love within the silence

thirty-four

Today was the day, the trial.

I hadn't slept well the night before, I was tossing and turning and I couldn't seem to settle. It was 6:30am when I couldn't stay in bed anymore, during the night Ally had crawled her way into our bed. She was curled into Jugheads side and I quickly checked I didn't disturb either of them.

I headed downstairs and grabbed myself a coffee, the house was silent and it gave me time to think.

It wasn't until about 8:30 was I drifted out of my daze by ally hugging my legs. I looked down and then I picked her up hugging her close to my body, she smiled and I sat her on the kitchen side. I held her to me and kissed her head, ally then signed daddy still sleeping mummy, he said bring you back to bed. I smiled and I said okay sweetie, let's go find daddy she nodded and clapped her hands as I rested her on my hip. We walked back upstairs and when we went inside Jughead was now sitting up in bed with his book. I put ally on the bed and she crawled back under the duvet and onto Jugheads lap, he smiled and put his book down. I sat down next to them and ran my fingers through ally's hair, he gently touched my hand and moved to intertwine our fingers. I sighed and moved so I could rest my head on his shoulder 'I'm scared' I whispered, Jughead squeezed my hand tightly and whispered back 'you are so much stronger than him. You have everyone behind you, we're all going to be there, Cheryl, Toni, Veronica, Archie, dad, me. You are not alone in this but today is all about finally getting the closure you deserve, after today, it's you, me and Ally against the world. We're a family and no one can ever take that away from us, don't ever forget that' I nodded and quickly wiped away the tear that fell. 'I don't think I could ever say goodbye to you' I whispered again, his lips touched my forehead and he said 'you don't ever have to, you are my life Betts. You and Ally.' I smiled and nodded while sitting in the comfortable silence of our bedroom watching as our daughter fell back to sleep in the warm and comforting embrace of her dad.

Veronica and Archie came for breakfast, Jughead had insisted on sorting ally out this morning to relieve some stress off of my back. When I came downstairs everyone was in the kitchen, no one treated today any differently and no one was sympathetic, it was my one request. I wanted today to be like any other day and no matter what gets said in the court room, I didn't want to talk about. Not until I was ready. They understood and were all supportive. We all ate breakfast as a family but I was quieter than usual, I was still worried that he would make up some twisted story on what happened. Jugheads hand landed on my thigh underneath the table as reassurance that he was right there next to me.

We all got ready to leave, I was just getting Ally into her coat. The court had requested that she come as they wanted to ask her some very simple questions, I was very hesitant at first but my lawyer said it's just a precaution and it will help us. I agreed but told him that if on the day she didn't want to speak she didn't have to and he agreed.

We all arrived at the courts and we all took our seats, we hadn't put in Ally's hearing aids as we didn't want her to hear or be apart of what happened today until she was needed. She was currently sat on Jugheads lap with hotdog playing with him. My lawyer walked over to us and reassured us that everything would be fine, after the evidence we had on Robbie, he should be going away for a long time.

20 minutes later my mum walked through the door, she smiled before coming to sit over with me and Jughead. She kissed Ally's head and then ally signed hi nana my mum smiled and said hi sweetie, you being good? She nodded her head and then looked over at me to give me a reassuring smile.

When the trial started I was on edge, they had bought Robbie in and sat him at his desk but I couldn't help feeling his eyes on me and Ally. Jughead hugged her closer which only made her smile and hug back. I zoned everything out, when my lawyer was stating my case I blocked it out, I didn't want to listen to how he was telling everyone what happened to me. After about 20 minutes the judge said 'Elizabeth Cooper, I think we would like to hear from you about what happened? If you are okay with talking about it?' I stood up and nodded my head while I slowly walked towards the stand.