Just The Way You Like It - Under Construction

Chapter Eighty-Eight

Chapter Eighty-Eight

The trial lasted just over a year, leaving me little time to work on my side-projects. Seeing Wallace in court everyday was hard enough, but seeing him sick was worse. By the time the trial ended, I really wasn't sure if he would make it through sentencing. Only half of the girls from The Pit were mentally fit to stand for testimony, but it was more than enough to get the job done. Once all was said and done, there were six multiple life-sentences handed out, and more than one hundred smaller legal claims, ranging from felonies to misdemeanors. Only two men pleaded guilty, the other thirty-two all took their chances in court. All thirty-four were found guilty. Unfortunately for me the trial had take place in Portland on account of the court system being unable to find any suitable jurors among the New Coven populace. Everyone knew everyone in such a small town, and no one there could truthfully say that they did not have a predetermined mindset about the defendants.

Being holed up in Portland Monday through Friday was enough to almost kill me. I hated being so far away from Blake, and had to make multiple daily phone calls to Holly for updates. Part of me was glad that Blake never woke up to find me gone, while the other part of me still wished that Holly had good news as I listened to the phone ring.

It was about a month after the trial, after the media finally left New Coven, Holly and Sam found a place of their own, and I received my GED in the mail, that things finally went back to normal. I got permission from Joseph, Blake's brother, to use the house as a boarding house for the girls that had no where else to go. Many of them had managed to locate their family, but five of them were stuck. So, we moved them into Blake's house long enough for them to get a fresh start on life. Hank helped me find them all jobs, while Anna Lee dropped by every night to get them started on learning basic education. A local grocery store set up a donation box, and free groceries were delivered to the house on a weekly basis. And, the state provided the funding for all of them to receive weekly therapy sessions with some of the local councilors.

The second I got my GED, I applied for my Nursing Degree. Dr. Nuardi agreed to let me intern under his watch, and by the third year of my freedom I was a full-fledged Nurse. Dr. Nuardi happily gave me my first job, and within a few months I had settled in nicely at St. Micheal's. The nurses made sure to keep me in the ICU whenever possible, knowing that I was all too happy to work as close to Blake as I could.

Holly and Sam finally set a wedding date, and that summer they had a beautiful ceremony at the Baptist Church. Just before Halloween, Holly announced that she was pregnant. Sam was overjoyed with the news, making Luke all the more frustrated at work as he refused to stop talking about the upcoming birth of his child. Two weeks later, however, Sam's employment with the New Coven Sheriff's Department came to an unexpected end when Luke received a phone call from the F.B.I. Apparently, Sam's application had been dug up, and he had been given full commendations on his work during his undercover operation at the warehouse. One week before Thanksgiving, Sam and Holly packed up their belongings and moved down to Washington D.C. Two days after that, Sam was a full-fledged F.B.I. Agent and received a medal during a special ceremony for his bravery in the line of duty. Holly couldn't have been happier. She finally had a man who loved her, and as a bonus he had managed to land a job that came with respect and a house in the big city.

As Christmas approached I made sure to get all of the girls some small presents. Hank helped me hide them in Blake's basement, but only after he fixed the knob on the door that led down to it. Luke volunteered as the town Santa, after much prodding from his wife. My parents came to visit again, and we enjoyed a solid two weeks of family time. Before they left, I made sure to write them a check. With the money I had received as reparation from the State, I had more than enough to pay them back the money they had spent on trying to locate me all those years ago.