"And what do you remember after that?" Gus asked.
"I woke up in the hospital with a tube down my throat… Jeffrey was holding my hand…" Sandy replied, still shaking slightly.
"Did you recognize either of the men?" Gus asked.
"I told you they were wearing black ski masks…" Sandy answered.
"Yes…" Gus said. "But did you recognize their eyes or their voices?"
"No…" Sandy said, shaking his head slightly.
"All right Sandy…" Gus said. "Is there anything else that you think I should know?"
"No…" Sandy answered.
"Your testimony is going to get him put away…" Gus said. "Someone will be contacting you with a trial date…"
"No…" Sandy said.
"What?"
"No…" Sandy said. "I can't… I can't do it… I gave you my statement, why isn't that enough?"
"Sandy, they are going to need you to..."
"No..." Sandy said. "You can't expect me to sit on that witness stand and say anything with him staring at me… I can't… I can't… I can't do it…"
"Sandy please, just think about it… You'll be a lot calmer by the time the trial gets underway…"
"No!" Sandy said. "I gave you my statement now just leave me alone!"
"Sandy, I am not going to try to talk you into anything right now… But please… Just… Think about it…"
"NO!" Sandy said, starting to cry again. "Just get out of my room!"
"Please… Please just think about…"
Sandy was shaking again. "JUST GET OUT!"
"All right.." Gus sighed. "I'm going…" He walked out of the room to see Jeffrey standing in the hallway. "Didn't he tell you to go home?" he asked.
Jeffrey's gaze was on the window. "Are you done torturing him yet, Aitoro?" he asked.
"I wasn't torturing him…" Gus replied.
"Do you think that it is fun for him to relive that?" Jeffrey said.
"Come on O'Neill, you know just as well as anyone that I was just doing my job…"
"LOOK AT HIM!" Jeffrey snapped. "He is shaking…"
Gus just looked at Jeffrey and didn't say anything. He knew that there was something else that he was supposed to tell him, but it had slipped his mind for the moment.
Jeffrey shook his head at Gus before walking back into Sandy's room.
Sandy looked up at him. "I can't do it, Jeffrey… I can't…" he said.
"It's OK…" Jeffrey said. He wrapped his arms around Sandy, stroking his hair softly. "You don't have to do anything that you don't want to do all right…"
"I can't… I can't sit there with his eyes on me…" Sandy cried.
"I know.." Jeffrey said. "I know… They can't make you testify, all right. Gus is just a little overzealous… He's over stepping his bounds. The detective's don't decide who testifies, the prosecutor does… And that's me… OK, so you don't have to worry…" He held him tighter, just trying to get him to calm down.
Standing in the doorway, Gus heard every word. And it made him remember what had slipped his mind. He stepped back into the room and said. "O'Neill, don't make promises to him that you can't keep…"
Jeffrey turned to glare at Gus. "What the fuck are you talking about, Aitoro? I'm the District Attorney… I decide who prosecutes what…"
"Jack's lawyer has submitted a request to the Attorney General… A request to have you thrown off of this case… There's a good chance that it will be granted, given the glaringly obvious conflict of interest…"
"Damn you Aitoro!" Jeffrey spat, pulling away from Sandy.
"What?" Gus said. "Don't shoot the messenger…"
Jeffrey moved back over to Gus. If it would have been just the two of them in that room he would've punched him in the face, but it wasn't, so he settled for pushing him against the wall. "You're the one who was spouting all that bullshit about conflicts of interest…" he spat. "Did you ever stop to think that maybe that is where they got the idea…"
Gus glared at Jeffrey. "I'm just doing my job…" he said. "And that's why I'm still on the case, because for me it is just that, a job… You do have a conflict of interest… And this case has become way too personal for you… As much as I don't particularly like you, I've always respected you as an agent and as a prosecutor… But if you can't see that stepping off of this case is the best thing here, then I have to wonder whether I was wrong to even give you that much credit…"
Jeffrey loosed Gus from his grip, still glaring at him. "Just get out of here Aitoro…" he said, backing away from him.
Gus didn't hesitate to do so. Not even for a second.