The Reign Of Vause

Penny for your thoughts

(Piper's POV)

As we walked away I gazed at Alex in amazement.
"Wow Alex, thank you."
She squeezed my hand again and smiled at me,
"It's not a problem babe. You know I hate bullies and you know my past. Plus, I can't have people like her walking all over you. You're a Vause now, time to toughen up babe." She finishes going from the loving, protective wife to giggling at me.
"Hey!" I giggled and gently shoved her away.
"So babe, where do you wanna go? Still want to go home?" She softly asked.
I wanted to show her something so I simply said,
"Queens."
I looked at her. She looked utterly bemused.
"Queens?! What the fuck Pipes? You were-"
I knew where she was going with this.
"Shot there? Yes I know Al but like you said, go towards the problem." I finished her sentence.
"Ugh. I hate it when you use my own rules against me." She sighs and gives me the side eye. She wasn't going to live that down any time soon.
"Hmm come on." I giggled and hailed a cab as we both clambered in.
"Queens please." I told the driver so off we went.

"Here." I told the driver so he stopped and I handed him his bills.
"Come on Al." I smile and grab her hand.
"Where are we going?" She asked, frowning. Confused.
"Just come on." I continued to smile and walked her to the sidewalk beside the Hudson with railing dividing it from us. When I was here before, sitting against this fence with my depressing non-alcoholic wine and burger, I thought to myself how romantic this would actually be if only there was someone I could enjoy it with. Back then, I didn't know if I was here or there with Larry and as for Alex, well, just look at our history. But, with time, it turns out Alex was the one I was supposed to show this to.
I stopped at the exact spot I had been sitting at.
"God Pipes. It's like our first date all over again." Alex breathed taking in the views of Manhattan, leaning on the fence and taking my hand again as she rubbed it.
"That's exactly what I was thinking when I was here before." I tell her, looking at her. Both of us lovingly smiling and stepping closer into each other, resting our heads together, gazing out at the view.
"Alex?" I start.
"Hmm?" She hums in answer, not wanting to ruin the moment.
"Thank you for that with Vanessa. You didn't have to." I tell her again. I was truly grateful. For that and for her.
"Yes I did. She hurt you and that is our club. It would be like me letting Jessica in." She turned away from the view to look at me. That was true.
"Fair point." I smiled and continued,
"Remember when you were out on probation living in Queens and I said I was there too?"
She turned to lean against the fence to face me sideways on.
"Yeah, about that. Please explain." She asks.
"Ok well my grandma died so Healy gave me furlough. Well, after the funeral, Cal married Neri... at the wake. I came here to escape the madness that is my family and sat on this exact spot with non-alcoholic wine and a burger."
Alex's eyes widened and she smiled lovingly at me again.
"What?" I ask.
"What exactly have I married into?" She laughs.
I laughed back, "Hey, you vowed to love me no matter what. Welcome to the family Al!"
She chuckled and turned back to look at the views again, shaking her head as she giggled.
"You and your burgers Pipes." She laughed.
"Hey well what about you and your cheese!" I poked back.
She opened her mouth in a smile,
"Me and my cheese?" She asks.
"Yes, you and your cheese! Hmmm...Let me think, back in prison when I wanted a burger, I believe it was you that wanted extra cheese on yours! Also, pizza thief, what is on pizza? Cheese." I finish victoriously.
She turned to me, smiling and grabbed both of my hands, one in each of hers.
"I love you." She simply said.
I grinned,
"I love you too."
"Okay, I also want to show you something." She said wrapping an arm around my waist and walking me further down the sidewalk.
After a few minutes of walking we came to a pretty run down apartment building.
"This is the shithole they put me in when I was on probation." Alex sighed.
"Are you kidding me Al?!" I ask in horror, surprise and disappointment. Kubra could've easily gotten to her in there. Seeing it made my decision to plant her firmly back in prison even better in my eyes even if she did eventually have Aydin sneak in as a guard and try to kill her. It definitely delayed it going by the look of this place. Also, how could the system be so cruel?! They might as well have shoved the love of my life in a shoe box.
"Unfortunately no." She said.
"Alex?! I can't believe how close we were back then! You said no one came to visit you, if I had of known where you were, you would've had one visitor." I say, smiling.
"Would you? You didn't answer my letters for a long fucking time. I wasn't giving up on you though. You weren't shaking me that easily. I must say, I didn't know you had that much will power Pipes, I thought you'd be at least curious." She says as we walked back to the river to go home, hands linked and fingers intertwined once more.
"I was trying to avoid you. I was mad at you for screwing me over in Chicago. I was giving you the silent treatment because I know how much you LOVE that. But yes, of course I was curious, Nicky asked me the same thing, she almost won your little game for you." I tell her.
She smirks,
"Hmm how so? I must thank her for that the next time I see her." She quips.
"Well, at breakfast one morning, she found me staring at one of your letters while I was eating. She wanted to know how furlough was and if I'd brought her back a T-Shirt. I showed her your letter and I believe her exact words were "Holy shit dude.""
Alex laughed as I continued,
"She then asked, "Well what does it say?" Then proceeded to imitate you."
Alex let out a noise that was half a laugh half a gasp, "Pft what?! What did she do?!"
"Put on what she thinks your voice sounds like then said "Hey girl, sorry I fucked you over in Chicago, it was for your own good, let me lick your pussy."" I tell her.
She laughed, "Well, she wasn't wrong. That was basically the gist of your Valentines letter that I sent you."
"Oh, well how romantic Al. Good thing I threw it away then isn't it?"
"Well I put cute love stuff in it too but nice to know you threw it away Pipes." She said in a tone that sounded hurt.
"Oh come on Al. I was mad at you."
"Yeah and I guess it was for a good reason." She sadly smiled back.
"What else did your Valentines letter say?" I ask her, really wanting to know.
"I said that if they had come through with what I asked about getting you released too, we could've run away to Fiji or Iceland together and live the life we have now. I wasn't about to let them know that I was still rich though. I also threw in a flashback for you about our sexy time in Cambodia together." She tells me smiling and winks.
I went pink.
"Cambodia really was an amazing time." I smiled.
"It was." She smiled back.
By this point we had gotten back to where I wanted to show her, we walked a bit further down and passed a restaurant that had outdoor seating with its door open so the waiting staff could serve the customers sitting outside. Boyce Avenue's cover of Katy Perry's 'One That Got Away' was playing on their sound system and Alex stiffened.
"What's wrong babe?" I ask looking at her.
"Oh, nothing, it's just, I had that song on loop when you left me in Paris." She sighs.
I didn't know how to feel about her revelation. If I didn't feel bad enough about that it was like Alex was thinking up new ways to remind me how I'd broken her heart but I knew that wasn't her intention, she was simply opening herself more to me. We were Mrs and Mrs now and even if we weren't, she didn't have to or need to hide anything from me. I would always be here to listen to her.