A/N: Hello to those still reading.

This is the final chapter of this little soiree so I hope you enjoy it. Thanks to everyone who reviewed and followed etc, much appreciated as per. I may have another story in the pipeline, but if you've got any thoughts for something, then either PM me or drop it in a review and I'll give it some thought.

But for now, here's the finale, so please indulge.

…

Rochelle asks her if everything is ok the next day. She places a crate of beer on the bar top ready to re-stock the fridge. 'Just that you kinda left in a hurry.'

'Oh, I um… had somewhere I needed to be….you know how it is sometimes…' She tails off, grinning, hoping it won't require any further explanation.

'Uh huh. Something to do with the girlfriend?' Rochelle says, raising an eyebrow.

'No comment.'

'Your 'no comment,' is telling me a whole heap.'

'Yeah? Like what exactly?'

Rochelle shakes her head and laughs. 'You know, acting coy doesn't suit you one bit.'

'Shhhh, it's all I got for you right now.'

'I suppose it will have to do then huh?' Then she pauses, turns to face Alex more fully and there's a palpable shift in the air, as if it's suddenly become a little oppressive.

'Hey, I hope you don't think I'm being out of line here, but…'

'It's a little early for the heavy stuff, go easy on me,' Alex says, grabbing a couple of bottles from the crate and sliding them into the open fridge.

Rochelle laughs softly. 'No, nothing like that, just that I got the impression your girlfriend didn't really like me?'

'Piper?' Alex says, not knowing what else to add.

'Yeah, I dunno, maybe I got it wrong? Just a vibe I got.'

There's another pause, it feels more suffocating than the first, as if it's pressing directly on Alex's chest.

'She doesn't think…you and me…?' Rochelle says, looking so fiercely at Alex that the brunette isn't sure if it's safe to look away.

'What? No! God no!' she says in one fraught exhale, wondering exactly where this train of thought is coming from. And Piper hadn't been jealous really had she? Her comment the night before was nothing more than a playful jest, based on nothing at all.

And then she remembers Chloe. And the Autumn she spent alone.

'Sorry, I hope I didn't step out of line, but I just want you to know that nothing would happen.'

'What?' Alex says a mixture of grim confusion and alarm seeping into her voice, making it sound a little ragged, impolite. But she figures now is not the time for manners. She hasn't been busting her ass trying to fix things with Piper to have some irrelevant complication encroach on things.

Rochelle appears to shrink back slightly. She licks her lips and swallows hard. 'I just meant…'

'It doesn't matter what you meant,' Alex interrupts, her tone failing to soften, 'like it's really fucking irrelevant.'

Adrenalin is coursing through her so powerfully it's making her legs feel less than steady, but she's on a roll now, not certain she can make herself stop.

'I don't know what you've got in your head, maybe you misinterpreted something I said…or did…maybe we've been spending too much time working together, I don't fucking know, but I'm with Piper…. for keeps. You get that right?'

Rochelle nods slowly, as if she's afraid of making any sudden movements. 'I'm sorry,' she says. It's barely audible, but Alex's mind is trapped in the slow, flickering images of that Autumn and so sympathy isn't registering.

'You can't just go around saying shit like that, it's not cool.' She barely pauses for breath before she continues. 'Words have consequences okay? People misunderstand stuff.'

She's not looking directly at Rochelle, she's looking over her shoulder into the distance, watching a couple staring into a jewelry store window across the road.

And then the phone rings and she disappears into the back office to answer it. It's the supplier. They tell her the order is going to be delivered later than usual and she finds herself agreeing to something that she can't remember once she's replaced the receiver.

She slumps down in the chair. Her breathing feels normal again, her head a little clearer and she wonders when her fear of losing Piper became so powerful. After all, what had Rochelle really said?

She walks back into the bar, the fridge has been re-stocked, the crate lying empty on the floor.

'Hey,' she says to Rochelle who's stood slicing a basket of limes into wedges.

'Hey,' she mumbles, not even looking up. And Alex suddenly feels like a massive asshole.

'Look, I'm sorry if I went off at you earlier, just that Piper and I….well we've been through kind of a rough patch, we're just fixing stuff and I don't want anything getting in the way of that.'

Silence.

'I guess I just overreacted or something, I'm sorry okay.'

Silence.

'Christ Rochelle, what do you want from me, I said I'm sorry okay?'

'You're a fucking asshole,' Rochelle says, but it lacks bite and sounds more sullen, like a child having a tantrum.

'Well you're not the first to say that, and I'm damn sure you won't be the last,' Alex grins.

And then Rochelle laughs and it feels like progress.

'I hope Piper knows what she's let herself in for with a lifetime of you.' Rochelle says tossing a lime at Alex's head, which she only just manages to catch.

Alex thinks there's something really satisfying about hearing someone say it out loud like that.

A lifetime.

…

When she gets home it's past midnight. She checks in on Olivia, watching the gentle rise and fall of her chest in the pale pink light cast by her night lamp and wonders what she's dreaming about. 'I hope it's something good kiddo,' she whispers into the shadows, before creeping back downstairs.

'Piper's pouring them both a larger than normal glass of wine.

'Rough day?' she asks the blonde, pointing to the generous measures.

'Kinda,' she replies, but doesn't elaborate. 'You?'

'Same,' Alex says, 'but hey, I think I've got enough money to cover the stock I lost, finally.'

'Oh,' Piper replies, handing Alex a glass. And then a strange silence hangs awkwardly in the air, as if they're both too frightened to press any further, worried where the thread of conversation will lead. After all, they've worked so hard to get back here and it still feels fragile, as if the bones of them need to be fleshed out a little.

But it's Piper that tugs at it first, when they're sat on the couch, feeling soothed by the wine, ignoring the replay of some black and white movie that neither of them can quite recall.

'You know, maybe in weird way we both needed this break?'

'What, you mean like a hole in the fucking head?' Alex says, a bark of laughter punctuating the end of the sentence.

'Funny, but you know what I mean.'

Alex takes a deep sip of wine, feeling a layer of tension unraveling itself as it begins to warm her blood.

'Actually Pipes, I really don't, because honestly, these last few months have been some of the worst of my life.'

It's so sincere that for a second Piper almost doesn't want to add anything, because it feels as though she doesn't have the courage to offer something just as honest. But then she figures she didn't start this conversation just to chicken out when it matters most, so she takes another swig of the Merlot and carries on.

'You know, there's a whole world out there,' she says nodding towards the window. 'A myriad of possibilities, opportunities we haven't grasped, people we haven't even met.'

'Is this your way of telling me you're moving and you're taking on a new identity?' Alex grins.

Humour, humour has always been her friend…protector, because it doesn't matter if there's a punch-line.

Why did the chicken cross the road?

'Al, please, listen,' the blonde says half wondering when the timer runs out on her feeling even slightly brave. 'What I need you to really understand, what I'm trying so horribly to say, is that it doesn't matter what's out there, who or what, because it only means something if you're there with me. You and Liv. Otherwise it's just particles and dust. Empty.'

Alex stares down at her glass, realising there's only one mouthful left at the most and wondering how she didn't notice she was drinking it so quickly. A warm hum seems to be settling on her skin, making her feel more human than she has for a while.

'So what are you saying exactly?' she finally adds, when the words have stopped jangling around her brain and she can pin them into some sort of cohesion.

'I'm saying,' Piper replies, softer now, her voice almost liquid, 'that I nearly lost you, our family and nothing is worth that.'

'Not even another baby?' Alex says, so quickly, that it's almost a full second before she realises the words have graced her lips, breath jammed awkwardly in her chest, a mix of hope and dread.

'Nothing,' Piper says smiling, placing her glass on the floor. She leans forward, kisses Alex gently on the lips and repeats, 'nothing.' Except it's firmer this time, as if the proximity to Alex's flesh is reviving her somehow.

They're flanked by a puppet show of shadows, cast from the refractions of the TV and Alex half imagines that it's another them, formed in another time and place, maybe with a different ending.

'But you were so set on the idea of another baby,' she finally says, when she's sure she's processed the information correctly, that Piper is saying that she is enough, she and Liv and the life they've worked so hard to cultivate are enough. The thought is sending her a little giddy and she's not sure it's entirely down to the booze.

'Maybe I've just realised that I was chasing something so hard, an idea that was only partially evolved, that I was ignoring what I could already touch.'

And then she kisses Alex again, but this time it lingers and she winds her fingers through the brunette's hair, almost as if she's fighting for traction, worried that she will dissipate around her if she doesn't.

'I love you,' she whispers, in a wet, half shudder. And it's then that Alex realises that the blonde is crying. So they sit like that for a little while, allowing the silence to soothe them, arms wrapped tightly around one another, as if they're marooned at sea on a sole life raft.

By the time the credits roll around on the TV screen, Alex realises Piper has fallen asleep on her shoulder. And all she can do is smile to herself and thank whatever is looking out for them.

…

'Mom, can I tell you a secret?' Olivia says to Alex, as they sit on the park bench eating ice creams. Oliva has some on the tip of her nose, but Alex thinks it's adorable, so she doesn't bother pointing it out.

'Sure kiddo, shoot.'

'I'm really glad we're all living together again.'

'Me too Liv,' Alex smiles.

'So next time Grandma and Grandpa want to spent more time with me, can you come too?'

'It's ok baby, I promise that won't happen again,' she says, the guilt of the excuse they'd given the little girl, poking at the flesh of the wound.

'Sure?'

'Absolutely,' she says, holding Olivia close.

And then it begins to snow.

…

Piper comes home from work and finds the brunette cooking dinner in the kitchen. She stands in the door-way and watches Alex, glasses on top of her head, intently stirring a large pot, spice tinged steam billowing around her. And it makes her heart feel like a warm fuzzy thing, that she's long lost control over.

She walks up behind her, wraps her arms around the brunette's waist and kisses her neck.

'Careful,' Alex says without turning around, 'my girlfriend will be back soon.'

'Asshole,' Piper says grinning. She releases Alex and examines the bubbling pot.

'What's cooking?'

'Curry,' Alex says.

'And Liv agreed to eat that?' Piper replies, only partially joking.

'Liv's at Polly's'

'So that means…'

'Place to ourselves,' Alex says, turning to face the blonde.

'Jackpot.'

'I aim to please,' the brunette says kissing Piper firmly, hungrily as if she's planning on devouring her whole.

'Maybe we should pace ourselves, we have all night,' Piper replies, pulling away breathlessly. But her conviction is already wavering.

And then she spots a large cardboard box next to the dining table. 'I thought you took all the new stock down to the store?' She says to Alex.

'I did,' Alex replies.

'So what's that?'

'I dunno, can you take a look? I need to keep an eye on the food,' Alex says, turning back to the stove.

'Oh, now you need to keep an eye on the curry,' Piper says rolling her eyes.

'Just do it…please?' Alex replies adding a teaspoon of something to the pot.

'Alright,' Piper says, lifting the box onto the table and flipping it open. There's half a dozen or so T-shirts wrapped in cellophane, some band she's never heard of, but resting on top is a small, blue jewellery box. Instinctively she snaps it open and there, nestled in the centre is her grandmother's engagement ring.

She spins around so quickly, she almost crashes straight into Alex, who is now standing right behind her.

'Al….my grandmother's ring…you got it restored…one of the stone's was missing….'

'I did, Carol said she wanted you to have it when…'

'When…?'

'Listen, I've not done this before, so if this is less than perfect then forgive me okay? And maybe if I didn't smell of curry right now, then that would help too, but me and you, we've never really been conventional right? So why should that change?'

And then she laughs and all the nervousness comes crashing around her all at once, like a series of dominoes. She coughs and attempts to steady herself, all the while the blonde stood in front of her, frozen to the spot.

'Piper Elizabeth Chapman….will you marry me?'

The silence might only have lasted a few seconds, tops, the brunette couldn't say for certain, but it seems to stretch out so long that Alex isn't sure the blood pounding in her ears is ever going to stop.

'Yes!' the blonde finally says, looking at Alex, the ring and then Alex again. 'Yes of course I will.'

And then they kiss and it slides into something else-something visceral, something borrowed and something new.