South Park Bunny: Rebellious (RE-WRITTEN AGAIN)

Chapter 25: Day 1 Court

the first thing they did after finding their morning routines was call up a lawyer willing to represent them

after a few phone calls they found a nice lady that was willing to help out their case, her name was melody greens surpassingly she seemed fairly confident after explaining the whole situation to her, she even laughed when leo asked her if they was a risk to losing her in foster care or her parents

"i wouldn't worry on that, sending a child to foster care is usually the last resort, if you two are providing and meeting the necessities then that shouldn't be a worry"

"what about the possible charge of kidnapping?"

"it could be seen a heroic act of saving a child from neglect and subjection to abuse, it will be harder to fight this as your both 17 but since you are in collage, working and are providing her a home, i wouldn't worry"

it was as if wave of relief washed over them; their biggest fear in this court battle was possibility losing karen and not being able to fight in custody over her due to being charged with kidnapping 

they also said that since they had an established life back in new york and were studying abroad that the chances of them getting forcefully shipped back to south park was also very unlikely, it would only be a 3 more months until their 18th birthday anyway and they were old enough to make their won decisions 

their lawyer recommended they ask the judge if it would be possible to legally disown them from their parents so this wouldn't happen again

the day of court was anxiety inducing, they were more confident now it was still a scary of losing karen and being forced back to live their parents, no matter how small the possibility was

after their lawyers opening statements leo and kenny were first to speak on the stand, their lawyer asked them to recount their childhood memories of their parents

kenny honestly felt a lot of guilt exposing his mother on the stand but he had to think about karen, his boyfriend and himself, he was honest and even showed evidence of pictures and video's he took of his parents screaming and punching each other, along with headshots and documents of their many arrests

leo especially had a hard time answering on the stand; his brain had block out many memories due to the trauma they carried but he did his best recounting them to the court, he admitted to being a victim of physical abuse, shared his story of sexual assault from his uncle that his parents turned a blind eye two, along with being sent to a conversation camp to "cure" his sexuality despite his dad being gay himself and even showed photographical evidence of his dad having a affair with a guy in their living room couch,   

members of the courts were horrified, the jury was speechless and the judge looked ready to beat up both of their parents

karen wasn't on the stand but she did agree to doing a paper written testimony where she admitted that kenny offered her communication but she expressed that she didn't want to speak with them

needless to say their parents lawyer was sweating bullets and shot glares at them four ever so often, after giving karen's written testimony to the court mrs greens asked stephen stotch to the stand

"Mr stotch, your son says that you were incredibly abusive to him"

"He's being dramatic I only slapped him a few times across the face"

his lawyer, kevin smith was again sweating bullets and looked as if he wanted to beat up his clients, brought a tiny grimace to leo's face 

"Mr stotch slapping your son is still a form of abuse"

"well it's not like i ever broke him or anything, it was for his best intrests"

"i fail to see how assaulting your son is looking out for hi best interests"

he had the audacity to look at her as if she was stupid

"you clearly don't know my son, he has no respect for anyone in our family!! after all the sacrifies and resources i spent on him!"

"what excatly do you mean by that mr stotch?"

"we provided a roof after his ungrateful head!, feed him, gave him clothes and even bought him toys to play with when he was younger"

the prosecutor slumped in his seat while mis green was having a field day

"mr stotch your duty as a parent is legally required to do those things and even then you often times used those basic necessities against your son as punishment, you withheld food from him and by the time he was 16 you refused to gave him basic needs anymore"

"well since he wanted to act out he doesn't deserve the luxury of comfortable home life"

"so you admit to withholding food from him?"

he stuttered and hesitated on answering 

that was basically how the questioning went, when his mother was called to the stand she looked as awful as ever, her clothes were wrinkly and her eyes were red and puffy

"mrs stotch, your the mother to leopold stotch correct?"

"yes i am"

"your son claimed that you enabled your husbands abusive behaviour towards him and yourself correct"

"i..he's a good man and he was doing his best to provide for us"

it sounded like she was trying to convince herself that, he supposed that. him running away and now being in court finally forced her to face the reality of her situation

"mrs stotch, you son said in his testimony that you would often dismiss and neglect your son and even subjected him to your mental breakdowns?"

"i-i didn't mean to hurt him.."

"we have evidence of your trying to drown him in your car after the discovery of your husbands affair"

she went quiet 

"your son also said that you supported the decision to send your son away to a conversation camp despite the alarmingly high suicide rates and mental health decline?"

"we didn't want him to live in sin and be sent to hell"

"funny enough your son also caught your husband committing adultery with numerous men and yet when confronted he would strike his son and force him into silence"

"i-i just didn't want him to make the same mistakes as him..."

her brow perked up

"so you admit that your husband isn't fit as a proper role model to follow"

"i-i didn't say that"

"mrs stotch you admitted that you didn't want to your son to make the same mistakes of your husband, did you mean that you didn't want your son to follow in his father's infidelity or abusive tendencies"

her lip quivered as she hung her head 

"...both"

the court murmured amongst themselves, the judge banged his gavel down and cried out to silence the members 

stephen sat shocked in his seat, silently fuming in his ears, leo was speechless, he expected his mother to stand by her husbands side and defend him until her last breathe like she always did but here she was admitting that her husband was abusive; further helping their case

for a brief moment his mother and him made eye contact, her eyes were just filled with dread and guilt and by the looks of it she seemed to have lost a lot of weight, it was like the anchor of her husband being abusive and her son wanting nothing more to do with her was weighing her down by the ankle, drowning her in a ocean of guilt and realization

it hurt him a little to see her like that but he found it hard to feel sorry for her; she enabled and was apart in making his life hell regardless if she was the victim first

he broke away first and stared down at his desk, his mother followed suit, a single tear trailing down her cheek