I'm back again! I have like four chapters of this story already typed out, so you can expect relatively quick updates. You have semester test season and my abundance of free time to thank for that.
Disclaimer: I only own my own characters.
Chapter 2:
Sunday, 3:00 pm.
In Anna's Vehicle
"How did you get to be so fierce?" Chris asks admiringly as I drive through the streets of LA, occasionally listening to the robotic voice of my GPS.
"Back when I was in law school, we used to have mock trials. I realized that if I didn't want to get ripped to shreds, I had to get tough. I'd always been a sensitive child since my accident, and the first time I participated in a mock trial, I was the defense attorney against the meanest guy in the class, or so I thought. He acted so cold, but got angry so quickly that I was reduced to tears. After the trial, he came up to me and introduced himself. His name was John Grimm, he told me, and he said he was sorry for making me cry, but that I needed to get a thicker skin if I ever wanted to be a real lawyer." The GPS pipes up suddenly, telling me to turn left before saying we'd arrived at our destination. I find a place to park, but instead of climbing out, I turn to Chris. "John and I became friends, when he taught me how to be fierce in the courtroom. We still talk once a week, but he works in a prosecutor's office in New York City. Chris, listen. I took this case to help you, but I have to be fierce against our opponents if we are going to win. Do you accept my condition or will I have to hand you off to a lawyer who's willing to be soft?" She thinks about it for a second before shaking her head and looking me dead in the eye.
"Every time I think about allowing Antonio to go free, I imagine him hiring a new, pretty girl to work in his restaurant, then him trying to do the same thing to her that he tried to do to me, and I can't let that happen. He needs to go to jail. It doesn't matter how long, but it needs to happen. If you have to be fierce, do it." With that, she gets out of the car and stares up at the building with a glare and her arms crossed. I chuckle and quickly get out as well.
"Don't glare so angrily, you might set my new office on fire." She exhales shakily and slowly uncrosses her arms.
"Please…" Chris turns to me and I'm surprised to see tears forming in her eyes. "Please, you can't let that evil man win." She sniffles and I wrap my arms around her tightly.
"He won't. I promise on the graves of my ancestors. Now come on." I pull away from the hug and jut at the door to the building behind me with a thumb. "We'd better go inspect the damage." We head inside the building, an apartment building converted into a bunch of offices, and I use the key I got from my realtor last week to open the door to the office I got from the realtor. Chris flips on the light switch, which also turns on a ceiling fan and kicks a bunch of dust into the air. I start coughing and Chris yanks the chain on the fan that turns it off but leaves the light on before coming over to me and slapping me on the back to help clear my lungs of the dust.
"You alright?" She asks as I straighten up and nod, still wheezing slightly, before looking around. Other than everything currently taking a dust bath, the office is in great shape. The main door leads into a room that I can picture as the reception area with three other doors leading out, one into a bathroom and the other two into offices. I tell Chris my plans for the place and she practically has stars in her eyes as the vision of what this office will someday be enters her mind. But she wilts slowly and I look at her worriedly.
"Chris? Is everything okay?"
"I...Can't pay you for your help. I can't afford it, Anna. If you want to let me go, I understand."
"Hmm…" Humming in thought, I brace my chin in one palm and place the other hand on my hip while pacing a slow circle around the main room. "Well, I already made a promise to not abandon this case… I've got it!" I slam my fist into my palm and turn to Chris with a wide grin. "Do you have any experience being a secretary?"
"Yeah, actually!" Chris looks as excited as I feel. "I used to be one for an oil firm before I worked at Antonio's cafe!"
"Then it's settled." The dust doesn't make me need to cough this time when I inhale deeply and thrust out a hand for Chris to shake. "You'll act as my secretary until the bill for my service is paid off. Does that work for you?"
"Of course." Chris responds and we shake once before I drop my hand and turn back to the office's main office. "But this place definitely needs a thorough cleaning. We'll have to dust everything and move in the furniture you want in here… We'll also have to have it inspected."
"I already have the furniture waiting in the main lobby downstairs since we're the first people to rent an office here. And the inspector visited with me when I first checked this place out." I tick the two things off on my fingers as Chris rummages in a closet and luckily finds a broom and dust cloth. She takes the cloth and tosses the broom to me before going to the bathroom and running some wet water over the cloth and running it over everything we'd ever put our hands on. I begin sweeping and we fall into an easy rhythm, working at least three hours before there's a knock at the door.
I lay down my broom and open the door, quickly trying to shut it when I see that it's Antonio.
"Chris, out the fire escape!" She nods, throwing the dust cloth down and wheeling on her heel and to the window. As soon as she's down, I sigh with relief and let the door go, watching warily as Antonio charges into the room like a crazed bull.
"This is all your fault." He growls, balling his fists and grinning, most likely at the prospect of causing me pain. "Because of you, I'm going to lose business at my bakery and won't be able to pay my bail."
"That doesn't matter to me." I reply calmly, taking my hoodie off and gently tossing my glasses into a corner of the room. "I'll give you one more chance to leave peacefully. Or else." Antonio chuckles smugly and rolls his eyes before straightening and crossing his arms over his chest.
"Okay, you made me laugh. For that, I'll give you one free hit. Are you going to take it?" Smiling, I calmly walk up to him and look him in the eye.
"Gladly." Then I drive my fist into his nose, followed by the stomach, then a knee to his family jewels. He gags, doubling over before falling to the floor and trying to curl into a ball. I slam my heel onto the top of his foot, hearing a few of the tarsals break beneath my sneaker. Then I drag him to the closet and close the door behind me before pulling my phone out and calling the police. Officer Hughes arrives after I call Chris back in and we both have a good laugh at the burly man still curled up in a ball in our closet.
"Who beat him up?" Hughes asks as I pick my glasses up from the corner and brush the dust off of them.
"I did, Officer. He forcibly entered the premises and threatened me with bodily harm, so I attacked in self-defense, which I'm sure you'll find, under the circumstances, is both perfectly legal and cause enough to place him under custody in the detention center."
"Y-yes, of course. Don't worry, ma'ams, I brought somebody completely capable of helping me lug this big idiot out." He pulls his walkie-talkie out and presses the call button. "Hey, Gumshoe, get up here. We've got someone to take to the detention center."
"On my way, boss." Then Hughes clicks the radio off and pulls a pair of handcuffs off of his belt before nudging the groaning Antonio onto his stomach and cuffing his hands together.
A tall man in a green trench coat, unshaven, a band-aid on one cheek, and tousled brown hair opens the door, waving at Chris and I before walking over to Hughes and Antonio and easily lifting the latter to his feet, holding him there.
"Good job beating him up, Detective Hughes, sir." He grins until Hughes shakes his head and points at me.
"It wasn't me, Gumshoe. It was Attorney Anna Ramone there." He looks surprised, which I find a little insulting, so I cross my arms over my chest and arch an eyebrow at him.
"Something on your mind, Detective?"
"Nothing, ma'am. That's just very impressive." Slowly, I smile and uncross my arms, walking over to shake Gumshoe's hand.
"Thank you, detective. It's nice to meet you."
"And you, ma'am. Are you the new attorney who's prosecuting for the first time next week?"
"Well, I don't know exactly when the trial is, but that's the gist of it, yes."
"Good luck to you, ma'am. I know a few other lawyers, but you're not much like the ones I know." I chuckle and shake my head.
"Good thing I like being unique, Gumshoe. If you wouldn't mind, my client and I were busy cleaning our new offices, so if you could escort our little friend down to the detention center, and we might see you around?" He grins and cheerfully salutes the two of us before he and Hughes depart, lugging Antonio between the two of them.
"I'm glad that's over with." Chris sighs and I nod once before looking admiringly at all the progress we've made cleaning the office.
"You hungry?" She smiles and nods once, grabbing her jacket from where she laid it down.
"Starving."
"I know this great little ramen place." We head out the door and I pause, looking around the lobby of our office before nodding once, turning off the light, and shutting the door.
Sunday of following week, 9:15 pm.
Over the next week, we find out that the trial will take place on a Friday, and that Antonio got a ridiculously green court-assigned lawyer who probably wouldn't be able to stop me if I was sick with a flu. We also get Gumshoe's help putting the furniture in the office and become friends with him. He's a nice man, and has big dreams and an even bigger heart. He also tells us about his boss, the chief prosecutor of LA, who turns out to be a man by the name of Miles Edgeworth.
Chris and I sit in Daikokuya, a Japanese noodle shop, and eat two bowls of ramen while going over her case for the trial, which is tomorrow.
"Okay, I'll call you as a witness first, then Antonio. He'll probably be too busy lying to notice any contradictions in his statement, and Hughes provided me with video evidence, so we'll definitely nail him."
"And if we don't?" Chris has been asking this same question for the past few days now, wringing her hands together every time. That's one nervous habit I'm going to have to help her break.
"Then we'll nail him for some different charges." I reply, ordering a second bowl of noodles since I feel especially hungry.
"And if that doesn't work?"
"Chris." My voice takes on a scolding tone and she wilts slightly. "You need to have more confidence in me, or else you'll make me lose confidence in myself."
"I'm sorry." She replies before stuffing her mouth with noodles so she doesn't have to talk.
"Don't think you can avoid this conversation." I sigh, setting my chopsticks aside and folding my hands under my chin. "We will win the trial tomorrow, nothing you say or do will change my conviction on that matter. But if you don't perk up, I'm almost positive it will carry over into your testimony tomorrow. So let's cheer up, believe, and get this over with, yeah?" She stares into her noodle bowl, still chewing the mouthful she has, before swallowing it slowly and meeting my eyes.
"Yeah, okay. I just want this to go according to plan."
"And it will, or it will get as close as possible to the best of our abilities." I slurp the rest of my bowl down in one go and grin at Chris, eliciting a chuckle from her. "So let's do this."