Alex was a hovering, controlling, paranoid mess. Piper knew she would be worried about their son after his accident, but she had underestimated the depth of Alex's neurosis. Every day she had a new excuse why she could take him to work. He was still recovering from his accident; to take him off Piper's hands; to let Piper focus on an upcoming pitch; because it was a beautiful summer day and she wanted to take the day off to enjoy the zoo with him; because he was still asleep when Piper was ready to go and she wanted to let him sleep in. The list seemed to go on and on.

Jack had been a mama's boy his entire life. Piper swore both of her children loved her wife more than her before they even left her womb. Jack rarely kicked when Piper was pregnant with him, but the majority of the time he did was because of Alex's voice. Max was a different story, always moving, but she too loved the sound of her mother's voice. Piper decided it was time to wean Alex and Jack away from each other before she had two children who refused to be separated from the brunette.

She had just come from the doctor, who had suggested taking some time off work to reduce stress in order to prevent having to put her on bed rest, and was at lunch with Polly when she got an idea.

"The only way to get her away from him is to stick her in a business meeting where she just cannot have him present."

"Does she have any meetings coming up or are you going to invent one?"

Piper hesitated, the hand holding a sandwich stilling halfway to her mouth. She hesitated, then put it back on her plate and looked anywhere but at Polly, fiddling with the straw in her glass.

"Piper?"

Piper still refused to make eye contact, "Well... About that..."

"Piper! You're not thinking about..."

"Giving her our pitch?" Piper finally looked back at Polly, a mischievous glint in her eyes and smile on her face, "Maybe."

Polly sighed, "Do I really need to emphasize the magnitude of this deal? Potential millions. We wouldn't need to work anymore. Our kids could go to the best colleges. We could live comfortably the rest of our lives."

"I know, I know." Piper swirled her straw in her drink, "But you know she could do it. Probably better than we could."

x

Jack was playing with toy cars at Alex's feet in her office while she finished payroll. The phone on her desk rang and she picked up quickly, cradling the phone against her shoulder while she spoke.

"Vause."

"It's Polly, can you come over? We need your help."

Alex hung up without answering, "Come on, Jacky. Let's go see mommy."

She picked him up and carried him next door quickly, walking back to Piper and Polly's office. Piper was fully reclined in the chair at her desk looking exhausted, arm over her face.

"Pipes?" Alex put Jack down, concern etching her face. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, just tired. The doctor said I should take some time off, which directly interferes with our pitch today."

"Pitch for what?"

"Bath & Body Works. They offered to buy us out, be the official retailer. They would carry our entire line in their stores and on their website. We'd make millions, get major marketing help for our store here, have our products be around the entire country."

"I'm sure Holly can handle it," Alex joked, trying to make Piper laugh.

"I don't think I can," Polly said quietly, "I met with them earlier and they didn't seem interested in my proposal. They only agreed to have drinks if Piper went, they're expecting her in 15 minutes."

"Al," Piper locked eyes with her wife, "can you go?"

Polly handed a large stack of paperwork to Alex, "This is our proposal, what we're offering, and what we're expecting."

Alex leafed through it, "What's your bottom line?"

Polly picked up a second packet and skimmed through several pages before finding what she was looking for, taking a red pen and circling several figures, "This. We're offering a reasonable rate, trying to get our foot in the door and secure a longer deal in the future."

Alex continued looking between the two documents before pausing, "I can't go. I can't leave Jack and Piper, especially if she's tired and the doctor's telling her to go home."

Piper stood up, Alex helping her from her chair, her belly slowing her down.

"Polly is going to take Jack, she'll bring him home tonight after dinner. I'm going home to take a nap. You're going to this meeting."

"But I..."

Piper silenced her with a kiss, "You're going to the meeting and we'll both be fine."

Piper didn't break eye contact with Alex. Polly called it chicken, saying they'd both stare at each other and lose since neither could look away. Nicky called it casual eye fucking. Piper liked to think of it as reading her wife's mind. She saw the hesitation and fear wash over her before determination and confidence kicked in.

"Where do I need to go and who am I meeting?"

x

Three hours later and no word from Alex had Piper feeling equal parts relieved her wife had stopped smothering them and nervous the meeting was taking so long. She was on the phone with Polly checking on Jack and asking what could be taking so long when her phone beeped signalling an incoming call.

"Oh my god, it's her! Hold on, Pol. Let me add the call."

She pulled the phone away from her face and put it on speaker, joining Alex on their conversation.

"Al?"

"Pipes! Oh fuck."

Piper could hear the glee in her voice, "Polly's on the line too. What happened?!"

"You're never gonna believe it."

Smug. She sounded smug. Piper could definitely believe it. Alex was a charming devil and they sent her to a bar to make a deal. She had lived for this moment in a former life, the euphoric feeling of closing a deal her first real addiction.

Piper smiled, "Sounds like you got us a deal, Al."

Polly laughed, "At least the bottom lines I showed you earlier considering they walked out of their meeting with me."

"You were reasonable, they were just mind fucking you when they bailed. I knew if they agreed to a second meeting they were interested. So I high balled them and they guffawed and tried to leave and I hit them with some more figures and then they tried to low ball me so I walked out and they called me back for a decent offer."

Piper could tell from her quick paced speech and rambling that she was excited.

"How decent was it?" Polly asked.

"5 million over your asking price, for a start. No less than 2% over all the other requests you had. Oh, and a guaranteed 2 year deal with the option to renegotiate at the end of the term. They were definitely interested, they definitely want you, they're definitely with their lawyers now looking everything over, and you'll definitely have everything signed, sealed, and ready for you by 10 AM."

Piper and Polly's excited screeching and squealing were all Alex could hear, and all they could hear was her laughter.

"Guess your time off just got a little more permanent, Pipes. We're fucking loaded!" Polly yelled.