Kim had done really well in her selection of a psychologist. She had found someone who not only had experience in practicing clinical psychology and in studying criminal psychology, but who had written a book on couples who committed crimes together. The prosecutor attempted to discredit the psychologist's very convincing argument that Skyler had done what she did out of a co-dependent need to please Walt by saying that of course someone who has written a book on co-dependent criminal couples will see such traits in every case they come across. "Can you deny that there is a significant chance that you are seeing what you want to see, simply because it is what you know?"

"Yes, I can deny that," Dr Murchison said. "And I do. In my research I studied 34 criminal couples who fit into three very different categories. The first were those where both partners were equally involved, equally wanting to do it and mostly treating each other with respect over it. These were not co-dependent relationships and of those who were caught, usually both of them were caught, because if one was caught the other would immediately give themselves up and claim full responsibility in order to try and protect their partner, whom they genuinely loved. Walter White did not do that. The second category was relationships where one partner controlled the other with fear, usually involving violence or threats of violence. They would tell their partner exactly what to do and give them no choice but to do it for fear of their own safety. In some cases they threatened others as well, took hostages and so on. I don't believe Walter White did that either. Mrs White has stated in her interviews that he never struck her, and other family members have testified that there never appeared to be any evidence of that. He had multiple opportunities to use their children as hostages and he didn't; he freely agreed for them to be cared for by their aunt and uncle for three months, and then later when he abducted his daughter he returned her three hours later of his own volition. No, I don't think Walter White ruled his wife in a you-will-do-what-I-say-or-else kind of way.

"The third kind of couple that I found was one where, like in the second, there is one partner who is firmly in control. But rather than ruling their spouse with an iron fist, they use more subtle means like emotional blackmail, emotional abuse and psychological manipulation – which, I might add, are just as damaging as physical abuse and more controlling. These are the really co-dependent relationships. The submissive partner in the majority of cases I studied did not even agree with the criminal activity committed by their dominant partner, but, driven by need to please them, not upset them, perhaps through craving the kind way they would be treated if they did what their partner wanted or through fearing the unkind way they would be treated if they didn't, the submissive partner became an accessory after the fact to the crime. In some cases they went further and committed some crimes themselves, crimes that were never nearly as serious as the crimes committed by their dominant partner. Those who were caught described feeling that they had to go along with their dominant partner, that they had to commit those crimes, they had no choice. A lot of them gave full confessions, and many of them expressed confusion and revulsion with their own actions, sometimes not even understanding why they had done what they did but just knowing somehow that they had to because their partner was controlling them psychologically. This is one of those cases. I have not made it fit with my research; my research found three clear kinds of criminal couples and all I have done is identify which of those categories the Whites fitted into."

...

On Tuesday morning, Skyler took the stand. Kim questioned her all day, in great detail that was intricately linked chronologically both to other things that were happening at the time and to the exact order of her thought processes and Walt's actions towards her. Then Kim worked back through every argument and piece of evidence the Prosecution had presented and invited Skyler to tell her own side of it.

Kim's questioning was so detailed, it took a day and a half. Skyler was quite exhausted and relieved when it was over, but it wasn't over it all, because then it was time for the cross-examination.

"So, Mrs White," said Prosecutor Martin. "What I gather from what you and my learned colleague have been saying, in a very very roundabout way, is that when you found out what your husband was doing, you thought he was a small-time idiot who had bitten off more than he could chew. Like a college student who deals a bit of weed in his spare time but isn't a 'real' criminal."

"Yes."

"But a criminal is anyone who breaks the law. You're a criminal or you're not, there's no in between."

"There's a distinction between misdemeanor and felony. At first I thought what Walt was doing was misdemeanor level. Which was still abhorrent to me and I kicked him out of the house for it. But then he came back."

"Yes, you were a bit on again off again, weren't you?"

Skyler grunted and looked down. "I tried to end my relationship with him, but he kept coming back."

"But you could have stopped him if you'd just told the police or the DEA."

"You can't just go to the police when you're afraid."

"You said that you became afraid of Walter, but that that wasn't always the case. When you were afraid, I can understand it might be a little harder. From the moment you found out that your husband was making methamphetamine, were you afraid?"

"Yes."

"You're contradicting yourself, Mrs White. You clearly stated earlier that you became afraid of your husband, but that you weren't at the start; that you didn't know the extent of what he was capable of and you thought he was still a harmless schoolteacher."

"Not harmless, I never said Walt was harmless. He was brash and arrogant and often unthinking in his actions -"

"When you first found out that he had started making methamphetamine, were you afraid of him?"

"No, but -"

"You're contradicting yourself – the jury can't trust a single thing you say!"

"What you asked me before was not was I afraid of my husband then, it was was I afraid, period, in general – yes I was afraid, I was always afraid the whole way through!"

"What were you afraid of then, if not him?"

"The criminals he was working with, losing our house, our family, everything we had - and I was absolutely correct on that because that was what later happened, and we were lucky to escape with our lives, and…and of course, my brother-in-law didn't." Skyler sighed and rubbed her hand across her forehead. "I just thought that it was safest for everyone if I stayed where I was and kept quiet."

"Ok, I'm gonna need you to be more specific there – when you say 'safe', what do you mean exactly?"

"Safe from being killed by drug dealers."

"Right, which, correct me if I'm wrong, you said did not include your husband – you did not think he was going to kill you."

"I was afraid of him doing a lot of other things."

"Yes or no Mrs White, were you afraid that your husband might kill you?"

"No."

"No."

"The people he was working with would."

"I'm not asking you about the people he was working with."

"Gustavo Fring threatened to kill us all, even my baby daughter."

"No no no, that hadn't happened yet."

"I knew it would."

"You mentioned your brother-in-law earlier. Did you think he was in danger?"

Skyler closed her eyes. "Yes."

"He was attacked by two Mexican nationals from a drug cartel, and was lucky not to have been killed then – this was unrelated to his murder, which happened about a year later. A bullet passed very close to his spine, leaving him unable to walk for some months - now, you have stated that you wanted to help he and your sister out by paying for his physical therapy treatment, just so that he could get better and walk again. Is that correct?"

"Yes."

"And you and your husband paid…" The prosecutor looked at his notes. "$177,000 for his, for ASAC Hank Schrader's treatment, is that right?"

"Yes."

"Why was that?"

"Because his HMO wouldn't have covered enough physical therapy sessions for him to be able to walk again."

"So…so you wanted to help him walk?"

"Yes."

"You wanted your brother-in-law to walk."

"Yes, of course I did."

"Was that the only reason that you gave your sister and brother-in-law that money? $177,000?"

"Yes."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"It wasn't as a kind of insurance for down the track if he found out what you and your husband were doing, you could blackmail him with the knowledge that money from the sale of methamphetamine had been used to pay for his medical treatment, so that he, a DEA agent, would be compromised and would also keep his mouth shut?"

"No." Skyler held the prosecutor's eye and stood firm.

"But apparently that was in your blackmail video - which none of us have seen, because you destroyed it. Wasn't that in there, a threat to reveal the amount of illegal drug money that was used to pay for Schrader's medical treatment?"

"It was in there, yes. It was put there by Walt. It was not why I offered them the money."

"You are under oath, Mrs White."

"I know, and I am swearing to you that I never even thought of that - I offered them the money because I wanted to help Hank; I never ever thought of blackmailing him, and when we did eventually do that it was Walt's idea, Walt's words, Walt's insistence, not mine. That's why I destroyed the video, because I didn't want to do it in first place!"

"But you're admitting that you did blackmail your brother-in-law Hank Schrader."

"Objection!" Kim jumped to her feet. "Leading question."

"I'll rephrase that. Did you blackmail your brother-in-law Hank Schrader?"

Skyler's voice wavered. "Walt did."

"But you were involved."

"Objection! Leading question," said Kim.

"Sustained," said Judge Stephens.

"Were you involved in the blackmail, Mrs White?"

"Yes, but I didn't want to be. I destroyed the video because I didn't want Walt to go through with it."

"But you didn't stop him."

"Objection! Leading question," said Kim.

"Sustained, Prosecutor will you please stop -"

"I couldn't stop Walt doing anything!" Skyler's voice shook, but it was strong. "If I could stop Walt from doing something then none of this would've happened! I could not stop him!"

"Mmmmhmmm." Prosecutor Martin nodded lazily and looked down at his notes. "Did you want the money? Did you want to spend it, keep it?"

Skyler breathed deeply. "When I found out what my husband was doing, I kicked him out of the house and commenced divorce proceedings."

"That's quite a backflip you did when you decided to start laundering his money and got back together with him."

"I didn't make that decision, he did."

"Oh now that's not true, is it? You hired a con man to convince Bogdan Wolynetz to sell you the car wash!"

"Saul Goodman hired him. He was Walt's lawyer."

"He was Walt's lawyer! Not yours?"

"I was an add-on, an afterthought. Someone to be strung along by both of them, to be made to think that things weren't as bad as they really were so that I would do what they wanted and keep my mouth shut."

"Well I know he's not your lawyer now, but your current defence counsel is his ex-wife, so you clearly haven't moved very far away from him."

"Objection!" said Kim. "Relevance."

Prosecuted Martin chuckled and looked smugly at Kim. "Did you think I didn't know?"

"Sustained!" said the judge wearily. "Prosecutor, you will refrain from making judgemental comments to the Defence counsel."

"Certainly, Your Honour." Martin turned back to Skyler. "As I was saying, you have not moved very far away from Saul Goodman."

"The morning after my brother-in-law was killed, when I went voluntarily into the DEA to tell them everything I knew, I did not call Saul Goodman. I called the public defender and I gave evidence against Saul. He was a criminal interested only in making illicit money for himself."

"No honour amongst thieves."

"I'm not a thief."

"You're very well spoken. And very thorough. Now, about the money, which you dodged my question on several minutes ago. Did you want the money?"

"I didn't dodge the question, I told you that when I found out about it I kicked my husband out of the house. I tried to prevent him from compromising my house and my children by spending that money on us."

"Oh, you didn't do very well at that."

"No, because it turned out he had already been using it to pay for all of our bills for at least six months by that point. So the house was already compromised and I knew it would be seized by the federal government if anyone found-"

"But you offered to use the money to pay for your brother-in-law's medical treatment! You were quite happy to compromise your family - without his or your sister's knowledge, I might add. Another backflip!"

Skyler nodded. "Yes."

"Yes. You admit to that backflip too."

"Does someone who backflips and flounders in all directions sound like someone who's in control to you? I couldn't control any of it, I-"

"Do you really mean to tell me that you did not want to have at your disposal all of those millions of dollars that your husband had and was offering to you on a silver platter?"

"It wasn't a silver platter; it had a lot of strings attached." Skyler swallowed. "But yes. Of course I wanted it."

"You wanted it!"

"I had been through at that point about fifteen years of not having enough money to see to the health and developmental needs of my children. My son was diagnosed with cerebral palsy when he was 18 months old, but problems with his motor ability were visible well before then and we spent a lot of money on doctors from when he was a baby. That was ongoing because he required significant physical therapy and three operations to develop the motor skills that he has now. That took up most of my time, so I couldn't work full-time, and my husband took a school teaching job because it was stable, but it didn't pay very much. Then four months into an unplanned pregnancy, he was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and I was faced with bringing up our daughter on my own, so when I say that I wanted the money, it wasn't so that I could get new clothes or fine wine or anything like that. It was for the health and well-being of my children."

"Well that's no problem now, your son was given 9 million dollars on his 18th birthday by your wealthy friends Gretchen and Elliot Schwartz."

"Thank goodness they took pity on him and decided to help him because before that, his physical condition was going downhill because I couldn't afford to pay for his treatment, and all of my daughter's medical care was being paid for by my sister, but when she got a gum infection when she was two, Marie couldn't afford to pay the hospital bill so I had to nurse her at home, which meant I couldn't work for almost two weeks, which meant I couldn't afford groceries, so I just stopped eating myself and fed Holly and Flynn, and then when the utility bill came and I couldn't pay it we stayed with my sister for a month when the power was cut off."

Prosecutor Martin laughed a long, low laugh. "Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, the defendant is trying to play on your sympathy. Do not buy it. There are many struggling mothers in the world; most of them do not run a meth empire and make millions of dollars. The only reason she was left with nothing after her husband run away was that the federal government seized a $900,000 car wash business, more than $70,000 in savings accounts, a $250,000 family home and $95,000 in illicit cash stashed by her in ten locations around her house."

"That was Walt's money, that was not my choice."

"Oh, it was Walt's money! Blame it on the dead. Anything to push responsibility away from yourself!"

"Objection!" Kim stood. "Relevance."

"Explain?" said the judge.

"Your Honour, my client has never been charged with or suspected of the production or sale of methamphetamine. That is what the money was from. It's pretty clear that it was her husband's, not hers."

"Objection denied; regardless of who earned the money it can be considered to be equally owned by both spouses."

"He earned it from his meth empire, I'm not denying that," said Prosecutor Martin. "What I am saying is that he gave it to you on a silver platter and you took it, you laundered it so he wouldn't get caught, and you spent it."

"It was not on a silver platter. There were many things I had to do and endure for that money and if I had had a choice I would not-"

"What did you have to do?"

"Shut my mouth and live in fear."

"Fear of what?"

"That the criminals Walt worked with would come and kill us. You can't just tell the police in that situation - if you tell the police, they'll kill you!. Fear that Walt would make an arrogant mistake and sell us all up the river. Fear of what he was doing that I didn't know about. Fear that I didn't know him anymore or what he was truly capable of. Fear of what he would do to me." Skyler's voice wavered. "Fear that I would be thrown in prison and lose my children."

"This fear. How did he instill it in you?"

Skyler was swallowing and struggling to keep control.

"Did he hit you?"

"No."

"He didn't hit you? Did he threaten you?"

"The situation he created threatened me very much, and what he could have done if I didn't toe the line was-"

"Did he tie you down and force you to run that car wash?"

"No, but-"

"Did he rape you?"

Skyler froze, her mouth half open, her eyes trapped in the prosecutor's gaze. "Yes," she said quietly as her heartbeat began to quicken.

In the public gallery, Marie gasped and her hand flew over her mouth.

The prosecutor frowned, and looked down at his notes. "Ah, you've never said that before."

"I really don't wanna talk about it." Skyler continued to look at him, her breathing heavy, her eyes unblinking.

"You've been asked these questions before about how he controlled you; why did you never say that?"

"Because I really don't wanna talk about it."

"Then why say it now?"

Skyler began to cry. "Because I'm under oath and you asked me! I've never been asked that before!"

"Ok. Mrs White, I'm...I'm sorry to hear that." Prosecutor Martin swallowed, and bit his lip. "When did he...when did he do that to you?"

Skyler's eyes winced closed. "I don't wanna talk about it. Please don't ask me about it."

"You've said that your husband's more damaging behaviours got worse over time. You said that things got really bad after you had started running the car wash and after he murdered Gustavo Fring."

Skyler swallowed, and breathed. Prosecutor Martin watched her.

"That was when I found out how bad it was. It was always that bad, but I didn't know because he was hiding it from me. When he killed Gus Fring, I found out what he was really capable of." Skyler placed a hand on the partition at the edge of the dock, and her knuckles began to whiten.

"Was it after that that he raped you?"

Skyler cried out and looked up to the ceiling, her left arm wrapping around herself and her right still gripping the dock.

Kim watched with bated breath. Marie cried.

"Was it after that?"

Skyler gasped and leaned forward, fat tears rolling down her cheeks. She nodded.

"I need you to say it for the court record."

Skyler took a rasping breath and turned to the press gallery. "Please don't report this in the media. My son doesn't know, please-"

"Mrs White."

"He can't know, please, please!"

"Mrs White, did your husband rape you after he killed Gustavo Fring?"

"Please stop asking me about it, please!" Skyler's voice was hardly recognisable anymore, strangled and gasping. She bent over the side of the dock, gripping it with both hands and whimpering.

"Ms Wexler, is your client alright?" asked Judge Stephens. "She's shaking like a leaf."

"Permission to approach the bench?" said Kim. The judge nodded.

"Transcript writers, please record that the defendant nodded the first time I asked that question!" said Prosecutor Martin. "The defendant nodded when I asked her if her husband raped her after he had killed Gustavo Fring, after she was already-"

"Silence, Prosecutor - the Defence Counsel is approaching my bench!

Kim reached the bench, and spoke in a low voice. "I think I was the only person who knew about this before now. I did ask her directly in one of our pre-trial meetings and she told me, and I said that proves that he was controlling you and abusing you so we should use that. She refused. She said she didn't want her family to know. She forbad me from mentioning it and refused to discuss it any further, but I do know that she hasn't had any counselling whatsoever, so no, Your Honour, she is not alright."

"Adjournment!" barked the judge, rolling her eyes somewhat. "I think we'll adjourn for the rest of the day, again. Please come back tomorrow morning, everyone." She stood, and the court followed. "Ms Wexler, please attend to your client." The judge walked out the door, and a loud banging sound was heard from the public gallery as Marie thundered up the steps and out of the public door. Kim turned and saw that Skyler was hunched over in her chair again, still shaking. She leaned into the dock and put a hand on her shoulder. "Well done," she said.

"You w-wanted me to say that."

"I'm sorry you had to."

There was a sudden commotion at the court's side entrance and the sound of Marie yelling, "Let me in! I need to get to my sister!"

Skyler fell further forward and her arms gathered tightly over her head.