August 9, 2000
Rating: Mature audience only, please...Archive: This story and ones associated have been given permission to be archived at P-Chan's site. All others, please ask first.
Pairings: 3+4, 1+2+5, 6+N, S+11
Warnings: Yaoi and Yuri themes. Sappy in some areas (blame it on the romantic). Angst in other areas. Language.
Feedback: C&C is always welcomed and adored. Flames may be met with hexes and curses though! ^_^
Disclaimer: Gundam Wing and its characters belong to Bandai, Sunrise and Sotsu Agency and are only being used for non-profit entertainment purposes. References to printed texts, films, sitcoms, musical pieces, and/or other fanfictions don't belong to me either. Sometimes they just get stuck in my brain and refuse to get out. ^_^
Notes: This story takes our favorite boys and subjects them to the worse horrors known to men: pregnancy. For time-line purposes, "Oh Baby, Baby" is approximately 8 years after "Have You Ever..." (203 AC), placing the boys at ~23-24 years of age.
The boys have traveled to the Behenna Satellite, where Quatre's sister, Fatina is a genetic researcher with a woman who introduced herself as Hiroshima Jackson. These two women may have a procedure that will allow Quatre and Trowa to have the child they've been longing for.
"That was a bit risky today, don't'cha think?" the dark haired woman asked testily as she walked into the room without warning.
The small blonde was not surprised. She'd been expecting the visit.
"I don't see how," she said calmly, pulling the facial mask off. "I warned you that my brother and his friends were to be paying us a visit."
"Dammit, Tina!" the dark-haired woman shouted, her black eyes flashing.
"Don't take that tone of voice with me," Fatina Winner said coolly. "I don't care if you're a fucking genius, or who the hell your father is or what he may or may not have done. *I* am a Winner."
The small blonde woman glared at the taller, darker woman, her teal blue eyes hard as ice, boring into Dr. Hiroshima Jackson. The good doctor sneered.
"You can take your name and shove it, Tina," she snarled. "Without me and my 'fucking genius' you'd be nothing but a name!"
Fatina turned her back on the other woman, but Hiroshima was having none of it.
"You should have warned me, Tina," she said coldly.
"You should have paid more attention," the blonde returned. "Or didn't you even care about the other pilots?" She finished peeling the mask away and turned to face the dark woman. "Well, Hiro, my *brother* was a pilot, just like Heero. Or didn't you bother to learn the other pilots names?" She practically stormed across the room until she was face to--err, chest, with the other woman.
"What did you think of them, Hiro? Were they what you would have expected the saviors of our world to look like?" There was a catch in her voice, but she was too angry to pay heed to it. "There they were, all five of them. What did you think? Were they what you expected? Or were you too caught up with your precious *Heero*--" she sneered-- "to pay any attention to the others?"
A tear slipped free from one teal eye. Hiro noticed it, and gently wiped it away. "No, I noticed," she said hoarsely. "They looked... magnificent."
She turned and whirled out of the room, the door sliding shut behind her. Fatina broke into sobs.
"You have everything? You didn't forget anything?"
"Yes, mom."
"And you remembered your vitamins?"
"Yes, mom."
"And you packed your sanitar--"
"Mom! Give me a little credit, okay?" The red-haired teen was blushing a pretty color that rivaled her flaming tresses. She rushed forward, engulfing the woman who had raised her for the last seven years in a large bear hug. "Love you," she mumbled against the fabric of the woman's business blouse before ducking into the waiting car.
The woman gasped at the sudden lack of touch. A whispered, "Love you too," followed the car as it began down the driveway. Lady Une trudged back up the steps and closed the door behind her.
"You worry too much," a mature voice said from inside a room to her right.
"Maybe so," the petite woman replied, sighing heavily as she leaned up against the doorframe. "I just hate sending her off to school after school, knowing that the same thing will happen again and again. Some stupid child will say something nasty about Treize or Zechs or one of those boys... and she'll go to their defense..."
Grey eyes closed as she sucked in another breath. "She's too volatile... and she doesn't understand her own strength."
"Well, maybe she should learn some control," the woman behind the desk offered.
Une snorted. "Oh, great idea, Sal," she said, slipping into the room. "And where is she supposed to learn this 'control'? Hmm?"
Sally Po looked up from the papers on her desk, the glasses on her nose slipping just fractionally. "Why not send her to the masters of control?" she asked with an arched eyebrow and a quirky smile on her lips.
Une paused. "The boys?" she asked--more to herself than to Sally.
"Why not?" the sandy blonde asked with a shrug. "Mariemeia could easily continue her studies through correspondence--she's a smart child, picks up things easily. And it's not like she wouldn't be safe."
"Yes, she'd definitely be protected," Une murmured. "But allowing her to stay with three or five men? Un-chaperoned?"
"What?" Sally asked. "It's not like we have to worry about them molesting her."
Une smiled. "No, I'm more concerned about her molesting *them*."
Sally shared the smile. "She wouldn't be the first to think such thoughts, I'm sure. But I think those boys can handle themselves around a fourteen year old girl."
An eyebrow inched skyward. "Oh really...?"
"Oh, please," the sandy-haired woman mumbled, turning back to the papers on her desk. "Don't even *try* and tell me *you* didn't think about it... at least *once*."
"Okay," Une responded, still smiling. "I won't tell you. What are you looking at?" she asked, eyeing the papers scattered over the normally very organized desk.
"The Behenna report," Sally said with a sigh, dropping the page back to the desk as she leaned back in her chair. "It seems the more I read the more ridiculous it seems... and yet, the more realistic, too."
Lady Une frowned. "Should we send someone in to check it out?"
"No, not yet," Sally returned, steepling her fingers. "It's one of Quatre's satellites, but I can't believe he knows about this. I just can't see him agreeing to something like this."
"So what do you suggest?"
"Honestly?"
Une nodded, her face serious.
Sally's stomach rumbled.
"I think we should get going if we're going to meet Noin at the restaurant on time!" she said, pushing up from the desk.
Lucrezia Noin sat at a small round table next to the window, nursing a cup of steaming cappuccino. She didn't start when two chairs scraped against the tiled floor and two bodies sat down with her. She had seen the women enter the restaurant.
"You're late," she said with a smile, turning away from the window.
"Gomen, gomen," Une said, picking up her menu.
"Mariemeia left for another school today," Sally said with a wry smile.
Noin smiled and nodded. "Another day, another school. I dread to think what will happen when Kit starts school."
"Oh, there are plenty of fine schools around the world--and in the colonies, too," Une sighed. "Trust me. I think I've looked at about every one of them."
"Speaking of Kit," Sally questioned, "Where is she today? She can't be with Zechs. I know he's out on business."
What business didn't need to be said. Whenever there was 'business' to be taken care of, it was always Preventer business. Such was the life of a Preventer. And all three women at the table lived with that fact at a personal level.
"No," Noin answered. "She's staying with Relena and Dorothy today. There's an opening of a children's amusement park that Relena's been asked to initiate."
"Oh, I bet Kit will love that," Une replied--smiling as memories of the first time she had escorted a younger Mariemeia to her first amusement park flooded her mind.
Sally pulling a folder from her satchel pulled her attention back to the present. The sandy-haired woman with the two braided twists handed to folder to the dark shorthaired woman and watched as the woman took it, opened it, and read through it.
Indigo eyes snapped up at stared at the two faces across from her.
"Surely this must be a joke?" Noin asked, lowering the folder.
"We don't think so," Sally answered softly, her voice too serious to deny the truth.
Noin turned to Lady Une. "Genetic research?" she questioned, looking back to Sally. "To create the perfect human?" She stared back at the folder, and then, shaking her head and closing it, she looked back at them. "Not only does this sound like something out of a science fiction novel, but it is also completely preposterous to think Quatre Raberba Winner would support a project such as this."
She handed the folder back to Sally, who took it, stared out it, and then replaced it back in her satchel. "Yes, it does," she agreed. "However, the more I read over it, the more plausible it seems." She paused.
"WIE is the head of sixty-eight out of ninety-three satellites, as well as the leading force behind nearly seventy-percent of all new construction and programs and projects going on in outer space right now." Sally licked her lips. Chocolate eyes met a burning indigo gaze. "Isn't it quite possible that Quatre has no idea that this is going on?"
The question seemed to hang in the air around them.
"So let me get this straight," Duo Maxwell was saying, absently twirling the end of his long braid in one hand. "What you're saying is, you'll take the cells of the potential mother, cut 'em in half, and then mix 'em with the cells of the potential father?"
"No," Dr. Jackson answered with a smile. "Not exactly. What we would do is take the sex cells of both parents--that saves us the hassle of splicing the cells because sex cells already have half the chromosomes. Then we'll place the 'mother's' chromosomes into an egg-like cell, introduce the 'father' chromosomes and let nature take its course. The egg is fertilized and then we transplant the egg into the womb."
She was drawing on a dry-erase board to demonstrate what she was saying. Circles and squiggly lines covered the white board. Five young men sat at the conference table, staring, a mixture of expressions on their young faces.
Closest to the board and the doctor sat Quatre Raberba Winner, his four-piece suit reduced to three as the navy-blue jacket rested comfortably on the back of his chair. Beside him, holding his hand, Trowa Barton sat--long black jean clad legs crossed comfortably as he leaned back in his seat, not saying a word.
To her left was Duo Maxwell, the playful young man who had won her heart with his enchanting violet-shaded eyes last night when they had gathered for dinner. Beside him, sat the silent Chinese man from the L5 colonies, Chang Wufei. He had been quiet, but not nearly as quiet as Trowa or the "other" one.
The other one.
Hiroshima let her dark gaze pass over the young man sitting as far away from her as was possible. He sat brooding near the back, not saying a word, just watching silently. He didn't smile. He didn't frown. In fact, he didn't do *anything* from what she could tell. He just... *sat* there. It was very frustrating.
"And then the womb is implanted into the 'mother'," Duo continued.
"That is correct." She replaced the cap on the marker she'd been using.
"What's to prevent the body from rejecting the baby," an intelligent voice asked from beside the braided-one.
Hiroshima looked up and studied the Chinese man. He was taller than what one would normally expect from a person of Asian descent, but still a good inch or two shorter than the blond Winner. His bone structure made him look more beautiful than handsome--a trait that could be said of all five men. But still, he wasn't perfect.
"Vitamins," she said, returning to her seat. "A mixture of vitamins and hormones will be given to the surrogate mother before pregnancy. Then, once the pregnancy is confirmed, the baby will signal a reaction in the mother's body that will cause the body to produce the hormones naturally."
The Chinese man nodded, seeming satisfied with the answer. Good. It was the truth. At least, as much of the truth as she was about to reveal to them.
"So how soon can this be started?" the blond--Tina's brother asked.
"Within twenty-four hours," Hiro answered, knowing that to be an exaggeration.
"And a confirmed pregnancy?" There was a nervousness that surrounded the man that both endeared him to her and repulsed her. He honestly wanted a child. It was... almost sickening.
"We would have to constantly monitor the subject, but a definite confirmation should be had within the next twenty-four hours of impregnation." She folded her hands on the table. "Basically, you could walk out of here tomorrow night, pregnant."
"No."
The door had slid open and shut before the dark haired woman had finished speaking. And now the small blonde woman stood inside the room, a hand on her non-existent hip as she glared at the dark-haired woman.
"The procedure hasn't even been tested in a real scenario," Fatina said coldly. "We can not guarantee success. Nor can we guarantee that the person who carries the child will not get hurt. Until that happens, no one will be walking out of here pregnant tomorrow night."
"Fatina--"
"No, Quatre," the blonde continued. "I am sorry. I will not authorize it. Not until it has been tested and proven."
"Then you test it," the quiet young man beside her brother said coolly. He looked up at her from under those weird bangs, staring at her with those green eyes of his. He made her sick.
"We will," she returned. "When we are ready to--"
"You mean to tell me that in eight years' time you haven't tested your research?" he parried evenly.
Teal-blue eyes narrowed and she frowned. "No, of course not. A part of research is testing, experimenting." She forced her voice to take on a sickeningly sweet tone. "But until we can be absolutely *sure* that it is safe, I wouldn't dare risk the life of my *dear* brother or his loved one."
Four men were frowning at her. She felt a sense of pride in that. *She* had upset the precious ones...
"Then you should test it," a cold, unemotional voice said.
She turned, startled, to the fifth man--the one who had been staunchly quiet since yesterday. She hated *him* too... though for an entirely different reason.
"It's not that easy," she replied, crossing her arms. "It's not like there are men begging to be impregnated. We would need volunteers who understand the risks involved and who would still be willing to proceed. Not to mention--"
"I will volunteer."
********** End of "Oh Baby, Baby" Part Five **********
Andrea Readwolf
Please send comments to: andrea_readwolf@hotmail.com