Piper was lying on a couch on her back, her head resting on its arm. Her legs were drawn up, a book resting on her thighs as she was reading. Her feet were tangled with another pair and she couldn't concentrate on the words, rereading several sentences already as a toe was stroking her ankle.

"You are distracting me." Her voice was close to a whine and she wanted to wipe that infuriating smirk she couldn't see, but knew that it was there, off of her girlfriend's face.

"I'm not doing anything." The deep, yet incredibly feminine voice of Alex, shot sparks down her spine.

They weren't together for a long time yet and this relationship with another woman was something entirely new to her; even though she already admitted and accepted that she felt an attraction to women as well as men. But never before had she felt this way with anybody. Of course it scared her, knowing what kind of 'career' the brunette had, but it was also exciting. It was dangerous, forbidden- different from anything she was ever taught, from anything that was expected of her life choices.

She put the book aside and crawled up towards the taller woman, straddling her hips as she leaned into her. Their faces were only inches apart and those were gone quickly when the blonde leaned down and pressed her lips onto the soft lips of her girlfriend; a feeling she couldn't get enough of.

She separated herself from her and lay down, her head resting on Alex's shoulder as their bodies were pressed together. It was marveling to her, how well their bodies fit against each other- as if they were made for the other.

"You know…for someone who claims to not be really the cuddling-type, you are awfully good at this." Her eyes were closed and her voice soft; a small teasing smile graced her lips and it was swiftly kissed away, leaving a big grin in its wake.

"Yeah, I know. It sucks."

"Oh? So you don't like to cuddle with your girlfriend?"

She felt Alex pressing a kiss against her cheek, her arms tightening around her as the word girlfriend left her lips.

"Nope."

"So, cuddling with your awesome, hot, blonde girlfriend is not pleasing to you?"

Piper looked up at Alex who scrunched her face up, as if in thought, even added that thinking-humming-sound, and then shook her head.

"Nope. Not pleasing."

Piper sighed in mock annoyance. "Well, then," She separated herself from Alex's arms and got up, ready to leave the brunette alone on the couch, "search yourself a new cuddle buddy."

Laughing, Alex sat up and pulled Piper back down. "Cuddle buddy?"

Piper smiled into the kiss she pressed on Alex's lips. "Shut up…"

"She is so amazing…" Piper sighed with a dreamy grin before taking a spoonful of her Ben & Jerry's.

Her best friend rolled her eyes at her, but still smiled. "I know."

"And when I am with her it's just…like the whole world stops. Everything becomes background. It's like…the moment I see her I can only concentrate on her and forget about everything and everybody else." Piper couldn't stop talking about Alex and she felt bad about it because she knew she already was spending a lot of her time with the tall brunette and when she could spare time for her best friend Polly she was talking about her girlfriend nonstop; but she couldn't help it.

"Well, I'm glad she makes you happy, Pipes. I still think she's a supercunt."

"Pol…"

"I know, I know…but she was a bitch!" Polly was still annoyed that Piper's supposedly amazing girlfriend acted like such a bitch to her; not even bothering to use Polly's real name.

"I know and I'm sorry about that…but you know what?"

Polly raised an eyebrow in question.

"She told me that she loves me!" Piper had the biggest grin on her face and all the love she felt for the brunette was about to burst from her very being just thinking about that.

"What?!"

"Yes! We talked about her ex-girlfriend and I asked her if she loved her because I still feel kind of bad but she told me no and then she told me that she loves me!"

Even though she was still a little skeptical about the brunette, Polly hugged her best friend tight. As long as the blonde was happy, Polly was happy and if Alex didn't like her she could live with that for as long as the tall girlfriend of her best friend was treating the blonde well.

"Did you say it back?" Polly asked.

The blonde nodded. "Of course. At first I was kind of shocked but when she reminded me…" She giggled at the memory. "When she said that she doesn't say that to just anybody and that I had to say it back…I didn't even hesitate. I love her so much, Polly. She is so amazing."

Polly opened her mouth to say something when everything suddenly faded away.

"Wake up you stupid bitch!"

Her throat was hurting and she felt her heart speeding up. She wanted to open her eyes but everything was so bright that, the moment she separated her eyelids, her head started to hurt.

"Just wake up please…they said you'd wake up soon."

She wanted to say something, but her throat felt clogged and dry and it was just now that she realized that there was a tube that prevented her from closing her mouth. It made her panic and she wanted to pull it out but her arms felt heavy and she couldn't move them far, but her right hand touched something soft.

She heard a gasp and a fumbling and she kept trying to open her eyes, trying to get them used at the brightness.

Suddenly a door burst open as her sight adjusted slowly and she saw a man with a white coat enter, followed by a nurse.

"Miss Chapman, welcome back. I am Doctor Burke and we will now remove the breathing tube. It won't be pleasant but we need you to stay calm, alright?"

Piper nodded slowly as the nurses- which confused her, since she saw only one enter- went to work and she winced but sighed with relief as the tube was fully removed. Her throat was still very dry, though and she was gave a grateful smile to whoever held a small bottle with a drinking straw in it in front of her. She captured the straw between her lips and took a few deep sips, soothing the dryness.

She then looked up and saw Polly who seemed to be crying as she held the bottle and Piper smiled at her hesitantly before looking around, taking the scene in. Behind her seemed to be a big machine and a heart monitor, already starting to irritate her, now that she actually consciously realized that there was a repetitive beeping sound in the background. The nurses were working on it and the doctor waited patiently on her to be ready to talk. She looked at him. "Am I in a hospital?" Her voice seemed foreign, detached from her. It sounded rough, as if she hadn't used it in a while.

"Yes. Miss Chapman, this may be a small shock for you, but you've been in a medically induced coma for nearly two months."

Piper didn't say anything. She looked at the doctor, waiting that he would say that it was just his version of a joke, but he looked dead serious.

"It was necessary. If we would've let you come to naturally, you wouldn't have been able to handle any kind of stimulation. We had to let your body rest."

The blonde let out a shaky breath and looked at Polly, who had a mixture of disappointment and relief on her face and Piper looked down. "What happened?"

"You OD'd. Again." The redhead's voice was shaking; Piper was unable to look at her best friend as shame flooded her.

She overdosed. Slowly, very slowly, it came to her. Things were blurry, but she remembered the syringe- how she found it, used it.

"Miss Harper is right." The doctor took over. "You are very lucky to even be alive. Your medical record said that you already overdosed on heroin once and that it was just a little under two months before your second overdose. Twice, with so little time between them, could have been fatal if you hadn't been found so quickly. But we had to perform heart surgery."

The blonde's eyes widened in shock. She moved her hand up to her chest and inside the hospital gown. She felt around and found a scar, between her breasts, a little to the left.

"Your heart was extremely weak and was not only beating to slow but irregularly as well. It was infected. Heart infections are not rare for heroin addicts. We had to give you a pacemaker to support your heart."

"Okay…" She didn't know what else to say. She wasn't even thirty years old and was already in need of a pacemaker.

The doctor took a deep breath and gave her a look of sympathy which made her anxious. He made it obvious that there was more.

"We also made several tests and scans on your brain activity and your motor skills and there were complications."

He gave her a moment to brace herself but she didn't feel that she could ever be ready for what was to come. Polly took her hand and squeezed it and she squeezed back immediately.

"Your legs lacked any form of response to stimuli and after following tests, in combination with brain activity scans, we found that there was no activity whatsoever when your legs were stimulated. The primary motor cortex- the brain area controlling your motor skills- was damaged by the heroin overdose. I am saddened to say that you will be unable to use your legs."

Piper grasped Polly's hand tightly as the doctor's words settled in. She reached under the blanket, and pinched her legs- hard- but didn't feel anything.

"I'm so sorry, Pipes." Polly pulled the blonde's head towards her, cradling it into her lap as she sat on the edge of the bed. The doctor motioned Polly that he would leave them alone and to use the call-button if there was any need.

When they had their privacy, the redhead pulled away a little, wiping the blonde's tears away. Piper cried silently; she didn't have the energy for loud sobs.

"I'm so sorry, Polly." Her voice was thick. "I'm so sorry, I'm such an idiot!"

"You are right with both. I know and I still love you."

That made Piper only cry harder. She couldn't understand how she deserved a friend like this. She couldn't understand how Polly stood by Piper's side, being disappointed by the blonde over and over again, having to deal with her shit over and over again. It took her a few minutes until she calmed down.

Pulling the blanket away, she looked at her legs. They were useless now. She could never run again. She could never be really independent again. She would need help with the most basic things and with that thought it hit her- the realization of what she really lost, what her addiction took away from her.

She wondered if Alex would accept her like this, she wondered if the brunette would stand by her when she saw her in a wheelchair.

Suddenly her head whipped towards the redhead by her side, her eyes wide. "How's Alex? Does she know?"

Polly raised both eyebrows. "Really? You have to ask me that? She called me every fucking day to ask if you had woken up yet. At first it was sweet but after the third or fourth time it got annoying real quick."

"How did she even have your number?" The blonde furrowed her brows.

Shrugging, the redhead smiled. "I gave it to her. We only have one thing in common and that is that we are caring way too much about your sorry ass, Pipes. I am not cruel enough to keep her in the dark about your condition."

The blonde let out a shaky breath, trying to fight the smile that threatened to appear on her face in the process, but it disappeared quickly as a feeling of guilt and dread took the smile away. "Does she know…about my legs?"

"No. I couldn't bring myself to tell her that the love of her life can't walk anymore."

Piper nodded. She didn't know how to tell Alex that either. The brunette would be furious. And then there also was the pacemaker. How was she supposed to tell Alex all of this?

As if on cue, Polly's phone rang and, as she took the call, she sighed and rolled her eyes, handing the phone to Piper after pressing a button.

Piper took it, confused, and held it at her ear.

"Holly? Are you there?"

Piper felt as if the air was sucked out of her after hearing that voice. "Alex?"

"Pipes? Kid, is that really you?" The brunette's voice was thick with emotion and Piper's eyes got teary at hearing it.

"Yeah, it's me…I…I woke up just an hour ago."

"You are in so much fucking trouble, kid. I hope you are aware of that."

"I'm sorry, Alex…I…I already paid for my mistake." Piper sighed. "I paid big time."

There was a moment's silence before Alex spoke again. "What are you talking about?"

"I don't know if that's something to talk about during a phone call."

"I don't care. What are you talking about?"

"Alright." She took a breath, trying to get as ready as she could for what she was about to break to Alex. "I…I have a pacemaker now."

"Polly told me that already. You fucking idiot."

Glancing at the redhead for a moment, she returned her attention back to the phone call. "Okay…well, there's something else." She sighed. "I…I'm disabled. I can't use my legs anymore." She broke out in tears again as she said these words aloud and Polly took the phone away from her, saying a few things to Alex on the phone before ending the call.

She then returned her attention back to the blonde, again cradling her head against her body, running her fingers through her hair as Piper cried.

It was hard for her to understand that the one thing that made her happy over the past three years lashed back at her in such a cruel way. It seemed that now, that the blonde had the love of her life back in her life, her addiction decided to collect its debt.

It was a week later that she was cleared from the hospital and was picked up from prison guards to return her back to Litchfield. She felt embarrassed about the orange prison scrubs she was wearing again and about the stares she attracted as the guard pushed her through the hospital corridors. The guard was a rather kind woman, who told her that she would usually take care of her in prison if the need was there.

The guard pushed her wheelchair out of the hospital and towards the van that was waiting outside and Piper had to actually smile when she saw a petite brunette on the driver's seat. After her wheelchair was pushed up the ramp on the back of the van and secured inside, Piper greeted Morello.

"Hey Lorna, how are you?"

The brunette smiled a big smile at the blonde, full of genuine happiness and concern. "I am so much better now- knowing that you are alright! It was unbearable the past months and Vause was so sad the whole time." She gave a reassuring grin. "You'll see, she'll be there for you, the whole way. She was devastated about your legs at first, but she'll take care of you."

Piper felt a little lighter at Lorna's words and wondered if she may be right. The blonde didn't want to be a burden on Alex but she knew that the brunette would insist to help her. She also knew that, if the roles were reversed, she'd do anything to help Alex, to be there for her, to meet any of her needs. She'd help her shower, make her food, push her around in her wheelchair the whole day. Piper loved her too much to not do any of these things. Alex was her life.

When they arrived at Litchfield prison, the guard helped Piper down from the van with her wheelchair. Lorna then gave the keys of the van to the guard and pushed Piper on, inside the prison. The blonde almost questioned her own sanity when she thought for a brief moment about how much she actually missed these bleak walls.

O'Neill joined them into the prison and showed Piper to her new cell and the blonde was pleasantly surprised when she again was dismissed at Miss Rosa's and De Marco's cell.

"Oh blondie, what did you do?" Miss Rosa said in her rough voice, shaking her head at the blonde.

Piper shrugged sheepishly. She never talked much with either woman but held a deep respect for both. "I was stupid. That's the result."

De Marco leaned forward. "I heard you overdosed. Is that true?"

Piper looked back over her shoulder at Morello. "You don't have to wait, you know?"

"But I do have to bring you to Vause. She doesn't know that you are here already."

Piper smiled at that. She looked forward to seeing the brunette. She then turned back to the older woman. "It's true. I…I just found it under my pillow. Someone hid it there and when I found it…I hid it. I should have given it to Alex or Nicky but…I was stupid."

"You weren't stupid. You were a fucking idiot, blondie."

"I know." Piper whispered. Everyone told her that and it was true every time. She was a fucking idiot. The blonde turned back to Lorna. "Can we go see Alex?"

Alex was now more than ever the only light she had in the eternal darkness that engulfed her world.

AN: Here it is. I hope this does meet your expectations somehow. But I need to say something important: I researched everything regarding heroin. I didn't want to bullshit about it. The withdrawal symptoms, the medicine you get to make withdrawal easier, the OD symptoms, the symptoms when you are high on heroin- everything I researched. So yes, heroin can cause heart infections that can make you need pacemakers. ODing on heroin can damage parts of your brain, impairing your speaking ability, motor skills, and so on. Heroin OD has left people in a vegetable state. And the fact that Piper immediately OD'd on that dose she got wasn't because it was a too high dosage to begin with but because, once you OD on heroin, your tolerance to heroin decreases. The dosage one is used to take can be way too high after an OD. That's what happened to Piper.

That being said- take care, don't do drugs and thanks for the reviews, favs and follows! ILY guys.