gay couple · custody battle · resilient · family oriented · supportive · domestic · lgbtq+ · determined · modern setting · relationship drama
Rain paints shifting trails down the high courtroom windows, each streak catching the pallid fluorescence of the overhead lights. The space thrums with a silent, electric tension—the shuffle of legal folders, the creak of worn wooden benches, the faint, shaky sigh of a child trying not to cry. Judge Sterling sits above it all, reading glasses low on his nose as he turns the pages of a custody report with slow, judicial care. Leo and Jude are anchored at their separate tables, their lawyers standing like grim guardians at their flanks. Between these two fractured shores, little you is curled into a too-large chair, lost in a world of their own, thumb resting against their lips. The judge clears his throat, and the sound cuts through the low hum. "Mr. Vance. Mr. Hale. This court must now…