"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

Betaed by ShenLong *hugs*

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"

[Well I know there can come fire from the sky
To purify pure as the canes
Even though I know this fire brings me pain
Even so and just the same
Make it rain...Make it rain down low...Just make it rain
...Make it rain
-Lyrics to 'Make It Rain' performed by Ed Sheeran]

Chapter 13

[Flashback]

She lost count of how many red lights she had blown through in her surge for the hospital. The portable LED lights that flashed brilliant red and blue at the top of her car gave her the right away as the few cars on the road this late in the night moved to the side of the street to give her clearance.

"Comeoncomeoncomeon," she muttered under her breath, urging her vehicle to get her to her destination faster than what she could legally push it to go that raining evening.

In the back of her mind, all that she could hear was Duo's crackled voice shouting over the com after a five-minute consistent round of popping gunfire had filled the air. "Two agents down! We need a med evac now!"

Two agents. Which two of her Preventers had fallen was still unknown by the Commander and every possible scenario ran through her mind as to what had transpired.

Finally, the hospital came into view on the night skyline and the rest of the drive went by in a blur until she found herself running through the emergency entrance. Not missing a beat when she passed the front check in desk, she revealed her badge to the nurses behind it that had begun to stand and announced, "Commander Une, Preventers."

Nodding firmly, the first young woman pointed down the right hall as she and her fellow staff fell at ease in allowing the officer to pass. Her feet moving practically on their own accord, Middie hurried for the room at the end of the stretch, the wet soles of her shoes squishing along the tiled floor with every step.

With her heart in her throat, the young woman peered into the waiting room to find three of her charges huddled together amongst the cushioned seats. Dark as their clothes were, there was no mistaking the blood that was splattered on them, their hands also tinted red in lines and large spots.

Perched in the middle of the three was Wufei, hunched over himself and his face buried in his hands. At his right, Duo's long hair was disheveled in what was left of his braid while he kept a hand on the team leader's shoulder. Staring out at nothing, Agent Scythe's violet eyes were reddened and damp with fresh tears.

The only one to look up at the Commander's arrival was Quatre. Thought he might not have been covered in as much blood as his teammates, the slouch in his shoulders and his shimmering eyes revealed his own distress. Squeezing Chang's left shoulder that he had been holding onto, Agent Rock climbed to his feet so slowly and laboriously it was as if he was under water.

Winner approached his anxious supervisor and gestured for them to talk in the hallway. Already numb by the sight that she had just taken in, Lady Une faced her public relations representative and breathed, "What happened back there?"

Shaking his head, Quatre suddenly became more alert at her voice. "It was just... bad," he managed in little more than a whisper, a deep frown marring his face. A shuddering sigh escaping him, he informed softly, "By Allah, it all happened so fast. Everything went to hell when a couple of guards that we hadn't counted on showed up out of nowhere as we were getting the last of the girls out and..."

A horrified expression washed over the blonde and his already pale face lost even more of its color when he shot wide eyes onto his Commander, insisting, "It wasn't Wufei's fault! We scanned the area three times and were sure of the numbers we were up against before we went in! He did everything right by splitting us up the way he did! He's already blaming himself for that as it is, let alone...!"

Middie grabbed his shoulders fast, forcing him to meet her gaze as she reassured soothingly, "Nothing is going to happen to Agent Wolf, so there is no need to worry about that." Only then did the last bit of Winner's sentence that she had cut off set in. "What happened after that?" she urged.

"Shots just started ringing out everywhere," Quatre murmured, gulping down a lump in his throat so he could continue, "When it was over, that was when we realized Agent Talon was caught in the crossfire..." With a whimper, he began to tremble. "It wasn't Wufei's fault," he repeated in a ghost of a whisper. "It was so dark... he only say someone run in with a gun after Agent Fire had just taken a bullet for him-"

Oh dear God. What pigment remained in Lady Une's skin drained completely away as her eyes grew and her jaw fell open. Imagining the scenario, her stomach turned in understanding at how distraught Chang was when she saw him.

His focus drifting off to the flashes of what he had witnessed, Winner continued softly, "Trowa collapsed just as the med evac showed... shock... and whatever those bastards had pumped into him before we could reach him. The doctor came out to tell us he's going to be okay, but needs to stay for a couple of days for monitoring."

Taking the comfort in knowing that her undercover agent was recovered and would be all right, Middie was also distressed over the ones she still needed to hear about. She loosened her hands on Rock's shoulders and rubbed his arm to bring him back to the world as she asked, "What about my girls? Any word on them yet?"

Aquamarine eyes flooded with new tears at that. Sniffling, Quatre began to answer, "They were both really bad and they're still in surgery as far as we know, but..." A choked off sob broke from him and he shook his head. "Meiran wasn't breathing when she got here..."

(End Flashback)

* * * *

Heero couldn't take his eyes from the mug shot ID photo of the lovely, young Asian woman that was attached to the file in his hands. She had elegant features and a stunning, close-lipped smile as her dark eyes seemed to peer through the snapshot and stare right back at him.

Meiran Long. The sixth agent.

Seated behind her desk, Lady Une wiped a stray tear from her cheek and cleared her throat. "Meiran came on as only the second Preventer to be assigned to the unit when it was just getting off the ground," she shared.

Dropping her head a bit, she continued, "She was ahead of her class in psychological and social studies and she made a hell of a profiler in the three years that she served. Meiran was kindhearted and well liked by anyone who came to know her. She was taken far too young not even a week past her twenty-third birthday. Her loss is still a hard one on all of us, nearly a year later."

Carefully paging through the folder of reports and images from Agent Talon's last mission, Yuy swallowed hard.

This was the first time he had an actual Preventer investigation in front of him, displayed in a series of haunting pictures and detailed interviews of the horrors that the agents had undone.

"Quatre was the first to pick up on the murmurings of the sex trade ring," the Commander began quietly while her intern turned through the pages in his lap. "When we looked into it, the scale at which the organization operated was too great for us to simply go in and free the girls that were being held against their will and sold off. We needed to get everyone working from the top all the way down."

Pausing briefly, Middie sighed, "Trowa infiltrated the gang and went dark, brought into the fold in deep undercover with them for months gathering names, locations of other rings and every bit of information he could gather. When there was enough to hang everyone in association with the band, we moved in and..." She trailed off, biting her lip. "Well, you know the rest."

It was mind-blowing, the terrible images of the poor girls that had been kidnapped to have their bodies used and abused at the hands of their captors. Ranging from thirteen to thirty, their drawn faces and battered frames shook Heero to his very core.

"How many of them were there?" he heard himself ask in a breath as he continued to run through the file.

Lady Une replied, "Twenty-nine girls were saved from that gang. And another one hundred eighty-three were recovered from ten other rings like it when all was said and done with the information Trowa had obtained."

His head snapping up, Yuy blinked his wide eyes. Over two hundred lives. The Preventers, who he had only come to know through chance, had spared over two hundred souls... in only one of their cases.

Leaning back in her chair, the Commander stated, "Though it was the worst night we've ever faced in losing Long, Meiran would have gladly given her life in exchange for even one of those girls, the same can be said of any one of my Preventers. They all know the risks and sacrifices required of them and they do so without asking for anything in return."

She gestured to the folder in the counselor's hands, commenting, "There are dozens of other files like that one that I could show you. Not all of them came out with a silver lining in the form of a rescue. They've dealt with monsters of every type and my agents made the world a safer place by removing those threats."

Middie stretched over her desk, she tapped the edge of the folder as she declared, "This is who you're dealing with when you come in every day. This is the sort of hell they're challenged with day in and day out. And these are only a few of the faces of people who owe their lives to that handful of people just outside of my door."

Nodding firmly, Heero swallowed past his tightening throat. Now having this harsh look into his friends' reality, he grew into a far greater appreciation for them than what he'd already had of them... he also felt for the loss and the lasting, devastating effects that their last case with Meiran had taken on all of them.

The reasons behind Wufei's anger and self-doubt had become crystal clear.

Yuy understood better where Trowa's addiction had stemmed from.

And while there certainly had to be more as to why Duo was not one to get too attached to anyone beyond friendship, Meiran's death hadn't helped him in growing too close.

No wonder Quatre and Anna were the ones to insist that Heero come on as the team's counselor. They had come to terms with their grief and moved on, all the while doing all they could to pull the others out away from the brink. But they had come to terms with the fact that they couldn't do it alone.

Suddenly, the scholar was almost sick to his stomach over how his friends had suffered silently for just short of a year now... how much they had given up while so few people were aware of how brave and selfless they were for what they were doing.

This was what Odin was referring to in what an honor had been laid at his feet when he took on an internship to be an ear and a kind word for the federal agents.

Righting himself, Heero raised his head high and met the Commander's gaze. "I'm not giving up on my assignment here," he announced. "I don't care how stubborn some of them might fight my being here, I won't be happy until I've helped them however I can."

Her brown eyes misting slightly, Lady Une's lips pursed as they curled in a wide smile. "Thank you," she muttered sincerely. "I was hoping you might say something that." Flattening her palms together as she propped her elbows on either arm rest, she warned, "You don't know how stubborn they can be... not like I know. But I still insist that this will end up being the best thing for all of them."

"I agree," the student nodded. The corner of his mouth smirking, he added, "And don't worry. I can be stubborn as well."

The officer giggled, "Good. You're going to need that."

Doing the math in his head with the timeline he had learned from his outing with the Preventers, Heero clicked on the inside of his cheek in thought. "Were Wufei and Meiran ever involved leading up to that night?"

Middie was fast to shake her head, "No. Long made it known that she did have feelings for him, but they were never returned the way she hoped they might." Drawing a deep breath, she explained, "Not too long after Agent Talon was established in the unit, Anna enlisted..."

"...and I've only had eyes for her ever since," Chang's voice rang through Yuy's mind, the team leader sharing his first encounter when they were at Charlie's.

In a way, it was a relief to know that Agent Wolf did not have the accidental death of a former lover to contend with on top of it all. But that was little consolation in the grand scheme of things. Whatever their relationship, a friend and teammate had been taken at his hands. That would be enough to undo anyone.

Folding her arms across her chest, Lady Une gritted her teeth and growled, "I could kill Zechs and his cronies for bringing up what happened that night to you the way they did. To think that they might be able to scare you away if you found out..."

She cut herself off, hands clenching as she snarled, "They're just damned lucky I wasn't around. The last thing any one of my agents needs is to have something like that thrown in their faces by those bastards."

"Meiran's death was bad enough, let along the repercussions of everything else that came of that attack," the young woman snapped, her building frustrations bubbling up to the surface. "Anna nearly died that night too. She had to endure weeks of painful physical therapy to recover from her injuries. Wufei had to face a grueling week of meetings with my supervisors who were investigating if he should be stripped of his team leader responsibilities or his badge all together."

Arms waving in the air, the volume of Middie's voice climbed with every word she spoke. Still, she went on ranting, "Trowa went through a long stint of rehabilitation after everything he had been through while he was undercover. Poor Quatre almost lost his mind taking on all of it while trying to find some blame in himself for not being able to do more! And Duo... he became even more guarded than he had been before that mission."

Just as Heero as suspected of Maxwell, but he kept that to himself.

Finally calming herself, she worked to relax her breathing and ran a hand through her shoulder-length hair. Huffing out a long puff of air, she wiped a second, much larger tear than the first, from her face. "They had absolutely no right to bring that up the way they did," she whispered, her gaze distant.

The counselor reassured, "I highly doubt that they will ever bring it up again. It was a desperate tactic to try and win me over when they never had a chance in doing so." Glancing over his shoulder to the door, he frowned deeply and suggested, "But you might want to announce why there are going to be a few changes around here to the team so that they know what's going on."

Before he had even finished his thought, Lady Une was on her feet. Rounding her desk, she snickered, "Way ahead of you."

That said, she led the way through her sliding office door with Heero close behind as she called out to the spread out agents on the floor, "Fall in, everyone. Take a seat in the rec area for a meeting."

Lifting their heads from their work, games and popping their heads out of their private rooms, the Preventers stopped whatever they were in the middle of to gather at the couches as directed. Joining them, Yuy took the open spot at Maxwell's right side. The braided agent gave him that devilish smile of his and the scholar fought the slight burn in his cheeks.

Silently watching Anna perch herself between Wufei and Trowa, Heero had a new awareness of how Chang unconsciously draped an arm around her shoulders. Every glance, every touch and every move that the team leader made in connection to Downs was affectionate... not only for how he loved her but for how grateful he was for her saving his life by risking her own.

"What's up, Chief?" Duo asked, prompting the meeting.

Lady Une clasped her hands together behind her back as she stood ahead of the pack and smiled, "It would seem Mister Yuy's presence in the office has drawn even more interest from the other divisions than we originally suspected. Thanks to an expected visit to him from Zechs and his goons yesterday, it turns out that the most popular theory floating around is that Heero has come on as a Preventer to serve as our new profiler."

Their eyes widening, her staff looked on her in disbelief for a long breath when their heads fell back in rousing laughs. "Oh, shit, that's a riot!" Trowa managed between his last few half-coughed shots of chuckles when he managed to catch his breath.

Shaking his head, Quatre snickered, "Those morons can't get anything right."

Wufei was the quickest to sober when a realization struck him. Turning to face the scholar, he asked, "They actually showed up at your dorm room?" The rest of the team shifted their stunned, concerned attention onto their new friend.

"Yea," Heero nodded, "they were trying to recruit me. And they were pretty adamant that I accept their invitation."

Blue eyes narrowing, Anna growled, "We can be adamant in getting them to stay the hell away from you. They broke a ton of laws and protocol to track you down like that and they probably have an excuse that would just get them by if they were confronted." A wicked smile curling her lips, she offered, "But, we could always knock some heads around if you'd like."

Duo, Wufei, Trowa and even Quatre smirked darkly at the college student to back the suggestion. Were they anyone else, were the situation at all different, Heero would have been mortified at the thought of anyone being violent on his behalf. Instead, the gesture only made him feel more akin to his new friends for their wishing to defend him in such a way. He could feel his lips turning up in a grateful smile to the officers.

Clearing her throat, the Commander reminded the redhead of her presence with a polite, "Agent Fire, I didn't hear that."

Shoulder sagging, Agent Scythe let out a whine and pouted, "Aw, come on, Lady Une! Those assholes overstepped their bounds! We're more in the right to stomp back!"

"Under normal circumstances, I might look the other way so you could do just that," Middie commented. "But Heero had brought this to my attention so that your privacy can be protected by keeping his true duties here between us and us alone." Raising an eyebrow, she stated, "I highly doubt any one of you would want it getting out that you have a counselor assigned to this division."

As thought they had been doused by cold water, Maxwell, Chang and Barton sat back with mortified expressions that they exchanged amongst themselves.

Their commanding officer grinned, "That's what I thought. So, we're keeping up the rouse to keep the other agents around here from sticking their noses into this arrangement. That means Heero will be acting in every aspect as a fully fledged Preventer with a uniform and desk of his own. The wheels have already been set in motion to oversee those finer details."

Raising a hand, Anna lowered it when Lady Une gestured to her to speak. "Code name?" the weapons expert inquired.

"Wing," Middie replied.

Downs smirked, "Nice."

Snickering, Wufei agreed, "Fitting."

Winner smiled, "I like it."

"Good name," Trowa concurred.

A firm slap hit Yuy's back as Maxwell faced him with a wide grin. "Welcome to the team, 'Ro!" he proclaimed. "And don't think that we'll ever forget how you looked after us by doing this." His counterparts all nodded, their own appreciation resonating.

Shrugging, Heero chuckled, "Thanks for having me."

Rouse or not, he was actually looking forward to at least acting as if he was a part of something bigger than himself. It was oddly heartwarming to be so happily accepted without any conditions or expectations.

But, of course, it was still all for the sake of keeping up an act.

"Then everyone is onboard with this?" Middie asked her agents.

Without hesitating, everyone gave her an affirmative.

Bringing her hands together in a loud clap to serve the same as a gavel strike in a court room, the Commander proclaimed, "Then it's official. We have a new profiler as far as everyone outside of this group is concerned. Meeting adjourned. Back to work."

Lady Une turned on her heels to return to her office while her agents got to their own feet and resumed whatever it was they were doing before their discussion. Sighing deeply when her door slid closed behind her again, she walked up to her desk and retrieved the sealed file on her desk to stare at the ID image paper clipped to it.

That sweet, smiling face of Meiran Long never failed to break the officer's heart. A steady rain began to patter against her window, taking her back to that terrible night.

* * * *

(Flashback)

The rain was pouring down when two hours had passed with still no word on either Meiran or Anna's conditions. Outside, the constant pelting on the emergency wing's awning was almost hypnotic as Lady Une sat close to Wufei, Duo and Quatre.

Following her arrival, once all of the official paperwork of notification was handled at the front desk, the three agents got enough of their senses back to take turns in the bathroom to clean off as much of the blood on them as they could. Their Commander was too concerned for their well-beings to ask who the blood belonged to. Her imagination as to what the answers might have been were troubling enough to keep her from asking for the details right then.

Middie caught movement from the corner of her eye as a doctor in fresh, pale green scrubs entered the room. Instantly shooting up from their chairs, the Preventers turned to face him with anxious faces.

Sighing when he came to stand before the group, the surgeon removed his cap to reveal his graying hair. Weary as he appeared from his procedure, he gave his audience a small grin as he informed, "Your Agent Fire has a long road ahead of her, but she pulled through, is out of surgery and is recovering under close monitoring in our intensive care unit."

All but collapsing from relief, Wufei choked off a sob and breathed, "Oh, thank God."

Tears of relief were rolling freely down Duo's face as he whispered with a small smirk, "That's my girl."

Quatre whispered a small prayer of appreciation to Allah as he smiled and rubbed Chang's back, keeping the team leader upright by leaning into his side.

Holding back her urge to lunge forward and embrace the medic, Middie reserved herself to a warm smile and a sincere, "Thank you, Doctor. Will we be able to see her?"

"Not this evening, but she should be up for visitors in the morning," the surgeon replied. "Her appendix was damaged where the bullet lodged into her lower back and toxins were already leaking into her by the time she got to us. I believe we flushed them out, but we'll be keeping a close watch on her these next few days to be sure. That bullet also came just shy of nicking her spine when it penetrated, so we'll be checking in on any potential nerve damage."

That was... an extensive bit of damage that one shot had caused and hearing of it sank in hard.

Wufei swayed on his feet enough so that Duo and Quatre helped him take his seat again, their own faces pale and eyes wet.

Bowing his head, the doctor told the Commander, "We'll know more when you come in to see her in the morning. That agent of yours came this far along, so I wouldn't be surprised if she can fight her way through her recovery ahead."

If anyone could be stubborn enough to do just that, Middie knew it was Anna. Nodding and offering another 'thank you,' she walked with him back to the doorway and watched him head back down the hall to check in on his patient.

Slowly turning herself to reenter the waiting area, the officer stopped herself short at the sight of another doctor of a similar age and build coming towards her from the opposite corridor. He wore the same pale green surgeon scrubs as his associate... and that was where the commonality between the two men ended.

Unlike Anna's doctor, this medic's shoulders were heavy, his head was slightly lowered and his cantor was slow. When their eyes met, there was an unmistakable glimmer of dread and regret when he recognized the young woman's uniform as that belonging to the person he was seeking out.

The air rushing from her lungs, Lady Une slapped a hand over her gaping mouth to cut off the sharp sob that bubbled from it as the doctor gave her a sympathetic look when he neared... and began to shake his head.

TBC

Chapter 14

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