December 18th

11:22 AM

District Court

Apollo and Trucy walked down the steps outside the courthouse, amongst the crowd departing.

"That went pretty well, didn't it, Apollo?" Trucy asked as they were finally free of the crowd.

"True enough. There really wasn't any way that we could have lost, though. Not with the evidence we had gathered, anyway." Apollo responded.

"You mean, with Ema's evidence, right?" Trucy asked, nudging Apollo's side. Apollo gave an exasperated groan.

"You're really not gonna give me a break, are you?" he asked resignedly. Trucy smirked.

"You won't have to worry about hearing me talk about it in a bit, seeing as you're meeting with Ema for your date right away." she answered, forcing back another fit of laughter.

"It's not-" Apollo had barely begun his sentence when Trucy cut across him.

"Knock it off, Polly. You asked Ema out on a date. There's no other way to put it, so don't try to pick any fancy words to work around it."

Experience had long since taught Apollo that there was no point whatsoever in arguing with Trucy Wright; Her mind was on an entirely different plane than those of others.

"Now, I'm gonna go back to the office, you go on over to the precinct right away." Trucy instructed him as if she were giving a lecture. "Don't do anything dumb and mess it up, alright?" Without waiting for Apollo's response, Trucy set off down the road. Apollo turned the other way, setting off for the precinct. The usual chill wind was still relentlessly rushing through the city, making him wish that he could drive to his destination. Even so, the walk gave him time to think things over. Looking at what he was doing, he idly wondered why he had agreed to ask Ema out. He wanted to think that it was his resolve that brought him to it, but one small part of his mind nagged at him. It was really Trucy that made you do it, the thought bothered him more than he supposed it should have. The previous day, following their departure from the department store, Apollo had thought his choice over. It had become clear to him that there really wasn't any point in pretending that he wasn't at least slightly attracted to Ema. She was confident in her work, even if she was stuck in a job that she couldn't stand. She didn't let that sort of frustration stop her from getting through her work. She remained friendly toward him, even though they were so often against each other in cases, and that thought brought a slight smile to his face. Even when Ema was annoyed with something, she never really seemed angry. At worst, she would put on a cute sort of pout, and busy herself with eating a truly astonishing number of Snackoos. While Apollo couldn't understand why Ema loved her choice of snack food so much, he could hardly say that he disliked them.

After a few minutes spent walking, Apollo rounded the corner into the precinct's parking lot. He walked through the front doors, and glanced around. A small signboard displaying the locations of the various departments was mounted on the wall next to the entryway. He followed the posted directions to Criminal Affairs, and looked across the room to the line of offices. His gaze was passing by a series of uninteresting nameplates when a booming voice sounded near him, making him jump to the side.

"You're a defense attorney, eh, pal?" a large man in a thoroughly ragged and dusty brown trench coat asked. Apollo was still recovering from the shock as the man spoke again. "You're that hotshot new guy from Mr. Wright's office, aren't you? Apollo Jurist or somethin'?" Apollo groaned quietly.

"Justice." he corrected, straightening up.

"Right, knew it was something like that. I'm Chief Detective Dick Gumshoe, pal. I used to work a lot of Mr. Wright's cases." Apollo looked at Gumshoe for a few moments. By the look of him, he certainly didn't seem like the sort of detective to be promoted to Chief.

"Anyway, you looking for someone, pal?" Gumshoe asked, ending the rather awkward silence.

"Er, yeah. Where's Detective Skye's office?" Apollo inquired.

"Ema? She's just over there. You might want to be careful with greeting her, though, pal. Prosecutor Gavin was just in her office, and you probably know how she gets after talking to him." Gumshoe responded.

"I'll keep that in mind. Thanks, sir." Apollo said, starting toward the office door. Behind him, Gumshoe chuckled to himself. Apollo knocked on the door, and Ema answered. She certainly looked annoyed, but softened slightly upon seeing him.

"Hey, Apollo." she said, lowering the Snackoo bag she was carrying.

"You weren't about to throw those at me, were you?" Apollo asked, forcing a laugh.

"Sorry, I thought that you might have been the fop, again." she muttered, setting the bag down. "Must have been a short trial, huh?"

"Yeah. The store manager didn't really have much of a case to work on, and Payne's hardly an imposing prosecutor." Apollo said, with his usual nervous grin. "You ready to go?"

Ema nodded. "Definitely. Let's get going before Gavin comes around again." With that, Ema slung her bag onto her shoulder and stepped out of the office.

"Gumshoe," she called across the room, "I'm going out for a little while with Apollo here. Let me know if anything happens, as usual, OK?" Gumshoe gave her a wide grin.

"Alright, pals. I'll make sure of it. You two have a good time."

Apollo trailed behind Ema as they departed from the precinct. He didn't usually notice, but Ema was slightly taller than him. He shook his head and carried on.

Not the best time to be feeling insecure, Justice.