I lost the inspiration to write Phoenix Wright fanfiction for a while there. Then I found it. Is this a good or bad thing?

princessphilomena: I figure Diego would probably still be in jail. I used to think that any type of murder, in the game at least, would result in the murderer going to death row. I'm not sure if that's the case, though, since his wasn't premediated. -is very clueless about that kind of thing- I hadn't actually thought of inviting the judge, to be honest. That's an awesome idea. 8D

Leah Carthur: Gumshoe and Maggey getting married = 8DDDDD. I'm still trying to decide whether or not to invite Adrian. Sometimes I think yes, sometimes I think no. You'll just have to wait to find out, I guess. :)

leeny: Maya's and Phoenix's reactions to this will be interesting. That's all I'm gonna say on the subject. :)

KAsurin: The first two words of your review made me think I was gonna get harsh concrit. XD Anyway, I hope you keep on enjoying this fic!

4. The Card

Phoenix sat down in one of the booths by the window, looking around the restaurant reminiscently. He had stopped coming here on a regular basis a couple of years ago, but it still looked the same as the last time he had been here. In fact, it still looked the same as it had when he had first come here, almost nine years ago. The gray-and-red tiled floor still looked as scruffy as ever, the large windows that faced out onto the street were still as clean as though they had been washed ten minutes ago, and the empty tables were scattered throughout the room in their usual disorganized way. The counter behind which the staff worked ran the length of the wall nearest the door, and the smell of hamburgers wafted toward him from the kitchen behind it. A scowling boy in his late teens, the lone cashier, shoved a tray with two burgers and two drinks at Maya, who accepted it, turned around, caught sight of him, and hurried over to him, beaming.

"Hey, you got our old booth! Good work!" she said, sliding into the seat opposite him and setting the tray down on the table. She grabbed her burger and unwrapped it as quickly as she could, then took a huge bite. She rolled her eyes in delight, then set it down and started to chew.

"Hungry?" he asked dryly, unwrapping his own burger.

She swallowed, then nodded. "That and I haven't had a cheeseburger in a long time. It's not something that they make a lot in Kurain, you see." She made a face and took another bite. "They say it's not very dignified for the Master to be eating cheeseburgers every day. Or ever. And I never have a lot of time to come into the city to buy one." She looked around the room, a thoughtful smile on her face. "I've missed coming here," she said softly, gesturing around the room with one hand. "I haven't been here in seven years."

"Seven years?" How he was beginning to hate that phrase. . .

She nodded. "Yeah. That last time, with you, after that trial. After you adopted Trucy and I came to visit you. Trucy was in school when I arrived, and it was lunchtime, so we came here. You remember, right?"

He bit his lip. Yes, indeed, he remembered. How couldn't he? It was the last time he'd seen her, or thought he would ever see her. Every word, every detail, had been burned into his mind. It was one of those times that no person could ever forget, no matter how hard they tried. And even as those thoughts ran through his mind, the memory was beginning to rise to the surface, the memory of the last time he had sat in this booth across from Maya. . .

—Seven Years Ago—

Seven years ago, the restaurant had been the exact same. Scruffy tiles, empty tables, scowling teenagers working behind the counter, the smell of hamburgers cooking, it was all the same. But Phoenix hardly noticed anything; he was holding his head in his hands, staring at the top of the table, his eyes half-closed as he struggled to stay awake. All his senses were deadened from lack of sleep and lack of interest; it was almost as if he was an empty shell, unable to see or think or feel anything.

There was the sound of footsteps coming in his direction. He did not look up, not even when he felt the table shake slightly as something was plopped down in front of him, nor when someone sat down in the seat across from him.

"I've got the food, Nick." Maya sounded unusually subdued. The vague thought flitted through his mind that she was holding back her normal cheeriness for his sake, but then he dismissed it. The thought was uninteresting. The food that she had bought for him was uninteresting. Everything was uninteresting to him.

He felt something gently brush his forearm. It felt like a small bottle. "I even bought you some grape juice on the way here. Please, Nick, take it." Her voice was pleading, almost as if she couldn't bear to see him like this.

With a sigh, he lowered his hands and took the bottle, screwing the cap off and taking a sip. As he lifted the bottle, he glanced at Maya; her eyes were wide with sympathy as she watched him, and her usual smile was replaced with slight frown. He put the bottle down and, resisting the temptation to bury his face in his hands again, he shoved the tray toward her. "I'm not hungry," he told her. "You eat."

She grudgingly took her own cheeseburger, but did not unwrap it. Instead, she said, "Nick, I can tell this is killing you."

"No, I'm fine," he said automatically, but there was no real feeling behind his words, and she knew it.

"I'm sorry I couldn't come earlier," Maya apologized, ignoring his words. "The elders wouldn't let me. They've been making me train every single day, from early morning to late at night, and they won't let me out of their sights because they don't want me to talk to you. I had to get Pearly to distract them while I snuck away to the train station."

Phoenix bit his lip at the mention of Maya's young cousin, a sudden panic flooding through him. "Does she think I–?"

Maya placed her right hand on Phoenix's arm gently. "Relax," she told him. "You should have heard Pearly when we heard. 'Mr. Nick would never do a thing like that! How can those mean court people accuse him?' Oh, that reminds me." She reached into her pocket and extracted a crumpled envelope. "Pearly wanted me to give you this."

Phoenix accepted it and slit it open, not really noticing what he was doing. He slid out a homemade card, on the front of which was taped a picture of Maya, Pearl, and himself, standing inside Viola Hall at the Gatewater Hotel. Around the picture, Pearl had drawn magatamas and hearts. He opened the card and read the message inside.

Dear Mr. Nick,

I'm sorry I couldn't come. I really, really wanted to, but Mystic Maya said that you'll be very sad and I have to wait for a while to see you, so I decided to make this for you instead. I hope you like it.

I know you didn't fake the evidence. Mystic Maya knows, too. Both of us will always be your friends, no matter what.

Love,

Pearls

Phoenix felt his eyes water and blinked rapidly to keep the tears in his eyes. Despite his efforts, one leaked out the corner of his eye and slid down his cheek.

"Nick? Are you crying?" Maya sounded concerned.

He wiped away the tear. "Sorry," he said in a slightly unsteady voice. "It's just, that last line. . ."

She glanced at the card and nodded. "It's true," she told him. "Everyone else might deny ever knowing you, but Pearly and I won't." She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. "Every time I stopped believing in myself, you were the one who kept trusting and believing in me. So now, it's my turn to pay back the favour."

Another tear leaked out the corner of his eye. He sighed and wiped that away, too. "Thanks," he told her.

"No problem." She reached for a napkin lying on the tray and handed to him. "Now, let's stop talking about this, shall we? Otherwise, you'll be blubbering like a baby in five minutes," she added with a grin.

He placed the card beside him on the bench. "What should we talk about, then?"

"How about what you're going to do next?" she suggested. "Any plans for the future?"

Phoenix shook his head. Slowly, the deadened feeling that he had had ever since his last trial was beginning to fade, and he began to feel a little more like an actual person. "My adopted daughter, Trucy, wants to help pay for bills and everything. She's a magician-in-training, apparently. But I don't know what to do."

They talked for a while longer, steering clear of directly talking about the forged evidence, and eventually finished their lunch. He glanced casually at his watch as Maya talked about how strict the training the elders put her through was and gave a start. "Trucy's getting home from school in half an hour," he said, leaping to his feet.

Maya stood up abruptly as well. "Let's go," she said, sliding out between the table and the seat and leading the way to the door. "I can't wait to meet Trucy. She sounds so adorable!"

Phoenix had a hand on the door when he realized he had forgotten to bring the card along. He hurried back to their booth and saw it lying on the seat; he grabbed it and slid it into his pocket, then left the restaurant, closing the door behind him.

—Present Day—

"That was so long ago. . ." Maya's words brought him back to the present with a jolt. "You seemed so different then, too. It was like your spirit had been crushed or sucked out of you. You didn't seem like yourself." She glanced at him and added, "You still don't seem like yourself. You're more like a hobo now than Phoenix Wright, ace attorney, striking fear into the hearts of villains everywhere."

"That's because I am, as you so kindly put it, a hobo," he reminded her. "I'm no longer an ace attorney, nor do I strike fear into the heart of anybody."

She shrugged. "You did a pretty good job on Kristoph Gavin," she pointed out. "I'm glad that your plan finally worked, whatever your plan was."

Phoenix replied, "That's different. It was Apollo who convicted Gavin, remember?"

"True, Apollo was the attorney who showed Gavin's true colours," Maya conceded. "But who was the one who gave him the opportunity? Who was the one who picked the case and the attorney? Who was the one who snuck into Gavin's cell and caught the contents of that envelope on camera? Who did all the research? You, Nick. You convicted Gavin through Apollo."

He rolled his eyes. "Sure I did," he replied. "Sure I did."

"By the way, Gavin's little brother was the prosecutor in that case, wasn't he? Klavier?" Maya asked casually.

"Yeah. The rock star."

She nodded. "Yeah, him. Imagine having a psycho like that for an older brother."

Phoenix shrugged. "I wouldn't know what it would be like. I was never misfortunate enough to have a brother or sister."

Maya's eyes took on a vacant look. "Having siblings isn't all that bad, sometimes. Sis was good to me."

Phoenix remembered Maya's older sister, Mia Fey, who had also been his mentor. Mia had had to care for her little sister after their mother had disappeared when Maya was two years old. "Yeah, well, your case was. . . different." He picked at the bun of his hamburger, thinking about Mia. She had been killed nine years ago, but Maya, being a spirit medium, had the power to channel Mia's soul. This had proved useful when he had been an attorney and in desperate need of help trying to crack a particularly difficult witness, but he had not seen Mia since one of his last trials.

She nodded, the vacant look in her eyes disappearing slowly. "I guess it was."

They continued to talk for a while about harmless, meaningless things, almost as if they had been transported back seven years, when coming here to eat lunch together and talking with each other was part of the daily schedule. But there was suddenly a sort of awkwardness between them, he noticed, an awkwardness that he couldn't ignore. Maya seemed undeterred, but he felt that she sensed it, too. The maddening thing was, though, that he couldn't tell if he was the reason for the awkwardness or if it was Maya. Perhaps it was both of them. They hadn't really had any alone face-to-face time this morning, and the only times they had talked since that day when Maya had delivered Pearl's card was on the phone. Talking to someone on the phone, however, was never as good as talking to someone in person. Maybe it was that they just weren't used to seeing each other like this, or they were both being overly-sensitive around each other, unsure how much the other had changed and making safe small talk until they could gauge it.

Maya glanced at the dingy clock on the opposite wall about an hour after they had arrived. "I guess we should get going, shouldn't we?" she said reluctantly, standing up and setting her garbage on the tray to throw out.

"Yeah," he added, standing up as well. "You'll be going back to the hotel after you pick up Pearls, then?"

She shrugged, not meeting his eyes. "I suppose I will." Then she looked up and bit her lip, a thought evidently having just struck her. "I wonder if anyone found Phoenix yet."

"If they did, you are not dumping him at my place," Phoenix told her sternly, crossing his ams over his chest.

She smiled at him, tossed out their trash, and came back, still wearing that same broad smile on her face. "Now, why would I do a thing like that?" she asked innocently.

"Because you're, I dunno, Maya," he replied sarcastically, leading the way out the door.

She sighed and rolled her eyes, following him out onto the sidewalk. "Don't worry, Nick. If they do find him, I'm not going to leave Phoenix with you. You'd probably forget to feed him or something."

"I'm not that bad," he said defensively.

"Either way, I promise not to leave him with you," Maya replied seriously.

Then why have I got a funny feeling that tomorrow, I'm going to get a phone call from you telling me that someone noticed him and I have to get over to the Gatewater and take him back home?

"And, of course, when they do find him, you'll conveniently forget about this conversation, right?" he asked her.

She stuck her tongue out at him for a second. "Of course I won't. If they find him, you, Phoenix Wright, will not be responsible for the care of my cat, Phoenix. I'll even sign a contract, if you want."

Slightly taken aback by her seriousness, Phoenix shook his head. "No, it's okay. You don't need to sign a contract. But you're still not allowed to give him to me to take care of."

"Of course not," Maya said innocently. Something about the tone of her voice told Phoenix he was missing something, but he decided not to address the issue further.

They continued to talk as they walked back to the Wright Anything Agency, some of the awkwardness between them evaporating slightly. When they stopped outside the door of the agency, they could hear Apollo's voice. He seemed to be talking on the phone; what about, they couldn't tell, since he was talking too quietly. Phoenix opened the door to find Trucy and Pearl sitting cross-legged on the floor, writing on a piece of paper. Trucy looked up, caught sight of her father and Maya in the doorway, and snatched the paper away. Apollo glanced over in their direction, mumbled a hurried, "Gotta go, bye," and hung up the phone.

"Hey, Pearly! Time to go!" Maya pushed past Phoenix gently to stand beside her cousin.

"How was your date with Mr. Nick?" Pearl asked eagerly, standing up quickly.

Maya's face went red. "It wasn't a date, Pearly!" she insisted. Still red in the face, she turned around and led the way out the door. "See you tomorrow, Nick!" she called over her shoulder. Pearl followed her and closed the door behind her, and as the sound of their footsteps receded, Trucy looked up at Phoenix, her face all smiles.

"How was your date with Maya, Daddy?" she asked, clasping her hands and resting them on her lap.

Phoenix laughed softly. "It wasn't a date, Trucy," he told her.

"Pearl said it was," Trucy responded stubbornly, folding her arms across her chest.

"Remember what I told you earlier? Pearls has always thought Maya and I were going to get married," Phoenix reminded her. Then he glanced toward Apollo, whose eyes kept flicking guiltily toward the phone. "Who was that?" he asked, his voice expressionless.

"Wrong number," Apollo replied a little too quickly. Phoenix glanced at Trucy, wordlessly asking her if he was giving off a liar's sign. She shook her head.

"Alright, then. I guess it doesn't matter." He looked in the direction of his bedroom. "I think I'll go have a nap."

"Bye, Daddy!" Trucy said, waving to him.

He lifted his hand in acknowledgement and picked his way across the room to the door leading to his room. Once inside, he closed the door behind him and drifted over to his bedside table. In the top drawer, he thought, reaching for the right knob. In the top drawer, near the bottom.

He opened the drawer and started digging through its contents. Most of it was junk that seemed to naturally build up in bedside table drawers; a flashlight, a few photographs taken years ago, a card with a white back (which he kept face-down), and notebooks full of notes of the data he had collected over the past few years. At the very bottom was a homemade card, beginning to yellow with age, with a picture of an eight-year-old Pearl, a younger, more childish Maya, and himself, a happy-go-lucky defence lawyer who had just lost his first case, and had never felt better. The picture and the magatamas and hearts around it were fading a little, but that was no justifiable reason to throw it out.

It had been in his bedside table drawer for seven years, something that no one would expect the Forgin' Attorney (as the media had so kindly nicknamed him) to keep so close at hand. It was something that mystified even he, the one who hadn't thrown it out, who wouldn't even think of throwing it out until, during those long nights when he felt as if he would never win against the one who really forged the evidence, when he felt as if the only person he had in the world was Trucy, he would take it out and find his will to find the person who had destroyed him renewed, felt as if there were people who believed he was innocent and always would believe it.

All because of a nine-year-old's clumsily-made homemade card.

Gah. Ending sucked. Sorry. -_-

Within the next few chapters, the plans for the reunion (except a full invite list) will take shape, plus there'll start to be flashbacks taking place not only after Phoenix lost his badge, but in the second and third games. (I love flashbacks a little too much, methinks. XD) Mostly, the flashbacks will be building up to what happens at the reunion. . . the details to which I'm not going to disclose. . . since I really, really want it to be a surprise. :)