It was mid-morning in New York when the blonde turned her key in the lock of Alex’s loft. Her palms were sweaty and her heart was racing as she turned the knob. She wasn’t sure what she would find on the other side of the door so she took a deep breath and entered. The air inside the loft was still and quiet as if no one had been there in months, but she knew immediately that the brunette had been there recently because a number of outfits had been thrown about the bed as if the wearer had been uncertain of which to put on.

Piper checked the kitchen and the bathroom, but Alex obviously wasn’t home. The thought made her even more nervous because now she would have to wait and hope that Alex wasn’t staying in New Jersey. Sure, she could catch a train to Weehawken and be there in about a half an hour, but she felt that they really needed to talk in private, not surrounded by the brunette’s grieving family. So she sat. She sat on the couch in her dirty clothes and greasy hair with her rumpled suitcase on the floor beside her. She didn’t dare unpack. She wasn’t sure she would be staying once she and Alex talked.

She was close to falling asleep when she heard the lock being turned in the door. She jumped up rubbing her eyes and stood in front of the door as she caught a flash of dark hair. Alex caught her eye as she removed her key from the deadbolt. The expression on the brunette’s face was unreadable. As she closed the door she turned her back on the blonde and began kicking off her heels she asked, “What the fuck are you doing here?”

Piper shrugged even though she knew Alex wasn’t looking. She was afraid to speak for fear that she might not be able to. Alex hung her keys on the hook by the door and walked past the blonde without stopping as she made her way to the bedroom, “You look like shit by the way.”

Piper laughed despite the gravity of the situation and followed the brunette into the bedroom, “Thanks….I wanted to take a shower, but I was afraid you would come in before I was done.”