Disclaimer: The rights to Ace attorney belong to Capcom. I own nobody...maybe except for one or two characters in this story.

Turnabout Matrimony


Phoenix Wright could feel the walls closing in on him as he, Athena and Apollo wandered down the imposing hallways of the detention centre and their minds were reeling to try and comprehend the reality of what was supposed to be a brilliant day for two good friends of the Wright anything agency, one of the two being an employee.

He now felt awkward that he was still dressed in a formal tuxedo and not in his usual blue suit but that wasn't even the first thing in his mind right now as he tried his best to find the cell which held Juniper Woods in so he, Athena and Apollo could have an interview with her.

Making a bee-line for the cells, zig-zagging passed cell after cell, the ace attorney trio stopped right in front of a window which had a saddened Juniper Woods stood behind it.

The walls looked dank and dark whilst the glass covering the wall was kept crystal clear by regular cleaning.

Seeing the woman, Athena and Phoenix felt their hearts break.

The poor woman looked positively heartbroken. Juniper's facial makeup was smeared because of the tears she cried, her veil was filthy and somewhat tattered, her dress was even more so due to being unable to change her outfit due to all that had happened.

Sniffling with tears watering in her eyes, Junie wiped a few stray tears away with the corner of her sleeve as she coughed lightly.

Apollo felt the worst about Juniper's confinement.

Phoenix didn't need Athena's special sense of hearing to hear the sadness in Apollo's heart and it made him feel horrible. He could sense his understudy's unease as he stood there with his shoulders slightly bunched up, clearly signifying he was just a tad tense due to seeing his lover behind some cold steely glass wall.

Junie seemed positively filled with grief and who could blame her?

Her grandmother was killed during their wedding ceremony and she was blamed for the crime! It just couldn't be true, the flower maiden just wasn't capable if doing such horrible dastardly deeds!

The three attorneys stared at the crying woman for several moments, feeling huge amounts of sympathy towards the poor bride-to-be. Juniper shouldn't be here...

But, it was then that Juniper finally noticed the presence of her visitors "O-oh! Hello..."

She perked up a bit, probably trying to put on a brave face for her husband-to-be. Juniper hurriedly wiped her face with a sleeve from her gown and she sniffled as she tried to blink the tears out of her red and puffy eyes whilst she shuffled nervously on the spot.

Athena smiled sadly at her friend and greeted back "H-Hey, Junie...are you okay?"

That was, in hindsight, a dumb question to ask. Of course she wasn't alright! She had been ripped away from her loved ones when she really should have been celebrating the most important day of her life with Apollo by her side.

She must have been in emotional agonising pain that made her heart scream itself hoarse with heartache.

Juniper let loose a few coughs, putting her hand over her mouth to stifle them.

Her coughing sounded pretty chesty and her weak voice sounded strained as if she had been forcing herself to speak through a tightened throat all this time.

"I...I-I'm fine...I'm perfectly f-fine..." She said, her voice trembling as she looked her three visitors right in the eyes. She looked very frightened, however. One look at her face would show that she had been crying her eyes out in her alone time and the fact that she was looking exhausted showed that questioning was rough on her, it looked as if Payne had shown her no mercy...

Juniper looked right at Apollo whom looked right back at her with a small reassuring smile as he placed his palm against the glass separating them. Apollo seemed to be trying to be strong for her sake, although Phoenix was concerned about how both of them weren't properly letting go of their feelings.

Apollo continued to put on a brave face as he smiled softly "That's good, Juniper, that's very good. Don't forget that I believe in you, you didn't do anything wrong..."

Phoenix and Athena were surprised to hear the spiky-fringed attorney use such a soft tone in contrast to his louder voice which he normally used. He never spoke so compassionately to anybody like this, maybe he used this calming method just for Junie because its a fact of life that love could bring out so many differences in a man.

Apollo was no exception.

Phoenix cleared his throat awkwardly, grabbing everyone's attention as he did so.

"Juniper, if its alright we have some questions to ask." He said, speaking lightly and casually as he did.

He adjusted his crooked bow tie and contemplated his questions carefully, straightening his posture out so he could look professional despite being formally dressed and ready to watch a wedding. He dusted off his tuxedo in hopes of trying to get rid of his nerves and control them a bit as he stood there and tried not to fidget with his tie.

Junie nodded her head in agreement, ready to hear whatever inquiries that the blue-wearing attorney had to ask of her.

Phoenix started off by asking calmly "So, can you tell us about your grandma?"

Juniper looked down, saddened. She looked as if that question had hit her in a sensitive place in her heart which it probably did, seeing as her grandmother had just died and all. However she tried to keep the grief out of her soft voice as she looked up at her visitors.

Lazily twirling a particularly springy lock of her muddy-coloured brown hair around her finger, she started to speak "After my parents died in a car accident when I was little, my grandma took me in and raised me for all these years. She taught me everything I knew about gardening and anything I ever knew about everything..."

"I just can't believe she's gone."

Junie blinked back the tears watering in her eyes and she forced a smile to her weakening lips as she readied herself for more questions, unaware of the equal amount of despair that Apollo was probably feeling. She softly grasped at her wrist and closed her eyes softly before reopening them and looking Athena square in the face.

Athena smiled softly, trying to be strong for Junie despite her knowing exactly how much pain her best friend was in.

"So might I ask why you're the main suspect?" She asked, cocking her head to one side as her brows knitted together in confusion. This question had bothered her from the very beginning and it was one she that continued to repeat itself over and over again inside her mind whenever she thought back to the case.

The fact that the arrogant jerk, Gaspen Payne, took Junie away without rhyme or reason was despicable and she actually sensed a bit of smugness in him and the fact that he was feeling pleased about it made her want to punch him. In the face.

Repeatedly.

Athena knew why prosecutor Payne was feeling that way too. During that courthouse bombing trial a few years back, Payne really got on to Junie and frightened her when he started to badger her so much when he tried to get her to admit to her so-called crimes.

It was a memory that Athena didn't wish to relive and it was one that Apollo almost go to the Prosecutors office to smack Payne whenever he re-watched the trial on video; both Phoenix and Trucy spent hours convincing the spiky-fringed lawyer to not beat the guy senseless for terrifying his girlfriend and Athena wanted to actually go with him with some popcorn to watch the show.

Both of them cleaned the toilets for three weeks afterwards and read courtroom manners 101 as punishment.

Anyways, snapping back to the present, Athena and Phoenix listened as Juniper replied to the question by saying "I d-don't know how but my fingerprints wound up on the m-murder weapon, a blade of some kind!"

The flower maiden coughed a few times, clearly becoming stressed. But then her coughs died down and gave way for the inevitable sniffling and sobbing as she started to cry, her strength finally failing as she buried her face in her hands.

"I-I-I also had a fight with my g-g-grandma a f-few months ago! I was angry a-at her because she didn't quite a-a-approve of m-me marrying Apollo!"

Phoenix and Athena were surprised, Apollo especially.

Maple Woods disliked Apollo? Or maybe it wasn't Apollo she hated but maybe it was the law she didn't quite like...

Their theory was confirmed once Juniper explained through her tears whilst she was wiping her eyes with the corners of the sleeves of her ivory wedding gown which was slightly dirty from the transition from church to detention centre.

"G-Granny didn't like the law e-ever since I was accused back a few years ago...she hated anything to do with law s-s-since then."

It was then she broke down into tears with her body convulsed and shivered, wracking with violent trembles as she sobbed her poor heart out. This was the second time she cried so hard today and honestly, nobody could put any fault on her...especially not her fiancé who only watched with a heart-broken frown etched on his face.

So Payne had a motive and he had evidence to place Juniper as the main suspect: this wasn't looking good for the girl now, not at all.

Apollo placed his hand against the glass, hoping it would reach Juniper somehow in a touch, and he tried to comfort her "C-C'mon, Juniper...d-don't cry...please, don't cry..."

The poor man sounded like his Chords of steel could just about crack from despair. His eyes were wide and transfixed on poor Junie's tearful face as her eyes were red and puffy and more tears gushed down her cheeks and, as the bulky tears trailed down her cheeks relentlessly, Apollo found himself biting his lower lip to keep himself from doing the same and looking like a wimp.

He instead looked off to the side and observed his partners faces.

Phoenix felt so sorry for Juniper, as did Athena. It was obvious that the poor woman was feeling heaps of sadness that her grandmother was gone and it kind of made their hearts break for her a lot more then they were already.

The air around the detention centre was suddenly weighted by the huge amount of sadness the bride felt. It felt like all the happiness that was there before was sucked dry and, now, it felt like the best time to let it all out.

Junie did as she wept herself dry.

Thankfully, Apollo had seemed to regain his composure as he started to softly stroke the glass and he used the most surprisingly soft and quiet tone he ever used -a tone clearly reserved just for Juniper and it appeared to have been customised just for this sort of situation.

He smoothed all signs of sadness from his voice and started to hush her softly.

"Hey, hey, hey...shhhh, its gonna be alright..." He crooned in an attempt to get Junie to stop crying.

Apollo started smiling a sincerely kind-hearted smile as he kept his palm pressed against the glass window "I promise you that I won't rest until you're out of there. I won't ever let myself relax until you and I are back at the alter. When you get out of here, you and I are gonna have the wedding of our dreams..."

Apollo stared at Juniper's tear stained face dreamily with his smile flickering into a slight wider one "...You and I are gonna both say 'I do' and then we're gonna spend the rest of our lives together, alright?"

Juniper stopped crying and sniffled, trying to dry her eyes with her loose and saggy sleeves. She looked at her husband-to-be who had clearly gained a good hold of himself as he slowly pressed his head forwards and placed his forehead against the glass with his hand still pasted along the window separating the two lovers.

"You're going to be fine, Juniper. I love you more than life itself."

When he spoke these words, Juniper smiled sweetly and genuinely as she too pressed her forehead against the glass and put her hand on the window too so her hand would be pressed on his.

The two lovers exchanged a loving gaze for what felt like the longest time, time seemingly slowing to a complete stop for them as they stayed in their adoring embrace.

Athena and Phoenix couldn't help but watch, their spirits lifted by Apollo's declaration and calming words. Clearly Apollo had found a way to get a hold of his emotions and found a way to remedy Juniper's hurt just like he did at Solomon Starbuck's trial long ago.

The two lawyers smirked at each other before Athena stepped forwards and spoke up with a confident smile.

"Don't worry, Junie, we will make that dream a reality! We won't rest until you and Apollo are back in that church!" She exclaimed, beaming with confidence.

Phoenix picked up, supported by this wave of determination that was now flowing through the whole cell "Yeah! We'll defend you in court and we'll find out the truth, we swear!"

Junie finally broke away from Apollo's embrace and giggled, smiling tearfully as she wiped some stray tears away with her sleeves. She was clearly feeling better and much more happier then she was mere minutes ago and she looked at the trio with an apologetic shimmer flashing inside her eyes.

"I...I'm still sorry about this..." She sighed.

Athena chuckled, flashing her friend a peace sign as well as a confident grin "Don't be! the maid of honour and the first selected groomsman, Phoenix Wright, are on the case!"

Juniper smiled. She was at least a bit more at ease with the comfort of knowing that she couldn't be in safer hands when it came to defence. While she was still confused as to why somebody had killed her grandmother and to a few more queries that played in her mind, she was much more relaxed.

She found herself gratefully bowing at Phoenix, Athena and Apollo as she was slowly being escorted away by a nearby guard who came forwards to lead the bride away for further questioning.

"Thanks for looking out for me, guys, I'll see you later..." She waved goodbye to them, leaving the trio alone in the hallway.

Phoenix smiled cheerfully, revitalised by the whole thing. Athena and Apollo stood in front of him attentively, standing as if ready for any command he could issue to them. They each gave army salutes as they were ready for any kind of command.

Smiling even wider, the spiky-haired ace attorney watched as Athena asked "Alright, boss, what do we do now?"

Phoenix replied confidently "Why don't we go and put our evidence in order in the court record back at the agency, then we can see what we can do for tomorrow."

Athena nodded, Apollo did too. That sounded like a good plan if they ever heard one! Now they could get ready to try and make that dream for that dream wedding a reality and they vowed to never stop until their dream was achieved...or at least the dream of Apollo and Junie.

That wedding was going to happen, Phoenix promised.


A/N: Next chapter of Turnabout Matrimony!

Wow, I am impressed with myself. But I hate that I had to do it whilst I had a tummy ache..again. I'm proud of how it turned out, regardless, and now we get to start with the proper trial.

Let's see where this goes, shall we?

Please review.

-Chloemcg