Jay's P.O.V.
"You're up sweetheart, they've called you to the stand." I froze and one of the dogs, Gabby, the golden retriever, bounded over and licked my face, sensing my discomfort. I didn't want to go out, I wanted to stay with the dogs and not face my abusers, the ones who terrorised me every night in my dreams.
"It's okay, take as long as you need, they'll wait." I pulled myself up onto my chair gingerly and allowed the lady to help me, she hadn't actually told me her name. The dogs followed me as I was pushed through a door and into the courtroom, where I could sense all eyes on me.
Gabby and Cass, the black lab, placed their heads on my lap and I stroked them, hoping it would calm me down for a while.
"You are Jay Tori White?" I nodded, flinching at the use of my last name, I really hoped I could change it soon.
"Do you recognise any of these men?" I took a deep breath, steeling myself to look at them. I had averted my eyes before, not wanting to see their faces.
The first two, the ones that looked like twins I recognised at once as they had been with my father most and had been the ones to take the most... action. The other two were also familiar, I had seen them on a few occasions and the one with ginger hair was the one who had removed me from the basement on the one occasion, but I hadn't seen him other than that.
I nodded.
"Who do you recognise." I moved my finger sideways, along the line of them to indicate that I knew all of them.
"What did they do?" I pointed at the three that weren't the young ginger haired man and then pointed at my stomach, not wanting to say it and actually feeling faint at the thought. The judge got it though.
"Drop the charge of sexual assault against Stanley James." So that was his name. It didn't really suit him, he looked younger than the owner of the name probably should be.
"Do you know who kidnapped you?" Once again I nodded, I had only had a tiny glimpse of their faces before I blacked out but I knew at once that I was the two mean who looked like twins, so I pointed them.
The judge nodded and felt one of the dogs lick my hand, almost making me yelp out loud. I did jump, but only because I hadn't been expecting it.
As I looked over to the side I could see Dan, Phil and Officer Briny in the stand beside me, Dan and Phil leaning up against each other and looking over at me on occasion and Officer Briny stood behind them, his brow furrowed.
"Add the charges of causing bodily harm to all defendants." I sighed, rubbing my forehead with the hand that Gabby wasn't vigorously licking and leaned back in my chair, a small layer of sweat on my forehead.
"Thanks Jay, you can go now." My head shot up and looked at the guy who was speaking. It was the man who had been standing in the hall earlier, when we had first arrived.
I felt my wheelchair shift and I was wheeled back into the small room, Gabby and Cass following behind me. The lady, who had been wheeling my chair, closed the door behind me and allowed me to slide off it onto the floor, where I continued to play with the dogs. It was a comfort, now that I didn't have to go back into the courtroom.
"It should only take another hour or so, they've just really got to give out the charges." I nodded, my attention focused on the dogs and trying to block everything from my head.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Jay?" I jolted, my eyes opening, startled. "Hey, the trial's over."
I must have fallen asleep at some point because I was leaned over on the floor, a pillow underneath my head and Gabby and Cass with their heads resting on my stomach in protection. The lady leaned over and smiled at me, pushing my chair closer to me so I could carefully hoist myself back into it.
I rubbed my eyes, trying to shake the sleep from my head. Gabby and Cass were both still sitting at my feet, staring up at me hopefully and wagging their tails from side to side.
"Jay?" I looked around and saw Dan standing in the doorway, his arms folded. "Did you fall asleep?" He had a little smile on his face and I nodded.
"What happened?" He rubbed his arm a little bit, biting his lip.
"The two that looked alike got 40 year to life and at least 35 without parole, the one with the ginger hair got 10 years max and the other one got 25 years without parole." I sighed, they were gone for at least 10 years.
"Oh thank god. Can we go home now?" Dan nodded.
"Yeah, Phil is out the front with Officer Briny, apparently he's trying to sate the media because they've attached onto the case." I nodded too, gently attempting to push my chair around and out towards the door. Dan noticed that I was struggling to move the chair and moved around to push it, heading towards the door, the back one.
Officer Briny's patrol car was still parked out the back and I could see Phil and Officer Briny inside it through the window, talking. I pulled open the door and attempted to climb in, very ungracefully mind you, flopping down on the seat and doing up my seatbelt.
"You okay Jay?" I nodded, very thankful that they were going to be locked away for a very, very long time.
"Yeah." Officer Briny turned around in his seat, looking right at me.
"They're not coming out for a long time, you're safe now." I sighed, curling up in the gap between the seat and the door as the car started driving.
I might have been safe, yes, but I didn't feel safe. I couldn't go back to my normal life again, if you could even consider it normal and what with my leg and now a child inside me, I couldn't go back to what I had been doing.
The ride home was short and sweet, barely long enough for me to process what had happened but pulling up in the driveway, I felt thankful. They were gone, and hopefully I would never have to see them again, or even worry about them again.
I wiped my eyes fiercely, determined not to cry.
It was just past 4 when we got home, the trial must have taken longer than I thought but it meant not long until I could go to bed because I was really tired, exhausted actually.
"Bye Jay." I nodded as I got out of the car to Officer Briny, who was going back to works. "See you soon?"
With another nod I turned and headed back to the house, where I just wanted to sleep.