Her mother's daughter chap 10

[Ame-san]

Chapter 10

They sat silently in the not so quiet bar where eerie shadows cast upon their hard faces. Duo had learned to play the soundless game from the expert. He took another sip of beer and sighed.

" You want to talk about what happened?" He asked in an unwonted monotone, completely out of his usual cheerful character.

" She hates me." It was soft spoken as if he was afraid.

" I don't blame her." Duo commented while staring straight ahead at the void. " You shouldn't be surprised either."

" But I've always known that she had feelings for me." Heero suddenly found the cold bitter liquid quite soothing despite the fact he hated drinking. The mellow music playing in the background wasn't helping in anyway.

" People change, Heero." He glanced at his misguided friend, shaking his head in discontent. I wonder what Lena said to him, but she sure did a really good job. Well, it's time for me to play my role.

" Face the truth, Heero, you should be glad that she was willing to talk to you at all after all these years." Duo said while congratulating himself on his terrific acting.

" It's not true. I thought she'll always have some feelings toward me. Am I wrong? Is this real? No, she can't hate me. Relena could never hate me." He seemed to carry a self-conversation rather than answering Duo's remark.

" Whatever you say, Heero, you are not going to change anything." Duo felt sympathetic toward his friend, yet duty called first, he had to stick to the plan.

" Just tell me this isn't true." Heero almost pleaded.

Stage one, denial.

" You are too weak, Heero. Too weak. Lena hates you, so what! Have you ever considered why she would hate you. She's not yours, Heero. Don't ever think her as your property, your emotional slave." He had wanted to tell him that for a long time.

" Don't you call me weak, Maxwell! " Heero raised his voice in rage. " I am not weak!"

Stage two, anger.

" Don't ever call me weak, Maxwell! You have no idea what I've been through all these years." Drops of the bitter liquid spitted out of his mouth. " You have no right to judge me!"

" I have every right to judge you, Yuy!" Instincts took over logic as Duo discarded his act. " It's true that I don't know what hell you've been through, but I know for certain that you put yourself there. You are too weak to live a good life because you are afraid of life itself. You can't handle the brightness and happiness of life, and you constantly trying to hide in the dark. You isolate yourself from the world so you won't have to face anything or anyone. You live in a perpetual state of paralysis where nothing functions." He paused trying to put himself together. " And you say that I have no right to call you weak, you are the weakest person I know, Yuy! You masochist!"

Silence.

" You don't have anything to say, do you? I was right, am I not?" Duo swallowed another mouthful of beer and calmed himself down.

" You think I don't know that? I know what I am, but there is no help for me, is there?" A sarcastic tone.

" There is help, you could always help yourself by start being a real person."

" I am a real person. That's why I'm so screwed up because I am a human being."

" Right, if you were a person then the rest of us would be saints."

" You wouldn't understand a bit, Duo Maxwell."

" Believe me, I do understand, and it's time you stop acting like a child. Face your problems, Heero."

" I don't have to take this from you, Maxwell." Heero stood up and turned to leave this miserable place.

" Right, running away again. It seems like that's the only thing you can do these days. Sure, go ahead and run, don't ever try to face your problems."

" I am not running away. You wouldn't understand because you are not me. Just leave me alone, Duo."



The daughter sat on the right of the kitchen table staring at the mother like a detective about to interrogate his suspect for the first time. Her eyes seemed to see the very soul of her mother that was buried deep underneath her exterior. The mother began fidgeting with the edge of her shirt while staring back at her daughter with a intenseness not at all as penetrating as the former. The moment she tried to avoid for the past sixteen years finally came, and it came under the most unpleasant circumstance. Sweat began to gather on her forehead and suddenly she found the air around her hard to breath, almost suffocating.

" Relax mother." Liz sensed the tension in the room.

" I am relaxed. Just give me a second, and I'll be just fine." She barely squeezed those words out of her lips.

"It's alright, mom. You don't have to be afraid of this." Liz found the situation amusing rather than awkward.

Lena breathed in a deep breath and spoke with a soft yet serious voice. " Why do you want to know now? You always refused to talk about it before, why now? You hated topics involving the past. It's the present that counts, right?"

" Well, that was in the past. Now, it's a whole completely different situation. We have been forced into a whirlpool without our consent, so why not face it than running away from it like a certain person we know." She justified her position.

" You sure you can handle this?"

" Of course. I'm not a weakling, mother." Liz sounded rather indignant at her mother's remark.

" Fine. I guess it's better if you know." Lena had run out of excuses. It was time to face the music." It all began in the last war we had, I'm sure you have studied that in school. Anyway, that was when I met your fa...I mean Heero. Back then I was living in a very sheltered protective environment, but meeting him brought me adventure. I was... I was intrigued with him the whole time. Then when the war ended, I fell in love with him. At least that was what I thought. To tell the truth I really didn't know how I felt for him. But I ignored all the confusion in my head and followed my stupid, weak heart. One thing led to another, we began dating, if you call going to public fundraisers dates that is. I know, you would think that was unromantic, but to the stupid me then that was more than enough." She paused as memories of the past, good memories of the past, overwhelmed her speech.

" Mom, do continue please."

"Right, sorry about that. Well, we never told each other how we felt, at least I didn't tell him. We stayed in silence for a while. After a year or so, he left without saying goodbye." She stopped.

" And what happened next?" Liz inquired with the utmost curiosity.

" Well, that's about it." Her mother replied.

" What? You are not joking right?" She was shocked that that was the whole entire story.

Lena nodded.

"No offense or anything, mom, but you must be the worst story teller on the face of the earth. At least you could have told me how I was born."

"Would you be happy to know that you were the product of one passionate drunken night?" An unpleasant tone.

" No, but at least now I know. So what? Don't be ashamed of yourself, you can't change what you did." Liz tried to comfort her mother." Anyway, you left out the part about you being a vice foreign minister."

" I didn't really like that job. It was something I did out of other's expectations rather than my own interest. I was merely stepping into my adopted father's shoe, and at end the shoe didn't fit so I got out. I moved to California, went to school, became a lawyer and of course I had you."

" And I was your perfect excuse of quitting your first job, am I right?" She smirked at her mother knowing fully that she was right on the dot.

" Sorry, I didn't mean to use you in anyway. Honey." She apologized.

" God, you are serious. I don't think that I would mind since I wasn't born then to give my consent, mother." She laughed out loud at this absurd scene before her.

" Liz, it's very rude to mock people that way."

" So what, you never cared before."

Both of them chuckled at the ridiculous situation. The tension vanished without even making a sound.

" So mom, what are you going to do now?" Liz asked.

"What do you mean?"

" What are you going to do about Heero. Since my plan seems to work so well, are you going to play this out? 'This', meaning the 'Jack' issue."

" I can't promise you anything, but I'll do what I can. I just hope we are not hurting him in anyway." There was a tone of worry in her voice.

" Don't worry, mom. He can handle it, unless he is as weak as he seems to be."



Heero stood motionless in the tiny phone booth staring aimlessly at the numbers on the keypad. In the void of the night, this lone figure fought hard against his own inner soul and emotions. He lifted his hand to try to pick up the receiver, but an unknown force always managed to pull him back to his original frigid position. Alone, motionless. You are running away again. You are such a weakling. Duo's words echoed in his ears and penetrated his heart like a dagger. He was not a weakling, was he? Doubt and confusion seemed to crawl back into his mind as if they never left but only remained dormant waiting to trick him into believing again. He did believe in something, but what? It didn't matter to him anymore, he only wanted to fix his mistake once and for all.

He needed help.



The vidphone rang in the Dorlain residence, Lena answered it in her study. It was unusual to receive a phone call this late at night.

" Hello?" She was greeted by a grief stricken Heero Yuy.

"Heero? What? Why are you calling here this late? I'm sure we can talk about things tomorrow in my office."

" Relena, " He refused to call her by her shortened new name. " Can I speak to Elizabeth?"

" What? Liz? But..." She saw the plead in his eyes and decided to respect his wishes." Liz! You have a call!"

" Thank you." He told her as she terminated her link.

" Hello? Liz here." Liz was about to go to bed.

" Elizabeth."

" Heero." Somehow she knew what he was going to say and became very serious.

" I need to talk to you. Can you me a favor?"

Stage three Bargaining.

A/N: Another cliffhanger? Oops.

[goddesswing]

SUSPENSE!!!!!!!!!! Must have next chapter... nowwwwwwww!!!!!!!!!!

[kawaiiemogirl]

WHOOO!