! Nothing will ever get in the way of that again! She will always come first! Loose my number, bitch," Alex snapped as she wiped her hands, balled up the paper towel and threw it in the trash while she stared down Nicky. She didn't have to tell her who was trash in this equation, she got the message. Alex left the bathroom and then watched until the three women left, she noticed they had picked up a small posse as well as Lorna on their way out. Alex didn't need any of them at her wedding. She wanted to swoop in and save Lorna from that group but she knew Lorna was making a choice too. Maybe she didn't get high with them but she turned a blind eye to the abuse. She could walk out and it would likely have the same effect as listening to Piper's footsteps down the hall as she dragged her rolling suitcase behind her had had that morning in Paris. But she never would. And perhaps, that was the saddest thing of all.

Alex didn't even know she was watching the doorway long past the point it was necessary until she felt a tap on her shoulder and felt soft fingers running along the curve of her neck, "baby, can't wait for our wedding night?"

"Well I did let you fuck me the night we met and I would have fucked you if we hadn't been interrupted."

"You've more than made up for it and I promise nobody will punch you in the face if you want to fuck me tonight. Nobody will strike that pretty face ever again."

"Funny, Al. You okay?"

"Yeah. Nicky was getting high and trying to have a lesbian orgy at our wedding. And then she had the gall to say I was the classless one."

"You have more heart and bigger balls than anyone I've ever met, Alex Pearl Vause."

"Well, if that isn't the sweetest thing anybody's ever said to me I don't know what is, Piper Elizabeth Vause. You have the most radiant skin and the sweetest pussy I've ever tasted."

"Why couldn't you have said that in your vows?"

"Cause I want your daddy to keep liking me. Why couldn't you have said you like my balls?"

"Cause they already have enough trouble understanding why I would marry a woman who is so womanly, they aren't ready for that layer of gender play."

"I'm glad I'm your wife, Pipes."

"I'm glad you're my wife, Al. I'm your wife. That you are my partner for life."

"Shit, woman, why you gotta go and make me cry?"

Piper wiped a tear from Alex's face while also trying not to smudge her eyeliner too badly, "Aw, is Vausey feeling?"

"Shut up and get your pretty ass on the dance floor so I can grab it when your family isn't paying attention."

"Now that's no way to ask a lady to dance."

"C'mon wife," Alex teased as she tapped Piper's ass then whispered in her sultriest tone, "Dance with me. I need to practice what I'm gonna do to you later, Pipes." She ran her hand along Piper's back until the blonde melted into her and she could forget any pain she had ever felt in her life and focus on all the love and trust that had been placed in her arms that day. That was how you got a woman to follow you all the days of her life. Being a badass had its function but it would never beat holding your wife or the feeling of fighting for her honor. She couldn't wait to get her to bed, for the first time they made love as wives or that moment off in the distance when she would put their baby in her. She wanted that more than she had ever wanted anything. That sounded more exciting than whatever drug-fueled party Nicky was inevitably throwing at that moment. She pulled Piper's chin off her chest and kissed her passionately, not caring who was around. Piper was hers and even better, she belonged to Piper.