New Beginning

She'd been staring up into this ceiling more times than she could count over the past years. She knew every rivet and every crack. Over the last week she'd found herself staring up there throughout most of the night. She'd gotten so used to having a little person on her chest, a little heart pounding in sync with her own, that she was now unable to sleep without it.

It was daytime now, but it was all the same to her. What did it matter, now that everything was as fucked up as it could ever be? She closed her eyes and thought back to a time when life seemed easy. She could see it all: Herself, young and beautiful, and with long, brown hair all the way down to her waist. Sunday afternoons in the park with Dmitri and the boys. Maxim learning to ride his bike, Yuri begging for a second ice cream, and Vasily falling asleep in his pushchair. Dmitri holding her hand while going on and on about the new restaurant he wanted to start up.

Where had it all gone? Dmitri was dead, the little boys were all grown up and scattered all over the place. Vasily was heading to prison; he was about to be sent into the same kind of shithole she'd been living in for all these years. And now, Nadia was gone too.

She couldn't help but to let a few tears escape the corners of her eyes. Her and Dmitri's little girl was going to be raised by strangers.

"Red, they're calling your name." It was Gina, walking up to her cubicle. "You'd better go."

"I don't want to." Quite frankly, she didn't see the point of getting up ever again.

"Come on, Bell's on duty. You don't wanna get yourself into trouble."

Red sighed deeply, as she crawled out of bed, and headed towards the corridor.

"You have a visitor." Bell informed her when she reached the end of the hall.

"It's not visitation day. And I'm not expecting anybody," Red grunted.

"Well, this visitor's a bit out of the ordinary. You can have the visitation room all to yourselves." Bell opened the door behind her to let Red see who was waiting for her in there. It was Piper.

"What are you doing here?" Red asked, as the guard closed the door, leaving the two women to themselves.

"Nicky called me." Piper put her hands in the pockets of her jeans. It was strange for Red to see her in clothes from the outside world, but she didn't comment on it. "Not just Nicky. First it was Sophia, then Lorna. Then Poussey, and Gina, and then Ingalls and Mendoza. When Nicky actually called me herself, I was already on my way out the door. I knew I had to talk to you."

"Talk to me about what?" Red was confused. Why hadn't Nicky told her that she'd been in touch with Chapman?

"About your little girl." Piper smiled. "They all say she's beautiful. I never got to say "congratulations" before I left."

"Well, as you know, you were right the whole time." Red averted her eyes. "I couldn't hide her. They've taken her from me."

"Yes. That's what's Nicky wanted to talk to me about." Piper hesitated a bit before she continued. "You know… When I got out of here, my life was kinda shit. My ex was just about to marry my former best friend. My parents kept complaining that I'd changed while I was inside. I tried telling them that that's the whole point, that being in prison does that to people. But they just went on and on about how I'd be back to my own self in no time, and how I could stay with them for as long as I liked and how I could take a year of sabbatical and that there's plenty of fish in the sea and… After about a week I couldn't take it anymore. I took off."

"And?" Red wondered where Piper was going with her story.

"I got a job at little shop where they sell and fix electrical appliances." Piper smiled. "Ironic, huh? All those hours with my nose buried in Luschek's dusty manuals actually paid off in the end. I was the only applicant who knew how to fix a panel, so I got hired on the spot. And I'm renting a place. It's in Brooklyn Heights. It's not huge, but it has two bedrooms."

Red's face displayed a hope that she didn't quite dare to believe in.

"Do you mean…?"

"Nicky had it all worked out when she called me. I've never heard her so determined before. She'll sleep on my couch, and we'll make the spare bedroom a nursery. I'll go to work, she'll stay at home until Nadia can go into daycare, and then she'll get a job, too. I'm pretty sure CPS would allow it, since I've only got one sentence on my record, and I've got a steady income and…"

Piper stopped talking as Red put her arms around her, and hugged her tight.

"So, in signing this contract, you two are taking on the full responsibility of the upbringing of Mrs. Reznikov's child, awaiting her release five years from now." The man from CPS was young, and apparently new at the job. He read every word directly from the piece of paper he was holding; evidently worried that he would forget something.

"And with your signature, Mrs. Reznikov, you confirm that you willingly let them take on that responsibility."

The three women where gathered in Mr. Caputo's office, with them on one side of the desk, and the warden's assistant and the caseworker on the other. Nicky had just said her goodbyes to everyone inside, and was both excited and nervous to be leaving with Piper. The new shirt and pants that she had on weren't quite her size, she wasn't used to wearing sneakers instead of prison boots, and the idea that she'd never seen the apartment that would be her home from now on scared her a bit, but she tried not to let it show.

"Yes, I understand," Red confirmed. "So, no Mr. Smith today, then?" She tried to sound as innocent as she could.

"No, Smith's off duty for the time being. His house burned down, and he didn't have insurance, so he's moving back to his mother in Virgina." The young man smiled. "I'll be taking over some of his cases on a permanent basis, so in a way the whole thing worked out well for me!" He suddenly made a face as he realized that he might have said too much. "Oh, crap, now I've gone and shared information about a co-worker. I've probably broken some kind of confidentiality rule. Shit! And now I've said "crap" and "shit" while on duty. I'm screwing this up on my first day big-time, aren't I?"

Caputo and the three women all had to smile.

"You're not doing too bad," Red assured him, while making a mental note to send her thanks to Ganya.

"Thanks! Well, if either of you have any questions or whatever, just give me a call." The man gathered up the documents from everyone. Then he turned to Nicky and Piper. "You can pick the girl up from the home today, before 5 p.m. . I gave you the address, right?"

"Yup." Piper sent him a smile that made him blush, and he quickly turned to Mr. Caputo to hide it.

"Uhm, I just need to get some copies of these and then we're all set."

"Sure." Caputo got up. "I'll show you where to go. You ladies can just wait in here for a moment."

"So…" Nicky felt relaxed enough to speak once the two men had left the room. "I guess it's official. We're gonna play house."

"You know, when you sleep in a room full of people for a year, and then suddenly you have a home all to yourself, it feels like you're all alone in the world. I've missed hearing other people snore, believe it or not!" Piper said.

"No worries, you won't miss it anymore. I snore like an old, asthmatic dog," Nicky promised. "And Nadia does too, but not as loud. More like a bunny, or a kitten. It's the cutest little sound."

"I can't wait to see her," Piper grinned. Then she glanced over at Red and quickly wiped the smile off her face. "I mean… I don't want…"

"It's OK. I'm happy you'll get to see her, too," Red assured her. "I wish I could get her myself, but I can't, so I'm glad you girls will."

"You know, when I came to tell you I'd be up for this, I was kinda thinking you might not be on board," Piper admitted.

"Why wouldn't I be?" Red wondered.

"Well, we ended on bad terms. And I guess… I guess I never really got into your gang. I was never one of your girls."

"You are, now." Red smiled. "And I think you were well on your way to becoming one back then, too. You know, if you hadn't gotten all stubborn and hard to handle." She winked slyly. Then she looked over at Nicky. "Seriously. You two girls, you both have that in you. You stand up for what you believe in and you don't take crap from others. And that's why you are going to make great role models for Nadia."

"Oh please, don't use hippie-words like that. I hate it." Nicky smirked. "Can't we just skip that crap? We promise to take good care of your kid, and bring her by here as often as we can, and to try and not flush her down the toilet when it's three o'clock in the morning and she won't stop crying. Right, Chapman? Or maybe I'll start have to start calling you Piper from now on."

"Right. We promise." Piper agreed.

Red smiled.

"OK. That'll do."

"Is it true? Is it for real?" The little brown-haired girl was jumping up and down while holding Piper's hand. "Mama's coming home with us today?"

"It's true." Piper looked over at Nicky, who was closing up the car. "See, I told you we should wait to tell her. If we had said something yesterday, she wouldn't have slept all night."

"Where is Mama going to sleep?" Nadia wondered, as Nicky came over to them, and all three began walking towards the prison building.

"In your room, on a fold out bed. Then later, whenever a four-bedroom becomes available, we're next on the list," Piper explained.

"We can afford that?" Nadia looked up at her with a skeptical face.

"Yeah. We can afford that, now. Finally, " Piper said, as she winked at Nicky.

"You know, if anyone had told me five years ago that one day 'College' Chapman and I would own and run an appliance shop, I'd never have believed them," Nicky giggled.

"Yeah, I wouldn't have bet money on that either," Piper agreed. "Nor on the fact that one day, Nicky Nichols would enter into an elementary school PTA."

"Jeez, you still on that? I told you, my mouth was full of spring roll, and then, boom, I was elected."

"Don't start. I just managed to stop laughing like 15 minutes ago."

They had reached the main door now, and Nicky grabbed Nadia and lifted her up to the telecom. "You know the drill, kid."

Nadia pushed the button and shouted "Visitation for Reznikov!" into the microphone when someone answered at the other end. The lock in the huge sliding door buzzed, and Piper hurried to pull it open, while Nicky put Nadia back down so she could run inside.

Ford was guarding the gate behind the door. He smiled when he saw the little girl run towards him. "Today's the day, huh?"

"Yeah, my Mama's coming home!" Nadia beamed, as Nicky and Piper came up behind her.

"I know. Everybody in here knows. I don't think that woman has slept all week." He chuckled, and raised his walkie-talkie to his mouth. "Ford here. You can send Red out now."

Only a few seconds later, the gate opened. And there Red was, her hair freshly dyed and her nails newly painted. She didn't even get a chance to step through the opening before Nadia ran up to her and flung herself towards her waist.

"Mamochka!" the girl exclaimed as her mother lifted her up.

"Nadezhda!" Red held her daughter close as she stepped through the gate. This was it. She was leaving Litchfield Correctional Facility behind for good.

Author's note: That's it. The ending's a bit cute, maybe, but I was in the mood for some sugar today ;) Just for the record, I've been planning to end it like this since before I started on the first chapter. Thanks for all you nice reviews, I'm very grateful.