Notes – Done for pw_contest, under the prompt "He who hesitates is a damned fool". Set a few months post-AJ. Also, I wouldn't recommend reading this specifically for the Phoenix/Edgeworth – as they might not have the happiest of endings in this fic.
Seven years ago - well, more eight now – Phoenix's life had changed dramatically.
He probably wasn't as upset about this as he should have been, especially now that it was so long ago, but something about the incident still nagged at the back of his mind.
After being dropped in a situation where he was no longer a lawyer the first thing he did was pick his life up and start running again. He knew he couldn't let it get to him; he had a daughter to care for and bills to pay. Getting a job came first. The media could say whatever it wanted about him in the meantime, he had his priorities and didn't pay it much attention.
Unfortunately for him other people did pay attention to it.
The first few weeks were filled with phone calls from people who wanted to know the truth, none of them wanting to believe what had been reported. He tried his best to assure them that everything wasn't as bad as it had seemed.
But there was one person amongst all his friends that he couldn't face…
On that one day when he returned to find a message on his answer machine, which went as followed:
"Wright, I want to hear in your own words what happened. I'm leaving the country soon and will not be returning for a long time. Come to the airport. If you don't come then I will assume what I've heard is true and leave."
He knew it was from Edgeworth. It couldn't be from anyone else. Somewhere down the line Edgeworth had become one of the most important people in the world to him, and more than anybody else Phoenix didn't want him to believe that he'd presented false evidence on purpose.
And he had gone to the airport that day. Only to stand looking up at the entrance and find himself unable to face that man who he himself had taught about how dangerous false evidence could be to the truth. Standing there in a grey hoodie he'd pulled out from the back of a cupboard, looking like any guy from the street, he was not the person Edgeworth wanted to see anymore.
Edgeworth had to remember him as that lawyer in the blue suit. If he couldn't explain himself to Edgeworth then he didn't want to ruin that image.
So he let him go.
That had all been seven years ago. True to his word Edgeworth had made no attempts to contact Phoenix after that. He still saw his other friends from time to time, but they had all drifted. They had priorities now, and so did he.
There were still some days, however, when he wondered if it would have been different had he gone to meet Edgeworth that day. If he had not hesitated…
On one such day he got a call, also from someone he had not spoken to in a long time – Franziska von Karma. She was sharp and to the point, just as Phoenix remembered her, telling him that Edgeworth had returned to the country briefly but would be leaving again soon and seeming to instruct Phoenix to go meet him at the airport without actually doing so.
Seven years was a long time.
Back then he'd wanted to preserve the last part of his image in Edgeworth's mind, but after so long surely the other man would have expected change.
This time he wasn't going to let anything stop him from meeting Edgeworth.
The airport wasn't that far away, but it still required Phoenix to pull out that rusty old bicycle and heave it all the way there. This time he didn't stop at the door.
Making his way inside and pushing through the crowds he looked all over to locate Edgeworth. The board said it wasn't long before the next flight to Germany departed but he knew he had time. Locating that terminal and after a brief argument with a lady behind a counter he made his way through and rushed towards the crowd queuing to get on the plane.
He was going to make it.
He was going to see Edgeworth after so long.
He was going to be able to clear up everything surrounding that case to him.
…That was when he hesitated.
Slowing to a jog that then ground to a stop Phoenix suddenly felt unsure about everything. Why was he here, even? To clear up his name to a man who had once meant the world to him? He knew that he could – the truth of the case had been brought to light not too long ago and it was proven not to have been his fault. Edgeworth had every right to know the truth. But…
…Did he really need to know it?
Did Phoenix even have any right to barge in on his life seven years later just to tell him about it? In all that time Edgeworth had nothing to do with him. And that was because Phoenix had hesitated back then. He set in stone that he didn't want to face Edgeworth. Since then his life had changed so much. He had a family now, he had a job, he had commitments – for all he knew Edgeworth had the same and more.
They were two strangers now.
Most likely he could explain what had happened and Edgeworth would accept it. They'd become like they had been, but would that be fair on those people he'd become close to in the seven year absence of that man? Tossing them aside to pursue what once was… And the same went for Edgeworth. Undoubtedly he had others who were close to him now, and tossing them aside for Phoenix wouldn't feel right either.
So many questions.
It all came down to hesitation.
Even so, Phoenix felt he'd found the right answer in that hesitation.
He would let Edgeworth go.
The passengers had boarded the plane now. Curiosity drove him to the window so he could look at the plane, just in case he could catch a glimpse. That was when he heard footsteps walking towards him.
"Didn't expect to see you here."
He turned, half expecting to see Edgeworth as some sort of fairytale-like reward for making the right choice, but he was instead greeted with the tanned and slightly confused face of Klavier Gavin.
Typical.
It was almost ironic. The guy who had been caught up in the case, duped by Kristoph as much as Phoenix had been but still the man who had cost him his badge, was standing there watching him mope over one of the most important people he'd lost because of that case.
Yet it sort of made sense in an odd way. If it had been Trucy or Apollo they would have wanted to know what was wrong – he would have had to explain himself. Which at this moment he didn't want to do.
Klavier was uninvolved enough to not ask any questions. He just stood looking at the plane and not judging him that Phoenix could see.
"It's your fault he's gone, you know," Phoenix heard himself say.
"Probably."
He turned to look towards Klavier. Part of him resenting that answer, part of him wanting the boy to have asked what had been his fault instead of just knowing what he'd meant. But most of him glad he really didn't have to explain himself.
"Is there even a reason that you're here?" Phoenix asked.
"Saw you outside, you looked panicked so I followed you," Klavier said, shrugging.
"Well there's no problem, not now anyway," Phoenix answered, confirming that for himself as much as anyone else.
Looking over at him, Klavier replied, "If you're done then I can give you a lift home, mein car is just outside."
"Sure, let's say you owe me at least a lift," Phoenix said, turning from the window and beginning to walk away.
"Herr Wright?"
"What is it?"
Klavier knew people and he knew relationships. Without knowing the details it wasn't hard to piece together why Phoenix was here.
"That man you came to see, he's looking out of the window," he said.
He owed Edgeworth at least that much, he knew.
Walking back to the window, Phoenix located Edgeworth. Their eyes locked. They both looked different now. Seven years really had left them complete strangers…
For a moment they both looked at each other not quite knowing how to react, and then Phoenix raised his arm and waved to him, smiling for all he didn't feel it was right to smile.
The wave was returned, though somewhat more meekly, by Edgeworth. Then the plane started to move. At long last Edgeworth would get a final farewell from Phoenix's life.
He stayed there until the plane was out of sight, before turning away to walk with Klavier. He didn't mind leaving his bicycle here for one day, he was too tired to ride it back and felt the lift home would do him some good.
There was a brief mutter of 'Don't tell Apollo about this', but it was for the sake of saying it since Phoenix doubted Klavier would. He seemed to understand this situation somehow.
And he was glad he had at least seen Edgeworth, even after realising that it was time to move on.
Because the thing about was – both people needed it.