A/N PLEASE READ: Hello. So before you say I am stoling these OCs I want to explain to you a thing. (Sorry if you've seen that too much everywhere but I couldn't resist). I have asked the author's permission for the use of these characters. That said, I am very sorry for those who wanted to see an end to "America's Little Girl", but I am going to be completely retelling the story, with basically no connection to the original. I don't know where the author was going with her story and quite frankly I don't feel that I could finish it well. (I could throw together some half-assed ending involving aliens and Sasquatch but then nobody would be happy). Additionally, I made Martha and Alice older; in their early twenties and fresh out of college instead of in high school. That said, I do hope you enjoy this story! (And it goes without saying that I do not own any of the Hetalia characters.) Also I might change the title, but as of now I can't think of a good one so I'm just sticking with this one.
It was raining outside.
That was the first thing Martha noted upon waking. Frowning, she rolled over in bed and stared out the window at the dull grey sky and the rain drops that were splashing against the window pane. She glanced at the clock. The bright red numbers read "8:00" and she sighed, stretching out.
Yawning, she sat up groggily, rubbing the last vestiges of sleep from her eyes. She looked around, her blue eyes settling on the empty side of her large bed and signed. Her fiancé, Rick, who usually occupied the other half of her bed, had been absent for nearly two weeks now. He had left on some business and though he had told her he would not be in contact for several weeks, she still missed waking up to his warmth.
Martha had met Rick over five years ago as a freshman in college at one of those forgettable college parties. She had been preparing to leave when her best friend, Alice, had dragged her over to speak to him. Their initial meeting was a disaster, to put it mildly. He had been very drunk and she was just sobering up, which was never a good combination for first impressions. However, as the years passed and their friendship grew into something more, she found herself slowly growing attached to him, the way his smile quirked up, the stupid puns he always tried, and even dumb things like the tone of his voice or the slope of his shoulders.
They had started dating sophomore year, and upon graduation decided to get an apartment together. Rick had studied engineering and was offered a job in the government upon graduation, so the two had moved to DC, much to Martha's dismay. She had grown up in the suburbs and living in the middle of a large and unfortunately rather expensive city hadn't been her ideal. However, she had also been able to find a job in the city, as a writer for a small local newspaper and a secretary for some hot shot lawyer. The pay was not stellar, but it was work, so Martha took what she could.
Martha eventually hoped to get back to law school and become an attorney but as finances were tight, she realized she would have to put that dream on hold. For now, the main source of their income was Rick's work, which, though she hated to admit it, Martha knew next to nothing about. She just knew it was in the government and it paid the bills. She had asked him, of course but he always gave her a rather vague answer and when she pressed him, he would just shrug apologetically and tell her he really was not at liberty to go into the details. So she simply teased him about being some top-secret FBI agent while mentally trying to figure exactly how many drinks it would take to get the information out of him.
Martha rolled out of bed, and stumbled into the bathroom. She flicked the lights on, examining her reflection in the mirror. Her eyes, her favorite feature stared back at her, a brilliant shade of blue. Apart from that, Martha thought she looked rather average; a somewhat squashed nose, roundish face and a spatter of light freckles across her nose and cheeks. She had grown out her hair since college and it was now a little bit past her shoulders, though it was currently held up in a messy bun.
She had swum in high school and throughout college but since quitting she really had put on a bit of weight. Frowning she poked at her tummy, scrunching up her face. I really should start dieting or exercising or something soon…she thought, before grabbing her toothbrush and squirting a bit of toothpaste on it. As she brushed her teeth, she ran over what she had to do in her mind. It was a Saturday, fortunately, so she could relax a bit, but she was meeting up with Alice at 9:30 this morning to get coffee and hang out.
Once she had finished brushing her teeth, she quickly stripped down pausing only to examine the necklace that hung around her neck. It was a beautiful silver chain, with a small silver cross hanging off of it. There were also two dog tags hanging off the chain, and though the words inscribed on them were too small to read in the mirror, Martha had already spent so many nights reading and tracing across the names to know what they said; Martha Hamilton and Alfred F. Jones.
Martha swallowed thickly, and stepped into the shower, turning the hot water on. As the water came pounding down, Martha let it beat against her skull, trying to drain out the unpleasant feelings that had so suddenly appeared. Martha's mother had died in a car accident involving a drunken driver when Martha was sixteen on the way home from a swim meet. Though Martha had been in the car with her mother, she had been lucky and survived with only a broken leg. Her mother however, had passed away shortly after, leaving Martha with nothing but the old dog tags and beautiful cross that now hung around her neck.
Fortunately for Martha, Alice's family, the Chens, had stepped in at this point and taken in Martha as their own, letting her live with them and providing everything she needed before she went off to college. The Chens were wonderful people, emigrated from China in their early twenties, and while they still spoke with heavy accents and often fed Martha odd dishes that she did not really know the contents of (though she did readily admit were usually delicious), she couldn't have asked for a better adoptive family.
However, even the kindness of the Chens had not been enough to replace the horrible ache Martha felt whenever she thought of her mother. She had been a wonderful person; hardworking, caring, and beautiful. She worked hard, so very hard to give Martha everything but when she had died…
"Martha I'm sorry I hadn't been able to give you everything you deserved…sweetie I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry."
Martha bit her lower lip, reaching for the shower knob to turn the heat higher as she remembered her mother's last apology. Apology! After everything she had done, everything she had given Martha, she believed she should apologize of all things. Martha had wanted to grab her mother, shake her, scream at her, no, NO you did everything you loved me, what more could I ever ask for but her mom had looked so frail, so broken, so lost, almost like a child in that hospital bed so Martha had said nothing. She would tell her mother when she left the hospital, when she no longer looked so defeated, when she looked like she was supposed to, like she always looked, strong and unbreakable.
That time, however, had never come and Martha had gone to her mother's funeral with the weight of all the things she never said to her mother choking her.
Martha's father had never been in the picture. The only clue she had of him was the dog tag she wore around her neck, Alfred F. Jones. Upon her mother's death, Martha had tried to find any clues as to who this "Alfred F. Jones" was, but even with Alice's help her search had been fruitless. Though the subject of her absent father had been a touchy subject for nearly all of Martha's life, she had decided, upon entering college, that it no longer mattered. She was an adult. She had come far without him, and would continue to push on without him. She was entering a new stage of her life and wanted to start with a clean slate. So, she had put all her frustration and pain, all her anger, all her lingering emotions that she could not quite define into a tiny box and locked it up, far, far in the back of her mind.
But she kept the dog tag bearing his name and his cross fastened securely around her neck.
Martha made her way quickly towards the café she had arranged to meet Alice, uncomfortable with the city bustle that surrounded her. She soon spotted her friend, sitting outside the café and reading a newspaper. Alice was a tiny Asian woman, slim with beautiful thick hair that ran straight down to her mid-back. She lived a few hours away from Martha, in Philadelphia, and they made it a point to keep in touch however they could. Since the drive between the cities was only a little over two hours, about once a month they would visit each other, alternating between DC and Philadelphia.
Growing up, Alice always had a passion for crime. It had started out with fictional mystery-solving characters, from Scooby-Doo to Nancy Drew but soon it became apparent that Alice's passion was real. Not to anyone's surprise, Alice had studied forensics in college and was now employed in the criminal division of Philadelphia's police department. She enjoyed her work and while she sometimes called Martha, stressed about one thing or another, she overall seemed to be content.
"Alice!" Martha called out, waving to her friend as she approached. Alice lowered her newspaper, her face splitting into a grin when she saw Martha, "Hey you!" she called back, waving.
Alice and Martha had been friends for as long as Martha could remember. They had met in elementary school, during a particularly rough time for Martha. Having a single, young mother made Martha an easy target for the school bullies and she was constantly picked on. However, Alice had stepped in, a tiny girl at the time, shouting ridiculous obscenities at the bullies and swinging her tiny fists furiously, and chased them away. Since then, the two had been inseparable.
Martha smiled at Alice as she sat in the chair across from her, "How've things been lately?"
Alice shrugged, taking a sip of her coffee, "Can't complain. Dude we've got some crazy awesome case right now I want to talk to you about it but I can't, you know how things are…can't go blabbering to the public. This might be my big break though! It's exciting, really it is, don't look at me like that you would be excited too if you were me!"
Martha laughed, shaking her head, "You know, on the TV the intense detective is usually serious and tortured. You don't exactly fit that description do you?"
"Hey I can be tortured if I want!" Alice wrinkled up her nose, "Anyways speaking of torture, how's it like being chained to that big lug?"
"Rick is wonderful, thank you very much" Martha responded defensively, smiling nonetheless, "He's been gone for the last few weeks though."
"Business?"
"Yea. He said he'd be gone for a while this time too. And I can't even contact him! I just wish he would tell me what he was doing."
Alice frowned, "I'm really sorry dude. There's no way he can tell you what he does?"
Martha shook her head, "I've tired pretty much everything to get it out of him but if he says he can't talk, he can't. I trust him, you know? Well trust him at least enough to assume he's not getting involved with the mafia or out on the street corner selling crack or something like that."
"Says the woman who, just weeks ago was discussing how drunk she'd have to get her fiancé to get him to spill the beans." Alice said, raising an eyebrow and ignoring Martha's splutter of protest, "Anyways, trust is a two-way street. It's great that you trust him but if he doesn't trust you enough to tell you what he's up to…"
Martha nodded. Alice had a tendency to be horribly blunt, and generally seemed to be okay bringing up Martha's worst fears and vocalizing them. "I…I know Alice." Martha sighed, "But he said that secrecy was of utmost importance in his job. I feel that if that weren't the case he wouldn't go so far and come up with such an elaborate story. He does work for the government after all…you've seen the movies."
Alice laughed, "So you think Rick might be a spy? Dude he's a computer junkie. I don't see him getting into really dangerous situations and rolling around shooting baddies anytime soon."
"No, I'm not saying that, there are other secret governmental jobs that don't involve rolling around in dangerous situations shooting things, you know." Martha said, laughing as well. Rick was in very good shape, but she agreed that idea of him attempting to be a suave agent was absolutely ridiculous. He was simply too awkward to be smooth and too clumsy to be employed in any physical work.
"No, no you're right" Alice responded, still grinning, "Honestly if he's keeping quiet, there's probably a good reason for it. He's a good guy. Trust me, if for a second I thought he was going to hurt you, or damage you in any way he would no longer be walking this Earth."
Martha nodded, smiling at her best friend. The two fell into talking about other, mundane topics and soon were making plans for the rest of their day.
Sorry this chapter didn't have that much to it. It was just intro but it'll get more interesting soon! Also I'll be adding the actual nations in the next couple chapters! Anyways thanks for checking this out. :DD Reviews and criticisms are always appreciated!