The Heart Never Forgets

Chapter 5



Lady Une entered her apartment very late that evening, not even bothering to switch on the lights in the dim room. She kicked off her shoes ferociously, letting them bang against the wall. Guessing Mariemaia had done her homework and had gone straight to bed, she wandered through the inky blackness for the familiar handle of the bathroom door.

When her hand grasped it, she stumbled inside, feeling the chill of the lino against her bare feet. Slowly, she opened the bathroom cabinet and withdrew a tiny white bottle.

Wandering back into the living room and flicking on a lamp, she sunk down onto the couch. Reaching under the cushions, Une retrieved the half-empty bottle of red wine which had laid hidden under there. The kind Treize had always enjoyed with her on an evening. In the old days.

She tugged at the cork, tossing it across the carpet, then removed the cap on the plastic bottle. Une inhaled deeply as she shook a few of the small sleeping pills onto her palm, then flung them into her mouth, swigging them down with a gulp of wine.

Suddenly, her solitary silence was shattered by the creak of the living room door. It was Mariemaia, looking bleary-eyed, her red hair tousled.

" What are you doing out of bed?" Une demanded. " You should have been asleep ages ago!"

Mariemaia wasn't listening. She had turned her gaze to the dripping bottle of wine her adoptive mother was clutching. Then the open bottle of sleeping pills lying at the foot of the couch, a few sprinkled onto the carpet. Mariemaia was a smart girl and it didn't take a second for her to grasp the situation.

" Why are you doing this? Why are you taking those? You should know pills and alcohol are very dangerous, especially when taken together," Mariemaia stated, fighting to keep her voice calm.

" It's none of your business. Go back to bed NOW, you've got to be up bright and early for school tomorrow."

The girl before Une refused to budge.

" I will, once you tell me why you're taking sleeping pills."

" Why does anyone take sleeping pills, you stupid little girl!" Une bellowed, the alcohol speaking for her. " I couldn't sleep- what is this- the Spanish inquisition?"

" You're not even dressed for bed," Mariemaia argued. " You've just got in from work! And if you do need sleeping pills, why do you need wine to wash them down?"

" I will not tell you again," Une hissed, her voice dangerously soft and low." Get out of my sight until tomorrow morning or you will be sorry."

" Stop doing this! You're hurting yourself! Have more respect for yourself!"

" Don't lecture me on respect!" Une shrieked, making Mariemaia start in shock.

" You'll kill yourself! What'll I do without you?" Mariemaia tried to resist the urge to cry.

" Mother- please!"

"I'M NOT YOUR MOTHER!" Une shouted, smashing the wine bottle against the wall, hardly noticing the pools of dark red liquid travelling down it, staining it. " Don't call me mother! Don't EVER call me mother! I'm not your mother and never will be! Leia Barton was your mother, not me! Do you hear me? Not me!"

Une then curled up on the couch like a baby, facing the wall. She began to sob uncontrollably into the cushions, her whole body shaking with unspoken grief.

Mariemaia's bitterness at Une's cruel outburst turned to fear. She couldn't leave her carer alone in this state but she knew she didn't exactly want to stay in the same room as her a minute longer.

She could easily go out and find someone to help her handle the situation- someone strong like Zechs maybe but the truth was she just felt too ashamed to expose this behavior.

What would become of the Preventers if word got out and more important still- what would happen to her? The social services would deem Une an unfit guardian and have Mariemaia taken away to a strange new family somewhere else.

Biting her lip, Mariemaia gingerly stepped forward and reached out to pat Une's arm in comfort. No response.

" Mother?"

Mariemaia was flung across the room, as a stinging blow dealt by Une landed on her left cheek. She literally saw stars.

" If my f..father saw you now, h..he'd be ash..shamed!" Mariemaia choked, leaning on the coffee table for support as she unsteadily tried to get up. Une was crying again.

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Fourteen Weeks Later

" Do you want some coffee, Sal?" Noin asked brightly.

" Oh..er..yeah," Sally answered. She was round at her friend's apartment. Zechs was in the kitchen fixing leaking a pipe under Noin's sink.

" I'll have one too while you're at it," he called gruffly. " Although I won't participate in the consumption of the cheese and chocolate sandwiches if it's all the same to you."

Sally giggled faintly for the first time in ages. As Noin passed her the hot drink and joined her on the couch, Sally's mood shifted again and a pensive look clouded her eyes.

" Yes, I know Wufei and the others should have been back a fortnight ago," Noin admitted, as if reading her companion's thoughts. " I'm sure they're okay. It was a long mission, I know - but Lady Une would have said something if there was a problem."

" It's not just that...what if Wufei rejects the child?" Sally sighed, feeling the little kicks inside her. " Une warned me he might."

" You know him better than us," Noin consoled her. " Have more faith in him."

A frantic knock at the door startled both women. Noin hurried to open it and in stumbled Mariemaia, looking desperately dishevelled. " Help me!" she blurted out. " I can't hide this any longer! You've got to help me!"

Zechs set down his spanner and joined the women in the living room. The young red-headed girl was crying into Noin's shoulder, her hands clasped round a white plastic bottle.

" Lady Une..," Mariemaia croaked. " She promised she would get better....she's been okay these past weeks..nice to me....but she's back on these pills! I found them in the bathroom again this morning after she'd left for the headquarters!"

" Hmm, sleeping pills," Sally said grimly, examining the bottle. " You say she's been taking these along with wine? Well that explains her erratic behavior. Sounds like depression to me."

" I asked her what made her so sad..." Mariemaia continued with gulping sobs. " She told me....she'd done a very bad thing...."

" Damn right she has!" Zechs growled.

" No...she meant the mission....her Preventers were supposed to have returned two weeks ago....the last she heard they were having problems....asked for reinforcements but she was too depressed and drunk to listen....and refused....don't be angry, she didn't know what she was saying..."

" Oh...Une how could you?" Noin gasped.

" Now they've not contacted....and she admitted to me...it was a dangerous...perhaps suicidal mission anyway..."

" No!" Sally's face crumpled. " Wufei could be killed! Oh...!"

She could hear the words running through her mind, the words of the man that had died in her arms so long ago '..Every child needs a father...'

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Lady Une lifted her head from her desk wearily. Guilt flooded over her again. Too much guilt. Where was her whisky? She reached in her drawers but the bottle was cold and empty.

" Lady Une!" a stern voice called, as Zechs crashed his way into the office, followed by Sally and Noin.

" I don't understand what you want!" Une retorted.

" You unfeeling cow," Noin hissed under her breath.

" Mariemaia did the right thing, she told us everything about you, your depression and the mission you sent Wufei on!" Zechs replied without a hint of sympathy. " I want the good and honest details from you!"

Une defeatedly told them everything, unable to keep this within the boundaries of her dying heart.

"Leave them any longer, and they'll be killed, the lot of them," Sally shrieked. "Something has to be done! Now!"

" Right, I am going to round up reinforcements and load the explosives into the aircrafts," Zechs decided. " We'll fly out and drop them on the enemy's secret base. That'll put an end to this nonsense. We don't need reports, we need to kill!"

" But...we as Preventers are supposed to be combating war, not promoting violence to get what we want...," Une began. " Bombs would be wrong."

" You have no right to judge the difference between right or wrong in your current state," Noin reminded her. " What about Sally's child? Do you want it's father to die unnecessarily?"

Une hung her head, as Zechs bolted out of the office to carry out his decision. Tears of distress were rolling down Sally's cheeks. Noin patted her shoulder. " C'mon, Sally, let's get you home."

" Home?" Sally yelled. " I'm flying out with the rest of you. I have been separated from Wufei for long enough. Besides, my medical knowledge will be a asset to you.

" But Sally Po, you are due a child in no less than a fortnight," Une protested from behind her desk. " You will NOT be going. You could...lose the baby."

Sally turned savagely on the brown-haired woman. " And what do you care?" she seethed. " You have done nothing but lay the guilt on me for getting pregnant so what's it to you whether the baby dies or not? Huh?"

" Fine," said Une in an unfriendly tone. " But I'm going too."

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Hours later, Wufei squinted up into the evening sky beyond the trees. His camp was moderately near a cliff face, where some of the other Preventers were watching far out to sea.

Only yesterday, they had found both their aircrafts - carrying supplies and their weaponry - totally trashed, the food and weapons stolen. A few weeks before that, their transmitters had mysteriously vanished.

The crafts had been hidden in the dense mass of trees but somehow, the enemies from the base must have discovered them. Only why had they not attacked? Something was wrong, and the Preventers on the island were beginning to fear for their lives. The atmosphere was tense.

A group of five had gone into the woods to search for any clues, but that was over three hours ago and they still had not returned. Any hopes of a full report was hopeless. The enemy base was well concealed, as was it's information. During the day, not one person of the other side had been spotted. This had gone on for weeks.

'They must have a plot - a plan of attack by now,' Wufei thought miserably. 'We're all doomed.'

A knot gripped his stomach. With every day that passed, he became more convinced that he would never see Sally's face again.

End of Part 5