He’d said it before, and he would say it again. Women were insane!
Saber sat silently in the corner of the hanger watching as the two Maxwell sisters talked and laughed as Helen taught Carol the basics of mobile suit piloting.
It was less than a day ago that Carol was crying over an argument they’d had! Shaking his head, Saber went back to the work he was doing in his Taurus.
"So what does this do?" Carol asked, reaching over to press a big red button.
"STOP!" Helen shrieked suddenly.
"What?" Carol asked as she froze.
"You almost pushed the big red button," Helen gasped.
"Is that…bad?"
"Bad! Don’t you watch movies? You never ever push the big red button!" Helen groaned and muttered about how everyone knew not to push the big red button.
"What does it do?" Carol wondered.
"Carol, it you were to have pushed this button, you would have blown up half the base."
"Oh…" Carol paled. "Um, sorry…?" Helen sighed and went back to explaining the pedals and basic controls.
"But I wanna blow stuff up," Carol whined, "when do I get to do that?"
"When you know how to move properly." Helen told her, "now come sit behind the controls and we’ll do some tests…"
"Helen!"
Helen paused and glared down at the ground to see who was interrupting her. She groaned when she recognised the top of a very familiar spiky head.
"Jason! Can’t you see I’m busy?"
"Yeah, sorry babe, but I gotta talk to you."
"How many times do I have to tell you? Stop calling me ‘babe’!"
"Please? Just come down for a minute. It’s really important…"
"But I’m giving Carol a lesson!"
"I took care of that. Saber said he’d take over for a while."
Helen groaned, Jason had thought of everything, "Fine, but it had better be important!"
"Of course it is." Jason grinned as he watched Helen climb down from the Gundam. Carol watched her go in confusion. "Helen…!"
"I’ll be right back," Helen promised the younger teen.
Jason reached up and took her hand as she reached the bottom and helped her down the last few feet, shocking Helen and interesting Carol.
"Well…" She chuckled, "Look at that…"
"Jason, what are you up to?" Helen hissed.
"You’ll see…" Jason smirked. He led her out of the hanger by her hand.
Saber watched them go and shook his head. At least Helen handled Jason better than she did Jeff. He approached the foot of the Gundam and looked up. Carol didn’t pay any attention to him; she was too busy watching Jason and Helen as they left.
Sighing, he climbed up and looked at her, waiting until she realised he was there.
"What do you think is going on between them?" Carol asked suddenly; she’d known he was there all along.
Saber only shrugged. "They may be a while," Saber said simply, "Jason has a reputation…" he trailed off, knowing he’d already said too much.
Carol smirked and raised her eyebrow at him. Thankfully, she didn’t pursue the subject.
"So, are you going to teach me how to work this thing or not?" Carol asked.
Saber nodded and sat down on the open latch of the Gundam and showed her the controls. But he knew that she wasn’t as focused on the Gundam as she should be; she was too concerned with her sister’s affairs, rather than her own.
~~~
"Jason…" Helen groaned rubbing her head. "I don’t have time for this. I need to…"
"I told you, relax babe! Saber can take over for you. You’ve been teaching Carol since early this morning, you need a break."
"I thought you wanted to talk?"
"I did…I mean, I do…" Jason said quickly. He groaned, "You make a habit of confusing me." He accused her.
"Jason…" Helen warned,
"Just give me a minute, please." He begged.
Helen considered this for a moment before she gave in and agreed.
"Great!" Jason took her to an empty hallway near the cafeteria.
"So what do you want?" Helen asked, sounding as if she wanted to be anywhere but there.
"I know why Brittney left," Jason sighed, he figure it would be the best way to start.
"Oh?" Helen raised her eyebrow.
"Yes, and it was my fault." Jason sighed. Helen remained quiet and let him continue. Brittney’s sudden departure was obviously eating away at him.
"I broke up with her Helen,"
"Is this going somewhere, Jason?"
"Of course it is!" He ran his hands through his hair and leaned against the wall next to her.
"I’m such a jackass, Helen." He groaned.
"I know,"
"I’m serious!" Jason snapped, "Helen," He looked straight at her, and Helen began to get nervous. She’d never seen Jason so serious about anything.
"There’s something I need to confess…"
Helen’s eyes grew wide, and somehow she knew what he was trying to say, and that he wasn’t even going to say it. That wasn’t Jason’s style.
He slowly reached up and brushed a stray strand of hair out of her face. He slid his hand back and cupped her face, gently pulling her forward. He pressed his lips against her so softly she hardly felt it. It wasn’t forced, as it used to be, just…sweet.
Helen felt her breath escape her; there was so much dwelling in that one kiss, and for once Helen couldn’t respond in any way at all.
Jason pulled back, expecting some sort of reaction. He expected her to slap him, or at least yell at him for stealing yet another kiss out of her, but instead he got nothing.
Helen just looked at him, her eyes watering. "I have to go…" She said suddenly. She pushed away from him and hurried down the hall.
Jason watched her until she was out of sight, and then slammed his fist into the wall. "Dammit!" He cursed. "I screwed up again…"
~~~
"I wonder what’s taking Jason and Helen so long?" Carol wondered, glancing at the hanger doors. She and Saber had been working in the hanger for two hours, and there was still no sign of the pair.
"Who knows," Saber shrugged, "Are you ready to start the basic movement tests, or do you need more training?"
"What I need is a break." She groaned. "Care to buy me some lunch?" She asked hopefully.
"Huh?" Saber blinked at her. Carol laughed, "Come on Saber! I’m hungry!" She grabbed his wrist and pulled him down from the Gundam and towards the cafeteria.
~~~
"Cassy, we really need to talk." Jeff let himself into Cassius’ personal quarters and looked at her sternly.
"What is it now, Jeff? Still disappointed you couldn’t keep control of the Maxwell chick?"
"That’s not it!" Jeff insisted. "It’s about Brittney Norris."
"Oh, so now you have a thing for her too, do ya? Yuy’s not going to be too happy about you stealing all his women." She chuckled.
Jeff groaned, "I don’t trust her at all, Cassy. After all, she is one of them."
"She was, you mean," Cassius corrected.
Jeff shook his head slowly, "I’m still not sure about her, I don’t believe she would come to us just because Jason dumped her."
"Oh, but it was much more than that, Jeff darling." Cassius cooed, "That poor girl was treated like dirt by them for a long time." She looked at Jeff and saw that he still wasn’t buying it.
"Fine? What do you want? Leverage? I’ll give you plenty of leverage…" She grumbled as she stood up. "That girl will be completely ours, you’ll see." She gathered up her papers and walked out of the room.
Jeff watched her go curiously and wondering what she was planning.
~~~
"Y-you mean Brittney’s gone?" Cheryl choked. "But…but why would she just go like that? Without even telling me?"
Heero groaned in his seat next to Noin. He was seriously regretting telling Cheryl the news about Brittney. Relena sat on his other side, frowning in sympathy for the woman. They were both pathetic. He knew that girl was trouble from the very start.
~~~
"Why can’t we just have normal lives?" Indigo sighed as she leaned on one hand and stirred her coffee with the other.
"What could you possibly mean by that, Indy?" Seth asked.
"Well, first Carol shows up out of nowhere, and then this thing with Brittney…" She trailed off.
"You have a point," Jasmine chuckled, "Nothing is ever dull in the lives of the Gundam pilots."
"I don’t think it was a good idea to keep Carol here." Joel said suddenly.
"What? Why?" Jasmine blinked, "After all, she is Duo’s daughter."
"She was mistake," Joel growled, "And she’s a civilian she shouldn’t even be here, and now Helen wants to…"
"Well speak off the devil!" Jasmine cut him off. She looked over at the cafeteria and smiled as Carol dragged Saber inside.
"What the hell is she doing?" Joel wondered. He watched as Carol brought Saber over to the table and sat down. "Hi guys!" She smiled.
"Hi Carol, Saber," Indigo smiled politely and moved over so they would have room to sit. "What ya up to? I thought Helen was teaching you how to pilot the Hell’s Angel."
"She was," Carol said thoughtfully, "But Jason dragged her off somewhere a couple hours ago and she hasn’t come back yet. So, Saber’s gonna buy me lunch!"
"Really…" Jasmine smirked at slightly uncomfortable teen. Saber shifted uncomfortably.
"Well, what’s good here?" Carol wondered.
"Nothing," Seth snorted. "But at least the pizza is safe."
"Hmm, OK, well I’ll have that then," She looked at Saber, "Saber…"
He blinked, he didn’t realise she was actually serious about him getting the food. Sighing, he got up to get some pizza; at least he had an excuse to have some time to himself.
Carol was still talking when he came back. The rest of the group was trying to look interested, but she spoke so fast they couldn’t keep up with her.
He sat down and indulged himself in a steaming cup of tea.
"Oh, thanks Saber," Carol said before quickly resuming her one-sided conversation.
After a minute, she took a bite of her food and made a face. "This is terrible! How can they screw up pizza so bad? And you guys actually eat this?"
"We don’t have much of a choice," Seth shrugged. "You’ll get used to it after a while."
"Well I don’t want to." She grimaced. "Is there a spare kitchen or something around here?"
"Well, yeah…the officers have a little kitchenette in the lounge, but nobody really bothers to use it and they stopped stocking it a while ago." Jasmine told her.
"Hmm," Carol thought as she stood up, "Come on guys, show me to it,"
"Huh? But we just told you, it’s not stocked!" Indigo called after her.
"We’ll get some stuff on that way!" She cried as she hurried out.
Sighing, Indigo got up and ran after her, followed closely by Jasmine and Seth. Joel grumbled but followed anyway. Saber watched them go and decided to see what Carol was up to.
~~
After lugging bags of heavy ingredients into the lounge’s kitchen, Carol quickly went to work. The others watched, amazed, as she dashed around the kitchen. They sat down at the table and just watched as Carol chopped, stirred, and fried, throwing a seemingly insane combination of foods into a huge wok.
In only twenty minutes she placed a delicious-looking stir-fry and some sticky rice.
"Wow…" Indigo gasped. "Where did all that come from?"
Carol smiled and took her seat. "Well, eat up guys. I’m never going let you eat that gross cafeteria food again."
"Oh…you don’t have to do that for us," Indigo cooed.
"Don’t worry about it, cooking is kinda like my hobby."
"Hn," Joel snorted as he shoved a forkful of rice into his mouth. He did his best not to let them know how great he thought it was.
"Don’t you snort like that!" Jasmine scolded, "Don’t mind him Carol, this is delicious!" She complimented the younger girl. "I vote we keep her around for a while." Carol just laughed.
~~~
"I don’t trust her, he says, she’s one of them, he says." Cassius grumbled as she threw a few things into a bag and climbed up into her shuttle. "I’ll show him. Brittney will belong completely to me by the time I get back." She grinned maniacally. "I’ll show that little brat…"
~~~
Cheryl sat sulking in her room She was sitting on her bed with her knees pulled up to her chest. Why would Brittney just leave like that? She wondered. Was it because of me? What if something happened to her…? Cheryl sat and worried for an hour before something finally brought her out of her musings. There was a beeping on her private telephone, signalling that a call was coming in.
Cheryl jumped at it, hoping that it was Brittney. She was disappointed when it wasn’t Brittney on the line. It took only a few seconds for her mind to register who was on the phone.
"Cassius!" She gasped.
Cassius smirked at her, "My, my Cheryl, it looks like you’ve had a rough day," She said in mock sympathy.
Cheryl glared at her, "What do you want?"
"What do I want? Oh no, the real question is, what do you want?" "What…?" "I know exactly what you want, Cheryl, do you know who it is?" Cheryl’s eyes widened. "Brittney!" Cassius laughed and began to clap. "Very good, Cheryl!" She leaned forward on her desk, bringing her face right up to the screen. "Now what are you willing to give for her?" Cheryl glared at the younger woman, "What have you done with her, you bitch?" "Don’t worry, she’s safe…for now. And I’ll return her to you, as long as a get a little something in return…" "You bitch! How dare you take my daughter for ransom!" "Calm down Cheryl, I’ll let her live if you can get me her Gundam." "What! I’ll never let you have even one of the Gundams!" "Alright, have it your way," Cassius shrugged. She leaned back and began loading her gun. She pushed a button oh her desk and said, "Miss Cheryl has just sentenced her daughter to death. Why don’t you bring her in here so she can watch," She glared at Cheryl, who was turning as pale as a ghost.
"Yes ma’am," A voice said.
"No!" Cheryl screamed. Cassius paused and looked at her,
"I-I’ll do it," Cheryl said, just above a whisper.
"Wonderful, now listen carefully, darling; these are your instructions. And remember, you can’t tell a soul…"
