Hello everyone,

I just wanted to write a quick message to say thank you for the reviews/follows/favourites that my story has recieved so far. I hope that you're all well and enjoying the weekend.

Chapter Five

"I'm scared to go to bed."

"Scared? What, why?"

"I'm going to be sharing a cube with Leanne."

"Fuck."

Yes, fuck. Nice and helpful, Vause. Piper rolled her eyes and turned her head away, clearly disappointed in Alex's response. She was supposed to offer some form of comfort, tell her that it would all be okay, that Leanne is just Leanne and that she has nothing to worry about. But instead, she just stared at her with wide eyes and a tight lipped smile. Is that it? Piper gently pushed against her hip and clicked her tongue in frustration.

"Thanks for that, Al."

Now it was Alex's turn to roll her eyes.

"Piper, please don't worry. It's just Leanne. Fuck her-," Piper opened her mouth to argue but Alex intervened, shooting her a look as if to say don't you dare interrupt, "-plus, hey, you're like, one cube away from me. If you need your butt saving, just shout my name and I will come and sort it out."

She said it jokingly but Piper could see in her eyes just how serious the statement truly was. She knew that Alex would always look out for her, even if it meant getting an extra couple of years added to her sentence but Piper didn't want that, she needed to go about this alone. She also knew that if she was honest and told Alex that, that the situation would just become ten times worse. Alex would interrogate her about what her intentions were, when honestly, Piper had no idea. It was a choice between keeping her head down and staying silent, and just hoping that Leanne (or even Pennsatucky) stayed away or she could actively do something about the situation herself. Piper had been here long enough to know who she would need to ask if she needed any assistance, heck, Big Boo had been the person that had gifted her the screwdriver that she'd waved around in Pennsatucky's face on the night of their fight.

Piper was pulled from her thoughts by Alex, who gingerly placed her hands on her cheeks and pulled her closer for a small kiss. Once it ended, Piper looked up and offered a small smile but it was one that refused to reach her eyes no matter how hard she tried.

"I can see the wheels turning inside your head, Pipes."

"I'm being silly, aren't I?"

"Hmm, yeah," It was a noncommital response and Piper wanted to curse. "But we should really get out of here before we both get shots."

This wasn't the scenario that she'd imagined them having once they were finally alone together. After catapulting Piper into bliss, Alex had grabbed a hold of the younger womans' hand, fully expecting the favour to be returned. Unfortunately for Alex, Piper had had other ideas, which subsequently triggered their current conversation. Still slightly antsy and uncomfortable due to her unquenched arousal, Alex was itching to get into bed and deal with it herself once everybody else was fast asleep. She couldn't even bring herself to initiate anything with Piper now due to the fact that they'd already spent far too long inside this disgusting toilet cubicle.

"Well, can I just say something?" Piper asked as she stumbled into the main bathroom vicinity, using Alex's hand to pull her along with her. She quickly glanced around the room to make sure that nobody was around that could get them into trouble and when she was sure that the coast was clear, she spun back around to face Alex and looked at her desperately. Alex waited quietly, slightly amused by Piper's frantic behaviour. "I love you, okay?"

A confession of love.

Alex lifted their entwined hands and placed them firmly against her chest, pulling Piper as close as possible. She knew that this sudden declaration was prompted by the situation with Leanne. But she also knew the younger woman well enough to know that she was telling the truth. Piper wouldn't say it if she didn't mean it. Alex cocked her head to one side, quirked her brow and smiled cheekily.

"Are you sure you don't mean, 'I heart you'?"

"Oh yeah," Piper kissed her softly on the mouth, "I take back what I said. I totally heart you."

"Chapman? Vause?!"

They leapt apart before Nicky rounded the corner. She visibly sighed in relief when she spotted them.

"Guys, you've been gone for a while. You're gonna get into trouble."

Alex turned to look back at Piper, who looked ten times more worried than before. She dropped a kiss on the corner of her mouth and offered a small smile.

"It'll be okay, kid. Trust me."

It'll be okay, kid. Trust me. Trust me. Trust me. Trust me...

"Fuck you, Alex."

Piper couldn't sleep. She didn't want to sleep. Not when she knew that as soon as she closed her eyes, Leanne would be on top of her with a makeshift weapon pressed against her jugular. So instead, she remained still and kept her eyes trained on the ceiling above. She held her blanket to her chest, so tight that her knuckles turned white. All around her she could hear the faint snores of the other inmates but there was no sound from Leanne, which meant that she was either dead (come on, Piper wasn't that lucky) or still awake. Piper assumed it was the latter. She also assumed that she was being watched. She could feel it. The slight prickly sensation on her side, as if somebody was burning holes into her skin.

"Trust you? Why did I listen to you? Why did-"

"Shhhh!"

Oh yeah, this wasn't the SHU. She wasn't alone. This was all real. And now the whole room had heard her mumbling to herself about Alex.

Wait, if everybody heard that then surely they will hear if Leanne suddenly starts decapitating her with a razor blade... Well, that's what Piper assumed anyway. She sucked in a deep breath and then, very slowly (and almost reluctantly), allowed her heavy eyelids to droop closed.

She woke with a start.

There was something heavy pinning her down against the mattress. She blinked rapidly in an attempt to quickly adjust her eyesight to the darkness so she could see her assailant, even though she was well aware of who it was. And when her eyes finally adjusted, and she confirmed her suspicions, she shrieked in terror. Leanne's face loomed above hers, her eyes wide and her mouth pulled back to reveal a manic grin. Suddenly a rough hand clamped down against her mouth to muffle any other noise of protest.

Leanne lowered her head and brushed her lips against Piper's earlobe, "Be quiet now, Chapman."

Piper felt her blood run cold. She was absolutely terrified (embarrassingly so, considering this was Pennsatucky's hillbilly fuck up friend). She didn't even try to move, too afraid to discover any weapon that Leanne may or may not have.

"Good girl. Stay still."

She couldn't see but she could feel that Leanne was straddling her waist. She was surprisingly heavy considering how slight her frame was. Suffocatingly heavy.

All of a sudden, something hard and cool pressed against her cheek. Piper tried to jerk away but Leanne firmly grabbed a hold of her chin and pulled her back into position. Her heart pounded hard against her ribcage, and she could feel the blood rushing inside her head. Like she was running a marathon. Leanne pressed whatever it was that she was holding harder against her cheek, and it pinched painfully. Piper clamped her eyes shut and winced, a tiny whimper falling into the palm of Leanne's hand.

She felt something warm trickle down her cheek and she could only assume that it was blood. Her blood.

"Consider this a sign of what's to come, Chapman. A warning." The pinching intensified and this time, Piper cried out even louder, forcing Leanne to increase the hold that she had on her mouth. "Don't you even think about getting your lesbo girlfriend on us either. She doesn't scare us anymore."

Finally, Leanne released her hold on Piper's face and quickly, and silently, climbed off of her. Piper remained still, too petrified to move. She wanted to rush to the bathroom, check her face, cry, throw up, punch something... her mind was going crazy. It was going into overdrive. In her peripheral vision, she watched as Leanne rolled back into bed and pulled the covers over her body. Very slowly, Piper rolled onto her side and turned her back to Leanne, confident that nothing else would be done to her tonight.

Her cheek was red, hot and stinging, and Piper knew that her pillow would be soaked through with blood come morning time. But she'd worry about that tomorrow. Right now, she was absolutely shattered and in desperate need of sleep.

She tried not to imagine Leanne's face as she drifted into darkness.

It was morning time but Piper didn't have the pleasure of waking up naturally. When she felt two hands against her shoulders, Piper's eyes snapped open. Immediately, she bolted into an upright position and threw her fists in front of her chest, ready to defend herself if necessary. But was shocked to find Morello stood beside the bed and not Leanne. Morello jumped back and threw her palms in the air as an act of "surrender".

"M'sorry Lorna. You just scared me," She apologised, her voice thick with sleep. "What's up?"

Morello leaned closer, "Your face."

Piper froze. Immediately, memories from the previous night came flooding back. She gingerly placed a hand against her very tender cheek and hissed noisily. The horrified expression on Morello's face made it obvious that the injury was not in a good way at all. As she was falling asleep, late last night, she was hoping that it would be a small cut, one that she could blame on a clumsy fall, or a rough piece of bedding but no. Evidently not.

"What happened?" Morello crouched down and hesitantly reached out to touch Piper's face but she stopped at the last minute. When Piper nodded faintly, giving her permission, Morello gently encased her chin and turned it towards her to reveal more of the wound. "Was it her?" She jerked her head towards the empty bed on the otherside of the cube. Piper turned her gaze away and sighed.

"Is it bad?" She doesn't know why she asked. "Actually, don't answer that."

"We need to get it cleaned up and see how bad it really is," Morello released her chin and grabbed a hold of one of her hands instead, "I need to find something to clean you up with. We can't walk past the guards with you like that, they will put you back in SHU."

She went to stand but Piper gripped her arm, suddenly overcome with fear, "Please no. Don't leave me."

"Do you want me to find Alex?" Morello asked quietly and Piper nodded.

Alex knew how to calm Piper down. Granted, she sometimes said the wrong thing or rolled her eyes at the most inappropriate time, but all Alex had to do was wrap her arms around her tightly and all was well in the world again. At least, temporarily. But Piper was already beginning to worry about how her girlfriend (wait... what?) might react over seeing her like this. She had a gut feeling that Alex was capable of violence, she'd never witnessed it but Alex carried herself in such a way. It was alarmingly intimidating.

A firm tug on the blanket above her signalled that Morello had returned; however, Piper refused to allow the material to fall away. She murmured her disapproval. She didn't want Alex to see her face. She didn't want her to be scared. But Morello was having none of it. She yanked it away with an impatient tut.

Piper reluctantly opened her eyes and looked at Alex, who stared back at her with a stormy expression on her face. Meanwhile, Morello crouched down beside the bed and carefully began cleaning up the dried blood that covered Piper's skin, for now, avoiding the wound.

"Did Leanne do this?" Alex asked slowly.

Piper lowered her gaze and exhaled audibly. She didn't want this Alex. She wanted cuddly, loving, 'I heart you' Alex. She didn't want Alex to do anything rash but she knew that if their current roles were reversed, Piper would already be flipping out.

"Hold me?" Piper whispered meekly.

This request caused Alex's hardened composure to soften. She crawled onto the bed beside Piper and immediately pulled her against her side. Piper threw her arm over her waist and buried her face into her stomach, much to Morello's disapproval, who impatently turned Piper's face back towards her.

"Pipes, Lorna needs to wash your face. You're a mess."

Piper stuck her bottom lip out and grumbled childishly. "You're such a smooth talker, Al."

Alex opened her mouth to offer a rebuttal but was quickly interrupted by Piper, who cried out in pain when Morello suddenly swiped over the cut.

"S-sorry Chapman, just makin' sure, you know?" She pulled the wipe away and inspected the wound, a small sigh of relief falling from her lips, "It's not too bad. It won't need stitches. I don't know how you're going to explain that to the guards though."

Alex pushed her glasses into her hair and then dropped her hand to Piper's face, swiping her thumb across the younger woman's untouched cheek.

"I'm sorry, Pipes."

Piper was crying but she really couldn't understand why. She was scared but right now, she was okay. She had Alex. Alex was her rock. Her beautiful, amazing and powerful rock.

"What for?" She finally asked.

"I wasn't there to protect you," Alex said quietly, "I never seem to be."

"Please don't say that."

"It's true though, Pipes. I wasn't there when you had that fight with Pennsatucky. Well, not when you needed me the most, I-"

"Alex," Piper started firmly, "Stop it. I heart you, remember?"

It was such a simple statement but it was enough to calm down Alex's self-inflicting mood. She swooped her head down and pressed their mouths together in a soft, open-mouthed kiss.

"I love you too."

I struggled with this chapter a bit (I blame Bear Grylls!).