I have a favor to ask of my readers. Check the author's note at the end of the chapter if you want to help me out a little. This one gets pretty dark toward the end, and I'm not sure I should leave it that way.
Everything was different on Earth. In Faith's eyes, the planet was a mix between a proud exhibition of the human ingenuity and a disgusting display of abject consumerism. The marble façades were half-hidden under billboards and advertisements for fast food, clothing, jewelry, and electronics. The decorative columns fluttered with flyers, and there were signs taped up in every window.
And that was just the mall. It was eye-catching, glamorous, and utterly obscene. Faith stuck close to her dad, even though it was totally awkward to be around him in public. He'd gone into crazy overprotective mode again, and Faith had just about had enough.
"I don't understand why we couldn't have waited for Mom to finish up at work," Faith complained. "She said it was only going to be a half-day."
"We would have attracted too much attention," her dad replied. "People love her—they always have. And right now, we need to keep you out of the spotlight as much as possible."
"Right," Faith sighed. "And you don't attract enough attention?"
He shot her a questioning look.
"Your hair. It looks like you cut it yourself. Without the aid of a mirror. Possibly in the dark. Why do you think everybody stares when they walk past us?"
His look turned into a glower. "The light was on," he muttered.
"Sure it was, Dad."
They stood in front of a department store, waiting for who-knew-what. Her dad was tense and alert in the open space. Faith thought she understood his concern; it would be easy for an assassin to take a shot at someone and make a clean getaway in the crowd. He jerked his head up when he spotted whatever he'd been looking for.
"Over here, Lucy."
Her dad waved to a woman in dark jeans and a soft yellow sweater. She was thirty-something with a gentle smile and the beginnings of laugh lines around her eyes. She looked familiar, but Faith couldn't quite place her. A boy about Lexi's age clung to her hand; he lit up when he saw them, and half-dragged his mom over.
"Uncle Heero!" Faith covered her smile as the kid latched himself onto her dad's leg. "Don't go away again! Mom won't let me play soccer inside. Will you play with me later?"
"We'll see, Gio," he said, gently patting the boy's head. "But right now, I need to talk to your mom. Can you be quiet for a while?"
Gio nodded and pretended to zip his lip and throw away the key. It reminded Faith of Lexi, and her heart ached with homesickness.
"What did you do to your hair, Heero?" Lucy asked, grinning broadly at him. "I almost didn't recognize you."
He made a face. "This is Faith," he said, shoving Faith forward instead of answering the question.
"I thought so. You two just look so much alike," Lucy said, offering Faith a handshake. "Lucrezia Noin. These days, everyone just calls me Lucy."
"Aunt Lucy!" Faith grinned at her aunt, pleased that she'd made the connection. Lucy just looked really different. She'd grown out her hair and her features had softened with age. She wasn't fat or out of shape, but she wasn't skin and bones anymore either. "Are you still with that scary robot guy? Mom's brother?"
Lucy had a joyful laugh. "Relena told me you were full of surprises," she said. "I guess I should have believed her. Zechs and I parted ways a long time ago, so I'm not really your aunt, Faith. I don't mind if you want to call me Aunt Lucy, though. Your mom asked me to come shopping with you. She didn't think Heero would know what's appropriate for a teenage girl to wear."
"No way, Mom!" Gio argued. "Uncle Heero knows everything. Aunt Lena said so. She said he's a know-it-all and a total smarta—"
Faith snickered as her dad clapped a hand over Gio's mouth before he could get the rest of that last word out. Little ears, she thought. You never know what kids are gonna pick up when you talk over their heads like that.
"I thought Uncle Heero asked you to be quiet and let the grownups talk," Lucy said, raising an eyebrow at her son. Gio zipped it again, wide-eyed. "That's better."
"This is Georgio," Lucy said to Faith. "He likes to keep me on my toes. I think we're both lucky Heero likes babysitting as much as he does."
"Maybe I just like playing soccer in the house on rainy days." Faith watched her dad unsuccessfully try to pry Gio off his leg. "Maybe I won't feel like playing later if you don't let go now."
Gio scrambled back to Lucy's side, and it was hard not to giggle. The kid was obviously smitten with his Uncle Heero, and it didn't take much effort to figure out that the feeling was mutual.
"Want to get started? This is as good a place as any." Lucy motioned to the department store behind them. Faith shrugged and peeked at the store directory.
"Hey, they have a salon here," she said. "You can get your hair fixed while Aunt Lucy and I shop, Dad. It'll be fun. And Mom won't have a heart attack when she sees you looking like you stuck your finger in an electrical socket."
"Not a chance," he replied. "I'm not letting you out of my sight. It's too dangerous."
"You really think anybody's going to try something here?" Lucy asked. When he didn't look convinced, she added, "I have my Browning. There's a stun gun in my purse and pepper spray on my key ring. If you recall, I also have a black belt."
"I don't see why this is such a big deal," he said. "It's just hair. It grows back."
It didn't look like it would take much more pushing to change her dad's mind. Faith gave it another try—she really didn't want him embarrassing her while she tried to pick out clothes.
"You make people nervous on a good day, Dad," she said. "On a bad day, you look a little bit like a serial killer. And, in case you haven't realized it yet, today is not good day."
"I don't think my hair has anything to do with that," he said, crossing his arms over his chest and fixing her with a cold stare.
Fine, she thought. Looks like it's time to bring out the big guns.
She walked into the store. The lingerie department was right by the entrance, and there was a massive display of racy underwear laid out on glass tables. Faith snagged a couple of thongs and inspected them a second before turning to her dad with her most innocent expression.
"Which do you like better, Dad? The leopard print or the lacy red one?"
"Neither," he replied, scowling at her.
"Oh. So, what? You think I should just go without?"
Her dad glanced at Lucy. "The Browning's loaded, right?"
"You know it," she replied, grinning.
"Call me when you're done. Come on, Gio. You look like you could use a haircut, too."
Faith waited until her dad was out of sight before putting the thongs back on the table and straightening out the mess she'd made.
"I didn't think that would work," Lucy said, smiling at Faith. "Do you mind if I tell Relena about that? She hates shopping with him along —he scares the salespeople."
"It won't work for Mom," Faith replied. "Guys don't mind shopping for lingerie with their wives or girlfriends. But no man wants to picture his daughter wearing something that looks like dental floss. I learned that from Hilde."
"That makes me wish I'd had a chance to get to know her better," Lucy said as they headed for the escalator. "If everything I've heard about her is true, she must be one heck of a lady."
"I've always thought so."
The selection was overwhelming, and without Duo around telling her that she couldn't have anything that wasn't school appropriate, Faith was having a hard time choosing.
"I'm no good at this," she complained, trying to decide between a nice pair of slacks and some comfortable-looking jeans.
"It just takes time to figure out what works for you," Lucy said. "Take them both. You ought to have at least one nice outfit here, just in case you go by your mom's office or something."
It seemed like a good idea. Faith added them both to the handful of things she wanted to try on. A salesgirl was holding the things they were definitely getting—a jacket, a couple of sweaters, and some sensible underwear—at the register.
"Aunt Lucy?" Faith asked, rifling through a clearance rack and coming up with nothing, "Do you think my parents are getting a divorce?"
"What?" Lucy frowned. "Where did you get that idea?"
"Something I overheard last night. Mom seems really upset at Dad, and I don't think he knows why."
Lucy sighed. "It's probably just a rough patch, Faith. Your mom's going through a lot of stuff right now, and I don't think she's told your dad all of it yet. But he's there for her. He always has been. Once she gets things figured out for herself, I think everything will be fine."
"You think so?" Faith asked, picking up a t-shirt and rejecting it after a moment's thought. "What if she decides that she's happier without him?"
"I guess that's possible," Lucy said sadly. "It's what happened to Zechs and me. We were on-again, off-again for years before I finally realized that he was never going to change. I'd give, and give, and give, trying to make him happy, and he just took it for granted. If we disagreed on something, there was no discussion; he did what he wanted, whether I liked it or not. And we didn't share the same goals in life, either—I wanted a family. He didn't. I wanted to go back to Earth someday. He wanted to stay on Mars. One day, I realized that I'd never have the life I wanted if I wasted my youth waiting around for him. I didn't even tell him I was leaving; I just threw some clothes in a bag and got on a shuttle. I don't have many regrets about my decision."
"Oh." Faith picked out another pair of jeans, a dark pair like the ones Lucy had on, and matched them with a violet shirt that Maggie would have loved. "It sounds like that was pretty crappy. I'm surprised you have any regrets at all."
"I feel like a coward for not saying goodbye. I didn't even leave a note." Lucy sighed. She unfolded a blouse from a table and held it up to Faith. It was a deep blue, almost as dark as her eyes, and it would go great with those slacks they'd found earlier. They added it to the pile. "But leaving was just the icing on the cake—I never told him about Gio. I didn't find out I was pregnant until I got back to Earth. It was a miracle—although we can safely have children in the colonies now, travel between Earth and space is still dangerous for women who are expecting. Especially that twelve-week trip between Earth and Mars."
"You were lucky," Faith murmured.
"Yeah," Lucy agreed. "I'm even luckier that your mom was so welcoming after what I did to her brother. Both of your parents were very supportive. And I really don't know what I'd do without Heero. Gio really needs a man to look up to, and I can't think of a better role model than your dad. I don't think anybody expected him to be so good with kids, not with Gio, and definitely not with you when you were born. You two—oh, you were inseparable back then. I think he's missed having you around all this time, Faith."
Faith got that vibe, too. The driving lessons. The overprotective crap. She made a face. He didn't want her to go back to the colonies—that was clear. But Faith wasn't ready to forgive him for leaving her, even if it had been for her own protection. And she wasn't changing schools for anybody, not when she was so close to being done. Her dad had waited this long. He could wait a little longer.
"I think this is more than enough for a week," she said, looking down at the armload of stuff they had picked. "Help me pare it down a little?"
"Go try it on," Lucy said. "We'll decide after we see how it looks and fits. We probably ought to hurry, though. I'm sure your dad's getting anxious by now."
"Right," Faith said. "Thanks for helping me, Aunt Lucy. And thanks for telling me all that stuff. I'm sorry about you and Zechs."
Lucy shrugged. "I'm not," she replied. "I have the life I wanted now, even if it's a little harder than I'd expected. Single motherhood is not for the fainthearted, Faith."
"I'll keep that in mind, Aunt Lucy."
They got a number from the fitting room attendant and Faith went to try things on. Without her dad around to make her nervous, shopping wasn't as bad as she'd feared it would be. It was almost fun, even.
It took everything Heero had to sit still in the food court and keep his hands on the table instead of on his gun. Gio had been hungry after waiting around for Faith and Lucy to finish shopping, so Lucy had suggested lunch.
Heero had wanted to go home; he'd been outvoted. And he'd been outvoted again when the kids wanted to try the arcade games after they finished eating.
"Let them have their fun," Lucy suggested. "They might behave better if we let them tire themselves out a bit first."
It wasn't a bad suggestion, so he'd given in. The arcade was visible from their table, and he didn't want Faith to feel like a prisoner.
"Faith told me that she overheard you and Relena talking about divorce."
Heero didn't take his eyes off the kids. "Yeah. Relena won't tell me what's wrong. She just wants me to go."
Lucy sighed. He saw her fidget out of the corner of his eye. As a former soldier, Lucy was used to keeping a cool head in rough situations. She wasn't usually a twitchy person.
"You know what's up."
"I'm not sure I should tell you."
Heero glanced at her, just for a second, before turning back to watch Faith and Gio whack ugly plastic "moles" with padded mallets.
"It isn't that Fielding guy, is it? He—bothers me."
Lucy laughed. "If Relena has a thing for Eric, it's news to me. I don't think he's her type, Heero. He's a little flamboyant, if you get my drift."
Heero didn't know the guy personally, so he wasn't quite sure what Lucy was talking about. But it was good to know that she didn't think Relena was into him. He focused on the kids instead of worrying about it any longer.
"She really hasn't told you anything?" Lucy asked.
"Not a thing," Heero replied. "She asked me to leave for a few days so she could get her head together. I did. She blocked my calls and stopped answering my emails. When I came home last night, she said she wants a divorce. I don't know what's going on, except what I've read in the tabloids—and you know that's all speculation and gossip."
Lucy was silent, but he felt her watching him. He waited; if he played his cards right, she'd tell him everything. It wasn't right—it would be better to hear it from Relena—but at this point, he'd take what he could get.
"I shouldn't tell you," she said reluctantly.
"What would you do in my place?" he asked. "Or in Relena's? In the end, you can only do what you think is right, but—"
"She found out she was pregnant." Lucy blurted it out quickly. "She asked you to leave because she found out she was pregnant when she went in for her annual physical."
Heero looked at Lucy again. He couldn't stop himself, not after that. And neither could she—she kept talking, fast and low, her voice shaking with nerves. She stared at her clenched fists, and her hair hid her face from him.
"After everything that happened when Faith was small, Relena was scared. She didn't know what to do, or how to tell you, and she said she couldn't think straight with you around. So she asked you to go. A week passed, and she couldn't make up her mind. Then it was two weeks. And then—"
Lucy met his eyes. There were wet tracks down her cheeks, and tears in her eyes.
"She lost it," he guessed. She nodded. Damn.
"She was carrying a box of files down the stairs from her office. She tripped. It wasn't a bad fall, but—it was enough," Lucy murmured. "After that, she couldn't face you. She thinks it's all her fault, and she's afraid you'll be angry with her. She's grieving, Heero, and she isn't thinking straight. It isn't anything you did, and I think she'll come around once she's had some time to mourn."
"Damn," he whispered.
It wasn't good. After giving Faith up, they had stopped trying to have more children. It just wasn't safe. This one had been an accident—the first, since Faith—but that didn't matter. It would have been simple to put it up for adoption. Or, alternately, if Relena was willing to give up her career, they could have gone into hiding and kept it. Having a baby wasn't the end of the world. But losing one—that was something different, and it hurt more than he'd thought it would.
"Thanks, Lucy," he said. "Does anybody else know about this?"
"Sally. She was the doctor who gave Relena the physical, and she was on call when Relena fell down the stairs. She wrote a prescription for antidepressants, but I don't think Relena had it filled. She said it was natural to be depressed after everything that had happened, and she'd find her own way through it."
Heero nodded. Sally was a trustworthy person and a good doctor besides. He knew she would have done everything possible for Relena.
"Thanks," he said again, pushing his chair back and getting up. Lucy stayed put and tried to scrub the tears off her face before Gio saw.
Heero left her at the table and went over to where the kids were playing with a claw machine. He bumped Faith out of the way and took over the controls, easily snagging a stuffed rabbit.
"Don't hide any of my tools in that one," he said, handing it to her. "If you want a toolbox, say so."
"Okay, Dad." She looked at him strangely, and he only shrugged. "Thanks, I guess."
"Come on," he said. "Show me how this skee-ball thing works."
Faith nodded and dropped a coin in the machine. He tossed her one of the wooden balls it spat out and watched her throw it up the ramp. It wasn't that he didn't know how to play—it was a simple game. He just needed a distraction, and there was nothing on Earth that could be better than playing with Faith and Gio.
Notes: So. About that favor I mentioned-Is Relena's storyline getting too dark? I have an alternate version, one where she doesn't have a miscarriage (where she was never pregnant at all), but I think this is a deeper, richer story for her and it will eventually lead to a more satisfying conclusion. I worry that current the material is too mature for some readers, though, and maybe too depressing. Please let me know what you think. If I get enough comments one way or another, I might change this. I'd really appreciate some feedback.
Okay. On to less serious stuff. Thanks for all the wonderful reviews and favorites and adds! I love it! Oh, and if you're wondering about Faith's robot comment, check out Chapter 4-The Rumors-of my other story, Behind the Scenes. :D