"What the fuck were you doing out on there on the stand today!?!""Getting myself killed."We were in Ned's office and he'd been yelling at me ever since the judge recessed for the day. Ned drove me back here for what he called "damage control."I don't think either one of us believed there was anything that could be done to save this case.This was LA after all. The home of the once a week "trial of the century." Trials, that it didn't matter that the DA had a video tape of the celebrity defendant, sticking his ex-wife's body in a blender. The jury will take five minutes and acquit. They'll say that the prosecution didn't prove their case, that there was reasonable doubt.So, the fact that I showed up drunk to testify as the only eyewitness against two medal of valor winners, after the defense team has already made me out to the jury as a lying drug head, I think both Ned and I knew what was going to happen.Gannon and Friday were going to walk.Ned stood next to his desk, rubbing his hand against the stubble of his close cropped hair. "I've never lost a case," he said. "Until now. I'd like to thank you for that.""You're welcome." Ned whirled around, grabbed me and pushed me against a book shelf. "This is not the time for your smart-ass comments. Those two men are going to be found not guilty and after they announce across the TV how their going to sue the city for umpteen millions-- they're going to find you. And you'll be just another loser with a toe-tag."I don't know why I did what I did next.I kissed him.Maybe it was because I didn't want to die? Or, that I wanted to thank Ned for everything he tried to do? Maybe I'd lost my mind.In the end, I think it was because I wanted to.