Chapter Twenty
Another Shitty Night

Serena was escorted back to her room by Sally. Sally didn't say much other than Watson was a cry baby about being shot by her. While she appreciated the attempt to humor her, Serena wasn't happy about how things had turned out. The fact that any attempt on Relena's life was made only made her question things further. Was ROE changing tactics? Why kill off someone who was the most important to the operation of total control of ESUN?

Something wasn't sitting right with Serena as she thought about everything. She hadn't been in contact with J for almost two weeks now. Which left her not knowing what was going on. That part bothered her the most. If she had known something was going to happen or even had any inkling of it, she would've put a stop to it right away.

She may have been under control by ROE, but it didn't mean she had to completely agree with their ideals. Which is why she told Une some information. If ROE was going to be taken down, Serena knew that she needed to step up and be willing to work with Preventer.

Heero had caught on. His intuition about ROE building something other than weapons was spot on.

Her thoughts were interrupted as a knock came on her door. She didn't bother to look up once the person stepped into the room. It was easy to tell who it was.

Trowa looked over to the bed. Serena had showered and changed her clothes. As he took a good look at her face, it was easy to see she was deep in thought. The firm line of her lips, the furrow of her brow along with the hard expression on her face gave her away. That and she hadn't made any eye contact with him when he entered. Sighing inwardly he walked over to the bed.

"Don't overthink it," he said as he sat down.

"I'm not."

"Yes, you are," Trowa said. Serena lifted her head to look at him. "Heero has the same expression and doesn't make eye contact when he's overthinking something. I've known him long enough to pick up a thing or two about him," Trowa waited another moment before offering her a small smile. "You did the right thing."

"How do you know?" Serena eyed him.

"Because you could've just sat in the car and did nothing. Instead, you did something," he reached his hand out, placing it on her knee. "Regardless of what anyone says, you made the right decision by coming to help. If you hadn't it could have resulted in the loss of Relena or someone else."

"You do realize what all this means?" Serena asked, her face falling back into a mask. Trowa took his hand back, resting it on the bed.

"You've been exposed, yes," Trowa nodded his head.

"It's not just that, Barton. It means things are going to change," Serena shook her head. Trowa frowned at her. Normally she used his last name when she was joking around with him.

"What do you mean?" He asked. Serena's face hardened for a moment before she shook her head again.

"Keep an eye on everything. Trust only those who you can rely on. Who knows how far ROE's reach is now," Serena said. Trowa frowned again as they made eye contact. "Don't look at me like that, Trowa. You know it's the truth. Just be smart," she offered him a small smile. "To be honest, I would prefer to end this discussion. At least for tonight."

Trowa nodded his head, "all right. Are you hungry?" He asked, offering her a smile.

"I guess I could eat," Serena shrugged her shoulders.

"It's not take-out, but I stopped by the cafeteria," Trowa said as he pulled out two sandwiches from his jacket along with two water bottles. "By the way," he said as he looked back up into her eyes. "I noticed a rather large sum of money that was transferred into my account. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that would you?" He lifted an eyebrow for good measure.

"No, I wouldn't know a thing about it," Serena smirked at him.

After speaking with Wufei, Heero headed back to the Capitol building. He was planning on sending Duo back to HQ while taking Relena home. After the day they had, the idea of just going home with her was welcoming. Her workday was almost done anyway. He could easily steal her and whisk her away.

Then he felt his stomach before he heard the growl. He hadn't had anything to eat all day.

Coffee, as good as it was and how much he enjoyed it, was not a form of nourishment. Relena would no doubt be hungry as well so he decided to grab some takeout on the way back to her house.

Getting her to leave her office had been harder than he thought. Relena had pushed all thoughts aside of what had occurred earlier in the day as she tried to get as much work done as possible. It wasn't until he offered her food that she readily agreed to leave her office for the night. She had asked if they were going out, but after the type of day they had, she had agreed with him that it wasn't the best idea to be seen out in public.

Word hadn't spread yet to the media of what had happened. Une was working hard to keep the finer details hidden. Relena was a little disappointed, but Heero, thinking ahead, had ordered her favorite Italian food.

They stopped by the restaurant on their way back to her townhouse to pick it up. Relena smiled brightly at him when he had gotten back into the car. It was during those moments for him that he knew he was doing something right.

After they enjoyed their dinner, Heero sent Relena away as he cleaned up the kitchen. They were both so hungry they hadn't bothered to change out of their work clothes before sitting down to eat. Once he was done, Heero made his way up to the master bedroom. Relena had changed into a plain t-shirt and sweatpants. Her go-to comfort clothes when she wanted to lounge around the house.

He smiled to himself as he moved to stand behind her. He nuzzled her neck for a moment before he started to plant soft kisses there as he tightened his arms around her.

"Aren't you tired?" Relena asked, even as she moved her head to allow him better access to her sensitive skin.

"No," he mumbled as he bit down lightly.

"When was the last time you got some sleep?"

"Yesterday," he said before moving to her ear. "That was the last time I slept with you."

"Heero!" Relena gasped, turning around in his arms to face him.

He took the opportunity to capture her mouth with his. He kissed her passionately with a hint of eagerness. As the kiss deepened, he pushed his hips into her, letting her feel his arousal. They broke away long enough to get some air. Relena opened her mouth to speak, but he quickly silenced her with another kiss as he lifted her, bringing her to the bed.

Trowa and Serena had spent the rest of the night talking. Trowa had been enjoying the time he was spending with her. He still didn't know much about her personally. She had said a few things here and there but she usually changed the topic to something else whenever he'd ask her something personal.

What he did learn though was how intelligent she was. He had asked her about the course, along with her thoughts on it. She had quickly told him that she was impressed. Until she ran it.

They had gone back and forth between the positive and negative aspects of it. While she had agreed with him that the course shouldn't be overly impossible for the training agents. It wasn't difficult enough. It wasn't testing them on their abilities as much as she thought it should. If they wanted highly trained agents that could maneuver through any situation, the course needed to be redone to provide the results they wanted.

Trowa asked her if she were to redesign it, what would she change about it? Serena had surprised him by grabbing a pad of paper along with the pen that had once been used to hold her hair up. She had set to work drawing the basic outline of the course. Her guesses on the size along with most of the rooms she had been in were spot on. She had taken the time to not only write out her ideas but also explain them to him. She even went as far as to make notes on the side of her design.

He was so immersed in what she was doing and saying that he hadn't noticed that he was leaning into her personal space till their shoulders touched.

"Sorry," he murmured as he pulled away.

"It's okay," Serena said, handing him the notepad. Offering him a small smile.

"This is impressive, your engineering knowledge is remarkable as well," Trowa commented. Serena's drawing of the course along with the neatly written notes could stand as a blueprint. "Do you mind if I take this? I'd like to show Quatre what you've come up with," Trowa asked, turning his head to look back at her.

"Do whatever you want with it," Serena shrugged her shoulders.

"Thanks," Trowa smiled softly at her, looking back down at the paper in his hands he went over everything again.

"Relena can't this wait till tomorrow?" Heero tried again to plead with her as he threw on a pair of jeans.

"No," Relena said briskly as she grabbed a pink sweater out of her closet.

"Relena…" Heero said in a low voice. The night was finally turning around and he was hoping to just spend the night laying in bed with the woman who was currently staring daggers at him.

"I have every right to properly thank her, Heero," Relena pointed a finger at him, "and since you're currently my bodyguard, it's your responsibility to come with me." Heero wanted to roll his eyes. He didn't have to go along with it- "Heero, you're still in hot water with me. Not to mention you probably didn't even thank her yourself! If she hadn't been there what would've happened?"

"We could've handled it. I could've handled it."

"That may be true, but you didn't have to yell at her. I know you said something to her. I fully support her in the fact she gave you the finger," Relena crossed her arms over her chest for good measure.

Heero sighed outwardly, "fine, let's go. It's getting late and I don't want to be there all night."

Relena beamed a smile at him, walking over, she stood on her tiptoes to kiss him on the cheek.

"Thank you for seeing it my way. We won't be long, I promise," she said as she pulled away.

The whole drive back to HQ, Heero had lost himself in his thoughts. The whole day started like shit and was slowly going back to being shit. While there were hundreds of thoughts floating through his mind, the one that was at the forefront of them all was Serena.

Within forty-eight hours, everything had changed once again. Ever since she had shown up, it seemed like everything and everyone was changing.

Serena had single-handedly won over almost everyone. Sally and Trowa were the first, more so Trowa. Then Duo and Relena shortly afterward. But the most surprising one was Wufei.

Wufei was someone who didn't warm up quickly to anyone, and yet, she had managed it within such a small amount of time. Heero, himself, was still up for debate. Even though he had gone to her for help. Was it even the right thing in the first place to have asked her?

Heero sighed to himself as his thoughts changed.

He had tried to take Relena's advice early and just relax. She was safe and while there was an attempt on her life, the person responsible was behind bars. Or at least one of them. There was the potential for others to come. Even with that in mind, as long as he was with her, no one else would get close enough to touch her.

All he wanted for the evening was a nice dinner, followed by good sex and the rest of the night spent in bed with Relena. He didn't want to think about things. He wanted to turn off all the alarms that always rang so loudly in his head. Though doing so was easier said than done. He knew he'd always be on guard no matter what. But here he was now, driving back to work and going over every little detail of the day.

Analyzing everything only brought him to a terrible realization. Watson would have tried something no matter what. If Serena did not know anyone from ROE was in Preventer, then there would've been no way to stop him in the first place.

Which brought back his biggest question. If he could, or any of them for that matter, trust her? How much more information did she have that she had yet to reveal to them? It only meant more questions that he knew at some point he would need to address with her.

Heero's mind wandered back to earlier in the morning.

What about J? Serena had been angry over the information they had uncovered. He wasn't happy either, but what did bother him was the fact that Serena was right. They had been set up.

J had planned everything. The emails were meant for him to see. He knew J had to be involved, even if he didn't voice it out loud. The only issue was that they hadn't had any contact with each other since AC 195. Even in AC 196, Heero had not heard or even bothered to try and get in touch with him. So why was it now that J was making an effort to contact him? Why was he trying to get Serena and him to meet? None of it made sense, but Heero knew there was a reason. He just needed to figure it out.

"Heero?" Heero snapped his head up as Relena's voice broke through his thoughts. Turning his head, he saw the concerned look she was giving him. "Heero, is everything alright?"

"Huh?"

"You've been staring at the steering wheel since we pulled into the parking lot. Is everything okay?" She asked. Heero was so lost in thought that he hadn't even realized they were already at HQ. He shook himself mentally.

"Yeah, are you ready?" Heero asked. Relena eyed him, the concern for him still written on her face.

"Yes, I promise we won't be long, all right?" Heero nodded his head before opening the driver's side door. Relena followed suit as she opened her door.

Trowa didn't even realize how late it was till Serena tried to cover a yawn. He had completely forgotten that she had been up the night before.

Not to mention she had run Sally's test.

"You should probably get some rest," he frowned as he went on, "I didn't mean to keep you awake this long." Serena waves a hand at him.

"It's not a big deal. I guess I've been spoiled being here and being able to sleep at night." Trowa deepened his frown at her words. "Don't worry yourself, Barton. I can handle being awake for long periods."

"You should still get some rest."

"I will," she said. Trowa looked around the room before returning his attention to her. Heero was normally the one who stayed in her room at night. "I think one night won't kill anyone. I'm not allowed out of my room, remember?"

"Yes, but I know Heero comes in at night to watch over you."

"Yes, till early in the morning. Then you come back before the two of you switch off during the day. I'm well accustomed to your routine now," her lips curled up slightly.

"If Heero isn't coming in, then I'll stay."

"No," Serena shook her head. "Go home, Barton. I'll be fine. I'll be here in the morning when you come back."

"Are you sure? I don't mind staying."

"I'll be fine. Go home, get some rest yourself," she offered him a small. Trowa smiled back at her in return.

"Alright. Then have a goodnight, Serena," he said as he stood up, heading for the door.

"Goodnight," Serena said. Trowa stopped at the door to look over his shoulder at her. Serena smiled again, nodding her head. He returned the gesture before opening the door.

Trowa had only made it halfway down the hall before he heard the ding of the elevator. He stopped to wait to see who was getting off. To his surprise, Heero and Relena stepped off the elevator together. He waited till they came close enough before he spoke.

"What are you two doing here?" Relena smiled at him as they came to stop in front of him.

"I wanted to speak with Serena. Is she still awake?"

"Yeah, she's still awake," Trowa was slightly confused. He wasn't expecting to see Heero. Let alone Relena.

"Good," Relena smiled again, turning to Heero, "I won't be long," Relena moved past both of them to Serena's door, knocking first before swiping her ID.

"You're not going in with her?" Trowa waited to ask till Relena disappeared into Serena's room. Heero huffed, crossing his arms over his chest.

"She made it clear that I wasn't allowed to go in with her."

Serena hadn't said anything to him, but Duo had informed him that Heero was currently in the dog house with Relena. It seemed Relena was still punishing Heero for not calling her.

Trowa wasn't sure what to do. He may have agreed to leave Serena's room, but he wasn't planning on leaving the building. He figured he could crash in Sally's office on the cot. He thought about saying something to Heero but it seemed Heero had other plans.

"We need to talk," Heero said as he met his eyes.

A/N

Just kidding! My friend encouraged me to post again because I was feeling bad that the last chapter was so short. So here we are. I'm not going to ramble too much here before I wanted to quickly talk about Heero and his ever-changing feelings towards Serena. He does so much flip-flopping and I can't blame him. Though one day he might get some great advice. Maybe he'll listen then. I'll see you all on Friday!

-MM