Beginning of the end

"..."

What's that muttering noise?

"..."

Ugh. With any luck it'll go away soon enough. I smother my head under an unused pillow, blocking out the sounds slightly and with any luck, I'll fall back to sleep.

"On the count of three, one...two..."

Not that I'm ever that lucky.

It suddenly clicks as to what the murmuring was about. "Three..."

"Wait, wait! I'm aw-"

"OBJECTION!"

Why am I always too late?

" APOLLO. NOT THIS EARLY." I shout back, his 'chords of steel' still rattling though my brain. I swear, if I ever find out that you can get lessons in how to keep your voice down, I'm signing this kid up. Price or no price. Well OK, maybe he can pay for it himself...

"It's 12pm! And Trucy yelled too!" My daughter merely gives him a look of innocence before retorting:
"Well the difference is, Polly, that Daddy would never yell at his little girl, would you daddy?" That and you actually understand the meaning of 'volume control'... Agh, my head hurts...

"If you two don't mind, I'm going back to bed."
"B-But Daddy! You can't go to bed yet!" No, of course I can't. That means a chance of sleeping through this han-

"Mr. Wright, we have a case you need to take. A murder case. The client is..." Well now that he's noticed that I'm glaring at him with all the hatred I can muster, hopefully he and Trucy will leave me alone.

...

Nope.

"But you've only just got your badge back! You need to take on as many cases as possible, show the crowd that you've still got your old tricks and even have some new ones in the line-up! You know you should never disappoint the audience and I'm pretty sure they don't like it when you don't show up..."

"Oh come on, I won that courtroom explosion case yesterday! Can't I have a day off?" I cry, replacing the pillow back onto my head. Trucy, you've seen me like this enough times to know why I don't want to get up. Please, take the hint before Apollo noti-
"Mr. Wright, how much grape juice did you have last night?"

". . ."

He stares at me with an expression that practically screams 'I'm not budging until you confess to getting wasted'. He opens his mouth to say a not as silent statement.

That's the last thing I need right now.

"OK, OK! I had a bit to dr-"
"A bit, Mr. Wright?"
"All right, a lot. But it was to celebrate my first trial after getting my badge back! It was completely justified! And it's not like I was the only one drinking – you should have seen how much that yellow girl drank. What was her name again...? Katherine? Karen?"
"Karina Hartvitski, defence attorney – passed the bar around 2 years ago. And that's no excuse. She's only 18 – that's not even legal! You should have acted like a responsible adult and stopped her."

"She's Russian, isn't she? It's legal there. And it's not like I knew how old she was." She seemed older than 18 when I was talking to her...

"You know I was thinking of possibly asking her to work here... Hey, wait a minute – if she's been an attorney for two years while you've only been in the business for one...Wouldn't that make her your superior? " I smirk at him.

"Wait, what? No! I've been here longer a-and I'm older than her! I would be HER superior!"
"What does age have to do with it? You know I'm basically your boss." Trucy chimes in. I almost forgot she was there...
"No you're n-"
"Well it's certainly not the other way round; you know you're 4th in the pecking order of this agency, even without Ms. Hartvitski, right?" Is he counting on his fingers?

"You, me, Trucy... Mr. Wright, I think you've miscounted..."
"Trucy's the boss." Said boss is putting on her largest grin thanks to that statement. "Next it's me, then Charley and you're at the bottom of the pile." I'm guessing from the look on his face that Apollo's forgotten who Ch- oh wait. No, no, he's realised.

"You've put the plant ahead of me?" His reaction deserves a chuckle.
"Why of course! You know he's the co-founded this place back when it started off as the Fey and co. law offices?" Messing with this kid is just so much fun. It never gets old.

"Anyway," You could have given me a little more time... "You're not getting out of taking this case, hangover or no hangover! If you're not going to take it, at least do something useful, like finding me a new mommy!" With the way you're acting, you don't need a 'mommy' – you practically are one!

"Fine, fine – you win. So what's happened?" Apollo clears his throat, having recovered from the realization that Charley the house plant has more overall respect than he does. "Yesterday morning-"
"A body was discovered?" I muse. Because that was in no way predictable...
"Have you started watching the news again, Daddy?"
"No. It's just that I can count the number of non-murder cases I've taken on my left hand. If you don't count the De Masque case/cases, the answer is...none."

"Well this isn't any ordinary murder case – the victim, Mrs. Rita Mortise, is believed to be the fifth victim of that serial killer that's been on the news. The police think that they've caught the culprit and well...He's requested you. He rang at around 2am last night and since you were out cold, I decided to pick up instead."
"Well surely you could take the case then?"
"He requested you specifically. Apparently you're childhood friends? Does the name 'Larry Butz' ring a bell?"

...I hate you Larry.

AU: Whoop - a proper chapter! Thanks for the reviews guys! If there's anything you don't like, please say so so I can hopefully improve for next time? I was thinking of making this chapter a bit longer by putting in some details about the arrest and mentioning who the prosecutor is but I think I'll leave in some surprises~

Sixteen Vanilla beans, you made my day when I saw your review. I actually know the other two people but I don't think I know you (sorry if I'm mistaken) so a review from a stranger is lovely! It means I don't fail as a fanfic author! Especially since I'm actually a fan of your's, I simply hadn't made an account until a few days ago and haven't got around to following you~

Anyway, chapter three will hopefully be up before the new year, maybe a couple days afterwards~