A/N: I'm not going to lie, I'm a little star struck right now. Like a long service award, I hit 50 chapters in this fic and I got 2 celebrity follows. RJVause is a name I've seen many times leaving positive reviews on OITNB fics and of course I've read 'Sweet Silver Bells' and 'Something Good'. Well, this weekend I got my RJVause stamp folks...Yeah! Welcome :-) Not content with that, the author of my favourite ever OITNB fics also became a reader...Who is that? I hear you wonder...It is none other than FaeCym of course! The first ever fic for any fandom I ever read was 'Covering Up' and I was totally hooked ever since. I also really like long stories - shocker since this was a one-shot, right?

Goodness, I seem to be writing an exceedingly poor awards speech...Anyhow, I might have ejm137 to thank for these new follows by the sounds of it, so thanks very much for your ongoing reviews and the good vibes you've been sending :-) Thanks also to bgal24, Librarybook, prooffice, WB79, OzisOz, MadeInTheUS and the Guests who are reviewing too. I really appreciate you taking the time as always.

Soooo...the story! That's what you're here for...double weekend update too. THAT is how happy you made me. I ALMOST wrote a unicorn into this just for prooffice I was so excited ;-)

At 6am, the alarm on Alex's phone started beeping and she fumbled around the bedside table to get her glasses and switch the phone off quickly. Piper stirred, but Alex soothed her back to sleep and kissed her forehead before gently slipping out of bed and pulling some jeans and a hoodie on before leaving Piper to dream a little longer, tiptoeing out and closing the door behind her. She had to take a conference call with one of the European companies they were signing a new contract with and pulled her laptop out of her bag to get set up with Skype in good time for the meeting to start. After searching around the kitchen to make a coffee, she was reminded of the fact she still had to replace the broken kettle and coffee machine amongst a lot of other things, so she put a pan of water on to boil for at least a hot cup of tea to wake herself up. As the water was heating, she set her laptop onto the dining table and searched around the back of the small bookshelf for a plug socket to charge her laptop, knocking a pile of papers off the top as she stretched the wire over. Alex bent down to pick them back up and noticed there were three unopened envelopes addressed to Piper with the NYPD logo on them. The postmarks showed they had been sent over the last week, but on different dates. She tapped them against her fingers for a moment, pondering whether to bring this up with her girlfriend or not before putting them back amongst the other papers and slid them back onto the shelf they fell from.

The water boiled and she poured some tea before getting her paperwork out to prepare for the call at 7am. She highlighted various sections of the terms and conditions where she wanted to agree some different wording with them and add a couple of bonus options for meeting the service levels before getting her headphones out to start the call. Her Lawyer was joining them too, so they had a brief discussion together first about the areas Alex wanted to change so he was in agreement before they logged into the group skype call. Their Lawyer tried to play hardball to start with, but Alex's requests were very reasonable and the bonus options were based on them meeting high service targets where everyone would benefit from the positive deliveries. Alex explained her reasons for rewording the terms calmly and justified why they changes were needed, also agreeing to a couple of additions the Italian company wanted to make. The call was over in an hour and the agreements were left with the legal representatives to progress as new versions before signatures could be arranged soon. If all went as planned, they could have contracts signed in the next 10 days, which would be in time for a large high end hairstyle fashion show taking place in Milan in a couple of months. That deal alone was going to be worth about half a million dollars in shipments after costs to get all of those hair company products over for all of the fancy celebrity hair stylists to try out. Alex really had a lot to thank Mark in London for from their brief meeting and she was so glad that she'd made the effort to go out the in person to deal with what could have been really bad for business, but in fact ended up potentially being a massive money spinner for her now.

Tidying away her papers, she could hear Piper was in the shower and checked her watch to see it was already 8:15 and they wouldn't have time for a proper breakfast before they both left for work. Getting a change of clothes from her bag, she headed towards the bathroom to find Piper just closing off the water in the shower. Alex quickly ducked inside to move the towel away from where Piper was reaching behind her for it, mischievously waiting for Piper to see her holding it like a trophy by the door.

"Well good morning to me!" Alex grinned at the blonde as she lurched toward the towel as the brunette moved it quickly behind her back.

"Alex! Give it." Piper tried to stand nonchalant in front of her, holding her hand out and waiting for Alex to hand the towel over. Standing dripping wet and naked in front of Alex was never going to be an incentive for Alex to give her something to cover up with, so all she got back was an ear to ear grin and a raised eyebrow as green eyes ran over her body from top to delicious bottom. Piper changed tactic or they were not going to get out of the bathroom anytime soon with Alex ogling and blocking the exit.

"See something you like Ms Vause?" Piper winked and swayed over towards her smirking girlfriend.

"I certainly do."

Piper put her arms around Alex's neck and pulled the taller woman down for a kiss, pressing her wet body against Alex in as many places as she could. Alex moved her hands up and down Piper's back, moaning slightly at the slippery skin under her fingers as she drew them down from her shoulder blades and her toned back, towards her waist and pressing slightly harder around her hips as she pulled Piper more firmly into hers. Piper dropped her hands slowly, tracing over Alex's breasts with feather-light touches and down to the hem of her hoodie and t-shirt together. Pushing them up slightly so she could touch the skin beneath, Piper gripped the edges of them tightly and slowly started to pull them up until they had to break their kiss as it reached the brunette's face.

Alex lifted her arms up to allow Piper to remove her tops and the blonde pulled them up and to the top of Alex's arms, to the point the necks of the offending garments were stuck under the taller woman's chin, needing a sharp tug to pull them free. At that very point, Piper let go of the clothing and stooped down to pick up the towel that Alex had dropped behind her back before walking away. Alex was trapped in her own clothes and flustered from being left high and dry by Piper suddenly.

"What the fuck?! Piper! Seriously?" Alex fought to pull her tops off herself before looking around for where Piper was. Finding her in the bedroom, wrapped in her robe with the towel around her hair, doubled over from laughing at her on the edge of her bed, Alex suddenly dropped her frustration at losing and joined Piper in laughing. After a few minutes of breathlessness, Piper wiped her eyes and stood to shake her hair free.

"Ahhhh, that was priceless. I totally suckered you in there!" Piper grinned as she pulled her panties up and got a pair of jeans out of her drawer.

"Yeah, maybe. But don't think you'll get away with that. I can play a long game if I have to Chapman, mark my words." Alex grabbed her around the waist from behind and kissed her neck roughly before blowing a raspberry on it and releasing her as she started giggling again. "I'm getting washed now, so you're lucky I don't have time for revenge before I need to drop you off." She called over her shoulder as she went back to the bathroom to get ready for work.

They were both on the last minute by the time they were dressed and ready to go and Piper decided she could either get there to open up on time or she could get breakfast and nice coffee, so she texted Polly to choose which she wanted to opt for. Thankfully Polly was already at the store, so Piper got the breakfast run and could get something for Alex too, so the drive was going to be less frantic. As Alex started the car, Piper gave her directions towards a nice coffee shop that Piper used regularly when she took the subway.

"Have you phoned John Peters yet to book an appointment to talk about your brand plans?" Alex asked as she slowed for a stop light.

"No, but I think I'll do it today. I want to have something in place now to make sure we can continue to grow and make the most of the new customers who found us with the marketing we did at Christmas."

"Good. I'm sure he'll be able to give you some useful advice that you can use to start thinking about what direction you want to focus on first. He's a top guy in New York for that kind of stuff."

"Well, I'll let you know how it goes anyway. Left just up ahead here…Was that a work call you were taking on skype this morning when I got up?"

"Yeah, just trying to get these new contracts sorted out. We're really close now and they agreed to pretty much everything I wanted to change, so hopefully I won't need to do too many of those early morning calls."

"Pull up anywhere you can on the right. It's just by that blue neon sign where we're heading. Are you coming in or do you want me to get you something to take out?" Piper was already unfastening her seatbelt as though Alex expected her to roll out of the moving vehicle in the name of a latte and pain au raisin. Alex chuckled as she pulled the car in to a stop.

"You choose me something. Here." Alex waved $20 in front of her and Piper scowled as though it were a decaying fish.

"I got this."

Alex was waiting outside for her to open the car door as she came back outside with bags and cups of sugary goodness.

"I got you a couple of pastries. Hope that's OK." She settled back into the passenger seat and managed to fasten her seatbelt as Alex took off into the traffic again.

"Good with me. Thanks." Alex kept her eyes on the traffic for a few moments before speaking again.

"So, should I wait for you to ask me out on another date or am I allowed to cut in and ask you now?" Alex tried to contain her smile as she side-eyed Piper to check her reaction.

"I think it's an open invitation at this point isn't it?" Piper laughed.

"If by 'open', you mean you are not accepting invitations from anyone else on or off this planet other than me…Do you?" Alex grinned.

"Well, that could be a lot of invitations to be turning away there you know…."

"It could….are you concerned about what kind of paper you'll use for all the RSVP's when you turn them all down? No Chapman woman in history would decline an invitation improperly by using cheap paper after all. I mean, would it be scented paper? Would you hand write them all to keep up the personal nature of your reply? Would you-"

"Alex! Alright. I'll go out with you on another date."

"Presumptuous… I never asked you on one. You can hope for it in your Dear Diary entry tonight though." Alex winked as she pulled up outside of PoPi. "Your stop princess." She nodded at the door and grinned at the narrowed eyes Piper was shooting her before she broke into a smile.

"OK, fine. Are we even now?"

"Just getting' started beeeech" Alex drawled in a hillbilly accent before she broke into a laugh and handed Piper her breakfast and coffee as she got out of the car.

"Hmmm, I'll call you later OK?" Piper smiled before closing the door and heading into the store.

Alex drove to NY Logistics and arrived just before 10 by the time she got through the traffic. Fortunately, nobody was expecting her to be in as Lorna was still opening up. She headed in to see if Poussey was around in the stock area first to check her ceiling was still up this morning.

Seeing her moving pallets of boxes behind the 'keep clear' signs Alex painted made the brunette far happier than something like that really should have.

"Hey Poussey, did Nicky give you your keys back?"

"Morning boss. Yeah, I got them off her this morning thanks."

"This morning?" Alex raised a knowing eyebrow.

"Er, yeah. I crashed at a friend's place last night so I haven't been back yet." Poussey was scratching the back of her head and avoiding the questioning look from a pair of green eyes directly in front of her.

"Crashed you say…..Well I hope you left your number with this poor 'crash' victim, you know – in case of an emergency…."

"Uh….yeah. We swapped numbers." Poussey was squirming far too much for Alex to enjoy it now. She was notoriously shy and Alex would never push her teasing too far with the young girl. They were friends who enjoyed banter, but Poussey was such a sweet girl that Alex would never embarrass her like she would Nicky.

"Well I'm glad you had a good night. Let me know if you have any problems with the partition wall that was taken down. Are you Ok to borrow the van and move the rubble to the city dump? I can give you a hand at the weekend and we'll have it done in no time."

"Thanks Alex, I really appreciate it. There was no way I could have afforded to get someone in to take that wall down, so you finding someone at short notice was a massive help."

"Well, maybe hold your thanks until you see the job hey? Then tell me if you're still happy. Free labour doesn't always mean quality labour." Alex smiled and slapped Poussey on the back before heading upstairs to see Nicky and Lorna.

Pushing the office door open, she was immediately observed by four surprised eyes.

"Ah, the wanderer returns!" The eyes with wiry hair all around them spoke first.

"Hey Alex, good to have you back." Lorna smiled.

"Good morning my dear workforce. Anyone would think I've been away like Uncle Travelling Mac the way you're talking." Alex switched her office light on and dropped her bag containing her laptop onto the desk.

"Only Travelling Alex doesn't even get beyond the city limits when she 'travels' does she?" Nicky retorted.

"Well, I think it does you good to take a break once in a while Alex. You work so hard when you're here and those late night and early morning calls to Europe are wearing you out." Lorna offered, way more sympathetically.

"See Nicky? Model employee behaviour there. Let's have more of that please?" Alex pulled her laptop out to boot up.

"It's not the Europe calls wearing her out. It's the booty calls if you ask me." Nicky muttered, loud enough for everyone to hear.

XXXXX

Piper brought up the number for John Peters just after lunch and read through his website information again, just to remind herself of what he was about. She discussed it again with Polly, who agreed it was a good idea to get the ball rolling and her friend sat next to her while she dialled, so they could both answer any questions.

After a couple of nervous rings, a well-spoken woman answered the phone.

"Good Afernoon, John Peters International. How may I help you today?"

"Hi. My name is Piper Chapman, I co-own a store called PoPi with my friend Polly Harper here in New York and we were wondering if we could get some advice from Mr Peters?"

"Hello Ms Chapman. What did you say the store was called please?"

"PoPi….P….o….P….i…It's based in Brooklyn. We opened last year."

"Ah, OK. I'm sorry Ms Chapman, but Mr Peters doesn't take on new businesses I'm afraid."

"Oh. I thought he could help us with some advice….Maybe he has a colleague who might be able to help us? Someone a bit more junior perhaps?" Piper offered hopefully. They would take any advice they could get right now and maybe asking the big boss had been a bit too ambitious.

"No, I'm afraid we aren't taking on any new clients at the moment who are not already well established in the marketplace."

"Oh, OK. Could you maybe recommend another company who might be willing to talk to us? We just want a bit of advice to start with."

"I'm afraid you'd really be better off looking through the local advertisements to see if there's a company who could help you. We're really focused on established brands, as are our known associates. I'm really sorry I can't offer you more advice Ms Chapman, but good luck in your search."

"Thank you. Goodbye." Piper hung up and looked at her best friend, who heard the call.

"Why the fuck would Alex suggest calling this guy if he only deals with established brands and big companies?" Polly asked, as though Piper might actually know the answer.

"I have no idea. It made me look foolish though. I bet that woman is sharing the joke with everyone else on the reception desk that probably has more people working at it than we do to run this whole store." Piper rolled her eyes and closed the offending webpage.

"I guess we're back to square one again then." Polly got up to wander to the front of the store, thinking about what else they could try. It had been really quiet in the store again today and it wasn't really necessary for both of them to be there when it was like this, but each of them felt guilty for drawing a pay check if they didn't work for it each day.

Piper was annoyed that Alex had encouraged her to do this and she had fallen flat on her face, so she flicked through her recent calls list and dialled her number for an explanation. It rang several times and Alex picked up just before the answer phone kicked in.

"Hey. I almost missed you calling to ask me out on that date there."

"Mmm, don't count your chickens. I'm not calling about that."

Alex sensed Piper's down to business tone and cut the banter. "OK, what's up then?"

"What's up is I just called that guy, John Peters International, to ask about getting an appointment and his receptionist practically laughed me out of town!"

"Did you speak to John?"

"God no. I wasn't getting anywhere near the expensive enigma that clearly is Mr JP International. I was told we were too small fry for them to even talk to. They wouldn't even offer me the fucking janitor's advice in there Alex, it was so embarrassing!"

"Did you tell the Receptionist that I had recommended John to you?"

"No. She just heard the words 'new business' and we were shut down."

"OK, let me see if I can c-"

"There's no point. I have to find myself some college graduate with zero industry experience to see if they can look in a textbook to help us. That's the level we're on apparently. Seriously though, what is the fucking point of being a branding company if you're only taking on clients who already built their fucking brand?!" Piper's voice was getting higher and the breaths between rants getting fewer.

"I'll call you back in a bit." Alex hung up.

Polly had overheard some of the conversation and came over to ask what Alex said.

"Not much. She hung up on me. Even my own girlfriend doesn't want to make an appointment with a start-up apparently." Piper picked at the roll of tape on the counter.

"Your GIRLFRIEND?! When did that happen?!"

Piper's head shot up like a meerkat at an alarm call.

"What? Oh, we're dating. Please don't make a big deal out of this."

"What part of this ISN'T a big deal Piper? You're dating your ex, who was a drug dealer and threw you in prison. Your last relationship with her was built pretty much entirely on sex and lies. How do you know this won't be exactly the same ?"

"Ugh…." Piper put her head in her hands on the counter. "I don't, but I don't know that it won't either. We're older and wiser now. We're both running legitimate businesses and we're dating – so that means we're girlfriends technically."

"Did Alex agree to that title? I seem to remember she wasn't so hot on the rules of relationships last time you started seeing her. Are you sure she knows the rules this time? Have you talked about the rules yet Piper? Because I think that's kinda important for you guys to do that pretty fucking early on."

"Stop! Please stop. She's been fucking amazing to me this past few weeks. Yes, we've had some serious fucking shitstorms to deal with in that time, but she's dropped everything to help me, look after me, support me and care for me – even when I didn't know I needed it and I pushed her away. I've been a total fucking bitch to her at times and she's sucked it up and not pushed it in my face when she's come back."

"That's good Piper. It really is and I've seen her do that stuff. When you were in hospital, when we came to get you from your parents' house, when you were out cold at New Year. Jeez, I don't know what I would have done if she hadn't been there. But you know she's equally capable of manipulating you Piper….You've been there already. I'm just saying, keep your eyes open."

"I know you're looking out for me Pol and I promise you I'll proceed with caution OK? I just want to spend time with her and see how this goes. She's good for me right now, mostly."

Piper jumped as her phone started to ring on the counter in front of them.

"Hello?"

"Hi. Is this Ms Piper Chapman?"

"It is, yeah." Piper responded in her 'get on with it' voice, expecting a cold sales call to offer home insurance for a special price.

"Hello Piper, my name is John Peters. I understand you tried to call me earlier today and I'm terribly sorry for the confusion, but I'd love to meet with you and your co-owner of PoPi to talk about your plans. Would this week be convenient for you both?"