Guilty

(Wednesday Night, August 21st)

Ben stares at his phone, as he watches Mr. Droit approach the stand, "How did it feel when you first found out that your son was physically attracted to you?"

Belle answers, "Well, I was a little surprised but, perhaps, not at the same time."

"And how did you feel about it?" he asks again.

She uneasily smiles. "Like I must have done something wrong. Maybe if I'd been a better mother, he would have seen me as such."

"How did you proceed?" He asks, "Did you change anything with him?"

"I don't know. Ben was just so embarrassed." She confesses, "One moment he avoids me, the next, I'm all he seems to think about. But I knew he would never hurt me."

"So, how did you react to his attraction that point forward?"

She takes a moment. "Mostly, I remained neutral. I didn't want to do anything that might make him feel less loved."

"Neutral?" he repeats. "Is that what you call what you did yesterday, placing you hands to his face and looking into his eyes?"

"I was trying to comfort him," she defends.

"Just tell me this," he requests. "You say you stayed neutral. You say you knew your son wouldn't hurt you, but had your husband not been present, do you still believe that Ben would not have crossed any further boundaries?"

"Had his father not been threatening him?" Belle whispers, "Maybe, he might have."

There's a knock, and Ben turns to the door. Ella announces herself before opening it. "I'm doing laundry." Ben turns back to his phone, and she asks, "How are you doing?"

"Not great," Ben answers, as he uses the chair across from him to rest his feet. "My dad still has to go to prison, right, even if he was just protecting his wife from me?"

"I imagine since he never went to the authorities," she examines, "it can't be considered self-defense."

"And to think," Ben says, "I was worried about speaking a language I don't know.

"They're still taking you out of context."

He turns towards her. "I have romantic feelings for my mother. They don't need to take that out of context."

"But they are." Ella informs, "There's a difference between romantic and sexual attraction. When they stopped saying which it was, people started to assume the second."

"A carnivore biting someone is the same as rape in law." Ben's frown deepens. "It really doesn't make a difference."

She uncomfortably eyes over the room before walking over to the laundry basket. "You know, I keep seeing the same shirts in here. Do you plan on getting anything new?"

"What for?" Ben murmurs. "I have enough for a week. Even two."

"But the new school year's starting," she reminds him. "Don't you want something to wear that will make you feel refreshed and new?"

Ben slides the laptop towards him. "Anything I wear is just going to make me feel like a liar." He opens it. "Clothes aren't going to make me happy. I don't want them."

"Did you tell Charming that?" Ella asks. "He seems to think that when court's over, you two will be going to the store."

"I told him I wasn't paying for something I don't need," Ben divulges. "He reassured me that if he got me a couple outfits, it would cost nowhere near what he spends on Chad in a year."

"And that would be true." He pauses. "But if you don't want to, you need to be honest."

"I've been honest," Ben dismisses. "He said it would be good for me."

"Because it could be." Ben widens his eyes, and she moves to take the seat next to him. "Your parents were strict. You might have felt the need to fit the perfect picture family they were trying to manufacture." He glances down. "We understand that, but you must know that you can express yourself freely now. At least, you can here." Ben pushes his hair back. "If you could pick one thing to wear, what would it be?"

He meets her eyes. "I honestly don't know. I've never been allowed to be myself before."

Ben rolls his eyes, before he raises his eyebrows at his manservant. "Just ask."

Blake meets his eyes. "Ask what?"

"What you're thinking." Ben frustrates, "What everyone's talking about."

He takes a moment. "Do you really have feelings for your mother?"

"A question you don't have the answer for."

"Right." Blake ruffles his curls, and Ben looks away. "When you kissed me… were you thinking of her?"

Ben faces him. "No."

"No?" he repeats.

"Believe it or not," Ben falters, "I do like you."

"You mean, like…"

Ben shakes his head. "This would be easy in French."

"Sorry," he apologizes.

Ben takes a deep breath. "I like the way you look."

"You mean, you like my hair."

"Yes. I like your hair." He smiles. "And the way you smell. I like things about people. That doesn't change if they're a guy or a girl."

"Or how old they are," Blake adds.

Ben's expression slips. "I mean, age does matter. I just—"

"It's okay so long as you're not the one breaking the law." He slows down. "You're under eighteen. If your mother ever did do anything, that's pedophilia."

Ben takes out his phone and opens the translation app. "How do you spell that?"

"Teenagers are still legally children," he explains. "If your mother ever did do anything to you, that would be wrong."

Ben faces him. "It's a good thing she hasn't, then."

"Be honest," Mr. Droit faces Ben. "Are you afraid you might hurt your mother?"

Ben's eyes shift. "For some months." He gazes over the audience. "It wasn't until I met Mal that I realized the feelings I had for her were the same I had for my mother."

"So, you do worry about hurting her?" he incites.

Ben's eyes lower. "I get these dreams sometimes. They feel so real, when I wake up… I second-guess if it was really a dream."

"And?" he prompts.

Ben faces him. "I get scared. I have to make sure she's okay."

"Do you believe," Mr. Droit slowly asks, "if there ever would be a time where you could hurt her? For real."

He looks at his mother's sad expression before lowering his head. "I don't sleep great. When I do, sometimes I wake up and—and there's all these things that happened that I don't know anything about. Things I did." He finds the cameras at the back of the courtroom. "I don't know if I'm my normal me before I sleep or, if maybe… it's like a dream."

"Is it possible you've already hurt your mother and just don't know it?"

"When I asked her, she said—" His mother looks away from him. "Nothing happened," he whispers before wetting his lips. "Maybe." He gulps back tears. "Maybe I did do something."

The room soaks in the silence. "Do you think your father should be found guilty for the actions he took?"

Ben peers up at his father's bleak, pale face. "No." He looks away. "I don't."

"This court isn't interested in the intentions of the accused nor the mindset of the victim," the judge announces. "We're interested only in the facts here, and the facts are that Ben's medical records show a pattern of suspicious injury since early childhood. The facts are that Ben's parents instructed him to self-medicate with cold medicine, and that medicine caused the injury he received from his father to be deadly. The fact is that if Ben really was a danger to his mother, there are a dozen other ways his father could have handled it. But we have no record of any counseling in his medical papers, no reports of police intervention, and no sign of custodial change to speak of." Her expression softens. "That being said, the panel has agreed to the following: on the charge of child abuse, ten years in prison; on the charge of spousal abuse, five years in prison; and on the charge of treason… not guilty." She stares him down. "May the accused please stand up." Adam uses the table to steady himself to his feet. "Your status as a carnivore has been confirmed, and your transfer to Cliffside Penitentiary has been arranged. The bailiff will see you out." She pounds her gavel. "Court is adjourned."

Ben stares as his father his guided to the side exit. His weary, blue eyes meet him, and he disappears. He's gone. No. He can't be. This isn't happening. A hand moves to his shoulder, and Ben flinches. Charming retracts it. "I'm sorry."

Ben breathes, but his heart still beats hard. He looks back at the hidden door in the wood paneling. "Is he really gone?"

"Fifteen years in prison," Charming confirms, and tears flood from Ben's eyes. "I know you think he had good reason, but you should be relieved."

He is. He is relieved, but it's a pain accompanied by warmness in his face and fatigue throughout his body. "I'm really tired," he sniffles.

Charming stands. "Come on. Let's go home." They follow him into the pathway, and he turns towards Belle. "You should distance yourself. We don't need them to think—"

"That I'm entertaining Ben's feelings for me?" she finishes. "I'm allowed to say goodbye to my son."

"Then say it now," Charming instructs. "We want them to believe you're trying to navigate this situation respectfully." He looks between them. "Both of you."

Ben faces his mother. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you about the picture."

She frowns. "Show it to me." He takes out her phone and shows her the background. "Delete it, please." He eyes between the photo and her. "What if I miss you?"

"Then call." He looks away. "I can send you a different one."

He faces her. "But you're happy in this one."

"I was happy, because it was your birthday." He keeps quiet, and her voice raises in pitch. "You want to know what happened after this photo was taken?" He meets her sad, brown eyes, as she says, "Ella noticed the scratches on my back, and Adam ordered me never to swim in front of someone again."

"I didn't hear anything about that," Charming interrupts.

"I imagine you wouldn't." Her eyes widen at him. "I told her it was a sex thing. Unfortunately." She faces Ben again. "Delete the picture, please. For me." Ben does as she says, and she hugs him. "I'm going to miss you too."

When she lets go, Chad moves past her, pressing on Ben's shoulder to turn him away; however, as they walk up to the double doors, Ben looks back at her. She's crying again. Chad's arm pushes him forward, and his eyes are met with the square of the camera lens. The film crew follows them into the corridor, and they're met with more cameras and microphones. Everyone is shouting their questions, words muffled as they're entangled with one another. Chad shouts, "He doesn't know English. When are you idiots going to figure that out?"

There's a short pause before one man asks in French, "Is it true that you dated Mal, because she reminds you of your mother?"

A woman questions, "What are your plans now that your father's been arrested?"

Ben blankly stares, and Chad answers, "No comment." He guides him through the crowd, and Charming leads them down the steep staircase.

When they make it to the sidewalk, another news crew comments. "King Ben. Your father has just been confirmed to be a carnivore. Are you one as well?"

"No comment," Chad says again, before he opens the car door for Ben and slides in after him. The door closes, and his father starts the car. "What a bunch of fucking vampires."

"Leeches," Charming corrects. "Don't use medical terms in such an offensive way."

"They're allowed to ask me questions now," Ben examines. "Now that I'm no longer a witness in a trial."

"Best to schedule an interview," Charming recommends.

Ben eyes over his half-broken nails, overgrown into misshapen points. "And if I'm not ready?" Ben questions. "To admit what I am, to have everyone treat me like… a beast."

"They're going to treat you like a beast," Charming negates, "unless you specifically tell them not to. Tell them you were raised human, that you want to be treated as human."

"Because that worked so well for us," Ben points out.

"Well, the public isn't responsible for your food," Charming defends. "They're going to have an easier time ignoring it than anyone who spends time with you."

"Do I really act that much like a carnivore?" Ben worries.

"You suck at being a carnivore," Chad answers.

Ben almost smiles. "Thank you."

"You suck at being human too," he adds, and Ben's expression slips.

"Ben. You're in a very precarious situation." He explains, "You're not going to fit in with humans, because you have needs that we don't. But you're not going to connect with the everyday carnivore either, because you don't have the same genes as them either."

"It's not a gene thing," Ben defends. "I feel human. I don't understand how carnivores can just be okay with who they are. It's not something I want to bond over."

"You have this idea," Charming inputs, "that carnivores are these creatures that take pleasure in tormenting humans and eating them."

"Ben likes playing with his food," Chad comments. "It's a very cat thing to do."

"Lions don't make out with their prey," Ben dismisses.

"You need to learn the difference between sex and food," Chad opinionates.

"Kind of hard when it comes from the same source." Ben's eyebrows furrow. "And why am I talking about this?"

Chad hears his stomach growl. "Because you're hungry." He argues, "Your human persona gets completely tossed out the window when you're hungry."

Ben turns towards him. "You think I like hurting people?"

"I think you like fucking with them."

"Chad," his father sternly says. "That's enough." He takes a deep breath. "Ben can't help that he has special needs."

"He would hurt less people if he could accept what he is," Chad argues.

"And if it's not?" His father turns towards him. "Ben's genetic makeup is the way it is because of magic, and magic messes with the natural laws God governs us by. A human and a lion should have never been able to procreate. The beast was an animal that was never supposed to exist. For all we know, Ben might have been human had magic never intervened."

"Wasn't his grandfather fucking the lion before he asked the lamp to turn her human?" Chad questions. "Ben wouldn't be alive without magic. Period."

His father starts the car. "We'll never know now, will we."

"Fairy Godmother could do it," Chad opposes. "If she wanted to."

"Magic's illegal," he reminds him. "If something goes wrong, she risks getting sent to the Isle. She couldn't do it, even if she wanted to."

"Don't you mean retired?" Ben raises an eyebrow, and Charming looks at him in the mirror. "Magic is retired. There's no law that says it can't be used."

"Our family doesn't follow all that cloak and dagger terminology," Charming dismisses. "The fact is there are laws, where unforeseen side affects of a spell or potion can cause the fairy or witch to be charged with reckless endangerment of humankind. So, as much as I disagree with the use of magic in most cases, I acknowledge that the legalities have caused people to refrain from using it even for good causes. It is essentially illegal. The wording makes no difference."

"Ben's dangerous." Chad glances at him. "No offense. She would be doing everyone a favor if she would just give him what he wants."

"But there's no guarantees," his father reminds him. "She would be changing his body, not his brain."

"The brain's part of the body," Chad reminds him.

"The brain makes Ben who he is," his father voices. "She wouldn't be changing that. So, what happens if she does agree, and he still has all the same instincts that get him in trouble now? What if he still has a taste for blood, and he's not able to digest it anymore?"

Chad murmurs, "Then he'd learn to stop taking so much." He informs, "If it really were just a sex thing, I could deal with it."

His father takes a moment. "And how would Carlos feel about that?"

Chad's eyes lower. He'd almost forgotten about him with the trial and everything. "It doesn't need to be me. I'm just saying, I think Ben would have a lot easier of a time finding blood if people weren't so afraid of him almost killing them every time."

"It's not every time," Ben whispers.

"The kind of magic you're talking about," Charming comments, "would require a conduit, like a wand or scepter. Considering every one of those have been confiscated and locked up in that museum, I doubt anyone—even Mal—could break the law for him."