When Angels Fall
Part 4
"Quatre! Haven't seen you in a couple of months, how have you been?" Wufei said holding out his free hand to take one of the bags. In his other hand he held his 3-month-old daughter.
"Good! And you?"
"We've been getting by. It's been a little hard with only a few hours of sleep a night though." Quatre laughed and remember when he had first taken care of Amanda when she was only 7 months after her mother died.
"Well I still can't believe that Sally still wanted to have everybody over after just having a kid. I still think we should have gone to my house." Amanda got board just standing with her father while he talked, so she dropped her bag on the floor beside her father and ran off to find her friends.
"Amanda looks good." Wufei said. "How have you two been holding up?"
"Good, good. It has become a ritual now that we bake a cake for her mother on her mother's birthday. So we did that a couple of months ago. It's been good for her. I don't want her to feel sad. I want her to grow up in a family where she feels loved."
"Well it looks like you've been doing a pretty good job." Wufei commented.
"That's one of the reasons I love to get together with you guys! Amanda gets one big family and I get to see my good friends. Speaking of that, is Heero coming?"
"No." Wufei answered sadly, none of the pilots had seen him in 10 years. After talking with Quatre when Amanda was born he disappeared and had only reappeared a few months back. After repeated attempts to get him to get together with them the boys were ready to give up. He never came.
"Well if it isn't Quatre?" Duo
exclaimed as he walked up toward the blond, former pilot. "It's about time you got
here! Haven't seen you in a while buddy, how's it been going?"
"Good, and you?"
"Good, good! Hey Duo, come on in here and say hello to your uncle Quatre." Duo yelled to his son. A 10-year-old cross between Duo and Hilde walked into the small foyer.
"Hi uncle Quatre, merry Christmas!"
"Hey Duo jr. how has school been?"
"Okay, I guess." Duo jr. looked up at his father, "Can I go now? We were playing video games in Mark and David's room. I just came down to get some Oreos."
"Oh really? Well did you ask uncle Wufei if it was okay to take food upstairs?" Duo asked.
"Oh yeah, it's fine." Wufei said. "The boys do it all the time. You'll be surprised what we find up there sometimes!" Duo laughed in agreement.
"Uh-oh! It looks like Meiran's hungry. I'll take her to her mother. That's Sally's department! Would you mind opening the door, Duo?"
"No problem-o!"
"Quatre you can bring the presents into the living room and set them under the tree." Quatre nodded and followed Wufei into the living room.
"You know I think it was really nice of you to name your daughter after your late wife." Quatre said as they walked.
"Well it was all Sally's idea."
"What was my idea?" Sally asked as she took little Meiran from Wufei's arms.
"Naming Meiran."
"Well if you had seen the pictures of the first Meiran you would have named her that too! She looks just like her, it's amazing!"
"Well she does have her mothers eyes!" Wufei said. Once again Duo's voice became audible throughout the living room.
"Hey guys, look who's here." Duo yelled. Quatre turned and found Trowa, Cathrine, her husband, and their two kids standing with Duo. Hilde came out of the kitchen in an apron and hugged Cathrine and then Trowa. She then shook hands with Cathrine's husband.
"What? Quatre's here too?" Hilde exclaimed when she saw the blond pilot. "I thought I told you I wanted to know when he got here." Hilde ran up to Quatre and hugged him. "How's Amanda?" she asked after she had hugged Quatre.
"She's doing good. She misses her mother but understands what happened. It was harder when she was younger. It was hard to explain it and make her understand." Hilde nodded as tears came to her eyes.
"You're doing a great job raising her." Hilde commended. "When she walked through the kitchen looking for Duo jr. and Mark and David every question I asked her was answered with a, yes ma'am or a no ma'am." Quatre smiled. He had always tried to teach her good manners. Hilde said hello to Trey, Cathrine's 11-year-old son and then she fussed over 1-year-old Katie before returning to the kitchen where she had been trying to keep Sally out of for the whole night. Quatre walked over to Trowa and shook his hand.
"It's good to see you!" Quatre said.
"You too!" Trowa agreed.
"So how's it been, living with you sister and all?"
"It's working out nicely. I get to spend a lot more time with Trey and Katie and that's been a plus. So how have you and Amanda been holding up?"
"It's really good."
"You know, all the way here Trey kept asking if uncle Quatre was going to be there but I really think he just wanted to see Amanda." Trowa confided when Trey had quickly found out where the other kids were and headed upstairs with a little present in his hand. "Ever since I brought him with me that one time to see you a couple of months ago for your wife's birthday he has been asking when he could go back and see you and Amanda. He brought her a present, I hope you don't mind?" Trowa said.
"No, it's fine. Looks like Amanda is going to have her first crush." Quatre said smiling. Hilde then called out that dinner was ready and everyone made his or her way to the table.
What Quatre didn't know was that he would only have 7 more years with his daughter and with the time closing in, Amanda wouldn't have as many opportunities to have crushes as other young girls would. Quatre would only have 6 more Christmas's with his daughter before she was taken away from him…forever.
Questions, comments, ideas for a new title can be sent to, Christian.m.hall@att.net or you can review and put it in there!
Till next time,
Bishonen Chaser
Ps. the more reviews I get the faster the next part will come out!
