Disclaimer: I would NEVER own the characters of Ace attorney, they belong to Capcom.
Dog days
It was a cold autumn night and the nighttime air outside was in an uproar of loud and heavy raindrops that pelted the windows and caused a right racket due to how loud the hammering downpour was. The air was crisp and a fire had been alit inside a certain magenta prodigy prosecutor's home, the only other sound being the noise of the flames crackling in the fireplace.
The clock struck twelve, chiming loud to alert the fact that it was now midnight.
Chief prosecutor Miles Edgeworth rubbed tiredly at his pale blue eyes as he signed yet another form with the end of his ink-tipped pen and then proceeded to set it aside and move on to yet another piece of official legal-looking lined parchment before signing his signature on it once more and then doing the same old routine that tediously nibbled away at his time, patience and gnawed at his sanity.
The Chief prosecutor sat on his chair just in front of his prized desk whilst looking over some files for a particular case. He was sipping some tea with his upper lip pressed up against the rim of the delicate porcelain tea cup. Taking a moment to put his cup down and reach up to adjust his glasses, tweaking them to better sit on the bridge of his nose, he then resumed his silent reading and signing.
It had been a long, hard day of standing in court and it was one of the only times he hadn't been pitted against his rival, Phoenix Wright, and he had managed to get a "Guilty verdict" for a man charged with a blended crime of both thievery and violent assault. It had been a very lengthy and trying three-day-trial, too, and he couldn't help but feel absolutely drained because of it. He had been exhausted because of it.
Edgeworth had been so tired that he had failed to notice something very blatant.
His beloved dog, Pesu, had been sort of still and mopey throughout the evening. The Saint Bernard/sheepdog collie mix just didn't want to move much, she just lay by the desk on the velvet luxurious rug with her swollen abdomen squishing out from underneath her as she tilted her head up. She whimpered and moaned in pain as she had done for about an hour now, her pain seeming to gradually worsen as time slips away. The mongrel softly craned her long fluffy neck and nuzzled Edgeworth's leg with a pained little look on her face.
Feeling Pess' nuzzle rub his trouser leg, Edgeworth finally tore his gaze off of his paperwork and looked down at his precious dog. She lain down on her tummy as she whimpered and whined with tears in her tiny little eyes that were already glossy with moisture, as if she wanted to cry.
"Pess, what's the matter?" Edgeworth asked, noticing his canine partner's lethargic behaviour.
Pesu simply tried to pick herself up off the ground as she slowly and reluctantly pushed herself up to her paws to snuggle with her owner, but she felt her legs shake as she very slowly and promptly collapsed at the man's feet.
It was by this time that the chief prosecutor started to grow very worried as he abruptly ceased reading and and started shoving his work aside and distanced himself from his desk -he pushed himself away from the wooden surface, causing the wooden legs of his chair to slide across the rosy velvet carpet, and risen to his feet. Then he hastily circled the mahogany desk and crouched down beside his ailing canine companion and closely looked to check if the dog was alright.
Upon looking into her exhausted and pitiful eyes and Edgeworth's concern grew tenfold as the dog whined pitifully -she looked like she was in a lot of pain.
For months now, poor Pesu had been getting tired and inactive and not as lively as she once had been. He had also taken notice that her abdomen had been growing quite large and she was looking pudgier then she had used to. These few short months had been trying for the pooch and Edgeworth, being the busy and loving (but rather over-protective and fatherly) dog owner he was, had been meaning to take her to the vet but had been just putting it down to the rich food he had been purchasing and that she was just not sleeping well at night due to his own late-night sessions.
"Hey..." The man in magenta crooned soothingly as he stroked one of Pesu's fluffy ears with two fingers, asking her a second time, "What's the matter, girl?"
Pess (of course) did not answer. She just looked tired, she lay her head down on top of her front paws and she let out a high-pitched whimper of pain she flopped over on her side and gave a low moan of discomfort. The poor mutt has been as active as a small flower swaying in the wind as it bloomed out from the earth in the ground.
Edgeworth couldn't help but worry for his prized pet.
The near-sighted chief prosecutor realised that he couldn't keep putting it off and that he had to face the fact that he had been trying so hard to avoid, Pess was ill! He had feared of taking her to the vet out of fear of what the vet found would be wrong with her. But he knew that she needed to see a specialist and right now because he could see that the pup he had raised was in great pain.
He couldn't stand it anymore!
Then the cravat-wearing gent swiftly scooped up the poor dog and frantically collected his items. He sped around the sitting room with the whining Pesu bundled up in one arm and he started to make a dash out the door whilst also grabbing his pooch's favourite blanket, his wallet, his coat, his mobile phone and even his umbrella so he wouldn't get soaked out in the rain and catch a cold; it wouldn't do if he were to get sick as well.
He realised that his mind had been set right then and there:
He was going to take her to the vet, right now!
The dog kept moaning under her breath as she shifted in her owner's comforting embrace to make herself more comfortable, despite her growing stomach pain. She didn't like seeing such fear in her master's eyes. Each time she saw his worry or even a frown on his face, it would make her feel sad and useless...especially with her weakened state right now. She wanted to lick his face and place a comforting paw on his shoulder but the pain would just wrack her whole body whenever she would make any movements to assure him.
The tsundere chief prosecutor basically barrelled out through the front door of his mansion as he rushed out into the pitch black night.
But it was raining very hard.
It was hammering down with rain and the ground was absolutely flooded with pools and puddles of rainwater, the small outdoor lights illuminated through the darkness of the night. Due to how dark it was, there wasn't much to see outside the mansion. There was only a small footpath that led to his cherry red Fararri that had been parked just outside the house.
The mansion of which he called his abode was big and grand, it used to belong to his former mentor and adopted father -Manfred Von Karma. But he got it after he had been put behind bars for the murder of his biological father so many years ago. How he got the house he had no clue, especially as he was responsible for putting prosecutor Von karma behind bars, but he had an easier time keeping up with paying for it thanks to his fame as an ingenious prosecutor himself.
With his substantial wealth, it just worsened his harrowing guilt.
Edgeworth, although his arms were absolutely full of stuff and his big fluffy bundle, carried it all whilst he used the lights to guide him through the pouring rain as he saw that the light was reflecting off of the nice coat of bright red paint and he instantly rushed towards it as he pressed his left side to lean against the car as he raised his leg and used his foot, even though his shoes were absolutely flooded by the rainwater, to open the car door as he shoved everything in there -except for the very upset Pesu.
She looked up at her master sadly, closing her eyes as pain shook her big fuzzy body.
The man couldn't help but murmur to the poor dog, pulling her close and burying his face into her shaggy side. He could feel his heart ache when Pesu just kept on whimpering and crying out in pain from the mysterious illness that was savaging her poor fluffy body. He gently cradled her in his arms before he gently reached down and plopped her into the car seat, but he hesitated from retracting his hand from her.
As he stroked her soothingly, he was hoping and praying that she could hold on until they got to the vet.
"Hold on, Pesu...just hold on!"
Chief Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth was hardly ever in a state of disbelief.
He had been raised to be strong and even lacked emotion a lot of the time, he had grown up to be a vicious man in the courtroom whom strived for a precious guilty verdict, all thanks to his mentor and adopted father, Manfred Von Karma, and he hardly shown a single emotion like fear or happiness.
But it was a different story at this time.
Edgeworth could hardly believe the situation he was in as he stood outside the door with his heart hammering inside his chest with relentless force. His palms were sweaty and his train of thought had come to a screeching halt as he took in the environment he had been forced to stand in with all his focus kept on a door that acted as a barricade between him and his beloved girl; the very same little mongrel that he had picked up off the streets so many years ago...
His mind was assaulted with unpleasant thoughts and he couldn't help but take in the uneasy atmosphere and antiseptic hallways, he just wanted to vomit at the discomforting cleanliness that was quite generic in any sort of medical unit.
The air was harrowing and stiff, it reminded the gentleman prosecutor of some film of where there was a medical emergency...and this was a medical emergency as the only sounds he could hear was the beating of his drumming heart pounding away in his ears and he couldn't keep himself from nervously fidgeting where he paced back and forth and tugged nervously at the grey mop with framed bangs of hair on his head constantly.
He didn't even care anymore if this could make him eventually bald.
Only his thoughts kept him company, those nagging and berating voices that chimed like annoying bells inside his mind and he wished that they'd go away and leave him be:
Why did this have to happen?
Why won't the doctor let me in?
How come I cannot see her?
Why couldn't you have prevented this outcome, you fool?
How could you let this happen?
Tears started to pick at his eyes as he tugged on his fringe repeatedly and clawed at his own forehead regrettably, each and every single antagonising inquiry broke him little by little and he clenched his teeth to hold back a yell of frustration. But fortunately it was right then that Edgeworth started to hear the loud clatter of footsteps hitting the disinfected floors and these sounds were accompanied by a most voice familiar to the nervous wreck of a prosecutor.
"Edgeworth! We got here as fast as we could!"
Miles turned on his feet to meet the new arrivals and saw Detective Gumshoe and Kay Faraday and Phoenix Wright accompanied by his aide, Maya Fey, his daughter Trucy Wright and his young apprentice/protégé, Athena Cykes. The group ran up to him with urgency and shock written all over their faces and they both seemed to have been quite rattled and even tired, given how late it was in the night; they were even either wearing their Jammies or had clumsily just slung on a bunch of clothing really clumsily that just shown how much of a rush they were in.
"We're here, uncle Edgeworth!" Trucy exclaimed, breathless and panting from how much she was running.
Detective Dick Gumshoe, Miles' best friend (Edgeworth would rather die then admit this) seemed especially troubled, he couldn't help but him ask out of worry, knowing how attached Edgeworth was to his prized pet dog. Heck, even Gumshoe had come to care about Pesu as he had been asked to babysit her while her owner had gone on his other-side-of-the-world travel trips. His face had morphed into one of pure worry and concern as he observed his work partner pacing around. "You alright, Mr. Edgeworth?"
His question went both unnoticed and unanswered as the gentleman chief prosecutor finally ceased pacing and decided to sit down on a chair that was nicely tucked up against the back wall. He plopped himself down as he seated himself and perched on the small rubber seat and he held his face in his hands while he scrubbed it with his palms and exhumed a lengthy and somber sigh.
His heart was shattering and all the waiting had been rendering him emotionally depleted. He had been waiting for what felt like an eternity and he wasn't sure how much longer he could stand to wait for news of Pess' prognosis. He barely noticed as Phoenix reluctantly went over to his rival and knelt down to meet him on eye-level.
He repeated the detective's question.
"Hey, Edgeworth? You ok?"
Edgeworth didn't answer the spiky-haired lawyer. He never let his hands part from his face and he let his head duck in between his shoulders whilst he stewed in his own misery and his inner-brooding. He honestly didn't know how on earth he could face his rival while he was in such a pathetic state and he was pretty certain that if he let anyone see his face then he'd reveal the fact that his eyes were all puffy and glossy; a dead giveaway that he'd been left upset by this ordeal.
He didn't even find himself in a position to answer the defence attorney in blue properly but then Edgeworth was forced to lift his head up when he heard the vet's footsteps echo in his ears, looking up, he saw a man approach him and his associates -the veterinarian wore some surgery scrubs and a mask. The man tugged at his rubber gloves and smiled at him from beneath his mask as he delivered unto him the news, relief and pride apparent in his tone of voice that also sounded raspy from exhaustion.
"Good news, Edgeworth, your dog's fine..."
The chief prosecutor felt his heart do backflips at the news. He had been so worried about his poor pooch that he couldn't help but almost melt to the floor with relief. He was almost certain that he was about to faint from the purest form of tired relief as he clutched at his chest and felt it slowen into a nice, calm rhythm...but it turned out that the vet hadn't finished what he had to say as Miles then heard something else that completely shocked him to the core.
"...She was just in pain from labour."
He smiled happily, overjoyed that his beloved pooch was alright and she wasn't dangerously ill or anything. He was so relieved that his ears initially didn't properly pick up the last word in that sentence...but then what the vet had said sunk in and he couldn't help but feel his jaw drop to the floor as he processed what he had just heard. The twist and turns of his logical mind had become as blank as paper as his mind had tried to absorb what he had just been told properly.
When it had finally sunk in properly, he could feel his heart drop into his stomach.
Labour...? Did he honestly hear that correctly? Labour?
That could only mean one thing, and he wasn't entirely sure if he wanted to believe it.
He could feel his face grow pale and then leapt to his feet abruptly.
This made his chair topple backwards and slam hard to the ground, it even made the whole group of visitors jump out of their skins with shock. They hardly blinked as they observed a blur of magenta rush before their very eyes, and then they stood with raised shoulders and wide eyes. They looked like they had been forced to shove lemons in their mouthes as Edgeworth made a madly frantic beeline down the hall, navigating his way through the clean and pristine maze of corridors that smelled heavily of antiseptic and the faint yapping of dogs and mewls of cats echoed from down the other hallways.
He was running so fast that he almost tripped over his own two feet a few times. He was slipping and sliding all over the place as he rushed towards the room where his beloved Pesu should have been.
Upon throwing open the double doors, heaving and panting with breathlessness, Edgeworth just stood there. A mix of sweat and rainwater dripped down his face. His heart was pounding hard in his chest and his kneecaps trembled and threatened to buckle out from beneath him -as he looked into the room with wide eyes.
He had to see if what they said was true, was it actually the truth?
Chief Prosecutor Edgeworth saw the familiar caramel brown/black/russet-freckled/ blotchy collie mix laying inside a small and rather modest basket that sat on top of the surface of a shiny steel examination table, a big stand rested beside the table and had a big bag filled with this yellowish-solution that was feeding a canula was stuck in her left front leg.
Pess her favourite silk blanket placed on top of her big fluffy body; she looked exhausted with what appeared to be bags beneath her Autumn pools and her folded pointed ears flopped downwards, her big tail wagged gently and not as exuberantly as normally but it still seemed as though she was wagging it out of some form of joy. She hardly noticed that her owner had entered the room but that was either down to the fact that she was in a bit of a daze due to the pain relief medication or that she was just a tad distracted by something else.
Edgeworth's posture instantly sunk when he lay his worried eyes on Pess, but he couldn't help but relax for the most part when he saw that she no longer seemed to be in so much pain as she did earlier. That part was relieving and put his mind at ease...but there was still the reason for her previous agony...could it possibly be true?
Reluctantly, the man approached the basket in which his dog-tired pet lay in. He kept his steps light and his throat felt like it was being constricted, he could hardly swallow. His heart was galloping and his knuckles turned white as he clenched them into tight fists at his side as he strode over to Pess, whose ears perked upon hearing the footsteps despite the surprisingly quiet volume of them as the heels of her master's shoes clicked on the tiled floor.
He scratched Pesu's left ear as he absentmindedly stared off into space.
This was the moment of truth.
Why did he find it so unbelievable?
It was because that Pess had always been a very intelligent dog.
As a matter of fact, Edgeworth sometimes tended to forget that she was a dog due to the fact that she actually seemed human at times. It just wasn't like her to be so careless and it was for this reason alone that he didn't get her "the surgery" sooner. Pess was a creature and she was an animal prone to getting into all sorts of mischief like this. But he didn't expect it from her. It was at these times when he had to remind himself that she was a dog and not an actual human, Pess (even though she was smart) just wasn't capable of that sort of complex thinking.
He finally lowered his gaze and focused on the blanket that had been furled around her prone form. He grabbed the edge of the blanket, hardly hesitating to gently pull it away, and it revealed exactly what he had been told -a trio of small things nudged at her belly, making tiny suckling sounds as they rooted around hungrily and eagerly at her side.
Three puppies.
Edgeworth exhaled, withdrawing a deep breath from his lungs.
He couldn't believe it.
His dog, his beloved dog, had puppies!
A/N: THE FIRST CHAPTER OF MY 100TH FIC IS HERE! I even made a brand new profile image to celebrate 100 Fanfictions so far, I hope you like it guys! This is a shipping fic, but the shipping won't be apparent until the next chapter. It's a surprise! ;D
I hope you guys are having a nice Summer holidays so far, I know I am!
I know that this fic probably isn't as good as my other fics but I tried my best and I hope you guys like it.
You are all awesome!
-Chloemcg
