Chance Encounter
An Alternate Reality romance
by Time Guardian
Chapter 2 - Rude Awakening
"Where do you think you are going?"
The voice was the same harsh one she heard when she was in labor.
She turned around to face him. Maybe if she appealed to him-
"I can't stay here, Mamoru-san."
Mamoru strode up to her angrily. Usagi had only given birth a few hours ago,
and now it looked like she was dressed and was ready to flee. To her credit, she had the look of a determined woman. However, when he saw Usagi bent over to pick up her daughter, he could see her visibly wince in pain.
"That's it. You either hand your daughter over and go back to bed where you belong, or I will call in the nurses and have them do it for me," he demanded.
She frowned at him. "You wouldn't."
"Try me."
After she stared at him for a few moments, Mamoru relaxed when Usagi handed her child over to him.
"That's much better."
Usagi couldn't believe her bad luck. She was so close in escaping this place and getting on the road. She couldn't go back to Mrs. Chen's place, and she couldn't trust him. There wasn't that many options left.
She pulled back the covers and got back into bed, and though her body thanked her for the relief, Usagi wasn't going to admit that to him, the jerk.
She saw Mamoru pull a chair close to her bed with one hand, and sat down with her baby.
"If you are wondering by the way," he stated quietly, "Mrs. Chen didn't tell me your secret, but I was hoping that you would tell me."
Usagi gave him the hardest gaze she could muster. It was hard staring into his deep blue eyes, but she caught her breath and managed to stammer. "I- can't."
His voice remained soft, but daring. "Can't, or won't?"
Usagi felt her heart ache. He was handsome with his short black hair and warm smile. The way he held her child evoked warm tender feelings from within her that she hadn't felt in some time.
But the last time she trusted someone fully, she paid for it dearly. She remembered the explosions, the blood, the lifeless body of her fiance, the threatening notes sent to her parents- it was too much to bear.
"Usagi?"
She seemed to zone out on him, and looked on the verge of tears. Mamoru made his voice soft, but just enough to snap Usagi back to the present. He heard her voice tremble. "I have trusted the wrong people before. How can I trust you?"
He looked at her intently. "Well I do seem to remember that we have shared the second most intimate form of contact. Besides, I don't think you have been calling me 'Mamoru-san' for nothing, or have you?"
She didn't want to admit it, but he was right. Mamoru had been the only outsider (save for the pharmasicist and doctor) that Usagi had spoken to, and that was only because he scared her out of her wits.
He reminded her of the male models she had seen at partes and in fashion magazines, hardly a hair out of place, and a lean muscular body that required a lot of attention.
It was then Usagi realized that she had been alone for way too long. Sure, Mrs. Chen provided a mother figure, but she missed the companionship of her friends and family, plus the one love of her life which was no more. She was wary.
She decided to give Mamoru a chance-or a way out.
"Ok...but if I involve you in this, your life could be in danger. Do you still want to hear my story?"
Mamoru sat back in astonishment. Danger? This was the stuff of spy and adventure novels. He was but a University student studying to become a doctor, the only thing dangerous he was expecting to do was working in the hectic life of the emergency room, not anything like this. He looked down at the baby girl in his arms, and saw that she was still asleep. Mamoru felt a sense of protectiveness wash over him. She was but an innocent, not knowing anything of what her mother was going through. She didn't deserve to be on the run.
Mamoru finally looked back at Usagi. There was a haunted look in her blue eyes that made him want to take her in his arms to banish the fears away. She couldn't be any more than twenty by his guess, and yet Usagi's expression made her look old beyond her years.
He decided quicky. "I will help you anyway I can, I promise. Now tell me your story."
Usagi smiled in relief at his answer. With Mamoru's help, there might be a chance, but first, she had to tell her story.
"Mamoru-san, do you know of a singer by the name of Aria Aure?"
She saw him frown slightly, and then shook his head before he replied. "No. Should I have?"
Laughter bubbled up from her soul. "You can't be serious. A year ago every newspaper and news program was filled with her exploits."
"A year ago then? That explains it," Mamoru said. "I was studying for my finals and-"
He never got to finish his sentence.
A group of what looked like reporters barged into her hospital room, cameras blazing and voices mingling into a chorus of anarchy.
The sudden noise startled the baby, who woke up with an angry wail.
Mamoru stood stiffly, handed the baby carefully to Usagi, and turned to face the mob.
"What is the meaning of this? This is a hospital room, you can't just barge in here and-"
The reporters appeared not to hear him, and raised their voices to drown out his. He struggled to bar them from coming even further into the room, when he heard a question from them that made his blood run cold:
"Tsukino-san, what was it like giving birth to the child of the man you murdered?"
-ducks flying objects- I'm sorry for ending the chapter here, but I had a plan for this, and it changed at the last moment. I blame all those mystery books I have read, but I digress.
Next chapter: The tables have turned: Mamoru now is the one that doesn't trust Usagi!
Will he listen to the rest of her story, or is it all over?
Till later,
Time Guardian