Last chapter but one, guys. If anyone has any requests for my writing, missing scenes from or spin-off of this or other AA stuff, please do ask. :3 I repeat, one more chapter to go~
In Which There Is Finality
The phone call came at eight in the morning, when Klara was halfway through the first page of her latest manuscript. A polyphonic version of The Guitar's Serenade - there was no accounting for Miles' taste in music - interrupted Ada's description of her poor lonely life so far. Klara put down her pen, calling out for her brother to come and answer his phone.
It was Ana, however, who came into the room, toothbrush still in her mouth, and picked it up. "Hallo, dies ist Ana. Onkel Miles ist im Augenblick beschäftigt. Kann ich Ihnen helfen statt?" she mumbled, her voice cheerful through the toothpaste.
Klara heard a frantic voice on the other end of the phone, and saw Ana's expression change. She got to her feet, heading over to her daughter as she began to speak again, switching to English as she did so.
"What is the matter, Fräulein?" Ana was asking anxiously. Klara didn't bother to correct her English, something else was clearly the matter here. Ana made eye contact with her mother, and waved her away with one hand, mouthing to her to go get her uncle from his study. Klara hesitated for a second, then hurried off, leaving Ana to deal with the hysterical girl on the other end of the line.
It took roughly 22.53 seconds for Klara to arrive back in the main room, pulling her brother by the hand. Ana, looking relieved, said something soothing to the girl on the other end of the call and handed the phone to Miles. She took her mother's hand, half-dragging her out of the room. Ana knew her mother's tendencies to listen in far too well not to.
"Well?" Klara demanded as soon as she and Ana were on the other side of the wooden door.
"It was Trucy Wright," Ana replied, frowning. "Phoenix Wright's daughter. He's missing or ill or something. I don't know exactly what's wrong, but she sounded totally hysterical. She said she had found Onkel Miles' number in her Papa's phone list for emergencies. Can I drive Onkel Miles to the airport? I haven't had a chance to use my license properly yet."
Klara's mind was reeling. Not this. Not now. Not again. She marvelled at the calmness in her daughter's voice as she was speaking, and heard the blatant anxiety in her own as she replied. "We don't know if he'll be going to the airport yet, Ana," she said briskly, trying and failing to hide the high-pitched worry in her tone.
Ana raised an eyebrow, a half-smirk appearing on her face. "Really, Mama. The smallest chance that Phoenix Wright is in trouble, and Onkel Miles would grow wings and fly there himself if he could. I'm going to go upstairs and get dressed. Can I take your car?"
Without waiting for an answer, Ana turned and headed for the staircase. Klara opened her mouth to protest, then sighed. What was the point, she wondered, in protesting? Ana was right. Her brother would be panicking in three...two...one...
"Klara!" Miles' voice echoed through the wooden door.
Miles was on a jet to LA within about 36 and a half minutes of him ending the call. Ana was happily driving back from the airport, the cheerful aura around her at odds with the panicked one surrounding her mother on the seat beside her.
"I'm sure he's fine, Mama," Ana said, her voice mild as she switched on the indicators to show she was turning right. Klara didn't respond. Ana sighed, flicking the indicator off again. "Really, Mama. Herr Wright is a big boy now. There's absolutely no need to..." She trailed off as she felt a vibration on her seat followed by the tinkling sounds of The Guitar's Serenade. Miles had left his cellphone? Luckily, he had about three more, but Ana couldn't see this helping Klara's mood..
She reached over to it, despite her mother's protests that she should keep her hands on the wheel, and switched the speaker on.
"Hallo?" she greeted.
"Is this Ana again?" asked a bubbly voice in English with a cheery American accent. Ana only barely recognised it as the girl who had been sobbing hysterically less than an hour ago. "Listen, Apollo's unconcious on the couch, so it's more quieter. Klavier says I should call you up and apologise. I mean, Daddy was missing! Just...I knew where he was. And, well, yeah. Hope I didn't panic you."
"..."
"What's wrong?"
Ana looked at her mother's face briefly as she pulled the car into the side lane. Klara's mouth was quite literally open in shock. Ana couldn't help but to let out a snort. "Nothing's wrong, Fr-er, Trucy," she replied in English. "So your father isn't hurt in any way?"
"Nope! He'll be home in an hour or two."
"Are you aware my Onkel Miles is on a jet plane right this second?"
A pause on the other end of the line. "Ana?" Trucy asked, her voice hesitant. "Is your Uncle Miles in love with my daddy?"
Ana glanced sideways again. Klara was looking even more surprised now, and it was she who answered. "Yes, he is, dear. Can I ask-?"
"Excellent!" Trucy interrupted. "My plan's totally going to work. Later, guys!" There was a click, and the connection was terminated just as Ana pulled in to the estate. There was silence until the car stopped and both women looked at each other, unsure of what to say.
"What do we do?" Ana asked finally. "Call his other phone on the offchance that it's on?"
Klara seemed to ponder it. "No," she said finally, a devilish smile appearing on her face which both scared and fascinated her daughter. "No, let's allow Miles to sort this out himself. Let Trucy Wright put her plan into action. There's nothing much we can do, is there, dear?"
Phoenix had, it transpired, split from Thalassa Gramarye about a month after they got together. Trucy had apparently not minded too much; Thalassa had gotten together with Trucy's Uncle Valant (no blood relation), and that was all good. Her father, however, had been beginning to worry her. Then Trucy had come across a picture of Miles and Phoenix from eight or nine years ago, and a new plan had begun to form in her twisted little mind.
This, Ana knew due to her now-regular telephone conversations with Trucy Wright. It was an odd friendship they had struck, but Trucy had called her to talk about the Gavinners not long after Miles had arrived in America - a week ago, now - and Ana had been hooked the second Trucy had told about the relationship between her brother and the star. Her need for gossip to share with her Tante Fran far outweighed her moral conscience, so when Trucy told her about the Plan to do with Phoenix and Miles, Ana had no qualms about swearing to secrecy until it all came to a head. Miles, too, was apparently sworn to keep quiet - he was fully aware of the Plan by this point, but in none of his phone calls had he let on to Klara, Fritz or Franziska what was going on.
"See, as soon as I saw the pink suit and ruffles, I knew," Trucy told her.
"It isn't pink-" Ana protested automatically, but was interrupted.
"Anyway, the Plan is coming together as we speak! I'm watching them just now."
Ana frowned. "I thought you were in Herr...Herr Gavin's office?"
"Yeah, but, I set up a camera. In a fridge magnet! They're having a 'talk'. Hey, you really like Klavier, don't you? Hey, Klavier! Get over here and talk to Ana!"
"Trucy!" Ana objected loudly, going a deep red. Feenie looked up from where he was curled on the floor at her feet, giving her a look which clearly said "Let sleeping dogs lie, woman."
"Nein, Fräulein, no can do. I'm busy at the moment, and Herr Forehead isn't working against me on this one, so I don't have to let the defence win. Es tut mir leid," came a voice in the background, making Ana pause and blush just to hear it.
"Hey!" protested another man's voice, sounding flustered. So that must be Apollo Justice, then.
"Guys, shut up, I'm on the phone!" Trucy called, completely missing the hypocrisy in her own words. "Sorry about that, Ana. You should totally come meet them sometime! The bar exam here is soon; Daddy's retaking it. Didn't you say it wasn't coming your way for another six months? You should come do it here!"
Ana laughed. "There is no way my mother would let me..." she started to explain, before she was once again interrupted.
"THEY DID IT! ANA! I HAVE A NEW MOMMY."
"...what?" Ana asked, before what she had actually heard registered. "Wait...you mean...Onkel Miles...?"
"Ja, baby!" Trucy replied enthusiastically, gaining a loud laugh in the background, presumably from Klavier. "I'll talk to you later, Ana! I gotta call them!"
"Won't they be a bit sus-" Ana started, but she was speaking to a dialling tone. Sighing, she pressed the disconnect button, then stood still for a moment while the new information processed. She assumed, now that the Plan was done with, she was allowed to share the results.
Her mother was, to use the terminology she had picked up from Trucy lately, going to freak.
As Ana had predicted, Klara did indeed "freak" when she heard the news, calling Miles straight away. The phone was answered by none other than Trucy Wright, who politely informed her that she'd taken Miles' phone out with her after she'd returned home and her daddy had given her money to go see a movie with her brother. She'd added, as an afterthought, that Miles would not be able to answer the phone anyway, regardless of where it was, because he and her daddy were busy making up for twenty-something years of lost time. On the off chance that Klara needed more clarification, she added "In bed" as a finisher to this statement which left Klara red in the face, to say the least.
As a matter of fact, it was Fritz who first spoke to Miles, entirely by accident. He answered the ringing phone on the way out of the door with Franziska - his work building and the prosecutor's office were in the same general direction, much to his sister-in-law's chargrin - and had been delighted to hear his brother-in-law on the other end of the line.
"Well hello, you dark horse of manliness, you! How are you?" he asked, fully aware that Franziska would tolerate two minutes maximum of his camp tone before she attacked.
"Hello, Freidrich," Miles replied wearily. "Is Klara there?"
"She's out walking Ana with the dog. Or the other way around. Something like that. So tell me! How many times? And locations! In bed? On the floor? In the shower? I dunno how it would work for you gay types on a chair, but..."
Fritz could actually feel the glare he was receiving over 5000 miles away, doubly intensified by the one from under 5 steps away.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Miles replied, his mildly flustered and stiff in the effort to hide it.
"Don't be coy, Miles! Did he take you roughly in the back seat of-Ow, Missy, that hurts, you know."
Franziska lowered her whip, picking up the phone from where it had been dropped. "I apologise for his foolishness, Miles," she said. "Klara should be home in a few hours. We will speak later Yes. Yes. Goodbye."
"Waaaait!" Fritz grabbed the phone. "Miles! One more question! Please!
"What?" Miles demanded, exasperated.
"Are you a giver or a take-OW, dammit, Missy!"
Klara was informed of her husband's depravity when she arrived home, and both she and Ana - and Franziska's whip - made a point of reprimanding him for it. Only after this was done would Miles concede to talking to them about his relationship at all. It was, as it turned out, going very well. Despite Miles' reputed awkwardness with children, he found it very easy to think of Trucy Wright of his daughter very quickly, something which pleased Klara a lot.
For the first time in a few years, Klara also got to talk to Detective Gumshoe properly. He was married now, it seemed, and had a son of about two years old. He had spoken to her chiefly to assure her that he'd keep an eye on Mr Wright and make sure there was no funny business, because he was thrilled to have Miles back in the country and didn't want him to leave. Again.
And so, the happy life of the Wright-Edgeworth-Von Karma-Kirsche-Justice-Gramarye-Gavin (the last name added grudgingly) continued.
About a month passed. The atmosphere in Miles' phone calls was now one of - not worry, exactly, more anticipation. The bar exam was next month, and Phoenix was resitting it.
Meanwhile, Klara noticed her daughter growing quieter and more pensive, especially whenever the latest bit of excitement was mentioned. She had, Klara knew, lately broken up with some boyfriend or another - one of those foppish types that girls just went gaga over, so it may have been that. But Ana had gone through more difficult breakups than that one - she had been the one to end it with this particular boy, who couldn't keep his hands to himself - and been less down than she was now. Klara didn't want to bring it up with Ana, but at the same time, she was worried. In her desperation, she turned to Franziska for help.
"She talks to you, Franziska," Klara pointed out. She, Fritz and Franziska were in the sitting room, while Ana was supposedly at the moment out walking her old dog and therefore had little chance of interruping them. "Has she mentioned anything? Is it about this boy?"
"I told you she was too young for boyfriends," Fritz commented mulishly.
"No, it isn't," Franziksa replied, a faint smirk on her face from Fritz's words. "Isn't it obvious? She wants to go to America. To check up on her uncle, sit the bar exam, finally meet Phoenix Wright and to meet Klavi-that foolish fop of a rock star she is always talking about.
"Absolutely no way," Klara said firmly. The sound of the door opening and shutting could be faintly heard in the background, but they all ignored it. "Quite apart from anything, where would she stay? Miles is living with Phoenix now; she couldn't stay with him."
"Actually," Franziska contradicted, "It was Trucy Wright who formally invited Ana to stay with them for a year or two. Given the reliability of the girl, from past experience, if this turns out to not be a possibility she could still say in Miles' empty property, or even in my own residence over there."
Klara stared at her sister, her mind simultaneously seeing the logic in and disagreeing with what she was hearing. "But she's too young!" she protested. "She's not-"
"Can I interrupt?" Fritz asked, his voice unusually mild. Both women stopped talking and turned to look at him. "First of all; Jellybean, sweetheart, please come in and stop standing at the door like that. You're not being subtle, we all know you're there."
There was a pause, then the door creaked open, and Ana walked in. She had a whole mixture of emotions on her face - there was slight shame at being caught, hopefulness at the conversation topic and defiance at any trouble she would find herself in."Thank you, Jellybean. Second, Klara. I understand your reservations, love, but you can't say anything about Ana's age. Franziska was less than a year older than Ana is when she went over to America alone, officially, for the first time."
"Yes, and I didn't like that either!" Klara shot back, amazed. Her husband was taking the entirely opposite view from what she'd expected. "You want her to go, Fritz?"
"I'm right here, Mama," Ana reminded her, her voice quiet as she spoke.
"It's not that I want rid of her. I think we all know that my Jellybean is most definitely Papa's little girl. But I just can't see, logically, any basis in your arguments. She wants to go study, and meet her family overseas, and meet the man she's been obsessed with for about half of her life."
"I don't like these rock star types," Klara muttered, annoyed.
"Please, Mama, Herr Gavin is..."
"Gayer than your little brother," Fritz finished his daughter's sentence. "Klara, sweetie, I'm sorry, but I don't see why she can't go."
Klara's frown deepened. She looked from one face in the room to another, and sighed. "Ana. You really want to go?"
"Yes, Mama. A lot."
"Then...okay. I'll let you go."
Silence in the room. Then-"Really, Mama?" The smile on Ana's face was wider than Klara could remember seeing on the girl for a long time.
"Yes. Now go and pack and unpack again six or seven times or something. It's what you tend to do on our trips."
"You really mean it?"
"Go, Ana. Before I change my mind."
Ana kissed her mother's cheek before hurrying out of the room. Franziska got to her feet, shot a brief, rare smile at her sister and followed her niece out of the waited until the door shut then sighed, burying her head in her hands. "I know I'm not being sensible, Fritz, but our daughter means everything to me. I'm...I'm scared about her going anywhere without us for such a long time."
She heard her husband rise from his chair and stand in front of her. "I'm scared too. But you know that old saying, right? 'If you love something, let it go. If it doesn't come back, you never had it. If it comes back, love it forever.' " Fritz said gently, prising her hands away from her face and pulling her to her feet. He put his arms around her and she buried her head into his chest.
"That's what worries me," Klara muttered into his shirt. "What if she doesn't come back?"
Fritz smiled, pushing her gently away to look into her face, kissing her gently on the mouth before answering. "She's a member of our family, Klara. You should know this by now; it doesn't matter how much you try to get rid of them, or vice versa. We keep coming back."
Ana left two weeks later, promising to write every week, and have her cellphone with her at all times. Accommodation was sorted, she told her mother and her aunt excitedly as she was bouncing up and down in the back seat of the car on the way to the airport. Trucy had invited her to stay in their house - "I'm going to be living with two of the world's greatest defense attorneys! And Onkel Miles!" - and she would be working with and of the Wright and Co Law Offices - "The Wright Anything Agency, Mama" - first as a paralegal, and then as a lawyer in her own right. It had been arranged so that she would be picked up at the airport, by none other than one Mr Klavier Gavin, at Trucy's request to the former star.
When Franziska heard this, she frowned. Klara and Ana were both most amused to see the jealousy in the woman's features, as well as how she tried to disguise gabbled a goodbye to her aunt and mother when they arrived at the airport, insisting they did not follow her. She slammed the car door and rushed into the building, not looking back.
Klara and Franziska looked at each other when she was gone, both opening their mouths to speak and then stopping. Franziska stared at her sister for a few second, then reached into her pocked and drew out a handkerchief. "She will be fine, Klara."
Klara started, then accepted the cloth, wiping her eyes. "I know she will, Franziska, but..."
"I..." Fransizka started, then hesitated. "I am nervous for her too. But she will be with our little brother. They will take care of each other - although, part of me thinks that Miles needs the care more. And...if Ana was my daughter...there are few people I would trust to care for her more than Mr Phoenix Wright."
It was Klara's turn to stare. "Who are you? What have you done with my sister?"
"If that is repeated to anyone, especially Miles..."
"There you are, Franziska," Klara interrupted, laughing through her tears. "We missed you."
"Very funny. Just drive."
There was a silence as Klara took one last look at the airport building, resisting the urge to go inside with everything she had. She turned the key in the ignition, put her foot on the pedal, and paused.
"Franziska...thank you."
"Just...drive." Franziska did not look at her, instead opting to continue looking out of her window. But Klara could see the smile on her sister's face as she replied.
It was quiet, Friedrich concluded, with a feeling of satisfaction at his own deductive skills. Without Ana, without Miles, the huge estate which he, his wife, his sister-and-law and the dog lived in may well have been empty. Franziska didn't talk much any more, and it wasn't difficult to see why that was, or where it was leading, but Klara hadn't quite noticed yet. Klara herself wasn't speaking much these days , except during her designated phone times, when she'd chat with a vengeance to either her daughter or brother, depending on which one was willing to put up with her panicking that day. Phoenix was much quieter, too, for such a loud dog; the poor old boy still wasn't over the loss of Pess so many months ago, and with his Ana gone too, the poor collie didn't know what to do with himself except bother Fritz to feed him treats that he wasn't allowed.
The dog was getting fat.
Fritz opened the gate leading to one of the side entrances to his home, staring up at the huge building as he did so. It was such a big place, for such a small family. The four of them - three of them, really; Franziska wasn't likely to stick around for much longer - seemed barely to make a dent on the vastness of the mansion which had one belonged to the infamous prosecutor who had been Fritz's wife's father. Without Ana's downbeat cheerfulness (being a teenage girl, she was exceptionally gifted at being an oxymoron), without Miles' happy cynicism (with all his angst, Fritz reasoned, he may as well be a teenage girl), the place seemed like...
"Like my Klara must have felt growing up, huh, Feenie?" Fritz mused, pulling at the leash to make the old collie follow him up to the door. Phoenix looked at him reproachfully, as if in complete disagreement with everything he was saying.
Fritz pondered further as he entered the house, calling out a generic greeting as he let Feenie off his leash and listening to it echo off the walls. Having grown up in a family of so many children, company was Friedrich's solace. He was a happy, upbeat person in general - Miles' word for that was 'annoying', and Franziska's was much less pleasant - but that was only in the company of people. On the rare occasions when he was alone, and truly, these occasions were rare, the side of himself that he didn't like would appear. It wasn't bad, no, it was lonely, and that was worse. Fortunately for Fritz, his deep fear of loneliness was never met. He'd always had someone to go to, someone who'd loved him...
Fritz walked into the living room where his wife was sitting, staring vacantly at the fireplace. She looked up as he entered, giving him a weak smile. "Franziska is going," she said, her voice deceptively calm. "She's already on the plane, by now. She's bored here. She wants to check up on Miles, and to punish that 'foolish fool of a friend', the gentleman named Larry, for the passes he keeps making at Ana, apparently."
"That," Fritz said, sitting next to her, "Or she just needs to escape from here."
Klara made no reply, continuing to just stare at the fireplace. How must it have been, Fritz wondered, to have been her growing up? To have nobody but a father who despised her, an old servant who was still strictly under her father's orders, a mother and then a step-mother for so short a time that they may well not have existed at all, other than to bring Klara and her sister into the world? As a thirteen year old boy when they met, Fritz had never been able to comprehend the sheer scale of what his friend was living through. A sister who thought that it was wrong to be happy, a brother who didn't even have a chance...and here they were again, all leaving her.
"Klara..." Fritz started, unsure what he was going to say. He was saved the hassle, however, as Klara spoke.
"You remember Lucinda, Fritz?" she asked. "Franziska's mother?"
"Vaguely."
"She told me something once, when I was upset about how she was going to go away and leave me when the baby was born. She said 'a family is only as close as its members'. I didn't understand what she was talking about at the time, but it seems relavent now, doesn't it? Because Franziska, and Miles, and Ana...they're going away for now, but that doesn't mean they're actually leaving us, does it? It doesn't mean I'm losing them."
Fritz smiled at his wife as she turned and looked at him, the hope in her eyes evident as she willed him to agree with her. "If anything, Klara, we're going to have a bigger lot. We've got Wright and his daughter, the girl's brother and the girl's brother's man to add to the list, as well as my parents, and my brothers, and their wives and kids and grandkids. How are we ever going to fit them all on our Christmas list?" he teased.
"Oh, don't worry," Klara replied, smiling back."I have my own plan for that."
The months passed by - September ended, October came and went, November followed and soon enough, December had arrived and almost passed in its eternity.
"It was three days before Christmas, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring except the good man's wife," Fritz grumbled as the light being switched on in the bedroom woke him up again. "What are you doing, Klara?"
"I'm looking for our decorations. Go to sleep."
"It is four in the morning!"
"Exactly! You should be asleep!"
"So should-" Fritz began to argue back, then stopped.
"Why are you doing this now?"
"Because they're arriving tomorrow, Fritz," Klara replied impatiently. At Fritz's tired, confused look, she explained herself "Miles, Franziska, and Ana. Back for the holidays. With Phoenix, Trucy, young Apollo and, little as I appreciate it, Klavier Gavin."
"...what?"
"Well, Ana wanted to come home for Christmas, and Miles has business to finish here. Gavin wants to see his family, but he also wants to spend Christmas with Justice, and Trucy wants to spend Christmas with her whole family, and, well..." Here Klara trailed off, looking mildly embarrassed.
"And you want to meet Phoenix Wright," Fritz said, smirking despite his tiredness. His smirk broadened as he watched Klara blush and nod. "Well, come to bed just now, Klara. Have them help when they arrive tomorrow. They're family now, after all, aren't they? They'll have to get used to this sort of thing. I'm sure, if you have your way, this won't be the last time we see them."
When, an hour later, Klara had finally given up and taken his advice and was lying with her head on his chest and her arms around him, fast asleep, Fritz reflected on the conversation. So they were visiting tomorrow, were they? That was good; he missed his Ana and his sister's siblings, and he himself had a strong curiosity to meet the man who had changed Miles to who he was was with a slight laugh he reflected on his reasoning. He had only said what he did to make Klara come back to bed. It was amusing to know that he was right. He smiled as Klara shifted against him, mumbling in her sleep. This had been her 'own plan to deal with that'? Truly amazing, he thought, thinking of the new family he suddenly was part of, how easily a skilled woman could make things go her way.
I'll repeat again, one chapter to go. Thanks for reading, reviews make me happy~ :3