Hey guys! I decided to go back and fix problems I found in 'The Other Maxwell'. For those of you who are not aware of it, I wrote this story back before the chaptering option was avalible; stories in parts were published in parts. It also drove me absolutely bonkers, because I would read half a story, then lose it just when it was getting REALLY interesting. So, I wrote a whole story in one go (took me forever, too). But I don't like how it turned out, so I'm redoing it. The plot's basically the same, I can just go back and expand on the plot a bit, maybe alter one or two (or three or four) things. Consider the first story a rough draft.
M/N: that's allowed, right? Right?
* * * * *
Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing. I DO, however, own a gundam, but you'll have to fight me for it! ::grabs her Deathscythe model and holds it protectively:: He is... My precioussssssssss. Yesssssssssssssss, preciousssssssssssssss.(sorry guys, LotR overload...)
* * * * * *
The Other Maxwell
by Grace Musica
Chapter One
Enter Eli
* * * * *
[M/N: This is set seven years after EW. For some strange reason, I just thought you'd like to know that...]
Quatre Raberba Winner sighed, walking out onto his balcany. Leaning against the railing, he closed his eyes, took a deep breath and smiled. God, he loved the Earth. Fortunately, the family business brought him down from the colonies frequently--so much so that he had bought a house on a bit of real dirt.
Now, he considered it home.
His only regret was that he didn't get to see his friends as much as he wanted to: Wufei was 'putting out fires' with his partner--no, no, Quatre reminded himself, his fiancee--Sally; Trowa was still with his sister Catherine at the circus; and Duo had married Hilde a scarce year ago. Heero, however, was still an enigma. He had dissapeared not long after the Mariemaia incident, and had been rarely seen since then: once by Quatre, when Heero had dragged himself into the Winner house on L4 all bloodied up, got himself cleaned up, spent the night, and left before Quatre had awoken with nothing but a note of thanks behind; once by Duo, who had gotten him a shuttle ticket to the moon and bought him lunch; once by Relena, when he woke her up in the middle of the night simply to tell her that her security sucked; a few times by Wufei, when they were working together on some Preventer project; and he had managed to make it to Duo's wedding. However, they did get an email from Yuy every once in a while, so they knew that he was still alive.
Suddenly, the intense anxiety of someone close by flooded his senses. Breaking off of his chain of thought, Quatre looked down to see a dark-haired young boy, maybe five, six years younger than himself, following a trail of footprints in the dirt. About thirty yards off, he stopped, followed the trail with his eyes and looked up at the sky.
Quatre grinned inwardly as his ears faintly caught the string of curses that erupted from the young boy. Still watching, he saw the lad kick up a cloud of dirt in his rage and storm towards the front gates.
* * * * *
The lad, however, was a lass. Her name was Elizabeth Maxwell--Lizzy for short. She had been raised along with Duo on L2, and, like Duo, had found it more conveinent to pose as a memeber of the opposite sex when running the streets. It was a habit that she had kept with her for her twenty-two years, and she wasn't planning on changing it at the moment.
But, of course, at the moment, she didn't care about her appearence. At the moment, Lizzy was thoughly pissed off.
Lizzy's latest job was taking care of a rather michevious ten-year-old boy. Lizzy was convinced that the child was out to get her. Jacob, her charge, had initially rejected the idea of a nanny, and, since his parents insisted that SOMEONE keep him out of trouble, he was doing everything he could think of to get her fired.
"I'm going to kill him, then I quit this damn job," she promised herself in an undertone. "Honestly, breaking onto Winner property, does that child have a death wish? For me? Even *I* was never this much trouble when I was younger."
* * * * *
Lizzy got quite a shock when she was admited without question into the house. The elderly butler bowed formally to her, and she bowed back, earing a chuckle from the man. When she was informed that they were waiting on her, and if he could only have a name to give to Master Winner, she panicked and almost gave her true name, but caught herself at the last second.
"It's L... Eli. Eli Maxwell, sir."
Following the elder, she wondered why she hadn't immediately dished out her alias. After years and years of using it, it normally sprung to her lips as normally as if it was her real name. Well, it was, she reflected. Eli, as in Elizabeth. Sister Mary Patrick had given it to her as a baby, due to her... position.
Well, there was no use dwelling in the past. Right now, she had bigger fish to fry. Or, more accurately, a child.
* * * * *
"Master Winner, Mr. Eli Maxwell is here to pick up the child."
Quatre stood as Eli entered the room. He realized that Eli was maybe a year younger than himself, but was just short for his age. He had short, curly brown hair, bright blue eyes, and a very pretty, childish face. With the big clothes Eli was wearing, he looked like a child playing dress-up in his father's clothes.
He watched his guest's eyes casually scan the room; a practiced movement, something he had seen his fellow pilots do countless times, and he had caught himself doing on a few occassions. This was a man who never let his guard down, not even for an instant.
Deciding to break the ice, Quatre put out his hand in a gesture of friendship. "Hi, I assume the terror in the next room is yours?"
Eli took his hand and shook it, shaking her head. "Thank God, no. Not anymore. I quit. He drives me crazy."
Usually, as Quatre had learned, skin-on-skin contact, such as shaking hands, enabled his phycic ability to feel emotions, and, on VERY rare occassions, he could even read their minds. Here, he met something akin to a brick wall.
Still holding Eli's hand, he looked at her and cocked his head to one side. "Where have I seen you from? You look vaguely familiar."
Eli laughed a little bit. "I'm surprised you remembered me, Mr. Winner. I was at Duo and Hilde's wedding. Duo and I grew up together."
"Oh, yes, now I remember," Quatre nodded, dropping her hand. He did recall. Duo's little brother had sat in the corner all during the reception, and had only associated with a few people, namely Duo and Hilde, and had exchanged a very few words with the other pilots until after the other guests had left and the comerades had sat down to polish off what was left of the alcohol. Then, Eli Maxwell had become open and smiling, joking around with his brother, new sister-in-law, and their friends. At the time, Quatre couldn't figure out what had triggered the change, the wine or Duo's ease with his friends.
Quatre suspected the wine.
"He's right in there." The blonde motioned towards a side doorway, and Eli took the hint and entered.
* * * * *
"Well, well, well. I'll be damned. Eli!"
Lizzy stopped dead in her tracks, not expecting to see her adopted brother and his wife. Duo was standing on one side of the room, restraining Jacob--the boy, a bit small for his age, was charging his elder, who had a strategically placed hand on the child's forehead--and Hilde was on the other, watching the two and shaking her head, one hand over her stomach, which was just starting to swell.
"Eli!" Duo repeated, smiling at his 'brother'. "Long time, no s--" He was cut off when Jacob broke lose and tackled him. Somehow, Duo swiftly pried the child off of him and was on his feet, holding Jacob a good foot off the floor by the back of his shirt. "So, been keeping your fighting skills intact, I see."
Lizzy laughed. "You're not kidding." Copying her brother, she took Jacob by the back of his shirt. The boy started wrigling around, trying to get free. Lizzy looked him in his eyes. "You, sir, are in serious trouble."
"Not as much as you, jackass!" Jacob cried, lashing out with his feet. One foot connected with the bottom on Lizzy's jaw, and she dropped the boy, who landed neatly on his feet.
Taking the advantage while Lizzy was recovering, Jacob backed up a few steps and charged. Lizzy easily sidestepped the small boy, grabbed him, bent him over her knee, and started spanking him. Although she wasn't hitting him too hard, he started wailing.
Quatre and Hilde stared at the display, while Duo attempted to smother his chuckles behind his hand. When Lizzy finished, the boy sprung up, kicked her and ran out the door screaming 'You're fired!'.
Lizzy started after him, but Quatre put a hand to her shoulder, stopping her. "He'll be found by someone. Why don't you sit and stay with us for a while?"
"Gladly." She sighed and rubbed her eyes. "I know this is a horrible thing to say, but I REALLY hate that child."
"Oh, little bro, I feel sorry for you," Duo said, catching Lizzy in a hug, which she returned.
"I, however, feel sorry for Hilde and company," she replied smoothly as Duo released her, winking at her sister-in-law. "Congrats."
"Thanks."
"Eli? What are you going to do now?"
Lizzy turned towards Quatre, who was wearing a worried look on his face. "Well, I'll take Jacob back home, collect what few clothes I have, and start job hunting again. It's that simple."
"Hey, Quatre, I know! Could you do me a big favor and hire my little brother? He's well behaved, he's nice to strangers, and he's housetrained!"
Lizzy looked at Duo. "Thanks." The word was dripping in sarcasm.
"That just might be a good idea..."
The Maxwell siblings looked at Quatre, who had a thoughtful look on his face. "Oh, Duo! Look at what you did! Mr. Winner, you really don't have to do anything, I'll be just fine by myself, honestly," Lizzy insisted, glaring at Duo.
"Actually, I DO need someone. I was just about to put out an ad for a worker. Since you're Duo's family, you're hired. When can you start?"
Lizzy stared at Quatre. "Today just gets stranger and stranger."
Duo snickered. "Warning: You're crazy, Quatre."
* * * * *
M/N: that's allowed, right? Right?
* * * * *
Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing. I DO, however, own a gundam, but you'll have to fight me for it! ::grabs her Deathscythe model and holds it protectively:: He is... My precioussssssssss. Yesssssssssssssss, preciousssssssssssssss.(sorry guys, LotR overload...)
* * * * * *
The Other Maxwell
by Grace Musica
Chapter One
Enter Eli
* * * * *
[M/N: This is set seven years after EW. For some strange reason, I just thought you'd like to know that...]
Quatre Raberba Winner sighed, walking out onto his balcany. Leaning against the railing, he closed his eyes, took a deep breath and smiled. God, he loved the Earth. Fortunately, the family business brought him down from the colonies frequently--so much so that he had bought a house on a bit of real dirt.
Now, he considered it home.
His only regret was that he didn't get to see his friends as much as he wanted to: Wufei was 'putting out fires' with his partner--no, no, Quatre reminded himself, his fiancee--Sally; Trowa was still with his sister Catherine at the circus; and Duo had married Hilde a scarce year ago. Heero, however, was still an enigma. He had dissapeared not long after the Mariemaia incident, and had been rarely seen since then: once by Quatre, when Heero had dragged himself into the Winner house on L4 all bloodied up, got himself cleaned up, spent the night, and left before Quatre had awoken with nothing but a note of thanks behind; once by Duo, who had gotten him a shuttle ticket to the moon and bought him lunch; once by Relena, when he woke her up in the middle of the night simply to tell her that her security sucked; a few times by Wufei, when they were working together on some Preventer project; and he had managed to make it to Duo's wedding. However, they did get an email from Yuy every once in a while, so they knew that he was still alive.
Suddenly, the intense anxiety of someone close by flooded his senses. Breaking off of his chain of thought, Quatre looked down to see a dark-haired young boy, maybe five, six years younger than himself, following a trail of footprints in the dirt. About thirty yards off, he stopped, followed the trail with his eyes and looked up at the sky.
Quatre grinned inwardly as his ears faintly caught the string of curses that erupted from the young boy. Still watching, he saw the lad kick up a cloud of dirt in his rage and storm towards the front gates.
* * * * *
The lad, however, was a lass. Her name was Elizabeth Maxwell--Lizzy for short. She had been raised along with Duo on L2, and, like Duo, had found it more conveinent to pose as a memeber of the opposite sex when running the streets. It was a habit that she had kept with her for her twenty-two years, and she wasn't planning on changing it at the moment.
But, of course, at the moment, she didn't care about her appearence. At the moment, Lizzy was thoughly pissed off.
Lizzy's latest job was taking care of a rather michevious ten-year-old boy. Lizzy was convinced that the child was out to get her. Jacob, her charge, had initially rejected the idea of a nanny, and, since his parents insisted that SOMEONE keep him out of trouble, he was doing everything he could think of to get her fired.
"I'm going to kill him, then I quit this damn job," she promised herself in an undertone. "Honestly, breaking onto Winner property, does that child have a death wish? For me? Even *I* was never this much trouble when I was younger."
* * * * *
Lizzy got quite a shock when she was admited without question into the house. The elderly butler bowed formally to her, and she bowed back, earing a chuckle from the man. When she was informed that they were waiting on her, and if he could only have a name to give to Master Winner, she panicked and almost gave her true name, but caught herself at the last second.
"It's L... Eli. Eli Maxwell, sir."
Following the elder, she wondered why she hadn't immediately dished out her alias. After years and years of using it, it normally sprung to her lips as normally as if it was her real name. Well, it was, she reflected. Eli, as in Elizabeth. Sister Mary Patrick had given it to her as a baby, due to her... position.
Well, there was no use dwelling in the past. Right now, she had bigger fish to fry. Or, more accurately, a child.
* * * * *
"Master Winner, Mr. Eli Maxwell is here to pick up the child."
Quatre stood as Eli entered the room. He realized that Eli was maybe a year younger than himself, but was just short for his age. He had short, curly brown hair, bright blue eyes, and a very pretty, childish face. With the big clothes Eli was wearing, he looked like a child playing dress-up in his father's clothes.
He watched his guest's eyes casually scan the room; a practiced movement, something he had seen his fellow pilots do countless times, and he had caught himself doing on a few occassions. This was a man who never let his guard down, not even for an instant.
Deciding to break the ice, Quatre put out his hand in a gesture of friendship. "Hi, I assume the terror in the next room is yours?"
Eli took his hand and shook it, shaking her head. "Thank God, no. Not anymore. I quit. He drives me crazy."
Usually, as Quatre had learned, skin-on-skin contact, such as shaking hands, enabled his phycic ability to feel emotions, and, on VERY rare occassions, he could even read their minds. Here, he met something akin to a brick wall.
Still holding Eli's hand, he looked at her and cocked his head to one side. "Where have I seen you from? You look vaguely familiar."
Eli laughed a little bit. "I'm surprised you remembered me, Mr. Winner. I was at Duo and Hilde's wedding. Duo and I grew up together."
"Oh, yes, now I remember," Quatre nodded, dropping her hand. He did recall. Duo's little brother had sat in the corner all during the reception, and had only associated with a few people, namely Duo and Hilde, and had exchanged a very few words with the other pilots until after the other guests had left and the comerades had sat down to polish off what was left of the alcohol. Then, Eli Maxwell had become open and smiling, joking around with his brother, new sister-in-law, and their friends. At the time, Quatre couldn't figure out what had triggered the change, the wine or Duo's ease with his friends.
Quatre suspected the wine.
"He's right in there." The blonde motioned towards a side doorway, and Eli took the hint and entered.
* * * * *
"Well, well, well. I'll be damned. Eli!"
Lizzy stopped dead in her tracks, not expecting to see her adopted brother and his wife. Duo was standing on one side of the room, restraining Jacob--the boy, a bit small for his age, was charging his elder, who had a strategically placed hand on the child's forehead--and Hilde was on the other, watching the two and shaking her head, one hand over her stomach, which was just starting to swell.
"Eli!" Duo repeated, smiling at his 'brother'. "Long time, no s--" He was cut off when Jacob broke lose and tackled him. Somehow, Duo swiftly pried the child off of him and was on his feet, holding Jacob a good foot off the floor by the back of his shirt. "So, been keeping your fighting skills intact, I see."
Lizzy laughed. "You're not kidding." Copying her brother, she took Jacob by the back of his shirt. The boy started wrigling around, trying to get free. Lizzy looked him in his eyes. "You, sir, are in serious trouble."
"Not as much as you, jackass!" Jacob cried, lashing out with his feet. One foot connected with the bottom on Lizzy's jaw, and she dropped the boy, who landed neatly on his feet.
Taking the advantage while Lizzy was recovering, Jacob backed up a few steps and charged. Lizzy easily sidestepped the small boy, grabbed him, bent him over her knee, and started spanking him. Although she wasn't hitting him too hard, he started wailing.
Quatre and Hilde stared at the display, while Duo attempted to smother his chuckles behind his hand. When Lizzy finished, the boy sprung up, kicked her and ran out the door screaming 'You're fired!'.
Lizzy started after him, but Quatre put a hand to her shoulder, stopping her. "He'll be found by someone. Why don't you sit and stay with us for a while?"
"Gladly." She sighed and rubbed her eyes. "I know this is a horrible thing to say, but I REALLY hate that child."
"Oh, little bro, I feel sorry for you," Duo said, catching Lizzy in a hug, which she returned.
"I, however, feel sorry for Hilde and company," she replied smoothly as Duo released her, winking at her sister-in-law. "Congrats."
"Thanks."
"Eli? What are you going to do now?"
Lizzy turned towards Quatre, who was wearing a worried look on his face. "Well, I'll take Jacob back home, collect what few clothes I have, and start job hunting again. It's that simple."
"Hey, Quatre, I know! Could you do me a big favor and hire my little brother? He's well behaved, he's nice to strangers, and he's housetrained!"
Lizzy looked at Duo. "Thanks." The word was dripping in sarcasm.
"That just might be a good idea..."
The Maxwell siblings looked at Quatre, who had a thoughtful look on his face. "Oh, Duo! Look at what you did! Mr. Winner, you really don't have to do anything, I'll be just fine by myself, honestly," Lizzy insisted, glaring at Duo.
"Actually, I DO need someone. I was just about to put out an ad for a worker. Since you're Duo's family, you're hired. When can you start?"
Lizzy stared at Quatre. "Today just gets stranger and stranger."
Duo snickered. "Warning: You're crazy, Quatre."
* * * * *