October 18th, 1:32 PM

McDervish & Sons Family Diner

"You're sure they didn't see?" Phoenix asked for the third time.

"Positive," Powers assured her, "But, believe me, I understand the concern."

Escaping the crowded street outside the courthouse had been a harrowing experience. Hundreds of journalists of increasingly dubious credentials had flooded the area in a fashion not unlike a swarm of camera-toting bees, all of them eager to get the first word in on Powers' acquittal, with a veritable wall of reporters sealing off the quickest route to Phoenix's car.

Fortunately, once the crowd spotted Detective Gumshoe exiting the courthouse with Dai Vasquez, their shifted priorities left an opening in their ranks, which Phoenix capitalized on immediately. With a few roundabout turns, they had managed to disappear into the traffic and reach Matty's fourth favourite restaurant for their lunch trip.

Chatting over lunch put Matty into a very good mood, with Powers filling him in on a wide array of behind-the-scenes facts relating to The Steel Samurai and its related media.

"I dunno where the show can go from here, though," Powers was saying, "What with Mr. Vasquez going to jail."

"Right… You guys are gonna need a new producer, huh?" replied Matty.

"Yep. I'm not sure how Salina's gonna react to it. She was kinda… weird around Mr. Vasquez."

Phoenix, who had been resting against the corner of the booth, leaned in to ask, "Were they together?"

"No." Powers said immediately Giving the question a bit of thought, she took on a slightly sickened look. "Oh God, no."

Phoenix smirked. "That doesn't sound convincing."

"Why are you putting that thought into my head?" and equally unnerved Matty asked, shuddering as Phoenix broke out laughing.

"Hey, you never know, a loudmouth like her might be into the angry, unhinged type," she went on.

"Jeez, Nix, stop." Matty practically begged, burying his face in his hands. "My brain isn't built for that kind of mental image… We're just trying to have a normal conversation here, and you come in and start… you start shipping the guy-"

He gave up on his complaint as Phoenix snorted and collapsed back into laughter.

"And on that note," Powers interrupted with a slightly groaning edge, "God, don't get me started on the shippers…"

"And there's my subject change." Matty cut in before Phoenix could press any further.

Content with her contribution to the discussion, Phoenix sat back again to finish off her lunch, making only the occasional comment throughout the remainder of the conversation.

Once all three had finished and Matty's reserve of questions had run dry, Powers fumbled in her bag for a moment and retrieved a chequebook. She slid a cheque across the table once she had finished writing on it.

"Hey, a client's actually paying you, Boss!" Matty jibed. His expression froze when he looked down at the slip of paper. Glancing back up at Powers, he asked, "You, uh… You forget a decimal point somewhere in there?"

Powers chuckled, stowing her pen back in her bag. "There is no decimal point."

"… It's OK to look at it, Ms. Wright." she added, spotting Phoenix, who had been attempting to nonchalantly avert her eyes since hearing Matty's comment.

Seeing the attorney that saved her from prison dissolve into stammered thanks was easily her favourite moment since the verdict.

October 18th, 2:22 PM

Phoenix Wright's Apartment

"No." Phoenix said firmly. Since their departure from the restaurant, Matty had made an uncountable number of inane suggestions for what they could do with the money they received from their client, which, though amusing, was starting to wear on Phoenix's patience.

"You're really gonna say that wouldn't be the coolest thing we own?"

"I didn't say that, I said that it would use literally all of our money. And not just what we got from Ms. Powers, either."

"Like that's a problem." Matty said with a shrug as he made to open the apartment's door.

Phoenix shot him a sideways glance. "I'm reasonably sure that having no money at all would be a problem, Matty."

The two of them jumped as a voice called, "Never stopped me!" from beyond the door.

They found Lexine inside, her feet propped up on the living room table. She gave them a slight head-bob as a greeting.

"Lex, why did you break into my apartment?" Phoenix asked flatly.

"I didn't break anything." she responded dismissively. "You think I don't know where you guys keep your extra keys?"

Phoenix shrugged, seeing no point in pressing the question.

"Now, more importantly," Lexine went on, shuffling over to clear space on the couch, "I think you guys have a story to tell me about today."

While the two of them were sitting down, she pulled up a laptop from next to the couch –Phoenix's, naturally- and brought up the first online article she could find about the day's trial.

"The trial ended barely an hour ago," Phoenix remarked, "They've already got stories about it online?"

"You think the media's gonna miss somethin' like that? There were updates going on everywhere during the friggin' thing." Lexine said. She shifted the laptop to show off the article. A wide photo of the courthouse's front steps jumped out at them.

Without any particular warning, Matty burst out laughing.

"What?" Phoenix and Lexine asked together. Their eyes followed as Matty gestured to the block of text beneath the photo.

Phoenix Wright, Powers' defense lawyer, seen to the actor's right, left the district court with his client and an unknown woman…

"Hang on, 'his'!? What're they… No, they're not-… They're calling you the lawyer!?" Phoenix sputtered incredulously. She scrolled further down, only to find another photo -this one focused entirely on Matty- labelled with her own name.

Through his ongoing gale of laughter, Matty said, "Good PR, Boss, good PR. We've gotta start running ads with that…"

"Hey, maybe it's only this one site..." Lexine said hopefully, opening a few more articles.

She joined Matty in laughing as her theory was proven wrong.

"... I think I need to leave for a minute." Phoenix said as she removed herself from the couch, taking her laptop with her.

Matty found her in her room ten minutes later once he had finished recounting the trial to Lexine.

"Hey, Lex had to run off all of a sudden, she was- Boss, what're you doing?" he asked over her shoulder as she worked on her computer.

"Nothing." Phoenix lied, snapping the laptop shut.

Matty caught on immediately. "You're really gonna tell me that those tabloid sites are bothering you that much?"

"Don't know what you're talking about." Phoenix said, sounding a bit more defensive than she had intended to.

"Nix, they're not even real reporters. Half of them probably wrote their articles on cell phones while they were still waiting right outside the courthouse."

Phoenix frowned. She reopened her laptop. "I know, but it's just business, Matty. I need people to actually know who they're coming to when they need legal help."

"Boss, I'm pretty sure they'll work it out once they get into the office. I mean, first thing, they see you, a lady in a suit, and then-"

"Then they see you, a spirit-summoning fast food vacuum of a teenager?" Phoenix finished, grinning over her shoulder.

Matty shrugged a bit. "I was gonna word it in a slightly less biting way, but yeah, that's the idea."

Phoenix closed her laptop again. "Fair enough. You said Lex left already? Did you get her up to speed on everything?"

"Yep! She had to bail pretty quickly, thought, said something about a job interview."

Phoenix coughed to cover a barely-supressed laugh.

"What?" Matty inquired.

"Sorry, but you've met Lex, haven't you? 'Cause I'm pretty sure you just said 'job interview'." Phoenix replied, dropping the effort to conceal her laughter. "Anyway, thanks for telling her everything. Means she won't be on my back about it."

At Matty's urging, they returned to the living room.

"We have any food?" he asked once they arrived.

Giving him a confused sidelong glance, Phoenix said, "You just-… We just got back from eating. Just now."

Matty's only reply was tilting his head in a 'hint-hint' sort of manner.

"… Right." Phoenix conceded a moment later. "I'm talking to Matty Fey, how silly of me to forget. Check the fridge yourself."

She approached the couch while Matty disappeared into the kitchen. After considering sitting down, she turned back around.

"I'm gonna get changed." she called toward the kitchen doorway. Matty replied with what she interpreted as his signature affirmative grunt, though through a mouthful of food.

Phoenix returned to her room, closing the door behind her, and dropped face-first onto her bed in a decidedly ungraceful fashion.

She'd had a tiring few days. It was nice, knowing that as far as she knew, she was now looking at a clear schedule, for at least a short while. She rolled to her side, thinking over how best to spend her time until she found another client. All that remained in the way now was a small stack of paperwork related to the trial that still needed to be filled out, beyond which work would be as simple as just going to the office with Matty each day.

Maybe it was made up for by the erratic nature of all three of the trials she had worked thus far, but she felt surprisingly underworked for the head of a small business. Though, Matty being her only employee –if he could really be called that-, probably played into it as well.

She was two thirds of the way through changing, presently wearing a light-blue t-shirt and holding a pair of cargo pants, when she caught the sound of Matty's voice down the hall. There was another voice as well, which seemed somewhat familiar, though she couldn't quite match a face to it in her mind. So, quickly donning her pants and straightening her hair, she left the room. The moment she rounded the corner at the end of the hall, the owner of the second voice greeted her.

"Afternoon, Phoenix."

The even-voiced speaker was the building's landlord, a very tall bald man whose first name Phoenix couldn't remember.

"… Hello, Mr. Rowe." she said.

"I saw your friend Lexine leaving, so I wondered if you had finally gotten home." Rowe explained.

Phoenix nodded. "Is there something you needed to ask?"

"Ah," Rowe began, adjusting his checkered tie, "Yes, there is something."

He shuffled his feet a bit and motioned toward the table. "Shall we sit down?"

"Sure." Phoenix agreed, pulling up a chair.

In her experience, Mr. Rowe didn't make a frequent habit of visiting his tenants personally. There had only been a handful of times in recent memory that he had found any reason to speak to Phoenix personally, at least; for the most part, he limited himself to mass-produced letters informing tenants of any major events going on. There was one memorable instance Phoenix remembered very well, when Rowe had discovered that the tenant at the far end of the hall had apparently tried to move two of his in-laws into his apartment without informing him.

If nothing else, the memory of Rowe's lengthy argument with the now-former tenant was a perfect way to deter Phoenix from trying the same thing a year later, when Matty first moved into the apartment with her.

Sadly, the look on Rowe's face didn't suggest that the reason for this visit was anything quite so entertaining.

He rested an elbow on the table and said, "I've been speaking to the other tenants for most of the day. Something's come up."

Phoenix sat back, tilting her head a bit. (If he's been talking about this all day, why's he being so vague about it?)

"I received a letter from some suit in City Hall yesterday morning." Now his expression was showing signs of frustration. "Someone's bought out this entire block."

"What…?" Phoenix shifted forward in her seat. "Bought-? You mean you've lost the building?"

"It won't be official until the end of the month, but that's the gist of it." Rowe affirmed.

Now he had Matty's attention. "Don't you get a say in that?" he asked.

"By all rights, I should, but whoever's footing the bill for this was very careful to cover all their bases." Rowe said. Setting a document on the table and sliding it to Phoenix's side, he added, "As well as a handful of mine."

Phoenix picked up the letter and looked it over. Reaching the end, she shifted her chair back, tapping the page against the table thoughtfully. "Hmm. You've got a point there."

"Ahh, that's what I was afraid of." Rowe said. "I wondered if my resident lawyer could get me a loophole."

"Sorry," Phoenix began to say before Rowe dismissively shook his head.

"No need. Whoever backed this move knew what they were doing. But now, for the main point: I'd bet you noticed, but that letter more or less amounts to a fancy way of saying, 'Evict your tenants and clear out your office'. That's the message I've been bringing around all morning."

"Lemme guess: Everyone was ecstatic at the news, right?" Matty jibed.

Rowe chuckled ruefully. "If only."

"So," Phoenix interjected at their pause, "Why was the block bought out? Did they tell you?"

"I should be so lucky. Some white-collar type looking to rearrange his taxes, I'd bet."

"Mr. Rowe, you don't have to just sit and let this happen." Phoenix went on. "I could help you take this to court."

"Just 'Morgan' is fine, Phoenix." Rowe said.

(Morgan. Right, that's his name.)

"And I'd love to take you up on that," he continued, "but I suspect my finances would look like pocket change to whoever is buying this place out, if their offer to me is any indication."

Phoenix raised an eyebrow.

"I wouldn't be proud to kick out all my tenants, least of all the people like you two, just because someone waved a cheque in my face, but the buyer clearly has plans for this area, and I doubt saying 'no' to them once would be the end of it. I'm not agreeing yet, but the city's giving me a very small window to make any return points."

Phoenix slumped a bit. "So, we should look into moving out?" she asked.

Rowe sighed. "That's how things are looking. If anyone should apologize, Phoenix, it's me. I never could have seen this coming, and it's completely blindsided me."

He took back the document. "Please, call me if you need anything." he said as he stood up. "I still need to speak to a few last tenants on the top floor, so I've got to run."

Phoenix followed him to the door. "It's alright, Mr. Ro-… Er, Morgan." she said as he stepped out. "Matty and I should be OK. I just hope nobody gives you any trouble over this."

Rowe chuckled. "We're agreed there."

Once the door had closed, Phoenix turned back to face Matty, who was still at the table. She smiled somewhat hollowly. "Hmm. And here I thought our schedule had opened up."

"Kind of a downer." Matty replied.

Phoenix nodded. For a few seconds, she just stood at the door restlessly, before deciding to go into the kitchen herself.

"Course," Matty's voice followed her, "we're all set for a new place already."

Phoenix halted. Sticking her head back through the kitchen doorway, she asked, "What?"

"We can move into Micah's old place." Matty said, looking surprised that she hadn't caught on.

"Micah?" Phoenix repeated, still drawing a blank.

"… Yeah, Nix, that's my brother's name." he waited a moment and added, "… Don't you know where Mic lived?"

"Uh…" Phoenix droned, suddenly suspecting that this was something she really ought to have known.

"Jeez, you worked with him for at least a few years, right?" Matty questioned further. Getting no reply, he answered in her stead, "Nix, he lived over top of the office."

This was news. Phoenix had, of course, known that the law office had another floor above the first-floor office space. But, strange as it was, she only now realized that she couldn't remember ever having asked what it was used for, and since her former employer's death, she hadn't ever gone up there for herself. "Guess I never got around to asking about it. Always thought it was just storage space or something."

Matty looked ready to laugh in her face by this point. "We've been working there for more than a month, Nix. Seriously, you keep trying to convince me you're not a dotty old lady…" he said with a smirk. "Ahh, whatever. Let's just head over."

Dropping what little interest she had had in visiting the kitchen, Phoenix followed suit as Matty jumped up from his chair and headed for the door.

October 18th, 3:33 PM

Wright and Co. Law Offices

It was a wonder she hadn't ever looked at what was the beyond the unlocked door adjoining the office's bathroom.

There was, it turned out, a simple staircase, which led up to another door. Phoenix stood aside on the second-to-last step to allow Matty to go in first.

The area beyond was a welcoming entryway that led into a modest living space which, by the look of it, had quite close to the same amount of floor space as their own apartment.

Considering that it had been more than a month since the apartment had last housed its owner, Phoenix wasn't surprised by the visible layer of dust that sat on much of its surface.

"Pretty nice place, right?" Matty asked as he stepped forward and looked the entryway over.

"Yeah." Phoenix said simply; even now, fifteen or so minutes after being told about it, she still felt a bit stupid for having been unaware of this apartment's existence.

As Matty headed off to look through the other rooms, Phoenix continued to examine the entry hall. By the looks of things, the police had been through here during their investigation into Micah's murder. There was a certain inherent sadness she felt in the atmosphere of the room. It was personal, she supposed. Anyone else coming in would just see a dusty but otherwise very plain living space. Knowing what she did about its former occupant, however, Phoenix couldn't shake a sudden resurgence of the grief that had wracked her very core following her boss's murder. She paced the small entry room, thinking to herself. Something she had thought about on occasion in the past –a more recently developed aspect of her personal philosophy- came to mind.

"Some hurts never really go away, but in the end, they're not meant to be easy, so why should they?"

Running her awkward wording through her head, she smiled.

(Guess it's for the best that I never took philosophy.)

In her life, she wasn't terribly accustomed to dealing with grief. She had been through the requisite loss of a pet –in her case, a dog- in her childhood, but beyond that, her mostly optimistic take on life wasn't intruded upon often. Even if she had only known and worked with Micah for a few years, he had helped her get back onto her feet following the worse parts of the events that led up to her joining his law office, and helped shape her career and plans for her future. Even before his death, she hadn't been sure that she would ever find a way to properly thank him for all he had done.

Micah's death, therefore, had easily been one of the most-heavily trying events she had yet experienced. She certainly hadn't made it any easier on herself by throwing herself headlong into the investigation into the incident, but as far as she was concerned, her grief couldn't have possibly held a candle to Matty's. Her determination to help him had been the one thing that helped her keep her head in the days of that case.

It was hard to believe that only a little over a month had passed since then.

She hadn't heard anything from Matty in a few minutes, and took a lucky guess as to which room he was in. She found him standing next to what she assumed to be Micah's bed.

He noticed her coming in and smiled. "Bet you wouldn't have gussed Mic was such a neat freak about his room, right?"

Phoenix gazed around the room briefly. Matty had a point; Micah had never left the office outright messy, but the neat and orderly state of his room did have a distinct contrast to the rooms downstairs.

Midway through her thoughts on it, Phoenix noticed something in Matty's hand.

"What's that?"

Matty glanced down at his hand, almost looking surprised to see the object there himself.

"Old photo." he said, setting the framed picture on the bedside table. Phoenix stepped forward to look at it herself. She recognized Micah immediately, though he looked a fair bit younger than she was used to. He was smiling, but it didn't look as if anyone else in the photo realized that a picture was being taken.

"Is that you?" she asked, motioning toward one of the other dark-haired people visible behind Micah.

"… Yeah." Matty said after checking it over. "I think I was... like, twelve or thirteen in that one."

Maybe it was still just her overbearing sense of empathy, but Phoenix thought Matty's voice had been uncharacteristically quiet when he answered.

There were a few other people visible in the photo, none of whom she recognized. Part of Matty and Micah's extended family, she guessed.

"Hey," she said, drawing Matty's attention away from whatever he had moved on to examining, "Promise you'll tell me about the rest of your family some time, OK?"

Just as she had hoped, Matty cracked a grin. "You bet." He watched as Phoenix left the room, apparently satisfied with her inspection. She didn't see him picking the old family photo back up and carefully slipping it into a pocket in his robes.

Leaving Matty to his own devices for a while, Phoenix left to explore what remained of the apartment. Across from the first bedroom was a second one. She turned on the light and was momentarily surprised to see that it was even more neatly-kept than the other, though the layer of dust was more prominent here, suggesting that it rarely, if ever, saw any use prior to Micah's death. The room was virtually devoid of furniture compared to most of the others. The only thing to really stand out was a chest of drawers tucked into one of the corners, next to the bed. Upon inspection, most of the drawers themselves were empty. Inside the topmost, however, sat a conspicuously mismatched assortment of items. There was an empty picture frame with "MF" scribbled onto the back, an old empty wallet, and –of all things-, an unopened package of coffee filters.

Phoenix cocked an eyebrow, examining the odd jumble with a hint of confusion. Clueless, she shrugged to herself and she made to close the drawer. When she gripped the handle, however, she found it to be stuck open.

"Come on…" she muttered, shifting the end around. When the drawer finally snapped back to its intended position, she heard a slight clink of metal on wood. She hadn't noticed it at first, but there was something else tucked behind the coffee filters in the drawer. She picked it up from the back of the drawer.

An attorney's badge.

This only raised more questions. Micah's badge had always been on his desk downstairs when he wasn't wearing it. Had he needed a replacement at some point?

(Hard to ask him about it now,)

Adding this to her mental list of questions to ask once Matty successfully managed to channel his brother's spirit once more -provided he practiced like he kept saying he intended to-, Phoenix returned the badge to the drawer and took the coffee filters with her as she left the room.

"Hey, Nix," Matty started, now standing by the couch just off to the side from the entryway. "I was-…" he broke off. Pointing to her hand, he asked, "Where'd you get those?"

Phoenix gestured over her shoulder. "Uh… drawer in the other room, there."

He didn't look as though he found this answer helpful, but nonetheless, Matty went on with, "I was checking to see how we could fit all our stuff in here. It's kind of a living room, but I guess since Mic had the TV and his computer downstairs, he didn't use it for much."

He had a point; the room had a fair bit of space for furnishings, but beyond the couch, the living room only housed a footstool and a small bookcase.

"I think you're right." Phoenix remarked. She took a step back to look around the full apartment once more.

"So, you think this place will work?" Matty asked.

Phoenix smiled. "Provided you pull your own weight when we move everything over, I think it will."

Faking a deeply offended look, Matty replied, "Are you suggesting that I would ever give anything less than my best possible effort?"

Phoenix pulled the door open to let him through first and said, "We'll see how much you want to help once we get a vacuum in here."

I did it

I deserve a medal, and then I deserve to have that medal taken away from me