Page 7 of Booth

“I’m going to look for the first book that we can fill up with pictures right away.With all the holidays.Oh, Booth, I love you so much.I’m so happy that you found me.”He kissed her then, wondering if he’d be able to love her all the more tomorrow because the love that he had for her today was overwhelming.“I have nothing from my childhood.My parents were never ones for ceremony on such things.We’ll be the opposite of them.Forever.”

They finished looking through the boxes and moved onto the totes that were on the lower shelves.He was just pulling one of them out when his brother Falkner joined them.He wanted to tell him that he hadn’t found a house yet and had stopped looking because of the holidays.He wanted to be moved into his home by then, but didn’t see it happening.

“I don’t want to move in the winter months.It would be just like waiting for something horrific to happen.I’ll move in the spring when I have my results back and I can concentrate on life instead of what’s coming around the corner for me next.”He asked if he had a date yet for his boards.“Yes, January sixteenth.After the holidays, which will be good for me.I’ll have plenty of time to study and get ready, and not have to wait for spring to worry about whether or not I’ll pass.”

“Sounds like you have it all planned out.I’m glad for you.”With his help, they were able to get the boxes put away and the totes pulled down.They found a treasure in them as well.There were dining sets for each holiday, and Dee had to have the Halloween ones brought in right away so that she could wash them up and put them out in plenty of time to use.He thought that they were fun and was happy she was getting such a kick out of them.Falkner thought he was a dork and teased him about them for the rest of the afternoon and into the evening.

“Why don’t you stay for dinner.I don’t know what we’re having, but it’ll be good.I swear I’ve put on ten pounds since we moved in, and it’s only been a couple of weeks.”He asked him how he was doing with Dee being injured.“I claimed her, and she’s all but healed.She’s still weak, but she’s getting PT done three times a week, and that’s helping.I think she’s nervous about the upcoming pretrial for her accident, too.She’s been waking in the middle of the night, screaming because of what that man put her through.”

“Dad said that there are many more deaths than the one from her accident.They’re all pending.While I had an idea what that meant.I had to ask Dad about it.He said that Arnold is awaiting trial for four more accidents that he’s had involving being drunk and high.”Booth asked him not to mention that when talking to Dee.She was nervous enough.“I can do that.I never thought about it giving her nightmares.She’s been through a great deal in the last six months or so.”

“We heard from the attorney for Fullner, and he said that he’s countersuing Dee for her lack of driving skills.The man is a monster.She told me what it was like waking up in her car when it was upside down.Scared me to think about it.”Falkner said it would him as well.“Anyway, we’ll have the pretrial and know where we stand.I hadn’t realized that he’d been in jail all this time, had you?”He said that he’d not.

“Dad told me that his wife filed for divorce and that he’s not getting paid while being in jail.Good is all I can say.The man shouldn’t have been elected in the first place if you ask me.But then I’m not at all political, so I don’t know how any of this works.”Booth said that he didn’t know either and would like to keep it that way.Too much information is simply too much right now.“I understand that.But hopefully, this guy is going to prison.He nearly killed Dee, and that doesn’t settle well with me.”

“Me either.”Going into the house, they were greeted with Dee dancing around the kitchen.She wasn’t doing anything strenuous, but she was having a good time.When she saw the two of them, she told them how happy she was and that nothing could rain on her day at all.He hoped so.He just remembered that his dad was coming over tonight to go over some things with Dee.And he’d bet that she’d have nightmares again.She loved him so that’s all he needed to make sure that she was all right at night.

Chapter 4

Arnold didn’t like the things that were going to be brought up at his hearing.He was going to get to talk to the judge first and let him know about not being happy about things.With the things that were on the list today for him to get into trouble with made him look bad, and as a senator, he wanted himself to look good all the time.It was the only way that he could keep his people liking him.

Sure they were a little pissed off at him right now.It was something that should have pissed them off.Him being in jail and not helping them was pissing him off as well.But it was only a fender bender, and them bringing up the deaths wasn’t going to bode well for anyone.They needed him, and that was what he was going to tell them when he got out of this jail situation.He was a great senator, and if they kept messing with his life, he was never going to get to be president.That was the only reason he’d taken the senate job when he’d won it was for that sole reason.

Standing up when the judge entered the room, he continued standing until he was seated along with everyone else.It was his day in court, and he was going to stand here until he could say what needed to be said to get him out of here.

“Mr.Grandle, what is it your client is trying to prove by standing when I’m seated.Doesn’t he know the rules of the courtroom?”He told him that he’d tried his best to make him aware of the way things were going, and he wouldn’t listen.“So he’s running the show today, or so he thinks.”

“He thinks a great deal that things are counterproductive in this courtroom, your honor.If you let him speak, we might be able to clear up a few things that you have in front of you.Also, you’ll note that I’ve asked to be taken off as this man’s case as his attorney for the reasons stated in the information that you have there.”

“I see that.”The judge finally looked at him.He straightened his tie up, knowing that was a sure fire way to tell he was pissed off at whatever was going on around him.“Mr.Fullner, what is it I can—”

“It’s actually Senator Fullner, your honor.And for as much as I’ve been in the local jail, I can see how you’d forget that.I’ve been in the cell around here for nearly six months.”He said that he’d gotten word that he’d been fired from his senator gig.“No, sir.I’m still running the state of Michigan.When I get out of here, I believe that the good state will have a parade in my honor to see me back at the wheel of things for them.”

“Not what I heard, but what is it that I can do for you today?In the event that you aren’t aware of it, this is my little bit of property in here, and what I say goes.So you state your business, so we can get down to the real work here.”He said that he shouldn’t have been arrested in the first place.“And why is that?I’m sure you have a good reason that, after killing six people and nearly paralyzing another young woman at the heart of all this, why pray tell should you have not been arrested when you did?”

“First of all, I’ll say this again, there should be roads that are just for mine and your kind of servants to the country.That woman was driving the speed limit and annoying me to no end.Did you know that she even used her turning signal at every little turn?My god, it was like driving behind some student driver who hadn’t figured out that turning signals aren’t that necessary for driving.Not to mention the way she drove.I won’t even get into how she yielded at every turnabout.I just push my way into the next lane, and that’s how you get around them in a hurry.And I was in a hurry.And she knew it.”He took a deep breath and let it out slowly.“I’m getting off track here.She had and still has me so upset by the way she was driving that I feel the hair on my arms stand up.She is the one that is at fault with all this.The woman shouldn’t be allowed on open highways, much less be able to drive when there are more important people around than she is.If she was late for her burger-flipping job, she should have left earlier.It’s what I do when I have to be somewhere.”

“Yet you told her several times that you were running late and—” He said that he was runninglate because of her.“Listen here.This is the second time that you’ve interrupted me, and I won’t tolerate it again.When I’m speaking, you shut your trap.As I was saying, you told her that you were running behind and that was why you pushed her into the oncoming traffic.That was why there were six deaths and several injured.You are the only cause of this accident, and so you’re aware, it wasn’t a fender bender where everyone walked away unharmed, it was a horrific accident where lives were taken.”

“If you keep bringing that part up, I’m never going to get out of here.”The judge asked him what he was talking about.“The deaths.Those were caused by her.Everyone wants to blame me for them, but the real guilty person was that woman.She should be here and not at her burger-flipping job.”

“Your honor, Mr.Fullner seems to think that my client is a scourge of the worst kind because she might have a job in a restaurant where she might be turning burgers.While that is as good a job as any, at least she was working, Mrs.Dixon is still recuperating from the accident that Mr.Fullner caused, where she might well have lost her ability to walk, and she’ll never dance again.She was a dance instructor for the Washington Dance Studio here in DC.And something that he should be aware of, Mrs.Dixon is here.”The woman stood up but was using a walker instead of walking on her own.He’d bet anything that she didn’t need the thing, as she was trying to make him look bad.If not for him being chained up, he would have gone to her and jerked the thing from her to see her walking as normal as anyone else in this room.“I’d like to also point out that the families are here for the people that were killed when Mr.Fullner caused the accident that took their family’s loved ones away from them.”

“What is going on in here?”The judge asked him what he was complaining about now.“The families of the dead people?Why are they even allowed in the courtroom?Everyone is out to make me look like a bad guy, and I’m everything but that.When will you stupid people get it into your heads that Mrs.Dixon caused the accident for driving like an old woman on streets that are made for people like me?”

“I’ve heard enough.”The judge seemed to be taking things over, and that wasn’t going to do.He’d not even gotten to find out when he was going to be getting out of here.Nor where his wife and family were.He addressed the man again and was told to be quiet and to sit down.“I’m here for the pretrial of Mr.Fullner today, and that’s what we’re going to get to.To see if there is enough evidence to have a trial for you and to see what you have to say for yourself.Although I think you’ve said plenty.”

“I just want to know when I’m getting out of here.I’ve plenty of other things to take up my time right now, and this is just cramping my style in becoming president someday.Can’t we just say that it was a terrible day for drivers and move on?There are several more cases that need to be addressed as well, so if you could see to them, we can really clear up my calendar.”The other attorney stood up and handed a thick file to the judge.His own attorney was trying to get him to sit down and shut up.“What do you want?I have things to do and this isn’t getting me anywhere close to being done.”

“Your honor since Mr.Fullner brought up the other cases pending against him, I’d like to say that this seems to be a pattern of his to cause accidents wherever he goes, even so much as killing people in the process and getting out of jail to keep on doing what he’s been doing.There are eight cases pending Mr.Fullner and ‘fender benders’ as he calls them, and all of them have been put off in favor of him wiggling his way out of spending any jail time on any of them.For as many deaths that have occurred, you’d think he’d be in prison by now and not out causing more mayhem whenever he’s on the streets.”Telling him he couldn’t bring those up right now got him told to shut up again.He was getting sorely pissed off about the way things were going.“If he gets out of jail time again, people aren’t going to trust the system anymore.I certainly won’t.”

“Mr.Dixon, is it?”The other man nodded at the judge.“Mr.Dixon, is this what I think it is and the judgments, or the lack of judgments on Mr.Fullner’s other accidents?”

“Yes, sir, it is.It is also the names of the victims that have yet to be compensated for the deaths of their family members in the three trials that have gone to court.The other fourteen pending cases are there in that file as well.”He asked if he’d heard him right, in that it was fourteen other cases.“Yes, sir.Every time I found one, I was just as shocked as you seem to be about it.There are a total of twenty-three deaths because of Mr.Fullner’s driving while intoxicated and or drugs which were found in hissystem in ten of the accidents.He’s also filed claims against his insurance company for his ‘fender benders’ and received the full amount of his totaled vehicle over five times.I believe it’s because he’s not had the vehicle for all that long, and the payoff is what they issue him.There is more, sir, that can be brought up at this trial since he’s the one who brought them together.”

The judge looked at him.He was still standing and was going to continue to do so until he got his day in court.When he wasn’t in jail, he had to have a single person around just to remind him when he was to show up at hearings, as it was.His idea was to get them all taken care of today, and that would be the end of it.He told the judge that’s what he wanted.

“You want me to look over all this paperwork right now and end all of the cases against you, is that what you’re telling me?”He said that it would make his life a good deal better to not have to go to court every few weeks to get something taken care of that didn’t mean much to anyone.“You think these don’t matter all that much?”

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