Lost Memories
Part Two: The Finding
By: Deadly_Leo
Author's note's: I DO NOT OWN GUNDAM WING!!! Ok, that out of the way I would like to take this space to say thank you for reading this far. If you have read this far without cursing my name, then may any and all higher powers bless you and thank you. I hope you have liked the story so far, and I hope that you keep reading. There is some cursing. Anyways arigatou minna- san!!!
~*~*~*~
"Where is Hotaru?" Lady asked as Gregor closed the front door behind them.
She had just returned from space. The pilot of the Gundam 05 had killed Treize in battle, and Une no longer wanted to live. She felt as though her heart had been pride from her chest and torn into a thousand pieces. All she wanted to do was to go up stairs, see her daughter, and then curl up and die.
"Where is my daughter?" Une ordered as she rounded on Maria, the housekeeper.
"Lucy has just taken her upstairs to put her to bed, ma'am. Ma'am we heard about Mr.Treize. We are all very sorry, is their anything that we can do?" the plump women inquired.
"No thank you Maria. I am sorry for barking at you that way, I just.I just.I just want to see my child," she said when she felt tears starting to form in her brown eyes.
"All right ma'am but if there is anything that we can do for you tonight just let any of us know," Maria said looking around at Gregor the butler, and the rest of the small staff.
"Thank you but right now I just want to be alone with my child," she said with a weak smile before she turned and slowly headed up the grand staircase then down the hall on the second floor through the East wing.
'That was close Une. You can cry later. Keep control now, cry when you are alone,' she thought as she stopped outside of her daughter's nursery, resting her hand on the golden doorknob.
She wasn't sure if she should enter. She wasn't sure if she was prepared to handle it. Their daughter had always looked remarkably like Treize. Une wasn't sure if she would be able to look at their child again without feeling the pain she now felt.
'No, this is ludicrous!!!! This is my child!!! I love her more then life it's self. She will always remind me of Treize. I will never be able to forget him that way,' she thought as she turned the knob and entered the room.
~*~*~*~ She didn't want to live without Treize. She was not sure that she could. Une had asked for release from her pain. She had tired to find redemption. She had asked Relena to take her life for her sins, for killing her father, but she would not release her.
Une had stayed in space long enough to oversee the end of the battle between Earth and space. She had witnessed the destruction of Libra, and the salvation of Earth by the pilot of the Gundam 01, and the death of Zechs.
She and her second in command, Colonel Armsfield, where now left with the task of disbanding the World Nation.
~*~*~*~ Une now looked down at her sleeping daughter lying in her crib illuminated by moonlight. She had grown so much. It wasn't surprising that she was sleeping the night through, she had always been very good about that sort of thing. She was a good child, extremely intelligent for someone so young.
"Well little one, it is just you and me now," Une said as she gently picked up Hotaru, "Daddy's gone, and he won't be coming back," she told the sleeping infant as she stifled a sob and walked across the room to sit in a rocking chair near the window.
"He loved you very, very much you know," she continued as she placed the infant's head on her shoulder and began to gently rock.
"We both loved you very much. We wanted the world for you. Your father tried so very hard to give you the world. Yes, he most certainly loved you. He used to sit up at night and just watch you as you slept. When you were first born your father was so nervous. He didn't sleep for almost a week because he was afraid that something might happen to you while you slept. I love you so much little one, you truly are the light of my life. You were the light of your father's life too. That's why we named you Hotaru," she said pausing to regain the control of her voice as it began to waver.
"Well, goodnight sweetheart," Lady finished slowly as she walked to the crib and placed the still sleeping child in it, readjusted her blanket and kissed her forehead as tears began to steadily stream down her cheeks.
Une left the room through a side door and entered her and Treize's bedroom. It was after twelve, which meant that it was Christmas Day, it would have been their first Christmas as a family.
Lady collapsed onto the bed that she had shared with Treize. They had spent many nights together in that bed. Their daughter had been conceived in it. She couldn't count the times that the two of them had laid there rapped in each other's arms listening to the quiet darkness of their bedroom and the distant roaring of the waves.
Now she lay their alone crying and sobbing because Treize was not there, because Treize would never be there again.
'Come on Une pull yourself together. Get up, shower, and get ready for bed. When you get up in the morning you can spend Christmas with Hotaru,' she thought as she wiped her cheeks with a shaky hand.
Une sat up in bed feeling her body shake. She was very weak from crying. With what little strength she had Lady pulled her body from the bed and removed her military jacket and the rest of her uniform as she crossed to the dresser Treize had once shared with her and removed a short silk nightgown and took the matching robe from the back of her vanity chair.
Lady entered the bathroom and walked to the shower and began to run the water. She then took a towel from the tiny bathroom closet and removed her underclothes before stepping into the warm enclosed corner and closing the door.
'Treize and I used to take showers together,' Une thought as she picked up the shower puff and the bar of soap.
"Oh God, I can't do this. I can't go on without him. I can't even shower without him. How am I going to sleep without him next to me? How am I going to go on?" Une cried in rage as the warm water continued to beat down on her as she dropped the puff and collapsed against the shower's glass, sinking slowly to the floor.
'Get a grip women!! Get through the shower and go to bed!!! You have your child to think of. Right now is not the time to shutdown. You have to arrange for a funeral, and help with the disbanding. You can cry all you want in the mean time, just no breakdowns yet. Be a sniveling ball of emotion in a week or so,' she thought as she stopped sobbing, picked herself and the puff up and continued with her shower.
Twenty minutes later Une emerged from the bathroom wearing her nightgown and robe and was mentally and physically exhausted. She was definitely ready for bed.
"Well Treize, goodnight wherever you are," Une whispered as she removed her robe, pulled down the covers, crawled into bed and turned out the lights before uttering a tiny whimper. ~*~*~*~ "Hello?" Colonel Armsfield said groggily when he picked up the receiver to the phone on his bedside table.
"Colonel, it's Lieutenant Jamison sir. I wanted." the young man said before he was cut off.
"What the hell are you doing calling me at two o'clock in the morning? It's Christmas for crying out loud!!!" he yelled looking at his alarm clock as he turned on his nightstand's lamp.
"Sir, have you heard about Commander Treize yet? He's dead sir," Jamison finished before receiving an exasperated sigh from the Colonel.
"Who the hell hasn't? It's all over the news along with the message of defeat that damn Colonel Une sent to White Fang after Treize was killed. Why?" the Colonel said as he sat up.
"Well sir, what are we going to do about the Une?" Jamison asked as he rotated in his desk chair and clicked the off button on his TV remote.
He had just arrived home from the deserted base and turned on the news channel to find that Commander Treize had been killed in battle and peace was now to follow.
"She will have to be eliminated," Armsfield said plainly.
"Who is going to do this, and when? It should be done soon. Should someone contact the rest of Chaos?" the young lieutenant said anxiously.
"No. I will take care of her in the morning. She should be alone, it is Christmas after all. Her staff should be at home with their family's leaving her and her child all alone. She trusts me so she will let me into the house. She is also a grieving widow so that makes her even more venerable. No, I shouldn't have any problems taking care of her and that brat of hers," Armsfield said vehemently.
"Yes sir. People will just think that it was a terrorist group or something. The house is secluded enough so no one will see you arrive or leave. I can provide an alibi. All you have to worry about is that one of the bleeding heart staff members will have stayed, but if they have that just adds to the effect that someone really wanted the Colonel dead," Jamison said as he looked out his window.
It was snowing.
"You are right. I'll do it first thing in the morning. Goodnight Jamison," Armsfield said as he hung up the phone and went back to sleep.
"The Colonel and family will be receiving a wonderful gift in the morning," Jamison said as he to hung up the phone and went off to prepare for bed.
~*~*~*~ "Mmmmmmm Treize," Une murmured as she rolled over only to realize that Treize was not there.
'It was all just a dream,' Une thought as she looked at the empty portion of the bed.
She had cried herself to sleep that night. When she finally fell asleep she had dreamt that Treize had come back to her. He had come back and spent one last night with her. It had all been so real, she was almost sure that it was.
'But it was all just a dream,' she thought as she slowly crawled out of bed. Une put on her robe and slippers before she silently crept into Hotaru's room.
Hotaru was still sleeping. She wouldn't be awake for another hour or so. That would give her time to make breakfast and place a few phone calls before the infant would demand to be fed.
"Merry Christmas little one," Une said as she exited the room and walked down the hallway towards the stairs.
It had turned out to be the worst Christmas of her life.
She knew that the staff had stayed extremely late last night to make sure that she would return safely but they had probably left soon after she went up to bed.
'Yep, they left. We are completely alone now,' she thought as she walked down the last few stairs and began her way through the enormous foyer.
The house was definitely empty.
'I wonder who that is. Who on Earth leaves their home on Christmas Day?' Une thought as she stopped in the middle of the foyer listening to another booming knock at the door.
'I wonder if I should open it?' she thought pushing her bangs up to rest her hand on her forehead.
She wasn't really in the mood for company.
'Might as well,' she thought as she walked to one of giant doors and pulled it open.
"I'm sorry to disturb you this early Colonel Une, but." Colonel Armsfield said as he was cut off by the look on Une's face.
'She looks terrible,' he thought noting the groggy and haggard look on Une's face.
'She probably hasn't showered yet. Well the least she could have done was to wash her face and brush her hair. It looks like she hasn't even done that,' he continued to think as Une ushered him inside.
'I can't believe that she would answer a door wearing that outfit. It's probably designer made. A little on the short side. It looks damn good on her though,' he thought with lust as he took in all of Une's smooth curves.
'It's definitely tasteful and a timeless classic but still too risqué to wear around a household, and especially around a man. Definitely something only to be worn in a bedroom. I don't think that she cares though. Damn whore,' he noted disapprovingly of Une's nightclothes.
Even though he was a relatively young man, only in his late twenties, he had extremely old-fashioned ideas and tastes.
"Like I said, I'm sorry to disturb you but I thought that I would come over see how you where doing. I also thought that we could discuss plans for disarmament and disbandment. I know that it is Christmas and with the great loss that you have experienced you probably don't want to speak to anyone, but the sooner that we get this underway the sooner we can get this out of both our lives," he said after closing the door and placing his hands in his coat pockets.
He had a small shiny sliver automatic in his right pocket, and his hand was already closing over it.
"No, no I don't mind talking. You are just in time for breakfast. Have you eaten? Hotaru won't be up for another hour so I have some time," she said softly, offering a weak smile.
She was trying her best to be hospitable even though she still didn't fell quit right. Her body still felt lethargic and shaky.
"No I haven't eaten," he said as Une turned her back to him and motioned for him to follow her through the house to the kitchen.
'Perfect. She has her back to me. She will never see what's coming,' Armsfield thought as he placed his finger on the trigger and began to squeeze.
"I'll fix us something to eat and then we can talk about the disarmament," she said as the phone in the foyer rang.
'Damn!' Armsfield thought when Une quickly turned around to look beyond him to the phone.
"I wonder who that could be? Excuse me a moment," Une said as she walked past him and across the foyer to the small stand with the phone on it as it began to ring again.
Colonel Armsfield's hand remand on the gun as he followed behind Une
"Hello?" Une said as she picked up the receiver.
"Is this Mrs. Khushrenada? Mrs. Treize Khushrenada?" a male voice inquired from the other end.
"Yes. Who is this? How did you get this number?" Une asked sternly in return.
"This is Dr. O'Neil. I am calling from Central Hospital on the L3 colony. Ma'am we have your husband," he said, speaking the last part slowly.
"What?! Is this some kind of sadistic joke? My husband is dead. Please, don't call here again," Une said angrily as she went to replace the receiver.
"Ma'am please, this is not a joke!" the doctor said quickly, with a tiny note of panic in his voice.
Une had been justified in being surprised when a complete stranger had called. The house number was unlisted. It had taken the doctor hours to hunt down the number. That is why he had not called the night before, when Treize had been first admitted.
"I have nothing to say to you," Une said speaking into the phone, as tears began to fall down her cheeks.
"Just listen then," the doctor said as he began to explain to Une.
'How can people be so cruel? How can they take someone's pain and twist it to hurt even more. It's stupid and I am just hurting myself more but something is telling me to listen,' Une thought as she begrudgingly brought the receiver to her ear.
"Colonel your husband was admitted last night with a few burns on his body. He was apparently found floating in a debris field by metal scavengers. They brought him here," he said pausing to look through a file.
'Oh my God, the space suit. Maybe he ejected while communications were down,' Une thought hurriedly as the doctor began to speak again.
"He has not yet regained consciousness. I'm not sure what you want to do. If and when he regains consciences he should be able to leave soon after," he finished waiting for her reply.
'It's possible. He could be alive. Oh my God,' Une thought.
"Colonel? Are you their?" the doctor asked.
"Yes I'm here. I can be there by tonight," Une said as she placed a hand on the table to brace herself.
It was too good to be true, but she had to at least check it out.
"All right. I'll see you then," he said as he hung up the phone and resumed his chart work.
"Colonel? Are you all right?" Colonel Armsfield asked gently, as Une replaced the receiver.
'She doesn't look well. Good, maybe she will die right here and save me a bullet,' he thought as he continued to look at Une.
"I'm.I'm.I'm. fine," Une began to stammer as her mind raced with ideas before sock took over.
"Treize...in hospital. Need to change and.and.someone to watch Hotaru. I need to leave for awhile," she murmured almost neurotically with a glazed look in her eyes.
"I hope that you can see your way out," Une called as she came out her trance and dashed across the foyer and up the stairs.
"I wonder what she was mumbling about. Sounded like she said she had to leave," Armsfield said as shrugged and opened one of the carved front doors and closed it behind him before trudging through the three feet of snow on the ground toward his car.
'Damn!! Why didn't I just pull the blasted trigger while I had the chance? Oh well, their will be more opportunities. Colonel you might have lived to see today,' he thought as he drove down the long driveway and through the front gates.
'But you will not live long beyond this,' he finished bitterly as he drove down the long winding country road, back toward civilization. To Be Continued.
Author's note's: I DO NOT OWN GUNDAM WING!!! Ok, that out of the way I would like to take this space to say thank you for reading this far. If you have read this far without cursing my name, then may any and all higher powers bless you and thank you. I hope you have liked the story so far, and I hope that you keep reading. There is some cursing. Anyways arigatou minna- san!!!
~*~*~*~
"Where is Hotaru?" Lady asked as Gregor closed the front door behind them.
She had just returned from space. The pilot of the Gundam 05 had killed Treize in battle, and Une no longer wanted to live. She felt as though her heart had been pride from her chest and torn into a thousand pieces. All she wanted to do was to go up stairs, see her daughter, and then curl up and die.
"Where is my daughter?" Une ordered as she rounded on Maria, the housekeeper.
"Lucy has just taken her upstairs to put her to bed, ma'am. Ma'am we heard about Mr.Treize. We are all very sorry, is their anything that we can do?" the plump women inquired.
"No thank you Maria. I am sorry for barking at you that way, I just.I just.I just want to see my child," she said when she felt tears starting to form in her brown eyes.
"All right ma'am but if there is anything that we can do for you tonight just let any of us know," Maria said looking around at Gregor the butler, and the rest of the small staff.
"Thank you but right now I just want to be alone with my child," she said with a weak smile before she turned and slowly headed up the grand staircase then down the hall on the second floor through the East wing.
'That was close Une. You can cry later. Keep control now, cry when you are alone,' she thought as she stopped outside of her daughter's nursery, resting her hand on the golden doorknob.
She wasn't sure if she should enter. She wasn't sure if she was prepared to handle it. Their daughter had always looked remarkably like Treize. Une wasn't sure if she would be able to look at their child again without feeling the pain she now felt.
'No, this is ludicrous!!!! This is my child!!! I love her more then life it's self. She will always remind me of Treize. I will never be able to forget him that way,' she thought as she turned the knob and entered the room.
~*~*~*~ She didn't want to live without Treize. She was not sure that she could. Une had asked for release from her pain. She had tired to find redemption. She had asked Relena to take her life for her sins, for killing her father, but she would not release her.
Une had stayed in space long enough to oversee the end of the battle between Earth and space. She had witnessed the destruction of Libra, and the salvation of Earth by the pilot of the Gundam 01, and the death of Zechs.
She and her second in command, Colonel Armsfield, where now left with the task of disbanding the World Nation.
~*~*~*~ Une now looked down at her sleeping daughter lying in her crib illuminated by moonlight. She had grown so much. It wasn't surprising that she was sleeping the night through, she had always been very good about that sort of thing. She was a good child, extremely intelligent for someone so young.
"Well little one, it is just you and me now," Une said as she gently picked up Hotaru, "Daddy's gone, and he won't be coming back," she told the sleeping infant as she stifled a sob and walked across the room to sit in a rocking chair near the window.
"He loved you very, very much you know," she continued as she placed the infant's head on her shoulder and began to gently rock.
"We both loved you very much. We wanted the world for you. Your father tried so very hard to give you the world. Yes, he most certainly loved you. He used to sit up at night and just watch you as you slept. When you were first born your father was so nervous. He didn't sleep for almost a week because he was afraid that something might happen to you while you slept. I love you so much little one, you truly are the light of my life. You were the light of your father's life too. That's why we named you Hotaru," she said pausing to regain the control of her voice as it began to waver.
"Well, goodnight sweetheart," Lady finished slowly as she walked to the crib and placed the still sleeping child in it, readjusted her blanket and kissed her forehead as tears began to steadily stream down her cheeks.
Une left the room through a side door and entered her and Treize's bedroom. It was after twelve, which meant that it was Christmas Day, it would have been their first Christmas as a family.
Lady collapsed onto the bed that she had shared with Treize. They had spent many nights together in that bed. Their daughter had been conceived in it. She couldn't count the times that the two of them had laid there rapped in each other's arms listening to the quiet darkness of their bedroom and the distant roaring of the waves.
Now she lay their alone crying and sobbing because Treize was not there, because Treize would never be there again.
'Come on Une pull yourself together. Get up, shower, and get ready for bed. When you get up in the morning you can spend Christmas with Hotaru,' she thought as she wiped her cheeks with a shaky hand.
Une sat up in bed feeling her body shake. She was very weak from crying. With what little strength she had Lady pulled her body from the bed and removed her military jacket and the rest of her uniform as she crossed to the dresser Treize had once shared with her and removed a short silk nightgown and took the matching robe from the back of her vanity chair.
Lady entered the bathroom and walked to the shower and began to run the water. She then took a towel from the tiny bathroom closet and removed her underclothes before stepping into the warm enclosed corner and closing the door.
'Treize and I used to take showers together,' Une thought as she picked up the shower puff and the bar of soap.
"Oh God, I can't do this. I can't go on without him. I can't even shower without him. How am I going to sleep without him next to me? How am I going to go on?" Une cried in rage as the warm water continued to beat down on her as she dropped the puff and collapsed against the shower's glass, sinking slowly to the floor.
'Get a grip women!! Get through the shower and go to bed!!! You have your child to think of. Right now is not the time to shutdown. You have to arrange for a funeral, and help with the disbanding. You can cry all you want in the mean time, just no breakdowns yet. Be a sniveling ball of emotion in a week or so,' she thought as she stopped sobbing, picked herself and the puff up and continued with her shower.
Twenty minutes later Une emerged from the bathroom wearing her nightgown and robe and was mentally and physically exhausted. She was definitely ready for bed.
"Well Treize, goodnight wherever you are," Une whispered as she removed her robe, pulled down the covers, crawled into bed and turned out the lights before uttering a tiny whimper. ~*~*~*~ "Hello?" Colonel Armsfield said groggily when he picked up the receiver to the phone on his bedside table.
"Colonel, it's Lieutenant Jamison sir. I wanted." the young man said before he was cut off.
"What the hell are you doing calling me at two o'clock in the morning? It's Christmas for crying out loud!!!" he yelled looking at his alarm clock as he turned on his nightstand's lamp.
"Sir, have you heard about Commander Treize yet? He's dead sir," Jamison finished before receiving an exasperated sigh from the Colonel.
"Who the hell hasn't? It's all over the news along with the message of defeat that damn Colonel Une sent to White Fang after Treize was killed. Why?" the Colonel said as he sat up.
"Well sir, what are we going to do about the Une?" Jamison asked as he rotated in his desk chair and clicked the off button on his TV remote.
He had just arrived home from the deserted base and turned on the news channel to find that Commander Treize had been killed in battle and peace was now to follow.
"She will have to be eliminated," Armsfield said plainly.
"Who is going to do this, and when? It should be done soon. Should someone contact the rest of Chaos?" the young lieutenant said anxiously.
"No. I will take care of her in the morning. She should be alone, it is Christmas after all. Her staff should be at home with their family's leaving her and her child all alone. She trusts me so she will let me into the house. She is also a grieving widow so that makes her even more venerable. No, I shouldn't have any problems taking care of her and that brat of hers," Armsfield said vehemently.
"Yes sir. People will just think that it was a terrorist group or something. The house is secluded enough so no one will see you arrive or leave. I can provide an alibi. All you have to worry about is that one of the bleeding heart staff members will have stayed, but if they have that just adds to the effect that someone really wanted the Colonel dead," Jamison said as he looked out his window.
It was snowing.
"You are right. I'll do it first thing in the morning. Goodnight Jamison," Armsfield said as he hung up the phone and went back to sleep.
"The Colonel and family will be receiving a wonderful gift in the morning," Jamison said as he to hung up the phone and went off to prepare for bed.
~*~*~*~ "Mmmmmmm Treize," Une murmured as she rolled over only to realize that Treize was not there.
'It was all just a dream,' Une thought as she looked at the empty portion of the bed.
She had cried herself to sleep that night. When she finally fell asleep she had dreamt that Treize had come back to her. He had come back and spent one last night with her. It had all been so real, she was almost sure that it was.
'But it was all just a dream,' she thought as she slowly crawled out of bed. Une put on her robe and slippers before she silently crept into Hotaru's room.
Hotaru was still sleeping. She wouldn't be awake for another hour or so. That would give her time to make breakfast and place a few phone calls before the infant would demand to be fed.
"Merry Christmas little one," Une said as she exited the room and walked down the hallway towards the stairs.
It had turned out to be the worst Christmas of her life.
She knew that the staff had stayed extremely late last night to make sure that she would return safely but they had probably left soon after she went up to bed.
'Yep, they left. We are completely alone now,' she thought as she walked down the last few stairs and began her way through the enormous foyer.
The house was definitely empty.
'I wonder who that is. Who on Earth leaves their home on Christmas Day?' Une thought as she stopped in the middle of the foyer listening to another booming knock at the door.
'I wonder if I should open it?' she thought pushing her bangs up to rest her hand on her forehead.
She wasn't really in the mood for company.
'Might as well,' she thought as she walked to one of giant doors and pulled it open.
"I'm sorry to disturb you this early Colonel Une, but." Colonel Armsfield said as he was cut off by the look on Une's face.
'She looks terrible,' he thought noting the groggy and haggard look on Une's face.
'She probably hasn't showered yet. Well the least she could have done was to wash her face and brush her hair. It looks like she hasn't even done that,' he continued to think as Une ushered him inside.
'I can't believe that she would answer a door wearing that outfit. It's probably designer made. A little on the short side. It looks damn good on her though,' he thought with lust as he took in all of Une's smooth curves.
'It's definitely tasteful and a timeless classic but still too risqué to wear around a household, and especially around a man. Definitely something only to be worn in a bedroom. I don't think that she cares though. Damn whore,' he noted disapprovingly of Une's nightclothes.
Even though he was a relatively young man, only in his late twenties, he had extremely old-fashioned ideas and tastes.
"Like I said, I'm sorry to disturb you but I thought that I would come over see how you where doing. I also thought that we could discuss plans for disarmament and disbandment. I know that it is Christmas and with the great loss that you have experienced you probably don't want to speak to anyone, but the sooner that we get this underway the sooner we can get this out of both our lives," he said after closing the door and placing his hands in his coat pockets.
He had a small shiny sliver automatic in his right pocket, and his hand was already closing over it.
"No, no I don't mind talking. You are just in time for breakfast. Have you eaten? Hotaru won't be up for another hour so I have some time," she said softly, offering a weak smile.
She was trying her best to be hospitable even though she still didn't fell quit right. Her body still felt lethargic and shaky.
"No I haven't eaten," he said as Une turned her back to him and motioned for him to follow her through the house to the kitchen.
'Perfect. She has her back to me. She will never see what's coming,' Armsfield thought as he placed his finger on the trigger and began to squeeze.
"I'll fix us something to eat and then we can talk about the disarmament," she said as the phone in the foyer rang.
'Damn!' Armsfield thought when Une quickly turned around to look beyond him to the phone.
"I wonder who that could be? Excuse me a moment," Une said as she walked past him and across the foyer to the small stand with the phone on it as it began to ring again.
Colonel Armsfield's hand remand on the gun as he followed behind Une
"Hello?" Une said as she picked up the receiver.
"Is this Mrs. Khushrenada? Mrs. Treize Khushrenada?" a male voice inquired from the other end.
"Yes. Who is this? How did you get this number?" Une asked sternly in return.
"This is Dr. O'Neil. I am calling from Central Hospital on the L3 colony. Ma'am we have your husband," he said, speaking the last part slowly.
"What?! Is this some kind of sadistic joke? My husband is dead. Please, don't call here again," Une said angrily as she went to replace the receiver.
"Ma'am please, this is not a joke!" the doctor said quickly, with a tiny note of panic in his voice.
Une had been justified in being surprised when a complete stranger had called. The house number was unlisted. It had taken the doctor hours to hunt down the number. That is why he had not called the night before, when Treize had been first admitted.
"I have nothing to say to you," Une said speaking into the phone, as tears began to fall down her cheeks.
"Just listen then," the doctor said as he began to explain to Une.
'How can people be so cruel? How can they take someone's pain and twist it to hurt even more. It's stupid and I am just hurting myself more but something is telling me to listen,' Une thought as she begrudgingly brought the receiver to her ear.
"Colonel your husband was admitted last night with a few burns on his body. He was apparently found floating in a debris field by metal scavengers. They brought him here," he said pausing to look through a file.
'Oh my God, the space suit. Maybe he ejected while communications were down,' Une thought hurriedly as the doctor began to speak again.
"He has not yet regained consciousness. I'm not sure what you want to do. If and when he regains consciences he should be able to leave soon after," he finished waiting for her reply.
'It's possible. He could be alive. Oh my God,' Une thought.
"Colonel? Are you their?" the doctor asked.
"Yes I'm here. I can be there by tonight," Une said as she placed a hand on the table to brace herself.
It was too good to be true, but she had to at least check it out.
"All right. I'll see you then," he said as he hung up the phone and resumed his chart work.
"Colonel? Are you all right?" Colonel Armsfield asked gently, as Une replaced the receiver.
'She doesn't look well. Good, maybe she will die right here and save me a bullet,' he thought as he continued to look at Une.
"I'm.I'm.I'm. fine," Une began to stammer as her mind raced with ideas before sock took over.
"Treize...in hospital. Need to change and.and.someone to watch Hotaru. I need to leave for awhile," she murmured almost neurotically with a glazed look in her eyes.
"I hope that you can see your way out," Une called as she came out her trance and dashed across the foyer and up the stairs.
"I wonder what she was mumbling about. Sounded like she said she had to leave," Armsfield said as shrugged and opened one of the carved front doors and closed it behind him before trudging through the three feet of snow on the ground toward his car.
'Damn!! Why didn't I just pull the blasted trigger while I had the chance? Oh well, their will be more opportunities. Colonel you might have lived to see today,' he thought as he drove down the long driveway and through the front gates.
'But you will not live long beyond this,' he finished bitterly as he drove down the long winding country road, back toward civilization. To Be Continued.
