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Shattered Memory
by Miyoko and Rin-chan
Chapter Three
Three years later...
Butch Cassidy was a thief. He traveled around Europe
stealing whenever he felt like it. He had been in an accident a few years
back and didn't remember anything before that part. A man around his age
had found him wandering around with only the clothes on his back and had
taken him in. He turned out to be a thief and taught Butch the tricks of
the trade.
Butch was currently traveling across Germany and stopped in a small town called Speicher. He was in the middle of a shopping center looking for some pizza when it happened. He glanced up from his cart and saw her. A weird feeling he couldn't describe filled him leaving him feel warm and happy.
She was beautiful. She had shoulder-length dark brown hair and gorgeous prussian blue eyes. Her face seemed familiar, but he couldn't place where he had seen her before. She turned down an aisle, and Butch followed her discreetly. Why was she making him feel this way? He had to know. He followed her around while she did all her shopping, watched her pay, then followed her to the parking lot.
He hot-wired a car and followed her to her small
house. He watched her go inside committing the address to memory so he
could come back and see if he could find out more about this strange woman.
Even after she was out of sight Butch couldn't keep her out of his head.
He drove back to his hotel still thinking about her.
Three years. It had been three years since JAG Airlines Flight 326 had crashed leaving no survivors. Three years since Heero Maxwell had last seen her husband. Three years spent working full time to support her daughter and herself. And three years spent with a gaping heart which no one could ever fill.
The only reason she was even here to this day was her daughter, Annie. Annie was her life, her pride and joy. She kept her going especially when things got hard as they were now. Annie reminded Heero so much of Duo that it sometimes hurt. She looked exactly like him minus the curly blonde hair and hazel eyes. Her personality was just like his. She always got into mischief and absolutely adored Fluffy the piranha.
Heero walked into her two-year-old's room only to find her crawling out of her crib. "Annie what do you think you're doing?!" she exclaimed rushing over to the girl. Annie dropped to the floor and looked up at her with an innocent look on her face.
"I wan see you, Mommy," Annie said flashing a smile.
"Oh honey," Heero said before picking her up. It was obvious Annie Maxwell had her mother tied tightly around her little finger. "Are you hungry? What do you want for breakfast?"
"Cheer-ohs! Cheer-ohs!" she exclaimed clapping her hands as her mother placed her in her booster chair.
"Cheerios it is," she said before pulling down a plastic bowel from a cabinet and pulling the Cheerios out of another. She poured some in the bowel and added a little milk before placing it in front of Annie. She filled a sippy cup with milk and gave it to her. Annie started eating as Heero poured herself a bowl.
When the two were finished Heero cleaned Annie up and dressed her before grabbing her purse and Annie's diaper bag. She fastened Annie in her car seat before proceeding to drive to Willow's and Tara's house who would watch her while Heero went to work.
When Heero arrived she found a bouquet of roses on
her desk with a note tucked in. She pulled it out and read:
My Dearest Heero,
I cannot standeth one more dayeth without you by my sideth. You areth more
beautifuleth than a
birdeth.Your eyes sparkleth like kitty-litter crystals.
Loveth, Your Shiloh (not the dog)
Heero cringed. Shiloh Overzealot had been trying to get a date with her for several years now. All he had succeeded in doing was annoying Heero until she almost went insane.
"Maybe you should just go on one date, then tell him you don't think you connect." Heero looked up at the voice to see Ginny Weasley, one of her friends. "You can tell him that you'll go out once and if it doesn't work he has to leave you alone. Voila! You'll be finally rid of him."
"You know, Gin, that's a bloody brilliant idea. I think I'll call him and set it up for tonight and get it over with." Heero said.
"Good idea," Ginny said before leaving Heero's office. Heero proceeded to call Shiloh and set it up before calling Willow and Tara and asking if they could watch Annie a bit longer. Hillary, another one of her friends, came in just as she placed the phone back on its base.
"I hear Shiloh has left something else for you," Hillary said.
"Yes, these flowers and a note where he says 'my eyes sparkleth like kitty-litter crystals.' " Hillary laughed.
"What is up with 'eth' after every other word and the horrible compliments?!"
"I have no idea," Heero said. Hillary just shook
her head before leaving.
Butch wanted to steal something. That was all he could think about from the moment he woke up in the Cinq Hotel whose motto was 'Don't let the bed bugs bite!' He wandered around town looking for some easy targets.
Around six that evening he had broken into a total of eight houses. He had dumped the countless things he had acquired that day back in his hotel room before deciding to take a walk. As he walked he happened to pass the house in which the woman he had followed the previous day lived in. He wanted to find out more about her so he decided to break into one more house. He checked for signs of the owner being home. When he found none he picked the lock on the door and entered.
The first thing Butch noticed was how neat it was. The second was a huge tank holding what looked like a piranha. He thought it slightly odd having a piranha for a household pet. But he admitted it to himself that it was something he might do. He wondered into the spotless kitchen with a picture cluttered fridge then down the hall towards the bedrooms. He opened the door to the first one and looked in. It was a nursery decorated with baby zebras, giraffes, and bears. Butch couldn't help the smile imagining the child whose room it was.
The next room was obviously the woman's. It was colored with all shades of blue. He poked around a little bit and noticed a picture of a little girl who he assumed was her daughter on the nightstand. Finding nothing more of interest he left and entered the family room.
Butch was immediately drawn to the mantle where several pictures stood. Most of them were of the same little girl at different stages of her life. Only two weren't of her, rather of a wedding party and a couple. He skipped over the wedding one for the moment and concentrated on the one of the couple. Shock filled. The woman in the picture was the owner of the house. But the man was...
"Me..." Butch let the word pass his lips. The man
in the picture was indeed Butch years younger. He stared at it a question
going through his mind. Why was he in the picture?
Heero's date had gone awful just as she had expected it would. It didn't leave any hope for a relationship as it had been horrible from the beginning. She met him at the accustomed time at a fast food restaurant of all places. That in and of itself was bad but when she got to their table she was handed a small pot containing a cactus. She just muttered a thank you and sat down.
The next thing he did was spurt off what he thought were compliments. Heero did not feel very good after hearing 'Your breath smellseth like thateth of unspoiled milk' and 'Your fingers areth as longeth as pencils.' They got their food for Heero a salad and Shiloh the whole left half of the menu and sat down to eat it. Shiloh acted like a pig and stuffed his face, only stopping to take a breath here and there. Heero felt like she was going to throw up.
The date finally ended with Heero saying they didn't really connect, and that he should stop pursuing her and pursue someone else. Although Heero felt sorry for this 'someone else.' Heero drove to Willow's and Tara's and picked up a very happy Annie. She arrived home ten minutes later and carried a sleeping Annie towards the house.
She opened the door to find a man standing in her house. That wasn't what had surprised her the most; it was that the man had an unusually long braid down his back. Butch hearing the door opened turned around. One word left Heero's lips.
"Duo..."
AN: So... so?! What's going to happen? And is Butch really Duo? Only
we know the truth, and you are just gonna have to wait to find out. Anyway
I think the best line in this is 'Your eyes sparkleth like kitty-litter
crystals.' HAHAHA. Anyway... Hope everyone enjoyed!
Cheerio!