A Glimpse Of What Could Have Been: Chapter 3

*Disclaimer* I DO NOT OWN GUNDAM WING OR ANY OF ITS CHARACTER!! I don't own the movie, The Family Man either, which is where I got the idea for this fic.

*Warnings* ...Um...profanity? Not a lot, but some. There aren't really any warnings, I guess.

Later that day, Heero sat reading the newspaper in one of the palace's many living rooms, anxiously awaiting the arrival of Relena's guests. He had managed to avoid seeing anyone all morning, so that was a plus. However, he had no idea who these people were that were coming, and most likely he was supposed to know them well. Just as he was thinking this, the doorbell chimed overhead. Heero saw Pagan, who was remarkably still alive and well, rush by to play his part as butler and let the guests in. Cringing, Heero slouched lower in his seat. He saw Relena run by the entrance, pause, and come back to look at him.

"Come on, honey," she said, gesturing with her hand. "Someone's here." Reluctantly, Heero rose and followed her out the door to the hallway. As soon as he saw who it was that had arrived, he could have kicked himself. Duh, of course! Who else would Relena invite to a Thanksgiving dinner other then the people closest to her? Heero relaxed somewhat as Zechs enveloped Relena in a hug. Noin did the same and the two turned to Heero who tried to smile, though he was sure it looked as uncertain as he felt. He had no idea how he was supposed to act around these two; he hadn't seen them in years either. The smile seemed to be enough for Zechs, but Noin insisted on the whole hugging thing. The reunion was soon broken as other younger voices were heard. Heero cringed. Of course, everyone would have kids by now. In walked two kids. The older one, a boy, was carrying another little boy, who looked to be about three, and beside him walked his obviously younger sister.

"Justin!" Relena cried, taking the toddler from the older boy's arms. "You're growing up so fast!" she cooed in baby talk, and then wrapped her free arm around the older boy. "Hey Mike, how are you?" Mike smiled.

"I'm good, Aunt Relena. Enjoying the five days off from school."

"I bet. And you Crystal?" Relena asked, turning to the younger girl.

"I don't wanna go back!" she cried. "I hate fourth grade! It is SOOO much harder than third!" Relena chuckled.

"Well come in, everybody. The others should be here soon. We can wait for them in the entrance room." Relena led the group to the said room, and then left quickly to tell the servants to start serving drinks. That left Heero alone with them, and he was uncomfortable with the silence.

"So Heero," Zechs spoke up. "How's your job going?" Heero blinked. Shit, he didn't even know what his job WAS!

"Uh, it's going fine. No problems," he answered.

"That's good. We're thinking of moving back to Mars as Preventor agents. Now that the kids are old enough to handle it, I think it would be a good experience," Zechs said. He settled back into the couch. "Noin doesn't agree with me," he went on, casting a glance at his wife who glared at him.

"Relena wouldn't like it either. She wouldn't get to see you as much," Heero answered automatically. He knew it would be true. Zechs nodded.

"I know. We haven't decided yet." The doorbell went off again, and soon Wufei and Sally came in with their children. Heero watched as his own two oldest came running in before leading the older three of Wufei's four kids out the door, undoubtedly to a rec. room somewhere. He found it funny that Wufei's fist two kids were girls, and twins at that. They looked younger than his set of twins, but he wasn't sure. Their other two were boys.

After Wufei, Trowa arrived with- Heero blinked- Dorothy?! A very pregnant Dorothy at that. They had two small children of their own so far, a boy and a girl. They probably hadn't been married long. Maybe that had something to do with the reason that Heero had never gotten the invitation to QUATRE and Dorothy's wedding; she'd married Trowa instead. The doorbell rang again, which meant it was either Duo or Quatre. Heero guessed it was Quatre, because he was always punctual. Therefore, he was a little surprised to see Duo walk in with his family. He immediately relaxed though, when he recognized all the faces in the family. Thank God, finally some people he knew. Duo and Hilde had the most children out of all of them. As of now, they had five, but Heero knew Hilde was pregnant with another, though it wasn't quite noticeable yet. He wasn't sure if they had told anyone in this life yet though, so he kept his mouth shut. Glancing around, he noticed how many kids there were just in the room, not counting the ones that had gone to the rec. room. He cringed inwardly, knowing that three of them were his. No sooner had he thought this, when another miniature, VERY miniature, Heero dashed into the room. Heero blinked as the boy who looked just like he did, except with lighter hair, ran up to him, hugged his leg, then rushed off again, this time with Dan in tow from the Maxwell's. Okaaaay...make that FOUR of them were his. That one must have been Josh, so now he just had to find out what Angie's twin was named. Josh looked to be about the same age as Dan. The three older Maxwells, one girl and two boys who all sported long braids hanging down their backs, followed the two younger boys out, leaving two-year-old Cindy with their mother.

(A/N: IF YOU'RE CONFUSED ABOUT ALL THE KIDS, DON'T WORRY! JUST READ THE END OF THE NEXT CHAPTER WHEN IT COMES OUT!)

The adults sat around talking for a while, while the younger kids sat and played on the floor. Different conversations were going on at the same time, so Heero just kind of listened to them all. Next to him, he heard Hilde ask Trowa if Cathy was going to be able to make it. Heero squinted his eyes a little. Who was Cathy? The name sounded familiar...oh yeah! Trowa's sister, or surrogate sister. He didn't really think they were related, but who knew?

"She's coming with Quatre," Trowa replied, taking a sip from his glass. Heero's eyes widened. Quatre? What the heck? He really didn't know anything about this life. The doorbell rang again, and Heero figured it had to be Quatre, because he was the only one not there. He wasn't wrong.

A little while after Quatre and Cathy arrived, with no kids and, Heero noticed, no wedding rings on their fingers, the men, minus Zechs who'd run over to Preventor HQ to pick up some document, left the women to go play pool. As the group trudged down the hallway, Heero stuck close to Duo, the only one he felt he actually knew. He figured he'd keep quiet for a while and see if he could figure out some things about this life. It was quiet as the group picked teams, Heero and Trowa vs. the other three, and got their sticks ready. Then Duo started talking.

"So Trowa," he said, aiming the cue ball for the break. "I see you've been busy lately." He hit the ball to the triangle formation opposite him, sending the colored balls rolling across the table.

"What do you mean?" Trowa asked, scanning the table for his next hit.

"Well, you've been married five years, and already you have two kids and Dorothy's pregnant with a third." Trowa blushed a little, but it was barely noticeable.

"We're solids," he told Heero after he hit the 3-ball in. Heero nodded. "Dorothy and I both wanted children," Trowa said, looking at Duo. "So we figured, why wait? I mean, the rest of you have lots of kids. I guess we wanted to catch up." He smirked as he said this.

"I don't have any children," Quatre spoke up, hitting a striped ball in. "I want kids...I NEED at least one as an heir for the Winner Corporation, but I want a lot." He missed on his next shot. Heero noticed in fell a little quiet after this, before Quatre spoke up again. "By the way, Trowa, I wanted to talk to you about something." By this point Heero and Wufei had taken their turns, so it was Trowa's turn again. He glanced at Quatre, who looked a little too serious, as he aimed.

"Go ahead," he said, thinking whatever it was, the other guys could listen. Quatre hesitated a second, and then shrugged.

"I'm thinking of asking Catherine to marry me," he stated matter-of-factly. Trowa's eyes widened and he jerked, sending the cue ball straight to the corner pocket, hitting nothing along the way. He stared after it for a minute before looking at Quatre.

"What?!" he exclaimed. Quatre sighed.

"I said I'm thinking of-"

"I know, I heard you," Trowa snapped, cutting him off. Quatre's eyes narrowed quickly, then returned to normal.

"I just thought I'd let you know, seeing as she's your sister." This was news to Heero. He'd thought they weren't really related. Maybe they weren't, and they just called each other brother and sister... He turned his attention back to the conversation.

"What do you want, my permission?" Trowa asked. Quatre shook his head.

"It's not like you can stop me. She's older than you, so it's not like you have to play the protective older brother."

"You mean like Zechs did for Heero," Wufei stated, speaking for the first time. Quatre smiled, as if remembering something that was funny, and nodded. Heero noticed that the others were sort of smiling too, and Duo looked like he was trying to hold in his laughter. Heero decided to glare at them all, which only caused them to smile wider.

"Yeah," Quatre finally said, agreeing with Wufei. "I mean, when he found out Heero was with Relena, he came all the way back from Mars to make sure they couldn't sleep together." Now Heero remembered THAT.

"He failed though," he said without thinking. Duo snorted.

"Yeah, no joke. He didn't find out until he learned she was pregnant. Man was he pissed!" Heero could imagine that.

"I think Relena was just as mad though, because it messed up the wedding plans," Wufei said. Heero blinked. They'd gotten married that early?

"She could have pushed the wedding back until AFTER she gave birth," Trowa stated.

"She didn't want to be a mother out of wedlock," Heero said, or more accurately, guessed. The others nodded. "It was Duo's fault in the first place." Duo blinked.

"MY fault?!" he exclaimed. "How was it MY fault?"

"You got Hilde pregnant, and because of that Relena wanted kids. That's the reason I-" Heero stopped talking. He was about to say, 'left,' but remembered just in time. Duo must of thought he was going to say something else though, because he smirked.

"Maxwell didn't even know Hilde was pregnant until she was three months along," Wufei said, smirking. Duo flushed.

"Ahh, well, how was I supposed to know? Hilde didn't tell me!"

"Duo, she looked like she'd swallowed a soccer ball, even at three months," Heero pointed out. He remembered this too.

"Well, she was eating a lot!" Duo protested.

"Because she was pregnant," Wufei said. Duo opened his mouth to say something, but opted for crossing his arms and sulking instead.

"But the point is," Quatre said, steering them back on track, "that even though you're her brother, you can't exactly stop me."

"I can't?" Trowa asked skeptically.

"Nope. Though I would feel much better if you were ok with it." Trowa didn't answer. "Trowa, come on! We've been together for THREE years now!"

"Two and a half," Trowa grumbled.

"Whatever. There's not much else we can do as a couple besides tying the knot." Trowa glanced up sharply.

"You've slept with her?!"

"I didn't say that," Quatre said defensively.

"Have you?" Trowa asked suspiciously. Quatre didn't answer for a minute, and then sighed.

"Two and a half years is a long time, Trowa," he said weakly. Trowa glared full force at the blonde, and then sighed resignedly.

"I just don't want her to get hurt, Quatre," he said. Quatre's eyes narrowed.

"Oh don't worry, I would NEVER hurt her. I'm not the type to just leave people after they've finally been engaged. In case you've forgotten, I wasn't the one who left in my first engagement!" he snapped. Trowa flinched slightly, and looked away.

"Ooooh, Quat. That was a low blow," Duo said, wincing. Heero had no idea what they were talking about.

"That was not very honorable Quatre," Wufei stated. Quatre sighed.

"I know. Sorry Trowa. It wasn't your fault."

"Quatre," Trowa said after a minute, looking up. "I would be honored to have you as a brother-in-law." Quatre blinked and then smiled widely.

"Seriously?" Trowa nodded. "Haha! Yes!" Quatre exclaimed, punching the air. He looked around as he noticed the others staring at him. "Eh heh, uh, should we continue our game?" he asked, gesturing to the table. The others laughed quickly, and they continued playing.

Um...nothing to say! Amazing, huh? Remember to review! Thanks! Oh, one thing actually. The chapters of this fic will most likely always be shorter, like they have been so far, than my other fics. That way I can get them out faster. That's all, ja ne!

*~Maxine~*