A/N: Just a quick note to say thank you to all those reading, especially those who left kind reviews - including the guests I couldn't reply directly to. Sometimes real life gets in the way of updates being as swift as I'd like, but hopefully you'll continue to enjoy this! x

4. Sparked Interest

Showing what she thought was admirable restraint for someone not exactly known for keeping her compulsions in check, Nicky held off on simply barging into the conversation going on just outside the dorms. Her usual blunt manner practically dictated that she should do just that, but instead, biding her time, she watched as pretty much the one CO she could – despite everything – tolerate chatted to some stone-cold fox she could only hope was a new guard. Because, if that was the case, standards at Litchfield were certainly on the rise. Aesthetically speaking, if nothing else.

Shamelessly checking out the newcomer, albeit from her slightly hidden vantage point in the cube she had dragged Lorna into in order to avoid disturbing the curious little scene, she smirked in approval. She was, however, definitely inclined to consider it a waste to hide the proverbial light of those slim curves under the unflattering bushel a shapeless guard's uniform would be.

"You done being a pervert yet?" Lorna asked, making Nicky smile to hear the hint of discontent in that cute accent that told her they were far from done with each other as more than just friends, baby or no baby.

"Moi?" she drawled, mock-innocence all over her face. Even though she knew it would hardly sit well on her. She'd been called many things in her time. Innocent was not one of them. "Hey, I'm just curious, babe. Last time we got new guards, things didn't exactly play out so good for us. It pays to stay a step ahead."

With a little snort of something that sounded like disapproval, Lorna peeked out around the wall of the cube and then pulled back, shaking her head. "Nuh-uh, that ain't no guard, no ma'am. Not in those fuck-me-and-make-it-good heels."

Nicky raised her eyebrows at that assessment, taking another look herself and then sticking to her guns. "Well, she certainly ain't an inmate and I doubt she's some important corporate type if they've left Luschek in charge of hospitality – if she was, Caputo'd be so far up her ass, she'd have a moustache."

"He probably wishes he was up her ass," the little Italian muttered, more to herself than to anyone else.

Grinning as she turned her attention back to the hallway, Nicky's eyes narrowed as she considered the possibilities. There really weren't a lot. If the chick wasn't a guard, what the hell else could she be? Prisons weren't exactly big on guided tours, unless for obnoxious little shits that needed scaring straight. Not for frankly gorgeous women with nice shoes and an even nicer ass.

Even as she watched, whatever Luschek was yakking about drew a hearty laugh from his mysterious companion, her hand on his arm and her head tilted back in mirth, sending Nicky's eyebrows shooting back up into her hair.

"Whoa, either she's just the touchy-feely type – which is fine by me, for the record – or it looks like maybe Luschek actually got game!" she exclaimed, only just remembering to keep her voice down. "Huh, who knew?"

She was starting to debate whether to just crash their little party as the easiest way to get to the bottom of what was going on. The urge to yank the scruffy CO's chain was pretty strong, even if their unlikely friendship of sorts had yet to fully recover after taking a serious hit when he landed her in Max. Although, with a bit of distance from her hellish drugs relapse and yet another excruciating and humiliating cold turkey detox, she could appreciate she hadn't exactly left him much choice by hiding that heroin under his desk. She also had to admit, despite the red mist that had clouded her thinking when he'd visited her down the hill, she had secretly – and very reluctantly - appreciated that he'd shown up. It was more than her own mother had done after all.

And as for his subsequent illicit liaison with Judy King of all people … Well, that was just all kinds of messed up and she still wasn't entirely sure what the hell he'd been thinking going through with that, basically for her. Although joking about his feelings hadn't exactly borne forth the definitive negative answer she'd envisaged, so they'd awkwardly settled for avoiding any further discussion on the matter, just to be on the safe side.

"Ah, fuck it," Nicky said suddenly, instructing Lorna to follow her as she strolled out of the cube and headed straight for the hallway. "Yo, Luschek, who's your lady-friend? You finally on the rebound?"

That drew a grumpy warning look clumsily masked with a forced laugh. "Oh you, always with the jokes, huh, inmate? Don't you have somewhere to be? Somewhere … else?"

"Yeah, funny story. I went to Electrical, but guess what? You weren't there to supervise and … Oh look, here you are," Nicky said, boldly eying the blonde woman the whole time without bothering to hide her interest.

"Here I am," Luschek glared. "And off you go. Unless you want a shot."

Nicky held up her hands in surrender, nodding for Lorna to head off down the hall. "All right, all right. We're going, man. Keep your panties on. Hey, that's optional for you, Blondie," she called back over her shoulder, laughing as she escaped out the door into the yard.

"Can you, like, try not to piss off any guards just for five minutes?" Lorna sighed, looking more upset than her friend felt the situation reasonably warranted.

"I thought you and the shoe police decided she wasn't a guard? Oh, come on, Morello," Nicky frowned, throwing an arm over her shoulder. "Ease up, it's only Luschek pretending to swing his dick around for the audience. He wouldn't really shot me."

"He got you sent to Max!"

"That … That was complicated."

"Are you sticking up for him now?" Lorna demanded, looking affronted. "I know you two have this kinda weird thing like you're almost friends or something, but Nicky, he's still a guard and look at what they're capable of. You said you wouldn't leave me again. You promised!"

Realising the brunette was working herself up into a panic, Nicky cut the crap for once and grabbed her by both shoulders to look her square in the eye, giving her a gentle little shake. "Chill, will ya? I ain't going anywhere. You gotta stop freaking yourself out, Lorn. You're not doing yourself any good by stressing."

"I can't help it. I'm sorry, Nicky, but I can't," she said, shaking her head and swiftly ending up all tearful again. "Everything that's happened … What Piscatella did to Red, being in that horrible other place … I can't cope with it any more, I can't. I don't want my baby to be born here. Oh god, oh god, I can't …"

Pulling Lorna into her arms in concern, Nicky sighed as she pressed a kiss into those soft dark curls, slowly starting to realise all those fears weighing heavily on her friend's already overactive mind weren't going to be easily cast aside.

"Shh, kid, I got ya," she whispered, with a heavy heart.

Having dodged the potential bullet of one of the inmates dropping him in the shit in front of his new colleague, Luschek had to admit he was kinda sorry when their tour of the prison came to an end. It wasn't like there was much to see and it was hard to put a positive spin on a lot of it. What was he supposed to say? Hey, there's the garden where we found a dismembered guard. There's the cafeteria where an inmate was killed …

He could go down that route, but he didn't fancy his chances of still being employed once word inevitably got back to Fig. And, more importantly, he didn't want to be a total dick to Dallas. Shit like that could be a lot to process on your first day, he thought, before snorting to himself. Yeah, tales of murder in the workplace were much more of a second day thing …

"So, that's Litchfield," he concluded, once they'd ended up right back where they started.

"Thanks for this, Joel," the counsellor said. "And hey, what you were saying earlier? I will take it on board."

"Yeah?" he asked, a little surprised. He wasn't exactly used to being taken seriously. Or asked for his opinion in the first place actually, especially in the professional sense. He'd even come to think of himself less as a federal corrections officer and more as a glorified handyman.

"Of course. Look, I do know what I'm up against here. One day a week isn't even going to touch the sides in a place this size. But … I know it sounds like the usual clichéd bullshit from the higher-ups, but I just want to try to make a difference. And you and the rest of the COs are the ones best placed to tell me who you think needs help most. So, no promises, but I'll see what I can do."

"Uh, cool," Luschek said, still somewhat taken aback. "That's pretty cool. I guess I'll see you around then?"

"Monday," Dallas smiled. "I'll be here. I'll bring you a decent coffee as a thank you for showing me around. Now, Caputo's office this way, yeah?"

"Yeah," Luschek nodded, giving a little wave as he watched her go.

Already wondering if he'd done the right thing.

Expecting the new counsellor to be knocking on his door at any moment, Caputo had tightened and loosened his tie over and over, caught between wanting to look in charge and yet relaxed. Authoritative, but approachable. Hastily thinking the better of his latest choice, he tightened the knot back up and then ran his hands over his hair.

Attractive women made him nervous, he couldn't help it. It was probably Fig's fault actually … That scrawny witch had reconditioned him to think all women had bites infinitely worse than their barks. Rabid even.

So when the knock finally came – making him wonder what the hell Luschek had found to show the poor woman that had taken so long - he promptly jumped, swore as he knocked over his glass of water, and tried to wipe the tell-tale dark glare from his face as the door opened.

"Ah, Dallas," he declared, too over-the-top even to his ears. "Come in, come in. Make yourself comfortable."

"Thanks, Joe. Is now a good time? I wasn't interrupting anything or-"

"No, no, not at all. Might as well get down to it. Business, I mean. How was the tour? Sorry, I had to leave you with Luschek – duty called, you know how it is."

"Oh, don't worry, I understand. It must be hard staying on top of everything in a place like this."

You better believe it, he thought to himself, as he simply smiled through gritted teeth and cleared a space on his desk for the paperwork she had produced from her bag.

"Provisional stuff provided by the prison," Dallas explained. "It was sent ahead to me, so I could have a look and start to narrow down some lists of inmates we should be reaching out to. Now, I just need whatever guidance you and your team can provide and we can get a definite sense of numbers. And of course, the women need to want our help. With such limited resources, we just can't afford to force someone into attending who doesn't want to be there when we could be helping someone who's actually open to it."

"Of course, makes sense," he nodded, trying not to get distracted from the papers she was leaning over to point at by the enticing hint of cleavage revealed by the top few undone buttons of her simple black shirt.

"Now, taking on board some … input already received … I think I'd like to focus first on any obvious candidates who have been through a particular trauma, but also those who may be vulnerable to … heading down a dark path after, say, a stint in solitary or your maximum security facility. It's not my place to question disciplinary procedure, but situations like that have been known to escalate self-destructive behaviour."

"Uh, okay …"

"Some inmates may front it out, but I think we should look closely at those who may be more deeply affected than they let on. Especially those with a history of self-harm or substance abuse," Dallas continued, glancing up from her papers, pen in hand. "So, just for example … Nicole Nichols."

"Nichols? Not an obvious candidate, I would have said. I mean, there are others definitely with a bigger screw loose – I mean, bigger issues," Caputo frowned.

"That may be," Dallas said. "But Nichols is serving a lengthy sentence for drugs offences, got caught with heroin, and was sent to Max. Now, did that dry her out or make things worse?"

She had him there, caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place and somehow she already knew it. God dammit, why were the hot ones always so fucking good at getting their own way?

Dallas smiled, as if to try to reassure him. "Look, Joe, I'm not here to find fault. This isn't about criticising, or questioning how drugs get into prisons, or whatever. Like I said, that's not for me to worry about. I just want to make sure the women have support in place to help them get through whatever it is that could be making life difficult for them. Officer Luschek expressed concern about inmates like that and-"

"Wait, what? Luschek expressed concern? Joel Luschek?"

"He did, specifically about Nichols actually," Dallas nodded casually, oblivious to his stunned disbelief that his so-called Head of Electrical had displayed any kind of interest in anything related to work. "You're lucky to have staff who care here, Joe. Must make your life that little bit easier."

Oh yeah, Caputo inwardly glowered, his life was just peachy.

To be continued ...