Dark Waters / Joe's Story
Part 2/ Relinquish This
Summary: A twisted future...An adventurous past...Joe Kido is reunited with the Digidestined, wanting an explanation and Mimi's story...Maybe it's time he knew the truth..

AN: My explanation of the Digidestineds future, and their children
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There was nothing he could do...He didn't blink, didn't move...There was nothing he could do...
The stormclouds broke above his crumbled heart, the rain shed accompanying tears over his indigo head.
The grey drifts above roiled and twisted through the overcast sky and matched the mans broken heart in anxiety, as the winds blew and drew navy strands of hair over his lenses, obscuring his vision.
Nothing was left...
And so...
He watched her walk away...

Joe woke up sweating and crying.
He wiped a palm over his tearful face, unsure of where he was.
Blindly, he groped for his glasses, wondering what had woken him up.
*Ring*
There, that was it...
The phone.
Joe drew in a shaky breath, banishing the remnants of the dream from his mind.
Dreaming about the day Mimi had left, the day he had let her go...
*Ring*
He grabbed the phone, brushing his sweaty hair from his forehead. The fog from his mind cleared abruptly when the source of his pain hit his consciousness full force.
"Hello? Joe?"
He swung his legs over the bed, his feet finding his warm slippers. A defense against the cold linoleum.
"M-Mimi?" He murmured, and he heard a nervous laugh.
"Yea, remember? Today's the big day!" She chirped, and Joe glanced at his clock.
7:30am, blinked in large, red numbers at him.
Today was the day Mimi moved in for a time...
Joe swallowed. "Where are you?"
Mimi cleared her throat. "Oh! Kier and I are on the jet, we'll need to be picked up in two hours, or would you rather we catch a cab?"
Joe frowned standing up, "No! Linden and I will come get you!"
On her private jet, Mimi crossed her legs. "Alright, what do you drive?"
Joe shifted, picking up the cordless and searching for his khakis.
"Um, I drive a black Jaguar, License plate DRK 1D0
Mimi laughed, making Joe's heart sigh at the familiar sound. "Dr Kido?"
"Uh, yea...So I'll see you at the airport."
Mimi swallowed, resuming her serious pose.
She guessed it was to much to hope for...Their getting over the pain so suddenly...
Mimi blinked away a tear.
"Yes Joe, Kier and I will find you..."
Joe hung up...
'I hope you do, Meems.'

Kier searched the crowd for his new daddy. His serious amber gaze decided to look for shoes.
At his height, it was hard to find faces, and he remembered admiring new Daddies shiny black ones with the skinny laces. He watched the passing feet, as his mommy picked up the luggage they carried.
Mommy had told him, 'the rest will be sent by a courirerer...Or something.'
Kiernen was fine with this, as long as he had bear and his trucks.
He diligently searched for the shoes, discarding those that weren't shiny enough, or big enough, or skinny laced enough.
"Kier! There's your Daddy and Linden!"
The boy looked up and waved, grinning at his new brother.
"New Daddy!" He shouted "New Lindy!"
Kier glanced at his mother, happy to see she was smiling. She had sat him down, telling him to refer to Joe as Daddy, not new Daddy, because he had always been Daddy, just without a face.
Kier had sighed, he wanted Joe to be Daddy, but he was like a new truck with shiny wheels and he wanted to brag about him!
Sometimes Mommies just didn't get it...

Mimi watched father meet son, as Joe watched son meet mother, or 'TV mothe'' as Lindy called her.
It was like a scene from a movie, only without the tears and long romantic kiss.
cautiously, Joe picked up Kier and grabbed Lindens hand with the other arm.
Mimi felt lost, until her blue haired son, who accepted her without reservation, reached for her fingers, smiling at her with a wide, toothless grin.
They made their way to his car, Joe hardly speaking a word to Mimi.
The silence was deafening.

"Umm...So you can sleep in here, and Kier can stay with Linden if he wants."
Kier let go of Mimi's hand as he walked into the adjoining hall. He inspected it seriously, before turning to his parents.
"I think Mommy will like this room better then Lindys...Won't you Mama?"
Mimi laughed and patted the boy's shoulder.
"Yes Honey, I will. Now you go unpack the bags you carried. The rest will be here later."
Kier looked at his mother, smiling as he tapped his temple.
"Yes, I've gotta put my stuff alphabetically in order." He waved to his parents, before turning to Linden.
"Kay, Kiew, I love digimon to! I'w show you mine and we can pway!"
They left, and Mimi turned to Joe...To find his unfathomable eyes on hers.
For a moment they stared, each embroiled in the memories of passion shared and love lost. The doctor stepped forward, searching her face.
"Mimi, I-"
Joe's pager beeped. He stopped, switching his eyes from her to the offending object.. He turned, looking at the number.
"Looks like I'm being called in. I have to go but feel free to look around the house You saw Lindens room, and mine is beside yours. The house...It's yours...As long as you're here..."
And then he was gone.
Mimi sighed, raising a hand to her forehead. She turned to her set of pink suitcases, clicking open the latches. Picking up a shirt, she brought it to a white dresser that stood by the far wall. She opened the draw, checking to see if it was empty.
They all were, save the tiny, leather memento book stashed in the far corner of the lowest drawer.
Mimi lifted it curiously, smoothing her fingers over the cool dusty leather of the cover.
Flipping open the pages, she read the inscription.
'To Joe, on your fifteenth birthday. May you grow up and become everything you want to be. Just remember to save the memories along the way. This will help you keep the good ones...Love, Dad'
She smiled sadly. Joe's father had died four years ago, and she wished for all the world she had been there to help him through it, only her fears and shame had kept her heart hidden...She would make it up to him, that she promised.
She heard a squeal of laughter from Linden, and Kiernen's echo of the sound.
She would make it up to them too...
Mimi placed the book on top of the dresser, restraining her curiosity well she unpacked. Just as she completed her task, Linden came tumbling into the room, Kier hot on his heels. Surprisingly, the blue haired boy threw his arms around her legs, Kier following suite.
"Mommy! Can we have a cookies! Linden knows where they are!"
She looked down at her children, joyful at the fact they accepted her, and one another, so freely. It had been her and Kier or Joe and Linden for so long...Her babies had found the family they needed, only their parents were having understandable difficulties. Her golden eyes went back to the book on the dresser, as she smiled brightly, tucking a strand of silky, sunkissed hair behind an ear.
"Okay, but only one, alright?" Both cherubs nodded, the older pushing his glasses back up his nose.
"Kay Mommy, an' den we'e gonna wat' tewevision!"
Mimi nodded, playfully shaking a finger at them. "Did you unpack?"
Kier rolled his eyes and crossed his arms, a perfect echo of his father...
The movement sent a shard of pain through her heart. Kier was so much like his Dad...Linden more like herself.
"Of course, Mom. Let's go Lindy!" The duo charged back out of the room, and their mother wiped a tear from a glimmering sunny eye.
They fell on the book, and she picked the weighted pages brimming with a young Joe Kido's heart and hopes, up. She went to the soft, sky blue bed, tucking her small frame against the headboard, and opening the keepsake...

Joe tugged at the collar of his shirt, cursing his hasty departure from his own home. He had run from her, and the familiar, hot knives of longing and lust he felt whenever she was near.
Now, the young doctor cursed the heat as he jogged down the hall to room 214. A fractured arm needed a fit and casting, well the patient in room 163a needed to be checked for head trauma after a tumble off a playground slide.
He opened the doorway, peering around the corner, and found himself staring into the blue eyes of a pretty blonde. She smiled, waving him in. "I'm assuming you're Dr. Kido? The nurse said you'd be coming but she didn't tell me you were so good looking..."
Joe blushed, clearing his throat nervously.
"So, um, a fractered ulna? We can get to work immediately."
He went to her side, drawing her with him.
She looked at him, her dark green eyes a little to warm for his liking.
"Thank you doctor...Call me Penny..." She purred.
Inwardly, the man groaned. 'Why is it a beautiful women finally shows up in my life, when I just got slapped in the face by the one I found again?'

Mimi opened the first page, momentarily forgetting her situation as a picture of Tai Kamiya and Matt Ishida glaring at one another, threw her into the past.
Typical boys they had been, each competing for whatever girl the other had flirted with first or whatever vain, male ego booster they put the other up against. Mimi eyed the familiar pair, once hated enemies, then best friends.
The caption below the photo read 'A duel to the death, Matt Ishida (right) and Tai Kamiya (left)'
Below the first glossy photo, was another of the pair, with the wild haired brunette holding the spiky haired blonde in a headlock, both looking furious. 'Matt and Tai solve their differences with a friendly game of 'Ruin the Hair'...Tai won. Or did he?'
She turned the pages, finding frames of Izzy fake kissing his laptop, as Joe laughed hysterically in the background, 'Izzy Izumi finds true love in the glow of a pineapple'. Or one of Sora wreathing a huffing Matt and indignant Tai in flowers, obviously before the bleary eyed teenagers had woken up. 'The flower fairies wake from their dreams....
There was a picture of a young Takeru and Kari, the blonde waving a tiny hand at the camera, as he threw himself in front of the lens, with Kari sweat dropping in the back. 'Tk and Kari '. Need I say more?'
Sora stood, smiling sweetly for the camera, holding her helmet. 'Sora...The only sensible one.'
There was one of Joe himself, holding up his medical bag triumphantly, as his hand adjusted his glasses, 'I, Joe Kido, came prepared!' or later pictures of the 'new' Digidestined.
Yolei giving the V sign to the camera, beside her stood Davis, pumping a fist into the air as he laughed.'Yolei Inoue and Davis Motomiya. A happy pair!'
Or the older Tk and Kari, holding hands as they smiled for the picture. 'Tk and Kari. What did I tell you?'
Their was little Cody, sitting on an older Joe's shoulders, both looking gleeful, 'Me and my little pal Cody, showing him the heights...' And one of the old Kaizer, glaring for the picture, arms crossed and blue brow arched. 'Ken Ichijouji didn't want to pose, because Davis made fun of his hair.'
The next obviously had caught Ken by surprise, because Yolei had thrown her arms around him, pressing her face to his, and boy was the boy red. 'Yolei solved the problem.'
But...There were none of her...
Mimi frowned, flipping through the pages, catching glimpses of the Digidestined, or the Kido family, but no Mimi.
Just when she had given up hope, and hurt because of it, she reached the last section.
A pink title page blinked at her, her name in large, elegant font over the paper. 'Mimi Tachikawa'
She smiled, sinking deeper into the bed, as she relaxed. For a moment, she listened for the boys, hearing them laugh, then returning to the book.
Carefully, she turned the pages.
There she was, smiling at the camera, cowgirl hat tipped back, and tilting her head for the pose.
'This is Mimi Tachikawa, Digidestined of Sincerity, love of my life!'
There was a shot of her, Sora, Tai, Matt, and Joe linking arms and doing the Monkey walk, or one of Matt and Tai carrying her by her feet and arms, as she struggled to get away...A lake was in the back ground, and their intent was obvious...
Mimi glared. She remembered 'that' particular morning!
Turning to the next page, she saw group shots of herself and the Digidestined, old and new.
She continued, until a particular section, simply titled. 'Mimi and I' caught her attention.
The pages were littered with the two of them, before their 'history' began. She smiled a bitter sweet, grin, and looked at the pictures.
Joe stood beside her, blushing, as Mimi clung to his arm, she was looking at him reverently, like he had all the answers in the world, and he was looking at her like he desperately wanted to share them with her. 'Mimi and I, The way I want to be.'
Her eyes teared, as she searched each individual pose.
There was one of Mimi behind a young Joe, her arms around his neck, and he looking scared and joyful. 'Mimi and me, when Sora got us to pose together.'
Another, of a little older Joe, his arms around a beaming Mimi. 'Mimi looks happy, I know I was...'
Picture after picture showed her the length of his feelings for her.
Older shots, of a college Joe and a New York Mimi, obviously from when she had come for a visit. It was in an airport, and she was in the process of leaping into his arms...Kissing his own.
Mimi sighed, she remembered that time well.
Their first kiss...She had been so overcome with joy at seeing her secret crush again, she had thrown herself into his welcoming embrace, practically giving the older, handsome, stronger, boy a heart attack. The caption read 'Our first kiss, but not the last.'
A tear fell onto the shiny plastic covering, and she hastily wiped it away.
More pictures, of herself, Joe and her, or the other Digidestined met her gaze...But the final picture threw her off balance.
It was of a time, during her romance with the young doctor, before their mistakes. It was beautiful and innocent and agonizing...
It showed their arms clasped around one another, their foreheads touching, both silently crying. She remembered the day well, the hurt etched in her heart.
That was the final picture, captioned simply 'We have our ups and downs, but we love each other enough to get through them...'
She closed the album, placing it on the black bedside table.
She stared at her hands for a moment. They had been so desperately in love, and on her part, her feelings hadn't faded. But she had made a horrible mistake, not letting him know about Kier, and she was lucky he would look at her let alone allow her to spend time with both her babies.
But could 'they' get over the past? Did they want to?
Mimi stood, walking over to a mirror, and adjusted her hair. She checked the clock.
2 hours had gone by after Joe had gone to the hospital. She had no idea when he would come home, so she would make the children something to eat.
She straightened her clothes, and left the room, finding her boys watching a show about turtles. She chuckled at heir concentration, and found the kitchen.
"Linden? Kiernen? Would you boys like something to eat?"
Immediately, the two were by her side, babbling and clapping as they voiced their opinions.
Mimi retrieved her pink apron, when they finally decided on pizza and pasta. She laughed as Linden showed her around the kitchen, showing her the blue ducky apron his father wore when he cooked...
She smiled at her kids.
"Let's get started!"