Gundam Wing: 3 Days In London

Mobile Suit Gundam: Three Days In London
By Eric Jacobson
Read All My FanFiction At My FanFiction Home Site

Disclaimer: I don't own any rights to Gundam Anything. Leave me alone. I'm not worth suing.

Author's Note: An interesting request was made of me. While posting one of my new Fics online, an ICQ message from a lady friend of mine came in, asking what I was up to. I told her about the fic I was working on, how it was sappy and romantic and stuff. And she said "you should write a love story about me." Why not! So here it is. This one is dedicated to Megan, the girl who gave me the idea ^.^

This story takes place during Gundam Wing, during the AC 195 war.

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Day One...

Destiny has a funny way of fooling around with a person's head. It'll pop into their life, make things so much better, or worse in some cases. And sometimes, it stays. All the effects of destiny's intervention remain with that person and they live happily with what fate has dealt them. But sometimes, destiny can not stay. It appears, and then drifts away as quickly as it came. It's during that time that destiny has it's largest impact on the human psyche.

And, for some reason, I am one of the people it chose to impact.

My name is Jonathan Leary. I was born into a wonderful Irish family, and as I grew, I became fascinated with Mobile Suits. My mother would always tell me that things like Mobile Suits weren't for young men like me, though I never could see why. Sure, they were machines of mass destruction. But it was as if I saw something more in them than that.

That's why I signed up for the local Mobile Suit Guard. Soon I was transfered from my home in Killarny to the post here in London. And Wednesday was the first day that OZ had decided to play it's hand here in the Brittish Isles.

My commander approached me and told me that I was to go to a refugee camp on the bank of the Thames just outside of the city limits. Alot of the rural citizens became frightened of the OZ presence, and the others were from accross the channel on the Eurasian Continent. They feared OZ and what they stood for, and had chosen to flee for their lives. I was told that OZ was oppressive in some areas, eager to snuff out any pockets of resistance.

It was there that destiny dealt me the strangest hand to play that I'd ever recieved. On that day, four days ago, I met someone who has changed my life forever. She was a refugee from near the Ewing Forest to the north. I never caught much of the whole story, but to my knowledge the people feared the presence of the OZ soldiers in their rural area and came to the city to seek the comfort of their countrymen.

When I arrived at the camp, my first duty was to oversee refugee registration in the south west part of the tent city. I was given my paperwork, and two young officers were assigned to assist me. The first was Devon. He was a young Scotchman of about 20, stocky and full of energy. The other was Niles. He made his home in London. At 22, he was married and had a son, and was rather reserved in his mannerisms. The three of us loaded up in a jeep and were driven to our assigned area.

We arrived in the south west area of the camp sometime after 1PM. As we left the jeep, the officer in charge came up to us and briefed us on the situation.

"Alright, Sir. Here's what we have. Most of the refugees in this area of the camp are from the local rural area, and some from farther north. They were placed here so they would have easy access to the city. There are alot of women and children, so try and take it easy on them. And one of the refugees, Lord Standish, has been demanding to see you since he arrived. We tried to explain to him that the Section Officer would arrive soon, but he's being testy. You should see him as soon as possible before he goes off and does something stupid to get some attention."

"Alright. Thanks. You're dismissed." I looked at the preliminary head count list. "Damn. 1500 people to register. This is gonna take some time. Devon, why don't you round up as many of the refugees as you can and get them into the common area so we can start taking some names and such. Niles, see about getting a chow line setup close by, these people are probably really hungry."

"Alright, Sir, no trouble a'tall." Devon spoke with a thick Scotch accent, and at times it made him hard to understand. But he was the loudest of us, and therefore best suited to round up people into a large area.

Niles, on the other hand, was strangely quiet. He simply nodded and headed off to the mess area to get things started.

I called the closest soldier over to inquire about the Lord Standish issue. Upon hearing that he was in the Officer's Quarters, I made my way there on the double. The Officer's Quarters was actually a commandeered house along the main road to and from the city. It was Victorian in design, obviously the home of a wealthy citizen. Why it was vacated, we'll never know. But it served the housing needs of the officers perfectly. When I arrived, I was greeted by a soldier and granted entry.

After being shown to my office, I went to the main living area to meet with Lord Standish. Upon entering the room, my eyes cast their first gaze on her. Sitting on the couch was a young girl, I'd say around 18 or 19, beautiful in every way. Her blonde hair cut at the shoulder and left down, her subtle features concealed by a gorgeous sun dress.

"May I help you miss?" I asked, almost choking on my own words.

"Are you the officer in command here?" Her voice was almost angelic, and I moved closer to melting on the spot.

"Yes, I am. I'm Lieutenant Leary, but you can call me Jonathan. What can I do for you?"

"Oh, I'm just looking around. One of the soldiers told me I could come in and see the house."

'A soldier let her in?' I thought to myself. 'You'ld think that with security as tight as it is, they wouldn't let civilians into the Officer's Quarters.' After resolving that a young lady such as this couldn't be much of a threat to security, I continued the conversation. "Well, have you seen much that you like?"

She walked over to the fireplace and gazed at the portrait above it. It was of an old man in upper class dress, obviously a former owner of the mannor. "This painting. It's very old. I've always had an interest in things like this."

I walked over and stood next to her, looking from the painting to her and back again. "How can you tell that it's an old painting?"

"It's not that difficult, really. Mostly the composition and style. But it's very old, it's probably been in the family for centuries."

"Wow. You're quite a smart young lady. What's your name?"

"My name is Megan."

"Well, that's a pretty name, and it suits a lovely young lady like yourself pretty well." I couldn't help it. She was so gorgeous. It was hard to not give her a compliment.

"Well thank you. An officer and a gentleman rolled into one. It's not often you find that in this day and age."

"Why do you say that?"

"Oh, I've met lots of soldiers. They're all enfatuated with their Mobile Suits, though. It's all they talk about. The war, the Gundams from the Colonies, OZ, it's all they have on their minds. But you, you're taking time to compliment a simple young lady, that's something special."

I was getting quite nervous. She was being dreadfully forward, that was for sure. I managed to retain my composure and continued to speak. "Well, I come from an old school of thought. If you see a pretty lady, you have to compliment her. And you certainly qualify." From down the hall, I heard footsteps, accompanied by what sounded like a gruff old man, screaming at the top of his lungs. Assuming that this was Lord Standish coming to see me, I decided that I should ask the young lady to leave. But when I turned to tell her, she had already gone, vanishing without a trace.

At that moment, Lord Standish entered the room. He was a rough looking old codger, deffinately someone who was holding on to the arcane and outdated concept of Brittish Class Society. Though it still had its supporters, the "Nobility System" had been abolished when the Earth banded together to create the Colonies. This one, however, wasn't of that mindset. He was wearing a nobleman's clothing, very ornate and almost military in design. His puffy white beard was well kept, but still hid his mouth and there fore, affected his speach a bit.

"Well, it's about god damned time you got here, Lieutenant. I've been trying to get my voice heard in here all damn day, and noone will listen to me." He was obviously angry, his face red as a turnip and cheeks flushed beyond any that I'd ever seen. The young soldier who had accompanied him into the room said something under his breath about not being able to hear anything with his uffish yelling.

"Thank you, Private," I told the young soldier. "You're dismissed." He muttered a quick 'Thank you, Sir' and made his way out of the room as fast as he could, obviously wanting to get away from the cranky old man he had escorted. "Anyway, Lord Standish, I heard about you wanting to see me when I arrived and I got here as fast as I could. Things have been hectic with OZ moving in and all. What can I do for you?"

"I'll tell you what you can do for me, young man! You can start by getting me some better living quarters than that shoddy tent out there in the streets. I'm decended from the Windsor family, Lieutennant, and I demand some respect!"

The Windsor Family. I had read about them in secondary school. They were a ruling family towards the end of the Universal Century. They had held power untill a series of scandals rocked the family and they had to relenquish their status when the people of Brittain rose up against them. In what was known as the "Quiet War", the people had ended centuries, almost a millennia, of monarch rule. All without spilling a single drop of blood.

"Well, Lord Standish, we can try and relocate your family, but with the influx of new refugees each day, that's gonna be hard to do. We can't just leave people out because you want the best available accomidations. This is war, in case you haven't noticed. The people are on edge as it is thanks to OZ and those Gundams, and they most certainly don't need a selfish old man who can't let go of an outdated societal concept bitching and whining because he can't get his own way."

"How dare you talk to me in that tone of voice..."

"I dare talk to you like this because I am the commanding officer of this section of the camp. I'm in charge here, and it's my duty to make sure that the people who come here are taken care of. It's not my duty to cowtow to old fools such as yourself who make trouble just because they can't have cake after their ration of meat and potatoes. We're all making sacrifices here, Lord Standish, and you should be no different. There's a greater evil out there than what conditions you're living in. I don't know if that evil is the Gundams or OZ, but I know that it is most certainly not the fact that you don't live in the best possible surroundings. Do I make myself clear?"

The old man didn't speak. I think he was in shock, really. Being a blood noble and living in a rural area, he had probably used his title to throw his weight around with the locals. But that wasn't going to happen here. And to make matters worse, the person telling him where to get off the bus was nothing more than a 23 year old Celt with some shiney buttons on his uniform.

After an akward silence, the old noble spoke. "Alright, Lieutenant. You win this time, but don't think you've heard the last of Lord Aaron Standish. I promise you that we'll meet again. And I promise you, I will get what I want from you people." With that, he left the room in a huff, grumbling and cursing me as he went.


Later that night, I made my way to my office, tired and mentally drained. Somehow, my crew and I had managed to register all of the refugees in our section, even the 200 extra that had come in since we started. We'd made our rounds, and command was transfered to the night crew. Devon and I had stopped at the pub down the road and each had a few beers. Niles just went straight to his office. After those beers, we staggered back to the Officer's Quarters for the night.

I sat at my dest and stared at the mountain of papers that I had to turn in to command the next day. "Dear lord, I can't believe we got all this done in one day. What a job! This is deffinately not what I had in mind when I signed on." I carefully (well, as carefully as a drunken Irishman can) moved the huge stack of documents to the side and slammed my head down onto the desk in exhaustion. "Whatever happens with this war, I hope it happens soon. I can't take much more of this pencil pushing racket."

My head was still planted firmly on the wodden top of the desk when I heard a knock at my door. I looked up to see one of the guards standing there. "Sir, there's a young lady here to see you, said her name's Megan. Should I tell her you're off duty?"

'Megan? That girl again?' My thoughts raced as I tried to sober myself up as much as I could. "Oh, no, Private. Send her in."

"Right away, Sir." He left the doorway, and a few moments later, the young lady known as Megan appeared in his place.

"Am I bothering you, Lt. Leary?"

"Megan! Oh, no, not at all. I'm off duty for the night. Please, come in." I quickly tried to put on my best sober face and made my way around the desk to pull the chair out for her. "Please, have a seat."

"Thank you."

"No problem at all. So, what brings you here tonight?"

"Well, after we met earlier, I spent the day thinking. Lieutenant, do you know what's going to happen to us? I mean, what's going to become of us when this war is over?"

She had to throw me a tough question. I had no clue what would happen to them. After all, I was only a section commander. "I really don't know. I wish I could tell you. Being uprooted and shipped off somewhere, I can only begin to imagine how things are going for you right now. I wish I had the answer, but I don't."

"Well, while we're here, I suppose I should feel better knowing there are people like you in charge. Your regiment has been nothing short of wonderful to everyone." She sounded so sad, and I didn't blame her at all. Suddenly, her tone changed, and she began to relax a little bit. "Lieutenant..."

"You can call me Jonathan, or just Jon, if you'ld like."

"Jonathan... Alright. Jonathan, would you come for a walk with me?"

I thought about it for a moment. Sure, I was tired and half drunk. But here was a beautiful girl, wanting to go for a walk through this place with me. How many chances would I get to be in this situation? Not many, that was for sure. "Alright. Let me get my coat and we'll go for a walk."


We walked for a little while down the streets of the tent city, not saying much. We made small talk. She told me about growing up outside of Ewing in her little town. Her father was a wealthy man, so she spent most of her formative years in boarding schools for girls. She dreamed of one day being like Relena Dorlian, the daughter of the assasinated foreign minister. His daughter had resumed his duties after his death, and Megan saw that as something she'd like to do.

"I really hate war. It frightens me. Because there is always the possibility that the regular citizens will suffer the most. We're constantly in the line of fire. That's why my family came here, to seek refuge from the battlefields." She spoke with great bravery in her voice, nothing like a victim of wartime displacment.

"I don't blame you. When I signed up for my local militia unit, there wasn't a chance of war. Things were very quiet back then. Then I was transfered here, and that's when OZ decided that they were going to take over the Alliance. That's when the Gundams came, and brings us to the point we're at now. I'm not going to be on the front lines, but I'm close enough to see the damage war does."

I tried to imagine the way she looked at me now. A soldier saying he didn't care for war and the problems it brings. It must have seemed funny to hear that, because it sure felt funny to hear myself saying it.

"Then why did you join the military?"

"Ever since I was little, I always had a fascination with Mobile Suits. My mom always tried to convince me that they were machines of mass destruction and nothing more, but I never listened. I always knew that Mobile Suits could be adapted to serve mankind in ways other than during war time. Originally I wanted to be a suit engineer, but somehow I ended up going to officer's school."

"So, do you pilot a suit at all?"

"Yeah, I've been assigned a specialized Leo, all the officers get one. The armor is a blend of steel and Gundaniam, so they have an added strength to them. But I've never flown it in combat before. That's what they have the Mobile Suit divisions for. We're a smaller outfit, so we don't have as many Mobile Suit troops in our ranks."

"Ahhh, I see. Though I'm not too fond of war, it does sound like an exciting life. Nothing like mine. My life is pretty much dull and dry. Everything I do is based on my father's stubborn adherance to the old ways. I don't get out much at all. That's why I'm using my time here to get out and see what I can."

"That's a good idea. Hey, are you hungry at all?"

"Actually, I am. Why do you ask?"

"Because I know a great Italian place on the edge of town, and it's not far from the camp. Would you like to join me?"

"There's a resteraunt open this late?"

"It's Sangiacomo's, they're always open. Ever since I've been in London, I've been eating dinner there practically every night. Don't worry, I know the manager on duty right now. Tony will get us hooked up rather nicely. I'd be honored if you would come along..."

She thought it over for a moment, and a smile crossed her lips. It was the most beautiful smile I'd ever seen, and I never would have thought that I would see something like that amid so much hardship like there was in this camp.

"Yes, I'd love to go."

"Great!" I held out my arm to her. "Shall we go my lady?" She slipped her hand through the loop my arm made and held my arm with the other, completing the old time escort's pose.

"Yes, we shall, Lieutenant Leary." She giggled as we started down the road towards the resteraunt. I couldn't believe it. In all this chaos, I had actually found a lovely young lady who made me smile and feel better about the job I was here to do.


Dinner was magic. Pure magic. We talked about our childhoods, and Tony even called out his violinist to play for us as we ate. There was noone else in the place, we had it all to ourselves. At one point, I asked my date to dance, and she happily accepted. We went out onto the dock dining area, a wooden pier extending out into the Thames, and danced while the musician played and Tony sang the traditional songs of his homeland. The whole time, her smile never left her face, and I myself was fixated on it the entire night.

The time for us to return to the camp came, and I thanked Tony for the wonderful meal. As we walked home, we held hands and stayed quiet. Neither of us wanted to talk, words would have only complicated the simple happiness we were both feeling at that moment. Finally, we arrived at her tent.

"I had a really nice time tonight, Jonathan."

"I did to, Megan. I'll tell you what, you sure do know how to make an army boy smile in times of war."

"And you have a way of making a girl feel as carefree as she would when she was little, Lieutenant."

"Well, I'm glad that I could make you smile. God knows that's hard enough to do with the war going on and all."

She leaned up and gave me a kiss on the cheek. "I'll see you tomorrow, Jonathan." With that, she ran into her tent, and I myself turned and made my way back to my office. The events of the night rolled through my mind as I walked happily back to my building, and the soldiers on the way took notice. I guess they could all see the extra skip in my step. When I arrived, I flopped down onto the bed with the world's biggest smile still on my face.

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OK, folks. That's it for day one. Second 'R' time, and please remember to be nice! Day two will be out soon, so stay tuned! In the meantime, check out my other Fics Here at FF.N or at my FanFiction Home Site.