AN-Thanks for all the great comments and support! Things are starting to get exciting I hope!
Chapter Fifteen-Out of the Frying Pan
Piper was in her arms. Nothing else mattered. A brief glance at the clock showed Alex that she had fifteen more minutes to soak in the feeling of her lover's body tucked tightly into hers before the lights came on in the dorm. She relaxed and tried to let the embrace permeate each cell of her body, to create a memory that would last through the countless lonely nights she knew lie ahead. Doubt raged through her mind, disturbing her attempts at calm. Would Piper agree to her plan or curse her for the dangerous and complicated scheme? Even if she agreed, would it work? So many pieces had to fall into place and so many people would be putting themselves at risk.
With a deep sigh Alex brushed her lips across the back of Piper's neck and placed a light kiss on the soft hairs. The tickling touch caused Piper to twitch in her arms and let out her breath as she slowly came to consciousness.
"Good morning." Alex whispered in Piper's ear before pressing lips to her cheek.
Piper snuggled back even more and a smile formed on her face. "Mmmm. Good morning." Her eyes opened into the pre-dawn gloom and found only the empty metal bunk and industrial brick wall across the cube. "Do we have time for a shower?"
"Definitely." Alex tightened her grip holding Piper against her as she answered and Piper knew the exact emotions Alex was experiencing since she was filled with them herself. Feelings of panic and loss threatened to overwhelm her. "Who's on night watch? Will we be able to do this tonight?"
If possible the questions seemed to make Alex's hold become firmer and Piper could feel her heartbeat racing through the thin material on the back of her tank top.
"I don't know what will happen tonight." Alex leaned back and encouraged Piper to turn over until they were face to face on the bunk. "I do know that I will love you for the rest of my life. Today, tomorrow, it doesn't matter. Wherever you go, whatever you are doing please remember I am with you and that you have my heart."
Piper found her vision blurred with the tears in her eyes. "Alex, I don't know what to say. We haven't really talked about it, but I'm probably going to be convicted and sent to the max facility for a very long time. You're going to get out of here in three years. I love you too much to let you spend your life and your generous love waiting for someone who may never get out, and even if I do, we both know I won't be the same woman you love now."
Alex opened her mouth to protest but found the first stirrings of the truth leak out instead. "What if there was another option, would you consider it?"
Piper's face scrunched in confusion. "What do you mean another option?"
"A way to avoid trial, conviction, and being sent away for most of the remainder of your adult life, that sort of option." Alex didn't want to reveal too much in case the plan never came to fruition, but she wanted Piper to start at least considering the existence of an alternative to the freight train barreling down on her currently.
Piper's eyebrows were still drawn together slightly perplexed but she seemed to ponder the basic possibilities. "I would do almost anything. Alex most days I spend alternating wanting to scream at the unfairness of all of this with curling into a ball and weeping." She reached up and stroked her fingers down Alex's cheek before curling them into the dark hair of her lover. "You are the only reason I haven't completely lost it. I keep thinking about how much I love you and how I don't want to waste one second of the time we have left and it keeps me grounded."
Five o'clock came to the dorm and the first lights came on. Piper sat up and drew Alex up next to her. "But there is nothing I can do and I won't let anyone else get in trouble for me. I'm being railroaded. It sucks, but that is just the way it is."
Alex stood up and grabbed Piper's shower kit and two towels. "Never give up hope Pipes. When do a couple of smart beautiful chicks like us ever come up empty-handed?" She held out her hand and against all odds Alex found herself smiling as Piper reached out and interlaced their fingers and allowed Alex to pull her to her feet and towards the shower.
The tension at breakfast was palpable to Piper. She informed her friends about her scheduled transfer the next day. They all appeared appropriately dismayed, but kept sending surreptitious glances towards Alex throughout the meal. Big Boo left early and came back just before breakfast was over announcing to the group that she was going to participate in the scared straight program for the young offenders scheduled for that day and that she would see everyone later. Just as Big Boo was headed out she leaned over Piper and gave her a brief hug from the back accompanied by a quick "take care Chapman."
Piper just looked back at the others. "What was that all about?"
Suddenly everyone needed to get to work and scurried away leaving Alex shaking her head. "I guess the laundry awaits." As they passed the common room where the newly arrived batch of teenage delinquents were milling around Alex paused. "Can I meet up with you? I need to take care of something first."
"Sure. See you in the land of dirty towels in five." Piper couldn't image what Alex was up to, but she had no reason to stay.
Alex saw her contact in the common room immediately. The young woman was older than the identity she had assumed, a juvenile offender of seventeen. But the resemblance was sufficient for the purposes of the day. Her main function was to provide a substantial distraction for the COs that was in fact completely unrelated to the main objective. The fact that Mendez would suffer was just a bonus.
Alex approached the woman who was wearing a nametag that said 'Tracy' and delivered the code phrase needed to instigate events. "Friends are foreign when you are in prison."
"Screw you. I can take care of myself." 'Tracy' responded but Alex was already walking away. It didn't matter what the cartel plant said in her role. The only importance she played now was to initiate the distraction at the designated hour.
Alex did pause once more with a glance and a nod to Big Boo who nodded back and approached 'Tracy' and began to barrage her with a stream of colorful descriptions of what awaited her if she was sent to prison. The berating made Alex laugh until she remembered she was headed for the laundry and the most difficult conversation of her life.
Sam Healy had never looked forward to his job the way he anticipated enjoying the next two days. He planned to keep a close eye on Chapman and her girlfriend. He would create opportunities to remind them about impending events and their looming permanent separation. For years he had to watch the lesbians get away with their immoral and illegal relationships right under his nose and could do next to nothing about it. But this was his time, his retribution, and he intended to squeeze every ounce of pleasure he could out of sending Chapman to max and watching Vause in misery.
As he perused the paperwork on his desk, Sam decided he had about two hours' worth of work he had to complete before making his first visit to Chapman. That would be fine; she and Vause would be in the laundry and he could see how they were both doing.
Red watched Bobby Denisov drive his frozen food delivery truck up to the loading dock of the Litchfield prison kitchen. The fifty eight year old owned his own company and ran it with the help of his two sons and their wives. He was a first generation American success story. Hard work and the support of the Russian community had grown his business enough to provide a decent if not overly generous living. What he really wanted and was lacking was enough money to send his grandchildren to college. The family had spent so much on his wife's medical treatment and their savings had been depleted. But a financial opportunity had recently presented itself and he suspected he had Red to thank.
He had lost his wife to cancer several years earlier and seemed to be immediately drawn to the red headed woman who ran the kitchen the first time he delivered to Litchfield. Following their first meeting, Bobby made all of the prison runs himself. For her part, Red thought he was cute and couldn't see the harm in a flirtation that would never advance.
"Bobby, it is so good to see you." Red held out her hand demurely and Bobby raised it gently and gave the back a touch with his lips.
"I was beginning to think I would never see you again." Bobby slowly let go of Red's hand but not without a little squeeze. "You were away for far too long."
Red gave a tilt of her head. "I ran into some trouble. It happens. But I'm back now and that is what matters."
Bobby lowered his voice to a whisper. "Yes, just in time it would seem."
Red nodded. "You are prepared?"
"Yes." Bobby's answer was clear but nervous.
"Well then, let's get the order unloaded. We have much to do." Red knew it would be some time before anything would happen and they had a large delivery to deal with first.
Piper watched Alex hustle the loads into the washers and dryers faster than she had ever seen. Eventually she just had to ask. "Are we in a hurry? Is there a laundry emergency today that I don't know about?"
Alex took a hurried look at the clock and returned to her frenetic pace. "Yeah. Let me get these loaded and then there is something I need to talk to you about. Can you put soap in these?"
Piper knew the fastest way to get Alex to tell her what was going on was to help, so she grabbed the box of detergent and dumped a cup into each of the washers before grabbing Alex's hands and holding her in place. "Ok. Now everything is washing or drying and it is still 9:30 in the morning. What is going on with you?"
Suddenly Piper wasn't sure she wanted to know what Alex was about to say. The expression on her face was one she hadn't seen since she had arrived in Litchfield. It spoke of determination and danger and fear and Piper hadn't seen that combination since Alex had worked for the cartel. It was the same look she would get before a major delivery operation. Only this time there was an undercurrent of sadness as well.
"Oh god Alex, what have you done?" Piper tried to step back, but her fingers were still entwined with Alex who held on tightly.
"Piper, please, just listen. You can't go to trial. You will be convicted and sent to max, and that will kill you. They are trying to take away your life, just as surely as if they were murdering you with their own hands, Healy, Mendez, Doggett, all of them." Alex's voice was filled with desperation and she stopped to take a deep breath and loosened her grip ever so slightly. "I have created an option for you. I am going to lose you no matter what, but this way you can have a life. Will you at least hear me out and think about what I am about to propose?"
Piper didn't know what to think. She had been so focused on being present with Alex every moment of the day and night and not spoiling a single second. Beneath the focus of those emotions was a deep well of dread that she had refused to confront lest it devour her. She knew the reality of her situation would strike once she was transferred away from Litchfield and Alex. She had put her terror into a locked compartment not to be opened until she was far away and alone.
But now Alex had set something in motion. Some plan that was no doubt dangerous and carried with it a high price. If there was anything their joint past had taught Piper, it was that Alex didn't do anything small. Could she say no? Accept her fate and the undeserved ruination of her life?
No. Since she had landed the first blow on Pennsatucky she had taken the offensive in her life. She refused to be a victim for the meth heads and now she could refuse to be a victim to Healy with his perverse obsessions and Mendez with his perverse actions.
Piper squeezed Alex's hands. "Tell me."
Luschek was half asleep in the back of the electrical shop. For Nicky that was perfect. He probably wouldn't even notice if she took a tool belt and a trouble ticket for the laundry and headed out in twenty minutes. That was time Alex had given her, very specifically. Nicky had to be at the laundry at exactly 10:15 am and she would be there, for Chapman and for Vause.
"Red. Make me a sandwich."
Red heard the order barked from across the room. She was going over paperwork regarding the frozen foods order with Bobby in the small cage that constituted her kitchen office.
"He shouldn't talk to you like that." Bobby practically growled towards the tall guard.
Red smiled and patted his arm. "It's ok. I do this for him every day. What can I say, he likes my sandwiches. You stay here and I'll be right back."
"I've got turkey today Officer Mendez. Will that be all right for you?" Red asked as she started to pull out bread and condiments.
"Sure, with extra mayo. Just make it quick. Fig is talking to the scared straight delinquents and I have to get back before her speech is over." Mendez began to gobble the food and walk away as soon as Red handed it to him. "Later Red."
"We'll see about that." Red whispered only to herself.
"It's too dangerous for you and the others." Piper had listened as Alex explained the plan already in motion. "I don't have anything to lose, but I could never let you and our friends take these risks. And I can't imagine what the cartel wants in payment; I know it's something I would never approve. Did you agree to go back to work for Fahri?"
"Yes, I won't lie to you, that is part of the deal. But let's face it Piper, I was probably going to end up working for them anyway, especially if you are locked up for the next twenty years. As for the others, they have their reasons. Only Nicky and Red are taking any real risks and I will make sure nothing happens to them."
Alex kept drawing Piper in closer and closer as she spoke until her arms encircled Piper's waist. When she felt Piper relax into her, Alex dropped her head onto Piper's shoulder. "I love you so much that I don't know if I'll make it knowing you are in that horrible prison. It's so much worse than here Pipes. You have to know I would do anything to keep you from that."
"That's just what I am afraid of." Piper clutched Alex against her and tried to think about all the implications of doing what Alex proposed.
Despite the way her throat tightened as she said it, Alex knew this had to be Piper's choice. "I can't force you to do this. It will change your life forever and you have to want that life. But know I will smile every day and sleep every night thinking of you free and tanning on some tropical beach. And if you decide to wait three years for me I will find you and spend the rest of my life making you happy."
"I just don't know Alex. It's so much to take in." Piper was nearly trembling now and was thankful for the strong arms holding her.
Alex looked up and saw that it was ten o'clock. "Well take your time. You've got a whole fifteen minutes to decide the course of your entire future."
"I can't do this." Piper was starting to panic.
Alex leaned back so that Piper could see the tears in her eyes. "You can do this, I know you can. You are so strong now. All you have to do is stay still and quiet and Nicky and Red will take care of the rest. Please Piper. Please do this for yourself and for me. I'm not ashamed to beg."
Piper felt her decision take hold. She knew Alex was taking huge risks for her and she couldn't even contemplate the price. But it was a lifeline, hell it was her chance at a life. "The island of Moorea, remember when we stayed there? It was so beautiful and we made love in the moonlight on the beach. That's where I want you to find me. I'll be so tan and you'll be so jealous. You better find me Alex, because I'll be waiting for you. Stay out of trouble and get out in three years. Let Polly know I'm alright if you can."
Both women looked up to see Nicky striding through the door. Alex grabbed Piper's face in both hands and kissed her hard, backing off into a soft sensual joining of lips. "I love you."
"I love you too. Now tell me what I need to do." Piper was committed and needed for this to go right so that Alex and her friends were protected.
Alex smiled and pulled Nicky over. "Grab those two laundry carts, we'll need them both."