From one disaster to another then, here we go! Happy Extreme Rules day by the way, hope the show is a good one!
Cheryl24, Yep many apologies but Truth is no more since the bad guys in this one aren't exactly playing around! Haha, maybe it's better you didn't write to him about prison wine but either it's not a popular thing or he ends up finding out how horrible it is!
Hayley1001, Good news then, because in this chapter (and the ones following it) Dean has extra reason to be fidgety and anxious and Roman has extra reason to be all protective. Not going to spoil it here by saying why but hopefully by the end you'll see…
Skovko, Roman is going to have to be extra uber careful from now on even though I think we all know that there will be drama and problems at some point right?! But before we get into the police side of things let me throw them some more trouble first…
Mandy, Yep I'm giving the boys some nice brother time first in this chapter and then we're going to head back into the chaos. Lots going on next chapter so I'm doing my usual calm before the storm thing because I need to give them some carrot and not all stick!
Wolfgirl2013, Aww big thanks! Some brotherly bonding and drama in this one so I hope you like!
Minnie1015, Nice pun but yeah, Truth who had the truth is now longer there to spread it about. Sorry R-Truth, I love you really! Roman is doing very well at his undercover bit but of course not that he can keep the side of things up forever *hints at things to come…maybe?*
Cherry619, Well there is brotherly bonding and a hint of drama in this one which leads into a whole basket of chaos in the next chapter (with added brotherly feels thereafter of course). Really this entire story is just an excuse for the boys worrying about each other (sorry not sorry!)
Squeegee Beckinhime, Oooh, glad it made you feel all tense! Got another few chapters like that heading your way before the end too but first we have the next couple where we take a backseat from the investigation and handle the other minor problem they have!
Stingerette1975, I LOVE old school action movies and yeah, sorry Truth but someone (or several) had to be fed to the lions here. But now don't you want the bad guys to suffer more?! Bray is certainly heading our way again and especially next chapter he and Roman come face to face.
Yippi-kay yay motherfucker, Well hello there! Glad you're enjoying it and sorry about Truth (but his name was too much of a pun to overlook!) In this chapter the boys are back to a little bit of bonding before their first problem rears his ugly head again!
Ohana1337, Aww, thank you so much. Bray Wyatt is my favorite villain ever and even if the Wyatt family are not together anymore they always will be in my head cannon! Plus who better the rough the boys up so they have to be all worried about each other?!
SkittlezLvr79, Well good news, Mick genuinely is sick because he's going to feature more in this story you will be glad (or at least I hope you will be) to hear! But alas poor Truth was not so lucky for all his good intentions *takes hat off* sorry Truth!
Daisysakura, Oh I'm totally with you on that one! I would be a nervous wreck if I were Roman. But then that's why Roman is the undercover cop. Plus he's pretty darn smooth no matter what story I put him in! More brotherliness in this one for you!
More bonding coming up...
Appointment With The Concrete
Roman seems off the next few days following, which his cellmate puts down to an ordinary prison funk and in that regard the big man wouldn't be on his lonesome since everyone hits a wall after their first few weeks inside.
Dean himself had felt the same sensation back when he had been newly starting out but had bounced up quicker than other people around him largely because his life had always been crap and therefore being locked away had been just a general extension of the deluge of faeces that comprised his freaking life.
Besides which he has always been pretty adaptable.
It's his superpower maybe –
Modify or die.
If Roman is struggling then it is his job to change that and he takes to the role like water to a duck, or however the saying is meant to go usually.
In other words, he goes in completely headfirst starting with some very early morning cajoling on the one precious day he has off from breakfast work and which the prison seems to think is like having a weekend but is nowhere near as a relaxing or fun.
He prods the big man's shoulder where it is hidden beneath blankets,
"Hey Sleepin' Beauty, c' mon man, rise an' shine."
Bleary brown eyes squint up at him unhappily and are followed by a voice ten octaves lower than its usual tone and which is also sort of scratchy around the edges and sounds pretty wildly unimpressed with him to boot. Doubtless it is helped by his own grinning expression and continued childish prodding.
"What the hell uce?"
"You an' me have an appointment with the concrete."
"The what?"
"We're goin' for a mornin' run around the yard."
"Dean – ,"
"C' mon man, it'll be good or whatever an' – y' know – like blow all the gloomy shit out."
Roman raises the brow that isn't buried into his pillow and answers in a very slightly more animated tone, or at least one that doesn't sound only half-conscious which his copper blonde cellmate figures has to be a good thing.
"I'm sorry, gloomy shit?"
Dean slaps his leg,
"Get movin', before the murderers get out there an' creep the place up."
He isn't kidding about that either which the bigger man knows well enough to clamber to his feet, before stumbling about their tiny little cell room while the blue eyes watch him silently above impatiently twitching limbs.
Roman sighs,
"I'm coming uce."
Fortunately though within the space of ten minutes they are out in the brightness of the near deserted yard and keeping time as they easily jog the perimeter and while the cold spring morning shakes the lingering weariness from them both.
Dean grins broadly,
"Told ya this would work, man – get those big ol' brows smilin' again."
Roman snorts,
"Who says they want to?"
Dean stops suddenly with a tired sounding puff then drops himself back to lean against the chain link like he is awkward about something, which is probably because he is. Beams of bright sun are falling hard on the concrete and chasing away the early morning haze in a way that implies the day will be a nice one but which barely seems relevant to the three hundred men locked away. He starts to flick his nails together absently, then drops down his hands with a frustrated little wave which Roman doesn't help by drawing in alongside him and folding in his brows as he waits for his roommate to have his say.
Dean gestures some more,
"I don't want you bein' all sad man, s' not – s' not worth it lettin' this bitch of a place drag you down. An' I know you're a good guy and you totally don't belong here but m' actually fuckin' like really glad you are, 'cos I like havin' your big ass to share a cell with or whatever an' I know what's it's like so – ,"
"You are as well."
Dean blinks rapidly then frowns back a little at the assertive interruption that doesn't make sense and so hovers for a moment trying to figure out the sentence before coming up totally and utterly blank.
"I am what?"
"You're a good guy too uce."
Roman evidently isn't yanking his chain, because he's wearing that same sort of easy expression that he tends to put on when they're talking about shit and it's so god damn earnest and completely reassuring that it tends to make the younger man believe everything he says.
Not this time though.
He snorts back roughly,
"Oh, you mean me the drug dealer? Yeah, hell of a dude."
"Not by choice though babe and you know that, you don't deserve to be here anymore than I do."
"You really believe that?"
He isn't throwing out an insult, he is genuinely asking because he fucking needs to know and needs to hear sometimes that he isn't in the same bracket as the killers and perverts that he has been locked up with for months. Roman puts a big broad hand on his collar, grounding him beneath it like he might try and scramble off but he doesn't since there is nowhere he can feasibly run to, besides which the bigger man is the only safe place he has.
"I believe it and I know it – we're both gonna get out of here."
"Sanity optional though, right?"
"Not if we stick close."
Dean shakes his head and throws a short little laugh out as he looks up into those damn brown eyes, then pushes off the hand since it's now a bit too feely and they are both pretty proud alpha males after all.
"Jesus, last time I try to cheer your grumpy ass up since all I fuckin' did was get myself down."
"Well I appreciate the effort."
Dean grins,
"Fuckin' liar."
"Yeah, you're right uce, next time let me sleep in."
In response to him the copper blonde breathes out a chuckle and then pushes himself up and away from the fence, since true to form and with the fast encroaching morning, the cheerfully sunny yard space is beginning to fill up pretty fast and not with guys who are out to get some laps in, but with the kind who keep busy by whittling themselves knives and aren't too keen on sharing the air with others.
Dean nods,
"Duly noted, now c'mon, it's oatmeal time."
Roman falls into easy step beside him and together they cross back into the prison block, aiming to head to their cell before breakfast and quickly change out of their newly sticky clothes. There is a buzz in the air as they push through the doors though and an excited sort of tension that doesn't happen much and although the younger man knows why in an instant, the brown eyes of the Samoan positively fold up.
Dean pre-empts the question easily,
"Visitation day, people got family comin' in."
"That include you?"
Dean laughs like an idiot in a quirky little loop of a disbelieving bark, which pretty much spells out the answer with full clarity but that he decides to clear up once and for all anyway with words.
"Oh sure, the pill poppin' mom I haven't spoken to in two years is puttin' on her best freakin' dress right now."
Roman winces,
"Sorry uce."
"Nah, it's whatever, s' just the way it is for some folks I guess."
In his case though that's putting things mildly not to mention side-stepping all the family trauma shit, of which there is so much that he can barely keep track of it and so therefore mostly tries to block his chaotic childhood out. Why would he ever attempt to remember in any particular detail his mother coming home drunk? Dragging in whichsoever sorry limp dick of a boyfriend she was mindlessly screwing that week of the month. Why would he hang onto the memories of her screaming as her pimp beat him up at ten years of age and perhaps more to the point, why would he fucking ever want her selfish uncaring features anywhere near him again?
He coughs and tries to keep the flicker from his sentence,
"So what about you? Will you have family comin' down?"
Not for the first six weeks though as is standard because until that point new inmates are banned from seeing loved ones and friends in some sort of weird ass additional punishment to having been arrested, put on trial and then locked up.
Roman snorts a breath out,
"Uh, no, they're better off not seeing this."
"Your parents?"
"Yeah, I mean, my mom would freak out and my pop would start trying to give me advice on things."
Dean assumes he means in terms of how to defend himself or a million other things that real life fathers tended to like to pass on, or at least as far as he can figure it out since his own old man had pretty much cut and run on him.
But, whatever –
Dean doesn't need him much and his prison stint aside, he's doing fine anyway and has turned into a not too horrible sort of guy compared to the monster he could have become easily and that most of the people in his neighbourhood already are.
Maybe he dodged a bullet?
Metaphorically.
He climbs the stairs in a two at the time half jump, while his bigger broader cellmate follows slowly behind and is therefore pretty much in through the cell door before his roommate has even half begun to make the climb. There is a smell in the room that the copper blonde briefly registers but that hits him fully as he looks towards his bed, whereupon the bottom falls out of his stomach and he is so damn startled that he actually skitters back.
Roman steps in behind him unknowing and so ends up with an elbow jammed right in his gut as his backpedalling cellmate sort of crashes up against him and makes him exhale an actual startled grunt.
"Uce?"
"Fuck this man."
Dean sounds like he's angry but he is actually in the grips of a weirded out chill, like cold icy water has replaced his usual blood flow and is pumping the stuff through every cell that he has. Roman peers around his shoulder and the copper blonde can feel rather than physically see his response as the big brown eyes drink in the tableau and the suspiciously blood colored writing on the wall, which has trickled it's way down across the whitewashed brickwork with a deeply warning message.
Dean, it's time to come home.
In case you're wondering then Bray totally added the comma in blood too because cutting himself open is no excuse for poor grammar!
Next chapter Roman tries to make things better but only ends up making things far far worse for himself. Drama!
