Dearka & Miriallia

Book II

Disclaimer: It is obvious by now if I'm here that I do not own Gundam SEED, Gundam SEED Destiny or any other Gundam Series. But any characters I create to place in this world are mine (But I don't mind if you guys want to use them too. I have no problem with that. You don't even need to ask me. I enjoy sharing to make other stories the best they can be.)

Chapter 9

Acquiescence

Four months later…

It was verbally silent on the bridge as the soldiers scurried around and computers beeped from recognition codes. Dearka stood by Yzak's side as he always did unless engaged in mobile suit combat.

Most of the time, Yzak preferred that personal conversations be withheld until after soldiers left the bridge, but being the Commander, he sometimes negated that rule when it came to him and Dearka.

Finally Yzak broke the silence and began whispering to Dearka in order to keep the conversation they were about to have somewhat private. "So, what are your plans now?" Yzak asked nonchalantly.

"I'm not sure yet. I promised her I would wait until she met with her parents again before anything else," Dearka informed him.

He stood there with his arms crossed while they continued to monitor the re-supplying progress of the Voltaire and Rousseau. In all honesty, he wasn't really in the mood to talk about it right now.

"Shouldn't you be bringing her home then? You've been hanging around here and haven't done anything yet and it's been months. Are you sure you really even want to get married?" Yzak asked.

"Of course I want to get married this isn't a stall tactic, but how can I? I don't have anymore time off, unless you're offering an extension. And when did you become so supportive about my relationship with her?" Dearka asked with a smirk.

"Don't misunderstand, I'm only offering because you won't be happy until you marry that girl not because I agree with your decision. And the only way for you to marry her is if she remembers the people most important to her, right?" he asked.

Dearka replied sincerely. "Yeah, so she says."

"Then the only way that will happen is if you take her back to Orb. She won't remember anything up here on the Voltaire," Yzak stated.

Dearka stood there for a moment contemplating Yzak's offer. "If I go back to Orb with her, I'll have to face her father again. That's definitely something I don't want to do, but I don't think I have much of a choice," he thought.

Yzak began to become irritated at the silence. He had just given Dearka the opportunity he'd been waiting for to secure the woman of his dreams and he just stood there with a dumb look on his face.

After waiting for what seemed like a lifetime to him, he grunted. "Well?"

Dearka let out the breath he was holding in while thinking of the confrontation with Miriallia's father and answered his friend. "So when can I leave?"

"I would prefer if you waited until the re-supplying is complete and then the two of you can head out before we depart. It will save you the shuttle trip," Yzak replied.

Still Dearka wasn't up for taking the trip, but how could he turn down Yzak's offer? It wasn't like he would make another offer like this anytime soon. If given enough time he could even renege this one. But that didn't stop Dearka from pushing to make sure he wouldn't change his mind.

"You sure you can afford to let me do this?" Dearka asked.

"What, you think I can't run this ship without you continually badgering me?" Yzak said with a grin.

Dearka smiled back with a grin of his own. He knew full well Yzak was more than capable of handling the operations of the ship without him there; it was his temper that tended to be his downfall not his skills as a Commander.

"Well I guess you'll have it under control. After all, Shiho will keep you in line while I'm gone," Dearka said with one of his infamous remarks.

Yzak cringed at what he was about to admit to his friend upon hearing the mention of Shiho's name and then looked straight ahead to avoid eye contact. "Speaking of Shiho, you may want to thank her before you head out too. This is all her doing anyway."

Dearka let out a small laugh. "Guess she keeps you in line even when I'm around."

Yzak turned again to face his friend, his ice-blue eyes piercing through Dearka's amethyst ones. "Why don't you go tell your girl the plan and get ready? You can finish the last hour of your shift after you're organized."

"If you insist," Dearka replied at the seriousness in Yzak's eyes.

Yzak nodded before turning back to the monitors to continue the overlooking of the re-supply. Dearka stood there for a moment longer before deciding it was time to listen to Yzak's orders and floated toward the bridge doors.

He turned to take one last look at the bridge and his friend that commanded it as he waited for the doors to slip shut.

Dearka walked down the halls toward his room hoping Miriallia would be up for the trip. Lately she had been feeling very tired and extremely moody. He tended to bite his tongue a lot when she would leave an opportunity for a sarcastic comment. She really wasn't in the mood to find it as cute and playful as she used to.

As time passed with each other she had begun to remember more bits and pieces of her life together with him. She had finally realized she had truly been madly in love with him at one point.

Miriallia was the first woman he ever stuck by during an emotional rollercoaster. Any other woman he had been with in the past, he would practically throw his hands up in the air and walk away thinking they were just crazy. Her mood swings weren't helping much throughout her breakthroughs, but he stuck it out and had a bruise on his arm to prove it.

"Who knew a Natural could be so strong when their adrenaline kicks in," Dearka thought rubbing his arm.

Miriallia had a meltdown the night before with another one of her hormonal mood swings in full force. Dearka hadn't expected it to be as bad as it was and when he tried to calm her down, she had shaken free of his grip and twisted around so fast that the momentum from her freed arm swung around to bash his upper arm accidentally. His arm was beginning to hurt again just from the memory of it.

When he reached his quarters, he knocked softly and remained silent in order to hear her voice. He wanted to see what kind of mood she was in to find out how best to approach her about the trip. If she was feeling 'miserable and fat,' as she liked to call it when she would snap at him when she was in a bad mood and he asked her how her day was, he would have to think of a way to get her to venture off of the ship let alone out of his quarters.

Miriallia heard the knock as she placed Annabella in her crib. Her short brunette hair bounced when she lifted her head to look toward the door. "Who's there?"

The most beautiful sound in days rang from the inside of his room. A small smile and exhale of relief escaped Dearka's lips. "It's me Miriallia. Can I come in?"

She had a smile of her own now as she answered his call. "Of course you can come in. It's your room after all," she teased.

Dearka slipped in the door to another beautiful sound.

"Daddy's home," Annabella cried out with glee.

In a few short months the little girl had picked up even more new words. She was talking up a storm and becoming her own person. She was also getting so much bigger that it made Dearka feel fulfilled while he watched her grow in front of his eyes.

Then again, he technically never noticed that she actually got bigger until she could get something off higher shelves or items he placed further and further back from the edge of the desk. But nevertheless when he did notice it, he could see the changes she had made in leaps and bounds.

He was incredibly relieved that Miriallia was in such a good mood. "Now all I have to do is fill her in on the details, put our stuff together and then finish my last hour of my shift and we'll be on our way," he thought still dreading the confrontation he was going to have with her father.

"You're back early. Did Yzak let you off for good behavior?" Miriallia joked.

Dearka laughed as he walked over to Annabella's crib. He leaned over and gently picked the reaching girl up into his arms. "It's something like that."

Leaving it open to curiosity, Miriallia took the bait. Her eyes glazed over warily as she watched Dearka holding Annabella close to him. "I'm listening."

"He thought we needed to get away together, just you, Belle, and me" he said softly as he nuzzled noses with Belle.

"He thought that, did he?" Miriallia said smirking.

"Okay, not quite that, but he wants us to be a happy family the way we were meant to be and to do that, you need to see your parents first so he's letting us go to Orb to see them for a little while," Dearka said never taking his eyes off of Belle.

Miriallia's face lit up, more lively than she had been in a long time. "I can go home?"

Dearka realized it was safe to look in her direction by the reaction she gave. His violet eyes gazed over to her and locked on with an intense passion and an ever growing seductive smile. "I told you I would do anything for you. You wanted to go home again and I made it happen, with Yzak's help of course."

Miriallia raised an eyebrow to him and folded her arms in front of her chest. "Of course," she replied sarcastically.

"All right, it was really Shiho's idea, and Yzak set it up. I had nothing to do with it, but I knew you wanted to go, so I didn't argue with him," he stated giving up the farce and telling her how things had really gone down on the bridge.

"See, don't you feel better when you don't lie to make yourself look good," she said smiling.

Dearka frowned and began to grumble. "Not really. If I was the hero I might have gotten…"

A stomp rang through the room as Miriallia's foot hit the ground and a scowl twisting the features of her face. "Not in front of Annabella!" she yelled.

Dearka cringed at her mood swing as he mentally kicked himself for raising her ire. "Sorry."

In an instant, her hostility ceased, a warning now falling from her lips. "It's all right, just don't do it again."

With the intention of not stirring up another emotional outburst he switched back to his serious mode. "All we need to do is get ready and then I'll finish my last hour on shift. When the re-supplying is complete, Yzak will let us disembark before the Voltaire heads out again."

"Why don't you toss what you want to bring for yourself on the bed and I can pack everything for us. That way you can get back to work and finish that last hour you said you have. Maybe if everything is going well and you are done with your shift, Yzak will change his mind and let us head out earlier than at the end of the re-supplying mission. You are pretty persuasive," Miriallia said wisely.

Dearka placed Belle down on the floor to allow her to run around and play. He then looked up with a look of uncertainty in his eyes. "I guess that could be a possibility."

"Hey I just put her down for her nap and now you've let her go free again," Miriallia huffed as Annabella began to wind herself up.

He chased her down and scooped her back up. It was just safer than to test Miriallia's mood. "Sorry honey."

After putting her back in her crib, he moved over to his closet and grabbed some clothes, as Miriallia turned to grab the bag Dearka had brought back with him so long ago. As she unzipped it to place a few of her new maternity clothes into it she saw something she had packed a long time ago.

"I remember this outfit. I was planning on surprising Dearka with it when we got up here together. That was before…" her thoughts trailed off as memories of what had happened to her flashed in front of her eyes.

Violently she shoved it to the bottom of the bag and began to treat her new clothes the same way. Dearka had turned around to look at her and noticed the change in her demeanor. Risking another chance of bodily injury from her fury, he slipped behind her and gently wrapped his arms around her. His soft lips touched her neck and as if a switch had been hit, her anger was subdued.

"Do you want to tell me what that was about?" he asked with a whisper in her ear.

Her eyes fell with sadness. She didn't have the energy to explain what she was thinking or feeling at that moment. "I'm sorry, it was nothing."

He slowly moved in front of her and leaned down to kiss her lips. The passion between the two increased and she fell deeper under his spell. As their lips parted two of the most amazing things he had ever done interrupted their reconnection. His little girl pulling on the leg of his uniform and a gentle kick from his unborn baby against his lower abs.

"I think they're both trying to tell us something," he said with a smirk.

"Yeah, that you need to finish grabbing your stuff so we can get out of here as soon as possible," she smiled giving him another kiss on the cheek before pulling from his grasp, the anger she had felt before now completely disappearing.

"Wait a minute, didn't I put her in the crib?" he asked looking down at Belle standing there with a smile.

"Oh my gosh, she climbed out! There's no way I'll get her to nap anymore and I'm so tired!" Miriallia cried feeling defeated.

"Don't worry, we'll figure something out later. Let me just go finish my shift and then I can take her to the Rec Room so you can get some rest before we head out," Dearka said making their thoughts of leaving earlier if Yzak was in a good mood null and void.

"I think she would really like that," she said with a smile.

"And I can already tell you most of the off duty soldiers will love it too. Every time I go in there they ask me why I didn't bring her with me. She's the hit of the ship and she's really bossy too. I wonder where she gets that from," Dearka said looking down at Belle with a laugh.

Miriallia knew he was being sarcastic and describing her own bossy-ness. She had been ordering Dearka around like her servant for months now. "You put me in this situation, so now you have to pay the price."

"Yeah but half the time you have me running around like a madman in an attempt to keep you even the slightest bit sane," he said mocking her.

Another scowl came across her face as she moved closer to him threateningly. He slipped with his comment and was about to regret it unless he could come up with an apology that would appease her temper. "It was a joke, I swear! There's nothing I love more than making sure you're happy and comfortable."

The fake smile he flashed didn't convince her in the least. She swatted at him playfully as Dearka backed away pretending she was hurting him and almost tripping over Belle who was still attached to his leg.

"Watch it mister, or I'll hit you harder next time," Miriallia replied jokingly.

He shook Belle off his leg and finished tossing his stuff onto the bed in order to get back to his shift as Miriallia had suggested.

"Still, she must be really cute when you take her down there. She can't stop babbling about it when she gets back before you go on shift," Miriallia said now folding some of the clothes Dearka had tossed on the bed with more gentleness than she had shown her own.

"Why, doesn't she have fun when the two of you go down there?" Dearka asked curiously.

"She has a good time, but she doesn't get to boss people around when I'm there. I don't usually let her talk to people like that," Miriallia scolded him.

"Oh come on, she's almost two, none of them take offense to it. They think she's just adorable," Dearka replied.

"Still we should both be teaching her some manners. I don't want her to grow up spoiled," Miriallia said.

"I don't think that's going to be a problem," Dearka thought with the still looming money issue he was going to have when he finally sent Mir and Belle down to the base when they returned.

"I'm sorry, I'll make sure to not let her torture them too badly this time. You sure you can handle packing everything?" he asked changing the subject.

"Yes, just go and hurry back so you can take Belle and give me a small break," she replied.

Dearka slipped next to her and gave her another kiss before heading out the door. He couldn't wait to be alone with Miriallia and Belle and go on a trip like a real family does. Although, he could do without one of the people he was being forced to visit.

"Here's hoping all goes well," he thought making his way back to the bridge.