Marsha and Dwight were in a little cafe when Rickover came up to them.
"Hey you two," he said in a friendly tone, "How are you doing?"
"What does that mean," Marsha asked suspiciously.
"Um… it's a greeting from one friend to another," Rickover said.
"Friend? I didn't realize that a 'friend' would sentence their friend's daughter to death," Dwight replied in an equally friendly tone but full of sarcasm.
"I'm so sorry about that. If there wasn't evidence…"
"But you didn't come here to discuss that," Marsha stated her words coming out clipped but her voice steady.
She clasped her shaking hands in her lap but looked at Rickover evenly.
"There a problem here?"
The owner Marco Spagnuolo, a large muscular man, knew Marsha and Dwight.
"Not now Marco and I'm sorry for this disturbance. Our "friend" here was just leaving."
Marco considered Rickover, who didn't move.
" You heard the gentleman."
Rickover said, "This doesn't change anything you know."
But he did turn and leave.
Marsha and Dwight squeezed each other's hands.
"I think," said Marco "You both need a piece of chocolate cake."
Dwight and Marsha both said thank you to Marco as he got them the chocolate cake. Once they were done Dwight asked for the check.
"No, no," Marco said, "It's on the house."
Dwight smiled at his friend gratefully. They left the cafe.
It wasn't that late when Adrian and Trudy's parents came to visit Trudy. They had taken to coming there every day. They came 3 times a day for 4 hours every time.
"You'll never guess who we ran into today," Marsha told Adrian.
"Who?"
"Rickover," Marsha said, "He had the nerve to treat us as if we were his friend."
"He doesn't have to be a dick just because he has one," Adrian said.
Dwight and Marsha burst out laughing. Even Adrian chuckled a little. Scarlet opened the door a few seconds later. After Trudy went in she gently closed the door and locked it.
Trudy and Adrian listened to Dwight and Marsha's account.
"I'm sorry about that Mom, Dad. Sorry you had to deal with him."
Marsha squeezed her hand. "It's not your fault honey."
"I don't know…I don't like it." Adrian admitted. "What does he want? Why is he coming to see you?"
Dwight sighed "Marsha and I talked about it. It seemed like he just wanted to…just wanted us to know that he had Trudy so she can't escape."
Adrian tried to take some deep breaths. He hated Rickover with a passionate intensity but he had to keep his head clear and think.
"If you see him again will you let me know?"
Marsha nodded.
"Yes absolutely."
Trudy said "Can we talk about something else? We don't have too much time left."
Actually they had 3 hours and 45 minutes left. For them however the time seemed to fly by. Trudy loved seeing her family but she hated that it was only for twelve hours a day.
"I love you all," she said.
"We love you also," Adrian replied kissing her.
"How is Rose," Trudy asked Adrian.
"I don't know," Adrian said, "I'm waiting until you're out to meet her."
"Adrian," Trudy said softly, "I'm probably not going to survive. Rickover seems pretty intent that I'm going to be put to death 18 months from now on July 19th at midnight."
She shuffled around trying to get comfortable.
"Rough day today?" Marsha asked.
"Really rough," Trudy admitted.
Marsha opened a small box and took something out of it, giving it to Trudy.
"Here," she said, "This will make you feel better."
It took a few minutes but she did end up feeling better.
"Thanks mom," Trudy said.
"That always made you feel better when you were little," Marsha said smiling sadly.
"I don't remember going through that when I was a kid," Trudy said thoughtfully.
"You had Leukemia when you were 3 to 6 ½. The treatments would make you feel horribly sore when you woke up. You were asleep when you got them-"
"How did I manage to fall asleep through that," Trudy asked.
"The doctor gave you Nitrous," Dwight explained, "It put you to sleep. But anyway the doctor gave us something for you so you wouldn't be sore when you woke up."
"I took it at night," Trudy remembered, "Twelve hours before my treatment. It was every Monday, Wednesday and Friday right?"
"Yes," Marsha nodded, "The cancer was caught early so you didn't have to go to the hospital but you had to go to the treatment center 3 times a week."
Trudy quickly caught onto what her mom was saying. She smiled and nodded.
Later after Trudy was back in her cell Adrian found the other guard that was assigned to Trudy.
"You look familiar to me," Beth said, "Were you at the trial?"
Adrian nodded.
"Trudy is my wife," he said softly, "Listen please… go easy on her."
"I saw the pictures of what happened to the little kid," Beth said, "You can't possibly think it's okay what she did."
"She didn't do anything," Adrian replied, "She was set up."
Beth frowned thoughtfully.
"How do you know that," she asked.
Adrian told her the story.
"Well if you're right," Beth said her attitude changing, "the judge is dangerous."
"Oh he is," Adrian replied.
"I'll keep my eyes open," Beth promised, "Unlike Scarlet I can't do a zero out of ten. I can do like one out of ten though. I'm new here and the walls have ears."
"I understand that completely," Adrian said.
Adrian was looking at the photo book. He and Trudy had kids that were in the school called Learning Through Living. He couldn't imagine someone murdering his children, like little Diana Rose was murdered.
