DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the installments of Ace Attorney or any of the characters.
A/N: This prompt was suggested by yankeegal13. Thank you kindly for your patience and I hope that this chapter was worth the wait :)
ACE ATTORNEY SCRAPBOOK
Chapter 43: Bad Memories
Case Tag: 5-4 (The Cosmic Turnabout)
Quote: User Suggested Prompt!
December 16, 2027, 4:23pm
Hickfield Clinic
Phoenix and Trucy Wright walked through the sliding doors at the entrance of the Hotti Clinic, carrying various gifts and get-well trinkets in their arms. Nick shuddered as he stepped foot into the lobby.
"Everything okay, Daddy?" Trucy asked.
Nick mustered a small chuckle.
"I'm fine, Trucy," he said. "I just have bad memories of this place from previous cases. I just hope we don't run into the Director…"
"Wouldn't that be a good thing, though?" Trucy replied. "I mean, we can talk to the Director and tell him or her that our Polly deserves only the best treatment!"
"Eh, I don't really think he'll go for it."
Trucy gave Nick a pout.
"Why not?" she asked.
"Just trust me on this one," Nick frowned. "Oh, and stay close to me. If you see the Director, immediately do one of your disappearing acts and hide."
"Um, okay, but I really don't see why-"
Nick cut her off.
"Hey, look, here's Apollo's room," he gestured toward the room the nurse at the front desk had directed them to.
The blue-clad attorney hurried into the hospital room before Trucy could continue the conversation. The young magician followed behind Nick with a small huff. Entering into the room, the two found Apollo in the hospital bed, wrapped up from head to toe in crisp white bandages.
"Look, Daddy, Polly is a mummy!" Trucy said with a giggle.
"Yeah, I'd say that's a pretty good description, Trucy," Nick agreed with a smile.
Trucy released the balloons she had been holding and they floated to the ceiling with a dainty thud. Nick handed her the bouquet of red flowers she picked out earlier for Apollo and placed them on the nightstand next to the hospital bed.
"Polly! We're here to visit you!" Trucy announced in her typical chipper tone as she set the vase down.
There was no response from Apollo. Trucy gave him a light shove to the shoulder with her gloved hand. Apollo gave a small snore but otherwise did not stir.
"He's probably on some strong pain meds and a sedative or two," Nick said. "Hate to break it to you, Truce, but I don't think Apollo will be conscious anytime soon."
Trucy put her hands on her hips as she surveyed the sleeping attorney.
"We have to wake him up, Daddy," she said. "We have to take care of Juniper's trial tomorrow, so we won't have time to really visit with Polly otherwise."
"That's true," Nick scratched his chin thoughtfully. "It would be nice to talk to Apollo to see how he's feeling after the incident at the courthouse earlier, plus to see if there's any helpful information he might be able to provide to help with Juniper's case tomorrow. Maybe I should go check with his nurse-"
"That's going to take too long," Trucy interrupted. "I know!"
"Trucy…" Nick started to say, his tone warning the young girl not to go too overboard in her plan to wake up Apollo.
Before he could say anything further, Trucy whipped out her giant puppet, Mr. Hat.
"Hello, Apollo! It's your best friend, Mr. Hat!" the puppet said.
Apollo appeared to frown and wrinkled his forehead as if hearing Trucy and her puppet, but still did not wake up from his slumber.
"Apollo," Mr. Hat repeated. "Aaapollllooooo!"
"Hhnngh…" Apollo murmured in his sleep.
"It's working!" Trucy bounced on the balls of her feet.
"Aaaapolllloooooo!" Mr. Hat nudged Apollo, playing with his hair antennae. "Wakey-wakey!"
Apollo raised a hand and attempted to swat Mr. Hat away. Trucy continued to manipulate Mr. Hat to slowly rouse the sleeping attorney until she was interrupted by a guest barging into the room.
"Hmm, hmm, yes, I remember you…the magic girl...with your cute pink hearts..."
Nick felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end, mirroring his already spiky do. He whirled around and laid eyes on the pink tuft of hair of the man who had slinked into the doorway of Apollo's hospital room. The man incessantly itched all over his body, occasionally shoving his white lab coat and stethoscope hanging around his neck out of the way to get at a particular spot.
"It's Director Hotti...er, Hickfield!" Nick squeaked.
Nick's sudden squealing startled Trucy, causing her to gasp. Her recoil caused Mr. Hat to swing his wooden arms around and smack Apollo upside the head.
"Hh-hey!" a drowsy Apollo murmured.
His eyes fluttered open and he came face to face with Mr. Hat, who was now mere inches away from being nose to nose. Apollo screamed. Nick, Trucy and Apollo's voices joined together in one giant chorus of screams. Members of the nursing staff came running into the room a few moments later.
"You!" one of the nurses started shuffling the 'director' out of Apollo's room. "What are you doing out of your room? You need to stop bothering these poor people!"
"It's all right, young lady," another nurse told Trucy. "We'll take care of the 'director' here, you don't need to worry or scream. He's a creep but he's harmless."
"Actually, it wasn't me who screamed," Trucy said as she stowed Mr. Hat away. "It was my Dad."
Nick flushed a red that mirrored the shade of Apollo's trademark suit. He let out a nervous chuckle as he rubbed the back of his neck.
"We've...met," Nick admitted. "But he still scares the heck out of me."
"You're scared?" Apollo, now fully awake, looked at Nick. "You try waking up to a bunch of screaming!"
"Yay! You're awake!" Trucy said happily.
She hugged Apollo, who winced as she hit a tender spot on his shoulder.
"Oops! Sorry!" Trucy immediately let go of the other attorney.
She activated Mr. Hat again, who twirled out from his hiding place.
"Sorry, Polly!" the puppet said, removing his hat with a bow of the head.
Apollo screamed. Nick stifled a chuckle at the sight of the young attorney quivering under the bed covers.
"Great. Now he's afraid of Mr. Hat," Nick said with a sigh and a shake of the head. "Well, we should probably go, Trucy. I don't think Apollo's going to be able to give us any good information about Juniper's case anytime soon. Want to hit Eldoon's?"
"Sure," Trucy said, skipping over to Nick.
She looked over her shoulder at Apollo, who was now peeking out from beneath the covers. Trucy waved.
"Don't worry, Polly, Mr. Hat and I will be back later!"
Apollo groaned and ducked back beneath the bed sheets.