July 22nd, 8:15 AM

      Ashley reached out to open the car door, holding it to allow Briar to step out, being careful to keep his bandaged right hand out of the way when he slammed it shut. As they walked through the parking lot toward the enormous glass structure that housed the Federal courthouse, they spotted someone waving to attract their attention, and when they got closer, saw that it was Jinxx. Alice was next to him, while the rest of the band, and their respective girlfriends, stood near the entrance to the building. 

      Briar and Ashley joined their friends, and as they began moving toward the door, she glanced up and sighed, "Geez, do you have any idea how fucking tired I am of these places?"

      "Probably as much as I am," Ashley responded. "But hopefully when we get finished with this, we can avoid it from then on."

      "Until we have to come to talk about the shit that went down Saturday," she reminded him, earning a grimace as he glanced at his hand.

      Andy's eyes widened as he noticed the bandage on Ashley's hand, and he blurted, "Fuck, man! You didn't break your hand, did you?"

      "No, just sprained my wrist and a couple of fingers," Ashley assured him. "And it's bruised as fuck, too."

      Everyone else crowded around to see what had caused Andy's outburst, and CC flashed a grin, saying, in a joking tone, "So how did the other guy come out?"

      The smile dropped from his face, and everyone else seemed startled when Briar replied, "He has a broken jaw, a ruptured testicle, and a bail hearing."

      Alice's jaw dropped, and her voice was incredulous as she gasped, "He has what? I didn't think that men did those things to one another!"

      "Oh, he didn't kick the shit sonofabitch in the schlong," Briar assured her. "That was me. Ash just broke his jaw. And almost his hand."

      "Well, you sure as shit better believe that I'm not gonna just stand by and let some worthless asshole slap a woman around," Ashley retorted. "Especially in my own fucking house! Bastard better consider himself lucky the kids were there, or I might have broken more than his damn jaw."

      "Okay, can somebody back up and run over this stuff again?" Jake requested. "By 'kids', I know you're talking about Briar's niece and nephew, since you told us they were visiting, but who was the guy?"

      "My dumb-ass brother, Will," Briar clarified. "After everything went down last month over the competency hearing, Audrey took the kids and left him. She went back to her parent's place, and had him served, which basically made the whole family lose their shit. Not only did she have the gall to take Malveaux children away where they couldn't control how they were raised, but her dad is one of the wealthiest guys in Louisiana, and they think it gives them some kind of prestige or something to be able to claim kin to the family."

      Everyone nodded their understanding, as they were all too familiar to the event she had referred to. Shortly after her grandparent's visit to the hospital, Briar had received a call from her maternal uncle, Leonard Calvert, who was an attorney in New Orleans. He had informed her that the family had pressured her mother, Mavis, to contact him about having her share of the estate left by her maternal grandparents rescinded, and handed over to Mavis and Will. He also told her that he had flatly refused the request, reminding them that the wills clearly stated that any family member who contested the conditions would lose their share, which would be divided between the other beneficiaries. And that, when his memory had been refreshed on this point, Cyril Malveaux had made the nearly unheard-of decision to defy his mother's wishes and refused to allow the suit to go forward.

      This had forced the family to rethink their strategy, and shortly afterward, Briar had been served with papers announcing that they intended to petition for a conservatorship, which meant that they would be challenging her mental health, and attempting to secure a guardianship, and control of her finances. She had contacted the lawyer who had handled Wiley's case, and he had been successful in forcing them to file the claim in California, rather than Louisiana, since she had been a resident there for the past several years.

      This had required that she submit to a battery of psychological tests, and allow the attorneys from both sides to examine her financial records, for evidence of reckless spending or excessive debt. She had willingly done so, determined to prove that their reasons for filing the claim were completely self-serving, but they had managed to accomplish that themselves when they had appeared in front of the judge. 

      The judge had listened to the testimony of several psychologists and therapists hired by both sides, including the one that both Ashley and Briar had been seeing to deal with the aftermath of their encounters with Keith Harris. She had been distinctly annoyed when Briar's attorney, Wendell Humphries, had managed to force admissions from the Malveaux's medical experts that neither of them had even met Briar, let alone examined her for the issues that they were insisting she suffered from. This had led her to dismiss their entire testimony, over Beatrice Malveaux's strident protests, and to not only rule that they had no grounds to continue with the suit, but to grant the no-contact order that Wendell Humphries had requested against the family on Briar's behalf.

      After leaving the courtroom, they had stopped to speak with Danny Belmont, who had returned to duty and was doing a rotation as a court security officer. They were in the process of arranging a time to get together for dinner when his radio had squawked, and the order had come through to go to the courtroom. He had dashed off, and even Briar was somewhat taken aback when she saw her grandparents being led away in handcuffs for the second time in just over a month.

      They hadn't been able to get any information at the time, but Humphries had called later that evening, and told her that he had managed to find out that as soon as the three of them had left the room, Anson and Beatrice had made a blatant attempt to bribe the judge, offering her one hundred thousand dollars toward her re-election campaign if she would change her ruling. They had apparently been completely shocked when she had refused the offer and called for security, seeming to regard their actions as commonplace. 

      This had motivated Humphries to share the information with an old college friend who worked in the Federal Trade Commission, which prompted an investigation into Anson Malveaux's brokerage firm and unearthed evidence of extensive securities fraud and broker misconduct. This had resulted in Federal charges for both Anson and Cyril, in addition to the battery, obstruction, and bribery cases against the elder couple, and the court-ordered freezing of all family assets.

      "So what was your brother doing here, anyway?" Juliet inquired. "From what you've said about your family, I woulda figured that he'd be in New Orleans trying to do damage control, and rebuild the 'family image', so to speak."

      "You might think, but that would require having a grasp on reality," Briar chuckled. "Not Will's strong suit, at least not when it involves acknowledging that other people are allowed to disagree with him. He apparently got it into his tiny little pea-brain that if Nattie and Chase were with him, that he could convince David Childress to use his influence to keep the folks out of jail."

      "So, by that reasoning, I'm assuming that would be their other grandad, am I right?" Jinxx guessed.

      "Yes, you are. He was also pissed off that Audrey brought them here to see me, since I'm persona non grata with the rest of the family, and the fact that her dad's lawyer managed to get her granted custody until the divorce actually goes to court. So he managed to get somebody to ferret out our address, hopped a plane, and showed up in the driveway Saturday afternoon while we had some people over. The kids were playing out in the yard, and he was trying to convince them to get into his rental when Carmine happened to look out the window and see what was happening."

      "Yeah, and as soon as he said something, I hit the security panel and closed the gate so he couldn't get out," Ashley chimed in. "Audrey and Liz went out and brought all the kids inside, and he followed them in before they could get the door closed. He started going off on Audrey, calling her all sorts of names, and swearing up one side and down the other that he was taking the kids back to Louisiana with him, whether she liked it or not. She reminded him of the court ruling, and told him if he tried to step out the door with Chase and Nat, she'd have him arrested, and he hauled off and punched her in the mouth. So, as soon as that happened, I quite promptly did the same to him, and actually put him down on the floor."

      "Sounds like all Hell basically broke loose," Jake remarked.

      "You could say that," Ashley agreed. "Carmine and Wiley were standing there, telling him to stay put, while Liz was calling 911 and a couple of the older Orsini kids were herding the little ones into the kitchen. Fucker wasn't smart enough to listen, though, and he got up and went after Audrey again. That was when Tink got between them, he hit her instead, and she put one of her Doc Martens halfway up to his kidneys."

      All of the guys winced involuntarily at that, then cast startled looks at their girlfriends when they, without exception, burst into spontaneous applause. "Good for you, hon!" crowed CC's girlfriend, Tiffany. "I bet he stayed down after that!"

      "He just curled up in a fetal position and blubbered until the cops showed up," Briar replied. "The way I understand it, they took him to the hospital and kept him under guard there Saturday night, and booked him into jail on Sunday. Then the docket was apparently full for Monday and today, so he won't get in front of a judge until Friday. And since we've filed complaints for unlawful entry, attempted parental kidnapping, battery, and domestic assault, he may be stuck there for awhile after that."

      "So he hit you, too?" Inna inquired, moving forward for a closer look at her friend's face. "Fortunately, it doesn't look like you're hurt too badly."

      "Nah, he barely touched me," Briar assured her. "I used to dodge punches on a daily basis when I was still doing stuntwork, so I was able to avoid most of it. And do you wanna know what the best part of it was?"

      "Sure, I'll bite," Andy responded. "What was it?"

      "I actually took him down with this!" she proudly informed the group, reaching down to tap the knee of her prosthesis. "It definitely works better than the temporary one did!"

      "With all of the chips and microprocessor things that are supposed to be in there, I'd sure as hell hope so!" Ashley retorted. "If it doesn't, you need to ask for a refund."

      The conversation was interrupted by a loud 'Click', and they all turned to see a uniformed officer unlocking the entrance to the courthouse. Ashley glanced at his girlfriend, reaching for her hand as he queried, "You ready for this, darlin'?"

      "Probably as ready as I'm gonna get," she murmured. "You?"

      "Ready to get it over with, so we don't have to waste our time thinking about this fucker any more," he returned.

      "Amen to that one, babe!"

      The rest of the group formed a semicircle around Ashley and Briar as they entered the building, and the officer who had opened the door checked everyone's identification before directing them to the courtroom. They stepped into the elevator and went up several floors, only to encounter absolute chaos when the doors finally opened. The hallway leading to the courtroom was absolutely overflowing with both reporters and police, the latter doing their best to maintain control over the former, with limited success.

      As soon as they stepped off of the elevator, several police officers moved to keep the media people away as they made their way toward the courtroom. Unfortunately, it seemed to be a losing battle until Tiffany lost her temper when the representative for a syndicated news program nearly knocked her down trying to push past her to reach Briar and Ashley. She snatched the microphone from his hand and smacked him with it, snarling, "Back off, asswipe, before I jam this thing down your fucking throat!"

      Before the reporter could form a response, a shrill whistle cut through the din, drawing everyone's attention to the end of the hallway. As they turned to look, Agent Jonah Merrifield stood just in front of the courtroom door, holding a large silver whistle, and accompanied by several county sheriff's deputies. "Back it up!" he ordered. "Now! I know for a fact that every single one of you here were given strict guidelines concerning what was and wasn't permissible if you were allowed to be here, and from what I can see, you're all violating most of them. So back up and let these people alone, or these deputies will escort you from the building, and both you personally, and the agency you represent, will be banned for the duration of the trial. And somehow, I doubt that your bosses would be too happy with losing out on ratings because they can't get anyone in to cover the proceedings."

      Grumbling to themselves, the flock of media vultures reluctantly complied with the order, parting to allow the group to enter the heavily guarded room. Ashley and Briar headed for the front of the room, while their friends took seats in the back, with the rest of the spectators. Several other people trickled in over the next few minutes, gradually filling up the room. 

      Then a door near the front of the room opened, and Keith Harris was led in and guided a seat next to his lawyer, a fiftyish red-haired woman who bore a striking resemblance to the actress who had played the German housekeeper in the old "Benson" sitcom. As soon as the deputies stepped away, he turned in his seat to glare at Ashley, Briar, and his former partner, Irv Weintraub, who had taken the seat next to Ashley. 

      The now-retired detective offered his one-time colleague a sardonic grin, accompanied by an upraised middle finger, while Ashley mouthed the words, "Fuck you, asshole," and Briar simply stared expressionlessly back at him, refusing to give him a reaction. She held his gaze until his lawyer noticed the staredown and grasped his arm, physically turning him away, whispering sharply to him as she did.

      He jerked away from her, and seemed ready to turn again, but before he could, a voice cut through the room, announcing, "Hear ye, hear ye, court is now in session, the Honorable Marvin Pearce presiding! All rise!"

      As they stood, Ashley glanced at Briar, and whispered, "Well, it's finally starting."

      She reached out, grasped his hand, and replied, "Yeah, I guess maybe there's a light at the end of the tunnel after all."