3: Shot

She's lined up, all ready to go to the rec room when she gets the tap on her shoulder.

“Hold up, Faith,” the guard motions her aside. “You're with me.”

Okay. This is new.

“What's up, Eddie? You finally decide to take me up on that offer?” She adds a little wink; sexy curl of the lip, to make her point.

Eddie flushes but doesn't take the bait. God, she loves fuckin' with his head. It's so much more fun when they're all shy and proper about it. Got the little honey at home and everything. Still, she's pretty sure that most of 'em, if they thought they could get away with it, would take her up on her naughty come-ons. She can see it on their faces. Can see 'em imagining it… taking her off to some dark corner of the prison somewhere and going all penal system with her. A couple of 'em, she wishes they would. Including Eddie. He's a pretty solid slab of man, that Eddie. And shit, anything's better than watching Mariah Carey try to fucking act her way out of a wet paper bag, right?

“So where we goin'?” She falls into step with the guard. He's still flushed. Sweating a little. Keeping his hands at his belt. All this could either be very good or very bad.

“Infirmary.”

She glances around her. They're alone in the hallway. Everybody else on the block is in the rec room by now, getting ready for the movie. “I ain't sick.”

Eddie shrugs. “Just come down from the main office. Something about a flu shot.”

“I don't need a flu shot.”

“Everybody's gotta get a flu shot.” His fingers brush against his taser.

They stop at the infirmary door where another guard buzzes them in. She's been in the place before. Drug tests, physicals, that stuff. Never was this empty before. Four guards and a nurse stand at the other end of the room, talking quietly. The guard that buzzed them in comes to stand over by Eddie. The two of 'em exchange a nod and stand, waiting beside her. She narrows her eyes. There's a window on the far wall, over by the clump of guards. Reinforced with bars of course. Besides that and the door, no other exits. The woman in the nurse's outfit steps forward, syringe already in hand. She's tall, with one of those bodies that goes straight up and down. No curves, just angles. Light brown hair piled up on her head in a neat bun. Damn. Why don't they all just wear a sign that says “I'm a Watcher. Ask me how!” on it? The friendly smile on her face is totally reassuring… except not, cuz Faith isn't some kinda drooling retard, here.

“Hello Faith!” the woman says cheerily, indicating a chair by the wall. “Please sit down and roll up your sleeve.”

Now, she's not prejudiced or anything, but experience has taught Faith not to trust anyone with a British accent. Leads to nothing but trouble. Especially if that someone is smiling at you and holding a syringe. Faith doesn't move.

“I don't need any flu shot,” she repeats.

The woman tilts her head. “Of course you do, young lady. Everyone needs one. You don't want to get sick, do you?”

Faith tilts her own head to match the woman. Only she's not smiling. “I don't get sick.”

The woman's smile disappears. “It's policy. Now please do as I say.”

“I don't need any fucking flu shot, okay?” The tension that had been building in her body since she went on alert suddenly dissolves. She feels relaxed now. Loose. Ready. She flexes her fingers. Rolls her shoulders a little. “Now why don't you tell me what this is *really* about, Nurse Ratched.”

The clump of guards edges closer. The nurse shoots a peevish look at Eddie and Faith swivels to the side as the taser he holds misses her by a hair. The clump stops edging and tackles. She whirls and lashes out.

Damn. She'd forgotten how good it felt to let go like this. She manages to make all of them bleed in some way, and has the pleasure of seeing one guard accidentally taser another. Classic. But she's trapped and she knows it. And eventually she feels the shock as a taser pulse hits her. The last thing she sees before she slips out of consciousness is the nurse jabbing the needle in her arm.