Chapter Text
June 11th, 2019
Wright and CO. Law Offices
Knock knock knock
Swift, sharp, precise, remorseless. The kinds of adjectives typically reserved for his prosecution, Miles Edgeworth applied to Wright’s door. It was late in the evening. 11:30 PM. Normally he wouldn’t make a house call at this hour, but Edgeworth had just arrived in the state a mere few hours prior. The combination of TSA, California traffic, jet lag, and flying in general meant that he was in no mood. Especially considering the circumstances.
Disbarred. Edgeworth thought to himself. This better be some sick joke. He knocked again. This time more forcefully. Evidently he wasn’t heard the first time. He could hear some shuffling from the other side of the door, muffled grumbling about the time, he frankly couldn’t tell.
Knock knock knock
“I heard you, Mr. Kelly, I told you I’d get you the rent by….” The door opened, to reveal a slightly disheveled Phoenix Wright, clearly having not shaved for at least a couple of weeks. He wore a grey Ivy U hoodie, sweatpants and pink fuzzy slippers. In any other situation Edgeworth would have thought the man looked a combination of far too domestic, and ridiculous. “Friday.”
“Wright.”
“Edgeworth.” Wright moved to open the door a little further. The look on his face going from frustrated, to confused, to neutral in a matter of moments. “You shouldn’t be here.”
“Do not speak to me about where I should or should not be. What happened?” Edgeworth started strong. If there was anything that Von Karma taught him, it was how to control the conversation.
“I’d imagine you already know what happened,” Wright responded. His tone was guarded, not ready to budge. Edgeworth would make him.
Walking into the office, he resumed. “Yes you can imagine my surprise when I wake up one morning to several emails from journalists, friends, fellow prosecutors, and my colleagues, all asking me why the person who specifically accused me of falsifying evidence in his second case ever, was not only accused, but actively disbarred for that exact same charge. I’m in absolutely no mood, Wright. What the hell happened?” His voice climbed in volume as he spoke. He lost his composure, however it was a ploy to intimidate the man into speaking.
“Keep your damn voice down!” Wright said in a hushed voice, he looked over his shoulder, eyes wide. “Are you trying to get me a noise complai-”
“Daddy?” A voice called from inside. Out walked a young girl, no older than eight. Clad in blue pyjamas, with the symbols from card suits littered all over. “Who’s at the door?”
“Just an old friend, Truce,” Wright’s face softened. He turned back to Edgeworth for a moment. “Come inside, I’ll meet you in my kitchen.”
He stepped away from the door, letting it swing open as he moved. In an overly exaggerated motion, accompanied by a weighty groan, he picked up the child. “Woah, you’re already getting so big, I might not be able to carry you!” He joked, his voice jovial.
“Daddy I’m not that big!” The girl said, giggling at his remark.
“Ah but I’m an old man! These bones can’t take it forever!” He said, starting to tickle the girl a little bit. He walked behind another door, shutting it behind him. Edgeworth was stunned.
When the hell did he get a daughter? He thought to himself, as he walked into the room. He closed the door behind him and continued to ponder. He never mentioned a girlfriend, let alone a wife, and he doesn’t strike me as the type of person who has a one night stand. He made his way to the kitchen. His mind was blanked. His mind was operating at a mile a minute, but he couldn’t wrap his head around how he had never met this girl.
A door clicked behind the prosecutor. He turned to see the defense- Former, defense attorney, walk out from a dark room. The two men stared at each other, for a moment. Wright had an almost, proud look on his face. “I assume you have a few questions,” he began.
“That has to be the biggest understatement I’ve ever heard,” Edgeworth said, in a state of utter disbelief. “You have a daughter?”
“As of May 3rd if you go based on when Trucy first called me Daddy, as of last week according to the state of California,” Wright said, having walked into his kitchen. “Coffee?”
“Black tea, if you have it,” Edgeworth requested. He saw Wright nod, and took a seat at the table. Looking around, the kitchen was in a slight state of disarray. Empty cups littered the counter, what he hoped was an empty pizza box sat atop the stove, and a slightly overflowing trash can sat near the entryway. “When did you adopt her?”
“Two weeks after my last case,” Wright shoved the pizza box off the stove, and replaced it with a tea kettle. “Ever heard of Troupe Gramaryes?”
“In passing.”
“Zak Gramarye was the defendant in my last case. He was accused of murdering his mentor, and father in law, Magnifi,” He continued. The kettle on the stove flame, he moved to his coffee maker, and began work on that. “Trucy, is his daughter.”
“From what I read, a verdict was never found. He mysteriously vanished right before the Judge handed it down, correct?” Edgeworth questioned. His hands folded together, suddenly very interested in the cuticle on his thumbs.
“Quite literally right before. Suddenly he was gone, right before my eyes. All he left behind was a nine to one agreement on my disbarment, and an eight year old daughter, too young to realize she had been abandoned,” Wright said, with a sigh. He flopped down on a chair across the prosecutor. A sad smile crossed his face. “Two years ago Maya, Pearl, and I saw a magic show at the circus. In a strange way it reminded me of that.”
“So you adopted her,” Edgeworth said, smiling back at the other man. “You really never did change.”
“How do you figure?”
“You’re always helping those who have no one else. Even now, a disgraced lawyer,” Wright cringed as he said those words. “You’re taking in a child as a single parent, whom you know likely next to nothing about, and yet it seems she’s already attached to you, and you’re already wrapped around her finger.”
The kettle began to whistle, signaling Wright to stand up, and pour the water into an infuser. Noticing his counterpart’s raised eyebrow he only smiled. “I recall you saying something along the lines of ‘if you give me any of that bagged garbage you will never see Charley ever again’ about a year or two ago.”
“I see you took that to heart.”
“I’m sure if anything happened to him, Mia would come back from the grave to take me with her,” he took the coffee pot off the maker, and poured a cup for himself. He took a sip “Blacker than a moonless night, hotter and more bitter than hell itself... that is coffee.”
“Prosecutor Godot’s blend?” Edgeworth inquired.
“Yep. You’re not wrong. Trucy more or less latched onto me almost immediately. When I first floated the idea of adopting her, about thirty seconds later she was already calling me Daddy and telling me every detail of her eight years of life,” Wright sipped his coffee thoughtfully. “When she talks about magic, she kind of reminds me of you, actually.”
“Me?” Edgeworth had to double take on the other man. “I cannot possibly imagine why you think that.”
“When we were nine, you used to talk about your father in the same way. Like you knew exactly what you wanted to do from the word go,” Wright leaned back into his chair, a reminiscing smile plastered all over his face.
“I see,” The memory of his father still hurt, in many ways. Wright’s actions had made it easier, but only just. Wright stood up, taking the infuser to Edgeworth’s mug. The two men were stuck in this silence. Not necessarily awkward, but also not very comfortable. “You mentioned it was a nine to one decision, on your disbarment?”
“Yeah. Sadly that one didn’t have a chance of convincing the rest of the board I was innocent, considering it was his brother that levied the accusation against me,” Wright’s smile had all but disappeared.
“By his brother do you mean Kristoph Gavin?” Edgeworth questioned. He remembered seeing prosecutor Gavin’s name in the news.
“That’s the one,” Wright said. His brow slightly furrowed as he leaned forward. “I don’t know if I can trust his judgement, however.”
“You think he actually forged it.”
“Gosh, did anyone ever tell you you’re really good at this?”
“Flattery will get you nowhere Wright.”
The two attorneys shared a laugh. They both took a sip from their respective drinks. Wright finally spoke his mind about Gavin, “He was originally supposed to defend Gramarye. I took over at quite literally the last minute.”
“What made you take his case?”
“I thought he was innocent. Still do, actually,” Wright said, sipping from his coffee.
“You’re insane. He disappeared seemingly without a trace and you think that’s the markings of an innocent man?”
“I’m aware of how it looks, and I don’t exactly trust a man who’s willing to abandon an eight year old, but the evidence leads me to believe in his innocence.”
Edgeworth’s forehead slammed into his own palm with enough force it was concerning. “Let’s say for the sake of argument I trust you, what’s your plan?”
“Find work, first. I have a little savings still. Mr. Gramarye at least paid me ahead of time, which helped. As you heard coming in it’s not exactly enough to keep me going, but I’m only two months behind,” Wright joked. Edgeworth on the other hand merely gaped at the man. “Oh don’t look at me like that, I’ve been in worse situations before.”
“Stop joking around. A man of your intelligence, that’s absolutely unacceptable. I’ll hire you,” Edgeworth gulped down the rest of his tea, and stood up.
“Now who’s joking around.”
“No one. I’ve been in Europe as you know. Are you familiar with the Jurist system?” Edgeworth asked, making his way around the table.
“Can’t say I’ve heard of it.”
“I’ve heard rumblings about it in Germany, back when I had to sort the Von Karma estate,” Edgeworth explained. “It sounds like it might be a way to fix our system. But it’s a lot to manage. I could use some help getting all the proper information.”
“Sounds like a job for your sister,” Wright scoffed.
“I offered her a job as well, she said, and I quote, ‘I will never partake in this foolish idealist so called system you only may have heard about’,” Edgeworth said. “Besides, and no one else will ever hear this, I actually quite enjoy your company.”
A beat of silence passed. The two men merely stared at one another. Wright took a sip from his coffee, pondering the idea.
“I don’t need handouts from you, Edgeworth,” he said, breaking eye contact.
“This is hardly a handout, the work will be hard, and time consuming, but I will pay you fairly as I see fit,” Edgeworth’s hand found its way to the defense attorney’s shoulder. “Please… Phoenix,”
Phoenix finished his coffee, and smiled at the prosecutor. “When do we start, Miles?”
“I thought you’d never ask.”