"Vause!" Nicky's voice interrupted Alex's deep state of slumber. "Vause, wake up."
Alex rolled over in her bunk, looking over at her friend as she knelt on the cold concrete floor. Their eyes met. Alex struggled to focus, blinking away the grogginess.
"What do you want?" Alex whispered. The moonlight shining in through the cell window illuminated Nicky's bright orange hair. It was almost too dark to make out her brown eyes as they looked over Alex's sleep riddled face. She put on her glasses and squinted hard, trying to fight through the blurry shapes as her eyes focused.
"I wanna know what's the plan, eh?" Nicky smiled. "You just gonna lie around in here and mope? You're not gonna plan some Shawshank-esque escape route? You'd look pretty hot on your knees in the rain, not gonna lie."
Alex shook her head and scoffed.
"What am I supposed to do? It's a prison. Not a movie. I can't carve a hole in the wall and crawl through miles of shit. I have to sit in here and wait." Alex sighed. "Wait and wait and…wait."
Nicky rose to her feet and began to pace the cell. She looked at herself in the small plastic mirror on the wall and played with her hair.
"Well," She chuckled, looking down at the pale woman on the bunk. "You better get the fuck out of this pathetic little funk you're in. You're Alex fucking Vause damn it. You've picked three hundred pound bodies up out of the world's shittiest hoarder houses. You've cussed out big ass cops for telling you not to smoke on scene. You buried your own fuckin' mother, two days after you left the worst person I've ever met in my life. This, right here," Nicky waved her finger around the cell and laughed sarcastically. "This ain't shit my friend."
Alex smiled.
"You're the one with all the big words. You're the one with all the connections. What's your plan? How do we get out of here?" She sat up in her bed.
"My idea?" Nicky laughed. "You couldn't handle it."
Alex laughed at that. She stood to face Nicky, admiring her curls.
"The truth is you can't handle my idea." Alex teased. "The second you get blood and guts in those Orphan Annie curls, it's a wrap."
"Must we forget the time I was purged on by a three day decomp in the middle of July in Park Slope? I had to cut off four inches Vause." Nicky held up four fingers. "Not one little golden curl, four inches of the pussy magnet that is my luxurious mane."
Alex shook her head, laughing loudly.
"You're fucking exaggerating Nic-"
"Who the fuck are you talking to?"
Alex turned around to see her cellmate in the top bunk. She had an irritated look on her face. Alex gave her a glare and squinted her eyes at her.
"What do you mean who am I talking to? My friend-"
"There's no one there, weirdo." Her cellmate hissed. "Now please, shut the fuck up. I need to sleep."
Alex turned to face Nicky, finding nothing but the metal bars of her cell.
Piper walked through her front door to find Larry on the phone. He met her eyes with a look of both surprise and anger.
"Actually, cancel the officers. She just walked through the door. Yeah, thank you. Sorry about that." Larry hung up the phone and tossed it onto the coffee table with a loud clatter. He stood looking at his fiance with his hands on his hips. He took a deep breath in.
"Where the fuck have you been?" He asked, his voice cracking.
"Larry I-"
"TELL ME!" He shouted. The volume of his voice made Piper wince. She put her palms out to face him and took a small step forward.
"Are you fucking him again?" Larry asked accusingly.
"Larry, please, I'm not fucking anybody." Piper answered calmly.
"Then why didn't you come home? I woke up, you weren't here, I had to call Polly-"
"You called Polly?" Piper scoffed. "Larry you can't do that, it's almost midnight. She's eight months pregnant. You can't stress her out like-"
"It was the last place you were. The last place you said you were." He said condescendingly. His chest was puffed out as he stared her down. He still had butter stains on the front of his Rolling Stones shirt from his previously spilled popcorn.
"I was at Polly's. I came home and cleaned up your mess and then Nicky asked me if I could go on a call because Lorna was feeling sick. Did you not notice how your bowl of popcorn magically levitated from your chest to the kitchen sink?" Piper gave him a look of confusion. "You didn't see the note I left on the island?"
Larry softened his stance. He crossed his arms over his chest and looked down at the floor.
"Why aren't you wearing your regular outfit then? You did a removal in a sweater, jeans, and a pair of Converse?"
Piper stepped toward him again, grabbing his hand slowly. She held his hand in her's and pressed it to her heart.
"I keep an extra set at the office."
Larry looked at her with tears in his eyes. His nose had turned pink and his lip was beginning to quiver. Piper set her hand on his face. She fought the urge to replace the image of his face in the warm lighting of their living room with the one of Alex's seemingly sparkling in the moonlight. She gave him a sad smile and stroked her thumb over the stubble on his cheek. He leaned his face into her touch.
"Is that what you think? That I'm fucking Jacob?" Piper asked quietly. "I told you, something like that will never happen again. Especially not with that weasel faced asshole." She chuckled.
"With anyone." Larry corrected. "It'll never happen again with anyone."
"Right." She lied. "With anyone."
Nicky sat at the bar, continually checking her phone for missed texts from Lorna. Her screen was blank, giving her the incentive to slam the rest of her Modelo. She scanned over the bar, looking at the small number of people inside. It was mostly young college kids set on getting annihilated simply because the day ended in the letter Y. She watched as a guy who was far too muscular for his height pawed at the breasts of a girl who was visibly fed up with him. She rolled her eyes and motioned to the bartender, asking for another beer.
Out of the corner of her eye she noticed movement. She turned to see a beautiful young woman with long black curls. She was wearing winged black eyeliner and small, silver hooped earrings. She ordered a Tequila Sunrise, taking a long drink from it before meeting Nicky's eyes.
"What are you looking at?" She asked, smiling.
"That expensive ass drink you ordered that probably has the same alcohol content as a bottle of mouthwash." Nicky commented.
"Oh, and you're so tough because you're drinking carbonated piss water?" She teased, taking another sip from her drink.
"I'll have you know, Modelo is the drink of adults. Something of which this place looks to be heavily lacking so therefore, I'll be leaving." Nicky gave her a small salute and chugged the rest of her beer. She stood up from her barstool and pulled on her jacket. The woman grabbed her by the wrist.
"Don't go, grandma." She joked. "I was just kidding."
Nicky sat back down. The girl got the bartender's attention and had him bring Nicky another drink. She turned to face her, stirring her straw.
"So, because you're so grown, what brings you to a shitty dive bar on a Tuesday night? You just like to bully college kids?"
"That's a very clever observation, but no, I do not. I like to bully everyone equally. Like a human draw four Uno card. It's simply not my fault that the populous of your age group like to make themselves practically hanging fruit for those of us who have what some may call common sense." Nicky said condescendingly.
"So what about me makes you think I'm part of the focus group?" The woman smirked.
"The hair. The earrings. The ten dollar tequila sunrise which would lead me to believe mommy and daddy just sent your weekly allowance."
"You're wrong on all points." The woman finished the last gulp of her drink, holding up a perfectly manicured nail. "I'm thirty three. These earrings were a gift from my niece and I've been dying my roots going on a year now. This tequila sunrise was only nine dollars and twenty five cents and I bought it with my very hard earned, government job money."
Nicky was taken aback. She thought about it for a moment before stuttering and trying to find her words.
"Okay so uh, I-I do look like an asshole. I'm sorry." She cringed. "That was shitty. I was shitty for that."
"You know what else is shitty?" The young woman pressed. "The fact that I just lied to you straight through my twenty two year old, college student, allowance spending teeth." She giggled. Nicky scoffed and gave her shoulder a shove. The young woman threw her hair back and admired Nicky for a moment.
"So," She pressed. "Since we've now established that I am indeed here to spend my parents' money. What's your reason? It's kinda gross if you're here to pick up younger women. Just saying."
"No, I'm actually not." Nicky held up a finger to her. "I'm sure you're thinking that's what every sexy older man such as myself would say when they're on the prowl for barely legal pussy." She sipped her beer. "But," She swallowed. "I'm actually here to wallow in my own self pity while my girlfriend who also isn't my girlfriend is out on what she swears isn't a date between her and a boyfriend from high school."
"Oh…" The woman nodded. "That's rough."
"Yeah so uh, no, I am not interested in your unnecessarily loud and excited friends. I think those roid raged proud boys over there might be though. So you may wanna go attend to that rather than continuing to sit here and call me geriatric. I'm only thirty three by the way." Nicky said in a more hateful tone than she'd intended to. The woman seemed unphased by her attack.
"So if she's having fun, why aren't you?"
Nicky sat in silence for a moment as she thought the question over. She looked up at the ceiling and watched as a fly crawled over the lightbulb in the lamp above her.
"Because…she deserves it." She answered. "After the shit storm that was our week, she deserves it."
"Don't you deserve some fun too?" The woman set her hand on Nicky's knee. She looked down at her hand and then back to the woman. She smirked.
"Listen sweetheart, no offense-"
"You said she isn't your girlfriend? Right?" The woman moved her hand from Nicky's knee to her thigh.
"Yeah." Nicky nodded. "Something like that." She set her hand on the woman's.
"So what's the problem?"
"Let's make this clear." Nicky laughed. "There is no the problem. There are about fifty problems an hour. There are a myriad of problems. That song, Ninety Nine problems? That's me. I can assure you, a bitch ain't one. In fact, I wish a bitch was one. I wish-"
The woman pressed her lips to Nicky's. They kissed for a moment before the woman pulled away, smiling.
"You need to relax." She commented.
"I need to go home." Nicky said softly. She stood up from her chair, stumbling a bit before exiting the bar.
Nicky walked the sidewalk in the cold night air. Her mind told her to go to Lorna's sister's house and see if she was there. She wanted to find Lorna in her bedroom and hear her tell her how much of a creep this guy was. She wanted Lorna to lay her head in her lap and tell her about all the things she wanted in her wedding when she finally found someone to marry. So many times, Nicky had considered asking her right then and there to let her be the one to marry her. She'd almost done it more times than she could count.
She knew in her heart Lorna would never commit herself to someone who couldn't give her the life she'd always strived for. A white picket fence and a litter of children running free in a big yard. A husband in a suit and tie getting off of work to homemade dinners. A Christmas with a big family and a million gifts under the tree.
Nicky had none of that to offer. She never wanted kids. Even if she did, the dozens of times she'd overdosed had nearly destroyed her body beyond repair. Lorna could carry a child but, then what? Nicky wouldn't know the first thing to say to a child. She was barely adult enough to care for herself. She and Alex were nowhere near stable enough to stop the trafficking. Now, with Kubra over her head, Nicky didn't know if she'd ever really be free.
Her wandering had brought her to a side street. She recognized it as a place she used to sleep when her own parents had thrown her out of the house. They'd replaced the bench she used to sleep on with a strip of anti homeless spikes. She shook her head in disappointment and continued her walk, thinking more about her fantasy of life with Lorna.
What would she do if she caught their child snorting pills? Doing heroin? If she caught them with their other junkie friends, stealing money from the tip jars at grocery stores around town. She shook the thought out of her. It would be just her luck if the universe chose to punish her with a child that was a carbon copy of herself. But if the baby turned out like Lorna? They'd be in the clear, she thought. They'd have created the most beautiful thing in the world.
Nicky shook away her drunken fantasies as she climbed the stairs to her apartment door. She noticed a light on inside. A smile came to her face. Lorna's date must not have gone as well as planned.
She opened the door and instantly felt the sense of sobriety overcome her. Kubra was sitting in her computer chair, a cigar between his teeth. He gave her a small wave and motioned towards the couch. Nicky already knew not to fight it. She took a seat on the couch and put her feet up on the coffee table, heaving out a big breath of air as she did.
"Wh-what's up? Huh? I got the cigarettes pushed, the H was delivered to Aiden, the body it came in is all fixed up. What'd I do now?" She asked in frustration. Kubra slowly tapped his cigar into the ashtray on the table. He had a calm demeanor about him that somehow made him come across as scarier than usual.
"It's not what you did." He took a sip from the glass in his free hand. "It's what you haven't done."
"Are you drinking my fucking whiskey?" Nicky grunted.
"I made myself at home." Kubra fixed his shirt, flashing the gun in his waistband. "I hope you don't mind. Also, you should probably lock your front doors, with the drug trafficking and all." He shrugged.
"Yeah, fuck it, whatever." Nicky sighed. "I was expecting somebody." She ran a hand through her hair and watched him as he finished his drink. "What's this about? Really?"
"I noticed you sold a lot more cigarettes since we last spoke. You and Luschek weren't running a very tight ship. But, without him, it seems like you're doubling the numbers you were selling when that fat prick was still alive." Kubra said in a seemingly proud way.
"Yeah, well that happens when some Saudi dude threatens to kill you and your friends any time the wind blows the wrong direction."
"I'm Turkish." He snapped. Nicky closed her mouth and fixed her posture, avoiding his eyes. "I've come to ask you to take on another job for me."
"I'm guessing you're not actually asking me to do this job?" Nicky squinted at him.
"No, Nicky, I am not." He stood and began to gaze over the decorations on Nicky's walls. He ran his hand down a poster of Joan Jett. "I've always liked her. It's very rare that I like an American artist, you know." He smirked.
"Kubra, please." Nicky pleaded nervously.
"Fentanyl." He said quietly, not taking his eyes off the poster. "I need you to take it to the Canadian border for me tomorrow."
Nicky shook her head rapidly, making her curls bounce. She rose from the couch and put her hands up.
"No, I can't-"
"I'm not asking you, remember?" He turned to her. He rested his hand on the butt of his gun.
"It's different keeping it in the funeral home." She said in a strained voice. "After it leaves the embalming room, we don't know where it goes but fuckin… internationally, Kubra, that's a fuckin life sentence man."
Kubra chuckled. He looked Nicky up and down and shook his head.
"Maybe you aren't the alpha I thought you were. One mention of trafficking shit past the border and you crumble. Let's hope you never find yourself in an interrogation room, huh?" He joked.
"Maybe I'm fucking not!" Nicky gritted her teeth. "I can't take a life sentence in prison, okay? I'll do anything else you need. I'll push heroin in the clubs. I-I'll take shit all the way to fucking California if you need-"
"You're fucked either way, Nicky." Kubra said.
"What?" She stared at him.
Kubra began to shuffle as he reached for something in his back pocket. He pulled out a ziplock bag with a semi-automatic handgun inside of it. Nicky recognized it as the gun she'd purchased after the men had broken into her apartment and beaten Lorna nearly to death.
"Where'd you-"
"I told you, you shouldn't leave that door unlocked." He smiled. His smile was terrifying. It felt as if Nicky was staring into the eyes of a shark, ready to rip her limb from limb.
"What? You're gonna kill me with my own gun if I say no? No offense but I have fucking nothing going for me at this point. I don't care. Shoot me." Nicky took a step forward. "Shoot me right between the eyes if you have to, but I am not trafficking fentanyl to Canada. I'm not doing it."
"I'm not going to kill you. At least, not yet." Kubra answered. "But if you don't do this for me, Nicky, this gun ends up at a homicide scene. Maybe somebody of importance. A senator or maybe the prosecuting attorney's teenage daughter. I don't know." He shrugged. Nicky stood in shocked silence, tears streaming down her face. "Let's not forget about Alex. Or your little girlfriend. Or maybe even Alex's little smart-mouthed girlfriend. Aiden's not a very big fan of hers anyways."
"Th-They don't-"
"I'll make sure they suffer, Nicky." Kubra said darkly. His face took on a shadow that made him look as if he were a villain in a horror movie. He stepped close enough that Nicky could feel every breath he took whispering past her ear.
"I'll break every bone in their fucking bodies and maul them to death with a pack of Rottweilers. I'll wait until you're in prison and have locks of their hair smuggled in and hidden under your pillow for every single day you spend rotting. I'll record their screams and make you listen to it on loop before I rip every tooth out of your head."
"I get it." Nicky choked.
"So tell me one more time you're not doing it." He demanded. Nicky nodded her head in silence. He smiled.
"Great." He slapped her shoulder. "You leave at five a.m. so why don't you get some rest. The delivery's on the bed." Kubra put his cigar out in the ashtray before pulling on his coat and opening the front door. "Oh and don't forget," He said. "Lock your doors. Wouldn't want someone dangerous to get in, now would we?"
Nicky waited until he'd left to walk into her bedroom and find the large black duffel bag lying on her comforter. She opened it to find nearly thirty kilos of fine white powder wrapped tightly in plastic and duct tape. She zipped the bag back up and threw herself back onto the bed. She pulled out her phone.
Alex lay on her couch drinking a glass of red wine and watching a series she'd already seen three times over. She'd stayed near the pond for a short while after Piper had left. She'd stared over the water and twirled the rose in her hands as she thought over the conversation they'd had. When she ran out of cigarettes she left and walked herself home, struggling to convince herself that she didn't need to stop at the bar and drink herself into a slurring mess.
The conversation about Regina had dug up things inside of Alex she'd been avoiding for years. Of course, she thought about what happened to her. She thought about it nearly everyday. She thought about it every time she looked in the mirror. When she saw a woman on the street who resembled her ex. When she listened to people speak of their own experiences. She dreamt about it. She talked about it in her sleep. Sometimes she thought she saw Regina out of the corner of her eye and every time that happened, her heart raced until she found somewhere to sit down.
She was trying to get her heart to slow and her brain to relax. She was trying to forget the unforgettable for the thousandth time.
Her phone buzzed.
"Hello?" She answered it.
"Vause, it's Nicky." Her voice crackled over the speaker.
"Yeah I know who it is, phones literally show the caller's name on the screen." Alex chuckled.
"Yeah uh, whatever." Nicky replied. "Listen, I need tomorrow off."
Alex sat up on the couch and paused her TV show.
"What do you mean? We've got like two services in the morning and six bodies in the cooler. I need you tomorrow."
Nicky was silent for a moment.
"Nicky?" Alex pressed.
"Yeah." She answered.
"What's going on?" Alex asked.
"Nothing. Lorn's got a doctor's appointment and I've got some stuff to sort out. I just need tomorrow off, okay? Can you just give me that?" Nicky pleaded.
Alex scoffed.
"Yeah, sure. I'll just teach Red and Piper to embalm the bodies, no worries."
"Thanks, Vause."
"Nicky are you fucking kidding-"
"Alex." Nicky pushed. "I. Need. This."
"We said no more secrets." Alex said seriously.
"I don't…" Nicky sighed. "I don't have any more secrets. I'm telling you the truth. I'm burned out. I need a day. I'll give you two days out of the office. I'll work every service next week. Come on."
Alex clenched her teeth and took a deep breath in. She stared at the wall and tried her best to keep her anger from coming out in her voice.
"Vause?"
"Yeah." She huffed. "Fine. Take it off. I'll see you on Thursday."
"I love you, kid. Thank you."
"Yeah. Love you too." Alex hung up the phone.
She threw herself back on the couch and stared at the ceiling. She was gathering her thoughts, trying to calculate how many hours of sleep she'd have if she went to bed now. With Nicky's absence she'd need to arrive two hours earlier than usual in order to take care of everything that was waiting for her at the funeral home. She checked the clock. It was now ten minutes past midnight. If she went to sleep now she would get exactly… three hours of rest. Alex groaned and began to take herself to her bed. Her phone dinged. She checked the new text message.
Piper:
Sorry for leaving so fast. Larry freaked out but he's sleeping now so I'm in the clear. I left my rose! :( Thank you for giving it to me. It was very sweet. I'll see you tomorrow lovely. Goodnight 3
Alex smiled. Suddenly, her dread of being to work the next day had lifted.
Piper arrived at the funeral home the following morning to find Alex in the embalming room, finishing up on a body. She walked towards her, looking at her work. It was an older woman, upwards of 200 pounds. Piper watched as her cold body moved with every motion Alex made. Piper had seen this body before as she had been the one to remove it from a nursing home. Compared to the way the woman had looked before, Alex had seemingly done magic on her corpse.
The woman's pale skin tone was now replaced with a rosier shade. Her face was fuller and not sunken in. Her eyes had even been closed.
"How do you do that?" Piper asked.
"Do what?" Alex asked without looking up from her project. She was loading a syringe with a clear liquid from a small glass medicine bottle.
"Fix them." Piper answered.
"Lots and lots of patience." Alex inspected the amount inside the syringe before placing the needle into the left side of the woman's face, directly under her eye.
"What are you doing to her?"
"I'm filling the sunken places in her face so she doesn't look so…dead." Alex smirked. "I take this syringe and I fill it with this stuff here called Feature Builder." She pointed at the needle under the woman's skin. "Then I inject like so." She pushed the end of the syringe. The pit under the woman's eye began to fill. "And with a little bit of TLC we can mold this and make it look natural." Alex gently pressed her fingers around the area, shaping it so it looked as if she'd never done anything at all.
Piper looked at the woman. Her face looked completely normal besides her gaping jaw.
"And that? Her mouth? How do you fix that?" She asked.
"I don't know if you really wanna see that." Alex chuckled. She had her glasses pushed back on her forehead the way Piper always liked.
"No." She protested. "I wanna see. I like when you show me stuff."
"I don't know if you're flirting with me right now but I can assure you, there's nothing sexy about embalming an old naked lady. Or anyone, for that matter." The taller woman looked down at her, smiling.
"No, I mean…no." Piper shrugged. "Dead bodies aren't sexy. At all. I just-" She struggled to find her words. "I just like you."
"Okay, well if that's all it is." She teased. Alex rummaged around the cluttered countertop before pulling out what was practically a large blue nail gun. She returned to her place next to the body.
"Why don't you put on some gloves?" Alex suggested. Piper obeyed and snapped on a pair of black latex gloves.
"You're gonna let me do it?" She asked.
"Well, you can get away with certain things when you're locally owned."
Alex took Piper's hand and set it on the gun. She took a step behind the shorter woman and wrapped her arms around her, placing her other hand on the gun. Piper leaned forward, concentrating on the woman's mouth.
"We're gonna take this little copper wire, and load it into here." Alex took the wire she was referring to and attached it to the mouth of the gun. "Then we're going to lift her upper lip." She moved Piper's hands for her, setting them in the correct places. "And we're going to press this right above her top front teeth and put our finger on the trigger." Alex placed her finger over Piper's on the trigger of the gun. "Then, we're gonna pull it. Ready?"
"Ready." Piper replied, doing her best to focus on the deceased rather than the way Alex's hips felt pressed against her lower half.
"One…" Alex began to count. "Two…" She pulled the trigger. The gun fired with a startling POP.
It sent the copper wire straight through the deceased woman's gums, through the bone, and into the back of her mouth near her uvula. The noise made Piper jump, pressing her closer into Alex.
"What happened to three?" She breathed
"The sound of the gun was the three." Alex laughed and kissed the side of her head. "Wanna do the bottom row on your own?"
"No." Piper smirked. "I want you to stay right where you are."
Her comment made Alex blush.
Piper wasted no time pressing the gun to the woman's lower row of teeth. She pulled the trigger, sending a second wire through. The sound startled her again despite her expectation of it. She could hear Alex giggling behind her.
"Now we put the gun down." Alex took it and set it down, returning to her position behind Piper. "Then we take the two wires and twist them together." The older woman began to twist the two copper wires together inside the woman's mouth. With each twist, the woman's jaws came closer together. With one final big spin, the two rows of teeth met. "Tuck this away like this." Alex pushed the wire inwards, hiding it under the woman's bottom lip like a pinch of chewing tobacco.
"But her lips are still parted." Piper remarked.
"Not for long." Alex picked up a metal spatula and a small canister of wax. The blonde watched as Alex went to work. Within moments, the woman's lips were closed and seemingly shaped into a peaceful smile. Piper looked her over.
"Wow." She said, "That's…so scary."
"What do you mean? Does something look off?" Alex asked worriedly.
"No, I just didn't know that when we die somebody shoots wires through our bones and closes our lips with pink wax." She answered. "Death is kind of fucked up."
"Don't worry, after body number six hundred and seventy four," Alex smirked. "You'll still think it's fucked up."
Piper went back to looking at the woman's now peaceful expression. Alex sighed and snapped off her gloves. She washed her hands in the sink and took off her apron, revealing her white t-shirt. Piper turned to look at her.
"There isn't anything sexy about death, Alex." She commented. "But I'm gonna be fully honest with you."
Alex cocked her eyebrow at her and retrieved a cigarette from the pack of smokes tucked into one of her rolled up sleeves. She held one in her hand and returned the pack to her shirt, leaning back against the cooler door. She stared into Piper's eyes, placing the unlit cigarette between her teeth.
"Be honest with me, baby." Alex smirked. Piper took off her gloves and took a step forward, Alex watching her every move. She came closer, her hands behind her back.
"It is sexy when you grind your hips against me like that."
With one quick motion, Alex reached out and grabbed Piper by the bottom of her shirt, pulling her in. She kissed her deeply. Piper ran her hands under her shirt, feeling her toned stomach. Alex tried to move so that the blonde's back was against the door. Piper resisted and pushed Alex back, trapping her against the cooler. The taller woman buried her hands in her hair and kissed her hard, sinking her teeth into her bottom lip. Piper's hand plunged into the front of Alex's slacks, running over the smooth silk of her underwear. Alex broke away.
"I can't." She sighed. "I can't, I've gotta get shit finished in here."
Piper ignored her and bit down rough on her neck. Alex gasped, tangling her hand in the younger woman's long blonde waves.
"Yes you can." Piper breathed. "And you will, because I said so."
"Did you forget I'm the boss?" Alex asked as she broke away, fixing the button on her slacks.
"I'm serious." Piper crossed her arms. "I need you in my office now, ." She demanded. Alex turned away, hiding her face as she blushed.
"Am I in trouble?" She flirted.
"Yes, Alex, I'm afraid you are." Piper flirted back.
"Okay. But I can only be in trouble for twenty minutes. I've got-"
"Services. I know." Piper interrupted. "Now get your ass up those stairs and stop wasting time."
Alex looked at her in shock.
"Now." Piper demanded. "Boss."
The older woman did as she was told and made her way down the hall towards the staircase, Piper following behind her. Alex climbed the stairs, checking behind her to make sure Red wasn't looking.
They met in Piper's office, wasting no time picking up where they left off. Piper pushed Alex backwards against the desk. She hurriedly unbuttoned her slacks and pulled them downwards, kissing the insides of Alex's thighs. Alex shivered, pushing her head closer.
"You said-" She breathed. "I was in trouble but, this doesn't feel like a punishment to me, Pipes."
Piper bit her thigh in response. Alex squealed and started to laugh.
"Stop that." She demanded. Piper smiled up at her and slowly pulled her black panties down her legs until they fell to her ankles. She kissed between her legs, running the very edges of her lips over Alex's exposed clit. She began to squirm, trying to push herself against her mouth.
"Relax baby, does Nicky rush you like that?" Piper teased. Alex gave her a look that was a mix of shock and laughter. Piper giggled, continuing her game. She began to kiss deeper, running her tongue everywhere except the place Alex wanted it to go. The warmth made Alex's entire body rise in temperature. Piper finally met her clit with the very tip of her tongue, swirling it.
"For somebody who's never done this before," The tall woman said shakily. "You're doing pretty fucking well."
"You could still direct me. I like the sound of your voice."
Alex threw her head back and closed her eyes, taking in the feeling of Piper's tongue. She moved quickly, flicking upwards at a fast pace. She closed her lips around her clit, sucking gently. Alex moaned quietly, covering her mouth with her hand.
"Talk, Alex." Piper demanded.
"Keep doing what you're doing." Alex whined.
"That's not good enough." The blonde stopped, looking up at her. "I want you to tell me what you think about when we aren't together. What do you think about me doing to you?"
"I think about you putting your fingers inside me." Alex replied, looking down at her sheepishly.
"Like this?" Piper inserted one digit, then two, feeling Alex's warmth. She moaned as Piper began to move her fingers, flexing them upwards in a slow, circular motion. Piper returned her tongue to her clit, beginning with a few long, soft licks before switching back to her fast pace.
"I think about you telling me how you'll never leave him for me but maybe if I let you fuck me you will."
Piper's movements became more intense. Alex whined, placing her hand on the back of the younger woman's neck.
"I think about you telling me I'm worthless and-" Alex gasped. "How I deserve nothing."
Alex's muscles began to tighten and her thighs began to shake. She could feel Piper smiling as her orgasm began to rise. Right as Alex's climax began to peak, Piper's office door swung open.
Red gasped and covered her eyes before uncovering them and looking at the women in anger.
"There is a man here to see you Piper and he's three stairs behind me so both of you fucking idiots better pull your pants up and act like you have some god damn sense." She hissed before closing the door.
Alex jumped up quickly. She didn't have enough time to fix herself before she dove under the desk and hid. Piper stood up and fixed her hair, wiping her mouth with the back of her wrist. She turned just as the door opened to reveal Larry holding a bouquet of sunflowers.
"Babe!" Piper smiled. "Hi!"
"Hey sweetheart." He wrapped Piper in a big hug and gave her a kiss. He paused.
"What?" She asked nervously.
"Nothing you just uh, taste kinda weird." He laughed. Piper gave him a look before sitting down in her computer chair. She glanced under the desk at Alex who had a fearful look on her face.
"Were you drinking rose water or something?" He asked. Alex smiled and stifled her laugh.
"Yeah. Red brought me some this morning." Piper lied and scooted her chair closer to the desk, her knees hitting Alex in the shoulder.
"Red. That's the Russian lady I just met, right?" Larry sat in one of the leather chairs against the wall.
"Yeah. She tells everybody to call her . No one calls her that. Um, anyways, sweetie, what's up? You brought me flowers?" She changed the subject.
"Yeah." Larry set them on her desk. "I just wanted to bring them and tell you sorry for the way I overreacted last night. It was stupid and childish. I shouldn't have done that. I shouldn't have called the cops like that." He scratched his head shyly. Piper saw Alex make a face under the desk.
"Honey, it's really okay." Piper picked up the flowers and smelled them. "These are wonderful, really, thank you."
"It wasn't okay." Larry shook his head. Alex began to snake her hand up Piper's skirt. Her long fingers toyed with the crotch of Piper's underwear, moving them to the side. She took a deep breath in and did her best to focus on Larry sitting in front of her.
"My freakout came from a place of insecurity. Insecurity and selfishness and jealousy. I mean, what happened with…that guy…was so long ago and you've never lied to me." He shrugged. "Hell, even when that happened you told me right away."
Piper nodded her head, trying to ignore Alex's fingers beginning to slowly circle her clit.
"You've just been working so much it's been making me feel lonely and made me miss you so much. I mean, I thought being a lawyer was a lot of hours at the office. I didn't realize just how much goes into being a funeral employee, you know." Larry sighed.
"Mm-hm." Piper nodded. Alex was pushing her luck, sliding her fingers inside of her. She began to move her fingers quickly. Piper sunk her teeth into her bottom lip and took a slow shuddering breath.
"I feel like at that moment I flushed away the entire year of couples' counseling we did together. It was shitty. I'm sorry, Pipes." He sat forward in his chair and grabbed her hand. Piper fought with everything in her not to hold his hand with a steel grip.
"Right." She swallowed. Alex wasn't slowing her movements and with every passing moment, Piper was struggling more and more to keep her cool.
"I was thinking and I think before we go to Vegas, we should have a party. Like a little celebration to replace our wedding reception, you know? We could invite everyone that would've been at the wedding. You can invite all the girls from work too. Even your old lady boss." Larry smiled. Piper could feel Alex's fingers stop moving when Larry said that. It only seemed to motivate her as she wasted no time quickening her pace to one that made Piper gasp.
"That's a great idea, Larry." She said quickly, trying to cover the sound.
"We can even do the whole bouquet toss if you want." He suggested.
"I would love that." Piper gritted her teeth. She could feel her body beginning to tense up.
"I don't think we should invite that Russian lady though." He smiled. "She seems kinda…sketchy."
Piper nodded along, trying to control her breathing.
"I didn't realize they gave you a whole office here. Do the other removal technicians have offices?" He asked.
"No uh…" Piper shivered. "Nicky and Lorna's offices are in the back."
"Can I have a tour?" Larry smirked.
"No we've got bodies and…" Piper gulped, her grip on Larry's hand tightened. "I don't think you wanna see all that."
"I wanna see what you do around here." He argued.
"Larry…"
"Also, you're hurting my hand."
Piper let go and gripped the computer mouse, pretending to look at her screen.
"Where is everybody anyway?" He looked towards the door. Piper took her window of opportunity and stood up from her chair, letting Alex pull her hand away and return to hiding. She noticed the smirk plastered across her face as she met eyes with her. Piper smoothed her skirt and stood in front of Larry.
"Well…" She cleared her throat. "Nicky's out sick today and Lorna has a doctor's appointment.
"And Alex?" He pressed. "You know, the Alex Vause."
"She's around here somewhere." Piper answered, doing her best to avoid looking at her desk. "You know what, why don't we go find her?" Piper took him by the hand and led him out of her office. They walked past Red as she stood outside in the hall. She gave a kind smile to them before entering the office and shutting the door behind her.
"Get your tall, yuppy ass out from under that desk now." Red commanded. Alex crawled out from under the desk like a child. She stood and buttoned her slacks, taking a seat on Piper's desk.
"Look Red-"
"No, Alex you fucking look." Red hushed her. "What the fuck is wrong with you?"
"I-"
"That's not for you to answer. You keep your mouth shut and you listen." Red continued. "I keep my nose out of things around here but I know everything that happens in this place, Alex. I know when that black flower van shows up that you leave twenty minutes later with a black duffel bag on your arm. Then you come back with another duffel bag like a pizza delivery man. I don't know what it is you're taking and bringing back. But I know you all of a sudden had enough money to raise my pay to sixteen an hour when we haven't been busy in years."
"We let Taystee and Poussey go Red, I had enough to-"
"I am not stupid. After all these years, you've got to know, I am not stupid, Alex Vause."
Alex nodded her head and remained quiet. Red began to pace the office.
"What I know is that when you're delivering those pizzas, you've started taking that girl out there with you. I see you two following each other around like schoolgirls. I see both of you are already here when I arrive in the morning. In the eighteen years I've worked here, I have been the one to unlock those doors every single morning." Red sat in the chair Larry had previously been in and pointed a finger at the tall woman sitting opposite of her. "Whatever is in those bags. Whatever is coming in and out of here that suddenly has the power to keep this place from going under, she knows about. Which means there is a very good chance that man out there also knows what she's doing in this place. What's going to happen when he finds out you two are in here playing tonsil hockey six hours a day, huh? Who will he run to and blab all our dirty laundry to?" Red stood. "Those friends of your mother at the police station, Alex." She stepped closer, lowering her voice. "They're retiring. They're dying. They are no longer here to keep your mother's secrets. Do not think for an instant that girl wouldn't throw you under the bus the moment they threaten her with longer than twenty four hours in jail."
Alex sat in silence. She crossed her arms and pushed her glasses up on her head.
"She's not like that, Red."
"Oh but Regina wasn't either."
Alex's face became hardened. She stood and came close to Red, looking her in the eyes.
"Do not compare her to Regina."
"And why not?" Red growled. "Because it looks to me like you're going right back down that same road.
"You're not my mother." Alex began to walk away.
"You're right. I'm not your mother. But I knew your mother like my own. If she could see you now she'd-"
"She'd what?" Alex snapped. "She'd tell me she's disappointed? She'd tell me I'm fucking up the business? What would she say, Red?"
Red didn't answer.
"It doesn't matter to me what Diane would have to say. She died doing exactly what the fuck I was doing and none of you were there to stop her. I wasn't there. Not you, not Nicky, not Taystee. None of us. I am so sick of this fucking blame game all of you put on me. Diane died because she was a junkie just like me." Alex slammed the door behind her and made her way down the stairs. She found Larry and Piper in the lobby. Larry greeted her with a surprised look on his face and stuck his hand out to her. Alex shook it with the same hand she'd had inside Piper only moments earlier.
"Larry Bloom. It's nice to finally meet you." He said.
"Alex Vause. Likewise." She replied. "I've heard quite a lot about you."
"I could say the same." He smiled. "I didn't expect you to be so…"
"Young?" Alex smirked. Piper shot her a look. "I get that a lot. It's not everyday you find a 32 year old funeral home owner. Please, excuse the t-shirt, I was embalming a minute ago."
Larry looked confused.
"Oh, we were just in the embalming room. We didn't see you."
"Right." She shrugged. "I had to get some papers organized in my office so we probably just missed each other."
"Well," Piper interjected. "Larry was actually gonna get going."
"It was great to meet you." Alex said as she turned away.
"Oh hey, wait!" Larry called. "Piper and I are having a party next week to celebrate our marriage next month. Would you wanna come by?" He asked.
"I'll be there." Alex waved.
Larry kissed Piper and said goodbye before leaving the funeral home.
Piper followed Alex into the embalming room where she threw her apron back on. She rolled a body out of the cooler and began unzipping the body bag.
"That took so much longer than twenty minutes, I am so sorry." Piper apologized. "Did Red say anything?"
"Uh, no. Don't worry about it." Alex denied.
"You're so fucking lucky I know how to keep my mouth shut." Piper laughed and kissed Alex sweetly.
"Yeah, I hope you do." She commented without thinking. Piper gave her a strange look.
"What do you mean by that?"
"Nothing." Alex sighed.
Nicky trembled as she sat behind the steering wheel of the car Kubra had given her to drive to the Canadian border. She was now only a half mile away from reaching the checkpoint where she'd be searched by border patrol. She thought about stopping right where she was and turning around. She could ditch the duffel bag on the side of the road and drive back home. She could turn around and drive towards Jersey where she could sell the Fentanyl and use the money to start a new life. Both options left Alex in danger. They left Alex, Piper, Red, and most importantly, Lorna at the mercy of a man who Nicky knew wouldn't hesitate to follow through on his threats. She wondered if he'd be able to find her and send her locks of her friends' hair in a cheap motel somewhere in San Francisco.
Nicky's thoughts settled down as she reached the checkpoint. Luckily, there were around a dozen other vehicles waiting to make their way past the border. She was hoping they would give her enough camouflage to be one of the lucky people who wouldn't be asked for more than an ID and her passport. This hope was quickly shot down as a uniformed officer tapped his knuckles against her driver's side window. Nicky rolled it down quickly, looking at him from behind her sunglasses.
"Name?" He asked dryly.
"Uh Nick-Nicky." She swallowed. "Nicole Nichols."
"Can I see your driver's license and passport, please?" The officer looked down at her.
"Yeah, sure." She'd made sure she had them set in her passenger seat before she even left the parking lot of her apartment complex. She gingerly handed them to him, looking over his face. He seemed serious yet unwavering as he scanned over her information. Nicky flinched as another officer approached, a drug sniffing canine in tow. The dog immediately began to make its way towards her vehicle. She'd done as she was told and put the duffel bag in the hidden compartment below her driver's seat.
The dog neared, sniffing aggressively at the front tire then back towards where Nicky sat. She looked down at the large German Shepherd, then back to the officers. They were both intently staring as the dog began to snarl, then bark loudly. Its jowls were foaming with saliva, flicking it every which way with each ear splitting cry. Nicky's heart began to race. Her face began to dampen with sweat and suddenly the inside of the car felt as if it were on fire.
"Ma'am." The officer stated.
"No listen," She stammered.
"We're gonna need you to pull the vehicle over to the side, please." He continued.
"Please, I've got a medical marijuana card, that's probably what he's freakin' out about, you know?" She said desperately.
"Pull the vehicle to the side." The officer demanded again. Nicky began to hyperventilate. She put the car in drive and ran over the options in her head. She could either pull the car to the side of the road and face life in prison or she could floor it in the opposite direction and face the wrath of Kubra.
Her entire body was shaking and her hands were beginning to slide against the wheel from the amount of sweat that was coming from her palms. She considered the only other option she could see at the moment. She could reach under her seat, fuss with the duffle bag until she reached a kilo on top, and snort as much Fentanyl as she could get into her hand. She could fade away quickly and all of this would no longer be her problem. This would all come back on Kubra for trusting a junkie. Maybe he'd have mercy on her friends because they trusted a junkie too. Maybe it'd be enough for him to cut his losses and leave Alex alone. Maybe they'd trace the drugs back to Kubra and put him in prison before he'd even get the chance to hurt the ones she loves. That would at least give Alex and the rest enough time to get a head start and restart their lives somewhere else.
Nicky parked the car on the shoulder of the road and undid her seatbelt. The officers were approaching and their hellhound was still yapping away. This was the time. Nicky began to reach under her seat only to be stopped by one of the officers as he tore the driver's side door open. He grabbed Nicky by the arm and roughly pulled her out of the vehicle. The dog jumped at her, stopping short as his leash was being held tightly by the other officer.
The man put her against the side of the car and held her in place as he looked towards the snarling dog.
"Search it." He demanded. The other officer came closer, allowing the dog to pounce onto the driver's seat. It continued barking angrily before calmly closing its froth covered mouth and sitting down. Both border patrol officers looked at the animal curiously before looking at each other. The officer holding Nicky against the car cocked one of his eyebrows and looked at the dog's handler in question.
"What does that mean?" He asked.
"It means he didn't find anything." The handler answered.
"Yeah cause I don't have anything." Nicky said shakily.
"Ma'am before I have my officer search more thoroughly through your vehicle, do you have anything you wanna tell us?" He asked, removing Nicky's sunglasses from her face. Nicky flinched away and shook her head.
"No man, no." She answered.
"You understand that trafficking illegal contraband across international borders is a federal offense that could result in up to anywhere from five years to life in prison, correct?" He asked her, pointing a finger at her face.
"Yeah so why the fuck would I do it?" Nicky asked angrily.
"If you're up front with us, it'll make this process a whole lot easier." He warned. "For both you and myself."
The handler began to rifle through the car. He tore open the center console, the glovebox, under the floor mats, under the steering wheel, and under both the driver and passenger seat. The dog was now sitting calmly next to Nicky.
"There's nothing here." The handler shrugged.
"You sure? Why the fuck was that asshole going crazy then?" The officer asked.
"Could be a false alarm" The handler looked down at the canine who was now sniffing at Nicky's mess of hair. The officer received a message from the radio on his shoulder saying he was needed back towards the front of the border entry. He looked between Nicky and the handler before shaking his head.
"Go on ahead, I'll have him sniff around some more and see if we find anything." The handler motioned his head towards the direction in which the officer was needed.
"Okay, but if you find anything, radio it in and I'll be back."
"Gotcha."
The officer looked at Nicky one more time before stomping away. The handler took a treat from his pocket and handed it to the dog.
"Good boy." He smiled and patted its head. The dog happily accepted it and went back to sniffing at Nicky.
"That was a close one, huh?" The handler smiled at her. Nicky looked at him in confusion.
"W-What?" She asked on the verge of tears.
"Come on, get your ass up." He said calmly. Nicky rose to her feet, leaning against the car to avoid falling over. Her knees felt as if they were about to buckle from beneath her.
"Quickly, get in the car." Nicky did as she was told and sat behind the steering wheel, looking down at the dog. It was wagging its tail happily.
"What the fuck is goin' on?" She asked.
"Turn around and drive about five miles east. I'll meet you at eight o'clock at the gas station down that dead end road at the fifth exit off the highway." He began to walk away. Nicky pulled a cigarette from the pack that'd been tossed onto her dash during the search. Her hands were shaking to the point she struggled to bring the butt of it to her lips.
"Don't smoke in the rentals." the officer said. "Kubra doesn't like it."
Alex was finally finishing her workload for the day when Red approached her in the embalming room. She didn't look up from the face of the elderly man she was working on. Usually, she and Red had a friendly banter between them. Today, that was nonexistent.
"Alex." Red said quietly. The younger woman didn't answer. Instead she smoothly ran her metal spatula over the man's pale lips, shaping them.
"You can ignore me all you want. You can act like the spoiled brat I thought you'd grown out of being twenty years ago. At the end of the day, I'm still your receptionist." The Russian smiled widely. Alex looked over at her, glaring.
"What do you want…receptionist?" She smiled back.
"There is a man here to see you." Red answered before making her way back towards the lobby. Alex huffed and threw down her tools. She stiripped off her apron and followed after the older woman.
"Why is there always a man here to see me, huh? Why's it never a Victoria's Secret model? Or a Demi Moore impersonator? Always some fuckin' man." Alex entered the lobby to see the police officer she'd met at the hospital the night she, Nicky, and Lorna were attacked by Kubra's goons. He smiled kindly and stuck a hand out to her.
"Miss Vause." He said.
"Alex." She shook his hand professionally.
"Right. I'm officer Bennet, I'm not sure if you remember me." He said.
"No, I do." Alex nodded. "Is there something I can help you with? We offer law enforcement funerals for a very low price if you've got a fallen officer or something of that nature."
"Oh no, god no." He shook his head nervously. "It's about the robbery at your friend's apartment."
Alex took a deep breath in and looked back towards Red's desk. The Russian was listening closely. She chose to ignore it.
"Right. Well we're all okay. We don't have any lasting injuries or anything so…"
"I'm happy to hear that." He nodded. "I just wanted to come by and ask you a few questions."
"I'm really busy, you know? I've just got a lot-"
"It'll only take a few moments." He pulled a photo from his pocket. "We recently investigated a suicide in Flatbush of a known drug dealer. You guys actually went and picked him up. Do you remember Joel Luschek coming through here? Not literally speaking, but in death terms, did he happen to end up here?"
Alex shrugged.
"I actually don't know. I don't go on a lot of the removals. I'm usually pretty busy around here doing embalmings and things like that." Alex answered nonchalantly. He turned the photo in his hand to face her. It was a photo of Joel Luschek's mugshot.
"Does this look familiar? I'm sure he looked different…after what happened."
"Uh…" Alex swallowed. "Yeah. We picked him up. What's this have to do with the robbery?"
Officer Bennet pulled another photo from his pocket.
"Well, the gun Joel used to commit suicide was dusted for fingerprints. We also found blood on the butt of the gun that didn't belong to him."
"Okay." She listened.
"The fingerprints came back for three men. Two of the men we were able to identify, the third we couldn't get a positive match. The two men we were able to identify were Hasim and Adem Demirci, two Turkish immigrant brothers. They both have a pretty long rap sheet of robberies and multiple assaults with a deadly weapon. Most of those charges occurred in the surrounding area." He showed her the photo. Alex recognized them as the two men who'd beaten Lorna and Nicky that night. "Do you recognize these two from the night of the robbery?" He asked.
Alex was silent for a moment.
"No. They don't look familiar at all." She shook her head. "I mean I appreciate the effort but, if you look up every person in the city who's got an assault or robbery charge it'll take you years to get to the bottom of this so, I really wouldn't go accusing those two. I mean having a history of robbery charges doesn't automatically tie you to every robbery that happened in the past few years, you know what I mean?" Alex answered nervously.
"You're absolutely right about that. My only concern is that we found traces of your friend Nicole Nichols' blood on the gun. So that means she was either at the scene of the suicide and Joel Luschek hit her with his gun before killing himself. Or, Joel Luschek was murdered by three assailants after they robbed and assaulted your friend, Nicole Nichols."
Alex stayed silent.
"If we were to connect the robbery to the alleged murder of , this would be enough evidence to put two very bad men behind bars. Charging these two could lead to the arrest of the unknown third assailant." He continued.
"Is it being investigated as a murder, at this point?" She asked.
"I can't really divulge those details." He answered. "But, between you and I, I'm probably the only officer who really cares to look into this case further. I personally requested that forensics dust for fingerprints because I noticed fresh tire tracks that didn't belong to Joel's truck in the mud behind his trailer home."
"Well aren't you quite the investigator?" Alex said sarcastically. He shot her a look of confusion. "Sorry," She apologized. "Talking about all this stuff just makes me really nervous. I just wanna forget about it honestly."
"I understand that." He said understandingly. "This is a very traumatic event that you and your friends have gone through. The thing is, if I manage to put together enough evidence on this case, we could get these two in prison. They wouldn't have much of a chance of getting out. This would lead me to believe they'd trade information for easier sentences which could lead us to a much larger investigation. If Joel Luschek really was murdered, it most likely had something to do with the large amounts of narcotics we found inside his home. In my eyes, he was a pawn in a massive chess game. These two are the knights. If we put them away, we take ourselves all the way up to the queen. Do you see what I'm saying?" He asked seriously. Alex gave him a smile and a small nod.
"I'm more of a Checker's girl myself, officer."
He didn't find her joke funny.
"I think you'd have better luck talking to Nicky, though. I walked in right as the guys were leaving the fire escape. She would have a better idea of what they looked like."
"Do you have a number where I could reach her?"
"She's really bad about picking up the phone. Or coming to work, for that matter. If you leave a card I can get it to her." She offered.
"Alright then. Here you go." He handed her his card from his shirt pocket. "If you happen to find any more information, don't be afraid to give me a call."
"Understood." Alex smiled and shook his hand one more time before he left.
She trudged upstairs to her office where she tossed the business card into her trash bin.