A/N: I can't believe what a bunch of softies you lot are! That short chapter I posted last time got more reviews than any other - you're the collective noun for candy floss you are ;-) So, to confirm for those people who asked... No "I love you" has been uttered in 58 chapters and yes, that is a bit strange to say when neither of them fell out of love with the other in their heart of hearts. A weekend update for you here though (am I also turning to candy floss from your fluffy reviews?). We've got over 500 reviews for this now, so I'm really chuffed with that and thanks to all of you who do take the time to write a little ditty when I post. Have a great weekend you giant fluff balls! ;-)

Piper made breakfast while Alex made calls. Lorna and Nicky were working on making sure the team over at Bill's were organised, with Nicky being over at the Newark site and Lorna co-ordinating the trucks from their own offices. Most of the team were keen on the overtime hours for the weekend anyway, so Alex had most of the staff in to make sure the shipments were secure and in containers by the end of the day. On the third call to Nicky that morning, Alex was about to check on the buildings and contents insurance small print with her when Nicky cut her off.

"Stop talking Vause. Is Chapman there?"

"What? Yes, Piper's here. What's that got to do with-"

"Put her on the phone will you?"

"She's making coffee."

"She went to College, I'm sure can handle it. Pass me over."

Silence.

"Would you rather I hang up and switch my phone off?"

"Fine, but I want you to answer my question when you're done. And don't forget I'm here, so I can hear you flirting with her."

"Whatever. Bye." Alex handed the phone over to Piper as she took over from pouring the coffee out.

"She wants to talk to you. Pass her back to me when you're done though because she is avoiding answering my question on insurance." Alex said with all seriousness. Piper wiped her hands on a towel and took the handset off her.

"Hey Nicky. Are you calling me in for overtime hours 'cause I could use the money actually."

"Well good morning blondie! Yes I am, but I have an assignment for you. Vause is going to be buzzing around me all day unless you keep her busy. We've got more than enough people around here to sort these deliveries out today and her keep calling and worrying is going to put everyone on edge. These guys used to do the Rigoveri contract and they know this order like the back of their hands already, so I'm basically here to fucking look pretty right now. She's going to insist on coming over here to count it all out or something just to see it with her own eyes, but if you have something planned, she can't stay in my hair for too long. "

"OK….But you know she will only worry if she isn't there." Piper looked at Alex and shrugged as Alex raised her eyebrows, clearly understanding exactly what Nicky was trying to do.

"Help me out here blondie, please!"

"How about, we stop by today and see how things are going and then call for an update at the end of the day? Anything in between, you can call and Alex will promise not to call you?" Piper and Alex were arguing over the terms of the agreement with their eyes as Nicky mulled over the offer. Alex's face saying nowhere near enough supervision from her and Piper's saying she wasn't budging from her already generous concession.

"OK, deal. But no calls throughout the day, right."

"That's the deal. Now, are you going to answer the insurance question if I hand you back?"

"No, I'll answer it when she comes round here later." Nicky hung up before she could protest and Piper handed the phone back to Alex.

"She's hung up hasn't she?"

"Yes, but don't call her back. You know she won't pick up anyway. Come and eat some breakfast."

"If we don't have the insurance levels right on this thing…."

"Nicky is going to go through that with you later. I said we'd call round and see how things were going later today. You don't need to keep calling if you're going over there, right?" Piper put a plate of toast and scrambled eggs in front of her and took a seat at the breakfast bar next to her.

"Now eat. I'm going to continue Alice in Wonderland while you make your list of questions for later, then I want some of your undivided attention for a couple of hours, OK?"

Alex was about to protest, then changed her mind when she realised that Piper just said she was spending the day with her. It had been a long time since they had spent the day together, even if Alex was going to be worrying about work.

"OK." Alex tried to hide her goofy grin, but seeing Piper smiling into her book, it only got bigger.

Piper went to get washed and changed when Alex said she was almost done, returning half an hour later wearing skinny blue jeans and a v-neck sweater, her hair tied up into a high pony.

"Ready when you are Al. I thought we could head down to the park for a while and get some fresh air since it's so nice outside."

Alex was finishing up an email and answered without looking up. "Yeah, sounds good." Piper filled the dishwasher while she was waiting and packed her stuff into her overnight bag, putting it by the door.

"You're not staying tonight?" Alex was puzzled and more than a little disappointed.

"Well, I only brought clothes for one night…and I didn't want to overstay my welcome."

"You can stay as long and as often as you like. Are you working tomorrow?" Alex pulled her boots on and searched for her keys as she picked up her coat.

"Er, no I don't need to be in the store tomorrow. Polly said I can help you out for a few days. I guess technically that doesn't mean she agreed to me strolling around the park while she works, but I think she might be glad to get me out of her hair for a while."

"Well I quite like you being in my hair. You're like a must have hair accessory." Alex pulled her into a warm embrace by the door and kissed her neck. "We can stop by your place and you can grab some more clothes and stay over again. Or I'll stay at yours if you prefer?"

"OK, I'll stay here since you're working a bit still. You sure that's OK?"

Alex chuckled. "Yeah, I'm sure."

They spent a couple of hours walking around the park, stopping in a little café by the river and Alex even handed her phone over after being caught sneakily trying to text Nicky within the first 10 minutes of them being out of the apartment.

"So, how do you feel after your appointment with the rape counsellor yesterday?" Alex ventured after a while. Piper hadn't mentioned it at all since she called after the appointment yesterday, so Alex wanted to see if she was worrying about the next meeting.

"Fine I guess. It wasn't anything like I was expecting and it was very relaxed. I can have more or less sessions if I want and she said she won't force me to talk about anything I don't want to, so I feel like there's less pressure."

"I guess a lot has happened in the last 7 days hasn't it?" Alex took Piper's hand in hers and put it into her pocket to keep their hands warm as they walked back into the cold air of the park footpath.

"Yeah. It's been too much at times, especially keeping it from Polly as well. I feel like I'm living multiple lives sometimes."

"Do you feel like that when you're with me?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, do you feel like you have to act differently when you're with me? Like put the WASPY 'everything is fine' face on when really you don't feel that way I suppose….Because you should know that you really don't need to Pipes. "

"Thanks. I'm fine though, really." Piper squeezed Alex's hand to reinforce the statement, but it didn't go unnoticed by the brunette that she hadn't really answered the question.

"So do you want to pick up some stuff from your place now or when we get back from Newark?"

"Let's do it on the way back and then you can stop patting your back pocket down like you've lost something."

"I thought I was being sneaky." Alex laughed as they turned and headed back towards her apartment for the car. They made their way over to the warehouse in Newark in not time at all.

Piper opted to stay in the car so she didn't get caught in the middle of any arguments between Nicky and Alex over the plans for the weekend work, but an hour later her phone was out of battery and she was bored. She got out of the car and wandered towards the door that she saw Alex walk through earlier, looking around for any signs of familiar faces. Walking further inside, there were lots of voices over the far end of the warehouse but she couldn't see anybody from here. It was a bit dark, but she followed the sound and found a group of men stood around someone talking at the front and illustrating a point on a whiteboard at the front of them.

"…so red markers go into the smaller containers here and get transferred to this section when it's full. Otherwise you're crossing over the team filling the blue containers over here and they've got some heavy shit you don't want to get dropped on your head. If you do it this way, you can be done in less time and you're not in each other's way….." Piper could clearly hear Nicky's voice at the front of the group and to be fair, she kept everyone's attention for the most part.

"Yo! Hulk Hogan at the back there….yeah you. Anyone else around here dressed like a 90's wrestler?" There was a titter from the crowd at the back at the expense of a tall guy wearing a bandana over his head. "You might want to pay attention to this part because it means you won't be suffering a KO in the early rounds, so please let me finish this speech will you?" Nicky waited for an acknowledgement before she continued.

Piper stood to the side and saw a completely different side to Nicky as she gave out the instructions before letting a stocky guy in his 50's take over, reading out some names from a clip board and setting up the work groups.

Nicky spotted Piper leaning against a filing unit by the wall and made her way over to see her, grinning.

"Hey Chapman. How's the interference going?"

"It's going just fine thanks Nicky. Although I seem to have lost my mark. Where's Alex?"

"She's right here. Nice job there Nic, couldn't have said it better myself." Alex came up behind them and slapped Nicky on the back.

"Why thanks Boss. I had a good teacher." Nicky winked.

"Damned right you did. Bill seems OK with what you've proposed here, so it looks like you've got this now right?"

"Sure do. Which means you are excused to go home and plait each other's hair for the rest of the day….And yes, I promise I will call you if there are any problems."

"Alright. I'm going to trust you on that then. You're running this Nic, so tell me now if you aren't comfortable taking point here."

"Totally fine with it. Bill's guys know the merchandise, they just need to follow a different way of working. Bill will help me keep them right I'm sure. He's a top guy. Are you heading over to see Lorna as well or are you done spying for the day yet? C'mon Chapman, use your charms on her."

Piper laughed before taking Alex by the arm. "On that excellent advice, are you ready to go? I still need to head home yet."

"Yeah, let's get out of here. Call me later Nic, I want a progress report at the very least before everything shuts down OK?"

"Yeah, I will. See you guys later. Go!"

Piper asked Alex to stop by a Wholefoods store so she could pick something up for Polly and drop it off for her lunch. She still felt guilty for leaving her best friend on her own today and wanted to check Polly was still OK with it because she had an appointment with Sarah again on Monday. They called into the store together and Piper was happy to see several customers milling around with little baskets of their products. She turned to Alex, grinning at the fact the store was busy for the first time since Christmas.

"Can you hold this stuff a minute while I see if Pol needs a hand Al?"

"Yeah, go for it."

Piper helped the customers milling around the store to pick up some matching products to complement their tastes and put their order through the till when Polly was done with the other customers at the counter who were ordering some gift sets to be delivered.

"God Pol, it's so good to see a few more people in here. Has it been like this all day?"

"Yeah actually, it has. I think you might be scaring people away. I hope you're not staying long?" Polly deadpanned and Piper stuck her tongue out.

"Actually, I came by to feed you and see if you want me to come in tomorrow?"

"No, you're good. How's that Italian contract going Alex?"

"So far, so good. Nicky and Lorna seem to have it under control and Piper has dragged me away from spying on them for now. Nicky's over at the Newark place we've got subcontracting ordering them all around."

"It's so weird seeing Nicky all business like in front of all those guys back there. It makes me feel like we are just playing at shop in comparison Pol. She just did this great logistics whiteboard speech, totally unlike the Nicky I've ever seen." Piper said whistfully.

"I know, she's pretty good at coming across like she's all relaxed about things, but underneath she's got her eye on what's really happening. You guys are doing just fine. Don't forget how long you've been open and you're doing it on your own. You're still learning remember." Alex stroked her hand up and down Piper's arm as she put the lunch on the counter.

"I know. I just feel like we've got so much to learn and I don't know if we'll ever get there some times." Piper sighed.

"You still have John's number?" Alex asked.

Piper felt guilt prickle over her at the mention of John Peters while Polly was there. She felt like a complete dick for cancelling that meeting now and they would probably never be allowed through the door after she cancelled on him at short notice.

"Yeah. I think that bridge might be a bit scorched now though…."

"Scorched?" Polly raised a knowing brow at her.

"OK, I stomped over it with a flame thrower. The point is, I have the number, but I don't think I'd get an answer."

Alex shot a quick look at Polly, questioning how long she was planning to let Piper stew in guilt.

"So….how are your joinery skills for building one?" Polly was doing her best stern face and Piper was obviously squirming under her definitely OTT glare.

"Pol, I don't know OK. I promise I'll go through every agency in the book until I find someone to meet with us. I'll do it this afternoon in fact." She looked at Alex apologetically. Alex chewed the inside of her cheek and raised her eyebrows at Piper's cancelling of their afternoon together. As Piper turned back to Polly, Alex glared a warning at Polly to not take it too far.

"I'll make a list and call as many as I can today and then I'll do it again all day tomorrow. I know I fucked up OK?!"

"You did. And it's a start I suppose." Polly shrugged, clearly wanting to get as much mileage out of this as possible as she opened the bag to get a salad box out for her lunch.

"Alright. I'll get right on it." She turned to Alex. "Sorry, I guess it means you don't have to wait for Nicky to call you this afternoon though since I'll be working anyway." Piper smiled apologetically as Polly grinned at Alex over her shoulder. The brunette clenched her jaw and pulled her phone out of her pocket.

"Why don't you just try John first before you go anywhere else?" Alex offered her phone.

"I honestly don't think he'll want to bother with us now Al."

"Yeah, flame thrower Chapman remember?" Polly added, deliberately stirring even more.

"Would you just call him please? You don't know unless you try right?" Alex might have been more willing to join in with taking the joke further, but she knew what a shitty week her girlfriend had been through and Polly didn't, so she didn't want her feeling bad about this.

"Here, I'll get his number up…..It's ringing." Alex handed the phone to a mortified Piper who hadn't prepared an excuse or an opening for the call. She took the phone quickly and walked to the back of the store, away from the waiting eyes of Polly and Alex as she stuttered her excuses. While Piper spoke to John, Alex shook her head at Polly.

"What? Come on, it was funny! You gave up too soon there. We totally could have strung that out for at least another week." Polly munched a forkful of lettuce.

"Yeah and totally ruined her weekend off and mine for that matter. I don't see how that would be funny for me in any way." Alex rolled her eyes.

"Well, I think she learned a lesson anyway."

"Yeah, just don't forget the shit she has been through though." Alex smiled as Piper walked back towards them on the phone still.

"….OK, thank you so much John! I really appreciate that. Thanks. Bye!" Piper was careful to make sure the phone was hung up properly before she burst into tears and threw herself into a shocked Alex's arms.

Alex glared at Polly as she held Piper close to her and let her sob her heart out.

"He…said…..it was OK…..He was so nice Alex…." She sniffed between sobs, tears wetting Alex's coat as she gripped her sleeves with balled fists. "You called him…told him…"

"Hey, it's OK. I said he'd be fine didn't I? He's a really nice guy, honestly. Shhh, there's no need for this." Alex soothed her as Polly looked on, clearly feeling incredibly guilty now.

The door opened and a couple of customers walked in. "Hey, let's go into the back room." Alex walked her into the store room and closed the door behind them.

"I'm sorry Alex, I just…." Piper tried to pull away and wipe her eyes.

"No. You know what? This is well fucking overdue." Alex pulled her back into her chest. "You stay right here and cry your God-damned heart out Pipes. You needed this." Alex remained silent and soothed her hand over Piper's back as the blonde broke into more sobs. She could sense Piper's legs weakening and helped them both to sit on the floor, pulling Piper into her lap and cradling her against her shoulder as she sniffed and heaved.