Broken Glass Ch 1

[Cleolette]

Broken Glass Chapter 1 - Life as it remains for now By Cleolette Author's Notes: Sorry for making ya'll wait so long. I have no muse, just sudden urges to write about a line or two. This one comes at you after being in the notebook a good week. (no, there are no other chapters in the notebook) **** Two Weeks Later
Relena typed away at her keyboard. She talked as she went, "This case should be no problem, our client has a good chance."

"Yeah, but you have to be prepared for anything, Rel, even after all this time you are way too optimistic about things," Dorothy snagged a peppermint from the candy dish.

"I think I'm ready for whatever they throw at me, but if you want to help, you could read over my notes and offer me some advice in return for all that candy you always steal from me." Relena playfully chided and stood, allowing Dorothy to sit at her desk and read over what she had written.

Dorothy sat and scrolled over the notes. "You don't say that to your clients," She protested. Relena grinned at her partner. 'Who would have thought we'd work so well together,' she mused.

Relena and Dorothy had founded the private practice after Relena quit her old job at a giant firm. Relena was looking for something more personal and meaningful following her separation from Heero, and Dorothy had just passed her bar exam. Things had come together, and Catalonia & Yuy was born, currently employing 9 people.

"Clients don't have a habit of eating at least 5 peppermints from my bowl everyday," Relena kidded. In reality, the candy bowl was just Dorothy's excuse to come in and procrastinate. "Anything pop out at you?"

Relena liked Dorothy's opinion because of the way Dorothy's mind worked. Dorothy won most of her cases because she expected even the most obscure attacks from the opposing lawyer. "After all," she had once said to Relena, "It's how I would beat myself."

"I don't think you've thoroughly protected your client's DUI in 190."

"Dorothy! That's over ten years ago!"

"Dirt is dirt, Relena. Anything that can call into question your client's responsibility and integrity is dangerous. Who's the prosecutor?"

"Milligan, I think," Relena glanced at the ceiling and bit her finger, "Yeah, Milligan."

"Oh, the you know you'll win. Even if your client was seen by and eyewitness pulling the trigger, you could prove his innocence agains competition like that." Dorothy waved her hand in the air as she spoke, "This one is already won."

"Thank you for the confidence. I will try to look into more angles with the DUI. Milligan is somewhat enamored with bringing up traffic offenses."

"It's not even fun to win against that guy!" Dorothy noticed something protruding from a stack of payroll forms and forgot her rant against incompetent lawyers. "What's this?"

Dorothy tugged a picture out from underneath the paper. "Oh!" Relena grabbed the picture, "I forgot about this!"

Dorothy took the picture from Relena's hand, "Let me see it...Who is this? They look so damn happy. Just looking at this, I'd say this was a relative Heero's. Looks just like him, only small and cute and childlike," Dorothy shook her head, "I'm sorry."

"You know I'm over that," Relena smiled, remembering when the mention of Heero's name had sent her into a fit of crying or one of ranting, "Judging by the age of the picture, I think it might just be Heero."

"She has the same eyes. This woman must be his mom or something. I know the guy wasn't Asian, with those big blue eyes and-"

"Don't even say it, Dorothy." Relena's face flushed.

"God, you're turning red and I haven't said anything." Dorothy grinned malevolently, "I was just going to say that Asian men are-"

"Please, please, please don't start recounting your sexual conquests from college again." Relena sighed and placed her head in her hands.

"Actually, it's a well known fact that Asian men are typically smaller." Dorothy continued to grin, enjoying watching Relena turn into a tomato.

"You do realize that he is millions of miles away and I'm going to be thinking about this all day long." Relena muttered.

Dorothy looked at Relena, "Tell me truthfully, when was the last time you had sex with a human being?"

"Just after the baby was born, right before it got bad between us..." Relena squeaked it out, then broke down into giggles, "I'm hopeless, aren't I?"

"Extremely," Dorothy fell into Relena's office chair with her arms crossed and a somewhat uncharacteristic stunned look on her face.

"I don't see you with a guy every night." Relena took her turn to smirk, making her own guesses at why.

"Listen, he's been so busy with business..." Dorothy stopped, realizing she'd just confirmed Relena's suspicions.

"Business?" Relena took hold of the new information that had been accidentally imparted to her, "I think he's sitting in his office upholding his little empire joylessly, all the while wishing away the days until he sees his love again...naked." Relena took her own turn to grin.

"About this picture," Dorothy held it up purposefully, "Do you think the woman is alive?"

"Maybe, Heero never really said anything about his childhood before he lived on the streets." Relena sighed as they dropped the subject of each other's sex lives, "This is probably his only connection to his real family he has."

"If you knew something like a name or a date or anything, you could find her by going through birth records from the time."

"His first name is Takeshi..."

"It's a start." Dorothy set down the picture, "I'll start in what seems to be the best place, births in the L1 cluster from about 179-181."

"Ok..." Relena stared into the picture, hoping to get clues from it. She slumped into the chair Dorothy had just vacated, trying to clear from her mind the images Dorothy's teasing had brought up. Having no success clearing her mind of the sweating, lusty, beautiful Heero, she decided to e-mail him. She grabbed the business card Heero had given her and set out to write her first correspondence to him.

"Heero,
I have found myself thinking about you today. I must confess
that I miss you terribly. I worry constantly for your safety
and wish I could see you. However, I understand that you must
have your reasons for doing what you are doing. Not that I
have any clue as to what they are, since I am no psychic, and
if I may add, you have not seen fit to tell me of such.

How are you? I know that you are fighting. The name "Terror
Tanaka" fell on my ears again this last week following that
attack on the Preventer base in L4. It makes me sad to think
of you killing again. You never liked it at call.

I should stop now...

****

"...before I start accusing you without knowing your side of
the coin. If this has offended you and made you hate me, skip
up and stop after "I understand you have your reasons" and
forget the rest,

Love,
Relena"

Heero Yuy smirked at the total disunity of Relena's email. The letter had started with a tone not unlike her "Let's have crazy, mind-blowing sex when you get home" messages she used to send him when he was at work. Then, she had plunged into a lecture, one of her favorite pastimes, but usually directed towards the way he didn't dress properly for such and such, or was driving well over the posted speed limit. What she had addressed this time was something much more serious, but he could still hear her in his mind tell him how his tie really didn't go well with his shirt in that overbearing tone he had always found cute.

The last part was something Heero really couldn't place, since it asked him to disregard the lecture that hadn't offended him in the slightest, only made him aware some correction was necessary. He set out to fix that.

"Relena,
I was pleased to receive your letter. I also miss you and
look forward to seeing you again. My next vacation comes in
about a month.

I do not hate you and have no idea why you thought I would.
Simple to clarify, I have not killed a single person since
taking on my post here. I hope that brings you comfort.

My reasons for being here are the one thing I cannot tell you
now. If I thought this mode of communication were completely
secure, I might tell you. Do not hate me for it.

Love,
Heero"

"What you up to Takeshi?' Heero's roommate Alex Bordelon plopped onto the nearby bunk in their room.

"Ordering new socks," Heero continued what he had actually been doing before Relena's email had distracted him.

"Socks?" Alex was confused.

"At four credits a pair, how would I say no?" Heero finished his order.

"Four cred? What are they made of, latex? paper?" Alex popped up behind him.

"High quality Egyptian cotton grown on WinnerCorp plantations." Heero said, monotone.

"How the hell are you getting those for four cred a pair?"

"I have connections."

A passing officer poked his head into the room, "Is Tanaka talking about his cheap socks again?"

"Does he talk of them often?" asked Alex, puzzled. A new recruit, Alex had been Heero's roommate for about 5 days.

"Hell, why do you think I changed roommates? The only thing he would ever talk to me about was the market value of socks! He buys them in bulk and makes a killing selling them at six credits."

"Six cred is good for Sandrock Socks."

"Not as good as four. Hey, Tanaka, wake up, lazy ass."

Alex looked over at Heero, who was leaning back in the chair with his eyes closed. "He always does that."

The guy shrugged, "It's annoying, isn't it?"

****

Here's hoping chapter two will follow soon, despite my utter lack of idea as to what it will be about. Just so you know, I've got several parts of the story planned out. Specifically what will happen near the end, as well as what will probably end up being the middle. Several more of our favorite characters should be appearing soon. This chapter we got Dorothy, next chapter Quatre may make a cameo in one way or another. Expect all of our boys to show up. (maybe not Milliardo though,)

But, I ramble. Please review and critic.

-Cleolette