Chapter XII - Be My Friend
*A/N: I hope you like this next instalment to my novel. Unfortunately, I am going to be extremely busy over the November-December period, and therefore this story will not be being updated as often. I am trying to write chapters in advance for you so that you can still have a weekly chapter, however it is simply not feasible due to the amount of time it takes me to write a chapter (roughly 3-4 hours). Regardless of that, I hope you like it.*
The newfound democracy between H1 and H3 seemed to be working out quite well for the women of Wentworth, and was most certainly working out beneficial to Wentworth's governor, Vera Bennett. The last month since the fight in the laundry and the democracy established, the levels of drug use in the facility had gone down, and so had the incident reports. It had seemed that Bea and Kaz had been able to make the jobs of the correctional officers even easier, and as a result, everybody was able to relax. However, it was to be made a note of that it was still a prison and that these inmates had to serve their time.
Vera Bennett was one of the first people to notice the budding alliance between Bea and Kaz. The atmosphere of hostility was long gone, and Vera had suspected that that was because of their mutual love for the young blonde, Allie Novak, who had been somewhat a blessing to Vera and her staff. She had managed to prevent an even more bloody feud between Kaz and Bea, and to be honest, Vera could do without that right now. She had been through a lot in the last few years with Ferguson and trying to keep her governorship, and she was not about to let it all slide just for the sake of a few hefty mistakes by her correctional staff or some petty revenge.
The two time top dog was outside in the blistering heat, doing bicep curls at weights that would take a normal person both hands to lift up one weight. Allie was getting extremely flustered from watching Bea get all hot and sweaty and exerting so much energy, so much so that she didn't even realise that she was staring until Liz caught her in the act. The pair were sat on a bench overlooking the yard, but the older blonde seemed to find Allie's pair of eyes resting predictably onto the love of her life. Liz giggled to herself, and this seemed to pull Allie out of her Bea Smith daze, and return to the land of reality.
Maxine just laughed as she took the weights off Bea and stared back at Novak who had that signature grin on her face. The redhead turned around to see the blonde who had been so obviously just staring at her. Bea shook her head and chuckled. "She is so obvious sometimes, it kills me" Bea laughed. The tall brunette just seemed to smile even more. "You're adorable you two" she said, Bea shaking her head with Maxine giving her shoulder a light shove. Bea just shook her head in mock disgust and embarrassment, but in reality, she loved all the attention that Allie gave her, and in secret, she didn't really care what people thought of her.
For Bea, it had never been about Allie's gender. She didn't describe herself as "gay" because it just didn't fit with who she was. It was just a case in the fact that the only person who gave her true love and intimacy, and was the only person who managed to claim all of Bea's problems when she was around her, was a woman. For a moment, Bea could just forget that she was serving a life sentence in a prison, and just be comforted by the young blonde's affection and desirable love she demonstrated for her.
Lost in her thoughts, she didn't notice that said blonde had left the bench that she had previously been sat on, and was now found situated in the northern side of the yard, where Kaz and her crew tended to reside nowadays. They were playing a game where they had to try and beat each other's targets of how many times consecutively in a row they could get the ball through the hoop individually. The silent conversation that was exchanged between the two turned into a glance at Bea and Kaz shaking her head. "What the hell is she up to" Bea thought.
As Allie skipped happily through the yard like a young schoolgirl, Bea exited the weights area to join her girlfriend. "What have you got me into now, Novak?" Bea asked playfully with a smirk on her face. Maxine giggled at the exchange before leaving them to it and going to join Liz on the bench. "You're going to play basketball" Allie said, matter of factly. "Am I now?" Bea challenged, a bit taken aback at Allie's firm statement. "Yeah. It's a wager. You versus Kaz" Allie smirked, Bea shaking her head. "What's the wager?" Bea said, quirking a brow as she looked over at the older blonde.
"If you win, Kaz is gonna get us a few bottles to drink and we are gonna make it so that Boomer doesn't tease you for a week. If you lose, me and you are going to have a little marathon in H1" Allie said, with that signature smirk plastered all over her face. Bea pulled back slightly, frowning at her lover before putting her hand out. "Deal" she said, smiling. Allie walked back over to where Kaz was where she was selecting who she wanted on her crew. They decided it would be Kaz, Allie, Snortz, Mel and Soz versus Bea, Boomer, Doreen, and Liz. They needed an extra member, so they dragged Juicy Lucy of all people to join them.
Juice had only just got out of medical after the bloody fight that participated in the laundry, and in typical Wentworth fashion, all feuds had been resolved with that fight and Juice just had to suck it up that she backed the wrong horse and lost. As the hostility was long gone, she decided she would join to try and get back on Queen Bea's good side. She knew how violent and ferocious the redhead could get if you pushed all her buttons, and Juice knew that she did not want to be on the receiving end.
Bea was pretty happy with the business contract that she had agreed to with Allie. She felt in a lighter and happier mood, and she felt like celebrating. She was also fed up with Boomer's relentless teasing and her unshameful dirty talk that erupted from her mouth. But, if the redhead was being truly honest, she didn't really mind losing either. Bea told Maxine to go and get Boomer as no one knew where she was. Bea's team started huddling around whilst she prepped them on shooting techniques. Kaz's team were going down.
After Maxine found Boomer watching TV in the unit eating biscuits, the tall brunette convinced her to come out and play basketball. The two had developed a special kind of relationship over the last couple of months: it was not a romantic relationship, but more of a close family bond between the two of them, shared by their common interest to both have a child. But unfortunately, as Boomer did not get pregnant, the dream of having a child went out of the window. It saddened the both of them but brought the two of them closer together; more than they ever had before.
As Boomer came out into the yard, Bea immediately briefed her on the game and explained that you had to get as many balls in the hoop from the other side of the court in a row as much as possible. She explained the wager to which she thought was reasonable, as she wanted a party as much as the next person. As they lined up, it was unanimously decided that Kaz's crew would go first. The older blonde was the first person to up and managed to get four consecutive balls into the hoop. "Shit" Bea cursed under her breath as she saw Allie look back at her and give her a wink as she picked up the ball.
By some pot luck as Allie was the most incompetent basketball player you'd ever know, she could shoot. She managed to get five in a row before Snortz took the ball off of her. The rest of Kaz's crew managed to get it in the hoop at least once, but nobody managed to beat Allie's target. As the sun was beating down on them, Bea could feel herself getting sweaty and worked up. Her competitive side was showing; one that had not been shown in far too long. As she breathed in and out slowly before picking up the ball, she managed to get three in a row before she heard Allie giggling which put her off course.
Scowling at the younger blonde as she watched her crew simultaneously fail at trying to get the ball in the hoop. "Fuck" she swore under her breath as they had lost on a team level. Bea began to protest as she was not going to admit defeat so easily. "Me versus Allie. Just us two" Bea bartered, Kaz looking to Allie for approval to which the young blonde happily complied. She loved teasing Bea and she got off on it; she just loved seeing her lover so hot and bothered. As Bea decided to be the first one, she managed to get seven in a row.
Allie looked taken aback and her confidence was damaged. She had no idea how she was going to be able to beat Bea. However, her sole determination spurred her on as she managed to also place seven in a row. It came to the eighth throw, and Bea just hoped that Allie would slip up so that they could at least call it a draw. Bea would not be able to deal with the embarrassment of losing to her partner, so she could only hope that some luck was on her side. The young blonde eyed the hoop with such focus that everybody started laughing.
She breathed in and out before placing her hands on the ball and bracing her arms. She pushed out with such force that the ball landed on the rim of the hoop and circled it. Allie inhaled before the ball fell through the hoop and the yard erupted in a set of wolf whistles and cheering. Allie gave Bea the biggest smirk before going over to her lover. Allie's twinkling blue eyes adjoined with Bea's gorgeous brown orbs before the young blonde's hands came to rest of the older woman's hips. "Looks like we're going to be busy" Allie said with a grin from ear to ear, grabbing her lover's hand and dragging her back to the unit.
"She was meant to be meeting me today, Gidge. It was off the list" the tattooed brunette said, looking at her partner. "I don't know where she is. The guards checked H1 and she wasn't there like she should've been. It would have been too obvious to Bea if one of the guards had gone and grabbed her in a public place like the yard" Bridget said, grabbing her lover's face and stroking her thumb over her bottom lip. "It's just...it's really important" Franky said, Bridget nodding. "Let's go ourselves" Bridget offered, not really caring if Vera was going to shout at her for letting an unauthorised visitor in the prison grounds. Franky nodded before she followed Bridget back into the prison.
It was a nostalgic tour for Franky, some of the women recognising her and looking at her as if she just walked on water. Others nodded at her just to acknowledge her, whereas the new inmates just walked on, thinking she was prison staff. As they turned the corner into H1, they found it completely desolate, apart from the one and only Bea Smith's cell door being closed. Franky looked over at Bridget, a bit concerned. Why would Bea lock herself in? And then it all clicked it.
"They're boning. Guarantee it" Franky smirked as she walked over near to Bea's cell door to try and see if she could confirm her hypothesis. Franky could gear some loud moans being elicited, but it wasn't very clear on who it was. Bridget shook her head at a grinning Franky. "Leave them to it, Franky.." Bridget said. Franky ignored what her partner said. "Fuck...ohh...Allie, fuck" she heard, knowing right there that it was the legendary Queen Bea that was being topped.
Franky couldn't help but burst out laughing, and at this point, Allie had fell off the bed in fright at a laugh she could only recognise as Franky. "What the fuck?" Bea said, grabbing her red blanket to maintain her dignity and modesty as she stepped outside of her cell, seeing a flash of brown hair and Bridget Westfall exiting. Bridget just gave Bea a sympathetic look, to which Bea just shut the cell door. "I'm so going to get shit for that" Bea said, a slight smile on her lips. Allie was dying on the floor laughing. She managed to regain her composure when she stood up and pressed her lips against Bea's. "Let's finish what we started" she smirked as she pushed Bea back onto the bed with her body.
A few hours later, word went round that Kaz was going to have a party to celebrate being top dog in a few days time. Bea was a bit excited as it would be a chance to let her hair down. Although the stress of top dog was now shared with Kaz, it did not stop her from being the tiniest bit stressed about it. However, Bea felt an obligation to the women and therefore she decided that she would suck it up. The hard times were coming, but they had not come to stay, they had come to pass. This is the daily motivation that she kept telling herself. It seemed to be working so far.
Nobody had noticed that Liz was not in the unit where everybody usually resided after work duty. Bea shared a frown with Maxine who's only response was to shrug her shoulders. She knew about much as the next person. It was a little out of the ordinary for Liz to just do a disappearing act and to not tell anyone. Bea decided to ask the corrupt guard, Linda Miles where Liz was. At first, the blonde seemed hesitant and did not want to give anything away, however Bea reminded her of their agreement and she told her that Liz had made her way to medical. Bea pondered for a moment before going to find out what the heck Liz was doing there.
"Stevens, you have a visitor" Linda Miles said five minutes before her liason with Bea. Liz stepped into medical to see Sonia in the worst state she had ever seen any human in before. She felt awful, and it seemed like any determination to carry on had been sucked out of her when she felt to her successors, Bea and Kaz, during that fight in the laundry. There was a gash above her left eye and her face was bruised, and a cut down her right cheek that would surely scar. Liz did feel sympathy for the woman, but she was responsible for nine overdoses so the older blonde felt as if she had had her comeuppance.
"How are you feeling?" Liz questioned, Sonia directing her eyes over to Liz. She had bags under her eyes and was clearly in pain. However, Sonia seemed very calm. "Magnificent. I just want to get out of here. That nurse is despicable" she croaked, giving Liz a slight smile. "As peer worker, I'm going to make sure you are safe from now on. We'll get you moved blocks" Liz offered. "You would do that?" Sonia asked, Liz nodding and stroking her hand. Sonia seemed heart-warmed at Liz's affection, even after the stuff that she had done. But it was also suspicious.
Bea didn't believe the exchange that she was seeing. She didn't understand that after all this time, Liz was befriending Sonia once again. It left the redhead immensely confused, and she decided that it would be the best thing to do to make herself scarce. What she did not know was that Sonia had saw her spying on Liz, and she decided that the best thing to do would be to alert the blonde. "Bea just saw you with me. She'll think you're conspiring against her" Sonia said, showing the slightest bit of compassion towards Liz.
Sonia understood that she was going to be a danger to anyone that dared associate themselves to her. She was a public enemy to the hierarchy now, and the last thing she needed was to get a bashing over some false accusations. It also alerted her to the fact that Tina would be out for revenge like a shark hunting for blood. Sonia swallowed hard as she knew that she had to plan her moves carefully when she was released from medical. Liz was her only ally as it stood, and she knew that it would be consequential for the blonde to be seen with her.
"Liz. You can't...you can't help me. I'm a dead woman walking" Sonia said, Liz looking shocked at what Sonia had just said. "Why?" Liz asked, genuinely confused. Liz wanted to help Sonia, but she was also still hanging on to the mission given to her by Detective Caplin to try and seek a confession from her. Liz worked it out that if she helped her now, it would seem less suspicious. "Tina will want me dead. Bea and Kaz are going to be trying to exercise their authority" Sonia said, a look of terror and sheer worry displayed upon her face.
"Sonia, don't worry. You have more than enough paid the price for the actions that you have done. I'm sure Bea won't be out for blood. Just keep your head down, love" Liz said, urging Sonia to calm down and to think rationally and not in a very depressing manner. "I'm not safe here. I'm just going to die. I'm defenceless and a failure" she said, sounding ironically like Ferguson. This statement seemed bold and nostalgic to Liz who also recognised the connection. Liz mentally pondered on the question if Sonia had ever taken someone's life.
The fact how she said it so matter of factly suggested to Liz that she was thinking that the only way she would truly pay for what she did was if she died. Liz understood that this must now be the guilt from allowing the drugs to be trafficked through and people dying simply for profit's sake. "Sonia, you need to compose yourself. You are stronger than this" Liz said, patting her hand as she exited medical. Sonia dawned on Liz's statement for the next couple of hours and came up with a decision. She was going to keep her head down, and for the sake of ever seeing that money as a free woman, she was determined to stay alive.