Disclaimer: I don't own them, except for the kids!

Devil With A Blue Dress On, A Father's View

I lay there staring at the plaster ceiling. I was wishing I were back in my warm bed with Hilde to hold on to. But she had effectively kicked me out of it. I deserved it and I knew it. I was being an ass, I admit that freely. I should have never let those words leave my mouth. I was also being irrational. I hated it when Hilde was right. Not only did I managed to piss my wife off, I had upset my daughter so much that her palms had bled from her nails digging into them, and I had also managed to earn the censor of my sons for upsetting their mother and their sister. I went back to thoughts of my daughter, my little girl.

I'll start with when Hilde said she was pregnant with her, I already had three sons, and I kind of wanted a girl. All the others had at least one girl, Wufei had two. I wanted a girl who looked like her mother. When the time came for Hilde to have the baby, it was late September. Her pregnancy had been like her other two that I was present for. They went well. But once in the delivery room, it was nothing like the others. It was clear that Hilde was having trouble; one Miranda became breech and couldn't be turned. And two, the labor went on for almost twenty-two hours. Enter emergency caesarian section. I nearly passed out. When the doctor announced that we had a girl, I did pass out. I was overjoyed, but also upset that Hilde had to go through all of that. When I looked at Miranda Elizabeth, I once again looked into my own cobalt eyes. What can one say when you look into the face of your baby girl?

I turned over on the couch and looked outside, the moon was now shining. I went back to my thoughts.

After Randy's birth, I didn't touch Hilde for several months. I swore I wouldn't get her pregnant again after what happened. And Hilde didn't want to go back to the hospital for any sort of procedure that would prevent her from having any more kids. She stayed on birth control and I started using protection. I remember how disappointed the boys were when they found out their new sibling was a girl. Chris wrinkled his nose in distaste, as did Jonathon. David at two years didn't care either way. Within two weeks, all three of them were in love with her.

I can still remember Randy at four years old, her ebony hair in pigtails, following me around. She was daddy's girl and I spoiled her rotten. She was also a miniature devil in disguise. Hilde lamented the fact that her daughter in no way was going to be a lady. Randy would sit on the workbench watching me fix the cars, swinging her legs back and forth. She would be wearing an innocent smile that belied her true nature. When she turned six, I was holding her up so she could see under the hood of the Suburban and pointing out the different parts. And she would always ask what was this and what was that. So curious at what everything was.

Randy and school was another thing. She hated the uniform. Hilde had a devil of a time getting her into it. A skirt. My little girl threw a fit when she saw the skirt. She was already on her way to becoming a tomboy. But once in school, she showed a high level of intelligence, even more so then her brothers at her age. She wasn't a genius, but she was probably darn close.

The clock chimed two. I heard movement from upstairs. I raised my eyes to the ceiling again. It was Chris. I heard him walk down the hall and open Randy's door at the very end of the hall over the garage. An hour passed and I heard him leave her room and go back to his. The house fell silent again.

I went back to my memories. I knew that Randy wasn't like the other girls of my friends. She was too tomboyish, too competitive. She liked playing with the boys more then the girls. At nine, she could climb trees as well as her brothers and they taught her all the sports they knew. She learned how to play soccer, football, lacrosse, basketball, and street hockey. She indulged in one girlish tradition, dance lessons. She didn't seem to mind the bumps, the bruises that she incurred, but with determination she pushed on until she played as well as them. But she still remained my little girl. She would stand on a footstool so she could look under the hood with me. I started teaching her how to do simple things under the hood. And she would watch with interest, her cobalt eyes watching my fingers. Her hair now hung in a long rope down her back; thick and long like mine. She would wear jeans and one of her brother's old shirts as she watched.

Clock struck four; I heard more movement from upstairs. This time it was Jonathon. I heard his door open and then Randy's again. Forty minutes later Jonathon left her room and went back to his.

I sighed and changed my position again. The couch was damn uncomfortable. I could see the light of her smile when she was twelve when Chris taught her how to drive. Hilde nearly had an apoplexy over the entire thing. I yelled at Chris too, but it was purely for my lovely wife's benefit. I remembered how Randy had wrapped her arms around waist as she asked if I thought I could teach her how to drive now. I let out a chuckle. She was impulsive, just like me. By now she was almost as tall as Hilde, no longer having to stand on a footstool while I fixed the cars. She would fiddle with some things herself as I watch, a streak of grease on her cheek, as strands of hair would slip free and dangle against her cheeks. I remembered Hilde and I coming home one night and finding Chris and Jonathon, holding her by her ankles, tormenting her like she would torment them. They were holding her over the banister, halfway up the steps. She had been dangling there with her arms crossed and a look in her eyes that promised retribution once she got free. I made them let her go as I caught her. And as soon as her feet hit the floor, she had zipped up the steps after her two older brothers, who had started running down the hall.

I chuckled at that memory too. Two teenage boys terrified of their twelve year old sister's wrath. When she was fourteen, she stopped swearing at the sight of a dress. For once Hilde was glad that she wouldn't have to argue over that anymore. She was taller then Hilde now, not quite as slim, but she looked more and more like Hilde each day. I also began to notice how guys started to look at her. I picked her up from school one day and watched as several boys stopped to look at her as she walked down the steps in clothes she had worn to soccer practice. And I wasn't sure if I liked that all that much. Her tomboyish ways still there, not letting go, but adding to the young woman she was becoming. I wasn't sure I liked the idea of her growing up. She was also gifted with being an accomplished flirt. I suppose she picked it up from her brothers, but I knew I had been like that too. I had been a flirt. And a tease, like Hilde said. Randy had every son of all my friends wrapped around her little finger. And she was only fourteen.

Then came the skirt incident when she was sixteen. She purposely hacked the skirt off above the knees. I remember being called to the school for it. Hilde wasn't too happy because now our daughter had managed to be in the Headmistress's office. I saw Randy sitting in the chair, wearing a bored expression. I almost laughed. She had taken off her green blazer and had unbuttoned several buttons of the crisp white dress shirt she wore. I was grinning ear to ear, listening to Headmistress Conner complain about my daughter's lack of decorum and modesty. Randy snorted at that and I had to choke back my laughter, earning a glare from Hilde and an unreadable expression from the Headmistress. When we left, Hilde was blaming me for our daughter's rebelliousness, and I continued to roll my eyes. Even I would admit the skirt was dog ugly. And when she had flounced down the steps of the school on the way to her car, I had watched even more guys stop to look. I suppose, that was when I realized that didn't even have the body of a little girl anymore. Hilde had been the same way, gaining her curves not until she was sixteen. But she would still loop her arms around my neck and say, "I love you daddy," in the sweetest whisper before she went to bed.

She would work on her own car in the other garage in cutoffs and in one of my old shirts, tied up to reveal her flat stomach. She had no qualms about showing herself off. She had never been modest or shy. She was shockingly blunt and could curse as creatively as her brothers and me. But her cobalt eyes were still filled with innocence even though what came out of her mouth was the complete opposite.

I looked out the window again. Light was beginning to streak the sky. I sighed again.

Then it was now. The events that had led up till now. I guess I didn't see it coming when Miles returned home from college with Jonathon. All of a sudden Randy's eyes would follow him around. And to my worst fear, his eyes began to follow her too. And I hated it. I didn't want to see her with him. And with the ability to…I didn't finish that thought.

I didn't want her dating. I had already proved that with the Arquette boy. Then had come the mini war between my family and the others. Randy was more or less the mastermind. She was gifted with it. And she proved to be brilliant when she could outsmart Heero Yuy. I could see her giving me an angelic smile that had been reserved only for me when she was cleaning the basement. She was still my little girl, even if she wasn't that little anymore.

And everything that she had inherited from me came into my mind. She had a temper that matched mine, her eyes, and that devilish little smirk that she constantly wore, and her pride. She had always been a girl who didn't cry in public. Only the privacy of her room did she let it go, even as a little girl. She would bite her lips and clutch her hands into fists, keeping it all inside. She had said that tomboys didn't cry in public. She said that she wasn't granted that luxury like the other daughters. And she didn't. And she was the only one who would openly defy me besides Hilde. Her eyes would grow almost black and like mine they would flash and snap angrily with every word. But last night, last night, she broke. I had seen the tears that she had tried so valiantly to hide. And the blood from her biting her lips and from her nails gouging into her palms. My daughter had found someone else to share that angelic smile that had only been for me. And I was fighting it. I didn't want to face reality like Hilde said I didn't.

That brought my very angry wife to mind. I'm still not quite sure why said what I did. I was angry, and when my temper got the better of me, I said plenty of things I didn't mean. But that had been the ultimate kicker. And then she had thrown those words back in my face. Hilde could be lethal without saying or doing much. I would probably get on my hands and knees to apologize. She would like it when I groveled since I hadn't done it for a while. It was amazing on how much control she exerted over me over twenty years. I wasn't whipped, but I did everything I could to make her happy. And right now, she was not happy. And as much as I would hate saying it, she was right. I was out of control. And I would also admit that when I looked at Miles, I saw myself. I saw the cocky attitude and the way with the women. I knew what was going on inside his head because I was thinking the same things as him when I was young. And I saw my daughter as another notch on his bedpost like so many girls had been for me until I fell like a rock for Hilde. And I refused to believe that he had innocent intentions. But Randy loved him. And he loved her. What was I supposed to do? I was at a crossroads. I could let her be with him and make her happy or I can forbid it and alienate her? What a choice for a father to make?

I heard the sounds of footsteps on the stairs. I glanced at my watch. It was seven thirty. It would be Hilde coming down to start breakfast like she always did on a Sunday morning. I sat up on the couch and stretched my cramped muscles. I knew what I had to do. And with a great sigh, knowing she still would be pissed, I went into the kitchen to play penitent for my wife.

Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed this part. I wanted to give a little insight into Duo's memories and why he acted the way he did. The next part will be coming soon, so stay tuned!