I don't own it.

Quiet Desperation - Chapter 6
By Caliko

Duo:

I lay alone in the double bed, the blue cotton sheets pushed loosely around my waist as I closed my eyes to welcome sleep. The whirring of the fan overhead distracted me, just as the honking of the horns on the street got on my nerves. I glanced over at the green numbers on the digital clock, disgusted that it was only two a.m.

Howard had called, just after the guys left. The salvage yard had grown steadily over the last few years, and business was getting hectic. Local contracts were up for renewal, and he just didn't have the market knowledge to negotiate them. More than that, but the retired engineer hinted that he would like to get back to his retirement

All of my export contracts were lined up, and it was time to go home. The thing was.. I had no intention of leaving Hilde and the girls.

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Hilde:

Duo called me first thing in the morning before my head had even came off the pillow, babbling something about being needed back on L2. I squeezed my eyes shut against the bright light, and mumbled "uh huh" into the phone as I pulled my pillow over my face. A few minutes later, I was snoring.

"Babe? BABE?" His amused voice came out of the speakers, and woke me up again. I lifted the pillow off of my head, and squinted into the screen at his smirking face. :::How can he be so blasted energetic so early in the morning?:::

"I heard you, Duo. You're going back to L2, and you want to... " It sank into my head exactly what he said. "You want to take the girls for a couple of weeks?"

"Well, yeah, if it's not too much of a hassle. I mean, I really want to spend more time with them, and I can't do that if I'm on L2, and they are here on Earth."

"I don't know, Duo. They only met you yesterday, after all. They would be frightened with out me with them."

"Well, you still have a room here, Hilde. There's no reason why you couldn't come visit too."

:::So.. Duo wants me to visit.:::

I wasn't surprised. I've been expecting something like this. Still, I didn't want to rush things too much.

"Duo, go home, take care of what you have to do, then call me again. I'm not awake just yet." My fingers hit the disconnect button, and I pushed myself out of bed to start the day.

I left my bedroom, to nearly walk into my sister. She had her arms braced against my door, and I just knew that she was listening to my conversation with Duo. She was wearing her "Men belong on the floor, not the bed" nightshirt, and her kinky hair was mussed so that it fell over her blue eyes.

At the sight of me, she walked into my room and shut the door. Pushing her bangs off of her face, I could see by her eyes that she was pissed.

"Hilde... You're my baby sister, and it's my job to tell you when your acting like a dumb bimbo. Guess what? You ARE!" She screamed that last bit into my face, oblivious to the fact that I was practically flat on the bed, trying to evade her morning breath. "For the last six years, you've done nothing but work, sleep, raise your kids, and WHINE about how you should have given that idiot a second chance. Well, now is YOUR chance."

Sidney grinned a very evil grin, than backed off. Moving towards the door, she untwisted her nightgown and turned back to me.

"And just to make things easier? You have two weeks to get out of my apartment!"

She opened the door and went through, slamming it shut as she continued down the hall.

:::This is too much. It's almost as if they PLANNED it!::: I glanced back at the closed door, suspicious, until I reminded myself that they couldn't stand each other.

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Sidney:

The look on my sisters face was priceless, and I couldn't stop giggling as I went to my private line and dialed Maxwell. When he called me in the middle of the night, I really wanted to kill him, but I got over that quickly.

Duo DID prove himself on that outing. Sure, he admitted to losing them for a moment, but he found them. That.. and the girls were alive, walking, and laughing. Any outing where they come home without a scratch is a good one.

I snorted, wishing I could say the same about their father. By the torn clothing and the scratches, we finally got to see where their intrepid natures came from!

"Yeah?" Duo answered the phone with some egg dripping out of his mouth. Seeing that it was me, he wiped his mouth clean and washed the yellow fluff down with a gulp of steaming coffee.

:::How does he do that without burning his mouth?::: I wondered, remembering that he did that at breakfast yesterday, too.

"It's done. You don't need to know exactly what I told her, but I gave her two weeks to find somewhere else to go. That will give you enough time to get the office files in order before she see's them, huh?"

"Thanks, Sidney. You know, for a grade "A" bitch, you're not too bad."

"hmph! Well, you're not too bad for an idiot."

He nodded, smiling, then signed off. Life with that one for a brother-in-law was going to be interesting.

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Duo:

I placed my plates in the sink with a nervous clank. If Hilde knew that I was conspiring against her, she'd kill me! Still, it had been worth it. By the end of the month, Hilde would be home on L2 with me, where she belonged!

Then, I remembered what else Sid had said.... The file system. Gulping, I realized that after six years of haphazard filing, two weeks were not going to be enough. Hilde's name was still listed as co-owner.. I still made all the necessary deposits into her account.. and her files (the one's I bothered to keep) where basically thrown all over the room and piled in boxes under the furniture.

I called my travel agent, then went to my room to pack. I had to get it fixed, or at least hidden, before she announced that they were coming to 'visit'.

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L2: Maxwell Salvage and Repair

"Duo, you don't have to catch up the same day you get home, you know." Howard said, following me.

I was collecting my boxes of loose papers and contracts from around the shop, determined to at least get everything sorted before she came.

There was the smallest chance that she wouldn't care, of course, but I didn't get my hopes up. Hilde had always been a tyrant about the system she forced on me, and I wasn't going to give her the chance to start an argument before she even settled in.

"Didn't you say that you had a retirement to go back to?" I asked the older man, wondering why he was following me.

"No rush."

"Fine, then help me gather boxes. I want all the files in my office before I start."

Howard mumbled under his breath as he got some of the lighter boxes from under the work bench.

"You do know that she is going to see this mess?" He asked me, dumping the first batch on my desk. He was looking at something behind me, but I figured that it was just one of the guys goofing off.

"No, she's not. Most of this is local small stuff. I figure I'll pop all of those into one file, according to year. The large contracts will get filed according to company. Everything will be put in alphabetical, then chronological order."

"You will never get this mess in order before Hilde see's it." Alright.. now what was the smirk about? I turned around, expecting to see Paul on the ground with Stash sitting on him.. instead, I was met by the cool, amused eyes.. of Hilde.

:::She saw the mess.::: I scrunched my face up into a grin, thinking I could pretend that nothing was wrong. Then.. I realized that she could have easily figured out that I knew she was coming... and where the information had to come from. :::Shit. I'm a dead man.:::

"Hey, Hilde." Howard said, walking towards the door. He stopped long enough to kiss her cheek, then left the office. I watched through the doorway as he introduced himself to Becca and Mercy, then pointed to the stairs. "I'll just help these two settle in while you two talk."

Taking their hands, he led them upstairs and out of the work area.

:::Coward.::: I thought, dumping the box of loose papers onto my desk. I started to make piles, figuring that she wouldn't make a big deal about it if I looked like I was really trying to get things in order. She might even just offer to help me...

:::Hey! That was one way to get her to spend more time with me!:::

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Hilde:

:::I am NOT going to help him.::: I swore to myself, even as I picked up the account book. Seeing the eraser marks and the scribbles over the once pristine sheets, I winced.

"What ever happened to the accounting program I wrote?" I asked.

Duo blushed, then pointed to the corner of the office. Buried under a years worth of dirty laundry, I could barely make out the corner of the CPU. Frowning, I dumped the clothes on the floor, and winced as I saw that the monitor had a hole kicked into the screen, and the corner of the CPU was the only thing left that looked like a corner.

"It kept telling me that my figures where wrong." He admitted, blushing deeper.

I bit my tounge to keep from giggling, then forced a frown to my lips. Duo was a hard worker, but office work went against the grain with him. I was really surprised that the business was as successful as it was!

I shook my head, looking at him, then sat on the other side of the desk with a box of my own. Opening the lid, I found a pile of manila folders.. from the first year we were open.

"Duo.. anything older than seven years can be thrown out."

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Well, it looks like Duo and Hilde are going to be very busy together for awhile.. you think he might manage to instigate SOMETHING with them all alone? The shop has to close sometime, and Howard is babysitting.. so you never know!

~ Leeko