Here it is. Hope you like it and please review!!!

Disclaimer: Being the Landlady of the Universe, I own everything.  Unfortunatly, the GW people are very good about paying their rent, so I can't confiscate their work. *grumbles*

Chapter 1: Screams for a Deaf Man's Ears

Sally's head hurt.

Oh sure, that wasn't the only thing that hurt.  Her legs were cramped up from being folded under her on a concrete floor for so long.  And her arms weren't too happy about being handcuffed behind her, and unpleasant experience in the best of situations.  Not to mention the various cuts, scrapes, and bruises she'd acquired during her capture.  The oozing bullet wound in her shoulder was pretty painful too.

But her pounding head took precedence over all of these injuries.  It felt like a group of teenagers with the aspirations to be heavy metal stars were destroying expensive music equipment inside her skull.  And a couple of them were yelling to boot.

No wait, that was real.

Over the few days that she'd been captured, Sally had been questioned by increasingly high-ranking mercenaries.  She could only assume that the people arguing – rather loudly – outside were her next victims, er, questioners.  It seemed that the mercenary camp had never met a person who resisted their questioning as well as she did, and Sally was sure that there were bets among the lower ranking mercs on who would break her first.  She would have found it funny if not for the situation she was in.  As it was, she was beginning to wish that they would just kill her and get it over with.

The door opened, and Sally braced herself.  The only tiny amount of satisfaction in this whole ordeal was in thwarting her captors as they tried to get her to tell them what they wanted to know.  Sally would rather rot alive then tell them, and as a result, was actually having a bit of fun heading them off.  Since she was in no shape to resist torture, she made it a point to anger her current questioner so much that getting information out of her was the last thing on his mind.  In short, she was getting a lot of use out of the insults that Wufei used to use on her.

Sally braced herself, her mind racing towards her first set of insults.  With any luck, she would have an interesting story to tell Wufei when she saw him again.

Unfortunately for Sally, fate wasn't going to make it easy.

The newest arrival was a young woman.  She turned for a moment to snap something profane at the guard standing outside.  With a few short steps, she entered the room fully, and sat down at a small table placed there for that purpose.  Pouring herself a glass of water, she seemed wholly uninterested in her captive.  Sally took the opportunity to size the girl up.

She was totally unlike all of the others that had come before her.  Her light brown hair was pulled back into a no-nonsense ponytail.  A pair of silver studs in her ears seemed to be her only decoration, although even that seemed a little out of place on her.  She was not ugly, but most certainly not a beauty.  Her pale green tank top and army green shorts revealed nothing, except perhaps that she was not one to be trifled with.  Although the pistol strapped to her left thigh conveyed that message very well.

After drinking, she looked up and pinned Sally down with a green-eyed glare.  Sally gulped.

"I want the code to get into the Preventer mainframe."

Sally blinked a few times, making sure she'd heard correctly.  When she didn't answer, the girl rose from her spot and walked around to squat in front of the captive woman.

"I have it on good authority, Ms. Po," she said almost conversationally, "that you are rather chummy with Lady Une.  Therefore, I am sure that you know the code.  And I want the code to the Preventer mainframe."

Sally closed her mouth with a snap for a moment before opening it again, "No."  The girl cocked her head at Sally, as if to say 'Really?'  The Chinese woman took a deep breath and went on, "I'll not give you anything, and if you don't like it you can kiss my ass."

The girl stood, and chuckled as she toyed with her gun.  "That's a very dangerous answer, you realize that, don't you?"

"Perhaps.  But I'm sure that I got a message through to my superior.  And any minute now, a whole squad of Preventers are going to bust through that door and send you on a one way trip downstairs."  She knew it wasn't a good thing to say the second that the words came from her mouth.

The girl looked back at her, "Very well.  Perhaps one of your friends will be more cooperative."

The last thing Sally saw were those cold green eyes.

*^*^*^*^*

Trowa scowled as he stepped off of the shuttle.  He hated L3.  It wasn't that this cluster of colonies was shabby or unkempt (although this particular one was smaller than most colonies and therefore had a tendency to be a little on the rough side).  Rather, he had spent too much time and experienced too many unpleasant memories under the band of mercenaries that raised him in these colonies to like them very much.  Even if this wasn't the exact home colony of his former employers, it was too similar for him to feel right at home.

So he headed for the Preventers branch in hopes of finding some comfort in good old-fashioned work.

*^*^*^*^*

Knowing that time was not on his partner's side, Wufei didn't intend to waste a second.  As soon as Lady Une hung up, he rose, gathering the bare essentials, and headed out the door.

He would find Sally, and get her out of whatever situation she had got herself into, even if he died doing it.  He owed her that much.

*^*^*^*^*

The Preventers office was unusually empty.  Or rather, it was void of the constant motion that Trowa had seen in other offices.  In fact, there was no one in the front room of a building except a bored receptionist who didn't even look up from her solitaire game as she asked, "How may I help you sir?"

Before Trowa could state his business, a door to the left opened with a slam, and out stepped none other than the Perfect Soldier himself.  His look told Trowa that he was as surprised to see Trowa, as Trowa was to see him.

But the look didn't last.  Heero still had too much of his training in him.  "Barton," he said by way of greeting, crossing his arms as to ask what he was doing there.

"Yuy," Trowa replied much in the same manner.  He wasn't too sure how to act toward Quatre's betrothed.  The wound that the little Arabian's announcement had rent was still too fresh.  But Trowa didn't let any of this show.  His shields had been created for survival in a harsh world, and weren't likely to break down any time soon.

Heero motioned to the door that he had come violently through, and entered, Trowa following without question.  They ended up in a small office that Heero had temporarily acquisitioned.

Without preamble, not that Heero was very subtle, the Perfect Soldier turned toward the other and said, "I thought you were Chang."

"I was hoping to find him here myself," Trowa admitted.  At Heero's raised eyebrow he added reluctantly, "He's injured."  Heero looked even more skeptical if that was possible, but Trowa refused to elaborate.  Finally, Heero shrugged.

"I'll call Une," he said matter-of-factly, reaching for the phone.

"You do that.  I'll find Wufei; I know he's here."  Without giving Heero a chance to reply, Trowa spun on his heel and walked out the door.

*^*^*^*^*

The party in question at the Preventers office was, at that very moment, deciding that he wasn't overly fond of colony maps.  Who would have guessed that such a small colony would be so hard to navigate?  Instead of reaching his destination, Wufei had managed to end up at the pitiful Preventers headquarters…

… at the exact same instant that a certain tall, former Gundam pilot exited the building.

Wufei thought fleetingly of running or hiding, but for one thing his pride wouldn't allow it.  And for another, it was kind of nice to see that Trowa had followed him all the way into space, although that thought wasn't allowed to register in the conscious part of his brain.

Trowa turned then, and their eyes met.

They both had only one thing to say: "What are you doing here?"

In case anyone was wondering where the hell Heero came from, Une sent him to help out Sally when she first got the SOS.  Then, she called Trowa because Heero was going to need help.

Now that I've finally got a (semi) working kitchen, anyone want fresh baked cookies for a little bitty review?  Please? *bats eyelashes all cute like*