Stockholm

Day Twenty-Nine 10:32am

"Why were you there, Mr. Salvatore?" Mr. Fish asked.

"I was blackmailed. I had a debt and I couldn't make the money and the guy who I owed money to threatened and kidnapped people around me to get me into the robbery. A few days before it he had propositioned me to be part of the robbery to clean my debt with him but I had declined saying that I wouldn't do it but when he kidnapped people important to me I was left with no other option" Damon stated the truth although most people knew he had been blackmailed they were yet to know why and that was what the prosecutor was going to try to convince Damon to say.

"I guess there is only one way to have a debt with a drug dealer" Mr. Fish said after all the facts had been reported. "And I know this is part of the defense's job to show evidence that may help you but I suppose it is part of my job to get the facts straight. You've been a wrestler, Mr. Salvatore. You've fought for the American Wrestling Federation for four years in a row and this year you competed in two official competitions. It's part of the rules to have the athletes tested for drugs constantly and you've been tested over fifty times, Mr. Salvatore, six of them being just four months ago and never have there been any illegal substance detected in your samples. You're an athlete Mr. Salvatore even if you stopped fighting in the past year for the exception of those two competitions where you hadn't been successful. So the question is: who bought almost 50K in drugs from Mr. Elijah Curtis? Because it's clear it wasn't you Mr. Salvatore"

"Whoever it is I'm not telling you, I guess I already made it clear. Everything I did was because the most important person in my life needed me to do it for them. I won't tell you their name, I won't let them testify for me. I failed to protect them once and I'm not doing it again. I gave you everything I could. I never planned to be part of that robbery but I don't regret being there because it was to save the one person I truly care about in this world and I can't regret it either because of those people that I helped. I tried to do my best to save those lives and I have each of them testifying for me saying exactly the same thing. I know your job here is to accuse me and I'm fine with it. I'll tell you everything you want but I won't tell the name you want me to tell you. This person can still have a good life. I'm the one who messed up so I'm the one who has to pay. I gave them a new chance, a chance of a new beginning and there is no way in hell that I will take it away from them dragging their name in this. I don't know if any of you ever had a relative, a spouse, a close friend, or your girlfriend destroying their lives in the world of drugs. You see that they will try to stop but it seems to be bigger than them. I don't know whose angst is bigger, theirs for trying to stop it only to crumble back to the addiction or the ones around them who are desperately trying to find a way to help. I've been there and I know how it's painful and torturous to find someone you love barely conscious and destroying their lives like that. This was the only chance I had to give this person a fresh start and I won't exchange some years in prison for their chance to have a life again. Even if you decide that I should be an inmate for the rest of days. I'm sorry" Damon was steady in his position and Mr. Fish looked at him with sympathy.

"No further questions" the prosecutor said and walked back to his seat.

Jessica was the first defense witness to give her testimony. The small woman, who Damon looked at with affection, was so fragile and small but now she seemed like a different person. She sounded determined and brave and he wondered if it was because of him or the robbery that changed her forever.

"More than anyone else in that room I owe my life to Damon. As soon as the robbery was announced I started to hyperventilate and it escalated to a panic attack as the criminals started to work. I couldn't control it, no matter how much I tried and when it got worse the criminals pressured me to stop hyperventilating but I was even more afraid of them. They looked so intimidating even under their masks. I thought I was going to die either because of my attack or simply for nothing. But then Mr. Salvatore got us in the room and he helped me through it. He tried to calm me down and reassure me and for the first time I felt slightly better. I knew I shouldn't trust him but something told me he wouldn't be helping me if he really didn't care about me being alive. I'm sure any of the others criminals would have killed me, like they killed Margaret, the woman they killed in front of Ms. Forbes and Mr. Jones, my manager. But Mr. Salvatore was understanding. He treated me like my life mattered. Soon after he calmed me down he examined our surroundings and immediately asked me if there were blueprints in the building. As you know the store was brand new and we still had the blueprints somewhere. As the manager's assistant I had seen them before and that was when Mr. Salvatore started to really look for what he thought could give us a chance to escape alive. He didn't spare any effort and he risked his own life more than once to protect us from the criminals and later to release us. There were only four criminals in that store and the four of them are dead. Mr. Damon Salvatore was the escape God sent to save us"

A few other women also offered their version of the crime and as each of them spoke it was clear that Damon had only been part of the crime when he entered the store, ever since then he was their savior.

It was then Tyler Lockwood's turn to testify. He came from a traditional family in Los Angeles and he was well known in the city as one of its most eligible bachelors. He was a young man who was starting to take over the family business and Damon's lawyers thought his testimony would be important.

"I was there to buy my mother's an anniversary gift but I suppose it's a good thing for Mr. Salvatore that I was there because I know there's this Stockholm syndrome thing and it seems like women think Mr. Salvatore is an attractive man and were all mesmerized by his heroic actions that day. I can assure you that few men in the world are more straight than I am and I can be even more adamant that I'm not attracted to Mr. Salvatore at all. I wish I had helped him through it as I was one of the few men there but I must admit I panicked. All I could think was about my family. I'm an only child and I have all their expectations and dreams over my shoulders. Normally it doesn't bother me but that day all I could think while I was there was how devastated my family would be if I died. So I tried to be as quiet as possible during the whole ordeal. I'm a lawyer myself and I'm used to appraising people and observe closely their behavior and Mr. Salvatore's was never threatening except for the moments when the criminals were in the room and he had to show that he had the situation under control, menacing us but he always apologized after the other guys left and every single time he asked us to trust him. A couple of people were reluctant, especially after what happened to Ms. Gilbert but I never doubted Mr. Salvatore. Although I'm only twenty-seven years old and have been working as a lawyer for only five years, it's enough time for you to know how to read a person while they are in action and Mr. Salvatore had risked his life more than once to assure our safety. Some of the criminals, especially the one with the Mickey Mouse mask were pretty nervous after they noticed the police were involved. They were perturbed and if any of them had been with us any longer I can assure you more people would have been hurt, if not all of us. Those men didn't show any resistance to being violent. One of them even harassed one of the girls sexually and once again it was Mr. Salvatore who intervened. The leader seemed to quickly realize that Mr. Salvatore was sober and asked him to take care of us while they emptied the store. From that point on this man worked only for one thing: to get us released. He had to play a two-faced guy. He couldn't let the others suspect his plans and he showed some toughness that is clearly not part of his persona. He seemed to be someone collected and could I say gentle? He handled those girls in the best way you can imagine. He comforted a few of them; he stopped his plans to calm them down and to reassure them. He wasn't only worried about getting as free but he also made sure it was the least traumatic as possible to each of us. He was the brain behind this whole operation. The SWAT team just executed his ideas and that's why I can be in this court today, testifying for a man that I can only describe with one word: selfless"

"There's no excuse for Mr. Salvatore's involvement in such a crime, even if a drug dealer kidnapped and threatened someone very important to him. The police and authorities should be the ones to handle such disagreements but still my family and I will always be thankful for having Damon Salvatore in that store that morning. It isn't every day that among cold and heartless criminals you can find a decent man that acted out of love when he first accepted such an outrageous offer and then out of mercy and decency when he risked his life for people he never met before" Caroline said softly. She was the image of sweetness and they hoped it also helped Damon's case that she was the daughter of Los Angeles' beloved Mayor.

"At first I despised Mr. Salvatore as much as I despised those other men. After the police came, the criminals got me from the hostage's room and asked me for my father's private number" she continued but couldn't bring herself to speak again remembering how coldly they took Margaret's life away in front of her.

She looked at Damon, whose eyes were soft and with his head slightly titled to the side he nodded his head "You don't need to go there, Ms. Forbes" he said but was immediately reprehended by the judge, who reminded him he wasn't authorized to talk unless he was asked to. He apologized and Caroline took a deep breath.

"Yes, I do Mr. Salvatore. When I was reluctant to give them my father's number, they brought this girl. She wasn't much older than me and when they threatened her life I was scared but I wasn't reluctant anymore. Before… before I could… I didn't know…" Caroline was crying, nearly sobbing now and Damon had his head down. He couldn't see her like that again. Caroline was definitely one of people most affected by the whole ordeal and consequently one that affected him the most. He knew she still blamed herself for Margaret's death although it wasn't her fault at all.

"The leader just killed her… in front of me before I had time to open my mouth. I was disgusted by Mr. Salvatore as much as I was because of the other guys but at some point, during his plan, he also needed my dad's phone number to reach the SWAT team and he lost over half an hour, comforting me and assuring me that the girl's death wasn't my fault. Those thirty minutes were valuable. We didn't know how much longer the other criminals would be distracted and we had no time to lose but Damon didn't care. He cared about me, about the wounds that I would carry for the rest of my life. He talked to me and soothed me and kept me sane when I was about to collapse. This showed me the great character Mr. Salvatore has. He did the best he could for each of us and such a man shouldn't be punished for being our salvation in that tragedy. I don't try to think much about that day and what I witnessed there but when I do I remember that he was right. It wasn't my fault that they killed her. It wasn't her fault she was killed but I know it was Mr. Salvatore's acts that gave us a chance to live and sorry if I call him Damon but that man held me in his arms, in the most respectful way, trying to calm me down, to convince me that I wasn't to blame for someone's death. I was incredibly rude to him, as much as you can be to someone involved in such a crime but that was until I finally realized that he was our hero. And people can say I'm sick with this Stockholm thing but I should feel something to someone that assured not only my physical integrity but also my mental and emotional balance. And that man I call by first name as does everyone else in my family because I owe him my life"

"Mr. Salvatore was the one who rendered me as soon as the robbery was announced. I was there to return my engagement ring. My ex-boyfriend had proposed and I had said no and I finally decided to return the ring. I was lost in my thoughts when I heard the man with the Donald Duck mask announcing the robbery and almost immediately Mr. Salvatore asked me to be quiet, to hand him my purse and cell phone. Although he was holding a gun, he didn't use it" Elena lied, she knew it was important for him not to be accused of using a gun against the hostages "But as I turned and looked down I could see how his hand shook. The only part of his face I could see was his eyes and I don't remember seeing someone as scared, vulnerable and even gentle as I saw Mr. Salvatore that morning. I know the whole suspicion of Stockholm syndrome happened because of me and talking about the defendant's eyes don't work to prove that I'm not emotionally unstable. But sometimes people are so easy to read, they're so bluntly clear that you can't not notice some details. As soon as we moved to the room where we stayed his first concern was to calm Jessica down and then I guess he came up with the idea of releasing us and he soon asked her to look for the blueprints, as she was the assistant of the store's manager. I had the stupid idea to try to reach for a window and Damon didn't really pay that much attention to our actions. He asked us to trust him and just be quiet and he assumed we all did. Anyway one of the criminals entered the room and saw me standing on the desk trying hopelessly to reach for the small window and he didn't think twice before attacking me and Mr. Salvatore. I was thrown away from the desk and after hitting my head on a chair or something I was unconscious for a few minutes. Mr. Salvatore tried to wake me up and assess if I was severely injured. That was just the first time that I felt his concern for me as he had for each of us. He helped Jessica and Caroline with their situations but that wouldn't be the last time Mr. Salvatore would help me personally. I was his assistant during the plan, I was the one who actually suggested for him to record the blueprints on a CD and send them to the SWAT as we didn't have the software needed to open the files in the computer although he knew those were the blueprints because of the extension and the name of the files. Then I took the pictures to identify the hostages. It was Damon's idea to send them to the SWAT team and request them to try and get cops or agents with similar physical features. The idea was to replace the hostages with armed cops and the ones that couldn't be rescued through the air conditioning tubing would be equipped with bulletproof vests in case of a crossfire. Unfortunately the leader entered the room in the middle of the rescue operation and a crossfire couldn't be avoided as I suppose he got suspicious. His first target was obviously Damon because he knew Damon had to be a part of it. It was a nightmare to watch him be shot like that" she stopped her testimony and it was clear to everyone in the room that she was emotional in that moment but Damon was definitely more unstable emotionally than her in that moment and when she started talking again he couldn't hold his head up anymore and resting his handcuffed hands over the table in front of him, he buried his head in the space between his arms.

"When Damon asked for my help to reach the window and throw the CDs for the police the leader of the gang entered the room. Actually he broke the door and assumed that Damon was trying to rape me as he pretended to be. There wasn't any other reason why he would have me, over a table with him, while the rest of hostages were in the other side of the room. But the man was sick…" she stopped again and they were distracted by her tears but soon enough, out of curiosity, looking at Damon they found him crying harder. His head and back shook slightly as he kept his face between his arms and there wasn't one person in the room whose eyes weren't tearing then. For Damon hearing Elena's words was like living those horrible moments again. It broke him and he felt that pain all over again, raw and fresh.

"He ordered Damon to rape me while he watched and… pleasured himself" she stopped her report, trying to control her tears again but failing miserably. She also avoided looking at Damon because she knew it wouldn't help him if the jury noticed she had any sort of feelings for him. "Damon tried the best he could to pretend but the man wanted to see it with plenty of details. He apologized many times and then took off my panties but kept his boxers on while he pretended to rape me. The man approached and much to his dismay, disgust and profound regret, Damon had to remove his penis from his boxers but that was all he did. When the man realized there was no sound or expression of enjoyment coming from Damon he threatened to rape me instead. Damon faked it all and the man was finally gone but Damon couldn't deal with the situation. He knew he had exposed me, my intimacy, my body to that sick bastard and he couldn't deal with it and neither could I. I can't describe all the things I felt in that moment but then Damon gave me the mobile he used to contact the police and gave me the final directions of what should be done. I didn't understand why he was doing it but then he moved back to the table where he pretended to rape me and taking his gun I knew what he was going to do. He had said I could do it without him and as I watched him lifting the gun in his hand to his head I knew that I had to do something and that was the shot the police heard. Damon had tried to kill himself for what he was forced to do to me even though he did his best to avoid the ultimate violation. That's who Mr. Salvatore is and sorry if I also call him Damon but the man who saved my dignity and who prevented even worse things to happen to me that day is someone I cherish profoundly and it has nothing do with any psychiatric disturbance. It's all about gratefulness and relief and also belief that a man like Damon Salvatore shouldn't be punished for any of those deaths. If anything he should be honored by this city for saving fourteen people from things that could be worse than death but he also saved them from death" Elena spoke with determination and few times she showed softness in her tone and avoided looking at Damon as much as possible. Mr. Gartner and Mr. Reeves had told her, especially, to avoid any visual contact with him and to not show too much emotion in their testimonies because they didn't want Damon to be linked to Stockholm syndrome cases.

The testimonies were all collected in one day but the sentence took almost a week to be deliberated. Damon's case was extremely hard for them to judge. The jury had many disagreements about the case and those twelve men and women felt guilty for accusing Damon of something when he had been a victim of extortion and then had planned and executed the rescue plan with the police. They knew they should pronounce him guilty but they couldn't agree with the accusation of first degree murder. Once they decided on the verdict, the judge, Mrs. Angela Rogers had the decision in her hands but she couldn't decide on a sentence.

Finally on the fourth day after the trial the involved parties were called for the sentence reading.

"Before I read the sentence to Mr. Salvatore I have to say that this is a case that shouldn't be conducted by the law we have today established in the state of California because this case doesn't fit in any of the determined situations we have described in the penal code. Criminal intent or the lack of it can't be described in its entirety in the penal code and that's why the society is here presented by those twelve men and women and the California penal justice system by me. The facts we have here, showed by the evidences are that you were extorted by Mr. Curtis to be part of robbery as payment for the debt of someone close to you acquired by buying drugs from Mr. Curtis. Instead of looking for the help of the system you accepted the extortion and entered along with four other men, all armed, at that store to commit a crime. It may have not been your intention and you may have done the best in your power to help the police preserve the lives of those who were kept hostages not only by those men but also you. Those are the evidences that were exposed here by the witnesses. As the judge of this case I had explained to the jury when I first started this trial that they were here to decide if Mr. Salvatore should be punished for that robbery and the death of six citizens of this state and only that. There were options for Mr. Salvatore throughout the developments of this robbery, prior and during its execution and he should be judged by the choices he made"

"The jury had found you, Mr. Salvatore, guilty for first degree murder and first degree robbery but as the decision wasn't unanimous and less than three quarters of the jury came to this conclusion this trial is considered dismissed"

"What does it mean?" Damon turned to his lawyer.

"That we'll have to go through this all over again" Mr. Gartner quietly answered looking at Mr. Fish who nodded briefly.

AN: so that was the trial. I wanted this story to come to this and after everything was said from both sides (though prosecution didn't have much to say) it's time to make justice. Thanks for reviewing last chapter, not many but I'll take as many as you want to give me :P Thanks a lot to May, my beta.

xoxo

Babi