Author Note: I don't know if I regret this one yet. Justicykes, One-shot, rated T for blood.

The office was abnormally quiet that day, with Apollo being the only one in the office. His pen scratched away at the paperwork, reminding him of the sound a rat made when it scurried across a wood floor. The clock on his desk ticked silently, reminding him that the day wasn't even half over yet.

But it was late enough; Athena should have been there by this time. She never slept past ten and she would've called the office if something had come up.

"Mr. Wright." Apollo called across the office. A moment later Phoenix appeared in the opposite door. Had he been here the whole time? Apollo couldn't remember. "Where is Athena today?"

Phoenix's eyes widened at the question. "Don't you remember?" They suddenly glowed red as if reflecting the shifting sunlight. "You killed her." Shadows warped across the room as the numbers on Apollo's clock shifted in reverse.

"What?" Apollo couldn't have heard that right. Athena wasn't dead, and even if she was he never would have killed her. He jumped up from his chair, scattering a few papers onto the ground. "What are you talking about Mr. Wright!?"

Phoenix never answered, melting into the wall behind him. The light which had been shifting across the room vanished and reappeared again, coming to a stop right in Apollo's eyes. The clock on his desk stopped in the same moment, having reversed itself a whole day back. After taking a moment to save his eyes from the blinding light, Apollo heard an ominous voice coming from behind him.

"Apollo." It called his name slowly but shakily. "What have you done, Apollo?" It sounded kind of like Athena. Apollo spun around rapidly, reaching out for support as the walls warped around him. After only a moment he found himself standing in a narrow hallway, staring down his co-worker.

She didn't look so good. Her face was unusually pale and both white palms were pressed over her stomach. Her eyes seemed dull and widget displayed a dark black screen. In one smooth motion, Athena collapsed to the floor. Apollo raced towards her, taking longer to close the distance than he expected.

His hands shook slightly as he lifted her onto his lap, tears forming at the corner of his eyes. "Athena!" He put all his chords of steel into shouting. "What happened?" From closer up, he could see that her stomach was bleeding profusely, dripping the remainder of her life all over the floor. He pressed one hand over the wound to try to suppress the flow but, without any bandages, there was little he could do. "Somebody call an ambulance!" He called out. Not a soul responded.

""W-why?" Athena asked from within his arms. "Why did you shoot me?" The walls morphed around him again, Athena vanishing in a flash of light. Though her form was gone, her blood still stuck to his clothes and hands. The world settled as a courtroom, and Apollo could hear Simon's voice echoing through the larger space.

"Why did you kill Athena?" The older man's eyes were ringed with red as he pointed at Apollo. Apollo wasn't at his usual place in the courtroom, but instead stood up on the witness stand. He could do nothing but stare back at the prosecution. "She trusted you, she believed in you, and yet…"

"Objection!" The defense shouted, and Apollo whipped his head towards the bench. But the man he expected to see wasn't there. Phoenix Wright hadn't agreed to defend him. "That is merely conjecture."

As the two bickered back and forth Apollo looked down at his hands once again. The blood wouldn't stop. It just dripped onto the witness stand. It flowed everywhere, pooling up around his feet.

Drip

Drop

Drip

Drop

Apollo woke with a start, his heart pounding out of control. He forced himself to take deep breaths, checking his hands for signs of blood. They were clean, and he let out a sigh of relief.

"I'm fine." He said out loud, wiping the sweat off his brow. "I'm fine." Just the same, he had to get out of bed for a minute. He couldn't just sit there and imagine what it would be like to have someone else's blood dripping endlessly from his grasp after he shot them and couldn't save them and was clearly guilty of murder. Athena was fine, and so was he. Apollo ended up washing his face in the bathroom, careful not to meet his own gaze in the mirror. He washed his hands carefully, scrubbing them until they were rubbed red, the skin starting to crack painfully by the time he stopped.

He was about to climb back into bed and hope for happy dreams when his phone rang. Who could possibly be calling in the middle of the night? The only way to find out was to answer. He could just let it go to voice mail, but the instant he considered it the image of Athena bleeding out in his arms flashed through his mind. He couldn't risk just letting it go.

"Hello?"

"Apollo, help." Her voice sounded faint.

"Athena? What's wrong!?" His heart, which had recently slowed to regular speeds, skipped a beat. "Where are you?" He had already grabbed his house keys off their hook when she responded a second later.

"I can't find the book."

"Excuse me?" He froze mid-step.

"I'm sorry for calling so late, but if I don't find the right law book I won't be able to make this case."

Apollo gaped at the phone for a moment. "You're not still at the office, are you?" He dropped his keys back on their hook with a sigh.

"Yeah!" Somehow she sounded happy about it. "I still had something to work on before court tomorrow, so I just stayed to work on it."

"Don't you sleep?"

"Sometimes. But not right now. Anyway, I'm looking for the law book on identifying different kinds of guns."

"Top shelf, third from the left." Apollo could hear her shuffling around on the other side, presumably searching for the text. Since he did most of the cleaning he knew where all the books were. Hopefully she'd actually be able to find it.

"Got it! Thanks so much for your help Apollo."

"No problem, but you should really go home. I can't have you falling asleep on the bench tomorrow."

"I'll go home, eventually." If Apollo had to guess, he would say she was lying. Oh well, there was little he could do about it now.

"Goodbye, see you tomorrow."

"Bye, but Apollo?"

"Hmm?"

"Are you okay?" She sounded worried with a hint of hesitation, almost as if she wanted to stop the question half way through.

"What?" It certainly caught Apollo off guard.

"I-it's just that, when you first answered, something felt off."

"I'm fine." He didn't want to talk about it.

"And now," Athena hesitated for a moment. "I hear discord in your voice." She stopped talking, and Apollo wondered if she hung up. He was about to put down the phone when she practically shouted. "It's decided! The emergency therapy session starts in 15 minutes. I'll be there soon!"

"Wait, Athena." He protested, but she was already gone. "What happened to going to sleep?" Apollo muttered, setting the phone down a bit harsher than necessary. He hastily put on his usual outfit and started boiling some water for tea; he had no doubt Athena would arrive soon.

It was just like her to do something like this too. She always rushed in head first, not even thinking about the consequences. But, Apollo pondered, this time it might not be all bad. Even if the only reason she called was for work, it was nice to know she cared about him. They were partners, after all. But this was still a foolish and reckless endeavor.

The water had almost come to a boil when the doorbell rang. Apollo allowed himself one last sigh before moving to answer it. He was just going to give her a cup of tea and send her on her way. He didn't need a therapy session; he was fine.

When he opened the door to let Athena in, he suddenly felt a little more fine. Despite her concerned stare, some of the weight pressing down on his shoulders lifted at the sight of her. The two held a minor staring contest in that moment, Apollo losing after only a few seconds.

"I guess you can come in."

"Thanks Apollo." Her smile didn't reach her eyes as she entered his small apartment.

"How are you?" Apollo figured since he wasn't going to sleep anymore tonight anyway, he had plenty of time for formalities.

"Pretty good, I guess. You?"

"I was doing better a couple hours ago."

"Oh don't be that way."

"Would you like a cup of tea?"

Athena squinted up at him, "Are you stalling?"

"N-no." Damn, she saw right through him.

"I guess one cup of tea wouldn't hurt. But we're gonna talk."

"Okay." There was no escaping it, Apollo thought to himself as he led Athena to the kitchen, all he could hope to do was convince her to go home and sleep. He poured water into two cups, steeping the tea in them individually. "What happened to the case you were working on? Did you just drop it and run straight here?"

"Well," Athena blushed slightly, and Apollo knew his guess had been spot on. "This is more important! You're my friend and if something is wrong, I want to help." Her flush deepened as she averted her gaze, pouting at one of the walls.

"I…" Apollo didn't really know how to respond. His heart felt light and warm, and even though he hadn't drunken any yet he blamed the tea. "I uh, thanks."

"Of course." Athena grinned brightly, pulling up widgets interface. "Now let's get started. Tell me about what's bothering you."

Maybe this wasn't such a good idea; talking about the nightmare to the person it featured. "Nothing's bothering me, I'm fine."

"Sorry if I don't believe you." Athena fiddled with her earing, thinking over the first statement. "I'm getting an abnormal amount of sadness and shock when you say your fine. Why do you think that could be?"

"I don't know." Apollo scoffed, wrapping his hands around his teacup. It soothed the irritation slightly.

"Hmm, how about you tell me what you did this evening up until the point where I called you. That way I can look at each event individually."

Apollo almost said no and sent her home, but it was too late to do that now.

"After I left work I came home. I made some dinner and ate it right here at this table. Then I reviewed the case for tomorrow and went to sleep. I woke up when you called. That's it." Apollo watched as Athena clicked through the mood matrix options, hovering over each emotion as it passed.

"Hold up," Athena stopped him at one of the lines. "Right where you said you woke up when I called your emotions behaved strangely. Your fear spiked way, oh." She glanced down at the table, right hand shaking slightly. "I'm the problem." She leapt up, nearly knocking over her tea. "I'm so sorry, I should go. I just…" Athena turned to flee, but was stopped by one hand firmly wrapped around her wrist.

"Objection." Apollo asserted without his usual volume. "I was scared when I answered the phone because someone doesn't know how to say hello without giving me a heart attack." He had to jump to his feet to reach her wrist.

"Heh." She turned back towards him, rubbing the back of her head with her free hand apologetically. "I was going for a dramatic entrance."

"It worked."

"But still." Athena frowned, "this reading is way too high for just a moment of fear." She glanced around for a moment before settling her eyes on the hand holding her wrist. "Oh my god, what happened to your hand?"

He released her as if burned. "There's nothing wrong with my hands."'

"Yeah there is, you've rubbed all the skin off." She put her hands on her hips pointedly. She pointed one finger up under his chin and he gulped once in response. "Sit back down, we're not done yet." He quickly retook his seat, sipping his tea cautiously as she retook her place across from him.

"So what's going on with your hands?" Athena pulled the mood matrix back up, inputting data as she spoke.

"They're just a little red, it's not that unusual."

"Sadness and fear, way higher than they should be for something you consider not unusual." She closed the mood matrix program, downing the rest of her tea in a few short gulps. "You know what, never mind. If you're just gonna lie to me, then I should go. This is probably just a lesson I should've learned a long time ago about minding my own business." She placed her teacup in the sink, but didn't make it out the kitchen door before Apollo stopped her. He didn't move this time, but spoke instead.

"I had a nightmare." He bowed his head forward, eyes firmly planted on his tea leaves. "You… died. I killed you. Your blood, it was everywhere." His shoulders shook, tremors reaching all the way down to his feet. "I couldn't get it off." I'm fine, he told himself, but it wasn't true. He was about to tell Athena to forget everything he just said but was cut off by her engulfing him in a warm hug.

"It's okay." She said, smoothing back his hair. "I'm right here." She held him for a minute, at least until the shaking stopped, before adding. "I would've kicked your ass if you tried anyway."

"Heh heh." Apollo let out a shaky laugh, not doubting it for a second. "Thanks."

"Why are you thanking me?" Athena frowned at him. "I've been nothing but troublesome and meddlesome tonight. I'm not a very sensitive friend."

"Exactly." Apollo retightened his arms around her form, drawing her close for one more hug. "Thank you."

"You're welcome I guess?" It was practically a question. "Is that the sun coming up?"

One glance out his apartment window confirmed that, yes indeed, the sun was rising. He groaned quietly, dreading the day of exhaustion that was soon to come.

But as long as Athena was by his side, he knew he could handle it.

He's Apollo Justice, and he's fine.

End Note: Thanks for reading.