Chapter 28
Charles felt like someone was watching him. He glanced over from where he sat working on his laptop to see bright blue eyes peeking over the edge of the table.
He smiled. “Hey, sweetie. Done coloring?”
She nodded, "What are you doing?”
“I’m working on my Pinterest boards. Do you want to see?” he scooted his chair back and held out one arm giving her space to clamber onto his lap and get comfortable.
“It’s your pizza recipe!” she exclaimed, excited to see something she recognized.
“That’s right. Pinterest is very popular with people looking for recipes and food blogs,” he explained as he slowly scrolled through his main page.
“What’s that?”
“What’s what, dear?”
“That number?”
“Can you read it for me?”
“3-8-9-K,” she said haltingly.
“Hey! Look at you! That’s right. But put together its 38.9-K the K stands for thousand.”
She looked at him over her shoulder and “Why?”
He chuckled, “I don’t remember.”
“So 3-8-9 thousand people make your stuff?”
“More or less, yeah.” He blushed.
“Cool!” she looked very impressed.
“It is pretty cool now that I think about it.”
“I think it’s amazing,” Erik cut in from his place by the door.
They turned to look at him with wide smiles. “Papa, look what Charles did!” Nina waved him over, not moving from her perch on his lap.
Erik happily obliged and pulled up a chair to the small table Charles used as a desk.
“The K means thousand,” she peered at Charles out of the corner of her eye and smiled happily at his encouraging nod.
“Well, Charles is very popular,” Erik took his hand and pressed a kiss to his boyfriend’s palm.
Charles blushed at their praise, “you two are going to give me a big head,” he chuckled.
“Your head is already big,” Nina said, still happily scrolling through recipes for the pictures.
Erik swallowed a laugh at her matter of fact words and the baffled look on Charles’ face.
“Well, I’ve always wondered,” he said under his breath though he was looking more amused by the moment.
Erik squeezed his hand fondly. “Thanks for this.” He said, referring to watching Nina while he finished trial preparations.
“It was nothing; I still got some work done,” he said softly.
“And some packing?”
“Not as much as I’d like, but now that my other helper has arrived that should change pretty quickly,” he grinned.
Erik groaned playfully, but couldn’t hide his smile at the thought of Charles living with them full time. He had explained the situation to his landlord and been given leave to cut his lease short. He was moving in slowly over the course of the month with most of his belongings going into a storage unit until they moved to their new home. “I see why you keep me around.”
Charles gave his bicep a light squeeze, “I can think of a few reasons.”
“Can I watch a movie?” Nina cut in, clearly bored with their byplay and done playing on the laptop.
“Sure thing, go pick one out and we’ll be right behind you,” Erik laughed.
She scampered off without a backwards glance.
Charles smiled, “I’m becoming common place.”
“That’s good,” Erik leaned in for a sweet kiss. “You’re so good with her. It puts my mind at ease.”
Charles kissed back and leaned into his embrace with a sigh, “Glad to hear it." He blushed as Erik glanced around at all work left to do, "I hate packing.”
“I can tell. You’ve hardly done anything,” he teased.
“We can’t all be efficient, list making, machines.”
“Another reason to keep me around.”
Charles looked up at him, eyes sparkling, “Oh, there are plenty of those.”
~~
Erik was trembling with anticipation. He’d testified in many trials and prosecuted more than he could count. But he’d never felt like this for any trial. He hadn’t had nerves like this since the day he married Magda. He smiled at the memory, it still hurt. But less each day.
“I won’t let you down,” he whispered to her memory. He knew she’d want him to do whatever it took to give Nina a happy, healthy childhood. This was first on the list.
“All set, Erik?” Ororo asked, a familiar gleam of anticipation lighting her onyx eyes.
“Yes. More than,” he promised. He glanced out the window at the white, heavy sky. They were lucky to have gotten this court date weeks in advance, there was every chance the building would be shut down for a week or more with the blizzard set to hit in a few hours.
“Today is it, after this they will be no more concern of yours,” she promised. He felt the vice of worry loosen its grip around his chest. Her confidence inspired him.
“Then let’s get this over with.”
~~
They were being heard in a private session in family court which meant no jury and no spectators. As much as he would have liked to have Charles or his parents there as moral support, he understood the need for privacy when it came to childhood records.
He was sitting third chair in this trial with Ororo as first and one of her junior attorneys as second. Frost was the lead of her team and only had a second chair- a young man he recognized by sight but not reputation.
Erik was no fan of the judge they’d gotten; The Honorable William Stryker was an inconsiderate ass as far as he was concerned. He tried to be fair in his rulings, but had a clear bias towards women and grandparents that had Erik on edge. Ororo was her usual unflappable self so he took his cue from her as the trial began. Ororo-with the help of her second- presented files, photographs, police reports, witness statements, and testimonies for over an hour. It was all for show, Stryker had reviewed the case beforehand and was now waiting to hear their final points before making a ruling.
It was all things that Erik knew, but seeing it laid out like that was overwhelming. The insanity the two had displayed since Magda’s death still seemed unreal and he’d lived it.
Then Frost got up to speak. Erik had carefully avoided looking directly at the Eisenhardt’s who he could feel glaring at him the since they’d been escorted into the room by the bailiffs.
They’d been taken back into custody after Charles’ video came to light; apparently a condition of their bail had been to stay away from the three of them. Apparently Roland had put up a fight when they came for Anya and been taken in for striking an officer of the peace.
He wondered if they’d expected him to bring Nina to the trial. But there was no way he was willing to risk them seeing her in person, he fully expected at least one outburst during this brief hearing.
“My clients have been horribly maligned,” Frost was grandstanding, trying to sway the judge with emotion rather than address any of the legitimate legal concerns Ororo had presented.
“Any perceived misbehavior on their part was enacted out of grief and love. They regret their actions and seek only to know their granddaughter. They would like to put all this behind them and move forward as a family.”
Stryker frowned at her and looked to her clients who were silent and tense in their grey, state issue jumpsuits. Erik was amazed-but grateful- that they’d insisted on keeping their court date under the circumstances. They looked insane.
“And the stalking they’re charged with?” the judge asked.
“Those pertain to an open case that can’t be discussed at this time,” Frost answered smoothly.
Stryker looked unimpressed. “Those charges clearly pertain to this case, Ms Frost. They speak to your clients’ state of mind and whether or not they are fit company for the child in question. If you were hoping to speed this case through my court before those dealings came to full light, you were mistaken.”
She pursed her lips and inclined her head in agreement. “Of course. My clients were eager to see their granddaughter and when conventional means failed, they…” she searched for a term.
“Attempted kidnapping?” Ororo cut in lightly.
Ms. Frost shot her a glare that could strip paint. “Not at all. They assure me that they were only concerned for Miss Lehnsherr’s well being and wanted to clarify it for themselves.”
“Seeing the statements from the former nanny and the private investigator your clients hired makes them seem erratic to say the least. The statements from the minor child’s therapist and court assigned child advocate show that she’s living in a safe, happy environment and wants for nothing. Your clients have the potential to damage that calm. I’m hesitant to allow even supervised visitation at an approved facility. Much less two different prisons, which would be necessary at this point in time.”
“With this family background, I don’t see mediation being much use.” He said honestly. “All in all, parents have the final say in who sees their children. No one else has visitation rights and with the legal troubles your clients find themselves in, I don’t see how having a relationship with them could be beneficial for the child in question.” Erik froze in his seat. Was this it? Was Stryker ready to rule already? With so little fuss?
It seemed the Eisenhardt’s had the same idea.
“She needs us!” Anya blurted out, half rising from her seat, hands clenched in fists of rage.
Erik turned to look at them fully for the first time since entering the courtroom. Roland was glaring at him, his face twisted in a mask of hatred. “You bastard! You won’t get away with this! You don’t know who you’re messing with!”
“ORDER. I WILL HAVE ORDER IN THIS COURTROOM!” Stryker pounded his gavel and yelled over the commotion
“Where is Nina?!” Anya continued to yell like her husband and the judge hadn’t spoken. She turned on Emma angrily, “You said she would be here!You said I would get to see my baby!”
“Be quiet!” Emma hissed as her second pushed Anya back into her seat and hushed Roland who had continued his diatribe against Erik. The young man turned to try and reason softly with the police who had approached, prepared to drag the cuffed prisoners from the courtroom.
“One more outburst like that and you will both be held in contempt of court,” Stryker did not look amused.
He had to get a copy of this tape; his parents would never believe it.
“I apologize for my client. As you can see she had a recent psychological evaluation and needs time to accustom herself to her new drug regimen,” she said stiffly, knowing how bad this looked for her clients.
“Court ordered.”
“Excuse me?”
“Court ordered psyche eval. Relating to the aforementioned stalking charges,” Stryker held up a hand a read over what Erik could only assume was Anya’s mental evaluation. “Hmm.”
“Your honor. That case hasn’t been tried-” she began again.
“I suggest you encourage them to take a plea,” he frowned. “And have your clients head back home before they make trouble for themselves that they can’t get out of. Of course it may already be too late for that from what I’m seeing,” he flipped through several more pages detailing their behavior over the past months.
“Your honor, that isn’t the question at hand. We are requesting scheduled, supervised visitation after their terms are served with a period of good behavior,” Frost said evenly.
“So I see. And I understand the loss your clients have suffered and the love they feel for their grandchild. I hope that through the lens of that love, they want what’s best for their grandchild. It is my duty as an officer of this court to rule in her best interests and at this point in her life-and theirs I might add- contact would only be detrimental to her mental and emotional well being.”
“What?!” Roland yelled as Anya began wailing at the top of her lungs.
“I warned you, I'm holding you in contempt of court! VISITATION DENIED.” Stryker shouted over their caterwauling and threats they hurled at Erik. This time nothing could dissuade the bailiffs from dragging them from the room- they fought and cursed every step of the way.
Frost sat down with a heavy sigh and began stacking papers.
The judge rolled his eyes as their combined fit continued to echo down the hall. “I don’t believe they’ll have a leg to stand on after their trials. They certainly didn’t have one here. That said. I’ll put a provision in my ruling that any changes to this order must occur no sooner than ten years from this date at which the minor child will be of legal age to either consent to or deny a relationship with her maternal grandparents.”
“Thank you, your honor.”Ororo said happily.
Erik felt lighter than air. It was over. He only wished Charles could have been here. But that was soon remedied.
“Thank you,” he shook Ororo’s hand and thanked her second for all his work assembling their presentation.
He caught sight of Emma hotfooting it down the hall after her high maintenance clients-now facing charges of contempt of court on top of everything else. At least she was earning her fee. She’d left her second to clean up their table and follow after.
He grinned. Their next trial-on the stalking charges would be a cakewalk. That is, if Frost didn’t convince them to take the plea deal. Either way they’d be screwed on ever being in Nina’s life. He felt a bubble of joy fill his chest, as he turned to gather his things.
“Excellent job, as usual,” Erik glanced up to see Judge Howlett shaking hands with Ororo. It was odd to see him out of robes; he was a surprisingly well built man.
“Thank you, Logan. I wasn’t expecting to see you here today,” she smiled.
“I have a vested interest in Miss Lehnsherr not being traumatized,” he said gruffly.
“You big softy,” she laughed and turned to her second who had a question about something or other.
“Howlett.”
“Lehnsherr. That was way better than court T.V. I think you missed your calling,” he joked.
“I seem to bring out the crazy in people,” he said dryly, though he could feel himself smiling widely. The whole world felt new.
“I can’t imagine why,” he laughed. “Let me take you out for lunch to celebrate?”
“I can’t, I have to get home to Charles and tell him the good news,” he said apologetically.
“I understand. Some other time?”
“I look forwards to it.” He was surprised to find that he did. He pulled on his coat and hurried out the door, eager to get back to the loves of his life.
~~
Charles should have been packing, but he was too nervous to focus so instead he was pacing the floor. Erik had said the trial should be over with quickly, so what was taking so long?
Had there been bad news? Had the judge sided with the Eisenhardt’s? Would they be forced to facilitate a relationship for Nina with those lunatics?
He looked out the window at the low, white sky and felt trapped. And alone. Here in his half packed house, none of his belongings seemed to matter. He realized it wasn’t home anymore. The thought stuck in his head and before he knew it, he was making trip after trip next door and back, so caught up in his task that he literally ran into Erik as he entered the Lehnsherr’s kitchen for the last time.
“Erik!” he yelped in surprise as he fell back and his boyfriend caught him up in his arms.
“What’s all this?” the taller man chuckled, looking around at the Charles-explosion that had taken over the kitchen and back hallway.
“I should have asked-” he began hesitantly, now questioning what had seemed so certain moments before.
“Asked what?”
“My house isn’t my home. You are. And Nina of course. So it just made sense to-”
“Come over early?”
“Something like that,” he blushed.
“Great surprise.”
“Yeah?”
“Definitely yeah,” he leaned in for a kiss that Charles broke almost immediately.
“Wait, what happened? Why didn’t you call after the trial?! I was worried sick!”
Erik laughed, “Well I wanted to surprise you with my good news.”
“We won?”
“Visitation denied!” he crowed, laughing out loud as Charles whooped and pulled him in for another searing kiss.
“That’s the best news ever!” he cheered.
“I think so! Hey, it’s almost time to go get Nina, want to come?” he asked happily.
“Of course! But won’t she wonder what we’re celebrating?” he asked, knowing there was no way their sensitive little girl wouldn’t wonder about their exuberant moods.
“We’ll tell her the truth,” he said simply.
“And what’s that?”
“That you’re finally home to stay.”