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dreamcatcherfication · 5 years ago

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Skin Deep - Results Pending

Wow guys! This is the last chapter of Skin Deep before the epilogue, I can’t believe we made it this far! I was going to post this on Friday, but I got backed up working on requests and updating other fics, but we finally made it. Again, I’m very bad at creating an accurate court setting, but I tried my best. Hope you all enjoy! Sorry for any spelling/grammatical errors, my singular braincell is on holiday.

Writing Masterpost

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Trigger Warnings: Talk of sexual abuse, references to panic attacks, attempted assault

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

“Miss Parr, please sit down,” Judge Cranmer shot her a glare, “We cannot introduce any more evidence into this case unless it has been processed by both parties. You should have brought your evidence to court before we began the trial.”

Stalking forward to the middle of the court, Cathy slammed her phone down in front of Maria and Joan. “That would’ve been impossible your Honor, because this evidence - this conversation happened not even five minutes ago. And I would say it’s a confession, if anything.”

Suddenly, the entire court was interested in what Cathy had to say. “A confession? From who?” Maria asked, picking up the phone.

“From Edmund Howard,” Cathy pointed a finger at the man, waiting for the dramatic gasps of the jury. Instead, she was met with an awkward silence as everyone waited for more information. Slowly dropping her hand with a sheepish shrug, Cathy returned her attention to Cranmer. “If you let us present this to the court, we can get the truth.”

Joan stood up. “We vouch for her,” she shot Cathy an indistinguishable glance out of the corner of her eye. “Whatever the contents of this so-called confession, we will take responsibility for it.”

Rubbing his eyes, Cranmer sighed. “I’m not supposed to be doing this, but fine. Present your evidence to the court.”

“Your Honor, they can’t do that -” Culpeper’s lawyer argued, practically rocketing out of his chair.

Silencing the lawyer with the wave of his hand, Cranmer commanded the court with his voice, “I am allowing it, and you will allow it too, unless there’s something you wish to hide?”

Swallowing thickly, the lawyer shook his head, “No, your Honor,” and sat back down. Culpeper’s eyes hadn’t left Kit, who was curled up in her seat next to Maria and Joan. Cathy noticed the way her eyes roamed over the cracks in the wood table, pretending as if they were the most interesting thing in the world.

Tension spread throughout the entire court as Cathy opened her phone, pulling up the video of Edmund and Kit’s argument. When she got a nod of confirmation from Joan and Maria, she hit play.

“Thomas and Francis were doing as I told them. The only way you would ever win is if I do all the hard work for you.”

“You what?”

“We needed that prize money, and the only way you were going to win it was if the judges had a reason to pick you. It’s surprisingly easy to whore you out to these men.”

“It’s my body! You can’t sell me to them for money.”

“I can, I will, and you won’t say anything about it.”

There was silence throughout the court as everyone stared, their eyes divided between Cathy, Kit, and Edmund himself. Everyone was frozen, unsure of what to do. Breaking the moment of suspension, Kit scrambled out of her seat and sprinted out of the room, escaping from the court. Cathy could’ve sworn there were tears in the girl’s eyes, but Kit was gone too quickly to be sure. Without waiting another moment, Anna was out of her seat as well, chasing after Kit while calling her name.

With that, the room fell into chaos. Cranmer tried to scream order, but everyone was freaking out. Aragon and Jane were standing up, looking around for any way to help. Anne was making her way over to Cathy, pushing through jurors who were all demanding to speak to the judge or Culpeper’s lawyer. Culpeper and Dereham were hovering over Culpeper’s lawyer, yelling at him unintelligibly over the sounds of the room. Maria and Joan were trying to get Cranmer’s attention as they held Cathy’s phone between them. “You bitch!” sounded over the waves of voices in the room.

Spinning around, Cathy backed up in fear as Edmund started approaching her. “You’re going to regret this,” he hissed, beelining towards Cathy. Edmund raised his fist, ready to strike Cathy as she looked for any escape from the raging man. The courtroom was crowded and already in chaos, she had nowhere to go.

“Get the fuck away from her,” Anne threatened, stepping in front of Cathy, her eyebrows set in a hard line. “One step closer and I’ll beat you to death you bastard. Do you know what you’ve done to my cousin? Do you know?!”

Edmund didn’t seem the least bit bothered by Anne’s threats. Without a second thought, he hurled a fist at Anne, hoping to smack her right in the cheek. Before his fist could connect, he was yanked back by two sets of hands. Cathy sighed in relief as Maggie and Bessie hauled Edmund away from the two teens. “Let go of me!” Edmund demanded, thrashing in their grips.

As Maggie handcuffed him, Bessie explained, “You’re under arrest Mr. Howard, and you’ve only made it worse by attempting to assault a minor, not to mention the abuse you’ve inflicted upon your own daughter. I suggest letting us handle this unless you want things to get much worse for you.”

Reluctantly, Edmund stopped struggling and let the cops drag him away, but not before shooting one last glare at Cathy and Anne. “Are you okay?” Anne spun around, pulling Cathy into a hug. “What you did was stupid, you could’ve gotten hurt.”

“Yeah, but it’s going to help Kit. She deserves to be heard, you know that better than anyone Anne,” Cathy mumbled into Anne’s shoulder.

Leaning away from the hug, Anne sighed, her eyes drooping. “I know. Kit deserves the world, and everything keeps getting taken away from her. Believe me, I’m so happy that you can prove those bastards are at fault but… I just don’t want you getting hurt in the process.”

“Well I’m not hurt now, am I?” Cathy quirked an eyebrow, a soft smile splayed across her lips.

Rolling her eyes, Anne gave Cathy a short kiss on the cheek. “Don’t get cheeky with me, Miss Parr.”

Not needing to respond, Cathy simply sunk back into Anne’s arms, relaxing in another hug. A cough brought them back into reality. Turning their attention to Joan, the person who had coughed, Anne slipped her hand into Cathy’s, squeezing it tightly. “What you did was incredibly irresponsible,” Joan started, although her tone wasn’t too serious. Maria was standing off to the side, conversing with Aragon while Jane kept walking towards the door before stopping indecisively. “But I’m glad you did it anyway. None of us wanted to see Katherine suffer, and you may just be the one who’s ended this,” Joan explained.

Cathy tried to focus on her hand in Anne’s. “It’s not a big deal. Anyone would have done it.”

“But you did it,” Maria joined the conversation, her eyes drifting away from Aragon. Jane was still pacing, but Aragon followed Maria into the conversation. She and Anne shared a knowing look, but they said nothing. “I wouldn’t recommend doing something like that again Miss Parr, but thank you.”

Noticing Jane’s pacing, Cathy quickly replied, “You’re welcome,” and broke away from the group. She moved over to Jane and stopped in front of her, forcing the other girl to stop moving around. “Is everything alright Jane?”

“I’m worried about Kit - Katherine,” she admitted.

“You can call her Kit you know,” Cathy offered lightly. “You won’t get yelled at for calling her by a nickname.”

Chuckling nervously, Jane nodded. “Right, well Kit disappeared with Anna and neither of them have come back. I know I’m not particularly close to either of them but I need to know that they’re okay.”

“You aren’t restricted from caring about them,” Cathy was confused by Jane’s perspective. Why did Jane feel like she couldn’t care about Kit and Anna? “Jane, you know you’re allowed to care about people you don’t know, right?”

“Right,” Jane mirrored Cathy, putting on an uncomfortable grin.

Pushing her confusion away, Cathy told herself it wasn’t her place to delve into any of Jane’s inner turmoil. If Jane was going to talk about something, she was going to talk about. If she never did, Cathy didn’t need to know. “Why don’t you come with me to go find them?”

Eyes lighting up, Jane nodded. “Can I?”

“Sure. Let’s get Aragon and Anne to come too,” Cathy tilted her head towards where the two girls were talking with Maria and Joan.

When Anne saw Cathy coming back to her, she opened her arms as an invitation for her girlfriend. “Jane and I are going to go find Kit and Anna, would you want to come with us?” Cathy asked, resting her head on Anne’s shoulder.

“Yeah, we need to find Kit. She has Anna, which is good, but I want to be there for her,” Anne replied, running her hand through Cathy’s hair. The writer wasn’t afraid to admit that she loved when Anne played with her hair, and it never failed to calm down her anxieties.

“Can I come as well?” Aragon asked, watching Cathy and Anne.

When Anne agreed, Maria and Joan took that as their cue to leave. They dismissed the four girls and went to go talk to Judge Cranmer who was already preparing a sentence for Culpeper, Dereham, and Edmund. The four girls made their way out of the courtroom, looking around for any trace of Kit or Anna.

Anne pulled out her phone and dialed Anna’s number, hoping she would pick up. After a couple of rings, the other line picked up with, “Anne? Is everything alright?”

“Everything’s fine Anna, but we’re trying to find you and Kitty.”

There was an inhale of realization from across the line. “Oh, we’re behind the building. Kit was having a panic attack earlier.”

“But she’s fine now, right!” Anne gasped, starting to jog towards the back doors. Cathy, Jane, and Aragon followed closely behind, listening as best they could to the conversation.

The quartet could practically hear Anna’s shrug over the line. “As fine as she can be. Kit’s not having a panic attack anymore, and that’s what’s most important.”

Anne hung up the phone as she burst out of the doors, spotting Anna and Kitty a few metres away. The four girls jogged over to them, Anne crouching down beside her cousin. Cathy stayed standing with Aragon and Jane, making sure they wouldn’t crowd Kit. “Hey KitKat, how are you doing?” Anne asked as a starting point.

Kit was hugging Anna, her breathing abnormal, but not enough to be a cause for concern. “I’m fine Anne,” she promised, pushing away the worry. “But hearing that conversation… it was a lot.”

Cathy cringed. “I’m sorry Kit, but I had to. Otherwise -”

“Otherwise they would’ve won and no one would ever know that I’m not a whore.”

Aragon frowned from beside Cathy. “You don’t have to say it like that.”

“Being blunt sometimes helps,” Anna explained, rubbing Kit’s knuckles with her thumb. It was a soothing gesture Cathy had seen her use for as long as they had known each other.

Kit nodded at Anna’s explanation. “She’s right. The sooner I face the reality of it, the sooner I can get up and move on.”

“That’s a nice way of thinking,” Jane spoke up, her voice hollow.

For some reason, Kit must have sensed the same thing Cathy had in Jane. “Thank you for coming out here Jane.”

Jane averted her eyes, staring at the ground. “I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”

“I’m not okay,” Kit admitted. “But I will be. One day.”

For the first time in a long time, Kit’s smile was completely genuine.

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Tag List:

@radcowboyalmondtree@boleynhowards@annabanana2401@babeebobo@dont-lose-your-queerhead@everything-insanity@mindless-pidgeon@i-wanna-dance-and-sing-six@thedemidisaster@its-totes-gods-will

#six the musical fanfiction #six the musical fanfic #six the musical fic #six fanfiction #six fanfic #sixfic #skin deep #last part before the epilogue!#beauty queens au #i don't know what other tags to include here #men are assholes #that's a common theme #there's a lot of cursing #well not a ton #but enough that i should warn you #tw: cursing #and then all the trigger warnings at the top

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