Rita Blue came into the room, prepared for the 'Discovery', as she had been told. She did not know, not really, what a 'Discovery' was. She was surprised that this was to be 'under oath', even though no judge was present - just lawyers from both sides as well as someone transcribing the conversation. The stenographer was the one administering the oath…. which to Rita was strange.

Not since the Waterford trials there in Canada, had Blue been involved so formally. But unlike the Waterford ones, this one she was determined not to be stampeded like others seemed to have been - stampeded into vilifying Nick Blaine, himself soon to be on trial for war crimes.

She had gone all through this with Nick's lawyer, back at the lawyer's office. Nick - of all people - was facing war crime charges relating to 'rape', 'kidnapping', and 'conspiracy to murder'. To her that was baffling. Blaine had been 'Mayday', more important Blaine had been a friend to her in Gilead. Blue hoped she'd left Nick's lawyer's understanding all the technical, legal language.

One thing was clear, Nick's freedom was on the line.

After being sworn, the stenographer said that she was ready.

Rita wasn't. Not really.

A lawyer from the ICC prosecutor's office began. Rita was asked for a simple, chronological narrative to describe how she and Nick had met, and, 'take us up to the time that June Osborne entered the Waterford home as Offred.' Simple enough.

"Gilead nomenclature is going to be hard for us to follow, Ms. Blue," the prosecutor said. "For instance, every Handmaid in the Waterford home was officially known as 'Offred'. Yet their identities were obviously different. Unless you can help us, my office has never identified the 1st Offred's true identity, nor even her Handmaid number. For obvious reasons, Gilead is refusing to help on this regard, as on other issues."

My word, Rita thought. They were going to begin this with the things she felt the most guilty about. The Handmaid who'd killed herself. Even she had not known that Handmaids real name. At that time, Rita had adopted a typical 'martha-attitude' to her lot, a grumpy detachment. Yes, Handmaids had had it far far rougher than marthas. But at that time, Rita had not been influenced by Mayday.

Even when the non-ritualistic abuse of that Handmaid had became known to her, Rita just dug in deeper to her own job and responsibilities - lest she herself find herself on the Wall, or shot in the street.

After clarifying for the Discovery that one item of nomenclature, the prosecutor opened it up.

He then repeated what she'd been told back at Nick's lawyer's office - the ICC charges Nick was now facing. Rape. Kidnapping. Conspiracy to murder.

"Obviously, Ms. Blue," he said, "if there is anything you can add to help us adjudicate those charges, we'd appreciate it if you would speak up about them. Otherwise, please just start at the beginning, when you and Commander Blaine first met, and I'll stop you at the point when June Osborne enters the Waterford home. Is that all right?"

Blue assured him it was. He advised, "Commander Blaine's lawyer may wish to stop you at points, he and I have discussed that. Please remember, this is a Discovery, not a trial - it's done so that both sides in the case against the Commander will know what can be agreed upon once in court."

THE MARTHA TRAINING CENTER

Rita recounted how when the Sons of Jacob started consolidating their influence in America, how she and her sister had contemplated going either to Canada or to Europe. But when she was told her son had been killed - essentially martyred for Gilead - that she had not accompanied her sister north. (Now that Rita was in Canada, there was no record of either her sister or her nephew.)

But she continued - she had met Blaine when he was a Guardian posted to the Martha Training Center that she was forced to participate in. She'd briefly been considered for 'Handmaid service', but despite having had a son, she was by then infertile.

Blaine had, to be blunt (she said), saved her. Women at the Martha Center were just as likely to be executed than posted - Blaine had been the one to arrange for her posting to the Waterford home.

Blaine's lawyer interrupted, "for the record, Ms. Blue; did you trade any favours with Commander Blaine for this?"

"No," she answered quickly. "None at all. Many women at the Center survived with bribes, sexual-bribes if you must know. There was none of that with Nick. Nothing."

The lawyer followed up, "what motive, then, do you ascribe to him for moving you from the danger of the Center, to the relative safety of the Waterford home."

"Look," Blue said, "the Waterford home was not safe."

He asked, "But it was safer than what women faced at the Center, was it not?"

"Okay, she conceded, "I'll give you that. At the Center there were half-a-dozen salvagings per day. But at the Waterfords, they owned me. If I got injured, it was not me who would get compensation, it would have been them!"

The lawyer paused, then said, "But with regard to my client, Commander Blaine. What did you understand his motives to be, for taking you from the danger of the Center?"

Rita leaned forward, "Truly, it was his own kindness. He said he'd seen men at the front fall apart. At that time, me, I was falling apart. I was probably a day or two away from being salvaged myself. He'd seen me vomit. Said it reminded him of guys at the front. Next thing I knew, I was on my way to the Waterfords with a starter-set of martha-vestments."

"More to the point, Ms. Blue," the lawyer concluded, "you had done nothing, traded no 'favour' for Blaine's rescue of you, isn't that true?"

"To this day," Blue said, "I owe Nick my life. I had done nothing, promised nothing. He just rescued me."

OFFRED #1

The prosecutor spoke next, "Apologies, Ms. Blue. I may be taking you away from a linear chronology concerning your time as martha in the Waterford home."

The prosecutor looked over at Blaine's lawyer and added, "so with my colleague's permission," to which the lawyer nodded, "I wish to skip to the part concerning Offred #1."

Blue sat silently looking at the ground in front of her. "I was a bitch to that girl. I never even bothered to get to know her name. I told myself, I had my own problems."

"Ms. Blue," the prosecutor said, "I understand, I really do. Gilead forced people, women, into making tough choices. You're not the one on trial here, Ms. Blue."

Rita asked for a minute to compose herself. The stenographer said that that would be a good time for a brief recess, which they took.

Continuing, the prosecutor asked Blue, "my colleague here today is aware of this issue. Indeed, it is one of the reasons for Discovery, so that he knows what his client might face in a courtroom."

The prosecutor put down his legal pad, crossed his arms across his chest, then asked, "Ms. Blue, were you ever aware of a 'relationship' between Commander Blaine - then a driver-Guardian in the Waterford home - of a relationship between him and Offred #1? I'd ask you to narrate at length if you can; were you aware of any physicality between the two, consensual or otherwise?"

Rita recognized the legal trap, she'd been warned about it by Nick's lawyer. When it came to sexual contact with a Handmaid within Gilead, or even a martha for that matter, nothing could remotely be considered 'consensual'.

"Nick told me he was protecting her." Rita then went silent.

"'Protecting'?" the prosecutor repeated. "That was not my question, Ms. Blue. Indeed, you've already said under oath that Blaine had 'protected' you, but that there had been nothing even remotely near sexual coercion or anything like that."

The room went silent and the stenographer stopped typing. The prosecutor simply waited.

"Look," Rita said, "I was there. It would be a stretch in the extreme to say that Nick played a part in her suicide."

Blaine's lawyer spoke, "for the record, both sides of this issue have stipulated, that Commander Blaine owns no legal liability, none whatsoever in Offred #1's demise."

Rita repeated softly under her breath, "Demise." She then spoke, "Can I continue with my narrative?" The prosecutor assured her that that was the reason why they were here.

NICK'S ERODING BOUNDARIES

"I think it started when Commander Waterford started acting all creepy in relation to Offred. Offred #1, I mean. Nick was the driver. He was the one who would take the Commander and Offred off for illicit, creepy visits to Jezebels. Nick would be the one to inform Offred that she was 'needed' in the Commander's office late at night."

The prosecutor said, "Can you be more specific as to what 'needed' meant."

She said sharply, "Commander Waterford was forcing a sexual relationship on to Offred, one well outside the so-called 'normal' activities in The Ceremony."

The prosecutor added, "And then-Guardian Blaine played a role in the subterfuge in arranging those illegal trysts." The Prosecutor paused, "You're alluding to Commander Blaine being Commander Waterford's 'pimp'?"

Rita had a rare flash of anger. She spat sharply, "You people, you know nothing of Gilead. It's not as if any of us had choices!? How dare you judge?"

The prosecutor said calmly, "Ms. Blue, this Discovery is not about me arguing with witnesses like yourself. You may not have known it. The then-Guardian Blaine was also a Eye-of-God, specifically reporting to High Commander Pryce, the most powerful Commander at the time in New Gilead." The prosecutor paused, then added, "our position is that then-Guardian Blaine had choices."

The prosecutor picked up his legal pad again and repeated, "please remember what I asked, Ms. Blue. Were you ever aware of a 'relationship' between Commander Blaine - then a driver-Guardian in the Waterford home - of a relationship between him and Offred #1. Were you aware of any physicality between the two, consensual or otherwise?"

Rita paused to wipe a tear from her cheek. "Yes, I was aware."

"In the context of Gilead, a context that you, yourself, know well, a context in which you yourself could be considered a victim - would you have described Nick's 'physicality' with Offred #1 to have been consensual?"

"No."

"In your opinion, knowing Nick as you did, would he have understood that?"

"Nick was always careful not to push himself on to people. He'd not pushed himself on to June."

The prosecutor said, "Oh, Ms. Blue, we'll get to Ms. Osborne later." He repeated, "In your opinion, did Nick understand the 'lack of consent' inherent in Gilead, when it came to women being approached by ANY male, with regards to intimate physicality? Would he have understood that?"

"I really cannot comment," Rita said.

"Oh contraire, Ms. Blue, you can comment!" the prosecutor said accusingly. "You told our office that after one return trip from Jezebels, that Nick Blaine had said to Offred #1, 'I should have driven away with you when I had the chance'. It was clear from our point of view, that Nick was 'grooming' Offred #1, offering himself as a 'kinder' alternative to the abuse she was suffering at the hands of Commander Waterford."

Commander Blaine's lawyer interrupted, "I think this is where we stop. My colleague has long since abandoned letting Ms. Blue provide her own narrative. This is now a cross-examination with leading questions, where there's been no examination-in-chief."

The stenographer had not been a judge, so she waited for the prosecutor's response. When there was none, she said, "Ok, I'm letting the record show that we're ending this Discovery with Ms. Rita Blue, and that both sides concur. We may pick it up later, but as for today, the record is not closed."

HALLWAY COMMENTS

Out in the hallway after, Blaine's lawyer said to the prosecutor, "You couldn't help yourself could you. Getting the word 'grooming' into the record. Thanks for doing it, because from our side of the fence, you hadn't got Ms. Blue even remotely near that. That's, my friend, what is now on the record."