Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Duo's Dilemma ❯ Chapter 17

Disclaimer - It’s not mine. Never was. The only characters I own are the ones not originally present in the Gundam Wing anime or manga. No money is being made from this work of fiction. In other words, don’t sue me because you’re not going to get anything!

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Duo’s Dilemma

Chapter 17

Aftermath

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The next few days were a complete blur to Belladonna. Her arrival back on Earth had been chaotic, reporters crowding around her the second she stepped foot off the shuttle, all questioning her about her father’s accident. She had nothing to say to any of them. Hell, she could barely think clearly through the haze of grief and guilt that had settled in her mind. Had it not been for Duo’s solid presence at her side, as well as support from Preventor Asher and his men, Bella was positively sure she would have found some hole to crawl up and die in.

Of course, it was no help at all when she finally faced down a steel faced Marguerite. Bella had known she would not get a warm welcome from her sister, especially considering she believed Bella was the reason their father was dead; but the absolute looks of fierce hatred and utter loathing she was getting did not help to put her mind at ease. And Duo’s presence, grateful she was for it, was not helping her already strained relationship with her sister.

Few words were shared between them as the pre-made arrangements were smoothed out and gone over by the funeral director, and none were spoken as they left the funeral home, each one to go their own way.

The next time Bella laid eyes on her sister was a day later when she once again entered the funeral home on the day of her father and stepmother’s wake and burial. But once again, Marguerite remained cold and aloof, which was not any different that before.

They were given some private time to view the bodies before the scheduled visitation time began for friends, and Bella’s anger to her sister’s cold demeanor only hardened when nare a tear fell from the younger woman’s eyes. Instead, cold contempt filled Marguerite’s face, almost as if her parent’s death was no big deal.

The wake was only a few hours long, but more and more people streamed in through the glass doors, coming to pay their last respects to the well known husband and wife. Bella swore she was floating in some cloud of haze, like she was on the outside of a bad dream looking in, the entire time.

Politicians, businessmen, Preventors, and family friends offered their condolences to her and Marguerite, but she could only nod numbly at them, not sure of how to respond or react. But she held up, she persevered through it all…until they were standing at the family burial plot that evening, and the two caskets were being lowered into the ground.

Then she broke.

Her tears came pouring out like a dam that had burst open, freeing the pent up forces behind it. She sobbed so hard she couldn’t stand, only keep seated in the chairs that had been set aside especially for the immediate family of the deceased.

Warm hands gripped her shoulders and she looked up to see Duo’s somber face looking down into her own.

“What have I done?” she muttered, her voice wavering. “Duo, what have I done?”

“This isn’t your fault, love.” he said, trying to sooth her so much as he possibly could.

“But it is! First it was my fiancée and son. Now it’s my father! Why don’t they just take me away from this!” she wailed. “I can’t take this anymore!” Duo done the only thing he could possibly think of to comfort her when it seemed she was going to hyperventilate because of the sobs.

He held her.

As tight as he possibly could.

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When it was over, and Bella and Duo found themselves at her home on the other side of town, he heaved a sigh of relief. It was hard enough to deal with an upset Belladonna, but coupled with the constant annoyance of the ever present paparazzi, his thinly veiled patience was near it’s end. After shutting the door in the face of one particularly persistent reporter, he moved into the kitchen where Bella was making some tea to calm her nerves. He came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her flush against him and giving her a kiss on her forehead. He knew she was still hurting, and still feeling lost in an expansive sea of grief and self induced guilt, but he needed to get her head above water before she drowned.

It was weird with her. When he had been dating Hilde, or any other girl, he had never felt as strongly about them as he did her. Sure, he chalked it up to the physical attraction that had been present ever since they met. But the more he got to know her, the more sides of her he saw, he felt himself falling deeper and deeper into something he never felt with Hilde.

Love.

He was in love with Belladonna; and surprisingly he could admit that without feeling awkward. He saw what she was going through, and could relate to her. He’d faced his own demons after the Maxwell church fire, and the subsequent deaths of Sister Helen and Father Maxwell. For the longest time, Duo had believed that if he had only acted a little more quickly, he could have prevented that disaster. But as time went along, he had come to understand that nothing he done would have changed what had happened.

Now he just needed Belladonna to realize that nothing she could have done would have stopped those people from murdering her father and stepmother.

“Feeling a little better?” he questioned, slowly rocking her from side to side as they watched steam rise up from the boiling water. “Bella?”

“It hurts, Duo.” she muttered sadly. “I feel like I’m breaking apart. How could this have happened to them?”

“I don’t know, Bella, but we will find out who is responsible for it.” Duo said. “I’ve already talked to Preventor Asher, and he assured me of the formation of a specific team of specialists who will be looking into this immediately.”

“That’s good.” she said, pouring the steaming water into the cup to let the teabag steep for a few minutes. “I just wish Marge would talk to me about this. She hasn’t said a dozen words to me since I got back to Earth.”

“I don’t know what to tell you about that.” Duo said. And it was the truth, he really didn’t. Marge’s attitude had only gotten worse as time went on. She refused to even look at her sister from across the room, let alone speak with her. Duo didn’t understand it, and he knew Bella didn’t, but there was nothing he could do about it. It’s not like he could force Marge to speak civilly to Belladonna. “You look tired, lover. You need some rest.”

“I don’t know if I could sleep.” she answered, sipping the tea slowly. “My mind is a mess. And I still need to feed the dogs.”

“You just need some sleep.” he said reassuringly, letting her finish the cup of tea before leading her towards her bedroom. He’d take care of the two hounds from hell later. Right now Bella was the one that needed his attention, not two rottweilers who he swore were spoon fed steroids at birth.

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Things were quiet for the next few days, and Duo took most of the credit for it being that way. The paparazzi was still buzzing for answers from her, especially after Marguerite gave an interview and all but accused Bella of being the reason for their deaths. Oh, the younger girl didn’t just come out and say it, but a few subtle hints she dropped could be misconstrued and blown way out of proportion by the broadcasters.

And to make matters worse, the story of Bella’s romance with the now deceased Preventor Joseph Gaylan had leaked to the press through ‘unnamed sources’. Questions were being thrown up to everyone in her corporate building, even the subcontractors who worked for her. Luckily, ninety percent of them said nothing that would incriminate her, simply because they didn’t know anything about it. And the few who admitted to knowing about it said that it was no one else’s business what Bella did on her personal time. Duo strongly suspected that Marge had been the one to ‘leak’ the story to the press, but had not brought the subject up with her yet. He knew that her reputation was being put through the ringer, as was her good name within the city and her circle of friends and coworkers, and he tried to buffer what he could of it.

Fortunately, after one particularly cut-throat reporter tried to pin down not only Bella’s secretary Gracie, but her vice president Daniel Marks and the tech specialist Corey Schiro, for some kind of story, things seemed to calm down. He never heard the entire story, but Bella told him that after Gracie and Corey finished with him, Daniel didn’t even have to call security to get rid of the reporter. And all Duo could squeeze out of her was something to do with Gracie, Corey, a stapler, and a roll of masking tape. It didn’t make sense to him in the least, but he knew that angry women could get creative and turn any everyday item into an instrument of torture if provoked. As a result, he didn’t ask anymore questions about it.

Another good thing was that Bella stayed at home most of the time, working with him on half a dozen different little projects she’d been needing to do to fix the house up; and only going out to the store when they were down to the last can of tuna fish and final two slices of bread. She would work on the paperwork sent to her from her company vice president sometimes, but other than that they did nothing more than lounge around the house enjoying each other's company.

The hurt of losing her father was still aching inside of her, and she still would sometimes fall into an uncontrollable sob of tears, but Duo was usually there at her side within seconds, reassuring her that it would be alright and that things would even out. She seemed completely fine as long as she was busy and her mind was focused on something else. But the minute she found herself without something to do, it hit her full force what had happened, and she would break into tears again.

She eventually told him that she found it ironic that the man who was responsible for killing her mother was the one comforting her after the death of her father.

Fate was such a bitch.

Unfortunately, their quiet days were about to be severely upset, and it all started with one innocent phone call from her father’s lawyer about a week and a half after she had finally laid her father to rest. They were working on a simple dinner of spaghetti and garlic bread when the phone next to the doorway rang. He was in the process of throwing uncooked spaghetti at her in retaliation for her throwing a rotten tomato at him, but stopped when he saw her face go from smiling to serious.

“Belladonna.” she said, pushing the button for the speakerphone, and silently waving at Duo not to let the pasta boil over onto the stove.

“Bella. It’s Jonathan Artigues.” the voice said. “How are you?”

“I’m alive, Jon.” Bella said, leaning up against the counter. “You?”

“I’m okay.” he said. “Look, I know you don’t want to deal with this right now, darlin’, but I pulled your father’s and stepmother’s will out this morning. You are named in it, as you know, and I was wondering when it would be a good time to set up a meeting with you and Marguerite to finalize the paperwork.”

“Jon, the last thing on my mind right now is daddy’s will.” Bella said crisply, her good mood suddenly going sour.

“I know, darlin’.” he said sympathetically. “But it needs to be finished up.”

“When’s the earliest you can set up an appointment for the reading?” Bella asked.

“Tuesday, at six in the evening.” he said. “I know it’s late, but I’m leaving out on a trip to Italy for a conference the day after. And I’d like to get this cleared up before I leave because I don’t exactly trust my intern to handle it himself.”

“Fine. Have you already talked to Marguerite?”

“Not yet.” he said. “I figured it would make more sense to call you first.”

“I appreciate the thought.” Bella said. “I’ll be there. If only to get it over with.”

“I understand.” he said calmly. “Call me if you need anything before then.”

“I will.” she said. “Thanks, Jonathan.”

“Anything for you, Bella. Bye.”

“Goodbye.” she said, shutting the phone off and turning to where Duo was drinking a class of water.

“Friend?” he asked.

“Family lawyer.” she said with a shrug. “Apparently they’re in a hurry to have my dad’s will read.” Duo was about to comment on their lack of good timing when his cell phone rang. He flipped it open and stuck it to his ear.

“Maxwell.”

….

“What? Since when?” he asked curtly. Bella looked over at her boyfriend, wondering what had gotten him in such a foul mood so quickly.

….

“Now?”

….

“Shit. Put me through to Colonel Une.”

….

“Fine. Fine.” he said. “I’ll be there.” He shut the phone and slid it into his pocket, glaring at it apparently in hopes that it would explode.

“Problems?” Bella asked cautiously.

“Une wants me back in Brussels.” he said with a frown.

“When?”

“Tomorrow.”

“I thought you were on a leave of absence?” she asked, sitting a plate of food in front of him.

“I thought I was, too.” he said, frowning. “I don’t like it.”

“Why not?” she asked. “What’s wrong?”

“Une wouldn’t call us back for no reason.”

“This must be important then.” Bella reasoned.

“I still don’t like leaving you alone. It’s too soon after your dad’s accident.”

“I can get one of the other Preventors to stay around if it’ll make you feel better.” Bella offered, even though she hated to see him forced back to work so soon.

“I’d rather do it myself.”

“Duo, don’t be stubborn.” she said soothingly. “You knew this was going to happen eventually. You can’t stay with me all the time.”

“I can still put in for a transfer when I get back.” he said. “Then I’d like to see you get rid of me.”

“You’d transfer all the way over here?” she asked, looking up at him with wide eyes. They hadn’t really talked about what would happen when he was forced to go back to work in Europe, but it seemed like he already had his mind made up about the subject.

“Yep.” he answered with a nod.

“But…”

“No buts.”

“Duo.”

“What?”

“Quit being stubborn.” she repeated.

“I’m not.” he pouted theatrically, crossing his arms like a child for emphasis. Bella smiled and shook her head at him.

“We’ll worry about that later.” she said. “Now, when do you have to leave out? In the morning?”

“Yeah, there’s a ticket waiting for me at the airport.” he said, hugging her gently. “You going to be okay for a few days?”

“I’ll call Preventor Asher right now and arrange some security.” she said. “He’d do that if he knew you were leaving anyway.”

“I like the way this guy thinks.” Duo said, grinning as she picked the phone up, dialed the number, and was quickly put through to her friend. The arrangements were made, and she was off the phone in ten minutes, joining him at the kitchen table to eat dinner.

‘At least she’ll have someone around her while I’m gone.’ Duo thought as they started dinner. It made him feel better knowing that she would have the old Preventor with her. The man loved her as if she was his own daughter. Then again, given that Bella was once engaged to the man’s son, it was a possibility that was where the loyalty to her came from. But whatever it was, he was immensely grateful for it. That man would rather die than see something happen to her.

So, with her safety securely taken care of, and the dinner dishes in the sink to soak, Duo made plans to make his last night with Belladonna memorable enough to last until they could be back together again.

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A/N - No, I didn’t fall off the face of the Earth. I’m still here, and still in the process of recovering from hurricane Katrina. Hope you enjoyed the newest chapter, short though it was. The next one will be up much sooner, I promise.

A.A.

Oh, and remember to review. I want to know what you think.

Later.