Dearka & Miriallia
Author's Notes: Ha ha, they are going to meet, just as promised (well, one of them will). I'm hoping everyone likes Ian. I want him to be somewhat likeable. He isn't as scheming as Cadey so give the guy a break and go easy on him. Thanks again for the support everyone!
Disclaimer: It is obvious by now if I'm here that I do not own Gundam SEED, Gundam SEED Destiny or any other Gundam Series. But any characters I create to place in this world are mine (But I don't mind if you guys want to use them too. I have no problem with that. You don't even need to ask me. I enjoy sharing to make other stories the best they can be.)
The Unexpected
The mountain trail looked intimidating as Miriallia approached it.
"Well, I can't turn back now," she thought looking up.
She walked back over to her car and put Annabella into the baby backpack laying her on her back in the backseat of the car. She bent down and slipped one of her shoulders under the strap before arching her back a little more to get her other arm through. Slowly she raised herself using the few muscles she had in her petite abs. When Annabella was all secured she grabbed her camera from the front seat of the car.
"Let's get this over with Annabella," she said with the baby smiling gleefully at the adventure.
It had taken a little time to get used to for Annabella, but she was now feeling more relaxed with Miriallia than she was at the beginning of the trip. Miriallia slipped by the caution and no admittance signs looking around constantly to verify there was no one to stop her. They slowly trekked their way to the top of the mountain. The scenery was gorgeous. The trees were green and with newly bloomed flowers at their tips, the wind blew the sweet fragrance by her, rustling her hair and the sun beat down with shining glory.
"If I wasn't doing something so dangerous, this would be quite a relaxing walk," she thought as they began moving toward the huge mountain.
The trail began to seem a little more ominous as she moved further up. The gravel under her feet was extremely loose and the rocks above threatened to fall at any moment. She hurried up the trail trying to beat the odds that were now stacking against her. Annabella remained quiet while looking around at the beautiful nature surrounding them. A few times, Miriallia's feet lost their grip and she slipped backwards a few steps. When her knee hit the ground in one of these instances the gravel ripped at her skin.
"Ouch," she half screamed.
"Just great. That really hurt and I'm not even halfway there yet," she thought feeling the pain course through her.
Blood now dripping down her leg, she pushed herself up again and pressed on. Up ahead she saw a small rope bridge to cross the chasm below it.
"Oh boy, this can't be safe," she thought with her eyes rolling back a little.
Reaching the chasm and looking down only made it worse. She felt a little dizzy and disoriented. Stumbling backward a step she regained her composure.
"Okay Mir, it's not as bad as it seems. We just have to go slow and steady and we will make it across just fine," she thought trying to keep her cool.
The moment her first foot touched the bridge, Annabella screamed out and then giggled. Miriallia's heart began racing.
"My god Annabella, that wasn't funny," she yelled.
Annabella just giggled. She found it to be a great game to play. Scream and giggle, then giggle and scream. She was in the stage where her own voice and the different tones she could use kept her amused. Miriallia tried again, grabbing the rope on the side to steady her. Step by step they moved across the bridge, Annabella still grating on Miriallia's nerves.
"What was I thinking when I made that decision?" she thought scolding herself for what she felt to be a mistake.
Miriallia grit her teeth and continued moving forward. They almost reached the end when she heard a snap.
"Don't look, don't look, don't look. Just keep moving. Two more steps," she thought forcing herself across the bridge.
Making her way through the fear that blocked her for that split second, she looked back. Her feet now on solid ground, helped her knees to regain stability.
"Well that's just perfect," she thought looking behind her.
One of the ropes snapped on the other side and was now swinging freely below the bridge.
"And I still have to climb back over that!" she thought irritably.
Feeling as the world was conspiring against her, she made her way to their final destination. Upon reaching it, she could see exactly what she needed for the shot.
"Incredible. This is absolutely perfect. And since I don't have any equipment other than my camera, I can't be traced up here by their security measures," she thought feeling quite proud of herself.
Her camera began snapping again and again as she zoomed the lens in for better shots.
"Huh?" she questioned.
She zoomed the camera in closer and her eyes went wide.
"They can't seriously use that on ZAFT!" she thought now feeling it was time to make her exit.
As shocked as she was, she continued to snap the pictures getting more detailed images for her assignment. When she was done, she packed away her camera and turned her head to see Annabella again.
"Let's go Annabella. We're all done," Miriallia said proudly.
They moved down the mountain and luckily made it passed the bridge the second time with no new destruction to it. As she moved down the mountain, she had to travel more slowly to avoid skidding down due to the steepness.
She finally reached her car and strapped Annabella into her car seat. When she closed the door to her car she felt as though she was being watched. She turned around quickly to see a Strike Dagger heading toward her.
"Hey, you!" the soldier yelled at her.
Miriallia jumped into her car as fast as she could. Her heart was now racing.
"Oh my god, it's the Earth Forces. I didn't expect them to be in this area," she thought thinking that the area other than their mechanical security measures were in place.
Miriallia turned the key as the mobile suit came closer. The engine revved from holding the key in the on position a second too long. Tires skidding and dust rising, she took off like a bat out of hell. The mobile suit gave chase after it's newly found prey.
"Someone help!" she thought desperately.
She kept all her thoughts inside in order to seem calm to Annabella. The last thing she needed was a petrified baby screaming. The car flew down the abandoned roads, the mobile suit not far behind. She was constantly looking in her rear view mirror with tears coming down her face.
"Please, this can't be happening. It just can't be," she thought now feeling the panic rise into her chest making her short of breath.
Never in her career had she been caught spying with her camera. She was that good at her job. But now all she could think is if she had been even a few minutes faster, this could have been all avoided. Her eyes slit in anger.
"If I didn't have you, Annabella, this wouldn't have happened," she cursed in her head.
She was so detached from the little girl and in the end despised her existence for that moment. Her head spun with thoughts as she twisted around all the curves of the road with her foot pressing the gas peddle to the floor.
"That stupid car seat. Why can't they make them easier to operate? That ate up more time than anything," she thought fleeing the scene.
Her anger was now directed to the inanimate objects that belonged to Annabella. The car sped down the road until a she heard an explosion. Up ahead she saw a Dinnshooting at her pursuer. She twisted the wheel with a knee jerk reaction and lost control.
"All right, guys," Ian said, "it's obvious they are after that car for some reason or another. Protect it at all costs until we can figure out why."
"Sir," the team cried at once.
One of the Dinn's shot passed the car at the opposing Strike Dagger. An explosion rocked the road. As it did, Ian saw the car spin out of control.
"Damn it," he yelled.
The car flipped over and went down the hill into a small gorge. Miriallia began to scream inside. Annabella, however, seemed to be enjoying the stimulation. Ian jumped his Dinn down to retrieve it. Before he could more Earth Force Strike Daggers rushed out.
"Well, looks like they mean business," Ian said.
Another soldier slid in front of her commander.
"I have it Sir, you can grab the car," she answered as she target locked the forces.
Ian grabbed the car gently with his suit and took off for the rendezvous point.
"Everyone fall back as soon as you have the opportunity," he ordered.
"Commander Elsman wants all of us back safely!" he firmly reiterated.
"Yes, Sir," they cried in unison again before engaging in the battle with the enemy.
Less than an hour later…At the rendezvous point the team met up with Ian. Ian had placed the car gently down and ordered one of the soldiers to check on the driver while he called for medical assistance.
"I hope whoever you are, that you are okay in there," he thought before making a call.
"This is Ian Randall, number 985475, requesting immediate medical attention to be waiting at the base upon our arrival. We have a civilian with possible injuries from a car rollover during our engagement of the Earth Forces. Please inform Commander Elsman of the situation as well," he called over his communicator.
"Yes Sir, I will do so immediately," the communications officer replied.
"Just perfect, I hope Dearka doesn't kill me for taking in this civilian without permission," he thought cringing at what his current Commander may do to him.
Ian rode down from his mobile suit's elevator rope and walked over to the soldiers attending the injured person.
"Sir, it seems it's a young girl and a baby in the car," he answered the questioning look.
"A young girl," Ian asked confused.
"The baby seems perfectly fine, but the girl is in pretty bad shape," the soldier continued.
As he helped another soldier pull the girl out of the front seat carefully, Ian's eyes widened.
"Miriallia!" he cried.
The two soldiers now holding the girl looked at him.
"You know her sir?" the soldier said.
"Uh, yeah, kind of…" he trailed off.
Another soldier broke the glass to the backseat after taping the window to get to the baby girl who was now uncontrollably laughing.
"What did you do that for," another soldier asked.
"Couldn't get the door to open and couldn't climb through the front to the back to get to her, so I used the emergency tape so that the glass wouldn't fly at the baby," she answered.
"Oh," the other one said.
The young woman climbed through the broken window and passed the baby out to her comrade.
"Can you grab her?" she asked.
The other soldier reached out his hands to receive the child.
"Wow, not a scratch on the kid. Amazing, do you think they are coordinators too?" he asked.
"Highly doubtful for this area," she said climbing back out of the car.
Ian walked over to the front seat again and saw the camera bag Miriallia had with her earlier that day as realization hit him.
"Yeah right, pictures of your friends huh!" he exclaimed.
He leaned into the car and dragged the bag out. When he flipped it open he saw the card positioned in the clear plastic holder.
"Miriallia Haw," he read, "War Photographer for the Times."
"Figures," he thought feeling his track record with women smacking him in the face.
He moved back over to where she was laying and looked down upon her.
"You are one lucky woman!" he thought watching her almost still body.
"Let's get them back to the base. I'll grab the car in case there is anything else in it that is of value to us," he ordered.
"Sir!" they saluted.
They arrived on the base in less than twenty minutes. The medical personnel were standing by to receive the injured civilian. Ian ordered them to take her as soon as he reached the ground.
"What should we do with the baby?" the female soldier asked.
"I have the perfect idea," he answered as he took Annabella from her arms.
He began to walk toward the entrance when Dearka came running up to him.
"Well, you want to explain yourself Ian?" he inquired not really offering an option.
Ian looked at him while still holding the little girl.
"Sure, but I have to do something with this little gal first," he said.
Dearka just looked at the girl and back at Ian.
"I figured Cadey was probably going insane around here by now, so I came up with the perfect person to take care of little thing. This should keep Cadey out of your hair for a while," he said smiling.
Dearka hung his head in defeat, "Fine, let's go."
They walked down the corridors as most of the female soldiers gasped at Annabella's cute factor. She was quite happy to be seen too as she climbed over Ian's shoulder to send smiles back in their direction. They finally reached Dearka's quarters and opened the door. Cadey looked up from her book and greeted them as they walked in.
"What's up?" she asked.
They had been eyeing her with a strange look since they entered the room. As she looked again, she noticed Ian was holding a baby.
"Where'd that thing come from?" she asked him.
"She's not really the maternal type," Dearka answered, "so good luck in convincing her."
Ian was a little annoyed now. He knew Dearka set him up for that. Dearka had known full well that it would be difficult to get Cadey to agree to this and he should have too.
"I need a favor. You said you wanted to help Dearka, right?" he spoke.
"Yes…" she said cautiously.
"So do you think you could look after this amazingly adorable little girl for a while until we can figure out something to do with her. The person she was with is in the medical wing right now with serious injuries and there is no one to look after her," Ian begged.
"I highly doubt that will happen," she said.
Ian looked back at Dearka who was grinning at his failure. Ian just glared at him. For a moment, Dearka let him hang and then decided to try.
"Baby?" he said moving closer to her.
He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her up from her seat.
"I would really appreciate it, if you could do this as a personal favor to me," he said with a gleam in his eyes.
She looked to the baby and then back into Dearka's delicious violet eyes.
"Well, what do I get for doing this?" she asked.
Ian now felt extremely uncomfortable to be in the room with the two of them. Dearka moved his lips closer to her ear and whispered something soft to her before kissing her neck gently.
"In that case, fine," she said turning to Ian now.
Ian just stood there while Dearka had a devilish grin plastered on his face. Cadey walked over and grabbed the baby from his arms. When she did, Annabella just stared at her. It was a completely new person she had to get used to now and she squirmed a bit when she was handed over.
"She kind of looks familiar," Dearka said looking at the little girl now in Cadey's arms.
Cadey looked at the little girl and twisted her head a bit.
"Anyway, we are going to work on this mission. Take care of her and don't take your eyes off her either," Dearka said to Cadey sternly.
"Yeah, yeah, I know. I'm not completely useless," she answered rolling her eyes.
"Thanks Cadey, I really appreciate it. I'll have one of the soldiers search the car she was in for anything that may belong to her," Ian said as they headed out.
"Sounds like a plan," she said as she sat on the bed with the little girl.
The door closed and the men walked down the corridor.
"I don't even want to know what you whispered to her," Ian said.
"No, you don't," Dearka grinned.
They passed by a few soldiers and Ian tossed his orders over to one that took off in a hurry after saluting.
"So, you want to tell me now why that little girl is in my quarters? After all, I did recall saying, whatever it takes to make sure YOU all get out alive and NOTHING more" Dearka insisted emphasizing the fact that the baby shouldn't even be there at the base right now.
"It seems we ran across a chase in progress. Apparently the girl that is in the hospital wing right now is a war photographer for the Times and must have been caught. As to whether or not she was able to get any camera shots of the facility, I don't know. But, I thought the best thing to do was to bring her in and confiscate her camera to find out. She also may have some information that can help us," he debriefed Dearka with the situation.
Dearka inhaled deeply before speaking.
"That was a pretty dangerous maneuver and not one I authorized," he said.
"I know," Ian answered, "but I didn't feel I had any other options at the time."
"Fine, I guess we have to play the hand we were dealt. Now that they know ZAFT is near though, it could become more difficult. Hopefully they won't have time to relocate before we make our move," Dearka stated.
"Should I go check on the young woman?" Ian asked.
Dearka just looked at him, "No, I think I should be the one to do that. You go debrief the soldiers from the mission."
"Sir!" Ian saluted before turning down a connecting corridor.
Dearka headed toward the hospital wing.
"What have you gotten us into Ian, and all over some girl with a baby?" Dearka thought with his anger rising.
He approached the door, telling the soldiers posted in front that they could stand down before he entered. The room was bright and smelled of bleach. It was an extremely sterile room with white covering everything. The doctor turned to face him when he entered.
"She is a lucky young woman," he said.
Dearka walked closer saluting the doctor.
"It seems she is a young Natural, so she is very lucky indeed to walk away with her life. She has a few minor injuries, some head trauma and is currently unconscious," he continued.
"How long do you believe she will remain unconscious for?" Dearka asked as he approached her bed.
"Your guess is as good as mine. It could be hours, days or even months," the doctor answered.
"We don't have that kind of time. Is there anything that can be done to force her out of this state?" he asked.
"Unfortunately nothing medical science can help with," he answered.
Dearka looked down at the girl and his eyes widened with shock.
"Miriallia!" he screamed out.
The doctor looked at Dearka the same way one of the soldiers had looked at Ian earlier when he recognized her.
"You know her?" the doctor asked.
"Uh, yes. It was a long time ago though," Dearka answered as he grabbed her hand.
It was so soft. He had wished to hold her in his arms for so long and there she was lying in front of him. She was so fragile and looked so peaceful. Dearka's eyes softened.
"From the look on your face, it must have been something very special and intimate," the doctor observed.
"Yeah, it was," Dearka answered.
"Well then, maybe it would be best if you stayed here until she wakes up. That way if she hears your voice or feels your presence she will have a better chance of coming out of this sooner," the doctor explained.
"Yeah," Dearka said lost in thought.
"I haven't seen you in over two years and now, here you are. You are still as beautiful as the day I left the Archangel. So much has happened in my life and all I wanted was to share it with you. You must be so angry with me for not coming back to you. I had no other choice," Dearka thought feeling guilty.
The doctor grabbed his belongings and began to leave the room and Dearka cringed at his callousness.
"If you need me for anything Commander, please call. I will be back to check on the young woman later this evening. Should I inform Cadey that you will be here," the doctor informed him.
"Cadey! I forgot about her," he thought cringing.
It seemed everyone knew Cadey was on this base with him.
"Word certainly travels fast around here," he thought realizing how many people had mentioned they were excited to see her.
"Thank you doctor, that won't be necessary. In fact, if you could do me a favor and not mention to Cadey that I know this young woman, I'd really appreciate it," Dearka replied.
"Understood Sir," the doctor saluted before heading out.
"Now what am I going to do? Well, I guess I'm jumping the gun. You probably never wanted to see me again," Dearka stated to the sleeping form.
Dearka continued to hold her hand and placed his head down on the bed next to her. It was getting late and he was tired from the days' events. Not only physically but now mentally as well as the thoughts of Miriallia versus Cadey spilled into his brain.
"What am I going to do?" he thought as his head hit the bedside.
Dearka drifted to sleep never letting go of Miriallia's hand.
End
Author's Preview: I can't believe I have already finished Chapter 6 now too. Wow, I'm on a roll, at least, that's what I hope. Don't worry everyone chapter 7 has outlines and the first couple pages already written. The interaction shall begin between the two in the next chapter. Hopefully I will have it up by Sunday at the latest. Please read and review for me so I can continue on my happy way.
Reviewer Response: Hello to all my wonderful reviewers. Thank you so much for all your support and reviews on these six chapters. Unfortunately due to possible changes in TOS (which is still unconfirmed) all responses are now located on my personal website. Please click on my profile page to link to the website. Thank you.