A/N – Sorry for the extreme delay in updating any of my fanfiction. Hopefully some people out there are still interested in this fic. Thank you for all the wonderful reviews. Please don't kill me for this part!

"Darling, you were made for me."

"Oh Hilde, darling, you two were made for each other!" If one more person came up to her and spouted that line of utter crap, the new Mrs. Hilde Maxwell was going to scream. And she really didn't want to do that. The white dress and rather obvious baby-bump were getting her quite enough attention, thank you. The dark-haired woman had never thought she would be the marrying kind, or the baby kind for that matter, but here she was anyway. This was why all the fake, gushy women at this wedding were annoying the hell out of her. Duo wasn't "made" for her, she wasn't ridiculously, soppily in love with him. They had been drunk and very stupid and now they had no choice but to make the best of it. Hilde had realised she was pregnant well after the point where she could have had a legal abortion and she'd rather pull her own eyes out and eat them than let a backstreet abortionist fumble up her skirt. She pressed a hand to her bump and felt vaguely sick that she'd even considered killing her child. Still, things would have been so much simpler if she could have just terminated the pregnancy. Sipping at the non-alcoholic champagne, supplied so readily by Quatre Winner, she let her eyes wander around the bustling room.

Ah yes, there he was, the dark spot in her day of cheer. Heero Yuy's presence was already having a pronounced effect upon Hilde's new husband. Duo was a blur of motion, fixing people's drinks, talking and laughing and dancing, but Hilde could see it was all just an effort to distract himself. To stop his eyes wandering back to his ex, so early in their marriage. Hilde felt sorry for Duo. She knew that his decision was tearing him up inside. She also knew that he wouldn't change his mind and although she felt sorry for Heero Yuy too, she wouldn't send Duo away. She was too scared for that. Hilde shook her head once, wouldn't do to dwell on the impending horror that was childbirth and motherhood; she was the blushing bride after all and couldn't very well break down in hysterics. A distraction was needed.

Hilde would never be sure whether it was the bubbles in her drink or a fresh wave of pregnancy hormones which made her decide to approach the sullen figure of Heero Yuy, who was being so blatantly ignored by everyone else. She made her way gradually over to his deserted corner, fighting her way valiantly through a thinning crowd. His eyes lifted to meet hers as she sat beside him; the emotions which she had seen in all their painful glory over the last few months were now quietly subdued. They sat there in silence for a while, the former and current spouse of one Duo Maxwell. Hilde's mind provided details of her husband's first wedding reception. Recalled watching them out on the dance floor, smiling softly, so in love. How different this second arrangement was.

"I didn't think he'd go through with it," Heero was the first to break their silence. Hilde had wondered at his presence; it seemed that he had clung to the hope Duo had urged him to let go of. The man beside her seemed older, so much older, in the space of a few months. He leaned back in his chair and drank the last few drops of champagne from his flute. Hilde could think of nothing to say to the man who's life she had ruined. "I would kill you," he remarked coolly. "And your child too, if I thought it would bring him back to me."

A tear or two dripped down her cheeks as he rose from his seat and left without causing the slightest scene. In a strange way she felt proud of him. He was a better person than her. As she too stood, her eye was caught by the figure of Miss Relena Darlian. Hilde could almost sense the anger in the air. She knew already what Miss Relena thought. She thought that Hilde had stolen Duo Maxwell. That she had lied and tempted and seduced her way into his bed and his life. That she had wilfully become pregnant. Hilde dreaded to think what other sordid theories the Foreign Minister had cooked up in the supposedly prim mind of hers. Relena thought that today, Hilde had finally sealed her victory and she was not the best pleased. If this was victory then she didn't want it, bitter and vile thing that it was. Relena looked for a moment as if she were going to approach and Hilde dreaded the scene she knew would follow. Fortunately the blonde was intercepted by Quatre Winner, which meant that Hilde was spared, for the moment.

A hand touched her elbow and she turned to see her new husband. Duo looked at her with concern before allowing his eyes to flick in the direction Heero had left in.

"Did he say anything?" the question was asked quietly, a marked counterpoint to his brazen cheeriness of earlier. Hilde shrugged, wondering how much she should say.

"He thought you'd back out," she replied, omitting the death threat towards herself and her cargo. "I thought you might too," she admitted. Duo quirked his lips and enveloped her in a hug. Despite all the mess, they were still best of friends.

"I almost did," he sighed into her hair. "But then I remembered what I'd be missing out on," a worn hand rubbed her baby-bump gently. Hilde smiled sadly.

"Aww, look at you two! Don't you make a pretty picture?" A brash voice interrupted the quiet moment, forcing both Hilde and Duo to put their happy couple masks back into place.

"Hey Aunt Zezolla, glad you could make it," Hilde tried, really tried to keep the sarcasm out of her voice.

"Y'know, you two kids were just made for each other!"

"I know, Auntie Z, I know…"

Outside the warmth and light of the marquee, a solitary figure had paused in the cold. Today had been his final stand. Heero had hoped that his presence would be enough to stop Duo from swearing vows of fidelity and eternity which he had sworn once before. His plan had been more than flawed.

"Till death do us part," After three months of fighting Duo tooth and nail over anything and everything, just to keep them married that little bit longer, Heero knew he had finally lost. He had lost Duo.

As he slipped the wedding ring his ex-husband had commissioned for him off his finger, he pulled out its partner from his coat pocket. He had almost shattered when Duo returned his wedding ring. Now was the time to admit defeat. The matching pair slipped through Heero Yuy's numb fingers to rest on the cool, damp ground. Was there anything left for him now? Feeling the reassuring weight of his handgun at his waist, Heero decided to go back to his two-room flat and rest for a while. If the sun came up tomorrow, hopefully he would know what he had to do.

" 'Darling, you were made for me.'/ I pray I'll never hear those words./ I need to feel I'm stealing/ love another man would kill for." – R. Lumsden

Fin?