Hello readers!

Sorry for the hiatus. Schoolwork+Downton Abbey=long absence.

I feel that I certainly must acknowledge Mr. Jack Falconer after all the comments he has left. Thank you for taking such an interest in my story. To all your editing nitpicks, I must admit that I always mess up on commas. I need to learn how to use them properly. And to your notes on the plot, the reason Maya was poisoned, when, how and by who will be revealed soon enough.

But, even though you said you are over wondering about Maya and Phoenix's relationships' origins, I feel that it must be included. In this chapter, in fact. The way they met is important because this shows a different side of both of them, which I believe will greatly help with the character development I am setting up, especially by showing Maya in a moment of vulnerability.

But anyway, to all my readers, this is an important backstory chapter in the lives of our favorite separated couple! So please, review what you think (I know you will JF), and enjoy!


Maya watched as Pearl and Trucy left. She smiled. Phoenix had a pretty cute daughter. Of course, it wasn't his daughter technically, but she would be a lot more worried if it was. She sighed to herself and pulled her hair bead out from under her pillow. She rolled it between her fingers and remembered that day, the day she and Phoenix became a couple.

O O O

-7 Years Ago-

"Mom...Mom..."

Maya lay on her bed, sobbing face-first into a pillow. It had been one week since Iris' trial, since her mother died. And although she acted strong and brave by day, at night she fell apart. She couldn't help it. Her mother...gone for fifteen years, and then suddenly dead before Maya even knew. Before she could even say everything to her mother that she needed to and wanted to. It was like being tortured from the inside out. She ran every word she had said to her mother last week through her head, imagining that she had known, that she and her mother had finally been reconciled after so long. To know she had been so close...Maya felt helpless. So close, but yet so far.

As Maya lay sobbing, she all of a sudden heard the door to her apartment open. She spun around, hands in front of her in the traditional Steel Samurai attack stance.

"Hey Maya you left your phone at the off- W-Whoa! Maya, it's just me!" Phoenix held his hands up in surrender.

"O-Oh. Sorry, Phoenix." Maya sniffed and wiped away her tears.

"It's ok. You weren't answering the door and I figured you would keep your key under the Pink Princess statue so I let myself in...hold on. Phoenix? You haven't called me that in years. Something's up." Phoenix abruptly stopped his story and turned to face Maya worriedly.

Maya turned away quickly, trying to avoid his lawyerly gaze. But it was too late. Phoenix knew something was up.

"Really, it's nothing. I'm just tired."

"Maya...look at me."

Maya looked into his eyes, defeated. Now he could see her blotchy, tearstained face. He would know for sure something was up.

"Maya. Tell me what's wrong."

"Really, it's nothing I'm just-"

"Maya."

Maya looked up sadly. She had known this was going to happen. She saw the determined look in Phoenix's eyes and knew. This was Phoenix Wright, and when he knew something wasn't right, he wouldn't give up until he found the truth.

Maya saw Phoenix looking around her, eyes focused in the air. Psyche-Locks. He could see the Psyche-Locks around her and knew she was lying.

"Tell me the truth, Maya."

"Phoenix...please..."

Maya braced herself, waiting for the endless questions, the evidence, all of it. But it never came. She looked up at Phoenix and saw a soft, calm look on his face, one she had never seen before.

"Alright. If you say nothing's wrong, then nothing's wrong. I trust you."

Phoenix...he had stopped. For the first time in the almost four years she had known him, Phoenix had stopped. He didn't press her until he broke, like usual. Instead, he seemed to show he compassion, something she had never seen from him when it came to the truth. Even just last week, on that witness stand, when she had wanted nothing more than to collapse into an exhausted heap, he had pushed, pressed, and objected until she gave him the truth. But now...what was going on?

"Do you need a hug?"

Maya looked up at him, and nodded tearfully.

They sat in silence, with only the occasional sniff or clearing of the throat for quite a while.

"Why?"

Phoenix looked at Maya in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"Why? Why did you stop? You never stop until you've found the truth."

Phoenix let go of Maya and let out a deep breath. "I couldn't, because...I love you, Maya."

Maya snorted. "Well, of course. I love you too, Nick. You're one of the closest things I have to family now."

"N-No. Not like that. Like..."

Maya gasped.

Phoenix nodded his head, and tilted it slightly. "Do you...?"

Maya felt as if time paused. Did she love Phoenix, in that way? She didn't. She knew she didn't. She opened her mouth to say no, but then closed it again quickly. Right now, she needed someone who could hold her, could help her through the pain she was in right now. And in that moment, she nodded.

"Y-Yes."

But it was a lie. A selfish lie. Maya didn't love him. But if she had said no...he would have distanced himself. Things would be awkward, different. And right now that was the last thing Maya needed; she needed to keep him close. He was one of the only people she had left. And so she lied.

Phoenix beamed, and wrapped his arm around her. They sat there as Maya cried and leaned into his shoulder.

O O O

Maya smiled at the memory. She didn't love Phoenix then, not like that. She had taken advantage of him, and it was wrong. But he helped her when she was in pain back then, and she couldn't just dump him when the pain started to become more bearable. So she kept up the facade of loving Phoenix, of being a couple. And as she kept it up, she began to fall in love with him, for real this time.

"But as soon as I truly started to love him, I was gone...poisoned," Maya whispered. She clenched her fist. Seven years had been too long. Tomorrow she was going to court to see Phoenix. No matter what.