Chapter 19 – what will come

After the three girls arrived back home after Piper's lunch, they started to prepare dinner. It had been so long since Diane had been home for dinner, and Alex wanted to make it special. They didn't have much in the fridge so she kept it simple, spaghetti bolognaise and garlic bread. She made coffee for her and Piper while the sauce was cooking, Diane would be home around 6 o'clock which was only an hour away. Piper grabbed Alex's hand as she passed her the coffee mug, and blurted out her father's request, "he wants to meet you properly."

Alex scrunched up her eyebrows as she looked across the table a Piper, "what?"

"My dad wants to meet you again and get to know you, that's what he said at lunch today. He said that he wants to meet the girl I'm living with." Piper kept holding onto Alex's hand, she wasn't sure how Alex would react to this.

"I dunno Pipes, I feel like that's a bad idea. I know you want him in your life, but I just can't see him liking me."

"Please Al, please can we just try? We can do it however you want, whatever will make you the most comfortable. But this is something I need you to do for me, I need you to try."

Alex was silent for a moment, she looked up at Piper and saw a pleading look in her eyes. Piper had done so much for her, stuck with her when most other people would have left, she knew she needed to try, "ok, I'll do it." Alex leaned across the table and kissed Piper gently on the lips, she would do anything to make her happy.

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Diane walked through the front door a little after 6 o'clock. As soon as Lucy heard the front door she jumped off the couch and raced to the front of the apartment. She ran straight into Diane's legs and hugged her tight, "Mummy! I'm so glad you're home. And look, Alex even made dinner!"

Diane hugged Lucy back and kissed her on the cheek. She was exhausted from working so much lately, but it was good to finally be able to sit down and have a home cooked meal with her daughters, "Alex, since when do you cook dinner hey?"

Alex shot her mum a smirk from across the kitchen, "since I'm an incredibly loving and caring daughter."

Before Diane could say or do anything, Lucy had taken control of the situation, "come on mum! You can change out of your uniform and then we can both wash up for dinner. Oh and did you realise Piper's finished moving all her stuff? We're like a real family now, someone else will move into her old apartment, but they probably won't be as nice as Piper." Lucy continued to talk as she led Diane into her room to get ready for dinner. Alex smiled, she knew how much Lucy was missing Diane. She felt bad for her little sister, as much as Lucy loved Alex, she was no replacement for Diane. She hated that Lucy hardly saw Diane these days, and was over the moon by the fact they could all have dinner together tonight.

Alex turned back towards the stove to start getting everyone's plates ready. She kept subconsciously rubbing the scars that were still around her wrists. Danny told her they would fade away eventually, but it would take a while. She hated seeing them every day, it was another reminder of Robbie and everything he'd done to her family.

Finally everyone was ready for dinner, and Alex had served out the food to everyone. They ate in silence for a while before Alex spoke, "so mum, now that Piper has officially moved in, we thought you could change your schedule. Maybe do a few less shifts?"

"Sweetie, that's really not necessary. Piper, I love having you here but I don't want you girls worrying about money."

"Diane, I live here now. I'm eating your food, using your electricity and water, all of it. This is a non-negotiable, I'm helping with the bills, Alex and I have already worked out a little budget."

Diane was about to start protesting again when Lucy pulled on her arm, "yeah mum, that way you can maybe pick me up from school some days and we can hang out." Diane looked down at Lucy, she knew she wasn't spending enough time with her youngest daughter, but she wanted to make sure they had enough money. She knew that things would be easier with Piper putting money towards the bills, but Diane was also scared of where her mind would wander if she wasn't at work. Robbie's hearing would be coming up soon, just the thought of it made her feel sick. The thought of what he did to Alex, the fact that he had lied to all of them, she struggled to handle it on her best days. She had considered therapy herself but that wasn't an option, not now anyway. They could barely afford to send Alex to therapy, let alone Diane as well. At this point, Diane's main concern was getting Alex all the help she needed to deal with what had happened with Robbie.

Diane looked between both of her daughters and Piper before she managed to speak again, "ok, I'll talk to the girls at the diner tomorrow, see if we can't change the rosters." Before Diane had even finished her sentence, Lucy jumped into her lap and wrapped her arms around her neck. The little girl was ecstatic, things were finally starting to go back to normal.

Diane went to have a shower after dinner and have an early night, she was exhausted from all the long shifts she'd been pulling. Alex insisted Diane go to bed early, and she would put Lucy to bed, "come on Luce, you've got school tomorrow. Get your butt into bed."

Lucy was snuggled under a blanket on the couch with Piper. The little girl scrunched up her face at Alex's request and leaned in closer to Piper, "can I sleep with you and Alex tonight? I had a bad dream last night."

This was the first time Lucy had mentioned having bad dreams, and Piper wanted to make sure Lucy was ok, "of course you can stay with us tonight. Will you tell me what your dream was about?"

Lucy hesitated for a moment before telling Piper more, "I had a bad dream that Ally got hurt again, it was really scary."

Piper was afraid this would happen. She assumed it was probably normal, but it still upset her that Lucy was having bad dreams. She tried really hard to encourage Lucy to talk about her feelings, she didn't want the young girl to grow up with the same issues that made life so hard for Alex.

"Do you want to tell me more about the dream?"

Lucy just shook her head, "no….it was just really scary. It makes me scared that something bad will happen to Ally."

Alex had walked towards the lounge room and overheard most of the conversation, it made her heart sink that her 10 year old sister was plagued by dreams because of Robbie. "Hey, you listen to me kid, I promise you nothing bad will happen to me, ok? I'll always be around, someone's gotta keep you out of trouble right? Now why don't you go brush your teeth and get changed, then we'll all go to bed." Lucy nodded as she let go of Piper and went to get ready for bed. Alex took her spot on the couch next to Piper, "I'm worried about her Pipes."

Piper kissed Alex's temple as she wrapped her arm around her, "I know, but it's good that she's talking, we need to encourage her to keep talking. We'll keep an eye on her, see how she goes with it all."

By 10 o'clock, all three girls were in bed. It was a bit squeezy with Lucy in the double bed but Alex and Piper didn't mind. Lucy asked to sleep in between them, she said it made her feel safe. Lucy fell asleep with her head on Alex's shoulder and her small hand tangled in Alex's hair.

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Piper took Lucy to school the next morning, letting Diane and Alex sleep in. Piper didn't have any library shifts that day, but she did need to send a new draft to her publisher. When Piper got back to the apartment she noticed that Alex was still asleep. She got into the bed and brushed the hair out of her girlfriends face, "hey Al." Alex just groaned in reply, she was definitely not a morning person. Piper ignored Alex's groaning and leaned in to kiss her, pulling her into a hug while she kept sleeping. Alex kissed her back and rested her head on Piper's chest, Piper loved it when she did that. "Al, can we have lunch with my dad on the weekend?"

That was a question even Alex couldn't sleep through, "this weekend?"

"Yeah, I was thinking Sunday, if you're not working?"

"Ok."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure Pipes, I wanna do this for you."

"Thanks Al, I love you."

"Love you too Pipes."

Piper knew this was a big step for Alex, and she really hoped it all went well.

0-0-0-0-0

Alex was nervous about lunch with Piper's dad for the entire week, but she tried to hide it, she knew how important it was to Piper. It was Saturday night, lunch was the following day. Piper was in her and Alex's room working on her latest draft, while Lucy was asleep in her room. That left Diane and Alex sitting on the couch playing scrabble. Alex had told Diane about the lunch earlier in the week, she confessed to her mum that the prospect of being grilled by Piper's dad scared the crap out of her. Diane looked carefully at Alex as she added up the scores from their game, she could tell her daughter was worried. "How are you feeling about tomorrow sweetie?"

Alex looked up at Diane and sighed, "I'm fucking petrified, things didn't exactly go well the last time I saw him in Connecticut. He clearly didn't want me there, and he stood there and did nothing after Carol hit Piper. Why the hell does he want to get to know me now?"

"Alex, I think maybe he's realised that he wants to keep Piper in his life, and that means getting to know you. All you can do is try, just don't let it get you down ok?"

"I won't. I'm doing it for Piper, but I'd be lying if I said I liked the guy."

"You don't need to like him Alex, you just have to go meet him tomorrow, and play nice."

Just as Alex was packing up the board game, Piper came and joined them. She sat next to Alex as she kissed her on the cheek. Watching the two young girls together always made Diane smile, she was incredibly happy they had found each other. Diane was also incredibly grateful for all the support Piper had given her. Even if Diane didn't want to admit it, Piper moving in and helping with the bills took a huge stress off her. She still felt bad for accepting money from the young blonde, but it ultimately made sense. Aside from money, it also helped to create a more stable environment for Lucy to grow up in, an environment where Diane was around a whole lot more. Even to this day, Diane still regretted not being able to give Alex a more stable childhood, but there was nothing she could do about that now.

"So Piper, how's the book coming along?" Diane was proud of Piper. She worked so hard on her writing and she was finally starting to reap some benefits.

Piper couldn't wipe the huge smile from her face, the prospect of having some of her short stories published felt amazing, "it's going really well actually. I'll have my next draft ready early next week, I'm really excited about it all."

Diane smiled at Piper as she started walking towards her bedroom, "and so you should be excited! Ok girls, I'm off to bed, see you in the morning." They all exchanged goodnights, just leaving Piper and Alex on the couch together. Piper leaned her head against Alex's shoulder and let herself relax, "how about we leave here at noon tomorrow? That'll give us time to park and walk to the restaurant." Piper could feel Alex's body stiffen at the mention of tomorrow.

"No problem babe."

"I know it's hard but I don't want you to stress yourself out over tomorrow. I'll be right next to you the whole time, I won't let him be rude to you. Although I'm obviously hoping that doesn't happen."

"I can't help it Pipes, I just feel like he's gonna judge me. Like he'll look at me and it will just reaffirm his feelings that I'm not good enough for his only daughter."

Piper lifted her head and placed her hands on Alex's cheeks, "you're more than good enough for me Alex, don't talk like that. Let's go to bed." Alex nodded in agreement and the two girls headed to their room. It wasn't just Alex's room anymore, it was their room. Piper kept trying to reassure Alex but she knew it was near impossible to convince her to not worry.

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Sunday morning rolled around and Alex was exhausted, she had hardly slept at all. She knew she had no chance of sleeping so left Piper in bed as she got up, had breakfast and showered. She was trying to decide what to wear when Piper finally woke up and groggily questioned Alex, "when did you get up?"

"Ages ago, I couldn't sleep so figured I might as well get up and seize the day, or something like that."

Piper reached out her arms to get Alex to join her in bed again. As soon as Alex was close enough, Piper pulled her girlfriend on top of her so Alex was straddling Piper's hips. "Do you need me to help you relax Al?"

Slowly, that tell-tale smirk broke out on Alex's face as she looked down at her girlfriend, "most definitely."

Piper inhaled sharply as she got the exact response she wanted. She grabbed a fistful of Alex's white v-neck and pulled her down until their bodies were pressed against each other. Piper kissed Alex roughly, taking complete control of the situation, which Alex was more than happy with. Piper started running her fingers through Alex's hair as she bit her bottom lip hard, eliciting a groan from the brunette, "fuck, Pipes. What's gotten into you?"

"I'm just trying to help my girlfriend relax."

The two girls kept grinding into each other before they heard a familiar voice shouting, "ALEX! You and Piper need to drop me off at Sarah's house! Mum's car isn't starting!"

Alex dropped her head against Piper's shoulder, "you have got to be fucking kidding me." Piper laughed and kissed Alex on the lips once more, "she's just a kid Al, and besides, you already look more relaxed."

Alex jumped off the bed and looked back at Piper before she went looking for Lucy, "you, Chapman, are finishing what you started later tonight."

0-0-0-0-0

Alex and Piper sat at their table as they waited for Bill to arrive. Alex had a chewing gum wrapper in her hands that she was slowly ripping up. Piper leaned across and placed her hands on top of Alex's, trying to get her to calm down. Five minutes later, and Piper saw her dad walking towards them. She immediately stood up and the two hugged, "hi daddy, it's good to see you again. You remember Alex."

Bill smiled as he extended his hand in Alex's direction, "of course, good to see you Alex."

Alex nodded as she shook Bill's hand, "good to see you too." The group of three all sat down and made small talk as they ordered food and drinks. Piper was doing most of the talking, updating Bill on her writing and library work. After Piper had finished updating Bill, he turned to Alex, "so Alex, I don't even know what you do. Tell me a bit about yourself." He smiled as she spoke, but Alex still felt uncomfortable.

"Ummm, there's not really much to tell. I finished high school a couple years ago. Since then I've been working down at Orange Café. Ummm, aside from that I spend a lot of time looking after my little sister, Lucy."

Bill smiled again, he wasn't giving away much emotion, "how old is she?"

Alex obliged with an answer, but she still felt uncomfortable, "she's ten, mum works a lot lately so I look after her most of the time."

"Well, that's very good of you."

Piper could feel the conversation stalling, "she's adorable dad. She actually reminds me a bit of Cal growing up."

"I'm sure she's better behaved than Cal!"

The next 20 minutes passed with some more slightly awkward conversation before Bill directed another question at Alex, "so, Piper tells me things haven't been easy at home lately?"

Alex looked at Piper with wide eyes, wondering what the hell Piper had told him about their issues, "yeah, I guess so, but we're fine now."

"Look, Alex, Piper is my only daughter. I know I didn't behave very well previously, but I want to make sure she's taken care of. I want to make sure she's happy."

Piper interjected, "I am happy daddy." She was starting to get worried, she hadn't told Alex about the details she'd given her father. She knew there was a good chance Alex would be angry.

She was right, Alex was definitely getting angry, "are you suggesting she's not happy?"

"No, of course not. All I'm trying to say is that I can help the both of you. I understand money is tight at the moment."

This just made Alex's heart race, her chest hurt. She knew this was Piper's dad, but she almost felt like she'd been betrayed. She was now speaking through clenched teeth, "I don't want your money Bill, I don't need it."

Bill sighed, he wasn't used to people that didn't want his money, "I'm pretty sure you do need it, and besides, you need to consider Piper in all of this."

Alex stood up abruptly, she couldn't take any more of this. Piper grabbed her arm before she could go anywhere, "please Al, don't leave yet." Alex couldn't bring herself to speak, she was desperately trying to hold back tears and ignore the pain in her chest.

Bill wasn't sure what to say, or how to fix the situation. He was doing this for Piper, but he didn't know how to deal with Alex. Piper managed to convince Alex to sit back down, she gently rubbed the brunette's back trying to make her feel better.

Alex was done with the niceties, she was going to tell Bill how it was in her world, "listen, Bill, you know nothing about me. You have no idea how I grew up or what my life has been like. You wanna know more about me? Ok, fine, I'll tell you. My mum got pregnant at 18 to a loser musician that dumped her ass as soon as he found of she was pregnant. As soon as her parents found out she was pregnant they kicked her out. She had nothing, she had nobody. She lived in women's shelters until she managed to get a shitty apartment in a shitty part of town, and that's where I grew up. Living in shitty apartments while my mum worked her ass off just so we could survive. Then nearly ten years later she meets another guy, falls in love. He tells her he loves her, they're gonna get married and he'll look after us. Do you know what happened Bill? Again, he finds out she's pregnant and he goes running, we never see him again. So you see, my mum's had a pretty shitty experience with your kind. But you know what, she keeps it together, she has me and Lucy now. She works even harder to take care of her two daughters. We don't have much, but we all love each other, we make it work. Fast forward ten more years, my mum meets a new guy, he seems really nice. He helps with the bills, mum doesn't work as much, it seems too good to be true, and it is. You see Bill, after he moved in with us he started showing his true colours. Turns out he was an abusive asshole. So my mum had three relationships in 20 fucking years, all shit. So now here I am, with your daughter, and that's it. You have no fucking idea what life has been like for me, so don't think you can make us all happy by throwing money at a problem, doesn't work like that Bill."

Piper kept holding onto Alex's hand, she didn't know how to feel or what to say. She looked across at her dad, she couldn't even decipher the look on his face. He looked almost confused, like he couldn't process all the information he'd just received. The three of them continued to sit in silence. Bill had finally met his match, and he wasn't sure how he felt about it.

A/N

Hello!

So, I felt like this meeting between Alex and Bill was always going to be rocky, I'm really keen to hear what you thought about it. Was Bill rude or not? Did Alex over-react? Should Piper have given Alex some warning about what she had told Bill?

Bye.