Relena Dorlian Peacecraft Yuy smiled at her husband, masking her slight frustration with Heero. It was slight because he was being so sweet, very rare, so Relena didn’t have the heart to be very upset with him. She was leaving for a diplomatic meeting back on Earth. She would only be gone for about three days, perhaps four if things didn’t go smoothly, and Heero insisted he come with her. However, Relena had other plans for Heero, namely their five-year-old daughter. Heero barely acknowledged the girl’s existence and Relena felt that it would be good for all concerned if Heero stayed on the colony, for father/daughter bonding. Heero would have preferred to have Milliardo and Lucrazia or Duo and Hilde baby-sit, (not that he was particularly fond of either couple, but it was better than having his politician wife away from the protection of the Ultimate Soldier. He knew there was a good chance of attempted assassinations.)

Relena awkwardly lifted the little girl into Heero’s arms. Their daughter wrapped her arms around her father’s neck.

"Tousan, stay with me. Please?"

Relena shot Heero a glare. Between Relena and the child in his arms, Heero knew he didn’t have much of a chance. His Ultimate Soldier training never took love and a five-year-old’s puppy-dog eyes into account.

"Fine," he grumbled, irritated.

"Yatta!" the young one shouted.

Relena gave both her husband and her daughter a good-bye kiss on the cheek.

"Heero, be sane," she instructed, "Wing-chan,"

"Yes, Mama?"

"Be a good girl."

"Okay, Mama."

Relena gave Heero a slight push and he grudgingly walked inside the house with Wing, while Relena got into the limo and was driven to another part of the colony where the space port was.

**********************

As far as Wing was concerned, the rest of day went fine. Her father sent her out play and when she came back in for dinner, he didn’t make her eat her vegetables. It never occurred to her that he sent her outside so that she won’t bother him, and that he just didn’t care if she ate vegetables or not. Wing did notice, however, that she was sent to bed half an hour early for no particular reason. She made up for that when she got up in the middle of the night for a cup of water. As she sneaked to the kitchen, she noticed her father intently watching the television, not something he did often, as far as she knew.

"Whatcha doing, Tousan?" Wing asked forgetting that technically, she wasn’t allowed up that late.

"Watching the news." Heero answered.

"Why?" Wing asked, climbing into Heero’s lap, so that she could watch, too. She was a bit disturbed that Heero didn’t help her up and she had to climb in on her own

"It’s just something adults do," he answered.

"Did something bad happen?" Wing asked.

"Not yet," Heero asked.

"Do you think something’s gonna happen?"

"Yes, I think something might happen to your mother." Heero answered truthfully.

"Why?" asked the confused five-year-old.

"Your mother says a lot of things other people don’t agree with, so they want to get rid of her."

Wing was silent, not understanding what her father told her. He never used language on her level. She remained on his lap until she fell asleep, at which time Heero carried her back to her room. When she was settled, Heero returned to the news program, keeping a vigil from a far. The program was now showing Relena’s meeting. The light from the television luminated the otherwise dark room. He walked up to the TV and placed his hand to it, right where Relena’s face was. He traced the image of her jaw and lips, wishing he was there with her. That first year, when she followed him through space and all over the Earth, a few years later, when her mansion became a surrogate home for the Gundam pilots, and all the time since that Heero spent with Relena caused an uneasy feeling when she was far from him. And now she was far from him, and he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong.

Heero backed away from the images of his beloved, and watched her, listened to her words, her voice. He sat back down on the chair he had been sitting in when Wing had approached him. He watched Relena for about two and a half hours. The meeting was being broadcasted live, but due to time-zones; it could go on for hours more before even reaching evening where Relena was. A quick glance at the clock would have told Heero that it was two in the morning where he was, meaning it was three in the afternoon were his wife was, not that he would have averted his eyes while the camera was on Relena. A shame he’d be damned if he paid that much attention to her in person.

Somewhere that night, Heero fell asleep. He awoke an hour or so later, the images of Relena gone, replaced by coverage of a terrorist attack. An entire city block had been blown away. No known survivors, 532 was the current death toll, and it was still rising. Heero half-paid attention, rather disinterested in the whole thing, until a ‘live report’ confirmed what Heero’s sub-conscious had feared, but the rest of his mind convinced him was impossible. Not Relena, not her. The blast had been targeted for the meeting.

The Ultimate Soldier had never shed tears before. But early that morning, before the sun rose, he had curled into a fetal position and sobbed, without even knowing it.

And a small girl, with eyes the color of the sea, saw the whole thing.

"Mama," her voice croaked...

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing, Dr. J, Heero, Duo, Hilde, Relena or anyone on the show. The people I made up, yeah, I own them, but no one who’s worth owning. I’m also not making any money on this fanfic.