Chapter 10: For Tomorrows

Phoenix leaned against the siding of Thalassa's house, trying to comfort Trucy. A bunch of officers were inside the house examining the scene. Ema came out of the house and gave Phoenix and Trucy a frown.

"Well Mr. Wright, I'm sure you already know, since you're no idiot, that this is classified as a kidnapping."

Phoenix nodded and Trucy sniffed. "Y-You're going to make sure that you find her, right?" Trucy asked.

"Of course we are!" Ema said, fiddling with the ends of her hair. "What kind of police do you take us for?" She snapped.

"Eeek! I-I'm sorry. I just really wanted to make sure that someone was going to find her or else..." Trucy trailed off and began to sob.

"Ema!" Phoenix said, giving Ema a warning tone and glaring at her.

"Ugh, I'm sorry! I'm just in a really bad mood today!" Ema took out her bag of snackoos and began munching on them. "I'm tired, I haven't stopped working at all, not even a break for lunch. I'm hungry and to top it all off my stupid fop of a boss hasn't given me today's paperwork, so now I'm going to have to do double tomorrow. Where can that stupid fop be? Not that I really care or anything, the less I see of him, the better."

"Uhh, right." Phoenix muttered, looking down at Trucy. Trucy wiped her eyes.

"Since you're going to find her, I want to help!"

Ema was quite shocked at the amount of determination in Trucy's voice. She stared at Trucy for a moment and then shifted her gaze to Phoenix for some sort of conformation. Phoenix just shrugged.

"Well, I guess you can if you really want to..." Ema trailed off, hoping that Trucy would change her mind. She really didn't want to play babysitter for a fifteen year old. Instead, Trucy nodded eagerly and Ema let out a sigh. "Fine, I guess we'll start tomorrow."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Back in Apollo's apartment, Klavier took out his cell phone to call Ema.

"Really, I think you're going to waste your time calling her. She's not going to find anything and she's going to get really mad," Apollo warned.

Klavier simply shrugged and scrolled through his contacts, finding hers he pressed it to his ear.

"Well it's not-" Apollo was interrupted by Klavier holding up his finger.

"Yes, fräulein..." Klavier said smoothly. Apollo could hear Ema's voice through the phone but couldn't make out what she was saying. "Ja, sorry about that. Some... important things had come up... Ja, I know. Listen, I need you to... What? What happened?" Apollo noticed the panic seep into Klavier's usually calm voice. He tried desperately to hear what Ema was saying.

"Nein... that can't be! Mein Gött... You'll be investigating tomorrow?... Huh? Nein! You cannot take her!... I do not care what Herr Wright said! No Ema, you really can't take her," Klavier glanced at Apollo's letter, panic flooding through him. "...Fine, I'll tell you. But you have to promise not to tell Herr Wright anything; OK?.. Then no. I will not- nein, I cannot tell you... Why? Ha, why? It's for their own safety. Trust me, it's better that they don't know... Fine, auf wiedersehen," he hung up.

"What happened?" Apollo immediately asked, concern filling his eyes.

"What a mess!" Klavier exclaimed, resting his head in his hands. "There's been a kidnapping-"

"Another one?" Apollo asked, interrupting.

"Ja, another one," he glanced up and began searching his pockets for his keys. "They'll be investigating tomorrow. But the bad thing is that Trucy's involved..."

"What? Her fingerprints weren't found anywhere; were they?"

"Nein," Klavier confirmed. "not yet anyway... Ema's allowing her to help investigate tomorrow."

"Wait, what? Why would she let that happen?" Apollo asked curiously.

Klavier paused from his key-searching and looked Apollo straight in the eye. "She has a... relation to the kidnapping victim. "

"Huh? Oh no... Don't tell me that i-it's Mr. Wright..." Apollo stammered.

"Nein, it's not him." Klavier sighed. "...It's Thalassa Gramarye."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Ten o'clock pm. Trucy finally fell asleep and Phoenix was in the kitchen rummaging through the cupboards for something to eat. He heard the door to the agency open and he immediately knew who was walking through the door, Sure enough, Apollo walked into the kitchen and came up to him.

"Have you gone insane?" Apollo whispered angrily.

Phoenix didn't understand what Apollo was talking about but answered nonetheless, "I'm perfectly sane, mind you."

"You sure about that?" Apollo questioned; accusation in his voice.

"Of course I am. Why do you ask?"

"...Answer me this. Why are you letting Trucy help investigate Thalassa's kidnapping?"

Phoenix chuckled lightly and grabbed a tub of butter from the refrigerator. "That's what this is about? By the way, you shouldn't call her Thalassa. She is your mother."

"Answer. The. Question!" Apollo spat out, trying his very best to control his anger.

Phoenix grabbed a spoon from the drawer and spun around to give Apollo a slightly stern look. "She wants to find to find her mother. Do you understand that? I do not see a problem with letting her do so. You take her on investigations all the time and nothing ever happens."

"B-But this is different! This is kidnapping case! And- what the hell are you doing?" Apollo stared. Phoenix was sitting on the counter eating butter straight from the container.

"Eating butter," Phoenix replied nonchalantly.

"That's disgusting. Not to mention that that can give you a heart attack."

"Anyway," Phoenix ignored Apollo's heart attack comment. "kidnapping cases are not that much different. Back when I was a lawyer, my assistant got kidnapped and I took her eight year old cousin and nothing happ-"

"You took an eight year old on an investigation? Were you out of your mind?"

"No, I wasn't. My point is that nothing happened to Pearls and we got Maya back. Trucy is going to be fine. Ema is a very responsible girl and I know she won't let anything happen to her."

"But what if someone gets knocked out from behind or-"

"Apollo, you're being way too paranoid and thinking through it too much."

"You're not being careful enough! Isn't it better to be safe than sorry?"

"Yes, but that isn't always the right thing to do."

"...You are a terrible father." Apollo said bluntly. Phoenix immediately paused what he was doing. "You leave Trucy alone or with me half of the time so you can do whatever you do, It seems like you don't care what she's doing most of the time. You're letting her investigate a kidnapping case, and now look at what you're doing! You're eating butter, which everybody knows it can cause heart attacks. Do you want to kill yourself early and leave Trucy without a father again? Do you?"

Phoenix finally looked up and for the first time ever Apollo saw sadness and hurt in his eyes. Apollo was filled with instant regret and he wanted to take back all that he said, but it was too last. "No, Mr. Wright... that's not what I... I'm sorry." He tried, he then took a step back. "You don't understand why I'm so..." Phoenix looked back down at the butter and began to put the lid back on. His silence was making Apollo nervous. "Look, maybe I should-"

"Apollo, it's OK. You spoke your mind. I can respect that," Phoenix finally spoke.

"No, it's not alright and I'm sorry. I'm gonna get going; but answer me this. Are you still going to let Trucy help investigate tomorrow?"

Phoenix leaned against the refrigerator door. "Yes."

Apollo nodded sadly. "Alright. Have a good night."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Back at Apollo's apartment, Apollo called Klavier.

"Hallo Herr Forehead. Did you convince Herr Wright to not let Trucy help investigate tomorrow?"

"No, but don't worry. I'm going to also help investigate tomorrow to protect Trucy. Not to mention that I want to find Thalassa too."