A/N: Now you'd think with how well the last chapter went, this one would be depressing, too. But nope. Total emotional 180. Seriously. You can't make this up. On another note, I don't own Ace Attorney, that's Capcom.


Larry woke up in a hospital bed with hospital staff hovering over him. One of them noticed he was awake. "Mr. Butz, I'd refrain from trying to strain yourself too much. Even though that van of yours is bulky, you still have a whole host of injuries you haven't quite recovered from." Larry, who was had been attempting to get up, slumped back down, then mumbled, "Athena…" The doctor looked at him. "Mr. Butz?" Larry then mumbled, "How… is… she?" The doctor replied, "She's not doing as well as you are. Her side took the brunt of the force, so she'll be in intensive care for much longer." Larry groaned. Athena, you better not die on me! Not until I can make this up to you! I swear on it! He thought to himself. Then he looked around and noticed he wasn't in an intensive care unit, meaning he couldn't go check on her. Under his sheets, his hands balled into fists and he subconsciously started shaking. He needed to do something, anything, to make sure. But he couldn't. Not in his state. The doctors wouldn't let him see her, anyway. He was sure of that. Even still, he just wanted to do something.


Phoenix and Edgeworth had rushed over as soon as they could. When they got to the hospital's reception desk, the woman working there reported that Athena was stable, but just barely, and Simon was full-blown critical. Only Larry was relatively fine. And so they asked where he was. The receptionist pointed, and they ran off as fast as they could.

They soon found Larry's room, where a nurse said they could look at him, but talking to him was a bit of a hit-or-miss. And so they went in. Larry, who by this point had fallen back asleep, looked decent. He was covered in bruises and cuts, but most of them were minor, and the bigger ones had already been dealt with. It irked Phoenix to no end that he couldn't figure out how Athena was doing, though he sighed when he realized Larry seemed to already be brightening up from their presence. Then he turned to Edgeworth. "So, clearly Simon wanted to commit seppuku for failing in his duty to protect Athena. But why do it then? Why not earlier? So he could try to kill Larry, too?" Edgeworth sighed. "Yes, Simon said he would kill Larry if the latter had sex with Athena without her consent. I'm sure Athena attempted to explain the circumstances, but clearly Simon was adamant in his stance that he had failed, and needed to uphold his end of the bargain. He actually rushed out of the office that morning as soon as Athena mentioned Larry's presence at your office, Wright." Phoenix felt horrible. "Wait a second, Simon came into my office! And when I saw him, there were Psyche-Locks! Dammit, why didn't I ask him about those… I'm sure I could've convinced him not to do it! Gah, I'm such an idiot!" That was when the two noticed that Larry was sat up in his hospital bed. "Hey, guys? You want me to tell you what happened before Simon crashed the car?" The two nodded. They needed this information. "So, Simon pulls up next to my van, saying he has to kill me because I was dumb and fucked Athena without her consent, but Athena tried to argue I wasn't in the right state of mind. And man, she really put a ton of effort into it. But Simon was like, 'nope, doesn't count' and said I had to pay for what I did. Then Athena asked Simon about the amount of discord, and he said it would've drowned everything out, but she said there was none! And computers can't lie, right? But then something in Simon snapped, and he rammed his car into mine. I got a glimpse of what happened next, but then I blacked out. By the way, how long has it been?" Phoenix looked at his phone. "Let's see… you've been out for 3 days, give or take a couple hours." Larry nodded, then said, "I really hope the docs are done soon, because I want to find out how Athena's doing! She better not die on me before I go out with her!" Phoenix tried to laugh, but it didn't come out right. Larry glared. "So how bad is she, anyway?" Phoenix gulped. "Just barely stable, I'm afraid. You should be thankful that van of yours is so damn sturdy. Otherwise you might not even be here." Larry gulped. "Well, how bad was the damage?" Edgeworth took care of that. "The passenger side door crumpled in, and your front axle snapped on the right wheel as well. The back right tire apparently popped on impact, so now your van's trunk is currently bent in on that side. The front left corner of your van also took a lot of damage from the impact with the shoulder, and that impact must have also popped the tire, causing further damage to your front axle. When the rescue party found you, you were nearly crushing Athena between the door and your body weight." Larry gulped. "Oh shit. I really gotta make it up to Athena somehow now! But how to do it…" Phoenix patted Edgeworth on the back. "Great going, Miles. You got Larry to start making ideas." Edgeworth said nothing. He did not want to deal with anything involving Larry for the foreseeable future. After all, "If something smells, it's usually the Butz."


Larry ended up being released from the hospital about two days later. The first thing he did was ask if he could visit Athena. But the doctors refused. When he asked how long they thought it would be until he could, answers varied from, "3 days" to "2 weeks" and every date in between. He didn't even bother asking about Simon, as he knew that the so-called 'Twisted Samurai' would not be able to be visited for a long time. But he realized there was one person he really needed to talk to. And so he got a cab to take him to the Agency.

As luck would have it, Apollo was there. And he was pissed. As soon as Larry walked in, he felt a glare bore a hole straight through his soul. "So, uh, about that accident…" Apollo grabbed him before he could say anything else. "Athena better make it out of that hospital or else that death threat becomes a reality." Larry jumped. "Woah, woah, hang on! Athena's getting out, though it might take a while… none of the docs I talked to said she wouldn't recover!" When Apollo noticed his bracelet was not tightening, he relented. "Fine. I believe you. But how the hell did that even happen, anyway?" And so Larry recounted the lead-up to the crash. When he finished, Apollo groaned. "Damn samurai and their need to do seppuku…" Then Trucy and the Feys came in. Before any of them could pounce on Larry, Apollo stopped them, and let Larry explain. When no one picked up any signs of lying (there were also no Psyche-Locks) there were sighs of relief. "Hopefully Athena makes it out soon! She's better with my magic tricks anyway!" Trucy said. Apollo grumbled. "I bet Mr. Wright'll make me stay to clean the toilet. That's going to suck." Pearl slumped onto the couch. "I hope Athena makes it out of there so she can be your special someone, Uncle Larry!" Larry pumped his fist. "Yes! Thanks for the optimism, Pearl!" Maya facepalmed. "Not this again, Pearls! It was bad enough when you did it for me and Nick!" Pearl rolled her eyes. "But you got together, didn't you? So I was right! And if I'm right on this once, I'll be right again!" Maya shook her head. Then, looking at Trucy, she asked, "Hey, do you know about the gambler's fallacy?" Trucy nodded. "Of course I do! Dad never believed in it, though. I wonder why?" Maya then asked, "Care to explain?" Trucy did so. "So basically, the gambler's fallacy goes like this: If you win a bet, you're more likely to raise the stakes. If you lose a bet, you'll be more likely to lower them or drop out. Like now, for instance. Since you 'won' the bet that was Dad and Maya being 'special someones,' You're now pushing it from a 10 year age gap to a 20 year age gap between Mr. Larry and Athena." Pearl made a "Hmph" noise before saying, "So? She's his psychologist! You've got therapy sessions together, right?" Larry nodded. "Yep! First one's gonna be the the Friday after she gets out of the hospital!" Pearl then said, "See? They're meeting already! And clearly Athena wants to help him! Remember when we asked her about it? She said he was mostly OK! And she'd be fine with that!" Trucy was about to say something in protest, but she had nothing. Pearl had won. Larry, when he realized this, put on his cocky smirk, but he was not counting on Trucy getting pissed at that. The result? Mr. Hat popped out and clocked him in the shoulder. "HEY! UNCALLED FOR!" Trucy then said, "Can you please just leave now?" Larry threw his hands into an "I surrender" pose, and backed out of the office at a reasonable speed. When he was downstairs, he got another cab to take him home. He had a lot of painting to do, he was sure of that.


A/N: Apparently being a friend of Phoenix makes you mostly indestructible. I guess that's how Apollo managed to survive the explosion in Dual Destinies.