Certain Demolitions
Chapter 60: Bonus Chapter: Uncle and Nephew
America
1948
Juniper Woods looked at the small building. It was painted cream and accented with dark green trim around the windows. A swinging sign on a post near the sidewalk read "Wright Anything Agency." The second line read, "Gavin & Co Law Offices."
It looked like the place where she had been told to go, anyway. Juniper took a deep breath and started walking up the sidewalk towards the front door. She had been accused of murder, though not arrested yet, and she knew she was going to need help. A woman at the courthouse had told her that this was the best law office in town.
Outside the door, another plaque was mounted. Juniper looked at the nameplates on it.
Phoenix Wright, Attorney at Law
Kristoph Gavin, Attorney at Law
Trucy Wright, Talent Agent
Apollo Justice, Attorney at Law
She took another deep breath, then opened the door and went in.
One the other side of the door, she found herself standing in a reception area. A couch, table, and chairs were there. There was a desk to the side of the room as well, but no one was there.
"He-hello?" she called uncertainly.
A girl in a blue dress, and oddly enough, wearing a short cape, came into the room. "Hi! I'm Trucy Wright, Talent Agent. Can I help you?"
Juniper looked a bit taken aback. "I need to speak to an attorney, if I could," she said, looking down at the floor.
"Which one?"
"Um…whichever one can see me. It doesn't matter."
"Apollo is here," the young woman said. "Kristoph and Daddy are out right now."
Juniper just nodded.
"Wait here," Trucy said, then headed down the hall. Juniper took a seat on the couch in the reception area and looked around. There was a picture on the wall, and a plant in the corner. Books stood on several shelves.
Trucy reappeared, followed by a young man in red. "This is Apollo. He'll be happy to talk to you," the woman in blue said cheerfully.
"What seems to be the problem?" Apollo asked.
Juniper told him her story, of how she had been accused of a murder that she hadn't committed. Apollo listened carefully and asked questions from time to time.
At the end of her tale, he asked, "When is the pretrial hearing?"
"Um, this Thursday," Juniper said. "At one o'clock."
At that moment, the door opened and Phoenix came in. He looked at the group. "Hello." He looked at Juniper, and then Apollo. "Have you been helped?" He asked Juniper.
"I have," Juniper replied. "Mr. Justice is helping me."
Phoenix gave Apollo a curious look. The younger man said, "Murder case, pretrial on Thursday."
Phoenix nodded, then looked nervous. "I can't be co-counsel for you on Thursday. I have another trial that starts that day."
"Do…do you need a co-counsel?" Juniper asked Apollo.
"It's more of a formality," Phoenix replied. "Apollo knows what he's doing, but since this is his first murder case, someone else should be with him. It's not his first civil trial. It's not even his first criminal trial." He turned to Apollo. "We'll have to see what Kristoph's schedule looks like." Phoenix went over to the receptionist's desk, empty as always, and flipped open the calendar lying there.
"He doesn't write his court appointments down out here," Apollo said.
Phoenix paused. "Oh, that's right." He shut the book. "Let me guess: his office door is locked."
"I didn't try it, but he always locks it," Apollo said.
There was the sound of a vehicle pulling up outside, and Trucy clapped her hands together excitedly. "Since he's here we can ask Kristoph now!" She said.
Juniper was a little taken aback by the twists and the turns the conversation had taken. When the door opened behind her, she turned to see a tall, blond-haired man wearing glasses and an elegant blue suit. In his right hand he carried a briefcase and a cane. In his left arm, he held a small child who looked almost exactly like him.
The child was staring at her curiously, and Juniper couldn't help but smile. "What an adorable little boy! Is he your son?"
"My nephew," the man, Kristoph, told her. His voice had a trace of an accent to it.
"Really?" Juniper asked. "He looks so much like you."
"He looks like a Gavin," Kristoph said. "Believe me when I tell you he's his father's son."
"I thought Ema made arrangements for a sitter for Krissy." Phoenix's statement was part question.
"I am aware that Ema hired that Maggey Gumshoe woman to watch Kristopher," Kristoph said. "Largely out of pity, I suppose. But since Kristopher speaks two languages and is already learning his letters in both languages, I'm not impressed with the fact that Mrs. Gumshoe treats him as a baby. So I will watch him today."
Juniper was even more shocked by this announcement. "He's learning letters already?"
"As I said," Kristoph said, managing to adjust his glasses in spite of everything he was carrying. "He's his father's son."
Kristopher started to bounce in his uncle's arm. "Runter! Runter! Runter!"
"Hi Krissy," Phoenix waved at the little boy, who stopped bouncing and turned his attention to Phoenix instead.
"Opa! Opa!" He said excitedly, reaching towards Phoenix.
"Do you want down, or do you want Opa?" Kristoph asked the little boy. How Phoenix became "Grandpa" to Kristopher is something of a mystery to Kristoph. He isn't sure how he feels about it, since Phoenix is absolutely no relation in the legal or biological sense, but he's not sure he wants to try and explain that Kristopher. He's not certain that it matters enough that he wants to try and explain it.
"Opa!" Kristopher repeated.
"Alright," Kristoph replied, handing the little boy over.
Phoenix, for his part, doesn't seem to mind his promotion to the role of Grandpa too much. "Are you gonna work at the office with us today, Krissy?"
"Ja! Ja!"
"Speak English, please," Kristoph told his nephew, then switched back to English to talk to Phoenix. "His name is Kristopher."
"Isn't that a bit of a mouthful for two year old?" Phoenix asked.
"I didn't know you were two, Phoenix," Kristoph said flatly.
"Anyway," Apollo spoke up quickly before Phoenix could respond. "Are you busy on Thursday at one pm? There's a criminal pretrial hearing I need to be at, and I need co-counsel for it."
"That should be fine." Kristoph told him. "I have a civil hearing that morning but nothing in the afternoon."
When she left the office, Juniper felt much better about where she stood. Apollo sounded like he knew what he was doing, and Kristoph had spoken as someone with plenty of experience in the legal field.
She thought about Apollo again, and felt a blush coming on.
Maybe something good did happen to her in spite of being accused of murder. She got to meet a cute lawyer because of it.
(-)
That evening at the Wright house was quiet. Trucy was out with some of her friends from school, and Apollo was still at the office, working on the Juniper Woods case.
Phoenix and Kristoph were playing poker at the kitchen table. They aren't gambling; without Trucy or Apollo around to read Kristoph's tell, Phoenix tends to lose money quickly. He chalked this fact up to the fact that he was playing against someone who had been a spy in the war and knew how to keep a poker face.
Klavier and Krissy were there as well; Klavier had come over to consult some of the old legal digests that Phoenix had stashed in the basement
Phoenix and Kristoph were in the middle of the second game when Krissy came into the room, and started trying to climb the china hutch.
"Someone should stop Krissy," Phoenix said, though he didn't look very concerned about that.
"Wait for it," Kristoph said, shuffling through his cards.
Klavier came running into the room a moment later. "Nein!" He quickly retrieved Krissy before the child could hurt himself.
"That's what I was waiting for." Kristoph told Phoenix, looking pleased as he did.
Klavier came by the table a moment later with Krissy in his arms.
"Krissy is a bundle of energy tonight," Phoenix noted, then looked at his cards and sighed. "I fold." He turned the hand face up on the table.
"So I have gathered." Klavier replied. Krissy was bouncing in his arms and looking at the ground expectantly, like he wanted to be put down so he could get into more trouble. "What are you smirking about?" Klavier asked his brother.
"Nothing. It's just that I raised you, and now you get the raise the little version of you," Kristoph said as he set his cards down on the table. His hand would have trumped Phoenix's. "I'm going to be laughing for years. This is what revenge looks like, little brother."
"Danke, Kristoph," Klavier said dryly.
"Bitte," Kristoph replied without missing a beat and he reached for the deck of cards and began to shuffle them.
Klavier turned to the other attorney in the room. "Phoenix, Krissy and I are going to go home. Ema should be back from her sister's soon." He glanced at Kristoph. "I won't tell her you upset her babysitting plans."
"Maggey might mention it, next time she sees Ema," Phoenix noted, as he cut the deck of card Kristoph set in front of him.
"I don't care if she does." Kristoph told them. "Kristopher is not a baby and he should not be treated like one." He looked at Klavier. "Neither Mother nor I treated you like one when you were Kristopher's age. We knew you were smarter than that."
Phoenix turned in his chair so that he could see Klavier and Krissy. "Next time either of you need someone to watch Krissy, just bring him to the office. If Kristoph can't watch him, Trucy will."
Klavier nodded. "Danke, Phoenix."
Krissy was starting to chant "runter" again, meaning he wanted down. Klavier lifted the child so that he was sitting on his shoulder. "I will see you both tomorrow." He said as he headed for the door.
"See you then," Phoenix called back, as Kristoph said, "See you later."
The door closed behind Klavier and his son, and Kristoph started handing out the cards for the next round of poker.
Through the open window of the dining room, the birds could be heard singing their spring songs as inside the two men settled down to their next game.
= END=
[A/N:] I'm not sure if I'm an Apollo/Athena shipper or an Apollo/Juniper shipper. I lean more toward Juniper, because I think Athena's manic energy tendencies would drive Apollo insane.
"Runter" is Krissy saying "down". I think all the other German was either explained elsewhere in the story, or was explained in the chapter.
And unless anyone has any questions, I think that's all the notes.
Now I'm really gonna cry. It's over! I had so much fun. So much happened that I never counted on happening in this story, and I did so much research, and it was all so crazy, but I'm really happy. I loved this story, and I loved these versions of the characters.
Special thanks to Kam I Am, who reviewed in the beginning and helped make Kristoph a major player rather than just a side character, Alycat20, who reviewed in the middle and kept me going, and huge, huge thanks for invaluable feedback to jettmanas, who reviewed all the chapters of this story, and to Red who popped up here and there to review, as well as Unicadia. Reviews make all the time and effort worth it, so many thanks for all of you and the time you spent reviewing.
And with this that, it's time to mark this story complete.
Thanks to everyone who came along for this wild ride. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.
Please review!