Nick watched as Amity took the stand, her hand noticeably shaking as she placed it on top of the Bible, swearing to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Nick shivered. California had just stepped down from testifying and had just told the jury what Amity had said that Cali was there to say. That Nick had in no way led her to believe that he was conspiring against her. He hadn't distanced himself from her in the least and in ways he'd become more dependent and more needy of her in the last few weeks that they were together. She said the same of Brian and Hattie, and nothing that Nick or Brian had done had led her to believe that they had anything against Hattie or herself. When she had finished her statement she'd stepped down on confident legs and had even squeezed Nick's hand reassuringly as she'd walked by. She took her seat behind him and Nick felt strangely comforted. Somebody was there for him. Much to Nick's surprise his family had also testified, one by one, including his brother Aaron, and told that Nick had never shown any violence as a child. He didn't have a furious temper and he'd never been a part of a violent crowd even. Nick was glad for their support but his mind was mostly on what Amity was going to say once she began to speak.
"I had everything that I was going to say against Nick Carter written down in my mind. I had planned it out word-for-word," Amity began, her eyes locked on Nick's and Nick felt a shiver pass through him. "I was even going to tell you that I tried to stop Nick from killing our baby..."
Nick sat there silently, now knowing that all along she had been planning to lie up there just to make sure he went to prison for life, and now for some reason she had changed her mind. He listened as Amity continued.
"...That I was screaming and crying for him to stop shaking her, that I begged him to stop. But that's not the case. I did nothing, and I had a part in this too, because I wanted him to shake that baby. I told him to make it stop crying, to shut it up, and what more is a 15 year old guy going to do to make a baby stop crying? And I knew that much. I didn't want that baby either. So if you put that young man away for the death of our child, then I deserve the same treatment."
"Miss Knox," the prosecuting attorney finally spoke. "I thought that you were testifying against Mr. Carter."
"I was ..." Amity paused, her bottom lip beginning to tremble. She bit it for a minute to try and stop it, "but I can't. I spoke to Mr. Carter this morning in private. In private! That means that there were no video tapes, no cameras, no tape recorders, no press, no attorneys, just us. And he apologized -- I didn't ask for it, but he apologized -- and he cried with me over the death of our child. This is not a man that is a threat to the community. This is a man that at one time was a boy who suddenly had a baby and panicked. And I admit to you now that when I got mad at him one day, I threatened to call the police on him ... and that's when he and Brian snapped. Now I admit that he beat me up... you've all seen the pictures, and you all saw the reaction Nick had when you showed those pictures and the pictures of our child. He was a boy who was frightened! And now he is a man who is beside himself!"
Nick's face was buried deep in his hands and as Amity stepped down from the stand and walked towards Nick confidently, she placed a gentle kiss on the top of his head.
"It'll be okay," Amity whispered, before taking a seat again, this time on Nick's side, right next to California.
