Chapter 7: Trial
(Author's Note: I borrowed Alexandra Cabot, Dr. George Huang, Detective Olivia Benson, and Detective Elliot Stabler from Dick Wolf, and the usual characters from Marvel. I'll return all of them when I'm done, so don't sue please!)
"Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?"
"I do." Andi took a deep breath as she sat, tucking her suit skirt neatly under her thighs. She clasped her hands tightly in her lap to stop them from shaking and mentally rechecked her shields, then looked at Charles, Ororo and Emma, sitting in the front row just behind Miss Cabot, and gave them a nervous smile.
The judge adjusted his glasses. "The jury has already heard the tape of your private testimony, Miss Sanderson, so this cross examination will be the only time you are compelled to be in this courtroom. If at any time you want to stop, tell me and I'll declare a recess until you feel ready to go on." Andi nodded and mustered a weak smile, then turned to face Hebron and Childs' lawyer.
"So, Andi," the lawyer started to speak. "I trust you are happy now that you have gotten what you wanted?"
Andi said firmly, "Alexandra. Only my mother and my friends call me Andi. And you and your client are no friends of mine."
The lawyer looked a little taken aback. "Alexandra, then. Are you happy now?"
Andi said, "Yes."
The lawyer walked up to her. "You've been planning for this for so long, haven't you. You just waited fro someone appropriate to come along before you threw yourself at them. Or in your case, her. Miss Munroe was perfect for you, wasn't she? A soft-hearted woman who you could manipulate, the same way you manipulated your parents and my clients?"
Andi's brows knit together. "That's not how it was."
"Really? Because that's what it looks like. It's not the first time you've pulled this stunt, is it?" The lawyer walked back to the defense table, at which Dr. Hebron and Preston Childs were sitting, and picked up a file folder. Andi was carefully trying to avoid looking at them, so she cast her eyes down to her hands, folded in her lap, and studied her fingers. "I have here a copy of your file. At the first school you were in, a teacher, a Miss Dearborn, filed a complaint with Child Protective Services on your behalf. Nothing came of it; the social worker who went to interview your parents found the allegations of abuse were unfounded.
"But that didn't deter you, didn't it? When you figured no one else at the school would help you, you started a fight in the cafeteria with three other girls at your school, forcing the school to expel you in order to preserve order and protect the other students in the school. Your parents found another one, and you did the same thing there--"
"It wasn't like that," Andi protested, but the man went on.
"—and at the next school, and at the next one. Then when you were fifteen and you had gotten out of the hospital, your parents couldn't find another school for you, but you were so desperate for attention that you threw yourself down the stairs--"
"Objection!" Alex Cabot shot to her feet.
"Sustained," the judge said dryly. "Is there a question in all this, Mr. Peters?"
"I'm getting to that, Your Honor," the lawyer said. "Now, Alexandra, isn't it true that you did it for attention?"
Andi's voice was barely above a whisper. "I did it for my parents' attention! They didn't care about me half the time, they ignored me, and the only way I could get their attention was by causing trouble so they'd acknowledge my existence--"
"Answer the question, Alexandra," the lawyer said. "Did you do it for attention?"
Andi bit her lip. "Yes," she finally replied in a barely-audible whisper.
"I didn't hear that," the lawyer leaned in. "Repeat that please?"
"Yes," Andi said a bit louder.
The lawyer stepped back. "So my client comes to see you at the urging of your parents. When he gets there he finds you sitting in a closet. Your mother told him you had refused to eat or drink anything, and violently threatened her with bodily injury if she tried to force you to eat. You also refused to use the bathroom available just down the hall, preferring to sit in your own waste. All this just for attention? What did you think when your parents told you that Dr. Hebron was going to take you with him? 'At last, someone who will spoil me and pamper me'?"
"Objection!" Cabot rose to her feet again.
"Sustained. Move it along, Mr. Peters."
The lawyer walked in a circle, rubbing his chin, then turned to Andi again. "What were you thinking when you got to Dr. Hebron's hospital? Did you think you were getting an easy ride?"
Andi's face flushed. "I wasn't thinking anything when I got there," she snapped. "I was drugged. Dr. Hebron sedated me before I even left my parents' house. I woke up strapped to a table in that awful asylum."
"But you were strapped to that table to protect you from yourself, according to my client," said the lawyer. 'You were raving, violent. He had to confine you to a room downstairs to keep you from hurting yourself or someone else. And you were sedated because you were having a raving, psychotic fit, isn't that right?"
"No!" Andi half-rose out of her chair. "I wasn't psychotic; I have an empathic gift that I couldn't control! I needed to learn to shield!"
"And Dr. Hebron did do that for you, didn't he? When you were finally returned to your parents' home you were back under control. In fact, your parents noticed a hundred and eighty degree turn from your previous behavior. You were ungovernable before; Dr. Hebron taught you self-control. Your parents were gratified with the change. He had done so well, moreover, that you spent an entire year at home under your parents' eye, learning form tutors. You were a joy to be around, according to your parents. No more fits, no more screaming. In fact, you were so good your parents decided to try sending you to another school, against my client's advice, I might add. And according to their account of what happened there, you were in the process of doing the same thing there, weren't you? You were making a scene, trying to attract attention. So my client took you, in accordance with your parents' wishes, and attempted to retrain you. But you had succeeded this time. You lied you way into your teachers' confidences and got them to pull strings for you. They took you away, and now you have a new home. Your new mother is a teacher, right? It doesn't leave a whole lot of time for you; what are you going to do when she tells you she doesn't have time for you? Create a scene again, get yourself sent to a different home?"
Andi sat stunned. They had taken her words and actions and twisted them all around. When the lawyer paused for breath, she spoke. "I never told Mrs. Dearborn anything. The day I came back from the holiday break she saw the bruises where my mother had beaten me with a metal yardstick because I messed up while playing a piano piece for one of her guests! I had bruises all over my legs; I couldn't sit comfortably. She saw that, and filed a complaint against my parents with Child Protective Services. But by the time they came to investigate my parents, the bruises had faded, and I was too terrified of getting another beating from my mother to tell them the truth right there in front of my parents."
Andi took a deep breath. "I never threatened my mother. She was the one who locked me in that closet. She was the one who didn't let me eat or drink anything. She refused to let me out to go to the bathroom. When the closet door opened and I saw Dr. Hebron for the first time all I thought was that maybe someone would finally let me out, let me get cleaned up, and I could get something to drink. That was what my parents called my punishment closet. When I was bad I would get beaten with a belt or the metal yardstick, and once it was a wooden branch off a tree in the backyard. After the beating I'd get put in the closet, sometimes only for a night, but often for several days. While I was in there I would get nothing to eat or drink, nor did they let me out to go to the bathroom. When I was younger my mother would put a can in there for me to use, but later she said I had to learn to control myself, so I didn't get that anymore.
"Dr. Hebron was using me for his research, pure and simple. He wanted me to control my empathy so I could tell him what his unresponsive patients in the asylum were feeling. He electrocuted me; it hurt terribly. I have scars. See here…" and Andi stood up in the witness box and lifted the edge of her shirt, revealing the two circular scars on her lower back. The jurors in the jury box bit back gasps of horror. She pointed to Dr. Hebron, who was sitting in his chair at the defense table, his face expressionless. "You did this to me!" Andi said to him, tears falling unnoticed down her face. "You hurt me! And when you took me the second time, you let him hurt me too!" She looked at Preston Childs, sitting beside Dr. Hebron. Unlike the doctor, Childs was sitting forward in his seat, frowning slightly as he leaned forward. It was only then that Andi realized what that slight vibration in her mental shield was; Preston had been battering against it since she had walked in. "You," she whimpered, her eyes filling with tears. "How could you let him near me? You tied me down for him! You let him hurt me! I cried, I begged you to make him stop, I promised you I would do anything if you'd make him stop, but you didn't…you let him…do…" Andi couldn't go on. She buried her face in her hands and dissolved into tears.
Ororo ignored the hand Xavier stretched out to stop her. She sprang out of the bench behind the prosecution's table and ran to the witness box, reaching out and folding Andi in a giant hug. Andi buried her face in Ororo's shoulder and sobbed in misery, and as Ororo tied to calm her down she noticed that several members of the jury had damp eyes too. The judge quietly said, 'I think that's enough. Mr. Peters, do you have anything else to say?"
Hebron's lawyer must have realized how bad a blow his defense must have just received, because he sat down abruptly. "No further questions, you honor." He turned to confer with Hebron. Alex Cabot had no other questions either. The judge said, "Then let's take a ten minute recess, and then I'll hear closing arguments from both sides."
Ororo was escorting Andi out of the witness box when Andi suddenly stiffened in her arms. Her face twisted in pain. Ororo looked at her, and Andi whispered, "Preston…he's…Mom…" And she suddenly grabbed her temples crying in pain. Emma sprang up and flew to Ororo's side, helping her sit Andi up, then touched her mind lightly. Her shielding, strong up till now, had suddenly collapsed. Emma was about to impose her own shields over Andi's mind when she felt the unmistakable sensation of another mind brushing hers. It retreated quickly, but Emma knew who it was instantly; Preston Childs.
"Get that man out of here!" She snapped. "He's trying to tamper with her mind!"
The judge nodded to the bailiff, who quickly plucked Childs out of his seat and rushed him out of the courtroom. Andi sat there, shaking, as Ororo wiped her face. "He was sitting there the whole time I was up there trying to get into my shields," she said to Emma and Charles. "I could feel my shield vibrating, but I didn't expect it to collapse like that."
"It's all right," Emma said comfortingly. "Come on. Let's get you to the bathroom and get you washed up and cleaned up."
Twenty minutes later, Andi was firmly ensconced in the bench between Emma and Ororo as they listened to Alex Cabot give her closing argument. "Ladies and gentlemen, let's look past the issue of any of the parties having mutant gifts for a moment. This is not a case where that should matter. What we have is a badly-victimized young girl who has been neglected and abused by her parents, passed over by the system, and failed utterly by the people who are supposed to care for her. Over the years several people have tried to reach out to her and help her; but have been ignored. Someone finally cared enough to do what was necessary. You all heard the evidence from the doctor who treated her; she has been starved, brutalized, and horrifically abused. She now has a home with people who care about her and love her. Give her some closure; let her find peace. Convict this man who has hurt her so badly."
The judge gave instructions to the jury and sent them off to make a decision. Alex Cabot, Olivia Benson, Elliot Stabler, and Dr. Huang approached Andi where she sat between Ororo and Emma. Benson broke the silence first. "Are you all right?"
Andi looked up with a watery, weak smile. "Yes, I'm all right now, thank you. I've just learned to shield, and they're still a little unsteady. Preston Childs was pushing at them while I was up there; they just collapsed. I'm sorry I made such a fuss."
"Oh, no, don't be sorry," the man, Detective Stabler, said kindly. Andi liked him; he had a kind face. "You did pretty well up there; I'm sorry we didn't catch him doing it earlier."
Xavier asked Alex, 'So what happens now, Counselor?"
"We wait for the jury to come back with a conviction. I don't think we'll have any problems; the evidence was overwhelming."
Dr. Huang nodded. "A lot of the jurors will see this exactly the way we do; what was done to Alexandra was despicable. I am glad to see that she hasn't suffered any lasting injury from all this; she's a very strong girl."
* * *
It only took two hours for the jury to come back with a verdict. Andi heard the foreperson read off a list of 'guilty' findings to each of the charges, and her knees went weak with relief. The judge motioned Alex up to his desk as the onlookers began to file slowly out of the courtroom. "I am surprised that the child's parents were not here under the same charges."
"At the time Dr. Hebron and Preston Childs was arrested I was unaware that Andi's parents had also victimized their daughter," Alex said. "Charges are currently pending--"
"You mean you got caught flatfooted, Counselor. I'm fixing that for you." He handed Alex a piece of paper. "I am issuing a warrant for the parents' arrest as well. I want them in jail by the end of the week."
Alex and the two detectives left, walking with Andi, Ororo, Charles, and Emma. "This means you'll have to testify again, Andi," Alex said as the courtroom door closed behind them.
"It's all right; I can do it," Andi started to say, when a sudden commotion in front of them made her look up.
Preston Childs came barreling down toward her, the chain between his wrist handcuffs and ankle shackles clashing wildly. He was on her before anyone could react, wrapping the chain around her neck and yanking. "I'm going to get you for this!" he screamed wildly in her ear, yanking again. Andi clawed desperately at her throat, trying to dislodge the chain that was cutting off her air, but she wasn't having much luck. Stars danced in her vision.
Cold rage filled Emma's mind. She wasn't going to let him get away with this. Her mind slipped past the other man's barriers, past the minds of the officers and bailiffs who were trying to get Childs to let Andi go, and slid deep into his mind. She tapped into Andi's, taking all of the girl's pain and anger and panic and desperation with her, then blew it into Preston's mind along with all of her own anger.
The man spasmed, going rigid. The bailiff managed to slip the key to the shackles into the cuffs, and they got Preston off Andi as the bailiff unwound the chain from around her neck. Andi took a deep, hacking breath, and Ororo wrapped her arms around Andi as they turned to look at Preston.
He was lying on the floor, staring blankly at the ceiling. His eyes were wide with panic, darting back and forth, but even as they all watched they became empty. His mouth fell open, hanging slackly, and he went limp on the floor. Alex stared in shock, then turned to the blond-haired woman stand8ing coolly over him. "What did you do?"
Andi said, "She didn't do anything—it was my fault—I lashed out mentally to protect myself."
Alex looked about to protest, but Detective Stabler put a hand on Alex's arm. "It was self defense, Alex." He nodded to the three adults hovering protectively over the girl. "Go on. Take her home. She needs to rest. It was self defense." Alex watched them leave, then turned to Stabler.
"Do you really believe that, detective?"
"Come on, Alex," the man said. "Wouldn't you have done the same if it were your kid?" He said quietly, "I would."
Alex took a long, thoughtful look at the man on the floor, now being dragged upright by bailiffs. "I guess so," she said. With a last look back down the hall, she followed Elliot and Olivia out.