When she was in her early-twenties, Eve's Saturday mornings were considerably different to this. In those days, she could be found in one of two ways. She could be nursing a hangover in bed, keeping a respectful distance from the body beside her. Drunken assertions of love and lust were all well and good, but hung-over morning breath was nobody's ideal wake up call, even if it was emanating from the person you loved. Alternatively, early-twenties Eve would have risen promptly and quietly and made her way to a café, case notes or course book in hand, to wile away the morning hours with her glasses on and her mind engaged. At that time in her life, Eve had had two co-existing passions: her work and a woman who had gradually and then suddenly shared her life.
On this particular Saturday morning, more than ten years on from her early-twenties, Eve was neither tangled in bed nor studying in a café. She was seated at the scrubbed wooden kitchen table of a home she owned. She was not hung-over, nor working. She was helping her son with his school project. For the barest flicker of a moment, Eve allowed herself to envision how that woman from her past would laugh if she could see Eve now, with an accompanying spectral shaking of her head.
Eve took a pacifying sip from the coffee cup cradled in her hands and turned her attention to the busily scrawling child beside her. His look of sheer concentration was endearing and a smile spread on Eve's lips as she watched his work progress messily.
"It's looking fantastic, Leo." Eve enthused.
Lying, it turned out, was quite a large part of parenthood.
"Yep!" Leo declared.
And modesty played no role at all in childhood apparently, or at least not in the childhood of Eve's particular offspring.
"These leaves should be purple." Leo decided.
"Should they?" Eve asked doubtfully. There were already green leaves on the drawing of the family tree.
Leo nodded, and reached for the purple felt-tip pen, sending a variety of other colours scattering across the table in his quest.
"Do you see many purple trees?" Eve asked curiously.
Leo frowned.
"It's not a real tree, Mum." He said as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. "It's got flags on it." He added.
He had a point.
"Purple leaves will be beautiful." Eve replied, as she watched her son begin to colour in her husband's neatly drawn leaves with an entirely unnecessary ferocity.
"I know." Leo said.
Eve took another sip of her coffee and leant back in her chair. It wasn't the worst way to spend a Saturday morning, though there was definitely work she could be getting on with. At that moment, Boots the cat made her presence known by leaping deftly onto the table and slinking across to Leo's project before swiftly turning in a circle and curling up on the edge of the cardboard, wrapping her tail neatly around herself.
"Get down!" Leo shrieked, pulling the cardboard swiftly from beneath the cat and displacing Boots clumsily.
"Leo," Eve said sternly, "Don't shout at the cat."
"She got on the tree!" Leo exclaimed, as though Boots had just padded maliciously across a drying masterpiece of oil on canvas.
Boots turned her back on the humans and stared resolutely at the kitchen wall in a tense seated position, her tail flicking dangerously at her side.
"She doesn't know how hard you've been working on it." Eve pacified, before standing to scoop the now perturbed cat into her arms and then onto her lap.
Leo simply huffed out an indignant sigh and returned to pressing a purple felt tip far too firmly into his cardboard tree. The nib of the pen pushed a hole into the top layer of cardboard. Eve fought the urge to roll her eyes, and settled instead for another mouthful of coffee and soothingly stroking the cat in her lap.
The sound of keys jangling in the front door lock greeted Eve's ears, and evidently Leo's as well, as he leapt from where he had been kneeling on his chair and leaning across the table. His feet hit the kitchen floor and he dragged his project eagerly off the table behind him, sending felt-tip pens clattering onto the floor in its wake, before skidding out of the kitchen and into the hallway just as Niko closed the front door behind him.
"Lion Man!" Eve heard Niko's voice exclaim.
"Look!" Leo shrieked, "I did the leaves purple!"
"Perfect colour for leaves to be! It's a masterpiece!" came Niko's enthusiastic response. "And your mum did her flag too."
Eve listened as Niko's footsteps entered the kitchen behind her. His hand dropped to her shoulder and she felt him lean down to press a kiss and moustache bristles into her cheek.
"Well done, Mum." He said teasingly.
Eve smiled and this time allowed her eyes to roll as they so wanted to. Leo reappeared at her side and slapped the family tree back down onto the table, issuing a resulting waft of air. Boots leapt from Eve's lap and slunk moodily away, clearly keen to avoid another run in with the smallest and loudest member of the family.
"How did you get on?" Eve asked, gathering Leo's colouring equipment into a more ordered pile on the table.
"Oh fine, fine. They're in no rush for the commission at least. Takes a bit of pressure off." Niko said from where he was now switching on the kettle.
"That's good." Eve replied.
"Mmm." Niko agreed, "Fresh cup?" He asked, holding up the coffee pot.
"Please." Eve nodded gratefully.
"Grandpa was called Sam!" Leo interrupted.
"He was." Niko confirmed, "Old Sam the Man."
"Did you like him?" Leo asked, not looking at Niko or Eve and furiously colouring in yet more purple leaves, and a small part of the kitchen table.
"Watch the table, Leo." Eve said gently, putting her hand over Leo's momentarily. He didn't reply, but did pull his hand from beneath Eve's and start colouring leaves nearer to the centre of his work.
"I liked him," Niko offered up, "And he liked me. I was preferable to your mum's previous partner." He finished with a wink directed at Eve as he poured fresh coffee into the mug in her out-stretched hand.
"Oh, he definitely preferred you." Eve said darkly.
Niko laughed loudly and turned back to wipe down the kitchen counter and load a few stray items into the dishwasher.
"Oh and Eve, the Austins are coming to see how their painting is looking. I invited them to have dinner after. Next Thursday evening, OK?" He said over his shoulder.
"This Thursday you mean?" Eve asked.
"No, next Thursday, the one after this one." Niko replied, "Put the date in your ical. You don't have to do anything, just be here, please?"
"Can I have dinner with the Austins too?" Leo requested, distracted from his work and looking up at Niko hopefully.
"Of course! I'm going to make squid and slug salad." Niko replied casually.
"Bleurgh!" Leo yelled, far too close to Eve's ear, "No thank-you." He added.
"Are you sure? It's very nutritious. It tastes a bit like maggot casserole." Niko replied innocently.
"Gross! No way!" Leo shouted, once again testing the strength of the sound barrier, and Eve's eardrums.
"Suit yourself." Niko shrugged.
Eve stood up from the table and stretched.
"If you two are OK here, I was going to go up to the office for an hour or so." She said lightly.
"I think we can handle clearing the family tree away and getting some lunch on the go, can't we Lion Man?" Niko asked.
"Yep." Leo agreed.
"Great." Eve smiled and crossed the kitchen to where Niko was leaning back against the counter with his own steaming coffee mug. "I'm glad everything went well with the Austins." She said to Niko quietly.
"Thank-you for doing the tree with him," Niko murmured so that Leo wouldn't hear, and pulled Eve closer so he could place a kiss on her lips. "And the colouring on that Korean flag," he let out in mock awe, "Exquisite." He finished with a smile.
Eve rolled her eyes again as she pushed herself out of Niko's arm and turned to leave the room as Niko patted her affectionately on the ass.
"Lunch in an hour!" Niko called as Eve disappeared into the hall.
It would probably be best not to tell either of them that Elena had been the one to colour in the Korean flag, Eve decided as she retreated to the quiet of her home office.
The urge to call Bill and see how Oksana was doing had returned to Eve on more than one occasion and she had resisted it until the day before their scheduled appointment. It wouldn't be strange if she called now, Eve decided. After all, she needed to double check that their appointment was still on. If Oksana wasn't well enough then Eve didn't want to drive all the way out to the prison for no reason, that would be a frustrating waste of time. If Oksana was still unwell then Eve would have a free afternoon. She could pick up Leo from school again. Of course, Bill was usually pretty good at these things, he would definitely let Eve know if they needed to rearrange, but still, everybody dropped the ball sometimes and it was probably best to check anyway.
Eve was in her car, outside her home. She had just returned from an appointment with a different client in a different prison, and had found herself musing on Oksana's wellbeing as she drove home for the evening. Bill would still be at work though, his shifts tended to go on later than Eve's workday. She pulled the lever to the side of her car seat and pushed her seat further from the steering wheel and then leant back, stretching her legs slightly as she fished her phone out of the handbag on the passenger seat.
It rang for several seconds before Bill's voice came on the line.
"Eve," he said warmly, and Eve could practically hear the smile in his voice. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"
"Hey Bill," Eve let out, "How are you?"
"Oh, you know, I'm a man in charge of several hundred criminal women. Every day is an utter delight." He joked.
"I'm sure," Eve said with a laugh.
"And how about you? Everything alright?" Bill asked curiously.
"Oh yes. All fine." Eve replied.
"Right…" Bill drawled, "So you're just calling for a chat?"
"Oh!" Eve let out, "No. Sorry. How is Oksana?"
"Astankova?" Bill clarified.
"Yes. Astankova. How is she? Is she… better?" Eve rushed.
Bill let out a weary chuckle.
"I'd say so," He said tiredly, "She's back to being a complete and utter pain in the arse again at least."
Eve laughed warmly and felt a surprising bloom of relief erupt in her chest.
"She is certainly spirited." Eve agreed with a smile that no one could see.
"Yes well, I'd appreciate it if she could keep her spirit to herself. We've had to fire a perfectly good nurse due to Astankova's… spirit." Bill muttered.
"What?" Eve asked in confusion, her brows were furrowed and that warming feeling of relief had ceased its spread through her chest and instead hung there like smoke, as though waiting to dissipate entirely.
"Prison nurses aren't easy to come by either. I don't want to have to add, 'Not likely to sleep with the inmates,' to my list of interview criteria. Though you would have thought it was a given…" Bill trailed off.
Eve's eyebrows furrowed more tightly still.
"I'm sorry," Eve stuttered, "What are you saying?"
"I'm saying Astankova was well enough to entice an unsuspecting nurse into her hospital bed, so I would say she's just about recovered." Bill explained. "She's been returned to her cell now."
The sense of relief had well and truly altered now, turned to gravel and dropped to heavily line the base of Eve's stomach. She swallowed. Her throat was dry.
"I see." Eve said tersely.
"That's what the call was for, I'm guessing?" Bill queried, "To check she was up for your appointment tomorrow?"
"Yes. Exactly." Eve replied.
"Well, you're in luck." Bill chuckled, "Or not. Depending on how you look at it. Astankova will be ready and raring to go tomorrow. Just do me a favour and try not to succumb to her siren call, hmm?" He finished with another chuckle.
"Sure." Eve said quickly, "I'll see you tomorrow."
She hung up before hearing Bill's goodbye.
Eve let her head drop back against the headrest of her seat. The gravel in her stomach was churning now. Why? Normally, if Eve had heard about a prison nurse fraternising with an inmate she might assume the nurse had been manipulative, it would have been an abuse of power, a taking advantage of someone in their care. But not with Oksana. If Oksana slept with a nurse – and Eve suspected it was the 'hot one' – then any coercion would certainly have been on the part of Oksana, Eve had no doubt about that. And she found herself… disappointed in Oksana's behaviour? No, that wasn't quite it. It felt closer to hurt, but—
There was a loud banging on the car window and Eve was startled from her thoughts. A face pressed itself up against the glass, puffing out its cheeks and pressing its lips against the window so that they pouted like a fish. A loud raspberry was blown and a smear of slobber was left behind when Leo pulled back and laughed gleefully before smacking the window again with his table tennis bat.
"What are you doing?" Leo yelled louder than was necessary.
Eve nodded and smiled, not quite sure what to say.
Niko appeared behind Leo and gave Eve a quizzical look.
"Everything alright in there?" He called.
Eve forced another smile and reached for the car door, waiting for Leo to back away before she pushed it open and got out of the car.
"Fine, just got back," Eve said breezily, smile still in place.
"Oh, OK." Niko replied, eyeing the phone in Eve's hand. Eve shoved it into her pocket and then reached back into the car for her handbag.
"Been at the table tennis club?" She asked conversationally.
"I won again!" Leo whooped.
"Of course you did," Eve beamed, bending down to ruffle her son's hair.
"How was your day?" Niko asked with a slightly suspicious note in his voice.
"Great!" Eve decried, "I'm starved though, how about…. Pizza?" She asked, pausing for dramatic effect and to ready herself for Leo's inevitable shrieks of joy.
Sure enough Leo was ecstatic at the suggestion.
"Pizza, pizza, pizza!" He chanted joyously as he ran up the path to the front door.
Eve laughed emptily and followed him.
"I made shepherd's pie!" Niko called dejectedly before following his family to the front door.
Oksana had been returned to her cell. Years ago, when she had first heard the door to this room clang shut behind her she never thought she was would be relieved to hear that sound. And yet, her return after the stay in the hospital bay had been a moment of just that, relief. In here, she was surrounded by her things. She didn't have that brutal nurse poking and prodding her and jamming pills down her throat or tubes into her veins. She also didn't have the cautious smile of the hot nurse, or the sensation of her lighter touch on her arm to wake her. But she had got what she had wanted from her. There was nothing left to ponder about when it came to that particular scenario. And Oksana felt a sort of release from that.
She had learned to find power in other people's pleasure, never having been able to reach that moment of raw pleasure herself, at least, not at the hands of anyone else. At some point, Oksana had decided whilst watching another inmate succumb to her ministrations that to let go so completely was to make oneself vulnerable. And since witnessing that weakness in others, Oksana had never gifted that exposed part of herself to anybody at all. Now, it was just a fact. Oksana took her pleasure in the hunt, the entrapment and the powerful position of being the one in control, having another human's release at her mercy. It did not go both ways. She took her reward through other means.
Pargrave had been so furious about the nurse that Oksana had briefly almost felt guilty. It was a shame, she supposed, that the nurse had lost her job over such a simple human act. And yet, Oksana decided, she had certainly enjoyed herself in the process, Oksana had made sure of that. She could find another job. Pargrave on the other hand seemed less willing to let the episode go so lightly. He had deposited Oksana back in her cell without a backwards glance, without their usual jovial chat en route and without a single smile. It annoyed Oksana.
Still, that was yesterday and Pargrave would get over it eventually. Or he wouldn't. That was his choice really. Tomorrow though, it would be Oksana's appointment with Dr Polastri and she found herself excited by the prospect. She was eager to show the Dr how improved her accent had become with the gift of the French lessons. Perhaps Dr Polastri would also find Oksana's multilingual flirting too tempting to resist. She smiled at the thought. There was definitely something about the Dr that was appealing to Oksana.
The more she thought about that voluminous dark hair and the cute prim and proper glasses, the more excited she felt. Her veins were charged with electricity that turned to static in her stomach as she took a deep breath and allowed herself to recall precisely the scent of Dr Polastri's perfume. Oksana exhaled shakily and shifted in her position where she lay on her bunk. One hand slipped down from where it had been protectively cupping the finally healing wound in her side and ventured beneath the waistband of her prison-issue sweatpants.