"The past is gone. It went by, like dusk to dawn."

[nickthewarbler]

Who: nickthewarbler, warble_on_jeff, alittletoolegal and jewhawk (posting order)
What: The verdict
Where: New York County Criminal Court, Manhattan
When: Wednesday afternoon, a couple of weeks after THIS
Rating: Leaving it open

Comments

[nickthewarbler]

Probably looking back on this, Nick would never, ever know how he got through it. In fact, he probably would barely even remember most of it. The courtroom was dead silent and despite the fact the room was massive, it felt hot and claustrophobic to Nick, like the walls were trying to close in on him. He could hear a throbbing in his ears and he couldn't ignore how menacing the police guards looked at the side exit of the courtroom where he would be dragged away in cuffs after the guilty verdict to be thrown in prison for god knows how long.

He wanted to cry. He wanted to vomit, and it was probably some sort of plain miracle that he didn't soil himself. He was shaking from head to toe, and to Nick, it seemed like the jury foreperson was talking in slow motion and under water. If the didn't get through this soon, he was going to lose it and it probably wouldn't be pretty. He swallowed, but the lump stuck in his throat was firmly lodged there and his hand gripped around Dani's with painful force.

"In the New York County Criminal Court, criminal action, in the State of New York versus Nicholas Seamus Benito Matheson-Carter, as to case number 2012CF95782-6. Verdict, as to the charge of second degree murder count one, we the jury find the defendant not guilty, so say we all, dated at New York City, New York on this eighteenth day of May 2012. As to the charge of voluntary manslaughter count one, we the jury find the defendant not guilty, so say we all, dated at New York City, New York on this eighteenth day of May 2012. As to the charge of aggravated assault count one, we the jury find the defendant not guilty, so say we all, dated at New York City, New York on this eighteenth day of May 2012."

But everything was still quiet, and Nick was sure he hadn't heard right. He had to be hallucinating. Shouldn't everyone be cheering. And then Dani was responded... saying something when the judge seemed to address the parties. Nick just turned his head to look at her, having totally missed the judge querying whether either side wanted the jury polled as to their verdicts, but both sides declined, Dani haven't fought for the verdict and won in her entire right. It was only when the judge ruled, "Case closed", that there was an uproar in the courtroom and Nick felt Dani make a grab for him, even if he was in a numb haze about what had just happened.

Not guilty? Did they really just say not guilty?

[warble_on_jeff]

As the words were read from the paper, Jeff's eyes never left Nick. He was terrified, and Jeff knew it. He fought off all the urges to wish for things he couldn't have, and focused on this moment, on getting through this verdict. Nick and Dani stood close together, and Jeff was grateful that she was with him, holding onto him so he would know he wasn't alone. And then came the first not guilty, and Jeff didn't dare to give himself the pleasure of even a moment's relief, because there were two more charges, and he knew it.

A second not guilty, and his hand was tightening around Mercedes's. If he was found guilty of the last charge, as much as Jeff was fighting the relief, he knew that he'd be crushed. They'd come so far, they were so close, and they had to make it through this last thing. The third not guilty had hit Jeff with the force of a fighter jet, and he couldn't hold back the tears of relief anymore. They rolled down his face freely as he felt Mercedes's hand move to gently rub his back in that protective mama way she had down to a fine art.

Nick wasn't going to jail. He was staying out of jail, and he could get help now, and Jeff could be there with him, and all of these emotions were rushing on him in a way he didn't even totally know how to handle, when the entire feel of the courtroom changed, and through his tears, Jeff saw Dani stagger. Leslie immediately tensed beside him, he could feel it, even through the emotional rollercoaster going on inside of him, and Jeff's mouth fell open as if to call out for help, but it hit him quickly that he didn't even know who to call for.

[alittletoolegal]

The relief and disbelief hit Dani like a tonne of bricks. In fact, it felt like she was knocked over with just that. At first, she couldn't even process or absorb that Nick was just declared not guilty of every horrible charge the prosecution tried to pin him with, and that all the blood, sweat, tears and heartache with her trying to build this case with every intricate detail was worth it. Her beloved cousin, who was like a brother to her, was free. It would take a lot more than a court verdict to release him from the terrible lingering affects of everything he suffered, but now he was cleared and rightfully so.

But as much as she wanted to scream and cry from excitement over getting the verdict Nick deserved and clearing his name, she could barely move. She was rooted on the spot in agony and had made a desperate grab for Nick's arm to keep up right. Her lower stomach felt like it was on fire, like she had been stabbed, and was twisting up with waves of cramping. To now, she had been able to tolerate it to hear the verdict, but the pain was getting worse with each passing minute. She felt like she was going vomit, and for an absolutely horrifying moment, she felt a wetness between her legs and thought she had wet herself.

When Nick turned to her at the sharp and painful grab of his arm, bracing her hand on the bench in front of her, Dani looked down and found a patch of dark blood seeping through the front of her light grey tailored skirt. It was like the floor got ripped out from under her and suddenly it was impossible to keep Nick out of the loop of anything happening to her to protect him. "O-Oh god," she gasped, the sight of the blood alone setting off a chain reaction in her. Stars formed in her peripheral vision and the slice pain through her stomach felt like someone had reached through her and ripped her insides out. The last thing she heard was Nick's horrified scream of, "Oh my god, someone help me! She's bleeding!" but it was muffled and she had the sensation of arms enclosing around her before the blackness hit.

[jewhawk]

What followed the verdict seemed like the world spinning completely and totally out of control, like it was going a million miles a minute, and in slow motion all at the same time, and Puck was completely and utterly confused. Dani was swaying in place, clearly in pain, and suddenly, he heard Nick's voice crying out in fear that she was bleeding. Why the fuck would she be bleeding? His first thought was something crazy like a gunshot wound from a gun with a silencer, but that was too many gangster movies speaking, and there was no reason for anyone to hurt Dani anyway. Still, he couldn't figure out why she'd be bleeding... not enough for this.

And just like that, she was falling over, and Puck was out of his seat rushing toward the front of the courtroom, only to be stopped by one of the officers standing at the gate between the gallery and the benches. His heart was pounding in his chest, and a million words were rushing to the forefront of his mind, and he didn't know what to say, but he had to get to her. "She's my... w... my son's mother..." he stammered, almost having let their soon-to-be-over marriage out of the bag. She'd kill him for that, and he knew it. But they weren't letting him through, and he was panicking.

"Dani!" he cried out in a pained, terrified voice as the officer directed him to return to his seat.

[nickthewarbler]

There was no end to horrible scenarios that were abruptly playing through Nick's already-scrambled mind when he saw that Dani was bleeding. It went to the same place as Puck's, and then some, but as far as he was concerned, anyone on that opposing team would have reason to hurt Dani. The very evil bastard they were fighting for seemed to feel he had all the reasons in the world to hurt Nick over and over again, so why wouldn't his own flesh and blood, and team of cheerleaders in his honour have the same tendencies. His verdict suddenly felt irrelevant, and he grabbed Dani as soon as she passed out, managing to catch her before she fell and hurt herself. All he could do was sink down to his knees to lower her to the floor, because the condition he had been in himself these past few weeks, he had very little physical strength left. Dani was petite and tiny, but it still felt like a dead weight in Nick's arms when she went down.

People were already crowding around to help, but that was the last thing Nick wanted, so despite screaming that he needed help - and he did - he didn't want the entire courtroom, including court reporters, gawking at her. Only a few days before, poor Blaine had ended up in the papers from having a fit at the airport, and Nick didn't want Dani to suffer the same way, especially when he had no idea what was wrong with her. He could hear people shouting to call 911, and some other people asking if she was breathing. "Oh god, Dani! Dani, can you hear me?!" he screeched, terrified someone had hurt her without him even realised. "Get out of the way! Just stay away!."

There was a flurry of activity all around him, but he hardly noticed. It must have been a few of the court's first aid officers that came running then to help him, and he was relieved, because after a moment, the utter shock of the verdict and then having Dani fall like this set in hard and fast, and Nick burst into petrified and helpless tears as he knelt there beside his cousin, and rational ability to think leaving him.