Tears streamed from Olivia's eyes. It was the middle of the night and she
was still in the medibay, alone. It wasn't just her mind playing tricks on
her; it seemed she really was in danger. He really had been in her bedroom.
Part of her, a very small part, doubted herself the entire time, and that
drove her nuts, but that was gone now. She had been right all along. Her
panic had not been in vain. What could she do now?
A series of deep bruises ran along her legs and abdomen, but nothing too serious. Still, it hurt every time she shifted positions. Part of her wished Rimmer was still in the room talking to her. Talking to him felt safe.
~
Rimmer paced nervously around his sleeping quarters.
"Rimmer, would you go to sleep already!" shouted Lister from his bunk. He emphasized this by chucking a pillow at Rimmer. "You have been pacing like that for hours, man!"
Rimmer turned around to face Lister. "Don't you even care about Olivia?" He said in a sleep deprived mumble.
"Sure I do, but there isn't much we can do." Lister replied, crawling out of his bunk to retrieve his pillow.
Rimmer remembered that Lister didn't know the entire story. "Maybe I should visit her?"
"Let her sleep, man. Like you should be doing! Besides, isn't she still mad at you for spying on her in the shower?" Lister began to laugh.
Rimmer didn't answer. Lister was right; it was too late to visit her.
"Rimmer, stop pacing around like a small furry animal trapped in a cage! You look ridiculous!" Lister mumbled, flipping over in his bunk.
~
The next morning, Rimmer awoke to the bright fluorescent lights of his sleeping quarters attempting to blind him. He rubbed his palms over his eyes, and then noticed Lister wasn't in the room. It was their day off. He hadn't gotten much sleep the night before. He had wanted to review the surveillance tapes of Olivia's room during the attack, but couldn't when Lister was in the room, but now that he was gone. "Holly!"
"Yes Arnold?" Holly's face flashed on the monitor almost instantaneously.
"Look, I know it's not allowed, but can you please show me your black box recording from two nights ago in Olivia's bedroom?" Rimmer asked.
"Wait a minute! I'm not letting you spy on her again! Wait. what was she doing?" Holly raised an eyebrow.
"No! I don't want to spy on her! I want to see who attacked her!"
"I'm sorry, Arnold, those are for the captain and security officers' eyes only." Holly replied.
"Once again I am victim of my cruel fate! So what I am not an officer! At least I tried! Do you know how many times I took that test."
"Sixteen, Arnold."
"Exactly! I have every right to see those tapes, because.because.Smeg! This is all my parents fault! All they cared about were my perfect brothers. They went off to become test pilots and officers, and here I am, a chicken soup machine repair man!" Rimmer whined.
"Oh god, not another guilt trip. If I show you the tapes will you shut up, and promise not to complain for a week?"
"Deal."
The monitor became dark. The figure of Olivia could be seen in the corner bunk. "Can't we make this lighter? Night vision or something."
"That wasn't part of the deal."
"Oh yeah, and its all my teachers fault too. Always yelling at me, beating me."
"Fine, no more!"
Rimmer smiled, at least his horrible childhood memories were good for something. The image on the screen soon became lighter and more visible. "Fast forward to the attack."
Holly began fast forwarding the tape until another figure was visible. "There we go." Rimmer looked closer at the screen. "I can't see him clearly, zoom in!" The picture zoomed in. Soon Olivia's screaming could be heard from the screen as the figure moved in closer. He had something in his hands. Rimmer watched in horror as he began to hit her. Who was this guy? "Holly, do we have any pictures of this guy's face?" Rimmer asked.
"I'm not sure, Arnold."
At that moment, he turned around to face the security camera and Rimmer saw the man directly in the eye. Rimmer let out a huge gasp. "Smegging hell! I can't believe it!" he shouted in horror. He took a deep breath, the realized what this meant. He could finally get revenge. All he had to do was show the tape to the captain and reveal he who had done it, and the person could be in the brig forever. He knew the person on the tape. It was someone to whom he has to kiss up to for years in the hope to become an officer. Frank Todhunter. Rimmer almost smiled, and then remembered his promise to Olivia. He had promised not to tell anyone about this. She had been hurt! He had to tell for her safety.
Rimmer took a deep breath. He wondered what would happen if he told the captain who had done it. The result for him would be good, of course. Someone he hated would be thrown in the brig, and he would most likely be rewarded some how, and Olivia would be safe. Then again, she would be angry at him, and that was difficult to think about. He didn't want anymore reasons for her not to like him. He already betrayed her trust once, how could he do it again? She would hate him for sure. This was different, it had to be. If Todhunter had hurt her once, he could do it again.
"Holly, I need a copy of this tape!"
"Hang on, you can't just keep adding more and more to our deal." Holly protested.
"Are you really going to be like that? After all we've been through?"
"I'm sorry, Arnold, but I refuse to make a copy for you of confidential surveillance tapes."
Rimmer let out a long sigh. He had gotten all he could out of Holly through bribery and whining. "Listen, it's not for me, it's for Olivia. She's in danger and this may be able to save her."
"Well why didn't you say so?" said Holly.
"You'll do it?"
"If anyone asks, the skutters gave it to you."
~
Rimmer nervously paced towards the Captain's office. He gulped, unsure if he could do this. He stopped at the reception's desk. "I need to see the Captain, its urgent!" He shouted, slurring the words together incoherently.
"Excuse me?"
Rimmer refreshed his lungs with a deep breath. "I need to see the captain, its urgent!" He managed to say more coherently.
"I'm sorry, he's in an important meeting." She replied, not seeming to care about anything Rimmer had just previously said.
"Well when will he be out of his meeting?" Rimmer shouted impatiently in his specialty high pitched whiney voice.
The receptionist cringed for a moment and then looked up from her paperwork. "I'm not sure, sir, but you can see him once he is finished." She said, sounding less professional than before. This was followed by her noisily popping her gum.
Rimmer signed and sat down on one of the uncomfortable seats. His leg began to jiggle as if it had been gripped by demonic seizures. He began to chew on his fingernails. He had never been a nail biter, but he needed some kind of annoying habit to emphasize that he was particularly nervous in this situation. Would the captain believe him or would he side with Todhunter. What reason did the captain have to believe him? He was a second technician willing to do anything to be promoted, no matter how drastic. He had in fact, been caught several times trying to pull some kind of promotion scheme on the captain. Todhunter on the other hand, was trustworthy and ranked much higher, not to mention was a friend of the captain's.
There was also Olivia to think about. He wasn't sure she would even understand that he was doing this for her safety. She had just recently forgiven him for his spying antics, anyway. He was surly pushing his luck by doing this. His leg continued its violent jiggling, and his nails were soon chewed to the skin. He simply couldn't take it anymore! He soon found himself running across the little room, nearly tripping on the side table, but still scattering housekeeping magazines everywhere. By the time the receptionist had pulled her attention away from her questionable work, it was too late. Rimmer had barged into the room.
"Captain, we must have a decision. Which loo paper should we put in the officers Lavatories? Double quilted or ultra soft?" asked a tall, skinny officer with a strong accent. He was holding two toilet paper rolls on adjacent fingers. The captain looked puzzled.
"Captain Hollister!" shouted Rimmer.
Both he and the skinny officer looked up immediately.
"Rimmer! I am in the middle of an important meeting! What are you doing here?!" shouted the captain
It took Rimmer a few moments to get over the adrenaline rush from barging in on the captain's meeting to remember what he was going to say. "Yes. I apologize." He stuttered.
The stares continued.
"This is important! This concerns the safety of a crew member."
"Haven't you heard of making an appointment? I'm a busy man." angrily shouted the Captain.
"Yes, I can see that sir, but." Rimmer continued to stutter. His previous bravery now escaped him, and he was once again reduced to pulp.
"Alright, make it quite."
"Well, sir. I have evidence proving who Olivia Angeledis's attacker was." said Rimmer, fishing around in his pockets for the disc containing the surveillance tapes. Finally he pulled it out of his pocket.
The skinny officer took this as an opportunity to leave the room, leaving Rimmer and the Captain alone.
"Make this quick." said Hollister.
"Yes, sir" Rimmer said, as he hurried to get the disk in the vid screen. Soon the nearly black scene in Olivia's sleeping quarters was visible on the screen.
"Rimmer, these are confidential surveillance tapes! How did you get these?"
"Just wait a minute." Soon Olivia's screaming could be heard, and the figure could almost clearly be seen.
The Captain looked nearly shocked as he looked into Todhunter's face on the screen. It was like he didn't want to believe it was true.
Rimmer stood nervously at the Captain's side. He was more interested in the Captain's reaction than what was on the tape. He was even more nervous than before. What if he wasn't believed? What would happen then? Would he be put in the brig for having the confidential surveillance tapes? The room was silent for a few moments.
"Well." Hollister finally spoke. "I suppose. you can have a court hearing. you know, before anything is decided."
"A court hearing, sir?" Rimmer wasn't aware there was such a thing.
"I normally dispense the punishments, but this is a different situation. I'll schedule it for tomorrow afternoon. I expect you, Olivia, and anyone else who may know something about the case to meet here at noon. I'll make sure Todhunter does the same."
"Yes, sir." said Rimmer, followed by a quick salute. He then nervously rushed from the room. He took several deep breaths on his way back to his quarters. That went reasonably well, but he was still worried for Olivia. What was going to happen at her court hearing? What would she think of him telling the Captain? How was he going to tell her? He envisioned several conversations with her in his head, and all her possible reactions, but this didn't help him. He was just going to have to talk to her and tell her. Her court hearing was tomorrow, and if she was to show up she would have to be prepared. He took another deep breath and tried to calm his raging pulse. Finally, he stepped into the lift and hit the button for the Medibay. Waiting, floor after floor, in a nearly empty lift was almost too much for him, but finally it came to the floor he wanted. Rimmer stepped up to the receptionist. "May I see Olivia Angeledis?" he asked.
"Right this way." She replied, getting up from her desk, leading him down a whitewashed hallway. The hallway was as bland as possible. Every door along the way was also white with a small round window in the center. Even the tiles were bland. White with splotches of grey. How was anyone to get better while staying in a place like this? Somehow, Rimmer had not noticed this the last time he was here, or any of the times before that. For some reason now of all times, he was taking the extra few seconds to notice the world around him, and it was bland and dull. The small room that Olivia was in was equally as dull. It had the same white walls, same white and grey tiles, and in the corner a slightly bigger round window looking out to the stars, and a generic cot in the corner of the room where she laid.
After escorting Rimmer inside, the receptionist left the room. Rimmer had entered quietly enough for Olivia not to have noticed. He wasn't sure if she was asleep or not, but just took the silent moment to stare at her. What was his observant mind to notice about her? How pale she looked, how weak and defenseless her body looked? That wasn't what he saw at that moment.
"Rimmer?" she mumbled
This startled him out of his thoughts. "Olivia."
Slowly she positioned her body to sit upright on the cot. She didn't look much better than the previous day. If anything she looked worse. Her injury wasn't bad enough to do this to her, so what was? "What are you doing here?"
"Err...visiting you."
"Oh." she didn't look convinced.
"Are you feeling any better?"
It took her a few minutes to respond. "A little."
Rimmer didn't believe her. "Listen Olivia. I don't want you getting hurt again." Rimmer started.
Olivia looked up at him, not sure how to respond.
"I want to make sure that you don't." he continued. Rimmer didn't know how he was going to tell her. "I want you to be safe."
Olivia sat there motionless.
Rimmer nervously sat down at the edge of her bed a few feet away from her. "So I made sure you would be."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean. I mean."
"Rimmer, did you tell someone?" she said, suddenly sounding defensive.
With that came a rush of adrenaline for Rimmer. What was he supposed to do now? "I know you didn't want me to. I'm so sorry, but how else would I know you were safe? If I just let him get away with this he could hurt you again!"
"I.I told you not to tell anyone!" her voice sounded as if she were about to cry.
~
Olivia looked down towards her beige sheets and wouldn't look up. She took a long sigh. He had a point, but she still couldn't move. The small room was filled with silence. A silence that would taunt any sane man. She didn't want to see the concern in his eyes.
"I know you're angry at me. but I did this for you." He finally said, his voice almost too soft to hear.
"So what happens now?" she asked.
"Well, tomorrow you have a court hearing."
"A what?!"
"Olivia listen. all you have to do is show up and tell the Captain what happened. It's worth it. I want you to be safe and the only way I know that could happen is if Todhunter is in the brig."
Olivia didn't know what to say. Telling people was what she feared the most, and here he was just telling her she had to do that? It was all so complicated. She also wanted to be safe; this fear was wearing her out. She didn't know what would be worse, living like this or confronting him? What kind of lie would he concoct to protect himself? She was smart enough to know this court hearing would probably not be the end of anything. Sure he meant well, but this was too much!
~
AN: Can I get an overly dramatic "dun Dun DUN!" please? I'll continue soon!
A series of deep bruises ran along her legs and abdomen, but nothing too serious. Still, it hurt every time she shifted positions. Part of her wished Rimmer was still in the room talking to her. Talking to him felt safe.
~
Rimmer paced nervously around his sleeping quarters.
"Rimmer, would you go to sleep already!" shouted Lister from his bunk. He emphasized this by chucking a pillow at Rimmer. "You have been pacing like that for hours, man!"
Rimmer turned around to face Lister. "Don't you even care about Olivia?" He said in a sleep deprived mumble.
"Sure I do, but there isn't much we can do." Lister replied, crawling out of his bunk to retrieve his pillow.
Rimmer remembered that Lister didn't know the entire story. "Maybe I should visit her?"
"Let her sleep, man. Like you should be doing! Besides, isn't she still mad at you for spying on her in the shower?" Lister began to laugh.
Rimmer didn't answer. Lister was right; it was too late to visit her.
"Rimmer, stop pacing around like a small furry animal trapped in a cage! You look ridiculous!" Lister mumbled, flipping over in his bunk.
~
The next morning, Rimmer awoke to the bright fluorescent lights of his sleeping quarters attempting to blind him. He rubbed his palms over his eyes, and then noticed Lister wasn't in the room. It was their day off. He hadn't gotten much sleep the night before. He had wanted to review the surveillance tapes of Olivia's room during the attack, but couldn't when Lister was in the room, but now that he was gone. "Holly!"
"Yes Arnold?" Holly's face flashed on the monitor almost instantaneously.
"Look, I know it's not allowed, but can you please show me your black box recording from two nights ago in Olivia's bedroom?" Rimmer asked.
"Wait a minute! I'm not letting you spy on her again! Wait. what was she doing?" Holly raised an eyebrow.
"No! I don't want to spy on her! I want to see who attacked her!"
"I'm sorry, Arnold, those are for the captain and security officers' eyes only." Holly replied.
"Once again I am victim of my cruel fate! So what I am not an officer! At least I tried! Do you know how many times I took that test."
"Sixteen, Arnold."
"Exactly! I have every right to see those tapes, because.because.Smeg! This is all my parents fault! All they cared about were my perfect brothers. They went off to become test pilots and officers, and here I am, a chicken soup machine repair man!" Rimmer whined.
"Oh god, not another guilt trip. If I show you the tapes will you shut up, and promise not to complain for a week?"
"Deal."
The monitor became dark. The figure of Olivia could be seen in the corner bunk. "Can't we make this lighter? Night vision or something."
"That wasn't part of the deal."
"Oh yeah, and its all my teachers fault too. Always yelling at me, beating me."
"Fine, no more!"
Rimmer smiled, at least his horrible childhood memories were good for something. The image on the screen soon became lighter and more visible. "Fast forward to the attack."
Holly began fast forwarding the tape until another figure was visible. "There we go." Rimmer looked closer at the screen. "I can't see him clearly, zoom in!" The picture zoomed in. Soon Olivia's screaming could be heard from the screen as the figure moved in closer. He had something in his hands. Rimmer watched in horror as he began to hit her. Who was this guy? "Holly, do we have any pictures of this guy's face?" Rimmer asked.
"I'm not sure, Arnold."
At that moment, he turned around to face the security camera and Rimmer saw the man directly in the eye. Rimmer let out a huge gasp. "Smegging hell! I can't believe it!" he shouted in horror. He took a deep breath, the realized what this meant. He could finally get revenge. All he had to do was show the tape to the captain and reveal he who had done it, and the person could be in the brig forever. He knew the person on the tape. It was someone to whom he has to kiss up to for years in the hope to become an officer. Frank Todhunter. Rimmer almost smiled, and then remembered his promise to Olivia. He had promised not to tell anyone about this. She had been hurt! He had to tell for her safety.
Rimmer took a deep breath. He wondered what would happen if he told the captain who had done it. The result for him would be good, of course. Someone he hated would be thrown in the brig, and he would most likely be rewarded some how, and Olivia would be safe. Then again, she would be angry at him, and that was difficult to think about. He didn't want anymore reasons for her not to like him. He already betrayed her trust once, how could he do it again? She would hate him for sure. This was different, it had to be. If Todhunter had hurt her once, he could do it again.
"Holly, I need a copy of this tape!"
"Hang on, you can't just keep adding more and more to our deal." Holly protested.
"Are you really going to be like that? After all we've been through?"
"I'm sorry, Arnold, but I refuse to make a copy for you of confidential surveillance tapes."
Rimmer let out a long sigh. He had gotten all he could out of Holly through bribery and whining. "Listen, it's not for me, it's for Olivia. She's in danger and this may be able to save her."
"Well why didn't you say so?" said Holly.
"You'll do it?"
"If anyone asks, the skutters gave it to you."
~
Rimmer nervously paced towards the Captain's office. He gulped, unsure if he could do this. He stopped at the reception's desk. "I need to see the Captain, its urgent!" He shouted, slurring the words together incoherently.
"Excuse me?"
Rimmer refreshed his lungs with a deep breath. "I need to see the captain, its urgent!" He managed to say more coherently.
"I'm sorry, he's in an important meeting." She replied, not seeming to care about anything Rimmer had just previously said.
"Well when will he be out of his meeting?" Rimmer shouted impatiently in his specialty high pitched whiney voice.
The receptionist cringed for a moment and then looked up from her paperwork. "I'm not sure, sir, but you can see him once he is finished." She said, sounding less professional than before. This was followed by her noisily popping her gum.
Rimmer signed and sat down on one of the uncomfortable seats. His leg began to jiggle as if it had been gripped by demonic seizures. He began to chew on his fingernails. He had never been a nail biter, but he needed some kind of annoying habit to emphasize that he was particularly nervous in this situation. Would the captain believe him or would he side with Todhunter. What reason did the captain have to believe him? He was a second technician willing to do anything to be promoted, no matter how drastic. He had in fact, been caught several times trying to pull some kind of promotion scheme on the captain. Todhunter on the other hand, was trustworthy and ranked much higher, not to mention was a friend of the captain's.
There was also Olivia to think about. He wasn't sure she would even understand that he was doing this for her safety. She had just recently forgiven him for his spying antics, anyway. He was surly pushing his luck by doing this. His leg continued its violent jiggling, and his nails were soon chewed to the skin. He simply couldn't take it anymore! He soon found himself running across the little room, nearly tripping on the side table, but still scattering housekeeping magazines everywhere. By the time the receptionist had pulled her attention away from her questionable work, it was too late. Rimmer had barged into the room.
"Captain, we must have a decision. Which loo paper should we put in the officers Lavatories? Double quilted or ultra soft?" asked a tall, skinny officer with a strong accent. He was holding two toilet paper rolls on adjacent fingers. The captain looked puzzled.
"Captain Hollister!" shouted Rimmer.
Both he and the skinny officer looked up immediately.
"Rimmer! I am in the middle of an important meeting! What are you doing here?!" shouted the captain
It took Rimmer a few moments to get over the adrenaline rush from barging in on the captain's meeting to remember what he was going to say. "Yes. I apologize." He stuttered.
The stares continued.
"This is important! This concerns the safety of a crew member."
"Haven't you heard of making an appointment? I'm a busy man." angrily shouted the Captain.
"Yes, I can see that sir, but." Rimmer continued to stutter. His previous bravery now escaped him, and he was once again reduced to pulp.
"Alright, make it quite."
"Well, sir. I have evidence proving who Olivia Angeledis's attacker was." said Rimmer, fishing around in his pockets for the disc containing the surveillance tapes. Finally he pulled it out of his pocket.
The skinny officer took this as an opportunity to leave the room, leaving Rimmer and the Captain alone.
"Make this quick." said Hollister.
"Yes, sir" Rimmer said, as he hurried to get the disk in the vid screen. Soon the nearly black scene in Olivia's sleeping quarters was visible on the screen.
"Rimmer, these are confidential surveillance tapes! How did you get these?"
"Just wait a minute." Soon Olivia's screaming could be heard, and the figure could almost clearly be seen.
The Captain looked nearly shocked as he looked into Todhunter's face on the screen. It was like he didn't want to believe it was true.
Rimmer stood nervously at the Captain's side. He was more interested in the Captain's reaction than what was on the tape. He was even more nervous than before. What if he wasn't believed? What would happen then? Would he be put in the brig for having the confidential surveillance tapes? The room was silent for a few moments.
"Well." Hollister finally spoke. "I suppose. you can have a court hearing. you know, before anything is decided."
"A court hearing, sir?" Rimmer wasn't aware there was such a thing.
"I normally dispense the punishments, but this is a different situation. I'll schedule it for tomorrow afternoon. I expect you, Olivia, and anyone else who may know something about the case to meet here at noon. I'll make sure Todhunter does the same."
"Yes, sir." said Rimmer, followed by a quick salute. He then nervously rushed from the room. He took several deep breaths on his way back to his quarters. That went reasonably well, but he was still worried for Olivia. What was going to happen at her court hearing? What would she think of him telling the Captain? How was he going to tell her? He envisioned several conversations with her in his head, and all her possible reactions, but this didn't help him. He was just going to have to talk to her and tell her. Her court hearing was tomorrow, and if she was to show up she would have to be prepared. He took another deep breath and tried to calm his raging pulse. Finally, he stepped into the lift and hit the button for the Medibay. Waiting, floor after floor, in a nearly empty lift was almost too much for him, but finally it came to the floor he wanted. Rimmer stepped up to the receptionist. "May I see Olivia Angeledis?" he asked.
"Right this way." She replied, getting up from her desk, leading him down a whitewashed hallway. The hallway was as bland as possible. Every door along the way was also white with a small round window in the center. Even the tiles were bland. White with splotches of grey. How was anyone to get better while staying in a place like this? Somehow, Rimmer had not noticed this the last time he was here, or any of the times before that. For some reason now of all times, he was taking the extra few seconds to notice the world around him, and it was bland and dull. The small room that Olivia was in was equally as dull. It had the same white walls, same white and grey tiles, and in the corner a slightly bigger round window looking out to the stars, and a generic cot in the corner of the room where she laid.
After escorting Rimmer inside, the receptionist left the room. Rimmer had entered quietly enough for Olivia not to have noticed. He wasn't sure if she was asleep or not, but just took the silent moment to stare at her. What was his observant mind to notice about her? How pale she looked, how weak and defenseless her body looked? That wasn't what he saw at that moment.
"Rimmer?" she mumbled
This startled him out of his thoughts. "Olivia."
Slowly she positioned her body to sit upright on the cot. She didn't look much better than the previous day. If anything she looked worse. Her injury wasn't bad enough to do this to her, so what was? "What are you doing here?"
"Err...visiting you."
"Oh." she didn't look convinced.
"Are you feeling any better?"
It took her a few minutes to respond. "A little."
Rimmer didn't believe her. "Listen Olivia. I don't want you getting hurt again." Rimmer started.
Olivia looked up at him, not sure how to respond.
"I want to make sure that you don't." he continued. Rimmer didn't know how he was going to tell her. "I want you to be safe."
Olivia sat there motionless.
Rimmer nervously sat down at the edge of her bed a few feet away from her. "So I made sure you would be."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean. I mean."
"Rimmer, did you tell someone?" she said, suddenly sounding defensive.
With that came a rush of adrenaline for Rimmer. What was he supposed to do now? "I know you didn't want me to. I'm so sorry, but how else would I know you were safe? If I just let him get away with this he could hurt you again!"
"I.I told you not to tell anyone!" her voice sounded as if she were about to cry.
~
Olivia looked down towards her beige sheets and wouldn't look up. She took a long sigh. He had a point, but she still couldn't move. The small room was filled with silence. A silence that would taunt any sane man. She didn't want to see the concern in his eyes.
"I know you're angry at me. but I did this for you." He finally said, his voice almost too soft to hear.
"So what happens now?" she asked.
"Well, tomorrow you have a court hearing."
"A what?!"
"Olivia listen. all you have to do is show up and tell the Captain what happened. It's worth it. I want you to be safe and the only way I know that could happen is if Todhunter is in the brig."
Olivia didn't know what to say. Telling people was what she feared the most, and here he was just telling her she had to do that? It was all so complicated. She also wanted to be safe; this fear was wearing her out. She didn't know what would be worse, living like this or confronting him? What kind of lie would he concoct to protect himself? She was smart enough to know this court hearing would probably not be the end of anything. Sure he meant well, but this was too much!
~
AN: Can I get an overly dramatic "dun Dun DUN!" please? I'll continue soon!
