29 Hail To The Chief

You have my heart
And we’ll never be worlds apart
Maybe in magazines
But you’ll still be my star
Baby, ’cause in the dark
You can’t see shiny cars
And that’s when you need me there
With you I’ll always share
Because

When the sun shines, we’ll shine together
Told you I’d be here forever
Said I’ll always be your friend
Took an oath I’mma stick it out ’til the end
Now that it’s raining more than ever
Know that we’ll still have each other
You can stand under my umbrella
You can stand under my umbrella
(Ella ella eh eh eh)
Under my umbrella
(Ella ella eh eh eh)
Under my umbrella
(Ella ella eh eh eh)
Under my umbrella
(Ella ella eh eh eh eh eh eh)

These fancy things, will never come in between
You’re part of my entity, here for infinity
When the war has took its part
When the world has dealt its cards
If the hand is hard, together we’ll mend your heart
Because

When the sun shines, we’ll shine together
Told you I’d be here forever
Said I’ll always be your friend
Took an oath I’mma stick it out ’til the end
Now that it’s raining more than ever
Know that we’ll still have each other
You can stand under my umbrella
You can stand under my umbrella
(Ella ella eh eh eh)
Under my umbrella
(Ella ella eh eh eh)
Under my umbrella
(Ella ella eh eh eh)
Under my umbrella
(Ella ella eh eh eh eh eh eh)

You can run into my arms
It’s OK, don’t be alarmed
Come here to me
There’s no distance in between our love
So go on and let the rain pour
I’ll be all you need and more
Because

When the sun shines, we’ll shine together
Told you I’ll be here forever
Said I’ll always be your friend
Took an oath I’mma stick it out ’til the end
Now that it’s raining more than ever
Know that we’ll still have each other
You can stand under my umbrella
You can stand under my umbrella
(Ella ella eh eh eh)
Under my umbrella
(Ella ella eh eh eh)
Under my umbrella
(Ella ella eh eh eh)
Under my umbrella
(Ella ella eh eh eh eh eh eh)

It’s raining, raining
Oh, baby, it’s raining, raining
Baby, come here to me
Come here to me
It’s raining, raining
Oh, baby, it’s raining, raining
You can always come here to me
Come here to me

Phoenix Wright and Mia Fey
Hickfield Clinic, Visitors Lounge
September 5, 2020, 12:00 PM

Mia Fey took an assessing squiz around at her surroundings, still slightly disoriented from the channeling process, and realized she was crouched down in front of a slumped-over Phoenix, in what appeared to be a hospital waiting area. She also found the fitted sash of Pearl’s spirit medium robe was digging into her stomach in her current position. Moreover, it was so obscenely short on her, she was uncertain if her squatted stance allowed her any more decency in the rear than she had in the front!

Hastily, she stood up. She tried to opt for a standing position, and then leaned over her old protégé instead, but found that, as always, she couldn’t get the neckline of Pearl’s robes to fully encompass her bountiful breasts. Luckily, she caught herself in time. Glancing down in embarrassment, the buxom beauty realized that the robe was stretched to near-bursting, threatening to let her modesty tumble free at a moment’s notice and give poor Phoenix a boob to the head!

Fighting back vexation, she finally decided that the perfect blend of reassurance and decorum was to remain standing straight, with one hand tugging Pearl’s robes as far around her globes as possible while placing her free one comfortingly upon his shoulder. She stared down at his dejected form with a mixture of curiosity and apprehension. Mia wasn’t sure why her little cousin had channeled her, but she did know something bad must have happened. There could be no other explanation for her current presence back on earth, along with the miserable-looking figure slouched down in front of her, his shoulders sagged with defeat.

“You’re going to be alright, Phoenix,” she soothed, not knowing the circumstances of his gloomy state, yet instinctively knowing it was the right thing to say.

His head jerked up, and he shot up out of his chair like a rocket, a shocked expression on his face at the sight of her.

“You!” He gasped, his eyes the size of saucers.

“It’s been a long time, Phoenix,” Mia smiled, slightly amused at his dramatic, stunned reaction. “Exactly how long has it been, anyway?”

“Ch- Chief!” The hobo struggled to return to normalcy from his state of unreality but still found himself speechless. He wracked his brain, trying to find the answer to his former mentor’s simple question. Since his disbarment, every day felt the same as the next, with no distinction in between, just like in the movie Groundhog Day – he hardly had any concept of time anymore. When he finally tabulated the mental math of just how long it’d been since he’d seen his beloved mentor, he could scarcely get the words out.

“About a year and a half since our last case, Chief …” His voice was barely audible.

Mia tilted her head questioningly to the side as she absently touched her cheek, and found it still slightly damp. Pearl had been crying. As she coupled this with the state her former protégé had been in, she felt the alarm slowly rising within her. Something was wrong. Very wrong.

“Phoenix, talk to me. I know something isn’t right, or Pearly wouldn’t have called me. What’s going on?”

His deceased mentor’s worried tone cut into him like a katana blade. He could no longer hold back the sob welling up in his throat.

“Ch – Chief, do you remember how you always said that an attorney has to keep smiling, no matter how bad it gets?” He stuttered, hanging his head in misery. “That you only get to cry when it’s all over?”

She nodded silently.

“Well… it’s over.” His stomach churned as the words tumbled out of his lips. “I… I failed my client. I-I failed you! I ruined your office!” A tear escaped the corner of his eye, and he helplessly gestured at his hobo apparel, as though inviting her to think the unspoken words: look at what I’ve become!

“Phoenix, one loss isn’t failing. You win some, and you lose some –”

“Mia, I lost my badge! And I ruined both my life as well as Maya’s!  It’s my fault she’s been admitted here to this hospital right now!”

Silence blanketed the room like an overbearing blackness, listening to the resonance of the woeful outburst echoing against the walls.

Mia could only stare mutely at the man now standing before her, rattled by his confession. She didn’t know what bit of news had her more shaken to the core – Phoenix Wright, champion of justice, the against all odds, King of the Turnabout … stripped of his badge? Her baby sister was in the hospital? And it was all somehow his fault? No. She couldn’t – wouldn’t! – believe it! There had to be some mistake!

“W- what? H-how?” That was all she could muster. It was her turn to stammer now.

This was his worst nightmare come to life. Phoenix swallowed hard. He wasn’t sure which admission would make her despise him more, but there was no turning back now. After all, it was over. Mia knew. He may as well start from the very beginning and relay the sequence of events that had led up to here.

“I’ve been disbarred. I made a stupid mistake, a year and a half ago.” He fought back another sob. “I… I screwed up, Chief. I don’t know what I was thinking when I blindly presented that diary page. The bar association panel – the tribunal – demanded my badge and made me watch while they destroyed it, right before my eyes!”

That by far was the most agonizing, humiliating moment of all to recount, one he hadn’t even shared with his lover. A teardrop fell, then another, and another, until they were falling faster than he could brush them away.

“I’m so, so sorry, Chief. I lost your practice. I failed you! I failed Maya! I – I’ve ruined everything!”

Mia stepped forward and wrapped her slender arms around her former pupil. He collapsed on her in a sorrowful hug, apologizing over a torrent of tears he had not allowed himself to shed since that fateful day over a year ago with Trucy. His crumpling form dragged them both back into the chairs until she was seated next to him with his head buried against her, bracing him as he wept. She struggled against the lump in her throat and fought back her own tears of sympathy. It was heart-wrenching to see a grown man, particularly one she adored, be as bereft as this. But she’d never allowed her ex-protégé to be lost to devastation before and she most definitely wasn’t about to start now.

Another sob rose within him, and his inability to stifle it only emphasized his feebleness to himself. The tears were flowing freely down his cheeks now.

“I – I’ve destroyed your legacy and everything I’ve ever b – believed in and worked so hard for! It’s all gone now because of me! And I have no idea what to do and how to turn things around, Mia. I beg of you, please forgive me … I never, ever wanted you to see me like this…”

The former attorney was blinded by his tears by now; his vision was so bleary that all he could vaguely make of his surroundings were blurry splotches of color. He squeezed his eyes shut and tried to will the heaving of his chest back under control.

His efforts proved to be futile as Mia gently pulled his head against her shoulder, wrapping her arms around him and rocking him as soothingly as a mother would a newborn infant.

“Shhh…” She susurrated. “It’s OK. Let it all out.”

Wrapping his arms around her waist, Phoenix, at last, wept the way he’d wanted to since his life had turned upside down. The way he’d wanted to when he’d overheard the Dragon Lady spewing her malice about how he wasn’t good enough for Maya. The way he’d longed to when he’d had to tell Maya goodbye each time… and the way he’d barely refrained from when he’d discovered that the love of his life was in the hospital, fighting for her life. He sobbed wordlessly, inconsolably, clutching at Mia as if she were his anchor for both safety and sanity. He bawled until there were no more streaming droplets left to shed, and his stinging eyes felt so puffy and swollen, he wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to fully open them again.

Eventually, the deluge ceased, leaving behind a feeling of hollowness. Mia reached under his hat and softly stroked his hair, her fingers instinctively gliding over his spikes, in the same manner, Maya did the comforting gesture, maintaining the calming motion the whole time, while gently rocking him and making soothing noises.

At last, he sat up and dried the last of his tears on the sleeve of his hooded sweatshirt. A cursory gander around the room showed him that mercifully, they were still alone and there had been no other witnesses to his mini-breakdown. He grinned sheepishly at his girlfriend’s sister, redness in his cheeks as he managed to mumble his thanks.

“Thanks, Chief. I guess I needed that. But again, I’m so sorry…”

“Please stop apologizing,” Mia said kindly. The smile on her pretty face was sad but sincere. “It’s okay if you thought you were over it but it hits you all over again. It’s okay to fall apart even after you thought you had it under control. You are not weak. Healing is messy. There is no timeline for healing.”

“I just feel so weak and helpless right now…”

“Which is something that happens even to the best of us. Lawyers may need to be strong and smile for their clients, but behind closed doors, by ourselves, with our loved ones … sometimes you just have to let go. Remember, you’re only human.”

She gave him a maternal pat on his cheek.

“And stop thinking you’ve disappointed me, Phoenix. I’m still proud of all you’ve managed to achieve. I’m also eternally grateful to you, for all you’ve done for my family. Taking in Maya was kindness and generosity personified, but then to have taken in Pearly as well … I will always love you for that. I don’t know what they would have done without you.”

Maya. Oh, sweet Jesus. In his misery, he’d forgotten that he had yet to tell Mia about her sister, about why their bittersweet reunion was taking place in a hospital lounge!

Phoenix averted his eyes, unable to meet her gaze as she went on.

“I may not know all the details of your badge being stripped, Phoenix, but I do know you. You’re a wonderful person, a good, honest man. You wouldn’t do anything unethical or illegal on purpose.”

He didn’t deserve her ready forgiveness. Her praise. Not when she found out…

It was officially definitely give-me-strength time. He got up from his seat and looked down at the seated Mia, his expression tormented.

“Chief, I appreciate you being such an angel and not throwing the book at me for making such a calamity of my life and your practice… but there’s still more I need to tell you. I don’t know if you’ll forgive me so willingly when I tell you how I’m to blame for Maya being here in the first place.”

Mia rose from her chair as well, pensively studying her former apprentice’s visage for a moment before she spoke.

“No. I know that can’t be true.” She stubbornly shook her head. “You’ve always cared for Maya, Phoenix. What’s more, you gave me your word that you’d take care of her and protect her.”

“I do care, Chief! I do… I – I love her! And I was trying to protect her!” Phoenix cried. “But what was the point of it all, when she’s on that bed, fighting for her life right now? I may as well have said screw those disapproving Kurain hags and that psycho stalker of mine and just been with her whenever she wanted us to be, had I foreseen that she was just going to end up in here! If only I had done just that! At least then, even though I was a fallen and disgraced ex-lawyer, we’d still have been together and happy!”

In a rush, he told her everything, as best as he could, as Mia sat there in stunned, open-mouthed silence. His recounting of the details was based on the snippets Maya had briefly mentioned, in passing, throughout the past months, as well as what Pearl had confided to him earlier. He layered the insults on himself as he told his old boss the whole twisted tale, from having to hide their love first for the sake of Trucy’s adoption, then due to the Kurain embargo, and lastly, because of his suspicions about Kristoph Gavin.

“It’s not like Gumshoe hasn’t taken Trucy at the drop of a hat before if I’d opted to spend some clandestine time with your sister! We could have snuck around! Why was I so shit-for-brains that I never even considered that option earlier? ” He berated himself now. “But no, I had to go make like the Human Centipede and have my head up my ass! Hell, I am an ass! An idiotic, paranoid ass instead of a man! I let my wounded ego over that Dragon Lady cloud all rational judgement and refused to see the woman I loved because of it! Maya wouldn’t have nearly killed herself like this if I’d been there for her more often, Chief, I just know it!”

Mia absorbed all this, astonished by the amount of self-abuse her anterior employee was heaping upon himself. How long had he been going around carrying the burdening weight of the world upon his shoulders like this? Why did he feel the sordid need to make everything his fault?  He hadn’t driven Maya to near suicide, those horrible wretches of Kurain had! Fate had! Life had! But not him.  Never him. Her sister wouldn’t have even survived any of her previous trials and tribulations: the murder charges, the kidnapping, the Dahlia ordeal … had it not been for Phoenix. He was Maya’s savior. He was her strength, not her downfall. She knew his love would get her sister through this ordeal, as well. She had to make him see that.

“Phoenix, I demand that you stop calling yourself such debasing names! That’s one of my favorite people you’re talking about!”

Mia tugged his horrid aqua cap off then, allowing the familiar spikes to spring free, before playfully swatting him on the skull with it. He yelped in protest and made a move to grab it back but she shook her head and stepped out of reach.

“You’ll get this back after you sit still and listen to your Chief now, all right?”

Phoenix nodded obediently and sat back down, while self-consciously running his hand over his bared head.

I’ll agree to anything if it means getting my beanie back! Ugh! I didn’t even wash my hair today! Jeez, what is it with these Fey girls and their hate-on for my hat?!

“Now, tell me something, Mr. Wright,” Mia began, sounding like a professor lecturing her student. “Why is it that you think my sister fell in love with you in the first place?”

The unexpected question threw him. “Um…b-because I saved her life?” Phoenix speculated, yelping as Mia smacked him over the head with his hat again as if trying to beat some sense into him.

“Stop calling yourself names and selling yourself so short, Phoenix Wright!” Mia commanded, putting her hands on her hips. “Is that all you think Maya feels for you? Some sort of hero gratitude? Is that all you take her for? All you take yourself for?”

“N – No, b – but…”

“I’ll have you know something about my sister,” Mia interrupted, pacing back and forth in front of him. “She’s a very bright girl, and she’s not one to give her heart away so easily! You always being her knight in shining armor to her damsel in distress fallacies may have been why she first formed a crush on you.”

She grinned impishly.

“Well, that, along with the possible gratitude for funding her chronically insatiable burger consumption.”

So, it was based on me forever filling up her six bottomless stomachs then?

Phoenix wondered where Mia was going with this.

“But… it’s not why she ultimately fell in love with you.”

Phoenix belatedly realized that amongst all the unanticipated news he’d updated her on, Mia had shown no sign of surprise whatsoever, about him and Maya now being together!

“Hold it! Chief…you knew how she felt about me?”

Good grief, even the dead were aware that Maya loved me before I ever was? Damn, it’s true! The man is seriously always the last one to know!

“Females, in general, are the embodiment of alluring mysteries that are beyond mortal capacity to decipher or understand.” Mia flashed a cheeky grin. “I’m her big sister, Phoenix! Of course, I knew! Moreover, I knew you two would hit it off – it’s why I was so keen to have you two meet that fateful night you met – never intending it to be under the worst possible circumstances! But anyway, it’s also why I can attest that the reason Maya loves you is because of that big, beautiful heart of yours. And because of who you are, and not what you do for a living! You never gave up on anyone, and you can’t give up on yourself either.”

She walked back over to him and tousled his hair.

“She may have also noticed that when you’re not wearing this ugly-ass hat, you’re not too hard on the eyes either, you know!”

“Thanks, Chief.” Phoenix blushed and dropped his eyes. “But it’s been over a year, now, and I’m not getting anywhere. I’m just stringing her along. I’m supposed to be hers; she’s supposed to be mine…We love each other so much… And we can’t even see each other!”

“I’m confused. You just told me you’d been together a year and a half. Aren’t you seeing each other now?”

“Not really. In the past year and a half, I’ve seen her three times,” Phoenix answered miserably. “You know the drill with that village, Mia! The Master can’t associate with a scumbag forgin’ attorney like me! It would ruin her reputation and that of the Kurain, which only recently has shed its previous stigma.”

“Need I remind you how tenacious and stubborn my sister is, Phoenix?” Mia sighed. “Those things wouldn’t matter if her mind was elsewhere, on something more important. And obviously, her mind has been set on you. So, to that end, I’m more worried about you. I haven’t seen you so broken since, well, since the last time Maya was in peril.”

“That’s why I’ve tried to make friends with Kristoph – so that he’ll trust me, and like me enough not to want to hurt those I love just to get to me.” He couldn’t look her in the eye as he made this admission. “I still don’t know for sure if my suspicions about him are correct, but the whole idea was to try to have it so Maya wouldn’t be in any perilous danger. I was willing to take that chance, even if I feel like I’m keeping her prisoner in Kurain, because of my paranoia about the wrong people seeing us together. I never in a million years could have known that Kurain would wind up being more dangerous for her than associating with me! But I should have known! The signs were all there, I saw it for myself the last time I visited, and especially after Misty…”

“Phoenix, stop blaming yourself and cease trying to find something to cavil at in everything I say!” Mia exclaimed, exasperated. “Not everything bad that happens is your fault! Neither was World War Two for heaven’s sake!”

She held up her hand, silencing the protest he was about to make.

“Tell me, did you ever say anything to make Maya question her abilities as Master?”

He shook his head vehemently.

“No! Of course not! I told her I always believed in her; that she could do anything she put her mind to!”

“Did you ever make disparaging comments about Misty Fey? Did you make Maya feel as if she were somehow doomed to follow in her ‘betraying’ mother’s footsteps and have history repeat itself because the proverbial apple doesn’t fall far from the tree? Did you ever make her feel inferior because Pearl was a better medium than her and thus deserved the title more?”

“No and no! A thousand times no!” He was indignant now. “Jesus, Mia, what do you take me for?”

She still wasn’t done.

“Did you forcibly drag Maya up to that temple today after making her starve herself for days on end and coerce her to stand for hours under a frigid waterfall?”

“Of course not!”

“I didn’t think so,” Mia crossed her arms and smirked at him. “So then tell me again, how and why any of this is your fault, my dear protégé?”

With the cards all fully laid out on the table and put into such blatantly glaring light like this, Phoenix suddenly felt his self-recriminations melt away like cotton candy in the rain. Now he just felt like a complete and total imbecile – albeit a somewhat less guilty one! He didn’t know whether to laugh or cry as he suddenly, miraculously felt the heavy burden of guilt leave his shoulders.

“You really don’t think this was my fault, Chief?” He asked meekly, hopefully. “That if I’d been around more, she wouldn’t have…”

“Regardless if you were there or not, Phoenix, she still would have had those nasty old biddies to contend with to undo any damage repair your presence may have temporarily fixed,” Mia affirmed gloomily.

The knowledge didn’t make her feel much better, although she was glad that her protégé appeared to have his unnecessary self-reproach somewhat alleviated. The aperçu of Maya living in such a hostile environment of wizened beldames, with only little Pearl as her sole ally, and being forced to sever ties with Phoenix as her only other alliance, was disturbing indeed. That was a whole new can of worms entirely, and Mia wasn’t even sure Maya’s superhero boyfriend could save her from this time.

Some sort of corrigible resolution had to be found to fix this infelicitous plight, surely. The question was, what?

The defense attorney stifled another sigh. She would worry about that later, once she was sure she’d completely gotten through to her erstwhile apt pupil.

“Listen, Superman, for both your sakes, please stop thinking you have to do everything all by yourself to protect my sister,” Mia stated firmly, her gaze intense. “You’re not a one-man band, Phoenix! This martyred hero complex of yours may very well have you winding up in a bed beside Maya’s if you keep this up!”

The hobo shrank away from her unwavering glower.

“OK, fine, when you put it that way, I guess you’re right, I’m not completely alone,” he realized. “Maya aside, the Gumshoes have been like family to me and Trucy, ready to take her in at a moment’s notice whenever I needed them to watch her. And I do have Edgeworth in Europe looking into things regarding that last case and the Gavins as well.”

“Where does your daughter factor into all of this? Even though she’s adopted officially now, she still isn’t privy to know about Maya?”

He shook his head.

“I’m keeping my kid out of this, Mia. Tots, even good ones like her, are unintentional blabbermouths! The last thing I need is to take Trucy to work, have Kristoph show up, and hear her beg for a ‘new mommy’ by name.”

“You take Trucy to work with you?” Mia repeated, looking puzzled. “What is it you’re doing now?”

Phoenix’s breath caught suddenly. He leaned forward on his knees and caught his head on his right thumb and forefinger to stare into the floor. Revealing his new job was almost as painfully mortifying as professing his disbarment. He took a deep breath and looked back up at his friend’s pensively waiting face.

“I’m … I’m a pianist now.”

“You’re a what?” Mia was startled. “I didn’t realize you even knew how to play the piano!”

“Um, I can’t,” he muttered. “Not well, anyway. I know maybe two songs fully and I just fake my way through a few bars of show tunes or Disney themes for the most part. The customers are too drunk to care, anyway. If they get rowdy and start making objections to my lackluster keying skills, I um, sort of start singing to distract them…”

“Sing?” Now the busty brunette was utterly gobsmacked. “Since when can you can sing?”

My golden vocal cords, more so than my silver tongue, would be how I won your sister’s heart. But that’s a story for another day.

“Well, I guess all those years of practicing my courtroom bellowing of Hold It! and Take That! have paid off as a transferrable skill. I’m attributing it as the key factor which helped prepare my vocal cords for other purposes, for when I’m not behind the bench,” he muttered, feeling his cheeks redden. “Consequently, I can belt out the tunes better than I play the piano! Or so I’ve been told, anyway…”

“Let me get this straight…” She spoke slowly, trying to comprehend the situation. “What you’re telling me is… you’re a sub-par musician but a passable singer…and you somehow manage to get paid for this?”

Phoenix scratched the back of his neck and flashed one of his most disarming smiles before he dropped his next bomb on her.

“I hate telling this part … Maya doesn’t even know about it … the piano playing is just a front for my real job.” He could feel another blush creeping across his face. There was nil good way to make his unbroken win record sound like anything but cockish boasting or a lame reparation attempt for his failure. “Er, I play poker. I’m kinda, sorta undefeated.”

“Poker?” Mia echoed blankly.

“It’s not like it’s gambling or anything,” he explained, somewhat defensively. “I’m not technically doing anything illegal, per se…”

He hadn’t relayed this information to anyone but the Gumshoes – his friends at the bar didn’t even know about the details of his double duty. He figured the questionable legality of the other activities that went down in the underground circuit was best left unsaid right now. He didn’t want to risk Mia’s disapproval – there was only so much saintliness a woman could have!

“Then how –?”

“I just get paid to play customers wanting a challenge. We play for glory, not money. And I don’t bring Trucy every night, only when there’s a poker tournament and in the evenings, when she’s not working as a magician at The Wonder Bar. Plus, her father was big in the poker circuit. I figure if I stick with this, I might be able to find him.”

“I see.”

He sat up straight in his chair then, a look of grim determination, reminiscent of the old Phoenix, on his mien.

“But even if I do find that lousy rat bastard, I’m not giving her back to him! He doesn’t deserve her! Besides, I’m not sure I could let her go.” He smiled diffidently. “Trucy’s my daughter, Chief. She loves me and I love her. Maya aside, she’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me. She’s my light.”

Mia smiled indulgently at this before she made her next inquiry.

“But you’re not going to hide Maya forever, are you, Papa? You will let Trucy meet her, eventually?”

“Most definitely,” Phoenix swore. “You have no idea how tempting it is to just confess everything, ruining both my investigation and Maya’s reputation just to bring my girls together.” He sighed morosely. “But I can’t do that. Not yet. Not until I know it’s safe.”

“I’m not going to lie, this isn’t a pretty picture you’ve painted here, dear friend,” Mia noted quietly, her expression thoughtful. “However, I’m also not going to tell you to smile this time or keep putting on a brave face. It’s not necessary, or even realistic. Life sucks right now, for both of you. Obviously, your attempts to keep a stiff upper lip throughout all of this, even if it was for the sake of your daughter might have made things far worse than if you’d just … released that sorrow and leaned on those who love you. Pearly and I love you like family, and we’ll never be ashamed to associate with you. You are family to Maya …and all of us. You’re an honorary Fey. And you are not alone. Please remember that.”

The hobo’s responding smile was hesitant but genuine as he mulled over what his former boss had just said.

I will no longer shun or refuse help from my friends, and I don’t have to pretend I’m fine in front of them when I’m not. I will not try to be a one-man band.

“Thank you, Mia,” he said softly.

“You’re welcome, Phoenix.” A benign smile from the legal legend. “But, do you want to know who else shouldn’t be alone right now?”

“Who?”

“Pearly. With her guardian here in the hospital, who’s going to look after her? I’d hate to send her off to Kurain without my sister there to watch over her – I mean, look at what they did to her! God knows what they’d try to do to my baby cousin without Maya there to protect her!” Mia shuddered as she eyed him anxiously. “What are we going to do, Phoenix?”

Another smile crept over the pianist’s face. Things were still bad, yes. Maya’s recovery was still pending, but he was confident she’d pull through. Mia had reminded him what a tough cookie his girl was. He fervently needed to believe in that for the moment. Right now, though, at least, he’d finally come across a problem that he actually had the solution for.

“Don’t you worry about Pearls, Chief,” he winked. “You just leave this to me. I’ve got an idea.”

Rihanna – Umbrella