Chapter 4
Agent Kowoski barely looks up when Heero walks into the outer office, and waves her quickly through into Une's domain while speaking on the phone to someone. That's just fine with Heero. She's not really in the mood to chat with anyone, not that Agent Kowoski is the type to ignore work for gossip anyway. He wouldn't be Une's secretary if he was prone to spreading rumors to other agents instead of doing his job.
Heero knocks on the door lightly, but doesn't bother waiting before she walks in. Une's scowling down at her paperwork, which is common enough that it doesn't bother Heero. The woman glances up and gives Heero a sharp look-over, no doubt cataloging her stress and anger, and then leans back in her chair and sighs.
"Come on in, Heero." Une stands up and walks over to a side desk to pour some coffee from a carafe, and hands the mug over to Heero as she sits down in one of Une's comfy guest chairs.
"Thanks," she says. Une's coffee is actually the best in the entire headquarters, including the coffee people leave the building to buy, even though there's no machine in her room. Heero's almost positive that there's a secret room within the walls, and that it houses an excellent coffee machine, amongst other goods.
Heero could probably find out where the room is if she put some effort into searching, but instead she decided years ago to respect Une's privacy, and actively tries not to discover the false wall.
Une smiles a little. "You look like you could use it." Meaning the coffee. She's not wrong. "How was the interview?"
Likely, Une already knows how it went just from Heero's expression. She takes a moment to sip some of the coffee, enjoying the flavor, before responding. "Insulting," Heero says. Really, she can't think of any other word to more accurately sum up the whole experience.
After getting her own cup of coffee, Une sits down next to Heero, instead of in her own chair across the desk. For a few minutes, they enjoy the quiet. Finally, Une looks over at her with sympathy. "I figured. My own appointment was last week. They did everything but call me an incompetent figurehead to my face."
Heero grunts. She's not surprised. "Have you heard the new rumors?" she asks. She's never sure how current Une's information is, since she rarely ever walks out onto the floors where most of the agents work and talk.
With her own noise of irritation, Une nods. "Sally told me. They're disgusting."
Heero agrees. "They're also remarkably effective." A couple of the looks she received when walking into Preventers, plus the attitude of the board, makes a lot more sense when taking those rumors into account.
"Of course they are," Une says. "A woman always uses sex to get noticed at her job, didn't you know?" As Treize Khushrenada's right-hand woman, Heero has no doubt that Une's been the subject of quite a lot of gossip in the past. Her current position as Head of Preventers wouldn't help quell those rumors any, either. Heero suddenly realizes that the woman sitting beside her must have been dealing with these kinds of malicious and undermining rumors for years. The fact that Une's never lowered herself to responding in any way is just another reason to respect her, in Heero's opinion.
Heero leans forward, resting her elbows on her knees and cradling the cup of coffee between her hands. "What did you want to talk about?" she asks, getting to the point.
Une sighs again. "Have you ever thought about relocating to a different office?"
She means in the colonies, Heero knows. Heero nods. "Once or twice. I just assumed that I was needed here more, and I like being close by to visit Relena whenever I want to."
"You're still needed here more," Une growls, "but Internal Affairs has hinted that they might consider relocation the best possible outcome."
Heero thinks about this information silently for a minute. "They just want to ignore me, then." That kind of attitude shouldn't hurt her, but it does.
"Pretty much," Une agrees. "I don't know what to do, Heero. I do know you'd be missed greatly, by myself and others, if you went back into space. But I want you to think about what's best for you. With these rumors… You might not be accepted back here, whatever Internal Affairs decides. Not by your fellow agents."
Blunt, but accurate. "It feels like running away," Heero admits. "I don't want whoever started them to think I've been scared away."
Une snorts. "No one who's ever met you, even in passing, would think you'd be scared of some silly gossip. But it's not fair to you, being forced in the future to work with agents who won't fully trust you anymore."
Heero sighs. That's one consequence she's wary of. "Yeah."
"I won't force you to move," Une announces. "I know that you go only where you want to, Heero. You always have," she comments ruefully. "Still, keep relocation in mind as an option."
Heero nods. "I understand." And she does. This is Une's bid for Heero to consider starting over at another office in the colonies, to build new working relationships with other agents. It'd be a new start, Heero supposes, but it also makes her very tired just to think about starting all over somewhere again.
Once she's said her piece, Une gets up and walks back around to the other side of her desk, looking annoyed at all of the paperwork still covering its surface. "Just be safe, Heero," is Une's parting response, before she sits back down.
"I'll try," Heero says, because that's as truthful as she can be, before she finishes her coffee and lets herself back out of the office.
Great. It's looking less and less like Heero will ever be able to enjoy working here again. That's really not fair, but she's used to unfairness by now. As Heero leaves, she pays extra attention to who's talking about her, and who specifically apparently believes the new rumors. She's hurt and angered by how many of her fellow agents are smirking and nudging each other as she walks by, pretending not to pay attention to them. Heero does turn to glare at the unfortunate agent who is stupid enough to wolf whistle as she's leaving. If they were in the gym, she'd dislocate something of his just on principle. As it is, her look is caustic enough to make him blanch and backtrack a couple of feet, and Heero has to be content with that.
As she makes her way through the building, Heero estimates that approximately two-thirds of the agents in the building either don't believe the rumors or don't care, but that still leaves about one-third of the people she works with thinking such awful things about her.
This knowledge is not pleasant.
Nothing about her situation is. Heero finally leaves the building, well aware that something within her is already saying farewell to this part of her life. She feels an ache deep inside, but also a sense of inevitability, like her life's been leading up to her impending decision for a long time now. She doesn't know what her future holds, but Heero's positive that it's not working in this same building, with these same people, any longer.
