Even with the threat of death hovering over her, Heather Mack found time to share a laugh with fellow prisoners as her lover Tommy Schaefer wept in an Indonesian court.
Heather Mack, 19, who is currently seven months' pregnant, playfully nudged elbows with other women and played hide and seek under a blanket while her boyfriend broke down in tears during his brief appearance in court.
Occasionally, the teenager, from Chicago, walked up to the bars to peer across the courtyard at a cell holding her boyfriend Schaefer, 21, who is also charged with premeditated murder.
For Miss Mack, even the fact that she will lose custody of her unborn daughter should she still be lingering behind bars two years after the baby girl's birth, was far from her mind as she and her boyfriend waited - within sight of one another - to appear separately in court.
The couple have been charged with the premeditated murder of Miss Mack's mother, Sheila von Weiss Mack, which carries the death sentence, but MailOnline learned today that the 19-year-old mother-to-be is in total denial over the fact that baby Stella - to be named after Miss Mack's grandmother - will be taken from her after staying with her mother behind bars for two years.
Asked if she had made plans for the baby's adoption should the murder case go against her, Miss Mack said the baby would be staying in Indonesia, although she declined to say under what circumstances.
Baby Stella, who will be born in a prison hospital, will automatically become a joint Indonesian-US citizen but just who will become her adoptive parents or guardians should her mother still be behind bars has not been publicly disclosed.
There are adoption agencies in Indonesia who would be available for the child and there are also friends and relatives of Miss Mack in the US who could be considered - particularly as a US legal team has already approached the teenager to look after baby Stella's interests.
Miss Mack's demeanour today was vague, as if she did not realise the serious position she was in, and her behaviour as she waited in the holding cell - decorated with blue walls and brightly-painted stars because it is usually used for juveniles - was bizarre and child-like.
The minute she and half a dozen other women prisoners were led into the cell she began playfully pushing and pulling them, then joining them in a laughing game of hide-and-seek as they tried to use a blanket to protect their faces from photographers.
It became obvious that during her five months in prison awaiting the start of her trial she has learned some Indonesian from her fellow prisoners at the notorious Kerobokan Jail. She joked with them in the local language as she ducked in and out of the blanket.
But then, seeing her boyfriend standing in his holding cell, some 10 yards across a courtyard, she ran to the bars of her own cell and stared longingly at him. They smiled and waved at one another before Heather mouthed the words 'I love you.'
'Yes, of course I love him,' she told MailOnline. Referring to their arrest last August following the bloodied body of Mrs Mack stuffed into a suitcase which had been loaded into a taxi at an upmarket Bali hotel, she added: 'It's been a long time. Too long.'
Wearing a red plastic ring on her engagement finger, nothing distracted her as she stared across at Schaefer until an Australian woman friend arrived and spoke in whispers through the bars to the American teenager. Then the friend, who identified herself only as Oshar, walked across to Shaefer's cell and passed on his girlfriend's message.
It was the only communication they had been able to have since their arrests in August after they hurriedly left the posh St Regis hotel and tried to leave Bali without their passports, which were being held in the hotel's safety deposit box. Their arrests came when they checked into another hotel having failed to leave the holiday island.
As Miss Mack and Schaefer exchanged loving glances and she blew him kisses from time to time, while taking bites from a hamburger and sipping a soft drink, a representative from the US consulate in Surabaya arrived with an important document for her to sign.
It is understood the paperwork sought her acceptance of money from a Trust Fund set up for her by her murdered mother - funds which a US judge said she could have access to in order to pay for her defence.
Miss Mack merely glanced at the document before signing it and handing it back. Then she immediately jumped up from the prison bench and returned to the bars to stare at Schaefer, who had now lit a cigarette and was looking back at her.
Now that they have been formally charged during a brief appearance last week it is understood they have been allowed to make brief contact with one another by phone. Among the mouthed messages she made to her boyfriend she could be distinctly seen saying: 'Call me - we can talk about anything.'
But talk about her baby was off limits today - even among her fellow prisoners.
'How is the baby, Heather?' one of them asked.
Giving the other woman a friendly push, Miss Mack replied: 'None of your business!'
It was time for Schaefer to be brought before the court for what turned out to be a brief hearing.
As he was led through the courtyard past his girlfriend's cell, Miss Mack stared painfully at him and tears began to run down her cheeks.
The man who had shared the good times with her in America - allegedly on one grand occasion on her mother's stolen credit card - and now the bad as they stood trial for murder, was so near yet so far.
It was the turn of his defence team to answer the charges laid last week which alleged that he had murdered Mrs Mack in her hotel room by smashing a glass ornament against her head, smothering her with a pillow and then stuffing her body into a suitcase.
The murder was because Mrs Mack had insulted him, the Prosecution had claimed, but the defence team said he denied everything and the Prosecution had no evidence to support their claims. The Prosecution has now been given a week to respond.
It was the same scenario when Miss Mack was led into the court to sit before the three judges.
Her defence team said that every claim against her, that she had assisted Mr Schaefer in the brutal murder, was denied, insisting that she had not even been in her mother's room when the crime was committed.
As in Schaefer's case, the Prosecution was given a week to respond to the defence claims.
Lawyers representing each of the young lovers asked the court to throw out the charges.
For Miss Mack, another week will bring her closer to the birth of baby Stella in a couple of months time. And if the case against her proceeds it is certain the child will be born while her mother is a prisoner facing a mandatory death sentence.'
Meanwhile, it emerged on Tuesday that a judge in the high-profile case has ruled that the teenager can have any lawyer she can afford to defend allegations that she killed Weiss Mack.
Miss Mack allegedly wants to hire Ary Soenardi, the Bali lawyer rejected by Cook County Judge Neil H. Cohen last week as the suspect sought cash from her $1.56 million trust fund to pay her legal bills.
According to lawyers, Soenardi is known for representing 'a number of international drug smugglers, but has never before tried a murder case.
Despite this, a judge ruled on Friday that Mack can use a $1.6 million trust fund left to her by her dead mother.
On Thursday, a day after she made a preliminary court appearance, she sued her uncle William Wiese, to release money to pay for a defense lawyer.
Benjamin Mackoff, the interim trustee of her trust confirmed Soenardi was her preferred lawyer, according to The Chicago Sun Times. 'She is definitely within his control,' Mr Mackoff said.
'She refuses to have any other attorney than Ary Soenardi. And she will not accept any other attorney at this point.'
Her new lawyer is expected to produce itemized bills from Mr Soenardi, but none of the money is allowed to pay for Schaefer's defense.
Mr Cohen said he has approved the payment of $150,000 in three weekly installments of $50,000 each from her trust fund to Soenardi.
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