The Internship

Chapter 1:

Doorstops & Favors

Piper awoke to the soft sound of her alarm around 6:30 AM. It was summer, it was Monday, and it was the first day of her new internship. After months of filling out applications and being called in for numerous interviews, the young blonde had finally landed a summer position at a publishing company in New York City.

The floor of her apartment creaked as she excitedly got ready for her first day 'on the job'. After getting cleaned up, she curled her shoulder length, blonde hair into loose waves and slipped into the clothes she had ironed the night before. After serious deliberation, she had decided on a simple black pencil skirt that ended right above her knees. She accompanied the skirt with a white button down blouse. Since the blouse was pretty thin, she had decided to cover the blouse with her black blazer. After finishing her makeup to what she had deemed "perfection", or "light, but noticeable" as her best friend Polly had told her would be best, she looked at the clock by her bedside.

"Fuck!" It was already 7:30 and she was going to be late if she didn't leave now. The young woman ran out her door, slipping on her heels and grabbing her clutch in the process. She bounced down the stairs of the apartment building as quickly as she could. 'What a way to start the day…'

The walk to work was hurried, but uneventful. She had managed to snag a cup of tea from a shop on the way, which she was extremely thankful for since she had forgotten her mug at home. The office building she was looking for now engulfed her in its shadow as she stood outside. Glancing at her watch before entering, she smiled. '10 'til, no problem'

The ground floor of the building was packed with professional looking people. The majority of them were engrossed in their phones. Piper assumed they were looking at important emails and what not. She was so excited to finally get into actually doing work instead of writing college papers and taking exams. Piper glanced around the floor looking for the elevator. She had to stand on her toes to see over the bustling people.

"Ooof," a grunt escaped her lips as she felt the door behind her suddenly dig into her shoulder blade. She stumbled a bit before catching herself. A hand had just grasped her wrist, shocking her with static, as she had regained her balance.

"You should really be more careful about where you decide to stand," a raspy voice spoke from over Piper's left shoulder. The hand left her wrist as she turned to apologize.

"Sorry. Yeah, I…," Pipers breathing hitched as she took in the figure in front of her. "I- I was looking for the elevator." She finally forced out. A tall, fair skinned, dark haired woman stood before her. The woman's hair flowed down, framing her face in light waves and leading down to her hour glass frame. The woman wore a black leather jacket, dark skinny jeans, and strappy black heels.

"Earth to door stop," the hand that had been previously on Piper's wrist was now waving in front of her face. Piper had no idea she had been staring until now. 'Shit. Those eyes though…they have to be contacts.'

Piper ran her hair through her hair, pushing it back and attempting to regain a little control over herself. She let her gaze follow some random person she saw walking through the window.

"Sorry, I saw someone I know… I think…" Piper gave the woman a slight smile, hoping to have covered up her staring and hiccup in normalcy. The smirk she had received in return squashed those hopes immediately.

"Uh huh. Well… elevator's that way," the woman pulled her thick framed glasses off of the top of her head, causing some of her hair to fall into her face, and used them to point toward Piper's right before slipping them onto the bridge of her nose. Her gaze never left Piper's.

"Oh, thank you!" Piper glanced toward the elevator and then to her watch. How long had she been standing there? It felt like an eternity. 'It's only been three minutes?! This watch has to be slow.' Piper glanced back up to the woman to find that she was walking away from her. Their eyes locked one last time as the beauty glanced back at her over her shoulder. The eye contact made Piper jump and divert her eyes again as she scurried to the elevator. 'Well, that was... interesting...'

Alex Vause, editor for the Big Apple Publishing Company, sat in her 18th floor office, gazing out of the window at the people squabbling on the ground below.

She often wondered how she had ended up in this position. All of her young life, she had assumed her life would be one big crazy adventure when she left home, but as it stood right now, her life was fairly boring.

Yeah, she went out with friends often, and yes, she lived in New York City, but she felt like something was missing still. The woman took a sip of her coffee as she heard her phone buzz.

From: UNKNOWN

Left the key under the mat. Thanks for the night ;) Call me sometime.

Amy

Alex chuckled a bit. 'So Amy was her name, huh?' She hadn't recalled much from the night before when she woke up this morning, but it wasn't like that was new to Alex. She responded to the text with a quick and polite thank you, mainly to keep the random person satisfied until she was able to retrieve her key. After all, she didn't want her place ransacked by some angry one-night stand she picked up at a bar.

She tossed her phone back on her desk and logged into her computer to check her emails before her attention was drawn by a knock on the door.

"Alex, have a sec?" her manager asked from the door frame.

"Sure, Ben. What's up?" She had a pretty good relationship with Ben. They were friends in the office prior to his promotion and they still went out together for drinks with some of the other editors after work.

"Well, I've got a favor to ask…" he stalled, walking into her office and standing near the other chair.

"Uh huh. Go on." She turned to him, leaning back in her chair with her arms crossed over her chest and her legs crossed. Smirking, she knew he would owe her for whatever he was about to ask by the cautious behavior he was currently exhibiting.

"Okay, look, I know you hate interns. But, Destiny isn't in this week and I completely forgot she had scheduled vacation when I assigned this girl to her for the summer. Could you fill in for the week? You'd only have to show her the ropes." Ben spoke quickly, obviously hoping she'd say yes on accident with no strings attached. Alex was all for no strings attached in most of her life's aspects, but not when it came to favors for friends at work. Especially friends who had more authority than she had.

She shook her head and laughed, playing Ben.

"Looks like you really fucked up this time, Chief. Don't expect me to bail you out of your screw ups every single time," Alex turned back to her computer. '3…2…'

"Come on, Al! I'll buy drinks next time we all go out. Please?" Alex scrunched her face in a way that said "is that all you've got?" Ben huffed.

"Fuck," he whispered to himself. Alex chuckled. "Fine," Ben started after a pause, "I'll add another two days off, paid, to your calendar for this quarter."

Score. Alex always won.

"So, who's the victim?" she turned back to Ben who would've kissed her had he not known that the fierce woman would slug him for it. Playfully, of course, but she had an arm on her.

"You're a fucking life saver, Vause," he breathed a sigh of relief. Alex was smirking and couldn't help herself at this point. She loved when she got her way, but she loved it even more when the losing party knew that they had been duped.

"Did you really think I wouldn't help you out, chief?" She laughed while Ben just shook his head in disbelief.

"You're evil, Vause. There's something really twisted up there," he stated as he tapped his temple and left her office, laughing.

Alex nodded in agreement, still humored by Ben and his lack of organization, as well as his inability to read Alex. But, really, who could? Besides maybe her best friend, Nicki. And that was only on occasion.

The editor's phone chimed, alerting her of a new email. Ben had forwarded the Intern-Manager meeting calendar invitation. She looked at the scheduled time: 10 AM. She still had another hour. Before diving into her work, Alex opted for finishing her coffee and taking in all that was NYC through her window. The streets were less crowded now that people were finally getting settled into their daily routines. With that thought, her mind drifted to the blonde that she had hit with the door this morning.

'Who was she?'

A/N: Thank you for reading the first chapter in my first OITNB fanfic. I'm currently in withdrawals after finishing the second season much too quickly. Thankfully, this idea popped into my head and nagged me until I started writing it down. I will try to update every few nights until it is completed (probably two chapters at a time), so stay tuned if you enjoy it so far. As always, please review.