This is the end of this story, it should wrap up the loose ends I had in the story. Hopefully, I didn't miss any big ones. Enjoy!

I decided to add the Lesbian Romance tag, as it seemed to permit me to end the story on a slightly romantic note.

Jackie Stormhouse walked into the courtroom, flashing a brief smile at the bailiff, Sam Orlando, before taking her seat at the plaintiff's table.

The date was Tuesday, February 21, 2017. There hadn't been much progress yet in the retrieval of the three girls' school records.

She'd spent several hours, even some of that after the work day had ended on Friday, building up the case she was about to present.

A tall, slender, even what one would call dapper, male entered the courtroom and took a seat at the defence table.

Jackie recognized him, then giggled. He was Vance Berris, an attorney known more for "flash" than actual ability or substance.

Several people entered the courtroom, all but one taking seats on the available benches. The last joined Mr. Berris, grabbing an extra chair.

Jackie looked over at the two men; the second guy was Paolo Sabatini, another half-assed attorney, but one paid for by the city council.

Jackie shook her head, she honestly wasn't surprised to see Mr. Sabatini there, given the fact she was about to sue the city.

They had to wait another fifteen minutes before Sam called out, "All rise, court is now in session, Honourable Judge Annalee Smythe presiding." Once the tall, stocky black female judge had taken her seat, he stated to the people in the courtroom, "You may now be seated."

Judge Smythe showed a brief and very slight smile to Sam as she asked what was on the docket for the day.

"Your Honour, the first item is a civil lawsuit being entered on behalf of Lara Alicia Holman, Rebecca Petra Millar and Tabitha Elaine Woodson. This is due to the fact that five different schools in the city here, when called by Miss Seanna Ramsay, the CEO of Ramsay Enterprises, about these three young children being able to attend in order to continue getting a decent education, were flat out denied the right to attend those schools once Miss Ramsay informed the person at each school that each of these girls is transgender."

The Judge straightened up on her seat and stared down at the bailiff. "Were they implying they would help the children before they were informed that each of the children is transgender? Or was the fact of them being so known from the start of the discussions?"

Jackie spoke, "In each case, they were acting as if they would help the girls until they were informed of their transgender status, Your Honour. I have sworn statements from Miss Seanna Ramsay, as well as audio records of the actual conversations here if you need to see them."

Judge Smythe nodded, then stated, "Court will be recessed for one hour. Lawyers for both sides, I'll see you in my chambers."

The three lawyers followed the bailiff into the Judge's chambers a few minutes after the Judge had left the courtroom.

Once Judge Smythe was present to meet with the three lawyers, the bailiff exited from the Judge's private chambers.

Judge Smythe asked them all to take seats, then had a young woman bring them refreshments as they would be a while.

When the refreshments had been dispensed, Jackie opened a satchel, pulled out an audio cassette tape and handed it to the Judge.

Judge Smythe sighed, then reached for an old audio cassette recorder/player, plugged it into an extension cord and inserted the cassette.

Jackie informed the judge as to the initial relevant time and let the Judge advance the cassette to that point, then start the tape.

The next forty-three minutes passed as the four of them listened to the five conversations between Seanna and the various school officials.

In each case, when the fact that the girls are transgender was mentioned, the person on the other end devolved into throwing accusations of the girls being flaming faggots and other derogatory comments, as well as a large assortment of swear words, some not in English.

With the number of people working in the Ramsay Enterprises headquarters, it hadn't taken more than a few hours to find people who could provide translations for the swearing that was obviously not English, and signed statements had been brought by Jackie into the court.

Jackie handed these over to the Judge, stating what they were, then watched as the Judge's face slowly turned red, then almost purple.

Jackie quickly asked if the Judge was all right, getting a response that she was fine, but absolutely disgusted and furious.

The two defence lawyers were appalled. With this evidence, they were up the proverbial river without a paddle in a very leaky boat.

The Judge needed another twenty minutes to calm down enough to be able to re-enter the courtroom. As she got up from her seat at the table to go and put on her robes again, the look she shot toward the defence lawyers made it all too clear as to what was about to happen.

Once the court was back in session, the Judge asked Messrs. Berris and Sabatini if they anything to say in defence of the case. The two lawyers whispered back and forth between each other for a minute or two, then Mr. Sabatini stated, "We have no defence to offer, Your Honour."

Judge Smythe then turned to Jackie, asking her, "Since there is no defence being given, what do you consider to be fair compensation?"

Jackie smiled for a moment, then looked up at the Judge as she stated, "We're looking for awards in the amount of one million dollars each to be paid to the three girls by each of the schools that denied them the right or opportunity to continue their education there.

"Furthermore, we're looking to sue the city for fifty million dollars due to the blatant discrimination shown by the named school officials. Ten million of that will be paid by either the school in each case, or by the superintendent's office responsible for each of those schools."

Both Berris and Sabatini blanched. If the Judge agreed to the compensation request, the city would be shelling out sixty-five million dollars.

Judge Smythe nodded, then sat back on her seat a little bit as she thought about the suggested compensation amounts. The one million dollar cost per child per school seemed reasonable, it was the ten million dollars per school aimed at the city that worried her a bit.

The people in the court sat there, some patient, some nervous, some tense, as they waited for the Judge's response.

Judge Smythe sat there, thinking about it for nearly fifteen minutes before nodding briefly toward the bailiff.

Judge Smythe looked around the courtroom, noting the nervousness and tenseness of some of the people there, then spoke. "It is my belief that the amounts given are fair and reasonable. As such, I am ordering the individual payments to the girls in question and the larger amounts to be paid to Ramsay Enterprises within a reasonable time period, that being no more than six months from now.

"As the individual payments are much smaller and separate items, they are to be transferred to the three girls within thirty days.

"This court is now adjourned."

One of the women sitting in the courtroom, who had been tense since the Judge and lawyers returned, fainted in her seat due to shock. It came out on the noon news on several TV stations and at least four radio stations that the woman was the wife of a prominent city councillor.

The bigger shock, though, was learning that that particular councillor was the one at the head of the city's education committee.

The fallout from the brief civil case, especially when it was learned that there was no possible defence, resulted in the councillor being ousted as having supported discriminatory and defamatory treatment of students in many of their schools. Several other city officials were fired.

The case would be the trigger that would lead to tougher laws being put in place about discrimination of any kind in city workplaces.

Jackie returned to her office in the headquarters building, she needed to follow up on the school records requests for the three girls.

Her first call was to the principal of the school Robert Millar had once attended. Once again, the principal said they wouldn't cooperate.

Jackie spent a few more minutes trying to get him to agree to send the records, but he was adamant he wouldn't help the "fucking freak".

Jackie hung up the phone, then sighed, leaning back in her nice executive style chair for a moment.

She shook off her little fugue state shortly afterward and placed a call to the lawyer she knew in that area, Sally-Anne Jameson.

Ms. Jameson's office wasn't a big one, being housed in a small two room business unit in Whiteville, Tennessee.

"Hello, this is Jameson Legal, how may I help you?" came the loud, yet sweet voice of Sally-Anne through the phone system.

"Hi, Sally-Anne, this is Jackie Stormhouse, I called you yesterday about the situation with the school regarding Robert Peter Millar, AKA Rebecca Petra Millar. I just spoke with that idiot of a principal again and he adamantly refuses to cooperate with us about the school records."

"Well, Jackie," Sally-Anne giggled, "That shouldn't be too much of a problem. I was in the county courthouse this morning filing forms to obtain the records with the appropriate people there, including a lawyer guy I know who may already be involved in this situation."

"Who would that be, Sally-Anne? And involved how?" Jackie enquired.

Sally-Anne replied, "His name's Phillip Jacobs, he's the senior lawyer of Jacobs, Norman and James, Attorneys-At-Law. From what I've heard, he was on the scene the other day when the woman Melissa brought Robert, AKA Rebecca, back to the farmhouse to resolve things. The child's birth parents made it clear they would have nothing to do with the child, so they signed Robert over into Melissa's care."

Jackie laughed, "Oh, him, Seanna filled me in rather briefly yesterday about how Melissa acquired all of the kids on her way here."

"I've heard some of it myself," Sally-Anne stated, "but what made this morning interesting was that, when I met with Judge Alberts about getting authorization to get the school records, he was there and informed the judge about Melissa's rescuing Robert from a 'living hell'.

"When Judge Alberts had been fully assured that Melissa would be able to care for young Robert/Rebecca as necessary, he was quite happy to put his signature on the forms and formally file the order to have the originals of Robert's school records handed over to me."

"Sounds like you have a decent judge there, Sally-Anne. Kind of surprising with how a lot of folks down there seem to act," Jackie opined.

"Well, Jackie, Judge Alberts may be getting old, but when he finds out about abuse or mistreatment of children, he steps right into it. He's seen enough cases of serious abuse in his courts, both family and civil, over the last 30 years, to even consider putting a child in harm's way."

"Ahhh, so good to hear of someone who will do what they can to help children in their times of need," Jackie responded.

"Yep, he's a good guy. I should be going to the school. I hope to have Robert's/Rebecca's records within the next hour or so."

"All right, let me know how that goes, Sally-Anne. I hope the rest of your day goes well," Jackie smiled as Sally-Anne hung up on the other end.

"One down, it seems, two to go. Hmmm... Lorne's/Lara's case next," Jackie muttered as she picked up the phone again.

She soon was talking to the principal of Lorne's/Lara's former school in her home town. Melissa had gone to school there years before.

"I ain't giving you the records for no son-of-bitchin' freak faggot. I'm glad that disgusting little shit is gone from my school."

Those were the words spewing from Aaron Kingsland's mouth, Jackie shook her head and took her turn.

"If you won't hand them over politely, a lawyer I know down there will get the files through a court order already on file," Jackie growled.

"I ain't giving 'em to ya! No dang lawyer is gonna make me do it, either!" Mr. Kingsland answered her.

"If you won't cooperate with a court order to hand over the files, Mr. Kingsland, you might find yourself sitting in a jail cell," Jackie replied.

"Yeah, right," Aaron sneered, "I know everyone that matters in this town, ain't none of 'em gonna mess with me!"

"So be it, Mr. Kingsland, have a good day," Jackie sighed as she hung up the phone, ending the call with that particular asshole.

Jackie relaxed for a brief moment before placing the next call, this one to Carmen Santiago, a lawyer in that same town.

The phone rang three times before it was picked up on the other end, "Luis Ferranzano of Santiago & Ferranzano, how may I help you?"

"Hello, Luis," Jackie replied to him, "Is your partner in the office? I need to speak with him, it's Jackie Stormhouse calling."

"Ahhhh, the matter of Lara and the school records, si?" Luis enquired.

"That is correct, Luis. Is he there, please?" Jackie asked again.

"Si, I will put you through to his direct line, Jackie," Luis stated, then transferred the call.

Carmen picked up the phone, saying, "Hello, Jackie, I have some good news for you. I was at the courthouse just as it opened for the day and happened to cross paths with Armand Pierro, one of our family court judges here. He had no problem authorizing the record transfers."

"That is good news, Carmen. So I am assuming you will be going to the school soon to show them the court order?" Jackie responded.

"Yep, I was actually about to head out the door to go over there when Luis told me it was you that was calling," Carmen laughed.

"All right, let me know how that goes, Carmen. I need to find out what's happening on the third case, talk soon." Jackie ended the call.

Seanna had dropped off Leilani and Asemba as usual that morning, but had then headed to the courthouse to attend the first degree murder trial. She had been waiting for two months to see justice served against the bastard who had killed her Aunt Sue just before Christmas.

Seanna took a seat a few rows from the front, settling down to wait for the process to begin.

Just before a clock in the hallway outside the courtroom chimed the hour, two guards brought the prisoner in and over to the defence table.

At 9:11 AM, the bailiff called for everyone to rise, stating, "This court is now in session, the Honourable Theo Carter presiding."

Once the Judge had seated himself, the bailiff faced the rest of the courtroom, saying, "You may all be seated now."

There was only one item on the docket, the first degree murder case against one Robert James Johnson.

The evidence that had been gathered showed that several people in Sue's community had noticed Robert lazing around for nearly two weeks before Sue was beaten and later died. No one had said anything to him due to his sheer size, resulting in her needless death.

Seventeen witnesses took the stand that day, each one giving a similar statement about Robert lurking there, scaring them all.

When the defence attorney asked why none of them had done anything, one of the witnesses, a 76 year old female pensioner named Shirley Deirdre Wiseman, replied, "Just what do you think someone like me is gonna be able to do to someone the size of that man? I don't have no truck with guns, I haven't had one in the house since my William died twenty-seven years ago from war wound complications."

There were similar responses from several other witnesses who briefly took the stand again, many of them elderly and infirm.

They had taken a lunch break, but the witness statements had pretty much filled the day. Police reports, etc., would be done tomorrow.

Seanna left the courthouse at 3:55 PM, taking a moment to call Thaddeus and inform him she would be in court again tomorrow.

Jackie's third round of calls about school records had her calling Mort Jehans, the principal of the school Tabitha had attended.

She didn't even manage to say anything more than that she was asking for Timothy's/Tabitha's school records before the male on the other end of the phone started shrieking at her, "Fuck you and that disgusting tranny filth! It can rot in hell for all I care, I'm not helping you!"

Jackie spent almost ten minutes trying to resolve the issue, but Mort just kept on ranting about trannies and their "disgusting habits".

Eventually, enough was enough, it was obvious this principal had no intention of complying. Jackie hung up on him in mid-scream.

She sighed and looked up the information for the lawyer in The Woodlands, then dialled the number and waited as it rang four times.

"Hello, Thompson, Browne and Browne, Padraig Browne speaking, how may I help you?" was what she heard.

"Hello, Mr. Browne, I'm Jackie Stormhouse, I called your office on Friday about assisting in retrieving the school records for a child known as Timothy Woodson, who prefers to be addressed as Tabitha. Have you had any progress in getting the legal forms done?"

"Ahhh, good day to you, Miss Jackie. Regarding getting the necessary court orders prepared, I had a rather interesting run of luck when I called a friend who happens to be a judge for the city here in the family court division. It seems my friend works with Judge Thibideau."

"Thibideau... Thibideau... oh, yes, the judge a young woman named Melissa Johansson mentioned to me at some point recently."

"I see that you have some idea of whom I am talking about. My friend passed me over to Judge Thibideau, and between the two of them, I had all the papers needed before the court buildings closed Friday afternoon. I've been dealing with other matters so far today," Padraig said.

Jackie glanced briefly at a clock on the wall of her office, which showed 2:19 PM. "Lunch time for you about now, I suppose?" she asked.

Padraig laughed, "I could go and have lunch, but I need to finish what I'm doing, which should take about another half hour or so. I tend to eat a good, solid breakfast most mornings, I can easily pick up a sandwich or something on the way over to the school after that."

"It sounds like you have things well in hand there, Padraig. Thanks for the help, these kids deserve to be treated well," Jackie replied.

The two of them talked for a few more minutes before Padraig informed Jackie he had an incoming call on another line.

The day slowly wound down in the offices at the Ramsay Enterprises headquarters building.

Jackie had touched base late in the afternoon with each of the lawyers that had been helping to retrieve school records.

In the cases of Lara's records and those of Rebecca, the court orders plus the presence of two police officers had been sufficient. When Mr. Kingsland had seen the police officers accompanying Carmen Santiago, he had backed down rather fast and had cooperated.

The exception had been when Padraig Browne and two police officers showed up at Tabitha's school in The Woodlands just north of Houston. The principal there was still being a belligerent prick, even going so far as to assault both Padraig and one of the police officers.

The second officer, a big, brawny female, dropped the principal with a well placed punch to the gut and then cuffed him.

From that point on, things proceeded in a much more reasonable fashion, with the records quickly being handed over by the vice-principal.

As they were about to leave, Padraig politely stated, "Miss Dinford, it looks like you are now the principal here, he won't be coming back."

It was all too obvious that Padraig was referring to Mr. Jehans who was being picked up by the officers and escorted from the building.

Miss Paulette Dinford gaped in shock for a moment, then a smile slowly crept across her face. She'd take care of ALL of the kids there.

Seanna's cell phone rang at ten minutes to five that Friday afternoon. She answered it on the second ring.

"Hello, Seanna, it's Jackie. Just got the news, the school records for the three girls are now in our hands, well, friends of ours, actually. The only incident that occurred was that the principal of Tabby's old school actually hit both the lawyer and a police officer at the time. The second officer on the scene knocked the principal down, then cuffed him. The records were in our hands within ten minutes of that happening.

"On a side note, the vice-principal of that school will most likely take over the principal's job, which will benefit the whole school. Unlike the idiot that held the job until this afternoon, Miss Paulette Dinford is not a bigot and wishes to help and protect all of the children in her care."

"That is excellent news, Jackie. So we should have the school records in hand within the next few days?" Seanna enquired.

"Likely sooner, Seanna. I asked each of the lawyers to send the school files to your office via FedEx. You might have them tomorrow."

"I'll make sure to tell Melissa that when I see her in a few minutes, Jackie. Thanks again for your help," Seanna replied.

Seanna had returned to the headquarters of Ramsay Enterprises just before 5 PM, after a brief stop for a coffee and donut.

She was soon on her way up to the eighth floor, then she exited the elevator, heading toward the daycare area.

Melissa and the seven children were all waiting quietly in the entry area of the daycare as Seanna entered the room.

Seanna took a brief moment to quietly inform Melissa about the school records being on the way, then they all walked to the elevators.

The trip down to the basement level didn't take very long. From there, it was only a few steps to the two cars.

Melissa and the five kids she had rescued on her way to this job all climbed into her car, Lara carefully holding the baby.

Seanna, Leilani and Asemba were soon seated in Seanna's car and buckled in, then they were on their way home.

The following day, Melissa was in work as usual, dealing with financial issues for the daycare and tending to the children there.

Seanna had once again dropped off Leilani and Asemba before heading to the courthouse for the murder trial of her aunt's killer.

Melissa wandered around the daycare, occasionally watching over and tending the newborn, who had not yet been named.

At three times during the day, once in the late morning and twice in the afternoon, she answered the daycare's door and signed papers that showed she was receiving items that had been one day shipped through FedEx. The items each time turned out to be school records.

Melissa quickly scanned the information in each file, noticing that Timmy/Tabby and Robert/Rebecca had both been cited several times as being inattentive in classes. Lorne/Lara had managed to avoid that, but had several notations about fist fights on school property in her file.

The inattentiveness for two of the three and the fact that Lara had been in fist fights didn't surprise Melissa at all. Tabby, as noted in the tests done at the Vinton Preparatory Academy, was very intelligent; Rebecca was on a similar level but she was five years older than Tabby.

Fist fights were not at all unexpected when one was more feminine than many boys considered to be appropriate. If Melissa was right, every one of those fights had been started by one or more boys, not Lara, yet Lara had always been the one to get into trouble over them.

The trial had resumed just after 9 AM this morning, beginning with the 911 operator who handled the call from Leilani.

The tape of the conversation between Leilani and the 911 operator was played in court, drawing gasps of shock from many in the courtroom as they listened to it. The big shock was how calm Leilani seemed, but if one listened carefully, one could hear a faint tremble in Leilani's voice each time she spoke. With Leilani being only four years old, the prosecution believed using the tape would be more than enough.

Even though Leilani had calmly and clearly given the necessary information, it was still obvious to all that she was worried about her mom.

Next had been the reports from the officers of the police unit who had captured Robert Johnson that night.

Alex Bendal, 26, was the junior officer for that unit and had needed to pull his gun, putting it against Robert's head to stop him.

Kelmar Vanselm, 37, was the senior officer. He had been shoved aside by Robert, resulting in his partner having to draw his gun as noted.

Kelmar clearly stated to the court that if it had not been for the gun being held to Robert's head, Robert might well have killed him that night. He made it clear that Robert showed no concern at all when he shoved Kelmar, he intended to go through the officer and keep running.

The police reports were followed by ones from the various medical staff at the hospital where Sue had been taken and had later died.

The nine medical staff statements were only stopped for a fairly brief lunch, and continued until 4:15 PM that afternoon.

That was the conclusion of the major evidence. Seanna's mother would be on the stand in the morning, but that wouldn't take very long.

Seanna once again returned to the headquarters building, making her way up to the daycare to meet Melissa and the kids.

As she was entering the daycare, a call came through on her cell phone, an unknown number. She chose to answer it.

A short but detailed conversation ensued, during which she learned that Sanjit Singh's files had been examined extensively since his arrest in early January, and evidence of at least 37 different instances of clear and deliberate attacks against LGBTQI people had been found.

Almost all of them had eventually ended up being penniless and unable to pay the mounting court costs, thus losing their court cases.

Twenty-nine of the cases had resulted in temporary hospitalization of one or more of the victims, often for emotional/psychological reasons.

Twelve of them had actually attempted suicide, three succeeded. Eleven had done some form of self-harm but not attempted suicide.

Of the thirty cases involving lesbian or gay relationships, nineteen of those relationships had broken up due to the court issues.

One of the suicides had been a nineteen year old pre-op MtF girl, whose case had resulted in her being outed in school.

The second had been one half of a lesbian couple, they had worked at Ramsay Enterprises before Seanna took the helm there. The woman left behind lost her female child to the foster system and eventually ended up in a mental health ward, as Seanna already knew.

The third had been a fifteen year old girl, the child of an openly gay couple whose relationship had been destroyed by Singh's actions.

Seanna was appalled, how could one man be such an inhumane bastard as to cause all of that by his actions?

Mr. Singh would be in court on March 6 to face an assortment of charges being brought by the city and Child Protective Services.

Seanna thanked the woman on the other end, then killed the call. The expression on her face was warning enough for Melissa.

Seanna led Melissa off into a corner, then passed on what she had just learned. Melissa's response was "Holy hell, WTF?"

Thankfully, Melissa's comment wasn't overheard by anyone, all of those nearby were babies or toddlers having their late afternoon naps.

A few minutes later, Seanna and Melissa led the kids out of the building, homeward bound once again.

Court that Thursday morning didn't take very long, the only remaining witness was Seanna's mother.

Roselyn was quiet and polite on the stand, even when the defence lawyer tried to provoke her.

Her testimony lasted a bit over 45 minutes, then she stepped down from the witness box and sat down next to Seanna.

Closing arguments lasted for just under two hours, at which point Judge Carter decided they would break early for lunch.

Seanna returned to the courtroom just before one PM and Judge Carter informed the jury members about how to proceed.

Once he had finished speaking, the jury members left the room to discuss the case and come to a verdict.

Seanna, her mother, and everyone else waited for almost 2.5 hours before the jury returned.

Judge Carter asked if they had come to a verdict; the foreman, one Lamont Jones, replied that they had, a unanimous one in fact.

"So what is the verdict then, Mr. Jones?" Judge Carter enquired.

"We find him guilty of murder in the first degree, Your Honour," Lamont stated quite clearly so everyone could hear him.

Judge Carter nodded, turned to face the court and spoke. "Robert James Johnson, you have been found guilty of murder in the first degree. As I doubt you will ever feel remorse for what you did, I am sentencing you to life in prison. Take him away, this court is adjourned."

The guards none too gently grabbed Robert and hauled him out of the courtroom, then down to the cells to await the court vehicle. As the day was pretty much done for court business, he would return to the city lock-up for now and await his transfer to a state prison.

Seanna was glad that the bastard had been sentenced to life in prison, he would never be a free man again.

Since Seanna had informed Thaddeus that she might be busy all that week with court; that had led to his rescheduling the meeting of his Toys division's marketing and advertising team for the Friday afternoon, hoping that the court case would be resolved by that time.

Seanna had spent the morning going through the small pile of paperwork that had accumulated while was attending the trial.

She had almost cleared the pile by the time lunch time came around. She and Penny went down to the cafeteria together.

Seanna enjoyed a large Ceasar salad and a bottled water, Penny splurged on a rather hefty pasta plate.

Once she had finished eating, she said a quick goodbye to Penny, not knowing how long the meeting might last.

After a brief stop in her office to check that she looked presentable, she made her way to one of the thirteenth floor boardrooms.

She opened the door and walked in, then heard someone enter the room behind her. She turned and stumbled into Thaddeus' arms.

Seanna giggled briefly, then pulled herself free and looked around the room. A coffee and tea table was ready, along with refreshments.

The various members of the marketing and advertising team took seats around the table just before one PM.

From what Seanna heard from the various reports given, things were looking quite good for the quarter for the Toys division.

Then that utter idiot, Mr. Richard Port, had to prove he was an idiot by calling Marty Browne a flouncing fairy in front of Seanna again.

As noted on a previous occasion just two weeks earlier, he had been very clearly warned by Seanna about that.

Seanna immediately called a halt to the meeting. "Mr. Port, you are hereby fired pursuant to our non-discrimination policy." Seanna hit a comm unit on the table, two security personnel entered the room almost immediately. "He has been fired by me just now because he chooses to blatantly be derogatory toward people who are LGBTQI. Let him take his personal belongings and nothing, I repeat NOTHING, else."

The two security personnel escorted Richard Port from the boardroom, he was heard to mutter he would get back at her somehow.

Seanna called the security guys back. "Gentlemen, call the police, Mr. Port here is to be arrested for uttering threats against me."

Richard lost it at that point, he tried to jump past the security guys toward Seanna, but one of them blocked him from reaching her.

"Add an attempted assault charge to the one for uttering threats. Get him the hell out of my sight!" Seanna hissed.

This time, one of the security guys pulled a set of cuffs from his belt and cuffed Richard, then the two men led him out of the room.

The meeting continued in a much more pleasant manner after he had been removed, ending ninety minutes later.

Seanna had returned to her office and quietly cleared the rest of the paperwork on her desk before the day officially ended.

She'd spent the remaining time just relaxing, listening to some of her favourite music on a radio.

When five PM rolled around, Penny knocked on her office door. Seanna grabbed her jacket and purse, then they locked the office.

As usual lately, she left the elevator at the eighth floor, then walked down to the entrance of the daycare and inside the main suite.

The group, Seanna, Melissa and six kids, with Lara carrying the baby, headed down to the underground parking.

Again as usual, the kids Melissa had rescued joined her in her car, while Leilani and Asemba rode with Seanna.

On Saturday morning, Seanna used Melissa's car to take the kids to the outdoor rink where Leilani and Asemba had their skating lessons.

Melissa chose to stay at the house, watching the baby. She seemed to be quite happy to have any chance to mother the little one.

It was a bit of a snug fit with six children in the car, but they made it to the lot by the outdoor rink without any mishaps occurring.

Seanna had been too exhausted to take the kids there the previous week after the arrival of Melissa and the kids, then spending several hours in a hospital that same night while waiting for various tests to be done on the newborn. She'd actually slept late that day.

It was a wee bit nippy in the park today, part of that being the brisk northwesterly wind, but the children were all happy to be there.

Leilani and Asemba had been quite happy to return there, they had missed it the week before.

The two young girls showed the others to the skate rental centre, then once they all had skates on, they headed out onto the ice.

It was at this point that one of the two girls Seanna knew from previous visits appeared, holding her hands out to little Bobby.

"Hey, young man, let me help you to learn how to skate, hmmm?" Rebecca smiled at him as he grasped her hands with his smaller ones.

Bobby had been considered too young to learn how to skate by his family, and his MS hadn't been discovered until after Melissa caught him.

He was soon wobbling his way around the rink, being gently held the whole time by Rebecca, who helped him up each time he fell.

It didn't take very long, perhaps half an hour or so, before Bobby was utterly exhausted by the physical activity he had been doing.

Rebecca helped him over to the benches at the side of the rink, then removed his skates and helped him with his boots.

Seanna smiled, picked up the skates that Bobby had been wearing and returned them to the rental centre.

When she returned, she sat down beside him and complimented him on how well he had done and how brave he had been on the ice.

Bobby giggled, then ducked his head into her side for a moment, trying to hide a blush. He wasn't used to being complemented by others.

Seanna and Bobby watched the other kids as they skated around. Bobby mentioned that Leilani and Asemba seemed quite graceful.

Seanna laughed, "They should be, they've been getting regular lessons here and figure skating ones inside for nearly two months."

From what she could see, Lara, Tabitha and Rebecca, Melissa's Rebecca, that is, all seemed to be semi-decent skaters.

When the outdoor session ended, and they were all removing their skates, Seanna asked those three if they wanted to join the course for figure skating which would start soon in the indoor rink. All three replied with enthusiastic approval, Seanna was glad to see them having fun.

When the rented skates had been returned, they all headed inside, where Leilani and Asemba put on their skates again.

The other girls watched as Leilani and Asemba participated in the figure skating class.

When the class ended, Seanna talked for a moment with the instructor, then led the group to the office to pay the required fees.

"Lara, Tabitha and Rebecca, you'll be starting this next week, joining Leilani and Asemba. Now it's time to buy some skates," Seanna stated.

Once they were all in the car and secure, Seanna drove to the same sporting goods store where she had bought the skates for Leilani and Asemba several weeks earlier. The level of noise from the small group was a wee bit distracting to others in the store for a while.

The kids eventually settled down a bit as two clerks helped the three girls pick out skates. Seanna asked Bobby if he wanted his own pair of skates, his head bouncing up and down was a clear enough sign that he did. A male clerk soon came over and took the time to help Bobby.

By the time they left the store nearly an hour later, just after 1:30 PM, they were all famished.

Seanna looked at Leilani and Asemba, then whispered "Fish?" Giggles and a quick yes from the two girls soon had Seanna driving toward that restaurant that Leilani especially had come to love, the same one they had gone to on both days she had bought the child car seats.

They had to get a large booth due to having six children in the group. Bobby was the only one to ask for a chair.

The kids, for the most part, enjoyed the food, although Lara found out that she didn't like the taste of shrimp, oysters or mussels much.

There wasn't much left after six kids had eaten their fill. Seanna asked for it to be put in a doggy bag, it wouldn't last long with the horde here.

The trip home was fairly quiet, largely due to the fact that most of the kids were drowsy after all the exercise and then stuffing themselves.

On Sunday, everyone decided to have a lazy day. The kids watched several movies, giggling and crying at various times.

After dropping the kids off at the daycare on Monday morning, Seanna headed to the courthouse again, this time for the older Ramsays.

Thaddeus had decided to pass on it, as he knew it wouldn't be very long after they had all entered pleas at their last appearance.

Seanna had only been in the courtroom for about ten minutes when she was unexpectedly joined by her mother.

A brief whispered conversation made Seanna aware that her mother wanted to see this ended just like she did.

Just after 9:30 AM, the bailiff called out, "All rise, court is now in session, the Honourable Ravena Adamowicz presiding."

Once the Judge was seated, he gave the order that everyone in the courtroom could take their seats.

Judge Adamowicz looked around the courtroom, then down to the defence table, surrounded by the seven Ramsays and Ms. Leamis.

"A few weeks ago, the seven defendants in this case all changed their please to guilty.

"I have been thinking since that time about how I wish to deal with these people. Their actions were irresponsible in the extreme and thanks to the correspondence of Mr. Lundt, who signed a confession and suicide note giving information about their activities to the police. Given the nature of some of the details described by Mr. Lundt in that confession, you were all complicit in Sue Kealoha's assault and death.

"As I stated at your last appearance, I can't recall ever seeing a case like this one before. Will the defendants please rise?"

The seven Ramsay siblings slowly stood, each of them looking worn and ragged in their shabby jailhouse jumpers.

"Patricia Ramsay, you are facing 82 charges of international wire fraud. For each of those offences, I sentence you to twenty years to run concurrently. Further, you also face 46 charges of embezzlement. For each of those offences, I sentence you to fifteen years which shall run concurrently. Add to that 23 counts of misuse of company funds, I sentence you to fifteen years for each one, running concurrently.

"Last but not least, you were complicit as I stated earlier in the assault and death of your half-sister, Suzanne Kealoha. Since the assault resulted in her death, the criminal charge against the assailant was boosted to murder in the first degree. You face up to life in prison.

"On the count of conspiracy to commit murder, I sentence you to twenty-five years, to run concurrently with your other sentences.

"Next on the list is Robert Ramsay. For the 65 counts of international wire fraud, each sentence is twenty years, running concurrently. For the 37 counts of embezzlement, you are sentenced to fifteen years, each sentence to run concurrently. For fifteen counts of misuse of company funds, the sentence for each count if also fifteen years, to run concurrently. That brings me to the assault and death of Suzanne Kealoha.

"From evidence given by Mr. Lundt, you were directly involved in procuring the services of Robert James Johnson to commit the deed. That being the case, I am sentencing you to life in prison for that explicit involvement in her death. You reap what you sow, Mr. Ramsay.

"Next is Vanessa Ramsay. For 41 counts of international wire fraud, each sentence will be twenty years, running concurrently. For 11 counts of embezzlement, fifteen years for each count, running concurrently. For nine counts of misuse of company funds, also fifteen years each, running concurrently. For conspiracy to commit murder, you are sentenced to twenty-five years, also concurrent.

"Next is Beatrice Ramsay. For 53 counts of international wire fraud, each sentence shall be twenty years, running concurrently. For nineteen counts of embezzlement, fifteen years for each one, to run concurrently. For eleven counts of misuse of company funds, the sentence is also fifteen years each, to run concurrently. Finally, for conspiracy to commit murder, twenty-five years, also to run concurrently.

"Next is Chantel Ramsay. For 39 counts of international wire fraud, each sentence will be twenty years, to run concurrently. For fifteen counts of embezzlement, you get fifteen years for each one, running concurrently. For seven counts of misuse of company funds, the sentence is also fifteen years each, to run concurrently. Lastly, for conspiracy to commit murder, twenty-five years which shall run concurrently.

"We're nearly done. Next is Paul Ramsay. For 63 counts of international wire fraud, twenty years each, to run concurrently. For eighteen charges of embezzlement, fifteen years each, to run concurrently. For six counts of misuse of company funds, fifteen years each, to run concurrently. For for conspiracy to commit murder, you are sentenced to twenty-five years, which shall also run concurrently.

"And finally, Rebecca Ramsay. For 43 counts of international wire fraud, twenty years each, to run concurrently. For eleven counts of embezzlement, fifteen years each, to run concurrently. For seven charges of misuse of company funds, fifteen years each, to run concurrently.

"This next bit is the part that galled me the most. Rebecca Ramsay, for your part in helping your brother Robert to hire Robert James Johnson to assault Suzanne Kealoha, and the fact that that same assault resulted in Ms. Kealoha's death, I am sentencing you to life in prison.

"Due to the lengths these people went in their actions, especially the death of Ms. Suzanne Kealoha, parole is denied in all instances.

"Guards, please remove the prisoners. I apologize for being so long winded people. This court is now adjourned."

Seanna and her mother sat in the courtroom after everyone else, including the judge and bailiff, had left. Twenty years or more to someone in their sixties would not be an easy reckoning; in fact, it was possible that Patricia, Vanessa and Beatrice might not survive that long.

With Robert and Rebecca receiving life sentences for their involvement in Suzanne's death, they would never know freedom again.

Perhaps Chantel and Paul might make it through their sentences, but even they were facing long odds on ever being free again.

Seanna and her mother left the room, then the courthouse, each going to their own vehicle.

Seanna noticed that her mother had parked next to her car and waved to her as she climbed in, ready to return to work.

Seanna arrived back at the office just before the lunch hour. She decided to splurge, eating a chicken pot pie there with some bottled water.

Perhaps eating that had been a bit much, but she was content as she slowly walked up to her office, meeting Penny at the door.

Penny informed her that she had left the building for her lunch today, then headed to her desk in the outer office.

Seanna kept going, into her actual office space, then settled down in her comfortable office chair contemplating the evil of chicken pot pies.

She actually dozed off for a while, she was that full. The phone ringing on her desk brought her out of that semi-torpid state.

She answered it, then talked with Thaddeus for a while, bringing him up to date on what had happened in the courtroom that morning.

She managed to actually focus on her work for the rest of the day, the only other interruption being another call, this one from one of the police officers who had picked up Richard Port after the events of last Friday afternoon. Richard had apparently pled guilty on the charges.

The officer then told Seanna that the judge had sentenced him then and there, five years for the threats, two for the attempted assault.

Well, that simplified that problem rather nicely, Seanna thought. She wouldn't have to show up in court to deal with the idiot.

Just after 5 PM, Seanna and Penny locked up the office, then Seanna headed to the eighth floor to meet Melissa and the kids.

On the way home, Leilani was happy to tell Seanna that the baby had now been named, said name being Suzanne Eleanora Ramsay.

Seanna laughed, it was fitting that a little baby girl be given her aunt's names, it would be another way to remember her.

The rest of the week passed fairly quietly, nothing major happening in the office, just the usual activities on the weekend.

Seanna had informed Thaddeus in advance that she might miss a fair amount of the day on Monday, so she could be at Singh's hearing.

She dropped off Leilani and Asemba as usual, at the same time that Melissa led her pack into the daycare centre.

After that, Seanna and Jackie headed over to the courthouse together, taking seats in the courtroom about ten minutes early.

They were both watching when Singh was led into the court and told to sit down and stay quiet until he was ordered to speak.

Singh actually took a moment to look around, spotted the two women and shot a very nasty glare their way, which was quickly noticed. One of the two guard with him grabbed him by one of his arms and told him, rather firmly, to keep facing the front of the courtroom.

Court opened in the usual manner, then Judge Anston called for the case to begin.

The list of charges took over fifteen minutes to be read into the record. Each and every one carried the hate crime addition.

Judge Anston shook her head, then to down to business. "I've looked at the evidence from the initial case, that one involving a woman seated in the court today, but that pales in comparison to what has been uncovered over the last several weeks from Mr. Singh's records which he actually kept in a safe he thought was unlikely to be noticed. That wasn't the case, it was found and easily opened thanks to the court order.

"The notes he kept, each set in a separate notebook, went into great detail about his actions regarding many LGBTQI people.

"To put it bluntly, he crowed in those notebooks about the abuses he had committed against those he deemed to be 'lesser creatures'.

"I've learned of what happened to many of those people after Mr. Singh here targeted them, and in some cases, destroyed their lives.

"There is no plausible excuse for the things he did to those people, or for what resulted from his actions against them.

"Mr. Singh, you are charged with 67 counts of committing a hate crime and 67 counts of criminal negligence. There is also the matter that you blatantly misused your position in Child Protection Services to directly and indirectly harm others. How do you plead?"

Singh looked up at the Judge, then back towards me for a moment before facing the Judge again, then whispered, "Guilty, Your Honour."

"To what charges, Mr. Singh? I don't intend to waste time here while you sit there all day."

"All of them, Your Honour," he whispered.

"Repeat that, please, Mr. Singh, so the court stenographer can clearly hear you."

"I said to all of them, Your Honour," he stated, his voice cracking in mid-sentence.

Seanna quickly glanced over at him. Oh, wow, he looked like a wreck compared to the suave jerk he'd been several weeks earlier.

"Mr. Singh, hate crimes or additions can bring five years or more for each sentence, the criminal negligence similar penalties. With how many offences you have before the court today, I could even choose to make those sentences consecutive, but I won't.

"I see no point in delaying things any further than they already have been, Mr. Singh.

"I am hereby sentencing you to five years on each count of both offences. Do you understand me, Mr. Singh?"

Singh replied that he did, then hung his head down and began to weep in front of the entire courtroom.

"One last matter. In regards to your blatant misuse of your position in Child Protective Services to directly and indirectly harm people whom you were supposed to actually be helping instead, I'm adding a sentence of fifteen years, no parole."

Seanna felt no remorse for him, he had brought this down on his own head by thinking he was better than certain other people.

"Please remove Mr. Singh from my court. This court is now adjourned."

Seanna and Jackie exited the courtroom along with about fifteen other people after the Judge had gone into her chambers.

She spent several minutes in the newest washroom, scrubbing her hands over and over. She felt filthy just due to having been near him.

The two women returned to their respective offices, where Seanna tried quite intently to get over what she had heard in that courtroom.

On March 22, Thaddeus called her, saying he had finally found the woman who had lost her child thanks to Singh, then her girlfriend when that woman, Eileen Patterson, committed suicide after the Judge had ruled against them, then ended up in a mental institution.

"Stephanie Amber Constanza turned up in a medical home less than an hour outside of the city. I had Jak Petroski look into her case for us, telling him it was to right a wrong done against a former employee of the company. It took him until last Friday to find her.

"Once we knew where she was, I had him go before a judge there immediately to get an order to have her transferred to a hospital here.

"She arrived at the hospital early on Saturday afternoon and underwent a large number of tests, some giving rather interesting results.

"Those results led to officers in the closest jurisdiction to where she formerly resided to charge several people with drug related offences.

"Jak believes that the evidence is strong enough that only he will need to attend any court proceedings there.

"According to the doctors, with a decent program of medical treatment, they believe she can be released on her own in about six months.

"The daughter was found and informed that her mother is receiving proper medical attention so they can eventually be a family again.

"Shelley, the daughter, says the foster home she is in has been fairly decent. She'll manage until she and her mother can be together.

"One other thing, Seanna. Jeff Marks, the guy who tried to rape Ms. Eaton, pled guilty today and got fifteen years, ten without parole."

After the call with Thaddeus had ended, Seanna sat there, thinking over all the things that had happened in just three months.

She'd taken in young Leilani after Leilani's mother had died as the result of a brutal attack just a week or so before Christmas.

She'd rescued Asemba from her rather violent father in the all too well known incident at Di Panetti's Cafe a few days later.

Thanks to her mother, then herself becoming the new CEO of Ramsay Enterprises, she had a gorgeous home to share with the girls.

Then Melissa had come north after Seanna offered to hire her as the Finance VP of the new day care division.

Since Melissa arrived here, she was sharing this gorgeous home with Melissa and the five children she had rescued along the way.

The last of those five children had been given the names that had been her aunt's, Suzanne Eleonora, as a remembrance of her.

The various criminal issues she had been dealing with over that time period had now all been resolved.

Stephanie Constanza, Eileen Patterson's lesbian partner, had been found and would eventually be reunited with her daughter.

Lara, Tabitha and Rebecca would each receive five million dollars soon thanks to five schools discriminating against them. On top of that, another fifty million would be paid to Ramsay Enterprises within the next six months. Most of that would likely be donated to various charities.

She was still learning a lot about how to be a woman in modern society. She thought she would still be learning it all many years from now.

Goddess, how the mere sight of Melissa in a hallway at home or at work could cause her to feel so wanton.

Enough was enough. Things were sorted out now, there was no sense in delaying it any longer.

She cornered Melissa in the mudroom, grinning and giggling at her. "Melissa, will you be my girlfriend? Maybe even my wife eventually?"

The look on Melissa's face was priceless; she obviously had not been expecting that, then she flashed that wide, sweet smile of hers.

"You want me, do you?" Melissa asked as they headed back into the main area of the house. "I want you, too, Seanna."