September 18, 2000
Rating: Mature audience only, please...
Pairings: 1+2+5, 3+4, 6+9, S+11
Warnings: Yaoi and Yuri themes. Sappy in some parts. Angst in other areas. Strong language at unexpected turns. Pregola--pregnant g-boys! Major confusion! Out of control characters... I think that pretty much covers it! ^_^;;
Feedback: C&C is always welcomed and adored.
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.
Notes: "Oh Baby, Baby" is in approximately 203 AC, placing the boys at ~23-24 years of age.
The G-boys are ready to leave the Behenna Satellite, but what awaits them at home? Wufei and Heero "talked". Quatre and Trowa both know what's on the report Lady Une sent Heero, but Wufei and Duo don't. Heero successfully hacked into Hiroshima's personal files.
"AH!" Sally exclaiming, falling into the sofa chair across from the desk in their home office. "Another excitingly boring day at the office. You know, I almost miss the old days. They were definitely more exciting."
"By exciting I take it you mean, never-knowing-if-you-were-going-to-survive-to-see-the-next-morning exciting."
"Hn." Sally turned on the sofa, pulling a pillow onto her lap. "You take all the fun out of reminiscing sometimes, Annie."
Lady Une shot a *look* towards her partner--who just smiled back at her. "I received a message from Quatre Winner today."
Sally sat up. "Oh, yeah? What did he have to say?" she asked, trying to sound nonchalant.
"He said he'll meet me in my office tomorrow morning, 08:30 hours."
Sally leaned back again, thoughtful. "So, Heero told him."
"I would imagine so." Lady Une seemed to dissolve back into the large plush chair, rubbing her hands vigorously over her face. "You and Noin were there, too. I would like you both to be there tomorrow morning."
Sally grinned. "Expecting the others to show up as well, I take it."
"I wouldn't be surprised," Une replied.
"I'll call Noin--"
"I've already sent her a note," Une said softly, her tired grey eyes lighting upon Sally. "I feel torn in this matter," she admitted softly.
Sally looked at her, studied her, noticing the fine tired lines that were beginning to crease the corners of her eyes. They were getting old, she realized, somewhat resignedly. But she held her silence.
"Is it so wrong to want to create a genetically advanced human?" Une asked. "I try and imagine a world without disease, a world where everyone is healthy and strong and intelligent--"
"It already exists," Sally said softly. "To some extent. But even in that perfect world, nothing can be completely perfect. There will still be disease among the people. There will still be poverty. It's unrealistic to believe that all those ills will disappear simply because the human race has become genetically perfect."
Lady Une was quiet, staring at the folded hand in her lap. "Perhaps you are right," she whispered.
"And it's not a genetically enhanced human we are worried about, I thought..." Sally countered. "I thought it was the possibility that this... creation could be used for harm, as a... perfect weapon."
Une nodded, still thoughtful. "Yes, yes," she murmured. "There is always that possibility, isn't there? That threat?"
"That's what we're here to prevent," Sally answered with a smile.
"You're not nervous, are you?" he asked, grinning madly.
"Me? No. Of course not. Why should I be?"
"Duo," came the warning growl from across the cabin. "Stop tormenting the boy."
"Auh, but, Hee-chan..." began the whine.
"And shut up, while you're at it." The rapid fire of typing continued without missing a beat.
The braided man began to pout, crossing his arms over his chest, sending off a pouty-glare towards the other side of the shuttle.
"Why don't you try taking a nap?" Quatre suggested, not even bothering to look up from his own computer.
"Or reading a book?"
"Or listening to some music?"
Duo adjusted his glare to include the other three men.
"Here you go, Monsieur Duo," a friendly voice sang as Grace set a drink down in front of him.
"Ah! Grace! You're too good for me!" he beamed up at her.
"And don' I know it, too!" she smiled back at him, craning across his lap to set the Soda down before Jake. "With just a hint of rum," she added with a wink towards the boy.
"I did *not* just hear that..." Quatre's voice drifted up over the computer screen.
"Nope!" Duo grinned. "Didn't hear a thing!"
Wufei leaned back in his seat, mumbling something about a long trip...
"I got a message from Une to meet her tomorrow morning in her office," Noin remarked as she passed by the large bed in her white terrycloth bathrobe, pulling a slick comb through her inky wet hair.
"A meeting? Tomorrow? But it's Sunday," Zechs voice followed her into the bathroom, as did a tiny peal of laughter ensuing from their daughter.
"I know."
"I take it is has something to do with the Behenna Satellite Reports?"
"I would imagine so." Noin returned from the bathroom--sans comb--to find her husband bench-pressing their daughter... much to the delight of the younger child. "Apparently Quatre called for it."
Zechs froze in mid air. "So the guys will be there." Blue eyes met indigo.
"That would be my guess," she answered, letting the robe fall from her shoulders.
"More! More!" Kit spoke up, slapping her daddy's arm playfully. Zechs laughed and tossed her up into the air. The little girl shrieked her delight.
"Well, that means she talked to them, right?" Zechs continued to his wife, his eyes never wandering from their daughter. "Or, at least to Heero and Quatre."
"Yes." Noin returned to the bed in her short negligee.
"So, then, what's she need you there for?"
"Us," she corrected. "We'll both be going." She looked from father to daughter. "I suppose we could bring Kit, too, huh, baby girl? Would you like to come with Mommy and Daddy tomorrow? Huh?"
The child transferred from father to mother, from high-rises to tickling noses and snuggling kisses... quite gleefully. It was another five minutes before both mother and child sighed and settled down. And Zechs watched, enchanted, at peace, for the entire spell.
He fell back onto his back with a sigh. "I still don't see why she needs us there tomorrow, if the guys are going to be there," he grumbled.
"Maybe she just wants a little support on her side tomorrow," Noin suggested, tucked in around her daughter, already half asleep. "You know how intimidating they can get when they're upset about something."
Her husband snorted. "You never got intimidated by those boys and you know it."
Noin just smiled and sighed, shifted closer, cuddling their daughter even as she leaned back against her husband. Zechs, for his part, just snorted again and then wrapped his arms around both mother and daughter, sealing them in his embrace.
Someone was shaking him. "Jake. Jake. Wake up. You don't wanna miss this! Jake!"
Groggy brown eyes opened to find violet ones staring right at him, right in his face.
"Ah!"
The L-2 boy jumped five feet in his seat--or would have had he not been fastened to the seat.
"Good! You're awake! Finally!" Duo beamed at him. "Quick! Look out the window!" He practically pushed the boy towards the window. Jake was about to retort something when his eyes fell on the view outside the window. He gasped instead.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" a voice asked from above them.
Jake looked up to see the Chinese man, but quickly looked back out the window. "Yeah," he whispered, staring down at a beautiful blue and white Earth. The Earth. He was really going there...
"Duo, you and I will be continuing to the manor alone," the Chinese man was saying. Jake only paid him half-an-ear.
"Whadda'bout--"
"They have business to attend to."
"Business? But--"
"Jake?"
He turned from the window to look back at the Chinese man. "We'll be reentering the atmosphere in five minutes. It will be another twenty minutes before we land. It's currently 7:28 a.m. and it will be another hour before we get home. I know that normally you would probably just be getting ready to go to sleep. So, whether you chose to do something today, or just sleep, is entirely up to you. Quatre's estate is big enough to keep one occupied for hours, but Duo and myself will be on hand if you need us, okay?"
"Yeah, sure, that's fine," Jake replied and then frowned. "But why are you telling me now?" He gave the man a crazy look but Wufei just smiled.
"You should return you seat to the up-right position," he answered. "I'll see you Earth-side." And then he was gone, back to his own seat, fastening in.
Jake turned back towards the window, studying the brownish-green-and-white landmass that was beginning to appear on the earth below. It was like nothing he'd ever seen before...
Jake was staring cautiously at the big bear of a man sitting in the driver's seat of the--well, he wanted to say limo, but weren't limos bigger than just a four door? But it was certainly roomy in the backseat of the sleek black car that had been waiting for them at the airstrip.
The car and the big burly older man who Jake didn't take his eyes off of had both been waiting for them. And the man had picked the blond--Quatre--up in a massive bear hug the minute the guy hit the bottom step of the shuttle. The blo--Quatre had just laughed it off, greeting the other man affectionately enough--Jake had thought that maybe the other guy was Quatre's father or something, but then he'd heard the bear-man call him "Master" Quatre...
"I do not bite, Master Jake," the bear-man said suddenly, startling him.
'No... you just crush people's bones,' he thought. "I ain't no 'master'," he said instead. "'Jake' will do just fine, thanks."
Just then the door was pulled open and Duo climbed in, Wufei behind him. "Hi-ya, Rashid! I would've thought you'd be driving Q-man and them!"
"Good morning, Master Duo," the bear-man replied jolly enough. "Master Quatre said there was precious cargo to be delivered home first. Good morning, Master Wufei. And how are you feeling this morning?"
Wufei pulled together a warm smile despite his fatigue and slight soreness of body. "I am fine, thank you for your concern. 'Precious cargo' huh?" He snorted and shook his head; his dark eyes closing as the door closed shut behind him and he leaned back gratefully in the seat.
"How is your daughter, Rashid?" he continued, his eyes remaining shut as he tried to focus on pulling together the tattering remains of his strength.
"She is doing well, thank you, Master Wufei," the bear-man replied. "The doctor said that she and the baby are no worse for the fall, thank Allah."
Duo was grinning. "I still can't believe you're going to be a granddaddy, Rashid!"
"You and me both, Master Duo, you and me both..."
"Shh..." Wufei pointed to Duo's other side smiling. "Somehow I knew he would chose to sleep."
Duo turned back to him with a smile. "Yeah, well, sleep ain't such a bad idea, you know."
Wufei frowned, opening his arms to pull the American man close. "'Isn't'," he corrected almost absently, hissing when Duo's movement cause a searing pain to rip through his center. His wounds from the surgery might have been healing remarkably fast, but they *still* were healing.
Duo shot him a concerned look. "Wu-bear?"
"It's nothing," the Asian man replied, breathing deeply. "Nothing that a little rest won't cure." He paused. "And *don't* call me 'Wu-bear'," he added as an after thought.
Duo smiled, leaned up, drop-kissed his nose, and then cuddled back into Wufei's side. He was asleep in seconds. Wufei sighed again, leaning back into the seat in a more comfortable position.
"How are you really, Master Wufei?" Rashid asked after another moment of driving in silence.
"I'm as well as a pregnant man can be, Rashid," Wufei answered.
They drove in silence. It wasn't comfortable, but it wasn't uncomfortable either. Each sat in his own thoughts, trying to piece together a puzzle of whose picture they didn't know or understand. It was 8:21 when the sleek black car pulled up in front of the Preventers Head Quarters.
"Good morning, Mister Winner, Mister Yuy, Mister Barton," the doorman greeted as they stepped out of the car.
Heero and Trowa returned with a nod of acknowledgement. But Quatre beamed a smile towards the man. "Good morning, Bryon," the blond said cordially. "Is Lady Anne in yet?"
"Why, yes she is sir," the friendly doorman replied. "Matter-a-fact, I believe she and the Peacecrafts are meeting in her office right now."
"'Peacecrafts'?" Heero asked, startling the doorman who'd never heard him or the tall one speak before--in the total seven years he'd been working here.
"Uh... ye-yea-yes. Mister and Missus, Mister Yuy," the man fumbled.
"Thank you, Bryon, have a good day," Trowa said then, ushering the other two through the door. The man stood there, eyes popped out, holding the front door wide open as he stared after the three young men.
"Zechs and Noin," Heero growled once they were inside the elevator, lifting them to the 26th room.
"Sally's probably there as well," Trowa said calmly.
"She's probably expecting us to've brought Duo and Wufei," Quatre murmured.
"Perhaps we should have," Trowa said, equally as soft.
"No," Heero replied vehemently. "No," he repeated. "I don't want them worried any more than is necessary, right now."
"Heero," Trowa began, turning towards the other man. "I can understand that you want to protec--"
"Yes, I do," Heero cut him off. "And right now I can do that by letting Wufei get the rest he needs without worrying." He leaned back against the smooth metallic wall, eyes focusing on the numbers as though to make them go faster.
"He wasn't well enough to leave," he said calmly. "He's trying to push himself again."
"If he wasn't well then why--"
"He can recover quicker, better, at home, where he's more comfortable," Heero replied evenly. "You know he hates to stay in strange places."
Quatre sighed and leaned back against Trowa. He couldn't deny the Chinese man's distaste for strange places. "Well, fine, then, not Wufei, but, then, why not Duo?"
Heero spared a glance towards the blond. "You know as well as I do that if Duo knew anything about this that he'd insist on coming along, and right now he needs to be with Wufei. It's suspicious enough with the three of us having to be here... if Duo came too..."
The door dinged and opened up into a plush hallway that led to a front desk. A young woman stood up when she saw them.
"Master Quatre, Mister Yuy, Mister Barton," she said business-like. "Lady Anne has been expecting you." She led them down a hallway they'd been down too many times to count.
"Lady Anne?" she said as she went before them into the room at the end of the hallway. "Master Quatre and Misters Yuy and Barton are here to see you."
"Yes, thank you, Safiya," Lady Une's voice drifted back to them as the young woman moved back, holding the door open for them to proceed and then pulled it shut behind them.
The room was bathed in silence for a full five seconds, as they stared at one another. And then Lady Une broke the silence.
"Thank you, for coming on such quick notice," she said, sitting back down behind her desk.
"I would have preferred more notice," Quatre returned calmly, seating himself in one of the plush chairs in front of the desk. Trowa sat at his back; Heero remained standing, arms crossed, head down, listening.
"Tell me, Lady," he was continuing. "Why is it you didn't come to me sooner?"
"Quatre, please, you are a Preventer. You know how these things work," Une was saying calmly.
"I would think that the fact that I *am* a Preventer would give--"
"Be reasonable, Quatre!" Sally cut in, sitting up from the matching chair. "We weren't even sure what was going on and we weren't about to accuse you of--"
"*Are* you accusing me?" the blond returned coldly.
"No!" two voices blended together.
"Of course not," Une continued, spearing a glance towards Sally who fell back into her seat.
"Really, Quatre," a new voice picked up from the other side of the room. "I'm surprised you would think that. We never doubted *you*," Noin was saying as she leaned back against Zechs on the sofa-chair.
"Noin," Quatre said, nodding his head. "Zechs."
"I'm surprised you're here," Heero said emotionlessly, not looking up at either of them.
"So am I," Zechs returned, trailing his fingers lazily over his wife's arm.
"I'm surprised the other two aren't here," Sally quipped. "Where *are* Wufei and Duo?"
"Home." Heero lifted his head the bare inches it took to glare at the woman, daring her to ask any further questions.
Sally smiled. "I hope they're not ill," she said, her smile never wavering.
"They're fine."
"I've read the reports you have on the Behenna Satellite," Quatre broke in evenly, leaning forward to drop a disk on the desk. "This is the report given to WEI." He leaned back.
"Thank you," Lady Une said evenly, reaching out and taking the disk.
"And this," Heero said, flopping another disk down beside the first, "Is a copy of Dr. Hiroshima Jackson's personal files. As requested."
Une looked at the disk for a moment and then looked up to the young man. "Have you read them yet?" she asked hesitantly.
Heero gave a small shake of his head, negative. "Not yet," he said aloud. 'But I will soon enough, you can bet.' Lady Une nodded again. "I didn't know there was going to be a party or I would have brought more presents," he continued.
"No, that's alright," Une was saying. "I'm sorry for surpri--" She stop in mid-sentence and sighed. "Did something... happen... up there?" She asked, her eyes moving from one boy to the other. "To Wufei or Duo?"
Her eyes shimmered with worry, and, although Heero knew it was honest, it disgusted him. No. No, that wasn't right. He disgusted himself, because, if what Une was suggesting was correct, then Wufei's life would be in danger. Not only Wufei's, but the child's now, too.
"Ah, you could say that," Quatre edged, shooting a look over his shoulder to Heero.
The Japanese man sighed and dropped his arms, turning to face the others--Une, Sally, Zechs and Noin. "Wufei's pregnant," he said simply.
********** End of "Oh Baby, Baby" Part Sixteen **********
Andrea Readwolf
Please send comments to: andrea_readwolf@hotmail.com