This is a Reunion Sidefic. I begged and pleaded for a chance
to write this one because I really thought this pairing
was truly intriguing. I think they really make a nice
couple together.
Title: Thank You
Author: Rhina
Pairing: 11 x S
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WARNING: yuri overtones, language, sap
********
Dedication: This is dedicated to Mel and Christy who wrote
the fabulous Reunion! God Bless them both!
Disclaimer: I don't own them or any G Boys (darn!) and the
song "Thank You" is by Dido and is really a touching song.
lyrics
~~~ scene change ~~~
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
I drank too much last night, got bills to pay my head just
feels in pain
I missed the bus and there'll be hell today
I'm late for work again and if I'm there, they'll all imply that
I might not last the day
And then you call me and it's not so bad
It's not so bad
~~~ August AC 197 ~~~~
Sally looked around the cramped office that she called her
own. It was so tiny there was barely room for her desk any
more much less the needed computer and overflowing file
cabinets. And she was absolutely positive that adding more
papers would simply result in spontaneous combustion of the
space. Her effort to bring the nature that she loved to the
space had gasped its last breathe the other day. Obviously
there wasn't enough air in here for both of them.
Placing her hands in her hair, she leaned forward on her elbows
and groaned quietly to herself at the thought of having to sort
through the mess. She knew the paperwork that she needed
was _somewhere_ in this office, but God alone knew where.
"Miss Sally?" asked a young fresh-faced cadet, looking
around the corner of the door.
"I think she's in here," grumbled Sally in response. "Turn
over enough paper and you might find her."
Looking puzzled, the cadet simply stared at the top of Sally's
head looking for a more accurate direction. "Ma'am?"
"Oh God, make my day ten times worse won't you? Call me
'ma'am'," groaned Sally, finally standing and putting out a
hand to the cadet. "Just tell me you're not bringing another
paper in to this office."
Gulping, the poor cadet looked nervously at the formal letter
in her hand, unsure of whether to hand it to the blonde woman
or not. Though her job depended on its proper delivery, she
wasn't sure she'd survive handing it over.
Sally sighed. One of these days training cadets would be the
death of her. "I see that they are still removing the humor
glad from all military recruits. Just give me the piece of paper
and go."
Gladly, the recruit handed over the document and fled.
"Great. I have now earned a 'reputation' among the upcoming
cadets," sighed Sally, fingering the official seal on the front
of the envelope. Despite the formality evident with the seal
and stamp on the back, her name was scrawled informally
across the front.
Sally smiled as she recognized the handwriting on the envelope.
"Well Une, what are you up to now?" she asked as her finger
wedged its way under the flap and pulling it apart.
She scanned the contents of the handwritten letter quickly.
Reading the words quickly spread a smile across her generous
mouth and she sighed with thoughtfulness.
++ Dear Sally,
I'm writing to ask you to join me in Colorado on Earth. I am
working on setting up the new Preventer Headquarters and
would find your advice on matters invaluable. As your
superior office I could command you, but I do believe that's
kind of like dragging a horse to water and forcing it to drink.
So I shall ask instead and entice. The country is beautiful out
here. There are mountains and forests waiting to be explored.
Come and help me please.
Your friend (and commanding officer),
Une
PS If I need to, I'll make it an order. I'm going crazy down
here! ++
After reading the letter a second time, Sally laughed softly to
herself, the rich sound spreading throughout the room. "Not
a command my paperwork! That was a threat if ever I read it
Une!"
Tapping the letter thoughtfully against her chin, Sally managed
to turn her chair around despite how tight it was wedged in the
small space. She stood then and stepped over to the tiny window.
Looking out at the grayness of the colony's artificial night,
she quickly made her decision. "I'll go. It will be a nice
change and it will be good to see Une again."
Smiling, Sally turned back and regarded the cramped office
with a smile on her face. "And this way I get to acquire a
bigger office!"
~~~ Two Weeks Later - Colorado, Earth ~~~
Pulling together the last of the luggage she had managed to
haul along this time, Sally and her bundles trundled toward the
curb of the airport road. Une had promised to collect her and
her assorted 'junk' as Une so kindly put it. There was a
promised stop off at the new Headquarters first though, which
Sally was looking forward to more than anything else.
With the sound of an urgent squeal, Sally pulled herself from
the delirious fantasies of proper office space to move quickly
away from the Jeep barreling down on her spot at the curb.
Smiling she realized exactly who the maniac behind the wheel
was and why she was baring down on her precisely.
Stopping the car with precision timing, Une stepped from the
vehicle and came around to hug Sally. "Sally! So good to see
you!"
"I could tell by the way you nearly ran me over," joked Sally,
throwing her arms around the other woman. She inhaled that
special scent of roses that seemed to waft after Une and for
some inexplicable reason felt like she had come home.
Une laughed and pulled back to look at Sally. "It's good to
see you though." And at that moment she realized that truer
words had not been spoken for a long time. The sunlight
reflected off Sally's golden hair and brought even more
attention to laughing blue eyes. It was good to have a friend
nearby for a change.
Together the pair loaded the lot of Sally's belongings in to the
jeep and then carefully settled themselves in their seats,
fastening their seat belts. "So what would you like to see first?"
queried Une, putting the jeep into gear and pulling away from
the terminal.
"Well," drawled Sally, peering around her at the new
surroundings. The gorgeousness of the green mountains and
bright blue sky reminded her of the landscape that she had
fought for in China only two years ago. She smiled then,
remembering what had truly prompted the move in the first
place. "I want to see my new, vastly bigger office."
Une laughed and turned the jeep in that direction. "How did
I know that was your ultimate goal in this whole operation?"
"You try working in a shoebox sometime and then come back
and tell me my demand is not valid," countered Sally.
Laughing and catching up on the time that they had spent apart,
the pair drove out to the far edge of town where a vast complex
had been built to cover all the needs of the Preventer organization.
The new modern facility had incorporate many of Une's desires
and visions for what the organization should be achieving and
the peace that they would work so hard to protect.
Together they toured various offices and training and workout
facilities. Une proudly displayed her new office, already the
furniture inside was liberally covered with assorted paperwork,
prompting Sally's dry comment about the relationship between
it and her old office. Rolling her eyes at Sally's feeble attempts
at humor, Une then led Sally to the gem of the new facility.
Flicking on the working lights, Une turned to Sally and said
proudly, "And a complete medical facility with not only
resources to care for patients, but also complete forensics
capabilities."
With a face wreathed in pleasurable smiles, Sally advanced
in to the space, admiring the clean lines and functionality of
the facility. "Wow, this is great Une. Quite a triumph."
"You haven't even seen the best part yet," commented Une,
latching on to Sally's arm and dragging her over to a door
just to the left. With a swipe of her hand, she pulled off the
rag that hid the nameplate on the door.
"Sally Po," read Sally carefully, "Head of Preventer's Medical
Facility…." Sally turned to stare at Une with some amazement.
Une smiled smugly in response laying a single long finger
along the side of her face in a superior gesture. "Did one
forget to mention that the move came with a nice promotion?"
Shaking her head in disbelief at Une's cunning and very self-
satisfied smile, Sally opened the door to her new office. Inside
she admired the creamy color of the walls and the beautiful
new furniture. "I think it's ten times bigger than the old one,"
she murmured.
"Oh, at least twenty," agreed Une, smiling with pleasure at
Sally's happiness with her office.
Sally turned to Une and placed her arm around her shoulders.
"I think I'm going to be very happy here," she said.
"I hope so," said Une and the pair headed out for some dinner,
leaving the light shining in Sally's office – lighting the hope
of a bright future.
~~~ October AC 197 ~~~
There was a soft knock on Sally's office door. Without a
pause after the knock, the door slid open and Heero quietly
entered the room. Startled he stared at Sally's sleeping form
cramped on to the couch. Scowling fiercely he realized that
his attempt to get some early morning work done on her
computer had been thwarted.
Sighing with defeat, Heero moved to wake Sally. Standing
over her, he called out her name. "Sally? Sally? Sally!"
"What?!" was the groggy reply as Sally attempted to rouse
herself.
Heero's sardonic sense of humor got the best of him then and
he stated, "I would have thought a doctor would recommend
sleeping in a bed."
With a groan, Sally sat up on the couch, rubbing her sore neck.
She knew there was no way to ignore Heero when he got in
one of these moods. She was just going to have to deal with
him and there was nothing worse than a grouchy sardonic
Heero.
"And without coffee too," grumbled Sally, fumbling around
on the floor for the shoes she had discarded last night.
Shuffling and yawning tiredly, Sally sat up and glared right
back at Heero who matched her glare for glare. "What are
you doing here?"
"What is so important that you must sleep in your office?"
retorted Heero in return. "Personally I'm here to get some
work done and obviously you're not."
"Never mind Heero," yawned Sally, gracefully covering her
mouth with the back of her hand. "Some days its just preferable
to going to that miniscule apartment."
Heero pursed his lips together. He knew what Relena would
want him to say and through gritted teeth he managed to barely
get the offer out. "Then move in with Relena and me," he asked
in a surly tone, scowling down at the unkempt woman. "You
know we have the space and Relena would be happy to have
the company."
"I can see why if this is what you're like every morning,"
sniped Sally in return. The offer was less than generous, but
she didn't doubt that in his heart Heero did mean the offer.
Heero's blue eyes only blazed at her with cold fire and raised
an eyebrow as he awaited a proper answer.
"And you know it would only start all sorts of nasty rumors,"
countered Sally, shaking her head. "You and Relena and I are
good friends Heero and I don't want to ruin that with nasty
rumors of a ménage a' trois."
Heero blushed slightly and nodded his agreement to the
statement, both realizing that he was really protecting Relena
from such harm. "But this sleeping in your office must stop,"
continued Heero, thinking that there was still some sort of
obligatory duty he should perform.
Sally sighed. Somehow she sensed that this was not an
argument that she was mentally capable of winning this early
in the morning, especially with a surly Heero on her hands.
"All right Heero."
Not quite satisfied with the answer, but determined to take the
issue to a higher power, Heero nodded and turned away from
the door.
Sally watched as he disappeared down the hallway and shut
her door with a sigh. She turned and crossed to the low file
cabinet behind her desk. There she plugged in the coffee
maker and got it started on her normal wake up call.
Sneaking across the hall, she visited the bathroom and washed
her face and made herself a little more presentable for the day.
Convinced she at least looked human, even though her brain
readily disagreed, she left the bathroom and followed her nose
back to the perking coffee.
As Sally opened the door to her office, Une's voice stated, "I
bought you a couch so that you would have some place
comfortable to sit, not as a replacement for a perfectly good
bed."
With a defeated sigh, knowing she could no longer avoid the
confrontation, Sally came in and sat down at her desk and
accepted the cup of coffee that Une had poured for her.
Sipping it gratefully she collected her thoughts while Une
regarded her carefully.
"Care to explain why you are using your office this way?"
inquired Une with a raise of an eyebrow. She had noticed the
dark smudges under Sally's eyes for the past month but had
simply put them down to the hard work that they had all been
doing on reading the headquarters to be fully operational. It
was only when Heero had oh so casually in a discreet email
brought Sally's activities to her awareness that she'd put two
and two together and gotten the four she should have earlier.
"Not really," answered Sally candidly. She hated to worry
Une with what she considered petty problems. Getting the
headquarters up and running was not an easy task and Sally
had no intention of adding to Une's burden.
Une sighed and realized that dragging this from Sally was
going to be like pulling alligator teeth from a live crocodile –
totally impossible. "Let's try this again. I'm Une – your
friend. Tell me what's wrong Sally," pleaded Une in a soft
voice, moving to kneel next to Sally.
With a heartfelt sigh, Sally let forth the rush of things
bothering her about her apartment. From its tiny size to the
extremely noisy neighbors, there was nothing relaxing about
going home. "Besides," added Sally, coming to the end of
her rush of thoughts, "it's lonely there."
As her eyes widen, Une realized that Sally had unintentionally
hit on her own problem with her house. A large rambling
ranch style house, it was really too big for one person to live
in alone. But she had selected it for its beautiful natural
location, not the size. Reaching a decision, she decided to
put her plan in to action.
"Then move in with me," stated Une, holding up a hand to
stave off Sally's immediate protests. "I have more than enough
room, can use your rent to help make the house payments and
I seriously doubt that people are going to start vicious rumors
about the two of us being 'together'."
Sally smiled weakly at the joke, her mind racing with the
implications. She was unsure of what to do, but the temptation
of the offer was neigh over whelming. Even though she had
only been to Une's house once, she had loved how it was
surrounded by nature and the beauty and bounty of Earth. And
she knew that she and Une would get along quite well as
housemates.
"You can have your own room," coaxed Une, seeing that
Sally was wavering toward staying at her house. "And help
me with decorating the rest of it. Too many white spaces for
me to cope with!"
"All right," agreed Sally, smiling slightly. "You win."
"Excellent," cheered Une, standing up then. "We'll collect
your belongings after work and you can move in together.
_And_ get a full night's rest for a change."
With that parting shot, Une strode from Sally's office
humming a pleasurable tune under her breath. Employees
looked at her twice when she passed them in the hall, unsure
of what had made their commander so – pleasant.
"What have I gotten myself in to?" groaned Sally, laying her
head down on her desk in dismay. "I just don't believe this…..
And I know who's fault it is to!"
Sally looked up with a gleam in her eyes and muttered,
"Heero. Damn you.." She smirked then and wondered idly
if he should be the first 'victim' to help train her medical
staff for emergencies. It seemed to be an excellent idea.
Sitting at his own desk in a dark secluded spot in the building,
Heero smiled slightly as he watched Sally and Une leave
together through the surveillance video feed. He then went
about his work, savoring the fact that tomorrow he was sure to
get done the work that he needed to.
Later that evening, after a satisfyingly mysterious email to
Relena, Sally went with Une to collect her belongings from
the apartment. Once she had gathered everything and turned
her keys, she followed Une out to her – no, their – house.
Une led her inside and showed her to a bedroom, helping
Sally arrange and stow away some of her things. Together
they then toured the rest of the house, discussing ideas for
decorating and furniture needs before ending up in the
kitchen.
"Comfortable?" she asked, when they were busy
contemplating something for dinner as Sally sat on one of the
chairs at the kitchen table.
"Very," said Sally with a smile, turning from her perusal of
the colorful fall world outside the window.
And together they made dinner and watched their friendship
grow and deepen.