Dearka & Miriallia

Author's Note: Yay, I'm still on my roll (all smiles). And all this is in between playing FFX again and reading Harry Potter & other DM fics plus getting the Academy Days fic organized. I've impressed myself (sticks out tongue). Anyway, the next update should be on Thursday or Friday depending, but I will also be away on the weekend for another adventure leaving the following update not until Monday or Tuesday. Hugs to all of you! 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.)

Chapter 41

The Inevitable

Lacus thought about all the things Yzak had said to her. She had missed a lot living on Earth with Kira and with Athrun visiting so rarely with Cagalli, she didn't get much information from him. Then again, she wasn't even sure he spoke with them very often. The security detail Yzak had mentioned could have very well been the first time in almost two years that Athrun had been in contact with the Dearka and Yzak as well.

"I never imagined that the Elsmans' and Whites' would make a marriage arrangement. Dearka never struck me as the type to get dragged into that," Lacus said sadly.

Yzak shook his head in agreement. He thought that out of all people other than Zala, it would be himself that would get stuck in an arranged marriage. His mother did have a tendency to run every aspect of his life before he joined the military.

"Are you saying that because you knew what happened with him and that girl or because you honestly believe that?" Yzak asked curiously.

Lacus understood the accusation that he was making. Of course she had known about Miriallia and the baby, but as much as she had begged her to say something to Dearka, she couldn't force her. Nor could she tell Dearka herself. Not that she had much access to him with her attempt to stay hidden from the PLANTs.

"Is Annabella all right?" Lacus asked deliberately avoiding the question.

"She's fine," Yzak replied shortly.

Shiho moved to the chair in front of Yzak's desk and sat down. She realized this may take awhile and she was beginning to get tired. Yzak had shaken his head when she tried to come back around to the screen making her annoyed enough. There was no need to be standing there like a fool on top of it too.

"About the girl then, she's your friend too, right?" Yzak asked.

Waltfeld stood up from where he had sat down during the conversation between Lacus and Yzak to speak up himself.

"Any of us here would do anything if that young woman was in trouble. I'm sure even you can understand that sort of loyalty," Waltfeld said with a hint of sarcasm.

"Then we need help to save her from the EAF. I don't like the looks of where this is going, but I have no access to finding the Archangel and as much as Zala said he would help, he seems sort of cornered being on the Minerva. All eyes are on that thing in ZAFT making it difficult to do anything that would be recognized as consorting with the enemy," Yzak finished.

Both Waltfeld and Lacus looked at each other again understanding the deeper meaning of his words.

"Then if you can take care of Athrun, I will make sure everything you need to save Miriallia is at your disposal upon arriving to Earth," Lacus replied promisingly.

"Then I should go. I have to make sure Cadey is ready to send your way. How would you like me to do this so you aren't spotted?" Yzak asked.

Waltfeld filled Yzak in on the plans to shuttle Cadey out to them without being noticed as Shiho leaned back closing her eyes into the newest scheme she was about to be dragged into thanks to Yzak's friendship with Dearka. Part of it gave her a headache, but she cared for him just as much as Yzak so another part of her knew it was necessary. After the conversation ended, Yzak saluted before turning off the screen.

"That boy is all ZAFT to the end, isn't he?" Waltfeld asked mockingly.

"We should be thankful or else we wouldn't have anyone whom ZAFT trusts enough to get information from," Lacus replied before moving back to her seat.

DaCosta looked up from his monitor in front of him to Andrew.

"Would you like me to get the preparations in order for Miss White, Commander?" DaCosta asked.

"Yes, I would appreciate that," Waltfeld replied as he sat back down in his own chair.

Dearka's Room…

Dearka sat there watching Annabella as she would touch an item waiting for him to say the word.

"Book," he said as she put her hands on a book on the shelf.

She giggled and ran around to find another object. She grabbed her new favorite teddy bear that Shiho had given her a few days earlier and hugged it tightly. She brought it over and handed it to him. As soon as his hands were around it she laughed and patted the toy to get his response.

"Teddy bear," he replied earning another giggle.

Earlier that Week…

"She doesn't talk much, does she?" Cadey asked sitting next to Dearka on the floor.

"No, not really," he replied with his eyes never leaving his little girl.

Annabella ran around the room happily playing with blocks and pulling books off the shelf. She loved to pile the books and then put them back up or hand them to Dearka and Cadey once every one was taken off.

"You know, I read that if you label items as a child touches them, they learn the words and are more likely to say them by associating the word to the item," Cadey stated.

"Where and when did you read this," Dearka said accusingly.

She glared at him for a moment as he deliberately shot her down. Sometimes he had the ability to still infuriate her when she was just trying to help.

"Forget it then. Don't teach her to talk. I don't care, it's not like she's my kid," Cadey said defensively.

In The Present…

Those words of Cadey's flashed through his head again as he continued his game with Annabella. As much as he hated to admit it, Cadey was right about labeling items. In only a few hours, she was already mouthing some of them out softly to herself in between bringing him objects.

As Annabella ran around him again, his door buzzer rang. He looked up and called through the door.

"If you know the code, come in, if you don't come back later," Dearka said in exhaustion.

Sure enough, the door slid open revealing both Shiho and Yzak. Yzak was smirking to himself with how brilliant he was for his newest scheme.

"Good thing I'm the Commander of this ship or else I wouldn't have been able to see you to tell you the good news," Yzak said with no hint of anger or annoyance with Dearka for once.

Dearka's eyebrows raised at the realization that Yzak wasn't tearing into him about not opening the door to his room. No matter how tired he was in the past, this stunt of his always got under Yzak's skin for some reason. Yzak used to say something about him just being lazy and that he needed to get off his sorry butt to open the door for him. And that was all said before Dearka actually followed instructions and opened it for the Commander. As soon as he did, he was reamed even more, so the fact that Yzak so happily typed in the code and walked in, shocked him a little.

"What are you so happy about?" Dearka asked curiously.

Annabella stopped what she was doing with her father to run over to Yzak. Even the fact that a little rug rat was now hanging off his leg didn't seem to phase him. Which told Dearka, whatever it was, it was big.

"I've solved all of your problems," Yzak said coolly.

"My problems?" Dearka asked.

Shiho entered behind Yzak and sat on Dearka's bed. She looked around the room and noticed what a mess it had become.

"You know, you really should clean this place up a little," she said sarcastically.

Dearka turned his head to glare at her for the comment. But before he could get all the way around, Yzak gave him the news.

"Cadey is on her way to the Eternal," Yzak stated proudly.

Dearka jumped up from his spot on the floor. Did he just hear right? Did Yzak say he was going to send Cadey to the…Eternal?

"But the Eternal went missing during the last war," he thought.

He knew that ZAFT had lost the ship in the confusion at the end of the war. And that he had been grilled about its' disappearance, but he never expected it to just pop back up. Least of all to be told that Cadey was going to be out of his hair thanks to the same ship that caused him such a headache back then.

"And how did Yzak get in contact with them?" he thought again.

He sat dumbfounded as he waited for the explanation from Yzak or Shiho. At this point, he didn't care who spoke up, just that somebody needed to speak.

"Well it seems that Lacus was hiding in the shadows on the Eternal for a while now. When she contacted me to let me know the coordinates of the Girty Lue, I asked her for a couple of favors in exchange for not turning her into ZAFT," Yzak stated.

Dearka blinked at him upon hearing that Yzak actually heard someone out before calling in the guards.

"You know where the Girty Lue is?" Dearka asked now more interested.

Shiho shifted on the bed to get more comfortable and then answered Dearka's question.

"Yup, that's why I made him stay on the line with her," Shiho replied.

Dearka looked behind him to see Shiho smiling down on him as well.

"Thanks," was all he managed to say.

"Lucky for us that someone was tracking them. To tell you the truth, I didn't know how either Athrun or I were going to help you. But I'm thinking with the strength of the Valor, we are going to need more fire power than just our Zaku Warriors," Yzak hinted.

Dearka's eyes opened wider in realization. He couldn't believe Yzak had gone to so much trouble just for him. It was very rare that this side of Yzak was shown.

"You mean we may have access to…" he started.

"Don't get your hopes up yet. We know where the Girty Lue is heading, and we know Lacus is going to contact the Archangel to help keep it under the ZAFT radar. Which means, I'm going to have to contact Zala to tell him we have it covered now without telling him how. I don't want the Minerva involved with so many eyes on it. Plus it may bring unwanted attention on Zala himself and as much as I would enjoy causing him trouble, even I'm not that cruel to a fellow ZAFT soldier," Yzak stated.

He looked down to see Annabella still smiling at him. Part of him wanted to smile and the other wanted to shake her off like the rodent he thought she was.

"You want to do something about your kid?" Yzak asked.

"Under the circumstances, I guess I could help you out," Dearka mocked.

Shiho laughed at the exchange between the boys. It had been a few weeks since she heard that type of sarcasm come from Dearka. She was beginning to worry about him and wonder if he was ever going to break out of this depressed mood he was in.

"First things first though Yzak, you have to reinstate Dearka. He can't go running around without ZAFT access in a time like this," Shiho reminded.

"Yeah, about that though," Dearka started.

Yzak eyed him warily. He didn't like it when Dearka started with such a serious tone in his voice. And he couldn't imagine what Dearka was going to ask of him now.

"About that what?" Yzak challenged.

"I was thinking of visiting my parents. With Belle I mean. It's great that you're going to get Cadey out of my hair, but I need to get her out of my life," Dearka tried to reason.

Yzak closed his eyes and shook his head in disbelief. Was he once again going to make another stupid mistake? He couldn't imagine how Dearka was going to pull this one off.

"I think you'll just be rattling the cage right now and it's not that wise. Your parents are like poisonous snakes. If you rile them up, you know they will both move in for the kill," Yzak reminded him.

"I know, but this has gone on long enough, hasn't it? I don't need them for anything, so why not make my life a little easier? I can take care of Belle and save Mir without their help. That's what I have you guys for right?" Dearka coaxed.

Yzak rolled his eyes again.

"I guess, but I still want to stay on the record with, 'I don't think it's a good idea.' But, I won't stop you if that's what you want to do. Just let me reinstate you first so your father can't maneuver around that and make sure you are never reinstated out of spite," Yzak pleaded.

"Yeah, all right. I guess it's better to be safe than sorry. But now we need to tell Cadey she's heading out, don't we?" Dearka asked.

"Yup," Yzak said now deep in thought on how to approach the snake that was out of the cage now that he warned Dearka of the ones in the cage.

Back on the Girty Lue…

Miriallia's eyes fluttered open from her long peaceful nap. She could barely remember what had happened earlier as she slowly sat up. Her hands hit the glass above her as she motioned for a technician to let her out. When she looked around she saw Stellar still fast asleep, but Sting had already been released and was sitting on the edge of his pod.

"How do you feel?" Jeremy asked while opening the hatch.

"Okay I guess. Just a little weak is all," she replied.

He clicked the hatch into the open position and locked it into place. As he finished with this, he walked back to his desk to grab a brown clipboard with many notes attached. The top of the clipboard had a piece of surgical tape on the metal clamp sporting the name, 'MIRIALLIA' on it. She watched as he filled in a few pages before he turned to ask her some more questions.

As she answered the questions, Sting had made his way over to her and sat at the edge of her pod. She smiled at him, but wasn't sure why. Thoughts were running ramped in her head. They were so jumbled and choppy though that she couldn't focus on any of them, which began to anger her.

"What's wrong Miriallia?" Sting asked with the concern a big brother would have.

She looked over to him and smiled again to assure him all was well. She didn't want to worry him over her frustration of her memory blocks.

"Nothing. I'm fine. Just a little aggravated that I still can't remember anything. I thought I was going to make some progress on unlocking my memories, but it doesn't seem to be happening as I felt it would," she replied honestly.

Jeremy sighed as he eavesdropped on the conversation she had with Sting. He was so relieved that he was able to wipe out her memories just enough to not damage them completely. The fact that she even mentioned not being able to put them together, meant they were still there in her subconscious and his new program was working. He just had to keep it hidden from Neo until he could figure out how to help her. The other two were no longer able to be helped, but Miriallia still had a chance and he wasn't going to lose that chance to save her and her baby.

"As long as I don't overdose her on the drugs, she should still have a chance to get away without the addiction factor that makes it necessary in order to live in general. That way, she won't be forced to stay here under the EAF's thumb. I hope this works until I can get her out of here," he thought nervously.

"Yo, you done with us?" Sting asked the technician.

Jeremy looked up as he was shocked back out of his nervous thoughts. He looked around the room and realized he was the only one still near the two kids.

"Uh, yeah, you guys can go. But, Miriallia, make sure you come back for another check up soon. Preferably before your next battle," Jeremy insisted.

She stood up from her place and began to walk for the door, Sting following close behind.

"I will," she said more cheery than she had been in the past.

"Where do you want to go for now?" Sting asked her as they walked out the door.

"I'm kind of hungry right now," she replied as they headed in the direction of the cafeteria.

"Well, at least leaving that one happy memory I found will give her a happier disposition for the time being. But I better make sure to blame it on one of the drugs as an interaction with her pregnancy if Neo asks," Jeremy thought making a mental note.

End

Author's Preview: Time for Dearka to make his way home with Annabella and all alone now that Cadey is heading out. A part of him hoped she would be there, but now it's up to him to regain some of his self-confidence. 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 all my chapters thus far. I love you all so much! 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.