(A/N: Originally requested from the PWKM, but it got absolutely out of control and I went crazy writing for it.)

Datz had always been a light sleeper. It was in his nature – when you spend a large portion of your waking time on the run, you snatch quick naps here and there when you can, and you never sleep heavily enough that you miss someone sneaking up on you.

(He'd only made that mistake once – in his twenties, he'd fallen asleep in an alleyway out of pure exhaustion. It was the second time he'd escaped from police custody, and had only awoken when he'd heard the sharp click of handcuffs snapping onto his wrists. Ever since then, sharp noises in particular woke him faster than anything else. Dhurke once almost caught the wrong end of a flailing arm because he'd snapped his fingers close to Datz's ear to wake him up one morning.)

But he hadn't slept well since the end of the Ga'ran regime.

It didn't make a lick of sense to him. This should have been a time of celebration – AJ had reopened the old law office and was standing in court alongside Yuty, the princess had committed herself to improving Khura'in and living up to her mother's example, and things were looking brighter than ever.

Still, something bothered him every night when he tried to sleep. He couldn't stop thinking about the civil case back in the United States with the doctor's death over the Founder's Orb and where PW had practically thrown him under the bus (for very good reasons, of course – didn't stop him from ribbing the younger man about it when things had settled down). The truth had come out, however, and the Defiant Dragons had taken rightful ownership of the artifact.

His frown darkened as he thought about that man, Paul Atishon. The Justice Minister had been the puppet master behind the doctor's death, but Atishon had actually done the deed with no care and no remorse, pinning the crime on Datz and leaving a child an orphan.

Armie Buff.

Datz remembered seeing the young girl after the trial, though he hadn't approached her – he'd been cleared of killing her father, but he figured that he was one of the last people she'd want to speak to right now. He didn't blame her for thinking it was him; Atishon had done a decent job of implicating him in the crime. But he smiled from his corner of the defendant's lobby as he watched her carefully set down her drone and press her small hands into the arms of her wheelchair. He knew that she was ready to do what she had to, for the sake of her own growth.

Athena gasped when Armie carefully stood on her own two feet. But Datz knew all along that she was going to be able to do it when she put her mind to it. She had been afraid for a long time, but now, like the dragon, she would not yield. She was ready to live again.

He wondered how many other people lived by the creed he did, just under different words.

Datz found that he couldn't stop thinking about the child over the next week, wondering if she was alright. He had no idea what would happen to her with both of her parents gone. She was strong, and she smiled, but he knew the wound was still fresh and that Armie would need time to heal.

In a way, he realized on Wednesday, she reminded him of AJ – both of his parents were gone, but Dhurke had taken him in as his own and raised him. The big difference was that AJ never had a chance to know his parents, but Armie had grown up with hers. And now, because of one greedy politician, she had nobody.

Now he understood what was bothering him.

On Friday, he asked Apollo for PW's phone number.

…

Phoenix was just about to send Athena home for the evening when the office phone rang. He glanced at the clock before deciding that it was best if he answered the call. After all, if somebody needed them, they should be present. Not to mention, it technically wasn't 5 o'clock yet, and it would probably look bad to clients if he let the phone go to voicemail before the day was actually over. Athena, however, pounced on the receiver and eagerly picked it up before he could even reach for the phone.

"Wright Anything Agency; you've reached Athena!" she blurted, clearly excited to be able to take the call. Phoenix chuckled to himself and set about tidying up his paperwork; he would stay nearby in case she needed him, but he trusted her to take the call. "Yes - oh, hi!" Her smile was brighter now, and it sounded as if she was speaking to someone she knew. "It's so good to hear from you! How are you doing?" A pause while the other person answered; Phoenix tucked their paperwork for the day into a folder. "Uh-huh. We're well, thanks! …you want to speak to Mr. Wright? Yeah, he's right here! Hold on a second!"

She held the phone out to him. "You're never gonna guess who it is!" she said. "Go on, guess!"

Phoenix reached for the phone, running over a list of people who Athena knew well enough to answer that eagerly. He shrugged. "I've got nothing. Here, let me just…" He tucked the phone to his shoulder and filed away the new folder while Athena pouted about how boring it was that he didn't even take a guess. "This is Phoenix Wright."

He was certainly caught off guard by the voice on the other line. "Hey, PW! How have you been?"

"Datz!" Phoenix stopped what he was doing. "Long time no see. We're fine – how are things over there?"

He'd recently received a letter from Apollo filled with updates, so he was more than a little surprised to be hearing from Datz. He liked the man fine, but it wasn't as if they had been particularly close. Then there was the whole awkwardness where, for Maya's sake, he'd had to turn blame of a crime to Datz. The older man had forgiven him easily, but had teased him about it to the point that Phoenix wasn't entirely sure that he actually was forgiven. Needless to say, he wasn't sure what he should expect from this call.

"Not bad, can't complain!" Datz's cheery tone filled his ear. "I'm sure you've gotten AJ's letter by now, but he's up to his neck in cases! Being the only lawyer here is starting to get to him, hahaha!" For a moment, his countenance turned serious. "But he's tough. I know he can do it. He won't yield – he's Dhurke's boy, after all."

Phoenix blinked in surprise. Was that pride he was hearing? He shouldn't be so surprised, he figured – technically, Datz had known Apollo for far longer than Phoenix himself, even if they hadn't seen each other for a long time. And now he was getting to watch him grow all over again, as if making up for lost time. "I know he can, too," Phoenix affirmed. "It's why I trusted him with my firm while I was in Khura'in."

"Hah! That's right," Datz chortled. "He held down the fort while you were shaking things up!"

Phoenix chuckled in return. "That he did." But he suspected that Datz had another reason for calling. "Hey, I'm sure this phone call isn't cheap," he finally said. "What's going on?"

He heard Datz's heavy sigh on the other end. "It's not, but…I had to ask you." Phoenix felt his heart sink. Oh, god, was he in some kind of trouble again? He had flashbacks to standing in Khura'in's court and swallowed a burst of panic. "What happened to Armie – you know, Dr. Buff's girl?"

Well, that was unexpected. He frowned as he racked his memory. "Armie Buff," he repeated, going to his folders and flicking through them to find the case file. "Well…she was invited to an archaeological dig through the university her father used to work at," Phoenix said. "She's pretty happy about that, last I heard."

Datz made a thoughtful noise. "What about outside of that? Does she have family?"

Phoenix paused as he took a moment to flip through the file. "Unfortunately, no," he finally admitted. "She goes on the digs occasionally, but other than that she lives at an orphanage. She had no living family."

There was silence for so long that Phoenix wondered if the call had dropped. When he pulled back to check, the call timer was still going. "Datz? Are you still there?"

The older man exhaled slowly. "PW…your daughter is adopted, isn't she? AJ was telling me about it."

Phoenix couldn't stop the small smile that crossed his face. "Yeah," he said. "Trucy's adopted. It wasn't easy, but she had nobody else. I knew I had to do it." He gently guided the conversation along, trying to lead it to the point that he suspected was coming. "What's on your mind, Datz?"

There was another long pause, but he finally responded. "I want to adopt Armie," he said. "I feel badly for what happened with her old man, and she's got nobody else in her corner. I want to help her."

Phoenix's smile widened. He'd sensed that this was what Datz was going to ask, and he was warmed by how genuine the other man sounded. But, he knew that he had to warn him. "It won't be easy," he cautioned. "You've technically still got a criminal record even though Ga'ran's no longer in power, and they check things like that. It was hard enough for me to adopt Trucy after I'd been disbarred."

Datz sighed heavily. "Yeah, I was afraid of that," he admitted. "But…isn't there anything I can do?"

Phoenix took a seat at his desk, thinking it over. "Well, Queen Amara has plans to pardon all of the Defiant Dragons, doesn't she?" he finally remembered. "Once that clears, I'm sure it'll make things easier."

"Hey, that's right!" He sure sounded cheerier already. "She's a bit busy with everything else going on, but I know she will!" There was a brief pause. "Be honest with me, Phoenix. Do you really think I've got a chance?"

Caught off guard by the use of his full first name, Phoenix was driven to honesty in his answer. "It's not going to be easy, Datz. I think you've got a long road ahead of you. And besides…" He hesitated, not sure that the next part was going to be what Datz wanted to hear, but knowing it had to be said. "You have to see if it's something that Armie even wants."

Datz was quiet again for a moment. "Yeah," he agreed. "I know. I want to visit her once things settle down here. If it isn't what she wants, then I'm not gonna push it."

Phoenix smiled softly. He was clearly thinking about what would be best for the girl – that was a good sign. "Datz," he said. "Get in touch with me once you've had your criminal record pardoned. I promise I'll do everything I can to help you with this."