The C.O.W. Project
Part 2
A colony in the L3 area
Duo walked into the hotel room that Heero was sharing with his son and Ashleigh. Heero was on his cell phone so Duo waited to speak with Heero.
"Okay, I've got it. Thanks for your help. Bye." Heero pushed the "end" button on his cell phone.
" Was that information? Did you get Quatre's number?" Duo asked.
"Yeah." Was the reply.
"Shane is sleeping in our room."
"Yeah, Aaron's asleep in that bed." Heero pointed to one of the two double beds in the room as he punched some numbers on his phone.
"Where's Ashleigh?" Duo asked.
"Taking a shower."
As if to make Heero's statement true the water started running in the bathroom. Heero pressed, "send" on his cell phone.
"Quatre?"
"Yes, who is this?"
"This is Heero, Heero Yuy."
"Heero? Oh my, I mean it's been a while."
"Yes, it has. I have some information on your daughter."
"Ashleigh? What about her? I didn't know you knew I had a daughter."
"Well I didn't. I just found out a couple of hours ago. I just wanted to let you know that she is safe and with me and Duo."
"Safe? What happened? Is Christi okay?"
"You mean you don't know what happened? You didn't know your daughter was kidnapped?"
"Kidnapped! No I had no clue! She was visiting her mother. Tell me, what happened? Is Christi okay?"
"Well I don't know about any Christi but Ashleigh was kidnapped by this organization that call themselves The C.O.W. Project. My son and Duo's as well was also taken. Duo and I went to get our sons out when a girl came up to us and asked us to take her with us as well. She said she had a father who was worried sick about her and I couldn't leave her there because I knew how I felt when I found out that Aaron was missing."
"But I never knew she was missing! Like I said, she was visiting her mother, my ex-wife, we're divorced. Christi never called to tell me!"
"I'm sorry, but Ashleigh is safe."
"Well thanks again. I'll call Christi and talk to her,"
"Call me later to work everything out with Ashleigh."
"Okay. Can I talk to her?"
"She's in the shower. I'll tell her you said hi."
"Thank you."
"No problem, bye."
"Bye."
Quatre hung up the phone and sighed. He picked it back up and called his ex-wife.
"Hello?"
"Christi? It's me."
"Oh…"
"You sound worried, is everything okay over there?"
Christi didn't answer right away and Quatre started to become mad. He never thought that his ex-wife wouldn't tell him about something as important as this.
"Yeah, everything's fine." Christi finally answered.
"What about Ashleigh? Is she there, can I speak with her?"
"Uh…she's out."
Quatre sighed.
"I have to go." Christi hung up the phone before Quatre could say anything.
Quatre sighed and went to pack a bag. He was going to get his daughter from Heero himself. He would call Heero later to tell him he was coming.
"Ashleigh I talked to your father. He said to say hi." Heero said when Ashleigh came out of the shower. "He called back later and said that he was coming here to get you. The thing is, he said that your mother never called him to tell him you were missing."
"Sounds about right." Ashleigh said, looking at the floor.
"If you don't mind my asking, what happened between your parents to make them be this hateful toward each other?"
"That's just it, they don't hate each other. Well at least my dad doesn't hate my mom. He still loves her and the only reason they got a divorce was because dad knew she wanted it and he knew that it would make her happy. I don't know why my mom hates my dad. She never talks about it. I don't really like visiting my mom. I live with my dad most of the time now. At first my mother had custody of me but then, earlier this year when I turned 15, I was aloud to make my own choice of where I wanted to live, I picked my dads. My mom hates him even more for that, she probably hates me too because I remind her of him."
"I'm sure your mom doesn't hate you." Aaron said, sitting up on the bed.
"Well you haven't met my mom!"
There was a tense silence as Duo walked into the room with Shane.
"Good you guys are all awake! So whatta ya say we go get something to eat, I'm starved!" Duo suggested.
"Sounds good to me." Aaron said getting up from the bed.
Heero and Ashleigh followed.
"Daddy!" Ashleigh said as her father walked through the door to the hotel room. He set his bags down and hugged his daughter.
"Hey honey, is everything alright."
"Yeah."
"Hey Quatre, it's been a while! You look really different!" Duo said shaking hands with his friend.
"So do you!" Quatre said. "Where's Heero?"
"Oh, he's downstairs looking for a phone book." Aaron said.
"You must be Heero's son, you look a lot like him." Quatre said.
Aaron nodded.
"And this is my son, Shane." Duo said, introducing his son.
"Nice to meet you Shane." Quatre answered.
The group turned around as they heard someone slide a key into the lock. A minute later Heero walked into the room with an electronic phone book.
"Heero, what's the phone book for?" Quatre asked after the two had said hello.
"I'm afraid that the other boys children might be in danger. I want to call them and make sure everything's okay."
"What makes you think they're in danger?"
"Well if our kids were taken, why not theirs? I have a hunch that they just wanted to get the children of the Gundam pilots taken away from us."
"Do you think that they think we're dangerous?"
"No, if they thought that they would have used the court to take our kids away, they wanted our kids to use as weapons of warfare. They knew that our children would be better suited for that kind of a life than other children because of the jeans they inherited." Duo interrupted, answering Quatre's question.
"Well if the other boys kids were taken then we'll have to get them out, right?" Quatre asked.
"Yes." Heero answered.
"But what if they weren't taken, and they're safe? There's still a chance they might be kidnapped, right?"
"Yeah, I guess."
"And what if our children become targets once more, what if this time they just try to kill them? We need to move to a more safer position."
"I think Quatre's right." Duo said.
"But what about the children already in the compound? We can't just leave them there!"
Heero thought about that for a moment.
"You're right." He finally answered. Heero thought for a moment. "Let me call Trowa and Wufei and then we'll figure out what to do."
"Why don't' we all go into one of the other rooms and watch TV or something while Heero calls." Duo offered. The Kids nodded and followed Duo and Quatre to Quatre and Ashleigh's room.
First Heero looked up Wufei. The phone rang for a minute and just when Heero was about to hang up an answering machine picked up. Heero left a message telling Wufei to call him back and just before he was done a voice picked up the phone.
"Heero?"
"Wufei?"
"Yes, what do you want?"
"Do you have any kids?"
There was a pause. "Yes…I have 2."
"Do you know where they are?"
"Yes."
"So then they're safe?"
"What are you getting at Yuy? Are you trying to threaten my family? I will kill you if you try to hurt anyone in my family."
"No, Wufei, I'm only trying to help you. You see, Duo's son, my son and Quatre's daughter were kidnapped a few days ago. I just wanted to make sure your family was safe."
"My family is none of your business!"
Heero spent the next 15 minutes explaining about the C.O.W. Project and about how they wanted to get the other children out of that place. After a bit of arguing Wufei agreed that it was the right thing to do.
"So it would probably be safer if you and your family came to where we are. We're planning on getting to a safer location where we can work better."
"Well I'll come help you out but my family won't be coming with me."
"Why not? Don't you want to protect them?"
"Yes…but…my wife put a restraining order out on me, I can't go within 100 yards of my children."
"Is there nothing you can do?"
"I've tried everything."
"I'm afraid that your children might be in danger as we speak. Have you even talked with them lately?"
"I talked to my son about a month ago, against my wife's wishes, but my daughter refuses to have anything to do with me."
"There must be something you can do!"
"Look, tell me where you are and I will be there with my children within 24 hours."
"But I thought you said there was a restraining order?"
"That doesn't matter any more."
Heero told Wufei where to meet him early the next morning. Wufei hung up without saying goodbye. Next Heero looked up Trowa. He picked up on the first ring.
"Trowa Barton."
"Trowa? It's Heero."
Trowa didn't say anything so Heero continued. He told Trowa about the kidnapping and about the plan that the boys had.
"Well, I do have a kid but I don't' think he's in any danger."
"I'm pretty sure that these people were after the children of us Gundam pilots. How do you know that he's not in any danger?"
"Well, about 16 years ago my girlfriend gave birth to my son and then she ran off with him and I haven't seen them since. No one but the girl and myself know that the child was mine."
"Yes…but still…have you not tried to track the child down?"
"No…"
"But why not?"
"She ran off for a reason. I'm not one to butt in where I'm not wanted."
Heero didn't know what to say. If his girlfriend had ran off with his kid he would have been after them in an instant. Thank goodness he was married before he had a kid. The only possible explanation was that Trowa didn't want the kid.
"Well we'll still need your help…" Heero said.
"I'll think about it."
Heero said that was fine and hung up.
Trowa rubbed his eyes and thought. After 30 minutes Trowa got up. He called his old girlfriend. As he waited for someone to pick up he thought about the partial lie he had told Heero. He did know where his son was; his son was only a half hour away. His girlfriend had run off but that was only after Trowa had said he didn't' want a kid. The last time Trowa had seen his son was when he was three months old. After that Trowa had moved to a different colony but just two months ago he had moved back.
"Hello?"
"Brandie?"
"Yes, who is this?"
"It's me…Trowa."
For a moment neither one spoke.
"I thought you left."
"I moved back two months ago."
"So what do you want?"
"I know this might sound weird but I need to take Justin to one of the L3 colonies right away."
"Absolutely not! I mean I have a family now. I found someone who wanted our son, someone who loves our son like he's his own. You really can't just walk back into our lives and expect everything to be okay."
"A trusted friend told me that Justin might be in danger."
Brandie said nothing so Trowa repeated himself.
"I heard you the first time. And this had better not be some sick joke either."
"Brandie, you know me and you know I would never do anything like that."
"Well I also thought that you would never tell me you didn't want our son."
"I made a mistake, okay? I'm sorry, really I am. I wish I had never said any of those things to you. But you have to let me do this Brandie."
"What kind of danger do you think Justin's in?"
Trowa explained about what had happened to the others pilots' kids and what they planned on doing.
"Well, I'll have to talk to Tim and call you back."
"Okay but hurry because I don't have much time. I'd like to meet up with my friend as soon as possible."
"I'll call you as soon as I can."
"Okay, bye."
Heero walked into Quatre's room where Duo, Shane, Quatre, Ashleigh, and Aaron were sitting on the two double beds watching TV.
"Did you get through to everyone?" Duo asked.
"Yeah. Wufei seems eager to help but I'm not sure what Trowa thinks. I'm expecting a call from Trowa soon and tomorrow morning we meet Wufei at a diner across the street. Once things are more settled then we can come up with a plan." Heero said. He sat down on a chair.
Trowa waited by the phone for an hour and then the doorbell interrupted him. He looked at his watch and wondered who it could be. Brandie still hadn't called back and Trowa was beginning to wonder if perhaps her husband had x-ed the whole idea. When he answered the door he was surprised to find 2 people he didn't know.
"Trowa Barton?" the older of the men asked.
"Yes. May I help you?"
"My name is Tim Myers and this is my son, Justin. I'm Brandie's husband."
"Oh…come in. Brandie told me she would call me. I wasn't expecting you."
"I told Brandie not to call because I didn't know if your phone line was being tapped or not. I want to keep Justin as safe as possible."
"So then you're letting me take him?" Trowa asked, surprised. He kept looking at his son. The boy was tall. Almost 6 ft. he guessed. He had Trowa's brown hair and Brandie's blue eyes. He kept his eyes trained on the floor and wouldn't look at either Trowa or the man he called father.
"I believe that it's for the best. Brandie said she trusts you and I trust Brandie. Besides, I think that it's time that Justin met his real father." Tim smiled a sad smile.
"Thanks. I'll bring him back safe. I promise."
"I'm not worried. I know you'll do the right thing. Even if you didn't do the right thing 16 years ago God always gives us a second chance."
Trowa said nothing but noted the small reproof. He let it go, however, because he knew the man was right. He had messed up 16 years ago and he could never make it right but he could always do better. If he were in Tim's spot he would have said the same thing. Tim left a few minutes later and Trowa emailed Heero on his cell phone so that perhaps it could not be traced but Trowa knew that with the right technology it was possible. He told Heero that he would arrive some time the next morning. Heero called back a few minutes later to tell him to meet them in the diner. They would already be there with Wufei when he arrived.
To Be Continued…