Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman

Chapter Nine: Fools Don't Rush In

Maya's jaw fell to the floor as her saucer-sized eyes looked at Franziska in shocked dismay. She felt as if her throat was constricting and for the most terrifying of moments, literally felt like she couldn't breathe. Finally, and with great effort, she pulled herself together and drew a deep breath, struggling to contain herself.

"Y-you are the one who found that card?" She whispered shakily. "B-but how?"

"It was in the scruffy detective's old trench coat." Franziska shrugged. "And it was hardly the first time the incompetent fool had overlooked a glaring piece of evidence."

Maya felt tears threatening to fall again as she looked beseechingly at the other woman. "Oh please, please don't tell me you've gone and told Nick? Surely not even you could be that incredibly cruel?"

"Foolish girl! Whatever do you take me for? Of course I didn't give that fool Wright the card."

"Oh thank God!" Maya actually sagged back against the wall behind her, such was the weight of her relief at those words.

"I gave it Miles for safekeeping instead."

"OK, just kill me now!" Maya groaned, face-palming. "What on earth possibly made you think doing that was a better alternative?"

"I figured since my fiancé is better acquainted with the object of affection than I, as well as older and wiser – or so he keeps telling me, anyway – that he might be a better source to handle both the timing and delivery of it."

"I don't see why either one of you had to be involved at all!" Maya stormed. "Who are you or he to play God with our lives? Why couldn't you just leave well enough alone?"

"Maya Fey, just when I think you've regressed to the lowest possible pinnacle of foolishness, you go and prove me wrong!" Franziska's eyes raked her with scorn. "Surely you aren't fool-headed enough to truly believe that any of the events that transpired tonight couldn't have actually been prevented had Phoenix Wright actually known how you've felt about him all this time?"

Maya's silent, down-cast gaze was her answer.

Franziska crossed her arms, closed her eyes, and gave a long-suffering sigh. Realizing that this was going to be more difficult than she'd realized, she decided to switch strategies entirely.

"You know, I didn't wish you Happy Birthday yet," she remarked casually. "Nothing personal, you see. It's just that I never did understand the whole birthday concept myself. The act of celebrating being another year older, and hence, all the more closer to your grave seemed like a foolish concept to me. At least, that's what my father believed. That was his logic for never throwing birthday parties or acknowledging either Miles' birthdays or mine." She smiled grimly. "However, being with Miles has, shall we say, mellowed me somewhat."

Thawed out at tad, is more like it, Maya thought caustically, confused at where her dialogue partner was going with this but still too despondent to speak.

"Miles, for reasons I cannot completely fathom, holds Phoenix Wright in very high esteem, both on a personal and professional level," Franziska went on in her monologue, uncaring that Maya still hadn't spoken. "He is also quite fond of you, Maya Fey, which, I will concede is somewhat less perplexing. As I have chosen to love this man, if not always understand him, for the rest of my mortal days, I have decided – what is it you Americans say? – if you can't beat em, join em?' is the philosophy I must take."

Maya finally found her voice. "Does this mean you're going to finally stop whipping us all to a bloody pulp whenever the mood strikes?"

Franziska hesitated slightly, but then gave a tiny nod of affirmation. "Admittedly, it is a work in progress. I promised Miles I would try. I did refrain from whipping that fool, Larry Butz, when he had me in that death grip earlier, did I not?" There was no reason, she figured, to let Maya know at that moment about her little slip up with Phoenix prior to her restroom arrival. Just like in the courtroom, her motto was to never present evidence that could only weaken her case. "And for the record, I have never whipped you."