Author's Note: Thanks for all the reviews, they're the best thing about writing fics :) I really appreciate them. I hope you like the twists and turns that are coming up in the next three chapters!
Happy reading
Chapter Seven
Red followed the Cos and the paramedics as they wheeled Nicky through the corridor on a gurney. The inmates stood aside and watched. Bennett put a hand out, gesturing for Red to stop within the confines of the prison.
"But she's one of my girls." Red said, gutted.
"Sorry, but I can't let you go any further."
"Will you keep me informed about how she's doing and if she..." her voice caught in her throat, "and if she survives?"
"I will," Bennett promised.
Red turned back to the inmates.
"What the hell happened, Red? You were meant to protect her!" Morello cried out, Alex pulled Morello back.
"It's not her fault," Piper said softly. Morello had tears in her eyes.
"Does anyone else blame me?" Red demanded. The crowd fell silent. Red caught Gina's eye. Gina broke her gaze and looked at the ground, unable to look Red in the eye. Gina was right after all, Red had failed to protect them. Gina and Norma disappeared into the crowd.
"It's not your fault Red." A voice announced, Red glanced up to see Gloria bravely approach her. The crowd watched on, nobody spoke. Gloria put an arm around Red's shoulders and led Red away from the staring crowd. She turned back to the inmates, "No one else helped her either. Where were you, Morello?" Gloria asked, making an example of her.
Morello, Piper and Alex stared at Gloria. Red let Gloria guide her away from the gathered inmates.
"That's not fair!" Morello exclaimed. Gloria gave her a knowing look and nudged Red.
"Don't worry about them, Red. I've got your back."
Red felt a wave of guilt writhe through her veins, she glanced at Gloria. The Hispanic woman had just stepped up against the entire prison for her. For Red, who intended to secretly overthrow her.
"Parker." Red said, her eyes clouded over with a thirst for vengeance.
"Don't do anything crazy, Red."
"She hurt one of my girls, Gloria. This is war. And everyone knows not to mess with the Russians."
Back in the corridor, the gathered inmates began to slowly return to their daily activities. Morello blew her nose into a tissue, as Alex passed her another one.
"Just when you think every thing'll be okay, life fucks you over."
"She'll be okay." Piper said, trying her best to offer some form of consolation.
"You don't know that." Morello said firmly. Piper glanced at Alex, Alex put an arm around Morello and pulled her into an embrace. Morello sobbed into Alex's shoulder. Piper stepped back, letting Alex do what Alex was good at, connecting with people. Piper couldn't help but feel the slightest sense of disease. She headed for the door.
"Where you going?" Alex asked Piper, while cradling a distressed Morello close.
"For a walk." Piper said softly, her eyes on Morello. As she walked away, tears stung her eyes. Nicky could die.
Nicky could actually die. It terrified her.
The stark reminder that life behind bars provided an illusion of safety, but not safety itself. She remembered how Healy had left her to die, she remembered the violation of Pornstache groping her right in front of Caputo and her fellow inmates. The lack of human decency made her feel sick to her stomach. Nicky was a bright spark, and imagining the prison without her made Piper dread her sentence even more.
What would Morello do? How would she cope? How was Alex? And Red? The people Nicky had connected with during her stay. She knew these were things she should consider, but she was too caught up in her own realisation and reminder of how much prison sucked.
After all, a narcissist would always be a narcissist, even an unwitting one. Her feet led her to the queue for the phone. She stepped up to the phone, and glanced to her side. The crying inmate, was as usual, crying as she spoke into the phone. It clung to her cheek and she pressed it harder against her head which each passing sob.
Piper stared blankly at the phone, she lifted the receiver and dialled out. Her fingers dialled instinctively. She phone rang. And rang.
"Hello?" Larry's voice enquired, "Piper...?" He asked. She shut her eyes, and took in a deep breath. His voice sounded groggy. Probably hung over.
"Hi..." she managed, softly.
"What's wrong, are you okay?" He asked, cutting straight to the chase. Piper flinched, tears finally spilling over the edge of her eyelids and rolling down her cheeks.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine." She managed in a hoarse voice. She cleared her throat, unable to understand the sudden anguish she was in. She quickly slammed the phone down.
What am I doing? She pressed her forehead against the cold plastic receiver, then gathered herself. She walked back down the corridor, and for the first time in a long time, she remembered this was only part of her life. Not all of it. All each of these women needed to do, was their time. And survive.
Some thing she could do if she needed to.
Piper rounded the corner and bumped into Pennastucky. The fragile Pennastucky fell to the floor, and glared up at Piper. Leanne stepped forward and shoved Piper into the wall.
She opened her mouth to apologise but before she could, Leanne shoved her again, harder this time. Hard enough to knock the wind from her lungs. Something snapped inside her.
"Lay a hand on me again and I'll snap every one of your fingers." She promised.
"Leave it Leanne... she aint worth it." Pennastucky said, trying not to smile, Piper and Pennastucky both knew Piper had took the bait and reacted. Usually Piper would hate herself for it, but she couldn't care less right now.
"C'mon," Pennastucky nudged, "I'm fine. Turn the other cheek, remember?"
Leanne nodded at Pennastucky, then studied Piper.
"Threaten me again, and you won't have hands to snap my fingers with."
Leanne stalked away. Piper watched after her.
Pennastucky snorted with laughter, baring her gnarled up teeth.
"Oh, I forgot to mention that Leanne's doing time for breaking every bone in her neighbours arm with her bare hands. She's quite handy with a bread knife too."
Pennastucky said with a twisted smirk. Piper didn't break Pennastucky's gaze.
"Besides...I been feeling a lot better lately, Chapman. Look at my cheekbones, they've almost healed up. If I were you, I'd go back to sleeping with one eye open."
"Do your worst."
"You asked for it." Pennastucky said with a glint in her eye. Piper straightened up and walked away from Pennastucky. Knowing that turning your back on somebody you pissed off, is the stupidest thing you can do in a place like prison. But she needed to show Pennastucky she wasn't afraid of her.
"Hey, mute..." Parker's voice echoed throughout the silent kitchen. Norma was washing dishes. She turned and greeted her visitor with a skittish glance then returned to washing the dishes.
Parker slid a folded piece of paper and an object wrapped in tissue beside Norma.
"You welcomed me when I first got here. I won't forget that." Parker pushed the folded note and wrapped up object towards Norma. "For you. So you can take care of yourself. Things are changing here in a big way."
Parker walked away. Norma waited to hear the kitchen door swing shut. She furtively unfolded the note and read the message, "Look out for yourself," it read, in scruffy hand writing. Norma nervously unwrapped the object, she stared at it. A razor blade wedged into the back of a toothbrush. Norma quickly hid the weapon in her apron. Her heart began to race.
"How is she?" Red asked.
Bennett gave her a shrug, "she lost a lot of blood, and they've got her on a bucket load of pain killers."
"Will she live though?"
"They won't make any promises. She lost a lot of blood, and whoever did this, knew what they were doing, Red. They went for a specific vein. Had we found her a few minutes later, she'd already be..."
"Ok." Red said quickly, unable to bare it.
"They'll allow her one visit, Red. From an inmate. To bring her a few books and her things."
"Send Morello." Red said, she couldn't possibly face Nicky. Not until she had gotten Parker back. Besides Nicky would probably much rather see Morello right now anyway.
"Sure?" Bennett asked.
"Yes. But tell Morello to tell Nicky I will fix this."
"What do you mean?" Bennett asked.
"You know what I mean." The woman replied, her expression bitter.
The next morning, Piper watched as visitors enter the room. Relatives, friends, faithful people who did their duty by the people who were serving time.
She felt Alex's chin land on her shoulder, "Hey stalker." Piper pulled away, but tried to seem subtle. Nothing got past Alex though.
"What's wrong?"
"N-nothing. Just surprised to see you here. I thought you were spending today with Morello?"
"No, she's visiting Nicky a visit. Took her some books-and borrowed some of yours actually...but you'll get them back. So it's fine." Alex slowly stopped speaking as she noticed the guilty look on Piper's face.
"What? What've you done? What have I walked in on?"
Piper glanced at the visitation room, her heart raced in her chest.
Oh shit.
All she could do was watch in slow motion as Alex spotted him. There, in his unshaven and wounded glory, was Larry waiting for Piper in the visitation room. Not saying a word, Alex turned on the ball of her foot and walked off.
"Alex..." Piper sighed.
"Fuck you, Piper." She said effortlessly. Piper sighed, she hated that this was becoming a casual exchange between the two of them.
Piper watched Alex go, then glanced back at Larry. She had invited him without really thinking it through. She needed to see how the outside world was. She needed to be reminded that this wasn't all there was to existence. But she couldn't make Alex understand that, not when the medium via which she chose to taste the outside world was Larry.
Larry glanced up from the table and studied Piper. From the looks of it, it was easy to assume Larry was the inmate.
"Wow, you really let yourself go." Piper said softly.
"Don't flatter yourself Piper. This isn't because of you."
Piper tried not to look hurt, Larry took in a deep breath.
"I spent hours, trying to work out how to be the best fiancé I could be while you were in prison. The only thing I got out of this, was my radio interview and the article. Other than that, you have ruined my life, Piper."
"That's not fair. I asked you if this was what you really wanted, if I was the person you wanted to marry. And you said yes. Not me. You said yes."
"Ok, fine, I apologise for a second for thinking just maybe you'd take some responsibility for once. This is all my fault. You're right." His sarcastic tone was laced with a bitter edge she wasn't used to.
"Don't talk to me like that, Larry."
"Then maybe I won't talk to you at all."
"Are you threatening me?" She asked incredulously, "Why did you even show up if all you were gonna do was hate me? You could have done that from home."
The two fell silent. Larry's eyes flickered to his watch.
"Look, we have a history, and I understand that this is probably not ideal. But I want to write more about your time in prison."
"Fuck you, Larry."
"Hear me out, I bring you information about Polly, the baby, the real world and you give me information about your world."
Piper stared at him.
"It'd be fascinating. And whatever I earn off it, I'll give you a cut, bumping up your commissary."
"I'm your fiancé-"
"Ex-fiancé."
"And now I'm just a potential goldmine for you?" Piper asked tritely.
"You aren't thinking this through properly. It's mutually beneficial and hey, maybe this is why we crossed paths in life... "
"So you could use me as a stepping stone to your literary success? Wow, Larry. You sure know how to make a girl feel special."
"I'm sure Alex can say the same about you."
His words were like a punch to the stomach.
"What?!" She demanded, "Don't you dare talk about Alex. You understand?"
"Why not?" Larry asked, leaning forward, "she stole the one person I love in this world—I can talk about her all I want-"
"Don't talk about Alex. That is not your place."
"It's not her fault that I love her. And if you knew the first thing about love, you'd understand."
"You love her. That's all I hear about. You love her. You fucked her. You committed crimes for her. Do you know if she even loves you? What if you're just a ride to pass the time in here?" Larry asked, knowing he was pushing buttons.
"I'm not."
"How do you know? Has she ever told you she loves you?"
"No-but that's not-that's irrelevant." Piper concluded. She could feel Larry playing her and she hated it.
"This was a bad idea. Fuck you, and your lack of journalistic integrity, or integrity of any kind."
Larry scoffed, "that's rich coming from the one of us who's serving time."
"Good bye Larry."
"I'll call Litchfield tomorrow and ask for you. If you take the call, we can work on the mutually beneficial journalism I mentioned, if you don't, that's fine. You've given me plenty of material to write about anyway."
Larry got up and walked out. Piper was left sitting alone at the table.
She glanced around at the visitors and inmates, they seemed to be having a much better time.
She owed Alex an explanation. She got up and headed back inside, in search of Alex.
Alex stormed outside into the yard, suffice it to say, she was pissed off. It was just one thing after another with Piper. Whenever happiness was in their reach, Piper would have a crisis of conscience and mess things up. Fucking Larry. How Piper managed to sleep with such a whiny, needy man, was beyond Alex. But that was Piper's issue. What Alex didn't appreciate was how constantly insulting the things Piper did were. This was the same Larry, Piper had chosen over her. The same Larry who used Piper as a pawn to cash in on his fifteen minutes of fame. The same Larry she didn't love. The same Larry she chose despite claiming they felt inevitable. No matter what, and the 'what' in that sentiment, should have included Larry.
Diaz was stood by the fence, peering out at the fields. She took a long drag of her cigarette. Or what Alex thought was a cigarette.
"You look tense. Go sulk someplace else, seeing you tense is making me tense..." Diaz ordered.
"Can I have a drag?"
"Its not what you think it is, but sure."
"Even better." Alex said, taking the pot off Diaz and taking the longest drag she could manage. Diaz smiled, "that tense, eh?"
Alex slowly blew out the smoke.
"You don't even know."
"Fuckin' Chapman, eh? Some people take trouble with them, wherever they go if you ask me." Diaz said. Alex took another drag then handed the spliff back to Diaz. Diaz took the last few drags as the two women gazed out at the lush green fields in silence.
"I didn't ask you." Alex said. Diaz nodded, this was true.
Once the joint was finished, Diaz dropped it to the ground and ran her boot over it.
"Shame about Nichols."
"Yeah..." Alex's words seemed more like breathing than speaking, "shit. I hate this place."
"You aint the only one, bambi." Diaz said, "All we can do is handle our own business, and keep out of other peoples'." Diaz slipped Alex a joint, Alex tucked it into her waistband.
"Our little secret?" Diaz asked.
Alex nodded. Diaz gave Alex an approving pat on the shoulder, "See you in hell, by which I mean, see you back inside."
Alex watched Diaz go, she sighed and lowered herself to the ground. She had some thinking to do.