Turn about goodbyes (Part 1)
Author's Note: I haven't done anything with this story for ages, but then I suddenly saw someone's review on fan fiction net and I just thought that since that person have been nice enough to leave me such a message, I should really try to do a bit more. However, I think this last case would be much longer so I decided to split it in (probably) two parts. So this first part is limited to the events before the trial begin.
Much to Gabrielle's frustration, she had to work on Christmas Eve when Edgeworth had the whole day off. Even worse was the fact that he suddenly could not manage to pick her up.
The fact that she returned to an empty home made her feel a bit sore. But she assured herself that there might be some reasons for this, so she waited for him patiently.
She wasn't sure when she felt asleep but she was woke up by a phone call in the very early morning.
"Yes, I am Gabrielle Revien…what?" she screamed out. "If this is a joke then you can…"
"Miss Revien, I can assure you that I am not joking!" Detective Gumshoe quickly yelled out and saved himself from a possible long string of French curses and swearing words. "Mr Edgeworth really has been arrested."
"Why would he be arrested? What did he do? Drank a bit too much and got a speeding ticket in addition to drinking and driving?" she snapped angrily. "He follows practically every law so…"
Once again, Gumshoe interrupted her.
"…Murder? Miles being a murderer?" she whispered in horror, almost dropping the phone. "How…"
"We found him at a murder scene with a gun in his hand." Gumshoe interrupted her. "But I am sure that there is a mistake because Mr Edgeworth could never do such a thing. However, he isn't willing to talk to anyone right now, not even me."
"I'll come to the police station then." she said.
Due to the lack of a car, she had to rely on public transport, and she swore that today must be the day when the bus drivers were all driving deliberately slow, as the bus took fifteen extra minutes to arrive.
As if to make matters even worse, the first thing that he told her upon seeing her was that she should go away.
"Gabrielle, I don't want you to be involved in this case." Edgeworth said bluntly. "Please, just go home."
"You want me to just watch you and get accused of a murder which I know that you did not commit?" she yelled out angrily, banging the glass window in her anger.
"I will find a lawyer myself." He assured her. "Please, just go home."
They continued to argue for quite sometime before she was actually forced to leave. This was partly because she realised that her fiancé refused to let himself be persuaded, and it was also because she could see that the security guard was very tempted to throw her out due to the amount of time she banged on the glass.
"But I could at least find a lawyer for you…" she pleaded out.
"Gabrielle, I don't want you to be involved in any of this." he told her, although his voice was gentle, his tone was very firm.
Gabrielle was not very sure why Phoenix Wright came to her mind, but she felt that the other man would surely be willing to help Edgeworth. In addition, the other seemed to be a very good lawyer since he did win two cases against Edgeworth himself.
Edgeworth said that this was only because they were the truth, but she was convinced that this case was identical. After all, she trusted in her fiancé.
He could not have done the crime.
She had no idea of how to contact Phoenix Wright and while she was sure that Edgeworth probably had some information in his study, going back would be to time consuming. As a result, she ended up madly flipping the phone book in the public booth, almost yelling at the person in front, who seemed to be taking an exceptionally long call.
Wright was just flipping the channels randomly when he was interrupted by a very urgent knocking.
"Maya, I told you that you used the phone for much too long." He said as he checked himself to make sure that he was presentable for a possible client.
"But I am trying to persuade him to let me use the fire hose." Maya said, having decided that Wright's joke of her training by borrowing the fire hose of the fire department was a very good idea.
"Miss Revien…" Wright had barely managed to say her name when the woman, who was clearly very upset, yelled out the following: "You must help Miles!"
That was why, Edgeworth was to receive a second lot of visitors.
"I don't want you here." He repeated, although his tone was a bit more harsh this time. "Tell Gabby that she doesn't have to worry…"
"You are actually not that good a liar…" Wright muttered in slight surprise. "I would have thought that you would be quite good given the amount of…"
"Nick!" Maya yelled out. "This is not the time."
"Look Edgeworth, Miss Revien is really worried about you and judging by what you just said, it seems that is fully justified."
"You want to know the truth? Fine." Edgeworth muttered viciously. "Right now, every defence lawyer that I have talked to said no. I think it is because I got all their clients guilty. I didn't realise I was that extreme…"
"But then that is all the more reason for Nick to defend you!" Maya protested.
"No." Edgeworth said again, in a tone that suggested this was final.
After getting out, Wright decided to do some investigation with Maya, as well as informing Gabrielle of what happened. Gabrielle herself actually went to the district again, even though she suspected that her name might soon be black listed.
"Wouldn't you tell me anything?" she implored.
"Gabby…I don't want you to be involved in this." he repeated, although he tone was much better when he was speaking to her.
"Miles…do you really think that I can just smile and say: 'of course I won't worry, I will just wait for you to be released'?" she said angrily before she thought of a possible method: "What would you do if I- "
"You would never be in this situation so there is no point." He cut off bluntly. "Gabby, just go home."
She actually tried to reason with him for quite sometime before one of the guards 'suggested' for her to leave as she was being a bit too loud.
Once outside, her phone suddenly ring and she immediately picked it up due to the identity of the caller.
"Mr Wright? You say that you discovered the victim name? What did you say? The victim's name is…Robert Hammond?"
Wright continued to speak but Gabrielle was too shocked to say anything. She found herself just staring at the direction where Edgeworth was.
It was only after a very long time that she spoke.
"I am still here. Yes, I know the name. I…" she actually looked at where Edgeworth was for quite sometime before she nodded. The nod was a resolution to herself instead of to the one who naturally could not see it. "Yes, I will tell you about what happened."
Edgeworth would definitely be upset about this, but then he was in the worst possible situation.
"Mr Wright, do you know what happened to Miles…why he had to leave your school?" she was sure that he would say no, but she still asked. Perhaps she hoped that she could somehow be evaded from the task.
"I really don't know how to start." She muttered as she twisted her ring- the ring that he had gave her when he proposed. "Miles…Miles is going to be so angry at me. He doesn't even like me mentioning that word. In fact, I did not even know about the identity of the man. Initially Miles wouldn't even tell me about anything of what happened to him until quite sometime later and oh…what am I saying?"
She was clearly very agitated and Write was very patient and even though Maya was filled with questions, she actually managed to control herself by concentrating on fixing the coffee for Gabrielle. Once Gabrielle drank some coffee, she did become a bit calmer.
"I don't know how to start." She muttered again, but she did not began to speak incoherently. Instead, she was clearly thinking about the best way of mentioning this.
"Mr Wright," she finally said, "do you know what happened to Mr Edgeworth?"
"Do you mean his father?" Wright said. After all, Gabrielle was one of the few who always called him by the first name. "All I know is that he was a defence attorney and Edgeworth had worshipped him."
"You speak of him in the past tense…" Gabrielle noticed. "Do you know what happened?"
"I do not know the exact detail but it seems that he died. In addition, what Edgeworth did…"
Gabrielle was silent again but she then suddenly yelled the following out. It was almost as if she was afraid of not being able to say this if she did not do so.
"He was killed…murdered. However, his killer was not convicted because his lawyer managed to win the case for him. Since that day…Miles had a great dislike towards defence attorneys. That man…the lawyer who defended the killer of Miles' father was called 'Robert Hammond'."
"So the police think that Mr. Edgeworth…" Maya began in shock.
"But that is stupid, Miles would never do that!" Gabrielle immediately yelled out before she apologised. "I am sorry, I didn't mean to yell."
"No, that is perfectly understandable. But Miss Revien, is the man who was accused of the murder definitely guilty?" Wright began.
"Of course, he was the only one." Gabrielle said without any hesitation. "After all, the only other person there was Miles."
That incident had a very traumatising effect on Edgeworth and what made it worse were the nightmares that he would have. There were times when he would end up screaming due to these nightmares, which would manipulate him into thinking that he had been the one who did the act.
"But it wasn't him so it must be me…it could only be." Edgeworth would cry out. All of a sudden, the strong prosecutor seemed no more like a young boy. But he was a very different boy from her neighbour who was always so confident and who always knew every answer to the questions in their homework.
"Of course Miles couldn't have done it…maybe he did go and meet Robert Hammond but there is no way that Miles could have done it." Gabrielle suspected that she was repeating the same thing over and over and might appear to be attempting to enforce her view on the two others in this room, but she was so certain that this was the truth.
"I believe you, Miss Revien." Wright assured her. "No matter what he has become, he is not the type of men who would do this."
Due to the help that she gave, Wright was able to have a clearer sense of direction. Gabrielle herself then decided to go to the prison again, although she was not sure whether the security guard would allow this.
Luckily, there seemed to have been a shift in duty, so the new guard did not know about her previous behaviour.
"Gabby…" Edgeworth began impatiently, but she knew that if it was anyone else, he would not even bother to see them.
"Robert Hammond." She said softly as she seated down with her hand clasped. Hopefully, this would prevent her from banging on the glass.
"How did you find this out?" he asked sharply. "The news should not have been released yet…it's Gumshoe isn't it? I'll dock his salary…"
Despite everything, Gabrielle almost wanted to laugh. Somehow, she was not surprised that her fiancé would actually think of this despite the situation he was in.
"It was Mr Wright." She said softly. "He is a defence lawyer and you need one. Miles, I can't just sit and watch you be accused of something that I know that you did not do."
"Gabby…even if I agree to let Wright defend me it is not going to change much. After all, von Karma is going to be the prosecutor."
His time with the von Karma had not been a happy one. She made the mistake of mentioning it once and his reaction had been revealing enough.
"I want to go to France one day." She had said when she was experimenting with a French dish. "After all, daddy used to talk about France quite a lot and I always wanted to see it myself."
"I went there now and then when I lived in Germany." Her boyfriend had replied, a bit too careless due to being occupied with his task of helping her.
"If we ever go together then we can go to Germany as well, and you can also use this time to visit your –"
"No!" His word was very sharp before he quickly muttered. "There is no need for us to especially go to Germany to visit them. No need at all."
"He was your teacher. Surely that meant something." Gabrielle reasoned out.
"Gabby...von Karma is one who never loses." He said grimly. "Yes, I know that you want to say that I never lose until then so there is a chance, but von Karma is at a much higher level then me."
"But Miles, you can't just give up… After all, you didn't do it."
"No, not that." This was so soft that she could barely hear him. "Gabby, I… I will get Wright to defend me. After all, I do need a lawyer…although I doubt that this would be much use."
She wished the she could do something like holding him to comfort him, but there was nothing that she was able to do. The glass wall separated them.
However, he was going to hire Wright and Gabrielle could only believe that Wright would be able to win one more time.
"Gabrielle…" he suddenly said and his voice was unusually soft as well as being rather hesitant. "Your father…your father did commit the crime he was accused for."
"What has daddy got to do with anything?" Gabrielle asked, puzzled. He knew that she visited her father now and then, but this was something that the two of them have never really talked about.
"I remembered that you did not believe that he was guilty until he admitted it himself. However…you still loved your father."
"It is true that what daddy did was really wrong but I could still love him because he is my father." Gabrielle explained before she suddenly realised the implication of his words: "Miles, surely you don't mean…"
"No, I didn't kill Robert Hammond. I can swear on this." He assured her. "However…I keep on thinking of that day fifteen years ago…"
"The same nightmare?" she whispered. "But Miles, it is impossible for you to have been guilty. Surely you know this."
"I know this, but why is it that I cannot stop thinking about it? Yet no matter how hard I try to think about it, I am still not able to remember what exactly happened. But Gabby…are you going to go to the trial?"
"Of course." She said without any hesitation.
"I wish that you would not go, but I know that you would be there anyway. You would probably feel that you need to be there because of me. However…" he added. "If it gets too much then I wish that you will leave."
After all, he could still remember how difficult her father's trial had been for her. Especially when the verdict was announced.
Edgeworth would like to believe that he would be found innocent because he truly did not kill Robert Hammond. However, he knew his teacher too well to be optimistic.
The trial would start tomorrow and it would be a reminder of what he had wanted to forget for such a long time.