All of the Ace Attorney characters belong to Capcom, not me. I only own Rebecca and a few others

Chapter 8

A/N: Court time, whoop whoop! It's finally time that I start to incorporate the actual events of the first game into this story. Hope I don't screw any of it up...

I strolled through the huge doors into the courthouse with my trusty white and green notebook tucked under my arm, confident that Phoenix's trial today would go well, that he would win.

I had spent the whole morning psyching myself up for this, preparing myself and washing away any remaining doubts that I had. He was going to pull through, I know he was; I believed in his abilities and knew that he would do well up there. After all, if he was struggling at any point, I was going to be there at his side to assist him if necessary. With the two of us handling this case together, nothing was going to go wrong, right? Our combined skills would overcome any obstacles in our way during this trial, I was certain of it.

(Ok, let's do this thing!)

After locating the correct defendant lobby within the long, echoing courthouse halls, I drew in a deep breath and shoved open the heavy, wooden door. As it slowly creaked open, the faces concealed inside were gradually revealed. Mia had already arrived and was having a discussion with one of the bailiffs just outside the doors to the courtroom. A man sporting a vibrant orange jacket, wild blonde spiky hair and a matching goatee, who I presumed to be our client, was slumped solemnly on one of the chairs with tears prickling his eyes. Phoenix was nowhere to be seen.

(Hm, odd. I would have thought that he would be here by now.)

Upon picking up the sound of my heels clacking on the tiled floor, Mia glanced up from her conversation and beamed a smile at me, which I quickly returned.

"Hi Chief!" I folded my arms and frowned in confusion. I decided to get straight to the point. "Um, wh-where's Phoenix?"

Politely excusing herself from the conversation with the bailiff, she focused all of her attention on me and sighed in frustration, crossing her arms across her chest. "I have no clue. He said that he'd be here 10 minutes ago. I'm starting to get a bit worried."

"Did you try ringing his mobile?" I suggested.

"Yes, twice. But both just went straight to his voicemail. What if he's forgotten about today? What if he just went to the office like usual?"

I could sense the panic in her voice. "Hey, don't worry." I placed my hand on hers in a reassuring manner. "He won't have forgotten, how could he? A first trial isn't something that you just forget, you know. He's probably just missed his bus or something, that's all."

My words seemed to have some effect on her as her smile widened slightly.

"Y-Yeah, you're right Becs. I'm worrying over nothing."

I beamed a grin of success right back at her. "Ok, good. Now, let's just wait here for him, I'm sure he won't be long."

After that, we both perched ourselves on one of the sofas in the lobby and descended into general chatter for a while, like we often did at the office.

I also ventured over to the client and introduced myself to him. Through his tears and sobs, he managed to tell me that his name was Larry and that the victim was his girlfriend. Frankly, it shocked me that a grown man like him was in such as state, especially when he grabbed my forearm and practically begged me to save him from getting a guilty verdict.

"U-Um Larry, wh-what are you doing?" Was all I could say as I shot a worried glance in the Chief's direction mouthing "Help me" and trying to slowly wriggle my wrist out of his grip.

All Mia could do was laugh at me. I stuck my tongue out in her direction and quickly turned back to Larry, eventually managing to soothe him a little and free my trapped hand from his iron grip. Thankfully, I seemed to take Mia's mind off of Phoenix and she had calmed herself down in no time.

A further ten minutes passed before the doors to the hallway finally burst open for a second time. Phoenix dashed through them, red faced and panting heavily. He stood in front of me and the Chief, one hand supporting his back, the other clutching a briefcase so tightly that his knuckles had begun to turn white. Me and Mia jumped up from our seat in surprise.

"H...Hi guys. S-Sorry I'm...late." He stuttered, gasping for air.

"N-Nick? NICK!"

(Nick? What the-)

The client sprung up from his seat upon seeing his friend and flung his arms around him, suddenly wailing with streams of tears cascading from his eyes. Phoenix, understandably taken aback by this, gasped in surprise and pain as he was winded even more than he already was.

"H-Hey. Hey there, Larry." He croaked in an oxygen-deprived voice while peeling his friend's arms from around his shoulders.

Once Phoenix had Larry calmed down and sat back on his chair, Mia raced to his side at a surprising speed, her face portraying a mixture of anger and relief. It was strange to see such varied emotions from her, rather than her usual cool and calm demeanour.

"Phoenix! Why on earth are you so late? The trial is due to start in 2 minutes!" She snapped in our colleague's face, causing him to flinch from the volume and menacing tone of her voice.

Also alarmed by her outburst, I placed my hand gently on her shoulder in an attempt to both calm her down again and save Phoenix's nerves from rising to the surface. He was probably worried enough already.

Sensing the contact, Mia's frame relaxed significantly as she sighed and pulled Phoenix into a quick, reassuring hug.

"I'm just relieved that you're finally here."

As the Chief embraced him, Phoenix glanced up at me over her shoulder with a smile on his face. When Mia released him from her grip, he made his way over to where I was stood in front of the sofa.

I clasped my hands behind my back before shooting him a questioning look. "So, are you ready for this?"

He sighed audibly in response and scratched the back of his head. "As ready as I'll ever be, I guess."

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the Chief continuing her conversation with the bailiff from earlier. Her face looked concerned tinged with slight anger and disappointment.

(Hmm, I wonder what could be wrong)

However, I blocked it out of my mind for the moment and continued my own conversation with Phoenix. After another minute, Mia trudged back over to us with a disgruntled sigh. I gave her an inquiring look, silently asking what was wrong.

"It turns out that.." She let out another short sigh. "..you can't go into court with Phoenix, Becs. I have to go as the senior lawyer and owner of our office. I'm so sorry, I know you were really looking forward to this but there's nothing I can do. I tried everything."

I couldn't really believe what I was hearing. All of that preparation, those weeks of work gone into planning our strategy and 'Plan of Action', wasted. Gone. All for nothing. My mouth hung open slightly in shocked silence.

(Th-That's shocking! Why would they do this to us, it's not fair. Why?!)

My face began to scrunch up in anger and before I knew what I was doing, I stormed over to the bailiff, scaring the crap out of him with the threatening look on my face, and grabbed his shoulders forcefully.

"Listen pal, I'm meant to be going into that courtroom today. I've prepared for it for weeks with my colleague over there." I gestured to Phoenix behind me. "And now I'm suddenly told that I'm not going to be the one going in because I'm not the boss of our law firm?! What the hell kind of rule is that?! Is there any other way that an exception could be made? Please?" As I was becoming ore desperate, the guy in front of me was becoming more flustered.

"I-I'm sorry miss, th-the regulations s-state that you m-must either be the head of the law firm or have four years of experience. How long have y-you been practising m-miss?"

I sighed deeply, realising that I met neither of the criteria. "Two."

"Th-then there is nothing I can do for you. M-my apologies."

I stared at him for a second, his words slowly sinking in. I finally released my tight grip on his shoulders and backed away to where Mia and Phoenix were stood by the sofa.

"So, how did it go Becs?" Phoenix inquired beside me.

I couldn't answer him.

I crumpled onto the sofa and threw my head into my hands, defeated. I stared at the floor and sighed audibly, avoiding eye contact with everyone, not wishing to speak at all. I remained this way for a while; it was only when I felt a gentle pat on my shoulder and noticed a pair of white high heels entering my peripheral vision that I glanced up and tore myself away from my negative thoughts.

My eyes were met with the pretty face of my boss and good friend who was wearing a small smile of concern.

"Hey, we'll see you in there ok?"

I nodded a little, forcing a tiny smile to assure her that I would be okay. Her own smile widened, revealing her pearl white teeth. Her hand moved up to my head and she stroked my brown hair lightly, as a loving older sister would do, before strolling through the open courtroom doors.

I followed her in with my eyes and sighed at the sight of the courtroom. The judge was prepared, already perched on his raised platform, the prosecutor, who I noticed was the weedy Winston Payne, was raring to go and the gallery was filling up rapidly.

I breathed another heavy sigh. I was supposed to be at the defence bench. I should be up there in my rightful place, experiencing the debates, the action, feeling the thrill and determination of fighting to protect another. Instead, I will be a mere spectator, an observer, a member of the audience. Unfortunately, this was one performance that I would not be participating in.

I groaned in disappointment and replaced my head into my hands once more. But I was forced to look up again as I noticed a second pair of shoes pass by me.

(Phoenix...I'm so sorry that I couldn't be up there with you but there is nothing that I can do now..)

I gasped as a thought suddenly entered my head.

(Or is there..!)

"Hey, Phoenix!" I called over to him just before he passed through the courtroom doors. He froze mid-walk and craned his neck over his shoulder to face me.

"W-Wait a second!"

Acting upon the idea that had just popped into my head, I flipped open the cover of my green polka dotted notebook in one swift movement and scribbled down a short list on the first clear page I could locate.

Steps to Courtroom Victory!

1. Listen to the Chief (her word is law, remember)

2. Keep your cool, don't give in to the pressure

3. Point out any lies you can find in the witness's testimony, no matter how small and insignificant they seem. You never know, they could turn the whole case around (trust me, I know)

4. Scream 'Objection!' as loud as you possibly can, don't worry about deafening anyone

5. Make sure you use that awesome dramatic finger point that we perfected back at the office, I may not be next to you at the bench to witness it up close but I still want to see it from the gallery

6. Kick Payne's ass! (do it for me, I'm begging you)

I neatly but quickly tore it out of the book and handed it over to Phoenix. His eyes skimmed over the words, his brow furrowed slightly from concentration. As he reached the bottom of the page, his smile gradually took over his face and, as his eyes skimmed over the final few words, he broke into a laugh, covering his mouth with his hand to quieten it.

I smiled, unable to hide my happiness.

(Good, it looks like I was able to calm him down a bit. Just because I'm not at the bench with him doesn't mean that I'm not going to support him in any way that I can.)

As Phoenix began to gain control of his laughter and rein it in a little, he extended his right hand, the one that wasn't clutching the notebook page, and created a thumbs up sign with it.

"Will do Becs," was all he managed to say before he continued through the huge doors, waving to me as he did so with a grin that stretched from ear to ear on his pale face.

It warmed my heart to see him so happy, especially since it was me who spurred him into that mood. I was now satisfied that I had done all I could now to assist him in the trial; the rest was up to him and the Chief.

As the heavy doors were gradually closed behind them by the two bailiffs, I made my way to the gallery entrance to take my own seat and observe the trial. As I sat down, I whispered a short reassuring thought in my head.

(I may not be by his side as I thought I would be but, he is still in very capable hands. He's going to win, I know he will!)

A/N: Sorry for bad updating timing (again) but schoolwork is piling up on me, big time. Since we came back after Christmas, coursework has been flung at me left, right and centre and I just haven't had the time to work on this. Sorry. I will try my hardest to manage my time better in the future so that I can have a consistent update schedule for you guys.

Gaby :)