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"Silver Strand"Written By: Clara Barton Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing. The following
is an intellectual exercise with no intention of profit. That said,
these characterizations, words, and situations are mine. Please ask
before reprinting. Rating: NC 17 Warnings: angst, language, violence, character
death, drugs, sex, AU Pairings: 2x3, 1x2, 2x5, 3x5, 2x3x5, 2x13, 4x6,
HxR, 9xS, 1xD, others Summary: The world had shifted, boundaries had been crossed, right and wrong had long ago been abandoned. A dark story of revenge, love, loss and drug smuggling. AU set in Coronado, California in the 1970s. Based on/Inspired by Joshuah Bearman's "Coronado High" A/N: As always, thank you to Ro for your patience,
encouragement and friendship. You are a remarkable beta reader. "Silver Strand"
Wufei had spent an hour at the store deliberating on whether or not to get a hammock. Chang Wufei, growing up in a Boston row house with a scant ten-foot square patch of dirt for a backyard, had never even used a hammock, much less had one rigged up. In Vietnam, they were everywhere, elaborately chained together and made of the heavy duty green canvas that never seemed to be in short supply even when everything else was. Guys would even rig them up in the field, insisting sleeping in the air kept the worst of the bugs away, glaring at Wufei when he pointed out that bugs and snakes had no problem scaling trees. But now, in Coronado, posing as a stoner vet trying to scrounge together whatever kind of work he could, living in a minuscule beach-side bungalow, Wufei had decided a hammock was a necessity. And maybe it wasn't, not really, but then again, when Wufei laid in it at night and closed his eyes to listen to the rumbling surf, it gave him the smallest measure of peace, the only peace he had felt for a very long time. He and Meilan had never gotten along. That they were second cousins and spent every second arguing with each other didn't seem to factor into anyone's decision that they should get married. The wedding itself had been hurried and awkward - Wufei was due to ship out in just one week, and Meilan had to sit her final exams at Stanford in two days. They spent the honeymoon studying, the importance of an education being the only thing they could agree on, and when they finally lay down in the giant bed together, exhausted and feeling almost charitable towards one another, Wufei told her the secret that he had never spoken aloud before. "I'm homosexual." She had been silent in the darkness, long enough that Wufei had built his defenses back up and tried to think of how to control the damage, of what to tell the family when Meilan inevitably spread his greatest shame. "Maybe being drafted into the army will have a few perks for you, then," she said. He was so anxious that he didn't immediately process the joke. By the time he did, the moment had passed and Meilan had shifted in the bed, moved over to lay her head against his back and place her arm around his waist. It was the most intimate moment Wufei had ever shared with anyone. "I'm not going to move to Boston and become the perfect daughter-in-law for your mother." Wufei had to snort a laugh. The very image of Meilan cooking and cleaning while his mother critiqued her every move and Meilan kept a fake smile plastered on her face was ludicrous. "Do you want an annulment?" It was only fair to offer it to her. "No." He could feel her heartbeat, the warm puff of her words against his skin. "They would just try to foist me off on someone else. I've been offered a job in Coronado, teaching elementary school. I'm moving there after I graduate." "Coronado?" "It's near San Diego. Isolated, quiet, beautiful. Full of hippies and peaceniks." "Your kind of people," Wufei muttered, thinking about all of the complaints from her parents over the years about Meilan protesting one thing or another, their sheer horror when she went to peace rallies and Civil Rights marches. "Well, and there's the naval base. Should keep things a little interesting. I'll get a two bedroom house. If you don't get yourself killed, you can come visit me after the war." Wufei hadn't gotten himself killed, but even before he had returned from Vietnam - while he was in a field hospital being treated for what he insisted were minor injuries but had earned him the glare of more than a few nurses and an eyeroll from an overworked medic - Wufei had been approached by someone in the army intelligence branch, had been told that the FBI was looking for talented individuals like himself, and when he got stateside, he should think about it. The flight back was plenty of time for Wufei to think about it. His philosophy degree felt useless in the face of everything he had witnessed, everything he had DONE. The intellectualism that Meilan had always needled him about felt just as silly and worthless as she had always insisted. Joining the FBI, making himself useful, working to eradicate evil one case at a time - he could do that. Outside of the jungle, outside of the swampy mess of chaos and war, Wufei knew he could judge wrong and right. Knew his inner compass would steer him just as it always had, but now there would be a true north to guide him. He had taken the job, had gone through the training and taken his assignment in Texas with no complaints. It wasn't until two years later, until the call from his mother, that Wufei even allowed himself to remember that night of peace, of union, he had experienced. "Meilan is dead. They found her body in Mexico." His mother had been cold, her disapproval of both Meilan and Wufei had been a constant thread in their conversations for four years. But Wufei... Wufei hadn't felt cold at all. Hadn't felt the numbness that had surrounded his heart and mind since his first day in Vietnam, when he had watched a man's legs get blown off by a landmine and a small child get shot in the neck when she started to fire a pistol at his patrol, the recoil so strong she staggered back with each step, until the spray of bullets that hit her sent her flying to the ground. Wufei felt anger, felt guilt and loss, and he FELT. For the first time in years. Meilan was dead. The second bedroom of her house never used, her dreams to change the world turning to ash in Wufei's mouth. "The policeman who called say she was shot. Say she was murdered." Two years of working for the FBI had given Wufei the structure and purpose he desperately needed after being made so brutally aware of the failures in his worldview. The murder of his wife sent all of that crashing down. "I'll take care of it," Wufei told his mother before hanging up. It was one of the things his time in the army had drilled into him. You take care of your own. The men around you were more than brothers. The things you saw - the things you did - they bonded you together in ways no one wanted. And you took care of each other, you protected each other, and you got revenge when one of them fell. He would take care of this, would take care of Meilan in the only way he could. ~ * ~ Chapter 6 |
