The morning started out like no other, Y/N waking up first, going and making a pot of coffee and Indiana breakfast. It was quiet this Monday morning, like every other Monday.
Indiana's son, Mutt, was here every other week. The five-year-old just started Kindergarten, and he was loving it. Mutt was put on a schedule, but thanks to Indy, and now knows what to do before and after school.
As Y/N is finishing the sizzling bacon, putting it in a pan, strong, tan arms gather around her waist.
"Good morning, my love." A very not awake Indy says to Y/N, and as she was about to respond, Indy turns the stove off, and pulls her closer. He leans into her neck and starts to slowly massage the area with his lips.
"So, this is how we're going to start the day, i see. Let's eat breakfast before you go buck wild on me." Y/N tells him, grabbing plates, silverware, and putting them onto the table. Y/N turns around to look at Indy, who's currently pouring him some coffee. Her knees almost gave out. His hair is sopping wet, Shirt gone, and only in boxers.
Indy sees her staring out of the corner of his eyes, and he grins, "Stop trying to eye fuck me when I'm literally right here." Y/N goes from a light pink on her cheek to a dark red. Indy grins, slowly walking over to her. The sun that is now erupting from the morning horizon, hitting at all the right angles on him, and you can't help but feel a pool of heat. He makes his way over to you, and you wrap your arms around his neck and smile. He smiles back and closes the gap between your lips. You stumble back a little, and he wraps one arm around your waist, one on your face. You break from him.
"My love we need to eat. We can't go to work on empty stomachs." You tell him, still smiling. He pouts a little, and unwraps his arms around you, going to sit down at the table, where breakfast is.
After you finish your job at the local courthouse, you pull in the driveway of your beloved house. You see Indiana's car and blue motorcycle you adore. You smile again.
Walking into the house, you hear Indiana and another small voice in the office. You look confused. Who might be here? You take off your heels and walk over to the office. You open the door, expecting Indy to be talking to Ox, or Marcus, even Marion. But you see the little five-year-old intently listening to his father's story.
"Mutt? What are you doing here?" You ask the boy, turning his attention from his father to you. The little boy grins, and jumps down from his chair, and he runs over to you. He lifts his arms, and you grab him and hoist him onto your hip. Indy smiles.
"Mommy dropped me off here. She said she was going away for the weekend and she didn't want to leave me here at home alone." That made Indiana's eyebrows go up.
"She didn't tell me that. I thought you just asked to come over early." Indiana assumed. You were even more confused.
"Mutt, how about you go play outside, me and your daddy need to talk really quick, okay?" You tell him softly, putting him down so he can go play. He paused once he got by the door.
"You guys aren't mad at me, are you?" The little boy asked in small voice, but loud enough that you and Indiana could hear him.
"Of course, were not, what made you think we were mad, buddy?" Indiana says it before you can get it out. Indiana moves closer to the boy, only for Mutt to move back.
"Mutt, has something happened at Mommy's you aren't telling us about? We aren't mad, we just wanted to have an adult conversation." You softly told him, kneeling in front of him as Indiana copies your movements. Mutt steps back yet again, and tears gather in your eyes.
"Mutt, has someone been hurting you? We can't let you go back to mommy's if you say yes, you know that, right?" Indiana tells his son softly, inching forward just a little. Mutt slowly nods, moving closer to Indiana and closing that gap, hugging him tightly. Indiana stumbles a bit and leans him and Mutt on the door. Indiana looks at you with those concerned blue orbs, and you stare back. He nods to Mutt, who's now silently sobbing.
"Oh, Mutt. Come here." You tell him, and he moves from Indiana's grip, tears streaming down his small face. He buries his head into the nape of your neck, and sobs. It wasn't silent, but it wasn't loud either. Your eyes sting from the tears, and you look at Indiana, who is holding his arms out. He wasn't crying, but it looked like he was about too. You move into his arms, and he securely wraps his arms around you, stopping at your waist, and putting a hand on Mutt's back. He kissed your forehead, and you leaned into his embrace.
Mutt calmed down after a few hours. It took a lot of talking gently to him, but he finally calmed down. Around dinner time, he was finally himself, going on about his last week at school, and the things coming up for school. After dinner, though, is when he got quiet again. He was stand-off-ish. He didn't really speak unless spoken too, and even then, you had to call his name a few times before he heard you. Later that night, as you and Indiana were tucking him into bed, he whispered.
"I love you, Y/N. More than my Mommy and Eric." Eric was the man that his mother married after Mutt was born. Indiana tells him goodnight, and you two silently close the door, and walk across the hall to your shared bedroom. The moment you walked in after Indiana, you walked over to his side of the bed that he was sitting on and straddled him. Indiana looks at you with hunger and lust in his bright blue orbs, going in to kiss you. You stop him right before he does.
"Nu-uh. Not tonight, Indy. Maybe after this talk. I know you heard what he said." You tell him, looking into his eyes. He sighs slowly, going to wrap his arms around your waist, and you wrap your arms around his neck.
"Maybe it's Eric." Is all he says. Your eyebrows burrow, confused.
"What do you mean?" You ask him, slowly, starting to understand what he means.
"Maybe it's Eric that is doing this to him. It's neglect, and I wonder if his mom knows. I'll give her a call tomorrow." He tells you, and you nod. He then remembers what you two were supposed to be doing in the first place. He smirks.
"Now, back to what I want." Indy tells you, closing the gap between the two of you. Your hands move into his hair, and his hands make their way under your shirt. He then breaks the kiss, earning a pout from you. He moves you both onto the bed. Then there's a night filled with silent pleasure.
Tuesday morning came around, and the three of you quickly got into the desired cars, Mutt choosing to go with Indiana, as the school Mutt goes to is close to the University. You called Indiana around the time you got home, telling him there's a court case that you can't get out of. He sounded upset but understood. Once you had gotten home, you immediately heard sniffles. Thinking it's Mutt, you are walking faster to his room, only to see Indiana, leaning on the doorway, with his shoulders shaking, and sniffling.
"Oh, Indy..." You whisper, careful not to wake up your son. He turns to you while closing the door and breaks down. You grab his waist before he falls to the ground, moving him to your room. As you two got to the bed, you straddled his waist, holding his face with your hands. As he looked up, you could tell that he was really hurt today.
"What did Mutt tell you, my love?" You softly ask him, making sure his blue eyes were locked with your green. It took Indiana all his might not to cry again at the question, which nerved y/n. He averted your gaze, but you tapped his face and he looked at you again. You nodded, and he started speaking.
"Mutt's stepfather, Eric. He's been..." He trails off, another round of tears floating in his eyes. You see a few fall, and you quickly wipe them away.
"He's been neglecting and abusing him...Mutt's been going by himself to go grocery shopping, without Molli, or Eric. Eric's been putting concealer on our body, to hide the bruises. Mutt even has some with him now, which is why he doesn't want help when he bathes. Because we will see the bruises. Molli, Y/N, she knows what Eric's been doing. And she's been doing nothing for Mutt. Y/N, this has been going on since Mutt was 3. Two years, and we didn't suspect anything was wrong...I'm a failure as a father." Indiana tells you, wrapping his arms around you and letting it go. After a few minutes of him crying, he lifts his head up, looking at you. You put your hands on his face, and you kiss him. Your eyes were misty as you guys pulled away. He gives you a small smile, and he nods, the same way you did to him.
"For one, you're not a failure. Especially not as a father. You love Mutt with all of your heart and would do anything to see that boy smile. Now, regarding everything else. I can see what I can do if you want to file for full custody. But I'm letting you know now; you must have Mutt testify against Eric. So, we must let Mutt know what we're doing. So, would you like to file for full custody?" Indiana thought for a minute, closing his eyes and relaxing in your touch. You were still on his lap, and his arms were still tightly around your waist.
"I'm going to do it. I'm going to file for full custody." He told you, looking back and forth in your eyes, looking for the right answer. You grin, and he grins back.
That Wednesday, you took the day off, and so did Indiana. The two of you together, got Mutt dressed and sent him off to school on the bus. You two then went into Indiana's car and went into the courthouse. You two then went into the family attorney's office. There, a nice, young man greeted you.
"Hello, Ms. L/N and Mr. Jones. I've been expecting you. My name is Mark Holland, and I will be taking on your case. Jones vs. The Johnson's, correct?" He greeted you two with a kind, soft smile. You and Indy took a second to look at each other and you both smiled. It was a great choice.
"Yes, sir we are. In fact, how long until we get into the trials?" Indiana asks him, looking sharp in his suit and tie, relaxing into the chair, and putting one leg over the other.
Mark grins, "Well, with how much has been told to me by Y/N, you should be in there within a week, maybe two, at the most. Mutt is a very tough boy, and what I've heard, you haven't told him yet, correct?" He smiles as you and Indiana look at each other again.
"Yes, we haven't told him yet. We will tonight, and tomorrow when I come back in for work, I'll let you know what he told me." You told him, and he nods as he takes in the information.
"Now, moving on to the court side of things. You two will be with me, and the Johnson's attorney will be beside them. Things you see on TV. Now, Mutt is not going to be by you guys. Since he's testifying against them, he is going to be outside waiting until his que. By that point, we should already have the Judge in a chokehold. Because he knows your family, he was willing to take this case on. After Mutt testifies, their attorney will ask him questions about you guys, how you guys' act towards him, and if Mutt testifies with his heart, we shouldn't have to ask him anything unless you want me to. Then after that, there will be a recess, and the Judge along with the Jury will go back into a conference room, and they will discuss their decision. These decisions, especially for cases like this one, won't take long. If Mutt is willing to, He can show any kind of bruises to the Jury, and the decision will take 5 minutes, max. If something is off to one of the jurors, then the decision will take longer. Does Mutt currently have any bruises on him now that we can possibly take photos of?" Mark explains, pulling out documents and evidence from his beige folder to show you two.
"Yes, actually. We have the photos now, if you'd like them now." You told him, going into your black folder, pulling out 5 photos of the bruises on Mutt's arms, legs, and back. You and Indiana frown as you see the photos. You hand them to Mark, and he inspects all five.
"Well, I expected the bruises to be bad, but not all over this little boy's body. Jesus Christ..." He mutters the last part, but you still hear him. Indiana moves his hand towards yours, and you meet him in the middle, squeezing his hand for support.
"Now that we have photo evidence of the bruises, all you two need to do now is ask Mutt if he's willing to testify in court." Mark tells you both as you get up.
"We sure will. Thank you so much for all the help, Mark, we really appreciate it." Indiana tells Mark, shaking his hand firmly.
As you two leave the office, walking together, you two decided to pick Mutt up from school early.
"Daddy? Why are you and Y/N picking me up so early? It's only 11am. School doesn't end until 2. I thought you guys knew that." Mutt was confused. You smile at him as you put him in his car seat, him still squirming to get out of your grip. Indiana looks in the rearview mirror and chuckles at his son.
"No, no, Mutt. We know it's early. It's just that we thought we would take you out for the rest of the day to talk to you about something very, very, important. Okay?" Indiana tells his son, who now looks happier than confused.
"Am I going to be a big brother? OR are we getting a puppy? OR-" Mutt rambles, grinning as he said both things.
"No, Mutt. Nothing like that. It's more serious than that. Okay?" Indiana tells him again, and Mutt's face grows into a confused and worried stare.
"Is you two broken up?" A soft voice asks, and you turn around and see that his bright blue eyes are full of tears. Indiana looks back at his son, and then turns his gaze for the road.
"Absolutely not, Mutt. You Dad and I will be together as long as we can be." You softly tell him, and Mutt nods just as if to say, okay. As Indiana pulls into the driveway, you start getting fidgety about what might happen. Indiana looks at you and holds your hand, grabbing Mutt and walking into the house. You put your things down, going into the dining room of the house. You hear Mutt and Indy talking. You see those two walk into the dining room, Indy going for the chair next to yours. He takes your hand in his and starts talking.
"Mutt, we know about all of the hitting, and stuff that has been going on at your mom's. And we don't like seeing you hurt. We want to make sure that you are as safe as possible, and by doing it this way, I think we are going to ensure your safety." Indiana starts. Mutt looks confused but doesn't say anything.
"Well, we thought since Eric does these things, and your Mommy doesn't help you, Mutt, your father wants full custody of you. You understand what that means, right?" You softly tell him. Mutt doesn't have a reaction or anything at first, like he's wondering about it. But then, a huge smile breaks out as he finally concluded what that means.
"This means I stay here all of the times, right?" Mutt says, and giggles as the two of you nod. "Then I think this will be worth it."
"But this means that you have to testify against Eric when we go to court about it, do you know what testify means?" Indiana tells the little boy, and his brows furrow in confusion on the word.
"Like, talking?" Mutt questions, looking at you for approval.
"Like talking. Except, you're doing it in front of people. The Judge will have you come into the courtroom and go on the witness stand. Someone will escort you there. Then, you do an oath, which you have to say or otherwise we can't take you into full custody. Their spokesperson will ask you questions, and you must answer them honestly. Okay?" You explain to him. It takes him a few minutes to comprehend what you said, but then he nods, "I understand."
"So, our question is Mutt, would you want to testify against Eric and your Mommy in court so that we can have full custody?" Indiana asks, looking at you then at Mutt for his answer.
"Yes, but on one condition." Mutt answers. Indiana smiles, but you look confused.
"What's the condition, Sweetheart?" You ask him, and he giggles and smiles.
"We get a dog." You and Indiana have a silent conversation. He nods, and so do you.
"Fine, we will get a dog." Indiana answers for you, and the two of you can't help but laugh at Mutt dancing in the living room.
Today was the day. It was a week after Mutt's conversation with the three of you, and now it was his day in court. There was a hearing without Mutt, and today was his. Mutt was sitting outside waiting for his cue to come in, and he couldn't be any more nervous and excited. Meanwhile in the court room, You, Indiana, and Mark were sitting at one side. Molli, Eric, and their lawyer at their side. Henry, Indiana's dad, showed up, excited to see how this would turn out. Marion is sitting by her sister. Marion doesn't believe that Molli and Eric are doing this to Mutt. Ox, and Marcus are also on Indiana's side, along with some of his students that he taught, or is teaching right now.
"And now, would you please get our victim on the witness stand, please." Judge Rhonda Lowe says to the bailiff. The bailiff goes and gets Mutt. Mutt walks in with a small smile on his face. You and Indiana smile at him, as he goes on the stand.
"State your name, please, Mr. Jones." The Judge tells him with a smile.
"My name is Henry Walton Jones III, Or Mutt." Mutt says into the mic.
"Good, now, since you're under the age of 10, I legally cannot do the oath to you. But will you tell the whole truth about your situation?" Judge Rhonda asks Mutt, looking down and smiling at his face.
"Yes, Ma'am I will." Mutt smiles back.
"Now, moving on. Will the Johnson's attorney please come up and ask questions about this case." Rhonda says. Their attorney gets up and moves to where Mutt is. Mutt doesn't look fazed as he was asked his first question.
"I'm not going to beat around the bush, I don't think there's a need. Does Eric Johnson abuse you?" The courtroom went silent as Mutt answered in a heartbeat.
"Yes sir, my stepdaddy does hurt me. And my mommy does nothing to help me." Mutt answers. Gasps were heard throughout the courtroom, and mutterings were also heard.
"And why do you think that they hurt you?"
"Because don't love me as much as my Daddy and Y/N do, sir." Mutt answers yet again.
"Do you want to live with Mr. Jones and Ms. L/N forever?"
"Yes sir, I do."
"And why is that?"
"Because they don't hit me. They don't pretend I don't exist."
"Does Mr. Jones ever yell at you?"
"No sir." Mutt looks taken aback when he was asked that question.
"Do you think if he gets older, he might hurt you?" The attorney was dangerously close to the witness stand. Even the police officers in the back could tell how uncomfortable Mutt was now.
"Objection, your honor. Too persuasive." Your attorney jumps up.
"I agree. Ask him things that won't torture his mind, please." Judge quips to the Johnsons attorney.
"No more questions, your honor." Their attorney looks defeated as he goes back to his seat."
"Mr. Holland, any remarks or questions for Mr. Jones here?"
"No, your honor."
"Molli and Eric Johnson, you now have permission to speak to Mr. Jones, but do not get up from your seats. Mrs. Johnson, you start first."
"Mutt, baby. I'm so sorry for not sticking up for you-" Mutt cut her off.
"No, you're not, Mommy. If you were, none of us would be here right now." Mutt tells her, and she quiets down. Eric on the other hand, looks extremely mad at Mutt.
"Now listen here, young man. This is my fault, not your mother's, do not speak to her in that way."
"Why'd you, do it?" That one question made you tear up, and you put your head on Indy's shoulder. He wraps his arm around you.
"Because you're an ungrateful little Rat. You deserved everything I did to you."
"Was it me, or was it the Alcohol? Or the drugs? Or the feeling of hitting something, someone, that made you want to hurt me. It wasn't mommy you hurt. It was me. Why?" Mutt's sentence wobbles at the end, and Indiana just wants to take Mutt of the stands.
"I said what I said. I said it with the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me god."
"Well, you're going to need god on your side for this. You understand you can get the police officers called on you and you can go to jail for a long time hurting me, right? You too, mom. Daddy, what's that word?" Mutt looks at Indiana.
"Neglect, son." Indiana tells Mutt, throat closing, eyes watering, and heart heavy.
"Yeah, Mommy. That. Y/N has been a better mom for me than you'll ever be. And I hope that the answer is I get to stay with them all the time. Because I don't want to see you through a jail cell. Either one of you." That sentence made you break. You put your head into Indy's neck, letting out the tears.
"Love, it's okay. I know you've been so strong the past few days. There you go, let it out, my love. You're okay. I love you so so much." He whispered, so only you could hear. You stopped crying but didn't lift your head up.
"Order! Now, I think the Jurors and I agree that this little boy know well enough what will happen. In the case of Jones vs Johnson's. It is my pleasure to say that 5-year-old, Henry Walton Jones III, will be staying with Mr. Henry Jones II, and his girlfriend, Ms. Y/n L/n, full time. This case is now dismissed." Rhonda got up from her chair to see Mutt run over to Indiana and you. Mutt's crying, you're crying, and Indiana has tears in his eyes.
"Mutt, your ours now."
"WAIT!" Molli says, and everyone stops.
"If I can't have my son, then I take away my motherly parental rights, and I give them to Y/n. She's going to be a better mom to Mutt than I was to him. Y/N, do you accept?" Your heart was beating so fast you thought it was going to run away. Mutt looks up at you and you grab him and lift him up and smile.
"Yes, Molli. I will be sure to take care of him." You tell her, nodding as she left the courthouse.
"Y/N?" Mutt asks.
"Yes, Mutt?"
"You're my new mommy?"
"Yes, I am. You don't have to call me your mom, though. I'm still fine with Y/N."
"No, you're my Mommy now. I call you mommy." Mutt demands, but then softly adds, "Can I call you mommy?" Mutt looks at you ask you guys go out of the courthouse.
"I would love it if you called me your mommy, Mutt."
"Daddy did you hear ? She's my mommy now!" Mutt giggles as Indiana looks at him with a goofy smile on his face.
"I sure did, Mutt. Now, how about lunch with us and Grandpa?" Indiana smiles, taking Mutt by the hand. Mutt grabs your hand, and you smile.
"Yes, please!" Mutt answers, laughing as he gets lifted off the ground by the two of you.
As you guys walk to the car, you think. If it wasn't for that faithful day last week, Mutt would never has been this happy as he was now. He's going to be okay. Because he has his mommy and daddy by his side, forever and always.
Thanks for reading!
With Love,
Kay3
Word Count: 4688
Edited and Revised: September 1st, 2023
