Miriallia had elected to spend the rest of the flight on the jet with her parents. Dearka hadn't even questioned her decision for a moment... in fact she had gotten the distinct impression he would have told her to go with her parents even if she hadn't wanted to herself. There wasn't much familial love in Dearka's life... his parents were distant to say the least. And as a result of that he valued the love and company of parents more than anyone who actually lived with them could. It wasn't something he let everyone in on... even Ysak may have only suspected, not known for sure, and that was okay since Ysak would never bring it up anyway. But Miriallia knew. To Dearka parents who loved you were one of the greatest treasures in the world... one of the things he really, actually wanted. So the idea of her staying with him in the cramped cockpit of the Grand Buster was practically horrifying to him, when she could instead ride with her long seperated parents, who had been saved from near death not so long ago. She'd have to find some way to thank him later... when everything wasn't so confused and hectic.

The jet bobbed and rocked as it lifted off from the desert sand. Miriallia gulped... but her nausea was not due to flight jitters... the ride in the Grand Buster was far rougher. She still couldn't get the image of the Earth Forces soldiers getting slaughtered by TEMPEST out of her head. She'd been living with these people for months know and it really hadn't hit home to her until just then what they did for a living. Even on that terrifying train ride out of the Orb hanger where the mobile suits were made hadn't affected her much... she'd been crouched in the forwardmost car, while TEMPEST had been at the rear, doing fighting of some sort she had known, from the gunfire and even small explosions... but she hadn't seen anyone get killed.

Not like those men just now. Eleven armed and dangerous men, some with weapons already to hand and the intent to use them already in their minds. And none of them had even managed to pull a single trigger before being taken down with mind numbing violence. Mir had seen plenty of death during the war... ZAFT pilots got killed all around them aboard the Archangel... Tolle of course... other crewmen from battle damage... entire enemy crews of other warships... but she hadn't seen anyone get blown apart by machine gun fire or have their leg ripped bodily off by brute strength. The deaths before had been bloodless and more a distant fact than a harsh reality. Even when they'd been fighting Frost and Dearka had shot him it hadn't seemed as real as now... probably because Frost didn't fall down dead like a reasonable being would.

Someone laid a hand on her shoulder and Mir snapped back to the here and now. Her father was leaning over her, a concerned look in his eyes. Mir's heart went out to him like it rarely had done before... she hadn't seen her parents often since the start of the last war and while she hadn't felt as homesick as she'd feared... it was nice not having parents nagging you... she'd still missed them. And now she had found out she might have been missing them permanently if not for some almost cosmic lucky chance. and to top it all off they were in tough shape... each with several minor wounds, caked with dust and grime and sweat and blood... sunburned, half starved, parched with thirst, emotionally wrung out... they looked like disaster victims, huddled in their seats. But her father still had the presence of mind and caring to try and comfort her, even though he didn't know what was wrong. It brought tears to her eyes.

"Now dear... don't cry." her father whispered. "We're all okay. Alive and... well, not well... but alive."

"Yeah... that we are." Mir replied. She wiped the tears away with one hand and straightened up, looking around the cabin. Alkire and Vladimir were up in the cockpit again, flying the plane. Raine had gathered Victor, James, Chanel and Katie off into their own little group to give everyone some privacy. Lacus was sitting with the Yamato's, filling them in as best she could on their adopted son and the things that had been happening since last they saw him. The Buskirks were sitting with the Argyles on the far side of the cabin... Mir didn't blame them... of all the people on the jet she was the one they knew the best and she had her own family to worry about. And Kuzzey had never been too keen on the whole Coordinator thing, and she couldn't imagine his parents were either, and there was Lacus, sitting right there, glorious pink hair and unimaginable voice plain for all to see. The Argyle's were unknown to her... she'd never been over to Sai's house much... it was mostly he that came to them. She had secretly thought them snobbish back on Heliopolis... but she wasn't so sure of that now. right now they just looked dead tired and suspicious of everyone. "I suppose you have lots of questions for me?"

"You were never so good at understatments before." her mom smiled. "You must have learned from someone." she paused a few moments. "Well... get on with it."

"With what?"

"All of it, dear. Everything since Orb." her father replied tiredly.

"I've talked to you since Orb."

"I can barely remember my own name, honey. Just make it easy for us, would you? Summarize. Small words, we can't take any bombshells." her father requested. Mir frowned.

"No bombshells... pretty much means nothing happened without those." Mir replied. Her parents just stared at her. "Fine... but don't say I didn't warn you." Mir gave them the short version. She was still talking more than an hour later. She'd told them about the months up in space on the Archangel... the school in Switzerland... living in a hidden house in Hawaii... sneaking into Orb. She filled them in on Alkire and Raine and the rest of TEMPEST, on Chanel and Katie and Athrun and Cagalli and Ysak. She told them about how Sai had gone missing. The Argyle's had shifted a bit at that but had remained stony silent afterwards. She'd continued on with stories about all the stuff she had done, school projects, fun nights out, making friends with Cagalli and Lacus and Chanel and Katie. She talked a lot about Kira. Then she had moved on to the less pleasant things. Blue Cosmos for one.

That led to the man known as Cervantes Zunnichi. Asmodeus and Ray Sark. The tall girl, Amy Sihov. Murrue Ramius. All of the fights and terror and heartbreak her friends had encountered. Frost. Frost she spent only the briefest of times on... she was doing her best to pretend he did not exist. She eventually worked her way to the events that occured after sneaking into Orb... freeing Kisaka, finding the mobile suits, fighting their way clear. And she did it all without even casually mentioning Dearka in any way. She wasn't sure how she was going to broach that issue with her parents. Tolle and her had just... happened. Everyone had just sort of accepted that they were together and her parents had never protested. But Dearka was a lot more to her than Tolle had been... by virtue of the fact that he was alive if nothing else, though there was much else.

So now she had wound down and was struggling to think of something else to say. Her parent's solved both dilemma's for her with one stroke. "So what about the guy you haven't told us about?" her father asked suddenly.

"What?" Mir gaped, off guard.

"You told us about everyone on the plane, the guy in the red mobile suit, the guy in the blue mobile suit, Kira... but you haven't said a word about the guy in the green and tan mobile suit that you were riding in when you first showed up." Her mother replied. "In fact you left him quite carefully out of everything you said... did not even mention his name."

"H-how did... how did you...?"

"We're you're parents, dear. And the brief stint on the battlefield has done wonders to sharpen our senses... both of the ordinary and emotional variety." her farther said with a smile. "You kept staring off in the distance whenever you omitted his name. You looked quite wistful, I must say. He must be someone important."

"W-well..." Mir couldn't help the flush on her cheeks. Her mother actually smirked at her.

"He's your boyfriend. There, its out in the open. Now tell us about him." her mother said casually.

"Uhh..."

"Start with his name." her father urged.

"H-his name... his name is Dearka. Dearka Elsman."

"Never heard of him." her father joked with a broad grin. "Go on."

"Weelll... I don't really know what to say... I mean... we've been a couple for... months now. Been going out since Switzerland... though we haven't had time for many real dates... constantly on the run and all that."

"Oh come on, dear, we aren't going to tear your head off. If you've been together for as long as all that then he's surely a good enough guy. And I don't know about dates... but Swiss vacations... hidden Hawaiin jungle houses... posh Orb hotels and hot springs resorts... sounds like you've been on one big date." her mother put in. "How long have you known him?' she asked.

"I met him during the last war, actually."

"Really? When did you meet? He a crewman on the Archangel or something? I didn't recall seeing him when we got to meet you."

"After that actually... after we got attacked again after leaving Orb waters. See... he was... is... one of the pilots of the mobile suits that had been trying to kill us since Heliopolis. We shot him down in the battle where Tolle died. He was a prisoner on board for the next couple weeks. Then when we left the Earth Alliance after Alaska he sort of joined up with us along with Athrun to help defend Orb's mass driver. We just sort of drifted together during the last bit of the war. I initially thought he was a jackass, especially after a few hurtful comments he made... comments he had no idea he was making. But he really impressed me with his desire to make amends. and... well, he got injured in the last battle at Jachin Due and I helped treat his wounds and... things went on from there." Mir paused a couple breaths and looked her parents in the eyes. They looked back.

"So he's... a Coordinator?" her mother asked tenatively.

"Yes. A second generation Coordinator. His parents are on the PLANT Supreme council... but they're an estranged family... they didn't agree with him joining the military."

"A sentiment I can get behind." her father said. "I wasn't exactly pleased when you joined up either." He chewed his lip. "So now we have a Coordinator in the family... huh."

"What do you mean by that?" Mir asked, on guard suddenly. Her parent's were insinuating something, she knew it. Her eyes widened. 'Now hold on a minute. We have done nothing like that! Dearka is the perfect knight... I set the rules and he follows them, even though he doesn't want to. We may have slept in the same bed... because of conditions unavoidable at the time... but..."

"Hush dear... that wasn't what we were insinuating... but thanks for the info. Rather, we were trying to tell you that if you found him acceptable then we found him acceptable. Sorry if our message didn't get through... we're a little out of it. We can't wait to meet him. But for right now... I think your father and I need to get some rest... and so do you... you look bone weary. It must not have been an easy flight in that mobile suit." her mother replied. Before Mir could reply both her parents had closed their eyes and dropped off. She smiled, shaking her head. They had stayed up intentionally just to get the juicy details out of her... now they were out like lights. Mir looked around. The Argyle's, Buskirk's and Yamato's were also out cold. Lacus was talking with Raine and the others quite animatedly... she was still plainly upset about what had happened between Alkire and Kira... Mir didn't blame her but couldn't really muster the energy to get up either. Her mom had been right... the mobile suit flight had been arduous and the seat was so comfortable. Before she knew it, Miriallia had drifted off into slumber as well.