The morning after Pornstache sneaked the syringe filled with heroin into her hand was pure agony. She sneaked it into the pocket of her fresh pair of scrubs bottoms and showered as fast as she could, double and triple checking the pockets to make sure that it was still there.

She had to puke once and went to get stronger meds against her nausea and vomiting, tense through it all, afraid of losing the heroin in her pocket, afraid of someone catching on.

The tension never left her throughout the morning and she was glad when she finally found a little time for herself. Nicky walked past her cell, wanting to pick her up for lunch but she declined, saying that just the thought of food made her stomach queasy. The redhead nodded in understanding and told her to rest.

When her cellmates all left for lunch, Piper checked the hall but it was empty. She then looked through the small lockers of her cellmates and found a small hair tie. It would have to do.

She sat on the far side of her bed, her back to the door, and pulled the hair tie as far up her forearm as possible, trying to block the blood flow. A few seconds later she looked for a suitable vein and when she found one she took the syringe and removed the cap with her teeth, spitting it onto her bed.

Her heart was racing and sweat was forming on her forehead. The hand with the syringe was shaking and she needed to take a couple deep breaths to calm herself. Excitement was rushing through her body, her surroundings blurred away, voices became mere white noise.

Her breathing became heavy and her eyes were wide as the needle inched closer to her skin, ready to penetrate it, when suddenly a voice broke through.

"Pipes?"

Her head whipped around, her hand instinctively loosening its grasp on the syringe, dropping it to the floor.

"Fuck!" She jumped down from her bed but was pushed back into the lower one before she could get her hands on her heroin.

Alex picked the syringe up, a deep frown on her face. Piper was back on her feet, trying to snatch it from Alex's hands, but the brunette pushed Piper back on the bad. "Where did you get this from?!" Her voice was low, angry.

"Give it back, Alex, please!" Her skin was still tingling from anticipation, her craving was unbearable.

"Are you insane?" Alex put the syringe in her pocket and grabbed Piper by the hand, dragging the distraught blonde to the bathrooms. Piper shivered heavily; all she wanted was this one hit and she would be okay again.

The brunette led Piper to the only stall with an actual door. She opened it and made Piper sit down. "You wait here."

"Where are you going?" Piper wanted to sit up, but Alex pushed her back down on the seat. "Can I have it back?" Alex ignored her and left the bathroom. "Alex!"

She debated just leaving, lying down on her bed and trying to forget about this missed opportunity. Her head dropped heavily against the stall and she hated Alex right now. One hit was all she wanted, sating her body's and mind's craving, giving herself peace for an hour or so. It wasn't like she wanted to hurt somebody. All she wanted was to do and feel something nice for herself in here; to give herself a small treat.

The door opened and there were some voices.

"She's in here."

The door to her stall opened and Alex was there with Nicky and an angry looking, red-haired lady.

"Can I have it back?" The blonde stared at Alex, her eyes pleading, begging with the brunette.

Alex sighed, frustrated. "Fuck, Pipes…"

"Blondie." Her head snapped to the older woman. "Who gave you the dope?" She asked with a thick Russian accent.

"A guard."

Nicky shook her head. "Mendez."

"Mendez." Alex added, nodding.

"Has to be." The woman looked angry. "Son of a bitch."

Alex knelt before her, taking her hands in her own. "Pipes. Did he give you anything before?"

The blonde shook her head.

"Didn't the Miss Rosa and De Marco tell you to stay away from him?" She asked.

Piper shook her head. "No…I think he has the night shift."

"But they can tell you in the morning…" She scoffed angrily. "Look, you need to stay away from him, Pipes. He pulls shit like that all the time. He preys on addicts. He gives you one hit as a gift and for the rest he'll want blowjobs or a quickie. You cannot ever take anything from him. Promise me."

Sighing in defeat, the blonde nodded. Her body and mind screamed no, to hell with any promises and consequences, do whatever it takes for a hit but deep down she knew that Alex was right. If what the brunette said was true, she needed to stay as far away from him as possible.

"He takes me to the nurse for my nightly medication shot."

The Russian lady scoffed. "Of course. Makes you an easy target, too."

"Ignore him. Tune him out, whatever he says and does, ignore it." Nicky told her.

"But can I have the one last hit? It will be the last. I promise!"

"No." The Russian lady said in a tone that dismissed any complaints. She held her hand out and Alex gave her the syringe. She went over to a sink and the three women followed her and suddenly Piper's eyes got big.

"Don't!" She struggled against Nicky and Alex as the older woman emptied the syringe into the sink, her shoulders slumping in defeat as a pitiful whimper escaped her lips.

She felt physically and mentally drained. Being so close to getting a hit threw her far back in her mental withdrawal process.

5 days had passed since then and physically she felt actually good. Her body didn't crave it anymore, her body actually felt as healthy as it hadn't in months.

Forcing one's body off of heroin usually took around a week, depending on the severity of the addiction. She was a heavy addict, having used it for so long. For her it took a little longer but in the end her withdrawal symptoms were gone. She slept several times in a day now, resting her body for as long as she could. Nicky told her that she would be assigned to some kind of work when being assigned her counselor and bunkmate.

The NA meetings went on nicely, Piper had attended to every single one since Nicky asked her too and Alex looked pleased by that.

So, she was in the library, sitting alone at a table and reading, when the younger guard, Bennett, walked up to her. "Chapman, you've been assigned your counselor. Mr. Healy asked you to meet him so he can assign you to your bunkmate."

She entered her new counselor's office after knocking. He looked up for a moment from his paperwork and beckoned her to sit down. The blonde took one of the chairs opposite from him and folded her hands in her lap.

"Inmate Chapman." He took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. "I've heard you are now completely off your drugs?"

"Yes, sir." She answered in a soft voice.

"Good. Do you feel well enough to work at electrical?"

She furrowed her brows. "Why wouldn't I?"

"I don't know. You junkies might crave your drugs at the oddest times. It might be dangerous if there are tools that can potentially be used as weapons near you." He looked at her with distaste.

Piper looked at her folded hands, fidgeting in her lap. "No. I'm fine."

"Good. Other than that…no lesbian activity…" Her eyebrow rose at that. "…and your bunkmate will be Inmate Nichols. You will probably get along splendidly, her being a drug addict too. And remember." He looked her pointedly in the eyes. "No. Lesbian. Activity."

"Yes, sir." She whispered. She wanted to get out of here.

"You can leave now."

And she did.

She took the box with her few belongings and was shown by a guard where to attain her new prisoner uniform. Placing herself at the end of the line, she waited until it was her turn and jumped a little when she realized that Alex handed out the boots.

The brunette smirked her trademark smirk and Piper glanced repeatedly at her lips. "9 and a half, right?"

Surprised that she still remembered, Piper just nodded, not trusting her voice. She thanked her ex-girlfriend and got the rest of her uniform, her mind drifting.

She wondered if Alex just took pity on her and was acting so nice because of her addiction. Of course, feelings never went away when someone led such a fiery and passionate relationship like theirs, but what Piper did, the way she left, must have left scars, deep wounds, in the brunette's heart. Something, that would always remind her of the kind of person Piper was, something that would never ever completely heal.

All of this would be easier to understand, easier to handle for the blonde if Alex would just be spiteful with her. Of course, she was grateful that Alex was supportive during her withdrawal, because it made it easier, physically at least. But her mind, that was a completely different matter.

She reached the suburbs and looked for Nicky's bunk. Upon finding it, she dropped her box on her small locker and then changed her clothes, stuffing her orange scrubs in the uniform.

After she was done, she dropped down on the bed, turning towards the wall, drawing her knees up and let herself drift to sleep.

About half an hour later, she was woken up by a loud voice.

"Well, look at that! I have a new roommate!"

The blonde groaned. As nice and kind as Nicky was, she was also very boastful and loud and at times it grated on the blonde's nerves. "Could you please quite it down, Nichols?"

"Wow, and she is such a ray of sunshine, too. I just get so fucking lucky all the time."

Sighing, Piper sat up, her back leaning against the wall separating her bunk from the one on the other side. "Nicky, tomorrow is visitation day, right?"

"Yeah. You expecting someone?"

"I don't know. I couldn't call yet, but maybe my brother or my best friend might visit me. They were on my visitation list from the beginning."

Nicky nodded at that. She moved over to her own bed and sat down, looking at the blonde. "What about your parents?"

Shrugging, Piper offered a sad smile. "I wasn't ever really close to my mom. Y'know, she's this really uptight, WASP; your all-American, blonde upper middle-class lady. Having a junky daughter who now has to spend time in prison on top of being a junky might have just ruined our relationship completely. Didn't visit me in the hospital after I OD'd, didn't see me off to prison…the chance of her visiting me in prison are really slim at best."

"Sounds familiar." Nicky chuckled. "Your dad?"

"Probably just can't see me like this…I may call him when I'm able to…I don't know."

"Be glad that you have someone to visit you at least…other's ain't that lucky."

Piper nodded, knowing full well how right the redhead was. "I am."

"So…" Nicky smirked at her. "There's something I've been dying to ask you."

The blonde raised an eyebrow in question.

"What's the story with you and Vause?"

She had to chuckle at that. It was obvious that Nicky would ask about her and Alex. "She didn't tell you?" Answer a question with another question.

A full grin appeared on Nicky's face as she leaned forward. "She told me that you are a squirter."

Piper's eyes got wide at that, her face beet red. "What?! That's not true! It only happened once and it took us both by surprise!" She hissed at the redhead.

Now Nicky's eyes widened in surprise; a look of absolute glee on her face at the prospect of this priceless piece of news. "Holy shit, I was just kidding."

"Wha-? Oh my god, I hate you so much right now…" Piper was absolutely mortified.

"This is so fucking priceless!" Nicky laughed openly at Piper, who just groaned, wanting to be swallowed by a bottomless hole.

Piper's heart skipped a beat when she was called for visitation. She wondered who it was visiting her, but then again, she only really had two options to guess from.

She was asked to squat and cough- something she really was not comfortable with- and then was led to the visitation room. There she saw Polly. She immediately walked over to her and hugged her best friend.

"Hey, Pol. God, I've missed you so much already…"

The redhead hugged her back, rubbing the blonde's back up and down. "Missed you, too."

They sat down on their respective seats and just smiled at each other for a few moments, when Polly spoke up. "You actually look better than I thought you would."

"Yeah…I'm through my withdrawal…had a lot of help in here. Was at every NA meeting since I've been in here."

"That's great, Pipes!" She looked genuinely happy for her best friend. "I'm proud of you. I really am."

Piper looked down, not sure what to say. Her eyes were stinging and she took a deep breath to calm herself. "So, um…" She cleared her throat. "How're things with Pete?"

"It's amazing!" Polly gushed, her eyes shining. "I mean, technically, nothing changed in our relationship, just the status…and still, it feels as if we just met." She grinned brightly at the blonde.

Piper felt a sting in her heart. Of course she was happy for her best friend. She wished all the happiness of the world for Polly, but it also reminded her at what could have been, of what she and Alex could have been. They could have been were Polly and Pete were right now.

But Polly was here, visiting her when she could just go on with her life and Piper was grateful for that, so she pushed all her bad thoughts aside for the moment to give her best friend a genuine smile. "I am so happy for you, Pol. I just wish I could be there for the wedding…"

"I told you before that we can wait until you are out."

"No. Don't wait on my behalf. Have your wedding when you planned it to. I'll be there for your silver wedding and all." She smirked at her best friend.

"Let's not think that far yet." Polly laughed. "So, how are things going for you?"

Piper sighed. "Like I said, I haven't used in a while now…think you can say I'm clean. I've been to every NA meeting they have in here…sometimes I still wish I could use though." Polly frowned but nodded at her, urging her to go on. "My body doesn't need it anymore…but I've grown so dependent on it mentally…when I have bad days…I wish I could have a hit."

"But you know you can't."

"I know." She leaned forward, lowering her voice. "I almost used a few days ago."

"What?!"

"When I got my meds at night…a guard escorted me to the nurse. He taunted me…mocked me…then he sneaked a full syringe over to me." Her voice wavered when she thought back, a hand absentmindedly ghosting over the sleeve that covered her track lines. "I was so close to using, Polly."

"They are supposed to help you from this shit! You have to report this!"

Piper scoffed. "You seriously think they will listen to a junky over one of their own?"

Polly was still seething though but tried to calm herself down. "What made you stop?"

Silence followed this question, Piper not being sure if she should tell the truth. She then looked at Polly and shrugged. "Alex."

"Wait- what?! Alex? As in supercunt Alex? The Alex?"

"Yeah."

"She's in there. With you."

"Yeah."

"Jesus fucking Christ. I feel like this is some fucked up episode from the L Word."

The blonde had to chuckle at that.

"And she helped you through this? She stopped you from using again?"

"Yeah. She wanted to bring me food because I told them I felt sick and didn't want lunch…she basically skipped hers to bring me food to help me with my stomach and I was about to use…I almost could feel it…and she called my name and I dropped that syringe and she took it before I could hide it."

Polly didn't answer for a while, before she grimaced and cursed under her breath. "I need to thank her and I hate it already."

"She won't let you hear the end of it. I hope you know that."

"She might have saved your life, Pipes. That's worth more than my pride. I don't have to like it though."

Piper let out a sigh. "Have my parents said anything?"

Frowning, the redhead shook her head. "Cal said he'd visit you someday around the next two weeks though."

The blonde smiled at that. "How's he doing?"

"Getting a lot more attention from your parents since you are here. He's not happy about it."

Grimacing, Piper chuckled weekly. "I guess I'll have to apologize to him."

"So, have you and supercunt-" She sighed and rolled her eyes at Piper's glare, "Alex made up yet?"

"No. We haven't exactly talked about any of those things. She said she wanted to make sure that I'm going to be okay first."

"And she was right. But don't you think it's about time now? Considering what you told me in the hospital? I think it's time that you bring yourself some sense of closure…"

"Maybe you are right."

"I know I am right."

AN: So, here's a new chapter. I have a feeling it's going to be a little slower for the next few chapters until shit happens again. Maybe I might change my mind though. I don't know. I never plan beforehand.

And thanks for the reviews, favs and follows. U guys rock!