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Post by Ylanne on Mar 24, 2020 17:05:51 GMT -6
Ahmad frowned, twirling a noodle on his fork and watching it fall, only to scoop it back up again, several times over. "I wonder... You don't think that maybe she was just trying to get you off her case, asking about what's going on over there, and maybe try to convince you to stay far away from the trial? She doesn't want me there either; only, she can't stop me from going since I have to testify." He remembered the last time he'd seen Drulović, a court date a few months back. She'd struggled to walk even with assistance at the arms, her knees buckling, the leg irons they made her wear dragging on the floor behind her each time she stumbled, and she didn't even look up - this many months after what Andrade had done. Aerilyn was right. She'd never had enough time to recover. Not even close. "Did she say anything about why these particular people's ashes need to be reunited? Because, like I had said, I've never heard of them." And that was strange.
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Post by demikara on Mar 24, 2020 17:10:52 GMT -6
Aerilyn huffed. "That old woman. That's probably exactly it. I'm going to be there for the trial." She had already made the plans. The trial came first. "Both of you need me there." It was going to stretch over more than one day, and she knew it, but she still wanted to be there for it. "Look into them for me? Maybe I can put it off until after the trial. She'll be disappointed but, well. She'll have to deal with it." The ashes would still make it to their home. She just fully planned on being there for the trial. "Besides, if I'm not here for the trial, you'll pass out before you even make it to the stand." She teased him, gentle as always.
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Post by Ylanne on Mar 24, 2020 17:16:32 GMT -6
"I would not!" Ahmad felt his cheeks turning red already. He pretended to glare at Aerilyn. "I have slightly more fortitude than that." He took another bite of the mac and cheese, now starting to cool down. "I would just be, um, really wanting to hide somewhere because the judge is intimidating, and the public will be there, and the Director will..." He swallowed. "Yeah." Ahmad took his phone from his pocket, glancing at the front page. Several emails from the minister. And a few from Lisbeth. "Oh no..." He shook his head. "I'll ask around. If the Sampathkumar I know is around, maybe they can help elucidate the situation. But really. I would not be surprised if the old woman is just trying to get you out of the way. She probably assumes it's for your own good. Or it's that thing she does. Where she doesn't want anyone to see her." Especially when hurt or hurting.
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Post by demikara on Mar 24, 2020 17:22:27 GMT -6
"Maybe a little more fortitude." Maybe. On good days. "I'll put it off until after the trial. Arranging a flight would be difficult anyway." Especially on short notice. With a longer notice, she may even be able to find someone passing by the planet. Hell, maybe some mad man was going there and she could get paid for her aeromancy abilities. "I'm glad I have you to run things by."
They needed more information before anything else. And they needed time to get everything to come together. This wasn't a novel; things couldn't just come together magically.
But she did have her husband to help and she considered herself lucky to have him. "One of these days I'll wise up to her tricks."
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Post by Ylanne on Mar 24, 2020 17:26:50 GMT -6
"I hope so." Ahmad downed the rest of the mac and cheese, then washed it down with the remaining water. He sighed, looking at his phone again. It would probably be easier to count the minutes that it didn't buzz with a notification than the minutes that it did. "It sounds like a grand romantic gesture. A great adventure. But also, dangerous as fuck. And probably a distraction." Ahmad leaned back in his chair, propping his legs straight in front of him, until his shoes touched hers, just so. "But if you think she meant it, then, yeah. Maybe after. Unless there's some oddly specific reason that isn't her either avoiding people or pushing them away, that it needs to happen right now. Because if so, I'd wonder why she didn't call in some old Bureau connection. She knows just about everyone. I'm sure someone owes her a favor. Or several." He'd seen it many times, firsthand, the look she could give a rugged stranger, right before extracting exactly what she wanted.
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Post by demikara on Mar 24, 2020 17:31:10 GMT -6
She slid her hand across the table and placed it over his. She also tapped his feet with hers and smiled, playfully. "After the trial then. She's just taking advantage of my down time and my love of danger." And she did love it. It suited her well, though not as well as it used to. She did have to rest more than she used to after all. Aerilyn was no longer the young soldier she had once been.
She hated to admit that, of course, but it was true. Aerilyn finished off her wrap and sipped at her water. "Your phone is blowing up, isn't it? Do you need to go already?" Probably.
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Post by Ylanne on Mar 24, 2020 17:53:25 GMT -6
"Twenty minutes ago," Ahmad replied, smiling a little when Aerilyn took his hand. "I'll see you at home tonight, I guess. And I'll let you know what I find out. Maybe you should see if you know a pilot, though, just in case..." He already knew exactly who he needed to ask to rustle up whatever information they might have, other than trying to find a way to ask the old woman herself. And much as he knew there would be a way if he needed, the thought of increasing whatever punishment she'd have meted out weighed heavy on him. He'd seen the way she moved. "Let me just find my..." He trailed off as he withdrew his hand to start digging in his pockets, finally finding his wallet. He pulled out a twenty credit note and uncrumpled it, setting it on the table with Aerilyn. "There, just making sure I don't forget. Next time, I'm going to want to get drunk." Next time was probably going to be right after his testimony. Now that was particularly unappealing to him.
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Post by demikara on Mar 26, 2020 16:01:52 GMT -6
Aerilyn smiled. "I'll see you tonight. And I'll check around for a pilot for after the trial." They had time if she was going after the trial. She stood and leaned over to kiss his cheek. "Have a good rest of your day at work, okay? Don't get too caught up in nonstop meetings." He was going to be in nonstop meetings. She didn't know how he got any actual work done for all the meetings he was in.
Yes she did. He came home late often. Maybe, once the trial was over with, she could convince him to switch back to an analyst position. She'd take the cut in pay. It'd hurt but...but he was so much happier then.
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Post by Ylanne on Mar 26, 2020 16:26:32 GMT -6
Ahmad nodded, smiled briefly, squeezed Aerilyn's hand, and then he was gone.
"The spooks always vanish just like that, don't they," Arnold drawled from behind the bar, returning some glasses to the cabinet. "Hard for them to stick around too long."
The pair in the window left almost as quickly as Ahmad had, leaving only Aerilyn and the soldiers in the back, who'd been content to ignore their fellow patrons the whole while.
By the time two weeks had come to a close, Ahmad found himself lying restless, tossing and turning for hours with only moonlight softly streaming through their window. Feet padded across the floor and he paced from the bedroom to the gaming den and back, staring at the ground, then out the window, then back at the ground again. He whispered curses and prayers. Sweat lined his hairline. The clock read 02:49. He punched the couch, then winced. Something scurried along the eaves. He tried to return to bed, but lay awake, staring at the cracks in the ceiling, barely visible with the lights out and the dark resting heavy with them both. He clenched his fists, then his jaw, then relaxed them, then squeezed his eyes shut, then lay with them open, refusing to blink until they grew wet with tears and pinched him with pain.
Miles away, his friend, the woman who'd been like a second mother to him, similarly lay awake in her own bed, mean and simple though it was. She'd been crouched for a while in the corner formed between the shelf where the foam mattress lay, and the wall with the narrow window, back pressed against the shelf. Only her eyes and her fingers moved, her eyes tracking the minuscule movements of the trees and their leaves, her fingers slowly rubbing over the medallion of Saint Sava. She heard screaming deep in the recesses of memories long buried but never quite forgotten. She remembered the arch bending in the wicked winds. She remembered the floor in Andrade's wicked den, the blood of mother and daughter coalescing, eliding any boundaries, rancid, encrusted, abandoned. It was not the first time. Her eyes slid to the wrinkled paper printout of the photograph of her daughters, from their youth, smiling, something she had not seen now in decades. She lowered her head, then, eyes closed gently. All around her, she was surrounded by shouted conversations, screaming, crying, cursing. Prison was never silent. She slept in fits and starts. She did not remember ever going to bed.
At 06:45, the alarm beside Ahmad and Aerilyn's bed sprung into action, blaring noise so painful Ahmad had once thrown its predecessor against the farthest wall, shattering it.
Ahmad's eyes flew open. He was lying atop the sheets, his phone also chiming from the floor, some video game playing music on loop from the next room. He didn't remember ever turning it on. For a moment, he wondered what exam he was late for now. Then he remembered.
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Post by demikara on Mar 26, 2020 16:39:21 GMT -6
Neither of them had gotten a good night's sleep and Aerilyn's eyes slid open and she grumbled and cuddled closer to him. "I don't want today to happen." And he probably wanted it less. "Though I suppose I do want your alarm turned off." Mostly though, she didn't want the day to happen. Her sleep had been restless, full of tossing and turning. Unlike him though, she was under the covers.
She'd had nightmares. Bad, but not as bad as they could be, she knew. And she knew even more that she was already done with the day. Today was the beginning of it all, wasn't it? She hated this. She hated this so much. She closed her eyes again and held her husband close, reluctant to leave her bed or to go ahead and get ready for the day. This was not exactly...she wasn't in the mood for the day. She didn't think she'd ever be in the mood for the day. "Do you think they'll let her wear real clothes, for this? And not that terrible prison outfit?"
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Post by Ylanne on Mar 26, 2020 16:51:32 GMT -6
"I don't know, honestly," Ahmad said, squinting through blurred vision as he extended his arm, fist ready, and punted the alarm clock head-on. It fell to the carpet, muted but still blaring. He groaned, covering his face with his pillow. "I don't really know much about prison, remember? I didn't even stay overnight, really, that time in the fall." His voice was muffled now with the pillow over him. "God. I don't want to be awake." He kicked out with his foot, stretching his whole leg in the general direction of the alarm clock, probing along the carpet, feeling a pair of pants, a sock, a book, and then, finally, the damn alarm. Right as his foot was positioned perfectly to hit the off button, he lost his balance, too much of his body hanging over the side of the bed, and fell with a thud to the floor.
"Fuck."
The alarm, smug, continued on.
In the detention center, Drulović was already awake. They'd come for her at five, ordering her to cuff up before taking her to be processed out, where a pair of guards glowered and crossed their arms, eyebrows raised, tapping their feet as she took far too long - by their estimation - to undress, submit to a search, and then put on her own clothes, brought over by the attorney, Yolihuani, the day before. Once she'd managed that, they'd locked the restraints back onto her wrists and ankles, checking that the cuffs were double-locked and secure, the handcuffs fastened tightly to the chain around her waist, for transport. She winced as they did this, but said nothing, knowing without looking up exactly which of the guards was on duty today. And then they left her to wait, another hour or more, this time. Nothing ever happened smoothly or efficiently. The old woman sat beside two others chained up and waiting for transport downtown to court, neither of them people she recognized. They spoke in low tones to each other, but did not acknowledge her, not even with so much as a glance.
"Shut the fuck up already," one of the guards yelled at the other two.
One of her companions spat, glaring defiantly.
It was almost seven in the morning.
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Post by demikara on Mar 26, 2020 17:22:14 GMT -6
Aerilyn slid out from under the covers and peered over the bed "You okay?" That had sounded bad, but he hadn't yelped, so he was probably fine. The aeromancer rubbed at her eyes and stumbled to the closet, picking out a suit to wear and fixing her broach to the shirt. "When are we expected to be there again?" She already knew the answer, but the question set some sort of normalcy to the entire process. Today was the day it all began.
She found her brush and began with her hair, not bothering to be very gentle. She wasn't in the mood to be kind to herself, not on today.
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Post by Ylanne on Mar 26, 2020 17:39:18 GMT -6
Better positioned to grab the damn thing, Ahmad finally mashed the off button with all the force he could muster, and then rolled over onto his back, on the floor. "Yeah, I'm fine." The carpet burned against his bare flesh. He was only wearing boxers. "The trial's scheduled to start at nine. I bet they'll be late though." He groaned, and pulled himself to his feet, heading to his closet, on the opposite side of the wall from where Aerilyn's was, and began rifling through the clothes. He held up a green polo shirt for inspection. No wrinkles at least. "This should be fine, right? It's clean and ironed. And I can't go inside the courtroom, anyway..." The prosecutor's office had made sure to impress that fact on him. As a witness, he would be barred from entering the courtroom except during his testimony, until the end of the trial. They couldn't have witnesses trying to coordinate, after all. Ahmad had half a mind to skip out and go to the office after Aerilyn got there. That way he wouldn't have to sit waiting the whole while, all day long but for lunch.
Drulović sat waiting for almost an hour and twenty minutes before the transport van finally backed into the loading dock where prisoners arrived and left, beeping and flashing the reverse warning lights as the driver maneuvered into position. The guards loaded them one at a time, escorting each of them to the opened back doors, where two narrow benches lined the sides of the van's main cabin. It stank of must, gasoline, and sweat. Drulović came last, followed by her two compatriots, both also dressed in suits for court. She nearly tripped stepping up into the van, one of the guards needing to catch her weight to prevent another fall, but once the three were inside, with seatbelts, the guards shut first the metal inner door, like a cage, then the van's regular doors. They'd sit waiting another ten minutes before the driver finally finished with the paperwork. Drulović didn't think she'd ever seen so much paperwork all at once before she'd come here.
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Post by demikara on Mar 26, 2020 18:01:38 GMT -6
"I think that'll be fine." She agreed and smiled to him. "I'll be inside the courtroom watching. I should be able to get in, I think." But she did need to look the part. "She's not going to be able to see me until she's on the stand. And I don't know if she'll even see me then. But it's the thought that counts." And Aerilyn suspected others would be there for similar reasons.
She changed, and pulled her hair back into a low ponytail. There, that looked professional enough. It also showed her hearing aid clearly so they wouldn't freak out too badly when it inevitably set off their sensors. "Do you think this will be fine? I don't want them to decide that I can't go in."
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Post by Ylanne on Mar 26, 2020 18:29:54 GMT -6
Ahmad lowered his hanger, looking at Aerilyn's choice of outfit. He smiled, weak, feeling vaguely nauseous already. He did not look forward to seeing the old woman, even if only in pictures from the news until he could see her face to face. "You look wonderful." His gaze was warm. Everything Aerilyn wore made her look beautiful. "Very official, but also, definitely dinner date level nice. Yes, ma'am, please, excuse me, that kind of nice." He slipped from the boxers, heading to the bathroom for a quick shower, before he emerged, water dripping from his brow as he dressed in silence. The green polo and ironed khakis, with slip-on converse shoes that almost passed for professional. Better than the dirty, creased sneakers at least. "I don't feel ready for this." He grabbed his wallet and keys, shoving them in his pocket, then ran his fingers through his hair, trying to smooth the errant pieces that stubbornly stuck straight in the air. "But I guess we've got no choice at this point."
Drulović had no choice in how long they made her and the others wait in the van before taking them inside the courthouse, one at a time, leading them through a few concrete-walled holding cells along a back hallway until they separated. Courthouse security checked that the restraints were secure, performed a cursory search and ran a scanner over her, and then took her by the arm to one of the cells to wait more. Someone handed her a bagged breakfast, a soggy biscuit with a sad slice of ham and overly processed, half-melted cheese, already room temperature, and a small bottle of water. No one explained how she was supposed to eat with her movement restricted so much she could barely lift her one functioning hand to her mouth. But she had no other choice.
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