Chapter Twelve
Was it that obvious? Lorna swallowed thickly and inverted her lower lip. Gradually her eyes returned straight ahead onto Nicky, who's big brown ones were gazing over her in the deepest compassion she'd ever witnessed flash itself through them before. A heaping breath of air weaseled its way through her slightly agape lips. Shoulders raised up for a moment then slumped back down into their normal position. She shifted her eyes away from Nicky again down onto her tray of food and coffee.
A random piece of lettuce hanging from the edge of the tray caught Lorna's focus. With a swift movement of her hand, she pushed it up so it fell right back into the salad on the top of the tray where it must have somehow fallen loose from—likely while she'd been shakily holding the item in the food-line just a few moments ago.
The silence left an uncomfortable sensation in Nicky's gut. Something wasn't right. Something was up and she had to get to the bottom of it. Of course Nicky also knew that would be a mere impossible task with how stubborn Lorna could be. She opened her mouth and a large breath of air expelled out of it. Having watched Lorna's every move since the pair had sat down at the table not once did she witness Lorna take a bite of the food. She slid a hand across and took a hold of one of Lorna's in it.
"Eat, please. You're paler than the damn walls in here, kid. Ya gotta eat somethin'. I don't know what's going on with ya but ya at least need to fuel yourself, yeah?" Nicky interlaced their fingers together while gazing fiercely across into Lorna's eyes. She tried to read her but there was an unnervingly deadpanned expression etched on Lorna's face. Such an expression only increased Nicky's apprehension. Her thumb caressed over the tips of each one of Lorna's fingers that had been laced through her own.
Complacently, Lorna shifted her attention onto the food sat in front of her and mindlessly grabbed her plastic fork off the table to move a few pieces of lettuce around the tray with. Eating that salad or that sandwich wasn't going to take away the trepidation so intensely oozing through her veins. It wouldn't erase the anxiety Annalisa's prior threats had formed inside of her. But causing the same anxiety to Nicky, who already spent way too much of her energy on her to begin with, wasn't something Lorna sought to do either.
Watching the apparent struggle between Lorna and the forkful of food she was unsteadily lifting up to her mouth was just as much a struggle for Nicky. Lorna appeared to be moving in robotic fashion the way she moved the fork to her mouth and didn't even glance at it to see the amount of salad she was placing inside of her mouth. It was getting clearer and clearer to Nicky that there was a serious problem going on with Lorna. She was keeping something from her and Nicky couldn't just sit there and allow it to continue escalating the way it was.
There was nothing about the food that brought any sort of satisfaction to Lorna. However, she sat there and ate until her tray had nothing but the remnants of dressing and bread crumbs on it. Her face remained empty of expression once she finished, eyes peering off into the abyss. She felt like a shell of her former self. She'd likely been that since the news of her son—maybe even the birth of her son. But the sensation seemed to get worse since her run-in with Annalisa.
Annalisa had always settled a knot in Lorna's stomach since the day she'd first seen her upon being placed in the maximum security facility. When she'd witnessed the dirty glances Annalisa had off and on given to Nicky in the laundry room Lorna's fear of her had further solidified itself. The mere thought of anyone even pondering the idea of harming Nicky caused Lorna's blood pressure to skyrocket. Nicky had the purest of hearts, the purest of intentions—there was no reason for anyone to have to hurt her. Or to want to hurt her. Not in Lorna's mind. In Lorna's mind Nicky had been placed on a pedestal. Nicky was almost on the same level of God in Lorna's mind.
The knowledge of Annalisa's threats to cause harm to Nicky if she ever caught the two of them together were rampantly brewing through Lorna's mind as she sat there directly across from the very redhead now. Anything Nicky said to her went unto deaf ears. Lorna was unable to concentrate on what anyone else said or did with the loud roaring of previous warnings presently taking over the entirety of her awareness. Her eyes were fixed on Nicky, who clearly was moving her mouth telling her something yet whatever was being said Lorna could not hear or make it out properly.
Lorna felt trapped inside a glass tube. Everything around her seemed far away albeit too close all at the same time. The noise muffled by the metaphoric glass surrounding her. Nicky sat only inches away, however, Lorna felt miles apart from her. She gripped a hand onto the edge of the table separating the pair of them, hoping somehow the sensation of the object against her hand would anchor her back to reality. It did nothing of the sort. She remained trapped in that glass tube—trapped in her fucked up, faulty wired, mind.
"Are ya hearing anything I'm sayin', kid?" Nicky questioned after more time passed and she still had not received any type of response from the brunette.
To say she was worried had been quite the understatement at that point. Worry had swiftly transformed into franticness. She reached across the table with both hands and framed them softly, yet with a sternness to them, around each of Lorna's cheeks. Her hands held Lorna's face firmly in front of her own giving her the chance to thoroughly look her over. Though Lorna's eyes were returning her stare, Nicky didn't see any life in them. It was as if she was gazing right through Lorna. The sight instantly had the frantic sensation morph into trepidation.
Her thumb caressed delicately along one of the cheeks. "Lorna, kid, ya gotta talk to me here. What the hell's going on, huh? You don't look well at all. I'm fucking worried about ya. Please say something," desperation easily inflected through Nicky's shaky voice. She had never been one to scare without effort but witnessing Lorna in this way Nicky didn't know what the hell else to feel about it. There loomed an eerie energy between the two of them and Nicky hadn't been fond of it in the slightest.
Her lip sucked in and out for several moments as if preparing Lorna to speak. But she couldn't form words. She felt stuck in her own mind, a sensation she had experienced almost daily since learning of her son's passing just a few months earlier. Instead, when her mouth opened up all that came out of it was a heaping breath of excess air. The expression on Nicky's face only aided in forming a tight knot in her gut. There wasn't anything Lorna loathed more than to be the cause of Nicky's discomfort, of her worries or pain.
Lorna forced herself to swallow the lump which had settled in her throat and moved her hand slowly away from the table's edge and over to grab a secure hold around one of Nicky's. A tender, firm, squeeze was given to the hand immediately upon taking a hold of it. "Sorry, hon. I'm just—I didn't sleep too good last night and I'm just kinda dozing out a bit. I-I didn't meana stress ya out or nothin'," was the only answer she could muster up with the lack of energy she had from having to use it on trying to keep out of Annalisa's line of view wherever she might have been.
Subconsciously chewing on the side of her mouth, Nicky tilted her head while peering softly into the younger woman's brown eyes. She felt a breath draw gradually in through her nose which she allowed to escape back out before verbally acknowledging the disclosure she hadn't entirely been certain she believed. The longer her eyes gazed into Lorna's the harder it was for her to accept Lorna's comment as truth. There had to be something more going on. Sleep deprivation didn't make someone look like they'd just walked out of a zombie apocalypse on a mere daily basis. Sleep deprivation didn't cause a person to look traumatized every time Nicky sent a glance in said person's direction.
Tracing her fingertips gingerly along the length of Lorna's cheek, Nicky swallowed down her reservations on the matter and leaned her face across the table so that she could place a soothing kiss atop the flesh of Lorna's forehead. "I'm not surprised. You haven't been taking proper care of yourself lately, doll. You don't eat enough, you don't rest enough—ya look scared shitless all the time. I wish you'd tell me what's going on. I wanna help you, Lorna. I don't understand why ya never wanna let me help. Do you take pleasure in suffering in silence?"
It was a stupid question to ask on Nicky's part. The answer was already known. She knew damn well Lorna hated herself so much that she would never willingly allow her or anyone else to help her with anything she may have been dealing with. And it hurt Nicky fiercely to conclude that. Lorna was the love of her life, she despised Lorna's self-hatred. Despised the way Lorna treated herself. Despised that Lorna wouldn't come to her instead of mentally fucking torturing herself as punishment for just existing.
But this wasn't anything Nicky could help with. Lorna swallowed thickly, lips twitching into a frown at the pain blatantly attaching itself to Nicky's voice. Nicky was the one who would end up hurt in this situation Lorna knew and that was why Nicky had to be kept in the dark on the matter—it was the only way Lorna could keep her safe. For once she wanted to protect Nicky. And, unfortunately, that meant having to hide the truth from her even though such a task might have seemed impossible to do. Nicky could be a detective with how good she was at getting to the bottom of things.
"Nothing's going on, hon," the lie easily slipped through Lorna's mouth after a few sips of coffee had been taken. Her lips pursed into a forceful smile and she knew it was stupid of her to try to force one when Nicky had the ability to see right through her facades. Though only remnants of her food remained on the tray Lorna found herself using the fork to senselessly push the pieces around with.
A sigh frustratedly huffed its way out of Nicky. That was a predictable answer for Lorna to give; Nicky hadn't been surprised but that didn't negate how exhaustively frustrating it was just to try to get honest answers out of Lorna when it was unequivocally clear something had been amiss. Lorna was the absolute most stubborn person she'd ever met—and that was saying a lot because she knew she could also be very hard-headed at times.
She shook her head and momentarily gritted her teeth together. Too many times did she raise her voice when Lorna got like this and it never accomplished anything of benefit other than strengthening the tension between the two. So, Nicky kept quiet until the surge of frustration faded some and then reached a hand up to lovingly curl a loose strand of Lorna's hair behind her ear with. "You know I believe that to be a bullshit answer, yeah kid?" Eyebrows curved upwards as she peered gravely into the younger woman's eyes.
Of course Lorna had come to that realization. Even before she said what she said she knew Nicky would see right past her words—Nicky always did. Nicky always fucking knew when Lorna was bullshitting her. But even having that knowledge Lorna had no choice other than to lie to her; the consequences of revealing what actually was going on was sufficient to keep Lorna's mouth shut. No way was she about to risk Nicky's life even more than she already had just by sitting there having dinner with her.
Eyeing the fork she still pushed around her nearly empty tray, Lorna cautiously raised it up towards her mouth and inserted it inside to subconsciously suck off what was left of the salad dressing. "I just feel kinda down right now is all, hon. Okay? It's no big deal. I'm sorry to worry ya so much," she finally admitted some of the truth. She had been feeling down for a while, which certainly had played a part in why she was in the predicament she was with Annalisa in the first place. If she hadn't been so stuck in her mind—her own world of self-hatred—she wouldn't have felt inclined to swipe that butter knife from ICE and spend her evenings hiding out in the closet with it. And that decision was what started this whole damn mess between she and Annalisa—was what put Nicky's life in danger and why she had to fucking blatantly lie to Nicky now.
A little more of the frustration faded into the wind—or, rather, the metaphoric wind. Nicky sighed and felt her lips meld into a frown. Her chest slightly tightened with a pang for her friend's obvious pain. She moved her hand from Lorna's ear, over to her cheek once more and brushed the tips of her fingers softly up and down the length of it. "It may not be a big deal to you or anyone else but to me it's a huge deal," she murmured, peering fiercely into Lorna's brown eyes. "You're one of the most important people to me, doll, and anything you're going through matters to me. You fucking matter to me and I wish you'd see that. I wish you'd fucking realize that ya don't gotta pretend shit in fronta me anymore."
Shame began to boil up inside of Lorna as she listened to the heartfelt words Nicky shared with her. Nicky was a true angel in her eyes and the way she always reassured Lorna only continued to prove that fact. Having that fact rolling around the back of her mind escalated the shameful sensation bubbling through her veins further. All the pain she had put Nicky through in the time the pair had known each other resurfaced and kept reminding Lorna of how unworthy she was of having Nicky's unconditional, angelic, love.
Her mouth opened to say something after a few moments of being trapped in her mind but before any words could escape, Nicky ended up beating her to the punch.
"What're ya feelin' down about, Lorna?" Nicky kept her eyes soft while gazing directly ahead into Lorna's. She continued stroking her fingertips soothingly along the cheek her one hand had been framed around. "Is it about your son? You wanna talk about it, yeah?"
Eyes instinctively squeezed shut at the mention of her son. The son who she barely had the chance to know—the son who she only held for a mere five seconds before he had been whisked away to the NICU. The son who was unfairly taken from her way too soon in many respects. Lorna swallowed thickly and gradually reopened her eyes. He remained a painful subject. She still hadn't entirely allowed herself to grieve for him, still in some way tried to hold onto the illusion he wasn't dead. The illusion her mind created that he was at home with Vinny and the only reason she hadn't been able to see him was because Vinny was an asshole trying to take full custody of Sterling.
She was shaken out of her thoughts by the sensation of Nicky's fingers delicately tracing soft circles underneath her chin. Another thickened swallow followed. Lorna did her best to fix her eyes on Nicky, to anchor herself in the present moment. Anchor herself in reality rather than her fucked up mind. Her fucked up mind, she knew, was the reason she was dealing with this recent circumstance at all. If she could just stay out of her head for longer than two damn seconds maybe a lot of the situations she had been put in would have never even occurred. Maybe she would have never chosen Vinny to begin with and the riot might not have happened. Nicky wouldn't have been hurt.
The what ifs constantly running amuck would certainly lead to her demise one day if it hadn't already started. Lorna huffed out a breath and tried again to return her focus on Nicky and not her godforsaken mind. It proved to be quite the challenge, however, the pleading mien oozing from Nicky's face was enough to temporarily keep Lorna's attention out there. She naturally reached a hand across the table and placed it on one of Nicky's cheeks, stroking her thumb soothingly around its flesh.
"I guess I just, er, it sucks. It sucks a lot, hon. I-I feel like I messed up real bad and I wish I could undo a lotta my choices. So much shit happened and I wonder if my choices were different if those things woulda still happened or not," Lorna admitted after a long bout of silence. A long bout of being overly consumed by her incessant thoughts. She picked up the brown mug of coffee with her free hand and carried it up to her mouth but hadn't taken a sip, just held it there against her lips while retaining her eyes on Nicky's.
Nicky's head tilted slightly as a frown molded its way upon her face. A breath of air expelled through her partly ajar lips. She leaned over the table with her whole face in order to place a warm kiss onto the flesh of Lorna's forehead. "Sweetheart if you're implying you believe your choices are what led to Sterling's death then you couldn't be further from the truth. You're not at fault for his death please tell me you're not blaming yourself?"
Sterling's death, the words still cut through Lorna like a knife. Like the knife she snatched from the ICE kitchen. The fucking knife that got her beef with Annalisa. Her teeth dug into her bottom lip, eyes peering blankly into the older woman's. Shoulders raised up to her cheeks and then quickly settled back down. Lorna contemplated how to respond to the statement—part of her wanted to tell Nicky not to say Sterling was dead and the other part wanted to just stay silent.
Silence was easier, simpler, and it wouldn't make her sound like the psycho she knew she was. The psycho everyone knew she was. Finally, she hugged her lips around the rim of the coffee cup and sipped down what was left of it. When she finished she placed the mug back on its spot on the tray and then shifted her eyes onto Nicky once more. Lips twitched into an uncomfortable smile. "I just mean if I'd never a wrote those stupid letters to men when you were here before then maybe I'da never hurt you, hon. Maybe the riot wouldn'ta happened either. I don't know. I guess we'll never really know now, huh?" Lines scrunched up on her forehead.
Nicky sighed, shaking her head dismally. Another soft kiss was dropped onto Lorna's forehead where those lines were witnessed by her big brown eyes. "Ya gotta stop obsessing over this shit, okay? It's not good for you to keep running in circles with these what if scenarios, Lorna," she gently informed her, straightening back up but resting a hand on the spot she had just recently pressed a kiss to. "The past is done with, we can't change what's happened. I know there are decisions you regret, babe, but time cannot be turned back and continuing to worry about what could have happened if this choice was different or that choice was different is only gonna fucking keep you trapped in this self-loathing circle that continues to form a wall between you and the rest of us. It's not fucking healthy."
Pausing for a moment, Nicky drew in a breath while also taking the time to massage the tips of her fingers into the flesh of Lorna's forehead. Her voice had loudened quite a bit and she hadn't meant to come across as angry—at least not angry at Lorna. She was angry but angry that Lorna was blatantly suffering with her mental health and the damn prison never gave a shit about that fact. Angry that Lorna's family, before her prison sentence, had possibly known her mental health was deteriorating but they also seemingly hadn't given a shit about it. So many people had failed Lorna, Nicky bitterly concluded. And the one paying the price was fucking Lorna.
Another sigh executed through her. Lorna desperately needed therapy but Nicky realized the chances of getting her that help were absolutely slim to none in there. They'd have to wait until they were both released from prison before proper help could be sought after. A year remained between the pair of them and the chance for assistance. Nicky gritted her teeth, closing her eyes tight. Bullshit was what that was. Lorna deserved help now—fuck, she deserved help the moment her mental health started to first decline whenever that might have been.
"You're so consumed with this that you're neglecting to care for your body, Lorna. I know it hurts to go through all the shit you're going through but neglecting yourself isn't gonna make it all better. You know that yeah doll?" Eyebrows arched concerningly above two very gentle brown eyes that peered intently into the brown ones of Lorna. A stranded piece of hair landed on Lorna's forehead which was tenderly caressed away by Nicky's thumb.
The truth hurt. It always hurt for Lorna to hear—most of the time the truth led to negative emotions and negative emotions were not anything Lorna was fond of. Putting up a front was easier, it made her believe if she continued to push away from the negative connotations the truth brought forth that she wouldn't be putting up a front at all anymore because it would somehow insinuate itself into being that truth she so desired it to be.
However, time and time again, the façade instead led her right back to the very pain she didn't want to deal with. She remembered Nicky's comment from long ago telling her how doing the same thing over and over expecting different results was the definition of insanity. Clearly, her choice to continuously put up the front was only demonstrating how truthful said statement was. She, Lorna Morello, was the definition of insanity. The results her façade yearned did not teach her anything or she wouldn't continue to force them on herself.
Nicky knew exactly what to say and it always cut right through Lorna's front just a little bit more each time. But this time, no matter what Nicky said, Lorna couldn't allow the façade to waver. Keeping Nicky out of Annalisa's wrath was more important than whether or not she allowed the honesty of Nicky's words to fully absorb themselves into her mind. Her top priority wasn't whether she was neglecting her physical well-being but was to protect the fiery redhead at all costs. If her own health was at risk because of that then so fucking be it. Lorna never prioritized herself anyway. All of the love she had in her heart went right to Nicky. She loved Nicky more than she would ever love herself and she didn't care if her love for Nicky ended in her own demise. Nicky was her angel. Nicky deserved to be put above herself for fucking once. Nicky deserved to be the one protected for a damn change and Lorna was damn well going to make sure that was exactly what happened.
The eerie absence of Annalisa's presence was both a relief and unnerving to Lorna. On one hand she felt safe to continue interacting with Nicky but on the other she worried if this was part of some sort of a setup. As if Annalisa was purposefully making it seem she was scarce while really hiding in the background of the other inmates watching Lorna's every move—silently keeping track of each time she made conversation with Nicky. Silently tallying the number of times Lorna and Nicky had contact with one another. It left Lorna feeling even more exasperated from all the extra work she had to do to keep all of this to herself. Maybe this was Annalisa's plan all along—to have Lorna stressing and continuously looking behind her own back for the blonde. To make Lorna go crazy. Even though Lorna was certain she had long passed the threshold of going crazy.
Because of the intense worry Lorna did her best to stay out of Nicky's way—tried to keep sparse from her despite how much she longed to be with her beloved redhead. The only time she could truly feel safe being near Nicky was when they went to the kitchen at ICE to perform their work duties. It still left an odd sensation every time they went there, though, with Shani remaining one of their coworkers if that was even what any of them could be considered seeing as they hadn't been receiving payment for their work due to the nature of they're all being indicted criminals.
Regardless, knowing there was nothing romantic between Shani and Nicky any longer, Lorna felt a little less uneasy seeing the Egyptian woman there. Rather, she started to experience a bout of guilt upon laying eyes on her now. She hadn't meant to cause any pain to her—it wasn't Shani's fault for anything that had occurred. That much she knew.
A snuffle of air pushed up from Lorna's lungs and harshly parted through her nose. She quickly made her way into the kitchen after everyone else already had, walking towards the stove where she normally planted herself in front of during their shifts. Her eyes fixed themselves down onto the untouched burners that sat barren with nothing on them nor any fire poking out through the holes. Thoughtlessly, she rested a hand on the top of one and mentally imagined what it would feel like if the burner had actually been turned on right then. How much would it hurt to have the fire come in contact with her hand?
"Ladies," Officer Bell's voice rang through the tight quarters quickly shaking Lorna's awareness back onto what was happening around her instead of imagined scenarios swirling about her mind. "I have Damiva here to help out since Reznikov is no longer able to participate in kitchen duty. Make sure to give her some work to do. I don't wanna hear any fucking trouble, got it?" She firmly pushed the blonde inmate into the room and then went back to looking at her phone.
When Lorna's eyes landed on Annalisa's the color from her face rapidly drained away. For a moment she felt glued to the spot where she was standing. She was unable to move either of her feet, either of her hands, and she feared Annalisa could see where one of her hands was placed and would come over to turn on the burner making her previously imagined scenario real life. But that was an unrealistic fear—they weren't alone, Annalisa would be stupid if she chose to do something like that.
Sensing the stare on her, Annalisa turned her head in Lorna's direction and returned it with a heated one of her own. Lips curved into a menacing smirk as she effortlessly took a note of the blatant trepidation oozing from Lorna's brown eyes. She looked around the room making sure everyone else was enthralled in a task before choosing to approach Lorna. When she was certain the coast was clear, she cautiously walked over to the brunette and nonchalantly grabbed at her shoulder.
Lorna tried not to shudder at the feel of Annalisa's uncomfortable touch but her body reacted on autopilot. She still found herself unable to move voluntarily which only escalated her worry. Maybe she had underestimated Annalisa's intelligence. Maybe Annalisa was stupid enough to do something with there being other people around to witness it. They were already in max, what could possibly be a worse penalty than max—that was likely what Annalisa was thinking Lorna assumed. There wasn't a worse punishment than max. Annalisa had nothing to lose if she chose to harm Lorna with the COs present.
"Thrilled to see me here, huh?" The blonde calmly taunted. Her smirk only growing the longer she lingered her stare on Lorna. She moved her hand from her shoulder, letting it rest onto the knob for the burner she'd seen Lorna's hand laying atop of. "Should I turn the gas on and let that hand a yours burn a little? I know how much ya like pain, emo Morello."
Sucking in her bottom lip, Lorna swallowed uncomfortably and squeezed her eyes tightly shut. The only part of her body she felt she had control over were her eyelids. Everything else felt like Jell-O to her. She couldn't even move her head in a nod or head shake to nonverbally give a response to Annalisa's questions. Her mouth wouldn't open to allow any words out or a whimper to gain the attention of other inmates. She felt trapped. Trapped and doomed to whatever Annalisa was planning on doing to her.
Chuckling, Annalisa released her grasp on the burner knob and instead brought her hand back to roughly grip onto Lorna's shoulder again. "Maybe another time, Morello. I'm just here to make sure you keep your word and stay away from Nicky. I've been hearin' rumors you've been seen at mealtimes sitting with her, yeah? Now I can't know for sure if that's true so I'm gonna be nice and give ya one more chance. That's why I'm taking over for Reznikov. Gonna fuckin' watch ya like a hawk."
There hadn't been a chance for her to say anything in response as the blonde was called away by Mendoza only seconds after her heated disclosure to Lorna. Relief washed over Lorna now that she was separated from Annalisa.
Relief soon morphed into an unplanned, involuntary, shriek.
"Jesus," a familiar accented voice called out, sounding closer than Lorna would have liked.
The shrieking hadn't ceased but her eyes finally opened and the second they had they were met with the darker brown eyes of Shani's, who appeared frantic before her. Lorna looked down at the stove where heat could be felt nearing her hand and it definitively dawned on her that the burner had somehow been switched on for the one where her hand resting atop of. The heat soon vanished which was precisely when Lorna realized the reason Shani had come frantically over to her was to shut off the gas to that particular burner.
Shani quickly fumbled around the counter for a roll of paper-towels, immediately snatching it once she located it. She ripped off several pieces, bringing them to the sink and soaking them in cold water. All it took was a few seconds and then Shani carried them back to Lorna, grabbing her burning hand and holding the damp paper-towels over the wounded area. "What happened? Why'd you have your hand on the burner like that?"
It felt odd having Shani there beside her and as Lorna lifted her head to get a better look at her, she was easily able to see the genuine concern emanating from Shani's face. Foreign was what that was. The only time in the past that Shani acknowledged her existence was in some form or another of a teasing manner. Now, however, Shani was trying to alleviate the excruciating pain of her burn and staring at her with actual worry. Lorna shifted uncomfortably underneath her touch, shrugging her shoulders slightly.
Curving an unnerved eyebrow after witnessing the shorter woman shrug her shoulders in response to her query, Shani put her focus down on the hand she was holding the damp paper-towel to. Gently, she removed the paper-towel for a moment to examine the extent of the burn and inwardly flinched at the magnitude of it. She quickly put the paper-towel back onto it before fixing her gaze up on Lorna once more. "Did you do this to yourself? Did someone else do it? What the hell happened?"
The interrogation did nothing but worsen Lorna's sheer confusion on the matter. She hadn't even had her other hand anywhere near the damn knob despite previously contemplating turning it on in her mind right before Annalisa had interrupted her running imagination. Again all she could do was recoil her shoulders up towards her cheeks. It was unclear if she had somehow managed to switch the knob or if Annalisa did it before going off to follow Gloria's orders.
"You don't know how the burner came on? Did it just magically happen?" Shani interrogated further trying to make sense of the whole situation. Her eyes observed Lorna closely in attempt to see if there were any clues as to how this incident could have come to be. She came up empty. Lorna just stood there seemingly staring off into absolutely nothing.
Lorna darted her stare around the room to find exactly where Annalisa ventured off to, catching sight of her over near the pantry with Gloria grabbing some item or another from one of the shelves. The blonde must have noticed her stare because Lorna saw her immediately turn and send her a threatening wink. Lorna gulped and returned her attention back onto Shani. "I didn't do it. But I can't say who did. Thanks for the help, I think I'll be okay now. You can go back to doing whatever you were doing," she tried to assure her and wave her off, however, the other remained right beside her still holding the paper-towel to her hand.
Shani shook her head. Sure, she and Lorna weren't technically friends or even on the best of terms but that hadn't meant she was just going to walk away and let Lorna suffer after being burned by another inmate. She had no ill wishes on the woman despite her being a driving force in the breakup she recently had with Nicky. Who someone loved couldn't be helped. And, even though Shani still held a slight attraction to Nicky, she wouldn't stand in the way of true love.
"Your hand was just burned by another human being, Morello. You should probably get medical attention. It's pretty bad from what I can see. Who was it that did this? Just tell me, I promise I won't say anything to the COs."
A sigh escaped through Lorna's slightly ajar mouth. Why did Shani even care what pain she was in? Shani should be pleased to see her hurting—at least that was what Lorna thought. All she had done was hurt Shani by being the reason Nicky broke off the relationship between them. Shani should be glad to see her getting her karma for that. "It was Damiva, okay? But please, whatever ya do, don't tell Nicky. I don't want Nicky involved in this. I-I need to protect her. Just keep this to yourself, please."
Much to Lorna's disdain, seconds after Nicky's name came from her mouth the very person she didn't want involved came frisking her way over to them.
Nicky's arms folded in over her chest as she peered between the two women before her eyes landed on Lorna's paper-towel covered hand. "What the fuck happened, kid?"