AN: hello lovelies! Here's the next chapter for you.
also, someone had a question about why the judge would be present in the interview... remember that Bella is still 17, which makes her a minor in the eyes of the law. Judges sometimes sit in on interviews where children are involved, particularly when it surrounds something as traumatic and sensative as this situation, to make sure that the minors are not pushed too far or mistreated. He would have been presented the evidence anyway, so it's not a breach in the legal process.
At least, that's what my judge father explained to me when i posed him a very awkward, barely sensical hypothetical about it.
Enjoy!
Aro's lawyer is a small - tiny, actually - blonde haired woman named Jane. That said, when Detective Woods calls her by her name, she insists on being referred to as "Ms Ellis." While she is actually quite a pretty lady, her face seems hardened with a malice that makes her almost unbearable to be around.
To be completely honest, nothing about her demeanor surprises me at all. Only someone like her would attempt to defend the actions of the man who took us.
We enter the room and Edward and I are directed to take two seats on one side of the table. The judge, the detective and Jane sit on the other side, Carlisle and our therapists on an ugly brown leather couch lining the side of the room. Edward snatches my hand up in his own the moment we're seated, squeezing it for a moment. Whether he's trying to reassure me, or himself, I'm not sure.
"Ok," Judge Richards begins after a long silence, "Detective Woods, you may begin first."
The detective guides us through our descriptions of being taken, and our experiences whilst in the room, and also how we've been coping with everything that happened since. He prompts for more information at a couple of points, but for the most part, just urges us to make our way through our stories at our own pace.
Edward and I speak in turns, each going through our own experiences but maintaining a mostly chronological order of events. It makes me feel uncomfortable to talk about it all in one long sitting, but I have been preparing for this for a while.
What hurts so much more is hearing Edward talking about his experiences.
While none of this information is new to me - I was there for a fair portion of it - it still cuts like a knife to hear him, particularly when he struggles over some parts of the story. I squeeze his hand, urging him on and reassuring myself at the same time.
He's safe now.
It's over.
Edward gets increasingly short in his statements, retreating into himself and getting more and more irritable as he continues, especially when talking about what we'd been through since we'd been freed. The change in his energy affects all of his, his short, almost panting breaths filling the room as his anger seems to take a visceral toll on everybody present.
By the time Detective Woods concludes his questions, Judge Richards calls for a break that we all need. Edward stands and would have pulled me from the room, if I hadn't been just as eager to get out of there as he is.
He all but runs down the hall and shoves the swinging door open with unnecessary force, pulling me down the stairs until we're standing outside, bathed in light and completely oblivious to our surroundings in the garden outside the court. He takes one, two, three deep, almost gasping breaths then wraps himself around me using almost painful force.
"That fucking sucked," he breathes into the skin of my neck.
"I know it did."
My hands move into his hair, combing through it as I try to calm him.
"It really fucking sucked."
"I know," I mumur again, noticing to my slight alarm that his body seems to be trembling. His hands move shakily up and down my back, the pressure increasing in strength as he holds me closer and closer until I can hardly breathe.
I'm about to collapse under the weight of his pain, until I hear it.
A choked sob.
Almost nothing, just a catch in his breath that I wouldn't have heard if he wasn't so close, but instantly I pull myself together because he needs me right now and I can't let him down because of my own weakness.
"Shhh, it's over now. It's all over now. I promise, it's all ok. Shh, everything's fine."
I keep talking, my breathing shallow as he uses his stronghold around my torso to lift me off the ground completely. I wrap my legs around his body, completely ignoring the fact that we're in a public place and I'm sure alarming passers by, but he turns us, placing me down on the bricked fence of the garden so that I don't have to hold myself up.
He doesn't let go of me though, just keeps his head buried in my shoulder as my hands comb through his hair and I try to use everything in me to calm him down.
"It's ok, everything's fine," I continue to babble, hoping that the sound of my voice and help to ground him like his has for me so many times in the past. Eventually, his stuttering, uneven breaths begin to regulate, and I feel him inhale deeply against my chest, and then sigh, making my skin break out in goosebumps where the warm air passes over bare skin.
He pulls back and looks at me. He's slightly flushed, a little embarrassed, and more lovely than he's ever been. I slide my hands from his hair to cup his cheeks, then pull his face down to mine for a kiss.
"I just want this to be fucking over already," he mumbles against my mouth, refusing to pull away even to speak.
"We're nearly there," I assure him, "just a few more questions and we'll be out of here."
"Thank fucking god for that."
"We can go home, sit in your room and watch movies for the rest of the day... only us."
I say this to make him feel better, but it's also just as much for my own flimsy sense of peace.
"You promise?"
His voice is near silent and he tilts his head up and down as he speaks so his lips are brushing over mine in soft passes.
"I promise. And you never know, I might let you feel me up a little bit during the movie."
His surprised laugh against my mouth makes my own tilt up in a smirk that he kisses off my face before he sighs again and lets me go.
"Alright then, let's get this bullshit overwith so we can get to the feeling."
I laugh but jump off the retaining wall, grab his hand, and we both make our way back inside.
"Ok, Ms Ellis," Judge Richards states when we file back into the room, "feel free to begin your questions."
She nods, just once, to the judge and then her eyes skim across the page as she reads through her notes. She clears her voice, and begins.
"You're a small part in a much more significant," she sneers the word in a belittling way, "case that the District Attorney's office is trying to build against my client. Did you know that?"
"No."
I would have thought that kidnapping two people wouldbe significant enough on it's own.
Edward shakes his head beside me.
"You're also the children of the District Attorney, and the main witness."
We both nod, confused as to why she's stating these obvious facts.
"So... really, it would stand to reason that you would want your fathers to be successful in their attempts at having my client indicted?"
I say nothing, confused and suddenly very nervous.
"And the men who you claim took you," she continues smoothly, "have no ties to my client other than a few phone conversations and their claims about him hiring them to abduct you."
She pauses for a moment, but Leiutenant Woods cuts her off before she can continue.
"What exactly are you implying here?"
"I'm suggesting that perhaps this whole thing was a fabrication on the part of the district attorney's office to create a legitimate case because they were unable to gather sufficient evidence to prosecute my client."
I gasp and I can almost feel the rage emanating from Edward.
"Are you fucking serious?" he roars.
Judge Richards chooses this point to intervene.
"Turn the camera off. Edward, please calm down," he pleads, to no avail.
"You're saying that we put ourselves through that shit so that an innocent man could go to prison?"
Miss Ellis shrugs slightly, completely blase despite her unbelievable accusations.
"All we have to go on are your testimonies, and some minor injuries sustained."
"That's enough, Miss Ellis," Judge Richards comes to our assistance before Edward can lose it completely.
"You're fucking right, that's enough."
"Edward," I murmur, my voice full of chastisement. I reach out and place my hand on his leg, but his snatches it up in both of his, clutching it tightly. I swear I can feel it pulsating with the white hot anger that I'm sure he's desperately fighting down.
The judge looks at Edward for a moment, then back to Ms Ellis.
"If you have questions, ask them, but I won't tolerate you trying to upset or discredit the witnesses by making these conjectures in front of them."
I'm profoundly grateful for his defence of us. Everyone is given a minute to get themselves together and the camera goes back to record the remainder of our testimonies.
From there, Miss Ellis goes into a string of more acceptable though very specific questions, some of which we're unable to answer, about the men and their actions, the timing of events, and many other minute details. I'm suspicious, wondering why all of this information is so relevant, but I answer as best I can in the hopes that I can completely destroy any argument that we did this to ourselves.
I think Edward is doing the same thing, and we both become frustrated when we're unable to answer a couple of them, wondering if it will somehow strengthen her disgusting argument.
When it's over, both of us are still clearly shaken up by what has passed.
"I'm so sorry," Detective Woods says as we walk down the hallways and towards the exit, "I had no idea she was going to do anything like that."
"It's ok," I say reflexively, and Edward says nothing, gripping my hand a little tighter in his. I dart my eyes over to look at him, but his eyes are focused straight ahead, his mouth set in a straight line.
"You both handled things absolutely perfectly," Garrett assures us, and I look over my shoulder to see Marcus and Carlisle nodding in agreement with his statement.
"Fuck that," Edward snaps, wheeling around and almost making me lose my footing as I move with him. We stand facing the men, and despite my better judgement assuring me that they wouldn't hurt me, I'm immediately nervous.
"Nothing about that was fucking perfect," he fumes. "Did any of you know she was going to do that?"
"Of course we didn't," Carlisle says in an placating tone, and the other men are shaking their heads.
"Well, you fucking should have! How could you have let us get fucking blindsided like that? I thought you were supposed to be on our side, and then... and then that fucking happens!"
He throws out his free arm back in the direction of the interview room and I flinch slightly at the aggression of his gesture.
"I have fucking idea if we gave her exactly what she fucking needs to convince a jury that we did this to ourselves, all because no one fucking told me that she was going to pull that bullshit! What if that Aro bastard gets away with this, all because you assholes couldn't get your shit together?"
Carlisle takes a step back in reaction to his son's harsh words. Marcus takes a step forward and holds up a hand - it's not aggressive, but it's enough to catch Edward's attention despite his fury.
"That is enough, Edward," he says in a low, even voice. "Enough."
"Fuck you," Edward spits and then he's off, pulling me behind him at a jog because I refuse to let go. He allows me to follow until we're outside in the parking lot, when he tries to detach his hand from mine.
"Let me go, Bella. My dad will drive you home."
"No."
"Bella, let me go!"
He makes another attempt to shake me off, but I refuse to let him, despite him being almost obscenely stronger than I am.
"I'm coming with you."
"Fine. What the fuck ever."
He unlocks his car, walks around to his side and throws the door open, slamming it as hard as he can when he closes it. For a moment, I think he's going to drive away, but then he shoves open the passenger side door with as much force as he had with the driver's side.
It's a small gesture - tiny really, in the face of his behaviour - but it's enough for now.
He's not pushing me away completely, and that's enough.