The Meaning of Life Part 27
Just like the last hearing, witness after witness went to the stand to testify on the infamous neko's character. And just like the initial hearing, Septum did very little to nothing to challenge those witnesses in his cross examinations.
So Treize, Sally and Duo's friends that had taken the stand were in and out of the spotlight relatively quickly. It was how the braided teenager HAD expected the beginning of the appeal to go. It all was to serve as a build up to his pregnancy as the newest look into his case.
The tactic was safe one, but there was still a risk that it was giving Septum time to come up with an angle that would work for him when the new witnesses came up. It was something that Duo would just have to deal with if and when it came up.
On one of his few moves to make a cross against one of his challenger's witnesses, Septum stood before the stand and smirked, "Now, Miss Winner, you have admitted that you willingly made what the defendant was considering a wedding band even after the high courts had denied the allowance of them to wed."
Folding his arms, the prosecutor tilted his head and frowned, "Do you not see that as being a slap in the face of the Supreme Justices and their initial decision?"
An amused smile tugged Isis's lips as she responded calmly, "The Justices never declared that wearing a simple band was against their ruling, so I do not see how that could be considered 'a slap in their faces.' It was simply a sign of the fact that feelings cannot be changed, regardless of how anyone else saw their relationship."
Tilting her own head, the young woman stated, "I have worked with many a socially accepted couple in my business. And I can tell you beyond any doubt that Duo and Heero understand more about love than any one of those other clients of mine. They deserve those rings. "
Several members of the Justices sat back in their seats as though physically reeling over the witness' testimony. Over at the defense table, the pregnant neko smiled warmly at his friend as his tail swayed lazily behind him. Equally moved by the sentiments, Heero gave a small nod to Isis.
Not having expected that retort, Septum cleared his throat and did his best to cover his disappointment over the situation. Unable to come up with anything to regain some of the ground that he had just lost, he decided to bury the hatchet until the time was right.
Quickly forcing a smile, the prosecutor looked up to Justice Harris and told him, "No further questions, Your Honor." That said, he turned on his heels and headed back towards his table to have a seat and write some notes.
Meanwhile, Duo had a much more sincere grin on his face over how this round of the case had gone. Septum had even knocked himself down a few points when he thought that he was going to turn the tide. So far, the neko could not have been more pleased.
Justice Harris peered down to the young woman seated at his right and smiled kindly, "Thank you, Miss Winner. You may step down, now." Bowing her head, the jewelry store owner rose from her seat and made her way around the wooden railing of the witness stand.
"She handled that well," Heero commented with a smirk under his breath as he peered at his mother from the corner of his eye.
Danielle nodded and whispered back, "Calling Isis as a witness was a stroke of genius on Duo's part. She really has been winning over a lot of the Justices since taking the stand, I've been noticing."
Isis gave her braided friend a wink on her way past him and through the swinging bar's door to join Quatre and Relena in the public benches. Peering over his shoulder to the young woman, Heero reached back to squeeze her hand with a quiet, 'thank you,' that was nearly lost under the mutters spreading throughout the room.
Tightly squeezing the hand back, Isis grinned, "Don't mention it, darlin'." Quatre was the total picture of pride as he wrapped his arm around his sister's waist in a one-armed embrace and kissed her cheek.
Wufei chewed on the inside of his cheek before muttering, "I'm almost afraid to say that it's going as well as it seems. We all thought that the last hearing was completely in our favor." Seated at his right, Sally nodded, equally worried.
Folding his hands together on his desk, Harris addressed the defendant, "Mister Maxwell, please call your next witness."
Already knowing who was next on the neko's list, Trent mumbled, "Now he moves in for the kill." His own nerves growing, he silently wondered how the cat-eared boy was holding up with so much on the line.
Slowly rising from his chair, Duo announced, "The defense calls Doctor Hilde Schbeiker." As one of the few names that were not recognized by the crowd at large, the people gathered began to whisper all the louder.
The back doors of the courtroom opened for the doctor. Dressed in a skirted, deep purple business suit, Hilde moved down the walkway with every eye in the room watching. Heading past the swinging door, she passed by the defense and prosecution desks to take her seat at the stand beside the Justices.
While his key witness was sworn in, Duo rose from his seat and every voice that had been speaking up to that point stilled. Approaching the witness stand, the neko requested, "Just for the record, could you please state your name and profession?"
Nodding firmly, his friend replied clearly, "Hilde Schbeiker, obstetrician." Gasps and outright speaking between the observers filled the air at that announcement.
Intrigued himself, it took a moment for Harris to recognize the growing noise. Blinking out of his surprise, he reached for his gavel to give three quick hits as he ordered sternly, "Order. Order in the court." The audience was swift to oblige, eagerly focusing on the young woman on the witness stand.
Once the room was silent again, Duo walked towards his friend and informed, "Let's just cut to the chase here, Hilde. Could you please, in your expert opinion, explain everything that you know about the state that I am in and how it came about?"
"Gladly," the doctor grinned simply. Taking a deep breath, she went into great detail on what she and Howard had discovered regarding the neko's make-up since he had been regenerated with the addition of female DNA.
If the reporters in the balcony had not already been paying close attention up until that point, they were all on the edge of their seats as they wrote in their pads and typed frantically on their laptops. Recorders were refilled with new tapes to get every word spoken.
Wrapping up her explanation, Hilde stated, "The result of all of these elements has resulted in pregnancy. Furthermore, the feline genetics caused the embryo to split three times to bring about a healthy set of triplets."
Eyes widened in disbelief at that bit of unexpected news and another round of gasps went through the crowd. Susan's writing hand froze as her back straightened stiffly. "T-triplets?" she breathed in disbelief.
Duo gazed over his shoulder to Heero with a nervousness in his eyes. Smiling, the artist nodded for him to press on. Neither young man was particularly thrilled over having to share their personal lives with the world, especially in this manner, but they really had no other choice in this situation.
Relieved by that nod of approval from his partner, the neko faced Hilde again. "And do you have any proof of this with you today, then?" he inquired as was protocol when introducing evidence.
"Yes, I do," the doctor replied as she reached down for the briefcase she had carried in with her. Opening it, she removed a folder and handed them to her friend while saying, "These are screen captures from your last ultrasound with me."
A low rumble of discussions in reaction filled the air. Just as Harris reached for his gavel, the noise died back down before he even needed to use it.
Carefully accepting the envelope, Duo handed it up to the stunned white-haired Justice at the center podium. "If the court will, I would like to introduce these images as evidence for this case," he requested.
Septum rushed to his feet with a shouted, "Objection! Relevance!" Raising an arm to the envelope that Harris was about to accept, he demanded, "The doctor is sworn in and her word should be enough. What more would it do to simply draw this out further by looking at some pictures?"
Oh, the prosecutor knew exactly what good it would do for the defense if the Justices looked at those ultrasounds. There would be an emotional reaction to the images... a reaction that he could not afford if he had any hopes of winning this appeal.
The objection was a long shot, but one that Septum needed to make for even the slightest chance that the evidence be excluded. Duo lowered his arm bearing the images, his ears perked in anticipation, but he never showed his worry as he waited for the call from the presiding judge.
Folding his arms on his desk, Harris smirked at the prosecutor, "Nice try, Septum. But, you know very well the relevance these images have in this case. Objection overruled."
With a curse under his breath, the prosecutor lowered his head respectively and returned to his seat. Displeased as he was, he retained his cool, collected demeanor.
Duo refrained from grinning too widely as he handed over the envelope to the head Justice. Removing the contents within, he paged through the snapshots. For every page he looked through, his eyebrows rose the slightest bit.
Several members of the audience began whispering to their neighbor as the evidence was passed from one judge to the next. "What I wouldn't give to have even one of those pictures," a reporter behind Susan muttered.
As low a thing as it was for anyone to wish to invade such a private thing, that was the very thought on the mind of everyone in that balcony.
Once all of the Justices had a chance to page through the ultrasounds, Duo turned towards Hilde and commented, "Anyone looking at a pregnant male would have to wonder what condition the babies would be in. Could you please give your assessment on what, if any, health issues may be showing even this far along?"
Leaning closer to the microphone before her, the obstetrician replied, "From all of the tests and scans that I have been conducting for weeks now, I see absolutely nothing to worry about regarding the health of the babies."
Hilde fixed her gaze upon the Justices as she continued, "Even with their growing as rapidly as they are because of their bearer's feline make-up, they are not showing any signs of complications. At this rate, they will be born as happy, perfect and healthy as any that could come from a woman."
Since seeing the ultrasounds, even those members of the Justices that had been amongst the more difficult ones to win over up to then were in rapt attention as they listened in.
Watching even more of his pull slip away from him, Septum could do nothing more than sit and wait while his blood pressure rose. Finally, the ultrasounds reached him so that he could see for himself what he was up against. Every page he turned, his stomach churned more and more over what an impact those babies were having on the appeal.
Unable to handle seeing those images any further, he gave the photos back to the bailiff to be set aside for the Justices' disposal.
And how do you attack babies to win a case? It would have been a career suicide for the prosecutor if he tried. There simply had to be another angle that he could use to turn the tide back around in his favor.
It was a very different story for Duo, who could not have been any happier over how things were progressing, as he smiled to his witness, "Thank you, Miss Schbeiker."
Arms folded behind his back, the cat-eared youth nodded to Justice Harris, "No further questions, Your Honor." On his way back to his desk, the neko smiled brightly to his very happy support team before returning to his seat.
Discretely, his long tail slipped between a cut out diamond shape in the bar behind him to wrap around Heero's wrist. Chuckling softly, the artist ran his free hand over the soft, brown fur as the closest thing to an embrace they could share at the moment.
Hands folded on his own desk, the white-haired judge focused on the prosecutor and informed, "Your cross, council."
Certainly not wanting to keep the doctor on the stand and have her play further on the jury's emotions, especially after his last failed attempt to get the Justices on his side with Isis Winner on the stand, Septum rose and declared, "No questions for this witness, Your Honor." Brushing back his tie as he sat back down, he did his best to ignore the mutters from the crowd behind him.
On that note, Harris grinned at the witness, "You may step down, Doctor Schbeiker." Taking a deep breath of relief, Hilde smiled back and rose to leave the stand to join her friends on the defense side of the room.
"That's another point for the defense," Relena smiled in a whisper to her fiancé. Quatre smirked and nodded in agreement. Just like everyone else around them, they had been sitting in awe watching their braided companion at work.
Looking to his watch, the head Justice announced, "We will take an hour recess for lunch. Court will resume in exactly sixty minutes." Gavel in hand, he dropped it once for a loud crack that echoed off the marble walls in the room.
Free to openly talk as they wished, voices filled the void following the strike as the audience got to its feet to head out of the room. Standing behind their podiums, the Justices filed in a neat line through their chamber doors held back for them by the bailiff.
Relieved to have some time to rebuild his case, Septum was very quick to stow away his notes and files in his briefcase. Adjusting his business suit, he kept his head high as he stepped past the swinging door to leave without so much as a glance over the other half of the room.
Danielle giggled as she watched the prosecutor's quick escape. Absolutely giddy over the man's clear display of displeasure, she wrapped her arms tightly around her husband's waist with a smirked, "It's so good to see that bastard squirm again." Trent laughed and kissed the top of her head of red hair.
While Duo approached heading through the swinging door with his own brief case in hand, his friends and family got to their own feet to greet him. All but jumping forward, Heero was finally able to pull his lover into as tight a hug as he could manage. Kissing a round cheek, he whispered, "You've been doing great up there."
Purring, the neko's tail swished excitedly as he returned the embrace. "Really?" he grinned widely. Everyone gathered around him nodded enthusiastically. Reluctant to pull back, Heero stepped aside so that his partner could be reunited with a thrilled Noin, Zechs and Danny.
"So there is just Howard's testimony and then that's it?" Cassie asked, her tall ears perked in a clear sign of her own happiness over how the appeal was going.
Lightly chewing on the inside of his cheek, Solo slid an arm and his white tail around his girlfriend's waist as he answered, "That's it. Then the closing statements will be made before the Justices deliberate on their verdict."
Andrew, Jena and Carson looked to one another at that statement. While thrilled that their fellow neko's ordeal was nearly over, they were also careful to not get their hopes up the way they had the last time around.
However good the situation may have looked right then, nothing was a guarantee. And that was exactly how everyone was treating the matter.
Carefully shifting little Leslie in his arms, Trowa suggested, "We better meet up with Howard in the sequestered section of the building and order in. I don't really think going out for lunch would be the best idea right now with the mob of people that will be outside."
No one argued against that logic.
The last to leave the emptied room, the lot headed out together. At the back of the group, Heero and Duo walked with the neko's tail coiled around their joint hands.
* * * * * *
It was going bad. Very bad.
Stewing over his bad turn before the Justices, Septum took another sip from his steaming mug of coffee as he went over his notes yet again during the recess. Hiding in an empty break room, he continued to read on through his papers.
By then, he had gone over everything so many times his vision was blurring on him.
Frustrated, he lowered his mug to rub his tired eyes with a quiet growl. The absolute last thing that he wanted was to lose against a neko... And not just any neko, but a neko that he had been fighting against from the moment his existence was public knowledge.
Running a hand over his dark hair, Septum released a deep breath in a huff.
There had to be something... something that he could use as a way of convincing the Justices to uphold their original verdict.
But what?
In his mind, Septum ran over the people that had sat in as witnesses for the original hearing. And that was when he remembered that scientist- Howard.
No doubt that old man was going to be called back once more if he was nowhere to be seen amongst Duo's supporters.
Knowing that was coming was one thing. What the prosecutor needed was a way to twist that in his favor.
Sometimes it was the simplest of things mentioned in a case like this that would make all of the difference. There was still a chance to come out on top again.
His eyes widening at a sudden thought, a smug grin tugged Septum's lips.
"Of course," he whispered to himself.
TBC...
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