A/N: Thanks for all your kind words attached to my last chapter...it's so encouraging to know other people love this story as much as I do. To clear a few things up: this story is not a post-prison story, it's a world where they never go toprison cause Alex wasn't there when the ring falls apart cause she fought for Piper and the life they could share (A whole Butterfly Effect sort of thing where one decision can change the whole future) and it's just one baby (this time anyway...if you crazy kids get a sequel I have some plans that I've already sorta foreshadowed if you know where to find them) who they refuse to call "it" so they use gender neutral they/them pronouns for now. Now here's your reward for your kindness...a very long double update with an extra added scene (I'll let you figure out which one ;) ...it's very easy if you know our girls lol)
After a stop at their favorite Lower Manhattan diner and three hours navigating the circle of hell that was the combination between normal Manhattan traffic and Thanksgiving holiday traffic, the couple arrived at Piper's childhood suburban Connecticut home not far outside the City. The cars mostly carried upper middle-class Millennials going home to New England mansions like Piper and Manhattan families headed to their mountain cabins in the Adirondacks or Green Mountains. Alex didn't blame either group, nor did she see herself as anything more than hiding out among the hoard as she tried to resist the urge to run them off the road as her wife slept peacefully beside her. Alex considered finding a classic rock station and as much as she knew it wasn't likely to wake the blonde, she was nervous to do so. Instead, she turned on a jazz station to relax herself. Piper stirred a bit after a particularly noisy horns solo but didn't wake up until they pulled into that now familiar cul-de-sac.
Alex didn't even need to be buzzed in anymore, after they were married, Bill had given Alex a copy of the house key and the gate code. She was part of the family now. Not that she needed the key, though. She hadn't even fully parked the car when the door opened. Carol emerged on the front stoop. Alex looked over at Piper who barely stirred as she took the keys out of the ignition and then at Carol beginning to walk towards the rental car, she decided to give her another minute to sleep and climbed out of the car after kissing behind Piper's ear, an action that caused the younger woman's nose to scrunch, which Alex knew was the first step in the blonde's waking up process.
"Hi, Carol. How are you," Alex asked politely, trying to avoid the inevitable tension but knowing today was highly unlikely to be the day they finally break their unbreakable stalemate. The two women were locked in a battle Alex simultaneously had no desire to be in but also no plans to ever concede. Carol viewed Alex's presence in her daughter's life as both a threat and proof of her failure as a mother. She figured she must have done something wrong for her twenty-one year old daughter to have found herself in the arms of a drug addict because the woman showed her a little affection and warmth for once in her young life. And Alex would do anything to protect Piper from anyone she viewed as a threat to her sweet baby, even if that person was Alex herself.
"Good. Just been making final arrangements with the caterer for tomorrow and confirming the guest list," Carol answered curtly.
"If you need help—"
"Alex, honey, you really must stop thinking of yourself as being amongst the help. I know it's hard for someone who comes from where you did but you are a Chapman now," Carol said in a tone that anybody who wasn't a classist, racist WASP would read as condescending. She might as well have added 'bless your heart' at the end like a Southern church lady.
"A Vause-Chapman, as is your daughter," Alex replied with the unwavering confidence that turned most women to jelly and made her wife even wetter for her. And judging by the sour look on Carol's face, that trait didn't appear to be genetic.
Alex continued now that she had Carol Chapman right where she wanted her, "And it has nothing to do with coming from a mother who would be more likely to have cleaned your house or been a holiday cater waiter for your parties so her daughter could get the toy she wanted underneath the tree. I'm just a helper by nature, at least when I'm being honest about my true nature," Alex added with the cool confidence she was infamous for then crossed her arms and stared down her helpless prey with a look that screamed, 'I could eviscerate you if I really wanted to but these shoes are Prada.'
"Uh-huh, why Alex, I didn't think that was something you had trouble with," Carol replied in a last ditch effort to survive being ensnared in Alex's dangerous web. Alex wanted to roll her eyes and give the woman her cockiest laugh but she hid her reaction by looking over at Piper awakening from her nap, an adorable scene that almost made dealing with the grown up version of her childhood bullies worth it. She would do anything to keep that girl safe, even resist her urge to destroy Carol Chapman. She knew Piper wouldn't try to stop her in the moment but once the adrenalin stopped flowing she would crash hard and shatter both their hearts irreparably.
"Isn't that what we do as women, conceal a part of ourselves to keep the peace when necessary? Yeah, I'm strong-willed and confident and a proud lesbian, that doesn't mean I don't hide parts of myself sometimes," Alex replied with her eyes focused on Piper while also tracking the movement of her prey like only she could.
"I guess. How have you been doing, you know, after what happened back in May," Carol asked as she seemed to realize she was in a battle she did not have the wits or skill to win. Instead, she seemed desperate to find another way to hurt Alex. Carol seemed to think that opening a fresh wound would somehow make Alex back off. The brunette looked at her wife, so sweet when she was sleeping but a beast when she was awake, and wondered where she got her strategic abilities and power from, raw talents she made no attempt to hide from the night they met. Piper was the only person to ever outplay or win a fight against Alex Vause, still and for always.
"You can say it. I talk about it in therapy, in my meetings, when I see a kid not taking this shit seriously. Nicky dying and a patient I cared deeply about going to prison for a long time. A kid who wanted to be a therapist with youth and now never will be with a violent drug-related felony on her record. It's been hard, when we head back to the City on Friday we're gonna stop by the grave. I finally got a letter from Stephani, she's at a federal prison in Ohio. She seems to be doing as well as can be expected in her situation. I think she's scared to say exactly how she feels about it between fear of being sent to psych like when she was at County awaiting trial and not wanting the rep of a murderer. She still can't get past the blank spot in her mind enough to know what her part in Nicky's death was and I fear probably never will at this point. Her family has written her off. I sent her a couple books from Amazon and some money for commissary. It isn't much but it's something."
"I didn't know you could send books to prisoners, what a novel idea, pardon the pun."
"Yes, they just have to be from an approved list. I help her however I can. I try to be a friend to her. I'd go see her if she asked but she told me she doesn't want me to see her like that. And so I respect her wishes and make sure she knows if that ever changes I'll be on the next flight."
"You are a better woman that I, Alex. I couldn't be friends with the person who took my best friend's life."
"Cause in my mind she didn't. Steph is a kid who made mistakes and freaked out when somebody died in front of her. Understandably so. She has the maturity level of a teenager. I know grown-ass-adults who can't handle the idea of death, let alone watching it happen in such a tragic and messy way before your eyes and knowing you had some role in it. I've seen plenty of overdoses when I was younger than Steph and I can't say I would have reacted any differently than she did. The only difference between me and her is I never was connected to an overdose death. She drove the car, paid for the drugs and booze and the room. Nicky had been dying for longer than I've known her but really ramped it up in those final months. I want to be mad at her but I can't even get angry that she basically took her own life and bares more responsibility for Steph being in there than anybody else. I know she convinced Steph to run and took advantage of her. I know Nicky and how her brain works. I used to be just like her. In another life I would have been the one taking advantage of a girl like Steph instead of befriending her. I just tell myself at least Nicky isn't suffering anymore. I sit with people who are dying from incurable diseases all day and some days I go from that to a shift at an ICU where I watch the aftermath of doctors telling patient's loved ones that the person is brain dead. That their hearts are still beating but they aren't in their bodies anymore and no matter what they aren't coming back. When there aren't enough social workers, and there never is, I sit with them as they decide whether or not to donate their oftentimes young and otherwise healthy family member's organs. That choice is way harder than being friends with somebody I already was anyway. That I can be friends with her is proof that I'm not that person who hates herself anymore. That I am the sort of person who deserves someone as amazingly sweet and gorgeous and perfect as your daughter, Mrs. Chapman," Alex added, as unbeknownst to Carol, she went in for the kill shot with as much subtlety as she could muster.
"I guess. I don't think I could do any of it," Carol responded with a sigh as she seemingly conceded the battle to Alex, yet again.
"It's not that hard when you have the strength of your convictions. I know if I'm not using something that could help another or prolong somebody's life I would without hesitation."
"It's easy to say when it's just you."
"But it's not just me and hasn't been for the better part of going on six years, I have your daughter and you and Bill know how I feel about her. The sun rises and falls with that girl and nobody will ever convince me any differently."
"Yeah, that's how Bill feels about her. She always was a daddy's girl. Guess I shouldn't be surprised she ended up so masculine," Carol added as Alex glared at her with a look that was beyond pissed. Carol sure had a punchable face at that moment but she also had a daughter with an angel face that would win every contest no matter the category, every time. Alex could tolerate a lot of bullshit but not a mother putting down her own child, a modus operandi that had only become stronger since losing her mother and seeing her baby's heart beating inside the woman who had stolen hers.
"If that's your idea of masculine I'd hate to see you in a dyke bar. Piper's pretty femme, by lesbian standards, she's sporty and only wears skirts when there's a ball involved, my little Cinderella, but no queer person would ever confuse her for a butch, now me when I'm not in heels and lipstick that's a different story," Alex asserted.
"I guess things are different in your world. You have different rules," Carol added as Piper walked up the driveway with the button on her brown coat straining against her midsection. The older Chapman woman turned her attention to the younger with a stern parental tone, "There you are, I was getting worried. Have you put on weight? I guess that happens this time of year, just remember what I told you when you began to become a woman."
"No man likes a chubby girl, I know and I married a woman so I don't think the old adage applies," Piper huffed as she rolled her eyes in Alex's direction and the brunette made it as clear as possible that she found every ounce of her wife very arousing before Carol even noticed they were doing anything.
"I'm sure women aren't that much different in that regard. Nobody wants to be married to a spouse who just lets themselves go once the vows are sealed. Are you keeping busy in California? It must be so lonely with Alex at work and school so much and nothing but housework to fill your days. Have you gotten involved with any ladies' auxiliaries? Surely, they must have one with all the money in that area. I still think you should have moved to Tiburon or Sausalito."
"Alex wanted to be closer to Sacramento, so she could try to work and attend UC-Davis and she's already working per deim as an ICU/Trauma float. I'm very proud of her. And I have my own business. I'm not taking new clients right now but I'm still able to work with my New York City clients, and I kinda prefer it. I work 5am to 2 or 3pm, it's pretty ideal for our future."
"Yes, how is that going?"
"Pretty good, got a bit sidelined with everything that happened this summer but we're pretty hopeful we'll become parents soon," Piper replied curtly as the couple shot a knowing smile at each other when Carol wasn't looking, they weren't ready to tell her just yet. They had a whole thing planned and both resisted the urge to caress the area where their baby-to-be was growing and Piper was feeling the first flutters of life inside her stronger and more frequently every day. Piper swore the baby recognized Alex's voice but the older woman was doubtful about it yet she never said no when Piper asked her to read Winnie-the-Pooh to her belly. The brunette also doubted the kid could have a favorite book or character but Piper swore their baby did.
"Let's get inside. It's cold out here. Would you ladies like a drink," Carol asked as the couple looked at each other and smirked. The older Chapman seemed finally willing to admit she had been hopelessly outgunned by a duo that was formidable enough individually and a nuclear bomb waiting to explode when they were working on the same wavelength.
"Some tea," Piper replied as she looked over at her wife who nodded in agreement.
"I'll put a kettle on," she responded as she led the couple inside and Alex took her and Piper's coats. Cal was there. According to Carol, Danny had said his flight was delayed in Chicago. Piper had two years ago stopped reminding her mother that he used some Midwestern city's snowy weather as an excuse every Thanksgiving and Christmas. He had done it now for somewhere around a decade but Carol still believed her prodigal son would walk through the door one day.
Celeste was arriving around dinner time after her volunteer shift at a local soup kitchen preparing food, toiletry packages and children's goodie bags for the next afternoon's big Thanksgiving dinner for homeless families. That morning, they had done a final dinner distribution for low-income members of the community thanks to getting more donations than expected. Alex wasn't sure what she thought about that, after all if these families who made a show of volunteering and who had so much paid their workers better or invited them to dine as family they wouldn't need charity at all. Her mom worked herself into an early grave because of those same people. The ones who thought dropping a can of off-brand creamed corn they would never in a million years consume into a bin did something especially altruistic for the world. Bill was in his study, trying to get some work done before the extended family arrived in the morning.
"Hey, sisters. How are you? You must have some good weed out there in California," he chuckled once he checked to ensure his mother was out of earshot.
"I wouldn't know, I'm still clean and sober," Alex replied.
"And I'm not into it these days," Piper added as she pulled Alex against her body, causing her sweater to tighten a bit. Piper didn't even notice that it had until she saw her brother's eyes grow wide.
"Is that…what it looks like? It can't be," he exclaimed as his eyes darted between the couple, resting a bit longer than necessary on Alex's curves and breasts.
"It can. There's ways," Alex responded with a raised eyebrow and threatening gaze.
"I didn't know you had it in ya," Cal responded with gruff laughter.
"I, we had a little help in that department but I was very much involved in everything else and still am. We're thrilled but we're not telling your family until after dinner."
"I won't tell. But how? I still don't get it. Isn't IVF and stuff expensive?"
"We did it the old-fashioned way," Alex playfully responded as she kissed Piper's cheek and rubbed her belly and the blonde blushed.
"But I thought you were married, Piper! Usually that means you know you don't do things with anybody else until like one of you dies or runs off with the secretary," Cal declared.
"Not that old-fashioned. Old-fashioned by lesbian standards," Piper replied, looking more at Alex than Cal and thinking more about ravaging that special smile off her wife's face than how anybody gay or straight made babies.
"So you're a lesbian now," Cal asked.
"Nope, I'm a bisexual woman married to a lesbian who I own a house with and I'm starting a family with. But I also realize most people tack the label of lesbian onto such a lifestyle and I don't want anyone to think being a lesbian is a bad thing so I let it go. Calling me a lesbian or even a dyke will never hurt me and I'll never allow anybody to think it ever could."
"I'm glad I'm just a normal straight white dude, your life sounds so complicated."
"I like it," she answered before pulling Alex into a kiss as she rid the brunette of her pesky jacket.
"And I like that. But more tongue next time you decide to do that in front of me," Cal replied in a tone that the couple couldn't tell whether it was joking or serious.
"And I can still beat you up and get away with it cause I'm a girl and you're a boy," Piper challenged as Alex chuckled and pulled Piper into a chaste kiss before peeling her coat off then leading the blonde to the couch and handing her a pillow for her lap. A few moments later, Carol brought them an assortment of tea bags and two mugs filled with steaming water then told the trio that she had to make a few more calls.
"Want me to get your bags," Cal asked.
"Sure, kid," Alex teased as she flung a quarter from her pocket at Cal with a chuckle.
"Don't do anything too exciting until I get back," Cal hollered as he headed to the foyer.
"What does he think we're gonna do," Alex teased Piper as she kissed behind her ear and rubbed her ticklish spot between her ribs.
"Not that. I'm gonna piss myself if you do that. And I don't think either of us wants to explain that," Piper replied through breathy giggles.
"Not particularly. Your mother already barely tolerates me," Alex declared.
"Hey, that means you're still better than most. And besides, I fuckin' love you."
"You always know just what to say to a girl," Alex gushed as she didn't even try to hide that a girl had made her blush, not that she ever did with her wife.
"Mmmm…but babe you aren't a girl. You're a woman. A whole lot of woman," Piper teased as she massaged Alex's breasts through her flannel shirt and tight black crew neck shirt underneath.
"Stop it, or we will do something exciting on this couch before your brother gets back, against my better judgement I might add."
"You have that? Cause I was unaware that you did," Piper teased in that haughty tone that normally made her unbearably annoying, but in this instance made her sexually irresistible.
"Drink your tea, Pipes," Alex responded gruffly as she rolled her eyes at her wife and rubbed her legs together as she tried to think of the latest man-meat chick flick her wife had made her watch. She struggled to think of anything other than the last time she looked down and saw nothing but a mess of blonde hair between her legs.
The two women sipped their tea silently until Cal came back and Alex motioned for him to sit on the love seat across the room. The three made small talk and told a few stories before Piper decided she needed a nap. She got off the couch and paused at the stairs when Alex didn't follow.
"I can come? I'm invited? Would that be okay," Alex asked as Piper impatiently paused for her wife.
"Damn, I love when you get all flustered and take over my ridiculousness momentarily. It makes a certain side of me go wild and you know what happens when she comes out to play."
"I'm not flustered, just you know what I mean. Are you sure it would be okay with your parents? I don't want to push them too far and ruin things," Alex nervously replied.
"I'm not sixteen anymore and we're married. Now come, I mean, unless watching me sleep is no longer an activity that you enjoy," Piper teased seductively, "I really want you to come and I want you to cum, baby."
"I love when you get all demanding, it makes me want to come up with a list of demands of my own," Alex taunted back in an attempt to reinforce her sexual dominance after her wife's earlier comment.
"Is making me your little spoon near the top of that list?"
"The top," Alex replied as she took Piper's hand and allowed the blonde to lead her to her childhood bedroom, a veritable time capsule of an adolescent version of Piper—who she was and what she loved when she was younger.
"Say top again," Piper teased once they were behind closed doors as she unlatched her bra through her sweater then stripped it and two layers of shirts off.
"Mmmm…something tells me we won't just be spooning in your room," Alex replied as she licked her lips at the sight of her wife's breasts with their darkened, erect nipples.
"Do we ever just spoon? As long as you can still get your hand around there we will never just spoon. You know I have my ways," Piper teased before making her best orgasm face and moaning seductively as Alex rolled her eyes at the blonde's act. But the way she shifted her hips and rubbed her legs together wasn't fooling her extremely perceptive wife—she was beyond aroused by Piper's antics as the woman started dancing seductively for her. Alex wanted to say she looked like a pregnant stripper but it was as if every drop of moisture in her body was pooling between her legs. But Piper needed sleep. Be logical, Vause. Be Logical. She had to find a way to turn it off or at least momentarily delay the inevitable until her wife had the stamina necessary, as impossible as that seemed with any woman, much less her horny Piper.
"Where there's a will, there's a way, babe," Alex responded as she searched for the closest logical location for a warm shirt before the only things covering Piper's tits became the brunette's mouth and her hand for the foreseeable future. Sweatshirt located and crisis averted, Alex kissed her wife.
I'll hold you to that, Al," Piper smirked.
"Nice, babe," Alex declared as she looked around at the soccer posters, various sports trophies and ribbons and stacks of books cluttered around the room.
"I can't believe that for all the time we've been together I've never brought you up here," Piper told her wife with bright, blue eyes full of an odd mixture of raw sexuality and cuteness.
"I didn't want to ask. If you were anybody else, Pipes, I wouldn't have hesitated a second," Alex said with every bit of cool bravado she could manage, given her current circumstances.
"It's okay, you're a vampire. I love you anyway. Just make sure to bite my neck so I can spend eternity with you," Piper teased as she arched her neck towards her wife's lips and smiled with satisfaction when the brunette bit her own lower lip with eyes that yelled stop but also knew that look didn't work before they had a safe word, let alone years later now that they did have one.
"Look at you being all romantic," Alex teased as she changed out of her tight jeans and into some loose sweatpants then relaxed onto the bed. Not long afterwards, Piper melted into her arms and quickly fell asleep on the brunette's chest as she kissed the blonde's hair softly.
A little over an hour later Alex heard a light knock on the unlocked door.
"Hi, ladies, it's Grandma, can I come in," a voice asked warmly from outside the closed door.
"Yeah, sure," Alex responded just loud enough to be heard by the Chapman matriarch as Celeste walked into the room and sat down on the foot of the bed.
"I miss seeing her sleeping. I used to love holding her while she slept. She was such a sweet-natured baby, a pistol when she was awake, though," Celeste added with a warmth Carol had never once come close to in all the time Alex had known the two women. Celeste loved Piper the way Alex did now, while Carol loved controlling the blonde in the same way that Alex once had, back before that fateful day in Paris.
"Oh, she still is," Alex replied with a tone that oozed deep affection and eyes that signaled annoyance.
"Exhausting flight," Celeste asked as she attempted to make conversation.
"Yeah, but I went into it expecting it to be."
"Be honest, I won't tell Bill and Carol, I won't even tell Piper I know if you don't want me to, but is it just the flight that tired her out," Celeste queried with a knowing glint in her eye.
"No, no it's not," Alex confessed.
"How far along is she," Celeste asked with genuine interest.
"Almost eighteen weeks. We're gonna tell everyone tonight after dinner. Piper insisted on doing these cute little nests with plastic Easter eggs and turkey figurines in white boxes with yellow ribbon. She worked hard on them as I scoffed at her. Damn, I love that girl. More than words. But ultimately, I think it's too cute for words and that the care and attention she takes to things she cares about is adorable, it really is both her best and her worst quality."
"That's how you know you married the right one, Alex," Celeste told the brunette as she edged her hand closer to Alex's until they were touching.
"How was your morning? Carol said you were at the soup kitchen," Alex asked with the same warmth and support that Celeste had offered her.
"I've hardly left since Sunday morning. But today was great. We even got some last-minute donations for pies so even the people without children were able to get a pie, and their choice between pumpkin and sweet potato. This black-owned restaurant donated them. I honestly didn't know we had one of those in the area. But now that I know about them, I'm going to try them out the first chance I get. We get leftover food all the time but a restaurant that makes about a hundred pies just to donate? That's the sort of person that gets my business. I really love the food pantry and they work magic with whatever they can get. I've volunteered at other hunger organizations that don't really care."
"Is that your thing," Alex asked as she begun to see exactly why her wife was so fond of the Chapman family matriarch.
"Yeah, I never understood why anybody had to go hungry anywhere in the world when so many have so much and in my mid-seventies I still don't. I know I can't do much but it's definitely more rewarding than spending all my money on art galleries. Not that I don't do that as well. Lately I've been donating a lot to Music Education in the schools. You're at the hospice now, right? That must be challenging and rewarding."
"I wouldn't call it challenging. Rewarding, definitely. It's pretty simple to me. Death is a fact of life, so I might as well help people do it with some dignity. I've seen enough people killing themselves without any left. Or any will to live or recover when the treatment is laid out in front of them. That was challenging. My patients wish they could live but have decided that if they can't then at least they'll go with dignity and grace. I just want to offer people a bit of comfort in this life. It's all I've ever wanted, both for others and myself."
"You have such an amazing heart. Even if nobody else in this family says so, you do and I'm glad you are in this family. Piper said something about you getting a position at UC-Davis?"
"It isn't much. Usually eight to twelve hours a week."
"Don't be modest. You moved to California knowing where you wanted to work and within a few months got a position there," Carol replied in an encouraging tone.
"I would have swept the floors if that's all I could get, just to get my foot in the door," Alex admitted.
"And that's why you are going to be ridiculously successful, Alex. She also said you were looking at getting a PhD in Neuroscience," Celeste asked with a mixture of pride and genuine interest.
"Yeah, I know I should stay in my lane and stick with nursing but I want to do more to advance brain research and help people who don't have the same advantages and knowledge about the risk factors for brain diseases," Alex replied as she hid her face behind her wife's shoulder and breathed her in for comfort.
"Look up at me, Alex. Don't hide. My granddaughter is not a teddy bear. Well, she is but she shouldn't be yours, at least not in this instance. Or when I'm within earshot. I'm not like Carol, I have a basic understanding of what you and my grandbaby do and that you do it, but I also changed her diapers. I don't want to think about her doing certain things, like that, with anyone, male or female. I didn't say you should stay in your lane and I never would. You have just as much right as anybody else to dream as big as you want. You are just as much my grandchild as Piper, even if she hadn't been smart enough to marry you. You know, I could set up an educational trust for your school expenses, it would really be very easy."
"Celeste, you don't have to do that. You've done enough already, what with the rehab that you still won't let me pay back or give me a total for and all."
"But I want to. And I had the money. You two were struggling, not me. I can't help everyone but you're taking care of my favorite grandchild and helping raise my great-grandchildren and, most importantly, I want to."
"If you insist," Alex responded in a tone she usually reserved for when she reluctantly capitulated to Piper's demands.
"I do," Celeste responded with a similar firmness to the kind that, on her wife, made Alex implode.
"Geez, now I know where Piper gets all her quirks from," Alex added as she realized the things she loved to hate about her beloved were sex-linked genes on her paternal side and then she looked down at her wife's swollen belly and realized just how much of a goner she was.
"Well, not all but a lot of them, and she looks most like me of all my grandchildren. She is my mini-me. What's my baby girl up to?"
"Building new contacts for her business and she's researching doing graduate studies in strategic marketing or maybe going for a PhD in social sciences with a specialization in media studies and social justice movements at Cal Berkeley."
"You two are quite the ambitious pair, aren't you," Celeste asked with overwhelming maternal pride, not just in her beloved grandchildren but the generation of women that was soon to inherit the Earth.
"Yeah, I guess," Alex added with a shrug.
"And you're both so humble about it. It's just so natural to you both. I don't know where she got that from," Celeste gushed as she really seemed to not notice the person who had molded those raw talents was right in front of her.
"I taught her a thing or two," Alex said cockily, forgetting who she was talking to as her brain was flooded with memories of when Piper stole her heart and she not only let her but opened it more. Nobody stole so much as a pen or sip of water from Alex Vause. And if they so much as contemplated about it, they certainly didn't get away with it. Nobody but Piper. Alex noticed the disapproving look Celeste was giving her, "Shit, I shouldn't have said that. Shit I shouldn't have said the word 'shit.'"
"It's okay, Alex. I know you met Piper when she was still very young and inexperienced with a lot of things and I see how you've made her a better person. And just cause Carol and Bill don't curse, doesn't mean I don't, when called for of course."
"So you're like a hip granny then?"
"Yeah, I guess I am. I think we're leaving for the club at four-thirty, so you might want to wake Piper up and get ready. I won't be counting how many times the shower goes on or off and won't let anyone else do it either. I'll come up when we're getting ready to leave," Celeste slowly rose off the bed.
"How dressy is it," Alex asked nervously as the older woman slowly walked across the room.
"Tonight, not very. More of a cocktail dress or slacks and a nice sweater or button-down kind of affair. I'm sure whatever you wear will be fine, you're always so well dressed, Alex. Better than any of my other grandchildren. Don't worry, Alex. Just no denim or t-shirts and you'll be fine. And anybody who says otherwise will have to answer to me, and well I'm assuming you've seen my baby girl's temper. Nobody wants to have to answer to Celeste Elizabeth Chapman, especially when it comes to her grandbabies."
"Wait, I didn't know, why didn't anybody tell me," Alex asked with a shocked expression as she finally learned who Piper was named after. It's an old family name, Piper had told her when she pried her young lover for more information about her name when their love was new and her curiosity was unbounded. She always refused to offer further details and eventually Alex came to assume Piper was named after her mother, Alex wouldn't want to admit to sharing a name with Carol Chapman either.
"I would have thought you knew. Or do you two not do much talking," Celeste teased with a knowing smile, one that said 'I know what you do with my grandbaby and I don't mind one bit about any part of it.'
"Funny Celeste," Alex groaned before adding, "but I deserved that. I guess I never asked. Or at least not the right way. I seem to do that a lot when it comes to her."
"I get it. It's scary to love someone that much and Piper will do it to you with those eyes and those wild child ways of hers. I'm going to head downstairs and spend some time with the others. I'll let them know you two are getting freshened up after your long cross-country flight and you'll be joining us for dinner."
"Thanks, for everything."
"Don't mention it. You just take care of that baby girl of mine, she's the best thing to ever happen to me," Celeste confessed to Alex as every bit of love the two women had for this young woman between them oozed out of their shared gaze.
"Me too," Alex answered as Celeste slowly closed the door and tiptoed down the hall.
"So babe, what do you think," Piper asked as she ran her fingertips softly along Alex's shoulder.
"About what," Alex asked as if she didn't know exactly what her wife wanted and how this would end for her.
"About taking a shower together."
"With your parents and grandmother downstairs? Seriously, Pipes? That's bold. Bolder than I am, even."
"You say that like it's hard."
"Oh, I know you did not!"
"Did I stutter? C'mon, we both know you want to. The only thing you are more than horny is married. And it's not like it would be the first time. Well, it would with you."
"Wow, you've really…in your own house with a…"
"You can say it had shower sex a horny teenage boy when I was a kid in my parents' house. I didn't have a lot of options as a teen and where do you think that kink came from?"
Alex's eyes looked like they could shoot fire as she grabbed Piper's lower lip hard between her teeth and nipped at her lips until she felt a tongue in her mouth and pulled away. What did this girl of hers think, she was being rewarded for her naughty behavior?
"Ow, that didn't hurt. You picked a bad time to go all goody-two-shoes on me, Vause."
"What am I gonna do with you, Pipes?"
"Shower me with love and affection in the shower?"
"This is gonna be a long night isn't it?"
"All the more reason to get it while we can. I mean it'll be a good skill to develop," Piper teased as she ran her hand across her abdomen and pushed out her belly so her bump was more apparent.
"I thought we were pretty damn good at that already, Pipes," Alex added with her trademark cool cockiness.
"Then prove it, woman," Piper's grin as Alex slapped her ass hard was the last bit of convincing Alex needed to drag her wife into the bathroom, make the blonde strip both their clothes off and get into the shower with her. Alex quickly devoured her wife's lips as her hands roughly explored her wife's body. If she wanted it then she was gonna have to bleed a little. She barely stifled her wife's moans until she felt fingers stretching her open and she could barely concentrate on her own, let alone Piper's and all the things she was doing to her.
"On your knees," Alex commanded through ragged breaths when language and words finally managed to be something comprehensible.
"Okay, now what," she heard her wife ask as she wrapped her hands around her knees.
"Don't give me that act. That barely would have worked five years ago," Alex challenged as she looked down at the upturned blue eyes attached to the blonde headed woman between her legs as she felt her massage her thighs and plant a curved row of kisses with alternating love nibbles from hipbone to hipbone before tangling her lips into the tuft of hair that concealed her center.
"Is this what you want," the blonde taunted as she thrust two fingers deep inside her wife's opening.
"You know what I want!"
Piper added a finger to her wife's swollen clit and massaged it just the way she knew her wife liked, "that?"
"Do I have to do everything myself?"
"Now that I would love to see. I don't think even I could do that much yoga," Piper teased as she made it crystal clear that she knew exactly what her wife wanted but she wasn't gonna give it to her the easy way, as much as it was what they both wanted. Alex pulled Piper's hand away from her center and took hold of her head and pressed it into her wetness nose first. She watched as Piper's lungs expanded as she breathed in the smell of her wife's arousal.
"You like that, baby? I cooked that up just for you. It's all for you. Take it all, baby. You must be thirsty after all that running your fucking naughty little mouth," she hissed until the first suggestion of a lick made her lose any power and composure she had within her as she quickly became unraveled at Piper's masterful motions between her legs. She searched for something other than the slick walls to grab onto but that only made her own more pronounced. She dug her nails into Piper's shoulders as she came hard for the girl she loved with everything in her.
When they were stepping out and grabbing towels Piper leaned in and whispered, "I lied. I've never fucked anyone in that shower. Well, at least not until today. I just know how to get what I want. Oh and before you ask, I haven't been fucked in it either but what's that you said when we first started fucking? Oh yeah, I think it was we can work up to that, babe."
Alex gave her that same smoldering look as she had years ago when Piper came on to her outside that bathroom. A lesser woman would be dead. But of course a lesser woman wouldn't dare, either.
"What's with the look, Vause? You act like you didn't just get your pussy ate out by a hot blonde who loves everything about the sensory experience that is your raw, wet, aroused, cunt. Which is what you've wanted all day, after all, Sweetums."
"Oh, you."
"Oh me what?"
"You know. Now let's get dressed before we get caught."
"Oh-kay," Piper groaned before licking the beads of water between her wife's breasts before they finally returned to the bedroom.