Profession

Hearing

After all that excitement, life went back to normal. I went to showers and weddings, took some portraits, took a mini-break with Jon where we got a beach house in North Carolina one long weekend and played in the ocean and explored the local cuisine and did nothing that might be called work. I actually left my cameras at home. The pups didn't like sand, so they stayed with Aunt Emma and their dad. The weddings were beautiful; it was a pleasure to see Chris and Leanna and Arch and Briana get the start to their lives together. Jon had his work, both kinds, but I was busy too. My work, plus time with friends and family.

Then it came time to go over to London for the hearing. I asked Jon not to come, because they knew who he was and they probably could lay their hands on kryptonite. I didn't think that the intelligence services would act in that manner, but there was that 1% doubt. I had to let my husband risk himself all the time as Superboy, but I didn't want harm to come to him because of me. And if I was willing to play by the rules this time, if they hurt Jon, I was going to do my level best to burn anybody who had anything to do with it down to ashes.

I flew over by myself the morning of the hearing, arriving right before the hearing was to start. It worried my solicitor a lot, this thin margin, but she was there to pick me up from the airport and hustle me to Eland House, which was not a house at all but a restored, interesting looking office building that housed Britain's Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs, at least in part. At the door, we passed through security and given visitors badges by an employee and taken to a conference room toward the top of the building. It had a wall of windows to let the sunshine in, which was nice. I'd been kind of worried that I'd be taken to some ominous basement room, like Harry Potter when he was tried in the Ministry of Magic.

Peggy Carter, the beiges, the two security guards, Trevalyn, and Auntie Jenny were already there with their solicitors, and I looked at them impassively. The panel members and judge came in right behind us, and there were introductions before the defendants and I were sent out into the hall to wait while some procedural stuff was hashed out. This was the first trial of its kind, so there wasn't precedent to rely on. I leaned against the wall by a window at some distance from the others, watching street traffic, people going about their days, and let my mind wander. I was startled by a hand on my arm, but dropped the grouchy face when I saw it wasn't any of the people I was holding to account.

It was Princess Gloriana.

The defendants down the hall had snapped to when they recognized her, and were staring hard at us, with varying degrees of curiosity and possibly disdain. For me, probably, anyway, although she might have gotten some as a rep for her sister, who had evaded this hearing.

"I'm here on my own," she said quietly before I could say anything. "This is a real mess. I'm not blaming you, though. Di should have been more careful when letting Crisp off his chain; he's gotten a lot more ruthless than I'd realized. She takes more time with policies that affect a lot of people. I think she realizes that people who have a use for that one individual will be less concerned for possible negative effects on that person now, and she regrets not being more careful, but she also thought Crisp would be cautious because she's your friend. I feel awkward approaching you, I don't know much of the particulars, but I do know that you were beaten up while in the custody of Her Majesty's government, and none of it should have happened. It's not much, but I wanted to let you know that I recognize how unfair this was. And just because you couldn't get the higher-ups in on this hearing doesn't mean that they're getting off scot free. I'm not at liberty to discuss particulars, just like you aren't with this thing, but there are consequences. Professional consequences for the career officers, plus Di and Crisp's relationship is strained. Everybody's come down on Crisp, actually, and Di has lost her friend. And I can't say that you're wrong about that. Just as a sister who sees her sister hurting, I would just ask you to consider that she's really new to rule, she doesn't have her system figured out yet like Dad did, and grief and her pregnancy are really taking a toll on her. Your residency status here is unchanged, you don't have to worry about that."