What the Future Holds

Chapter 17

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Hi and thanks for the reviews. And I completely forgot about Jake until now. We'll just say he's been there but hasn't said anything because he's depressed.

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The harbor was an eerie place at night Duo decided. He and the others from the hotel were there; heading toward the boat renting place he and Heero had been to earlier. He and Heero were in the back of the group and Duo was getting slightly boarded.

 "Heero," he asked, "how did you and Amber come up with that wedding arrangement you two had?"

 "Why do you want to know?" Heero asked.

 "Curious," Duo said.

 "Well, a week after Amber and I met, I found her in some alley crying. I asked what was wrong and she told me everything," Heero said.

 "What does everything include?" Duo asked.

 "Radcliff, her parents, the war, her life story pretty much," Heero said. They had reached the building and Trowa was trying to open the door.

 "What wrong?" Heero asked after five minutes.

 "The door is lock and Trowa is trying to find a home address for the guy who owns the place," Quarte said.

 "And it's not working," Trowa said as he began to circle the building.

 "Did you see anything like that Duo?" Heero asked.

 "No," Duo said.

 "Okay, we'll just 'borrow' one of the boats," Heero said.

 "Isn't that stealing?" Leanna asked.

 "Yes but that never has stopped the Prefect Soldier," Lady said quietly. Heero walked along the dock looking at the boats. 

 "Why don't we use the one we brought?" Leanna asked.

 "It's too small for all of us," Quarte said.

 "Which why I want another one. Where's Trowa again?" Heero asked.

 "Looking for the address," Wufei said, annoyed.

 "Will someone go and get him?" Heero asked as he hopped onto a boat. He knelt and felt around and then got back out.

 "I'll go," Quarte said. He walked away.

 "Have you found something yet?" Lucriza asked after five minutes. Quarte and Trowa had yet to return.

 "No," Heero said, "Hey, I want someone opinion on something."

 "I'll give you mine," Duo said.

 "I don't trust your opinion," Heero said as he knelt near a boat.

 " Why not?" Duo asked.

 "Because your opinion almost got me killed once," Heero said.

 "Well, I never," Duo said, indignantly.

 "Whatever," Heero said, "Now will someone please get over here."

 "What is it?" Hilde asked as she walked over. She and Heero talked quietly for a few moments. Heero then got up and asked, "Are Quarte and Trowa back yet?"

 "No," Catherine said. Heero walked to the back of the building. He saw Trowa and Quarte talking quietly. Trowa looked close to yelling and so did Quarte.

 "What's wrong?" Heero asked. Both looked up in surprise.

 "What are you doing here, Heero?" Quarte asked.

 "Checking on you two. You've been gone for about five minutes now," Heero said.

 "It's nothing," Trowa said. He leaned against the building and crossed his arms.

 "Right, if nothing's wrong then why do you look ready to kill each other?" Heero asked.

 "Just drop it, Heero," Trowa said.

 "You know I won't," Heero said.

 "Heero, this is just between us. You don't need to get involved," Quarte said.

 "Quarte, just tell him," Trowa said.

 "Just two minutes ago you didn't want to tell him," Quarte said aghast.

 "That was two minutes ago," Trowa said.  Quarte rolled his eyes and asked, "Is he always like this?"

 "Yes," Heero said.

 "Who's always like what?" Jake asked as he came near.

 "Trowa's always confusing. What are you doing here?" Heero asked before Trowa could protest.

 "Millardo asked me to check on you guys to make sure you guys weren't dead or something," Jake said.

 "Oh. So what is, Trowa?" Heero asked. When Trowa didn't answer Quarte did.

 "He hates feeling helpless and he does right now because you seem to have everything under control and he feels his input isn't worth it," he said.

 "Is that what you told him?" Heero asked Trowa.

 "No," Trowa said.

 "Well, that's the impression I got," Quarte said.

 "Do you feel that way?" Heero asked.

 "Sort of," Trowa muttered, annoyed. He hated all this attention.

 "Well know this, I coming up with it as I go though I do have a general idea," Heero said.

 "Why is it, then, you always seemed to know what you're doing?" Trowa asked.

 "You of all people should know that," Heero said.

 "Do you think we'll be able to do this?" Jake asked.

 "We should. We have more men," Heero said in a off hand manner, " There was something else. Quarte, you looked ready to kill."

 "Trowa said I couldn't really understand and then I asked why he really care and some other things I shouldn't have said. Same with Trowa," Quarte said. He was going to ask why this mattered so much when he remembered the conversation he had with Trowa when he found out about Victoria.

 "And you two are the closes out of all of us. Jake, Janie's eight months pregnant right?" Heero asked as if realizing something.

 "Yeah," Jake said slowly but then realized what Heero was getting at and asked, "You don't think she's going to give birth on that boat, do you?"

 "It's possible," Heero said.

 "Oh Lord," Jake said and Heero immediately regretted mentioning it.

 "Jake, don't you dare panic on me," he said.

 "I'm not panicking, I'm losing control," Jake said.

 "Well, don't do that either," Heero said.

 "I'll do whatever I want to," Jake said.

 "Not if it'll get everyone killed," Heero said. Unknown to them, Heero and Jake were causing Quarte and Trowa to smile and almost laugh with their bickering.

 "Can we go back before they send someone else?" Jake asked.

 "Yes," Heero said, annoyed.

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 Relena woke up as William walked into the room. This was the first time she had seen him. Amber tensed next to her. Both women sat up. Hannah watched him as she would a fly she was about to kill.

 William glared at them and demanded, "Where are they?"

 "Where are who?" Hannah asked.

 "My sister and Lady Une," William said.

 "You have a sister?" Amber asked. William nodded, aggregately.

 "Look the only person we've seen since we've been here is Marie and now, you," Relena said. William looked skeptical but turned on his heel, walked out the door and slammed it shut. Hannah let out a sigh of relief, Amber relaxed, and Relena lay back down.

  "Well, now we know someone is trying to help," she said.

 "Yeah but William knows," Amber said.

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 "Daddy, what 'cya doin?" seven-year-old Reuben asked. It was the hour of twilight and the sun was just beinging to set. He had just come outside to see Heero laying crossways on an old porch swing. Heero was looking toward the sun.

 "I'm just watching the sun set," Heero said, turning his head to look at Reuben.

 "It's been along time since I've done that," He added quietly and turned back to the sun.

 "Can I watch too?" Reuben asked.

 "Of course," Heero said, looking surprised. Reuben walked over to Heero and crawled in to his lap and lay back against Heero. Heero slowly wrapped his arms around Reuben as if he was unsure of himself and watched Reuben. After five minutes Reuben looked up.

 "What is it, Daddy?" Reuben asked, with a confused look.

 "It's nothing," Heero said with a slight smile and turn his head back to watch the sunset. Reuben snuggled closer to Heero. He felt safe, like nothing could harm him. Like nothing would ever hurt him, physically, emotionally, or mentally.

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 Slowly, Reuben awoke from the dream. He looked around and saw that everyone had gone to sleep except Sammy.

 "Hey," he whispered softly.

 "Hey, what are you doin' up?" Sammy whispered back.

 "I had a really nice dream about Dad and me," Reuben said.

 "Tell me about it," Sammy said.

 "Do you remember when we were livin' in South Carolina?" he asked.

 "A little. I was only six then."

 "Do you remember an old porch swing we had that Mom was always sayin' was goin' to fall a part?"

 "Yes. She said that when ever all five of us sat in it," Sammy said smiling.

 "I remember. Well, anyways, Dad was watchin' the sunset and I can out and joined he. I had forgotten what it was like to be seven and held by your father," Reuben said, closing his eyes to savor the memory.

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 Heero and the others were in the jet-powered boats. It seemed awkward to Leanna to just drive the boats up to the main one and climb aboard. It was just two simple though she had said it would be the easy part of the whole ordeal.

 They slowly eased up to the boat, most of them feeling awkward at that moment, and climbed aboard. Leanna led them to the rooms were the prisoners were and Lady went to get Mariemaya.

 'My lord, this is just to easy' Leanna thought. She didn't know how hard it was going to get after those first few moments.

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 Lady walked quietly to Mariemaya's room. When she reached the door, she got an eerie feeling. Like something telling her not to open that door, that the door hid something evil, something that wanted to hurt her. For a moment, she felt afraid, felt a fear of that of a child. Then she told herself that she was being silly. But she still had to talk herself into opening the door. And then just before her hand reach the doorknob, it stopped in midair, as if it had a mind of it's own.

 'You are being absurd' she thought but still, her hand hesitated as if knowing what lay behind the door and didn't want to see it. Didn't want to know it. Didn't want to feel it, hear it, understand it. Didn't want anything to do with it.

 'Marie. Marie is behind that door. If something is wrong, shouldn't I go in and help her?' she finally thought and grasp the doorknob and pushed it open. The room was dark and she become overcome with childish fear.

 "Marie?" she whispered. She reached for the light switch and flipped it on. She then screamed.

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Oh, I'm so evil. Not really but who cares. And if anyone get mad me for the ending know that this chapter is long than most of my other ones. Please review.

Ja ne,

Pinkmoon