Buffalo Pictures owns the "Doc Martin" TV series, and all credit goes to them and all the people who make the show what it is.

I don't own any rights to "Doc Martin," and I'm not making any money off it.

Much thanks to those of you who have given me feedback on this story, both Visitors and Members, and those of you who have favorited and followed this story.

Chapter 13: On Trial

"Private Pruddy can you state for the court why you were in the United States?"

"I was receiving technical training as an intelligence analyst at the United States Army Intelligence Center at Fort Huachuca, sir, in Arizona."

"Can you please describe for the court your relationship with Private Hanning?"

Mike concentrated hard on his wording. He needed to tell the truth, but didn't want to sound too cozy to Hanning.

"We were acquaintances, sir."

"How so?"

"He was kinda a friend of a friend. We hung out a few times, but I honestly didn't know him that well."

"Did you ever cooperate with Hanning in uploading documents to the website Wikileak, including passing along information, moving files, or serving as a lookout?"

"No."

"Did you know that Private Hanning was involved in the copying of classified documents and uploading of those documents to the website Wikileak?"

"No I did not."

The lawyer spun around to glance at the court, then spun back.

"Private Pruddy, where were you on the night of the 2nd of September, 2013?"

"I was on base at Fort Huachuca sir."

"Can you tell us where you were at approximately 2100 hours?"

Pruddy, despite his best intentions swallowed hard. "I was in Barracks 21E, sir."

"And am I correct in saying that that was also where Private Hanning was living at the time?"

Mike could feel his heart beating fast.

"Yes sir. Yes it is."

Al found a carafe in a cupboard, and began filling it with water. Morwenna watched as he skillfully arranged the flowers into the vase.

"They're quite beautiful," she finally remarked. It must have been hard to find such a colorful bouquet."

Al shrugged. Truth be told, he had had the florist arrange a custom bouquet, carefully picking out what colors and flowers he wanted and where he wanted them.

Morwenna nodded. She knew Al well enough to know he had put great effort and a substantial amount of hard-earned money into the bouquet.

There was an awkward silence for a moment.

"Is there something you wanted to tell me, Al?"

"Umm...no...I mean...well..." he said, obviously caught off guard. He'd worked out a whole speech in his head, even written it down, but with everything that'd happened it was all but forgotten now.

"Nothing at all?" Morwenna said, clearly disappointed.

Al sighed.

"Morwenna...I'm sorry if I can off real forward the other night."

"Yeah., you were a bit forward."

"I thought...it seemed like...we were at a certain point in our...you know?"

She nodded her head. "I do think the world of you, you know that Al?"

He stared down at the vase, playing with the flowers. He finally nodded.

"But..."

"But it's not right is it?"

Her heart fell. Maybe he didn't like her after all.

"Actually, I thought you...or we were great," she said a bit dolefully. "But if you don't feel the same way, then I understand." She felt like something was caught in her throat. This was turning into a nightmare.

Al looked at her. "I thought you were the one who didn't think it was right..."

"Me? Al, I love you!" She covered her mouth with her hands.

Al's face contorted in bewilderment.

"You what?"

"Umm...nothing."

"Nope. Not getting away that easy. What did you say?"

She rolled her eyes and looked at him. "I loveyou," she said flatly

"Ha Hah!" Al laughed, doing a small victory dance.

Morwenna smiled. "Don't get too puffed up now...I've not finished talkin' to you!" she protested half-heartedly.

There was a wail in the hallway. Louisa, concentrated on getting James Henry to stop crying, walked straight into the kitchen, oblivious to their presence. She nearly ran into Morwenna.

"Oh, sorry Morwenna" she said, somewhat drowsily. Morwenna rose, and offered to take James Henry.

"Oh thank you, I was just coming to get away from all that noise." She handed the baby over the young receptionist.

"Sorry about all this, Louisa. I feel like we're taking over your house." Morwenna said apologetically.

Louisa chuckled a little. "Nothing new there. I'm getting used to having Portwenn in my living room." She sighed. "It's just those idiots in the kitchen. And of course Martin's got to be in the middle of it. It's just so...male."

"Hey!"

"Oh, sorry Al. I didn't mean you."

"So I'm a woman now, am I?" he teased.

"Glad to see you two back together though."

Morwenna looked down at the floor.

Louisa whipped around to look at Al. Her eyes were full of that disdainful defiance she usually aimed at Martin after an unusually rude comment. "Al Large! I thought be'er of you than to try to take advantage of a woman nearly half your age!"

"I'm not quite that young..." Morwenna began to say.

"Frankly, I'm ashamed!"

"Louisa, all he did was ask me..."

"I'll bet he asked...!"

"All I wanted was a kiss!" Al finally broke in.

The room fell silent.

"A kiss?" Morwenna asked.

Louisa looked confused. "I though you said he asked you to..."

"Well...he didn't exactly say that."

Al threw his hands up in the air. "You actually thought I wanted to...!"

"You were a bit vague."

"That's strange." Louisa said.

"Not really," Morwenna said. "Al's always been a man of few words."

"What is this, Pile On Al Day?" Al scoffed.

"No. Shhh. Listen They've stopped arguing."

They all listened. Sure enough the loud bickering had stopped.

"We'd better go see what's happened," Louis said, a bit concerned. She'd learned the hard way that silence isn't always a good sign..

The three scrambled back into the kitchen.

Martin, Penhale, the agent, and the three policemen still stood in their places, joined mysteriously, by Aunt Ruth.

Martin nodded at Louisa. He couldn't help but feel a wave of exhilaration watching his beautiful wife glide in, carefully cradling their son in her arms. His expression softened a little.

"So what you're saying, Doctor Ellingham is that Private Pruddy had OCD?" one of the policemen asked.

"Well, I haven't done a thorough diagnosis, but yes, he exhibited all the signs."

"I fail to see how that's relevant," DCS Hobbs growled.

"Relevant!" Al burst out. "The man couldn't pack a suitcase!"

"So that's why he was so...you know..." Morwenna suddenly blurted out.

"OCD or not the man ran away from duty. A history of flaunting the time-honored rules of the armed forces."

Another of the policemen nodded "A classic trend of anti-social behavior if I ever saw one."

"Now wait just a second here!" Penhale suddenly said, more firmly than he felt. "Mike Pruddy was a good guy. He didn't give me a fight, he never got in trouble, and he was a model citizen. He even fixed the Ellinghams' breaker."

"So a child minder and an electrician, 'ey? The policemen laughed.

"Mrs. Ellingham, I haven't heard anything yet from you. What do you think?" Agent Clear cut in.

"Joe's right. Mike was a nice guy and he was great with James Henry." She flashed a smile at Martin. "He did rearrange my entire kitchen, but I think he probably couldn't help it."
Martin's eyes lit up.

"What was that again?"

"You know...he rearranged our kitchen. I made a whole hoopla about it and you just said 'Seems logical. Don't you remember?"

"Yes," he said thoughtfully.

"What is it Doc?" Penhale said, worried. "Is that a bad sign?"

"Mr. Clear," Martin said authoritatively, ignoring Penhale. "You mentioned fingerprints. Where precisely were those fingerprints located?"

The agent looked through his notes.

"Only on the memory cards."

"Excuse me," Louisa burst in. "What memory cards?

"The top secret files that were leaked were stored on memory cards for a digital camera while Private Hanning was serving in Iraq," Ruth sagely explained.

Al couldn't help but grin. No doubt it was Ruth who had been the voice of reason that finally had gotten these knuckleheads to work together.

"Memory cards are so tiny, no one probably noticed them when he was coming back from Iraq!' Morwenna said.

"Yes," Martin said, a bit impressed in spite of himself.

"Only Michael's fingerprints appear to be all over these memory cards," Ruth said, frowning a bit.

Agent Clear sat up and looked at Martin.

"Yes, yes. We've been through this!" Hobbs complained. "At the end of the day, Pruddy's still as guilty as ever."

"I'm not so sure," Martin said.

He looked at Agent Clear.

"Louisa mentioned that Michael rearranged our kitchen."

"Well, yeah. OCD makes you want to have everything clean," Penhale stated.

"It's more than that, I think," Louisa said, beginning to slowly catch on. "Martin wants things very neat and organized but he's not compulsive about it."

"Right," Martin said. "Michael had difficulty controlling his actions. If a book or a carrot or.."

"Or a block," Louisa said, recalling Mike's hang-up over the red lego she'd placed in a line of yellow ones.

"Yes," Martin said, nodding.

"So if a stack of say, memory cards, was out of place..." Agent Clear mused.

"..Then Pruddy would have felt he had to put them back in place," Hobbs joined in. "But I just don't see it. They weren't his."

"Neither were my...I mean our dishes," Louisa pointed out.

Hobbs looked skeptical "There's not enough evidence."

Agent Clear sat up.

"It just so happens I have the surveillance video taken from inside the barracks!" he quickly whipped out his ultra-thin tablet.

Morwenna sat forward admiring the flashy device.

"Top-of-the-line this is," Clear boasted.

"Where'd you get that?" Morwenna asked, admiring the technology.

"Online. Got it second-hand for a real good price from some poor blighter who stood in line freezing his butt off for 9 hours." He chuckled. "Says he bought it for his girlfriend for Christmas, only to have her break up with him by text five minutes after he bought it."

"So not secret government issue or anything?"

"With the recent budget cuts? Heavens no!"

He finally pulled up the video.

They all crowded around the screen.

"There. There's Private Pruddy." clear pointed out.

"I can barely see him Louisa commented. "He's bending over the desk now-you can see his face in the lamp.

"There-he's pausing," Hobbs said. "He's looking at something."

"Zoom in!" Martin commanded.

"Okay, okay, Doc, no need for flaring tempers here," Penhale said attempting to console him.

'"oe, we're talking about whether or not man spends the rest of his life behind bars," Louisa said, defending her husband.

"They'd probably give him a lighter sentence," Martin stated matter-of-factly. Louisa decided to ignore the comment. "There-right there! He's stacking the memory cards."

"This was your primary evidence?" Ruth said to Agent Clear.

"Well..."

She shook her head.

Hobbs stepped back, a wide grin on his face. "Looks like that's a wrap. Well done! Penhale, you've done well for yourself and the service. I won't forget it!"

"Umm...thanks?"

Louisa turned toward the others. "But I still don't get it. Why would Mike be hanging around Hanning's barracks?"

Agent Clear spoke up "In court he said he was friends with some of Hanning's friends. He even met Hanning a few times."

The agent shrugged.

"Well," Ruth remarked, "according to Martin, Michael had OCD. I'd imagine that made it more difficult for him to build social or emotional bonds with people."

Morwenna and Louisa, almost unconsciously, shook their heads in agreement. Martin pursed his lips. He had heard that OCD could cause a strain on relationships, but he'd never really found Michael more difficult to talk to than anyone else. Than again his social skills and awareness were rather poor.

"This Private Hanning no doubt had some of his own difficulties?" Ruth questioned.

Clear nodded. "Yes...umm...he mentioned his parents divorce was particularly traumatic." Martin and Louisa looked at each other then at James. Louisa hugged her son a little closer.

"Perhaps Michael found some people, who like him, were a bit different, a bit isolated. He must have known there was something unnerving about them, but perhaps he ignored that, in the interests of a common bond."

"Well," Hobbs said, clearly impatient with what he considered to be sentimental psycho-rubbish, "whatever happened, I think it's safe to say that Private Pruddy will go free."

There were cheers all around.

He looked at Agent Clear. "I think we should have a chat." Clear nodded. "There's a nice pub down the way." The two headed toward the door.

Martin and Louisa attempted to hustle the other 'guests' out of the house.

"Okay, party's over!" Louisa said, funneling everyone toward the door

Morwenna turned quickly turned to Al.

"Would you like that kiss now?"

"You don't mind?" he teased.

She answered him with a long, passionate kiss on the lips.

"I'll take that as a no."

Across the room Louisa looked at Martin expectantly. Their kitchen was a mess. James was moaning. They both had jobs they had to get up for early tomorrow.

But Martin's eyes gleamed softly. He wouldn't let yet another special moment be sidetracked by trivial concerns.

He put his arms gently around his wife.

"Let's give this another try, shall we?"

Thanks again for reading. Stay tuned for more!