Greetings,
Standard stuff: Gundam Wing is not mine, but I do enjoy playing around with it some. My intent is purely for entertainment purposes only and blah, blah, blah! ;-)
-Talk about hitting a brick wall! I've rewritten this chapter seven different times last count and really still feel like I'm missing stuff. I know how the story is going to end. Getting there has been the hard part. Believe in Me Chapter six is coming along nicely. I hope to have it completed sometime soon as well. Thanks for your time!
All That You Leave Behind Chapter 4 -Live?-
*****
The door hissed as it slid open and Heero met eyes with Jason. Medium build, light colored hair, and defining feature's. Still a little shorter than Heero expected.
"I... Who are you?" Jason fumbled to the man standing before him in his fiancé's suite. Relena stood behind Heero paralyzed watching her world unfold before her for the second time this evening. The towel that held her wet hair up fell to the floor with barely a thud.
"I'm Heero Yuy, Commander of the Preventer organization here on Mars. You would be?" Heero asked bluntly.
Jason hesitated and had a hard time sizing the man up before him. Commander? Preventers? He question his mind quickly.
"I'm her fiancé last I checked..." Jason answered pointing to Relena from behind Heero finding her face red.
"Right." Heero returned and paused for several seconds settling an intimidating look on his face. "I just stopped by to insure the Minister was doing fine. The press has been hounding her most of the day."
"I appreciate that Commander." Jason replied, trying to regain some footing.
Heero forced a smile then turned back toward Relena. "Just doing our part to ensure she stays safe. Well Minister, I guess this is goodbye..."
Relena shook herself free of her temporary unable to hide her distress as Heero's words rang home.
"I'll have another patrol make rounds later this evening." He finished starring deeply into her eyes. She desperately wanted him to stay.
"I, I thank you Commander for making sure she is fine." Jason added, trying to figure out exactly what in the hell was going on.
Heero turned back to Jason and nodded. "She's important to all of us. We'd hate to see anything happen to her." Heero returned holding his hand out to Jason whom took it in a swift embrace. Applying slight pressure to his grip, Heero then broke the shake.
"Minister." He said quickly bowing his head slightly leaving the room. A stunned Jason jumped out of Heero's way quickly as Relena lowered her head despondently and braced herself for the furry of questions that were on their way.
"Relena?" Jason questioned grabbing his bag closing the hotel door behind him.
"This is goodbye." Heero whispered reaching for the elevator button. Looking back towards her door part of him hoped she'd come out of that room to tell him something, anything, but she didn't. The other part of him knew tonight was both of them letting go of each other finally. "It had to be." He silently reassured himself. ''It had to be...'
*****
"Relena what the hell was that?" Jason asked confusion still scolding him.
Relena blinked several times. "I wasn't expecting you." She mumbled quietly.
Jason's face went blank, "I've gathered as much." He replied with contempt.
She looked away from him lost in a daze. "Relena?" Jason questioned again finally gaining her attention. She pulled her hair back from her face and started towards the bathroom door. Jason grabbed her arm stopping her. "Relena, what happened?"
"Nothing." She replied shrugging away from his grip.
"Nothing?" Jason replied stunned. "For some reason I have a hard time believing that."
"Believe it." She answered swinging around to meet his eyes. "When I say nothing, I mean nothing. Now did you come here to argue with me?"
"No, but can't I ask a simple question?"
Relena narrowed her eyes. "As a favor from ESUN he was checking up on me. We we're old friends, that's all."
"Judging from the redness on your face when he said goodbye, I'd say you were more than friends." Jason spat back.
"What does that mean?" Relena question sneering.
"You tell me?" Jason asked dumbfounded. He couldn't believe the response she was giving him.
"Ughh!" She grunted rolling her eyes storming into the bathroom slamming the door.
"Do you know how this looks Relena?" Jason yelled following Relena finding a door greeting his face. "I come in to find my fiancé in a bath robe with a another man in her room that she claims is an old friend! What the hell am I supposed to think? Please enlighten me!"
"Think what you want." She yelled back. "I'm tired of arguing." She added from the other side of the door throwing on clothing, wanting it all to just go away. But it wouldn't, it couldn't, and now she would pay the price for the heavy heart she'd been carrying for years.
"Tough, I'm not finished!" Jason insisted.
Relena opened the bathroom door and got right in his face. "What Jason? What do you want do know?"
Jason considered his words carefully when met with the anger in her face. "Who is he?"
"He's who he said he was." She retorted forcefully.
"I don't mean like that Relena, who is he to you and stop running me in circles. I'm not some political lackey of yours that dances around your every word!"
Relena took a step back then pushed her way past Jason towards the bedroom searching for her shoes. But, Jason's question made her stop dead. With her back facing him she finally answered. "Heero's an old friend from the war." She said softly.
"War...? My god... he's the one." He said dazed putting things together. "He's the Gundam pilot that saved you in the war?"
"Yes." She's answered then continued. "He's also the one that pulled me and Maggie out of that car a few day's ago."
"Relena, I had no idea. Why didn't you tell me?" Jason asked the anger from his voice now subsided. But her reaction was not what he was hoping for. He found her sitting stoic and lost in the corner, almost the same way she had found Heero earlier that night.
"What aren't you telling me?" He asked afraid to close the distance between them.
There had been a lot of things she'd never told him. Lot's of things she didn't want too. These things were hers and hers alone. Quite honestly that is where she wanted them to stay but now, now things were different. She didn't love Jason the same way she loved Heero and for the life of her couldn't understand why. Once, she wanted more than anything to give him that piece of her Heero had, but she couldn't, no matter how hard she tried. Not now especially.
"Relena?" Jason pushed.
Slowly she placed her thoughts in order and looked him in the eyes. He could see it coming before she said a word. It was written all over her face.
"You love him? He asked. She nodded slowly.
He closed his eyes briefly watching his world come crashing down. Anger washed over his normal calm frame as he decided to push her. He wanted to hear it all. "Come on Relena, now is your chance! Tell me everything!" He insisted.
She looked at him sadly. "Do I have to say it?"
"Yes!" He pressured shaking.
"I love him! I always have and I always will. I can't change that, don't you think I've tried?" She yelled back to Jason tears streaming down her face.
He looked away from her with a dreadful frown. Disgust and anger raged through him and he wanted her to hear it all. How unfair and ignorant this was to him. How foolish and blind he'd been for loving her. "No, it's not that you haven't tried, it's that you don't want too." He said coldly. With that said Jason left the suite.
-------------
"And here are the reports you requested on the Lemma operations. The senior staff is set to meet at 9:30 and you have meetings with the Colonial senate at 1:30." Heero barely heard Madelyn speak as he fumbled through the papers she set down before him. She was used to him barely paying attention to her when she ran down his schedule in the morning. Here in his early twenties he helped run one of the most powerful organizations in the Earth Sphere. He was swift, cool, and calculating. She respected him for that and his ever present patience.
"Thanks Madelyn... could you get me the JRun reports also?" Heero asked.
"Yes sir. I'll get them right away."
Heero glanced up at a bank of video screen running through the morning news. He reached up and raised the volume on one channel in-particular. "We just received full reports that Foreign Minister Darlian was involved in a car accident three days ago. We're happy to report that the Minister and her staff are fine and she'll be returning to work today to discuss the new colonial trade agreements. A full press conference has been scheduled for noon today."
"I guess they let the cat out of the bag." Duo commented walking into Heero's office taking a seat.
"It was inevitable." Heero said lowering the volume on the monitor as the reporter starting a new story.
"Well, at least it looks like a non issue." Duo added.
"As it should be."
"So, did you see her?" Duo asked grinning broadly.
Heero turned his attention to the reports on his desk.
"Don't you have some work somewhere to do?" Heero asked.
"Nothing pressing at the moment. Besides this is far more interesting." Duo finished watching Madelyn drop some reports off on Heero's desk. She gave Duo a weak smile as she passed him leaving the room.
Heero glanced at the reports Madelyn just set down and slid them across his desk. "Well, get interested in this." He said coldly.
"Things didn't go well huh?" Duo asked loosing his playful grin pushing the reports back over to Heero.
"Her fiancé arrived and I left end of discussion." Heero answered reluctantly.
"Whoa there! Care to fill in the details?" Duo asked shocked!
"I said end of discussion." Heero stressed with a stern look.
"No go. C'mon spit it out, you'll feel better." Duo pressed.
"Why must you test me today?" Heero asked woefully.
"Because I'm your friend and you'd do the same for me." Duo replied sternly.
"No I wouldn't." Heero replied, his voice never changing.
Diligently Duo just leaned back in his chair grinning.
Frustrated Heero dropped the papers he was holding and spun around in his chair until he was facing the window behind his desk. "She's engaged to be married, what more is there to say?" His voice was upset.
Duo's eyebrows scrunched up on his face. "Don't give me that garbage Heero. Who are you trying to fool?"
"I don't know what you are talking about." Heero answered dancing around the question visibly irritated as spun back around to face Duo.
"You're protecting yourself." Duo retorted.
"I'm protecting us!" He returned swiftly with fever in his voice.
"From what?" Duo asked determined not to let Heero run from the conversation.
Heero didn't answer.
"Protecting your careers? Relena? Your own ideals? What?" Duo hammered away at Heero.
"Do you think I'm not human Duo? Do you think I don't care? I had my reasons and I have my reasons now. Let that be enough for the both of us." Heero argued.
"You're scared!" Duo retorted quickly, watching Heero's mouth fall slightly agape and his eyes narrow. Any thoughts Duo had about possibly insulting Heero now long gone.
"I've been scared of nothing my entire life." Heero replied standing from his chair his voice hiding shades of anger.
Duo didn't waiver. "Now you're lying to both of us."
Heero squeezed his fist tightly. "I've let her go Duo!"
"Bullshit!" Duo responded standing. "You're running Heero and you know it! Did she turn you away last night?"
Heero didn't answer.
"Did she?" Duo asked again almost screaming.
"No, she didn't... But it's far more complicated than that, it had been six years of frustration. We were kids, caught in a war. What did we know then and what do I know now?"
"Damn't Heero, stop running. Stop running from Relena and from yourself."
"Wha?" Heero questioned.
"The war is over! Stop fighting and live damn't! Live just like you told me that night. Now's your chance! Live!" Duo stressed.
Heero turned his head stunned. He felt as if Duo had stuck him across the face, his pride wounded and his own words betrayed him.
"You let her go now and you'll regret it till the day you die." Duo paused. "I've seen what she does to you! She's the best thing that's ever happened to you and you know it. She loves you Heero, and I know you love her too." Confident his point was made, Duo started for the door. Heero finally spoke stopping him.
"Is that enough?" Heero asked.
"Only you can answer that." Duo replied quietly. "You're not the only one that fought a war Heero. But you're the last one of us to give it up."
******End Chapter 4. As always my thanks...