Drake Forever (Unrestrained 7)

KATE: I will. Good night my love.

DRAKE: Good night to you, my love.

I smiled, feeling all warm and fuzzy from the conversation with Kate. Knowing that she was happy, and that she loved me made it easy to just close my eyes and drift off.

And so I did.

Kate

Drake came home from the hospital and after ten days of taking it easy, lying on the sofa, sleeping and occasionally watching television, he was almost back to normal. Because of the attack, Drake's testimony was delayed so he could recover. It meant that he would be attending court a few days before the end of the trial. We had hoped the judge would allow him to give his testimony in private due to the stress of a courtroom appearance, but that wasn't granted because a physician found he was healthy enough to appear in person.

On the day before his testimony, he went in to meet with the assistant district attorney prosecuting the case to go over the potential questions she would ask and those the defense would likely be asking.

Both of us knew the cross-examination by the defense lawyer wouldn't be pleasant.

He got dressed in business casual, and pulled on his coat on his way out. I went to him and slipped my arms around him before he left. He was preoccupied with the trial and I wanted to remind him that soon, all this would be over. That he had a loving wife and baby – and a young son to look forward to spending time with.

"Ah, Ms. Bennet," he said when he finally focused on me. "How glad I am to have you."

We kissed and he pulled me tightly against his body, which was warm and strong.

"This will soon be over. We'll look back and be glad that we got through it. One day, when we're in the Bahamas, we'll be lying on the beach beside each other, the sun on our faces, Sophie playing in the sand, and we'll smile at each other and remember this moment."

He kissed me. "I hope so. It better happen, because that vision is helping me get through today and tomorrow. I'm sure tomorrow's going to be a real shit-show, with Lisa's attorney grilling me about what an exploitative sadist I am to force poor innocent Lisa into a sexual relationship of dominance and submission."

"She'll try, but I hope the ADA is competent enough to re-direct the jury to see what a manipulative woman Lisa is and that she planned and carried out a cold-blooded murder with the help of Jones."

"I hope so," Drake said and sighed. For a moment, we stood in the embrace, enjoying the warmth of each other's bodies.

"I better go," he said finally and pulled out of my arms with clear reluctance. "I'll be back as soon as I can. Maybe this afternoon we can go out for a walk in Central Park. It looks like a nice sunny day. Might be one of the last ones we'll get before the real cold weather starts."

"Sounds good," I said and watched as he went down the stairs to the front door of the building. I closed and locked the door and then went to the bay window and watched while Drake got into the vehicle John had waiting at the front. As they drove off, I hoped that the stress wasn't too much for Drake and was once again angry that the judge didn't agree to let Drake do all this in private. It gave me a bad sense that the judge might be pre-disposed to blame Drake and Derek in part for Lisa's actions.

I went back to the living room where Sophie played on the floor with her tiny town people. The television was tuned to a children's show and I took the remote control, selecting a local news station to see if they were covering the trial. Sure enough, at the top of the hour when the news update came on, the announcers talked together about the trial, going over the previous day's testimony by defense witnesses, who all claimed that Lisa was a poor battered woman who was led down the path of evil by the men in her life who variously abused and exploited her innocence.

I was sickened to hear them paint this picture of her because it diminished real cases where this was the truth. There were battered women who occasionally took the law into their own hands to stop their abuser but this was clearly not the case with Lisa. She planned to kill Derek. The police were certain of it, and there was evidence to prove that. This charade about her being misled by Derek and Drake and killing Derek to protect herself was meant to hurt Drake -- that was certain. Her letter said as much. She wanted to punish Drake for spurning her. She probably knew she would be found guilty and sentenced to life without chance of parole for a very long time and so wanted to harm Drake as much as she could in the process.

Of course, they also talked about the attack on Drake and how his testimony had to be delayed because of his concussion. That meant that everyone who followed the trial and was interested could go to the courthouse and hear his testimony. I could only imagine it would be almost impossible to find a seat in the courtroom due to all the curious who wanted to watch Doctor Dangerous tell the court about his relationship with murdered Derek Richardson and accused Lisa Monroe.

Lisa's brother, Jeff, was released on bail but was prohibited from coming within one hundred feet of Drake due to a restraining order Lara filed on Drake's behalf. That meant at least he wouldn't be in the courtroom or anywhere near the courthouse when Drake arrived to give his testimony. He also had to stay that far away from our apartment, which made me feel somewhat safer, but there was no telling whether the man would ignore the restraining order.

I sat and listened to the two female reporters talking about the trial and the public interest in the case and thought how it had already changed Drake's life so much. It was unfair in the extreme. The report showed images from the attack on Drake taken by witnesses who were at the scene, including one of Drake lying on his back, clearly unconscious and a crazed Monroe being held back by two plain clothed police officers.

The news station just loved the footage from one bystander who videotaped the aftermath and sent in the footage. During the first days after the attack, we saw endless loops of Monroe struggling with police while John knelt to tend to Drake and other police on scene tried to move onlookers back. Then the ambulance arriving and tending to Drake, eventually rolling him into the ambulance for all the world to see, a bandage on his cheek and head and as well as a neck brace. Then, of course, they skipped to a grainy image which was poorly lit, featuring a bound Lisa apparently being menaced by the pot-bellied hairy man who was definitely not Drake.

Even the two announcers commented that the image they had of Drake in his swim trunks did not resemble the man in the video and finally, I felt like maybe there was a crack in the narrative that it was Drake in that video. I was hopeful, but I doubted anyone who mattered in the fellowship program at NYU or in the administration at NYP would care about the distinction. Nor would board members and funders at the foundation or corporation.

Simply put, Drake was bad news. No one wanted to be associated with him, except for the O'Rileys and Dave Mills.

They were the only remaining friends that Drake had. The rest had slipped away and had not contacted Drake t

o wish him well.

So much for friends...

* * *

My cell rang and I picked it up to check the call display.