John Bennett looked over to the right and saw the love of his life in the passenger seat, fast asleep. Despite the fact that he had ensured she had casual non-prison attires, she hadn't changed yet but still wore her khakis, with his warm dark gray jacket over it. She had mentioned being cold shortly after they had left. The large jacket managed to hide most of her swollen belly, but he swore he could see the small bulge that pointed at their unborn daughter or son, still, and that made him smile.
He was generally a nervous person, and had anyone told him that he would be in a relationship with an inmate and fall madly in love with her and then later break her from prison and just escape the USA with her when he was hired at Litchfield, he would have thought you were crazy. That's exactly what happened, though. He had known before they ever even were intimate that he and Daya had a connection, of course, and that it was more than just "getting laid". Nonetheless, he never would have guessed that he would only continue to fall in love with her even more, until he reached the stage where he felt she might actually be the one for him and, despite the fact that the baby hadn't been planned, where he was getting quite excited at the thought of being a father and taking care of Daya and their daughter or son.
He had had girlfriends aplenty, but no relationship of his had ever lasted all that long. He had once been with a girl for eight months, but most of them had only lasted two or three. Many times, those girls had been the ones to end the relationship and to move on to the next best guy. Occasionally, though, John had put an end to it. The girls in question had cheated on him or lied or both. All in all, he had not had a lot of luck in love.
His escape plan had begun to grow last week, when in a janitor's closet, he and Daya had been kissing fervently when he could swear he had felt the baby move, if only slightly, despite the fact that she had said that their child's movements were too weak for him to feel it not long before that. It had been a wondrous moment, and if John had ever felt that he was going to be a dad, it was nothing at all compared to the way he had felt then, like everything had fallen in place. He had looked at Dayanara and taken in the sight of her beautiful, innocent eyes and soft smile. Never had he felt more that she didn't belong there and that she and their child deserved better. Never had he felt so set on ensuring that he would make everything better for all of them, despite the stress he and all of the correctional officers were in with Cisneros and Parker's escape, the tall black woman having been found dead on the side of the road not far from Litchfield.
It had only been coincidental that he had uncovered the hole in the old greenhouse, but more than a coincidence, it had been luck. Caputo had ordered them all to check the premises to find how the hell first one of the Golden Girls and then Parker had managed to escape, even if they had not had any hope to find anything. Therefore, it had not been hard for John to hide the fact that he had discovered the way to freedom that presumably at least Parker had used. After all, he couldn't possibly imagine Jimmy had made a use of it.
It had, however indirectly, been Daya who had lead John to the discovery, the next day. She had pressed a small cartoon in his hand after their moment the day prior, which he had pushed in his pants pocket after looking at it and having felt his heart leap. It had been a cartoon of both of them in a park with a small baby - a dream. She had said that she liked to imagine even though she knew that could not be their life anytime soon if at all. That moment, too, had strengthened John's determination to make everything better.
When he had taken his handkerchief from his pocket to blow his nose, as being certain plants had always somehow made John sneeze even though he had never been diagnosed with any kind of allergy, Daya's art work had slipped from his pants pocket as well and had fallen between the wooden panels that made up the floor. Upon lifting them to take Daya's cartoon back, he had uncovered the escape route, and he had laughed aloud. A plan had taken a more solid shape in his mind, and he had asked Daya that same day, as soon as he had the chance to talk to her in private on "their" spot, how she felt about escaping with him.
At first, Dayanara's dark eyes had grown confused only to widen when she realized he had been quite serious. She hadn't known what to say to his crazy plan. Daya's heart and mind had softened when he told her that he wanted to give her and their baby a far better life and that he would get her from prison and drive as far away as he could, hopefully managing to cross the border before they caught them to try and build a better life there.
There he was now with his beautiful Daya, on the way to as far away from Litchfield as he could, all of his clothes and shoes and other personal items stuffed in his car, jerry cans of gas put strategically in-between the bags and boxes so that he wouldn't have to stop by a gas station and use his bank card - if he had still had one, because he had taken all the money from his accounts the day prior and cut the card to pieces after. With it, he had paid the rent to the end of the month and put the cash and a paper that said he was leaving in his landlord's mailbox, as well as bought clothes for Daya and some gas. There was not a lot of money left, as, after all, he wasn't a millionaire and never had been, but there was far enough for them both to survive somewhere until he could get a job to support them. He was not afraid to work to provide for his family, for his wife and baby.
He smiled as the thought fleetingly crossed his mind. Maybe they could marry soon, depending on how things happened from now on. He suspected Caputo, even if he would most likely put the pieces together in his head very fast, would do his best to keep the fuss down if only to secure his position when someone managed to turn on the electricity again, which he had turned off to create enough commotion to escape with his love, and they discovered that an inmate and correctional officer had somehow disappeared. As for the rest, he didn't know what could possibly happen.
John Bennett had always had a good boy attitude. He had always followed the rules. Impulsive decisions had never been the way he rolled, until today, and even though a part of him was nervous and scared that this would come and bite both of them, especially Dayanara (and their baby later), in the ass, he was fairly calm and hopeful and knew that for them, if only for them both and their baby, he might have made the right decision.