Disclaimer: It's a good thing that these characters don't belong to me. Heero and Duo would be tied up, completely at the whim of Loyce and myself. And that would just be mean...fun as hell for us though.

Author's Notes: Final part! Final part!! It's always nice to finish a story. Even if you give up sleep to do it. I hope it was worth it;) As always, I have loved hearing your comments and I appreciate every single compliment. As I've said before, yall are great and groovy.

Dedication: To Alan-san for taking my hard earned money with him to AWA and for bringing me back whatever delectable Gundam Wing item he finds for under twenty bucks.

****

Going to the Chapel
by Kristen Elizabeth

****

5:05 PM

A minute of silence passed like an eternity...at least to Noin. And then, just before she was about to scream at all two hundred dumbfounded people, pandamonium hit.

The first person to react was Millardo. Instead of passing out as Duo had predicted he would in the Preventer office baby polls, he ran to his wife. His hands shook as he reached for her. "Lu...sweetie...breathe. I'm here; just breathe..."

"Damn." Duo scowled. "There goes my ten bucks."

Wufei watched as his girlfriend ran to her best friend. "You could still win in the 'how long does it take her to slap him silly for getting her pregnant' poll."

"Breathe, honey....breathe."

Lu gave her husband a withering look. "What does it look like I'm doing??"

For her own part, Relena was remaining quite calm. She turned to Heero and gave him a weak smile without saying anything. All around her, the guests were talking in loud whispers. The priest was dumbstruck, having no idea how to proceed. She glanced back at her fiancee, not quite her husband yet. A little lost boy look flitted across his handsome face.

She took his hand. "What do you want to do?" As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Noin screamed again.

Heero shook his head. "I have no idea."

Sally examined her patient as much as she could in front of two hundred people. "Hon...do you feel like you have to push?" Noin nodded. "Oh no," Sally sighed.

Millardo looked back and forth between the women. His knuckles were white where his wife's hand was cutting off the circulation to his own. "Oh no, what?? What's wrong??"

"What have you been feeling all day?" Sally looked at the laboring woman.

Noin drew in a deep breath. "Kicking....lots and lots of kicking." She thought for a moment. "And some cramps."

Sally patted her hand. "Lucy...those weren't kicks or cramps. They were contractions. You've been in labor all day." She stood up. "Everyone...I'm very sorry. But we need to get her to the hospital right away."

Relena's voice was small. "I suppose that's it then."

"I'm so sorry, Relena." A tear slipped down Noin's face. "I didn't want it to be today."

Picking up the hem of her gown, Relena knelt down next to her sister in law. "Please don't be sorry, Lu. I just want you to have a very healthy baby. This can all wait."

"No." Everyone turned to look at Heero. "Today is our wedding day, Relena. And we are going to get married."

Millardo's fist clentched. "What the hell is your problem, Yuy? My wife is having a baby!!"

Heero ignored his words. "Can you pick her up?"

"Heero." Relena put a hand on his arm. "What are you doing?"

"The limo can hold eight people. Who's coming with us to the hospital?" Heero grabbed the priest's sleeve. "You're one. Relena, me, Noin and him. Sally. Who else?"

"Me!!" Duo raised his hand. "And her." He winked at his wife. "You can sit on my lap."

"All right." Heero looked at Quatre, Trowa and Wufei. "You all follow us to the hospital."

Upon seeing Quatre's crest-fallen face, Relena continued, "We promise not to say the actual vows until you're there."

The blond man smiled. "I'm holding you to that."

Millardo slid his arm under his wife's legs and lifted her out of her chair carefully. Noin shook her head against his chest. "I'm too heavy. Put me down."

"No way in hell," her husband said. "And you're not too heavy."

Heero grabbed Relena's hand. She grabbed the priest's. "Come on. Let's go."

Sally looked at Wufei for a moment before joining the rest of the group heading for the limo. Left on the stage were three Preventers in dress tuxedos, facing a confused crowd of diplomats, co-workers and guests.

Quatre cleared his throat. "I'm sorry to say it appears as though this wedding has experienced a drastic turn in events. But please stay...enjoy the food and the music. I know that's what Miss Relena and Heero would want." Smiling brightly, he ran off the stage, heading for the garage with Trowa and Wufei in tow.

****

5:35 PM

"Somebody!! Anybody!! My wife is having a baby!!"

The emergency entrance to Thagard Medical Center was empty until Millardo Peacecraft made that announcment. In only minutes, a team of doctors and nurses appeared through the automatic doors, ready to assist Noin. A wheelchair was procured and Millardo gently led his wife out of the limo and into it.

Doctors and nurses alike double-blinked when, after the pregnant woman stepped out the limo, a bride, groom, two bridesmaids, a best man and a priest followed. The bride, recognizable immediately as the Vice Foriegn Minister, smiled at the staff. It would seem as if these people, rather than the diplomats of the world, would be witnesses to her marriage.

"OWWWWWW," Noin screamed. "This hurts!!!"

One doctor took a hold of the wheelchair. "Let's get her up to OB and get her a room." He leaned towards Noin. "What is your obsetrician's name, ma'am?"

"I'm her doctor," one of the bridemaids spoke up. "I'm afraid I don't have my ID on me, but I'm Doctor Sally Po, Chief Physician for the Preventers."

The ER doctor nodded curtly. "The nurses will take you up." He glanced at the rest of the wedding party. "I assume you'll all be going, too?"

Heero nodded. "There should be another car here soon with the rest of the party. Send them up when they get here."

"Sure." The doctor rolled his eyes. After four years in the ER, nothing fazed him. "Good luck."

****

6:10 PM

"It's room 452, Wufei, not 462."

"Once more, you have no idea what you're saying, Barton. I heard the nurse clearly. She said 462."

Trowa looked at his blond lover. "What did you hear, little one?"

Quatre glanced back at forth at the numbers on the hospital doors they passed on their search for the wedding party. "Actually, you're both wrong. She said 432." He stopped. "And here it is."

Sure enough, there was a loud scream of pain followed by a very familiar voice yelling, "Don't you dare touch me, Zechs!!!"

Wufei smiled triumphantly. "It took an hour. Duo loses again."

Quatre knocked on the door softly. Duo answered it. "Hey....come on in. The party's just getting started."

The woman in the bed was not amused. "Yes, please...everyone. Come in. Be a witness. The more, the fucking merrier!!!" The priest crossed himself.

Relena smiled at the three men who had just arrived. "They won't give her the epidural yet."

Millardo was seated next to the bed, making a valiant attempt to comfort his wife. "Breathe, Lu....breathe."

"I would like to see how well *you* breathe when something the size of a watermelon is being pushed out of *your*..."

Heero cut off Noin's tirade. "Everyone's here. Let's do this." He lowered his voice. "And get out of here."

Hilde reached over and flipped Relena's veil over her face once more. Duo grabbed Relena's hand and placed it in Heero's. "You ready, Padre?" he asked the priest.

Nodding, the priest fumbled in his robes for his tiny Bible. "Um..." He flipped a few pages. "Where were we?"

"You were asking if she was gonna take him," Duo reminded the man.

"Right, yes." The priest cleared his throat and looked up at the bride and groom. "Do you, Relena Dorlian Peacecraft, take Heero Yuy to be your lawfully wedded husband. To have and to hold from this day forward. For better, for worse. For richer, for poorer. In sickness and in health. To love and to cherish until death do you part?"

Despite her surroundings, Relena felt a tiny tear slip down her cheek. "I do," she said softly, but with determination.

"And do you, Heero Yuy, take Relena Dorlian Peacecraft to be your lawfully wedded wife. To have and to hold from...."

"Yes," Heero cut the man off abruptly. "I do."

The priest nodded. "The rings?"

Duo pulled the velvet box containing Relena's ring from his tuxedo pocket. "The God of Death comes through with the gold!"

Blinking, the priest accepted the ring from the best man. Hilde quickly handed over the second ring and the priest held them up to the bright fluorescent hospital lights. "Bless these rings, oh Heavenly Father, that they might become the symbols of a love that has no ending."

Relena took the larger ring from the priest. With shaking hands, she slipped it on Heero's finger. "With this ring, I thee wed...you, Heero."

"With this ring..." Heero took the gold ring he had endured so much to bring to this moment and slowly slid it onto the third finger of Relena's left hand. It joined the 40 karat diamond ring that had been her Christmas present. "...I thee wed."

"And now, by the power invested in me by the Holy Church, I pronounce you...husband and wife." The priest smiled at the couple. "You may kiss the bride."

Quickly, but savoring each second, Heero lifted the tulle veiling Relena's face. Drawing her close, he lowered his lips to hers in a long, sweet kiss. A smattering of applause filled the room. Even Noin smiled through her pain. Blushing, Relena broke the kiss.

"Mr. and Mrs. Heero Yuy," was the priest's final announcement.

Their friends surrounded the couple. Duo hugged Relena tightly. "Princess," he whispered, just low enough for her to hear. "Do me a favor." His voice dropped even lower as he explained what he wanted her to do.

Hilde gave Heero a quick hug. He was not the touchy, feely type. At least not with any other woman but his new wife. "Finally!" she said. Heero nodded.

Quatre embraced Relena and held out his hand to Heero. "Sorry about ordering you around earlier."

"Don't worry about it," Heero replied, shaking the shorter man's hand. "Just don't let it happen again." He glanced at Trowa who was congratulating Relena. "Stick to ordering him around."

Wufei's congratulations were short, but sincere. His attention was entirely focused on his girlfriend as she examined the baby monitor strapped to Noin's stomach.

Noin gripped Millardo's hand, hard. "Sally....I really, really, REALLY want to push!"

Duo winced. He wasn't quite sure what pushing entailed, but he was pretty sure he didn't want to be there for it. "Does this mean it's time for us to make a hasty escape?" He glanced at Heero and Relena who had found their way back into an embrace. "Along with the happy couple?"

Relena frowned. "I think we should give them some privacy. But..." She looked up at her husband apologetically. "I'm not sure I can leave altogether. I think I'm needed here."

Every single man in the room, except for Quatre and the priest, wished he had a camera to capture the look on Heero's face. It was the look of a man who was resigning himself to a wedding night of celibacy.

But Noin saved the groom. Shaking her head, she beckoned Relena over to her. "Go, sweetie." She gritted her teeth as a contraction seized her. When it passed, she squeezed her sister in law's fingers. "Go and have a wonderful time. I'm going to be just fine and you can see the baby when you get back."

Relena leaned forward and kissed Noin's damp forehead gratefully. Smiling at her brother, she stood back up. Heero's face lit up as their eyes met. Before Relena could go to him, Noin grabbed her hand again. "Relena..." A stronger contraction gripped her, adding fevor to her heated words. "Don't let him do this to you!! Promise me....you won't let him do this to you!!"

Sally smothered a laugh. "Lucy...let's see what we can do about that epidural."

After a minute of goodbyes and well-wishing, most of the group filed out of the room, leaving Noin, Millardo and Sally behind. Quatre and Trowa, Duo and Hilde headed back to the Manor to enjoy what was left of the party. The priest headed back to his church for a good long drink. Wufei stayed behind, waiting for his chance to talk to Sally.

As for Relena and Heero....waiting until they got to their honeymoon suite in the Carribean Islands was too long to wait. As soon as they were free to move about the cabin of the private jet taking them across the ocean, Heero reached for his bride and pulled her onto his lap.

"I don't want the first time we do this in our marriage to be fast..." He buried his face in her hair. "But I don't think I can go slow."

Relena straddled his waist. Her wedding gown long since gone, she wore only a pair of washed silk shorts and a blouse. She could feel Heero's hardness through his jeans, growing harder with each passing second. Her body responded; it had been too long.

She kissed him furiously, wrestling with his tongue when it invaded her mouth. "I don't want slow," she whispered in between kisses. "I want you to fuck me."

Heero groaned. It was only within the past month or so, before the period of celibacy had commenced, that she had broken down all her walls of propriety and politeness when they made love. He could remember the first time she had dared to use the word in bed. It had excited him beyond belief, because it was the real Relena who begged him to take her. It was a side of her that no one else in the entire world would ever get to see. It was for him and him alone. It made him want to bury himself inside of her and....

He was getting ahead of himself. Even if she wanted to be fucked instead of made love to, he was still going to make their first coupling as man and wife one they would never forget. Picking her up, he carried her to the small couch. As they kissed, he fumbled with her buttons. Frustrated, she urged him to rip the blouse apart. When he did so, her breasts spilled out, free of any bra's constraint.

His lips found her nipples, sucking and nibbling and twisting while she writhed underneath him. "Heero," she called out. "I have missed this....so much...."

Her breast popped out of his mouth and he smiled at her. "How are we doing this?"

Instead of replying, Relena unzipped her shorts and kicked them off. Rising to her knees, she turned around, presenting him with the delectable sight of her panty-covered bottom. Her blue eyes glinted mischievously. It was a position they had tried only once or twice before, but one which they both found immensely satisfying.

Relena's eyes closed when she felt him kiss one round cheek. His hand slid up the inside of her thigh, cupping her warm, wet center. He rubbed her slowly, but precisely through the soaked cloth. Her hips moved, grinding into his palm. Torturous seconds passed as he pulled the tiny panties down around her knees. "Please...Heero," she begged.

She heard his zipper and a moment later, his hard, throbbing length pressed into the space between her thighs. Her hand reached behind to guide him in. His own hands were on her hips, controlling the speed of their joining. He would never hurt her, even in her haste to make them one.

Heero dug his fingers into her soft flesh as more of his sex disappeared into hers. When he could enter her no further, he let out a sigh. He was home.

Relena moaned softly as he began to thrust. Her breasts swung with the rhythmic strokes. The amazing feeling of him sliding in and out of her, hitting every place within that brought her pleasure was what she had been missing for four weeks. While it had been painful to deny him, the intensity of this first coupling was worth it. Even when they fucked, they made love.

Heero's chest pressed against her back. One hand cupped her breast, fondling the nipple, while the other traveled south, exploring the place where their bodies were joined. Relena's forehead rested on the couch. She made no attempt to muffle her moans and cries. She didn't give a damn if the pilot heard her all the way in the cockpit. She was completely surrounded and filled by her husband and it was almost too wonderful to be real.

Her orgasm seized her. Unconciously, her inner muscles squeezed his sex. While she was lost to the throes of her passion, Heero wrapped his arms around her stomach and cried out against her bare back, releasing life into her body in short, intense waves.

She fell first, her knees giving out under the weight of her new husband. He let himself fall on top of her slender body. A moment passed before she tried to regain her senses. "Heero...." Relena twisted her head around to see him. Duo's request for a favor came to mind. "Pumpkin...you're heavy."

Heero's head shot up. "What did you just call me?"

Giggles had overtaken his wife. With him still within her, she laughed until her ribs hurt. "Don't get mad! It's your inside joke! Unless you want to explain it to me."

He pulled out of her and turned her over to face him. "Someday. After I kill Duo."

"Oh..." Relena's arms looped around his neck. "You can't kill him. Hilde would be sad."

Heero planted little kisses on her throat before giving her a long, deep kiss. "I love you."

"I love you." Relena played with the hair at the base of his neck. She shifted underneath him and realized something. "Do you know what? This was the first time we've ever made love without protection."

He nodded. "But there's always your..."

"I stopped taking them."

Concern flashed on his face. "Relena....you should have said something. I would have used..."

Relena shook her head against the couch. "I'm glad. I wouldn't have let you use one....not tonight." She ran a finger down his cheek. "I can't wait to have your children. The sooner, the better."

"Even after seeing your sister in law tonight?"

She thought for a second. "I know for a fact that as much as she might deny it right now, Lucy is very, very happy. I want that, too. The pain will be worth it."

An evil grin spread on her husband's lips. "Maybe...if we time it right, you can go into labor at Wufei's wedding."

"Will Wufei have a wedding anytime soon?"

Heero kissed her jaw. "Of course he will."

Relena raised an eyebrow. "How do you know? This Pollyanna attitude is frightening me."

"I know because I know what it's like to love someone so much that the thought of being without them, even for a day, is painful. I see that when I see him look at her."

Tears flooded her eyes. "Did I already tell you that I love you?"

"It might have been mentioned." Heero laid his cheek on her chest, listening to her heart beat.

A moment of comfortable silence swept over the sated lovers. "Heero," Relena began. She hated to break the moment, but her curiousity was overwhelming. "Why did you climb through my window this afternoon?"

He was half-asleep as he answered. "Traffic enforcement....didn't like my driving....off road." Heero yawned and pressed his cheek closer to his wife's bare breasts. "Good chase..."

Smiling, she kissed the top of his head. Her hand stroked his hair. "What on earth am I going to do with you?" He made a noise; his breath warmed her skin. Closing her eyes, Relena let herself join in him slumber.

****

June 30th AC 201
9:00 AM

The first thing Millardo saw when he opened his eyes was his wife, sitting up in bed, holding a tiny infant to her breast. The sight made him pause for a moment. His mind took note of every detail. For the rest of his life, he wanted to remember it.

Noin looked up and smiled at him. "He got hungry while you were asleep. I wanted to wait, but he was insistent."

He stood up and crossed to the bed, sinking into the chair beside it. The place he had been throughout the entire ten hours of labor. Reaching out, he stroked the soft skin of his son's head as he fed. "Did the nurse show you how to do this?"

"No." Noin lifted the baby boy up and turned him around. He latched onto her other nipple with the same ferocity. "Sally is nowhere to be found. So I'm just sort of...winging it."

"And doing a good job."

"Maternal instinct, I suppose." They watched the baby swallow, seemingly unendingly. "At least he won't be a picky eater."

Millardo nodded. "That's my boy."

"*Our* boy needs a name."

"You're right...." Millardo touched the baby's hand. His son's tiny fingers curled around his pinkie. There was a strange tugging sensation in his chest. Love, he decided. Overwhelming love for this perfect being he and the woman he loved had created. "But what would suit him best?"

Noin thought for a long minute. "Lucas. After my father, Luciano."

"Lucas Alexandros." Millardo's thumb gently brushed over the impossibly small fingers around his. "After my father."

Another second passed. His hunger sated, little Lucas fell asleep at his mother's breast. She gently lifted him and placed him in his father's arms for the first time since Sally had done so only seconds after his birth. Noin watched her husband and her son, unaware that she was crying.

Holding onto the baby, Millardo leaned forward and kissed her wet eyelids. "Thank you."

''Thank you," she whispered. "I couldn't have done it without you."

"So, you forgive me for knocking you up?"

Noin laughed. "Ignore anything I said last night. I love you and I will let you touch me again." She winked. "Eventually."

****

9:15 AM

"Wake up, sleepy head!"

Duo groaned and turned over in bed. His hand grasped his pillow, preparing to bring it down on his wife's cheerful face. "How can you be so...chipper? You were at that party all night, too...."

Hilde grinned at his hangover. And his inability to hit her, even with a pillow. "Because...unlike some people, I did not consume the entire contents of a wet bar." She hugged her arms around her bare chest, hardly able to contain what she was feeling. "And I won't be, for a good long while."

One violet eye opened curiously. "What's going on, Hilde-baby?"

"I'll give you two guesses and they're little pink lines on a tester stick."

Duo sat up, headache and grogginess forgotten. "What? What are you talking about?"

Hilde crawled over to him. "I know you don't notice these things, darling, but this is the second month that I haven't had my..."

"Oh, god..." He put a hand to his cheek. "Oh, shit."

Her blue eyes grew wide. "Duo..." She swallowed heavily. "You're upset?"

He nodded. "Yeah..."

"Oh." Hilde sat back on her knees, all the joy draining away. "I didn't think you'd be...upset. Surprised, yes. I mean, we always said we'd wait a year or two. But upset...?" She bit her lip to keep from crying.

Duo caught her chin and lifted it up to meet his gaze. "I'm upset because here I am, in the hangover from hell, when I should be on my feet, jumping up and down, swinging you around, feeling like a million bucks. Also, just so you know, I did notice that you haven't had your..." Duo made a gesture towards the lower half of her body. "You know...*that* thing."

"That's really all?" She raised an eyebrow. "You're just upset because I didn't pick the best moment to tell you?"

He hesitated. "No...it's more than just that...." He let her chin go and looked down at the sheet covering his lap. "Maybe I'm a little scared. I mean, me? A father?" His eyes were troubled when they met hers again. "What if I mess up? What if I scar our child for life? What if he writes a tell-all book when he's thirty and dumps me in a nursing home where they make me sing songs and eat applesauce through a straw and..."

Hilde kissed him, hard and long. The only effective way to shut him up. "First of all," she began when she broke the kiss. "I don't need to be swung around. All I need is to know that this makes you happy. Does it make you happy?" Duo nodded. "All right then. Secondly..." She ran her fingers through his touseled bangs. "You are going to be an amazing father. If I thought for a moment that you were going to be anything less, I wouldn't have let you get me pregnant."

"And that wouldn't have been any fun," he said.

"No, that wouldn't have been any fun," she agreed, smiling softly. "Tell me that you want to have this baby."

Duo lowered her to the bed and crawled over her. "I want to have this baby."

"Tell me..." She closed her eyes when he started kissing her throat. "....that you'll want me even when I'm huge and fat and pregnant."

"I'll want you when you're huge and fat and pregnant." He reached her breasts, flicking his tongue over her nipples.

"Tell me that you're my sex slave and that you'll do anything to please me!"

Rather than saying the words, Duo kissed his way down her flat stomach, over the place where their child grew inside her, heading for his favorite place in the entire world.

****

9:30 AM

The entire world was fuzzy to Quatre as he woke up. He heard a faint chuckle as he rapidly blinked, trying to clear away the alcohol haze. "Trowa?" His voice was scratchy.

"Good morning." Trowa zipped up his jeans and sat on the bed next to his lover. "Did you have fun last night?"

"I'd tell you if I remembered." Quatre held his aching head between his hands. "What happened?"

Trowa shook his head, amused. "After you and Duo tried to out-do each other at the bar, you got up on the buffet table and did an intricate strip dance with the ice swans. And then you...."

"Oh shut up!" Quatre smiled through his hangover. "I did not."

"Well...the first part was true," Trowa amended. "Would you like some aspirin? Maybe a whole bottle?"

Quatre nodded. "But it can wait." He lifted his head. Even bloodshot, his eyes captivated Trowa. "I do have one distinct memory of last night. I got to be on top, didn't I?"

Trowa smirked. "You're very insistent when you're drunk. I was afraid of taking advantage of you, but it ended up being the other way around."

"I didn't hurt you, did I?"

"You never hurt me, little one." Quickly emerging from the fogginess of a night of champagne, Quatre got to his knees. The sheet that had been covering the lower half of his body slipped down, leaving him completely exposed to Trowa's appreciative eyes. "Not so little one," Trowa corrected himself.

The blond man reached for the pants Trowa had just put on. "You're wearing too many clothes..."

Trowa let him fumble around with the button and zipper. "It'd probably be easier if you were sober."

"Are you going to hold this over my head forever?"

"No." Trowa helped him spread open his fly. "Just today."

Quatre ducked his head, brushing a kiss across the newly exposed, rapidly hardening flesh. "Just in case you didn't get anything out of last night....," he explained, taking his lover into his mouth.

Trowa's fingers dragged through his hair. "Just being..." He closed his eyes. "...near you is enough for me."

"I know what you mean." Quatre sat up and gave Trowa long kiss before continuing to make love to him.

****

10:00 AM

"...wedding yesterday was abruptly brought to hault due to undisclosed circumstances. There have been assurances from the Vice Foriegn Minister's office that the couple were later married in private, although where is still unknown. Vice Foriegn Minister Peacecraft...excuse me, Vice Foriegn Minister Yuy will be on leave of absence for the next two weeks. Regretfully, she will miss the World Summit Meetings starting on Tuesday."

"It's going to take some getting used to, saying her new last name, won't it?" A second anchor appeared on the TV screen. "At any rate, Channel 24 News sends our congratulations to the happy couple. In other local news, the Traffic Enforcers are on the lookout for two men suspected of reckless endangerment. According to several dozen witnesses, a 200 model Chevy Sanpada veered off the highway during heavy traffic yesterday afternoon and took to the median. If you have any information, please contact the Traffic Enforcers at...

"Hey." Wufei entered the tiny hospital lounge where Sally was curled up in a chair, nursing a soda. "Why aren't you asleep? You were up all night."

With the remote control, Sally turned off the news. "I couldn't sleep if I tried. I'm completely wired."

He pointed at the soda can. "That stuff doesn't help."

"I don't think it's your place to tell me what I should and shouldn't drink." Her blue eyes narrowed.

"I couldn't care less what you drink, woman. I was simply telling you why you are unable to sleep."

Sally set the can down on an endtable with more force than necessary. "Oh, you've just got all the answers, don't you?? You're always right about everything and you never make any mistakes." She paused. "With one exception."

Wufei folded his arms. "And what's that?"

"You didn't count on me falling in love with you." Sally brushed away a stray tear, determined not to let him see her cy. "You didn't count on me wanting anything more than a good time every now and then."

"Woman...," he began in a dangerous tone.

Sally shot to her feet. "Don't deny it!! Unless you can look me in the eye and tell me you want to marry me, it's over, Wufei. Because I am no one's good time! And if you're not willing to be anything more or if you don't want anything more from me, then it's time to move on. So I can find someone who does."

The tension in the air between them was thick. After what seemed like an eternity, Wufei unfolded his arms and carefully placed his hands in the pockets of his tuxedo pants. "Have I ever told you about my first wife?"

She blinked as though he had hit her. The possibility that Wufei had ever been married or even in a relationship with another woman had never occured to her. Sally slowly shook her head and waited for him to continue.

He sat on the edge of a small table. "We were married when I was fourteen, but the marriage was decided for us long before that. Probably from the time we were born." Wufei took one hand out of his pocket and ran it through his unkempt hair. "Her name was Merian. I didn't love her and she didn't love me. We certainly never had a physical relationship. And she died awhile before I came to Earth."

"Why have you never told me about her?"

"Because..." He looked up at the ceiling. "Even though I didn't love her like a husband, I grew to care about her very much. She was my wife....and she died. I wasn't able to stop it." His gaze dropped back to Sally's face. "If I were to marry you like I want to, it could happen again. History repeating itself..." Wufei shook his head. "I couldn't bear that. I had sooner die myself."

Sally approached him. "I'm not her, Wufei. There is no war. I'm not going to die."

"I know these things," he said. "But I've never felt about anyone the way I feel about you. I don't know how they do it. Yuy and Maxwell....even Zechs. I've found someone who makes me whole, just like they have, but I can't seem to let myself be filled..." His voice trailed off, as though he realized he had just said more about his inner feelings than he ever had before.

Fear and vulnerability was something Sally never thought she would see in the man she loved. Upon finding it buried deeply in the black centers of his eyes, all she could do was kiss him. The kiss was an assertion, promising him that it was all right to feel what he was feeling and that, as far as she could help it, she would never, ever leave him.

"I love you," she said, pulling her lips from his several minutes later.

He hesitated, but only for a second. "I love you."

"Let me fill you up."

Wufei nodded and pulled her down onto the couch. They tumbled over the armrest and landed on the cushions. In only minutes, they were naked and joined, rocking at a gentle pace, neither one in a hurry to finish. As the pleasure built, their speed inevitably increased, culminating in a shared orgasm that left them both flushed and placated.

He pressed a soft kiss onto her mouth. "Marry me."

She rubbed her swollen lips against his in a returned kiss. "Is that a request or a command?"

"It's a question. Say yes."

Chucking, she nodded. "I'll marry you. Because *I* want to."

"I wouldn't have it any other way." Wufei changed their position to love her all over again.

****
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Owari, Fin, Schtopp, The End

Exercise your right to vote! Another part...maybe something along the lines of baby-mania, or are you sick to death of this particular universe and want me to quit while I'm ahead? Let me know. As for right now, I'm going to bed for the next three days (by myself, thank you very much) in attempt to catch up on too many hours of lost sleep. I will wake up only to eat, take care of certain business and go to the anime club meeting on Saturday. I hope you enjoyed this story. It was very much fun to write. Goodnight.

~Kristen