A/N THANKS TO ALL THE NEW READERS AND THOSE OF YOU THAT REVIEW YOU'RE THE BEST...
Alex simply stared at her bunkmate, aside from her ridiculously messy hair, she was slender with big brown eyes.
"Like I said, the best thing to do is lay low, there ain't nothing to do up in here but serve your time...and watch your back...these bitches are in Maxi for a reason.
"Maxi?"...Alex hedged her voice.
"yeah...maximum security...ain't no fucking Martha Stewart up in this bitch...More women have been killed here than in the men's facility." Her voice rose a little as she swung herself down from the top bunk. Alex turned from the cell bars to face her. Just as she turned her back from the large group area below, a shout and then a pained groan could be heard below.
Both inmates pressed their faces to the bars just in time to see a young mexican girl fall to the floor with blood pooling out from a wound in her right side. Suddenly the whole block erupted in shouts and cheers. The other prisoners just continued walking in a straight line...some simply side stepped the body, some shaking their heads, a few looking around for the perpetrator...some had their heads down walking like robots...
A loud wailing siren blared as the guards saw the body and the prisoners not already in their cells immediately fell to the floor,lying on their stomachs, faces turned to the side with their hands clasped to the back of their heads.
Mendez's voice could be heard above the noise..."Everybody down, and don't fucking move..." The inmate's body was picked up by two guards and taken immediately to the infirmary. A third guard, O'neill had his weapon drawn on the ones on the floor. He had them file into their cells in groups of four. They would be questioned later, but would be unlikely to talk.
Alex's face was now whiter than it had ever been. It'd been several hours since she had stepped off the bus, and she'd just seen someone most likely murdered judging by the amount of blood on the floor. Her face strained in an attempt to hide her emotions, she knew it would be violent here... but it was too late to admit that she might be in over her head now.
"Like I said, fish...watch your back..." She extended her hand...'Name's Nichols, but you can call me Nicky."
Alex paused still a little stunned, she stuggled to find her voice and grasped her hand giving it firm shake..."Vause ...but you can call me Alex".
"okay, Alex...well you got shipped in on a good day, we get yard time."
The Yard
The inmates were filed in a line and escorted out through several chain link fences with guards at each stop. They poured into the yard, which had several areas that were already packed with members from other blocks.
Nicky shuffled closer to Alex... giving her the lowdown on who was who. "Things here are like you stepped back into the 50s, most races keep to their own kind..their own gangs. They each got their own racket going on also. She nodded to the basketball court, "That's V's crew...they sell cigarettes, drugs and alcohol..pretty much anything goes for them...they're bad news..trust me ...just stay outta their way, they were mean even before she got here.
Alex held eye contact for a minute in their direction and then looked away. Nicky nodded to the bleachers, "Mendoza, Flaca, Dayanara and the rest of Mexicans get the bleachers and the all the ex Meth heads and other white girls usually walk the track...and the CO's run all the rest of it.
She pointed up to the towers where the guards tracked their movements with semi automatic rifles in their hands.."I'm telling you.. the guards are the dirtiest gang in this whole place...the only difference between us and them is the badge.
Alex noticed a woman sitting alone, petting a tabby cat, whispering softly to it. "So, who's the animal lover?"...Nicky chuckled..."She'll deny it, but rumour around here is that she was part of a bank heist team called 'the Dead Presidents'... fourty years ago made off with two million dollars that she hid somewhere before she was arrested...the other members were all killed. "Wow," Alex nodded seeming impressed...Nicky trailed off...
"But she's sick now", Alex questioned...noting the lack of hair atop her head..."yeah cancer's a bitch..even in here...nobody messes with her."
Alex and Nicky are approached by two women in khaki...they exchange a series of hand movements that end in a shake "Hey, why are you hanging with this fish...?"
"She's my new cellie...Alex, this are my friends Gina, she's got the hookup in commissary...whatever you need until your money comes in, I can help. And this is Taystee, she has any pharmacuticual needs covered...
"Hey now, don't be blowing up my spot...we don't know her," Taystee frowned and invaded Alex's personal space considerably. "Chill, who is she gonna tell...? Nicky placed a calming hand on her chest. "She just got here, better to get her on our side, before she's approached by Tucky and her religious regime" she nodded to the track to a group of girls gathered there. Several furtive glances were thrown her way.
While they argued, Alex's eyes continued to scan the yard...she keyed in on the yellow hydrants placed throughout the yard in a linear fashion with a grated hole where steam was erupting from. She paces the yard to different grate, while looking down into it, she can see water running along the bottom of the large pipe below. She casually bends down and pretends to tie her shoes, while dropping a magazine she plucked off a table down into the grate. The rushing water flows in and around the magazine as it flows down a short ways and then stops as it gets caught on larger circular stopper. As Nicky's conversation ends and she walks back over to Alex, she stands and walks away to draw her back towards the fence. She eyes the tower closest to the them, trying to peer inside.
"Hey, I'm looking for someone...named Reznikov..."
"Rez...you mean Red?"
"Is that what they're calling her now", Alex scoffed slightly at the nickname.
"Where can I find her ?"
Nicky takes her to the edges of the fenced in yard, there towards the east wall of one of the outer buildings was a small fenced-in concrete area, one woman sat with her back to them, and another with short dyed-red hair could be seen standing along the far fence.
"They say she killed the Vice president's brother...and she's getting the electric chair in something like a month I heard...which means there's no one more dangerous than her in here right now ...because she's got nothing left to lose..."I mean what are they gonna do..kill her twice...", Nicky whispered as though they had any chance of being heard.
"Is there any way I can get to her?"
Nicky shook her head negatively..."No way, the only time they get out is for chapel and PI."
"What's PI?", Alex asked
"You sure ask a lot of questions, fish...PI is prison industries. Its for inmates that can get along, they do manual labor around the prison...painting, repairs, electric work all that shit...but I wouldn't get too excited...there's no way you're getting in on that action."
"Yea, why is that?"
"Because its run by 'Parker'..."Oh, you mean Yvonne Parker...Alex trailed her words off... Nicky only nodded,"Exactly...no chance."
They were being herded back inside now..."Hey why you wanna see Red so bad anyway?"
Alex hedged, not sure if she was ready to answer that question...but chose to anyway.
"Because she's the closest thing to a mother that I ever had, took me in after she found me digging through the trash for food behind her restaurant when I was 12. I was staying with my mom in a cheap motel nearby, one day when I came home from school...the room was empty and the guy at the desk said she had skipped out on the bill. I was in and out of homeless shelters nearby...doing everything I could to avoid being picked up by CPS."
Alex kept walking forward, head down, giving all the information that she intended to for the moment, while Nicky's mouth gaped wide with astonishment. She thought about asking further questions but could see Alex's face had seemed to close off.
Cell Block D
As the inmates are relaxing in their cells, Alex can seen folding an orgami swan out of a small sheet of letter paper that she got from Nicky. "Hey, what 's another word for love?", she quizzed.
Alex arched an eyebrow..."mmm, I don't know what's the context?"
Nicky chuckled..."Like I love you so much, that I'm never knocking over another liquor store again...except ya know classy..." Alex didn't respond..."Fine, I'm proposing to my girl...if you must know."
Alex made a disappointed sounding grunt..."In a letter?"..."Well, yea, you gotta a better way?"
"Last time I checked...face to face..works pretty good.", Alex spouted in her usual smartass way.
"This place ain't exactly a romantic spot...I'm gonna have her go to the restaurant where we had our first date, order her favorite glass of red wine...and then open it...it'll almost be like I'm there...Nicky crumbled the paper and threw it hard against the wall..."Except that I won't be there...", she grumbled angrily.
Alex got up and picked it up, uncrinkling it..."Try the word passion"...Nicky's eyes lit up.."Oh yeah that's a good one...wait how do you spell that...P-A-S-H? Alex only smiled and shook her head.
Her head began to pound as she had so many thoughts racing through her mind at once. All of Alex's deliberate planning had led her to these moments, but there were some parts of this scheme that were held together with blind faith and pure luck.
Although she'd spent months pouring over every single document, planning and re-planning for every contingency or loophole, any possible mistakes... it would take more than her structural engineering background and good looks to make it out of this hell hole alive. One of the many documents she'd spent a few nights staring at was the Humanitarian award given to Piper Chapman. She had researched her past knowing full well that her need to get into the prison infirmary rested entirely on falsifying the need for insulin shots and a little charm. Alex needed to gain her trust, which in their given situation was not going to be easy.
She read the article many times detailing her rising academic star at Northwestern University. A Phi Beta Kappa member, logging seemingly tireless hours of volunteer work while graduating top of her class. Piper's speech during the graduation ceremony detailed her deep connection to the works of Gandhi and quoted him as such, "Be the Change you want to see in the World." Basically the complete opposite of her strict, right-wing ,conservative, Governor of New York father who believed very little in the "good" left in basic humanity . Particulary, those currently housed in the prison system in which his precious daughter worked . Piper seemed to have it all - good looks, political family connections, stellar academic record, brilliant future, and a gracious personality.
Infirmary
Piper flipped through the manila folders stacked the height of a small toddler on the desk in the medical records room, just adjoining her office. Just for fun, she thought she'd close her eyes and take the next patient whose file she grabbed. Her hands fumbled over the edges and grabbed a file halfway down of the stack of newly inducted 'winners' . Technically , that meant new inmates that had been processed today as having a need to be seen in the infirmary for various reasons. She quickly scanned the intake sheet, noted it had a thicker personnel file with it, but disregarded it. Vause, Alex...Type I Diabetes...that was fairly important and should have made known much sooner as the day was nearly over, had the inmate went a full 24 hours without a shot of insulin the consequences would be drastic.
Song lyrics-
I remember the day...that our eyes first met,
You ran into the building to get out of the rain, cuz you were soaking wet
And when I held the door...you wanted to know my name,
Timing is Everything...
Cell Block D
"Open on four", Mendez shouted as he made eye contact with one of the newest fish on the block . "Vause, infirmary", as Mendez waited for the prisoner to begin moving. Alex bounced up with one quick step, and was at the now open entrance. Eye contact held for a second, steely green and unblinking, enough to relay that this one -if pushed-wouldn't be easily cowed, and then down to the floor.
"Yes boss" were her only words. Alex ignored Mendez's heavy breathing during transport, her mind racing with all the possibilities about to unfold. Each step leading her closer to the fulfillment of a destiny, already the wheels turning just as she had planned.
As she sat in the sterile, white looking exam room, she scanned the area for any personal items belonging to Piper. Something that she could play off of for ideas about small talk, but surprisingly found none. She hadn't expected to be this nervous, wiping her palms on her jumpsuit, wishing feverently she could have met a woman like this at the Red door or another favorite bar instead...this place had her off her game. A woman with round, warm face came to the door, and said "Dr. Chapman will be with you shortly..."