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"That Which Mends"Written By: SkyLark Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing, or its characters. I just love playing with them. Pairings: 2x1x2, past 2xOC, 5xOC, 3x4 Warnings: Angst, Violence, Sap, Lemons/Limes, AU Archives: http://www.gundam-wing-diaries.150m.com/gw/SkyLark/gwSkyLark.htm
and http://www.mizunoamy.bravepages.com/skylark/skylarkfics.html Summary: Heero is a straight A student studying Psychology and finds his world turned upside down when he attends a Frat party.
"That Which Mends" [Help I'm steppin' into the twilight zone -Lyrics to 'Twilight Zone' performed by Golden Earring] Chapter 10
"I'm extremely impressed that you found yourself an internship at this level, Heero," Odin complimented as he finished signing the last paperwork approving the terms of the job that had been opened specifically for one of his scholars.
Placing the documents in a folder, the administrative mentor chuckled, "Though I can't really say I'm surprised, given your drive and talents. I'll deliver these to the admission office so that you get the credit bolster to your academic roster."
Seated on the other side of Lowe's desk, Yuy nodded firmly, "Thank you. It was an impossible position turn down." His cryptic comment came with a lopsided smirk for his own inside joke. He had given his word, putting himself into a situation that he couldn't get out of when he made that bet with Lady Une.
At least he was getting some perks out of it. A couple of semesters of his sitting at a desk and he'd build up enough credits to sail through his Masters acquirement.
Odin snickered, "Well, I'd say so. Any psychologists worth their salt would give their right arms for a governmental funded role in their craft as a means of giving back to those who look after us. Of course, I understand your not being able to tell me all of the details of your situation, but from the letter Commander Une included with the packet of your acceptance, it sounds like your services are most needed in her division."
Recalling his meeting with Middie, seeing and hearing the heartbreak she had for her agents and the burdens they shouldered, Heero swallowed roughly. His mentor was right in that this was an opportunity to help others, as he always wanted.
"It should be an interesting experience," he grinned. "I've been able to move in pretty smoothly and everyone's been accommodating in welcoming me. As for my classes, I'm already prepared for my lessons following our return from spring break in a couple of weeks."
His head shaking, his adviser snorted, "Of course you are. I've never known another student who actually enjoyed their courses enough to read and work out their assignments ahead like you do. I would ask how you feel about your mid-terms coming up, but I'm pretty sure you're ready for those too."
Yuy shrugged, "My papers are already done and handed in. The couple of tests that I'll have shouldn't be challenges since I could teach those classes myself if I had to. I'm expecting to hit the Deans List again for this semester."
Laughing, Lowe replied, "That's my boy." It was his endearing way of praising his best prospect. He checked the clock, announcing, "Well, that's all I wished to catch up on and you're almost due to be at your new job for the rest of the day. Good luck, Heero. If you need anything, you know how to reach me."
"Thank you, Odin," Yuy returned with a polite bow of his head before he rose to his feet and stepped out of his mentor's office.
The intern headed out in his plain, red T-shirt and knee length shorts to fit into the business casual atmosphere of the Preventers floor. After having made his way to the federal building enough times in almost a week now, he could have driven himself there this sunny early afternoon while blindfolded.
Greeting Catherine on his way past the receptionist desk with his backpack slung over his right shoulder, Heero received her friendly 'hello' and smile. Passing the agents coming and going through the main entrance, he entered a crowded elevator and kept to himself as eyes lingered on him.
Though he had been to the office regularly now, Yuy
knew that his presence was still a mystery to the men and women of
the other divisions.
Anna's closed off office was the closest to his at only
a few feet away and at the moment it was the only one that was closed
off when suddenly, a loud bang resonated from it to shake the floor
below him. Wufei had been about to throw his next dart when the
blast sounded. Freezing like everyone else around, he spun to face
his lover's room when her door slid open to her storming out with
fists clenched at either side of her.
Before she disappeared from sight, Maxwell encouraged, "Shake it off, Annie. You'll figure it out." Waving over her shoulder in recognition of his sentiment, the redhead opened the women's rest room door and sealed herself away.
Trowa rolled up alongside his fellow Preventers, frowning, "Whatever that Gundanium is, it's managed to stump Anna for longer than I thought it would."
Chewing on the inside of his cheek in thought, Heero scanned the rest of the floor. "Where's Agent Rock?" he inquired. His voice drew the surprised attention of the trio that until then had forgotten he was a few feet behind them.
The quickest to recover, Duo informed, "Quat and Lady Une are meeting with Thomas Klein's parents at their home. We had more than enough evidence in his little black box to prove his involvement with anti-government conspirators and several shady organizations that we know he'll likely never be recovered."
Barton shrugged, adding, "It's only right that his loved ones know we're treating his case as a murder rather than keep their hopes up that he's only missing. The local police jurisdiction would have taken weeks before they were able to give them that much closure since they were in the dark to a lot of the details."
No sooner had he said the words did the chime at the arrival of an elevator fill the air. Together, Winner and Une rounded the 'wall' to make their way onto the floor as the only agents in uniform for their meeting.
Quiet words were exchanged between them before the Commander entered her office and the public relations representative lowered his briefcase by his desk.
Frowning, Trowa met his partner half way when he walked towards the group. "Hey," he greeted quietly. Smiling sadly, the weary Arabian walked into him and his opening arms for a tight embrace.
To Yuy's wonder, there was a tinge of jealousy creeping up in him at the sight of the open affection that the couple so easily displayed. How or why it was suddenly something that bothered him, this seeing two people so clearly in love with one another, was beyond his reasoning... but it was there all the same and he turned away from them to retreat to his office.
"Heero," Quatre called. "Mind if I come in to talk with you?"
Stunned, the scholar froze in mid-step when he had just entered his room. Peering back, Winner had every eye in the rec area blinking at him widely as he stared hopefully back at their counselor.
Perching himself in his seat across facing the agent
with his pen and paper ready, the counselor smirked, "To be honest,
I'm glad you're my first patient. This is new to me and I get the
feeling you'll go easy one me."
Taking a deep breath, Quatre sighed, "I don't use the word 'hate' very often, but there are times when I hate being the go-to for moral support and a shoulder to cry on."
Never would the student have expected that to come from him and he couldn't help but blink widely when his patient explained, "It's impossible to tell anyone to their face that someone they love won't be coming home without transference of the their grief. Their wailing, shouting, pleading..." His voice drifted off and he shook his head as he stared off to the side at nothing and whispered, "It all stays with me."
Heero thought over his response and nodded with a sympathetic, "I can only imagine how rough giving that kind of news would be. And taking on part of that kind of anguish just makes you human."
"That's why the selfish side of me says that maybe I need to change who I am so I don't come across as this nice guy that everyone turns to," Winner replied.
Pointing at his own chest, he all but yelled, "I didn't ask for this! But it's who I've been all my life starting with my sisters. Even they would always come to me for advice, to break up an argument between them or to help them cry out whenever they were upset."
Now that his floodgates had opened, the Preventer was unable to hold back what he'd been holding in for a very long time. Sitting forward in the couch, his arms weaved through the air as his voice rose with every word while he thought aloud, "Maybe I need to do something terrible so I'm seen as a jerk like... I don't know... kick a box filled with puppies or something!"
Completely taken aback, Heero heard himself exclaim, "Quatre!"
A heavy silence immediately followed as the equally shocked agent sat shock still with enlarged eyes. Then, after a long pause, the two broke into laughter.
Arms dropping across his chest, he frowned, "This is far from my first meeting with the family of victims like this one, and it'll be even further from the last. All the while, I've had to tell someone that their husband, wife, brother, sister, aunt, uncle died. But it's always the hardest when it's a child they've lost."
The agent sighed deeply, shaking his head, "It's not right. It's not the order of how life should go. And all I can do is promise them that we'll get the people responsible to make them pay for what they've done... satisfying as it is when that happens, it still won't bring their son or daughter back."
Given an opening to give his patient a moment to remember what was important, Yuy prompted a resolution by asking, "So why bother, then? Why stick to a job where you're going to have to deal with announcements like this if they're so difficult to take?"
Aquamarine eyes grew slightly as Quatre pondered for a breath before he answered, "For the satisfaction of knowing that there won't be more meetings like it for another family when we have the killers. That outweighs what I'm dealing with right now."
Heero grinned, "So how do you feel now? Still want to find a box of puppies?"
"Glad I could help," Yuy returned with the same genuinely. "That was actually pretty easy," he snickered. Jotting down a few notes on his pad, he reassured, "And of course everything shared here stays between us, so if you ever need to talk again, don't hesitate."
Climbing to his feet, Agent Rock smirked, "Will do." Just as he was about to walk for the door, he stopped himself short and faced the scholar. "You know, Anna and I may have been the only ones to agree to your sitting in as a councilor for us, but the others are too stubborn to admit that they need this too. They'll come around." Slowly standing up, Heero responded, "For their sakes, I hope that they do."
Quatre bowed his head in gratitude and headed out of the office, his steps a bit lighter than they had been when he entered thanks to relieving some of the weight on his shoulders.
At the closing of the door after his patient, Yuy smiled to himself as he read over his notes. Rounding his desk, he removed a manila folder and wrote the Preventer's name on it, securing his documents inside. Securing his report inside his otherwise empty filing cabinet, he locked it away with a sense of fulfillment.
It may not have been a long or trying session, but it was still his first as a psychiatrist in what he had been aiming to be a prominent career.
On the other side of his wall, Heero could hear the motor of what he could only guess to belong to a saw of some sort howling in its effort to slice at something solid. That grinding was almost immediately silenced by a crunch of metal so loud that he jumped.
"Seriously?!" Anna shrieked through the wall along with the thud of whatever tool she had just spent in her continued effort to dissect the Gundanium in her possession.
A short huff of a laugh getting away from him, Yuy shook his head in amusement and went about his business.
In the week that he'd spent in the Preventers' headquarters, he made two key conclusions- the first being that it was better to not ask and leave well enough alone...
...the second was that he would rarely know a dull moment.
* * * *
A few hours later, Wufei walked into Anna's lair to check on her at the end of the day. Pausing as soon as he passed thorough the doorway, he blinked in surprise at the sight that awaited him.
In the middle of the lab was a metal table that had started out much longer than it currently was, its cut off edges sitting in heaps where they fell.
The surface of what remained was charred, discolored, gritted from wear and riddled with holes from acid burns. Off in the furthest corner lay a pile of tools and hand-held machinery including a personal igniter that had been discarded after they had either broken or brought no outcome in their uses.
All the while, the small piece of Gundanium was as shiny and unscathed as it had been when it came to be discovered.
Her hair still darkened by patches of soot and fraying at the edges in its high ponytail, Anna paced around the shortened chunk of table that had survived her experiments. Fixing her challenger with a heated glare, she growled, "You don't burn. You can't be cut through. Acid just rolls off of you. Not even a contained amount of explosives dents you... Clearing his throat, Chang grinned, "Maybe if you
asked a little more nicely, it'd tell you."
He rested their foreheads together, consoling, "You'll
figure this out. It's just taking a little more time since it's something
that no one has ever heard of." Finally brightening at that, Downs nodded, "That
does sound good." Eyeing her smudged tank top and jeans, she
winced. "Good thing I thought ahead enough to bring in a change
of clothes and a couple of towels this morning. I'm going to have
to hit the showers downstairs and get ready."
In the next room, Heero continued to page through screen
shots that had been compiled for him. Closing his book and tucking it away, the scholar snorted, "You and drinks are a hazardous mix for me." He rose and slung his backpack over his shoulder, stating, "I appreciate the invitation, but I should head back to my dorm for the night."
Maxwell leaned against his doorpost and folded his arms across his chest. "Aw, come on," he pressed in that come-hither way that only he could pull off, the subtle purr in his voice electrifying the counselor.
Holding his hands up, he promised, "I promise I won't lay a finger on you. And I think you could stand to have a little fun after the hell you went through this week. You really need to loosen up and enjoy life a little."
Any other day, any other set of circumstances leading to that moment... anyone else asking him to join in and Heero would have put his foot down and stuck to his guns. But there was just something about Agent Scythe that made his guard collapse at his feet.
It wasn't like he would be attending another party. This was just going to be a social outing... one of the very few that he had ever been asked to partake in.
Oh, Yuy wasn't about to ask what the harm might me after the last time he had made that mistake. However, he couldn't deny his need for a bit of an escape from his predictable existence. "Alright," he complied at last. Lifting a finger, he declared, "But this really is nothing more than dinner and a couple drinks."
Duo reeled in surprise at his acceptance of the invitation. "Cool! You got it!" he cheered, his face practically radiating with the smile that spread across it and his hands held up again. "No funny business. Just friends hanging out and nothing more."
Friends.
That was such a foreign concept to the psych major. Though he wasn't exactly sure that he had known the bunch long enough or well enough to consider them as such, it was nevertheless a nice notion to think that he might actually have people that he could call his friends.
Heero kept a nonchalant expression on his face when he shrugged, "Then let's go." In the back of his mind, he couldn't shake the feeling that he had made a deal with the devil the way Maxwell lit up. But he really didn't care right then. Walking past the braided agent, the scholar told him, "I know the way so I'll meet you there."
"Or you could drop your car off at your place and we head out together. You're not going to trust me to get you back safely?" his one transgression tempted with a mischievous smirk.
But now, he was just starting to realize that maybe he could get used to the way things were now.
TBC |
