My dad switched on the television the following morning while we ate breakfast and got ready for the day. I had just gotten out of the shower when I heard the newscaster saying, "Theodore Blake, prominent Victoria businessman, will be released from the hospital this weekend and his arraignment hearing will be held on Monday. Blake is charged with several counts of kidnapping-"

"What?!" I shrieked, drying my hair with a towel. "He's getting out?"

As if replying to my panicked cry, a knock sounded on the door to the suite. My father looked through the peephole and opened the door to Officer Michaels. He introduced himself to my parents who thanked him profusely for looking after us.

"I'm afraid I have some concerning news," he told us as he came in and sat down in the living area.

"We know," I said, my heart still racing in alarm.

Officer Michaels continued. "I knew it might turn out this way, but I didn't want to worry you. Theodore Blake's arraignment hearing is scheduled for Monday, November 13. He will be released from the hospital over the weekend and held in custody until then. But after the arraignment, he will be out on bail. They already know that they don't have enough evidence to hold him until the trial."

Today was November 10, that was only three days from now. "When will the trial be?" I asked in a panic.

Officer Michaels took a deep breath and said, "In a case as complicated as this one, it could take a few months-"

"A few months?" I cried.

He held his hand out to me, indicating to let him finish. "It may take a few months to go to trial because there are so many charges against him. They have to have time to investigate all the allegations. What you need to do in the meantime," He spoke directly to Harry, "is to find a lawyer immediately and communicate everything you possibly can. That includes anything you can remember about the nannies that Theodore hired before Juliette."

Harry looked troubled, "I...I don't remember-"

"We're working on getting Theodore's personnel files right now," the officer told him. "That will help you remember names and give us the dates that they were with you. You just give details, the police will cooperate with your lawyer as far as finding those people to testify."

"Oh...okay," he answered but I could tell this was overwhelming for him. The only overwhelming piece for me was that Theodore was going to be out on bail. I had no doubt he would try to find us.

"But Theodore will try to kill us," I worried.

"You don't know that," Officer Michaels said. "Once a case is out in the open like this, the defendant usually behaves. So like I said, both of you find a lawyer. Today." And then he added. "But if you're worried, you can always file a restraining order. And lay low."

Officer Michaels left and I collapsed on the floor in a panic. "No, he can't go free. He's going to kill us, I know it!"

Harry and my father helped me up off the floor and flanked me from both sides, encasing me in the safety of their arms. "We're not going to let anything happen to you or Harry," Dad assured me. "Now get ready so we can go and talk to a lawyer." 

I managed to get in touch with Nathan Greenwood in Vancouver and explain to him why I hadn't been able to meet with him when I had first scheduled my appointment. He was more than understanding and immediately asked to meet with us, knowing this was a huge case that was already all over the news. He obviously knew our need was urgent.

When we arrived at Greenwood's office around 11:30 AM, I breathed a tiny sigh of relief, but I still had significant moments of fear, even though Theodore wasn't out of the hospital yet. Why the hell hadn't those officers killed him, for fuck's sake? He fired at the police chief, for heaven's sake! People are gunned down for less than that. It  was the first time I genuinely wished for someone's death and it made me feel a little bit sick. When I thought it through a bit more, I realized I would be happy to see Theodore be convicted and hopefully sentenced to many years in prison. In a twisted way, knowing he would suffer in prison would give me even greater satisfaction than knowing he was dead.

"Hello," Nathan greeted Harry and me first. "Let me just tell you how sorry I am to hear about everything you've been through."

"Thank you," we said in unison. "And these are my parents, Brock and Candace McGill," I told him, introducing my dad and mom.

"Nice to meet you all," he said. "And again, my sincerest sympathies for everything you've gone through. I can't imagine it was easy for you to learn what had happened to your daughter," he said to my parents.

My mom suddenly teared up but my dad was able to reply, "Of course, it was such a shock. But we're so thankful she and Harry are alive."

We spent hours talking to Nathan as he took meticulous notes. I went through my notebook and everything I had written down about the medications and their side effects, as well as Theodore's deliberate secrecy about Harry's medications and conditions. Of course, I told him about the forced overdose. I made sure not to leave out the threats and physical violence he had displayed towards me, including my gunshot wound.

"You were shot?!" My mom exclaimed in a panicked voice and then burst into tears. She jumped up and came over to me, throwing her arms around me, sobbing uncontrollably. My dad came and wrapped his arms around both of us, and Harry enveloped us from the other side so we were held in their protective cocoon. Soon, we were all crying and Nathan just gave us time to process.

He left the conference room for a few minutes and came back in with water for everyone. Soon, an assistant came in with a tray of fruit and cheese. Once we were calmed down, we were encouraged to take a few moments to drink some water and have a little something to eat, just to help us calm our nerves.

Once we got back on track, I told Nathan a lot of what Harry had told me about his life and upbringing, and while he stopped occasionally to verify the stories with Harry, he encouraged me to speak only about what I had personally experienced. When I was finished with everything that I thought was pertinent to the case, it was close to 2:00 PM.

Nathan ordered lunch for us since we hadn't even begun to hear what Harry had to say. When we started again, he asked Harry, "Can you tell me about the pills you had to take every day?"

"I don't remember much about them exactly," he said. "I guess maybe they just made me tired. And I guess they must have made me lose my memory because a lot of my childhood seems foggy."

"Tell me about the overdose," Nathan said.

"Theodore kept adding more pills to my boxes and Jules noticed. She was trying to help me to cut down on them because we figured out I didn't really need them." Luckily, I had covered that part pretty extensively with Nathan already, but he stopped to ask a few more clarifying questions anyway.

Then Harry continued, "So Theodore added about twice as many pills and told Jules that if I didn't take them, she would be fired. Jules and I decided together that I wouldn't take the extra pills and I would keep taking the smaller doses of the ones I already had. We kept the extras in plastic bags because we thought we might be able to use them as evidence that Theodore was drugging me." Harry looked at me and I nodded, urging him to continue. "Theodore found out at the end of the week that I hadn't taken them because he saw Jules on the nanny cam when she took the extra doses out. He came and found the extra ones in plastic bags and he yelled at me to take them all."

"And why did you take them?" Nathan asked. "It seems you already knew that was too much medication for you to take, correct?" Harry looked like he might cry and Nathan assured him, "I'm not blaming you at all, Harry. You did nothing wrong, okay?" Harry nodded, leaning back in his seat. "I just want to make sure I cover every detail, not only of what happened, but why, and especially how you experienced interactions with your step-brother all these years.

Harry nodded again and answered, "I took the pills because I didn't want Jules to get fired," he said like it was the most obvious answer in the world. "She's the first...." He started choking up. "She's the first person who ever really cared about me, ever since Mary." Nathan didn't immediately ask for more details about Mary, but I made a note to mention her if he didn't bring it back around. Nathan went over the remaining details of the overdose, whatever Harry could remember until the time that he passed out, and everything he said agreed with what I had already told him.

Then Nathan began to ask Harry questions about his childhood. That part was much more difficult because of his disjointed memories as well as the painful subject matter. "What can you tell me about your childhood, Harry? What were your experiences of growing up with Theodore?"

Harry shrank back a little and said, "I...I don't remember very much. I didn't see Theodore much either. My nannies always took care of me."

"Can you tell me what you do remember?" Nathan pressed. "Anything will help. Do you remember when he started giving you the medications?"

"Maybe when Mary left," he said, shrugging. He appeared to be actively trying to pull away from the situation.

"Who was Mary?" Nathan asked.

"She was my first nanny, I think. She was with me a long time. But then she just left." He choked on emotion but then kept going. "Theodore told me she left because... because I made her go away." I was starting to feel a little nervous about the way he was talking, much like he had spoken to me when I first met him.

"How old were you when Mary left?" Theodore asked.

He shrugged. "Seven?"

"Who came to take care of you after Mary left?"

"I don't know," he answered and I could almost see him shriveling into his childlike shell, the one I experienced all those months ago.

"Harry can you please try?" I coaxed him gently. "You told me about Nanny Kim, Regina, Margaret, Amy..." I thought hard to remember other ones he'd mentioned. Then I told Nathan, "Nanny Kim was there right before I arrived. He called my room Nanny Kim's room."

"Is that right, Harry?" Nathan asked.

"Yes, I remember that," he said confidently. "Nanny Kim was there before Jules."

We tried to get him to remember the order of the other nannies or their names and details, but it was a challenge. So Nathan tried a different tactic. "Harry, I want you to tell me about any time that anyone did something to you that either hurt you, scared you, or made you uncomfortable. If some of it feels too embarrassing, you can talk to me alone," he said, casting a glance towards my parents who nodded in agreement. I swallowed heavily, hoping there hadn't been any kind of abuse that he wouldn't want to talk about.

"I don't...I don't know," he said and almost started crying. What the hell was going on?

"Harry," I said, holding his hand. "You told me that Nanny Regina hit you."

"Yeah," he said.

"How many times did she hit you?" Nathan asked.

"Lots of times," Harry whispered. "I spilled wine on her one time and she hit me on the face," he said. Nathan wrote it down. "And one time, I knocked her computer off the table. She hit my lip and made me bleed."

Although I was disheartened hearing the things he had suffered, I was even more concerned that he had reverted to talking like a child.

"How old were you, Harry?" Nathan asked.

"I don't know."

I jumped in and said, "They never celebrated Harry's birthdays. I think that was part of Theodore's ploy to keep him in a childlike state."

Nathan shook his head in disgust. "Harry, I know it's hard, but please tell me about any other times that Nanny Regina or anyone else physically hurt you, like hitting, kicking, biting, pushing, punching...anything you can remember."

"Nanny Margaret spanked me. A lot," he said. He rocked back and forth in his seat. "Harry didn't like that."

My heart froze in alarm. I'd never heard him refer to himself in the third person. I squeezed his hand to try and pull him back to the here and now.

"She said Harry was bad for playing with himself and that he was going to hell," he continued. My parents, Nathan and I all exchanged concerned glances.

"Nanny Maria pushed my head into a wall," he murmured. I hadn't heard of Nanny Maria yet.

"Did you have bruises?" Nathan asked.

"Harry's eye turned black," he answered.

Slowly, Harry unraveled the stories of his abuse at the hands of his nannies, bringing my parents and me to tears.

"Did Theodore ever hurt you, Harry?" Nathan asked when he felt that Harry had sufficiently  covered any abuse or neglect by his nannies.

"Harry tried to escape. Theodore punched him and tried to shoot him with a gun."

"That was just a few weeks ago, right?" Nathan asked and looked at me for confirmation. I nodded, believing that's what he was referring to. "What about when you were little? Did Theodore ever hit you or spank you or hurt you in any way?"

"He said Harry was stupid," Harry replied. "He said Harry was retarded and stupid. He said no one could ever love someone so dumb."

Again, my parents and I were moved to tears, hearing the terrible treatment that Harry had endured. At one point, I completely lost it, sobbing into the sleeve of my shirt. Harry didn't move to comfort me and that's when I knew he was really distraught so I fought to pull myself back together. After a trip to the bathroom and some more water, I was much better.

Nathan moved on to the next topic which I hoped and prayed wouldn't reveal any new areas of abuse. "Harry, if you want Brock and Candace to leave for this part, that would be okay. And if you want Jules to leave, that's okay, too."

"Nanny Jules loves Harry," he said. Why the fuck was he calling me Nanny Jules?

"Do you want Jules' parents to leave?"

"No, they love Harry too."

Sensing what was coming, my parents excused themselves anyway. Nathan then continued, "Okay, can you tell me, was there ever anyone who touched you or did anything to you that made you feel uncomfortable? Like touching your private areas or rubbing you or even just holding you too tight?"

"No," Harry said and I breathed a sigh of relief. I just hoped he was remembering things accurately and that such memories weren't buried under a mountain of denial.

"Nanny Jules and Harry had sex," he blurted.

Fuck.

Nathan's eyes widened and he slowly looked up at me. "Is this true?"

"Y...yes," I stuttered. Shit, I'd been so stupid. I hadn't really thought about how that might look to a lawyer or a jury. All I had cared about at the time was surviving, finding Harry and escaping. Taking a deep breath, I answered, "After I found out that he wasn't disabled and that he was really twenty years old, yes. I told Harry his true age just about a week before the overdose. We agreed together, to...well to come and see you, actually, if you remember I made an appointment but never showed." Nathan nodded.

I covered my face with my hands, mortified that I had to talk about this so openly but also concerned that Harry was not doing well.

"It's okay Juliette," Nathan said. "Just take your time. I'm on your side, remember? I just need as many details - times and dates - as possible.

I took a deep breath and continued.  "So, we were planning to come and talk to you about Harry's situation because I knew at that point that many things Theodore had told me were blatant lies. I knew he was older, and I suspected he wasn't disabled, and I just wanted him to live the life he deserves,  you know?"

"I can understand that," the lawyer nodded compassionately.

"I...I can't explain it exactly, but Harry and I just fell in love. At some point, I knew we no longer had a nanny-child relationship. I mean, he's not a child," I said loudly.

"No, he isn't. You're correct," Nathan said calmly.

"So when he overdosed, I thought he might actually die. I told you the details, that Theodore just ordered some of his employees to haul Harry away in his car rather than an ambulance." I swallowed hard, blinking back tears as I remembered the absolute helplessness I felt when they took him away.

Nathan nodded in encouragement and at that point, Harry slipped his hand into mine. I glanced at him and he smiled, giving me confidence that he was recovering from the bizarre episode he'd just had.

"Let me just ask you this," Nathan said. "Were you still a paid employee of Theodore Blake?" He asked. "Was he still paying you to take care of Harry?"

"No," I answered confidently. "Absolutely not. It was after we had tried to escape and I was shot. In fact, he stole the money that was in the backpacks we had planned on taking if we could ever escape." I thought very carefully for a few minutes and then said, "The last time he ever paid me was at the end of August."

"When was the first time you had any kind of sexual contact? Including kissing?" Nathan asked.

Nothing like breaking our relationship down into dates and times and factoids. "It was right around the first of October," I said. "Right after Theodore brought him back from wherever he took him, after the overdose. I kissed Harry and told him I loved him." Harry smiled at me again and squeezed my hand. "Um, is that going to get us in trouble? I'm sorry, I just...at a certain point it seemed obvious to me that it wasn't the normal employment situation anymore. I just...the whole thing kind of shifted, I guess." I was mortified trying to explain this to him, especially when Harry had actually been acting like a child a few minutes earlier.

"I honestly don't know if it will get you into trouble," Nathan answered. "Harry was a consenting adult," he said and cast a dubious glance at Harry.

"Harry, are you up to answering a few more questions?" Nathan asked.

"Yes, sir," Harry said softly but confidently.

"Harry, did you consent to kissing Juliette, or letting her kiss you?"

"Yes, sir."

"And Harry...I'm going to ask you a few more questions. I can still ask Juliette to leave if you'd rather talk to me alone. I want to do whatever makes you the most comfortable."

"No, I want her to stay," he said, gaining more confidence. "And I wanted to have sex with her, if that's what you're going to ask." I broke out into a small laugh and so did Nathan.

"Okay, that's what I wanted to know," Nathan chuckled. "So every time you and Ms. McGill either kissed, hugged, or touched each other in a sexual way, were you a willing participant?"

"Absolutely," Harry grinned.

I couldn't believe  we were all on the verge of laughter after the intensity of what we'd just discussed.

"One more thing," Nathan said. "Did Juliette McGill ever, at any time, touch you or do anything to you that made you uncomfortable or feel unsafe, in any way?"

"Never," Harry confirmed. "I love Juliette and I want to spend my life with her." It was odd to hear him say my full name.

Nathan finally said, "This shouldn't be an issue, but I would encourage you not to answer any questions without consulting me first, all right?" He said.

He invited my parents back into the room and after another few hours, we had finished the entire interview. By the end of the day, we were completely exhausted emotionally, which amounted to another evening of room service.

Harry was behaving like his normal, adult self by the end of the evening. Still, as we fell asleep, I began to wonder if this whole process was going to be more than he could handle.

* * * * *

Argh, another sad chapter, sorry :(  It will be a process but there will be good and bad yet to come! <3 

Oh, and if I mess up on legal terms, I'm sorry - I think this first stage is called a deposition - when the lawyer interviews his clients and gets all their statements on record. If not, let me know! :D