For years, Phoenix had enjoyed full nights of sleep, uninterrupted.

Then he got a kid.

Trucy was wonderful, amazing, one of two shining bright spots in what had become of his life.

But she was also a nine year-old. Which meant sometimes she woke Phoenix up at four in the morning.

And by 'sometimes', it was more accurate to say 'nearly every night'. Trucy had nightmares, ones she didn't like to talk about even with her father, but which still required Phoenix's help to soothe.

Which is probably why, at four in the morning, Phoenix's body woke him up for no discernible reason and didn't let him get back to sleep.

Looking over, he saw even in the dim light of the bedroom that Franziska was dead asleep, half-covered by what blankets she hadn't kicked off in the midst of a dream. She was also, for once, not cuddling him, which made escaping the bed rather easier than it usually was.

This wasn't the first time that, even on a night away from Trucy, he'd woken up like this, so he decided to do what he found helped: getting up for a glass of water.

The dark wood floors of the home didn't creak, to Phoenix's relief, as he left the room clad in his pajamas and climbed down a set of stairs to get to the kitchen. One refreshing glass of water later, Phoenix was ready to head back upstairs, but stopped as he heard something.

It was a song, but coming from too far away to be properly discernable, lilting through the home almost spectrally. Curious, Phoenix followed the sound, and came up to a door that had been locked thus far in his stay: Manfred von Karma's old office.

Now the door was ajar, and hesitantly Phoenix tiptoed inside. The room wasn't empty, but neither was there some ghost of the dead prosecutor, as Phoenix's nighttime imagination had begun to conjure. Instead, it was the man's widow, sitting next to a record player. Palia saw Phoenix and didn't look surprised, waving a hand to beckon him over to a nearby seat, without saying a word.

Seeing no reason to refuse her request, Phoenix crossed the room and sat in the chair, one made of solid wood with beautiful carvings etched into the back but little in the way of padding. In other words, not a very comfortable place to sit.

The music played, and Phoenix's mind wandered as his eyes did the same. The office reminded him a little of Edgeworth's, but with ten, no, fifty times as many case files, notes, and legal books. And like the chair, it seemed that the family's patriarch had a heavier hand in designing this room. Less modest, more gaudy.

The song was nice, though. It was something classical, orchestral. It sounded vaguely familiar, but Phoenix couldn't quite place it. Still, if he closed his eyes and concentrated on the sounds, it felt like the music could guide his thoughts. It conjured the image of a vast sea, roaring waves, and a tumultuous storm. Yet it was also...serene, somehow.

The record reached its end, and Palia lifted the needle from the vinyl and smiled at Phoenix. Clearly, the song had some sentimental value to her, he could see unshed tears in her eyes, even as she otherwise appeared to be happy. "Did you have trouble sleeping, dear?"

"Yeah, I..." Phoenix replied, almost telling her why exactly he was so used to getting up at this hour. But he realized she didn't know about Trucy, and maybe telling his girlfriend's mother about his daughter wasn't something he should do without talking it over with Franziska first. So instead, he finished the sentence with, "...couldn't get back to sleep. What about you?"

She exhaled, but not out of annoyance. The sound carried something like nostalgia in it. "I grew up on a farm, and I've never gotten out of the habit of waking up before dawn." Phoenix took that in and let it settle a little. A farm? He had to wonder...was it in his country? Or in Germany? "I apologize for my daughters' behavior yesterday." For perhaps the first time since Phoenix got to the estate, Palia sounded...exasperated.

Phoenix winced. "There's no need for an apology, I...know what it's like." He didn't elaborate, and she didn't ask him to. Unable to help himself, Phoenix did ask, "Have they...always been like that?"

"Yes and no," Palia told him, regret bleeding into her words. "Gisela has a tendency to see Franziska almost as her own child. When she was little, that made them close, but the more independent Franziska became..." The sentence wasn't finished, the thought left hanging. "You caught them at a bad time, I think. If only Miles were here. He knows how to get them to be civil, if only for his sake. I've never been able to do much about it..."

"What about their father?" Before Phoenix could stop himself, he'd already asked the question aloud.

Luckily, it seemed that Palia didn't mind it whatsoever. In fact, she giggled a little before saying, "Oh, they drove Manfred up a wall, but he couldn't stop them either. He'd order the girls to stop fighting, but that only meant they'd wait until he wasn't around, or throw their insults when they thought he wasn't listening." Manfred von Karma, exasperated father...it was a weird image for Phoenix to try and picture. "Franziska told me that I should be...more delicate about discussing him around you. But would it be okay if I told you a little more about my husband?"

There was something so lonely about how she asked the question. Was there no one left who wanted to talk to her about the man she'd loved? "I'm okay with that," Phoenix told her, even if he wasn't completely sure about that himself.

Turning to look at the nearby desk, its surface absolutely spotless, Palia told him, "Coming to this country meant a lot to Manfred. 'To be perfect in every way' is only a translation of his family's creed, but it's not an inaccurate one. They...did not like him picking law as his profession. Or picking a commoner for a wife." Phoenix didn't know how she could speak about herself like that without sounding sad, but what she said next helped. "Still, he chose prosecuting and he chose me." Just as Phoenix was starting to digest that, she asked, "Do you know how many cases Miles takes a year?"

Phoenix wasn't sure, but he felt like he could ballpark it. "A hundred?" After all, prosecutors didn't really 'take' cases, they were assigned them.

"More than two hundred. The average prosecutor these days only handles one hundred and twenty or so." Phoenix couldn't really put those numbers in his head. The most cases he'd ever taken in one year was four. "Can you guess how many Manfred would take every year, at the beginning?"

Considering this was the God of Prosecutors, Phoenix did his best to get closer to the truth with a much higher guess. "Three hundred? Four hundred?"

The answer made Palia laugh. "Oh no, that is far too high. No, for decades Manfred only took three or four cases to court every year." The answer stunned Phoenix, but she continued to talk anyway. "For so long, he ensured his perfect win record by only prosecuting people he was sure were Guilty." That sounded...a bit too familiar for Phoenix's liking.

"But he should have been assigned more than that. I know trials were slower back then, but..." She must have been exaggerating, right?

There was something...resolute about her smile, as she heard his reply. "They tried. But one thing that did not change about Manfred was his stubbornness. No matter what his superiors told him to do, he only prosecuted the ones he felt he could." Phoenix could picture that pretty well, actually. "He and the other prosecutors never got along. He was terrible at politics." She pointed to a picture, hanging on the wall nearby between two enormous bookshelves. It showed a much younger Manfred von Karma than the one that Phoenix met, with copper hair and a more youthful face. He and Palia were standing side by side, and they were outside the house that Phoenix was sitting in. Only, it looked new in the photo. "He had this home built so far from the city, hoping it would keep us away from them."

Or perhaps he just wanted privacy. Or he wanted to get away from the press, specifically. Even as Phoenix listened to the story, he couldn't help doubting it. This was the man's wife, of course she'd paint a brighter picture than others would. But was he only thinking that because it was easier for him?

Palia was looking at Phoenix again, and while she still looked like the kind matron he'd known thus far, there was also fear in her eyes. "Manfred was trying to be a good man. He and his detective friend thought they could clean up the city's corruption." Her voice trembled a little. "But the road to hell is paved with good intentions, yes? I only hope..." Suddenly, she got up from where she sat and moved from the door, and all Phoenix could do was watch her go. "...I know you want to be a good man too. I only hope you don't disappoint Franziska the way that he did."


It was probably no surprise that, after heading back up to Franziska's bedroom and crawling back into bed, Phoenix didn't sleep well.

Still, he managed to get something like rest eventually. Blearily, he opened his eyes to see Franziska was sitting up in bed next to him. She was on her phone, and without looking away from the screen, she told Phoenix, "It is nearly eight in the morning."

For a second, he wasn't sure why she would say that, but slowly his exhausted brain managed to crunch the words into thoughts, and he remembered how early her family usually liked to eat breakfast. Suddenly very awake, Phoenix bolted upright, heart pounding, feeling like an idiot for sleeping in.

But before he could rush out of bed to get clothes, Franziska's ungloved hand reached out to take his, and pull him closer. Confused, he looked at her and saw she was far from ready herself. No make-up, still wearing bedclothes, hair...well, actually her hair still looked wonderful, but it hadn't been brushed into perfection. "We are staying here." Her voice was...faraway.

Still feeling awake, Phoenix sidled up closer to his girlfriend and put an arm around her shoulders. She closed her eyes and leaned on him, as if savoring his touch. "Any reason why we're in bed so 'late'? Not that I'm complaining." It was still early by Phoenix's clock, after all.

"I do not want to see my sister more than I must." There was a finality to her words, one at odds with how tenderly her free hand was starting to stroke Phoenix's back from under his shirt. "After waking up, I decided that we shall sleep in, eat one meal with my family, and leave early." Phoenix could hear the underlying message: She didn't want to be there any longer.

He wasn't going to argue. This was her family, her home, her rules. "If that's what you want to do, I'll follow you." Phoenix meant every word. He was sure she'd do the same for him, should they go to see his own family.

Franziska looked up at him, something warm and so very alive in her eyes, and she closed them as she stretched up to him, her lips signalling her intent. She couldn't really get all the way there with their height difference, so Phoenix met her halfway, and she started kissing him. Not a quick peck on the lips, or a tender smooch, but a real kiss. Franziska's mouth covering his own, she put everything she had into making the sensation get across a message without having to say it aloud: 'Thank you.'

Since they were going to be spending the morning in the room anyway, Phoenix didn't mind escalating things a little. He started kissing her back, reaching under the covers to touch her. Franziska must have been expected that, as there wasn't any clothing to bar his way.

A few hours later, the two were walking down the stairs to get their final encounter with the family over and done with. They were fully dressed and ready for the day, though they hoped no one noticed how out of breath they still were from their, uh, 'morning exercise'. Franziska had (reluctantly) ended up wearing the same turtleneck as the day before, since it was the only thing she had that could cover a few marks she didn't want her family to see.

Everyone was still in the dining room when they entered, though breakfast had long since been put away and judging by the smell from the kitchen they were gearing up for lunch. A German greeting came to them from Patrick, which Franziska returned in kind. But neither she or her sister said anything to each other, and as they took seats at the table, Phoenix felt like there was more than iciness there. Tension was in the air, and he couldn't figure out why.

Julia was working on some kind of homework, math judging by all the equations, and Phoenix silently hoped she didn't ask for his help. He could barely do anything for Trucy. So when Julia looked up from her work and smiled at Phoenix, a far more emotional look than he'd seen from her thus far, he started praying that she wouldn't do what he feared. "Mr. Wright, my mother says you have a daughter!"

That explained the tension.

Next to him, Franziska's body went tight as a rope, and for a second he swore she was going to get up and leave on the spot. Gisela and Patrick shared a look, but neither said anything, and soon Palia had entered the room and was looking expectantly at him as well. Feeling like he had to say something, Phoenix put on his best fatherly poker face and nodded. "That's right, her name is Trucy. She's a few years younger than you are." That seemed to make the girl curious, but before she could ask him more, someone else voiced a question.

"I am curious as to how you knew that, considering we hadn't shared that information." Franziska's voice gave Phoenix an immediate image of a blinding blizzard. There was no warmth to be found in it any longer.

Meeting her sister's gaze head-on, Gisela looked ready to get into this. "While you, mother, and Julia were away, I happened to overhear him speaking to her on his cell phone." Phoenix remembered the incident, and while he could see it as a coincidence, he knew Franziska would doubt that. She didn't trust Gisela already. "It does make me wonder, however: why did neither you or your partner bring up his child before?"

"I am sure they would have if we had asked," Palia interjected, though judging by the lack of response from either rhetorical combatant, the attempt at peacemaking had failed utterly.

"We didn't bring up Trucy because this was my first time meeting you all and-"

Before Phoenix could even finish chiming in with his thoughts, he felt Franziska's gloved hand on his, and she was squeezing tightly, her eyes still on Gisela. "You have no need to explain yourself. My sister is the one who should elaborate on why she felt the need to spy on you."

Gisela may have been smiling, but something blazed in her eyes as she heard Franziska's words. "I fear you've misunderstood my actions, though I suppose that is something you're prone to doing. As I said before, I merely happened upon the call." There was heat behind her words, Phoenix could tell she didn't like what Franziska had insinuated. "His words are interesting though, are they not? Why would he not want us to know of this daughter? Could it be that you are ashamed of dating a single father? I see nothing wrong with it, of course, but not all see it that way." Things were starting to get out of hand.

In a rush of motion, Franziska stood up from her chair, moving her arm to rest her hand instead on Phoenix's shoulder. "I have no more shame in courting Phoenix than you did Patrick. Trucy Wright is a wonderful girl, and when the day comes that she can call me her mother, I will be proud to have a daughter as perfect as she is. I'm sure Julia would adore her new cousin." It was hard for Phoenix to avoid choking on his tongue.

They had been dating for less than a year, they'd never talked about marriage before, and while he was sure that Franziska loved Trucy, she'd never talked to him about taking that step. Did she really mean all of that, or was it just another step in this argument?

Everyone in the room was floored by her words, even the man who didn't understand them. Apparently, the gesture was enough to cross languages. Both Palia and Julia were looking at Phoenix a little differently, but Gisela's eyes hadn't left Franziska's. She opened her mouth to speak, but someone cut her off.

"Hold it." Phoenix had to stop this. Franziska looked down at him in surprise, and Gisela too looked as though she hadn't expected him to butt in with such a firm tone, but he kept on talking. "You two have got to stop this, it's getting ridiculous." He didn't ask her to sit down, but Franziska's pale face suddenly had a dusting of pink on her cheeks, and she did so anyway. Gisela, too, looked a little embarrassed. "Franziska, I think it really was an accident. Unless your sister gives us evidence to think otherwise, I don't think she followed me around waiting to overhear something interesting."

There was conflict in Franziska's eyes, and she started to say, "But she-"

"She also makes a good point about Trucy," Phoenix said, knowing he might be in trouble for talking over her later on. "We were going to have to tell them eventually, so hiding her from the start was short-sighted on our part." In a way, the same was true of the way they'd hidden their relationship from Edgeworth, but with him they'd been lucky and there hadn't been any blowback. Franziska sank a little in her chair, and he could see she was feeling defeated. Which was why Phoenix refocused on Gisela, who was smiling more than a little smugly. "That said, there was no reason to tell everyone else behind our backs, we could have talked about it ourselves after the phone call."

The politician blinked, and before she said anything, Phoenix continued what he had to tell her. "Franziska doesn't feel like you respect her or her sexuality. What you said to me hurt her enough that she wanted us to leave early." What he had to say looked like it shocked Gisela. Good, Phoenix thought, maybe that means the two of them can actually communicate. "If you two want to talk this out, I was thinking of calling Trucy again. Julia, you can introduce yourself to her." Phoenix got up from the table, and all but the sisters went to leave the room with him.

Before they left the dining room, Franziska gave Phoenix what he was pretty sure was a grateful look, while Palia was explaining what had just occurred to Patrick in a language he could understand.

The phone call went rather well, so well that Phoenix ended up just giving his phone to Julia so she could talk to Trucy by herself. After getting the cell phone back from the polite little girl, Phoenix told his daughter he'd be home before dinner, and promised to pick them up some Eldoon's as a treat. Once the all was over, Julia asked, "Is it really true that Trucy is a magician?" She spoke as though it were a very serious question.

Grinning, Phoenix nodded, and told her, "It is. Do you like magic?"

"I'm not sure," Julia admitted, looking unsure if this was something she was allowed to tell Phoenix. "I've never seen magic before." Phoenix wasn't really sure if that was just because illusionists weren't popular in Germany or if her parents didn't care for the performing art.

Either way, Phoenix felt confident telling her, "I'm sure that when you meet Trucy in-person, she'd love to show you some of what she can do." Though the child was trying to look like the idea was one she found mildly interesting at best, Phoenix could see in the young girl's eyes an eagerness to see something new.

Still, she had another question. "Is Trucy a good magician?" From how she asked it, it sounded like the answer was important.

Trying to match that seriousness, Phoenix did his best to put in a good word for his daughter. "Trucy's fantastic for her age. She already performs paid venues, and she's working to develop the kind of fan base that will support her career as she gets older." It wasn't a stretch to call Trucy a genius magician, really. More than her magic, her ability to command the presence on stage was the kind of thing other entertainers worked at building over decades. "It makes sense though, she comes from a long line of magicians."

That seemed to confuse Julia. "I thought you were an attorney? Are there other magicians in your family?"

Unsure on how to explain this to a kid, Phoenix hit upon something, and told her, "You know how your Uncle Miles had a different family before he joined yours?" She nodded, and he was glad she knew that much. "Well, Trucy is like that. She used to be one of the Gramaryes, but now she's a Wright." Though, Phoenix thought, unlike with the Edgeworth example, Phoenix hadn't murdered her father.

The girl seemed to accept that explanation easily, and ran over to her father to start telling him something in German. Phoenix was pretty sure he heard Trucy's name in there somewhere? "You adopted her?" Palia asked, catching Phoenix off-guard. She looked pleased to hear that. "She'll be welcome in our family." What she said reminded him of Franziska's words from earlier.

"Thank...you...?" Phoenix said, unsure of what else to say. After all, he wasn't planning on marrying into the von Karma's in the immediate future.

The potentially awkward conversation was saved by Franziska and Gisela entering the room. At first glance, they appeared to be just as they'd been in the dining room, if far less directly hostile, but Phoenix knew Franziska's face well enough to see that she'd cried and done her best to hide it. "We have reconciled," Franziska announced.

Turning to look at Phoenix, Gisela inclined her head slightly. "I apologize for my actions. Speaking to you about what I heard would have been the more...mature thing to do. I am owed no forgiveness, but I ask for it regardless." When they said things like that, Phoenix could see some of their father in the sisters, and not in a negative way.

Whatever else Phoenix had to say about Manfred von Karma, in the end the man accepted his guilt and took his punishment without excuses.

"You're forgiven," Phoenix said with a laugh. "As long as Franziska is feeling better, I'm happy too." His answer surprised Gisela, but it also led to her giving him a real smile.

They visited for a little while after that, but Franziska's morning and that talk had taken a lot out of her, so they still elected to start heading back in the early afternoon. The only one to hug Phoenix goodbye was Palia, who told him, "Take care of yourself, please. You have people who love you."

Gisela merely gave him a firm handshake, while Patrick's was a bit more loose and casual. Julia made no contact with him at all, but curtsied and told him, "I look forward to the day when I meet Trucy Wright face-to-face." Then they got in the car, and started heading home.

"So, how exactly did the talk with Gisela go?" Phoenix asked the second they were back on the road.

Though he could see she was still not at one-hundred percent, the smile that blossomed on her face at the question felt like it was progress. "It went well. We both...said things we should have said a long time ago." Then, after a short pause, she added, "Thank you for your assistance, clumsily done as it was."

Phoenix breathed a sigh of relief. "Good, I was afraid you'd be mad at me."

"Oh, I was furious," Franziska clarified. "I still am, to some extent. We are going to have a talk later about the extent to which interfering in each other's familial arguments is welcomed." With only a bit of anxiety at that thought, Phoenix nodded. It had been overstepping what was okay, just a little, and he'd known that when he did it. "That said, the result was in your favor, and I know your intentions were noble." There was humor in her tone, but also appreciation. "It was nice, seeing that fire in you again. I've been afraid your embers would burn themselves out, without a courtroom to stoke them."

There was nothing he had to say about that. It had felt...good. Like defending in court again. Taking center stage, trying to fix the problem his way. Trying not to think about that missing part of his life, Phoenix was glad that Franziska knew he meant well.

Still he did have another question, as her car wound its way through the hilly countryside and back towards Los Angeles. "Did you...really mean what you said in there? I mean, you basically told your family you intended to marry me and be Trucy's mom." Even Phoenix himself wasn't sure what he thought about the idea. It made him happy, but also light-headed.

Franziska smirked. "I said no such thing. If they took my words in such a way, that was their own doing. It was a classic negotiating tactic, escalating the stakes for intimidation purposes." That was a relief. Classic Franziska strategy.

What had he been worried about? They'd been dating for...what, seven months? Eight? That was a conversation that would come a while later.

"That being said, if you do not propose to me before the year is over, I will be quite cross with you."