An Average Day At Work

Phoenix was sitting at Mia's desk, working on another case, when Apollo walked in from his courier job. "Hey, Polly, how'd it go?" he looked up from his papers and smiled at the younger defense attorney.

Apollo returned to the office, his hat missing as it was still on the floor outside of Edgeworth's office. "Pretty good, I guess. Nothing went wrong, so I guess it was pretty successful."

Although I don't find it very fair that I'M the one getting a second job to support Trucy...

"That's great," Phoenix answered absentmindedly. "Have you seen the Chief? She said she was going to go meet up with Edgeworth, and she hasn't come back yet."

'She has been spending a lot of time with Edgeworth...' he thought half suspiciously.

He sighed removing his delivery jacket to reveal his usual red jacket, white undershirt and everything else. "Yeah, actually. I saw Ms. Fey at the office, she was speaking with Mr. Edgeworth and uh...you know, that woman with the whip."

Note to self, learn her name. That whip's gotta hurt...

"Ms. von Karma?" Phoenix blanched. "She's back? With her whip?"

'And snooty attitude, a score to settle against me, and the desire to rip me limb from limb for destroying her perfect record,' he added silently.

"That's her." He nodded as he sat on the couch across from the desk. "So, do you have an idea why Trucy needs this money? Are you sending her to school or something, Mr. Wright?"

The quicker I know why I'm doing this, the quicker I can quit...

"Why would I not send her to school, Apollo?" Phoenix smiled. "Truancy's illegal in this country, you know. And I'd be the one doing jail time for it." He looked back down at the case file he was working on.

"Eheh... Right." He rubbed the back of his head with a stupid grin on his face. He turned to the jacket beginning to fold it up. "So why does she need the money?"

Why does it feel like I've had this same conversation with Trucy before?

"No idea, and with Trucy, it's better not to ask," Phoenix remarked. "Though it's hard enough with all these cases I've been taking on." He gestured to the piles of paper on Mia's desk. "Chief's going to be so angry once she sees this mess."

He approached the stack of papers and had to look up just to see the top of the stack. He began to sweat as he though of the hours upon hours of investigations and trials Mr. Wright will have to go through. "Hey, you know Mr. Wright, I could handle a couple of those cases if you've got too many"

I'm already regretting asking him this...but I can't let him do all these by himself

"Really, Apollo?" Phoenix looked up at him earnestly. "That'd be amazing if you could help me with a few of these cases. I have to do all the investigating since Maya went back to Kurain, and it's pretty difficult to shoulder....five or six cases by myself. Mia's busy enough with her own cases, I'd feel terrible asking her for help."

He smiled as this was just the moment he was looking for. It was his time to help out the agency and prove to not only Mr. Wright, but to himself that he was good enough to take on any case. "You bet, Mr. Wright! I'll take some off your hands and have them done as soon as possible. Even if I need help I've got some people I can go to besides Trucy."

Smile...Smile Apollo...Your evening plans for the next while are cancelled...just keep smiling

"Thanks, Apollo! You can take this case, it's the easiest of the five. It's also the only homicide," Phoenix grinned. "But I'm more than confident that you can do this case justice." He chuckled at his pun.

He rubbed the back of his head once more, grabbing all the files that pertained to the homicide case. "I'll do this case justice? Yeah, you're Wright." He laughed a bit himself as he was just another pea in the same pod as Phoenix.

Wait...was it this week Ema went away on vacation? Gah! I'm screwed!

"Indeed I am," Phoenix chortled. "If you need help with the case, please, let me know. I'm not sure if Ema's around this week, and Trucy's..well, I can never find her, even though she's microchipped."

He swallowed his fear and shook his head. "You can count on me, Mr. Wright. I'll have this case taken care of in no time." He went and sat back down on the couch and began to look over the papers handed to him.

M-Microchipped!? Why would you...wait...I'm not microchipped too...AM I?!

"Oh, and can you not tell her she's chipped? She'll be trying to get it off of herself, and that's one thing I don't want to worry about," Phoenix added. "Thanks, Apollo. I know I can trust you."

"No problem Mr. Wright, I won't say a word to her." He smiled as he looked back down, holding up the file to block his sweaty face. Deep down he knew he wouldn't be able to keep it to himself.

I can't keep a secret for my life...especially not around Trucy...I won't last two minute...

Phoenix looked over at Apollo seriously. "Justice, I swear if you tell Trucy, I'll make sure you never find work as a lawyer again." He smiled unexpectedly. "Good luck with your case!"

He began to sweat even more as he had never heard Mr. Wright this serious outside of the courtroom. "And uh...Mr. Wright...just a...hypothetical question...you wouldn't really kill me, right? Like...what if I accidentally told her?"

There goes my career...

"I wouldn't kill you," Phoenix continued to smile warmly. "It's not like I'm a defense attorney, and therefore I see the rookie mistakes all murderers make, so I could hypothetically pull off the perfect murder. But I wouldn't have to go through all that trouble, since you're not telling Trucy a thing."

"Heh...you bet. She...wont get a word out of me Mr. Wright" He closed up his file and grabbed his jacket and looked towards the door. "Well...Mr. Wright, I should be on my way now, I've got some files to look over, and some serious business to take care of."

Then maybe the next plane to Australia...

"Apollo. I know if Trucy knows about the microchip," Phoenix warned. "And I have access to private eyes. Don't test my connections." He smiled again, "Have fun investigating!"

He swallowed his fear once more. "Right, of course Mr. Wright, I think I'll just go to the other room." He makes his way to the other room and tries to calm himself down.

Dead...Apollo, you're so dead...

Phoenix hummed happily to himself as he continued to work on his own cases. 'I know Polly's going to tell Trucy the second she finds him,' he sighed inwardly. 'It's so hard to resist telling her what she wants.'