Chapter 4
Now that Relena's finally allowed herself to stop moving, she doesn't know what she feels more - exhausted, or in pain. Mostly the latter, including the stitch still hurting her side from running so much. The wound on her leg is pulsing horribly, and her arm is just one constant ache now. She should have it up in a sling, or at least wrapped close against her side, Relena knows, but all she has to work with is her jacket, and she can't arrange that one-handed.
So Relena sits and waits for Heero, nervously watching the doors and the few other people present. None of them are paying her any attention, which she prefers right now. They seem busy in prayer. Briefly, Relena mentally offers up heartfelt thanks of her own for the sanctuary.
Five minutes passes by too slowly, even though Heero keeps her phone on, and asks for Relena's status every minute. Relena's distantly aware that she's going into shock a bit, and is becoming more unresponsive as time passes because she's close to passing out on the pew. Still, she forces herself to respond, even as it becomes more difficult to keep her eyes open.
After what feels like a year, Relena sees Heero walk briskly into the cathedral. Her eyes quickly scan the room and find Relena, and then her shoulders relax. Relena offers her friend a tired smile.
"Heero. You're here." That sounds inane even in her head, but she can't think of anything else to say.
"Relena." Heero looks Relena over, paying specific attention to her arm and leg. She helps Relena carefully sit up, and then Heero uses her own jacket to bind Relena's arm in a tight sling. The movement hurts, jolting her arm and sharpening the pain for a few endless moments before it dulls again. Relena tries to keep from wincing, but doesn't succeed. At least she doesn't scream again. Someone in the church would have to notice that.
"Do you think you can stand up?" Heero asks her. Relena looks at her leg and bites her lip, but nods. She can't stay here, and while Heero could carry her, Relena knows that her friend would prefer to keep her hands free in case someone shows up. Heero puts a firm and steady arm around her waist to support her, and Relena slowly lowers her injured leg to the floor. It's fallen asleep, and her first step is a lurching hobble.
"Sorry," Relena says. Her eyes suddenly fill with tears, and they start dripping down her face. "Oh Heero, I'm so sorry. I should have listened to you." Her teeth are starting to chatter slightly, and she knows that's not a good sign. Relena must have lost more blood than she'd thought.
Shaking her head, Heero helps Relena straighten back up. "It's not your fault. What happened?"
Relena takes a deep breath and starts telling her. "They tried to drug my tea." She lets out a little laugh. "I thought I was being silly by not drinking it, but here we are."
Heero smiles, but it's bitter. "There's no such thing as being too paranoid when it comes to politics."
Relena can't say that she disagrees. They take one hobbling step, and then Relena has to stop and catch her breath. Her leg is worse than she thought. It feels like her muscles are on fire. She wants to brush away the tears from her cheeks, but her one working arm is around Heero's waist for support.
Heero prods her to continue with her story. Relena has to scramble her thoughts back into order. "They carried me out into the hallway, and I tried to get away but one of them wouldn't let go of my arm." She doesn't have to gesture for Heero to understand which arm Relena means. "Then I ran down the stairs and got outside. I called you when I ran into a store."
She's going to have to check on those employees later, or have Heero do it while Relena's in the hospital getting her injuries seen to. Relena hopes that those two are fine. That one woman may have very well saved her life.
"Probably," Heero agrees. Relena blinks, and then realizes belatedly that she's been speaking her thoughts out loud. "I'll make sure they're fine," Heero says. That's a relief. "When did they start shooting at you?"
Relena blinks at the question, not sure why Heero's asking. "In the stairwell," she says.
When she looks over, Relena sees that Heero's frowning in concentration. "It's likely that they weren't aiming to actually hit you right away, then. I find it hard to believe that they could miss so many times in such an enclosed area."
Relena hadn't considered that. "Then why were they shooting?" she asks, trying to distract herself while they slowly leave the building. When they finally get outside, Relena feels exposed. She knows that Heero will keep her safe, but she can't help worrying. What if they hurt Heero, too?
Heero shakes her head. "Most likely to scare you into stopping. Even the wound on your leg was probably only intended to stop you. They wanted you alive for something."
Well, that does make sense, Relena thinks fuzzily. If they wanted her dead, they would have put poison in her tea, not a knock-out drug. Still. "Why, though?" she asks, not really expecting an answer. "Why would they do something this outrageous?"
"I don't know," Heero answers anyway, her voice low and hard. "But I'm going to find out."
Relena ends up falling asleep on their way to the hospital, which she's sorry for because she screams in a nurse's face when she finally wakes up in a panic, not remembering where she is. Luckily, Heero's right there to reassure Relena that she's fine.
After Relena calms down, though, she notices what time it is and panics again. She sits up with some effort, not used to only having one working arm. Heero supports her, while the nurse tries to both scold Relena and call her doctor to the room.
Relena ignores everything but Heero. "Are the conferences still going on?" she demands.
After looking into her eyes and likely seeing the determination there, Heero sighs and nods. "They've moved to the Hilton, but yes, they resumed meetings at 1." It's just after three now.
Relena grits her teeth, this time in anger. She doesn't even want to know what the other parliament members are saying about her absence. "I need to get there."
Heero doesn't look surprised. "Those three are going to be there, too," she cautions. Senator Hittun and the others, she means. Heero's not a Preventers agent right now, and so she can't arrest them. While Relena can file a report against them if she goes through the proper channels, she isn't holding out much hope that anything will really come of it, even though she knows that Une and Sally wouldn't just let the matter drop. It's still Relena's word against those three men that they were even involved.
And meanwhile, the conference meetings are ongoing, and they're not going to stop for even this. Relena has to be there, to make sure that no one tries to speak for her and influence everyone else.
She lifts her chin and looks Heero in the eyes. "I know." And she does. "I still need to be there, Heero."
Her friend sighs again, but turns her laptop around so that Relena can see what's on the screen. Relena's utterly unsurprised to see that it's showing them a live feed of the inside of the conference room, with the audio muted but available. Relena smiles at Heero, and knows that while she can't do anything through official channels yet, Heero will at the very least have those three men under 24-hour surveillance from now on. Already, Relena feels safer.
Yes, she can do this. Even more, she must.
When her doctor comes into the room, Relena orders him to bring her some discharge papers. Naturally, he protests. She's had such a shock, and she's such a delicate thing; won't she rest for a couple of days? Surely her office can get along without her for that long, right?
That's exactly what Relena's afraid of. She doesn't relent, and neither does Heero, and eventually, the papers are signed. Heero drives her over to the hotel, stopping along the way to get Relena's prescription filled and find them both some food. Relena devours hers, knowing that she's going to need the energy. She has another four or five hours of meetings, quite possibly, all while in the presence of the men who tried to kidnap her for some unknown reason.
Heero's going to look into it while Relena's stuck in the conference room. Relena knows that means those men will have their entire life histories hacked into before sunset, but she doesn't feel guilty about it in the slightest.
Yes, she's ready to face them now. Which is a good thing, because it's not like Relena has a choice here, really.
