Tough Love

Part 5: Court Really Sucks

Brian's POV

I answer the phone and a man's voice begins to speak on the other line. "Hello, is this Mr. Brian Quinn?"

"Yes?" I have no idea who this guy is, and Faith is looking at me with a puzzled look. I just shrug at her as I continue to listen. The call goes on and it turns out to be a secretary just telling me when I have to be in court to sort out Simon Williams' death. Fuck. Mere seconds after I get all of the information I need and hang up, Faith gets the exact same call.

"Q, I've never been to court..." she says after her phone call is over as well.

"I haven't been for anything like this, but we have to go if we don't wanna end up in prison."

*A few days later. Faith is nearly 4 weeks pregnant*

Sitting in the courtroom, waiting for everything to start is the first time I've seen Sal since our last fight, other than at work. Not seeing him has been excruciatingly difficult, and I miss him. I've started having nightmares every night just like Faith and am now extremely sleep deprived because of it, which is not good when you're about to spend several hours defending yourself against murder charges from some random guy's family. Our lawyers tell us that we have a very good case and will most likely win, but still, you need to be in the right frame of mind, and I doubt the majority of us are.

I hate every single second of being in that room. Having to watch the Williams' testify, and then my friends, then Faith, and finally I get a chance to defend myself.

"Mr. Quinn," the Judge starts, "you have many people against you, and many people with you. Could you explain to the court what happened the night that Mr. Simon Williams died?"

"Of course Your Honor." I proceed to tell them every detail that I can remember, and it's almost the exact same story that everyone else told, except that they forgot to mention that when I shot Simon, he wasn't actually in the act of shooting at us anymore, and that for some reason makes the jury go crazy until the Judge calls order.

"Your Honor, permission to speak?" Our lawyer, who is a woman named Kimberly Hughes, stands up from her seat.

"Permission granted."

"Might I point out that yes, Mr. Quinn did kill Mr. Williams, but regardless if he was in the actual act of firing at innocent people, Mr. Quinn still had the right to do what he did."

"Objection!" cried the Williams' lawyer, who is getting increasingly frustrated by the second.

"Denied," the judge says and gestures for Ms. Hughes to continue.

"It was all in self defense." Now she's not only addressing the judge, but everyone in the room. "Mr. Salvatore Vulcano was actually injured by one of Simon's bullets - you can see his hand now, and I also have the doctor's reports. And if Mr. Quinn had simply disarmed Mr. Williams, assuming he would have been able to keep the gun away, who's to say that he and the rest of my clients wouldn't still be in danger? They didn't know if he had a second firearm or a knife or any type of combat training. Either way, it was still self defense, not only was he defending his friends, but also his unborn child." The fact that Faith and I have a kid on the way had yet to be brought up and there's an audible gasp from the jury. "That's right Your Honor, Simon Williams forced Mr. Quinn and Ms. Redmond to have unprotected sex with each other on the night of May 17th, and now she is with child. Here is her test results and ultrasounds that proves she had sexual intercourse that night, and I'm sure my clients will testify for this." She hands some papers to the Judge, but he barely touches them before the other lawyer - I think his name is Tom McGregor - shoots out of his seat and declares just how 'preposterous' this is.