Destiny's Soul Mate
A/N So sorry I haven't posted in awhile. As you might recall, my mom passed away at the end of October . Well, my father passed away the day after Christmas . Both of them died of complications from covid-19 . I never dreamed I'd lose both my parents within 2 months of each other . Anyway, here is the next chapter. It's the beginning of the trial. As usual, I don't own Hugh or Jenn or anyone else (except a few of the minor characters). This is a work of fiction....RPF. If that offends you, please stop reading. Enjoy!
Destiny's Soul Mate
Chapter 33
L.A. Law
The following week, Hugh tried to keep Jenn's mind off the upcoming trial as much as possible. But since it was at the end of the week, that was becoming quite impossible to do. He hated that even though Jesse was behind bars, he still was able to make Jenn suffer by going through this trial.
When the day finally came, Hugh and Jenn were at the court house bright and early since she couldn't sleep anyway. She was too nauseous to eat breakfast so she just made sure Hugh got something in his stomach.
So now they sat with Tina outside the courtroom, waiting to be let in. Soon their cast mates started arriving to show their support. First Robert arrived, followed by Omar. Then Jenn's parents and siblings came in. They had flown in for the trial and were staying overnight at the hotel. Just as everyone was hugging "hello"...the bailiff opened the door to the courtroom letting them enter.
Jennifer and Tina sat at the prosecution table. Hugh sat directly behind Jennifer. To his side sat her family. And behind Hugh sat their friends from House. Just before everything started, two more joined them. David, looking like a man trying to juggle ten things at once. And Lisa, who looked like she was being pressured to be there.
The jury were brought in by the bailiff. There were seven women and five men. Almost all of them immediately sought out eye contact with Jenn when they first sat in the juror's box. Oddly enough, the females were immediately distracted by the tall, blue-eyed sex God sitting behind her!
Jesse was brought in the side door. This time, he was back in a suit, but still had the shackles on. He looked upon his former cast mates who had been his friends, and all he saw staring back at him was disgust.
I shoulda figured they'd all take Hugh and Jenn's side!
His thoughts were interrupted by the judge entering the room and everybody standing. After bringing court to order, the attorneys got under way.
The prosecution was first. Tina began to explain how the relationship started to fall apart. How he became so controlling and verbally abusive. She explained how Mr. Spencer would expect Ms. Morrison to act a certain way while at the studio. And how jealous he was....and how this jealousy often caused problems for the cast and David Shore during production.
She told the jury that things escalated when their contracts were up for renewal and Mr. Spencer and Ms. Morrison had not heard yet if they would be offered one. This is when it started getting physical. Throwing things at her....shoving her up against walls, and slapping or hitting her.
It was at this point that Ms. Morrison broke off the engagement and sought refuge with her friend and cast mate Hugh Laurie. He had witnessed first hand the injuries Ms. Morrison had received after one of her encounters with Mr. Spencer and he took her home to his place for safekeeping. "Now the prosecution will provide full disclosure....Jennifer Morrison and Hugh Laurie did in fact become romantically involved. But not until AFTER the engagement was broken off and Mr. Laurie was already in the process of getting a divorce."
After Ms. Morrison began living with Mr. Laurie, they discovered that Mr. Spencer had gained entrance into her apartment without her permission, and had ransacked the place....destroying personal property, including shredding her clothes with a knife of some type.
"Your Honor, we'd like to call our first witness. Detective John Bell," requested Tina.
Detective Bell approached the witness stand and after being sworn in, sat down.
Tina began, "Could you please state your name and occupation for the jury please."
"John Bell. I'm a Detective on the Los Angelos Police Department."
"When were you first involved with this case?" she asked.
"Hugh Laurie called me to get involved when Mr. Spencer broke into Ms. Morrison's home and vandalized her belongings."
"What repercussions happened to Mr. Spencer as a result of those actions?"
Detective Bell looked at the jury and explained, "Well, Ms. Morrison did not want to press charges for several reasons. So instead we decided I would just go to his residence and give him a stern warning that any further contact with her will be dealt with by law enforcement."
"And how did Mr. Spencer respond to this warning?"
"Actually he put on quite a show. He acted very cordial and apologetic!"
"Objection your Honor!" yelled Mr. Spovert as he stood up in protest. "The witness is being sarcastic."
"Objection sustained. Jury will ignore the comment about Mr. Spencer putting on a show," ordered the judge.
"Your Honor, that's all I have for this witness at this time. But I'd like to call upon him at a later time."
"Very well," said the judge. "Mr. Spovert, do you wish to cross examine?"
"Yes, your Honor." Mr. Spovert walked up to the witness stand and tried to look as confident as he could. "Detective Bell, when you say Mr. Spencer broke in to Ms. Morrison's apartment,....isn't that in fact false? Mr. Spencer was given a key to her apartment since they were engaged!"
Tina jumped out of her seat and yelled, "Your Honor, if I may? Detective Bell would not know the answer to that but I can certainly clarify things. Ms. Morrison DID in fact give Mr. Spencer a key to her residence when they were engaged. HOWEVER, they were no longer engaged at the time he committed the crime and she did NOT give him permission to enter the premises."
Mr. Spovert asked, "Your Honor, may I approach the bench?"
The judge nodded, so both attorneys walked up and huddled with the judge.
Spovert asked, "Why are we even bothering with this line of questioning? My client is being charged with the kidnapping and assault,...not the vandalism!"
Tina looked to the judge and said, "Your Honor, I'm trying to show a pattern of violence leading up to the kidnapping."
The judge said, "I'll allow it."
Mr. Spovert said, "Detective Bell, I have no further questions."
"You may step down Detective Bell, but don't leave...you'll be called again shortly. Ms. Dunkirk, you have the floor again."
Tina stood and approached the jury. "Ladies and gentlemen, so far we've established that Mr. Spencer became possessive, jealous and violent in the engagement, leading up to Ms. Morrison breaking the engagement off. This led to Mr. Spencer entering her apartment and slicing her clothes with a knife and destroying her property."
Hugh had been watching Jenn closely as the trial continued and could tell she was getting more and more upset because she knew she was going to be taking the stand soon and she would have to re-live everything. He would give anything to not make her go through this again. It was bad enough she went through it the first time.
Just then, he saw Jenn look down at her hands and rub something with her thumb. He looked closer...Yes! That's what I thought it was. She's been holding on to my caduceus this whole time! Hugh realized that the item must offer her comfort, and for that he was grateful. It also gave him a warm feeling inside his heart. Hugh was abruptly shaken from his thoughts when he heard...
"At this time I'd like to call Jennifer Morrison to the stand."
Hugh quickly reached forward and squeezed Jenn's shoulder before she stood. She turned and looked him in the eye for only a moment. He nodded and gave her a smile. That was all she needed to give her a boost of confidence. He believed in her.
SHE COULD DO THIS DAMMIT!!
She approached the witness stand and got sworn in.
"Can you please state your name and occupation please."
"My name is Jennifer Marie Morrison and I'm an actress currently working on the show House."
"Ms. Morrison," Tina asked, "If your ex-fiance Jesse Spencer is in the room,....could you please point him out to the jury." Jennifer did as instructed.
"Ms. Morrison, were you kidnapped, beaten repeatedly, and raped between the dates of Saturday, March 10, 2007 to Tuesday, March 13, 2007 of this year?"
The jury could be heard gasping at the less than subtle line of questioning. But Jenn looked down momentarily, then looked up and said, "Yes."
"And is the man who perpetrated these said crimes in this courtroom at this time?"
Jenn looked right at Jesse. "YES. He. Is!"
"Could you point him out for the jury?"
Jenn pointed at Jesse until Tina advised her that was long enough.
"May the court show that Ms. Morrison pointed to the defendant, Jesse Spencer."
"Now Ms. Morrison, I'd like you to tell us, in your own words...what happened those days in March. And I'm sorry, but I must ask you to be as specific as possible. Don't leave anything out."
"I was staying with Hugh at his condo. We had feelings for each other that we had never acknowledged or acted upon because of our other relationships. But when I started staying with him after I broke it off with Jesse, and Hugh told me about his upcoming divorce....well, our feelings just surfaced. Anyway, the weekend of March 10th, Hugh flew back to England to break the news to his kids about the divorce. Obviously they wanted to do this in person. And Jesse had been acting civil and apologetic at the studio prior to that so we thought it would be ok for him to leave."
Robert reached forward and grabbed Hugh's shoulder in support. He knew Hugh felt very guilty about leaving Jenn alone that weekend after what happened.
Jenn continued, "On Saturday I was doing laundry and I got a text from the studio asking me to come that afternoon and pick up some script changes for Hugh. I got ready to leave and started to exit the condo when I was suddenly shoved back in so hard I fell to the ground. It was Jesse."
Tina could see that Jenn's voice had changed and she was trembling. We were definitely moving into the traumatic part of the story.
"Your Honor, if it pleases the court...may I suggest a fifteen minute recess so Ms. Morrison can take a break to gather her wits about her."
"Court will take a fifteen minute recess."
Jenn got up off the stand and all but ran into Hugh's waiting arms.
He whispered in her ear, "You're doing great, sweetheart!"
"I just want to go to some deserted island...just the two of us."
"Really? A deserted island? Are you sure about that? I'd rather be on an island that had a resort...you know, with king size beds...and room service...and cocktails served poolside! Of course, we'd be the only guests at this resort!" Hugh teased as he continued to hold her in his arms.
Jenn laughed and then looked him in the eyes and smiled.
"Thank you."
"For what?" he asked.
"You always know just the right thing to say or do whenever I need it most!"
"Trust me, if we had longer than fifteen minutes, I'd show you what you really need!"
Before Jenn could make a retort, the bailiff announced that the judge was re-entering the court room and that the proceedings were beginning again.
Tbc.....
Destiny's Soul Mate
Chapter 33
L.A. Law
The following week, Hugh tried to keep Jenn's mind off the upcoming trial as much as possible. But since it was at the end of the week, that was becoming quite impossible to do. He hated that even though Jesse was behind bars, he still was able to make Jenn suffer by going through this trial.
When the day finally came, Hugh and Jenn were at the court house bright and early since she couldn't sleep anyway. She was too nauseous to eat breakfast so she just made sure Hugh got something in his stomach.
So now they sat with Tina outside the courtroom, waiting to be let in. Soon their cast mates started arriving to show their support. First Robert arrived, followed by Omar. Then Jenn's parents and siblings came in. They had flown in for the trial and were staying overnight at the hotel. Just as everyone was hugging "hello"...the bailiff opened the door to the courtroom letting them enter.
Jennifer and Tina sat at the prosecution table. Hugh sat directly behind Jennifer. To his side sat her family. And behind Hugh sat their friends from House. Just before everything started, two more joined them. David, looking like a man trying to juggle ten things at once. And Lisa, who looked like she was being pressured to be there.
The jury were brought in by the bailiff. There were seven women and five men. Almost all of them immediately sought out eye contact with Jenn when they first sat in the juror's box. Oddly enough, the females were immediately distracted by the tall, blue-eyed sex God sitting behind her!
Jesse was brought in the side door. This time, he was back in a suit, but still had the shackles on. He looked upon his former cast mates who had been his friends, and all he saw staring back at him was disgust.
I shoulda figured they'd all take Hugh and Jenn's side!
His thoughts were interrupted by the judge entering the room and everybody standing. After bringing court to order, the attorneys got under way.
The prosecution was first. Tina began to explain how the relationship started to fall apart. How he became so controlling and verbally abusive. She explained how Mr. Spencer would expect Ms. Morrison to act a certain way while at the studio. And how jealous he was....and how this jealousy often caused problems for the cast and David Shore during production.
She told the jury that things escalated when their contracts were up for renewal and Mr. Spencer and Ms. Morrison had not heard yet if they would be offered one. This is when it started getting physical. Throwing things at her....shoving her up against walls, and slapping or hitting her.
It was at this point that Ms. Morrison broke off the engagement and sought refuge with her friend and cast mate Hugh Laurie. He had witnessed first hand the injuries Ms. Morrison had received after one of her encounters with Mr. Spencer and he took her home to his place for safekeeping. "Now the prosecution will provide full disclosure....Jennifer Morrison and Hugh Laurie did in fact become romantically involved. But not until AFTER the engagement was broken off and Mr. Laurie was already in the process of getting a divorce."
After Ms. Morrison began living with Mr. Laurie, they discovered that Mr. Spencer had gained entrance into her apartment without her permission, and had ransacked the place....destroying personal property, including shredding her clothes with a knife of some type.
"Your Honor, we'd like to call our first witness. Detective John Bell," requested Tina.
Detective Bell approached the witness stand and after being sworn in, sat down.
Tina began, "Could you please state your name and occupation for the jury please."
"John Bell. I'm a Detective on the Los Angelos Police Department."
"When were you first involved with this case?" she asked.
"Hugh Laurie called me to get involved when Mr. Spencer broke into Ms. Morrison's home and vandalized her belongings."
"What repercussions happened to Mr. Spencer as a result of those actions?"
Detective Bell looked at the jury and explained, "Well, Ms. Morrison did not want to press charges for several reasons. So instead we decided I would just go to his residence and give him a stern warning that any further contact with her will be dealt with by law enforcement."
"And how did Mr. Spencer respond to this warning?"
"Actually he put on quite a show. He acted very cordial and apologetic!"
"Objection your Honor!" yelled Mr. Spovert as he stood up in protest. "The witness is being sarcastic."
"Objection sustained. Jury will ignore the comment about Mr. Spencer putting on a show," ordered the judge.
"Your Honor, that's all I have for this witness at this time. But I'd like to call upon him at a later time."
"Very well," said the judge. "Mr. Spovert, do you wish to cross examine?"
"Yes, your Honor." Mr. Spovert walked up to the witness stand and tried to look as confident as he could. "Detective Bell, when you say Mr. Spencer broke in to Ms. Morrison's apartment,....isn't that in fact false? Mr. Spencer was given a key to her apartment since they were engaged!"
Tina jumped out of her seat and yelled, "Your Honor, if I may? Detective Bell would not know the answer to that but I can certainly clarify things. Ms. Morrison DID in fact give Mr. Spencer a key to her residence when they were engaged. HOWEVER, they were no longer engaged at the time he committed the crime and she did NOT give him permission to enter the premises."
Mr. Spovert asked, "Your Honor, may I approach the bench?"
The judge nodded, so both attorneys walked up and huddled with the judge.
Spovert asked, "Why are we even bothering with this line of questioning? My client is being charged with the kidnapping and assault,...not the vandalism!"
Tina looked to the judge and said, "Your Honor, I'm trying to show a pattern of violence leading up to the kidnapping."
The judge said, "I'll allow it."
Mr. Spovert said, "Detective Bell, I have no further questions."
"You may step down Detective Bell, but don't leave...you'll be called again shortly. Ms. Dunkirk, you have the floor again."
Tina stood and approached the jury. "Ladies and gentlemen, so far we've established that Mr. Spencer became possessive, jealous and violent in the engagement, leading up to Ms. Morrison breaking the engagement off. This led to Mr. Spencer entering her apartment and slicing her clothes with a knife and destroying her property."
Hugh had been watching Jenn closely as the trial continued and could tell she was getting more and more upset because she knew she was going to be taking the stand soon and she would have to re-live everything. He would give anything to not make her go through this again. It was bad enough she went through it the first time.
Just then, he saw Jenn look down at her hands and rub something with her thumb. He looked closer...Yes! That's what I thought it was. She's been holding on to my caduceus this whole time! Hugh realized that the item must offer her comfort, and for that he was grateful. It also gave him a warm feeling inside his heart. Hugh was abruptly shaken from his thoughts when he heard...
"At this time I'd like to call Jennifer Morrison to the stand."
Hugh quickly reached forward and squeezed Jenn's shoulder before she stood. She turned and looked him in the eye for only a moment. He nodded and gave her a smile. That was all she needed to give her a boost of confidence. He believed in her.
SHE COULD DO THIS DAMMIT!!
She approached the witness stand and got sworn in.
"Can you please state your name and occupation please."
"My name is Jennifer Marie Morrison and I'm an actress currently working on the show House."
"Ms. Morrison," Tina asked, "If your ex-fiance Jesse Spencer is in the room,....could you please point him out to the jury." Jennifer did as instructed.
"Ms. Morrison, were you kidnapped, beaten repeatedly, and raped between the dates of Saturday, March 10, 2007 to Tuesday, March 13, 2007 of this year?"
The jury could be heard gasping at the less than subtle line of questioning. But Jenn looked down momentarily, then looked up and said, "Yes."
"And is the man who perpetrated these said crimes in this courtroom at this time?"
Jenn looked right at Jesse. "YES. He. Is!"
"Could you point him out for the jury?"
Jenn pointed at Jesse until Tina advised her that was long enough.
"May the court show that Ms. Morrison pointed to the defendant, Jesse Spencer."
"Now Ms. Morrison, I'd like you to tell us, in your own words...what happened those days in March. And I'm sorry, but I must ask you to be as specific as possible. Don't leave anything out."
"I was staying with Hugh at his condo. We had feelings for each other that we had never acknowledged or acted upon because of our other relationships. But when I started staying with him after I broke it off with Jesse, and Hugh told me about his upcoming divorce....well, our feelings just surfaced. Anyway, the weekend of March 10th, Hugh flew back to England to break the news to his kids about the divorce. Obviously they wanted to do this in person. And Jesse had been acting civil and apologetic at the studio prior to that so we thought it would be ok for him to leave."
Robert reached forward and grabbed Hugh's shoulder in support. He knew Hugh felt very guilty about leaving Jenn alone that weekend after what happened.
Jenn continued, "On Saturday I was doing laundry and I got a text from the studio asking me to come that afternoon and pick up some script changes for Hugh. I got ready to leave and started to exit the condo when I was suddenly shoved back in so hard I fell to the ground. It was Jesse."
Tina could see that Jenn's voice had changed and she was trembling. We were definitely moving into the traumatic part of the story.
"Your Honor, if it pleases the court...may I suggest a fifteen minute recess so Ms. Morrison can take a break to gather her wits about her."
"Court will take a fifteen minute recess."
Jenn got up off the stand and all but ran into Hugh's waiting arms.
He whispered in her ear, "You're doing great, sweetheart!"
"I just want to go to some deserted island...just the two of us."
"Really? A deserted island? Are you sure about that? I'd rather be on an island that had a resort...you know, with king size beds...and room service...and cocktails served poolside! Of course, we'd be the only guests at this resort!" Hugh teased as he continued to hold her in his arms.
Jenn laughed and then looked him in the eyes and smiled.
"Thank you."
"For what?" he asked.
"You always know just the right thing to say or do whenever I need it most!"
"Trust me, if we had longer than fifteen minutes, I'd show you what you really need!"
Before Jenn could make a retort, the bailiff announced that the judge was re-entering the court room and that the proceedings were beginning again.
Tbc.....