Disclaimers: Gundam Wing belongs to Sunrise. Any songs or quotes belong to their respective authors listed with them.

Author’s Notes: Whoohoo! I finally finished my first story. I’m so excited. Hope the ending’s not too sappy for you. I try to make things sweet but realistic. But us hopeless romantics get a little carried away sometimes. Something I’ve noticed, Averil cries a lot. I hope that doesn’t get on your nerves or anything. I only meant for Averil to be a sensitive person, and with such a troubled past, you’d probably cry a lot, too. Tell me what you think about Averil as a character. I kind of went out on a limb making up a new character for my first story, and I’m interested to know if she turned out alright.

//_-

After Trowa went back home, Averil got down to serious business with her case against Kraten. The authorities, upon hearing the recording and knowing of its validity, almost immediately received a warrant for his arrest. Quatre assigned four Maguanacs to guard Averil and her mother in case Kraten used his connections to hurt them. The reunion of mother and daughter was long overdue. They spent a whole day catching up, and Mrs. O’Hare (her preferred name) eagerly looked forward to meeting Trowa in the future. The patterns in Kraten’s accounts as well as those of the murdered jockeys proved to be very influential evidence along with the recording. However, the case still progressed slowly, as most cases do, and Averil’s nerves were usually on edge. But having her mother stay with her at the estate helped immensely.

Upon Trowa’s return, he found out that his story had gone on ahead of him, thanks to his sister, and he had to spend an entire evening explaining his love life. But leave it to Trowa to explain it in as few words or details as possible so that his coworkers were still left unsatisfied. However, they planned on getting it all out of Averil as soon as she returned. Trowa also had a few words to say about the kidnapping of his sister and how everyone had allowed it to happen. Thus his coworkers avoided him for the next few days.

Trowa threw himself back into his practice, easily catching up on the weeks that he had missed, and finding it refreshing to do something so familiar to him. He did keep his promise to call Averil everyday, and she made sure that he took good care of her horse Miles, and Trowa made sure that she was being well protected by her new guards.

The case eventually wrapped up, Kraten received a guilty verdict, and Averil, upon trying to get her mother settled down someplace, was surprised when Mrs. O’Hare refused. Mrs. O’Hare claimed that she wanted to continue on in the horse-breeding business where Mr. O’Hare had left off. Averil was delighted to hear this, but when she tried to help her mother get their house back in order, Mrs. O’Hare nearly shoved her out the door, commanding her to return to "your Trowa" immediately. Averil "meekly" obeyed.

By the time Averil returned, the performance season was over, and so Averil had three months ahead of her to perfect her horse act. The ringmaster also insisted that Averil and Trowa should have a high-wire act together, so she had that to work on, but she wasn’t complaining. It just meant that she had one more fear to get over, but Trowa was there the whole time, and she trusted him, so she learned quickly. When the performance season came again, the circus was delighted to discover that the name of O’Hare had not been forgotten in the world. The circus was sold out nearly every performance, and the crowds offered great encouragement to the daughter of the kind Mr. O’Hare. Several times, Averil was approached by old friends of the family who wanted to see her and tell her what a wonderful man her father had been. Averil told Trowa that it felt like a part of her father had been given back to her through the memories of his old friends.

Eventually, Averil and Trowa married and had children who continued on in the circus business. Averil proclaimed laughingly that her children would turn out to be clowns just like their father, which they did become clowns, but not quite as stoic the type that their father was.

And, of course, Averil’s wounds healed with time, just as Trowa’s wounds had after he returned from the wars. And with that healing came Averil’s ability to forgive Kraten, Morgan and Boris, and the other men, from what seemed like such a long-ago time in her life. She didn’t keep her past from her children, instead, she used it to teach them the truth about trust and human worth, about all the strengths that Trowa had known she possessed, and above all, Trowa and Averil taught them about love.

//_-

For all those times you stood by me

For all the truth that you made me see

For all the joy you brought to my life

For all the wrong that you made right

For every dream you made come true

For all the love I found in you

I’ll be forever thankful baby

You’re the one who held me up

Never let me fall

You’re the one who saw me through, through it all

You were my strength when I was weak

You were my voice when I couldn’t speak

You were my eyes when I couldn’t see

You saw the best there was in me

Lifted me up when I couldn’t reach

You gave me faith ‘cause you believed

I’m everything I am

Because you loved me baby

You gave me wings and made me fly

You touched my hand, I could touch the sky

I lost my faith, you gave it back to me

You said no star was out of reach

You stood by me and I stood tall

I had your love, I had it all

I’m grateful for each day you gave me

Maybe I don’t know that much

But I know this much is true

I was blessed because I was loved by you

You were my strength when I was weak

You were my voice when I couldn’t speak

You were my eyes when I couldn’t see

You saw the best there was in me

Lifted me up when I couldn’t reach

You gave me faith ‘cause you believed

I’m everything I am

Because you loved me

Oh you were always there for me

The tender wind that carried me

A light in the dark shining your love into my life

You’ve been my inspiration

Through the lies you were the truth

My world is a better place because of you

You were my strength when I was weak

You were my voice when I couldn’t speak

You were my eyes when I couldn’t see

You saw the best there was in me

Lifted me up when I couldn’t reach

You gave me faith ‘cause you believed

I’m everything I am

Because you loved me

You were my strength when I was weak

You were my voice when I couldn’t speak

You were my eyes when I couldn’t see

You saw the best there was in me

Lifted me up when I couldn’t reach

You gave me faith ‘cause you believed

I’m everything I am

Because you loved me

Oh I’m everything I am

Because you loved me

//_-

Author’s Notes: Okay, I have a ton of stuff to say that you can read if you’re at all interested in reading more of my writing. First of all, I wrote "The Curiosity: A Character Sketch" awhile back about Averil that’s short but sweet. It’s posted on FanFiction.Net and Aishiteru if you’re interested in reading it. Also, someone said something about writing a Quatre fic. Well, you’re in luck, but you’re going to have to wait awhile. The next story I’m going to work on is Duo and Hilde’s story and how they ended up engaged in this story, so it actually happens before "Trust in Me." After that, I’ll write Quatre and Jazmin’s story, which for the most part parallels "Trust in Me" in the timeline. See, what I plan on doing is writing a story for all of the Gundam pilots, including Zechs, and maybe Lady Une—all happening after Endless Waltz. I might eventually write some Sailormoon or Cardcaptor Sakura stories if I get inspired, too. I’m open to suggestions on any of my writing, and of course I love reviews! Thanks for reading and God bless!

The End

Began February 2002

Finished August 2002