Pearls

Chapter 9

Meanwhile...

Edgeworth sits at his desk in deep thought, his head on his hands with his brow furrowed. On his desk lay stacks upon stacks of paperwork, and a monitor displaying a blank document. The time on the monitor showed 5:38pm, almost 4 hours had passed since his lunch with Phoenix, Maya, Pearl and Larry. 

Detective Gumshoe walks in, carefully opening and closing the door as he did. He was cautious about how he entered his boss' room ever since the last incident when his salary was threatened to be lowered. He didn't think his salary could get cut for almost knocking down the books from their shelves with his forceful entry, but this was Miles Edgeworth. There is nothing he shouldn't expect from his demanding boss.

"Hey, boss! I got the files you wanted and also some coffee. Thought you'd might need some right about now." He smiled as he brought them over to the desk.

Edgeworth remained silent. His eyes were closed and it seemed that he didn't hear the detective's entry. He didn't so much as move the whole time Gumshoe was there and this worried the detective.

"Mr. Edgeworth Sir? Are you okay? You'd usually say something by now." Gumshoe looked over his desk and saw the blank document and the mountain of paperwork sitting untouched. 

"Sir?"

Nothing.

"Sir?!"

"Mrrmph..."

"SIR!"

"I said to be quiet!" Edgeworth flared up at him.

"Agh!" Gumshoe jumped back. "Sorry, sir, I didn't mean to disturb you!"

"Hmph."

Gumshoe scratched the back of his head, a look of concern on his face. "How long have you been sitting there, sir? Would you like to leave the office for some fresh air? It's not like you to not get work done—"

"I'm completely fine." Nothing more came from the prosecutor. 

Gumshoe waited in hopes that he might say a little more, but after what felt like 5 minutes he was at his wits' end. This was very unlike the Edgeworth that he learnt to work and befriend with. By now, he would've said something to him, like telling him to get out of his office for example. Something definitely wrong here and he wanted to help out any way he could.

"Um, sir? Can I ask you a question?"

"..."

Gumshoe shifted his weight from one foot to the other. "Did...something happen today, sir? It seems that you've been like this ever since I brought you here, so I thought something must've happened during your lunch with the others."

Edgeworth tensed up at the mention of the others and their shared lunch. He recomposed himself quickly but it didn't go undetected. Gumshoe gave a little sigh. "Mr. Edgeworth Sir, did you want to talk about it? It'd be good for you to get it out rather than bottling it up inside of your head."

"..."

He sighed again. 

Of course Edgeworth wouldn't want to talk about it. He never reveals any of his weaknesses to people. I should've realised this bef—

"Okay."

Gumshoe shot up, mouth wide open. Did he hear what he thought he just heard? Did Edgeworth really agree to tell him what he's feeling?

"Detective, are you going to continue gawking like that or are you going to listen to what I have to say?"

Gumshoe stood attention. "Y-yes, sir!" He moved to stand in front of the desk and faced the prosecutor. Edgeworth sat silently in his chair contemplating on where to start.