Alex was halfway across the dorm and away from Piper when she heard her small voice call out to her,
"Alex? Please don't leave me..."
Alex could practically hear the pain in her voice then. She halted, closing her eyes and clenching her jaw. Damn this woman for having immeasurable amounts of power over her. Damn her and her weakness. Just damn it all. Alex turned and slowly started to walk back towards Piper and soon enough she was stood before her again.
"What do you want from me Piper?" She begun, looking down at the blonde's small frame on the bed. "The face I came to check on doesn't mean that I've suddenly forgiven you, in case you hadn't noticed it was barely even 48 hours ago that you basically told me to go fuck myself!" Alex had to take a breath to calm herself, she was a mess today and she was starting to regret going to check on Piper's well-being.
"That's not fair, Alex..." She muttered in response.
Alex couldn't help the laugh that escaped from her own thought at the ridiculousness of what Piper had just said. "Are you fucking kidding me?" She retorted, "I'll tell you what's not fucking fair... You walking out on me, again." Alex's voice was cold again. She walked back out, ignoring the pleas for her to come back. Yes, checking on Piper had been a mistake, one that Alex resolved she would never make again.
Alex had been able to avoid Piper for the rest of the week. She woke up extra early in the mornings to avoid her in the showers, always sat with her back to her in the canteen. The only time where Alex was unable to avoid Piper was when her laundry day came around, but even then there was no eyes contact – no contact at all. Just the silent exchange of laundry for ticket and ticket for laundry. So when Alex was woken and dragged from her warm bunk by Nicky at 5 in the morning on Sunday she thought no less of it than Nicky was lonely and was using Alex as an fix for that. Alex would never say no. That thought almost made Alex smirk as she was dragged down towards the laundry room, had she been awake enough she was sure she would have made some snarky comment about the situation. Right when they got to the door leading into the laundry room, Nicky halted and spun around to face Alex. Alex frowned at the crazed blonde as Nicky planted her hands firmly on Alex's shoulders. Alex hadn't noticed the grim look she held before.
"What's wrong?" Alex asked, now assuming that it had something to do with Morello.
"Just… Please don't freak out, okay?" Was all Nicky had said before leading Alex into the laundry room.
Alex looked around with care now, suddenly awake and very aware that something bad had either happened or was about to happen. She didn't even think about Piper until she heard her soft, murmuring voice from the back end of the room. Alex stopped walking, pulling Nicky to a halt.
"Nicky…." She began.
"Alex no, it's not what you think okay? You need to see this." Nicky's voice was urgent and that was about the only thing that persuaded Alex to carry on walking. She knew that Nicky wouldn't drag her to see Piper if it wasn't for a good reason.
Alex walked slowly around the washers and she saw Piper cowering in the corner of the room, knees hunched to her chest and her face buried in her arms. Morello was sitting next to her, rubbing her back and telling her that it was all going to be fine and that they would be able to figure something out.
"What's going to be okay?" Alex asked, her way of announcing that she had arrived. She was immediately suspicious; Piper wasn't dying so she didn't see any other reason why she could have possibly been dragged down here. She imagined that Piper's precious Larry had called her up again and let her down; left her after he had proposed to her. Alex almost scoffed; he was such a waste of a man. Alex was watching Piper though and she saw how the blonde tensed when she had heard Alex's voice. Alex narrowed her eyes as she tried to listen closely to what Piper was saying. She could hear soft cries.
When neither Piper, Nicky nor Morello answered her question Alex sighed, pushing her glasses up on to the top of her head and rubbed the bridge of her nose between forefinger and thumb therapeutically. No way was she dragged down here against her will to just be ignored.
"Can someone tell me what the hell is going on? Because I have no qualms with just walking back out of that goddamn door and back to my bunk." She ranted, looking at all three of them in turn.
It was only at the threat that Alex would leave that Piper finally lifted her head. Her eyes were puffy and red from her crying but Alex could see other red marks, marks that looked like the product of someone's fist. Alex closed her eyes and clenched her fists; resisting the urge to groan. She had been doing so well. She took a deep breath and looked over Piper again, she could see that her lip was bust and there was some bruising around her eye.
Alex stood as still as a statue, fists clenched so tightly that she could feel her nails digging into the palm of her hand.
"What the hell happened to you?" She asked, keeping any emotion that she felt hidden from her voice. She didn't want Piper to know that she still cared.
In response to Alex's question, Piper just broke out in quiet sobs again. It racked Alex's heart to see her like this and she prayed that her resolve would hold out against this. She looked to Morello and then Nicky for an answer instead.
As Nicky explained to Alex every detail of the fight to Alex the picture of what happened vividly played in Alex's mind. She didn't need to be there to see what happened. She could see Leanne and her crazy friends cornering Piper. Dragging her into the laundry room and holding her down as they beat her. Two punches for each one Piper had landed on Pennsatucky at Christmas. She had no doubt that there wasn't a mark on Leanne but all the marks on Piper. Alex took a deep breath and tried to tune out the world around her. There must be some almighty power that really hates her. Suddenly Alex didn't know what to do, or say. She looked helplessly at Nicky – she couldn't look at Piper again. Sure that her resolve would finally break now that she knew what had happened to her.
Finally, she managed to look. Nicky and Morello were now trying to bind Piper's angry, red ribs. That was when Alex lost it. She sprinted out of the laundry room, straight to the showers. She heard Nicky shout after her but Alex was fast and knew she had a good head start before they caught up with her. It would be enough time to do what she needed to do. It didn't take long for Alex to find her target, she was gloating loudly about "college finally getting what she deserved," and some god awful nonsense about "serving God's judgement." Alex strode up to Leanne and grabbed her by the neck of her shirt, slamming her against the wall.
"If you ever think about even touching a hair on Piper's head again I will hit you with everything you did to Piper, everything that Piper did to your psychotic friend and ten times more," Alex spat, cold fire oozing out. She could see the shock and fear in Leanne's face but that only seemed to egg her on, "Don't think that you won't end up the same way Pennsatucky did. You better watch yourself." Alex dropped Leanne and turned to walk out. Giving Nicky a steely glance as she walked past her.
"VAU-" Someone half-shouted as a warning, a warning that was too late as the rest of the shout was blocked out by Alex falling onto the floor in front of her, something heavy on her back holding her down.
"What the…" Alex began before she felt a hand yank at her hair. Of course Leanne was retaliating. Alex should have known better than to threaten someone and then think she could just walk away without a scratch. She wasn't on the outside anymore. Luckily, Alex still had friends and she heard Nicky before she saw her.
"You better get the hell off of her now!" Nicky shouted, but didn't seem to wait for any kind of response before dragging Leanne off of Alex. Alex got to her feet and brushed the dirt off of her, she grabbed Nicky before she could do anything rash and pulled her away. She let go of Nicky in the corridor where it tapered off, leaving her to decide whether she wanted to go back to the laundry room or follow Alex back to the dorm. Alex didn't care about whether or not Nicky followed her. Right now, all she needed was to be away from it all.
Nicky came into Alex's cube about 10 minutes after Alex had left her.
"Vause…" She began, leaning against the wall and staring at Alex intently, "I'm not stupid enough to think that whatever we've got going on here is about anything more than comforting each other but.. You gotta talk about it, I can see that holding all this shit in is eating you up inside." Nicky stated.
Alex scoffed at her friend, "Don't know what you're talking about Nichols." She replied stubbornly, looking away from her.
"Right, so that's why you damn near almost started a fight then? Because you have no idea what all this is doing to you?"
"Nicky, please. Can we just forget about Piper fucking Chapman for at least one day." Alex pleaded. She really was sick of hearing about her ex constantly. "She got herself into this mess, so let her get herself out of it." Alex turned her back on Nicky and closed her eyes, making it clear that she wanted to be alone and she wouldn't talk about it anymore. She waited until she heard Nicky's footsteps take her away from the cube before she turned again. She groaned, when was she going to be rid of Piper and just be able to live a normal life. Well, as normal as you could get in prison. The rest of the day went somewhat smoothly, Pennsatucky was still gone and Leanne did nothing but shoot daggers at Alex for the rest of the work period. Soon enough, it was time for dinner and so Alex folded her last uniform for the day and then headed towards the canteen. She arrived to a low murmur of voices – it was unusually quiet. She scanned the hall for Nicky and Morello and locked eyes with Big Boo who gestured with her head towards a corner of the room. Alex frowned and followed the gesture, she saw Mendez cornering Piper. Alex watched eyes wide as she saw the two exchange words before Piper nodded and walked out of the canteen; Mendez close behind. Alex could tell by the way that Piper was slouched and seemed devoid of any life that whatever was happening was bad. Really bad. She rushed over to the table as soon as they were gone.
"What the hell was that?" She demanded.
"They're taking her to SHU.." Big Boo responded.
Alex blinked and took a step back, she looked around the table and saw everyone's face filled with pity, whether it was for her or for Piper – she couldn't tell. Piper barely lasted two days in SHU before, Alex had no idea if Piper would come back out of there alive.
Authors Note:
Part 2! Hope you enjoyed, took me a while to figure out the direction that I wanted to go as far as plot goes but I'm working on it and so far I'm pretty happy with it. As always, please review. I'll be happy to answer any questions you have and suggestions are always welcome. Stay tuned!