I usually work on this story during my free time, so I've got quite a few chapters typed up! Enjoy!

Chapter 4:

Friday, 12 pm.

Courtroom

"Has the jury decided on a verdict?" The judge questions them as everyone files back into the courtroom and takes their seats. The head juror remains standing, holding a slip of paper that determines the futures of both Chris and Antonio.

"We have, your Honor. We find the defendant…" The head juror pauses for dramatic effect, glancing around the room with a devilish glint in his eyes. "...Guilty!" The observers erupt into cheers and Chris laughs, pulling me in for a tight hug.

"Thank you. It's finally over." When she pulls away, there are tears streaming from her face and her laughs of joy are still there, they're just accompanied by the wet tears now.

Slowly, we file out of the courtroom after Eva comes over and congratulates me, handing me a car with her number on it in case I ever needed her help with anything. I tell Chris to go ahead and get the car started, but as soon as she's out of sight, someone lays a heavy hand on my shoulder. Sighing, I turn and expect to be facing Gumshoe, but instead am confronted by a figure in a dark trenchcoat and black fedora pulled low over the person's face.

"Excellent job on your first case." The person praises, though their voice definitely sounds masculine. "I have something to give you."

"Why would you have something to give me?" I question, slowly trying to skirt around the figure, but they're having none of it, stepping aside abruptly to block my way. "I don't even know you."

"I'm sure you know of me." The figure responds, tossing a small, black velveteen box into my hands before whirling around and vanishing as quickly as they'd appeared.

Ignoring the box for now, I slip it into my pocket and head outside to climb into the car with Chris, relaying my odd encounter with the person in the trench coat. She seems just as confused as I feel, but we both shrug it off and head out to grab some celebratory Chinese with Gumshoe and Hughes.

Daikokuya, 5 pm.

"Congratulations on your first victory. May there be many more." Hughes toasts my case with some cheap wine ordered from the depressingly short wine list.

"Kanpai!" I laugh as we use the Japanese version of 'cheers' and clink our glasses together. Chris is still smiling ridiculously wide, and I can't help but to think that her cheeks are going to be sore tomorrow.

"What are you gonna do now?" Gumshoe asks me as Chris and Hughes dig into their food. I pause a moment and think, fork frozen halfway to my mouth. Then, with a sigh, I set my fork down and fold my hands together under my chin.

"I really don't know at this point, Gumshoe. As far as I'd figured, the only plan I had was to go back to the office with Chris and get our business going for real."

"That's a good plan." Hughes interjects, slurping down a noodle from his pad thai. "Contrary to popular belief, you don't need to have your entire life planned out. I mean, it helps, but…"

"But I want to be something." My chopsticks fall to the table and I pull the black velvet box out of my pocket, rolling it between my fingers slowly. "I want to make something of myself! Is that so wrong?" Sighing, I open the box and watch the light glint off an innocuous ring inside. "What is this?" The three others lean over to see what I'm looking at. Chris' eyebrows raise and she lets out a low whistle of appreciation.

"It's a ring, Anna." Gumshoe eyes the gold appreciatively, but there's no greed. He's just appreciating the beauty of the ring. "You put it on your finger."

"I know that, Gumshoe. What I'm wondering is why that man gave it to me."

"He probably saw your performance at the courthouse." Hughes soothes me, also eying the ring. "There's no harm in a simple ring. You can put it on if you want to." With a roll of my eyes, I pry the ring out of the velvet cushioning and meet Chris's eyes, which are filled with joy and maybe just a little relief. She shrugs and drinks deeply from her glass. I shrug and slip it onto my finger before lifting my glass again.

Clarity...

I don't even notice when it falls from my fingers and thuds against the ground dully, each millisecond of its fall crystal clear in my head. Everything is clear, and it burns.

I suppose my memory is screwy for a reason, and this is definitely not it. My knees shake beneath me, even though I'm in a chair, and I keel sideways out of it, my friends' cries ringing in my ears, along with the beating of my own heart and the rasps as I frantically inhale and exhale rapidly.

"Anna!" The voices echo in my head before I feel someone pry the ring from my finger, gasping for breath as the burning clarity slowly fades from my mind. "Anna, can you hear me? Someone call an ambulance!" Chris' face swims into view as I realize that I never noticed that I had screwed my eyes shut. "Anna, come on, answer me!"

"Ugh…" I answer with a feeble groan and a pathetic attempt at lifting my hand from the ground before it falls down again. The ring glares in all the too-harsh lighting and I watch as someone whose face I don't look at pics the ring up, slips it back into its box and tucks it securely into my breast pocket. Then the wail of sirens hurts my ears as my vision goes black again.

When I wake up again, I'm no longer in Daikokuya, instead the beep of machines and smell of ammonia clue me in on the fact that I'm in a hospital. The stiff sheets crinkle as I slowly sit up and examine the IV injected in my arm. With a hiss, I grip the catheter and pull it out, tossing the bloody plastic tube aside. A TV plays in a corner, showing Daikokuya onscreen and I feel a chill run down my back, hunting the remote down and switching the TV off before my eyes can wander to the headline running underneath it. The door into my room rattles and the fact I'm dressed in a sports bra, with tight sweatpants and my hair pulled bac into a simple ponytail flashes through my mind before a doctor comes in, staring at a clipboard grasped in his hand intently and occasionally murmuring to himself. We stand like that for a minute, before his muttering stops and his eyes finally rise to meet mine.

"What's up, doc?" I fold my hands across my bare midriff and shoot him a sarcastic smile. "Mind telling me how long I've been playing the role of Rip Van Winkle?"

"A day, but you shouldn't be awake. You were suffering severe seizures. Your body still needs to recover." The doctor walks up to me, seizing my wrist in one hand and taking my pulse. "But nonetheless, here you are. Shall I alert your friends that you're awake?"

"And can I also get some proper clothes?" He nods before departing. Shortly afterwards, a nurse returns with my suit, which has been freshly laundered. The doctor returns, leading Chris behind him. When she sees me, she promptly bursts into tears and dashes past the doctor, spinning him into the wall and wrapping me in a hug.

"I'm glad you're awake!" She cries, squeezing me until I can't feel my ribs. I laugh and hug her back as soon as she releases me slightly.

"I'm glad I'm awake too. Did you really miss me that much after one day?"

"There's a strange man in our office, and he never talks to me, just keeps asking if he can speak with you, or someone with 'sufficient intellect'." She makes air quotations before sniffling again and bursting into a fresh round of tears. "I'm not stupid, I know he was saying I was!"

"Oh, really?" This will have to be resolved with some of my blunt lack of finesse, which is something I relish. "You're not stupid, Chris. Don't think on what that mansaid for one second. Let's go to the offica and I'll… Handle the situation." And if a wild grin split my face at the idea of punishing someone who'd hurt one of my closest friends emotionally, well, neither of us mentioned it.

Chris got me checked out of the hospital and returned the keys to my Mercedes, which she'd been forced to use during my little nap to get around and which I didn't mind at all. We drive home after stopping to grab some Cokes and park the car in the resident parking and head inside as I note that the light in our office is on.

Inside the office, a short man in red trousers and a red waistcoat with slicked back brown hair, except for the bangs, which are pointing straight up, is rummaging through our mini fridge, back to Chris and I.

"Excuse me!" My voice echoes in the somewhat-empty office and he jolts, slamming his head against the top of the fridge and he whirls around to face us, face burning bright with embarrassment. "Did either of us give you permission to go pawing through our oodstocks?"

"Neither of you were here." He retorts, closing the fridge and crossing his arms over his chest.

"So why were you?" This boy's uppity attitude is grating on my nerves. "Who are you, that you rummage through my office and insult my employees and friends alike? I reccommend you speak quickly, I just returned from the hospital." His eyes widen minutely in shock before the boy readjusts his waistcoat and thrusts his hand out.

"Apollo Justice. I'm here to offer you a position at the Wright Anything Agency."

"No. Now get out." Shock is evident in Apollo's face and he slowly retracts his hand when it becomes glaringly obvious that I am flat-out refusing to shake it.

"W-why not? You did very well in court, and we're always looking for bright people, so what's there to lose?"

"I refuse to work with cretins." I respond coldly, jaw working slowly like I'm chewing a tough piece of steak and am debating spitting it out. "And you, sir, have not proved yourself as anything more."

"How have I insulted you?" He responds as if he has truly got no idea, and I bare my teeth at him in what might be mistaken for a friendly smile if you didn't look too close.

"You insinuated my friend was moronic, you rummaged through my office when I was laid up in the hospital, and you fail to realize that I've already got my own law firm and do not want to join one that includes you." Apollo's jaw drops and I turn my back to him, facing Chris, who can't stop her face from breaking into a tentative smile when I meet her eyes. "Miss Jewell, kindly escort Mr Justice out of my firm with as much haste as possible. I'd like to get some actual work done."

"Right away, Ms. Ramone! Please come with me, Mr. Justice." Stunned, the boy follows her out, though I feel his gaze flicking to me occasionally as I walk into my office and sit behind my desk, which is nothing more than a folding card table and matching chair.

Chris walks in and sets down another chair on the opposite side of the table before sitting down as well.

"You never fail to impress me with your bravado when it comes to people." She says quietly, sniffling.

"Why are you crying, Chris? Did that Justice boy say something on the way out?"

"No, no, nothing like that!" She wipes at her eyes with the sleeve of her shirt and blows her nose with a hankie before tucking it away. "It's just… You were bad. When the ambulance got here, you were seizing and shaking and it was just… Frightening. And it was all because of that ring. Please, promise me something like that won't happen again, Anna."

"I can't promise anything, Chris. I'm not a mind reader, and you know that. What I will promise is that I will try. Nothing more, nothing less." She nods slowly and dries her eyes before grinning at me.

"I suppose that's all I can ask of my friend."

I've been trying to work on some of my other stories, but for now you guys get this. *Throws it at you, wrapped in pillows.* And as always do the three R's: Read, Review, and Repeat!

Signing off, as always,

EOM