The visiting room of the prison was bright, in comparison to the darkened souls the building itself housed. That was the first thing that Effy thought as she entered the one area of the prison she had yet to step foot in for the past four months. In all of that time, not a single person had visited, and Effy had vaguely begun to wonder if perhaps even her family had forgotten about her. She scanned the room as they took the handcuffs off, expecting to see Tony there, the same ever-present smirk gracing his facial features. Instead her eyes fell upon a familiar small brunette and she found herself rooted to the spot. Emily Fitch was, after all, the last person she'd expected to come visit her in prison.
She thought back to when she had last seen the young woman, four months beforehand, curled up in Naomi's lap in the hospital, sobbing as the woman she had loved since middle school slowly faded away. Effy blinked back tears at the memory. This wasn't right, she thought to herself, this wasn't what she deserved.
When Emily saw her, she smiled sadly and gestured to the chair on the other side of the table that she was sitting at. Effy nodded, then sat down, eyeing the younger woman curiously.
"What are you doing here?" the question was blunt, perhaps a bit rude, but Emily seemed to not be paying attention, her eyes glued to Effy's face, a glimmer of horror igniting her dark brown eyes. Effy looked at her curiously, then brought her hand to her right cheek, wincing as her fingertips traced the rather large, horizontal scab. "Right… wouldn't give someone my dessert." She said by way of explanation, and Emily's eyes widened even more, something Effy wouldn't have thought was possible.
"It looks worse than it is." She said, hating that the cliché had come from her mouth but scared that if she didn't do something to calm Emily down the girl would bolt like a frightened rabbit. It seemed to work, but only slightly as Emily shifted a bit in her seat.
"She… she made me promise to visit you." Emily finally said after a moment, and Effy nodded, satisfied. She really should have figured that Emily wouldn't have come here voluntarily. She had received an incoherant phone call from Gina, Naomi's mother, two weeks after she'd been locked up, and had known that her best friend had finally succumbed to the cancer that had been slowly shutting down her body. Effy had been unable to do anything, only stare at the wall in front of her as Gina sobbed over the phone. Now, though, she found her eyes misting over slightly and blinked back tears.
"Ah…" Was all that Effy said, drumming her fingers on the tabletop. She really wasn't sure what to say, the anger over what had happened was still very much evident on Emily's face, and she could have sworn that there were lines creasing her forehead that hadn't been there four months ago. "Gina called me… when it happened…" she said, trying to fill the silence. Pain filled Emily's face and Effy immediately regretted the words.
"That's because I couldn't." she said simply, her eyes relentlessly betraying the strength in her voice. "I was… I am… so angry at you. I know she didn't want me to know, but didn't you think that I had the right to?" the words spilled out in a rush, and it took Effy a moment to fully comprehend them. As soon as she had, Emily took another breath and began to speak again. "I still feel like you stole that time from me, I would have left New York, taken up a job in London, been with her-"
"She didn't want that." Effy said, tone monotonous to keep her voice from cracking. Emily's eyes narrowed.
"What about me? I would have wanted to be there for her." Each word fell upon Effy's ears like an accusation, a barrage of bullets aimed at her heart. She took a deep, shaky breath and looked Emily square in the eye.
"And put your life on hold so that you could hold your dying girlfriend? Naomi didn't-"she hadn't gotten through a second sentence before Emily jumped up from her seat, leaned forward, and slapped her again. Effy took it, she had seen it coming.
"I would have given my life for hers, you fucking cunt!" Emily exclaimed, and Effy watched as tears escaped her chocolately brown eyes. A couple of guards stepped forward, and Effy shook her head. Surprisingly, they didn't interfere.
"I know. But you wouldn't have been able to." She said softly, watching as her words registered inside of Emily's brain. Just like that, Emily's face crumpled and she turned, exiting the room, sobbing. Effy sat back down in her chair, eyeing the various inmates and their visitors who had stopped to stare at the momentary scene the two women had caused.
"Stonem!" a guard barked, "No lounging unless you have a visitor!"
Effy rolled her eyes before heading over to the door she had come in from, allowing herself to be handcuffed once more so that she could be taken to her cell. She was certain that Emily wouldn't be visiting her again.
She couldn't have been more wrong.