When Maya awoke her head was lying against a soft goose feather pillow, not a comfortable leather car seat. The last thing she had known was waiting in Edgeworth's car to be taken to the police station, where she had been planning on begging lodgings for the night. Maybe there was a gap in her memory, because she was definitely tucked up in bed somewhere and she was nice and safe. Morning light was streaming in from a crack in the curtains, pale and reminiscent of early dawn. Another new day.

The sheets and blankets covering her body smelled like they had been washed in mild lavender. It was pleasant and sort of made her want to drift off to sleep again, but instead Maya sat up and began to rub the sleep out of her eyes. As she raised her hand she realised that she wasn't wearing her spirit medium outfit anymore, but a warm and comparatively big pair of pink flannel pajamas. Her original clothes were folded over the head of a nearby chair, washed, pressed and looking as good as new.

The room Maya had woken up in was beautifully furnished and clean. From the apparent gap in her memory she guessed that the police must have put her up in a fancy hotel room somewhere, but for what reason she could not recall. Why had she been travelling to the police station anyway, especially without Nick at her side? She had no reason to go there if it wasn't to investigate a case. On a normal day she'd wake up on an inflatable mattress in Nick's living room. What had changed?

Then she saw the folded theater program sticking out of the sleeve of her outfit and it all came rushing back. The theater, the play, going backstage to wish her friend good luck and then watching the show, through to the stabbing and beyond. She remembered seeing Phoenix impale that nice old man on the end on his sword and then all the blood, a puddle that seemed to go on forever. That was right, Nick had killed somebody last night and he had been taken away. No wonder she was here all alone.

Edgeworth had promised to take her to the police station but she must have fallen asleep in his car before he could keep that word. It felt so strange to wake up all alone and not have Nick gently shaking her awake, telling her to get up before he'd roll her up in her own portable bedding. Before that it had been her sister, saying that if she didn't visit the waking world soon she'd completely miss breakfast. Maybe Maya had taken for granted the comfort of another person's presence, but it was too late now.

Nick had become a murderer right in front of her eyes. She had seen it all happen. Now that those memories had come back to her she couldn't get rid of them, especially the way Polonius had looked when he fell out of the curtains and Phoenix's tearful expression as he was escorted into the police car. It didn't feel right, it didn't seem real. Maya would have gladly accepted it as a nightmare were it possible, but the program sticking out of her sleeve and the nice room she was in spoke otherwise.

Maya felt like she wanted to cry, but if she started now she wouldn't be able to stop. Instead she choked down the wave of threatening tears and slipped out of bed. Her bare toes curled over the unfamiliar carpeting. She walked up to the window and opened the curtains properly, letting in all of the warming sunshine and a very nice view of the city's uptown district. Maya could see a well-tended garden and a cleanly cropped lawn. This place didn't seem like a hotel at all, but if she wasn't in a hotel then where was she?

A trio of ducks were waddling across the lawn towards a little pond on the other side of the garden. Maya broke away from the window and headed to the door, letting herself out into the corridor. She had to find out where she was and from there find some way to see Nick again. She was so worried for him, the poor guy must have spent the entire night in a prison cell, when he wasn't being thoroughly questioned by interrogators, that was. Maya felt that he wouldn't be able to cope without her, despite the fact that he was a fully grown man and had lived life fine without an assistant beforehand.

That wasn't the point. The point was that Maya needed to check up on him for her own benefit just as much as his. She needed to confirm the facts on what had really happened last night. Hearing it from Nick's mouth would be the most accurate retelling possible. Maya wandered through the strange building she was in while trying to find her way. As excessively large and as beautiful as it was it felt and seemed awfully empty. It was the kind of emptiness which confessed that children had never run down these hallways, that nobody had ever laughed heartily in the branching rooms, and that it only existed at all because that was what to be expected of the owner of the house.

So it made eerie yet perfect sense to Maya to see Miles Edgeworth coming out of the kitchen and heading into the sitting room, a cup of steaming tea in one hand and the morning's paper in the other. It couldn't have been any later than seven in the morning and he was already groomed and dressed, save for lacking his usual magenta coat. The girl held onto one of the corridor walls as the prosecutor noticed her standing there, looking up from the headlines carefully.

He didn't make any move to start the conversation. This made Maya feel very uncomfortable. "Um…" She began to say, stalling to find the correct words. Whether she liked it or not it was going to be a volley of direct questions. "Where am I? What am I doing here? What happened? Where did Nick go? Can I see him?" She was aware that all these questions made her seem juvenile but there wasn't anything else she could do to get the facts straight.

Edgeworth wasn't annoyed by the bombardment of questions. As a prosecutor he was asked and fired off questions all day long, so it was nothing new. Miles just made a quick tilt of his head toward the sitting room and went inside, meaning that Maya should follow him. The sitting room had a rather impressive window that was almost a ground floor balcony, giving visitors something nice to look out. Maya settled down in a chair close to where Miles had chosen to sit, the young man putting his tea and paper down on the coffee table.

When he leaned forward to do just that Maya could see very faint shadows beneath his eyes. No wonder he was ready so early, he probably hadn't even slept yet. "You are in my home. I didn't want to bring you here but last night there didn't seem to be much of a choice. The arrangements I made are better than any the police department would have made, I assure you. Now that you're up you can go at any time."

It seemed that Edgeworth was eager to get rid of her. Now that his gentlemanly obligation had been fulfilled there was no reason for Maya to hang around. She still felt grateful to the young prosecutor though. He had had every option to leave her out in the cold, but he hadn't. "Thank you for taking care of me, Mr. Edgeworth. It was very kind of you. You're not as cold-blooded outside of court as you are when you're in the middle of one." She said with a little sit-down bow.

He guessed that was supposed to be a compliment, maybe. "It was nothing." He replied defensively, yet softly. Edgeworth picked up the morning paper and shook it a bit to get the folded crease out. As of yet there was nothing in the papers about Polonius' murder, but it was bound to be slathered all over the news channels. That was why Edgeworth was hollowly enjoying the paper rather than the news; he didn't want to hear about it. He had spent a good portion of the night thinking about it. That was enough.

Maya's thoughts turned to her clothing. These pajamas she was wearing certainly weren't hers, they were easily about three sizes too big. She liked the colour purple better too, rather than pink. "Whose clothes are these?" She asked innocently, trying to steer the conversation toward what had happened in the night, after she had fallen asleep. Another thought entered her mind and made her frown, instantly suspicious. "And… who put them on me? I don't remember getting changed."

"Your clothes were damp when I carried you inside. You would have caught your death of cold if you had not been changed into something drier. Those are a pair of my spare pajamas. I didn't have anything smaller for you on hand." Edgeworth explained as he turned a page of his newspaper.

There was an unnecessarily heavy silence. After a moment of feeling it bearing down on him he looked over at Maya who was turning red from embarrassment and fury. It was mostly fury. The young prosecutor immediately put the pieces together. "Oh no, I didn't dress you if that's what you were thinking. I had the maid do that for me instead."

Part of the redness in Maya's face disappeared. "Really?" She asked, because if Edgeworth was lying and saw anything she would have to kill him in such a way that his spirit would never be able to come back and haunt the living world.

"Of course. He didn't mind." The comment was offhand, and really, it was a joke, but Maya didn't get it in time to find it very funny. Edgeworth should really have stuck to being cold, but with Maya's best friend locked up in a cell somewhere she needed distraction.

"Mr. Edgeworth!" Maya scolded but she knew he didn't mean it. The young girl stood up from her seat and made a very loud announcement. "I'm gonna get dressed, grab some breakfast then you and I are going to drive down to the detention center and see Nick. He must be going crazy with worry for me! I have to tell him I'm okay. And…" She appeared thoughtful for a moment. "We need him to tell us exactly what happened and arrange him some legal counsel or something. Let's take your bright red car, Mr. Edgeworth."

He put the morning paper down in a hurry. "Wait a second! You are not going to get me involved with this. It has nothing to do with me. Wright caused this mess by himself and I helped you out of courtesy. Only courtesy! Go and see him if you'd like, but I'm not taking you anywhere. I'm a busy man, I don't have the time to be running all over the city like you and Wright seem to mindlessly enjoy." He said heatedly. It felt like he was going to be pulled into something and he needed to resist that tide at all costs.

"That's not true!" Maya fought back with equal force. "You are involved in this. You witnessed the murder just like I did and you're Nick's friend, though I don't know why he even bothers to try with you sometimes. When stuff like this happens you need your friends surrounding you most of all. When you were locked up in that detention center and running out of hope who came and helped to save you? Phoenix Wright, that's who! You're not going to do the same for him?"

"You're wrong." Edgeworth argued, but this was not a courtroom and he did not have the evidence to refute Maya's testimony. His objection was weak at best. He sighed. "I never had hope."

"But I think you can agree with me that Nick isn't anything like you. I bet he's hoping like crazy that the guards will yank him out of his cell and take him to the visitor's center, because you or me or Gumshoe or Larry will be waiting there." Maya calmed down a little. "C'mon Mr. Edgeworth. You can fit one hour into your busy schedule, can't you? I can wait, or else I'll just walk there myself. It's only a couple of miles, right?"

Actually it was more like ten miles because the detention center was located downtown. As infuriating as it was this girl did have a point. He owed it to the idiotic defense attorney to at least see him before he was to be permanently locked away. There wouldn't be much hope for his case, not with an auditorium full of witnesses able to testify about what they saw. Edgeworth had a very simple reason why he didn't want to see Phoenix mournfully behind bars. He would not mention it to Maya, but there was a very good chance that the prosecutor's office might commission him to prosecute this very case.

And if that were to happen Miles couldn't be allies to any of them. He'd have to try his very hardest to give Phoenix a life sentence, or better yet, a lethal injection.

No wonder Edgeworth had been unable to sleep.

He thought Maya's words over and then sighed again. It couldn't be helped. There were great odds heaped against him about escaping from this case. He might as well stop resisting and just go along with it. It was fortunate that he was caught between cases and he had the time to spare, but working under that same logic it meant that his chances of being handed Phoenix's case were greatly heightened. "Very well. You win, Miss Fey. I'll take you down to the detention center once visiting hours have begun, but right after that I am going to work. I'll wash my hands of you after you see Wright."

The girl grinned and looked like she was about to jump up and down with joy. "Thanks! You can call me Maya from now on. I hate being called 'Miss', it's far too formal. I'd better go get ready now, I'll be back soon!" Immediately after talking she dashed from the room. Miles watched her go with disbelief over her energetic disposition, then smiled a little as he reached for his tea.

"Take your time, Miss Fey." He muttered to the girl who was no longer there. "We won't be leaving for another two hours, at least."

xxx

For Maya Fey, killing two hours was incredibly difficult. All she wanted to do was run downtown and see her friend, she ever considered ditching Edgeworth and doing just that, but all that convincing and beating her will into Miles' skull would have all been for nothing. The spirit medium got changed into her fresh clean clothes and then made the bed, tucking the borrowed pair of pajamas under the pillow. The maid would have done this for her easily but she hadn't come in to work yet, as it was too early and Edgeworth had requested her to come back to work late last night.

Doing pointless tasks killed time too, but there was nothing pointless about finding herself some early morning grub. Maya broke into the kitchen and cooked herself an omelet with ingredients she found in the fridge. It was pretty good stuff, although slightly burnt in some places. Edgeworth came in at some point while she was cooking to feed his dog Pesu, who was bouncing about his heels like a little puppy. It was strange, as he didn't seem like the kind of person who would own a pet, let alone a huge ball of yapping fluff. He told Maya to clean up the huge mess she was making after she was done and then left again.

She finished up her business at the stove and took her omelet to the table, but could sense Pesu's bright eyes resting on her back. Maya smiled at the doggy but when he began to beg for table scraps, not satisfied with the meal in his dish, one third of Maya's breakfast disappeared in little pieces down Pesu's throat. What do you know, she had finally found somebody who didn't criticize her cooking! Nick had always had a sarcastic comment ready no matter what she made. He mostly kept his comments to himself, but still, she knew.

Maya knelt down to about Pesu's height and took his little head with her hands, making the dog look at her face. His fluffy tail was wagging furiously, he didn't usually get to meet guests. "What do you think, doggy? Do you think there's any hope? Are we all wrong and Nick is innocent, or are we right and he's just as guilty as the next murderer? How can we be friends with a murderer? That's not right… right?" She closed her eyes. "I don't know what to think."

Pesu answered by licking her face. Maya couldn't help but giggle and try to push the dog away, but Pesu was steadfast and licked the girl's tears away. She hugged the big shiba inu and took him with her outside for awhile, wandering the grounds that were Edgeworth's backyard. She didn't have a leash to put the dog on but he seemed to follow her about anyway, save for a small detour to harass the ducks at the pond. Edgeworth certainly had a nice place, he must have inherited it from his parents after they had both passed away.

Her path didn't have much of a direction, it felt like she was moving about in a dream. It was really calm in the garden, like everything that had happened the night before couldn't penetrate this small, closed-in world. It was nice, but it wasn't natural. If things were normal she wouldn't be here, she'd be downtown in the apartment and watching morning cartoons on TV. That was wholesome and okay; this was not. Maya sniffed periodically to keep herself from crying again.

Eventually, as the fresh sun rose a little higher into the sky and the dew was beginning to evaporate from the grass Maya heard a shrill whistle coming from behind her. Pesu's ears perked up immediately and the dog whirled around as quick as a flash, a pretty amusing trick seeing as he had been on his back and wiggling around at the time. The sound was coming from Edgeworth who was standing on the driveway, beside his car and holding a small black briefcase. He looked about ready to get right into work.

The dog took off like a bullet toward his owner. Maya followed at a pretty encouraging pace too. Edgeworth knelt a bit and restrained the dog before he could jump up and attempt to knock him down. He patted him briefly, said; "I will be back soon, Pesu.", then stood and gave the dog a push in the direction of the house. Pesu got the hint and went off happily, probably thinking about ambushing the ducks again. The prosecutor unlocked the car and opened the back door for Maya to get inside.

"I can't wait to see Nick again." Maya confessed as she hopped inside and belted herself in. Edgeworth got in the driver's seat and adjusted the mirror a little, laying his briefcase on the seat beside him. "I bet he'll be so happy to see us! Um, will your dog be okay outside all by himself? What if he gets lost?"

"He will be fine. He gets lonelier inside than out." Edgeworth said absently as he put the key in the ignition and started up the car. As they left the driveway and the gate opened then closed automatically the prosecutor hesitated in what he was going to say next, but decided to speak anyway. Maya's blithering optimism was annoying. "You should be aware of something, Miss Fey."

Maya was trying to be on her best behavior, as she was calling in a lot of favors lately. "What's that?" She asked.

"The circumstances of Wright's arrest are much more serious than you and he would be accustomed to. Previously he has only been arrested on suspicion of murder, and that suspicion was a baseless assumption anyway." He was trying to keep his words simple for Maya's benefit, speaking softly. "This time there is no reason to doubt his guilt. The police force must not be treating him with the best of care right now. Just be prepared to keep your composure the next time you see him."

Every report on police brutality she had ever read in the papers or seen on TV came back to bite her with a vengeance. She shivered. Edgeworth was right, for what he had done Nick wouldn't be making many new friends, with either the police force or the other prisoners. She hoped he was okay. Gumshoe would be taking care of him, right?

"We'll see." Maya said grumpily, folding her arms in a way that only angry teenagers could manage.

The first cop she saw today was going to get a thorough shin-kicking, no doubt about that.