"Tell me about Debbie.." Bea froze in a welcomed shock hearing the sentence travel through the air vent of the slot. She wanted to know about Debbie? Not even the people who Bea was closest to in this shit hole had shown this much interest so why was
a newbie who in hindsight knew very little so interested? Bea pushed down her questions and took a deep breath, allowing herself to delve deeper in to the new relationship she had been forming over the past couple of hours.

"What do you want to know?" It was almost unheard of that Bea trusted another person in this way. She didn't like vulnerability and she most certainly didn't want another person's pity. However, with Allie, it all somehow felt natural. She wanted to share
her memories of her daughter with this person, and she wanted to be free. She wanted to feel like she had one person in this fishbowl of a prison that truly 'got' her and she was beginning to think that Allie may be that someone. She had her concerns
about the younger woman, of course. I mean, for starters she was a friend of Proctor's and that was never good. Bea's internal panic kicked in as she considered that maybe this was just a façade on Allie's front, and that maybe she just wanted to
find Bea's weakness.

"Everything." was the short but heartfelt reply she received from the girl next door, so she spoke. She let her in. In that moment, Bea found her trust.

"Debbie was my world, you know? Life on the outside was, at times, pretty fucking rough and she was what pulled me through. She was my little girl and there was nothing I wouldn't have done to keep her safe... then I ended up in here and everything changed.
I couldn't protect her in the ways in which I wanted to and I knew she wasn't safe. I blame myself-" she choked as the words poured out of her, her internalised filter completely forgotton as she finally spoke the words she had wanted to for months
"-I blame myself for everything that happened to her. I would trade places with her in a heartbeat."

Allie leant her head back against the wall as the stray tear made its path down her face. Hearing the woman that she looked up to hurting, it began to hurt her to. She tried to compose herself and calm the tremble she didn't doubt would lace her voice
before replying "It wasn't your fault, Bea. You didn't make your husband hit you, you didn't make him an ignorant arsehole, you didn't make Debbie fall for Brayden Holt and you didn't make her take drugs. I do not doubt for one second that she loved
you just as much as you love her... it's all going to be okay Bea". Allie could now hear the woman's sobs through the wall and the guilt entered the room.

"Hey Bea.." Allie smirked through her tears "..Did I ever tell you about the time I thought I could make it as a rapper?!"

It was three days later when the guards came and released the women from their cramped cells. They stepped out in unison and tool in the space around them before their eyes locked for the first time in what felt like forever. Bea let herself release a
genuine smile to the blonde-haired beauty that stood infront of her, the woman who maintained her sanity during her short stay in the slot.

"Thank you, Allie." the red-haired woman was heartfelt in her speech, keepinh eye-contact like it was the only think keeping her alive "..lets get back, shall we?"

Lead by their appropriate guards, they walked side by side back in to general population with shit-eating grins plastered on their faces. Maybe prison wasn't so bad after all...i