Laine Transformation

Chapter Seventeen

Time flies with no notice and reality rears its ugly head as the pre-trial quickly approaches. The days that lead up to the trial are long and exhausting. Ultimately, the hardest thing to come is the trial where I sit in front of a room of pale, dry suits recording my every sentence. Potters testimony follows mine and then Billie's.

I'm not sure if it makes me twisted or not, but it makes he happy to wish terrible things on Killian. I can't look back and take the high road when it comes to him. This man has left marks one me I think I'll be discovering for sometime. I want him to hurt, I want him to die.

I pick at my dinner at the restaurant downtown. I want to be hungry, but nothing sounds appealing.

"That was interesting." I say after nibbling down a tiny bite of a ketchup infested fry.

"It was something." Billie mutters. We're all pretty silent sitting in proper dress attire. Potter looks handsome in a dark gray button up cut perfectly to his body tucked into slim legged dress pants. That man could wear anything and my heart would race.

We pay the tab after forced small talk and some stomach curdling commentary of the pictures and questions presented during the case. Luckily, the motion of anyone considering me being the murderer was ruled out immediately as there was a witness that came forward who saw them and heard screaming from Killian's apartment that night while I was working a shift at O's.

As we walk our separate directions I turn to Potter with no sense of how to function.

"What now?" I ask, shrugging my shoulders up to the sides of my face.

"What do you have planned tomorrow?" He asks with a wondering idea brewing.

"I was probably going to work from home and avoid the public eye for a while, honestly. Why?" I wonder what he might have up his sleeve this time.

"I want to take you somewhere. To the spot for the new exhibit. We're close to making the release on the spot. Maybe only a month until the opening."

"Three weeks seems pretty quick from the time of the last exhibit. You've made that many pieces?" I'm surprised at the timeline given how many pieces were carefully made and displayed the last time. He shrugs with a sense of pride.

"I was inspired. So the decision at hand is airplane or road trip?"

"How far of a drive are we talking?" I respond with indecisiveness.

"Six hours." He tells me, grabbing my fingers and intertwining them into his while we walk up the the nearby train platform towards home.

"I'm driving, you direct." I lay out in a bossy manner. He scowls at the idea.

"I've seen you drive one time, I don't think my new car will allow your rough edges." He chuckles to me.

"Potter..." I firmly plead.

"Fine, just for a while." He negotiates. I smile and nudge him while we enter the train.

"There's something you need to do for me before I feel like a complete push over though." His words immediately make me uneasy.

"I don't think I like the sound of that." I tell him.

"Well, in order to get the car you see, we need to pay a visit to my mom's." The idea from his mouth is confirmed as being uneasy.

"Potter, I don't know." I begin. "A few short months ago I almost had her only son murdered. What if she hates me?" It's what I've really been thinking for months.