It was another sunny day in Melbourne as Frankie pulled out of the carpark of HM Fairlea, she had been visiting several inmates about possible releases and parole hearings. It had been a long day so far but rewarding all the same. She had been unindated with cases and things were starting to get on top of her but she was grateful for the support of her team behind her. Gidge had been a godsend, never making her feel guilty for working every hour under the sun and then some. It helped that she was able to pursue Bea's case during working hours now but due to the sensitivity of the information she wouldn't allow any of her team to help her with it.
As she drove through the highway on route back to her office she brought up Bridgets number on her hands free and pressed dial. It only rang for a few moments before Bridget picked up.
"Hey Spunky" Frankie grinned.
"Hey baby" Bridget smiled into the phone.
"I just wanted to say hey, I'm on my way back to the office now"
"How did you go at Fairlea?"
"Its no Wentworth. I spoke to a few people... a few are interesting and look like they may make a case but one woman was only there for show, she reminded me of me... well the old me. Flirted with me relentlessly"
"oh really, do I have anything to be worried about" Bridget joked.
"oh yeah, I decided to go back to having a prison wife" Frankie smirked sarcastically.
"is that so" Bridget laughed softly.
"No you goof, you're the only woman for me" Frankie offered seriously.
"Well it's a good job that you're the only woman for me too"
"anyone would think you wanted me Gidge" Frankie gave her signature smirk despite Bridget not being able to see it.
"Always baby, always" Bridget said just as seriously.
"Right well, I'm close to the office now so I'd best head off, you have a good day and I will see your sexy arse tonight at home" Frankie cooed.
"OK baby, I love you"
"I love you too spunky"
"bye"
"bye"
Hanging up the phone, Frankie pulled into her parking space outside the office block and exited her car. Making her way through the front doors, she ran up the steps smirking at how in shape she was and how she effortlessly got up the steps before she flounced into the office and smiled her greeting at her team.
"Morning guys"
"Morning Frankie" The team of five greeted their boss in return. "How did you get on at Fairlea?" Mike, one of the team asked.
"Yeah good, lets meet in my office in ten and I will go over the new cases with you all" Frankie smiled widely.
-xXx-
"Hey love birds" Maxine grinned as Bea and Allie exited Bea's cell for their morning cell count. Allie made her way to her official cell and stood by the door, smiling across at Bea who blushed.
"Morning Maxi" Allie finally smiled at the taller woman after dragging her eyes away from her girlfriend.
"Good nights sleep love?" Maxi asked knowingly.
"I don't think they got much sleep Maxi, hey" Booms grinned as Bea blushed profusely.
"I slept like a log thanks" Allie grinned, winking at Bea who rolled her eyes in amusement at the blondes antics.
"At least someone did, I'm not sure which of you is the moaner but could you keep it down yeah?" Booms giggled.
"Where's the fun in that Boomer?" Allie smirked.
"Leave them alone Booms, they are cute" Maxi scoffed.
"Cell count ladies" Will announced as he walked into the unit and smiled at the women.
"Morning Mr Jackson" The girls said in unison with big smiles for their favourite screw.
"Good morning" Will grinned back before calling everyone's names out in turn. "Right ladies have a good day"
"Have a good day Mr Jackson" Boomer winked at the prison officer suggestively.
"You too Boomer" Will winked back, smirking when the women wolf whistled at his retreating back.
"Shower?" Allie called to Bea who nodded her agreement before moving into her cell to collect her shower stuff before meeting Allie back in the main unit.
They walked arm in arm towards the shower block, Allies arm around Bea's waist and Bea's arm around Allie's shoulder. Neither had a care in the world in that moment, they were blissfully happy together. They made it to the shower block surprised to only find two or three women in there leaving plently of shower blocks available
Allie, confident in her body and without shame stripped down quickly, leaving her clothing on the bench she sauntered towards the shower cubicle unaware of all eyes on her. Bea however was well aware of all the eyes on her girlfriend.
"Are you right?" Bea said with a steely voice, eyeing all three women with daggers.
"Just enjoying the view" One woman said, glancing away from Allie into Bea's eyes.
"Yeah well keep your eyes to yourself" Bea sneered.
"Or else what, what are you going to do about it?" The woman scoffed.
"Are you really willing to find out?" Bea asked, taking a threatening step towards the other woman, who suddenly shrank inside herself at the threat in Bea's eyes.
"I didn't mean any harm Bea" The woman quickly stated, taking a step back and putting some distance between her and the former top dog.
"Yeah well too late for that, now get out" Bea growled, her eyes full of fire. " All of you, get the fuck out" Bea yelled. The three women scampered, rushing from the room in various states of undress.
"Fuck Bea, do you know how hot that was" Allie asked, still stood in front of the shower cubicle stark naked.
"What was hot, having those scrags eyes all over you?" Bea says half sarcastically with a voice laced with jealousy.
"Oh come on babe the only eyes I want on me are yours" Allie smirked as she approached Bea, not in the slightest phased that she was completely naked and Bea was fully dressed. "Why are you still dressed, in case you haven't noticed we now have the entire shower block to ourselves" Allie smirked as she tugged at the belt of Bea's dressing gown.
"Do you ever stop?" Bea asked, already knowing the answer.
"Nope... are you complaining?" Allie giggled.
"Definitely not" Bea grinned as her gown slipped open.
-xXx-
Vera sat in her office chair smiling at the story Bridget had just told her about some of the women on D block. She had come to really value their friendship, sure she had made attempts at friendships in the past Linda Miles being one of them. They had gone out dancing that one night where Vera had ended up sleeping the night on Linda's couch. But Vera's mother had put an end to that when she outed Vera's non existent boyfriend Adam. And then there was the disaster at her attempt of friendship with Ferguson, the least said about that the better but things were different with Bridget though, for one her mother was no longer hanging from her, suffocating her into solitude, no with Bridget it was light and easy, there were no expectations, no ulterior motive. Bridget was simply her friend and it was that simple.
"So are you looking forward to the big day?" Vera asked, breaking herself from her reverie.
"Oh yes, Mum has been talking about it none stop" Bridget grinned.
"Well everything is organised, all you need to do is show up" Vera said, trying to bite down the grin from spreading across her face as she thought about the surprise she had in store for Bridget and Frankie.
"Frankie is putting on a brave face but I can tell she's upset about it" Bridget mused.
"What does she have to be upset about?" The brunette asked confused.
"Well obviously there will be some mutual friends there, and her dad and sister will be there as well as one or two people from work but other than that it will be all my family and friends. She won't have many people from her corner there" Bridget sighed, she wished there was a way to have Frankie's H1 family there at the engagement party but it's not like she could break Bea, Liz, Maxi, Boomer, Doreen and Allie out of prison for the night.
"I'm sure Frankie will be fine on the night. Your family like her right?" Vera asked.
"Oh yeah they love her, even dad likes her even though he keeps his cards close to his chest. But her relationship with them is new and not very well established yet. They already view her as family though, she's already one of us" Bridget smiled as she thought of the barbeque and how well Frankie had gotten along with her family.
"Frankie is very likeable, I'm not surprised they have taken to her. Do they know about her history... that she was incarcerated?" Vera asked with genuine interest.
"yes they know all about it, they have welcomed her into the family anyway. My nieces adore her. Who would have thought Frankie Doyle would be good with kids" Bridget smirked.
"Well she was good with Kia when she was on the unit but yeah the Frankie Doyle of old wouldn't have been great around kids" Vera laughed.
"Right well, I've got an appointment in ten minutes so I had best get to my office" Bridget smiled as she rose from her seat opposite Vera's desk.
"Bea?" Vera asked knowingly, the red head was having regular meetings with the prison psych as well as attending anger management sessions. She really was a model prisoner right now.
"Yeah, she's coming along in leaps and bounds now" Bridget advised with a smile.
"Good"
"Your bringing Jake along to the engagement party aren't you? Franky is desperate to meet him"
"Yes I am. It will be our first official outing as a couple" Vera grinned at the thought.
"Great, right well I will see you tomorrow night... with the toy boy" Bridget laughed.
-xXx-
"Bea, how are you this afternoon?" The blonde smiled at the brunette warmly.
"Yeah really good, things are going really well at the moment" Bea returned the smile, her mind flashing to moments she had stolen with Allie in the shower earlier that day.
"What's put that dreamy smile on your face?"
"Just thinking about this morning. Allie and I spent some time together alone" Bea admitted shyly.
"So things with Allie are going well?"
"perfectly, well as perfect as they can be considering we are both in prison"
"good, I'm glad things are going well for you"
"We had a bit of trouble in the shower block this morning"
"Oh, in what way?" Bridget asked with interest, Bea had been quiet for months now ever since her accident. Kaz had taken over top dog status and Bea had been living the quiet life in H1 with her family.
"Some of the women were checking Allie out while she was getting ready to go for a shower... I couldn't stand to see it, having their eyes all over her I just lost it" Bea admitted, glancing quickly to the tape recorder nervously.
"When you say you lost it, what did you do?" Bridget asked with her heart in her mouth, Bea had been good for months and this could potentially be the start of her vicious side coming back to the surface.
"I yelled at them" Bea admitted.
"Were you physical towards them at all?" The psychologist asked with interest.
"I thought about it. I even took a step towards them but no I wasn't physical I just yelled at them. That seemed to scare them off" Bea said, her eyes locked on Bridget's hoping that she would be able to read the truth in them.
"Well that's good, it's important that you control your anger when you do feel angry. It's imperative that you remember to control your anger in a healthy way. Its ok to be angry, what's not ok is using that anger in violence"
"Yeah I got it, no lashing out no matter how much someone pisses me off" Bea smiled.
"exactly, keep up the good work"
"I remembered something else too" Bea admitted. "After Debbie died, I tried to kill myself... used a sheet and made a noose, tied it around the door handle. I'd have been successful if it wasn't for Liz and the girls"
"That must have been quite a confronting memory"
"It was, I remember just feeling so hopeless... I didn't want to be in a world that she wasn't in. And I just wanted it to all be over" Bea said with a lump in her throat.
"and how does that make you feel now?"
"Sad. Angry. Happy"
"They are very strong and conflicting feelings, do you want to explain why your happy about it?"
"Well if I'd died, I wouldn't have met Allie" brown curls bounced as Bea shrugged her shoulders. "You know I remember when they brought me out of the psych unit, I was going cold turkey from the sedatives and I just wanted to go back to being in that place where I could see deb. If it wasn't for Liz bringing me out of the dark hole I was in god knows how I would have ended up"
"It's good that you have your friends surrounding you. It's important to have a support network around you"
"There's something else I remember but I'm not sure if you'll want to hear it" Bea admitted shyly.
"Why wouldn't I want to hear it?" Bridget asked confused.
"Well it involves an ex inmate" Bea said hoping that Bridget would understand that she meant Frankie.
"Everything you tell me in these sessions stays between us, it's a confidential space, perhaps we should discuss this without mentioning any names though, so let's just refer to this person as her or the ex inmate" Bridget advised warily, she didn't think she was going to like hearing this memory.
"Well when I got out of the psych ward, like I said I was spaced out and going cold turkey. I was a mess. This ex inmate was top dog at the time and I guess she was flexing her muscles a bit. She got another inmate to shove my head in a basin of water a few times. I mean it's in the past now and I forgive her of course but it was pretty scary, I thought they were going to drown me at one point"
"I can see how that would be scary. Do you know why this ex inmate would do that to you"
"Well she was threatened that I was going to go after top dog. Like I said she was just flexing her muscles. She kept asking me who ran the prison and wouldn't stop until I said you do"
"Well let's add both of these memories to your timeline" Bridget forced a smile, hearing about the sinister side to her partner was not something she liked to think about. She of course knew Frankie had a colourful past, in fact she knew better than most after Frankie's break down in their session and admitting to the murder of Meg Jackson. But that didn't mean she liked to think or hear about it.
Bea opened up the stack of paper and added the two memories in their correct places. Before she glanced up to Bridget nervously. "Are you ok?" Bea asked quietly.
"Of course, I know she has a colourful past. Don't worry about that lets just focus on you getting your memory back completely" Bridget forced a smile onto her face but Bea could see that it didn't quite meet her eyes.