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Currently, the group were cleaning up the office in the front as they got a call from the governors assistant that they would be sending someone to the prison to negotiate. Brook assumed it would be an actress, which was undeniably never going to happen. "I mean, we could be negotiating with, like, Susan Sarandon or something." Aaliyah furrowed her brows, having no clue who that was. She thought about it for a second, still coming up empty. "The governor is not going to send an actress to negotiate a prison deal."

"She's an actrivist." Soso points out.

Janae puts the other chair on the other side of the table, Taystee doing the same on her side. "Don't mean she'll step foot in this shithole." Taystee points at her, agreeing with her. "He's probably gonna send some kind of human rights attorney. Like that guy from Attica?" Piper suggests. "William Kunstler is dead. Like all the good people in this world." Brook points out, now getting a little sad.

"I meant his type." Piper mumbles.

"Look, it don't matter who they send. All that matters is we show 'em who we are. That we better than all this shit." They nod in agreement with Taystee. "Though I wouldn't mind Mr. Lee. I dig his movies." She adds. "Also dead," Aaliyah finally spoke up. "You know, they said that whole family is cursed." Taystee glanced at her. "Not Bruce. Spike. Crooklyn makes me cry like a baby."

"Hey, we got a live one!" Zirconia says from the doors. They all rush out, Aaliyah coming out last behind Piper. Taystee groans, realizing who it was. "Would you look at that. It's Caputo's tall and sexy mistress," Aaliyah giggles, Janae nudging her. "You letting me in? Or are we supposed to negotiate like we're at a 7-Eleven after hours?" Ms. Figueroa says.

"Man. Open the doors." Zirconia opened the door, letting Ms. Fig through but keeping the police out. Ms. Fig got patted down, telling the police to wait outside the doors. The officer went to object, Ms. Fig cutting him off. "It's fine. I come in peace, right?" Aaliyah smirks, shrugging. The officer added one more thing before leaving.

"Right this way, Ms. Figueroa." Taystee gestured to the office. She picked up her purse before walking into the office, not before making a comment on Zirconia's legs. Aaliyah sat on the stool, leaning back against the wall. "It's nice to finally meet you, Ms. Channing. Your brother is one pushy bastard." Ms. Fig comments. Aaliyah grinned, "Why thank you. He takes after my dead bitchy mother."

"I see you do too," she retorts. Aaliyah scoffs, rolling her eyes. "Unfortunately you're kinda right."

Taystee took a seat across Ms. Fig, everyone gathered outside, minus Aaliyah who sat on the stool in the corner. Alison and Cindy finally arrived, standing next to the grated window. All of them in support of Taystee. "You wanna know why I said yes when the governor asked me to do this? Because I read this list and I thought this is clear and forward thinking and has the potential to effect change. Real change. And I want to be part of that. So I am here to help."

"I'm calling on her bullshit right now," Aaliyah comments. "Yeah, what's the catch?" Cindy agreed.

"Thank you, Ms. Figueroa. I know we're gonna do some real good work here." Taystee says, ignoring Aaliyah and Cindy's side comments. "Agreed. But you have to help me, help you. You're gonna have to give a little." Aaliyah scoffs, sharing a look with Cindy. "See? See? There it is. Always a catch."

Aaliyah chuckles as Ms. Fig continues. "As eloquent as these demands are, they completely fail to take into account our current economic climate. The BOP's private prison budget is restrictive and far too complex for me to explain to you here, but trust me, it definitively prohibits us from meeting all of these demands." Ms. Fig sets her hand on Taystee's wrist, "However...let's focus on the positives. See what we can do."

Taystee smiles, "Yeah." She placed her hands over Ms. Fig's, "Let's focus on the positive." Taystee turns to her side, placing a big stack of files on the table, Aaliyah and the rest of them cheering for her. "Ah! Go to church, T. Hit 'em with that hallelujah." Cindy cheered on.

Taystee glanced at Aaliyah who winked at her. She clasped her hands over the binder. "See, I got my own stack of paper, Ms. Figueroa. And I'm positive, that a simple rebalancing of MCC's...complex budget- be enough to finance all of our demands." Ms. Fig leans forward to interrupt, "Ms. Jefferson-" Taystee put up her hands to stop her. "We got the Internet now."

"World wide web," Cindy sang.

"And Mr. Caputo's files. We know what you know. And we know that MCC's been spending 20% less per inmate than the federal government did. We also know that MCC's CEO been making bank off our backs. Like, $3.4 million-in-bonuses bank. And that's only talking last year. So the money is there, Ms. Figueroa. We know it."

"We know it," Cindy sang again.

"You know it."

"You know it," Cindy sung again after Taystee.

"The question is, what are we gonna do about it?"

"What you gon' do about it?" Cindy sang again. Janae claps, "Yes! That's my girl. Whoo!" Aaliyah smiles, Brook adding in. "You go, girl."

Aaliyah pursed her lips, patting Brook's hand. "We're gonna work on that."

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They were still going at it, Ms. Fig pulling up any and every excuse to just end this. But it wasn't really that easy. They weren't gonna give up until they had every demand on that list checked off. "Of course the guards with be replaced. It's not like any of them will want to come back here anyway." Aaliyah rolled her eyes, it didn't matter if they were replaced or not. They wanted trained guards, who had their backgrounds checked off and such. Not that disgusting excuse of guards that were being held hostage in Spanish Harlem.

"It ain't enough to just replace 'em. How do we know they won't be bringing the same type of mess back in here again?" Taystee says, almost as if she was reading Aaliyah's mind. "The new guards need to be like the ones we used to have." Ms. Fig tilted her head, "You mean fat and lazy?" Aaliyah rolled her eyes, well at least those "fat and lazy" guards did their jobs properly and weren't killing and racial profiling inmates.

"I mean trained. And human. Except for that one guard with the mustache. Hey, what was his name? I think it was Spanish or something." Taystee looks to the girls, figuring they would remember. Aaliyah and Alison didn't, seeing as they weren't there at the time. Aaliyah only heard about this guy on the news. "Pornstache," Cindy answers.

Ms. Fig's phone rang, she excused herself, stepping into the other room to take the call. Taystee walked towards the girls, dapping up Aaliyah. "Four down, six to go," Aaliyah grinned. "T, you was killing the motherfucking game!" Cindy and Taystee did their little handshake just as Ms. Fig stepped back into the room quickly. "Miss Jefferson, I've just been informed a CO was shot and injured by an inmate. You neglected to mention that."

"Ms. Figueroa-"

"Even if the governor decides to continue with these negotiations, and that's a big "if," amnesty is definitely off the table." She stated. Aaliyah furrowed her brows, not sure why all of them were going down for something one person chose to do. "Wait, what?" Piper looked at her in confusion. "You claimed there was no violence." Ms. Figueroa said towards Taystee.

"We said there was no casualties."

"People can't go around shooting guards with impunity. Sends a bad message." Ms. Fig stepped back into the other room to continue her call. Aaliyah scoffs, "They're bluffing. They want us to turn again each other. But the second we start splintering, they gain the upper hand." She stated. Janae was quick to add, disagreeing. "No. Why should we pay for what one person did? I say we hand her in." Aaliyah points at her girl, "She makes a good point, actually. I gotta agree with my girlfriend here."

Piper buts in, not even giving Janae a chance to process Aaliyah calling her, her girlfriend without cringing. "A classic deontological dilemma." They all look at the blonde in confusion. "The train experiment? Anybody?" They shook their heads. "Nope. The fuck is that?"

"Okay. A train is coming and you see five people are tied to the track. But you don't have time to untie them, but if you pull a lever, the train will go to a side track. Problem is, there's also a person tied to that track. A person you will knowingly kill because of your actions. So, do you let the train continue and do you kill five, or do you pull the lever and kill one? Do you value the right and wrong of actions themselves, or do you value the right and wrong of the consequences of those actions?" Piper finished explaining to them.

"I pull the lever," Alison spoke up as Taystee tapped the grate in understanding of Piper's explanation. "Damn, girl. You didn't even think about that one for a second." Cindy says, glancing over at Alison. "I got a daughter to go home to." Aaliyah could understand, she had family to return to as well. She would pull the lever.

"She's utilitarian. I'd pull it, too." Zirconia adds.

"No. We can't let them divide us. Just like Aaliyah said." Brook said, gesturing to Aaliyah to back her up. Liyah sighs, "Actually. I'd pull the lever. I got family, man." Brook looked at her in surprise, "You were the one who just said we can't let them turn us against each other." Aaliyah scoffs, "I'm not going down for something I didn't do lass. And neither should any of us."

Taystee sighs. "We want justice for Poussey or not?" Piper hums, Janae nodding, "Yes." Taystee turns around just Ms. Fig was ready to leave. "Stay. We're gonna go get somebody." Taystee signals Aaliyah.

"Gotta do all the hard stuff." Aaliyah stood up, walking out, she signals her girls, all of them following expect Brook, who preferred to stay out of it. Not that Liyah signaled her anyways, seeing as she was way too small and less of a threat.

Janae and Aaliyah marched outside, Piper shortly behind them. Gloria walked up to them, "Hey! Ladies, can I help you?" Gloria backed Janae up, causing Aaliyah to step in front of her. "Where's Diaz?" Janae questioned. Maria walks up, knowing what it's about. "Not here." Aaliyah scoffs, seeing through their bullshit.

"Yo, we ain't fuckin' around," Janae looks at her. "Neither are we." Maria shot back. "Okay, both of you back the fuck up." Aaliyah says, pushing them both back, Maria goes to step forward and Liyah raises her taser, raising a daring brow. "So much for friends?" Maria scoffs. "Oh please, don't act like we were ever friends. You only wanted me for your little drug cartel." Liyah shot back as Piper called over Alex.

"What's going on, Pipes?"

"Pulling the lever. Diaz needs to turn herself in. Or riot amnesty is off the table for everyone. We're sacrificing the one for the many." Piper explains. Aaliyah stands in the middle, knowing full well Alex was gonna defend the Diaz girl. "And what's the difference between her and me?" Alex retorts. Yup. Aaliyah knew it. Of course she makes the situation about her.

"This isn't about you but I can so easily make it about you. I have no fucking problem turning both of you in." Aaliyah announced, Piper grabbed her arm with a scoff. "Come on. Calm down, Liyah." Piper said before she walked back inside, Janae going after her. She stopped, grabbing Aaliyah's arm to drag her inside. "We'll be back! And if you refuse, I'll turn all of you in!" Aaliyah exclaimed before being dragged completely inside.

Maria scoffs, but secretly, she was hella concerned. "We gotta come up with something fast. Y'all don't know Aaliyah like I do. That bitch is crazy, and she will go through with her threats."

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Aaliyah, Janae, and Piper walked into the office, Ms. Figueroa standing up, getting ready to leave. "And?" Aaliyah huffed from all the going back and forth. Janae shook her head. "I don't know what to tell you, ladies. The governor is not comfortable with me continuing under these circumstances." Ms. Figueroa walks out, her heels clicking against the tile as they follow out after her.

"We tried, but-" Piper stopped, her eyes landing on Dayanara, Gloria and Maria walking through the metal detector and standing in front of them. Aaliyah huffs again, "It took a little bit longer than we thought." It didn't take a genius for Ms. Fig to figure out that it was Daya who was turning herself in, seeing as she looked the most guilty.

"It's pretty crazy out there." Piper adds, setting her hand on Aaliyah's shoulder.

Gloria hugs Daya before Aaliyah goes over to the doors, pulling of the baracade. "All right. Time to go." Ms. Fig steps out, standing by, she waits for Dayanara. Aaliyah stops the girl, handing her a small folded up number. "If you need a lawyer, call this number. Tell him you're a friend of mine and he won't charge. I can't promise you much, but he's good." Daya smiles, taking the note, from her. "Thanks."

Aaliyah smiles for a split second, "Don't mention it."

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a/n: aaliyah, janae, and piper gots to be one of my favorite trios now >>

aaliyah called janae her girlfriend without cringing 😭 they're so cute

aaliyah being nice to daya in that moment >>

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