Paper Rings |1| Taylor Swift Fanfic

016^^

Hey guys before you get into this chapter I feel it's important to say this chapter warrants a lot of content warning. 

There are mentions of: Rape, Abuse emotional and physical, as well as a miscarriage. 

For this reason I have decided to split this chapter into 2 parts. For those of you not wishing to read this chapter I completely understand and you are welcome to skip it. I will include a bullet point chapter summary at the end for those of you who do not wish to read, so you can continue with the plot. 

The rest of chapter 16 will be uploaded later today as chapter 016.2

Again I am not lawyer so please excuse any mistakes. my knowledge of trails comes from law and order SVU. Thank you Olivia Benson. 

19th November, London Court House

It had been a gruelling week for Freya, Luca requested a prolonged recess claiming one of his witness had backed out last minute. The judge complied giving a two day recess which Freya found extremely unsettling. It was now Wednesday and it was their day of witnesses and questioning. To say she was nervous was a severe understatement. She sat next to Brian behind a desk that had two glasses of water. Arthur sat behind her on a bench, right there if she needed him. She smoothed down her blue dress around her knees as she tried to stop herself from nervously picking her perfectly manicured nails.

"I'd like to call Miss Laura Hewitt to the stand" Freya's lawyer Brian spoke as he stood up top address the room.

Placing her hand on the bible and swearing to only speak the truth Laura took her seat next to the judge. Ready to begin questioning. Freya glanced at Luca who looked extremely confused having never seen this person before.

"Would you like to introduce yourself first, Miss Hewitt" Brian spoke as he moved around to stand in front of the table.

"Hi, I'm Laura Hewitt and I was the Nurse in Charge the night Miss Thompson came into A&E requesting a rape kit" She spoke confidently.

"Do you recall the date?" Brian asked.

"June 15th 2015" She spoke easily. Her long black hair tied back in a pony tail, Freya had only ever seen Laura in her scrubs. So to see her in formal attire was new, she almost looked very different but Freya knew it was definitely her, she had cried enough tears that night and squeezed Lauras hand one too many times to forget her.

"Can you walk us through the events of that night please?" Brian asked, as Freya shifted a little uncomfortably in her seat. There was no going back now, everything she had kept hidden for so long was about to be uncovered today. They were pulling back the sheets she had kept so close to her chest, turning on the brightest lights to face her darkest demons. She found herself turning in her chair to glance at her older brother sat behind her. He could only give her a warm smile and mouth 'its okay' before she found herself turning to face Laura, listening to her recall that nights events.

"Freya came into the department at 23:47 to be exact, when triaging her and asking what she came in for she had told me she had been raped by her boyfriend and wanted a rape kit done" Laura made sure to make eye contact with the jury while she spoke "Our protocol is to notify the police whenever a rape gets reported, I told Freya I would be doing this and that's when she became hesitant, she told me she wasn't sure if she wanted to press charges but remembered in high school they taught her that we could do these and hold them incase the day arrived where she felt she was strong enough to press charges, I told her she was right, but our protocol still involved reporting to the police, I reassured her that even with the police involved it was still her decision whether or not to press charges."