Custody Granted (Scömìche)

Thirteen

Mitch was called up to speak next. Max didn't have very many questions for him other than the typical "do you think you're a good parent" and 'how does it feel caring for another human". Each of his responses were genuine and real. I could tell by smile on his face when he talked about me and the light that shown through his eyes when he described our little family moments. It warmed my heart to know that someone actually cared about me. That I was more than just a walking mess of useless thoughts and emotions. 

When it was Grissom's turn to ask questions, I watched as my father whispered something in his ear before he let his lawyer stand up. Grissom approached the stand and crossed his arms. 

"Mr. Grassi, have you and Mr. Hoying had any problems keeping Alex in line over at your apartment?" he asked. 

"Not really. We've been really fortunate to have Alex's trust this whole time," Mitch responded. 

"The whole time you say?" Grissom's voice jumped an octave higher in curiosity at Mitch's statement. 

"That's right," 

Mr. Grissom turned away from the stand and looked out into the rows of faces, like he was looking for something. His eyes stopped when they landed on me. 

"Alex, sweetheart. Could you come up here for a moment?" he asked his lips curling up in a mischievous smile.

"Mr. Grissom what is the meaning of this?" Judge McCormick asked.

"Trust me Your Honor. I'm going somewhere with this," he said. McCormick nodded his head, then gestured with his finger for me to approach the front.

I swallowed the lump that had formed in my throat and stood up. Kirstie squeezed my hand before letting it go and moved her legs in so that I could get out. Once out of the aisle, I smoothed out my dress then hobbled my way up to the front of the room, stopping when I was next to Scott's chair. He grabbed my hand and pulled me onto his lap, allowing me to take some pressure off of my foot. 

"Mr. Grassi. Could you explain to the fine ladies and gentleman of the jury, how Alex broke her foot?" 

Mitch took a deep breath, something I'd learned he did whenever he was nervous or stressed. 

"Well, our first night with Alex did not go a smooth as Scott and I had hoped it would. Everything had been going fine during the day, but then when night came Alex told us about why she left her home in the first place. She was so distraught she ran into her room and locked the door. When I went to go get her out of her room later for dinner, the door was open and so was her window," 

I could hear the struggle in Mitch's voice as each word shook with anxiety and worry. I knew he was cursing himself for saying things had been perfect earlier, but now he was trying his hardest to stay calm, cool and collected in front of the jury. He was about to continue when Mr. Grissom interupted him. 

"So when Alex left the room, you didn't go after her right away? Why would you wait?" 

"What Alex told us about Mr. Zimmer was horrifying and disgusting. We didn't want to say the wrong thing to Alex and then have her get even more upset with us," Mitch explained. 

"So you let her sit in her room alone. How long was it before you checked on her?" 

"I'm not sure, maybe 20 minutes or so. We didn't know what to say," 

Grissom turned to face the jury. 

"You know a lot could happen in 20 minutes. Especially to a girl as young as Alex here in a place as big as L.A, you know? She didn't even have to run away to put herself in danger! What if she suffocated herself with a pillow? What if she had jumped off the fire escape instead of climbing down?

What if she had run into the bathroom instead? What if she had been upset enough to cut herself, or drown herself in the bathtub? What if she hung herself with the shower curtain? What if she took one of every pill she found in the medicine cabinet? Teenagers are like toddlers. They need supervision, otherwise they'll take whatever freedom they have and abuse it. An unstable figure like Ms. Zimmer should not have been allowed in her bedroom alone when she was in distress. Is this type of parenting any better than the claims of rape and drug abuse that have imposed on Mr. Zimmer?"

"I wasn't finished with my story Grissom!" Mitch snapped. There was anger in his voice from his in ability to cry in front of the court room.

"Then by all means, finish Mr. Grassi," Grissom said placing his hands in his pockets.    

"Thank you. Now, the night that Alex took off was the same night that was the same night she was abducted by Mr. Banks and his friend Nate. As evidence has proven today, they do illegal work with Mr. Zimmer, which includes selling drugs and God knows what else. These two gentleman put her in the trunk of their car and tried to take her to her father's house, where they knew he'd do terrible things to her. But Alex is... Alex is so clever. She found a way out of the trunk and jumped out of the car, breaking her foot in the process. She limped her way into traffic where she found a ride back to the urban area and back to our home!" 

I wanted to tell the jury it was true. I wanted to scream it to the world and to every other planet in the universe. Every word that had just left Mitch's mouth was true. I knew that Mitch's ending to the story was pointless in swaying the jury's minds. I knew the second half of the story probably sounded like complete bullshit to anybody who wasn't there when it happened. I knew that Grissom's statement's against Mitch were already causing them to think badly of him when the truth is that he's done everything exactly right. Scott too. If they had followed me into my room that night, I probably would've run away anyway, but I wouldn't have come back. 

"Thank you Mr. Grassi. I'm sure the jury feel a little bit more informed now that you've "cleared up" the rest of the story. No further questions Your Honor," Then Grissom looked at me once more before sitting back down in his seat next to my father.

When Mitch returned to his seat I stood up, ready to go sit with Kirstie again. I wasn't supposed to be called back up until after Scott and my father had both been questioned. Judge McCormick called out to Grissom as I started back towards my seat. 

"Who is your next  witness?" he asked his voice cracking with age. 

What he said caught me so off guard, that tripped and fell halfway back to my seat. 

"I call, Alex Zimmer to the stand,". 

I could feel my heart stop in my chest. I felt like I was going to be sick right there on the floor. The boys said I wouldn't be called until the end because that was when Max had planned to call me up. He said nothing I had to say would be of use to Grissom's case, so he wouldn't bother with me. 

Apparently, he was wrong. 

I stood up and brushed myself off before hobbling back up to the front of the room. The bailiff was nice enough to help me up the steps to the witness stand. When I finally sat down, I looked out into the crowd of people in the room. Scott and Mitch looked up at me worriedly. Kirstie, Avi and Kevin had frightened looks on their faces as well. As I scanned the crowd further, my eyes locked when they spotted a familiarly horrifying grin. 

My father had clearly aged since I last saw him. He had more wrinkles than a man of his age should have, his eyes had gone from a crystal clear blue to a cloudy unfriendly gray and there was a small scar that ran diagonally underneath his left eye to the tip of his big nose. He made eye contact with me and winked, knowing nobody saw it but me.

OK, so I was going to combine this chapter and the next one, but then it was going to take me forever to update and it would be a really long update so I'm separating them. I'm going to apologize in advance for taking so long to update the last couple chapters. This is the longest Scomiche fic I've written so it's a little hard to keep writing about the same idea for longer than normal.  :) love you!