Bump
1. 'Vacation'.
T: Beware the giant GS4 spoilers, the random OOC, the playing with events for my own means, the potential AU, the angst and the slash demon that'll appear later down the line. I own nothing you see here other than the plot (what little there is!!)
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
He'd decided that enough was enough, had told a vaguely convincing lie to Mr Wright and shipped himself off to England for a vacation.
He'd just started to unwind re when he'd caught a living mystery checking in at the desk. Of course the obsessively curios and occasionally nosy lawyer within him had jumped on the opportunity presented by the other's arrival and, very swiftly, his vacation had turned into yet another case.
With hindsight he might have been a little more cautious in his investigations, been a little subtler with his questions and then he might have been able to avoid the instant where his targets voice had enquired, "So you're the one who's been nosing around, are you?" and his heart had all but stopped.
Turning he has an instant to take in the other's features and then, smile twisting into something derisive, he says, "Somehow I'd expected something a little more than this from the 'great' Apollo Justice."
"So you did a little investigating of your own."
"It seemed only fair," The other responds before enquiring, "So why are your wasting your talents on the matter of my past, Apollo Justice?"
"I wanted to satisfy my curiosity."
"That, at least, is an answer befitting Wright's apprentice." The other remarks, before offering his hand and saying, "Erin Milton, head of Legal Studies at Highgate University, though you may know me better as Miles Edgeworth, Daemon Prosecutor."
He shakes the offered appendage firmly and then enquires,
"Why are you here, Mr Edgeworth?"
"To enlighten the ignorant on the intricacies of this countries legal system," he responds, before adding, "Though of course you meant, 'why are you in England rather than America' to which the response is 'to hide'."
"But why?"
"What fun would it be if I told you, Mr Justice?" He enquires before informing him, "Why not take a little trip out to Highgate, you never know what you might learn."
Smile twisting into something that can almost be seen as a tease the other pats him firmly on the shoulder and then heads off towards the bar.
Feeling the warning tenseness of an oncoming headache he places a false smile onto his lips and retreats towards his room.
Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
"Something told me that it was all an elaborate ruse." His sister's voice, crackly for the shear volume of distance between them, remarks, before informing him, "Daddy's none the wiser and, in respect to the clear effort you put into your excuse, I'll make sure it stays that way."
"Thank you,"
There is a moment of silence and then Trucy enquires,
"So why did you break your cover?"
"Miles Edgeworth."
Again a silence falls over the line and then, her voice full of a tension that he does not recognise, she enquires,
"How can I help?"
"I want you to tell me everything you know about the sort of man he was outside the courtroom."
"He was a man recovering from years of self imposed social exile and thus he was often cold or abrasive where others might be genial or gentle. He was a man full of a bright passion of the sort that could easily overthrow governments if he had so wished and, finally, he was a man haunted always by the scars of the past."
"That was also the impression that I had gathered and yet the man that I met today was none of those things…was, in fact, almost a complete opposite."
"Time changes everyone, Polly," She responds before enquiring, "How are you finding London?"
Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
After a brief discussion with the head of Highgate university he'd worked his way across the campus to tiny little office that Miles Edgeworth called his own. A brief rummage through the paperwork had tossed up little more than a slightly unusual reading list and he'd been about to give up hope, when a voice remarks,
"Erin believes that debate is essential in a productive learning environment and so he deliberately chooses texts that are inflammatory in their content."
Glancing towards the door he is met with the amiable smile of a stranger and, tensing, he remarks,
"I'm sorry, I know I shouldn't be prying but…"
"You were curious. Such a thing is natural for one in your line of work." The stranger responds before informing him, "I'm Adrian Brody, head of the Psychology department and 'long time friend' of Professor Milton."
"Apollo Justice." There is clearly some note of the curiosity he is feeling in his voice, for without prompt, Adrian says,
"I simply assumed that you were somehow involved in the legal profession."
"Did you make that assumption based on my interest in the Professor?"
"Correct and yes, before you ask, there have been others before you who have also shown such an interest."
"From the tone in your voice I'm guessing they were given a slightly different reception,"
"Correct."
"Then why treat me any differently?"
"Trust," Adrian responds before adding, "Both in my own heart and in Erin's also."
"Then he told you that I was coming?"
"No, I simply understand what sort of person it is that Erin trusts." There is a weight to that statement that he does not quite understand and yet he does not question this fact but instead enquires,
"What can you tell me of his past, of his reasons for coming here to this place?"
"As a psychologist I can tell you that there is something in his past that he fears, that he has chosen to flee from this fear rather than face it. I can also tell you that that fear is a creation of his own mind and that this is not the first that he has chosen to flee rather than fight." Smile, at last, slipping from his lips, Adrian pauses a moment and then, voice altogether more serious, he says, "As his friend I can tell you that he left his heart back in America, that he is full of a virulent self hatred because of his actions and that he is looking to you for redemption."
"But why, what does he think that I can do?"
"There, I'm afraid, I can't help you." He responds before placing a hand into his pocket and pulling free a slip of paper, "I can however point you in the direction of something that might shed a little more light onto the situation."
Written on the slip is the familiar five digit coding of a case file and, mind filling again with hope, he enquires,
"Is there somewhere that I can make an international call?"
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
T: So there we have it! Hopefully I should have the next chapter out for you on Tuesday, until then why not review??