Breaking Ties: An Ensemble Story (Read 250,345 times)

[André DiMera]

Oh man, that had to be so hard for the girls to find out, especially Claire! I wonder if she’s seriously considering going to a school somewhere far away.

Wonder what Roman will say about Kate’s plan, and what he’s really there for.

Great chapter, heroicmuse!

[heroicmuse]

Week 514 - 2
Saxon stepped forward, blocking the judge’s view of Nat’s face, which was curled into a scowl. “Your Honor,” he said, “I can assure you that my client is not eager to repeat the experience of participating in this trial from behind bars. She has learned her lesson and will behave appropriately in your courtroom from now on.”

“Those are words that sound nice but are ultimately empty,” Judge Hildebrand said. “They also are not coming directly from your client. Now, I realize she is represented by counsel and in most circumstances, it would be appropriate for you to speak for her. However, since in this instance, the defendant must convince me that she is contrite and will not repeat the offensive behavior, I need to hear directly from her.”

Nat’s eyes narrowed as Saxon said, “Yes, your Honor.” Why wasn’t he fighting for her the way she wanted him to? He turned toward her and said under his breath, “Fake it if you have to but act as contrite as possible. It’s your only way out of jail.”

Nat nodded. She raised her head slightly and put her hands behind her back. “I’m sorry I disrespected the court, Your Honor. Spending all that time behind bars made me realize I can’t take it for granted that I’m free to be in the courtroom. I won’t do anything stupid again if you give me another a chance.”

“I see,” the judge said. “Tell me in your own words what you did wrong that got you in trouble.”

Nat swallowed hard. “I didn’t know there’d be a quiz, Your Honor,” she said, and smiled slightly, but the judge didn’t smile back. “Sorry. Um, I made up lies about the DA to try to get out of the case and interrupted when there was a witness against me with nonsense.”

“So you do understand,” the judge said. “Very well. You may remain in the courtroom today.”

“And her bail?” Saxon asked.

Judge Hildebrand glared at him. “Your client has done nothing but threaten and intimidate witnesses against her since the day she was arrested. I made a mistake by granting her bail in the first place.”

“Why did you, then?” Nat asked, annoyed, and remembered almost too late, “Your Honor.”

“That is a question I have been asking myself ever since,” Judge Hildebrand said. “It is clear you did not deserve to be free pending trial and did nothing with your freedom but wreak havoc. However, it is possible I will give you a second chance. I will allow you to remain in the courtroom today. At the end of the day, I will decide whether to reinstate your bail based on how you behave and whether I think you have shown me adequate evidence that you will not attempt to intimidate witnesses.”

“Your Honor,” Rubin said, standing up. “With all due respect…”

“With all due respect, you can make your argument against reinstatement at the end of the day, as that is when the decision will be made,” Judge Hildebrand said.”Now please sit down so we can get on with this trial. Mr. Saxon, call your first witness.”

Saxon hesitated. Nat said, “Well? What are you waiting for?”

Saxon sighed deeply and said, “I’m afraid I have to ask for a continuance. You see, I was relying in part on the expert testimony of Dr. Marlena Evans to help the jury understand the psychology behind the lies the prosecution witnesses told, but her husband passed away this afternoon so she will not be able to testify.”we5K*I

“Dr. Evans has my sympathy,” Judge Hildebrand said, “but I would not recommend a continuance. Remember: whether your client goes back to jail depends on her behavior in court, so if you continue the case now, I will have no choice but to send her there. Thus, I strongly urge you to call a different witness and we will hear from Dr. Evans when she has had time to absorb her loss.”

“Yes, your Honor,” Saxon said. He sighed deeply. “In that case, I call Natalie Simmons to the stand.”

[André DiMera]

Oh, this should be interesting. Just from the way she’s been talking, which 8 hope the judge has heard, Nat’s not at all changed her attitude.

Great chapter, heroicmuse!

[krw627]

If Matt takes the stand, I'll bet her bail is still revoked.

[heroicmuse]

Week 514 - 3
“You’re so quiet,” Claire whispered to Ciara as Belle pulled into a visitor’s parking space at her parents’ building. “You okay?”

Ciara shook her head. “You’d think I would be,” she said carefully. “I-it’s not like this is the first person who’s died. A-and I wasn’t even really related to him. I mean, I knew him, but it’s not like when Grandpa Doug or G-grandpa Victor… and with my dad there was never even a body or anything, my mom just told me one day he was gone…”

Claire put her arm around her. “We’ve lost so many people,” she said. “Especially you.”

Ciara shrugged. “I got used to it. And my mom has Aiden now, and Chase is a pretty cool stepbrother most of the time.”

“I bet.” Claire reddened slightly. She frowned as Belle hung up the phone. “Who were you talking to?”

Belle said, her voice flat, “Your grandma Julie is already here, Ciara. She wants you to meet her in the lobby to help her carry some things up for my mom.”

“Claire too?” Ciara asked. “I-if you want to come, I mean.”

“I can if you need me to,” Claire said.

Shawn said, “I have a feeling Julie wants some one-on-one time with Ciara, but there’s no harm in asking, I guess. But if she wants you to go, you need to respect that, okay?”

“Even if she only hints at it,” Belle added. “People need different things at times like this, so it’s important to respect that.”

“I understand!” Claire said. She put her hands to her mouth. “Sorry. I don’t know why I snapped at you. That’s not like me.”

“You’re human too,” Belle said, “and this is tough for all of us.” She sighed. “I hope Aunt Sami isn’t here yet. Don’t say anything if you see her, but I really am not in the mood for dealing with her now.”

“Who ever is?” Ciara said.

“Hey!” Shawn said. “Keep those kinds of opinions to yourself, Ciara. No one needs them. And if you gossip about what Belle just said, I’ll make sure Mom punishes you worse than you ever have been in your life.”

Ciara put her hands up. “I’m not! God, you really think I’m this evil person, don’t you?”
Shawn started to say something, but Belle held up her hand. “Let’s all take a breath,” she said. “This kind of fighting is why I’m not ready to deal with my sister, and I’m not having it here.”

“Sorry,” Shawn said. “I’m not trying to upset you further, Belle. I was just trying to protect — ”

“I know what you were trying to do,” Belle said, “and I love you for it, but what I need is peace.” She pressed the button to unlock the doors, hard. “How about we all go into the lobby together and then we’ll decide who’s going up and who’s staying with Julie?” She pulled the door open and got out of the car without waiting for an answer.

Shawn leaned over and quietly took the keys out of the ignition. “Last thing Mom needs is to lock the keys in the car,” he said to Claire. “Let’s go give these to her.”

Claire nodded, her eyes wide.



At the safe house, Andrew had called the residents into the living room.

“I hope this meeting is to tell us we’re going home soon,” Hannah said, “cause I don’t know how much more of this I can take.”

“Yeah,” Brianna agreed. “We did our part. We told the truth about what Nat made us do. When does she get locked up instead of us?”

“She has to finish her trial first,” Andrew said, “and from what I’ve heard, she’s taking the stand in her own defense.”

Hannah’s eyes narrowed. “I can just imagine what she’s gonna say,” she said, throwing herself onto the couch. “It would be comical if it wasn’t for the fact that she got us into this mess and she could still come after us if she manages to snow even one juror.”

“If she’s gonna snow anyone, it better be all of them,” Kenneth said, “cause if she gets a hung jury I can guarantee you the DA’s gonna try again and I don’t want to be here another six months and have to give that testimony about what Marcel and Nat did to me all over again.”

“Me either,” Brianna said, “but I’d do it if it came to it,”

“Me too,” Hannah agreed, “but let’s stop talking about it. My Grandma Helen used to say what you speak you bring into existence, and I don’t know if I believe all that, but I say we shouldn’t risk it.” She turned toward Andrew. “What did you call us in here for if not to tell us we can pack our bags?”

“To show you this,” Andrew said. “Paul was working on it when he got the call about his dad.” He blinked hard.

Andrew and Paul sat on the edge of the bed together. Paul shook his head. “I can’t believe my dad is gone. It took me half my life to learn I was his, and then a few short years later…”

Andrew squeezed Paul’s hand. “I wish I knew what to say. Um, you sure you’re gonna be okay going back by yourself? I’m sure my dad can arrange for two other agents to watch the witnesses so we can both go to the funeral.”

“I love you for wanting to be there for me and to pay your respects to my dad, but no. They’re all so stressed about being stuck here, and I think having to get used to an entirely new crew of guards would be too much for them. So you stay here, and I’ll call you as soon as I get to Salem.”

“If you’re sure.” Andrew hugged Paul. “I love you so much,” he said, “and I’m so sorry about your dad.”

Andrew sighed deeply. “I hope he’s okay,” he said to himself. He took a deep breath and said, “Anyway, he was able to finish programming this thing remotely.” He gestured toward a flat screen TV that had been installed into the wall.

“Are you for real?” Hannah said. “You think we want to watch TV?”

“I think you want to go home, same as I do,” Andrew said. “But since none of us can, Paul and I wanted to give you something to take your mind off your situation. Paul spent a lot of time programming this thing so that it would block channels that could influence you if you’re called back to testify again, so be grateful, will you?”

Hannah hung her head, knowing he was right but not wanting to admit it.

“Andrew’s right,” Jeremy said, climbing over the couch and sitting down next to Brianna. “Besides, look at the bright side. We got a movie channel.” He turned on the TV. “We could make popcorn and catch up on all the movies we didn’t have a chance to go see back home.”

They had TV in jail too, Hannah thought, remembering how at the end of the night, the guards would turn it off and make everyone take a card. If your card had a pink dot on it, you got strip-searched before being allowed to go to your dorm, while everyone else just got a regular pat-down. She swallowed hard, not wanting Andrew to call her ungrateful again.

[André DiMera]

Interesting that Ciara is so affected by this. She’s lost so many people. Glad Belle got everyone to stop arguing.

I get why Hannah’s annoyed that they can’t go home yet, but at least this is something. Hope Paul will be okay.

Great chapter, heroicmuse!

[Kpatch]

It doesn't help for Shawn to be yelling at his sister at a time like this. If anything, he should be chastising Belle since she's the one who was being negative about Sami.

[heroicmuse]

Week 514 - 4
In the student union, Dani talked to Alison on the phone while she ate a roast beef sandwich. “What happened when you talked to that cop?” she asked.

“Nothing yet,” Alison said, flopping back on her bed in the hotel she was staying at. She and Emily had agreed it was better to stay in a hotel a few nights than to stay with either of their parents, who would just ask awkward questions. “I mean, we’re obviously on the right track because some random cops harassed us and then when they finally let us go and we went to the police station, the desk sergeant claimed Gerald Prescott wasn’t in the precinct and wouldn’t give us contact info for him.”

Dani swallowed so hard a piece of meat started to go down the wrong pipe and she had to cough it back up. “Wait,” she said. “The cops harassed you?”

“It wasn’t that big a deal,” Alison said.

“Don’t listen to her,” Emily called from across the room. “She doesn’t want to scare you, but they threatened to arrest us over a wrapper that fell on the floor instead of in the trash They took forever searching us before letting us go and we don’t think it was a coincidence.”

Dani shuddered. “Good thing I didn’t go with you guys,” she said. “With my probation, I mean.”

“Yeah,” Alison said. “But don’t worry about us. We’re not giving up. I’m going to call Prescott -- our Prescott, I mean -- and tell him his brother’s being elusive. Maybe he can help us get in touch.”

“Another thing,” Emily added. “When we went to see Josh, the guards wouldn’t let Alison in. Only me. They said Josh didn’t want to see her but he didn’t even know she was there, so we think it’s a lie.”

“Wow,” Dani said. “Okay. I can’t stand being on the sidelines. What can I do to help?”

“Nothing, really,” Alison said, “although maybe my boss would think differently. I’ll text you her number so you can get ahold of her. Tell her what we’ve experienced so far and find out if there’s anything she can have you do from Salem to help us with the investigation.”

“K,” Dani mumbled, not wanting to admit that the idea of talking to a stranger made her super nervous. “I’ll get in touch as soon as I’ve finished lunch.”

She hung up, sighing deeply, and took a sip of her water.

Someone was watching her as she did.
Lucas said, keeping his voice low, “The short version is she thinks she’s gonna break me and Sami up as a kind of bonus to getting Rafe out of this mess she put him in.”

“Well, that’s not happening,” Roman said, “and I think she knows it. Though I am curious how she thinks you and Sami have anything to do with it.”

“Be glad you don’t understand how her brain works,” Lucas said. He crossed his arms. “From what Rafe said, her main idea is that she’ll plead guilty in exchange for them leaving Rafe alone. Which isn’t likely to happen, knowing the DAs around here, they’d throw them both in jail. Anyway, I guess to sweeten the pot or whatever, she told Rafe if he gave up his objections she’d do some dark magic or something so somehow I end up with Nicole and Sami’s free to go back to Rafe.”

“Another thing that’s not gonna happen.” Roman laughed. “I gotta hand it to my Katie. She’s got some imagination.”

“Yeah,” Lucas said. “Though I wasn’t laughing at the time. To be honest, I was thinking about threatening to tell you if she didn’t back off, but look at me, already giving away my leverage.”

“You’re a better man than that, Lucas,” Roman said. “Do you need me to talk to your mom about cutting out the nonsense?”

“I don’t know,” Lucas said. “My main concern is if it gets back to Sami…”

“There’ll be hell to pay Though I dare say she’s got bigger things on her mind. That’s the other reason I’m here.” He sighed deeply. “I hope by now you’ve heard,” he said. “John Black…”

“He passed away. I know.” Lucas blinked hard. “Belle called Sami about an hour ago.”

“How’d she take it?”

“Not good,” Lucas said. “You know Sami, pretending everything’s fine but in the meantime her face was trembling and she said she had to get out of here and she wouldn’t let me go with her. She’s either halfway to her mother’s or halfway to spending the night in a jail cell. Sometimes it’s hard to tell which is which with her, even for me.”

Roman nodded. “I’ll call her. No matter what she says, she shouldn’t be alone at a time like this.” He picked up his phone and dialed.

[krw627]

I'm glad Roman is reaching out to Sami. Both Lucas and Roman made excellent points about not trying to change her mind, but she also shouldn't be alone.

[André DiMera]

Wonder who’s watching Dani. Glad Alison thought of a way for her to help.

Glad Lucas told Roman everything. Though Roman's reaction was interesting.

Great chapter, heroicmuse!

[Kpatch]

It's good that Lucas had that talk with Roman. Not sure anyone can contain Kate though.

[heroicmuse]

Week 514 - 5
Rafe was wearing a black suit and tie. He pressed his phone against his ear. “Thanks, Justin. You sure they won’t count it against me? I hadn’t worked with John in a lot of years, but he was a friend, and I just feel like I gotta be there for his widow now. Yeah, Nicole’s gonna be with me. Right, okay. Thanks again.”

“What’d Justin say?” Nicole asked as Rafe hung up. She was wearing a black dress and a veil that hung from a hat.

Rafe sighed. “He doesn’t know if the judge’ll go for postponing cause of John’s death. There was another case this morning where it didn’t work out, but he said from what he hears, that defendant’s a troublemaker who’s looking for any excuse to delay, so…”

“So maybe we’ll get lucky,” Nicole said. “Don’t tell me you have to stay here waiting for his call. John was one of your best friends!”

“I don’t know that I’d say that. We were friends, sure, but Abe and Roman were far closer to him.” Rafe sighed as he plled on the tie. “Anyway, no, I don’t have to stay here. I can go to Marlena’s with you. But Justin, he said if the judge denies his motion for a continuance, I’ll have to drop everything and go to court.”

“Let’s hope that doesn’t happen,” Nicole said. “Damn that Sloan Peterson.” Her phone rang. “Who the heck?” She answered. “Hello? Um, Dani, right? I don’t want to be rude, but I do have to go pay my respects to someone who just died, so I can’t talk about work right now. Tell you what. If you don’t mind feeling like you’re being palmed off to be someone else’s problem even though that’s not what I’m doing at all. I’ll give you my assistant’s number. Her name is Sally Rogers, and not only does she have all the patience that I forget to pack every morning, but she has the advantage of being in the office all day and not splitting her attention between work and overwhelming sadness about someone who died too young. No, I’m fine, really. I just wanted to impress upon you that I’m not really in a position to help you with anything right now. Thanks.”

“What was that all about?” Rafe asked as she hung up the phone.

“I’m not sure, exactly,” Nicole said. “Alison seems to have adopted this girl who lives down the hall from her and somehow I ended up with an unofficial third intern out of the deal. Not that I could talk to her now.” She took out her phone “I’d better text her Sally’s number before she calls again.”

“Good idea,” Rafe said. “Nicole, if you got work…”

“Come on. John was one of the few people in this town who was consistently nice to me in the days when I was on some invisible list of people who were supposed to be pariahs. Of course I’m going to stop by Marlena’s, if she’ll have me. Besides, if you get called to court I want to be by your side.”

“It’s just a stupid pre-trial conference,” Rafe said. “From what Justin says, it’s a total waste of time cause I’m not doing any kind of plea bargain when I’m innocent.”

“Okay, now I’m definitely coming with you,” Nicole said. “I want to join in on laughing in Sloan Petersen’s face when she tries to disguise 25 years in prison as a gift you can’t get from anyone else.”

“I don’t know they’ll let you in the room, but fine, you can come with. But first, let’s go pay our respects.

Rafe linked arms with Nicole as they walked out of the house.


On the witness stand, Nat leaned forward into her microphone. “Of course I didn’t want Hannah’s boyfriend to be kidnapped,” she said. “Hannah was my best friend, and my stupid brother ruined any chance we’d ever get back to our friendship.”

Saxon said, “So you didn’t tell Hannah that the only way she’d get her boyfriend back is if she surrendered to you?”

“Of course not. I mean, yes, I said it, but I didn’t want to. Marcel made me.”

“How did Marcel do that?”

“He was the leader of the Fire Lions. You don’t get that way without having dirt on everyone, plus he was my brother, so he knew which buttons to press to get exactly what he wanted out of me.”

“So you’re saying your brother blackmailed you?”

“Among other things.” Nat pushed her hair behind her ear. Making her eyes wide, she said, “T-the horrible things he did to Hannah and Chanel, um, I really apologize for. I know how bad it felt, to have him inside you when you didn’t want him there.”

“You know firsthand?” Saxon said.

Nat nodded. “Y-yes,” she said her eyes wide. “I know cause Marcel did to me too. I was his own sister, but that didn’t matter. He… he raped me.”

[André DiMera]

So glad Nicole is going to pay her respects. Hopefully this pre-trial conference goes well.

Well, that’s an interesting turn of events!

Can we please have previews, heroicmuse?

[krw627]

Why do I think Nat is lying through her teeth?

I'm glad Nicole didn't just brush Dani off as I think the girls might be in danger.

[heroicmuse]

Thank you André DiMera, Kpatch, and krw627 for your comments this week!

Next week has it all... excitement, sadness, maybe even some romance. Read on for spoilers.

Coming Up On Breaking Ties...
Several people stop by to pay their respects, but one person who is important to Marlena has not made an appearance yet, worrying her at a time when she does not need extra stress. However, look for tributes from many of John's family and friends.

Meanwhile, life goes on elsewhere in Salem. Nat's testimony continues and she manages to get herself a stern warning from the judge about her bail chances if she doesn't straighen up immediately. But when it's time for cross-examination, will she be able to control herself?

Elsewhere, Alison realizes just how scared and desperate some people are to cover up the truth about Josh's case after a conversation with Emily, and someone continues to tail Dani as she heads toward her meeting with Sally.

Finally, as orientation continues, Ruby's feelings toward Sydney intensify, but will she act on them?