The Cloyster - Afternoon - Clear
Drake Bellamy
Drake wasn't entirely sure how Aidan was so calm. Maybe because the charge against him was stupid to begin with, but for someone who wasn't the one going to trial, Drake couldn't help but feel nervous. Maybe it was because it was Kevin's fault that any of this even happened? Drake felt like he was also partly to blame because if Aidan hadn't interfered, he wouldn't have been arrested for assault. He wouldn't even have to be going to court or trial.
“Drake, are you sure you don't want something to drink?" Nev asked, pulling him from his thoughts. He'd almost forgot that Aidan had moved in with her a while ago, and that they were here waiting for Mel's mom to arrive. Mel's. Mom.
“Oh, uh, yeah, sure, I'll take a... water?" he replied. She nodded her head and disappeared into the kitchen, presumably to get his water. “Uh, also, I don't think I've ever told you that I'm sorry for what happened because Kevin's a douche," he stated, glancing in Aidan's direction.
Aidan waved a hand, looking rather unconcerned. He was dressed in a sharp black suit, though for once the shirt underneath it was white, the tie an understated blue. It was definitely an unusual color scheme for him, but he'd probably gone with it because his usual all-blacks would give off too harsh an impression or something. His hair was neat, too, combed down instead of spiked up, and tidily in place. "Not your fault, kid," he replied. "Like you said, the guy's a prick. I'd do it the same again if I had to."
Mel pursed her lips and nodded. She was dressed for court as well, in a soft green silk blouse and a charcoal-grey pencil skirt that hit her knees. "I for one am glad you did," she confessed, then smiled a little wryly. "And don't worry. Mom's good at this. There's no way it'll stick."
“It shouldn't stick regardless," Drake murmured softly. “What Aidan did was basically self-defense... and in my defense since I was the one sorta incapacitated," he continued, frowning just slightly. If Kevin hadn't grabbed Drake's head the way he did, Aidan wouldn't have had to forcefully remove him. Just thinking about it made his head hurt a little, and he reached up to rub at the spot.
“I mean, don't get me wrong, I appreciate it because things could have ended way worse, I think, but still," he sighed softly.
“Sometimes things just happen that way, Drake. At least Aidan was there, along with Ana," Nev replied, smiling at Drake and handing him his glass of water. She'd nearly startled him, though. He really needed to get his head on straight.
“Thanks, Nev, and you're right because at the very least there are witnesses," and that was worth more in court. Eye witness testimonials were a sure way to get the case dropped, right?
Mel pulled her legs up where she was sitting next to him and shifted, resting her hand on his back and shifting it gently up and down against his shirt. She rested her chin on his shoulder. "It'll be okay," she said, quiet enough that the words were clearly meant just for him.
There was a knock at the door, then, crisp and efficient. Aidan got up to answer it, admitting a surprisingly-short woman with rich brown skin and smooth hair of the same raven hue as Mel's pulled into a chignon. Her suit was light grey, over a deep sapphire blouse, and she wore black heels to give herself a few extra inches of height. Honestly, she had more than enough presence to make up for any deficiency there, though.
“Mr. Klein. Michelle Kane; a pleasure to meet you in person." She shook Aidan's hand as she stepped into the room, her eyes falling on where Mel was still very much wrapped around Drake. “Melody, don't suffocate the young man. I'm sure you like him better breathing."
Mel stuck her tongue out, but rose to give her mother a hug anyway. After the two women broke apart, she introduced the others. "Mom, this is Dr. Nevena Solomon, a pokémon researcher, and Drake Bellamy, my boyfriend. You two, this is my mom, Michelle. I guess she's also the lawyer of three-fourths of the other people in this room."
“I'll be sure to give the good doctor my card," Michelle said dryly. “Then it can be everyone."
“Oh, please do!" Nev replied as she smiled brightly at Michelle. “I mean, I'm not entirely sure what I'd need a lawyer for but I guess things do sometimes happen," she continued clearing her throat softly.
Drake was, however, glad that Nev took the attention momentarily. Sure, Michelle was also his lawyer since the time of his grandfather, but she was also Mel's mom. And he was meeting her for the first time face-to-face. He could feel his palms becoming sweaty. Why was he nervous? He wasn't the one on trial. Did Mel just introduce him as her boyfriend?
Get it together, Bellamy! Get. It. Together.
“Uh, hi? It's finally you nice to meet," Drake stated, realizing belatedly that he'd mixed the words up and felt a dark flush on his face. “I mean... it's nice to finally meet you in person, Ms. Kane," he corrected himself.
Michelle snorted; it looked like she was fighting back a smile. “You don't remember this, but we actually have met already," she said. “Your dad did a stint in the contest world when you were very young. It's always been a hobby of mine, too, so your family and I used to get lunch when he was in Saffron for one of those. You couldn't have been more than... oh, two or three? The last time. It was just before Mel here was born."
She held out her hand. “But it's nice to see you again. None of this Ms. Kane nonsense, though, please. Just Michelle."
“Oh, uh, okay," Drake replied sheepishly. He wasn't sure how comfortable he would be at calling her by her first name, but if she was okay with it, he supposed he shouldn't mind. “Oh! Yeah, no dad failed spectacularly in that stint," he stated once the first part of her comment made it to his brain.
“I was probably about three at the time," and he really didn't remember much of it. His mom always said that his dad tried getting into coordinating, but it didn't end too well for him. He ended up just becoming a judge for them. “Ah, but we're not here for that, right?" he chuckled nervously and rubbed the back of his neck.
Michelle nodded, then turned to Aidan. “Unfortunately, no. Though I'm pleased to note you cleaned up well for trial, Mr. Klein. Kasimir did tell me you have a certain facility with people."
Aidan snorted a little. "High praise, from the likes of him," he replied, and Michelle smiled, before bringing her hands together.
“All right. We should head to the courthouse. We'll end up quite early, but that's good too. We don't want to waste the judge's time—we'll leave that to this idiot and whatever poor schmuck got stuck with the case. Frankly I have no idea how the police thought it was worth taking to court, much less the Cinnabar DA's office, but if that's a lesson they haven't learned yet, well... they will." She smiled, a sharp expression with narrow eyes.
"Go get 'em, sharpedo," Mel said, grinning brightly.
“Oh, I intend to."
Drake was almost certain he knew the answers to that. Carter had come to collect Aidan personally, so Drake was certain he was the someone in the police aspect of it. He was also certain the the DA's office picked it up because Aidan was part of NTR. Everyone had something against NTR, but Drake knew that the two things were separate. Aidan was just a regular person when the events with Kevin transpired, but to the police, he was NTR.
“Alright," Drake stated as he stood from his spot on the couch, glancing briefly in Mel's direction and offering her a bright grin. “Your mom is good at what she does, and they really don't have anything on Aidan, so this'll be a nice preview of what to expect," he continued.
“Good luck, though. They'll still be persistent and try to make it seem like Aidan was at fault, even if he wasn't," Nev replied. Drake supposed they would be, but still, he was confident enough that it would be fine. Once they'd exited the apartment, it was only a matter of time before they reached the courthouse. Drake still felt nervous about it. He wasn't the one on trial, but for some reason, walking through the doors to the courthouse felt like suddenly it was his trial, and not Aidan's. He swallowed past a large lump in his throat.
“So... this is the pretrial, right? We're basically here to get the first testimonials and acquaint ourselves with the judge?" Drake wasn't entirely sure how any of this worked. He'd never been to court before.
"Yes and no," Mel supplied. "It's pretrial, but basically what happens is everyone will sort out any evidence disputes or issues they have with certain witnesses being called at all. A lot of it is formalities, but it helps the main trial run a lot more smoothly. Usually there's not a ton of objections and stuff like on TV because all that's hashed out at pretrial. Honestly none of us even have to be there, but it looks good for Aidan if he is."
Michelle nodded. “Exactly so. For me, it's also a chance to get a sense of what I'm up against. For them as well." She smiled; it wasn't hard to tell where Mel's nickname for her mom had come from; there was something intense about it. “But mostly it's where we make clear what we're going to do during the trial, and sort out what the problems are going to be, if anything."
"How long do you reckon it'll take?" Aidan asked.
She lifted her shoulders. “It depends. I don't expect they have much evidence, and probably their main witness will be the man himself, possibly along with the arresting officer if they think they'll have something useful to say. The sticking point, I suppose, will be whether or not they plan to introduce character witnesses against you. I'll try to stop that, but it's usually permitted, in which case I'll just add my own, which is why I asked you for a list."
“It's not like they'd have any witnesses to begin with besides Kevin," Drake murmured softly. Honestly, this was just ridiculous. Kevin was proving to be the worst decision Drake had ever made in life. Why did he have to date such a problematic person? Why couldn't he have met Mel, first? They wouldn't be here if he had, and Aidan wouldn't be on trial for this.
“Witnesses or not, people will sometimes claim that they saw 'a' doing 'x' to 'b'. Hm, what do you call them," Nev began, furrowing her brows slightly as she tried to think of what she wanted to say, apparently. “Ah, bribed. They're often bribed or want to do it because they think it'll help somehow. I don't think that it happens often since it's kind of illegal to lie in court."
Drake supposed that made sense, but he wasn't too sure. He'd never had to do something like this before, and he supposed he was just getting jittery because of it. “Is it possible that the case can be dropped before it even goes to the actual trial?" Drake decided to ask. “I mean, if the witness is actually just Kevin, he'd be lying if he said anything that wasn't true."
Drake would know if Kevin was lying, too.
“That happens sometimes, yes. I can make a pretrial motion for dismissal, which I'll probably do. But most of the time that doesn't work, particularly if the prosecutor wants to do it. The judge is more likely to give them a fair chance to prove their point, even if it doesn't look too likely that they will. It takes an overwhelming lack to get something dismissed, usually." Michelle shrugged again as they approached the courthouse building, then turned on her heel to face them.
“All right, since there are some people who probably haven't been to court before, just a quick rules primer. Generally, you don't speak unless someone asks you to. And by someone, I mean the judge. Unless you're on the stand, keep quiet. You can actually be charged with a crime for disrupting a trial, or be thrown out of the room. Emotions might run high in there, but don't let them get the best of you. We'll do better if we look like the side with all the collected professionals on it, even in the audience. Secondly, do what you're told by the judge or the bailiff, or me." She smiled a little at that.
“Otherwise, just use your manners and keep your cool. This is my job. Everything's going to work out if you trust me, okay?"
"You got it," Aidan said, saluting with the first two fingers of his right hand.
“Excellent. I love it when a client knows how to relax."
“I... uh, I'll do what I can?" Drake stated, already feeling like his breathing was becoming short.
“Drake, take a deep breath and you'll be fine. Like Michelle said, this is formality. We're here to provide Aidan our support and you can give your testimony if you have to," Nev stated as she laid a hand on his shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. It didn't do much to relax his nerves, but he did take a deep breath.
“Alright, alright, I got this. I can do this," he stated, and kept repeating the mantra in his head. This was for Aidan, and to set things straight with Kevin once and for all. “Good luck, Aidan." It was about the only thing he could think of to say, really.
"Thanks, kid."
Mel took his hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. "Come on; let's go in and find seats. I'll be right next to you the whole time, I promise."
Drake smiled and nodded his head. At least he felt a little better, now.
“Thanks, Mel."
“Drake, are you sure you don't want something to drink?" Nev asked, pulling him from his thoughts. He'd almost forgot that Aidan had moved in with her a while ago, and that they were here waiting for Mel's mom to arrive. Mel's. Mom.
“Oh, uh, yeah, sure, I'll take a... water?" he replied. She nodded her head and disappeared into the kitchen, presumably to get his water. “Uh, also, I don't think I've ever told you that I'm sorry for what happened because Kevin's a douche," he stated, glancing in Aidan's direction.
Aidan waved a hand, looking rather unconcerned. He was dressed in a sharp black suit, though for once the shirt underneath it was white, the tie an understated blue. It was definitely an unusual color scheme for him, but he'd probably gone with it because his usual all-blacks would give off too harsh an impression or something. His hair was neat, too, combed down instead of spiked up, and tidily in place. "Not your fault, kid," he replied. "Like you said, the guy's a prick. I'd do it the same again if I had to."
Mel pursed her lips and nodded. She was dressed for court as well, in a soft green silk blouse and a charcoal-grey pencil skirt that hit her knees. "I for one am glad you did," she confessed, then smiled a little wryly. "And don't worry. Mom's good at this. There's no way it'll stick."
“It shouldn't stick regardless," Drake murmured softly. “What Aidan did was basically self-defense... and in my defense since I was the one sorta incapacitated," he continued, frowning just slightly. If Kevin hadn't grabbed Drake's head the way he did, Aidan wouldn't have had to forcefully remove him. Just thinking about it made his head hurt a little, and he reached up to rub at the spot.
“I mean, don't get me wrong, I appreciate it because things could have ended way worse, I think, but still," he sighed softly.
“Sometimes things just happen that way, Drake. At least Aidan was there, along with Ana," Nev replied, smiling at Drake and handing him his glass of water. She'd nearly startled him, though. He really needed to get his head on straight.
“Thanks, Nev, and you're right because at the very least there are witnesses," and that was worth more in court. Eye witness testimonials were a sure way to get the case dropped, right?
Mel pulled her legs up where she was sitting next to him and shifted, resting her hand on his back and shifting it gently up and down against his shirt. She rested her chin on his shoulder. "It'll be okay," she said, quiet enough that the words were clearly meant just for him.
There was a knock at the door, then, crisp and efficient. Aidan got up to answer it, admitting a surprisingly-short woman with rich brown skin and smooth hair of the same raven hue as Mel's pulled into a chignon. Her suit was light grey, over a deep sapphire blouse, and she wore black heels to give herself a few extra inches of height. Honestly, she had more than enough presence to make up for any deficiency there, though.
“Mr. Klein. Michelle Kane; a pleasure to meet you in person." She shook Aidan's hand as she stepped into the room, her eyes falling on where Mel was still very much wrapped around Drake. “Melody, don't suffocate the young man. I'm sure you like him better breathing."
Mel stuck her tongue out, but rose to give her mother a hug anyway. After the two women broke apart, she introduced the others. "Mom, this is Dr. Nevena Solomon, a pokémon researcher, and Drake Bellamy, my boyfriend. You two, this is my mom, Michelle. I guess she's also the lawyer of three-fourths of the other people in this room."
“I'll be sure to give the good doctor my card," Michelle said dryly. “Then it can be everyone."
“Oh, please do!" Nev replied as she smiled brightly at Michelle. “I mean, I'm not entirely sure what I'd need a lawyer for but I guess things do sometimes happen," she continued clearing her throat softly.
Drake was, however, glad that Nev took the attention momentarily. Sure, Michelle was also his lawyer since the time of his grandfather, but she was also Mel's mom. And he was meeting her for the first time face-to-face. He could feel his palms becoming sweaty. Why was he nervous? He wasn't the one on trial. Did Mel just introduce him as her boyfriend?
Get it together, Bellamy! Get. It. Together.
“Uh, hi? It's finally you nice to meet," Drake stated, realizing belatedly that he'd mixed the words up and felt a dark flush on his face. “I mean... it's nice to finally meet you in person, Ms. Kane," he corrected himself.
Michelle snorted; it looked like she was fighting back a smile. “You don't remember this, but we actually have met already," she said. “Your dad did a stint in the contest world when you were very young. It's always been a hobby of mine, too, so your family and I used to get lunch when he was in Saffron for one of those. You couldn't have been more than... oh, two or three? The last time. It was just before Mel here was born."
She held out her hand. “But it's nice to see you again. None of this Ms. Kane nonsense, though, please. Just Michelle."
“Oh, uh, okay," Drake replied sheepishly. He wasn't sure how comfortable he would be at calling her by her first name, but if she was okay with it, he supposed he shouldn't mind. “Oh! Yeah, no dad failed spectacularly in that stint," he stated once the first part of her comment made it to his brain.
“I was probably about three at the time," and he really didn't remember much of it. His mom always said that his dad tried getting into coordinating, but it didn't end too well for him. He ended up just becoming a judge for them. “Ah, but we're not here for that, right?" he chuckled nervously and rubbed the back of his neck.
Michelle nodded, then turned to Aidan. “Unfortunately, no. Though I'm pleased to note you cleaned up well for trial, Mr. Klein. Kasimir did tell me you have a certain facility with people."
Aidan snorted a little. "High praise, from the likes of him," he replied, and Michelle smiled, before bringing her hands together.
“All right. We should head to the courthouse. We'll end up quite early, but that's good too. We don't want to waste the judge's time—we'll leave that to this idiot and whatever poor schmuck got stuck with the case. Frankly I have no idea how the police thought it was worth taking to court, much less the Cinnabar DA's office, but if that's a lesson they haven't learned yet, well... they will." She smiled, a sharp expression with narrow eyes.
"Go get 'em, sharpedo," Mel said, grinning brightly.
“Oh, I intend to."
Drake was almost certain he knew the answers to that. Carter had come to collect Aidan personally, so Drake was certain he was the someone in the police aspect of it. He was also certain the the DA's office picked it up because Aidan was part of NTR. Everyone had something against NTR, but Drake knew that the two things were separate. Aidan was just a regular person when the events with Kevin transpired, but to the police, he was NTR.
“Alright," Drake stated as he stood from his spot on the couch, glancing briefly in Mel's direction and offering her a bright grin. “Your mom is good at what she does, and they really don't have anything on Aidan, so this'll be a nice preview of what to expect," he continued.
“Good luck, though. They'll still be persistent and try to make it seem like Aidan was at fault, even if he wasn't," Nev replied. Drake supposed they would be, but still, he was confident enough that it would be fine. Once they'd exited the apartment, it was only a matter of time before they reached the courthouse. Drake still felt nervous about it. He wasn't the one on trial, but for some reason, walking through the doors to the courthouse felt like suddenly it was his trial, and not Aidan's. He swallowed past a large lump in his throat.
“So... this is the pretrial, right? We're basically here to get the first testimonials and acquaint ourselves with the judge?" Drake wasn't entirely sure how any of this worked. He'd never been to court before.
"Yes and no," Mel supplied. "It's pretrial, but basically what happens is everyone will sort out any evidence disputes or issues they have with certain witnesses being called at all. A lot of it is formalities, but it helps the main trial run a lot more smoothly. Usually there's not a ton of objections and stuff like on TV because all that's hashed out at pretrial. Honestly none of us even have to be there, but it looks good for Aidan if he is."
Michelle nodded. “Exactly so. For me, it's also a chance to get a sense of what I'm up against. For them as well." She smiled; it wasn't hard to tell where Mel's nickname for her mom had come from; there was something intense about it. “But mostly it's where we make clear what we're going to do during the trial, and sort out what the problems are going to be, if anything."
"How long do you reckon it'll take?" Aidan asked.
She lifted her shoulders. “It depends. I don't expect they have much evidence, and probably their main witness will be the man himself, possibly along with the arresting officer if they think they'll have something useful to say. The sticking point, I suppose, will be whether or not they plan to introduce character witnesses against you. I'll try to stop that, but it's usually permitted, in which case I'll just add my own, which is why I asked you for a list."
“It's not like they'd have any witnesses to begin with besides Kevin," Drake murmured softly. Honestly, this was just ridiculous. Kevin was proving to be the worst decision Drake had ever made in life. Why did he have to date such a problematic person? Why couldn't he have met Mel, first? They wouldn't be here if he had, and Aidan wouldn't be on trial for this.
“Witnesses or not, people will sometimes claim that they saw 'a' doing 'x' to 'b'. Hm, what do you call them," Nev began, furrowing her brows slightly as she tried to think of what she wanted to say, apparently. “Ah, bribed. They're often bribed or want to do it because they think it'll help somehow. I don't think that it happens often since it's kind of illegal to lie in court."
Drake supposed that made sense, but he wasn't too sure. He'd never had to do something like this before, and he supposed he was just getting jittery because of it. “Is it possible that the case can be dropped before it even goes to the actual trial?" Drake decided to ask. “I mean, if the witness is actually just Kevin, he'd be lying if he said anything that wasn't true."
Drake would know if Kevin was lying, too.
“That happens sometimes, yes. I can make a pretrial motion for dismissal, which I'll probably do. But most of the time that doesn't work, particularly if the prosecutor wants to do it. The judge is more likely to give them a fair chance to prove their point, even if it doesn't look too likely that they will. It takes an overwhelming lack to get something dismissed, usually." Michelle shrugged again as they approached the courthouse building, then turned on her heel to face them.
“All right, since there are some people who probably haven't been to court before, just a quick rules primer. Generally, you don't speak unless someone asks you to. And by someone, I mean the judge. Unless you're on the stand, keep quiet. You can actually be charged with a crime for disrupting a trial, or be thrown out of the room. Emotions might run high in there, but don't let them get the best of you. We'll do better if we look like the side with all the collected professionals on it, even in the audience. Secondly, do what you're told by the judge or the bailiff, or me." She smiled a little at that.
“Otherwise, just use your manners and keep your cool. This is my job. Everything's going to work out if you trust me, okay?"
"You got it," Aidan said, saluting with the first two fingers of his right hand.
“Excellent. I love it when a client knows how to relax."
“I... uh, I'll do what I can?" Drake stated, already feeling like his breathing was becoming short.
“Drake, take a deep breath and you'll be fine. Like Michelle said, this is formality. We're here to provide Aidan our support and you can give your testimony if you have to," Nev stated as she laid a hand on his shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. It didn't do much to relax his nerves, but he did take a deep breath.
“Alright, alright, I got this. I can do this," he stated, and kept repeating the mantra in his head. This was for Aidan, and to set things straight with Kevin once and for all. “Good luck, Aidan." It was about the only thing he could think of to say, really.
"Thanks, kid."
Mel took his hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. "Come on; let's go in and find seats. I'll be right next to you the whole time, I promise."
Drake smiled and nodded his head. At least he felt a little better, now.
“Thanks, Mel."