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Chapter (finally) 14: Babele
Portsmouth, Virginia,
February 2005,
She watched the circular movement of the teaspoon inside the cup of tea, and compared that vortex to the swarm of thoughts that stirred in her head at that moment.
"I made tea," she said softly, looking out of the kitchen door to address the figure sitting on the couch, legs stretched out over a small pouffe of the same color of the sofa, and distractedly zapping on sports channels. "Do you want some, Mitsuo?"
The boy did not answer, and Michiru sighed; after putting the spoon in the dishwasher, she picked up the cup and headed for the living room: Mitsuo had interrupted the fast succession of channels, to focus on an old Chicago Bulls game on ESPN Classic.
"I put some of the baby things in the washing machine, as soon as she wakes up, just send it." She communicated to him by sitting next to him; that just nodded, and the silence fell between them.
"How you feel today?" She then asked, and Mitsuo snapped his lips.
"How do you want me to feel? Same as yesterday, the day before yesterday and the day before." It was ironic, without looking at her. "Stop asking me always."
"I have to ask you why you do not talk, Mitsuo." Michiru retorted, leaving the cup of tea on the magazine rack next to the sofa. "I have no feedback from you, and if you do not talk to me, I can not tell if the theraphhy works, or psychotherapy is helping you."
"Do you think they're helping me?" He turned, and the boy's pale iris crossed those of Michiru, of the same color. "I'm stuffed with psychotropic drugs, Michi, I get so many that I can not even keep Hotaru in my arms without being afraid to drop her." He took his legs off the pouf, and sitting down, he put his face in his hands. "And with what result, uh?" He murmured. "The end of this tunnel I just can not see it."
Michiru embraced him, resting her head on his curved shoulder.
"It's a long way, Mitsuo, but we'll get out." She told him gently. "We'll make it."
"I'm sorry," the voice was broken. "I'm disappointing you, I'm disappointing everyone."
"You're not letting us down, Mitsuo," she consoled him, rubbing his back. "I do not want you to think this, but I want you to focus on that wonderful little bundle that sleeps in the other room, and you're the fantastic dad."
Mitsuo looked for her gaze, his eyes veiled with tears. "I am a horrible person, Michiru, I am ashamed of myself."
The other included the link.
"Do you still think about that thing you told me?"
The boy was silent for a long moment, before nodding. Michiru shook her head. "It is the Disorder that makes you think about this, Mitsuo, it's a distortion of reality, on which you do not have to focus anyway."
"But if it were true?"
The girl snapped her lips.
"It's absurd, I was here, do you think I would have been silent if I had the slightest suspicion?"
Mitsuo did not answer and breathed a sigh, letting himself go into the girl's embrace. "I'm sorry, Michi," he told her again, and the other kissed him on the black mop. "I know, Mitsuo, but I'm here to help you, we're all here to help you."
The boy sniffed, snatching a smile at Michiru, who glanced at the clock as she untied his embrace.
"I have to go now, I left you the medicine near the sink, do not forget to take it, okay?"
Mitsuo nodded, and he watched her greet him with a wave of her hand and a smile on her face. When Michiru was gone beyond the threshold and the door was closed behind him, he got up and went to the kitchen, where the four capsules of the morning round lay waiting to deceive his nervous and endocrine system, giving him a shallow calm.
While underneath, in depth, the strongest currents stirred. He took all four of them in his hand and opened the dustbin, hurrying to the operation when he heard the hallway door open.
"Edward Dewenish VA Medical Center" Military Hospital
Portsmouth, Virginia,
June 20, 2008,
The days slipped away slowly. Lazy, like every self-respecting summer day.
Enjoying the warmth of the early afternoon sun, the salad that was her lunch laid on her knees but forgotten by an increasingly evanescent appetite, she wondered, squinting her eyes, turning them towards the star, if the sun of Iraq burnt at the same way.
Iraq that had been the center of a mysterious world, with the name of Babylon, and that had ignited the thirst for knowledge and adventure in a young prince of a kingdom of ancient Greece. Alexander of Macedonia, then became Great. The great.
The burning became unsustainable, and was forced to look away: after a brief moment needed to metabolize too much light absorbed, the familiar figure of the Dewenish park once again opened, where very few patients, given the time, They were.
Three boys were busy talking on the bench furthest from her: she identified only one, like a patient from Samuel; the other two were unknown to her.
A slight smile bent her lips up when she saw the highest of the three gently caress the nape of the young man who sat close, listening to him nodding while he crossed one leg and gesticulated in the direction of the patient.
A couple of benches back, closer to the hospital entrance, two nurses on the afternoon shift must have had the same idea. He stood there for a moment, watching them talking to each other, sensing how occasionally they looked at her furtively.
She wondered if there was any new gossip in the hospital about her, except for what Mamoru's mistress was doing, and Haruka came back to her powerfully.
As if she could think of something different from her in those days.
Michiru sighed, reflecting on the situation that had been created: on the one hand clinically unexceptionable, with the events of the now famous 'Zero Day' in which she had become aware of Samira, key to a corner of the psyche of Haruka that was going gangrene, infected by unrepeatable horrors, but who had launched a cry for help in the form of the panic attack.
After the confession the river Tenou was now certainly more malleable, and although it still flaunted on several occasions that impassive mask that it hoped had remained under the rubble of that wall that with so much tenacity had managed to break down, were back to talk about the events of the day of ' attack; of that twenty-seven of January, which had also been the day Tenou had turned twenty-eight.
The Samira argument, on the other hand, had not been dealt with. As well as another question, which led directly to what took away sleep: a perfect clinical path, in fact, was opposed to a tortuous emotional path, comparable to a mule track.
The sensation of the lips of the other on her own had become something hard to annihilate, as well as the image of Haruka above her, on the floor of the living room, which had often peeped into her thoughts.
That euphoric excitement returned again and Michiru shook her head, won by the idea that she liked Tenou.
That Tenou attracted her in all her form and appearance, but also that that kiss had died at the same time as she had seen the light, and it liquidated just as quickly a few hours later. They had not talked about it anymore, and Haruka did not seem to feel the need for it. Perhaps it was the best thing, she tried to convince himself.
"Do you know that you are very beautiful when you are absorbed?"
The flow of thoughts stopped, and arching an eyebrow, she turned to the source of the unexpected distraction, finding herself looking into Dr. Foster's gray irises. "What were you thinking about?"
Michiru shrugged. "To what moves the sun and the other stars "."
Samuel looked at her without understanding, then smiled. "And I was hoping to think of how to thank me," he said, sitting down next to her. Michiru crossed her arms to her chest, a curious air painted on her face.
"Let's hear, what should I thank you for?"
"For warning you from Tenou, and opening your eyes to his real intentions."
Michiru looked at him for a long moment, then shaking her head began to close the plastic package that had contained her lunch: it was granted a pause too long. "You really have a great imagination."
"It does not take much imagination to figure out what Tenou wants from you," Samuel replied, the smile still on his beautiful face, and Michiru could not help but her lips bent upwards. "It's really funny." Haruka told me the same phrase about you. "
The other tilted his head, without answering, and while Michiru stretched to throw her waste in the nearby recycling bin, in her peripheral view returned the three boys who had spotted shortly after her arrival.
"Who are those two with your patient?" She then asked, indicating with a gesture the bench on which they sat.
"One is the brother, the other is," he paused, thoughtfully, "his companion."
She seemed to perceive a certain note of disgust in Foster's words, and leaned back on the bench, bringing her face to the back of her hand to look for the other's gaze.
"You know, now that I think about it, it's not the first time I see them, they come to see him often, but I never would have said they were-"
"Fags?" He suggested the doctor, and a puzzled expression appeared on the girl's face. He was not wrong. "No, homosexuals." She pointed.
"Where's the difference?"
"That I am not homophobic, as opposed to you." And indeed, to be honest, I have fantasies about a woman. Do a little bit.
Samuel snapped his lips. "I'm not homophobic, but I find them just nice."
Michiru did not miss the irony in the words of the other, who turned to look at her. "What's more, in addition to being a paladin of unbalanced ladders, you're also a champion of gays now?"
"It's not a question of being a paladin, I simply do not like prejudices."
"Sometimes certain prejudices are not so wrong." Foster retorted. "We confirm it every day, military are not the tin heads they say?"
"There are soldiers who would sometimes prefer to face the Martial Court, rather than do what is ordered to them, Samuel."
The doctor remained silent. "Is your Tenou among those?"
"As far as I know, Haruka has often walked on the edge of the razor," she answered cryptically, and Samuel snapped her lips. "Then behind that beautiful face there is also a brain, who would have thought it."
"Samuel," Michiru was annoyed, and the other shook his head. "Okay, I'm sorry, I did not come to argue." The boy raised the white flag, who started talking only after a long moment. "Listen, I behaved like a real jerk, and I regret it, I did not have the right to judge your choices."
Michiru did not feel much touched by those excuses, although Samuel seemed quite sincere. "And also the whole matter of the Red Cross nurse." He sighed, shaking his head. "Sometimes strapping it, I realize it."
"Clearly, I'm always convinced that Tenou has a precise design in mind and is trying to fool you," he insisted, and Michiru frowned. "The word fool makes me understand how little consideration you have of my will, Samuel." She told him rough. "It almost seems like Haruka can plagiarize me at any moment without me being able to do anything about it."
A faint smile curved Samuel's lips.
"You know I don't think so. I have a lot of appreciation for your intelligence, which is why I'm pretty sure you didn't sleep together, despite trying to make me believe otherwise. "He approached the girl a little, bending towards her.
"I think it was a provocation, as I suppose that perhaps what I have mistaken for attraction is just a deep affection for a poor Christ only as a dog, you are trying to re-enter in a context of almost normal life. " Samuel remained a silent for a moment. "Probably even in light of what happened to your-"
"I grabbed. " interrupted Michiru. "And Haruka is not a poor Christ just like a dog. "
"If you say so, " was ironic the other, which resumed after a moment of silence. "What I want to say is that Tenou, a zotic and arrogant snotty, probably he will beat all your good intentions and will feel authorized to slip into your pants sooner or later. "
Michiru did not answer, aware that the truth was exactly the opposite: from her trousers Haruka had literally escaped. Always. "It will trample your feelings, Michi, you know it will."
Michi?
For a moment she was perplexed by the nickname given. A nickname that was not new to her, but with which very few people had called her.
"Zombie and arrogant bragging ..." she repeated slowly, and smiled when a thought struck her. "Samuel, do you know what Durlindana is?"
The other looked at her, perplexed, jumping the connection between her words and those of the other doctor. Then he shrugged. "No. Is it something you eat?"
Michiru needed that answer to get up from the bench and, hand in hand, return to the sliding doors that made up the entrance to the Dewenish. It was not long before she heard Samuel's footsteps follow her, and the figure of the neighboring doctor again. "Come on, Michi, what else should I do? I'm sorry-"
"First of all, you could stop calling me Michi." She froze it through the doors. "And then you could end up taking advantage of every opportunity to insult Haruka."
"I'm just trying to help you."
The girl did not even turn to those words, and the amazement was painted on her face when she felt herself seize by the wrist and turn abruptly. "Do not ignore me, Michiru, it's something I can not stand."
"Samuel, leave me." She called to him when she recovered from surprise, glancing first at the hand of the other clutching her wrist, and then at the atrium, where some of them cast curious glances at the scene.
"What do you want to do, a place in the hospital? They are watching us all."
"Let them look." Foster murmured, and increasing his grip on his wrist approached the girl. "I care about you, give me a chance, Michiru, even as a friend."
"You're not looking for friendship, Samuel, you're looking for a possession," she replied, jerking her wrist.
"And it is really shabby that you come to make me the moral intentions of a person you do not even know, professing you so different when it is clear how the crystal who is here, who wants to slip into my pants."
"Do you know what crystal is clear, Michiru?" The realization struck Foster, who just grasped his gray eyes, which became a crack. "That I had definitely overestimated you: it probably has already drowned you in. Tell me," an ironic smile curved his lips. "I can not call you 'Michi' because that's what he calls you, when you fu-"
"Let me guess ... That would be me, Dr. Foster?"
Michiru's hand was already ready to impact Samuel's cheek, but the familiar voice behind her stopped her: she turned to cross what she knew would be two green irises, and Foster also looked up from Michiru's face to see who he was behind the other. Both were observed in the reflection of the mirrored lenses of Haruka's Ray Ban.
"You talk about the devil," Samuel was ironical without leaving the doctor, and a slight smile was painted on Tenou's face.
"Never comparison was more fitting, Doctor."
Michiru perceived a tinge of bitterness in the affirmation of the other, which then surrounded her waist with one arm. Surprised by the gesture, Samuel loosened his grip on the wrist and the girl took the opportunity to tug it away, and then feeling a slight pressure on her side let Haruka bring it closer to her body.
"Much better," she murmured, and Michiru tasted that close contact that immediately reminded her of another; launching a quick glance behind her, she realized how Tenou's arrival had attracted numerous inquisitors, including patients and staff, to the scene itself rather embarrassing.
"Come on Haruka, we are giving a show." She pulled her back, grabbing her by the sleeve of his dark shirt, reluctantly releasing the embrace, but was stopped by the same weight as Haruka, still motionless.
"Go. Go with your knight without stain and without fear," was Samuel, the words full of irony. "Where did you leave the armor, Major Tenou?"
Haruka was silent again, and a faint smile appeared on her face.
"Ah, doctor, doctor," she began to say, shaking her head. "I really want to hope not to have to watch such a scene anymore."
The smile did not fade from her face, and Michiru identified that friendly mask that Haruka was so good at wearing, and of which there was only fear.
But Samuel did not understand it: stepping forward, his chin raised in open challenge, he approached Tenou. "Are you threatening me, Major?"
The other smacked her lips in disagreement, then pulling out the Ray Ban to hook them to the first button of her shirt. "No, Samuel." The green irises planted on the gray ones of the doctor. "I'm just giving you some advice."
Eyes lingered for a long moment, and the smile again bent Haruka's mouth when the other tried to mask the glaring movement of his Adam's apple intent on swallowing the bitter morsel of defeat.
A slight pressure on the arm by Michiru made her understand that it was not necessary to rage on the corpse, and let herself be carried away by the girl: when they entered the elevator, they still felt the intrigued glances and murmurs that had accompanied the whole scene in the atrium .
"Fantastic," the doctor cried once protected from the elevator walls, covering her eyes with her hands.
"From tomorrow the whole hospital will talk about it."
"I do not think I've ever been very nice to him," Haruka began, putting her hands in her pockets as she leaned against a wall, thoughtful. "But after this Foster will make my doll voodoo."
Michiru nodded. "I would have managed, but thanks for intervening."
"Ah-ah, I saw." The other ironic agreed.
Silence accompanied the journey to the chosen floor, then Haruka sighed. "You know Michiru, I think I've made an evaluation mistake."
The doctor inclined her head. "What do you mean?"
"Foster seemed like a good guy, or I would never have stuck you to get you out."
"So you learn to settle me at all costs," she joked, but returning to look in the green irises of Haruka found no trace of irony.
"Stay away, doc."
Michiru found the tone with which Haruka told him nothing but encouraging. "Well, after this wonderful exit, looking for him was just the last of my thoughts."
The elevator doors opened, and Haruka brought her hands from the side pockets to the backs of her jeans as they walked out into the corridor.
"The way he looked at you did not like it at all."
A strange euphoria rose in a corner of the doctor's mind at the idea that those words were taken with them, and once inside the office she waited for Tenou to come in, before closing the door with her weight, leaning on her back. "What is it, Major, are you jealous of Samuel?"
The other smiled, and picked up the small recorder connected via the audio socket to the laptop.
"No, I'm not jealous," he looked for his gaze. "It's something that, grant me the comparison, is not in my ropes."
Michiru's lips also leaned upwards, despite the euphoria had disappeared with the same speed with which it had arrived. "This deal is antediluvian," Haruka told her, putting it back next to the computer, and the other shrugged. "For what I need, it's just fine."
"What's inside?"
"I'm talking about you." She revealed them passing by, to sit at the desk and start unplugging the recorder to put it in the bag. "Speaking of our psychotherapy sessions helps me to better stop the concepts, and I need them for when I prepare the reports for Mamoru."
Haruka raised an eyebrow. "So I guess Chiba knows everything I've always told you."
"Dr. Chiba is in a position to be able to ask me anything inherent in our interviews," she began to explain, while the other took off the books from the bookstore and gave them distracted looks, before putting them back in their place. "But he does not, and I do not tell him more than necessary."
"Why?" Haruka seemed genuinely curious.
"Because here we are beyond the doctor-patient relationship, Haruka." Michiru told her. "You are my friend, not just a case to be treated."
Haruka sat in front of the girl, and stretched her long arms over her head. "Yeah, and how many of your friends stick your tongue in your mouth when you least expect it?"
The doctor felt her heart skip a beat, and tried to hide the surprise that came from that sentence: it was the first time that they were talking about it. Then she inclined her head. "You did not put my tongue in my mouth."
"I tried to," she thought for a moment about the word to use. "Stalk you."
Michiru smiled, putting a hand to her chest with fake disdain. "Oh yes, my knight, but luckily I was on the chastity belt."
She got up from her chair and walked around the desk to sit on the edge next to the other; Haruka glanced quickly at the doctor's crossed legs a few feet away from her, before returning to look at her.
"Since when did you express yourself as if I had eaten a chivalric poem?" She joked the doctor, and Haruka shrugged, leaning on her desk with her elbow to meet Michiru's gaze. "I'm glad you managed to get over it, doc."
Michiru looked at her extended face, the vanished circles. And that dark blue shirt that gave her in an indecent way ... Michiru, not wandering, mentally scolded himself. "I've already explained it to you, Haruka, and ..." she paused.
What was she supposed to say? What had passed over just because at this point hse preferred to have her as a friend rather than deprive himself of those small contacts that had become necessary?
What had happened to us because it was clear that the other had been a mistake, a behavior dictated by events? Haruka had been clear: she needed their friendship. Not her. From whom that sentiment came, it was completely irrelevant.
From Tenou's eyes she realized that she had probably remained silent for too long, and decided to throw her on irony. Just like the other was doing. "And I assure you, during the university I have seen worse."
Is it so easy to lie?
Haruka chuckled, and narrowed her eyes inquisitively. "By the way, explain to me a little about this party thing in the dorms. I'm really curious. "
Michiru hit her shoulder, coming down from the desk. "Perverted."
"It is in these cases that I regret not having done the College," was the other dramatically, extending a hand to lift the clip that held the photograph on the desk.
"How do you feel?" Michiru then asked her, leaning towards a drawer of the office furniture and extracting a letter from her.
Haruka shrugged. "Well, I would say, the fact that I can sleep is already something doc, is not it?"
"It's a lot." She agreed with the doctor, reassembling herself. She put the letter aside, the hidden header in Tenou's eyes. "Have you had more nightmares?" she then asked, opening a clipboard.
Haruka thought for a moment. "No, I do not think so."
"And projections of imprisonment?"
The other did not immediately answer. "Sometimes."
"It's normal, we'll work on it." She watched Haruka put away the clip with the photo, which came back to open up to her sight: she was drawing it with Hotaru in her arms, the little girl sporting a pair of veil wings fixed on a green onesie.
"We took it on her birthday." Michiru explained to her, and Haruka leaned back with her elbows on the desk.
"When is Hotaru's birthday?"
"In January, six, precisely."
A smile bent Haruka's lips. "It does not surprise me, the best are born in January."
Michiru closed the lock, and slipped the pen into the shirt pocket. "That would also explain why Hotaru worships you literally, she just asks when she can go back to your house."
"How can you worship me if you do not even know me." She retorted the other in a flat tone.
"And then I thought I was negatively influencing it."
Michiru inclined her head. "She's very attached to Luna, she never leaves that doll, she thinks when she woke up, she panicked because she thought we'd left her alone."
The connection escaped Haruka. "IS...?"
"Well, she left it of her own free will to keep you company, and have no more nightmares."
Tenou did not answer, and a slight sigh left her lips: Michiru sensed that the other should not be too happy with this realization.
"Speaking of parties, the thirty of this month is the birthday of both Usagi and little Chibiusa. Mamoru told me that he would like you to come. "
Haruka thought about it.
"I can not give gifts." She said after a moment, and Michiru rolled her eyes. "Very sorry, I'll take care of the gift, and I'll say it's from both of us."
"Is that why you called me today? To talk to me about a birthday, and how much Hotaru is fond of Luna?"
Michiru shook her head, and let the letter slip on the surface of the desk until it was in front of Haruka. "No. I called you for this one."
"Mmh ... Did someone write me a love letter?"
The doctor nodded. "It's the answer to our request for permanent leave, Haruka, it arrived this morning."
"Oh." It was all that came out of Tenou's lips, the face devoid of any expression. Before adding after a long moment, in which she never moved to the letter:
"And what is the verdict, your honor?"
"I do not know, I just called you to open it, I would never have allowed myself to do it."
Haruka returned her attention to the envelope, and when she saw it she saw over her name, the army coat of arms, and, at the top left, the heading of the Pentagon's health office, which dealt with that kind of practice.
"Open it, come on." Michiru encouraged it, which actually thrilled more than the other: if the leave had been refused, they would not have had the time to submit new documentation, and Haruka would soon leave again. On that, probably, she would not have been able to get over it.
After a moment of hesitation Tenou quickly opened the letter and got up from the chair: she threw the empty envelope on the desk and, taking a few steps to the side, began to read the single sheet that contained it.
Michiru also stood up and it seemed that time was freezing, while she was looking for any clues with Haruka's impassive face. Which, after an interminable instant, snapped her lips.
"What does it say?" Michiru almost could not hear her own words, so loud was the beating of her heart. She watched Haruka put the paper on the desk and, after looking for the other's, shrugged. "IT says I have to find a job."
It took less than a minute for the doctor to process the meaning behind that sentence, and a broad smile was printed on her face. She made a real violence to not embrace Haruka, and decided to turn her attention to the document: with a quick glance she came to the lines that interested her.
'... in light of the documentation presented, the request for permanent leave submitted was accepted. Therefore Major Haruka Tenou, born in Washington D.C on January 27, 1980 is reformed by the Military Service and ... '.
"My father will come out of his mind," Haruka murmured. "I can not understand what could have happened."
"I told you it was not he could have resisted this. "Michiru approached her, her eyes sparkling with joy." It's great news. "
"I do not know if I agree," Haruka huffed, but Michiru put a hand on her arm.
"Now you have your life in your hands, Haruka." She told her in a smile, and the other shook her head. "Wait to sing victory, Michiru." The General will not let me pass that way. "
"Send him here, talk to me and Mamoru. He will have to surrender to the evidence."
But a loud 'pff' came from Haruka's lips. "Tropic Thunder giving up, it would really be the Apocalypse, doc."
Michiru did not grasp. "Tropic Thunder?"
"Takeshi Tenou, 'Ti'-' Ti '." She explained, raising an eyebrow. "They called him that way in Vietnam ... ridiculous, uh?"
"No, but illuminating, in a sense." The girl agreed, as Haruka slipped the paper from her hand.
"It's incredible," she whispered rereading the lines printed in Arial on the white paper. And Michiru was surprised when crossing the green irises of the other, there was a certain loss. "What am I doing now?"
"Baby steps, Haruka." The doctor reassured her. "Baby steps, and a good start would be to come to Usagi's party."
The other did not react immediately, then Michiru watched him put a hand on the back of the jeans, pulling out a small leather wallet.
"What are you doing?" She asked when she saw the American Express suspended in mid-air between them. "I contribute to the gift."
"But imagine, I'll take care of it."
"I insist."
"Who's out of work now?"
A smile bent Tenou's lips. "I will continue to receive my salary for a while, doc, do not worry about it, and be careful I read the statements, so I would notice if I bought you the latest Manolo Blahnik."
Michiru shook her head and took the paper from Haruka's hands. But only to swerve it in the side pocket, after approaching her: she clearly felt the other stiffen at that gesture.
"You told me I would never have your money." She said softly, tilting her head. Haruka looked at her inquisitively, putting her hands in her pockets. And Michiru did not expect her to approach her again, crushing her between her body and the desk, stretching her arms to rest them on the edge of the piece of furniture and brushing her sides.
"I also said that you can not do the femme fatale, but only stupid people never change their mind."
They sat in silence for a long moment, then Haruka stepped back and the doctor allowed himself to breathe again.
She watched her take the car keys out of her shirt pocket.
"What time do I have to come for therapy?" She then asked her, and Michiru went to fetch information about the plan they had established to deepen certain points of the story in her darkened brain.
"At three." She communicated them trying not to betray any emotion. Haruka nodded. "Let me know if Foster gives you other problems, okay?"
"Look, I can handle it myself, too."
"As you wish, you have missed an opportunity to take advantage of my innate kindness."
Michiru smiled, and when the other was gone she put away the precious sheet arrived from the Pentagon, which still lay on the desk, inside the envelope, intending to put it in Haruka's file: it was so that he noticed the silver credit card inserted between the computer and the table lamp. And she promised herself not to let herself be bewitched by Haruka's affectionate outbursts: she had never experienced illusions.
She certainly would not have started now.
"Edward Dewenish VA Medical Center" Military Hospital
Portsmouth, Virginia,
June 21, 2008,
"There must be some kind of way out of here/ Said the joker to the theif/ There's too much confusion/ I can't get no relief."
Jimmy's hands hit hard on the piano keys, with no respect for the instrument and even less for the ears of the two unfortunate listeners with him in the Music Therapy room.
Michiru smiled observing the total commitment that the boy was putting in his execution, and pinned in her own block as, despite the permanent damage to the brain, he remembered without losing a blow every word of the song.
"You know James, I do not think 'All along the watchtower' makes the piano the same way," Michiru joked, overlooking the jumble of notes produced by that. "But we could try to rearrange it."
"We buy a beautiful Fender Stratocaster, instead, give me a straight line." The dark boy burst out, sitting next to the bookshelf on which books and scores were placed. "So we can play all the Hendrix we like, James. What do you think?"
The boy ignored her, continuing his execution.
"Will you give us a good word with Dr. Chiba, Dr. Kaioh?"
Michiru turned to him. "Well, Tyler, as a Dewenish music therapist, if you think it's appropriate that the hospital needs one to say the least expensive electric guitar," she winked. "I will not be able to do anything but endorse your request."
The boy smiled, then stood up as he untied his ponytail to restore it better.
"All along the watchtower," Jimmy continued loudly, and Tyler sat down next to him on the piano stool. "Hey James, do you know that this song was from Bob Dylan, how about doing some old Bob?"
Jimmy shook his head, passing to the next stanza. "Come on, let's play 'The times they are a-changin' 'We have to change, or Hendrix - peace of his soul - will turn in the grave."
Michiru got up from her chair, placing a couple of books on the shelf.
"I do not think you can make him change his mind." She checked her watch before resuming.
"We've finished here today, Tyler, see you next Tuesday with James."
She took the boy by the arm, who had now moved on to 'Vodoo Child'. "Do you need help with him?"
Michiru shook her head, smiling. "No, James is a gentleman, is not he?"
"Galantuomo, yes." He repeated that, nodding.
Tyler smiled, then crossed his arms to his chest. "Speaking of gentlemen," he began to say. "Is it true that Foster and Major Tenou came to the lobby for you?"
Bingo, she thought, a distressed expression on her face and the awareness that she was the clearer day's specialty in her mind.
"Please, Tyler."
He raised his arms. "I was just curious, they all talk about it in the hospital."
"Well, they talk bad about it: they did not come to the hands, there was only an argument."
"Anyway, I would worry." Michiru raised an eyebrow, and Tyler continued. "Think about it: Tenou, Foster, the nurses will join forces against you."
Michiru could not help smiling. "From the 'Death to the Austrian' series?"
Tyler smiled too. "More or less."
The doctor sighed and after saying goodbye, she went through the corridor, clutching the clipboard to her chest, James arm in arm, reaching her office.
"Okay Jimmy, I collect my stuff and bring you back to your room." She told the boy, letting him sit down.
"I have to go to Hotaru's school for a meeting, do you remember my daughter?" She asked him, showing him the picture on the desk. James picked up the clip with the image, but he forgot it in an instant when he saw something much more interesting: stretching out his hands he grabbed the doctor's voice recorder.
"No Jimmy, do not touch." She scolded him good-naturedly by pulling the object out of his hands, and a bitter smile bent her lips thinking how the interaction with the traumatized twenties was so similar to the one she had with Hotaru.
She took out the recorder's microcassette, on which was written the report of the last dialogue with Haruka who had finished listening to the report to be given to Mamoru, then putting it in custody, every action followed by James's curious look.
She picked up the bag from the desk and put the stand back, along with other old reports that had been lying on her office furniture for several days and were waiting to resume their way home.
"Doctor, do you have candy?"
Michiru shook her head. "No candy, Jimmy, or you'll have a stomach ache like last time."
"But I want sweets!" The boy whimpered, and Michiru rolled her eyes, "Just one, okay?"
The doctor began to rummage in the bag when a quick knock at the door caught her attention and she did not even have time to answer because Mamoru had already appeared on the threshold.
"Michiru, what's going on?" He seemed quite altered. "What's this about the fight in the hall?"
"Oh my God, Mamoru, not you too." She approached his friend, moving away from the desk, the bag and the search for sweets.
"There was no fight in the hall!" She blurted exasperatedly. "But who puts these rumors around?"
"Everyone," said Chiba seriously, crossing his arms to his chest. "Anyone in the hospital talks about it."
The girl shook her head. "Nothing happened, Mamoru, believe me, the matter is already settled."
"Foster says that Tenou threatened him." He suggested the other, getting the doctor's wide eyes in response.
A thud drew the attention of the two doctors, and she turned to see what had happened: James was probably chewing a whole pack of gummy candies from his bag, which lay on the ground along with some of its contents.
"Haruka has not threatened anyone." She pointed out, taking a few steps to the side and then bending over to pick up the objects.
"And I bet Samuel deliberately omitted the fact that he behaved like a total asshole."
"That's why I'm here, to ask you how things went between Foster and Haruka."
Upon hearing 'Haruka', James began to shake his head, eyes veiled in sheer terror. "No! Haruka no!"
"Why are you doing this?" Chiba asked worriedly, but Michiru shrugged.
"Jimmy is scared of Haruka, I have a couple of theories about it, but honestly it's a reaction that remains inexplicable."
She finished putting the items back in her bag, and causing James to get up from his chair, she turned back to Mamoru.
"Listen now I just have to run away or I'll be late for school, there's a fund-raising party and they asked me to help out."
"I think it's already there," the man informed her, who then tilted his head. "Do you make sure I can feel comfortable?"
"Trust me, Mamoru, it's just that those two do not like each other, and they do not do anything to hide it."
Mamoru remained pensive for a moment.
"You told me you were just 'a game', for Tenou."
"And I still am." She told him in a smile.
Chiba knew what had happened at Haruka's house. He knew that the Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome of the other had been triggered by a series of psychological violence that Haruka had repressed. But he did not know about Samira and the horrors she had been forced to witness: if she ever wanted it, it would be Tenou to talk to him about it.
And in the same way he did not know about the kiss between them, but certainly not for a question of trust. Of that it would have made no sense to talk about it.
"I'm still a game for Haruka," she repeated laconically. Always, and only, a game.
'The King' Lounge Bar,
Virginia Beach, Virginia.
The notes of a languid jazz bounced among the dim lights of the hall.
In one corner, on elegant little sofas of white leather, a couple murmured words only known to them in their ears, occasionally casting glances full of promise.
She glanced at the soft organza curtain, which concealed the cocktail lounge in the eyes of those sitting in the bar, before returning to stare at her Jack Daniels.
With a slight movement of the wrist, she jingled the ice cubes inside.
The King is dead. Long live the King, she mentally said to herself, before draining the entire contents of the glass and grinding her teeth, in the illusion that the burning in the throat and stomach would be exhausted in less time. Without detaching the elbows from the counter, and without abandoning the curved pose that he had already used to, she left the empty glass on the polished wood, then nodded to the barman for another.
Michiru had seemed calm to her.
Their therapy continued, and they slipped on each other as if nothing had happened. But after all, how could it be otherwise. What had she told her? A completely natural channeling of the emotions that stirred you inside.
Going back in time, and trying to remember all her conquests, she judged that no one had ever given such a scientific and cold explanation to her kiss.
It was a polite way not to tell you plainly that you sucked her, she whipped her finger into the wound in a voice in her head, and snapped her lips, taking the new glass of whiskey between her fingers.
Your doctor. Your beautiful straight doctor, with a lot of baby.
But how the fuck came to your mind?
Overloaded another voice at the first sip of Jack. She judged that, perhaps, smoking some grass before going out had not been a great idea.
She noticed the small group of girls who had looked for a while. She looked at the time on the phone, and estimated that within ten minutes the first would come forward.
Put your heart in peace, Tenou. For Michiru you're just working.
She took another sip. The princesses seek principles, she mentally repeated herself.
Then a thought came back overwhelmingly, driving all the others from her head. Touching her shirt at the breastbone, she clearly felt the shape of the army identification plates.
She had continued to bring them more for a habit than for a real need.
A long chapter of her life was closed, and all she could do was wait for Hurricane Tenou to fall on her. Michiru had made it easy, but she did not know her father. Haruka hoped with all her heart that the girl should never know him.
And, of course, now she had no more excuses. She could no longer hide behind an imminent departure, or the fact that the incandescent sand of the Iraqi desert could have swallowed it at any moment, something that had come very close.
Put roots, establish links.
She glanced over her shoulder at the table where the girls were sitting, and noticed that one was missing. She shook her head: would it have come up to ten?
One. Two. Three. Four. Fiv-
"Hello."
The ice jingled in the glass when she placed it on the counter surface, before turning to look at the author of the greeting. She was the blonde, with little breasts but an ass talking. Well, you can not have everything from life, right?
Also because the only one you would like, now, is at home with your daughter.
"My friends and I have made a bet," she began to say, and Haruka rolled her eyes at the excuse as old as the world, perhaps more.
"One says you're married, the other you're still engaged in. I say you're available." She approached her a little, and when she leaned against the counter, the already short dress still rose on her thighs.
"The first two do not exclude the last one." She told her flatly, and she smiled.
"So I'm right."
"Maybe."
"What's your name?"
"I do not think you really care about it."
The girl sat next to her with studied indifference, and soon a cocktail arrived. Haruka could hear the shouts of victory of her friends from there.
"Do you come often to 'The King'?"
"No it's the first time." She revealed them, scanning the level of the liquor, which was lowering onto her glass. "This explains why I've never seen you before."
"Maybe I do not like being noticed."
The blue eyes of the other, the elongated shape accentuated by a stroke of black pencil passed by expert hands, were crossed by a sparkle.
"So Nature did not do you a favor."
"I always say that too."
If you are a joke of nature, then it is nature that has something wrong.
The image of Michiru appeared overpowering in her eyes; the hand of the other wiping away her tears. Shr shook her head and brought the glass to her lips, and even the blonde at her side sipped the cocktail. "You come often, I guess."
The girl inclined her head, surprised. "How did you get it?"
"The bartender brought you drinks without even asking."
Shr saw her approach her again. "You are an observer."
"It depends."
"And from what?"
A corner of Haruka's lips bent upwards. "If what I observe interests me."
That did not immediately answer. "And let's see, I'm interesting?"
"A bit'."
She had it. She hung on her lips. She felt her approaching her face, and start talking to her in the ear.
"Maybe I can do something to turn on a little more yours," touched her with her tongue. "Interest?"
Haruka felt her hand slip down her thigh, and stopped her before she could see anything.
"I do not know." She turned to look at her. "Do you like surprises?"
"I love surprises."
She stroked her lips with her own, but Haruka felt that it was different. For the first time, it seemed almost wrong. An aquamarine reflection filled her eyes, and instead of stopping her, she sent a powerful surge of excitement into the circulation.
"Then I'm the person for you." She said to the other, taking her by the hand and making her stand up from the stool. She threw the money of the consummation and the tip on the counter and without other words pulled the blonde behind him, while the hope of annihilating any fantasy on her doctor was made, even for that evening, more and more feeble.
"Edward Dewenish VA Medical Center" Military Hospital
Portsmouth, Virginia,
June 22, 2008,
He was going through the corridor that led from the hospital to the offices when she saw Lara, one of the nurses on the floor, sitting on one of the plastic chairs in the waiting room, holding a rather agitated James Beouford.
"Is there any problem?" Churches, and the girl turned in surprise in the direction of the voice; Jimmy did not even turn around. "Oh, Dr. Foster, it's her."
"What happens?"
The girl shrugged. "James has to do the CT scan, today, but as usual when he sees the contrast liquid syringe he starts to get agitated and he's terrified of the injections."
Samuel nodded, and Lara continued.
"So we're waiting for Dr. Kaioh, to give us a hand."
Feeling the name of Michiru, Foster snapped his lips. "And since Dr. Kaioh has hypnosis?"
Lara smiled. "I do not think she has any, but it's no secret that James has a weakness for her, so we hope he can keep it quiet for the time it takes to inject the contrast."
Samuel shook his head, and crouched in front of James. "Do you like Michiru, Jimmy?"
"I want to marry her," was the one automatically, nodding. Foster inclined his head.
"Even." Then he added, murmuring. "Happy you."
James did not answer, and when the boy lifted his legs to bring them to his chest, curling up on the chair, Samuel noticed the clenched fist spasmodically around something hidden from his sight.
"Damn, right now." Lara moaned at the phone ring from the psychiatric ward, and the doctor returned his attention to the nurse.
"Is there no one who can answer?"
"I should do it. The other girl is on pause and I was in the guardhouse before they called Radiology for the question of James. "
The man remained silent, then took out one of his white smiles. "Go ahead, Lara, I'll take a look at James."
"It's safe?"
"Sure, I have nothing to do at the moment."
The girl shot up. "It will not take long. I'll be right back."
When the other was gone, Foster took his place next to Jimmy.
"What's in your hand, James?" He asked him quietly. "Do you show it to me?"
But that shook his head. Samuel became thoughtful.
"Let's see, what do you say if I'll give you," he began to rummage in his coat pockets, and after a moment he took out a semi-new package of chewing gum.
"These, I think it's a fairer exchange."
James looked alternately at his fist and the chewingum for several times. "Will you give it to me?" He then asked the doctor about the package, but did not seem inclined to leave the object in his hands.
"Only if you show me what you have there."
James thought about it, then slowly opened his fist: at the sight of Foster a microcassette opened, of those suitable for audio recorders. Once he used them too, shortly after the end of the University, but no longer found any use of it had decommissioned its use.
Among other things, he evaluated, on the market, they could not even be found with the cassette support, replaced by recorders with flash memories, connectable and transstable without so much flapping to a PC.
"Where did you get that?" asked Foster, and James smiled.
"Dr. Michiru."
"Ah, Dr. Michiru," he repeated, the curiosity that began to run his brain like a woodworm.
With a quick movement he took possession of the box, leaving the chewing gums in place. "Give it back!" James burst out, but Samuel swerved backwards.
"We exchanged, James, and you do not want me to tell your sweetheart to steal her things?"
He put the object in his pocket, just before Lara made her appearance again.
"Stupid!" Jimmy was cursing, and the nurse looked at him puzzled, then turned his gaze to Samuel who was rising from his chair.
"It's his way of thanking me for giving him some candy," he explained, shrugging his shoulders, while the other kept shouting at him. "Stupid! Stupid!"
"It's strange," Lara was surprised. "He usually does not react like that, in fact, he's always kind enough."
"In fact, what did you do to him, Samuel?"
Both Foster and Lara shifted their attention from James to the source of the voice, and watched Michiru sit next to James, then put an arm around his shoulders, stroking his face to calm him.
"It's stupid." James reiterated, and Michiru laughed. Even Lara could not help herself, but she stifled the laughter at the sidelong glance Foster gave her.
"You know Samuel, I think the simple soldier Beouford framed you perfectly."
"Ah, fun." Foster was ironic, who then glanced at the clock. "Well, do you know what I'm saying, I'm leaving, I have to pack too."
"Finally they move you?" Michiru asked, but Samuel shook his head. "No, I'm going to Baltimore, there's a congress on the use of benzodiazepines in the treatment of insomnia, and Chiba wants me."
"Not bad as a punishment," joked Michiru, knowing that in most cases this type of events were held in luxury hotel facilities, and despite the succession of conferences, it ended up still to stay several days to enjoy every comfort.
"It had been agreed before our little argument, but at least for this week you'll be able to cry a lot on Chiba's shoulder as well as on that of Tenou, Michi."
He specifically emphasized the nickname, and Michiru narrowed her eyes.
"I think I'll leave," Lara burst out, feeling decidedly too much, but Samuel stopped her. "No, I'm leaving, I wish you a good day," he said cordially.
He walked down the corridor to the elevator, turning the microcircuit stolen from Beouford in his pocket.
"Stupid," Jimmy repeated when he no longer had Samuel in his field of vision, ripping a further smile at Michiru. Which then began to hear from Lara the problem that had required his presence.
Portsmouth, Virginia,
June 30th 2008,
She was sitting in a corner, holding a glass of non-alcoholic drink in her hands, and alternating between the house and the back garden, both teeming with children and adults.
A couple of kids passed by, chasing each other, raising in their movement some of the many balloons that covered the floor of the house, and that after a fluttering climb began a lazy fall.
Before one touched the ground she stretched out her leg and gave it a side kick, moving it away.
She spotted Usagi, a party hat on her head, serving guests of all kinds of goods: hse smiled thinking back to when she had opened the door, welcoming her by blowing at full power into a trumpet of paper.
Shaking her head, she considered that growing old and growing did not necessarily go hand in hand.
She saw Hotaru arguing with the other party of the day, and in a flash of conscience she wondered where Artemis was: she felt totally sympathetic to the cat, hidden somewhere to escape the brats.
She glanced at the plant that flanked it and considered throwing in the alcohol, so the vegetable did not look great already. She made to turn around when a plate of pink paper, filled with sweets, pretzels and anything else, invaded her field of vision; following the hands that held it, she found himherself self looking into Usagi's blue eyes.
"For you, I thought you were hungry."
Haruka raised an eyebrow, then unloaded the other from the weight of the plate.
"Thank you." She murmured after a long moment. She realized with dismay that the other was sitting in the chair next to her, and shifted her attention to the contents of the plate: a pair of shapeless shapes browned her face.
"What are these?" She asked, and Usagi smiled sheepishly, putting a hand behind her head.
"Oh, they're biscuits I made, they burned a little, but they're good."
Haruka did not answer right away. "They look like something they gave us at the camp cafeteria a couple of years ago when I was in Iraq." A second was absorbed. "It all intoxicated us."
Usagi grew tense. "Seriously?"
Haruka nodded, then put it in her mouth. "You did not have to eat it by force."
"I like challenges," joked the other, winking at her.
Usagi leaned her elbows to her knees, watching Haruka swallow the product of her culinary arts still to be refined.
"You know, you really have a nice car." She then said to her, tilting her head a little to look at her.
"I already wanted to tell you from the other time, I'd never seen it like yours."
"It's a limited edition."
The girl looked curious. "It must have cost you a bang." She said as she was almost thinking aloud. And when he realized it, she put a hand to her mouth.
"Sorry."
Haruka smiled. "It 'does not matter." Then she gave a slight sigh.
"The salary of an officer is quite high, and a lot of money goes on my head, including risk allowances, transfers, insurance and trust funds." She took a sip from the alcoholic, regretting the absence of a good old Bourbon.
"And having never owned anything, for years I have only had income, and zero outputs." She paused. "Get the damn taxes."
The other laughed, and even Tenou looked at her amused.
"Even as a child, money has never failed," she continued to say, coming back serious. "Nothing else was missing, but no, never, I saw the General one, maximum twice a month, and I quarreled all the time, but we had a pool, a domesti-"
"The general?" Usagi interrupted confusedly, and Haruka nodded.
"The General is my father."
"Oh, he's the one who organized an early morning party here at home a couple of months ago."
"Yeah, Takeshi does not have much respect for people, I'm living proof of that."
"Mamo-chan told me something." The other muttered, and then looked back at Haruka. "You really can not call him dad, uh?"
Haruka looked at her with evident disappointment, and ate another cookie. "You were right, it's not so bad." She then said, snatching a proud smile at Usagi. Silence crept in between the two, filled with the cheerful vocals of the children and the carefree little talk of the adults.
"It's really beautiful, is not it?"
The words of Usagi caught her unprepared: following her gaze, she found herself observing Michiru, who, sitting on the sofa, listened amused to whatever Hotaru was telling her, straddling her. She decided not to answer such a potentially dangerous question, but the other continued undeterred.
"And it's so sweet with Hotaru, not to mention how good it is to play an-"
"Serena (Usagi)." Haruka stopped her, attracting the girl's curious look. "I thought you were Michiru's friend."
"Of course I am."
"So why are you trying to place it?"
Usagi looked at her for a long moment, then blushed. "Here, I thought that ... Well, what-"
"Yes, I like women." She took her away from the embarrassment. "But it does not mean that I like all women, indistinctly."
"Are you telling me that you do not like Michiru?" She seemed incredulous.
Haruka returned to look at her doctor, who had full vision now that she had stood up. She wore a light blue flowered dress, up to her knees, and the suspenders in the veil on the top left her arms uncovered. She estimated that that simple summer dress was beating her up with the dress Michiru had flaunted for the evening at the Four Seasons, and that she often returned to her thoughts. Which, half of the time, were not exactly chaste.
"You do not know me, Usagi." She then told her, evading the question.
"I did terrible things, if I were you, I would do anything to keep her away from someone like me."
Usagi glanced quickly at Michiru.
"Not to mention that we should consider Michiru belonging to my team, something that is constantly denied by that wren down there."
The other remained absorbed for a second, then sighed.
"Michiru knows?" She asked her then. "Michiru knows these terrible things you say you did?"
Samira, the loculus. The violence. It was a flash in his eyes, which disappeared as it had come. And Haruka nodded, after a long moment. "Yes, she knows."
"Well, I do not think you think you are such a horrible person, otherwise you would not be here with us."
Haruka tilted her head to look at Usagi, who continued. "
She's my friend and I trust her, and I do not know what you did, but honestly I do not even care, and you know why, because I do not really care about Michiru either."
A slight smile curled Haruka's lips, which shook her head. "My case has been taken very seriously, I can not deny that she is an extremely kind girl."
"Kindness has nothing to do with it, I can assure you, Haruka, that you did something to her." A smile bent her lips upwards. "Since I've known her, Michiru has always protected Hotaru in a way that is nothing short of morbid, yet she brings the baby to your home, lets you interact freely, have you ever thought about it?"
"Since when has Hotaru been able to socialize with her mother's friends?"
Usagi dropped her arms.
"You deceive hundreds of people every day, Haruka, what makes you believe that Hotaru, on the other hand, has understood that you are a woman?"
Haruka knew that the girl believed her to be a man, and tried not to grasp the implications of what the girl was telling her.
"Have you known her for long?" She preferred to ask. Usagi thought about it. "Since she started working with Mamoru, four years, more or less."
"And you never were jealous?"
The girl remained silent for a long moment. "I'd be lying if I said no, I mean, look at it, and I was pregnant, I had terrible fears and I felt a cumbersome solid urban rejection. My self-esteem, near her, was completely dissolved. "
Haruka laughed, and even Usagi's lips bent upward. "Then Mamo-chan organized a dinner, I met her, and I realized that I really had nothing to fear."
A thought struck Haruka, and she could not help herself. "Why was she already married?"
Usagi looked at her sideways, and Tenou hastened to add: "With Hotaru's father."
"Do you mean Mitsuo?" The other seemed perplexed.
Mitsuo! Mitsuo Kaioh! The realization of the name and surname of the other invested it in full, remembering finally.
Her office in Mosul filled her thoughts, as did the image of the Sergeant, standing before her with the license sheet in her hand, who did not stop telling her how he had known his wife, who had been married a few months before leaving for the Iraq.
"Mitsuo was a soldier too," she told her, and Haruka nodded.
"I know it was under my command, in Mosul."
Usagi's eyes widened. "You mean you too-"
"No, they moved me before the attack." The girl relaxed, and sighed. "That was really a blow. Fortunately, in the collapse of one of the barracks, a kind of bag of oxygen had been created in the rubble, and they found it after two days. It was badly tanned, but at least it was alive."
Haruka moved to the chair to approach Usagi. "So he did not die in Iraq?"
The other looked at her confused. Then she crossed her arms to her chest. "But Michiru has never told you anything?"
Haruka recalled the meanness with which she had tried to antagonize her, touching that sore point.
"She does not talk about it willingly and some time ago I used this story to hit her and hurt her." Tenou revealed to her, and a slight exclamation of astonishment emerged from Usagi's lips.
"From that day on I did not ask her anything, because I understand perfectly how it feels when everyone wants to know something from you, but the last thing you want is to talk about it."
The other did not answer, then hit her legs with the palms of her hand. "Listen, Major Tenou. If she did not say anything to you, I can not for sure tell her that- "
She froze, her face turning to purple when she realized that Haruka's face was approaching hers. "-I."
"Not even if we find an agreement?" She asked her in a dangerously low voice. Usagi swallowed loudly, and after a few moments Haruka burst out laughing.
"Come on, I was joking ... Continue."
"Well it was not a good joke!" The girl burst out, clearing her throat with two light coughs, trying to dissolve the embarrassment.
"Do not fall, Usagi, Haruka does so with everyone."
Michiru's voice caught their attention, and they watched her approach her.
"Tell me you brought me some Bourbon or Jack Daniels." It was Haruka pleading, but Michiru leaned toward her, shaking her head. "There is only water for you, lots of water."
Haruka groaned, leaning against the back of the chair and letting the back of her head rest even so gently against the wall.
"Usako, the cake!" Called from a corner of the living room Mamoru, and Usagi noisily brought her hands to her cheeks. "
Oh no, it's still frozen! Oh no!"
She literally ran away, and both Michiru and Haruka looked at her, as they disappeared into the kitchen.
"I am always firmly convinced that every time I come here, there are hidden cameras," Haruka said, and Michiru smiled and sat down next to her, where Usagi had been until a few moments ago. "I saw you, you know, that you were threatening Usagi."
Haruka did not take her head off the wall, but turned to look at the girl. "I wanted to see how it was corruptible." Michiru did not grasp the connection, and decided to steal a little cake from her plate.
"You look like you want to be anywhere, except here."
"I do not feel very comfortable, but I know I'll have to get used to it, I mean," hse looked for Michiru's gaze. "From now on my normality will be terraced houses and barbecues in the garden, rather than camps, marquees and barbecue in the desert, no doc?"
Michiru frowned.
"Does it weigh you so much that you do not have to go back there anymore, do not you have to risk your life any more?"
Haruka did not answer, and the other sighed. "What were you and Usagi talking about?" She decided to turn the subject. "The fact that when she was pregnant she felt a solid urban rejection," Partially lied Tenou. Michiru snapped her lips in disappointment.
"Usagi was beautiful when she was pregnant. She was radiant. "
"And how were you?"
Michiru inclined her head, surprised by the question. "I'd like to see a picture of you pregnant. Probably you were, too," beautiful. "Well, you were like her."
The doctor looked at her for a long moment, then touched the collar of the short-sleeved polo shirt.
"I like how you are," she told her alone, and a smile bent Haruka's lips.
"What does it have to do with my question?"
"None, it was just a thought."
"Did you hope that by giving me a compliment, would you receive one?" demanded Tenou, but Michiru shrugged.
"No. Better death, than to say something nice, right?" She asked in a smile.
Haruka shook her head and could not reply because a noisy call came to her ears. She saw the balloons split at the passage of Hotaru, not even the waters of the Red Sea before Moses, and after a moment the child was clinging to her leg. "Hi Haruka!"
Tenou puzzled her.
"Ehy wren, you do not go unnoticed, uh?"
Hotaru laughed and behind hher appeared Chibiusa, who saw her friend make that action felt authorized to imitate her.
"Look Michiru, I have two new boots," Tenou joked, when both girls were around her shins.
"Happy birthday, miss," she said to the birthday girl. "How old are you?"
The child had to think about it for a moment, and began to raise the fingers of her right hand to help the mental account. And all that attention paid to Chibiusa did not please Hotaru, who by stretching one arm - and holding firmly to Tenou with the other - began to try and pull the girlfriend from Haruka's leg.
"Come on Chibiusa! Haru is my friend, not yours! Come on !"
Michiru smiled, and Haruka looked for her dismayed look.
"Haru?"
"Yes, she calls you that, and then with the 'u' elongated end, like howling." The girl explained to her, who then poured herself into an example. "I told you she likes you."
Haruka grimaced, before returning to address her attention to the clash between the Titans just below her knees.
"Chibiusa! Chibiusa, come, we're going to bring the cake!" Called the girl a middle-aged woman with long dark hair, but rather youthful, who put her hands to her hips when she saw the child clinging to Haruka's leg.
"Oh baby, do not stick to people's legs, come to your grandmother," she lifted her up, while the little girl waved her hand to Haruka, four fingers raised.
"Four, I'm four!"
"Good evening Ikuko," Michiru greeted her, and she realized the girl's presence. "Michiru! I had not seen you!" Then she glanced at Haruka. "Who is your companion?"
"Major Tenou Haruka, honored." Haruka stood up, shaking the woman's hand, not before placing the plate on a nearby shelf. "She is Usagi's sister, I guess."
Michiru rolled her eyes, and Ikuko blushed, bringing a hand to her face; Haruka smiled remembering the same gesture made by Usagi when she had met her.
"Sister! Kenji! Where's Kenji when they make me a compliment?" She moaned, then turned back to look at Tenou. "Actually, I'm Mom, Major."
"I would never have said that," she pretended amazed, and Ikuko turned back to Michiru, a gloating smile on her face.
"Oh, Michiru, I've always told you that you have good taste."
Michiru just blushed at that sentence, and Haruka returned to watch Hotaru still firmly anchored to her shin.
"Are you going to be there all day?"
At the vigorous nod of Hotaru, Haruka scratched her head. And a thought struck her.
"Ehy nana (wren), I have something for you in the car."
The child opened her purple eyes wide, immediately detaching herself from Tenou. "What's this?"
Even Michiru was curious, and followed Haruka who was heading towards the entrance of the Chiba house, with the child trotting behind her to keep up with her.
Once outside the four arrows flashed, she indicated that Haruka had turned off the Viper's alarm, and when Tenou opened the door, Michiru stopped in the driveway, incredulous: in the passenger seat of the powerful sports car sat … Luna. Tied up with a seat belt.
She watched Hotaru jump into the seat to retrieve the puppet, with Haruka crouching beside her, and observing that strange feeling, the same feeling she had felt when she saw Hotaru and Tenou on the bike, she came back.
And that did nothing but increase her confusion.
"Mom, look, Haru brought me Luna!" Called the child, running to hold on to the edge of Michiru's dress. "She says she no longer has bad dreams."
"Hotaru told me that when she has nightmares, she sleeps with you." It was Haruka approaching and closing the car, and the doctor nodded.
"Yeah, but I try not to get used to it"
"You did not understand." The other interrupted her, an innocent expression printed on her face. "I'm afraid the child suggests that you and I should sleep together."
Michiru raised her eyebrows, a faint blush rising to color her cheeks.
"It's always too easy to make fun of you." Tenou said after a long moment, shaking her head and going past it.
A chorus of voices inside the house began to sing 'Happy Birthday', and when Michiru began to walk back down the path, a few steps away from Tenou, she could not help sighing.
A game, Michiru. Remember that.
"Edward Dewenish VA Medical Center" Military Hospital
Portsmouth, Virginia,
July 1, 2008,
"Colleen."
"Hyperactive."
"Richard."
A smile bent Haruka's lips. "Naive."
Silence saturated Hall 4. "Samira." Michiru then said, and the other raised her head from the chair, taking her eyes off the ceiling to look for the doctor's.
"It's strange."
Michiru tapped the pen on the block. "Haruka, the exercise provides an adjective for each name that I tell you." She scolded her, and Tenou raised a hand.
"I know, but it's weird to hear you say her name, so far she's always been just," she paused. "Only mine."
A certain resentment crept into a corner of the doctor's mind as he wrote.
"You can use it if you believe." She told her then, and Haruka tilted her head, confused. "The 'mine'"
But Tenou snapped her lips. "It was just her idea, Michiru, I wanted everything, unless Samira was mine."
"As you told me, she wanted exactly the opposite."
Haruka remained silent and closed her eyes, thinking back to all that Samira had been.
Also in Michiru's mind was the image of a female figure with long dark hair and mahogany-colored eyes, so deep that they could fall into it. She's gorgeous. Because, she was sure, Samira must have been gorgeous. Outside and inside, for what she had done.
"She was very young, and confused." Haruka began to say. "I did not want to have any regrets, so I kept her away from me, and for a long time I thought her was just an infatuation due to the fact that I had pulled her out of that house."
"She loved you, Haruka, and she would have loved you in all circumstances." Michiru tried to smile at her. "She loved you, not what you did to her."
"Do you think it makes me feel better?" The Haruka churches, green eyes crossed by a flicker of rage.
"The question was wrong upstream, you did not have to fall in love with me."
"But do you believe that love can be rationalized, Haruka?" The girl was perplexed. "Do you think that if I had ordered you not to love someone the way you ordered your men to march, would you put yourself to attention and turn your heels?"
"I had almost done it, spending a lot of time with Richard."
"Have you ever grasped the idea that she was doing it to be closer to you?"
"Of course it touched me." Hushed Haruka. "For this I was clear, and I told her not to make him suffer."
Michiru did not speak for a long moment; only one question to turn them over, but without finding the courage to get her out. "And you, did you suffer, Haruka?" She asked her then.
Tenou looked for the doctor's eyes, and the green irises planted on the blue ones of the other.
Silence filled the room, then Haruka closed her eyes, tilting her head backwards to leave her on the back of the chair. "I do not like this game."
"Samira has never betrayed your secret, Haruka. She tried to take you away from the scene of the attack and," she decided to be brutal, "she practically prostituted herself so that they would not hurt you."
Now the banks were smashed and had to face the issue openly if they wanted to overcome it, for this she had opted for the hard line. Michiru watched the other bite her lower lip, but remain silent.
"She has clearly told you she loves you, and her actions do nothing more than validate this thesis, but you must understand that you are not responsible for this, it is not your fault, Haruka, that she loved you in such an all-encompassing way. . "
"We have not finished yet?" She asked the other one dry, looking back at her. Michiru glanced at the clock, then flicked the pen.
"We have finished for a quarter of an hour," she told her with a puffy smile. Haruka's eyes widened.
"Bitch." She hissed through clenched teeth, and Michiru stood up.
"Insult me as much as you want, but we'll go back to the subject until you get into that empty head that the black hole, as you like to call yourself, does not really exist."
"Do not agree with me." Haruka challenged her, standing up in turn. "And tell me that you ask me questions just to do."
"It's nice to feel complimented." Michiru joked, but the other did not seem conciliatory.
"How's the job front?" She decided to change the subject while throwing open the door invited her out of Room 4, or the other would be stubborn on their discussion, remaining in a bad mood all day. Haruka released one of her grunts, scratching her head.
"I got a couple of letters from Washington," she told her after a long moment of mulling. "Both from the Pentagon One says that with my experience I could be an excellent Logistics Consultant for Operations on the Territory, the other that, given my curriculum, I would be perfect for a position of Responsible for the Reorganization of the Resources of the Maintenance Poles For the Light Armament, they do not even look bad, if only I knew what they meant. " She added after a moment. Michiru looked at her sideways.
"Would you like to continue working for the Army?"
"And what else could I do, Michiru?"
The girl smacked her lips in disappointment. Then she sighed. "Well, at least it's not Iraq."
Haruka put her hands in her pockets, and extracted the Viper's keys from the right one.
"I need a babysitter," proposed Michiru when they were in front of the elevator, and Tenou raised an eyebrow. "What happened to the catatonic?"
"There is still, but from today Hotaru is home for the summer holidays, and poor Jenny is also in the morning."
Haruka smiled, and a thought struck her.
"Another thing has arrived, along with job offers," she revealed to her. "A package containing my medical records, I think it's the documentation they talked about in the letter."
Michiru raised an eyebrow. "That was to come to us, since it also contains the relationship with the clearance of the leave." The doctor pouted. "Why was it sent to your house?"
Haruka shrugged. "I have no idea, I'll bring it to you tomorrow."
But she saw Michiru begin to unbutton the gown with her free hand from the block.
"No, I'm going to get it right away," the doctor told her. "You were the last one today, I can even go home." Tenou frowned, then shrugged.
"As you want."
"Did you have to do?" The Michiru churches, and at the other did not escape the ironic nuance.
"No. You're always welcome," she replied ironically with irony. After a quick stay in her office to get the bag and leave the gown and her notes, they went down to the lobby and left the hospital. And when Haruka saw Michiru looking for the keys to her car, she shook her head, an evil smile curving her lips.
"No, no, go up to the Viper today."
The doctor raised an eyebrow, putting her hands on her hips. "What is it, a revenge?"
"Are not you afraid?" Tenou gallantly opened the door when they were next to the car
Michiru did not answer: she preferred to hold out her hand and allow herself to be accommodated in the leather seat.
"So, how do you think?"
They stood still at a traffic light, and Michiru felt rather relaxed despite the unbalanced speed the other had held up to now.
"Not bad," she allowed, and Haruka smiled, pressing the accelerator down: the roar of the Viper roared her satisfaction. Michiru looked at her, one hand on the steering wheel, the other on the car's gearbox.
The reflection of the sun on her blonde hair and on the corner of Ray Ban's frame, leaving behind a gleam. "You know, you're extremely," sexy. "Confident of what you do."
Haruka bowed her head in her direction.
"I told you doc, I know my business, and you seem much more comfortable than on the bike."
"Here I have solid sheet metal around." she accompanied the words with the knock on the massive frame of the car. She took the green and the Viper darted forward, while Michiru abandoned herself on the seat, glancing furtively at Haruka, focused on the guide.
And it returned. That shiver on my back, that warmth on my skin.
The excitement returned, and she could not keep a moan of frustration from her lips.
"Should I go slower?" Joked Haruka into hearing the sound, totally misrepresenting the reason for that painful rattle.
"No, come on in. I am amazed that we have not yet taken off," the girl stayed in the game, equally relieved and disappointed that the other had not grasped the true meaning.
Michiru felt the car lose laps and slow down at the sight of the condominium of Bay Street, and Haruka put the arrow, then approached the access bar of the external parking lot: she passed the remote control on the photocell, and that rose. But as he entered the private area, he spotted a black sedan with darkened windows on the other side of the road.
Haruka braked, surprising Michiru. "Why did you stop so suddenly?" The girl asked her, but the other did not take her eyes off the rearview mirror. She watched the sedan start again, and after a moment the Viper started moving again.
"It seemed to me," Tenou started, but then she shook her head. "Nothing, I must have been wrong."
Michiru looked at her for a long moment, and once parked she got out of the car, breathing a sigh of relief when she was no longer in the cockpit, which meant only close contact with the other.
She watched Haruka open the small back door and lift a couple of shopping bags: feeling Michiru's curious look on her, she spread her arms.
"What is it? I did some shopping before going to the hospital."
The doctor laughed at the image of a 'Haruka lost with his trolley in the corridors of the supermarket, and waited for the other to approach it before heading towards the entrance of the building. Tenou started to insert the key when the door opened, and imagined that the concierge had seen it coming.
"Excuse me for a second, I have to talk to the porter." She told Michiru once in the hall of the building, resting the two bags on the ground. "You can call the elevator in the meantime."
"Um, okay." Agreed Michiru, approaching the elevator that, noticed by the rapid succession of descending numbers on the display, was coming to the floor.
And in fact, after a moment a guy came out in a suit and tie and a shoulder messenger bag that greeted her, but that after a few steps - and above all having last Tenou inside the guardhouse - stopped. "Are you the girlfriend?"
"You are welcome?"
"You are the girlfriend of the top-floor dude? Of the military?"
Michiru looked at him puzzled. "I do not-" But she paused, intrigued by the motivations that had driven what was, in all likelihood, Haruka's neighbor asking her that question.
"Is there any problem?"
"Well, tell your boyfriend that there are people working here, and you can not go out with rock at full blast at dawn."
Michiru's eyes widened in surprise.
"Has it happened many times?" She then asked, and that inclined his head. "Just a couple, but I'm telling him to keep it from happening again."
She saw Haruka coming out of the guardhouse, the Ray Bans now hanging from the first button of her shirt, and exchanging a cordial and cold greeting with the guy, who was leaving.
"What did he want?" She asked Michiru as she entered the elevator, retrieving the envelopes.
"Why do you listen to loud music early in the morning?"
Haruka tilted her head sideways, scowling as the elevator began to climb. "I do not believe it. He was complaining. "
"You are asked to answer."
"It was a bad time." She only told her. "Now I can sleep, remember?"
"When did it happen?"
"Just before the 'Four Seasons'."
The realization struck Michiru. "Well, you could have called me instead of antagonizing the whole building."
Haruka did not answer right away.
"I thought about it, actually, but I was still in the denial phase."
They remained silent, then a smile folded the doctor's lips. "He thought I was your girlfriend."
The elevator stopped with a 'ting', and as the doors swung open, Haruka stepped out. "Well, I bet someone thought You're gay. "She paused." To be honest, it's true. "
They approached the front door, and Tenou put the key in the lock.
"Ready-made sushi?" Michiru began to say, peering into an envelope she had taken from her hands, stepping into the doorway behind Haruka.
"Buy sushi ready when I can ma-ahio!"
She had not noticed Tenou's abrupt arrest, beating her directly on her back; with one foot he hit the envelope that the other had dropped on the floor.
"Haruka, what the hell ..."
She took a step to the side, and looking for her eyes she saw something that, until then, she had never seen and could not believe could ever see in the girl's green irises: a veil of fear shadowed the eyes of Haruka, who stood property.
She saw her swallow.
She followed his gaze, and jumped when she noticed the presence further ahead of them two.
A man in uniform was sitting at the dining table, the headgear leaning against the shiny crystal of the furniture next to a large open envelope, and he leaflessly leafed through a set of sheets held together by a needle in the upper left corner . His face was tanned, marked by deep wrinkles around his eyes and his broad forehead; two long parallel scars passed through his left temple, to then get lost just above the ear in his brush-cut white hair.
He did not seem in the least troubled by them, and after observing even the last sheet, he placed the document on the envelope and raised his face in their direction: when Michiru caught his eye, the magnetism of two green irises nailed it on the spot without appeal. The military rose slowly, putting his hat under his right arm: Michiru immediately registered its significant height and impressive physique.
She heard Haruka stiffen at her side, and murmur something.
In a few steps that covered the distance between them and then stood before Haruka, which was higher than the head, and Michiru slid her arm between the body and the limb of Tenou, then making a slight pressure on the hollow of the elbow; the girl did not move, supporting the man's gaze with equal intensity.
Then it was all very quick: the military man raised his left hand and in a fast movement the back of the one impacted Haruka's face. The impact was violent enough to turn her head, but remaining well planted on the feet.
"Haruka!" She called Michiru, and she saw a trickle of blood coming out of Tenou's lower lip, a drop staining the mirrored lenses of the sunglasses.
"But how do you allow it?" Shouted, putting heself between that and Haruka. And feeling a pygmy, there in the middle.
But the military did not deign to look at her. "I'll be at the Hilton until tomorrow night, Haruka, I advise you not to wait." He said in a tone that did not admit replies.
Haruka did not answer, and putting on her headgear the man passed over the two girls, disappearing beyond the door. Michiru was petrified.
"Fuck you." Tenou murmured her teeth clenched, and the doctor faced her, brushing her split lip.
"It was," she began, but he already knew the answer. A bitter smile was painted on Haruka's face. "You just had the honor of meeting the Chief of Staff of the United States Army, Michiru, General Takeshi Tenou, my father."
Hello my dears, I'm so sorry for not being able to update that soon, but as I said, I'll try to put at least a chapter per month, that is. I enjoyed writing this, well more propery translating, still, I was able to set free my imagination. Focusing back on the chap, you got the first real meeting with the famous Takeshi Tenou woow, from now on he also will have his important role in 'helping' Michiru to help Haruka, though as Michiru said: baby steps.