That was it, he could no longer stand aside and watch helplessly as the 'Jack' win over Relena, the woman he was in love with and the mother of his daughter. He was ready to do this; he was not being an idiot; he was going to propose today. He summoned enough courage, more than enough to fight another battle with mobile dolls, and pushed the door open that lead him into the court room.
" Relena!" He called out her name as he sauntered up to her. " Relena, I need to talk to you."
" Oh, good Heero." She completely ignored his request. " You are finally here. Get ready, Quatre's trial is starting in five minutes."
" No, I need to speak to you, now." He demanded.
" Not now, Heero. I'm sure anything can wait after the trial." She said while organizing her files never cared to look him in the eye.
" No, it can't wait." He paused and took a deep breath. " Relena, would you marry me?!" He finally said those words.
" What?" She was dumbfounded staring at him like he was crazy.
" Marry me, Relena. Forget about Jack, marry me. I love you." He became inarticulate all of a sudden.
" No." She frowned. " No, why would I do that? And please call me Lena, not Relena."
He had just received the worst blow on the head in the history of mankind. " Why.. why not?" He could barely bring himself to utter the words, since all circulations in his body had just been shot down at once.
" Because I love Jack and that's final." She sounded like stating a common fact.
" No..."
Heero Yuy gasped for air as he woke up from his worst nightmare. He checked for his surroundings and confirmed that he was still lying on his bed inside of his room. Relief took over his body as he relaxed after that near death experience. He glanced at the clock and sought for his cloths. There were still two hours left until Quatre's 9 o'clock trial, which left him plenty of time to rationalize his mind and that was if he could think of a solution to his problem.
Two days had past since he found out about the Jack guy, and for those two days he had tried his best to talk to Lena about him, but the chance never came. Actually, there were a plethora of chances waiting for him to take except that he backed out on all of them. Every time when he thought he was ready to ask her, he would lose the ability to form sentences, and his mouth would become dry all of a sudden. No one could blame for his inability, for he was not trained in that part of human life. He had to admit that he really was pretty clueless as what Duo described. I will speak to her today, and this time I won't back out on this mission. He vowed. But I better not go as far as proposing to her, that would only end up in absolute failure. He made a mental note as he remembered the dream earlier. What a horrible dream!
Liz made sure she would catch Duo before the trial begins in another twenty minutes. She had to ask him about her father, since he didn't make any move on her mother. She was starting to have doubt on their plan. Heero has to make the move first if for us to proceed with the Operations.
" Uncle Duo!" Liz spotted him in the lobby to the court room.
" Hey, kid." He waved at her and said something to Hilde before he made the way to her.
" So, have you found out anything particular on him?" She asked sounding rather discreet.
" Nope, and he really has me worried." He shook his head. " I really thought we got him there with the imaginary Jack thing." He scratched his head looking perplexed.
" Well, we still have some time left." She sighed. " Let's give him another day, and if that doesn't work, we'll have to really get a 'Jack' for him to meet, and that won't be pretty."
" I know. Hopefully he's not as clueless as we thought he'd be, but then again, it wouldn't surprise me one bit if he were."
" I totally agree. Now, let's go. My mom is waiting for us." She pointed toward the court room. " Good luck on the witness' stand, uncle Duo."
Heero was on the witness' stand after Trowa had finished his testimony. His mind told him to concentrate on helping Quatre by actually paying attention to Lena's questions, but he found himself focused more on the person rather than her words.
" Now, Mr.Yuy, would you tell us the effects of the Zero system on the human mind?" She asked.
He was tired of answering these meaningless questions; after all, he had been on the stand for nearly thirty minutes. The pointless trial was taking precious time from him to complete his mission, which was talking to Lena in private. He thought it was time for him to take matters into his own hands and end the trial.
" Forget about the zero system, I have something else to say. You people have got to realize how pointless this stupid trial is. It was the war that-" He was cut off by the prosecutor.
" Objection."
" Overruled." The judge said.
" But your honor - "
" No, I want to hear what he has to say." The judge gestured Heero to continue.
Lena stared at him curiously, her eyes asking the question.
" Thank you, Your honor." Heero said politely. " As I was saying, it was the war that caused all the sufferings and deaths, you can't blame on the actions of individuals." His voice was emotionless. " We were soldiers and we were trained to kill. We fought so you people can have peace; our hands were stained with blood because we would do anything to protect you. Did you think that we wanted to kill? Did you think it was easy for us to live with the lives lost on our hands? Even to this day, we still suffer from the horrors of war; I'm sure that every single one of us still has nightmares every night. But we were willing to endure the suffering so you don't have to. We used to live everyday on the edge between life and death, and we fought each battle in order to survive. But what was our cause? You. You were our cause and this is how you repay us? " The court room was silent. " Yes, Quatre did made a mistake, but he already suffered from it, and he tried his best to make up for it. Why the revenge now? Why bring up the past after so many years? Why can't you just leave the past alone and think more about the future? Enough lives had been lost, don't ruin another one just because he made a mistake in the past. Everyone makes mistakes and people do die in war."
Heero Yuy stood up and left the witness' stand. He was done and had no intension to remain in the court room any longer. He would go and wait for Lena outside where he didn't have to face those ignorant people. It was time for him to take his own advice and stop thinking about the past but try to live the future.
It didn't take them very long to finish the trial, Quatre was discharged on all crimes an hour later. Apparently Heero's speech had a greater impact than any of them expected. Liz was astonished by Heero's little performance as it did to everybody, but then again it was Heero Yuy and he was capable of anything, well, maybe not everything.
" Relena." Heero called to get her attention.
" Heero? What is it?" She looked at him.
Can I talk to you in private sometime... today?" He asked hoping she would say yes.
" Sure. And by the way that was some speech you gave back in there." That was the first compliment she gave him since their reunion.
" So when can I talk to you? " He didn't care about the compliment.
" Tonight, after I get off from work." She answered before she left for the car.
Heero came that night after dinner since he had to finish working on another assignment. Being a computer programmer was a piece of cake to him since he was quite talented with computers plus his trainings in the war also proved to be useful.
" Mom, go talk to him now. I'll clean the dishes." Liz motioned her mother to leave the kitchen. " Just remember, if he asks about the Jack thing, be a little convincing ok?"
" I know, I know. " Lena was actually nervous although she didn't show it on her face. She was not going to let him know about her feelings, yet.
" So, what do you want to talk about, Heero?" She sat down on the couch opposite from him in the living room keeping him at a distance.
" Jack. Who is Jack?" He was never the one to be evasive.
" Huh?" She didn't think Heero would actually ask her that. She never thought Liz's little plan was working.
" Relena?"
"Why would you care? It's none of your business." She didn't know why she just said that, but somewhere inside of her a rage that had been buried for years was surfacing.
"I... I heard about him from Duo. As your...friend, I should have a right to know." He tried to find the right words to say.
" You are not a friend to me, Heero. I don't know what you are, but I don't think you have a right to know about my personal life." She objected to his request.
Another black eye was imprinted on his face as he suffered from another blow to his heart.
" Well, as Liz's...father. I have a right to know about her future step-father." He hadn't meant to say those words.
" Excuse me for not telling, but I don't recall you ever being Liz's father." She sounded sarcastic. " If you really want to know, Jack is my new boyfriend, who is perfect in everyway. Not like you, he cares about me, and that's the end of this conversation, Heero. Please leave." She pointed to the door.
" Do you love him then?" He only needed that one answer to this question.
" No, but I don't love you either." She avoided looking at him and pointed to the door again. " Please leave." It was in a whisper.
" So I have lost you then?" He said to himself softer than a whisper.
" You never had me..."
Duo was helping his son with his homework before Hilde told him that Heero just called wanting to speak with him. She could tell that something was wrong by Heero's rare facial expression. Could it be grief written on the face of the perfect soldier? No, it couldn't be, I must be getting old.
" Duo, be a little extra nice when you speak to Heero, alright? He doesn't look that well." She told him.
"Sure thing, Hilde." He tried to hide his grin underneath that serious look. I know exactly why he is calling, the plan must be working.
" Hey buddy." He greeted his best friend.
" Duo.." He never was good at asking for help.
" Say no more, buddy. I'll meet you at the bar in ten minutes."
Liz came out of the kitchen surprised that her father had already left. She found her mother working on the computer in the study acting as if nothing had happened. Of course she knew her mother better than anyone else, and she could tell the confrontation between her parents didn't go as well.
" So what happened, mom?" She asked.
" Oh, nothing really." Lena replied. " I think I made the Jack thing a little too convincing. I mean I didn't know what was wrong with me, I just feel this anger inside of me whenever I talk to him."
" I know, you are still suffering for what happened 16 years ago." Liz tried to comfort her mother. " I'm sorry for ever making up that plan. I see that I have hurt you in the process." She apologized.
" No, it's not your fault. It's ours, we are just too stubborn to admit our feelings."
" So what exactly happened 16 years ago, Mom?"
A/N: I wonder what happens next?
Four more chapters until the story ends, but don't worry, I already have part of the sequel written. 