Divas Prison Ch74

At dinner, Paige did find herself wondering what her role was here. If she'd be there as a friend, a mediator, or even a barrier to her friend doing something stupid. She had seen that Ronda and Bayley had been quick to respond to the call that food was ready, and she joined them at the table once she had been served her tray.

"Hi. Thanks again for this." Ronda said to her.

"No problem, but remind me again, what you want me for?"

"I need you and Bayley to be the cooler heads, the voices of reason. Rodriguez says that she can help me. Talk me up, but at the same time, she is refusing to stop having her therapy appointments. I don't know if she can be trusted." Ronda didn't look like she was going to be convinced, no matter what.

"Ok, but what if she doesn't convince you, or us?" Bayley asked, even though they could guess.

"Then she stops seeing him, or I make her."

Paige gave Bayley a look that they weren't doing a lot to help the situation, and the new arrival of the four had not yet taken her seat. "You have to cool off yourself Ronda. Give her a chance, this could work out well for you, but not if you are going to get aggressive and territorial."

"I'm not getting…" Ronda started, but saw the looks she was getting. "…ok, I'll let her say her piece." Ronda kept quiet, despite her impatience showing, until Raquel Rodriguez arrived. With her stood up, and them seated, her towering height was even more obvious. This was someone who could be quite intimidating, if she chose to be, Paige thought.

"Hi, is it still ok if I join you?" Raquel asked, with sincerity.

"We had a deal didn't we?" Ronda said, gesturing to the empty seat.

Raquel sat down, but her expression wasn't all that happy. "Yeah, but I hope that this is the only time you let me join you because of this deal."

Paige gave Bayley a look before speaking up. "My name's Paige, and Ronda is my friend, but that's not because of a deal. But she's told me what you have offered to do for her. If you follow through, then you're ok by me."

"Yeah? Why's that?" Raquel asked.

"Because you don't know her. She was ready to rip your head off when you arrived on this block. She punched a guard in the throat because of you. And yet you offer to help her out, just like that. Did you mean it?"

"Yeah, I meant it. Ronda, I told you, I don't have any interest in the shrink, at least not in the way you do. But I can't stop having my sessions with him, for many reasons."

"Which are?" Ronda demanded.

"Do you really need to know?"

"If you want me to trust you, yes. We didn't see eye to eye before, so you could screw me over couldn't you? If you do, I'll kill you, but I hope it won't come to that."

"It won't. I can handle myself in a fight, but I'm also not lying to you. I didn't want to go to therapy in the first place, but they said that it was the only way I get moved to a prison where I could be in gen pop." Raquel said, none of them doubting that she was being honest.

"I know that feeling. I was in solitary a long time. Were they scared of what you might do around others?" Ronda asked.

"Pretty much. I'll admit I was rather unhinged after I got arrested. But that's their fault. They went back on what they promised."

Bayley and Paige again shared a look, but this time it was Ronda's cellmate who spoke up.

"They made a promise to you? Cops, lawyers, guards, they're all such a bunch of untrustworthy assholes. What did they promise?"

"I just wanted to see my sister. Nothing more." Raquel said, the mention of her sibling clearly hurting her.

"You mentioned your sister before." Ronda recalled. "How close were you?"

"As close as you get. I have been raising her since she was a baby, and it's just been us since I was 17, which would have made her nine."

"That's terrible. What happened to your parents." Bayley asked.

"Never knew my dad, mom never really talked about him, just said he split when I was a baby. Willow, that's my sister, her father left when mom told him she was pregnant. Didn't shock me, she was too good for him, but that was the start of things going wrong. She was devastated. She wouldn't look at her, left her with me as a babysitter while she went out partying."

"And that went on for nine years?" Bayley followed up, genuinely hooked on what she was hearing.

"Yeah, first it was just that she was out partying, then it was mostly about the alcohol, then alcohol and drugs. I had to get a job to be able to afford food, and she'd still steal money from my purse. We never said a word to each other that wasn't an argument."

"You say all this very calmly Raquel. It's a little unnerving. It's a horrible situation. Didn't it bother you?" Paige wasn't nearly as engrossed as her friend.

"Because I'm proud of what I did there. I waited tables at a Denny's for years to put food on the table for the two of us. It wasn't fun, it wasn't glamorous, but it paid. When mom left, I had to work two jobs, drop out of high school, just to make sure she'd be able to have what I couldn't. Why would I be sad about it?" Raquel could have been a lot more aggressive than she was, and Paige knew it.

"Ok, sorry, just hard to think of a situation where your moms death almost was a good thing."

"Oh, she's not dead, she's in jail." This caught all three of them by surprise.

"She's in jail too? Is she coming here?" Bayley asked.

"No, she's in federal prison in New Mexico. Got deep into drugs. Disappeared from the house for weeks, then suddenly our house got raided by the DEA. Absolutely ransacked it, broke furniture and everything. No concern for the two children there. Told me she got caught with a trunk full of blow, and then shot one of their agents to escape."

"Dead?" Ronda interrupted.

"Yeah. We haven't seen her since all of this. I only know she's in prison because she wrote to us a year or so later. I guess they caught up to her in New Mexico. Doubt she'll be ever leaving there. Killing a Fed isn't exactly something they forgive."

"So it's just been the two of you ever since?" Paige asked, to a nod from Raquel. "No wonder speaking to her means so much. If you don't mind me asking, where is she now?"

"I don't know for sure, that's why I need to talk to her. We haven't spoken since I, well, I did what I did."

"What happened?"

"She got in bad with the wrong people. Found herself a boyfriend 3 years older than her, bearing in mind she was 14. You know what 17 year old boys are after."

"Bet she didn't want to listen." Ronda mused, but loudly enough to be heard.

"Of course not, she spent all her time with him. I nearly never saw her, we started fighting, it was getting scarily similar. Then I got the phone call that was the final straw. She'd been arrested. Weed possession and prostitution."

"Prostitution?" Bayley almost spit out her drink.

"The asshole was pimping her out. At 14. And she was going along with it. I bailed her out, and when we got home we had a huge fight, although I think I got through to her. But I had to sort him out."

"That doesn't sound good." Paige replied, the others thinking the same thing.

"It wasn't." Raquel shrugged. "It was never meant to be they way it was, but he didn't listen to me. I just wanted him to leave her alone. He refused, saying she was….I can't even repeat it, he just reduced her to a piece of meat that would to anything for him, or to him. He told me it was my fault my sister was a whore. I couldn't let that go, she's not a whore dammit. I pointed my gun at his head. He dared me to do it, to shoot him. When I didn't he told me that I should work for him too, that he bet I was better in bed than my sister, and I should show him then and there. He even went to take his pants off. That's when I lost control."

"You fired?" Ronda asked, speaking for the first time in a while.

"Yeah. Once, in the forehead and he just dropped. His friend came at me, and I put two in his chest." Raquel sounded upset.

"You regret it?" Bayley wondered.

"I regret what's happened since." Raquel answered, picking herself up. "I went home, thinking we had better get out of town, and she was back there, packing a bag to move in with him. I told her she wasn't going anywhere but with me, but she wasn't interested in anything I had to say. I told her she couldn't go to his place, that he wasn't going to be there for her, took the bag off her after she hit me. I didn't hit her, but that seemed to help things. We calmed down and it seemed we were ok, until the news came on and their deaths were on tv."

"And she freaked." Paige stated the obvious.

"Big time. She realised from what I'd said about him not being there for her that I did it. She went to her room and locked herself in. I spent ages shouting through the door that we needed to get out of there and make a fresh start. But then I heard sirens, getting louder. I figured I couldn't help her if I was in jail, so I took off. Haven't seen her since that day."

"Have you talked to her at all? Or is that what Dan's making happen for you?" Ronda asked, her real focus showing through.

"Once. I hid out in a motel upstate for a couple of days, trying to figure things out. They had my picture on the news, I was afraid to go out. I figured I had to run, but I had to get Willow first. I called her, she agreed to come with me, said she'd pack us some stuff and get a cab to meet me at the motel. She called me about 2 hours later, said she was outside, but when I went out…"

"The cops were waiting, weren't they?" Paige interrupted, sounding like she was sure, despite not knowing anything.

Raquel gave Paige a look, confused how she knew. "Yes, they were." Three steps out the door and suddenly I had four, five guns in my face. They had me on the ground, put handcuffs on me, and dragged me into their car before I ever saw Willow. I tried to call for her as they took me away, but I couldn't even hear her over them barking orders at me, and that was it. I was screwed."

"You said you got a life term? I guess for two murders, that's not surprising, I got the same for three." Ronda said, opening up a little herself to Raquel for the first time.

"Technically, it's 25 years to life, but there's no way I'm ever getting out of here. They offered a deal to avoid a long trial on murder one. I took it to avoid the death penalty. I can be more of a sister to her from prison than from the grave. If they'll actually let me speak to her."

"They aren't letting you talk to her? Who's they?" Paige asked, not sounding very sympathetic.

Unfortunately Raquel picked up on this. "What is that supposed to mean? Who do you think? Guards, police, all the ones you'd expect. So don't you take that tone with me."

Paige was about to respond, but Ronda put her hand up at her, signalling her not to, and Paige complied. "I get this is sensitive to you, but I need to know that I can trust you, or none of us get what we want. Do you know where she is?"

Raquel shook her head. "No, I called the house as soon as I could, but nobody was there. While I was in jail I kept trying, and tried calling anyone I could think of, but they wouldn't speak to me. She didn't come to Court for my sentencing, and still i haven't found her. I had fights on the phone with people I thought were friends, or even family when I asked for their help. That got me in trouble with everyone in my old prison. I fought guards, other prisoners, anyone who tried to stop me finding her or made fun of me for trying." Raquel shot a death look at a Paige at this moment. "They moved me to solitary for several months. Wouldn't let me out of my cell without cuffs on. Most importantly, I got no phone calls. I thought I was never going to have the chance to talk to my sister again, and that's what led to me trying to harm myself. I got dark."

"Raquel, I'm so sorry." Bayley put her hand on the new arrival's.

"It's ok, I never got close to succeeding, they made sure of it. But then, after those few months. I got some hope, and that was from him."

"You mean Dan." Ronda spoke rhetorically.

"Yep, he came to see me. Said the DOC wanted him to see if he could work with me. He said if I agreed to a transfer and regular sessions, I could go back to a cell block. No more solitary, as long as I don't flip out or get dark again. He gave me a hard sell, but when he said he'd do his best to put me in touch with my sister, it was an obvious choice. I'm not thrilled about being analysed the way they do, but it's for the best."

"Yeah, sure." Paige said, casting a sideways look at Bayley and Ronda, but they weren't meeting her eye contact. Before Raquel picked up on it, Ronda spoke up.

"He will help, I promise. He got me out of solitary too, he really has some gift for it, just don't fall for him."

"I told you, I won't. He isn't my type."

"I didn't think I would either at first. I get why you want to have appointments with him. But if you feel anything, you talk to me ok? Do not act on it." Ronda was getting wound up, and it was obvious to everyone.

"I told you, I won't, calm down. And I will talk you up too, tell him how you've been a friend. Ok?."

"Ok." Ronda agreed, and the two shook hands over the table.

"Raquel, can I ask you something?" Paige said, sounding unsure.

"I guess so, I already spilled my guts to you." Raquel shrugged.

"What if he can't find your sister?" Paige spoke quickly, and out of fear, which seemed to be well founded, as the look on Raquel's face changed in a second. "Why wouldn't he? He promised he would. What's your problem?"

"Whoa, Raquel, now you calm down. You said it yourself, getting aggressive isn't a good idea. We've already got badges looking at us." Which was true, many guards all had their attention on them.

"I'm sorry, I think I should call it a night. Thank you, all of you, I'll speak to you tomorrow, hopefully." Raquel quickly left the table, not giving them time to reply, and went back to her cell.

""Oh god." Paige said after Raquel was gone, putting her head in her hand.

"What is up with you?" Ronda asked angrily. "She said she isn't interested in Dan, so if she holds up her end, she could even be a help. And she seemed ok to me."

"Yeah, but once she realises, who knows what she will be like." Paige said, to no response.

"Realises what?" Ronda demanded.

Paige checked to make sure Raquel had indeed gone far enough away not to hear, then answered. "Her sister. She's not going to visit anytime soon, and it might not end well if she did."

"How can you possibly know that?" Ronda was going red in the face, her frustration growing.

"Because she's the one who got Raquel arrested in the first place." Paige responded, not taking any pleasure in it.

"How could you know that? Raquel would know if that happened."

"Would she? I don't know how the cops arrived to catch me before I finished my robbery, and I doubt they were going to tell me. What she did say was that not long after they had their fight about it, she heard sirens coming and took off. Willow called the cops on her. That she told her sister where she was, likely nobody else. Then Willow asked her to come out and the cops were waiting right outside her door to arrest her? She probably didn't see her there because she was either hidden in a police car, or was never there at all, but she told them where to find Raquel."

"Ronda, she might be right, it does all add up." Bayley admitted.

"But you don't know that, and if you tell her, she might lose it. She won't keep our deal."

"And might hurt somebody, including herself. She's got her sister on a pedestal. If we knock her off, it could destroy Raquel's world, the only thing that seems to be keeping her going in here. We can't say anything." Bayley's concern was clear.

"But if we don't, and she goes on for days, weeks, who knows how long, with no contact, what's that going to do." Paige argued.

"That's what Dan is for, he said he will put them in touch, and he will."

"Ronda, you have got to do something about this crush. You were getting so angry until right then, you can't talk about him without sounding, dare I say, happy?" Paige spoke lightly, but she meant it and Ronda knew it. Before she could answer, the buzzer sounded, and the guards made their presence known.

"That's lockup! Move it inside ladies!" Rollins shouted above everyone's voices.

"Fine, we'll leave it for now, but he better be as good as you say." Paige agreed, and left the other two to head to her own cell for the night, but even as she tried to sleep, she wasn't sure it was going to end well.

A.N.: Thanks for reading.

Who do you think is right here? Paige, and they should tell Raquel that her sister isn't coming? Bayley, that telling her is a bad idea that won't help any of them? Or Ronda, that Raquel and her sister will be reconnected through the prison counsellor?

I hope everyone has had a great holiday break, and wishing you all a happy 2024!