Bea practically dragged her feet as she made her way down the long corridor back to her cellblock, amidst the "hellos" and "good to see yous" and the stares and glares from her fellow inmates. She refused to make eye contact with any of them, choosing to only look straight ahead. When she turned the final corner into the hallway with her cellblock, she met the eyes of Will and stopped in her tracks. Her mouth opened to speak, but she could not think of anything to say, nor did she want to. Will looked at her with a resigned look, before turning his attention to the floor, walking past her and out of sight.

It was better that way. Any interaction between them and the women would surely come at her again for caring more about a screw than another inmate. Bea took the final steps to her cellblock. As she entered the block, Maxine was emerging from her unit. They both stopped walking and Maxine gave her a sympathetic smile.

"How are you, love?" Maxine asked as she approached Bea and hugged her. Bea held on for a second, then pulled away, simply nodding and deeply sighing, a response that was more than enough for Maxine to understand to ask nothing more.

"Come, sit. I'll make you a cuppa," offered Maxine.

"No, I'm…that's fine," she replied. "How are the girls?"

"All right, they've just left for breakfast. We should get you something to eat."

"No, no, you go. I'm not feeling hungry right now."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. Thanks, Maxine."

"…If you need to talk…"

"Thanks, Maxine."

Maxine expressed concern, but could only nod as she left the cellblock.

"I'll let everyone know the queen has retaken her throne," Maxine softly smiled before walking out of sight.

Bea sat down and placed her hands on the table and stared at them. Throne. A throne behind bars where she would be forced to sit for the rest of her life. Her time in the slot was over, but she never felt more like a prisoner than by coming back to her cellblock. She pushed herself back in her chair and walked into her unit, closing the door behind her. Bea plopped down on her bed with her hands behind her head and leaned back against the wall. She should go to breakfast. She should show everyone that she was back. She should show that she was still in charge. She should discuss whatever happened while she was out. But none of that seemed to matter anymore.

Exhausted and restless at the same time, she was unable to focus on anything but her time in the slot. Bea was anxious. She felt as though this was her first day in prison all over again. Swinging her legs over the bed onto the floor, she reached underneath her mattress and pulled out the broken scissors she had never used to harm anyone but herself. Bea analyzed the weapon before reaching back under the mattress to put back the scissors and pull out her sketchpad. Sitting with her back against the wall, Bea opened the sketchpad, flipping through the pages of other inmates, of allies, of enemies. Turning to one of the last blank pages in the pad, she began to draw.

Time flew by and it wasn't until she completed her drawing that Bea realized the image she could not erase from her mind. Allie. She lightly blew on the sketch of Allie's face and brushed away any pencil and eraser traces. As she brushed over the image, her thumb lingered over Allie's cheek. Bea inhaled and exhaled deeply, completely transfixed by the image.

Allie smiled at Maxine as she walked into the crowded mess hall. Maxine smiled back as she took her place in the breakfast line. Looking back through the doors, Allie became disappointed to see Bea was not trailing behind Maxine. Word spread like fire that the top dog was back and Allie longed to see Bea again.

"Waiting for someone, Allie?" asked Ferguson, in a tone that made it seem as though she already knew the answer.

"Yeah, my vibrator's being delivered today," Allie shot back at Ferguson.

The other women at the table laughed, while Kaz scorned Allie. Ferguson stared Allie down until she diverted her attention back to her food and began to speak again.

"Word is Smith's finally out of the slot…" began Ferguson. "Should make for an interesting contention for power…"

"What are you talking about?" asked Allie.

"While Bea was in the slot, Maxine took over," answered Kaz. "The women here seemed to embrace her not punishing the new girl for pressing the distress signal."

"So…What? You think Maxine would actually fight Bea for control?" laughed Allie while looking from Kaz to Ferguson.

"No…but I don't think it'll be up to them," stated Kaz, taking a drink of water.

"The loyalty that certain…people in this prison display for Smith is nothing short of that of a famished and dehydrated pack of diseased dogs, longing for the attention and affection of their master…So when the master refuses to answer their cries, can you blame the dogs for turning on her?" smiled Ferguson as she stared Allie down.

Allie looked at Kaz, certain that she would object to Ferguson comparing the inmates to a pack of dogs. Kaz simply raised her eyebrows, pursed her lips, and nodded. Allie snorted, unable to believe that Kaz had nothing to say to Ferguson.

As the women began to leave the mess hall for work duty, Allie grabbed Kaz's tray and placed it on top of hers as Kaz walked out. The other women at the table grabbed their own trays and went to clear them. As Allie was about to stand up with the trays, another tray was placed on top by Ferguson.

"You fucking kidding me? Clear your own…" Allie grabbed Ferguson's tray to give back to her.

"Difficult having to bark for two masters, isn't it?" asked Ferguson as she stood up from the table. Allie looked up at her and shrugged.

"What are you…" asked Allie.

"Please, spare me the confused puppy dog look. I've crushed bugs bigger than you. All I ask is you consider what you're doing to Kaz and be…cautious of Bea Smith. You don't know what Smith is capable of. For a person who slashes her wrists to escape prison, she's not above throwing you a bone if it means hurting Kaz."

And with that unsettling statement that had some kind of truth to it, Ferguson walked out of the mess hall. Allie watched her leave, and while she knew that Ferguson was just trying to get under her skin, Allie couldn't help but feel stirred up. Out of the corner of her eye, Allie saw Maxine nearly finish getting her food in line. Allie grabbed the three trays and quickly walked over to meet her at the end of the line to stop her at the trashcans.

"Hey," Allie said, emptying the first tray.

"Hey yourself," smiled back Maxine.

"Heard Bea's out," stated Allie, doing her best to feign nonchalance as she emptied the second tray.

Maxine pursed her lips and nodded. "Yeah, yeah she is."

"Right-o…Any idea why she isn't here? I mean…" Allie stumbled to find a reason to ask this.

"You could probably ask her, hun. She's back in the block, and we've still got time left before work duty," said Maxine as she walked off smiling.

Allie softly smiled and was going to head out of the mess hall, leaving the third tray behind, when Jake grabbed her arm and stopped her.

"Ah, ah, ah, Novak, you forgot a tray," grinned Jake.

Allie pulled away, a little taken aback by the officer's action. She nodded and went back to clear the tray. The next time she walked by Jake he stopped her again.

"So, I'm guessing I won't be getting an apology from you then?"

"What?" asked Allie, furrowing her eyebrows.

Jake lifted his bandaged arm and pointed towards it. It took a bit for Allie to recall she had bitten him during the ramp.

"Well I would apologize if you hadn't been so aggressive."

"Ah, so you don't like it rough. Got it," he whispered and smiled.

Allie looked around to see if anyone had heard the officer. Upon realizing no one was even looking at them, she left the mess hall and headed for H block.

Allie entered H1, full of relief to see that no one was there. However that relief faded when she walked up to Bea's open unit to find it empty. Allie had never been inside the room before, and her curiosity made her walk inside. It was no different from any of the other units, maybe a bit emptier than the rest. Allie sat down on Bea's bed and looked at her tackboard on the wall. On her tackboard were only two pictures, one of Debbie and one of Debbie and Bea. The only other item was a brochure for a cemetery. Allie looked down and ran her hand over Bea's bed. She grabbed Bea's pillow and brought it to her face.

When Allie lifted the pillow, Bea's sketchpad fell forward. The drawing it was open to was Bea's sketch of Allie. Allie picked up the sketchpad and looked at the drawing of herself. Allie inhaled and exhaled deeply as she analyzed the image. Her eyes began to water and two tears fell onto the page.

"Fuck," she said as she wiped her eyes with her sleeve to look at the now water stained image.

Allie blew lightly on the page, hoping to maybe dry the visible stain, but the tears had seeped through the page and onto the one after it. She placed the sketchbook back where it had been and covered it back up with the pillow before exiting the room.

"And all he said was he's sorry he couldn't make it out here for me… Bea, I think… I think Nash is drifting and… it terrifies me," cried Doreen.

Bea kept lifting the barbells, listening to what Doreen was complaining about but nowhere near hearing her out. Bea thought she could get some alone time in the outside gym in the exercise yard, but apparently the slot was the only place where she could find peace. Bea placed the barbells back on the rack and sighed.

"Doreen, if a man shacking up with another woman on the outside is what you're terrified of in a prison, then let me tell you, you're doing better than every other fucking woman in here."

Doreen glared at Bea. Her sad eyes turned into angry ones as she stood up from the weight bench to stare down Bea.

"You know, you've been acting like a real twat lately. I don't know what your problem is, but if you don't start…" Doreen stopped herself.

"Start what? Start what, Dor? Huh?" Bea closed the space between them and stared her down, causing Doreen to back up.

"Forget it… You're hopeless. There are other people here who want to help me."

Doreen turned her back on Bea and exited the gym. Bea swallowed hard, a little hurt by Doreen's words. When she looked around the gym, the other women were staring at her.

"The fuck are you all looking at?" she asked everyone, who cowered and went back to their exercises.

Bea went to sit down on the weight bench and gripped the bar. She began lifting and lowering it, completely shutting herself off from everyone else.

"Can I spot ya, Bea?" asked Juice, standing over her and licking her lips.

"Piss off, Juice," snapped Bea as she kept lifting the bar.

"Aw, love, no need for that, just tryna be helpful…Not that you would know much about that."

Bea lowered the bar back onto the stand and sat up to face Juice. Looking around she realized the gym had emptied except for Juice and her gang of boys.

"What was that?" Bea asked, standing up and refusing to be intimidated by the Hep-C crew.

"Still waiting for you to teach the new girl a lesson," answered Stella.

"She pushed the button, Bea!" exclaimed Juice.

"Not this shit again…Give it a fucking rest, Juice."

Bea pushed past Juice to get to the weights rack, preferring to be standing than to be laying down at the time. Juice and her crew followed her.

"You have to…" started Juice again.

"I don't have to do jack shit, do you understand me?" shot back Bea as she turned to face Juice. "You do anything to her, you'll have me to deal with, got that?"

"That's fucking bullshit!" yelled Juice.

"Yeah it is, now fuck off."

Bea turned back to look through the barbells. She felt Juice come closer to her.

"Well if I couldn't get Goodman and no one is going to make her pay then I guess I'm just going to have to settle for a little fun with Novak."

Bea was about to grab the barbells but paused, trying to figure out what to say to diffuse the situation.

"Yeah, I heard you in the slot, I'm not fucking stupid. So you decide. Either you punish Goodman or I'll punish Novak."

Juice and her gang began to walk away, content with having unsettled the top dog enough to finally take action. When Juice passed behind Bea, Bea grabbed a 20-lb barbell and swung around.

"Hey, Juice…"

Juice stopped and Bea struck the left side of her face with the barbell. Juice fell to the ground instantly, making incomprehensible noises, her eyes opening and closing. Bea squatted down next to her.

"If you so much as blink in her direction, I will tear your eyes out and feed them to your boys here, do you understand me?" Bea threatened in a low voice.

Juice was bleeding profusely but was still semi-conscious. Bea stood up and stared down the rest of the crew, dropping the bloody barbell on Juice's stomach, an act that made Juice groan in pain and roll on her side.

"Do you fucking understand me?" Bea shouted.

The crew stared in fear, quickly nodding and moving aside as Bea walked by them. There were people on the other side of the fence in the yard looking on. When she was about to exit the gym, she was shocked to see Jake leaning against the wall in front of her with his arms crossed, obviously having seen the whole thing. Bea stopped in her tracks, certain that she would be slotted once again. Jake walked up to her.

"So that'sthe Bea Smith I've heard so much about," Jake grinned. "I was beginning to think it was all just a myth."

Jake walked past Bea to enter the gym. She looked around the yard to see one officer on the far side of the yard and Miles near the entrance to the cellblocks. Jake clearly saw everything, but when he grabbed his radio to report, he called for medical to assist with an accident involving improper use of gym equipment. Still shocked by his action, Bea hurried across the yard in direction of her cellblock, avoiding looking at anyone she passed by. When she approached Miles, all the officer did was open the gate for Bea.

"Been dying to do that myself, Smith," whispered Miles as Bea went through the gate back to her unit.

"Allie!"

The ball struck Allie in the face. Allie fell to the ground, holding her face.

"Shit, are you okay?" asked Kaz kneeling next to her and helping her sit up.

"Yep, yep, all good," Allie lied.

"Fuck you're bleeding."

Allie brushed the back of her hand under her nose to see the blood.

"Brilliant," she uttered as she stood up.

"Why are you so distracted?" asked Kaz.

"I…I'm going to go get cleaned up."

"I'll come with you."

"No it's fine. Finish the game, I'll be right back."

As Allie headed for the cellblocks, she took one last look at Bea working out in the gym. It was the most she had seen of her since their moment in the slot. Getting smacked in the face with a basketball was worth getting to stare at Bea even if it was from a distance.

Allie headed through the halls towards the bathrooms, trying to keep her head back a bit to slow the flow of the blood. She walked into the bathroom and stood over the sink and washed her face. Shutting off the water, she grabbed a paper towel and jumped up to sit on the edge of the sink, tilting her head back and waiting for the blood to stop.

Bea entered the bathroom and immediately headed for a shower stall. She threw her towel over the stall wall and grabbed her soap and shampoo from her bag before stepping into the stall and turning on the water.

Allie heard the bathroom door open, and slightly lowered her head to see Bea rush in towards a shower stall without noticing her, ripping off her towel and throwing it over the stall wall in the process. She stood naked as she rifled through her toiletries bag to pull out her shampoo and soap before stepping into the stall and turning on the water, not even bothering to pull the shower curtain closed.

Allie lowered her head to gaze at Bea, who seemed agitated as she began washing her body. The blood flowed out of Allie's nose, but the woman was too transfixed by Bea to notice it. Allie couldn't speak, just stare and hope that she could relish this opportunity to gaze at Bea's perfect and delicate figure for as long as possible. As Bea turned in the stall to let the water fall down her back, she met Allie's twinkling eyes.

"Need any help?" Allie asked, swallowing hard.

Bea became shocked to see the blood on Allie's face. Without a second thought, Bea stepped out of the shower stall and walked over to stand in front of Allie. She placed her hand on her cheek as she examined Allie's injury. With her other hand, Bea ran her fingers just above Allie's lip, wiping away some of the blood. She looked at her bloody hand then back into Allie's glistening eyes.

"Who did this to you?" asked Bea gritting her teeth.

"I'm not sure I…"

"Was it Juice? Was it Kaz?"

"Uhmm, no it wasn't Juice, might have been Kaz…Wait what does Juice have to do with anything?"

Bea dropped her hand and rushed back into her stall to grab her towel. Allie hopped off the sink and stepped into the stall to grab the towel and hold it away from Bea.

"Bea, calm down, Bea, it was just an accident, okay? Just playing ball and someone threw the ball at me and my face caught it. Okay? That was it."

Bea's eyes shifted as she tried to believe that Allie had not been hurt because of her. She breathed a sigh of relief and quickly nodded. She forced a smile before rubbing her face with her hands. Allie took Bea's hands in her own and held them tightly as the water poured over the two of them.

"Hey, hey, look at me. Are you okay? What's going on?" Allie whispered.

"I'm so sorry…" Bea began tearing up. "They… they want to hurt you… because of me…"

Allie slowly nodded, signaling a silent understanding. They could have been anyone at this point. Juice. Ferguson. Even Kaz could probably try to hurt them if she found out about the bond between Allie and Bea. Allie reached behind Bea to shut off the water and wiped the tears from Bea's eyes and brought her in closer, wrapping the towel around her and then wrapping her arms around her as tightly as she could. She planted a small kiss on Bea's forehead and hugged her with all her might. Taken a little aback by the closeness of Allie, Bea began to tremble but ultimately gave in to Allie's warmth, a tenderness she hadn't experienced in her lifetime. Bea wrapped her arms around Allie as she began crying into her shoulder, letting her nerves fade away.

"It's okay…" whispered Allie.

"Allie, if something happens to you…"

"Shh, shhh, nothing's going to happen to me."

They remained in an embrace for a long time.