Wrongful Conviction

"Be Gentle"

"Look, do you wanna be put away for life for something you possibly didn't do?" He barks, slamming his baton against the white bars.

"Just be gentle with her, okay? She's precious." He grumbles, sitting on the bench waiting for his time in processing and booking to come. He thinks about how then hours earlier he and Aisleigh were dressed nicely and he was swinging her around they were happy as could be. Now he sat in detaining waiting to be proven innocent by a system that wanted to keep him locked up for life. The whole justice system sees him as a threat, as some kind of monster to keep detained, to hide from the rest of society.

"Look kid, you get your phone call, okay?" He asks after processing and booking is completed, and leads Peter to the long line of phones on a white brick wall, each one their own cubicle. He calls his mom, to his surprise the boys answer, concern filling the other end of the line as they listen, waiting for him to speak.

"Hey, you guys okay?" He asks, and they both are quick to respond. "Look, lemme talk to her, okay?" There's a crackling on the line and then he hears the softest sound. "Hey, I'm okay, you okay?" He murmurs, fist clenching and unclenching as if he were squeezing an imaginary stressball. "I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. It's gonna be fixed soon, I promise." He murmurs, pressing the phone painfully closer to his face, as if he could almost feel her next to him, as if he could hear her gentle breathing. "Look, I only have ten minutes. I need to talk to the boys again, okay?" He asks, "I love you. I'll be alright though."

"Guys, look. There's gonna be an officer that will come to ask her some questions, make sure she doesn't give anything up. Okay? She and I were goofing off that night, I was high off of that robbery and we were doing some stuff, okay? If she's too embarrassed she doesn't have to say anything. If she doesn't wanna, they don't make her. Got it?" He asks.

"Yeah, we get it."

"See you later guys, tell her I'll be out soon. Okay?" He murmurs, feeling the wave of nausea as the pain wells up inside of him again. "Bye." He grumbles, hanging up just as the timer goes off. Jarred comes in just as she collapses onto the couch and rushes to her side. He falls next to her and starts to ask questions.

"Hey, where's Peter?" He shouts, standing stalking towards the boys talking in the kitchen. "Did he do this? Did he hurt her?" Her stops mid way to the kitchen and turns to look at her with so much pain and heartbreak in his eyes. "Oh baby girl." He grabs her up and hugs her tightly. "I'm so sorry."

"They took him. They took him away again." She murmurs, burying her face into his chest as she cries.

"Take a deep breath, it's okay. Just breathe." He murmurs, kissing her cheeks to calm her down. She hiccups and heaves against him like breaking waves, and finds herself struggling to breathe.

"We need to get him a lawyer, we need to get him a good lawyer." She murmurs, getting ready to stand and leave. Her body seemed to be on autopilot, letting her mind take over and direct her towards the door.

"Hey, woah, he doesn't need a lawyer, okay? He's gonna be fine. Just-let's go to bed and worry about this in the morning."

"In the morning? This isn't a dead goldfish, Jarred, it's a human being! One that we all happen to love incredibly! But you don't understand that. I can see it in the way you look at me, you have no idea how to feel for people who have been to prison. He's my best friend, he's the one person I could run to when me my world was falling apart and I can't just sit back and watch him be put away again. I won't do it. He had nothing to do with Stanton's death." She shrieks, her heart bursting with raw pain as she recalls him leaving, how calming he was to her, to keep her sane. Jarred nods to her, grabs her hand and pulls her out to the front porch.

"Do you love him?" He asks. She is taken aback, eyes wide and confused.

"Of course! He's my best friend."

"Look, I've been honest with you, now be honest with me. Are you in love with him? I see it in the way you look at him, how protective he is over you. Don't try to lie, just tell me you're in love with him." Tears start to fall down her face. She knew she should feel something wrong, some kind of heartbreak, her fiance was leaving her, but the only thing she could think about was how to keep Peter safe. That was her answer for herself and for her sweet Jarred. Here he was trying to break up with her and the only thing she could think about was Peter.

"Yes, I am in love with him. I'm so sorry, Jarred." She whispers, and he nods patting her shoulder. He whispers a 'thank you' to her as he kisses her cheek. "I'm so sorry. In another life, we'd be perfect, but in this one, I've already messed up too much to be any good for you." He chuckles softly and gives her a sad smile, nodding gently to her in agreement. As he hugs her, a police car pulls up to the house and she nods to them. "I'm ready to go." She agrees, stepping up the cop car and being gently settled into the back seat, no cuffs or restraints.

"Can you tell me what you and Peter Mahuna were doing the night that Stanton was murdered? Peter has a lot of evidence against him, anything you say could make or break this case. Use your words carefully." Peter's lawyer gives her a small lecture on the best way to tell them what she knows, and she only giggles in response.

"Peter and I were dating at the time and he had just robbed the convenience store across the street from Stanton's liquor store, and we hopped into the truck, a 1995 Chevy K1500, silver with one kelly green door and headed over to the lake to smoke some cigarettes and drink a beer. Well, when we got to the beach there was some other people so we sat in the truck and waited until they left. Me and Petey started to get heated, and just as he popped the hook on my bra, a county sheriff showed up and Petey and I were taken in for public indecency and consumption of alcohol underage. We were booked and settled in for the night in separate cells and in the morning ma came and got us." She laughs, twisting her forearm up for them to see it. On the sweet fair skin there was a dark mulberry scar that ran down her arm elbow to wrist.

"That's from the cops dragging me out of his truck bed and cutting my arm on some glass." She boasts, hearing a familiar shout from down the hallway. 'You promised to leave her out of this! You bastards! I swear I'll kill you.' She gives a quirky grin, listening to his threats.

"You are currently engaged, so there's no reason to lie for, persay, being in love with Peter Mohuna, correct?" Asks the federal agent as he scratches the back of his weathered hand.

"Of course there's no reason to lie. That underage drinking and indecency is still on our records." She laughs, "which makes it seriously difficult to get a job, speaking from experience." The federal agent steps out of the room to find a few police officers to ask them about his new found discovery. She could hear them outside the room: