Okay so I got the idea for this story after watching the TV series Vis a Vis. Parting from that, the story is going to take place in a prison with Regina as an inmate and unfortunately for her, it won't be a nice place to be. There will be some subjects that could be triggering to some people so I have to warn you about possible violence, abuse, lots of swearing, sex, drugs, self-harm and sexual harassment to name a few (not all of them will fall on Regina or Robin). Also, it can a bit dark when it comes to the characters and they will all be messing up a lot so please bear with me.
Anyway, this chapter is just an intro to set the premise and no, I don't know anything about prison so everything here could be completely inaccurate. Other than that enjoy!
INTRO
If there was a thing that could really change your life in every imaginable way, it was being convicted and sentenced for murder. Or attempted murder in Regina's case, but because apparently there was no distinction when it came to intention in the eyes of the judge who passed the ruling, she was not even going to bother pointing out that they were two very different things.
It didn't matter anyway, what the judge said, what she did or didn't do… it was all irrelevant once you were locked in; because once you were serving your sentence, the only thing that mattered was how you coped with it all. How you survived.
That was one of the most significant changes of life behind bars, acquiring this... brutal sense of survival that would make you do anything and everything to keep afloat. Then there was getting used to have people telling you what to do and when to do it, there was living with a constant chip on your shoulder and of course, the hardest of them all, learning that there were times when it was better to swallow your pride and just go with the flow.
That last one she learned the hard way and she was still struggling to get a full hang on it, but as it happened, it was an essential if you didn't want to have problems… especially with the guards.
But then again maybe that was her problem, that some days she woke up not giving a damn about who she pissed off and what kind of trouble she could get from it. Rivalries with other inmates, solitary confinement courtesy of the prison guards or even more time added to her sentence; whatever the consequences she wouldn't care, after all she was already carrying a life imprisonment on her back so it wasn't like she had anything to loose.
And people who didn't have anything to loose rarely harbored any fear of what was to come.
Besides she wasn't in Disney where she needed to play nice, nooo… she was in prison and in there what ruled was the law of the jungle, meaning that if you didn't stomp your feet every now and then you were going to end up eaten alive.
As she saw it, it was either being the prey or the hunter and she was in for a long time to let herself be subjected.
So yes… overall prison definitely changed your life and it changed you. From your psyche to your routine and the boundaries you were willing to cross…
It was like she once read, the only way to escape the abyss was to look at it, gauge it, sound it out and descend into it… and she, oh she definitely descended into it… now her next step was to escape it.
XxXxXxXxX
Robin Locksley has been on his third cup of coffee that the day when he received the call from the warden's assistant to show into the office as soon as he could. He has also been thirty minutes away from ending a double shift that actually felt like a triple so the call wasn't exactly well received.
He was tired as fuck and the shitty coffee he was pouring into his system would only fuel him enough for the drive home. Meaning that whatever it was that Blanchard wanted, it better be quick.
Of course, he didn't say that on the phone nor did he mention it once he was finally at her office, first because the woman was his boss and saying that would be out of place and second, because curiosity won over him as soon as he walked in.
It was just that the image that received him when he stepped into the office was that of his superior and Warden of Storybrooke's Women Penitentiary, Mary Margaret Blanchard, sitting behind her desk while another woman, a blonde he has never seen before sat across from her, both apparently waiting for him.
"Locksley," His boss received him with a peculiar smile he couldn't quite recognize as one of her usual cheery ones. "Why don't you sit down for a while?"
Narrowing his eyes in Blanchard's direction, Robin did as he was told, taking a seat right beside the blonde.
"Umm, so this is agent Emma Swan from the FBI and… she will be working in this facility for the time being…"
"Okay." He said tentatively as he shook the woman's hands. "And when you say working here you mean it as in…?"
"Undercover. You have an inmate that's right in the middle of one of our biggest cases and we believe she is withholding a lot of intel that could help us."
The one who answered has been Swan. He looked at her as she said that and then his eyes lowered to the documents resting over the desk.
It was Regina Mills' file.
"Mills..." He said, his curiosity picking up. He even reached for the papers, eyeing them over as the tip of his tongue pushed against the inside of his upper teeth. "And what does any of this has to do with me?"
Clearing her throat, Mary Margaret leaned forward, her hands resting over the wooden desk. "Agent Swan is going undercover as an inmate in our prison. Her assignment will be hers only but we are going to fully cooperate however we can and I think it's obvious she's going to need someone from our team down there for whatever she may need. It has to be someone trustworthy and who won't spill the beans and congratulations, you are our man."
For a few seconds, Robin just stared at his boss straight in the eye, trying to dig out of them how serious she was. He has been hoping to get a sike from her so that he could laugh it off and get the hell out of there, but all he saw on his superior's stare was an apologetic glint.
"Bloody fantastic." He scoffed, running a hand down the growing stubble taking over his jaw because the last thing he needed in his life right in that moment was getting in the middle of a Federal investigation.
"I will also need you to tell me everything you know about Regina Mills."
Blowing out a breath, Robin placed the file in the same spot it has been when he picked it up.
What could he say to that? He knew Regina Mills as well as any other person in that prison, which was basically none at all.
"I'm pretty sure you'll learn more reading that file that listening to what I know about her, because I don't know anything other than what's there. She has collected quite a few shots, she's been in solitary quite a lot as well and she usually wakes before the siren for her shower. Other than that…" He shrugged, trying to remember if he has overheard the woman talking about something specific.
He hadn't.
As far as he knew, she kept mostly to herself and rarely mingled with inmates other than her cellmates.
"I memorized everything that's on that file already. She came into this prison ten months ago, convicted of attempted murder. She pleaded innocent and alleged it was self-defense, but still she got a life sentence for shooting twice this man right here, Mr. Gold." Emma said, taking out of her bag a picture of a middle age man getting out of a car. "Now Gold has been under our eye for years; we know he is on top of the trafficking movement all over the east coast, from drugs to people, contracts… everything you could ever imagine as well as extortion and probably fraud, but we haven't been able to pin anything on him yet."
Robin nodded. "Yeah I remember the trial and all the media frenzy…" As well as he remembered seeing Mills all over the news as numerous reporters tried to get a statement out of her. She never said anything though, she just walked with her chin held up high, her designer's sunglasses in place, fancy clothes that looked expensive as fuck and her dark hair as well as her make up always impeccable.
Her case has been all over the news; Gold was a very powerful man when it came to business and she has been an associate of his or something like that… that's why he remembered, because of that and because he has been surprised at the judge's ruling.
It has been ridiculous because who really got a life sentence for shooting someone and not even killing him?
So yes, he recalled all that… he also remembered noticing how he has never seen someone look so stoic after getting such a sentence. She didn't flinch or cry or reacted on any kind of way. She just took it as it was.
He has found that odd and when they finally brought her in he made sure to keep an eye on her, first because he has been low-key awestruck by her beauty once live and in person and second, because as head of security, he has been sure her high-profile case as well as that way she had of looking at everyone as if they were way below her was going to get her in trouble with the other girls sooner rather than later.
He has been right, and before the week was over she got into a fight that sent her straight into solitaire.
After that his attention has shifted to his own personal issues and Regina became just another inmate. She got in trouble for time to time and he himself has written her a few shots, noticing that she was not stoic anymore but that she started to shape her behavior to one more unruly and even defiant.
He guessed it worked for her as the fights with other inmates became less and less the more claws she showed, but she became kind of a pain in the ass for all the guards in Block B.
"We are almost positive that her sentence is what it is because Gold has the court house on his payroll. That's the word on the street. There's also a strong rumor than before the dispute that lead to their confrontation, Regina embezzled a lot of money from him and what's worse for the son of a bitch, that she has a pen drive with hundredths of pages that can incriminate Gold and all his shady associates and that right there is what we need, we need to get that information as soon as possible before Golds gets it himself."
"And you think that walking in there will make her tell you all that info you want?" He chuckled, thinking that this Emma was in for quite a long journey.
He didn't know Regina that well, but he highly doubted it was going to be easy as that.
"No, I know she won't. She's a brick wall, so I'll have to do whatever it takes to get it out of her. I'll try to befriend her, if that doesn't work I'll beat it out of her and if she still won't talk I'll drug her and make sing."
"Okay so this… I don't think I can allow you to do the last two." Mary Margaret said with a nervous chuckle as Swan just smiled. "I won't put my personnel to stand aside and let you abuse out inmates either."
"I hope it won't come to that. But if I don't do it myself then someone else will, because last I heard is that Gold has now someone here under his payroll to get the information too. It's probably another inmate and trust me, she won't try to befriend her first."
"Oh boy." Blanchard sighed. Robin just checked the hour on his phone and saw that it was his time to clock out.
"So there's that and there's also the fact that we believe Mills is up to something. The woman is cunning and if she actually has the information and the money, she has the means to do a lot of things even if she's in here. Her sister… we've been keeping an eye on her entire family but this woman disappeared from our radar just after she came here to visit so there's quite a chance Mills is already laying her cards and we need to see what hand she has. That's why I need to know everything about her. Who does she talk to, when, how, is she dealing, is she drugging herself, how many tines she uses the bathroom and how many hours of sleep is she getting? I need to know it all."
"Well, she has come out clean in all her tests so I don't think she's taking drugs."
"So when are you going in?" Robin asked, getting a little impatient. It was getting late and his body was resenting the lack of sleep.
"She's going in now, so after she goes through the whole process I need you to take her inside. I know there are actually two currently spaces available in Mill's cell so there's that."
Groaning a little and shifting on his chair, Robin closed his eyes while shaking his head. There were no spaces available in that cell and Blanchard knew that but hey, what could he do? It was his boss and the feds so he would do what needed to be done.
He only knew that was definitely going to need another coffee for this.
Now, it took Swan another hour and a half to be ready, after all she went through the whole process as any other inmate. By the time Robin was walking her to Mills' cell in Block B he was a bit cranky.
"So what can you tell me about Regina Mills that could help me get a head start?"
"She won't talk. She's not exactly the friendly type."
"Crap, does that means I'll have to go straight into roughening her up?"
Unable to hold it, Robin snorted. "Good luck with that, I mean don't let shorty over there fool you, she's not as defenseless as she looks. When she came in others tried to rough her up too and she surprised them by fighting back. I don't know how, some guards say she has a black belt in some kind of martial arts crap or something like that, but the thing is that she has left quite a few broken noses, a dislocated shoulder and yes, even a fractured humerus."
"Really? Hmm just how I like them, fiery. They break harder like that. Anyway, what else is there to know, what about the cellmates?"
"For now it will be you, Mills and Mal Eficent. This one, she's a bit unstable at times but she's harmless. She used to be stoned all of the time but since we put her in the same cell as Mills she has been clean."
"So Regina got herself a girlfriend?"
Robin hummed, his lips twisting as he thought about the question asked. "Nah, I don't really think so. They are very protective of each other but I don't think they have that kind of relationship. I think Mal is with Ruby Lucas now but I could be wrong, these women get in and out of relationships so fast that you can't keep track."
"Interesting…"
"I'm ending my shift now, you think you'll be okay in there?"
Chuckling, Swan lifted her shoulders. "I know how to handle these bitches, relax."
They didn't talk the rest of the way, first because he didn't feel like it and also because he was told that she was to be treated as any other inmate and well, if there was anything he knew was that he didn't want to get involved with prisoners. He has seen how messy that could be so he rather keep his distance.
It was only when he was in front of the infamous cell that he spoke. "Emma Swan, cell 316."
As soon as he said that, he saw movement from inside the cell and immediately Mal Eficent jumped from her bunk bed. She was wild looking as ever and the grin on her face spoke volumes of what she was thinking.
"We're not taking any more cellies, no vacancies in here."
"There actually are two vacancies so move out of the way." He said, his tone still and firm.
Mal grunted, moving aside and Swan took the chance to walk in. Robin did as well, his eyes searching and finding the woman of the moment, Regina Mills herself.
She was sitting crossed legged over the top bunk bed on the left, watching in silence as Emma put her things on the lower bunk to the right.
"That's Ursula's bed." Mills said as Eficent agreed. "The other one's Ruby's so like Mal said, no vacancies here. Move her to another cell."
Robin's eyebrow shoot up at the brunette's tone. "Swan stays. When Sea or even Lucas get out of solitary then we'll find them another cell."
"No, no, no, no… you can't do that. Take Blondie out." Mal said, standing in front of Emma and swirling a strand of her hair around her forefinger. "Ursula sings so pretty, can you sing?"
Robin watched that little interaction, but because he knew Mal was no threat whatsoever for the FBI agent, he just focused on the way Regina gracefully climbed down her bed so that she could stand in front of him.
"There are like a dozen cells with actual vacancies, pick one and take this Taylor Swift wannabe there."
Not really in the mood to deal with her attitude but unable to forget what Emma implied when it came to the woman being there just because this Gold bribed the judge into giving her a life sentence, Robin tried to keep his tone neutral even when he was about to throw a menace.
"Another complain and I'll write some shoots for each one of you."
Regina scoffed, Mal slapped her own face.
"Are you going to add more time for my sentence as well so I get forever and a day? Write your damn shot, but Blondie is not staying here."
"Regina…" Mal hissed. "They'll take you to hole again."
Robin pursed his lips as he looked down on the woman. She wasn't that tall to begin with but she acted like she was seven feet height, she was even staring right into his eyes, glare blazing and lips quirked into an annoyed snarl.
He took that moment to think that yes, rotten attitude an all the woman was pretty. Ten months in that hellhole and the natural glow hasn't faded yet; her skin was clear and smooth, the warm chocolate of her eyes were beautifully framed with her long eyelashes and her rosy colored lips had no right to look so inviting.
Not that he meant to let those thoughts leave his brain; unjustly there or not, Mills was a prisoner and he was the guard, meaning that he couldn't harbor any kind of interest for her.
"How about I take that nice job you have at the library and put you in maintenance with Whale in infirmary. A lifetime cleaning vomit and blood sounds like a long time."
Regina clenched her jaw but after a few more seconds of fixing her eyes on his, she flashed him a sly grin, her tongue running over her lips ever so slowly. "Fine, she stays, but don't expect Miss Taylor Swift to come out unscratched once Ursula is back. You know how territorial she is." With that said, Regina climbed back into her bed. "By the way, you're an asshole."
"Oh but he's so pretty." Mal said as he clicked his tongue to the roof of his mouth.
"That's a shot for you, Mills. A couple more and you'll join your friends in solitary. Maybe I should move all your things there and make that your permanent home. Who knows, maybe that way you'll learn to keep that smart mouth of yours shut." He said, turning a blind eye at the way she flipped him off.
He made as if he didn't even see her. That was life as a prison officer, you had to keep firm and even throw a few threats to keep some of the woman there at bay but you couldn't be totally authoritarian… at least he wasn't.
Besides, he couldn't keep his brain from going around the possibility that this woman was there unjustly. It was messed up and that stupid part of him that was too empathetic kind of wanted to break free.
Not that he could do anything about it so clearing his throat, he sent her one last glance. "Swan better stay safe in here, no monkey business you two."
Then, turning around he left the cell with the intention of getting out of there and straight towards his apartment.
He just hoped that by the time his next shift started, that Swan would have already gotten all the info she needed without using violence, because he honestly didn't know which side he should take if all hell broke loose in that cell…
TBC