On her way out of Stephanie McMahon's cell, Bayley considered that half of the job was done. She had managed to avoid a situation where McMahon was out for blood from her and Becky, albeit not in a way she would have liked. And therein lay the second half of the job. She now had to convince Becky that it was in their best interest to agree to work for Stephanie. She expected it not to be an easy task to say the least. After all, it was Stephanie who had ordered Becky's kidnapping and gotten her into this situation in the first place.
As soon as she emerged onto the first floor landing, Bayley saw another potential problem coming her way. The infamous guard called Vega was walking along the landing in the opposite direction. There was going to be no way to avoid the nasty little bitch, who had a scowl on her face. It only intensified when saw Bayley, a new face to her.
"You're new here. Name?" Vega barked when they came close to each other.
Bayley knew she would be best served by showing respect, even if she didn't feel inclined to after hearing from Becky some of the cruel things Vega had done to prisoners, including Becky herself. "Bayley Martinez, miss," she said, feeling cowed by the guard in front of her despite being probably six inches taller than her.
"Ah, yes," Vega said, recognising the name. A look of distaste had appeared on her face. "You've been moved over here from B Wing because your girlfriend refused to do as she was told. I don't approve of prisoners getting their own way by being disobedient, so rest assured I'll be watching you, Martinez. Step out of line once and I'll be on you faster than flies on shit. You hear me?"
"Yes, miss," Bayley said, wishing she could spit in the bitch's face.
"Good. Now, tomorrow, both of you lettuce lickers are going to be assigned a job, like Lynch should have been weeks ago. And when you get it, you're going to do it and do it properly. Understand?"
Bayley had heard more than enough homophobic comments for one day. She was almost shaking with anger, but she had to do her best not to let it show. "Yes," she replied, more aggressively than she should have.
"Yes, miss!" Vega shouted at her. "Have you not be told how to correctly address people in this prison? Do you need to be put on report?"
Being on report was what happened to prisoners who misbehaved. For a period of a week or more, privileges were removed, they were transferred to one of the crappy ground floor cells if they didn't have one already, and they were monitored a lot more closely by the guards, who had to report to the governor on their behaviour on a regular basis. It was a really unpleasant experience, and not one Bayley wanted to land herself with. Vega was obviously looking for a reason to inflict the punishment on her.
"No, miss, sorry," Bayley grovelled, hating having to demean herself like that.
Vega showed no sign of satisfaction at receiving the apology. She merely gestured towards Bayley's cell with her head and barked, "Move."
It occurred to Bayley at that moment that she hadn't been told who her personal officer was going to be now that she was on C Wing. Each prisoner was assigned a personal officer who had to be more familiar with their individual circumstances, and had to be the prisoner's first point of contact in the event of issues with other prisoners or with a particular guard. Bayley was considering making a complaint about Vega.
"Miss?" she asked politely.
"What?" Vega snapped.
"Do you know who my personal officer is?"
A smug smile appeared on Vega's face. "Yeah. Me. So we'll be sitting down once a week and having ourselves a nice little chat. Won't that be fun?"
Inwardly, Bayley sighed. It was just her luck that she happened to be assigned to Vega. "Yes, can't wait," she sighed as she trudged off towards her cell, where Becky was waiting for her.
When Bayley opened the cell door and walked in, Becky was lying on the bottom bunk. She quickly sat up when she saw her girlfriend and asked, "How did it go?"
"Great," Bayley said sarcastically as she pushed the door shut. "I ran into Vega for the first time. She really is the nasty piece of shit you described, and she's my personal officer, too."
"Jesus Christ," Becky groaned. "That's rough luck, Bay. I have Ms Stratus, and she's really nice."
"No such luck for me," Bayley muttered as she sat down next to Becky and they snuggled up to each other. "One encounter with her, and I already detest the bitch."
Becky grunted a laugh that had no humour in it. "So does everyone else. What about Stephanie? What did she have to say for herself?"
Bayley looked at her girlfriend and shook her head. "Nothing you're going to enjoy hearing. She started by saying that since I killed Ronda, since Charlotte is dead, and since you're here in prison instead of locked up in whatever lab she was going to have you put in, I owe her half a million dollars. There's no logic to that at all, obviously, but that's what she said."
"Is she insane, or what?" Becky asked.
"Oh no, not at all," Bayley replied. "Evil, yes. Insane, definitely not. Needless to say, I told her I didn't have her money, and I can't access it. Even if the feds haven't seized it from Ronda's account, there's no way I can get my hands on it. Stephanie said that left her two options for what to do with you and I: Kill us both to set an example to anyone else who crosses her, or…"
"Yeah, let's go for the or," Becky said with typical dry Irish humour. "I think I'm going to prefer the or."
Bayley grimaced and shook her head again. "I'm not totally sure about that. The other option was for us to swear loyalty to her and to work for her as protection."
"Oh, for fuck's sake," Becky groaned. "Could this get any worse? I'm in prison for a crime I didn't commit, with a bunch of psychos on the same wing as me, with the nastiest bitch on the face of the planet for a guard, and now I'm going to have to work for the woman who had me kidnapped and started all of this shit to begin with. And if I don't, I get killed, and so does the girl I love."
By the end of her rant, Becky was close to tears. Bayley wrapped her up in a hug, and Becky rested her head on her shoulder.
"That's about the size of it," Bayley admitted reluctantly. "I know it's a dreadful situation, Becks, but you'll get out of it. As soon as your trial comes up, you'll be found not guilty and you'll be away from all of this."
"And away from you," Becky said, holding her tighter. "I don't want to go away from you, Bayley."
Her words brought tears to Bayley's eyes. It was pretty much an inevitability that they were going to be parted by the justice system. Becky simply had to be found not guilty of her charges, whereas Bayley was wanted for, and guilty of, multiple crimes. She was likely going down for a significant number of years.
"I don't want to be away from you either, baby," she said softly. "But we both know it's going to happen. You're going to get out. You're going to go back to your life; to your friends; to your family; to your job; to your genius invention. You get to leave all of this shit behind."
"But I can't leave you behind, Bay," Becky wailed. "I can't. I won't."
"You'll have to. And you will," Bayley said forlornly. "You can always come and visit me. But before either of us get that far, we have to stay on the right side of Stephanie. Because if we don't, I really believe she'll have us killed."
They sat in silence for a long moment, savouring the small amount of comfort that being together gave them in their awful situation. It was Becky who eventually spoke. What she had to say really came as a shock to Bayley.
"Maybe working for Stephanie will be a good thing? If so, I'll do it."
"What are you getting at?" Bayley asked, pulling out of the embrace so that she could look Becky in the eye.
"I'm thinking the only chance we have to be together outside of this dump is if you can somehow beat your charges. I'm thinking someone like Stephanie probably has an insanely expensive lawyer who can grease the right palms. You watch her get off with whatever charges they've got on her. If she wanted to, I bet she could help you beat a rap for robbery and the other stuff."
Some chance of that, Bayley thought. She had no illusion that regardless of Stephanie saying something vague about loyal people going a long way in her organisation, she and Becky were simply insignificant assets who would be useful in prison, but totally expendable if Stephanie ever did get out.
"I don't know about that, Becks, but we really have no option but to work for her. I told her I would do whatever I had to for you and I to be safe and to be together, and I said I felt sure you would see it the same way. I know it's awful for you to have to work for the woman who caused all this to happen to you…"
"I'll do it," Becky cut in. She didn't look happy about it, but her voice was firm and decisive. "Like you said, it keeps us safe, and it keeps us together. For those reasons only, I'll do it."
"Oh, Becky, I love you so much," Bayley gushed. "I can't tell you how much that means to me."
"You don't have to," Becky said. With that, she gave her girl a sloppy kiss.
"Much as I'd love to stay in here and kiss you for the rest of the night, there's something we've got to do before free time ends," Bayley said.
"Which is?"
"We've got to go and tell Stephanie that we're both willing to work for her, or 'loyal to her', as she put it. She demanded to hear it from both of us."
Becky sighed and shook her head again. "Alright, if we must."
"And we'll need to be convincing about it," Bayley added. The last thing she wanted for Becky to walk into Stephanie's cell with that kind of negative attitude. It would drop them straight in hot water.
"I understand," Becky said seriously. "I know how people like her work, and I know people can be taken out in prison. The last thing I want is Alexa Bliss coming up behind me and cutting my throat, so yeah, I'll swear loyalty to Stephanie. What about those morons Emma and Dana?"
"Stephanie had me tell them to get lost," Bayley reported as she got to her feet. "Come on, let's get down there and get this over with, shall we?"
Becky offered her hands for Bayley to pull her up, indicating her willingness to go with her.
Thankfully, when they walked out onto the landing, Bayley saw no sign of Ms Vega. She was probably off tormenting someone else for no good reason.
"You okay?" Bayley whispered to Becky when they reached the door to Stephanie's cell, knowing how hard this was going to be for her.
"Let's just do it," Becky grimaced.
Bayley nodded, then knocked on the door. Without waiting for a response, she pushed it open and led the way inside.
Stephanie was relaxing on her bed, her pillow supporting her back as she lounged with her legs stretched out. She didn't even bother to sit up properly for her visitors. "What's it going to be?" she demanded simply.
"We're here to commit ourselves to working for you," Bayley announced.
"Both of you?" Stephanie enquired, her piercing gaze locked on Becky.
"Both of us," Becky confirmed. "We know it's the best thing to do."
"Damn right it is," Stephanie said smugly. She finally sat up, and pointed to the bed opposite hers. "Sit down. Let me tell you how this is going to work."
A/N: Thank you to everyone who left a review last time. The support is much appreciated.
Bayley and Becky committed themselves to Stephanie. Will it prove to be the right decision?
Next time, our favourite couple will be assigned a job by Ms Vega. What do you think she has lined up for them? Leave your prediction in a review. I'll shout out anyone who manages to call correctly.