The day of the trial arrived. Max, Roxanne and Jimmy arrived at the courthouse and were escorted to the courtroom Jake's trial was taking place at. They met George Lawton at the prosecutor's bench. As he helped them to their seats, they looked at Jake talking to his bunch of defense lawyers and felt very worried about what was going to happen. They were still glad that this trial was happening instead of letting Jake get away with what he did sooner, but they weren't getting their hopes high.

"All rise," a security guard called.

Everyone rose as the judge, who was an owl, entered the room and sat in his chair.

"Be seated," the judge ordered.

Everyone sat down.

"Jake Morton stands accused of the following crimes: assaulting Max Goof, abusing Miss Roxanne for six years and neglecting his own son Jimmy. Mr. Lawton, call your first witness."

"I call Max Goof for my first witness," George said. He took Max to the witness stand and sat him down, got out a Bible and Max swore to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Then George asked the same questions he asked yesterday about what happened to Max from meeting Roxanne at the Forksville Marathon to when Jake assaulted him in front of the children's charity hospital and Max provided him with the same answers he gave yesterday.

"No more questions," George said when he was finished. Then he turned to Jake's defense lawyers. "Your witness."

While George went to sit back down, one of them stood up and approached the witness stand. "Mr. Goof, you and Roxanne were in a relationship during high school in Spoonerville. Are you sure that you didn't give her shelter and support because you wanted her back in your life?"

"In case you weren't paying attention, sir, all I did to Miss Roxanne and Jimmy was give them shelter for the night after Roxanne's car broke down when she did the full marathon that she was forced to do." Max didn't forget George's warning about how the lawyers on the opposite team can be difficult and he mustn't lose his cool, but he didn't know how long he could keep his cool after having a taste of Jake's lawyers questioning him.

"The next morning, I went to see to if a garage could fix her car, but most of were closed down due to the strike going on," Max continued as calmly as he could. "There were three that were open, but they were fully booked up until September. And every day since then until this day I checked if any public transport or taxis could get them back to Dallas, but they were too many strikes and too many are still going on. Miss Roxanne didn't take my word for it. She went out and checked every day herself. And I've seen her try to call your client, his secretary or anyone from his company. She never had any success, but she never gave up trying to get Jimmy back to his father, even if his father didn't want him back." He glared at Jake who was sneering at him.

"And you said that you haven't been in a relationship for two years since your last girlfriend Mona walked - or should I say - ran out of your life," Jake's lawyer said to Max. "Can you swear that you weren't using her to make you feel better? Feel less lonely?"

"I swear. The last thing I want to do is make her miserable because…" He took a deep breath before he continued. "… I love her that much. Always have and always will."

Everyone in the court gasped, but none as much as Roxanne. She immediately felt touched by the last ten words he said.

"The very last thing I want to do is to take a leaf out of Jake Morton's book."

Jake rose up. "Why, you –"

The judge banged his gavel. "Mr. Morton, sit back down!"

Jake's lawyers helped him sit back down.

"Any more questions?" the judge asked.

"Just one more." He turned back to Max. "Did you ever consider the fact that the reason my client beat you up was because he was trying to rescue his son that you held?"

"No!" Max cried. "I did not consider that and I never will. I will remind you again that I saw with my own eyes that I saw Morton yelling abusively at Poor Roxanne and she would have been assaulted if I didn't come to her rescue. And in front of a children charity's hospital no less. Take a look at me, this is physical proof of what he did to me. If that's not proof, I'm sure the security cameras will back me up on this."

The lawyer looked defeated. "No more questions, Your Honor."

"Mr. Goof, return to your seat," the judge said.

Max returned to the bench.

"We're off to a good start, Max," George said, patting him on the back.

"Thanks, George." Max had to admit that he felt good about how he handled those questions from both George and Jake's lawyers. Then his hand got held by Roxanne's. She was still deeply touched by what he said and she smiled for the first time that day.

"Mr. Lawton, call your next witness," the judge ordered.

George stood up. "Your Honor, I call my next witness Mr. Henderson."

George asked Mr. Henderson, the Head of Security at the children's charity hospital, to be his next witness and he showed the whole courtroom the recording from the security camera it recorded of Jake being aggressive to Roxanne and Max. It finished after the security guard and the policemen arrived to arrest him. None of Jake's lawyers had any questions to ask Mr. Henderson.

Then George called Mr. Pearson, Head of Forksville Public Transports Department, as his next witness. Max and Roxanne felt relaxed when Mr. Pearson said that the department was having trouble with public transports of all kinds, including taxis, after George ask him and when he said that there would be no chance of Roxanne and Jimmy getting a ride back home to Dallas in the state the vehicles were.

After neither lawyer had any more questions for Mr. Pearson, the Judge ordered George to call the next witness. He called for his three witnesses the chief mechanics of the remaining open garages. They told them that Max was right about the garage strikes going on and they were so busy that there could be no available slots until after Christmas. They couldn't say anything different when Jake's lawyers asked them about it.

Max and Roxanne felt that they were on the roll and had beaten Jake and his lawyers by a landslide.

"Next witness," the judge said.

One of Jake's lawyers stood up. "I call for my next witness, Miss Roxanne."

Roxanne started to worry again as she got up.

"Good luck, Roxanne," Max said, as she watched her go to the witness stand. Then he looked at Jake and his lawyers and saw they were smiling evilly confident like a predator waiting to attack its prey.