A/N: To the guest reviewer who said the story hasn't progressed, I'll direct you back to chapter 11 for the answer to your question. Glad you're still reading tho ;-). Thanks to the other reviewers for leaving some nice comments in there too - you're the best! This is a bit of a quick chapter because I wanted to give you an update for Easter weekend, but I've already started the next one so hopefully you won't have to wait long for the next one. Hope you're having a good weekend so far peeps!

Piper called the hospital and arranged an appointment to see Dr Shetty on Wednesday. He should have Sarah's notes by then and could give her the all clear. She put a coat on and stuffed her phone into her bag to head over to PoPi for the rest of the day, calling to pick up some bagels for their lunch on the way.

"Hey, how did it go with the meeting this morning?"

"Morning. Cream cheese and salmon for you there…don't say I never treat you to something special. It was fine. Hopefully it gets me a good report and I finally get my freedom back." Piper put her bags down and shrugged off her coat, walking into the back to hang it up.

"Oooh, more deliveries! What are these then?"

"The last of the Christmas ranges from the production line. They were late getting them out to us so I kicked their asses and they aren't charging us for them. It doesn't really help that Christmas has been and gone already. I wasn't done asking you about the VSU meeting. Are you having more sessions? Did you tell her about the drinking?"

"No. And I am done talking about the VSU meeting already. Could we have sold these if we had them in stock?" Piper came back through to the counter and unwrapped her bagel.

"Probably not to be fair. If we'd have had them in at the time, we could have put them on promotion as a last minute stocking filler or something I guess."

"Are all 4 boxes Christmassy things?"

"Yeah, that's the lot."

"Maybe we can parcel them up into little thank you gift sets for everyone who has helped us?"

"Not a bad idea. I can't see us being able to sell them now and they won't last until next Christmas anyway."

"Oh, I was looking at online sales a bit last night. We had a few orders that we had to deliver over Christmas, so I was thinking maybe we need to think about our online presence more. Even a holding page or something with our contact details and what we sell is a start. Do you know anything about creating websites?"

"I know about buying things online. My interest ends there. One for you to explore I think?"

"Yeah, I don't mind doing that. I think the sales over Christmas were good from what I saw when I was doing the books last month. Maybe we can re-invest some of that?"

"Sure, once we get the Spring ranges all set up and costed. Let's pay for that first and see what's left."

Piper shooed Polly into the back room to cost up the spring stock so that she knew how much was left to work with for online marketing. She served a familiar faces that had started coming into the store when they first opened and opted to give them a little thank you from those Christmas boxes to keep them coming back. The afternoon went quickly and they were soon locking up to go home for the night.

XXXXX

Alex was in work early on Monday morning. Having only been in the office intermittently over the last couple of weeks, she was starting to feel like she wasn't on top of things anymore and resolved to make an early start to deal with some of the things that had been hanging around for too long. Before the rest of the staff came in to bug her, she started in the loading bays downstairs to once again move the pallets of boxes that had been set down on the wrong side of the lines. She reorganised the shelves again to put things in the right place and cleared anything that wasn't labelled and boxed away. The manual work felt good because Alex could see the progress she had made and knew when the job was done. It was always more satisfying than sitting in front of a laptop with an open mailbox all day. There were always more emails and always things that couldn't be dealt with straight away and she hated things lying around unfinished.

She was wearing track pants and an old tee shirt today so she could get her hands dirty and get some of last year's paperwork packed away into off-site storage. It was an easy job for anyone of her employees to do, but she'd rather do it herself to know it was done properly and tire her body out from some physical exertion. As Dannii was the first of her staff to come into the loading bay, she was the first to feel the wrath of Alex.

"Morning Alex. Happy New Year!"

"Hi Dannii, Happy New Year to you. New year, new start I say."

"Yeah, I guess. Can I give you a hand with those?"

"You can actually, so glad you offered. Can you tell me why there were boxes and delivery pallets all over the area I specifically told you all to keep clear not two weeks ago?"

"Oh, yeah. Well, that was a last minute thing as we were finishing for Christmas actually…"

"You're telling me you thought it was OK to break that rule because I let you finish early for Christmas? So, that's my fault then?"

"Um, no. No! That's not what I meant…."

Poussey and Taystee walked in behind her and heard the exchange. Alex could see them trying to covertly duck into the office and avoid the confrontation, but she called them out on it.

"Ah, a full team. Let's only have this conversation once then…come on over." Alex stood with her hands on her hips. She hadn't been angry, but it was irritating her that she literally had to walk around after everyone to get things done properly at the moment. Poussey and Taystee shuffled up behind Dannii.

"Right. Remember I painted these lines and set out these shelves only a couple of weeks ago?" She waited for everyone to agree.

"Good. Do you remember why I did that?"

Dannii jumped in like the school prefect with the answer. "For our health and safety."

"Correct. Yet, here I am clearing away all the crap you've left lying around and stacks of boxes you have specifically dumped on the very areas I told you not to store anything in. To protect your health and safety…..And apparently, it's because I let you all finish early for Christmas…..So, you see why I'm annoyed by this, right?"

Poussey tried to diffuse the anger a little. "Yes, we do. Sorry Alex, we should've paid more attention. We'll get right on it." She started to move to help Alex move the boxes of paperwork into the back of her car.

"OK, just try and keep a tight ship down here you guys. The last thing any of us needs is an accident and a lawsuit."

"Sorry Alex." Dannii offered before heading into the office to put her bags down.

Alex turned to finish loading the car up with Poussey.

"Everything OK Alex? Did you have a good new year?" Poussey tried to change the subject to something a little lighter. She hadn't seen her friend and boss since New Year's Eve.

"Yeah, it was OK. Just non-stop at the moment and this place being a pigsty this morning didn't help me ease back into the 9 to 5 you know. How was yours?"

They caught up on Poussey's hook up with a College kid over a coffee and Alex pointed out all the other jobs Poussey needed to get done over the course of the week to get the downstairs back into shape and make space for the new shipments they were expecting. She had received a couple of emails from the company she visited in London with new contacts that were looking to renew logistics contracts and it looked promising to take on some much bigger clients that were regularly exporting to Europe. If they won the work, they may need to look at expanding the premises a bit and maybe take on some more staff. She headed upstairs to catch up with Nicky and Lorna to start the same job of clearing away anything that could be stored.

She put the last of the storage boxes in her car and headed back inside to speak to Lorna about opening up for the next couple of days. Alex was going to work from home to get some of the vendor forms filled in for the prospective clients she was trying to work out a deal with and she needed to concentrate to make sure she got the facts and figures right on the paperwork before anything was submitted. Leaving Lorna with the keys, she headed home for the night with her laptop and files.

XXXXX

Piper spent Tuesday at PoPi making up little gift packs from the late stock delivery. They had decided to give them out to the designer who helped with the Christmas flyers, the NY Logistics team and the nursing staff who looked after Piper in hospital. She also wanted to give one to Sarah from the VSU, so she made them all up between serving customers while Polly carried on with the spring ordering in the back office. Hopefully, she'd be able to let Polly have some time off once she was given the all clear tomorrow. She felt bad about all the hours Polly had been working over Christmas while she had been at home. The pair locked up together and Piper headed home on the subway. Her phone beeped with a message while she was climbing the stairs out of the subway station and she saw that it was from Nicky.

'Hey blondie! You don't write, you don't call me with complaints anymore…I never expected you to get so into that parrot that you'd dump me you know ;-)'

Piper chuckled before tapping out a reply. 'Hello Nicky. Well, I do have a penchant for feathers and crotchless panties ;-)'

She could see that Nicky was typing out a reply so she kept the message box open.

'Aha! So THAT's what you've got Vause doing this week! I never believed that working from home story.'

'Sorry to disappoint your kinky mind, but Alex is not tied up in my apartment wearing a feather boa right now.'

'Well that does disappoint me. I'll finish that story in my dreams tonight though. Thanks for the material anyway. How are you feeling?'

'You're welcome – I think? I'm feeling just fine thanks Nicky. Hopefully get the all clear from Dr Shetty tomorrow, so I'm looking forward to that.'

'Good to hear that blondie. We miss your ass on pool nights. I need my partner back!'

'Thanks.x'

Piper made some chicken kievs for dinner and sat in front of the TV eating it. She had checked her phone several times throughout the day to see if Alex had sent her a message or left a voicemail, but there had been nothing from the brunette since a couple of days ago. She washed up her dishes and made a cup of camomile tea before settling back to lie on the sofa. She was enjoying the peace of her alone time, but having spent so much time with Alex over the last 2 weeks, she found herself missing the company of her ex-girlfriend. Considering they were not together, Alex had really gone out of her way to help Piper and put her own life and work on hold when Piper had needed her. Piper had much to be grateful to Alex for and wondered whether she had been doing it out of guilt over sending her to prison or a sense of loyalty – maybe something more? Alex had told her that she wasn't seeing anyone at the moment, but they hadn't broached the subject again and she wondered if Alex was waiting for her to make the next move. What was the next move?

Piper picked her phone up and opened up a dialogue box to start a message to Alex. Thinking about what to say to keep it casual, Piper started and re-started the message a couple of times before mentally kicking herself for making it into a big deal.

'Hey Alex. How was your day? x' God that sounded so lame. But it was to the point…she pressed send. No reply came back for 10 minutes and she decided to take a shower to stop looking at her phone. She got out of the shower and reached for her phone with wet hands, still no answer. Walking into her bedroom, she threw the phone onto the bed and dried her hair before putting her PJs on and settling down in bed. She decided to read the wonderful first edition BFG book that Alex bought her for Christmas as a treat and was already on Chapter 5 by the time her phone beeped with a message alert.

'Hi Pipes. My day was good thanks. How was yours? X' It seemed a bit cold thought Piper, answering her question and being polite to ask the same….

'Good too thanks. My VSU meeting went well yesterday. I think I'll get the all clear on Weds when I see Dr Shetty.' Piper decided to open the conversation up a bit. Her phone started ringing, which caused her to drop it. She picked it up quickly and answered.

"Hello."

"That's great! Did you talk to Sarah about dealing with your anger?" Piper rolled her eyes.

"Yes. Told her I go walking when I get angry."

"Did you tell her the full story Piper?"

"No. She'll think I'm crazy."

"And your point is?"

"Ha ha. My point is these sessions are for the attack, not for a full life analysis."

"Right. Well, I'm thinking this conversation is also not for a life analysis – and I'm not on the clock if it is. It's double time at this hour you know."

"Good point."

"What did you really want to talk to me about?"

"Nothing. You called me anyway. I was just asking about your day."

"OK….."

"OK."

There was a silence on the line and it was clear that Alex wasn't going to break it because she already pointed out that Piper started this conversation.

"Alright, fine! I was wondering when I might see you again?"

Alex chuckled but didn't answer the question.

"Will it be this week?" Piper just wanted a timeframe, something to put in her diary.

"Well that depends."

"On what?"

"If you're asking me out this week."

"Asking you out like a date?"

"That's up to you Pipes. I have some availability if you have a proposal." Alex was smiling at the end of the phone line at how much Piper would be squirming now, but she was enjoying playing coy with the blonde. Her stomach was suddenly a bit nervous about what Piper might say and if she'd play along with a date idea or not.

"Oh, come on Alex! What are we, like 12?!"

Alex stayed silent on the phone, letting Piper fill in the gaps with her own words.

"Oh my God, I can't believe you're making me do this!"

More silence. In fact Alex had her hand over her mouth to prevent any sounds of her chuckling from coming through the speaker.

"Seriously?... OK, fine! Would you like to go out with me tomorrow night?" Alex was still doubled over chuckling with her hand covering her mouth, but she was also grinning widely at Piper's question.

"Now you've made me say that, you're going to have to answer me Alex. Seriously, don't keep a girl waiting like this."

"Sorry, I was just checking my diary….seeing if I have a gap for tomorrow…..what time did you say?"

"I didn't….Um, how about 7?"

"7….7pm…Yes, looks like I can pencil you in there…..Piperrrrrr Chapmannnnnn…." She enunciated as though she was writing it down in an appointment book.

"Is that a yes?"

"Yes, I will go out with you Piper."