A/N: Welcome to JammyjenJ and Abbeldy as new readers, I love a good binge read! Librarybook, cookie monster, RachelBarbraBerry, bellacjh, emj137, prooffice, izzielg, jessicagreis, Tiffr3n33, WB79 and my regular guests - Thanks for all of your reviews as always, I'm thrilled you're still enjoying this as much as I like writing it. I've liked reading your reactions to Piper's outburst in the last chapter and I hope you can appreciate where that goes now. Hope you've got some exciting plans for the weekend folks (I'm not going to mention the Brexit result that's occupying my social media feed!).

Alex drew her glasses up onto her head and sighed heavily before standing up, hands on hips to regard Piper on her own level.

"Are you done?"

"Am I done? No I'm not fucking done. I can ask whoever I want for advice Alex and it's got nothing to do with you."

Alex remained silent, encouraging her to continue by raising her eyebrows.

"You've got your life and I've got mine. Occasionally they mix and we do stuff together, but mostly my life is my business."

"Like today? Today was a doing stuff together day. Remember when you wanted me to not do any work and spend my day with you? Is this what you had in mind?" Alex's voice was raised and she threw her hands in the air. She was clenching her jaw to bite back the cutting responses she felt building inside, knowing an argument was precisely what Piper was wanting.

Piper snorted. "Cleaning some fucking yard girl's apartment up in my spare time? Yeah, it's fucking dreamy spending the day with you Alex."

"Go and sit in the van while I lock up." Alex spoke so low now it was barely audible, but Piper huffed and slammed the door behind her. The brunette quickly cleared up the rest of the mess and poured the water away, carrying the last of the rubbish with her she went down stairs and locked up Poussey's apartment. She got into the driver's side and started the engine without so much as looking at the blue eyes boring holes into the side of her face. She was absolutely livid with Piper's behaviour, but determined not to lose her composure.

"What a surprise, the silent treatment. Avoiding confrontation at all costs. I wish I'd gone into the God-damned store if I knew spending the day with you was going to turn out like this."

Alex weaved her way through the streets with the van until she pulled up outside of Piper's house and cut the engine. Putting her glasses on the top of her head, she turned to Piper.

"If you ever, I mean EVER say something derogatory about one of my friends in anger like that again when they've done nothing at all to upset you, I won't be forgiving or forgetting it. It's one thing treating me like your fucking punch bag when you're having a tantrum, but I will not let you bring my friends into this. You want an argument. I see that. I don't know why, but you're clearly ready for a time out. Just say you want to go home if that's what you want. You don't have to lash out at me to get permission to storm out. It's your life and it's none of my business, you made that quite clear. Now get out. I've got a shit ton of stuff to do this weekend and babysitting a petulant child isn't one of them." Alex got out of the van and carried the boxes of new mugs and plates to Piper's doorstep while the blonde stayed inside the van. Alex pulled the passenger door open.

"I said get out."

"Alex, I.-"

"I don't want to hear it. You've said enough already. Get out."

Piper slid out of the seat and picked up her bag. "I'm sorry Alex."

"I'm not interested in your instant remorse. You keep telling me you're a fucking grown up, so how about you start acting like one and use your words without being a complete bitch?" Alex slammed the door shut and walked around to the driver's side, starting the engine and pulling away before Piper was even on the sidewalk.

XXXXX

Alex drove to the city dump to unload the bags, enjoying the manual work to get out some of her pent up frustrations with Piper's outburst. It was a familiar pattern of Piper provoking an argument so she made it Alex's fault when she reacted and Piper had the excuse to storm away. Only in the past, there was a high chance that Alex had been at fault somewhere along the line because of putting work before Piper. So even when Piper came back and apologised for storming out, Alex still had a modicum of guilt for driving her to it to attract her attention. This time, she had been absolutely certain of pulling out all the stops to put Piper first. Save for the fact they were helping Poussey out for an hour or so, she'd had Alex's undivided attention for pretty much the whole day. There was absolutely no reason for that behaviour and her lashing out at Poussey had been the final straw. She knew raising her voice to argue was exactly what Piper had been hoping for, but she also wanted to make sure Piper recognised that she'd crossed the line and getting her out of her space was the best way to prevent things from escalating.

Suddenly finding her late afternoon free, she dropped the van back at work and helped Lorna in the office. At least someone was happy to see her and grateful for her help.

XXXXX

Piper met with Sarah at 10am the next morning and they talked about the court case a little, with Sarah explaining what the process would be.

"Have you get a lawyer sorted out already? I can recommend some companies if you're still looking?"

"Hmm, thanks for the offer, but I'd better not take any more recommendations just at the moment." Sarah looked at her, confused. "I have a few recommendations already, so I just need to look at costs and see which I can afford really."

"Oh, right." She smiled, sipping more coffee from the shiny mug.

"So, do you know if what happened to me in prison might be brought up as part of this case?"

"That's one for the legal eagles really, but they will likely bring up the fact that you were in prison as they might try and use that to damage your credibility as a witness. Whether they want to go into specifics, I have no idea."

"I need to get that lawyer sorted out then don't I?"

"Yes, you do!" Sarah chuckled as she started wrapping up her files. "How did your first session go with Julie on Friday?"

"It was good actually. Not as bad as I thought it might be. Maybe she went easy on me for the first session though…..I'm going back on Friday, so I'll let you know if I've changed my mind." Piper smiled warmly. "Thank you for all your help Sarah. I know I haven't been the easiest nut to crack, but I do appreciate the help you've given me. It's not been easy, but you've been really good to me. I just wanted to tell you that." She shrugged, suddenly feeling self-conscious.

"You're so welcome Piper. There's no such thing as an easy case in VSU, but it's a great job when you can genuinely help people. You've come a long way already. We can cut down the sessions if you want, maybe make them less regular. Unless you want to carry on with the court case coming up?"

"I don't know. I like having them, but with this and the meetings with Julie as well as needing to fit a lawyer in too….I kind of feel like I'm leaving poor Polly to run the store on her own. I've got too much going on already, so maybe I should call you if I need anything?"

"Fine by me. Let's leave it at that then. Give me a call when you want to meet up again, maybe in a couple of weeks or something hey?" Sarah collected her things up and said her goodbyes, leaving Piper to get ready for work.

XXXXX

"Are you absolutely sure about this?" Polly asked for the hundredth time.

"Yes! I told you, I'm totally happy for you to take the lead. It means we can stay open here too and I don't get to feel totally stupid after cancelling on John in the first place. It's a win-win."

"OK, well I don't mind doing it on my own. Maybe we can run through a rough plan today so I know we're both on the same page with our ideas before I talk to him on Wednesday?"

"Yeah, great. Take tomorrow off from coming in here so you can prepare as well. It will be easier to do it at home without interruptions."

"OK…..What about Thursday and Friday?" Polly asked cautiously, watching carefully for a reaction.

"You want to take a couple of days off? Sure, I can look after things." Piper shrugged.

"Is this an early morning orgasm making these decisions or guilt?"

"Neither! Can't I take the reins for a few days without you getting all suspicious of my reasons?"

"No, you can't. Has Supercunt got you all loved up after your weekend of making doe eyes at each other?"

"Pfft. Hardly. Alex dumped me and my belongings on the sidewalk yesterday and drove off in a plume of rage."

"A plume of rage? Very poetic. Were you backseat driving?"

"No. Being a complete bitch apparently." Piper sighed and Polly raised an eyebrow before responding.

"OK…is that 'apparently' because you disagree?"

"No. I agree, which is the whole problem. It's like foot in mouth disease on steroids."

Polly laughed. "It's nothing she hasn't seen a hundred times before."

"Ugh. It's not funny Pol. We had such a nice day on Saturday and it was going so well yesterday. It was really good to spend some proper time together without one of us working or having to go somewhere. It's the first time we've done it…for years actually." Piper leaned on the counter with her chin in her hands, sighing heavily.

"If it was all going so well, what happened?"

"I don't really know. I just remember I asked for her advice on a lawyer and she got pissy when I said I'd ask my Dad. So that wound me up like she automatically would know better than he would."

"Which she would, having done an exceptional job of avoiding any punishment for breaking the law whatsoever."

"Yes…but it's the way she was so dismissive of me looking at other options….I don't know. Maybe I overreacted a bit. I did call Poussey a yard girl…"

Polly raised her eyebrows. "Nice. What did she do to deserve that exactly?"

"Nothing. Which is sort of why Alex dumped my ass on the street. I guess she had a point, right?"

"You think?"

Piper groaned and put her face in her hands.

"Have you tried to call her?"

"Poussey?" Piper furrowed her brows over the top of her fingertips.

"No, dumb ass. Alex."

"No. I'm hoping she will cool down."

"And you're checking the temperature from here?"

"Yes. It's a safe distance from what might still be a raging volcano. I'm outside of the lava zone in here."

"Lesbian drama." Polly rolled her eyes. "Shall we get started on these plans for my meeting with John then?"

XXXXX

Alex spent Monday down at the depot in Newark talking to Bill and helping Nicky to sign off the full containers that were going onto the cargo ship that day. Against all odds, they were ahead of schedule, but over budget on account of sub-contracting all of Bill's team and facilities for the job. Alex knew there was no way they would have met the deadline without it, so she had to accept the loss on this one for the sake of making a good first impression. Delivering early would at least count for the bonus and look like a good start for the first piece of work.

"Alex, I have to thank you for getting us involved in this. I had the letters all ready to put people on notice to lose their jobs the day you walked through the door. I don't know what twist of fate it was, but thanks for finding us and making the offer you did. It's been pretty dark times in this office over the last few months and losing that Rigoveri contract pushed us into a corner I couldn't find a way out of."

"You really don't need to thank me. There's no way we could have delivered on this if it weren't for the experience your guys have got and your willingness to help us even though we took your contract over with the Italian guys." Alex smiled warmly. Bill was a genuinely nice guy and just wanted to see everyone keeping their jobs. He wasn't precious about company secrets and competition. He was a realist who knew the chips were down and that an alliance with Alex could mean the difference between everyone out there paying their bills or not.

"I was wondering if there might be any more contracts we could help you on? I mean….I know you've got your own team already, but if there might be anything else like this coming up so we can strike a similar deal maybe?" Alex's stomach flipped when she saw the hope in Bill's eyes that he was really trying to hide.

"Um, yeah. There should be some more deals coming through like this. To be honest, this is the first one we've done this way. It's gone well so far though, so I'd definitely be interested in seeing if we could set something up to use your guys again. Have you got anything in the pipeline?"

"Just scraps really. We only do commercial contracts, so it tends to be feast or famine. We've tried to get some of the smaller deals recently just to tide us over, but we don't have the local presence and delivery capabilities. We're more geared up for the heavy lifting onto cargo."

"Have you got contacts that want that kind of smaller work? We've got the equipment for it, but not always the manpower. If you're willing to share your contacts and pipeline, we can provide some resources and maybe do a sub-contracting deal again. That might keep you ticking over until we set up the next cargo deal."

"That sounds like it could work. I want to keep these guys in jobs. It's great to hear them bantering out there while they are working, it's been too long since everyone's been working up a sweat around here."

Bill set up some introductions with some of the companies they had been contracting for in the last 12 months and Alex asked Lorna and Nicky to get involved in the calls so they could follow up any prospective opportunities with Bill on board to give some continuity.

She gave Nicky a lift from the depot and they called for Chinese take-out on the way back to Nicky's place to eat it.

Nicky kicked her boots off at the door and got some beers from the fridge while Alex unpacked their take out on the table.

"So how come I'm getting VIP treatment tonight?"

"Why is take out VIP treatment?"

"Because you've been pressed against those Colgate white teeth for the past few weeks and nobody gets a look in these days." Nicky kicked the fridge shut with her foot and popped the caps off the bottles.

"Don't exaggerate."

"About the teeth or your body parts pressed against them?"

Alex rolled her eyes and dropped onto the couch with her plate of food. "Whatever. I don't want to hear about your fantasies involving my body parts." She took her beer from Nicky. "Cheers."

"What are we toasting then Stretch?"

"The absence of drama."

Nicky raised her bottle and regarded Alex, waiting for her to elaborate.

"Stop gawking at me and put the TV on will you?"

"You don't want to talk about it then?"

"No."

"Fine. The Good Wife it is then…."

"Not you as well…"

XXXXX

Piper was looking through her fridge for something to eat when her phone started ringing. Pulling it from her back pocket, the caller ID showed it was Steve calling her.

"Hey stranger! This is a nice surprise."

"Hey you. Is this a good time to talk?"

"Sure, I'm just about to ping some baked beans in the microwave, so you're good. How's things?"

"Been better to be honest. This court case is starting to stress me out a bit. How are you handling it?"

"Mmm, I know what you mean. I'm trying not to think about it too much actually because I just have an awful feeling that something's going to go wrong and he'll get off." Piper held the phone under her jaw as she opened the tin and emptied the contents into a container.

"I've never been through anything like this before and my Lawyer is freaking me out with all of this preparation work. All the practising of answering the questions is starting to feel like I'm rehearsing lines for a freaking Broadway play or something. Every time, he changes something. I'm not sitting the right way, I don't look remorseful enough, I'm saying too much or not enough. It's driving me mad."

"Wow. Are we meant to rehearse this?"

"Haven't you done that with your Lawyer? Maybe I've got a weird one…"

"No. Well, I haven't got one yet."

"Piper! The date is just over 3 weeks away!"

"I know! I've just been busy lately. I do need to sort something out. Are we allowed to swap notes or is this classed as cheating?"

"I don't think they can stop us talking. Unless you try to change your statement I suppose. Do you need to change your statement?"

"I can't even remember what is in it actually. I was high on pain relief when I gave it, so I'm slightly concerned in case I described a guy with green skin and 3 eyes in his forehead. Not going to go down well with the ID parade huh?" She dropped a couple of slices of bread into her new toaster and pushed them down.

Steve laughed. "I'm glad you've got a sense of humour about it. I've been biting everyone's heads off for the last 2 weeks so it's good to see you're handling it better than me."

"I wouldn't go that far. Avoiding it isn't exactly handling it."

"Are you still having the Victim Support meetings?"

"Yeah, and they are good actually. I think I'm just worried because I didn't do so well last time I had to go and sit in a court room. Even though everyone keeps telling me it's different this time, I was reassured I'd get a slap on the wrists throughout my own trial and it never worked out that way."

"It's different for you isn't it?"

"I suppose it is." Piper's toast popped up and she poured the beans over and sat at the table.

"I'm gonna put you on speaker while I eat dinner."

XXXXX

Piper and Steve spoke for over an hour, ending up with her curled up on the sofa with a mug of tea. It had been good to talk to someone about the court case and she felt more prepared already just by listening to what Steve had been discussing with his legal team. Equally, she felt under-prepared because Steve had been talking to his Lawyer for a couple of weeks already. At least is spurred her on to take action. She called her Dad and asked him if he would recommend anyone for representing her. He suggested finding someone in New York as it would be easier for her to meet with them to prepare and offered to help her search the local ads. All of which took her back to the option of asking Alex. Fuck. Only a day after making a fuss about exercising her right to choose, she was back-pedalling to ask the same question for a second time, only with a side portion of humble pie thrown in.