Nothing Will Ever Change That
A/N- This chapter has been proof-read by Frost-Eva-04. Thanks for the help, as always!
A/A/N- Sorry this took so long to update, but I've had some things going on lately. But here it is! Chapter 109 SHOULD be up by the end of next week. Oh yeah, about the 'no action' thing… what I should have said is that no on important will die (ex. Asuka, Shinji, Sam, Cass, etc.). Sorry about the misunderstanding.
Chapter 108: New View
Hallway – 1:00 PM (Same Time)
"Not now, don't talk…" I glance back and see the man with fire in his eyes, obviously angry about what was happening. Shinji had those cold, heartless eyes that I've seen too many times.
"Who is this guy?" I couldn't keep quiet! My husband had a gun to some guy's throat!
"I said stop talking!" Dietlinde jumped a little at the yelling, and frankly, so did I, "What the fuck were you doing in my room?" Shinji takes the gun and puts it under his chin, "You got thirty seconds…"
"I'm… I'm from… I am SEELE… you killed off all of them… you killed them all!" he struggles, but Shinji grips him tighter.
"I recommend you calm down… Asuka, keep on walking, we need to get him in handcuffs…" I continue to walk with a shaking Dietlinde in my arms. After a few seconds, I feel a sharp poking in the back of my head, "You son of a bitch!"
"You pull that trigger and she's dead, you got that? Now get away from me…" no movements were made, "Now!" he shoves the back of my head a little harder. I hear Shinji back away, breathing heavily.
"Sh-Shinji?" my breathing was uneasy, and I was barely able to hold Dietlinde my arms were shaking so violently.
"It's okay Asuka, you'll be fine… just don't move…" his voice was shaky as well.
"Turn around…" I don't make a move, not wanting Dietlinde to see this, "I said…" he puts a hand on the side of my head, "Turn around!" he throws me around, almost making me drop Dietlinde.
"Hey!" he whips around and elbows Shinji across the face, sending him to the floor. I saw a small yet deep cut form on his face.
"Hey what?" Dietlinde was staring at the gun with wide eyes and a dropped jaw. I hold her a little closer, trying to comfort her. The man sees this and smiles down at her, "Let me guess, this is Dietlinde?" he leans down and looks at her as I back up, "You two stole my life from me… all over this little brat…" he tapped her head with his fingers, and I once again back out of his reach.
"Don't touch her…" Dietlinde was still staring at the gun. She would occasionally glance up at him, but her attention mainly focused on the hunk of metal.
"Don't touch her? Is that what you just said?" he shoves the gun barrel to her head, "Then how about this?" I hold her against my body and completely freeze up. Out of nowhere, Shinji leaps at the man and pins him against the wall by his neck. He shoves the gun under his chin and sends a stream of blood shooting up the wall. He holds the man there for a few seconds before letting him fall to the floor.
"Are… you okay?" he turns around and goes wide eyed. Dietlinde had been watching the whole thing, and she was already teary eyed, "Dietlinde…" he takes a step towards her with his arms out. She grabs onto me and buries her face in my chest with a soft whine.
"She's fine… she just needs to calm down…" I held her over my shoulder away from Shinji. She was just scared from the gunshot… that's it…
"Yeah…" he turned around, "Just follow me…" he put the gun in his back pants and began to walk. Dietlinde was still whining into the cloth of my shirt. We eventually came to Akagi's door and he simply walked in.
"Oh, hey Shin… what happened to you? Are you okay?" she walked up to him but he took a step back.
"There's a man in the hallway. I want him to be checked out for anything suspicious. Check his clothing, and have him sent in for an autopsy. Have NERV searched from top to bottom, and have it done within the next few hours. Do you understand?" I always hated when he had to become the commander, he just didn't sound human.
"Um… y-yeah… what happened?" Akagi looked down at Dietlinde with gained a very concerned face.
"SEELE… listen; just have NERV searched as quickly as possible. Come with us, I don't want you alone in here. We're going to Sam and Cass's room, come on," with obvious nervousness, she follows us out of the room. How many damn times do we have to kill SEELE before they're actually dead? Following Shinji, we eventually make our way to Sam and Cass's room, "Hey guys, its Shinji, can I come in?" I hear someone sigh and the door swings open.
"What the hell is going on!" Cass held a gun in his hands as Sam clung to his arm, fear tracing her face.
"I don't know, but we need to stay together," Cass moves aside and we all walk in, "Okay, I want all of you to stay in the bathroom, me and Cass will be out here. DO NOT come out and DON'T make a noise, got it?" He guides us into the bathroom and closes the door without so much as a word.
"What's going on?" Sam was damn near shaking; they must have heard what happened outside.
"I'm not too sure," I hold Dietlinde a little closer to me; "Do you know Rits?" She rubes her eyes and sighs.
"No idea… I'm guessing that it's the last of SEELE…" I swear, if they're not gone after this, I'll find them myself!
"Cass… you hear that?" we all hear Shinji whispering to Cass, "It sounds like-" then a loud bang echoed through the entire room… it sounded like a gun… I jet out of the bathroom and see Shinji lying on his stomach on the floor with a large red spot on his back.
"You son of a bitch!" I hear another bang and look up to see Cass holding a man up with one arm, blood now dripping to the floor.
"Shin… ji…" not again… he can't die again…
"Damn it Asuka! Turn around!" Cass jets over to me and whips me around. Dietlinde then begins to cry, either from the loud noise or seeing her father like that, "Akagi, Shinji's been shot!" she comes rushing and goes wide eyed, "Cut the dramatics for one damn second! Help me get him to the hospital! Grab his leg and I'll get his arms," Akagi does as she was told without any fight, and soon my husband was out of the room, dripping blood on the floor the whole way.
"It's okay baby…" trying to ignore my own tears, I start to cradle Dietlinde to get her to calm down, "Shhhh, mommy's here," I had to get her away from this gory sight or this is just going to get worse. As much as it's going to kill me, I have to go back to our room… at least until she calms down. Leaving Sam behind – like I cared at this point – I walk out of the room and go into ours, "How about a nice bath to calm you down?" she always seemed so relaxed during a bath, so why shouldn't that work now? With her crying the entire time, I run the bath and gently set her in after disrobing her, "There…" she wouldn't stop crying though, the entire time I was washing her, she just never stopped crying.
Was she really that scared? I mean, how does she even know to BE scared of a gunshot? Sure, it's a loud noise, but that's all it is to her at this age, just a loud noise… right? She just saw her father and Cass kill a man… then watched her father get shot… is that it? Was she scared of Shinji now? The way she reacted to him when he tried to pick her up… it was heart breaking… it was almost as if she was terrified by him now. But he's her father; she should get over it… I hope…
"Come on…" I pick her up out of the tub and dry her off, "It's okay Dietlinde, daddy's fine," by the time I was done dressing her, she was still crying full force. This was starting to get scary for me; if she really is that scared of Shinji without him around, what will she be like WITH him around? I really hope this comes to pass…
"Asuka? Can I come in?" I hear Akagi knock at the door, "I need to talk with you about Shinji," why don't I like the sound of that? I open the door and she looks at a sobbing Dietlinde, "Okay, first off, Shinji's fine. He's in surgery right now, but he'll be fine. Second… I needed to talk with you about her… did she see Shinji actually shot that man?" I close my eyes and nod.
"It was my fault… I turned around and let her see him…" Ritsuko sighs. It was instinct to turn around, it's not like I wanted her to see him!
"She's probably just startled, but I would have Shinji slowly get closer to her. If he were to come in and pick her up for instance, it might scare her and only make her relationship with him worse. He won't be able to come out of the hospital room for about three days, so that should give her time to calm down," did I just ruin their relationship? What if I did? I could never forgive myself…
"O-Okay… what about Dietlinde?" she once again sighs.
"Well, I'm not a mother, so I really don't know much about babies. I guess just hold her for awhile, that might calm her down," she puts a hand on my shoulder, "I'm sorry she went through that Asuka, good luck, I have to go back to Shinji," she closed the door and left me with the crying infant.
"How about we lay down for a little bit, huh?" I give her a sweet smile, and oddly, that seemed to calm her down slightly. I lie down on our bed and set her on my stomach, laying her head on my chest, "Its okay… I'm here…" I start to slowly rub her back and after a few minutes, the sobbing withered down to a slight whimpering, "I love you Dietlinde…" she slowly drifted off to sleep, tears still on her face. I'm thankful that she was able to go to sleep; she really needed it after today.
I think she noticed my pregnant stomach because she was staring at it for quite awhile. I really hope she doesn't have any issues with her new sibling, I mean, she was still young herself; she might feel as if she was being replaced. No matter what happens, we have to make sure that we don't neglect her. Both of these children will need equal attention, not one over the other. Not only that, but yet another child will soon be making an appearance; Sam and Cass's. Sure, it may not be ours, but we will be living under the same roof. Then another thought crossed my mind… what if their baby is a boy? We plan to live in that house for a LONG time to come, so what would happen when they finally go through puberty? Well… me and Shinji did that… of course, look what happened! Two children and a marriage! But we didn't exactly grow up together; we just went through our adolescence together… which didn't exactly help! We were both going through puberty; puberty meant raging hormones; and raging hormones meant sexual desire. Though I may have hated him the majority of the time when we were back in Misato's, I'd be a liar if I said that I never got any ideas. I know he felt the same way too! Well, I guess we'll just have to deal with that when the time comes, as for now… this is good for me…
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That Night – 9:00 PM
I wake up to Dietlinde shifting herself on my chest. I must have dozed off for a little bit… I glace at the clock and damn near fall out of bed. Nine at night! I slept all day! I hold Dietlinde in my arms and stand up after rubbing my eyes.
"Looks like we'll both be up for awhile, huh baby?" to my surprise, she actually giggled at my tone, "Sleep good?" look at me! I'm having a conversation with a baby! I chuckle as I walk out of the room. I knew this might not be the best of ideas, but I was going to see Shinji. Dietlinde needed to fix this problem fast, if we drag this on too long, it might affect her to the point of not ever getting close to him again. After asking a good four nurses, I find his room and see him peacefully asleep on the bed. When Dietlinde saw him she immediately buried her face in my chest like before, "It's okay Dietlinde, calm down," she slowly looks up at me as I sit in the chair next to my husband. The only noise that could be heard for quite awhile was the constant beeping of his heart monitor. After summing up the mental courage, I slowly bring her up and set her on his chest. She immediately began to whine and move on him, but I didn't pick her back up. Shinji started to stir himself and when he opened his eyes the first sight was his daughter looking up at him with teary eyes.
"Dietlinde…" I grab his hand and smile at him.
"Hold her… no matter what happens, just hold her," I take my hand off of Dietlinde as he wraps his arms around her.
"Asuka… I don't think this is a good idea… she's shaking…" she did everything she could to hide her face from him, even going as far as to bury her face in his shirt.
"It doesn't matter; she has to get over this. No more talking to me, this is just you and her," he looks back down at Dietlinde and with unsteady hands, raises her head to look at him.
"Dietlinde… its daddy, remember?" she clenched her eyes shut and turned her head. This was heart breaking! Those two used to be so close, but now look! He slowly brought her back down and kissed her forehead, "Come on, look at me…" she slowly opens her eyes to him smiling, "There's those beautiful eyes…" he wipes away one of her tears with his thumb, "I'm sorry you had to see that honey… I promise, I'll never put you through that again," he once again kisses her forehead. To both of our surprises, she smiles up at him. It may have been faint, but it was obviously present, "Thank you Dietlinde…" he hugged her tight against his body. That sure wasn't too hard! I knew it wouldn't be, she loves him no matter what.
"I think I'll leave the father and daughter alone for a few minutes," with a quick peck on the cheek for both of them, I leave to room to see Akagi with a teary smile, "You're always such an emotional!" she chuckles a little, "So I take it you were watching?"
"Yeah… good job Asuka…" she wipes her tears away and lost the smile, "Okay, now, I need to talk with you about something. Before we start, I need you to promise me that you won't tell Shinji about this, okay?" how many damn times is she going to freak me out today?
"Um… okay… why do I have a feeling I won't like this?" she puts her and on my back and guides me down the hallway.
"You won't. Remember how we had to remove one of your ovaries after you were shot?" I put my hand on my pelvis and smile.
"No, I completely forgot about that painful as hell surgery, yes I remember!" she doesn't smile… crap…
"I'm not joking here Asuka. I was looking over your surgery detail today as a standard checkup. I missed something last time… the other one was damaged somehow; I'm still not sure how… it'll have to be removed too…" I stop dead in my tracks.
"But… that would mean…" she cuts me off.
"I know. After the baby is born, we'll remove it… I'm sorry Asuka… you won't be able to bear any more children…" I know that we already had two, but Dietlinde will be moving out when we're only in our thirties… we could have more…
"Will this affect our new baby?" she shakes her head with a small smile.
"That's about the only thing that can be considered good news right now. It'll be fine, but we'll have to remove it right after you deliver. It won't take too long, only about half an hour, but you'll be in pain afterwards, so we'll keep you in the hospital two days. I'm really sorry about this, but if I leave it there, you risk serious infection later on," damn it… I may not want more children now but… I don't know…
"Okay… but I'm not going to keep this from Shinji. He has the right to know," she shrugs.
"That was just advice for now. I wouldn't tell him tonight though, he's been through enough," I will be telling him in the morning though!
"Okay… is that it?" I think she was surprised at my reaction to it – and frankly, so was I – but I couldn't let it get to me too bad.
"Yeah… you can go back to him now if you want, he's probably missing you already!" with a friendly wave, I walk back to his room to see him already back asleep with Dietlinde staring up at him. I pick her up and walk out of the room, "We'll come back tomorrow, okay? For now, how about we watch some TV until we get tired?"
A/N- Well, looks like no more children are on the way after this one is born. Its official, Asuka is sterile! Looks like Shinji will save a lot of money on condoms now, huh? Anyway, we're going to have another time jump next chapter to when… you know what? I ain't gonna say! Just read the next chapter; Shinji Knows Best, until then, keep on keepin' on!