After Before and After

Phase 4: Chapter 9

Ralph Langley was a paranoid stickler. Despite the fact that he was the most promising candidate on the criminal defendants list, he was still worried about the possibility of even the smallest error in his defense costing him everything. His lawyer, Zoey Berman, was calm, collected, and understanding. It was her job to keep it together for both herself and Ralph, and she was damn good at doing it.

What Zoey didn't know was that Ralph was facing the biggest dilemma of his fourteen years of life. She was completely missing the fact that Ralph was doing something she was very clear about with all her clients; keeping pertinent secrets. She warned clients about how lying to her would only make them vulnerable on the stand, that it only put their own freedom in jeopardy. But what Zoey couldn't see was that Ralph's defense was only second on the young boy's priority list. He was willing to gamble his own life for that of the boy on trial with him. His decision to lie to Zoey not only about the existing relationship between them, but about Jack's involvement in the acts they were on trial for was a decision he made in Jack's best interest. Knowing that he was lying and keeping secrets is what really made Ralph Langley paranoid. Zoey was insistent on the fact that secrets always came out in a courtroom; that it was your choice whether to use them to your own advantage or to let the other side use it against you. And even so, Ralph was willing to risk the potential ambush on the stand rather than to speak ill of Jack, even if it was the truth.

The second half of November was not only a trying time for Ralph because of preparations for the trial, but because his relationship with Jack started to suffer. Ralph figured that Jack was just taking his trial-related stresses out on him. But still, Ralph couldn't shake the nagging feeling in his chest that was telling him it might be deeper than that. It wasn't just that Jack was more on edge than usual (he could be easily agitated on a good day), but he was plain different somehow.

Ralph didn't know what to think when Jack became seemingly disinterested in their physical relationship. Before the trial stuff started, Jack would've never declined the chance to be alone with Ralph. Now, he was dismissive and fidgety. He preferred to be by himself more often, insisted upon his space, and preferred playing videogames over paying attention to Ralph. The latter couldn't tell if Jack was bored or upset or something else. He constantly found himself asking Jack if something was bothering him, but Jack seemed to be offended that he asked at all. That too was different. Jack's patience towards Ralph was thinning by the day. It bitterly reminded Ralph of what it was like when Jack started gravitating away from him out on the island. And look how that turned out, Ralph anxiously thought.

What Ralph was sure he wasn't seeing was the rising tensions between Jack and Evan as the upcoming trial hung between them. The two struggled with their relationship well before the island, and well before the trial. Ralph knew that Evan was subpoenaed to appear as a character witness for Jack by both the prosecution and the defense, and that he was working with Brett Winslow to combat the wretched things in Jack's school files that would prove his delinquency. Surely, Evan was probably the last person on earth who wanted to get up in front of a courtroom full of people and justify every documented bad thing Jack's ever done. Ralph assumed that things were probably dreadful for Jack at the Merridew house right now, and that the possibility of being convicted was messing with Jack's head. So in spite of the fact that it was hard for him to bear, Ralph was pretty lenient with Jack given his distant and sometimes unkind attitude towards him as of late.

Despite the fact that Jack was snippy and overly unpleasant to be around, Ralph still wanted nothing more than to be around him. The days they got to spend together became fewer and far between as mid November progressed into late November. Jack was snapping far more often, and Ralph was usually on the receiving end of it. Jack was not only harsh in his treatment of Ralph, but he was physically jumpy. Sometimes, he'd even smack Ralph when he bumped or touched him, even if Ralph did it by accident. Ralph didn't think especially about it because Jack was sometimes jumpy when things were really bad between him and Evan. Before he was used to it, it seemed out of the blue to Ralph. But then he'd see a shiny new bruise or mark somewhere on Jack's body that told him exactly why Jack was short-tempered and desperate to be in complete control of his physical space.