Zelena examined the bottle that Bell had given her then flipped open the cap and sniffed the contents. She moved her hair away from her neck and squeezed some of the "ointment" into her hand. She slowly rubbed it on the green patch. She closed her eyes and sighed as it seemed to have a cooling effect.
"So what are you going to do on your day off tomorrow?" Fischer asked Emma as she walked down the hall.
"Day off?" Emma asked panicked.
"Yeah." Fischer said, "I'm going to spend as much time with my boyfriend as I can."
Emma wasn't paying attention to Fischer because her mind was trying to figure out what the hell she was going to do since she couldn't leave the prison. She knew she couldn't just hide in the janitor's closet all day.
"I gotta go." Emma said then headed off in the opposite direction they were walking leaving Fischer a little confused.
Emma went into the main guard office and checked the schedule that was posted on the wall.
"Damn it." She cursed under her breath when she saw she in fact had tomorrow off.
"What's wrong?"
Emma turned around to see O'Neill, the not so slender guard who was casually dating officer Bell. He bit into the sandwich he was holding.
"I have tomorrow off." Emma said to him.
He laughed, "Lucky you. I work the next 3 days straight."
"I'll work your shift." Emma told him.
"Why?" He asked as he sat down at the desk.
"I need the hours and the money." Emma told him hoping he'd believe it.
"You have to talk to Caputo." He told her as he bit into his sandwich again, and then said with his full mouth, "He's the only one that can sign off on it."
"Okay." Emma said then went to go find Caputo.
Emma knocked lightly on Caputo's office door.
"Yeah come in." He called out.
Emma opened the door and stepped inside.
"What can I do for you?" He asked looking Emma up and down.
"I wanted to see about switching my day off with O'Neill's." Emma told him.
"Why?" He asked as he pulled out the scheduling book and put it on his desk.
"I need the extra hours." Emma told him.
Caputo flipped through the book and looked at the current schedule.
"You saving up for something big, Swan?" He asked her.
"Just trying to live my life and provide for my kid." Emma told him, "I mean and honestly, do you really need a reason for me to want to work?"
He sat back in his chair and looked at her, "You're more appealing to look at than O'Neill I'll give you that."
That's not even remotely what Emma meant but she let it slide because she was hoping the pervert would just let her work.
"Okay Swan. You got the extra hours but you'll have to work through the weekend as well." He told her, "You think you can handle it?" He asked her.
"Yeah sure that's fine not a problem." She said as she headed for the door. She could feel Caputo's eyes staring right at her ass. She made a quick exit out the door.
Zelena looked into the small mirror hanging in her cell and examined her neck. The green patch now covered half her neck and started to spread down to her upper chest. She grabbed her medicine and squirted some of it into the palm of her hand then smeared it on her neck and chest. She rubbed it in then washed her hands, "This better work." She said to herself in the mirror.
"Who you talking to?" Doggett asked through the vent.
"Myself." Zelena responded.
"Oh boy." She said, "I didn't expect it to happen to you this quickly."
"What are you yammering about?" Zelena asked as she sat back down on her bed.
"You gone nuts." Doggett said, "One of the first signs is talking to yourself."
"You mean talking to someone through an air vent doesn't qualify me as certifiable?" Zelena asked.
"Touchy." Doggett said.
"I think you mean touché." Zelena corrected her.
"Nah." Doggett said and Zelena rolled her eyes.
Emma told O'Neill that he was off the next few days and it made him so happy he almost choked on the last bite of his sandwich.
Emma did her normal night routine of checking on the inmates then afterwards lingered at Regina's bunk area.
"Where's your bunk mate?" Emma asked as she leaned against the small concrete wall.
"She's in the restroom freshening up for bed." Regina told her as she took off her brown shirt and folded it.
Emma looked Regina up and down. She noticed the way her tone and tanned arms flexed as she folded her shirt. The way Regina stood up straight to stretch her back, her arms over her head. Emma was completely mesmerized.
Regina turned and looked at her, "Did you hear me?"
"Who could hear anything with that river of drool?" Big Boo said as she came up behind Emma.
Emma glared at her.
Big Boo held out a few squares of toilet paper to her, "Here sweetheart, you got a little pool in the corner."
"Just shut up and go to bed." Emma said to her and Big Boo smiled at her then went over to her bunk.
"Night." Emma said to Regina with a head nod before moving on.
The two women got into their beds and the overhead lights shut off.
"Doing a guard. That's pretty ballsy, even for you." Big Boo said in the dark.
"I'm not "doing" her." Regina said quietly.
"Yeah." Boo said then smiled even though Regina couldn't see it. "But you want to."
Emma made her way to the janitor's closet. She lied down on her makeshift bed and stared up at the dark ceiling. She hoped that Zelena's allergic reaction would happen soon so she'd go nutty and they lock her up. She wanted to go home. She wanted to get out of this prison, get out from under the hold it has on her. She didn't like that she couldn't control herself and she didn't like that it was stirring up her feelings for Regina. Yeah it was better if they got out of here sooner rather than later.
In the morning the rattling of the doorknob and someone shouting, "Why is this god damn door always locked?" from outside the janitor's closet jarred Emma awake. She panicked as she got up, turned on the light then hid her things. She straightened out her uniform then grabbed a bottle of drain cleaner, quietly unlocked the door and opened it.
"Who the fuck are you?" A grumpy faced man in a grey uniform asked, "And what the fuck are you doing in the closet?"
"I ask myself that every day." Emma said to him.
"What?!" The irritated old man asked.
"I was looking for the drain cleaner." Emma told him showing him the bottle. "The showers are clogged in the Ghetto."
"Why was the door locked?" He asked her.
"Was it?" Emma said as she started to walk away, "I don't know, maybe it's a faulty lock. You should probably look into that or something."
She moved away from the angry janitor as quickly as she could. She looked back as she kept walking hoping the old man wasn't following her. She bumped right into someone and got knocked to the ground.
"Ow god damn it." She cussed then looked to see who she bumped into.
"In a hurry for cocktail hour?" Alex asked and made no attempt to offer Emma a hand up.
Emma stood up, "Why don't you watch where you're going inmate?"
Alex scoffed, "You're the one that bumped into me."
Emma picked up the bottle from the floor. "Just stay out of my way." She warned Alex then headed down the hall.
Emma tossed the bottle of cleaner into the nearest trash then headed for the main office to clock in.
"You should have taken the time off." Bell said to her when Emma walked into the office. "You look like shit."
"Always a pleasure seeing you too Bell." Emma said as she put her time card back. She poured herself a cup of coffee then poured in 5 packs of sugar and 2 creams.
"What?" She asked noticing that Bell and Bennett were watching her.
"Why don't you just eat the sugar straight from the packs Swan and save yourself the trouble?" Bell asked.
"As soon as they start making coffee flavored sugar I will." She said then took a sip of her coffee as she headed out of the office.
'I gotta get out of here soon. I'm making office banter.' Emma thought to herself as she headed for her shift location, the cafeteria.
Emma looked for Regina then went into the kitchen when she couldn't find her. "Where's Mills?" Emma asked Gloria.
"She got sent to laundry." Gloria told her.
"Why?" Emma asked.
"Do I look like 411 to you?" Gloria asked, hand on her hip.
Emma shot her a look then headed down to laundry.
She found Regina in the laundry room alone in her section.
"What are you doing down here?" Emma asked her.
"Apparently it wasn't demeaning enough that I cook and serve slop. Now I've been sent down here to rifle through thousands of pounds of dirty laundry." Regina said to her.
"Where's the Russian lady and sex-crazed chick with the wild hair?" Emma asked looking around.
"I don't know I was just told to report here." Regina told her.
"So sorry I'm late."
Emma turned around, "You've got to be kidding me."
"No one likes a kidder." Alex said with a big smile.
"I thought you were working in electrical." Emma said to her.
"I was and now I'm not." Alex said as she gave Regina a little wave, "Hi."
Emma stepped in front of her.
"Is there a problem?" Bennett asked as he walked in.
"Not at all Officer Bennett." Alex said with an innocent smile, "I was just telling Officer Swan here that I promised to teach Mills everything I know."
She looked at Emma, "About laundry of course." She said then winked.
"This isn't your station Swan." Bennett said to her, "Maybe you should head back up."
Emma looked back at Regina then back at Alex before she walked away and headed back to the cafeteria.
Zelena was woken by a not-so-heavenly voice.
"You know you snore?"
Zelena looked around, blinking a few times, "What?"
"You snore. Like really loud. I had to put toilet paper in my ears and even then I could still hear ya." Doggett said, "You sound like an airplane trying and failing to take off."
"I don't snore." Zelena said getting out of bed. She went to the mirror and looked at her neck. The green patch didn't seem to have changed.
"Yeah you do." Doggett said.
"Please. I like quiet in the mornings." Zelena said.
"Yeah well I like quiet when I'm trying to sleep." Doggett said to her.
Zelena rolled her eyes. She grabbed her medicine bottle and squeezed out some of the ointment before rubbing it onto her neck. She looked at her neck again then squeezed out a little more from the bottle and rubbed it in.
"Breakfast!" Someone yelled at her door. Zelena stood and waited for her tray to slip in through the slot.
She gave it a sniff before deciding only to eat the small fruit cup and drink the hot tea. She sat down on her bed and picked up the small plastic spoon provided to her and scooped out some fruit to eat.
She chewed it slowly trying to savor it even though it tasted a bit sour. She scooped out another helping and was about to put it in her mouth when she shrieked, dropped the spoon and cup and stood up. Her food tray crashed to the floor.
Wells came to the door, "What's the problem?" He shouted through the door.
"There were bugs in my food!" Zelena asked looking for them on the ground.
Wells called to another guard down the hall and then opened the cell door. He stepped inside while the other guard stood by the door.
"I don't see anything." He said to her.
"I'm telling you there were bugs in my fruit. I saw them crawling all over it." Zelena said as she clutched at her stomach.
"If you're going to hurl do it in the toilet." The guard said pointing.
"You see anything?" Wells asked the guard at the door who shook his head no.
"There's nothing there." Wells said to Zelena who was franticly looking around the floor.
"Clean up your tray and leave it in the slot and we'll take it later." Wells told her then stepped back out of the cell, closed the door and locked it.
Zelena stood in the corner of her cell, shaking as she continued to search the floor for bugs.