DISCLAIMER: Quite simple: I do not own them.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: The timeline for this story is mid season 3.
ARCHIVING: Only with the permission of the author.
Angels In Chains Again
By Tashe Dangerous Eyes
Chapter 14
"Are you done with your field trip?" Janet asked Kelly when she finally made it back to the kitchen after trying in vain to find her colleague Dan Tanna. As Kelly herself predicted there were many areas that Kris and her just couldn't search, still they searched as much as possible, but with no luck. They wondered what had happened to their contact and could only hope that he was alright. To make things worse, their wandering was cut abruptly when a guard sent them back to their respective duties, and so Kelly headed back to the kitchen knowing well that Janet would want to know where she was, adding to her already full plate. Sure enough, she was welcomed with a question, but Kelly ignored it, hoping to forestall further interrogation from Janet. However, her effort failed miserably as Janet's next question left her mouth almost without pause. "Where did you two go in such a hurry?" Kelly wasn't in any mood to explain herself and decided to play the 'rude card' that was so popular in the prison, hoping to discourage the other woman from asking anything else.
"You know, Janet, not everything is of your business." Kelly said in a firm voice. She grabbed the list of ingredients they would need to prepare the next meal and started to read it to let Janet know that she was done with the conversation.
"Fair enough, but if you do that during the actual bulk of our work, I'm gonna make it my business. Like for example from this moment on that we are suppose to start preparing the dinner to feed the entire population. And the others assigned to the kitchen are not as understanding as I am." Janet didn't wait to see Kelly's reaction to her words as something caught her eye. "What the hell is she doing here?" Kelly looked immediately at what had upset her so much and had to guard her expression at the sight of Sabrina Duncan, pushing the cleaning cart and being escorted into the dining area by Cain.
Kelly observed Sabrina and noticed that she looked exhausted. It struck her as very strange that she was there since the kitchen was not her area, and on top of that it had already been cleaned. Then again, hardly anything in the prison was the prisoners' idea, which was probably why Cain was with her. It didn't matter to Kelly one way or the other, for her it was an opportunity to see Sabrina. She had been worried about her since the 'test', and she felt relieved to see that she was okay. Maybe tired, but definitely in one piece.
Both Janet and Kelly kept looking at the duo through the rectangular opening in the wall that separated the kitchen from the dining area with very different thoughts running through their heads even though they were unknowingly thinking about the same thing; Kelly and Sabrina's earlier confrontation. The women let their curiosity get the best of them and listened intently, trying to decipher their 'nemesis'' presence in their territory. With the place being empty as it was it was easy for them to hear what the other two women were talking about.
"Here we are, Meyer. I want you to give this floor a good mopping." Cain instructed with mirth rolling off her tongue.
"Why? Once again, this is not my area, and it's obvious that it had already been cleaned. Why are you making me do all this work?" Sabrina protested not for the first time that afternoon. She was tired, upset, frustrated… The whole situation was starting to get beyond taxing to her.
"Oh, you think this floor is clean." Cain started to walk around Sabrina, looking at the floor as if to corroborate Sabrina's assessment. However, as soon as she was behind her she hooked one of Sabrina's feet with the half 't' of her baton and pulled back, making her fall to the floor. Only the Angel's fast reflexes saved her face from suffering real damage. Cain crouched by her and hit the floor hard with the baton, right next to Sabrina's face, startling her with the impact. "Would you say that is clean enough for you to eat off it?" Sabrina just glared at her and tried to get up, but Cain embedded the tip of the baton painfully on Sabrina's back and pushed her back down. "You haven't answered my question."
"Get off of me." Sabrina was in pain, but above all she was furious at the fact that she seemed to be sporting a 'target' sign on her back and everybody was getting in line, more than willing to shoot at her. "Get off!" She repeated, and this time she was able to turn around on the floor and when she did she took hold of the very end of the baton Cain was using to poke her with and pushed Cain away from her with it. The guard lost her balance momentarily, but managed to regain it quickly and yanked the baton away from Sabrina's hand, not happy with her audacity in the least. She pointed the hard wood club at the Angel's face menacingly, keeping her from getting up once more.
"I've had it with your attitude and your constant defiance. You are going to do what I tell you to do and that is it." Cain yelled at her and raised her baton as if to strike Sabrina with it, but didn't. She just kept it raised, like promising that the strike would indeed come if she didn't get the proper response. "Tell me, Meyer, does the floor still look clean to you?" Sabrina's attention was far from the floor's condition. Her hand was raised in a protective manner and her mind was racing at the possibility of being hit with the hard object and the damage it could cause. She considered attacking the guard first, pre-empting her strike, but waited, trying to prevent a physical confrontation if at all possible, knowing that her two colleagues and she were almost out of the prison, and she was hoping to manage that unharmed.
Kelly was livid with Cain's actions and decided that this time she wasn't going to just stand by and let Sabrina suffer. Janet saw Kelly move to the door to go help Lisa Meyer and she just couldn't believe it. "Seriously? You have to be fucking kidding me."
"I kid you not. It's payback time." When the words dawned on Janet she realized that her workmate's intention was not to help at all but to make things worse for the other woman, and she smiled to her conspiratorially, very much liking the idea. Kelly, on the other hand, was hoping to pull the charade off without crumbling. After all, all of her instincts were screaming at her to take Sabrina into her arms and hide her from the evils of the world, not to become one more, even if she was pretending and her intentions were good. Think of it as a rescue hidden in an evil deed, Garret. God, I've become twisted in this prison.
"Hey, guard." Kelly called out even before entering Cain's line of view, afraid that the guard might indeed hit her partner with the wooden club. But Cain didn't react, dangerously concentrated on her target as if she hadn't heard a word, so Kelly called her by her name, putting furious emphasis into her voice. "Cain!" This time she got the desired effect; Cain looked at her. "That floor is clean, but we have a quite greasy and sticky patch in front of the stoves that no one seems to be able to get rid off. Why don't you let her give it a try?" Kelly let an expression of pure malice take hold of her features to convince Cain that they were on the same page.
Sabrina looked at Kelly, and for a brief moment she couldn't find the words to describe what she was feeling. Maybe it was her exhaustion, or Becker's constant harassment…Maybe it was Rita and her threats lurking around her, or the fact that they were all still in prison or even, perhaps especially, because of hers and Kelly's relationship that was hanging in the balance…She didn't know. All of the above seemed the right answer since the collective distress they caused made her believe for an irrational second that Kelly's words meant that she was now on the side of the devil. But Sabrina was not stupid; she knew well what Kelly was really trying to do. Nevertheless, she was so emotionally fatigue that the notion, even if it was a fallacy, made her feel devastated and it showed in her face.
Kelly saw Sabrina's expression and her heart twisted inside of her because her eyes were practically screaming at her that she felt betrayed when in reality nothing could be further from the truth. She can't possibly believe that I'm doing this on purpose! Cain finally lowered the baton after considering Kelly's words for a moment and stood up, breaking the Angels' stare contest. "Well, get up, Meyer. You have been requested."
Sabrina got up from the floor and manipulated her shoulders trying to alleviate the pain caused by the baton, and she sent Cain yet another glaring look; a look she extended to her fellow detective. Kelly held her rude gaze, keeping up with her portrayal while praying that Sabrina was acting as well. Cain ignored the glare with ease, she was the recipient of many of those everyday in the prison and was never affected by them. She made way for Sabrina and the cleaning cart and then followed her, entertaining herself with the constant pushing of the tall Angel towards the kitchen with her baton, like defying her. It was a foolish move on her part because even if the other woman reacted violently she knew well that she couldn't hit her; not this woman. Becker would have her head. Of course, the woman in question didn't know about her bluff and so she risked pushing the envelope.
They entered the kitchen and Cain looked around looking for the supposedly challenging task that would make Lisa Meyer pay for her insolence, but she saw nothing extraordinary that would warrant the interruption of her fun. "I don't see any grease here." The guard practically barked at Kelly and Janet, looking at one woman and then the other with threatening eyes. Janet moved to one of the stoves and very casually slapped the back of a gallon of cooking oil, letting it pour its entire content on the floor, completing Kelly's plan of vengeance completely oblivious to the fact that she was doing everything but.
"How about now?" Janet asked Cain smiling from ear to ear, and it took Kelly's every ounce of control not to rip her head off.
"I have to hand it to you, Lisa. You have someone to love you and many more to hate you. I guess you like to keep both sides of the spectrum covered. Get to work." Sabrina closed her eyes momentarily and sighed. She simply couldn't believe the kind of day she was having. She opened her eyes again, grabbed a roll of paper towel from the cleaning cart, a small bucket from the kitchen and got down to her knees to start cleaning the spilled oil.
"Janet." Cain said suddenly, bringing the inmate's attention to her and away from the enjoyment of what she had done. "As amusing as your little ploy was if you do that again we'll discount the cost from your earnings. Go to the supply room and bring back another gallon of cooking oil." Janet didn't move right away, still dwelling on the guard's ability to spoil her pleasure. "Now!" Cain ordered again and this time Janet moved, but she was really not happy about it.
The supply room was far from the kitchen, one reason being to protect the groceries from the constant heat, and the other was to keep the delivery people away from the common areas. Supplies were brought to the actual kitchen as they were needed. This was what had Janet angry. She knew the trip would keep her from the satisfaction of seeing the woman who had tried to hurt her new friend pay the consequences. Janet hurried up her pace to make sure not to miss it all.
Kelly was feeling the opposite way. She couldn't stand seeing Sabrina being treated in such a way and tried to busy herself with the ingredients list, looking at the words, but not really reading them. Bree is going to kill me for this.
"Cain?" Miranda called from the dining room's entrance and when Cain looked at her she beckoned her to go to where she was standing. Cain more than welcomed the distraction.
"I'll be back in a moment. You two birdies better behave." She warned, half joking and half serious. The moment she left the kitchen Kelly went to Sabrina and knelt by her side.
"Are you alright?" Kelly asked almost in a whisper to disguise their conversation. The kitchen wall did the same for their position.
"Wow. You sure know how to hold a grudge, don't you? And your girl Janet seems to have it in for me. It's like there's a club or something all of a sudden, which apparently you decided to join as well." Sabrina's tone of voice was not discernible, aside from the fatigue. Kelly had no way of knowing that her friend was flirting with demoralization.
"I'm sorry, Sabrina. I was just trying to help you. I just couldn't let Cain treat you like that, let alone hit you, and I certainly didn't know Janet was going to complicate things." Kelly stroke Sabrina's back where the baton had hurt her, trying to bring her friend some comfort.
Sabrina remained silent and Kelly became very worried. There were so many things she wanted to say and yet so little time. She wanted to tell her about the fruitless search for Dan, about how much she was looking forward to their conversation, and about what Cain meant when she said that she had someone in the prison who loved her. She couldn't decide what to say first. "Bree-"
"Listen," Sabrina spoke suddenly, putting an end to Kelly's inner debate. "I'm sorry for what I had to do earlier about the Renee situation, but believe me, it was the only way." I just couldn't let you go through with Renee what I'm going through with Becker. Sabrina thought, not daring to say the words out loud. "Kelly," Sabrina started again after a short pause, but this time her voice sounded different. Kelly recognized it as pure sadness. "…I know you think you have a reason to be mad at me, but this situation, our situation isn't exactly my fault. But please, don't let your anger towards me leave us without even a chance to rescue our friendship. As it is I feel that if it weren't for this case we would have already drifted apart." Sabrina dropped her gaze and her movements were hesitant, but at the end she returned to her task lazily, not knowing how to act beyond her words.
"You can't possibly mean that." In her shock, Kelly not only stopped stroking Sabrina's back, she stopped touching her completely, as if she had been unexpectedly burned.
"What is it, Randy?"
"Becker wants a status report, whatever that means." Miranda answered Cain, who just reclined against the wall, like she had nothing more important to do.
"Unfortunately for me it means babysitting her new lover. Well, between you and me, not yet her lover." The guard said in a burlesque way.
"Really? Why not?" Even though Miranda didn't care for Becker's activities she did know about what she did, and so the out of the norm revelation did surprise her.
"I don't know exactly, but it seems this Meyer woman has found a way to keep Becker at bay, and that is driving her crazy. I can't even imagine how that happened."
"You can't and I don't really care. These women had it bad enough as it is in here. They don't need Becker adding to their punishment."
"Careful. You don't want Becker to find out that you don't approve of her pastime. Or are you jealous you don't get to do the same thing? You could, you know." Cain raised an eyebrow at Miranda, but she just made a gesture of disgust.
"Please, how many kinds of sick would you have to be to do what Becker does? I'm not that kind of person."
"No, that's true. You are only the kind of person who delivers the women to unknown men so they can do to them what you cannot for not being sick enough." Cain retorted quickly, loving to toy with the other guard.
"Cain, don't be so sarcastic. You know well that once you are in the know of what is going on around here, you either join or disappear into the ground. What am I suppose to do or you for that matter?" She pointed her finger at Cain, reminding her that they were both on the same boat. "The only thing that separates you and me is that you make a sport out of it. Don't you ever feel any kind of remorse for what we're doing here?" Cain frowned at Miranda but said nothing, making the other guard consider if perhaps she had gone too far.
Once again Sabrina's silence was causing havoc inside of Kelly, but just when she thought she wouldn't be able to stand it anymore the tall brunette lifted her eyes and started speaking again. Yet, her words were as overwhelming as her silence. "I'm afraid I do mean it, Kelly. You walked out my door that night taking with you your answers, not mine. And the next day what I saw in your eyes was no longer love, Kelly. It was…" Sabrina wouldn't dare name what she had seen in Kelly's eyes, she just knew that the new sentiment was leaving her on the outside looking in, empty handed and broken hearted, and seemingly without a chance to plea her case. "Your eyes basically told me that you were done with me, forever. And I just keep asking myself, how can it be possible to lose it all in just one night? If you could just stop being angry for one minute you could see that I can't lose it all. Please, not all."
Kelly's heart was breaking at the realization of how selfish she had been in thinking that she was the only one hurting because of what had happened that night. Sabrina was right. She had been so angry after assuming she knew the answers to the questions she had dropped so suddenly on Sabrina's lap, and she left without giving her a chance to say what she needed to say, whatever it had been, whatever it was that she was yet to say. She could clearly see now that Sabrina's message about wanting to talk to her was not a thing she took for granted; she was actually asking for the chance. How could I have been so blinded to her pain? And through my own I had Kris, but her…
Kelly hugged Sabrina to her with desperation, feeling once again the assault of the many things she wanted to say and do, things for which they presently didn't have time. But she opened her mouth and spoke regardless, knowing that she couldn't leave Sabrina like this. "You are not losing me, Bree. You will never lose me. I'm the one who needs to apologize for putting you through this and for having put you in the spot that night. Kris told me that you wanted to talk with me and we will talk, I promise. But be sure of this," Kelly took her friend's face between her hands to make her look at her. "…I'm not angry with you. I'll admit that I left angry that night due to my own stupidity, but I love you, do you hear me? I love you with all my heart and nothing can change that. We're just being victims of incredible bad timing." Kelly tried to reassure Sabrina feeling that it was what she needed. Even after her conversation with Kris she still needed to hear the words straight from her. Kelly was very familiar with that need.
Sabrina looked at Kelly and her eyes had a soft look that made Kelly feel somewhat relieved because it was the first time since Sabrina first entered the dining area with Cain that Kelly was looking at those eyes and could recognize her friend, the woman she loved so. In a bold move Kelly kissed Sabrina's temple, intending to let her lips lingered for a few seconds, desperate for the contact she knew they both needed, however, from her vantage point Kelly saw Janet coming back with the cooking oil and had to stand up quickly before she could see them. "Case in point!" She whispered to Sabrina through clenched teeth to excuse her sudden retreat.
"Let me give you a little advice, Miranda." Cain finally said. "Like you said, once you are in on all of this you are in. So, if I were you I'd stop thinking so much about something that has no remedy. Your remorse can only bring you bad consequences. Don't forget who we're dealing with here. Besides, it's not like what we have here in this prison are angels. You don't have to worry; I won't mention this little conversation. But if Becker catches wind of how you feel you can become a problem to her and Becker is not fond of problems, which is why I've been babysitting that smart ass of hers." Cain pointed towards the kitchen.
"Fine, fine." Miranda relented knowing well Cain was speaking the truth. "Now, why exactly are you paying your undivided attention to Meyer? What is this status report about?"
"Like I told you, apparently Lisa has been less than obliging in her sharing of the goods, if you know what I mean. She is spirited as Becker likes to call them, so much so that Becker hasn't been able to break her; however she is diminishing our fearless leader's spirit instead. Of course Becker didn't say that, but I have to assume that due to her plan. She told me that she was planning to-"
"Cain, stop. You know what? I don't need details. Just tell me what she wants to know so I can go back to doing my job." Miranda said getting a little exasperated with the topic.
"Oh, I'm sorry, Miss Responsibility. Just tell Becker that her precious kitten is quite tired already, and that by the time I'm done with her she'll be as weak as a real kitten. Hell, even the inmates are pitching in. Don't say that last part to her though."
"Whatever." Miranda just rolled her eyes and left.
Cain made it back to the kitchen to inspect Sabrina's progress, completing a trio of fastidious observers according to her own opinion. She was starting to find her special assignment quite tedious too. "Pick up the pace, Meyer. We haven't got all day."
"Yeah, Meyer, some of us need to start doing some real work around here." Janet added, playing the 'Bonnie' to Cain's 'Clyde'.
"Speaking of which," Cain started, casually picking up the ingredients' list from one of the kitchen's counters, giving it a quick once over. "…aren't you supposed to be getting these from the supply room?" Janet was visibly gawking, knowing where the guard was going with the question and not liking it at all. Cain took her reaction as a 'yes'. "Well, get going. Go do some real work, birdie." She continued, infusing her voice with mockery and handed Janet the list.
"But I just came from there." The infuriated inmate just had to put her protest out there.
"Well, I guess you are going back. Move it!" From her kneeling position Sabrina couldn't help but laugh softly at Janet's expense, something that didn't escape the group's attention. Janet was practically fuming and stormed out of the room. Cain followed her retreating shape with her eyes, a moment that allowed Sabrina and Kelly to share a triumphant smirk.
Perhaps seeking to take advantage of Cain's momentarily lighter mood, Sabrina turned to Kelly and spoke to her. "Could you spare a glass of water?" Both Kelly and Cain looked at her sharply, surprised by the request. Kelly raised her eyebrows at Sabrina, like waiting for her to say something else. Sabrina retorted with a playful squint, like saying, 'I'll get you for this', but then begrudgingly added, "Please."
"Sure." Cain observed as Kelly went to the fridge and served a glass of cold water as calmly as if she had been asked by a friend. She came back and was about to hand the glass to Sabrina when Cain took it from her hand and immediately started downing the refreshing liquid. Sabrina sighed in consternation but Kelly, not missing a beat, went right back to the fridge again and just as easily as before served another glass of water.
"I can't believe you are actually going to give her water. I thought you two didn't love each other." The two Angels looked at one another and could practically hear their thoughts and feelings clashing in the air.
"I'm sorry if I gave you the impression that I was like you, or her." Kelly said, and handed the glass to Sabrina while sustaining Cain's gaze. Her entire exterior was a mask of self-righteousness, but her insides spoke of humbleness as Sabrina's fingers caressed her own around the glass while taking it from her hand in an act of pure gratitude and, if she dared hope it, love.
Cain couldn't understand the woman's contrasting actions, but she didn't care either. "She doesn't need pampering. What she needs is space so she can finish her job. She has a lot more to do. Here," Cain handed Kelly her glass brusquely. "…take that and move away." Kelly did as told, but kept her eyes on Cain as she approached Sabrina to make sure that the guard was going to let her friend drink her water in peace. She was happy to see Sabrina downed the entire thing.
Space! The word almost haunted Kelly. If there was something she was sick of was the space between her and the woman she loved. If it were up to her nothing and no one would ever be or come between them. I know we are going to be together, Bree, and then we'll be one. No more damn space!