The funny thing about this latest incident was that it wasn't really funny in the first place, and had managed to split the little group of defenders and prosecutors into two sides. Most of them, with the exception of Kelly, were siding with Anna. Jack couldn't say he blamed them: he did, too. Not that he was ever going to admit that out loud. However, as it was, there was something else for him to worry about entirely.
"I can't," Jamie said furiously, "I won't. Not with him in that courtroom. I refuse to have anything to do with this trial!"
"Wait, what? You're already involved in this trial! What are you talking about?" Jack demanded, startled back into reality by the sound of her voice. Jamie sighed.
"Not Tara's trial," she said, the name coming out more contemptuously than she'd meant it to, not that she cared. "Her brother's. I've just been drawn as a trial judge."
"And you don't want to preside with Taylor Galinet in the courtroom?" Jack asked, feeling somewhat confused. Jamie sighed again.
"No," she said. "My problem is the fact that my dear ex-husband is Taylor Galinet's lawyer," she said. "I won't take myself off this, because I know I can stay impartial, and Neil's not likely to take himself off, either."
"Isn't that a conflict of interest, though?" said Jack. "You shouldn't be presiding over the trial if he's the attorney…."
"Tell that to Casey Novak," said Jamie, dryly. "She's the prosecutor. I'm tempted to think that she knew I'd be named trial judge, but she had no way of knowing."
"The arraignment judge doesn't often turn up as the trial judge. I suppose it's because Elizabeth's running Tara's trial, and she usually presides over Special Victims cases."
"That doesn't particularly help, considering. This is even more of a reason for Neil to be a pain in the ass. He actually came around and asked me if I knew what I was doing. He's lucky I didn't smack him."
"Well, so are you, he might have seen fit to charge you with assault," said Jack, shaking his head. "I don't suppose there's anyone else whose calendar is free enough to take it should you decide to remove yourself?"
Jamie shook her head. "Afraid not. The people in this city are too preoccupied with themselves sometimes, I swear," she said. "The courts are a mess right now and this isn't helping."
Silence. Jack turned and focused on a point somewhere out the window; Jamie noticed and shook her head again.
"I'm not blaming you, and I'm certainly not blaming Becky," she said. "All I want is for this to be over, and right now it doesn't seem like there's any end in sight."
"Of course not," said Jack. "Meanwhile, people that I've known for years would love nothing better than to kill me because I can't keep my hands to myself, and sooner or later, I'm going to be the only one sitting in Elizabeth's courtroom."
"Amanda and Connie aren't going to let this go anytime soon," said Jamie, "You know that."
"That doesn't change the fact that they're both annoyed with me. I don't think they'd take it out on me through the case, but still…"
"You want to make things right." Jamie trailed off and sighed. "You know, she still isn't going to talk to you."
"I know," said Jack. "That's the problem." He trailed off and sighed. "This would be easier if I had a case of my own to worry about."
"You do," said Jamie. "You have this one. It's yours whether or not you're prosecuting, because these people not only tried to hurt you, they hurt Becky."
She had a point, and he knew it, but somehow, it didn't make anything feel any better. "She's not talking to me," he said.
"Still?" Jamie asked, and when he nodded, she shook her head, and leaned back in her seat. "She'll come around. Sooner or later, she'll come around. She can't avoid you forever."
"Before this, we hadn't even talked in nine years, Jamie," said Jack, dryly. "If that's not forever concerning your kid, then I don't know what is."
"You're talking to a woman who considers a weekend to be forever," said Jamie, and then, "I don't know what I would do if something like this ever happened to Katie."
Jack offered up a half-hearted smile. "Well, you're the lucky one," he said. "It hasn't."
The trial was still going on. It seemed that all Erin could do was cast reasonable doubt, and the truth was, reasonable doubt was good enough. All the physical evidence pointed to Jack, as far as it could, and there was nothing that either Connie or Amanda could do about it. As it was, Amanda was being made to cross-examine one of Erin's witnesses, and it was not going well.
"So, in your opinion, Tara Galinet didn't know what she was doing?" she said, skeptically. "Tell me, then, Dr. Rowe, how did she manage to plan it all without anyone finding out?"
"It's not unheard of. People can lead secret lives for long amounts of time without anyone knowing until something goes wrong."
"Then, she had a secret life. Why do you think that is?"
"Objection," said Erin, loudly, "Dr. Rowe is hardly an expert on what my client's state of mind was when she started this."
"Overruled," said Elizabeth, from the bench. "Answer the question, Dr. Rowe."
Silence, and then a reply. "Judging from what she told me when I spoke with her, I think that her motivations came from being falsely accused of a crime and put on trial."
"Evidence in the case you speak of pointed to the defendant. The jury saw reasonable doubt. Why would this drive her to come up with something on this scale?"
"She would have had a desire to get back at the ones she thinks ruined her life. All in all, what I got from my session with her was that she is someone who is not well."
"Physically or mentally?" Amanda asked.
"Mentally. Ms. Galinet may have been functioning at a normal mental capacity before her first trial, but something has twisted that."
"And you believe that something was Mr. McCoy."
"I'm not sure what to believe, and honestly, I don't particularly think the people are all too sure of it, either."
Annoyed, Amanda turned and headed back to the table, where Connie was. "I have no more questions for this witness, Your Honor," she said, and Elizabeth nodded.
"Dr. Rowe, you are dismissed with the thanks of this court," she said, and then to Erin, "Call your next witness."
"Something come up?" Amanda asked in an undertone, while Erin started questioning her latest witness. Connie motioned under the table, where her cell phone was hidden from view.
"Olivet sent me a text message," she said. "We might be facing opposition from her. I don't think she really believes Galinet's all that competent to stand trial."
"She wouldn't have told us that she did if she didn't," said Amanda. "Why would she change her mind now?"
"I don't know," said Connie. "That's what's bothering me. I'm also getting text messages from Danielle and Trevor, they want to know how this is going. What should I tell them?"
"Tell them that it's going fine, and ask them where Jamie is," said Amanda, "I thought she cleared her calendar?"
"Judge Ross?" said Connie, and shook her head. "No, she got drawn for Taylor Galinet's trial."
Amanda snorted, quietly enough that she wouldn't be heard by anyone but Connie. "And Neil Gorton is Taylor's lawyer," she said. "Well. That courtroom should get interesting. When does that trial start?"
"I don't know, nothing's been said about it. I suppose I can try and find out later today when we're in recess."
"That would help." Amanda trailed off and looked back at the gallery, towards where Jack was. "He's the only one here."
"Are you really surprised?" Connie asked. "Everyone's pretty much siding with Anna on this, and I doubt he blames them."
"Does he know that she's pregnant?"
"No. I don't think she told him, or at least, that's what Danielle told me. I don't think she's going to tell him now."
"The rumor mill on both sides of the aisle moves a lot faster than anyone thinks it does. He'll find out whether she says anything or not."
"You'll have to testify in his trial. I've tried to find a way so that it wouldn't have to happen, but since you're perfectly fine, other than the obvious, your grand jury testimony can't be read into evidence."
Casey Novak closed her office door behind her and sighed as she went on. "I don't like it any more than you do, but there's no way we can put him away unless you talk to the court."
"I had the feeling it would end up like this," Rebecca replied, without looking at the older woman. "What do I have to do?"
"Just tell the court what happened," said Casey. "We have the physical evidence we need to nail him, but unless there's a complainant, we can't do anything."
"Complainant…" Rebecca trailed off and scowled. "I hate that word. It makes it sound like I'm only complaining about what happened, like I'm not actually a victim."
"A lot of the legal terms like that are meant to seem middle of the road; something about not wanting to inflame anyone's opinion, but it doesn't change the fact that you're a victim," said Casey, "No one is going to dispute that except for the defense."
"Oh, and what are they going to do?" Rebecca asked, sarcastically. "Prove that I wanted what happened to me? That I wanted to be raped?"
"They'll try to prove that it was consensual," said Casey, "Not that you wanted to be raped."
"I've seen the media reports, you know," said Rebecca, shaking her head. "They all think the whole kidnapping thing was some stunt to take the pressure off my dad. And you know the stupid thing? He won't even talk to me about it."
Personal issues, Casey thought, were not what she wanted to deal with right now, not that she didn't have time to listen. Rebecca was the one witness she had in her case so far, and if she didn't want to talk, then Taylor Galinet would walk.
"I'm sure he'll talk to you about it sooner or later," she said, finally. "What I need to know right now is if the media's right."
Rebecca gave her a look. "No," she said, bluntly. "It wasn't. I wouldn't do that. Yeah, I wanted the system to back off my dad, but I could have found other ways to do it."
She had a point, Casey mused, and sighed, going to sit on the edge of her desk. "I need to know if you told the detectives everything. If you left anything out, now is the time to tell me, because if it comes out from the defense, there's nothing I can do about it."
"I told them everything I know," said Rebecca. "Everything. The only people I lied to were the detectives at the two-seven, because I didn't want my dad to know about what went on while I was gone."
"So SVU knows everything and what they've filled me in on is everything that happened. "
"Yes. It is."
Suddenly, she didn't feel like talking anymore. What she wanted to do was take a walk and clear her mind, but she didn't particularly want to go alone. Rebecca looked at the clock and sighed. The District Attorney's office was still a familiar place to her, even if it almost scared her sometimes. She looked back at Casey and spoke again.
"Is that all, or do you need me for anything else?"
She wondered when she was going to start to show. It hadn't been that long since it had been officially confirmed that she was pregnant, and already, she couldn't wait to tell everyone she came across. As it was, however, only Danielle and Trevor, and Amanda and Connie knew. She couldn't bring herself to tell anyone else.
And staring at her middle wasn't helping. Anna blinked, wondering why she was suddenly fighting back tears, in the middle of a courtroom, because the day was almost over, and all she had to do was make it through five more minutes, and then she could go. She wondered if the prosecutor in this case would ever shut up. It wasn't a prosecutor she recognized, which helped, somewhat.
The feeling of her phone vibrating in her pocket made her jump, but only enough so that the client sitting beside her noticed, but he said nothing, and she drew it out of her pocket, hiding it beneath the table and looking down.
"Anna, something's come up. You need to call me as soon as you're out of court."
The message was from Danielle, whom she hadn't actually spoken to since this trial she was running had begun. Frowning slightly, she went to the text messaging screen and wrote back.
"I've got five minutes, just tell me now. Can't hurt."
On the other side of the conversation, Danielle looked at her phone as she walked and shook her head before replying.
"I'm not sure telling you this in court is such a good idea. I'm on the way to Bellevue. Have you heard anything from Amanda or Connie yet?"
Court ended. Anna got to her feet and watched her client being led off by the court officers, and then wrote back, quickly.
"Court just ended. What is it that you need to tell me and why are you on the way to Bellevue?"