The courtroom was silent as Tony took his seat beside me again and poured himself a glass of water from the jug in front of us.

"I oughta be breaking that glass over your fucking head" I said under my breath to him.

He gave me a weary glance. "You're hanging yourself up here; you don't own this court like you own your goddamn streets. Loose the attitude fast."

I felt my fingers clenching and shoved my hands down by my side. All my life I had lived in a world where the attitude you presented was everything. Layer by layer you covered everything you ever felt, until someone could cut to the bone and still not see what was inside. Sometimes I wondered if anything was left inside anyway.

"The prosecution calls William McIntyre."

Will strolled up to the stand and took his place, swore on the bible with a hard, clear voice, and Lyle Johnson got up to begin the questioning.

"William, can you tell us what happened on the day Robert Casey died?"

"Robert, David, Frank and I were driving down Hyde Street and we saw Tim walking by" Will state without infliction. "So I stopped…"

Lyle interrupted him. "Clarify for the courtroom, who is Tim?"

"Tim Shepard, him" and Will pointed, his eyes meeting mine, a gleam of triumph in them.

"Why did you stop?"

"To talk to him. We got out the car and were talking, and that's when he stabbed Robert."

He sure had a pretty generous interpretation of the situation, I guess the kid was gonna make a great politician some day. Tony scrawled something on his notepad and shoved it toward me.

I can't wait to cross examine the little shit

Let me do it I wrote back.

He grinned, and I took a breath and tried to relax. My side would be heard too, I had to believe that. But would they even care what my side was, that was the real question.

"Then what?" Lyle was asking.

"Then, ahh, I hit Shepard, to get him off. Then we got back in the car and I took Robert to the hospital."

For all the details he had left out, it was still the truth. However many shades of grey I tried to color it with, I had killed a boy.

Tony got up for the cross examination. "So, William" he began, leaning against the jury bench with his arms folded. "Are you a friend of Mr. Shepard?"

"No, he's a hood."

"What makes him a hood?"

"What?" Will snapped, his composure slipping slightly, "he lives on the East side, he has a gang, he breaks the law, of course he's a hood!" The question appeared to have annoyed him no end.

"So why were you stopping to talk to a person your so scared of?"

"Scared?" Will was practically jumping out of his skin by now. "I'm not scared of him. He's nothing, he's just low born trash."

Tony still looked relaxed, in direct contrast to Will. I wondered if Curly and the boys were finding this amusing and turned to take a look. Wade was grinning, but Curly's face was dark and stormy. He had his hands balled into fists and was staring at Will with cold rage.

"You sure know a lot about Tim for not being friends with him" Tony said breezily. "Have you met before?"

"We had a fight once" Will said with forced sounding calmness, and I saw pride in the lift of his chin as he said it.

"Oh, what happened?"

"He broke my jaw."

"He did huh?" Tony said, shaking his head sadly. "That's too bad. How come you stopped to talk to someone who'd beaten you in a fight?"

"He didn't beat me" Will said testily, his jaw clenched angrily. "And I stopped so we could talk and work things out."

If I ever got out of here, maybe I should arrange for me and Will to get a couple of baseball bats and meet Tony down a dark alley sometime.

"You and your three friends all got out the car to talk to Tim, who you have a score to settle with?"

"Yes."

"After Robert got hurt, you took him to the hospital, correct?"

"Yes."

"What time?"

"I wasn't looking at my watch."

Tony walked back over to the dock and picked a sheet of paper out of his briefcase.

"Hospital admission form" he said, holding it up to show Will. "Time of admission 6.15pm. Why didn't you take him straight to the hospital?"

"I did."

"Yet we have three witnesses who put the time of the incident at approximately 5.30pm. Now from Hyde Street to the hospital is a fifteen minute drive, wouldn't you say?"

"I had to drop David and Frank at their houses first."

"Your friend's bleeding to death, and you take a detour?"

Will shifted on his feet and glanced over at Lyle like he was gonna help him.

"I didn't think it was that bad."

"You didn't think he was hurt badly enough to require hospital treatment?"

"Not at first."

"What changed your mind?"

"He started bleeding worse."

The police had been at my house so fast, I had always assumed Robert had gone straight to the hospital. I thought of the time he had sat bleeding in the car, was that the time that had made all the difference in both our lives?

"No further questions."

Will left the stand looking slightly less confident, and the judge called for recess.

A guard escorted me back to the holding cells, where I had to spend my time if I wasn't in the courtroom. For once I didn't mind going back to a cell, it was a relief to only have brick walls to look at. Nothing that could look back at me.

"That kid McIntrye" the guard said as he locked the door behind me, "His fathers running for mayor, did you know that?"

"Nah" I said. "But I sure won't vote for the fucker, I can tell ya that."

I lit up a cigarette, and the guard laughed. "You sure can pick enemies Shepard."

I guess I have always been better at making enemies that at making friends. I only ever wanted to be respected, being liked never came into it. I wanted to be able to walk down the street and hold my head up high.
My pride was the only thing I had that no one could ever take away.

Back from recess I tried to concentrate on the forensic scientist explaining Roberts's injuries, pointing to an enlarged color photo of his wounds as he spoke.

"…so as you can see the knife entered the chest area under the breast bone…"

I looked up at the photo mounted at the front of the courtroom. I have seen live people with worse looking injuries, I guess it didn't look so bad because they had cleaned off all the blood for the photo. There was just a narrow, dark gash in his chest, but despite that looking at it made me feel queasy.

I kept my head straight forward but slid my gaze off to the side of the room, I couldn't be seen to be unable to look at my own crime. But sometimes your own past is something you want to turn away from, to pretend you were never the sort of person who could look a boy in the eyes and slide a knife into his body.

XXXXXXXXXX

Day two of the trial, the scientist back on the stand, this time being questioned by Tony. He was explaining the clotting action of the blood, and I hoped the jury was paying more attention than I was.

I turned to see who was in court today; saw Curly sitting at the back with Wade. Wade was leaning over saying something in his ear, but Curly looked to be ignoring him. He was just staring at the photos mounted up on the board, his face hard and focused, pale. Curly has never been an angel, he's jumped people, mugged people, fought with knives and chains, he's seen and caused his fair share of pain. But he stared at Roberts's photo with a sick expression that I wondered about.

"Would you expect to see a wound suddenly begin to bleed more profusely?" Tony asked the scientist.

"No, as the blood clots the flow will decrease. However there are factors that can affect this, for instance if an artery has been severed."

"Was that the case in this instance?"

"Yes, the second cut had the same entry point but went deeper than the first."

"The second cut?" Tony asked, the exact same question that was in my mind.

the second cut I remembered my motion, the quick cut. In and out. There had been no second time, that crime wasn't mine, and I fought the urge to yell that out. I had to talk to Tony, he had to understand that, he had to make the jury understand.

"In your opinion, would the first cut have been severe enough to cause the death of Robert Casey?"

"No, with medical treatment it was a survivable injury."

I suddenly felt dizzy and lightheaded, the guilt that slid of me a living thing I could feel, heavier than I had even known. Every morning you wake up and swallow the cold shame of knowing you took a life, and it sits in your stomach like a brick.

Recess was called, and I could hardly wait to get out of there.

"I gotta talk to you" I hissed to Tony as we stood. He nodded and followed me down to the cells.

I stood against the wall staring at Tony, too wound up to sit down, waiting for the guard to leave.

"Why don't you just tell me what the hells going on? What the fuck are they talking about, the second cut? I never did that, no one ain't gonna pin their fucking crime on me, I didn't kill that kid!"

I clenched my fists and paced the cell, adrenalin surging through me, rage beating in my chest.

"Just calm down a minute" Tony said, moving so that the table was between us. "I know you only cut him one time, you told me that remember. There's more to this than you know Tim. That kid McIntrye should be on trial, not you."

"What?" I stopped. "What does Will got to do with it?"

Tony glanced at his watch. "We gotta head back in a minute. William McIntrye is anything but the pillar of society his parents think he should be. Did you know he's been doing business with the Brumly boys?"

"What?" I sat down and pulled out my cigarettes, needing to do something with my hands. "That's gotta be bullshit, I would have known about something like that."

Tony took a seat too, obviously feeling assured that I wasn't about to clock him in the jaw. He really makes too many assumptions that guy.

"Even you don't know everything Tim. The Brumly boys turf is a long way from your own. But not far enough for their liking, you've been making yourself a few enemies on their side."

That wasn't news, I've always had enemies on all sides of town. I guess it's always been a bit of a matter of pride to me, how many enemies I have. If I wasn't stepping on anyone's toes, then I wasn't claiming enough for myself.

"The Brumly boys have always controlled most of the dope supply coming into Tulsa. Until you started bring your stuff up from the South. I don't know who your connections are, but what you were getting was a whole lot better than anything they could get. They took a bit hit from that, financial wise as well as control."

I nodded impatiently. "I know I took the control back off them, why the fuck else do you think I did it. It wasn't the money."

For an instant, I'd forgotten who I was talking too. He wasn't a lawyer, he wasn't a rich soc', he was just a guy who'd been where I'd been, understood the way the streets worked, and now could save my life.

"Hey" I asked, snapping back to reality. "How do you know all this?"

"I told you I grew up in their turf. I was also best friends with the presidents little brother. The president back then I mean, he's serving time now, been inside for the last seven years. But I still got a few connections of my own."

He gave me a little smile, the statement made without pride or bravado, just a fact.

"So, what's all this got to do with Robert?" I asked him, I didn't care that this was all stuff I should know myself, had always prided myself on knowing everything that went on. I just wanted him to tell me, I just wanted to hear it wasn't my hands that took a boys life, that I wouldn't sit the rest of my own life in a cell.

Tony leaned forward. "The Brumly boys knew one way to take back the money and the streets, heroin. That's what they wanted to bring in."

Heroin; just the word could turn me cold. I saw enough of it in the first ten years of my life to haunt me for the rest of it. If anyone on my turf dared sell the stuff, they knew I'd deal to them harshly.

"But they needed someone with money to bring in the initial supply, the set up. That's where William came in. He had all the money he could ever want, but what he really wanted was what you want Tim, power, control, respect. He found that money could buy him that, when it came to the Brumly boys."

"So get to the point" I told him, hearing the footsteps of the guard coming down the corridor outside, coming to take me back up to the courtroom.

"Robert was just a minor player, he was the pick up and drop off boy. But he got scared, he wanted out. You know how that goes."

I knew alright, when the stakes were that high. You don't get out, not with your life. Another reason I had always stuck to dope and nothing harder. With smack and coke the penalties are so much higher, people get scared, they get paranoid. In a bust people can fold the whole way down the line, right to the man at the top. No one would be allowed to walk away with knowledge of an operation like that.

"When you stabbed the boy, I think William saw the perfect opportunity to get rid of his problem, and put the crime on your shoulders. He dropped off the other two boys, put the knife in again, and took Robert to hospital. That's three witnesses who saw you stab him, none who saw him. Robert never regained consciousness at the hospital; he couldn't tell anyone what really happened."

"You think, or you know?"

"I put the pieces together, that's all. I can't prove William did it, but I can prove he might have. That's all I need to do Tim, the jury can't convict you if they have any reason at all to believe you could be innocent."

"Aww shit you dumb fuck you really think that's gonna work?" Suddenly all the tension was flooding me, coursing through me in the only emotion I have ever known how to express – anger.

"You so fucking smart you think you know all that, and then you think the jury gonna believe the worst of some fucking rich boy, think I ain't such a bad guy after all…"

I got up again and walked the short length of the room; I turned and slammed my fist into the unyielding brick wall, needing to feel something real. The pain shot up through my knuckles, bringing blood, bringing the satisfying ache of fighting something.

The door unlocked and the guard came in casually, then suddenly tensed.

"Everything alright?" he asked sharply, touching the gun at his hip.

"Everything's fine" Tony said crisply, back to the calm, slick image he presented when he wasn't talking about the gangs he'd grown up with.

He followed us as the guard escorted me out.

"Tim" he said to my back. "Wait until it's our turn in court. Wait for me to present the defense."

I heard the line of eagerness running through his voice, and his confidence caught me. And I walked the corridor back to the court with that knowledge beating in my every step, I didn't kill him, I didn't kill him.

XXXXXXXXXX

A week of being on trial. To say it like that it doesn't sound like a long time, but that doesn't describe the hours spent sitting in the dock. The hours of listening to evidence, of looking at photos, of hearing my name dragged through the mud. A week of trying to keep a smile on my face for the cameras, sitting in the holding cells smoking during endless recesses.

A week of desperation and frustration growing inside, that no one would ever believe or understand the truth, as endless testimony was given without anything that would absolve me in the eyes of the jury. And a parade of strangers, allies and enemies giving evidence.

The first day of the defense began with Darrel Curtis on the stand, facing the court with the tough, calm confidence he seemed to carry inside himself.

"As soon as I came round the corner I could see there was a fight going on" he told the court. "I didn't know it was Tim at first, I could just see someone on the ground and all the soc's, the other boys I mean, around him kicking him…"

I felt myself cringing. Fucking Darry, did that guy always have to be so honest? Did he really have to say I was on the ground, curled around myself waiting to die?

"I thought they were going to kill him…"

And my rep fell a little, and the hope for my life rose a little. And it seemed like a trade I could live with.

There was Tony's mystery witness, the cleaning lady from one of the buildings. She had grey curls and twisted her hands nervously as she spoke.

"All the boys ran when the second car came up" she said.

"The boy who had been stabbed, did he run too?"

"Yes he ran to the car, and they all got in."

"Robert Casey ran" Tony said, looking at the jury meaningfully. "Who was supposedly mortally wounded?"

"Objection!" yelled Lyle Johnson, and a woman down the back screamed "you're a liar", and the judge brought his hammer down.

And I wondered how the dry, formal rituals of the court could have any relevance to the violent chaos of the streets that they passed judgment on, a week spent judging an event that happened in the blink of an eye, where there had only been time for reaction, not thought.

And on the fourth day, there was Julia. I tried to catch her eye as she stood straight in a blue shirt and grey skirt, but her gaze deliberately avoided mine.

She looked nervous and Tony was kind to her, leading her through gentle questioning for several minutes before getting to the point. Anticipation built up inside me, I couldn't imagine what her involvement could be with any of this.

"William came to see you the night Robert got injured, is that right?"

"Yeah, we saw each other sometimes. He wasn't my boyfriend, although he wanted to be."

"What did he say to you?"

"He had blood on his hands and his clothes. I asked him what had happened and he told me he'd had a fight with Tim Shepard, and Robert had been stabbed."

"Did he tell you who stabbed Robert?"

"He said Tim did. Then he said, 'their both gonna get what they deserve.'"

Tony stayed silent for a moment, I guess giving the jury time to consider what Will had said. It seemed pretty clear to me what he had meant, Tony had been right all along. That asshole had set me up, knowing the police would believe him, knowing they wouldn't question any crime laid on my hands. Hell I hadn't questioned it myself; I had assumed I was the one who killed him too.
Even I believed the worst of myself.

"What did you think of that statement?"

"Well, he hated Tim, he was jealous of him, and he was always complaining about Robert, although I did think they were friends. I thought he just meant that Robert would have to go to hospital, and Tim would get arrested."

"Why did he complain about Robert?"

"He would say that he was a coward, and that he scared too easy."

"Do you know of anything they were involved in that could have led to him considering Robert scared too easy?" Tony asked carefully, and I remembered him saying something about not being allowed to lead the witness.

Julia pursed her lips and abruptly swung her gaze to me, for a second she stilled and gave me a small, sad smile. There was a message in her eyes, and I could almost understand. It could have been was the thought that suddenly went through my mind. We could have been together, and that is the life I could have lived, but this is the one I chose.

I returned her smile, but although I had regrets of my own, that was not one of them. She had thought I was a person I never was, she had thought I would be the one who would make up for all that was missing, to press myself against her and fill all the gaps inside.

"There were rumors" Julia replied, being equally careful. "I heard they were doing business with a gang, the Brumly boys. I don't know what exactly, but I think Robert was getting scared."

"Did Robert say that to you?"

"Yeah, he said…" she paused and looked upwards, trying to remember. "He said that Will was doing some crazy stuff, and they were going to get caught. He said 'Will won't stop, and I can't stop because he won't let me.'"

"Did you ask him why he didn't just stop doing whatever it was they were doing?"

"He said Will had told him he would kill him if he did."

"No further questions."

The judge called a recess for lunch and I was taken down the cells again. There was a tray of food on the bed for me, but I wasn't hungry. I had hardly been able to eat all week. I put the tray on the floor and lit a cigarette, looked up at the sound of the cell door opening.

"Got a visitor Shepard" the guard said, standing in the door frame. "Keep it quick okay, I shouldn't be letting him down here."

He stepped aside and Curly came in and slumped back against the wall, waiting for the guard to leave, dressed in his usual outfit of worn jeans and a hooded sweatshirt.

"How's things?"

Curly fixed his dark eyes on mine, coldness in his expression.

"Tim, are you sure your lawyer knows what the fuck he's doing?" he asked sharply. There was a hardness and maturity to him that hadn't been there before I went in. He looked furious, at me most of all.

"Hey, come here" I told him.

He shoved himself off the wall and came and sat next to me on the narrow bed.

"Got any smokes? I gave my pack to that guard to bring me down to see you."

I handed him one and he lit up, for a minute things back to normal between us. I told him what to do, he obeyed, I gave him what I chose, took away what I chose.

"What does he think he's doing?" Curly asked again, his tone forceful. "He ain't even saying nothing about self defense, just going on about how long Will took to go to the hospital and how many times you stabbed him, no one gives a shit about that. And you fucking lied to me."

"Hey watch it" I said, my own anger rising at his tone. I raised my hand to smack him one, and he didn't even flinch, just knocked my arm away roughly.

"Don't you fucking hit me Tim! You told me you cut him one time, you said it was nothing, I believed you even if no one else did."

I suddenly understood. "Listen kid, I never lied to you. The second cut wasn't mine, it was Will."

He went still beside me, concentration on his face as I explained what Tony had told me, the angle he was now going for.

"Hell, that fucking dirty bastard" he hissed when I'd finished. "The low son of a bitch, he wanted you to take the fucking fall for his crime? And you been inside all this time, been on trial, for the shit he did."

I shrugged. "That really ain't the point Curly, what's done is done, that's the breaks. The point is I never killed nobody."

I felt the relief run through me as I said it.

"Yeah, you didn't" Curly suddenly relaxed and smiled, a soft, genuine smile that I hadn't seen on him for longer than I could remember.

"You know when I looked at the photo of that boy in the court, I just…" he paused, struggling to find the words. "I mean I was really proud that you killed a soc', I honestly was. But then when I saw the photo, saw what you done, I hated it. I didn't want you to be that person, that could do that to somebody."

"I know" I said. "I didn't either." Because if Curly could be brave enough to say exactly what he was feeling, maybe I could too.

"Hey, Tim" he said suddenly, looking across at me.

"What?"

"It'll be okay" he gave me a sly, teasing smile.

I laughed and cuffed him lightly over the head, which was the only way I could think of to show my love for him. It was a crazy world alright, where I could stab a boy without thinking and yet find it too hard to hug my little brother.

We sat in silence, smoking, shoulders nearly touching, and for a moment, all the things that really mattered in life seemed so simple.

XXXXXXXXXX

The last defense witness was called, David Wilson, who had been in the car with Will that day. Tony had told me his testimony would make or break the case, and I felt myself tensing up as Tony took him through the events of that day, leading up to the crucial point.

"Did you see Tim stab Robert?" he asked him, and I held my breath, leaning forward in my seat.

He nodded. "Yeah, I was standing right next to him."

"Can you describe what happened?"

"Tim stepped forward and grabbed him, he stabbed the knife into his chest, and then he pulled it back out."

"How many times did he stab him?"

"Once," David replied without hesitating.

I let my breath out as a murmur went through the courtroom, Lyle Johnson's face was dark, I turned and saw Curly smile. My life seemed like an open road ahead of me, a stretch of endless possibility. The walls fell away at that moment, the ceiling lifted. The chance to live again, with everything in the world that could be mine. All I had ever wanted.

XXXXXXXXXX

Tony came to see me down in the cells while the jury deliberated.

"Thought you could do with these" he said, tossing me a packet of cigarettes.

"Thanks."

"Your not home free yet remember, even if the jury finds you not guilty your still gonna do time for assault."

"I know. How long for that do you reckon?"

"Aww it'll be nothing. Take into account the circumstances, plus time already spent in custody, with parole you won't do more than nine months."

I grinned. "Nine months I can do. Be like a holiday."

Tony went to leave, and I realized something.

"Hey, you believed me, Curly wasn't the only one."

He looked back at me.

"When I told you I didn't hurt him enough to kill him, you believed me right?"

He smiled and put on a look of forced patience. "Like I've already told you, I grew up with gang members. If you say what you did wasn't enough to kill him, I believe you're qualified to know what you're talking about."

I smiled myself as he left. I guess I should have figured that out at the start, what better lawyer for a greaser to have than another greaser?

I sat and smoked cigarette after cigarette, now I could only wait. It was less than an hour before the guard came back to get me.

"Judgment day son" he said. "The verdicts in."

I felt my stomach churning as I walked back up, wondering if the jury would be able to put everything together like Tony had. He had laid it out in his summing up of the case, repeatedly hammering the fact that I had stabbed him once, and an "unknown assailant" had made the fatal cut.

I stood straight in the dock as the jury filed back in, none of them looking at me. But surely it had been enough; surely they understood I wasn't the killer even I had thought I was?

"On the charge of murder in the first degree, how do you find the defendant?"

"Not guilty."

"On the charge of manslaughter, how do you find the defendant?"

"Not guilty."

I had won, I had won this fight for my life, and hard, dark pride swelled inside myself. I was born to fight, born to win. Pretty much my entire gang had turned up at court that day, and I heard them yelling gleefully behind me, I bit the inside of my cheek to stop from smiling.

"On the charge of assault with a weapon, how do you find the defendant?"

"Guilty."

There were groans from the boys at that, but nothing could touch me. I had gone from facing the death penalty to looking at less than a year inside.

The judge banged his hammer and called for silence.

"Mr Shepard, you have been found guilty of assault with a weapon. You are to appear in court to be sentenced on 25th November, you are remanded in custody until then."

I stood still, my hands by my side, everything I had never believed possible had happened. Even for a hood, there could be justice, there could be escape.

Tony grabbed my shoulder and shook me excitedly. "You hear that, we won Tim, we won!" He sounded like he could hardly believe it himself.

The prison guard moved to my side and handcuffed me again, took my arm and led me from the court. I passed the boys and gave them a grin and nod, they answered with whoops and yells, I saw Wade hugging Curly round the shoulders, triumph on both their faces. I felt like I had won something for all of us that day.

And I saw Roberts family too, their faces bleak and uncomprehending. I felt sympathy for them, I truly did. Everything that never seemed possible had come true.

I was led outside, down the courthouse steps, back into the world that was mine again, into the jostle and noise of journalists, the flash of cameras, and the winter sun casting a cold, yellow light.

"Tim, wait up!" I heard Tony yell behind me.

The guard paused, and Tony pushed up on my other side.

"You're my claim to fame Tim, don't you know that?" he said, "don't you get on the front page without me, you arrogant bastard!"

And Tony grabbed my other arm, and the photographers surged forward eagerly. I could just imagine the headlines that would scream from the paper the following day "Hood Walks Free!" and I smiled for the cameras.
I was born to be a hood.

---

So, that's it everyone! Surprised? I think some of you had already guessed the ending huh, thanks to my probably excessive foreshadowing, but I hope you enjoyed anyways.

Hey sorry for the wait, but this chapter is insanely long and I didn't want to break it up. And then once it was finally ready, fanfic wouldn't let me log in for ages! Ugh, the frustration.

I just want to say a seriously big thank you to everyone who has taken the time to review throughout this story, all your reviews have been awesome!

I stuffed up a sequence early on in the story, and for a while didn't know how I was going to bring it about to this ending, but knowing there were people reading and enjoying it really kept me motivated to try and make it happen. I nearly changed the ending altogether actually, but I think I have managed to make it work (hopefully.)

So again, thanks heaps.

Replies to reviewers:

NittanyLizard: Thanks so much, you know after posting that chapter I decided I hated it and was going to take it down, but as I was about to I got your review and a few things you said made me reconsider. I have enjoyed all your reviews and often found them quite insightful, thanks a lot.

starbryte234: You have actually reviewed every chapter I think (or just about anyway) so just wanted to say thanks, it's really appreciated.

Tensleep: Glad you liked that chapter, I know what you mean about courtroom proceedings, I hate courtroom stuff in a story so don't know what the hell I was thinking writing a story that involved a trial!

Flipwise: Hey that's okay, nice to see your still reading.

FoxFyre33: Thanks for your comment about the lawyer, I find it pretty hard to write a lawyer without being totally cliché, so I'm really glad you think he had personality and was realistic.

Locket the lookout: Thanks, that scene was hard to write because what Tim was thinking was so different to what he actually said. But hey I couldn't have him suddenly go all soft just because she's a girl, it annoys me when stories do that.

Reviewer: I'm glad you liked that chapter, I was a bit doubtful about it myself so good to hear you enjoyed it.

Trine: The courtroom stuff has been extremely abbreviated, because as you say it is not really too interesting. It is really hard to write so it's great to hear you think its working. I hope you liked the ending too.

Snowgurl54: Aww I felt so guilty when I got your review because I only had the chapter half written and was nowhere near ready to post. Sorry for the wait, but this chapter is really long so I hope that makes up for it!

Outsider08: Thanks for reviewing, hope you like the outcome.

Sungurl: Sorry, but I guess you can see from the length of this chapter why I took a while to update. Hope you enjoyed the story.

anonymous: Hope all the references to 'greasers' and 'socs' still made sense then! Yeah I like to leave the readers a little to guess at, I don't like stories that tell you every single either.

jesse: Here's the update, hope you enjoy it!

Marti: Thanks so much, I'm really glad that you say you can picture it. That's really cool to hear. Sorry to keep you in suspense!

TheCruiser9: Thanks, hope you like the ending. You didn't really think I would kill Tim did you? ;)

Chocochippie: Thanks and sorry (I'm getting repetitive here huh!) Don't you ever just wish the house would clean itself and the boss would pay you for not going to work? Oh if you're still at school, this is what you've got to look forward to!

Hahukum Konn: Hope you don't mind the heavy abbreviation of the courtroom drama in this chapter, but if I wrote it in full it would bore me to death. Tim's his own worst enemy I know, he just likes all the attention.