A/N: It's trial time!
Enjoy!
Chapter 8
A week and a half later, Isabella was in her room fixing her suit. "Well, this is it. Today's the day." She breathed nervously.
"Nervous?" Vivian asked in a skirt and blouse for the occasion.
Isabella nodded, her breath shaky. "Terrified, actually."
"Want to talk?" She asked sitting on Isabella's bed.
"I guess it might help."
"So tell me, Isa what is getting to you?" She asked.
"I'm just scared. What if we don't win?"
"We the parents have talked about that and I mean all the parents," Vivian said.
"What did you guys come to?" Isabella asked.
"That should he be cleared we might move off this street," Vivian said.
"Alright, that does make it better, and Mr. and Mrs. Flynn-Fletcher would make sure he doesn't try to follow?"
"Yes, they would and Kyle and his family would move off this street as well," She said.
Isabella nodded, "Of course, that REALLY does help, mom." Isabella said hugging her mother with a small smile.
"Good, now be prepared to see Phineas," She said carefully.
Isabella took a deep breath and nodded, "I will be."
"It'll be okay," Vivian said.
"Should we go see Kyle before the case?" Isabella asked.
"Yes probably," Vivian said.
Isabella stood up smoothing her suit down. "Thank you for the talk, Mom. It really did help."
"I'm always here when you need me," She said.
"I know." Isabella said with a nod.
"Now go see Kyle, it'll help you both," She said soothingly.
"I will, good bye, Mom." She said heading out.
"I'll see you there," Vivian said.
"See you there." Isabella said back closing the door behind her and heading next door.
She knocked and waited. Kyle's mom/lawyer answered. "Ah Isabella," She said smiling in her black suit.
Isabella gave a small smile. "It's nice to see you Mrs. Smith, may I come in to see Kyle?"
"Yes, he's up in his room getting ready," She said
"Alright, thank you, I'll make sure to knock first." Isabella said heading upstairs and knocking on him bedroom door.
"Come in!" Kyle said from the other side. Isabella smiled as she opened the door and came in. Kyle was in a dark red suit, black undershirt and a matching dark red tie and sitting in his computer chair, "Hey Izzy," He said smiling.
"Hey Ky." She said smiling back.
"How are you?" He asked.
"Well, I was a little nervous on whether or/not we'll win but my mom had helped a lot with that so I'm not nervous anymore." Isabella said going over to him. "Are you?"
"Yeah, I am, but I have faith in my mother," Kyle said.
Isabella nodded, "Lucky for that." she added what her mom had told her to see if it'll help.
"That actually helps a little," Kyle said.
"Yeah, it did with me, too." Isabella checked the time. "We should probably head down to the courthouse soon though, though its getting close."
"Right," Kyle said standing shakily as he had only been out of the chair for about a day.
Isabella instinctively took his arm to give him physical support.
"Thanks Izzy," He said smiling.
"Ready?" She asked.
"Yeah," He said.
Isabella carefully lead him downstairs.
"Ready?" Mrs. Smith asked.
"Yeah, we're ready." Kyle told her.
"Okay, lets go," She said.
They got into the Smith's car and the drive to the court house passed in silence. As they pulled into the parking lot everything got truly real. There were several reporters there. When they saw Kyle, they swarmed around that vultures asking lots of questions so quickly and at the same time as each other that he couldn't catch a single word. "Enough!" Mrs. Smith said.
The reporters didn't listen so she pushed there way though, there's nothing more annoying than nosy news reporters.
"Wow, that was odd," Isabella said.
"Not really." Mrs. Smith said with a sigh. "They're like vultures, going after a corpse."
"Why though?" Isabella asked.
"They want the story, want their station, paper, magazine, whatever they work with to be the first to cover it." Mrs. Smith said sounding angry since this time it's her son in addition to being her client.
"Mom has never been a fan of reporters," Kyle said.
"Of course I'm not, they've already been through too much, the last thing they need is to be eaten alive by the press." She explained. "Make it abou a million times worse now that it's my son."
"Mom, it's okay, I do not really care," Kyle said.
"Trust me, if you give in the first time it will only get worse." She said heading into the courthouse. "I just want to protect you."
"Thanks mom, I really appreciate it," Kyle said.
"I'm your mother and your lawyer, both of whichmake it my job to protect you." She reminded. Kyle smiled hesitantly as they approached the court room.
She stopped right outside the room turning to Isabella and Kyle. "Now, Phineas may or may not be here already so you need to prepare yourself as if he is." She warned.
"Okay, give us just a minute then," Isabella said.
Mrs. Smith nodded, "Understood, just let me know when you guys are ready."
"Think he's there?" Kyle asked Isabella.
"I have no idea what so ever." Isabella breathed in uncertainty.
"Well then, I guess we should go in," Kyle said
Isabella hesitantly nodded, "Yeah, we should." He held out his hand for her. Isabella took it and turned to Mrs. Smith. "We're ready." She pushed the door open and there he was in the defendants table. Isabella gulped and moved closer to her boyfriend while trying to avoid eye contact with her psycho ex-crush.
"Hello, Isabella," Phineas said.
Isabella was visibly shaking as she said quietly. "Hello, Phineas."
"How are you?" He asked in his normal voice.
Isabella didn't answer, just scotching closer to Kyle shaking harder. "Just leave her alone." He said boldly and possibly stupidly.
"Kyle, how have you been?" He asked casually.
Kyle held a glare on him icly as he put a protective arm around his terrified girlfriend. "Getting better no thanks to you, finally got out of that wheelchair yesterday."
"That's good, I would hate to see you use sympathy to sway people," Phineas said.
"Of course you wouldn't," Kyle hissed. "but I won't need it."
"We'll see," Phineas said.
Kyle didn't say another word as he made his way over to the prosecutors
"Are both parties ready?" The judge asked.
Both lawyer checked with their clients before turning to the judge. "Yes, Your Honor."
"Then the case of Kyle Smith and Isabella Garcia-Shapiro vs Phineas Flynn will begin. Honorable Judge Mathis presiding. The prosecution can make their opening statements first."
"Thank you, Your Honor." Mrs. Smith said standing up. "Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I understand that it may be difficult for you to find the defendant to be guilty of such heinous crimes given his previously flawless track record. However, given that he is still of the age of fourteen, it is exceedingly common that a persons behavioral patterns could change almost completely due to the developmental progress in their frontal lobe. Therefore, I ask that you put aside your previous views on the defendant as you focus on the more current evidence being presented from either side to come to your decision. That is all." Mrs. Smith dismissed sitting back down.
"Defense you may now make your statements."
"Thank you your honor," A man with blonde hair and green eyes answered standing. "Ladies and gentlemen of the jury my client has had a completly clean track record and development of the frontal lobe or not a boy of his age who has given so much to this great city and never shown a bit of violence at any point in his past is hardly capable of this, so I ask you all to simply hear my case and do what is right by clearing his name," the lawyer said. "That is all." He sat back down as well.
"The prosecution my call it's first witness," The judge said.
"Yes your honor, the prosecution calls Ferbor Fletcher to the stand." Ferb was sworn in and took his seat in the witness stand and Mrs. Smith went up to it. "Mr. Fletcher, could you please state your relation to the defendant?"
"I am his step brother," Ferb said.
"And as his step brother, have you noticed any significant changes in his general behavior and/or attitude over the past few weeks?"
"Yes, he has been acting completely different over the last few weeks more dark and angry,"
"Would you please provide the courtroom with any specific examples of these behaviors?" Though gone unnoticed by the judge, Phineas was glaring at Ferb from the defendants table.
"He's more withdrawn, he spends most of his time lately muttering about how he thinks Kyle stole Isabella from him," Ferb said looking right at Phineas sadly.
"And when did you first start to notice these changes?"
"Almost immediately after Isabella started seeing Kyle," Ferb answered.
"Did he say anything to you about it or was it just an observation?"
"A bit of both actually," Ferb said.
"Could you please tell the courtroom what the defendant had said to you?"
"That Kyle was stealing his girls and he would get her back," Ferb said.
"And do you believe that these changes he had been going through because of this were drastic enough for him to have to motivation to carry out the crimes he is being tried for?"
"Yes, I do." Ferb said after a pause.
"Were there any other indications of these crimes to your personal observations?"
"He started a fight with Kyle as well as Isabella's brother," Ferb said.
Mrs. Smith nodded managing to keep professional. "Anything else?"
"He seems to think he is doing the right things..." Ferb said.
"Alright, no further questions, open for cross examination from defense."
"Yhank you, Mr. Fletcher would you say my client is prone to drastic, but temporary mood swings?" He asked.
"Drastic, definately but so far they have given no indication of only being 'temporary'." Ferb answered.
"What do you mean?" He asked.
"Since Isabella and Kyle got together, the change has so far been constant. Haven't even seen a hint of the old Phineas since."
"No further questions," The man grumbled. He sat down so being dismissed, Ferb got up and headed back to his seat.
"Defense may now call a witness," The judge said
He stood back up. "Defense calls Buford Van Stomm to the stand." Buford in a black suit stepped up.
"Would you like to confirm or swear in an oath?"
"Confirm," Buford said not sure of the difference.
"Can you confirm under a court of law that everything you're about to say is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?"
"Yes," Buford said. He took a seat in the witness stand.
"Now, Mr. Van Stomp, how long have you known the defendant?"
"It's Stomm, not Stomp and since we were about two." Buford says as we can estimate from Summer Belongs to You.
"Would you say he is violent?"
"Not at all. He's always been really calm and nice to everyone Buford said having not really been around recently.
"Have you witnessed him be violent or angry at any time?
"Well, there was this one time he verbally snapped at his older sister when he was ten but he didn't touch her and he was under a lot of stress and hadn't slept a wink in forty hours. He tried to talk to her nicely about it first but she wouldn't budge. Other than that, no."
"Were you there for any incidents mentioned?"
"No I wasn't." Buford answered before accusing, "Doubt they ever even happened, Dinna bel would never do any of it."
"The defense rests." So, Buford fell asleep at the stand.
"Buford, wake up," Isabella sighed.
Buford surprisingly listened. "What, isn't that what he said?"
"He meant his case Buford," Isabella said gently.
"Oh, why did he not just say that?"
"Just go sit down please," Isabella said.
Buford shrugged and got up heading back to his seat. "Does the prosecution have any other witnesses?"
"Yes, your honor, the prosecution calls Adam Garcia-Shapiro to the stand." Adam stepped up not looking at any of them, but taking his place and choosing to be sworn in.
"Put your right hand on the bible and raise your left hand." Adam did just that. "Do you swear that everything you are about to say is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth or so help you god?"
"Yes," Adam said simply.
Adam took a seat in the witness stand. "Mr. Garcia-Shapiro, you're Isabella Garcia-Shapiro's twin brother right?" Mrs. Smith asked.
"Yes, I am." Adam said proudly.
"And had you noticed some changes between your sister and the defendant?"
"Yes, I have he became obsessed with my sister and convinced her dating Kyle was to make him jealous," Adam said.
"Also, Ferb had mentioned that the defendant had picked a fight with you and Kyle, what exactly happened in that encounter?"
"He said something to the effect of Isabella was only dating Kyle to get his attention and he kept goading Kyle and Isabella into a fight," Adam said.
"And did this fight get physical at any point or did it remain verbal?" She asked having difficulty hiding the worry in her voice and remain professional.
"The fight did eventually get physical," Adam said.
"No further questions. Open to cross examination." She allowed despite not being allowed one herself. She was confident he can't find anything to support Phineas from either of her witnesses. Adam turned to Phineas' lawyer waiting.
"Mr. Garcia-Shapiro, would you say that you can get rather protective over your sister here?"
"Yes, just like any other brother would be," Adam answered.
"Of course, family does come first, but according to your permanent records," He pulled out said documents. "You have quite the history of letting it go alittle to far leading to an allotment of sudden violent outburts."
"Objection!" Mrs. Smith called. "My witness' self-control issues have absolutely nothing to do with this case!"
"I will allow it,as long as you get to the point of this," The judge said to Phineas' lawyer.
"I will your honor," He said before turning to Adam. "so, how can you expect the jury to find my client, a world renown humanitarian with a flawless school and criminal record, when such a violent individual is so immediately available and openly speaking for his arrest? Trying to cover up your own crime perhaps?"
Adam took a deep breath before speaking. "No, I have no crimes to cover up as I am sure my school records show I have confessed to any and all things I have ever done without hesitation and I have always given my reasons, I would never hurt Kyle unless he hurt Isabella as anyone even your client can tell you I am not a violent person unless you emotionally or physically harm the people I care about," Adam said in a calm tone.
Phineas' lawyer scowled, "No further questions, your honor."
"Does the defense have a witness to call?"
"My client has requested to speak himself so, the defence calls Phineas Flynn to the stand."
Phineas stepped up and was sworn in with the bible. He sat down in the witness stand gripping his wrists behind his back as he waited for his lawyers questions.
"Mr. Flynn, you are not a violent person are you?"
Phineas shook his head, seemingly not caring that he was under oath. "Not at all, I never have been and I never will be."
"Given you are under oath, did you goad Mr. Smith and Mr. Garcia Shapiro into a fight?"
Since in this answer, the truth is more effective than a lie, Phineas answered, "Well, there was a fight but I didn't goad it. I was just defending myself, they had both been the first to attack."
"Can you tell us all what happened that day?"
"I was just talking with Isabella when suddenly Kyle came in and just started completely flipping out at me for talking to his girlfriend and punched my in the stomach, I tried to defend myself but Adam suddenly grabbed my leg and pulled me off my feet, certainly wasn't a fair fight since Adam has been taking five types of martial arts since he was five and after what felt like forever, everything went black and I eventually woke up hours later."
"Objection your honor, my clients as well as other witness' to the event in question including his step brother all have a completly different story he is clearly lying under oath," Mrs. Smith said.
"Your honor, my client so far has been the only one to go into detail about this encounter and there for has no evidence to support this accusation." Phineas' lawyer challanged.
"He's right," Judge Mathis reminded. "Overruled."
Mrs. Smith sat down and whispered, "I'm sorry, but you both are going to have to up on the stand when he's done." They both gulped but nodded knowing that there was no other way around it. Isabella glanced over at the jury, it was teetering so much, nearly impossible to tell who's winning.
"Would you say that Adam Garcia Shapiro is a violent person?" His lawyer asked
Phineas nodded, "Of course I would, his track record doesn't lie, he pretty much has no self control."
"Did you attack Mr. Smith and cause his incident?"
"No, I did not."
"Objection we have three witnesses to his original confession!" Mrs. Smith said presenting the written statements to the judge.
The judge looked over the papers then up at Phineas. "Mr. Flynn, I must ask that you to step down from the stand."
"What? why?" His lawyer asked.
"I'm sorry but those are the rules, if someone can show reasonable evidence that any witness is lying under oath or confirmation then they must be declared in unreliable witness and have to step down from the stand."Phineas glared at them as he got down from the stands.
"Does the prosecution have any other witnisses to call?"
"Prosecution would like to call Isabella Garcia-Shapiro to the stand," Mrs. Smith said. Isabella stood up struggling to get her knees from buckling underneath her she swore in and took her spot in the stand. "Isabella, can you please tell the courts exactly what happened on the day of the fight to the best of your knowledge?"
"Well, I had just agreed to be Kyle's girlfriend and we were enjoying our day when Phineas approached and started talking to us."
"What did he say?" Mrs. Smith asked.
"Along the lines of he got the message and we could get together," Isabella said.
"Alright, then what happened?"
"Then I told him that I was not faking my feelings for Kyle,"
Mrs. Smith nodded, "Alright, how did he react to that?"
"Not well he said that I should stop lying to Kyle and myself,"
After a large collection of sentence by sentence questions, Mrs. Smith finally got the full true story that you already know and closed it since she was clearly in no emotional state to be cross examined by Phineas' lawyer, Kyle's went a lot smoother but the story was pretty much the same save that he came in a little later.
"Alright, is that all?" The judge asked. Both sides nodded. "Then the jury is dismissed to discuss the evidence and come to a ruling court is dismissed until then," The judge said. Everyone got up to leave with the exception of Isabella who was just sitting there staring at nothing.
"Izzy? Are you okay?" Kyle asked.
"He-he…" Isabella stuttered still staring off.
"What is it?" Kyle asked.
Everything kind of bunched up but one thing in particular stood out. "He tried to accuse Adam. He had Adam's records to support it. That means it must have been pre-planned."
"Yeah, I know," Kyle said sadly.
"I'd bet anything that was Phineas' idea." She said glaring coldly at that nothing she staring at.
"I don't doubt it," Kyle said.
"Recently, it wouldn't surprise me one bit though." Isabella reminded.
"Yeah, but it's still hard for you?"
Isabella nodded. "Very."
"Well, it'll be okay," Kyle said.
"I guess your right. Besides, there's no way the jury could find him not guilty."
"I don't think there is," Kyle said struggling to stand. Isabella finally turned to him and stood up no less shaky then when she came in, went up to the stand, or came down from it. "Are you okay?" He asked
Isabella pulled her arms in and said honestly. "No."
"Talk to us," Mrs. Smith said.
Isabella sighed, "It's probably be a long time before I'm ever truly 'okay' again."
"You don't want him to go to prison huh?" Kyle asked.
"No, I want him to it's just… I don't know." Isabella said trying to sort everything out.
"You want some time alone?" Kyle asked.
Isabella shook her head and gently huged him. "Definitely not."
He hugged her back and Mrs. Smith began looking for something.
Isabella looked up at her worriedly from the hug. "Something wrong?"
"No, I just have something here that I forgot to give Kyle earlier," She said.
"What is it?" Kyle asked. She pulled out a dark red object. "What's that?" he asked letting go with one are and getting a look at it.
She pressed a button and a cane extened from it to the ground. "Ferb and Emily made this for you," She said.
"Wow!" Kyle said taking it. "That's so nice of them!"
"Well the doctor said you may have to walk with a cane for a while so they thought at least let it be a cool cane,"
"Well, it certainly is a cool cane." Kyle said examining it. It was black with two red dragons that twisted around the cane all the way to the handle
"Glad you like it." Mrs. Smith said with a smile.
"It is nice," Isabella said.
A shockingly short time later, the jury returned with a verdict. "Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury have you reached a verdict?" Judge Mathis asked.
The main juror stood up. "We have your honor, on all accounts, we find the defendant Phineas Flynn… not guilty." Kyle and Isabella's jaws both dropped at that.
"Very well then, Phineas Flynn is free to go. Case dismissed." Judge Mathis said with two bangs of the gavel.
"This can't be right," Mrs. Smith said.
"Oh Mrs. Smith," a female juror said once she was the last one there grabbing her stuff to head out. "I can assure you it most definitely is." She said before leaving.
"How is this right we had all the right evidence," Mrs. Smith said going through her papers.
"It makes no sense." Kyle said death shrugging his cane. Isabella was pretty much frozen out of pure horror.
"I guess I'll see you two later," Phineas shrugged smirking. He went to leave but Kyle shot his cane out tripping him seemingly not caring about the consequences right now. "What was that for?" Phineas said glaring.
"Like you said in your written statement I did not do a damn thing," Kyle said glancing down at him. As no one else had seen it Phineas could not say other wise
Phineas got up from the ground, made sure anyone of authority was gone and brought his finger across his neck in an ever familiar gesture before leaving the courtroom.
"I'm calling my husband now we are moving," Mrs. Smith said.
When she got on the phone, Kyle descided to try and snap his girlfriend out of her trace. "Izzy. Izzy!"
"I can't believe he got off," She said stunned.
"I know it's almost as if they were completely biased to let him off no matter what we did." Kyle said angrily.
"I think they were," Isabella sighed.
"Did your mom happen to mention where exactly we're moving to?" Kyle asked.
"No, just that we were moving," Isabella said.
"It almost doesn't matter though, as long as Phineas can't get at us. And I'll still have your parents and Adam and my mom." She added.
"I think we are just moving to another neighborhood," Kyle said.
Isabella shrugged. "Maybe."
"Are you two ready?" Mrs. Smith asked
They both nodded. "Where are we moving to anyways?" Kyle asked.
"We found places here or in another town which do you two prefer?"
"Another town." Isabella said wanting to sure they don't Phineas again.
"Are you sure Izzy what about everyone here?" Kyle asked.
Isabella took in a shaky breath thinking about her nightmare which is coming closer and closer everyday, "I'm sure."
"I want to talk to him," Kyle said.
"Phineas?" Isabella asked though it was obvious.
"Yes Phineas," Kyle said.
"Then I'm coming with you." She said in a voice that left no room for arguement.
"Okay, if you want," Kyle said.
Isabella nodded, "I do, I want to be able to protect you."
"I don't want you getting hurt," Kyle said.
"Well, I don't want you to get hurt either. Besides, you're still recovering."
"Okay, but I don't like it," Kyle said.
"Are we going now?" Isabella asked. "Or later?"
"I'd rather go now," Kyle said.
Isabella nodded, "Alright, lets go then."
"We'll pack up and hit the emergency button on your phone if something happens," Mrs. Smith said.
Kyle nodded, "I will, I promise."
"Okay, be careful when we get there," She said as they got in the car.
"Of course we will be." Isabella promised. "As much as we can."
"I just needed to remind you," She said.
"Thank but we really have no way to forget." Isabella said lookin out the window.
"I know," She said sadly.
Kyle's hand reached out and grabbed his girlfriend's.
"It'll be alright," He said.
"I'm just so scared, what about my nightmare?" Isabella asked.
"I don't think it will come to happen in fact I am beginning to wonder..." Kyle trailed off.
"Wonder what?" Isabella asked turning to him.
"If that's really Phineas," Kyle finished.
Isabella's jaw dropped slightly as she thought about it. "That WOULD make a lot more sense but then who could it be?"
"Not sure, but think about it even with frontal lobe development no one changes that much overnight," Kyle said. Isabella thought about it, with Phineas undeniable physical qualities there's only two other people that pass off as Phineas… and only one that do that kind of stuff. "Any ideas?" Kyle asked.
"Of who it could be?"
"Exactly," Kyle said.
"Saenihp Nnylf, from Nadville." Isabella said. "It's a long story."
"Okay..."
"I guess we'll find out."
"Do you really think it's him?" Kyle asked.
"I really hope not, if that's Saenihp. Then Phineas is in Nadville." Isabella said that there's only one way to get between the dimension. "I've been to Nadville once before and trust me, there, Saenihp is a good guy."
"That sounds like a really backwards place," Kyle said.
"Well, it's not really backwards its just that… compaired to pretty much everyone else." Isabella trailed off remembering her twelfth birthday vividly.
"This sounds like a story," Kyle said.
Isabella gulped. "You wanna hear it, don't you?"
"No, you don't want to tell it," Kyle said.
Isabella let out a sigh of relief. "Good."
"Yeah it obviously is a bad memory," Kyle said.
"You have no idea." Isabella breathed as they pulled up on Maple Drive.
A/N: Leave a review please and we'll see you next chapter!