(Cody P.O.V)
In the days following, I wondered how to tell Bailey about the court case being set against me. Meanwhile, she was struggling to find a way to help Eva. Everywhere she turned, doors were shutting in her face because people didn't want to hear about child abuse and domestic violence. Each night, she came home almost in tears and would barely speak to me or the kids, instead sitting in the study, searching every inch of the internet for some loophole to help her case.
Of course, when the court notice came for me, I couldn't hide it from her anymore but she wasn't angry. She simply stated that she would support me no matter what happened. And so, I finally found myself standing in front of the mirror in our bathroom on the day I was due in court.
"Cody, you're going to be late." Bailey said, coming in and standing behind me.
"I know. I'm leaving now. Wish me luck." I sighed and turned to kiss her.
"I know you'll be fine, sweetie. We all have faith in you." She told me and I grinned.
"I needed that." I disentangled myself from her and went downstairs, kissing Kimberlee goodbye and waving at Karlee and Lauchie before climbing into my car and heading off down the road, ready to face whatever my future held.
(Bailey P.O.V)
I worried about Cody and what might happen at his court hearing but as soon as I stepped through the doors at work, I knew I had other things I had to worry about. All my thoughts about Cody were pushed back and I went to check on Eva. I found her curled up in her bed, fast asleep. Gently, I woke her up, wincing inwardly as she flinched upon being woken.
"Bailey, can I have a word with you outside?" My colleague, Meredith asked, poking her head in through the door.
"Sure. I'll be back in a minute, Eva." I told the girl who nodded as she focused on sitting up and getting comfortable. Heading out the door, I turned to Meredith with my eyebrow raised in a silent question.
"I got a call from Eva's parents last night. They're not willing to go along with the CPS thing."
"That doesn't make sense. Surely it doesn't matter if the parents want to or not when it involves child abuse." I shook my head.
"I know. But apparently it does." Meredith shrugged and I let out a groan.
"I've only got a few more days before I have to release her to her family. What am I going to do? There's no way I can let her go back. She'll just end up severely damaged or worse."
"I'll keep looking but for now, just do what you can to help her heal. If it comes to having to send her back to her parents, it'll be better in the long run if we can send her back healed from this time." I nodded and Meredith turned on her heel, walking away. Sighing, I rubbed my eyes with the heel of my hand, groaning in frustration. Why was this so hard? After a moment, I headed back into Eva's room to finish my inspection of her injuries. The bruises on her back seemed to be healing, some of them turning yellow in the process. The welts on her back were also healing nicely and I quickly put some fresh cream on them to help the process.
"How are you feeling today, Eva?" I asked her.
"Much better today. I think the cream on my back is helping lots." She replied, smiling at me.
"That's good. Now, I just need to take you for another x-ray to check that your leg is healing properly and then you can have some breakfast, okay?" She nodded and I helped her into a waiting wheelchair, pushing her through the halls.
(Cody P.O.V)
I leant against the wall outside the court room and sighed. My lawyer followed me out and stood quietly nearby.
"I can't believe it." I said finally.
"They seem to be firm in the belief that it something you've done that's caused Mr. Finchley to die." My lawyer, David said.
"I don't know what could have gone wrong in my part. I'm always OCD about everything that happens in surgery."
"I know that and you know that but they don't want to believe that. Are you ready to go back in. they're bringing out evidence next."
"Yeah. I guess so. Let's get this done with." I followed David back inside and sat to wait as the Finchley family's' lawyer brought in several pieces of evidence. Most of it was statistical stuff from the hospital and details of medications given to the patient. The judge looked over and asked me to check the details so I made my way across and began to look at all the details that had been scribbled down.
"Hang on, this isn't right." I said, pointing to a spot on one of the pages.
"Mr. Martin, is everything okay?" The judge asked, leaning over to look closer at the pages.
"No. This document here has the wrong prescription on it."
"Can you prove it?" Mr. Finchley's lawyer asked, a smug smile beginning to play on the corner of his lips.
"Actually, I can. We had a case a while back at the hospital where a patient tried to sue the hospital for prescribing them with the wrong medication. At the time we couldn't do anything to prove otherwise but since then, we've been told to keep records of prescriptions. Daniel, if I may, could you pass me my laptop?"
"Of course." Without hesitation, he handed me the laptop case and I quickly logged on, scrolling through until I found Mr. Finchley's file.
"Here I have a copy of the prescription I gave him at the hospital." I showed the judge, making sure I pointed out the date and then showed him the document I'd been looking at previously.
"You are correct. Now, as a doctor, could you tell us whether this would have had any effect on the patient in question?"
"Well, as well as technically being highly illegal, this particular drug would have severe effects on the health of the patient. On a completely healthy person, there may be no noticeable effects but because Mr. Finchley was ill, it would have essentially worked as a poison." A gasp went through the courtroom.
"So you're saying that Mr. Finchley's family essentially killed him?" The judge questioned and I nodded.
"Yes."
"Well, in this case, we shall call a three week suspension of the hearing in order to figure out what to do from here." The gavel hit the desk and a muted chatter rose up from the watching crowd. Daniel quickly escorted me from the room and to my car.
"I'll be in contact in the next few days." He told me just before I pulled out of the parking spot and headed home where I immediately collapsed onto the couch.
(Bailey P.O.V)
I got home late that evening after picking up Kimberlee, Karlee and Lauchie from the Tipton only to find Cody sprawled on the couch, staring into space. Clearly the day hadn't gone as planned. Being as quiet as possible, I led the kids down to the basement to watch a movie before heading back up to start on dinner.
When I'd finished, I went into the living room, going up to Cody.
"Cody? Dinner's ready."
"Huh?" He blinked a few times before actually looking at me.
"Dinner's ready." I repeated and he sighed.
"Sorry, sweetie. How long have you been home?"
"Just under an hour. The kids are downstairs. I just thought I'd let you think over everything."
"Thanks, Bails. You're the best." He kissed me gently before wandering off to collect the kids. Sighing, I went back into the kitchen to bring the food out to the table. I could hear Kimberlee laughing at something Cody had said and it wasn't long before the four of them started up the stairs and we were all sitting around the table as a family. From an outsider's view, we were a perfect family. No-one else knew what we were currently dealing with.
A/N: Sorry for the long wait guys, I've been so busy lately with SACs and our school production of Grease (BTW, if you want a sneak peak, follow the link on my profile from when we had Fifi and Dave from 101.9 Fox FM join us). Unfortunately there is going to be another long wait for the next chapter because I now have only four weeks of school left as well as exams after that and then I'm going to Europe till early Jan. While I'm away I will try to write some more but I don't know if I'll be able to post so you may be lucky and get several chapters at once.
Anyway, thanks for all the support on this story, you guys are awesome! :)
~Bee