EPOV
Late May
Unfortunately, the drama from our dealings with James couldn't be over as simply as we hoped. There was no getting around a trial, complete with testimonies from myself and Bella. I tried like hell to get her out of it, but the D.A. told us her testimony was the most important of all.
At least we didn't have to do it in front of James, we went in and gave our testimonies privately, with just the two attorneys and the judge present.
Another aspect in our favor was Leah. She has made a complete 180 in the past few weeks, and she reconciled with Sue to boot. She told us she would be more than happy to testify against James, especially if she got the opportunity to do it with him sitting just a few feet away from her. Sometimes you've got to love a woman scorned.
Bella took the kids to my parents' house on the first day of the trial, but something inside of me made me want to be present—to stare down that son of a bitch who tried to hurt my family. I wanted to see him pay for what he did.
Jasper and Emmett came with me for moral support. We sat in the front row and watched stoically as the bailiffs brought James into the courtroom. He was in an orange jumpsuit with shackles on his wrists and ankles—I got some smug satisfaction out of that image.
His eyes were vacant and surrounded by dark, purple circles as he seemed to gaze at nothing at all. His attorney stood up to address the judge—and what he had to say shocked us all.
"Your honor, my client is not mentally competent to stand trial," he began. "I have here a psychological evaluation from the Washington State hospital's mental ward that states Mr. James Volchok suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder from an undisclosed incident. It is the opinion of Dr. Laurent Burke that Mr. Volchok be placed in the state hospital until further notice."
It took everything in me not to stand up and shout about what utter bullshit this all was. What incident could have caused him post-traumatic stress? If it was anything less than being gang raped in jail, I wasn't buying it.
James played his role well—as always—he sat at the defendant's table and stared blankly at the wall, like he was too drugged up to respond to anything. His attorney gave the evaluation to the judge who called a recess to look it over and come to a decision.
Emmett and Jasper walked me out of the courtroom and into the men's' room where I promptly exploded in a fit of rage.
"I can't believe this shit! He's going to take the easy way out, like always! Jesus Christ on a crutch, what does this guy have to do to actually earn a real punishment? Murder my children?"
"Ed, calm down," Jasper said as he put his hands on my shoulders, "This doesn't mean anything. The judge could still throw that bullshit evaluation out and go on with the trial."
"That name, Laurent Burke," Emmett said, lost in thought, "Where have I heard it before?"
"Burke? He was a Delta Phi at Pullman," Jasper said. "Guess Daddy got him a cozy government job."
We all looked up at the same moment with the same idea in mind. We ran through the building trying to find Mr. Jenks, the assistant D.A., to tell him what was going on. We found him outside talking on his cell phone.
"Mr. Jenks," I said. "There's something we have to tell you about this Dr. Laurent Burke."
"Let me call you back," he said to whoever was on the other end of his phone conversation. "Yes, Mr. Cullen?"
"He went to school with us," I said. "He knows James and he's trying to help him get out of serving any jail time."
"You're sure of this? That's a pretty hefty accusation," Mr. Jenks said as he began dialing another number.
"We're sure," Jasper said. "Dr. Burke was in a neighboring fraternity to ours, we interacted with him constantly."
Mr. Jenks put the phone back to his ear, "Hello? Courtney? This is Jenks, get me Satterberg...Dan? Hey, this is Jenks, I'm at the courthouse right now, and that bastard Murphy is trying to pull a fast one in this Cullen case. I think they have an in at the state hospital, someone who knows the defendant and is trying to get him off on an insanity plea...yeah...that's great, Dan, thanks. Talk to you later."
As soon as he hung up, I was right in his face, "Well?"
"That was the D.A., he's making a call into Judge Nelson as we speak. Hopefully, he'll take a closer look at this Dr. Burke connection and see that this post-traumatic stress garbage is bogus."
I breathed a sigh of relief, "Thank you, Mr. Jenks."
"Hey, it's my job," he said with a smile, "Thank you for bringing this to me, I was afraid all of our evidence was going to go to waste."
We sat outside for what seemed like forever (but was probably only an hour or so) before the bailiff called us back into the court room. Jasper, Emmett and I resumed our positions in the front row and waited with baited breath as the judge looked sternly over the papers in front of him before addressing James.
"Mr. Volchok, may I ask you how you know Dr. Laurent Burke?" Judge Nelson asked.
"Your honor," Murphy, the attorney, began, "My client is in no state to answer any questions."
"Mr. Murphy, sit down and don't you ever presume to tell me how to run my courtroom. I'm waiting, Mr. Volchok, did you meet Dr. Burke at any time before he evaluated you at the hospital?"
"No," James replied, remaining in character.
"I see, so you never met him during the years you two spent at the same school in Pullman?"
"No," the facade was beginning to crack.
"Mm-Hmm...so, this isn't a photo of you with Dr. Burke at a fraternity Super Bowl party during your sophomore year?" The judge held up a photo of James with his arm around a man with long, dark hair pulled back into a low pony-tail.
I recognized the photo instantly from the Sig Pi/Delta Phi party we held for the Super Bowl and was floored with how the D.A. was able to dig that up.
James was livid now, he jumped out of his chair and glared at the judge, "That...that has to be fake!"
He turned to me, "He must have set it up to frame me! This is all a set-up!"
"Sit down, Mr. Volchok!" Judge Nelson yelled as he pounded his gavel against the stand furiously.
The bailiffs managed to get James back in his seat so the judge could continue, "Mr. Volchok, Mr. Murphy, this psychological evaluation seems sketchy to me. I think that Mr. Volchok's mental state is not an issue in this case—the crime seems too well thought out and premeditated to be the work of someone who does not have a grasp over his mental faculties. Mr. Volchok will stand trial—Mr. Murphy, call your first witness."
The first day of the trial went on as planned, the defense got to give their side with the D.A. giving cross-examination to the witnesses. James' lawyers called some pretty interesting people to the stand, most of which were supposed to be character witnesses to make everyone on the jury believe James is really a stand-up guy—not at all the type of person capable of the crimes he's being charged with.
I couldn't wait until the next day when Leah takes the stand. She even went through the trouble of getting a paternity test, though I shuddered to think how she was able to get some of James' DNA.
We got back to my parents' house to find Bella, Rosalie and Alice sitting in the living room with the children. Bella was gently dozing off with Owen curled up next to her on the couch. The three younger kids were upstairs taking naps while the twins played some VTech games with Ethan.
My sister sat in a recliner with her feet up. My mother wouldn't let her lift a finger, not when she's just days away from giving birth. Of course, this annoys Alice to no end—she's fairly used to being quite active—but, I know she secretly loves it. Although, it isn't as if Jasper doesn't wait on her hand and foot even when she isn't pregnant.
The three of us—Jasper, Emmett and me—stood to the back of the room silently and just watched our loved ones. Jasper smiled wistfully as he watched Alice sit and rub her swollen belly gently. This made me give Bella a similar look—I can't wait until she's at the same stage Alice is at now. As it is, she's starting to get a slight bump already.
Owen stirred a bit before looking up in our direction. He smiled his big, toothy grin, "Daddy!!"
Bella's eyes snapped open and she raised her head, "Edward! How did it go? What happened?"
"Oh, you're never going to believe this," Emmett quipped as he sat next to Rosalie on one end of the big sectional.
"What?" Rose asked.
Jasper and I looked at each other with wry smiles.
"He tried to go with an insanity plea—initially," I said as I walked to Bella and took Owen into my lap. "But, he made the mistake of mentioning which doctor at the state hospital performed his psychological evaluation."
"Who was it?" Rose asked.
"You remember Laurent Burke, from Delta Phi?" Emmett asked her.
"No way! He's a psychologist?" Rose asked incredulously. "He barely graduated from Pullman! The man's an idiot."
"Yeah, but his dad is a big shot on the Seattle City Council," Jasper retorted from his place at Alice's feet. "Nepotism does make the world go 'round."
"Luckily," I continued, "We got to the assistant D.A. while the judge was in recess and managed to get this information passed on to those who could do something about it."
"So, it didn't work?" Bella asked.
"Nope," I replied, leaning in for a quick kiss. "They're going ahead with the trial and dismissed the whole insanity plea."
"What did they claim was wrong with him?" Rose asked.
Emmett chuckle, "Post-traumatic stress disorder."
"From what?" Bella hissed, "He's lucky my children don't have shell shock...that son of a ..." she stopped and looked at Owen who gazed at her with big, worried eyes, "sorry, baby, Mommy's just upset."
"So what did the defense say?" Rose continued.
"They just brought out a bunch of ridiculous character witnesses," Jasper replied. "Trying to make James look like an upstanding citizen or something."
"But tomorrow, the D.A. gets to bring out Leah," I said, my smugness returning. "I can't wait to see how James reacts to that—how he used her and left her pregnant."
"But, what about how Leah used to really not like the Swans?" Alice asked. "They'll definitely try to make it look like she had a hand in it."
"She admits that she did something very wrong," Emmett said seriously. "But, she didn't know he was taking it as far as he did. She wanted to get back at me and Bella and Dad—she didn't want the kids to suffer."
Aina came and sat in Bella's lap, "Mommy, what's wrong?"
"Nothing, sweetie," Bella replied, kissing our daughter's forehead.
"Momma, what's for dinner?" Keely asked as she pulled herself up between me and Bella.
"What do you want, baby?" Bella asked.
"Macaroni and cheese!" Keely said.
"How about you, Angel?" I asked Aina.
"I don't mind mac'n'cheese...so long as it's grandma's," she said.
As if on cue, my mom appeared, "You want the kind with cheddar and Swiss?"
Aina nodded in her grandmother's direction.
"With the potato chips on top too, grandma?" Keely asked as she stood up on the couch next to me.
"Absolutely," Mom replied. "Do you girls want to help me make it?"
The twins glanced at each other with giddy smiles before running off to join Mom in the kitchen. In all the commotion, I hadn't noticed Owen struggling to get into Bella's now vacant lap.
"OK, little man, here you go," I said as I lifted him and placed him in Bella's awaiting arms.
Rose looked at her watch, "The little ones are probably done with their naps, they've been sleeping for almost three hours."
"Yeah," Alice agreed, "Get them up or they won't be sleepy when it's time for bed tonight."
Jasper and I followed Rose upstairs and found Alys, Madeline and Aiden asleep in the three playpens that had been set up for them. I looked down at little Alys, curled up on her side with a hand underneath her left cheek—she was so much like her mother, it was almost scary.
Alys opened one eye and gazed at me. She turned her head slightly and yawned in my direction.
"Da-da," she said sleepily.
"It's time to get up now, princess," I said as I pulled her from her crib.
She groaned softly as I held her against my right shoulder, leaning forward to grab her favorite blanket to take downstairs with us. As I walked down the stairs with Alys, I heard a scream come from the living room that caused my daughter to start crying in fear.
"Shhhh, it's OK, Angel," I soothed. "Don't cry."
We got to the living room to see Alice doubled over in pain. Bella was holding her hand and trying to get her out of the chair.
"What's going on?" I asked as Jasper rushed into the room behind me.
"Her water just broke," Bella said, trying to keep her cool. "Emmett, go bring the jeep around so we can get her to the hospital."
"I'm on it," Emmett replied as he ran out the front door.
I took Aiden from Jasper's grasp so he could help Bella get Alice up and out to the car. Mom came out of the kitchen and nearly screamed herself at the sight before her.
"Alice!" She cried. "The baby's coming already?"
"It appears to be that way, Mom," Alice replied—a smartass, even in labor.
"I'll get your things," Mom replied.
The twins began to follow her upstairs, but I called them back.
"You two have to stay here with me right now, OK?" I said.
"But, Mommy's going," Keely whined.
"Don't worry, we'll follow them in a little while, OK? But, for now, we're going to stay here with Aunt Rose."
"OK," the twins said in unison.
I was relieved that Alys had stopped crying, she looked at me with her big, brown eyes and asked, "Baby?"
"Yes, Angel, Aunt Alice is having a baby," I said.
"How do they get it out of her?" Aina asked, always the curious one.
It just hit me that Bella and I had yet to sit the girls down to talk about this, and I didn't want to have this talk spur of the moment like this.
"I'll tell you later, OK?"
Aina nodded and sat on the couch with her little brother; Keely sat next to me and curled into my side gently, "When does Mommy have her baby?"
"Not for a while," I said. "Your mommy's only been pregnant for three months—she won't have the baby until this December."
"How did the baby get inside of Mommy?" Keely asked.
I really wasn't ready for that talk.
"I'll tell you later."
BPOV
Emmett drove as Jasper, Esme and I sat with Alice in the back of the Jeep. I didn't know how we were going to work this out, but Alice wanted all three of us in the delivery room with her. I was thinking I'd just stand there until she was too drugged up to notice, and then slip out—she didn't really need me there, anyway.
We got her checked in, and then sat around the little room as the nurses went over her vitals. Her heart rate—and the baby's—was fine, and the contractions were still about half-an-hour apart, so the nurses said to call if she needed anything.
Jasper sat next to her, holding her hand. Suddenly, she sat up, "Oh my god! Where's Aiden?"
"Edward and Rose are with all of the kids," Jasper said, putting a soothing hand on her shoulder. "It's OK, Al."
Alice sat back and sighed with relief, "OK, I'm fine...I'm good."
Then, another contraction hit her, "AHHH!! Crap, that hurts!! Where are those bitches with the painkillers?"
"You can't have any drugs until you're a little further along," Esme reminded her. "And watch your mouth, young lady."
"Sorry Mom," Alice replied like a sullen teenager. "Kind of in pain here."
"You know, Bella has done this four times so far, and she doesn't swear like a sailor when she's in labor," Esme replied.
Why was she bringing me into this? I sat back as Esme and Alice argued back and forth. I made eye contact with Jasper, who was just trying to stay out of the line of fire; he rolled his eyes at me and I had to suppress a giggle.
"Well," Emmett began, trying to break up the awkwardness, "Not that this isn't just a barrel of laughs, but I'm going to go see if Edward and Rose are here, yet."
"I'll go with you," I said.
"No!" Alice whined, "You have to stay with me...I want you in the delivery room!"
"I'll be right back, Al—I just want to make sure the kids are all right."
She nodded reluctantly as I walked out with my brother. As soon as the door closed behind us, we both breathed a sigh of relief.
"My god!" Emmett cried, putting his hands over his face, "Does that woman come with an off switch?"
I slapped Emmett on the back of the head, "She's in labor, she's allowed a little bitchiness!"
Emmett muttered under his breath at we approached Edward and Rose sitting in the waiting room with the kids. The twins jumped up and ran to me, I swung them up into my arms and gave them each a kiss.
"You two are almost getting too big for me to carry," I said wistfully.
"No we're not, Mommy," Keely argued. "See, you've got us."
Aina held onto my neck with all of her strength, "I hope I'm never too big for you to hold, Mommy."
I choked back a little sob, "Me too, baby."
It took another four hours before Alice began to dilate to the right degree and the baby began to drop down to zero. The nurses moved her to the delivery room while Jasper, Esme and I followed. And, for as long as it took for her to get to this point, the chaos began to ensue in a matter of seconds. The birth happened so quickly, I didn't even have time to slip out like I had planned.
Soon, Alice was lying there with a pink bundle of joy in her arms, cooing over the tiny thing while Jasper held a video camera to take everything in.
"Jasper," Alice said quietly, "Put that thing down and come say 'hi' to your daughter."
I took the camera out of his hands so he could slip onto the edge of the bed with his wife and hold the new baby – Jacinda, or Jacee for short.
I put my hand over my lower belly as I watched them stare lovingly at their newborn – just six more months.
Next up: Leah takes the stand