Whew! These trial chapters are kicking my ass! I hope this one is okay too!

Also I want to thank everyone for answering my question from chapter 12! A gavel thank you! ;D

Enjoy! (Oh yeah and rememeber...I don't own anything!)

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Chapter 13

"I'm here sweetie." Nancy said as she stroked her daughter's hair, and let Maureen cry on her shoulder. Her eyes momentarily landed on Joanne's, watching as her daughter's girlfriend mouthed the words 'Thank you' towards her. Nancy simply smiled in return, and held Maureen closer.

"Why didn't you come earlier?" Maureen sobbed, her question muffled on her mother's shoulder. She then lifted her head and pulled away from the warm arms. "Why weren't you there in the beginning!" she demanded and slightly pushed her mom away.

"Maureen…settle down." Joanne warned softly into Maureen's ear, her hands tightly wrapped around Maureen's biceps from behind to keep her from doing anything harmful.

Maureen wiped the tears from her cheeks, her wet eyes shooting daggers into her mother. "I want to know why she didn't come sooner…why she wasn't there when I needed her most!"

"I'm sorry Maureen." Her mother said as she slowly approached her. "I was confused and scared…I didn't know who to believe. The person I married and fell in love with, or my daughter? He threatened me too Maureen…did you know that?"

"But still!" Maureen cried. "You could have done something…you could have at least told me everything was going to be okay! Instead you looked away and let this happen!"

"I know, but I'm here now aren't I?" Nancy asked her arms circling around Maureen's wrist.

"Because of Joanne…if she didn't talk to you, you wouldn't be here right now. Joanne has been the only one here for me…and my friends. They were there by my side in a second, but it took you fifteen years!"

"I realize that Maureen…and I'm sorry…I know I should have been a better mother, and I can't take that back now, but if I could I would!" Nancy said, her eyes pleading for Maureen to understand. "I promise, I'll do anything I can to get him behind bars…I want him out of our lives…I don't want him hurting us anymore…"

"Did he try and hurt you too?" Joanne asked unable to stop herself from interrupting the mother daughter moment.

Nancy's eyes fell on Joanne and then shifted to the ground. "Well he didn't do anything physically…" She then dug around in her purse and pulled out a couple of letters. "But he did send me some threats."

"May I?" Joanne asked as she held out her hand to take them.

"Sure." Nancy said and gladly handed them to the lawyer, her attention quickly going back to her daughter. "Maureen…please forgive me?"

Maureen eyed her. "I'm half way there. Let's just put him behind bars first, and then we can deal with this later…"

"Okay." Nancy said.

"Perfect!" Joanne said with triumph.

"What?" Collins asked while leaning over Joanne's shoulder, the rest of the boho's leaning in close to hear what was going on too.

"He threaten to beat her, kill her, and do a lot of other things too if she helped out Maureen." Joanne said with a giant grin. "It's hand written too! That idiot."

"That's not good…" Mimi said her face full of worry for Mrs. Johnson.

"Yes it is!" Joanne said brightly. "Well…they were bad threats yes, but this is good for us!"

"More proof that he's guilty?" Angel asked.

"Tons more." Joanne said as she scanned through the various letters.

Maureen's gaze fell on her mom's again, a little bit of light in her chocolate brown eyes. "You're going to risk those threats for me?"

"Yes…" Her mother said quietly. "I'm going to do anything to keep him away from you…"

A small smirk hit Maureen's lips, it wasn't that noticeable, but it was the first one she had cracked in a while. "Thanks…" She softly said, and her mother smiled back, knowing Maureen was on the verge of forgiveness.

"Maureen?" Joanne called out, her hand interlacing with her girlfriends. "Are you ready to go back in now?"

Maureen only nodded, and clutched onto Joanne's hand, and followed her back into the courtroom, the rest of the boho's and her mother behind them.

After everyone was settled back in the courtroom Mrs. Johnson was called up to the stand. Mr. Johnson seemed to shrink back in his seat; his eyes shooting daggers at his ex-wife as she walked passed him, and sat in front of everyone.

Joanne walked up to Mrs. Johnson a content look on her face. Joanne proceeded to ask the woman questions about her past, like how long she and Mr. Johnson were together for, and other small details she wanted to know. Finally Joanne worked her way up to the harder questions, beginning with, "When did you start noticing the abuse?"

Mrs. Johnson took in a deep breath, her eyes landing on the cold glare of her ex-husband, before shifting back to her broken down daughter, which gave her the strength to answer the question. "When she was ten…she told me what he was doing…but I…" Her voice became shaky, and tears spilled from her eyes. "I chose not to believe her…"

"Why not?" Joanne firmly asked.

"I was scared…"Mrs. Johnson said in a whisper. "I didn't want to believe that something like that could happen to my daughter…my Maureen, so I acted as if nothing had happened at all. I wanted to tell someone, I wanted to get her out of there, but…but when I confronted Michael about it…he became really defensive, and he threatened me…"

"What kind of threats?" Joanne asked.

"Death…or he would threaten to beat me…" Mrs. Johnson said.

Joanne nodded and then walked over to her small desk grabbing the threat notes Mrs. Johnson had given her earlier. She then carried on and brought them over to the guard standing beside the judge's desk and handed them to the guard.

While the cop passed them up to the judge, Joanne explained what they were. "Hand written letters sent to Mrs. Johnson from Mr. Johnson. If you read…there are a couple of lines stating that he would stab her several times if she were to try and defend Maureen."

"Objection your honor!" Mr. James stood up, and the judge eyed him. "There is no proof that those letters were sent by Mr. Johnson."

The judge nodded and handed them back to the guard. "They will be analyzed." He stated firmly.

After Joanne was done with her questions, Mr. James stood up and began his.

"Did you actually see Mr. Johnson hit, or do any physical harm to Maureen?"

Mrs. Johnson let more tears spill from her eyes, her head resting in her hands. She sniffled a couple of times before she looked up and answered. "Yes."

"A few times…" She admitted. "I remember one night, I came home and I heard noises coming from her bedroom. So I went to see if something was wrong…and when I looked I couldn't believe my eyes…he was there…on top of her…" she stopped not able to continue.

"Why didn't you stop it?" Mr. James said. "I don't think any caring mother would let her child get abused."

"I told you why!" Mrs. Johnson said. "He threatened me!"

At that moment a guard came back and whispered in the judge's ear, while handing him back the letters. Everyone watched and waited in silence. The judge then nodded and pulled away. "Threats are confirmed. The hand written letters are an identical match to Mr. Johnsons hand writing." The judge then passed the letters along to the jury, so they could have a look at them. Mr. James silently scowled and ended his questioning with Mrs. Johnson.

Joanne stood back up, her eyes landing on Maureen. "I would like to call Maureen Johnson to the stand."

Nerves hit Maureen, she wasn't ready for this but it had to be done. Slowly she walked by Joanne, a little bit of reassurance hitting her, but it still wasn't enough to calm her.

It was weird to see Joanne talk to her in her lawyer voice. Sure she did it all the time when Maureen was acting irresponsible, but right now she didn't want to see Joanne the lawyer, she wanted to see Joanne the girlfriend…she wanted Joanne to hold her, and tell her she could do this. But it didn't look like it was going to be that way, as Joanne began her questioning.

"How long did the abuse and sexual abuse go on for?"

"Almost a year." Maureen softly whispered.

"Could you tell us what happened to you in that year?"

Maureen bowed her head, not able to make eye contact with anyone. She wanted to hide and not say anything. Joanne walked over to her, her presence causing Maureen to look up. Joanne nodded her head, giving her a warm smile, and with out anymore hesitation Maureen answered the question.

"He forced himself on me…" Maureen quietly said. "He would pry my clothes off…and then…" She sniffled. "I would say no…be he did it anyway…and if I didn't respect his wishes he would hit me."

Maureen gave more detail as Joanne asked more questions, her story causing her friends to shed some tears. Once Maureen shared her past, Joanne gave her a moment to calm down, before she proceeded with more questions.

"Tell us about the night he attacked you." Joanne said.

"He pulled me into the alley and basically tried to do what he used to do to me fifteen years ago." Maureen said. "But before he could do anything real sexual Benny showed up."

Joanne nodded, and handed the judge some pictures. "These are the injuries Maureen received from that night."

The judge looked them over, and then handed them to the jury.

"No further questions your honor." Joanne said which signaled for the part Maureen was dreading, questions from Mr. James.

Mr. James walked up with a smirk on his face, causing Maureen to shake. "Ms. Johnson, is it true that you and your lawyer are romantically involved?"

"Objection your honor!" Joanne said. "The fact that Maureen and I are partners has nothing to do with this case."

The judge nodded. "Objection noted and will be written out of the record." He then looked back towards Mr. James. "You may proceed."

"If you knew what your father was doing was wrong, why didn't you say anything?"

"I tried telling my mom but she didn't believe me." Maureen said. "So I thought no one else would…you kind of give up hope when you're ten and your own mother doesn't believe you."

"Once you knew your father was back in town why didn't you tell anyone then?" Mr. James asked.

"I was scared." Maureen answered. "Old memories popped up…and to be honest, it's not a fun story to reminisce about."

Mr. James nodded. "Where were you walking the night you say you were attacked?"

"To my friends loft in the East Village."

"An unsafe area to begin with." Mr. James said.

Maureen shrugged. "For some people yes. But I lived there for seven years and nothing ever happened to me…until the night when my father surprise attacked me in the alley."

"How do you know it was your father, wasn't it dark?"

Maureen rolled her eyes. "I could see his face, I could hear his voice, and I could feel his hot breath blowing on my neck, it was him.

"No further questions." Mr. James said.

Maureen let out a breath of relief and quickly left the stand, and flopped next to Joanne.

"You did good." Joanne whispered, earning a nod from Maureen. Joanne then stood up and walked in front of the courtroom. "I'd liked to call Mr. Michael Johnson to the stand."

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Next chapter will hopefully be the last of the trial! We just have to hear from Mr. Johnson. I was going to add it in this chapter...but it was getting to long for me...but I should be able to fit the outcome of the trail in chapter 14...