This chapter is done and so is my vacation – 'yay' to the first, but not the last x) Thankfully it's Christmas soon!

Happy 15th December everyone! :)

Chapter 12 – Why they call you 'Brutal'

The 10th of September was Ellies fourteenth working day at the Mile and even before lunchtime, the temperature had reached steam train-level and everyone was suffering. Especially the guards, who had to dress after the regulations: On days like these, they could lose the jacket, but nothing else.

But Ellie too was having a hard time fighting the heat: She had rolled up her sleeves, (though in her mind, she could see the head nurse of Sankt Stephen wrinkle her nose in contempt) and was dangerously tempted to remove her tights as well, knowing her skirt would probably cover the most anyway… But then she reminded herself, that it was her uniform and she was representing the hospital, so breaking the dress code would be a huge no-go.

Instead, she had found the second-best solution: Washing the floor, which meant having her hands in cold water, when the cloth had to be wrung.

Harry came in, while she was filling the bucket from the tap on the toilet.

"Miss Brent," he said gently in his rough voice. "On it again? I swear, I have never seen the Mile so clean before. It will end up with the inmates not wanting to leave us at all."

She smiled. "I'm cleaning and cooling myself at the same time, Mr. Terwilliger. Two birds with one stone."

"As long as you don't overexert yourself. When you need a break, you're welcome to join Bill and me at the front desk for a cold drink."

With Dean having a day off and Paul and Brutus meeting late for work, Bill Dodge – one of the floaters, a big-boned, jolly guy – was on the day shift with Harry and Percy. Percy, who had no respect for floaters, where hiding in Paul's office, doing what he did best: Absolutely nothing. Funny enough, no one complained about that.

Ellie turned off the water and hitched up the bucket, wishing that Harry would be right about the inmates not wanting to leave. The two weeks had gone so fast and Alice's execution date, yet still not set, was getting closer and closer. She had started to have nightmare about it: Last light she dreamt, that Percy pulled the old woman out of her cell and shot her in the yard, while she was watching from the outside, not able to do anything…

Stop, she told herself gently, dipping the cloth. It's a beautiful day. Don't think about death now…

But how couldn't she? It was like standing in a sweet-smelling bakery and not think about hunger.

"You look sad, miss Boss," came suddenly a deep rumble from the cell next to her. "Something wrong?"

He startled her a bit. John Coffey hadn't spoken a word to her, since his arrival nearly a week ago. She turned to him, just able to distinguish his dark skin in the dim cell, where the sun never shone. He was sitting straight up on his bunk, huge hands folded in his lap as he looked out at her, through the bars.

"I'm not a boss here, Mr. Coffey," she said gently. "You can call me Ellie."

John Coffey didn't spoke. Only his strange, sorrowful eyes questioned the fact, that she hadn't answered properly.

"How about you, Mr. Coffey," she asked. "How are you today?"

"I'm fine," he responded softly. "It's nice 'n quiet in here. I like that."

"Good."

She could feel his eyes on her, when she continued washing the linoleum, but he didn't spoke until she was almost done with the part outside his cell:

"I'm sorry I can't take away your guilt." His voice was soft and low, but it still hit her like a punch to her stomach.

Ellie stopped short, but before she had any chance of replying, Harry called her, a slightly harsh tone to his voice. She turned in surprise.

"Break time," he said bluntly, raising a glass. "Come have a drink with us."

Break time? Ellie looked down: She hadn't even cleaned a quarter of the Mile yet. Puzzled, she walked towards the front disk, noticing how Harry was scowling in Coffey's direction.

"I don't want you to talk to him," he mumbled, when she sat down at the other side of the table and Bill handed her a glass of ice cold lemonade. "Not today, when we are being short of staff."

It sounded like a half-hearted excuse to Ellie, but she agreed dutifully, knowing that Harry was the head of the Mile, in the absence of Paul and Brutus.

Anyway she had other things to worry about.

I'm sorry I can't take away your guilt…

How could he possibly know that?

oOo

When Brutus arrived around lunchtime, the sun was burning like a flame in the sky, making the heat almost insufferable. The back of his shirt stuck to his shoulder blades and he could hardly bear to put on the uniform jacket again. It was a great comfort that he only had to be orderly dressed until he entered the Mile.

He bumped into Paul further up the parking lot.

"Hey," Paul greeted. "You look better today. Finally slept enough?"

Brutus smiled. "Yeah. Wish I could say the same thing about you…"

"Now, don't start that again," Paul said, wiping his pale forehead. "I think it's clearing up."

"Paul, you said that a week ago. When are you going to see a doctor, for crying out lo…"

"Shh!"

They stopped blunt, a few hundred yards from E-block, staring at each other. From inside the big, grey building came something that sounded like a scream for help. Or a battle cry.

"Come on!" Paul said. "Something's wrong."

They burst into the Mile half a moment later, hickory bats out, sweaty and gasping like a couple of dogs after running in the heat. What met them, was Harry standing calmly at the front desk, arms crossed, while Percy was having was looked like a mental breakdown in the restrain room, throwing and hailing things out through the door like a crazy man.

Harry looked at them. "Percy met your mouse."

"He's in here somewhere!" Percy exclaimed, a ferocious look in his eyes, like a fighting dog smelling blood. "I'm gonna squish the little son of a bitch!"

Brutus walked past Harry, towards Ellie who stood in the doorway to Paul's office, a hand to her mouth, as she watched Percy with more bewilderment, than actually shock.

"You okay?" Brutus asked breathlessly, touching her shoulder.

She nodded, smiling faintly. "Not sure I can say the same about the poor mouse."

Brutus turned towards the restrain room, where furniture, empty boxes and files were flying out the door.

"Percy!" he called out annoyed to him. "We've already tried that!"

The young guard stopped, his face red and his hair all messy from the commotion. "What? What'ya say?"

"I said…" Brutus began, when Paul suddenly turned around, giving him a crushing glare from behind Ellie. Don't you dare tell him that!

"Uh…" he said instead. "Knock yourself out. Hope you nail the bastard."

Ellie gave Brutus a significant look, fighting hard not to laugh, as Percy dug into the restrain room again. He smiled back sheepishly.

"You know it's going to take him all afternoon to empty the room," she said quietly.

He chuckled. "I think that was the point."

oOo

In his eagerness to catch the mouse, it only took Percy an hour to drag everything out on the Mile and empty the restrain room. Paul got up from the front desk and Brutus joined in, closely followed by Harry and Bill. Ellie stood behind, her arms folded around her, as though she knew what was coming.

They had been watching the young guard work in silence, but Brutus didn't need any words to figure out, exactly how furious Paul was. This was not going to be a happy ending for Percy. They thought alone made him slightly smug.

"Gosh, ain't in there, huh?" he said, as they worked their way down the Mile, zigzagging between stable of chairs and old file cabins. "Don't that beat the mousie band?"

Percy kept staring into the restrain room, not even noticing that the guards stepped up behind him. He looked exhausted and greatly vexed, his hair all out of place and sticking to his sweaty forehead. But the mouse was gone, just like it had been the day before.

"Percy," Paul said slowly. "You wanna think about what you did just know?"

The boy turned around.

"I know what I was doing," he said, not even trying to hide the churlishly tone in his voice. "I was trying to get the mouse. You blind?"

"You also scared the living crap out of me, Bill and Miss Brent," Harry growled. "Not to mention the inmates."

"So what?" Percy drawled and Brutus had never hated him more than he did know. "This ain't cradle school, 'case ya didn't notice." He shot Paul a challenging glare. "Although you treat them that way ha'f the time."

"We don't scare 'em more than we have to, Percy," Brutus said, fighting hard to keep his tone low and calm. "They're under enough strain as it is."

"And men under strain can snap," Paul said. "Hurt themselves and hurt others. We don't want that – especially not when we have civilians here, like miss Brent. That's why our job is talking, not yelling. You'll do better to think of this place like an intensive care ward in a hospital."

"I think of it as a bucket of piss to drown rats in," Percy said and Brutus knew, he was keeping his voice down, so Ellie couldn't hear it. "Anybody don' like that, hmm? Then you can just kiss my ass…"

Not thinking straight, from the blood roaring in his ears, Brutus stepped forward and grabbed Percy by the neck. Her heard Ellie gasp, when he slammed the young guard up against the doorframe.

Percy tried to keep his arrogant face, but Brutus could see the fear in his eyes, when his fist closed around his throat, cutting off his airways. He felt an almost perverted satisfaction to the scare that little shit, too feel his terrified pulse underneath his palm…

"Yearh, you do that," Percy hissed, so quietly, only Brutus could hear it. "Hit me! Show her why they call you 'Brutal'. That's gonna win her heart for sure, you old fool."

Brutus stared at him in mild shock. How could he…?

"Try it," Percy said, this time louder, so everyone could hear it. "I'll have you on the bread side before this week is out, you crazy bastard!"

Brutus stared back at him, anger boiling in his blood.

"Okay, Brutal," Paul said warningly, placing a hand on Brutus' arm. "That's enough."

Brutus didn't let go – not at first, that was. Not until he heard her voice, slightly shaky, coming from behind him:

"Brutus, please," she said, quiet and pleadingly. "Let him go."

Brutus released his grip involuntarily and stepped back, his throat suddenly feeling uncomfortably dry. He couldn't look at her. He had almost forgotten, that she was still here. Like it wasn't bad enough, that Percy knew about his soft spot for the young nurse. Now she had also seen him lose control.

Percy felt back, smoothening his hair back with slightly unsteady hands – but Brutus wasn't sure whether it was because of fear or anger. Then Paul stepped in front of the boy, his face dark with rage.

"Listen," he said, very quietly. "We all know what your connections are, Percy. But if you ever threaten a man on my block again, we're all gonna have a go. Job be damned."

"Big talk," Percy sneered. "You done?"

Paul scoffed, not impressed by his rude tone. "Get all this shit back in the restrain room. You're cluttering up my Mile."

oOo

Brutus spent the rest of day walking softly around her. He sometimes caught her looking at him with this puzzled look, he couldn't quite figure out. He knew he had to apologize to her, for behaving so unsophisticatedly and scaring her, but he didn't find the courage, until she had said goodnight and had walked through the door.

Jumping up from behind the desk, like his pants was on fire, he hurried past Harry and Paul playing cards under the huge window. The men looked bewildered.

"Hey, where are y…" Harry began.

"Five minutes," he told them. "Be right back."

He caught up with her by the gate, were Barry was about to hand her papers back. The guard looked as surprised as Ellie, when he called her name.

"Brutus," she said, looking worried as she approached him. "Something wrong?"

He shook his head, suddenly feeling breathless, like he had just run hundreds of yards and not just ten.

"Listen," he said, trying to ignore the curious glares of the other guards by the gate. "About what happen in there today… with Percy… I just wanna apologize for the way I reacted."

"Don't think about it," Ellie said gently. "Percy had that coming. In fact, I'm surprised no one has done it before."

"You are?" Brutus asked, staggered.

She smiled at him. "I'm not worried about Percy," she said softly. "But the last thing I wish for is for you to get in trouble because of him. So please, be careful."

"I will," he promised her, every part of his body suddenly burning and tingling with joy.

She looked at her watch.

"I have to go," she said with a gentle smile. "I'm already late for my bus."

"Right. I, uh… I'll see you tomorrow."

She tilted her head. "Wasn't tomorrow your day off?"

Brutus had to fight down an urge to clasp his forehead.

"It is," he said awkwardly. "Well, see you Friday then."

She smiled warmly. "Night, Brutus. Sleep tight."

As he walked back to the Mile, a huge grin plastered on his face, he couldn't stop wondering how he would react if he ever found the courage to ask her out and she said yes. He was already high in the skies as it was. He would be over the Goddamn moon, that's for sure!