Chapter Ten: Stand By Me

Miles Edgeworth and Maya Fey
Kurain Village
May 7, 2019, 9:00 AM

Maya had finally pulled her head out of the toilet long enough to give Edgeworth a quick call. It was a good thing she had called when she had, because he was at the airport, headed to Europe.

"Impeccable timing as always, Miss Fey," Edgeworth said dryly. "Another half hour or more and I may have already been aboard this plane. I'm very happy to at least be able to bid you adieu live, however, if not in person." He went on to explain the details of his departure to her, as well as lamenting about he may not be as phone-accessible going forward for an undetermined about of time due to the secret nature of his mission.

"Mr. Edgeworth, I've spent my past few bed-ridden days praying for death, tending to poor Pearly, who picked up a less severe version of my nasty bug, and catching up on all the news reports and articles about Nick's plight. Since I wasn't around for when it all happened, I'm hoping you can shed some light on how accurate these stories all are?"

"Ahem," coughed Edgeworth, who for once appeared to be floundering for words. He'd grown accustomed to her daily queries about whether or not he'd gotten ahold of Phoenix and was ill-prepared for this particular line of questioning. "Well, there's been quite a bit of propaganda, naturally. You know you can't believe everything these papers say. All spin and embellishment I expect. Recall they also referred to me as the 'Demon Prosecutor?"

"Please be straight with me!" She begged. "You don't need to sugarcoat things for my sake, Mr. Edgeworth. I've been ill, yes, but I am not so frail of heart or mind that I can't handle the truth! It's just – I just can't believe that Nick would 'commission a forgery'. He can't even afford it!"

"I, err…" Once again, Edgeworth was at a loss for words, uncomfortable with a discussion about something as personal and confidential as Phoenix's monetary circumstances, even with Maya. Especially now that he'd been privy to seeing firsthand what sort of dire straits his friend was in. "Upon further investigation into the matter, it was undoubtedly suspect that Prosecutor Gavin was able to so speedily summon that 'special witness'."

"I knew it! He's innocent Mr. Edgeworth, I just know it!" Maya insisted.

Edgeworth was silent on the other end of the line. Via his fiancée, he'd had been able to garner further information that Prosecutor Gavin had taken and followed instructions from some unknown third party, but it was probably gossip. Or maybe it wasn't. One thing was apparent. The requirement to 'pull strings' on Wright's behalf had conspired at a thoroughly inconvenient time.

"So it would seem our dear, naïve Wright walked unsuspectingly into a trap. Which was foolish and careless, but not worth career and reputation annihilation," murmured Edgeworth, more to himself.

"It appears so," sighed the psychic.

Edgeworth took a breath. "Listen, Miss Fey, this is highly confidential information. I don't want you telling Wright. I will try to resolve Wright's situation, but I'm currently constrained from much influence in the District Justice Department. It seems the ruthless Prosecutor Gavin was alerted to my recent day of unlicensed criminal defense and has instigated an inquiry. If Wright finds out he'll blame himself. He's got enough on his plate now as it is."

"Oh no!" Maya was near tears. "I'm so sorry, Mr. Edgeworth. You don't deserve this crap. You were only trying to help Nick and me."

A headache was slowly threatening to consume her.

Worst conceivable timing! Seethed Edgeworth. He had planned to lie low overseas and indirectly exert his influence to diffuse the 'Day 1 State vs Iris' matter, among other matters, while he was away. He did not tell Maya of his fears of a worst-case scenario – the court proceedings somehow being ruled invalid, and a re-trial, forcing Maya to again testify about what must have been one of the most harrowing incidents of her life. Edgeworth vividly recalled his own horrors – and subsequent years of nightmares – of having had a parent murdered before his very eyes, and he hadn't even seen the moment of death properly. With any luck, Mr. Armando's existing confession had already conclusively proven the verdict, even with supposed 'defense corruption.'

However, with the recent 'reforms' of the new Prosecutor Gavin, you could never tell. The kid was a punk, 17-years-old, with a bug up his butt and a need to have something to prove. The rock-star/prosecutor wasn't old enough to realize strong-arm tactics weren't the only way to establish your name and were too damn young to know any better. Edgeworth would have been happy to 'school' the lad himself, had this across-continental duty not called first!

"I'll be alright," Edgeworth assured Maya. The poor girl was going through enough right now without having to carry the burden of this knowledge with her as well. "Repercussions, if any, will be slight for me, given my otherwise exemplary work history with the Bar and because I still have some friends in high places. Honestly, Miss Fey, getting called abroad is perhaps a blessing in disguise. If I'm out of sight, it also means I shall be out of mind, even though I can still do some digging around into these matters in the background while I'm over there. I promised Wright, and now you, that I will do all that I can."

I have no idea why blessings always wear disguises! If I were a blessing, I'd run around naked! Maya thought wildly, who while grateful for the sworn aid from her steadfast friend, was loathe that he had to depart when she and Phoenix needed him most. She then switched over to more customary conversation, her voice hopeful.

"So, does that mean that you have talked to Nick?"

"If you had contacted me with that question last night, immediately post altercation with Wright, my reply to you would have been 'good luck with him, he's entirely your problem now', Miss Fey," Edgeworth's tone was both sardonic and wry. "Or even half an hour before you called. However, our beleaguered friend rang me thirty minutes before you did to wish me a good trip. So hence, my reply to you, Miss Fey, is he is indeed alive, moving about of his own free will, and…"

His voice trailed off then. He had zero desire to recount the details of his final visit nor recent conversation with his best friend to anyone just yet, any more than he wanted to disclose what Phoenix's intentions towards the girl who so desperately loved him were. That was neither his place nor his business, and he cared too much about Maya to be the one to tell her that the Phoenix Wright he'd seen and spoken to, who although had somewhat patched things up with him so that he wouldn't be going away with too many regrets about things left unsaid, was nowhere near the man he used to be. He was doubtful the outcome of any conversation Maya would have with Phoenix would be pleasant or resolving, but he truly hoped he was wrong.

"If you can catch that stubborn mule of a man unawares, he'll have no choice but to speak to you," Edgeworth finished lamely. "When do you think Wright will have his next visitor? As you know, I shall be stuck in Europe henceforth. And I expect that you have pressing priorities in Kurain?"

"No," countered Maya, mental bounds to her Master duties immediately dissolving. "I'll go and speak to him very shortly. In-person. The doctor said I should be well enough, and no longer walking a human contagion, within the next few days." She was relieved that Edgeworth was too polite to ask her why she hadn't gone to try to see Phoenix yet herself. Somehow she doubted he'd want to hear the traumatizing truth: I couldn't go see my boyfriend because I didn't want to subject his already browbeaten ass with the bug I'd caught, which resulted in making horror-movie worthy stuff come up - and out!- of me, at both ends?

"Good," breathed Edgeworth, momentarily slipping his facade of emotional detachment.

"I'll contact you after I've talked to him," Maya promised as she decisively tore the offending newspaper article in her lap to shreds.

Maya Fey
Los Angeles, Train Station Platform
May 11, 2019, 2:10 PM

Maya had blamed her fast-food choice for her plight, but she was wrong. Instead of just good-old-fashioned food-poisoning, which she'd had fervently hoped for, instead, it turned out she had come up with a ferocious case of stomach flu as a memento of her Far East travels. It knocked her flat on her ass and left her dehydrated, depleted of any and all energy, and barely able to move for the next week. The village doctor who had paid her a house call had said he'd never seen such a severe case and told Maya it could have been anything from the unfiltered water she'd been consuming to some nasty germs she'd picked up trying to use the contaminated public phone at the lodge. The key thing was that she was highly contagious and essentially quarantined in her room until the nasty bug had run its course.

She was as weak and helpless as a newborn and confined to bed the entire week. She couldn't even move to pen a letter, never mind rise to make a phone call. Absolutely nothing stayed down. All she could do was take sips of water and whatever herbal teas and homemade broths – hold the noodles – the village Elders made for her. Maya had always been slim, but as a result of her illness, she had lost close to ten pounds, leaving her with dark circles under her eyes, gaunt in the face, pale as a ghost, and looking like shit run over twice.

Her only bit of relief had been her phone call to Edgeworth four days prior when she'd finally been able to drag herself outside her house to use the phone, and he'd confirmed that the love of her life was neither dead nor confined in police custody. She replayed the details of that last conversation she'd had with her friend as she hopped into a cab, instructing the driver to take her to Phoenix's law office.

Phoenix Wright and Maya Fey
Wright Talent Agency
May 11, 2019, 2:30 PM

Phoenix sat laggardly on the couch downstairs in his office, feigning oblivion to the insistent loud knocking on the door. Since Trucy was still at school and her bus wasn't due to drop her back for another couple of hours and he was in no mind-frame to see or speak to anyone, he ignored it as he had all of the other times, even as he resisted the urge to scream, Get Lost! We don't want any!

He was in no mood to be dealing with pesky reporters, discuss which God was his personal savior, or reject the latest dirt-sucking piece of vacuuming technology at the moment.

However, after the briefest sound of keys jangling into the lock, the door flung open to reveal neither a nosy media member, bothersome Jehovah's Witness nor irksome salesman, but his girlfriend.

The village leader pulled the door open to find the lights out and the shades were drawn. The last stray beams of greying light poured through the windows and fell on a despondent figure collapsed on the couch. On it sat Phoenix, his head down and several glass bottles were strewn around him. Maya stepped inside, flicked on the light switch, and shut the door behind her. She stood there in stunned disbelief at the sight of her formerly handsome, well-groomed, professionally-suited boyfriend, now looking completely unrecognizable in his bedraggled, homeless bum sweatsuit.

He instinctively turned his head towards his unwelcome guest but then dropped it back at the ground, squeezing his eyes tightly shut. Maybe he could will her away if he refused to acknowledge her presence long enough. Having Maya seeing him like this was a nightmare come true. His hopes were in vain, however, as he listened to her footsteps drawing nearer to him until he could sense her standing right in front of him.

"Nick." Her voice was soft. "What happened?"

Her boyfriend did not respond.

Maya knelt beside him and took his hand. He shifted slightly as if he registered her touch, but his eyes still wouldn't meet hers.

"Nick, please. I'll believe what you say. I don't believe them."

More silence.

"Nick…I love you. And I will do whatever I can to keep my promise to you. Talk to me."

"I… I didn't know," croaked Phoenix. "I honestly didn't know."

His gaze finally met hers, and the haunted gaze chilled Maya with their glazed, vacant expression; too much reminiscent of those of Mia and her mother after they had died.

The diviner squeezed his hand, and with her free one, gently stroked his cheek, gazing at him with compassionate orbs, the words in her heart reflected within the mocha depths as they locked onto his.

Nick, when I say, 'I love you' it means that no matter what, waking up to you would be my idea of the perfect morning. It means that no matter what, sleeping next to you would be my idea of a perfect night. It means that I want to keep waking up to you, each and every morning and each and every transition from fall to summer. When I say, 'I love you' it means that I can picture what a future looks like with you. And it means that I want one. With only you. So, please, do not take those three words with a grain of salt. Don't shrug at me, or smile a sly little smile. Acknowledge my love. Feel it. Accept it. And if you feel the same, then take my heart with yours. When I say, 'I love you', I mean it. I'm not saying it just to make you happy. I'm not saying it to be romantic. I'm not saying it because I feel like I have to, or because I feel like there's a deadline I have to reach. 'I love you' means that I want to spend hours talking with you at midnight. It means that I want to grow old with you and still call you perfect even when your wrinkles start to show. It means that even if we end, my love won't dim. My love for you will never end. So when I say that to you, please believe me. And when you are ready to say it back to me, only say it when you truly mean it. Only say it when you believe in me too.

As Phoenix's pained eyes met his soul mate's unconditional loving gaze, it was at that moment everything sank in, with no spoken words required.

And within that same instant, he realized instinctively that she, at least, not only loved him but believed in him, just as he'd always believed in her.

Mood music from this chapter - full video and lyrics on thejordanphoenix dot com:

Fleetwood Mac – Don't Stop

September 12, 2021: This story is now being uploaded to be more family-friendly as the previous version was removed for being too steamy and setting off the site smoke alarms, and for having song lyrics. No harm, no foul. Seriously, I'm not worried - who the heck only reads a story for song lyrics and like, TEN chapters of canoodling out of 195? That's grossly underestimating my amazing and loyal readers, wouldn't you agree?

In the meantime, as I go through the painstaking task of ensuring my new version complies with regulations per the admin's advising, in the meantime, the full uncut version of Turnabout Everlasting, and Filling The Void (the other far too sexy for this site previous casualty, which I've started reposting in a less risqué format) can be found on THEJORDANPHOENIX dot com

All 195 chapters are now on my personal site and going forward, I will be posting there first when I write new chapters, so make sure to follow me for the latest updates and direct music video links! (I am still taking reader song requests, BTW) 😄