Maddy and Me

Epilogue I

Maddy walked into the pale white hospital in a t-shirt of different shades of tan, a brown zipper hoodie she borrowed from Teddy and black jeans. Her fit slayed too hard to visit someone who was on their deathbed, it's obvious who she's visiting.

She asked for him and his room number at the reception and strode down to him. His mom saw her from one end of the hall and called her husband's attention on the youngling who was marching towards them from the other end. The mother was about to put up a fight about why she was there, but the father raised his hand and ended her monologue before it started. The mother didn't keep pushing, she knew better, and they simply eyed her as she walked past them and eyed them back before pushing open the brown door on their left.

Hearing the door slam close, Nate's eyes busted open. He winced at the pain from his fading black eye, it went unnoticed. She stopped in front of the bed and crossed her arms, she had a scowl on. She knew what he was trying to do.

He turned on his charm to 110% and tried to sound excited with his coarse voice, "Hey Maddy! How are you?"

She didn't buy it as per her plans. "What do you want?"

"Nothing! Just wanted to know how my best girl's doing."

She faked the niceness. "Oh, I'm fine. I'm actually more than fine, I'm great! I moved on from you, found an amazing woman and her family adopted me. I'm better at relationships now and I'm very excited for a case, you know. But that's enough about me. How are you and your broken face and ribs?"

He returned genuine niceness. "My face is ok, I'm gonna get a surgery to put it back into its old glory." Maddy rolled her eyes. "And then tomorrow morning I'm gonna go into surgery for the ribs."

"So you're not gonna come for the verdict?"

"No, the docs said that my mental health matters a lot to make the surgery effective and shit. We were gonna wait for the verdict for the mental boost but they said that my body's slowly getting unresponsive to the pills and the later the surgery, the lesser the odds that I make it. So I'll go into surgery before the trial, Dad will go to court, come back, I'll be out of the surgery by then and come out of the anesthesia to the good news."

Maddy's face had slowly twisted in bafflement as those words existed his mouth. "...How do you even have this much hope? Half the school testified against you and the rest signed statements! Even your friends! Or did your daddy not tell you about all that?"

"He did! But we have the better lawyer and the case is leaning our way. I'm not afraid."

Maddy nodded, "You should be. Anyways, bye." 

She turned left for the door when Nate said with all his might, "Wait! I didn't even get to tell you what I called you here for!"

She turned back to him. "What?"

Her irritated expression completely flew over his head. "So... I'll be out of physiotherapy in time for Winter Formal. So, I was wonderin'-"

Maddy cut him of with a laugh. "How are you so fucking stupid?!"

He slow-rolled his eyes and said, "Come on, Maddy... Stop this dance!"

"What?" she asked in between a laugh.

"Stop acting like you're still mad at me. Leave that poor girl alone."

She laughed no more. She glowered down at him and replied, "I stopped dancing a long time ago. I turned off the music and jumped off the fucking train."

He chuckled. "Like you can get over me."

She smiled, "I did already, like I said. It looks like you're the one who hasn't gotten over me even after being with the girl you're suing and being the one to sue ya in the next case. After you get out of physiotherapy, I'll escort you to jail."

"Oh please."

She grinned wider, "Watch me." And walked out. He didn't have anything to say and didn't try to go after, yet again. Except this time he actually couldn't.

She skipped past his parents and took the stairs down to the car where her lover waited for her in the sky blue Mondeo. She opened the door to her smiling Teddy as 'Perfect Day' by Hoku played on the stereo. Maddy got in, kissed Teddy, closed the door and they rode off into the sunset. To the Rosenberg Residence.

*****

Though Sonny had been in the same courtroom for the past two weeks, that Tuesday morning she found the lights too harsh against her skin. Though Sonny knew her side of the case was stronger, Sonny found herself fiddling with her fingers as the verdict was passed from the foreman to the judge.

The judge, who had to throw many citations of contempt at Nate's father to sit him down and threaten him into not speaking out of turn like a toddler, resolutely asked the foreman, "Is this the verdict of the jury?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Is it unanimous?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Okay."

Sonny gulped and held her hands in a knot as form was passed to a clerk of the court. In a dark jade green pantsuit and white turtleneck, she waited in the best of her Sunday clothes for the simple sentence. The clerk read one statement after the other and her lawyer left short and silent sighs of relief when the 'yes's and 'no's were heard. Because of the panic that gripped her by the neck, Sonny wasn't able to process the words that were spoken loud and clear.

Finally, the clerk of the court reached the end. "-Hence, this jury finds the defendant, Miss Sonia Theodore Rosenberg not guilty -in addition, a serious investigation into the assault of Miss Maddy Perez is ordered by the Court of California."

A round of applause and a roar of cheers erupted in the courtroom from Sonny's family and the children whose absence had been pardoned by East High. Sonny let go of the breath she didn't know was in her hold and smiled for the first time that Sunday. Maddy hugged her best friends while Sonny hugged her lawyer, her parents, siblings and then Maddy. They hugged for longer than the others before letting go and jumped on the either sides of the barricade that separated the defense from the spectators.

Mr. Jacobs eyed them all with malice as they left rejoicing in their victory and was the last one to leave the courtroom. In the time that he wasn't hurling curses at the Rosenbergs and Maddy, he was trying to figure out how to break the news to his son.