Kindergarten Heero Part 13
"Sorry, Uncle Duo. But I need the colour to be... red!" Helen slapped down a Wild Draw 4 card and giggled.
Heero leaned over and reminded her in a loud whisper, "How many cards do you have left?"
"Oops! Uno!"
Duo gave Heero a mock-scowl. "Now, what'd you go and do that for?" he grumbled as he picked up four cards from the draw pile, adding them to the single card already in his hand. "Now she's going to win..."
Heero just grinned. "Who reminded you last time, Helen?" He'd been a bit surprised by just how little prompting the girl had required. But then again, the rules were pretty straightforward, just basic colour and number matching really. And Helen had been positively scornful of his suggestion that they should play one of her games instead. She'd loftily informed him that those were only played when little kids came to visit. She played grownup games.
"Uncle Duo did!" Helen bounced a little in her chair and urged, "Your turn, Mr. Yuy!"
Shaking his head, Heero surveyed his cards. "You said red, right?"
"Yep!" she nodded.
Heero played his red 7.
Helen cheered and added a red 2 to the discard pile. "Yay! I won this time!"
"Yep, you sure did, sweetie. Now, let's see who has the best score..." Duo quickly added up the points for the three hands they'd played. "Uh oh, kiddo. Your teacher beat us both. He's got 125 points, I've got 112, and you've got 97."
His remark was greeted with a huge sigh. "Oh well. Maybe we should play another game..."
Heero smothered a snicker at the oh-so-innocent look that Helen directed at her uncle. It had been agreed before they started that they would play three hands or until her bedtime, whichever came first.
"Nuh-uh. No changing the deal, young lady." Duo ruffled Helen's hair affectionately as he gathered up the cards. "Nice try but it's almost your bedtime anyway. Say goodnight to Mr. Yuy and go get ready for bed. I'll be up in a few minutes to tuck you in."
Helen pouted and opened her mouth to protest. She was having too much fun to want to go to bed now.
Her uncle raised one eyebrow and pointed towards the stairs. "Bedtime. Now."
"But Uncle Duo..."
"Helen."
Uh oh. That was Uncle Duo's "Don't make me say it again" tone. If she pressed her luck, her trip to the funfair might be in serious jeopardy. With the sigh of one greatly abused, Helen muttered, "Goodnight, Mr. Yuy." On her way out of the room, she took a slight detour to crouch beside Zero's cage and whisper loudly to the napping ferret, "Goodnight, Zero."
"You're very good with her," Heero observed as Helen trudged up the stairs somewhat more loudly than necessary.
"She's a good kid." Duo closed the Uno box and set it aside. "Like all kids, she likes to test the boundaries once in a while but as long as I'm firm and consistent, she doesn't give me too much trouble. That's the way that her mom and I were raised and I think we turned out okay."
"You certainly did. More than okay, in fact," Heero responded with a warm smile.
Duo ducked his head slightly and murmured, "Thanks."
"Knowing you and Helen, I'm sure that Elisa was pretty special too." Despite his determination that tonight was just for Heero, the man, not Detective Yuy, Heero couldn't resist the temptation to find out a little more about the elusive Elisa. Not just because of the case but also because he genuinely wanted to know all about Duo and his young charge.
"Yeah, she was," Duo said with a wistful smile. "We both miss her."
Mindful of his determination to be as truthful as possible with Duo, Heero offered quietly, "I was a teenager when my father died and an adult before my mother passed away. I still miss them. I can't imagine losing a parent at such a young age. Even though Helen has you, it must be very difficult."
"Yeah, it is. I love her and she loves me but I can't take the place of her mom. And I wouldn't want to. I know Helen worries about forgetting her mom. But Elisa knew that she was dying. She made videotapes, wrote letters, bought and wrapped little gifts. There'll be something from her for Helen at every birthday and Christmas and special occasion right through till she starts college. And then there's the engagement and wedding and first child things too. Elisa was determined to be there for Helen as much as she possibly could under the circumstances. Some of the stuff's in safety deposit boxes, some's stored with friends. We didn't want it all in one place. This way, if anything happened, like a fire or something, it wouldn't all be lost."
"That's... amazing," Heero said, stunned by the woman's forethought. It sounded like a wonderful, loving legacy for her daughter. Unfortunately, the detective part of him was also wondering whether those stored items held the answer to the missing money.
"It's not the same as having her mom here but it's the best Elisa could do." Duo shrugged. "And it's certainly better than nothing, which is what Elisa and I had from our parents." Glancing at his watch, he said apologetically, "Listen, I need to go tuck Helen in. Be back in a few minutes."
"Take your time," Heero assured him. He had plenty of things to think about while Duo was gone.
***
Helen sulkily rolled over, turning her back towards the door, when her uncle entered her bedroom. She didn't want to be kissed and cuddled right now; she was too busy being mad at Uncle Duo. They'd been having fun; she didn't want to go to bed!
Duo sighed and crouched beside the bed. He hated to end Helen's evening this way; she'd been so happy... Firmly, he squelched the temptation to give in and let his niece stay up later. She had school tomorrow, albeit only a half day due to the funfair. Besides which, they'd had a deal and he made a point of always following through on things like that. Whether a promise was one of reward or one of punishment, he always followed through on it. Empty threats and inconsistent rules inevitably led to trouble; he'd seen it again and again in his time as a teacher. So he stuck to his word, even when it meant one very unhappy little girl. "Don't I get a goodnight kiss?"
An indignant sniff was the only response Helen gave.
"Don't you want a goodnight kiss?"
Helen pulled the covers right up over her head, still giving him the silent treatment.
"I'm sorry you're upset, sweetie, but a deal's a deal. Goodnight and pleasant dreams, kiddo. Love you..."
Duo patted a blanket-covered shoulder gently as he rose from beside the bed. He was almost through the door when a quiet, still sulky voice muttered reluctantly, "Love you too." A rebellious face popped out from under the covers and added, "But I'm still mad at you! And I'm not going to sleep!" before disappearing again in a flurry of bedding.
The "And you can't make me! So there!" was unspoken but clearly implied and Duo just barely managed not to laugh. He suspected that, beneath the covers, there was a saucy tongue stuck out at him.
***
"Helen set for the night?" Heero asked as Duo returned to the livingroom.
"Yeah, she's safely tucked in. Still pouting and bound and determined not to actually sleep, mind you - but she's in bed on time," Duo chuckled, joining Heero on the couch in front of the fireplace.
Heero gave a quiet snort of amusement. "So I take it I can expect one tired little girl in class tomorrow."
"Yep."
Cautiously, still torn between his genuine desire to know more about Duo and Helen for their own sakes and his need to know more due to the case, Heero ventured, "When you were talking about Helen's mother earlier, you didn't mention her father..."
"No. I didn't."
The flat tone was almost enough to make Heero back off. Almost. "When I first started teaching Helen's class, I tried to get to know a little more about the kids. You know, who their parents were and what they did for a living. Helen was quite emphatic that her biological father didn't matter... I gathered that the divorce was somewhat... unpleasant?"
Duo closed his eyes and leaned his head against the back of the couch. 'I promised myself that I'd tell him a few things and see how he reacted. Guess the time's arrived...' Taking a deep breath, he opened his eyes and began, "Yes - and no.
"See, Elisa wasn't exactly divorced. Just separated. Her husband's a walking nightmare. Of course, she didn't know that when she married him. She had no idea what he really was like. She just saw the charming, debonair aristocrat who swept her off her feet.
"She was doing her internship as a nurse and he was in the hospital - car accident or something, if memory serves." Duo waved his hand dismissively, "Whatever. Anyway, before she got sick, Elisa was gorgeous, really classy. She could wear something she'd picked up on sale at Walmart and look like she'd just stepped out of Sak's Fifth Avenue. So I guess it was natural enough that he flirted with her. Sent her roses and all that crap. Bought her clothes for a single occasion that cost as much as she'd make in a damn month. She'd never had that kind of stuff before and she never questioned where the hell all that money came from. So when he proposed, she was..." Duo spread his hands and shrugged. "She was overwhelmed. Said it was like something straight out of some fairy tale; the prince choosing the pauper as his bride. But 'happily ever after' didn't last very long."
"What happened?" Heero waited curiously for the response. He'd never understood why Khushrenada's wife would have settled for a few million, let alone taken the risk of stealing it from him. She'd have probably gotten just as much in a divorce settlement and Khushrenada might've just let her go since he'd already moved on to a new lover.
"Couple of things. She found out that he was having an affair. And she found out where all the damn money came from. Drugs.
"So she grabbed her daughter and got the hell out of there."
Heero frowned. Okay, this all agreed with what they knew about Khushrenada's wife. Except that there was still no mention of the money. "She just left? Why not turn him in to the police? Divorce him?"
"She had a child to protect, remember? No real hard evidence of his drug dealing connections, nothing to convince the cops. No money of her own to hire a lawyer or anything." Shaking his head, Duo said, "She couldn't take a chance that he'd end up with custody of their daughter; she didn't want Helen raised by a drug dealer. And she'd heard a few things about how he handled 'traitors'; she didn't want to die."
'Okay, I can understand wanting to keep her daughter away from Khushrenada. And without real evidence, there wouldn't have been much that the cops could legally do,' Heero mused. 'Khushrenada could afford far better lawyers; she'd have had very poor chances of keeping custody if she filed for divorce... Running was probably the only real choice she could see.' So - Duo's story made a lot of sense and was probably pretty close to the truth, albeit a rather vague version of it. But there were some definite flaws in the tale; gaps that were obvious enough that his questioning them shouldn't seem suspicious. "Her husband never came looking for her? Never tracked you down while hunting for your sister?"
Duo drew a deep breath. This was the tricky part. If he was wrong to trust Heero, revealing this could cause a lot of problems. Leia had done her best to ensure that he would have at least some legal claim to Helen but it was highly debatable whether it would hold up in court. "He had no reason to look for me. See, Elisa and I weren't related by blood. We're siblings by circumstance and by choice, not genetics."
Heero managed to give an encouraging nod as Duo hesitantly glanced over to check his reaction. He was simultaneously thrilled that Duo was trusting him with this information and tempted to stop the revelations being offered under such misleading circumstances. Allowing Duo to continue felt like a betrayal. But he had to find out as much as he could. This wasn't just about the case anymore, sending Khushrenada to jail would also help to ensure that Helen got to stay with Duo as her mother had wished.
"Elisa and I grew up in the same orphanage," Duo continued. "Her husband didn't like her to talk about her past so she didn't; it's unlikely that he'd remember the time or two that she mentioned me. So when she and Helen joined me, Elisa changed their names. It made sense for her to pretend to be my sister; everyone would expect her to make me Helen's guardian. And it worked; no one ever questioned that Helen would stay with me after Elisa died." He gave Heero a nervous look. "But I don't know whether I'd have any chance of keeping custody if Helen's father turned up. Elisa took every possible precaution but..." He bit his lip and shrugged. "I'd rather not have the issue ever come up. Best that this all stays a secret. I just couldn't let things between us go any further without you knowing the truth."
Heero stood abruptly and walked over to the fireplace, using the pretense of adding wood to buy a few moments to think. Duo had told him even more than he'd expected. His own duplicity was eating away at him; continuing to hide his own secrets was seeming more like a betrayal by the moment. He had an ominous feeling that the future of his relationship with Duo was being determined right here, right now. 'This is it. Time to choose.'
When Heero rose so abruptly from the couch, Duo was immediately uneasy. 'Oh god. Please don't let me have made a mistake... Either by telling him about Elisa and Helen or by reading too much into our relationship...' He swallowed convulsively as Heero failed to return after tending to the fire. Instead, the other man braced one arm against the mantle and gazed into the fire. Watching the tense figure, Duo queried anxiously, "Heero?"
Closing his eyes, Heero took a deep breath and made his decision.
TBC...
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