Miles flopped back onto the couch with a sigh, Emily crawling onto his lap and making herself right at home as he did. Aaron continued his frantic search through the dusty volumes of law centered material in search of their latest loophole. Emily grabbed a hold of his collar and gleefully pulled herself up on wobbly legs before promptly falling back down on her butt. He caught her so she wouldn't fall off, which she seemed to find particularly funny.
Aaron looked over to see what she was giggling about as she made another attempt to stand up, this time with Miles' hands hovering near her diaper-clad butt to steady her. "Where's Charlie?"
"Opal said she needed her help canning some of her garden stuff." Miles shrugged. "I think she's just trying to keep Charlie's mind occupied. She's been driving herself crazy since they locked Bass up, and her nightmares are ten times worse than they usually are. I've been spiking her tea with whiskey to help knock her out. She hasn't said anything about it... but I'm pretty sure she knows."
"Do you think she'll be ok if we don't... if we can't get him back?" Aaron asked.
Miles didn't look at him. He sat and watched the determined look on Emily's face as she tried, yet again, to stand up on her own. Her face reminded him so much of Bass in that moment it made his heart ache at the thought of not being able to save him. He thought of Charlie, how miserable she had been before Bass showed up in Willoughby, how she'd been trying to convince everyone, including herself, that she was fine.
"No, she won't be alright."
He knew that with absolute certainty.
XxX
After being locked up for nearly three weeks, Bass was more than happy to get out of his little box. The guards had even given him a tub of room temperature water to wash up in and let Charlie bring him some clean clothes. The fact that his first trip out of the box led to his trial, and impending doom, was being deliberately ignored.
It was early in the morning, so Charlie and Emily hadn't been able to visit first, the sun was shining and the townspeople were gathering to watch him be marched to the courthouse. He kept his eyes focused ahead of him, his mind on his family.
They were all waiting for him. Charlie was sitting in the first row with Miles, Ralph, and Opal while Cynthia sat at a small table by herself in the front of the room. The empty chair next to her was obviously for him. The other table had a fierce looking man with a very large, not to mention ugly, woman next to him. Twelve people he'd never seen before in his life sat against the wall. Those people would decide his fate.
Carver, the President of Texas, had even come out to see him off. He sat quietly in his seat, sneaking smug glances in Miles' direction. Bass fought down the urge to assassinate him. He was in enough trouble already.
There were a few other people in the courtroom as well, he notice Gale the butcher, the old lady that he'd tried to buy oil from on his first day in town, Marion from the bar, and even Gene Porter had come to watch the proceedings. Which side he was rooting for was unclear. Rachel was conspicuously absent, he had thought she wouldn't want to miss this, and sadly Emily was nowhere in sight. Which was good he guessed... he didn't want the last time his daughter saw him to be when they hauled him off to die. But he did wonder who was watching her. He hoped it wasn't Rachel.
Bass took his seat next to Cynthia, noticing the subtle shaking in her hands. He whispered out of the corner of his mouth, "don't worry, I know I'm dead, so don't blame yourself." She turned to him then, giving him a strange look that quickly turned into a genuine smile.
"My grandfather used to tell me not to count my chickens before they hatch, you should take the same advise."
There was no chance to decipher her meaning as the room stood up respectfully for the judge to enter. Once everyone was seated, he addressed the room at large. "I understand that everyone has very strong feelings about this particular case, however, this trial will proceed as any other. Any attempts to derail the proceedings in anyway will be considered contempt and you will be charged, that I can promise." The judge's eyes swept over Miles and Charlie like he thought they might object, but they remained stoic.
"Good, then let's get this over with. The defendant is being charged with fraud, trespassing (Bass couldn't figure out where that one came from), racketeering, attempted murder of a public official, conspiracy, capitol murder, and terrorism. How does the defendant plead?"
Bass stood silently for a moment. When all of his crimes were piled up like that, it made him sound like a monster. The worst part was that that wasn't even half of the crimes he'd committed. Cynthia nudged him and sent him a glare that clearly said 'get your head in the game.' He shook off the unpleasant memories of dead bodies and orphaned children, and cleared his throat. "Not guilty."
This was met with a gasp from the crowd and much whispering, though the judge and the rest of the legal team didn't look surprised, so Bass figured Cynthia must have talked to him before hand.
The judge rolled his eyes in an annoyed sort of way and said, "very well. Miss Collins, you may proceed with whatever ridiculous defense you've dreamed up for your client."
Cynthia glared at the judge, who only appeared amused by it, and stood up. "Thank you, your Honor. I think it would be best to discuss the simple charges first, so as far as racketeering, conspiracy, and any of the murder charges go, those do not apply in this courtroom."
The room fell silent, the judge, the prosecutor, and the jury, all staring at her in disbelief.
"Those crimes were not committed in the nation of Texas, therefore, we do not have jurisdiction over those crimes and Mr. Monroe can not be charged with them here."
The prosecutor glared at her angrily. "He tried to assassinate General Blanchard, that happened on Texas soil."
This was met with many nods and 'yeah's' from the audience.
Cynthia kept her composure though and addressed the judge. "Actually, your Honor, Miles Matheson was responsible for the attempt on General Frank Blanchard's life. Sebastian Monroe wasn't even in the country at the time."
This was also met with angry shouting, the prosecutor even stepped away from his table and towards Cynthia with a pen grasped tightly in his hand. The judged slammed his gavel down on the table and ordered him back to his seat, meanwhile watching Cynthia over the top of his glasses.
"Do you have proof of this, Miss Collins?"
Bass heard her breath out a shaky breath, though he figured no one else would have heard it. "I do." She pulled an old folder from her bag and produced the post-blackout version of a newspaper from it. The bailiff took it up to the judge. "That is a newspaper clipping from the day before the assassination attempt. You'll note that the article and accompanying picture depict former President Monroe visiting a field hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. The photo was taken two days before the paper was published, which is noted at the bottom."
The judge scrutinized the paper carefully, but Bass could see in the older man's angry movements that he already knew that Cynthia was right. Bass hadn't been in Texas at the time, so there was no case against him. For that particular crime, anyway.
"Very well." Though the judge seemed less than happy about it. "Not that it matters." He grinned gleefully at this, "the terrorism charge still stands. The bombs that destroyed Philadelphia and Atlanta may not have been dropped here, but they have directly affected our people and our resources."
"Yes," Cynthia agreed, "the bombs have had an affect on Texas, though - and I intend to prove it - they were not the result of Mr. Monroe's actions."
And more yelling. It took a while longer to get the crowd under control this time.
"And how do you plan to prove this?" The judge asked.
Cynthia took a deep breath and visibly prepared herself for what was about to happen. "I would like to call my first witness, former General Miles Matheson."
XxX
Nearly two hours later, Miles stomped down from the stand in a bad mood after giving his account of what had happened in The Tower. Bass had to hold back a laugh. His brother hated public speaking, but he especially hated admitting when he was wrong, making him do both at the same time was nothing short of torture. Miles shot him one of his 'shut up, dick' looks on his way back to his seat.
The judge was rubbing his temples tiredly, a look of confusion on his face. "You expect this courtroom to believe that the bombs that were dropped were actually part of a larger conspiracy that was orchestrated by the United States government?" He laughed. "I hope you have more proof than the say-so of a drunken ex-General, Miss Collins."
Cynthia actually smiled at this, having spent weeks pulling the story together, she was genuinely excited to tell it. "Yes, I do. I'd like to call Aaron Pittman to the stand."
They listened to Aaron give his account of the events of The Tower. He started with the moment Bass and Rachel had shown up to rescue Charlie from the guy that had cornered them and ended with Randal Flynn blowing his brains out right in front of them. He even told everyone that he'd tried to stop the attack, but he had been too late.
"Monroe wasn't even in the room when Flynn hit the button. Actually, I'm not sure if he was even in the building."
Given that Aaron was actually well known around town, a favorite teacher of the kids in school, and best known for rescuing Cynthia from her abusive husband, Bass could tell that people were finding it more difficult to discredit him. The judge was practically growling, the prosecutor fuming in his seat, the jury looking torn.
"I have one more witness I would like to call," Cynthia announced to the room.
Bass shot her a look, shaking his head. He knew that the only other person in the room that knew the truth was Charlie, and he didn't want to put her on the stand. He didn't want her to have to relive it.
Cynthia ignored him. "Charlotte Matheson-Monroe." Charlie walked slowly to the stand, her face set. "Mrs. Monroe, just so the court is clear, you do know that being married to the defendant means that you don't have to testify, correct?"
Charlie took a deep breath and Bass could see her tucking away all of her insecurities behind a calm mask. "Yes, I'm aware. I want to testify anway."
"Alright then. Would you please explain, in your own words, the events that led up to the bombing of Atlanta and Philadelphia."
Charlie gave her a small smile. "It's kind of a long story."
Cynthia looked over at the judge and then addressed the room at large. "Well I think that I can speak for everyone in saying that we would all like to know how you came to be married to the man that murdered both your father and your brother. Am I right?" Murmurs of agreement filled the room and the members of the jury sat up a little straighter. Apparently, Bass wasn't the only one that was interested in her answer. So far, he and Charlie had gone along with the unspoken agreement not to talk about Ben and Danny, but that didn't mean that he wasn't curious about how she felt about it.
To his surprise, Charlie looked directly at him and said, "while my husband was partly to blame for their deaths, I don't consider him to be their killer."
Cynthia seemed unsurprised by the revelation, which made her about the only one in the room, and asked gently, "then who is their killer?"
Charlie looked over at the jury, an untamed fury in her eyes. "Rachel Matheson."
This was met with silence.
"Mrs. Monroe, would you like to give an explanation?"
Charlie sighed, her mask slipping momentarily, revealing that she really didn't want to explain anything, but she pulled herself back together and looked calmly around the room. "It started two years ago. My family lived in a small village in Wisconsin..."
A/N I decided not to skip the courtroom part of the story because I thought I'd be fun to write... It's not. :-P I'm not a lawyer, I just watch too much TV, so anything that's wrong can just be considered what Texas would do if it really was it's own country. Also, I'm almost positive that Cynthia and Aaron weren't married so for this story she is Cynthia Collins. And no, Rachel is not watching Emily (for any of you who may have been concerned :-))
