As the Draiman family walked out of the courthouse they were swarmed by the press. Jordan picked Jasmine up rand put her on her hip. "Jordan, what was the judge's decision and what are your feelings on it?"
"Judge Haskins determined that I'm the better parent for the kid and awarded me full custody. I'm elated. I'm beyond elated. I can honestly say that I'm the happiest girl in the world right now."
"Any advice for young couples headed down this road?"
"Don't get married to begin with and if you do, get thorough background checks", she laughed and everyone laughed with her. "No, seriously though, this is not a path I would have chosen if things weren't already on the down turn. If you’re having marital problems- and this goes for all couples, not just gay couples or straight couples, all couples- get counseling. Find out what your demons are and get the tools to deal with them."
"Would you have followed your own advice?"
"If my now ex-wife hadn't been abusing my kids and trying to convince anyone that would listen that my family's nothing but a bunch of privileged, brutish thugs."
"We take it that didn't go over very well."
"No, not at all."
The reporters spotted David and decided to ask him his feelings on what's happened. "David, how do you and your wife feel about what's happened?"
"We're just happy that our family is going to remain in one piece. Jordan's been through a lot the last few months and we're both proud if her strength."
"What do the two of you plan to do now that this is over?"
"We'll probably stick around until the holidays are over then go home to Israel and start planning a new trip", Brie said with a smile. "We're just going to roll the dice and see what happens."
"Jordan, any plans to celebrate your legal victory today?"
"I'm sure that we'll figure out a way to party it up when we get home. I mean, we are Draiman's, aren't we?" she laughed. "Now, if you'll excuse us, my son wants to show me the pictures from his diving trip and my daughter wants to show me all the pretty new clothes Gramma bought her while they were staying with my parents", she said as she adjusted the way she was carrying Jasmine, grabbed Levi's hand and headed down the step toward the cars.
"Jordan, we saw your ex escorted out of the courthouse in handcuffs. What are your thoughts?"
"I'm sure that Judge Haskins had a good reason for that. For my ex-wife to be brought out of the courthouse in matching silver bracelets there has to be a valid reason. What it is, I can't say nor do I want to speculate. It's not my problem."
It didn't take long to get all of the Draiman's into the assorted vehicles that they'd arrived in and once they were all loaded up they were gone.
---------------
Jordan sat on the couch with her kids on either side of her as Levi showed her the pictures of his diving trip. As he flipped to the picture of the huge manta ray he'd snapped a picture of as it swam below them, her phone started ringing. She didn't recognize the number but answered it anyway after asking the kids to hold on long enough for her to take the call. She answered it and walked toward the kitchen. "Hello?"
"You have a collect call from the El Paso county jail. Do you accept the call?"
She sighed as she responded. "Yes." When the call connected she sucked in a deep breath. "Hello?"
"Jordan? I need help", she heard Davina say on the other line.
"I missed the part where that's my problem."
"You know I'd never hurt Levi."
"Bitch please. Just tell me what you want."
"I need a million dollars to bond out."
"Call a bondsman. I hear that Lyssa Chapman is great."
"I can't. Cash only bond."
"Again, how is this my problem?"
"You're the only person I know with that kind of money."
"Seriously?"
"Jordan, ten years..."
"You know? You can rot in hell for all I care. After everything you've done you have the chutzpah to call and ask ME to bond you out? Here's a quarter, call someone who cares." She hung up.
"What was that about?" David asked from the table.
"That dumb hooker actually had the chutzpah to call me and ask me to bond her ass out", she said with a laugh of disbelief.
"Why can't she call a bondsman?" Brie asked as she made a herself a pot of tea.
"It's a cash only bond."
They both laughed. "That's justice", David said. "Any idea why?"
"She didn’t say, I suspect that it’s because she’s a flight risk.” She grabbed one of the handmade beef pot stickers off of the rack where they were cooling. “Her parents being here means that they’ll try to smuggle her back to Hawaii.”
“And if she skips they’d send the Chapman family after her”, Brie added with a laugh.
“Which is why I why I suggested Lyssa Chapman. Lyssa hates women who beat kids.”
“That she does.” Brie smiled. “Why don’t you go back out and talk with your kids, Jordan. They’ve missed you insanely.”
“And I’ve missed them.” She kissed both of her parents on the cheek. “Thank you both for everything; taking the kids, being here when I woke up after killing Grissom, being there for me today. It means a lot.”
“Jordan, you’re our daughter. It’s what we do”, Brie said.
David nodded in agreement. “Exactly. And, we’ll do it for each of you until the day we die.”
---------------
After all of the kids, and that meant all of them, were in bed the adults all sat around and had a drink. Levi and Jasmine were settled into bedrooms with their cousins. They all sat and discussed the events of the day, updating those who weren’t in court with the family that day on what happened that day. “Honest to God, that’s what the judge said”, Jordan laughed as she told everyone about what the judge said when she gave her decision.
“She seriously told her that she had no idea how you had put up with her for ten years”, Mercedes said with a laugh.
“Yeah, she said that”, Jake and Delilah said in unison.
“I can’t believe exactly how much she lied”, David said with a shake of his head.
Brie laughed. “Baby, girls lie too.”
“I’m not saying that girls don’t lie too. I mean, after we moved out to Israel I could tell there was a change in her. But I didn’t think she was that crazy.”
“Well, Dad”, Marc said, “I think that all of us that moved away had the wool pretty thoroughly pulled over our eyes.”
“Well, I didn’t like the thought of dragging anyone else into my marital problems”, Jordan said. “Maybe I should have and this would have been resolved a lot sooner.”
“Don’t blame yourself, Jordan”, Brie said to her oldest daughter. “Baby girl, there is nothing you can do about your ex being a psycho. Sometimes it takes a minute to find your soul mate. I mean, look at your father and me. Dad was pushing 40 when I met him and I wasn’t far behind him. We spent most of our adult lives looking for each other.”
“Speaking of the two of you”, James chimed in to change the subject, “now that we have you in the same country and you can’t worm your way out of answering the question, will you tell us about the time you shared that woman?”
Both David and Brie laughed. “That has really been eating at you, hasn’t it James?” David asked.
“Yes, it has. It’s been driving me crazy to be frank with you.”
“Who’s telling the story?” Brie asked.
“You tell it. You’re better at telling these things than I am for some reason.”
Brie laughed and looked around the room at their children and children in law. “Well, as you can probably imagine it was practically a lifetime ago. It was before Jessi and Marc were born. We’d asked Karyn and Trevor to come up from their little place and watch you all. A long lost friend of mine looked me up and asked me if Dad and I would be interested in going to a party with her. She neglected to tell me that it was a swingers party. Well, when we got there and found out what was going on, we debated on whether to stick around or to bolt. After a good thirty minutes of discussing the prospect together we decided to stick around and see what the night had to offer. Your father and I were both approached separately but we would decline, citing that we would only play together. Finally, the golden moment came. This girl in her late thirties came to us and told us that she didn’t want one or the other, she wanted to play with both. She’d spent the entire night scoping us out and studying us to see if we would be the kind of couple she’d want to get to know- if only for a night. Her name was Naomi. We talked for about an hour. She recognized your father- but who didn’t at that point? She didn’t care that he was the Voice. She even said as much. ‘I don’t care that you were the Voice of the Resistance, big boy. I just wanna know how well you use all of the equipment at your disposal’, she said. Well, after talking about her likes and dislikes and talking about how things were going to go down- because you really have to negotiate these kinds of things for them to work properly- we brought her home. In the room that Jacob and Delilah now call theirs, Dad and I shared our first and only woman and it went on until the late hours of the morning. We paused long enough to let her get a quick nap and to take you kids to school before we came back and partied with her just a little longer.”
“When did she finally go home?” Meagan asked.
“Not long before we picked the older kids up from school and you and the other three that share your birthday from nursery school”, David laughed.
“I think she left as we were picking vehicles”, Brie laughed and laid her head on her husband’s shoulder.
“I think you’re right”, he laughed as well.
“So, if you partied all day with the woman, it had to be good, right?” Marc laughed.
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” they laughed in unison.
“Well, I’m sure I speak for all of us when I say, now that we know the story we kinda wanna know the details”, Jake retorted. His siblings all echoed him.
The matriarch and patriarch of the family exchanged a look. “Should we?” she asked.
“Nah. Let’s just let them continue to wonder how fun that night was and we can go to bed. This day has been a roller coaster and I’m ready for it to end and to curl up with you for the night”, he responded then turned to the kids. “We’ll see you all in the morning. We’re rather tired. Jordan, congratulations. We’re very happy for you and proud of you. Be sure to get that number from Jake for that therapist.”
“I will, Daddy. Thanks for everything again. To both of you.”
“You’re welcome Jordan”, they said. “Good night. We’ll see you all in the morning. It will be nice to have our house to ourselves for the first time in months”, David said as they walked away.
“It will be. Maybe we can…” Brie said and whispered in his ear.
“Maybe. It will be nice to see if we’re not too old for that.”
Once their parents were gone, the kids all looked at each other and laughed. “Wow. Those two… never cease to amaze me”, Maddie laughed.
“They are pretty fucking awesome”, Marc laughed. “Do you guys realize how lucky we are to call them our parents?”
“I don’t think we’ll ever really and truly understand just how lucky we all are that David and Brie Draiman are our parents”, Jake said with a sigh. “That is something I sincerely doubt that we’ll ever truly grasp the concept of.”
---------------
Davina was lying in her cot in the El Paso County Jail wondering if her parents would ever be able to get together the money to get her out of that hell. All she wanted was to get out. She didn’t care that she would never see her little girl again. She didn’t care that her marriage of ten years was now officially over. All she cared about was the fact that the woman she was sharing a cell with was eyeballing her like she was going to be her new girlfriend. That was not something that Davina was looking forward to and would avoid it if she could. The woman had tried to start up conversation with her but she ignored it. She didn’t want to get too cozy with anyone if she could help it.
Her father promised that they would stay in town and visit every day until they had the money to get her out. But, then they had to find the money to pay for her defense. She knew that they couldn’t afford it and would probably end up with a public defender.
How did it come to this?, she asked herself. How the hell did I end up in this position? I had everything. I had a woman that loved me, two beautiful kids, money, jewels, designer clothes, a big house… everything. And somehow, it slipped through my fingers. And, now, Jordan hates me and won’t even loan me the money to get out. Where did I go wrong?
That was a question that Davina Kealoah had not answer for.
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