Fic: Scofield Standard Time

[kitmerlot_1213]

 This is the end:  ENJOY!!

Chapter 16


It had been surprisingly easy to obtain the transfer order.

Lex had made a few calls, one most notably to Judge Ross in Topeka, and the next thing he knew, Chloe Sullivan and Sarah Donovan were wanted for questioning by the FBI. The official paperwork listed them as "persons of interest" which was vague enough to arouse suspicions, and get the extradition papers filed in a timely manner, but not specific enough to where actual proof had to be shown.

The Kansas Department of Corrections had predictably balked at the lateness of the transfer request, but when the words "Patriot Act" were muttered, they had quieted down.

Never let it be said that the state of Kansas was not behind the war on terror.

So now Lex stood outside of the gates of Fox River, with two armed Federal agents, two Metropolis uniformed cops, and six of his own security force. The Feds had tried to strong-arm Lex from being there, but he made it clear that he had no intention of leaving until Chloe and her mom had left the prison, and were in Federal custody.

He breathed a silent prayer that this nightmare would be over tonight.

~~~

"T-Bag, I want you to remove their straightjackets."

T-Bag had been leaning against Dr. Bellick's desk, and staring at Chloe with open delight. He was excited at the prospect of time alone with the pretty little fish, especially while she was tied into a straightjacket.

At the doctor's words, T-Bag's face fell.

"But Doc, are you sure you want to do that? I mean, we still don't know how these two managed to get out of their cells."

Dr. Bellick smiled at T-Bag's obvious disappointment, and nodded her head with certainty. "Yes I'm sure. You know how I can't stand to see prisoners in those things."

After Miss Tancredi reluctantly left Dr. Bellick's office, Chloe had sat in silence. She kept going over how the plan had failed, and how she had let her mother down. She had been so deep in her thoughts that she's missed T-Bag's practically salivating in his lap at the sight of her tied up.

But at hearing Bellick's words, Chloe snorted derisively, and shook her head in disbelief. "You two are a real couple of winners, aren't you?"

She craned her neck to look at T-Bag. "Just to let you know, I'm going to see to it that you rot in jail for all of the people you've killed."

Chloe then directed her gaze at Dr. Bellick. "In fact, I'm going to see to it that you both get put away."

She paused to make sure that Bellick was listening to every word she said. "You do realize that he's been killing prisoners don't you? Women that were in your care? Patients that you were responsible for?"

Chloe waited a moment for the doctor's reaction, but she shook her head again at Bellick's blank look. "Their deaths don't mean anything to you, do they?"

T-Bag had been untying Chloe, but when he heard the ugly accusations being made against the doctor, he couldn't listen to another word. He suddenly grabbed a handful of Chloe's hair and yanked her head backwards.

Chloe cried out at the pain, and T-Bag smiled with grim satisfaction. "That's right girlie, cry all you want! You can threaten me until the cows come home, but nobody talks to the doc that a way!"

Dr. Bellick reached out and loosened T-Bag s grip on Chloe's hair. "Now, none of that. Chloe is just reacting to the situation and lashing out. She's worried for her mother and herself, so she is attacking the only authority figure in the room."

Chloe could feel her anger rising, and she tried her best to contain her reaction, but she couldn't seem to stop herself from laughing sarcastically. "You have got to be kidding me. After all of this, you're now going to try and analyze me?"

Bellick held up her hand to stop T-Bag, who had taken a step towards Chloe. "Untie Sarah now T-Bag."

For a second Chloe thought that T-Bag was going to disobey Bellick, but he lowered his head, and walked towards Sarah. But just before her turned to loosen her mom's straightjacket, T-Bag had looked up and glared at Chloe, promising to make good on all of his personal fantasies.

Even after everything, this made Chloe angrier. She was not about to be cowed, either by the doctor or her sidekick. And she was certainly not going to let this perverted psychopath see that she was scared, so Chloe sat straight in her chair, and glared right back at him, promising to make good on her own set of threats.

Bellick interrupted the silent showdown, by walking between T-Bag and Chloe, and sparing a pitying glance in Chloe's direction. "Now, T-Bag, we must show mercy and compassion. The poor thing has really been put through the ringer. It's no wonder she snapped."

At those words, Chloe and Sarah both looked up. They exchanged a quick look, and then Chloe spoke up. "What do you mean I snapped?"

Dr. Bellick took a seat at her desk as she faced the mother and daughter. She stared at a file on her desk while she spoke. "No one was surprised at your second suicide attempt. In the weeks since your arrival at Fox River, you had been a belligerent, defiant, and violent prisoner. A day hasn't gone by that you haven't fought with the other patients, the nurses and the orderlies. In fact, on one occasion, you smuggled a butter knife into your cell from the cafeteria. You were found to be sharpening it to use as a weapon. That stunt got you three days in the hole."

Bellick looked up from Chloe's file. "You did not react favorably to solitary confinement. And sadly, you were refusing to come to terms with your own mental illness."

Dr. Bellick finally stopped reading to look right at Chloe. "Unfortunately for all involved, your second suicide attempt proved to be successful."

Chloe had been shocked into silence at listening to Bellick's lies, but after hearing about her own impending demise, she found her voice again. "That will never work. My family and friends would never believe that I committed suicide."

Bellick's smiled coldly in response. "You've been incarcerated in a hospital for the criminally insane. The public will believe anything I tell them about you and your behavior in this place."

Sarah had been silent for all of Dr. Bellick's speech, but upon hearing the threat of Chloe's death, she spoke up. With a calmness that chilled everyone in the room, Sarah said, "You touch one hair on my daughter's head, and I will kill you with my bare heads."

T-Bag paled, but still managed to keep his composure, because for all of his bravura, he was a coward at heart, who enjoyed bullying people weaker then himself. Threats to his own personal safety were to be avoided at all costs.

Beside him. Dr, Bellick smiled and turned to Chloe expectantly. "Do you see how violent your mother is? Do you really think she should be left out in society? You do know what happened the last time she got out right? And what you have to look forward to?"

When asked about it later, Chloe would swear that she literally saw red when Bellick had callously thrown her own impending mental illness in her face.

And seeing her mother flinch at Bellick's words took whatever remaining restraint Chloe had and threw it out the window.

Without a thought to her safety, Chloe leaped to her feet and got into Bellick's face. "I know my mom needs psychiatric help, you stupid bitch! I want her in another facility, AWAY FROM YOU!"

And before either T-Bag or Bellick could stop her, Chloe's fist snapped out, and she punched Bellick right in the nose. Blood started to spurt out, and Bellick stood stock still before shrieking at T-Bag to stop Chloe.

T-Bag did not need to be told twice. But by the time he rounded the desk, and had his blackjack in his hand, Chloe was crouched down and ready to attack. He had started to swing his night stick, when Chloe took him by surprise by launching herself at him, with her fists and elbows flying.

Bellick's eyes were fastened on T-Bag and Chloe's fighting, so she didn't see Sarah's pulling the fire alarm until the bells started ringing.

She instantly whirled around and screamed at Sarah, "What have you done?"

Sarah didn’t have a chance to answer, because within seconds of the alarm being pulled, the prisons’ correctional officers, and orderlies, filled the office.

Bellick closed her eyes in resignation when she heard, "FBI! Put your hands where I can see them!"

Chapter 17



It had been nearly six weeks since Chloe and Sarah were taken out of Fox River and placed in Federal custody.

By the time the Feds, Metropolis Police and Fire, and prison orderlies had control in Dr. Bellick's office, T-Bag was a mass of bruises. He had two black eyes, a split lip and a busted nose. Dr. Bellick also had a bloody nose, and Chloe ended up with bruised knuckles and a sprained wrist from all of the punching she had done.

Once everything quieted down, Lex wanted nothing more then to have the land that Fox River stood on declared Imminent Domain, so that he could have the pleasure of seeing the place bull dozed to the ground.

Instead, the Kansas Department of Corrections stepped in and shut the prison hospital down, and all of the prisoners were transferred to the psych ward at Metropolis University Hospital, pending an investigation into the mysterious deaths that were allegedly done by prison officials.

To the DOC's credit, T-Bag and Bellick were also taken into custody despite the doctor's demanding that they call the warden to straighten everyone out. The warden was contacted and he agreed to turn over any information he found to the state, and the state would also be conducting their own inquiry.

Chloe was looking forward to watching the prison system hang Bellick and T-Bag out to dry.

But that had to wait, because first, Chloe and Sarah had to be taken in by the FBI for questioning as "persons of interest."

When she heard that, Chloe pulled Lex aside, aghast that she and her mom were being considered terrorist, but Lex quickly assured her that it was all a ploy to get them both transferred out of Fox River faster.

By the next morning, Chloe had petitioned for a hearing to be released from the psychiatric hospital, and she was seen in front of a judge within 24 hours, where she was subsequently cleared of all criminal charges, and released back into society.

Chloe knew that she also had Lex's influence to thanks for the speed in which her court appearance happened, and how quickly her mom was placed in a new psychiatric facility.

Sarah was now living in Bryn Gwellyn, and while it was clearly a prison hospital for the criminally insane, the building itself was clean and bright and full of light, and the doctors were fully committed to helping the prisoners receive the best psychiatric care they could.

And most importantly,. people weren't being killed left and right.

Chloe was able to visit her mother twice a week, and she was amazed at how much better Sarah looked. She smiled more and looked hopeful, not because she wanted to get released--Sarah knew that she was not well enough to live on the outside, but that she could now have a relationship with her daughter.

It was during one of these visits that Sarah had asked about Gabe. She hadn't asked straight out if Gabe would come to visit her, but Chloe guessed that's what she wanted, so, on the next visiting day, Gabe, accompanied by his daughter, walked in to find his former wife waiting anxiously to see him.

He made a concentrated effort to hide his shock, but it depressed him to see his once vibrant wife reduced to a shadow of herself by her mental illness. And once again his fears for Chloe overwhelmed him, and all he could think of was. 'Is that what will happen to her one day?'

Some of his worry must have shown on his because Chloe reached for his hand, and Gabe held on as tight as he could. All three Sullivans simply looked at each other, until Chloe finally broke the silence. "Dad, I know I put you through a lot this past month.."

Gabe interrupted "Try for the past 20 years."

Chloe rolled her eyes, while Sarah stifled her own laugh. "Fine. I know that I've put you through a lot my entire life, but I'm not going to sit around waiting for disaster to strike. I'm going to live my life as well as I can, and I'm not going to worry about this."

At the word "this", Chloe waved her free hand vaguely around the prison. "I might not ever become mentally ill, and if I did, the doctors may have found a new way of dealing with it. Or at least have invented a better drug combination"

Her mom smiled sadly. "I sure hope so, Chloe-bug, because I'd hate to see you in here for real."

Her dad grinned at Chloe's old nickname, and inclined his head towards the outside doors to the hospital. "And if Lex Luthor has anything to say about it, I'm sure they will."

Sarah looked towards the windows and saw Lex's familiar bald head. "He's such a nice young man." She lowered her voice and Chloe had to lean forward to hear her mom's question., "Does he know how grateful I am for his help? Would you please make sure he knows, because I think he saved our lives."

Chloe smiled reassuringly at Sarah's worried face. "He knows Mom, believe me. You tell him how grateful you are every time you see him, and he has the ceramic "Thank You" ashtray you made for him sitting on his desk. Frankly, I think he's a bit embarrassed at your gratitude."

When her mom still looked unsure, Chloe thought about a way to ease Sarah's concerns. Not able to think of anything suitable, Chloe finally just blurted out with: "How about this Mom? I promise that I won't just tell Lex how grateful we are for getting us out of Fox River alive, I'll show him too. How about that?"

Upon hearing those words, Gabe answered in an even tone, "No, Chloe, I think your mom's ashtray says it best. Why don't you leave it at that?"

As soon as the words had come out of her mouth, Chloe had known that she said the wrong thing. And all it took was one look at her dad's tense facial expression to reconfirm that for her. She squeezed his hand, the hand that wasn't clenched in a fist that is, and tried for a joking manner: "Oh man, I didn't mean it like that! I was just going to give him a hug."

Gabe didn't look too comforted by that information. "How about a hearty hand shake instead?"

When Chloe's only response was an exasperated, "DAD!!", Sarah stepped into the fray. "Now Chloe, your dad's just fulfilling his role of "overprotective father". He'll never think any man's good enough for you."

And here Sarah paused to wink at Chloe. "Even if the man in question is a devilishly handsome billionaire with noble tendencies who is clearly fond of you."

At those words, Gabe covered his face with his now unclenched hand. "So it's two against one is it?" When Chloe and Sarah just smiled in response, Gabe shook his head.

Sarah was about to speak again when Chloe stopped her. "How many times do I have to go over this with everyone? First Lois and Clark, and now you guys. For the last time, there is nothing for either of you to worry about. Lex and I have finally got our friendship back on track, and we aren't going to be adding any romance to it."

But neither of her parents were paying attention to her, because Gabe and Sarah's attention were drawn to watching Lex walk into the waiting room, carrying a bouquet of tulips.

Chloe turned to see what had distracted them, and smiled when she saw the man himself. She barely heard her dad say to her mom, "Nothing going on? I suppose that's why he keeps bringing her gifts. First it was a box of dark chocolates, then it was free coffee from the Talon for a year, and now he's bringing her flowers. Next thing you know he'll be asking her to marry him!"

She was so focused on Lex's approach that she didn't even register Sarah shushing Gabe and pushing him to sit at another table. Chloe was too busy noticing just how gray Lex's eyes were and that his smile made her stomach flutter nervously.

She tried to valiantly push these thought away, but after their reconciliation in Fox River, they had become a common occurrence whenever she saw him. She attempted to get a grip on her emotions, but that all went to hell when he stood in front o her, holding out the flowers to her.

Trying not to smile bashfully, Chloe took them, and quietly thanked him. He nodded his acceptance, and then they sat silently next to each other..

Lex was prepared to wait her out, but she surprised him by blurting out, "She wanted to make sure you know." When Lex's only response was to raise a single eyebrow, Chloe realized that she sounded like a moron, so she rushed on to clarify herself.. "My mother. she wants to make sure you know how grateful she is for helping us."

Lex merely shook his head. "You saved your lives, Chloe. I just helped out."

Not wanting them to lapse into a weird silence again, Lex quickly brought up Bellick and T-Bag. "There isn't going to be a trial because they both pleaded guilty. Apparently, the warden found Bellick's private files that recorded all of the deaths over the last ten years."

Chloe shook her head, "I wish I could say that I was surprised, but nothing about this case shocks me. At least their going to pay for what they did."

Chloe paused to look at her mom. "And my mom's still alive. When I first came up with this plan, the only thing I wanted was for my mom to be safe. I didn't do any of this to get to the bottom of the deaths, that was just a happy coincidence."

She paused again, and Lex was amazed to see tears in her eyes. "Do you think that makes me a selfish person? That I'm only concerned for my mother? I mean, I don't even care why they did it. I'm just glad that we got out alive."

Without even stopping to think, Lex wrapped his arm around Chloe's shoulder and pulled her into a hug. He held her as she cried, whispering comforting, nonsensical words to sooth her. Her tears finally stopped, and with his arm still around her, he wordlessly handed her his handkerchief.

She smiled gratefully when she saw it and he gave her a minute to gather herself together. Then he leaned forward, and cupped Chloe's face in his hands. She had never seen him with such a serious look on his face. "Chloe, you are the bravest person I know, and the fact that you risked your own life to help your mom is the most selfless act I have ever had the privilege of witnessing."

Chloe could feel her eyes tear up again, but she managed to stave off another crying jag by taking several deep breaths. When she felt as though she had herself under control again, she smiled her thanks.

Lex again nodded in return, and he appeared to be deep in thought. "You know, I don't think it actually matters why they were killing people. For all we know, T-Bag could have been in love with all the women, or Bellick was angry that they weren't getting any better. All that matters is that they won't be able to hurt anyone else ever again."

He watched her expression clear as she considered his words. He loosened his grip on her face, and brushed his fingertips across her cheeks, and when he was rewarded with a blush, he grinned, and pulled Chloe into his side, resting his arm around her shoulder again. She relaxed against him, and sighed contentedly.

Across the way, Chloe's parents watched the young couple.

Without taking his eyes off Chloe and Lex, Gabe asked Sarah. "I'm going to have to accept this, aren't I?"

Sarah glanced over at the couple, and simply nodded her head.

This time Gabe sighed in defeat, "That's what I thought."


The End