Introductions
The inside of the prison, although filled with constant activity and life, felt so vapid. The walls were painted a dull uninspiring and lifeless grey, and the bland pale blue floors were illuminated by the soft buzzing of the oppressive fluorescent lighting above. It reminded her of some of the wings in the Lima General Hospital her daddy worked in. She had never liked being there, the morbid feeling of dread and death lurking in every room she passed, never wanting to chance a glance inside at the injured or sickly patients. The only difference now was that the prospect of imminent death being just as much of a real possibility, only, for her. She didn't know which she felt more comfortable being in, hospital or prison. At least here she had Brittany to lean on. She honestly didn't know how she'd be handling herself if the blonde hadn't been in it with her from the get go to help her retain her composure and sanity.
"Go down this hall and into the first door for processing where you'll get your room assignments and new ID," Mercedes instructed mechanically, obviously having recited the same words countless times in the past.
Rachel used to love getting her photo taken. In fact, back in high school she would practically pounce at the chance of a photo opportunity, being a part of as many extra-curricular clubs as possible so that her face was an almost constant throughout the annual thunderclap yearbooks. She thought that it would help her prepare for her future in New York as a famous Broadway star and Hollywood actress, knowing paparazzi would be taking snaps of her every time she stepped out into the public eye. She had spent hours studying her facial structure at every angle and in every different lighting setting in order to ensure she found the perfect shot taken of her on her best side for her audition portfolio. She never however ever anticipated getting her photo taken here.
"Raise your head and look directly at the lens."
Rachel stood tall, well, at her full height, as she obeyed the instructions called out to her by the male officer standing behind a desk that rested a camera atop a mini tripod, a laptop facing away from her beside it. The man was tall, very tall. She estimated he was around 6'3" and in his late twenties.
Rubbing his mullet with one hand as his other aimlessly tapped keys and buttons, his countenance held a look of pure confusion as he tried operating the camera.
"Uhhhh, Coleman, help me out over here for a sec? It's not taking the photo."
The second officer in the room groaned in annoyance as he stood from his chair and tossed the latest issue of Playboy magazine onto the table he had been leaning his legs up on.
"Did you even check if it was turned on?"
"Dude, I'm not stupid."
"Could've fooled me," he scoffed, before lightly shoving the taller officer to the side so he could inspect it himself. "Ugh, I have to do everything myself around here," Officer Coleman dead-panned as he rolled his eyes before looking around and finding the problem. "You didn't plug the wire in. You're fucking hopeless, you know that Nelson? Maybe she should be taking your photo."
"I've only been here for a couple of weeks, Josh. Just cut me a break for once, man."
"It's Coleman to you, Nelson. And no, I can't 'cut you a break' because this job involves handling hardened criminals. If you're weak, they'll take advantage of you. You can't let yourself get lazy and complacent, because they're fucking dangerous. Take this chick for example," Josh tilted his head toward Rachel who stood ramrod straight as the tall read-headed officer also eyed her warily. "You don't know why she's in here. For all you know she could have murdered the last man that 'cut her a break', so learn to do your damn job so I don't have to worry about you fucking up and making me look bad anymore."
Nelson sneered before shoving Coleman back and retaking his position in front of the laptop control keys, hitting the capture button and catching Rachel unaware. After the flash successfully went off, Officer Coleman finally looked up from the screen to meet Rachel's startled expression, a cocky smile gracing his lips as he raked in the sight of her. Really, raked it all in, eyeing her up and down from head to toe.
"Wait," he ordered as Officer Nelson hovered over the off button. "That first picture didn't do her justice, she wasn't ready for it. Take another."
Rachel internally smiled at knowing she had another chance to have a more flattering photo of herself as her representation.
Nelson looked a little nonplussed but abided the command and this time checked to see if the inmate was prepared for it this time, the woman's paltry nod giving him the go-ahead.
The second picture came out perfectly, earning a smug hum of approval from Officer Coleman as he finished creating Rachel her new identification, slipping the finished product into a protective plastic covering with an alligator clip on the back and handing it to her.
Rachel thanked him as she collected it before looking down and seeing the original photo of her instead of the improved second one. She looked up into amused yet hardened light brown eyes as Coleman slipped the second print out of her into his pant pocket.
"I think I'll keep this one for myself, it's too pretty to have a prison ID," he smirked, tapping the side of his leg where the photo sat. A cold chill ran up Rachel's back as his lowly wispy voice met her ears. Hurriedly, she turned and left the room, those arrogant eyes still watching her every step as she did.
Meeting Brittany and Mercedes back out in the hallway, the taller girl toying with her own new ID badge's clip as she fastened it onto her top's material, the orange-clad women got a check-up from a resident nurse, getting their full bill of good health before they continued on their introductory tour.
"Over to the left down here are the rooms where you'll stay in until you get your official dorm bunk assignments," Mercedes explained as she led Rachel and Brittany further into the facility. "Counsellors offices are down there to the right, straight ahead are the cafeteria hall, common room and phones, and just here is the exit to the track and exercise yard."
Rachel settled a little at the information, happy to know that her morning exercise routine wouldn't be too heavily impacted whilst she was an inmate. She would not let herself lose tone and fitness just because of her circumstance. She wondered if there was an elliptical available, but she sighed as she highly doubted it.
"Here's you," Mercedes motioned with her outstretched hand outside a small room with two sets of bunk beds on either side. Metal storage cabinets sat beside the doorway and smaller ones acted as nightstands between the two bunks.
The first thing Rachel noticed though were the already present inhabitants occupying one set of the bunks. The girl on the bottom bed sat cross-legged on top of her mattress, striking cobalt blue eyes, darker than Brittany's, and soft brown hair framing her young features. Rachel frowned as she estimated that she would have been no older than 18. The girl's eyebrows raised in intrigue as Brittany and Rachel stepped into the room, the former throwing her stuff onto the top bunk before calling out, "dibs!"
Rachel offered her new roommates a shy smile as she stepped in further before laying her claim to the bed below Brittany's.
"A'ight, well, don't get too comfy 'cause y'all will be issued your permanent single beds in the proper dorms. This is just temporary."
Brittany pouted as she heard the news. She liked the bunk beds, and her current roommates seemed pretty cool. She didn't want to move and be separated, not from Rachel at least.
"In a bit an officer will escort y'all one by one to your respective counsellor where you'll get that info and work assignments and your personal belongings and yada yada. Anyways, I gotta go help with dinner prep in the kitchens. I'll catch y'all later." Mercedes waved as she left, a silence echoing in her wake.
"These beds aren't very comfy or soft," Brittany groaned as she shifted around above her, the old springs squeaking above Rachel as she tried to settle in.
Rachel hummed loudly in agreement as she also tested her new sleeping quarters out, a frown set on her brow.
"Hardly any lumbar support," Rachel stage whispered.
"What'd you expect? The Four Seasons?" an unknown voice responded sarcastically.
A girl lay down seemingly unperturbed on the top bunk, one leg bent and the other resting across it mid-air, swaying from side to side as she flicked through a magazine that hid her face.
Brittany twisted her attention from her kneading of the thin and slightly lumpy mattress in the direction of the reply, followed by Rachel and the girl on the opposite bottom bunk.
"Well, na, I didn't expect like anything fancy or nothing, but I thought that maybe-"
The magazine fell to the girl's chest as she scoffed up at the ceiling. "Look, they don't give a shit about us or how well we sleep at night in this hell hole. Did you really think they'd care enough to spend a little extra tax payer dollars on a thicker bed to rest convicted felons? Stop complaining and just accept it. You'll learn to sooner or later, but it'll be less annoying for me if it's sooner because I've been dealing with people whining over irrelevant shit like this for too long."
Rachel stood up from her bed and offered Brittany a small soothing smile because she could feel that the words thrown at the blonde were bringing her down from the stopping of the squeaky springs caused by the lack of movement above her. Brittany's smile returned slightly at the gesture before Rachel turned around to defend her friend.
"Look, this is all very new for us, ok? We don't know what to expect and we've literally just gotten our first feel of what our bedding will be like."
The girl on the top bunk laughed before sitting up and leaning back on her elbows to get a real good look at the new girls. "First timers, huh? Yeah, you definitely look it."
Rachel studied the appearance of this young girl, surmising that she would have been just a year or so younger than herself. Her blonde hair was pulled into a firm ponytail at the top of her head, her narrowed hazel eyes running up and down the short form of the strange brunette standing at the foot of her bunk.
"What do you mean we look it?" Rachel questioned a little defensively, crossing her arms over her chest.
The blonde laughed again before swinging her legs over her bed's edge, hopping down to the floor and matching Rachel's height. "What I meeean," she drawled out, rolling her eyes, "is that, you don't look like you've been effected by the law before in your life, let alone broken it before. You have something that most of us have already lost. Something in your eyes…"
"And what's that exactly?" Rachel threw back offensively.
"Hope."
Rachel's eyes widened as the word was spoken so gently to her, no malice or attacking tone in the other girl's voice any more. She let her arms relax and fall down to her sides before sighing softly.
"I…I'm- we," she included Brittany with a quick motion of her finger pointing between the two of them, "don't really know what we're getting into. We didn't mean to upset you. I'm sorry, everything is just so different here."
The blonde nodded before turning around and walking to her bed's head, tucking her magazine underneath her pillow.
"Hey, it's fine. I get it. I've just been in and out of places like this my whole life, so I'm used to it. Not all of us grew up on the right side of the tracks," she said as Rachel ducked her head sympathetically. "Just, try not to talk so much. You might piss people that have had to deal with crappy beds like these ones for what seems like forever. You'll just sound like a privileged little bitch to them, because they will know that you've been able to sleep peacefully in a bed nothing like these ones for much longer than they have."
Rachel had the decency to look somewhat ashamed, realising how self-absorbed she had been in her thinking. Walking back over and sitting down on her bed, she let her hair fall over her, masking her fallen face. How could she be so insensitive? She knew she would have sounded so entitled when really she had no reason to be. Brittany jumped down and sat next to Rachel, nudging her with her shoulder.
"They aren't too bad, right Berry?" she encouraged sweetly, trying to lift the heavy mood. "I mean, it's better than I've had before. Much better than the floor."
Rachel turned to Brittany, brown irises glossed over with tears held within. She realised that she didn't know much about Brittany's background at all, but by the sounds of it, she didn't live a very extravagant life either. Not at all like her own at least. She felt a rush of guilt overcome her, but refused to let anyone see her cry. How would that look? The new girl crying after just an hour in prison, and over a stupid mattress of all things. So she smiled back at Brittany before nudging her back softly.
The girl opposite them still sat on her bottom bunk watched the two with her own smile spreading across her delicate features. Seeing the harmlessness and friendliness, she decided she would like to get to know these women better, because she had no idea what the others she would meet later would be like. She only hoped that they'd be similar.
"I'm Rose," she spoke gingerly, meeting a brighter blue gaze across the way. "Marley Rose."
"Nice to meet ya, I'm Brittany Pierce, and this here is my new friend Rachel Berry," Brittany replied before standing up and closing the distance between the beds to offer her hand.
Marley smiled and stood too, shaking it appreciatively.
"Wilde."
Three sets of eyes looked toward the turned back of the shorter blonde in the room.
"My name is Wilde, but everyone has always just called me Kitty."
"It's a pleasure to make both of your acquaintances," Rachel chimed in, so glad to feel the tension in the room and in herself disappear.
Kitty snickered as she spun around to face the group. "'A pleasure to make our acquaintance'? Seriously? What decade are you from Berry?" she mocked loudly, imitating Rachel's voice.
Rachel grinned as she felt some of her confidence grow, no longer fearing the teasing tone in Kitty's voice.
"This one, thank you very much! Although I would have loved to have been born in the sixties. I think that decade was one of the most significant in history, not just in terms of humanity and our positive progression towards equality for all, but also in terms of music-"
"Yeah, yeah, we all love the Beatles but for the love of all things good in this miserable stinking world please stop your rambling and just let it be, alright?"
Marley and Rachel shared a look before both broke out in song, singing the lyrics that Kitty had just unknowingly referenced.
Brittany joined in too before Kitty rolled her eyes again, hiding a smile behind her hand.
"What the hell did I do to deserve to get stuck with you three?"
The three other girls giggled as they finished the chorus off.
"You know ya wanna join, Kitty," Brittany winked before Kitty groaned, climbing back onto her bed and muffling all noise by squashing her pillow over her ears and droning loudly.
"You know, that actually didn't sound too bad," a male voice broke in, silencing everyone in the room and drawing their focus to the hall.
An officer, whom Rachel had deduced to be named 'J. St. James' via the white stitching across the right side of his chest of his light azure shirt, stood in the door way, his attitude seemingly laxed as he nonchalantly leaned against the door's frame.
"I mean, it wasn't great, but it didn't make me want to bash my head against a wall, which says a lot," he quipped before fully entering the room and plucking out a slip of paper. "I'm here for a Berry," he continued before laughing facetiously. "The person, not fruit."
Rachel stood forward, looking up at him nervously. "That's me."
"Well aren't you the genuine article?" He said as he met her uncertain chocolate brown gaze. She was hesitant, worried that all male officers would be just as intimidating as the other two she'd met.
"If I saw you on the outside and didn't know any better, I'd have thought you were a young aspiring actress, not a felon. Your ID photo should be an audition head shot, not a mug shot," St. James complimented, his dashing smile making Rachel's cheeks tinge pink.
"Thank you, Sir."
"Oh no, I'm no Sir. The Queen hasn't knighted me just yet," he jokingly replied with a wink. Realising the probably inappropriate casualness of the conversation with an inmate, St. James rolled his shoulders and stood up, returning to his usual professional stance. "I'm an officer, so you may refer to me as one."
Rachel nodded along understandingly, less apprehensive after the companionable banter. "Yes, Officer."
Officer St. James cleared his throat before telling her that her counsellor was ready to see her, ordering her to follow him before leaving her outside the door to make her own way inside the humble office.
"Please, come in and take a seat, Miss Berry."
Rachel graciously adhered as she sat down in the cushioned chair in front of a moderately sized chestnut wooden desk, letting herself sink into it gently.
The man behind the desk looked up from his stack of paperwork, giving her a welcoming smile. He shuffled and straightened the ones in his hand and placed them to the side before giving her his full attention.
"Welcome to Lima Heights Adjacent, I'm Kurt Hummel and I'll be your counsellor for the duration of your stay here. I'm here for you to come to with any and all complaints or worries. It's my job to listen and try to help in any way I can, so I hope the fact that we're on different sides of the bars doesn't deter you from trusting me." His voice was soft and effeminate. Rachel mused the thought of how high his vocal range would be, and how he'd make a wonderful countertenor.
She eased back a little and worried her bottom lip between her teeth before tuning back in and registering the words, giving a reply accordingly.
"Thank you, Mr Hummel."
"Great, now if it's not too much to ask, I'd like to ask some questions to help me get to know you and your situation better. Is that ok?" he asked, leaving room for her to object if she felt the need or desire to not have this personal conversation right at that minute.
Rachel nodded again.
"Lovely," he grinned broadly, threading his fingers together as he leaned forward in his chair, his meticulously coiffed hair only out-shined by his interested electric blue eyes. "Now, I have read some of your file, mainly your crimes, but I find that they always only tell half-truths and that there are many sides to the story. Would you like to clarify yours?"
Releasing her lip from her mouth and placing her hands in her lap, Rachel lightly scratched her palms before looking up determinedly.
"I would."
She knew it was a bad idea. She knew the dangers and the risks, and she chose to ignore them all and go along with it anyway. The ends justify the means, right? That's what she kept telling herself the entire car ride there. Repeating it like a mantra, but in her head it sounded more like a prayer. A prayer to forgive her actions, because the reason behind them was just and true. She ignored that irking feeling of warning that persistently niggled at her mind's forefront as she climbed through the sliced open security fence. She ignored her gut instinct that was screaming at her to just turn back and go home to the safety of her dorm room and prepare for classes the next day. But she supressed it all as she was handed a pair of wire cutters by another activist in the group, the looks of desperation and terror all aimed at her from the countless animals, all trapped, restrained and tortured in cages, finally helping her put something before herself. Their fear taking priority over her own.
She ignored the flash of concern that crossed her friends' faces as they watched her pour the corrupting poisons into the large vats of artificial hormones and chemicals, destroying the contents of every single one. Thousands upon thousands of dollars-worth of chemicals destroyed by her hand. She looked down from the elevated walkway she stood on at the group of people all cheering at their success, their shouts only silenced by the deafening whirl of security alarms and police sirens that had broken in the distance.
She watched as they all ran for the jarred open back emergency exit, many animals of all shapes and sizes; from chickens and mice to monkeys and cats and dogs, all fleeing for their freedom. She yelled for her friends to wait for her, nobody hearing over the bells now ringing throughout the room and building.
She luckily made it out before it closed and bolted shut behind her, escaping from the facility and running as fast as she could.
"I thought I'd gotten away with it like the others, but the cameras had seen my face after I'd foolishly removed my mask outside of the factory's fences. They charged me with property damage and destruction, and trespassing. Because I was a first time offender and I chose to self-surrendered myself, they cut my time down to 15 months," Rachel concluded, glad to have someone to be able to trustingly share her story with on the inside that wasn't also a criminal.
"They had you on tape, but you chose to give yourself in," Kurt said to himself more than her. "That's very admirable of you. But I wonder, why didn't you reduce your sentence further by naming those that conspired and executed the crime with you?"
"Because they were my friends. We all went to NYADA together and were in the same classes or vegan and animal rights support and PETA activist groups-"
"Wait, you attended the New York Academy of the Dramatic Arts?!" Hummel squeaked, jumping a little in his chair. "I had wanted to go there too, but my audition didn't impress enough, so I settled for Ohio State, and after finishing my psychology degree there, I got a stable enough job here with decent benefits. What did you attend for? Dance?"
"Music," Rachel beamed proudly. "I sing…well, sang, but my illegal actions got my scholarship revoked, and myself kicked out of my dream college," Rachel sighed as her demeanour changed instantly. She wiped away tears that slowly slid down her rosy cheeks. "I didn't want others to have their lives ruined like mine was. I know the others were just as scared as I was. And who knows? Maybe if I wasn't the one to get caught, I'd have done the same as them and let someone else take the fall too."
"You do know they most likely wouldn't have shown you the same curtesy and consideration, right? That they would have selfishly named you in order to get themselves out of a place like here sooner?"
Rachel just shrugged. "I suppose I was just so used to being selfish about everything in my life, it felt so good to do something completely selfless for once. The feeling of freedom those animals would have felt was a price I was willing to pay for my own entrapment." She laughed as she spoke her next words. "I guess I swapped places with them in a way. Now I'm the caged creature that's treated like a voiceless animal, with little to no control over what happens to me. Life's funny like that, isn't it?"
Kurt just closed his tired eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose as he exhaled through it. "The system is funny like that. I know of a crack dealer that's doing nine months, and then a lady that accidentally backed into a mailman that's doing three years. I mean, the man broke his collarbone, but how is that fair at all?" He reached over to place his hand over hers, trying to offer her his support. "I promise you, Berry, I'll do everything I can to make sure you aren't treated like an animal in here. You have my word."
Rachel cracked a smile before focusing on her breathing to calm her emotions down again. Counsellor Hummel lifted his hand from hers before changing the subject and handing her some tissues and papers that he had readied beforehand.
"Your educational history has led me to believe you'd be ideal to have you placed on library work detail. It's one of the most desirable positions offered here, so I hope you'll agree that it's appropriate for you. Also, you're lucky to have been admitted here when you were. We have some open beds in the dorms, so you won't need to stay in those bunk beds for much longer. You will be placed in dorm B, bed 21."
"Thank you, Mr Hummel, for listening and…and just, everything. By any chance, do you know anything about who my roommate will be or what she's like?"
"You're welcome, Miss Berry. And please, call me Kurt during our sessions in here. I'm only five years older than yourself, and whenever I hear 'Mr Hummel' I always resist the urge to look around to see if they're referring to my father. Unfortunately, I can't share private details about other inmates with you…"
Rachel nodded good-naturedly before standing from her seat and shaking his faintly moisturised pale hand.
"Thanks, Kurt."
She turned to take her leave, but just as she reached the brass door handle, Kurt's high-pitched voice grasped her attention once again.
"Oh, but as for your bunkmate, there is one thing I can tell you." Rachel turned around curiously to meet his trustful gaze once again.
"Fabray. Her name's Quinn Fabray."