Here it is! The final chapter of this story! I know it is not my best work, but I hope you enjoyed it. :)
Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing.
For the heart I once had
Chapter 13
Trowa managed a small smile when Catherine came to pick him up from the spaceport. She seemed more excited than usual to see him and was quick to pull him into a tight hug. "It's so good to see you!"
Her warms smile was like a balm on his fatigue. The shuttle flight had been delayed for a couple of hours and sleep had evaded him when the shuttle had finally taken off. He was dead tired and ready to conk out the minute he'd set foot in his old bedroom in her trailer.
He followed Catherine towards her car, trying to keep his brain functioning enough for him to keep up with her chattering. The first show of the circus on this particular colony had apparently been a huge success and it was looking like this afternoon's show was going to sell out too.
"Could you do something for me?"
"Hmmm?" Trowa rubbed at his eyes and forced himself to focus on her and the question she had asked.
"Yesterday, this woman came by with her daughter. She is the cutest little girl and she likes the lion. Would you mind introducing him to her after today's show?"
The question wasn't so strange. In the past he'd given countless tours to visitors and had often introduced the lion to some of the more fearless children. But now the idea made his stomach twist.
"I'm not sure if that's a good idea," he muttered while getting into the car.
"Please?" Catherine gave him a pleading look. She seemed hellbent on getting him to do this.
"Sure…" he caved on a sigh.
Catherine smiled brightly. "Thank you."
He shrugged. He didn't care much for entertaining someone else's child at this moment. God, he wanted to sleep.
"Stay awake." Catherine swatted his arm with a laugh. "We're almost there."
"Sorry… I didn't get any sleep on the flight." He shifted in his seat and tried to keep his eyes open.
"How long are you planning to stay?"
"A couple of weeks," he said. "I still had enough hours left and I can combine it with working here."
"Oh…" She gave him a beaming smile. "It will be nice to have you around again for a while."
"Hmm…" He managed a small tilt of his lip.
Catherine turned the car onto the circus grounds and Trowa waited for her to turn off the engine, before exiting the vehicle.
He followed her to her trailer, glad that the fields were quiet at this time of morning, so that he didn't have to deal with greetings from the crew.
"Get some rest okay?" Catherine said as they stepped inside.
"Yeah…" He turned toward his old bedroom.
"I'll have some soup ready when you wake up."
He nearly rolled his eyes and collapsed face forward onto the bed. He was asleep within second.
He woke up with a pounding headache. The lack of sleep and all the stress of the past months seemed to be catching up on him. He was exhausted. He turned over on his side on the small bed and prepared to sleep some more. Outside he could hear the crew prepare for the afternoon show, and that reminded him of the promise he had made Catherine earlier.
Great…
Why had she asked him to do this? It would be hard to entertain a child. How was he supposed to act friendly when his own child was God knew where and had no idea of his existence? But since he never came back on his promises, he had no choice but to go. He glanced over to the alarm clock on the nightstand. He still had a couple of hours left before the show would end.
He closed his eyes and drifted off again.
Catherine came to wake him a couple of hours later with a soft knock on the door. "Trowa?"
He grunted in reply and struggled to open heavy eyes.
She smiled at him. "Be ready after the show okay? There's soup on the stove that you can warm up."
"Hn…" He nodded and stretched lazily beneath the sheets.
"We'll be waiting for you." She turned and left, and he heard her leave the trailer.
Trowa sat up and sighed. Well… let's get this over with.
He got up and grabbed a change of clothes from his duffel, making his way to the small bathroom to take a shower. He felt a bit better afterwards. His headache was gone, but he still dreaded going to the lion's cage after the show.
-x-x-x-
Aalia smiled at the child in her lap. The little girl was playing with her hair, tugging on the long brown locks. Her daughter loved all the excitement of the show, even though she probably didn't grasp the full concept of it. She was just excited from all the colorful lights and the music, and the reactions of people around her to show. She squealed with excitement when the lion stepped into the ring.
Given that they were sitting in the front row, they had a good view of everything that happened.
A woman next to her glared at her. "Can't you keep the child quiet?"
Aalia tried not to cringe at her annoyed tone. She recognized this woman. She was one of the women who always gossiped about her in the stores. The woman's cheeks tinted pink with embarrassment when her own child shouted in excitement at the sight of the lion, but she made no move to quiet him.
Of course not. In her eyes it was just Aalia who did everything wrong, raising her daughter on her own.
Aalia turned back to watching the show, but she could still feel the woman's eyes on her. The accusing stare got onto her nerves. She hated the way these women treated her. She couldn't help it that she was a single mother. When she had come to this small colony she had tried to blend in a much as possible. She started to wear the long skirts all women on this colony wore, hoping she wouldn't be the odd one out. It had been useless, but she had done it anyway. None had bothered to talk to her, or hear the story she had been told to tell by the witness protection program agent. But still, stories about her had flowed.
The show ended and Aalia got up. She lifted her little girl up and smiled at her. "Ready to go see the lion again?"
"Can we go too mom?" The boy next to her asked his mother.
Aalia ignored them and left the tent. She slowly made her way along the cages, stopping here and there to let her child watch the animals. When she reached the lion's cage, Catherine was already waiting for her.
The kind woman was quick to scoop the little girl out of her arms. "There you are again, pretty one!"
Aalia smiled warmly. "You like children, don't you?"
Catherine smiled back and nodded. "I adore them."
The woman who had been mean to her during the show approached the lion's cage. Her son was bouncing up and down, pointing at the lion. Aalia sighed and turned her back to them, hating the prospect of having to spend time with this woman next to her.
Catherine was busy glancing around, obviously trying to located someone in the midst of the activity on the circus grounds. "I wonder where my brother is."
"I'm here Cathy."
Aalia gasped in shock and whirled around at the sound of the voice she had longed to hear for months…
-x-x-x-
Trowa approached the lion's cage in a slow pace, dragging his feet in an attempt to delay the inevitable . He could see Catherine talking to a woman with long wavy brown hair. She wore the trademark skirt all the women on this small colony wore, and she held herself in a way that made Trowa think she wanted to make herself seem as small as possible. He caught a woman and her son approaching the lion's cage as well, and saw that the woman was glaring at Catherine's companion. No wonder she didn't want to be noticed. Catherine was holding the woman's child in her arms and was glancing around, obviously looking for him.
"I wonder where my brother is," she said to the woman next to her.
"I'm here Cathy," he said.
The woman next to Catherine whirled around, her eyes wide with shock. Trowa stopped dead in his tracks, his heart thudding painfully in his chest. Aalia…
No… That couldn't be, right? But the shocked blue eyes that stared back at him and filled with tears were definitely hers.
"Trowa…"
In an instant he was approaching her and crushed her to him, burying his face in her hair to breathe in her scent. She was clutching him in return, sobbing hysterically into his chest, her whole body shaking so hard he thought she might collapse if he let go of her.
Her hair still carried that wonderful smell, but it was now mixed with the distinct scent of baby powder.
"Finally…" He pressed kisses against the top of her head, cupped her cheeks to make her look at him.
Her eyes and cheeks were drenched with her tears, and when she met his gaze, her chin wobbled. "Y-you're here."
"Yes," he leaned in and rested his forehead against hers, chuckling despite himself. "I'm so glad to see you."
"What took you so long?" Her fingers curled in the fabric of his shirt, and she held on desperately, as if she was afraid he was just her imagination and that he would disappear if she let go of him.
"It's a long story," he said.
She sobbed and buried her face into his shoulder. "I'm so glad to see you!"
He held her until she had calmed down a little, and then made her look at him again. The brown hair was something he had to get used to, but the color made her skin look enticingly pale and made her eyes appear brighter.
"I've missed you so much," she whispered. "I…"
He shut her up with a kiss. She clung to him, pressing into him in that familiar way that made his heart jump in his chest and his blood sing with desire. To feel like this again was almost overwhelming.
They both had difficulty pulling back from the kiss and Aalia smiled warmly and wiped at her cheeks as she stepped back. "There is someone I'd like you to meet."
She reached for the child in Catherine's arms and turned towards him. "This is Quaterine."
Aalia watched the storm of emotions in Trowa's eyes when he had his first good look at his daughter. Quaterine giggled and held out her arms to him and he was quick to lift her out of Aalia's arms. Father and daughter regarded each other in wonder, and Aalia's heart did a somersault in her chest as she watched the magic ensue. Quaterine reached up and touched her little hands to his face, smiling at him with those beautiful green eyes of hers. And to see him react so strongly, to see him realize that he was really holding his daughter for the first time, to see the instantaneous love unfold… it was simply wonderful.
It made her dab at her eyes furiously to keep another flood of tears at bay. "You look so wonderful together."
He gave her a little smile that made her heart stutter. "She is beautiful."
She nodded and gave him a watery smile. "That she is."
"Come here." He held out his arm.
Aalia slipped under his shoulder and buried her face in his shoulder.
"Quaterine, huh?" he said. "Quatre will like that."
"Is it… safe to come back?"
"I've been searching for you for a year and a half," he said. "The agent in charge of your case was murdered and he never put your records in the system."
"What?" She pulled back to look at him with wide eyes. "So… all this time we've been apart…"
"Yeah…" He pressed a kiss against her forehead. "But I've found you now, and that's all that matters. And Razouli will never be able to hurt you again. He is dead."
"So… So I can come back?" Oh, the hope was almost too much to handle. She clutched at him with an excited smile.
He smiled back and nodded. "You'll be coming back with me."
"Oh, Trowa…" She reached up and cupped his cheeks, rising up on her toes to kiss him again.
Quaterine giggled and tangled her hands in Aalia's hair, pulling on the brown locks until Aalia was forced to pull back from the kiss with a laugh.
"I'm so happy now."
He chuckled and nuzzled her hair. Everything was alright…
"I think I'm going to open a bottle of champagne," Catherine said behind them, her voice choked with emotion.
Trowa grinned. "Best idea ever."
-x-x-x-
"Daddy!"
Trowa jolted away from his slumber when Aalia lifted Quaterine onto the bed.
"Hey there, beautiful." He struggled to open his eyes as his daughter crawled onto his chest and gave him what felt like a very wet kiss on his cheek.
Aalia smiled at him and leaned over him to kiss him. "Good morning."
"Hmm…" He tangled his hand in her hair and kept her close. "Now it's a good morning."
Quaterine squealed and put her hand on her mother's cheek and pushed her away from Trowa. Trowa chuckled and cuddled his daughter against his chest.
"Your mother can kiss me too, you know," he told her.
"No." Quaterine shook her head stubbornly. Approaching two years old, she had developed quite the personality.
Aalia chuckled and sat down on the edge of the bed. She smoothened her daughters blonde curls. "I guess she thinks I give you too many kisses."
"I'm not complaining," Trowa said yanking her in for another kiss.
Aalia smiled against his lips. "I love you."
"I love you too," he murmured back.
Quaterine sat up on her knees, demanding his attention and she giggled excitedly when he looked at her.
"And I love you too," he told her.
The little girl clapped her hands together, before snuggling into his chest again. Trowa couldn't help but chuckle at her antics and wrapped his arms around her. The warmth in his chest was everything.
Aalia couldn't resist touching the curls on her daughter's hair again and the movements of her hand made her engagement ring flash in the sunlight that poured in through the window. Trowa took her hand in his and brought it up to his mouth to kiss her fingers.
He couldn't wait until the day he could finally make her his wife. He let go of her hand and took a lock of her hair between his fingers. The long wavy locks were back to their original color, and although the brown hair had suited her, the blond color made her look more radiant, more his. He smiled at her. He was the happiest man in the world…
- End -