After Before and After

Phase 4: Chapter 109

October 15, 1993. 4:51 PM.

Following Larry Evans' testimony on Wednesday, Jeremy Reynolds had only a few Is to dot and Ts to cross before wrapping up his defense for Larry in the Benson case that Friday.

Ralph knew that the conclusion of Larry's defense for the death of Captain Benson meant that on Monday morning, it would be all about Simon again. The remaining twenty-one boys were set to take the stand during what's left of October and into November, including Larry who would be asked to defend himself a second time, and also Ralph who would've rathered crawl out of his own skin than get up on that witness stand.

Court concluded a few rejoiceful minutes early that Friday afternoon. Ralph was quick to get out of there and get back to the hotel so he could meet up with Jack. The blond boy was to join the Langley family in their venture home to East Point for the weekend. Things were getting notably uglier between Evan and Paige, with the two of them having been caught screaming at each other in public more than once now. Evan was already starting to restrict some of the privileges he promised to revoke from Paige at the end of the trial, and she was realizing just how much of Evan cared about getting his way and how little of Evan cared about anyone else.

Evan knew he couldn't take away everything from Paige while they were still under the spotlight of the trial, but inflicting subtle but significant damage was something he had an absurd amount of practice at. Evan was determined to make the last couple months of the trial as miserable as possible for both Paige and Jack, and so far, he was succeeding.

"Its not as bad as you're thinking it'll be" Jack insisted from the seat behind the driver's in Jeffery's truck as they left Savannah in the rearview mirror.

"Easy for you to say, you have self confidence. I'm gonna trip up or forget something important or go completely blank or something worse" Ralph combatted from the adjacent seat behind Laurie's.

"I thought you were supposed to be the optimist here" Jack argued with a slight chuckle.

"I was a lot of things before I got that subpoena" Ralph bitterly remarked. "My own life never depended on my public speaking skills before now."

"Come on, don't be such a drag" Jack scoffed lightheartedly. "You'll do fine. All you gotta do is answer his questions. Reynolds isn't gonna try and trip you up. He's on our side."

"Dana Barnes isn't, and she's gonna be cross-examining all of us. Didn't you see what she did to Larry on Wednesday? She tried to practically coerce him into admitting that he stabbed Captain Benson knowingly" Ralph recalled.

"But he didn't, he did fine. Reynolds knows how and when to object to her bullshit. C'mon, man. You're being paranoid, you can't freak out just 'cause you can't control everything all the time" Jack argued warmly but with a hint of frustration.

"Language, Jack" Jeffery chimed in warningly from the driver's seat, turning his head to catch a glimpse of the boys in the backseat.

"My bad" Jack quickly responded before turning his attention back to Ralph. "It's gonna be fine. You're gonna be fine. You know that."

"Even so, I still get nauseous at the thought of being grilled by the DA. She's not gonna stop until we're all behind bars, y'know" Ralph pointed out.

"Sucks for her that it's not her decision then" Jack answered before sighing heavily and shifting forward to glance out the sliver of the windshield he could see between Jeffery's seat and the door.

Ralph took this as a natural end to the conversation and shifted away from Jack too, dropping his head against his own window. They rode the rest of the way to East Point mostly in silence with the exception of the occasional hushed commentary between Jeffery and Laurie in the front of the vehicle.