Chapter Thirteen
Cursing Doesn't Always Work

Heero dropped Relena back off at her office before he headed back to HQ. Relena had made sure to remind him that he needed to do something to make up for his mistake. He was pretty sure that she'd keep reminding him till he did.

When Relena wanted something she almost always got her way. She wasn't a politician for nothing. Heero knew this all too well but yet he'd always succumb to her wishes. She never asked much from him. Though when she did, he usually gave in.

Like the townhouse.

He had agreed that she should move closer to the city but his only request was that they find something that met his guidelines for being a safe and secure home. But there was still one aspect of her moving that still had him on edge.

Them moving in together.

He wasn't fully ready to make the leap. It wasn't that he didn't want to be with her all the time. If he could have it his way he'd be her permanent bodyguard during the day. Then at night, just be with her, alone.

They may have been dating for some time now, but defining the relationship wasn't something he enjoyed. The terminology annoyed him. They were exclusively seeing each other. He figured that was enough. Relena never pushed the topic with him on the whole boyfriend/girlfriend thing. She understood that he didn't care for the terms and as far as he was concerned, she was happy with their relationship, and so was he. The only thing holding him back from committing to living with her was that once word got out, their privacy would no longer be theirs.

They kept their private life private, between their jobs and mainly those they worked closely with. It was easier to keep things to themselves which was what Heero preferred most of all. If they stated it was for extra security measures, someone would turn it around, and then the press would have a field day. Relena had handled such matters in the past without flaw but he couldn't bring himself to let it happen to them again.

The press had a few times claimed that her "bodyguard and she were an item," but she had quickly dismissed it. Stating that they were just friends because of how closely they worked together. Even if they went out to dinner together, they always made sure to not be public about their relationship.

They had their roles inside the workplace and outside the workplace and in the comfort of her home. Which was another reason why it probably didn't help his case of not moving in with her. He spent more time at her townhouse than he did at his apartment. Heero knew it would probably only be a matter of time before Relena won the argument and that he would be packing his things up and moving in with her.

Heero kept thinking things over as he walked to his office. With everything that had been going on the whole month, he had to agree with Relena, he had been stressed, and still was stressed. He mentally slapped himself as he stood in his office.

Every time he was with Serena he had wanted to question her about the damn messages that started all of this. He knew it should've been the first thing he asked her, but since their conversation the other day, he wasn't sure how to go about it. He was still feeling uneasy about her.

"Give her a chance," Relena's words repeat in his mind. Then the sad look he saw in Serena's eyes when she confessed what she wanted. He was starting to become more confused by her with each interaction.

Though, Relena was possibly on to something. When Serena wanted to share what she was feeling, she'd easily allow you to read her body language. But if she wanted to keep you locked out of her thoughts and feelings, she could close herself off just like he could. She was good, he had to give her that. J had trained her well.

Which made things harder for him to decide if what she was saying was the truth or not. Even with all his thoughts and opinions of her, he still asked her to help him. She had offered and part of him wondered if she was the one who sent the messages in the first place.

The voice that had been nagging him for weeks was back as he packed two laptops into his shoulder bag. But if she wasn't the one who sent them, then who did? Shaking his head he tried to clear his thoughts away. He knew it was going to be a long night ahead and hopefully, Serena was up for it. It would also give him the time he needed to continue to figure her out.

Heero made his way to her room with the bag thrown over his shoulder. Once he was in front of her door, he knocked before swiping his badge. As he stepped into the room he saw her sitting on the bed like she normally did. But a smirk was on her lips as she locked eyes with him. Ignoring it, he made his way over to the counter. Setting the bag down, he pulled out the laptops.

"Ready to get to work?" He asked as he turned to face her.

"Sure," Serena said with a shrug.

Heero looked around the room for a spot for them to set up. Seeing nothing that would work he came up with an idea.

"Are you willing to help get a table and some chairs?"

"You're going to let me leave the room?" Her eyebrows shot up as she looked at him.

"Are you planning on running?"

"No, I'll help," she held up her hands. Heero nodded his head.

They had managed to find some office chairs and a collapsible table in one of the storage rooms. Heero was going to carry the table when Serena moved past him lifting it before making her way out of the room.

"Not like it's heavy," she said as she passed by him.

Heero watched as she made her way back to her room while he moved to catch up with her. Together they moved the bed. Pushing it out of the way, so they could set up the table. Her room wasn't big, though none of the medical rooms were big, and they needed the space.

Once everything was set up, Heero placed one of his laptops in front of her. He had already logged in for her and pulled up the encrypted data off one of the flash drives. He knew she would be able to find her way around, but he felt more comfortable doing it himself. After setting up his laptop he noticed that she had already started as her fingers flew over the keyboard. He watched her for a moment longer before he too started working.

They hadn't been working for long before Heero looked up to see Serena giving him a questioning look.

"What?"

"Did you make up with Relena?" She asked as the corners of her lips tugged up. Heero narrowed his eyes.

"That's none of your business."

"Well, if I may be so blunt. You look like you've made up with her."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Heero glared at her.

"Your hair is more unruly than it normally is," she pointed a finger at him. "You didn't even bother to fix it," Serena laughed as he quickly ran a hand through his hair. He didn't even bother to look at his appearance when he left Relena's house or even when he had dropped her off at her office. "Well, that's good. I'm happy you two made up."

"We have work to do," Heero growled at her.

Serena leveled him with a look but said nothing more on the subject. Turning her attention back to the screen in front of her. Heero heard her fingers once again resume their steady pace. After a moment he too picked up where he had left off. It wasn't too long after that her voice broke through his concentration.

"How long have you been seeing her?"

Heero stopped typing to look back up at her. But her eyes were still on the screen as she continued to work.

"I don't think that's any of your business."

"No, it's not, but it doesn't mean that I'm not curious about it," Serena said as she glanced up at him.

"Why do you want to know about my personal life?"

"Because I saw how you looked at her earlier. It only confirmed to me that you still carry the same feelings you had for her years ago," Serena stopped typing to fold her hands under her chin. "I think it's wonderful you found something good in this world to hold onto."

Heero regarded her. He knew he probably shouldn't have said anything to her, and once again he was becoming more confused with her. She was interested in his life, but he still couldn't fully understand why. But the look in her eyes was telling him that she was generally happy for him.

"We've been together for almost four years."

"I'm really happy to hear that," Serena smiled warmly at him. Turning her attention back to the laptop, Serena said nothing more, but the smile and the look in her eyes stayed when she started to type again.

She was happy for me?

She didn't tease him like he thought she would have. He didn't even know why he told her in the first place. He watched her for another moment before shaking his head. Maybe now was the time to ask her the question he had been meaning to ask.

"Serena?' Serena stopped typing to look up at him.

"Yeah?"

"Do you know anything about any encrypted messages that were sent to Preventer? One's that were personally sent for me to view?" He watched as her face took on a confused look.

"What messages?" She asked. He turned his attention back to his laptop pulling up a few of the messages along with the encryptions themselves for her to view.

"Come see," Heero tilted his screen back as Serena made her way around the table to look over his shoulder.

"I didn't send those. Why would I contact Preventer? More importantly, why would I contact you? You weren't supposed to know that I existed."

"Hm, but what about the encryption themselves? Do you recognize the coding?" He asked as he turned his head fully to study her face.

"Yeah, they're J's old coding from when you were training with him. He had me memorize them. But he rarely uses them now," Serena turned to look at him. "You don't think?" Heero nodded his head. He had a feeling and it was confirmed even more so now. There was a small chance Serena had sent them but he knew the type of coding that was used was the same coding J had once used. "When did they start coming in?" Serena asked as she stood straight, crossing her arms over her chest.

"About a month ago we received the first one. As you can see there was very little information given in each one. The last one was four days before the mission," Heero watched as Serena narrowed her eyes before walking back to her seat. He could see the gears turning in her head as she thought things over. But she said nothing else on the matter as she got back to work.

He could tell by her body language that she wasn't happy about something and if he had to guess, it was the fact that J may have been making contact with him.

Leaving the topic to hang in the air, Heero resumed his work. Maybe if they worked harder, they could come up with something.

A few hours later and after several curses, Heero decided they needed a break. Along with some coffee. From where they stood at the moment, they hadn't gotten very far.

Heero knew it was going to be an all-nighter at the rate they were going. They had been working hard but the coding wasn't breaking easily for them. After getting two cups of coffee, Heero walked back into the room to find Serena had pushed the laptop to the side, her head resting in her arms.

"You did bring the coffee, right?" Serena asked as she lifted her head.

"Yes," he replied as he came to stand next to her. "How far have you gotten?" He asked as he handed her the coffee.

"Thanks, to be honest, not far," Serena frowned as she moved the laptop back in front of her. "It's heavily encrypted. I'm kind of surprised at how hard this is," she turned to look at him. "They didn't want anyone accessing this information."

"Hm," Heero nodded, "I've only gotten maybe twenty percent done myself."

"As long as you can keep bringing coffee, I'll keep working," Serena said, turning back to the screen. She took a sip from her cup before setting it down to resume her work.

Heero moved back to his seat. They both had only gotten a small amount of the data unlocked. They didn't talk too much other than the occasional curse. Heero was a little surprised to hear Serena swearing at the laptop so freely but he too had done the same at one point. When either of them thought they were finally getting somewhere, the coding would change and thus leaving them to have to change their tactics on how to decode it.

Serena had even threatened bodily harm to "the asshole who decided to write it in such a way that the level of security was impressive." Heero had watched her then as her brow furrowed. He had found it amusing that she was angry but also complementing the person at the same time. He had to agree with her. Whoever encrypted the information did one hell of a job. If the two of them were struggling to get the information unlocked, then some average person probably wouldn't have made it more than the first few lines before giving up.

Which made things a little worse on their egos. Since they were currently struggling. Heero wouldn't admit it to anyone, but it was one of the reasons he asked her for help. J trained him well in the art and that knowledge allowed him to conclude that she had been taught the same.

His typing was cut off again when he heard Serena. He looked up to see her glaring at the screen before meeting his eyes. She muttered something before turning back to the screen. He chuckled to himself as he understood exactly how she felt.

They had been working relatively well with each other. They were both quiet, minus for the few outbursts of frustration. They hadn't bothered each other and he was finding that working alongside her wasn't all that bad. Shaking himself he dove back into the lines of data scrolling across his screen. They needed to get this done and hopefully, in a few hours, they would have something.

A/N

Happy Monday!

Seems like these two are finally getting along. For the most part. You'll have to wait and see how this relationship develops over time. And what's on these damn flash drives? Maybe you'll find out on Wednesday. Or I'll just drop another chapter randomly because I can't help myself. I'm trying but it's hard to stick to a schedule when I've been editing and rereading constantly. I have a total of seven docs for this story. Each roughly has ten chapters in it. I'm currently posting from the second one, but I'm already working on three and four. Moving a few things around, but I just keep getting excited about what's to come and I just want to post it all. What I can say is soon you'll learn more about Serena and maybe what's going on that she hasn't told anyone... within the next few chapters. Okay, time to stop rambling.

Have a great day!

-MM