Disclaimer: Don't own Gundam Wing or The Parent Trap.

~*~

The Maxwell Trap

by Dorothy Winner

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The twins spent the rest of the day getting to know each other, talking constantly, much to everyone's astonishment. It wasn't until very late that the girls went to bed that night, tired but perfectly happy. The torn photo of their parents hung on the wall between their beds, the two halves taped back together.

In the wee hours of the next morning…

"I am a GENIUS!!!"

Sydney bolted upright in bed, kicking off her sheets and dashing over to Heidi's bed. "Heidi! Heidi! Wake up!" she exclaimed, shaking her sister. "Wake up, I've got a brilliant idea!"

Heidi groaned and opened her eyes blearily. "Sydney, it's two in the morning, what's so important?" she asked, sitting up.

"Wait till you hear this," said Sydney, positively beaming with excitement. "I've come up with the perfect plan. It's so brilliant, it's scary."

"What is it already?" asked Heidi.

"Well, you've always wanted to meet Dad, right?"

"My whole life," said Heidi.

"Right. And I've always wanted to meet Mom. I kept thinking and thinking, there's got to be a way we can meet them. And then it hit me. We can…" Sydney paused dramatically, "…switch places."

This did not have quite the effect she expected.

"What?!?" cried Heidi.

"You can teach me to be you, and I'll teach you to be me," Sydney said eagerly. "We can pull it off… we're twins, right?"

"Have you lost your mind?!" exclaimed Heidi. "We'd be in loads of trouble once Mom and Dad found out!"

"See, see, that's the best part," said Sydney. "Sooner or later, they're going to figure out that they have the wrong twin… and when they do, they're going to have to unswitch us. And to do that…"

Heidi suddenly understood. "…they're going to have to meet again…"

"…face to face…"

"…after all these years…"

"…and maybe, just maybe, fall in love again," finished Sydney.

"It's insane. It's crazy. It's practically impossible," said Heidi.

"Let's do it!!!"

~*~

"Since when did they become best friends?" asked Liane as she and Julia (Megan having gone home to the Winner residence to grow her eyebrows back) watched Sydney and Heidi sitting at their Isolation table in the mess hall, poring over a napkin as they ate.

"I have no idea," said Julia, shrugging.

Scrawled across the top of the napkin were the words 'Maxwell's Scrapyard and Repair.' Sydney was drawing out a map and explaining it to Heidi.

"Okay, this is the main gate where all the customers enter through. Over here is the scrapyard. Dad usually won't let me go in there cuz he's afraid something might fall on me. This building over here's the garage. The tools are over on this wall… This entire space here is where all the cars go; six in all can fit. Jeff's computer and register are over here on the front. You'll see two houses once you go out this door. The one on the right is where Howard and all the Sweepers live. The left one is where Dad and I live. We hardly ever use the front door… we usually go in and out this screen door on the side over here. Once you go inside, there's the…"

~*~

Sydney and Heidi sat on the steps of their Isolation cabin, going through a stack of photos.

"That's Aunt Sally and Uncle Wufei," said Heidi, pointing to a Preventers group photo. "They're Liane's parents. Aunt Sally's a doctor; she's really nice, you'll like her. Uncle Wufei, on the other hand… bug him as much as possible. When you think you've bugged him enough, bug him some more. You never call him Uncle Wufei. It's always Uncle Wuffie, Wu-wu, Wuffers, Wu-ster, or anything else you can come up with. I've crashed his computer countless times. You could probably do something to his car…"

"I've already got ideas," said Sydney, her violet eyes sparkling with mischief.

"Excellent. This is Uncle Milliardo and Aunt Noin. Actually her name's Lucrezia but nobody calls her that, it's too long." Heidi pointed to another person. "This is Lady Une. She's the head of Preventers. She's also Mariemaia's adoptive mother." She went to the next picture. "This is…"

~*~

"Do you see anyone?" whispered Sydney.

"Nope, all clear," said Heidi, peering at the parking lot around the corner of the main lodge. "Let's go!"

The two girls quickly ran up to Mariemaia's SUV.

"Okay," said Sydney, looking at her watch. "I've got fifteen minutes to teach you how to change the oil and filter of a car before Mariemaia comes back…"

"Cool," Heidi said eagerly. "So what do I do?"

"You're going to have to go under the car."

"What?!"

Five minutes later…

"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Heidi cried as she got squirted in the face with engine oil.

"Um," said Sydney, trying to keep a straight face as Heidi came out from under the car, spluttering engine oil, "that's not supposed to happen."

"Gee, you think?!"

~*~

"Um, Sydney," Heidi said one morning as Sydney braided her hair, "we have a problem."

"What?"

"Your hair."

"What about it?" asked Sydney, tying an elastic at the end of her braid. She stared at it for a moment, looked up at Heidi's hair, and then back at her braid. Realization dawned on her. "Oh no. You're not saying… you can't mean…"

Heidi held up a pair of scissors. "You know we have to do this."

"No no no," said Sydney, going pale, "please, no, not my braid, my braid is my baby…"

"It's not like it's going to hurt, and anyways, you can grow it back…"

"No, don't do this to me, please," whimpered Sydney, clutching her braid tightly.

"Don't be overdramatic, Sydney, you want to meet Mom, don't you?"

"Of course I do, but… I never cut my hair…"

"Sydney, I can't come back home to Mom with my hair two feet longer than when she last saw me. I mean, my hair grows fast, but not that fast."

"But… but… noooooo…"

~*~

"I can't look."

"Sydney, it's okay, your hair's a lot shorter, but the ends are all even and everything."

"I can't look."

"Your haircut's really nice; look, I saved all your hair for you…"

Sydney looked up to see a foot and a half length of blue-black hair braided and looped in a figure eight, tied in the middle with a pale blue ribbon. She made a loud whimper and covered her face with her hands.

"Okay, okay," said Heidi, putting the braid aside, "maybe I shouldn't have shown that to you…" She held up a mirror in front of Sydney. "C'mon, you're going to have to take a look in the mirror sometime…"

Sydney reluctantly opened her eyes. Her blue-black hair was now just down to her shoulders, the ends curling slightly in a rather cute way. She ran her fingers through the shorter locks. "It's… not so bad," she said, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

"Oh no," Heidi said suddenly, looking at Sydney's ears with dismay.

"What? Did you hack a chunk out of my hair or something?!"

"No, it's not that, it's… it's…"

"What?"

~*~

A flock of birds perched in the trees around the Isolation cabin suddenly took off into the air.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU HAVE TO PIERCE MY EARS?!?!?"

~*~

"I can't believe we're actually doing this."

Sydney and Heidi crept to the door of Mariemaia's office in the dead of night. Sydney pulled a bobby pin out of her hair (now in a ponytail) and picked the lock open. They snuck into the office and closed the door behind them. Two flashlights went on and shone in the darkness.

"Okay, look around," said Heidi, "she's got to have a needle somewhere in here… look for one that's long and sharp; it has to be able to go clean through your ear in one poke…"

Sydney swallowed. "So… where does Mariemaia keep her first aid kit?"

~*~

"NO!!!" Sydney screamed, leaping up from her chair for the umpteenth time at Heidi's yet another unsuccessful attempt at piercing Sydney's ears.

"Sydney, we can't keep doing this," Heidi said in exasperation. "Can't we please just get this over with already?"

"I'm—I'm afraid of needles," said Sydney.

"You think I'm not? I'm the one doing the piercing here!"

"Okay," said Sydney, sitting back down and composing herself. "Okay. I'm ready."

"Yeah, that's what you said an hour ago…" Heidi brought the needle up to Sydney's left ear. Sydney flinched.

"Don't move your head!"

"Sorry!"

Heidi took a deep breath and prepared to pierce Sydney's ear. She closed her eyes.

"Watch what you're doing!"

"Sorry!"

With a deep look of concentration, Heidi pierced Sydney's earlobe with one swift poke.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Sydney screamed at the top of her lungs.

"Did it hurt?!" Heidi cried.

"No," said Sydney.

"Then what'd you scream for?!"

"Felt like it."

Heidi rolled her eyes. "Well, let's do the other ear then!"

"Now?"

"What, do you want just one pierced ear?"

"Good point…"

~*~

"There's just one thing left to do," said Heidi.

"Now what?" Sydney asked. "Please don't tell me you've got a tattoo or something…"

"Relax," said Heidi. "All we have to do is switch crosses."

"Oh, right," said Sydney, removing her cross from her neck. Heidi did the same and the girls exchanged crosses. They put them on and looked in the mirror. The two girls now looked exactly the same. They had successfully swapped identities.

"This is scary. I can't tell me from you. I mean, you from me," said Heidi.

"And," said Sydney, "if we can't tell ourselves apart…"

"…neither will mom and dad."

~*~

TBC…