A/N: Never make a promise you will rely on technology to keep. - Sky.

Chapter 16 - The Other Trial

When the dream awoke Vicky from her fitful slumber, the sun was just rising and splitting the cold grey skies. Summer seemed to be nearing it's end now, and the season shift was reflected in the birdsong, which was low and quiet and came only in occasional bursts. Vicky's heart was pounding against her ribs and her eyes were stark and wide, scanning the old wooden tree house for the green fairy that had only really existed in her mind. It took Vicky a few seconds to calm down, and slightly longer for the grief to ebb from her heart, but the memory of the dream left her with an uncomfortable feeling in her chest, as though she had misplaced a secret and was terrified that anyone should find it.

Timmy slept on quietly in the other corner of the tree house, his sleeping bag wrapped untidily around his feet. The dim morning light cast a sharp contrast on his goose pimpled skin, and Vicky's heart softened as she watched the boy doze. She got to her feet and threw her own sleeping bag over the boy, although gently enough not to wake him, and figured it was time she went home before she was missed. Admittedly, that was unlikely, but Tootie would surely notice she wasn't one of the passed out sleeping bodies that currently littered the carpets of her house.

She picked up the backpack that contained her nightdress and threw it over her shoulders. Then, with one final look at Timmy, she headed down the old ladder and landed with a soft squelch on Timmy's dew-sodden lawn. It was so peaceful in Timmy's garden, and Vicky longed to stay there and watch the sunrise, but there was something within her that wouldn't let her be calmed or stand idle. For some reason, one that she could not possibly fathom, she was afraid. There was something inside her that she hadn't felt for a while. Responsibility.

Vicky looked down at her hands, at her pale stretched palms. She thought about the last time someone had been trusted into her care. The last time someone had been fool enough to let her be in charge of their child's welfare. Her hands curled into fists so tight that her nails dug into them and broke the skin. She wasn't cut out for responsibility! She couldn't even take care of her self, and she'd never even tried to take care of Timmy! She'd never been there for him when he'd needed her, she'd never cared for him when he was down. No, she was the reason he was down. If he was crying, it was her fault. If he was in pain, she was the one who had caused it. Well, she wasn't going to let it happen again. She wasn't going to take responsibility for another living thing for as long as she drew breath.

Her blood was boiling, and she didn't know why. She was just so angry at that stupid fairy for thrusting this upon her. Why couldn't the world see that Vicky didn't want responsibility? She hated that word now. It made a monster of her. She bit her lip to stop herself from screaming in her terrible rage, and pounded her fists against the bark of the tree.

And then, just as the sky turned a muddy sort of pink, Vicky's senses caught up with her and she started to laugh. She was being so stupid! It was just a dream, after all. No one was forcing her to help imaginary fairies in some far off land! That was ridiculous! Her laughter grew and grew until it was an unrestrained hysterical giggle, and Vicky had to cover her mouth with her hands to keep herself from waking the whole neighbourhood. Unfortunately, it was not enough to keep her from waking Timmy, who leaned out of the tree house and peered down at the hysterical girl below with a puzzled look on his face.

"Nothing can be that funny at this time in the morning," he said groggily, rubbing his eyes. Vicky wiped her own eyes, which were streaming, and straightened up.

"You're right," she said, her voice broken by the occasional chuckle. "Sorry if I woke you up," she said quietly. Timmy, who was half way down the ladder by this point, shrugged his shoulders.

"Sorry you had to spend most of the night freezing in my tree house," he said mildly.

"It was nice," Vicky said before she could stop herself. Timmy raised an eyebrow at her.

"Didn't seem nice from where I was sitting," Timmy said, jumping down onto the lawn too, but upon seeing the disappointed look on Vicky's face he quickly added; "For you, I mean. You kept talking in your sleep and thrashing about and stuff."

"Did I?" Vicky asked.

"Yeah, you were mumbling something but I couldn't make it out." Timmy said. Vicky shrugged her shoulders and rubbed her nose.

"I had some pretty weird dreams," she said.

"Anything cool?" Timmy asked with a smile.

"Not really," Vicky replied. "Anyway, I should be getting home 'cause... well, someone has to clean up the aftermath of last night I suppose."

"That's true," Timmy said with a nod. "I better get inside the house and see what carnage my parents have created."

"Yeah," Vicky said, feeling the beginning of an uncomfortable silence settle between the pair of them. Timmy stared down at his feet and clasped his hands behind his back. "Er, so, I'll see you then," Vicky said nervously. Timmy's head snapped up, but not enough for Vicky to be able to see his face.

"Um..." he began, talking to the grass.

"...yeah?" Vicky said.

"Uh, do you, um, do you want me to walk you home or something?" Timmy said quickly, ending the sentence with a shrug as if he was trying to convey that it really was no big deal whether she did or she didn't. Vicky smiled madly, but quickly scrunched her lips together to keep Timmy from seeing.

"No, uh, that's ok I guess," she said sheepishly, feeling like she was twelve all over again. She felt herself going red and she felt suddenly quite warm. "I'll wash your clothes and get them back to you," she said, quickly turning around and walking away.

"No, that's ok," Timmy said as she left. "You keep them. They look better on you anyway."

Vicky's pace picked right up when Timmy said that, because she wanted to be well out of his earshot before she burst into unrestrained girly laughter. She felt so small and so giddy, like for that morning her love had actually been reduced to feeling just like a trivial crush, but her heart still soared and her mind still raced as she went over every delicious detail of the night she had spent with Timmy.

-

They'd left him alone now, Cosmo was almost sure of that. The hurried footsteps that surrounded him had faded into nothingness, and though Cosmo couldn't even see an inch in front of his face in the darkness he knew that there was no one else around. The tiny pinprick of light that had through the screen in the cell door had been shut and locked, as though they expected Cosmo to be able to escape from the chair they had bound him to. His hands and fingers tingled and twitched where the heavy metal locks cut into his wrist and ankles, and he couldn't even move his head because of the band across his forehead that forced it to the chair. His eyes stung and watered through constantly straining to see in the darkness, even though he knew there was nothing there to see. This was horrible, and torturous, and Cosmo didn't even think a place like this could exist on Fairy World. He hadn't known. All that time he had lived and worked here and he hadn't known that somewhere in the depths of the big city others, just like him, maybe just a fraction of them guilty, where being punished. He wanted to cry, and scream, but he didn't know how long he would have to survive here and he needed all his strength.

After what seemed like hours, the tiny pinprick cut through the darkness again. It shone in Cosmo's eye and forced the muscles to retract fiercely, making him wince. A man stepped into the room, a man Cosmo had only ever seen on television or in magazines, but he knew him at once. He floated around Cosmo menacingly, dressed in a navy blue suit that was pressed to perfection, and not a hair was out of place on his head.

"Number One Six Nine," the new fairy said dryly. "I am Jupitus Starr." Cosmo said nothing; he didn't think it would be wise. "You were placed in our facility some time ago for breeching the restrictions of the Fairy God Parent Act, is that correct?" Cosmo new that Jupitus already knew the answer, but he also knew that keeping quiet would be a bad idea.

"Yes," he said meekly.

"Yes, sir," Jupitus said, and without missing a beat he carried on. "When you were interviewed, our interrogators asked you about anything else you might be keeping secret, didn't they One Six Nine?"

"Yes, sir," Cosmo said. Jupitus paused for a second and grinned smugly.

"What did you tell them, One Six Nine?" he asked in a playful manner, the kind of tone a cat would use when talking to a cornered mouse.

"I-" Cosmo began, but his voice cracked and failed him. He fell silent.

"I asked you a question, One Six Nine. What did you tell them?" Cosmo's voice still refused to work. He let out a soft sob. Jupitus smirked again.

"You told them there was nothing else, didn't you?"

Silence.

"DIDN'T YOU?"

There was a pause.

"Yes, sir," Cosmo said quietly.

-

Timmy was a little frightened to step into his kitchen, in case what he saw could never be burned from his eyeballs. Thankfully there was nothing so terrible to meet him as a couple of empty glasses and the fact that the trash had been knocked over at some point. With a sigh Timmy placed the glasses in the sink and began the disgusting task of cleaning the floor. Things like this were so much easier when Cosmo and Wanda were about, and just thinking that small though made Timmy feel incredibly guilty. How much had he thought about them since they'd been gone? They'd been stolen away from him and banged up in some horrible fairy prison while he remained on Earth, free as a bird, too busy developing confusing feelings for a girl he used to hate to remember the two people he really loved the most were suffering. Timmy threw the bin to the floor in disgust at himself. How could he?

They'd only been gone for three days. He couldn't believe it really. So much had happened in such a short space of time that he couldn't believe he still had so long until he could see them again. You are, however, granted access to a lawyer, the letter had said. A fairy lawyer, of course, because it made Timmy snort with humourless laughter to think that a human would ever believe the case, let alone take it. Plus he imagined it would really harm his defence if the lawyer who was supposed to be defending him were themselves a breach of Fairy World Security, the very thing Timmy was in trouble for. He rubbed his eyes and noticed how tired he was and how much his body ached. He longed for just a few more hours sleep so, armed with the knowledge that the house would still be a tip even if he woke up tomorrow, he tramped upstairs to his bedroom and flopped onto his bed.

-

Timmy was awoken some two hours later by someone throwing pebbles at his window. He growled angrily but still managed to pull himself out of the bed and cross his bedroom floor, where he threw the window up so ferociously that he knocked a chunk of the wood out of the frame. He peered down into the garden, where Chester stood looking up at him nervously.

"Oh Chester," he said with a huge yawn. "It's you."

"Sorry Timmy," Chester said. "Did I wake you?"

"What do you think?" Timmy said, frowning down at his best friend.

"Can you come with me today?" Chester asked in a rush, dismissing his friend's attitude as there were clearly more important things going on. Timmy sensed this at one.

"Go where?" he asked.

"My dad's trial. It's today," Chester said, and though Timmy would never tell the boy he looked to be on the verge of tears. Timmy tried to give Chester a reassuring smile.

"Of course I will," he said kindly. Chester returned the smile, his a much more relieved one, and Timmy lowered his window again. He clambered out of the clothes he had been wearing and dashed into the bathroom to get a quick shower. In everything that had happened it had been so long since he had last had one. The warm water cascaded down his skin and woke him up a little, and when he stepped out of the shower to dry himself off he felt much more alert.

Once he was dressed he bounded down the stairs and out of his house, where Chester stood, both patiently and nervously, looking rather strange in a smart suit and tie that Timmy hadn't noticed he was wearing before.

"Oh crap," he said, pulling at his faded t-shirt. "Do I have to dress up too?"

"No, don't worry about it. I'm just sitting up front with my dad. You know, for support. You can sit at the back of the courtroom if you want." The pair began walking to the bus stop, to catch the express to the courtroom next to the Town Hall.

"Is Tootie coming?" Timmy asked without thinking. Chester buried his hands in his pockets and looked to the ground with a shrug.

"I didn't really want her there, you know?" he said sadly. "Not exactly a romantic date, is it? Besides, I really don't want to have to get her involved in, you know, that part of my life. My dad interferes enough with all his crap, she doesn't need to be there when he gets sent down for it all."

"Sent down?" Timmy asked quietly.

"Come on Timmy, be reasonable. He's not exactly going to get let off with a slapped wrist for Grand Theft Auto, is he?" Timmy nodded. He had never really thought of that. Chester's father would be sent to prison and as Chester was still only seventeen and he had no idea where his mother was, he was going to be in some serious trouble.

"What's gonna happen to you?" Timmy asked. Chester shrugged and sighed.

"Don't know," he said dryly. "That's for the courts to decide, I guess."

They carried on for a few more minutes in a contemplative silence. Timmy's head buzzed with pity and guilt, while Chester's face was a vision of darkness and sorrow. Then, quite suddenly, Chester broke pace and sat down on somebody's garden wall with his face buried in his hands.

"What if they make me go far away from here, huh Timmy? I mean, what if they put me into care or something? I know it'll only be 'til I'm eighteen, but that's so far away and I..."

"What?" Timmy asked, sitting down beside his friend.

"I can't live that long without her," Chester confessed.

Timmy didn't know what to say. He wanted to tell Chester that he wouldn't be sent away, and that he could see Tootie all the time, but the words wouldn't come because he didn't know how to make them true. "You're pretty tight," he finally said. "You'll survive even if you can't be together for a while."

"Maybe, but God just thinking about not seeing her for all that time hurts so much. You must think I'm so pathetic."

"Come on Chester, you know I don't think that." Timmy smiled brightly and then pulled his friend to his feet. "Come on, we have to go now if we don't want to miss the bus, and there's no point worrying about things that might not even happen, is there?" Chester wiped his eyes and looked up.

"I guess not," he said, as the boys fell back into step.

"Tell you what," Timmy said, still keeping his voice upbeat and cheerful regardless of what was bubbling under his surface. "After the trial, however it turns out, how about you and me go to Tootie's house, grab the girls and go out for ice cream or something?" Timmy grinned and continued in his happy stride, but Chester stopped dead.

"The girls?" Chester repeated, looking completely lost.

"Yeah Tootie and..." he said, faltering as his senses caught up with his mouth.

"Vicky?" Chester said incredulously. Timmy rolled his eyes to the sky. He really didn't want to talk about this.

"Come on, we'll miss the bus," Timmy said hurriedly, continuing his step, but Chester held out his hand to stop him.

"Oh, there'll be other buses," Chester said teasingly, despite the grimness of the situation he was about to face. "I think we should talk about this," he said in the tones of some school counsellor who's convinced everyone's problems can be solved by deep breathing and lollipops.

"There's nothing to talk about," Timmy said in a voice that had an edge of a threat to it, but Chester wasn't scared.

"Don't tell me you want to join in Tootie's mission to make Vicky a human being..." Chester said. Timmy's shoulders sagged with relief; perhaps the conversation wouldn't be as bad as he thought. The pair continued to walk, ambling along at a leisurely pace.

"Why shouldn't I?" Timmy asked lightly, pretending he wasn't really all that serious about something he was desperate to know Chester's opinion of.

"Because she's a nutcase?" Chester suggested. "Don't you remember the torture she put you through when you were little? The pain and the yelling and the screaming? The humiliation? And now that she's gotten older she's dissolved into this drunken lunatic who hides in the shadows and won't talk to anyone! Trust me Timmy, there's nothing left there to help."

"Do you really think that?" Timmy asked solemnly.

"Tootie told me the other day just how bad her sister has gotten," Chester said sadly, his voice laced with pity. It was almost a small victory for Timmy, albeit a bitter one that even Chester was too busy feeling sorry for Vicky to be mad at her now.

"And how bad's that?"

"Tootie said she never knew Vicky had it in her. But she does, apparently, and it's killing her. She keeps getting drunk and crying and she doesn't take care of herself. It's making her agitated and jumpy and frightened of her own shadow. Tootie said she's so scared of what Vicky has become now, because it's such a waste, and it's done this to her."

"What has?" Timmy asked eagerly.

"Well, Tootie thinks that Vicky has fallen in love."

Timmy's mouth hung open. He knew that Vicky had feelings for him, and he had guessed they could be love, but to hear it put so simply yet described so destructively, by someone on the outside... It cut him to his very core.

"She doesn't know who it is though," Chester concluded.

-

The judge said that Chester's father could be out of prison within eighteen months with good behaviour. When his sentence had been read out, Chester's father had hung his head and had not had the nerve to look his son in the eye. Even as they led him away and he told Chester to take care of himself, he still did not make eye contact with the boy. As for Chester himself, the judge said that he would have to have all sorts of interviews and things at City Hall tomorrow but, for now, did he have anyone to stay with. He had said he could stay at Timmy's without even having to ask his friend.

Chester's spirits were low as the boys left the courthouse. It had taken less than an hour for Chester's father to be tried, convicted, sentenced and taken away. Timmy wondered if Cosmo and Wanda's trial would be any different, or if they would just be shepherded through like animals and their backs would barely have disappeared out of the door before the judge called 'Next!' He wished with all his heart that he had someone to talk to about it.

Once they got off the bus, Chester buried his hands in his pockets, fixed a smile to his face and took a deep breath. "Shall we go and get the girls, then?" he said in a sarcastic tone.

"Why not?" Timmy replied offhandedly.