22-Apr-2001
Disclaimer: Gundam Wing and its characters are not owned by me and never will be (unless I win a really big lottery – hey, I can dream!).
Ratings: PG-13 for this installment
Pairings: 1+2, 3+4, 5+Sasha, and a surprise (only implied in this installment – sorry folks, no juicy stuff this time around.
Warnings: Just for some expletives.
Georgie and Sasha spent the afternoon trying to inventory the book store, which was easier said than done. Not only was every shelf and table top stacked with books, they were finding books stashed in any nook or cranny that was big enough for at least one. He found a door hidden behind an old Japanese shoja screen that led to the attic. It too was stacked with books.
Sasha was sitting on the floor wearing a pair of Wufei's sweat pants and an old t-shirt, her hair was tied back in a bandana and she was rubbing the dust out of her nose that she had just wiped off a book.
"Geo . . . I mean, John . . . heh, I will get used to calling you John . . . I promise" Sasha smiled with a mix of amusement and frustration, "but I thought you said Nabor and Stephan were going to be helping out, where are they?"
"They're running a little errand for me, right now. They should be here shortly. And just call me Georgie, I find I'm too used to being called that. Every time you call me John, I look around to see who you are talking to."
"Ok . . . Georgie, did you have any idea there were this many books? Did the former owners ever actually sell any? It's going to take us forever to get through with this."
"It won't be so bad once the boys get back, did I mention they went to get my son and bring him here," he beamed proudly, "I think he's as excited as I am."
"I'm so glad things are turning out well for you, and I can't wait to meet him."
"It's been so long since I've seen him, myself" Georgie said.
"Stephan and Nabor, they do realize this is not a kidnapping, don't they?" Sasha joked.
Georgie burst out laughing.
"Just making sure," she giggled.
"I know what you mean, but they are smarter than they look, or act sometimes," he chuckled, "at least it didn't take them as long as it did me to decide a life of crime was not for them."
"What about the people you used to deal with? Won't they come looking for you?"
"No, I left with a clean slate. The microdots were the only thing I was working on at the time and I always made sure I kept my ‘associates' paid up. There are no outstanding debts and no unfinished business deals. I was an ‘honest' criminal," he said with a gleam in his eye.
"Besides, with all the trouble brewing with the colonies, I think I'm the least of their worries, right now."
"Yeah," she said thoughtfully, "I wonder what Wufei is doing right now."
"Probably preparing for what he has to do, and thinking of you, no doubt," Georgie gave her a reassuring pat on the shoulder, "he is an extraordinary person, he's going to be fine."
Her eyes welled up with tears, "Georgie, can I tell you something?"
"What's wrong?" it was never good news when a woman was giggling one moment and teary eyed the next, at least that was the way he saw it.
"I feel so terrible," she confessed, "I find I don't miss him as much as I should. Why?"
Georgie embraced her with a fatherly hug, "I was afraid of this," he said, " Things have quieted down and you've had time to think things over. Do you really feel something for him, is it an infatuation, or is it sexual attraction? You are going to have to figure that out for yourself."
"I know . . . I mean, I do miss him, or I think I miss him . . . oh Georgie," she wailed, "I am so confused right now . . .what am I going to do if he's in love with me but I'm not really in love with him?"
"The answer to that question will have to wait until he returns, I'm afraid. Why don't we turn on the TV and see if there is anything on the news."
Georgie turned on the television and handed her his handkerchief.
"O-o-o-o-o-o-h-h-h-h-h-h I-I-I-I-I-I-m-m-m-m-m-m C-c-c-c-o-o-o-m-m-m-m-I-I-I-I-n-n-n-n-g-g-g-g-g!"
"Will you please stop pinching my butt?!"
"Heero has a nice ass!"
Wufei woke with a sudden start and jerked himself up to a sitting position on the bed.
"I love you, Duo."
"Will you please stop pinching my butt?!"
"I love you, Duo."
"Heero has a nice ass!"
"*WHAT IN THE NAME OF NATAKU*" Wufei bellowed.
"O-o-o-o-o-o-o-h-h-h-h-h-h-h I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-m-m-m-m-m-m C-c-c-c-c-c-o-o-o-o-m-m-m-m-m-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-n-n-n-n-n-n-n-g-g-g-g-g-g-g!"
"Heel Spot, good boy Spot."
"*JUNIOR! SHUT UP*!"
"Heel Spot, Heero has a nice ass, I love you, Duo, will you please stop pinching my ass."
That was the last straw, Wufei got out of the bed and grabbed the handle of Junior's cage, storming out the door.
"I KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE! WAKE UP!" he pounded on Heero's and Duo's door.
The door opened a crack, Wufei could see it was Duo, his hair was loose and flowed over and down one shoulder. He could also tell Duo was naked.
"Put on some clothes, Maxwell, so you can open your door and get your foul mouthed bird."
Duo stifled the urge to laugh at Wufei's unintended pun, then remembered he had promised Wufei he would only be birdsitting for an hour or so.
"Geez, I'm sorry Wu-man, just a second," Duo disappeared from the doorway and returned a few seconds later, stepping outside the door. He was wearing Heero's spandex shorts, and nothing else. And they were wrong side out.
"I'm sorry, Wu, I guess we got a little carried away and I forgot to come and get him. Uh, what do you mean by ‘foul mouthed bird'?" Duo stifled a yawn while rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
"He woke me up with his vulgar chattering, Duo," Wufei answered testily.
"You said he was chattering? You mean he's talking again?" Duo's mouth stretched into a wide grin as he took the cage from Wufei, "huh, Heero was right, all you needed was to feel some Earth gravity. Come on boy, let's get you back into the room, Heero needs to get up anyway. Now tell Wufei thank you."
"Now tell Wufei thank you," Junior repeated. Both pilots looked at the parrot, and laughed.
"I'm sorry he woke you up like that Wufei, and I apologize for his vocabulary. Why he chooses that stuff to say, I don't know. I'm going to see about retraining him when we get back."
"Well, I have to admit if I'd heard it any other time, I probably would have laughed, but when you wake up to a stream of . . . well . . . you know . . . I'll see you in a bit, since it's almost time for us to get up anyway, I'm going to take a shower."
"See ya later, Wu, and again, thank you and I apologize."
Wufei nodded his head as he entered his room.
Heero and Duo were not the only ones awakened by his door pounding, Trowa and Quatre were sitting up in bed still half asleep, wondering where the hell that noise had come from.
Quatre looked at his watch, "It is time we got up," he yawned, "but I swear, the next time we're in a room next to those two . . ."
"We bring earplugs," Trowa finished for him. They looked at each other, trying to suppress their sniggering. They couldn't and burst in to laughter as well.
~*~
"It's so nice to meet you," Sasha said hesitantly, unable to take her eyes off that face, "you're father talks about you all the time."
"It is very nice to meet you too, Ms. Cooper," the young Chinese-American took her hand in his, giving it a light squeeze.
Sasha suddenly realized she was staring and quickly averted her gaze, a light blush dusting her checks.
"So, what are you called?" she asked, starting a conversation, even small talk, with someone you just met was always awkward. Especially if that someone . . .
"Please, just call me Jack," he said as he gave her a warm smile, finding himself instantly attracted to the petite blonde.
Sasha still could not get over it, except for the green eyes and the longer hair, Jack could almost double for a slightly older Wufei. Georgie hadn't been kidding when he said Wufei reminded him of his son.
"I apologize for staring, it's just that you look so much like someone I know," Sasha continued to blush.
"I'll accept your apology, as long as you accept mine for staring back," he said graciously.
Sasha giggled, feeling like a school girl who finally got the attention of her first crush.
Georgie watched the interaction between his son and Sasha, wondering if introducing them now had been such a good idea.
"Omelets!" Duo exclaimed, "Howard, I love ya, man."
"I'm just glad I got the engines fully operational again," Howard chuckled, "I didn't want to have to send you boys out there with stomachs full of those MREs, I wouldn't even do that to my worst enemy. Besides, I know how much you love ‘em."
Duo could only give him a big grin and a thumbs up, after all it was impolite to speak with your mouth full.
The five pilots relaxed as they ate and chatted with the crew members who had joined them for breakfast. Duo and Trowa were getting more coffee, Duo picked up the bottle of creamer and was about to pour.
"Duo, you're about to pour chocolate syrup in your coffee, do you like it that way?"
"Huh?" Duo took another look at the label and put the bottle back down, "no, but I sure could've used this earlier," he leered.
Trowa arched an eyebrow and smiled, "yeah, me too."
"Hentai," Duo teased.
"You're the one who mentioned it first, I only agreed," Trowa grinned.
"Ok, we're both hentais," Duo compromised.
"I'll drink to that," Trowa raised his mug to Duo in a mock toast.
Peacemillion's cooks had gotten busy as soon as the power had been restored to the galley. They had prepared plain omelets, with a variety of toppings to go on them, as well as hash browns, bacon, biscuits and lots of coffee.
No one knew how long this confrontation was going to take and Howard wanted to make sure everyone was well fed, especially Duo and his friends. There would be no telling how long it would be before their next meal.
~*~
"Your Excellency, we are still holding our position, out of detection range as you ordered" Col. Une reported, "is there any word from Peacemillion yet?"
"They should be joining us as these coordinates in two hours. The important thing to remember is to be patient and to lay low until they get here."
"Yes, your Excellency," Une responded, "they must be expecting us and they will either send out surveillance ships or mobile suits. What do we do if we are spotted sir?"
"We blast them to hell and pray the Peacemillion gets here on time," Treize answered grimly.
Duke Dermeil and other prominent heads of Romefeller took their seats at the conference after the warm greetings they had received from the colony leaders.
The only faction present at the conference that was openly suspicious of Romefeller was White Fang. Their newly appointed leader had been very vocal in his distrust of Romefeller, especially Dermeil. After all, he knew the man personally.
"This is the man you've chosen to lead you? He is nothing but a deserter and a traitor," Dermeil snorted, "Col. Merquise was an Oz officer who went AWOL after flagrantly disobeying orders, this man is a war criminal and I demand he be placed under arrest immediately."
"Zechs Merquise is dead," the tall silver-blond man answered, "my name is Milliardo Peacecraft, please address me as such."
"Not possible!, you can't be Prince Milliardo," Dermeil sputtered, "I saw the boy lying dead. I attended his funeral."
"And yet I stand before you," Milliardo answered dryly, "life is just full of surprises, isn't it?"
"Then why haven't you claimed your kingdom? Why are you here instead, allied with these people?"
"Who better to help them wade through your bullshit?" Milliardo smirked, "I've certainly stepped in enough of it."
"Pardon me gentlemen, but I must ask you to take your seats, the conference will be getting underway shortly," one of the L-1 council members approached, "please allow us to escort you to them."
"Yes, of course," the former Oz officer said, "I'm quite interested to find out what this conference is really about."
//Oh, you shall see, you shall see indeed, you worthless popinjay. It will be interesting to test how strong your mettle is, without your ‘friend' Khushrenada to prop you up.//
Dermeil followed behind, smugly waiting for the moment to announce Romefeller's little surprise.
Col. Une was listening in on the television and radio broadcasts of the conference. Her eyes grew wide, not believing her ears. His Excellency had to hear for himself what she had just heard.
She vidcommed him, rewinding the recording of the interview she had heard a few minutes earlier.
"Sir, you are not going to believe this . . ." she turned on the tape.
"Just arriving at the conference is the newly appointed head of White Fang, Milliardo Peacecraft . . ."
Treize stood frozen, not wanting to believe what he had heard.
"It's quite a shock, don't you think? Your Excellency?" Col. Une asked, "not only is the Peacecraft daughter still alive, but so is the son. But why is he only now making himself known?"
"Zechs, my old friend," Treize said sadly, "it is my perfidy that has driven you to this, and I will live with that stain of betrayal for the rest of my days."
"Sir, what do you mean?"
"My Lady, there is something I must tell you, I'm afraid there is a secret I have kept from you, from everyone in fact."
"Your Excellency?"
"The man calling himself Milliardo Peacecraft is indeed the genuine article. He has been using another name, a name you and I know very well. Milliardo Peacecraft and Zechs Merquise are one and the same," he confessed.
Col. Une took a sharp intake of air, then exhaled slowly and placed her hand on Treize's image, "I don't know what to say . . . except I'm sorry, I know how close the two of you were. I admit, I was even a bit jealous of him, I cannot believe he has turned his back on you, Sir."
"No Lady, that is where you are wrong, it was I who turned my back on him," Treize answered hoarsely, "I ordered him to sacrifice himself in battle, to save my own hide."
They sat watching the special broadcast of the conference, reporters were busy trying to get in some last minute interviews before the scheduled start.
"So far so good," Georgie remarked, "there is no mention of the boys or Oz being spotted . . . who is that?" he pointed to the screen.
"That is my former boss, Duke Dermeil, head of the Romefeller Foundation," Sasha answered, "I wonder if he's still looking for me."
"Stephan and Nabor took a drive by the warehouse, they said everything looked quiet. The place is boarded up and has a ‘for lease' sign up."
"Ohhh," Sasha moaned, "I was hoping to sneak over there and get the rest of my belongings. I left most of my clothing and jewelry behind."
"It wouldn't have been safe, just because it looks quiet, doesn't mean it is. They probably removed everything from there anyway. So tell me, just what sort of man is this Dermeil? I never had any personal dealings with him."
"Well, he isn't called ‘The Prick' for nothing," she giggled.
"Would the two of you mind telling me what you are talking about?" Jack asked, "Sasha, are you connected to Romefeller?"
"I was, but not anymore," she answered, "but I think your father should be the one to tell you the story."
"Dad?"
"Well, it started a few months ago," Georgie began, "I was approached by Sasha and a couple of men she was working with . . ."
TBC
End of Act 14
KwyckSylver
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