The Gun and the Guitar
Part 9: American Woman?
Michael banged on the door and cried, "I need to go!" It took a few long moments and Hiro's help before someone finally came.
It was almost evening and it had been hours since they'd let them go to the washroom. At least they'd been given toast and water, but now the water had to come out!
Grumbling, one of the men reluctantly showed up and opened the door. Michael ran past him and locked himself in the washroom. Ramon's man pointed a gun a Hiro and yelled, "Get back inside!" He locked the room door and followed the kid.
After the boy finished his business, he opened the door just when a white cat rubbed up against his legs, asking to be pat. Unable to resist, Michael knelt to pet the kitty, "Where did you come from?" the boy questioned the feline. The cat mewed softly and trotted off down the hall to screen door that lead to a second story patio, it was scratching at the door, apparently wanting out. Michael realized the man that was guarding him hadn't said a word to him yet, that was because he was talking to another man down the stairs. Michael didn't pay attention to what they said; instead he knelt again to pet the animal.
The guy saw the kid petting the cat and waved it off and continued talking to his buddy. But the cat still wanted outside, pawing at the door and Michael noticed it was a very large terrace, so he let the cat out. Taking in the surroundings, Michael noticed an ornate white-washed iron bench, a hot tub, a few strategically placed plants and a glass table with four chairs. On the table he recognized a deck of cards, an ashtray full of smelly cigarette butts and something that made his eyes widen. There was a bug repellent bomb on the outdoor table, one of those solid types that looked like an air freshener, but gave off a gas that repelled bugs. Michael knew exactly what that thing could do! Looking back at the guys still talking, he ran out to the table and grabbed the thing, pocketing it down the front of his pants.
Quickly, Michael returned to his room. "I'm finished, thank you for letting me pet your cat," he said sweetly, innocently.
Ramon's guy only grunted and opened the door quickly. Michael ran back inside, he heard the lock engaged again. Pressing his ear to the door, he heard the men's voices receding back downstairs.
"Michael? What is it?" Hiroshi asked watching the boy oddly. Alarmed, he saw a lump in the boy's pants. "Err…what do have there?"
"I stole a bug bomb!" Michael whispered with excitement, digging out the bug repellent. "My father once told me never to bring these things into the house, because the smallest flame will ignite with the gas it gives off and blow up," Michael told Hiro.
Bug bomb? What was that? Hiro looked on surprised, "And what do you plan on doing with this?"
"Blowing the door down," Michael said as if Hiro should have known.
"What?!" Hiro cried.
Michael explained about the cat and the terrace down the hall. "We could climb down, or jump."
"Really?" questioned Hiro, he couldn't stop the hopeful sound in his voice. "Can that thing really blow the door down?"
Michael nodded. "We have nothing else to loose? We should wait for it to get dark though, when they are sleeping."
Hiro smiled, "You're just like your father..."
The boy stuck his tongue indignantly out at him.
After waiting out an hour or so, discussing a short plan with the guys, K grabbed his purse which was filled with a grenade, some sleeping drugs and lipstick.
Outside a limo Judy had arranged honked its horn. It was driven none other than Leon the real butler. K, Shuichi, Suguru and Yuki filed down the stairs and climbed into the car. The press had been given a silent order by the police not to report this mission. So no one took their picture, but it didn't stop them from staring.
As the car drove off, they only had to hope that Ramon's boys were looking for a party. Noticing Shuichi was the only one perfectly happy dressed this way; K thought it was too bad he didn't speak fluent English. He imagined Shuichi would have sounded the most authentic to the guards at the house. Sighing, he looked at his watch. It was almost nine o'clock…Judy felt it was imperative that they wait till nightfall, even if K wanted to rip out his hair with the waiting. His only assurance was that if he wasn't dead, then Michael and Hiroshi were safe. He'd talked to Ark using one of the cop's phones, everything was fine. His friend was eating pizza and making Ramon watch black and white gangster movies. K had howled with laughter at that. Phew…one less thing to worry about.
Running his hands over the soft material of his red dress, K groaned. He would have much rather gone whoop-ass on Ramon's men, armed to the teeth, bullets flying. Now, he would sure have to put on an act here, pretending to be a girl. But he told himself it was for Michael and Hiroshi…
Bring on the pimpage!
All he wanted was to hold his boy close and beg Hiro to forgive him—tell them that he loved them both so much!
"Ok let's practice our girlie voices," Shuichi advised. "K and Yuki have deeper voices…if you guys don't play along you'll ruin it." After all he was the vocalist, he thought about these kinds of things.
Everyone sweatdropped.
But they all had to try it or how would they be able to approach Ramon's men? They practiced all the way there, until they spotted the house.
"Ok, just do what you can until we get them to drink the tranquilizer. And if anyone gets to 'fresh'…kick 'em in the balls," K ordered them as they pulled up to the gate.
Suguru made a face imagining one of those goons 'touching' him.
The guard watching the gate asked the limo driver to lower his window. Leon did so and the ruffian guard peeked inside. "We didn't call anyone tonight," said the man with red hair and a moustache.
"Courtesy of Madame X, we like to keep our customers happy," went Leon the butler. Judy had talked him into doing this for her.
On queue Yuki, Shuichi, Suguru and K all blew the guard a sultry kiss and waved sweetly. The unsure frown on the guard's face evaporated and instead he smiled back. Lucky bastards the guard thought. The guys in the house got to party all the time and he was always stuck out here. Man, he wasn't getting paid enough for this shit.
Yuki was growling at his disposition, maybe this was some kind of divine intervention. A kick in the ass for all the mean things he's done to Shuichi or something, he thought twirling a lock of chestnut hair. Was that guard winking at him? He forced a silly laugh. Please let lightening strike me now, he thought.
The guard let them through and everyone snickered at Yuki.
"You have an admirer already," Suguru commented, giggling.
"Let's focus here," K offered sarcastically, "We have to get into the house still."
The limo parked in front of the house and the guys inside, came to the door after the gate guard radioed that they had company. They watched the back doors open on the limo and gaped at the long legs on a tall blonde bombshell that stepped out of the car. There was also a tall brunette with wicked eyes and two younger chicks. Wooo! This must be their lucky day!
"Ladies," spoke a shorter man all syrupy like with the crew cut. He couldn't believe the amazing service they were getting from the company they'd gotten the call girls from last night. And tonight was free!
"You boys look like you're ready for a party," Shuichi said in Japanese and looked at them all doe-eyed.
The men looked at the singer and blinked they didn't understand him at all. K knew this was going to be a slight kink in their mission. Yuki and he would have to smooth this one over being the translators.
"They're foreign exchange students just looking for a good time," K spun his tale using a deep sexy voice he never knew he had, until recently.
The men nodded and smiled.
"Doesn't matter, I like them sweet and young, Asian girls are hot," said a big guy with short dirty blonde hair, wearing a leather vest, no shirt and a pair of blue jeans.
K and everyone just giggled stupidly. Fucking pigs, K thought dryly. He entertained visions of blasting them with a bazooka. It sated his mind. Shoving past the men, eager to look inside the house, K demanded "Got anything to drink?" He flicked his hair and stood with his hand on his hip, looking impatiently at the four men.
"Feisty one aren't ya?" a man with a curly black hair in a ponytail said. "By the way I'm Nick and that's Adam," the man pointed to the shorter guy with the crew cut. "This is Frank and the big guy is Tank." Nick continued and motioned at the large man that had made the comment about 'young' girls.
"Fellas," K smiled sweetly, he was surprising himself at how well he was doing this.
Shuichi, Suguru and Yuki followed him in and looked around the house, "Big house," Suguru said in awe of the ocean-side home.
Yuki translated and one of the men gawked at him and made some kissy motion at him.
"Assho…I mean absolutely beautiful," the writer said in his forced girlie voice.
"We need music!" cried Shuichi, hoping to save Yuki from that mishap. He wondered if they'd like him to sing.
The men smiled, they liked this young pink haired girl. She was cute and bouncy like. They led their women guests to the livingroom and one of them turned on some fast loud sultry music.
"Come sit down beside Tank," the big guy said in third person. He patted the seat beside him in invitation to Yuki.
Gritting his teeth, Yuki tossed an evil glare in K's direction, but he relented and did so. This was for Michael and Hiro, Yuki told himself, repeating the mantra to keep his sanity. Grr, he thought this guy liked the younger girls? Guess he wasn't picky thought Yuki, sitting stiffly beside the guy. Ugh! He felt mortified.
K took a moment to scan the house. It was beautiful inside, large parquet floors, cream coloured walls. There were paintings on the walls and the livingroom was open. At the end was a staircase that led up. K's eyes travelled up—he wanted to run up those stairs. It was hard retaining himself knowing that Michael and Hiroshi were only a few feet away! They needed to slip these guys the tranquilizers as soon as possible.
"You look so serious, what would it take to loosen up a girl like you?"
K heard someone talking to him, he looked over and saw it was Nick admiring him, he smelled like stale beer and cigarettes. "A drink…actually, why don't you let me get you a drink?" K offered flashing baby blues, and batting his long false eyelashes at the man.
Nick grinned. "That's a good girl go get the boys and yourselves a beer. I'll be waiting right here when you get back." He patted K's bottom, coping a feel, laughing with heightened amusement.
K gasped and jumped away from Nick's intruding hand, "Which way is the kitchen?"
"I thought all women knew where the kitchen was," Frank teased, sitting next to Suguru, ogling him.
The men all roared with laughter.
Suguru and Shuichi laughed dryly along with them.
K sauntered off, grumbling to himself about how the plight for women's rights was failing miserably!
"She needs help," Yuki offered quickly and ran after K to the kitchen, looking for an escape.
"I need a smoke right now," Yuki groused and fished a cigarette out of his sparkly black handbag.
"Smoke after we put this tranquilizers into their beer bottles, remember two pills each, knock them out cold," K told Yuki in a hurried whisper.
Groaning, Yuki put the cigarette back in his purse and went to find the beer in the fridge; he looked at the bottles longingly. He grabbed four bottles and put them on the counter. They quickly uncapped the bottles and started splitting the pills and pouring the white powder into the drinks.
"Bastards won't know what hit them." K chuckled. He hoped it wouldn't take too long for it to kick in either.
"They better not hurt, Shuichi," Yuki claimed hotly as he put the pills caps into his purse. He dug his cigarette back out and lit it.
K had never heard Yuki talk to openly about Shuichi's safety before. He stared at him for a moment.
"Ugh, don't look at me that way," Yuki complained, going to the fridge and grabbing four 'clean' bottles of beer for themselves. Puffing heartily on the cigarette without his hands, Yuki helped K carry the drinks to the other room. Both men stopped short when they noticed Shuichi, dancing on the coffee table and the guys literally drooling.
"She's such a brat," Yuki murmured under his breath. He found his nerve and moved into the room, he handed the clean beer to Shuichi, Suguru, and K and kept one for himself.
K was right behind Yuki, handing the men the spiked beer. He smiled as they all accepted gratefully.
"Usually you pay extra for this stuff. You girls are so much fun," Frank said watching Shuichi dancing.
"He-he," giggled Suguru. He pretending this was like that American holiday, Halloween. It wasn't as hard as he thought it would be.
"Cheers boys," K went and guzzled his beer in hopes the men would follow his lead.
They sipped slowly, but they were more interested in leering at him, K sighed to himself. Damn, why'd he have to be so hot? He groaned and had a thought. These guys were watching him tossing back the beer, probably in hopes he'd get drunk first and then become easy prey. Gross! Men could be so despicable!
K sat down on one of the black leather sofas, crossing his legs and pouting haughtily. Nick sat beside him. K forced a happy face and smiled at the man.
Nick asked, "What do you like to do for fun, gorgeous?"
"Me?" K replied and thought about it. He smirked and said mischievously, "I like to shoot people with my love gun."
The guys in the room all turned their attention on him now.
Yikes! Maybe that was too provocative, K thought. Shuichi, Suguru and Yuki glanced at him oddly. K tossed them a weak smile and shrugged.
"You know you're very tall for a girl." Nick was looking at K lustfully now. "I bet those legs of yours go all the way up." He ran a hand up K's thigh soft thigh.
Mommy! K cried to himself, he didn't need to force the tight giggle that escaped him.
Suguru spoke up, in an attempt to rescue K, "Let's play a drinking game! Err…guess the places each of us likes to be kissed and if you're wrong you have to drink up. If you get it right you get to kiss us there."
Yuki, Shuichi and K shot the musical boy genius daggers.
"Sure let's play, I like games," Tank said and asked, "Can I go first? Don't lie now if I get it right," he told the girls. "Hmm, I'm guessing your neck," the big guy said to Suguru and smirked.
"Nope," Suguru said sweetly.
Pouting, Tank drank at least half his bottle.
K watched this and realized that maybe the musical boy genius WAS a genius! They could get the guys to drink up faster this way!
"Your turn sweet thang," Adam told Yuki cheekily.
Yuki, chain smoking, was sucking on another cigarette and blew the smoke at the man. The guy coughed but then he purred at him. Didn't anything turn these morons off?
Adam asked if Yuki's special kissing spot was his lips.
How predictable! Yuki, like hell was going to say he was right, shook his head 'no'.
"Damn," Adam cursed and reluctantly drank up.
K realized that they couldn't all just say no without the men getting annoyed, decided he'd bite the bullet. He looked at his admirer Nick and said, "I bet you can get it right, sugar."
Nick grinned broadly and thought about it. Being a bit of a romantic he offered, "I bet your like your hands and fingers kissed."
Pretending to be surprised, K laughed and held out his hand like he'd seen Judy do to some lucky adoring male fans. "You know me soo well!" K gushed and Nick, looking utterly pleased with himself, leaned in to kiss his outstretched hand.
Yuki, Shuichi and Suguru watched with unreadable faces as Nick ravaged K's hand with wet kisses.
Nick was about to devour his pinkie finger, but K wagged his other finger at him. "You gotta to work for the honey, Nicky boy," he told him, yanking his hand away.
Nick seemed pleased to hear that and let the game continue.
The kissing game wasn't so bad…
The worst they had to endure was Yuki getting kissed up along his neck. The man seemed ready to bolt, but K glared at him so hard to sit still. If he could endure Nicky boy's finger fetish, Yuki would survive!
The men had all finished their beers; they were ready for a second. But the tranquilizers were kicking in. Their speech became a little slurry at first, eyes wavering in the sockets as if floating in their skulls. The only one that seemed most alert, though, was Tank. The drug was taking a bit longer to kick into that big boy.
But it did.
Soon, Nick, Adam and Frank were passed out cold. And Tank mumbled at them as his body became limp, "What did you do to me?" He was trying to get up but he couldn't.
In moments he was gone to Neverland.
"They are having a party, maybe we don't have to wait until they are asleep. We can blow the door down and run for it," explained Michael who had already put the bug bomb near the doorway. Then he went and grabbed the candle off the nightstand and pulled out the book of matches.
Hiro gaped. He couldn't let Michael light that candle! "Give me those matches, Michael," Hiro demanded holding out his hand, "Your father will kill me if he knew I let you light that candle and put yourself in danger."
"Aww, we aren't gonna try and get out of here?" whined the boy.
"Of course, but I'm going to light the candle instead," Hiro explained.
Michael was beaming. He handed Hiro the matches.
Feeling tense and hoping this worked, Hiro instructed Michael to hide behind the bed. He crossed the room and knelt next to the candle. Holding his breath he struck the match and lit the wick of the candle—then he flew over the bed, landing in a heap next to Michael.
"Cover your ears!" yelled Michael.
K and everyone dashed to the stairs. They began to run up when suddenly an explosion shook the house. Instinctively everyone covered their heads and K withdrew his weapon.
"Waa! The Secret Service has come to kill us!" cried Shuichi.
"It came from upstairs!" Suguru claimed, watching billows of dust filling up the hallway above them.
K rushed upstairs, finger taut on the trigger. There was movement and K swung his gun in that direction.
Michael and Hiro climbed out of a hole in the door to the room they were held captive. They were covered in plaster dust and wide-eyed. They both screamed when they saw a person with a gun on them, thinking for a moment that Ramon's men were already here. But their terror lifted when they realized these people weren't Ramon's men, they were women. Women?
"K…?" Hiro asked bewildered.
"Daddy?" said Michael blinking questionably.
"Michael!" cried K and ran over to sweep his son up in a hug.
The boy hugged back hesitantly. "Is it really you?"
"It's me son, it's me," K assured the boy and planted a trail of rosy lipstick kisses all over the kid's face.
Hiro stood up, still shook up from the explosion. He stared at K dumbfounded, but when the realization hit, he laughed loudly. He laughed even harder when he settled his disbelieving eyes on Shuichi, Yuki and Suguru all dressed up like women. "W-what the hell?" he jeered and gaped at them all.
"It was my idea!" Shuichi said excitedly, "We were so cool. And now we've rescued you!" He ran over to hug his best friend.
Hiro hugged his friend warmly, but removed himself from Shuichi. "You have no idea how glad I am that you're all here," Hiroshi claimed, grinning happily. "Wow, even you Yuki…thanks dude."
K held Michael. "We went undercover," K told him, cutting Hiro a bashful look and blushed slightly.
"We were so worried about you guys," Suguru added. "But I think we should get out of here. We can talk later."
"At least this shit paid off. Suguru's right, let's get the hell outta here," the novelist insisted.
"That's what you think," growled a deep voice from behind them.
K stood up quickly, shielding Michael behind him protectively. His eyes narrowed, "Robert Turner…"
"Claude, I really like your get-up. Too bad its all for nothing," the Chief of the Secret Service said scowling, pointing a gun at them all.
Everyone stepped back, hiding behind K.
"Why are you doing this, Chief?" K implored, his own gun still clasped in his hand.
Robert grabbed the gun out of K's hand and tossed it down the stairs. "You're a bastard, Claude. You don't even know why I'm doing this, do you? You didn't even have the guts to show up at his funeral," Robert hissed and clicked the hammer back on his gun.
Holding up his hands K blinked with bafflement, "Whoa, who's funeral?"
"MY SON'S!" the man bellowed. "The man you sent to his death!" spat the Chief his nostrils flaring and eyes near slits with anger.
K was wracking his brain for comprehension. "I—I don't even know your son's name," he treaded gently.
"Private Sean Preston. He took his deceased mother's last name. Fresh out of boot camp, you were in Cyprus together. Ring any fucking bells dipshit?!" the man sneered.
Oh. My. God. K couldn't believe what he was hearing! Suddenly he knew why the name Elizabeth Preston gave him the feeling of déjà vu. He shuddered as a guilt he hadn't felt in years swept over him…
"Sergeant Winchester, Private Sean Preston reporting, sir! You asked for me, sir?!" a young lad just graduating from his six months of boot camp, and receiving his rank as Private, spoke like a true soldier.
K sat behind his desk cleaning his rifle but stood as the boy saluted him. He saluted back. "I've been given orders, Mr. Preston, to add you to my team on a raid mission. But I'll be honest I'm not sure you're ready for this kind of mission. But I have my orders," K offered tightly. "There is a rebel group of Turks that the UN can't quell by peace talks with their government. The United States has decided to send us in to stop these guerrillas. Their organization is becoming alarmingly immense."
"You have the right man, sir!" Sean exclaimed proudly.
"At ease solider, have a seat and I'll fill you in," K explained and they both took a seat. He went over the details of the mission. It was a night time raid, consisting of ten men. Objective: to kill or capture the leader of this rebel group. K showed the young man satellite images of their base, situated in the hilly terrain of the Mediterranean Island.
By nightfall, everyone was in position near the guerrilla camp. These scoundrels were responsible for pillaging villages and stealing weaponry from the United States and the Turks. They were also dealing with a large terrorist group, which could become a serious threat—they needed to be stopped, now.
They had the camp surrounded.
K made hand signals, telling his team of men to stay put. He scanned the few buildings with infrared binoculars and spotted their target having a smoke on the step near a central structure. Quickly, though, the man flicked the cigarette away and went back inside.
Shit, it would have been easier to just snipe the guy.
But just then Sean Preston was skulking off, already infiltrating enemy camp and breaking orders.
"Sergeant?!" crackled K's radio. He picked it up, unbelieving that the other team was stupid enough to use the radio right now, "What?" he barked.
"Private Preston is breaking protocol, he's behind enemy lines," garbled a voice.
K cursed and pushed himself off the ground and ran towards the camp. But as the camp came into clear view, he knew it was too late. The guerrilla guards had spotted the young Private and had him at gunpoint. Jesus!
Right before his eyes he watched the young man's execution.
"No!!" K cried enraged. He decided to take harsher method, and called in for an air strike that was waiting nearby in case the mission went awry.
"You fucking bastards!" Guns blazing, K shot at the enemy before the rest of his team backed him up. He had to get to Sean's body at least and make sure he was dead—take his body out of here. All soldiers deserved a proper funeral. He couldn't just leave him there!
Grabbing a grenade, K unpinned it with his teeth and lobbed it at the main building. He dived and covered his head as an explosion shook the ground. Jumping to his feet again, holding his AK-47 at the ready, he spotted the guerrilla leader.
Before the man could even react, he shot the man dead.
Adrenaline coursed through K's veins like wildfire, he felt unstoppable. Upon reaching Private Preston, K knew for sure the boy was dead. None of the less, he picked him up and tossed him over his shoulder just as he heard the air bombers coming.
"EVERYONE OUT!" K ordered and took off at a run from the camp. He had to get out of here! Thirty seconds…he pumped his legs as hard as they could go, feet pounding over gravel. Twenty seconds…K started praying to God and tossed his heavy rifle away. Ten seconds…he reached the forest line, dropped Preston's body to the ground and hunkered down.
The ear shattering roar of an F-19 bomber sailed overhead and blew the shit out of the guerrilla camp. Earth rained down on K's head a moment later and he could feel the heat of the blast like a breath from hell…
"Private Preston was executed by the guerrillas…" murmured K as if in a daze. "That was more than ten years ago. It was the actual reason I left the Army and became a mercenary. So I wouldn't be in charge of anyone else's life but my own in combat ever again." He was unable to look Robert in the eye now. "I didn't know he was your son," K whispered.
"And it's your fault he's dead!" Robert insisted. "He wasn't ready for such a mission!"
"I had orders!" K cried back. "It wasn't my choice. I didn't think he was ready either! How did a new recruit get put in my outfit?" he demanded. "Of all things the boy broke protocol and charged guerrilla leader, entering the camp…I tried to stop him. I tried to get there in time, but I didn't!" K yelled back. He too was haunted by that dreadful night. He had blamed himself for allowing such a young soldier to die. But he never thought that that night would cause a horrid nightmare like this now. His kid and his lover kidnapped, and his life threatened. Obviously, Robert held a horrible grudge against him all this time, and it would seem that he'd finally snapped.
But something dawned on K. When he was a Sergeant, he never knew the boy's father at the time was Mr. Robert Turner, a man that was higher in the ranks of the U.S Army and very influential. After all he'd become the Chief of the Secret Service in Los Angeles.
K stared at Robert in the eye now. "You're blaming me for this, aren't you? It—it was you…you were the one that convinced officials to allow such a fresh recruit into my outfit, weren't you?"
Hiro, Shuichi, Suguru and Yuki looked from Robert to K, they watched in shock as this tale unfolded.
"I will not take the blame! I lost the one thing in life that mattered, and, you let him die…" Robert said quietly, "All I wanted was for Sean to become something…"
The man's eyes became wild.
"You needed to know what it felt like to have your life destroyed. To have the things you love more than anything ripped from you before you died!" The man began to laugh manically, "It was such a perfect plan! I got Ramon out of jail, your old nemesis, he was happy to do my bidding. I had you running around like a dog."
K gaped at the man. To live with himself, Robert had placed the blame on him when he was the person that, truly, put the ill-fated event into motion. K understood now. But in some ways, K still felt at fault; after all, Private Sean Preston was under his command at the time of his death.
"You've lost it," K claimed, "I'm very sorry about your son. I felt torn about his death, but…"
"NO! There are no 'buts'! I should have been the one to kill you anyways, instead of leaving it up to halfwits! Die!"
K stared down the barrel of the gun, his heart pounding.
"K!!" Hiro cried, throwing himself in front him, shielding the person he loved. "No! No!!"
A shot rang out.
Everyone screamed and ducked.
Then there was silence.
Hiro was panting, his heart slamming against his ribcage. He was clinging protectively to K, expecting to feel excruciating pain. But as he tried to feel the pain, he felt nothing…
"Hiro…" K whispered, overwhelmed by his lover's actions. "Angel, it's alright…look."
The guitarist lifted his head, stunned, he looked behind them. He watched a groaning Robert fall to his knees, the gun slipping out of his hand. The man grabbed at his shoulder which was blossoming crimson around his fingers with blood.
Detective Rose stood at the top of the stairs, still holding her gun out in front of her. Behind her were a score of cops and Secret Service agents. Agent Scott was there too. They all looked on at their Chief with utter disbelief; they'd heard everything because of the wire K was still wearing.
"Robert Turner, you're under arrest for the conspiracy to commit murder, for the kidnapping of Michael Winchester and Hiroshi Nakano," the woman said as an ambulance crew made their way up the stairs. The detective continued to list off all the crimes Robert committed while he was being tended to by paramedics.
The detective kicked Robert's gun away from his reach and looked at the scene before her. K, Michael and Hiro were clinging to each other finally in peaceful reunion. Shaking her head at the men in drag, she couldn't believe their plan had worked out so perfectly.
Sensing the woman's eyes on them, K looked up. He gave the detective a smile. "Thank you," he said sincerely.
She only nodded and went to turn away.
"Wait," K called out.
The detective looked back.
K gave her the location of Ramon Sanchez.
"I think it is me that should be thanking you," she quipped.
K winked.
"Daddy, can we go home now?" Michael pleaded.
"Yes, let's go home," K agreed.
They had returned to Beverly Hills, where Judy screamed when she saw Michael, raining kisses on his small face in front of all the media. This time, however, Michael did not complain about his mother's attention and hugged her back. Sakano, his face lit up in surprise, came out to welcome them too. He joined up with Yuki, Shuichi and Suguru who got flooded with questions about their heroics by the reporters.
"Whose idea was it to go undercover like women?"
"Did any of the men touch you inappropriately?"
"Will Bad Luck be taking L.A by storm now?"
Hiro squeezed K's hand, he didn't want to let go just yet. He just watched the scene before him, thanking the heavens that everything had worked out. But he still felt in a daze.
The reporters pounced on K and Hiro.
"What was it like to know you were being held in the Chief of Secret Service's beach home?"
"Mr. Winchester, does it feel natural to be in drag?"
"Did Ramon Sanchez's men hurt you?"
"Are you and Mr. Winchester gay?"
Startled, Hiro's lips moved but he couldn't utter any words. Too many questions!
K held up his hand, "I'm sorry we can't answer any questions right now. Hiro has been through so much, we'll comment later." K dragged Hiro past the press, urging Bad Luck to come along as well. Judy and Michael followed.
A few hours later, and because Sakano promised they'd give a press conference later, they packed up their equipment and left.
Everything was quiet.
With Michael fed and cleaned, he insisted he wanted to sleep in his mother's bed tonight. Judy didn't argue. Everyone else could be heard talking quietly downstairs, the drone of the television chattering in the background. Finally with a moment to himself, K stood under a hot shower, washing all the crap off his face, the stinky products out of his hair. He felt revived, but deep down he felt bone tired. Shutting off the water, he grabbed a big blue towel, dried off and wrapped it around his waist. He padded to his guest bedroom where Hiro, who had washed up already, sat on the bed in clean clothes, his hair still damp and his face fresh.
They watched each other silently for a long moment.
"I want to make sure you are really here and I'm really here," Hiro said softly.
A guilty look came over K's face. He took a seat next to Hiro on the bed. "I had a dream where I asked you the very same thing," he murmured with a heavy heart. "It's all over now…I'm sorry Hiroshi, so sorry all this had to happen to you and Michael because of me. Shit…this is the second time I've put you in serious danger."
Hiro reached over and took K's hand in his again, "K…how were you supposed to know? Although, I still don't understand everything that happened, everyone speaks so fast in English," he mentioned. "But I knew you'd come for us. And Michael, he made me feel really strong. He's so smart and brave."
K took a moment to explain the dark events of his past. He also explained how all this drama came to be. He threaded his fingers with Hiro's, squeezing. He smiled now. "Michael does that, doesn't he? I swear kids make us super human sometimes. I'm so glad he wasn't alone, Hiro, I'm glad he had you."
Hiro looked touched. "I'm sorry for all the pain you had in your past. You did the best that you could," Hiro murmured and glanced away. "For a second there…" Tears sprung to Hiro's eyes, "…I thought that Secret Service guy was going to kill you. I feared that every moment while held up in that room. I heard them say it so many times."
"And you tried to save my life," K said in a hush. He gathered Hiro into his arms, holding him fiercely, "I love you so much, Hiroshi…so, so much!"
"I love you too, Claude." Hiro held K with all his might. And a few breaths later, K began to cry. "It's okay…just let it out," Hiro assured, petting over K's damp hair. This was the second time he'd ever witnessed K crying. Hiro swallowed the lump in his throat. He imagined his lover had held back all this anguish from the last twenty-four hours and perhaps a little about his past too.
The only thing that sucked was that K's crying made him cry too…
