I do not own Gundam Wing.  This fan fiction has no commercial value and I am not making any kind of profit or income off of this.  

 

Epilogue

 

            “And so it is with a heavy heart that I resign my office as Governor today…” Mr. Darlian spoke in front of a large crowd of reporters gathered inside the Governor’s mansion.  Just off center stage, a younger man with light blond hair and kind blue eyes adjusted his tie nervously for about the tenth time in the last two minutes.  Dorothy smiled as she handed him the speech she had prepared for him the night before.  “Thank you,” he mouthed to her.  She just nodded and then gestured toward the podium where Darlian was perched and now looking at him.

            “Damn, I missed my introduction,” Quatre thought as he plastered on a smile and with more confidence than he felt, took his place at the podium, and was sworn in as the next Governor. 

 

            Amidst the crowd, present bodily, but mentally off in her own world, Relena watched the proceedings with mixed feelings.  She was saddened that her father had to leave office – politics was all that he knew and loved.  But his illegal dealings with the Barton Foundation did not deserve to be forgiven by the public he was supposed to serve so selflessly.  Nor was his interference in her life something that she could forget.  She would forgive him in time, but they had lost something irreplaceable in their relationship; it was like she was losing her father when everyone else was only replacing a Governor.

            Quatre took his place at the podium, and she smiled.  They had been friends long ago when his father had been Darlian’s political rival.  She had felt like laughing when her father had asked the young man to be his running mate as a tribute to the elder Mr. Winner who had passed away a few years before.  It was a bold move, and one that Relena had scorned, not because of Quatre, but because this was the same young man that her father had transferred her away from when she was a sophomore, and Quatre was a senior.  Now he was Governor at barely thirty years old  and Relena was happy for him, although he looked extremely nervous up there repeating the oath of office.

            The main event over, Relena made her way outside of the Governor’s mansion that she would never occupy again.  The thought didn’t really sadden her as much as it gave her a feeling of apprehension – for an unknown future that looked like she would be walking towards alone.  Heero had left again, although who knows what Trowa had told him to make him go.  He had said he didn’t tell Heero that she wasn’t going with him to his place of anonymity, but she knew that she couldn’t hide from the FBI.  If he wanted to find her, she was sure he would…and judging from the brief glimpse she caught of a long braid belonging to a man in a dark blue suit supposedly ‘blending into’ the crowd, she figured Heero wouldn’t be in the dark for long. 

            She made her way down the steps leading from the front of the house thinking of all that had happened in the last few weeks.  Reunited with Heero, only to find out that he had been using her the same way her father and brother had been using her – and she, the ignorant dupe of them all.  She hated that feeling – the one of betrayal that ate at her self-confidence and tender soul.  Even though they had abused her trust, she still loved them – even Heero.  Her heart ached for him, like it hadn’t been ten years since he had left her the first time.  She felt like that same lovesick teenager she was long ago, and yet this time it was so much worse.  The pain in his eyes that she saw beneath the fury when he had thrown those awful photographs and again that night she threw him out of her hotel room, spoke volumes.  Yet she couldn’t bring herself to go to him, not knowing if it was all an act in a play she had been unwilling cast.  She shouldn’t depend on him - or anyone, for that matter; she should be prepared to go on alone, making a new life for herself in the dawn of another day.

            *                      *                      *                      *                      *                      *

            The camera panned slowly across the crowd as Lt. Governor Winner repeated the solemn oath of office.  “Stop tape,” Heero called out to Duo.  His friend quickly pressed the pause button on the remote.  “Back it up.”  Duo grinned and pressed the slow button with an arrow pointing left.  He knew what Heero had picked up on – he had been there himself that morning and seen her there….but payback was hell, and Duo just wanted to torment his friend a little longer before he finally gave Heero the address he had found that morning.

            “There!”  Heero pointed at the screen, his heart pounding in his chest.  “Tell me that’s not her.”

            “That’s not her,” Duo said trying not to laugh out loud.

            “Hn.”  Heero glared at his friend, then turned back to the tape.  He hadn’t wanted to watch the blasted thing, afraid it would only bring to mind again those thoughts he had been trying all day to push aside - but Duo had insisted.  

            “I don’t know how it could be her, Heero….” He said, his hand coming up to muffle his laughter.  He suddenly lost his mirth as he came nose to nose with Heero’s gun.  He quickly pulled the piece of paper from his jacket pocket and handed it over to his friend.  “She didn’t go.  I found out this morning, and was going to give you that address, but I owed you one for the lump you gave me.”

            “You’ll be lucky if I don’t give you another one,” Heero growled, snatching the paper out of Duo’s hand and scanning it.  He holstered his gun and with hope soaring in his chest for the first time in days practically hurtled a sofa in his haste to get out the door.

            “You’re welcome!”  Duo called out after him.  “It’s about damn time,” he grumbled and went back to watching the tape of inauguration.