Mia was dead.

Mia was dead, and at first Phoenix just didn't have time to react - he had to protect Maya, had to solve his first ever solo case, against Edgeworth of all people, there was no time at all to grieve.

It was only a few days later, that it really started to set in. After he and Maya had gone out for those burgers, and after he'd moved her into his apartment, since she had nowhere else to stay in the city and refused to go home to the mountains (and he refused to let her sleep in the place where Mia had been murdered) - after they'd started to reorganize the office a little bit; after they'd given up when neither could stomach throwing away anything of Mia's.

It was only when they had nothing left to do but wait for a new client that the grief really started to take over. They spent a lot of time just sitting around in the office together with nothing else to do, so it made sense, but -

He couldn't stop thinking about maybes. What had she been going to tell him, when they got that drink together? What could she - could they have - he knew he'd never find out, now. He knew that, because he had felt the warmth fading from her skin, had almost gotten there in time to stop White.

But 'almost' meant nothing.

"Um, Nick," Maya said, and he looked up from the law book he'd been trying to read. She looked unusually serious; he set the book aside.

"I know I've got a lot more training to do," she said, frowning hard with her hands gripped into fists at her sides, "and I will! I'm working on it, and I know I'll get a lot better! But, for now -"

She swallowed hard, and Phoenix had to fight back the sudden impulse to step forward and pull her into a hug. At first, he hadn't really known what to think of Maya, just that she was Chief's little sister and she hadn't done it - but things were different now. Maya was important to him; truthfully, she was the only spot of warmth in his life right now, and even beyond his loyalty to Mia's memory, he found that he desperately wanted to protect her.

"Do you want me to channel Sis for you?" Maya asked. "I know... I know you must really want to talk to her, and even if I can't keep it up for long, something is better than nothing, right?"

Phoenix froze.

He stared at Maya, a terrible twisting feeling in his gut, and remembered that moment in the trial when he'd given up. Remembered thinking there was nothing he could do - nearly surrendering himself to wrongful imprisonment, after all Mia had done to save him from that already.

She'd saved him again, that day. Maya had, too - without the Fey sisters, Phoenix would be in jail right now, and Redd White would be walking free.

"No," Phoenix said, and cleared his throat to hide how it was closing up. "No, I don't need you to do that."

"I could, though! I'm sure I could, if I just tried hard enough!" Maya had her head down now. She was almost trembling, and it hurt to watch. "I know how much you miss her, so-"

"Maya, no," Phoenix said, and reached out to hold onto her upper arms. He shook her gently, until she looked up at him - then smiled. "Don't. I know it's hard for you, and I don't need it."

Every day he sat at Mia's desk, finally feeling like a real professional lawyer; every day he ached for her guidance.

But Maya was seventeen.

Phoenix might feel destroyed by Mia's loss, by everything he couldn't do and all the ways he wished things had been different... but when he'd truly needed her, Mia had been there for him. Maya had made that happen - Maya, who had no one else, who was only seventeen and would never get to see her sister again.

"Besides," Phoenix said, a deep dull pain in his chest at Maya in front of him, shaking with the effort but offering this, "I think I should be focusing on the things in front of me, right now."

She looked up at him, and slowly, that terrible scared, lonely expression began to fade away.

"What," Maya asked, a mischievous grin starting to creep across her face, "like actually doing some lawyering for once? When are you gonna find a client, Nick!"

Well, I guess that counts too, he thought wryly, and let go of her to cross his arms over his chest and play along: "The phone's probably ringing off the hook during all your three-hour-long cartoon breaks."

The banter came automatically after that, but Phoenix was only half-focused on it, thoughts heavy. He still couldn't say goodbye to Mia, not even in his thoughts... but there were so many other things he could do, to make sure he didn't fail her or Maya next time. Or... Edgeworth.

Mia had become a lawyer for a reason. Phoenix had too - and it wasn't so he could further burden someone like Maya, who'd already lost so much.

He couldn't give up again.