by Erin Wade
During her residency at All Saints Hospital, she had heard about a new prison administrator who was turning the facility around. She prayed the stories about the current operations of the prison were true; otherwise, she was about to be dumped into the cesspool of all prisons.
Chapter 3
Dawn kept her eyes down, avoiding eye contact with the prisoners who made salacious remarks to her as the guards led her to her new home, a six-by-eight cell.
I can do this for two years, she thought, sitting down on the hard bed in her cage. I’ll keep my head down, do my time, and get out.
A movement in the cell next to Dawn made her jump.
“Hi, I’m Niki Sears.” A scrawny young woman stuck her hand through the bars. She pulled it back when Dawn made no move to touch it. “What’re you in here for?”
“Vehicular manslaughter,” Dawn mumbled.
“Drugs.” Niki shrugged. “I’m a drug addict.”
“How long have you been in here?”
“Six months,” Niki said, flashing a snaggletoothed smile. “Eighteen more months and I’m outta here.”
“You’ve been in here six months and you’re still using drugs. I’d think you’d be clean by now.”
“I am.” Niki smirked. “That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t take a hit of something if I had a chance.”
“Did the hospital give you something to help you withdraw?” Dawn couldn’t suppress the doctor in her.
“Yeah, a cell with nothing but a paper sheet. I’m sorry to say I ate it, used it for toilet paper, and tore it into small pieces to make a nest in the corner.”
Dawn studied the skeletal woman. She was certain Niki must have been beautiful at some point in time. Her green eyes had a haunted look, and her lips were the perfect Cupid’s bow. She had no eyebrows, and her nose had been broken. Missing teeth and a scar down the left side of her face reflected the hard life Niki had chosen.
“Listen,” Niki whispered. “Keep your head down and your mouth shut. Try to be as unobtrusive as possible. They’ll come after a looker like you.”
“They who?”
“Gotta get my beauty rest,” Niki scoffed. “It also helps to pretend to be crazy. They don’t bother crazies.”
“They who?”
Niki appeared to be asleep.
Chapter 4
For the thousandth time Val picked up her cell phone to call Mary. Mary! Her twin sister. Her best friend. Her confidant. Her rock. Mary had always been the one to make her laugh and see things through rose-colored glasses instead of the dark gray of Val’s world. Mary had convinced her she could make a difference.
Val shuffled through the stack of files on her desk. She knew she was making a difference, but God it was so slow. She had inherited the mess from hell when she accepted her present position two years ago.
A Harvard graduate with a double major in law and medicine, she had quickly made a name for herself. Her rise in the ranks had been phenomenal. Her battles had been hard fought and usually won. Losing her sister was a battle wound that might never heal.
One stupid woman not paying attention and poof, just like that Mary’s life was snuffed out. Val had heard that Dr. Dawn Fairchild had been transferred to a prison out of state. That was good. Texas prisons were notoriously hard on prisoners.
Still, it’s a shame, Val thought. Dawn Fairchild was one gorgeous woman. It’s amazing how three lives were destroyed in the blink of an eye.
And then she heard it, that little voice in her head that wouldn’t stop tormenting her: And you lied.
##
Dawn followed Lucky, a trustee inmate who had been assigned to show her the routine. Over six feet tall, Lucky was tattooed on every inch of skin Dawn could see. The tattoos ran the gamut from crosses to skulls. The sides of her face were tattooed with flames, making her look like a race car. They were obviously prison tattoos—all one color, different shades of black. She wanted to ask Lucky where she got her name but remained silent. No one has ever learned anything with their mouth open, she thought.
“What are you in for?” Lucky asked as she led Dawn to the kitchen.
“Something I didn’t do.”
“Yeah, they all say that,” Lucky snorted. “Me, I’m in for murder. Plain and simple. My girlfriend cheated on me, and I slit her throat with a kitchen knife.”
Dawn didn’t respond. Silence is the safest response. What I really want to do is run screaming from this hellhole.
Lucky chuckled. “Don’t worry, I’m not a killer. I just don’t like cheaters.”
Dawn gulped and followed the six-foot Amazon to the next room.
Lucky showed her the layout of the kitchen and then took her to the laundry room. “Don’t come in here alone,” she warned Dawn.
“This is where bad things happen to pretty women.” She trailed her fingers down Dawn’s arm. Then she moved her right hand up to touch the cleavage between Dawn’s breasts.
Dawn stood still, maintaining eye contact with Lucky. Oh God. Please don’t let this happen.
“You’re going to need a protector in here,” Lucky murmured. “A pretty woman like you. They’ll gang up on you if you don’t belong to someone.”
Lucky slid her hands from Dawn’s shoulders to her wrist and caught Dawn’s hands in hers as she pinned her against the wall of dryers with her body.
Suddenly, Niki shoved her way through the double doors leading into the laundry room. “Lucky, there’s a fight in the kitchen.”
Lucky’s eyes darted from Dawn to Niki. “Stay with her, Niki. Don’t let anything happen to her.”
“Should we call the guards or someone to break up the fight?” Dawn asked as Lucky left the room.
“Nah, there’s no fight. I was just trying to stop Lucky from staking her claim on you.”
“Oh,” Dawn squeaked. “Thank you. Did you have to cut it so close?”
Niki shrugged. “I was her bitch until I stopped complying with her demands. Then she beat me up, knocked out my front teeth, and threw me back into the shark tank. Traded me for a pack of cigarettes. I haven’t always looked like a skank. This place has a way of changing women. I’ll keep you safe as long as I can, but I’m not very strong . . . and Lucky is a hulk.”
“What do you expect of me in return?” Dawn whispered.
“Nothing,” Niki said. “But if you get out of here alive, please get me out too.”
“I will,” Dawn promised.
“I’ve been instructed to take you to the assessment center,” Lucky said as she blasted back into the room. “Niki, you need to get back to the library. You gotta be there when it opens.”
Niki nudged Dawn toward the double doors. “I was just telling Dawn that you’re someone important here. She’s lucky to have you showing her the ropes.”
Dawn was surprised at the way Lucky preened over Niki’s compliment. Niki continued to praise Lucky all the way to the assessment center. Then she waved goodbye to Dawn and winked at her. Niki knew her way around the prison and its inhabitants.
##
Dawn squirmed in the hard straight-backed chair as the woman across from her studied her file. “You’re a doctor?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“What’s your specialty?”
“I’m a surgeon and a pretty good diagnostician.” Dawn tried to be brief and to the point.
“Hmm.” The woman slid the papers back into her file. “How would you feel about working in the hospital here?”
“I’d be happy to help in any way I can.” Dawn wondered what kind of archaic equipment the facility would have.
“Fill this out. I’ll pass your request on to the warden.”
“My request?”
“If you want to work in the hospital, you must request it. If not, I’ll have someone escort you back to your cell.”
“Yes, yes, I’ll fill out the request.”
##
“How was your first day?” Niki whispered as they leaned against the bars between them.
>
“Scary.”
“Did they assign you a duty?”
“Not yet. I think they’re going to use me in the hospital.”
“God, I hope so.” Niki sighed. “That would get you out of harm’s way. You’d be housed in the hospital instead of this place.”
The clanging of iron doors announced the arrival of the guards for their last check of the night. “Pretend you’re asleep,” Niki whispered, pulling her sheet over her head as she turned to face the wall away from the guards.
Dawn did as she was told and held her breath as two guards stopped in front of her cell. “Hey, blondie, you awake?”
Dawn didn’t move. One of the guards clanged his nightstick between the bars. “You awake?”
Niki sat up. “What the hell do you want?”
“Nothing you’ve got,” the female guard huffed. “Go back to sleep, skank.”
“She’s sleeping,” Niki yelled. “She’s worn out. Leave her alone.”
“What’s going on down there?” A voice from the other end of the cellblock echoed through the unit.
“They’re messing with your woman,” Niki called out as Lucky sprinted toward them.
“Is there a problem here, officers?” Lucky asked.
“No. We were just making sure she’s okay,” the female guard answered. Then she pointed at Niki. “And you . . . you’re a troublemaker.”
“Everything’s good here,” the male guard growled. “Let’s move on. You need to get back to bed, Lucky.”
The three walked away, bantering about the blonde.
Dawn waited until the steel doors locked and then scooted to Niki’s cell. “Oh God, Niki! I’ve never been so scared in my life. Thank you.”
“Sooner or later they’ll get to you,” Niki cautioned. “Don’t fight. They’ll only hurt you more to teach you a lesson.”
##
Later that night a strangling sound pulled Dawn from a deep sleep. Her body was rigid as she tried to identify the noise. Choking! Someone is choking Niki.
Without thinking Dawn rushed to the bars between their cells and started screaming. Two figures were bent over Niki.
“Help! Help! Somebody help her! They’re killing Niki.”
A loud pop and bright light filled the cell block as other prisoners began yelling. The two muggers ran from Niki’s cell and disappeared through the door at the end of the cellblock.
Lucky and two guards Dawn had never seen before ran to Niki’s cell.
“Jesus Christ,” Lucky yelled, “she’s been stabbed.”
Dawn watched as blood flowed from Niki’s stomach. “Let me help her,” Dawn begged. “I can help her.”
The two guards looked at one another. “She’s a doctor,” Lucky yelled. “Let her help Niki. I’ll get a stretcher.”
By the time Lucky returned, Dawn had located the cut artery and pinched it off to stop the bleeding.
“Lift her onto the gurney,” Dawn directed. “I’ll hold the artery until we can get her to the hospital, otherwise she’ll bleed to death.”
The four of them rode the elevator down to the first floor, and Lucky led the way to the infirmary. “This is closer than the hospital, Doc. Everything you’ll need is in here.”
Dawn located the clamps and looked around for suture. She was surprised to find the infirmary well-stocked with swaged needles, prepackaged with the needle attached to the thread. She carefully cleaned the wound and neatly sutured the artery back together. She located a punctured intestine and sutured it. She cleaned out the leakage from the intestine to keep Niki’s stomach cavity from becoming infected. She checked to make certain the nicked artery and intestine were the only damage done by the would-be killers. Certain she’d done all she could, Dawn removed the clamps, watching to make certain her sutures held as blood pumped through the veins. Satisfied, she closed the wound.
Niki moaned. “That hurt like hell, Doc.”
Dawn patted her patient’s hand. For the first time she realized that she had performed a major operation on a patient who wasn’t sedated. Her admiration for the pitiful woman on the gurney went way up.
“You must have a pain threshold that’s off the charts,” Dawn said. “You never made a sound.”
“I didn’t want to startle you,” Niki murmured, groaning. “You had your hands in my guts. Is there any chance of getting some pain meds? I’m really hurting.”
“I’ll take it from here,” the hospital doctor said as he touched Dawn’s arm. “I watched what you did. You’re one hell of a surgeon. I’ll make certain the warden moves you to the hospital housing when we finish here. I’m Dr. Lance Reynolds, by the way.”
She shook his hand. “Dr. Dawn Fairchild.”
##
Dawn looked out the window and realized a new day was beginning. I’ve survived two days, she thought. Taking it one day at a time.
“You want some coffee?” Lucky caught Dawn’s elbow and steered her toward the doctors’ lounge.
“That sounds great. Will they put a guard on Niki? Whoever tried to kill her is still loose.”
“Did you get a good look at them?” Lucky filled two cardboard cups with hot coffee.
“No, it was too dark, but I bet Niki knows who did it. Will there be a full inquiry?”
“Probably. Our new warden is a bitch about this sort of thing. She’ll go ballistic, and you can bet heads will roll. I’m just glad they didn’t go after you.”
“Will I meet the warden?” Dawn asked.
Lucky shrugged. “I doubt it. She’s not a real hands-on administrator, but she knows how she wants things to run, and if the people under her don’t do as they’re told, she fires them”
“Have you met her?”
“Yeah. Once a month she holds a luncheon for the trustees. We get to eat with her and answer her questions. She even answers ours.”
“What does she look like?”
“She’s a knockout. The kind of woman you’d give your soul to spend one night with. Like you.”
Dawn grunted. The thought of spending a night with Lucky made her nauseous.
Chapter 5
Dr. Reynolds immediately arranged for Dawn to transfer to hospital duty. “She’s too good to live with the animals,” he informed Assistant Warden Ray McDonald. “She really knows her way around an operating room, and I could use the help.”
Dawn settled into the routine of managing the infirmary. She had convinced Dr. Reynolds that she could train Niki to assist her. “She’s very smart and has a degree in biology.”
“She’s also a drug addict,” Reynolds countered but had given in and granted her request.
Dawn shared her room with Niki since rooms in the medical suites were scarce. Niki had lived up to Dawn’s expectations and was thriving in the new surroundings. Both woke an hour early every morning to work out in the hospital gym. “We don’t want to get soft,” Dawn said. “Besides we need the endorphins to make it through the day.”
Niki took to exercise with the same zest she had taken to drugs. “Our workouts make me feel like a million dollars. Tell me about endorphins again?”
“They’re hormones secreted by the brain and nervous system. They’re peptides which activate the body’s opiate receptors, causing an analgesic effect, almost like drugs. They have several physiological functions.”
“Humph, go figure.” Niki smiled. “I do remember some of that from my biology classes.
##
Over the next six months Dawn and Niki became a cohesive surgical team. Niki quickly learned what instruments Dawn needed during surgery. It was as if their minds melded, and Niki anticipated Dawn’s every need.
Inmates requested the “dream team” as they had named their resident doctor and nurse. Lance was more than happy to turn over the surgery and potential fatal injuries to Dawn and Niki while he handled the less serious needs of the inmates.
“I’ve spoken to the dentist on staff,” Dawn said one morning. “He has agreed to cap your teeth that are bro
ken and replace the missing ones.”
“They can do that?” Niki beamed. “They can make me look normal again?”
“Yes, but Niki, I want you to take a good look at yourself in the mirror and know that the reason you’re here, the reason you look like you do now, is because of drugs. You must never do drugs again.”
“I promise,” Niki pledged. “I feel that God has given me a second chance, and I’m not going to mess it up. Dawn, I don’t know why you did this for me, but I appreciate it.”
“You risked your life for me.”
Loud screaming in the hallway and people scurrying in all directions drew Dawn’s attention. Suddenly, the door was shoved open, and two guards carried in a neatly dressed woman. Blood was oozing across the white blouse she wore.
“That loon on the fourth floor shanked her,” the guard explained. “She’s hurt bad, Doc.”
Niki helped the guards lift the woman onto the exam table as Dawn washed her hands and slipped on surgical gloves. The shank was still buried in the valley between the woman’s breasts. Dawn tried to ignore the perfect breasts as she wiped the blood from them.
“Doc, it’s the warden!” Niki stood slack-jawed, staring at the injured woman as if she were the second coming.
“Niki, call the anesthesiologist. We’ve got to move quickly to stop the bleeding when I pull the shank out of her chest.”
A bloody hand gripped Dawn’s arm. “Please don’t let me die!”
The blood in Dawn’s veins turned to ice water as she stared into the woman’s face. “You! You’re the warden?”
“Yes,” Valerie Davis sputtered.
Dawn leaned closer so only Val would hear her words. “I should let you die, but I won’t because I’ve never killed anyone in my life.”
##
“You’re a lucky woman,” Dr. Lance Reynolds said as he removed the sutures from Warden Davis’s incision. “You won’t even have a scar. Dr. Fairchild is an excellent doctor. She’s a highly trained surgeon, you know. I don’t know what she did to land in here, but you’re lucky she was here. She saved your life.”
