GW and its characters don't belong to me but to Sunrise/SOTSU Agency etc.





Part 7 and final chapter to Welcomed Invasion (Subtitled Reborn).





It had been a five months since the argument Relena and I had had in her office. I had only left for twenty-four hours before returning to her the following evening. I remember it so clearly as she looked up at me entering her room. She was curled up in a chair, draped in my terry bathrobe and reading a book on pregnancy and childbirth. I took the book from her hands and flip through the pages, not really reading anything. It just gave me something to do during our awkward silence. "It has a lot of good information." I could tell she was trying to start a conversation to feel out exactly what my mood was. "I'll read it then. Considering that I'll need to know as much as I can, especially when the time comes." Her eyes were looking up at me almost liquid with tears. "You, mean, your...?" "I'm not going anywhere Relena. I'll never leave you again." She about knocked me back jumping up to embrace me. "Oh Heero." I held onto her more tightly then I ever had in my life. I remember that night making love to her was the most passionate and gentle it had ever been.





"I can't believe you missed that shot?" I shook my head a second my mind jolted back to the present. I stare at the pool table. "I was supposed to bank the eight ball and sink it." I feel a little winded as Duo's hand slaps my back. "Hey I understand. Your mind is on nothing non-related to Relena and the baby." "I think we each need another." One of Duo's twins is tromping down the stairs carrying two more beers. "Mom said you two probably would be wanting these." Duo elbows me and winks. "That woman can read my mind." Duo places the beers on the edge of the pool table and scruffs the boy's hair. "Thanks buddy." The raven-haired boy shrugs his shoulders and starts back up the stairs when his father grabs him, slings him over his shoulder and begins tickling him. "I gotchagotchagotcha!" Duo's son begins to laugh and pound his father's back. "Daddy!" He flips his son back over and places him on his feet. "You're a good kid. Now go up stairs and finish helping your mother with dinner." I watch the boy take off up the basement stairs and then hear Duo sigh. "I'm bored." And you've been beating me anyway."





We hang up the pool cues and go back upstairs. I remind Duo of the game coming on. "That's right. The playoffs." We're about to enter the family room when the youngest of the Maxwell clan begins to fuss. He gingerly lifts his daughter out of her swing and cradles her in his arms. Another twin runs into the room. But then I can't tell, it may have been the same one. "Mommy says it's your turn." Duo snags the bottle away from his son. "I swear your mother has ESP. The boy scrunches his nose and looks up at his dad. "But yesterday you swore mommy had PMS." Duo's face turns red and he chuckles. I hide my face ready to crack up myself. "Go on and help your mother will you." He looks at me with that silly grin of his. "Kids." He looks down at his daughter. The baby girl's fingernails scratch at the bottle as she frantically suckles on the nipple. "Look at you," he muses, "you got yer daddy's appetite girly." We sit down on the sofa and I flip on the t. v. just in time for us to catch the pre-game show, but I notice Duo doesn't seem to really care, he's to taken with the little bundle curled in his arms. He sighs contently. "I thought when the boys were born it was the greatest thing, but she arrived and I now truly feel blessed." He places her over his shoulder a little and begins patting firmly on her back. "You always here about special bonds fathers and daughters have, well, it's the god honest truth." I take in his words. In less than a month my own daughter is going to arrive, but I can't imagine myself acting so goofy as Duo. He seems to read my thoughts. "Yea. I know. You think I'm full of it. But just you wait and see Yuy. Just you wait and see."





I stand up and arch my back slightly. It's been killing me for the past month. I walk around the bedroom. I think back briefly at the time I tried to resign, but wasn't allowed. Even the public wanted me to stay by an overwhelming majority. I've always considered myself a public servant so I agreed to stay. I feel so tired tonight. I slip into bed and adjust myself on my body pillow. It's been my savior for the past few months. I know Heero will be home soon, but I'm too sleepy to wait up for him. He has become such a different man these past few months. He is now so gentle and loving, patient and attentive. His temper even seems to disappear. My eyelids feel so heavy and my vision gets blurry. I sigh softly allowing sleep to overtake me.





I slip into bed beside her and pull the covers over us. Relena's breaths are slow and shallow I can tell she is sleeping deeply. I drape my arm around her waist and lay my hand on her midriff. I snuggle against her shoulder and breath her in. Berries. I feel myself beginning to drop off when my hand on her stomach is nudged. I'm awake now, my eyes wide. My hand is bumped again. I scoot back a little to allow Relena to roll over on her back, she is still sleeping soundly, palm upturned by her temple. I place my hand where it was before and smile feeling our child move inside of her. I sit up and slide farther down on the bed until I can lay my head where my hand was; my hand is just a few inches away rubbing Relena's side. Feeling totally out of character, and a little silly, I find myself beginning to speak to her. "I see you're going to be a night owl like me huh?" I could imagine Duo standing over me now, mocking me saying he told me so. " I don't know exactly what to say Elizabeth." It was the name Relena chose, though it was a little stuffy sounding for me. But Relena told me she'd always had her heart set on the name so I didn't argue. I continued. "I don't always have a lot to say or know exactly how to say it. But if you ever need me for anything, I'm going to be there sweetheart. I love you. And I can't wait until you're here. Now let me finish telling you about the final battle between your uncle and me."





I thin my lips to suppress my smile and my giggle. Heero's talking to her again. A warm surge flows through my body and I fight the urge to move and embrace my lover, my friend-my eternal companion. I know he talks to her at night because he feels the safest; he's always been too guarded to do such things when he knows even I might be awake. Either I've gotten better at this possum thing or he's too preoccupied to notice anymore. My heart melts hearing him confide in her about everything night after night. His feelings and insecurities, his hopes and dreams. He even tells her stories about his days in the war and about his childhood. Things I know he could never even begin to tell me. But in the end he always reassures her of his love for her and how he can't wait for the day when he can hold her in his arms. There is suddenly silence as he falls asleep, his head still on my stomach. I feel her stop moving, curled up asleep with her daddy. I suddenly feel intense pressure.





I jolt upright in bed as cramping pains shoot across my abdomen. Heero is there beside me asking me what's wrong. I feel wetness under me all of a sudden and Heero must feel it under him as well because he springs out of the bed. The pain is too intense for me and I scream.





EPILOUGE





Well, here we are, another summer cookout at the Maxwell's. I bounce my year-old son on my knee and bump his nose to mine. He scrunches up and laughs at me. I see out of the corner of my eye little five-year old Elizabeth scampering towards me. I move her brother over so I can accommodate her on my other knee. She has her mother's eyes and my dark wild hair that Relena swears she can do nothing with. I look up and spy Relena across the yard. She's talking to Hildie who has the last and final edition of the Maxwell tribe, that's what they always say, hanging off her hip. After swearing to stop at number six Hildie and Duo had twin girls and after that another girl and yet another girl after her. The number of Team Maxwell players now totaled at ten, twelve altogether counting the coaches Duo and Hildie-Duo jokes that he lost count a long time ago. But I vaguely remember him telling me years ago how much family meant to him, especially being an orphan himself and having no links to his family. So to him a big family means security. But then ever being Duo he laughs and shrugs blaming it on a Catholic thing.





Relena must feel my eyes on her because she looks over and smiles at me sweetly. My daughter brushes a kiss against my lips and whispers she loves me before hopping down out of my lap to go play with the other children. She had been born premature and we almost had lost her. For the longest periods after I had nightmares of the times I was in the hospital. A few times they would take her out of the incubator and allow me to hold her flat against my bare chest. I would close my eyes and try to will all of my strength and life energy to her. You have your mother's strength I told her. And you are a survivor like me. I would also whisper to her that she could not leave me because I would not allow her to go, I loved her too much and I needed her even more. Seeing her running and laughing now-I'm glad she chose to listen to me.





I look down and notice my son has fallen asleep; his towhead leaned back against my chest. I almost want to laugh at the irony of my life. How it had gotten so ordinary but not at all dull. For all the gold in the universe I could never imagine it turning out like this, but it has. I'm not the person I used to be nor would I ever want to return to being him. Years ago when I first found out about Elizabeth I was so scared and angry-feelings of betrayal and cruel fate. But in those twenty-four hours that I was away I realized that life had not played a cruel joke on me but was giving me the opportunity to be reborn. To live the life I thought I didn't deserve and to have the love that I felt so unworthy of. And I would be foolish and stupid to throw away second chances. So I committed myself to a new mission-a personal mission to release myself of my past, move forward and live a happy life with Relena, and our child and all who may come after. And so far my mission has been a success.