Simon hadn't been in Prosecutor's Edgeworth new office yet, so he took the opportunity to look around while he was waiting. He hated to admit it, but he was nervous. He had been back on the job for less than six hours and he was already in trouble. Also, Edgeworth was his boss and he highly respected the man; probably the only person. He liked the way he conducted himself in court and he had worked hard to clear Simon's name. This wasn't exactly how he wanted to repay him.
He was broken out of his thoughts when he heard the door close behind him. Edgeworth walked around to the other side of his desk, looking at him. "Prosecutor Blackquill…"
Simon gave him a small nod with his head. "Sir."
"I understand that you're not a fan of all the attention your overturned conviction has granted you and security should have had the situation better handled, however now that you're no longer shackled you're going to have to learn some self control."
Simon turned his head and scoffed. "Why don't you just put me back in shackles then?"
Edgeworth shook his head at him. "I'm not going to put a free man back in shackles because he scares people and I'm not going send you back to prison Prosecutor Blackquill. Even though you've committed assault, I can let you off the hook this time, considering the circumstances but if this happens again, I'm afraid I won't have any choice but to put you back in prison. Something I don't want to do and I know you really don't want that either. For once in your life please be cooperative."
He met the older man's gaze and nodded his head. "Yes, sir." He wasn't sure how he was going to keep self control, but he didn't want to go back to prison.
"Very good. The current case you're working today with Defense Attorney Justice has been postponed until tomorrow. Why don't you go home and take the rest of the day?"
Athena had arrived at the courthouse while things were still pretty active. She could only imagine what would be on the news tonight about Simon. When she saw him coming out of the chief's office, she got worried. But he wasn't in shackles and it seemed like he wasn't being escorted to jail, so that was a good sign at least. He had a swift, hurried walk, which made his coat wave.
"I can't stop him here…" She whispered to herself. She wanted to talk to him, but she didn't want to do it around work, where he might be uncomfortable or they might gain unwanted attention. So at that point, she decided on something she probably shouldn't have, she was going to follow him home.
Simon kept his head low as he walked all the way home, which was about 25 minutes away. It would have been faster to drive or take the bus but he enjoyed the tranquility. Taka flew in front of him from tree to tree, already remembering how to get to his new home. Thankfully there were no reporters on the way, though he was sure they were too busy writing up stories for the evening news.
As she watched him walk up the stairs, she suddenly felt nervous. Did she really just follow him home? What if he thought she was some weird stalker? Still. It wasn't as if Simon would have told her where he lived on his own.
"Wait…how am I going to know which apartment is his?" She sighed softly. From the outside, all the apartments looked exactly the same. She ruled out some that had flowers in the window, since it didn't seem like that was his style, but that still didn't narrow it down. It wasn't until she noticed Taka swooping down into one of the windows. "Bingo."
She gave him a few minutes to get comfortable and relaxed before she made her way in behind the next person that went inside. This truly was crazy, but a small part of her got a thrill from the adrenaline. If she had remembered the placement of the windows correctly, she was outside his door.
"No time to chicken out now Athena, you've already done all of this…." She mumbled, slowly knocking on the door.
Simon had changed out of his formal court clothes by then and was sitting in a sweatshirt and sweat pants. He jumped when he heard a knock on the door. No one knew where he was, besides Edgeworth and he was sure that he would be the last person to give out his address. His eyes narrowed and he quickly grabbed one of the swords he had sitting on table because he was polishing them. He made his way slowly over to the door, standing beside it. In his head, he did a three count and then yanked open the door quickly holding the blade up.
"PLEASE DON'T STAB ME." Athena yelled out.
"Athena?" Simon responded, his voice full of confusion and surprise.
"I….I know that you're probably really confused right now about why or how I got here…."
He sighed softly and opened the door more, not wanting to draw any attention to himself by having a conversation in the hallway.
"You're probably wondering how I got your address. I didn't get it from Mr. Edgeworth, as he'd never give me that kind of info. I just…..followed you home."
Suddenly, his facial expression went from confused to anger. Maybe she could have phrased it a little better than she did. "You stalked me? Am I supposed to be relieved by this admission?"
Athena sighed twiddling her fingers. "No, I don't expect you to approve of my behavior. But I haven't seen or heard from you in six weeks. You're too stubborn to just let me know that you're alright. Plus….Apollo told me what happened after court today and I wanted to make sure that everything was okay."
Simon scoffed slightly as he went over to the table to retrieve his tea. "You mean you wanted to make sure I wasn't being thrown back into the clink."
"That too but…." Athena's words stopped in mid sentence. She had been so worried about his reaction to her following him home, she hadn't noticed his change in appearance. It was strange to say the least. Even when he showed up at the space center, he was always dressed for court.
"Something wrong Cykes-dono?" He asked when he caught her staring at him.
"It's…..I've never seen you without your coat and suit on is all." She shook her head a little. "Anyway, is everything okay?"
"I'm fine." He responded simply. Trying to keep it as short as possible so she wouldn't be able to pick up much emotion, though he was sure she still heard something. She always managed to. "So if that's the only reason you went through so much trouble to follow me home, I'm afraid I'm going to disappoint you."
This was going just like their last visit. He was probably getting ready to escort her to the door. She had to think of something, a reason, an excuse to stay close to him. "Chief Prosecutor Edgeworth wants me to counsel you." She quickly stated. Yes, she was lying through her teeth but it was the only thing she could think of right now.
Simon immediately shot her a narrowed glare. It seemed like he didn't pick up on her lying, but he pissed off.
"Surely you jest…..he can't be serious?"
Now was Athena's chance to pick. Come clean about just wanting to keep an eye on him, or carry the lie that he obviously didn't suspect. "Well, he's been worried about you and he thought that with my psychology background and the fact that we're not strangers, you'd be more willing to agree to meet with me than with psychiatrist….Legally, Prosecutor Edgeworth cannot give me your home address so that's why I followed you. I didn't want to discuss it with you at work." She felt bad about lying and now she was piling more lies and details up to make her sound believable, similar to what Simon was doing in court to try and keep her safe. They really were more alike than she first thought.
He was curious as to why Edgeworth didn't mention this when he had a conversation with him earlier but maybe he felt strange talking to Simon about it. Or maybe this was what he meant when he said he was letting him 'off the hook'.
"I know you don't think you need help and that's fine. I know you don't want me analyzing you either. I promise I won't do any of that. I'll just be someone you can talk to, as long as it isn't related to a case we're both working. You can try to get out of this but as you know, not much can stop Athena Cykes from doing what she wants."
Simon snorted at her confidence. It was clear this wasn't the same guilt ridden girl he chased out of his office six weeks ago. This Athena wasn't going to go away very easy and something about that actually excited him. He had spent years pushing people away, grown men didn't even want to test his patience and here was this young woman believing she could do it.
"How long would this be for?"
Athena had been caught by surprise when Simon didn't try to reject her help. "Well, it would be as long as you want me around, which is not at all right now, I know. But I've been told I'm pretty infectious. At the very least until Aura gets out of prison. Then you'll have someone else to harass you and you probably won't need me."
"I'm not a fan of this…however if my superior requires it, then I surely can't reject the offer even if I wanted to. And you wouldn't make that an easy resolution."
"No, I wouldn't."
He took his tea cup back into the kitchen, refilling it. "Very well, we'll meet on weekends only. And I'm sure you know that today is a Wednesday and not a weekend, so you can take your leave now."
Already satisfied with her results, she didn't see a reason to not do as he asked. She did kind of barge in on him unannounced. Maybe the man had plans for the evening. "Goodnight, Simon. I'll see you Saturday."
The visits were becoming more frequent and he wasn't sure why. He had done his part and the contact probably should have ended there but still, he went back, week after week.
"This is your third visit this week." Aura mumbled as she sat down in front of the glass. "You visit me even more than Simon."
"I'm sorry I couldn't get you out of here sooner." Apollo whispered, rubbing his hands together.
Aura raised an eyebrow to his nervous tendency. "You did better than any other defense lawyer would have been able to. Six months for something that would have gotten me at the very minimum two years isn't something to be taken lightly. And since I've already been in here three months, I'm halfway there. I was impressed that you got all of those character witnesses to testify on my behalf."
He shrugged his shoulders, running his hand through his hair. "Well, Trucy told me that no one was scared because you weren't menacing them and I didn't want people to get the wrong idea of you."
"I can't say the last time someone ever cared enough about my reputation to do something like that."
"Well, it's not as if you didn't have someone motivating you….."
Aura turned to look behind her, relieved the guards weren't paying any attention. She leaned closer to the glass to whisper. "Watch what you say around here. You had nothing to do with that hostage situation. You left before I did it."
"I didn't know what you were doing but, I didn't stop you either. In fact I even asked you to use your position to help me get what I want. So…I'm not totally innocent either."
"All you were doing was taking advantage of a situation already in place. No fault in that. Sometimes you have to seize the moment. How have you been doing though?"
Apollo ran his hand over his face. "Okay, I guess. I thought finding out who killed Clay would make me feel better but….I'm not sad, I'm really angry. He died just because he wanted to save that stupid capsule and I know it was a part of his job but…."
"But it's still not fair. I know what it's like to be angry all the time Apollo. I've been angry for seven years. I was angry that I lost Metis, angry that my brother had been taken away. Look how I treat Clonco; it's pretty clear that I've got some bitter feelings towards the entire situation. I haven't had a chance to heal yet and I hope that when I get out of here, I finally can."
"This is why I come to see you so much, I feel like you're the only one who understands my anger. Everyone is sad or at peace but no one is angry. This isn't the first person I've lost and it just sucks to keep losing people."
Aura sighed softly. She didn't know Apollo well obviously because their encounters were brief but they seemed to have so much in common and she just wanted to help him. "I wish there was something I could do for you. If you figure out how to heal all those scars make sure you let me in on the secret."
Apollo smiled softly. "I….wish you were out of here already."
Aura smirked leaning back in her chair. "If you're so eager for my release than I hope it means you're a shoe-in as my post release dinner date"
He was a bit stunned by her proposal and couldn't tell if she was being serious or just sarcastic. "Wouldn't you rather do that with your brother?"
"Believe it or not, Simon isn't the dinner at a nice place kind of guy. He might be a little different after being in prison for so long, but it's hardly a 180. He was always somewhat of an antisocial oddball."
It wasn't hard for Apollo to believe. Seven years would make anyone in prison bitter but he couldn't imagine Blackquill being an outgoing, positive social butterfly before than either.
"I'm actually facing him in court. He tossed a reporter in the lobby."
She laughed. "That's my little brother, never been the type to have patience for foolishness. I haven't seen him led in here with shackles again so I trust things worked out. But, since you brought up that little favor I did for you, I'd like you to return the favor. I would like you to keep an eye on Simon for me."
"Uh….he and I aren't really all that close…at all."
"I'm not asking you to hang out with him, just literally keep an eye on him and report back to me on what he's doing, since I assume these visits won't stop. I just want to make sure he's alright and I know if something is going on, he won't tell me when he comes. Telling me how he's doing in court and everything. Please?"
Apollo wasn't really comfortable with the idea of trying to spy on Blackquill's life. He could only imagine what would happen to him if he knew he was keeping tabs on him for his sister, but he still found himself nodding in agreement. "Okay."