Happy Fourth of July again everyone! Here's chapter 24! Not a very fun chapter, but…

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Ace Attorney series characters!

Chapter 24 – Turnabout Explosion

"Hello. Sterling residence!"

This doesn't sound like her.

"Ahem. Yes. I'm calling to speak with Ms. Sterling?"

"Is this the pizza boy who delivered pizza to me yesterday and said he'd call so I could get his number?" The voice asked flirtatiously. "Because I'm not Ms. Sterling."

What?! This definitely cannot be Ms. Sterling! Hm...Then this must be... He wasn't expecting that.

"Miss Reece. This is Miles Edgeworth."

"Oh." She didn't bother to hide her disappointment. "Rena's at her office. Bye."

Hmph. That was rather abrupt. No matter. I better get to the ER then.

He very soon found himself standing in front of the door to her office. He knocked on it, and heard from within, "Who is it?"

"Miles Edgeworth."

"Oh…come in."

He turned the knob and stopped mid-step. The office looked like a disaster-zone. There were papers strewn all over the place. An empty pizza box was sitting on one of the chairs. On the desk, there were even more papers, and a whole bunch of blue clipboards on it. In the middle of it, sitting at her desk, hunched over a manila file, was one very disheveled-looking Serena. "Is…now a bad time, Ms. Sterling?"

"No, no. It's…fine. Please. Have a seat," she said tiredly. "How can I help you, Mr. Edge-"

The phone rang. Heaving a loud sigh, shutting her eyes, she grabbed a pencil with her right hand, and brought the phone to her ear. "Dr. Sterling. How can I help you?...Hey Tina…" She frowned. "What's wrong?...Yeah?...What about him?" Her eyes darkened, and her face became progressively redder. "You're. Kidding."

SNAP!

His eyes widened as he saw the pencil she held in her hand now in two pieces on her desk.

"Tina," she began, teeth gritted. "I want you to tell him to come down to the office, immediately. And get the patient's contact info. I'll take care of them myself later." She slammed the phone on the receiver.

She took a small breath in, clasping her hands together. "Excuse me, Mr. Edgeworth," She began in a tight voice. "I'm afraid I'm going to have to interrupt this meeting before it's even started to have a very serious and totally unnecessary conversation with one of my coworkers."

She stood up and left the office without hearing his reply, not shutting the door behind her.

"Serena, darling! I'm so glad to see you!" The suave, brown haired doctor approached her, a large smile on his face.

She stood outside the office, arms crossed, hiding her clenched fists, her foot tapping impatiently. "I wish I could say the same, Dr. Emilio. Would you care to explain to me what just transpired down the hall?" She cut right to the chase.

"Oh, a patient got upset because they had to wait for a long time and threatened to leave." He shrugged. "Nothing major. You don't need to worry about sweetie."

"First of all, please don't call me sweetie. I much prefer you to call me Serena. And I do have to worry, because that is not what happened."

"But Serena-"

"No. You are going to stop talking and start listening," she said firmly. "I've already gotten numerous complaints from many colleagues about your lack of respect for them, and you and I have spoken about that way too many times. That in and of itself is bad enough, but…" She paused, shaking her head in disbelief. "To say such rude things in front of a patient, that is absolutely unacceptable. If there is one thing I do not tolerate, it's disrespect. You need to understand that we're here for our patients, not the other way around. Even if they don't treat us with respect, it's our responsibility to give them respect."

He was silent through her lecture. "I'm sorry. I really am."

She sighed. "You always say that for everything. It's hard to take you seriously, you know."

"But you know me, don't you? You know I mean it."

"Quite frankly, I don't think you do; otherwise, you wouldn't repeat this behavior."

Now he sighed heavily. "Let me guess. That chatterbox Tina told you about this, didn't she? That girl needs to shut her mouth."

Serena hadn't expected that to come out of him. "Excuse me? I told her to report anything like that to me. She's just doing her job! And that is no way to talk about your coworker."

"But she reported me! I'm her boss!"

"So am I. We're both directors, in case you forgot," she added, bitterness clear in her voice.

"Of course I know that, but still. Hey! You want to go on another date?"

Serena gasped. "Wh-where did that come from?!" She was almost rendered speechless. "Do you realize that I called you here to discuss your behavior?! This is a serious matter!"

"But now we're done discussing it, right? I've learned my lesson!"

"Dr. Emilio. You insulted a patient! How can you not see that that's a horrible to do?!"

He shrugged. "Serena, if you saw that patient, you'd agree with me."

Her eyes flashed. "What did you just say?" I dare you to say that again. He repeated himself. "Did that lecture I gave you not go through to your brain?!"

"Serena dear. You're making this a bigger deal than it needs to be. Just chill out." He reached out to grab her, only for her to step away.

"Chill out? You want me to chill out?! Dr. Emilio. I have had it up to here with all of this nonsense of yours. It is a big deal, okay?! This isn't the only thing you've done! You've been prescribing drugs unnecessarily, you've been slacking off on dictations, which I have to end up doing myself, just to name a few things. You're not even looking after the patients properly! We've had too many people come back in with worse symptoms, patients you looked after! All you seem to do is play music over the speakers and dance around all over the place!"

"But it's fun," he whined.

"You know what? I've tried my hardest to stay professional about this whole thing, but you've pushed me past the limit In case you weren't aware, this is not a theater with the first five letters gone! This is an ER, as in emergency room, where people come in to get seen and treated by doctors and nurses, not to listen to trashy, inappropriate music and be ignored!" She stated heatedly.

"It isn't hurting anyone," he argued.

Serena couldn't believe the guy. Seriously?! Why did they make him co-director?! Her voice was raised now. "That's not the point. It's bad enough that the music that's playing is downright vulgar, but to neglect your patients and fool around like you do? Honestly, I don't even know how you became a doctor!"

"You don't mean that, do you?"

"In all seriousness, I do!"

"Serena dear. You take your job too seriously. Some of these patients…" He shook his head. "We shouldn't be wasting our time on them. Always with the complaints and everything. I think some of them deserve to suffer. But I guess they're good sources of money for us."

Edgeworth couldn't help but stand in the doorway and watch the one-sided argument.

She let out a bitter laugh. "Of course. I knew you were one of the ones who're in it for the money the moment I saw you." She glared at him. Her patience had been wearing thin, but now, it was gone. "Dr. Emilio. Please get out." She wasn't going to have him in her ER any longer.

"Excuse me?!" He looked at her incredulously.

"I said get out. Please." He shook his head. "I'll ask nicely one more time. Please. Get. Out."

"Come on, Serena dear. Let's talk this out. Maybe over dinner?" He asked suggestively.

"Dr. Emilio. I do not like you, understand?" She spoke very slowly. "I never liked you, in a romantic sense, and now, I just plain and simple do not like you. I'll be very blunt and say you are the last guy I would ever date or even consider as a friend. I've seen the way you flirt with the girls, and they all seem to fawn over you. I don't do that, nor do I like that either. And you seem to think everything's a joke in life. I am not like that. I take many things very seriously, and my work is my number one priority. I take it extremely seriously. I've tried to feign ignorance about your...feelings for me. Yes, that's right. I was never oblivious to how you felt about me. I'm not that dumb; however, I was able to let it go. But I can't ignore everything else you've done, and that you're not doing your job. Now, you need to vacate the premise immediately."

"Or what? You'll attack me?" He smirked, his eyes twinkling as he reached out to take hold of her hand.

She swiped her hand away. Grasping his wrist, she dragged him to the back door, opened it, and ushered him out. "GET OUT AND STAY OUT!" She roared, slamming and locking said door shut.

Edgeworth sat back down in the chair. He had never, ever expected to see her get so upset. She seemed to usually have a calm demeanor, save for that time when her office was the crime scene, and she argued incessantly with him about the police investigation. It was almost frightening. Almost.

After a minute, she came back in and sat down at her desk, her face still red but looking much more relaxed. "Now, what was it we were saying, Mr. Edgeworth?"

"Er…Ms. Sterling. If now's not a good time, I wouldn't mind-"

"No, Mr. Edgeworth. I'm not going to let that fool be the reason for us not discussing an important matter now," she said resolutely. She sighed gently. "I personally wouldn't like to put this off." Her eyes landed on the manila folder she was reading when he came in. "I've…been increasingly busy."

Before she could further comment, the phone rang again. She shot a glare at it. "Hello?" She said forcefully. "Yes, this is she…Yes?" Her angry face soon became one of apprehension and one of major disappointment. "Yes…yes, I understand that, but he…if you'd hear me out…" She wasn't allowed to finish her sentence as someone yelled through the phone. She sighed defeatedly. "Yes…I'm sorry. Of course. I apologize for my lack of professionalism…I'll make sure to consider the consequences of my actions before I set them in motion. Goodbye."

He just stared at her. It was a very bad idea coming in here now.

"Eight years of working here, and I've never gotten written up before…" She muttered under her breath once she hung up.

Well, she surely isn't bitter about it, is she?

"Anyway, ignoring all of that, you were here for…?"

"To discuss whatever happened with that autopsy report issue. You said you would handle it?"

"Right. That." She pressed her lips into a thin line.

The way she said that…I don't have a good feeling about this.

"I…brought it to the attention of our board."

"Your…board?"

She nodded. "Our board of physicians. He was a part of it, the doctor who did the autopsy. They handle a whole bunch of affairs, complaints about doctors being one of them." She once more crossed her arms, an aggravated look crossing her features. "I told them about the autopsy report, and they…well…"

"They what, Ms. Sterling?"

"They said I was being stupid," she replied tersely.

"Well, did you show them the autopsy report you had written up?"

She almost glared at him before looking away. "Of course I did. And they…they said they'd handle it."

"So have they?"

"They're evaluating his performance, and so far, he hasn't done anything wrong. It was just a mistake, they claim."

Somehow, I'm not convinced, and it would seem that she isn't either.

"Very well. That was all." He stood up. "Good day, Ms. Sterling."

"You too, Mr. Edgeworth."

As he was leaving the ER, Tina stopped him by the nurse's station. "Hey. Is she okay? Dr. Sterling, I mean?"

"I suppose that depends on your definition of okay."

"Okay meaning that she didn't completely blow up on Dr. Emilio."

"Then no. She is far from okay."

"What happened?" Edgeworth gave a concise explanation of what happened. "Dr. Sterling's been pretty stressed out lately, and she's been insanely busy. If she's not here on the floor treating people, then she's in her office."

"You say that as if it's unusual for her."

"Because it is. She's…been acting strange for a little while now. She reminds me of a student working on some kind of research project, and the deadline is like, tomorrow. Dr. Emilio hasn't been helping out either. It was a matter of time before she blew up."

"Hm…well, I'm sure there's a logical explanation to her acting…weird."

"Well duh. Obviously."

Edgeworth straightened himself, clearing his throat authoritatively. "I must get going now."

The Chief Prosecutor was in his office the next day, working on some paperwork. It'd been two days since Trucy and Apollo had gone missing, and so far no one had found them.

"Mr. Edgeworth, sir!" Detective Gumshoe entered the office.

"Detective Gumshoe. Do you have any new leads about their disappearance?"

Gumshoe shook his head. "'Fraid not, sir, but I have the boys working hard. I got those files you wanted me to get for you, though." He placed them on the desk.

"Thank you, Detective. Anything else?"

"No sir." Gumshoe turned to leave, only to face the Chief Prosecutor. "Actually, I just remembered. Did Dr. Sterling come see you?"

"No, she didn't."

"That's odd. She came over to the precinct this morning. Said she had something she really needed to tell you about. It seemed urgent."

"Is that so? Well, I'm sure she just got caught up at work."

"Yeah, you're right sir. Alright then, pal. See you later!" Gumshoe was walking out the door when Phoenix ran in, nearly trampling over Gumshoe.

"Sorry Detective!" He huffed and skidded to a stop in front of Edgeworth's desk.

"Wright. Please don't skid like that. You'll ruin the floor!"

"Sorry! But I've got something I need to show you! It's an emergency!"

Edgeworth had never seen the defense attorney in such a state. His clothes were windswept, his hands were shaking rather violently, his skin very white, and blue eyes huge and…tearing up? "Wright. What's wrong?"

He noticed that there was a red envelope in the man's hand. "This!"

Edgeworth accepted it and opened it. He saw a handwritten note. "Trucy and Apollo will be next!" His own eyes widened. "Wright. What does this mean? Trucy and Apollo were already kidnapped, weren't they?"

"There's...more in the envelope, Edgeworth." The Chief Prosecutor opened it once more and saw something flutter out. It was a photo, face-down. He flipped on the right side, and he nearly gasped aloud. He pulled off his glasses, stunned. He stared up at Phoenix before reluctantly returning his gaze to the photo he held. In it, sprawled on the ground, their front completely soaked in red was…

This chapter is written terribly, I know. I might go back and edit it a little later. I wanted to speed things up, and of course, add some suspense too! Please feel free to leave a review and/or private message me!