“Baby…” I winced pulling back the curtain. She was more colorful than the aurora borealis. By the time I had been given the news of the lockdown in the shower unit, an ambulance had her racing for the hospital ten miles away from the women’s correctional unit in Colby, TX. I’d been here once before when they brought Maris. I hoped that this was the last of these visits.

The fault lay on me for this happening. I didn’t protect her. I didn’t do my job as the warden.

Nene curled up protectively on her side wearing a sallow green hospital gown that made her look even worse. Bruises vividly colored her face and shoulders. Those crazy violent gang-girls tried stomping on her. They would have succeeded too had Raina not heard the yelling from inside the showers on her way back from changing Julius. Her hair was matted against her cheeks and stained dark with blood from a seeping head wound and stitches. I’d seen a lot of things in my career, but this sight was gruesome, turning my stomach. Pretty Nene looked more like a sewn up rag doll than a human being. Her lip cut and one eye swollen.

No sounds came from her except a few wheezing breaths followed by whimpers of pain. I pushed a chair next to the bed. The metal legs scraped against the cracked tiles in the floor with a jarring sound that made her wince. Nene may have been one of the strongest women I knew, but god, I’d have to handle her with kid gloves. She’d been damaged enough by the system, by those vicious women, and lastly me.

“Sweetheart.” I tried coaxing her by laying my hand gently against the sheet covering her hip but she didn’t stir.

I attempted again stroking her leg above the sheet.

“Nene, why did they beat you in the shower?” A sniffle followed a cry, and Nene tugged the sheet closer around her. The doctor said she hadn’t been raped. I thanked God for that small miracle. I didn’t know whether to be relieved or worried if something worse happened. He said that nothing penetrated her, as if that was supposed to magically make being attacked better or less violating. She had been badly beaten. The doctor took photos thinking they would need evidence. I already saw them. Shoe prints bruised her body with dark, concentrated splotches where fists had hit her. Her soul had been violated and humiliated; wasn’t that enough?

I tried rubbing her back softly but when my fingers grazed her back, she flinched, digging deeper into the thin mattress. “Talk to me baby, I need to know what happened.” Guilt assaulted me for leaving her there. What choice did I have without blowing my cover? We were so close to getting her case reopened for a new trial and Hector’s case was hanging in the balance.

“She said she could smell your cum all over me.” Nene choked, verbalizing the sentence into a wracking sob. Of all things, she picked a verbal jab as the worst.

“Who said that?” Anger, not at her, never at Nene, but at those crazed gangbangers radiated from within me.

“E-Evangelina and her bitches.” Of course, the leader of the Red Tribe would be looking for retribution because she got word of Hector’s arrest through the grape vine I’m sure. It was only a matter of time before I got Nene out of here.

“She said I deserved it for being a snitch and a whore.” Neither was true, and nobody should have known about us except for us. She cried and I kept touching her slowly, reassuring her as best I could.

“What happened?” I had seen the dropped soaked socks filled with hard pieces of soap, paper, and whatever else they could get in there to hit her with.

“They waited until I went to the shower and then they barred the doors after bribing the guard.”

“Who?” I demanded.

“Officer Pettigrew.”

I was furious this happened. I knew beat downs like this occurred countless times but I’d promised Nene I would take care of her, and I’d failed.

“I’ve put the facility on lockdown”

“You know there aren’t any cameras in the shower.” She sounded so forlorn. I did know that, but I hadn’t counted on them doing something in there with guards present. A guard who had apparently been bribed. God, how wrong I had been. I’d underestimated them, and I was the fool.

“I’m having a guard I trust stationed outside your door here. I want to make sure you’re okay. This wasn’t supposed to happen.”

“Evangelina didn’t touch me. Only her crazy ass thug bitches. But she said something, I’d never heard her say before.”

“What was it?”

“It was about the guards changing shifts and knowing when the south entrance wasn’t being monitored as closely. Maybe that’s how they’re doing it.”

“It doesn’t matter anymore. I don’t want you near any of this. We’re looking over your case. I found a lawyer, a woman, to take it pro bono. She likes exposing the system’s failings so she’s working hard on the appeal, but until then, you’re going to stay here in the hospital until you heal.”

“I want to go home.” She sniffled under covers.

“I’ll have you moved to a less secure facility.” I vowed.

She hiccuped struggling to roll toward me, “You can’t.” Her eyes took on the hue of her bruises making the vivid colors stand out. “I was charged with manslaughter.”

“I will fix this.” I’d use every resource available to me.

“How? All I want to do is go home and pretend this is all a bad dream.”

I wished it were a dream too.

“I know you do, Nene. Your injuries will probably keep you here for a bit. The lawyer is working on transferring you to a low security unit despite the previous charges.” She kept crying inconsolable until her breathing eventually evened out into sleep. A nurse came in and switched out her IV line so that it was filtering a painkiller into her body making her drowsy. The medications kicked in finally giving her respite from the pain. I stayed watching her protectively as she slept, it was all I could do for her and it wasn’t nearly enough.

James came to the hospital to meet with me since I refused to leave her side. He understood my decision as it had been James himself who had been by Maris’ side during her recovery from the stabbing in the yard. She gave a statement exonerating Nene from stabbing her as well as how the guard Garcia was a relative of Hector’s. He had been working from the inside according to the Red Tribe members she got information from to corroborate evidence. The stuff Nene had overheard was enough to steer the investigation in the right direction and help get her transferred to a locked down unit in the hospital where she could recover instead of back at the prison infirmary.

She stayed in the hospital a full week. Her lawyer, the new one I found to take her case was a godsend, expediting the process with a few loopholes the first lawyer missed. Nene’s lawyer hired her own investigator and found eyewitness statements corroborating Nene’s original testimony Zeke Wells had easily overlooked. How that idiot was practicing law boggled the mind. It was only a matter of time before he ended up disbarred once I was done with him. Soon enough I would be able to keep my promise to Nene and get her out of here.