In this one then we have two new characters although technically we've heard about one before but the other is new to this story and I love him so I hope you do too *crosses fingers and toes*

KiaraKitty08, Haha, no, no, please feel free to fantasize about Roman, I mean, what's the point of putting the man in some new threads otherwise? Besides, if anyone could pull off an orange jumpsuit then it would have to be the big man right?!

Hayley1001, Never fear fellow angst girl because the good times are coming (with that said though please don't hit me for this chapter, because I promise you'll like the next one more and the ones after that too). Never will there be a more bromancy story than this one (except all my others!)

Daisysakura, Yeah, I'm really being mean to Dean here. Not only is his hated nemesis back and has him cornered but I chose to have him all hungover and puking too...but then, gotta raise the tensions somehow right? Roman will be pissed...eventually!

Wolfgirl2013, Thank you muchly, really sweet, hope you enjoy a little delve into the police mission in this chapter. As ever, please enjoy!

Minnie1015, Haha, Gallows and Anderson do seem like the prison type (not sure they would agree there but hey ho). Not them though, sorry! Yep, throwing up sucks and especially if you happen to be on your knees in prison with your mortal enemy stood over you. I'm too mean!

Mandy, Agreed, you can really tell that they love working with each other in the ring because they loosen up and seem to have so much fun and I love seeing them like that. Plus it inspired me to write all these stories. Life imitates art I guess...or is that other way around?!

Stingerette1975, Nice guesses (very nice in fact) but nope, not either of them. Except now I can't get the image of Paul Heyman in prison out of my head. I imagine he would have a really plush cell with silk wall hangings and a big screen TV and a four poster bed squashed in, lol!

Cheryl24, Aww, yay, I'm super glad, got plenty more to come too and lots of twists and turns and besides which we can't forget the police mission that Roman is working on. More on that in this chapter.

Skovko, Yep, Bray just sauntered in like he always does and is looking to cause trouble (because we know it's coming right?) Nice guess with Braun but not in this case, besides which for once not all of my cameos and new characters are necessarily bad…

Squeegee Beckinhime, Oh yep, I'm ramping up the tension and it's only going to get bigger and better as we go (I'm such a tease) but first I'm giving you a little bit of Roman (and impatient waiting) because the boy still has a mystery of his own to try and solve.

KyanaM, I know, I mean how much can I still have to put the poor boy through (rhetorical question because the answer is a lot) but on the plus side Roman will be there pretty much throughout with his usual worried/protective act, so strap in and enjoy!

SkittlezLvr79, Bray is actually just doing Bray in this story. We're going to have multiple villains but they are actually all working independently of one another. It's just an unlucky swirling mass of bad guys in this one but then, I mean, they are in prison so what do they expect?!

Cherry619, Bray Wyatt means trouble. Always has and always will. Awww, I would love to put Bo in every story but mixing him into different universes would make everything confusing as hell so I think for now he will just have to brighten up the police AUs only.

Roman's first day on the job...


Mankind

Roman reports to the heavily secured doors where the cell wing opens back onto the normal world, in a move that draws murderous looks from the other inmates and also makes his heart pound pretty darn hard. Because although he's only been inside for a week in total the prospect of a change of scenery is exciting to say the least.

Freedom.

Sort of –

He can almost damn near smell it and so he stands and submits to a pat down by the prison guards before being grudgingly ushered over and out and into a new and similarly painted plain length of hallway that seemingly leads to where the offices are.

The guard who is taking him spends the whole time talking or else damn near lecturing him about the magnitude of the job but which Roman listens to only very vaguely as he drinks in their location and tries to mind map their route.

Maybe one day knowing it will come in handy?

The prison guard coughs again and then sharply clears his throat,

"Most of the guys here would kill for this assignment so if you screw it up there are plenty of others to take your place, so you don't talk to or make eyes at anyone in the offices and at no point do you touch anything you're not cleaning, is that clear?"

Roman glares back at him eerily coolly,

"Crystal clear boss."

"Good, keep it like that."

There is more to it than that but Roman quickly stops listening because frankly the ticking-off is pretty wasted on him, since he isn't actually a real hardened criminal and – being an undercover policeman – is therefore unlikely to want to steal. Roman isn't sure if he will actually ever be able to reveal the truth of who he is, but if the opportunity presents itself at some point then the grumbling guy in front of him is the person he wants to tell.

Ass.

Together they make their way into the offices which since it's a weekend are totally void of life, with the exception of a guy bent over in one corner who is whistling cheerfully and emptying trash cans but who stops and grins as they move in towards him and then straightens himself up.

He's a hella big guy –

Not so much in height for the most part, since Roman figures they must be about the same length, but he is built in terms of his figure like a solid looking beach ball and with more wild hair mass than he has seen in his life, lying short but thick on his chin and around his features and then growing like a bush on the top of his head and sitting so floppily that it hangs across his eyebrows and means that he has to cheerfully flip it back,

"Roman, right?"

"Uh huh."

He puts a broad hand out and the man waddles across and then seizes it up, pulsing his entire damn arm like a water pump but in a non-threatening way that makes him likeable at once.

"Mick Foley, I'm glad to have you on the team man."

He follows it up with a welcoming shoulder pat, which is actually more like being hit by a wrecking ball but is also pretty affable for all of its clumsy force.

Roman nods,

"Uh, thanks for having me – so what exactly is it you want me to do here?"

The answer to that one is neither glamorous nor hard since it is basically a pretty standard housekeeping type deal and so mostly comprises vacuuming the carpet and dusting down the desk tops and emptying the trash, but even so Roman finds he actually enjoys it because it sure as hell beats sitting around doing nothing all day long and nor is his new work colleague a chore to have to be around since he actually seems to be a pretty neat guy.

Throughout it all though, the grouchy prison guard stays with them and watches them both like the living embodiment of a hawk, which means that it will be damn near impossible to sneak away from him to do the snooping he knows he has to attempt.

Maybe not on his very first day though.

Instead he tries to look like he's just doing his work and making sure to stick to the afore lectured parameters of not touching anything that he doesn't have to clean and not talking to some of the few staff members who are still busy working even on the weekend.

Mick talks however –

Mick talks a whole lot.

"Do you mind me asking what you're in this place for? I'm here because I have this impulse control thing that makes me need to smash stuff up, like car doors and brick walls and anything solid and for the most part I like to use my head."

Roman blinks,

"Your head?"

"I tend to run into things or throw myself off stuff – I like the rush of it I guess – but the last thing I hit with my head was a police car and then there was this whole mail box thing."

He flaps his hands like it isn't important and fills the younger man with a million weird thoughts, not to mention the image of his crazy haired colleague running head first screaming across people's front lawns and taking out their neatly placed little suburban mail posts like some out-of-control lightly lumbering horse.

"Uh, that's – different."

Mick grins,

"Oh it's that alright, I'm the only one like me in the whole of mankind."

Roman snorts softly and then steps a little closer under the guise of moving the black trash bag in, but at the same time waiting for their guard to blow a breath out and for the first time that morning briefly yawn and look away.

He keeps his voice low but as casual as he can make it,

"So is it our job to clean inside the warden's room as well man or – ?"

"Sometimes sure, but you have to earn that, they're pretty choosy about who they let do that part of it."

"Like you?"

Mick grins,

"Who else do you think?"

He seems ridiculously proud of the achievement and since there is little enough self to show off in prison except for potentially the number of people a man has killed, Roman can't help but count his few blessings that he has once again seemingly found a crazy but non-deadly friend. Besides which, if Foley is curious about the question then he makes the decision not to let on and it emboldens the undercover man to probe a little further since it's the best opportunity he's been given so far.

"I'm guessing the warden's room is full of files and what not – can't be much fun to keep 'em clean huh?"

Mick shakes his head,

"No, they have a different room for that stuff, he just keeps a few important files locked in his desk."

"Well now, is that so?"

Roman lingers on the answer and then briefly debates what important might mean and whether that would include any prisoners who are a nuisance or need prescription medication or else a trip to solitary and also whether the warden might be crazy or ballsy enough to keep the proof in such an obvious a place as his own desk?

Probably not.

It is a thought however that he is still mulling over an hour or so later as they weave their way out over the office floor, turning in the corridor to head back towards the cell wing in a way that signals his first day of work is done. Mick is bumbling and still whistling in front of him to the point where Roman wonders if it is maybe a subconscious thing and driven by the mass amounts of head trauma he had mentioned or the patrol car he had evidently run into skull first.

Dean seems to be almost normal in comparison –

But he is drawn from his contemplation as a figure rounds the bend and at once the grumbly guard they have been dutifully following freezes with such abruptness that Roman walks right into him and then gets whirled on very briefly in warning and with the ever present gun barrel raised halfway up.

He lifts his hands in contrition and apology,

"Easy man, I'm sorry but you straight up stopped."

Mick however is far more cheerful and nor does he pay any mind to the standoff as he instead beams broadly and waves towards the newcomer like he is passing a neighbor who is mowing their front lawn,

"Morning warden."

Huh?

Roman fully shit takes and then peers across the head of the diminutive guard to properly take in the man pacing towards them who is smaller than he had figured but still looks authoritative and sharp. He is wearing the leather jacket that Dean had described to him, like the guy is the bass player in a reformed rock band and has jeans below that in what pretty much has to be the most dressed down business clothes the policeman has ever seen. He has short cropped silver hair and a smattering of facial fuzz in the same pale colors that curl round into a goatee and he carries a sort of air that Roman is no stranger to since it is similar to organized crime guys he's nabbed before.

It sets his instincts rattling instantly.

Eric Bischoff is all kinds of wrong.

In spite of that however as the man draws in closer he stops and flashes the inmate an ear to ear smile of the variety a pack of wolves might give a passing lamb chop although it's possible that Roman is reading too deep into it –

Who the hell knows?

"Foley, how's it going?"

"It's going pretty good sir, I haven't run into anything solid for about six days now."

Mick takes his fingers and raps them hard against his forehead while grinning like it's actually a ground breaking achievement that he hasn't felt the need to brain himself for a week and in response to it Bischoff nods back somewhat evenly and flashes his teeth,

"Hey, well done."

"Uh and this is one of the new guys from the intake – ,"

Mick waves a hand in the younger man's direction and the sharp eyes of the warden flicker swiftly his way and then glint a little as he sucks a deep breath in before offering a hand out,

"Roman isn't it son?"

He smirks as he says it like he is looking to surprise him and generally underline the fact that he is the boss and were it not for years of straight faced police work then the prison newcomer might react to it more, although instead he simply takes the hand firmly and shakes it without blinking.

Bischoff smirks at him,

"So how are you finding life in the big house – your first time isn't it?"

Roman gazes back,

"It is."

"Hope the mindless rabble have been good and pretty welcoming, not too frightening?"

"I'm getting by."

"That's not surprising for a man of your stature, but it's the smaller guys I tend to feel sorry for in here, or the ones that have the more deep rooted issues – you're rooming with Ambrose, isn't that right?"

Roman stiffens.

What the hell does that mean?

He nods back steadily but loads hot fire into his gaze because the silent implication is that somehow Dean is damaged which he isn't about to sit back and take. On the other hand though he is limited in how fiercely he can actually refute what is been said, since the man in front of them runs the whole prison and possibly potentially withholds medication or gets rid of the inmates who try to stand in his way.

He nods instead,

"Sure am."

"How has that been for you?"

"I'm not complaining, I like it just fine."

Bischoff blinks back but then suddenly grins widely although once again the expression doesn't reach up to his eyes and seems to hold a sort of gleeful type of twinkle, like he enjoys trying to push his wayward inmates to the edge.

Maybe that's why so many end up in solitary?

Either way the big man is not joining their ranks.

Bischoff snorts finally,

"Well, I'm pretty glad to hear it. Ambrose is not exactly everybody's poison but he mostly tows the line and I like that in a man. I run a tight ship here and transgressions are punished harshly, but so long as you keep to the rules and are respectful then I think you'll find that you'll be just fine."

Roman bites his tongue hard,

"I'll keep that in mind then."

Bischoff stares back at him,

"Do that son, you do that."

For a second there is a warning and uncomfortable sort of silence in which the short prison warden seems to size the newcomer up, before suddenly smiling and letting off a mild chuckle that he is still blowing out as he pushes his way past.

Mick waves after him,

"See you around warden."

It seems notable that the boss never once looks at the guard, nor seems to have the first idea what his name is and yet knows every last detail about the orange clad men, which is possibly the result of badly trying to lay the law down but somehow feels a little deeper than that. Not to mention the Dean related statement which was what exactly?

Roman doesn't like it at all.

He needs to get back to his cell so he can process and maybe then he can start to figure out what's going on.


Hmmm, the plot thickens huh? But in the meantime, Mick Foley!

Also, I know I'm being mean by making you wait but we're back to Dean next chapter so never fear because I haven't forgotten him, like I could anyway!