In Any Event 14
A/N- A little more Kate and Caroline as requested. x
Caroline was unable to focus, preoccupied, distracted, worried, unsettled. She felt Kate moving against her and she fell into the beginnings of her need, however, following the first promising moments, she wasn't getting anywhere, not fast enough, not hard enough to drive all else from her mind. She couldn't see Kate, nor Kate her, but Kate felt her frustration and brought herself up from beneath the blanket, up to cover Caroline's naked body with her own, slightly moist with heat, Kate caught Caroline's gaze in hers and suddenly Caroline was panting, holding Kate's weight against her as she quickened the pace and their mouths crashed together over and again.
Kate pushed her hand to cover Caroline's mouth as the woman beneath her arched and let out a sharp relieved cry.
"Sssshhhh!" Kate urged through a laughing smile. "You'll wake Mya." Her long fingers danced delicately over Caroline's lips and the Doctor nipped playfully at the smallest digit.
"Sorry, I wasn't thinking about My..." Caroline stopped, considering. "All I could think about was you." She admitted happily. Pleased that no matter what was going on around them, Kate could always find her, always manage to take her away, if only for a moment.
Caroline traced a finger over the indentation of her own teeth in the flesh at Kate's shoulder.
" I'm sorry. I suppose I had a lot of built up...tension?" She drawled, a sly smile.
Kate nodded, her face serious for a moment. She had watched carefully the effect that Gillian's case was having on Caroline, she had been prowling around the house like a caged lion for days now and she had been too wound up for Kate to get anywhere near her. Now here she was, tamed.
"If things don't go the way we hope..." Kate pondered.
"They will, I'm sure of it, they must." Caroline said automatically.
"And if they don't...whats going to happen to her? To everyone else. You must have thought about it, discussed it with Natalie? You don't have to protect me Caroline, she's not my family." Kate shrugged.
"She may well go to prison, it wouldn't be forever but it would be long enough, Raff would have to sell the farm. He could go and live with Mum and Alan, he'd have Calamity with him, at least part time, he and Ellie seem to share the care equally." Caroline explained. It all seemed very simple. Life would just carry on without Gillian. It was so upsetting to think that someone could be removed from their small family unit with so little impact.
Caroline wondered, if she had been in Gillian's place, would anyone really notice? Would they miss her? Or would they deal with it and move on, the way people do. The boys were already making their own lives. Would Kate find someone else? Would Mya forget her? Caroline rolled onto her side bringing Kate with her and then she moved on top, pinning Kate to the bed.
"After this, I want you to move in here, you and Mya, I want you both here with me, no more waiting. No more wasting time." Caroline announced. "I know we are going slow and really it hasn't been that long, but I already feel like you are supposed to be here. When I come home to an empty house, It just isn't right anymore, there's something missing."
"We miss you too." Kate agreed, pushing a lock of hair behind Caroline's ear.
"Mya needs security, she needs all of her things in one place. We searched all over yesterday for her Minnie Mouse "jig puzz" before I realised we had taken it back to your place last week and..." Caroline paused mid rant to sneak a peek at how Kate was taking all of this. "Maybe I shouldn't be asking now, in the midst of all this...?"
"I think you're right." Kate announced. "We are spending more and more time here, Mya is already attached, to you, to Lawrie, your Mum! I don't think that splitting our time between the two houses is really about protecting her anymore..."
"Is it about protecting you?" Caroline guessed suddenly.
Kate seemed to consider the question. "Perhaps, a little. But it wouldn't really make things that much easier..." Kate sighed sadly. "If anything goes wrong now..."
"It won't!" Caroline promised, a hand either side of Kate's face, forcing her to look, to believe."I won't let it! I swear."
Kate looked adoringly back at Caroline, the determination in her face, when she got like this it made Kate feel young again, so hopeful and certain, just starting out, non of the mistakes of the past enshrouding them.
"Alright!" Kate surrendered at last. "Mya would love it...I would love it." Kate replied feeling a little giddy and kissing her lover reassuringly. "Just to be sure, you haven't got a secret from your past that you could possibly have to stand trial for in the future do you?" Kate checked.
Caroline put a finger to her chin and looked to be thinking back. "No. My only husband is still very much alive and kicking, although, there have been moments..." She joked.
Kate grinned at that thought and pushed herself up to whisper in Caroline's ear. "Somehow, Mya still seems to be asleep."
Caroline's brow perked up, she listened to the quiet for a moment, just to be sure. "She does! What did you have in mind Ms Mckenzie?"
"Well, I have always been much quieter than you." She punctuated with a finger tip to Caroline's nose.
"Really?" Caroline answered, taking up the challenge at once.
Xxxx
Caroline had caught sight of the broad shoulders on the landing of the first floor of the court building as she climbed the steps, she recognised the back of his head and then his face as he glanced around and pretended not to notice her arrival.
"He's here." Caroline muttered to Kate, who looked to where Caroline had been glaring.
"We knew he would be." Kate reminded. "We still don't know what he'll say." She added hopefully.
"Hmmm, that lump!" Celia said loudly. "I'm surprised he can string a sentence together, I can't imagine he'll have much to add to the proceedings."
"What sweets have you got today?" Kate asked, slipping her arm through, a slightly taken aback, Celia's arm.
"Bon bons." She replied, being steered away from the prosecution team.
"Ooh, lemon? Strawberry?" Kate quizzed.
"I hope you don't have any fillings." Was Celia's retort, knowing she was being managed but allowing it this time.
Caroline followed after them wrestling with her the hem of her jacket, as with her feelings of anxiety.
Xxx
"And you thought at the time of your brothers death that the circumstances were suspicious?"
"Yeh, I did. Eddie weren't the type to kill himself. He was tough, he didn't get depressed, he didn't worry about things..." Robbie went on.
"And the police agreed that there were enough grounds for an investigation?" The lawyer posed.
"They did but, I don't think they were serious enough about it, I suppose they felt sorry for her, didn't think she had it in her, she had a baby. I think they just went through the motions." Robbie suggested. "I still believed for years that he hadn't done it, he hadn't meant to do that and I always suspected that she had something to do wy'it."
"Until when?" The young man urged.
"A couple of years ago. I always kept up with our Raff. Eddie would had wanted that, and a boy needs a man in his life. After Eddie...well, he were the only family I had so...he means the world to me." Robbie shrugged in his neatly pressed suit, he looked uncomfortable as he thought of his nephew. "then a couple of years ago...I was trying to let by gones be by gones, for Raff's sake, he was getting a bit older, noticing the tension. So I gave her another chance. We started seeing each other. But even that were never straight forward, nothing ever is wi'her, she messed me about. We were on and off and then I found out she'd been lying about other things as well."
"What kind of things?" The prosecution asked.
"She was shagging a young lad with a fiancee, then she shagged her own sister in laws husband!" He boomed in vindication.
Caroline's eyes flew to the Jury. One woman shook her head and a couple of others looked on, shocked.
"Then there were the baby..." Robbie added more quietly.
"What baby is this?" The lawyer asked, already beginning to look smug.
Natalie shot up out of her seat. "My Lady, I fail to see the relevance of this line of questioning other than character assassination."
But Robbie went on as if nothing had happened.
"She got rid of a baby, my baby. We were only 15. I never knew until then, when I started knocking about with her again. I couldn't believe it. She didn't tell me herself...She never said a word." He aimed his words at the Judge this time.
The Judge nodded to Natalie. "Keep to the point." She warned the prosecution.
Celia shifted uncomfortably in her seat. The words were out, it was too late. No one could un-hear it.
"Mr Greenwood , Could you tell the Jury exactly what happened the day that you say the defendant confessed to you that she had, in fact, killed your brother?"
"Yes. I can. We'd been getting on well. I'd spent the night at the farm, cooked for us. The next morning we were talking, having a cup of tea, planning to go and see a film later. I just thought it seemed right, no big gesture, I just said to her...why don't we get wed? We could have this all the time."
"And her reply?"
"She just got up, laughed it off, wouldn't hardly look at me. Said, how would it look to people, marrying one brother then the next." He shrugged and continued. "I said, who were looking? She went quiet, started to make an excuse about needing to go over to her Dad's, she'd forgot, I better leave. So I refused. I said once and for all I want to know the truth. What the hell goes on in that head?" Robbie pointed at his own head and Caroline could picture him putting it to Gillian in exactly the same way.
Gillian kept her eyes fixed on her lap, she hadn't looked up since Robbie entered the courtroom.
"She said...you should know Robbie, you should know that I could never marry you, it wouldn't be right. I don't deserve it. I don't deserve to be happy, not with you." He repeated. "Then she said it...I killed him, you were right all along. I killed Eddie."
"Thank you." The gowned young man sat with a triumphant little smile.
Natalie stood now and moved to speak to Robbie with a friendly smile.
"You believed that Gillian was innocent up until that day? You said yourself you would never have gone out with her if you had held on to the belief that she killed your brother?"
"No, I wouldn't." Robbie agreed.
"You admitted that the relationship had been on and off, other men involved, a revelation about a child and yet you kept coming back for more? You must have had very strong feelings for Gillian? You wanted to marry her? You must have loved her very much?"Natalie asked.
"Yeh, I thought I did." Robbie allowed.
"It would be reasonable for her to assume that you would believe this charge about her, as you had already accused her of it on more than one occasion? And this would stop your pursuit of her, your proposals, once and for all, as you put it."
"Yes. But she didn't just make it up..." He protested.
"Did she tell you the details, what she did? Why she did it?" Natalie asked in a dramatical and curious tone.
"No, She didn't get chance, I left. I didn't want to hear more of her lies."
"And in your experience, as a police officer, have you often heard people use this phrase "I killed him." When they mean that perhaps something they have done has contributed to a death, not necessarily that their direct actions have led to a death?" Natalie suggested more seriously.
"Yes, sometimes. But that wasn't what she meant..."
"If you didn't stick around to ask her about it, how can you be sure of that?" Natalie asked.
"I could tell." Robbie said adamantly.
"You told the court that your brother would not have beaten his wife, that you never saw him hurt her? Is that correct?" Natalie changed tack.
"Yes. He didn't hit women." Robbie stated positively.
"Did you see him beat up other men?"
"Once or twice. Just some idiots in the pub." He admitted casually.
"Did you ever get into any fights in the pub Robbie?"
"No." He replied suspiciously.
"Why do you think that you were never involved in any fights and yet your brother was?" Natalie asked patiently.
"How do I know?" Robbie snapped.
"Do you think it could be something to do with your background? He was slightly older than you. Do you think he could have been more affected by the kind of life you had with your parents, before you were adopted?"
"No. I don't." Robbie snapped defensively, just as the prosecution got to his feet again.
"There was violence at home Robbie, when you were very small children?" Natalie asked gently, almost sympathetic.
The judge put her hand up to halt the imminent interruption from the prosecution, she wanted to hear the reply.
"I don't really remember, Eddie never talked about it either." Robbie dismissed.
"You are a police officer Robbie, do you often encounter people who commit abuse who come from abusive families?"
"My Lady! Leading the witness!" The young lawyer bellowed.
"It wasn't like that. Eddie wouldn't do the things she said. I would have known. I would have done something." He called out, as if trying to reach Gillian.
Gillian didn't move, didn't react.
"I admire your loyalty to your brother Robbie, if he had been as loyal to you perhaps none of us would be here right now." Natalie said as she sat down again.
Xxxx
"Caroline!"
She turned as she heard her name on the steps of the court building.
"Caroline! Hi. Is it over? I wanted to come earlier but..." John nodded his head in the direction of the buggy he pushed, complete with sleeping toddler.
"What are you doing here?" Caroline asked tiredly as she descended the last two steps and came level with him.
"I wanted to know how she was getting on, Gillian. I cared about her y'know, I do, care about her." He said honestly.
"I don't know. She's very quiet. The case is coming to an end. It could go either way at the moment." Caroline had folded her arms across her chest, just then she saw Kate and her mother coming slowly down the stairs arm in arm, She having gone ahead to get the car.
John followed her eyes and saw them too. He made his grimace a smile as the two women reached them.
"Kate. Lawrence mentioned you two were back together." John said, wanting to let them all know he hadn't been completely caught out by her appearance.
Caroline took Kate's hand and pulled her near, a united front.
"Yes, well we never should have been apart." Caroline told him but she looked at Kate.
"Hello John." Kate greeted politely.
"What's this pillock doing here?" Celia asked now, clearly feeling more inclined to dispense with the niceties.
"Checking in on how Gillian is. Apparently." Caroline told her mother.
"What? Is he writing another book? A sequel? Tell him to bugger off and mind his own business." Celia said as she brushed past him.
John's smile slipped only slightly at this, he was after all well acquainted with Celia's rebuffs.
"If you could just tell her I was asking after her?" John asked Caroline. "I hope everything goes her way, and if there is anything I can do?"
Caroline felt a stab of pity. Here she was with Kate, with her family, even though there was trouble, they faced it together. John seemed to be trying to cling to some of that. He had thrown away his place in her family, in any real family and now here he was, looking lost.
"I'll pass the message on, when I can." She told him kindly.
"Thanks." John smiled genuinely.
Kate had bent to look inside the pram at the sleeping tot. "She's lovely John, looks a little like Lawrence, don't you think?" She directed this at Caroline.
The blonde stared at the child for a moment, seeing a flash of something familiar in the shape of the face. She nodded. "A little." She agreed. "She is sweet."
Celia had moved a few steps away and now turned to watch them from a safe distance, yet it was another, more welcome face she spotted as Alan walked toward her, and now she noticed that he followed a non too happy looking Raff.
Raff walked past all of them and up the steps to where Robbie was just coming out of the building. The young man stormed up to his uncle and seized his shoulders before pushing him as hard as he could.
Alan arrived at the foot of the steps and stopped to catch his breath. "He's been reading the paper, I couldn't stop him!" He said breathlessly, to one and all.
A couple of the local journalists, two with cameras, who had ignored them as they emerged from the court, stood to attention now that Robbie had appeared and rushed closer as they saw Raffs intentions. A number of flashes lit the air somewhat prematurely, hungry for a snap of something, anything dramatic.
"It was you. That's why she's here! You said you'd get her for it one day! You just couldn't leave it alone." Raff reddened as he shouted and now as Robbie wobbled slightly before him, Raff pulled back a fist to throw at him.
"Oh, no! You don't want to do that here." John had legged it quickly up the handful of steps behind Raff in a quite uncharacteristic display of heroics. "Come on." He plead. "The last thing your mum needs is you in there with her, hey?"
He had taken Raffs fist in his hand and now they lowered it together. Robbie looked dazed as he made his way past them and down the stairs, the journalists following him and now shouting out questions. As Raff watched him go, tears of rage in his eyes, Johns daughter woke and began first to whimper, then to cry loudly as she realised she didn't recognise a single face of those gathered nearby.
Kate knelt before the little girl and tried to reassure her that her Daddy was coming back. Caroline felt the beginnings of a headache and squeezed at her temples.
Xxxx
"I really can't tell which way it's going to go." Caroline said for the third time since they had left the court. Alan and Raffs arrival had at least meant that the couple could drive back together in peace, as Celia was now heading back with the men.
Kate smiled reassuringly. "I wonder how long they will take?"
"Well, I'm not sure whats better...I mean surely its not a good sign if they come back quickly? There's obviously a lot to talk about. ...I didn't like the look of that juror in the pink. Did you see the face she made about the abortion? Probably a pro lifer, probably wants to convict her based on that alone." Caroline speculated.
"Maybe...but if that's the case I'm sure the other jury members would realise it, wouldn't they?" Kate reasoned.
"One would hope." Caroline sighed. "It's crazy, the real decision comes down to a bunch of strangers in a room, hashing it out. I mean if we get lucky and a few of them had abusive fathers, or were abused themselves they might set her free and if we get a few people who didn't like the look of her, she could be going to prison."
"I am sure they'll have to justify their decisions. Natalie's closing speech was very moving." Kate reminded. "The bit about...at best it was an accident during an argument and at worst it was an action in the heat of the moment by a woman who was being bullied and systematically abused. She was very convincing."
"She was. She's amazing. No one could have argued it better. I just...I don't know. Gillian didn't do herself any favours, and Robbie..." Caroline hit the palm of her hand against the steering wheel.
"Natalie was right, no one can know what happened in that split second, they were arguing in the barn and then his head is in the machine, who knows if it was an accident brought around by a scuffle, or whether he just lost it and let her push him in, no one can know his state of mind, he's dead. Even Gillian may not know!"
"You mean he might have let her push him in as some kind of what? last laugh? Setting her up for this?" Caroline looked skeptical.
"It's possible, if he really was that sadistic and unhappy." Kate shrugged. "Anyway, after all these years, she's not exactly a danger to anyone is she? They'd have to be crazy to convict her based on the word of a man who was clearly in love with her but couldn't have her." Kate argued.
Caroline looked Kate's way and grinned. "You make a wonderful case my darling, I would have to agree. It's a shame you're not on the jury. But I'm very glad you're on our side."
"Your side. Always." Kate corrected quickly.
Caroline let her head fall back on the rest as she pulled up to some lights, she gazed over at Kate and sighed softly. "So, how soon can you move in?" She demanded.
Xxxx
A/N- Thanks for reading. Two chapters to go. x