4. Back to Life
It's funny, I don't generally like prison films, but I do admit that Shawshank Redemption is my favorite movie because anytime it is on I watch it. I guess this story came to mind more from Cool Hand Luke but it's could be a sort of blend of both, I dunno, have to see where it goes. I came up with this pretty randomly but it just sort of worked. I guess I always aim to try something I haven't before. Oh, and the 'angry' song reference in the last chapter was Awolnation, Sail. I'm so bad about references! I still don't own Bones either. Dang it!
Sweets gets out of solitary after a day and finds he's somewhat accepted into the inmate community since he stood up to the guards. The guards however keep a close eye on him so Sweets decides further keep to himself and concentrate on his work. The physical labor continues but he finds its easier to manage each day. Dean, though quiet, becomes a sort of friend and a new guard is brought into the joint. Another man is being sent to the larger prison as space is available and Sweets is still worried about what happened to Madere though no one else suspects anything.
"This is getting easier for you." Sweets looked to his left where Dean worked beside him. Dean spoke so little that when he did it felt like if a pencil sharpener started to speak to you.
"Prison life?" Sweets asked as he dug his shovel into the ground.
Dean looked curious but shook his head as he continued to work. "Hard work. You did not seemed equipped for it before."
"No, I didn't do much manual labor." Sweets said. Sweets found himself becoming a man of few words. He wondered if Dean was once much like himself, but in places like this he just preferred to keep to himself.
"What did you do on the outside?" Dean asked and Sweets found the conversation almost unsettling, who was he? Lance Sweets or Kale Mallory?
"I worked in an office." Sweets said, he didn't feel like lying to Dean but he wasn't planning to divulge his criminal catching background. "Office stuff."
"I am out in a month, is there anyone you would want me to call for you?" Dean asked while working, not even looking up.
The prospect of a connection to the world outside delighted Sweets who was not going to be attempting a phone call this week thanks to his shenanigans in the mess hall. The thought of another month was training but at least it was the light at the end of a tunnel. The light though brought to Sweets mind, one that soured the option of escaping this place.
"You're out in a month?" Sweets asked.
"Yeah, they told me this morning, transfer to Georgia." Dean dug away at the earth.
"Dean uh…" Sweets searched for the right words, he had stopped working. "Don't uh, when you leave…"
"Hey!" The guard shouted. "Get back to work."
Sweets went back to work but couldn't stop thinking of the possibility of Dean getting gunned down. "Don't leave without saying something okay, I uh, I need to talk to you before you go."
Dean nodded. "Yeah I can give a message to someone, whatever you want."
"No, it's not that, it's, well, just yeah, before you go." Sweets mind raced, he didn't care to divulge what he had seen the day before. Prisoners were known to talk to each other and if it got to the guards, which it was sure to, they would know based on the fact he was the last man in the last cell that he had seen everything and then he'd be done in.
"Okay." Dean said and went back to work.
Sweets mind was anywhere but the digging. Part of him was sort of sad that the one
"friend" he had, the same "friend" he had shared about ten sentences with would be gone in a month, but that he could be killed, even though himself was a murder. It was confusing but Sweets was working with what he had, one thing at a time. He hoped perhaps he could find a way to get out, before Dean, something.
"He's really going at it." Dean said and Sweets looked to what Dean was referring to. It was Chet who was digging at a feverish pace, too fast really.
"Doing good huh boss?" Chet asked the guard.
"You've really picked up the pace Chet, you might get special privileges."
"Yeah, I could use them too." Chet said still digging quickly. Sweets became alarmed at Chet's behavior.
"Back to work!" The guard yelled at Sweets who did as he was instructed though he kept an eye on Chet whose feverish pace continued. "Why don't you work like your friend?!" The guard added with a snicker but before the guard could turn around the clink of a shovel hitting the ground caught tall their attention.
They turned as Chet hit the ground clutching his chest. Sweets rushed forward in a normal reaction but the guard hit him in the face with the butt of his rifle sending Sweets back to the ground with a bloody lip and nose. The other two guards rushed towards Chet while the one nearest Sweets, Frank held his rifle out.
"No one move!" He ordered.
"What's wrong with him?" Gary asked.
"I don't know." Lee said looking over Chet.
"What are you talking about, he's having a heart attack!" Sweets shouted while wiping the blood from his face onto his sleeve. "Well help him!" Sweets shouted aggravated they were all standing around but Frank turned and kicked Sweets in the stomach. Sweets ignored the fact that his bruises had started to heal and worried for Chet. He was about to make another plea when Gary had a phone out to make a call. Sweets hoped he was doing something and not just piddling around.
"What do we do?" Lee asked and Gary looked back at Sweets.
Sweets looked at Frank and back to Gary. "Give him an aspirin, quick."
Frank went to kick Sweets again having not seen the exchange and instead Gary shouted for Frank to get a bottle out of the first aid kit. Quickly it was crushed and given to Chet who stabilized and was loaded into the truck as it pulled away. Sweets meanwhile got up off his feet.
"Why didn't an ambulance come here?" Gary asked, perhaps to Sweets, perhaps just an out oud thought.
"Back to work you pansies!" The guard shouted. "And you'd better do Chet's work too."
By the time they got back to the hall the murmur was going around about Chet. While he wasn't Sweets favorite person he couldn't help, though he had tried, to block out feelings for his fellow man, even the criminal types. Sweets didn't go out of his way to talk to many people but he made his way to one of the men he had seen coming and going.
"You work in the laundry don't you?" Sweets asked the man with a limp, unable to work in the line.
"Yeah, what of it?"
"Well that includes other duties too, like infirmary?" Sweets asked.
"Oh yeah, that Chet guy a friend of yours?"
"Friends are luxuries I'm afraid." Sweets said. "Look, I'm just curious…."
"He's alive. He'll be back in a few days."
"Oh good." Sweets said feeling relieved but something else was on his mind. "Say, what was it that caused him to have a heart attack?"
"I don't know, heat I guess."
Sweets had other suspicions. "Are you sure?"
"No, I'm not." The man said agitated. "But the doc did his job, he's resting and he'll be back, got it?"
"Got it." Sweets said to the man who was appearing to be a bit unhinged. "Thanks."
Sweets headed back to his bunk and gathered some items and headed to the showers. While the water was refreshing and helped to wash away the dried blood that had caked to his nose and lip he didn't feel relaxed. He took a moment to admire his new bruises. Great, purple. Sweets said wrapping a towel around his waist and heading to shave.
"You think something is up with Chet's heart attack?" Dean asked stepping up next to Sweets to shave as well, speaking low.
"Maybe." Sweets said.
"Maybe?" Dean asked. "Look I think the guy is annoying too but…"
Sweets wondered how someone who had been committed of killing his wife and her mother cared about an annoying guy like Chet.
"Yeah, you can't help it right?" Sweets said shelving the question of Dean's incarceration. "Look Chet's hand's been shaking, he's highly agitated and he's suddenly very productive on the line."
"You think he's into the junk." Dean guessed.
"Yeah, which he probably figured would make him more productive, but gave him a heart attack. If he's still on it, in the infirmary, they're not going to treat him coming down."
"Well let's talk about this elsewhere man, not that the shower isn't a great setting." Dean too had a towel wrapped around his waist and the two headed out, handing their razors to the guard, new guard who eyed them both.
"What's that guy's problem?" Dean asked but when Sweets turned to make a joke he saw Dean quickly look away, Dean had been walking behind him. Dean shrugged his shoulders. "Those are some pretty nasty marks."
Sweets hadn't had time to think of them. "Oh, yeah, they're old."
"Had them a long time?"
"Yeah." Sweets said grabbing a tee shirt and covering them. "Too long."
Dean got the idea Sweets didn't want to talk about it and he didn't mind either. Sweets hadn't walked around with just the towel and now he wondered if the others had taken notice. Where before his scars were that of shame, here the others viewed him as really being able to take it on the chin, especially for such a skinny and lean guy. Here they had assumed he just worked behind some desk somewhere.
It was dinner so the duo headed in line, near the front and Sweets realized the food was better the earlier you were in line. He was surprised at how much he enjoyed sitting at the table with Dean. The two of them didn't always talk but it felt nice just to have someone else nearby. Sweets thought of the last few days when he had felt shut off, he liked feeling alive, like now, but knew soon Dean would be gone and for some reason he hoped not in the eternal sense.
"Should we do something to help Chet?" Dean asked breaking Sweets thoughts.
Sweets grinned to himself at the thought. For being a guy who didn't want to get involved with anyone he was sure in the thick of a murder, an overdose, and trying to keep another guy from getting killed. I guess I can't help being who I am.
"Something funny?" Dean asked of Sweets grin.
"Sorry, I just realized I can't be someone I'm not." Dean sat back at the statement, thinking Sweets was declining a part in a fellow prisoner's plight. "Yeah, we need to help Chet." Sweets looked around and lowered his voice. "In fact, I think there's a few people we need to help."
"Great song Ange." Hodgins said walking into her office and wrapping his arms around his wife's waist and began to sway her to the music. "Very tropical." He added as he slowly turned her and pulled her back it his arms.
"Yeah, it brings a sort of warmth around here." Angela said dancing with her husband but with less enthusiasm.
"What's up honey?" He asked, concern filling his vibrant eyes.
"It's just, I need a little warmth, after that last case." Angela said stopping the dance. "I'm sorry Jack, it just still…"
"I know, trust me Ange, that last one, it was, dark." Hodgins said. "I've never seen anything quite like it. Hey maybe we should take a vacation like Sweets did."
"I can see why he went some place tropical, try to capture that warmth. To tell you the truth this music sort of made me think of him, maybe jealous." She tried to smile at the thought.
"Yeah well Sweets deserved that break. We all do, but he really put it into overdrive getting in that guy's head. I mean, I got a little scared there for a second, I uh… well to tell you the truth I didn't know if a person could come back from going down that rabbit hole."
"He did, got us to where we could get the guy." Angela said with a smile that indicated she was proud of their young psychologist. "To tell you the truth I sort of miss him."
"He's been gone what two weeks? He'll be back in a couple more." Hodgins said encouraging her.
"Yeah, I guess. I'm just being silly."
"Well if it bothers you Ange, call him."
"Yeah, well reception in that area is pretty spotty."
"If he knows you're calling him Angela he'll call you back. And you can find a way to contact him." Hodgins knew Sweets once had a bit of a crush on Angela, he didn't mind, he knew why, he himself was infatuated with her, even after years of marriage.
"What do you mean by that?" Angela asked Jack as he left the room. She listened to the music and missed her friend a little bit, more than she thought she might but maybe it was because of the worry after that last case. "Maybe just a quick call."
A sincere thank you to those and have reviewed, it is very much appreciated and inspires more updates! I deeply thank you. Thoughts, likes, questions welcome.