Disclaimer: Characters do not belong to me unless you never saw them on the show.

Author's Notes: Enjoy this chapter;) And thank you so much for all your wonderful reviews. I know I say it a lot, but it's only because I mean it from the bottom of my heart.

Be My Downfall

by Kristen Elizabeth

He came quietly, without bloodshed, and that both perplexed and worried Wufei. Where was the suicidal pilot he'd once fought to near death? The man he'd always assumed slept with a loaded gun under his pillow and a cyanide capsule between his teeth had allowed a Preventer officer to handcuff him and lead him out of his rancid motel room without putting up so much as a minor scuffle. Something was definitely wrong.

Wufei watched Heero through the one-way glass that separated the interrogation room from the rest of the detention center. Still cuffed, he sat with his hands twisted behind his back, staring at the wooden table without blinking. He needed to shower and shave in the worst way. A few pots of coffee and a couple days of sleep wouldn't hurt either.

After a long time, Heero lifted his head. His eyes were glassy and bloodshot. Even though it was impossible for him to see anything more than his own reflection in the deceptive window, the hairs on the back of Wufei's neck rose.

"What are you waiting for, Chang?"

Nothing, he had to admit to himself. He was just morbidly mesmerized with this strange incarnation of Heero Yuy. Murderer he was used to. Assassin he could deal with easily. But grieving lover and absentee father…that was something new and unsettling.

Wufei entered the room with a single folder. He took the chair opposite the detainee and placed the folder between them on the table. It was another long moment of contemplation before he spoke.

"Karen Wynstock."

Heero didn't even blink. "What about her?"

"She's dead. And you killed her." Wufei continued when Heero said nothing. "Unjust or not, her death has to be investigated. If you confess, I can help you."

"I have nothing to say."

Wufei pushed away from the table and stood up. "You're in a shitload of trouble, Yuy. Half the population wanted the President's assassin held accountable, but you cheated them out of that. You also erased any chance of us finding the real brains behind the operation."

"There were no brains behind any of it," Heero muttered.

"What do you mean?"

"Nothing."

Wufei scowled. "Who the hell do you think you are, keeping information from me? If you know something, you tell me right the hell now."

"I told you. I have nothing to say."

"Yes. Well." His former partner cleared his throat. "I have things to say. But first, I want to show you something." Wufei reached out and flipped the folder open, revealing a large photo. "Look at it, Heero. Look at your daughter."

Visibly fighting with himself, Heero struggled to keep from looking down. But he slipped and caught a quick glance. Gisele beamed up at him, toothless and beautiful, with her mother's eyes and baby-fine wisps of his dark brown hair. Something resembling a choked cry escaped the back of Heero's throat. His eyes darted up to the ceiling. "Close it up," he ordered in a heavy voice.

"No." Wufei picked up the picture. "She looks like her mother, doesn't she?"

"Don't…" Heero swallowed. "Arrest me, lock me up, I don't care. Just…shut up."

"Maxwell's woman says she's starting to lift her head up when she's on her stomach. Apparently that's some sort of milestone. I'm also supposed to tell you that she's eating about two ounces at every feeding and that when you touch her hand…she curls her fingers around yours."

Heero jerked against his handcuffs. "I said shut up!!" Unable to move, he glared at the other man with red, wet eyes.

"Why? So you can keep pretending you're not a father? That you aren't tied to anyone? Sorry. I'm not about to let you hide out in a whisky bottle just because she died." He paused. "Wouldn't she want you taking care of your daughter?"

"Relena…" Heero forced himself to say her name. "Relena would want to take care of her daughter."

"She's not coming back, Heero."

"I'm not insane, Chang."

"And I'm not some damn counselor, but here I am, dispensing cheesy advice." He sat back down across from Heero. "If you confess to killing Karen Wynstock, no jury in the universe will sentence you to any time, given the circumstances. But if you hold out on me, there'll be a trial and maybe a conviction and you'll spend the rest of your life…and most of your daughter's…in jail."

"She'd be better off." Heero closed his eyes. "She'd be much better off."

Wufei played the last card he had. "Do you really want Duo Maxwell raising your child?"

"Nice try."

"What about Zechs Merquise?"

Heero hesitated for a brief second. "I'm done talking. Charge me or let me go."

"You really don't care which, do you?"

"Not really."

Almost out of his already-short supply of patience, Wufei was about to launch into another wave of questions when he heard a knock on the glass window.

He closed the door to the interrogation room behind him and faced Lady Une. "Ma'am." He saluted.

"At ease, Commander. I'm here to make your life a little bit easier."

When Wufei re-entered the room a few minutes later, he carried another folder with him, but this one he kept in his hands. Heero's eyes were shut again; his chin had fallen to his chest. They flew open when Wufei walked behind him and unlocked his cuffs.

"What the hell? What's going on?"

"You know exactly what's going on. You're free to leave."

Newly freed, Heero remained seated. "I don't remember 'releasing detainee' being standard procedure."

"Well, it is when the detainee didn't break any laws." Wufei opened the folder. "Autopsy results find that Karen Wynstock died of an overdose. She saved up her meds and downed them all. It really was a suicide." He snapped the folder shut. "But you were still there, weren't you?"

Heero looked away.

"What did you say to her? What did you get her to tell you about the President's assassins?"

"There were no assassins," he spat out before he could stop himself. He'd trapped himself; Wufei would never be convinced to let the comment go until it was completely explained. Heero's knuckles turned white as he went on. "Don't you get it? There was no grand plot. No terrorists, no political threat. Just a vindictive bitch with a poison recipe."

"Karen Wynstock acted alone? But the letter Relena got said…" He sighed. "It was just meant to lead us in the wrong direction, wasn't it?"

"Relena trusted her. Helped her. She never knew who she was, that she was someone's estranged wife. Or that she happened to go on one fucking date with that someone. One date…and the psycho decides to kill…" He stopped short and ran the back of his hand across his mouth, as if to scrub away the word. "I went to her cell with every intention of making her death as slow and as painful as possible. It never would have been as much pain as she put Relena in for all those months. But it would have been something."

"But you didn't kill her?"

Heero shook his head. "I didn't touch her. When I left, she was alive."

"Why didn't you kill her?"

"Because." His Adam's apple bobbed up and down. "Relena wouldn't have wanted me to. Relena…would have forgiven her."

Wufei blew out a long breath. "That's that, then."

Seconds ticked by like hours. Finally, Heero stood. "Do I need to sign anything before I go?"

"No." He paused. "Heero…go see your daughter."

"Thought you weren't a counselor, Chang." He started for the door, but stopped with his hand on the knob. "I can't."

"I figured you'd say that." Wufei gestured to someone unseen on the other side of the glass. "That's why I called Maxwell when we got here."

Heero blinked, probably for the first time since the interrogation had begun. "What did you…"

The door opened, wrenching the knob even as Heero held it. He was forced backwards as Duo entered. The man with the braid said nothing, merely looking Heero straight in the eye before stepping aside to allow the next person in. That next person was his wife, Hilde, and she wasn't alone. She carried a baby in her arms. His baby.

"Heero," she addressed him. "I believe you've already met Gisele."

He backed up until he felt cold concrete, but he couldn't take his eyes off of the little girl. She'd grown so much in only a month. Propped up slightly, she looked around with wide blue eyes. He could have sworn that at one point, she looked right at him.

"What do you want me to do?" he asked, his tone dull.

Duo stared at him. "Um…how about acknowledging your daughter's existence? Maybe…gasp!…hold her? It's probably just one of my wacky ideas, but you never know. It could be fun."

"This is all a big joke to you, isn't it? It's not to me. Relena is dead and I.."

"And you're not," Hilde finished. "Neither is Gisele. She needs her father." The woman's eyes narrowed. "And you need to get cleaned up and sober."

Wufei spoke up. "He's sober. Mostly."

"Then we'll just give him the Father of the Year award, won't we?" Hilde snapped.

"Father." Heero rolled his eyes up as though pleading with the ceiling. "Do I seem like I'd make a good father? Can any of you honestly look at me and say that baby would be better off growing up under my influence?"

Hilde sniffed, indignant. "Perhaps you should have thought about this before you started having sex with Relena. Without protection. Babies are sort of a consequence of that."

Duo nudged her with his elbow. "Babe, take it easy. He's not armed, but that doesn't make him not dangerous."

"He needs to hear this. Someone's got to kick his ass and wake him up." She readjusted Gisele who was beginning to slip into sleep, unaware of the tension that filled the room. "You won't be perfect. You'll make mistakes and there will be times when it'll seem like anyone else in the world would be a better parent to your child than you." Hilde walked right up to him. "But this is your daughter, Heero. Your flesh and blood. Your living link to Relena. If you turn away from her, you lose everything. I don't think that's really what you want."

Heero lowered his head. "Relena…"

"I know." Hilde bit her lip. "You're not the only one who misses her. You're not even the only one who loved her. But you are the only one who can keep her alive…through her daughter. Raise her knowing how much her mother loved her, how much her mother sacrificed for her, but how gladly she did it…and a piece of Relena will live on." She paused just long enough to hold Gisele out to her father. "Take her. Be her father. Make Relena proud of you. And start living again."

He glanced at Wufei, then Duo, then back into Hilde's determined face. Gisele squirmed in her hands, woken up by the sudden shift in position. Taking a deep breath, Heero held out his hands.

Relena, help me.

"Support her head," Hilde instructed him. "There." She stepped back and surveyed her handiwork. "You've got it."

Heero looked down at the warm little body of his daughter. She barely weighed anything, but he felt the strangest pressure in the center of his chest. Love? No, it was too sudden for that, wasn't it? Didn't love take time to build? Or was this a different kind of love?

She smelled of powder, sweet and clean. As he stared at her, Gisele opened her eyes and this time, he was sure that not only did she look at him, but that she actually saw him.

"Hello," he whispered. "I'm your dad." With his free hand, he touched her tiny hand through the pink cotton that covered it entirely. Even so, her fingers curled around his and the pressure in his chest intensified.

Can you see, Relena? Did you know this would happen as soon as I held her? How did you always know me better than I knew myself?

Heero rubbed his thumb over Gisele's delicate knuckles, which remained firmly wrapped around his index finger. "It's just you and me now. But I think…" He nodded curtly. "I think we'll do okay."

To Be Continued