Shattered, Forgotten & Treasured

Chapter 12: Jury Duty

Veronica

"Please play nice with the other children," Logan says as I open my door to get out. Everyone seemed to be enjoying the little fact that I had jury duty. Well Logan didn't like the idea of me not being home with him all day, but he also told me last night this will give everyone a break from my Christmas to do list.

"I can't make any promises," I say as I lean back to give him a quick kiss.

"Seriously though, sweetie play nice," my dad says equally amused as I keep tight lipped. I wasn't going to let them get to me just because I was stuck I'm a stupid civic duty. Ugh! I checked in and took a seat waiting with the rest of the jury pool. I was looking over a few last minute notes about the case when I looked up to see it was almost 1:30. The end of the testimony was over and now we were going to deliberate. I was tired and sore from sitting so long, but I had promised Logan to keep mum about the baby to keep me out of the press.

'Jury duty on Christmas break. No sing-alongs, no poignant messages of universal love and hope, just cell phones out, watches eyeballed, jackets left on. And a commitment to the sacred ideal of drive-through express justice well the justice part is still being waited on for Aaron Echolls the sick bastard who murdered my best friend in cold blood'. I think as I enter the juror room last taking the only chair left unclaimed at one end of the long table in the room. One of the guys looks up at me as I sit down but then looks the other way. Everyone slowly takes their seats.

At the other end of the table or maybe even the head of the table, an older man no doubt an entitled 09er was sitting watching each of us as we took our seats. He must have been a business man because the moment we were all seated he tapped his glass to get our attention like he was in charge.

"All right, ladies and gentleman. The sooner we get this over with, the sooner we get back to our lives. First order of business, I believe, is to elect a jury foreman. Do I hear any nominations or volunteers?" the man snips as if this was the last thing he wanted to be doing, almost like he was better than the rest of us. "All right, hearing no nominations, I have a proposal since this case strikes me as a fairly open-and-shut one. Let me see, would anyone object to letting our young lady serve as our foreman?' he smirks as everyone turns to look in my direction. This isn't something I wanted to be doing right now.

"I think that is a good idea," another lady near the business man says as she looks down at me.

"I mean this would be a nice chance for her to learn about civic responsibility in the justice system," the business man says even more determined. I was totally pissed off at him. "Great! All in favor of letting Miss. Mars serve as foreman raise your hands," he continues avoiding looking toward me. I watch in horror as everyone around the table raises their hands.

"Thanks, and my name is Mrs. Echolls," I bitterly say as I see the man who looked at me enter smile. He was dressed like a sports fan. He had on a sports shirt and a baseball cap.

"Absolutely," the Sports man says giving me a tight smile. I don't know what else to do as I nervously smile at him before turn to my notes. I was getting a little ticked off by the man who thought he was in charge. I mean clearly he knew who I was, but was enjoying the idea of pissing me off.

The twelve of us including a waitress, a college professor, a Hispanic grandmother and several other ill fated jurors deliberated for the rest of the afternoon going over all the names of the people involved in the case, and who had a reason to be mentioned. I was getting very tired of the 09er jerk who thought he was god's gift. If we didn't close this case soon I was going to be on trial for murdering him. As I was walking out of the room I noticed Leo waiting for me in the hallway.

"Where's Logan?" I asked as he took my bag from me.

"He was called in by Cliff to talk a little bit more about the case," Leo said as he led me down a different hallway.

"Where are we going?' I questioned as I leaned against the elevator siding as we waited for it.

"I am taking you to the basement where Logan should be waiting," he says as the business man approached us. "Play nice," Leo muttered as he joined us.

"Miss. Mars," he snips toward me. I turn to look at him.

"My name is Mrs. Echolls, if you call me Miss. Mars once more I am going to taze you," I snap as I pull out my nice little friend showing him the jolt as I pushed the on switch.

"Veronica," Leo says as I step into the elevator.

"You don't mind waiting for the next one do you," I snap as I push the close door button. Leo was half laughing at what I just did as we walked out of the elevator heading toward the Range Rover when I saw Logan leaning against it. He didn't look very happy, but when his eyes meet mine she gave me a small smile.

"Did you play nice with all the other kids?' he questioned as Leo busted out laughing. Leo spent the drive back to our house describing how I put some jerk in his place. Logan squeezed my hand once on the way home as he looked out the window. I didn't know what had happened but he was lost in his own world. We ate dinner with Dick and Mac. Meg was out with her sisters and my dad. After dinner Mac and Dick disappeared outside while Logan and I headed up to our room with Rosa.

"Logan, you want to talk about what's been eating you?" I questioned as I settled myself on my side of the bed. He turned around to face me from the opening to our bathroom.

"If I say 'no' will you leave it alone," he mutters as I feel like it was a bigger issue than what I had previously thought.

"I am just…" I start but he holds up his hand.

"Of course not, you're Veronica and you need to know everything," he snaps at me as he shuts the bathroom door banging it against the door jam roughly. I couldn't believe it. We were fighting. This wasn't what I wanted to do when we came up for bed. I wanted to go into the bathroom and lay into him, but instead I lay down, and turned out the lights. I no longer was in the mood for it. I had a crappy day, and our child was squishing my vital organs and playing soccer as I tried to relax. I vaguely heard the water in the shower turn on, but then I was lost in my head.

"Ronnie, you awake," I barely hear Logan whisper as I feel his cool skin against my shoulder.

"Um," I mutter as I think back to before I closed my eyes.

"I'm sorry for yelling at you. I had a shitty afternoon, but shouldn't have taken it out on you. I'm sorry," he says as he pulls me closer to his body. I wanted to pull away, but I needed him as much as he needed me. I closed my eyes as I fell back to sleep.

****LoVe****

After the rough night with Logan I woke up in a crappy mood. My mood didn't get any better when I realized that Logan had already left for his day. My dad tried to reassure me that it wasn't anything against me, but it's hard not to think it had something to do with me. I hated the fact that Logan was still being hurt by the ass of a dad he had. I hated even more that I had to get up and dressed during my break to serve jury duty. Leo drove me to court once again, and told me that both Logan and my dad wanted him to remind me to play nice.

I was in a fool mood as the entitled prick of a CEO began making his nonsense float around about the case. He was complaining about having to serve as I was walking around the table since my back was killing me and I felt like I had sharp pains every once in a while. I knew that some women had false labor pains so I wasn't going to rush into any crazy frenzying.

"You know we all have better things to do than pull jury duty over the holidays, and I feel your pain," I say as the prick just gives me a chuckle. I so wanted to pour the hot liquid in my cup over his head and be done with it.

"Really, I don't think your little high school cheerleader mind understands the hassle this is for me. Does your pain affect two hundred thousand stock holders? I'm supposed to meet with outsourcing contractors in Bangalore. Would you like to call them all up and explain to tell them why their CEO couldn't show for an important meeting?" he sneers at me as I discourage myself for snapping.

"Also while you at it would you explain to my boss why I had to take unpaid leave from my crap waitress job. If not could I please suggest we get on with it?" the waitress with two kids says as I just want to scream.

We begin to get more into the semantics of the issues of who was where and what each person was doing. I mean yesterday it seemed like it all fit, but with the lone holdout it prolonged the case. I was thinking about all the facts even as I struggled with trying to keep a level head about it. I kept thinking about Logan, but needed to focus on the issue at hand.

I wasn't expecting that the elderly lady would have a point, but she did. Why would a girl who busted her butt working at a carwash do tricks on the side. There had to be more to the story than what was presented to us. I mean could the two boys just be innocent and had been in the wrong place or were they really the bad guys. I learned long ago that even the innocent could be guilty.

"Hey," I say as I exited the juror room to find Logan waiting for me outside.

"Hey," he says as he pulls me into an embrace. The stress of the day goes away the moment I was in his arms. I knew we both had issues, but what couple didn't. I knew he was dealing with a lot just as I was.

"You were gone this morning," I say as I fiddle with his wedding band as Leo drove us home.

"Yeah, Dick and I went to surf this morning to clear my head. I wanted to get back before you woke up, but I missed you by ten minutes," he says as I see our drive ahead of us.

"I missed you," I say as he helps me out of the SUV.

"I hate that I am hurting you," he says as he leads me toward the side of the house where there was a pathway leading to the beach. "I mean Veronica you are my life, but I couldn't bare it if something happened to you," he continues as I see a blanket under an umbrella with a picnic basket on it.

"Logan, I know this stuff with Aaron isn't ideal. I just want you to talk to me. Please don't bottle it all up," I say as I sit down on the blanket once we get to it.

"I want to tell you everything, but I can't," he says but stops as he looks up into my eyes. "The reality of the abuse at his hands in devastating, but talking about it is killing me," he mutters as he turns to look out at the ocean.

"It's alright, you have us now," I say leaning into him as he wraps an arm around me. It was true; he had me and our child. I wasn't going to turn away from him in his time of need. I would wait it out right beside him.

****LoVe****

I was pissed off as I woke up knowing it was Christmas eve and I had to be in a freaking juror room deliberating because eleven other people couldn't work together to solve this case. Logan was in a better mood now that all his testifying against his dad was taken care of. I still would like to have been a fly on the wall in the room where he was going into detail about every little thing his dad did to him. He had been through enough.

"Veronica, I love you," Logan says as he helps me into the waiting SUV. I was going to miss all the last minute things the guys were doing to have everything done for tomorrow. I blew him a kiss as Leo started to drive away. I mean everyone was trying to give me hints about the people involved in the case. I had no clue how everyone knew what trial I was on.

Dick had helped me get the facts about Carnell Myles being represented by Robert McKinnon's dad before he blew his knee out. My dad helped me with looking into some other details. I mean everyone was helping except for the prick who was making me regret not murdering him. I mean I was going on my fourth day with him and I hated him.

"The gun belonged to Anissa," I blurted out while the other jurors were smarting off about how long someone would be in jail. It was the only logical fact. If it truly didn't belong to the boys it was hers, she did have a firearms charge against her. Everyone looked toward me as the prick just sat back in his seat and placed his hands behind his head.

"This should be good," he mutters with a huge smirk plastered on his face."We know she has a firearms rap. Parole in those cases forbids you to own a gun. The boys attack her, she pulls the gun, they flee, but if she admits the gun is hers, its prison for sure. She has to ditch the gun before the cops arrive. But she's too beat up to do it herself," I start as I think about it all as I say it.

"Right, so she has to get rid of the gun or she'll get in trouble for it. She decides to get her friend to do it. Anquan Simmons," the professor says as she looks over a few of her notes.

"Yes, she calls him right after the attack, and who was seen fleeing the scene twelve minutes later with a gun in his hand," I finish for her as I feel a very sharp pain in my side. I rub my hand down my side trying to ease the pressure.

"Okay aside from the theory you just yanked out of your..." he starts but pauses before continuing, "...imagination...what ties the gun to Miss Villapondo?" he questions.

"For me it was all just a process of elimination. The guy running from the motel wasn't Carnell Myles, so it couldn't have been his. If it belonged to the boys, Anissa wouldn't have needed to hide it. Their fingerprints would have been on it as well as hers," I say as I am interrupted.

"Right, but that still leaves..." the Sportsman says as I smile before continuing with my thoughts.

"It still leaves Anissa and the anti-gravity guy that we all saw hopping the fence. So unless that guy was in the room the whole time, which neither the defense nor the prosecution has proposed, the gun would have to be Anissa's," I say with a smile as I sit down in my chair waiting out another sharp pain.

We re-watched the video and talked a little more about the anti-gravity man as well as everyone telling a point that stuck out to them still. I was amazed how everyone was able to work together except for the CEO who thought he was better than the rest of us. We were all voting as the Bailiff came into the room. My prick CEO had just ended our vote 10 to acquit 2 not to.

"Pardon me, Miss Mars, the judge would like to see you in her chambers, he says as I keep quiet about my name.

"Mrs. Echolls here's something for our foreman to pass along: I will never vote for conviction. No matter what. You tell the judge this jury's hung," he sneers at me as I walk out of the room. The judge asked me details about what was going on and how she would like the case closed today. I explained to her what was going on, but she didn't want to hear it. She wanted it done.

"What happened?" the waitress asked the moment I walked back into the room.

"She asked me whether we were deadlocked. I said no. Then she said we're not going home until we reach a verdict," I mutter as I grab for my bag pulling out my water. The news wasn't new, but the look of disgust and hatred from the CEO made me ticked off thinking of how his attitude had ruined this experience for me. This news is met with various expressions of frustration. The Captain of Industry, now in his seat, stares at Veronica in pure hatred. The Latina woman gets her knitting out of her bag and sits down again.

"I'm not questioning your integrity. I'm just asking you for a logical response to the points I've raised," I yell out as I leap to my feet while he stares me down.

"Logical? Look, Barbie doll..." he sneers at me as he plows in at me. "I've had a bellyful of your snide little digs. Here's my final word," he snaps at me as he emphasizes his words by standing to his feet, "I'll never, ever, send two 09er boys from good families to jail on the account of that Mexican whore!" The professor couldn't believe his words. The Hispanic woman who sat beside him the whole time looked ticked off. It was at this time that a break was asked for, but it didn't matter as the other hold out decided to change his vote.

"Did God just speak to you?" the CEO snaps as we all look at him.

"Sir, I think that's a bit out of line," the man says looking toward me.

"You're right. I apologize; I'm changing my vote as well. I mean even lying hookers deserve a little holiday cheer, don't they?" he sneers looking directly at me

"Are you serious?" the Hispanic woman asks as I wait for her to stick him in the stomach with one of her knitting needles.

"Course I'm serious. I'll sleep with visions of sugarplums, trusting their fate in a jury that doesn't kowtow to a high school cheerleader!" he sneers toward her as he takes his seat. I do the only thing I can think of as I thrust my arms out in a quick little cheerleading stance and give him a glare.

"Yay! Okay," I say in the best pep voice I could muster, "Let me take this moment to thank you. I learned a lot about civic responsibility," I continue in the peppy voice as he looks slightly uncomfortable. I was one of the last jurors out of the room as the professor approached me to let me know she thought I did a great job. I was a little surprised to hear how she would like for me to attend Hearst next year. I thanked her, but said I wasn't sure where I was planning on going since it was a part truth.

I was walking out of the juror room as I clutched my stomach once more just as my water broke. "Logan," I cried out as I felt a sharp pain radiate throughout my stomach as I saw the frenzy of people tackling someone to the ground as I lifted my hand up to see blood on it.

"Veronica," Logan yells as I fall to the floor holding my stomach in too much pain to get up. "It's going to be all right," was the last thing I heard him say as I see the man tackled to the ground smirk at me as my eyes closed.