RP/V: Innocence & Guilt

[Rebecca]

"'In Roxbury she would've totally had her ass kicked,'" Erin repeated, "So, you find it hard to believe that she could lead a gang in Roxbury, is that right? Did you by any chance ever meet Cassidy Reid?" She stood up and looked at Shannon, trying to mentally figure out how she could make the woman cry. Sometimes that was bad, but she figured that it would be a good way to wake up the jury.

Shannon would have laughed hollowly, although she managed to find restraint from somewhere and merely smiled wryly at the woman who had started questioning her.
"I've lived in Roxbury my whole life. What do you think?" she replied simply, "I'd be surprised if anybody from Roxbury - and probably Southie and Dorchester, too - hasn't seen her at least once."

[Nicky]

"Yeah, but that's the thing about nightmares - they're not real. Not like what we've got, not like this. I'll help you and we'll find out what we can tomorrow. It's not like we have that much to do anyway," Jim said, leaning forward to kiss her gently and before joking, "But if you want somebody to keep you company for tonight I know a guy who probably wouldn't mind."

"Really? I wonder what his name is. Could you give him my number please?" Kitty jokingly suggested. "Jim so can you stay over tonight please? I don't want to be alone." She had suddenly become very serious.

[Rebecca]

Jim grinned for a moment and was about to open his mouth to say something equally light-hearted, before he saw Kitty's expression change completely and his smile disappeared. He'd found the letter slightly unnerving himself, but that was nothing compared to what it seemed to have done to his fiancée, and that fact alone was enough to make him even more worried.
"Of course I'll stay," he replied, concerned, "It was just a letter, Kitty. Is there anything I can do or say to make you feel better?"

[Nicky]

"Just hold me please," Kitty replied quietly. "It may just be a letter but it has scared me." She couldn't describe how she was feeling. She was just feeling sick to her stomach and yet she couldn't help but feel some hint of relief.

[Rebecca]

Jim nodded and put both his arms around Kitty, bringing her close so her head was resting on his chest as he ran a hand gently down her back. In the sixteen years he'd known Kitty, Jim could probably count on one hand the number of times she'd been like this, but she was always so strong when he needed her the most and he only hoped he could find it in him to be the same.
"You can always fire him, you know. Robert, I mean," he said quietly, "I know we talked about not sinking to his level or anything like that, but it's about more than just you and me now. If you talk to David I'm sure he'd understand."

End of Monday, 7th December, 2116.

[Nicky]

Tuesday, 8th December, 2116
Kitty woke up screaming and crying her heart out. Her body was visibly shaking from the sobs. She felt like her heart was going to burst out of her chest. She was sat bolt upright in bed and tried to breathe evenly.

[Rebecca]

Jim wouldn't even remember what he'd been dreaming about as soon as he woke up, but the screams started in his dream, piercing every corner of his mind and causing him to wake up from even his heavy sleep with a jolt. For a bewildered five seconds he realised the screaming and crying was still going on, and his heart started pounding when it occurred to him that the sounds were coming from Kitty. He didn't even know quite where he was or what to think, and looked to one side of him to see the edge of the bed before looking to the other and seeing his fiancée - much to his relief - although he started worrying all over again when he realised the state she was in.
"Kitty!" he said, clambering out of the covers and shifting so he was sat in front of her on the bed, "Kitty, what the hell happened?"

[Nicky]

Kitty was nearly choking on her sobs. "He...hit me and he...broke my bones. He locked...me in my room," she tried to say in between her sobs but was struggling to form a full sentence without having to breathe heavily in the middle of it. "He..wouldn't...let me go...anywhere."

[Rebecca]

"Who did what?" Jim queried, having trouble understanding most of what Kitty was saying as he leant forward and tried to wipe away some of her tears, "God, you almost scared the life out of me. Kitty, it was just a bad dream. You're in your apartment in Boston and nobody's going to hurt you."

[Nicky]

Kitty couldn't even say his name. It just wouldn't come out. She tried to calm down but found that she couldn't. Her chest felt like it was constricted. It just kept running through her mind and playing again and again. She slowly began to describe it for Jim.
"You came back because you're a conniving bitch," Robert snapped, "You came back because you think I'm stupid, because you think I'll believe everything you say. I won't be taken for a fool, Kitty. Not again, and especially not by you."
The sound that echoed through the living room as Robert turned around and lashed out would have been sickening, had anybody been there to hear it. As usual, though, it never left the four walls of the suburban house just outside Boise, Idaho. As usual, nobody was there to hear the screams and the remainder of the neighbourhood would never know the suffering that occured behind closed doors.
Kitty silently cried herself to sleep that night. Robert had broken down her resolve that she had fought so hard to keep. She had managed to crawl into bed and just lay in one position. She had heard the kids come in but they had not come anywhere near the bedroom.
Her body was tense when she heard Robert come in but she was relieved when he didn’t say or do anything. She didn’t know whether she would have been able to cope with that.
She woke early and just lay there looking at the ceiling. She was now totally under the control of Robert as she had to wait for him to decide what happened next.

[Rebecca]

Jim couldn't bring himself to say anything for a while, merely swallowing and staring at the wall, a horrible sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. He'd told Kitty that it was just a dream, and he hadn't even experienced it himself, but just hearing her talk about was bad enough. He would really liked to have thought that he'd never let anything like that happen to her, but he couldn't know for sure if he was even brave enough.
"Kitty, you know I never liked him even back in college, and since then he's given me about a thousand more reasons to dislike him. But one of the reasons I hated him - besides the fact that I wanted to be him - was because of the way he used to talk about you. The way he still talks about you," Jim said uneasily, "And after that letter...well, maybe that dream was your mind thinking what might have happened if you'd stayed with him."

[Nicky]

"That could have been my reality if I hadn't had the miscarriage," Kitty said quietly. "That is Precious' reality, or was. I could have still been in Idaho being...abused and no one would know. I wouldn't be me."
"I'm taking the kids to school," he stated, "You need to get your rest as you're not feeling very well."

“Yes Robert,” Kitty replied. She was unsure whether Robert going to work was a blessing in disguise or not. She knew that the kids could not see her. She looked and felt like a mess. “I’m not feeling too good.”

"And I'm locking the doors, by the way," Robert added nonchalently, "You never know what could happen, even here. They say crime is on the increase in the suburbs. Wouldn't want you to be in any kind of danger, would we?"

“Robert I’m really sorry,” Kitty said quietly. “I’m sorry for being a bitch. I’m sorry for everything I’ve done.”

"Sorry isn't good enough, Kitty," Robert replied, "I tried to make it work with you, but maybe you're just too stupid to understand. You deserve everything that happens to you and you can say sorry however many times you want but it won't make a difference."

“I’m stupid I know I am. I love you Robert. My heart near enough broke when I went away. I never should have gone. I have only realized what we had now that I have lost it.” Kitty sat up slowly and swung her legs around so that she was sitting on the edge of the bed. “I should have never seen David or Jim or anyone apart from my mother. I never want to go back there again.”

"Shut up, Kitty," Robert snapped, already on his way out and starting to close the door behind him, "I'm sick of your whining and I'm sick of you. Just shut up before I decide to make sure you never say another word. And besides, you won't be going back to Boston. You won't be going anywhere ever again. You've got your home here, and that should be good enough for you."
"I just kept saying that I loved him. I loved the person who was being violent to me." She just couldn't take it in. She couldn't understand how you could love someone who caused your harm. "Thats when I woke up."

[Rebecca]

"No, it wouldn't be. You wouldn't let it be that way, Kitty. You would've got out before then, you would've done something about it. You wouldn't love somebody like that," Jim assured her, "But it doesn't even matter, because none of that ever happened anyway. You didn't move to Idaho, you stayed here, and thank God you did because I can't imagine my life without you. I love you, Kitty."
Shuffling forward a little, he put his arms around her and kissed her forehead, repeating the same words that once upon a time he didn't think he could ever say to anyone. But then again he'd always been a terrible liar, so maybe that had just been because he'd never meant them before.
"Your heart's beating so fast," he whispered, adding, "We can get him. For what he did to his ex-wife, for what he almost did to us and for what he could have done to you."

[Nicky]

Kitty nodded at Jim before resting her head on his shoulder. "I don't want to ever be like that. I don't want him to do what he could have done to me to other people. I don't want him near me Jim."

[Rebecca]

"Me neither. I just can't believe that somebody could be that...I don't know, evil," Jim admitted, unable to find a better word for it, "I know my furniture and everything isn't coming 'till Friday, but I think I might bring some clothes and stay here until then if that's alright. What time is it?"