Title: Behind Bars 5/6
Author: Mandi
Characters: Faith and Cruz
Summary: While Faith gets friendly with a prison guard; Cruz gets a taste of her own medicine.
Disclaimer: They are not mine
Authors Note: Ok, so I have a made up character thrown into the mix. He'll play quite a vital role in the follow up to Behind Bars which I'll probably post soon after I finish up w/Behind Bars.
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"You Cruz?"
Cruz turned around to see three fairly larger women surrounding her.
"What's it to you?" Cruz snickered, not letting them see the fear that was now twisting her insides. She watched as the women neared her, all of them with wicked smiles on their faces.
"We got a message from the boss."
Cruz didn't even have time to react before the first blow came.
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"It's really not that deep." Faith assured Scott as he lead her into the Nurses' Room. He hadn't let go of her hand since Cruz first brought the injury to his attention and Faith's blood was beginning to seep through the handkerchief Scott was applying pressure with.
"Better safe than sorry." He told her kindly, the smile on his face still not completely gone. Okay, so maybe Cruz was right. Maybe this guy is checking me out. Faith thought to herself as she watched Scott ask for someone to help me.
"I'm sorry—she'll have to wait awhile, Scott. Apparently, a lot of people decided to get themselves hurt today and we're short staffed." A short stocky woman explained, looking sympathetically at the man in front of her.
"Oh, that's no problem, Jan. I can take care of this one. I have a medical background, remember? Really, I don't mind." Scott offered, turning back briefly to wink at Faith. Faith forced a smile, growing rather uncomfortable. A guy hasn't paid this much attention to her in a long time.
"Sure, Scott." Jan smiled at him, "use exam room 3."
"Thanks." Scott said, turning to Faith and leading her into the room Jan offered them. "Take a seat." Scott gestured to the only bed in the room. Faith feeling a bit uneasy, made her way to the bed slowly and took a seat. She watched as Scott gathered some things from the cabinets lining the wall across from her.
"Thanks—for um, doing this."
"It's my job." Scott replied, not turning around to look at her. He grabbed some rubbing alcohol and some bandages from one of the lower cabinets before making his way over to her.
"I don't think your job requires you to do this." Faith told him as he pulled up a chair and sat right in front of her. "This sure goes beyond the call of duty."
"Like I said before," he took hold of her injured hand gently in his hand and met her eyes, "I don't mind—now this is gonna sting." He warned her before applying the rubbing alcohol to her cut. Faith winced slightly from the pain. "You okay?"
Faith nodded, her eyes leaving her hand and looking back at Scott. His attention was on bandaging her hand so it gave Faith time to study him. He had strong facial features, a very nice looking young man. Faith guessed he was late 20's early 30's, his eyes were an incredible blue color and his light brown hair was short and spiked. He looked far too nice a person to be a prison guard, with the little experience Faith's had with the guards, most were ruthless and uncaring toward prisoners. Scott was different, he was nice, and he seemed genuinely concerned when he discovered she had been injured.
"So—," Faith spoke up, breaking the silence, "how long have you worked here?"
"A little over a year. My father used to be the warden here. He retired a few months ago." Scott explained. He paused, looking back down at their hands. Faith noticed the sadness spread across his face as he continued, "he worked so hard for so long to keep corruption from this place, but it seemed like no matter how hard he tried it was no use. There's corruption everywhere here, especially among the guards. It's hard to prove, but there are those working to fix the problem."
"You being one of them?"
Scott stopped working on her hand long enough to meet her soft gaze, "yeah. I'm one of the good guys, you don't have to worry with me—look, you're probably wondering why I'm telling you all this."
Faith nodded, "well, I was kinda curious."
"I really don't know. I just—I noticed you."
"You noticed me?"
"Yeah, the other week I was on dinner duty when your friend attacked Betty. There was just something about you, I don't know—you caught my eye. And then when Betty threw you against the wall, I wanted to help out, but well—I'm in no position to. So when you got hurt today, I was glad your friend called me over because I do wanna help you—I do wanna protect you in here if I can." He tried explaining, desperately trying to avoid Faith's penetrating gaze. Faith wanted to hug the poor love sick guy in front of her. What he was telling her was just about the sweetest thing anyone's ever admitted to her. "I just—I've seen a lot of bad things happen to—the women here and when I saw you—I—I just don't want any of those things happening to you, that's all."
Faith opened her mouth to speak but couldn't find the right words to say. What could she possibly say to this guy? So instead of saying anything, she gently laid her other hand down on his and silently willed him to look at her. After seeing her hand on his, Scott looked up, meeting her gentle gaze. He shyly smiled.
"So I guess what I'm telling you is—well, I guess you could call it a crush." He admitted sheepishly avoiding her gaze again, "you must think I'm out of my mind, right? I mean, I did a little research on why you're in here and everything. You're a detective for Heaven's sake, you probably think I'm so lowly being a prison guard and everything."
"Hey—I'm the prisoner and you're the guard. I think you pretty much out rank me at the moment." Faith responded. Then from out of the blue she stuck out her hand to him, "I don't think we've been formally introduced. My name's Faith."
Scott smiled back at her, "Scott." He replied taking her hand and giving it a firm shake, "nice to meet you."
"Yeah—you too." Faith nodded before looking around the room, "I think it's time I should get back to my cell."
"Of course." Scott said moving away from the bed so she could stand up. "I gotta walk you—policy."
"I understand." Faith assured him as they left the Nurses' Office together and headed back to the cells. As they passed the garden through a glass tunnel connecting the buildings overhead, Faith stopped dead in her tracks. Scott turned and opened his mouth to ask her what was wrong, but when he followed her gaze, he too noticed why she had stopped.
"I have to get to her." Faith barely mumbled before taking off, trying to find the fastest route to the garden below.
Scott grabbed hold of his radio, "This is Vincent, I need medical units to the garden immediately. There's been another attack." He spoke over the system before following after Faith.
"Cruz!" Faith called out, seeing the other woman lying on her side, motionless on the ground. Faith sprinted the last remaining yards before dropping to Cruz's side. "Cruz, can you hear me?" She gently turned Cruz onto her back and checked for a pulse. When she found a faint one Faith quickly surveyed the damage. Cruz's shirt was ripped, revealing bleeding gashes on her shoulder, Faith guessed it was the work of some sort of sharp object. There were numerous dirty shoe prints on the front and side of Cruz's body where someone had kicked her. Faith knew there were at least a few broken ribs from the assault. The whole left side of Cruz's face was covered with blood from a gash right at her hairline. Dark bruises rimmed Cruz's eyes and her lip, nose, and right eye were all bleeding. There was so much blood, Faith barely recognize her.
Anger flared within Faith as she looked around at the slowly surrounding inmates, "Who did this?" She hissed, her voice full of rage. When no one answered, Faith sprung to her feet and grabbed the closest woman by the collar and viciously pulled her closer, "you do this?" She threatened but the woman shook her head, too scared to even reply. Faith let her go then turned to the next suspect, "do you know who did this?"
The skinny girl shook her head, "we were all told to go stand around the corner."
"By who? Who told you that?"
The girl shook her head. Faith grabbed her by the throat, "Who told you to stand around the corner?" Before the girl was able to answer, Scott arrived on the scene, his eyes instantly meeting Faith's.
"What happened?" Scott asked, his concern only for Faith at the moment. Faith held back her anger for now as she turned back to Cruz's beaten body, kneeling once again at her side.
"Someone—Scott, help her." Faith was on the verge of tears and she really didn't understand the countless emotions running through her all at once. Did she really care if Cruz would live or die? When did she start caring? Faith couldn't understand why seeing Cruz like this was affecting her so much. "Please—help her."
"Help's on the way—try to stay calm, Faith. I'm gonna find out who did this?" Scott tried to soothe her, his hand protectively placed on her back. Faith nodded, she had to believe what he was saying, she had to trust him, she was gonna need someone to trust while Cruz was in the medical wing. Faith cursed out loud, swearing vengeance on whoever was involved in assaulting Cruz.
"Yokas—," her voice was raspy and weak.
Faith quickly turned her attention back down at Cruz, instinctively reaching to hold the fallen Officer's hand, "yeah, Cruz—I'm here. Do you remember—do you know who did this to you? Tell me, who did this?"
Cruz coughed up blood as she tried to speak. Faith leaned in closer so that her ear was right next to Cruz's lips. She listened carefully as one name softly slipped into her ear, "Finney—."
Cruz managed to say before she slipped into darkness.