Alex paused outside of the large yellow door, smoothing her thumb back and forth over her wife's skin. Her breathing was shaky and shallow, and her hands were trembling. This was the Alex that she worked so hard to keep hidden; the one with fears, doubts. Piper was one of the only people who had seen her like this, with her walls completely broken down. It took a lot for the woman to show how anxious she was. Alex Vause was a tough intimidating woman, she was not supposed to be afraid.

This moment was a lot, and it was worthy of her nerves. She took Piper's other hand in hers and stared down at their intertwined fingers for a moment, lost in her own little world, in her thoughts.

"Al, baby." Piper comforted, breaking the grasp with her right hand. She took a deep breath, and lifted her wife's chin with her pointer finger until their eyes met. "It's going to be just fine, I promise. They're going to love you." She continued. Alex turned her head to the side and took a moment to try and catch her breath. Her heart felt like it was about to pound out of her chest.

"Hey, they're going to love you because I love you." Piper tried once again. Piper had brought on so many new experiences for Alex. Most of them were more exciting than scary, but this was one she was dreading. She had never in her life been brought home to meet a girl's family. Her mind was racing at how much could go wrong. This day was a good 14 years late.

Piper ran her fingers through her wife's hair and gently tucked a piece of it that had fallen in front of her face behind her ear. "How about we sit for a second?" She offered, leading her by the hand over to a white wooden bench in the front yard. The Chapman's home was beautiful. They had a garden, and a fountain in the middle of their circular driveway, all in their front yard. The blonde took a seat and glanced around to take it all in. It certainly wasn't Brooklyn, that was for sure. "What are you scared of, Al?" She asked, placing a hand on her jean clad thigh. "Let's talk about it." Before Alex could open her mouth to speak, Carol peaked her head out of the front door. From all the stories she'd heard, Carol wasn't exactly someone Alex was looking forward to meeting. "Piper?" She called out, before catching sight of her by the garden. "Piper? I thought I heard you out here." She began, a cocky smile plastered across her face. "Well, aren't you going to come inside? We are all waiting."

The girls sighed reluctantly and stood up, hand in hand. "And none of that garbage, darling. Your grandfather is here." She said, before closing the door. Alex's mouth nearly fell wide open, but Piper simply just shook her head. "Garbage? Holding hands with my wife is garbage?" Alex mumbled under her breath. Aggravated Alex was something she was used to, and the anger covered up the anxiety quite well. As much as Piper's family hadn't been aggressively homophobic, they still always made it known that they weren't fans. Piper hadn't even officially come out to most people in her life yet. She was tired of hiding things about herself just to make her mother happy. "Hold my hand, Alex. He'll get over it." She reassured her.

Today was an important day for Piper as well. She was obviously beyond proud to show off her wife to her family. Alex completed her, Alex was her family too, even more so than the Chapmans, and it was so important for her to be able to share this with her relatives. What better time than Christmas Eve dinner? The couple exchanged glances on the front steps, and took a long deep breath together, exhaling at the same time. They squeezed each other's hands for reassurance, and Piper stepped right inside the house.

Alex glanced around their entryway and paused for a second to take everything in. Her eyes were wide and full of curiosity as they scanned. The entryway was a large room with high ceilings and a staircase on each side. A crystal chandelier hung in the center of it all, reflecting diamonds all over the room as light bounced off of mirrors and picture frames. She could barely believe what she was seeing. It was probably the nicest house she had ever been in by far. Off to the left was the kitchen, dining room, and living room. To the right was a bathroom, and a family room. Alex had never understood the difference between a family room and a living room; or what the fuck the point was of a having a room full of couches that nobody ever sat on anyways. She kept her hand tightly in Piper's, much to the dismay of Carol Chapman, feeling vulnerable and anxious like a little girl on the first day of school. At this point, Piper was the only thing that felt safe.

The woman allowed Piper to lead her by her hand to the kitchen. The walls were lined with white wooden cabinets, and the countertops were granite. Stainless steel appliances lined the walls and counters, and there was a lovely island in the middle. The kitchen was massive, but it was stuffed edge to edge with all of Piper's relatives. Alex was second guessing choosing Christmas Eve as the time to tell everyone, but it would've looked bad if she had decided to stay home.

They kept the initial hellos short and sweet, as if to try and make the situation less awkward or intense for Alex. If only that would've worked. I mean, it wasn't like Alex was standing there right in front of them as the first woman Piper had ever openly dated. Piper introduced Alex as simply "Alex" for now. In no way was she ashamed of her, but she wanted the moment to be absolutely perfect. That was the least they deserved. Small talk broke out quickly, and it didn't take long for Alex to feel at home with the family. A very privileged family she had no real way of relating to, but her wife's family nonetheless.

Alex had grown up in a single parent household, where paying the bills meant that Diane worked a minimum of 50 hours a week while still trying to be there to support and raise her daughter. So the Chapman's ideas of struggles, their conversations, and even their house, were completely out of Alex's reality. She had never in her life imagined owning a house this large. The stability of Piper and Alex's apartment, the stability of their life, was the most Alex had ever known. Running an international drug ring had made her enough to live comfortably back in the day. She got everything she wanted and more, but through shady back alley means of work. That wasn't legal money. In her mind, it didn't count. Everything in front of her came from a place of privilege now. The Chapman's didn't realize how good they had it. One thing Alex would never be able to relate to when it came to Piper was their childhoods. While Piper spent her days in a gorgeous playroom, Alex spent her days wondering if she'd be missing a meal. The ranting going on in that room screamed white heterosexual privilege, and it was starting to piss Alex off.

Piper had promised Alex on the cab ride over that whenever she wanted to leave, they would leave. They hadn't intended on staying past dinner anyways, unless everything had gone perfectly. While Alex was in fact enjoying herself, she felt as though she was putting on an act. The woman was insanely charismatic and likable, and it didn't take much effort to keep a conversation going with her, but she felt like she wasn't good enough, rich enough, to just act like herself. Instead, Alex spoke about her trips across the world, about the amazing times her and Piper had shared.

When dinner time arrived, Alex helped Carol to set the table in an attempt to keep her mind busy. She knew exactly when Piper planned on sharing with the whole family that Alex Vause was not simply her friend, not even her girlfriend, but her wife. Whilst Piper's parents and brother Cal knew that Piper wasn't straight, most of the family did not. The Chapman's weren't openly homophobic, they preferred to show their distaste for their daughter's sexuality through dirty looks, backhanded comments, and microaggressions. To them, Piper's sexual orientation was a shameful dirty little secret that they needed to be kept hidden at all costs.

Piper pulled out a chair for her wife, and scooted in close to her once she was seated. Her family, although not very religious, prayed around the table over their food. Piper held onto Alex's hand tightly, squeezing it to reassure her that everything would be okay. She leaned over and cupped her other hand around her ear.

"You ready? It's going to be okay." Piper said softly, although she wasn't so sure about it herself. Her heart was pounding so fast and hard that she could hear her heartbeat in her ear and she was sure everyone else could to.

The blonde stood to her feet, keeping her right hand exactly where it belonged, wrapped tightly around Alex's. "I have something to tell you all," she began confidently, running her eyes up and down both sides of the table. There were at least thirty people sat before her, and she was about to come out to all of them at once. Alex squeezed her hand once more, and sank down into her seat. She had no idea why she was so absolutely terrified. It wasn't so much for her sake, Alex was very openly gay all the time. She hadn't hidden that since she was in high school. For Piper, it was a much different story. She took a deep breath, and prayed that Piper wouldn't trail off into some long insane speech like she was known to. "We have something to tell you."

With everyone's eyes on her, Piper cleared her throat, and let her glance trail over to her mother, who was clearly shaking her head at her. She knew where this was going and she was not a fan. Carol would've been happy if Piper pretended she was straight for the rest of her life. You've got this mouthed Cal from the other edge of the table. "I'm sure most of you here tonight have met Alex," she said, her voice shaky, "and you have all expressed how absolutely wonderful she is." The thoughts running through Piper's head were so loud and intense that she was having trouble forming her words. A lump formed in her throat and her chest was tight. She knew she would have to say it eventually.

"Well, I noticed how absolutely wo-" she began, before Carol stood up from her chair and slammed her hands on the table. "Piper," she said in a warning tone, shooting her daughter a motherly look as if she were 8 and not in her late thirties. It was always one step forwards and ten steps back with Carol Chapman. Immediately, Alex's nerves were gone. She stood up defensively, and turned her body to Piper. "You can do it, I'm right here." She said calmly, not a hint of anxiety in her voice.

"Well, I noticed how absolutely wonderful she is too." She stated once more, closing her eyes for a second. "And that's why, I'm marrying her."

Just like in a movie, a bunch of gasps could be heard around the room. Chattering broke out, the occasional disgusting comment. Bill Chapman pushed out his chair, and walked directly out of the room.

"I'm bisexual." she said confidently, knowing that she had already pissed off most of her family anyway.

This time, even Alex's mouth dropped. She couldn't actually help herself. While she knew this was the case for quite some time, she had never actually heard Piper say it out loud. She wasn't even sure that Piper had ever said it out loud. "I am so proud of you." Alex said softly, a soft smile across her lips. She traced her fingers up and down Piper's back, and instinctively leaned in for a kiss.

"None of that!" Carol shouted, as a few of the older people looked away in disgust. It was as if they were witnessing something completely repulsing, rather than two people in love. "Piper, look what you've done." Carol spit out, a hand on her forehead. When it came to carol, everything was rather dramatic. "You've ruined Christmas."

Alex pressed her lips into Piper's aggressively, and grabbed a handful of her ass just because she could; just because she was pissed off. When she finally pulled away, she slammed her hands down on the table to grab everyone's attention, and to mimic the homophobic mother.

"Listen here, Carol." Alex began, her voice firm and raspy.

"What ruined Christmas is you spewing your homophobia all over the place from the second I stepped onto your property. Piper has always been bisexual, this isn't breaking news. Hell, if you hadn't acted like it was a repulsing little secret that needed to be kept, it wouldn't have had to happen fourteen years after I met her. So why don't you take a fucking seat, and eat your damn turkey. As if this is anything other than your daughter sharing that she's happy, and in love, and proud to be her fucking self. Because, frankly, even if you can't see it, she's pretty fucking incredible. Just as incredible as if she were straight."

Alex slammed her napkin down onto the table, and grabbed Piper by the hand. She led her to the entrance of the kitchen, before turning around to face the room once again. Alex took a breath and smiled sweetly. "Merry Christmas everyone."

Carol sat in her chair, her jaw practically on the floor. "Oh shit," Cal chuckled, bringing his fist up to his mouth, "I knew I loved her."