Notes: 'hoo boy, 2nd chapter.  BIG THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO REVIEWED!  It's not as long as the first one, but... well... ^_^  Read it, please?  Happy thanksgiving!  Hope everyone's having a good one so far, and for those whose week didn't start well, I sympathize.  So I'm wallowing in self-misery by watching the Faith Hill and Elvis Presley specials they have on NBC (GREAT SONGS!).

Warning:  *ahem* Bad words...  Made some minor corrections to the first chapter...  Tried editing this chapter, but as usual, I'm not satisfied.  My Spanish editor is not online!  ::Cries::  Where are you?!  And a special shoutout to my dear Boss...  it's another torture day, you know?  ^_^  Okay, I'm done whining.  Reviews, please?

Present Edition: March 13 Friday, 6:57 pm

            When I opened my eyes from my short nap, it was drizzling outside.  Waterdrops made tinkling sounds against the window and it made me want to go back to sleep.  But an added presence in the room prevented me from doing so.  I blinked several times before I was able to focus my eyes on the person.  "What are you doing here?"

            Heero's dark blue eyes were unreadable against the orange glow the lamp cast in the room.  "Lucia insisted that I get you before she serves dinner." He smirked.  "She seems to approve of you."

            "Yeah, well I didn't exactly offer myself on a silver platter to be scrutinized," I said, my good old cynicism kicking in once more.  "I really don't feel like eating right now."

            "You're not going to join me to dinner, wifey?"

            I bristled.  Damn the man, he knew which buttons to push!  "I didn't know you needed a damn babysitter," I replied.  "If you want one, why don't you call one of your past sitters?  I've never been really good with bachelors that were taken off the market."

            It was when he stood up that I was able to appreciate his... err...  manliness.  His collared shirt was unbuttoned all the way down, showing a white tank top that seemed so easy to rip.  I felt beads of sweat forming at the base of my neck.  Boy, did he look ready to be eaten...

            Before I knew it, he grabbed my chin roughly and forced my head to tilt up.  "If I weren't married, I would have."  His fingers started caressing the side of my face, trying to elicit a response from me.  I, however, was not done listening to his little speech.  "I don't take my vows lightly, Relena.  And I expect you to be the good little wife that you said you were going to be."

            Did it sound like he was almost growling?  It sounded kind of sexy...

            Aaahh!!!  Rewind!  Re-record over that traitorous thought!  I yanked my head out of his grip violently.  "Don't worry, I won't," I answered coldly.  "I've always been the one-man type of girl.  From what I read about you, however, it's difficult for me to place what you're like right now and what you were before into one body."  It was the truth, suffice to say.  I did my research about Heero and BOY did the tabloids have plenty to dish out.  Besides inheriting the company that owned hundreds of radio stations nationwide, Heero was also a persistent and systematic playboy.

            Thank you, National Enquirer, People...  You reading materials were just what I was looking for.

            "They know next to nothing about me," he stated, a glitter seeming to come into his eyes.  "You have the privilege of seeing what they won't be able to behind closed doors."

            "Which closed doors?  Your bedroom doors?"  I swear I tried to sound sarcastic at that remark...

            I saw his smirk again.  "If that's what you want."  Irritated, I threw the cushion behind me and he caught it perfectly, setting it down beside him.  "Seriously speaking, Lucia wants you down at the dinner table."  I watched as Heero got up and opened the door.  "By the way, the bed is for sleeping.  There's more than enough room for you."

            All I could do was sigh hopelessly, because getting along with that man will only happen when pigs have kittens.

7:09 pm

            I really had no appetite for anything, even though Lucia made excellent food from what I smelled.  I settled for a boring salad with dressing.  It was when I said that out loud I learned that Lucia was a very sensitive person.  "What's wrong, seňorita?  You no like Latino food, yes?  You like something else to eat?"

            "No, it's not that," I replied, trying my hardest to keep a straight face.  She didn't seem to buy it and my conscience started to eat me up alive.  Slowly.  "I'm vegetarian," I lied.

            Without hesitation, Lucia hurried into the kitchen.  I heard her talking, but there was too much Spanish in between that I decided to give up translating.  From the other end of the table, I heard Heero clear his throat.  I ignored him and he repeatedly cleared his throat until I turned around to finally look at him.  "What?"

            "You're vegetarian," he said.  That irritating smirk was back on his face.  I nodded and he clucked his tongue.  "You're a bad liar."

            I sat up straighter.  The nerve of that man!  Well, even though it was a lie, his remark was uncalled for.  "You're judging me?  You don't even know me."

            "You're right.  I don't," he replied, wiping his mouth.  "But father does."

            I stared at Heero, shocked.  "Excuse you?"

            "You didn't think that correspondence between your 'daddy' and my father stopped after the war, did you?" he asked.

            "No," I replied softly.  "I didn't think there would be any reason for me to wonder.  Daddy told me everything about his experiences in the war."

            It was a mistake on my part to look up because I met his eyes.  They were intense, focused, and... And...

            Very beautiful.  Oh boy!  Did that come from me?!  I hope I didn't say that out loud.

            "I guess you and your daddy weren't as close as you thought you were."

            His words cut through me, inside and out.  What on earth gave him the right to say that?!  I sat on the chair, immobilized by the comment.  I could feel myself going pale, horrified that on some level, Heero spoke the truth.  Maybe it was too personal for daddy to share certain details with me.

            But as I thought about it, Heero knew my daddy on a whole different level.  A level that I've been kept in the dark about.  I never thought that one day, I would come to doubt my father.

            How strange that sounded, addressing to daddy as "my father."  It sounded so... formal.

            I just picked at the salad that Lucia served, eating a crouton every now and then.  I was still engrossed at the new information Heero gave me and I couldn't help but feel bitter, pained.  It just hurt so much.  I'm tired of hurting.  Before I knew it, a headache came over me and I pushed the chair back.

            "Where are you going?"  Heero asked.

            "Where else can I go?" I asked him back.  "There's nowhere else for me to go.  You just asked me to leave my house, quit my job...  What do you want me to do now?  Report how many footsteps I made in this house everyday?  How much oxygen I inhaled?"

            "Let me finish my dinner, Relena.  I'll come up with you."

            I turned around and made my way towards the stairs.  "Don't," I said, raising my voice so he can hear me.  "Leave me alone.  I need to be isolated."

            Lo and behold, Heero entered the room not long after I came in.  By then I was laying down on the bed with my arm draped over my eyes.  I didn't even bother looking at him.  "Is it me or do you need a hearing aid?"

            I heard scuffling noises and a flick of a light switch.  Then I felt his weight on the bed; only then did I take off my arm from my eyes.  "I think you need this," he said, handing a bottle of aspirin towards me.  "And yes, it's just you.  I don't need a hearing aid."

            "No thanks," I muttered.  I turned away from him and I felt him come closer.  "For your information, I don't like taking medicine.  Only when I really need to.  Medication messes up your liver; everyone knows that."

            "So why, then, does the rest of America insist on taking aspirin and penicillin when they don't feel good?"

            "Don't make me answer that, please.  I can go on and on and on about why...  Maybe it's just the hype.  People want to live longer to experience what the future has to offer.  But we probably deserve this type of punishment from Nature.  We ruined everything else for other species for the sake of our own survival."

            The chuckle he made sent a shiver up my spine.  "You're a very interesting person, Relena.  More interesting than how your daddy portrayed you in his letters to father."  Heero expected a reaction and he got it.  I turned around and glowered at him.  "What?  Do you want to see the letters?"
            "No," I replied, surprised.  Come to think of it, I'm very interested in the contents of those letters.  But I just didn't want to see them.  Not just yet.  "If he managed to hide things from his own daughter, what makes you think that you can trust what daddy put in those sheets of paper?"

            We stared at each other, willing the other to back down.  I'm mindful of the fact that we were both prideful people, yet I felt that he owed me at least something for making me feel awful tonight.  For causing the headache that now moved from my temple to the bridge of my nose.  Childish, I know, but...

            But Heero *did* back down first, getting up so abruptly that I bounced on the bed lightly.  "Stubborn woman," he said before he opened the door.  "Just rest."

            Even when he left, traces of his presence were still evident in the room.  I looked down on the bed and saw the slight dent that marked his prior position.  The aspirin bottle that he set on the nightstand was also a reminder.  Everything just seemed to scream "Heero was here!" and mocked me.

            Needless to say, my first night didn't produce nice dreams, as opposed to the common stereotype that living in a nice new home will.  It just brought what I didn't want.

            Memories.

March 14 Saturday, 8:16 am

            The sight that greeted me the next morning was most welcome.  Lucia was busy washing dishes, while Pagan seemed preoccupied with working the coffee machine.  It seemed as if he needed help, because when he laid his eyes on me, his instantaneous reaction was "Good morning, Miss Peacecraft!  Would you like a cup of coffee?" along with an expression that clearly yelled out "Help me!"

            I shook my head, prying his fingers from the handle of the coffee pot.  "Here, let me get that," I told him, smiling warmly.  "Let the ex-manager of a Starbucks shop do the coffee thing here from now on, okay?"

            "I tell him!" Lucia thundered from her sink.  "I tell him to wait for me, but no!  He's waiting for machine to blow, I tell you!  Men and their hard, balding heads..."

            I bit back a snort as a deep red color blanketed Pagan's face.  "Really, it's okay.  I insist on doing this.  I've never been pampered by people who are paid to do so and just because I live here now, I won't start."

            Pagan wiped a sweat from his brow and we heard one of the many telephones in the mansion ring.  "Excuse me for one moment," he said.

            After he hurried off, I walked over to Lucia and offered to help with the dishes.

            "No, no," she said, shaking her head at me in emphasis.  "I get pay to do this.  Lots and lots of money!  I wash dishes for the children who call me abuelita."  I watched as her face relaxed and gave way to a big grin.  "You know what it means, yes?"

            I nodded.  Thank God for those forced foreign language lessons in high school and college.  I picked Latin and Spanish, which worked for me in more ways than one.  I was able to make more flowery written material as the result of studying the roots of the modern languages today.  "It's 'grandmother'.  How many grandchildren do you have?"

            "Cuatro," she replied automatically.  Sadness clouded over her face, as if she was remembering a distant memory.  I felt like an invader, a trespasser inside grounds that seemed profoundly intimate.  "It was six before, you know.  My nene had twins, but they die 2 weeks after they were born.  Bad, bad disease my niňo and niňa had.  God has mercy.  They die quick and easy in their sleep."

            "Lo siento," I said as sincerely as I could, though I couldn't help but wince.  For crying out loud, but that was just a bad accent!  I'll stick to English from now own.  "How's your daughter coping now?  That must have been hard to lose both children at once..."

            Lucia waved me off with a smile.  "We're okay.  We know we can't be sad forever, so she focus on her husband and career and I focus on my other grandchildren."  She wiped one of her hands and squeezed my arm lightly.  "You a lucky woman, Relena.  My seňorito has a good heart.  He is a very good man...  When he find out the twins are gone, he paid hospital full."  She raised her arms and stretched them out sideways.  "Bills were this big," she said.  "Big, big bills.  I did not know where money will come from for payment, but Heero take his wallet out and pay.  No questions."

            I couldn't help but feel the pride grow for him within me.  No wonder he was filthy, stinkin' rich!  Karma was good to Heero as he was in helping Lucia.  And as for her, she's one of the lucky few who had an angel on Earth, despite the fact that the angel was more of a nuisance.

            Then a sudden thought struck me.  Just how much of an angel is Heero?  "So...  Do you know any of his past girlfriends, Lucia?"

            "Bah.  Them putas," she muttered.  I gawked at her usage of such a strong expletive, but all she did was grin at my expression before continuing on.  "Never liked them.  Always long-legged, dark-haired, but always look like they have chewies."

            I laughed.  "Chewies?  How so?"

            "Por dios, por santo!" she cried out, throwing her hands in the air.  This threw soap bubbles at me, too.  "Ah!  Sorry, sorry.  I could not stop myself."  Lucia waited for me to wipe some of the bubbles off before continuing with her story.  "When they come and I see, their clothes are small!  Lilliputian clothing, I say to you!  But they look so skinny...  It's bad skinny.  Like that Solvent Novelty girl."

            I stopped laughing at her reference to Gulliver's Travels when I heard her say one of Heero's ex-girlfriend's names.  "Solvent Novelty?  I've never heard of anyone with such an odd name..."
            "Madame Lucia is, of course," Pagan spoke as he entered the room, "referring to the famous supermodel Sylvia Noventa."

            "Ay, no matter," Lucia said with an indifferent shrug.  "She still horrible.  Her nose was stuck in air like this all the time."  She smiled broadly when I laughed.  "Bad bad girl.  It is good you come.  I can't believe seňorito had her as longest girlfriend.  That is before you come."

            I turned rapidly to Pagan for a deeper elaboration.  "Sir Yuy and Miss Noventa were engaged for three years before he learned of your father's death.  When Mr. Peacecraft passed away, he waited for the day your hastened marriage took place to call his engagement off."

            Oh my god... he dumped her on the day of our "wedding"!  Better yet, he probably knew beforehand that he was arranged to marry someone else, so why did he even bother finding a fiancèe?  I asked Pagan that and he shrugged.  "Only he can answer that, Miss Peacecraft."

            I nodded.  This information gave me a strong foundation on discovering Heero's 'interesting' past.  "Lucia, Pagan.  I won't be eating breakfast here, but I will be back in the afternoon."  I walked swiftly to the nearest telephone.  A few moments later, a familiar voice answered in the other line and I couldn't help but smile.  "Hi, Uncle J.  Are you busy?"

10:19 am

            While eating a simple McDonald's breakfast, we discussed the minor details that I wasn't privy to.  Needless to say, lil' ol' ignorant me found my eyes widening by continuous fractions as uncle spewed out more information than I thought possible.  "So you *did* know he was previously engaged!  But that's kind of stupid...  I mean, he knew since his father's will reading that he was pretty much stuck with me.  And that was two years ago!"

            "Yes, he did."  He chuckled his most obnoxious chuckle and I kicked him.  "Be careful of my prosthetic leg.  It's very sensitive.  But back to the matter at hand," he said before biting his hash brown.  "It's a show, Relena.  His hooplas and not-so-secret affairs with other models were just so that he won't be bored.  Everyone in the 'right circles' knew that Noventa was just a cheap thrill for Heero, but she believed that he "loved" her."

            "I guess she's a great big fan of Dolly Parton," I muttered.  "She seems to dig that whole 'stand by your man' stuff."  Before I bit into my breakfast sandwich, another thought struck me.  "But Uncle J...  I was doing research and even the dirtiest tabloid of the tabloid industry didn't have anything about that."

            He grinned slyly.  "He's smarter than I credited him for.  According to a reliable source, Heero supposedly demanded that all remaining written evidence about his engagement with Noventa be eliminated.  It's just starting to spread by word of mouth and when she hears about this, she'll be spitting balls of fire."

            Lucia was right.  This Noventa chick, no matter how famous she was, had more brain fart in her head than brain power.

            "And you, my dear," Uncle J said, "have the privilege of seeing her soon."

            Thank God for lawyers.  Not because they can weave up really good lies and are sometimes paid to tell them, but because of their memory span.  I choked on my sandwich and Uncle J actually remembered the Heimlich maneuver.  Three heaves got the damn piece dislodged from my throat.  After drinking a glass of water, I scowled at him.  "What did you mean by that?"

            "I meant what I meant.  If anything, Heero's going to force you to attend this function with him.  Since the word is out about the whole tabloid thing, your secret marriage with him might also get out with it."  He did his "tsk tsk" thing again and said, "I've seen your closet before and you, my dear, are beyond help.  I didn't even see a dress!"

            I shrugged.  "I don't care about dresses.  Never seen the use for one except for getting married."  I pouted at the memory.  And yes, I'm still bitter about not wearing a dress to my wedding.

            "What happened to you?" he asked jokingly.  "I thought you were into the whole 'dress me up' shindig.  Where did that Relena go?  Or did you just grow up and she's still somewhere inside you?"

            For a moment, I considered answering him in the same joking fashion.  But I realized that when I thought about daddy's voice, it didn't bring me comfort like it did before.  Nevermind the stories he told me; my brain was shaped for practical thinking when I was young, and what "fantasies" or "dreams" I had were for sensible reasons.  "No," I said seriously, looking at Uncle J's eyes, "she's not here anymore.  She died with daddy."