Disclaimer: Gundam Wing isn't mine. *heavy sigh*

Warnings: Violence, Language, Duo Angst. No pairings, because
he's just too darn young, folks.  Possibly AU, but really just my
own attempt to fill in some of the blanks.

Important Plot Notes: 
In the official novelization of Duo's Episode Zero, it states
that Duo was not a native of L2, and that he just "wandered" to
Colony V08744 when he was seven years old.  This is where he met
Solo, eventually took upon himself the name of Duo, and was taken
in by Maxwell Church.  Nothing is known about his life before
then   not his real name, or how he came to be wandering about
the L2 colonies.

This story was inspired by wondering what had happened to him in
those first seven years before he met up with Solo's gang, as
well as stories my own mother told me about her days growing up
as a street rat.


Lost Boy
Part 1/?
a Gundam Wing Fanfic
by Krista Perry

~*~

A.C. 183

~*~

     Jacob sat on the window bench in the small, unfamiliar
living room, and peered out into the dark.  The overhead light
was on behind him and he couldn't see much at all, except his own
reflection.  His large blue-violet eyes, wide and pensive, seemed
to take up too much of his young, round-cheeked face.  Leaning
forward, he pressed his forehead against the cool glass, using
his small hands to shield his eyes so that he could see beyond
the glare, and hoped that he would see his mama.

     A long paved driveway wound away from the house and was lost
behind a grove of old cottonwood trees.  Faint starlight glinted
through the thin, dark clouds that swept the sky.  Nothing moved
except the trees and grasses rippling with the wind.

     He heard Miss Burke's footsteps come up behind him before
her shadow fell over him.  She reached out and smoothed her hand
over his short silken tangle of chestnut hair.  "Hey kiddo, see
anything interesting out there?  Sometimes we get a few rabbits
or deer on the lawn after nightfall."

     "Nuh-uh," he responded.  He turned to face her, his
expression far too serious for a child of only three years. 
"Mama and Daddy are late.  They said they would be here this
morning and that we could go home."

     "They've probably just been delayed a bit, that's all.  No
need to worry."

     Which was easy for her to say.  But he knew where Mama and
Daddy were.  They were at the Romerfeller Foundation, which meant
bad things, though he knew he wasn't supposed to know it.  They
never talked about their work around him, but he had caught
enough of their whispered conversations on the subject, and their
furtive, anxious glances at each other when ever it was
mentioned, to know that the Foundation wasn't good.  The
Foundation made Mama and Daddy afraid.  

     It didn't use to be like that.  Some of Jacob's first
memories were of being taken to Romerfeller "functions," as Mama
called them, before he could even walk or talk properly.  Mama
would always wear beautiful dresses, and Daddy would wear his
tuxedo with the dark purple vest that matched his eyes.  Then
they would go to a place where shining crystal hung from the
ceiling, and a lot of strangers would look down at him and smile,
and comment about how adorable he was, how he had his mother's
coloring, but his father's eyes.

     But shortly after he began talking, and people stopped
commenting on how he looked, and instead remarked constantly on
how amazingly *bright* he was, Mama and Daddy stopped attending
the functions.  But even then, they at least seemed content.

     The turning point was over a year ago, when they took him to
a Foundation doctor for his immunization shots.  The doctor was
friendly, and the shots didn't hurt bad enough to make him cry
(even though his eyes watered just a little bit).  The doctor had
asked him lots of questions about the stuff Mama and Daddy were
teaching him, like reading and writing, math, science and
history.  He didn't mind; he liked to talk about the stuff that
Mama and Daddy had shown him.  He thought it was neat.

     But then the doctor asked to speak to his parents outside. 
They left him alone in the large, plush office, sitting on the
table in his underwear, looking at all the framed charts and
diagrams and diplomas on the wall, and for a while, everything
was quiet.  They were gone long enough that he got bored and
decided to do a bit of exploring.  

     He was busy sorting through the doctor's instruments in the
table drawers, taking them out and then carefully laying them in
a neat row across the table top, trying to figure out what each
one was for, when he heard Mama's voice yelling outside the room. 
Then Daddy's voice joined hers, and soon they came bursting into
the doctor's office, looking as angry as he had ever seen them. 
For a moment, he was afraid that they were mad at him, but then
Mama picked him up and hugged him tight, while Daddy grabbed his
clothes, and then they left.  He didn't see the doctor, or anyone
else from the Foundation after that.

     And then, everything was fine for a long time.  He and Mama
and Daddy were happy.  Except that, sometimes, Mama or Daddy
would get a phone call, or a letter with a scarlet wax seal, and
then their expressions would become grim, and they would start
talking in hushed voices whenever he was around.  And lately,
those phone calls and letters had come more and more frequently,
until just last week, when Mama told him he would be coming to
stay with her friend for a short time while she and Daddy took
care of some business. 

     "Hey.  Come on, kiddo.  Don't worry so much."  Miss Burke
leaned down and gave him a reassuring smile.  Her thin face was
lined and careworn, but her brown eyes sparkled.  "Why don't we
go ahead and get ready for bed?  You in the mood for a bedtime
story?"

     Jacob turned back to the window.  He didn't want to go to
bed.  He didn't want a bedtime story.  Miss Burke was nice, and
he liked her... but he just wanted his mama and daddy, and he
wanted to go home.  

     "Now, don't be sad."  Jacob glanced over his shoulder to see
Miss Burke holding out his worn, fuzzy teddy bear.  "You don't
want to make Mushy Face sad, do you?"  He shook his head and took
his bear, hugging it tightly to his chest.

     "Come on.  We'll read Peter Pan.  Have you ever read Peter
Pan before?"

     Jacob shook his head again, but started to perk up.  He knew
that by "we'll read," she really meant that *he* would read. 
Miss Burke apparently found his reading a source of delight and
amusement, but that was okay.  He liked to read.  And Miss Burke
helped him pronounce any big or unfamiliar words, like Daddy did.

     "Okay then!"  Miss Burke beamed.  "You go brush your teeth
and get into your pajamas, and I'll go find the book."

     Jacob grinned.  "Race ya," he said.

     Miss Burke stared at him a moment, blinking... then darted
off towards the den and her library of books.  Jacob ran towards
the bedroom, laughing.

     A few minutes later, he was in bed snuggled up with Mushy
Face.  Miss Burke came into the room, holding a book and looking
sheepish.  "Looks like you beat me again, kiddo."

     "You should alphabetize your library," Jacob said, "so you
can find your books faster."

     Miss Burke raised an eyebrow and gave him that same funny,
kind of awed smile that she gave him whenever he read a
particularly hard word.  "Alphabetize, eh?  A very smart
suggestion from a very smart little boy," she said, "but I'm
afraid I find that monstrous stack of books a bit too
intimidating for me to attempt such a task."

     "I could help you," Jacob offered.

     "I bet you could," she said with all seriousness, handing
him the book.  He took it with both hands.  It was large and
heavy.  The worn, but remarkably preserved cover showed a boy
dressed in leaves, playing a set of pipes under a full moon.  The
boy was surrounded by tiny winged fairies, and children dressed
in animal skins. 

     "Now scoot over," Miss Burke said, patting the blankets. 
"This book has illustrations by Eric Kinkaid, and I want to see
them."

     He obliged, making sure there was enough room on either side
of him for both Miss Burke and Mushy Face on the narrow twin bed,
then opened the book.  Scanning the first page briefly, he felt
simultaneously pleased and disappointed that there were no new
words to learn.

     "Chapter One," he read.  "Peter Pan's Arrival.  All
children, except one strange little boy, grow up one day...."

     Jacob read until he was so sleepy he couldn't keep his eyes
open.  He fell asleep in mid word, sometime shortly after Peter
appeared at the nursery window and gnashed his pearly little
teeth at Mrs Darling.

     When he awoke again, the bedroom was dark, Miss Burke was
gone, and there were voices coming from the living room.

     Miss Burke's voice.  And his mama's voice.

     Suddenly wide awake and desperately happy, he grabbed Mushy
Face and slid out of bed, his bare feet hitting the rug with a
thump.  They were finally here!  They could go home now!

     He was halfway down the hallway when he realized how upset
the voices sounded... and that somebody was crying.  His dead run
slowed to a hesitant walk, then stopped altogether when he heard
Miss Burke's voice, broken with tears.

     "Oh god," she said.  "Oh, Laura.  Oh god.  I thought they
needed him.  Are you sure they killed him?"

     "Pretty damn sure," his mama said.  Her voice was soft and
hoarse and weary... he almost didn't recognize it.  "Not all this
blood is mine."  

     "Oh god."  Miss Burke choked on a sob.  "Poor Michael.  How
could this... what are you going to do?"

     "I'm taking Jacob right now."  Mama's voice was thin, but
determined.  "We're going into hiding.  It's him they want. 
Michael sacrificed his life to help me escape.  I'm not going to
let them take our son."

     Sudden sick fear filled the pit of Jacob's stomach. Slowly,
he peeked around the corner.  Miss Burke and Mama were kneeling
in the middle of the living room floor, holding each other. 
Their faces were wet with tears, and one side of Mama's face was
covered with something dark and crusty.  Her beautiful
waist-length golden brown hair was dark and matted in places that
glinted dark red in the lamplight.

     "Where will you go?" Miss Burke asked.

     "If you don't know, you can't tell," Mama said, and when
Miss Burke gasped, Mama grasped her shoulders and pushed her back
to look her in the face.  "I don't think they know about this
place, but I can't be sure.  I don't think we should take any
chances.  You should leave too.  Go somewhere... anywhere.  Do
you have a place you can go that's safe?"  

     White-faced, Miss Burke nodded.

     Mama's lips trembled.  "I'm so sorry, Beth.  We... didn't
mean to get you mixed up in any of this."

     "No," Miss Burke said.  "It's okay.  If it keeps little
Jacob out of their hands, it's worth it."

     Tears spilled down Mama's red-stained cheeks.  "Thank you,
Beth.  Thank you.  I'll never forget what you've done for us."

     Miss Burke stood and helped Mama to her feet.  "You should
go quickly.  If they do know about this place, they'll be here
soon."

     Mama nodded, then turned to the hallway.  Jacob saw her face
turn ashen as she saw him peeking around the corner at her; as
she saw in his terrified, wide-eyed expression that he heard
everything; worse -- that he understood everything.  One of her
hands reached up to cover her open mouth, and her eyes shimmered
with new tears.  "Oh, Jacob... my poor baby...."  She came to him
in two swift steps and swept him up into her arms.  His own arms
went instinctively around her neck as he buried his face against
her chest and trembled as she cradled his small body.

     *Where's Daddy?* he wanted to ask, but he knew.  Daddy was
Michael, and Mama said Michael was dead; that he had died to save
her life.  And Mama didn't lie.

     He would never see Daddy again.

     But even though he knew what that meant, he couldn't make
any real sense of it in his head.  So he just held on to Mama and
shook like a leaf as she smoothed his hair and whispered
comforting words at him.

     "It'll be okay, sweetie.  I won't let anyone hurt you. 
You're safe with me."  But he could feel his mama's tears on his
skin, and though he knew she didn't lie, it made him wonder.

     They left quickly.  Mama only took time to wash the blood
from her face, bandage the nasty, oozing gash at her temple, and
grab his overnight bag.  Miss Burke gave him a hug so fierce that
she pressed the breath from his lungs, then kissed him on the
cheek, but didn't say anything.  That was fine with him, because
he didn't feel much like talking anyway.  

     He held on tightly to Mushy Face as Mama buckled him into
the passenger front seat of a car that he had never seen before. 
Under normal circumstances, this would have excited him to no
end, since, being so small, the law required that he be relegated
to a car seat in the back.  But now that Mama finally wanted him
in the front seat with her, he couldn't bring himself to care
about the novelty.  He couldn't even work up the energy to be
curious when Mama didn't use keys to start the car, but instead
fiddled with some wires hanging out from underneath the steering
wheel. 

     They drove off into the night, leaving Miss Burke and her
house full of books behind.  Mama reached over and stroked his
cheek with one hand.

     "Why don't you try to get some sleep, sweetie?" she said.

     He just nodded, and stared out the window at the trees
blotting out the night sky.  He tried to imagine that the trees
were moving, but that the car was standing still, like he usually
did on long rides.

     The game didn't work this time.  And when he occasionally
stole a glance at Mama, her face was always wet from silent
weeping.

     When the trees and starlight and darkness could no longer
keep his mind from the ache within him... he thought about Daddy
being gone forever.  Daddy, who would never again help him read
or spell, or teach him math and science, or help him build
working mech models.  Daddy, who would never kiss Mama in the
kitchen and then pretend to be embarrassed when Jacob walked in
on them, or pretend that Jacob was a fierce dragon and he a brave
knight, or visa versa, and then laugh at Mama's smiling,
half-hearted protests at once again being cast as the damsel in
distress.  He thought about Daddy's laughing, violet eyes, so
similar to his own, that he would never see again.

     And Jacob thought about him and Mama being alone without
Daddy for the rest of their lives, and then the tears were
rolling down his cheeks, and he buried his face into his teddy
bear and tried to cry as silently as Mama.

     He must have cried himself to sleep, because when he next
opened his eyes, the sun was up and the car was stopped.  He felt
a brief moment of stabbing panic as he noticed that Mama wasn't
in the driver's seat, but when he sat up and unbuckled himself so
that he could kneel on the seat and look out the window, he saw
that they were in an otherwise empty mini-market parking lot, and
that Mama was inside at the cashier.  Her hair, he noticed, was
tucked up into a baseball cap, and she was wearing sunglasses.

     "Morning, sweetie," she said when she came back out to the
car.  She pulled out a breakfast bar and a pint of milk from her
plastic bag of supplies and handed it to him with a smile.  "Not
exactly a gourmet breakfast, sorry."

     But Jacob didn't care about that.  "Mama," he said.  "Where
are we going?"

     Her smile faltered for just a moment.  "We're running," Mama
told him.  "We're running and hiding.  We're going somewhere far
away, where the bad people who... who hurt your daddy can't find
us."

     Jacob felt his lip quiver and his eyes sting, but he
swallowed hard against it.  "Where?" he persisted.

     She was silent for a long moment, her eyes behind the
sunglasses looking off into the distance.  "L2 is a good place to
go if you want to disappear."

     "The colonies on the dark side of the moon?" he asked,
surprised.

     She nodded.

     "Do we get to take a shuttle?"

     "Maybe."

     Jacob pondered that, with something akin to a glimmer of
excitement stirring in his chest.  He had never been in space
before.

     "Can I have the window seat?"

     "That all depends on whether I can get us a ride as
passengers or as cargo," Mama said with a tired, wry grin.

     Jacob blinked.  "Oh."  He hadn't thought of that.  If people
from the Foundation were looking for them, they would have to
make sure that any flight they took off Earth couldn't be traced. 
They couldn't be recognized.  They might even have to sneak
aboard somehow.

     "Mama... what happens if we get caught?"

     "We're not going to get caught, sweetie."

     "But what if--"

     "Jacob."  Mama's voice was edging towards disciplinary
sternness.  "We'll be fine.  Stop worrying about it."

     And when Mama stopped answering his questions like that, he
knew that meant Mama either didn't have the answer, or didn't
want him to know the answer.  And that scared him most of all.

     They drove the rest of that day, only stopping for food
supplies and bathroom breaks.  That night, they turned off the
main road and drove for a few miles before stopping at the Lazy
Lizard Motel.  The motel consisted of a long row of decaying,
ramshackle cabins that might once have been painted bright green,
but now the cracked and peeling paint was a sun-faded moss grey. 
The place looked almost abandoned, except for the single light in
the check-in office.  

     When they walked through the office door, the grizzled old
man behind the counter looked up in surprise.

     "Well, a couple of lonely wanderers, eh?" he said with a
smile.  "What brings you out this way?  This is mostly a stop off
point for hikers and bikers making their way 'cross country,
but..."  The old man looked them over and raised his bushy grey
eyebrows.  "You two don't look like you've done much hiking or
biking recently.  In fact..."  He eyed the edge of white gauze
sticking out from under Mama's baseball cap.  "You look like
you're doing a bit of running." 

     Jacob looked up at Mama, worried at how this old man was
hitting so close to the mark just from one glance at them, but
she just grinned.  "You're pretty observant," she said.

     "Comes with the territory," the old man said with a good
natured chuckle.  "Always meeting new people from all over, and
everybody has a story.  So, whatcha running from?"

     "Abusive boyfriend," she answered, without missing a beat,
and with enough bitterness that Jacob blinked in surprise.  Mama
pointed at her bandaged temple.  "This was the final straw."

     The old man nodded, sympathetic.  "I see.  You were smart to
get away when you did.  Too many girls in that situation sit
there and take it until it's too late.  But I seen a few smart
ones come through here over the years, just like you.  You got
some place to go?"

     Mama nodded.  "We're on our way to stay with my aunt in
California."

     Which was nowhere near where they were headed, or where they
had come from, Jacob noticed.  He could hardly believe he was
sitting here listening to his mama spin such a lie, or that the
man seemed to believe it.  But then, he supposed Mama couldn't
exactly tell him the truth either.

     And, now that he thought about it, it wasn't like Mama was
really lying.  It was more like she was playing along with the
assumptions the old man made about her when she walked through
the door.

     Mama paid the man cash in advance, told him that they would
probably be leaving before sunrise, and thanked him for his
hospitality.  When they got to their room, the first thing Mama
did was unpack one of the bags of supplies she'd bought at the
convenience store earlier that day and pull out a pair of
scissors and some dark hair dye.

     Jacob still didn't comprehend what Mama was going to do
until she brought the scissors up to her own long locks, and a
mass of severed golden brown hair fell to the floor.  He jumped
to his feet.  "Mama!" he protested.

     She just looked at him with sad eyes.  "I know, sweetie, I
can't say I'm happy about this either, considering how long I've
been trying to grow it out.  But they'll be watching for us at
the space ports.  I'd rather have short hair and escape, than
have long hair and get caught."

     Jacob didn't say anything then.  He just watched in silent
dismay as each snip of the scissors sent more of his mama's
beautiful hair tumbling to the ugly orange shag carpet.  But when
she was finally done, he thought that maybe her idea would work,
because she almost didn't look like Mama anymore, with her hair
cut short around her jaw line like that.

     She then went into the small bathroom, emerging a while
later with her newly-cropped hair black as night, and a fresh
bandage on her temple.  Jacob blinked at her in amazement.  She
grinned and did a little twirl, making her short hair briefly fan
out around her face.  "Well, what do you think?"

     "Wow," he replied.  "You look really... different, Mama."

     "That's the point, sweetie.  And now," she said, holding up
the bottle of hair dye, "it's your turn."

     A few minutes later, he was wishing he hadn't been so
willing to go along with Mama's idea of a disguise.  For one
thing, the hair dye gave off acidy-smelling fumes that made his
eyes sting.  Also, sitting naked in the half-filled rust-stained
bathtub, he wasn't sure if he was more unnerved by the stinky
gunk in his hair, or the fact that, before they filled the tub,
Mama had shown him several large, dead cockroaches in the garbage
that she had cleaned out of the tub before her own bath.  He had
read somewhere that bugs sometimes lived in water pipes, and he
eyed the faucet nervously, wondering if big cockroaches would
come plopping out into his bath water at any moment.

     "You sure this stuff isn't gonna eat my hair away and leave
me bald?" he asked, looking up at Mama balefully, and trying not
to think of creepy crawly insects.

     "Your hair will be fine," Mama assured him.  "Trust me.  I
know women who do this to their hair at least once a month."

     "Ew."  Jacob wrinkled his nose.  "I'm surprised they don't
asphic... asphicly...."

     "Asphyxiate?"

     "Yeah.  That word."

     Mama laughed.

     In the end, his bath water remained cockroach-free, and his
hair did not, in fact, dissolve away, but instead turned from
chestnut brown to jet black.  It made him feel weird to look in
the mirror and see unfamiliar hair around his face.  But it also
made him glad, because he saw how smart Mama's idea was.  The bad
people who were looking for them would have a hard time finding
them, now that they didn't even look like themselves anymore.

     Mama told him not to dress in his pajamas, saying that it
was best that they stay in their regular clothes, just in case
they had to leave quickly.  So he slept in his shorts and
t-shirt, snuggled up against Mama, clutching Mushy Face to his
chest.

     He dreamed about Daddy.  Daddy was sitting motionless on a
chair in a dark room, his face shrouded in shadow.  Jacob could
see his lips moving in the darkness, but no sound came out.  And
when he tried to go to Daddy, to climb up on his lap so that
maybe he could hear what he was saying, he found he couldn't
move.  As he struggled helplessly, screaming and fighting against
whatever bound him motionless, the shadows slowly grew, creeping
over Daddy's motionless form until darkness consumed him
completely.

     Jacob woke up crying; his hair, his pillow and his teddy
bear damp with tears.  Mama's arms were wrapped around him, and
she was stroking his hair, whispering soothing words, but when he
looked at her, her eyes were closed, and her lashes glittered
wetly.  

     After that, he drifted in the groggy, restless state between
waking and sleeping, until Mama gently nudged his shoulder and
said it was time to go.



~*~

Lost Boy
Part 2/?
a Gundam Wing Fanfic
by Krista Perry

~*~

     It was still dark when they left the Lazy Lizard behind,
with only a hint of pale light staining the eastern horizon. 
Jacob, tired though he was, his eyes puffy and scratchy from
crying, couldn't help his mounting interest as Mama started the
car again by touching and twisting a couple of wires together
under the steering wheel.  

     "How did you learn to do that?" he asked.

     Mama looked at him, startled for a moment, before pulling
out onto the road.  "Learn to do what?" she asked.

     "Start the car with just those wires instead of a key."

     She glanced at him, her tired eyes looking bruised in the
dim light from the dashboard.  Then the corner of her mouth
turned up in a half smile.  "Not much gets past you, does it,
sweetie?"

     "Nope," he agreed, then kept looking at her to let her know
he didn't want her changing the subject.

     She chuckled a little.  "Well... I taught myself, mostly."

     "Why?"

     "Um... It seemed like a good idea at the time?"

     Jacob frowned.  "Mama...."

     She sighed.  "Because," she said, "in my line of work, you
never know when you may need to appropriate some transportation
to get out of a tight situation."

     Jacob thought about that.  

     He understood that the car wasn't theirs; that Mama must
have stolen it when escaping from the people who killed Daddy. 
He understood, and found that he didn't really care that much --
about the stealing part, anyway.  If Mama did it, then it had to
be done.  And he was glad.  Stealing the car meant she could
safely get away from the bad people.  If she hadn't, she might
also be dead, and he would be all alone now.  Just the thought
terrified him.

     "Will you teach me how to do it?" he asked.

     That small, strange half smile again.  "Maybe later,
sweetie."

     "How much later?" he persisted.

     "When you're big enough to reach the floor pedals and look
over the dashboard at the same time."

     In other words, not just later, but when he was older -- a
lot older.  Jacob swallowed against a pang of disappointment.

     She saw the look on his face out of the corner of her eye. 
"Sorry, sweetie," she said, though the humor in her voice said
she was anything but.  "I'm afraid I just can't see the use of
teaching you how to hot-wire a car until you can at least drive
away with it afterwards."

     Hot-wire.  A new word.  It sounded kind of cool.  "But if
you taught me how to hot-wire," he argued, "then I could help
you.  I wouldn't have to drive, but it could still save time if
we get in a 'tight situation.'"

     Her smile faded, and she raised an eyebrow. "Sometimes I
forget just how smart you are," she murmured, her eyes fixed on
the road ahead.  "You... you're too young to be thinking about
such things, Jacob.  I know your Daddy and I have always helped
you in whatever you wanted to learn about... but you'll have to
forgive your old-fashioned Mama for not wanting to start her son
out in a life of crime at the tender age of three."

     Three and a half, Jacob almost corrected, but her words made
him pause, and think about something he hadn't considered before.

     "Are we criminals, Mama?" he asked.

     Mama sighed again, and was silent for so long that he
wondered if she would answer at all.

     "Technically," she said at last, "I suppose we are.  Now,
anyway.  I didn't actually break any real laws until after
they...."  She pressed her lips together tightly for a moment,
and Jacob could see her jaw working.  She took a deep breath. 
"But... your Daddy and I... we refused to cooperate with the
Romerfeller Foundation, and that made them angry.  And because
the Foundation has such influence over the Alliance government...
well, they can turn the laws, and the people who enforce them,
against us, even if we haven't done anything wrong."  She
chuckled bitterly.  "So hey, what's a little grand theft auto
here and there in the face of trumped-up treason charges, eh?"

     "Treason?"  Another new word.  He didn't like the sound of
it, though.

     "It means... betraying the government, sweetie."

     "Oh."  Jacob sat clutching his teddy bear, his thoughts in
turmoil.  "Why... why didn't you and Daddy cooperate?"

     His mama looked at him then, and her eyes were wet. 
"Because," she said, "what they wanted from us was just too
awful.  And keeping them from having it is worth defying them...
and worth dying for."  She reached out and touched his cheek with
her fingertips.  "Don't ever think that your daddy died for
nothing, Jacob.  He was very brave, doing what he did."

     Jacob nodded wordlessly, even though he didn't fully
understand.  He didn't even know if he wanted to understand,
because what he knew already hurt enough.  Tears stung the backs
of his eyes, but he was tired of crying, so he just sniffled, and
forced the tears away, rubbing his eyes with the back of his
hand.

     They drove in silence for a while after that.  With the
rising sun peeking over the low hills on the passenger side of
the car, he knew they were traveling due north, but otherwise had
no indication of where they were going.  Feeling exhausted from
his restless night's sleep, Jacob dozed.

     He was jolted roughly awake around noon when Mama pulled the
car onto a bumpy dirt road.  He looked up to see that they were
driving through a shady tunnel of trees, the branches forming a
natural arch over the deeply rutted road.  He briefly considered
the possibility of drifting back to sleep, when Mama hit a
particularly jarring pothole that made his teeth rattle.

     "Ow," he grumbled, sitting up straight in his seat.

     "Sorry, sweetie."  Mama gave him an apologetic smile. 
"Better hang on, because it doesn't look like this road gets any
better."  

     "Where are we going now?" he asked sleepily, rubbing one eye
with the palm of his hand.

     "Just off the main road for a bit," Mama answered.

     "Why?"

     "You'll see.  You hungry?"

     Jacob nodded vigorously.

     "Well, I'm afraid our current supplies consist of warm
juice, bottled water and nutrition bars.  But hey," Mama said
with a wry grin.  "It's better than nothing, right?"

     Jacob was hungry enough to agree.

     When they finally came to a stop, Mama got out of the car
and opened the trunk, while Jacob unbuckled his seatbelt and
clambered into the back seat to where the food stash was.  He
looked through the plastic bags at the various boxes of nutrition
bars, and decided on oatmeal and raisin.  "What kind do you want,
Mama?" he asked, as she slid back into the front seat lugging a
large, black briefcase.

     "I'll pass for now," Mama said, as she opened the briefcase
and pulled out a sleek-looking laptop computer, as well as
several high-tech-looking attachments and components that he
didn't recognize.

     "What are you doing, Mama?" he asked, as she booted up the
laptop.

     "Making sure we can get off the planet safely.  Come back up
here," she said, moving the briefcase out of the way.  "I'll show
you."

     He climbed back over the front seat, a little awkwardly,
since the seat's angle was against him this time, and he had a
nutrition bar clutched in his small fist.  Still, he managed it
without too much hassle, even though he landed in a tangle of
limbs on Mushy Face.  Mama chuckled at him, and he gave her a
half-hearted frown as he quickly sorted himself out and scooted
next to her so he could see the laptop screen.

     "Okay.  This is a map of where we are," she said as an image
popped up on the screen. "The area shown is approximately 600
miles across.  We're right here," she said, pointing at almost
the exact center.  "Now, can you find the space ports on the
map?"

     He could, and he did.  There were seven, surrounding the
center point in an imperfect cluster.  "Is that why we're here?"
he asked.  "You couldn't decide which space port to use, and so
you decided to go where you could access a whole bunch of them?"

     Mama beamed at him proudly.  "An excellent deduction," she
said.  "And pretty close to what I have in mind."  The map
disappeared, and Mama began typing, her fingers blurring over the
keys as complex code began to fill the screen.  

     "You see, sweetie, the Foundation has no doubt increased
security at the all the space ports because they know, or at
least suspect that we'll be trying to reach the colonies.  But
what we have going for us is that they *also* want to be discreet
about the situation, and not alert the general public.  The last
thing they want is me spreading it around just how deep their
influence with the United Earth Sphere Alliance goes, not to
mention what they are doing with some of their secret pet weapons
projects...."  Her eyes clouded for just a moment, before she
blinked, and continued.  "Anyway... I just need to do a bit of
hacking into the space ports' systems to see what our options are
-- whether it's feasible or not for us to actually pass through
security and travel as regular passengers."

     "Oh," Jacob said, his brow furrowed with thought, not sure
what that had to do with their current location, but now more
concerned with a different issue.  "Mama, if telling their
secrets will get the Foundation in trouble, and show everyone
that they're the bad guys, why don't you do it?  Then we wouldn't
have to run and hide from them at all."

     Mama's hands paused over the keyboard.  "Because, sweetie." 
Jacob blinked at the sudden gravity of Mama's voice, and how
shadowed and weary she suddenly looked.  "Threatening to tell
their secrets is precisely why they killed your daddy."

     Jacob's eyes widened, and he felt suddenly dizzy.  Mama
reached over and pulled him to her in a fierce hug.  "I'm sorry. 
I don't mean to scare you... but this is something you need to
know.  I don't dare go to the public with this.  If I did, even
if I succeeded in getting the truth out, I have no doubt the
Federation would... have me killed.  I wouldn't be safe, no
matter where I went.  Do you remember what happened to Heero Yuy,
the colonial leader who was trying to unify the colonies under a
doctrine of absolute pacifism about eight years ago?"

     Five years before he was born.  But he had seen it on the
vids.  Right in the middle of a public speech, in broad daylight,
the man was shot and killed by an unknown assassin.  Jacob nodded
slowly, cold fear coiling in his belly.

     "That was the Foundation?" he whispered.

     Mama nodded tightly.

     "If we go into hiding on L2," she said, hugging him close,
"we'll be safe.  The Foundation won't find us there.  And maybe,
if we leave them alone and don't do anything to stir up trouble,
they'll eventually forget about us altogether."  She kissed the
top of his head.  "I just want you to grow up not having to worry
about stuff like this.  L2 isn't the best place to live in the
sphere, and we won't have a lot of the luxuries we're used to,
but at least we'll be alive, and have each other, and that's
what's important."

     Jacob just nodded against Mama's chest.  He didn't try to
speak around the lump in his throat.

     "Now then," she said with forced cheerfulness.  "Let's not
worry about the bad stuff right now."  She tilted his chin up to
look at her.  "Okay, sweetie?" she said.  She was smiling, but
there was a tightness around her eyes.

     Jacob tried to smile back.  "O- okay."

     "That's the ticket.  You don't need to worry about us
getting caught.  I know how the Foundation works.  I know their
limits, and because I know what they can and can't do, I know how
to make sure they don't find us.  Hey, didn't you want to know
why I picked this area to stop?"

     He'd nearly forgotten.  "Yeah," he said.

     "The reason we're here" she said, briefly gesturing at their
isolated, forested surroundings, "is just in case, by some very
slim chance, they somehow manage to pick up on my hacking in
spite of all my security measures, and *then* manage to somehow
trace our location.  But even if they figure out where we are,
this location gives us an advantage because we're right within
easy access of seven different space ports.  They won't know
which one we're headed for, and that means they'll have to spread
themselves a bit thin looking for us.  But that," she said,
throwing him a wink, "is *only* if they catch me hacking."

     Jacob blinked, his apprehension sliding away under a wave of
curiosity.  "Can I watch?" he asked.

     "Step right up and watch your amazing mother at work," she
said, cracking her knuckles with relish before attacking the
keyboard once again.

     So Jacob munched on his nutrition bar and watched, amazed
and barely comprehending, as Mama typed lines upon lines of
letters, numbers and odd characters that made no sense that he
could see.  And yet, whatever she was doing worked, because,
after enough time passed that Jacob thought he was starting to
see patterns in Mama's seemingly random typing, they were
suddenly looking at the security reports for each of the
surrounding space ports.

     Mama quickly scanned the reports, and frowned.

     "What is it?" Jacob asked.  Most of the security reports
were full of abbreviations and acronyms that he didn't recognize.

     "I was afraid of this," she said.  "As of this morning, they
are now requiring hand prints and retina scans to confirm
passenger identity for anyone traveling to the colonies."  She
sighed.  "And here I cut my hair and everything."

     Jacob gasped, horrified.  "You mean, you didn't have to?" 
He still felt a strange jolt whenever he looked at Mama and saw
her with short black hair instead of the long, golden-brown
tresses he was used to.

     "I didn't mean it that way," she said, her voice resigned. 
"A change in hairstyle might not get you through a retina scan,
but it can still help fool your average security guard or cop who
may have only seen your face on a wanted poster."

     "Oh."  Jacob felt strangely relieved.  He hated to think of
Mama chopping off her beautiful hair for nothing.  "So... isn't
there a way around the scans?" 

     "Of course," Mama replied.  "This just means our trip is
probably going to be... a bit uncomfortable."  And she began
typing again.

     This time, she pulled up records of local exports; goods
being shipped off to the colonies from Earth.  She found
blueprints of warehouses, records of their security measures, and
shipping procedures.  Jacob's stomach sank as he began to get a
sneaking suspicion of exactly how Mama planned to get them to L2.

     "Are we going to L2... in a shipping crate?" he asked
hesitantly.

     She sighed, even as she continued typing.  "Most likely. 
With all the security focused on watching people boarding regular
shuttle flights, stowing away on some nondescript cargo ship is
the best way I can think of safely getting off-planet."

     "Aw, jeeze."

     Mama chuckled thinly.  "For your next history assignment,
I'm going to have you read about the ancient American pilgrims,
and how they traveled with hundreds of people crammed elbow to
elbow in the bottom of a ship for months on end.  When you're
through, maybe getting jostled around in a box for a couple of
days might not seem so bad."

     Jacob doubted it.  "What if the gravity is turned off during
the flight?  How will we go to the bathroom if we're in a box for
two days?" he asked.

     "Very, *very* carefully," Mama replied.

     Not the most comforting answer.  He had always wanted to go
into space and experience zero-G, but being a fugitive was taking
all the fun out of it.  He sulked for a moment, before deciding
that he was feeling a bit too restless and fidgety to think about
it much more. "Can I go play?"

     "What, don't you want to see if you'll be traveling to L2
with..." Mama looked at a window she had just pulled up. 
"...frozen mackerel?"

     He frowned and shook his head vehemently.

     Mama laughed.  "Okay, sweetie.  Just don't wander off to
where I can't see you."

     Grabbing Mushy Face by one fuzzy brown arm, he quickly
climbed out of the car.  

     Warm, mid-afternoon sunlight filtered through the canopy of
tree branches arching over the rough dirt road, and a soft breeze
brushed through the leaves, creating patterns of moving, speckled
shadows on the ground.  Over in the tall grasses at the side of
the road, he spotted a cluster of small yellow butterflies
fluttering among some wild daisies.  Grinning, he dropped his
teddy bear and dashed over to the side of the road, hoping to
catch one of the pretty insects.

     He quickly discovered, however, that catching butterflies
was harder than it looked.  They didn't seem to be very fast, but
that initial impression was deceiving.  He knew he had to use
both of his small, cupped hands to catch one without crushing it,
but just when he thought he had one, the butterfly would abruptly
change direction, and he would find himself closing his hands on
thin air.

     After a few minutes of running around haphazardly after the
flighty insects, he collapsed, laughing and out of breath.  Lying
there on the grass, gulping air into his lungs, he decided that
if he really wanted to catch a butterfly, he needed to change his
strategy.  So, after he caught his breath, he picked a few of the
wild flowers, sat down in the grass, put the flowers in his lap,
then rested his cupped hands on his legs on either side of his
makeshift bouquet, like the jaws of a trap.

     Then he held as perfectly still as he could manage.

     It was hard to be patient and sit, completely unmoving, as
butterflies flitted around him, often agonizingly close, to the
point where he thought he might be successful if he just reached
out to catch one.  But he knew he wasn't fast enough, and so he
sat quietly, only moving his eyes, watching.  He refused to be
tempted into moving preemptively, even when a butterfly lit it
his hair, right on the tangled fall of black-dyed bangs hanging
in front of his eyes.  He nearly went cross-eyed looking at it
until it flew off again.

     Soon after that, though, his patience was finally rewarded. 
One of the butterflies flitted over the flowers in his lap, right
between his cupped hands.  Quickly, he brought his hands
together, then crowed in triumph as he felt the delicate wings
beating against his palms.

     "Mama!" he called, jumping to his feet, hands carefully
cupped in front of him.  He turned to see that she was already
watching him, leaning over the hood of the car, her chin resting
in one hand, and a soft, melancholy smile on her face.  He ran
over to her, grinning from ear to ear.  "I caught one, I caught
one!"

     "I saw, sweetie," she said, kneeling down to his level and
returning his grin.  "So, what are you going to do now?"

     He responded by carefully opening his cupped hands.  He
watched the little yellow butterfly with wide eyes at it sat
perched on his fingers for a moment, its wings opening and
closing a few times, before it once again took to the air.  He
grinned.

     "That was fun," he declared, and ran over to collect Mushy
Face from where he'd dropped him in the dirt.

     "Yes it was," Mama agreed, stretching her arms over her
head.  "So, you ready to go, sweetie?"

     "Did you find a way to L2?" he asked, running back over to
her side.

     "Sure did," she said, a look of satisfaction on her face. 
"In two days, Reed Fashion Industries will be shipping 85 pallets
of their latest clothing line from the Denver Space Port to
Colony V05176 in the main L2 cluster, via the Class T-4 cargo
ship, the Mercer.  The crates are 5 feet square, which, while it
will be extremely cramped, is still room enough for the two of
us, as well as our bags and supplies, since we'll only take what
we can carry anyway.  Aside from that, security at the warehouse
is minimal at best, which should give us plenty of time and
opportunity to hijack a crate and make it our little hidey hole."

     Jacob's brown furrowed.  "But what about air?" he asked. 
"How can we breathe if we're stuck a box the whole time?"

     Mama made a face and rolled her eyes dramatically. 
"Bathroom facilities... breathable air... you don't demand much,
do you?"

     He couldn't help but snicker as Mama winked at him and
reached down to smooth his hair affectionately.  "You think I'd
forget about something like that?  Fortunately for us, according
to Mercer ship logs, the cargo hold remains pressurized
throughout their trips.  And since the crates are stacked two
high, and eight to a pallet, no matter where we get stacked,
we'll have at least two sides facing open air.  So don't worry. 
I'll make sure we have plenty of air holes.  Oh, and you'll be
happy to know," she added, with an amused twitch of her lips,
"that they also leave the gravity on."
     
     Jacob sighed.  "I guess that sounds okay."

     Mama nodded.  "That settles it, then.  Shall we be off?" Her
voice and her smile were full of confidence.  Her eyes, though...
for a moment, Jacob thought he saw glimmers of carefully hidden
doubt, fear, and a terrible, soul-consuming grief. 

     He saw those things in his mama's eyes, and felt them echo
in his own heart.  It would have made him hesitate, except that,
above all that, overriding even the glimpses of grief so raw that
it hurt to look at it... he saw in his mama's eyes a savage,
unrelenting determination.

     He knew his mama.  She would keep him safe.  She would
protect him, no matter what.

     He reached up, wrapped his small hand around her fingers,
and gave her his bravest smile. 

     "Let's go to L2, Mama."


~*~

To be continued.

Feedback is welcome and greatly appreciated. Show no mercy.  I
can take it.

^_^

-Krista
----------------------
krista.perry@comcast.net
http://www.utukki.com
LiveJournal:  http://www.livejournal.com/~utukki