The Seeds of Doubt, a phoenix wright: ace attorney fanfic

Out of all the people who worked for Edgeworth, Gumshoe was by far the one that stood out the most. Not in competence, mind you, but in the sheer amount of joy he showed when around the prosecutor. The detective, eager to please his boss, would do his best to find every evidence, question every witness and just all around help in every possible way! The other less enthusiastic detectives would ignore Gumshoe's fanboyish antics...except for Detective Jay.

You see, this particular detective also idolized Edgeworth but his meager attempts at getting noticed where always out-shined by Gumshoe's excited "Hey, Mister Edgeworth, pal!".And, this time, Detective Jay had enough.

Stomping his way around the precinct, Jay finally found Gumshoe reading files from Edgeworth's current case.

"Hey, Gumshoe!"

Gumshoe turned around and smiled at Jay. "Hey, pal!" he greeted before grabbing the files and waving them at Jay. "Look! I organized all of Mister Edgeworth's files!"

Jay scowled. "Why do you even bother?"

"huh? Whaddaya mean?"

Jay sighed long-sufferingly and slowly repeated. "Why do you even bother to stand out when he doesn't even like you?"

"what? That's not true, pal!"

"Pfft, please, just look at yourself. You always leak our case to the defense team, you keep making stupid mistakes and you're always interrupting Prosecutor Edgeworth with your nonsense. As if he would be even remotely interested in your silly little ramblings. I bet he probably thinks you're the worst detective ever!"

"Mister Edgeworth is always willing to listen to me, pal! And, yeah, maybe I ain't the best but he knows he can trust me to always try my best! Besides, if he doesn't like me, how come I'm his assistant, huh?"

Jay smirked. "that's the thing, isn't it? I bet not once in his life has he ever said that you're his assistant!"

Gumshoe hesitated. Yeah, Edgeworth had never said it but..." He doesn't need to say it!"

Jay laughed. "Ha! I knew it! You know what? I bet that even though he dislikes you, the only reason he hasn't fired you yet is because he doesn't want others to have to suffer from your uselessness!"

Gumshoe threw the files on the desk and pointed his finger at Jay. "You shut up, pal!" He then turned around and stomped off, absolutely furious. Edgeworth didn't dislike him! It was ridiculous that he would. Ridiculous!...Wasn't it? What if...What if maybe he did? After all, Edgeworth couldn't stand sloppy work and Gumshoe's wasn't exactly very neat... Uncertainty and doubt consuming his mind, Gumshoe had stopped paying attention to where he was walking and ended up crashing into someone.

Seconds after the collision, Gumshoe saw a teacup fly in the air and fall to the ground, smashing into tiny little pieces. Simply by the fact it was a teacup, a horrified Gumshoe instantly knew who he had crashed into. As if to prove his grim prediction, he looked up and saw Edgeworth giving him the coldest glare the Prosecutor could muster. Now, had this been a normal day, Edgeworth would have simply walked away and threatened to cut Gumshoe's pay if a new tea wasn't brought to him on the double. That day, however, the prosecutor happened to be in a very bad mood.

"Mi-Mister Edgeworth, I-"

"Detective Gumshoe," Edgeworth snapped, making the older man flinch. "Does your incompetence know no bounds?"

Before Gumshoe could even try to answer, Edgeworth stormed off to his office, leaving a flabbergasted Gumshoe to stare at his back.

Upon sitting down at his desk, Edgeworth began to feel very bad. He really shouldn't have yelled like that to Gumshoe even if he did smash Edgeworth's hopes of having a nice, relaxing tea. He probably should go and apologize but then again, the detective always got over Edgeworth's sudden cutting remarks so he would surely get over this one too. Comforted by this thought, Edgeworth began preparing himself for his trip to the crime scene of his newest case, thinking that maybe he'd buy Gumshoe a chocolate roll later to make amends.

When he arrived at the crime scene a few hours later, Edgeworth began to look for Gumshoe.

"Detective!" called Edgeworth, noticing Gumshoe talking animatedly to another detective. That meant he had gotten over the incident from before.

Much to Edgeworth's surprise though, when Gumshoe saw him, instead of running and greeting Edgeworth with a friendly pat, Gumshoe simply walked over to him and immediately presented him with the info he had collected.

Edgeworth, slightly weirded out by Gumshoe's lack of warmth, took the files and began examining them. As he did so, he'd ask questions and would receive straight-to-the-point answers. Not once did the detective stray off in his usual ramblings, not once did he grin or crack a smile—he didn't do anything at all 'Gumshoey' and frankly, it was starting to concern the young prosecutor.

Maybe he is still hurt over my earlier comment, thought Edgeworth, pretending to be reading the files. But now that he though about it, Edgeworth had called Gumshoe incompetent on other occasions and Gumshoe had always gotten over them just fine!

"Well, I'm going to go round up the witnesses, Sir," Gumshoe informed, pulling Edgeworth out of his train of thoughts.

"Uh, yes! Yes, thank you, Detective."

Gumshoe nodded and took off, leaving Edgeworth to dwell on Gumshoe's new attitude. After a few minutes, he decided that Gumshoe only needed more time and that he'd be back to normal before sundown.

Unfortunately, much to Edgeworth's increasing concern, Gumshoe's attitude did not improve as the day went by. In fact, it only seemed to get worse. Now, the detective seemed to be avoiding the prosecutor, only talking to the latter when he needed to give him something. And, whenever he did talk to Edgeworth, Gumshoe would speak with a cold tone- well, it wasn't 'cold' so to speak since Edgeworth didn't feel any negative vibes, it's just that it was so serious, so...so...so un-Gumshoe like!

After such a long time of working together, it was understandable that the prosecutor had gotten used to, and even appreciated, Gumshoe's distinctive personality but, damn! Edgeworth couldn't believe how troubled this whole affair had him.

After accompanying Edgeworth as he question a witness, Gumshoe announced that he was going to try and find more evidence.

"Wait, Detective!" Edgeworth quickly said before Gumshoe could run off.

"Yes, Sir?"

Edgeworth seemed to hesitate a little. Damn his inept social skills! "I...I would like to apologize about what I said earlier. It was uncalled for."

Gumshoe seemed to ponder this a moment before nodding. "It's okay, Sir. Anyway, if that's it, I'll be taking off now," he replied blankly before turning around and leaving.

At this point, Edgeworth was besides himself. That sure as hell wasn't the "Oh! That's okay, Mister Edgeworth, pal! Now let's go catch that murderer! Also here's a hug, ha ha!" he had been expecting. Was his earlier outburst not the cause of Gumshoe's cold attitude? Well, if it wasn't then what the hell was?

Thirty minutes. That's how long a completely baffled Edgeworth had been standing there trying to make sense of everything. Except for that morning, Edgeworth couldn't recall having said anything that would make Gumshoe act so oddly. Or maybe he had done something but he just hadn't realized it? No, he couldn't have! The detective had been his usual self up until the incident back at the precinct.

"Mister Edgeworth, Sir!"

Edgeworth looked up and saw Gumshoe running towards him. "Huh? Oh! Detective!"

"Sir, we just finished everything for today so I'll be heading back to the precinct."

"Ah. Very well," Edgeworth said but then, in an attempt to try and get back the old Gumshoe, quickly added, "By the way, Detective, you did a great job today."

"Oh? Uh, thanks."

What? 'Thanks'? That's it? Edgeworth had actually praised him and he didn't even smile? Hmm, it seemed that getting through to him would be tougher than expected.

"Actually, Detective, you did a great job," he said and then he grinned ("Oh my god, Prosecutor Edgeworth is grinning at Gumshoe!" "What? Don't be silly, Detec—HOLY COW, HE IS GRINNING! Where's my camera?")

However, on the contrary to the other witnesses, Gumshoe wasn't phased by this and simply answered, "Wow, thanks, uh, Sir."

Well, at least the 'wow' was an improvement. Edgeworth had only one idea left but, fortunately, he was extremely confident that this one was fail-proof.

"You know, Detective," he began, "I'm so satisfied of your work today that I'm giving you a raise."

Yep, that had done it. In a few seconds, Edgeworth would be hearing overjoyed screams, he'd probably get tackled into a hug by the detective and then everything would be back to norm-

"Wow, a raise? Thanks, Sir," he replied before pausing for minute and adding, "Uh, Sir, are you okay?"

Edgeworth was staring at Gumshoe, mouth hanging open. For the first time in history, he was giving Gumshoe a raise and Gumshoe wasn't jumping in joy? The prosecutor was so shocked, in fact, that he began pacing around in circles, muttering to himself.

"Mi-Mister Edgeworth?"

"Detective," Edgeworth suddenly said, "do you not wish to work with me anymore?"

"W-What? Why...Why do you say that, Sir?"

"It's just that it's the only reason I can come up with to explain your whole attitude towards me—you haven't smiled once, you haven't told me how a piece of evidence reminds you of that one time with your grandmother, you haven't done any of the things you usually do ergo, you must be tired of working with me suddenly!"

Gumshoe now looked completely horrified. "Mister Edgeworth, pal, I'd never be sick of you, Sir! I love working with you! It's just that I thought you were the one who was sick of me..."

"Detective, what in the name of god gave you that idea? If this is about what I said earlier, trust me when I say I really didn't mea-"

"No, no! It's not that, it's just that..."

Gumshoe, a little bit embarrassed, told Edgeworth about what had happened with Jay. When he finished, he looked smiled awkwardly. "You must be disappointed I let Jay get in the way of my trust in our relationship, Sir," he muttered before quickly adding, "But I'll never let it happen again, Sir!"

"I'm glad you say that, Detective. Although, I'm partly to blame for all this. You had the seeds of doubt planted in your heart and instead of taking them out, I only helped them grow with my outburst. Please accept my apologies for a second time today, Detective."

"Aw, Mister Edgeworth, pal..."

"In any case, despite your occasional flukes, Detective, I would rather work alone than with with somebody other than you so next time Detective Jay says something, you'll know he is ill-informed on what I think of you. Now, I suggest we go back to the precinct before it gets dark, shall we?"

Once they got back, the two of them were immediately assaulted by an exited Jay.

"Mister Edgeworth! Welcome back!"

Edgeworth smiled at him. "Ah, Detective Jay! Just the man I wanted to see!"

"R-Really?" Jay exclaimed, grinning.

"Yes, really. Would you be so kind as to bring some beverages to my office for my partner and I?"

"Y-Your partner, Sir?" Both Jay and Gumshoe repeated.

"Yes, my partner. I'll have a tea as always but I don't know what you want, Detective Gumshoe. While you tell Jay what you want, I'll go ahead to my office and wait for you so we can begin to prepare for court tomorrow."

That said, Edgeworth walked away, leaving Jay and a very happy Gumshoe behind. The latter put his hand on Jay's shoulder.

"You were right, pal. I'm not Mister Edgeworth's assistant. I'm a lot more, pal."

He then made his way towards Edgeworth's office but not before adding, "Oh! Don't forget to bring us my coffee and my partner's tea, pal!"

THE END

Yaaay! I can't believe I finished XD This was really fun, it's my first time filling out one of these 3 I hope you like it, OP, and I'm sorry if I got Gummy and Edgey characterization all wrong, it's my first time writing them ehehehe Also, for the lulz, here's an alternate scene to the moment when Gummy broke Edgey teacup:

"!"

lololololol ;P