The Journey Ch. 06

"How many times do I have to ask for a lawyer? I already know I'm being detained," I said, shaking the cuffs on my wrist.

They both scowled at me. Simmons opened his mouth to respond, when a cheerful voice interrupted him from the doorway.

"Officers! How's it going?" A young black man of maybe thirty walked in. He was casually dressed, carrying a backpack over one shoulder.

"Sorry, we're in the middle of something. No visitors right now," the sergeant said.

"Yeah, it sounded like you were in the middle of denying Miss Esparza her right to have an attorney present for questioning."

"Sorry, who the fuck are you?" the second officer asked.

"Marc Hansen, attorney at law!" he said dramatically, waving jazz hand at the cops. I almost laughed. "I was paged to represent Vivian here. Which is why I was so surprised to hear her repeatedly ask for an attorney and then hear two fine officers representing the Fairfax County's Sheriff's office repeatedly ignore her request, in violation of the nineteen-sixty-three Wainwright decision. You've heard of that one, right? What do you think your supervisor would think of that, Sergeant?"

"I don't know what you're talking about, counselor," the cop said, looking the young man up and down as if he clearly couldn't believe he was actually a lawyer. "Anyway, we don't even need to talk to her. We have a blood test from when she came in showing she was at two-point-five."

"Well, if you have a blood test, why bother violating her rights by continuing to question her after she asked for a lawyer?" Marc asked brightly. I liked this guy.

"We weren't doing any such thing, and you have nothing that says otherwise."

"Officers, my client looks kinda of tired, so I'm going to cut to the chase. You have two problems."

"Yeah, what's that?" The cop was rapidly looking more and more annoyed.

"Actually, you might only have one. First, if you could kindly show me the warrant for the blood test? I'm sure you have a copy with you."

"The E.R. doc took the test as a matter of course when she came in."

"Ah, I see. Then you do have two problems. I don't know how many times I'm going to have to talk to the hospital administration about this, but the doctors here can't perform a blood alcohol test in Virginia for the police, absent a warrant or patient consent." He turned to me. "Vivian, how ya doing?" he asked. I opened my mouth to answer but before I could he went on, "Did you consent to a blood alcohol test when you were admitted to the hospital?"

"I was unconscious."

"Aw, dang fellas. Seems Vivian was unconscious and unable to consent, which means absent a warrant her blood test is inadmissible in court. You could try to get it in, but all you're really going to do is open up both your department and the hospital to a lawsuit for a fourth amendment violation. Pretty slam dunk one, in my professional legal opinion."

"That's the D.A.'s problem, not mine," the Sergeant growled.

"Possibly. But you still have the other problem."

"What's that?"

Marc held up his phone. "Virginia is a one-party consent state. Meaning if you have no expectation of privacy, I can record you without your consent or knowledge. Since I was so shocked to hear two upstanding members of law enforcement blatantly continuing to question my client after she repeatedly asked for a lawyer, in a public hospital with the door open to the hallway, I decided my best course of action would be to record said illegal questioning of my client."

"You are shitting me with this bullshit," the cop muttered under his voice.

"This 'bullshit', as you so quaintly put it, is my client's constitutional rights. Which, I assure you, I take pretty seriously. I assume you read her those rights before I arrived. Vivian, did the nice officers read you your rights before they started questioning you?"

Before I could say no, the cop said, "She's not under arrest yet, so we aren't required to Mirandize her yet."

"Oh dear," Marc said, looking suddenly sad. "You didn't read her her rights because she's not under arrest, but you handcuffed her to a hospital bed. Fellas, I hate to tell you but you've now violated the fourth, fifth and sixth amendments. That's illegal search, right against self-incrimination and right to counsel for those of us counting. Jeez, Vivian, you've had quite the lawsuit fall into your lap!"

"Look, counselor, I don't have time for your technicalities--"

"That's cool, officer," Marc interrupted, "Like I said, my client looks a little tired, and at this time is going to decline to answer questions. In my professional opinion, unless you want to go ahead and arrest her, and bring a judge to the hospital to do her arraignment right here, the cuffs could be construed as illegal detention. So, if you wouldn't mind unlocking those before you go?"

"We ain't done with her," the Sergeant said, gesturing for the younger cop to uncuff me.

"Great! Here's my number," Marc said, unslinging his backpack and pulling a business card out of the pocket on the front. "Please direct any and all communications from the Sheriff or D.A.'s offices through me from now on. Just so we can avoid any more unnecessary and unpleasant constitutional violations. Sound good?" he asked brightly.

The cops took the card and left without another word. Marc followed them to the door and shut it behind them.

"Wow, thanks. That was pretty--"

"Okay, listen I need you to shut up," Marc said, dropping his cheerful demeanor.

"Uh, okay."

"Vivian... can I call you Vivian? Good. I meant what I said to those officers. I really despise cops trying to railroad people in contravention of their rights. The way they were going about this was bullshit and unnecessary. If they had applied for a warrant before the blood test, they'd have gotten one, and you'd be dead meat on a DUI. The fact of the matter is you were three times the limit and behind the wheel of a car. That's fucked up, Vivian."

I looked down, suddenly unable to meet his eyes. "I know."

"It's your lucky day, though... I mean, I guess you could call it that," he said, glancing meaningfully at the giant cast that enveloped my left arm. "I'm going to be able to keep you out of the really deep shit, but only because those two pricks decided they didn't need to follow the law while trying to put you in jail."

"Uh... thank you."

"Don't thank me. You're my client now, and I will represent you to the best of my ability, until and unless such time as you want to hire an attorney of your own choosing. And like I said, their fuck up, and me happening to be outside to hear and record it, means you're probably going to get out of the most serious trouble you could have been in."

"Okay. What's next for me then?"

He handed me another of his business cards. "If they come back, don't talk to them without me, not one word besides 'I want my attorney present'. Call me if you receive any communication from the police or the D.A. It's possible that they'll realize how stupid they've been and will just drop it to avoid the trouble we could put them through. Or, they could go balls to the wall to try and nail you anyway, just because both you and I have just pissed them off. I wouldn't place a bet as to which way they'll go."

We spent another twenty minutes with Marc asking me questions and taking notes on my side of the story. I told him most of it. He managed to get out of me almost everything, including what had happened with Abuela before the bar. At the end of it, he sighed as he packed up his backpack.

"Vivian, it sounds like you had a really bad day, and made a really stupid decision. I hope you can appreciate how lucky you are that you only hurt yourself. You could have easily injured or killed someone else."

"I know..." I whispered. "I've never driven drunk before in my life. I always walk, or take a ride-share, or--"

"Good," said Marc, "I hope it's a one-time mistake. I gotta go, have another client upstairs I need to pop in to see. Like I said, there's no way to know what the D.A. will do, but my gut is you won't be in serious trouble. Legally, anyway. Again, I'll emphasize to you that if they'd done their job right, you would be. And deservedly so. So, maybe take this as a sign to never fuck up like this again. 'Kay Vivian?"

"Okay. Thank you."

"Just doing my job. I hope you're okay. Your arm I meant."

And with that, he breezed out the door, leaving me with the worst company possible.

My thoughts.

God, I really am a worthless, stupid, fucking piece of shit. I put off talking to Abuela for my whole life. Then I finally do it, after MONTHS of delaying and hiding, all of which hurt Jane. And NOW what's Jane going to think of me? After I did this, and...

The memory of what happened at the bar floated into my head for the first time since I woke up. Mindy. She'd kissed me. And I let her. I didn't really kiss her back. I didn't think so, anyway. Everything was so fuzzy. But I know I didn't shove her away. At least I let her do it long enough that Connie thought something was up. Maybe something was up. Maybe Jane was right, maybe I was that kind of girl. The slutty, bathroom hookup, one-night stand girl. The kind of girl Jane didn't want to be with.

I thought of Abuela. Her anger and disappointment. That I wasn't the woman she wanted me to be. Then I'd basically stolen and destroyed her car. Fuck, I didn't know how she was going to manage her tamale business or her other job at El Fenix without a car. I'd have to get together enough money to... My job.

A stab of fear went through me. I'd missed a shift. At least one. Maybe two? What day was it? How long did the nurse say I was here?"

A second stab of fear. If I got charged with DUI, let alone convicted, WMATA would kick my ass to curb so fast, forget about getting into the engineering apprentice program. I'd have to go back, to... fuck, I don't even know. Waiting tables again? I'd never be able to replace Abuela's car with that kind of job. The magnitude of my fuck up was still washing over me, combining with the guilt of having let Mindy kiss me...

...when Jane walked through the door.

"Baby, are you okay?! I've been so worried about you," she said, rushing to my side and taking off my good hand in hers. "I was here all Sunday night and most of this morning until I had to go teach my class. Diego called me and said you were awake and I rushed right down here as soon as class ended. I'm sorry I wasn't here when you woke up!"

"I'm going to be fine, Jane, I--"

"Viv, what happened? You were out of touch all day, then I heard you'd crashed and Diego said the cops said you were drunk? Tell me that's not true."

I regarded her, sadness seeping into my soul.

I don't deserve her. And she doesn't deserve to be saddled with someone like me. She deserves better, but she's too good a person to realize it on her own. There's only one way to make it right. At least this way I won't have to tell her what Abuela thinks of her. I can save her that, at least. I know she really liked Abuela and it'd really hurt her to know what Abuela called her.

"Jane... I... I was drunk."

"You... what? Viv, I don't understand."

"I was out drinking with some friends on Sunday afternoon. Guess I had more than I thought."

"Why didn't you call me for a ride, or--"

"Because I was hooking up with one of them."

"What?" Jane whispered, staring at me in shock. "What? What are you... why... Viv..."

"I know, I'm a piece of shit, but you were right about me. I am that kind of girl. Her name's Mindy. I had a fling with her a while back before you and I got together. She was there, and I was drunk and I guess temptation got the best of me. I wish it hadn't happened, but I at least owe you the truth."

"You're lying." She looked horrified. She clearly didn't want to believe me. "You're not that kind of person."

I let out a rueful snort. "You already know about me and bow-head. And do you really think Addison felt the urge to forgive me because I said something mean when we were breaking up? That I was the hero of that story? Sure, she was using me, but instead of doing the right thing and calling it off, I cheated on her and she caught me."

"What? But you told me that--"

"I'm sorry Jane. I wish this wasn't me, but it is. You can ask my friend Connie. She was there. She caught me and Mindy hooking up in the bathroom. Yelled at me about it. I was embarrassed, so I jumped in Abuela's car, and well... here I am."

"There's no way... why would you... Viv, why would you do that to me?"

"Because when I get drunk I do things. Things like have sex with women in the restrooms of gay bars or bowling alleys."

"No... no I won't believe it, you... Viv, I love you!"

I looked around and spotted my wallet on the table next to the door. I pointed at it with my good arm. "There's a credit card receipt in there from Chasin' Tail. What kind of woman goes to a gay bar without her girlfriend? Someone who just wants to drink? Or someone who's ready to make a dumb decision? It happened. I'm sorry Jane."

Tears were rolling down her cheeks as she looked at me, grief and anger on her face.

"I loved you," she whispered.

It took all my self-control not to close my eyes as the pain from her switching from present to past tense stabbed at me.

"I know. I'm really sorry I fucked up. I just... You've been too good to me for me to lie to you about it."

She stood like a statue, staring at me, the gears turning in her mind. She made a small motion towards me, stopped. A little move towards the door, stopped. Then she gave out a small sob, turned and fled from my room, down the hallway and out of my life. And that's when my tears began to fall.

"Good bye, Jane," I whispered to myself. "I wish I was what you deserved."

To Be Continued...

Thank you for reading, Friend. I know you've been waiting for this chapter for a long time. So have I.

This chapter was really hard for me to write, I struggled a lot during this one. Mostly because I knew what was coming for Viv, and I hated seeing it happen to her, seeing her inner struggle and doubts, and seeing her make her choices. I love these characters as much as some of you do (probably more so), and it hurts me to hurt them. But I've known since the beginning, from the opening scene of Chapter One, that this moment was coming. Every time I sat down to write this chapter, I would think about what I was getting ready to put Viv through and it made it really hard.

But the title of this story is The Journey, after all. Journeys have ups and downs. Highs and lows. You've had faith in me before, have faith in me now, stay strong, and remember, the only way you can get hurt on a roller coaster is if you get off early.

Hopefully Chapter Seven will be easier for me to write, and come faster for you. Though, I am also still a Very Busy Person, so it won't be coming immediately, I'll still need your patience :)

Thank you for reading.

And as always, I appreciate all your votes, but comments are what inspire. So, let me know what you thought or, conversely, how much you hate me after this one.