Chapter 6:
"This is sooo pretty," Andi said happily.
She was standing in front of the mirror at one of the mall's department stores modeling an elegant emerald evening dress. Emma smiled at the excited, happy tone in the girl's voice and said, "Do you like it?"
Andi turned to her, delight written all over her face. "Like it? It's gorgeous!" She twirled, watching the full skirt move with her. "You have wonderful taste. Everything Mother bought me always looked so juvenile." She turned to Emma. "Are you sure you want me to come to your company party? I mean, I know I've been to Mother and Father's parties before, but I was only down there long enough to greet the guests and help the butler take the coats, play the piano so all their friends could be suitably impressed with my talent, and then I'd get sent to my room. Sometimes the housekeeper would remember to bring up dinner, but she often forgot, and I didn't get anything to eat."
"Of course I'm sure," Emma said, getting up to adjust a twisted strap on the dress. "I wouldn't have asked if I wasn't sure. And don't you think your Mom needs a break from you? She's been with you almost daily for the last few months, helping you deal with your injuries and stuff, and she'd probably like to spend some time with the other teachers at the school." She straightened the strap, then looked at Andi's reflection in the mirror. "It does look good. Do you want to see the other dresses I found, or do you really like this one?"
"I like this one…but I can't resist a teeny peek at the others you found."
Emma smiled at this show of girlish vanity and held up a long, slinky black gown. "I saw this one, and I thought maybe you would like something that would show off your figure."
Andi gave a rather unladylike snort. "Why would I want to show off this bag of bones?" she sniffed disdainfully. "If I had a body like yours I'd show it off, but I don't, and I never will."
Emma smiled. "Don't say never, Andi," she said. "Eat more, fill out some, and you'll be lovely."
Andi looked at Emma hopefully. "You really think so?"
Emma nodded. "Andi, the first time I saw you when your Mom brought you home, I'll admit, I did think you were kind of skinny. But you've been eating well over the last few weeks, and even though you really should be done growing, the doctor said you've shot up four inches. Five-six is the perfect height for a woman, Andi. You're still shorter than most guys, but not so much shorter that anyone's going to have to bend to kiss you. And you've put on a bit more weight."
Andi sighed. "I guess you're right," she said. "What else did you find?"
Emma pushed aside an armful of sheath dresses to pick up the deep cranberry strapless dress that had caught her eye. Andi stood speechless for a moment, her eyes wide with delight. "Well?" Emma said after a moment.
"It's wonderful," Andi said breathlessly. "Oh, I like this one even better than the one I've got on! But I can't wear it, it's strapless."
"Strapless dresses are the in thing this year,' Emma said. "It's considered acceptable to wear a strapless gown to Christmas parties this year, as long as it's a suitable color."
"No, that's not what I meant," Andi said. "I have scars on the back of my shoulders. They don't show when I wear this green dress, but they'll show if I wear that one." She shook her head. "I like this green one."
"Then we'll get that one." Emma picked up the dresses. "Go back in and take it off. We'll stop down in the shoe section next to get shoes, and then a handbag and some jewelry."
"All this just for a party?" Andi's eyes grew wide.
"Andi, I throw very lavish parties," Emma smiled. "You need to have something elegant."
The younger girl disappeared into the fitting room, and Emma waited patiently for her to come out. She took the dress and started to walk off, then turned as Andi hesitated. "Shouldn't we put the other ones back?" she asked.
Emma smiled. "Andi, they have people who are paid to put them away. In stores, Andi, don't do anything that other people are paid to do." She led the way over to the escalator and started down to the lower floor of the store, where shoes and accessories were. "Let me demonstrate."
Andi watched wide-eyed as Emma breezed through the shoes, selecting a few that would match, and then haughtily requesting that the awed salesperson bring the requested shoes in Andi's size. She found a pair that fit and that she liked, and watched interestedly as Emma, still commanding and imperious, ordered the saleswoman to ring up and bag them. Then, when the sale price didn't come up on the receipt, Emma threw a showy tantrum and demanded that they fix the problem and refund her credit card immediately. She would never have had the nerve to do that, as she informed Emma as they left the Shoe department and headed for Jewelry.
"If you don't assert yourself, Andi, you'll end up getting walked on the rest of your life. You're eighteen today; that puts you on equal footing with everyone else. When you're little, everyone who's more than five years older than you gets to order you around. When you become an adult, and you start working, the only ones who can give you orders in the expectation that you'll obey them are your parents and teachers, and eventually your boss. If you walk into a store to buy something, and the salespeople don't act as respectfully as they should, you have a right to insist that they do. Here's the jewelry section; let me show you what I mean. Do it your way. Ask one of the salesgirls over there to show you some emerald jewelry to match your dress." Emma stood back to watch.
Andi walked up to the counter, located the emerald case, and then looked at the salesgirls expectantly. There were two of them standing by the registers, talking. One was chewing gum. She looked up, saw Andi standing there, gave her a cold look, then returned to her conversation. Andi cleared her throat. "Excuse me, Ma'am, could you show me the necklace here?" she tapped the glass counter of the display case.
The girl sighed expressively, rolled her eyes, and walked over. "Whatcha want to see?" she said laconically, snapping her gum.
"This one," Andi indicated a lovely emerald and diamond pendant on a slim gold chain. "I'd like to see the necklace and the bracelet, if you please."
The girl snapped open the lock on the case and took out the necklace. Andi held it up to her neck, liking the way the gold offset the deep green color of the stone. "How much is it, please?"
"Oh, it's way too expensive for you," the salesgirl said contemptuously. "You'll want to check out the costume jewelry around the corner for something for a school dance." She took the necklace and bracelet off the counter and put it back in the case without a word to Andi and walked back to the other girl at the register.
Andi turned and walked over to where Emma was standing. "They were rude!"
Emma smiled. "You noticed that? Okay; now I want you to walk up to that case and demand to see the necklace you were looking at. Take the upper hand; be as rude to them as they just were to you."
Andi turned and looked back at the girls behind the counter, and then back at Emma, then nodded. She turned and started to walk back to the counter, but Emma stopped her. "Andi. Relax, don't look so tense. Hold your head up. Look like you're the one in charge, because you are. Did you see how I acted in the shoe department?" At Andi's nod, she said, "Do it like that."
Andi turned and walked toward the counter. As she went, Emma watched Andi transform. By the time she reached the counter, she was walking as though she owned the world and was completely confident with herself. "Excuse me," She said, rapping gently on the glass countertop. "Can I get some help here?"
The girl who helped her before turned, looked at her, and wandered over. "Couldn't find anything you liked over there?"
"No. I didn't; it's all cheap costume stuff. I have a corporate Christmas party I have to go to and I want something nice. Now show me the necklace and bracelet I was looking at a few minutes ago." She didn't say please.
The girl unlocked the case and drew them out quickly. Andi looked at it, and then waved a hand at them. "Not quite what I was looking for. Don't you have anything else? Is this all you have?" At the girl's timid nod, Andi said airily, "Well, then I don't see anything here I'd like. You can put that back." She walked away, leaving the salesgirl staring dumbfounded at her back.
Emma applauded, grinning, as Andi came up to her. "That was perfect. Remember, Andi, if you don't buy from them, the company doesn't make the money to pay their paycheck. They have to be respectful."
Andi giggled. "I remembered seeing my mother act like that on one of the few times she took me out shopping. The salespeople were all really nice to her when she came in and when she left." She giggled. "That was kind of fun, ordering someone around and making them jump like I had to when my mother ordered me around. At least they're getting paid. I didn't get anything." A note of bitterness crept into Andi's voice, but she brightened when they headed for another jewelry store.
She was still talking to Emma animatedly when they pulled up in front of the house and Emma saw two strange cars in front of the house. A tall blond woman, a shorter woman with cropped brown hair, and a short Asian man with a warm smile and a sharp gaze were sitting in the family room when Emma and Andi stepped in.
"Hi," said the tall blond woman, standing and holding out her hand. "I'm Alexandra Cabot, the Assistant District Attorney. This is Detective Olivia Benson, and Dr. Huang. You're Alexandra?"
Andi took a deep breath and extended a hand. "You're the one Mom said were coming to prepare me for the trial."
"Yes," Miss Cabot said, sitting back down as Andi sat down in the big easy chair in front of the window. Emma took Andi's coat and bags and took them into her bedroom quietly, then returned to the family room, where Cabot was talking.
"The defense filed a motion to keep your testimony private. Dr. Hebron's attorney thinks that having you up there on the stand crying is going to be detrimental to his defense. The jury will see, and they will sympathize, and he'll be convicted. The judge ordered me to come here and question you , get your testimony on tape, then have it turned into a transcript and read to the jury. You will only have to be in the courtroom for the cross-examination."
"You mean, I don't have to sit up there and tell everyone what they did?" Andi looked visibly relieved.
"No. You only have to tell it once, here," said the Asian man. "I'm here to make sure you get a break if you need it. Olivia's here to check up on your living conditions and make sure you're okay."
Benson stood. "Could you show me around your house, Miss Munroe?" she said quietly. Ororo got up, with a glance back at Andi, who nodded.
Emma said, "I'll stay with her, Ororo. I can reinforce her shielding if it collapses under the stress." Ororo left with Detective Benson, and Andi turned her attention to Alexandra Cabot and the psychiatrist.
"Start at the beginning," Cabot coaxed Andi. "Tell me about the first time you saw Dr. Hebron. How did you meet him?"
Slowly, hesitantly, Andi started to talk. "I was having trouble with my empathy. All these emotions and feelings were swamping my head, and I was trying desperately to hang onto the little part of my mind that was 'me.' Three of the servants my parents hired for the house were in a bad mood that day, and I couldn't control the emotions their minds were pouring into my head. I started kicking and screaming, throwing things, and pounding my head against the wall trying to stop the emotions crowding each other out in my head. Mother said I was out of control and she locked me in my punishment closet for the day to keep me from breaking anything or hurting anyone else. When she let me out I was desperate. I couldn't bear another day of having all those thoughts in my head. I told Mother that if she didn't find someone to help me I would end up hurting someone else, maybe her or Father." Andi took a deep breath.
"She out me back in the closet for what seemed like weeks, but I found out later was really only four days. She didn't let me out, she didn't give me anything to eat, or anything to drink, no matter how hard I begged or cried. I finally gave up. When she finally opened the closet door four days later, I was weak from hunger, dying of thirst, and covered in my own waste, because there wasn't a way to relieve myself tidily.
"I remember waking up out of the stupor I had fallen into and seeing Dr. Hebron's face. He was saying something to my parents, I didn't catch what it was, and then there was a needle prick in my arm. I think it was a sedative; I didn't wake up until I was at the asylum.
"At the asylum, I woke up strapped to a table. As soon as I woke, all those emotions just crashed into me. I thought the people at home were bad; now I wanted to go home, so badly. I had never felt so many conflicting emotions all at once. Anger, sadness, pain, happiness, and so many other emotions, all overwhelming me. I screamed. I remember Dr. Hebron saying something, but I couldn't concentrate. Finally in frustration, he gestured to an orderly and told him to take me 'downstairs'.
"'Downstairs' was in the cellars. When I first got there it was bare. Dr. Hebron put my arms in a straightjacket, then tied my ankles together with rope. He wanted to keep me from hurting myself, he said. An orderly came down every now and then to give me water, and a few bites of food; mostly bread. It was never much; it actually left me hungrier than if they hadn't fed me at all.
"I started to sing to myself, to hang on to my sanity. I soon found that if I sang loud enough in my head, I could block out the other emotions that weren't mine. When Dr. Hebron brought me upstairs again, he explained that he wanted me to help him with my experiments. He said that if I did that then I could go home.
"When I gained control over the emotions by singing in my head, he told me that I needed it to be unshakable. He taped electrodes to my shoulders, breasts, kidneys, spine, and hips, and electrocuted me repeatedly at higher and higher settings until I passed out. Then he would wake me up and do it again." Andi turned in her chair and lifted the back of her shirt just a bit. On her lower back, right where her kidneys were, were two perfectly circular patches of burned, scarred skin. Emma almost flinched at the sight.
She went on, telling them about her eventual release, her return home, and then her return to Dr. Hebron's home. Cabot listened, sometimes taking notes even though it was all being recorded on tape. Then she said, "Can you tell us what happened at Dr. Hebron's home when you were taken there the second time?"
Andi bit her lip nervously, but started to talk. "I woke up to the prick of a needle. Dr. Hebron injected a stimulant into my arm to wake me up Preston was already there; Dr. Hebron said he was a telepath, and he had already entered my mind and found out I was shielded. He wanted me to drop my shields.
"I told him I couldn't, because they weren't mine. Mr. Xavier put it up around my mind, not me. I didn't know how; and I don't think I could have brought it down even if I did. I told them that. They didn't believe me. Dr. Hebron took my clothes off and dragged me down to his basement, where he stuffed me into a little concrete closet and left me there.
"He gave me drugged water, and I fell asleep. I thought I must have been asleep an entire night, because he'd adjusted the clock in his study to make me think a whole day passed. I don't know exactly how long it was, but when I awoke, he was taping my eyelids open He burned my eyes with a high-powered strobe light, and when that didn't bring the shields down, he started electrocuting me again, until my whole body jumped uncontrollably.
"When that didn't work, he took me back down to the cellar and beat my back with his belt until I passed out. He woke me up and did the same to my front, and when the shield still didn't come down Preston offered to make it come down. He bent me over a table and tied me with my feet still on the floor, then he…he…violated my backside…a lot of times. I screamed and cried. I fought, as hard as I could, but when I started kicking Dr. Hebron brought out his belt and beat my legs until they were numb. I cried, I swore I was telling the truth and I couldn't bring the shield down, but no matter what I did he wouldn't stop. He himself first, then when he couldn't stay rigid anymore he used a sawed-off broom handle. He continued with bigger and bigger things until I was bleeding and barely conscious. My rear hurt so bad, I wanted to die.
"He left me tied to the table for a long time, then he came back and did it all again. I finally did pass out; and when I woke up again I was in the hospital, and Mom was with me…" She got up as Ororo came in with the detective and fled into her arms.
Ororo held her tight as she sobbed for a while, then said, "Miss Cabot. Can we continue this another day? Please. I think Andi has had enough."
"It's all right." Alex reached over and switched off the tape recorder. "We have what we need. Andi, just do the same thing you just did for us during the cross-examination, and you'll be fine. Thank you." She patted the girl's shoulders gently as Emma escorted her, the detective, and the doctor out.