*I knew you wanted to tell me *In your voice there was something wrong *But if you would turn your face away from me *You cannot tell me you're so strong *Just let me ask of you one small thing *As we have shared so many tears *With fervor our dreams we planned a whole life long *Now are scattered on the wind... The room was silent. Ami and Hotaru sat in chairs, Usagi and Haruka on the love seat and Endymion and Michiru sat on the sofa, all in the warmth of Setsuna's home. Time had not touched any but Hotaru, now a full woman. Endymion had his head in his hands, his back hunched. Beside him the sea goddess stared straight ahead, her eyes unblinking. Shock -- they were each in their own shock. Time slowly crept by and no one made any movement. Usagi looked at her hands as the tears flowed from her eyes. Haruka watched Michiru, waiting and wanting her to do or say something. Ami and Hotaru uncomfortably shifted around in their respective positions. All secrets laid bare. Nothing more in anyone's closet. Michiru and Mamoru had just been told that twenty-four-year-old Mamoru was not Endymion's son, he was Haruka's child. Haruka and Usagi had been together a second time, shortly after Usagi had conceived Chibi Usa. The two of them, with Ami's help, had covered up the DNA discrepancy and hid the fact from Michiru and Endymion for the last twenty-five years. Only when Hotaru had found out, due to her taking over the medical care of the new baby Kaze and Mamoru had just had, did anyone outside the original three involved know the secret. The baby had been born with Mamoru's blood type -- which had not matched either Endymion's or Usagi's. Hotaru did a lot of digging and found Mamoru's medical files in Ami's basement. There she read the whole sordid tale of the Queen and her Haruka-papa's affair. Hotaru had been livid and confronted the couple. Then Ami. Hotaru made them all promise to come clean. Here they all sat. Michiru and Endymion now aware of the betrayal they had suffered in ignorance for twenty-five years. Michiru stood, thanked Hotaru and walked out of the house. Haruka followed. And the rest, as they say, is silence. *Through the years I've grown to love you *Though your commitment to most would offend *But I stuck by you holding on with my foolish pride *Waiting for you to give in... *You never really tried or so it seems *I've had more than myself to blame *I've had enough of trying everything *And this time it is the end... Michiru had been in their room, behind closed doors, for three days. Setsuna would stop by and make sure Michiru was eating and such, but Michiru never came out of the bedroom. Haruka slept in the downstairs office. She had thought back over the last two and a half decades and wondered why she had done the thing she had done. And if she'd change any of them. When everything was said and done, when all the heartbreaks and broken promises were counted, Haruka could not say she would change a thing. Mamoru meant so much to her, Usagi had meant so much. Now, the thing that meant the most in her life hated her. At least, that is what Haruka assumed, since she had not heard Michiru's voice in seventy- five hours. Sitting on the couch, staring at the blank TV screen, Haruka wished the worst would be over. Down the stairs behind her softly padded Michiru. She wore Haruka's long dress shirt, her eyes red rimmed and her hair uncombed. Haruka turned to face her executioner. Michiru, seeming so small and fragile, climbed into the window seat and looked out on the ocean. She sniffled and Haruka had to dig her nails into her palm not to get up. Michiru closed her eyes and tears fell. "I can't look at you, Haruka," she croaked out. "You have... lied to me, you have been unfaithful... you hid your own child from the woman you pledge to love, honor, and cherish." More sniffles, Michiru's eyes opened on the dark ocean. "I do not know you any longer. I suppose I never did. And it's partly my fault. I let you back in, I built a life and family with you, and it was founded in lies. You were a parent and you laid with Usagi. You were bound in marriage and you bedded another. You came home to me and you pretended as if nothing had happened." Haruka listened. Michiru took a deep breath. "It ends now, Haruka. You and I... we have been with each other since we were fifteen. Thirty one years, Haruka. More than half of that was spent under the spell of ignorance. I cannot be with you anymore. How many others have you been with? And if you say none, can I even believe that since you told me you would never be with Usagi again? Do you understand what I am saying, Haruka?" Haruka nodded slowly. "You want me to go away for a while?" Michiru shook her head. Her voice cracked when she spoke. These endless days were finally ending in a blaze. "I want a divorce. I need to be far away from you and this life. This is a life I no longer fit in. I have to leave." Haruka felt as if her heart had just been ripped from her chest. A divorce. No chance to work through the betrayal. No opportunity to put right the wrong she had done. It was just over. Could she tell Michiru no? Could she force her to work it out? Haruka opened her mouth to protest. "Very well. I love you enough to let you go," was what came out. Michiru nodded at her reflection. It was over. Thirty years and one child... her life was done. *There's no more coming back this way *The path is overgrown and strewn with thorns *They've torn the life-blood from your naked eyes *Cast aside to be forlorn... Haruka had spent the last six months living in Hotaru's guest room, trying to save what relationships she could. Kaze and Mamoru still spoke to her, some of the Senshi, the King and Queen avoided her... and Michiru had sent Haruka the final documentation on the divorce. Thirty years, all Haruka's fault, and Michiru only wanted what was hers. Haruka signed the papers and handed them to Hotaru. "I hope she finds someone worthy," and Haruka laid her head on the table. Hotaru leaned down and kissed her papa on the head. "I love you, Haruka-papa, but Michiru-mama is so hurt. She needs to be on her own. Trust her." Hotaru sighed and walked out, carrying the signed papers that would dissolve the tangible relationship she had had with Michiru. *** Michiru had packed all her belongings. The house would be placed up for sale. She looked over the house, tears threatening to spill all over again. Outside the taxi's horn sounded. Michiru chuckled. It was a taxi that had brought her into Haruka's life and it would be a taxi that took her from it. In retrospect, that was how it had seemed. Michiru had just been a passenger in Haruka's life. She had believed what Haruka wanted her to believe, been blind to the fact that now, now that she knew the secrets, Mamoru took after Haruka so much. The signs had been there, the signals she had ignored. It was as much her fault for being so naive as it was Haruka's for being so cruel. She got into the cab and looked back up at the large house. She had grown up in that house. She had raised her daughter in that house. She had watched her own mother die in that house. Michiru felt so empty as the taxi drove from it's looming visage. She would never see it again, never. The lies were over, her duty was over. She would become her own again, separate of Haruka. This was a new day, a new life. The taxi drove on, leaving the overgrown path of her life behind her. Kaze knew where Michiru would be, but that was the only person Michiru would allow to know. She could not cut her daughter out of her life. Michiru was still reflecting upon the years of her life when she opened the door to the Triton Castle. It had been far too long since she had walked the halls of her sacred birthplace. Here she hoped to find solace, hoped to find direction now that she had none. Silence echoed through the long abandoned castle and made Michiru realize just how alone she was. She let her bags drop to the floor and a sob to escape her lips. A loud, heartrending sob that reverberated back to her. *In the terms of endearment *In the terms of the life that you love *In the terms of the years that pass you by *In the terms of the reasons why Kaze and Mamoru fussed over their new baby girl. Hikaru was six months old and her parents were still amazed at the child. Mamoru also had tried to create a closer relationship with his... father... but Haruka had secluded herself away. So much had changed in just six months, and Kaze knew much more would change. *** Endymion had created a set of suites for himself. He moved into them and avoided his wife. They were the King and Queen, but he could not look at her or be with her now that he knew she had a child by another. She sickened him. She should have just told him. Keeping it from him, allowing him to think for so long he was his son... Endymion roared as he punched into the wall, ignoring the pain in his fists. *** Usagi sat in her emptied rooms. Endymion had not visited her since that day six months ago. They had arrived home at the palace and come into these rooms. She had cried and begged as he packed his items up and instructed the staff to move it to a suite of rooms that had once been Haruka and Michiru's. Since then, since being left on the floor and sobbing, Usagi had not seen her husband. Chibi Usa came to her, comforted her, as did Kaze and Mamoru. But, Usagi would not speak, she would not eat... for her, it was all over with. *** Ami reviewed the medical logs she had kept. She thought back on her actions. She had always said she would protect Usagi and she had. She just hadn't covered the tracks well enough or considered the idea that a grandchild would be born with Mamoru's blood type. She put her head in her hands. Such a mess created out of love. A long sigh escaped the weary doctor. *** Hotaru stood outside the home she had shared with Setsuna and her parents, wondering about all the things she had been to young to notice. The house was still for sale. Kaze and her had grown up in the home. Michiru-mama had grown up in that house. It was so sad, she reflected, that the past could be bought and sold. *** Haruka laid in the bed in her small apartment. Michiru and her divorce was final. The papers had come. She was free. Free of Michiru but bound by guilt. Sleeping was hard. Life was lonely. No, she would not change the moments she had had with Usagi, but she would have changed when Michiru found out about the child. She would have told her when she had found out. Too many lies. Too much hurt. And too much time to reflect. *Funny, how it seems that all I've tried to do *Seemed to make no difference to you at all... Michiru sat in Triton Castle, sipping tea and looking out over the gardens. She missed her family, she missed her ignorance. She and Haruka had weathered so much, Michiru had tried to do everything for her -- everything and anything. But, it had not been enough for Haruka. Haruka had needed whatever Usagi had offered her. Haruka had needed that child. Something Michiru had not be blessed by the gods with. She had had to go an artificial method. Kaze may be loved by Haruka, but Kaze was Michiru's daughter -- not genetically Haruka's. Mamoru, on the other hand, had Haruka's blood type, her nose and her golden hair. Michiru let the tears softly flow. Nothing she had done for that woman had meant anything. Nothing she had done in her life amounted to anything. And it made no difference to anyone. In any terms. --- End Part Eighteen --