Lotta and Luke - On Secrets Part 2
Lotta wasn't out for long. She was far too excited to be out for long. It was only a couple of minutes before she let out a groan and slowly opened her eyes.
And Luke was there. He always was, whenever she needed him, for anything. And tomorrow, he wouldn't be. Just the thought made her want to dissolve into tears right there...
No. She would not let that happen. She had to prove him wrong.
Luke noticed Lotta's eyes flicker open. He had held her in his arms, rested her head on his hands, her body in his lap...he couldn't imagine what Lotta had to feel.
"L-Lotta..." He stammered as she woke up. He didn't exactly know what to say, his mind once filled with words, evidence and theories now completely empty. "Y-You're awake..." He continued.
She was quiet for a moment. Lotta was sure he wouldn't care for her like this after-... No. It was not happening. She was not going to confess anything. She had gotten out of tough spots before. She could do it again.
She looked up at him and slowly nodded. If only she could get a minute to think...
If she was a bit dizzy still, Luke wouldn't press her back into the case, the evidence, the testimony. He looked down towards her, trying to look as friendly as possible without smiling.
He couldn't smile. Not now. Later. But not now.
Lotta was thankful for the break. She let her eyes scan everything in the room while she thought. She hoped Luke would think she was just getting her bearings again. There had to be something...something...
...wait. That was it. That was it!
She finally looked up at Luke again and spoke. "Since I'm already on the floor... You got any more wild accusations to make before I tell you how wrong you are? Or should I go ahead and start?"
Luke's eyes widened slightly. She still wouldn't give it up? She'd still continue fighting? "...Feel free to start, Lotta." He said, though didn't release her. "Try to break my logic."
Oh, hell, she didn't like the sound of that. She had to forge on anyway. This one thing was really all she had to cling to.
"So this Cora person's the Informer Incognito. So what? What's that got to do with me?"
"Lotta, Lotta..." Luke said. He knew she'd go after that. That was what the other picture was for. "Vould you mind standing up, so I can show you?"
Oh, she wouldn't mind at all... If she was sure she could. Lotta slowly and carefully pushed herself back up to her feet. She wobbled a little bit still, but she could stand. For now.
Luke rose up, steadying Lotta slightly, and then he picked up the photo of Lotta's SUV outside the Berry Big Circus. The fact that Cora was in the passenger’s seat and Matt Engarde was apparent, as well as the plate numbers, identical to the ones on Lotta's SUV. He hoped this would be sufficient.
He showed her the photo, and hoped it would be self-explanatory.
Well. Damn. He was better prepared than she thought... That was just Cora, but she couldn't deny it was her SUV. She knew Luke wouldn't believe her if she said she had lent it to someone... She thought of just lying to him, telling him she hadn't been anywhere near the circus that night. Maybe with Mable.... Mable would back her up. But...she couldn't lie to Luke like that. Anyone else, yes, but not to him.
She stayed silent and stared at the photograph. She felt tears stinging in her eyes.
The moment of truth had come. The truth had been revealed. The cold truth...
But the truth was not always pleasant. He put the photo back on his desk, and before he realized what he was doing, he pulled Lotta into a hug. He wasn't very good at comforting people, but...
He could try.
Lotta couldn't take it anymore when Luke pulled her close. She cried.
Because she knew he was just being nice. She knew he must've hated her. She knew he was going to tell all the world that he had unmasked the Informer Incognito. She knew Prosecutor Edgeworth and Matt Engarde would come after her, both aiming for her life, but in different ways. She knew that she'd been greedy, trying to make a new life for herself, but it seemed so much better, she had to do it.
It seemed like an eternity to her before she started to quiet down. Lotta didn't know what to do....
Her tears was running down his tuxedo shoulder. She was crying, he knew it. He shouldn't have expected anything less. She had worked hard to get to the position she was in...and while her name wasn't exactly spoken with respect, she had done her job.
Him revealing her secret, even though it was only them two, changed all of that. The part of himself that still was a sneaky blackmailer thought to use this information, but the new-found part of him ignored that part completely. He never would blackmail anyone. He still, though, didn't know what to say. The silence was overwhelming. "Zere, zere..." He mumbled to her.
It was the only thing he managed to say.
There it was. He was sick of her. Lotta could tell just in the way he said those two words. Every fear she had was right.
"You..." She was struggling even to speak softly. "You hate me now... I knew it was going to end like this... I knew it an' I did it anyway. I never should've created Incognito.... I'm such an...idiot!" The last word was spoken with force, with anger.
...Hate? Hate was a powerful word. "Hate, Lotta...?" He said. He wasn't sure of what she was talking about. He discarded rumors, and even when they started talking about him, he cast it a glance and simply ignored it.
And now he was rubbing salt in the wound.
"I... I wrote about you... I knew it wasn't true and I knew you'd never look twice at that pink haired nurse, but I was desperate to make deadline an' I couldn't think of another way to throw Engarde off my trail... I know it doesn't mean a thing, Luke, but I'm so sorry! If I wasn't so scared or i-if I'd just stopped to think-!"
Lotta shuddered violently again. She wished he would just get it over with... Gloat, reveal her, whatever he had planned.
What on Earth was she talking abou--OH.
He remembered now. He hadn't actually bothered reading the Gab until people started recognizing him in the street, pointing and wondering. He had wondered and researched. It didn't require much time to find the source of the rumoring. He ignored it. It wasn't like he had built up enough of a reputation to ruin anyway. He broke up the hug and looked at Lotta. "So zat's vat you vere talking about..." He muttered, before speaking up a little, folding his arms. "Lotta, I could--no, vait, honestly I couldn't care less."
When he pushed her away, Lotta started to panic. There it was, she had been waiting for it, and there it was. When he opened his mouth to speak, she could feel her world about to collapse...
And then he wasn't mad. He didn't even sound upset. It was...weird. Everyone else seemed to take whatever she wrote about them so personally. Some much more so than others, but still.
She wasn't sure if he was being honest. She wasn't even sure what to think. He had every reason to hate her, for writing about him and lying to him and going behind his back, and he...didn't. "R-really?..."
Luke didn't feel it appropriate to smile still. Had Lotta really thought he was going to hate her for some simple rumors...? He wasn't someone who worked with them, he wouldn't know. "I vouldn't say it if I didn't mean it, Lotta." He said, simply.
It was nothing dramatic...nothing over-the-top...but he hoped it would do.
He didn't hate her. She didn't know how that worked, but she didn't care. Even if he told everyone, told them her name, where she lived, what she drove, anything, she knew she could handle it, as long as he didn't hate her. It was Luke's job to discover and announce the truth, just like it has been Lotta's job to spin lies and make the world believe them. She knew the big reveal was coming. She could handle that.
Lotta felt tears welling up in her eyes again. "Oh, Luke... I was... I was so scared you'd hate me. I...I couldn't stand it if you did..."
Luke felt himself growing a bit confused. He hadn't been there for long, she had known him for shorter...and she already felt such a strong friendship with him?
And better yet...he was feeling the same. Had it been anyone else, he had shouted, yelled, never visited that person ever again...but now, it wasn't another person. It was Lotta Hart. He knew he couldn't stay mad at her. He was growing fond of her. Very fond.
But now, he had to answer her. He had been thinking for a while. "You vouldn't...?" He simply replied, still a bit baffled at how close they were and the fact that he had not realized it until now.
Lotta smiled. It was a shaky, lopsided little thing that felt very strange on her face, used to big, beaming grins. If she didn't feel as though her knees were going to buckle if she moved, she would've hugged the man.
"No... I like you, Luke. I really look up to you. If you hated me... I don't know what I'd do, especially if it because of all that- I would've never forgiven myself..."
He wasn't sure if she really did feel like that. Well, he had not been, until he had gotten confirmation now. He felt a bit of water in his right eye, and he removed his magnifying-monocle to wipe away a tear. He stuffed the amazing magnifying glass-monocle into his pocket, allowing Lotta to see his right eye for the first time since... a long time. He wasn't sure if anyone ever had seen his right eye, except for the brief pauses he took polishing it. "Vell...I suppose ve need not discuss zis any longer, since I don't hate you..." He said.
Lotta stared at him for a moment. She had never really seen Luke without his monocle, save for those brief glimpses when he was polishing it. Those really didn't count, since there was never enough time to get a good look before it was back in place again.
She couldn't really now either. There was another matter to address. She didn't want to say anything, but she had to.
Her voice was trembling slightly when she spoke again. "So...how long do I have to get into hiding?..."
Luke raised an eyebrow. "Get into hiding...?" He would have known why she was saying that in any other situation, but, for some reason...not right now.
"Well, yeah..." Luke didn't know what she was talking about? Or was he just playing dumb? "I can't really stay out in the open...once the news gets out that I'm...the Informer Incognito..."
Luke understood. "Who ever said ze news vould get out, Lotta?" He asked.
This was beginning to be too much for her to handle. Luke had figured it out. Forced it out of her. He didn't hate her. Now he wasn't going to tell anyone?
"You....you're not going to tell anyone?"
"Vy vould I?" He said. That had probably come as a surprise for Lotta. He wouldn't normally figure something out for no reason, but he had to know. It was better to know something exactly, even if it was bad, than not knowing at all.
Why would he? There were alot of reasons, Lotta was sure of that. She was too confused at the moment to think of anything, but she knew they existed.
"W-well...you put alot of effort into all this... I kind of figured...you know... You'd want some return on it..."
Ah yes. The obvious reason. "Vell...I noticed somezing vas off, and it vas a bit uncomfortable not knowing exactly vat it vas...so, just knowing is good enough for me."
Lotta suddenly felt light headed again. She swayed on her feet. This was unreal. All that work...and he didn't want a thing out of it except to know. She had been expecting...an onslaught, a flood, and she just got a little drizzle.
But...where had those clouds come from?...
"What seemed off?..."
"Not much. Cora seemed awfully familiar. You vere also acting a bit more tense ven Incognito started spreading her first rumors, and ven I saw you drive of at ze cocktail party, I basically knew zat somezing vas going on zat I didn't know about. Ozzervise, let's just call it a hunch."
And that was one of the many reasons why Lotta knew Luke Atmey deserved the title of Ace Detective. Even on just a hunch, he came through. Elegantly, too, she might add.
"So...no one but you'll suspect me... And you...you're really not going to tell?"
"No, no one else vill suspect you, and no, I von't." Luke replied simply. He could understand why Lotta was a bit confused. To go through all that trouble, schedule a meeting, fix the photos, all that for one thing.
Awareness.
Lotta let out a sigh, and it felt like all her worries and fear rode out on breath. She even felt lighter. She didn't have a thing to worry about. She knew her secret was safe with him, kept under the lock of word. Lotta smiled, a big beaming grin this time, and she looked up at Luke and couldn't believe how lucky she was to have him.
"Luke, if I didn't know you weren't one for huggin', I'd be squeezin' you half to death right now!"
Luke smiled, finally. He couldn't put on a serious face anymore. And...well...she was grateful..."I...suppose I can make exceptions...for some occasions..." He said.
She didn't pause. She wasn't about to give him one single moment to reconsider that statement. Lotta closed the short distance between them in a flash, and her arms tight around him and her head against his chest.
"Thank you so much, Luke! You...you don't know how much all this means to me- you not hating me and keeping this a secret!"
Luke stumbled backwards slightly because of the sheer speed she had rushed forward to him, but then stood steady and smiled down at her. He returned the hug, though he was, for once, not sure what to say.
Wait. Wait wait wait. He knew she was going to be in Vitamin Square. He shouldn't have known that...unless...
She kept her hold on him as she spoke. "Hey! Were you... You were that guy-that called me today!"
Finally, she realized it. "I zought you realized zat before." He said, still hugging her as he spoke.
"Well, excuse me, Mr. Ace Detective, I was kind of focusing on saving our friendship! But...uh..."
She knew this was pointless to ask.
"I know this is a long shot... But since you got my name, do I get Hans' last name?"
Luke considered this for a while. "...Sorry, Lotta, but no." He didn't exactly say why, but he thought she'd ask that soon.
"I figured you'd say that." She shrugged. "But I can find out easily enough on my own now that I have something to go on. It's no big deal."
She craned her head a little to get a better look at his face. Luke really did look different without his monocle. Lotta almost thought he was hiding something under there... But there was nothing but a dark eye that matched its twin on the other side.
"Glad you zink so." Luke said. She shifted slightly to get a better look on his right eye. He looked a tad confused, but then remembered he wasn't actually wearing his monocle. He should have remembered that earlier. The world wasn't as twisted as it was usually.
...He actually wasn't very used to seeing the world without his monocle.
"I don't think I've ever really seen you take that thing off before... Huh... You should do it more often! Do you really even need to keep it on all the dang time?"
"Vell...yes. Yes I do."
"Why? It can't magnify things when it's shoved right up against your eye like that, and you put it in your pocket just fine a minute ago. I think people could recnognize you without it."
"I'm used to it, simply. Besides, I've been vearing it for so long...I can't really see vell enough vithout it."
That came as a surprise. She really hadn't thought of that, but now that she was, it made sense, given how hard he evidently worked, even if he wasn't actually on a case.
"I guess we're both a little crazy when it comes to our jobs... Your right eye's gone bad, and I have another me."
...He was a bit crazy about his job, he guessed. But that was understandable. He had an amazing job, putting evildoers behind bars, using only his mindpower. There was also the gunbattles, car chases, and other things he brought up when people said his job wasn't that exciting.
"It's not gone bad." He corrected. "I'm just...used to see ze world from anozzer perspective, zat's all."
Lotta thought about that for a moment, and then laughed a little. They were more alike than she would have guessed. To her, Incognito seemed like Luke's right eye, something no one really saw but glimpses of, something that saw the world differently.
"I think maybe I've been Incognito for too long; I'm startin' to think like some kind of philosopher..." Wait. Incognito. Didn't she really have something to do tonight?... Lotta's eyes widened. "Luke, is today Wednesday!? Please tell me today's not Wednesday!"
"Er..." Luke backed off slightly. "I could say it vasn't, but zat vould be lying...yes, today's Wednesday..." What could happen? What could possibly happen on Wednesday?
Lotta's hand dove into her pocket and pulled out her cell phone. She checked the time, and almost shrieked. She started backing away from Luke, one hand stuffing the phone back into her pocket and the other in her afro, scrunching clumps of hair, a nervous habit.
"Oh-oh my God, it's after nine! I'm late- He's going to be so- I'm sorry, Luke, I have to leave!"
Luke was getting curious now, but if Lotta had to go, he wouldn't force her to stay any longer. "It's no problem at all, Lotta..." He said.
Lotta had her hand on his office's door by then. She really felt awful having to leave so suddenly, but it couldn't be helped. Matt was waiting for her.
"I really am sorry, Luke! I'll explain everything later, I promise! I'll come by tomorrow!"
"I, er...It's no problem, really..." Luke said, because even though he was a bit curious, his curiousity would be satisfied tomorrow.
"Thanks again, Luke! For everything! I-..I really don't how I could ever thank you enough! I'll see you tomorrow!" Lotta rushed out of his office. It would take her at least an hour to get home, get back into her disguise properly, take a bus to Matt's neighborhood and get to his home. She really didn't have any time to lose...but she felt like she was being cruel to the man who had been so kind to her...
No, everything would be fine. She would explain tomorrow. He would still be there, and he would understand this too.
Luke didn't follow her. It was obviously important, and he wouldn't intrude on her privacy. Taking a glance at his watch, he realized exactly how much time he had spent talking to Lotta. He strolled back to his desk, filing out some paperwork.
It was either that he was so distracted from his talk with Lotta, or he was more maniacal about his work than people might think.
Whatever the reason, he was still working, even though he wasn't on the clock.