**Hey. I'm sorry it took me so long to finish this chapter. I guess not only my life is crazy right now thanks to corona. But here comes some distraction from that. At least for a couple minutes. I hope you enjoy the chapter.

Hope everyone is well or getting well soon. Here we go. Enjoy.**

Chapter 24: Special Dreams

The next weeks passed fast and soon it was Piper's and Alex's 16th birthday. They decided to celebrate together. It was the first time in a couple year since now Piper's parents were more accepting of their 'friendship', at least as far as they knew, and they had no problem when the girls asked if they could have a joined party in the Chapman's garden. They had a great party with all their friends. And again Piper was reminded how much it annoyed her to not be able to tell her parents that she and Alex were together. She wanted to be able to touch her and kiss her. She had contemplated telling them a couple times but was terrified of their reaction. So far her justification had been that she'd do it as soon as she wasn't depended on them anymore so it wouldn't affect her as much if they had a bad reaction - which was very likely, like if they decided to not pay for her to go to college.

The party became a bit slower as now the first guests were leaving. Soon only Alex was still there sitting at the bench next to Piper.

"Did you like the party?" Piper asked Alex.

"Sure I did, it would have been even better if I had had the chance to kiss you every now and then. I've been dying to do that." Alex told her.

"Ugh. I know. Wanna go up to my room for some privacy?" Piper asked her eyes shining mischievously.

"I thought you'd never ask." Alex smiled widely, enjoying Piper's playful mood greatly.

"Let's find Cal and ask him to distract our parents." Piper said looking around. Her younger brother was now fourteen and usually up for everything. Also somehow he always seemed to get himself into trouble, but not serious enough for their parents to actually freak out.

Cal was successful in distracting Carol and Bill and the girls snug up to Piper's room. He made sure Piper knew she now owed him and he'd come to her whenever he needed her to cover for him. Piper dreaded that moment a little already but didn't care that much right now as she just wanted Alex closer and finally kiss her after she hadn't been able to do so the whole afternoon and evening. It's been hard to not just go over to her girlfriend and do the normal things a couple would do. Piper laughed inwardly thinking about the facts that there are quite a few people who didn't like any public display of affection at all but had the chance do so at any minute of the day and then there was her and Alex who would have loved some pda but really couldn't.

The second they closed the door of Piper's room Piper felt Alex's lips on hers and kissed her back immediately.

"Do you have have a clue how hard it has been to watch you all evening and not do that?" Alex said breathlessly after they broke apart.

"I do, actually. Believe me, in my head I've been dragging you up here couple times already. It would have been quite inappropriate though to disappear from our own party, wouldn't it?" Piper teased.

"Dragging me up here, huh?" Alex smirked and Piper melted. Everytime Alex raised her eyebrow to her signature smirk Piper's legs melted like chocolate laying outside on a sunny July afternoon.

"Yes. Do you want to know a secret?" Piper asked teasingly.

"What is it?" Alex looked at her amused.

"I just recently managed to get a key to this door. I can lock my room so no one walks in unexpectedly." Piper said as the sound of a key turning in the lock was heard.

"Uh, I think I like where this is going." Alex replied already turned on immensely.

"Oh, you will like it." Piper said seductively. Their lips reconnected. Their kisses turned more frantic and passionate with each passing second.

"We have to be quiet though. I don't want to know what my mom will do if she hears anything." Piper said breathlessly.

"You mean I can't scream out your name out loud?" Alex teased.

"Alex! Seriously!" the look on Piper's face was horrified.

"Babe, I was joking. I know how your parents are." Alex tried to calm her girlfriend.

"Really not a good topic to be joking about." Piper almost hissed back.

"Sorry, Pipes." Alex looked at her apologetic.

"Apology accepted." Piper said appeased and moved closer again. Shirts and pants were shed and soon the rest of their clothes, too. Even though it was her who made clear they'd have to be quiet it was Piper who had the most difficulty with actually doing so. Alex had to shush her quite a few times to remind her to be more quiet.

A while later they were lying next to each other, both breathless but happy.

"I gotta admit it was quite hard to keep quiet." Piper told Alex and chuckled.

"I noticed." Alex laughed.

"I can't help it. It just feels so good when you touch me like that." Piper replied.

"Like that?" Alex let her hand stroke across Piper's breast, barely touching but giving Piper goosebumps all over her body. Piper moaned quietly.

"Gosh, Alex. Yes." Piper was struggling to find words. Alex gave her a self-satisfied grin. She enjoyed how much her actions affected Piper - maybe a little too much. When Piper turned her head to the side she saw the time on her alarm clock that stood on her nightstand.

"Oh god. Shit." she exclaimed.

Alex looked up surprised from Piper's sudden seriousness. "What?"

"Have you seen what time it is?" Piper whispered.

Alex turned to look at Piper's alarm clock and shrugged. "One thirty in the morning?! What's upsetting about that?"

"As much as I wish it was different, you can't sleep here, Al." Piper said looking sad and almost apologetic. "Who knows…"

"...what will happen if your parents found out." Alex finished for her. She knew that speech and a bit tired of hearing it again and again.

"Are you upset? Cause it clearly sounds like that." Piper was surprised by the sudden change in Alex's mood.

"No... Yes... I'm tired of this whole hiding thing. For a while it was exciting and kinda thrilling, but I am not sure how long I can keep doing this." Alex quietly admitted.

"Al, you know how my parents are!" Piper said.

"I do." Alex replied and got up to collect her clothes.

"Al. Don't be like that." Piper begged but her girlfriend stayed silent. "Please don't leave like that." Piper could feel tears rise. She felt so hurt that Alex didn't even look at her, rather avoided looking at her completely.

"Pipes. I'm not 'leaving' leaving. You asked me to go home, cause you're scared your parents get aware of what we're doing." Alex finally spoke.

"But you're mad, I can see that." Piper gave back, sounding quite hoarse from the lump she felt in her throat.

"It hurts me, that we can't show how happy we are. You know how hard the time was when everyone found out that I like girls. And believe me, Pipes, I do understand the situation with your parents, but I wish we could have a normal relationship like everyone else in this fucking world. Can you understand that this makes me a little upset?" Alex now sat next to Piper who was still naked and looked at her hoping Piper would understand.

"Al. I want that too. All of it. To be able to walk with you holding hands. Do you know how badly I wanted to just go over to you and kiss you this whole afternoon?" Piper explained. "But you've seen my mother and heard what she said when she found out that you are gay. I got a feeling that'll be even worse if she knows her daughter likes girls too."

"I know Pipes." Alex said quietly. "I guess I better leave the old way through the window, huh?"

"I'm so sorry, Al." Piper told her honestly.

Alex turned to leave. "Wait!" Piper exclaimed before she could climb out. "Don't leave without at least a hug!"

Alex chuckled at her demanding tone. "Could you maybe … put some … clothes on? Woah, I never thought I'd say that to you." she laughed and Piper joined in.

"Too tempting, huh?" she teased.

"Always." Alex replied and pulled her into a tight hug as soon as Piper had gotten into her nighty.

"See you tomorrow?" Piper wanted to know.

"Sure." Alex smiled at her and they kissed goodbye and soon Alex was gone.

Piper unlocked her door as quiet as she could and went to the bathroom.

"Thought you were still awake." Piper suddenly heard from the side and she jumped in surprise. Down the hallway she saw Cal standing outside his bedroom door.

"Gosh, Cal. Don't scare me like that!" Piper tried to say quiet as to not wake their parents. "Well, so are you!"

"I hope you and Alex had a nice night." he said with a hint of 'I know what you were doing' in his voice.

"More than that. Pretty satisfying, actually." she teased him.

"Ugh, TMI!" he replied acting sick "Gosh, you better pray C and B don't find out about all this." Cal said.

"Let's hope they won't find out about you smoking weed out your window neither." Piper returned.

"I won't tell if you don't." Cal replied.

"Why should I?" Piper said acting nonchalant. She trusted Cal. He wouldn't tell their parents about her relationship with Alex. He knew what was on stake. But that didn't mean he didn't have fun teasing her.

"Good night, sis." Cal went back into his bedroom. "Oh, and don't forget you owe me for today!"

"How could I?" she whispered back but he had already closed his door.

After a quick run through the bathroom, brushing her teeth and a quick wash, she hopped back into bed. As she was laying there everything around her was quiet. She closed her eyes and heard only her own breathing, smelled her freshly washed bed sheets that also smelled like Alex and - surprise, surprise - like sex. What a combination. She loved that smell. With that smell in her nose and thoughts of Alex in her mind she fell asleep.

XXXXX

Piper woke up in the middle of her dream but wasn't annoyed. It was a great dream. But she woke up in the perfect moment. She was surprised with what had just happened and tried to find out how that was possible. As soon as she calmed down she send Alex a text.

[Piper: You'll never guess what I dreamed this morning. ;-)]

The reply came soon. Obviously Alex was up already, too.

[Alex: Good morning to you too. Mhm. Hard one. I'll go with: We're in the middle of something when your parents walked in?]

[Piper: It wasn't exactly a nightmare! More like the best dream I ever had.]

[Alex: Then tell me.]

[Piper: I'll give you a clue. I woke up and my face looked like this.] Piper quickly took a selfie and send it to Alex.

[Alex: :-O, That's your O-face! You need to tell me now!]

[Piper: Right. Looks like you don't even need to be here to do that to me.]

[Alex: Wait… You're telling me you were having a wet dream and woke up…]

[Piper: In the perfect moment. ;-)]

[Alex: That is sooo hot!]

[Piper: You're hot.]

[Alex: What a comeback, Pipes.]

[Piper: Seriously, I was so surprised. I had no idea that that was possible.]

[Alex: Seems like you can't get enough of me.]

[Piper: Could I ever?]

[Alex: Gosh, all dreams I ever had suck in comparison to this one.]

[Piper: I guess smelling you and our activities from last night and thinking of you when I fell asleep were leading to this great dream.]

[Alex: Guess we should repeat this.]

[Piper: Great idea.]

"Piper!" she heard shouting from the floor and seconds later Cal burst into her room. "Goodness, me and mom have been calling you for ages!"

"Gosh, Cal, ever heard of knocking?" Piper almost shouted at him.

"Like you've heard that after ten minutes of everyone calling you. What were you doing anyway?" Cal wanted to know as he noticed his sisters slight inconvenience.

"Texting with Alex." she replied trying to sound as calm and gathered as she could.

"Rather sexting from the look of it." Cal smirked.

"None of your freaking business." Piper replied. "Why were you bursting in like that anyway?"

"Breakfast is ready and everyone is waiting for you. Thought you wanted to know." Cal replied as he retreated from her room with a smug smile on his face.

XXXXX

Later that day she and Alex met at the diner.

"Hey you." Alex greeted her as Piper arrived couple minutes after her.

"Hi." Piper sat down next to her and gave her a quick peck on the lips.

"How was your day so far?" Alex asked.

"Mhm. It started great and keeps getting better." Piper replied with a laugh and Alex joined.

They kept chatting for a while and both ordered a milkshake. Then Alex phone rang; indicating that someone had texted her. She shortly read and told Piper that it was Nicky asking what she was doing when Piper looked at her questioningly. She quickly texted back and answered the question Piper had asked her before she was distracted by Nicky's text. She was just done answering when the next text came in.

"Nicky asks if it's okay if she joins us?" Alex looked at Piper questioningly.

"Sure." Piper answered and smiled. "We haven't seen each other in a while." she joked.

They kept chatting until Nicky joined them and greeted her. They had already ordered her a milkshake too.

"So how was the rest of your evening?" Nicky wanted to know.

"Pretty good. Piper finally organized a key for her bedroom." Alex smirked smugly.

"Ah, I see." Nicky gave back a knowing smile.

"And obviously it was so memorable that it totally inspired Piper's dreams." Alex replied, smiling at Piper. She knew Piper would probably play a little coy but didn't really have a problem if she told Nicky. The two shared almost everything with their friend. Of course there were boundaries but less than in other friendships. Probably a result of knowing her for so long and the fact that Nicky was gay too.

"Uhh, someone obviously dreamed something really naughty." Nicky was highly entertained.

"Ugh, so what? You've never had a sexy dream?" Piper tried to act as nonchalant as she could.

"Oh, sure. But not with that result." Alex replied a bit more quiet to tease Piper a little.

"What result?" now Nicky was getting really curious.

"Let's say Piper had an amazing start into this day." Alex replied. Nicky looked at Piper trying to make her give her a bit more.

"Okay fine." Piper finally gave in. "I dreamed of Alex and well a few things we did last night" she chuckled "and woke up to an orgasm."

Nicky's eyes went wide. "Are you saying this one made you orgasm without even being there?" she pointed unbelievingly at Alex.

"Well, basically my mind did that." Piper retorted.

"I can't believe it. You two are unbelievable!" Nicky laughed still incredulous. "Life is never boring with the two of you around."

"You're welcome. Your entertainment system to your service." Alex gave back sarcastically.

The three of them stayed for a while longer and kept talking about everything that went on in their lives.

The next weeks went by and everything went as it normally did. The topic of telling Piper's parents came up a few more times between Alex and Piper but they found no solution to the problem. Alex understood Piper very well when she said she was scared they would react badly. But she also wanted to have a relationship she didn't have to hide all the time. She got the question at school a few times recently; if she was single. She told them the truth. That she had a girlfriend but the situation with her parents was complicated so they had keep it from anyone so it wouldn't make their way to them.

One afternoon in July Piper sat in the Chapman's kitchen and read an article online and drank the coffee she just made when her dad came in.

"You're home early." Piper stated. Her dad went over to the coffee machine and poured himself a coffee into his favourite cup.

"Yes. I skipped the last meeting and went home. I think they'll do just fine without me." he explained.

"Anything going on today, that made you skip the meeting?" Piper asked trying to remember if there was some dinner invitation or anything she forgot.

"No. No reason really." Bill started but then obviously changed his mind. "Well today during lunch break I went out with a few colleagues. We walked down the street and I saw this boy on the other side of the street waving at me. It seriously took me a bit to see that it was Cal. And I was quite embarrassed with myself that it took me so long to recognize my own son. If he hadn't waved at me I probably wouldn't have noticed that he stood there. That made me realize that I hadn't been home much. And that over the last years. Not just recently. I knew I had to change something." he told her looking down like he was still embarrassed by that situation.

"Oh, okay." Piper didn't really know what to say.

"I also want to say sorry. To you and I will later talk to Cal too. For being so absent. I think I missed quite a few things in both of your lives. And for what? Doing things at work I should have delegated to coworkers. I'm sorry, Piper. That I wasn't here for some events that happened when you would have wanted me there too. Also for leaving you two to deal with your mother alone. I know she can be quite a handful and at times I had problems dealing with that too. Sometimes she has these weird concessions and views and I haven't been there to hold her back sometimes when she went a step too far. But I want to change that. I want to be there for you and Cal from now on and I sincerely hope it's not too late for that." he looked at her hopeful.

"Wow, dad. I, uh… I don't know what to say." Piper was nearly speechless. She hadn't been expecting anything like this. "Apology accepted. And I don't think anything is too late."

Bill smiled. "That's good to hear."

"Also. It has been hard sometimes with mom. So… I'll give you some time to think about how you can make that up to us." Piper said and smirked.

"I will. Okay. Is your brother home?" Bill asked and Piper nodded and told him Cal was in his room.