Wrongful Conviction

The Bruises

"You didn't think you should check his record before trying to tack this on him? He is blatantly innocent, you might as well have told me that the goddamn tooth fairy killed him! The tooth fairy probably has less of a rap sheet! Do you understand how dumb we look trying to pin this on him? I understand that the Stantons want closure but putting away an innocent man for a crime he didn't commit is borderline insane! You idiots really are something. I want him and that girl out of this Sheriff's office before five PM, and if they're not, I'll come down and pin this on one of you myself." She could feel the grin widening as she listened on from the room, how he tore into them piece by piece. Peter would be free in a matter of minutes, and she couldn't wait to throw her arms around him and kiss him. She and Peter could finally have the life they deserved. Settle down, have a baby or two, live on the island; she was ready to settle down with him. The sheriff's deputy comes in looking like a whipped puppy, tail tucked between his legs and look of shame written across his face.

"I'm sorry to waste your time like this, Miss Aisleigh, if there's anything I can do just let me or one of the guys know. Peter is gonna be out in just a couple minutes if you wanna stick around for him." He nods, eyes never meeting her own. She pulls his chin up so that his blue eyes are meeting her own grey ones.

"It's alright. If it makes you feel any better I'm not mad at any of you. Don't you worry your pretty little blue eyes about it. I'm not angry with you or them. Just breathe dear, I'm gonna kill you or anything crazy." She chuckles, and the deputy walks out with a strut in his step and a very confident chip on his shoulder as she follows behind him.

"Aisleigh! Did they hurt you? Did they do anything to you? Are you okay?" He bombards her with questions from inside his cell. "What's going on? Why was he so fuckin' happy?" He asks, glaring at the deputy as he saunters away.

"I'm fine Peter, don't worry. And nothing's happening. Other than you know, ya girl savin' your ass again." She giggles, reaching through the bars to touch his hand.

"You're okay, that's all that matters. Did you tell them?" He asks, sharing a knowing look with her. He would rather go to jail make her admit her past to a cop. He found that she got embarrassed entirely too easy and he'd rather agree to something he didn't do than to make her so uncomfortable. Something about her feelings made him weak, made him so defensive. He would defend her feelings before his own well-being.

"That we were making sweet love that night when we got arrest for indecency and underage drinking?" She asks with a wild fire in her eyes and a grin he'd only seen before she left and he went to prison the first time.

"Wow, that's a new confidence boost. I knew one day you'd be proud of that moment." He chuckles as he turns his back to her. "Say, you wanna put my hair up in a ponytail? It's getting in the way." She stretches up on her toes, reaches through the bars and puts his curly dark hair into a bun at the middle of his head. A sweet smile eases over her as he turns back to face her. "Thanks. I'll see you in court, you got it?" He asks, giving her the best smile she'd ever seen. Ear to ear, his sparkling white teeth beaming at her, his golden amber eyes twinkling back; Jarred was right. You could see it in her eyes the love she had for Peter. With a sweet nod, she pats his hand and walks out of the office, feeling so light and free, as if her whole world was just put back on its axis.

Four days go by without seeing Peter, and on court day, she takes in his suit for him, to find a sullen look on the lawyer's face. "I'm sorry. Peter almost killed a man yesterday in holding. He's being detained in another room for now, but they advise you not to see him." He murmurs. She heaves past him, rage burrowing deep into her gut as she shoves her way into the main offices.

"EXCUSE ME! PETER MOHUNA IF YOU PLEASE!" She shouts, poised so professionally in the middle of the room. Every single deputy turns to look at her, eyes wide and slightly afraid of her.

"Peter's being held in another room, we'd advise you not to see him." The blue-eyed deputy steps up to her and gives a confident answer, unafraid of her.

"I suggest," she jabs a finger into his chest. "You take me to him, or I'll mop the floor with your face and then we'll go. Do you understand?" She growls in his face. He gives her a nod and heads to the interrogation room where they were holding him. When they walk in, her eyes bulge and fill with tears as she assesses the damage done to him. Grotesque bruises and marks, wide cuts covered with butterflies, even a few with stitches. Where he already donned scars he now had fresh wounds once again. His eyebrow was split in the same place, a small cut on his cheek and another by the corner of his mouth. "What the hell happened to you?" She cries, rushing to him with fear coursing through her veins. His eyes skip her entirely and go straight to the deputy standing in the doorway.

"We had a deal, Officer Dickhead. She wasn't supposed to come in here. I'm sorry sweet girl, I didn't want you to see me this way." He murmurs, smoothing her cheek with a rough thumb. Through his non-swollen eye, he gives her a sweet, gentle look of apology, as he never wanted her to see him after a fight.

"I'm just saying, the other guy better be good and dead." She growls, holding him gingerly, afraid to squeeze too tight and injure him more.

"He almost was, Ma'am. I stopped 'em before it got to that point." The deputy chimes in, giving her a nod. "I didn't know they were even fighting til I got in on my shift, by then they were lying on the ground all bloody. The other deputy on duty said that they might as well fight it out, they're both criminals anyway." He gives her an apologetic look, and rage fills her eyes, turning into a dark stormy grey as she got angrier.