The Home Front - Chapter 1

by Mako-chan

Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing. Duh.

I sat in the living room, curled up on the couch with a fuzzy pillow in my lap and the noise of the TV in the background, reading my letter from Father. I loved these snail-mail letters he sent me. I felt like I was no longer in our living room, but rather in the mess hall of a military ship, watching Karen and Tanya going at it tooth and nail. Father should have been a writer, but instead he chose a career in the Alliance. Just last year, my brother Joshua joined him in the military.

"Ami?" Mom's voice jerked me back into the present.

"Yeah?"

"Where are you?"

"I'm in the living room!"

Mom stuck her head through the door.

"Hi Mom. We got a letter."

"Great. Come help me with dinner first." I got up and followed her into the kitchen, chatting about the soap opera unfolding across the sea.

This was my life. It wasn't the best. I wished Father and Joshua were home. I wished we all lived together, in a house in suburbia. I wished my family made more money. I wished a lot of things, but they never came true. Mom and I still lived in a fair sized apartment a little too close to downtown Madrid for anyone's comfort. The other half of my family lived halfway across the world on a ship called the Hoshi. But it was my life so I loved it. We had a home, we paid our bills every month, and there was no war. Plus, I still had my letters. So I loved my life. And I loved pasta, which is what we had for dinner.

That night during dinner I went off on a philosophical trip. Well, as close to deep thinking as I got anyways. I tried to put my life in perspective, find that silver lining. It wasn't easy, but I finally decided on my Mom. Mom was my one true blessing in life. She was my best friend, my role model, and most importantly my mother. I could tell her anything. I did tell her everything. Almost.

My life could have continued just like that. Time could have stopped, and I would have been happy. I've always wondered why things had to change, why we can't stay four years old forever, why we have to get older, smarter, sadder. Some people can't wait to get older and embrace all the freedom and responsibilities that go with it. Me, I wanted to stay four forever. But I wasn't that lucky. My whole world changed twice. Once in third grade, and again on March 23, 195 A.C.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

By the time I got home that day I was exhausted. I was positive my teachers wanted to kill me. After all the work I put in at school, I was still over burdened with homework. I was halfway through my Spanish when Mom came home from work.

"Hi honey," she said, coming into my room

"Hi Mom." I finished my last sentence, and then erased the entire thing. "RRRRGGGGG! Why do we have to learn Spanish?!"

"Because we live in Spain, dear."

"But it's a dead language! Everyone speaks Common."

"English."

"But it's not true English anymore cause it's been changed so much. So it's Common."

Mom sighed. "Okay. Are you going to help me with dinner?"

"No. I have to do all this pointless Spanish."

"It's not pointless, it's good for you."

"Whatever."

Mom laughed as she stood up. "I don't feel like cooking." She walked away, thinking out loud. "I'll just get fast-food. But then...." Her voice trailed off as she wandered farther down the hall, still discussing the advantages of fast food with herself.

I laughed a little as I heard her go out the front door, then tore through my desk looking for a Spanish-Common dictionary.

I'd moved on to Geometry when Mom came home with dinner. Funny how something so major in my life I remember best by what homework I was doing. But that's what I was doing so that's what I remember.

"Ami!"

"Yeah Mom?"

"Come here!"

"Just a moment!"

"Now!"

"But mom - "

"NOW!"

I set aside my work and walked into the living room, very confused. Mom was never that demanding.

"What is it?" I asked as I passed through the door. Burger Bell take-out bags were thrown haphazardly on the kitchen table, but Mom sat on the couch, her attention fixed firmly on the T.V. "Mom?"

"Come. Sit."

I did as she asked and sat next to her on the couch.

...This brutal attack.

The reporter finished her bit and the scene on the T.V. changed. It was an aerial view, shot from a helicopter, of the mangled remains of a ship. The pile of rubble and twisted bits of hull was so disfigured I could hardly tell what it was.

"Oh my God...." I whispered. Was that Father's ship?! Was he dead?! What was going on?!

For those of you just joining us, we are watching all that remains of the Alliance ship, the Gobierno, that was attacked and destroyed early this morning, leaving no survivors. An investigation will begin shortly to discover what happened. As of yet, we do not know the cause of the destruction.

The reporter droned on and on with some patriotic crap about how the Alliance will find the terrorists and 'bring them to justice' and all that, but I didn't care. I could have cried with relief. I think I did cry. It wasn't the Hoshi, Father and Joshua was safe. For now. They were alive.

Mom continued to flip channels, looking for news about the attack, but I just sat numbly on the couch, trying to sort through my emotions. I was happy, my Father was still alive. Of course I was happy. But all those people on the Gobierno, 250 people, all of them dead. I felt oddly disconnected from that, as if they didn't matter. Yes it was really sad that all those people died, but I didn't know them. Everyone I knew was safe. But with this attack would come some sort of retaliation. Which would mean a war. Which would mean Father and Joshua would be in danger. So I was terrified. Happy, scared, and sad, all at once.

After an hour, maybe two, I went back to my room muttering something about finishing my homework. I never did finish it.

Late that night we got a phone call.

Bring! Bring!

The harsh noise jerked me out of slumber. Down the hall, I could hear Mom fumbling for the phone in the kitchen. Silently, I crept from my bed and into the hall.

"Hello? ...... Chuck!?!?!? Oh my god! Are you okay!" She paused, listening to Father talk. There were tears streaming down her face. She caught sight of me and beckoned me into the room. "Yeah, she's here." Mom smiled and handed me the phone. "Here."

"Dad?"

"Hey honey." I felt my thought tighten and tears form behind my eyes.

"Dad - " I swallowed, trying to get rid of the lump in my throat.

"Ami? You there?"

"Yeah."

"Hey, I'm sorry I couldn't call earlier."

"S'okay." Mom and I had experienced the same trouble trying to call him that evening. "Is Josh there?"

"Yeah, he's here. Somewhere. You wouldn't believe how crazy things are over here."

"Dad?"

"Yeah?"

"What's going to happen now?"

"I don't know." He paused. I could hear someone shouting in the background. "I just don't know......"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Hi Ami!" Jenni stopped me in the hall as I was trying to make it to Geometry. "What's up, girl? You look like crap."

"Jee thanks, Jen."

"So…….?"

"So what?"

"So what happened to you?"

"To me? Nothing. Just didn't get enough sleep, that's all."

"How come?"

"No reason."

"Don't suppose you were able to finish the Spanish homework, since you were up so late?"

"Uhhhh……"

"Ami!"

"Yeah, well…. Time for class. See you at lunch!"

I shouldered my way down the hall and away from Jenni. The last thing I needed now was a best friend who thought she was my mother. Most of my day was like that. I made excuses and avoided questions and tried to reassure people that nothing was wrong, all between a series of five minuet naps. I'm not sure why I avoided everybody. They all knew about the ship and about Father and Joshua. I just didn't want to talk about it, or to hear about it. I was sick of the subject.

By lunch I was exhausted. Getting only three hours of sleep will do that to you. Triste shoved her backpack farther down the table and I sat in the vacated spot.

"Well," she said through a mouthful of glop, "let's hear your story."

"Huh?"

"Come on. I know you heard about the terrorist attacks yesterday. Everyone with any connection to the Alliance can't stop talking. There's all sorts of rumors going around."

"Like what? How many attacks?"

"From what I've heard there were at least six attacks yesterday. They're saying it's a colony rebellion and they want to overthrow the Alliance and take over the Earth! Can you imagine having to listen to some stupid tyrant form the colonies?"

"That would never happen."

"It could."

She said it so confidently, I almost believed her. It was a thought I'd been trying to avoid, the thought that we might have to go to war. That would mean Father and Joshua would have to go to war. Nobody mentioned it last night. I didn't even want to think about it.

"Hi Jenni! Hi Rachel!"

My head snapped up and I looked at my friends. "Hey guys."

"Well Ami, will you make it through the day?"

"Maybe." I think Jen laughed, but I wasn't quite awake at that point.

"Did you hear?"

We all looked at Rachel.

"Well, I've heard about a gazillion wild stories. Which one are you talking about?"

"That the colonies made a super powerful mobile suit! Have you heard of Specials Lt. Zechs?"

"The Lightning Count?"

"Yeah, him. Well. My uncle has a friend in the military and he has a friend who's brother was on the plane with him yesterday!"

She paused. We waited. "Yeah…….. So?"

"So, he was there when Lt. Zechs got attacked!"

"Zechs got attacked?"

"What?"

"Yeah! They were flying somewhere and they found little fighter plane trying to come in from the colonies. It was a plane, and , like, it turned into a mobile suit in mid-air!"

"Yeah, right, Rachel. No MS can do that."

"But this one did! It took out two Aries with one shot! In the middle of a free fall! But Lt. Zechs sank it."

"Sank it?"

"Yeah, he shot it down and it landed in the ocean."

"No he didn't, cause it didn't happen."

"How do you know?"

"Cause that's impossible. Only Alliance has the technology to make MS."

"Maybe they sold it. Or the colonies stole it!"

"Or maybe Rachel's story is nothing but BS."

"It is not!"

"Is so!"

"Shut up you two."

"I still say it couldn't happen."

"It could and it did."

"Shut up."

My friends were still fighting when I drifted off to sleep.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Hello, Ami!" Mom was home already, in the kitchen and cleaning up something, when I got back from school.

"Hi Mom!" I threw my bag down on the couch and joined her at the sink. "What are you doing?"

"Oh, just cleaning up a little mess I made. By the way, we'll have brownies in a few minuets. Don't let me forget they're in the oven." She handed me a towel.

"No, I mean what are you doing home so early?" I took the towel and started drying dishes.

"Well, business was kinda slow and Sandy didn't come in today so I decided to close shop a little early today."

"How early?"

"Oh, about one or so."

"Oh."

"So how was your day at school, honey?"

"Fine."

"Get a lot of homework?"

"Yeah."

"Oh."

We didn't say much for the rest of the evening. It seemed that nothing interesting had happened since the other day, and neither of us were willing to discuss that. We ate a pot pie and watched some TV, but all the sitcoms were replaced by news stories, this time of one of the bases that was attacked. Just when the world needed sitcoms, and there were none on. Mom wandered off to do some paperwork for the shop. She co-owned a little flower shop in town. They mostly did weddings and big celebrations, but occasionally they'd get an order for a funeral. I wondered how many more funerals she'd be doing now.

I trudged back to my room, fully intending to do my homework. Once I was in the door and had my shoes off, I fell over on my bed and went to sleep.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

They next week or so was fairly uneventful. It was uneventful for me at least. According to the news, and to my friends, there was plenty of excitement elsewhere in the world. Not that I didn't care, it just didn't affect me too much. After all, I still went to school and, well, not much else. There wasn't much in my life to interrupt.

I still had a constant fear that the Alliance would go to war and Father and Joshua would have to fight, but I was still confidant that everything would be fine, that the Alliance would take care of things. Officially, there was no threat. The Alliance pretty much refused to admit that there were terrorists around. Of course, they also wouldn't explain to us why all their bases and ships were spontaneously being destroyed.

Letters from Father stopped coming. Instead we got phone calls and e-mails many times a day. Father, too, couldn't tell us much. He dropped hints though. He told us how the Hoshi was so busy cause of all the new stuff being brought on board and of how nice it was to be on the move again. Joshua was less subtle. We learned from him that the Hoshi was getting new MS and that they were getting ready to go to war. They also tries their best to reassure us that it wouldn't come to war, and I almost believed them. I almost thought that, just because they said so, everything would be okay.

I was watching the news when the announcement came. Well, I was watching cartoons when the news interrupted me. A small, pointy little man with a bald head and a gray beard came on the screen to make an announcement.

This is the colonies declaration of war against us. We were just discussing peace talks with the colonies today. Marshal Noventa was to head these plans and he's been assassinated. He was killed when the colonies invaded in mobile suits. I repeat, this was a brutal invasion by the colonies. We will not yield to the colonies. We must fight them till the bitter end.

"MOM!!"

She came pelting into the room. I pointed to the television with one shaking finger, not saying a word. Whether she simply divined the information from my gesture or heard it on the screen, I'll never know. I'd lost all connection with reality. I seemed to be floating over my own body, watching myself as I stared blankly into space.

I couldn't think. I couldn't! I couldn't think about what had just been announced, because if I thought about it, the I would follow those statements through to their logical conclusion. He hadn't said it, not really, and yet he had. It was something I couldn't let myself think of, because to think it would be to admit that it was true. And it couldn't be true.

"War."

End Ch. 1