"Defying Gravity"

A Romance in Three Parts

Written By: Kaeru Shisho

Disclaimer: I don't own any part of Gundam Wing or its characters, nor do I make any monetary profit off this story.

Rating: NC 17

Warnings: AU, yaoi, some language

Pairings: 1x2x1, 3x4x3

Summary: A multi part story of romance starting with a turning point vacation, developing throughout a dangerous UC mission, and moving ahead through the unexpected challenges of a summer vacation.

"Part Two: It's Back to Work"

"What is it? Did someone break a nail while I was away from the apartment?" I said into my cell phone.

My UC identity, by way of the Preventer's, put me as a Wind's head boy toy in charge of a harem of others. Gunter was listening to my phone conversation with Heero so I had to make it sound like he was one of those lesser toys. Hopefully, Heero would get it.

"Blake Edwards and Aiden Moore. They've been in an accident," Heero said quietly. "Car crash on their way to the airport. They are at Surry Medical. One serious, the other critical."

"Tell me why I care?"

Heero hesitated. I had to remember he was part of this operation, but not fully in the loop, while I was embedded to the neck. I tried rewording my response.

"Um, I'm busy with a customer, if you get my drift, so make it snappy, 'kay?"

I guess that did it and 'Ro decided I was making light of it for show, because he said, "Inform Wind that two substitutes will arrive in two days."

"Oh, really? Anyone I know?"

"Ah, yes." Heero cleared his throat. "Call me when you are free."

"I'm on my way," I said quietly and hung up.

Gunter looked at me curiously. "Something wrong?"

I shrugged. "I've got to cut it short tonight. Two of our newest boys were in an accident and I'm afraid I need to go say my farewells in case one of them doesn't make it."

"Oh, my. Sounds terrible. Where are you going? I can have my driver take you."

I shook my head. "He can drive us back home. We've got a charter waiting for us there. I need to inform Wind and get his approval first."

Gunter stepped back over to me and smiled a real genuine smile. "Why don't you call me when you get back?"

I stared him in the eyes and he looked away for a brief second. "I'll think about it."

I walked over to the door and unlatched it to find Quatre hovering nearby. I closed the door partially and pulled Gunter over to me. I kissed him on the forehead again and smiled.

"Happy Valentine's Day, Alric."

He sucked his breath in quickly and I let him go. "You, too, Scythe. Call my number if you need something—anything."

I nodded and walked out, grabbing Quatre by the hand. I pulled him steadily along through the crowd, towards the front door. Trowa caught my eye, raised his eyebrows, and followed our heading. As we passed by Mill, Trowa wrapped an arm supportively around his shoulders, urging him along.

"I got a call. Two of ours have been in an accident," I told Mill with Gunter visible in his wake. I asked, letting my worry shine through my eyes, "May we go home now, Wind? There's a charter on the way to take us to the hospital. One might not make it." I might have sniffled convincingly.

Mill suppressed all his questions, although, I know he sensed the urgency in the tenor of my voice. "Of course, Scythe. Alric, please excuse our premature departure."

"Understandable circumstances. Damaged merchandise can be terribly unfortunate for you." Gunter shrugged elegantly as he walked us out the door. "My driver is waiting, he'll take you home."

I flashed him a smile and forced out, "Thanks, babe."

Mill moved between Trowa and me, and gripped my shoulder. When his weight leaned into me, I knew his energy reserves were drained. Trowa wrapped an arm carefully around his waist, taking on more of the man's weight down the stairs. I held tightly to my bud's hand to hide my trembling as we walked towards the limousine.

Mill tried to stop me, but I shook my head knowing I couldn't stop now. "Come on."

The driver was waiting next to the door and shut it as we got in. I stared out the window until we pulled up at the house. Trowa and I helped Mill out, and as we walked towards the house, Quatre opened the door.

It was like déjá vu all over again as I ran to the bathroom, stripping my clothes off this time as I went. I had been breathing through the nausea off and on since I had met Gunter, but it wouldn't be held back now. I retched violently into the toilet and didn't notice when Mill sat down on the edge of the tub.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

I shook my head. "Do I look fine?"

"I see nothing, but," Mill said quietly, "he was fawning all over you."

"Later. Listen, Heero called."

Mill touched my shoulder. "What's wrong?"

"Edwards and Moore were in a car accident. No word yet on how they're doing beyond serious and critical."

Trowa and Quatre were leaning on either side of the door to the bathroom. "Meaning they don't know if one's going to make it?" Trowa offered.

"Is the mission scrubbed?" asked Quatre. "Can it go on with just the three of us?"

I shook my head. "We get two subs."

Mill stared at me, speechless. "Did he say who?"

"No, but I'll give you one guess."

"Heero and Wufei," Quatre said. "Oh, dear. Poor Wufei."

Mill's face darkened. "They are completely unsuitable, and Yuy has too recognizable a face, not to mention neither of them look like I picked them up off the streets. What was Une thinking? I must talk to that woman." He stood abruptly wincing in pain. "Duo, take a shower and get his touch off of you and you'll feel better. I'll go call Commander Une."

I touched his thigh. "Wash your hands first—you, too, guys. That place just felt like it was crawling with disease and drugs. Never know what you'll pick up in a hole like that."

Trowa and Quatre wanted to talk more about what had happened, but were polite enough to know when to wait me out and left to their own room. Mill went to the sink and washed his hands, while I stripped off the rest of my clothes then left without a word. I got into the shower with the water still almost cold. I literally scrubbed myself raw in places trying to get all traces of Gunter from my body and my memory.

Mill came back into the bathroom as I was rinsing off. He opened the door and smiled at me seconds before said, "Let my touch replace his."

"W-what?!" My mind was screaming: You didn't just come on to me now, after what I just went through with Gunter?!

"I said," he repeated. "Commander Une said she'll let me... Oh, I give up." He stopped trying to shout over the roar of the water, and waited for me to shut it off. "Une said that the replacements are fixed. They are to be Yuy and Chang, as we guessed. We'll all have to double-up on the infiltration duties and extraction as well. And before you ask, the answer is no. Not you, me, or any of the others is flying back to see what's going on at Surry Medical. Une's orders. We are not to leave New Germany. We are not to leave tracks traceable to Preventer's."

I found I couldn't care less. I was not hearing clearly, which meant either I was imagining things or I was really stressed out and imagining things. I should have cared more, but I didn't.

"Duo? Perhaps if you tell me what happened this evening, if it would help."

Maybe so. "I couldn't even get it up," I murmured, pressing my forehead into the wall of the shower. "The only way I did eventually was thinking of someone else." Heero.

I cranked on the hot water and steamed Gunter away a few minutes longer, before calling it quits. I shut the water off and stepped out of the shower. Mill handed me a towel.

"Um, you don't have to hang here," I told him bluntly. "I'm capable of cleaning up on my own and I don't need an audience."

He smiled and pushed the towel into my arms, but didn't leave.

"Suit yourself."

I quickly wrapped the towel around my waist, and then decided to give him a surprise. I stepped towards him and hugged him gently, trying to be careful of his ribs. I heard him gasp, but since I couldn't see his face, I couldn't tell if he was shocked or in pain, so I released him instantly.

"I wanted to see if you had any bruising or injuries that needed care." He kept his head turned so that his face was hidden by his hair. "When you are dressed, join us in the living room, please."

"I brought up the feed and the bug from Gunter's library, Duo. Good work under pressure," Trowa said.

Quatre's fingers brushed the damp bangs off my forehead. "Milliardo might not have had a clue about what you were doing, but you took what you knew and you worked with it. You had ... that man completely convinced." He squeezed my hand in his. "I've never seen you so out of character. You are...too good."

"Yeah, well, it doesn't feel very good. Matter of fact, I think I'll be permanently ill. Don't make me watch a replay or I'll lose it, again, guaranteed."

My stomach was still doing somersaults as we gathered on the comfortable couches in the living room. I preferred to go hide out and lick my wounds alone someplace.

Mill chuckled. "He was opening up when your phone rang."

I shrugged. "I promised to call Heero back," I told them and left the room.

"Hey," I whispered into my cell phone.

"Duo?" Heero's voice sounded on edge. He had probably been ready to snap open his cell phone ever since our last call. "Tell me about tonight."

"Love you, too," I said with a chuckle. My boyfriend would not be good for phone sex either, I guessed. "Tonight's something I'd rather not talk about without a little sleep."

"I know you made contact with Gunter. I just wanted to know how things went. You are okay so it can wait."

"Yeah, I'm fine, but here's something for you to pass on to the geeks there at headquarters who found us this apartment and all, something the idiot information gatherers can think on for awhile: we're watching the wrong house."

"The wrong house!"

"Gunter owns the place and visits it, keeps a boy here, but he's a rich-ass guy with an estate ten minutes out of town. I could bet my braid that the action takes place there."

"Shit." I could hear Heero's mental gears grinding over that fat juicy morsel. "That one tidbit of information will upset several of the higher-ups. Somebody's ass is going to be reamed over that."

"Yeah," I laughed aloud for the first time in a long while. "I'm just glad that, for once, it's not mine!"

"Or mine. He does keep a few boys across the street, right?"

"Yeah, so it's not a total loss. Trowa and I got some surveillance bugs in his place, too."

"You are wonderful," he told me.

"Tell me more," I begged.

I crashed on the futon, that night, clutching my cell phone like a lifeline to my boyfriend, and didn't wake up until the smell of lunch wafted past the open office door the next day.

"Where's Tro'?" I asked.

Over coffee and Quatre's potato pancakes, Mill clued me in on what had already been going on. "I spoke to Gunter this morning," Mill said quietly. "He requested Tamer to house-sit across the street for a few hours this morning. It seems that Gunter hasn't been back to the house yet and Strom let him in, then left. Trowa has been trying to communicate with the little boy, Jimmy."

"Oh yeah?"

He nodded. "In the mean time, business of the other kind is gearing up. I don't know who the buyer is for the next shipment, but I have the location of the meeting place, thanks to a bug on some the phone conversations and one of the car tracers."

"What is the drug of choice and where does Alric get it, or does his company really manufacture it?"

"Well, that's kind of complicated. As we guessed, he manufactures, but from the records he also buys compounds and distributes. The shipment that's coming in a few weeks is from Brussels or Belgium and it's going to be very large."

"How large?" I asked.

"It will all be inside an identical replica of Michelangelo's 'David', only it's hollow. It's been passed back and forth overseas so many times, I don't know how it's holding up." He looked at me kind of funny. "You do know that the original is nearly seventeen feet tall; that's a lot of empty space."

"Well, that explains the art collecting angle," I said. "How does the money change hands?"

"That's part of our job to find out." Mill smiled. "The statue has an escort, who I believe will be a direct link to someone in the Romefeller Foundation. Maybe we'll pin it on Dermail that way."

He looked down at his watch. "The statue is then refilled with different drugs, which Alric produces himself, we are guessing. That's one of the details we need to clear up."

"And then there's that new drug he's cooking up," Quatre said. "Wufei is sitting on the lab guys heads, but it's still a partial mystery. He said it was a complex."

Mill nodded. "I hope Wufei stays on them until they get the anti-toxin done."

"Maybe I oughtta sleep in more often," I muttered. "Maybe you guys'd solve the whole thing." I noticed a movement outside the window. Trowa waved from the sidewalk. "Hey, look who's back!"

He joined us at the table, smiled a private smile for Quatre, accepted a can of soda, and ran a hand through his re-styled, streaky, strawberry blond bangs.

"Progress report," Mill said.

"'Kay. First off, I talked to the little boy, Jimmy. He trusts me and understands how to swallow the tracking pills. I hid one in his room in case he's taken when we can't get close. Second, Gunter wanted me over to test if I can follow orders like a good soldier. He told me the other guards that had been staying at the house were gone, but when they returned, I could go home, which I did when Strom and another dude I recognized from the club, named Raul, showed up. Before I left, I overheard this Raul guy on the phone. He mentioned a delivery date for a shipment from Belgium. Trouble is I couldn't tell if it was art or boys or drugs or some combination."

"Good job, Trowa," Mill said. "That fits into the information from the previous phone taps. I was just filling Duo in on what we'd learned. We'll just have to make sure that when the local agencies go in on that one, Gunter is nowhere around, and that he's not taken in."

"I just want him locked up," I grumbled, tired of waiting for the big score.

"I know, but maybe this is where we get to Strom and try to cut him a deal testifying against Gunter. We need Gunter free for a little while longer so that we can trace the drug supply line and find where the rest of the boys are hidden. We must locate the training camps and identify the Romefeller connection."

"Shall I try to ID this Raul to see if he has a record?" Quatre asked.

"Yes," Mill said. "Pass anything you can to Chang as soon a possible. The man's setting up drug stings in five places at once, but if we can narrow down the possibilities, it will simplify matters."

"There's more," Trowa said. "He seems to like art and he seems to like little boys."

I swallowed so hard it hurt. I suddenly felt as if I couldn't breathe and I sat straighter in the chair, trying to ease the nausea rolling through my stomach. I always hated when kids where at the mercy of monsters.

"Seems to like them how?" Quatre asked.

"It's suspected that he either abducts them or buys them from other traders," Mill said, "which is why Preventers set us up watching him in the first place." He stopped for second and looked up at Trowa, who shifted uncomfortably in his chair.

"Uh, yeah," Trowa said. "He's got himself a harem going. I think that he loans the boys out as sexual favors."

"Oh, no," Quatre moaned. "Training teenagers for an army is one thing but this—"

"Fuck Gunter and all his kind," I muttered.

Mill looked at Trowa and me sympathetically. He stood and rested his hands on my shoulders. "I know it's a nasty game to play, but just know that I'm with you no matter what."

"His touch to me is so revolting; it takes everything I have to not lose it." I sighed and laid my head against his arm. The contact was warm and reassuring, even if it wasn't Heero's. "I will not do another undercover operation after this, ever."

I threw and arm over my eyes and listened while the others traded suggestions and ideas. I was no good for planning. Just throw me to the wolves and let me fight my way out. I was feeling sorry for myself at the time.

"I think," Trowa said, "that, Wind, you will have to get Gunter to trust you enough so that he offers you one of the boys."

"Then," Quatre went on, tripping over the difficult parts, "you arrange to-to buy the boy, offer him a payment telling him you will want to keep the boy in your custody and safe, possibly to train like us. If he agrees, then that's all the proof we need to have him arrested."

"True, but Une wants more information as to who some of his contacts and some of his buyers are. A name of anyone higher up than him, is also a big plus." Mill stopped and drew a breath, wincing from his still-tender ribs. "We want the army sights where they send the older ones, we want the drug ring-- we want it all."

Quatre sighed. "I've been trying to put all the pieces together, you know? There's this dangerous new drug and Gunter tested it on Duo. He's a big man in drug production, at a place we now know is Jade Pharmaceuticals, thanks to your hard work, Duo."

I signaled I'd heard, but made no move to join in. Let Quatre shine.

"The documentation on him assigns him an owner role in the company, so he may have close connections inside, maybe with R & D. He was testing this new drug on interesting possible clients in clubs. At least Wufei should be happy understanding why he hasn't been able to associate him with any drug cartel."

"So, Gunter's maybe the owner of a legitimate pharmaceutical company making experimental control drugs on the side," Mill suggested.

Quatre grinned. "That's what I think. And the 'why?'"

"All the better to control his little army of boys," I said, sitting up, interested again. "And he moves the drugs in hollow statues from one port dump to another, wherever the ..."

"Need is!" Quatre chirped. "When the new drug is ready, he'll be sending it to where the boys are being held and trained."

"So if a shipment is coming here," Trowa put in, "that would mean one base is here, someplace."

"Or there's no shipment, just the hollow statue coming back for filling, then back to the bases."

"Dear gods," Mill said. "Quatre might be right."

"Now, you know why we always thought of Quatre as the brains of our little group," I said, proud of my bud and his logic.

Mill had a headache to tend to in his room, which left the rest of us free to spend the rest of the day doing housework and continuing to monitor the computers—and if we had time, we too could rest up for the next round of clubbing fun. There was purpose in living after all.

Since Heero and Wufei would get into town any day, there was the other ex-office to fix up into a bedroom. I'd let Wufei have my futon where the computers were stationed. He'd want to be in the thick of the monitoring and have some privacy. I quietly moved some of my stuff from Mill's closet and made up a new queen-sized futon for Heero and me. I couldn't wait. I fixed a lasagna dinner and set the oven timer before joining Trowa in the living room to watch the news. Quatre was in the back of the house, moving clothes from the washer to the drier, when my cell phone started buzzing.

I got up from the couch and went in search of the errant phone. It had somehow made it under the over-stuffed chair. I stared at the caller ID that showed a number but not a name. I pushed the button and answered the phone. "Hello."

There was a brief pause and then Gunter's voice came over the line. "Scythe?"

"Hello, Alric," I said trying to sound friendly enough.

This was about the last thing that I needed. Trowa sat up looking concerned. He raised an eyebrow and I knew he was wondering how Gunter had gotten a hold of my cell number. That was exactly what I wanted to know.

"How are your... companions... faring?"

"Less of an emergency than first thought. You know how over-dramatic some bitches can get. Anyway, the ones in the accident are doing much better. Mostly they were scared silly. They were pretty shook up, but no real injuries, as it turned out. They'll be settling in at our house soon and be all ready to go out on the town." I swallowed that revolting taste in my mouth at being so polite. "How are you?"

"Missing you," Gunter said. "Will you meet me tomorrow night?"

"Meet you? Why?"

"I want to see you."

"I don't think that's a good idea right now. I got lots to take care of around here getting ready to take on two more responsibilities. Besides, you can't be that hard up to see me."

I'd practically scrubbed myself raw the last time Gunter had touched me, and I just wasn't ready to do that again anytime soon.

"I was missing you when you left here."

"Are you trying to change the way this game is played?" I asked, trying to sound as dominating as I knew how.

Quatre dumped the laundry basket on the coffee table, joining Trowa. They both watched and listened intently to the one-sided conversation without offering advice.

I must have been doing okay, so I continued, "You get pushy and I'm not going to hang around. I don't need that."

Gunter stuttered. "I...I just want to see you."

"I told you I'd call, didn't I?"

"Well, yes, but..."

"Where're you going to be tomorrow night?"

"Club Oz," he said quietly.

"Oz, huh?"

Trowa grimaced.

"Well, if...and that's a big if...if I come, I won't be alone. I just don't want you to forget that and I don't want you to forget who's in charge." Man that sounded weak. I clenched my teeth and demanded, "Who is in charge, Alric?"

Gunter drew in a sharp breath. "You are."

"Thanks for your concern for Wind's other boys. I'll let you know something tomorrow about the club. Goodnight Alric."

I slammed shut the cell phone and tossed it onto the floor, where it skidded under the chair again. I rubbed my hand roughly over my face in aggravation. "Fuck!"

"Duo?" Quatre called out from the far side of the laundry basket. "What's happened?"

"Oh, Gunter, that's all. He's going to want me to fuck him before we're ready to end this, I just know it."

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," Quatre said dismissing the problem. He grabbed a clean pair of boxers from the pile of freshly laundered clothes and tossed them at me. "Here, take a relaxing shower and get dressed so I don't have to fold those. Then, we're all going eat and enjoy the excellent dinner you made and watch the DVD I brought like the close friends and comrades we are. For right now, we are going to forget all about Gunter."

I blew my breath out slowly. "Easy for you to say, Q-baby. He's not trying to touch your most favorite body parts."

Quatre winked at me, which I thought was odd.

Then from behind my back a familiar voice intoned like a depth charge, "Oh yes, he is."

Chapter 11

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