Author's Note: As promised, I'm done with the sequel to Liminal Space and am posting it in the middle of July rather than the end. I wanted to use the title, Full Circle, but there is another story with that name in this fandom, and I didn't want the two confused. As always, this story is complete and will be posted daily. The chapters aren't broken down yet, but the Word document is 70 pages to give you an idea of the story's length. I've decided to rate the whole story M for Mature, so go away, children.

Feedback is always encouraged.

There was a time in Alex's life when she thought she was in love. It was her first semester at Berkeley, and Grace Moody was the assistant coach for the women's tennis team. She was a looker—tall, muscular, dark brown hair, femme. They wasted no time becoming acquainted, and within the second week of classes, Alex and Grace were a couple.

Alex remembered being enamored by the older woman, impatiently waiting for her to call, and being disappointed in November when her phone stopped ringing. She chalked up her uncharacteristic behavior to a completely new setting, knowing no one else within a thousand miles. To be fair, they had little in common—Alex was disinterested in sports in general, and Grace hated to read for pleasure.

Looking back on that time in her life, when she was the closest she'd ever been to being in love, made Alex laugh. Grace Moody didn't hold a candle to Piper Chapman. However, what the brunette feared most was that Piper was young and sensitive, and this was the first time she'd been in love. Perhaps the young woman was smitten with Alex because of how they'd met—Alex the teacher, Piper the student. There was intrigue and risk involved, making it somehow more exciting than, say, if they'd met in a bar or a book shop.

It bothered Alex so much—this wondering about Piper's true feelings—that she vowed to bring it up when they saw each other again.

"Are you packed for college?" Alex asked as she joined Piper in the hammock.

This was their fifth time that summer meeting at the Chapman cottage in Amagansett.

Piper scooted forward, allowing her lover to get behind her so that she could be Alex's spoon. She dog eared a page in a novel and threw the book on the ground. "Mostly."

Alex kissed her on the cheek. "What's left?"

The blonde shrugged. "Bedding, toiletries…things like that."

She pulled back to look at Piper's face. "You sound…off. Is something wrong?"

"Maybe." She lowered her hand to the ground to give them a good push.

"Do you want to tell me about it?" Alex asked with expectation in her tone.

Piper sighed. "This is probably our last time together before I leave for Smith."

The brunette raised her eyebrows. "Is that what's been bothering you?"

She turned her body to face Alex's. "Isn't it bothering you?"

It was Alex's turn to shrug. "Yeah, but I'm trying not to be a fatalist."

"I'm a realist," she commented. "And I leave for college in four days, which means we won't see each other for weeks, maybe months."

She brushed a strand of hair out of the blonde's face. "Life goes on, Piper. One thing we can't control is time."

"Time does not pass, it continues," Piper said sadly, twirling a piece of Alex's hair with her finger.

She grinned. "Look at you, quoting Marty Rubin."

The blonde gazed into her girlfriend's eyes and whispered, "I love you, Alex."

She looked away.

"Aren't you going to say it back?"

"I was just thinking…" Alex began, eyes trained on the cotton knit of the hammock. "Are you in love with me, or is it something else? Like admiration, respect, sex…"

Piper sat up, causing the hammock to nearly flip. "You don't think I know what love is?"

Alex shrugged. "Have you been in love before?"

She jutted her head back. "Why would that matter?"

"I'm just wondering if…if you can call what you feel for me, love."

"Fuck you, Alex!" Piper hastily got out of the hammock, causing it to sway wildly. "I know what I feel for you, and it is love. I know because I've never experienced anything like it in my entire life—not with my family, not with my friends, and certainly not with another woman!"

"Ok, got it," she lowered her voice, regretful about bringing up the subject.

"You're testing me." She put her hands on her hips. "You want some kind of insurance before I leave that proves that I love you and won't fuck around on you."

"That's not it at all." Alex got out of the hammock.

"It's the age difference and the time I'm at in my life," Piper stated, backing away. "How could an 18-year-old know what love is, right? Like you're this wise adult who has all this experience with love."

"Piper, I…"

"No, Alex." She pointed harshly and raised her voice. "You don't get to teach me what love is. I don't need to learn about love from you or from some fucking novel! I know what I feel."

"Piper," she tried again, taking a step towards the blonde. "I didn't meat to..."

Piper turned away from her lover, but not before swiping a tear off her cheek. "Don't treat me like a child!"

"You are not a child," Alex said, putting a hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry if that's what I insinuated."

The blonde shrugged her hand off and wiped another stray tear.

"Maybe we should take a break when you go to college," Alex tried, looking absently at the trees swaying against the blue sky, wishing for a moment that she was an inanimate object with no feelings and no ability to care.

Piper turned around with red eyes, seemingly astonished at Alex's suggestion. "Is that what you want?"

"I want you to experience college and everything that goes along with that." She shrugged and looked away. "I don't want you to feel tied down; like you have to answer to me."

Piper took two steps forward and said slowly, "I just explained to you that I know what love is, and that I'm in love with you, and you want to break up?"

"Just until you get adjusted. Then we can see where that leaves us." Alex couldn't believe the words coming out of her own mouth. Where in the fuck was this coming from? Fear? Anxiety? Panic? She hadn't planned on breaking up with her young lover—quite the opposite, in fact.

Piper's chin quivered. "Leave."

"Come on, Piper. It doesn't have to be this big, permanent thing…"

She pointed towards the driveway. "Just fucking go," she demanded in an unstable voice.

Alex shook her head, fighting back her own tears. "This isn't what I'd planned."

Piper shook her head, and then rushed inside; Alex didn't know what to do. She dried her eyes with her shirt sleeve and dipped her toe in the pool, remembering three months earlier when they went skinny dipping the afternoon before they had sex for the first time.

Piper returned with her own suitcase, purse, and car keys and stood on the deck with sad eyes.

"What are you doing?" Alex feigned a laugh, hoping that the scene before her wasn't what it looked like.

"I'm leaving," Piper announced calmly. "Stay here as long as you'd like." She walked towards the fence that led to the driveway, twisting her head around. "Give me a call when you know what love is."

"Piper!" It was no use. She walked through the gate, started the car and drove away. Alex ran after her, but the blonde didn't turn around. Alex stood there, stuck in her own tracks, stunned by what had just transpired.

This was not even remotely what she'd intended. She walked back into the house, too stunned to cry. Alex glanced around the room and noticed the large quilt on the floor that they'd used the night before to cover themselves in front of the fireplace. She looked at the table and saw the remnants of the heart-shaped pancakes that Piper had poked fun of her for making earlier that morning.

Alex walked upstairs and heard the iPod speaker in the bathroom, where they'd taken a bubble bath in the oversized tub. Georgia on My Mind was playing, and Alex had to stifle a sob at remembering when they'd danced to that song at her mom's house on Thanksgiving. She remembered the significance of that day, because it was when she realized she was falling in love with Piper.

She covered her mouth and looked at the rumpled bed. She picked up a pillow—the one Piper liked most during their five other times at the Chapman cottage—and sniffed it. It still smelled like her, all lavender and salt air. She collapsed on the bed, allowing her tears to fall unchecked. Alex shoved her glasses on top of her head and wept—wept for the way she'd gotten it all wrong. She'd wanted to be the unselfish one, allowing Piper a way out so that she didn't feel obligated to stay with her while she was away at college. Wasn't that the very definition of love? An unselfish desire for the happiness of another?

Alex didn't know how long she laid on the bed, but she'd cried herself to sleep and woke up when it was dark outside. "Piper?" she called instinctively, wondering for a moment if it was all just a bad dream. She dashed out of bed and ran downstairs. "Piper?"

She lowered her head and resigned herself to the fact that her lover was gone, and she was left all alone in a house filled with memories.