Second to last chapter here then folks so this party is almost over! I'm going to say it again next chapter as well, but what the hell, THANK YOU SO MUCH for following this crazy through with me, means a lot!
Yippi-kay yay motherfucker, Only one more chapter after this one *sobs uncontrollably*. No sequel written as yet, but there is definitely going to be room for one and I have a couple of ideas rattling around in my head as well as to where I could take it, so yeah, I'll get round to it at some point…once all my other Dean stories are written/up!
SkittlezLvr79, Yeah, at least in my story Roman and Dean got the last laugh. Not so much on RAW, but hey, I'm enjoying all the gifs of Roman freaking out about Dean. Makes these crazy stories of mine seem more legit somehow! Good old Mick. Agreed, Badass Roman is always good, ain't no one standing in the way of getting to his brother (except half the locker room on RAW it seems!)
Stingerette1975, I know, Triple H is such a bad guy in my Police stories AND in my Lauren/Dean stories that it felt a little weird him being the good boss, but I tried a bunch of other people and kept coming back to him. Besides, I guess there's a reason the NXT crew call him 'Papa' because he must be pretty awesome IRL (and also in here for once!)
Wolfgirl2013, Awww, thank you! Not much more to go now!
Hayley1001, Yay, glad you liked that last chapter. But yeah, no more Bischoff means no more case, so Roman is a free bird! Going to address that a bit in this one because that is a super important thing (especially for Dean) but hopefully it all makes sense and I've not been too hard on Dean! I mean, our poor boy needs a bit of a break somewhere right? Hopefully I give him even more of a break in the very last chapter too!
Skovko, I like to think Mick got as far as 'Roman's in trouble' and Hunter was off shouting at men to drop everything and follow him. Meanwhile I very much see Mick still on the phone aimlessly listing things that he has banged his skull into over the years. Because I feel like Mick is a guy who can have a conversation that seldom needs to have anybody reply!
Martha, Haha, this may be Triple H's greatest moment (he'll go back to being a bad guy in my other stories, so enjoy it while it lasts Trips!) Glad you liked it. I even through in some brother content for you…well, okay, for me! I'm definitely toying with the idea of a sequel, because there is totally scope, but I've got some other things to post up first (Roman/Dean…and sometimes Seth based obviously!) But yeah, I love this universe too much not to ramble back to it at some point!
Minnie1015, Yeah, I had to wrap it up at some point, even I can't string out those big dramatic moments and scenes forever. You can sit back and relax now, because coming up we just have a couple of wrapping up chapters to go to make sure everyone gets what's coming to them, which is a good or a bad thing depending on who you are in this story. I do love writing Roman coming to the rescue though! He's so damn earnest!
Mandy, My grandmother keeps buying little mats to protect her carpet and I am terrified that she is going to trip over them! Wishing the best for you and your grandmother. Glad I got you on the edge of your seat. But like Roman wasn't going to get to his boy, even though I left it pretty close this time. Hope you had a lovely birthday and spent it doing something special or have some nice birthday plans for the weekend.
Daisysakura, Well, I believe I promised you angsty Roman and Dean-saving Roman so that was it. Love writing Roman all panicky and angry riding to the rescue! But I also like him being sweet and comforting so we've got lots of that as we wrap this thing up. Especially in the next chapter, but we've got to get through this one first, which hopefully won't be as nail biting as the last one (brownie promise!)
Cheryl24, Haha, very good. *Laboriously drags drumkit out of the garage and sets it up* Buh-boom-boom-ch *puts hand on symbol then puts it all back* Probably lucky he didn't physically use his head though because otherwise he would still be butting the phone room wall and Roman and Dean would probably be...well...not so much living. Yay for Mick!
Right then peeps, come on…
You Bet Babe
Bischoff actually cuts a pretty sorry looking figure since it turns out that orange is not his color at all because it makes him looked washed out and old and kind of haggard and Dean loves every second of seeing him that way.
Ass.
He is sat in the courtroom in the front row of the audience which is a special concession given so that he can watch the sentence being passed and is something that his ever loyal big dog has wrangled on the basis that it was the copper blonde who helped to put the warden there.
It makes a change to be sitting in the audience –
Last time his ass had been squarely in the dock or sat at the table beside the nervy little lawyer that the state had seen fit to pair him up with, but who had practically sweated clean through his breasted jacket when he had taken to the floor.
Dean had lost his case by a mile.
Being in the gallery therefore and not in front of it, is a novelty that he decides pretty quickly that he likes and were it not for the fact that he is also wearing orange and a loose pair of cuffs then he might almost feel normal.
Except for the fact that he's absolutely not.
It is a message underlined by the man on his left side, who is wearing the ugly khaki that denotes the prison staff and who is sitting with one hand on the butt of a taser that he is clearly ready and prepared to have to use and who replies with a glare when the inmate tries to smile at him in a burn that implies they will never be friends.
But that's okay –
Because sitting on his right side is a man who scrubs up surprisingly well and away from the orange prison threads they have grown used to, owns a pretty sharp collection of shirts, ties and suits. Roman is glowering hard over the barricade at the newly disgraced warden and he grumbles as well, particularly when details of the near hanging are read out when he even screws his fists up.
Dean pats him,
"Easy uce."
It has taken them six long months to reach this point and many back and forth additional court showings beyond that, which have been pretty harrowing in terms of their content and not least when they had gotten to the previous deaths.
Fuck.
In the wake of being raided no small shortage of corrections staff had lined up to cut deals and help to bury their former boss and so the brutal specifics of what had happened in each murder had been brought into the open and then laboriously read out.
Sami –
God damn it.
Had that ever been a hard day having to sit and listen to what had happened to his friend and which had unhappily synced with what the older man had crowed at him back when he had been facing the same exact fate.
Sami evidently hadn't gone down easy but he had been utterly terrified at the end and hearing it recited in tones of such dispassion had been a hard thing.
A fucking hard thing.
Roman had fortunately been on hand to calm his nerves down, which he had done with the long proffered hand to the nape, but the copper blonde had still had to fight back the impetus to launch to his feet and bellow and swear.
"He was a fuckin' person, they're makin' him sound like no one,"
Roman had grumbled in low tones,
"I know babe,"
"Should be someone up there who cared about him, 'stead of some stuffed suit just readin' that shit."
Dean is not alone in his support for his cellmate though, since some of his former friend's family also turn up and sit on the opposite side of the courtroom with firm expressions to stare daggers at the accused. Sami had often told him that nobody loved him and that his general kinfolk relationships were no good and so it warms him to see that people have turned up for him.
It just sucks fucking rocks that he can't see it for himself.
Dean is there though to make sure the flag gets flown for both of them and it is why he is front and center for every last hearing and none more so than on sentencing day.
He is more than ready to get some retribution –
He is so damn ready that he digs channels into the balustrade as he leans himself forward to hear it done and then locks them in place as the jury reads the word out and sends a shockwave of pure relief rippling over the place.
Guilty.
Dean huffs,
"Fuckin' right, fuckin' asshole."
Beside him the guard with the taser gets antsy, like he thinks the copper blonde might suddenly lose the plot, but he simmers down when Roman puts a hand on his friend's shoulder and then kneads out the tension,
"We got him babe, told you we would."
"Not over yet uce, m' still waitin' on the electric chair."
Roman chooses not to point out that the outcome is unlikely since that particular mode of death no longer happens in their state and in response Dean pretends like he doesn't already know it, since in his barren and fucked up heart a painful death is all he wants.
It isn't to be though –
Instead the jury balk it which he puts down entirely to a little old lady in the third row of the box who has her knitting in a bag on her skirt pleats and seems like the type to not want to judge a man too harsh.
Bischoff is sentenced to ninety three years.
Dean kicks out at the barricade bitterly as the murmur of onlookers rises up like a cloud and he can't help but notice that they sound sort of approving, which cannot be said for him.
"He still gets to live?"
How is that justice when his poor helpless victims are lying dead and buried in the ground? Having been bound and then strung up from a water pipe in a place they had been sent to because apparently they were bad but who had met their maker at the hands of far worse bastards who had been socially accepted.
Ugh.
People fucking suck.
Roman blows a breath out and then looks across evenly, his brown eyes flickering in sympathy at the loss and getting it totally and understanding the emotions that are flowing thick and fast through his too fractious friend.
"He ain't ever gettin' out uce."
"That's not the point Roman."
"I know babe, I know, but think about it for a while, think about the kind of abuse he'll go through."
He means considering the murderous warden's former job and how well that will resonate with a prison full of inmates who blame the corrections system for robbing them of their lives and who like to make those feelings unflinchingly obvious by finding employees and beating them down.
Former employees are also as good as any.
Dean sighs heavily,
"Yeah, I guess you're right but I still think it sucks."
"That's okay, you can think that."
"An' I still wanna pay someone to carry out a hit."
Roman blinks at him and the blue eyes sparkle in a tiny little way that show he's hamming it up and therefore isn't likely to send a message through the system to reward whichever inmate manages to knock the guy off.
Although on second thoughts –
Roman snorts wryly and then nudges him a little too hard with his arm, which sends the copper blonde crashing into the corrections guard, who fumbles his taser and then frowns up a storm.
Wow.
Dean sits up quickly and offers a nervy smile back as his bigger brother then easily carries on, totally aware of the trouble he is causing but also not averse to pulling pranks of his own.
"How's the new guy?"
"You mean the new warden?"
"Uh huh."
Dean shrugs,
"I mean, I guess he's fine – more warden like if that makes sense or whatever, no leather jackets."
In other words then a normal man and hopefully someone who doesn't see the prison as some sort of killing ground or a place to make fast cash and which therefore makes it okay he is totally boring because they've done the cool boss and look how that shit turned out.
Roman smiles,
"What about the new roommate?"
Dean responds with an actual grin because since the police busted in six months earlier and saved both their asses from a very grim fate, there is one thing that has turned out to not be horrible and that is the fact that he was able to switch cells. Roman had gotten him a place in with Foley and it has managed to ease the burn of the big man being gone.
"He's cool, he headbutted the chow hall door last week."
"He okay?"
Dean snorts,
"He's always okay, got a guy to swap him six pudding cups for doin' it."
Roman chuckles back,
"Yeah, that sounds like him."
Possibly another added bonus of their friendship and the fact that Roman holds sway on the legal front is that the final fucking thorn in his side is also long gone because Bray Wyatt and the beard twins have also been moved on. Dean doesn't know precisely where they've been shipped off to, but he knows they're split up and he also knows who to thank. Even though Roman refuses to admit it there is a grin on his face that he struggles to hide and which pops up whenever the swamp men are mentioned, which is pretty fucking telling.
Life is starting to look alright.
Not that it gets easier going back into prison and his heart still drops stone-like whenever the hearings get done, because he likes being out in the world and with Roman and the thought of his box cell is a pretty bitter one.
Roman knows it too,
"Hey, you only got three months man and then you're all good and out of there."
"Still takin' me in?"
It is a question he asks every time they are together, because he honestly can't believe Roman would want to live with his ass, but is also a question that the bigger man answers steadily, the same exact way every single time,
"You bet babe."
Right, only one chapter left now folks, so I hope to see you back here for the final piece of this whole crazy and for some notes on the next project I've got coming up.
