A/N: There might be a couple more chapters after this one, but we're reaching the end now. Thanks for reading and for your reviews and comments. It's been fun! Enjoy your weekend, however you're spending it ;-)

Alex declined two more calls in the car before switching her phone off when they stopped at a café so she could get something to eat later.

"Is that work again? It might be important." Piper asked as Alex shut the engine off.

"Nicky and Lorna can deal with it. It's fine. Do you want a toasted bagel or anything?" The subject was subtly changed as she slipped out of the car and grabbed her purse.

"No. I don't feel hungry. Thanks."

Alex shrugged and went inside, leaving Piper alone with her thoughts about what awful things the defence team might drag up in front of her family today. Her stomach turned with the thought of them recounting her time in prison. What if they knew about the rape? Could they subpoena her counselling files and bring that up? Briefly toying with the idea of a rushed confession with her parents before she met her Lawyer, she felt her anxiety rising and got out of the car to cool down. She was stooped with a hand on the hood when Alex came back with a brown bag.

"What's wrong?" The worry was clear in her voice as she put the coffees onto the car roof and stepped towards the blonde.

"It's nothing. Just nausea I think."

"You haven't eaten anything yet." Alex rubbed her back in show circles.

"I just need some fresh air. It will pass in a minute."

After a couple of minutes, Alex reached for her coffee with her spare hand and took a couple of gulps as Piper controlled her breathing.

"Mmm, can I just say this coffee is mamazing? I thought the fancy Colombian beans were a sales gimmick, but totally worth the extra Dollar….. Looks like they do a mean cooked breakfast in the porch area too….We should stop by one morning and try it. Since you only seem to have vegetable smoothies at your place….you can treat me…"

"OK, stop talking about food now please." Piper stood up and filled her lungs one more time.

"You OK?"

"Better, yeah."

"You're not on trial Pipes." Alex put her coffee down again and pulled Piper into her embrace. "It really doesn't matter whether you sit in that seat and recite Shakespeare. They can't take you away from me."

"Maybe not, but they can drag my name through the dirt and put all my dirty linen out there for my family to hear."

Alex laughed softly. "Dirty linen? You have nothing to be ashamed of. Do you hear me?" Alex peered down and lifted her glasses up into her hair to see Piper up close. "All of those things you are hiding from your family are things that other people did to you. You have nothing to be ashamed of. You're only shielding your family and friends from those facts."

"I just want this to be over."

"I know you do." Alex pulled her closer to hug her gently. "You've been through the mill these last few months haven't you?" It was a rhetorical question murmured into the recently shampooed blonde hair she was kissing.

"It just feels like its constantly raining shit lately."

Alex chuckled a little at the blunt observation, but couldn't argue with it. "Hmmmm. It will be over real soon OK? Shitclouds will run out of ammo and dry up, I'm telling you."

"They had better dry up and move along to some other poor sucker. I'm a case for the God-damned Red Cross right now." Piper broke their embrace and straightened out her suit.

"You could use some of their food parcels in your kitchen for sure." Alex smirked as she picked up the paper bag. "Here. I got you a skinny latte and a slice of toast."

"Thanks."

"How are you feeling?"

"Pukey."

"You might feel better if you eat something."

"Or I might feel pukey."

Alex rolled her eyes dramatically. "Do you want to drive while I eat mine then?"

XXXXX

Piper ate a cold slice of toast when they arrived in the car park. Her nervous energy had burned off last night's Cheerios and she was suddenly ravenous with a grumbling tummy.

"I can't believe you're eating my lunch. I was looking forward to that…." Alex pouted as Piper pushed the last of the bagel into her mouth and washed it down with the vitamin water that Alex was planning to take into the court room.

"Sorry….but also I'm not sorry. You won't have to eat something from the vending machine at lunch recess like I would."

"It's a good job I love you."

Piper reached over and pulled Alex closer to her in the car. "I love you too…..So much…..I couldn't do this without you."

"You totally could. You just like having me here because I always carry change for the parking meter."

"Asshole."

"Asshole with gas in her car and spare vitamin water though."

"See you later?"

"Count on it."

They had a long embrace in the car and Alex waited a good while to make sure she could slip into the back of the court room."

XXXXX

It was awful. Like a slow motion car crash that should have been avoided with diligent driving. They pulled her testimony apart every which way and Piper was not only losing her temper, she was losing her composure. The latter was worse because she was stumbling at the simpler questions too now, which played right into their hands. Her own Lawyer was getting frustrated that his objections were getting overruled and Alex was absolutely furious with the way the scene was unfolding in front of her. The Chapmans were once again seated a few rows in front, with Steve alongside them. She could catch Carol's platinum blonde bob shaking from side to side in disappointment every so often, but Bill stayed dead still throughout. Steve kept running his hands through his short hair, so at least he was getting frustrated with the questions being turned inside out to get the answer they wanted. He got up to take a breather and calm down, catching Alex's eye as he left. He stopped in his tracks briefly as he hadn't expected Alex to be there, clenching his jaw tightly as he unfixed his icy stare to push the door open. Alex rolled her eyes and remained seated, determined to listen to every word for Piper's sake. They broke for lunch and Alex left quickly, walking toward the car park so she could find a local café for something to eat.

"Surprised you're still here." Alex stopped at the voice behind her and turned slowly. "But then you do like to be at the centre of a courtroom drama, don't you?"

Steve was sitting on a bench against the wall outside the main doors.

"Last I saw, it was you sitting in the centre of the court room Steve."

"That's where you sit when you're a witness as a result of protecting someone you care about….I guess you'll never know."

Alex stepped closer and tried to keep a lid on the fury that was swirling inside her veins.

"That's exactly right. I won't…. You know why? Because I wouldn't be fucking stupid enough to introduce Piper to a fucking rapist in the first place Steve."

Steve stood up to match her height quickly, pushing her pointed finger aside.

"No! Just an international drug ring where her life was in danger every God-damned day! You don't deserve to sit in the same fucking room as her after what you did. Why can't you do the decent thing for once in your life and walk the Hell away? You keep fucking with her like a damned toy and as soon as you get bored, you'll drop her. Then the rest of us will have to pick up the pieces."

Alex lost it and pushed him back against the wall, pinning him by the throat with her forearm.

"Oh and you'd just fucking love that wouldn't you? Let's face it, it's the only chance you'd ever have with a girl like her! It cuts you up that I can have her doesn't it? That I've tasted her and fucked her…that I've-."

Alex's words died on her lips as Carol Chapman appeared.

"There you are, I thought-." She stopped, sensing she had interrupted something between the two. They stopped talking, but their eyes remained fixed in an icy exchange of unspoken words and Alex dropped her arm, putting her hands into her pockets quickly.

"Is everything OK? I was going to ask if you wanted anything for lunch…..but if you and your friend need to talk-."

"She's not my friend." Steve broke the eye contact to look at Carol, rubbing his throat and straightening his shirt.

"Oh, it looked like you were….. Did you want to have lunch with us?" Carol stood, looking between them.

"We're finished here. Wouldn't want you to miss your five a day Doctor." Alex waved dismissively as she turned and walked towards her car quickly.

"Who was that?" Carol whispered before Alex was out of earshot.

"Nobody you need to worry about."

XXXXX

Alex slammed the car door shut before punching the head rest on the seat repeatedly.

"FUCK!"

"Way to introduce yourself to the in-laws Vause." Her head dropped back and she sighed at losing her cool so quickly. Adrenaline was still flowing in her blood as she drove around the streets looking for a place to stop and eat. Replaying the events of the day wasn't calming her down at all and she was wound up to the point of punching someone in that court room if she went back. Picking up a tray of doughnuts and some bagels, she opted to head to the office and face the shit storm she had been avoiding with the crane. She could at least channel her anger at someone in a way that might do something useful.

She took the food upstairs and kicked the door ajar, placing it on the desk as Nicky looked up.

"I'll call you back." She cut the call she was on and stood immediately to stride towards Alex.

"Where the fuck have you been? You seriously thinking a belly full of sugar is going to sort this shit out?!"

Alex turned and took her coat off, avoiding Nicky's steely gaze.

"We're about to lose a couple of million fucking Dollars here! Callahan is absolutely blowing up over in Chicago because his precious machinery hasn't moved a God-damned inch since the last empty promise I made this morning! Jesus Christ, we're tearing our hair out here and you walk in with doughnuts." Nicky stood behind her, hands on hips, incredulous at Alex's apparent composure in the eye of the storm. "Are you so stupidly rich that you don't give a shit? What the fuck is wrong with you Vause?"

The dark-haired woman stopped booting her laptop and turned calmly towards the office door where Nicky was standing. Her tone was measured when she replied and Nicky stopped in her tracks.

"Have you finished stating the obvious now? Is there anything else I already 100% know with absolute certainty that you'd like to throw in my face again for good measure?...No? Then I suggest you fill that mouth of yours with a doughnut and maybe Lorna can tell me something fucking useful so I can look at what we can do."

"Jesus Alex….We're all stressed OK? You weren't answering your phone, Bill is losing it over there with a bunch of guys we're paying to play poker right now….I just thought you'd be more involved…."

"I know. Alright? I fucking know!" Alex walked back into her office and slammed the door shut, dialling Bill's mobile number. Nicky could hear Alex shouting through the thin walls and Bill was getting both barrels as she and Lorna eyed each other nervously. Lorna pulled together some paperwork and knocked on the door when she heard Alex had ended the call. She quietly explained the cost options and where they stood from a legal perspective on insurance for not getting this shipment sent. It was 20 minutes before Alex emerged with her coat on.

"I'm going to see the maintenance contractor." Was all she said before she walked out of the office again with her keys.

The meeting was exactly what she needed. She was effective in brushing absolutely every member of staff aside until she got to the very top of the company, interrupting a meeting he was having in his office with a potential client.

"Mr Kazinski, right? Are you aware of the broken crane in the Newark docks of NY Logistics?" The small, balding old man looked at her dumbly.

"I'm in the middle of something-."

"Yes or no. Are you aware?" Alex pressed on, holding the contract in front of his face.

"Yes, I'm aware. I-"

"Do you have the skills in this company to fix it?"

"Of course we do, but-"

"Who can fix it?"

"Look, I don't know who you are, but-"

"I hate that word. You're using it a lot. Who can fix it?"

"I'm calling security."

Alex stepped to the desk and pulled the phone wire out of the wall. The man sitting in the comfy chair opposite stood quickly, not sure where to look.

"Who?"

"Who the Hell are you coming in here without an appointment?"

"Alex Vause, owner of NY Logistics. Pleased to meet you." Alex held her hand out, but the guy just looked at it. "I'll speak plainly as I don't have time for the getting to know you details right now. I'm either going to be your biggest customer or the ex-customer with the biggest lawsuit against you by the end of today. You choose." She turned to the guy standing nervously by the door. "Your meeting just adjourned. Have a nice day."

"Choose quickly Mr Kazinski because I'm not in a very patient mood right now."

"Ms Vause, I will not be bullied into doing anything."

"Right." Alex rolled her eyes as the door opened again and a smart guy in a suit walked in.

"Sorry I'm late Ms Vause. I've got the information you wanted. You want me to take over from here?" Her Lawyer hurried through the door with a couple of legal Aides carrying boxes next to him.

"Yes please. I'll leave you to it Rob. Call me when we have the contact details for their best guy." She turned to the bewildered man still clutching the contract she had put in front of him earlier. "Pleasure doing business with you Mr Kazinski. Have a nice day."

Alex headed to Bill's warehouse unit and straight into the table where the majority of staff on shift were involved in or watching a card game.

"I don't pay you to sit on your asses. Get the fuck out of this cosy room and get onto that ship to ready it for the rest of the cargo. Once you've finished that, tidy this place up. If I catch one fucking person sitting on their ass for the remainder of this week, you can kiss your job goodbye. I don't care if you're painting the walls or cleaning the bathroom, you're here to work. Playtime is over."

After watching the grumbling team quickly disperse, she went up to face Bill. She'd worked out most of her anger already and was feeling a bit remorseful at the way she had spoken to him earlier, so she knocked on the door before walking in.

"Bill….before you say anything….I'm sorry we had that call earlier. I want you to know that I do take your advice on board and I know you did as much as you could. I would normally be right there to help you….I've just got ….some personal stuff going on right now. I've been in court for a couple of days to support my girlfriend. She's been giving evidence in an assault case and I needed to be there with her."

Bills' features softened a little after the early apology and he nodded as Alex finished explaining why she wasn't picking up her calls.

"I guess it doesn't matter anyway now though. We messed up on the maintenance contract and we're going to cost you that logistics contract with Callahan because of it aren't we?...God, I thought we'd be able to get better at this stuff with a fresh start….I'm so sorry Alex….I just didn't think to check it." Bill rubbed the back of his head.

"Well, if there's anything else you'd like to share about lapsed maintenance, now would be a good time to mention it."

Alex's phone rang.

"Hi Rob. How's it going over there?...Good….Alright….Can you get the number for him?...Great, thanks. I'll call you in a minute."

"Here. The guy's name is Marty Fullbrook. Can you give him a call and see if he needs an assistant? He's going to fix the crane today."

"What? How did you….?" Bill took the number from Alex. "Nevermind. Let's get this show on the road." He started dialling the number from the paper and Alex waited to check this guy was on his way, thumbing through the manifest as she waited for Bill to finish the call.

"He's on his way."

"Good. Can we prioritise what's left in here?"

They worked through what Alex knew to be the most urgent things that couldn't go any route other than by sea and worked out what could go by freight train. It was going to cost more than the contracts was worth, but they might not get sued for breach of contract.

Alex's phone rang again as Bill went to give instructions to the team on the ship.

"Pipes? Is everything OK?"

"Yeah. I thought you'd be here to take me home though. Where are you?"

"I'm with Bill. You're finished already? I thought you'd be there all day."

"I could say the same about you. You didn't come back after lunch."

"No….um. I was going to, but….something came up."

"I see that. It doesn't matter. Steve's offered me a ride."

"Of course he has."

"At least he's here Alex."

"I'm sorry OK? I was hoping to be back soon, but I got caught up with something at work." Alex pinched her nose in frustration, the image of Steve in shining armour, grinning at the prospect of rescuing her girlfriend.

"I know. You always are…..I'll talk later OK, I have to go."

Piper didn't wait for an answer before hanging up and Alex groaned in frustration as she saw the screen go black.

XXXXX

Alex went back to the office to update Lorna and Nicky on the plans to split the shipment and send some of the order by freight. There was no point in hurrying over to Piper's only to run into a smug Steve and potentially her bemused parents. So she opted to catch up in the office for a while. It was 6pm when Nicky knocked gently and pushed the door open, peeking through the gap.

"I come in peace…..with pizza….Have you eaten?"

"Errrr….no, not since this morning. Thanks."

Nicky dropped the box on to the desk and sat on the edge of the sofa.

"How's it going in court?"

"Honestly? Shitty."

"That bad huh?"

Moving her glasses up into her hair, Alex sighed and dropped her pen to pick up something to eat. "Yeah. They're ripping her apart up there. I keep telling her she's not on trial, but you'd think she was the way they are harassing her."

"It's their job I guess."

"I know. It's hard to hear them basically saying she was asking for it and twisting her answers so she looks like she's admitting it."

"How is she?"

"Last night, not good at all. She about finished a bottle of vodka and was well hung over when I went round this morning. This morning, she was nervous about a repeat performance and it was even worse….I don't know if they're finished with her now."

"That must be tough."

"I feel so fucking useless Nic. I basically sit there all day, watching them hurt her and there's not a thing I can do about it."

"Hey, you've done what you can with the crane now. Why don't you head back over there and see how it's going?"

"They've already wrapped. That pretentious fucking asshole Doctor Steve is fawning over her right now…..You got any beers for this?"

"No. You're supposed to be driving remember?"

XXXXX

Piper had been anxiously checking the gallery in the court all afternoon, hoping for Alex's return. Her attention should have been on the questions and she was conscious of drawing her Mother's attention to the empty space on the back row she kept glancing at. She'd been angry at how easily something more important crops up at work with Alex, the excuses were always the same:

"I'll just be another 10 minutes babe."

"Something urgent has come up, so I have to take a rain check on our plans tonight."

"Nobody else can sort this out, I need to do it myself."

"I'm really sorry Pipes, it won't happen again."

She'd managed her usual internal conflict to give Alex the benefit of the doubt until she'd heard that she was with Bill while Piper had been getting grilled. After that call, she'd switched her phone off and gone back to join the Chapman huddle outside the courtroom. After initially trying to brush them off with excuses of feeling tired and wanting to rest because she wanted to see Alex, she invited everyone back to her place for take away and took Steve's offer of a ride.

It wasn't the company she wanted to have with her tonight, but she didn't want to be alone and Alex had chosen the company of her work colleagues over her. It wasn't the first time, but it stung like a memory she wanted to bury.