Temporary Ending (Open)

Not Guilty! Never had two simple words had such an effect on Jorge. Though he was not the man on trial, there was still so much anxiety and issue these past few months that it almost felt like he was. The defense had been good, extremely good with the scene that they painted for the jury. It was not something that a decision could easily be brought about, but the defense attorney managed to bring up the image of the hero that Andrew had been in saving Jorge from the strangling grip of death that had seized him by the throat. The jury had seemed so moved by this that no matter what the prosecution attempted to throw at them, they were not swallowing it. To them it was a clean cut case, Andrew had saved a police officer’s life, and despite how boisterous the victim’s family was, it was obvious that they did not know their boy.

Jorge happily watched Andrew take that breath of freedom that only comes when one’s name is clear and remained seated as he walked by. Once Andrew had passed, Jorge turned his eyes on the screaming mother and grandmother who were still trying to get the judge to listen. But despite their hard to miss objections, they were, for the most part, being ignored.

For a moment, Jorge did feel a little guilt that the young man’s life had been taken and now he would only be a grave for this family. That is something that can never be justified, no matter how harsh the terms. But there is a difference in mourning the lost child and completely ignoring the type of person he really was. Jorge saw the look in that kid’s eyes as he was strangling him, he was not going to stop. There was no way that kid had any intention of letting him live. He had every intention of choking the life out of him.

But there would be no way to convince his family of that.

So he sat, waited for the courtroom to empty out just a bit more and found himself staring directly into the eyes of the angry mother who glared at him with such disdain. There was nothing Jorge could say to ease her suffering. The only he could do was give her a respectful nod before he climbed out from his seat and began to make his way out of the room.

“Pig!” she suddenly shouted.

Jorge paused and turned back to her. His expression stern and serious. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me you corrupt bastard!” she screamed. This was not born from grief, he thought as he looked into her eyes, her anger was purely born from her not getting her way and how unfair it was. He sighed as he shook his head and turned back to her.

“I’m sorry for your loss, ma’am,” was all he said as he continued on his way out of the courtroom. Just before leaving though, she got in one last word…

“You’ll pay! Both of you will pay!” she screamed just as the bailiff finally arrived to get her under control.

Jorge ignored the statement and instead continued outside where he saw both Andrew and Verdigris hugging tight. He could only smile at the sight and said nothing as he stepped over to the side and crossed his arms over his chest. He was happy Andrew was free. After so much torture he deserved a chance to finally catch his breath.

In her visit to the bathroom she missed the insults and threat thrown at Jorge, so when he approached and stood at a respectable distance (quickly encouraged to join them by Andrew’s words and her own enthused nods) nothing seemed amiss. Well, of course there would forever be that stain on Andrew’s mind, but that would have been there no matter which of the two had passed on. Perhaps if reincarnation existed the man who attempted to take Jorge’s life would come back changed, for another attempt at that thing called life.

“I’m glad you’re not going to jail too, Jack and I would have missed you.”

Especially her.

Her first Andy, the green-skinned girl she shared a room with had been around less and less frequently she noted, although she was sure they must just continually be missing each other, especially with how distracted Verdy had been as the case drew closer. Walks with Jack were soothing, and he had been getting more than the minimum recommended half-hour of walkies each day. In short, Andrew was one of the few she had been interacting with recently, and with him lost she would have been truly lonely once more.

Andrew’s teasing came easily and she smiled gratefully. It was a step down the long road to being back to the fun loving Andrew she had first met, without the darkness and discomfort from lack of sleep and stress over the upcoming trial. Perhaps he would never be the same, although lessened the stress of taking another’s life may need more time to fade into the dimness of suppressed memories.

Slipping her phone out of her bag and turning it on to check the time she pondered what was waiting for her back at the mansion. She had an unfinished essay which she had been avoiding for quite some time now, as the due date was still weeks away and the topic dull. She had also been playing a game online to increase her typing speed to that of the other women she worked with (even the woman with only nine fingers was far speedier than herself) and she was sitting stubbornly on the fourteenth level, needing to shave off another two seconds to pass to the fifteenth. Neither prospect seemed demanding, and knowing that she had left Jack asleep with a full bowl each of food and water reinforced the thought that she wasn’t needed back for at least a few more hours. The longer she spent away from the reproachfully glaring essay, the better.

“If Jorge is bailing I’ll join you. I’ll join you anyway, provided I won’t step on your manly-talk toes.”

She rolled her eyes. On the whole her two friends weren’t too ‘grunt grunt I’m a male and so can’t use real sentences’ but sometimes their relentless teasing was a little disconcerting. Due to its prolonged absence, however, she was surprised how much she welcomed back the gentle words not meant to hurt, only embarrass. Something in her was yearning for a highly sugary hot drink, and perhaps something homely to nibble on. If Jorge and Andrew displayed any hesitation she would simply get them to go and finish them at the Mansion. She was determined to move onto that next level before her next shift.

More congratulations for the court victory. Andrew wouldn't address those. He didn't really feel like it was a victory. Just an unfortunate situation that resolved in as favorable a way as he could hope for. Verdy said she'd come along for coffee, provide she didn't trample their 'manly-talk'. Andrew smirked.

"Ahh well, you know, Jorge and I are so manly that just regular talk with us is manly talk. You won't be stepping on any toes."

At Jorge's comment Andrew grinned first and then rolled his eyes.

"Please, I just want some straight black coffee."

To say nothing of the fact that Andrew actually preferred his coffee with at least some cream or creamer. The more nervous he was the closer to black he tended to take it. Now that the trial was over there was little cause to be nervous but he needed to wind down some anyway. Or the opposite maybe considering the caffeine contained in the beverage. Meh, details. Who needed them anyway? In either case Andrew would be quite happy to sit and have a drink with his friends.

"It shouldn't be too hard to find a coffee shop. This is New York after all. We can probably walk about half a block and find one."

>> “Ohhh, you mean a chai latte on half skim, two sugars, no cinnamon, dash of cold milk on top of the hot?”

Jorge cringed, as if the most horrible phrase had been just uttered to him. He shot Verdigris a mock glare. “Just for that, you’re buying your own.” But it was said with joking intent.

>> "Please, I just want some straight black coffee."

“Amen to that.”

It was set; the three of them were going to go for coffee. Jorge could not have felt better at the prospect. To be honest it was not so much the hot drink he wanted because it tasted good, the hot liquid would be good to burn away the problems and stress that had settled in the pit of his stomach all because of this case. For months he watched as Andrew both deteriorated and rebounded from the stress of the incident, vowing to take the full brunt of the horrible situation one minute, then finally deciding to confide in friends the next. It really must have been horrible for him, but the detective could only imagine the real turmoil inside. During this time he had felt something similar, a gnawing angry part of him that despised himself for putting the kid in that kind of danger to begin with. They had no reason to go walking to some Chinese food place after dark? Especially in this neighborhood, even if it was just across the street. To him, his decision was what put Andrew in this predicament.

That’s the funny thing about life, though. You never know where one decision will eventually lead you.

In the end though, as he looked at both Andrew and Verdigris’ relieved faces, he had to admit that he had to stop blaming himself. It was not like he knew what was going to happen that night, he didn’t put the gun in Andrew’s hand, and he didn’t make those thugs jump out and attack them. Part of him still felt weird, like maybe one day Andrew would wake up and suddenly start blaming him for the whole thing, but in the meantime, his friend was safe. The kid would have to live with what he had done, but with time and a little patience and self-forgiveness, he knew the kid would be okay.

He smirked though, in the end, and led the way towards one of the many exits of the courthouse. The time for blame and guilt was over for the moment. Now was the time for the three to simply sit and enjoy a peaceful, black roasted beverage. There had to be a coffee shop somewhere on the outside. It would be a premium location, after all, a lot of lawyers were around here and he was sure they all drank coffee.

The light that filtered in through the far away glass doors acted like a beacon for the man as he led the troupe out, hands stuffed into his pocket and walking ahead of the kids. The “friends” needed a moment and far be it for him to interfere. He was only the guy treating them to coffee to finally put the last nail in the coffin of this whole incident. He only hoped that indeed this was the end of it so they could all move on with their lives.

She smirked once at Andrew’s evaluation of Jorge’s nose, and again at his disbelief of her beverage of choice. She decided perhaps today was not a chai latte day, and if the place they wound up at had hot chocolate she would choose that instead. Leave the teasing of her drink choice for another outing. But back to the disbelief of her friend, her smirk transformed into a grin before she poked her tongue out cheekily.

“I guess you’ll never know.”

It was, in fact a real drink, and one she quite enjoyed, but for the meantime it was fine by her to let him wonder. Her eyes flicked to the back of the police officer guiding them ever closer to the outside doors, and from there to the satisfaction of their hot drinks supplier, and she gave a slight frown. Jorge had been… avoiding her lately, she was sure of it. What she wasn’t sure of was the reason. Had she said something to upset or offend him? She was certain she didn’t smell that bad, since she was rather fond of her showers…

Other than that the only other reason she could think of was that they were making him feel old. True, they were different enough in age to be his children, but it hadn’t really seemed to matter before. Maybe someone had said something to him about his ‘kids’, and he was feeling his age… Or Andrew’s semi-constant ‘old man’ comments had worked him into an uncomfortable place.

Whatever the reason, he seemed to be stand-offish, and it was starting to get weird. She glanced at Andrew, trying to catch his eye and tilted her head towards the detective’s back. Stepping quickly she drew into line on the one side, and raised an eyebrow at the grizzled face.

“Where you going speedy? Whatever paperwork is left for you at work won’t go anywhere.”

Unless it was a mutant trapped in a papery form, dropped off at the MRC for aggressively paper-cutting innocent scribblers… Hum. That could be an urgent type of inbox issues.

“The same way I don’t tread on manly talk toes, you don’t tread on friendly talk toes. So get your big ol’ detective feet right back into the conversation.”

Yeah.

At Verdy's instigation Andrew caught up to Jorge at almost precisely the same time. After Verdy had said her bit Andrew just grinned and elbowed Jorge.

"Yeah Jorge. Unless you're just too hip to hang out with the youngsters."

After this Jorge proceeded to explain that they had a kid that could turn into paper stuck in an origami fold that they were trying to help. Andrew blinked and tried not to laugh, though he did smirk a little. Now there was a coffee shop just up ahead and Jorge appeared to be steering them toward it. Good, Andrew felt like he could use the caffeine by now.

"Origami? Really?"

The idea of a small paper crane flapping around on someone's desk frantically trying to get someone to unfold it was too good not to chuckle at. Now they were at the door to the shop and Andrew stepped forward to hold the door.

"After you."