A/N: Sooo, lots of love for the last chapters! Who doesn't love a Vauseman kiss though hey? They're not quite ready to skip into the sunset holding hands though yet guys, so don't take your seatbelts off...
Alex took her glasses off and put them down on the floor before moving to the side of the bath so she was facing Piper fully. She reached her hand out to touch the side of Piper's face, moving her fingers over the bruise around her right eye with feather light touches. She moved a stray strand of Piper's hair back behind her ear, showing the stitches in the side of her head. Moving both hands to gently cup the side of Piper's face, Alex brought her lips towards Piper's, stopping just before they touched. Piper's eyes were closed now and Alex could feel her breath on her lips as she waited for them to meet. She licked her lips again and slowly closed the gap between them to press her lips to Piper's. Closing her eyes, she pulled back again a little, before moving her face to slowly brush her lips over the blonde's now slightly parted lips. She lightly took Piper's lower lip in hers and sucked it so softly and slowly that she seemed to get lost in the moment. Alternating between the upper and lower lip for a few moments, she switched to lightly running her tongue along Piper's lower lip. Just touching gently with the very tip of her tongue and moving it from left to right, making sure to taste every cell of those luscious pink lips she had dreamed of for so long. The brunette moved her mouth over Piper's now and slowly massaged her lips with her own before pressing them together more firmly and pulling back to look at Piper.
As Alex ran her thumb across her cheek, Piper opened her eyes to look at Alex and the two looked at each other briefly before Alex leaned forwards to press their foreheads together. Alex's heart was racing from being in a moment that she had yearned for for so long now and Piper's eyes were full of desire. Alex closed her eyes to breathe her in for a while before Piper interrupted her reverie.
"Al?"
"Yeah." But Alex didn't move.
"Everything OK?"
"Very much so." She opened her eyes and smiled at Piper, who was looking a little alarmed by the unexpected delay in proceedings.
"OK. Good. Erm…shall I finish my bath then?"
Alex pulled away from her, suddenly aware that she was leaned into Piper and restricting her from doing anything other than be held by the face. It was a little awkward without the kissing she guessed.
"Oh. Sure, yeah. Of course…..I'll leave you to it. Just give me a shout when you're ready to get out then." She quickly put her glasses back on and picked up her wine glass to go back to the lounge, shutting the door over slightly behind her.
Piper sank back into the bath, a little confused by what just happened. She had fallen into old habits of flirting banter easily with Alex and had momentarily forgotten that they were exes. The kiss wasn't exactly planned, but it wasn't unwelcome either. She had very much wanted it in fact just moments ago. Well, she was wanting a lot more than a kiss when Alex had been kissing her neck like that and it had seemed that Alex did too from the way she was breathing into her ear and nipping her. The kiss had been amazing, everything she could have dreamed of for their first kiss since…what? Reuniting? Becoming friends again? Friends who kissed and lusted after each other? What exactly were they? All the time she was sitting there and running events over in her mind, she was aware that the water was cooling, so got back on with washing herself.
XXXXX
Alex sat on the sofa with her head in her hands. What just happened with Piper had been so unexpected and so hot, that she had struggled to contain her lust for the blonde woman. Sure, Piper had known she was flirting and teasing her, but normally Alex could give as good as she got while being in full control. She'd lost control a little in there and her body was reacting to Piper in a way that her brain couldn't be heard at all. She was not thinking at all when she started kissing her neck and there was every probability that her body would take it further. Moving to face Piper to kiss her properly allowed her a moment for her brain to cut into sharp focus when she was reminded of the bruises on the blonde's face, the stitches in her hair. Suddenly her brain was in full control again and was reminding her with every nerve ending that this beautiful woman in front of her was recovering from a brutal attack, where she'd been violated in the worst way possible barely more than a week ago. And there Alex was, about to be taken over by lust for that same body without even considering the state of Piper's emotions at that point.
She had kissed her so very tenderly as though trying to convey how much she cared for her through the touch of her lips alone. She had kissed her almost as though she might break. It was tender and loving and not at all lustful like if would have been moments before. Seeing Piper's apparent confusion over the change of pace and not wanting to explain it, she had decided to make her excuses and leave. Alex felt like such an idiot for being so wrapped up in her own feelings, that she had forgotten the whole reason she had been allowed back into Piper's life again. It wasn't to kiss and worship her body now, it was to care for someone in need.
XXXXX
Piper walked into the lounge area in her PJs, having managed to get herself out of the bath rather clumsily. It was at least progress to have managed it on her own.
"Hey."
"Oh hey Pipes. I thought you were going to shout me to give you a hand?"
"I managed to get out myself. It wasn't exactly elegant, but I did it without rolling onto the floor like a walrus anyhow."
Alex chuckled as she stood up to walk to the kitchen where Piper was headed.
"Can I get you anything?"
"No. I'm just going to take my last meds and a mug of warm milk before I turn in for the night. Is that OK? You can always put the TV on if you're not sleepy yet. I'm not really used to being up late at the moment."
"Oh. OK, that's fine. You get yourself off to bed and I'll catch up with a bit of work stuff actually before I call it a night."
Piper warmed her milk up and turned to take it to bed with her. "Thanks for today Al, I had a great time. Goodnight." She smiled before turning and walking to her room.
XXXXX
It was the Thursday before Christmas now and Piper slept in a little later than she had planned, so it was 10:30 by the time she was dressed and saw Alex already working on her laptop in the kitchen.
"Morning sleeping beauty. Can I get you a coffee and something to eat?"
"Mmm coffee would be nice. I'll just have some fruit I think." Piper took her tablets with a gulp of water from the tap and peeled a banana as she sat at the breakfast bar.
"Did you get to sleep OK on the sofa last night?"
"Yeah, it was alright. I worked until pretty late anyway and then I had some early morning calls to do this morning too, so I guess it was comfy enough for 6 hours inbetween. Is your appointment with the Victim Support Unit today?"
"Um, yeah. 11:30 she's coming around. I don't know how long these things take, so you might want to get out of here for an hour while she sits with me if you want?"
"It's OK, I'll stay if you want me to be there. I don't mind. I mean, is it all confidential and I'm not supposed to hear it like a counselling session or something?"
"I don't really know. I guess I'll find out when she's here." Piper took her coffee from Alex and finished her banana off before picking up her phone. There was a text from Polly.
'Hey, sorry I had to dump you last night. I got a better offer. By better I mean there was actually leaving the house, shopping for gifts for me, alcohol and sex. You can't compare ;-)'
'Haha. Well I'm glad you have made your priorities clear. I know what I'm not offering you in this relationship now.'
Piper flicked the TV on and curled up on the sofa as Polly replied again.
'How was it last night? Did you 2 play nice?'
'We did. No murders and no sex. But I need get a Christmas tree Pol!'
'Wow, you've got her whipped haven't you?'
'No. The VSU appointment is at 11:30 so I might send her out for a bit. I don't know what they are going to talk to me about, so it might be better if she isn't here.'
'You sure? Might be good to have someone with you.'
Piper thought about it briefly and thought about what Alex was saying yesterday about needing to talk to someone. Probably best she tries this one solo first to see how it goes.
'I'll be fine. See you tonight?'
'Yep'
XXXXX
At 11:30 there was a knock at the door and Piper answered it. There was a tall redhead dressed in a skirt and blouse smiling back at her. "Ms Chapman?"
"Yes, that's me. Please call me Piper though." Piper smiled back.
"Good Morning. I'm Sara Phillips from the Victim Support Unit, I hope you were expecting me at 11:30?"
"Indeed I was, come on in Sarah. I'll take your coat here if you like." Piper stepped aside to let the redhead inside and took the coat from her arm as she walked into the lounge. "Alex, this is Sarah Phillips from the Victim Support Unit, Sarah this is my friend Alex." She gestured between the two women and offered Sara a seat on the sofa.
"Hi Sarah, nice to meet you. Can I get you a drink before you get started?" Alex came to shake her hand. Sarah asked for a coffee and Piper the same, so Alex made herself busy in the kitchen while Piper got acquainted.
"So, I'm not sure if I'm allowed to have someone here with me during these sessions or if they are like 1:1 counselling or something? Alex said she can go out for a while if it's all confidential, so just tell me what usually happens I guess."
"Well, this is your first appointment so it's really for you to tell me what kind of support you would need from us at this stage. We can help you decide by going through your case together and working out whether you feel you are struggling with anything following the attack and how you might best work through those issues…..I have some case notes and your statement from the attack, so I'm not expecting you to go through that with the same details as you did with the DCI s at the time. Really though, it's important that you are honest. Honest with me when you're talking to me and answering my questions and honest with yourself about how you are feeling."
Alex brought the coffees over and hovered awkwardly, waiting for Piper to either invite her to stay or ask her to leave. Piper sensed this and decided it would be best to work through this first session on her own so she wasn't worrying about Alex reacting to anything she said.
"It's OK Alex, you can leave me to it here for a while. We're just going to talk about the case for a while so it's probably a good chance for you to get a break if you want?" Piper tried to phrase it like a question, but it was clear enough that she wanted to do this on her own. Alex smiled and picked up her jacket, saying she'd be back in about an hour.
"So, Piper how are you feeling at the moment? Not physically, your Doctors are treating that. I mean, have you thought about the attack since you woke up and how do you feel when you think about it?"
"Um…yes, I do think about it. Quite a lot I suppose. I mostly feel frustrated that I've lost my independence at the moment. I have to have someone with me at all times because of the head injury and I hate relying on other people. I've lived alone for a long time and I'm used to doing things at my own pace on my own terms. So to suddenly have to ask friends to help me around the house is knocking my self-esteem I guess."
"And when you think about the attack specifically, how do you feel?"
"I feel angry….That I wasn't more vigilant to stop it….I should have been more forceful in saying no to him. I didn't want to upset my friend by being rude to his best friend, so I went along with things too much….I feel weak, because I reverted back to being a WASPy blonde girl who smiles in all the right places…instead of the strong and independent woman I allowed myself to become when I was in prison. The woman who slept with one eye open and could protect herself from creeps by using her brains and brawn when necessary only appeared when it was already too late…" Piper swallowed the lump in her throat.
"Do you blame yourself for what happened?"
"Yes. I've learned my lesson the hard way before about keeping my wits about me and I let my guard down here. It shouldn't have happened and I could have prevented it. I feel foolish for letting myself get into that kind of situation again…"
"Again? Piper… have you been attacked before?"
Piper cursed herself for letting that slip out without thinking. This would open a whole new set of questions and she wanted the therapy to be over and done with so she could get back to normal. She sighed and looked up at the ceiling before replying.
"Yes, when I was in prison. But I've already been through all of the touchy-feely talking about it for that and I don't want to go through it all again. Can we just focus on this one and forget I mentioned that? Don't make any notes on that will you? I don't want everyone thinking I'm recurring fucking victim…Sorry for swearing."
"We won't talk about it today. I do want to focus on the recent attack as that is why I'm here, but I need to make a note that you have been attacked previously as it might influence what support you need from us. We're only here to help you though, we won't force you to do anything that you don't want to do."
Sarah had kind eyes and a warm smile, she was probably in her mid-30's and seemed to like her job from what Piper had seen so far. They talked about the attack a little and Sarah was able to update her on the progress of her case. Darryl had tried this before, but never been caught and the DNA evidence that her attack had provided was going to be crucial to other unsolved cases in the Massachusetts area. Piper felt a sense of relief that some good could come from this and Sarah was explaining the next steps in the prosecution when Alex returned.
"Oh hey, do you want me to head back out a while?" She started to turn back around to head out when Piper called her back in saying they were almost done. They arranged the next appointment for just after Christmas and Sarah wished them both a happy holiday as she put her coat on to leave. As she closed the door behind her, Piper felt a little better as a result of talking to Sarah. She guessed it had been good to share a little and finding out that Darryl had done this before made her feel a little less useless.
"I brought you some donuts, a pumpkin spice latte…aaaaannnddd…a new star for the top of the tree!" Alex beamed, putting the bags down on the kitchen counter.
"Aw, thanks! That's so sweet of you Al." She leaned over and kissed Alex on the cheek before opening the bag with donuts inside. "Mmmmm Boston Kreme, my favourites!"
"Soo? How was it? She seemed nice." Alex asked as she lifted her own coffee cup out of the bag.
"She was nice actually. It didn't feel so much like a therapy session with her making notes about everything I said. We just talked really. She gave me an update on the case and apparently this guy Darryl has done this before but never been caught."
"Seriously? That fucker!" Alex clenched her jaw tightly.
"I know. They never got the DNA evidence until now and he's used that drug on women in the Massachusetts area in the past-"
"What drug?" Alex looked at Piper questioning this new piece of information.
"Oh. Erm…it's something the police called GBL. He used it to spike my drink. It's….a….date rape drug I guess….". Piper forgot that Alex might not know all of the details of the attack.
"Fuck Piper. I'm sorry you ever met that fucking creep." Alex moved towards Piper and wrapped her in a tight embrace as they stood in the kitchen. She was talking into Piper's hair now so it was hard to hear complete sentences. The gist was threats about breaking his legs and taking his eyes out if she ever met him though.
Piper pulled back from her a little.
"Alex, it's OK. I'm OK. He's going to prison on the back of this and a lot of people could get justice for the things he has done to them in the past. So, what happened to me has stopped it from happening to anyone else. I actually feel a little better about it because of that you know." Piper looked at Alex and smiled to show she did feel better. Looking into Alex's eyes and seeing how deeply she still cared for her made Piper's heart jump a little.
"I appreciate you offering to break his legs of course. But can you relax your grip on my ribs a little?"
Alex laughed and immediately dropped her arms and stuffed them into the back pockets of her tight jeans. "Are you sure you're OK? Can I be at the next session?"
"I'm fine. Not sure I need anyone there actually, it's pretty good to just talk to a stranger to be honest. I hope you don't feel put out by that?"
She did feel a little put out by it, but if it was doing Piper some good to talk without her being there, she was going to go with it. "I can always use an excuse to shop for Christmas decorations, right?" Alex winked as she sipped her coffee.
"Yeah, good idea!"
Piper was a bit unsure about whether Alex was pretending that they didn't share that kiss last night and she didn't want to bring it up in case Alex was regretting it and it might make things awkward. They were having to spend a lot of time together at the moment and sometimes it felt easy, like spending the day with your best friend. Sometimes it was a bit harder though as she wrestled with the feelings that were resurfacing between them. Alex didn't seem awkward at all though, she'd just hugged her after all. But that's what made it strange...there were no jokey innuendos today, like they were back to being friends again. Maybe that is what they were trying to do now? Oh, what a head scramble this was!
She decided to sit at the breakfast bar with her laptop and email Polly the list of items she wanted to give her family as gifts. It might be a bit cheap to give them all gifts from her own store, but they were a start-up company and it would be a good chance to show her family how good their products were now. If Polly could bring everything back home with her tonight, she could wrap them tomorrow and put them under the tree.
XXXXX
As Piper had decided to work on her laptop, Alex guessed their conversation was over and went to sit on the sofa to look through her own work emails. She desperately wanted to know more about how Piper's session with Sarah had gone, but Piper seemed to be brushing it off as everything being fine whenever she had broached the subject. Conscious of not pushing her, she had let it drop again and decided to be the supportive friend that Piper must need at this point. With Polly working all hours at the store, she felt she had to fill in and not overstep for anything more than the temporary BFF now. It was brand new territory with Piper and it felt weird.
She logged in and Nicky popped up with a Skype chat.
'Hey Boss. How's the sabbatical treating you?'
'Hey yourself. I'm enjoying the break from the white noise coming out of your mouth. I might stay.'
'Really? Blondie not thrown you out on your ass yet then?'
'Nope.'
'Who knew you'd prefer being a live in maid to a rich bitch ;-)'
'Fuck. Off. I'm not a live in maid.'
'No? You sound like one to me. Blondie there's got you running after her like a puppy.'
'Are you back on the drugs Nicholls? Cause you're hallucinating.'
'Haha! Chill out. I'd do the same for a piece of her ass. Let me know when she ditches you, I'm next in line!'
'(rolls eyes). Seriously not having this conversation with you. Can you get the garage guy out to check over the truck tyres? There's snow on the way and I don't want any off the road if we can put some winter treads on them now. Yes, that was me changing the subject. Now go and do some work!'
'Aye aye Captain! ;-)'
XXXXX
Polly came back to the apartment with arms full of stuff from the store. There were the order books for Piper to sort through and the gifts that she wanted for her family.
"Oooh, thanks Pol! You're the best!" Piper clapper her hands as she peeked through all the bags.
Alex gave her a hand to bring in the last of the boxes before they closed the door and took their coats off.
"Do you want a coffee Polly?" Alex offered as she climbed over all the bags in the lounge.
"Yes please. Only because I'm going to try and not finish a whole bottle of wine on a work night for a change though." Alex went to make them some coffees while Polly dashed to use the bathroom. When she came back, she slumped into the chair in the lounge and Alex handed her a coffee before sitting down next to Piper on the sofa.
"So, did you miss me last night P? What did you guys get up to?" Polly leaned forward to pick up her mug while waiting for an answer.
"Um, nothing really. Just watched a film...Lost Boys."
"Yeah, we watched The Lost Boys, that was it. Great film that..." Alex added quickly.
"OK...you sure you watched The Lost Boys...cause you seem a little hesitant to remember there? Oh, and by hesitant I mean super-quick to answer at the same time." Polly smiled into her coffee mug at the rabbits caught in headlights on both of them.
"Nice tree though. Good job there Supercunt. I guess Piper managed to find a little Christmas spirit inside you after all (cough) with her tongue (cough)."
"Um, I think I'd better get going. My shift here is done. Er, see you in the morning?" Alex glanced at Piper as she stood and put her jacket on.
"Yes, see you tomorrow!" Polly chuckled.