Damage Control Epilogue

"Tell me about it, I needed two towels to dry my bikini."

"The white one with the black stitching?" I asked.

"Yes."

"I love that one on you." I told her.

"I brought it with me. Wanna lay out tomorrow since we have one more day till we have to go back to the boat?" she asked.

"No, I want you to put it on tonight when we get back." I told her.

She looked at me with a puzzled look. "Why?"

"So I can slowly untie it, tie by tie, like I did that afternoon in Florida." I said with a wicked grin.

The tour guide was walking on explaining the things that were relevant to the times in the fortress. We walked over near the temple of the condor and listened to the tour guide as he told us about the worshippers and how often it was used. When he was finished, we walked behind it and looked as he started explaining about how the prisoners were shackled in these little cells for up to three days until their fate was decided. He went on to tell us about the maze of underground dungeon type cells and how strict the laws were.

"We've seen evidence that there were laws regarding being too lazy. You'd earn no less than a week in the dungeon if you didn't pull your weight in the community. One thing that the Incas placed a high penalty on, including death, was thievery and rape..."

Two months after college graduation

Tara and her parents, my mom, Marie, Jenny, and my attorney Linda, and I were sitting in a Clark county courtroom waiting for me to be called as a witness... Again. Those of you wanting to know what my father did to get sent to prison, here you go.

He was convicted for sexual assault, attempted rape, attempted murder, and a whole slew of other minor crimes when I was 11 years old. He snuck into my room one night, put a knife to my throat, and told me that if I didn't do what he wanted he'd kill me and then mom. I knew mom worked for the county as a prosecutor, so she had a gun and would protect us both. I also knew mom was a light sleeper, so I had to figure out a way to make enough noise that she'd hear it. While he was off balance, I managed to connect my right knee with his junk hard enough that he moaned and thudded back against my bedroom wall. He managed to tip my bookcase over and mom came running when she heard it hit the floor. When she saw what was going on, she picked up my softball bat, and laid him out cold. After that she paid special attention to his nuts. She had her knee in his chest, and her Glock to his head when Vegas PD and the Clark county Sheriff's department showed up.

Like I said, here we are again, 11 years later. His new attorney had managed to get him a new trial based on evidence that had been thrown out on appeal.

"It wouldn't have mattered in the first trial; he would have still been convicted." Mom told me after she'd talked to the DA about what got thrown out. But the wonderful judges at the Nevada Court of Appeals disagreed and ordered a new trial. I was thankful that the DA himself was prosecuting this one.

I watched as they brought the sperm donor in. Time had not been good to him. He was stooped over and walked with a limp. From what mom told me later she'd been a bit too... generous... with my bat on his junk to the point that he had to have them removed. I'm also sure that all the beatings he's taken in prison over the years haven't done very many good things for him either. He didn't even look at me when he walked in. He just slowly made his way to the defense's table and sat down.

"Fucking douchebag..." I said loud enough for Tara to hear me. She leaned over and whispered that she believed in me and that she loved me more than life itself, and then kissed the hand she was holding.

"Prosecution calls Stacie Johnson to the stand." I walked to the bailiff, put my hand on the bible and was sworn in. Unknowingly to the defense, The DA, with mom's help, had crafted my whole line of questioning. He designed his questions so as to give the defense as little room to ask questions or twist my statements as possible. He asked for and was allowed some latitude in his questions. He started by asking about my early life and my relationship with my father.

I was blatantly honest and told him that I had virtually no relationship with him due to him working all the time and never wanting to do anything with me. "He always said that he had to work to keep mom in the lifestyle that she was demanding from him."

"Your mom is a lawyer, correct?" he asked.

"She is. She's been an assistant district attorney for Clark County for 15 years."

"So, she didn't really need his money at all then?" he asked me.

"Not that I know of..." I replied.

"Objection, your honor." The defense said. "The witness was 11 years old at the time, how would she know about how her parent's money was spent"

"Your honor, if you ask the witness how she knows about her mother's finances, I'm sure that you'll be satisfied." He said not even looking up from his notes.

The judge looked and asked me to explain.

"Your honor, I am only speaking to my mother's finances when I explain this. She started teaching me about fiscal responsibility when I was 8. If she used her checkbook when we were out, she would let me write the charge or deposit in her check register and do the addition or subtraction in order to teach me how to balance a checkbook. There were also times where she would let me help balance her checkbook by reading her the amounts on the bills that came in. I saw, firsthand, what came in and what went out of her accounts. The defendant never gave mom a penny from what I saw."

"Your objection is overruled, continue your examination." The judge told the DA.

He went on to ask about the people in the back and who they were. He pointed out Tara and asked about her.

"That is Tara Andrews, my best friend since third grade, and the woman I love with all my heart." I replied.

"Have you always been a lesbian?" He asked.

"I'm not going to say if I'm heterosexual or a lesbian, I don't like labels. She's who I ended up falling in love with. If I'd fallen in love with a guy, he'd be sitting there next to her with both of them supporting me. That's all there is to it."

He went on to ask how we met and how Tara and I got on in our high school years. He even asked about how long Tara had been in love with me. I told him that she'd been in love with me since she was 16. He then asked if she'd ever tried to act on it or if she'd tried to seduce me.

Before you ask what, if anything, this has to do with a rape and murder trial, refer back to what I said earlier about him crafting my questioning. He asked that in order to get them to object to my answer and to try and paint them as homophobic and prejudicial against my relationship with Tara. Worked like a charm too...

"No, she didn't."

"Objection your honor, move to strike this part of the testimony." The defense said. "The witness is testifying against her father, if anything, the testimony should be viewed as suspect. How are we to know for sure that Tara Andrews didn't try to seduce her? All we have is the witness's word regarding her relationship. There's too many times when no one was around that Tara Andrews could have tried to seduce her."

I watched the jury for a moment and saw more than one jurist with a look of disgust on their face for the defense trying to make me out to be a pervert. I then looked over at mom and she was nodding her head and wearing an "eat a dick" look at the defense.

The DA was all over it. He opened two folders and pulled out the pages from each. He handed one stack to the defense and the other to the judge. "Prosecution's number 75 your honor. These are statements from over forty of Miss Johnson's and Miss Andrews' neighborhood friends, high school classmates, their parents, coaches, teachers, and administrators, swearing that there was never any evidence that they were ever involved in any kind of romantic relationship. There are also sworn and notarized statements from five non-familial individuals that state Tara Andrews and Stacie Johnson have been dating for less than two years. All of the latter statements are from individuals who have first-hand knowledge of how they came to be together, and who's reputations are beyond reproach."

He looked at the stack, picked up his gavel and declared a 15-minute recess for him to look at what was presented to him. I just stayed where I was and prayed for strength for what I knew was coming. When the 15 minutes were up, we resumed.

"After reading through the statements from the five people not related to the witness, I'm overruling your objection. Prosecution may continue." The judge said.

The DA asked me about the circumstances about how our relationship developed and I answered as "truthfully" as I was going to.

Inevitably, it came time for the meat of my testimony. "Stacie, what were the defendant's actions when he walked into your bedroom at 1am with a knife, 11 years ago?" he asked.

"He put a knife to my throat, that's what woke me up. His exact words were 'If you don't do what I say, I'll kill you and your bitch of a mother'." I told him as the tears started to come.

"What did he do after that?"

Through my tears, I answered his questions about what happened that night. I detailed everything that he had done and when the defense objected to my testimony on the grounds that it was too dark in my room to see anything. I had held back one particular thing in my testimony from 11 years ago. It was the fact that he had a "Welcome Aboard" tattoo that he'd gotten when he was in the Navy. The thing that sunk the defense was the body part that the tattoo was located on. It got a laugh from everyone in the court room, the judge had to cough to cover his laughter. The sperm donor slumped over in defeat after hearing that. The DA then got the rape kit with his DNA (Which had been thrown out and caused the retrial) back into evidence along with the knife with my blood on it. It was pretty much over after that. The jury took two hours to come back with a guilty verdict. No one was surprised at that. Mom and I wrote a joint victim's impact letter to the judge and signed it. Mom was busy with another case, and I was getting ready for UNLV Law school. The judge slapped another 25 to life sentence on him. He was 48 when he was convicted the second time, he didn't make it to 50. Tara tells me I should be thankful for the overall result. I can't help but feel a little cheated for the big chunk of my childhood he took from me...

Present time

I was looking at the jail cells and had a tear in my eye as I listened. Tara grabbed my hand and we walked away from the cells and out into the sunlight again. She dropped her pack and pulled a bottle of water out and handed it to me.

"Thank you, baby." I told her.

"I knew that would be stressful for you when we walked up there." She said kissing me on the forehead and wrapping her arm around my shoulder. "How are you dealing with his death?"

"Truthfully, I'm glad he's gone." I told her.

"I am too." She told me. I smiled and put my head on her shoulder as we waited for the rest of the tour. "So, what's for dinner tonight?"

"I'd love a burger, but aren't cows sacred around here?" I asked. That was another joke between us (me more so) growing up. Both of us love history so we talked a lot about it. She'd get so mad when I'd purposely get foreign cultures mixed up. We'd actually had a big fight and didn't speak for almost a week one time when I asked why the Irish got their potatoes from the Saudis when they could grow their own. In the end, I'd gone to her house to apologize and when she opened the door, both of us started to cry and we both hugged it out.

She looked at me with a raised eyebrow. "Do you not get tired of pushing my buttons with that?"

"You have so few 'annoyance buttons' to push, so... No." I said smiling.

"Fine. No white bikini with the black stitching for you tonight." She said, turning and looking forward.

"Oh, come on, I was only joking." I told her. But she was ignoring me. I sighed and rolled my eyes. "Fine, pouty mc-grumpy pants... Cows are sacred in INDIA, not PERU..."

"Thank you..." She said smiling at me. Tara stood in front of me and gave me a light kiss on the lips. "I'll wear the white bikini with black stitching now." She said grabbing her pack and walked off to join the tour.

One of the people on the tour with us asked about schooling for women.

"The schools for young ladies were called 'Acllahuasi' and were not here in the fort. The main one was in the city of Cusco, about 12 miles from here. However not all the girls were allowed schooling. Usually only the high born or the most beautiful, since they would marry Inca nobility, would be allowed to attend school. Even then it was more of a finishing school more than a formal education." The guide told us.

"Wow, that's... Not cool..." I said quietly...

Three weeks ago.

"Wow... Three long years... We made it!" I said holding my arms up in celebration. The whole class cheered. "I made a promise to my classmates seated here to keep this short, because..." I paused and looked up into the sun, "It's frikkin hot out here." Everyone laughed at my joke. "On behalf of all my classmates, I'd like to thank the families that had to put up with us as we slogged our way through the last three years of pain and suffering. I know in my house, there were more than a few times that it wasn't easy for my girlfriend to put up with me. But I'm so thankful that she did. Thank you, Tara, I love you." I blew a kiss and smiled at her. I watched as she wiped the tears from her eyes. "We as a class have an obligation to be better than those that came before us. We've seen the wrongs that have been perpetrated and we've seen people get away with skating around, bending, jumping through loopholes, or just plain breaking the law. Our professors, our peers, and our own families, they've shown us that what's right and correct on paper isn't always right in the real world. We as professionals, we need to have the brass to stand up and say 'NO! That's wrong!' and then go about making it right. Whether you're going into criminal, tax, business law, or politics, God help you if you are..." More laughs. "We need to be the best and show that we have the fortitude to stand up and be counted among the ones that stand for the best of what our great country has to offer... God bless and Thank you."

Yes... Valedictorian of my class. Everyone was happy and proud of me, but in truth, I was just happy to be done with it. The last three years had been hard on both Tara and I. We had only enough time for short vacations in the summer because of me working such long hours at the firm I was interning for. But she never wavered in her support for me and every time I started to break down, she was there to prop me up and hold my hand when I needed it. She was patient beyond the levels I could imagine. When I got angry at a case study I was doing, all she did was wrap her arms around me and rock back and forth holding me. Every night, the last thing I heard her tell me before I went to sleep was that she believed in me. Tara was my rock in all things for the last three years.

We were mingling with the families and pictures were being taken when I heard someone call my name. I turned around to see Chief Justice Leslie Miller still in her judicial robes walking towards me. She stopped and held out her hand.

"Congratulations Miss Johnson." she told me as I took her hand.

"Thank you, your honor. Your speech was very inspiring." I told her.

"Bullshit..." She said with a sarcastic tone as everyone that heard her say it broke out laughing. "It was too damn long and frankly boring as hell. I have no idea how any of you stayed awake through it." She said rolling her eyes.

"Well, I liked it." I told her. "When you talked about your time as the Nevada attorney general, I loved the example you used regarding accountability."

"I was in a powerful position, but still had three million bosses to answer to." she repeated.

"It speaks to my path and where it, hopefully, will take me." I told her.

"Where are you planning on working until you pass the Bar?" she asked.

"Honestly, your honor, I'm taking a few weeks off. Tara and I are going to take some time to reconnect like we were before law school. After that, I'll start looking for a job." I told her.

"You deserve some time off with all the hard work you've done." She spoke. "By the way, you'll need this on the 6th of July." She said handing me an envelope.

I opened it and three things fell out into my hand. First was a swipe card. I looked at it and I then saw the parking pass for the employee parking at the Supreme Court building in Las Vegas and the last was my identification card granting me access to the employee entrance. I looked up in shock at the Chief Justice.

"One of the perks of being on the Nevada Supreme Court is that you get first pick of who you want to clerk for you. Your first week will be you getting paperwork taken care of with HR and doing intake classes and briefings. After that, you're working for me. Every place I go, you go, and you'll be getting me all the relevant information I need to listen to the cases." she told me.

I was completely in shock and had no idea that this was coming. Tara reached over and closed my mouth. "There are flies out, and that will catch more than one if you leave it open like that."

"You did this..." I said to Tara holding up my ID card.

"I got her the picture, yes. But the rest was all you Stacie." She replied.

"Thank you for this opportunity, Chief Justice, you won't be sorry." I told her.

"Don't thank me yet, you're probably going to hate me after the first month... Oh, one very important piece of information you'll need. My coffee is Black Rifle Coffee, AK47 blend, and around 140 degrees..." She said shaking my hand again. Mom, Tara, and I laughed. "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go find Dean Zaleski and say goodbye, the pool at my house is calling my name." she said walking off with a wink and a smile.

"Congrats my love, you deserve it." Tara said to me.

"Wow... I didn't get to clerk for the chief justice of the Nevada supreme court, I'm actually quite jealous." Mom told me in pride.

"Someone pinch me please, I'm dreaming." Tara pinched me. "OWWW! I wasn't serious." I replied laughing and rubbing my arm.

The three of us met my pets, Tara's parents, Linda, April, and Mandy at Sinatra for dinner. Gail wanted to come, but there was a board meeting that ran late, and she had to stay for it. We laughed and had a good time and ate very awesome food. We didn't stay much more than 90 minutes, because it had been a long day and I wanted some snuggle time with my woman. Tara and I had walked into the apartment. She was checking the mail before joining me in the shower. I had already turned the water on and was waiting for it to get hot when I heard her yell.

"STACIE!!!"

I smiled knowing what she was yelling about. I turned the water off and walked out into the living room totally naked and leaned against the wall as she looked at me. She was holding an envelope and the two tickets for the two-and-a-half-week cruise to South America that I had bought.

"What's wrong baby?" I asked innocently.

"When did you set this up?" She said smiling.

"I bought it three months ago, why?"

"I had our vacation all planned out, and you turned around and did this?" She asked.

I walked over to her, wrapped an arm around her, and put my finger on her lips. "You..." I said looking into her beautiful eyes, "stood by me when I was upset, depressed, overwhelmed, and just not sure that I was good enough for this. You never complained, got upset or even angry when I was upset. You were... you ARE my rock in all things." I took the tickets from her hand. "I can never repay you for what you did for me while I was in school. But this..." I held them up. "Is something we've talked about doing since we were girls. You've said you want to go see South America. Now we can." I said taking my finger away from her lips.