Adopted by Tom Hiddleston

Chapter 15: The Battle Has Begun part 1

TOM'S POV

Today was the day. The day of the court case.

Emma had been silent all last night, well most the night. At around midnight last night Emma came into my room, tears rolling down her face. I asked her what was wrong and all she said was 'Dad I don't want to lose you.' She stayed with me all night; Emma was scared, really scared.

I was sat in the living room chatting to the Lawyer; Jack. He was telling me that we had a solid shot at winning with case and not letting James get anywhere near Emma. Jack had also spoken to Emma and she told him straight she didn't want contact with James.

"I'm ready," Emma told me as she entered the living room.

I looked at her; No child should ever have to go through this. "You look so grown up," I told her and hugged her tightly.

Emma looked up at me. "I love you Dad," She told me.

I felt tears in my eyes as I kissed her blonde hair lightly. "I love you too Emma," I told her.

The three of us got into a TAXI that was waiting for us outside. The ride was silent, Emma was playing with her necklace, I was tapping my foot and Jack was calm.

The ride was quick, as soon as we pulled up outside the courthouse, Emma looked like she wanted to scream, I took her hand in mine and walked with her inside. Jack went another way to go and set up and we waited outside the court room, Ruffio and met us and stood with us.

"Swan relax, it will be fine," Ruffio told her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

Emma shrugged him away. "And if it's not?" She asked not looking at us.

I placed my hand on her shoulder. "We'll cross that bridge when we get to it," I told her quietly.

"Please enter the court room!" The guard told us.

The three of us walked in, Emma, Jack and myself sat at the front table, Ruffio sat behind us and a few feet to our left was James and his lawyer.

"All rise for the judge!" A man shouted and we all stood up.

EMMA'S POV

As we stood up I looked at the Jury, some would glance at me but others were looking at a door as the Judge walked in and sat in his chair.

The Judged smashed his hammer on the desk. "Court in session!" He stated. "The case between James Swan and Thomas Hiddleston. Mr Swan to the stand."

As we all sat down, James went over to the small stand next to the Judge. James' Lawyer stands up.

"Mr Swan what is your reason to being sent to prison?" His Lawyer asked.

"I was a thief," James stated.

The Lawyer nodded. "Why did you become a thief?" He asked.

"I did it to support my family," James stated. "I did it to help support them, give them the food, shelter, all the clothes they needed to survive."

"So you only did what you had to do to help your family live a good life?" The Lawyer asked him and James nodded. "People of the Jury my client here, was a criminal so he could feed his family, protect his family. Wouldn't you try and care for your family?"

The members of the Jury made notes.

"Mr Swan what was your relationship like with you daughter Emma Swan?" The Lawyer asked.

James smiled. "She was my little princess, a real Daddies girl," He stated and looked at me. "Emma and I had a perfect father and daughter relationship, on the weekends we were inseparable."

I wanted to cry, it wasn't like that at all; He hardly ever spent time with me because he was too busy looking for another place to brake into!

"What have the last few years done to you, being away from your Daughter for so long?" The Lawyer asked.

James looked at me with sad eyes. "Not a day went by where I didn't think of you, miss you and I tried so hard to get the officers to let me see you but no one would listen to me or understand how I was feeling," He explained.

The Lawyer nodded. "No more questions your honour," He told the Judge then sat down.

Jack then stood up with a file in his hands, he went over to James and stood in front of him, he handed the file to the Judge then looked at the Jury.

"Members of the Jury in front of you is a brown envelop, inside you will see details about Emma when she was taken into care," Jack told them. "At the age of Seven Emma Swan was the same weight as a Four year old. On the outside Emma looked stunning but under her clothes she was skinny, very skinny and if she was left any longer she possible could have possibly died. So tell me James Swan why did Emma end up like that if you cared so much about her?"

James look startled but he quickly masked it. "You know what children can be like, she would hardly eat, she was a fussy eater, one day she would like something and the next she wouldn't," He explained.

Jack nodded. "Yes well maybe if you stuck around more and spent time with her, that wouldn't have happened," He pointed out. "James if you cared about your daughter then she wouldn't have been in that state therefore after doing much research it has been found that Emma had a broken arm when she was Five, it was broke in three places and the excuse you gave the hospital was 'She fell off her bike'. Now Mr Swan is that true?"

James shook his head. "No it wasn't," He muttered.

"Then how did it happen?" Jack asked. "I'm sure everyone would like to know how a five year old broke her arm in three places!"

"She was in a car accident!" James shouted.

I closed my eyes; I remembered it well, too well. I was in pain for hours, days, it was one of the most horrifying things to have happened to me.

James sighed sadly. "My wife and I were doing a brake in with a few helpers and we left Emma in a car with one of our helpers," He began.

I turned to Dad. "I wanna leave, I don't want to listen anymore," I told him quietly.

Dad put a comforting arm around my shoulder. "Emmy you can't, we're going for a break in a little while," He told me.

I closed my eyes and continued to listen to James.

"What happened to Emma?" The Judge asked.

"We were in a bad situation, I radioed over to the guy who had Emma and told him to go. The guy drove off and tried to stay away from the police, but as he turned down a street another car slammed into the side of him and his car was flipped, the man got Emma out and hid her, he text me her location and I picked her up. I took her home, bathed her and put her to bed, the next morning she was in agony, my wife and I knew we had to take her to hospital," James explained. "She was screaming, crying in pain and I couldn't do anything to help her."

Jack looked at the Jury. "He let his five year old child sit in pain for what ten hours until you decided to take her to hospital," He stated. "You don't deserve that girl!"

The entire room was silent... Everyone was looking at James.

"That all your honour," Jack told him and sat down, he leaned a little closer to Dad. "We've got this."

I buried my face into my hands; I didn't want to relive old memories, I didn't want to bring up the past that will always haunt me. I won't ever have a normal life!