Finding Daddy

A week later and I was being harassed to wake up by Dad. It took ten minutes, some threats, and a cup of cold water to the face for me to finally pull myself out of bed. I decided to skip the shower, which may not be the best idea but it was too early for me to care, and simply pulled my hair into a bun at the nape of my neck. I got dressed in a daze and simply stood, staring at my ceiling for a few minutes. This is how I was found by Felix.

“Y’know, I’m pretty sure nothing is going to appear the longer you stare,” he chuckled. I just rolled my head to look at him and squinted.

“What are you doing here?”

“You didn’t really think we’d leave you to deal with this alone, did you?” Felix chuckled, walking forward to wrap his arms around my waist. After a quick peck I raised an eyebrow at him.

“Us?”

“You’ll see when we go downstairs.”

And it was suddenly Madison Square Garden downstairs. There was those who actually lived here, Felix, Ethan, Max, Zack’s family, Brian’s troublemakers, Johnny and Lacey, and then Jimmy and Teri. It was like we were going to a party instead of returning to the courthouse downtown.

“This is highly unnecessary,” I sighed as people began to pass me around for hugs.

“Well then it’s going to be awkward at the courthouse,” Dad joked. I raised my eyebrow again and he grinned. “Your grandparents will be there too. Along with Papa Gates’s family and a few other people.”

“Seriously, are we going for a shindig or because there’s a lawsuit? I’m not sure which it is anymore,” I remarked sarcastically.

“Oh, shuddup grumpy,” Teri laughed, bumping shoulders with me. “We can make it both. We’re gonna win this thing.”

“Well I’m glad someone is confident on this,” I mumbled.

Before anyone would reply to that, Val looked at her phone. “Oh damn, we gotta go.”

I was pulled out the door first by Felix with Max and Ethan following us. We climbed into the Impala as I gazed around. The driveway was full of cars while Johnny and Felix had parked in front of the sidewalk. We took off first, leaving everyone else behind as they got situated into their vehicles. I sighed as I rested my forehead to the glass of the passenger seat window and hummed along to the Linkin Park song on the radio.

“Aren’t you supposed to be in school, Max? And you guys should be at work, shouldn’t you?” I suddenly accused, turning in my seat to sweep a glare at all three passengers.

“School is unimportant,” Max scoffed.

“And we got today off,” Ethan said with a shrug. I raised my eyebrow at Felix and he nodded in agreement.

“Told you we wouldn’t let you do this alone,” Felix spoke as he grasped my hand and kissed the back of my palm. I rolled my eyes as Max and Ethan cooed at us and squeezed Felix’s hand, lacing our fingers together.

“Well, it’s not really alone if pretty much everyone in the state of California shows up,” I scoffed.

“Which, by the way,” Ethan spoke suddenly, leaning over the front bench to give me a half narrowed look. “You are going to have to explain to me about some of the people who are going to be at the courthouse.”

“What do you mean?”

“We’re here,” Felix interrupted as he took a turn into the familiar parking lot. It’s weird to know this is the second time in a year we had to go to this place for some legal issues. This time, however, paparazzi was swarming the area. It’s like they wanted to get hit with the damn car. Felix shooed us in and promised he’d be back to us once he could actually park. With that, the three of us dashed inside, Max and Ethan having to tell the cameramen and reporters to ‘fuck off’ the entire way into the building.

Once inside it was the polar opposite. It was quiet with only a few people littered around. Luckily the girl who was the whole reason we were here wasn’t in the lobby. We went through the metal detectors before plopping down on a bench on the outside of the the courtroom we were going to be in. I began to wonder how long it was going to be before everyone got here. Either way, we were going inside once Felix got here, but it made me wonder if they were going to actually show up on time. It was a long conga line to drive.

“Danielle!” My head shot up and my eyes grew so wide I could feel tears building from the cold air suddenly hitting them. Before me was a very familiar head of black hair running at me. The person yanked me out of my seat and hugged me tightly, swaying me from side to side. “I’ve missed you!”

“Nikki?” That’s right, Nikki goddamn Sixx had showed up for my court date. My mind was reeling and my mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water. I mean, yeah, we talked on and off through texts but that was about it. As far as I knew, he didn’t even know my full name or who my father was. I suddenly felt dizzy and Nikki chuckled, grabbing me by the elbows to help balance me.

“You alright there, kiddo?”

“What are you doing here?”

“To watch you win, of course!”

“But I - ”

“Look, kid. I only heard about this on the news and found out who your father was recently. Shame on you for not telling me,” Nikki scolded, flicking the tip of my nose with a soft glare. “Matt and the guys go way back with me. Anyways, so I called him up and explained how we met and I came to surprise you. So, surprise!”

“You don’t even know the full story. I could be in the wrong here,” I pointed out, trying to justify that he was ridiculous to drive all the way out here.

“Well, from what I know from you, you had to have a good reason for this to all happen. Now shut up and introduce me to your friends.” Friends? I turned to see Ethan and Felix (when did he get here?) with their mouths agape and Max staring with wide eyes. Oh, right.

“So, uhm, guys, this is Nikki. Nikki, these are my friends Max and Ethan. And this is my boyfriend, Felix,” I spoke, nudging Felix with my shoulder at the end. Everyone, at the same time might I add, suddenly returned to normal and offered wide smiles.

“Nice to meet you,” they chorused.

“I swear they’re not normally this creepy,” I sighed after a moment of pause between the five of us.

“I’ll take your word for it,” Nikki spoke quietly.

“Nikki!” We all turned to see two more men heading towards us from the metal detectors. Ethan let out a loud scream and I turned back to him only to see him throw his hands over his head and walk away from us.

“I fuckin’ quit! You can’t just keep pullin’ famous people out of your ass, Danielle!” Ethan exclaimed, pointing a finger in my direction. “That’s not how it works. None of this is okay! You’re not following the rules.”

“..I guess you know DJ and James,” Nikki spoke slowly as either man came to a stop on his sides. Slowly and awkwardly, since everyone was still too busy watching Ethan grumble to himself and pace in circles while throwing his arms around, James and DJ gave me hugs and I reintroduced everyone to them. It was a couple of moments later that Ethan finally let out a final huff and walked back to us, lacing fingers with Max who ran his thumb over his knuckles.

“We had overheard your dad mention Nikki coming, but nothing about these guys,” Ethan muttered, seeming to think that it should explain everything and make up for his antics.

“Then what the hell was that about?”

“Being told a famous person I genuinely like is going to be in the same room as me is one matter. Three famous people actually being in the same room is totally different,” Ethan scoffed.

“I guess it was a good thing I didn’t know you were famous when we met,” I remarked with a small shrug.

“You didn’t - ” Both Max and Ethan began to exclaim in unison when they were cut off by someone calling Nikki’s name. We all turned to see Dad and Val leading the group to the metal detectors. Nikki perked up and ran off towards the other side of the line of machines with James and DJ in tow. I shook my head before turning on my heels and leading the other three left with me into the courtroom.

With twenty minutes until the court time was set, not many people were there. In fact, only half the jury and our lawyer was there. I shook hands with Mr. Sable and introduced him to the trio whom he also shook hands with. I ended up sitting on the front pew behind our table for the remaining time. I could feel my anxiety bustling up around me as the extended family and strangers began to invade the courtroom.

It wasn’t until the five minute mark and I was sat between Dad and Mr. Sable when the doors opened to reveal the girl who I had seen on the beach that my throat constricted.

She stepped in with her lawyer and her parents behind them. A few people gave her smiles and waves, suggesting they were other family members or friends. She didn’t acknowledge them as she headed to the table to our right. I caught a glimpse of her to only see a white strip across the bridge of her nose. It was still slightly deformed and purple around the tape, but it was looking a lot better. She gave me a glare before smoothing the back of her dress and slipping into her seat. Her parents didn’t even look at us, even as her father and her took their seats. I began to bounce my leg nervously, but Dad stopped by placing a hand on my knee. He gave me a reassuring smile just as another door opened.

A man in a security outfit stepped through the door to the side of the jury box (which was now filled with a wide range of people) and took his place to the front right of the judge’s bench. “All rise for the honorable Judge Winchester.”

I could heard Max and Felix stifle their laughter with the blends of the entire courtroom rising to their feet. I had to physically bite the inside of my cheek to not laugh too. I sobered up instantly when neither Jensen Ackles nor Jared Padalecki’s look alike came through that door. Instead it was a stern faced woman who didn’t seem pleased to be in court at nine thirty in the morning. I couldn’t say I blamed her. Waking up at the asscrack of dawn just to listen to frivolous cases that could probably be settled at home with a logical conversation.

“Please be seated,” she spoke in her rougher-than-most voice as she slipped into her own seat. I couldn’t decide if she was a smoker or if her voice just stuck in the lower octaves of women voices. She placed a pair of thin wired glasses on her face and quietly thanked the bailiff as he handed her a manilla folder. She flipped it open before skimming over the papers inside. Taking a deep breath through her nose, she looked back up to us.

“Mr. Westly, you wish to sue the Sanders for the assault on your daughter that occurred on August 17th of this year. Samantha - ” Oh shit, that’s her name? I’m a terrible person, I don’t even know her fucking name. “could you please come to the stand and tell us about this incident.”

“Certainly,” Samantha spoke, giving a bright smile as she stood from her chair. Once she was sworn in, she neatly placed herself on the slightly shorter bench next to Judge Winchester. Pretty much, as soon as her mouth opened, all I heard was ‘lies, woe is me, feel bad for me, Danielle Sanders is a monster’. The only true part was that she had been playing volleyball and I suddenly attacked. Which, I mean, it was sudden, but not without reason. The judge didn’t look like she took it as being very believable either. But she thanked her and Mr. Sable tried to make some attempts at making her reveal she was a liar, but he didn’t get far. In the end her lawyer had no questions and Samantha returned to her original spot.

“Danielle, it is your turn,” Judge Winchester spoke, swooping her arm towards the vacated seat. Like that was really needed. I pushed myself out of my seat and stood at the bench, taking my turn to be sworn in. Once I was I took my seat and crossed my legs at the knees in an attempt to not fidget. Mr. Sable stood from his seat and paced towards the bench. He gave me a small smile as he paused a foot away from me.

“Danielle, in your own time, can you give us your account of the incidents that happened that Monday? Starting from the time you got out of school, if you would.”

“Yes, ma’am.” And I jumped into the short story that was flooded with as much detail as I could remember. Mr. Sable simply nodded and gently urged me to keep going. He had prepped us for this day for a majority of the last two weeks when we would meet up. I was confident enough to not sound like a moron and try to not stutter, and I think I pulled it off. But then I had to painfully grab my left shin (which I had had my fingers laced together on before this) as I saw Samantha’s lawyer stand to his feet and button his thousands of dollar suit jacket. Who buys a suit that expensive?

“You are telling us quite the opposite of what Samantha, are you not?”

“Uh, I guess so,” I spoke slowly as I realized this wasn’t going to get an ‘objection!’ from Mr. Sable. I really wasn’t sure what could be objected, but he made sure to let me know he would jump in the moment it arose.

“Is this not more of a he said, she said type of thing, then? How can we really know who’s right?”

“I have my friends who witnessed the whole thing,” I spoke, my eyes narrowing a bit.

“And Ms. Westley has friends who saw the interaction occur and would gladly vouch for her too. Why should your friends be special exceptions?”

“Objection! Mr. Milton is badgering the witness,” Mr. Sable scolded, giving the lawyer a disgusted look. A look that suggests that this wasn’t their first time pinned against each other on a case and Mr. Sable was really sick of him. Mr. Milton smiled, raising his hands in mock surrender as he turned on the heels of his feet.

“I simply mean that there are plenty of people that saw the altercation and would say that this whole account went about the way as my client has explained to us. It’s not unfair to say either side could speculate the details.”

“I’ll let it go, Mr. Milton,” the judge sighed as she leaned back in her chair. Mr. Sable glowered as he sunk back into his seat and the parasite of a lawyer smiled to me again.

“So, Ms. Sanders, why would your friends words be placed higher than my own clients?”

“Because they were there for the whole incident, whereas Ms. Westley’s friends hadn’t shown up until after I had thrown a fist,” I pointed out with a slight roll of my eyes. Mr. Milton nodded, though I didn’t think he really cared.

“But, unlike Ms. Westley, you have been in the police system.” My eyes grew wide and I could hear a faint curse from somewhere in the room. Was that Dad? Or Mr. Sable? They both look pretty upset. Oh God, I hope Mr. Sable didn’t. That would mean game over. “You seem surprised, Danielle.”

“I am. I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I confessed. Was he just making shit up? No, that would lead to an objection, right? ‘Objection, your honor! He’s being a dick and making stuff up!’ Something like that, anyway.

“In an online database, there is a file in the system under your name reporting you as a runaway back during the summer. It was active for over a month.” Really? He was lying, right? I looked at Dad to see his face buried in his hands and Mr. Sable standing to his feet.

“Is there a point to this information?”

“I’m simply saying that maybe not everything Ms. Sanders is telling us is very creditable,” Mr. Milton defended. The judge seemed stuck for a moment before groaning softly.

“Alright, Mr. Milton, I’ll allow it. But you better get to your point soon or this will all be disregarded,” Judge Winchester warned.

“Of course.” Mr. Milton turned back to me and offer a grin. “Ms. Sanders, why did you leave home?”

“I wanted to find my father.”

“How did you conquer such a feat? You couldn’t have done it alone, could you?”

“My friend from Colorado helped me.”|

“Did her parents know you just decided to run away?”

“No. They didn’t know. She was supposed to be going on a trip with her friends.”

“So you lied to her parents and encouraged her to lie too?” Mr. Milton questioned, his eyes wide in fake surprise.

“No, that’s not what I said. I never spoke to her parents. I can’t control what she tells her family,” I argued.

“Well what else was she going to say? Tell her parents the truth and make you have to face your consequences?” I fell silent, finally seeing what he was leaving me with. I could feel tears burning my eyes as the whole room began to buzz with whispers. Shit shit shit shit. “It seem obvious to me that your friends are more than willing to lie for you, Ms. Sanders.”

As he sat back down, I bit my lip, expecting Mr. Sable to raise out of his chair, but he doesn’t. I mean, I can blame him, how do you come back from that? I could tell that the bailiff was waiting for me to move, but I couldn’t. I took a deep breath through my nose before turning to the judge. “Your honor, may I say something?”

“I - ” She, and the other two lawyers in the room, obviously shares look that suggest that that was not a normal thing that was done in court, but she sighed and nodded soon after. “Yes, Ms. Sanders, go ahead.”

I took another deep breath before stumbling to start. “I’m not really the brightest kid and I make a lot of spur-of-the-moment decisions which usually bite me in the a- I mean, in the butt later. But I do most of them out of the idea that it will benefit someone besides me. I let my mom sell my old furniture and my car so they would have money for rent. I almost left back to Colorado and went to where I was unhappy so I could ‘fix’ whatever I had broken here - which totally wasn't the case at all. I defended my friend because I didn’t want him to feel as bad as people were making him feel. So yes, I’m sorry I punched you, Samantha. I could have handled it better and I didn’t. So do your worst, but I’m not taking back my reason behind this whole thing.”

With that I stood to my feet and walked back to my seat with my head held high. As soon as I do make it back, the bailiff is asking for everyone to stand so the judge and jury can leave through their designated doors so the jury can make their decision. As soon as the final door shuts, I jump to my feet and rush pass everyone to escape to the lobby. I take a few deep breaths through my nose as I walk down the hallway until I reach a bench near an emergency exit at the side of the building. I hunched over myself, burying my face in my crossed arms. Breathing was starting to become a major problem and at the same time I felt like puking up my internal organs.

I felt a body place themselves on the bench next to me, but they said nothing and I couldn’t be bothered with the effort to sit up. Or even turn my head at this point. No matter who it was, I didn’t have a thing to say. So I waited a few minutes until, finally, I heard someone clearing their throat. “So that went well.”

“Dad. Shut up,” I huffed, gripping my arms tighter.

And he did. At least for a few moments before he sighed. “Look, it really did go better than I thought it would.”

“He practically said I have antisocial disorder.”

“Isn’t that - ”

“Dad, if you’re about to ask me if that’s when I don’t like to talk to people, no. That’s an introvert. Being antisocial means I only talk to people to get something from them.” Wow, speaking psychology helps calm me down. I need to store that away for future reference. I sat up and leaned back against the bench. I let my head lean against the wall and let out a huff. “So how do you think the jury will find?”

“We’re probably going to have to pay some money.”

“How am I going to have to work that money off?”

“You have to give Bella baths for a week.”

“Seriously, Dad.”

“I’m dead serious. I guess we can add on doing dishes for that week too.”

“So I have to wash things for a week?”

Dad gave an over exaggerated sigh. “Fine/ I guess it can be two weeks.”

“Dad,” I snapped, looking at him with a glare. “I’m serious. I screwed up and that’s all my punishment is?”

“Look, Danielle. I know I reacted badly at first, but I’m proud of you for what you did. Not a lot of people have the guts to stand up for their friends in the way you did. I know the guys and I did a lot, but we were also looking for fights all the time. You’re a good kid and you just didn’t think it all the way through. I’m not angry, but you seem to be unhappy with yourself so I was going to go along with it and give you stupid chores,” Dad admitted, chuckling. I shook my head and tried to hide my small smile from him. He noticed and pulled me closer by wrapping his arm around my shoulders. “Stop being so hard on yourself.”

“No promises.”

It fell silent for a few minutes before he thoughtfully added, “You might have some community service to do.”

“What?” I exclaimed, turning to him with big eyes. He waved a hand at me, a look of concentration as he stared at the wall across from us.

“Maybe not. I dunno how this one would work. I haven’t dealt with a lawsuit in a while. But, on the chance you do, you can do the service at the animal shelter or at the child center downtown. It’ll be fun for you.”

“Yeah, true,” I muttered in agreement. We heard movement and looked up to see Val leaning out the courtroom door. She waved us over and we both hurried to our feet and back to the door. We walked in to see the jury reentering the room and everyone hurrying back to their seats. I followed Dad to our own seats, Felix kissing the back of my hand as I went. We stood as Judge Winchester came back in before we were allowed to sit. She turned to the jury and the first one on the bottom row stood from his seat, nervously pushing his glasses up his nose.

“How has the jury decided on this matter?”

“We have decided, Your Honor, that Ms. Sanders actions were out of hand, but not for the wrong reasons. We have agreed that we believe Ms. Sanders’s recollection of the account and only believe she should be held responsible for violence in public,” the man spoke. The judge nodded and he sat back down.

“Well then, Ms. Sanders, since this is your first offense in the state of California, you will have to give twenty hours of community service. If you go to the front desk, they can give you a list of places you are allowed to give your hours at. Your family will also need to pay three hundred and fifty dollars for court frees and a portion of the medical bills that the Westleys have demanded. Go out there and just be good, okay? Ms. Westley, I would appreciate if you and your family followed me to my chambers, thank you.” With that, Judge Winchester banged her gavel and everyone stood, Samantha and her parents following the judge.

Once I shook Mr. Sable’s hand, I was beginning to be overcrowded by people giving me hugs. I didn’t know where one person started and the other ended. But I was being passed around and surrounded by ‘congratulations’ and ‘let’s party!’. Before I could even really compute what was going on, Dad was leading me out of the courthouse with Val and Charlie close behind. I pulled him to the side and Dad waved the others off, everyone heading to their cars. Once they were out of earshot, Dad turned to me with a worried look.

“What’s wrong? Are you - ”

I shot up, hugging him tightly around the neck and burying my face into his chest. He was confused, but hugged me back, rubbing a hand up and down my back. I couldn’t explain it to him. I’d had been through a lot of heartache and emotions and, now, a lot of legal issues with him in my life, but I was thankful for him. He didn’t give up on me, he turned out to be an amazing father, and I just don’t know who I’d be without him, even though I hadn’t known him for half a year.

I had found my Dad and I was never letting him go.