Note: flashback
Everything was perfect, Duo and Hildie had their perfect house on Earth, where they could see the beautiful moon. They didn't know what they'd do with the salvage yard on L2 yet, but they'd solve that eventually.
They'd be married soon. Married. A family with the love of his life, it was all Duo ever wanted. He felt Shinigami's shadow leave him at that moment as he put his arms around Hildie.
It was too perfect Duo thought, staring up at the ceiling in their dark bedroom. The sleeping Hildie mumbled something about the wedding. The beautiful wedding that would be held in their backyard. Duo even got Heero to be the best man. How'd he manage that?
Wait…they had to go to Quatre's today to plan the wedding. Let's face it: Quatre was good at that sort of stuff.
"Mmmm… what is it?" said the only-so-awake Hildie.
"We need to go to Quatre's today," Duo replied flatly.
"Oh my God we're late!" Hildie yelled jumping out of bed. (And Duo's arms.) Damn. Duo would have preferred to stay in bed.
***
Heero stayed in his room, hiding away all of Quatre's ecstatic sisters. Everyone was WAY too excited about this wedding thing.
It was nice of Quatre to offer to help Hildie and Duo, but Heero didn't see why he needed to be here. Quatre insisted he come to his house and help plan.
Quatre's house was actually a former Mauguanac base in the middle of the desert. (a.k.a. nowhere Arabia) And actually Trowa lived there too.
There was a knock at the door. Damn, they'd found him.
But it was only Trowa.
He'd changed some since living with Quatre. He was a bit more talkative, he smiled a bit and on occasion he actually cracked a joke. All though Trowa would never admit it, he liked having a place in the world.
"Mind if I stay here?" He asked.
"Do what you want," Heero replied.
"Thanks, when the Mauguanacs can't worship Quatre they worship me."
There was a long pause.
"Do you want anything? I'm getting something to drink."
"No thanks, and if you run into Rhshed, you never saw me."
Heero walked out of the room only to have the door quickly slam behind him. Man, those Mauguanacs really did have Trowa on edge, Heero thought.
Heero walked into the hall, where there was an open door leading to another bedroom. Heero froze in the doorway looking into the room. Inside Duo held Hildie in his arms while they kissed passionately. Heero couldn't help but stare at them. The way Duo's arms wrapped around Hildie's waist, the way Hildie's arms were wrapped around Duo's neck.
Heero would deny it till the day he died but…. he envied them.
***
Hildie sighed while she stared at the mountains of papers on her desk.
She chuckled as she remembered the trip to Quatre and Trowa's house. Poor Quatre had spent most of the time insisting that the Mauguanacs NOT help with the flower arrangements. 40-full-grown Arabian men arguing over who got to arrange wedding flowers, was funny.
Returning her attention to the multitude of papers on her desk she groaned. Being a Preventer was not all it was cracked up to be. But hey, maybe afterwards, she could finish college and maybe go to medical school. Medical school! How cool! Medical school… that starts with an m… just like marriage Hildie mused staring dreamily at her ring.
"Hildie…take the day off, please!"
"Sally?!? How long have you been standing there!?"
"About five minutes…"The blonde woman replied flatly.
"Oh I'm sorry, I'll get these papers done right away ma'am!" Hildie half screamed, half pleaded, jumping from her chair, knocking all the papers to the floor.
"Hildie leave. Your love sickness is making me sick…with envy." Sally told the young woman who was frantically trying to up the papers on the floor.
Hildie looked up, "You sure you don't need me?"
Sally chuckled, " I need the paperwork on my desk hidden from Lady Une as opposed to knocked on the floor."
Hildie started to pile her paperwork back on her desk, while Sally headed for the door. "Actually Hildie there is something you could do for me…"
"Really?!"
"Yes. Well you see Iria Winner is coming by and she wants some blood samples to examine-"
"Iria Winner?"
"I might have called her the umm.. .'Needle Maniac'"
"Oh her!"
Anyway, I told her I'd get some of the Preventers to give her some blood samples. It's for a good cause Hildie. Iria has been working to create a new kind of test tube baby that is made from pieces of DNA that will hopefully eliminate hereditary diseases."
"Of course I'll do it."
"Great then come with me."
***
"All done!" Sally exclaimed, removing the needle from Hildie's arm and putting a cotton ball with a smiley face Band-Aid in its place.
"Miss Sally, Iria Winner's here to see you,"
"Thank you, I'll be right out." Sally told the young Preventer in the doorway. "C'mon Hildie you might want to meet her."
Hildie hopped out of the chair and followed Sally out of the medical office and into the hall.
There she saw a thin woman with short light blonde hair. Could this be Iria Winner? From Sally descriptions she expected a giddy psychopath of a woman skipping down the hallway sticking needles in peoples' arms as opposed to the tired and over-worked woman she saw before her.
***
Hildie walked into her house and instantly smelled something horrible. Oh God she thought, Duo's home and he's cooking.
"Aww, you're home early, it was gonna be a surprise." Duo whined.
"What exactly are you doing?"
"Well I figured I'd cook dinner tonight so you wouldn't have to cook, but because I suck at cooking I figured I needed to come home early and get lots of practice."
They ended up having a romantic candle light dinner of Macaroni and Cheese, cooked by Duo. (And the only reason it was candle light was because, Duo was trying to quote "power up the microwave" and ending up loosing all the power in the house.)
***
The next day, Hildie had to take Duo microwave shopping, Duo complained the whole way but Hildie just replied, "Hey, you break it, you bought it."
When they returned home, they found the words "False Peace," written in red spray paint on their front door. This had happened a couple of times, some people blamed the former Gundam pilots for bringing on the "false peace" which "made everyone miserable"
Hildie sighed as she walked into the house, "Who's turn is it to clean it up?"
"Mine," Duo groaned as he walked toward the bathroom.
There was a thunderous noise as something with a huge engine roared near the house.
"Hey Hildie that reminds me we need a motorcycle," Duo said as he shot Hildie a devilish grin.
It all happened in a flash, all Duo could remember was the window breaking, the sound of bullets, and Hildie throwing herself on top of him.
When the chaos had passed, he shook Hildie violently.
"Hildie??! Hildie?!?" but it was to late, he held her close and cried on her shoulder. He didn't even see the brick amongst the broken glass. Written in red spray paint it said "False Peace."
***
*back to present*
God the things I do for him, Heero thought. "Heero I want a baby Hildie" the phrase stuck to Heero's mind. Yeah right Duo, you mean you want the daughter you should have had with Hildie.
"Heero?"
"hn"
"You sure you're up for this?"
"Yes Duo I'm sure," Heero snapped.
Iria's office had changed a lot over five years. It had the same white walls and fluorescent lights, but now Iria kept her "Genetic Wonders" along the hallway walls as opposed to in a labritory. It was a little unerving, seeing all these unborn children in giant test tubes lined up against the walls. It was like being in some sick Sci-Fi movie.
Iria, however loved this décor. She loved all the test tube babies as if they were her own.(She called them "Genetic Wonders" or her "Children") she Spent every spare waking moment she could with them, because in six months they'd be with their real parents.
"This is a very strange fish place," Matt mused.
"You mean an aquarium," Sam replied.
"Right aquarinum"
Sam and Matt were out of school for the day, Duo and Heero had no choice but to bring them along.
"This isn't an aquarinim er… aquarium, we're getting your baby sister here," Duo added.
"Cool! We're gettn' a fish for a sister!" Matt yelled happily.
Duo groaned. It was going to be a loooonnnng day.
"You mean these are PEOPLE!?!?" Sam screeched.
"Yeah that's about right," Duo answered.
"Don't worry Dad I won't tell our sister she's ugly and bald," Matt said smiling.
"Well your sister won't look like this when we get her," Duo said indicating one of the Genetic Wonders. "
Ohhhh… so these are like human caterpillars… They're gonna change," Matt observed
"Right," Heero answered
Matt stuck his tongue out at Sam for figuring out something before he did for a change.
Sam kicked him in the shin. Heero pulled Duo aside while the two boys started kicking each other in the shin.
"Being here reminds me… you're giving them the sex talk."
"What?! Why me?!"
"Because you and Hildie were always at it that's why."
As a matter of fact the subject of where do babies come from did come up once at breakfast. Matt asked a perfectly logical question of "Where do babies come from?"
Duo spit out his Lucky Charms in shock. This could get ugly. This could lead to "Where's our Mother?" knowing Matt or the even more shocking "Which one of you can I call Mommy?"
Heero looked up from the eggs he was scrambling, he hadn't had his coffee yet so there was no telling how he would handle this.
"Demons come from Hell," he replied groggily
"Oh," Matt said and that was that. While Duo and Heero were arguing Matt pulled away from his brother and began to walk down the row of "fish tanks." "
Hi baby…" he whispered to the first tank. Next tank "Hi baby…"ect.
Iria walked up to Heero and Duo. "Are you two ready?" She asked.
"As ready as we'll be," Heero replied gruffly.
"Hey Otosan! I don't think these come from Hell," Matt yelled.
"WHAT?!?" Iria shrieked.
"Demons…demons come from Hell, these are babies," Heero replied calmly.
"Oh… right" Matt said dimly.
****
After the necessary blood was taken from Duo's arm, the paperwork filled out and signed, and Matt went to every baby and said "Bye baby," Everyone decided (except Heero) to go play baseball.
The day had been FULL of stuff Heero didn't want to do. He just paced around the outfield of the deserted baseball diamond and looked like he was doing something while Duo helped Sam at his batting.
Klunk.
"Sorry Heero!" Duo yelled.
Ouch Damn ball Heero thought he opened his eyes to a very bright light. He groaned from pain, Duo knew how to hit a baseball. He saw this girl looking down on him. He couldn't make out her face because of the bright light behind her.
"Need some help getting up?" She asked giggling, holding out her hand.
Heero was about to decline the offer when his hand reached out and took the girl's. When he was upright he could see the girl clearly. Wearing a simple white dress with a bright blue sash around the waist.
"HILDIE?!??!"
"Glad you remember me," she answered giggling.
Heero looked around the baseball diamond was empty. What was going on here?
"I wanted to thank you for taking care of Duo for me I know he can be a handful sometimes-"
"Wait-a-minute… you're not made at me?" "
Mad at you?… I'm just glad Duo has someone in this world. And you should be glad you don't have any light clothes…I try and try and he still can't sort laundry… I don't know how his white tee-shirts survive…." Your sons are beautiful," she added tears in her eyes.
"Your getting a daughter you know,"
"Geez he just can't move on can he?" she said softly, now crying.
They both stood silently for a moment.
"There's so much I wanna say…"Hildie choked "I know you didn't want Duo to get a daughter Heero but there's something you should know… when I uh… you know… I was pregnant," She said quickly.
"Huh?"
"Sally happened to tell him at the funeral I didn't know at the time, but I gave this blood sample to Iria… and God what she does those I'll never now…" she continued to babble on and on.
"Hildie?…Hildie?"
"Oh yeah sorry I'm still kinda shocked by all that. Give everyone my love This is as long as I can stay. You've been hit by a baseball, " She kissed Heero lightly on the cheek.
"You'll wake up now..."
****
