17. ♞ UNSANITARY PUGNAC

THE NEXT DAY when Phoebe woke up, Michael was already awake. He was sitting in the same spot he'd been sitting in a day before, continuing the tedious activity of scraping down the bolt against the concrete floor. He was looking outside the cell, not even noticing that Phoebe had woken up. She slowly pushed herself from the bottom bunk, catching Michael's attention as he caught movement in the corner of his eye. Michael turned to look at Phoebe.

"Morning." Michael greeted a bit awkwardly, almost as if he were greeting a stranger. Phoebe sighed and pushed herself off the bed, making her way to the sink.

"Good morning." She replied with the same awkward energy as Michael. "How'd you sleep?" She asked, putting a small dollop of toothpaste on her toothbrush and brushing her teeth.

"I didn't." Michael deadpanned. Phoebe turned to face him, head tilted as she looked for any signs of tiredness in his eyes. She found those signs in the shape of dark circles and bags under his eyes.

"Why not?" She questioned through a mouthful of bubbly toothpaste. Michael gulped, turning away to look out of the cell again.

"I don't know what we're gonna do without that pugnac." Michael admitted sullenly, giving the bolt a violent scrape against the floor as he spoke. Phoebe turned back to the sink, remaining silent for a while as she finished brushing her teeth.

"I can try to convince him to give you the pugnac." Phoebe suggested, wiping her mouth with the hem of her shirt after rinsing her mouth out with water. Michael cocked an eyebrow and turned back to face her curiously. Phoebe lifted her brows and lowered her head a small bit, as if telling Michael she knew how to get C-Note to give him the pills. Michael's face softened a bit and he shook his head.

"No way. You're not doing that." Michael refused, shaking his head as he went back to scraping. "He could hurt you, or do something to you." He said as he gave the bolt another scrape on the other side and then paused, searching his arm for a specific tattoo.

       "Which one are you looking for?" Phoebe asked knowingly, crossing her arms as she ignored Michael's comment. Michael sighed.

       "The size the bolt has to be." He said, finally finding said tattoo and holding the bolt in his free hand over his tattoo. "Found it." He mumbled, placing the bolt on his arm. It fit perfectly into the small black circle.

       "It fit?" Phoebe asked excitedly. Michael nodded. He quickly pushed himself to his feet, squeezing past Phoebe and to the toilet in the corner of the cell. He crouched down besides it, his eyes scanning the side. He then brought up the bolt and put it into one of the screws, turning it. The screw started to come loose, and Phoebe couldn't help but squeal excitedly. "Oh my god. It worked." She whispered.

       "Did you not think it would?" Michael asked in a teasing manner as he smirked and continued to take the screw out of the toilet. Phoebe smiled.

         "I always knew you'd be able to do it. I trust you and your big brain." She teased in return with a laugh. Michael smiled, glad that the awkwardness between them was over. The screw then fell into Michael's hand as he finished unscrewing it, holding it up for Phoebe to see.

       "One small step closer to freedom." Michael said. Phoebe nodded and bounced on the balls of her feet excitedly.

       "We'll figure out how to get Tancredi to think you're diabetic." Phoebe reassured. Michael nodded and sighed.

       "I'll find a way to get back into that infirmary more often." Michael said with a nod, standing up and sitting on the bottom bunk.

       "Well, if it doesn't work for you, we can always come up with a way for me to return often. And you should remember to flirt with Tancredi. A lot." Phoebe said in a playful manner, even though she felt uncomfortable saying it to Michael. Michael smirked and shook his head.

       "I'll try my best."

—

       AFTER PHOEBE'S SHOWER, she rushed to find Michael in the courtyard. She was lucky to quickly find him sitting at a far away table, waiting for her. He held his chin in his hands as his elbows rested on the table, his eyes staring straight ahead of him at nothing in specific. It was as if he felt Phoebe's presence in the courtyard, because he quickly looked over and his eyes locked onto hers from across the yard.

Phoebe smiled as butterflies swarmed violently in her stomach at the eye contact, making her way to Michael. Her eyes caught movement a couple of feet away from Michael and her dark brown pools flickered over to what had caught her attention, which was none other than C-Note and his cell mate. They were leaning against the fence at the edge of the courtyard, a smirk on C-Note's face as he looked at Michael.

Michael noticed Phoebe's interest in something at the edge of the courtyard, and his own blue pools flickered towards C-Note, who smirked at Michael. Phoebe's chest began to ache and her heart began to race as she feared C-Note was planning to hurt Michael. C-Note smirked Phoebe's way before he looked back at Michael and nodded, motioning for him to approach him. Michael turned to face Phoebe, who shook her head quickly as if telling him not to go. But Michael didn't listen. Instead, he motioned towards the table he was sitting at in a way that said "you sit here, I'll be back". Michael stood up and slowly made his way to C-Note, and even though he'd instructed for Phoebe to sit, she decided not to follow his suggestion and rushed to his side, earning a glare from him as he felt her presence besides him.

"I told you to stay put." Michael whispered in a scolding tone. Phoebe crossed her arms.

"I didn't hear or see a single word come out of your mouth." She sassed in return, earning another glare and a shake of Michael's head.

"Just stay behind me." Michael instructed quietly as they got closer to C-Note, who's smirk was still annoyingly plastered on his face. Phoebe crossed her arms and gave C-Note a glare, which only earned a chuckle from the dark skinned man.

"Saw what happened last night during the fight." C-Note suddenly said, pushing himself off the fence and stepping a few steps closer to the duo. Phoebe reached up and gripped a handful from the back of Michael's shirt. "I was wrong about you, Scofield." C-Note said, looking over at Phoebe. "And you, Baldwin."

"We told you so. A little more trust next time, yeah?" Phoebe said with a small smile, earning a smirk and a chuckle from C-Note and a scolding glare from Michael, who feared she'd say the wrong thing and get punished.

"I like this one." C-Note said with a laugh as he motioned at Phoebe before digging his hand into his pocket and pulling out a handful of pills. "Here's your pugnac." He dropped each individual pill into Michael's hand, one by one, which seemed highly unsanitary to Phoebe, and she shuddered at the thought as Michael huffed in annoyance.

"Little bit late." Michael deadpanned, jaw slightly clenched as he put the pugnac in his own pocket. Phoebe cocked a brow and looked up at Michael before looking back at C-Note, who seemed to very much dislike Michael's comment.

"Better late than never, right?" C-Note questioned with a small smirk. Before Michael or Phoebe even got a chance to reply, a guard walked up to the fence.

"Scofield!" The guard shouted, catching the group's attention. "Infirmary!" The guard said before walking off. Michael turned back to face C-Note.

"We'll see about that." He replied.