Sugar & Spice

24|far from over

Aria knew better than to assume they had won their case but she sure was hopeful. Peter had told her how distressed Brody's lawyer had looked as he walked into the courtroom this morning and it put Aria at ease. Of course he was also very quick to tell her to hide whatever gloating she felt compelled to display and Aria vowed to bring out her best poker face. Today was the day where Bobby Townsend would take the stand and presumably put the final nail in Brody's coffin, now all they had to hope is that his testimony would be deemed credible. It was easy to look at the situation between Bobby and Brody as a 'he said he said' situation so it was important that Bobby didn't flinch on the stand. Mr Pierce was a tough lawyer, Aria could attest to that, and right now Bobby was in a weak state from his attempted suicide. 

"Today's testimony will be short and right to the point. I won't spend too much time talking to Mr Townsend but the questions I'm going to ask will be quite intense, but him and his lawyer are aware of them beforehand. It's Mr Pierce that concerns me." Peter mumbled as he was talking to Aria.

"What do you think he's going to try?" 

"He's going to try to make it seem like Mr Townsend is lying on the stand to protect himself and most likely will reference the attempted suicide as a form of guilt, that's why it's important that we put that theory to bed before Mr Pierce brings it up." 

"I just hope this won't break him, he doesn't deserve that." Aria mumbled and let out a somber sigh as she thought of Bobby.

Whatever mistakes had happened to Bobby Townsend to put him in this situation had to be tragic because he'd gotten himself into quite the pickle from just being a follower. It hadn't been apparent to Aria when they had first gotten to know each other because his friends were rarely around when Aria was with him, but there had to be a  reason why he kept Brody away from her for such a long time. Aria began wondering if it had been deliberate of Bobby to keep him away from her and if he had feared being put in the situation they later found themselves in; where Bobby had to 'let' Brody have his turn with her. Suddenly she got a desperate yearning to ask him this before he took the stand as it would give a fair explanation to Bobby's involvement. 

"Peter; you have to ask Bobby if there was a reason that I never met Brody during the little time we spent together." Aria blurt out to which Peter only lent an ear.

"Uh, and why is that?" He took the bait.

"Because something is telling me that he was trying to protect me and if that was the case then Brody must've threatened him enough for Bobby to have no other choice but to involve himself. If the jury hears that they will finally understand what a manipulator and a monster Brody Jensen truly is." Aria explained. 

As disinterested as Peter looked after some thinking he turned to her and nodded in silence. She wasn't trying to do his job for him but she knew Bobby better than Peter and thought it better to use her insight for the sake of winning this case, it couldn't hurt to suggested at least. 

"You make a fair point," he said and took out his phone, "I will run this by Mr Townsend's lawyer." 

Aria felt lucky to have a lawyer like Peter in her corner. She could've easily gotten someone that didn't really care for the case or to listen to what she had to say but he wasn't like that, no Peter cared enough to do whatever it took to win - including taking advice for a college freshman. 

"Hey Peter? I just wanted to say thank you for everything you've done for me. No matter the outcome I wanted you to know how appreciative I am." Aria blushed as she complimented him.

For a moment he looked out of place, like someone had noticed that he wasn't just a man in a suit. Then he flashed a thankful smile before turning his heads and busying himself with his phone again, perhaps blushing as much as Aria was right now.