A/N: Happy Monday! Thank you once again for all of your kind reviews! Here's another longish chapter... I'm glad you guys like them! This one has a little more plot as well as some past revelations (hence the title), and only a dash of sugar ;) Don't worry, I'm suuure there will be plenty more ahead...

- RFP

Heero Yuy wasn't one to laze around in bed, but even after spending hours in the dark with Relena, it was all that he wanted to do.

He couldn't get enough of her. And yet, he also couldn't help but feel a twinge of guilt that his fellow Gundam pilots - including her brother - were hard at work trying to control the chaos that had erupted on L4.

While he was keeping busy, making love to his wife.

And he wasn't going to bother with the ex- prefix any longer. As far as he was concerned, the "ex" was null and void.

Heero had to get up at some point, but he didn't want his time with Relena to end. He didn't know when else they would get to spend so much uninterrupted time together in the immediate future. It all depended on what was happening on the colony, not to mention on Earth. For the past several hours, Heero had been out of step with what was going on in the outside world.

At long last, he turned on a light, and glanced over at the clock on the wall. Allowing for the time difference between Brussels and the current time on the Aventinus, Heero realized that it had been a full twenty-four hours since the harrowing events of the past day began to unfold.

What a day. It certainly hadn't ended the way he'd predicted when he'd woken up in Luxembourg the previous day, wrapping up a week-long Preventers assignment. Afterward he'd headed straight to Brussels to relieve Relena of parenting duty for the week while she headed to space.

Their exchange had been pleasant enough. Heero could remember fighting against his attraction to Relena, as always. But then something in her eyes had troubled him as they parted ways. It was almost as if she knew, then, that something might happen to her. But how could she have known?

He wasn't sure if that mattered, now. They were already worlds away from yesterday.

Heero gently pecked Relena's cheek before swinging his legs over the side of the bed and picking up his discarded clothes. She was still asleep and he hoped she'd stay that way for a while. She needed her rest. Neither her injury nor side effects from the pain medication seemed to be troubling her any longer, but Heero knew her body still needed time to heal.

And, perhaps, grow his future offspring.

He couldn't be sure if his efforts to impregnate Relena were successful, but he'd certainly given it his all. They would know in approximately four to six weeks…

Heero used the bathroom, splashed his face with cold water and unwrapped a new toothbrush to brush his teeth before dressing and returning to the bedroom. By then Relena was starting to stir.

"You're leaving?" she asked groggily, attempting to lift her head from her pillow but not altogether succeeding. Heero sat down next to her and gathered her into his arms.

"Not yet," he murmured. "I'm going to check in with the others, then I'll be back shortly."

Relena reached up and gave his shoulders a squeeze. "Think you can find my phone? And other things?"

"Of course," he said. "For now, just try to rest."

He could see the protest welling up in her eyes as he bent his head to kiss her goodbye, for now. But she didn't raise any arguments as he rose from the bed and headed for the door.

Heero stepped out into the corridor he'd headed down hours earlier and headed back through the sick bay, toward the ship's main concourse. As he rounded a corner, he glimpsed a familiar head of hair.

"Hey." Trowa turned his head, caught Heero's eye and greeted him first, strolling back toward him. He was wearing a Preventers-issued sweatshirt and sweatpants, the off-duty uniform agents usually wore in training or downtime aboard the Aventinus.

"Hey," Heero returned, falling into step beside Trowa.

"Finally coming up for air?" Trowa tipped his head and gave Heero a knowing smirk.

Heero just grunted and changed the subject. "How's your shoulder?"

"Better, now that all the bullet fragments have been dug out." Trowa flexed his arm.

"Is that while you're still here?"

"Unfortunately." Trowa frowned. "Une hasn't given me clearance to join the recovery mission yet. I suppose you'll be heading out soon?"

"As soon as we reach the colony."

"We should be docking within the hour."

"Hm." That gave Heero little time to wrap things up onboard.

"Don't worry," Trowa added, his smile returning. "Plenty of time for one more round."

"One more what?" Heero knit his brows together, slowly realizing what his friend meant. He shot him a sidelong glare.

"I would if I were you," Trowa said with a shrug.

"I appreciate the advice," Heero said with thinly veiled sarcasm.

Trowa's eyes flickered. "I have plenty more where that came from, if you're interested…"

"Thanks," Heero said curtly. "I'm good." Whatever Heero did with Relena was, quite frankly, no one else's business. Heero had tried following Trowa's "advice" when it came to women in the past, but he wouldn't say any of it was especially helpful.

"There is a small favor you could do for me," Heero said instead. "If you don't mind."

"Want me to stay with Relena?" Trowa sounded a little too eager, in Heero's mind.

"No," he said, a bit more sharply than he intended. "I want you to find out about this guy. Paul…" Heero realized he didn't know his last name.

"Ah, yes. Paul." Trowa nodded. "Quatre actually mentioned he'd spoken with him. Couple hours ago. I can find out his exact whereabouts, if you want."

Heero's brows shot up. "Wait… how do you know which Paul-"

"I know Paul," Trowa said simply. "You mean Relena's beau, right? Paul Montgomery."

Something burned inside Heero. How was it both Quatre and Trowa knew this guy that Relena had only just mentioned to him yesterday?

"How?" Heero asked Trowa.

"You mean you don't know?" Trowa's normally stoic face looked surprised. "I figured Relena would have told you, by now. Especially since you've spent hours getting… reacquainted."

Heero's brow furrowed. "She told me about him before. She didn't happen to mention how you all knew each other."

"Ah." Trowa nodded in apparent understanding, only adding to Heero's confusion.

"Why don't you tell me what's going on?" Heero asked, trying to hide his mounting irritation. "What's the big secret?"

Trowa held up both hands defensively. "Don't look at me. I think you should ask your wife. Or whatever you're calling her these days."

Heero could have gut-punched Trowa for making such a glib remark, but he needed him to spill his guts. Something that was always difficult to get Trowa to do.

"My wife," Heero growled, to end the ambiguity once and for all, "is recovering from a serious injury. I haven't exactly been pumping her for information."

"No? But you have been pumping her, right?" Trowa quirked a brow.

Clearly Barton had been spending an inordinate amount of time with Maxwell, but his attempt at humor wasn't landing with Heero; it was only flaring up his temper. "Why don't you cut the shit," Heero growled, "and tell me something useful."

Trowa shrugged, his face betraying nothing. Heero worked to calm the anger building inside him as they walked. He surmised that if Paul had been slated to attend the same conference as Relena, and had been in contact with Quatre, then he must work for ESUN. But if that's all it was, why would Trowa be so cagey?

Something was up. But Heero didn't need to continue to waste his time trying to pry it out of Barton. He knew if he asked Relena, she would tell him everything; she would have to. They had already agreed to a clean slate.

He was counting on her honesty.

"Sorry I can't be of more help on the subject," Trowa said as they neared the end of the corridor. "But perhaps I can assist in some other way."

"How?" Heero asked warily, anticipating another bad joke.

"Why don't you take Heavyarms? I may not be piloting her any time soon. Certainly not today." Trowa motioned to his injured shoulder. "It will make it easier for you to convene with the others."

Heero appreciated the offer. That way, he wouldn't have to enter a volatile situation on foot. He always had better odds inside a Gundam; one reason why, when it came to threat prevention, he preferred to deploy the mobile suits rather than depend on inferior weapons.

He and Trowa headed off in separate directions. Heero had an idea of where all of the passengers' items may have been stowed, either in one of the storage cabins or in the investigation team's evidence room. Heero presumed at least some of the items would have been confiscated as evidence.

It was quiet on the ship as Heero made his way about, but then it was still early in the morning, and just after midnight in Brussels. Ellie would be fast asleep. Heero wished he could speak with her directly, but he had checked in with Une while he was waiting for Relena earlier; the commander had assured him she would send word to the safe house. By now Ellie would have known her mother was rescued, and that gave Heero some small comfort.

He looked forward to resolving the situation on L4 so that he and Relena could hurry home to their daughter...

And continue working on making a sibling.

Heero smiled to himself as he wandered the near-empty ship, imagining what Ellie's reaction might be. First, he and Relena would have to sit her down and tell her they were back together. Then - maybe mere weeks from now - they might have more news.

Either way, he knew Ella would be ecstatic. She had taken their divorce to heart, which broke Heero inside. Both he and Relena had taken great care to reassure her that none of it was her fault; another reason they worked so hard to maintain a friendly relationship as they continued to co-parent her.

But Ellie was, as Relena regularly pointed out, a sensitive child. So many times, she had cast tear-filled eyes on her father, begging him to move back home. As if he'd had any control over the situation.

Heero had tried, as recently as two years ago, to patch things up with Relena. One December night in particular, they'd had a successful outing as a family to Ellie's debut in her school's rendition of The Nutcracker. Heero had picked the girls up at home, in lieu of meeting Relena at the school auditorium, as she had suggested. Instead, Heero insisted that he act as her security for the evening. She had been planning to go without, something he was - as usual - dead set against.

Sitting with Relena in the dark of the theatre instantly evoked old times in Heero's mind. They had exchanged proud smiles as they watched their daughter perform in the ballet. And then Heero had brought them back home, and Relena invited him in for dessert. And, foolishly, he'd thought perhaps "dessert" was a euphemism. Because they'd been getting along so well, better than they had in years. Heero built up the situation in his mind, until he had half-convinced himself Relena might be asking him to come home...

For good.

After Ellie had gone to bed and Relena had uncorked a bottle of wine, he thought that was another tell. When she asked him, eyes full of innocence, if he had been seeing anyone lately, he thought that had to be a thinly-veiled flirtation. He was sure she wanted him to do something.

And so he did. He leaned over from his side of the couch, gripped her shoulders and kissed her full on the lips.

Her reaction was not the one he'd hoped for. Relena recoiled and sprang away from him. Her eyes filled with tears, she demanded to know what was he thinking?! And then she'd asked - no, insisted - that he leave.

Later, Heero would gruffly apologize to her for the "incident." He would blame the wine. Relena would brush it off, as if it had never happened.

At that time, Heero hadn't dated, or slept, with anyone else. Two years celibate, and he still burned for Relena. His daily routine rarely deviated from working in the Preventers office and going straight to his apartment afterward, unless he took a far-away assignment. He'd taken too many of those in the past, though. And since the custody agreement had him spending most weekends with Ellie, he tried to relegate his travel to weekdays only, whenever possible.

But after that night, something in Heero cracked. He finally took Trowa up on his offer of grabbing beers after work. And then Heero started spending more and more nights in the bars with his male work colleagues, all of whom were single. Heero was far outside his comfort zone, striking up conversations with random women. And, then, one thing led to another.

The following summer, he met Raquel.

Heero grimaced as he relived one of the more painful parts of the past few years. It was almost as if, those first two years of separation, Heero had been in denial that his life with Relena was really over. And then he'd been hit, hard, by reality. She'd broken him down, all over again. He'd had no choice but to try find a way to erase the pain.

But it hadn't taken him long to learn that there was simply no erasing Relena.

When it came to recollecting her things, he decided to check the evidence room first, and headed to that part of the ship. The 'evidence room,' as he and his fellow Preventers who had designed the ship had dubbed it, was a small room off to the side of the command center on the bridge of the ship.

Heero approached the steel door and entered his access code on a panel. Once inside, his suspicions were confirmed: a series of suitcases, briefcases, handbags and coats littered the small space, covering almost the entire surface of the four tables in the room, which were joined together to form a square. Heero spotted Relena's belongings right away - her black ruffled pea coat and tan leather monogrammed suitcase, and a matching laptop bag and purse with the same logo. He found her phone in a pile of several other mobile devices. The gray case it was stowed in was unremarkable, but Heero knew it because he'd picked it out. He remembered Relena had complained that it wasn't pink.

He chuckled at the memory. She could be a bit spoiled at times, but with her, the train was somehow endearing.

Heero pushed the side button on the phone to ensure it was still working. The screen lit up right away. A photo of Ellie in her ballet clothes appeared on the locked screen. Heero wondered if Relena's phone had been searched, but then he wouldn't expect anyone to be able to crack the code.

He, of course, knew it. He'd been the one to implement it.

And then, without even thinking it through, Heero punched in the sequence he'd created long ago, but still had memorized. A guilty voice in the back of his head scolded him for infiltrating Relena's private property. Although, at one point, it had been his, too. Relena had always let him have unfettered access to everything - her various computers, mobile devices, personal files. There had been no secrets between them.

Well, Heero had kept some Preventer matters… quiet. He'd never outright lied to Relena, as she'd accused him in the past. But some matters he only discussed with her on a need-to-know basis. It was safer that way.

He supposed what he was about to do wasn't really fair, then, but curiosity was killing him.

First he checked her call log. Sure enough, there was a lengthy list of missed calls from Paul Montgomery. And several outgoing calls to Heero. Most of the rest of her call log was a mixture of the two. Many of the numbers that didn't have IDs were ESUN numbers Heero recognized - or the numbers of takeout places Relena frequented. There was nothing shocking or unusual there.

Relena's browser history was clear; Heero could have reversed that but decided against it. Next, with a shaky hand, he selected her text message folder. He shook because he knew spying on her messages, without her permission, was wrong, but a strong part of him needed to know what his wife had been up to… if she was, in fact, hiding something from him.

But her texts didn't reveal anything salacious, either. Even her texts with Paul were vague and cryptic. "See you soon." "See you tomorrow." "See you after work." "Can you meet earlier?"

Heero didn't get it, but he was relieved that he didn't come across anything remotely suggestive. Apparently sexting wasn't part of her relationship with Paul. Which was good for Heero, because the very thought made him want to punch someone, or vomit.

He scrolled through the rest of her text messages, and again, nothing stood out. The majority were random messages with her adoptive mother, Mareen, along with Ellie, Noin, Milliardo and work colleagues. There were a few between Quatre and Trowa, but again, nothing remarkable to report. Meet-up details, like the messages with Paul. There were similar texts between Heero and Relena, all relating to Ellie. He wondered if Relena had archived any older messages of his, like he'd saved all of their threads.

For now, he was more interested in her photos. He clicked on her gallery and began to scroll through. Relena had around 2,000 photos in her camera roll, mostly pictures of Ellie. Occasionally there were pictures of recipes, or book spines, probably of books Relena had come across and planned to purchase at some point. Heero didn't bother to analyze the titles.

He wasn't finding what he has looking for: pictures of some guy he didn't recognize.

The only photos that contained Relena were of her with Ellie. A few with her mother. A smattering with Noin. Some random group photos.

Something about this was very odd.

Then Heero located Relena's saved images folder. There were exactly 888 images.

He opened the folder and sucked in a breath.

Heero was in every single one of them.

He scrolled through them, wide-eyed.

Most of the photos were candid. He'd been vaguely aware of all the times she snapped him, except for a few sneaky ones where he was asleep. In most of those, he was shirtless.

His heart began to pound loudly in his ears. He couldn't believe what he was seeing.

There were many photos of him and Relena together. To his chagrin, he looked miserable in nearly all of them - even their wedding photos - but then Heero had never been a fan of being photographed. Unfortunately, he'd made that fact known to Relena every single time.

He felt a pang as he flicked through photos of him, Relena and Ellie, all together. Even the reluctant family photos they'd taken at holiday gatherings tugged at Heero's heart.

She'd documented their entire marriage; it was all on her phone. His life - their life - all right there, in the palm of her hand.

A torrent of emotions ran over Heero. He didn't know how to process this.

But now, all of a sudden, he wanted to see some of those book titles Relena had saved.

Zooming in revealed more revelations.

Conscious Uncoupling. When the Vow Breaks. Life After Divorce. Splitting Survival. The Spiritual Guide to Divorce. Co-Parenting 101.

Relena also had pictures of several self-help, yoga and other health-related books. Everything Heero came across was in line with the meticulous, intentional Relena he knew. Nothing he found on her phone was, after all, surprising.

Other than the fact that his image still lived on it, and not the image of the man she'd been dating for a year.

Heero couldn't understand it. Things just weren't adding up.

He knew he was going to have to broach the subject to Relena. But first he'd have to confess to raiding her phone. How would he tell her? What would she say?

But, most importantly… what did it all mean?

A/N: Nosy Heero! What do you guys think? Did he go too far? Do you think Relena will even care? What do you think is really going on with her and Paul, anyway?

Also, my apologies for turning Trowa into kind of a perv. My justification for this is a) I've seen him depicted as a flirt in other fics and for some reason it works and b) Kirby Morrow had to go and play Miroku, who is a notorious ladies man, and sometimes his voice is just in my head as I write. Sorry not sorry! ;)

- RFP