Hey everyone!

WARNING: this will include spoilers from Season 7, so don't read it if you don't want to have an indication as to what happens. I'll have another note at the end to prevent anyone from seeing anything they don't want to regarding the ending.

Enjoy!

Sitting in the confines of the all familiar visitation room reminds her of her heartbreak. It had taken her several days to stop the continual crying, to get out of bed, to even manage to get through to Alex. The brunette had finally answered her phone during the evening - a time in which Piper knew cells would be locked for the night, and as the older woman's bunkmate proved to be a heavy sleeper, it was the easiest way to talk. The conversation lasted for 10 minutes, filled with long silences and tearful voices. It was evident that the aftermath of their previous conversation has taken its emotional toll on both women, and despite the bad terms their relationship currently stood in, Piper managed to convince the brunette to turn up to visitation the following day.

She shuffles in her small, school-like chair as she watches several other inmates walk past the glass partition in front of her right up until her eyes finally set on Alex. In her blue uniform, the brunette takes a seat on her side of the glass and closes over her eyes as she feels Piper's gaze land on her face. The blonde clenches down on her jaw to prevent an onset of tears flooding from her eyes even before they've said a word to one another, and when Alex finally open hers back up, the watery lining covering her green orbs makes it all the more difficult to hold back her emotions.

Both women reach to grab the black, wired phone connected to the wall and hold it against their ears; the sound of one another's breathing the only thing passing through the line.

"Alex-" the blonde attempts to begin, the lump in her throat not allowing her to expand any further.

"Why're you here, Piper?" the brunette asks, not wanting to beat around the bush, and through her own glassy eyes, the blonde notes how exhausted her counterpart looks; her eyes have lost their usual spark, and the bags lining underneath suggest that the heavy mixture of endless crying and a significant lack of sleep hasn't been a healthy combination.

"I can't let you do this to us, Alex," she blurts out, her voice breaking as the older woman's name leaves her lips - an indication that she isn't going to be able to hold her cool for much longer.

"Pipes," the brunette begins, sighing as she lowers her head before restoring eye contact. "You deserve to be with someone good enough. Like you've said, you've ruined your life twice because of me - probably even more by now. You deserve to be with someone who isn't broken like me."

The blonde can no longer hold back her emotions as she feels a stream of tears begin to stain her cheeks, thinking back to the prior conversation she had recently had with her father about Alex being a broken individual.

"You are good enough for me, Alex," she counters. "You say you're broken, but I don't care about that. You're my broken person," she pauses, her voice once again breaking. "I'm broken too… but when I'm with you, it's like… it's like I'm no longer broken. I'm whole. I need you, Alex. I always have done, and I know I had some trouble admitting it to myself in the beginning, but I can't hide it anymore. I don't want to."

Seemingly stunned by what the blonde had voiced, the brunette pushes her glasses further up onto her nose - an unsuccessful attempt to hide the emotional build up in her eyes.

"But you're not here with me, Piper. How are you expecting me to make you whole when we can't even touch each other?" she says, waving a hand towards the glass barricade separating them. "We can't talk to each other every day, and we sure as hell can't see each other every day. Freedom is a chance to start again, and I'll regret it for the rest of my life if I don't give it to you."

"Al," Piper begins before a wave of sobs causes her free hand to cover her face. "I'm not leaving you," she continues, pulling her hand away as she tries to compose herself. "Not again. I know we can't see each other and talk every day of your sentence, but I'm not giving this up. I'd rather wait for the outcome of a lifetime of happiness. I'm not letting you do that."

"You've already found someone else that makes you happy, Piper. Someone that isn't me and that you admittedly have feelings for."

Sniffing her nose and leaning forward, the blonde does what she can only do considering their circumstances: beg.

"I know I said I had feelings for her, Alex, but I didn't say what those feelings entail," she begins, watching the woman before her stiffen at her response. "I'll admit that it feels nice to have that kind of revelation, but these feelings are nothing more than the makings of a high school-like crush. I can't lie to you about it, but what I need you to understand, is that these feelings don't even compare to what I have always felt for you. You're my wife, Alex. You're my partner, my companion. I love you. I don't just feel like kissing for 2 minutes behind the bike shed with you; I want forever with you. I want to come home to you and relive what it's like to love you and be loved back."

The brunette - now in a more visibly disturbed emotional state - pushes her hands up onto her head and covers the front of her glasses, almost as though attempting to hide despite the phone still in her grasp.

"I think you're forgetting that I'm being transferred, Piper, to Ohio. Your life is here in New York: your friends, your family, your job. You have a chance to live a stable life here without waiting around for the next few years."

"My life is wherever you are, Alex," the blonde answers rapidly. "I made a vow to wait for you, and whether that's 3 years or more, I have no intentions of breaking it. Do you remember what I said when I proposed to you in the bunker?" Piper asks, keeping her eyes trained on the woman's green ones in front of her as she delivers a voiceless nod. "We're doing this through love and pain. This is the painful part, and I meant every word I said to you. I'm not going to run away when things get painful anymore."

"And through beauty fish," the brunette replies, causing Piper's train of thought to fly out the window - momentarily stunned, but she immediately recognises what the other woman is alluding to. "I don't want us to keep hurting each other."

"That's why I'm here. I want to - I need to - show you that this is what I want. I don't need spiritual journeys, questionable friendships and some fancy job," Piper pauses, looking down as bends down her body to grab a piece of paper from the bag by her feet before unfolding it and pressing it up against the glass.

"An apartment building?" Alex questions, looking at the picture on the page then back to Piper's blue eyes. "I don't get it?"

"Read it," the blonde prompts, knowing the contents of the conversation had overwhelmed Alex's basic ability to catch on to what she's trying to say.

The left middle side of the page is mainly taken up by a selection of images of a basic apartment, but in looking at the description on the right and the layout of the page in which had been printed out, Piper watches Alex's eyes widen - a sign that she had figured out what message was trying to be conveyed.

"It's the best I could afford, but it's near my new job and, more importantly, it's only a 20 minute drive from you."

"Pipes-" Alex voices, her eyes again welling up at the sentiment of the woman before her.

"This is why I'm not letting you do this, Alex. I'll beg and plead as long as you want, but nothing you can say will make me change my mind."

"So you're moving?"

"To Ohio, yes. Like I said, Al, you aren't a detour from my life, you are my life. And if that means I need to take a detour in order to keep it that way with you still in it, that's what I'll do."

Not knowing how to even take in the information the blonde had given her, Alex - for the first time during the exchange - doesn't try to hide her emotions as her tears overwhelmingly make the focus of her eyes blurry, causing her to momentarily question whether she is even wearing her glasses as she feels the wetness paint over the surface of her cheeks.

Alex isn't too sure how long she'd spent staring at the blonde in front of her, but by the time she blinks rapidly and clears her vision, she observes Piper pulling the paper back down and folding it in half - the shining ring on her left hand evident as she rests the phone against her shoulder before restoring her grip back on the device.

"I couldn't take it off, you know," she eventually voices, using her left thumb to rub the white ring adorning her own ring finger.

Piper, looking down at Alex's hand, smiles at her wife, understanding what she's talking about.

"I know what I said last time was bad, but it doesn't mean I meant it," she continues, referring to her comments regarding their prison wedding. "I just wanted to give you the chance to step back while you still could."

"I know it's not a legal marriage, but it is to me in here," Piper explains, using her right hand to point to where she can feel her heart rapidly beating. "And that's all that matters; marriage is forever and I want that with you."

"I want that to," the brunette reveals - for the first time announcing how she really feels about their situation. "And I'm not just saying that to make you feel better. I wanted to do what I thought was best for you - for us - from where I am locked away in here, but I came to realise that although I was doing the right thing morally, it wasn't what I wanted deep down inside," Alex explains, causing Piper's eyes to unsurprisingly begin to once again tear up.

The blonde's eyes are caught by the sight of an officer walking past the inmates - generally a sign that the visitation time is soon coming to an end.

"It'll be our clean slate. We deserve it," she smiles, for the first time feeling satisfied that whatever she's saying isn't something Alex is trying to fight against.

"You're something else, Piper Vause-Chapman," the brunette too says through a smile, having never in a million years expected their conversation to have reached this outcome.

"God, I love hearing you call me that," Piper says through a deep voice, throwing her head back before lowering her eyes back to deliver a genuine look of happiness.

"Are you sure you want this?" Alex asks for the final time, giving Piper one last chance to bring a pause to the ongoing merry-go-round that is their relationship.

"I've never been so sure about anything before, Al. I love you and I'll do anything to show you that you're everything I need."

Piper smiles as she watches Alex lower her head as - what looks like - a light reddening tinge starts to cover her cheeks.

"I should start to get going, kid."

"Can I call you tomorrow?"

"I'm getting rid of my phone before I leave in a few days. I'll see how much money I have to do it on a cell block phone, but don't panic if you don't hear from me."

Placing her hand up against the glass, Piper anticipates movement from her wife opposite her, and as she watches Alex also raise her hand onto the glass in line with hers, she gives off a toothy smile - feeling happiness that - for the first time since their marriage ceremony - indicates that everything between them is finally going to be okay.

Heading back to her near empty cell, Alex sits on the edge of her bed and stares at the wall in front of her. She'd been nervous about seeing Piper again - worried that she was to admit that breaking up was what she really wanted, but as she reminds herself that Piper wanted to fight for their relationship - their marriage, Alex allows herself to smile - something she hadn't done within the confines of her cell during the spell in which Piper had been released.

Reaching under the bed, her hand brushes against a large, brownish-orange envelope. She couldn't bring herself to throw it away - just like she couldn't force herself to take off her wedding ring, and as she peels back the sealed opening and reaches inside, her heart clenches as she reads some of the many slips of paper Piper had written - all tokens of numerous reasons of love.

Because you know how I like my coffee in the morning.

Because you taught me that cleaning hardwood floors is better and more time consuming than doing so with a stained carpet.

Because you don't complain about the fact that I banned you from wearing socks in bed.

Chuckling to herself, Alex reaches in and picks out the noticeably larger piece of paper that she had placed inside the envelope after previously having had it stuck up on the wall opposite her bed. It's a picture of Piper smiling into the camera with her blonde hair tied up and her body adorning a white patterned blouse and a yellow cardigan. The blonde had printed it out and sent it over in the very first letter she had written many months ago, and in what was another thing she couldn't bring herself to do after their last visitation, Alex hadn't thrown it away.

The small message of love that had been written at the bottom by her wife in black marker pen makes her smile, and as she runs her right hand over the image, Alex can't help but think that maybe this whole journey has all been worthwhile; maybe change isn't as bad as it seems.

I hope this wasn't too cliché to read, but I felt as though there was something missing between the final visitation and the last scene of Alex and Piper in the show that I wanted to visualise.

Personally, the way in which the show ended wasn't something I entirely expected. I didn't really feel the sense of satisfaction and finality I'd been craving for throughout the seven seasons, but after a few days and actually reflecting over the symbolism of the ending - the last episode in particular, I guess I can't really complain about the overall message that's been left for us to ponder and imagine.

I'm not too sure whether I'll continue this as a mini story, take some suggestions for a few chapters, or just leave it here as it is. Please let me know what you think in the reviews - I'm curious about what people think of this as well as how the show ended!