S5E3: Scene 4

Joan Ferguson was so still on the bench in the back of the transport van that the chains around her feet and wrists didn't even rattle. She knew that the inside of the transport van was filled with bodily fluids and the insides of prisoners' regurgitated stomachs and it made her furious that she had to be surrounded by this filth. Fear made people weak and weak people couldn't control themselves. And except for the few times that Joan had let her guard down or let someone in, she was always in control.

She didn't have anything to be afraid of anymore. Bea Smith was dead, Jake Stewart wouldn't be alive for much longer, Matthew Fletcher was off fucking sheep in Tasmania, and she was on the way back to HER prison. She still had her guards and she still had Derek Channing; she'd be running that prison within the week, and it didn't matter that it was from the inside.

She had been brought to Wentworth with one mission: to correct these damaged women. Whether she was the governor or the Top Dog, she wasn't going to pander to them. It wasn't her job to be their friend. It was her job to break them of their weakness, their fear, their imperfections. The previous top dogs had flaws that made them weak: Frankie Doyle wanted acceptance, Bea Smith wanted love, and Kaz Proctor wanted equality. Women wanted order and balance, quick justice, and simple lives. They…

"Oh, would you please shut the fuck up!" shouted the rather large woman across from her. "You have rambled on and on and you are boring the piss out of me."

The van stopped and the doors swung open. The wide prisoner didn't wait to be called, she just stepped down and walked to the first guard she saw. "Please hurry up and lock me the fuck up. If I have to listen to that bitch's pissing rant anymore, I will bash my head on the brick wall."

Linda Miles gave the new inmate the most grimacing frown she had in an attempt to keep herself from laughing. "Come on, Barclay. We'll get you processed and in your jammies in no time."

"Thank the fucking mother of God. You might be my favorite person in the whole fucking world."

"My daddy would be so proud," Linda replied flatly.

Vera passed them on the way out to greet her new prisoner.

"Ah, Vera, here to greet me again. How pleasant. How have you managed without your boyfriend Jake?"

"Prisoner Ferguson. Bring her inside please, Mr. Campbell," she requested of the guard who was waiting at her side.

He gave prisoner Ferguson a little shove from behind and she turned on him with unexpected speed. "Careful, boy. I bite," she growled.

"Then I will keep you in a muzzle for the next ten years, Hannibal." His look begged her to reply. When she didn't, he sneered at her. "Get moving."

She didn't see Vera in the Processing center. She allowed the guards to order her through the process as if she were some lowly inmate. Stand here. Flash. Turn left. Flash. Turn right. Flash. She was fingerprinted, searched, and given her basket of teal tracksuits, white sneakers, and toiletries.

"Teal! It was supposed to be bright and cheery but it was one more weak thing about this place. It wasn't green and it wasn't blue. It was an indecisive color…"

"Fuck! Do you ever stop talking?!" prisoner Barclay shouted at her. Linda didn't hide her smile that time as she and Campbell led them down the hall.

They stopped when they got to the Protection Unit and Mr. Campbell put Joan in the first cell.

"Please have the governor come see me?" She asked, sounding very much like she was asking for the hotel masseuse.

"She'll see you whenever she fucking feels like it," he replied as he locked the door and left the glass-enclosed room.

Joan turned and looked up at the CC-TV camera mounted in the corner and gave it a cheery grin.

"Jeez, she hasn't changed, has she?" Matthew Fletcher shuddered at the monitor on Vera's desk.

"Psychopaths usually find a comfortable pattern and seldom veer from it," Bridget answered.

"Thank God her ego is so big that she thought we would just give up and let her win," he said with a smile.

"Quite right," Vera agreed. "We took away all of the people she saw as threats and she focused on the ones who could help her. Once we knew who they were, we were able to isolate them and they were quick to give her up."

"So I was one of those you thought to isolate?" Will said from the open door. "You didn't trust me enough to include me in your plan? I'm the Deputy Governor! How do you think it makes me look if subordinates know more about the plan than I do?!"

"Will, that's not the way it happened, mate," Matt tried to calm him down.

"Matt?! What are you doing here? I thought you were in Tasmania?"

"That was the story we told everyone." Matt walked over to him and put out his hand. "How'ya doin', mate? Long time."

"Too right." Will shook his hand and patted him on the back. "So you were just hiding from Ferguson?"

"I was the only one who could put Jesper and Ferguson together. If she took me out then it was her word against Jesper's. If she took him out, then she'd go free. She did that; she had the new guy, Stewart, kill Jesper; and she went free. The only thing that kept her from walking out of the prison that day was Bea Smith. We were able to hold Ferguson long enough to find that gun and get Stewart's confession."

"So why pretend Bea was dead if you already had Jake's confession?" None of it fit together.

Vera answered that question. "Smith and Novak were our ace up the sleeve. If we couldn't get her for Jess Warner's murder, or the attempted murder of Fletch, or even Nils Jesper's murder; then we still had her for the attempted murder of Allie Novak."

"So why pretend that Bea was dead?" Jesus, Will thought, this was the most convoluted plan he'd ever heard.

"Allie was in better condition than Bea was. Her injuries are STILL healing. There was no way to bring her here and pretend Allie was dead. It was easier to convince everyone that Bea was dead. Everyone saw that. We simply said that the doctors tried to save her but eventually she died of her injuries."

Vera looked at Bridget to continue. "Getting Bea Smith out of the picture saved her life; it kept Joan from trying to kill her and it kept Joan in remand long enough for the prosecutor to put his case together."

"And Allie Novak? It was okay to put HER life in danger?"

"That's where you came in." Vera answered. "You, and PJ, Peta, and Linda; you all did your jobs and you did it well. We would have isolated her if we had to but we needed to make everything look normal. We asked you to protect her and you did. You kept her safe and made sure that if we needed her testimony, she would live to give it."

"So was it all just a fucking act?! All those tears and her sadness? No one is that good of an actress!"

Bridget tilted her head and smiled a little. "It wasn't an act. They had both been through so much lately. They fell in love; something that Bea had serious concerns about. Then there was Joan Ferguson's attempt to drown Bea. Allie's renewed use of narcotics. And then the attempts on both of their lives. Between them they died three times within a month."

Bridget looked at him, waiting for all of that to sink in.

"You saw them in the hospital. They begged and pleaded each other to live. And I knew that if either one had died, the other would have been right behind them, one way or another. When we asked Allie to come back to Wentworth, we all knew that we were putting her life in danger. We hadn't protected them before, why should they think we could protect her now."

Will laughed. "I bet Bea threatened to bash someone if Allie got hurt."

"The word was 'kill'," Bridget said dryly. "And believe me, I didn't take it lightly." She shook her head to get the memory of Bea's icy voice out of her mind. "They knew that there was a chance they would never see each other again. So no, it wasn't an act."

"Didn't someone see Bea in the hospital? They could have told the Freak and she would have arranged to have them both killed."

"They didn't leave her in the hospital," Matt answered. "They brought her to the safe house where I was and put her under my protection."

"And we had Allie under PJ's surveillance here."

"Until today." Will frowned at them. "How did they get to her?"

"Yes. That was unfortunate," Vera answered. "But we don't think that was related to prisoner Ferguson. Because Allie has been kept isolated from the other prisoners, she may have decided not to follow along with the top dog system and that has made her vulnerable to retaliation. Someone used a rather sophisticated method of delivering the sedative that knocked out PJ. The only one who could get their hands on something like that would be Sonia Stevens. Once they got rid of PJ, then either Lucy Gambaro's crew or Tina Mercado's could have assaulted Allie."

"What did you tell Bea?"

"She didn't ask so we haven't said anything, yet."

"So you ARE going to tell her. She's not going to let that go. She will have her revenge." Will looked at Vera's cool and steady gaze. "That's what you want! You want Bea to be top dog so you're going to let her go to battle against Stevens, Juice and the Asians. Fuck! You're as crazy and manipulative as Ferguson!"

"Will!" "Hey, mate." Bridget and Matt tried to calm him down.

Vera didn't. If he wanted to be part of the team, then he would have to play the game just like everyone else. Will raised his eyebrows and waited for Vera to deny it. She walked around her desk and sat down. She put her hands on the desk and put them together.

"She is the best person for the job. She is anti-drug. She is fair. And she is strong."

"She doesn't want the job," Will said slowly. "She never wanted the job. But Ferguson pitted her against Frankie, and that nearly killed both of them." He looked up accusingly at Bridget. "YOU got Frankie out and safe. Now you're just going to leave Bea in here to fight every wanna-be top dog that comes along?"

Bridget held up her hands to stop him. "Will, you're letting your emotions get the better of you."

"And you fucking didn't!?" He pointed an angry finger at her. "You hypocrite!"

"Will!" Vera shouted.

"No! All she ever wanted was to serve her time. But from Jacs to you two, everyone has forced her to do what you can't – control this prison. What are YOU going to do when she does take control and you can't control HER?"

He dropped his badge on the desk and walked out leaving three, speechless people staring at the open door.