"So I hear you talked to the Wardens wife on the weekend missy," a man that rarely talked to anyone said with a deep Canadian accent. His short dark hair was thinning quite badly on top Elizabeth noticed and several scars covered his face and arms as he placed his tray down on the table and sat down next to her on Monday morning. "Is it true?"

"Rumors just spread like the damn wild flowers around here now don't they." Elizabeth replied in somewhat of a cold tone as she looked up at him, everyone knew that this man was a murderer and a rapist, he had plead guilty at his trial twelve years ago. "Yes, it's true, I talked to her, but I don't see how it concerns you at all."

"Well, I guess it doesn't concern me at all missy, but it does concern him," the man nodded his large scarred head to the Warden standing in his usual position by the exit door. Something deep in the back of his mind was evidently concerning him as he fidgeted on the spot and talked very little to the guards standing on either side of him. It was less often today that his eyes found Elizabeth in the sea of criminals in the room and bored into her like a meteor colliding with the earth.

"He doesn't know does he?" Elizabeth asked quickly, fear slightly shining through in her soft and sultry voice.

"Well missy I can't give you that answer, you'll have to ask him, but it's hard to miss anything like that in a place like this, even you should know that by now." The man chewed slowly on a large bite of toast as he watched Elizabeth's reaction to this new news.

The dark angel nodded her head deep in thought and chewed on the doughy oatmeal she had chosen for breakfast. "Well let's just hope McNeill doesn't run into me on the way to work. I'm really not in the mood for another beating, I've only just started to heal from the last one."

"Good luck on that one Oldin," Sutton piped up as he sat across from Elizabeth and drank his cup of mud the guards dared to call coffee. "I he wants to get his hands on you he will and you know as well as any of us do that you won't be able to do anything at all to stop him."

"Well thanks a lot," sarcasm dripped thickly off the words Elizabeth spat back at Sutton and chanced one last glance up at McNeill who was once again intently watching her with his icy blue-gray eyes.

Elizabeth finished her cardboard like meal in silence and washed it down with a horrible coffee, all the while keeping her eyes off the Warden as she continuously felt his eyes burning into her.

After breakfast and the count bell, she quickly went with the others outside to start the day's work in the yard.

November was pressing quickly into December and with it came the last burning days of the San Francisco sun. The weather was strange for this time of year and quickly heated up Alcatraz Island so covered with concrete and stone.

Along with a few other men, including Sutton, Elizabeth was assigned to carry some freshly delivered timber and brick supplies from the loading dock where the ferry usually stops to the yard storage shed, which just so happened to be up a rather steeply inclining hill from the jetty.

"Hey fellers, is it hot out here today or is it just me?" the dark angel asked wiping sweat from her slightly exposed chest, her dress rules still defining that she wear the top three buttons of her shirt undone.

"Don't worry Oldin," one of the inmates that usually sat at her table during meals replied, also dripping with sweat. "It ain't you, it's hot."

Elizabeth turned around so the men couldn't see her, undid all the buttons on her shirt and pulled it up so the bottom sat around her mid-section, then pulling the shirt tightly around her body the dark angel tied the two ends securely together in a double knot and looked somewhat like she should be heading off to a barn dance. Daisy Duke would later make the look very famous.

"Are you looking to catch the Wardens' attention?" Sutton asked her as his eyes drifted over her exposed stomach that was still covered as badly as her face and neck in black bruises.

"It's hot," Elizabeth replied in a cold voice and an uncaring shrug of her shoulders. "I'm not going to sweat to death out here Sutton, they're supposed to be working me to death remember."

"You'll get beaten to death if you're not careful," her friend replied, not wanting to see Elizabeth dragged down to the dungeons for something like her uniform. Knowing that he wouldn't ever be able to change her mind Sutton finished with, "but hell it's your back not mine," and with a non-committal shrug of his shoulders he bent over to pick up some bricks and trekked off up the steep hill once more.

Elizabeth picked up a couple of heavy planks of thick timber and heaved them onto her shoulder much like the men did, when she looked up and saw McNeill coming towards the docks along the fenced shore line of rocks. The dark angel immediately turned around and started walking up the hill to the drop site, hoping that it wasn't her shirt that had drawn the Wardens' attention.

Once at the top of the hill Elizabeth walked over to the drop site with sweat pouring off her forehead and threw the planks down on top of the others, half expecting for McNeill to have followed her, but she turned around and he was still standing on the docks at the bottom of the hill. She thought that maybe her luck had finally changed.

"Come on Lizzie, no time to rest," Sutton said to her as he finished stacking his load of heavy bricks on the ground next to her and set off down the steep and grassy hill once gain.

"The names Elizabeth, Mr. Sutton, I thought I told you to never call me Lizzie again," Elizabeth replied with an icy cold voice and a glare worthy of the Warden himself. She carefully followed Sutton back down the hill, making sure her footing was right with every step, her ankle was still quite tender from the last push down the dungeon stairs that she had received only a few days ago.

When they reached the bottom of the hill together, McNeill was waiting for Elizabeth. "Oldin," he called out to her. "Can I have a word?"

"Only if you can walk and talk Warden, I have to get these planks of wood moved before lunchtime sir," Elizabeth replied almost happily, then picking up more planks of timber over her shoulder she starting up the hill once again, knowing full well that she would either receive a beating for her remark or that the Warden would follow her.

McNeill quickly caught up to Elizabeth, not wanting to wait until later to ask the questions he had to ask and not really caring about her attitude toward him today, he had more important things to worry about. "Fine then I will walk with you. I hear you talked to my wife on the weekend."

"Oh you heard that did you?" Elizabeth was truly amazed that the Warden was actually being nice to her; although he was obviously only doing it because he wanted to know something that she knew.

"It's a little hard not to hear these things Oldin, you should know that by now. So..." McNeill rubbed his hand over his freshly shaved chin and looked around the yard casually as though he often chatted to the dark angel. "What exactly were the two of you talking about?"

"Didn't she tell you sir?" Elizabeth queried playfully with an air of amusement and a raised eyebrow. "Well the two of us spent all afternoon chatting about how to split an atom, and not just that but how to do it properly, it's a very difficult procedure you see-"

"Don't piss me off Oldin," McNeill cut Elizabeth off with his icy cold voice piercing through her milky white skin with a deadly venom that penetrated deep within her body. "You know as well as anyone around here exactly what happens when I get angry."

"All too well if you ask me," the dark angel replied quietly and chanced a defiant glare at the Warden who clearly ignored the statement Elizabeth had just made. He looked at nothing but the ground he was walking on as they walked up the hill together.

"We were just talking like two women who hardly know each other would talk sir. I honestly think she just wanted another female to talk to for a bit. We just chatted about cooking and the weather and what her, ah, your kids are like."

"So you were talking with her about my family?" McNeill didn't seem shocked in the least by this information Elizabeth had just told him but he was hoping to be told more, something that would explain the situation and answer some of the questions in the back of his mind.

"She is your family Warden, if you can talk to someone all afternoon and not bring up the subject of their family, then all praises to you." Elizabeth lifted her load of timber off her shoulder and dropped it down onto the ground with the others that clattered together loudly, then she started down the hill once again. "But if you want to know about your wife sir, or the things we talked about, then maybe you should talk to her about that, because I honestly don't remember much that I talk about at the moment. It seems that somehow I have some minor head injuries that are currently affecting my short term memory." Elizabeth lied hoping that this false information would be enough for the Warden to drop the subject and leave her alone, for now at least.

McNeill nodded his head at what Elizabeth had just told him and tried to work out where everything fits together in the back of his mind, again ignoring the comment about her injury.

"Or, if you want to know the gossip around here Warden, the stuff that doesn't usually come your way I mean, then I suggest that you go and talk to that pretty little secretary of yours that likes to spend so much time on her back." Elizabeth spat the words at the Warden, once again completely disgusted by the fact that not only had she let McNeill touch her that night that he came into her cell, but that she had enjoyed it.

"My secretary?" the Wardens' head snapped up at this comment and he looked straight at Elizabeth, wondering how much she knew, and slightly ashamed of some of the things he had done. Something huge had changed for him in the last few days and it was frustrating the hell out of the Warden.

"From what I hear, and let me tell you Warden McNeill, I hear a lot more than you do around this place I can guarantee you that, but that little secretary of yours accused your wife of some very severe things while she was here over the weekend and you were on the mainland."

"Like what exactly?"

"Well I suggest you talk to your wife about that too Warden, or your secretary." Elizabeth shrugged her shoulders at his predicament, offering no sympathy to the mans situation. "But your wife knows full well that you're sleeping with Natalie, and any other woman you can get your hands on around here. Not my words sir," Elizabeth explained quickly with her hands in the air to show that she wasn't stabbing at him and was just reporting what she had been told. "So I also suggest that you go ahead and clean all that up as soon as you can as well."

Looking up at the Warden, Elizabeth's bright green eyes found his steely blue-gray ones and with an air of compassion she quietly said, "I didn't tell her anything sir, what happened the other night is between us."

McNeill watched as Elizabeth bent over and heaved a few planks of wood onto her shoulder once more and then followed her up the steep hill again. "Thank you Oldin," he said quickly, the frustration building even more now, then briskly the Warden trotted back off to the main cell house.

Elizabeth breathed a sigh of relief as he left her on the hill without any threats of further bashings or any anger in his voice whatsoever.

"What did he want?" Sutton asked as he caught up to Elizabeth who was still standing on top of the hill.

"Advice," the dark angel replied with one eyebrow cocked in amusement as she wondered what the deeper meaning was for McNeill coming to her in the middle of her workday, and in front of other inmates instead of leaving it for a time where they would be alone and he could take some advantage of the situation again.

"You didn't really give it to him did you?" Sutton asked quickly, slightly shocked that Elizabeth hadn't been at all injured while in the Wardens' close presence for the first time in months.

"Do you think I want to piss him off again Sutton? Of course I gave him his advice, and I managed to tell him a few things he really didn't want to hear," Elizabeth smiled at Sutton and together they dumped their loads at the drop site then walked back down the hill together to collect more timber and bricks.

* * * * *

After dinner that night, the Warden took Elizabeth's advice and got on the phone with his wife as he sat alone and still entirely frustrated in his darkened office.

"Hello Tim it's Dad, is Mummy home?" McNeill said in a friendly voice to his eldest son who had answered the phone.

"Hey Daddy!" His young boys always sounded excited to hear their father's voice on the phone, "I'll just get her for you."

He heard his eldest sons' feet running across their wooden floor at home as he went off to get his Mother.

"Hello darling," Dawn answered the phone moments later, her soft and sweet voice ringing out in McNeill's ear and sending a brilliant warmth right through every inch of his body. "What's wrong? You never call me at this time of night."

"We need to talk about some things Dawn," McNeill said in a quiet voice as he contemplated what he would say to her.

"Well I'm right here darling, what's on your mind?" Her voice was as loving as ever but the words were rushed, as though she had better things to do and more important places to be right at this very moment, she didn't need this distraction right now.

"No, I mean face to face Dawn, I need to see you. Can you catch the ferry over tomorrow morning?" the Warden pleaded with his angelic wife.

"Honey, I have to work and I have the boys, I can't, you know that."

"Well you know I can't come there." McNeill's frustration grew deeper as his wife refused to meet him on the Island, continually making up new excuses not to come and see him. "Can you come in the afternoon?"

"You know I have commitments," Dawn replied wanting nothing but to hang the phone up on her husband that she had lost so much respect for over the last two days. "What's this about honey?"

"Yeah, you've got commitments, and what's his name exactly?" McNeill replied in a cold whisper mostly to himself.

"Excuse me?" Dawn asked in a quiet voice almost indignantly.

"Dawn, we need to talk, now," McNeill pressed on, these things that were no longer in the back of his head and needed to be sorted out soon before they erupted in an explosion of anger and frustration.

"I'll be there on the weekend then. I have to go and put the boys to bed. Good bye darling."

"Dawn-" but it was too late, the Warden's beautiful wife had already hung the phone up.

With a light rap on the door, Natalie came into the office just as McNeill had placed the receiver back on its holder; she had the silver tray of coffee in her hands. Placing the tray down on the beautiful timber desk the pretty secretary poured a cup for him and dropped in a small white cube of sugar into the coffee. Walking over to the other side of his desk she sat softly down on his legs. "What's wrong sir?"

"Why did you talk to my wife Natalie?" the Warden asked in a cold harsh voice, not looking the pretty young woman in the eyes and completely disgusted by the fact that she had sat down on his lap.

"She talked to me sir, she knew about us." Natalie reached a hand up and swept all her long creamy blonde hair over to her left shoulder and smiled an alluring smile at the Warden. She was once again wearing his favourite perfume, which also happened to be Thomas's favourite perfume.

"Get off me Natalie." For the first time ever McNeill pushed his pretty young secretary off his lap and turned away from her, taking the hot coffee cup in his hands.

Natalie, looking both shocked and horrified at what had just happened between them, picked up the silver tray of coffee she had walked in with and walked out of the office, closing the door behind her.

McNeill sat at his desk in the dim light of his office for hours after that, just staring at the blank wall across from him and drinking down the much-needed cup of sweet coffee. His mind continually strayed over the subject of how he was going to sort out his predicament. Then at 11:30pm the Warden finally got out of his comfortable leather chair, switched off his table lamp and walked into the prison cell block.

Walking briskly as though he knew exactly what he was going to do, the Warden continued straight through the corridors of the darkened prison to the hospital wing.

"Miss Adams, you here?" the Warden called out as he quickly walked down the stairs of the hospital wing and into the large treatment room that had only empty beds in it.

No reply came from the dark hospital as McNeill looked around.

"Miss Adams?"

"Yes Warden." The strong Irish accent came from the bedroom leading off from the large treatment room McNeill was standing in. The dark haired nurse with her pale white skin sleepily walked into the room he was in, wrapping her white flannel dressing gown tightly around her body. "What can I help you with at this time of night Warden?"

"I'm in need of some advice Miss Adams, and well..." completely losing what it was that he wanted to say the Warden stuttered slightly as he stood before the nurse that he had never spoken to much before now. "Well I've got a bit of a problem, and well, you're a woman and you've never talked to my wife. I just don't know what to do anymore, and I can't sleep at night because I can't stop thinking about what I'm going to do about this and it's driving me crazy."

"Come and sit down Warden," Miss Adams offered in her Irish accent through a stifled yawn and then with a compassionate smile she directed McNeill over to a line of chairs at the back of the treatment room.

The Warden sat down on a hard plastic chair next to the nurse and looked down at the floor, confusion and something that looked like it could have been pain was shining through his once steely eyes. "I don't think I love my wife the way I used to, and I know she doesn't love me anymore either. But that's not really the problem. I think I'm in love with another woman, and I have no idea how it happened." McNeill stared at the tiled floor, trying to find an answer that could help him that might have been concealed in the dark grout lines of the floor.

"And what do you want from me Mr. McNeill?" Miss Adams asked quietly, crossing one leg over the other and sitting forward slightly on her chair, the fatigue of sleep still clinging to her body.

"I just don't know what to do." The Warden looked up to the pretty Irish nurse with his pleading blue-gray eyes, her black ringlets of hair were falling messily down the sides of her face.

"Well firstly Warden, you have to talk to your wife and sort this mess out between the two of you." Speaking slowly and quietly Miss Adams searched her heart for the right advice to give the pleading man sitting beside her. Even for monsters she had compassion. "Don't be holding onto her if there's nothing there because she will just end up hating you, especially if the love has gone from your relationship. And perhaps if she is feeling the same way then she might just be waiting for