The day the trial of the terrorist started the newspapers were full of the story that Judge Parker had been assigned the case in his court, Judge Parker was man who the full of the law in every case he had judgement over. If the accused were found guilty they were unlikely to find one iota of compassion from this man, like his famous American namesake there wasn`t an ounce of mercy in the man especially when it came to capital offences.

The Trial began with arguments from by the Court Prosecution service and the Defence, but the defence didn`t put forward much of a case for their clients, rumours seemed to be true that the legal profession had tried to stay away fron this case and a defence lawyer had to be appointed by the court.

The Accused all pleaded guilty and seemed proud to do so, they showed no remorse, compassion or any other emotion, what made the case worse was that they had all been in this country, yet they had still tried mass murder knowing the law would show little leniency, they hadn`t reckoned on getting Judge Parker though.

The witnesses were called by the prosecution and questioned, the majority of them being specialists in Forensics and Explosives, after each had been quetioned and evidence produce by the prosecution the defence lawyers took their turn, trying to twist statements and answers and failing badly. The trial lasted for several days and after closing arguments were made the jury retired to reach a decision, to keep them safe from intimidation they were put into a hotel under police guard.

It didn`t take long for the jury to reach their decision and on Monday at 10 am the court was back in session.

"Foreman of the jury have you reached your decision?" asked the clerk of the court

"Yes your Honour" the foreman replied

"Are you all in agreement ?"asked the clerk of the court

"Yes your Honour" the foreman replied

As each charge was read out for the second time the foreman was asked for the jury`s verdict, and each charge the accused were found Guilty. The Accused were made to stand as the Judge spoke

"On each charge you have all been found guilty, sentencing will take place one week from today" stated Judge Parker
He then banged his gavel and ajourned the court.

Jemma hadn`t had to give evidence as a plea of guilty had been entered by each of the terrorists, but Dr`s Graves and Wells had on the injuries suffered by the child, Jemma`s identity wasn`t brought up during the trial she had been referred to as "The Child" all during the trial. Both the Court and the Jury gasped at the state of the injuries sustained and that the child while still alive was still in some pain and would never recover full mobilty. The police had stated that if it hadn`t been for "The Childs"
quick thinking a lot of young children would have died that fateful day and had been full of praise for "The Childs" Alertness and Quick thinking.

The Newpapers all printed a late edition and of course on the Radio and Television was the trial outcome and experts giving their twopenorths worth, speculations were being made about what type of sentence would be handed out ,sentences ranging from 15 to 25 years, but as they said they would have to wait till the following to get the final judgement.

Jemma hadn`t been all that interested in the trial once it became apparent she wouldn`t have to give evidence, once again she was back in hospital this time with a serious Viral infection and was once again fighting for life but holding her own,how she caught the infection was a complete mystery and the strain seemed to be mutated virus.
The Labs and the Doctors were kept busy, drug after drug was tried and each one failed, but still the child fought her battle against death, at no time was she alone a bedside vigil had been set up by family and nursing staff, they talked to the sick child not knowing if they could be heard, the local church held services to pray for the child but still the doctors and labs were helpless, they knew what the strain virus the virus had mutated from but were in the dark when it came to a cure.

A week later the court sat for the final time, this time for the sentencing, this time the public gallery was empty except for a few reporters, The jury was back in place as were Both legal teams and the accused under police guard.Outside the court the TV cameras waited and a heavy police presence was noticed, a reporter asked the presence of armed police officers and was told that they had a tip off of a possible rescue attempt.

Everyone was assembled in the court for the last time, and Judge Parker entered after the initial ceremony the judge began his speech,

"Prisoners at the Bar, you have been found guilty on all counts of the charges brought before this court, these crimes caused serious injuries to one child and by the grace of God nobody else was hurt, at a later date you attempted to kill the child in order to prevent testomony being presented this court, in that you also failed again thanks to the same child, who again saved the life of another innocent victim, if it was within my powers I would sentence you to hang but the Government being unwise as usual has done away with the death penalty, as your are a continuing danger to people of this nation I am left with only one option and that is imprisonment. With dangerous animals we cage and for your crimes you too will be caged, I sentence you to imprisonment in a high security jail for the rest of your lives without parole. Case dismissed" stated the Judge

With that the court emptied and the prisoners were led away to be caged for the rest of lives. Back in his chambers the judge was helped by his aide to remove his judicial robes.

"What news on the child? " asked the judge

"Still critical but fighting " said the aide

" I hope the child survives we could with more children like that one" said the Judge

"Was it wise to critisise the Government and mention hanging my Lord? " asked the aide

"Maybe not wise but truthful, the fools are filling our prisons with people like those we just tried, and unfortunately some of my colleagues go easy on them, we should show them no mercy when a child is involved and badly maimed" replied the Judge

The news of the Judges speech had been relayed to press and they having a field day with it, they were speculating about the Judges career after he critisised the Government. Questions would be asked in Parliament and the Lord Chief Justice would not pleased either.

The following day questions were indeed asked in parliament and MP`s were demanding the Judges resignation and him brought up on charges, but across the nation support was rallying for Judge Parker, like his American namesake was being called The Hanging Judge". All attempts at getting an interview with Judge Parker had failed, now that the trial was over he just wanted to enjoy time with wife, he wasn`t a young man anymore and was thinking of retiring, he had been in the Legal profession for over forty years , maybe he would hang up his gown and take the teaching position at the local University and impart some his wisdom to up and coming young Law students

Back at the hospital Jemma was still battling for life, ice baths were being tried to get her temperature down,the heating in the room had been turned off, haemocel and saline drips were being used to try and keep the childs elecrolite balance as near normal as possible. Dr`s Graves and Wells wanted to do further scans to see if there was something going on inside the body but couldn`t risk it in case the child had another seizure, all they could do was wait and wait they did.

In the early hours of the morning the fever finally broke and Jemma`s temperature fell back to normal but the drips were continued as the weakened body was dehydrated still. Although the bedside vigil remained the watchers started to relax, the worse was over and Jemma while still unconscious was starting back on the road to recovery,the life of this child had been hard over the past months, hopefully the child would have a normal happy life one day without the troubles that followed her.

It was two later that Jemma finally awoke, surprised to find that once again she was in hospital and had been very ill, over the next few days she slept quite a lot to regain her strength.The two doctors visited her everyday to see how she was getting on and that a relapse didn`t occur, and found her quite cheerful, so they left orders that her condition was to be monitored, the drips were removed and she was for now on liquidise food until her digestive system could handle solids once more.

A few days later Jemma was allowed home, the latest scans showed that the anomoly hadn't changed it was still there but unchanged, again it was decided that as it didn`t seem to be doing anything to affect jemma's health to leave it alone. She arrived back at the estate and Gerry carried her into the house. A lot of changes had been made while she was in hospital as she soon discovered,the new housing was going up at an accelerated pace since bonuses had been offered. The hospital project had received planning permission and was underway, at least the site had been cleared ready for construction to start.

The house had changed with an entrance to the basement where some of the rooms had been converted into offices for the various administration teams and there were a lot more people around. An old but solid building had been converted into an up to date clinic nad a team of doctors and nurses were working there to see to the health of the local population. Gerry had been given the role of transport officer and had several buses and a couple of ambulances in his charge, he wasn`t expected to drive but to see that the department worked efficiently and with his knowledge that should be easy.

Truck after truck were delivering construction material and heavy plant for the hospital construction and the security team was expanded even more and this time locals were being employed. Jemma was now known to everyone working on all the different projects and in the local community and was well liked by the majority, one of the security team was delegated as a permanent driver if she wanted to go anywhere and she was usually off to visit a local family that needed help in some way, money was set aside every month to help families that were struggling with sickness, unemployment etc and she had taken it on her self to see that the money wasn`t misused and went to the right people. One way or another the lives of the locals had improved a lot, very few were unemployed and those that were either didn`t have the skills needed of where incapacitated in some way and even those people were being helped with training and financial help.

Annabel hadn't been left out, she tended to be more in tune with the children in the area and got to know them all as did Jemma, but Annabel found out about abusive parents and there were a couple unfortunately, she asked that a computer club be set up and Brian went one stage further to help in her little project. It took a couple of months but within a couple of months not only was there a computer club for the kids, but one for the Adults and every home had internet access and a decent computer.

The usual dissenters were spouting off again, that the big house was up to something that the people wouldn`t like, but the majority told them to shut up, and that their fears were groundless after all a new hospital, several new businesses and new homes were being built and except for some specialist all the employees would be local. A few off the older residents remembered Brians father and how he just walked over and used everyone and found that Brian was a lot different from his father and cared about the locals, he`d been brought up in the area and knew how bad things had been under his father and now was a time when the people should benefit from his wealth.

There were a couple of farms in the area that Brian owned that weren`t doing too well and Brian called in an Agricultural specialist to see how they could be improved, this started another project off which would be linked to an Agriculural College. The farms tenants were due for retirement soon and they had nobody to pass the tenancy onto. Brian offered them new homes and pensions which they accepted, as a bonus they would be used as part time instructors to show students how some of more ancient machinery that was still being used worked.

Brian checked with accountant on the state of his finances and was told that they hadn`t made a dent in his wealth but was advised to keep a team of independant accountants checking all the accounts which he did.

Jemma and Annabel still had their schooling at home as they were ahead in most subject than the other kids, but a couple of the pupils at the local school who were very bright joined them in their classes. This year it was planned that every class in the senior school went on a two week trip to the continent and each class had to pick which country the wanted to visit, primarily the trip was educational but they would be able to have fun as well as long as they all behaved.

Jemma was told about the trial and the sentences that were given, overall she was glad it was all over but she knew that terrorist were always would be a threat to people and countries. for the time being she safe and happy to put it behing her. She still had her own battles to fight with getting more and more mobile and knew it would be long road that would never end.

Summer hit with a vengance with temperatures at an all time high, it was suggested that huge barbaque come picnic be organised for the locals and Elizabeth and Millie took to getting that organised, a date was set, caterers brought in and invites and transport organised. The day of picnic arrived and all the tables and chairs that had been set up the day before were soon filled, everyone was a good time. The Family as the locals called them went around and chatted with everyone, a couple of the young men complained that there was only beer and soft drinks, and were told by their peers to stop complaining and enjoy their selves. children were playing or the lawn, the adults were up dancing, plenty of food and beer and coffee, tea and soft drinks for those that wanted it, yes it was good day for everyone.

Before the picnic started Brian had told everyone his plans for the area and got a few suggestions back which he asked the person to who the suggestion to come up with a paln of sorts and he would discuss it with them during the week, if it was good idea and workable they might use it he told them. After the picnic the women and children were taken back home and Brian, Rodger and Gerry with all the men went to the local pub for a good booze up, of course Brian picked up the bill, some of these men he grew up with and wanted to get to know them again and them him he couldn`t tell them why he went missing for all those years. Questions were asked about Jemma and Brian answered them as honestly as could he could with Rodger filling in were he didn`t know the answer, nobody had anything against the child and she was popular with adults and children alike.

The locals had seen the stories in the papers about Jemma but hadn`t taken much notice, it didn`t realy involve them and they had just given it a cursory glance,when they heard about how she saved the children and had saved Gerry`s live they were impressed, they were even more impressed that she had kept it to herself and was fighting her injuries. Jemma they were told was Brian's Grandchild and heir, that made them men happy they hadn`t known what would happen if something would happen to Brian but now he had an heir everything would be all right in their book.

It didn`t long for the word about Jemma`s exploits to go round the area and everyone saw Jemma in a new light, a diminutive child to look at, but brave and caring as well, they found out that she was actually a boy called James and dressed like a girl due to her injuries and because of that had taken a girls name. Well so what there were a few transgendered children in the area so why should Jemma be treated any different, she belonged to them and them to her they would keep what they knew to themselves it didn`t concern outsiders.