An Orphan's Life
Disclaimer: For the 22nd time, I do not own Gundam Wing.
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Jennifer woke up and strained her eyes to see in the dark tent. She had heard something outside, near her parents' tent.
She sat up slowly in bed and looked to the crib where her baby sister, Sara, was sleeping soundly. She wrapped her blanket tightly around herself and tried to hear outside.
She sat as quiet as she could for a couple minutes, then sighed.
She was probably hearing things again.
She was about to lie down when she saw her father walk in. She watched him as he walked quickly over to Sara's crib and pulled her out, wrapping another blanket around her.
Her father must've been the noise she heard outside.
She frowned when she noticed he was getting her jacket and boots out of her closet. "What are you doing, daddy?"
He handed her the jacket and boots and adjusted the blanket around Sara. "Put these on. We're leaving."
Jennifer frowned as she put her jacket and boots on reluctantly. "Where are we going?"
Her father looked at her silently, obviously holding back on something. He held his hand out to her and said," Don't worry about that. If you're lucky, maybe heaven."
Jennifer frowned some more as she took his hand. Why would she want to go there right now?
They walked out of the tent, her father going a bit too fast. She gave one last look at her warm bed and tried to figure out what was going on.
Where were her mother and her brothers?
She looked up at her dad, who had a worried expression on his face. He seemed upset about something.
She struggled to keep up, the snow slowing her down considerably.
She stared at the snow, silently yelling at it for making her cause her father not to go as fast as he pleased. She quickened her pace a bit, getting angrier at the snow that was up to her knees now.
She looked up at her father and held back her surprise at where they were. She hadn't realized they had walked into the woods. She looked to the sides, trying to figure out where exactly they were.
Her father stopped walking and turned to the left, frowning in thought.
Jennifer watched him as he let go of her hand and shifted Sara to his other shoulder. Then he started walking again. Jennifer followed silently, not wanting to make a nuisance of herself.
Eventually, they came to a road. Her father stopped a few feet away from the edge.
Jennifer finally let her curiosity get the best of her. She looked up to her father and asked, "What are we doing here?"
"We're waiting for your mother."
Jennifer frowned and looked at the road. What the heck was going on?
They waited in silence as the sun began to rise.
Jennifer looked up and watched it as it slowly came up above the trees. The sky looked so pretty with the snow all around.
A loud screeching noise brought her attention to the road. She frowned and watched as the screeching grew louder and closer.
She looked to her father in confusion, who was frowning. His eyes were focused on the road.
A few minutes later, she saw their car, her mother behind the wheel. She backed up fearfully as she saw her mother turn a little too sharply on the curve and speed up closer towards them.
That's when she noticed her brothers were in the back of the car glancing behind them, terrified. Jennifer followed their gaze and noticed the black cars.
Two of them were right behind her mom.
Her eyes widened when she realized that the two cars were trying to ram her mom off the road. She gasped and looked at her father helplessly.
He had a strange look on his face. Like he could see something that she couldn't. She looked to the other side of the road when there was another screech heard.
Her face fell when she saw another black car coming from the other side of the road. She stepped back some more and watched in horror as the black car rammed into her mother's car.
The car spun out a bit then went careening to the side of the road where it hit some trees.
She started to lose feeling in her legs as she heard her father yell something.
The three cars had stopped nearby and the passengers had gotten out. There were six of them, two from each. All were men, except one, who was flipping her hair over her shoulder and pulling out a gun.
They walked over to the car just as her mother and three brothers stumbled out of the car. Her mother stifled a scream as she saw the people coming to them. She turned to Jennifer's brothers and said something to them that Jennifer couldn't hear.
Jennifer watched as her brothers Nick and Joseph took off in different directions in the woods. Matthew stayed where he was.
He moved to their mom and held her as she was yelling at him.
The woman who was in the car aimed the gun at them.
Then, Jennifer's mother noticed her and her father.
She said it as loud as she could. "Run, Jennifer! Don't turn back! Go!"
Jennifer stood where she was reluctantly.
Her dad grabbed her hand, as the people from the cars looked at them.
The woman looked to one of the men. "Go get them!"
Jennifer's father yanked her hand. She looked behind her as she began to run alongside her father, watching her mother and Matthew.
She faced forward just as two loud cracks were heard.
She ran faster, not really understanding what was going on. But she knew that if those men caught up…
She tried to hold onto her father's hand, but was losing her grip, her fingers becoming numb from the cold.
She gasped when she heard two more cracks somewhere behind her. She lost her footing and fell face first in the snow. She looked up quickly just in time to see her father disappear into the woods.
She froze, not sure what to do. She was about to get up, when she saw the men cut across in front of her and run in the direction her father had just went. They didn't even see her.
She stayed where she was at, afraid to get up.
What should she do?
Her dad and Sara must be pretty far now. And she can't go right after the men. They might see her.
She laid in the snow, trying to think of what to do.
The sun was to her left and still rising. They had come from that direction.
Her mother had said not to look back. That translated to Jennifer to not go back at all. She had to go forward. Or somewhere else. Just not behind her.
She sighed and slowly got to her feet.
She needed to go.
She began walking, following the road that was on her left.
A few hours later, she came across some police cars that were parked in the middle of the road.
She paused for a second, wondering what they were doing. She shrugged and walked to them, knowing that they would help her find her family.
As she approached them, one of the officers glanced up and saw her. He looked to his partner and gave a whistle. "Look, we got a kid here.'
His partner frowned and looked at her, as she got closer. "You don't think that…?"
The officer turned towards Jennifer and gave a slight shrug. "Could be. She's by herself." He walked over to Jennifer.
She stopped and looked at the tall man in front of her. She squinted up at his badge that revealed the name Bradford.
He kneeled in front of her and smiled a little. "Hey, there."
Jennifer looked at him and said shyly," Hi."
He took off his jacket and wrapped it around her as he asked," Are you lost?"
Jennifer, who hadn't realized she was shivering, nodded. "My daddy and I were in the woods and we got separated."
Officer Bradford frowned at that. "You were in the woods?"
Jennifer nodded again. "We were running from some men who had guns."
Officer Bradford inhaled sharply and looked up to his partner. "Hey, Reese. I think she belongs to the John Doe."
Reese gave a loud sigh. "Great. Now, what do we tell her?"
Officer Bradford looked to Jennifer. "Can you come with me, sweetie?"
Jennifer nodded as he stood up. She took his hand as he walked her over to one of the parked cars. He lifted her up and sat her on top of the hood. "I need to ask you some questions, okay?"
Jennifer nodded some more.
"Can you tell me your name?"
"Jennifer Silverman." She looked to the side towards the woods. She frowned when she saw a bright yellow tarp covering something on the ground.
"Jennifer, do you know why you were running from those men?"
Jennifer shook her head then shrugged. "I think they were trying to hurt us." She tried to see what was under the tarp.
"Why do you say that?"
"They were hitting my mom's car and they had the guns." Jennifer made a face at how the officer didn't get it. She studied the ground around the tarp. The snow was red.
He studied her for a second, then asked," How many men were there?"
Jennifer turned her gaze to the officer and tried to remember. "Two were chasing us, and there were four others by my mom. One was a girl, though."
Officer Bradford looked to Reese. "You getting this?"
Reese nodded and held up a notebook.
Officer Bradford looked back to Jennifer. " Do you know where your mother's at?"
Jennifer frowned. "Over there," she said, pointing down the road.
She looked back at the tarp and froze when she recognized her father's boot sticking out from under it.
Officer Bradford looked to Reese and motioned to Jennifer. "Mind watching her while I go check this out?"
He nodded and walked over to Jennifer as his partner walked to the other police car and got in.
He gave a slight wave as Officer Bradford drove off.
Reese looked to Jennifer and gave a smile.
Jennifer smiled back faintly. What was up with these guys?
A few minutes later, two more police officers came out of the woods and walked up to where Reese and Jennifer were sitting.
"We found nothing," one of them said.
The other frowned when he saw Jennifer. "What's with the kid?"
Reese shrugged. "She came out of the woods. Chris thinks she belongs to this guy." He motioned towards the tarp.
The two officers looked at each other, then Jennifer.
For what seemed like hours later, the officers had put Jennifer into the squad car and took her to the police station. There, they questioned her some more on what she was doing in the woods and where did she come from.
When they found out she was from the circus, they immediately tried to get a hold of Trowa and Catherine.
For some reason, Jennifer was taken to the orphanage after all the calls were done. She never understood why. But she did as she was told.
She had promised her parents a long time ago that she would always be a good girl.
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A/N: … At this point I would like to establish that I like flashing back. Flashbacks are fun. You can say anything in them and it will always make sense. Heh… Any who, thanks to all of you people for reviewing. It makes me feel all cheesy and lame inside and I'm glad to know that there's at least three people who are reading this. That's pretty cool, considering my younger sister is the only one who usually reads these things. Well, thanks again and see you next chapter. ~_^