A/N
It seems we have some readers who are chomping at the bit for the big meeting! What would be a Vauseman fic without its fair share of angst and drama? Don't worry, this chapter wraps up the trial with a few surprises. It will cover a lot of ground moving through the back half of the proceedings fairly quickly.
I'm so glad you guys are still loving the story. I certainly love writing it :) Keep those reviews and comments coming! Have fun!
Alex is mentally drained after the first full day of court. The judge had said to expect the trial to last three days, including the first day with jury selection. Obviously, it's not like they can foresee these things exactly but Alex also thought they should have a reasonable idea. This is what they do every day, after all.
She lets out a long sigh, grateful that she only has one more day of this intensity. She's somber as she walks back to her hotel room. Even aside from the whole Piper situation, this experience is a lot more stressful than she would have guessed.
The prosecution called a total of thirteen witnesses today. The head of the local police investigation was first, followed by seven different confidential informants. More accurately, addicts who are hoping to garner some grace on their associated charges by cooperating with the police force's efforts to catch bad guys in the act.
Each of the seven were in various stages of self-destruction from their drug use. Each were asked how long it had been since they used heroin. Alex was shocked at their honesty and candor, thinking they really must not have much to lose.
The most confronting was a woman who was either in active withdrawal or just had a serious amount of brain damage from the amount of drugs she had consumed. She had no control over her limbs. She could walk but barely. When she sat down at the witness bench, her legs kept banging into the walls under the table.
Four of the witnesses Piper called were actually in Federal custody. Two U.S. Marshals were stationed in the courtroom at all times and now it was even more clear why. The prisoners were in full stripes or orange, depending on which facility they were being held. They were cuffed to a belt and shuffled to the witness bench in ankle cuffs as well.
The last witness was the DEA head of the case who had been present in the courtroom for the entirety of the proceedings. Piper's questions to her were aimed mostly to highlight the magnitude of the heroin problem and the need to remove players at the defendant's level in order to really make an impact.
Watching all this made Alex's head spin. As intense as the presence of the witnesses was for everyone in the room, the brunette had an additional factor pushing on her nerves. She can hardly wrap her brain around how different this Piper is from the one she knew all those years ago. And also...how much she is the same.
Alex remembers the time she took Piper to see Les Miserables on Broadway. It was the blonde's request after Alex had presented her with a stack of Paybills over dinner and said, "Pick one".
They had seen the matinee show, planning to meander through Times Square and make it to their reservation at an exclusive new restaurant for dinner that night. Coming up on a fairly large bookstore, Piper just couldn't walk past and tugged Alex through the door.
They hadn't been in the store two minutes when a very young, very oblivious employee approached Piper hoping to help - and likely hoping for a phone number. Alex had been caught up in a title from the end cap near where Piper was eating this boy for lunch. She couldn't help but watch the unsuspecting lad crumble.
Piper had shut down his flirtatious advance with a clear reference to War and Peace. He knew nothing of the title and couldn't tell her the name of the author when she asked. She demanded to see the manager and Alex had barely gotten her out of the store before she was calling for the poor kid's minimum wage job on account of his literary incompetence.
The young and unrefined passion that loose canon of a girl had displayed was a lifetime away from the calculated and brilliant dissection she was performing before Alex today.
The passion and fire was still felt in the room but it was precisely targeted. It was carefully curated from hours of study and research into the witnesses she questioned. It was directed with such accuracy and unflappable poise - Alex had to shift in her chair multiple times throughout the day in sheer awe of her presence.
Pipes had grown up. And she was a force. No longer was she the love-sick tagalong to someone else's agenda. No longer was she content to ride the waves behind someone else's ship. She was her own ship now. And what a beautiful vessel she was.
The prosecutor rested her case just before the end of the day. The defense will have an opportunity to call witnesses tomorrow but she doesn't think that will take long. The burden of proof was on her - and she's happy with the case she made.
The end of the trial is close and then the jury will deliberate. She doesn't expect deliberation to take a full day but you really never know. The problem now is, she can't talk to anyone. No one.
She would call Cal - as he is literally the only other person Piper knows who knows of Alex's existence or connection to her - but she can't. She can't discuss the trial or the jurors or anything until it's over without risk of completely derailing her case. As if she hasn't already risked that in a huge way, but still.
So she sits in her office and stews. She's in the zone in the courtroom. It's her lane. Her happy place. It's where she feels powerful and in control and important. But once she leaves the context of that room, her confident facade cracks in short order.
She is becoming increasingly more consumed - even obsessed - with what Alex is thinking, where she is, what she's doing, if she's thinking about her. Of course she's thinking about her. How could Alex not be thinking about her?
This is the first time Piper has let herself go there - "Is she still angry with me?", "How did she get out?", "Would she talk to me?".
It's pretty standard practice for the legal staff involved in these cases to contact jurors after the case is over to discuss their experiences and their decision if the jurors are willing. Would Alex be willing? Piper couldn't care less about discussing the case but would she even speak to her? The lawyer knew she would have access to the phone number on file for each of the jurors as soon as the case closed. Would Alex even take her call?
The next morning, Alex opts to visit the corner coffee shop for breakfast in lieu of the room service she had chosen each of the last two days. Just before reaching the door of the shop, she hears her name called cheerfully from behind her.
"Hey! Are you staying at the Williamsburg, too?!" Alex reminds herself that she needs to play nice with others as she conjures a smile as she silently bemoans this being far too early an hour to make small talk with people she doesn't care about.
Shauna is juror number 9. Even though Alex has spent the majority of her time away from the courtroom at her suite, she hasn't been able to fully avoid some engagement with the other members of the jury.
"Sure am!" The brunette slows as Shauna falls in step with her for the last few steps to the cafe. "It's been really handy to stay here for the trial. I am REALLY hoping we are finished this afternoon though, because I can't WAIT to get back to my man, if you know what I mean!" The much younger woman winks at Alex and thankfully doesn't actually expect a literal response.
"Well hey...yeah," Alex playfully returns, "Getcha some, girl." It seemed like the right thing to say to move on from the topic - and the conversation in general - as soon as possible.
Entering the cafe, Shauna stiffens almost immediately, turning around to face Alex and hide her own face. "Oh my God! Isn't that the Prosecutor? The blonde waiting at the end of the counter for her drink. Wearing the..."
"Yeah I got it, Shauna." Alex cuts her off, annoyed. Sure as shit, there she was waiting for her (if Alex were to take a guess) double shot vanilla latte with a dash of cinnamon, completely unaware of the brunette's entry and observation.
It's Alex's turn to let her presence be a surprise and she is relishing it more than she expected she might. Fucking Shauna, though. Alex knows her options are limited if she wants their connection to remain under wraps.
"We should go. We should go right now before she sees us." Shauna is panicking.
Alex talks to Shauna but continues looking at Piper, unwilling to let the moment she is noticed happen without her knowledge and eye contact. "She can see us, Shauna. She just can't talk to us. She's a person getting a coffee. Get yourself together and at least smile at the woman if she notices you. Don't be an oaf."
Satisfied with her priming, Alex watches Piper collect her drink and what appears to be a chocolate croissant. An unexpected but tasty addition, Alex observes.
As Piper's eyes move toward the exit, she stops in realization and her face falls for the briefest of seconds in shock. Alex has strategically taken a small step backward from Shauna so the young woman cannot see her expression.
The brunete sets her eyes like fire into Piper, looking past her beautiful exterior and connecting on what she hopes to be a deeper, more transparent level. There is no flirting in the stare or smoulder. It's meant to be piercing and ambiguous.
Alex wants the blonde to know that she sees her and that even if no one else can know it - she knows her. She isn't the same as every other person in that box. "I know that you know that I know you." That's what she wants to say to Piper with her eyes.
Given the stutter steps and the awkward glancing toward Shauna as she approaches the door to leave, Alex thinks she likely got the message.
"Here, let me get that for you," the juror pushes the door open for the lawyer, positioning herself so their bodies brush dangerously close to each other in the passing.
"Thank you," is all the blonde can manage as she tears her eyes away from the piercing green force Alex is mercilessly laying on her.
"Well that was a close one! Geez, I feel so nervous. She is like...big time!" Shauna sighs in relief now that the danger of 'breaking the rules' has passed.
"I know, right?" Alex offers a haphazard acquiesce. Suddenly, the caffeine is merely incendiary. Alex is more than awake now and buzzing with an energy coffee can't compete against.
The defense calls only one witness before resting. The defendant chooses not to testify, which doesn't actually indicate anything. Pleading the fifth doesn't mean guilt or innocence but still, Alex wonders what it would be like to just sit there and offer no defense for yourself when you're up against the possibility of that much time.
Because of the brevity of the defense's portion of the trial, closing arguments are up less than an hour after the judge called the court to order. The back door of the courtroom opens quietly as several people enter.
A few familiar faces from the NYPD Alex recognizes from prosecution's witness list take seats in the back row of seats. An unfamiliar figure files in last, quickly sitting in the second to last row. He's tall, good looking as far as men go. Clearly not a cop but carries himself confidently among them, nonetheless. He's wearing a fairly bold houndstooth suit, which catches Alex off guard but she has to admire his style choice. Piper stands for her final comments and approaches the jury.
Alex can't help but think again how good she is at this. She expertly recaps the high points of her case, drawing the evidence to a clear conclusion for the prosecution. She makes eye contact with every member of the jury, importing them to consider their responsibility to justice. Alex hears a sniffle from the row in front of her. Fucking Shauna. What a softie.
Though her eyes are intense with everyone, the only appropriate word for her contact with Alex is "searing". Piper is using this opportunity to bore blue into green to its fullest - and Alex holds her gaze every time.
As Piper wraps up her comments, she turns to make her way back to the bench and Alex notices a stutter in her step - just like this morning in the coffee shop - but Piper isn't looking at her. She's looking at the guy in the fancy suit. And he's looking at her with such glowing pride in his eyes and admiration, it nearly turns Alex's stomach.
Her face flushes and though she can't see Piper's face anymore from this angle, she's not sure she wants to. Alex is aware of the defense attorney presenting his close but she doesn't hear much of it. She's trying too hard to avert her eyes from the blonde, refusing to look at her for the reaminder of the closing arguments.
The judge releases the jury to their deliberations and asks all in the room to stand for their departure. Alex doesn't look for Piper's eyes on the way out this time. She is preoccupied with confusion on why she cares so much about the guy in the back, the fact that this trial is winding down and with the questions that are becoming increasingly louder in her head around what, if anything, happens next.
Deliberation takes approximately four hours. Everyone agrees on a guilty verdict but they're having trouble coming together on the amount of heroin to include in the charge. Ultimately, they agree on the middle of the road, between 100g and 1 kilo. It's a cop out as far as Alex is concerned but she's willing to make the compromise.
As the jury enters the courtroom for the final time, Alex scans the seating area first. Houndstooth is gone. She makes her way to her assigned seat one final time before finding Piper's eyes with her own. The brunette can't read her expression but it's decidedly different than the intensity those eyes carried before.
The verdict is read and Alex observes the defense table. The relief over the verdict not carrying the full weight it could have is tempered by the reality that this kid is going to jail. Not for as long as the prosecution wanted but still for a decent amount of time. The sentencing won't happen for a few months but Alex knows it will be double digits.
The judge thanks everyone for their dedicated participation in the proceedings and dismisses the jury one last time. Piper is engaged in a silent conversation with her Executive Assistant as the jury leaves.
As the jury returns to their room, Wanda appears in the hall to brief them with several last instructions. At each seat in the room, there are copies of their Juror's instructions and also a contact sheet for both the prosecution and defense attorneys in case they have any questions.
She thanks them again for their service and asks them to fill out the survey on their experience as a federal juror. The judge actually comes into the jury room to shake each of their hands and personally thank them. Alex is surprised by that but appreciates the gesture.
Alex flips to the contact page at the back of her stack of papers and sees names and numbers for each office - prosecution and defense. She notices a number handwritten on her notes in handwriting she doesn't recognize. She steals a sideways glance to the jurors' papers on either side of her and notices their pages are absent the extra characters.
She folds the paper quickly and shoves it in her bag. Exiting the building for what she hopes to be the final time, she makes her way across to her hotel. The room is booked through tonight and though she had initially thought about heading back to her place tonight, she's reconsidering that plan now.
She sits down at the hotel bar and orders a whiskey Old Fashioned and a shot of tequila. Stirring the drink absent-mindedly, she repeats the numbers from her notes in her head. She had memorized them immediately. Tipping back the shot, she winces at the familiar burn and pulls out her phone.
Motioning to the bartender for another, she makes the call.
