Dark Waters / Joe's Story

Part 4/ Within You Without You

Summary: A twisted future...An adventurous past...Joe Kido is reunited with the Digidestined, wanting an explanation for Mimi's past...Maybe it's time he knew the truth...

AN: My explanation of the Digidestined's future, and their children! (The chapter title is a Beatles song!)
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The door bell rang at 6:04 the following evening.
Mimi had been cheerfully doing the dishes, waiting in supreme anticipation for the homecoming of Joe, when the chime of the bell floated across her ears.
She dried her hands on a red checkered cloth, padding barefoot to the entryway.
She wasn't expecting what she saw.
"Hi, is Joe here?"
A tall, buxom blonde grinned from the steps. Her slender arm in a white cast, but only adding to the petulant vulnerability she exuded like sweat.
"I'm Penny Sanders. Have I got the right address? This is Joe Kido's place, right?"
Mimi closed her gaping mouth, blushing.
"Yes, yes...Come right in..." She stepped aside dazedly, then shut the door as the women handed her her coat.
"Wow! This is nice! I'm sure Joe must not give out very good wages if he lives in a mansion like this!"
The women giggled, tossing her ash blonde hair, and Mimi realized with burning anger, that this little guttersnipe thought she was the hired help!
"Well...Where is the good doctor?"
Mimi smiled tightly. "Joe will be home in about 2 hours...May I ask who you are?"
Penny grinned, bouncing her already inflated chest higher.
"Oh! Of course, silly me! You probably want to take a message or something! Well, I'm a patient of Joe Kido's...And I wanted to thank him for doing such a great job on me, so I found out where he lived...And here I am!"
Mimi wanted to stick her tongue out at the older women, but she decided curtesy was above all else.
"Well, Miss Sanders...I'm preparing dinner for him and his two boys...If you would like to stay..."
The blonde stood, holding out a card.
"No thank you, Miss...?"
"Tachikawa, Mimi Tachikawa..."
"Miss Mimi, but I have to go to work...I just wanted to thank him for the...Intimate, attention..."
With a flutter of blonde tendrils and French perfume, the women breezed out.
Mimi's honey eyes narrowed as she flipped open the card.
Dear Dr Joe,
Remember me? You fixed my arm up the other week, and I just wanted to thank you.
I remember the feel of your fingers so well...You're all I've thought about since then...
I know I felt something between us, and let's just say I like to go with my instincts...
Call me, (555-6739)
Penny Sanders

"Why that brazen little hussy!"
"Mimi? Who's a hussy?"
Spinning, Mimi thrust the card into Joe's puzzled hands. Kier and Linden exchanged glances before wisely retreating to the blue haired boy's bedroom.
Joe had come into his livingroom, the boys scampering round his long legs, only to see Mimi repeatedly reading a bright red card in the center of the creamy carpet.
He scanned the font, before raising spectacled indigo eyes to his estranged lover.
"So?"
Wrong thing to say.
The brunette clenched her tiny fists, her warm eyes furious, before straightening her spine, arms akimbo, and raising her sweet voice.
Mimi was in full fury.
"So?! SO??!! Some blonde strides into the house, treats me like garbage, throws herself at your feet with a card, takes it upon herself to assume you're free then...the..."
She dropped her arms, slumping. Her voice slipping to a sad tingle.
"I acknowledge the fact I'm not secure in my emotions, I can't live like that...Then I realize that maybe this wasn't a good idea after all..."
Joe opened his mouth to speak, then shut it, hurt and fury welling up inside him.
"Fine! Do it all again! Toss me another loop! You always have to keep me guessing, huh Mimi? Always need the upper hand! I can't take this anymore!"
He pivoted, striding angrily from the room and leaving a devastated young women to pick up the pieces of her foolish and insecure heart.

"Come on Kier...We have to go..."
The brown haired tyke lifted eyes so similar to his mothers to the same women, confusion and disbelief swelling inside them.
"What?! But Mommy! Lindy and I we're gonna play Digimon! And I...And I...And I don't wanna go!!"
Linden's young eyes took in the mirroring tears in his mothers gaze as she began picking up Kiers things, stuffing them hastily into the blue suitcase she retrieved from under Lindens bed.
"I know honey, but Daddy and I need to, um, need to be away from each other for a while.
"But you love Daddy!" Linden piped up confidently, and he watched as his mother paused, shoving a last black sock into the case before reaching a pale arm over and tugging him into her embrace.
"It isn't that simple, baby boy..." She kissed his blue head, kneeling down to his height.
Kier stepped back, allowing the figures to say good bye without understanding at all.
"Daddy and I...We have...We found that..." She tapped his nose softly, pushing his glasses back up his nose.
"I love you Linden. And I promise to call you, and write you, and I'll see you again, but right now I have to-""
She stood, hefting the case with her as she took Kiers little hand.
"Tell your Daddy that I...Tell him I'll see him soon..."
As she took her cases out the front door, sobbing over took her and Kier could do nothing.
The boy looked back at the house as grey clouds covered the sky.
His lower lip trembled as he gazed longingly at the door.
"Mommy...I never got to say good-bye..."

The doctor held his head between his fists, leaning against his knees as he attempted not to vomit.
Emotions were definitely not his forte.
He licked his lips, the taste of mint touching his tongue, before he let out a groan.
"We never could get it..."
His bedroom door thudded open and a blue haired bundle of energy skidded to a halt in front of him.
"Daddy! Mothew and Kiew aw gone! Why did Mommy go!"
Bolting up, Joe frowned. "What! Where did they go?"
He raced down the hall, throwing open the door to the now immaculately tidy guest room.
Sure enough, Mimi had taken her stuff and gone.
"What did I do..." Joe tilted his head, placing it on the door frame while he gathered his thoughts.
It was happening all over again.
"No...Not like before...Not like before."
He ran through the hall, throwing open the entry way and bounding down the stone walk.
The pavement glistened with new fallen rain, and he saw to shadowy figures in the grey distance.
and just like before...
There was nothing he could do...He didn't blink, didn't move...There was nothing he could do...
The storm clouds 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 them walk away...
"Daddy?"
The anxious voice of his son hit his consciousness and he glanced down.
"Go inside kiddo..." He called above the wind, and for a moment they stared at each other, before the child turned and shut the door behind him.
Turning back, the man sheltered his eyes against the wind, his vision caught between the figures moving farther away, or the empty life behind him.
He knew what to do.

Mimi hailed a cab which threw a torrent of dirty water over her clothing and Kiers face.
She wiped her tears away as she opened the passenger door.
Linden pulled his hand out of her grasp and she turned to him.
"No Mommy...Not this time."
She looked at her son, years of lonely agony clenching her heart like a fist. Reality dawned on her.
She was running scared again.
Mimi slammed the door shut, flagging the cab off as she watched the wind and rain blow Kier's hair around his shivering face.
What had she been thinking?
"Mimi!"
She looked up at the running form of her lover and friend, Joe Kido as he frantically waved her down.
The cold water plastered his navy hair around his face, turning the strands to ebony, and his already dark eyes to night fire.
"Joe!"
He came to a halting, panting stop before her, smiling reassuringly at Kier before turning pained eyes to the young women.
"Joe! What are you doing out here! Your asthma! The cold!"
Joe took her freezing hands in his, his white dress shirt clinging against his chest and shoulders like translucent pearl.
"I'm doing what I should have done six years ago!" He shouted against mother natures own screams as he looked down at her.
Smiling, Mimi shook her head.
"No! I'm doing what I should have done! I'm not going to run away!"
The doctor grinned nervously. "I'm not going to let you!"
They embraced furiously, rubbing warmth back into each other as their son beheld them.
"Joe, I-"
"Not yet Mimi...Not yet.."
He looked down at her tearful face, more in love and relieved then ever.
"Just...Let me...hold you for...a moment."
Her whisper was against his chest as she closed her eyes, listening to his frantically beating heart.
"More then a moment Joe...More then a moment..."