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"Greeting Cards"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: Yaoi, funeral practices, AU, fluff Pairings: 1+4, 1x2x1, 3+H, 5xH, 3x4, 6x9 Summary: Each chapter is based on Heero’s
greeting cards and Duo's mortuary. "Greeting Cards " Chapter 18 -- September Leaves, Part 3 I awoke with a jolt. When I moved to turn off my watch alarm, I noticed a weight holding my arm to the bed. It took me nearly a minute to pick out Duo's features and comprehend who he was, and another one to recover from that realization. A very naked Duo was snuggled up to my equally naked side. It was a dream come true, which, sadly for me at the moment, I was unable to build upon. Oh, I considered wrapping myself around him and enjoying him fully, but I had a purpose in coming to the island which was more time-dependent. I hoped to steal out, search for the evidence I sought, and then return to this precisely identical position. I was stupid enough to think I could get away with all that without Duo knowing. I wanted to protect him from any mistakes I might make. Get back and then share what I had discovered with him, and then later share it with Zechs. I did not like feeling as if I were in league with the devil. He was, after all, a respected part of the Sanc elite. And considering the pills Duo had downed before crashing-- and I assumed he took some, although I did not see him do it-- he would remain dead to the world for hours. I was pulling on my pants when I heard Duo's sharp intake of air. Caught. "I can explain," I gasped out. "'Sokay, 'Ro. I know where I am and remember clearly what we did." He wasn't aware that I was dressed. "What was that?" he asked. "You hear the wolves. That can be scary, I know." "Not scared," he grumbled. I didn't need light to see how embarrassed he was. "Where are you going?" he asked. "Stay here. You shouldn't be running around an unfamiliar place. You'll be safer right here. I'll get things done faster without having to worry about you, and then I'll be back as soon as I can." "I asked because I wanted to know, not to be put off with weak platitudes." I reached for my shirt and sighed heavily when Duo got out of bed and kicked it out of my reach. "I have some investigating to do. There is something going on here, I am certain, and it relates to the attack on you, to Trowa, Zechs, and the deaths you have been investigating. That last one was an employee here, you said." Duo paused to absorb what I had said. He started to braid his hair. "I'm still coming up empty. You know more than you're telling me." Unwittingly, and unfortunately, I used an arrogant tone of voice when I replied. "I know lots of things you don't, Duo, but I'm not discussing everything with you here and now." He was holding me in a headlock before I could button a single shirt button. "Think again, love." He tightened his grip as I struggled to break free. "You're not leaving me alone in this place. I'm going with you. Nod if you understand." I may have budged slightly. "Just wanna put my nice greeting card away and put on my shoes," he said as he let go. I had lost my will to argue the moment he had used the word 'love'. We were lovers now. We were in love. And I had no choice but to include him in my plans since I could not lock him in his room. "I need to carry this shoulder bag, that's all." It was a very special bag with a water-tight inner seal. It contained my gun and, in the outer pocket, a piece of glow-in-the-dark chalk. "My bag's packed, if we gotta make a break for it." "So is mine, not that it matters if it got left behind." From the look Duo gave me, though, I could tell his possessions mattered to him. "Okay, we are going to the basement where there is an underground sewer causeway to the other facilities. I'll have Shari, whom I trust, load our things onto the plane and prepare it for take-off, just in case, though I hope to learn what I need to without being caught. If there's a storm coming, flying or sailing off the island may be impossible." "Oh, I think it's coming, all right. The wind's blowing like there's no tomorrow." "Then we'd better not waste any more time." Contacting Shari in the middle of the night was no easy trick, but once done, she was understanding about our need to outrace the weather and took out luggage without further delay. I took Duo with me and hunted for the underground sewer entranceway. I illuminated patches of the floor with my tiny, but bright, beam from my mini-flashlight, scanning deliberately for a particular marked cover. "Tell me what you're looking for and I can help." "It has a funny mark. This one!" I pocketed the light, and then used both hands to yank open the heavy grate. With the top off, Duo peered into the dark pit. "Just how dirty is it down there?" "It's a storm sewer. When it is dry, like now, it should be fine. After a storm, we would have to swim to pass through." "Then we'd better haul ass; I'm not much of a swimmer. How do we get down?" "There is a ladder, but it's about four feet down so you cannot see or reach it." "Gimme a break. I'm from the streets of L2. Sewers are like the pedestrian highways. Just lower me into the hole." It was too late to go back now, so I agreed. "All right." It wasn't the dark or the unknown that bothered me much; I loved mysteries. It was the thought of all the disgusting things we might encounter down there and infect Duo's injuries. He must have thought about that himself, but still in a leap of faith, he sat on the edge, waiting for me to move. I locked onto his wrists and lowered him into the darkness. "Kick in and you should hit the ladder." I hoped nothing had changed. There was a metallic ring as Duo's hit the rungs after just a few seconds. "Contact!" While still holding onto his wrists, I knelt lower to the ground until I flattened myself on the pavement around the opening. The movement must have alarmed him. "Don't let go until I gotta grip here!" "I will not let you fall, Duo." "Yeah, well... Now, let go of my hands, right one first." I released one arm but tightened my grip on the other. "Okay, I'm on the ladder. You can let go now, 'Ro." "Go on down a ways so I don't step on your hands." I recovered the chalk and sketched a quick mark to identify this particular exit. The one we would return through would be this one or ten past. "Okay, there's room for you now." I maneuvered the manhole cover back over my head as I joined Duo in the sewer. "Is it just me or am I missing the romance in this?" "It's dark and intimate?" He chuckled with me. "I guess chillin' down here makes us even after my hot date with you in the morgue meltdown." "God, Duo, that was...frustrating. At least you got to sleep in a nice bed on my date." "Yeah." He sounded dreamy in a way that activated my lower regions. "Time to move. Just keep going down. You'll hit the bottom rung in about twenty feet, then wait for me, or you can hop to the floor- about a three foot drop. No, better just wait for me at that point." "As if I'd go running off alone," Duo grumbled. He might mouth off a lot, but he usually could do that and move fast at the same time. Like now. "Stumbling about in a sewer with no idea where I was headed in pitch darkness. Shit! Slippery!" "Focus on your feet, baka!" The only sound was that of our shoes scraping the rungs for a minute. I did not want to take a chance on Duo diving into some nasty pit, so before he reached the last rungs, I jumped past him to the floor and switched on the overhead lights. Duo cried out, "Christ! You coulda warned me or something!" "Sorry." I was. I was so quick to protect him I forgot to tell him what I was doing. From a hard-edged, cold, black pipe to a ghastly green glowing tube, our world was transformed instantly with the light. "I should go first in case things have changed over the years. We have to keep moving, Duo," I said over my shoulder, leaving him no choice but to pick up the pace and run. "This is a causeway, so keep to the center where there's a raised walk, or you're likely to get your feet wet." "Wet?" he shouted out. "Sewers carry detritus in a current of water. Although it does not smell noisome, it takes little imagination to fill the concealed depths with foul things." "Yeah, sure. Thanks." Other than the firmness of the cement block beneath our feet, the situation was otherworldly. We ran through a fuzzy blackness with our beginning concealed and no visible end ahead, punctuated every ten feet by a dim luminous glow from the overhead service lights. It was endless, mesmerizing in its sameness. The sound of our heavy breathing and the sound of our footfalls were all we had to root our minds in the here and now. My eyes remained focused on the path ahead and it felt good knowing that Duo trusted me to point out any traps or dangers. We ran a couple miles before I encountered a crossing, and slowed to a stop to consider which way to go. Duo was thankful for the break to catch his breath. "Lost?" "No, we can take either path. I was just waiting for you to catch up." It was a joke and I smiled to prove it. "Smartass. I can keep up with you just fine." I shook my head. Duo impressed me with his resiliency. "A few hundred more feet in this direction and we climb again." "No problemo." We trotted on until we reached the ladder. I leaped up and offered him a hand up. "Showoff," he muttered, but I know he loved it when I flexed my muscles. "What's above us?" Duo asked as we reached the top rung of the ladder and stopped. His hand grazed my ankle in his search for the next rung to hold onto. "Sorry," he mumbled. "Research laboratory records. Ready? I'll climb up first, then give you a hand up." I reached for the cover. My fingertips could not reach the opening when I stood on tip toes. "Shit." "What's the matter?" "Can't reach. The ladder was damaged and is missing a few rungs." "Let me try." Duo was taller than I and it was a stretch, but he was just tall enough. "Just crack it and listen first." "Gotcha." He pushed the sewer cap open a chink and paused to listen. There was no sound or light coming from the room above. Satisfied that it was safe, he pulled himself up over the lip of the opening. It took two hands with some muscle behind it to lift me off the last rung. When I was steady on my two feet he embraced me in a brief hug. "Glad you're small. It makes me feel needed." "Idiot," I muttered into his shirt. "I'm not that much shorter than you." "Apparently you are." He rubbed his hand up and down the front of my pants, finding what he wanted to I might add. "Not that it matters in some departments." "This is not the time for ... this. Let me go. Please?" The tightened his grip in a business-like manner. "I will when you tell me where we are." "The door," I quipped, and was rewarded with a punch to my arm. "Duo..." I actually was whining, and that would not do. He didn't now how sexually vulnerable I was or how submissive I could get. I cleared my throat and got myself under control. "We are in a utility space where the electrical and power supply lines run." "That wasn't so hard to tell me, was it?" He caressed my arm and released me. "I'm not demanding answers to nearly as many questions as I've got." "I will tell you when I can." Thankful that it was too dark to see my flushed state, I turned away before flicking on my micro flashlight to examine the area. I swept the beam over a far wall. "Clear. Follow me and be quiet. There may be personnel on the other side of that door." Duo nodded and adjusted the braid he had stuffed down his shirt. "Itches. Okay. Ready." We crept out of the darkness into a dimly lit room. I could make out the hum of several computers and the light from their glowing screens, some blue, others green. In the shadows there stood tall filing cabinets and bookcases. I nudged Duo's arm and directed his attention to the far side of the room where another door appeared below a backlit sign warning them that they were entering a high security area. Clearly, this was where we wanted to be. "What do they do here?" Duo whispered. "Pathology; they run medical tests just like a hospital; at least, they used to." I put a finger to his lips and cautioned him to silence as I picked a path to the door. Where you would expect a handle to be, there was a security lock activated by entering a code on the keypad. I wasted no time typing what Zechs had told me would work. With a mechanical click, the bolt drew back, and the door slid into the frame, making a sound of escaping air. Duo frowned at me. "And you knew to do that how exactly?" "Zechs told me. He pulled together the information in your office. He discovered the necessary codes while doing some database investigation into Marshal Noventa's prints on record at the penitentiary." "He should have told me about all this." His frown deepened. "So should've you. I'd really like to know when you two shared this mystery and decided not to include me, but I can wait for that explanation." "Thank you," I said, trying to impart to him with my eyes just how grateful I was for his patience. His curt nod was enough support. It imparted forgiveness and understanding, and then everything was back to normal. "Oh, wow," Duo gasped. "This looks like a scene from some futuristic movie, you know what I mean?" He had kept his voice low, but I wanted him to say nothing. "Shhhh... Yes. We must be quick. Opening that door may have alerted a guard monitoring the activity here. Every room is under surveillance. It is just a matter of someone doing his job or not." I moved stealthily to a wall of lab tables and filing cabinets. "How do you know this is the lab you're looking for?" "I have been here before so I know where I am, and, as I said before, Zechs did a lot of sleuthing to locate where he wanted me to collect evidence. He is very skillful. He found a virtual layout for the entire complex, all but one area." "This one, I take it?" "Yes. The details were missing. He spent hours tracing links through databases, and what he found was disturbing. He needs concrete evidence and a few files ought to do it." "I need to have a talk with Zechs concerning misuse of company computer time." Duo nudged my shoulder. "You will tell me why you are doing this for Zechs, right?" "Yes, Duo. Later." My eyes caught and trapped his. "I mean it. I promise." "Right. Okay, then, sure we can find those few files in here?" "Find them? Yes. Before we're caught? I don't know." I began searching a filing cabinet in a systematic manner. The room was large and compartmentalized. When we had entered, the reflection of dozens of metal vats was visible from the black, glazed walls, but once the door closed and the outer light gone, the images were shielded behind smoky glass. I could see Duo in reflection, mincing about trying to be quiet and dying to be elsewhere. "I'll just have a look around, then," Duo said. "Don't go far. Stay out of sight. There might be someone on the other side of the partition. I don't know. We can't see through the dividers." He let out a snort. "As if I hadn't more sense than a two-year-old!" I hoped he had better survival instincts than a two-year old. I, of course, kept that remark to myself. "I wanna peek at what's in those giant test tube things. They look like torpedoes." I pulled out file after file, removing the contents and stuffing them into my shoulder bag. Zechs had been correct in assuming the paper file organization would mirror that of the computer database, which he had stumbled onto while researching Barton's whereabouts. At the time I wasn't entirely sure what the data represented. Many inmates of the penitentiary and of the asylum had been transferred to the lab section. This could be explained by a disease breakout or a mass riot, had it been a one-time occurrence. Instead, the medical records showed a constant flow of ten patients a day, year after year. Sometimes as many as twenty, or as few as five, but on the average ten souls were moved from their residences to the labs, never to return. The trail ended there, here. What was being done to these people was recorded partly in meaningless code, the remainder in clear, passionless medical lingo, and it made my skin crawl. "Patient #395 injected with 10 cc of #48u48 extraction in collagen matrix." Next, I moved to the computers, copying as many data files as I could find onto the external hard drive in my bag. Even I knew the importance of having hard copy evidence in a court of law. Zechs wanted to trace a couple of the inmates and their treatments through this lab to their subsequent destination. I located particular coded names, downloaded the files, and then moved to the next code. I wondered how Duo was doing, how his jaw was, and where the Hell he had gone. I had to concentrate on moving as rapidly as possibly, while at the same time listening for interference. I could hear Duo's shoes creak, and then nothing else until he rejoined me several minutes later. He tugged at my arm. "What is it?" "Y-you gotta come." His face was pale, his lips bloodless. Whatever he had seen, it had frightened him. I closed my shoulder bag and my fingers felt for another tool hidden inside. His gun was secure and close at hand. I shifted the heavy bag over my back and out of the way. "Show me." When Duo dropped to his hands and knees, I did, too. He guided me to the edge of one of the metal seven-foot-long tubes. One end was tapered and enclosed in brushed, non-reactive stainless steel. The other had a slightly raised dome of Lucite on the top side of the steel form. "Look inside." "Oh, my..." I was stunned, even after suspecting what we might discover from the data I had been collecting. It was a human face, submerged in a gel-like material. The head was shaved, the eyes open and milky gray, the skin flawless, ageless. "It can't be real, can it? I mean, it can't be alive in there; there's no air!" The lights on the container's display showed otherwise. "Not that I can explain here, but..." I stopped. Duo was crawling over to another test subject. "Same thing," Duo whispered. He pointed beyond the next dividing wall. "No," I hissed. "We must leave." But he was out of earshot already. "Fuck!" The outburst came from Duo. I was on my feet and rummaging through my bag for my weapon. I should have stuffed the gun into my belt before I jammed bag full of papers. For the life of me I didn't know what I had been thinking. No, that is not true. I had been thinking about Duo. His injured jaw. His lips, his lips, his ass in tight pants... This was an unfortunate twist to the night's end. As I ran, I could see Duo squirming, pinned in the arms of his abductor, trying to get a good look at him. I had to stop and look at what I was digging through to get at my gun. If I was not careful I would disorder the files. "Getcher nasty slimy hands off me, bastard!" he shouted. I looked up and sure enough, the protuberant lips, sallow complexion, and wall-eyed look made me think of some creature, and so did Duo. He spouted the first thing that came to mind. "You...fish-faced freakazoid!" I knew that fish, er, man. He had attached Relena. Another one of Ty Keel's thugs. Sinbad? Sincity? Sin-Synapses were not firing in my head fast enough. All the blood was in my stomach carrying away my digesting food and leaving my brain bereft. How had he slipped the police? Don't they keep criminals jailed any more? Of course, Ty could afford to bail the guy out. My hunt was a success. I pulled out my gun. Safety off. Aim. Do not shoot Duo. Duo thrashed like a fish himself and broke free, but the attacker hurled himself at him. To avoid being squashed, Duo leaped onto a ceramic topped lab table. Upon it was a body. When Duo's foot failed to locate a stabilizing surface, I watched helplessly as he lost his balance and fell onto the flaccid torso. His arms shot out in time to hinder the impact, catching his weight before falling hard onto the body. He was staring down into a pink-skinned face like a wax museum character covered in a thick, clear, gooey substance, and where his arm touched the torso, it stuck. "Ah!" he cried out. When he pulled away, it made a sucking noise. It was horrible! Ready. Aim... "No one calls Sidney names and lives!" the brute snarled. Sidney! Yes, that was the name. Duo's head was turned, so he missed seeing the fish-faced thug grapple haphazardly at the array of dissecting tools arranged on the table beside the still figure and moved on Duo. "Duo!" Ready, aim...STOP! DO NOT SHOOT DUO! Duo swirled, his braid breaking free and whipping about in a most spectacular manner, while he kicked away at Sidney's outstretched arm. Duo also had picked up a weapon, in a movement so quick I'd missed it. "Who?" Sidney asked, looking around like a dumbass and missing Duo's advance. "That takes guts," Duo said with gusto, "accosting me." I saw a flash of metal as Duo stabbed at the other man. He slid his blade in from the side of his midsection, then twisted and brought the blade to the front. In seconds, he dispatched the man. "Too bad yours are on the floor." Sidney fell to the floor, blood and intestines spilling from his wound, fluid bubbling up his throat and out his mouth. I winced and averted my eyes, feeling a wide range of horrific feelings at the moment, but I also was excited and feeling stronger in the super-charged atmosphere of the lab. I thought maybe it was the ozone in the air caused by the storm. I hadn't even fired my gun. It was still in my hand. Cold. I watched Duo clean his fingerprints from the handle before placing it in the fallen man's hand. "You think that will look like a suicide?" I asked, figuring out what he was doing. "If it confuses someone, it might buy us time." Time. I heard a deep rumbling and felt the floor shake infinitesimally. The sluice gates were opening to the sewers. Time. I checked my watch. "We have ten minutes." "Until what? What are those for?" Duo asked as I ripped the cushions off a desk chair. "Floats. You'll see. The sewer floods. Help me get two more." With a grunt but no argument from Duo we collected what we needed, and tucked them under our arms. "Now run!" We retraced their steps to the electrical maintenance room. I fought to open the sewer lid. "I don't hear anyone after us, Heero." "Not yet, but there will be --" My voice was drowned out by a shrieking alarm. "That was activated by a guard. Sidney must have triggered a warning signal someplace. I doubted that anyone had found his body yet. Here, give me your cushions. Go on. Climb down. We may yet get out of this." This time when I climbed down after him, I could hear the rush of water. "It's like a fucking river down here. The storm must have hit." "It reached the mountains first; this is the run-off from that. If we hurry, we still might be able to fly out of here." "Fly? Like a flying fish, maybe." More than anything I wanted to reach out and re-assure him that we would make it out. "You can swim, can't you?" "Yeah, but it's damn cold. What about the papers in your bag?" I patted the bag. "Water-tight. They'll be fine. Now, I'm handing you two cushions. Can you reach them?" Duo reached up and I pressed the chair pads into his hand. "Got it. So, I use these to float on?" "Yes, that is the idea. When the cold constricts your muscles and they no longer keep you afloat, this should help." "They aren't great." "No, but the water is not yet deep and if we are lucky we won't need them at all." "Right. 'Cause we've been so lucky this far." I could sense his sarcasm along with his hesitancy to enter the water, and ached to ease his fears, but we had no time to waste. "I'm going around you. I'll test the depth." I leaned into his warm hard body as I brushed past, then dropped into the rushing water. "Not yet three feet deep. Jump, I can support you." Total darkness, a fast-flowing river of unclean water, uncertain footing- "All right!" he shouted and left his safe perch. "Ah!" he gasped as the icy coldness slapped his face. He was knee-deep and dripping, but his strong hand held mine and he felt steady. "O-okay. I'm okay, but don't let go, yet." "I am going to turn the emergency overhead lights back on, Duo. They time out after a couple hours. Hold on to my belt." That meant shifting the cushions to one arm and stuffing his free hand down my pants and holding onto the waistband with all his strength. "This would be at lot hotter if it wasn't so cold," he quipped. "Hn." The light helped, barely. I guided us to the raised concourse and plowed forward. We made terrible time. I wished that the water would simply go away or get higher so we could swim. And then I heard a roar and knew a wall of water was coming at our backs. "Be careful what you wish for," I muttered to myself. I had just enough time to shift the cushions to under one arm, wrap the other around Duo's waist, and shout. "Water's coming! Hold on!" I could feel Duo clench on to me and then the water slammed into our backs. The water lifted us off our feet and propelled us down the pipeline at over 20 miles per hour. "Whooeee!" Duo crowed as we rode the wave. "Surf's up!" We both found that we could maneuver the floats to help stabilize ourselves and keep our heads above water. At best the water wasn't over seven feet deep. Things could be worse, though, I did not want to think about how truly dangerous our situation was, since it would not help to get panicky. Duo started shouting at me and so moved my head closer to hear. "How do we know where to stop?" I couldn't explain how I had marked our exit earlier, until a chalk-drawn "DH" encircled by a tilted, roughly drawn heart appeared, luminescing faintly by the foot of a ladder. I pointed up with my nose and he saw it and smiled. Water had lapped at the bottom point and washed it off, but the glow-in-the-dark message was unmistakable. Then we raced past. One, two, three... When I saw the tenth exit, I turned us in the direction of the ladder. "This is our getting off point." Duo pinched me slightly, to show he cared, one way or the other, and then helped paddle to the side, aiming for the exposed rungs. The current was powerful, but together we fought our way across the few feet of swirling eddies and hung onto the first metal foothold we could grab. The cushions escaped and were swept away. "Up!" I said with an effort as I lifted Duo with one arm to clear the water. "Go! I'm right behind you. He didn't have time to marvel at my strength. His hands and legs had to be as numb with cold as mine, making it hard to move, but he had to. If he didn't, it would leave me to chill longer in the water. Then I remembered his face injury, the bodies in the lab room, then Sidney. The shock of his dead body brought our dire circumstances into focus, and willed my muscles to action. "Climb!" In a climb that took forever, I had no room in my head for any thoughts beyond the immediate. Climb, don't lose your grip. Help Duo. One more. He moved with the grace of a gymnast, never losing his balance or misjudging a distance. His wet slacks molded to his legs and ass. He had the best-shaped, alluring ass. His fingers hit the lid when he reached the uppermost rung and the pushed with all he could give. "Won't budge!" "All right, Duo. Move over as far as you can so I can get around you. Hold tight," I said. I swung out to the side, up, and over him to come to a crouch on the top rung. I put my shoulder into it and together we pushed. With a groan, the escape hatch opened. The black opening yawned overhead and I reached up, caught the edge, and pulled out. Duo followed and once again, we paused wrapped around each other in a brief moment of mutual comforting. I could feel his body shaking, and I knew he could feel mine, too. It was cold. Wind was blowing off the airstrip, and even though they were partially under cover, it felt like the dead of winter. I had to shout as my voice was ripped away by the loud wind. "We have to get to safety and out of these wet clothes fast." "No shit! I'm freezing my ass off!" Duo looked confused by the unexpected surroundings. "Where are we?" "We are near the a-airfield where we landed." My teeth were starting to chatter, but I couldn't stop it. "We have to r-run to the plane. That means: f-follow me. S-Stay to the shadows. We w-will be visible and e-exposed for a hundred feet or s-so. I will go f-first, open the door then you c-climb up and j-jump in. Okay?" I searched Duo's eyes for understanding. "Trust me?" "You got us this far, sure. Go for it, love." Love. My eyes filled with warmth. I wanted to thank him, to tell him how fantastic he was, and how I felt at that moment, but then I felt a few drops of rain pelt my face. Words would have to wait. "Thank you. Love." We took off, stumbling over trash and fuel lines, broken free from their holdings in the wind. I heard voices shouting over the wind. Friend or foe, I didn't know. "You can't always call me that," he yelled at me. "What? Why not?" "Because I called you 'love' first, dimwit! Ya gotta give me my own nickname." "I do?" "Yes!" "Like what? What do you suggest?" "You're kidding! You think of something." "Baka!" "OH, no, we've been through that before. Not that." "Honey?" "Too...sweet." "Then 'Sugar' wouldn't do either, I suppose." "Not at all." "Baby? Hey, you call me babe, sometimes. You cannot have two. I get 'love' and you have 'babe'." And that was where I left it because we had reached the destination and I had another person to fight with. I had all my arguments prepared. I dashed ahead of Duo in a final spurt of energy. "Shari, no! You have risked enough. I will fly us out, you co-pilot. You will have to bring it back after the storm has passed. Duo, go on. Climb aboard the plane." (o) I listened to the whine of the engine turbines preparing to taxi out to the runway and shook, chilled to the bone, as I climbed up into the plane. The rain-slick surface was treacherous, and numbness made each step uncertain. Heero slammed shut the door behind us, then moved quickly to the cockpit, while I fell into a seat. My shivering had become non-stop. I was both physically miserable and wishing for a hot shower and a warm bed, and mentally excited and ready to meet the next challenge. Shari tossed Heero a blanket. I longed for one, but the other two were busy looking at dials and displays on an overhead readout display. I felt like the neglected passenger that I was. Heero strapped himself into the pilot's chair. I could just make out his voice and that of Shari's in the copilot seat. "Wind's blowing out of the NW at 30 knots and rising. Waves are cresting at 6 feet so no ships can be deployed," Shari said. "I'm computing the take-off vectors." Heero motioned for her to leave him to do it. "Help Duo before he goes into shock. He has a clothes change in his bag." He immediately turned back to checking his instruments, but he hadn't forgotten that I existed. I had to admire the way the woman moved with self-assurance that spoke of experience, proficiency, and talent; she had important things to do and was executing each one of her assignments with dispatch. I sat balled up, shivering; furious at myself for how needy and useless I felt. I could also tell that the young woman was deeply devoted to Heero. I mean, face it. He was perfect. Who wouldn't fall madly in love with him once they got to know him? And in my delusional state I decided that she was possibly in love with him as well, which didn't help me feel better. Reluctantly, or so I painted it, Shari did as she was told and brought me a blanket. "Oh, I can see you're injured. Here, wrap up in this while I find your bag." I took the offered blanket with a grateful, "thanks," then started kicking off water-soaked shoes and peeling off soggy socks. It was difficult stripping out of wet clingy clothes in the limited space of the lurching vehicle. "We're moving?" "Yes, to the best runway, but conditions are terrible." Shari dropped my open bag at my feet. "Is the other one Heero's?" "Yeah." I was busy with removing my shirt, when she opened Heero's bag. And, yes, I admit. I felt a twinge of jealously as the woman with the long black braid sorted through Heero's personal things until she came up with a pair of socks. I couldn't help but note how lovely Shari was. Pretty, elegant, and wholly capable-- everything I was not feeling about myself at the moment. And, stupidly, I wondered how intimate the two had been, or still were. I could blame it on the drugs, but I hadn't taken any. It was just petty jealousy. "Dry feet is a start," she said, then left me to my own devices. I continued to observe Shari as she crouched low, tore off Heero's shoes, rolled off his wet socks, and replaced them with the dry ones. She leaned close to his ear and asked him something. I wondered how Heero could concentrate on what he was doing with that girl fussing around him. He answered with a shake of his head, and then gently pushed her away. Clearly, he wanted no more interference. "I coulda told ya that," I muttered under my breath to no one. We had taxied onto a runway, I guessed, although I couldn't see much out the little window. "Buckle up, Duo. It's going to be a rough one." "Gotcha!" Before I did, though, I moved up to the seat behind his. I tightened my seatbelt, and then leaned as far forwards as I could and watched the glowing dials and dark view out the window. "It's unadvisable," Shari was saying, but the rest of her cautionary words were drowned out by the turbines as Heero pushed the throttle up more, and propelled them down the runway. "I coulda toldya that too." I could not see anything out the cockpit window, which meant Heero probably couldn't either and would have to rely on the onboard computer system to guide his takeoff and ascent; at least, I hoped he had one. We were escaping on the leading edge of the storm, and no one had to tell me how dangerous the situation was. The plane moved, rolling forward. I could feel the bumps speeding up. I think I knew when the wheels left the ground. One moment I was weightless, the next I was slammed hard into my seat as the powerful winds buffeted the small craft. I gripped the armrests and gritted my teeth. At least the cold had numbed my jaw. "We're losing altitude!" Shari cried out. Heero simply replied, "I know," and continued to concentrate on his vast array of dials and green-faced display screen. Even as he pushed the speed up, the nose dipped and rose as the wind whipped them with turbulence. I was reminded of a coin-operated bull ride, and so I imagined that I was riding a bronco, instead of thinking about the plane bucking up and slamming down hard and possibly to its doom. When I recalled the events of the past few hours, only one picture remained vividly fixed in my head, and that was of Sidney, gutted and lying in pool of entrails and blood on the otherwise antiseptically clean floor. Any blood that may have splashed onto my clothes was long washed away, but what other evidence had Heero and I left behind to incriminate us? Loose hairs or cloth fibers? Fingerprints? Breaking and entry into a restricted area was bad enough, but I had murdered a man. It was an act of defense, but how would all that work in a court of law? "You had better have the right stuff in that bag of yours, 'Ro, or you are in big trouble, and that's just with me." He couldn't hear me, of course. I noticed that the plane was gradually climbing and the ride smoothing out. The muffled drumming of heavy rain on the windows and persistent thrumming of the engine lulled me into a light sleep. Zechs' piercing grey eyes surrounded by a cloud of silvery hair filled my field of vision. "I don't want to go to jail!" I heard myself wail as terror fired up my tears and steamed up my mind, driving away any lingering logic. "You don't have to, Duo. I'll tell them you were with me all along, then it's just his word against ours." His voice was low and reassuring. "But what about Heero? They'll lock him up!" "Don't worry, 'bout him. He was her employee. He could be there and that other guy attacked you and fell on his knife. Heero won't go to jail. But you could." "Zechs, but I can't...I can't!" Fear gripped at my chest, constricting my lungs so that I could hardly catch my breath to speak. "I'll protect you, Duo, like I promised. You and I went to a movie and had a picnic today." And then, to top off the surrealistic experience, Zechs leaned in and kissed my lightly on the lips, sealing the deal. "I don't know." I slumped into his side, enjoying the strong arm that wrapped around my shoulders and the feeling of safety and security it gave me. He gave me the reassuring squeeze I needed. "You only have to come with me, and I'll make a statement, Duo. Love." "Love? Duo, love. Wake up." I blinked and found Heero's dark blue eyes inches away, his brown hair brushing my nose. All very real. He was gently shaking my shoulder. His face ashen against his dark hair hanging limp and in disarray. "Duo? We're about to land. I didn't want you to wake up thinking we were about to crash when the plane rattles. I just got clearance from the Nova City terminal." I batted my eyelids. Was this a dream, too? I must have slept just long enough to be disoriented, and the return to reality was abrupt "Where? I thought we were heading back to Sanc." "I'll explain later. Trust me; this will throw anyone following us off our trail." "Oh," I said warily, and then shook my head to clear it. That was a stupid thing to do, because now my jaw ached. "You keep telling me to trust you. You know I do." "Heero is a brilliant, if not fool-hardy, pilot," Shari put in. "Our landing strip is coming into view. Nice and clear here. See the lights?" "It'll be just a few more minutes, love," Heero whispered in my ear. "Okay, babe." I watched him trade positions with Shari and settle into place. "Landing...now." He brought the plane to a smooth roll, then taxied back and over toward a low, angular hanger. "We're getting off here, Duo, and then Shari will fly the plane back to Sanc and stay there for the night. In the morning, she will return to Zodiac Island. If anyone is looking for us, they'll look in Sanc first. Excuse me just a minute." "If you say so." Heero turned around and spoke to Shari, then opened the door and hopped out onto the tarmac. She closed up Heero's bag and climbed back for mine. "Go on, I'll toss your bags down to you." As I stepped to the door, she added, "Take care of him, Duo Maxwell." "Worry about yourself. Someone won't be thrilled knowing you helped him." "No one will know. I sent out another plane before we even took off. It looks like I chased you through the storm, but lost you someplace in Sanc. As you can see, Heero thought of everything. I'm not worried at all about myself. Goodbye, Duo." "Yeah, well, that's great. So, ah... bye, and thanks." I smiled as best I could and jumped out, landing on my poor luggage. "Ready for our next adventure?" Heero asked me as he collected both our bags. "Yeah, sure." I grinned and shook my head. "What a night, right? I mean, the guys that run that island, they really put the "U" in Gulag, ya know? Heh, heh...Put that on a t-shirt!" Heero laughed. "We could do that. You know, our own line of shirts? I was considering a few at one tme. What do you think of: 'Free Pluto—equal gravity for all planets'?" "Yeah, heh, heh... Pretty funny, 'Ro. So, who do you know in Nova City these days?" "We'll call Trowa or Quatre and see if they can pick us up. I want to discuss what we discovered." "Okay. Cool. So, what did we discover?" I followed Heero's line of sight. We stopped and watched Shari align the jet for takeoff. "I was thinking the Fountain of Youth." He smiled, barely. "But then I think it was more complex than that. All those...bodies were male. Like an army of soldiers. All the same. All...perfect." While I spun that around in my head, Heero hunted for and located his cell phone in his bag. Mine was with his, for some reason I forgot, and he handed it to me as he put in a call. "Trowa? Heero here. You are in Nova, correct?" Heero looked at his watch. "Sorry for the late call. All right, sorry for the early call." Oops. The sun was up. I guessed it might be around 6 AM. Pause. "Duo and I had a change of plans. Can you pick us up at the airport? I can get you in at the Cavern, yes." Pause. "Yes, I will pay the cover charge, too." Pause. "Thank you. I apologize to Quatre as well. Where? We will meet you at the taxi stand in front of the main terminal. In ten minutes..." Pause. "Sooner." Pause. "I know. Do your best. Bye, then." "Trowa's coming?" "Yes. We have thirty minutes to get to the main terminal and clean up as best we can." He leaned close and rubbed a strand of my hair between his fingers. "Blood." "Well, it's a good thing my hair's used to that then, isn't it?Some people have skeletons in their closets. I have them in my closets at work." "We were very fortunate tonight." "Sidney wasn't," I reminded him, then set off in the direction of the terminal building. "Yes he was. You gave him a quick and painless end. Had I shot him, I would have let him slowly bleed to death." "Oh." I wasn't sure if that made me feel better or not. I suppose he meant it to. "Ah, thanks." I turned on my cell phone. "I got 12 missed calls, mostly from Relena." "Relena? She's calling you?" "That's what I said. Hope she's an early bird." I rang her back. "Morning, sweetheart," I said for Heero's benefit. I knew he didn't like her. "You rang me?" "Who? Duo? Is that you? It's awfully early, you know, to be calling?" "Is it? You left me a lotta messages, so I thought it was important." "Oh, it was...is! I've been waiting for your answer. Have you thought about lending me those greeting cards?" Huh? Oh. "Ah, actually, no, I haven't. I've been a bit on the busy side lately." Heero reached over and snapped shut my phone. "I liked it better off." I smiled. "I think I like this pushy, hotshot pilot boyfriend I've got." "You do? I'm not too pushy, am I?" "Can't tell until I get you in bed again, heh, heh."
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