by T. N. King
The man that followed behind the officer much more familiar than he should have been, Mr. Jenson’s face lined with what looked both like tension and fatigue. There was no telling what all he’d been briefed on as of yet, or how actually willing the man was to represent Mason in court… While there was no animosity between the two of them, there was also no affection on either part. The man only represented him for the check and as favor to Marie, who he did love, even if Mason sometimes wondered at the appropriate levels of that love. Like now, when Marie finally stood and turned to embrace Mr. Jenson for that half second before she was ushered out of the room, looking over her shoulder pointedly at Mason, to which he half-nodded.
He did hear her. He hadn’t been planning on any deception nor had he been planning on losing his temper again. Not so long as Aaron was kept very, very far away from him through these proceedings. Seeing the extent of his injuries, he very much doubted that they were going to be wheeling him in to give a simultaneous statement as it was. “Mason, I was hoping we weren’t going to be seeing you back in here.”
It took too long of a moment after the officer spoke to identify him, half preoccupied with listening to Jenson get set up in the chair to his right and half still watching that door that they had all entered from as if expecting someone else to follow in. He hadn’t expected to see that face again, at least not for the reasons he was in here now, the handlebar mustache on the slightly overweight man now sitting in front of him twitching just enough for it to be noticeable. He was uncomfortable, which didn’t bode well for Mason. For a police officer to be uncomfortable speaking to you, it either had to mean they were intimidated or the sentence being faced was enough to make even them question it. Given the way that he was speaking to Mason… he would be willing to bet that it was the latter instead of the former.
He didn’t answer him one way or another, silent, with the approval off of Jenson for him being so obvious, it wasn’t his first rodeo, he knew the rules, he knew how to keep his mouth shut and allow the proceedings to continue without undue implications being placed on him for his own blunders.
“Listen Mason, there are a lot of different accounts here floating around, and to be honest, it doesn’t look good on you right now at all. The boy that you attacked is still in the hospital’s care unit getting blood transfusions and trying to repair a rupture that you caused in his spleen, that’s a fairly serious offense. To make matters worse he’s claiming that the girl, your adopted sister who you named as your girlfriend at the scene, sustained those injuries from you, not him.”
Again, Mason didn’t answer, glancing at Jenson from the corner of his eye and holding his tongue. Of course that would be the claim Aaron levelled, he couldn’t possibly spin it any other way to save his own skin.
“Now, is Nicole your girlfriend or is she your adopted sister?” The paperwork in front of Jenson stilled.
It was a fair enough question, and Mason only needed that slight nod from his lawyer before finally opening his mouth. “Both.”
Obviously not the answer that either one of them wanted to hear, Jenson going back to furiously shuffling that paperwork in front of him, lips pulled into a tight line, while the officer across from him shifted uncomfortably. They didn’t need to understand, they didn’t need to approve- he and Nicole were breaking no laws, and Marie had asked for him to be honest, there were few requests of hers that he could honor so easily as that one.
“Well,” again, the cop cut off to cough uncomfortably, shifting in his seat and moving the paperwork in front of himself in much the same distracting tactic that Jenson was using to his right. “Do you still want to claim that Aaron is the one that injured Nicole, or are you willing to admit that there might be some truth to his story that the injuries were either retained from you or from her trying to interfere in the fight between the two of you?” There had been no fight between the two of them, there had been Mason, losing all control, and destroying the bones in his face and torso. It wasn’t in his best interest to bring that up however, so he remained silent, again glancing at Jenson before even attempting to consider an answer to give the cop.
“No sir,” slow and even, his hands flexing on the table within their confines. “I walked into the apartment to find Nicole on the floor covered in glass shards, and Aaron kicking repeatedly at her torso and midsection while screaming obscenities at her.” As devoid of emotion as he could possibly make the sentence, even if his fingers were doing their best to curl into fists even with how they were held, his jaw ticking and the officer looking uncomfortably from the paperwork, to Mason, and back down again to the paperwork in front of him.
“You see, yours and Nicole’s stories match… a little too closely we think, almost as if-”
“Oh, this is ridiculous!” Jenson cut him off completely, slamming his own hand down on the table and lifting his forearm to point at the officer accusingly. “When would they have had time to corroborate their stories? The police arrived on the scene to find my client still engaged in the scuffle with the accuser! Their stories match so well because the both of them are being honest and transparent with this precinct, and being vilified for being such!”
The officer opened his mouth as if he were about to return the favor of Jenson cutting him off, but that only made the lawyer speak even more loudly, “Furthermore, my client has made such claims in the past, which were denied. He alleged that Ms. Carter was being systematically abused by the same man who did so tonight and was ignored. “And yes,” he again cut the officer off, the frustration clear in his voice and only a half second away from obviously rolling his eye. “We’re aware that at the time Ms. Carter denied any such allegations on her behalf, but as I’m sure you, having worked in law enforcement as long as you have, know- abuse victims keep silent at first for any number of reasons, since she has changed her statement, which you already know. We covered bond, the client’s adopted father posted the amount that was requested more than ten minutes ago, and the client’s therapist is in deliberations now with the court psychologist, so if we could move this along to releasing him to his family, you have his statements and you have all of the corroborating evidence to go over.”
In the space of five minutes, the man showcased just why he was the lawyer they continually rehired and kept on retainer, even after the slew of others that they had been through over the years. The officer coughing out something about protocol and following the chain of command even as he seemingly blindly handed over the key that Jenson was impatiently gesturing for. Those irons falling off of Mason’s wrists and his fingers instantly going to press into the raw skin in an attempt to sooth it, standing at about the same moment as the other two men in the room did. “The accuser has decided to press charges this time,” the officer finally stated, moving to open the door to the interview room and looking at both he and Jenson seriously. “It changes the entire structure of how this is going to go you know.”
Yes, he was aware, and apparently, Jenson was too, although he stopped at the door to speak to the officer for a few more moments, something that Mason himself wasn’t wasting time with. He was more focused on traveling that familiar corridor down and out to the exiting door, passing through it and immediately being assaulted by a small, warm body flying at him.
“Oh God! Mason!” Nicole’s body wrapping around him once more, and this time his arms free enough to lift, encircling her small frame and pulling her more firmly into himself as she kissed his face… repeatedly, her tears dripping onto his face and his attention not nearly so centered on the two adults standing behind her watching so closely. Maybe it should have been, but for the moment he just felt glad to have his arms back around Nicole, even if she was still in his now ruined shirt and what seemed to be a pair of standard issue police sweatpants, her tears finally getting the best of her and her head falling into the crook of his neck to snuffle while she tightened her arms about them.
“I don’t know about anyone else,” Paul interrupted finall
y.
Mason’s whole body tensed with the addition of his words, waiting for that drop in the atmosphere that was likely to come with it.
Marie’s eyes even more shrewd than that of her husband’s…looking over the two of them and at Mason as if to remind him of the conversation he had with her only an hour or so previous.
“But I’m starving.” Paul nodded.
Not the continuation Mason was expecting, his eyebrows twitching.
“Are you two in the mood for Chinese?”
His whole body sagged, the tension leaking out of him even as he pulled Nicole tighter into himself. That wasn’t a no from Paul, it wasn’t disapproval. It also wasn’t approval or a yes, but it wasn’t a no…and for now, with how things were unfolding currently, that was enough…
Chapter Twenty-Two
Nicole felt drained. Physically and emotionally, sitting inside of that booth half on Mason’s lap like she was, even with her parents sitting across from them. She couldn’t be bothered to try and pay attention to public displays of affection, couldn’t be bothered to try to ease them into seeing the two of them together in that light more slowly because she was just too… drained. She was just too emotional, those remnants of hiccups from all of her crying before still occasionally wracking her body mercilessly. The car ride over had been awkward enough, what with her mother’s reminders that she needed to stay inside of her own seatbelt and try to avoid a ticket if at all possible coupled with her father’s steadfast refusal to look in that rearview mirror where he would undoubtedly see Nicole still clinging desperately to Mason.
She wouldn't let him go, she couldn’t force physical separation between the two of them right now, not for anyone else’s comfort, what with what all had just occurred… with the issue of Aaron, and now this legal suit that was likely to come from his baseless, tasteless accusations. She couldn’t believe what he was trying to pass of as fact that he was resorting to what he was attempting to claim. But then, if she’d been asked several weeks previous if he would have physically attacked her just on the basis of her having broken up with him or from her moving on from him, especially once she’d heard what she had from Mason about Aaron’s own infidelity…
Now she had the scars, or at least she would, to prove that her thought process had been opposite of fact. He had come at her with more force than she would have ever imagined him capable of using on anyone, much less her. Her hands were still shaking, Mason alternately taking them between both of his own and massaging the skin as if he were afraid that it was a chill- or maybe he wasn’t, she didn’t know, it wasn’t like they had any opportunity at all to talk. And honestly, it was still so early…even if it didn’t feel like it, even if it had taken months for the two of them to reach the point that they were now at, an accumulation of years even… it wasn’t as if they’d been together in actuality for that long an expanse of time, or had even been acknowledging to one another that they wanted to be.
Her head was already aching from trying to keep up with all of the different trains of thought that it wanted, and didn’t want, to be on- from all of the things that she needed to be considering and from those that were only super invasive thought processes that she would have rather not been thinking about currently. She didn’t even know how to separate them, her bloodshot eyes moving blankly about the three other bodies at the table talking. Mason was explaining the station, explaining what had been said to him versus what Jenson had been providing as far as information went, and she needed to be paying closer attention to it. She should have been more attentive, should have been listening more closely, because it concerned her, it involved her, they were things that she needed to know… and yet….
She couldn’t seem to bring herself to comprehend anything further than just the gist of what was being discussed around her. Mason explaining to her parents about the accusations in full and what it was they would have to do to discount them, including divulging much more of both his and her personal life than anyone was readily willing to do. She was terrified, even listening to it half-assed as she was, as to what all that would entail, terrified at the prospect of allowing so many strangers to closely dissect her life and the personal details within it. To sit and hear it discussed in so clinical a manner absent any of the emotion that had led her to make the decisions she had, or him the decisions that he had. Without their own, personal, reasoning, and in order to defend themselves against claims that should have never been made in the first place.
She was exhausted in a way that had nothing to do with the late time. “I have to pay.” Nicole didn’t even know who she’d cut off, or what exactly had been being said when she cut in. Her voice raised probably past the decibel it should have been in order to keep their conversation, and its details, private and contained to the booth they were seated in. “For lying about the previous assault, even though it wasn’t a testimony, it was my statement and it was a false one. So I have to pay a fine, especially I guess since I’m changing it now in the midst of another investigation or… there were a lot of words and accusations, I didn’t listen to all of them.” Much like she wasn’t listening to the ones that had been passing around her here.
“Psychologically speaking, that’s a very typical reaction for someone in your situation though!” Her mother’s voice nearly toppled over the end of her own statement, hand slamming down into that table in obvious annoyance, even while she worked at lowering her voice in the way that it needed to be for their situation. “That’s-” She cut off, but only because of Nicole’s hand lifting like it had, wincing just enough for it to be noticeable at the phrasing of ‘someone in your situation’. She wasn’t the victim everyone wanted to paint her, she’d liked too many things about her relationship, walked too fully and wholeheartedly into it to be put on the same level as those women who had actually had such awful things happen to them as to be labeled a victim.
She shook her head as if trying to physically clear it, hand tightening around the one that Mason offered her, whether it had been meant for support or not, that was what she was using it for.
“Marie, you have to also consider though, that these people are not going to be concerned with what is textbook typical, as many times those actually committing the crimes and attempting to get away with them use just that knowledge in order to try and dupe them,” Dr. Friedrich interrupted, only just making his presence known at all to Nicole. She didn’t know how she had missed him joining them, or what he might have said previous that she had likewise missed, but no one else seemed surprised by his addition to the conversation, her father nodding along as if backing up his words entirely.
“That’s just the truth mom,” Nicole spoke over her mother’s hurried breath, again cutting her off at the quick and shaking her head. It didn’t seem that the cobwebs in it would be clearing any time soon. “There’s nothing we can do about it and honestly, I’d much rather just pay the fine, it’s not a large one, and it’ll settle that once and for all.” She didn’t mention that she didn’t know how she was going to pay it, because while it wasn’t a large fine, considering, it was still larger than her current bank balance was going to cover. She also didn’t mention that she thought that maybe paying it would make her seem more honest, which felt devious to be thinking of, and she just… was muddled, her fingers tightening around Mason’s hand and swallowing even harder for what she had to say next.
“I’m moving in with Mason.” The band aid method, blurted out of her mouth and her grip tightening all the further in anticipation of the reaction she would be getting. One that she didn’t have to wait more than a few seconds before receiving, Marie’s cup clattering onto the top of the table and coffee sloshing over the sides. Her father was stoic, but so much so that it was obvious discomfort that had him hold himself so, and Dr. Friedrich… was looking at the both of them, censure filling his features and his eyebrows drawing to meet in the middle of his forehead.
“You can’t-” Marie’s voice interrupted by her
fathers- “Are you sure that-” and all overridden by Dr. Friedrich’s not-so-quiet clearing of his throat, all gazes rotated towards him expectantly.
“Are you sure that that is the best course of action for the two of you in the burgeoning relationship? Especially considering the haste in which you are executing this?” He didn’t sound outraged like her mother, nor like he was choking on something like her father had… he just sounded…. Like a therapist, looking knowingly at the two of them in a way that was frankly more irritating than it was comfortable. Unfortunately, on top of it, he was the one voice of reason Mason was most likely to listen to out of the three, making her hate his words all the more, especially watching Mason think over what it was he was saying. No, she wasn’t sure it was the best course of action. No, she didn’t have any insurance plans to cover what would happen if this did go wrong. And yes, it was very likely jumping the gun a little… However, it was the course of action that had already been decided on before this whole disaster snowballed… and especially now.
“I can’t be away from him right now.” Nicole didn’t have control over her words, verbal filter completely shot as the raw emotion leaked through her tone. “I don’t want to be across town when- if something happens...” She didn’t want to be alerted to his arrest or something even more sinister by a text or phone call from her parents hours later. She didn’t want to sleep without him, didn’t want to waste any more time than what they had already wasted over the years just because other people weren’t as comfortable with their relationship or the speed at which it was moving at as they were. “We don’t know what is going to happen, we don’t know how this is going to pan out, and I’m not going to waste my time pretending to carry on with life as normal just to make everyone else here comfortable.” Her voice was raising more than it needed to by the end, Mason’s fingers tightening back against hers the only thing that stoppered her words and kept her from going on.