AUTHORS NOTE:
Hi all, thanks for all your love and support so far! I just wanted to add a little note here to say that I will be making reference to other OUaT characters but due to the nature and environment of the story I'm borrowing most of them will be fairly out of character - I have altered their names a little to reflect these changes but I wanted to keep familiar faces around to pay homage the reason we're here in the first place! I am hoping that Emma and Regina will be able to stay to character fairly well but please let me know what you think as we go along.
Thanks again!
It wasn't long before the paramedics arrived and hastily removed Ashley from her room, on a gurney. The lower two landings of the wing had been unlocked after Ashley was removed from sight and the in-mates were already well into their breakfast routine. The inmates of G3, however, were still waiting and had been told nothing. They sat stewing in their cells oblivious to the cause except for hearing a few calls for help and the bounding of steel capped boots up the metal stairway.
Officer Nolan was waiting by Ashley's cell for Senior Officer Hershey when she got back from escorting the paramedics, and Ashley, through the wing security.
"Is she going to be alright?" he asked, his face pale and a little sweaty. Hershey ignored his question and swung open the door to Ashley's cell to survey the clean-up required.
"Go get me two cleaners up." She ordered Nolan. After all, it was certainly not her job to clean up the bloody mess left by an in-mate in her cell.
Nolan was struggling to process really anything. "Huh?"
Hershey huffed and flapped her hands at him in a bid to hurry him along; "From the kitchen, quick!"
"Shouldn't we let the others out though? They'll be wondering what's going on?" Nolan suggested, still feeling rather unwell.
Hershey turned to stare him down; "How do you think I got these two pips on my shoulder David? To be cheeked by you? How do you think they'll react when they see this mess?! Do you want to deal with that because I certainly don't? Now go and fetch me those cleaners!"
Nolan knew better than to delay any further and bolted down the stairs; a little concerned that his light headedness may mean he'd fall down them faster.
Officer April Booth was supervising breakfast when Officer Nolan came flying into the dining hall, barely able to slow himself down from the momentum of running down the stairs.
"Oi David, what's keeping the threes?" she called but he flew past her towards the kitchen.
"I need Anna and Elsa, now!" he called and the two women came running out to him, their hands already covered with marigolds.
Annabelle French was more or less oblivious to the ruckus up on G3; she had only been there a few days but she had already learnt that the gossip would get around to her sooner or later so she didn't need to be in the thick of it right now. She grabbed a tray and her plastic mug and joined the queue for breakfast. Without the G3 in-mates, she made it to the serving counter quicker than usual, where she was met with the fiery red-head.
"Egg and sausage please," she asked Zelena as politely as she could.
Zelena ignored her order and smiling wickedly leaned forward over the food trays to whisper to her. "Have you spoken your friend yet? About what I asked you?" she queried, her smile never faltering. It was all about looks in this place. The screws couldn't accuse her of being threatening when her face was as sweet as sugar and spice.
Annabelle tried her best to keep eye contact but her nerves got the better of her as she replied, "I…I can't talk to them."
Zelena pulled herself back over the counter and scooped up a huge spoonful of grey goop and slapped it onto Annabelle's tray. "Can't you?" she asked, still grinning.
Annabelle didn't respond as she accepted her punishment and moved towards the tables, her whole being a little smaller and weaker.
Vicky DeVille was next in line and Zelena smiled brightly.
"Double for you eh Vix?" she said louder than necessary so that Annabelle would definitely hear her.
Vicky laughed towards Annabelle and accepted "Thanks Zel." Zelena loaded Vicky's tray with sausages and eggs and jabbed her spoon towards Annabelle; "She'll have to earn it."
Annabelle heard every word and her body sank further in her chair. She picked up her spoon and forced herself to eat whatever that grey gloop was; knowing full well this would probably be as good as she was going to get for the foreseeable future. She thought one second further and resolved herself that she may as well eat up now before Zelena cut her off from food completely. She had already seen enough of Zelena and Vicky to know that they could make it happen with the officers being none-the-wiser, or at least not giving two shits.
Emma was just scraping the last of her cold, inedible breakfast into the bin when she saw Elsa and Anna being ushered up the stairs, loaded with mops and buckets. Looking around she noticed that none of the level 3 women had been down for breakfast yet. Pushing up the sleeves of her royal blue hoodie she made her way over to Officer Booth, who stood leant against the bars separating the dining hall and the rest of the wing, her arms tightly folded. "What's keeping the threes?" she questioned.
"Nothing, they're just held up."
Emma noticed Booth's passive attitude and pressed for more; "Why what's going on?" and for a minute Booth looked like she was about to reply before she caught herself and turned to face Emma with a complacent look clearly layered on her face; "Why have I got to tell you?"
Emma shrugged it off and turned to watch Elsa and Anna make their way up the final flight of stairs to where Officer Hershey pushed them forward into Ashley Boyd's cell.
"Right you two, get in."
Anna and Elsa recoiled as soon as they saw the blood soaked bed, and dropped the buckets in favour of throwing their hands over their mouths in shock.
"Oh my god!"
"Where's Ashley?!"
Emma heard them shout Ashley's name and immediately sprang up and ran for the stairs jumping two at a time. "Anna?!" She called enquiring.
Anna called out from the cell with no thought at all to the chaos she was about to instigate; that Officer Hershey had been trying to prevent.
"Emma! Somethings happened to Ashely!"
Emma reached the second floor and flew around the landing to the next set of stairs. "What? What's wrong?" she called frantically and she started up towards G3 but Officer Nolan blocked her path.
Hershey shoved Anna back into the cell; "Get in!"
"Oh Em! It's horrible!" Anna called and as she moved further into the cell Emma's view was no longer obscured.
"ASHLEY!"
Regina Mills was furious.
She stood strong as steel dressed in a crisp, tailored pant suit, as rage burnt through every vein her body and it took every last bit of willpower she had not to tear the heads off the two Senior Officers who sat before her. She waited in deathly silence for one of them to speak, and Hershey delivered.
"I'm sorry ma'am. I've been under a lot of strain lately, all these back to backs." Hershey offered pathetically.
Regina held her tone as steady as she could but she could feel the emotion creeping into her throat.
"A woman miscarried and almost bled out in her cell." She stated delivering each word very clearly, "and thanks to you involving the cleaners, most of G wing will have heard the worst of it by now." She continued unable to stop the volume of her voice rising. "So I need to know from you exactly,how it happened!"
Hershey's face was full of disbelief and dismay. "It must have happened out of the blue, ma'am. I'm completely shocked; there was not a thing wrong with her at lock up." She spurted out.
Regina wasn't fooled. "Really?"
Hershey shrugged and continued, "Apart from she said she was tired, or I would've said to the night patrol wouldn't I?" she stated more than asked, and Regina fought back the question of 'would you?' and instead responded;
"Even though she asked to see the doctor?"
Hershey scoffed, "Oh if we sent them every time they ask you that, honestly…" she trailed off, "Especially her, she's always complaining of something."
"Ashley does have a bad rep for timewasting" Gold piped up in Hershey's defence. Regina eyes flared towards Gold before returning to Hershey.
"Well I've just come back from speaking to her, and she insists she told you she was bleeding."
Hershey's mouth fell open in shock, and Regina was sure if she'd done it any faster she would have dislocated her jaw.
"No she never! Bleeding?! She just told me she wanted to see the doctor." Hershey implored.
As calm as ever Gold countered; "Did she tell the night patrol?"
Regina sighed; of course he would find someone else to lay the blame on.
"They thought she was sleeping so didn't bother her, now we can assume she was barely conscious at the time." She could hear her voice rising again, "Had Senior Officer Hershey taken the trouble…"
"…she didn't think there was any reason…" Gold interrupted, who was further interrupted by Hershey herself. "Well I didn't. She was just doing the usual."
Regina turned away from them exasperated, and paused briefly to stare out the window. They had this all neatly wrapped up.
"So this is all her own fault is it?"
When she received no reply, she turned back to face them raising her voice; "Well?!"
Gold slouched back on his chair, his face doing its best to look like he cared. "Regina, it's just a tragic set of circumstance."
Regina stared him down but there was little else she could say. She pondered her next move. If she didn't react publicly about it she would have anarchy on her hands as the gossip spread further and dirtier. She sighed heavily and addressed Gold.
"I have to speak to the women; please call a wing meeting as soon as possible."
Gold shook his head and stood up in a bid to speak to her as equal, "Look I really think..." he inhaled, "Don't we think we should sit tight, you know until feelings die down." He nodded towards her as if she would go along with it just because he said it. He truly wasn't seeing who she was at all was he?
Regina eyes burned into his and she licked across her teeth trying to keep calm, "No I don't." she stated. "I think we should be seen as caring right now."
Gold held her gaze and without looking away nodded towards Hershey who followed suit and got up. Regina stared back at him in silence until he knew he had lost and turned, guiding Hershey and himself towards the door.
As Gold shut the door behind him Hershey piped up; "…and not even a cup of tea."
Hershey continued to babble on about Regina's attitude as they made their way back to the wing.
"She sounds a bit too much of the prisoners friend to me."
Gold unlocked the gate in front of them and held it open for Hershey to cross onto the wing, as he replied.
"Well let's see what she has to say to the girls." He locked the gate behind them and checked the lock. "And leave out the 'ma'am' in future; she doesn't appreciate it."
Hershey laughed. "Doesn't mind playing it though does she?" she countered.
Officer Booth greeted them as they entered the wing office; "How'd it go?"
Gold smiled "Well we're in the clear but she wants the whole unit assembled for a wing meeting now."
April's face screwed up as she looked down at her freshly made cup of tea. "What, right now?"
Gold picked up her tea and took a large sip. "You better help Cora unlock," he ordered as he made his way out towards the wing. He made his way towards the dorm rooms on the ground floor and unlocked the first cell.
All of the inmates of G wing had gathered around the landings of each floor in preparation for the wing meeting. Most of the women preferred to be on the staircase or one of the landings so they could better see what was going on. Most of the prison officers were gathered around the ground floor on either side of the barred gates, waiting for Wing Governor Regina Mills.
Emma, Anna and Elsa were grouped on the second floor landing.
"We just feel so terrible, we had no idea." Elsa commented to Emma, the genuine sympathy obvious on her face, and she dragged her bright blonde air round her neck to twist it nervously as they waited for Mills.
"Though we did hear her tell Hershey she wanted to see the doctor." Anna added. Elsa continued, "Then she went quiet."
"And then we just assumed she'd headed off to bed" Anna finished. Emma watched the sisters talk back and forth, their distress at the situation clearly evident in their stumbling to finish each-other's sentences, and she felt anger build inside herself.
Elsa's ice blue eyes stared intently into Emma's, "Hershey; she must have seen how weak Ashley was." she said. Anna leant her ginger head on Elsa's shoulder and rubbed her sister's back, offering some comfort. Emma held Elsa's gaze and assured her, "If that bitch doesn't pay for this, I'm dragging this shit to the top." Her blue eyes had deepened their colour in anger and she clenched her fists at her sides in an attempt to release some of the pent up energy. Anna looked over at her, and nodded; "Elsa and I have already decided; we're calling all the kitchen women out on strike." Emma didn't have a chance to respond as Gold's voice reverberated around the stone walls as he called for silence, signifying the arrival of Regina Mills onto the wing.
"LETS HAVE SOME QUIET FOR MISS MILLS." He called as Regina Mills was lead through the gate and onto the ground floor. She wasn't a tall woman but she stood confidently, surrounded by her officers, looking up at the women whose welfare she was responsible for. She wore a stark black power pantsuit over a crisp white blouse and black court heels. Her dark, shoulder length hair sat neatly against the collar of her blazer and her deep, red lipstick was striking against her monochrome outfit, highlighting the scar on her top lip. She liked to think it added a subtle edge to her appearance, and she needed every bit of self-confidence she had right now. This was not going to be easy in the slightest.
The women had silenced in response to Gold's order and were eagerly awaiting what Mills had to say.
"Thank you," she called out, speaking clearly and loudly to ensure every woman could hear her. "Now I'm sure by now you all know that last night Ashley Boyd suffered a miscarriage in her room which was not discovered until first unlock."
The women erupted in a sea of questions and comments and Regina spoke louder still, making sure to meet as many eyes as she could find in the crowd. "Now I know you all must be feeling very upset about this, as am I and so are my officers I can assure you!"
The volume of questions and comments rose further to meet her and she straightened up standing taller, trying to focus all of her energy and confidence into her posture and her speech.
"I personally went to see Ashely this morning in hospital and can report that she will soon be well enough to be back with us."
This was not the right thing to say and the women responded with anger.
"Back here?!" "That'll do her fucking good won't it?!" "I bet she doesn't want to be well enough to be back here!"
Emma watched Regina Mills struggle to deliver her little speech over the volume of the inmates and felt an intense desire to see Mills be crushed by them completely. How could she possibly stand there and assure them her officers were upset; they were the bastards who let it happen in the first place. Emma bit her tongue but she could feel every nerve in her body bubbling with anger and injustice.
"I spoke to her about what happened and assured her I would conduct a full and thorough examination into how and why she was left unattended." Regina continued, keeping her voice as clear and as loud as she could, hoping that the women would understand her, but her next sentence already felt like tiny blades cutting her throat with its lies. "Now I have since interviewed all officers concerned…" she paused praying that no-one would hear the difficulty she had dragging it out of her throat, "…but I have to conclude that what happened here was a tragic set of circumstances." She echoed Gold's earlier heartless summation of the situation.
Emma couldn't hold herself back any longer and yelled out horrified at Regina's statement; "A what?! She nearly bleed to death! You should all be sacked!" she spat in Regina's direction.
Regina heard Emma's comments clearly but she ignored them, and the other women's, and continued. She felt like she was going to be sick as she continued, everything about this felt wrong.
"I'm sorry, but as far as I can conclude there are no grounds for disciplinary action. However, I will make immediate changes to procedure so no more accidents like this can ever happen here again."
There was no stopping Emma now. "What you mean accident? It wasn't an accident!" and Anna and Elsa were right there to support her; "She was calling for a doctor!" "We heard her!"
"And so did that cow!" Anna yelled, pointing hard at Cora who stood on Regina's left side, "and so how come she didn't lift a finger?!"
The three had prompted even more shouts of rage and Regina couldn't speak over them any longer, so she pleaded, "Will you please! Everyone!" but it was Gold who again commanded silence;
"Quiet! NOW!"
The women's shouts died down and Regina nodded towards him in thanks before addressing the women again; "Thank you…" but before she could continue Emma interrupted her.
"No, let me say it for her." She called out to the women as she made her way down the metal stairs to the ground floor.
Regina's head snapped round towards Emma's voice with a stare in her eyes that should have struck Emma dead on the spot.
"What she's telling us…" Emma started, struggling to break eye contact with Regina to address the women, "Is were not even safe in here, are we?" She gathered her energy and looked away. She looked around the wing and pushed her voice out towards them all; "Because even if we're bleeding to death in here… they won't believe us."
The women began to call out again, supporting Emma and cheering her on. Regina found herself unable to voice the rage burning within her. Her jaw clenched her mouth shut and her fists bunched by her sides; her heart was beating hard and fast in her chest sending wave after wave of adrenaline around her lithe body and she was ready to fight, but she held it back.
"Well I'm telling her from us," Emma turned back to face Regina, "You can't run this prison unless we help you," she spat through clenched teeth. She smirked a little as an idea swept into her brain and as usual, didn't even pause before it made its way straight out through her mouth, "and if we don't get respect…" she emphasised pointedly, "…we're sure as hell not going to make you look good in front of the VIPs." Emma crossed her arms smugly after seeing the faces of the other officers fall, but she faltered a little when she saw the resolve stay well and truly put on Regina's face and decided to really end it; "You can shove the fashion show… up your ass!"
Before Emma had finished the word 'ass' Regina had stormed right up to the in-mate and drew eye level with her. Emma held Regina's eye contact firmly; her own eyes filled with fire and recognising the same in Regina and for a second, though it felt infinitely longer, the world dissolved and enraptured in rage, they were the only people in the room… until Regina broke the silence and reminded them bluntly where they were. "Fine." She stated.
Regina held Emma's stare but addressed the whole wing, a little louder now. "Consider it cancelled. This wing will not be taking part."
The women erupted again, and sensing the end of the meeting, the other officers moved to start getting them back under control. Regina didn't move.
"You..." she points very deliberately right in Emma's face. "…are on rule 43." She drops her hand and Emma's face falls. Shit.
Regina's voice raised again but this time she addressed her officers; "Lock them up!"
Regina turns away from Emma without another word, and as fast as she entered Emma's space, she has left again and was making her way towards the wing exit.
Emma had barely a second to register before two officers rushed up and roughly grabbed each of her arms, holding her still.
"Regina!" Gold calls after her as she starts to unlock the wing gate. "Regina, please can we talk about this?" he pleads. Regina turns to face him, eyes still on fire.
"Once thing you better learn about me Bobby: when I make a decision I stick to it." She replied determined to make him understand her.
"But the girls, they're so excited. This will just have them kick off even more." Gold implored; like hell he wants to deal with them after this.
Regina shook her head in disbelief at him, and lowered her voice, speaking through gritted teeth; "Do you think I believe all that shit from Cora?" She asked knowing full well he doesn't. "I just had to face a near riot out there because of what she let happen so don't you blame me for coming down heavy."
Gold has no answer and huffing, left towards the wing to help the other officers as Regina slammed the key into the lock and roughly yanked it open to let herself off the wing.
"Oh shut it!" Gold called to the rowdy in-mates who were shouting and flailing in the officers' grip as they guided them back into their cells. "The sooner you calm down the sooner you get out."
Once he saw the other officers have a hold of the situation, Gold made his way over to Emma and nodding to one of the other officers to let go, released some of his anger by taking the officers place roughly grabbing hold of Emma's arm, and threw her forwards towards the wing exit. She wasn't ready for the movement and stumbled forward causing her to pull on the other officer's arm, who in retaliation, wrenches her back into a standing position and the pair of them forced her forwards.
They made their way down the corridor to the cold, damp solitary cells. Gold and the other officer were practically carrying Emma as she attempted to fight out of their grip.
"I can walk on my own!" she yelled out.
Gold pushed her against the wall as the other officer let go to unlock the door to her new home. She rubbed her arm where a red hand print was still visible but didn't have time to catch her breath before Gold grabbed her again and shoved her through the open cell door. She just about managed to stay on her feet and twisted to glare at him, but Gold just smirked back at her and nodded towards the other officer.
"Put her in the strips." His eyes flashed at Emma and her mouth fell open.
"That'll give her something to moan about. Get her clothes off!"
