Tears of Despair
Chapter 9: Partner Switch?
By: Liewe
Standard disclaimer’s apply, I only own LeFave, Damien and Christof
please ask first, and the rest of the crew belong to Sunrise and Bandai,
this is not for commercial gain…
AN: I promise this will and is 3xMU there’s just a few bumps in the road
that’s all…
~*~*~*~*~
Iria Winner run a hand through her tousled and graying hair as she stared
blankly at the screen before her. That man LeFave, the same man who
had called for her services all those years ago, had contacted her again,
asking for something she was not quite prepared to give. When he
had asked her to complete those tasks or he would have allowed Quatre to
discover the true reason Dorothy died she had not been ready to loose his
love. Now though everything had changed. She couldn’t send
someone to their death again.
“The DNA matches,” Iria whispered, tears of relief in her eyes,
accompanied by tears of pain. “She is of the Winner line, but
whether it matches Christof and Damien?” Iria shook her head, a long
fingered hand moving to ease the wrinkles, which had taken, up residence
on her once smooth face.
She jerked as the com unit suddenly sprang to life, the shrill tone
bringing her mind back to the present as she tiredly pushed the receive
button leaning back in her overstuffed leather chair.
“Winner,” her tired voice almost cracked over the simple name.
“Iria,” came the gentle reply as the kind face of the youngest to bear
the Winner name appeared in the small screen.
“Yes?”
“Have you narrowed done the search for Ariane’s true name?”
“Yes, I have begun to do, but I’m no where near halfway finished,” Iria
said softly.
“Iria, you’re hiding something?” Quatre said, softly.
“Not indefinitely,” Iria replied, with a glint of past mischief in her
eyes.
“Iria?”
“Don’t worry about me Quatre, in time all will be known,” Iria swiftly
replied, avoiding the subject and silently in her heart wishing that she
had been stronger to tell him the truth years ago.
~*~*~*~*~
Years had passed since she had become a nurse, and the war had
ended. Kalie Catalonia watched over the sleeping figure of
Catherine Winner, the new wife of the man her sister had loved.
Could she tell all those sordid secrets to the young woman? Could she
break the bubble of security which love had given the mother-to-be?
“How are you feeling,” she gently asked, the waking woman, a hand pushing
back stray strands of her platinum hair.
“Better,” was the croaked reply, as the heavily pregnant patient
struggled to sit upright.
“Let me help you,” Kalie gently offered, a hidden strength allowing her
to help the other woman.
“You look a lot like someone I knew,” Cathy said softly.
“My name is Kalie Catalonia,” was the only response Kalie gave, her head
hung in shame, and despair.
“Was Dorothy Catalonia a relation of yours?”
“She was my sister,” Kalie replied. “She loved Quatre so much, the
least I can do is care for you, because she only ever wanted to see him
happy. And I don’t particularly trust anyone at the Winner compound
to do the same!”
“You’re the reason I couldn’t go home?”
“Not exactly,” was the mysterious reply.
“Care to explain,” Catherine probed with an understanding smile, her eyes
holding a hidden sense of fear as she sensed the depth of the
betrayal.
“One day you’ll know, but for now it is of no importance,” Kalie replied
softly, her violet eyes hooded.
~*~*~*~*~
“I’m staying with you,” Ariane announced softly, her eyes hooded as she
continued to keep her death grip on Wufei’s arm. Her blue gray eyes
looked to the floor, seemingly examining the intricate patterns in the
marble, which served as the floor in the main lobby.
Wufei could feel the glare leveled at him from two separate
directions. He ignored their heated gazes as he glanced at the
nymph clinging to his arm. She looked so defenseless, so in need of
protection that his honor would not allow him to deny her request, or
rather order.
“Here then,” Wufei grunted as he managed to hand her his leather
jacket. “The wind is icy.”
“Wouldn’t it be best for Ariane to stay with someone else,” Trowa’s voice
cut through the atmosphere of the lobby.
“He’s right Wufei,” Sally broke in, leaning against the wall, her
short-cropped hair brushing her cheeks.
“I don’t care what you think is right, Wufei is the only person I know
from your group. I feel safer in his presence, and if you wish for
my cooperation then you will not try and force me into anything. I know
what it is best for myself,” Ariane said softly, her voice deadly in its
even tone.
Trowa looked stricken for the barest fraction of a second before his
impassive mask slipped back into place.
An image flashed in Ariane’s mind, and her grip tightened on Wufei’s arm
as the world spun for a moment before once more righting itself.
She had seen that look before, and those eyes, so emotionless, and full
of despair. They were familiar.
“We need to meet back here at dawn,” Wufei’s terse voice interjected,
breaking Ariane free from the spell of the half-unearthed memory.
“Yes, we do,” Sally replied thoughtfully, her blue eyes taking in the
scene as she realized that for tonight, Wufei and this woman needed each
other. And maybe for more time beyond that, but his heart still
belonged to her, there was no uncertainties that he would not return to
her arms if she made the first move to accept him back into her
life. “Trowa, I have a spare couch in my apartment if you’re
interested.”
Trowa looked back and forth between the woman he had known since the war
and the one he had pledged his heart too. He performed the barest
fraction of a nod before walking off to his motorcycle, his duffel slung
over his shoulder as he waited for Sally to join him.
“See you both tomorrow,” Sally said softly, a hint of sorrow insinuating
itself into her voice no matter how hard she tried to convince herself
that she hadn’t lost the only man to ever make her feel complete.
“Goodnight,” Ariane replied sweetly as Wufei began to drag her off in the
opposite direction, her long platinum hair trailing behind her.
~*~*~*~*~
Quatre sat; his legs crossed as he scanned through the documents Auda had
given him, the ones, which Cathy had been coming to give him.
“Scherezade Winner, I’ve found you at last,” Quatre whispered his eyes
wide with surprise.
“Sir?”
“Oh sorry Auda, I was speaking to myself,” Quatre said with an apologetic
smile as his fingers moved to the com-unit it was time he spoke to his
wife. He jumped in surprise as the com-unit suddenly burst to life before
he had a chance to activate it.
“Mr. Winner?” A strange mechanical voice asked, the screen remaining
blank.
“Yes? What can I do for you? Who are you?”
“A friend, you’re wife is here, with us. Among friends.” The
mechanical voice said again, the words pouring forth seemingly without
any human guidance.
“May, I please speak to her then?” Quatre asked worriedly, his pale skin
turning paler with worry, fear rising in his heart.
“One moment please,” the same voice replied.
“Quatre,” asked Catherine’s tired voice as a hazy picture came into view,
and Quatre could only gasp at her surroundings.
“Where are you,” he asked urgently, rage boiling in his heart.
“She’s safe, I won’t let any harm come to her,” another voice
interjected, the nurse from the hospital, Quatre identified off
handedly. “My sister loved you, Mr. Winner, I could never let what
she so wished to see be harmed. She wanted you happy above all,
your wife is safe and she will remain that way. There are some who
would not be above kidnapping her, and in her pregnant state attackers
could be swiftly away with her.”
“Quatre, don’t worry, I trust Kalie,” Catherine said softly before her
voice broke away and the picture dissolved once more.
He sat with his head in his hands, the papers that had given him such joy
lying scattered on the floor as he wept in abject sorrow. Every
time happiness was within his grasp it managed to dart away, would it be
the same this time? Would he loose her too?
“Quatre?” Iria’s tired voice asked as she sidled into the room, her face
turning pale as she witness his open sorrow.
“Yes?” Came the defeated reply as Quatre lifted swollen and tear filled
eyes to view his closest sibling, his elder sister and confidante.
“That background check is complete,” was the simple statement as Iria
knelt next to him, her long fine boned fingers gently grasping the
forgotten documents. “And I see you have been successful in your
search.” She said again, but this time, her voice gained a hard edge as
she remembered the laughing smile of the woman in question. “Why
are you so sad?”
“Something’s happened to Cathy, I don’t want to loose her too Iria, I
just can’t,” Quatre whispered before collapsing into Iria’s waiting
arms.
LeFave, Iria thought, biting back the boiling tide of fury, which
threatened to overwhelm her. “Shh, it’ll be all right,” Iria,
crooned.
Rashid poked his head in the door to find Iria gently rocking the young
master back in forth while whispering nonsense words to ease his state of
mind. A tender smile graced the old warriors lips as he drew away
from the door and the scene of sibling bonding. He knew in the
depths of his heart, that all Iria had ever done had been in Quatre’s
best interest, he knew of that night when all hell had broken loose and
he had watched her tear herself apart in guilt and shame.
~*~*~*~*~
A scream broke through the still night air, and Wufei sat up, his senses
already on full alert. His onyx hair hung about his face as he rose
from the plush sofa, the moonlight reflecting of the bronzed skin of his
torso. He let out a string of curses as his toe made contact with
the corner of the wall as he hopped along to his room. The image of
a shivering blonde waif in his mind as he grumbled beneath his
breath.
The young waif in question sat up in the bed, her ivory skin in deep
contrast with the navy sheets. The sheet fell from her sweating
body as the remnants of the fear, which had awoken her continued to
travel through her slight form. She snuggled into the offered
solace of Wufei’s arms, her eyes wide with fright as she buried her head
in the crook of a bronzed shoulder. Her bandaged hands clinging to
broad shoulders trying to take all available comfort from the scene she
had just relived in her mind.
“Shh,” Wufei crooned in an uncharacteristic show of gentleness and
kindness as he rocked the shaking woman back and forth in his arms.
Her sobs shook her slight frame as she burrowed further into his
arms. He was shocked at such emotions, and confused.
“I was falling, and it was so far,” she croaked through clenched teeth,
blood soaking through the once pristine bandages.
“You’re safe now, it was only a dream,” Wufei answered again, berating
himself mentally for such behavior. He was a warrior was he not?
And she was only a weakling woman, right?
“It felt so real, like a memory,” Ariane continued.
“Can you remember anymore?”
“No, and I’m not even sure that was a memory and not some quandary of my
mind,” Ariane said with a sigh as she began to relax against his naked
chest.
“Believe in your instincts, Ariane, and believe in me. I promise I
won’t let anything hurt you if I can help it,” Wufei said softly, his
form hidden by the shadows.
“I believe in you,” she whispered in reply, “thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” was the soft reply.
“Stay with me,” Ariane pleaded, her voice quaking over the short
words.
