Note: Hey there beloved readers! I don't normally do so well in romance and my only experience with PW is from my dear friend 1215rascal, but this plot bunny was in my head for the longest time. I hope it doesn't seem too rushed but hopefully I'll get some concrit from you, so don't forget to review!

Ema Skye was irritated.

She sat at a ridiculously priced restaurant wearing ridiculously glittering clothes waiting for her ridiculously late date to show up. She wouldn't even be here had she been given a choice, but as it turned out; nobody cared to give her one. Nope, Ema's opinion didn't matter when you plan a blind date for her, oh no. It apparently also didn't matter when you force her to wear a sequined pink dress and annoying strappy heels. The seriously miffed forensic scientist crossed her arms and recalled the particularly unpleasant memory of how she came to be in this situation.

THREE HOURS EARLIER

Ema sat on one of the old rose pink sofas in Wright & Co. Law offices. Apollo had called her over under the pretense that he needed her there ASAP. Now, as it turned out, Apollo didn't call her of his own accord; Phoenix had forced him to. Why? Well she was about to find out.

"Ema!" the pianist-who-didn't-play-at-all greeted as he entered the room. "What a surprise it is to see you here."

"What do you mean daddy?" Trucy asked innocently. "Didn't you force Polly to---"

"AS I WAS SAYING," interrupted her father, in an overly loud voice. "What a wonderful surprise this is. Apollo is busy right now so since you're here I'd like you to do me a favor."

Trucy was staring at her father with a questioning look slapped onto her face. Note to self, Ema thought. Whatever happens, Trucy apparently has nothing to do with it. Then after a few seconds, Second note to self, I think I only have fifteen bags of snakoos left…gotta restock soon. Oh, I think Mr. Wright wants me to reply.

"Sure Mr. Wright," I said cheerily. "Consider it done!"

"I'll take your word on that," he replied. "Now, I have a friend who's new in the neighborhood so I'd like you to show him around; take him out into the town, bring him to some shops, things like that."

Ema thought for a while. She did have that meeting down at the Criminal Affairs Dept. that Klavier had called…but then those were normally fake meetings that he organized just to tick her off. So after a few moments hesitation she nodded and grinned at Phoenix. "I'll be glad to Mr.---"

Her reply was cut off by a blood-curling scream coming from somewhere inside the office.

"What the heck was that?!" Ema shrieked, her detective's imagination running wild. She hadn't heard anything like a gunshot, and there were no sounds of a struggle, maybe someone had slipped and fallen or something, the only person who wasn't there was Apollo, come to think of it the voice kind of sounded like his. Had something happened?

"Don't mind that," Phoenix reassured. "I forced Apollo to archive some of our cases. I bet he's just strengthening his chords of steel while he works."

"But it sounded like---"

"Don't worry Ema," he said, interrupting her again. "Now, about that friend of mine."

"Sure, sure," she confirmed. "Let me just ring Lana to tell her that I can't make the meeting tonight."

But to her amazement, once Ema had dialed her sister's number, a ring tone sounded from the restroom.

And at the sound of the ringing, Phoenix promptly gave her directions to a restaurant, told her that he'd deal with Lana, stuffed a change of clothes into her bag and kicked the confused girl out of the office.

END FLASH BACK

So for the past forty-five minutes Ema waited. It was almost one o' clock and she was ravenous. There's a reason why Ema Skye always had a bag of Snakoos with her! But for some reason, her entire supply had gone missing. She had a sneaking suspicion that it had disappeared somewhere in the Wright and Co. Law offices.

As she contemplated on the mystery of the missing Snakoos a strange voice spoke to her, "Excuse me miss, might you be Ms. Ema Skye?"

Said scientist looked up into a pair of mismatched eyes, one light hazel and the other a familiar dark chocolate color. Stunned by the disparity, it took Ema a few moments to recollect herself and reply, "Why yes, I am. Are you by any chance Mr. Wright's visiting friend?"

"Yes, my name is A---," then the odd eyed man slapped his right ear and cringed. A few seconds later his face ironed out and softened into an apologetic expression, "I'm sorry Ms. Skye but I am plagued with chronic headaches; in fact that's the reason I was so late coming here, the migraines got in the way. But anyway, as I was saying, my name is Aldrich Weller. It's a pleasure to meet you."

Ema shook the hand he had extended and smiled, "It's ok Mr. Weller. I can understand, it must have been awful to be lost in a big city like this. Please, call me Ema."

"Alright, and in return you must call me Aldrich."

"That name's too long and formal, I think I'll call you Al." she retorted, her impatient side getting the better of her. "If that's alright with you," she added hastily, realizing she might have been too rude.

"Anything to lighten the mood between us," he chuckled good naturedly.

When Aldrich stepped back to seat himself Ema took the opportunity to look him over. He wore a simple blue polo t-shirt and dark denim jeans. Phoenix's friend seemed to be of average height of average build with light brown hair that stopped before his shoulders. Long bangs hung on his forehead, hiding it from view; but they seemed to frame his eyes, which were about the only thing that stood out from this guy.

Once they had seated a waiter approached them and asked for their order.

After randomly picking an item off the foreign looking menu, Ema told the waiter what she wanted and waited patiently for Aldrich to do the same.

"I'll have whatever she's having," he stated.

"Very well," the waiter affirmed, scribbling on his note pad. "And drinks, sir? Madame?"

"I'll have a coke" Ema said without hesitation, at least she knew she was safe with that. The words on the restaurant's menu hadn't made any sense to her at all. From the look of it, they were French…

"I'll have lemon water, it should help my chor-", and Aldrich's face scrunched up again. "My chronic headaches."

Ema looked at her new friend as the waiter walked away and started worrying. His face was still contorted and his brow was heavily creased. "Are you sure you're alright Al?"

"Yes, don't worry Ema," he smiled. "I've grown used to them as one might grow used to anything."

"If you say so…" Ema muttered. Then brightening up she asked, "So, can I ask you a personal question Al?"

"Sure."

"Do your eyes give you a lot of trouble?" she asked impulsively. The color of the darker one was unnerving; it made her want to stuff Snakoos into Al's nose. Now why was that?

"Trouble?"

"Yea, with them being two colors and all."

Aldrich's expression drew a blank for a while for a while, and Ema thought she had crossed some kind of line and poked at a touchy subject. But then after another face-scrunch he answered, "I'm sorry these headaches seem to be acting up today. But no they don't cause much trouble, it helps that the colors are just different shades."

"Oh, ok," Ema said relaxing. Just then her phone rang. Checking the caller ID she read: Klavier Gavin. "Excuse me, Al. I've got to take this."

"No problem," he said with a dismissive wave.

Skittering into the bathroom on her heels Ema answered her phone. "Yes, Prosecutor Gavin?"

"Fraulein Skye! I heard you were on a date."

"Why yes, I am. You happen to be interrupting."

"I'm so sorry Fraulein Skye, I'd never dream of interrupting such a glorious event."

"*sigh*"

"May I ask who the gentleman is?"

"Why would you want to know?"

"Well, you are missing a meeting tonight for this."

"Fine, his name's Aldrich Weller."

SILENCE

"Prosecutor Gavin?"

SILENCE

"Prosecutor Gavin?"

SILENCE

"Klavier?!"

"Oh, Fraulein Skye!!"

"Yes, Klavier? I mean: Yes, Prosecutor Gavin?"

"You must NOT be with that man!"

"Why not? Jealous?"

"Ehem, that's not exactly the case. Earlier this morning I received an e-mail warning people against a man with that name, he's supposed to be a lecherous womanizer who traps women in his web to keep in a harem!"

"I'm sure it's a different guy."

"Here, I'll send you the picture that came with the e-mail."

A few beeps and seconds later an image of Aldrich came up on her cell phone screen, save for the two pixilated hazel eyes that stared back at her. "You're wrong Klavier, this guy's got two hazel eyes. The man at my table's got a dark brown eye."

"Two words, Fraulein. Contact lenses."

"Oh gosh, you're right."

"Here's what you're going to have to do."

"Oh, you're back Ema." Aldrich greeted. "Was it an important call?"

"Yes, yes it was." Ema grinned back. "By the way, has our food arrived?"

"No, but I think it's about to," he said jerking his head to the direction of the approaching waiter. "What did you order for us anyway?"

The waiter reached their table and presented their meal, "Garlic Escargot with a Brussels sprout sauce on a bed of raw cauliflowers."

Inside, Ema almost puked. But she could use this to her advantage. "Don't you just love snails with green goop on a bed of edible cotton?"

"Oh, um…yea." Aldrich replied, his face turning a bit green. "Simply delicious."

Aldrich waited for Ema to sit before he ate. But for some reason she kept standing. What's more she pulled an extra chair from the neighboring table and placed it in an extra space at their table.

"Ema?"

"Yes, Al?" she said, tucking the chair in.

"What're you doing?"

"Don't you see him?" Ema asked, an incredulous oh her face. Then turning to the empty chair, "We're very honored to have you here sir."

"Him? Sir?" Aldrich asked. "Could I please know who you're talking to?"

"Well you see," Ema started. "in my line of work as a forensic scientist I go to a lot of murder sites right? Well sometimes the spirits follow me home. This one happens to be a war general who died a gruesome death at the hands of an obsessed psychopath."

And the fact that Ema said this with a smile made it so much creepier.

"So, do we split our food with him and let him eat it?" Aldrich asked hopefully.

"Nope, he accepts monetary offerings only."

"Alright then," Al said, face contorting once again. He stood as Ema grinned at him, but instead of running for the high hills, he bowed low at the empty chair and flashed a smile at it. "Pleased to meet you sir, I understand that you might want an offering to tide you over in your journey to the other side, but would you kindly wait until our meal is finished?"

After a pause Ema answered for the spectrum, "Um, he wants to know why you're being so calm about being in his presence. Most people…uhh, they cower in his ghostly shadow!"

"Tell his spookiness that I have no fear of something that only seeks support; monetary, or otherwise." Al replied calmly.

"Ooook." Ema squeaked. She was a little irked by the less than terrified reaction her little performance had received. "Well, we can sit now. He says he'll wait until we're done eating."

"Wonderful." Al commented. "Well, dear Ema let us feast upon this delicacy you have chosen for our lunch."

Ema was feeling hard-pressed for a cheeky reply when her phone beeped again. Muttering a short apology at Al she took her phone out and peeped at the text message on the screen.

Go for the exorcist approach

~Klavier

The text caused an idea to blossom in the scientist's mind. Smiling inwardly at herself she reached for Aldrich's glass of lemon water, dipped her fingers in it and splattered the liquid all over her companion. Then, as he got over his surprise she chanted a mantra over and over again: Emakumbababe Emakumbe Humuna Humuna Humuna e Emakumbababe…

And before Al could ask, Ema shushed him and clapped her hands together in a praying position. "I must make sure that you don't get affected by his presence," was the only explanation she gave.

Face-scrunch, smile and then, "I am delighted that you care!"

"Emakumbababe Emakumheh?!" Ema stuttered in mid chant. "You're not freaked out?"

"Of course not!"

BEEP BEEP BEEP

"One moment," Ema told her extremely tolerant date. Her phone's screen flickered to life once again as it received another text.

Try the possessed approach. I'll be there soon.

~Klavier

Alright, Ema thought. Just a little longer and Klavier will get me out of this mess.

While dropping her phone back into her bag she sneaked out her supply of fingerprint powder and dug her hands in it. When she brought them out they were deathly white. Perfect.

"Oh no," Ema gasped dramatically.

"What is it?" Al asked concern evident in his voice. "Did your exorcism spell backfire?"

"No…it worked," she breathed. "On you anyway."

With that Ema fake-slammed her head onto the table and feigned catatonic unconsciousness, earning Al's full attention. "Ema!" he called. Checking for a pulse he saw her chalky hands and came to a conclusion, "I need to give you mouth to mouth!"

"WHAT?!" Ema screeched, eyes snapping open. "NOIMMALRIGHTNOW!"

"Are you sure?" Al asked.

"Yes, it was just a passing thing." Ema replied. "You'll be glad to know though that our guest has passed on," she added when Aldrich's expression didn't lighten.

"If you say so," he said, pushing her coke towards her. "Drink this though, the sugar should help."

Ema complied and drank her soda as the date sank back into a more normal pace; which was very, very bad news. If the date went smoothly then that might lead to…you get the picture.

So Ema jabbed at her snails, contemplating on what to do, as Al asked her an extremely personal question. "So Ema, do you have a boyfriend?"

This sent her into a violent coughing fit and images of Klavier immediately flashed in her mind. But was he really…?

"Stop!" called an extremely flashy fop from the door, slamming it open with unneeded grandeur. "Get your hands off her!"

Klavier Gavin strode to Ema's table with an air of importance and snatched her up in an embarrassing princess style grip. Then he escorted his charge out the doorway and into the sweet freedom that lay yonder.

Aldrich Weller promptly stood and made his way to the men's room. Once he was there he plucked the hazel contact out of his eye, took a jar of gel out of his pocket and deftly began styling his hair. Then he hurried into a cubicle and changed into the spare clothes that he had apparently brought with him. Once done, Apollo Justice stepped out into the restaurant and sat at a conveniently hidden table in one corner of the room which three other people occupied. "Hello everyone," he greeted in a voice that was noticeably higher pitched than the one he had been using with Ema.

"Here's the transceiver back Ms. Lana," he said, handing back the small black instrument that had been lodged in his ear. "It works perfectly, except for the fact that it was uncomfortably loud."

"There's a knob on the side that adjusts the volume," the older Skye replied. "But I'm so glad that went so well. Now Ema will have to confess to Klavier."

"I sure hope you're right," Trucy said. "Because now we have to pay for this fancy food."

"Well at least you didn't have your hair nearly yanked off your scalp." Apollo muttered.

"It's your own fault for putting so much gel on your hair all the time," the magician countered. "But it was the perfect disguise! Even I didn't notice you with your hair down and your very prominent forehead covered."

"We're lucky that Ema didn't recognize him when the contact slipped out." Phoenix pointed out. "And Klavier didn't seem to notice that the e-mail was sent from our address."

BACK WITH THE INTREPID DUO

"Klavier, you idiot!" Ema shrieked as they weaved through the busy streets. "We're drawing too much attention, put me down right now!"

"I'm sorry, Fraulein," the prosecutor said with mock sympathy to her growing distress. "But we must be as far away from the restaurant as possible. Plus, it's much easier to do this," he said as his lips silenced hers, "when you're in my arms."

Ema blushed tomato red all the way back to the precinct.

Note: Was Apollo too obvious? Just asking.