Camille found her packing a bag at home.
"I can arrange a county escort," Camille said.
Jordan pulled a sweatshirt over her head. "That will prove their point for them."
"Then let me drive you somewhere safe."
"The doctor still hasn't cleared you."
Camille had an answer for every operational problem and none for the look on her daughter's face. "I should have protected your name from this," she said.
Jordan stopped packing. "You should stop deciding alone what protection looks like."
It was the same mistake Camille had made on the pavement: she had chosen for everyone because she trusted her own restraint more than she trusted other people to share the risk.
"What do you want?" Camille asked.
"I want to testify. I asked the manager to preserve the recording. I watched him lock the file and write the receipt. If they call that manipulation, I want to answer it myself."
Camille wanted to refuse. Instead, she sat beside the open bag and listened while Jordan set her own boundaries.
Laya made the same choice. City Council offered to restore her immediately if she signed a memo stating that opening the CAD audit pane had fallen outside ordinary dispatch practice. She declined. Through Naomi, she requested permission to authenticate the export at the public hearing.
"Tell Camille not to trade a true record for my paycheck," her message said.
The city rejected Pike's settlement. The next morning, Naomi prepared the witnesses by separating each source's function: the radio established what Pike heard; the CAD audit established sequence and session; the gas recording showed compliance and officer positions; Sloan's file proved the registration existed before the inventory changed; Van's notebook preserved his contemporaneous observations.
"The board is not deciding criminal guilt," Naomi reminded them. "It is deciding whether the city had sufficient cause to terminate Pike. A separate prosecutor will decide what, if anything, can be charged."
Five weeks after the stop, the Harbor Ridge hearing room was full. Pike sat beside his union attorney. Camille wore her sheriff's uniform for the first time since the injury, its right sleeve altered around the burn. Jordan occupied the seat beside her by choice.