The trial began again. Deanna's nervous was calmed by some of the others believing that she didn't commit the murder of Tony DiNozzo. She still wondered what in the world made Ziva act like she had seen a ghost.
"I would like to call a Jimmy Palmer to the stand" Benny said. This would seal the case if people understood that someone was targeting the DiNozzo's. Palmer pointed at himself in shock that he was being called to the stand.
"Go on Mr. Palmer. Tell them what happened. It will be ok." Ducky reassured his young tech.
Palmer reached the stand with his hands shaking. He thought the jury would probably think he was the guilty one with the way he was acting. He hadn't told Team Gibbs or Deanna about the phone call. He had blamed himself for Tony's death because of giving out the DiNozzo's home address.
"Mr. Palmer, tell me what you do for NCIS." Benny questioned.
"I am an autopsy assistant." Palmer said still shaking.
"Tell me had anything strange happened in autopsy before Special Agent DiNozzo's death?"
"Objection relevance?" The plaintiff asked.
"Overruled please continue" The judge said.
"Several months back I had broken my phone and Mrs. DiNozzo let me have her old one. She had switched phones and phone numbers after she was in an accident in Oklahoma and moved to D.C. I had gotten a strange call asking for her. The person never said what their name was just asked about her and asked what the DiNozzo address was." Palmers voice trailed off.
"Did you give it to him?" Benny asked.
Palmer was trying to hold back tears. "Yes."
"Did this person ever contact you again?"
"Yes. A few days before Agent DiNozzo was killed the person called again and said he had made it into town but had lost their address. Said he was a friend of Deanna's and that was the last number he had. Said he had a wedding present for the DiNozzo's and a gift for the twins. I should have never given out their address." Palmer began to cry.
"No further questions your honor." Benny said.
"Could Mrs. DiNozzo have sat this person up to call her old phone to make it look like someone else murdered her husband?" The plaintiff asked.
"No, Mrs. DiNozzo would never do that. It's my fault for giving out their address. I should have told someone when the call first came in. I shouldn't have answered the call the second time. I meant to get the number changed but we were so swamped in autopsy that I never did." Palmer said. The tears flowing down his face as his voice shook. He had so much guilt built up and just needed to get it off of his chest.
"No further questions your honor." The plaintiff said.
"Juror nine is believing she's innocent." Marissa said looking at the screens.
"But it's juror eleven we need to worry about. He can convince the rest of the jury that she's guilty. He's a leader. Benny let's put Deanna on the stand." Bull was a little concerned. With all the testimony and the jury was split down the middle. He hoped that after they heard Deanna's side of the story that they would move in her favor.
"I would like to call Deanna DiNozzo to the stand." Benny said.
Deanna repositioned her glasses and made her way up to the stand.
"Mrs. DiNozzo, take me back to the night of your husband's murder." Benny asked her.
"Tony and I had just gotten the twins tucked into bed. We had laid down ourselves. We tried hard to go to bed with the twins so that all of the sleeping schedules were kept on track. Just before 11, Tony heard something on our sliding glass door in our bedroom that led out to our patio area. He got up to see what it was. He believed it was one of the tree branches from the tree not too far from the door. I had gotten up to use the restroom. When I came out I heard the gun shoots ring out. Tony stumbled, he probably thought he could chase after the person who shot him. Then…." Deanna started to cry. It wasn't like that night didn't haunt her every time she closed her eyes. "He fell with a loud thump on to our bedroom floor. With my training I knew not to move him away from the area. I grabbed my phone and was going to call 911. Then I saw the growing pool of blood forming. I tried desperately to make the bleeding stop. Lord if I could just make it stop everything would be alright. I panicked and called our boss. Agent Gibbs. I know I should have called 911 but I….I was scared. Gibbs has been there for us for everything. From the time they were investigating who beat me nearly to death, to our wedding, to the twins being born. He always had comfort for us. I knew since he lived not even a couple of blocks away that he could be down there and help in no time. Tony tried hard to tell me he loved me and to tell the kids about him. I honestly believe that he knew he was dying. I didn't want to believe it but he knew."
"No further questions your honor." Benny said. It was tough listening to that, but to go through it he couldn't even imagine Deanna's pain and hurt.
"We just won jurors four and ten!" Marissa exclaimed from inside the DiNozzo's old apartment. The screens still showed four jurors that believe Deanna was guilty.
"We are close but still not close enough." Bull responded.
"Mrs. DiNozzo the evidence says that the gun that killed your husband was yours. How do you explain that when you say you're not the one that killed him?" The plaintiff asked.
"Tony and I had cleaned our agency issued guns that afternoon. I had gotten distracted by one of the twins and had to go inside. I forgot my gun out on our patio table." Deanna answered blaming herself.
"So you just left it? And never went back to it?"
"Yes, I guess it was my mommy brain its worse when you have two running around."
"But you're an agent yourself. Are you saying you would just leave your gun laying around for a suspect to get and purposely shoot you?"
"Objection leading" Benny jumped up.
"Sustained." The judge said.
"Ok so Mrs. DiNozzo how do you explain the night gown you wore on the night of the murder. It has your husbands blood all over it." The plaintiff asked.
"Tony had started coughing up blood. Any time someone started coughing and choking you're going to do what you can to help it stop. I had raised Tony's body up off the floor a little to help him hoping it would make the coughing stop. With him coughing up blood it got all over me because there was so much with his lung being hit. When I raised him up it also made his chest bleed even more. I was on the side he was shot on and so when I raised him up and got all over me." Deanna answered.
"So you admit that you did move your husband?"
"Only to save him from choking to death, yes."
"No further questions your honor."
"We will take a lunch than we will hear the closing arguments." The judge said.
"Benny I'm scared. I can't leave those twins without a mother. Their father was killed and now they are going to find me guilty." Deanna cried.
"Don't worry, I think Bull has a plan." Benny said.
"How's it looking Marissa?" Bull asked.
"Juror number five has swayed to her not being guilty. However, juror number one and five have changed their minds and are finding her guilty." Marissa sighed. "What are we going to do?"
"Cable link into the main elevator that the jurors ride." Bull said.
"On it boss." Cable answered.
"What are you going to do?" Marissa asked.
"Come with me and I'll show you. We are going for a little ride." Bull said and they were both out the door and heading for the court house.
As the jurors loaded the elevator to go back to the court room, Marissa and Dr. Bull got on as well.
"Is there room for us?" Bull asked as the jurors made room. Marissa looked at Bull. She knew what he was about to do was going to be one of the most outlandish things he had ever done to convince a jury.
As the elevator started up it was like it got stuck in between floors.
"I have always had a fear of getting stuck on an elevator, what if Hannibal is going to come out of the ceiling and kill us all." One of the jurors exclaimed.
Bull smirked at Marissa as he put his plan in motion. He grabbed his chest.
"Honey I don't feel so good." Bull told Marissa. He winced in with the pain in his chest. His breathing becoming erratic He clenched his chest tighter. "I got heart palpitations. Someone call 911"
All the jurors didn't seem to pay attention to what he was saying.
He winced at the pain in his chest. "I think I am having a heart attack. I can't hardly breath." Bull struggled for each breath. He fell to the floor.
"Someone call 911" Marissa said.
"Here I have a boyfriend that is in medical school." One juror said. Another dropped down to Bull's side.
"He's not breathing." She checked for a pulse. "I'm not getting a pulse."
Marissa dropped to Bull side. Was he actually playing this up or was he actually dying on her. She couldn't lose her boss like this. "Does anyone know cpr?" Marissa put her ear down to Bull's chest and didn't hear a heartbeat. "Shit Bull what have you done." She thought. She looked into his green eyes that were open they were focused on something else other than life itself. She knew by this point no one was going to help her. She pushed the emergency button as all the jurors just stood around.
"Hello what is your emergency?" Danny's voice came over the intercom. Cable and Danny kind of giggled they knew their boss was going to pull something dramatic but didn't know it would be an actual heart attack.
"I need an ambulance sent to the court house. We have a man on the elevator that has had a heart attack. He's not breathing and we can't find a pulse." Marissa said panicked herself of losing Bull.
"She's good at this" Cable said.
"Alright ma'am we will have a rescue crew heading your way in about 10 to 15 minutes." Danny said over the intercom.
"Dammit we may not be able to bring him back by then." Marissa said. She pulled out her phone and texted Chunk.
This is not a joke. Bull is not playing around. He really has had a heart attack. He's not breathing and we can't find a pulse. I think we just lost our boss.
When Chunk got the message he about broke down.
"Guys I think you might want to see this." Chunk said showing the message to the girls.
"Oh my God it really is serious." Cable said. "I'm calling 911."
The court reconvened but they didn't have any jurors.
"What is going on? Did the jurors decided not to come back?" The judge asked.
Benny's phone vibrated. It was a message from Chunk.
Bulls dead!
"What the hell?" Benny exclaimed.
"What is it Benny?" Deanna questioned.
"Look at this!" Benny said showing her his phone.
"Oh my God. What happened?" She asked
Benny typed back asking.
He is there inside the courthouse on an elevator. He's had a heart attack. He's not breathing and they can't find a pulse. Chunk replied back.
Benny couldn't think of losing his ex-brother-in-law and his boss.
"This can't be happing. Not now!" Benny said.
Deanna began to cry. She had already lost her husband. Now the person that reminded her of him was dead too.
"Ok my boyfriend says that we should start CPR." One of the jurors said.
"Ya think?" Marissa responded. She didn't mean to sound hateful but she couldn't live with herself if she let Bull die on her watch.
"Here what are we supposed to do and I'll do CPR." One of the male jurors stepped into help.
"He says to put your hands together and start compressions on his chest." The juror said getting instructions from her boyfriend. Marissa put her ear close to Bulls mouth and nose and still didn't hear him breathing.
"We need to tilt his head back." The juror said still getting instructions.
"Don't you do this to me." Marissa whispered into Bulls ear. She felt for Bulls pulse but there wasn't one. "We still don't have a pulse."
"Ok continue compressions."
"Come on Jason" Marissa said starting to cry.
Will Bull make it out alive? And will this change the jury's way of thinking? New Chapter up soon. Please Review!
