Empty Spaces Chapter 12
Nicky's POV at the Prison
Thanks for all the reviews, should have another nice little rush over the next couple of days. Hope this will help hold you over til my weekend starts.
It had been exhausting, the waiting that she had started to fear was never going to end. Nicky had been dutifully sitting a vigil with her new friend for nearly two weeks now. They were just coming back to Alex's bunk from yet another breakfast that the brunette settling down next to her had failed to eat. The worry was really starting to show on the other womans form. She'd lost at least ten pounds since she'd last seen the object of her unquestionable focus. Sadly anything less than the curves she'd come to know as Alex just looked sickly on her long frame. She'd hardly spoken in the last week, lost inside the dark confines of her own mind. She'd spent most of the first week attempting to pull off a series of half baked attempts to make some kind of contact with Piper to let her know that she was here for her despite the fight that had been hanging over the brunettes head since she'd found out that something had happened to her former love. All she'd managed to glean from her efforts was that Piper had taken some kind of negative turn several days ago that the guards simply refused to account for.
That being said everything was far from being quiet at the prison. Several of the corrections officers had been rather abruptly replaced. There'd been no preamble to the changes that had taken place that the inmates had been witness to, and no explanations forthcoming in the aftermath of the events. One day the usual assholes were there making the inmates lives miserable and the next they had been replaced by fresh faced trainees who were more like Bennet and Fischer. Both Mendez and Healy had been ousted in whatever had gone down, but they were just the tip of the iceberg. The prison officials had definitely drained the pool of available applicants for the area. So far most of them didn't seam to be all that bad, maybe a little unsure of themselves just yet but that would pass soon enough. Definitely nothing like the former COs they were replacing, it wasn't lost on the inmates that the missing guards had been the ones who seamed to take the most pleasure in dehumanizing and abusing their helpless captives.
Nicky was happy though she'd popped in to the kitchen during breakfast to sneak a discreet hug from Morelli, while the physical side of their relationship had yet to be rekindled she had been pleased to see Morelli was more than willing to be her rock as she tried to stay strong for Alex. While there she'd managed to pick up a new piece of information that hadn't hit the prison rumor mill yet. She'd been waiting till they were alone since she knew this might finally get her weary friend talking again. It was downright painful watching someone she knew to be so vibrant start to fade away like a puff of smoke. She threw out a small prayer that the news would help to lift her out of that darkness that Nicky could see was drowning her. She lightly touched the brunettes thigh wanting to get her attention before leaning in to speak quietly so that only she could hear.
"Hey, I talked to Morelli at breakfast. She transportation officer who gives her her pick up orders gave her the run down for this afternoons schedule. There are three incoming transfers, but she's only responsible for picking up two of them. She said that's only happened a couple of times since she's been doing the driving and it was always a transfer from the prison ward of the local hospital. It's because they have to bring them all the way in in the ambulance and right up to the infirmary. I can't say that you'll be able to see her but she's coming back today." She paused watching the gears in Alex's head grind as she processed this, a slow nod her only outward reply for several long minutes. She was relieved when the furrow in the brunettes brow that had become semi permanent over the past week finally started to relax as she watched. It was a long way from the smile she had secretly been hoping for, but she understood that it was at least a start.
Piper was a long way from being out of the woods just yet. Between the fact that Doggett had died and the fact that she'd had a weapon, she could be staring down some very hard time. All of her pending legal issues aside there had also been some serious questions floating around about what kind of condition she might be returning in. While the fact that the eventual altercation between the two women had been inevitable was not in question, no one had anticipated that level of escalation. Prison was a fishbowl and everybody knew everybody else's business,but that had only made it more surprising that the tiny little blonde who had always seamed so meek and frightened had actually killed somebody. Boo had let slip about her secret santa present to Piper a few days after the pageant. No one was really sure if they wanted to be mad or grateful so it had more or less been left there hanging there around them. Though no one had said it out loud it had been understood that they protected their own and that little tid bit hadn't made it to the rumor mill.
There was no telling what kind of pysical or emotional state she might be in. All there was to do was keep waiting and hoping that they might be able to help somehow. At least they knew that the waiting couldn't last forever, hours at the most really. Nicky was caught off guard when the girl beside her stood up suddenly moving about the cube and gathering her shower supplies. She felt a small smile tug at the corner of her mouth at the abruptness of her motion. 'Looks like Alex is done waiting, time to get ready for her girl.'