Card Captor Sakura Fan Fiction ❯ Don't Leave a Third Chance ❯ Chapter 6: Taken and Given ( Chapter 6 )

Don't Leave a Third Chance

A/N: Hey guys! I know you're all going to kill me for not writing for so long, but I couldn't find any inspiration for DLATC, plus I'm like failing Math (I know, hard to believe, Asians can fail math, especially geometric proofs) so... um, I'm really sorry! Well, this chapter's going to be a little different than normal, and I'd thought I'd liven things up a bit in the story. It looks like Syaoran and Sakura are about to get together, and that Touya and Tomoyo (forget about the part that they are second cousins or something for a moment, and do something a little creative... and welcome back an old character who's a personal favorite of mine. And without further delays, the 6th chappie of DLATC!

Disclaimer: I don't own Card Captor Sakura. I do own my boyfriend Catoru. Heh, go me!

Chapter 6: Taken and Given

The pregnancy test was positive. The woman sighed and put it near the sink, where 3 other pregnancy tests lie, all positive. She took deep breaths to calm herself down, and then giggled happily as she danced out of the bathroom, but slowed herself to a walk, her shiny black hair bouncing, and her raspberry eyes all alight.

She was going to have a child. After studying her ass off to prove to her family that she was worth something even though she was the girl that was supposed to be a boy, she got into the Chinese Harvard, Beijing University, less formally known as Bei-Da, and followed her childhood dream to become a pediatrician. It didn't matter to her that she didn't make as much money as she could have, or that her parents did not like her decision to go into the field of medicine and not business (what were they thinking, the woman thought with a smile, I was horrible at math and still am), but it was too late. They can now claim to be the parents of a child who went to the best university in China, and she can pursue her own interests. She had never been happier her entire life. She only contacted her family every year on Chinese New Years to say hello and send them gifts.

She had always loved children. Her fondness developed when her parents had another child, a baby boy, an heir. Her father had been so happy, so proud of fathering a son, an heir to the family, instead of being the father of a girl, a female child, with no magic, who failed to help the family. A girl who shamed the family after coming back from Japan because of her inability to keep up with her classes and not get good scores. Meilin cried by herself in the nearby playground, on the swings.

But, although she resented her parents treating her brother as the most precious things on Earth and treating her like shit, she loved her little brother. She was 10 years old at the time, and ironically, her baby brother was born in September, the opposite month in which she was born. When her brother had suffered pneumonia, after Syaoran and Meilin had come back from a trip to Japan, Meilin ordered Syaoran to go straight back home while using all the money she had on her to hail a cab and go to the hospital where her little brother was. She waited all night, sitting at the opposite end of a bench from her father outside the room where her brother was, hoping that he was okay. Her mother was in the room with her, and every once in a while, she heard him cough a feeble cough, and she fell asleep at 4AM, fell into a fretful, light sleep. When she woke again, it was 8, and a blanket had been draped over her. She turned to look into the kind faces of Wei and Syaoran, who were standing beside her. Then, her parents came out, with her little brother in her mother's arms. Little Syaolon Li had survived the ordeal, and now slept peacefully, sucking on his thumb. Meilin sighed a sigh of relief. It was at that moment, she decided that she would make sure that the precious children of this world, not just her brother, would always have qualified doctors to care for them. She was 12 at the time.

When Syaoran left for Japan again, to finish his education and make Little Wolf Inc. international, Meilin was alone in the world. So the drastic changes began for her. She cut her hair boy-short (rather like Syaoran's hair, except her hair was always neater), and zoomed in on her studies and martial arts. When she wasn't busy with schoolwork and kungfu, she did her chores without complaint and took care of, as well as played with her little brother. She would help Syaolon and his friends with homework as well as play with them and teach them games. However, she wasn't as close with her parents. Her parents never forgave her for not being a boy, especially her father, and though they did provide her shelter and meals, they treated her like an outsider. Meilin, therefore, never told them about her excellent grades, never told them how she always made top 5 of her class of 40. Her confider and helper was Fuutie, Syaoran's sister, who was attending college nearby and working a part time job as a salesgirl. Fuutie loved to spoil Meiling and get her pretty clothes, all of which her parents rejected, even though it cost her nothing because of her job. After a while, Fuutie got smart and stopped buying her clothes, but she did save the outfits for whenever Meilin stayed over during the summer. Some of Meiling's best times were with Fuutie, who always had money to spare to spend on her favorite cousin.

Fuutie was studying to be a teacher, more specifically of high school Math.

"When you're a math major at college, you're surrounded by smart, cute guys! Well, not exactly cute...but heck!" Fuutie actually met the love of her life a few months after she said this, when Meilin was 14 and stressed about testing for high school. He was majoring in physics, and they became friends immediately in Ancient Chinese Lit., which they both sucked at. But Hyung Mon proved to be even more of a spoiler of children than Fuutie, and whenever they hooked up while Meilin was staying with Yelan, they would drag her out whenever she had a vacation. Meilin convinced them to buy her prep books for getting into high school. Meilin got into a prestigious high school in downtown Hong Kong drive from her house, with a scholarship. She never told her parents. They always assumed that the high school schedule was like that, when she left at 6 and came home at 7.

They found out when her mother decided to spontaneously clean her room for her (even though it was always kept neat) and saw her report cards. Maybe it wasn't so much spontaneous as it was suspicious, because she had been talking to the other mothers in the neighborhood. When her mother found out, she started yelling at Meilin about how embarrassing it was for a mother not to know her child's accomplishments. Then she started to cry. For the first time ever since she came back from Japan after not making it there because she didn't know the language well enough, she hugged her mother and apologized with true sincerity. Then she updated her on how she was doing in school, watching her mother's eyes gleam with unspoken pride as her mouth was still in that trembling scowl that reminded her of Syaoran's scowl. Ever since then, her mother knew of her doings and grades, and was especially affectionate to Meilin, treating her equally, and sometimes better than her brother. Meilin's mother also never mentioned a word to her father.

Her father was surprised when she got accepted into Bei-Da, but not so pleased that he had to pay for a "worthless girl's education who couldn't make it in another country because she had a 'language barrier'." Therefore, Yelen stepped in and gave Meiling money for college as well as money to pay for any expenses she might encounter in Beijing. After double-majoring in pre-med and Japanese, she moved to Japan without telling her parents, but only Fuutie and Yelen, once again to prove her worth, this time as a doctor in Japan. There was also another reason for her going though. She wanted to find Syaoran.

It was rather embarrassing to go looking for a man whom you could sense that thought of you as a failure even though you didn't do much better, but at the same time, Syaoran was the only person to hold her when she cried, was the only one who listened to her and did not judge her. Meilin loved him, and she wanted to prove her worth by coming to Japan. She also had the slight hope that once she succeeded in her career, she would find Syaoran without telling Yelen or Fuutie of her plans, and he would be so impressed by her that he would love her in the same way and they would both uphold their pre-arranged marriage agreement and live happily ever after. However, this wasn't to be.

But, whether it was fate or just an error in the hospital system, she got assigned to a 28 year old man who accidentally injured himself in a car crash. Upon receiving his X-rays and looking at a picture in the middle of the Tokyo Tribune (A/N: I made this up, it's not accurate, unless there really is a Tokyo Tribune..., then I disclaim it completely) showing a picture of the car of her patient, who was quite famous, especially in his hometown of Satan City. She was shocked. The car was crushed, and a total wreck, and she didn't see how it was possible to get out of that with only a knee fracture.

When she questioned her patient closely (later she found out that the new medical school students messed up her files with another doctor who specialized in fractures) he gave an embarrassed smile and scratched the back of his head.

"I guess I was just lucky, Ma'am," he said shyly, almost like a little boy who was caught doing something he shouldn't have been. Meiling had to giggle.

Even after her adult patient got his knee corrected and recovered miraculously under the care of her as well as the other doctor, he would often drop by the hospital to see her, complaining about ailments cause when he had been sparring with his brother, or niece, or best friend. Every time, Meiling would laugh and tell him that she was not his physician, that he should see someone else because her job was pediatrics. Each time, he would tell her that she was better at curing him than the other doctors, and in the end, she would laugh some more, pat his 'boo-boo,' see him go through a 'miracle getting well' routine, and allow herself to be invited to dinner for her amazing deed. And pretty soon, she began to know and fall in love with this man.

They had been dating for around a year before he proposed to her last month, at his apartment, after he had arranged a very romantic dinner and had given her a wonderful massage. Meiling closed her eyes and smiled. She could remember the night like it was yesterday. It had been so romantic, him dropping on one knee to show her a beautiful diamond ring, not too flashy, but not that small either, and she smiled graciously before holding out her hand and saying in that firm voice of hers, "Yes." But inside, she was trembling, crying with joy, everything. She only allowed him to sense her emotion when she kissed him after he got up. She was sure he could feel all that she felt at that moment through that kiss, and when it ended, he looked down at her wonderingly and adoringly and said, "Meiling Son, I love you and I'll never leave your side." It had been the happiest moment of her life."

The door clicked as her fiancé yanked the key out of his apartment, no, their apartment, and came in with his suit and tie. It was funny seeing him like that, with his hair sticking out, look rather like a photo of his father she had once seen, but in a suit. He actually worked for a publishing company, being an editor, despite him declaring never to get an office job after seeing his best friend stuck in the office with papers day after day. Meiling would have never thought that a fun-loving person like him would ever be in an office job, but her fiancé loved books, loved adventure, and it's where he wanted to be. They were both where they wanted to be, and it was about time they got married and had a baby.

Meiling ran into arms that opened as eyes belonging to the same body saw her and lighted up. She briefly thought once when he commented how big her eyes were, and how she retorted that Asians don't have big eyes. "But it seems like you do when they light up when you're happy. You should be happy more often, and light your eyes up too. You look prettier." His eyes were adorable and she loved them always, but especially when they light up when he looked at her. He picked her up to spin her around, and she giggled like a small child. He gently set her down before smiling at her as she smiled at him.

"Hi!" he said in that goofy way of his, before leaning down to kiss her thoroughly, "Why are you so happy today?" he said, tilting his head slightly and grinning widely. 'He already knows,' she thought. 'Of course he would know, he can sense ki, the little one that is growing in me.' She laughed at his knowing expression and put his hands on her belly.

"Say hello to your future child, love," Meiling said, and his whole face lit up even more, if that were possible.

And Son Goten hugged his fiancé happily before kissing her again, kissing Meiling Li-about-to-be-Son, kissing the woman carrying his child.

A/N: Yes, I know, this chapter was a little short and unexpected, but I felt it was necessary. Now let me explain. I devoted a whole chapter to Meiling because she's my favorite CCS character next to Tomoyo. I think she deserved so much more than what most people give her credit for. She's a really strong person. She's almost as good as Syaoran in Martial Arts, she's determined, ambitious, and strong on the inside too... like when Syaoran liked someone else and she knew, she didn't let one tear fall. That takes character. I think Meiling has been really discriminated against, so this chapter is devoted totally to her. I also know that she had a lot of potential and is smart.

Syaolon is a Japanese version of the Chinese Xiaolong, which means Little Dragon, following Little Wolf, of Syaoran's name. Puns, get it? Also, I know that Syaoran's father had died before the Card Captor Series started, but this is AU, and sadly, Syaoran's father's death will serve a minor but important purpose later.

Why Meiling and Goten should be together if there were a CCS/DBZ crossover: If you think about it, it sort of fits. Meiling has black hair, as does Chichi and Videl, the wives of the other Son men. Meiling is headstrong, sometimes even obstinate, determined, competitive, and claims her territory. She can cook damn well, fights (though kung-fu is different from sparring, but it doesn't matter), and is probably the typical character of the wife of a Son. Goten grew up with women like Videl and Chichi and he was perfectly comfortable with this life; it would make common sense for him to marry a woman rather like his mother/sister-in-law. Meiling also needs someone as cute and carefree as Goten to lighten up the things in her life and make her laugh. She's been abandoned by Syaoran, who was serious and contemplative. She doesn't want to love another guy like that, so it should be the opposite, and Goten is everything that Syaoran is not, and vice versa. They make a good crossover couple. Now, I'm not saying that Goten/Marron and Goten/Bra pairings aren't good; I think they're pretty cute. But I believe that if there were a CCS/DBZ crossover, Goten would be best with Meiling.

Next Time on DLATC: Sakura and Syaoran get to know each other, Yukito receives a gift from Eriol that will shatter his heart, and KOUJI SAYS HIS FIRST WORD/PHRASE!