Chapter 14

Interviews

Harold Smith's day had begun just like any other day in his long boring life: average.

He hit his beeping alarm clock in the morning to stop it with his fist and it was set at the time it was always set at - 6:00 AM on the dot. His partner was fast asleep right beside him as she usually was, and Harold sat up to pick up his thin, square glasses from behind the alarm clock and situate them onto his weary, bleary-eyed face.

This expression of disillusionment never changed when he went through his daily morning routine of taking a shower, brushing his teeth, and straightening out his tie for work in the bedroom.

Mary-Ann was in the background carrying a basket of laundry, just like she always was, and he could guess what kind of chipper question she would probably be sending his way next as he got himself ready.

"You'll never guess what's for breakfast!"

"Let me take a guess for once." Harold Smith replied miserably as he sat down at the kitchen table with his two children, Bud and Julie. "Pancakes?"

She took her finger and swiped it over his nose for this guess. "Not this time, darling!" She replied cheerily.

The man was taken aback at this. "Really?" He asked, truly surprised at this sudden change of pace.

She gave him her widest, most sparkly smile as she set the plate down and declared, "This time we're having... WAFFLES!"

"Oh." He deflated again. "Well that's not really too much different when you really think about it."

At his wife's warning growl, he quickly amended his statement, looking up at her with a nervous smile. "U-Uh I mean, thanks a lot Marianne! Your cooking's always so inventive and delicious!"

"Aw, thanks honey!" The woman replied, perking up yet again. "I know I can always count on you to have good taste!"

"No one understands me!" His teenaged, pimpled son complained in one of his usual angsty adolescent moods.

"People can understand you just fine, Bud." The man tiredly told him. "You speak plain English don't you? Just like everybody else in America."

"That's not what I mean dad!" Bud snapped at him. "See? This is what I'm talking about!"

At least the things he found himself complaining about were always new, though he was always complaining about something. Last week it was about nihilism. "What's the point of anything? I hate life!" He had whined at the kitchen table one morning before forgetting all about that and now moving on to this.

Julie wasn't doing him any favors either. She always wanted to do the same activity every day after breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

"Does anyone want to play jacks after breakfast?"

"Julie, we have got to get you into some different things to play with than those insipid jacks all the time!" Harold Smith complained.

"But I love my jacks!" Julie Smith told him innocently.

He made his third sigh in a row for the morning at this. "I know you do, sweetheart. Daddy's just a little tired today." He was tired nearly every morning and not physically tired either. Just tired of pretty much everything. Tired of the same boring old routine.

DING DONG!

Well that was slightly new at least. The doorbell didn't usually ring at this time of day. The man got up slowly from his chair to answer it.

"I'll get it." He announced tiredly, carrying little to no enthusiasm as he went to the front door to accomplish this task.

He had a good idea who it probably was. Probably his neighbor, bragging about what a "perfect" life he was having with his family right about now. He found himself a little surprised when he opened the door to two policemen on his doorstep instead.

"What the - the cops?" He asked, bewildered. "Again?! But I didn't do anything this time!"

After the Girls had beaten the whole family up after calling their reasons for hating them 'stupid', Harold and the rest of his family had lost all of their motivation to be evil. What point was there to it when they weren't even good at it? It just wasn't in them anymore, so that meant no more pesky crimes to be put into jail for.

"We're sorry for waking you up so early in the morning, sir." The cop apologized sincerely, taking off his hat and holding it in his hands. "But would you mind taking a little bit of time out of your day to answer some questions about your next door neighbor, Professor Utonium?"

"The Professor?" Harold's brows rose to the top of his head from behind his thin, square glasses.

"Yes. This isn't exactly easy to say, but if you've seen any of the news lately for these past couple of days, then you'd probably know that there's currently an investigation into the possibility of abuse towards one of his daughters. Sexual abuse." The cop said grimly.

Harold's jaw dropped. "Seriously?"

"Harold? What's going on out there?"

"Marianne, get out here!" Her husband said. "We've got cops at our door and they want us to answer some questions about the Professor!"

Marianne poked her head out curiously from the kitchen. Her interest was certainly piqued. Answering questions about the Professor, eh? What was the occasion?"

Julie and Bud saw the police officers in the doorway too and their faces showed signs of intrigue as well. "Mom? Dad?" They asked from the kitchen table, curiosity and interest grabbing them like no other at this rather new development.

"Uh kids, stay in the kitchen while mommy and daddy have a little grown-up talk with the cops outside, okay?" Harold requested.

If this talk was seriously going to contain a subject matter as dark as sexual abuse, then he really didn't want any of his young, impressionable children around to hear any contents of that, ongoing investigation or not.

The cop on the left nodded his head at him, seeming to understand his sentiments regarding the children and understandably allowed the couple to lead them outside as they continued this talk further.

Bud and Julie were only left even more curious with this decision and they craved knowledge about the situation even more than they already had before.

They both looked at each other wide-eyed before making their decision simultaneously.

"Let's go!" Budd said.

They were definitely eavesdropping.

He warned his little sister to be quiet and they both tiptoed their way to the front door as stealthily as they could, stealing a quick glance out of the curtained windows before pressing their bodies against the front door, trying to listen to the conversation on the other side of the door.

"Well you see Smith family, it's like this..."

And the cop went into all the details that he currently knew at the time. How a child protection team had been called out to the Townsville Children's Hospital after a referral had been made about a child having significant injuries to her genitals in lieu of her caretaker's explanation, of finding out that this child was Bubbles of the Powerpuff Girls and that her father Professor Utonium was the one claiming it to be an accident, and how they had proceeded to fill out paperwork, interview the father, perform a complete forensic interview for the children and a forensic medical exam on the victim in question, Bubbles Utonium, waiting on the results of that as they spoke. They had also obtained a search warrant to investigate the scene of the incident, particularly where the Professor had claimed the accident happened.

When they heard everything from the cops so far as the full story they had, even the Smiths found themselves feeling appalled with everything they had heard.

"Oh my gosh..." Marianne said with genuine shock. "I-Is she alright?"

Unlike her acting after the Smiths had intentionally gone out of their way to trash the Utonium family's home while they were out getting groceries, and Marianne had returned to them a short time later to give them all her fake condolences, her shock and concern here were entirely genuine.

"Yes." The officer assured her. "Bubbles is recovering quite well after her surgery and she should be able to move without any lingering pain or soreness after a few days of proper bed rest and recuperation."

That was good news at least, but still, everything else just sounded so... bad.

"Jesus, has... has the Professor been arrested yet?" Harold Smith asked seriously, nearly breathless with what he'd just heard. "I m-mean did... did he get booked under any charges?"

"No." The officer shook his head. "In fact, we're not even sure if he's really guilty of a crime. We're trying to gather all of the evidence even as we speak and we're trying to figure out whether what happened to his daughter was truly an accident or an intentional criminal act."

"Well, I would hope it's not the latter!" Marianne announced in horror. "Because if so, that's just-! Just-!"

If so, that would mean that they had actually been neighbors with an abuser this whole time. A man who was secretly a pedophile... and who the Smiths had allowed their own children to be around more times than once. A man they had once invited in their home, gave their food and hospitality to and genuinely considered a good person despite their envy towards him for his perfect "family unity" that he sometimes even bragged about.

She remembered that one time he had sat down on their couch after that three day hostage situation with the Mayor and Mojo down in City Hall that included the Girls and how he had spoken almost like he was reading off of a cue card after Marianne had asked, "Now isn't this nice?"

"Oh, yes. It's nice to relax with friends after a long battle against evil."

If he could sound so scripted back then, was his whole perfect family life part of a script too?

"Now I want to remind you of something, ma'am." The cop to the right of her said soothingly. "The Professor is still currently innocent until proven guilty and a referral only means that we're investigating into the possibility of abuse. It doesn't mean that anything has actually been confirmed. So far the Professor has been entirely cooperative with the investigation and his story has not changed at all since the entirety of this whole thing."

That sounded good at least. But then again, an unchanging story could mean one of two things. It could either mean he was being entirely open and honest... or it could mean that he was simply sticking with the story that he had cooked up inside his own head to stay out of trouble.

"This is also where you come in," He said, inviting them into their open conversation for today. "We're going around having interviews with the people who are likely to know him the best and to know the most about his character, and since you guys are his next door neighbors, we figured we'd start with someone like you."

"Oh! Uh..." The couple looked at each other, wondering if they should feel honored, flattered, or really any kind of positive feelings at all for something like this. This really wasn't a lighthearted type of interview they were doing here.

"S-Sure. We'll give you all the information that we happen to know."

...

"Whoa..." Bud replied seriously to his sister in a hushed whisper. "Did you hear that? Bubbles had a surgery! And on her private parts too!"

"But why would Bubbles need a surgery on her private parts?" Julie asked cluelessly. "Did something happen to them?"

"Well, the cops are saying that her dad might have hurt her."

"How could her dad have hurt her private parts? Do you think... do you think he did it like some of those bad people that mommy and daddy sometimes warn us about that can hurt little kids? People called ped-ee-files?"

"I don't know." The boy answered honestly. Then he put on a scowl. "If he did, I think he's a creep! Can't believe we were neighbors to him this whole time..."

The kids listened further.

...

Harold was honest:

"The Professor seemed perfect from everything that I saw!" In fact, maybe a little bit too perfect. Perhaps that was one of the clues right there that things were probably not quite as happy as they seemed...

"In fact, I was quite jealous of him and his picture perfect family life for the longest time. He was always talking about how wonderful he had it and how great he felt. It's part of what drove me into villainy in the first place. To get away from my own average state of living everyday."

Looks like the grass wasn't always greener on the other side...

"Now, did you ever happen to see the man out in public interacting with his daughters?"

"Why yes, we have!" Harold shared freely, somewhat sheepishly. "I-I mean we sometimes saw them on Saturday mornings playing together and having fun. They would play games... but they were innocent games. Some of those blindfold games and things like that out in the grass. Nothing really inappropriate..."

Were there darker things that that blindfold could've been used for when the Girls and the Professor were alone? See no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil?

"Sometimes we saw him clipping his hedges or taking his kids out to the grocery store." Marianne supplied further. "They tended to go out to a lot of places; the movies, the beach-"

All of them dressed in their bathing suits. Something like that could've been entirely innocuous but now with this new information, every seemingly innocent activity had the potential to have this darker, more sinister undertone to it.

"Was there ever an occasion where you saw anything unusual or untoward about the man in how he tended to behave towards his daughters?"

"No!" The couple answered honestly. "Never!"

The Professor had never shown them a single shred of deviancy or trouble within himself or towards any one of his kids, but what did that truly mean? Did this mean that he was truly innocent of any wrongdoing or did it mean that he was really that good at pretending to be a normal, functioning member of society?

They did say that wolves could sometimes appear in sheep's clothing...

"We never saw them do anything untoward to them out in public." Harold answered. "N-Now I mean that's public. Anyone can act like a good person out in public but no, we never saw him do anything wrong to his children while he was with them. He even had the Girls over at our house sometimes to play with our own children and we never saw anything bad at our house either."

"In fact, the girls all looked happy and well-cared for...!" Marianne was stunned. Was all of that just a façade? A sham? A cover-up?

...

"Julie," Bud whispered, having heard this piece of conversation. "Did you ever see the girls acting weird whenever they were with you or telling you things?"

"Nuh-uh!" Julie said, shaking her head. "They all seemed happy to be with their dad! They didn't seem scared of him or anything..."

"Maybe they were so used to it, they didn't think it was wrong."

"Really?" Julie was astonished. "How could they not know it's wrong?"

"Their dad might have brainwashed them into thinking something like that was normal. That happens too."

Julie shuddered. That kind of brainwashing sounded awful.

...

"Did you hear anything peculiar on the night of the incident? Anything at all that sounded alarming or worrying?"

At first Marianne and Harold wracked their brains for a memory they could recall... until something alarming came back to them pretty crystal clear. That terrifying, horrifying, bloodcurdling scream.

Harold swallowed. "My wife and I... heard screaming last night. We had no idea it was coming from Bubbles. But it was a really... horrific scream."

It was a scream they had done nothing but complain about when they heard it.

'Jesus!' Harold had said, while he was lying in his bed. 'What the heck was that?'

'Irritating little brats!' Marianne had spat hatefully at the sound. 'What are they up to this time?'

The idea that something as horrendous as sexual abuse could've been going on just outside of their walls in the next house over and that Marianne had essentially called Bubbles a brat for expressing her horror and pain at it while it was going on honestly made the woman want to throw up from guilt as well as sheer revulsion.

The usually perky woman began to tremble and covered her mouth, making a face that could only be described as anguished.

Harold Smith expressed his remorse too. He was a father as well and if any of his own children had been screaming like that, there was no way in hell he would've just sat idly by and dismissed it. "I seriously regret not doing anything about it but I didn't know what was going on at the time so I just..." He heard a break in his own voice, a sheen of moisture filling his eyes. "... ignored it."

And that was how evil progressed in the world didn't it? As Albert Einstein once said, 'The world will not be destroyed by those that do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.'

"I really wish I didn't now. I wish I had at least called the police."

...

Meanwhile in the background, the children gasped from the other side.

"Was that what that was?" Buddy asked in shock. He turned towards his sister and asked her, "I definitely heard a scream last night, didn't you?"

"Uh-huh!" Julie shared. "But I didn't know it was Bubbles! It sure was loud..."

"Yeah, it sounded bad. Almost like something out of a horror movie! Do you think..." He lowered his voice down to a whisper. "Do you think her dad was hurting her?"

And not just hurting her by hitting her, which would merely be an act of physical abuse. But hurting her in a way that would be irredeemable from any angle. In a way even prison inmates had a code about in the slammer.

"Gosh, I hope not!" Julie gasped. "If so, I hope he goes to jail!"

"Yeah, I agree." Buddy said, nodding his head with conviction. "And that they never let him out.."

...

"It's true, we did hear her scream." Marianne confessed, feeling like a criminal again. Not because she had done anything, but because she hadn't done anything. "God bless that poor child..." She too felt her voice breaking.

"Just remember," The officer reminded them both gently. "We're not saying that the Professor actually did anything to his daughter. Those details haven't come out yet."

"We know." Harold said, taking a moment to take off his glasses and wipe the moisture from his eyes, comforting his wife as she stopped to do the same, wiping her running nose. "It's just the thought that saddens us."

"I understand. Now, can you tell me how long this screaming lasted? Was it long and relentless? Did it last throughout the night?"

"Well, I wouldn't exactly call it relentless, but I wouldn't call it short-lived either. It was like this... long agonized wail. And then it was over. Kind of like there was this big moment of pain, and then it all stopped."

The cops looked at each other. This could actually fit with everything that the Professor, the victim, and the sisters of the victim had told them in their forensic interviews with them. They all confirmed that the child had screamed at the time of the incident as soon as she hit the beanbag, and that the scream was from the pain of the accident.

They nodded their heads at the couple, grateful for their valuable information. "Well Smith family, we thank you for your time as well as for your personal eyewitness accounts. If this case ever reaches trial, would you two be willing to take the stand?"

"Absolutely." Marianne immediately answered.

"Yes, I would too." Harold agreed without hesitation. "Any time, any place. That little girl needs someone to be her advocate... and so do the rest of those girls, her sisters."

"Where exactly are the kids now?" His wife ventured to ask.

"They're currently being held in a protective custody status while they're all still at the hospital. It's an emergency situation so we haven't talked to a judge about our decision yet. There's usually a hearing for these types of emergency removals. So for now, they're in CPS custody."

"Are they in foster care at all?"

"Not yet. The investigation hasn't really gotten that far yet. Also in all honesty," He stopped to scratch the back of his head with his next confession. "We wouldn't really know where to put them to be honest. They're good girls, but they do have superpowers and that kind of situation is unpredictable for everyone involved."

"Well what if-" Harold Smith couldn't believe he was really about to ask this but he felt like he owed it to those Girls with the situation they were all currently in. "What if they were to stay with us for a while? Just until things finally blew over? I know we're not exactly family but we would at least be familiar faces. Certainly less scary than having to stay in a stranger's home where they wouldn't know what to expect."

"We'd be glad to welcome them into our own home if they ever truly needed it!" Marianne said, also looking for redemption when it came to her actions and inactions before. "That could be temporarily... or maybe even permanently. If that's what would be needed in the long-run."

...

Bud and Julie gaped from the other side.

"Take in the Powerpuff Girls?"

"That means that they would be our sisters!" Julie excitedly said. "That would be so cool, Bud!"

"That would only be if things moved into adoption, but that would be pretty cool!"

...

The officer smiled gently at them. "Well, as we said before, things really haven't gotten quite that far. But if there's ever a situation where we truly need your services, I'll be sure to remember your offer."

...

Since there were sounds that were hinting at the officers finishing their visit and their mom and dad getting ready to come back into the house, the previously eavesdropping children quickly scampered back into the kitchen, picking up their eating utensils and pretending to be doing nothing more than sitting quietly at their seats and finishing their waffles all of this time.

"So mommy, what was that all about?" Julie asked innocently, playing the part of the unsuspecting party.

"Yeah, we were just sitting here, doing exactly as you said. Staying out of it entirely." Buddy added a little too specifically in his denial.

Their parents raised an eyebrow at them but decided to buy their story for now. Whether they had eavesdropped on their conversation or not, nothing was really set in stone as to what would be happening next.

"Nothing you kids need to be concerned about unless it truly becomes a problem." Harold shared cryptically, not really giving them any more than that. "Though I'll say this," The man muttered. "Maybe I was right to try to melt the Professor's head off back then..."

"And maybe I should have let you." Marianne added.

It was long before school hours when the police vehicle parked itself in front of an empty lot at Pokey Oaks Kindergarten. The few kids who were left meandering around outside on the blacktop before the main entrance took a moment to stop what they were doing and gawk at the vehicle, as well as the police officers that stepped outside of it.

Police officers were a big deal whenever they showed up at Pokey Oaks Kindergarten. The last time they showed up, the Powerpuff Girls, their own classmates had been detained and put under arrest for criminal acts they did not truly commit! Instead it was a bunch of grown men merely dressed as the Powerpuff Girls committing these acts, and they were dressed quite poorly at that.

The kids' curiosity won out over any shyness and it wasn't long before they nearly started swarming the officers, asking them all kinds of questions about why they were here.

"Whoa! Is somebody being arrested sir?"

"No kids. Nobody's being arrested. We just need to talk with your teacher inside for a little while."

"Oh. Well class doesn't start until 7!" Mary reminded them, thinking that this would impede their efforts a little.

"That's okay, sweetheart. I think your teacher will make an exception for us."

"Is Miss Keane being arrested?" Mitchel Mitchelson asked, grinning from ear to ear at this scandalous possibility.

"No, she isn't being arrested either, you little devil." The officer teased him. "Now stop being little instigators you kids, and get on back to playing! You only get to be a kid once in this world!"

These kids were a cooperative bunch so they did what they were told immediately, going back to their games of hopscotch, jump rope, and general horsing around and fun.

Now it was time to confront their teacher inside.

They found her immediately at her desk, getting everything prepared for her class that morning and she happened to spot the cops as soon as they spotted her and greeted them with warmness if not also a fair bit of surprise.

"Oh! Good morning, officers. I didn't expect to see any of you here today. Is there anything I can do for you today?"

"Yes, as a matter-of-fact you can." One of them announced. "We were wondering if you would be willing to take a little time out of your day before your class starts to do a little interview with us that could also act as a bit of a character testimony?"

"Sure!" Miss Keane agreed, always willing to help out with the law. "Who would be the character in question that I would be giving a testimony about?"

"The Professor." The other officer answered readily. "Mr. Professor Utonium?"

"The Professor?" Miss Keane was slightly surprised. "You mean the Powerpuff Girls' dad?"

"Yes. You would be the Girls' teacher, correct?"

"Yes I would." Miss Keane was proud to share this fact with them. It was an honor getting to teach the Girls. They were all wonderfully bright and engaging students and she couldn't help but feel motherly to them at times.

"Well ma'am, there's no easy way to say this, but this whole thing started off of a referral from a hospital concerning one of the Girls, and the Professor is currently being investigated for the possibility of sexual abuse."

Miss Keane's face couldn't have turned into anything more horrified when she heard those words come out of the officer's mouth. Her eyes widened, her mouth dropped, she leaned forward in her chair, and her brows knitted themselves together with a mixture of astonishment, confusion, and absolute abhorrence.

"WHAT?!" She exclaimed, loudly and brazenly. Nearly loud enough for all the kids playing outside to hear her.

"Now ma'am," The officer put a calming hand on her shoulder, forcing her to sit back down. "Let me tell you right now that this is currently only an investigation at this stage. Nothing has actually been confirmed and no charges have been made. So far the Professor has been entirely cooperative with us during this entire process and his story over what exactly happened to his daughter hasn't changed at all."

"Oh, okay." Miss Keane breathed a sigh of relief. She knew that didn't exactly make him out of the woods yet, but she would have been horrified beyond belief if any of these allegations had actually been confirmed to be true. "So, what exactly do you have so far?"

And they both told her the entire story, same as they did the Smiths. Miss Keane expressed the same amount of concern for Bubbles in particular and also for the rest of her sisters.

"Oh goodness! That doesn't sound like that was fun at all for her to have to experience-" If in fact it had only been an unfortunate accident on a beanbag while she was naked. Miss Keane wasn't exactly immune to injuries like that either. She remembered a similar incident happening to her when she was a little girl.

Back in the 50s, playground equipment was a bit less safe and Keane could distinctly remember falling on a set of bars that hurt her crotch area pretty bad and made her bleed through her underwear. She had been more scared than hurt and screamed and cried all the way to the nurse's office. Her mother had came to pick her up and solved the problem with a gentle application of a cloth and some bed rest. Luckily for her, her case wasn't bad enough to go to the hospital.

'Oh, this doesn't look too bad.' Her mother had said soothingly after gently pulling down her undergarments and taking a look at the splotches of fresh blood on her linen. 'Are you sure this isn't your period, Sandy? Does your stomach hurt at all?'

'No! I fell on the bars and it hurt mommy! A lot!'

'Okay. It was simply an accident then. Let's get that washed off and then take care of you with some warm tea.'

"You know an accident like that could be possible. I remember hurting my private parts once like that on a piece of playground equipment. There was blood in that case too and the stains are still on my school dress, but I never had to go to the hospital for it. I just had to get treated at home. To need an operation like that... poor, poor Bubbles."

She couldn't imagine needing an operation. Her injuries had to be much more severe for that. She truly hoped the child would not suffer permanent damage to that delicate area of her body for the future.

The officer nodded. "Accidental injuries to the anogenital area do happen in that vein, even serious ones, though those are more rare. This is the main reason why we're checking to make sure that this was indeed the case."

That made sense then. This wasn't anything criminal yet. This was simply a safeguarding measure. Miss Keane calmed down considerably, a visible tension leaving her shoulders.

"We're here to ask you if as a teacher, there was ever a time where you had to make some type of report or heard or saw anything strange in the Girls that could've possibly suggested that things weren't quite right at home. Red flags, suspicions, behavioral, emotional, or physical signs, things like that."

"Not at all!" Miss Keane replied. "If I did I would've called the child abuse hotline right away with my suspicions! It's my job to look out for things like that in my students and I never once saw a single sign of abuse or neglect in the Girls. They were always normal. Perfect, normal, well-behaved little girls..."

"Nothing out of the ordinary?"

"No." She shook her head strongly again. "I would've definitely made a report and called the child welfare hotline if there was. The girls always played normally with their peers, slept very well at naptime, and never acted inappropriately with their classmates, themselves, or their toys in their play. They never said anything suggestive or worrying to me either. They never had any knowledge about topics they really shouldn't have..."

"On top of all that... I grew up with the Professor." Miss Keane shared. "Now I know that might make me sound slightly biased and I realize that just because I grew up with him, that doesn't mean I know absolutely everything about him, but in all the time we've spent together as kids, adolescents, and even adults, I never once saw him commit or even think about committing one deviant act, especially towards a child!"

She paused to make a scowl, a truly dark and ugly one. "If any of that was in him, if I had a single doubt, heaven would have had to have mercy on that man because I certainly wouldn't! Those Girls are truly everything to me and I wouldn't be able to sleep comfortably at night if I felt that anything was wrong and I didn't do everything within my power to try to protect them."

This was a good answer for the officers and they couldn't help but smile at her, admiring her for her dedication to her students and her job. That wasn't always in every single educator.

"Well, I think you'll be glad to know that Bubbles is mostly doing fine after her operation and we're pretty confident that she will be making a full recovery without any further complications. That part of the body is actually pretty darn remarkable when it comes to healing tears and injuries. In fact, you can probably expect to see her back in your classroom less than a week from now, fully ambulatory."

"Oh, that's remarkable news then! I can't wait to have her back with us and that includes the rest of the Girls. I'm sure they can't wait until this whole thing is over either..."

Another smile was flashed her way, "Ma'am, you really don't even know the half of it."

The Girls weren't just waiting for this thing to be over; they were practically dying over it, Buttercup and Blossom in particular feeling some real heartbreaking separation anxiety from being away from their father. The only reason they were even still in CPS custody now was because they had agreed to it, if only to make their father happy. If not, they could have easily escaped with their superpowers or ran away to who knows where.

Hopefully for them all, they were all reaching a finish line here with a happy ending just waiting in the works...