"Adam Bentley and Krystal Dane, the serial killer couple who escaped from prison five years ago and fell off the face of the Earth? You've got to be kidding, what kind of company has this woman been keeping?" Barba whistled, pouring himself a cup of coffee as he listened to Olivia tell him about her visit with Michaela.
"Well, apparently not good company. Don't tell me you're actually thinking of giving her a deal?" Olivia gave Barba her best Detective Benson glare, ready to kick his teeth in if he said yes.
"Down, tiger. Of course I'm not. The Bentley-Dane case is as cold as an ice cube in the middle of December; unless a new body turns up matching Adam and Krystal's MO, of which there hasn't been one in years, only the arresting officer is allowed to reopen the case and he died of heart disease last summer. Even if Michaela could give us Adam Bentley and Krystal Dane, they can't be charged without a new body, so giving us two criminals we can't charge would be useless to us and I'm getting too old and grumpy to play a game of ring-around-the-criminal with the law."
"Who are Adam Bentley and Krystal Dane?" Nick Amaro, Olivia's newest detective, inquired.
"Adam Bentley and Krystal Dane are a couple who would prowl around various BDSM dungeons looking for newbies. They would lure them back to their place with the promise of teaching them everything they wanted to learn and more, torture them for anywhere from four to six hours, rape them, strangle them, put a bullet in their head, and then have sex next to the body. They managed to escape from prison together five years ago thanks to a couple of rookies who weren't paying attention during shift change, and they haven't been heard from since." Munch explained.
"I'm still confused, why am I prosecuting these cases and not Casey Novak?" Barba asked.
"Casey and Alex are best friends, it would be a conflict of interest so she had to recuse herself." Amanda said.
"Understood. Well, I'm due in court in an hour. Have a nice day, detectives. Thanks for the day-old coffee."
"Whose turn was it to make coffee this morning?" Elliot asked.
"Yours." Olivia smirked.
At Kincaid, Alex was ecstatic sitting in speech therapy to discover that her stutter was nearly gone. She occasionally still stuttered over a word here and there, and it was worse if she was crying and upset, but she was happy to see that her hard work was paying off. After she finished her session, she ran to find Grace and show her, running past the dormitory monitor and getting scolded for running in the dormitory. The two submissives squealed in excitement and hugged, and celebrated with chocolate bars from the snack table in the recreation hall while Grace quizzed Alex with her flashcards and Alex beamed when she only stuttered over four words in the pile.
"Alex?"
Alex looked up to see Brooke standing next to her looking bored.
"Yes?"
"Teresa told me as part of my punishment, I had to write you an apology. So here ya go. If you could just show it to her to prove that I gave it to you so I don't have to get an extra punishment on top of everything else." Brooke handed Alex an envelope and quickly walked away without waiting for an answer to go back to her room to continue working on her essay, moving a little stiffly with her jeans pressing against her punished bottom.
"I think that's the nicest thing she's ever said to anyone." Grace mused.
The note inside the envelope was obviously forced and insincere, but Alex would take what she could get and she immediately went to find Teresa to show her that Brooke had given her the note as she had been told to do. Alex returned to the recreation hall to find that a cart filled with art supplies had been brought in for anyone who was in the mood to use them, and she decided to settle down and sketch with charcoal for a while, finding art to be a relaxing activity just like gardening.
"Alex, Grace, you can use the charcoal if you want to, but not sitting on the couch. Come to the table, please." the art instructor said kindly.
"Yes, sir." Alex and Grace responded obediently and moved to do as they were told.
"Anyone who would like a sketchbook and pencil to keep can choose from these." the art director offered a selection of sketchbooks and pencils.
While she was sitting at the table sketching in her new sketchbook, Alex reached up to touch her neck. She missed the security of Olivia's collar around her neck. It hadn't left her neck in over twenty years until it was cruelly ripped from her neck after she was kidnapped and it was still a strange feeling to not have it nestled around her neck claiming her as Olivia's treasured property. It felt as if Alex was missing a piece of herself. The spanking Alex had received in the gym over Olivia's lap had been an act of ownership and dominance, but spanked bottoms heal after a few days. The collar was a permanent symbol of Alex's status as a submissive under Olivia's authority.
"There are some days when I miss mine too." Grace smiled sadly, seeing Alex touching her neck and looking lost.
"It just feels like it's been forever. I really want to go home." Alex frowned.
"Well, your trial is starting soon, right? You'll be back home before you know it. At least you have a home and someone to go home to. My Master dropped me off here one day, removed my collar, told me to be a good girl, and I haven't heard from him since. Your Mistress really loves you, she wouldn't show up here all the time if she didn't love you. And she wouldn't spank your bottom if she didn't love you." Grace grinned teasingly.
"You saw that?" Alex blushed lightly.
"I was walking past the gym on my way back from the laundry room. The sound of a hairbrush connecting with a bare butt is kind of hard to miss and you wail loud. The gym isn't soundproof like the punishment room is. What did you do?"
"I had a bad attitude and got mouthy during my physical therapy session with Monique."
"Ah. I was happy that you got cuddles after, though. My Master didn't believe in comforting me immediately after. It was usually two or three days before I felt like he really forgave me for getting in trouble. You're really lucky."
"It's kind of hard to feel lucky when you feel like you just sat down on a hive of bees, but I'll try my best to remember that." Alex giggled.
"I'll ask permission and see if they'll let me out of here so I can go with you to the trial for moral support. I can sit in the gallery and be a friendly face for you to focus on."
"Thanks, Grace. I appreciate that." Alex smiled, glad that she'd found a friend in Grace.
"I'm due in psychotherapy right now, time to go have a good cry. I'll see you later for lunch." Grace smiled, getting up from the table. The dark-haired woman was in therapy working through her feelings towards being abandoned by her Master and dropped on Kincaid Transition Station's doorstep like an unwanted puppy and all of the emotional baggage that came along with that.
During lunch, the dormitory monitor stood up in front of all the girls looking stern.
"Girls, quiet down. Listen up, please." the dormitory monitor called over the buzz of the cafeteria and waited until all the girls were obediently silent and looking up at her expectantly. They all knew an order when they heard one.
"It's been brought to my attention that one of our girls has had a bracelet stolen from her room. We just dealt with a stealing issue not too long ago, so to have another issue like this so soon is extremely discouraging, to say the least. I strongly encourage whoever stole Brooke's bracelet to step forward now of your own free will, confess, and return the bracelet. We already have security searching your rooms and there will be no leniency for naughty girls who don't confess before they are caught."
Everyone looked around the room curiously, including Brooke, but nobody said a word. The dormitory monitor sighed after a moment of silence.
"All right, then, we'll do this the hard way. When you are finished eating, everyone go to the recreation hall and find a place to sit. Teresa and I will meet you there when we have figured out who stole Brooke's bracelet and we will administer the appropriate punishment to our naughty girl's bare bottom."
"Who do you think stole her bracelet?" Alex asked as she and Grace sat in the recreation hall along with the rest of the girls talking quietly and waiting for Teresa and the dormitory monitor to arrive.
"Beats me. It could have been literally anyone, everybody hates Brooke. I just know it wasn't me, so my innocent backside is safe from Teresa's prison strap. It was probably someone who saw what Brooke did to you and was stupidly trying to teach her a lesson."
"I didn't think anybody cared all that much for me, except you."
"Are you crazy? If you wanted to be queen bee of this place, you'd give Brooke a real run for her money."
"I'm afraid I'm not interested in stealing anybody's crown, sorry. I'm just happy Brooke seems to have chilled out and learned her lesson."
"For now. Let's give it another week before we start celebrating. I bet once she can sit down properly again, she'll be back to her old tricks." Grace rolled her eyes.
The dormitory monitor came walking into the recreation hall holding Brooke's missing bracelet with Teresa following close behind her, the prison strap already in the Latina woman's hand.
"Alexandra Justine Cabot, come up to the front of the room immediately."