Trowa turned his head from the conversation he was
having with his sister when he heard a knock at his door.
"Come in."
Heero stepped through the doorwas, but stopped when he
saw Catherine.
"Oh. Sorry. Didn't know you were busy.
I'll come back later."
He turned to leave, but was called back.
"No, it's fine. Come on in."
*Well, I wanted to talk to just Trowa, but I guess it
wouldn't hurt if Catherine stayed as well. She's certainly not unfriendly.*
Heero came back into the room and closed the door
behind himself.
"I need to talk to someone I can trust."
Catherine stood from her chair.
"Oops. Gundam pilot stuff. I think I'd
better leave you guys alone."
She started for the door, but Heero caught her gently
by the elbow as she passed.
"If you don't mind, I think it would help if
you...stayed."
Catherine smiled, shrugged, and sat back down.
Trowa gestured to chair near Catherine's.
"Have a seat. What's on your mind?"
Well, I'm not sure how to put it. Ever since I
can remember I've never fit in with other people. My lack of personality and emotion
has always made me an outsider, a loner. It was never a problem before now. I
was always on my own fighting anyway. Now that we live in a world devoid of war and
no need for warriors, it's become increasingly harder for me to live from day to day.
"I see. So you need some advice on how to be
more..."
"Human?"
As soon as Catherine said the word she wished she
hadn't. She clamped her hands over her mouth as her cheeks turned bright pink.
"Oh, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean that.
I meant...um..."
"No, it's fine. But that's exactly what I
need. I couldn't think of anyone else to go to. Doctor J literally trained the
humanity out of me. I need it back. You were there, you saw what happened
earlier. I don't want to repeat that."
"No need to worry about that now. What's
done is done, but you can always apologize later if you feel the need. I'm sure they
know you were just concerned for their safety. But what you really need to do is
learn to relax. You seem to live your life on a schedule or according to someone
else's plans. Make decisions as they are put to you. Do what your heart an
mind tell you to do. When you're uptight you tend not to make the right decisions
all the time. Try to let go and handle things as they come."
As Heero pondered Trowa's advice, Catherine chimed in
with her own thoughts on the matter.
"Another thing you need to do is be more trusting
of people. I hope you don't mind my saying so, but it seems like you always see help
from others as more of a hindrance or a distraction. Any relationship starts with
trust. Maybe trusting someone to listen when you need to talk, to tell you how they
feel about something when you need an honest opinion, to do the right thing, or be there
when you need a hand. Once you stop doubting people it'll be easier to accept things
and be more open."
They talked and talked and talked some more.
After two hours of chatting back and forth, Catherine and Trowa knew more about Heero than
anyone else could claim to. Heero related nearly his entire life story to them
because they were so easy to talk to. He had been apprehensive of mentioning the
girl and her dog for fear of what they might say. Catherine managed to drag it out
and, to his surprize, they understood how he felt about it. They didn't hate him,
they didn't think any less of him, and they understood why he never talked about it.
Heero stood and extended a hand to Trowa.
"Thank you, Trowa. And you, Catherine.
You've been a great help. I only hope I can use what I've learned from you.
I know it won't be easy, but I'm willing to try."
"Well, you know where to find us if you have any
trouble. And we're not the only ones who can help, you know."
Heero nodded.
"Wait a minute! I thought we made some
progress here. What's with the nod?"
He laughed openly at Catherine's observation and smiled
thankfully, genuinely at her.
"Thank you."
"That's much better. You're welcome."
Trowa got to his feet and put a hand on Heero's
shoulder.
"Remember, it's going to take time to adjust and
learn to deal with your emotions. Don't try to change everything all at one time.
It's not something that can be done that quickly. Just take your time and
work it out one piece at a time."
"I will. Again...thank you."
With one last smile Heero left the room.
Catherine stood behind her brother, resting her chin on his shoulder.
"Do you think he can do it?"
"Yes. I think he can. It took a lot
for him to even ask for our help. He's well on his way."
"I hope you're right. It would be such a
shame for such a nice guy to have to keep living like that."
---------------------------------------------
"Zechs?"
Heero stuck his head through the half open door to
Zechs' study, which doubled as a second office when he needed it. Floor to ceiling
bookcases lined the walls as well as several landscape paintings. Situated under the
large window looking out over the wooded area at the back of the estate was a highly
polished oak desk. Zechs sat behind it holding a pen in one hand and pressing that
phone to his ear with the other. He saw Heero standing at the door and waved him as
as his conversation came to a close.
"Tomorrow afternoon than? Excellent!
I'm looking forward to seeing you again. Take care and we'll see you
tomorrow."
Zechs hung up the phone and scribbled a note on he pad
of paper in front of him. He looked up at Heero when he was finished, a slight grin
on his face.
"Heero. Just the man I needed to see.
Please, have a seat."
Heero settled into the chair in front of the desk.
Zechs laced his fingers together and sat forward in his own chair.
"That was our old friend Howard. He's going
to be coming by tomorrow to install some new communications jamming systems for our little
operation. Coupled with the cloaking devices he's already installed, the enemy won't
know what to do. That should make our job easier to some degree."
"I see. So the idea is to disable their
communications so that they can't warn the others of the attack?"
"Exactly right. Add to that the fact that
they won't be able to see us coming on their radar system...it's one less thing to worry
about."
"Sounds good. How much time will be needed
to get the systems running?"
"He says it's pretty straight forward for a decent
engineer to work with. I figure once he demonstrates how to go about installing it
Maiser and the others can get started on all the suits at once. It should take no
more than a day and a half, two days tops. The Tallgeese and Taurus will probably
take a bit longer than normal because their systems differ slightly from your
Gundams."
"Good. I think that the end of the week
should be the latest date for us to begin. Any longer than that and they may be able
to overwhelm us with sheer numbers."
"You have a point. Every day we take to
prepare also gives them time to strengthen themselves. We'll shoot for the end of
the week then. We'll get the new systems installed and make sure everything is in
working order. If we can, we'll go earlier. Agreed?"
Heero nodded in consent and Zechs reclined in his
leather chair.
"Alright. Now that we cleared that up, what is is
that you came to see me for?"
"I was...just wondering if you knew where Sally
and Lady Une are."
"I think they went out to headquarters to start
getting the cruiser ready. Why do you ask?
"I need to...apologize. I shouldn't have
been so rude earlier."
Zechs nearly fell out of his chair in shock. He
had never figured Heero the type to regret an action or to apologize for one.
"Well you can...uh...probably catch up with
them...tomorrow."
"Yeah, I'll do that. Thanks."
Heero stood to leave, but Zechs had a thought come up
from the back of his mind.
"Speaking of tomorrow...you'll probably come
across a few people at headquarters who will be less than friendly. There were some
rumors going around that you were the cause of this recent...well, you know. You'll
probably get more than your fair share of dirty looks. I just wanted to let you know
what to expect before you find out the hard way."
"I understand. Thanks for the heads
up."
Heero left without another word. It was getting
late and he was tired, so he went upstairs to his room to get some more sleep. Zechs
was feeling a bit sleepy as well and followed Heero's example after cleaning the mess of
papers on his desk. As he walked up the stairs he thought about the changes he had
seen in Heero. Amuzed by what he thought, Zechs closed the bedroom door, ready for
some much needed rest.
---------------------------------------------
"You again."
"Hi, Heero!"
The little girl in the big, floppy hat bounded toward
him from behind the tree where she had disappeared the last time Heero saw her. He
looked around and found himself sitting in the same place as before. The girl
skipped around him twice before sitting beside him.
"What's your name? I keep seeing you but I
don't know who you are."
"Me? I'm Megan Lowe."
"Hmmm...Megan Lowe. So, am I dreaming?
What is this place?"
Megan put a finger on her chin and struck a thoughtful
pose.
"Well, I guess it's kind of like a dream.
It's really hard to explain, but you are asleep if that helps."
Megan took her hat off and placed it on top of Heero's
unruly hair. She fell to the ground laughing hysterically and holding her sides.
"You look silly, Heero!"
Heero glaced up at the offending hat and frowned an
almost imperceptible frown.
"You know, you're awful cheery and happy around
me, considering I was responsible for your death."
Megan stopped laughing, sat up, and made a pouting face
at him.
"Are you still worried about all that? Just
forget about it. It was an accident. You didn't mean for it to happen. I
don't hate you for it, so why do you hate yourself?"
"You...really don't hate me?"
"Of course not! Besides, I've had fun
watching over your shoulder since then."
At that, Heero actually grinned.
"Oh, so I amuse you do I?"
"Yup. The last two or three years have been
really fun. You've been tripping all over yourself on the inside."
"I guess I have been, haven't I?"
"Yeah. You worry too much. It's fine
and dandy to worry. Just make sure you worry about the right things."
"Like what?"
"Like Relena. You should worry about Relena
and Duo and Quatre and all your other friends too. But mostly Relena."
"Why worry about Relena?"
"He-lllloooo...this is reality calling Heero.
In case you hadn't noticed, Relena kinda has a thing for you."
"A thing?"
"Ugh. Do I have to spell it out for you?
Re...le...na...likes...you. She likes you, she loves you, she thinks about
you constantly."
"Oh. That."
"Yes that! Ooooo, Heero Yuy...if you break
her heart I'll....I'll...."
"You'll what?"
"I'll....tickle you!"
"With that, Megan attacked his ribs.
Whenever Heero pushed her away she would always come back at him. Soon, both
of them were tickling and laughing. When they finally stopped, both Heero and Megan
fell sprawled on the grass to catch their breath. Heero could feel himself smiling
and it felt good. He let out an unabashed laugh like he had years before.
Megan looked over at him and smiled.
"It's good to hear you laugh like that again.
You've been holding that in for far too long."
Heero looked up at the sky of his dream. Instead
of the artificial clouds and scenery of a colony, he saw deep blue dotted by many bright,
twinkling stars. He had seen such a sky once before, on Earth. It was one of
his few good memories from the war. Most of the others involved a certain
golden-haired female who was just as stubborn as himself. A slight smile crept
across his lips at the thought.
"You're thinking about her right now, aren't
you?"
Heero quickly shook his head clear.
"What do you mean? Who?"
"Oh come on! I saw you smiling. There
is only one thing that that can make you smile like that and her name is Relena."
As much as he tried to hide it, Heero just stared at
Megan with a dumbfounded expression. She gave him a sly grin and stood up.
"Oh, don't look so surprised. I've been an
expert on Heero Yuy for years."
She got only a small smile in return, but she hadn't
really expected more than that. After all, she was a Heero expert. The smile
disappeared as Heero became more thoughtful.
"Last time you said I was close to what I'm
looking for. What is it? What am I close to?"
"Can't tell you."
"Why not?"
"First, you need to find it on your own.
Second, we're out of time."
"Out of time?"
"Yup. You're gonna wake up soon."
"Oh. Well, will I see you again?"
"Of course, silly! I'm sort of like your
guardian angel. I'll always be around. But now I have to go. See you
later!"
Megan waved and began to walk away. A short
distance away, she stopped and ran back.
"Um, Heero?"
"Yeah?"
"Can I have my hat back?"
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Gundam Wing. It is
copyrighted by people who have a lot more money than I do. This was written for fun
and for the fans of the series. All ideas concerning the storyline and new
characters are mine.
NOTES: Well, that certainly took long enough,
didn't it? I put the story aside some time ago when I was having trouble with it.
Then I got busy with other things and just about forgot about it. But thanks
to many people, I picked it up again and finally churned this out. It was originally
going to be two chapters, but I decided they were short enough to condense into one.
I keep mentioning "the little girl". If
you need a reminder, she the one from Heero's dream in Endless Waltz. She
doesn't have a name, as far as I know, so I made one up from the names of my two biggest
camps of encouragement: Megan the Tigriffon and Lady Lowe. So that's about it for
now. Next time we'll have Heero at Preventer HQ meeting up with Michaelson and
probably the start of the operation to take out Thor and his followers. I've taken
what I had before and twisted it around a little so there are some interesting turns.
By the way, if you're not reading this at my website, I
ask that you go and check it out. Lots of people have been emailing me asking me to
continue Protector and do other stuff. Well, I have and it's all at my
website. I've got a couple of other great stories my Megan the Tigriffon as well.
"Where can I find this great site," you ask? Well, just point your
browser to the following:
http://www.geocities.com/HeeroWZero/
Comments and criticisms are welcome. Please send
them to HeeroWZero@hotmail.com
and be sure to include your name so I can get back to you. Thanks for reading!
Soldier's Return
By: HeeroWZero