I really, really struggled with this chapter, and I'm still not sure if I'm quite satisfied with it yet. Any and all constructive criticism is of course welcome.

It was quiet.

At first it unnerved Apollo a bit, because he wasn't used to it being so peaceful around this time of day, but he wasn't particularly bothered either, because he figured it just meant that Trucy was a little late, that's all.

It wasn't until after she had arrived and it stayed quiet that he started to worry. It didn't help that her usually pep-filled greeting made him highly suspicious.

She poked her head into Apollo's office, "Hey Polly."

He immediately quirked an eyebrow, (What, no exclamation mark?)

"Hey Trucy."

"Just wanted to let you know I have a friend over."

"Oh?" he said nervously.

He was supposed to be in charge of looking after Trucy and the office while Phoenix was away taking the bar exam. It was no secret the man was fiercely protective of his daughter.

"Don't worry, Daddy knows they're here," she said, catching the way he nervously pulled at his tie, "Just, um…don't bother us, okay?"

"Why?"

"Homework!" she said quickly, before pulling her head back out and snapping the door shut faster than Apollo could blink.

He sat stunned for a moment, before remarking, "But you never do your homework!"

He got up and opened the door to the main lobby, but to his surprise it was empty. Either Trucy was faster on her feet than he gave her credit for, or she'd pulled one of her vanishing acts. He didn't put it past her.

"Trucy!" he called out.

No response.

A bit irritated, he perked up his ears and tried to pick up any sounds, even though he wasn't quite sure what exactly he was listening for.

After walking a bit through the room, he heard the slight rustle of movement and muffled voices as he neared Phoenix's door.

(Really? In your father's office?)

Honestly, he wouldn't have bothered if she wasn't acting so weird.

He gripped the doorknob and turned, "Trucy…"

The first thing that he immediately took notice of was that the lights were off. The second was that there were lit candles everywhere. The third, and perhaps most striking of all, was the fact that Trucy was sitting on the floor in the middle of all this, accompanied by what appeared to be another girl, dressed in…spirit medium robes?

"What the hell is going on?!"

"I can explain!"

"You can explain? How am I supposed to explain to Mr. Wright why I let his office get covered in candle wax while he was gone?!"

Trucy's friend looked like she was about to cry, "See, I told you this was a bad idea."

When the girl's eyes began to show signs of actually spilling over with tears, Apollo instinctively softened his expression.

"…And you are?"

Trucy was glad for the distraction, "This is Pearl! She's my best friend!"

"Pearl, does Mr. Wright know what you girls are up to?" he paused and thought about it, "What are you girls doing in here, anyway?"

An uncomfortable silence settled into the room—it was only made more unnerving by the shadows the flickering candles were casting on everything.

Apollo looked back and forth at the girls, caught between Trucy's best 'it's not my fault!' look, and a poor look from Pearl that suggested this probably was all Trucy's fault.

Pearl managed to find her voice first, however small and squeaky, "Mr. Nick said we weren't supposed to do this…"

Trucy added, "You can't tell Daddy, alright?"

He crossed his arms and frowned, "I'm not making any promises."

"Aw, come on! It's taken me forever to convince Pearls to agree to this, and today's the only day Daddy's not gonna be here!"

When Trucy just looked up at him, mouth pouting, Apollo merely rolled his eyes. He liked to consider himself strong willed, and he was no stranger to resisting Trucy's trade-mark puppy dog eyes. Pearl on the other hand was something else entirely.

For one thing, she wasn't trying to goad his favor with crocodile tears—she naturally possessed a sort of innocence about her that made him want to dote on her. He dubbed it the 'little sister' effect on impromptu.

She reminded him a bit of Iris, actually.

Currently she was looking at him with genuine tears in her eyes, a thousand times more effective than any look Trucy had ever given him, "Please don't tell anyone, Mr. Justice."

It was like an arrow through the heart.

"…fine."

Trucy immediately shot her hand out, "Pinky swear!"

Apollo rolled his eyes, but curled his pinky around Trucy's nonetheless.

"Pearls too!" she added without missing a beat.

He sighed and held the other pinky out, which Pearl delicately linked hers around.

"Now promise me you won't tell Daddy!"

"I promise I won't tell—" Apollo faltered when he nearly robotically repeated Trucy's exact words, "…Mr. Wright."

Trucy gave a satisfied puff of breath through her nose and a curt nod before slowly unfurling her finger from his.

"Pearl," Trucy gave him a serious expression and drew herself up for dramatic emphasis, "…is a spirit medium."

Apollo half-heartedly gestured at Pearl's attire.

"I kind of figured," he glanced around at the flickering lights, "…you aren't conjuring anything, are you?"

"Channeling, Polly. Ever heard of it?" Trucy corrected.

"I know a bit," he rubbed at the back of his neck.

It had been inevitable to learn a bit about it from studying Phoenix's cases when he was younger, and of course there had been a short-lived spirit medium craze that had ebbed in and out with Phoenix's law career, but he had to admit his knowledge on the subject was shaky.

"Pearl here's the best spirit medium ever," Trucy bragged, hands on her hips and her head held high.

She was radiating enough pride for the both of them, in true Trucy fashion.

This was probably for the best, seeing as how Pearl responded by pulling at the hem of her robes and biting her thumb, "I'm not the best…"

Trucy rounded on her, "Yes you are! Even Aunt Maya says so!"

Maya…why did that name sound familiar?

Pearl looked absolutely scandalized, "M-mystic Maya only says that because she's too dignified to brag about herself…"

Her face was a little pink with embarrassment as Trucy privately shook her head, as if Pearl had just said something ironic.

She sighed, "I don't even know why you insisted on all this fancy set-up! Apollo probably wouldn't have caught us if we'd just done a straight up channeling. You've done them plenty of times before."

Pearl looked at the floor, "But I don't want anything to go wrong; I want to make absolutely sure this works. This is really important…"

Apollo's intuition sparked at this point.

"Trucy," he started slowly, seriously, "Don't these sorts of things usually take place at temples?"

The girls glanced nervously at each other. For the first time, even Trucy was looking properly guilty.

"I don't want Pearls to get in trouble with Aunt Maya," Trucy's thumbs went round each other, "a-and she never hides anything from Daddy, so…she can't really know about this either."

Maya.

Maya…

The name was definitely ringing some bells, but something still wasn't quite clicking.

"And just why can't Mr. Wright know about this?"

There was silence, then Trucy took a deep breath.

"I…want to try contacting my mother," it was so uncharacteristic to see Trucy struggling to find her voice, "But Daddy says he wants to wait until I'm older before we try."

And then there was more silence as Apollo digested this information. Really, what was the proper response for something like this?

It wasn't really his place to prove commentary on Phoenix's parenting methods, and he wasn't quite sure what to say. It didn't help that the situation was so atypical.

"I think I can handle it though!" Trucy exclaimed, trying to move things forward again.

Surprisingly, Pearl had something to say, "Maybe we shouldn't do this Trucy. I'm sure you dad has a reason. And, and…,"she was back to biting her thumb, "I still feel really bad about lying to Mystic Maya…"

Maya…

Maya.

(Fey.)

Apollo's eyes opened wide as he finally made the connection, "Maya. Mystic Maya Fey?!"

Pearl jump, surprised, "Um, y-yes…?"

Trucy puffed her cheeks, "Polly, keep it down! Pearls isn't used to you yet."

"Oh! S-sorry. Um, so wait," his brain made several more connections, "That means you're…Pearl Fey, right?"

She gave him a slightly confused nod, "D-do you know me from somewhere?"

"Just what I know from some of Mr. Wright's cases—the ones that involved the Feys at least. You, Maya, and—" Apollo suddenly stopped himself short.

No wonder Pearl had reminded him of Iris.

"Trucy," he said carefully, "How important is this to you?"

He was expecting an immediate answer, so he was surprised when she paused and seriously gave it some thought.

There was that little scuffle of the feet, the barest of turning her knees into each other as she looked at the ground and though real hard. Whatever was going through her head, she seemed to make her mind up at around the point where she bent at the ankles and balanced on the outer edges of her feet.

With the smartest of snaps, she straightened her ankles and spine with purpose, the soles of her shoes slapping resolutely against the floor.

She looked Apollo straight in the eye, "Absolutely. I can't think of anything more important."

With a nod of understanding—one for each of the girls—Apollo reached up and straightened his tie with the air of someone getting down to business.

"Alright then. Let's do this."

Apollo felt a slap to the back of his head.

"Ow! Trucy!"

"No peeking."

He opened his eyes to stare at his assistant incredulously.

"But I wasn't—" he was cut off by yet another sharp slap to the head.

"You are now."

Before he could even come up with a smart retort, there was a large "shh" from Pearl. It was by far the most aggressive thing she'd ever uttered so far, which was saying something.

"I'm trying to concentrate," she said shortly.

An awkward silence fell back over the three, accentuated by the low-cast and flickering candles. Pearl remained stock-still, tension personified as she…did whatever it was she was doing. She was bent at the knees with her legs tucked neatly underneath herself, hands clasped together to form some sort of spiritual gesture. Apollo was doing his best at balancing to imitate this—at Trucy's insisting—but it wasn't as easy as it looked. About twenty minutes ago his legs had been screaming at him to sit normally—at this point they were starting to grow numb from the ache. Beside him, Trucy's head was bowed low, her brow furrowed in concentration, her hands clenched in her lap.

Apollo fidgeted with his bracelet for a bit, waiting for something, anything to happen.

It didn't.

"Um…Pearl…?"

Trucy hissed at him to be quiet.

He continued regardless, "It's been half an hour. Shouldn't something have happened by now?"

For the first time, Pearl's shoulders slackened, and her careful visage of concentration was broken by the way she worriedly bit at her lip.

"I…," her eyes fluttered open, "am having a bit of trouble find her…"

"Is it Polly? We can make him leave."

Pearl brought her thumb to her lip, "No, that's not it..."

Trucy's legs unfurled and she crawled the few feet between her and Pearl, a softer expression adorning her face.

"Are you okay?" she asked quietly.

Pearl offered a reassuring smile, "No, that's not it either. I just…things feel a little…weird. I just can't seem to find you mom, anywhere."

Apollo searched his brain for something, some piece of information that was tugging at the back of his mind.

He snapped his fingers when it hit him, "What if she's already being channeled somewhere else? Like that one time with Dahlia Hawthorne."

Pearl blinked at him, a little taken aback.

Apollo coughed sheepishly, "I-it was in one of the case files I read."

She let out a small, forced breath and closed her eyes, as if remembering something unpleasant, and he felt a little bad for bringing it up.

"No, that's not it either—I'd remember the feeling. It's more like…Oh Trucy, I'm sorry, I just can't sense her at all. It's almost like…as if…"

Pearl trailed off as she considered something.

"Trucy, I think there's a reason your dad didn't want us to do this. Your mom, I think—"

She stopped mid-sentence and her eyes went wide, staring at something over the top of Apollo's head. A sudden chill went down the defense attorney's spine.

He didn't even need to turn around—the distinct, low voice that hit his ears was enough to tell him what Pearl was looking at.

"Mr. Justice. Care to tell me what happened here?"

Apollo could hear the faint sound of tapping, of Phoenix softly beating out an expectant rhythm against the fabric of his sleeve, one that seemed to demand an immediate reply.

Trucy was quicker to answer, "It's not Apollo's fault! I-I made him do it."

Phoenix raised an eyebrow, "You...made him? You, the fifteen-year-old girl, made Apollo—the adult—do this?"

Apollo turned to face his employer—wincing as he coaxed his legs out of the position they were stuck in, "No, Mr. Wright. I let her. This is my responsibility."

With some difficulty, he managed to stand himself up.

He tried to remain calm and collected, but he could feel his hands shaking as he faced his boss, "Trucy said she wanted to try contacting her mother. I told her she could."

His palms were slicking over with sweat, and his pulse was beating faster. This wasn't just his employer he was addressing—he was addressing Phoenix as a Trucy's father, a parent, who had laid down a rule, one that Apollo had knowingly violated.

There was a lot more at stake here than just his job.

It was his dignity however, not his sense of self-preservation, that spoke for him, "I accept full responsibility."

To his surprise, Phoenix merely chucked darkly into his hoodie, "Pearl got you with the puppy eyes, didn't she?"

Apollo was stunned, "Mr. Wright, I—"

"It's not Pearl's fault either!" Trucy cut in, "I told her to come, even though she didn't want to!"

Phoenix just sighed, "Trucy, I know you meant well, but you know how I felt about this."

Apollo felt himself drawing up even higher, his courage climbing, "Mr. Wright, maybe I'm out of line here, but I think Trucy has a right to speak with her mother. Growing up, not knowing who your parents are…," Apollo coughed, pausing a bit to let something weighing on his mind dissipate, and for a moment it almost seemed like it wasn't just Trucy he was talking about, "Most people can't get closure like this—especially if the parent in question is dead."

"Except she's not, is she?"

It came so quick, so sharp, and suddenly all eyes were on Pearl.

It was such a loaded statement, the kind that came straight out of left-field and made a complete turnabout of the situation. It was obvious what Pearl had said. Everyone was clear on what these words had meant, and yet…no, that couldn't possibly be right.

(…what.)

Before too long all the eyes in the room gravitated to Trucy. She was pale as a ghost, her eyes wide and unblinking.

Her hands were clenched together at her chest, "Pearls, what…what're you saying?"

With a sort of composure that Apollo hadn't expected her to possess, Pearl placed a gentle hand on her best friend's shoulder, "She's not dead, Trucy. Your mom's alive. Isn't that right, Mr. Nick?" Pearl turned to face Phoenix without batting an eyelash, "That's why I can't feel her spirit anywhere."

"Is that true, Daddy?" there was a sort of cracked edge to Trucy's voice, one that buried itself painfully in the chests of everyone present.

Phoenix did not bother delaying his answer. Misgiving tone aside, he did not hesitate or try to sugar coat things—to do so would've been an insult to his daughter.

"Yes, it is."

"And you knew about this? The whole time?"

"Not the whole time, but long enough."

And then the very thing that everyone had been dreading happened.

Trucy began to cry.

Before anyone else had time to say or do anything, Pearl started to move. With the swiftest of strides, Pearl was moving across the room, her arm was moving up as she pushed her sleeve up, and without even saying a word she was slapping Phoenix flush across the cheek.

The previous image of Pearl that had stored itself in Apollo's mind—that of a timid, tiny girl—instantly vanished without a trace.

Phoenix staggered back a bit, both hands nursing his face, "Seven years and you've still got that snap in your wrist."

A wince passed across his face as he opened his mouth and experimentally moved his jaw about. Pearl was shaking, giving Phoenix the fiercest glare she'd ever given. Trucy was quietly hiccupping and trying—unsuccessfully—to hold back the tears.

And Apollo—well, he was still just trying to sort out what had happened.

Currently he was just standing off to the side of things, feeling rather out of place and superfluous to this whole matter.

"I…," Apollo spurted out awkwardly, "Well I'll just...let you guys work this out amongst yourselves."

When he reached the door, he expected Phoenix to step aside and let him go back to his office.

He didn't.

"You're not going anywhere Apollo. Trust me when I say you'll want to stick around for what happens next."

Apollo gulped.

(I am so fired.)

Klavier opened the door to a rather vacant-faced Apollo.

"…Ah, Apollo. What—"

"I just found out who my biological mother is."

A moment of silence passed as Klavier digested this information. Then without any further hesitation, he pulled Apollo into his arms and shut the door. Apollo seemed dazed, almost limp in his arms, and for a while, there was nothing but the sound of deep breathing.

Klavier began rubbing circles where he knew it relaxed Apollo the most, right above the belt line, on either side of his spine, "Are you alright?"

There was another pause as Apollo tried to figure out how to verbalize what he was thinking, "…You know, I think I'm okay."

To Klavier's surprise, he felt two arms snake around his waist, quick and smooth, like it was the easiest thing in the world.

And it felt so good.

Apollo's arms seemed to rest perfectly snug against the curve of his back, but even more importantly was how sure his hold was, no trace of indecision or uncertainty. This was something Apollo chose.

"Yeah," came the young attorney's voice again, "I think I'll be fine. I guess I'm mostly just shocked over who she is, rather than the fact that I suddenly have my mother in my life."

Klavier pulled back ever so slightly, eyebrows raised, "You mean it's someone you already know?"

Apollo was silent for a moment, head buried in Klavier's chest before lifting it to reveal a completely serious expression, "It's Lamiroir."

It was, for the record, very hard to catch Klavier off guard, so when his eyes went wide and he let loose a loud, "What?!" Apollo couldn't help but feel oddly satisfied somehow.

"And she's Trucy's mother, too."

Klavier looked at him incredulously, "Which would make her your…"

"Half-sister, actually," Apollo finished, tightening his hold around Klavier's waist.

They stood there for a bit, just looking at each other before Klavier moved a hand to the back of Apollo's head, guiding it back to his chest, "Well, small world, ja?"

"You mean you believe me?" Apollo's voice was bright, and he sounded so happy that Klavier thought his chest might burst.

It was all he could do to not kiss his face all over—he settled instead for a single one on the crown of Apollo's head, "It's you, isn't it? So of course I believe you."

Klavier could literally feel Apollo smiling against his chest, which prompted him to start running his fingers through the young man's hair, "When did you find out?"

"Just now. I came over as soon as Mr. Wright told us."

Klavier scratched at the nape of Apollo's neck, earning him a few appreciative hums, "So have you actually spoken to her yet?"

He could feel him shake his head against his chest, "I'm supposed to be meeting her at the office in ten minutes."

With a start, Klavier pulled back a bit, holding a slightly stunned Apollo by the shoulders, "What?! What're you doing here then?! You should be over there!"

Before the defense attorney had any time to react, the prosecutor had turned him around, opened the door, and had begun leading him out into the hallway.

"Wait, wait, wait!" Apollo's hand shot out to grab the doorframe, "There was a reason I came over!"

With a little difficulty, since they were at this point squished together in the door and Klavier was still pressing on him, Apollo turned around and back up a bit to put some space between them.

He reached out and took one of Klavier's hands in his, "I wanted you to come with me, so I could introduce you."

Klavier blinked, "But Mein Forehead, Lamiroir and I already quite familiar. We were just speaking the other day, in fact."

"No, I mean," here Apollo's hands squeezed around Klavier's and he looked up with full, serious, eyes, "I want to introduce you."

It only took a moment for this to register.

"Oh!" and then softer, "Oh."

Apollo smiled simply at Klavier, so expectantly, so openly and wide, the prosecutor had to resist the urge to press his own smile to it.

"Alright then," he said, stepping forward and closing the door behind him, not once letting go of Apollo, "Let's go."