Hello there! I hope you enjoyed the short chapter 2A, here is 2B, a little bit longer. Thank you, HurricaneDella, for everything.

As always, thank you so much for your reviews, favs and follows. Feel free to give ideas and/or suggestions (: Hope you like it.

The faint scent of alcohol made Alex's insides churn. Fear took possession of her entire body, making the task of opening the front door lock almost impossible.

Finally, after two attempts, with sweaty palms and trembling hands, she managed to insert the key and turn the lock open.

Alex carefully closed the door behind her and looked at her phone. Sat, 13 May, 10:45 pm. She was completely fucked.

She was supposed to return home after the movie on Friday night, and as much as she had planned on not obeying that order, she thought she'd be here by Saturday morning, but that was before her whole world changed. Their.

"Where were you?" he asked, as quietly as he could. Not getting up of the couch. A glass of whisky on one hand, and his cellphone on the other.

"I… I'm sorry, I was at the hospital," she swallowed thickly and attempted to go straight to her room, but no such luck.

"Why the fuck do I give you a cellphone if you're not going to fucking answer it whenever I call you? Huh?" he raised his voice dangerously, staring at the girl as he waited for a response.

Alex froze on her way to the staircase and sighed. Her arms still trembled but it was not only fear the feeling she had.

Anger was dangerous too, and she knew it, but she couldn't control herself, she was short-tempered and this had always brought problems, but she couldn't help it.

She took her cellphone out of her pocket and carelessly tossed it to the center table on the living room. "Take your fucking cell phone, then," Alex spat, standing straight, defiantly.

He was livid. As he was standing up, Alex knew she had trespassed the limit. She was tall and that helped her a lot with guys and in general, but he was even taller and twice as heavy.

Desi Piscatella was a strong, large framed man, who was a good person, most of the time, but recently developed a taste for alcohol, after his partner died. He took Alex in when he found out about her mother.

He was a good friend of Diane and Alex had known him since she was about 6. A lot of time before tragedy struck Desi and turned him into this sour, sad man.

He used to be such a lovely guy, always making jokes and smiling kindly. He would help anyone who needed it and always offer comfort and good advice, he was sweet and passionate about his hobbies and his job and that's why his partner really loved him, he was one of those people that you can love without effort.

But sometime ago, about one year ago to be exact, he was found dead right in his own house. The police never caught the murderer but it was clear that it was a hate crime. And now, here he was, getting drunk on a daily basis and failing to healthily cope with his loss, letting himself be that aggressive human being he despised so much… he was exactly the same as the murderer of his lover.

Alex tried to move but he was faster. One hard blow to her left was all it took to knock her out, considering his strength and although he was half drunk, he still was really strong.

All Alex heard was a muffled thud as his fist made contact with her cheekbone and her ears ringed unpleasantly even before she hit the ground.

《Out of the blue and right into the black.》

What Alex felt when she regained consciousness was instant, pounding pain going over her head, and that incessant ringing in her ears, aside from pure anger and a sense of revenge.

She was sure she lost consciousness mid-fall because she couldn't remember when she made contact with the floor, but her right arm was scraped and began bruising.

Something thick and sticky dripped from somewhere near her left ear, it was burning hot and numb.

Her face felt swollen and tender and Alex could feel the tears escaping her eyes without truce and it angered her to be "weak". But it was a harsh blow and it really hurt.

There would be no concealer enough to hide this in the morning and Piper would realize what happened and would worry about her and she couldn't let that happen.

"Look what you made me do, Alex!" Desi wailed as he kneeled down to help Alex up.

"Don't you fucking touch me again," Alex withdrawn her arm forcefully, making her head spin so she took her hand to her head and tried to stand up.

"I'm so sorry, but you gave me no choice," he took a deep breath to compose himself "You must understand that there are rules in this house and you have to live by them as long as you're in my guard," Piscatella said loudly in his annoying dictator voice.

"Fuck you," Alex replied, finally standing up. She took her backpack and headed to her room but she stood at the middle of the stairs and turned around.

"If my mother knew…" she swallowed the knot in her throat "Forget it, I won't be bothering you for long." Desi was speechless.

Alex entered her room and headed straight to her bed, she needed to sleep but apparently that was not going to happen because Desi was knocking softly on her door, trying to apologize, as always.

She couldn't face this now. It was always the same drama except Desi had never punched her so bad as tonight. She pondered the consequence of her idea.

Alex was planning to escape, but she knew that another beating would await for her as soon as she returned but she didn't want to stay here and anyway, she thought, she was badly beaten now, so it couldn't get any worse.

Could it?

"Hey, man. Are you home?" Alex asked through the payphone.

"Hey, kid. Sorry, nah. I'm with mother, why? Everything okay?" her friend Nicky replied tiredly.

"Oh, okay… yeah, everything's okay," Alex lied.

"So, I'll give you a call later, okay, my mother wants us to attend this… thing," Nicky trailed off.

"No, don't worry, I don't have my phone anymore, Nick, so I'll call you later, have fun in your… thing," Alex pondered if she should tell Nicky the truth, before hanging up abruptly. She didn't want to explain anything.

Nicky knew about the difficult situation with her guardian and had helped her several times before, letting her crash at her place, especially when she didn't want to be with Piper because she couldn't deal with her growing feelings for her blonde friend.

"I can't bother Piper, I don't want her to worry about me," she thought, so she pretty much didn't have somewhere to spend the night, it was almost midnight and she was wandering downtown.

Luckily it was not winter so it was not cold, but it was still chill, so she decided to walk all over to Piper's home and sat down on her porch, watching the clear sky and wondering if Piper was fast asleep, resting the tiring day.

-Flashback-

After about 5 hours of chemo, nurse Erica returned to flush Piper's IV with saline solution before taking it off and monitoring her vitals again.

Half hour later, she was clear to go home and Alex helped her to the car because she was feeling dizzy.

She opened the door for her and helped her in, following her inside.

"How did it go, honey?" Bill asked her sweetly with a worried expression.

Piper just looked at him and nodded, not wanting to talk at all.

"It was okay, Bill, but she's tired and she hasn't eaten, the nurse offered her lunch but she didn't want anything, so I guess she'll be hungry pretty soon, I hope," Alex told him flatly, giving him a look that told him to not ask right now.

He nodded and smiled. "Rest, honey, I'll wake you up when we arrive home," he told her and revved the engine of his car, ready to return home.

Piper leaned her head on Alex's shoulder, seeking a comfortable position and Alex placed her arm around Piper's shoulder to place her all over her lap.

Piper smiled and looked at Alex before taking a deep breath and closing her eyes to try to sleep. Alex caressed her head and her forehead.

It was almost 5 o'clock in the afternoon when they finally arrived home and Alex gently woke Piper up.

"We're here Pipes, wake up, sleepy head," she pulled a lock of her hair softly.

Piper groaned and scrunched her nose before stretching a little and sat down.

She immediately took her hands to her head because it was spinning, she felt sick and wanted to empty her already empty stomach.

Alex caressed her back and offered her hand to help her get out, where Bill was waiting patiently for them.

When Alex helped Piper out, Bill noticed she was dizzy and decided to carry her daughter all the way to the living room.

Alex fetched a wastebasket and put it next to Piper on case she needed it.

Cal came running from the kitchen to welcome her sister and Alex and sat down next to Piper, hugging her tightly.

"Hey, Cal," Piper smiled tiredly.

"Want something to eat, sis? I could try to make you Mac and cheese?" he joked.

"That'd be nice, Cal," Piper replied quietly.

"Okay, hold on," his brother said cheerfully as he went back to the kitchen.

They spent the next three hours telling Bill and Cal the experience of the first chemotherapy when Carol arrived and greeted them briefly, asking her if it went okay.

"Yes, mother, don't worry, you look tired, you should go to bed," Piper said sarcastically and Carol acted offended and actually wanted to go to her bedroom, feeling left out but at the same time relieved that she didn't have to hear the traumatizing experience.

"Have a rest, Piper," she nodded at her daughter with glassy eyes, "Alex, I don't want to be rude, but I know they're expecting you home," she finished before turning around and disappearing through the stairs.

The mood dropped notoriously after the event, so after a few minutes, Piper decided to go to bed and said goodnight to her father and her brother and Alex helped her up the stairs.

When they entered her room, Piper locked the door and asked Alex for help.

"Could you help me put my pajamas on?" she asked without an idea of what that meant to Alex.

Alex swallowed, "Yeah," she replied and retrieved a fresh shirt and cotton pants from Piper's drawers.

Piper raised both her arms for Alex to take off her shirt.

Alex's heart stopped for a second before raising too much.

She took the hem of her shirt and carefully lifted the shirt, slowly revealing Piper's bra. She swallowed nervously again and her pupils dilated dangerously.

Piper was the most beautiful girl she had laid eyes on and watching her exposed like this was a sublime experience, even though it was in a totally different circumstance than she had imagined thousands of times before.

She had seen Piper in her bra before, but she certainly had never took off her clothes, so her heart was relentlessly pounding against her ribcage, violently reminding her that she could never had this girl.

She took a deep breath and put on the new shirt, trying to avoid Piper's look.

Then, Piper laid down and began pulling down her pants, stopping mid-thigh waiting for Alex to take it off completely.

By now, Alex's hands were trembling and she did her best to stop them, she was dying to caress that skin below her hands, but she knew it was inappropriate, hell, it was almost forbidden, so she took them off quickly and put on the pants, before putting her glasses on the top of her head.

"There you go, Pipes," she said, her voice huskier than usual.

"Thank you, Al," Piper said innocently. She didn't have a clue about the effect she had on her friend.

"Good night, Chapman," Alex said trying to think about something else.

"Could you stay here? Just until I fall asleep?" she turned around and patted the side of her bed "Please, Vause?" she finished with closed eyes.

"Of course, sleepyhead," Alex laid down on her bed.

-End of flashback-

About two hours later, she finally fell asleep, using her backpack as a pillow and her sweatshirt as a blanket, recalling every second of that night, the image of Piper's exposed, vulnerable body already etched on her memory.