Disclaimer- I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh!

Me- I have finally had time to type!

Myself- Should we cheer?

Me- Yes!

Myself- ::sarcastically:: cheer, cheer.

Me- I would be more cheerful then that!

Myself- Hence why she is locked up in a closet right now.

Me- Oh that's a nice thing to do to your other self.

Myself- It is in hell.

Me- Are we in hell?

Myself- This story is close enough.

Me- ::pulls out lamp post of inescapable death:: Say that again.

Myself- THIS STORY IS CLOSE ENOUGH!

Me- ::relentlessly beats Myself with lamp post::

Myself- .

Me- Onto the fic! .

Run no More

Chap 28- Court Case

"Katsuya breathe, in and out." Shinzuka instructed as Jou paced around the large living room.

"You're acting like this should be our wedding day." Seto teased lightning the mood some.

"It's in the top ten." Jou muttered turning to make another pass.

"Katsuya can you please stop moving back and forth I'm sure Seto doesn't want a rut in his floor." Shinzuka this time reprimanded.

"With a single word my father goes for life of for a few years. Being caught in the act will prevent him from going free." Jou growled balling his fists.

"You're safe here and so is everyone else. You have nothing to worry about." Shinzuka took Jou's hand and gave it a squeeze.

"I'm worried about Yugi. He was the only person to witness this and is going to be called up. If my father ever gets out he will go after him."

"I don't believe he will be getting out that quickly. Child abuse alone starts at 5 years and goes up depending on the severity of the abuse. With your case I would say around 20-25 years. Attempted man slaughter will go for about 20. I'm not sure if a 70 or 80 year old person could really do much." Seto tried to reassure him.

"I guess, but I have to testify everything that has happened." Jou held back a sob clutching Shinzuka's hand.

"You're not going to be alone. All of us are going to have to testify." Seto wrapped his hands around Jou's shoulders.

"Your will be relatively easy." Jou mumbled leaning into Seto.

"Maybe." Everyone began filing into the court room and the judge took his seat. Seto and Jou took their seats along with Seto's lawyer at the plaintiffs table as Jou's father and a court appointed attorney sat at the defendants table. He gave a venomous glare at the teens before facing the judge. The first hour was relatively boring for everyone. The lawyers go up and give their opening arguments to the jury and the jury was supposed to listen. But it was obvious most had zoned out through half of it and the ones that didn't looked like they were on meds. Once the actual trial started Jou lost all the nerve that he gained during the speeches, which wasn't a lot to begin with. His palms got slicked with sweat and downed almost all the water in the pitcher. The defense table started off with Jou's father's closest friends attempting to get a foundation to his life style. All said basically the same thing; he was a good man and got depressed easily after his wife left. And got drunk on a few occasions but they tried to stop him. Jou resisted the urge to fall over laughing. Most of the time the guys where trying to get Jou's father drunk and where just as drunk as he was. As pitiful as they tried to make it sound the jury was no where close to buying the stories, most looked like they wanted to shoot them for their stupidity. Especially with the cross examination Seto's lawyer was giving them. Nishire and Shinzuka were also called up to the stands. Nishire testified why she divorced him, which then went against what all the other witnesses said, and Shinzuka was just asked if she remembered any violent natures her father exhibited. Shinzuka stated her eye problem and that she was too young to remember much of anything back then. Nishire was the only one who had a cross examination done all on the grounds of the divorce.

"So far it seems like he is going to be in for life." Seto whispered over to Jou taking his hand.

"It doesn't seem like they are in our favor either." Jou whispered back.     

"The defense calls up Yugi Mouto to the stand." Both Seto and Jou looked over their shoulders to see a terrified Yugi walk down the aisle to the stand. He did his oath and sat down on a dictionary so they could see his face. The defense attorney stepped up to the podium.

"What where you doing the night of March 16th?"

"Jou had just came over for some help on his homework and accidentally left his book at my house. So I walked over to give it back to him.

"Why not just wait till the next day of school."

"He didn't finish it yet and said he would at home."

"Approach the witness with exhibit A1?"

"Proceed." The lawyer approached the stand with an algebra book placing it on the railing.

"Is this the book you where talking about." Yugi flipped open the front cover scanning over the table inside.

"Not the exact one but it is the same kind of book." The lawyer went back to the podium.

"What happened once you got there?"

"I went up the outside route to the backdoor and knocked."

"Why the outside?"

"It's been the only way shown to me. I didn't know how the inside structure was."

"Ok so you knocked on the door."

"Then I heard a crash, bang and a scream from inside. So I climbed on a crate outside to make sure everything was alright." Yugi started to tremble as he got closer in the story to his ultimate nightmare.

"What did you see?"

"Jou was being lifted up by the arm and his father was standing on his ankle. There was a snap and Jou screamed again."

"What did you do after that?"

"I ran home after Jou was driven off somewhere by his father."

"You didn't call the police or anything?"

"No. That was the last thought running through my mind."

"No further questions." He walked away and Seto's lawyer went up for a round.

"Yugi how long have you known Jou?" He started off, compassion showing.

"Since freshman year started."

"And you two have been really good friends since then?"

"We started off a little shaky, but yes we have."

"Did he ever mention anything about the abuse happening at home?"

"No. He always acted normal."

"Define normal please."

"Happy and full of life with a bit of stubbornness nothing of domestic violence."

"Is it true that you yourself where abused as a child?" Yugi visibly tensed up and answered in a small squeak.

"Yes, that's why I am living with my grandfather."

"So once you saw the abuse that was happening to Jou those memories started running through your head."

"Sadly yes they did."

"Nothing further." Seto's lawyer walked back to the table and Yugi was let go when there was to be no redirect. The smallest of the group walked back down the hall and curled up in Yami's arms.

"There will be a 10 minute recess then the plaintiff can bring up a witness." The judge announced. The jury got up and filed out with the judge behind them. Everyone in the stands also left to do their own thing. Jou's father was taken out through a side door and his lawyer followed shuffling through some notes.

"So who are you going to call up next?" Seto asked his lawyer.

"I'm going to call up Jou. So far only one side of the story has been told and they need to know the effects that this act has left on my client."

"This is more of a play then actual justice." Jou muttered.

"It always is. Who can look the best up on stage wins." The lawyer got up heading outside for a smoke.

"I don't want to go up Seto." Jou collapsed against Seto's side.

"You have to, it's time for all the other people to know your story." Seto whispered running his fingers through Jou's hair.

"He'll be watching me."

"Then give a performance to remember. You said yourself that this was more of a play then anything." Seto smiled placing a kiss on Jou's lips. All too soon was the recess over and Jou was up on the stand. He swore in and gave his name to the record and Jury before taking his seat. Seto's lawyer stood at the podium flipping through his note pad.

"About what time did you parents break up?"

"I was about 5/6. It was really close to my sixth birthday I remember that."

"Is that when the abuse started?"

"Around there, once DCF left him alone for good. But over the years it got progressively worse."

"Can you explain exactly what he did?"

"Shattered my ankle about 3 times, random knife cuts and stabs, burn marks from cigarettes and he threw anything at me that wasn't nailed to the floor or the walls."

"Did he ever rape you?" The whole court room went silent waiting for the answer. Jou looked over to Seto hoping to find some relief in his normally passive eyes. But he didn't find exactly what he wanted to, they where full of fear hoping that the question wasn't true, and also angry that if the question was true he would be in the jail cell with him.

"No. But he had made empty threats about it." Seto let out the breath he was holding, his father better not have touched him.

"Did he ever abuse your mother or sister at any time?"

"Not that I know about with my mother. My father never got a chance to get to my sister, I was always around her."

"And you paid for the operation that she mentioned before?"

"Yes. With the money I won from duelist kingdom, I had a promise to keep."

"What would that promise be?"

"To bring her to the beach one more time to see the sun set." The jury gave a coo of sympathy and sweetness.

"No further questions." He got off the podium and the defense lawyer went up shifting through his own notes.

"During the abuse time did you attempt to contact the police?" Oh this set of questions was going to be a dozy.

"Yes in both America and Japan."

"Yet nothing happened?"

"Not on their part but on my fathers part yes. After the police left he would beat me almost to death."

"If there was hope then why stop trying to get him in jail?"

"If every time you hoped and did something about it and it failed. Then where sent to the hospital because you tried I think you would have stopped pretty quickly as well." The audience snickered as the lawyer had a blush of embarrassment on his face.

"When did your father start heavy drinking?"

"About a few months before the divorce at first it was because of the stress his job put him under for that project. But even after the project was long done he would still go out and drink."

"You never contacted anyone about it?"

"I was only 5 or 6! I didn't know it was a problem! I wasn't even thinking of health classes at that time!" The audience laughed out loud this time. The lawyer was a true idiot asking questions that he knew Jou couldn't answer.

"No further questions." He got down and sat at his seat, instantly getting yelled at by Jou's father. Jou ran back to his seat clutching Seto in a death grip.

"You can call up another witness you know." The judge said looking at the lawyer his face showing the confusion at the retreat back to his table.

"I was getting my list." He flushed in embarrassment looking over his list as Jou's father sighed banging his head on the table.

"Can you please not do that Mr. Jounouchi? It ruins the finish." The judge asked smiling. He gave a growl before tapping his finger on the table instead.

"The defense calls up Seto Kaiba to the stand." Seto gave a nod to Jou before prying him off and calmly walking up to the stand taking his seat.

"When you first took Jounouchi in did you know of the problem?"

"Yes but at that time there wasn't enough evidence to bring him to court before now." Man Seto knew how to answer questions without showing what he was really thinking. Jou could see the man at the podium scratch off a question on his pad then went back to questioning his witness.

"Where you collecting evidence?" Seems the lawyer was trying to get Jou's love into a tight spot. Good luck on that one.

"Yes, I got conversations recorded about Jou testifying the abuse his father was putting him through and saying that all the excuses on his medical records were false and the records as well."

"The hospital allowed this?"

"Yes. He was under my care and I needed to bring him under my insurance and to do that I needed his records."

"Why did you invite Jounouchi's mother and sister to live with you?"

"If he did take the guardianship with his mother then he would have had to move away. And since I am not his legal guardian I invited his guardian to stay."

"Then why not go for guardianship if you wanted him to stay so badly?"

"It is illegal here for a guardian to marry their charge." A few gasps and a bunch of laughs went through the court room as Jou blushed a bright red.

"You are engaged to him?" The lawyer coughed out his eyes wide.

"Yes and if you have a problem I will take you personally to court for discrimination." Jou lifted his head in pride silently saying that he was going to marry one of the most wanted men in Domino.

"What was the motive to help him, before you two decided to get married?"

"He was in need and only a cold hearted person would have turned their back on a person in this situation." Yami had to smirk at this, in the beginning Seto was in pure refusal to take him in. Only with threats did he actually take Jou in.

"Is it true that you yourself were abused by your step-father?" Seto saw Jou give him a quizzical look out of the corner of his eye. This really wasn't the way he wanted to tell him, but he was going to find out anyways.

"Yes." There was an icy tone to that answer that made everyone but Jou and Seto's lawyer cringe back.

"Is it also true that you pushed him out of the office window?"

"Objection! That has nothing to do with the motives my client had in helping my other client!" Seto's lawyer shouted making Jou fall out of his chair in surprise.

"Objection sustained." The judge announced and the defense lawyer grumbled.

"Doesn't Seto have him trained? Through my poor Seto what else have you gone through that you haven't told me?" Jou crawled back into his seat giving nothing but loving looks.

"Why did you have to go back to the house?"

"Katsuya wanted to get some school supplies, clothes and a few sentimental items."

"Could you describe the items?"

"Basic clothes, his school supplies I didn't see the other item's for I was looking out for his father."

"No further." He got down off the podium and back to his seat.

"Plaintiff do you have any questions?" The judge asked hands folded on the desk.

"No your honor." Seto was sent back to his table. Jou's father's testimony went rather quickly on the plaintiff's part. All the evidence pointed to how bad and long the abuse went on. Defense seemed to painfully drag out their part of the testimony saying that all the evidence was a lie. It showed on the jury's faces that they were bored and didn't believe a word that he said.

"There will be 15 minute recess and then closing statements start. Then the jury can determine the verdict." The jury filed out and the judge left.

"Is what the defense lawyer said true?" Jou whispered leaning on Seto's side.

"Sadly yes." Seto still had that icy tone.

"I wish I could have been there to help. Like your helping me."

""You didn't know me at that time and it ended years before we even met." Seto wrapped one of his arms around his fiancée's waist.

"I wish I did." Jou leaned his face into Seto's shoulder and sobbed. The recess went almost as quick as it came for most and closing statements started. Jou couldn't remember half of what either lawyer said as he dozed on and off. The only thing keeping him awake was the random shake from Seto when he noticed Jou fell asleep. The jury left to make a verdict.

"Don't worry Jou everything is going to be fine." Shinzuka whispered over from the railing.

"Yea with all the evidence he has to be guilty." Yugi joined in. Jou looked over his shoulder wondering when Yugi got up to the front of the court house.

"My concern is how many years he is going to be getting." Jou whispered back. The conversation lasted until the jury got back in, all 2 hours of that time.

"The jury finds Mr. Jounouchi guilty." The head person said.

"And 25 years for sever child abuse and 25 more for attempted manslaughter." The judge announced adjourning court. Everyone but Seto tackled Jou shouting their happiness. Jou's father gave him a glare saying when he got out of jail he would be back, at the age of 94. Seto pulled Jou out of the pile and into a long kiss.

"We have to throw a party for this!" Shinzuka shouted.

"We what!?" Both Seto and Jou shouted in unison.

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Me- My fingers! They hurt!

Myself- Wow that was a really long chap…

I- I got out of the closet!

Me- At the end of the chap.

I- Nooooo!!!! ::sniff sniff::

Myself- Just like I planned.

Me- I hope that wasn't to boring of a chap. And next is the last chap of this whole fic!

I- Then the sequel! The wedding!

Me- You are right I. Next chap will be the epilogue and then I will have finished my first chap fic! Go me!

Myself- Please R&R

All- Byes!