Chapter Ten

Discoveries

Heero twisted towards Relena on the mattress as soon as he'd secured the lock on the door, and drew his left leg up so his knee brushed against hers. Relena's right arm rested on his left shoulder, her fingers lightly tangled in his hair at the base of his head. He shivered slightly at her touch, feeling strangely as though it were grounding him. He saw her lips tip upwards in a slight smile; Heero thought she was trying to look reassuring, though he could feel her uncertainty through the bond.

Her emotions, her heart, was there near the forefront of his mind at all times today. The feeling of her, the awareness of her emotions, the sense almost of her thoughts, grew stronger as the hours progressed. Heero mentally pushed against the sensations, trying with no success to force them further back in his mind. He couldn't seem to focus, his own thoughts and emotions feeling influenced by what he felt from Relena.

He needed to understand, needed to know exactly what this was, and possibly how to stop it. Heero looked more intently at Relena's face, could she be doing this? He didn't know how that could be possible, didn't understand how any of this was possible. It was simply his life and all he'd known.

"What do you know?" he asked into the brief silence that had fallen after Sally's departure.

Relena looked at him, her expression shifting from a smile to one of confusion, the emotions filtering into his mind, following the exact course only a half second faster. Again Heero tried to push them aside, wanting to only see with his eyes, not feel with his mind. Relena's hand tightened its hold on the back of his neck. "I know you're agitated," she said softly, her worry for him palpable to Heero's mind.

Heero opened his mouth, though he wasn't sure what would have come out if Relena hadn't continued speaking. "I know that you're tired too, and not just from what I see with my eyes." Relena's head tipped slightly as Heero thought she might have been listening to something. "All day," she said as her eyes shut briefly, "it's like I could hear your heart beating in the back of my head."

Her eyes opened, and her lips tipped up in a unsure smile. "That sense…" she looked as though that wasn't the right word, "that sound has only grown as the day went on."

Shifting suddenly, Heero found himself standing in front of the bed on legs that trembled, and looking back at Relena's surprised face. "In that first motel room…" he began, pulling a hand through his hair.

"I felt something like this," Relena nodded as she shifted to the edge of the bed, her concern for him and her confusion feeding into Heero and causing his heart to beat a little faster. "But it disappeared," she added, "until this morning. Heero, what is this?" she shifted her legs to hang over the edge of the mattress.

'How should I know?!' Heero felt like demanding, his heart picking up speed and his body wanting to pace with his agitation, but Heero didn't trust his legs to carry him just now, so he leaned back against the wall opposite the bed. Her concern for him swelled, and Heero felt the strong urge to reassure her; or was that her wanting to reassure him? He huffed a tired breath, this was getting confusing.

Heero drew a steadying breath as he pulled both hands down his face. "I…" he began but stopped to swallow hard at the memory dredged up. "I feel what I touch with my mind," Heero explained slowly, not meeting Relena's eyes, "beyond a simple touch…" Heero hit the back of his head against the wall in frustration.

He didn't want to imagine that this was what his victims had known, that they had somehow connected with him as Relena seemed to be. But at the same time, the idea that he'd connected to Relena in some new special way was equally as frightening to Heero. "Their emotions," he continued, forcing the words out, "seeped into me."

"You feel what I'm feeling?" Relena asked, voice curious but not offended or disgusted, a fact that Heero still found surprising.

Nodding his head slowly, Heero risked a glance at Relena's face, seeing her expression shine with the worry he felt in his mind. "I can't turn it off…" he admitted, shoulders slumping slightly.

"You did before?" it wasn't exactly a question, Heero thought, more an accusation. Relena was standing before him, still closer to the bed than him, but he could tell she wanted to close the distance between them.

Again Heero nodded his head, still unwilling to meet her eyes. He hadn't asked her about this, hadn't given her the option to make a decision for herself, had just forced himself inside her mind it seemed. Heero knew what it felt to have something done against your will, and he felt sickened at the thought that he'd done as much to Relena.

"Before," he breathed, tipping his head back against the wall to stare at the ceiling. "I'd only feel it when using that part of my mind, but now…" he trailed off. "I'm sorry…" he muttered finally.

Relena's cool hand reached out to lightly touch the side of his face, as she closed the distance to where he leaned. "Heero," she said his name gently. Perhaps, he thought, she was compelling him to look at her. "You have nothing to apologize for," she said firmly, when he remained watching the ceiling.

"Look at me," she bade, her desire overriding his determination to try and remain distant from what he felt, and his head tipped slightly towards her. Relena's smile was radiant, and the threads binding his mind to hers felt like the warmth of the sun in the back of his mind. "This is a gift," she told him, her free hand coming to rest over his fast beating heart.

"Is it?" he asked back sceptically. "You weren't given a choice in this," Heero couldn't stop himself from pointing out.

"Neither were you," she was fast to return, and Heero felt his exhaustion fold in on him, and he leaned into her touch, letting his eyes fall closed. "We'll figure this out," she assured him, "but please don't try and push me away." Her head came to rest against him, her right ear pressed against his chest, and Heero felt Relena's pleasure swell in his own mind. 'I know better now how you feel for me…'

Heero looked down at Relena, seeing only the top of her head. "What did you say?" he asked.

She tipped her head up towards his. "I said don't push me away," she told him with a serious smile.

"I thought…" he trailed off suddenly, and gave his head a slight shake.

"You thought what?" she asked, pulling away enough to cup either side of his face with her hands.

Heero shut his eyes for a moment, listening with his mind. He felt Relena there strongly within him; he could sense the beat of her heart, the emotions still swirling inside her, most of which were directed entirely towards him, but he couldn't hear her thoughts. 'Was that what I heard?' he wondered silently. "Must be tired," he said finally, looking back down at her with a slight shrug.

"You're exhausted," she corrected, stroking a thumb beneath his left eye. "Maybe we should wait until tomorrow to discuss things with Trowa."

Shaking his head slightly, Heero glanced towards the door. He was tired, he knew there was no use trying to deny that fact to himself, or to Relena for that matter. Heero still wasn't entirely sure how much she got from this connection with him, but her comments during Sally's brief exam had been right on the mark each time. So Heero knew she was getting more than just an echo of his heart.

"We can't afford to delay," he said, mentally gathering himself, even as he pushed himself off the wall.

Heero felt a strange sensation rise up in Relena at his words. 'Stubborn man!' the words were faint, but definitely not imagined in the back of Heero's mind. And he looked down at Relena's face seeing a stubborn set to her jaw. She wanted to protect him, Heero realized with a sense of surprise, even if that meant from himself.

Relena opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off by someone knocking on the bedroom door. "We're coming," she called with a sigh, and released Heero's face. Taking a slight step back, Relena took his left hand and locked her fingers with his, giving him a pointed look. "I think I'll know if it gets to be too much," she almost seemed to warn, before reaching for the door's lock with her free hand.

It was Wufei waiting on the other side of the door, his expression stoic as he glanced between the two of them. "Sally's getting antsy," he muttered dryly.

"Impatient," she corrected sharply, "and before you ask, yes, there is a difference!"

Wufei smirked slightly as he stepped aside, allowing Relena to lead Heero back into the main room of Trowa's trailer. Coming from this side, Heero could better make out the array of equipment neatly stacked on the counter that Trowa was still leaning against. Unsure what any of it was for, he dismissed it from thought.

"Here," the tall man said in a soft voice, holding out a frosty amber bottle towards Heero. He'd noticed similar bottles at both Sally and Wufei's spots at the table, but didn't immediately reach out to take it from Trowa. "Unless you like the stale taste of vomit?" Trowa asked with his one visible eyebrow raised, as he shrugged slightly. "To each their own, I guess?"

Sally huffed, "The last thing he needs right now is beer," she fumed.

Trowa glanced towards her with another shrug. "It's all I've got that could help with the taste…" he deadpanned.

"Bull," Wufei's voice spoke up from behind Heero, and he glanced back at the Chinese man to see him pulling open the fridge door. Wufei pulled a large bottle of orange juice out of the door and quickly moved to a cupboard to get a glass.

"I'm sure he'd prefer the beer," Trowa contended, still holding out the bottle towards Heero.

Relena took the amber bottle by the base, and Trowa shrugged, slipping his hand to the cap, quickly twisting to remove it. "I'll enjoy it for him," Relena said, her hand squeezing Heero's before she slipped back onto the bench where they'd been sitting before.

Heero sat down beside Relena as she took a sip from the bottle, and Wufei stepped over to place a tall glass in front of him. Accepting the glass, Heero brought it to his lips, having been made painfully aware of the awful taste hanging on his tongue. Taking his first drink, Heero found the juice almost cloyingly sweet, but it did a good job of washing the taste from his mouth.

A silence settled over the room for a moment, and Heero felt the weight of eyes that, while not directly staring at him, were glancing his way repeatedly. It was Trowa who spoke up, after taking a pull from his own beer. "Try this again?" he asked, reaching behind himself with his left hand.

Heero released his glass of juice and brought his hand to the bridge of his nose, massaging the skin between his eyes. An ache was building with surprising speed in Heero's head, and his stomach, which had been settled a moment before, was roiling again. Drawing a slow even breath, Heero tried to force aside the feelings welling up in him.

"Trowa," Relena's voice was sharp to Heero's ears, "what did you just do?" Heero felt Relena's hand come to rest on the back of his neck, and he raised his head feeling her worry wash against him.

"What, this?" Trowa asked, reaching behind himself again, and the pain building in Heero's mind began to ease.

"Yes," Relena said immediately, her attention returning to Heero as he began to breathe a little easier.

Trowa shrugged, shifting away from the stack of devices. "It's a signal jammer," he said, pointing to one of the pieces in the stack.

Heero's breathing continued to ease, his stomach settling quickly again, though Relena's hand on his neck felt cool to his skin. "It's off now, right?" she asked.

"I switched it off when you asked," he replied with a perplexed expression.

"Heero," it was Sally who said his name, as she leaned her arms onto the table between them. "Were you starting to feel sick again?" she asked watching him intently.

"Yes," Relena answered for him, which had Sally looking sharply at her for a moment.

Heero swept a hand down his face, and picked up his glass of juice, feeling somewhat euphoric with the lack of pain, and not entirely comfortable being the centre of attention again. Sally was regarding him with a concerned expression. "Why would that have any effect on you?" she wondered aloud.

Wufei raised a hand off the table, his other holding a beer of his own. "Plenty of time to try and figure that out later," he said, motioning towards Trowa.

"You wanted to know about OZ?" Trowa asked, bringing his own drink to his lips, as Wufei nodded seriously. "Most people have heard of them," Trowa began, before pausing, Heero felt, for the reactions he got from Sally and Relena. Heero felt Relena's surprise flow into him, even as he took another swallow of his orange juice.

"Don't let him draw you in," Wufei sighed, "I know when he's got another fact to drop."

Trowa's lips quirked into a tiny smirk. "The Romeffeller Foundation, ring any bells?" he asked softly. Heero stared blankly at the taller man, but saw and felt Relena's surprise deepen at the sound of that name. "That's their 'official' cover, of philanthropic 'goodness,'" Trowa continued, emphasizing his words with his free hand.

Relena's alarm rose up within Heero's mind, and he glanced over to her, seeing her face pale. "Are you certain?" she asked, voice layered with disbelief. "I've supported them and their initiatives, they've done a great deal of good."

"Of course they have," Trowa nodded in ready agreement, "that's what appearances are for. An organization with an ulterior motive doesn't make it very far if they're obvious about it."

"They've done so much to help war torn countries," Relena contended, as though still unable to accept the facts Trowa was attempting to lay out. Her aqua eyes glanced to Heero, and he could feel the conflict of emotions in her. "They've been a leading force to help the orphans, and the displaced."

Trowa nodded his head once, before taking a swig of his beer, his expression unreadable. "And why do you suppose that is?" he asked with slight shrug. Relena opened her mouth to respond, but Trowa answered his own question. "Where better to look for test subjects, than in the refugee camps and orphanages they built themselves."

"This might be the one we're looking for," a cold voice said, the words muffled through the door the boy was cupping his ear against.

Heero blinked at the faded edge of memory dredged up from the very back of his mind.

There had been a time when he would have waited, as ordered, on the edge of the exam table for whoever it was coming in to look at him. He had been too afraid of angering those with authority over him, and too filled with hope that it might finally be his turn to leave.

But he'd been dragged out of his routine three times in the past two weeks, for strange tests in which no one even acknowledged him, and curiosity was getting the better of him. Holding his breath, trying to silence all noise from himself, he listened all the harder.

"The scans are promising," another voice commented.

Those on the other side of the door seemed to move, and their voice grew harder to hear. "…Impatient for…everything is…"

"…results are…prep him…immediately."

"Yes sir!" the first cold voice said sharply, suddenly sounding from directly on the other side of the door.

Jumping back from the wooden surface, he began backing away, but heard the door click as it was opened. A man with dark eyes and heavy furrowed eyebrows stepped inside the room, his frown deepening when he saw the boy was not where he'd been left. "Getting curious, are we?" he asked as he reached into a pocket of his white coat.

The boy came to a stop when his back hit against the exam table, and he swallowed hard as the man closed the distance to him. The doctor produced a capped syringe from his pocket, and the boy froze where he was. "Your arm," he demanded, taking a firm hold of the boy's wrist, before plunging the needle into his upper arm.

His vision swam almost instantly with whatever had been given to him, his mind feeling like it was floating away from him as the edges of his vision blurred to black.

"Test subjects?" Sally asked sharply, her voice shattering the paper thin memory, which left Heero feeling chilled inside.

Relena's hand, still on the back of his neck, was warm and anchoring, and she squeezed gently, drawing his attention towards her. He could feel the worry he saw in her face before looking over. Heero's lips pressed into a thin ghost of a smile, all he could offer at the moment to reassure her as Trowa began to answer Sally's question.

"These rumours are buried deeply, and are taken about as seriously as stories of alien abductions," Trowa said, putting aside his bottle of beer so he could fold his arms across his chest. "Some people, those who know where to look, believe that OZ has been trying to rebuild humanity for years. I've read that OZ has been searching for people who they believe possess latent 'gifts', and looking into the possibility of expanding the mind to use more than the ten percent we have access to."

"From what little you've told me about Heero," Trowa continued, his emerald eyes sweeping from Heero to Sally and Wufei, "it sounds like they've managed it."

Heero felt the heavy weight of eyes on him, as his left hand twisted the nearly empty glass before him on the table. It was true. OZ had succeeded with him, where every other time they'd failed. That was what had earned him the designation 01, and there had been a brief time when he'd thought that 'name' had completed him. Heero's hand tightened on the glass of juice; that feeling had only come—he realized later—because they'd stripped him of everything else.

"Is there a name for what you can do?" Sally asked into the heavy silence.

He stared at the doctor across the table, his left hand fidgeting with the glass, before finally shrugging his left shoulder. "If OZ named it, they didn't share that with me," he said flatly.

"What about others?" Trowa spoke up, only one eye currently visible with his shock of chestnut hair, but the look Heero saw there was intense. "I've been hearing whispers about this sort of experimentation for years now, are there others like you?"

Heero's jaw tightened at the reminder, but the warmth of Relena's presence both beside him and within his mind surrounded the cold darkness threatening to swallow him and kept it at bay. "They never gave up trying," Heero said slowly, his dark eyes looking towards Relena's face where she leaned close to him, her left hand still resting comfortingly on the back of his neck.

"I was their first success," his voice was flat as he drew a deep breath. "Failures were destroyed…" He didn't feel the need to add that that job was usually left to him, as further chances to test his limits and prove his value to OZ.

Sally took a long pull from her beer before carefully placing the bottle back on its ring of condensation. "Was telekinesis what they were aiming for?" she asked after a brief moment.

Shaking his head slightly, Heero sighed tiredly. "Power was all they wanted." They'd never been satisfied with anything, there was always the potential for something more. He could have accomplished the goal faster, with more destruction, or more precision. The finish line was never in the same place twice.

"Do you…" Trowa trailed off, clearing his throat, and quickly stepped towards the fridge. "Refill, anyone?" he asked quickly, pulling another brew from the door for himself. Sally and Wufei both waved him off, and Relena hadn't looked away from Heero or really touched her own drink after that first sip, that Heero remembered seeing.

As Trowa settled himself back against the countertop again, taking a drink, his gaze landed on Heero again. "Do you know what was done to you to make this possible?" he asked at last.

Heero felt bile rise in the back of his throat, and quickly downed the last of his orange juice. "No," he said coldly. Nothing had been explained to him, and none of his questions had ever been answered. Heero vaguely remembered early days of pain, some worse than others. There had been injections, scans, and examinations; bright lights had blinded him, when they'd even bothered to leave him conscious for it.

"Could I see a demonstration?" Trowa asked, a note of curiosity in his voice.

"Is that necessary?" Relena spoke up, her warm fingers gripping his neck as she shot a look Trowa's way.

The tall man shrugged easily. "Necessary?" he shook his head slightly, "no, but then curiosity killed the cat, not me."

Heero released his glass, but kept his hand on the table, cobalt eyes quickly settling on the empty beer bottle resting near Wufei's folded arms. Reaching for it with his mind, Heero lifted the amber bottle off the surface of the table sweeping it out towards Trowa's astonished face.

"Cheers," Trowa muttered clinking the bottom edge of his bottle against the one floating in front of him before he took a long pull of his own. Heero wasn't sure what sort of reaction he was expecting from Trowa, but he was fairly certain it wouldn't have been this.

His grip on the bottle tightened without him consciously meaning to, and Heero felt and heard the glass creak. He could sense the spider web of fractures forming in the glass, before the bottle shattered in a hold he couldn't seem to relax. Heero managed to contain the shards within his hold, even as his mind crushed them to dust before everyone's eyes.

Trowa's head came up a little, and his emerald eyes flickered form the amber dust suspended in the air, to Heero's face. "So much for the deposit on that bottle," he said dryly.

"Garbage?" Heero asked, trying to conceal his discomfort that he'd lost control over his own strength. Trowa shifted towards the fridge and pulled open the cupboard he'd been leaning against, flipping open the lid on the garbage bin attached to the inside of the door. Heero carefully deposited the mess inside and immediately released it.

"I don't imagine there's much that can be done to defend against that…" Trowa mused, shutting the cupboard again.

Heero drew a breath, looking at no one in particular as he said, "no."

The brief silence that followed, was broken by someone knocking on the door to the trailer. "Trowa?" a feminine voice called, "are you ready for supper?"

The tall man put aside his beer and went to the door. "Cathy," he said as he opened the door, "you remember Wufei, and Sally?"

A pretty woman with curly auburn hair stepped inside the trailer then, and immediately moved past Trowa to come and greet Sally. The two shared a warm hug. "It's been too long!" Cathy exclaimed as she squeezed Sally tightly, before extending her right hand to Wufei.

"Catherine Bloom," Wufei said somewhat formally, as he gestured down the table, "my friends Relena Darlian, and Heero Yuy."

"My sympathies," Cathy chuckled as she extended her hand to Relena, "for falling in with this crowd."

Relena blinked in surprise at that statement, her blue-green eyes flickering down towards Sally and Wufei before she returned her attention to Cathy, accepting the offered handshake. "I don't know where I'd be without them," she admitted.

Cathy's laughter was a light sound, as she offered her hand to Heero to shake. He accepted the offer, and immediately noticed a distinct difference between the hand he shook, and the one still resting on the back of his neck. Cathy's hand bore callouses, while Relena's was soft and smooth.

"I know my life was a lot more 'mundane' before my brother waltzed back into it," Cathy said with another laugh, as she released Heero's hand and knocked her shoulder into Trowa's arm. "Are you guys sticking around for awhile?" she asked then, glancing from one face to another before settling on Sally's.

"I hope it's no trouble," Sally answered with a nod.

Heero watched Cathy's face light up at the news, and her eagerness puzzled him. "Of course not," she assured immediately. "Trowa says I always make enough to feed an army." The jovial woman leaned her head against Trowa's shoulder for a moment, offering him a smile, which he returned although far more faintly.

"Did you want to eat in here?" Cathy asked suddenly. "My trailer has more comforts," she chuckled, "and less space taken up with tech…" her pale grey eyes swept over the equipment with a shake of her head.

Trowa huffed a breath, "At least you didn't call it worthless this time," he muttered dryly.

Cathy turned to him and lightly patted his cheek, "I've decided value is in the eye of the beholder," she told him with a clear note of sarcasm.

Heero jerked slightly as Cathy clapped her hands together suddenly. "So, I've made a wonderful soup, if I do say so myself, shall I bring it over? Or will you come to my place?" she asked with a bright smile as she looked at each one of them individually for a moment.

"We'll come to you," Sally said, already shifting to the edge of her seat after a glance at Wufei.

"Think you're up for some food?" Relena asked Heero softly. The bond between them was strong and almost seem to pulse with her concern for him in the moment.

He still wasn't sure what all she could sense from him through this connection, but she'd picked up on several things already this evening that Heero thought could only have come from what she felt through it. Nodding his head once, Heero watched Relena's lips tip up in a relieved smile as she withdrew her hand from his neck.

"Wonderful," Cathy beamed, sweeping her left hand back towards the door. "Let's go while it's nice and hot," she said before walking out into the cool evening air. Trowa put aside his bottle of beer, and followed his sister.

Shifting to the edge of the bench, Heero got to his feet, and was pleased to find his legs felt steadier than they had a little earlier. Turning back to the table, Heero offered his left hand to Relena as she shifted back down the bench towards him. He wondered why he could sense her pulse quicken suddenly as she took his hand, and why his own heart beat a little faster at her smile.

Heero let Relena precede him out of the trailer with Wufei and Sally bringing up the rear. Sharp focus immediately drew Heero's attention to a trailer a few paces away from Trowa's. While Cathy was just making her way inside, Trowa waited at the base of the stairs, and motioned for Relena to go on up.

The taller man put out a hand towards Heero's arm, drawing him to a halt, and Relena stopped on the steps looking back. It was curiosity more than concern that filtered back to him through the link. "You can speak freely in front of Cathy," Trowa said softly.

"She knows our history," Wufei agreed, coming up from behind.

Heero glanced between the two men, and nodded in understanding. Clearly they didn't feel like the conversation from before Cathy entered was finished yet. Walking inside Cathy's trailer, Heero noticed an immediate difference to Trowa's. It was more open and bright than his had been, and Cathy was directing Relena to sit in a cozy booth near the kitchen.

"How long have you and Heero been together?" Cathy was asking Relena, as she stirred a large pot of soup on the stove.

"Oh…" Relena said softly, and Heero could feel a twist of emotions coming off of her. It was difficult to decipher them, as they seemed to happen at once. 'Has it really only been four days?' Heero thought he heard in the back of his mind. "Uh… Not long," she admitted, her cheeks colouring to Heero's eyes, even as the connection swelled with uncertainty.

The uncertainty gave Heero pause, and he looked from Relena to Cathy, who offered him a large smile. "Well, you make a cute couple," she said, and Heero saw Relena's blush deepen as she tucked some of her long hair behind her ear. "Have a seat," Cathy said happily, motioning for Heero to sit down beside Relena.

Heero heard Relena's heart rate pick up as he moved to take the seat next to her. Looking at Relena, he felt confused by the sudden shift in her demeanour, unable to understand where these doubts and uncertainties had suddenly come from. But as her eyes met his, Heero felt a vast shift in emotions coming off Relena.

The connection swelled with warmth, and her eyes were bright with affection as she leaned against his shoulder. The uncertainty he'd felt from her was gone now, but not forgotten for Heero, and he didn't know how to ask her about what he'd felt. He didn't know if it mattered, but was somehow certain that it did.

As Sally, Wufei, and finally Trowa entered the trailer, Cathy was just placing the first bowl of steaming soup in front of Relena. She returned a moment later with a second for himself, placing a spoon down beside him on the table. "Enjoy," Cathy encouraged, her free hand lightly touching Heero on his right shoulder before she turned back to the stove.

Heero tried to force aside his confusion about Relena and picked up his spoon. Dipping it into the bowl, Heero brought the first tasting to his mouth, and was surprised by the flavour that spread across his tongue. "What kind of soup is this?" Relena asked, and Heero could hear the smile in her voice as he ate more of his own meal.

"My mother's pea soup," Cathy said as she made sure everyone had a bowl before serving herself.

"It's delicious," Relena said, gently blowing on her spoon to cool the hot soup.

"Thanks," Cathy beamed, and looked over to her brother. "See? Delicious," she said triumphantly.

Trowa sat straighter at the other end of the booth. "I never said it wasn't," he seemed to defend.

"Maybe not, but the best compliment I ever get out of you, is 'it's good'," Cathy complained deepening her voice on the last two words.

"It's not a lie," Trowa said dismissively, before his emerald eyes locked onto Heero intently. Heero sat straighter, leaving his spoon in the nearly empty bowl, to regard Trowa quietly. "You said there's no way to defend against what you can do," Trowa began bluntly, and Heero felt a shift in the mood of the room. "So how did OZ handle you?" he asked with a raised brow.

Heero's shoulders tensed up at the question, and he saw Relena send a look Trowa's way which the tall man ignored, his attention solely on Heero. Worry flared at the back of Heero's mind, and he saw Relena's eyes look at him. Her earlier uncertainty seemed forgotten in the wake Trowa's question, and once more all eyes in the room were on him.

"I'm not trying to suss out your weaknesses," Trowa said into the heavy silence, as he leaned back on his seat, draping his left arm across the back of it easily. "But it's a legit question, how did they keep you in line?"

Sally shifted then, considering eyes regarding Heero, "You said they kept you sedated," she said slowly, thoughtfully. "I'd imagine it would be harder to focus and use your mind when its cloudy," Sally continued, "but they couldn't have kept you like that all the time."

Heero shifted where he sat, feeling decidedly uncomfortable with the topic of conversation. "A weakness," Wufei spoke up, onyx eyes firmly holding Heero's, "is only truly that, if it's ignored. If it can't be overcome," his look was pointed.

Drawing a breath, Heero pushed aside the last of his meal, what he had already eaten now feeling like a lump of lead in his gut. "Meds did cloud my mind," he admitted, and could easily remember the times of foggy thought, and the headaches that came whenever they reversed the sedatives to give him enough clear thought to show them what he could do. "But…" he trailed off.

Heero was unsure how to explain. The scientists and trainers had been able to keep him in line, as Trowa said, often without physically touching him. At least not with their own hands. They'd had something else, something Heero hadn't known how to defend against. It was pain and sickness, out of nowhere.

Relena's hand was suddenly warm and grounding on the back of his left where it rested on the table. "They hurt you," she said softly, voice tight with emotions that Heero could feel swirling in his mind, competing against what he himself was feeling. He looked at her, seeing pain in her expression, and sadness. It struck him that she wouldn't have felt any of that, if he hadn't used his powers on her, if he hadn't opened that link between them.

Again Heero tried to draw back within himself, away from the sensations that were distinctly Relena. But it made no difference, and her hand tightened its hold on his, her eyes looking more intently into his. "But you're not sure how they did it?" she asked. With her attention completely focused on Heero, Relena didn't see the sharp way Sally looked at her.

Heero saw Trowa shift suddenly, the taller man pulling his arm off the back of the booth seat and folding both arms across his chest before shutting his eyes. Heero got the distinct impression the other man had not just lost interest in what they were discussing, and he watched Trowa with his own eyebrow raised.

Wufei glanced towards his friend just as Trowa's head came back up, his emerald eyes opened again. "Well, you're clearly not actually telepathic," Trowa declared, sounding if anything slightly disappointed.

Heero's eyes went wide at the statement, and he saw Relena's head whip around to stare at the other man. "What?" she breathed, her surprise flooding into Heero and mixing with his own, until he couldn't tell which was which.

Trowa's lips turned up in a smirk, as he shrugged his shoulders and repositioned himself with an arm over the back of the booth. "You just communicate with her that way?" he asked, pointing a finger at Relena.

Sally held up a hand, and looked at Relena. "You can hear his thoughts?"

Relena's head turned quickly. "I don't…" she began, eyes glancing at Heero's face, before sweeping over her hand on his, and finally landing on her friend beside her. "I'm not sure what this is," she said at last, and Heero felt that uncertainty creep into his mind again. "I don't think it's specifically your thoughts," she continued, looking back at Heero, her lips turning up in an unsure smile.

"I can feel how tired you are," she said, her fingers tucking under his on the table, and Heero automatically closed his around them. "I know you're confused, and unsure what's happening," Relena drew a breath, "and I somehow know they hurt you, a lot, to keep you under their control." Her eyes looked moist as she continued to look directly at him, the warmth of her affection rising above her own uncertainty in that moment.

"You look very tired," Cathy said, leaning down a little to look critically at Heero's face. For his part Heero tried to sit a little straighter at the table, but felt Relena's hand squeeze his a little tighter, and he knew she agreed with Cathy.

"We can continue this tomorrow," Wufei said smoothly, his attention turning towards Trowa, who nodded in immediate agreement.

Cathy began clearing the bowls from the table. "Relena, and Heero," she began, sending each of them a smile, "you'll stay here with me."

"Are you sure that's no problem?" Relena was quick to ask, and Heero could feel her concern, this time he thought for Cathy, spike suddenly.

"Of course it's no problem!" she assured immediately, placing the bowls into the sink before turning to lean back against it. "There's plenty of room for everyone, Trowa can easily fit Wufei and Sally in his trailer."

"I think we've just been dismissed," Trowa said dryly as he pushed to his feet and took a step towards the door, but came to a stop and turned back towards his sister. "Remember, you can't keep them," he told her, deadpan.

Cathy planted a hand on her hip and pointed towards the door emphatically, before looking to Sally and Wufei with an apologetic smile. "Don't let him keep you up all night," she warned.

It was Wufei who smirked at that. "We'll be fine," he replied, and offered his hand to Sally, who cast one last long look at Relena. before she allowed herself to be led out of the trailer behind Wufei and Trowa.

Once the door had closed behind them, Cathy turned back to Heero and Relena with a warm smile. "Come with me," she bade them with a wave of her hand.

Heero didn't immediately move until he felt Relena nudge his shoulder beside him, causing him to look over to her. Relena's eyes had dried in the minutes that had passed, and she offered him a smile. "Tonight you're sleeping," she told him determinedly, and she nudged him to his feet.

Cathy led the way deeper into the trailer to a comfortable looking bedroom with a large bed, loaded with pillows. "Toss as many of those on the floor as you want," she said with an easy laugh, before she turned towards a cupboard built into the wall. "You can use this to sleep in, Relena," Cathy said, pulling an oversized t-shirt off of a shelf, and laid it on the bed.

"Sorry, Heero," Cathy apologized but gave Relena a wink as she did for some reason, "I don't have anything that'll fit you."

Heero felt Relena's heart rate pick up, and saw her cheeks colour to a rosy glow, which only made Cathy laugh happily. "Thank you, Cathy," Relena said softly, her eyes not really meeting the other woman's or Heero's in that moment. He could feel her emotions spiking, excitement mixed with embarrassment, and that lingering uncertainty.

"It's no trouble," Cathy assured as she slipped past Heero, making her way to the door. "Sleep well you two," her voice seemed to almost sing before she closed the door securely behind her.

Relena looked from the bed to the floor, before her eyes raised to his face, and he felt his mind swell with a sudden wave of affection. She closed the distance between them, and threw her arms around his neck, hugging him tightly for a minute. "I want to see you fall asleep tonight," she told him softly, before pulling back so she could tuck a little of his hair behind his left ear.

"Won't have to wait long, I think," Relena smiled up at him. "Kick off your shoes and make yourself comfortable before you fall asleep where you stand." Heero found himself blinking at the order for a moment, before his body shifted to comply.

The minute he started moving, Relena nodded in satisfaction and turned towards the bed. Tossing back the covers, Relena removed a few of the pillows, before she reached for the shirt Cathy had left out for her. Heero toed off his shoes, before reaching for the waist of his jeans, and stripping those off he dropped down on the edge of the mattress tiredly. Heero felt Relena's heartbeat elevate, and he glanced over to her, seeing her watching him subtly and the bond between them seemed to shiver with excitement.

Relena tore her eyes away quickly, as she reached for the shirt Cathy had left out for her. Heero watched and listened, as Relena reached for the hem of her shirt, turning slightly away from him as she pulled it over her head. There was a definite thrill spiking in the back of Heero's mind, from the bundle that was Relena's emotions, as she pulled the oversized shirt onto her body.

Heero tiredly reached for his own shirt, grasping the back of the neck before pulling it over his shoulders. When his head emerged from the fabric, Heero saw Relena standing before him, as she stepped out of her own jeans, the shirt falling to mid thigh on her. She offered him a shy smile, as she reached out and took his shirt from his lax hand, dropping it with his jeans.

"C'mon," Relena said, as she climbed onto the bed, and put a gentle hand on his arm to draw him further on. Heero allowed himself to be moved so he was laying down with his head on a pillow, and Relena drew the sheets up over both of them. He watched her, from beneath heavy lids as she settled beside him, propping her head up on her left hand as she turned to look at him.

Heero listened to the sound of her heart, letting the mix of her emotions wash over him. Strange as it still was, it was somehow comforting in this moment. Relena's right hand came to rest lightly on his forehead, before her fingers swept over his eyes closing them. "Let yourself sleep," she told him softly, and Heero obeyed.