A Series of Unfortunate Events
Disclaimer: These are not my characters they are fully James Duffs. I just love them so much and love to play with them
Chapter 21
She gave her a small smile. "Yes, ma'am, but with a little help from our friends."
"The inmates?" Sharon questioned and Colleen nodded. "Well, as much as I want to help, I'm not in my best physical form at the moment, Colleen. There was a time not that long ago, only a month ago actually, that I was, and I could have easily wiped the floor up with her, but I'm feeling pretty old and weak right now, "Sharon said sadly.
"You're not old and you may feel weak but you still have a fire in you. Your age or even your present limitations aren't the problems. It's the drugs they keep putting in you every time you show some backbone or spunk, that is the problem. We have to stop her before it gets to a point where she decides to use shock therapy on you and turns you into a zombie-like she did to Ronnie." Sharon shuddered at the thought of being forced to endure that. "You just need to get the drugs out of your system and you'll start feeling better." Colleen's voice got to a whisper as she leaned closer, "Miss Isabel, I want to tell you something, there is help on the way. Do you understand what I'm saying?"
"I do," Sharon answered reflectively but she was wondering what exactly the woman meant.
At the confusion on Isabel's face she added, "and they'll do the takedown. Unfortunately, until they come, we're on our own and I can't really communicate with them out in the open. So, I'm not sure exactly what time they'll be here."
Sharon's heart jumped in her chest. Who was coming? Her team? Andy? The FBI? As long as they got her out of here she didn't care who it was.
All of this conversation was done as Sharon was taking her shower. The water running made it impossible for anything to be heard. There was a camera and a microphone in the main part of the room, but not in the bathroom. For one thing, the acoustics were all wrong for a microphone to be effective. Plus, it was against the law to put cameras or microphones in bathrooms. While Cora wasn't above skirting or breaking a great many of the laws, there were some laws she didn't dare cross. It was a mystery however as to which laws were deemed taboo to cross and which weren't in her twisted mind.
Colleen told Sharon/Isabel her plan, and that today was the best day to implement it, but just in case something happened to delay things she didn't tell her everything. She did tell her to wait to see her, Colleen's nod before Sharon/Isabel set things in motion. Once Sharon got dressed and her hair was done. She'd asked Colleen to French braid it to get it out of her way. She couldn't french braid it herself because her arms were still very sore. She reported to Cora in the dining hall, while unbeknownst to her, Colleen left to answer the door. "Well, it's about time you showed up, what took you so long? Honestly, that Colleen is sooo slow. Guess, it's cause she's soo fat," said Cora nastily.
Once again Sharon was left with a feeling of outrage at the outright meanness of the woman. "Oh, I'm afraid that it was my fault," Sharon/Isabel said. "Um, you see, my bodily functions don't always perform as easily as they used to since, I've gotten older and since I was hurt in the bomb blast. They take longer if you know what I mean." Sharon said trying to put the blame on herself and distract Cora from contemplating what had really kept her and Colleen later than they should have been. Plus, it was worth the embarrassment to see Cora's face when she discussed bodily functions.
Cora's expression looked like she'd gotten a hold of some very sour pickles. "TMI, Isabel! TMI!" She narrowed her eyes at Isabel realizing that she'd slipped in something relating to her being Sharon Raydor instead of Isabel Beckett. She decided to let it slide for now, but would make her pay soon enough.
"Sorry, but you asked," Sharon said with a secretive smile. Which seat do you wish for me to sit in Miss Hartley? The same one as last night? I'm starved," Sharon/Isabel asked brightly being as polite as possible.
"Oh, you won't be eating, Isabel. You'll be serving," she said with an evil smile.
Sharon wasn't as devastated about that as she appeared to be. Having had the Ensure helped take the edge off of her hunger. "Why? I apologized," she asked tearfully, pretending to be devastated. She may be old but she could still act she thought to herself.
Cora inspected her perfect manicure and then glanced over at Sharon/Isabel. Her smile turned into a pouty frown. She sighed and made a tsking sound with her lips. "In spite of your rather eloquent apology this morning, I find I haven't yet forgiven you for insulting the food I serve the inmates. So, you'll be going without meals for awhile. Until I feel you've learned your lesson. You'll serve instead." She turned and walked away but looked over her shoulder. "Maybe by the time I decide you can eat again, the food will taste good," she said as she sat at the head of the table. Leaning back and daintily putting her napkin in place on her lap she added imperiously, "make sure you serve me first. I don't like my food to be cold."
"Yes, ma'am!" Sharon said narrowing her eyes at Cora's back and made her way over to the serving station. She watched as the person who was dishing up the food took food from a separate food station to make up Cora's plate. Then they made the other plates from the common station. She picked up the tray, it was heavy for her, but she managed to get it across the room without dropping it. It hurt her back something fierce. She served Cora first, then she went back and got plates for Paul, Molly, David, Liza, and Sara. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Colleen behind the wall where she couldn't be seen by Cora. She nodded once letting Sharon know it was alright to go ahead with the plan. Then, as she was heading towards Victor, who was sitting to Cora's right to serve him, a foot shot out and tripped her.
The food went flying all over Cora's face, hair, and dress. Cora immediately started gagging. "You bitch! You did that on purpose! You've ruined my hair, my uniform and what's more I'll never get the taste of that food out of my mouth!"
After getting up from the floor, with David's help. Sharon stood by Victor's chair and leaned on it as she faced Cora and smirked at her. "That's… kind of the point," she said sarcastically. We thought you might like to switch and try our food for a change!"
"What would possess you to think that?!" Cora sputtered.
"Well, why wouldn't you? I seem to remember the other night you insisted it was all the same." Sharon looked around the room as she asked, "isn't that true everyone? But when I just went over to get the plates, the server took your food out of a separate container. With your name, all over it!"
The inmates gave frightened but definite nods. "Yes, Ma'am you did say that, Miss Cora."
"Oh, Shut up! It's obviously spoiled meat! The refrigerator that holds their food probably malfunctioned. I would never serve these poor people such terrible food! If I'd known! They should have told me." She wiped the food off her face with a napkin.
Sharon couldn't believe how well and how quickly this horrible woman could lie. "What would you have done? No, Cora you knew, you did it on purpose to torture these people. You enjoy torturing them, don't you? Besides I tried to tell you the other night. I got sent away from the table and then was given a shot with a sedative for being bold and telling you about the quality of the food. So, don't try to tell me you didn't know."
Cora huffed and crossed her arms as she argued back, "don't be ridiculous! You were given a sedative because you were carrying on in front of the window. Yelling and banging on the glass. We had to restrain you before you got hurt."
Sharon's voice didn't get louder but it held the same strong authoritativeness as when she was getting a killer to confuse as she exclaimed, "I saw my son out that window!"
"Isabel Beckett has no children!" Cora's tone was loud and patronizing.
Sharon took a step closer to her demanding, "but I have four! Three adult children and an infant who is ill and needs me by the way and my name is Commander Sharon Raydor not Isabel Beckett! Have you even bothered to investigate my claims or aren't you interested in the truth?"
Cora laughed evilly. "Your version of the truth you mean! Why would I bother to investigate the claims of a crazy woman? I've had enough of this! Augustus, Alex take her to the infirmary, it's clear that Isabel is in need of some good old-fashioned shock therapy Maybe that will get these notions out of her pretty little head!"
Augustus and Alex moved toward Sharon/Isabel but she gave them her best Darth Raydor glare. They backed away at first but Cora scared them a lot more than Sharon did. They started towards her again, and just before they got close enough to give her a shot to sedate her, seemingly out of nowhere came the voice of someone Sharon was very happy to hear. Even if most of the time his voice annoyed her.
"I wouldn't touch her if I were you. It's against the law to harm a police officer!"
TBC...
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