Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Always There For You ❯ 15 ( Chapter 15 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

For disclaimer, see Chapter 1!

Always There For You Chapter 15:

January 2nd, A.C. 215. Rain Yuy was pacing in her living room. Jack was supposed to arrive at her house at any moment. He had said he needed to talk to her about something important. It had been over a week since the Christmas party at the Peacecraft mansion. Rain wondered if Derek had told Jack about his conversation with Rain on the porch that night.

"Rain, I'm leaving now." Heero called on his way out the door to the garage.

"OK! Bye!" Rain called back. She listened as the door closed before she resumed her nervous pacing.

With a sigh of annoyance, Rain flopped down onto the couch. She glanced anxiously at the clock on the stereo receiver, wondering where Jack was.

The doorbell rang. Rain flew from her seat and sprinted to the front door. Pausing briefly to shake back her nervousness, Rain pulled the door open.

Jack stood on the front porch with his hands shoved into the front pocket of his maroon colored hoodie. He was frowning down at the ground.

"Hi." Rain managed to say quietly. Jack glanced up briefly to acknowledge her greeting.

"Can I come in?" He looked up again.

"Sure." Rain stepped aside, allowing Jack to enter. She shut the door behind him and the two walked into the living room in silence.

Jack sat down on the couch and Rain followed suit. In a very nervous fashion, Jack stared down at his feet. That confused Rain. She did not think Jack had anything to be nervous about.

"So...What did you want to talk to me about?" Rain finally asked, breaking the awkward silence. Jack glanced at Rain briefly, then averted his gaze back to the carpeted floor.

"Well...Uh...You know how I went to that New Years party with some of my classmates?" Jack began.

"Yeah..." Rain wondered what that statement was leading to. Her mind traveled a million miles a minute. The first thought that came to her mind was that Jack had asked someone else out.

"Well...I...I kissed Becky." Jack blurted. Rain's mind reeled. She had not been expecting that one.

Becky was an annoying girl who followed Rain around at school. Her older sister had been hosting the New Year's party Jack had attended. Becky was in Rain's English class and Rain always tried her best to avoid her.

"I understand if you're mad at me... And I understand if you don't want to go out with me anymore..." Jack said, looking at Rain when she had not responded.

"I'm not mad...I'm just disappointed in you. I mean, I thought you were better than that..." Rain said with a deep frown. Jack sighed audibly.

"I know. And, I feel guilty as all hell about it. But, if it makes you feel any better, she and I decided not to get together."

"I just...I can't believe it! I mean, it's BECKY! Of all damned people!"

"Yeah..." Jack said.

"I don't think we should go out anymore." Rain stated.

"OK..." Jack nodded slowly. Rain's frown deepened when she saw his expression. It was both guilty and sad.

The silence that followed killed Rain. She needed to be away from Jack and she needed to be alone with her thoughts.

"I think I should go now." Jack said while standing. Rain nodded mutely. Jack left the room without uttering another word.

At the sound of the door shutting, Rain lay down and curled up on the couch. She drew in shaky breaths as she fought back tears of confusion and frustration.

'I shouldn't be so upset...I mean, I knew I would have to break up with Jack anyway. It was unfair of me to continue dating him when I like Derek so much... But, that still doesn't change the fact that he kissed Becky...While dating me. I didn't go around kissing other guys!' Rain thought. She punched the small throw pillow she was laying on.

'How could he? I thought Jack was so much better than that. He's not the type of person to go kissing other girls while still dating one. And, the fact that they even TALKED about hooking up!? What was he thinking!?' Rolling over onto her back, Rain studied the ceiling fan that was turned off. She wiped away a few stray droplets of tears.

"I need to talk to someone. Really bad..." Rain said aloud. She stood from her seat on the couch and walked to the vid-phone in the foyer. Wiping the last few traces of tears, Rain punched in the number for Heero's office.

Heero had had to pick up a few files off his computer at work. He needed his latest case files from the Preventers HQ in order to stay home for the weekend and work at his home office. Rain recalled that Heero had said he would only be gone for about an hour. He figured it would not take a very long time to organize all the information he needed to bring back.

An image of Heero Yuy came onto the screen. He smiled warmly when he saw it was his daughter calling.

"Hey Rain." Heero said, turning away briefly to rummage through the stack of papers in front of himself.

"Hi Daddy. Is it OK if Chelsea stays the night tonight?" Rain asked. Heero responded without looking up.

"Of course. You know Chelsea's always welcome to come over. But, thank you for asking just the same."

"Sure..." Rain replied. Heero finally looked back up at the screen.

"Is something wrong?" Rain's father noticed that her eyes looked a little red.

"I...It's just some girl stuff. That's why I wanted to invite Chelsea over." Rain threw in a shy smile to throw off her father's suspicions. Heero chuckled lightly; showing that Rain's false smile had worked.

"All right. Well, go ahead and invite Chelsea over. I should be done here in a few minutes. I can pick Chelsea up on my way home if she wants." Heero went back to digging through the pile of papers.

"I will have to call her and find out." Rain replied.

"OK, that's fine. Call me back as soon as you find out." Heero replied, glancing back at the screen. "Oh, and order some pizza too. I think it's been a while since we've had any. There should be some cash on my dresser if it gets there before I do."

"All right. I will call back in a couple minutes then. Bye." Rain said.

"Bye." Heero responded. Rain cut the connection. She glanced at the blank vid-phone screen for a second before rapidly dialing Chelsea's number without thinking.

'Sheesh. I thought I was going to have to tell him about the whole Jack problem...' Rain thought with a mental sigh of relief.

Mrs. Dorothy Catolonia Wales appeared on Rain's vid-phone screen.

"Hi Ms. Wales. Is Chelsea around?" Rain asked, smiling politely.

"Oh. Hello Rain. Yes. Chelsea is in the other room. Wait just a moment please." Dorothy stepped off screen and Chelsea appeared in her place seconds later.

"Hey Rain, what's up?" Chelsea asked with a warm smile.

"Hey Chels. I wanted to know if you can come over and stay the night tonight." Rain said with a hint of urgency on her face. Chelsea quirked an eyebrow at her.

"Lemme ask real quick." Chelsea said, turning to her left. Rain could hear Chelsea speaking with her mother off screen.

"Mom. Can I go stay the night at Rain's tonight?" Chelsea asked.

"I don't see why not. Jack's staying the night at Derek's house tonight. It will give your father and I some alone time for a change." Dorothy replied. Chelsea giggled.

"Great." Chelsea turned back to the screen. "My mom says it's fine. When do you want me over?" Chelsea asked.

"Well, my dad's leaving work soon. He said he could pick you up on his way home." Rain said. Chelsea nodded slowly.

"OK, I will just go throw some stuff in my pack then."

"OK. I will see you in a little bit then. My dad should be there in about 15 minutes I think." Rain said.

"Right. See you soon!" Chelsea smiled and waved before disconnecting the line. Sighing quietly, Rain dialed her father's office number again.

"Hey Daddy." Rain greeted, forcing a smile when she saw her father's face appear. Heero was busily putting some files and disks into the open briefcase on his desk.

"Hey Rain. What did Chelsea say?"

"She said she would be ready by the time you would get to her house."

"OK. I am on my way out the door right now. I will see you when I get home."

"K. Thanks in advance for picking Chelsea up." Rain said. Heero smiled at his daughter's image.

"You're welcome Sweety."

"Bye." Rain smiled back.

"Bye." At her father's good-bye, Rain cut the connection.

Sighing for the umpteenth time that day, Rain pulled up an electronic phone book on the screen and dialed the number for a nearby pizza delivery place.

*****

It was 9:00 pm. Rain and Chelsea were seated on the soft carpeted floor of Rain's room after changing into their pajamas. By the time Chelsea and Heero had arrived, the pizza had shown up and so Rain and Chelsea did not have time to talk. Then, after dinner, Heero had convinced the two to watch a live comedy special that was on TV.

Rain decided that Heero had not really bought her story of simple girl problems and had been trying to make her feel better by offering the distraction of pizza and quality comedy shows. The distraction had been nice, but Rain was grateful to finally have time to talk to Chelsea. Heero had finally retired to his room, having said that he wanted to get up early to work on his Preventers case files in the morning.

"OK, so, what's wrong? I know something's been bugging you since you called me this afternoon." Chelsea stated, breaking the ice.

"Oh. It was sooo bad! I couldn't believe it! I mean, UGH!" Rain said, losing her clarity while remembering that day's earlier events.

"Who did what? Derek?" Chelsea asked. Her face clearly showed her confusion.

"No, not Derek...Jack." Rain began. She started to feel awkward. Chelsea was Jack's sister. Rain was unsure how Chelsea would react to finding out what Jack had done.

"What did he do?" Chelsea was very curious.

"He kissed Becky!" Rain blurted out.

"He WHAT!?" Chelsea exclaimed. She looked very surprised by that.

"Yeah, he kissed Becky at that New Year's party he went to the other day." Rain explained.

"I...I can't believe Jack would do something like that. I mean, he's not the type to go kissing other girls while he's dating another one." Chelsea said thoughtfully.

"I know. I couldn't understand it either. And with Becky of all people...And that's not even all. They actually discussed hooking up! I couldn't believe they actually *considered* it!" Rain said in frustrated rush.

"Wow...that's so unlike Jack..." Chelsea frowned.

"I know. I told him I was more disappointed in him than mad at him. He asked if I thought it would be better if we stopped going out..."

"What did you tell him?"

"I said I didn't think it was a good idea for us to go out. So...I guess now we're broken up." Rain replied. Chelsea let out her breath in three quick puffs of air, a thoughtful gesture.

"Well, I blame Becky. She's a bad influence on people." Chelsea said with a grin. Rain laughed at Chelsea's honesty.

"Yeah...but she can't take all the blame. It takes two to tango." Rain said.

"I will be having a nice long talk with him tomorrow." Chelsea nodded to emphasize her decision. Rain winced at her words.

"Please don't. I know it seems that he deserves it...But, I don't want you to get directly involved." Rain said.

"OK, fine. You ruin all my fun." Chelsea said with another grin.

"Thanks." Rain smiled gratefully. Chelsea shrugged.

"So, now that you're single, does that mean you're gonna go after Derek now." Chelsea quirked an eyebrow and smirked.

"Chelsea!" Rain whacked her with a pillow.

"What!? Don't deny that you like him! And you never did tell me what was up with you two at the Christmas party!" Chelsea whined.

"I'm not denying anything...it's just...God, how terrible of a person would I be to move on that quickly?" Rain asked. She stood up and walked over to the window seat. Sitting down, Rain looked out the window at the dimly lit street below.

"How terrible? You weren't the one kissing someone else." Chelsea said pointedly. She sat down beside Rain.

"I know...but... I liked Jack a lot. I can't forget him as easily as one might think." Rain said, turning to look at Chelsea.

"I know you did." Chelsea gave Rain a light hug.

"And I had high hopes for you guys. I had my heart set on us becoming sisters." Chelsea added, her grin returning.

"How can you make a joke out of everything today?" Rain said with a laugh.

"I'm not. I was serious. You just keep taking everything in a humorous way." Chelsea smirked.

"Sure. Blame me." Rain rolled her eyes.

"Hey. You never did answer my question about Derek." Chelsea said, wagging a finger at Rain.

"Which one?"

"The one about the Christmas party. Every time I bring it up, you change the subject."

"Oh...that." Rain looked down at her hands, smiling shyly.

"Yeah that. So, tell me what happened." Chelsea said, her expression turning serious.

"Well. I went looking for Derek after he'd 'gone for drinks' and hadn't come back. I was worried because he'd seemed outta it all night." Rain said.

"Did you have any ideas why he was so out there?" Chelsea asked. She laid down on her stomach on the floor, propping herself up with the pillow Rain had hit her with earlier.

"Yeah. I figured it was because of me and Jack." Rain replied.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, remember at GameDance how everyone showed up where me and Jack were...?"

"You mean when you almost kissed him..." Chelsea smirked, remembering Rain's retelling of those events the following evening.

"Yah. Well, Derek drove me over to my uncle's house afterwards right?"

"Uh huh." Chelsea nodded.

"Ever since you guys had shown up, Derek acted all weird. I could have sworn he looked hurt. So, I asked him in the car. He wanted to know what happened with me and Jack. So, I told him all I told you."

"Yeah..." Chelsea pressed.

"He asked me if being with Jack would make me happy. And, I think I told him yes. It was so weird the way he said it though..." Rain momentarily got lost in her thoughts. "Anyway...I asked him why he'd seemed upset, but he never answered me. I didn't get to talk to him about it again until that night at the party.

I found Derek sitting on the porch. And, I finally got him to fess up about everything. He was jealous of me and Jack... But, he said he'd lied because he wanted me to be happy. So, then I realized that Derek really did care about me too. And, I felt so guilty. He was so hurt...Ugh...if you could've seen that look in his eyes." Rain frowned sadly.

"So...he was jealous of you and Jack...and that's all that you two talked about?" Chelsea asked.

"Well, yeah, I guess so. I told him I had too much to think about and I told him I would think about things and everything would be OK." Rain replied.

"'Everything would be OK'? What's that supposed to mean?"

"I'm not really sure." Rain chuckled slightly. "I guess I meant that I would do something to make sure everyone was happy..."

"Like what?" Chelsea prompted.

"Well, in all honesty, I considered breaking up with Jack...I really liked him, but I couldn't stand hurting Derek. Derek's...special. I dunno what it is. He and I were best friends when we were just little kids. Sometimes I feel like that never changed..." Rain trailed off. She half expected Chelsea to think she was mean by plotting to break up with Jack.

"Wow...you've had a rough couple weeks." Chelsea said.

"Yeah...self-guilt trips galore." Rain sighed.

"Well, here's where I falter as a friend; I dunno what to tell you. I would tell you to trust your gut, but you don't know either...so..." Chelsea frowned.

"Don't worry about it. Time will tell. I'm just glad to have you to talk to about all this crap." Rain smiled.

"Hey, no problem. At least I can be of some use!" Chelsea beamed. Rain yawned.

"My thoughts exactly." Chelsea grinned. They both laughed.

"Sleep would be good. It's already 11:30. And, we have our first city chorus practice tomorrow afternoon." Rain said, holding back another yawn.

"True true." Chelsea yawned. The two girls took turns in the bathroom before they climbed into Rain's double bed and crawled under the covers. Chelsea switched off the lamp since it was on her side.

"Night Rain."

"Night Chels."

"Hey Rain?" Chelsea whispered.

"Yeah?"

"What do you think of Miles Ferrero?"

"He seemed nice. Why? Is that your crush of the century?" Rain smiled in the darkness.

"Yeah. He's so sweet!" Chelsea said with an excited tone.

For the following two hours, the two friends talked in the dark. They were both strong believers that there is just something about lying in the dark that inspires bonding conversations. [A/N: I swear it's true!]

*****

April 15th, A.C. 215.

It had been several months since Rain and Jack's break up. The two had remained friends and after a short time they'd beaten the weirdness factor. Rain still was unsure how she felt about Jack and Derek. However, she had not been forced to face those issues in all that time.

That day was the first day of spring break. Rain had just returned from a day of roller-blading with all her friends. Their little group had gone skating from park to park all around the outskirts of the city before finally ending up at the boardwalk to get some late lunch-early dinner. The weather was warm and the sky was cloudless. It was a perfect day to spend outdoors.

Rain had just stepped into her house when she noticed the blinking light on the vid-phone. She frowned at the vid-phone, wondering what memo her father had left. She hit the button to listen to the memo while she pulled her sneakers off and set her roller blades down by the door.

"Rain, I needed to go down to the clinic where Mommy was. They said it was important so I had to leave right away. I should be back not too long after you get this message. If you need me, call my cell phone." The message ended. Rain frowned more. She wondered what was wrong with her mother.

Shrugging it off, Rain walked into the living room and sat down on the couch. She figured that if it had been something bad, her father would have called to let her know.

Laying down on the couch, Rain yawned. She was very tired from skating all day. She figured she would simply take a nap until her father got home.

*****

"Rain I'm home!" Heero called from the foyer. "Rain where are you!?"

Rain blinked her eyes open. She glanced at the clock, wondering how long she'd been sleeping. Heero ran upstairs, curious as to where Rain was.

The sleepy teen heard her father going upstairs. She dragged herself to her feet and walked groggily out to the foyer, rubbing her eyes.

"Hi. I was in the living room taking a nap." Rain called back. She lowered her hands from her face and gasped at the sight before her. There was a young woman standing in the foyer, looking up the stairs at Heero as he ran back down. She did not seem to notice Rain standing in the living room doorway.

The young woman finally turned to acknowledge Rain's presence.

"Hi Sweety." The young woman's smile reached her deep blue eyes as she spoke to Rain.

Rain felt her heart beating far too fast. The honey-brown hair, the soft blue eyes, the silky voice; all of it was too hauntingly familiar.

"Mommy..." Rain whispered. Her mind reeled, her vision spun wildly, then all went black as she fell to the carpeted floor with a dull thud.

To be continued...

-End Of Chapter 15-

Author's Notes:

Hey Minna-san! Gomen nasai! I did not mean to take so long to update. I had most of this chapter done in June. I stayed up until 4 am when I had to get up early the next day. Sadly, my beloved chapter that I lost sleep over got deleted. Grrr!

I spent the past couple days at home sick. I had lots of time to plot for this chapter. I hope it turned out all right. I have been mindlessly typing while listening to Bush for the past three hours or so. Hehe. ^_^

I am trying to write most of this story by hand during my math class. It is an easy class that doesn't require all my attention. I found that writing something else really helps me focus...or at least stay awake. Stupid trigonometry...

Anywayz, so, I will try to work on the next chapter during math class. School's starting into the second month here. I will try to update as soon as possible. But, with homework, projects, and such, I am not sure how fast I can get chapters up.

What all this babbling means is that, I am sick, my brain's not going too well...very numb...and, sorry once again for taking forever to update. Please review! It means SO much to me!

Arigatou gozaimasu my faithful readers!

-AlyRain