Chapter 10: Defense

Clayton was slightly surprised when, as they got to the courthouse the next day, the security guard checking them in said that the trial had been moved to a different room. And when he entered the room with the rest of his unit, he saw why; Kennedy was now glowering at all of them from a cage of wire mesh, wearing a belly chain with wrist shackles over his immaculate suit. It looked wildly incongruous; the impeccably-dressed man in a cage where one expected to see a wild-eyed felon, but apparently the judge was not going to take any more chances; and after all, Damien's testimony was over. Today the defense would call their own witnesses, and maybe tomorrow, and then the jury would get the case to deliberate. And Clayton had absolutely no doubt that they'd find Damien Kennedy guilty of the charges.

Abbie had, reluctantly, informed them that after yesterday, Shana was not going to be allowed to carry a gun into the courtroom. "But why?" Cam demanded, bristling at the unfairness of it. "She didn't shoot him, and he lunged for you first! He provoked it, it was his fault! He might have gotten you if Shana hadn't stepped in with her gun and kept him from coming after you!"

Abbie sighed. "In a perfect world, I'd agree with you, but we live in an imperfect world and this is a very high-profile, emotionally charged trial. If it makes you feel any better, Agent Booth has also been requested not to wear his weapon, and he's agreed too—though not without the same protest you made, and the same argument. Your having the gun might have kept the conflict from escalating, but since Kennedy will be observing the rest of the trial from a seat which will allow for no disruptions, it's been decided to remove all weapons from the courtroom." And indeed, when Agent Seeley Booth entered the courtroom with Dr. Temperance Brennan his holster was empty and he looked distinctly uncomfortable, his hand never straying far from it.

The judge rapped his gavel to bring the court to order. "Court is now in session. Defense, please present your first witness—and keep in mind that after that display yesterday, my patience is extremely short and any uncontrolled displays from anyone in this courtroom will be dealt with harshly and immediately."

"So noted, Your Honor. As its first witness for the day, defense would like to call Adam Barefoot."

He'd heard that name before, where? Something to do with Cam…but even as Clayton racked his brain trying to remember where he'd heard the name, the defense said, "Please tell us a little about yourself and how you know one of the victims, Cameron Arlington."

Adam Barefoot! The man Jennifer Aiennatha had said broke Cam's heart and sent her running to the military! Clayton studied the man with renewed interest and narrowed eyes—so this guy was the reason Cam had left the reservation. Clayton couldn't find it in his heart to really hate the man—he did, after all, have him to thank for Cam ultimately landing on his base, in his unit—but the way he'd done it, his reasons for doing it, had been less than honorable. At the prosecution table, there was some brisk note-writing and note-passing going on between Charlie, Cam, Alex and Abbie. He knew that in a federal trial neither defense nor prosecution was required to give all the evidence to each other to prepare, but he couldn't possibly see what Adam Barefoot would have to say that would bolster the defense.

Until the man opened his mouth. "My name is Adam Barefoot, I am a member of Wolf Clan, Oneida tribe of the Six Nations of the Iroquois. Corporal Arlington—Cameron Arlington—was a former girlfriend. Well, she asked me to marry her, but I declined."

"Other than the fact that you obviously didn't love her enough to marry her, were there any other factors?"

"She's a wonderful girl, very pleasant to be around, charming, and capable. The problem was that…well, I couldn't satisfy her in bed. She'd been disfigured in a fire when she first arrived on the reservation, or so I'd heard since I came to live on the reservation after she'd already taken up residence. And she was single and sort of lonely so I did lots of things to help her out, just as anyone would have helped out a fellow neighbor. I helped her dig up ground for a little vegetable garden, helped her fix her roof one season when rains were heavy and she got a hole in it.

"But I'd been noticing that she started to single me out at village gatherings, dances, holidays. And then one day when I was over at her house she asked me up into the bedroom, and she undressed for me, and I saw how her body was scarred. I wasn't disgusted, I was more sorry for her than anything and I respected the fact that she was living with it and dealing with it. However, because of the fire her body was disfigured—we couldn't uh, have sex the normal way—and that was when she suggested several ways that I'd never heard of and that horrified me. Because she had nerve damage from the fire on her skin, she couldn't feel light sensations, and so she explained that I'd have to be 'hard' and 'rough'. I didn't know at the time about her past as a sex slave, but a lot of what she wanted has been close to what has been talked about here. And I…I couldn't deal with it, I couldn't do what she wanted to satisfy her in the bedroom, and I rejected her marriage offer. It was right after that that she joined the military."

Clayton was almost stiff with fury. That wasn't what Jennifer Aiennatha had said. Adam had called Cam a frigid half-woman, had made it clear that he didn't like her, had never even considered marrying her and had shamed her in front of her tribe. 'Just as anyone would have helped a fellow neighbor'. Sure, if you were in the white man's world, but when you lived with the Iroquois, performing tasks like that meant something entirely different culturally.

Abbie rose to her feet, looking at scribbled notes in her hand. "You are part Iroquois yourself, right? And you know Jennifer Aiennatha, the medicine woman of the village where you and corporal Arlington both lived, right? A medicine woman or man, next to the tribe's chieftain, are the two individuals responsible for informing newcomers of clan tradition and making sure those rules are upheld."

Defense rose to his feet. "Is there a question in there somewhere, Your Honor?"

"Withdrawn." Abbie raised a hand, thought for a moment, reframing her question. "When you arrived at the village did you meet the chief and the medicine woman, Jennifer Aiennatha?"

Adam Barefoot was already looking slightly uncomfortable. "Yes."

"And both of them are responsible for upholding tribal traditions, right?"

Now he was almost squirming. "Yes."

Abbie leaned forward. "So, Mr. Barefoot, you were aware that helping an unmarried woman of the Haudenosaunee—that's what the Iroquois call themselves—with things like fixing roofs and digging gardens is pretty much a sign to the woman that you are interested and available?"

"But I wasn't interested. And I wasn't raised as Iroquois so I didn't know."

"And yet Medicine Woman Aiennatha must have told you. Repeatedly."

A long silence, then Adam muttered, "If she did I didn't pay attention."

Abbie put down the papers. "You say that Cameron Arlington undressed for you and suggested several ways in which both of you could reach physical fulfillment without 'doing it' the 'normal way'. You used the words hard and rough. Did she come straight out and say that she wanted you to hurt her?"

Adam stared at her. She leaned forward again, dark eyes drilling into him. "Did she? And may I remind you that you are under oath and must respond truthfully?"

"I…uh…no, not exactly, but…"

Abbie sighed. "I don't want to be indelicate, or unnecessarily graphic, but Corporal Arlington's husband, Specialist Ironknife, indicates that Corporal Arlington had not experienced physical satisfaction prior to their honeymoon at Thanksgiving. Also, Specialist Ironknife informs me that he had a run-in with you during the time he and Corporal Arlington were on the reservation, and he says you told him she was deformed and ugly. Specialist Ironknife enforced Corporal Arlington's wish not to speak to you, and on his behalf Chief Andy Lightfeather permanently banished you from Seneca Tribe's Wolf Clan lands, and threatened to have you permanently exiled from the Six Nations reservation if you didn't stop forcing your presence on her. Isn't that true?"

Adam stared at the floor and mumbled something.

"No further questions."

The judge nodded to Adam. "You may step down, Mr. Barefoot." If a person could be said to have 'fled' the witness box, it would have been Adam; he was out of the courtroom in less time than it took Clayton to breathe twice.

"The defense now calls Siobhan O'Hara to the stand."

Shock froze Clayton to his seat as the door to the courtroom opened and a young woman walked in. Fair skin and red hair and similar features proclaimed to everyone who this had to be, but the disagreeable smirk and the cynical frown were expressions that rarely ever crossed Shana's face; where on this woman it was apparently such an institution that the lines created by those expressions were permanently etched on her face. Even her smile, as she seated herself, was disagreeable.

There was a slight rustle, and Clayton leaned forward to the bench in front of him. With all the prosecution witnesses done testifying, they'd been moved from the room next door to the front bench of the courtroom, in front of him, and he saw Shana grab Snake Eyes' sleeve and forcibly yank him back down on the seat when he'd half-stood. The scarred ninja master's eyes were fixed on Shana's sister, now being sworn in on the witness stand, with implacable anger; Shana was forcibly holding him down on one side, and Cam and Charlie had quickly and smoothly exchanged seats so that Charlie could restrain Snake Eyes on the other side. Now Clayton leaned forward and said quietly, "Stand down, Master Sergeant. That's an order. We will make no scenes in this courtroom."

Snake Eyes' shoulder blades touched the back of the bench, but his shoulders themselves remained tense and angry. Clayton couldn't blame him; out of all of them, Snake Eyes had the most anger toward Shana's sister. When Shana had taken a bullet to her head years ago, Siobhan had come to visit and tried to have Doc take Shana off life support. Snake Eyes had almost literally thrown Siobhan out of the room. Since Shana wasn't married to Snake Eyes, Siobhan's wishes should have been honored as she was Shana's family, but thankfully Doc had not listened, and Shana had made a near-miraculous recovery. The incident had left a deep impression on Snake Eyes, and Clayton wondered when Shana would tell her family she was engaged and would be getting married. After that little pronouncement, one side of the O'Hara family was never again going to talk to the other side, he suspected.

"Please state your name for us, if you please."

"Siobhan O'Hara, of the Atlanta O'Haras," Siobhan said as regally as if she'd announced she was the Queen of England. "Master Sergeant Shana O'Hara is my sister. Unfortunately."

Abbie shot to her feet. "Objection, Your Honor, she is the victim's own sister and family communications should be private!"

Defense held up a hand. "I will not be bringing up any conversations that Master Sergeant O'Hara may have had with her sister. I am merely going to point out the prior occasions in which Master Sergeant O'Hara is known to have met with Damien Kennedy, several occasions of which Ms. Siobhan O'Hara was privileged to witness."

"I'll allow it, but witness's testimony will be limited in scope only to meetings between the witness and the defendant. Proceed."

"The first time Mr. Kennedy and my sister met was on the occasion of her graduating law school and starting to practice law," Siobhan said, her disagreeable expression slightly less disagreeable at the moment; for those of the Joes who knew her, knew about her from listening to Shana gripe about her sister, it was evident that Siobhan was very much enjoying being the center of attention with all eyes on her. Not even Shana and Snake Eyes glowering at her from the front seats of the prosecution's gallery could dampen her obvious enjoyment of the spotlight, however temporary. "Shana was going to be joining a very prestigious law firm in Atlanta, one of the youngest lawyers they'd ever hired, and they threw a business mixer to introduce her to some of their clients so she could start making contacts in their client community."

You mean her firm wanted to see her rubbing elbows with the 'right' people, and having a pretty vivacious red-head to charm the rich old men into hiring their firm just to see more of those long legs wouldn't have hurt either, Clayton thought grimly to himself. Although the way one looked was only supposed to be important to industries like acting and modeling, even in the business world if you had two candidates with the same qualifications but one was more attractive, the attractive one would get the business every time. And with Shana being touted as the bright future of the law firm, and being propped up and dusted off to serve as the public face of the company, had Shana stayed the firm would have been one of the richest and most successful in Atlanta.

Thank goodness Shana never tolerated being used. Clayton could well see her being bored out of her mind with law work, her intelligence and keen mind and athleticism wasted in a life of routine paperwork and rote memorization. And Snake Eyes would never have found the love of his life…and Shana likely wouldn't have either. Shana was wasted on law.

"The next time Shana met Damien, it was at the Governor's ball right after his inauguration in Atlanta. Shana was home on leave, and someone from her old law firm invited her to attend; she brought her boyfriend with her, as I remember, but he was too busy staring at my legs and flirting with me to pay much attention to her. I saw her several times talking to Mr. Kennedy." The smile Siobhan sent Kennedy's way was so simperingly sweet it would have made a cat sick. Clayton felt his blood sugar rise just seeing that saccharine smile.

And beside him, Duke stiffened in outrage, and Clayton grinned. Duke had been the one Shana took with her, but from what he'd heard from a mess-hall discussion between Duke and Shana earlier when she'd found out she had a picture taken at that Governor's ball, Duke hadn't spent the evening flirting with Siobhan, he'd spent the evening trying to either get away from her or get so toasted that he wouldn't even notice her.

"…so while she is my sister, and I do love her dearly, I simply cannot, in all fairness, consider her as completely blameless in all of this. She's brought different men to meet the family on leaves and holidays, and her current interest, her fellow Master Sergeant, has taken her off to wherever private hideaway they have, and it's no secret that she's attended practically every formal function that we, as the Atlanta O'Haras, have an obligation to attend whenever she's on leave. She is most definitely looking for a husband and I have no doubt that Mr. Kennedy has become the target of her machinations even though he has made it clear he is not interested in her."

"Objection! Speculation!" Abbie protested.

"Sustained. Keep it only to factual items, Ms. O'Hara."

"No further questions."

Abbie rose to her feet. "Ms. O'Hara. You knew nothing about this case until a week ago, when Master Sergeant O'Hara contacted you after finding and old photograph with a man she recognized as the defendant but could not personally remember ever having met. At that time you didn't know your sister was involved with the case. What made you decide to come here to testify on behalf of the defense?"

"I have known Mr. Kennedy personally for a while and while I love my sister, I simply couldn't stand by and watch her ruin his life with her vindictiveness. She's always wanted to be the center of attention, since she and I were both young; she excelled in everything she tried so as to be the center of attention, and had terrible temper tantrums when she wasn't. Her engagement to her current boyfriend—which we just learned about—is most likely just for show, just for the court, because she hasn't told any of us about it." A petulant whine. "So she's just engaged for the trial and after it's over she's going to go on with her attempts to be the attention-seeking vixen she is."

"If what Master Sergeant O'Hara seeks is attention, then why would she have chosen the Army? Right now she is a valued and irreplaceable member of her unit, but in the beginning she would have been just another grunt, just another soldier. She was the center of attention at her law firm, being invited to board meetings and client dinners before she'd even progressed to the level where she had her own office. Her law firm was using her as their public face, their spokesperson. She was getting plenty of media attention then, plenty of invitations to society functions, and getting paid more than as a junior lawyer than she is getting even now as a decorated Master Sergeant in the US Army. If what she truly sought was attention, she could have stayed at the law firm, garnered plenty of it and pay commensurate with the exposure, and never endured the hardships and privations of a soldier."

The defense lawyer opened his mouth, presumably to protest at the lack of a question, but Abbie held up a hand. "Withdrawn. No further questions."

The judge sighed. "Let's recess for lunch. Court is adjourned until this afternoon." And as soon as he said that, Shana was out of the bench she sat in and heading for the courtroom doors through which Siobhan had disappeared.