REDCURTAINS: Okay let me make it clear once and for all. I know next to nothing about courts and lawyers and any of this that I'm now finding myself writing about DX so be gentle with any mistakes. I purposely made the whole thing rather vague, which I regret terribly, but there's just nothing else for it...

Chapter 39

Howard was currently helping a fellow keeper wrestle another animal into a crate. Many more were already being loaded into transport cars, ready to be taken to new zoos. Howard looked around himself at the empty exhibits. The zoo was closed today. Not that anyone would ever come there again.

But that wasn't it. The zoo wasn't just closed for the day. It was closed indefinitely. Bainbridge was selling the Zooniverse. Had sold it, in fact, just the day before. They were going to build a road over it.

Eight days had passed since the incident, and not a single customer had visited the zoo, or even come near it. Howard supposed Bainbridge was simply cutting his losses. The man was livid, but was surprisingly not seeking to take this matter to court against Vince. The boy had a trial in the next fifteen days, but Howard had it on a good source that Dixon planned to be far out of Wimbledon by then. It was all so suspicious, and Howard felt like beating the man's head in himself at all the questions that crowded Howard's.

Fossil hadn't been spotted since the day after Vince's rampage. The man hadn't been hurt. Indeed, the kid hadn't even went after him. No, Howard heard it from Naboo that Fossil had owed money. Big money. To some shady 'book maker', or so Naboo said.

Apparently this bloke must've seen Fossil's name in the paper, as the Chief Manager of the Zooniverse, and had tracked him down. Now the blue-shirted man was missing, and police were looking into that as well.

Tristan had been so horrified by the entire event, she'd went to stay with her parents for a while, refusing to live in their flat with Vince there. Howard couldn't understand. All the boy did now was lay curled up in bed. Howard had to bring his food to him every morning before leaving for the zoo. He'd tried again and again to talk, even going so far as to bring up things he knew would make the kid snap at him. But nothing; the boy had just...turned off. Howard was counting down the days to his trial with a lump in his throat and a twist in his stomach.

"Alright, that's all of them!"

Howard snapped to the present, watching with a feeling of numbness as the vehicles filed out through the gates. The animals were gone. The visitors were gone. Cooper was gone. The Zooniverse was finished.

Howard turned to see Naboo looking at him with a solemn stare. The two had put aside their mutual hatred after the event. What was the point? Hell, Howard was certain he'd never see this tiny man again in his life. So why fight anymore? Naboo seemed to feel the same. He nodded up at Howard as he approached.

"So you check up on Moose lately?"

"Yeah, he's doing fine. Going to...have a bit of scar on his face...but he's taking it well. He'll be out by tomorrow. Me and Mrs Gideon are going to see him after we're done here, actually."

"Give him my best."

"Sure."

Gideon walked over just then, sad smile on her face as she gave her goodbyes to Naboo. They all knew this was their last time together in this zoo, and if Howard were a looser person, he'd have hugged every single staff member. In fact, a few were doing so just then in the zoo centre. But Howard simply allowed Gideon to take him by the arm and shepherd him through the gates, casting one last look back at the entrance.

"Vince, I'm home."

Howard called out, motioning to hang up his Keeper jacket, but remembering with a sigh that he wasn't wearing it anymore. Bainbridge had taken all of them, probably just to try and sell. The only one left was Vince's, still hanging in the boy's closet.

Howard rapped his knuckles twice on Vince's open door, looking in. The kid hadn't seemed to move at all. Still lying on his left side, facing away from the door, staring blankly at the wall. He hadn't even thrown a fit when Howard revealed his confiscating of Vince's cigarettes. Howard really hoped he wasn't this blank in court. If the boy was given a prison sentence...Howard didn't let that thought live for very long in his brain each time it hatched. They were going to get through this.

Gideon had actually agreed to provide Vince with her attorney. When she'd told Howard over lunch hour, the man had very nearly cried. He instead hoisted her up off her feet and spun her as she laughed for the first time in days. Howard himself was grinning from ear to ear, thankful beyond measure. Gideon truly was a woman of class; Howard had always known it. She was still shaken up over the entire thing, and refused to visit with Vince, but her help showed that she still supported Howard's decision to support Vince.

Sitting on the sofa, Howard turned the volume on the television up, silence permeating throughout the rooms. He knew he should probably start dinner, but he was more than a little weary of the boy's state of stillness, and wanted to see if he'd get up to get his own food.

Sure enough, a few hours into a documentary on the history of film noirs, the boy appeared in his doorway, ghosting over to the kitchen. He rummaged in the cabinets before finding a bag of Walkers. Howard observed from the corner of his eye as the kid padded back toward his room, only to pause multiple times on his journey. He eventually turned and made his hesitant way toward the couch, sitting down on the other side.

Howard tried very hard not to react in any way. He didn't want to drive the boy further from him, but he was also still reeling utterly from Vince's confession, and then the book, to finally watching the kid attack a crowd of people. It was all so indistinguishable and overpowering that Howard felt wholly numb. He wasn't able to hold back a slight jerk as he felt the boy's body against his own, their sides pressing, the kid moving to lay his head against Howard's shoulder, like they used to sit. At the older man's sudden movement, Vince drew back again to his previous spot on the other end. Neither spoke a word to eachother, not even when Leroy dropped by to see Vince, Howard moving into his bedroom to give them privacy. Or when Gideon called to remind Howard of his meeting with her attorney for their plan. Or even when he called Tristan and the two had an intense discussion over why she refused to live with the boy; an argument they'd had nearly every night for eight days.

Howard tried to calm himself with steady breaths as he seated himself beside Vince in Gideon's attorney, Ms Rose's office. At hearing where they were going and why, the boy had gotten up from his bed, dressed reasonably, and followed Howard mutely the entire tube ride to the building in which the woman worked.

She smiled nicely to the teen, introducing herself. Vince just stared down at the top of her desk. The woman took this all in good stride, immediately getting to business with explaining the defense plan she and Howard had decided was their best bet.

Pleading not guilty just wouldn't do. There were witnesses, evidence, and the word of every officer who'd been present at the attack. If they went for that approach it'd be like snapping the cell door shut in the boy's face.

No, their best tactic was simply to plead insanity. Allow the court to have the necessary tests run on the kid, and hope for the best. Howard had felt like shit when he'd spoken with Ms Rose about the boy's mental state. He felt like a backstabber, but he knew it was Vince's only chance. He knew that if the doctors got the boy talking, they'd see exactly what Howard saw every day, and what those people at the Zooniverse had seen. Vince was completely insane. Howard had never truly believed it; well, he'd known it, but he'd never thought it to be the dangerous kind of insane. The kind you saw on the news, and read about in scary novels. Now Howard had had the luxury of seeing the Zooniverse on the news several times.

The man swallowed thickly as all of this was explained concisely to Vince, albeit in a much nicer way. The boy's nails were digging into his trousers by the end, eyebrows drawn and red eyes wide. Howard felt ashamed for having to calm himself yet again. This was Vince, for christ's sake! He wasn't going to turn and maul Howard to death simply because he got angry!

Vince opened his mouth, tone whispered and shaky with emphasis, gruff from several days misuse, his gaze fixed intensely on the desk.

"I'm not crazy..."

The lady sighed, leaning forward in her seat, visibly trying to placate the boy while making him see reason.

"We know that, Vincent, we know. But this is your only way out; do you understand?"

"...They'll lock me up. They'll stuff me in a jacket and put me away."

The woman nodded, all patience and understanding.

"They might, Vincent, but would you really rather prison?"

The boy didn't answer, just swallowed and looked further down onto the floor, crossing and uncrossing his ankles.

Howard and Ms Rose continued the rest of the meeting in low voices, mindful of Vince's every twitch and grimace as they spoke. Howard didn't know what to do, honestly. He didn't want the boy placed in a mental hospital, but he certainly didn't want him doing time in jail. Hell, Howard just wanted to...he wanted to...to just grab the kid and blast off into space with him.

But that was ludicrous. Impossible. And so here Howard sat on earth, imprisoned by gravity and the reality of his life.

Vince's court date came surprisingly fast for Howard, leaving the man with a sense of whiplash and an inability to breathe easily. He'd had to have Ms Rose calm him down from an anxiety attack outside the court doors, which was completely humiliating. Luckily Vince had been sent ahead, and so wasn't there to see Howard's utter and complete cowardice.

Howard felt very grateful toward Ms Rose; the woman had been nothing if not gentle and understanding, and together they moved brusquely through the front doors.

The court room was filled with a small jury, a tired looking judge, and many others Howard suspected were at the zoo on that day. He'd been proven right, when several were asked to come up and give their accounts of the event. Howard had to physically sit on his hands so as not to raise them in gestures at the people. He knew they were right. They got no detail wrong, and they had every reason to want to see the teen who'd attacked them brought to justice. But Howard still wanted them all dead. Or, at least, not in the room.

Eventually came their turn, and Vince rose on call, going up to the stand as Ms Rose delivered their statement and insanity plea. The boy was looking as if he'd long-since tuned them out, and it took the prosecutor a few calls to get his attention. The suited man walked slowly up and down the room as he questioned Vince, beginning with rather simple ones, like where he'd been the day of the attack and aw hell Howard was feeling itchy and he just couldn't concentrate on the guy's voice and Vince was just blank and oh thank god the prosecutor's questions seemed to be over.

Ms Rose quickly moved forward for her own questions when the time came. She stood still, facing the teen.

"Now Vincent, what was the cause of this attack? In your own words, tell us why you chose to harm Mr Dixon Bainbride and the other people that you did?"

"...I didn't."

"You didn't what, Vincent?"

The boy licked his lips, eyes shifting around, glancing at all the faces in the room, as though he'd only just dropped in through the roof and had no idea who these people were.

"I didn't attack anybody."

Ms Rose's eyebrows raised, and Howard had a feeling this was exactly what she'd wanted.

"You didn't? So who did attack all of those victims with the shovel, Mr Noir."

"...Charlie did."

The boy said the name with a fear in his voice so palpable Howard nearly forgot that Vince's Charlie was make-believe. He sat up straight, dreading the questions the boy would have to face but knowing his replies could guarantee him safety from a prison sentence.

"So you're saying a man named Charlie hurt everyone at the zoo that day?"

"W-well, Charlie isn't...um. I'd rather not talk about him."

"And why is that?"

"Because he gets really angry...when people don' believe in him."

"So you're saying Charlie is made up, a hallucination. Is that right, Vincent? And how long have you been having these hallucinations?"

The boy was slowly shrinking in on himself, shoulders rising and fingers twitching in his lap. Howard could see him pulling the skin off of his bottom lip with his teeth, his voice getting smaller and smaller as he spoke.

"I'm not...Charlie's...um."

Ms Rose seemed to take pity on him as she paced across the room, her next question coming out in a soothing tone.

"It's alright, Vincent, why don't you tell the court how long you've known Charlie?"

"For 'bout...eleven years, I think. Can't really remember."

"So back to the book. The one that Bainbridge was reading that day. What was in it that made you so upset, Vincent?"

"I don't know. I...I don't remember."

"Ah, well, you won't have to; because the book has been submitted as evidence, and I have a few photographs of its pages for the jury to see."

The woman got out a small stack of large photos, holding them up one by one for the jury to ponder over. Howard kept his gaze trained on Vince, who was refusing to watch, eyes on his lap, brows drawn and mouth in a tight line. He was clamming up, right in the middle of court. He was no longer fidgeting, but had gone absolutely still as the jury and judge beheld the pictures in much whisperings and glances at the boy. No doubt Ms Rose had chosen the most disturbing pages she could find. Howard was beginning to wonder if this plan was worth it.

Ms Rose then carried the photos over to Vince, coming to stand directly before him.

"Tell me, Vincent, is this what drove you to harm Mr Bainbridge? Were you angered that he had shown everyone your drawings?"

"I don't..."

The boy trailed off into mumblings, face ducking lower to avoid looking at the photos presented to him. The woman inclined her head forward.

"What was that, Vincent?"

The kid was suddenly lurching forward, slamming his hands down on the desk with an echoing clap, eyes glaring static hatred down at Ms Rose, who backed away a few steps. His voice was broken and raspy and faltered near the end as the entire court jumped slightly.

"STOP CALLING ME THAT!"

To her credit, the lady recovered quickly.

"What would you like me to call you then, Mr Noir?"

The kid was now seated once more, taking deep breaths as though to calm himself, eyes once again fixed downward.

"Just...call me Vince."

"Alright, Vince, did you draw these?"

The boy gave one quick glance up at the photographs in Ms Rose's arms before shaking his head.

"No."

The rest of the case went much like this, and Howard was terrified the jury wouldn't deliver a say on the case. Howard just wanted it to be over, as much as he dreaded their final word. And after several hours he got his wish.

It was finally decided that the boy would be taken to a hospital, where his mental state would be evaluated. Then, based on the results, the judge would give his final sentence.

Howard didn't know whether to shout, cry or sigh. Vince did not share in his mixed feelings. As the officers came to escort him from the room, the boy had shirked away from them, fingers clamping around the bottom of his seat.

"I'm not crazy! I'm not! I didn't do anything!"

Howard shot up, barely restraining himself from launching in there and grabbing the boy away from these burly men who in Howard's eyes were not being as gentle as they should be! He found his eyes stung as he exited the courtroom, Ms Rose just behind him. He sucked in a few deep breaths, trying to listen as Ms Rose spoke calmingly.

"Now Howard, this is a good thing, remember? This is what we wanted. It's going to be alright. I know it's hard, but you've got to understand that this is for the best. This is what's best for that boy's health."

Howard gave mute nods to everything she said, and returned to his empty flat, laying across his bed and deciding not to call anyone to inform them on how the case went. Not only Leroy, but Gideon, Moose, Tristan and Naboo all wanted him to call.

Sod them.

Howard had to wait another three days before Vince was to be brought back before the judge, and he'd been told that he wasn't allowed to see the kid whilst his evaluation was in process. Howard couldn't help imagining Vince's earlier words. Of the boy in a strait jacket, lying alone in a padded room, and wondered distantly if a barred cell might've been more merciful.

Howard found himself deliriously wandering down the street from the courthouse, passing the bus stop and bumping into people. He didn't see them. Didn't hear or feel them. Didn't heed Ms Rose's voice as she called after him from the courthouse steps.

He'd just heard the judge's sentence. It wasn't prison, but it wasn't the order of house-arrest or appointments with a psychiatrist like Ms Rose had been pushing for. No. It was a commitment to Wimbledon Mental Health Centre, where Vince would be sent to live until his doctor assigned to him deemed him mentally fit for release. Howard knew that that could take months, possibly longer. And he also knew it was Vince's worst nightmare, if the look the boy had shot across at him was any clue.

Vince hadn't struggled when the officers came, but kept looking Howard's way as long as possible. Howard wasn't certain whether he'd been conveying his anger, sadness, fear, or what! All he knew was that before he was aware he was running toward the kid, being restrained by security and thrown out of the courtroom.

Once in the hall Ms Rose spoke to him quickly as his head spun. Something about still being able to visit Vince, and that he'd be in good hands, and that he'd be released as soon as he was well again, and Howard was no longer listening.

Howard had flung open the courthouse doors, not seeing the sun.

Tristan sighed for the tenth time, and Howard finally looked up at her from across the table. She stared pointedly at him for a minute before speaking. The same thing she'd been saying for nearly a month now.

"You should go see him. Really, Howard, you should. I know his friend Leroy's been to visit several times. And Gideon even went."

Ah yes, Gideon had indeed found time in between moving out of town to see the kid. She was going to live near another, larger zoo, one where she could once again live among snakes.

Howard knew he should go and see the boy. Told himself so every day as he searched about for a new job. Hell, even Joey had advised him to do so just before he himself moved back to Australia, taking his eccentric family with him. The old men had sure seemed excited to go, most never having been.

It was strange, not seeing their faces every day, as he had for nearly ten years. He was even beginning to miss Naboo and his damn camel kiosk.

But most of all he missed the kid. Missed him so much Tristan had caught him damn near crying over it several times. But Howard never cried; he wouldn't. He had to suck it in. He had to. Grown men didn't cry. Howard Moon didn't cry.

But he was afraid, so very terrified, that if he walked up to the boy and laid eyes on him that he wouldn't be able to leave. And when the security forced him to, which they would, he knew then that he would cry. And he wasn't going to cry.

So Howard just let Tristan's words hang in the air, silence the main thing they inhaled into their lungs these days, and continued to eat dinner.

END

Alright now before you kick me in the teeth, I'd like to remind you this is only Series 1. Series 2 is in the works now.

As for this, if it were a movie, which it is in my head :P then the credits would now be rolling. And the song I imagine for this would be Sweet Disposition by Temper Trap, because it's literally the entire fanfic in one song. It's all of Howard's views on Vince, good and bad, entirely. Hell, just the opening music notes make me tear up. The words 'Oh, reckless abandon, like no one's watching you' just sums up Vince from Howard's viewpoint beautifully. The song just has this air of fondness and protectiveness that really kicks me in the heart.

Anyway, a big thank you to all who read and reviewed! You really kept me inspired, even when I spent long nights staring dazedly at my computer screen, practically pulling my hair out from writer's block. I probably would've given up long ago if it weren't for the fact that I had promised you all I wouldn't. So thanks again, especially to my very loyal reviewer, who gave me endless happy feelings!

Also, keep an eye out for the sequel, which will be called Hiraeth. No idea for sure when it'll be out, but hopefully within a few months. I definitely won't make you poor people wait a year or anything. The summary of it will be:

"The moon couldn't speak. Howard knew this. But just in case, he liked to talk to it sometimes, in the hopes that it might relay a message."

So keep an eye out. And thanks once again, I hope you enjoyed the show.