Chapter 8:

"Without You"

After breakfast Piper was cuffed and was put in an orange jumpsuit. She rode to the city in a small van, followed by the executive to the warden and Mr. Caputo in their respective cars. She had hope that the van would have some window so that she could see the long lost view off the outside world that she had took so much for granted, but to her disappointment there weren't any. When she got out of the car she got a little glimpse of the city, but it wasn't enough. It was a beautiful afternoon. If she and Alex had been free she would have a picnic in Central Park with her and enjoyed the sun.

They escorted her in the courtroom where a lot of people were already there to prepare the hearing. At 1pm the audience started. Piper took a deep breath and remembered what Alex told her. The Judge was old, had greasy hair and looked like he didn't want to be there. Piper hoped it was only his mean traits that made her think that and that he was actually nice.

She was wrong.

The hearing was disastrous. Piper was so nervous that she was stuttering almost every sentence and the Judge just kept interrupting her and asked her questions that she didn't know how to answer. Larry's father, Howard, was there but she didn't feel like he was on her side even though he was defending her. She needed Alex. That was their plan, there were supposed to do this together.

Two hours later the Judge gave his final verdict and surprised everyone in the room. Alex got three years removed on her sentence—that was a lot more than Piper expected and she couldn't be happier. Her joy was quickly cut short when they declared Piper guilty. 4 years were added to her sentence for involuntary manslaughter and she was going to be placed in a medium-security prison for her reckless behavior that, according to the judge, was unnecessary cruel and could have been avoided. Piper and Alex's lawyers, Caputo and Nathalie all tried to intervene saying that this was absolutely outrageous, but the judge simply left the room. Before they took Piper, her lawyer told her he was going to try and fix this and make a complaint to the ABA so that they can disbar him and get a new trial.

Piper begged, cried and tried to fight the men who brought her back to the van. She had no clue of what just happened. She didn't know anything about the laws and if it was even legal for to judge to do what he did. She didn't know if it was fixable. How could it not be? She was innocent. Sort of. Maybe her lawyer could really fix it.

They were taking her to a medium-security prison. She wondered what that even meant. Would she be in handcuffs all the time? Or in one of those small cells with bars you see in the movies? Would it be worse than the SHU? Than Psych? Would she be able to make phone calls and have visitations like in Litchfield? Four years was a very long time. Four years without the love of her life, without her best friend, without her life. Just thinking about it all made her sick.

The next day.

Alex had recovered much faster than expect so she was released earlier. The hospital tried to keep prisoners as short as possible. Although she kind of enjoyed being out of Litchfield, being in a much more comfortable bed and eating better food, she couldn't wait to be back and finally see Piper.

When she got back to Litchfield she had to wear an orange jumpsuit again like the first time she arrived there 2 years before. She wasn't too happy about all the attention brought on her; a lot of inmates asked her what happened and some even though she was dead. She gave them unclear and brief answers and would just walk away. All she cared about was finding Piper.

"Hey Nichols!" Alex shouted across the recreation room as she walked to her. "Have you seen Piper?"

"Sorry sister, haven't seen her since she left for that hearing thing," Nikki shrugged and continued playing cards with Morello.

Alex turned around and saw Taystee and Poussey . "Hey girls have you seen Piper anywhere?" They shook their head 'no'. Alex was staring to freak out a bit. She wondered if something had happened with the hearing that she had to stay one more day in the city. If that was the case then maybe she still had a chance to be a witness and be there for Piper. She walked to the staff quarter, knowing she had to find someone other than Caputo since he was at the hearing too.

Once she walked in the hallway where all the staff had their respective offices, she noticed the door to Mr. Caputo's office halfway opened. Alex knocked on the door before pushing it. She found Mr. Caputo, Figueroa as well as another woman she had never seen before gathered around the desk. The last woman looked like she came straight out from the 1890's; she wore a grey blazer with a skirt that went down past her knees, her long, salt and pepper hair was up in a tight bun and her pointed glasses made her look evil.

"Miss Vause, I was about to come and get you. Take a seat. This is Rita Poratti, the Warden." Mr. Caputo told her.

Alex was confused. Why was he not with Piper? Plus the fact that the warden was there was worrisome because she was only there when something was extremely wrong. "Why are you not at the hearing?" Alex asked quickly and didn't sit down.

"Miss Vause I recommend that you sit down for this," Caputo said calmly.

Alex sat down and waited nervously for him to start talking. He looked over at the two women and began, "There have been a issue with the hearing…"

"What do you mean an issue? What kind of issue? Where is Piper?" Alex asked quickly. She was just about to jump on the desk strangle if he didn't talk soon. The anxiety was killing her.

"Piper was sent to Albion, a medium security prison across the state," Caputo finally said.

This was too much for Alex's nerves to handle. Alex turned around and barfed in a trashcan next to the desk.

Five hours fifty-one minutes is how long it took to take Piper to get the new prison. She only knew because from the back on the van she could see the time on the radio by the wire window on the wall that separated her from the drivers. She had stared at it the entire ride, thinking about everything. Like how time is such an interesting notion. There is always not enough of it, or too much. Either way, time is always a problem. You grow up wanting time to fly so that you can be an adult, and once you are you wish that time would stop going by so fast or you wish you could go back in time. Time is overrated. One thing she was sure of was that four years in a medium security prison was too much time. So much time that it made her want to end all of her time.

Piper wondered why this brought her so deep in the depths of despair though. She had encountered people with much longer sentences at Litchfield. There was Miss Claudette whom she had got to bond with while they shared a room. There was her Alex. There were all just fine. Or were they? They were alive for one thing, but being alive and living are two different things. You don't live in a prison; you survive.

When Piper arrived she got through the same procedure as she did back on her first day at Litchfield except she was handcuffed the whole time and the cavity search and been much more… thorough. It wasn't until she got out in the inmates lobby that they freed her hands. A bunch of different cliques all starred at her. They were divided essentially the same as in Litchfield; the whites, the blacks, the Hispanics etc. Instead of khaki shirts and pants for a uniform they wore forest green bottom up shirts with pants. For some reasons it made Piper miss the khaki color already. She had made memories with the khaki color and mostly the people in it. The inmates who were starring at her right now looked no one she had encountered at Litchfield; most women looked like the stereotypical murderers in the movies. Piper reproached to be too judgmental. Maybe they were all nice women.

One of the inmates shot her a deadly gaze because Piper stared back at them. Piper looked away, remembering to mind her own business in here and try to not act so entitled like she did all the time.

After all the new inmates had arrived in the lobby, they followed a inmates that acted as their guide to orient them in the prison. The lady guide was a lot less friendly and caring as Morello was to Piper on her first day. Her name was Monique and Piper had asked her if she knew when her commissary credits would be transferred and she answered," The fuck do I look like motherfuckin' C.O to you? Take care of your own shits."

Yeah, a lot less friendly, Piper thought. The tour around the prison was brief and Piper wasn't even sure if she remembered how to go the cafeteria or where was the bathroom. She noticed there was a lot more C.O around the prison than in Litchfield. She figured it was because the women here wee more dangerous and needed more surveillance. The thought of that made her nervous.

"Chapman! This is you," Monique yelled to Piper when they got to her dorm. The room was very similar to the one she had shared with Nikki and Anita at the very beginning, except there was a toilet in the corner of the room and the door seemed to be one that closed electrically. Piper entered the room and the rest of the orientation group left. There was only one inmate inside who were lying in her bunk and reading a book. She didn't even look at Piper or say anything.

Piper wasn't sure which one of the bunk was unoccupied so she chose the one that was the closest to the small window. She put her bag of clothes on the bed, wondering if she would ever get back the stuff she left at Litchfield. Suddenly, she heard knuckles being cracked and coughing being her as she emptied her bag. She turned around and saw a tall woman, like even taller than Alex, tattooed from head to toe with approximately 30 piercing in her ears and on her face.

"Who the fuck you think you are takin' mah bunk bed you little shit huh?" the women said. Piper noticed 8 gold teeth as she spoke and wondered if they were real gold.

"Oh this is your bed? I'm so sorry I didn't, here let me just take my things," Piper said in her typical naïve voice as she took all her clothes in her arms. "My name is Piper. Piper Chapman. I'm your new roommate."

"Move. From. The. Way. Now," the women ordered and Piper moved immediately. Piper sighed- if everybody was going to be rude like that her time there was going to be very, very long.

"It's a long and complicated process, Vause." Caputo was explaining to Alex after she asked why they hadn't filled a complaint to the ABA.

"Not too mention it would damage the prison's publicity if that case went out there," the Warden added. She was like Figueroa's clone, but a much meaner, uglier and scarier version.

"Oh fuck the stupid publicity!" Alex yelled and stood up angrily. "Piper doesn't belong there! She's gonna be eaten alive! You have to get her out! Now!"

"Why don't you just move on Miss Vause. You got less time on your sentence; you'll get out early and live your life or screw it or whatever. Just let us do our job for fuck sake and let it go," Figueroa said and rolled her eyes pretentiously.

Alex stepped closer to the desk, leaned forward on it and eyed them all consecutively before stating firmly, "I am not going to let that go. Even if that means I am never getting out of this place ever again, even if this is the last thing I do. I am not going to let this go. I will get Piper out of there with or without your help."

A/N: Hi there lovelies, I hope you enjoyed this chapter I'm so sorry it took so long for me to update I suffered from a small shoulder injury and thus wasn't too much in the mood to write. Please keep posting review if you still want me to continue the story! Peace. –Shirley