A Glimpse Of What Could Have Been: Chapter 4

*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.

Four games later, the five made their way back to their respective partners. Heero still felt that he knew virtually nothing of this life, and was trying to figure out what to do about it. He wanted to tell someone, but telling Relena would be a bad idea because he'd have to explain his REAL life, in which she wasn't a part. The only other people he knew well enough to tell were the four walking with him down the hall. And Zechs, but Heero was pretty sure Zechs would take the news as well as Relena would. He hadn't seen Wufei, Trowa, or Quatre in about ten years, so that left Duo. The only problem with that was that Duo might tell everyone else, by accident of course. Actually, Heero didn't really believe that. He knew Duo could keep secrets well, if you really wanted him to. Making his decision, he tapped Duo on the shoulder, asking him if they could talk in private. Duo glanced at him oddly for a second, before it registered that something must seriously be wrong. Calling to the other guys that they would be talking in some random room if needed, Duo lead the way back down the hall. He took a quick detour into the kitchen, and was quickly kicked out. But not before he had grabbed two beers from the fridge. Heero couldn't resist smirking. Walking back into the Pool Room they had just been at, Duo plopped down on a stool by the bar.

"So, Heero my man, what's wrong?" he asked, attempting to pry the bottle top off of his beer. Heero sat down in another one of the seats and easily popped the top off his bottle, before taking a long drink. Alcohol was just what he needed.

"Um...I don't really know how to say this without sounding completely insane, but bare with me. I don't talk a lot as it is, so this'll be one of those moments you can blackmail me with," Heero said, studying the bottle in his hand. Duo smiled.

"Go ahead, I promise I won't interrupt until your done." Heero nodded.

"This...this isn't my life." Duo raised an eyebrow and opened his mouth, but Heero held up a hand. "You promised," he reminded. Duo shut his mouth and nodded, motioning for him to continue. Heero sighed, trying to figure out where to start. He decided to start with the fact that he was really single and had no children. Duo blinked a few times at this bit of information. Heero then explained all about his meeting Cliff, ending with how he woke up with Relena wrapped around his waist. He left out all the major facts of his life, which he would soon find out was a worthless attempt. As he finished, he looked at Duo to see how he had taken the news. Duo just stared at him with wide eyes.

"So you're saying," he started to say, then cut in with "I can talk now, right?" Heero nodded. "Ok, so you're saying that this life is...all fake? I find that hard to believe, because I have all sorts of memories from it."

"Well, maybe it's not fake, it's just an alternate universe or something," Heero suggested. Duo nodded thoughtfully.

"You said you're single?" Heero knew this was coming. He nodded slowly. "You fought in the war though, right?"

"Yes, in Wing Zero."

"Ok...did you ever go out with Relena?" Apparently, he was trying to figure out where this life went different.

"Yeah, after the war."

"And did you-"

"Yes we slept together," Heero cut in. "But only once." Duo blinked.

"Once?"

"Yeah, like I said, she wanted kids after she found out Hilde was pregnant. We were nineteen, and it just happened. Afterwards, it hit me what I'd done, and I realized that she really might get pregnant, and then I'd be a father. That..." Heero paused and looked slightly uncomfortable. "Well, to put it bluntly...it scared the hell out of me. I wasn't ready to be a dad yet, so I left. In the middle of the night; took all my stuff and fled." Duo didn't look too happy now.

"Coward," he muttered.

"I know." Duo sat back.

"Well here, you stayed until the next morning. Three months later, you proposed. A month after that, she got pregnant with the twins." Heero nodded.

"Right. So does this mean you...believe me?" Duo looked at him, slightly shocked.

"Of course! Heero, I know you too well, and no matter where the hell you are, you'd NEVER make up a story like THAT." Heero chuckled a little, lightening the mood. "So tell me about your life," Duo said.

"Well, I went to outer space after I left Relena. You were the one that found me a month later, working at STCA."

"STCA...hmm, I think I've heard of that..." Heero's eyes widened.

"You think?! It's the biggest computer company in the market. We're pretty much a monopoly!" Heero exclaimed. Duo shook his head.

"Nah, the major company here is Nicro Products and Company." Heero blinked.

"They were our major rivals before we came up with the new security protection. Now they're pretty much bankrupt." Duo laughed.

"That's funny, sorry, continue."

"So you found me, told the others where I was, but they left me alone. I dropped my job at Preventors completely, and pretty much lost contact with everyone. Except you insist on calling me at least once a month, and I usually spend Thanksgiving and Christmas at your house."

"Do I have my family?" Duo asked. His sounded worried. Heero nodded.

"Yeah, actually, your kids are the only ones here I know. Mandy, Jake, Matt, Dan, Cindy, and Hilde's...three months pregnant with another." Duo's eyes widened. "Uh, shit, tell me you knew that," Heero said.

"Oh, I knew. It's just that we haven't told anyone yet. We were gonna tell them today."

"Oh ok, but like I said, those are the ONLY kids I know. I don't even know Angie's twin's name."

"Chris," Duo answered automatically. "They're fourteen."

"Tell me about everyone else's kids," Heero prompted. Duo nodded and took a deep breath, naming all the Gundam pilots' kids' names and ages. (A/N: SEE THE BOTTOM OF THE CHAPTER TO GET THIS INFO.) When he finished, Heero sat quietly, absorbing the information. "I'm never going to remember all that," he stated. Duo chuckled. "So, tell me. What's the whole deal between Trowa, Quatre, and Dorothy?"

"Oh geez," Duo said, throwing a hand over his eyes for a dramatic effect. "THAT is one messed up story. Ok, let's see. Well, Dorothy was originally engaged to Quatre; everyone saw that coming." Heero nodded.

"Right, they were engaged in my life too. The last time I heard from Quatre was when he told me they were getting married. But I never got an invitation to the wedding. I don't even know if they're married or not. You never told me anything, probably assuming I knew, and I just never bothered to ask," Heero said.

"They would have invited you had they gotten married," Duo said thoughtfully. "They must never of. They broke it off before they got the chance to send out invitations. That's actually a good thing though. Well, anyway..." Duo took a sip of his drink. "Their plan was to have the wedding a year after their engagement. Everything was fine for about seven months. Then after that, everything was one big, messed up blur. It all happened really fast.

"First of all, Dorothy suddenly had this meeting to go to on L5 while Quatre was at this long, month long, conference thing on Earth. You know Dorothy works in the ESUN, right?" Duo asked.

"As a representative for the old Romefeller, right?"

"Yeah. So, continuing, Trowa's circus just happened to be touring on L5."

"Trowa still worked at the circus?" Heero asked.

"It's his full job," Duo replied. "He dropped being a part time Preventor after marrying Dorothy."

"Really...See, soon after I got Quatre's engagement announcement, Trowa dropped his job at the circus."

"He's a full time Preventor?" Duo asked, slightly shocked. Heero nodded.

"So are Wufei and Sally."

"Well, yeah, duh," Duo said, and then continued with his story. "So Dorothy decided to drop by the circus to say Hi to everyone. When Trowa asked about Quatre..." Duo paused. "Don't get me wrong, I like Dorothy and all, but I was really pissed at her after all this. Hell, we all were. But, nothing can stop true love from running its course." Duo shook his head. "Anyway, when Trowa asked about Quatre, she told him they had called off the wedding. They were both going separate ways. This shocked Trowa, of course, because Quatre hadn't told him. So Dorothy said that they hadn't told anyone yet, that the, and I quote, 'wound was still fresh.' Trowa couldn't contact Quatre to check up on him because he was at the meeting, and Dorothy 'didn't know where he was staying.'" Duo said, using his fingers to put quotation marks around that last statement.

"Of course, that was a bunch of bull shit," he continued. "Dorothy continued to hang around the circus, and became pretty good friends with Catherine. She also flirted with Trowa a lot. So, only like a week later, Trowa asked Dorothy to go out to dinner with him, and they went on their first date. They went on many more dates the next two weeks, and then they decided to go to this club or something one night. Trowa kinda didn't explain this part to me very well. I think he was embarrassed," Duo added.

"Trowa told you all this?" Heero asked, listening intently.

"You, me and Wufei," Duo replied. "He told Quatre something else. I don't think it was as detailed. The whole thing really wasn't Trowa's fault, you know. It's just that I really wanted to know what had happened, and he wanted to get it out in the open to someone, so he told us. Cleared a lot of things up, actually."

"So, they went to the club..." Heero prompted.

"Yeah," Duo nodded. "And got extremely drunk. That must have taken some effort, 'cause I've never known Trowa to get drunk. But anyway, one thing led to another, they made their way back to Trowa's trailer, and the next thing they knew, it was morning and neither one of 'em had any clothes on. Of course, by this point, Trowa really liked Dorothy, and he didn't care. Neither did Dorothy, and they ended up spending the whole day in bed.

"A week or so later, Quatre calls Trowa." Heero made a hissing sound. "Yeah, tell me about it," Duo said, taking another drink. "He asked Trowa if he knew where Dorothy was, because she hadn't been at the hotel she was supposed to be at for the past week, and the hotel was, duh, on the same colony as Trowa's circus. Quatre was worried about her; he had every right to be. So, Trowa probably paled big time, and he was like, 'well why do you care?' or something. Then Quatre got all confused, because, you know, Dorothy was his fiancée. Trowa got pissed, said he hadn't seen her, hung up and went and cussed out Dorothy, AFTER she explained everything out of guilt. So then Trowa felt really bad because Quatre was his best friend. Dorothy felt bad, because she really did love Trowa at the time, and hadn't wanted to be mean to Quatre like that. So the two decided to tell Quatre everything.

"After that, um...well, let's just say Quatre wasn't too pleased. He left the room, slamming the door behind him. He knew it wasn't Trowa's fault, but he wouldn't speak to him for about three months. After Quat left, Trowa got mad all over again, and walked out on Dorothy who was close to tears. I don't know if you heard about the whole thing on Libra? When Trowa told her it was sad when a girl couldn't cry?" Heero nodded.

"Yeah, I remember him telling us that," he replied.

"Right, well, Dorothy cried," Duo stated. "That made Trowa stop and look at her in shock, which was when she told him that she loved him. Trowa didn't reply, and went missing for about two weeks. Next thing we knew, he showed up at the Peacecraft mansion, wanting to speak to," he pointed at Heero, "you. Said you were good at giving advice or something. I found it kinda hard to believe, but hey, whatever." Heero glared at him. It felt kind of good knowing SOMEONE liked his advice. Not that he gave advice much, but oh well. "You gave him some speech revolving around how you should always act on your emotions. I think you told him that if he really did love Dorothy, then he should go find her, and not to worry about Quatre. He did just that. About a year and a half later, they got married, with you as Trowa's best man."

"Me?" Heero asked, slightly surprised.

"Yep. Trowa would have asked Quatre, but that would have been...weird," Duo replied. Heero nodded in agreement. "Not even six months after that, Dorothy gave birth to their first child," Duo continued.

"She was pregnant at the wedding," Heero guessed.

"Yep. And that's that. So, what do you think?" Duo asked, leaning back against the bar.

"I think that's one messed up story." Heero replied. Duo nodded.

"Tell me about it."

"Now, what's going on between Quatre and Catherine?" Heero asked. Duo groaned.

"Oh man. That's screwed up too, though it's not as bad. Basically, the circus happened to stop on L4, where Quatre lives, so he decided to visit them. Trowa worked their full time by now. Catherine took it upon herself to make sure that the visit went well, because she felt extremely bad for Quatre after the whole other incident. I guess after that, Quatre saw her in a new light or something. When the circus stopped there again, a year or so later, he went to visit them, or more accurately, Catherine. He took her out to dinner, much to Trowa's dismay. Some time after that, they started going steady. I wasn't sure if he'd EVER asked her to marry him. I say it's about time."

"Why does it bother Trowa so much?"

"I don't really think it bothers him. I think the over-protectiveness comes with every brother, older or younger. But like Quatre said, it's only the older who are actually a threat to the boyfriends."

"But...Trowa and Catherine aren't really related, are they?" Heero asked. Duo blinked.

"Actually, yeah they are," he replied, scratching his head.

"Really? Wow..."

"Yeah. After Wufei had his set of twins, it occurred to all of us how lucky our kids were to have siblings. So, you, Trowa, and I decided to get our DNA tested to see if we had any living relatives. Quatre and Wufei both knew about their family." Heero sat up straighter.

"I got mine tested too?" he asked, unable to keep the curiosity out of his voice.

"Yeah," Duo said slowly. "No living relatives. You had an older brother though, which was interesting. He died at the very beginning of the war." Heero's eyes widened.

"Hn...interesting. You?" Duo sighed.

"No living relatives, I had a younger sister who died at birth or something. She was like five minutes old. It was soon after that that I became an orphan, because my dad had already been killed, and my mom died giving birth."

"And Trowa? Does he have any other relatives besides Catherine?"

"A great aunt somewhere. He didn't care too much about that. It was the fact that Catherine was his two-year-older sister that shocked the hell out of him."

"I bet," Heero said.

"Catherine was hugging him like there was no tomorrow, calling him Triton, and crying hysterically. She thought he'd been killed a long time ago."

"Triton?"

"Yep, but she still calls him Trowa...thank God," Duo muttered. Heero smirked. "But man, all the girls were crying. Trowa eyes were huge at first, as Catherine hugged him. After at least two minutes he started hugging her back. He even cried a little. If I'm correct, I think Quatre was crying too...or at least he had tears in his eyes," Duo said. "That's everything really." It was quiet for a while as the two finished their drinks.

"Were Relena and I the first to get married, other than Noin and Zechs? I know you and Hilde didn't get married for a while," Heero asked after a while.

"We were twenty-two," Duo said defensively. "But yeah, you were the first to get married. I think your wedding was the reason Wufei took so damn long to ask Sally to marry him." Duo chuckled.

"Why?" Heero asked warily.

"Oh man, I know Relena has the tape around somewhere. We really should watch it. You should see your face when you had to take the garter off Relena. Zechs was glaring at you, and you looked nervous as hell. Plus, you were blushing! It was great!" Duo cried, laughing hysterically. Heero glared at him.

"That's not funny," he growled. Duo stopped laughing abruptly.

"I just realized something," he said, eyes wide. "Trowa caught the garter at your wedding. And Dorothy caught the bouquet! Why didn't I notice that before?" He sat back. "Weird."

"How ironic," Heero said, somewhat sarcastically. Duo started chuckling again. "Now what?" Heero asked irritably.

"Sorry, I'm just thinking about all these things you might not know about," Duo said. "Are Wufei and Sally married in your life?"

"Yes. I don't know how many kids they have though. Last I heard, Sally was pregnant, but that was a long time ago. I don't know if she had the twins or not."

"That's what I was just thinking about," Duo stated. "Wufei's face when he heard he was having twins! Oh man! Yours too, when you found out. It was too good. But Wufei was worse, 'cause Sally told him at the same time that they were having two girls. He almost fainted, and kept repeating the word 'girls' over and over again." Duo's laughter slowed down. "Ahh, priceless. He was thrilled at their birth though. And nervous as hell. He was a wreck. Poor guy. You held a gun to my head when I tried to tell you Relena would be ok," Duo accused, pointing a finger at Heero. Heero blinked, and then chuckled.

"I did?" he asked. "Well, for what it's worth, sorry."

"Hmph. I was just trying to help, too. After all, I'd been through Hilde giving birth, I knew what it was like," Duo said, pouting. Heero smirked.

"So, what are my kids like?" he asked. Duo looked at him. "Well, we don't know how long I'll be here, so I need to at least look like I know my own children."

"You're not going to tell Relena?" Duo questioned.

"Oh yeah, that'd go over REAL well," Heero replied, the sarcasm evident in his voice.

"I see what you mean. She wouldn't take it too well that you left her in the middle of the night," Duo said.

"You can't tell anyone what I told you, ok Duo? I had to tell someone so they could help me out here," Heero stated. Duo nodded.

"Scout's honor. But, uh, Heero...I have to go back to L2 on Sunday."

"Shit," Heero mumbled. "Well, couldn't the REST of your family go back, but you could stay and say that...you're going to check up on Preventors or something? You know, just stay for a week or so. I doubt I'll even be here that long." Duo looked a little doubtful. "Come on, you ARE a part time Preventor, right?"

"Oh fine, I'll see what I can do. But I'll only be able to stay a week. I do have a business to run." Heero relaxed a little.

"I'm only going to say this once, because I already feel...out-of-character enough as it is, but...thanks, Duo. You've been a major help." Duo smiled widely.

"Hey, no problem, buddy! What are friends for, right?" Heero nodded. "So, you wanted to know about your kids, huh? Well...Angie and Chris fight a lot. Especially lately, because Angie has a crush on one of his best friends from school or something. I don't know the whole story. They're both really good with computers. Angie plays soccer, but Chris is more of a hockey player."

"Relena let him play hockey?"

"She was totally against it, but it was that or rugby, so she chose the sport with pads." Heero chuckled. "Josh is really hyper, but lazy too. He sleeps half the morning. Dan and he are really good friends 'cause they're the same age. I think he's starting to like baseball. Wufei got him a glove and bat for his birthday last year, because his son, Theo, is also into it. Lena...is not even a year old, so there isn't much you need to know about that." Duo looked slightly nervous suddenly. "Uh, except for the fact that since you had three kids before her, you'll probably be expected to do diapers and stuff." Heero grimaced.

"Oh well. I can handle that...I think. I've been around your family enough." He sighed. "Are there any important dates I should know about? Birthdays or anything? I know Relena's is in April, but I shouldn't be here for that."

"Oh yeah!" Duo exclaimed. "Duh, Lena's birthday is December 23, right before Christmas. You're anniversary is...um...sometime in January. I don't remember the exact date." Heero made a mental note to find that out. "The other kids' birthdays are in the summer, so no need to worry about them." Heero nodded.

"You know, we should probably get back to the others," Heero said, glancing at his watch.

"Oh shit, that's right. Oops," Duo mumbled, standing up. "I want another beer," he complained, stretching his arms above his head.

"Baka," Heero muttered.

"Hey," Duo warned. "I've got blackmail on you, so you'd better be nice to me these next couple of weeks," he teased. Heero smirked, and followed Duo upstairs.

Oops, this chapter's longer than it's supposed to be...oh well! There was a lot of background info. And I tried to clear up any questions you might have had. So, as promised, here's the list of kids and stuff:

Heero/Relena:

- Angie & Chris - 14

- Josh - 6

- Lena - Almost one

Duo/Hilde:

- Mandy - 15

- Jake - 13

- Matt - 8

- Dan - 6

- Cindy - 2

- Hilde's three months pregnant

Trowa/Dorothy:

- Trey - 4

- Amanda - 2

- Dorothy's eight months pregnant

Quatre/Catherine:

- Uh...none! They're soon to be married though. ^_^

Wufei/Sally:

- Jennifer (Jenna) & Jessica (Jess) - 10

- Theo - 8

- Scott - 4

Zechs/Noin:

- Mike - 12

- Crystal - 9

- Justin - 3

That's everyone! Thanks for reading, and please, please, PLEASE review!!

*~Maxine~*