I hope this chapter is okay, it's been difficult to write. Thank you for your reviews, they mean a lot xx
Danny watched Clara pace up and down the corridor before stopping her eventually in her tracks. She sighed, hugging in to him. "It's okay to be nervous," he told her. She hadn't slept all night, Danny had slept a little but as soon as it was obvious she was struggling he'd sat up with her.
"I don't want to see him Danny, I can't," she was shaking now and he took her hands to hold them.
"You can, you can do this. You don't even have to talk today, just be there. I'll be in there too, you can look up whenever you need to. Everyone understands this is difficult for you, they all know that.
"Sorry to interrupt, it's time to go in," they both looked around to see Dan, Clara's lawyer, standing behind her. "Mr Pink you know where to go?" Danny nodded and looked back to Clara.
"You're going to be alright, I promise," he kissed her softly and quickly. "Be brave, I know more than anyone how strong you are." Danny looked her straight in the eyes, rubbing her shoulder gently before letting go and walking off. Clara watched him go until he was out of sight and then turned back to Dan. "Okay, let's do this."
It was a weird experience to walk into court. There were more people there than she thought there would be, but she could see Danny straight away which calmed her a little - nobody else mattered. Her heart was beating strongly in her chest as she took her position and sat down. Today was simple, it was an outlining of the case, a couple of witnesses. Danny didn't have to speak, she didn't have to speak, Fraser wasn't speaking either, but he was still there. She could see him in the corner of her eye - she tried to look away but that was almost impossible most of the time.
The case started, both sides putting forward their information. Clara didn't know whether to laugh or cry at the defence's case, her lawyer had said they had nothing but what they were coming out with was so convincing. It hurt, hearing them make up all this stuff about how she'd treated everyone after Tom's death and how it had upset Fraser to see what she was doing. She kept glancing over to Danny who seemed to be getting increasingly angry with them, but still managed to smile at her reassuringly.
When the day ended Clara couldn't get out fast enough, ignoring Danny when he asked how she was. They rode home in silence, Clara staring out of the window. When they got in the house Danny shut the door and watched as Clara kicked her shoes off and walked into the dining room, immediately sitting down in front of her pile of coursework essays and opening her laptop.
"Clara no, you don't need to do this tonight," he sighed, walking to the doorway of the room.
"I do, this is their coursework Danny it needs marking," she replied. "You can put the kettle on if you want to be helpful, and don't you dare make any comments about how you don't have any coursework to mark"
"No I don't, but I have plenty of mock exams which I delegated between my cover and the rest of the staff because I knew this week I wouldn't have the time or the energy," he told her.
"Mock exams don't go towards their final grade, these are important, I'm not leaving this to anyone else it's not fair on them, I abandoned them enough recently," Clara didn't look up, reading through an essay in front of her.
"You have to think about yourself Clara," Danny walked over, placing a hand on her shoulder. She shrugged it off, looking round.
"I am thinking about myself Danny, this is me taking my mind off what's going on, stopping myself from going mad thinking about it all so please just give me a break. Go make tea, dinner, whatever you want to do but just let me mark a few essays," Clara told him, looking away and back to her work.
Danny wasn't going to argue any further, not for now. He left the room, going through to the kitchen to put the kettle on and phone Adrian as he'd promised he would do.
"How's she coping?" Adrian asked once they'd got passed the hellos.
"Not well, she wouldn't talk to me after and as soon as we got home she sat down to work and nothing I say is going to stop that. She's upset, maybe scared, I don't know." Danny sighed, holding the phone between his ear and shoulder while he poured the kettle.
"It's not overly surprising I suppose, it's the way she copes - work is how she copes, it's how she's always coped. It'll be difficult to break her out of it, maybe for now you just need to let her. I tried to offer to take some work off her but she didn't want to know, she loves her classes too much to let them down. Stay with her, make sure she doesn't work too late or get sick. Just let her do what she needs to," Adrian explained.
Danny finished making the tea up and leant back against the side, "yeah… thanks Adrian, I'll see you tomorrow I suppose?"
"See you there, give Clara my love." They hung up and Danny picked up the mugs, going back through to Clara.
"Tea," he placed it down on the table beside her, "I'm gonna make dinner, what do you want?" he sat down briefly next to her.
"I don't know what we have in, you can pick. I'm currently reading a slightly strange account of Macbeth…" she chuckled, "a 15 year old's imagination is something to be admired sometimes." Danny smiled at the sight of her laughing.
"They are a little strange at times. Alright I'll go sort food, you gonna take a break when we eat?" Clara shrugged and Danny decided not to question any further for now.
She did take a break in the end, but it wasn't very long. Danny tried to talk to her but she wasn't having any of it and he had to give up, eventually sitting out with her in the dining room doing some lesson planning that didn't really need doing. He would glance up occasionally and she would still be reading, noting, grading. Time was going on by and it was getting late, Danny knew she was tired, he could see it. "Come on let's get up to bed, you've been doing that for hours," he took her hand, "come on babe."
Clara didn't reply, groaning as she found yet another grammatical error in this essay, "I've spent hours drilling this into her and yet I've still reading the wrong 'there'. I'll get there one day," she chuckled, continuing through the essay.
"Clara don't ignore me," he tried again and Clara slammed her pen down and looked up at him.
"I'm busy Danny! Go to bed if you're tired," she told him firmly," I have things to do," she picked her pen back up and got writing.
"You're shattered, how can you mark important essays in this state?" he stood up, "and we have another early start, Adrian's giving evidence tomorrow."
"Don't you think I know that?! Just leave me alone Danny!" she told him and he gave up, shrugging and going up to their room.
It was an hour or so before the bedroom door opened. Danny was still awake, but he kept his eyes closed and didn't turn around. She climbed into bed, slipping her arms around him. Danny didn't move, trying to keep up the act of sleeping.
"I know you're still awake," she kissed his shoulder, "I'm sorry, I know you're just looking out for me, I just don't know how to react this week." Danny turned around to face her, taking her hand between them.
"I know this isn't easy for you, it's not easy for any of us, but we have to get through. Once this week is over he'll be gone from our lives, we can move on. We'll celebrate, but we just have a few days to get through," he told her, kissing her forehead. "I love you so much," he told her and Clara nodded, letting Danny move closer to hold her as she started to fall asleep, "I'll always be here to catch you when you fall," he whispered in her ear before she dropped off.
Danny couldn't sleep that night, he just watched her, thinking about how difficult the next day in court was going to be. The defence were giving their case, but they didn't really have much in the way of witnesses and it was therefore highly likely that Adrian would be up before the end of the day. It would mean Clara hearing about how distressed he had been, how they'd found out. Wednesday was going to be even worse - the police on the case were speaking and then it would probably be his turn, and then there was Thursday - her go. He didn't want to see her reliving it, he hated seeing her in pain.
She looked so peaceful asleep, her hair draping over her face, curled up into him as she took shallow breaths in her dreams. Occasionally she would breathe deeper, move a little, he could see her smile as she slept. She was perfect and he couldn't wait to get back to normal with her, he had so much planned to celebrate.
When morning rolled around he got up and dressed before she woke, going and making tea before coming back up and sitting back on the bed beside her so he would be there when she woke. Her eyelids flickered open revealing her beautiful shining eyes staring up at him, a small smile on her face.
"You slept well," he kissed her head gently. "Tea's on the side, we still have a little bit of time."
Clara stared at him for a few moments, seeing the tiredness in his face, "you didn't sleep," she observed.
"I had a lovely night watching you, don't you worry," he smiled, grabbing his tea, "don't worry, I'm fine. You want something to eat?"
"I'm actually starving," she chuckled, "could you sort something while I shower?"
"Of course, I'll see you downstairs," he kissed her quickly before grabbing his mug and heading out to the kitchen.
When Clara appeared downstairs there were pancakes and fruit waiting on the table, she looked rather shocked, not expecting this. "This looks amazing," she told him, sitting down at the table, starting to tuck in, "it tastes amazing too," she added with a full mouth. Danny laughed, joining her at the table.
"You look gorgeous today, you're not trying to pull the judge are you?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.
"He is kinda good looking," Clara grinned, "luckily for you, he's probably only an 8 out of 10," she shrugged before taking another mouthful.
"Oh yeah, and what does that make me?" he asked, taking a sip of his tea.
"Mmmm an 8.5? Maybe a 9 at a stretch," she replied and quickly dodged a flying grape. "You know you're always a 10 to me," Clara grinned. "Thank you for all this, it's made me feel so much better about today."
"I'm glad, that was my aim." he smiled and they both finished eating up. Danny cleared the table, putting the plates and cutlery in the dishwasher. "Ready to go?"
"As I'll ever be," she replied, slipping her shoes on and off they went.
Danny kept his eyes on Clara all the way through the defence's case, he couldn't believe the rubbish they were spouting. Clara on the other hand spent a lot of it looking down at her hands, playing with her engagement ring and trying to pretend she wasn't hearing what they were saying. It seemed to go on for ages, longer than they'd expected, but before they knew it the time had come for Adrian to come up.
"You're a friend of Clara's is that correct?" the defence's lawyer asked.
"Yes, we've been friends for many years now since she started working at Coal Hill," Adrian confirmed.
"And you were around after her late fiancé's death?" Adrian confirmed this too. "So you are aware of her out of character and frankly quite deep reaction to this?"
"Clara reacted as anyone would when they've suddenly lost the person they were soon to marry," Adrian replied.
"But you know how she treated Frances during the time after Tom's death?" Adrian could already feel himself getting angry as he saw how they were going.
"We were all on the wrong end of her temper at times, but she was never violent and always just genuinely upset, Frances was no different and he was actually a great help to her for a while," he wasn't going to lie about that.
The questioning continued, Adrian explained what he'd known about Frances' contact with Clara and how they had led up to the events being discussed. He told them how he'd gone round to Danny's and driven him to the house.
"How would you describe Clara's state of mind when you first saw her after they came out of the house?" Clara's lawyer was questioning him now.
"She was scared, no, terrified. She was visibly shaking and didn't want to be alone. Whatever happened in there, he really hurt her both emotionally and a little physically," he told him. The memory of her appearing from that house, clinging to Danny as if her life depended on it - maybe it did.
"You didn't go in the house yourself though?" he asked.
"No, that was for Danny - her fiancé - not me. He was who Clara needed to see at that point, reminding her what she has now. Frances always struck me as the manipulating sort when I did know him, I just had a feeling he would have tried to make her feel guilty for moving on…" Adrian looked down briefly before looking back up.
"So you didn't get on with him?"
"I wouldn't say that, we were civil but he wasn't my biggest fan because he always believed I was after Clara and trying to steal her from Tom," Adrian explained, "but at the same time if we were in the same room with Clara we would be civil. He never did anything awful then."
"I understand. So you do believe he Frances is capable of doing as he is accused?"
"I don't need to believe, I saw. But yes, I do. He was always protective of his brother as all brothers should, but he took this too far. Tom wouldn't have wanted this." Adrian finished. At that point he was asked to step down.
The judge announced the end of the session and they were finally able to leave. Clara met Adrian outside before Danny had arrived and hugged him tight. "Thank you," she told him, "you were really good."
"I'm sorry it upset you," he replied, returning the hug.
"It's alright, it's what has to happen, I have to go through it," she smiled a little as they stepped back.
"You seem a lot better than Danny described you yesterday," he replied.
"He did a pretty good job of preparing me for today, but he's up tomorrow…" she sighed softly, "I know he's scared but he won't admit it to me because he's so worried about me."
Adrian nodded, "he loves you, he's bound to be worried. Let him be, let him worry, it seems to suit him well and - well - evidently it suits you well too," Adrian smiled, looking round as Danny appeared. It wasn't difficult to spot how upset he was. "I need to get home, see you tomorrow," they both said their goodbyes before Danny put his arms around Clara as Adrian walked off.
"Let's go home," Clara whispered and they both moved together to head out.
They were home before they knew it, shutting the door in relief. "Dinner?"
"Take out?" Clara replied. "I really just want to relax on the sofa tonight," she told him, slipping her shoes off.
"That sounds perfect, give me 5 minutes I need to be more comfortable," he replied, "you pick the takeout, I'm sure you know what I'll have." Danny smiled, kissing her head quickly before jogging upstairs.
Clara went through, opening the drawer with the menus in and grabbing the Indian out, phoning them up to order. Once that was done, she looked around but realised Danny hadn't reappeared. "Babe are you okay?" she called up from the bottom of the stairs, but didn't get a response. She guessed he had probably decided to shower, he generally did after work anyway. "Dinner will be here in 30 minutes," she called up again and went back into the kitchen, grabbing a bottle of wine and two glasses to take through to the living room. She sat down, flicking the TV on and waiting for him to reappear.
Half an hour passed and the doorbell rang. Clara jumped up, looking upstairs, a little confused, but going to the door - grabbing the money on the way - and answering the door. She paid for the food, bringing it inside and putting it down, jogging upstair. "Danny? Food's here - what's taking you so long?" she pushed the bedroom door open and looked inside. "Babe no," she ran over, kneeling beside the bed and taking his hand where he sat on the edge.
"I'm sorry, I'm really sorry I thought I'd only need 5 minutes," he told her as Clara wiped her eyes. "I can't stop replaying the image of what I saw when I walked in… it's stupid, I didn't go through that - you did - I should be the one supporting you."
"We support each other remember? We're in this together. I don't expect you to be okay, you have to stand up there tomorrow and talk about what you saw and that's not going to be easy for me to hear, but it'll be even more difficult for you to say. I'd been so worried about this trial but today I realised that I have the most wonderful people around me, supporting me, and that whatever the hell Fraser has done he's going down for and all we have to do it get through a couple more days, then it's over forever," she sat up beside him. "Remember when we were on camp and I was talking to Alice at the zip wire?"
"You told her a story about your Mum," he replied and Clara nodded.
"Whatever you're scared of, it's not as strong as the love I have for you, and wherever you are, whatever you're doing, my love will always be stronger than any fear," she repeated her mother's words, squeezing Danny's hands, "that's not just true about my Mum and me, that's you and me too. I love you so much, far more than I'm scared of Fraser, far more than I'm scared of this trial, far more than anything. Tomorrow when you're standing up there I don't want you to remember me in that moment, remember me the first time we met, shouting at you in the corridor, or the time we first woke up together, or that final dinner on holiday. Tell them the facts yes, but don't think too hard about it," she smiled, leaning her head on his shoulder.
"I really love you, you know that right?" Danny kissed her head and put his arms around her, "let's go eat," he smiled and let go, standing up and heading downstairs.
Danny stood in the dock the following day. The police had done their bit, they'd been through all the evidence and the timings. They'd listened to every detail about her car, the blood on the steering wheel, the drag marks on the seat. They talked about the house, how the door to the bedroom was used to lock her in and the DVD playing when they walked in. They'd found blood on the wall too, where Clara had described him pushing her against the wall. They showed photos of the grip marks on her wrists, the bruise on her neck. It was horrible to watch, to hear about. Clara was looking at him now, nodding, telling him silently that this would be okay.
"Mr Pink, Fraser visited your house the day before the incident?" the defence's lawyer spoke first, "what happened that morning?"
"I didn't know him at the time, he knocked on the door and told me Clara had been cheating on me. I tried to defend her, I told him that she would never do it, asked who he was, but he didn't say. He hit me, on the cheek, threw the envelope at me and walked off." Danny recalled the visit nervously.
"And the envelope, that contained the picture we see on the screen now?" he asked and Danny looked up, nodding.
"Yes," he confirmed.
"And this photo, it does appear to be a quite compromising, wouldn't you say?" Danny sighed, hating where this was heading.
"Yes, but it's not," he told them, "it's just a friend helping her. She was very upset, this whole situation was getting on top of her."
"That's what she told you?" he asked.
"Yes. And it's what her friend confirmed, and what Adrian knows to be true - as you heard yesterday," he pointed out.
"All I'm saying is that was cannot be certain that this is the truth?" he questioned.
"Objection," Clara's lawyer stood up, "I struggle to see how this line of questioning is relevant to the case at hand, we are not accusing Miss Oswald of adultery."
"Upheld, please move on Mr Taylor," the judge told them.
"So on the day you did not see Miss Oswald in the morning?"
"No, I stayed elsewhere. When I got to work Adrian spoke to me and put me in my place, I went to speak to Clara and it was then that we realised she had never arrived at work," he explained. "I went straight home, calling the police first, Adrian came too."
They went through it all, every fine detail of that day from the moment he got home to the moment they got Clara home. He wasn't quite sure how he got through in one piece but he did, and the day was finally done.
"You were kind of sexy up there," Clara told him in the car, "you did great baby," she told him.
"I did it for you," he replied, pulling into the drive.
"I know, that's why I love you," she smiled and kissed him once he'd parked, "one more day, one more day and the hard work is done."
"Yes, one more day…"
But they both knew it would be the hardest one of the lot.