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We pulled up to the Fox River State Penitentiary in the prisoner bus about a week after my trial. I kept my head down the whole ride and tucked my hair in a cap to hide any traces of femininity for as long as I possibly could. Luckily, the CO's were aware of my unique situation and were willing to do whatever they could to keep me safe.

Well, everyone except for fucking Bellick, I swear, that man has a telephone pole jammed ten feet up his ass. I stepped off the bus and nearly tripped, but managed to regain my balance before I face-planted and became the prison joke.

Unfortunately, this grabbed the attention of one Brian Bellick, who smirked and sauntered over to me like he ruled the place. He leaned down, eyes widening with recognition before a terrible smile came over his face.

He stepped back and yelled, "Look what we got here! A con who thinks he runs the joint."

My face grew hot when every con in the yard turned to watch the show. "Well there goes flying below the radar," I thought.

"Take it off," he sneered.

"W-w-what?" I stammered. He knew I was a girl! What was he playing at?

That was obviously the wrong response because before I could blink, he knocked the hat off my head and onto the muddy ground. I could feel my long brown hair fall tumble loose down my back and the wave of whispers and unsettling chuckles from the onlookers set me on edge.

As the rest the newbies were dismissed to go explore the yard, I was rooted to the spot, in fear that some sick bastard would try to come talk to me, and looked around with wide, terrified eyes at my surroundings. I could still feel the unnerving eyes of the men on me as I slowly turned around, searching for some escape.

"Breathe, Katie. In and out. This won't be so bad! It's just like high school. Be nice, make friends, stay out of trouble."

Okay, now that the mandatory freak out has been taken care of, I need to do something about my hair. It's too long to be left loose and if someone got the wrong idea, it could definitely be used against me, but I've been growing it out for years, so there's no way in hell I'm cutting it off.

I walk over to the sweet CO named Bob that helped me cope after my trial and whispered to him what I needed. He complied with a smile, so I hugged him and walked away.

A group of scary looking men caught my eye and I was all set on hightailing it in the other direction, but then I recognized one of them: John Abruzzi. I don't remember what he was arrested for, but what I do remember is seeing an interview of his precious family on the news in the aftermath of his trial.

Putting on a brave face and a sunny smile, I start to walk over to the table. I try not to notice the snickers and cat calls and stop in front of Mr. John Abruzzi.

"Mr. Abruzzi?" I asked timidly, glancing down at the ground and back up again. I was met with his incredulous face and leery grins from his crew. I soldiered on, knowing that the entire yard had once again gone silent, watching our exchange.

"Do you have a daughter?" That was clearly not the right thing to say, because his face turned a rather impressive shade of puce. My began to race and I started to ramble. Maybe if I got it all out before his fist met my face, he would be willing to help me.

"As you've probably noticed, I'm the only girl at Fox River and I have a bit of a problem. I am not tough, at all, like I can't even stand the sight of blood and I've noticed that the men in here look at me like I'm a piece of meat and that terrifies me because I watch Criminal Minds, I know what some of these guys are in for and I can't even bring myself to kill the spider in my shower cup back home and I have really long hair as you can see. Well, of course you've seen, you saw the whole Bellick thing and oh god I'm rambling so I'm just going to stop now."

I must've closed my eyes at some point because when I opened them, John Abruzzi, the Chicago mob boss (Because of course you remember what he was in here for AFTER you word vomit on him), was standing in front of me with amusement in his eyes.

"What do you need," he huffed. Okay, Katie breathe, you got this. I looked him square in the eye and said in a tremulous voice, "Will you please braid my hair?"

His tough facade crumbled instantly, replaced by a look of sympathy. He could see how scared I was in the way that I constantly checked my surroundings and shied away from the men behind him. He motioned to the bench he was sitting on, told his men to scram, and held his hand out for the hair ties that I knew he'd seen me get from Bob.

"So squirt, where ya from?" Sitting on the bench gave me a great view of the yard and I'll be damned if that wasn't the highlight of my week.

Everyone in the whole yard, cons and CO's alike, looked on in utter shock as the feared John Abruzzi and I sat on that bench yapping away as he braided my hair like we were at a slumber party. He even had the foresight to twist the two braids into a knot at the nape of my neck so that no untoward men could use my hair to their advantage.

"All done kiddo," he said as I whipped around gleefully. "So do ya want me to do yours now?" I grinned and reached for his hair playfully.

"Hey, hey, hey hands of the merchandise!" he huffed as he slapped my hands away. My grin faded as I got up and faced him.

"Seriously, though, I can't thank you enough," I whispered. "Yeah, yeah," he grumbled with a trace of an Eastern European accent. "Same time tomorrow or what?"

My face lit up and I launched myself at him, hugging him for all I was worth. He stiffened at first, but eventually returned the hug.

I pulled away grinning and skipped over to where Bellick was waiting stormy-faced to take me to Warden Pope. Halfway across the yard, I stopped, looked back and hollered, "See ya tomorrow Mr. Abruzzi!"

As I was turning back towards Bellick, I suddenly stopped. Not sure why I did, I scanned the yard.

That's when I saw him, staring back at me with the most piercing eyes I had ever seen. He had a strong jaw, tattoo sleeves poking out of his shirt, and close cropped hair. Only one thought ran through my mind in that moment and I am not ashamed to say that it was the words, "Well hot damn."

Coughing to cover up the fact that I had totally just been caught staring, I rushed over to an impatient Bellick, but not before I caught the smirk that graced the handsome stranger's face.