DISCLAIMER: Phoenix Wright and all of its characters belong to Capcom and are being used here without permission. This applies to the entirity of the fic. Any additional disclaimers will be posted where necessary.

A/N: This is my second attempt at Sympathy. The first few chapters are basically the same as Sympathy for the Devil's. A few edits/line changes have been made. Major overhaul will start at chapter 4.

Chapter 1: The Last Train Home

Franziska von Karma was tired, cranky, and cold. She had just walked two miles from the courthouse, where she had lost yet another trial to that insufferable man, Phoenix Wright. The trial had finished late in the evening. It had been warm that morning when she left her apartment so she hadn't thought to bring a jacket with her. Now that she was standing out in the cold, waiting for the last train home, she was starting to regret that decision. As she crossed her arms over her chest in an admittedly pathetic attempt to stay warm, she berated herself mentally for not thinking ahead. A von Karma does fall prey to such foolish things as the weather.

She heard the footsteps of someone coming up behind her and she immediately composed herself, dropping her arms to her sides and carefully adjusting her facial expression so that it no longer revealed her inner emotions. Once she deemed herself presentable to the public, she turned to see what poor loser was coming to catch the train.

"What are you doing here?" she snapped, fingering the coils of her whip. She was shocked to hear the harshness in her own voice. She hadn't meant to speak in that tone of voice, but the person standing in front of her was the last person she would have ever expected to see here.

Detective Gumshoe looked up at the sound of Franziska's voice. She saw the flash of fear that crossed his face as he stopped short, just inside the range of her whip. His expression quickly sank from fear into depression as he answered her question.

"My car is in the shop, so I have to take the train." Not that I have money for the repairs.

"Is that all," she replied dismissively.

He didn't answer because it didn't sound like a question. She wasn't even looking at him anymore. She had turned around and was staring out over the railroad tracks. She was trying to hide it, but he could see that she was shivering in the chill night air.

He didn't know it, but he was smiling as he walked over to where Franziska was standing. He shrugged out of his trenchcoat as he went. She didn't look at him as he stepped up beside her.

"Aren't you cold, pal?" he asked. "That skirt is awfully short."

He kept his voice light, and she thought he was teasing her, but when she turned and saw that he was offering her his coat, she felt an unknown emotion rise in her stomach. If she had to guess, she'd say it felt a little bit like guilt mixed with ten different levels of discomfort.

"Thank you," she said softly. She accepted the coat and wrapped it around her shoulders without putting her arms through the sleeves. She felt warmer almost immediately, though she couldn't tell whether it was because the coat actually helped or if it was just a trick of her mind. As she stood there, clutching the detective's coat around herself against the cold, the uncomfortable feeling intensified. Why is he doing this, when I... when I... She cringed when she thought of how she treated him.

A few minutes passed in an uncomfortable silence which was only broken by the sound of the train arriving. The train was unusually crowded for that time of night and Franziska vaguely wondered what all these people were doing out so late, before concentrating on the task at hand: finding a place to sit.

"Ms. von Karma, over here!" she heard Gumshoe call out to her. It seemed he had found the only empty seat left on the train. There was enough room for both of them and she hurried over to where he was waiting for her. As she sat down next to him, that uncomfortable feeling flared in the pit of her stomach again.

"Why are you being nice to me, when I..." when I've never shown any form of kindness towards you? she finished the question silently. The confusion of conflicting emotions showed clearly in her eyes.

Detective Gumshoe laid a hand on her shoulder. "You looked like you could use a friend."

A von Karma does not "make friends." As her father's words flashed through her mind, a half-forgotten memory floated to the forefront of her mind and her heart was choked with darkness. Franziska felt something break inside her. She laid her head on the detective's shoulder and began to cry.

By the time Franziska woke up (When did I fall asleep?) they were almost at her stop, which was also the next-to-last stop on the train's route. The train stopped. She stood and made her way to the doors. She noticed that the detective was following her.

"Is this your stop, too?" she asked, surprised.

Gumshoe laughed nervously. "We passed my stop half an hour ago, while you were asleep." He sighed dejectedly. "I guess I'll have to catch a cab to get me back home."

You didn't have to do that. You could have woken me up. She started to voice her protest aloud, but he was smiling at her, that same foolish smile as always, and the words died on her tongue. She was struck by another unsettling feeling, but this one was tinged with a kind of sugared electricity.

"I... goodnight, detective." She turned away from him suddenly and started toward home. It wasn't until she reached her apartment that realized she still had his coat.