The Bounty
by Scarlet Eve
Part 7: Broken Memories
The police cruiser rolled up in front of the Peacecraft Manor at eight in the morning and stopped. Relena sat in the backseat, still in her dirty clothes from two days ago, her hair a complete mess, and her wrists cuffed together in her lap. Despite how gross she felt, she held her head high. She had no shame.
The officer who drove her back to her house climbed out of the car and walked around to the other side to let Relena out. As she stepped out onto the sidewalk, she saw the front door open and her family stepped onto the front porch. Relena groaned inwardly, but kept her head held high.
She was led down the sidewalk and through the front gate and up to the porch. Her parents, whom she hadn't seen in years, were staring at her with a mixture of surprise and revulsion. It tugged at Relena's heart to see them so disappointed, but she reminded herself that they were the reason she was so unhappy at home, and why she ran away. Behind her parents stood her brother, who was smiling at her, like he'd won some silly childhood game.
"Relena," her mother said; her voice was low and it quivered slightly.
"Mother, father, brother," she said, acknowledging each of them with a nod of her head. Relena watched her mother's body language, noting how the woman seemed to be struggling with herself. Finally the older woman launched herself at her daughter and wrapped Relena in her arms. Relena could feel hot tears fall onto her shoulder. Since her wrists were still cuffed, her couldn't return the hug or provide any sort of comfort to her. Finally, her father pulled her mother off of her, and the family, along with the officer proceeded into the home.
Relena was surprised with how familiar, and yet how foreign everything looked in the home. Decorations and furniture had changed, but some of the pictures and of course, the layout of the home, were still the same. On the wall near the parlor was the last family picture that was taken before Relena ran away. She'd been sixteen at the time. In the picture, everyone looked happy, except for herself, who was scowling in the picture. At the time, she'd been proud of herself for ruining the picture, but now, she felt pangs of regret as she looked at the frozen face of her younger self.
Relena inched forward when she was prodded in the back by the police officer. Relena's mother led them to the dining room and Relena sat down in one of the chairs. The officer began to explain the ankle bracelet to her parents and brother, but Relena tuned it out. She continued to look around, and she was flooded with memories of her childhood. In her head, screams and shouts echoed- faded remnants of arguments with her parents, fights with her brother, scoldings by the housekeeper for pilfering food from the kitchen...
Relena shuddered and goosebumps rose over her skin. She twisted her arms against her stomach and leaned forward. With a heavy sigh, she dropped her forehead against her arm.
"Do you understand, Miss Peacecraft?" the officer directed his attention towards her again. Relena lifted her head up and nodded, though she hadn't heard a thing. The officer approached her and pulled the ankle bracelet from somewhere on his person. Relena stuck her leg out and the officer attached it, using the key to lock the device. The weight of the thing settled on Relena's leg, and she lowered her foot back to the ground. The officer took off her handcuffs, said good bye, and was led out of the house by her father.
No one spoke once her father returned to the dining room. Relena stared down at the blinking light on her ankle, not wanting to speak to anyone.
"So... you're a prisoner in your own home," her father said disapprovingly. Relena snorted.
"No different than the last time I lived here," she retorted. Her parents bristled. Milliardo just let out a chuckle. Relena shot him a look, and he quieted. She could feel her pent up anger flooding its way to the surface, the rage she squashed down the day she ran off from home. When she thought she'd never have to come back and see her family.
"You have always been ungrateful," her father said. Relena leveled her glare at her parents. Her mother shrank back behind her father. Relena opened her mouth to respond, but he spoke again before she could. "We always gave you everything that you wanted. We gave you every possible opportunity to make friends and become part of a group, but you just kept yourself closed off. You were the black sheep of the family," he finished, using the tired old cliche. Relena listened to her father, but when he finished, she simply hung her head and laughed.
"Why are you laughing?" Milliardo asked.
"I didn't want clothes and toys and dance lessons," Relena said, absently rubbing at the slight chafe on her wrists from the handcuffs. "I wanted-" but she stopped herself. She wasn't sixteen anymore. She was twenty-five years old, an adult, and for the last several years, she'd made her own life, and she'd turned out relatively fine.
"Nevermind," she said. She felt awkward as everyone stared at her. The light blinking on the ankle bracelet was the only reminder in the room of the trouble that Relena had gotten herself into.
The silence was broken when Relena's mother sobbed and ran from the room. Relena's father followed after her, but Milliardo stayed. He walked towards Relena and pulled her up off the chair.
"See, little sister, you are safe now," he said. He gave her a brief hug, then he too, left the room. Relena stared after him, no closer to figuring out what his motives were than she was two days ago.
The house slowly went back to normal. Relena heard her mother speaking loudly on the phone, most likely to one of the other wives of the country club they belonged to. Somewhere, a television turned on. The low rumble of her father and brother speaking to each other filtered through the walls. She rose from her chair and wandered out of the dining room and towards the steps. She wondered if her room was even still her room anymore.
She reached the landing and stepped through the thick carpet that lined the floor. That was new. At the end of the hall, a door with a little pink sign that read "RELENA" still hung from the doorknob. Relena's chest ached slightly at the sight of it. So many times she had run up those steps, down the hall and into that room, only to slam the door shut and hear the knocking of that sign against the door. Relena reached out to the doorknob, turned it, and pushed the door open.
The first thing that hit her was the smell. It was musty and hot in that room. Clearly the door had been closed for a very long time. Then slowly, the familiar smells of childhood wafted out, the sprays and perfumes she used to use, the smell of make up, her candles...
Relena stepped into the room and shut the door behind her. Everything was as she left it the day she slipped out the window in the middle of the night with all the money she saved, a bag of her favorite clothes and her memories. Her girlish bed was still covered with the pink comforter, the canopy curtains still tied to the tall posts on each corner. Relena walked towards her closet and opened the doors. Old school uniforms and other clothes from her seventeen year old self hung there, coated in a fine layer of dust. On the floor were her old shoes, ones she would not fit in anymore.
And everywhere, on the walls, on the nightstand and desk, the dressing tables, remnants of the life her parents forced on her. Awards from dance, awards from academics, a youth golfing tournament trophy. She remembered how she'd fixed that tournament so that she'd win, and she managed to collect about two-thousand dollars from the spectators who bet against her. Relena smiled at the memory. Her parents had been furious. But at least she'd won, she'd tried to reason with them.
Relena pushed open the doors to her balcony. The roses were overgrown here, crawling over the floor of the balcony, along the railings and and down to hang towards the first floor. She carefully moved the twining branches out of the way so she could look over the city.
She leaned against the railing, her hands cupping her chin. The city rose up around her and extended far away from her home. Relena sighed wistfully, conjuring up the image in her mind that kept her from going crazy while she was stuck in that jail cell. Heero Yuy, the man who'd come after her, her proverbial knight in shining armor, standing at the controls of her yacht, sailing her back to New York City on the whim of her brother. The wind fluttering through his unkempt hair and ruffling his clothes against his body. Except Heero wasn't saving her, he was bringing her back to be captured by the evil witch and wizard.
He never treated her like he had contempt for her. Instead, he seemed almost fascinated by her. Something inside of him was interested in her little schemes, and that was interesting to Relena. She laughed to herself as she imagined her and Heero, side by side, scamming the world out of their money, just because they were bored. She thought their minds would work well together.
Relena let out a long sigh and her shoulders drooped. It was all just wishful thinking.
-/-\-
It took Heero several days to set up his plan, and each day that past saw a more and more agitated Heero Yuy. While he waited for emails and phone calls, he paced back and forth in his apartment, his mind constantly thinking of Relena. He was always wondering if she was alright. If she was being treated well.
The only real hope he had was that he'd received a few calls from Catherine Bloom, who kindly informed Heero that she was still working on Relena's case and would hopefully get the entire thing thrown out of court, unless the defense could actually produce some legally obtained evidence. Heero listed, but kept the hope in the back of his mind that it wouldn't matter what Catherine or the other lawyer were able to do.
Quatre had called Heero as well, who told him about dropping by the Peacecraft place. He had been invited for tea, and had noticed the extreme tension in the home. He'd been able to see Relena, who was looking thin and tired, and seemed to have a permanent scowl on her face. Quatre could tell that Milliardo had some smug satisfaction from seeing his sister locked up in the house.
It made Heero both sad and angry to hear this news. He still did not know the motivations behind Milliardo's behavior, but Heero was past the point of caring. All he was concerned with was getting Relena out.
About a week later, there was the long awaited knock on Heero's door. He'd been in the middle of drinking coffee and checking the news for information about Relena. Heero flew to the door and wrenched it open. Standing on the other side was Duo Maxwell, dressed in dark jeans and a black t-shirt, swinging a bag from his hand. He had that same grin on his face that he'd always had when the two of them were about to get into some adolescent trouble.
"Hey buddy," Duo said, stepping into the apartment and slapping Heero on the shoulder.
"Duo," Heero said by way of greeting. "You were able to get the tools?" Heero's eyes trailed to the bag in Duo's hands.
"Of course. What kind of haggler do you think I am?" Duo asked with a wink. He dropped the bag on Heero's dining table and opened it. He began to pull out various tools. Heero watched, nodding at each one as they were taken from the bag. Duo laid them all out side by side and glanced up at Heero. "The full arsenal. We should have the little lady out of that fashion statement and back on the ocean in no time."
For the first time all week, Heero smiled. And now, there was nothing to do except wait.
-/-\-
Relena lay on the sofa in the family room, watching television and eating from a bowl of grapes. The little light on her ankle bracelet blinked at her, mocking her with every flash of red. She'd taken to pulling a sock up over the bracelet in an unfashionable way, just so she wouldn't have to look at the offending device. As she watched old black and white movies, she tried to doze off and catch up on her sleep. The first night she tried to sleep in her childhood bed, she ended up lying awake for most of the night, missing the gentle rocking of her yacht in the water. Everything on land was too still for her. The second night, she'd dragged a rocking chair in from the long unused nursery (which she expected her mother kept around for future grandchildren), and tried to rock herself to sleep. She'd managed a few disjointed hours, but it was bad sleep and she'd awaken with sore muscles.
Lying on the sofa, however, was not ideal either, as she could hear her parents and brother going about their day in the rest of the house, and it irked her.
Relena set the bowl down on the floor and rolled over onto her side to face the back of the sofa. She wiggled, trying to make herself comfortable, but no matter how much she willed it, the sofa would not rock. It sat stationary on the ground, as it was supposed to. Relena moaned and flopped around to her back to stare at the ceiling. On the television, Scarlet O'Hara cried.
"Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn," Relena mimicked, as Rhett Butler turned away and left her crying on the steps. With a click, the door to the family room opened and Relena detected the light step of her mother. The door clicked again, and Relena sat up. Her mother was stepping cautiously towards her, as if at any moment, Relena would spring from the sofa and attack her.
"Relena darling," her mother said, turning the volume down on the television.
"Yes?" Relena asked indignantly. Her mother sat down on the edge of the sofa, and Relena pulled her feet up.
"I came to try and talk some sense into you. I know you won't listen to your father or brother..." Relena crossed her arms.
"What sense do I need to have talked into me?" Relena asked.
"To just admit what you did and we can get this whole messy business over with!" her mother said, trying to restrain her voice from getting too hysterical. Relena pursed her lips.
"You are concerned with the image of the Peacecraft name, no?"
Her mother sighed. "It's not just that Relena. Think of the businesses, and all our contacts and friends and family. They're all going to be linked to this!"
"So I should care about a bunch of people I don't know and their image, too?" Relena asked.
"Well, yes, I suppose. I tried to raise you to be courteous of everyone," her mother protested.
"You tried to raise me to be courteous only to those of our social standing, actually. I'm not going to admit to anything," Relena said. Her mother heaved a long, dramatic sigh.
"Oh Relena. You are breaking my heart," she said. Relena couldn't hold back a sarcastic scoff. She stood from the sofa, staring down her mother.
"How could I be breaking your heart, mother? Is it because I'm ruining the family? Or because you actually care about what happens to me?" Her mother seemed to have no answer, so Relena went on. "You keep talking about raising me, mother, but you did not do any of that. School, the household staff, Pagan, they all raised me. You did nothing except attend parties and ignore me. Through my entire teenage years, I had to fumble along, embarrassed, because I didn't know that my growing body was supposed to do the things it did. You know who helped me when I got my first period, mother?" Her mother flinched. "The cook! Yes, because you weren't home, and you never warned me. I barely knew how to act like a girl, mother. I didn't fit in with anyone. So I went my own way. I learned things on my own, and grew up into the person I am now. And I will never regret it. Ever."
"Relena..." her mother began, but Relena cut her off with a wave of her hand.
"All I ever wanted was parents. I wanted a mother who would take me shopping instead of sending out the maid with a list of my sizes. I wanted a father that would teach me things about business and books and history and science. I wanted a brother who would protect me and be my confidant, but I had none of that. I was left to fend for myself. So I did the only thing I could think of: to run away and do it on my own. And even if you don't think so, I succeeded."
By now, Relena's mother was sobbing, her hands pressed against her face and her tears falling into the material of her dress. Relena was heaving, her face hot and angry, but she was also holding back tears. She refused to cry in front of her mother, or anyone from her family.
"Oh Relena, I'm so sorry," her mother sobbed. Relena began to walk towards the door.
"It's a little too late for that, mother."
-/-\-
A/N: Yay! A chapter update! Sorry it has taken me so long. I've had some crappy weeks for the past few weeks, and it's been hindering my writing and everything. But I'm back! I think there will be one more chapter, and then I'm going to write an alternate ending as well. I just have so many ideas to bring you all, my faithful readers!
As always, review please! And if you are interested, there are various ways to follow me around the internet on my profile page. I'd love to interact with all of you!
-Scarlet Eve