Disclaimer: in first Chapters . . .

Chapter 9: The Long Day is Over for all but one

Piper stared out at the audience in the courtroom. She was waiting for the questions to start. It had been two weeks since she last saw a courtroom. She had 30 stitches between two arms, Along with a brace on her wrist. The impact of her hand on the mirror slightly cracked her healing fractures

She wore a black long sleeved shirt that was gauzy on the arms to hide her slowly healing cuts. Her pants were too big, but her weight slowly coming back. Her skin was regaining a bit of its rosiness. Her eyes were no longer dull and sorrow full with a constant sheen of tears, they were now cold and hard, and lost all of their innocence.

"Miss Halliwell in you own words can you please explain what happened on the night in question?"

"That night I was to go out with Nikolas but I honestly had no desire to. I walked out of my home around nine to greet Nikolas. I got on the back of his motorcycle and he drove us to the G-spot. I had never been there before and hadn't planned on ever going, due to its reputation. Nikolas walked to the front of the line and the bouncer let him in. He dragged me to the back of the club where his friends Patrick, Steve, and Derrick were sitting. I didn't like Nikolas's friends for their often rude and lewd comments.

Nikolas forced me to sit on his lap though he knew I didn't like public displays of affection. I spent 10 minutes on his lap trying to get him to stop pinching an old bruise he gave me. When I finally did get off of his lap, he grabbed me by my wrist. He told his friends that he had to teach me some manners.

He dragged me outside and began to beat me. After a while I heard the door open. I hoped it was someone to save me from the beating I was receiving. I looked over to the door and saw that it was Patrick, Derrick, and Steve. They all surrounded me. Nikolas told me to take off my clothes."

Piper's monotonous voice cracked. She was reliving it in her mind but couldn't feel the pain anymore. After the confrontation with Abbey, all physical feeling was gone, and mental pain was non-existent.

"Miss Halliwell? Are you okay?" Ms. Waters asked Piper. She hadn't realized she had went deep into her mind.

"I'm sorry, I kind of zoned out. Where was I?"

"You had just told the court that Nikolas told you to take off your clothes."

"Oh yea... I told him that I was a virgin, and that I wasn't going to take off my clothes. He got angry at that ripped my clothes off of me. My body was heavily bruised. Form old beatings that he gave me. He ripped my bra off of me and started to punch me when I closes my eyes. He told me to keep my eyes open and that I was going to enjoy it. He raped me. And after he was done he sent each one of his friends to have a go at me. They all either bit me, slapped and punched me and one of them fractured my wrist."

"Miss Halliwell why did you stay with him when he was constantly abusing you?"

"Because I felt like I could save him. I felt like he needed someone to pull him from the life he was leading. I was the one who should have been saved from him."

"No Further questions" Ms. Waters said.

Mr. Smith got up.

"Miss Halliwell, earlier in you testimony you said that you were a virgin the day of your alleged rape did you not?"

"Yes sir I did. Because I was."

"How do you explain the pictures?

"It's called having a gun pointed at your head and being told suck me. Also it's called being pistol-whipped on your arms, legs, and back until you do what is told." Piper snapped at Nikolas's lawyer.

"Why stay if you're being abused?"

"Because I felt like I could save him and out of fear for my family and friends. He threaten to kill all of my best friends in front of me one by one if I ever left him."

"Why did he threaten to kill your best friends?"

"I don't know jealousy maybe? They're all guys I grew up with."

"No further questions."

Piper walked from the stand and walked to her seat next to her lawyer. raising the sleeve of her shirt Piper looked at the thin Lines on her arms along with the atrocious stitches. She liked this feeling. Nothing bothered her, no one bothered her, and no emotions to fogged her thinking and common sense. It was a good way to live or so she hoped.

Later that night

Piper sat in the bathroom cleaning her stitches. She was thankful that she hadn't needed pins in her arm. Those things were annoying and hard as hell to maneuver with.

Piper looked at the scar on her shoulder and at the top of her breast. Bite marks from a closed chapter of her life. She won the first case and that was all that mattered Nikolas was in jail for who knew how long she couldn't stay so she didn't hear the sentencing.

Piper walked over to the shower stall and cut on the water. Making it as cold as she could handle she stepped in. She was trying to get some feeling back into her body some way. Washing away the drying blood she watched the foam from the soap and the water going down the drain take on a brownish red appearance as it went down the drain.

Her first of many long days were over.

Else where

Leo laid on his floor doing crunches with his headphones on. The music wasn't helping at all. He had a hollow ache in his chest. Maybe it was because spring was here and it was always this seasons that his memories come back to haunt him. He noticed his aunt was being more careful around him.

Leo got off the floor. He went to his closet and grabbed the first thing that matched. He couldn't stay there. There was too many thoughts and emotions in his head that were driving him crazy. He grabbed his necklace that he never wore anymore. Two engagement rings were on a gold chain. Both equally beautiful, both belong to the women he cared so much for and lost.

Leo grabbed his keys and jumped into his car. The clock in his car read 10:39 it would be an hour before he reached his destination but he had to go. Pulling a cigarette out of his glove compartment he lit up. The burning sensation he got from smoking that brand no longer felt the same. If she was still alive and found out that he was smoking she would kill him.

Leo parked his car in a parking lot. When he was a young child he never thought that he would ever go to a cemetery at night. But then again he never thought he would lose his parents, his fiancé, and unborn child all on the same night. Leo walked out of his car and started up to the plots where his family was.

His long day was over, but his long night had just begun.