Alex just stared at Piper, wide-eyed and unbelieving. Piper's words played over in her head again and again 'I want you'. She had said that hadn't she? She wasn't just imagining it. Alex almost wanted to pinch herself to check that she wasn't dreaming. Here Piper was, being honest with her for the first time in what felt like forever.
"What about Larry?" Were the only words Alex managed to say, still somewhat in a shocked state.
Piper shrugged, "Me and Larry are over. For good this time."
Alex looked confused, hadn't they been about to get married? She was overjoyed at the information, of course, but it didn't levitate the confusion she felt at the information. Piper must have seen Alex's confusion because she went on.
"I told him someone was trying to kill me and then he just went on this massive rant about how I go looking for it and how he doesn't want to be on my ride anymore.." Piper scoffed, "Honestly, it sounded like he was just repeating something you'd said when..." Piper halted and frowned, looking at Alex.
Alex felt the familiar guilt, knotting her stomach as she recognised the words she had said to Larry when he came to visit her. She didn't really understand why she felt guilty, it wasn't like she'd told Larry to end it with Piper. She just made him look at the facts.
"What a dick." She tried to play it off but she knew Piper saw right through her. Piper narrowed her eyes and stepped away from Alex a little.
"Wait... Have... Have you spoken to Larry?" She asked, her voice quiet as she searched Alex's eyes.
Alex took a deep breath, deciding that she would be as honest with Piper as she could be. "Larry came to see me after you told me that you picked him. He told me to leave you alone and I said I would, clearly that wasn't enough for him because then he got all mad and told me about how I was the one who seduced you in here." Alex rolled her eyes at the memory, "So I told him what happened that day that you dragged me into the chapel but that I was done with you because I couldn't survive another ride with you." Alex shrugged. "I didn't know he would go and do that." Alex did her best to keep eye contact with Piper as she saw her analyse her words. Probably picturing the scene in her head.
"It's okay. I realise now that the only reason I was staying with him because it was safe and the only reason he wanted to marry me is because he was scared." Piper looked sad for a moment but she quickly covered it up again. "It all worked out though, right?" She offered Alex a small smile and rubbed her cheek with her bandaged hand.
Alex frowned, reminded of Piper's wound as the bandage came into contact with her skin. "I don't really know what your definition of 'worked out' consists of but mine certainly doesn't include getting kicked to shit." She said sternly but took Piper's hand into her own anyway. "I heart you kid." Alex smiled warmly at Piper and then gently pushed her in the direction Nicky had headed. "Go help her before she drags you away."
Alex was in high spirits now. Her internal conflicts for the time being had been put on mute and she was happy to keep them that way for as long as possible. She didn't expect this momentary happiness to last, she would be stupid if she had but for the time being, she welcomed it.

Alex and Piper managed to be together for a whole week whilst staying under the radar. As far as everyone else knew, the most they had done to each other was say hello every now and then. Even Nicky was clueless. They both laughed about it when they were alone. They weren't keeping it a secret because they were ashamed but more because it was a thrill and Alex was still scared shitless that someone would come up and fuck it all up if they knew. Although she wouldn't admit that to Piper. They were together alone in the laundry room right before dinner, hiding behind one of the dryers. Alex was sure that they were going to end up doing it right there when Nicky walked in. Neither of them were aware of her presence till she shouted, "HEY! THE LESBIANS ARE BACK!"
Both Piper and Alex let go of each other immediately at the noise and Alex fell over in her rush to move away. She heard Nicky howling with laughter and rushed to her feet.
"Fuck sake Nichols, you are going to be the death of me I swear." She sighed and looked behind her at Piper, grinning. Thanking the fact that they hadn't got too carried away in front of Nicky.
"Well, if you two are finished 'doing nothing more than saying hello' to each other, I believe it is time to eat." Nicky laughed again, grabbing both Alex and Piper as she dragged them out of the laundry room and towards the canteen.
"You would not believe what I caught these two doing just now!" Nicky exclaimed as they got closer to their table.
Big Boo looked at the state of Alex and Piper in turn and then just shrugged, "Shagging?" She said nonchalantly.
Alex grinned, knowing that Big Boo had just ruined all of Nicky's fun.
"God dammit, why'd you gotta ruin my surprise?" She sighed as she sat down.
Piper raised her hand, "Well we weren't actually shagging..." She muttered, her cheeks rosy red.
Alex laughed, took her hand and then led her to the serving line. "It's a shame Nicky came in when she did..." She muttered to Piper, grinning as the blonde went even redder in the cheeks.

Piper lay in Alex's bed with nothing but her underwear on. They'd had a very long night and Alex could see the exhaustion on Piper's face even now. She smirked looking at her again before she got up and dressed. She wouldn't have to do any kind of work for another few hours so she took advantage of having some alone time and made herself some coffee. As she was waiting for her coffee to cool some, she walked over to her giant bookcase to the part where she kept all of her favourite books and a few that she had been writing in herself. Her finger traced over the spine of each book as she tried to decide what she wanted to read. Eventually she pulled out Animal Farm. It wasn't particularly her favourite book and she had only ever read it a few times but she enjoyed the hidden messages each word contained and the historical references. Alex was very much engrossed in her book but her eager ears still heard Piper yawn from the bedroom, the small creak from the bed that meant she had gotten up. The gentle padding of her feet across the carpeted floor. Alex put her book down, finished off the last of her coffee and turned her head to watch the bedroom door. Waiting for her favourite person to walk out. Soon enough Piper walked out and sped over to Alex. Alex's eyes raked over Piper - she was wearing one of her t-shirts above her underwear but that appeared to be it. As Piper got closer to Alex, she reached out and pulled her in for a hug. Her arms winding around her waist.
"Good morning, baby." Piper mumbled into Alex's chest.
"Afternoon." Alex corrected, kissing Piper on the top of her head.
"You tired me out," Piper giggled, looking up at Alex.
Alex smirked and arched an eyebrow, "Well, I hadn't seen you for two weeks. I was deprived."
Piper blushed bright pink as her mind flooded with all the implications that Alex's comment held. Alex laughed and kissed Piper.
"You appear so innocent and yet you are as far from innocent as innocent can get."
Piper pushed Alex gently and laughed, "It's only fitting that I be innocent. Imagine my mother's shock to find out her pride and joy was anything but!" She joked.
Alex rolled her eyes and pulled Piper back to her, kissing her again. "Hmm, imagine.." She mumbled against Piper's lips.

"Helloooo? Earth to Alex?" A hand was waving in front of Alex's face, pulling her out of her daze.
"Hmm? What?" She mumbled, picking her fork back up and continuing to eat.
Nicky laughed and rolled her eyes, returning to her seat. "We were talking about..." Nicky saw that Alex wasn't really listening and then sighed, "Nevermind."
Piper looked at Alex quizzically and Alex smirked, "I'll tell you later." She mumbled to her.
After breakfast was finished they all headed back to Alex's bunk. They all listened as the names for visitation were called out and Alex was surprised to hear her own name. She frowned and shrugged at her friends before heading to the visitation room. She looked in through the glass to try and see who was here to visit her and her brows shot up when she saw Larry. Piper's name hadn't been called so he must be here to see her. She sighed and thought about whether or not she should see him.
"Oh fuck it.." She mumbled after a moment and then headed inside.
Larry shot up when he saw her, Alex didn't acknowledge him this time and just sat down. When Larry didn't sit she rolled her head up to look at him impatiently, he seemed to get the hint because then he sat down.
"Uh, hi... Alex" He muttered, trying to smile.
Alex remained silent, trying to think why he could be here after everything.
"Listen, I don't know if you've heard but.."
"You broke up with Piper, yes I know." Alex cut him off, her voice cold.
"Uh, right." Larry mumbled, recollecting his thoughts. "Well, I know that she's probably come to you about it and-"
Alex cut him off again, this time with a laugh. "Are you serious? Get to the fucking point Larry, I'm not going to be a messenger for you if that's what you want."
Larry shifted in his seat, annoyance showing through what Alex assumed was meant to be some kind of poker face. "No, will you just listen to me for a minute?" He sighed and placed his hands on the table between them. "I want you to leave her alone. Don't comfort her, I know she's probably pretty cut up about the fact that I broke it off with her and-"
Alex couldn't help herself as she cut him off again, "What? You want me to leave her alone?" Alex laughed incredulously. "For your information, Piper is doing just fine without you. Piper doesn't want you. Piper wants me. Whether or not I comfort her is none of your fucking business and so no, I will not leave Piper alone. She picked you, she told you that someone was trying to kill her but you broke up with her. The same day, that person tried to kill her, no they didn't succeed but it's a miracle that they didn't. So leave her alone Larry because you abandoned her when she needed you most." Alex took a breath, she felt better to get it all out of her system. She was quite proud that she manged to contain it all somewhat. Larry gave Alex a funny look and she steeled herself against his incoming rebuttal.
"Like she abandoned you when you needed her most?" He asked bitterly.
Alex hadn't been prepared for that. She didn't know that Piper had told anyone about that. The shock of what Larry had said showed on her face because Larry smiled smugly at her and took her shocked silence as a chance to say what he wanted.
"You will leave Piper alone because at the end of all this she will come back to me. She will come back to me because that is where she belongs and once she is away from you she will forget everything that you ever had in here. I will make sure of that." When he was finished Larry got up and stormed out of the visitation room. The smug smile still plastered on his face.
Alex supposed it was a good thing that he left when he did because she was full of silent and dangerous rage as she walked back to her bunk. She sat down slowly, eyes fixed on the wall opposite her as what Larry had said to her replayed over and over in her head. He was right, Piper had left her when she needed her most but wasn't that her own fault? Hadn't Piper already apologised and suffered enough for that? She had. So what gave Larry the right to come here and tell her what she already knew. How dare he ruin Alex's happiness when she needed it most. Of course Alex knew that Piper would end up back with Larry one way or another because he was safe, boring, Larry. Piper had said it herself, she didn't have the balls to freefall through life with Alex and Alex had no doubt that fact had changed over the past few weeks. Alex was consistent and so was Piper. Alex tried to stop thinking about it all but Larry's voice pierced through her brain, her anger grew and grew until she couldn't contain it anymore. It was all so unfair, just when things had been getting back on track someone had to come and screw it up again. Was there some unwritten rule that said Alex Vause wasn't allowed to be happy for an extended period of time? It would sure make some things easier to understand if there was.
Alex rubbed roughly at the angry tears that escaped her eyes and stood up suddenly, holding in the urge to just scream all of her frustrations out. Instead she chose to punch the wall.

As Alex sat in the infirmary, she stared at her hand. Punching the wall had felt good. For a moment. Then it hurt. Really hurt. She supposed it was better than hitting a person though. She could avoid SHU at least. The nurse tutted at Alex as she cleaned the cuts on Alex's knuckles and then begun making the cast for her now broken wrist. She was glad that Piper hadn't witnessed her moment of fury, it was rather embarrassing really. Who punches a wall?
It took the nurse about an hour to finish dealing with Alex and then she sent her out and back to her bunk while writing out a new prescription for an increased dose of meds to help with her 'need to harm herself' as the nurse had put it. Alex had almost laughed at the woman, if only she knew. She sat quietly on her bunk, cradling her now heavy wrist in her other hand. It was a pain in the ass, she wouldn't be able to work until they got her hand out of the cast so now she was going to just be bored stiff all day. When she saw Piper and Nicky approaching Alex leaned back against the wall and buried her broken limb under the cover of her bed. She wouldn't be able to hide it forever but she hadn't been able to come up with any kind of reason as to how it had happened other than she punched a wall yet. Nicky sat down on the bunk opposite Alex whilst Piper sat down next to her, she smiled at them both.
"Where you been, Vause?" Nicky asked, "We were looking for you after visitation was over but your cube was empty and you weren't at work."
"Yeah, who visited you?" Piper joined in.
Alex swallowed as they both stared at her, waiting for an answer. She shrugged after a moment, "Clearly you weren't looking hard enough. I was just outside." Alex avoided answering Piper's question for the time being, but she knew she wouldn't let it go.
"Yeah, so who visited you?" Piper asked again, putting her hand down on top of the one that was still hidden under the cover. Piper didn't seem to notice anything wrong with it yet so Alex just left it.
Alex sighed and let her head thump against the wall, "Larry."
"Larry?" Piper repeated, shocked. "Larry?!" She said again, anger rising in her voice. "What the fuck was he doing here?!"
"Pipes calm down," Alex reached over with her good hand to rub Piper's arm, it was a little awkward but she managed. "He was just being an ass, no big deal."
Piper looked like she was about to have a fit so Alex squeezed her arm with her hand, she felt Piper squeeze her hand that was still under the covers but she was unable to return the gesture. That made Piper frown but she didn't say anything.
"What did he say to you?" Nicky asked, curiosity showing all over her face.
Alex shrugged again, "He told me to stay away from Piper and not to comfort her. He was being a real dick actually..." She glanced at Piper again, relieved to see that she had calmed a little. "He told me that Piper was going to go back to him once she got out of here..." Alex added after a moment, quietly. She looked only at Nicky now, too afraid to see Piper's reaction to that. She heard Piper sigh beside her.
"Well alright not-shagging-not-lesbians I'm out of here." Nicky smirked, obviously sensing that the two of them needed to talk.
"Al, you know that he's just talking out of his ass. He's pissed because I don't call him anymore and because I took him off of my visitation list." Piper comforted Alex, squeezing her hand again.
Alex smiled, eyes flickering down to her hand under the cover again. "It's okay Pipes, I'm not thinking about the future right now anyway. I'm just trying to survive the present."
Alex could see that Piper wasn't really listening to her because she was trying to grab Alex's fingers, eventually she gave up and moved the cover that separated their hands. Alex watched Piper's face as she saw the cast, first confusion, then a hint of anger before it went back to confusion. Alex wondered where the anger came from.
"The fuck happened to your hand?" Piper held it up, as if to see it better.
Alex cleared her throat and shrugged yet again. It seemed the only suitable answer.
"ALEX!" Piper demanded, giving her hand a shake.
"Hey! Quit it." Alex pulled her hand out of Piper's grasp and chewed on the inside of her cheek as she debated what to tell Piper. Eventually she just sighed and turned her head to look at Piper square in the eye. "Larry was talking so much shit but I was doing okay. I wasn't taking any of it - you know how I am - but then I got pissed and told him that he left you when you needed him most and..." Alex voice broke a little as she was forced to think about it again but she took a deep breath to steady herself. "Then he said that you did the same to me and it shocked me and I didn't see it coming and then he started telling me how you would leave me and I got so fucking angry Pipes..." Alex let her voice trail off and she dragged her eyes away from Piper's and down to her hand.
Piper put both of her hands on Alex's cheeks and pulled her head up to look at her, "What did you do, Al?"
Alex could hear the fear in Piper's voice and she knew that she was imagining the worse case scenario. Alex beating the shit out of Larry. The thought of that did make Alex feel a little better. "I punched a wall." She said simply, laughing sadly.
"Oh." Was a Piper replied. Then she smiled sheepishly. "Thank God. I mean, as much as the wall didn't deserve your violence it's better then you punching a person and ending up in SHU." Piper kissed Alex gently and then pulled her hand up and kissed that too.
"I'm hoping I'll start a trend," Alex mused. "This thing is heavy as shit though, it would come in useful if anyone tried to jump me." Alex grinned, pulling Piper into her arms and hugging her. Letting her fears go. They were okay. She was okay. Nothing would hurt them again. Alex closed her eyes and willed herself to try and believe it.

Authors Note:

Had a lot of fun writing this! Thanks so much for the reviews, it really makes my day seeing them. Got some good ideas for where I can go from here so stay tuned :D

As always, leave a review and thanks for reading.