It takes her a few moments to look up, as she was almost afraid that what her ears had heard was a mistake. Of course, she could never forget that voice, and as she looked up, it was clear who it was she had run into, in one of her daydreaming moods.
âM-Mr. EdgeworthâŠâ
Her eyes widened in surprise. While it was the prosecutorâs office, so it shouldnât have been that much of a shock to her, she hadnât considered that she would run into the prosecuting attorney in this manner. It was horribly embarrassing, but Lauren found herself too caught up in the moment to worry over that. Consulting her lollipop ring, her daydreams got the best.
âAh, was it fate, Lauren? You had wanted to meet him today, but not like this! Yet⊠itâs almost like how you met Lance. Oh, but does that mean⊠no! Surely heâs not going to frame you for murder! Would he? No⊠no, he wouldnât! Oh wait⊠I think he said words. I should say words too!â
She quickly turned back to him, though found it difficult to look directly in those dark, piercing eyes.
âAre you sure? âŠI-I did knock over your papers and such. Should I pick them up?â
Well, it seemed that not much had changed about Ms. Lauren Paups. She still gave off the same scatterbrained, dreamy air that she had when heâd first met her what seemed like an eternity ago. At the time, heâd believed her generally flustered demeanor merely a side effect of the fact that she was trying to hide an important secret from him, but even now, after the details of the Amano scandal had been sorted out at last, she still seemed to be perpetually worried over something.Â
   Then again, the thought occurred to him that she was paying a visit to the Prosecutorâs Office. Typically, when the general public found themselves in need of a trip to these facilities, it was never under circumstances that could be described as cheerful. When heâd first met her, Ms. Lauren Paups had gotten herself involved in a particularly nasty crime, in which her own father happened to be the victim. Could it be that somehow she had fallen back into a life of criminal activity, even without Lance Amanoâs harmful influence over her?
   In any event, it was hardly fitting for the two of them to just stand there in the silence, staring at one another. As she had pointed out, after all, his papers were still scattered all over the floor; to any onlookers that might have passed by at this moment, they must have appeared the strangest pair. The smirk on his face returning as its own rueful ghost, Edgeworth gave his head a dismissive shake and dropped to his knees, beginning the arduous task of sorting each of the papers back to their appropriate file.
   âNonsense,â he muttered, half-distracted by the disarray in front of him, narrowing his eyes as he attempted to read the first lines on each of the pages. Of all the days to neglect to bring my reading glasses with me to work ⊠! âI believe Iâm perfectly capable of cleaning up this mess without assistance,â he added, a touch of dry humor entering his voice and taking the sting out of the comment. âIn the meantime, however, perhaps you can answer me this. What on Earth are you doing at the Prosecutorâs Office this afternoon?â
âO-oh, okay.â
She would have preferred to help, not liking to let other people clean up the messes she had made due to her frequent clumsiness, but if he wanted to take care of it himself, then she wasnât going to stop him. It felt a little silly, just standing there like that in the middle of the hallway, so she moved out of the way to give him some space, her back against the wall. When he asked her what she was doing there, however, she couldnât help but be a little surprised, owing to her rather mousy nature. While she wasnât in legal trouble herself, it was a bit of a sticky situation.
âWell... um, i-itâs sort of a legal affair. Regarding the, uh... Amanos. I was here to pick up some paperwork for it...â
