Lieutenant Benson sits on the witness chair, feeling a little uneasy. She has been on this chair many times in her life, but this case grinded her gears more than any case she has ever had. She reminisces on walking up to the merry-go-round seeing yet another teenage girl laying on the ground with a pool of blood around her head. She gets snapped back into reality by Barba repeatedly saying her name.
"Lieutenant Benson!" Barba said, getting a little frustrated at the fourth time saying her name. He began to worry what the jury was going to think about his witness. Would they think that she was having second thoughts about prosecuting Chris for the murder of his girlfriend? Just as he started to get nervous, Lieutenant Benson seemed to snapped out if it.
"Yes, the autopsy showed that Emily was pregnant." She answered remembering the question.
"How did Chris react when he first found out that Emily was pregnant?" Barba came back quickly, as though he was waiting for hours to ask this question in front of the jury.
"Chris feared what his parents were going to think. As would any teenager when they get their girlfriend pregnant."
Olivia takes a peak over at the defense table and looks at Chris, in his baby blue button up shirt with the sleeves rolled up and the top two buttons undone. He is sitting straight up at attention like he is hanging on each word that Barba and Benson were saying. She could even see his eyes becoming watery because of the content was all about him and the love of his life. Olivia knows that he cared very dearly for Emily, and that if he could, he would go back and change what happened because he misses her so much.
"Lieutenant what did you see when you walked up on the scene?" Barba asked bringing Olivia back to real time.
"When I walked up I saw Emily half under the merry-go-round with her head in a pool of blood. She seemed to be there for several hours, at least, and she looked as though she was sitting at the time she was shot."
As she continued you could hear someone from the audience in the courtroom wince as though they were in pain and attempting not to cry out. It was Emily's mother, Melanie, sitting in the middle row of the courtroom with her husband Michael. His hand is resting on Melanie's leg in attempt to comfort her in the hard time hearing about their only daughter. Both parents are trying to keep together in the vulnerable time in their lives. At the same time, you can tell that they were both furious with the situation, they were angry at Chris and his family and they did not know if they could ever forgive their lifelong friends.
Barba thanked Lieutenant Benson and she was excused from the witness stand. As she stepped down she noticed that the bailiff was standing very close to the witness stand, so close she had to turn her body to walk past him. She also noticed that he looked a little scared, he must have been the new guy that they just hired a week ago. She glanced across the room seeing Chris and his lawyer, Chris' parents, Emily's parents and a couple other people who must have taken interest in the case that decided to come to court. This happens more often so Olivia did not take any special interests in the people.
Judge Wood told Barba to call his next witness to the stand, so he called Emily's mom to take a seat where Lieutenant Benson previously was. Her job was to explain to the jury how her daughter was not suicidal and that Chris killed her because of the baby.
Melanie was still whipping her tears off with a soggy, wet, balled up tissue that she has kept in her hand the whole trial.
The bailiff held the bible "Do you swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth?"
"I do" replied Melanie, as she stepped up to the witness stand.
"Good evening Mrs. Gold, how are you holding up?"
"I am doing okay.." she replied very slowly.
"Okay ma'am I will try to get you out of here as soon as possible."
"Thank you" she replied.
"Do you think that your daughter was suicidal?"
"No, she showed no sign of being suicidal, Chis murdered my daughter" she said sternly showing some anger.
"Okay thank you Mrs. Gold. My next question is, did Emily ever tell you that she was pregnant?"
"I had no clue at all that she was pregnant, but obviously Chris knew and he did not want us to know" Melanie started to sound frustrated and her attention started going from Barba to Chris. Everyone in the room knew that she blamed Chris for her daughter's death.
Barba's next question lingered in the air as he began, "Mrs. Gold, is Chris capable of killing your daughter, Emily?"
Melanie hesitates, she looked at Chris, then to her husband, and then back at Mr. Barba. Barba begins to sweat, he can feel his hands become clammy. He has been over this many times with Melanie, she told him an hour before court started that the answer was yes. Suddenly he starts to think about what this could look like to the jury, they might think that Mrs. Gold does not think that Chris is capable of killing Emily.
Just as he realized he needed to say something to bring Melanie back she answers with a scary almost demotic voice, "Yes, Chris Harte murdered my daughter Emily."
Barba thanks Mrs. Gold and Judge Wood dismisses her from the witness stand. As she steps down she stumbles a little and drops her crumpled up tissue on the ground. Olivia is on edge, she has a weird feeling and thought that the trip was on purpose. Her gut feeling is confirmed when Mrs. Gold reaches for the bailiff's gun from his holster.
Olivia goes into reaction mode and draws her weapon as Melanie points the gun right at Chris. Olivia does not think that this woman has the strength to kill a teenage boy that she watched grow up, but when she turns and shoots the bailiff right in the stomach because he lunges at her, Olivia realizes that Melanie is not in the right state of mind and she needs to be taken seriously.
Judge Wood slips out the back door with the other bailiff and most of the people in the courtroom get out because Mrs. Gold is focused on Chris. Everyone gets out besides the wounded bailiff, Olivia, Barba, Chris, and Chris' defense attorney.
Olivia starts to tell Melanie to put the gun down on the ground and that no one here needs to get hurt. It is almost as though Melanie does not hear anything that Olivia is saying.
After just holding the gun pointed at Chris for what seemed like forever she finally belted out "Why did you kill my daughter?"
Chris stayed silent as he stared Melanie in the eyes as his eyes began to fill with tears.
Melanie did not react well to the silence, she began to get even more worked up and the gun started shaking in her hand. She started crying out "why!" several times.
Olivia keeps her gun pointed at Melanie and begins to talk to her in a calm tone like she was taught during her training.
"Melanie your daughter would not want this to happen, your daughter loved Chris. Chris was your daughter's best friend. You watched them grow up together you know this is true. They were always there for each other. You love Chris like he is your own son! I heard you say that, you know it is true."
Melanie does not answer but Olivia knows that she is hearing her and it is working. Olivia can see her frustration begin to vanish.
Olivia continues "You held this boy right after he was born, you are like his second mom. You love him Melanie, you are best friends with his family, don't forget what you had before this tragedy. Emily would not want you to do this Melanie!"
She looks away from Chris and looks at Lieutenant Benson as she reminds her one last time that Emily would not want her to hurt Chris and that both Chris and Emily love her dearly.
Once she hears that both teenagers love her, she drops to her knees in an outcry and sets the gun on the ground. Olivia moves swiftly over and kicks the gun away as she handcuffs Melanie. As they both walk out of the courtroom, Chris' head falls to the ground and his tears hit the ground.
Right before Olivia is about to open the door to the courtroom, Melanie barely gets out, "I'm sorry Chris, Emily loved you dearly."
Eventually, Chris is found not guilty of all charges. Melanie sees many doctors and begins to think differently about the whole situation. She begins to forgive and be thankful for everything Chris did for her daughter. She comes around and the two families stay living right next to each other. Although things will never be the same with the two families, they mourn together and they continue to be friends.