Strange Roommates-A Gabi story

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Strange Roommates

CHAPTER 1

Gabi Hernandez placed her shampoo and other toiletries on the top shelf of the small battered locker and closed the door and turned to examine the small cell that had been her home for the past five months and probably would be for the next decade. It contained a stainless steel sink, a mirror, a toilet. two lockers on opposite sides of the room and two iron bedframes with mattresses on top of them to sleep on. She glanced at the pictures of her seventeen month old daughter Arianna Grace Horton that were taped on the wall next to her locker that was the farthest from the cell door that currently stood ajar, which was allowed during the day in Gen Pop at least. She kissed the palm of her left hand as she was left-handed and ran them over the photos as was her morning ritual. She lingered on the photo from the Fourth of July picnic in which the child who had the blond hair and fair complexion of her father Will Horton was clad in a pink bathing suit with green lace trimming gazed into the camera her hazel eyes grave. She was standing on the lap of Tad "T" Stevens one of Gabi and Will's oldest and dearest friends who had become a frequent visitor since her arrival at the Stanton Correctional Facility for Women. T wore his trademark cat-that-ate-the-canary grin on his face and mischievous twinkle in his eyes.

Her other favorite picture was from just a few weeks ago when Will and his partner Sonny Kiriakis had brought Ari up for a visit and she sat on Gabi's lap smiling almost shyly wearing a floral print dress.

Gabi sighed and moved over to her bed and picked up the blue denim button up shirt that along with a gray T-shirt, and blue jeans was the official "uniform" the inmates wore in this place. The back of the shirt had DOC in large block letters and the front had a small white patch that had the numbers #1045678900 which was her official prisoner ID number and it was also printed on the ID bracelet she wore on her left wrist.

She figured that since the prison administration couldn't actually brand the inmates like cattle they figured putting the numbers on clothing and bracelets was the next best thing. She studied herself in the mirror as she slowly buttoned up her shirt, she was a stunningly beautiful young woman (although she never thought of herself that way) with large brown eyes and a naturally tanned complexion that fit her Hispanic heritage. She flipped the tresses of her jet-black hair which had cascaded down her back when she had first arrived at the prison but she recently had gotten it cut to shoulder length and was glad she did. For one thing it was far more manageable when she showered as she had just returned from the showers twenty minutes ago , plus the other inmates tended to frown on anyone who looked like they spent too much time primping which women who maintain long hair tend to look whether they actually spend a long time in front of the mirror or not. She had gotten a few sideways looks but one of the few things Nick Fallon had told her he learned about surviving life in prison is that the smart thing is stay as far under the radar as you can. She was determined to do that so the long locks had to go.

She wiped away the tears that always started to form whenever she thought of Nick, she had done what she did because she believed he had left her no choice; with his constant lies, manipulation and threats both veiled and unveiled. If she hadn't had Arianna things might have worked out differently, she might have gone off with Nick if it meant he would leave Will, Sonny, Sami and everybody else in peace. But his grasping possessiveness had started to extend to the baby and with his unpredictable and violent temper she couldn't allow Arianna anywhere near him. If she could take back her actions of May 9th 2014 she would in a heartbeat but that wasn't going to happen.

Nick was dead by her hand and there was nothing she could do about it other then pay the price the law deemed appropriate. That price included missing out on big parts of her daughter's childhood. She had no doubt Will and Sonny would keep their promise about keeping her "apart of Arianna's life" as much as they could but that didn't change the fact countless moments like birthdays, holidays and other memories Arianna would have would be permanently marred by the fact that her mother wasn't there for them. That thought broke her heart.

She sighed and tried to shake such thoughts from her mind and studied herself in the mirror once more. She marveled at the fact that she had graduated from high school only three years ago. In that amount of time she had become a teen model, wife, divorcee (well her marriage to Nick had been annulled but she didn't know if annullee was actually a term), mother and convict and she was still four months shy of her twenty-second birthday. She felt at least twenty years older and was genuinely surprised she didn't look it.

"Attention," a gruff voice announced over the prison's PA system, "the following inmates have visitors and are to report to the main courtyard within the next ten minutes: Kristina Adamson, Caroline Evans, Maryanne Forbes, Gabriella Hernandez,...." There were several other names mentioned after hers but Gabi tuned them out as she rushed out of her cell and towards the door at the opposite end of her cell block where a guard stood and already waved a couple of the other women called through. Gabi had been at Stanton long enough to be allowed free reign through most of the prison grounds but inmates were always escorted to and from the visitors center by a guard or guards usually in groups of eight to ten. This was done to keep possible contraband from being smuggled into or out of prison grounds. Prisoners were required to gather in the courtyard where they were frisked and scanned with metal detectors.

 

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She walked as fast as she could without running which was not permitted to the main courtyard where the group had partially assembled. She sighed when she saw one of the two corrections officers was Kurt Hawkins. He was a reasonably good-looking dark-haired guy of average height in his early forties with a receding hairline, there was nothing overtly threatening about him but there was something about the way he looked at her and spoke to her that made her want to run into the shower and scrub herself raw under a steaming hot shower. She wished she could avoid him completely but he always seemed to be where she was.

He was looking at the clipboard in his hand he was accompanied by a tall striking young African-American woman in her mid-to-late twenties. Gabi knew that she was new to the staff but she hadn't spoken to her, she held the metal detector in her hand to Gabi's relief, maybe she wouldn't have to deal with Hawkins touching her.

"Gabriella," Hawkins said glancing up from the clipboard and smirking, "so glad you could join us. You know the drill by now." He jerked his head toward the ten-foot tall chain link fence topped with barbed wire where the women were lined up their backs to the guards with hands grasping the fence their feet spread. Gabi silently assumed the position when Hawkins said, "Okay Kim, they're all yours."

Gabi felt a small but sharp kick to her ankles and a woman's voice said, "Spread them a bit further," she silently obeyed and felt the woman pat her down with her hands and then run the metal detector along her sides. "Turn around and keep your arms and legs spread." Gabi suppressed a sigh at the stupidity of this exercise, she never had anything in the five months she had been there and would NEVER have anything for however long she would be there, but this was her life and she silently did as she was told. She turned and saw the woman's name tag said "Mason." Mason repeated the routine with both her hands and the wand. She turned to Hawkins and said, "They're clean."

He nodded and said, "All right ladies, fall in." The women lined up single file with their hands held in front of them as though they were cuffed and followed the officers across the grounds to a concrete block of a building with a black door, Hawkins ran his key card across the monitor which responded with a loud "buzz", he pulled the door open and motioned the procession forward with a slight bowing motion.

Gabi entered the large cafeteria sized visitors room and looked around and at the opposite end she saw Will holding Arianna who was standing on his lap wearing an adorable yellow dress, her back to the door in seeming contemplation of her favorite toy; a stuffed lamb that she held by the leg.

"Oh my gosh," Gabi said as she approached, Will smiled as he stood and said "Hi." Holding out his arm to give her a somewhat awkward one-armed hug since he had their daughter in his arms.
"Hi," Gabi said as she took Arianna in her arms, "hey there, baby girl." She said kissing her daughter and smoothing her hair with her hand.

"Mama," the child chirped and rested her head on Gabi's shoulder.

"This is a surprise," Gabi said looking around as she sat down, and settled Ari on her lap. She could sense something was off as she looked around the waiting room, "Where's Sonny?"

"Actually he didn't know I was coming today," Will said somewhat sheepishly.

"What?" Gabi said startled, "Why not? Will is there something going on with you guys?"

"No, no we're fine," Will said somewhat too quickly she thought, "but there is something going on that I just felt it would be better if we talked about it privately." He looked around somewhat ruefully at the large room filled with guards and inmates. "Well as privately as we can I guess I should say."

"Ok, Will you're starting to scare me a little bit, what's going on?"

 

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Will exhaled a deep breath and rubbed the back of his neck. Gabi knew him well enough to know that these were signs that he wasn't sure of how she was going to react to whatever it was he had to say, she felt a knot start to form in the pit of her stomach.

"All right, it's probably better if I just put it out in the open," Will said, "I went over to my mom's house to see how she was handling things with the kids after E.J..."

"Oh my God," Gabi interjected, "I'm so sorry, I can't believe I didn't ask how are Sami and the kids doing?"

"It's been rough, but she's been doing her best to hold things together especially for the kids."

Gabi nodded and held Arianna a bit tighter. If it hadn't been for E.J. DiMera going to bat for her the way he did in court she wouldn't have gotten the plea deal for 10-to-20 years and easily could have gotten life in prison especially if they tacked on charges concerning her involvement in Melanie Jonas's kidnapping two years ago. She knew if it wasn't for E.J. she could have been shipped to a correctional facility on the other side of the state, where if she saw Arianna at all it would be through a thick glass window separating them. Stanton was no picnic but it was only an hour and a half drive from Salem and it housed first-time offenders the majority of whom were not much older then Gabi, so she wasn't housed with super hardened criminals.

Gabi saw the battles her brother Rafe had fought with E.J. mostly over Sami and she knew the guy could be cold and ruthless as well as an all around jerk. She still bristled at the condescending way he would refer to her as "my dear" in his oh so urbane British accent when she first started having to associate with him during the ordeal with Nick.

But over time he started to thaw towards her and genuine friendship developed between them. She was devastated when she heard that he had been fatally shot in an apparent mugging gone wrong. She would always be grateful for all he had done for her.

"The kids have to be going through hell right now," she said sympathetically.

"Yeah they are," Will sighed, "but they're also a lot stronger then any of us have giving them credit for."

"They would have to be, look at who their parents are."

"Yeah that's true," Will sighed again. "Anyway getting back to what I was saying, I went over to see my mom and some people had been over to the house and they were from Universal Studios in Hollywood."

"What?" Gabi said in disbelief, "Will is this some kind of joke?"

"No this is the honest to God truth," Will said his eyes widening like a kid at Christmas. "They had seen the TruVista magazine article I wrote about my mom and EJ and they told her they want to be in the Sami Brady DiMerra business."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

 

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"It means they want to make a movie about my mom's life, they already had a contract drawn up." He paused clearly expecting her to say something but all she could do was stare at him dumbstruck.

"That's not all, while I was there Bruce Greenblatt who was the main executive showed up and said that our meeting was 'Kismet', 'Perfection,' I'm not kidding those were his exact words."

"And what did that mean?"

"It meant they were drawing up another contract for me!" His eyes were wide like he couldn't believe what he was saying himself. "Gabi on the basis of the article I wrote they want me to write the screenplay can you believe it?"

She almost screamed and jumped out of her seat, but she remembered she had Arianna on her lap and where she was any type of disturbance even a happy one was frowned on by the staff.

"Will that's amazing, I'm so happy for you." She gathered Ari in her arms and rose giving him another one-armed hug then she looked at his smiling face and saw something in his eyes; a look of hesitation. "But there's more to the story isn't there?"

Will nodded as they sat back down, "The thing is my mom and the kids are moving to L.A for six months to begin putting this together." He paused once again, "And they want me there to meet with producers, actors and whatnot as the script develops."

Gabi stared at him speechless once again. Arianna was babbling and trying to squirm her way off Gabi's lap. She absently readjusted her daughter so she was standing up which seemed to satisfy her squirminess. She kissed the child's head.

"So you're telling me you and Sonny are taking our daughter and moving to L.A.?" She asked a catch in her voice. Then she realized something, "So the reason Sonny isn't here is because you didn't want me to feel double-teamed."

Will sighed, "First off Sonny isn't coming with us."

Gabi blinked, "Why not?"

"Because unbeknownst to me, Sonny has been making plans to expand Club TBD he's even been looking at property for a new location."

"Why wouldn't he tell you that?"

Will shrugged, "I don't know I guess he felt that with everything going on with my mom that it would be another thing to worry about. I don't really understand it myself." He sighed again, "But you are right the reason why I didn't come with Sonny is because I felt that this was something that needed to be settled between the two of us before I made my decision." He caught her look of surprise. "That's right I haven't decided yet, I wouldn't do something like this without including you in the decision. Gabi, if you really feel strongly that you do not want me moving to L.A. with Ari temporarily then that will be the end of it."

 

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He held up his hand as she opened her mouth to respond, "But before you say anything I want you to hear me out and consider a few things can you do that?"

She nodded reluctantly.

"First off the main reason I'm even considering going is because my mom really needs to have all her kids close to her right now. I know she has that in Salem but they need to get out of that mausoleum they are living in and go somewhere they can have a clean slate. Especially Johnny and Sydney they don't need to be reminded of the fact that their dad is gone every time they turn around, they are well aware of that. Getting set up in a new place takes time and as much as mom tries to hide it I don't think she's emotionally ready to take that on by herself yet. She needs an extra set of hands to help out with some of the heavy lifting for a little while."

Will paused as he collected his thoughts. "Now as far as the job offer is concerned that is amazing I never would have thought something like this could come from that article; especially after the way it wrecked hell on so many lives, but the most important part is what it could mean for Arianna's future. Screenwriting is very lucrative but most of that money is going into her college fund. And if everything works out and more jobs come from this she could end up with the best education that money can buy."

"And finally when I said that Ari and I would be moving temporarily I meant just that if something actually comes of this I will make it clear that my home and life is in Salem. They can reach me by phone and I can fly out to L.A. to meet producers and actors. I'm in L.A. to help my family, period."
He licked his lips, "Plus, you know that I will keep you informed the daily e-mails and videos will continue just as they have been but I don't have to tell you that do I?"

"No, I know that."

"Finally it's not like I'm actually going to be gone the entire six months, I will be coming back to spend time with Sonny and you will see Arianna. Now admittedly that might be only once a month depending on how often I can get back but you will not have to wait six months to hold Ari again, and as I said that is only going to be temporary."

Then he grimaced and said, "But the thing is my mom and the kids are leaving later today and she really wants me and Ari to fly out with her. So I can't really give you time to think it over."

"What?" Gabi said in disbelief, "Will, come on this is-" She paused as words failed her. How could he drop something like this on her and seriously expect an immediate response?

"I know, I know," he said leaning towards her squeezing both of her shoulders, "I know this is a lot to take in and its crazy how this all happened so all of the sudden. I'm so sorry to spring this on you like this, it's totally unfair. But like I said I wanted you to feel included in the decision and not just try to tell you how it's going to be." He then looked like he wished he hadn't said that.

"Like I pretty much did with the modeling job in New York last year," she said.

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to bring that up."

"Don't be sorry that's exactly what I did." She sighed and ran a hand through her hair and smiled at Arianna who was gravely holding up her lamb for inspection, "Yes I see that, sweetheart," she said kissing the child then turned her attention back to Will. "Look can I have five minutes at least to think this through, please?" She didn't even try to keep the note of desperation out of her voice.

"Of course."

She absently rubbed her daughter's tummy as she felt her mind race at 500 miles per minute or so it felt like to her. She kept coming back to the fact that he had indeed done her the courtesy of consulting her which was more she had done for him concerning moving to New York with Ari.

Her selfish knee-jerk reaction to the modeling offer that had only occurred due to Nick's manipulations was one of the several stupid things she had done that had caused so much pain. She shook her head, focusing on the past was only serving as a distraction. She glanced at Will who couldn't keep the anxiety he was clearly feeling off his face.

She thought about what he said and couldn't really see any glaring holes in his arguments and any that existed he made sure to cover. This was an amazing opportunity and she had put him through so much over the course of the past two years. First by quickly agreeing to Nick's idiotic plan to lie to everyone and claim that Arianna was his child and dismissing Will's obvious reluctance to go along with it.

Then she willfully turned a blind eye to all of Nick's machinations to keep Will out of his own child's life that were driven by homophobia because she believed or more accurately desperately wanted to believe that she and Nick were happy. She owed Will and there were no two ways about it.

Plus she knew that if she objected and Will decided to go anyway there was nothing she could do about it. She knew that technically she and Will still had what could be considered shared custody of Arianna and she had parental rights but she also knew that would do her as much good as a handful of magic beans. Her incarceration reduced those technicalities to no more then legal footnotes.

If Will didn't go to L.A. because she said she didn't want him to, that would be due to his respecting her wishes nothing more. But this was such an amazing opportunity and could she really be okay with preventing him from taking advantage of it?

She sighed and kissed the top of Ari's head then raised her eyes to meet Will's.

"You know," she said as nonchalantly as she could, "I have been told I look a lot like Vanessa Hudgens."

 

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Will looked at her blankly then slowly a smile spread across his face, "Does that mean what I think it means?"

"Yes Will, I'm fine with you taking Ari with you to L.A. for six months."

"Gabi, I need you to be absolutely certain that you're okay with this."

"I admit that I really don't like the idea of there being bigger gaps between visits especially because I know Ari is going to change a lot in that time," She raised her hand as it looked like Will was going to object. "Don't try to argue with that Will, that's just basic biology. But I'm pretty much going to miss out on those changes whether they happen in L.A. or Salem anyway and that's also a fact. I totally understand that Sami and the kids need you right now, and they should absolutely be your top priority. And like you said, this could lead to amazing things for Ari's future and that is what is most important here." She sighed.

"And, finally, what it boils down to is that I'm the one who screwed up, not you. I have no right to ask you to let this opportunity pass because I'm in here."

Arianna giggled as Gabi gave her a little bounce. "You get to go on an airplane honey, that's going to be so much fun." She turned back to Will. "So yes, I'm absolutely certain that I'm fine with you doing this."

"I don't know what to say, Gabi, other then thank you."

"Did you really think I would say no?"

"I didn't really know to be honest, I certainly wouldn't blame you if you did say no considering the current circumstances."

"Actually the current circumstances are exactly why I couldn't say no. I can't ask you not to live your life because I can't live mine right now. That would just be selfish and I know that I did some really selfish things not so along ago but that's not who I want to be anymore."

"It never was," Will insisted, "you just got sucked in by the wrong guy."

"It would really be easy and tempting to blame all the bad choices I've made these past couple of years on Nick and the influence I let him have on me," she said. "But Will, that would not be true, everything that went down with Chad and Melanie happened before I ever met Nick. That was all on me, just like what I did to Nick is as well."

"Yeah, you took a dark turn but that's because you were still a mess over losing your sister. And I know that the way I totally mishandled our relationship when I started to realize I'm gay hurt you badly. You were dealing with a lot of crap on your own that you shouldn't have been. You were in a very vulnerable place when Nick came along."

"Will please!" She cut him off and he looked visibly shocked at the heat in her reaction, she sighed as she reigned her temper in. "Look, I can't keep having this conversation with you and Rafe. I love both of you guys to death you know that, but for some reason you seem to think it helps to have you make excuses for me then try to convince me that I'm somehow not responsible for the things I've done, but it doesn't help at all."

He stared at her as if he was shocked that she was saying this, when they both knew it wasn't the first time they've had this conversation. In fact she distinctly remembered having it when he came to see her right after she confessed to Nick's murder.

She decided to try a different tack. "I think I've mentioned that I've been going to therapy since I've been here haven't I?"

He nodded.

"Good, I thought so, anyway one of main points they make about surviving is to accept what you've done to end up here. And Will I've accepted that. Yes, Nick was horrible to me in the end; and he was emotionally abusive. I still firmly believe in a moment of anger he could have hurt Ari very badly. He was a threat to her I believe that. But Will that doesn't change the fact that I also believe that in the beginning of our relationship what Nick and I had was real. I also believe there was a part of him that sincerely wanted to change and get better, that just wasn't the part of him that was in control."

Once again she felt tears form and quickly blinked them away then continued. "So even though I was conflicted I still made the decision to go into your and Sonny's room and take the bag out of the closet, take out the gun, load it and put it in the diaper bag and go to the park to meet Nick. Then I put three bullets into a man I once loved very much. I made that decision. I accepted it and that makes having to live this way a little bit easier."

"But Will every time you to try to make excuses for me, it feels like I'm being undermined. I know that's not what you are trying to do I know that, but it's still how it feels."

"Wow, I didn't realize that."

She smiled sadly. "I know you didn't that's why I'm telling you this."

"I'm sorry if I made this harder for you in anyway."

"It's okay, I know both you and Rafe have only been trying to help, I'm not mad at all. It's just that the best way to help is to accept that even though there were extenuating circumstances they don't change the fact that I'm still guilty."

Will nodded then stood up, "I need to use the men's room."

"Okay, be sure to let one of the guards know what you're doing."

As Will moved to the small alcove on the right hand side of the visitors room that held the restrooms Gabi once again stood Arianna up in her lap and turned her so she was looking her in the eyes. "Well, Ari, it looks like you get to go on an adventure, it's too bad you won't remember it." She sighed, "But that's what I want for you, to experience new things and new places; to not miss out on anything."

Once again she felt the tears start to come but this time she let it happen.

"I know that you are only to be gone for a few months and Daddy will send pictures and videos just like he always does but you know what? I'm going to miss you more then I already do even though I didn't think that was possible."

Arianna met her mother's gaze unblinking, her face mirroring the expression of concern she had worn when Gabi was escorted from the courthouse. Gabi would never forget that look for as long as she lived and now it hurt even more. She embraced the child.

"You have a beautiful daughter," a voice said from behind Gabi to her right. Startled she stood up quickly and turned to see Hawkins standing there with a strange glint in his eye. This was one of the things that so unnerved Gabi about the guy, he had a way of coming up on her silently.

"Oh um, thank you," Gabi said flustered.

"Is everything all right, officer?" Will asked having come back from the restroom much to her relief.

"Yes sir," Hawkins replied his gaze locked on Gabi's eyes. "I just couldn't help noticing what a beautiful daughter you and Gabriella have."

"Well, thank you," Will said obviously at a loss for words.

"Sorry to interrupt," Hawkins gave Will a small nod then turned and walked away.

"Are you okay?" Will asked noticing how shaken Gabi was.

"Yeah, he just surprised me is all."

"What did he really want?"

"I-I don't know, I don't think he wanted anything in particular. I guess he thinks it's funny to see if he can shake the inmates up a little bit."

 

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"Well it looks like he can definitely shake you up," Will paused as he looked at her more closely. "Gabi, has he been harassing you?"

"No," she sighed, "like I said he just surprised me is all. Can you please not make this into a big deal and just drop it, please?"

"Okay," Will said unconvinced, "if that's what you want."

"Thank you," she held Arianna a bit tighter.

He sighed, "My mom is planning on heading to the airport at four and I still need to pack so I'm sorry to do this but I'm afraid I'm going to have to cut things short." She nodded he grinned and took his cell phone out of his jeans pocket. "But not without a few pictures first."

She smiled and sat back down and said "Smile, Ari." Will took a couple of shots of mother and daughter then knelt down beside Gabi and cocked his head next to hers and held out the cell phone so he could take a selfie of all three of them.

Then he stood up and began pushing buttons on the phone. "I'm e-mailing these to your account right now so you can print them out right away." After he finished he pocketed the phone. "I'll also send you an e-mail as soon as we get off the plane at LAX so you'll know we arrived safe and sound."

"I appreciate that," she said nodding.

"Just so there isn't any misunderstanding I have to ask one last time; you are ABSOLUTELY POSITIVE that you are good with this?"

"Yes Will, I am ABSOLUTELY POSTIVE that I am fine with you taking Arianna to L.A."

"All right then." He said and began gathering up Ari's toys and putting them in the diaper bag. Gabi suppressed a sigh and also rose to her feet then gave Arianna a bear hug and large kiss on the forehead.

"We'll see you soon sweetheart, be good for Daddy." Then she gave a small chuckle, "but you are always a good girl aren't you?"

"Yes she is," Will said taking the child into his arms, "I plan on coming back for the first time next month, so you are going to see her on Christmas don't worry about that."

"I'm not worried at all," she hugged him then gave Ari one last kiss. "Have a good trip."

"Sure thing," he said he gave her a small peck on the cheek and then turned and walked to the visitors exit turned and gave Gabi one final wave and nodded to the guard by the door and then he and Arianna were gone.

She sighed and walked to the prisoners exit, the guard at the door was sitting in a chair thumbing through an issue of Sports Illustrated. "Are you done?" he asked simply as he he looked up from his magazine.

"Yes sir."

He stood and wordlessly opened the door and she stepped back out into the courtyard there stood Kim Mason holding the metal detector. Gabi silently rolled her eyes then stood at the fence where the body search procedure would once again be conducted. Fortunately Hawkins wasn't there to make it feel even more unpleasant.

"You're clear," Mason said after running the wand over her the second time then turned to another inmate dismissing her.

After leaving the visitors center the inmates were allowed to go their way unescorted just as long as they went where they said they were going. Ordinarily Gabi would go to the library to start her shift but she still had another hour before that started and she really needed some alone time.

"I'm going back to the cell block, ma'am."

Mason nodded curtly. Gabi walked back to her cell block building where the door stood open but just inside the guard post was manned and the guard gave her a nod acknowleding that she had come in. She entered her cell and went immediately to the pictures on the wall. She removed the most recent picture of Arianna that she had and held it to her chest. Then she lay down on her bed and broke into sobs.

 

[Poirot]

Wow, that was just lovely, Troy, and very emotional. Thank you for sharing this with us.

 

[Troy42]

I'm glad you liked it Poirot. If there's interest, there's a second chapter, that's not quite as long, and it it explains the title. Just in case some of you were wondering "why did he call it that?" LOL

 

[susala]

Nicely written! Thanks. I am interested in chapter two!