Warnings: Slight language.

AN: Day 2, in cabin. (Edited March 07)

A Long Day

"Right, and so far everything appears to be leaning that way. Quatre, what was the weather report?"

The blonde head lifts slowly from the map, turning towards Heero's emotionless face. "The last report said light snow for the next two days and then a heavier storm Friday night, everything slowing down again to something more pleasant the following day."

"We must, of course, factor in human error. There are too many factors in a weather report for this region that are unknowable. I say we draw up three contingency plans and have those committed to memory in the event that something unlikely does occur." He shifts. "I have the mission objectives typed up and printed here for you. The changes have been penciled in, seeing as how I no longer have ready access to a printer."

Heero settles four brown folders on the tabletop. Judging by the size they can't contain more than five or six sheets of paper.

"Granted, everything seems rather cut and dry," he continues. "But it is always best to see things on paper. It would be best if these are burned tonight. We have a fireplace, and it should be used effectively. We may be too busy because of other reasons as the days move closer for us to remember to dispose of these. I'm sure everyone agrees that no evidence is the best way to go."

Kind of laying it on there thick, aren't you buddy?

Professionalism. One can never have enough.

And one can never have enough cleanliness either.

Sigh.

God, I need another nap. Or another room. Sleeping in the same room as a Heero is just not good for a Duo's mental well-being.

"Duo, have you decided yet?"

Decided? Decided what?

I tilt my head a mere fraction to the left and try not to look at him as if I have no clue where that question came from. I can only hope he will take the movement for a confirmation and not pursue it any farther.

"Have you decided?" He now sounds aggravated. "I need to know before we can go much farther on this. It is important. You would know that if you had taken the time away from your daydreaming to notice."

Quatre is now looking up at me, eyes curious and questioning. I swallow slightly and show them a grin. When in doubt, grin your ass off. "Yeah, I've decided," I lie through my teeth, hoping the answer is generic enough not to be off. "I'll go with what seems the best."

His amazingly cool cobalt eyes flicker a moment, then narrow, and his mouth drops down in a slight frown. I decide that that must be tolerable, that he's frowning, not scowling. "That's good. And what in your opinion is the best?"

If I didn't know any better I would think the guy is trying to bait me.

Maybe he is.

Nah, not Stoneface.

I wince inside and go for the gold of stupidity. "What you suggested."

He lifts an eyebrow and I give a weak laugh. Maybe I can pull this off as teasing if someone gets their act together and HELPS ME OUT!

If someone gets their act together? As if this can't be any of your own fault, right?

Obviously not.

I can't do anything; I'm pretty much as clueless as you for the moment.

Aren't you supposed to be omni knowing, the head cheese, the Big Man, -

"Duo." His voice is just sharp and cold enough to drag me back violently to the realm of the material and I blink at him in what I hope isn't a dazed manner, but something endearing. Obviously not by the look on his face.

Sweet holy hell, man, can't you just leave me alone?

He has a hand settled heavily on my shoulder, and he gives me another shake. I wonder if that's concern behind that mask or if it's simply annoyance. "Duo, I didn't suggest anything at all to you. I gave a choice," he states, hand still heavy and warm on my shoulder. It feels like its bearing me down, holding me in place, and I want to look away from his piercing eyes before he breaks the surface and sees something he shouldn't. But I can't.

Thank you, that's all I wanted.

A slightly disorienting feeling, being sucked away in a vacuum of thought, the distant words spoken as if underwater, and then I'm staring at him as he's withdrawing his hand, nodding, now seemingly perplexed.

"All right. You'll take the east entrance and leave by the north. Now that I have that I can work on the rest of the mission. After dinner we should sit down and talk again."

Quatre stands and yawns, holding a hand out to help Trowa up. Not that he needs it, I note. Then Quatre falls in step beside him, leaning in to murmur something about the importance of this base we're about to infiltrate.

I look over at Heero and see him standing by the map on the far right, trailing a finger up from one point marked with a tack to another. I stand up myself, stretching slowly until I feel the crack moving along my spine, and then head to the kitchen when Heero stops me.

I turn to look at him but his back is the only thing facing me, and he doesn't show any signs of turning as he picks up a pencil and traces a slow line to and around something. "This is our second day here and you're still as scatterbrained as you were yesterday. You explained that as travel fatigue, which I honestly feel isn't something one of us can afford to suffer from. But you've made it this far. I can't and won't believe that excuse today, though. As I told you yesterday I have to know if you can or can't do this by tomorrow morning. After that we may lose track of the other pilot, or he may be doing something else, or unwilling to work with us on short notice. I have to know what your status is."

Fucking crazy. Absolutely mental. Total basket case.

"I'll be fine."

Liar.

He turns at that to look at me. "You will be? Is that saying you're not fine now?"

"No, I'm fine now."

Pity you've never noticed. Pout

Cut it out!

"Good." He tilts his head marginally to the left to study me. "You didn't seem to sleep well last night; maybe you should just get some rest."

I blink at that, not quite expecting it, and then give a slight nod.

"Good." He turns back to the map again, picking up a pad of paper and a calculator and doing some calculation.

He likes us. He really likes us.

Hah.

I can feel a dull ache in my head that signals a headache coming. Yay for me. Out of all the medication I've brought with me its the painkiller that can be taken with little aftereffects and even less questioning. So! First stop, the kitchen to get a bottled water. And then off to the bedroom. A happily Heeroless bedroom, where hopefully a Duo can take a much needed nap. It's rough sleeping well when you can't trust that you'll behave while you're asleep.

Especially with such an obvious distraction sleeping right next to us all night long. Oh god, I just want to reach out and touch him and…

I sigh all on my own and take my water back to the bedroom. The small medicine bag is still in my smaller duffel and I pull it out carefully, glancing towards the closed but unlocked door. Damn, damn, damn, hate sharing a room on short notice…

I quickly get the medicine bag open and pull the bottles out, lining them up on the night table just to check and see what I have. The one I want is the farthest left and I tap out two small pills to knock back with several swallows of water. I put the pill bottle down and study the others lined up on the table.

It would be so easy…

There's whispering in the back of my mind.

Risperdone. To block nerve receptors and slow down the body, making messages between parts sluggish. Serax. Cuts back on anxiety levels. Zoloft. Happy pills. Ambien. Sleeping aid that doesn't so much as help you into a gentle sleep as bash you over the head with it repeatedly.

It would be so easy, maybe take a little Serax, help me relax a little, or one Risperdone, how would that hurt?

I settle the half full water bottle on the edge of the night table and swallow nervously, glancing at the door.

Heero would know. He's just not human.

Besides, it's not the wisest choice to be taking such heavy medication before an assignment like this, with so many people counting on you. What if something were to go wrong?

Something will go wrong. Let's just end your misery now, shall we?

I see in a foggy state my hand reaching out toward the Ambien, then stopping and hovering over the headache pills, before moving back over and finally picking up the Serax. It slowly dawns on me the danger that will come of this as I see my hands working awkwardly with the childproof cap, and then it's twisting off and falling on the bed beside us. Reaching for the water, tipping the medicine bottle over slowly.

I jerk back to myself and fling the bottle across the room, not caring that it's open. It's not enough. I fling the cap after it, and then the water bottle. My hands are shaking. Close call… close call…

There must be something that can be done.

After an uneasy moment or so I stand slowly, moving across the floor on uncertain feet and dropping to my hands and knees to pick up the small pills that have scattered on the carpet.

Careful, find them all, wipe them down before you put them back in the bottle. Look at the bottle, a prescription of 60. How many have you taken already?

He's taken 12.

All right, so how many does that leave to be found?

48.

Count them. How many is that? 36. Over there, under the closet door, two more. 38.

Is that one?

Yeah, how did it manage over there?

"I don't know," I whisper, plucking one of them from under the strap of Heero's bag. Sitting up to look around I notice the bag is open slightly and with a fearful glance at the door I pull back the edge and peer inside for a cursory glance. Nothing seems out of place.

Thick, thick carpet fibers. There's one imbedded in the carpet, better check the carpet. Better clean them good.

39.40.42.45. There, one under your palm. 46. Two more.

There's one, which makes 47.

I settle back on my heels after about ten minutes of careful and meticulous searching, which resulted in combing the carpet fibers with my fingertips, and plant my palms on my thighs, looking over the carpet.

"Are you sure it was only twelve?" I ask under my breath, thinking aloud.

Only 12.

My eyes settle on Heero's bag just as I hear his shuffling step in the hall. It sounds like he's stopped abruptly, like he's dropped something. There's another sound, cloth rubbing against cloth, as if he's moving his body differently than he had been. Yes, must have dropped something. I look over to the door, freezing, and then find myself rising slowly and putting the top back on the orange bottle, gathering all of the bottles up and dropping them in my bag, scooting the bag under the table. There's a damp spot on the carpet from my flung water bottle. Cap hadn't been on properly.

Cool water drips down my fingers as the bottle is picked up and there's no time to move so I try to make myself look natural lounging on the floor in front of the bed instead of on it, lightly sipping water. And that's how Heero finds me when he comes in.

"I thought I told you to take a nap," he remarks, settling on one knee to place something in his bag. I want to bristle at that remark but I find myself swallowing when he looks over at me. I hold the water up for him to see, as if it's the explanation as to why I'm not asleep yet, not that I've been on my hands and knees searching for little pills that have been scattered around the room.

With one still missing.

Heero stands and pushes his bag aside, then comes around the side of the bed and takes the water bottle. He places this on the table and glances in at the two books stacked inside, giving me a curious look.

"Hides the gun," I explain weakly, leaning over and gesturing. Completely unnecessary action. Really, I just want to make sure he can't see into the bag under the night table.

He makes a vague noise, staring at that damp spot on the carpet with a slightly puzzled frown. I pull on my innocent and clueless expression. He glances from it, to me and then to the water bottle several times before seeming to dismiss it.

And then with no warning I find myself lifted off the carpet and it dawns on me only as Heero has placed a knee on the bed and settled me down that he's just bodily picked me up and relocated me.

Guess he's serious about this nap business, huh?

Must be.

He pushes me down, dragging the sheet out from under me and then lightly tossing it over me, moving over to the blinds to pull them down. Oddly this darkens the room considerably. Or it seems odd in my state. The world seems to have dimmed, everything feels fuzzy. I realize he's speaking.

"I don't want you to be all scatterbrained tonight. The other two were pulled in at the last minute and despite everything you know more than they do. You even have some information that I might not, for varying reasons. Get some rest." His eyes narrow ever so slightly. "And if it is just overly excessive travel exhaustion, we'll know by tonight. And if it's not, we'll find a solution."

He gives a slight nod and pulls the door to the room shut, further darkening.

Heh. Have him find a solution to Multiple Personality. I'd love to see him try.

He's pretty close to perfect, he might be able to.

Isn't it called Dissociative Identity Disorder now? I thought it was. I could be wrong you know, but I thought it was.

Nobody's that perfect, not even spandex wearing psycho boy.

He's not wearing spandex right now; he's wearing jeans. They rather nicely sculpt his rear, I do feel.

That's only because it's cold.

One cannot fault practicality.

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

He's certainly not perfect, doesn't even know how to cover someone up correctly.

I sure didn't mind the picking up part.

Ara wants Heero, Ara wants Heero, Ara wants Heero.

"Oh god, don't any of you ever shut up?" I groan, rolling over onto my stomach and holding the pillow over my head. I know it won't shut them out. It's the thought that counts.