So I will not ask you
Why you were creeping,
In some sad way I already know.

Alex was woken from her peaceful sleep by a heavy object slamming into her face.
"Fuck!" she growled upon impact, rubbing the now sore spot. She looked around her and say nothing that could have hit her until her eyes landed on her cast, "Great..." She muttered to herself, she was literally beating herself up now.
Alex had had the cast on for a few days now and she was already furious with the encumbersome object that rested on her hand. Everyday tasks like having a shower were made five times harder than they needed to be and it also meant Alex had been restricted to only using one hand with Piper. All of the implications that thought brought made Alex smirk. She decided to get up and get dressed, yet another task made almost impossible as her arm got stuck in her thermal top about ten times.
"I can't wait to get you off of me," Alex growled down towards her useless hand.

Once Alex was dressed she settled down on her bunk and waited for Piper to wake up. She knew that Larry was visiting her for the first time since he had asked her to marry him and it was safe to say that neither woman was looking forward to it. Alex still wasn't sure why Piper had agreed to letting Larry visit her but as usual she was being stubborn and wouldn't listen to Alex's reasoning. Piper knew that Alex couldn't help but feel a little scared at the prospect of her seeing Larry again after everything that happened and Piper also knew that Alex was worried that Larry would find some way to bring Piper back to his way of thinking and that he would convince her to leave Alex for him. Again.
"Don't be ridiculous, I've made my choice and I'm sticking with it this time." Piper had said when Alex voiced her opinion on the matter. Alex had to contain the urge she felt to roll her eyes at that, they both knew how far Piper would go when it came to sticking with her choices and it was often not far at all. Still, there was nothing Alex could do about it so she just sucked it up and tried to decide what to do as she was still out of work for now.
Alex eventually got bored of waiting for Piper to wake up and so headed outside to the track, deciding to skip breakfast today. It wasn't a particularly warm or sunny day but it wasn't pissing it down with rain and so that was enough for her to stick around for now. Alex didn't enjoy running very much, it made her think of all the metaphorical running she had done over the past fifteen years. Piper had rolled her eyes and called her a pretentious idiot when Alex had told her that, but Alex new that she had understood. They had both been running from things for a long time, they had ran the most when they were together. Fucking their problems out rather than talking. One of the many mistakes that Alex did not regret all that much. It had played it's part in ending them in the end, but not as big a part as Alex herself had played.

Alex sighed and shoved her hands into the pockets of her grey hoodie, welcoming the warmth on her hands. She could hear the low rumble of thunder in the distance but she made no effort to move back inside. Not even when she felt the first drips of rain hit the top of her head did she move. Instead, she thought back to New York and her apartment and how at any other time she would have ran to the nearest shelter, take out her phone and locate the nearest coffee shop in which she would sit with a warm, black, coffee between her cold hands by the window and watch the drops of water cascade down the window. But alas, Alex was not in New York, she did not have a near shelter and she did not have her phone. There was no nearby coffee shop where she could sit in warmth with a coffee. So she just stood, and felt the rain fall. Litchfield wasn't too bad. It was even starting to feel like home. Alex couldn't help but think that thought had something to do with Piper's presence here, she shrugged it off. Preferring to remain in the bliss of the poetry her mind had made. Litchfield was home now, and it would be for a long time.

Alex walked back inside, her light grey hoodie turned dark from the water. her black hair falling limp down her back, leaving a trail of water behind her as she walked to the showers. She was undeniably cold now. Her teeth chattered as she took off her wet clothes and stepped into the shower, thinking now that it was a stupid idea to go and stand out in the rain for so long - the last thing she needed was to be sick and only have half an arm.
Before long it was visiting hours and Alex made her way to the window that looked into the room. She watched Piper sitting at her table, alone for now. She chewed on the inside of her cheek as she watched the blonde fiddle with her hands and then her hair and then her uniform. She was nervous, understandably. Alex briefly wondered how Piper felt, knowing that she was about to talk to the person she had loved for so many years. Then Alex realised she already knew. She let out a small sigh and let her chin rest on the edge of the window as she watched. She had no visitors today and she hadn't had any for a while. She didn't particularly want them either, they were just reminders of the life she was missing out on behind the barbed wire and grey cement walls. She didn't need that kind of discouragement.
Eventually Larry walked into the room and Alex was immediately more alert. Her eyes stayed locked on Piper's face, she watched as the variety of emotions flickered across her face as she saw Larry and then hugged him. Piper seemed to avoid looking towards the window, she must have guessed Alex would be watching. Piper and Larry talked for a long while, whist she couldn't see Larry she could see Piper. She saw every laugh and smile she shared with the man. Every frown, grimace and sad nod. Eventually Piper looked up and locked eyes with Alex through the window. Alex kept her face neutral for a moment and then did her best reassuring smile. Piper smiled back, but it was sad. A sad smile. That was bad. Alex's mind raced and she dropped Piper's gaze. She walked back to her bunk; she didn't want to watch anymore.

Alex didn't understand how Piper could do it. Make her feel as if she was giving but taking so much from Alex at the same time.
But what is she taking that you aren't already giving? Her mind prompted.
Fuck, even her own mind was against her now.

Alex lay back against her bunk, humming the tune to a song she had long forgotten the name of but remembered one lyric like she had only heard it yesterday. You are my life my love my only, and that's the one thing that won't change. Piper had sung that line to her the day Alex first told her she loved her, it was rather sweet really even if it had scared Alex more than anything had before. It wasn't that Alex was scared of commitment or settling down or only fucking one person for the rest of her life. That didn't scare her at all. What scared her was how open it made her, how vulnerable it left her and how weak she became. Talking hadn't been one of Alex's strong points, she believed in showing not telling. As she so frequently told Piper. However, even she knew that talking couldn't always be avoided and even when she pussied out of talking and ended up saying things like "I heart you" it was always a comfort to know that Piper knew what she meant. They understood each other like no one else. It still felt strange to Alex that the one girl who knew her best sometimes seemed to not know her at all. Alex stared down at her hand as she let herself get lost in her reverie.

"Well I'm sorry my love is such a fucking inconvenience to you, Piper." Alex snapped towards her girlfriend.
"Sometimes love just doesn't cut it, Alex!" Piper was shouting now, the rage practically dripped from every word.
"Well, it would have been nice for someone to inform me of that earlier before I decided that love cuts it every damn time..." Alex responded, weakly.
Piper actually had the nerve to laugh at her.
"I am so fucking sick of going back and forth like this with you Piper!" It was Alex's turn to shout now. "You knew what you were getting into from the moment you met me, I have never once lied to you about the nature of my work and yet you come around here and act like you're some high and mighty being, doing me a favour by being in my life and travelling around the world!" Alex looked Piper dead in the eye, "In case you've forgotten, my work just happens to pay for your lavish life style so do not, ever, try to act like this is all on me."
Alex turned her back on Piper and stared angrily out of the window. She didn't like it when they fought but sometimes Piper was just so goddamn stupid. Piper had the nerve to get angry at her for working on a business trip? And then she went as far to even tell her that sometimes she wished she didn't love her because then she wouldn't be in all of this mess. It made Alex want to laugh, really. So much for a romantic trip to Paris.

"Hey, Alex?" Piper's voice dragged Alex out of her mind.
"Hmm?" She responded a little dreamily, looking up at Piper.
"Well, Larry's gone now." Piper stated.
"I see that."
Alex saw Piper swallow hard.
"Well, do you want to know how it went?" She asked.
"I guess." Alex shrugged, trying to act like she didn't care. "I mean, if you want to tell me."
Piper sighed and sat down on the bed. "He asked me - don't freak out please - he asked me to get back with him." Piper took a deep breath and looked at Alex, when she saw that Alex was choosing to stay silent she continued, talking faster now. "I told him that I had made my choice and that I didn't want to put him through another go on my 'ride' and the jerk told me that my 'ride was all he could think about'" Piper fumed, "Is he forreal?! As if he wasn't in enough shit already." Piper shook her head, "I just laughed; the idiot thought I actually found it funny. Anyway, he told me that he shouldn't have let what you said get to him and that it was a mistake to break up with him, especially when I needed it most." Piper frowned at that and looked down at her hands, rubbing her knuckles gently as she talked. Alex noticed she had been doing that a lot lately, especially when Piper was thinking about something.
"I stayed quiet though," Piper continued in Alex's silence, "We talked a little about old times - that was sad. I realised how much I had hurt him but I think I mostly realised how much he had hurt me. I was so blind before, only seeing things in black and white. I know that I can be a shit person Al, but does that mean he had to treat me like one? Like I didn't really exist behind the phonecalls and hour long visits once a week." Piper sighed and looked at Alex, desperation in her eyes. "Please say something Alex."
Alex raised her eyebrows and let go of a breath that she hadn't realised she'd been holding. "You hurt him, he hurt you, you hurt me. We were stuck in a shit cycle, Pipes." Alex stated, shrugging gently. She pried one of Piper's hands off of her knuckles and gripped it. "You're not a shit person...most of the time." Alex smiled tightly and then sighed, her cool pretense failing her. "Still sticking to your decision?" She asked, tentatively.
Piper nodded, "I told you. I'm not changing my mind again."
Alex couldn't help but hear the slight uncertainty in Piper's voice. She nodded anyway and offered a smile to Piper. She returned it easily.

I will not ask you where you came from,
I will not ask you and neither should you.
Honey just put your sweet lips on my lips
We should just kiss like real people do.

Alex's cast was finally coming off today and she had planned her saturday to be full of secret moments of celebration between Piper and herself. So as she swaggered towards the infirmary to get the dreaded weight off of her hand you could imagine her horror to find that the nurse was momentarily incapacitated with the flu. Alex wanted to scream in frustration as she stormed back to her bunk. Halfway there though, she changed her mind and turned in the opposite direction to go towards the bathrooms. Alex did not know what possessed her to suddenly change direction like that but she was glad that she did when she stumbled across a half naked Piper in there. They were alone for now. Alex smirked and silently walked up to Piper, placing her good hand around her waist from behind.
"Fancy seeing you here," She murmured, her smirk only growing at the red tips of Piper's ears in response to her touch.
"Where's your other hand? I miss it." Piper replied, turning slightly to look at Alex.
Alex sighed and released Piper, "Nurse is MIA for a while it would seem so I'm stuck with this stupid thing till she gets back."
Piper gave Alex a sympathetic nod before she sidled up to Alex and kissed her. They were alone and even with Alex's useless hand, things were as close to perfect as they could get in prison. Or at least she thought they were.
"Disgusting filth," A familiar hick spat. "God is going to punish you two, send you straight to the fires of hell!"
Alex laughed and stood up straighter, pulling Piper behind her a little. She could sense Piper's silent protest at being pushed back like that but Alex didn't care, if Pennsatucky wanted to start shit it was going to be with her this time.
Pennsatucky took out her little toothbrush blade and waved it around, "You know, I'm starting to wish that I had used this that day I found you in the shower, College." Pennsatucky mused as she took a step towards Alex.
"One more step and you'll find yourself back in hospital," Alex warned the hick.
"I coulda just sliced you right then and there, BAM! You woulda been lying on the floor, red blood pouring outta your body as you slowly and painfully died. Alone and unloved." Pennsatucky smiled at the thought and continued to walk closer, ignoring both Alex's glare and threat. "I was so close to killin' you that day, you know? All I needed was a minute more and I woulda' had you. God's justice woulda' been done but no. God wanted to put me to the test, to see if I would stay strong and survive! And I did. Oh I survived the devil and more. So, now I'm gonna' kill the devil. I'll kill the devil's demon too if I have to." Pennsatucky cast a meaningful look at Alex, letting her know who she was talking about as she took yet another step towards them. One more step and she would be upon them. Every sense in Alex's mind yelled at her to get Piper to safety and for once she listened. So, in the only way she knew how she got Piper to safety. Pushing Piper backwards with her good hand she swung up her plastered arm and hit Pennsatucky square in the head. Alex's hand was healed enough for it to not hurt too much after the punch and all of a sudden Alex was actually glad she still had the hefty cast glues to her hand. She looked behind her as Pennsatucky leant against the sink for support and grabbed Piper and by the shirt she had just put back on, and dragged her out of the bathroom and back to the dorm. When they were back in the dorm Piper planted her heels into the floor causing Alex to jerk back.
"Jesus Pipes, some warning would have been nice." She muttered as she rubbed her arm that felt like it had almost been pulled out of its socket.
"You're so fucking stupid, Alex." Piper whispered, in a silent rage.
Oh shit.
"You realise that they're going to throw you into SHU now! What the hell were you thinking?!" Piper's voice rose a few octaves. "You always do that, act first without thinking of the consequences!" Piper threw her hands up into the air.
Alex was aware that they were gathering an audience, standing in the middle of the dorm while having an argument. Seems no one can resist some dyke drama.
"Well gee Alex, thanks for helping me out with the crazy psycho killer and all." Alex muttered to herself, sourly. Her heroic moment had been ruined by Piper's incessant worrying.
"Ugh!" Piper groaned and stormed off.
Alex stood and watched her go, running a hand through her black mane.
"Geez Vause, trouble in paradise?" Nicky's voice joked from behind her.
Alex chuckled and turned to look at her friend, "Something like that. I gave Pennsatucky a taste of my fist in her face."
Nicky actually looked shocked for a moment, "Why?" Was all she could seem to utter in response.
"She was waving around that toothbrush knife she had and then started talking about how she was going to kill Piper and then me, so I punched her and got Piper away from her."
"Uh huh." Nicky replied, nodding as she processed the information. "So, who's going to look after Piper and protect her while you're in SHU because obviously you've already figured that out if you're so eager to punch Pennsatucky."
Dammit. Piper was right, Alex never thought about the consequences. Not properly. The same way she didn't think that she would end up missing the last year of her mom's life because she was too busy transporting heroin around the world. The same way she didn't think that transporting heroin around the world would cause the love of her life to walk out on her the day her mom died. The same way she didn't think she would end up addicted to her own product.
"Fuck." Was all Alex had time to mutter as footsteps ran towards her from behind. "Fuck." Was all she had time to shout as Mendez dragged her down to SHU. "Fuck." Was all she had time to scream as she saw Pennsatucky cradling a bloody nose and a sick smirk on her face. "Fuck." Was all she had time to sob as she saw Piper turn away from her, in anger, sadness and disappointment. "Fuck." Was all she had time to say as she sat in an 8 by 8 grey cell with nothing to do but think and listen to the screams around her.
Alex had never been in SHU before and in less than five minutes of being here, she never wanted to be here again.

Authors Note:

Sorry for not updating yesterday! I had 6 hours of exams to study for D: Luckily, exams are out of the way for a week of so which leaves me plenty of time to write! I tried to include as much action in this as possible to make up for the absence of a post yesterday, I hope it's worth the wait!
I will be moving on from the Pennsatucky storyline soon, sending Alex to SHU was the first part of that so don't worry - I won't drag this out too much longer.
For the person who commented on Big Boo's use of the words shagging in the last chapter, I am aware that it is mainly said by British people and I apologise for my slight slip there as I am mostly used to writing about British characters and, being British myself, the language/slang is going to sometimes slip through, although I do my best not to let it!
As always, thanks for the kind reviews and I hope you enjoyed reading.

In case you wanted to know where the lyrics came from that I used in this chapter, the names of the songs are below:

Like Real People Do by Hozier
Never Stop [Wedding Version] by Safteysuit