Santa Baby Chapter 3 (part 4 of 4)
Posted: Sun Dec 28, 2003 1:59 am
Well, here it tis, the final installment of my Christmas fic. I wrote this for one reason and one reason only, to hopefully bring some joy to your (those who will read it) holiday season. I had great fun dressing Heero up as Santa and putting him through the experience of being a dept. store Santa, and if I could make one of you laugh or cheer even one of you up a little this Christmas, than it was a success.
Merry Christmas, to those of you who celebrate it. And happy holidays to the rest. Much love always, Rose
<center><b><u><font=+1>Santa Baby</font></b></u>
by the Black Rose</center>
Chapter 3
Santa walked to the back of his enchanted cave to remove the wretched, smelly, and urine-stained costume; his dutiful Elf followed, though he remained surprisingly silent. Heero pulled the red jacket off his shoulders.
<i>Did she mean me? Or was it 'him' she's so concerned about?</i>
His eyes flickered over to Duo, who had just managed to get his hair loose from all the bobby pins that kept it up inside the pointy hat. <i>He'll know what happened. I'll have to ask him, later.</i>
Heero felt his chest tighten as the memory of her...with another man--
His hands balled into fists, and he had to shake the image from his mind.
<i>I'll ask him much later.</i>
"Rough day, huh?" Duo slung a bag over his shoulder as he and Heero exited the mall. "And we still have forty some odd Christmas lists to go through and find out if one of them is the one we're looking for."
Heero kept his eyes on the ground in front of him. "Can't be. Unless it came from Relena."
"Guess you're right. But we should still check, shouldn't we?" Duo's cheerful tone sounded strangely forced.
Heero shrugged it off. "Hn."
A hand dropped on his shoulder and halted his step. "How was it?" Duo asked.
Heero refused to turn around. "What?"
"Seeing her again?"
Heero shrugged his friend's hand off his shoulder.
"Don't try to pretend like you don?t still care. I could see the way you were looking at her."
The former Santa finally turned around. "Maxwell, I had a beard over half my face, white hair covering my forehead and glued to my eyebrows, and store-bought mag glasses obstructing my vision. I couldn't have been looking at her in any way that you could tell from five feet away."
"Call it intuition."
Heero turned away. "We're not discussing this."
"She still cares about you."
Heero shut his eyes. "Maxwell," he said in the 'I'm warning you' tone.
"She never got over you."
He whirled around on his friend. "She has a funny way of showing it." Despite himself, his voice cracked. He dropped his duffel bag to the ground so he could shut Duo's mouth with his fist. Maxwell must have seen the look in his eye, because he backed up a step. Heero advanced.
Duo took another step back, then stopped. He dropped his bag to the ground and stood up straight and still. "That guy wasn't who you thought he was."
Heero froze. "What?"
"I'm actually surprised you hadn't guessed what went on today."
The former Santa's fists fell back to his sides. "Relena's the informant."
"I can't tell you everything you want to know. I don't even know all of it myself." Duo stuffed his hands in the pockets of his jacket and stared at his shoes. "I do know that as the Foreign Minister, she knew who all the 'players' were in the Scholtzberg case, and agreed to give Preventer the benefit of her knowledge." Maxwell glanced up and looked Heero straight in the eye.
"Why they didn't tell you, I can only guess. But you weren't always rational when it came to Relena. You followed your emotions with her, until you were afraid of getting hurt."
Heero suddenly found his own shoes interesting. "I never said I was afraid..."
"You were afraid." Maxwell's voice grew louder, accusatory. "You still are afraid. Why, I can't possibly imagine." His voice grew closer, and it was Heero's turn to step back, away from what his friend was saying...
"I kept thinking you'd rise to the occasion, that you'd fight for her and in the process realize there was nothing going on - at least nothing romantic. But instead, you ran away."
Heero's head shot up. "I didn't run," he shouted back. He paused and lowered his voice. "I left."
"You left because you didn't want to get hurt."
Heero frowned. "You're damned right. There's no reason she should love me, and I couldn't live with her pity." He leaned down and picked up his bag. He didn't have time to stand out here and argue--
"There's no reason why those kids today should have told you the wishes of their hearts, either."
Heero pulled his duffel bag up over his shoulder and turned to go. "That's right. They're only going to get hurt when Santa doesn't bring them their gifts. And how can he bring them a new mother or?or?trips to Earth to find their parents?" Anger swept over him, hot and raging. He dropped his bag again as he reeled around.
"Their parents are dead!" His left arm pointed at the offending mall. "And this stupid myth about Santa Claus will only bring them more pain because they can't put the past behind them and move on."
"Like you can?"
Heero opened his mouth to retort, but nothing came out. He crossed his arms over his much leaner chest.
Duo took another step closer. "You don't know why she would love you because you can't lay the past to rest yourself. You can't understand why these kids will open their hearts to you when they're only going to get hurt." His tone softened a bit, or at least no longer sounded angry.
"But that's why they need people like Relena in their lives. So they don't end up, no offense here, buddy, like you. Afraid to tell the people you care about how you really feel."
Heero scowled at the ground. "You could have told me."
"I couldn't tell you. It was classified information; in fact, I wasn't supposed to bring you along today." Duo patted him on the shoulder and kept walking.
Heero turned to glare at his friend.
Duo paused and looked back. "The elf was supposed to get the list. I just made a slight modification. But I think it was worth it, don't you?"
Heero tore through his apartment, throwing his bag with the Santa suit on his bed before firing up his laptop from its suspend mode. His fingers flew over the keys, entering codes, and bypassing security locks with practiced ease.
"Scholtzberg case, here it is."
"Warning: IP trace in progress." A red, blinking box blared on screen.
"Shit." Heero found and killed the process on the node. If Preventer found him in these files, he was going to be answering to a very cranky Administrator.
There were tons of documents, reports, and affidavits. Pictures, testimony, video files? He wanted to go to her tonight if possible. He couldn't get through all of this in an hour or two. He slumped into his chair and pulled up a likely report, looking for information?
* * * * * *
Relena took the earrings out of her ears and sunk down onto the bed. Her feet hurt, her head hurt, and her heart never could get used to the pain. Every year, she'd hear similar stories from kids on different colonies, or on Earth. It didn't matter where they lived, their scars were the same. She needed a hot bath, but couldn't summon enough energy to move.
RING! RING! Relena squinted at her watch through the darkness. Had she really been asleep that long? RING! RING! Her hand fumbled over the surface of the nightstand to find the phone.
"Relena."
"Who...Wufei?"
"There's a shuttle waiting to launch as soon as you can get there. We have a hacker. It could be nothing, we just don't want to take chances. Go."
The line went dead. She tried to rub the sleep from her eyes. She stumbled out of her bed, and had a bit of trouble righting herself. She opened the door and strained to see her guards through her limited vision. "We have to go." Her voice sounded hoarse. The one to her right nodded, and quickly moved to her side. She leaned on him a bit and they led her out of the hotel, into the waiting limo, and to the Preventer shuttleport.
It was chilly when she got out to board the shuttle, the faux winter air slapped her face, and woke her up a bit. She realized she hadn't put on her shoes, and felt a little silly, but climbed the steps and entered the cabin. She buckled herself into her chair and remembered having the thought that she would be home in time for Christmas with Pagan, after all. And then she was out.
* * * * * *
Heero felt like his eyelids weighed a hundred pounds. He tried to raise his head, but his neck protested lifting his head plus two hundred pounds of eyelids. He glared at the time stamp on the monitor that read nine-thirty in the morning.
"Shit."
He had overslept. The Preventer groaned and stretched his cramped muscles. He needed a shower, and a shave, at the very least, and then it was off to go see Relena.
The hot water on his skin felt good, relief pounded into his body with its spray. The information he had gleaned from those reports proved Duo was correct. The Preventer whom Heero had thought caught Relena's interest back when they were dating was an undercover agent, asking her to get them information on Scholtzberg's committee dealings.
A married undercover agent.
He hopped out of the shower, toweled dry, and pulled on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. He glanced at his image in the mirror long enough to check he hadn't missed a spot when he shaved, and curse at his reflection for being an idiot.
"You are an emotional moron. You'd better hope she'll take you back."
He flipped on the television while he finished dressing, wanting to hear the latest news.
"?Minister is back on Earth today to spend the holiday with her extended family."
Heero paused in the middle of brushing his teeth just in time to see Relena's picture on screen in front of her estate.
"Dammit!" How was he supposed to get a shuttle flight to Earth three days before Christmas? It wasn't going to happen. Flights were booked solid, and he didn't have the kind of cash to buy a last minute fare.
"How could she leave? Why did she leave?" He ran both hands through his hair and tried to figure out a solution.
"I can hop one of the Preventer's freighters, or see if they have a shuttle scheduled to leave in the next day or two. Shit shit shit. If only I hadn't fallen asleep."
He slung the chair back and plopped down in front of the machine. He had to find a way to get to Earth.
The sooner the better.
* * * * * *
Relena tossed about in the bed. She didn't know why she couldn't sleep. She felt like she was still a child on Christmas Eve - even though there would be no presents under the tree aside from the ones already there the night before.
She closed her eyes and tried to fall back asleep. There was no reason a grown woman without children should be awake at four in the morning on Christmas Day. In fact, she usually slept in a bit...
Her eyes snapped open a while later. "Was that a noise?" She strained to hear if it would repeat itself. But the house was silent. She dozed back asleep again, waiting for Christmas morning to arrive.
An hour later
It was still too early. She just couldn't sleep. And lying in bed was making it worse. Five thirty was insane, but she could at least make herself some tea and toast. Her stomach rumbled beneath her gown as she stood up and pulled a robe on over it so she could go downstairs. She slipped silently through the darkened halls, but didn't want to trip down the actual steps. She flipped on the light and started to descend, but stopped not even halfway.
At the bottom of the stairs, in the last bit of the light from the upstairs hall, stood a worn and haggard looking Santa.
Five o'clock shadow peppered his face, instead of a beard, and it looked like he had soot on his red jacket and pants. His hat was missing, or at least it fell off when he stood up, revealing the familiar shock of chestnut hair.
"Heero?"
He stared up at her from below, looking like hell, but she knew she didn't look much better. It took an extra second to command her feet once she registered that he was really here. She practically flew down the steps only to have doubt creep in as she set foot in the living room. Why was he here?
"Relena?."
"What are you doing here?"
His eyes were red - probably from lack of sleep, and the expression on his face.... She glanced down and noted that this exhausted Santa had managed to bring along his sack of toys.
"You're a mess."
He nodded. "I wanted to see you when you were still on L2. But I just missed..."
"You wanted...to see me?"
"You left to go back to Earth, and with only three days until Christmas, I couldn't get a flight. I couldn't get a Preventer shuttle either. I had to ride freight. It took two days. I've never seen a slower vehicle in my life."
"But...why are you here?"
"I brought them." He waved at the bag of things at his feet. "Everything I could remember. The bat, the glove, Kelly's dance shoes. I can't bring Kerridan a mother or Jason a father, but I can teach him to play baseball so he can get on a team. They shouldn't... No one should end up like me."
"What are you talking abou--" She stopped when she realized what he was saying. "You were there."
He visibly swallowed, then nodded.
"You...played Santa for all those kids? But why? How?"
He frowned, but didn't look very angry - just tired. "It's a rather long, complicated story that will involve the deaths of two Preventer agents, may they rest in peace, but the short and the long of it is because I was meant to be." He looked up at the end of that sentence and met her gaze.
There was something there, in his eyes, something more than the obvious lack of sleep. She managed a small smile. "You heard my wish."
His shoulders sagged. "You never told me before."
"I did." She shook her head and tried to blink back the tears that were forming in her eyes. It wouldn't do to cry. "You just never listened."
"I was...afraid, before. But I'll listen now." He looked so earnest, so vulnerable. Like the wrong words would absolutely crush him.
"I..." She took a step forward and touched his arm. He, or maybe it was she, was shaking. "I love you."
"Still?" Heero asked in a whisper.
Relena nodded and lost the battle with her tears.
He pulled her against him; he smelled of aftershave and stale cigarettes, but she didn't care. She hugged him back and buried her face in his red Santa coat. He rested his head on her shoulder; his voice was low and husky when he spoke in her ear: "Then let me stay with you."
Merry Christmas, to those of you who celebrate it. And happy holidays to the rest. Much love always, Rose
<center><b><u><font=+1>Santa Baby</font></b></u>
by the Black Rose</center>
Chapter 3
Santa walked to the back of his enchanted cave to remove the wretched, smelly, and urine-stained costume; his dutiful Elf followed, though he remained surprisingly silent. Heero pulled the red jacket off his shoulders.
<i>Did she mean me? Or was it 'him' she's so concerned about?</i>
His eyes flickered over to Duo, who had just managed to get his hair loose from all the bobby pins that kept it up inside the pointy hat. <i>He'll know what happened. I'll have to ask him, later.</i>
Heero felt his chest tighten as the memory of her...with another man--
His hands balled into fists, and he had to shake the image from his mind.
<i>I'll ask him much later.</i>
"Rough day, huh?" Duo slung a bag over his shoulder as he and Heero exited the mall. "And we still have forty some odd Christmas lists to go through and find out if one of them is the one we're looking for."
Heero kept his eyes on the ground in front of him. "Can't be. Unless it came from Relena."
"Guess you're right. But we should still check, shouldn't we?" Duo's cheerful tone sounded strangely forced.
Heero shrugged it off. "Hn."
A hand dropped on his shoulder and halted his step. "How was it?" Duo asked.
Heero refused to turn around. "What?"
"Seeing her again?"
Heero shrugged his friend's hand off his shoulder.
"Don't try to pretend like you don?t still care. I could see the way you were looking at her."
The former Santa finally turned around. "Maxwell, I had a beard over half my face, white hair covering my forehead and glued to my eyebrows, and store-bought mag glasses obstructing my vision. I couldn't have been looking at her in any way that you could tell from five feet away."
"Call it intuition."
Heero turned away. "We're not discussing this."
"She still cares about you."
Heero shut his eyes. "Maxwell," he said in the 'I'm warning you' tone.
"She never got over you."
He whirled around on his friend. "She has a funny way of showing it." Despite himself, his voice cracked. He dropped his duffel bag to the ground so he could shut Duo's mouth with his fist. Maxwell must have seen the look in his eye, because he backed up a step. Heero advanced.
Duo took another step back, then stopped. He dropped his bag to the ground and stood up straight and still. "That guy wasn't who you thought he was."
Heero froze. "What?"
"I'm actually surprised you hadn't guessed what went on today."
The former Santa's fists fell back to his sides. "Relena's the informant."
"I can't tell you everything you want to know. I don't even know all of it myself." Duo stuffed his hands in the pockets of his jacket and stared at his shoes. "I do know that as the Foreign Minister, she knew who all the 'players' were in the Scholtzberg case, and agreed to give Preventer the benefit of her knowledge." Maxwell glanced up and looked Heero straight in the eye.
"Why they didn't tell you, I can only guess. But you weren't always rational when it came to Relena. You followed your emotions with her, until you were afraid of getting hurt."
Heero suddenly found his own shoes interesting. "I never said I was afraid..."
"You were afraid." Maxwell's voice grew louder, accusatory. "You still are afraid. Why, I can't possibly imagine." His voice grew closer, and it was Heero's turn to step back, away from what his friend was saying...
"I kept thinking you'd rise to the occasion, that you'd fight for her and in the process realize there was nothing going on - at least nothing romantic. But instead, you ran away."
Heero's head shot up. "I didn't run," he shouted back. He paused and lowered his voice. "I left."
"You left because you didn't want to get hurt."
Heero frowned. "You're damned right. There's no reason she should love me, and I couldn't live with her pity." He leaned down and picked up his bag. He didn't have time to stand out here and argue--
"There's no reason why those kids today should have told you the wishes of their hearts, either."
Heero pulled his duffel bag up over his shoulder and turned to go. "That's right. They're only going to get hurt when Santa doesn't bring them their gifts. And how can he bring them a new mother or?or?trips to Earth to find their parents?" Anger swept over him, hot and raging. He dropped his bag again as he reeled around.
"Their parents are dead!" His left arm pointed at the offending mall. "And this stupid myth about Santa Claus will only bring them more pain because they can't put the past behind them and move on."
"Like you can?"
Heero opened his mouth to retort, but nothing came out. He crossed his arms over his much leaner chest.
Duo took another step closer. "You don't know why she would love you because you can't lay the past to rest yourself. You can't understand why these kids will open their hearts to you when they're only going to get hurt." His tone softened a bit, or at least no longer sounded angry.
"But that's why they need people like Relena in their lives. So they don't end up, no offense here, buddy, like you. Afraid to tell the people you care about how you really feel."
Heero scowled at the ground. "You could have told me."
"I couldn't tell you. It was classified information; in fact, I wasn't supposed to bring you along today." Duo patted him on the shoulder and kept walking.
Heero turned to glare at his friend.
Duo paused and looked back. "The elf was supposed to get the list. I just made a slight modification. But I think it was worth it, don't you?"
Heero tore through his apartment, throwing his bag with the Santa suit on his bed before firing up his laptop from its suspend mode. His fingers flew over the keys, entering codes, and bypassing security locks with practiced ease.
"Scholtzberg case, here it is."
"Warning: IP trace in progress." A red, blinking box blared on screen.
"Shit." Heero found and killed the process on the node. If Preventer found him in these files, he was going to be answering to a very cranky Administrator.
There were tons of documents, reports, and affidavits. Pictures, testimony, video files? He wanted to go to her tonight if possible. He couldn't get through all of this in an hour or two. He slumped into his chair and pulled up a likely report, looking for information?
* * * * * *
Relena took the earrings out of her ears and sunk down onto the bed. Her feet hurt, her head hurt, and her heart never could get used to the pain. Every year, she'd hear similar stories from kids on different colonies, or on Earth. It didn't matter where they lived, their scars were the same. She needed a hot bath, but couldn't summon enough energy to move.
RING! RING! Relena squinted at her watch through the darkness. Had she really been asleep that long? RING! RING! Her hand fumbled over the surface of the nightstand to find the phone.
"Relena."
"Who...Wufei?"
"There's a shuttle waiting to launch as soon as you can get there. We have a hacker. It could be nothing, we just don't want to take chances. Go."
The line went dead. She tried to rub the sleep from her eyes. She stumbled out of her bed, and had a bit of trouble righting herself. She opened the door and strained to see her guards through her limited vision. "We have to go." Her voice sounded hoarse. The one to her right nodded, and quickly moved to her side. She leaned on him a bit and they led her out of the hotel, into the waiting limo, and to the Preventer shuttleport.
It was chilly when she got out to board the shuttle, the faux winter air slapped her face, and woke her up a bit. She realized she hadn't put on her shoes, and felt a little silly, but climbed the steps and entered the cabin. She buckled herself into her chair and remembered having the thought that she would be home in time for Christmas with Pagan, after all. And then she was out.
* * * * * *
Heero felt like his eyelids weighed a hundred pounds. He tried to raise his head, but his neck protested lifting his head plus two hundred pounds of eyelids. He glared at the time stamp on the monitor that read nine-thirty in the morning.
"Shit."
He had overslept. The Preventer groaned and stretched his cramped muscles. He needed a shower, and a shave, at the very least, and then it was off to go see Relena.
The hot water on his skin felt good, relief pounded into his body with its spray. The information he had gleaned from those reports proved Duo was correct. The Preventer whom Heero had thought caught Relena's interest back when they were dating was an undercover agent, asking her to get them information on Scholtzberg's committee dealings.
A married undercover agent.
He hopped out of the shower, toweled dry, and pulled on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. He glanced at his image in the mirror long enough to check he hadn't missed a spot when he shaved, and curse at his reflection for being an idiot.
"You are an emotional moron. You'd better hope she'll take you back."
He flipped on the television while he finished dressing, wanting to hear the latest news.
"?Minister is back on Earth today to spend the holiday with her extended family."
Heero paused in the middle of brushing his teeth just in time to see Relena's picture on screen in front of her estate.
"Dammit!" How was he supposed to get a shuttle flight to Earth three days before Christmas? It wasn't going to happen. Flights were booked solid, and he didn't have the kind of cash to buy a last minute fare.
"How could she leave? Why did she leave?" He ran both hands through his hair and tried to figure out a solution.
"I can hop one of the Preventer's freighters, or see if they have a shuttle scheduled to leave in the next day or two. Shit shit shit. If only I hadn't fallen asleep."
He slung the chair back and plopped down in front of the machine. He had to find a way to get to Earth.
The sooner the better.
* * * * * *
Relena tossed about in the bed. She didn't know why she couldn't sleep. She felt like she was still a child on Christmas Eve - even though there would be no presents under the tree aside from the ones already there the night before.
She closed her eyes and tried to fall back asleep. There was no reason a grown woman without children should be awake at four in the morning on Christmas Day. In fact, she usually slept in a bit...
Her eyes snapped open a while later. "Was that a noise?" She strained to hear if it would repeat itself. But the house was silent. She dozed back asleep again, waiting for Christmas morning to arrive.
An hour later
It was still too early. She just couldn't sleep. And lying in bed was making it worse. Five thirty was insane, but she could at least make herself some tea and toast. Her stomach rumbled beneath her gown as she stood up and pulled a robe on over it so she could go downstairs. She slipped silently through the darkened halls, but didn't want to trip down the actual steps. She flipped on the light and started to descend, but stopped not even halfway.
At the bottom of the stairs, in the last bit of the light from the upstairs hall, stood a worn and haggard looking Santa.
Five o'clock shadow peppered his face, instead of a beard, and it looked like he had soot on his red jacket and pants. His hat was missing, or at least it fell off when he stood up, revealing the familiar shock of chestnut hair.
"Heero?"
He stared up at her from below, looking like hell, but she knew she didn't look much better. It took an extra second to command her feet once she registered that he was really here. She practically flew down the steps only to have doubt creep in as she set foot in the living room. Why was he here?
"Relena?."
"What are you doing here?"
His eyes were red - probably from lack of sleep, and the expression on his face.... She glanced down and noted that this exhausted Santa had managed to bring along his sack of toys.
"You're a mess."
He nodded. "I wanted to see you when you were still on L2. But I just missed..."
"You wanted...to see me?"
"You left to go back to Earth, and with only three days until Christmas, I couldn't get a flight. I couldn't get a Preventer shuttle either. I had to ride freight. It took two days. I've never seen a slower vehicle in my life."
"But...why are you here?"
"I brought them." He waved at the bag of things at his feet. "Everything I could remember. The bat, the glove, Kelly's dance shoes. I can't bring Kerridan a mother or Jason a father, but I can teach him to play baseball so he can get on a team. They shouldn't... No one should end up like me."
"What are you talking abou--" She stopped when she realized what he was saying. "You were there."
He visibly swallowed, then nodded.
"You...played Santa for all those kids? But why? How?"
He frowned, but didn't look very angry - just tired. "It's a rather long, complicated story that will involve the deaths of two Preventer agents, may they rest in peace, but the short and the long of it is because I was meant to be." He looked up at the end of that sentence and met her gaze.
There was something there, in his eyes, something more than the obvious lack of sleep. She managed a small smile. "You heard my wish."
His shoulders sagged. "You never told me before."
"I did." She shook her head and tried to blink back the tears that were forming in her eyes. It wouldn't do to cry. "You just never listened."
"I was...afraid, before. But I'll listen now." He looked so earnest, so vulnerable. Like the wrong words would absolutely crush him.
"I..." She took a step forward and touched his arm. He, or maybe it was she, was shaking. "I love you."
"Still?" Heero asked in a whisper.
Relena nodded and lost the battle with her tears.
He pulled her against him; he smelled of aftershave and stale cigarettes, but she didn't care. She hugged him back and buried her face in his red Santa coat. He rested his head on her shoulder; his voice was low and husky when he spoke in her ear: "Then let me stay with you."
