Chapter Four – Freaking Now

Maggie held back her smile until her office door closed behind the construction foreman. "Finally!" She picked up her phone and punched a number. "Thomas, I'm going home. Please reschedule any appointments I had for the rest of today and I'll see you first thing tomorrow." She dropped the phone into the cradle, gathered her purse and jacket, and made a beeline for the door. She locked it behind her as she nodded at Thomas then made her way quickly down the hallway and out the rear entrance. The walk to her bungalow seemed to pass in the blink of an eye as she went over the list of who she needed to call and what still needed to happen before she could get her new business up and running.

She let herself in the front door of her house then locked it behind her and turned the deadbolt for good measure. She dropped her purse and jacket on the couch as she passed by, headed for the door to the basement. She locked that one behind her as well; flipping on the lights as she quickly descended the stairs. A heavy steel door set into one wall of the basement stood ajar, bright light beaming through the opening. She walked up to the door, fingering the key card in her pocket, and pushed it shut. She swiped the key card through the reader and smiled when the door popped back open. "Perfect."

The door led to a large open area full of couches, easy chairs, and small tables. There was a reception desk just to the right of the door with a small office cubicle just behind it. Doorways with no doors lined one wall of the space – the worker's sleeping rooms. They led to tiny cubbies fitted with only a small metal bunk bolted to the wall with a rolling drawer beneath it that was meant to store their clothing and whatever personal items they'd be allowed to possess.

The doors on the wall opposite the sleeping rooms led to the showers, the restroom facilities, the kitchen, a small but fully functional infirmary, the security office, and the laundry/janitorial room. Maggie walked slowly through the large room, running her hand over the backs of the overstuffed sofas she passed as she admired the well-constructed completion of her 'special project.' "It's finally finished. Now I can get the boys moved in here… well, the ones that have agreed to be part of my program… and we can get down to business."

She unlocked the door on the opposite side of the room to reveal a long, well-lit hallway that was lined on either side with more heavy steel doors. Each door had a small numbered plaque affixed to it and a card reader on the wall next to it. She stopped at the first door on her left and quickly swiped her card. The room behind the door was simple – just a large bed, a comfortable chair, a small night table, and an armoire standing next to the door of the small bathroom. She stepped to the armoire and opened the doors. It was fully stocked.

She skipped the next three rooms on that side, being that they were carbon copies of the first, and turned to the first door on her right. A 'special interest' room. This one had no bed, just a large, padded table fixed with a set of manacles at either end and on each leg. There were a few more sets of manacles mounted on the walls at different heights, a few sets bolted to the floor, and a set dangling from a long chain affixed to the ceiling. The armoire in this room contained a different cache of supplies, but it was also fully stocked. The other three special interest rooms were set up in much the same way, only differing in the types of furniture and the equipment and supplies stored in the armoire.

Past the special interest rooms, there were two rooms that contained only an armoire and a wide padded sawhorse equipped with manacles. The last room on the left contained two padded waist-high benches, also equipped with manacles, that were bolted to the floor on either side of a large drain. That room didn't have an armoire; there were just a few small cupboards bolted to the wall over an industrial sink. Maggie stepped to the cupboards and opened the first door, taking down a long coil of hose. She nodded in satisfaction then replaced the hose and left the room.

She swiped her card beside the reinforced door at the end of the hallway, grunting with the effort needed to pull the heavy door open, then stepped through into a dank, smelly, barely lit hallway. She heard the meaty thunk of a boot meeting flesh and followed the noise, smiling proudly when she saw her son. She watched him kick the unresponsive body at his feet for a few seconds then knocked on the open door to the cell. "Riley? Are you about finished? I'd like to show you something. It's finally done and we can get started immediately."

XXXX

Buffy's eyes went wide and she whispered, "Was that a scream?"

Xander's brow furrowed as he tried to push the door open. "Sounded like it. What the hell is going on down there?" The door refused to budge and Xander kicked it in frustration. "Shit!"

"Don't you have keys or a card or something that will open this door?"

Xander shook his head. "No. This isn't my assigned section, so my card won't work, and I doubt Tomkins is gonna let us in if the new guy is busy beating on the inmates. Shit!"

Buffy looked around the empty hallway. "So what do we do? Should we go to Maggie?"

Xander took her elbow and started leading her quickly down the hall toward her office. "No. She's probably in charge of whatever's going on down there. Tomkins is one of the guys she brought with her, and if it's her son down there pounding on the inmates, then… Shit! Shit! Shit!"

Buffy stopped walking, digging in her heels when Xander continued to tug on her arm. "We have to do something! I know I'm new to the whole prison thing, but I'm pretty sure that whatever they're doing is illegal. We can't just let them get away with it!"

Xander leaned close and whispered in her ear, "I know, but we can't talk about it here." His eyes darted to a spot on the ceiling behind her. "Cameras. They don't have sound, but if we stand here much longer, it's gonna look weird, so let's go back to your office and we'll try to figure something out."

Buffy nodded and started walking again. "Is there a camera in my office?"

Xander stopped suddenly and ran his fingers through his hair. "Shit! Yes. There's cameras everywhere, except…" He turned around and started walking down the hallway in the opposite direction, scowling as he passed the door to the solitary cells.

Buffy hurried to catch up. "Everywhere except where?"

"Your suite, the employee dorms, and the bungalows are the only places I know of that aren't wired. I'm not sure about the Warden and Associate Warden's offices… I've only been in them a few times and that was before the cameras were installed."

"What about the patient rooms in the infirmary?"

Xander nodded as he used his card to open the heavy steel door at the end of the hallway. They entered a large lobby-like room that had the sound of laughing children drifting in from an open doorway on their right. He glanced at it then turned and headed for the exit. "All but the four closest to your office. Those are meant for any employees or family members that have to be hospitalized. The inmates are supposed to be put in the others, Walsh's orders."

Buffy's face twisted into a scowl. "Screw that. I'll put my patients in whatever room I want and Maggie can just deal with it."

Xander chuckled as he held the door open, waiting for Buffy to walk through. "I don't think Walsh is a woman you want to tangle with, Buffy."

Buffy looked over at him as he started off at a fast walk toward a line of smallish houses set against a tall cyclone fence topped with razor wire. "Oh, I'll tangle with her. She doesn't know who she's dealing with."

Xander cast a sideways glance at the tiny woman wearing a grim look of determination as she stalked along beside him with clenched fists. He was suddenly glad he wasn't the one in her sights. He chuckled quietly, "I think she's about to find out. You look a little scary there, Buff."

She smiled up at him… a scary smile. "I can be, especially when people are being hurt for no reason. I put a three-hundred-pound linebacker from our high school football team in the hospital because he tried to rape a friend of mine."

Xander drifted over a few feet, trying not to make it look obvious. "What are you? A buck ten? Less? Did you hit him with your car or something?"

She laughed, "I am so not telling you how much I weigh, and no, I didn't hit him with my car. I'm a third-degree black belt."

He giggled nervously, "Oh. Um… yeah… remind me to never piss you off." He drifted over another step and pointed to the last house on the row, closest to the gate. "That one's mine. Wils and I used to live in that one over there…" He pointed to the somewhat larger house on the other end of the row that was set quite a distance apart from the rest. "But when Walsh took over, she wanted that one, so we moved."

Buffy looked at Walsh's house, then back at the building they'd just exited. There was only about a hundred feet of space between them. "Her house is pretty close to the main building, isn't it?"

Xander nodded. "Yeah, that's why I liked that house. My walk to work wasn't very long."

"What's that building just behind it?"

"A garage. She had workers in here building it before she'd even been here a week. She's even got her own private entrance into the prison grounds on the other side of it. The garage connects right up to her back door."

"Isn't it kind of big? How many cars do you think will fit in there?"

Xander shrugged again. "Don't know, but it looks like at least a dozen."

"Why does she need a garage that big? Does she keep the prison vehicles in there?"

Xander nodded to a building just inside the front gate that was smaller than Maggie's garage. "Nope. The prison garage is over there." He climbed the three steps to his front door and opened it with a flourish. "Welcome to the House of Harris."

Buffy followed him through the front door and down the hall into the kitchen as he called out, "Wils? You here?"

A very pregnant red head waddled into the kitchen wearing a huge smile. "Xan! What are you doing here? Your lunch break isn't for another three hours."

He turned and motioned to Buffy. "This is Buffy Summers, our new Nurse Practitioner. I'm giving her the grand tour."

Willow giggled. "Your fat wife is part of the prison tour?"

Xander stepped close, pulling her into a hug and kissing her lightly on the tip of her nose. "You're not fat, Willow. You're beautiful." He laid his hand on her bulging belly. "How is he today?"

She laid her hand over his with a gentle smile. "He's good. Only been kicking me for the last two hours. I guess spicy Mexican omelets aren't one of his favorites." Willow stepped forward with her hand out. "Hi, I'm Willow Rosenberg-Harris. Nice to meet you, Buffy."

Buffy shook her hand. "Nice to meet you, too. How far along?"

Willow's hands moved to her belly. "Almost there. I'm due in about three weeks."

Buffy smiled. "That's good. Who's your doctor?"

Willow and Xander shared an amused look then Willow smiled over at Buffy. "Um… that would be you."

Buffy's eyes went wide and she squeaked, "Me?"

Willow laughed. "Yep. The nearest hospital is over an hour away, so it looks like you drew the short straw. Didn't Maggie tell you that you'd be taking care of the employees and family members? Not just the inmates?"

Buffy shook her head. "No. I didn't even know there were family members at the prison until just a little while ago."

Willow frowned. "Wonder why she didn't tell you."

Buffy frowned along with her. "I have no idea. I wasn't told much about this job other than it was at a prison, and I'd be the head of the department, and how much I'd be paid. I didn't find out I'd have to live here until after I'd accepted the position. I thought that was kind of weird, but I figured hey… it'll save me money since I won't have to pay rent or worry about a car or anything."

Willow looked at her in disbelief. "You accepted a job that you technically knew nothing about? Why would you do that?"

Buffy's cheeks heated in embarrassment. "My mom. She told me that it was an excellent opportunity because I'd be heading up the entire department… not knowing that I am the entire department… but she said it was too good to pass up and if I did then I'd probably be stuck working for some dinky little clinic making almost no money. For a freshly graduated nursing student, a job like this is… the Holy Grail. It would take me years to work my way up to something like this otherwise." Buffy looked at Willow's belly again and frowned. "But now that I think about it, it is kind of weird that I'm the only medical person for this many people. Has this place always only had one?"

Xander nodded. "As long as I've been here, yeah. We've actually been without a doctor for about six months. One of the guards who was a medic in the military has been filling in and I help out a little, running the x-ray machine and stuff like that. Thankfully we haven't had anything major happen, just a few cases of the flu and a broken arm. Maybe Walsh didn't give you all the details because she was afraid you wouldn't take the job."

Buffy sighed, "Yeah, maybe. I don't know that I would've taken it if I'd known, even with the money they're paying me. If she'd told me I'd be doing everything from delivering babies to geriatric care, I probably would've freaked. I mean, I know my specialty is family practice, which covers cradle to grave, but…" She eyed Willow's belly again. "I actually am kind of freaking right now. I never expected to be delivering… I work in a prison for Pete's sake! I mean, I know how childbirth works and I've helped with a few deliveries, but I've never been primary. Are there any other pregnant people I should know about?"

Willow laid a comforting hand on her arm. "You'll do fine, and no, I'm the only preggo here… right now. I'm a registered midwife and I've delivered all the kids born here for the last five years, so I could probably deliver Xander Junior all by myself, but it'll be nice to have some help."

Buffy smiled with relief. "Help. Yeah, I can do that." She glanced at Xander and suddenly remembered the scream they'd heard. "Help. Speaking of which, we need to do something about those men down in the solitary cells. Like now."

Willow looked over at Xander with a confused expression. "What's she talking about?"

Xander gently grasped her elbow and led her into the living room. "You should probably sit, Wils." Buffy followed and stood at the end of the couch while Xander helped Willow sit down then dropped down beside her. "Buffy and I think that Walsh has a bunch of the inmates down in the old solitary cells and that she's letting some of the guards torture them."

Before Willow could wrap her brain around that statement and formulate a response, Buffy's pocket started chirping loudly. She pulled out her prison cell phone and flipped it open. "Nurse Summers."

She listened to whoever was on the other end for a few seconds then said, "Just put him in one of the rooms next to my office, I'll be there in a few minutes." She flipped the phone closed and started for the front door.

Xander looked over at her in alarm. "What's going on?"

Buffy called over her shoulder as she pulled open the door, "Apparently one of the inmates fell down the stairs after leaving his cell and has a couple of broken ribs. They're taking him to the infirmary."