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Four years. It had been four years that he’d been without his partner. It still felt like just yesterday he’d watched his partner die in front him… that snowy day, couldn’t see your own hand right in front of you… And it had just happened. Blood. It poured from his partner’s neck and he watched as his partner -- no -- his best friend, counterpart… his other complete half, fall to the ground, the warm and hot blood meeting the fresh, cold snow.
And four years had passed. Each day, Wrench wished that he had died with Numbers. They had at least had a few more moments together, to share even some sort of resemblance of a goodbye. But no. It had been stripped away from Wrench. Those precious few moments… They could have shared just a brief conversation but that would have been enough for the deaf fella and his partner. Instead, he was locked away. Years upon years of sitting in the same cell, eating the same food, having the same thought: ‘I could have done something’.
Prison life wasn’t for him, but he supposed he deserved it. On account of the killings and all… it /was/ his profession anyways. But everyday it reminded him that he could have done better, but because he hadn’t, he was alone. And the only time that he felt he had found a connection back into civilian life was when he had a conversation with the pregnant officer that had been shot at the same crime scene. She seemed empathetic… or at least tried to. She was nice to him. But once Wrench was hauled off to prison, he never found a connection like that again. No one would ever replace Numbers, or the hole in his heart where his former partner had been. No one knew how alone he felt. That not even his cellmates had experience the significant amount of loss that he had. A loved one… that he had known since childhood, that he worked with up until his death… was gone. Forever. There had been times when Wrench had just thought it to be a dream and that soon enough, he would wake up and everything would be somewhat okay. But that time never happened. In fact, every day seemed more real than the last. The pain of being alone forever sunk deeper and deeper into the pit of his soul.
It came time though, after four years had passed, that he was going to be transferred. They were running out of room in the jail where he was being kept, so he was gonna have to be transferred. Or something of the likes of that, is what Wrench heard. He didn’t even really care where he was going. Life and its events stopped mattering when Numbers’ heart had stopped beating. He was just a shell now.
It went easily. He was hustled onto the bus, sat in the back row, cuffed to the seat and sat there, behaving himself. A disgruntled look naturally settled upon his face. Time and stress had not been kind to him. But it didn’t matter. There was no one to impress. There was simply nothing to live for anymore. It was just another night…
NIKKI
She had been beyond floored and devastated when that awful, gruesome photo had been slapped down in front of her. But she had to play it off like she’d been expecting something like that to happen. It was her part to play the stone cold bitch. But that was a hard part to play when the picture of her dead fiance’s body was sitting there in front of her. His eyes were empty. That lil’ ole spark was gone. His face was pale… it wasn’t the way he should have gone out. There wasn’t any dignity to it. And it enraged Nikki to her very core. She wanted to lash out and defend herself and demand justice be brought to the asshole who did that to Ray, but it would be adding more gas to the fire…
It wasn’t long before she was the one under scrutiny for killing Ray. Of course they’d look to her. They always had. She’d heard it too many times to even count, “Pretty girl like her with a guy like that… now there’s something fishy.” And now it was landing her in a big pile of fucking shit. Stuck in a jail cell, nearly assassinated by some psycho, and now she was being transferred to a prison under careful watch. Being roughed up and yanked across the parking lot into the bus. She was already in enough pain as was, but they were just agitating it now.
Nikki felt out of place when she stepped onto the bus. Hardened looking guys sitting with one hand cuffed to the ceiling of the bus, all looking at her, probably wondering what the hell she was doing on board. Just that thought made her nervous. But she was shuffled past them and towards the back. Where the air got colder, probably where the heater stopped working and they were too lazy to fix it. The people on board were criminals of course but… still. Some heat in the dead of winter would be nice every now and again. But Nikki had to remember that she wasn’t a free woman anymore. She was another statistic… a criminal who didn’t deserve privileges like heat.
As she was guided towards the back, her gaze happened upon a disgruntled looking man. His face in a permanent scowl or perhaps a pout… his gaze looked glazed over… hair unkempt and eyes with dark bags under them as if he hadn’t slept in months. There was something strange about the guy. The way he looked and held himself. His posture was slouched, shoulders bunched forward as if he was keeping the whole world out of his sight and out of mind.
When she was sat down next to him and cuffed to the seat, Nikki glanced sideways at him, gathering a profile view. The man didn’t look back at her. In fact, he looked more sad from that angle. His gaze was empty as he stared straight ahead. It was something that looked painful and somewhat pitiful. She wondered ever so briefly… if that’s what she would look like when the realization that Ray was gone, hit her. Dead inside, not giving a damn about anything… depressed about life… Staring back ahead, she sighed and leaned back, allowing herself to relax as much as she could.
WRENCH
When she came on board, Wrench didn’t look twice at her. The dark haired woman with the fur coat was just another criminal that had been caught. Wrench could only guess what she was in for. But, he didn’t feel like caring or even wondering why this woman was on board. He just wanted to /go/. But as he caught a short glance of her while she was making her way down the aisle, he could sense something. There was some sort of… feeling he got. It was strange. He felt as if he was looking into a mirror image of himself… only if he were female and about a week into realizing Numbers was gone for good. The woman already looked as if she had given up on the world, but was fighting the dawning realization that it was all going to be downhill from there. For the first time in a long time, he felt as if he could relate to someone. But he was wary. He could feel her glancing over at him and then looking away. Perhaps… she knew what he was going through. Perhaps, they had experienced the same hardships. Maybe, Wrench could find something in common with this woman….