October 26, 2000
Rating: Mature audience only, please...
Pairings: 1+2+5, 4x3, 6+9, S+11
Warnings: Yaoi Lemon. Sappy in some parts. Angst in other areas. Strong language at unexpected turns. A pregnant Wufei & Noin. 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 boys got together after dinner and discussed the matter of Hiroshima Jackson and the Behenna Satellite--or, at least, what they know so far.
Some might say it's the end of the world. Fatina would probably say it is... but it's now. Someone's managed to break all my walls... someone's managed to worm their way into the treasure chest of all my deepest and darkest secrets. Yes... poetic and sappy, isn't it? Perhaps I wasn't as dead as I thought I was... Perhaps I was just... sleeping.
I've woken up now. I've made my decision. Now all that remains is to tell Fatina. She won't be happy, but I know this is for the best. I almost hate to leave her... after so long... so many years... but I know this is for the best. I know...
~ Hiroshima Jackson
June 24, 203AC
Hiroshima Jackson sat motionless at her kitchen table. Her laptop, open and resting before her, was on but blank. She sat staring at the screen, emotionless it seemed, lost in her thoughts. Overwhelmed by her thoughts.
Her memories.
Her old dreams.
Her old plans for her future...
The future that came... and went... without her it seemed.
The door chimed but she didn't move to answer it. After several tries the door was keyed open. "Fine. Don't answer the door. See if I give a damn," the short blonde woman grumped as the door slid shut behind her. "Well, they're gone."
She snatched up a throw pillow from the couch and 'fluffed' it--violently. The dark-haired woman at the table didn't reply. Even more annoyed she threw the pillow back onto the couch before following it.
"Probably all settled in where ever they went. Quatre didn't even leave me a forwarding address. Can you believe that? His own sister and all he said was that he'll be in touch! In touch! As if I'm some business associate and not family!"
The other woman still didn't respond.
"It's not so bad really," Fatina went on, a bit disheartenly. "I mean, nothing bad's gonna happen now. We've pretty much fixed all the--"
"Someone's accessed my files," the dark-haired, dark-eyed woman said softly, breaking into the blonde's monologue.
The blood drained from the blonde's face. "WHAT?!?!?"
But Hiroshima didn't answer.
"Who? When? How could they even get past all your defense systems? I thought you said no one could ever get--"
"I lied," the Japanese woman said flatly. And then she turned around fully to look at the younger woman who she'd spent the last 28 years with. "There's only a handful of people who could have gotten into those files without my permission." She looked past the blonde, into dead space. "Half of them are dead... and of the remaining... only one could ever have done it in under twenty-four hours."
Hiro looked at her then, her face a mask that the other couldn't read.
"Why?" Fatina asked, confusion clouding her teal eyes. She shook her head as if to clear it. "I mean, I don't understand! Why would anyone even *want* to access your files! There's no reason why anyone should be interested in our work! And the people who *are* have been given a report that I typed up myself!"
"Obviously someone wasn't satisfied with your report," the dark haired woman replied without heat. She turned away from the blonde, turning back to her sleeping computer.
"What... what's going to happen...? Do you think--"
"I don't know what to think," Hiro said softly. "It's not the way I would have chosen to tell them..."
"*Were* you going to tell them?" Fatina returned.
Hiro started, looking up at the blank wall. "Yes..." she said after a moment. "I would have... eventually... or... at least... I would have given them--"
"But why!" Fatina shouted, cutting her off. "Why would you even bother them with all that nonsense? It's history! It's dead! It's in the past! There's no reason to bring any of it back--"
"It's their right," Hiro interjected. "It's *his* right... his legacy, you could say..." She smiled, still distant.
Fatina shook her head again, her face crumbling. "I don't understand... I don't understand you sometimes... They've gone this far without knowing the truth... why would you want them to know now? *Now*? Of all times! It doesn't make sense!"
"Life isn't supposed to make sense," Hiro replied tiredly.
They lapsed into silence, each woman drowning in her own thoughts. Until, at last, Hiroshima Jackson spoke up.
"They're Preventer Agents," she said softly.
"What?!" the blonde snapped, sitting up. The Japanese woman just nodded. "That's impossible!"
"Is it?" Hiro returned, a small smile playing at her lips. "Is it really?"
"YES! Quatre doesn't even have enough time for all of WEI, let alone enough to go playing good-guys-and-bad-guys!" Fatina pulled a pillow onto her lap and hugged it. "It's ridiculous to even think he would--"
"He was a gundam pilot too, Tina," Hiro reminded her companion.
"I know that!" the Arabian woman hissed.
"Then why would you dismiss the idea of the boy wanting to play a more active role in the society he helped to create, hmm?" Hiro was amused; you could hear it in her voice.
"As CEO of--"
"An office job," Hiro cut her off. "And from what I remember, Quatre was never one for paper work. Wasn't that one of the things your father would complain about?"
"One of many," Fatina grumbled. She sighed then, falling back into the couch. "So they're all Preventers, huh? Does that mean the Preventers now know everything about--"
"Maybe..." She sighed, running a hand across her forehead. "Maybe it's not so bad if they *did* know... I mean, the present administration's been doing a good job...right? That's why we--why I--"
Her voice failed her as she hid behind one hand.
"I'm going," she said softly after another moment of silence.
"Going? Going where?" the blonde sat up her teal eyes swirling. "You can't go anywhere! You don't have any place to go! You can't just expect me to be able to pick up and go wherever you demand!"
"You don't understand," Hiroshima said gently, turning to look at the younger woman... "I'm leaving... and I'm leaving alone..."
Disbelief. Pain. Shock. Confusion. Fear.
They were written so plainly across the blonde's face. And the cut her to the core more effectively than anything else she could think of.
"Why...?" the younger woman cracked.
"Someone has to stay," the dark woman replied. "They're going to have questions... someone needs to answer them... And you have more answers than I do, I think..."
A look passed from woman to woman. She knew, Fatina realized. She knew and she never said anything... all these years... all these--she choked a sob and then, suddenly it seemed, the Japanese woman's arms were around her, holding her, rocking her, soothing her as she cried harder than she had ever cried in all the years since the death of her mother, 23 years earlier.
It was almost surprising to her how quickly everything was done. Once Hiroshima had made up her mind to leave everything had been taken care of before dinner that same day. As she stood at the bay window, watching the small shuttle push away from the satellite, her hand reached out on its own and touched the cool glass.
"I have always loved you..." she whispered hoarsely to the departing craft. "I never stopped... that's why I always hated you so much..." She swallowed, hard. "Be safe, Hiroshima Jackson. May the Stars watch over you and Allah keep you safe... so that one day... so that one day... we can be together again..."
She was in the apartment, alone, curled up into a little ball on the couch. The room was dark save for the glow of the vid screen, which cast the room in an eerie blue-white glow. Her eyes were fixed to the screen, her mind, elsewhere...
"Hiro!" a teenaged young woman cried, wrapping her lithe arms around the darker woman's neck. "Come with us to the shopping district!" Unrestrained strawberry blond waves fell over the girl's shoulders to surround the woman.
"I can't," the younger Hiroshima replied, not bothering to look away from her computer screen as she unwrapped the girl's arms from around her neck and pushed her away. "And you shouldn't go anywhere, either. You have exercises in another hour."
"Plenty of time!" the chipper teenager returned. "C'mon! You know it'll make Tina that much happier if you came 'long!"
"Casey!" another teenaged girl snapped, blushing profusely.
"I can't," Hiroshima repeated. "You girls go along. Take the others with you, if you like. Just be back in an hour for--"
"--Exercises," the two girls completed for her.
"Well, fine," the shorter girl with the strawberry blond waves said, placing her hands on her hips and making to pout. "Don't come, see if we care! Hmphf!" And with that she whirled around and stalked out of the door--pushing past the young man who was trying to enter.
The tall, dark, and handsome man looked back at the retreating figure. "So who told her no this time?" he asked, his lips twitching with barely repressed mirth.
"The drill sergeant, who else?" quipped the redheaded boy, grinning maniacally at him as he tossed a racquet ball lazily.
"That's not nice, Axel," an oriental girl scolded, not bothering to look up from the book in her lap.
'Axel' just stuck his tongue at the un-observant girl.
"Marius, Casey wants to go to the shopping district," Hiro was saying, still studying her computer screen. "Will you please--"
"Baby-sit, huh?" the dark young man finished, smiling. He sighed loudly--more for dramatics then for actually hardship. "I suppose I can take time from my busy schedule--" Axel and Xia--the oriental girl-- both snorted "to escort the bambina about. Anyone else?"
"I'm coming," the longhaired blonde responded, slipping shades over teal-blue eyes and grabbing her purse. "Anyone want anything?"
"A new book would be appreciated," Xia answered, looking up from her lap, large onyx eyes meeting teal, acknowledging, before returning to her lap.
"Oh! Oh! Ooh! How 'bout some of that pocky stuff?" the redhead jumped, snatching his ball and sitting up in the lounge chair.
"No." Hiro snapped before the blonde could reply.
"Uhh... but *Hii-rooooo..."
"No." the young Japanese woman replied. "Absolutely no sugar."
"Fine," Fatina cut in before Axel could continue to whine, thus taking up *all* of her shopping time. "See ya in a little," she called as she followed Casey's lead and exited.
Hiro *did* turn from her computer then, and locked a hard *look* on tall-dark-and-handsome. "Absolutely *no* sugar, Marius," she repeated. "Understand me?"
"Of course, amour, eh... how do you say..." He flared his hands out as if to catch the word. "'Understood'?"
"Ninmu Ryoukai ," Xia replied, still not looking up from her book.
Hiro just grunted.
"Are you coming or not?" Casey shot, dipping her head back into the room and making a face. Marius just laughed and followed her and Fatina down the corridor.
"Focus dammit!" the young Japanese woman shouted, throwing her glasses on the console. "Focus!"
The young woman in the room below, huffed, swiping sweaty red-brown bangs from her grey eyes, but she did what she was told and tried to concentrate. But it wasn't the same... something wasn't the sa--
Before she knew what hit her she was 'kissing ground' as they called it.
"DAMMIT, KATERINA! FREEZE SIMULATION!"
The woman on the ground struggled to get back on her feet. "No, I'm okay, let's continue," she grunted.
"BULLSHIT," Hiroshima spat, flinging the door open.
"Your reaction times are down by half, Kat," a soft voice said from beside the fallen girl. Katerina glared up at the young man, but accepted his hand.
"What the hell is going on, 02?" Hiro barked, drawing up beside the couple. The they had began to pull in close, too.
"Nothing," Katerina insured her.
"Yeah, right," the short, strawberry blonde girl quipped, readjusting her long ponytail. "You've just been throwing up in the bathroom every morning over nothing."
"Hush, Casey," the tall girl beside her urged, adding a good dig with her elbow.
"Ouch! What'cha do that for, Sandy?" Casey yelped.
"She should have aimed for your mouth," shot the oriental girl across from them, glaring at the strawberry blonde. "You should learn to keep it shut!"
"What's this?" Hiroshima snapped. "'Throwing up'? You've been vomiting? Why wasn't I informed of this?"
"It's nothing," Katerina insisted. "Just a little stomach cold."
"*I* will be the judge of whether it is nothing or not!" the Japanese woman shouted, losing her composure. "Dammit all to he--while you are here you are under *my* care! That means anything that happens to you, *I* am responsible for! Now get to the infirmary, *now*!"
"Really, it's nothing," Katerina tried again, paler than before.
"*GET*!!!"
The tall young woman, swallowed hard, shooting a look to the young man who had helped her up. He squeezed her hand, but nodded before letting go. They watched her leave, Hiroshima right behind her as if to ensure the girl made it to the correct destination.
"See!" Casey replied happily, grinning. "Now she'll get medicine and get better and I won't have to wake up every morning listening to her puking her guts out anymore!"
"Fool!" Xia spat, yanking the tight ponytail free from her ebony silk hair. "Now she'll be dismissed and have to find another way to support her little sister!"
"Wha--" Casey blinked, surprised.
"Kat isn't sick," the light-brown haired girl who elbowed her answered. "She's pregnant," she clarified, glaring at the young man who stood watching the door through which Katerina and Hiroshima had left. His shoulders slumped.
"It's all my fault," he whispered.
"The last time I looked," tall-dark-and-handsome spoke up, "It took two to tango..."
Casey was still blinking. "Wait a minute. Kat's pregnant? As in, 'gonna have a baby'?"
Sandra threw her hands up and walked away from the circle. The others just shook their heads and groaned--except for Galeno.
The golden-auburn-haired boy sunk to the ground, his hazel eyes still transfixed on the door. "She must hate me..." he whispered hoarsely.
"Wait a minute," Casey was still saying, looking stunned. "You mean you and Kat were--were--were--*fucking*????"
"Come'ere you little--!!!"
The others jumped in between Casey and Xia before the small Oriental woman could attack the strawberry-blonde girl.
"Chill! Chill! Just chill, dragon-lady," Jemel soothed, holding both arms to Xia's sides as he dragged her away from the still-stunned Casey. Xia threw his hold, glared towards the other girl, and then turned away.
"I'll be in the resource room if anyone needs me," she grounded out before the door slid shut behind her.
The dark-skinned man stared after her, scratching his short-shaved head. "I guess I should follow her," he said. "Make sure she doesn't double back and try to--"
"Just go!" Sandra snapped, crossing her arms and frowning.
Galeno--who had been oblivious to the outburst--looked up, his hazel eyes falling on the blonde, teal-eyed girl. "What's gonna happen?" he whispered. "What is she going to do..." His eyes were glassy and red.
"I don't know," Fatina admitted hoarsely, swallowing hard. "I don't know..."
The vidscreen freezing with the last frame brought her attention back to the present.
She studied the picture immortalized on the screen before her.
Ten young people, smiling, laughing, having a good time, hanging out one afternoon. No two people looked similar--they were all different. Different hair color, different eye color, different skin color, different size...
But as different as those people were... to the young woman sitting on the lonely couch in a lonely apartment on a lonely colony in lonely space...
To her... they were closer than her 28 sisters were...
Fatina Winner reached for the remote and shut off the vidscreen. The room plunged into darkness.
********** End of "Oh Baby, Baby" Part Twenty Four**********
Andrea Readwolf
Please send comments to: andrea_readwolf@hotmail.com