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Family Ties	By : Deb Category: Gundam Wing/AC > Yaoi - Male/Male Views: 19194 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing/AC, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 125
- 126
- 127
I do have another couple of chapters of this finished, just waiting for them to come back from my beta. As soon as they do I'll post them up.

Enjoy!

“Family Ties”

January 2007 ShenLong

Chapter 126

Duo had been home at the mansion for all of four weeks when Trowa’s cast was finally taken off. Sally had left it on a little longer as the bones hadn’t knitted back together as firmly as she would have liked. The extra time would ensure that the ankle would be able to bear Trowa’s weight as he began to use it again.

Trowa was more than happy to have the cast off, at least with the cumbersome thing gone he could move around a lot more freely; and that meant he could escape his overly protective partner for a while.

Unfortunately, it meant Duo suffered more.

With Trowa unable to be found, the blonde turned his protective streak fully to Duo, and as the American was on bed rest he couldn’t escape the mother goose.

Tempers were starting to become very short in the Yuy-Maxwell home, Duo begging Heero to put a lock on their bedroom door so he could have some peace from Quatre. At first Heero had refused the request, but when Duo threatened to leave the mansion and have himself arrested for breaking his detention just to get some peace, Heero relented.

“It’s not that I don’t appreciate the guy and what he does,” Duo whined, “But he’s in here just about all day from sunrise to sunset, and later too.”

“I know,” Heero agreed.

“It’s getting to the point where I can’t even get out of bed to go take a piss without him shadowing me, wanting to practically carry me,” huffed Duo. “He’ll be wanting to shake the drops off next so I don’t strain myself.”

“Pardon?” Heero wasn’t quite sure he’d heard that right.

“You heard me,” Duo snapped.

“I’ll try to speak to him,” Heero soothed.

“I’m warning you, Heero, either he stops the fussing or I’m out of here.”

“Duo!”

“I’m serious, Heero. It’s okay for you, you can take off outside or something. I’m stuck here in this bed at his mercy.”

“Okay, okay! I’ll put a lock on the door today.”

“Thank you.”

True to his word, Heero went out and purchased a locking mechanism for the door and installed it. Duo had watched and assisted, sitting in a chair beside the door and passing over the various tools. Barney had been sitting on Duo’s shoulder and watching the proceedings with interest.

Miracle sat at Duo’s feet, her liquid eyes observing all that went on around her but refusing to leave Duo’s side. When Duo had returned, Miracle had been overjoyed. She’d barked, whined and whimpered, her tail wagging furiously as she did her best to give her beloved master a tongue bath. Instinctively she knew he was to be treated carefully and although she was excited, she remained gentle. Since then she had refused to be parted from her master if she could help it, just in case he disappeared on her again.

“All done,” Heero stated as he stood up and eased the kinks from his spine.

“Great!” Duo enthused as he took in the shiny new lock. Just then, Quatre came along the hallway.

“Duo! You shouldn’t be out of bed,” Quatre chastised. Spotting Heero, Quatre frowned. “Heero, you know Duo’s supposed to be on bed rest. What’s that?”

“Quatre, Duo is on bed rest I agree, but that means he’s not supposed to be walking around or things like that. He is allowed to get out of the bed and sit in a chair,” Heero growled. He was also getting a little on the annoyed side with Quatre. The blonde meant well, he knew that, but he didn’t appreciate being told what his husband was and wasn’t allowed to do; he was the one responsible for looking after Duo, not Quatre and when it came down to it, he thought he was doing a fairly good job of it.

Quatre looked a little hurt for a moment, but then his cheery demeanor returned. “Of course he is,” Quatre soothed. “What is that?” he asked again, staring pointedly at the new lock on the door.

“It’s a lock,” Heero stated in a tone that clearly questioned if Quatre was blind.

“I can see it’s a lock-”

“Then why ask the obvious?” Heero replied tartly.

Ignoring the snipe, Quatre continued. “Why do you need to have a lock on the door?”

“Why does anyone have a lock on their door, Quatre?” Duo questioned.

“To keep things safe, keep things in or out?”

“Exactly.”

“Surely you wouldn’t need such measures here? Has someone been trying to get in? If they...”

“Quatre, it’s okay, it’s nothing like what you’re thinking,” Duo interrupted.

“Then why?”

Heero gave his lover a look that clearly said: ‘Let’s see you explain this one.’

Duo gave his partner a returning look that said: ‘Just watch me,’ and returned his attention to Quatre. “The purpose for the lock, Quatre is so that Heero and I can lock the door when we need to, wouldn’t want anyone walking in on us when we’re... I’m napping and disturbing my sleep, now would we?”

Heero tried to hold the snicker and managed to turn it into a discreet cough. He’d known what Duo was about to say and if he had, no doubt that would have brought on a completely new lecture on the dangers of sex during pregnancy. Neither man was about to put their child at risk for the sake of satisfying their hormones, actually, they hadn’t been intimate at all since Duo’s disappearance.

‘Might be time to rectify that little oversight,’ Heero’s conscience told him.

“Ah, that’s not a bad idea,” Quatre conceded.

“I’m glad you agree,” replied Duo, his tone a touch smug and he gave his husband a satisfied look.

“Do you need anything, Duo?”

“I’m fine, Quatre. I think I just might take a bit of a nap now though,” Duo said with a purposeful tone.

“Okay, that would probably do you the world of good. Do you need a hand to get back in the bed?”

“Thanks but I have Heero here to help me.”

“I’ll leave you to your nap then. Oh, have you seen Trowa at all?”

“I think he was out in the garden doing his physiotherapy exercises,” Heero said.

“Thanks. I’ll catch you later then.” Quatre turned and walked off down the hallway.

Both Heero and Duo physically sagged in relief.

“Fuck off,” chirped Barney from Duo’s shoulder.

“Barney!”

* * *

With Duo being on house detention and Quatre and Trowa having to remain Earth side for Barton’s trial, Heero decided to take some well deserved time off too. Sally had already given him two weeks medical leave and once that was over, Heero had informed Une of his intention to take a further eight weeks off.

Heero had already used up two of those weeks when Trowa’s cast came off and quite frankly, he was starting to get rather short tempered with the blonde businessman. Since Trowa was now able to move around more freely, the blonde’s mothering instincts had turned more to Duo, and that meant that Heero also suffered – twice.

Not only did he become irritated at the blonde for taking over what was his role in looking after Duo, but he also had to suffer through Duo’s ranting and complaining about being smothered. When Duo suggested the lock on the door he’d been hesitant at first, mainly because he didn’t want to be locked out of his own room! But when Duo had insisted it was either a lock or he would leave and get arrested, Heero knew the situation had reached crisis point and gave in.

Actually, it would also work in his favor.

Heero couldn’t wait for Barton’s trial to commence, the sooner it did, the sooner it would be over and that meant Quatre and Trowa could return to L4. Once that happened peace would return to their lives. At least he hoped so.

Nurse Brown's cast would be coming off in another week, hers staying on longer than usual due to the severity of the break and the damage done to the nerves. Sally wasn’t taking any chances.

Heero figured that by the time he was due to go back to work, Nurse Brown would have had a good five weeks for the mobility to have returned and she should be back to normal function.

Keitaro was overjoyed to have both his fathers home again and constantly followed Heero around. Heero took as much of the child’s care on himself as he could, Keitaro spending some time with Duo in his room, or when Duo came down to sit and share a meal with all the other occupants, Duo would feed his son.

The child was almost walking now and Heero was finding it exhausting keeping up with him at times. Keitaro would grasp hold of anything he could and pull himself up. Once he had his balance, he would be off, and using the furniture to keep his balance he would move about a room at lightning speed.

‘Looked like he got his energy from Duo,’ Heero thought wryly.

The child’s vocabulary was improving too. He could speak several single words quite fluently. ‘Dada’ had been mastered first followed by ‘Nanny’; and much to everyone’s amusement, ‘Miwacle’ had followed.

It didn’t matter that Keitaro couldn’t pronounce the name properly, Miracle still knew it and came as soon as she heard it called out.

Duo only hoped that Barney would keep his beak shut around the child.

* * *

Barton’s trial was hovering on the horizon and everyone was nervous about it. Several of his assistants from the Satellite had already faced the courts and been convicted. Their sentences had been many and varied. The majority of the members of Barton's armies that had landed on Earth had also been through the justice system and whilst some were given jail time, many others were ordered to pay their dues by cleaning up the mess left from the Firecell; something akin to ‘community service’ from previous times.

It worked well for all concerned; the men who had been betrayed by Barton and were now well aware of that fact avoided going to jail and the governments had a willing ‘army’ to assist in the clean up from the aftermath of a madman’s desire.

Barton had recovered well from his surgery, enough so that he had been transferred from the Preventer hospital to the jail at the local Military base where he would finish his recuperation to stand trial.

All the agents had given their statements and the prosecution was more than convinced they wouldn’t be needed to front the court to give verbal evidence; but the agents were all asked to remain available just in case the improbable should raise its head.

Duo was the only one that wouldn’t be able to attend court in the physical sense as his pregnancy was advancing and his belly growing. Not only that, but he was under house detention as well so if the court wanted him to give verbal evidence it would have to be done via video link.

Sally had called around weekly as promised to do her checks on Duo and make sure all was well with both ‘mother’ and baby. She was pleased with both and happy that Duo was heeding her ‘orders’ to remain on bed rest, although he was permitted to move around a little.

Keeping Duo completely confined to the bed just wasn’t going to happen, Sally knew that, but she had to try. It had worked for all of a week, then Duo had begun to complain, whine and moan about the unfairness of it all. He didn’t want to be confined to his bedroom, to not be able to see and hear all that was going on. He knew he couldn’t move around too much, not if he wanted to remain in good health and deliver a healthy baby too, but he couldn’t see why he had to remain flat on his back either.

The steady stream of complaints began to wear on Heero’s patience, but he was determined not to give in. When Duo changed tactics and began to constantly need him – for trivial things – Heero got wise but couldn’t do anything about it. He daren’t not respond to Duo’s calling for him just in case it was something important.

By the time Sally came for Duo’s third check up, Heero was almost at his wits end and about to strangle his lover with his braid. It was mutually agreed (mainly for Heero’s sanity, not to mention his physical state – running up and down those stairs can get taxing after a while regardless of how fit he was.), that Duo would be allowed to travel from the bedroom to the lower floor where he would be required to remain seated or resting on the couch. That seemed to appease Duo and gave Heero a sense of relief. Now all he had to do was carry his husband down or up the stairs just once each way – far easier than the marathons he was currently doing.

“How is the child doing today?” Duo asked as Sally maneuvered the sound head across his abdomen.

“Very well,” Sally replied and pushed a few buttons on the machine. “I’ll have some more pictures for you to put in your album in just a minute.”

“Thanks.” Duo’s face was beaming as he craned his neck to try and see the screen.

Noting what the man was up to, Sally turned the screen slightly across to make it easier for him to see. She froze the picture and grabbed her pen from her pocket. “If you look carefully, you can see the outline of the baby here. This is the head,” Sally traced the outline of the shadows on the screen a she explained to the two men what was what in regards to the picture. “This is the spine and here we can see the legs...”

Heero and Duo both watched intently as Sally pointed out the various 'parts'. The child was curled around itself and looked peaceful.

“You know, it doesn't matter how many times I've seen this on a screen it still gives me goosebumps,” Sally whispered.

“I know exactly what you mean,” Duo replied. “It makes me shiver when I look at the pictures. It kinda leaves you in awe. To know that's a part of me, growing inside me...”

“It is remarkable what the human body is capable of,” said Heero softly, his eyes a little on the bright side as he gazed at his child on the screen.

“It certainly is, and even more so in this case,” came Sally's quiet voice. She turned back to the machine keyboard and pushed a few more buttons. “Your baby is roughly four hundred and twenty grams in weight and twenty-five centimeters long, give or take a centimeter. It is pretty much fully formed now, just a few smaller things to finish developing and obviously a lot more weight to put on.”

“So do you, Duo,” Heero teased.

“Don't remind me,” Duo huffed. “I'd forgotten just how much I felt like a beached whale when carrying Keitaro.”

“Well, I'm sorry to say, but you will most definitely be putting on weight, Duo,” laughed Sally. “Now, I want to take a look around the rest of your abdomen, make sure that your other organs are still coping okay with the lack of room as it's only going to get worse.”

“Tell me about it,” Duo muttered. “It's already starting to get a little on the uncomfortable side.”

Ignoring the complaint, Sally moved the sound head around, checking what she could of Duo's other internal organs and satisfied that so far all was okay with them. “That's it for today,” she said as she removed the sound head and gently wiped Duo's abdomen of the gel. Replacing the sound head in its holder, she pushed another couple of buttons on the machine and waited for the pictures to be printed out. Once they were she handed them over to the parents to be. “There you go,” she said and then left them to look at their child whilst she finished shutting down the ultra sound machine.

“I'll put them in the album later,” Duo said with a catch in his voice. No matter how many times he looked at the pictures, he was still moved.

“Our baby,” whispered Heero and pressed a kiss to Duo's forehead.

“Yeah, our second precious gift.”

* * *

The morning of Barton’s trial arrived, the weather overcast and promising rain later in the day. Somehow it seemed fitting that the gray skies should be hovering.

Everyone in the mansion was in a somber mood, not just the weather affecting them, but also the thought of what was to take place.

Barton’s trial was very high profile and the ESUN had decided on an open court so any member of the public could attend, and knowing the response would be overwhelming, they had also decided to broadcast the entire thing. The people of the Earth and Colonies were owed at least that much after what Barton had put them through.

The charges against Barton were a few more than the public were aware of. The main charge and the one the public knew of was for conspiring to bring about the disruption of the peace. Aside from that charge, Barton was also facing charges for the release of a malicious program with the intent to take over the ESUN, the murders of many civilians through the action of the release of said malicious program, kidnapping, brainwashing, theft of government funds, the storing and procurement of weapons and the building and using of mobile suits to name a few.

With all the evidence that had been accumulated against him, it wasn’t a case of if the man was guilty, it was just what sentence the justice system would hand down to him for the crimes.

Senators Wainright and Richards had stood trial the previous day for their part in the conspiracy, having been charged with siphoning off funds meant for government projects and falsifying records. Both men had pleaded guilty and received sentences of twenty years each for their crimes.

Professor Hawkins had made a full recovery from his injuries and whilst he’d been charged with creating the Firecell program, the charges against him were dismissed given the circumstances.

Duo had been highly amused to learn that Preventer had offered the professor a job within their technological section once the charges had been dropped – and the professor had accepted. Despite the professor’s best intentions with his work there would always be the risk of things ending up in the wrong hands. With him working for the Preventer organization, that problem was lessened considerably.

With the majority of Barton’s men having been convicted and now serving their sentences, it was time for the instigator of it all to face up to his peers and be held accountable.

With breakfast out of the way, Heero bathed Keitaro and dressed the child in a pair of jeans and long sleeved shirt.

“Dada,” Keitaro said with his hands and arms stretched out for his father to tug the sleeves of the shirt down.

“Are you going to be a good boy for your daddy today, Keitaro?” Heero asked as he sat the child up and did his best to tuck the back of the shirt into Keitaro's jeans.

“Dada,” squealed the child again, a wide grin on his face.

Heero gave his son a soft smile in return and ruffled the small mop of hair. “Come on, sunshine, time to put you in your playpen so I can sort your other father out.” Picking the child up, Heero carried his son down to the lounge room where everyone was starting to congregate.

Keitaro was placed in his playpen with several toys to keep him occupied. Heero noted that Duo was lying comfortably on the couch, pillows propped up behind him. Trowa and Quatre were seated in two armchairs side by side, Nurse Brown had entered the room and took up residence in the chair by the playpen. Miracle was lying beside the couch, one eye closed, the other half open and fixed firmly on her master. Barney was sitting in his cage and preening his feathers.

Picking his way across the room, Heero sat himself down on the couch by his lover's hip, Duo's hand immediately searching for and finding his, settling itself comfortably within Heero's and drawing strength from his partner.

The television droned on in the background, the trial not having started yet. “You okay?” Heero asked, the touch of concern in his voice.

“I'm fine,” Duo sighed, “But I'll be a whole lot better once that maniac is found guilty and locked away.”

Heero knew exactly what his lover meant. Until Barton was safely locked away somewhere neither one of them could breathe easy for fear of him trying something else. “Wufei didn't make it here?”

“No, he called earlier and said he would watch the trial with Sally at Headquarters,” replied Duo.

“It's starting,” Quatre told them and both men fell quiet their attention focused solely on the television screen.

*

The court room was jam packed, the crowds spilling out onto the street as they waited to see the result of Barton's trial.

Barton shuffled into the court room wearing a bright orange jump suit, his wrists cuffed and a chain running from those bound wrists to his ankles which also bore shackles. He looked a lot less intimidating now than when the agents had confronted him on the Satellite.

The officers escorted him to the ‘dock’ and assisted him to climb up the two steps. Once he was standing there, the officers took up residence on either side, their guns glinting in their holsters under the artificial light of the room.

“All rise,” called the bailiff as the door to the side of him opened and three judges walked into the court room.

Duo gave a low whistle. “Shit, he gets three, I only got one.”

“And that was one too many,” whispered Heero as he squeezed his lover’s hand.

Duo’s eyes softened and he gave his husband a warm smile.

“This court is now in session. Judges Carmichael, Pinkerton and Fairfield presiding,” the bailiff announced.

The judges took their seats, the remainder of the court room following suit. The judge in the middle, who seemed to be the one in charge, picked up the sheaf of papers before him and glanced at them. Raising his eyes, he looked at the two lawyers first, then across to the bailiff.

“What are the charges?” he questioned.

Stepping forward, the bailiff held his own paperwork up so he could read and began to reel off the list of charges against Barton, beginning with the serious charge of intent to take over the ESUN and run the Colonies and Earth with himself as the head and finishing with the lesser charges of deprivation of liberty.

“That’s quite a number of charges,” the judge declared.

The entire court room had fallen completely silent, stunned by the sheer number of charges and the man’s intentions.

“Who is the council for the prosecution?”

“I am, your honors. Martin Jones.” The lawyer to the left of the judges stood up and made the introduction.

“And the defense?”

“David Thussell, your honors.” The defense lawyer looked anything but happy.

Judge Carmichael looked to where Barton sat, a dark scowl on his face. “Will the accused please stand?”

Barton shuffled to his feet and glared defiantly at the judges.

“Are you aware of the charges brought against you?” Carmichael asked.

“Yes,” replied Barton.

“Do you understand the charges brought against you?”

“Yes.”

“How do you plead?”

“Not guilty to all charges,” Barton spat.

A ripple passed through the court room, Carmichael banging his gavel down hard to restore order.

Once the silence was restored, Carmichael looked Barton square in the eye as he said; “Then let the trial begin.”

~ * ~

tbc...
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Family Ties