Day In Court

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

The sun had risen, and Maddie had showered and gotten dressed. She studied her clothes in the mirror. The powder blue dress she wore was simple and practical. It seemed perfectly suited for a day spent in the courthouse. She had pulled her long red hair into a braid that she wore over her right shoulder.

She smiled, satisfied with her outfit and ready to face the day. She quickly drank a cup of coffee before heading out of her apartment with a second one in her hands.

Doug was waiting for her. Maddie smiled at him and said, "Good morning, Doug!"

"Morning," he grumbled in response.

Maddie handed him the travel mug. "I figured you might like some coffee," she said.

Doug took a sip before saying, "Thanks... How did you know how I take it?"

"Call it intuition," she replied. "Maybe it's the empathy?"

He laughed. "Empathy doesn't usually extend to knowing someone's coffee preferences."

"Well, as you all keep insisting, I'm not all that usual, so maybe it works differently for me."

"Maybe, Sunshine," Doug agreed. "Now, I can't actually enter the jury room with you, but I'll be as close as I can get. If anything goes sideways, I'll fight my way inside, but try to stay out of trouble, okay?"

"Don't worry, Doug! I'll be fine," Maddie insisted.

They headed toward the subway. With a vampire's enhanced sense of smell, that wasn't exactly pleasant, but the trip was fairly quick because Maddie lived Downtown. As they escaped from the underground tunnel and headed to Centre Street, Maddie started getting excited.

"I can't believe we're really here," she said. "This is an actual courthouse!"

Doug shook his head and laughed softly. "You really are excited about this," he said. "I'm sure they'll be thrilled to have you in there. Most potential jurors are cranky and don't want to be here."

Maddie hurried into the courthouse with Doug following behind her. Like a good citizen, Maddie waited in line and went through the metal detector. Doug skipped the line. He approached an officer and said something. The man's pupils grew larger and he nodded slowly with a blank look in his eyes, allowing Doug through without scanning him for weapons. That was probably a good thing since Doug was armed as usual.

"What did you say to him?" Maddie asked when she finally made it through the line.

"I told him he didn't need to check me," Doug replied.

"And he just accepted that?"

"I tranced him. He had no choice."

"You made him do it?"

"Well, I didn't feel like getting arrested for bringing weapons into the courthouse, Maddie, so yeah. It's not a big deal. It's a basic vamp parlor trick."

"But you took away his free will. That's not right, Doug."

He sighed. "Sometimes, it's necessary. You're going to need to learn how to do it, too."

She shook her head. "I will never take away someone's free will," she insisted stubbornly.

"You may not have any other choice one day, Maddie. You don't understand the world we live in."

"I'm not as naive as you all seem to think, Doug. I just know that there's always a choice, and taking free will away from someone is wrong."

"I don't just trance people for the hell of it, Maddie. When you're a supernatural person living in the mortal world, you occasionally have to explain things away. That's all this was."