Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam. I never did. I just liked to pretend I did. ;)
The Lost Girl
Part 7
The flight to wherever Relena was was long, painful, and boring. Something in me wouldn't let me sleep, or even pass out, even though each breath I took stung and the place where he'd shoved the gun into my sternum ached ferociously. I was still numb with pain, and extremely sick of Heero's shoes, when we landed with a thud.
Wordlessly, Heero opened the cockpit and threw the rope down, slinging me over
his shoulder without a thought, as if I were a sack of potatoes or something like that, which people were always slinging over their shoulders and never thinking about. Not like a person. Not like a friend.
I watched the ground now grow closer as he slid noiselessly down the rope, landing deftly on his feet on the soft earth. I couldn't see anything but the barely-depressed earth he left behind as he carried me... somewhere.
He walked up a concrete path, and up some steps. Then he swung open a heavy wooden door - he must have had a key or something - and stepped into a marble-tiled hall, shutting the door behind him without a word.
He carried me some ways, during which I lost track of where we were going,
watching the soft white carpeting go by beneath his feet. The whole time he never made a sound, until he pushed open another door.
"Relena."
"Ohmi- Heero?! How did you get in here? What are you - is that Alison?" I heard a soft female voice shriek, and there was running. Suddenly I saw another pair of feet, wearing white tennis shoes, and then a girl's face became visible as she crouched down to peer up at me.
"Heero, for God's sake, put her down. On the couch, over there. What happened?" she demanded, and he soundlessly flipped me off his shoulder and onto a red velvet couch. It was so soft against my battered, numb body...
The ceiling was a high vaulted one, and I could just see a chandelier from the corner of my eye. The girl's face reappeared in my vision as she looked down at me, eyes clear blue narrowed in concern. She had light brown hair, almost a golden color, and two thin braids snaked around the sides while the rest fell to the sides of her face, probably a little longer than shoulder-length.
She gazed down at me, looking me over, as I just lay there, unable to speak still, my breath still agony to draw each time.
"Heero. What happened?"
Heero was standing off to the side, his arms crossed over his chest. I could see his hard features over her shoulders, blue eyes still glittering with bloodlust. I knew he still wanted to kill me - I knew he didn't want to give me this chance. He said nothing.
Relena - this must be Relena, I had finally reasoned - sighed aggrivatedly and stood, whirling around to face Heero, her tan skirt twirling about her legs as she did so. She put her hands on her hips and stared up at him.
"Heero Yuy, this is no time to be stupid. She's hurt - now either tell me what happened or I'm going to call the police *along* with the paramedics."
"She doesn't need paramedics. She'll be fine," he said in the monotone that he'd adopted since I first saw him in that air duct in the OZ base.
"What do you mean, 'she doesn't need paramedics'?! You baka - she can barely breathe, and she's got a nasty bruise on her head. It looks like she just jumped off a building - she's probably got broken ribs! I don't even know if she can hear us anymore - "
"I... c'n... hear..." I managed to wheeze out - to convince her, if not myself, that I was still alive.
Relena whipped back around to face me. "Shh," she commanded, "don't talk. I'll take care of you, since Mr. Yuy here had at *least* the sense to -"
"You will not take care of her, Relena."
"What?!" she demanded, facing him once more. "What are you talking about? Why
else would you break into my house to bring her here, if you didn't want me to help her?"
Oh. So he'd broken in, had he? Somehow that didn't surprise me in the least.
"Because you're going to listen to her. Then you're going to listen to me. And then I'll decide if I'm going to kill her."
When Relena spoke, her voice was as sharp as a dagger. "Heero Yuy, you will *not* kill anyone in my home. Is that clear?"
He blinked once, slowly. "Yes."
"And she is going to rest before I listen to her. She can barely speak now. You're going to get her some blankets and I'll have some food made for her, and she's going to rest. Then I'll listen to her, and ignore you."
Heero just stood there, his features still unchanging. I could tell he probably regretted bringing me here instead of killing me when he had the chance. It was going to take more work for him to kill me now.
"Now go - I'm sure you're smart enough to find a blanket in my house. Go!" She shooed him off; he left, looking still rather angry and I was suddenly sure I wouldn't want him running around my house like that. But Relena seemed quite sure that he would return, and that all occupants of the house would still be alive when he did so.
She turned back to me, her gaze softening. "What a baka, huh, Alison?" she asked softly. "I'll be right back with something for you to eat once you feel up to it."
I managed a miniscule nod, and then she was gone. I just lay there, unable to really move, trying to focus on breathing in and out, wishing the pain that stabbed me from all directions would just stop and go away.
I heard the door open a little later, and Relena returned carrying a steaming bowl and a loaf of bread on a tray, along with a glass of water. She came over to the couch and set the tray down on a coffee table nearby, pulling a chair over so that she was beside my head.
"Where is that boy?" she muttered absently, rolling her eyes a bit. Then she felt my forehead, frowning.
"You feel a little warm - you might have a touch of fever."
Oh great - just what I needed. A fever on top of a death warrant.
Suddenly Heero was standing behind Relena again - how on earth did he *do* that?! - holding a thick, blue blanket and looking rather miffed about the whole situation. Well, I mused, miffed was better than bloodthirsty any day.
He handed the blanket stiffly over, and Relena sighed and draped it over me. It was warm, and I realized that I had been pretty cold. Now, though, I was someplace soft and warm and I didn't ever want to get up...
"...Thanks..." I managed to mumble, and she smiled.
"You're welcome." She turned back to Heero, who was still standing stiffly behind her. "Now, Heero, what is this about?"
"She's a traitor," he spat, voice cold. "She and Maxwell both."
Relena blinked. "Heero - "
"Listen - our base gets attacked; we all managed to escape. Except for her and Duo. Two days later, Wufei gets a call from Duo. He says he has allies that will help us get rid of the OZ party that attacked us if we split up, one pilot to each base. When I get there, it's a trap. Tell me he's not a traitor." He looked at me. "Tell me she's not."
"We're *not*!" I yelled as loudly as I could, struggling for some feeling in my arms, struggling to sit up at all. I couldn't really, but somehow I managed to lift myself up just a bit on my elbows.
"We were captured, and they did something to me," I said slowly, taking a deep breath as I spoke each sentence, even though it hurt like hell. "They operated on me, or something. Then they made Duo they drugged him they said they would kill me then him, if he didn't send that message. I I wanted him to hold out He didn't, and they sent me back here"
"With a tracking device on you! You got into that base with no trouble at all - it took all I had to get back in and get my suit!"
"Quiet, both of you!" Relena demanded, and amazingly enough, Heero fell silent, content to look daggers at me instead. I chose to look up at Relena, who was looking rather furious herself at the moment.
"Heero Yuy, you listen to me. How many times has Duo saved your life? How many times has Alison fixed your suit for you? They're not traitors. She said they were tortured, or drugged, and - "
"He should have died. She should have died."
"No, they shouldn't have!" Relena protested before I could say a thing. "Listen, Heero, this isn't about a lack of loyalty. It's about the complete presence of it. Now you go and take a cold shower and let her sleep and if she's not here in the morning - if I find out you've killed her or hurt her in any way - I'm going to come after you myself. With Treize Kushranada at my back, if I have to."
Heero looked almost shocked - well, maybe not almost. Almost *almost* shocked. At any rate, there was silence for a moment before he spoke.
"She's got a tracking device. They'll find us here. Let me get it out."
"How?!" Relena asked.
He flipped out a small knife from I knew not where, the silver blade catching the light from the chandelier and throwing spots of light about the room.
Relena's eyes grew wide. "Don't you even think about it-"
"Let him," I croaked. If this was what it took for him to believe me If this was what he had to do to understand
He looked almost smug.
"You are not -"
"Do you want them to come here?"
She fell silent, but her eyes were burning as she glared at him.
"You don't even know where it is," she pointed out, her voice a bit smaller.
"Get me some towels. And gauze."
Her eyes still burning and a bit wider than before, she swept out of the room.
He sat on her chair and pulled something else from his pocket - a small box that was very thin and all black, except for a small switch and two lights. He flipped the switch, and one light glowed red. He held the device over my head, slowly sweeping it downward.
It must be a metal detector of some sort, I dimly realized.
At my right wrist the light suddenly switched to green.
"There," he said, flipping the device off and putting it back.
"Do you do you believe me now?" I asked softly as he picked up my wrist. His grip was iron, although his hand was warm. He could almost pass for human, with that warmth.
"Maybe," was all he said, and just then Relena returned with the towels.
"Here," she said, still a bit angry, tossing them at the boy, who caught them as if she had handed them over nicely. She didn't look happy at that.
"You're not going to get blood all over my floor - "
"Shut up."
She did.
There was a sharp pain, then something wet, sticky - he'd deftly sliced open my wrist, I saw, just to the left of the vein that ran through it, careful not to slice the vein itself. Although for all the blood pooling on the towel he'd placed on the couch.
Then something else - something that hurt more. He had stuck the blade in, just a bit, to get at whatever it was. It hurt a lot, like hot fire shooting up my entire arm. I winced and shut my eyes, feeling the stinging saline begin to pool there of its own volition.
I opened them again, taking a deep breath, and watched with some interest as he flipped the blade up, oblivious to the deep crimson liquid staining his own hands. Something small and black flew into the air - he caught it with one stained hand and swiftly pressed one of the towels to my wrist with the other. I hissed in pain, but at least he was done.
And maybe he believed me now.
Relena handed him the gauze she had been holding, eyes still wide, and he removed the towel and very expertly whirled the white strip around my wrist tightly, sealing up his work.
He wiped his hands on the towel, stood, and disappeared out the door once more.
"Are you all right? Relena asked softly, seeing how bright my eyes were, my wrist still stinging loudly.
"Yeah. If that's what it took for him to believe me "
She shook her head. "He wouldn't have brought you here if he wasn't looking for a reason not to kill you," she offered gently. "At least I don't think so."
"That's comforting" I cracked a small smile, but somehow even that hurt.
"Listen, I'm serious about you getting sleep. Then I'll call a doctor for you in the morning."
"I'll be okay. We have to find the others. And Duo."
She smiled, then shook her head slightly. "Sleep," she commanded. "There's food here for when you wake up. Good night, Alison."
"Thank you, Relena."
She walked away, muttering something about Heero's aspirations as a surgeon.
AN: Thanks for all the great reviews recently! I feel special! I'm so glad you like it, and I promise, more is on the way!
Also I have no clue if I spelled Treize's name right. Sorry if I butchered it! Personally I prefer easy, spellable names (i.e. Duo Maxwell) ;)