35 Friends

The next day starts much like the day before. I wake up to no call from my husband. I get dressed in an over-priced suit. I leave my flat only to be greeted by swarms of people outside the courtroom. And I sit in an uncomfortable wooden chair where I have to listen to people talk about me.

Not the most glamorous of lifestyles.

Once the bailiff announces the judge, everything just seems to go from there. Instead of opening statements, the prosecution immediately calls their next witness. I’m looking down at my hands when the judge asks them to do so, but when I hear Halloran say her name, I shoot to attention.

“Prosecution calls Rebecca Rattan to the stand.”

My eyes focus in as I watch her walk from the back of the courtroom. She’s wearing a smug smile that matches her ruby red lips. And, as in princess fashion, she’s wearing a closely fit knit blue dress with red and white striped heels. Apparently she’s team America.

They get her sworn in and settled before Halloran starts, “Could you please state your name for the court?”

“My name is Rebecca Rattan,” she tries to act bubbly and cute.

“And, Miss Rattan, can you tell us your affiliation with the defendant.”

“I wish there was none,” she’s sassy as always, but it only makes me smile. She’s so Rebecca. “I met Damian through Topher when he and I were dating.”

“And how long have you know, Mister Ashton?”

“Which one?” her eyes widen slightly when she becomes confused.

Halloran chuckles lightly, “I apologize, Mister Damian Ashton. How long have you known Damian?”

“We met about a year and a half ago.”

“At which time you were dating Topher?”

She smiles, “Correct.”

“And how long had you dated Topher?”

“Objection,” Bridget’s voice rings through the courtroom, “relevance?”

Halloran smiles sweetly at the judge, “I’m proving the lack of relationship between Damian and Christopher before their marriage.”

“I’ll allow it,” the judge looks over her glasses at Bridget, “Overruled.”

“Thank you, your honor.” The prosecution looks to his witness, “How long did you and Topher date?”

“Topher and I were together for three years,” she grins at the jury.

“And of those three years,” Halloran turns toward the jury, “how long did you know Damian?”

“I met Damian a year before we broke up.”

“That would mean that you broke up right around the time that Damian and Christopher got married. Is that correct?”

“Christopher broke up with me the night before he and Damian got married.”

“That’s a little strange, isn’t it? And to your knowledge, was Christopher dating Damian behind your back?”

Her eyes go big and round, “No, I don’t think Chris would do that.”

“Was there any inclination that he may like men?”

“Objection!” Bridget gets to her feet and slams a hand to the table. “The sexual orientation of my client and his husband are in no way part of this case! Sidebar!”

When the two counselors meet at the bench, I see the fiery redhead pointing and gesturing toward our opposition. The judge gestures along with her until she stops and looks over to ADA Halloran. Judge Everett raises an eyebrow and nods to him before making a shooing motion with her hands.

“The last question will be stricken from the record. My courtroom is not bias to sexuality, race, religion, gender or any other prejudice. My courtroom will be fair in every aspect,” the judge looks over at the jury. “You will disregard the last question. Do you understand?” There are twelve ‘yes your honor’s before she moves on. “Counsel you may resume your questioning.”

He nods at her before turning back to Rebecca, “So in your opinion, there was no relationship going on between them?”

“No,” she smiles like nothing just happened.

“And when did you first find out about the two of them?”

She looks a little annoyed by the question and shoots me a look, “When I got home from work the next day there was an envelope with a copy of their marriage license in it.”

I could feel my heart sink. If she tells them what else was in the parcel, it will make me look horrible.

“Was there anything else?”

Her eyes connect with mine and her eyebrows pull in slightly. A look of confusion flashes over her face, but she blinks and it’s gone. She takes a deep breath and straightens her back, “No.”

If anyone is looking at me they probably see my jaw drop. There’s no way that Rebecca wouldn’t use this against me. What just happened?

“No,” she clarifies, “it was just the license.”

Halloran raises an eyebrow, but does push it. Instead he clasps his hands together and starts pacing the space in front of the judge’s bench, “Miss Rattan could you tell the court how it got to your apartment?”

Rebecca looks up for a second and then back over to me. I could swear there’s a smirk playing at her lips, but it looks like she’s trying to cover it. She shrugs and pushes out her bottom lips, “When we were dating, sometimes Topher would use my address since I live closer to the city. Maybe in all the excitement, he put the wrong one.”

The prosecution stops abruptly and turns towards his witness, “Are you sure?”

She looks to be thinking about it for a second and then looks back to Halloran, “That’s the only thing I can come up with.”

“And it was definitely Christopher that sent it to you?”

Her eyes catch mine again, “It looked like his handwriting to me.”

“No further questions.”

Now I know my jaw has to be on the floor. This is out of control.

When Halloran walks away, she shoots me a wink, but straightens quickly as Bridget approaches.

“Miss Rattan, can you tell the court what it is you do for a living?” my attorney is on her game right away.

“I am a professional actress.”

“And are you in anything that the court would know?” a red eyebrow arches.

“Objection, relevance?” but he lacks conviction. It’s more of a tired try than and actual objection.

“Her credibility, your honor,” Bridget smiles pleasantly.

“I’ll allow it,” the judge nods and motions for her to continue.

“Are you in anything that the court would recognize, Rebecca?”

Becca smiles and nods, “I met Topher on a movie I did with him, but now I have a reoccurring role as Laurie Decker the main surgeon on the series ‘Last Meds’ from FOX.”

“That’s the show about a team of doctors that put their skillsets together to give dying patients their last resort. Is that correct?”

“Yes,” I’m surprise that she doesn’t sound cocky or continue to brag about her role. She’s just polite with short answers.

“So you really know your stuff?”

She makes a nervous face like she doesn’t want to answer the question, “I’ve been acting for a while. I guess I know the basics.”

“You could, if you wanted to, say…” Bridget brings her hands up in an exaggerated shrug, “… I don’t know. Make this jury believe anything you want?”

But Rebecca seems to be on her game today too, “That could be said for a lot of people today, including your client.” She shrugs nonchalantly, “I’m here to tell it like I know it. Nothing more; nothing less. I take my oath seriously.”

“Very well,” my lawyer nods. “You said earlier that you didn’t think there was a relationship going on between my client and his husband before they got married is that true?”

“Yes.”

“But they were friends, correct?”

Becca smiles, “Yes.”

“Could you describe their friendship to us?”

Sitting back in her chair, my once-nemesis’ smile becomes completely genuine. She sighs before shaking her head like she’s deciding something and then leans forward to speak into the microphone, “They had this bond that I’ve never seen between two people before. I’ve never seen anyone smile for someone else the way Topher did for-” she stops and waves her hand. “The way Topher does for Damian. They were always together. It was hard to get Topher to myself and when I did the topic usually just lead back to Damian. And then no matter how hard I tried, I could never get his attention back. It was like I didn’t matter because he would text Damian or call Damian and I was just an accessory. It was so frustrating and I hate to admit this,” the sound that comes from her mouth is a mix between a sigh and a laugh, “I was so jealous.”

“So to answer your question before about knowing my stuff,” Rebecca continues. “I would say yes. I know my stuff because I could pass it off perfectly that I hated Damian. I was rude and judgmental. I would rant about him being a bad influence and corrupting Toph, but that wasn’t the case at all.”

“What was the case Miss Rattan?” Bridget sounds meek like she didn’t expect any of that.

And let’s be honest, no one did. I certainly didn’t. She must be very good at her job. I even find myself wanting to watch an episode (or two) of her show.

Princess looks over to me and sticks her tongue out before saying, “I wished I could be as important to anyone as Damian is to Christopher. I wasn’t blind. I could see that Chris really affected Day too, but I just didn’t want to see it. They were like each other’s missing halves. Can I say something that probably won’t be mentioned?” she looks up to the judge.

“If it pertains to the case and counsel agrees, I don’t have a problem,” Judge Everett confirms.

“Go ahead,” Bridget motions toward the jury.

“I’m probably the only one that you’re going to hear from that knew Christopher before and after his father’s death. We started filming our movie even before he’d gotten sick and Chris was completely different person. He was so happy and he looked forward to everything. You could hardly find him without a smile,” she grins like she remembers the times she’s talking about. Then her face become serious, “But the sicker his dad became the more it brought Chris down. It all happened so fast. And soon he wasn’t smiling at all. We would shoot our scene and he would be the character he needed to be, but as soon as the cameras were off he turned into this person that I didn’t even know.”

Her sigh is heavier this time, like it’s physically weighs her down, “We started dating because our publicists thought it would be a good career move. Mostly for me because I was a new actress at the time, but since he’d been so upset they thought it could help him a little too. We were really good friends and I really just wanted to help him. The idea of a career boost wasn’t bad either. It kept management off his back about being reclusive and the press seemed to like it. It happened like that for two years because I just wanted to be there for him.” A smirk comes into play and she looks over at me again, eyes sparkling, “And then one day I went over to his place after work and he was smiling. I couldn’t believe it. He was in his kitchen making pot after pot of coffee. He would taste a sip and then shake his head and pour the rest down the drain. I sat down at the breakfast bar and we talked for hours. It wasn’t about anything in particular, but we were laughing and smiling. I was so happy.

“And finally I asked him,” she looks over to the jury and squints a little as her voice thinkens, “I asked him, ‘What’s gotten into you?’ and all he said was he had a great day. It was such a strange response because we’d have a decent day every now and then where he would seem happy, but it was nothing like this.

“Then,” she continues with a shaky smile, “a couple days later, he tells me about this guy that he met. And if I had to compare it, I would say it was like a middle school girl talking about her crush. It was a little startling, but I was just so happy that he was smiling.

“And when I met Damian a few days after that, I knew right away why he’d affected Chris,” her eyes collect tears on her bottom lid. “Damian has this presence that can make an entire room smile. He’s exactly what Chris needed. I was so jealous.” The water slip from her eyes, but she’s still smiling, “And I’m so happy that they found each other.”

She sniffs loudly and waves at her eyes. The judge hands down a small box of tissues which Becca takes few to dab at her eyes. She chuckles, adding, “On the issue of marriage fraud, if you don’t mind me saying, I don’t think that’s the case; especially not for Toph. And if he knew it would hurt Topher, Damian wouldn’t do it either.”

“Thank you, Miss Rattan,” Bridget smiles and nods. “No further question.”

Bridget comes over to our desk, but stops before sitting down. She gives me a worried look, “Are you okay?”

“I’m-” my voice breaks and I have to clear my throat. When I shake my head, I realize there’s tracks a water running down my face. I let out a huge sigh and nod, “I’m fine.”

Bridget stands up straight and looks at Judge Everett, “Defense requests a short recess, your honor.”

“Granted,” the most powerful women in the room announces and then adds, “I think we could all use a breather after that one.”

I get escorted to a room off the side of the courtroom where I run my fingers through my hair and take a few deep breaths. Shaking out my arms, I turn to walk back out, but I’m stopped when Rebecca walks in.

She’s looking down and seems a bit nervous when she says, “I’m sorry for everything.”

Shaking my head, I let myself smile at her, “I’m sure I didn’t make it easy for you.” Then without giving it a second thought, I walk up to her and wrap my arms around her. “There’s no reason you can’t be a part of our life. Christopher was always telling me you meant well,” I let go of her so I could hold her at arm’s length. “Thank you for everything out there.”

She shakes her head and pulls me in for another hug; one that I return quite easily.

“If I make it through this, would you like to come over for dinner sometime? I’m not so bad a cook, after all,” I offer as we part.

She nods and kisses me on the cheek, “I’d like that.”

“Good. Now that that’s sorted we should probably get back,” I nod toward the door.

She stops walking right before opening it and rubs my cheek, “You have lipstick on your cheek.” Then she looks straight into my eyes, “You’ll make it through this. I know you will.”

~A/N~

GUYS! I'm putting this up early (as in like 3AM) bc I am in such a good mood, I couldn't wait any longer.

First off, thank you to everyone who sent me well wishes. Don't worry, I am fine. One of those you're really sick and you're going to feel really sick for a while. And sometime when you're least expecting it, you may get really sick again. No big.

Secondly, I don't know if any of you are big baseball fans, but I grew up in St. Louis Missouri! Therefore, I am a HUGE Cardinals fan. And we just won the first round of postseason series. So now we're going to the NLCS. It starts tonight! So everyone in America should be rooting for the Cards! LOL okay maybe not everyone. But really, GO CARDS!

And my youngest sister turned 15 a couple days ago! She had her first homecoming this weekend. It was adorable and I wish I could have been there. (I live far away from her)

So all in all it's a good day/weekend/life in general.

Becca on the side!