Dan's P.O.V.
Monday came around far too fast, it seemed like it was only hours before Officer Briny pulled up in front of the house to pick us up.
Jay hadn't done much over the weekend, she had reduced her talking to almost nothing and spent most of her time staring blankly out of the window in the living room. Anais had been around once, mostly to try and cheer Jay up and it had worked temporarily but once she left Jay seemed to fall back into the staring, silent kid, not moving.
I wasn't even sure if we would call her a girl anymore, we knew she wasn't completely one biologically and she probably hadn't even thought about it, she was just being what she had been taught to be. I didn't know if she'd want to change it, but for the time being we left her be, until she showed signs of wanting to change, if she did at all.
She had been sick again over the weekend, once each morning like clockwork, and although it was horrible for her she didn't seem to react to it, just doing what she had to and then going back to whatever she had been doing.
I suppose it hadn't fully set in on Phil and I what had happened, the news we had been given, that Jay was pregnant. I knew it would hit soon but I just ignored the nagging feeling the back of my brain, waiting until the trial was over until we started worrying about other things. One thing at a time.
The courthouse was only a 20 minute drive away and when we pulled up in front of it I saw at least 3 news cameras out the front, just hovering around like bees around flowers. It hadn't occurred to me that there'd be news coverage, actually that anyone would be interested in the case at all.
"Hello, can we come around the back, over." Officer Briny was holding his radio up to his mouth, talking to who I assumed to be another officer. The crackling on the other end told me that there was another person there.
"Yes, we'll open the gates, over." A couple of seconds later the gates to our right side started to open and we drove through them, helping Jay out of the car. She was in the back seat with Phil and the wheelchair was in the boot because there was no room for it, as the car wasn't built to have a wheelchair in it.
She was still silent, and I noticed her biting on her nails on the ride there and her blank stare out the window. She wasn't looking at anything, just thinking.
Walking through the side door with Officer Briny pushing Jay we were met by a lady holding a clip board and a young man on his phone beside her.
"Hello everyone, you must be Jay? And family?" She first looked at Jay and then Phil and I, as it was obvious that Officer Briny wasn't part of the group as he was in his full uniform because he was on duty as soon as the trial was over.
Jay nodded, unable to keep eye contact for more than a couple of seconds. The lady crouched down to her eye level and placed one hand on her knee, lifting it slightly when Jay flinched.
"I know you're scared, we kids in all the time to testify so this is nothing new. We've got two therapy dogs here today, you can go and play with them for the first part of the trial and they can come with you on the stand." She nodded, lifting her eyes and I saw the tiniest of smiles at the thought of dogs.
The man looked over at us, hands on his hips.
"You guys will have to sit in the box just beside the witness stand, we can't actually allow you in the stand with Jay." Jay looked over at us, suddenly frozen.
"It's okay, you've only got a waist high wall separating you, you can literally reach over and hold hands but it's just a formality that we have to follow." She nodded. "But you have to go now, you'll have to be there for the start of the trial, but you don't Jay."
She shook her head frantically but the lady smiled.
"You can see them by the way, you're in the room behind the box. You won't hear anything, but you can see them." With one glance at us she nodded uncertainly, but allowed her chair to be pushed away by the lady. We turned to the man.
"Sorry for the rush, we need the trial to start as soon as possible, it's easiest to get it out of the way as soon as possible." I took Phil's hand as he was offering it out to me and we followed the man in the same direction Jay had gone, we could see her further up the corridor.
The courtroom was huge and the jury was already there, talking in solemn voices and going over bits of paper, which was in huge stacks in front of them. A few of them looked up as we came in but most of them just ignored us, continuing to talk as we were led into a box almost up the front.
There was a glass panel at the back of the box and through it I could see a small room with two dogs, a golden retriever and a black labrador, and very thankfully, Jay. She was still in her chair but was playing with the dogs quite happily, throwing a ball around for them to chase.
I was interrupted by a voice.
"Bring out the accused." A door opened on the opposite side of the room and four men were led through, all in cuffs and bright orange jumpsuits.
I clutched Phil's hand tighter, moving as close to him as I could on the seats. I could hear his uneven breathing and his almost death-like grip on my hand, and I knew he was angry, maybe even scared. Angry at what those men did to Jay, they destroyed her, they destroyed her life and changed it forever.
"On trial today are Stanley James on charges of assault, kidnapping and sexual assault." He was a tall, roughly 6 foot 4, with bright ginger hair, a lot of freckles and a crooked nose which had probably been broken once or twice. He looked young, probably barely over 20.
"Lucas Taylor on charges of child abuse, blackmail, kidnapping and rape." He was also reasonably tall, about the same height as Phil and I although he had brown hair and a face covered in freckles making him look considerably younger than he actually was, which was probably about 35-40.
"Jakob Wilkinson and Harvey Mills on charges of aggravated assault and battery, child abuse, kidnapping, rape and sexual assault of a child." The last two almost looked like twins, they were probably brothers and were about 30 years old, both around the 6 foot mark but they looked incredibly strong, and it was clear they worked out a lot.
"Will the accused please stand and bring forth any witnesses." They stood, but no one came forwards, even the people I assumed to be their lawyers said nothing.
"Will the prosecutors bring forward any witnesses they have please."
Oh shit. That was Jay.