When Angels Fall

When Angels Fall

The final part

Quatre opened the door on Christmas Eve and greeted Heero and his wife. Amanda stood close behind her father and watched the reunion.

"Oh I see there is a new addition!" Quatre said when he noticed the baby seat that Heero carried. Heero looked down at the child.

"This is my son, Odin."

"Odin? That's not a very common name, is it special?"

"I named him after a man from my childhood." Quatre smiled.

"It's nice to meet you, Mrs. Yuy." Quatre said as he reached out his hand towards Heero's wife.

"This is my wife, Kari." Heero said.

"Nice to meet you. I've heard a lot about you." Kari replied. "And who is this?" she asked when she noticed Amanda.

"This is my daughter, Amanda." Quatre put his arm around Amanda's shoulders.

"That's Amanda?" Heero said in disbelief. Quatre nodded. "It's been a long time."

"17 years." Quatre agreed. "Well I bet you all are tired. We have a room set up for you. I didn't know you had a son or I would have set up and extra room. I can do that now, if you want?"

"No, Odin is fine with us." Kari said. "We don't want to put you out or anything."

"No it's fine, really! I can have it set up in no time."

"Well you've already done so much for us. Letting us come a day early because my husband wanted too was more than enough. We'll be fine."

"Heero, are you sure." Quatre asked his friend. Heero nodded. "Well then I'll show you to your room."

Heero walked down the hallway. He thought he might be lost but he was pretty sure he knew where Amanda's room was. When he found it he slowly opened the door and peeked inside. Amanda was sleeping and the light from the moon shown through her window and illuminated her face. She looked like a little angel on a pillar of clouds. Heero was startled by a hand on his shoulder.

"She's beautiful, isn't she?" A voice whispered. Heero nodded. "I loved her just like you said too. It worked. Look how she turned out." Again Heero nodded. "Are you okay?" Heero turned to face Quatre.

"Yeah, I'm fine." He said closing Amanda's door.

"Did you get lost?"

"No. I just wanted to get a better look at how she turned out. I still remember her as a little girl, a 7 month old. It's hard to believe she's 17 now." Quatre nodded, a smile on his lips but tears in his eyes. "I need to get to sleep. It's going to be a big day tomorrow. I haven't seen the other guys in 17 years." Heero sighed. Quatre nodded and walked with Heero to his room. As they got closer the soft cry of a baby could be heard from inside, and then a sweet voice singing and the crying stopped. A sad smile played on Heero's lips as he listened to his wife sing. Quatre slowly backed into the shadows and disappeared, leaving Heero alone.

"Heero Yuy! Is that you?" Duo said as he ran towards the other pilot. Heero held out his hand but was surprised when Duo passed his hand and gave him a big hug.

"It's been a long time, Duo."

"Hey, come meet my family, well you already know Hilde but you haven't met Duo jr. yet."

"Duo jr.? So I see you named him after yourself." Duo smiled. Heero shook Duo's son's hand. "So how have you been?" Heero asked.

"Good. How about you?"

"Well it took me a little while to figure out what I really wanted but when I did figure it out I found it." Duo look confused but realization hit him when Heero put his arm around the dark haired woman beside him. "My wife, Kari."

"Oh, so you have a family! Any kids?"

"One, a son. He's sleeping right now."

"I'll go see if he's awake." Kari said as she left the room. A knock sounded on the partially open front door.

"Hello? Is anyone home?"

"Wufei, is that you?" Heero asked, opening the door so that he could see his fellow pilot.

"Oh Heero! So you're here already."

"Yeah. We came here yesterday." Heero said as Kari walked back into the room with Odin.

"And who is this?" Wufei asked, his family trailing in behind him.

"Meet my wife and son, Kari and Odin."

"Nice to meet you." Wufei said as he nodded. "This here is my family." Wufei said, pointing to Sally and his 5 children.

"Big family." Heero commented. Wufei smiled and started to introduce them.

"This is my oldest, Mark. He's 17. Then we have, David, 16, Bryant, 12, Meiran, 7, and Hannah, she's 5." Heero nodded.

"Well shall we eat?" Quatre said. "Trowa, Cathrine, and her family won't be coming until after dinner."

"Sounds good to me!" Duo said. "Let's eat!"

The group laughed at the joke Duo had just told. Meiran came up to her father and asked a question while Hannah played with her father's fork from her perch on his lap. Everyone was finished eating and were sharing old stories and memories while sitting around the table. Kari nursed Odin under a blanket to keep him quiet. The conversation stopped when a the sound of a doorbell was heard from the from foyer, "Trowa must be here." Quatre said, excusing himself. But before he could get out of his seat Amanda had jumped up and started for the door.

"Don't worry about it. I'll get it!" she said as she left the room. Quatre smiled, knowing that his daughter couldn't wait to see Trey, Trowa's nephew. Soon the dining room was filled with more people as Trowa, Cathrine, her husband and two kids walked in. Amanda was holding hands with Trey. Heero stood up and introduced his wife and son and Trowa introduced his sister's husband and his nephew and niece.

"This is my nephew Trey, he's 18 and then my little princess of a niece, Katie, she's 8."

"So you don't have a family of your own?" Heero asked.

"This is my family." Trowa said. Heero nodded in understanding.

"Well guys," Wufei said interrupting. "Meiran informs me that it is time to open the presents. What do you all say?" He was answered with a chorus of "yes" from everyone at the table. As he group made their way to the living room Trey leaned over and whispered to Amanda,

"I have a very special present for you. I want you to open it first, okay?" Amanda nodded and followed Trey into the living room with everyone else.

Everyone found a seat but Trey remained standing. "I would like to give my present first." Trey announced.

"The time is now." A voice said.

Trey motioned for Amanda to stand.

"I said now. Do it now." The voice commanded.

Amanda stood.

"You blew it last night, you must do it now."

Trey got down on one knee and realization hit Amanda.

"Now!"

It all happened so fast, first the gun and then the blood. It was all over Trey. But to Quatre it seemed as if everything was going in slow motion. At first Quatre thought that Trey was the one that had been hit but then he noticed his daughter, his sweet little angel, fall to the ground with a wound in her chest. Blood continued to spill as Quatre ran as fast as he could, but it seemed that it was not fast enough to get to his fallen angel. When Amanda had started to fall to the ground Trey had caught her and was now carefully laying her on the floor. He blinked back tears as he stared at Amanda. Quatre was now at the side of his daughter and he too tried to stop the tears but it was, as he found, impossible. She opened her eyes and gasped for breath and it seemed, that if every breath she took, pained her. She struggled to speak, blood staining her teeth. She looked at Trey,

"I would have said yes." She whispered, again shutting her eyes in pain. Trey was no longer able to hide the tears and turned to his mother for comfort. Cathrine hugged her son while Trowa put a hand on his shoulder. Amanda then turned to look at her father.

"Thank you, daddy…thank you for loving me. I love you…" Amanda again struggled for air and closed her eyes, only to open then once more. But when she did, Quatre was waiting.

"I love you too. I love you so much." Quatre sobbed.

Kari watched as Trey got down on one knee and was about to propose to Amanda just before he was interrupted. With wide eyes Kari watched as her husband quickly stood up and shot a gun at Amanda. He then turned and with one last look of apology left the room as fast as his legs would take him. Kari turned back to the dying girl and watched as Quatre talked with his daughter for the last time. Wufei was busy trying to comfort a hysterical Sally and his children, all of which were crying. Hilde had collapsed into Duo's arms and Duo jr. was trying to comfort his friends while at the same time trying not to look at the body of his dying friend. Kari left Odin in his seat and ran out of the room in the direction that her husband had taken. She stumbled through the house, barely able to see through the tears that ran down her cheeks but when she reached the front foyer she could see clearly. She hadn't had to look long for Heero; she found him dead, his blood staining the white marble tiling, a gunshot wound to his head and a gun in his hands. She noticed the earpiece lying on the ground beside him as she sank to her knees beside the body of her husband and cried out not caring who could hear.

"You idiot!" She sobbed. "I thought you had changed! You have a son, a son for crying out loud! You have a family! How could you have gone and done something like this to me? To your son? To your friend?" She pounded her fists on the floor splattering her self with her husband's blood. "I thought you loved us?" She could go on no longer, she folded over and cried. A minute later she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned to find Trowa. He said nothing as he took her in his arms and let her cry. Quatre's own tears could be heard all over the house when his angel was finally lost…forever.

Epilogue:

It turns out that an organization wanted to stop Quatre's work with the dignitaries of the colony's and the way they chose to do that was by killing his daughter. They hired Heero to do the job. Even though Heero had gotten out of that business a few years back he took the job. No one will ever know why. What would possess someone to give up their family and betray their friend, only to kill himself in the end? Well the plan worked, Quatre retired soon after the funeral.

Quatre told his daughter that one day she would have to die. One day she did. Quatre mourned like any other father would. His friends comforted him like any other friends would. To the best of everyone's ability they moved on. Trowa married Heero's widow, Kari and adopted his son, Odin, as his own. Quatre moved closer to the other 3 pilots that were left and put on a smiling face once more. He still grieved. He always would. Wouldn't you grieve endlessly too, if your angel had been taken away? So Quatre had found out the answer to the question, when angles fall? Twice his angels had been taken from him, first, Amanda's mother and then Amanda herself. Twice they had fallen. How many more angels must fall?

Fin

Authors note: well I finally finished a chapter fic! It's my fist chapter fic that I've actually finished! I had a lot of fun writing this. It was challenging, very challenging. It made me think and it was very moving to me. I am literally crying all over my keyboard so I just hope that you were moved and that you thought about what could happen to the angels in your life. Don't let any of your angels fall without first telling them how much they mean to you.

~Bishonen Chaser~

Email me, Christian.m.hall@att.net