AN: So yesterday I went to the mall with my mom and I FINALLY got the Flash shirt that I've been wanting for like two months now (they never had it in my size)! I also got a Beatles shirt, a Green Lantern shirt, a Snoopy shirt...it was a good shopping day. Well, up until we went to White House Black Market and my mom decided to try on clothes for over an hour while I sat on a bench doing NOTHING.

And sorry for the wait. I was having some trouble figuring out how to get from the end of the last chapter to the 'event', if you will, that I want to happen. This isn't said event, I actually wasn't planning on having a trial, but I think it turned out pretty good. Anyway, on to my story.

After a few more days in the hospital, Anya was finally allowed to come home. The stitches had been taken out of her abdomen three days ago and her ribs had mostly healed. The cast on her arm had been taken off yesterday.

As Anya rode in Kendall's mother's car on the way home, she reflected on how this was drastically different from every other time that she'd come home from the hospital. There was no yelling. There were no promises of beatings to come. There was no fear. There was just the soft sound of the radio playing classic rock hits from the '60s, '70s, and '80s.

This was one of the first times that Anya wasn't scared at all since…well, since before her mother had gotten sick. And that was five years ago.

Anya had forgotten what it felt like to feel perfectly safe. She had forgotten what it was like to not have to be in a state of perpetual fear 24/7. Five years was a long time.

"We're here," Mrs. Knight said, parking the car in the Palm Woods parking lot. Anya got out of the car. When the two of them went to cross the street, Mrs. Knight unconsciously took her hand as if she were 5 years old. Anya didn't mind.

"Anya!" Carlos said from the top of his beloved swirly slide as she came through the door.

"Anya's home?" James asked, coming out of his room.

"Hey, Anya," Logan said, looking up from the couch where he was reading.

"Anya!" Kendall said as he came out of the kitchen and walked over to her, his face breaking into a smile, "Welcome home."

Anya smiled. Home. That was something that she hadn't had in a while.

"We got you a little something," Carlos said, appearing out of nowhere, holding out a small package.

Anya just stared at him in disbelief. She hadn't gotten a gift of any kind since she was, maybe…five?

James and Logan came over to the group.

"Go on. Open it," James said.

Anya tentatively took the package from Carlos as if with one false move it would disappear forever. She slowly unwrapped the packet, wondering what it could be.

Inside was a beautiful maroon bound book. It was engraved with golden vines and leaves. Also engraved on it was her name, in beautiful gold calligraphy. She opened the book and saw that it was filled with blank pages. Each page was decorated with a faint picture of a famous flower-themed painting—Monet, van Gogh, O'Keefe.

It was a journal.

Tears filled Anya's eyes. "Thank you," she whispered.

The next day found Anya lying on her bed in the room she now shared with Katie writing in her new journal about her recent experiences.

There was a knock at the door and Kendall came into the room.

"Hey, Anya," he said.

Anya waved at him, hardly looking up from her new journal.

Kendall chuckled. "You ok?" he asked for the millionth time that day.

Anya nodded, smiling to herself. Nobody had ever shown that much interest in her well-being before. It was nice.

Kendall walked over to the bed.

"Can I sit?" he asked.

Anya nodded, sitting up to give him room.

Kendall sat down. Anya closed her journal and set it aside, sensing that he wanted to tell her something.

"The trial is in a week," he said.

Anya nodded.

"You're going to have to testify."

"But I already told the police everything. Why do I have to do it again?" Anya asked.

"That's just how it works, I guess. But at least you'll only have to do it one more time." Anya's stepmother had decided to plead guilty while her stepfather insisted that he was innocent.

Anya nodded. "Will you be there?" she asked anxiously.

"Of course," Kendall said, putting his arm around her comfortingly.

The week passed by very quickly. Everybody that lived in apartment 2J headed to the courthouse at about nine thirty; the trial started at ten. The prosecution lawyer was there waiting for them.

"Ok, we went over all of this. All you need to do is answer all the questions truthfully. You got that?"

Anya, Kendall, and Mrs. Knight nodded. Logan, Carlos, James, and Katie didn't have to testify.

"Good." The lawyer smiled. "Don't worry. There's no chance that the jury's going to acquit him."

They left the lawyer and went to sit down in the front on the prosecution side.

"How long until it starts?" Carlos asked.

"Five minutes," Logan replied.

Kendall could see that Anya was nervous.

"Don't worry. It'll be over before you know it," Kendall assured her.

Two police officers then came in with Anya's stepfather and took them over to the defense side of the courtroom and sat him down next to their lawyer.

Anya looked over at him and he glared at her. She tensed up.

"I don't want to be here," she whispered.

"Everything will be ok. They can't hurt you," Kendall told her.

"All rise," the bailiff announced. Everybody in the room stood as the judge came in and sat in his chair. He banged his gavel.

"You may be seated," he said and everybody sat down.

The bailiff introduced the case and then the prosecuting lawyer began a long speech about what this all was about.

"I'm bored," Carlos whispered.

"Shhh," James said.

"But I'm bo-ored." If anybody could whisper and whine at the same time, it was Carlos.

"Shhh!" Logan said.

Carlos crossed his arms and began to pout.

"Katie, honey, do you want to take Carlos out and find a snack?" Mrs. Knight whispered.

"But mom—"

"Please?"

Katie sighed. "Fine." She stood up and quietly left the courtroom with Carlos.

"The prosecution calls Anastasia Petrović to the stand."

Anya looked at Kendall with fear in her eyes.

"Go on," he told her.

"I don't want to," she whispered.

"Anya, you have to. Otherwise the jury won't know what happened to you and they might not send your stepdad to jail."

"Come on. Don't be shy," the judge said kindly.

Anya stood up and slowly walked up to the stand, her legs feeling like jelly. The clerk went over to her.

"Raise your right hand," he said.

Anya did as she was told.

"Now, do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?"

Anya glanced at Kendall, who nodded encouragingly at her.

Anya nodded at the clerk.

"Ok, Miss Petrović, please take a seat," the judge said.

Anya went and sat in the witness box.

"Let's start with you telling us a little about yourself," the prosecuting lawyer began, "How old are you?"

"Fif-fifteen," Anya replied.

"Fifteen. And do you go to school?"

"N-no, sir."

"No? Why not?" the lawyer asked. He wasn't surprised at all; they had already gone over this.

"My mother pulled me out of school when she got sick. She homeschooled me, for a while, at least. Until she got too sick to."

"Mmhmm. And where is your mother now?"

"She-she's dead," Anya replied, looking down.

"I'm sorry to hear that. And your father?"

"He's dead, too."

The lawyer nodded. "After your mother died, did you go back to school?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because my stepfather never sent me back."

"And why is that?"

"Because then people would see the bruises." It came out as a whisper.

The lawyer decided to change the subject.

"How was your home life before your mother died?" he inquired.

"It was...well, I'm not sure how to describe it. It was sad because she was sick and I knew that she was going to die. We all knew that. But at the same time...it was happy because I still had her."

"Would you say that your life was good?"

"Yes," Anya said immediately.

The lawyer nodded. "Now, after your mother died, did your life change at all?"

Anya nodded. "Yes," she said, "Before she died, she'd married a man named Wayne Hawkinson so that I wouldn't be left alone. She had never really trusted him, but it was better than nothing. I never really trusted him, either, but while she was alive, he never did anything to me. After she died, though, he-he gave me about a week to grieve and then..." Anya stopped, knowing that if she said another word she would start to cry.

"It's ok, Anastasia, take your time," the lawyer said.

Anya collected herself and then continued. "He-he began to-to hit me. He came home one night, drunk, and he slapped me."

"Is that man in this courtroom?"

"Yes."

"Can you point him out, please?"

Anya pointed to Wayne.

"Let the record show that Miss Petrović pointed to the defendant," the judge said.

"Had he ever done anything like this before?" the lawyer asked.

"No. This was the first time," Anya replied.

"Did he ever do it again?"

"Y-yes."

"How often?"

"Every day."

"What kinds of things did he do to you besides hitting and slapping?" the lawyer asked.

Anya bit her lip and didn't say anything.

"I know it's hard, Miss Petrović, but you have to answer the question," the judge said sympathetically.

"He-he would hit me, and punch me, and twist my arms, and kick me, and slam me against the wall. Stuff like that. It got worse after he married a woman named Gertrude. She-she would encourage everything so he hit me harder." Anya sniffled a little, trying to keep the tears in.

"Did he ever do anything beside physically assault you?" the lawyer questioned.

"He-he would lock me in the closet and forget about me for days. I wouldn't get any food or water and it was pitch black in there. The first few times it was terrifying, but then I realized that if I was in there, he wasn't hitting me." Anya couldn't hold it in any longer and tears began to run down her cheeks.

"How long would he keep you in there?"

"A-about two or th-three days. Sometimes it w-was longer, though."

"How long was the longest amount of time that he left you there?"

"T-two weeks."

There was a collective gasp from everybody in the courtroom. Kendall was mortified. He'd had no idea that it had been that bad.

"How long did all of this go on?" the lawyer asked.

"About three y-years, until I ran away."

"Why did you run away?"

Anya looked at the lawyer as if he were crazy. "Because my stepparents were a-abusing me," she answered.

"No, I mean why did you choose to run away when you did?"

"Oh. Well, because I-I saw my chance to. It was nighttime and my s-stepparents had passed out because they'd been-they'd been drinking. Usually they locked the doors so that I couldn't escape, but that night they hadn't. So I just left."

"Uh-huh. Now, what happened after you ran away?"
"Somehow I found the city and I had no idea where to go and I was exhausted so I went to sleep in an alley. The-the next thing I knew, there was this guy there. I thought he was going to hurt me so I backed myself into a corner. He told me that his name was Kendall and that he wasn't going to hurt me. Then he saw that I was hurt so he took me to his apartment and his mom cleaned me up. I stayed there for a few days until my stepparents found me again. We-we ran away so that they couldn't take me away and hurt me."

"Excuse me, Miss Anastasia, but who exactly is 'we'?"

"Me, Kendall, and his friends, Carlos, James, and Logan."

"Thank you. Now go on."

"We drove around a bit for a few days until Kendall called his mom and she told him that my stepparents had been arrested. Then we went home." Anya started to tear up again.

"When we got there, Kendall remembered that he f-forgot something in the c-car. So he went to-to get it. As he was w-walking back to us, Wayne's car came s-speeding down the road. Kendall didn't know that it was Wayne's car, so I p-pushed him out of the way. I-I don't remember much after that, not until I woke up in the hospital almost three weeks later." By this time, tears were streaming down her face.

The prosecution lawyer nodded. "The prosecution rests," he said.

The defense lawyer then asked Anya a few questions, none of them really proving much of anything. After that, Anya was allowed to sit down.

Kendall put his arm around her. "You did great," he said.

"The prosecution calls Kendall Knight to the stand."

Kendall squeezed Anya in a one-armed hug and went up to the clerk.

"Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?"

"Yes." Kendall sat in the witness box.

"Kendall. Will you tell us about the day you found Anastasia?"

Kendall nodded. "I was coming home after shopping for a birthday present for my sister," Kendall remembered with a grimace that they still needed to celebrate her birthday, "and I saw something in this alley that I passed. I kind of did a double take and realized that it was a girl. I went over to her and she-she was scared of me. I could see that she was hurt so I took her home."

"How was she hurt?"

"I saw she had all these cuts and bruises on her arm. There was probably more, but I didn't really see. I brought her home and my friend Logan started to clean her up. Then my mom came home and took over."

"Was there anything else that was unusual about her?"

"Yes." Kendall paused for a second. "She didn't talk. She didn't say a single word for about a month and a half."

"What happened after you found her?"

"Well, we kind of just took care of her for about a week until her stepparents came. When they came I took Anya and my friends and we ran away so that she wouldn't have to go back with them."

"Where did you go?"

"We just drove around for a week or two. We never went farther than two hours away from LA. At night we camped out because we didn't have enough money to stay at a good hotel. We went back when my mom told us that Anya's stepparents had been arrested. By the time we got there, though, they had escaped from jail, but we didn't know that. My mom had no way of telling us because we'd left our cell phones at home so nobody could trace our location. The parking lot of the Palm Woods, which is where we live, is across the street from the actual building. We crossed the street and then I realized that I'd forgotten my iPod. I went back and got it and then I began to cross the street again. A small white car was coming towards me, but I misjudged the speed it was going, and besides, I thought it would stop if it had to. Anya somehow knew that her stepfather was driving the car and was going to hit me, so she pushed me out of the way." Kendall had to stop as tears threatened to spill over onto his face.

"And then?" the lawyer prompted gently.

"And then the car hit her. Anya's stepfather hit her with his car and then he just left." Tears began to spill onto Kendall's face as he remembered the scene. "She almost died. She was in a coma for almost three weeks. When she woke up, that's when she first started talking. She just got out of the hospital a week ago."

"The prosecution rests." The lawyer went and sat down.

The defense lawyer came up to the stand.

"Kendall, when you found this girl, why didn't you report her to the police? She might have been a missing child with a loving family frantically looking for her."

"Because it never occurred to me." Kendall grinned, his cheeks still wet from the tears that had fallen on them just a few minutes ago. "Besides, if she wanted to go home, she would have let us know. Even though she didn't talk, she could still communicate."

"The defense rests."

Kendall went and sat back down next to Anya.

"The prosecution calls Jennifer Knight to the stand."

AN: So I'm going to stop there otherwise this chapter will be ridiculously long. Next chapter you'll get Mama Knight's and Wayne's testimony.

You people should all go check out xxAmulet's story Counting On You. She's only posted chapter 1 so far but it looks really good :)
And you should also check out BigTimeRush-BTR's story Always by Your Side. She dedicated it to me so of course it will be amazing :)
And since I am in the spirit of recommending stuff for you to read, you should all check out Ireland Maslow's story Be My Rescue. Actually, you should check out all her stories. I just like that one best :)