The Perfect Emma

Chapter Fifty

Grayson Todd

It had taken two weeks to get the case ready for trial, mostly because of Aaron's constant toying around with everyone. But now that it was happening, it felt both good and....Well, not bad, obviously not bad, but...anxiety-inducing. Both of the prosecution's main witnesses—Grayson and Emma—had extremely adverse reactions to being in the defendant's presence. Gray was going to struggle not to get angry, and Emma probably wouldn't even be able to be in the room.

Gray was going to have to talk to McFee about that.

In news unrelated to the trial, it had become clear after a brief discussion that, since Emma was looking like an at least semi-permanent roommate, going to an apartment that could better accommodate them both was a wise decision. After all, they couldn't keep trading the bed and couch forever. Not to mention, the old place represented a time of grief and pain in Grayson's life, and going somewhere new felt like leaving that behind. It was good.

Today, however, there was good news and bad news as Gray returned home, the new one, with two folded pieces of paper in hand.

"Hey Gray," Em greeted, sitting herself upright on the couch—by the looks of it, she'd been upside down.

"Hey," he responded, coming over and handing her one of the papers.

She furrowed her brows as she took it. "....What's this?"

"That, my friend," Gray murmured, hanging up his jacket and loosening his tie. "Is a subpoena. Your presence has been requested in court. As...has mine." Of course, it wasn't the first time Gray had delivered a subpoena, nor received one, but this particular instance was rather important. The Ghost Killer, who had been stalking Los Angeles for seven years, was being brought to court.

Emma grimaced. "Oh." She opened up the folded letter and let her eyes scan over it. Grayson sat beside her and glanced at it himself, even though he already knew exactly what it said. "I guess this means there's a court date now," she murmured, frowning slightly as she reached the bottom of the page.

Gray nodded. "Finally. Getting him there wasn't easy."

"He's pleading not guilty?" she muttered almost in disbelief. "I'd like to say I can't believe that, but...I'm not all that surprised."

He agreed. "He knows how the system works. If he plead guilty, there'd be no witnesses." Gray sighed. "He's playing with us. I wouldn't be surprised if he confessed on the stand when he gets bored."

Emma made a nervous face. "So...I have to testify...in front of him?"

Grayson had expected her to react negatively, and he didn't blame her. "No," he told her honestly. "In cases like yours where being in the suspect's presence mentally harms the victim, they can testify in a separate room through a video feed. The court will see you, but you won't see them."

That seemed to make her feel better, and she nodded. "Okay. Um....Will you be in the room with me?"

"...No," Gray said again, this time apologetically. "We're both testifying against Aaron. My being there has the legal potential to compromise both of our testimonies. But I can...." He glanced upwards in thought. "See about getting you a courthouse dog, if that makes you feel better?"

"A what?" Emma asked, giggling.

He smiled and shook his head. "A courthouse facility dog. Usually they're just used to make kids more comfortable in court, but they apply for vulnerable adults too. I can ask the DA to have that arranged, if you want."

"Okay. But...isn't it...odd for an adult to have one?" She didn't look very convinced, embarrassed even.

Gray chuckled. "No. Facing someone who's attacked and abused you is a scary thing. Plenty of adults have dogs to help them through it. You have nothing to be embarrassed about."

Emma nodded slowly. "....Okay." Then she blew out her breath, folding the subpoena back up and leaning back on the couch. "This isn't going to go smoothly at all, is it."

Understatement of the absolute century. "No," Gray replied with a sigh of his own. "It's not." He glanced over at her with a cheeky grin. "But hey, at least you can say you had the smoothest divorce in history, that's something."

She shoved him, and he chuckled. "Stop it," Emma scolded half-heartedly. "That's not funny."

Joking aside, Emma's divorce had gone surprisingly well. You hear about divorce and it always seems like this big messy thing, but without children in the picture and with both parties in agreement, there was only so much of a mess that could be made. In any case, Gray was glad on Emma's behalf that that was over with. Arthur had always rubbed the detective the wrong way.

It totally had nothing to do with the fact that Emma chose to live with Gray instead of Arthur now, of course.

With an exhale, Emma put the subpoena onto the table and said, "What d'you wanna do for dinner?"

Gray thought about that. For the most part the two of them took turns making dinner—translation; Emma tried to all the time and Gray stopped her half of that time—and when neither wanted to, they ordered out. But it had been a long time since Gray had gotten his ass up and gone to the food, and the last time Emma had done that she'd ended up in the hospital. They could both use a change. "We could go out?" he suggested.

Totally not because he wanted to eat out with Emma or anything, psh.

Emma started to nod, considering that. "Okay, sure. Got an idea where?"

Knowing that letting her pick tended to still make her happy, he decided to leave that up to her. "You choose, doesn't matter to me."

She hummed in thought, and while she did that, Gray went about getting ready to go. "How about....The Crown?"

"The Crown," Gray repeated with a nod. "That works. Get ready then."

With a smile, Emma hopped up from the couch and went to get her shoes and purse. When she was ready, she joined Grayson by the door, and they headed out.

Last time Gray had gone out to eat, it had been with Rose. Doing that sort of thing alone was just...awkward, and painful. And he'd been completely single for the last seven years. Not once had he even felt a suggestion of a desire to be with anyone, romantically, after he'd lost what he considered the love of his life.

But having spent three weeks, almost four at this rate, with Emma not just as a friend but in his home, she had earned herself his trust—and anyone at the PD would tell you that wasn't an easy thing to do. Gray was finding himself caring about Emma more than just as a witness in his case, more than someone he was obligated to protect for the sake of her testimony. She was his friend.

Considering where they were going, she might be starting to be more than that.

And that was both new, and a little frightening.