Chapter Text
One Month Later
Gee smiled at Evie as she was led into the room, hugging her and kissing her on the cheek. He frowned when he noticed the rapidly forming bruise on her jaw though, tilting her head to the side so he could look at it properly.
“I’m fine, Gee.”
She tells him before he can ask, sitting down at the cold, steel table.
“The guards still giving you trouble?”
Evie shrugs, trying to hide her wince as not to worry Gee more.
“Only a couple of them, but it’s mostly okay. I should know better than to antagonise them, especially after everything. How are Mikey & Frank?”
“Frankie is great, he said to send you his love, he wrote you another letter as well.”
Gee takes the latter out of his pocket and hands it to Evie and she smiles, folding it in half and putting it in the pocket of her jumpsuit.
“How’s Mikey?”
Evie bites her lip and looks down at her lap when Gee doesn’t answer her, just runs a hand through his hair and sighs.
“I haven’t seen him in a couple of weeks, and he won’t speak to me or Frank on the phone. Syn is gloating about it every chance he gets which isn’t helping. He wants to see you.”
“Not a chance in hell. I don’t want to see him. Please Gee!”
“Honey I have no control over that, if he wants to see you the request has to go through Pete and Johnny. Speaking of, Pete is going to come by and see you later on.”
The guard appears over Gee’s shoulder and he and Evie both stand, he pulls her into his arms so he can whisper in her ear.
“Who’s giving you a hard time, love?”
“Nate & Alex, they were the ones that roughed me up. Please, don’t get involved Gee, I can take care of myself.”
Gee doesn’t get a chance to reply before the guard is roughly grabbing Evie by the arm and leading her from the visiting area. Once she’s on the other side of the door the guard roughly pulls Evie’s hands behind her back and cuffs her, getting a hand in her hair and forcing her down the hallway.
“My shrink and my lawyer are both coming by to see me later, Rian. Please, please don’t do this.”
Evie shrank back against the wall as she was circled by the officers, Nate Novarro, Alex Gaskarth & Rian Dawson. They had been taking turns in taking advantage of Evie either physically or sexually for the last 2 weeks. She was currently in jail awaiting trial for the kidnapping of Mikey & Frank, and for being an accessory to Matt & James’ murders. Syn hadn’t been able to get the unlawful imprisonment charges to stick when Frankie wouldn’t agree to testify in court, and the fraud charges had been dropped when Evie’s lawyer Johnny had threatened to expose who Syn really was. After Evie’s arrest Mikey had moved in with Syn, and was having a lot of trouble getting passed her torturing him. The two of them had cut almost all contact with Gee, Syn having to talk to him occasionally for business reasons. Gee had really rallied on Evie’s behalf after everything had happened, and had started paying all her legal fees. He hired her a fancy New York attorney, and a high end psychiatrist, who also happened to be one of his closest friends. They were trying to downplay her crimes as a psychotic break after all of the abuse she had suffered in her life, and were trying to prove that she would do better in a mental hospital than in a prison. Syn was obviously trying to argue the other way, and Mikey was doing everything he could to support him and make sure Evie got the maximum sentence for what she did.
“I don’t think your lawyer is going to be looking at you naked though, darling, and you won’t tell anyone if you know what’s good for you.”
“Brian put you up to this didn’t he? Is he threatening you, Rian? I…I can help with that.”
Evie yelped as Rian smacked her hard in the face, Alex shoving his hand over her mouth.
“Shut up. Knew I should have brought the gag with me. Nate, go and keep watch, Alex, hold her down would you?”
They dragged her over to the bed and Evie gave up the fight, knowing from experience that if she struggled it would be worse for her.
Evie curled up in a ball on the bed when Rian was done with her, shuddering in disgust and willing herself not to cry. She closed her eyes and tried to get some sleep, taking a few deep breaths to calm down.
**********
“You have to go back now, pet.”
“But I don’t want to, I don’t want to be there without you.”
Zacky ran his hand through Evie’s hair, pressing soft kisses to her forehead, nose, and finally her lips. Evie held tightly onto his shirt, fighting against letting the material slip through her fingers.
“I know baby, I know you don’t want to be without me but it’s time. It’s time for you to move on with your life. You promised me that you’d never stop fighting and now you’re giving up? You let those assholes take advantage of you, but I know you. You’re so much stronger than you think you are, and you can do this. It’s time now, time for you to leave. I love you, and I will always be with you in your heart.”
**********
“Evie, you need to wake up now.”
Gabe gently shook Evie awake and let her throw herself into his arms, running a hand up and down her back to try and help her calm down.
“You have that nightmare again, love?”
“Yeah. I had a run in with Rian and Alex after Gee came to see me.”
“I figured that much, your throat is bruised. Pete & Johnny are here to see you, you gonna be okay?”
Evie nods over Gabe’s shoulder and he lets her go, wiping the tears from her cheeks with his thumbs and taking her hand. He leads her back down to the interrogation room and sits her down, cuffing her hands to the table and squeezing her shoulder before he leaves. Evie doesn’t have to wait long before her psychiatrist, Pete Wentz, and her lawyer, Johnny Christ, walk into the room and sit down opposite her. Pete is about her height, with messy black hair, tattoos and kind, brown eyes. He and Gee had been friends since kindergarten and Pete had flown in from Chicago specifically to advocate for Evie. Johnny was shorter than the both of them with a black mohawk, nose piercing, tattoos and light brown eyes. Johnny was one of the best lawyers in California and had flown to New Jersey to work the case as a favour to Gee.
“Names of the officers who hurt you please, Evie.”
“Rian Dawson & Alex Gaskarth, but Johnny, please don’t do anything to them. I just have to stick it out here long enough to make it to the trial right? If I report them and what they’ve been doing Syn will make sure that I don’t live that long.”
Johnny sighs and runs a hand through his hair, Pete just smiling and shaking his head at Evie.
“Kids got a point, Johnny. Don’t worry, the head of the prison board is an old friend of mine, I’ll have Evie moved to protective custody.”
Pete pulls his phone out of his pocket and steps outside to make the phone call, leaving Evie and Johnny alone.
“I really am okay you know. You know that I’ve spent my whole life being mistreated and abused by the men in my life who were supposed to care about me. Two more in a prison cell for who knows how long isn’t really going to make much of a difference.”
“I don’t doubt that for a minute, and it’s only going to be for another week. We got a trial date set for next week, that’s why I wanted to come in and see you. Tell you the good news.”
“Thank you, Johnny. I would hug you but my hands are otherwise occupied.”
They’re both still giggling when Pete comes back in and he eyes them suspiciously, and Evie just smiles.
“I made a joke about hugging Johnny and not being able to because my hands are otherwise occupied.”
“You’re such a dork, Evie. I can see why Gee likes you so much. You tell her the good news, Johnny?”
“Yeah, she knows that her trial is happening next week. Come on, we need to go and start getting things set up for the trial, I have a whole box full of statements and testimonials from James’ employees that work in our favour. We’ll be in contact to check up on you and make sure you’re okay.”
Johnny shakes Evie’s handcuffed hand and Pete stands and gives her a hug before they leave. No guard comes to uncuff Evie and she sits and waits, jumping when Syn walks in smiling.
“Hello Sweetheart.”
Evie doesn’t say anything and shrinks back in her chair, pulling against the handcuffs and sighing in defeat when they don’t budge. Syn just laughs, taking a seat opposite Evie and looking smug.
“What? No cheery greeting? No snotty comeback?”
“What…what do you want?”
“I haven’t seen your pretty face in a little while, wanted to come and see you. Make sure my boys are treating you right.”
He reaches across the table to pull on the collar of Evie’s jumpsuit and undo the top three buttons so he can look at the bruises on her chest and neck.
“And I can see that they are. Alex or Rian?”
“Rian. Laugh it up all you want Gates, the trial is next week and the jury is going to hear everything that you did to me.”
“You keep telling yourself that, Evie. Nate!”
Nate comes in and takes Evie back to her cell, shoving her in and punching her in the stomach as he leaves. Surprisingly the rest of Evie’s night is quiet, nobody coming in to bother her or give her a hard time. It’s not until 3am that things start to go downhill, Rian and Syn coming into Evie’s cell. Rian grabs her by the hair and forces her onto her knees, holding her still and forcing her to look at Syn.
“Thank you, Rian. I can take it from here, Evie won’t try anything will you?”
Evie rigorously shakes her head when Syn pulls his gun out, taking the safety off and aiming it at her.
“I’ll go and deal with the cameras.”
Rian lets go and leaves but Evie still stays firmly on her knees, keeping her hands behind her head.
“Now, here’s how this is going to go Evie. You’re going to take this razor, and drag it across those wrists for me.”
“Fuck you. Gates. I…I won’t do it.”
“If you don’t want to be the victim of a tragic accident, yes, you will.”
Syn presses the barrel of his gun right up against Evie’s forehead, tossing a razor blade on the floor by her knees.
“Syn please! I…I’ll plead however you want just please. Don’t…don’t make me do it.”
“It’s a little too late for that, darling. I’m not going to ask you again.”
Evie picks up the razor blade with shaking hands, looking up at Syn with teary eyes. She takes a deep breath and drags the razor blade across her left wrist, biting her lip to keep quiet.
“Now the other one.”
She glares at Syn as she slices her other wrist open, struggling to keep her eyes open from the shock and the blood loss. Syn picks Evie up and starts to carry her outside to his car, sitting her up in the passenger seat and wrapping pressure bandages around her wrists so she doesn’t bleed out in the car. Once they get to the hospital Syn goes around to the passenger side of the car, opening the door and picking Evie up and carrying her inside. Just before they get to the door he pulls the bandages off her wrists and leans down to whisper in her ear.
“I thought you should know that the man who raised you wasn’t your father. I am.”
The next few hours are a bit of a blur for Evie, not really being conscious enough to register what Syn has said to her. When she wakes up handcuffed to the hospital bed, Frankie, Gee and to her surprise, Mikey are all sitting by her bedside.
“Hey love, take it easy. You’ve been through a lot in the last 12 hours, we all have.”
Mikey gently takes Evie’s hand and squeezes, Evie can tell from the redness in his eyes that he’s been crying.
“I am so sorry that I ignored you and turned on you, Evie. I let him fill my head with bullshit. He told me what he did to you, that he forced you to slit your own wrists. Bragged about it actually.”
“It’s okay, Mikey. I don’t blame you.”
He kisses her forehead and sits back down, keeping hold of her hand and being careful not to disturb the bandages on her wrists.
“There’s been an emergency dismissal and Syn has been fired. Nate, Rian & Alex have all been charged for their treatment of you while you were in custody, they admitted to everything as soon as we fired Syn. We’re also moving to have the charges against you dropped, seeing as Syn and Mikey were the only ones who were testifying against you. It’s going to be okay Evie, I promise you that much.”
“Thank you, Gee. That…that means a lot. Do…do you guys mind if I…if I get some sleep now? I’m a little exhausted.”
“Of course sweetheart, anything you need you just let me know.”
Gee kisses Evie on the cheek and then takes Mikey from the room as well. Frankie sits on the edge of Evie’s bed, waiting until the others are out of the room to kiss Evie softly.
“You were right, Frankie. Gates really is my father.”
“You should know better than to doubt me by now, babe. Leave it with me and I’ll see what I can do. Want me to call Jimmy?”
“Nah don’t bother, the less he knows the better. Besides, it’s not fair on Mikey to have Jimmy around, not when he knows that he was fucking Matt. You should go, before the others get worried or suspect something. Once we know if I’m getting off or not, then we’ll talk to Jimmy and decide what we’re gonna do about Gates.”
“Alright. Get some sleep, I’ll swing by tomorrow and check up on you.”
Frankie winks at Evie as he leaves and she laughs, rolling over onto her side and getting ready to have the best nights sleep she’s had in a long time.
The end............?