The C.O.W. Project
Part 7
Wet and tiered, three fathers and six teenagers checked into a run down hotel. Quatre and Trowa went out to get some food since they weren't able to eat any of the dinner that Wufei had gotten. All the kids crashed together in one of the three rooms hat had been rented and turned on the TV while Heero called Wufei in the room one over. Ashleigh fell asleep right away on one of the double beds in the room while Kari and Bryant sat on the other. Shane, Aaron, and Justin were on the floor with a few pillows and after a while Shane started snoring. Heero walked back in and announced that he was going to take a shower. A few minutes later Heero emerged from the bathroom and grumbled something about there not being any hot water.
"Listen kids, I'm gonna go take a shower in the other room if you need me." Heero said.
"Okay dad." Aaron said.
"Keep the door locked. Quatre, Trowa and I all have keys so we wont knock, if someone knocks don't answer it because it isn't one of us."
"Okay dad." Aaron answered once again.
"Don't leave this room for any reason." Heero waited for the 'okay dad' from his son but it never came. "Aaron?" Heero said a second later.
"Okay dad." Aaron said his eyes never leaving the TV screen.
"Teenagers!" Heero grumbled as he turned to leave.
"Okay dad!" Aaron said as his father left the room.
"Very funny Aaron." Heero yelled back right before he shut the door. Heero's last words to his son woke Shane up.
"What?" What did I miss?" Shane asked.
"Nothing." Aaron said. "Just my dad lecturing us on not leaving the room."
"Oh..." Shane said sitting up a little and balling up the pillow he was lying on before he laid back down on it.
Watching Shane reminded Aaron of how uncomfortable he was on the floor so he stood up and sat on the edge of the bed. The bed sank a lot and a blonde head rolled into Aaron's back. Ashleigh had fallen asleep lying on the bed from side to side instead of top to bottom. The extra weight on the bed caused her head to roll over to one side and she woke up. Aaron turned and looked at Ashleigh as she opened her eyes.
"Oh I'm sorry, did I wake you up?" Aaron asked, standing up.
"No, it's okay." Ashleigh said sitting up.
"Are you sure because I can move back onto the floor." Aaron said.
"No really, it's okay." Ashleigh said as she scooted up and sat on the edge of the bed.
Aaron nodded and sat back down beside Ashleigh. A few minutes later Ashleigh got up and walked toward the door.
"Where are you going? We're not supposed to leave the room." Aaron said.
"Oh...well I have a headache, do you have any Tylenol?"
"No, my dad might but he's in the shower and I wouldn't know where it would be."
"Well I'll be okay. It's just one room over. I'll be back in 5 minutes." Ashleigh said as she opened the door a crack.
Aaron got up. "Well I'll go with you just to be safe."
"You don't have to."
"Yes I do, cause I'd feel really bad if something happened to you because I let you leave the room when I wasn't supposed to. Besides, it's always good for young ladies to have strong young men to protect them." Aaron said as he made a show of flexing his 16-year-old muscles.
Ashleigh smiled and rolled her eyes as she and Aaron walked out the door.
Quatre and Trowa returned about the same time Heero got out of the shower.
"We picked up Wendy's for everyone, I hope that's okay." Quatre said.
"Oh food, I'm starving!" Shane said as soon as his teenage boy food radar woke up him.
"Where's Ashleigh?" Quatre asked after a quick sweep of the room.
"Oh she and Aaron went to her room to get something." Shane said between mouthfuls.
"I told him not to leave the room." Heero said as he and Quatre hurried out the door.
Aaron waited by the door while Ashleigh took 2 Tylenol with a glass of water in the bathroom.
"Are you okay?" Aaron asked when Ashleigh came out.
"Yeah, I'll be fine as soon as the medicine kicks in."
"You know, I was thinking...um...maybe when this is all over, you might like to...well...uh...go out sometime?" Aaron stumbled through the question quickly.
Ashleigh smiled. "Well you'll have to talk to my dad about that..."
Aaron looked confused. He wasn't sure if that was a 'yes' or a 'no' and he wasn't sure if he should really ask her dad or just drop it.
"But I'll try to nudge him the right direction." Ashleigh said with a wink.
Aaron smiled and walked with Ashleigh back to the other room but both were taken by surprise when they ran into their fathers on the sidewalk outside.
"Aaron! What are you doing? I told you specifically not to leave the room!" Heero said, scolding his son.
"Ashleigh, you know better than to disobey." Quatre said.
"I'm sorry dad but I had a headache and I really needed medicine and I was going to go by my self but Aaron offered to come with so me so that I wouldn't have to go alone."
"It couldn't wait until I got back?"
"Well I didn't know how long you were going to be and I was sleepy so I wasn't thinking straight."
"Yeah, sorry dad, I was just trying to do the right thing." Aaron said to his father.
"If it makes you feel any better, he tried to talk me out of going." Ashleigh said to Heero as she tried to stick up for Aaron.
"It's okay." Quatre said, hugging his daughter. "Just be more careful next time."
"Yeah, it was good for 2 of you to go together but next time, if you really have to leave without an adult, go in a larger group." Heero said.
"Come on, we have Wendy's in the room." Quatre said walking back into the room.
The kids were now wide-awake, food will do that to teenagers, and they were talking loudly and all were gathered on both of the beds. Heero, Quatre, and Trowa all crowded around the small table near the door.
"So Heero, did you talk to Wufei?" Quatre asked.
"Oh yes, he said that Duo is fine and that they will release him sometime tonight so we should expect them back. And they know the identity of the attacker."
"Who is it?" Trowa asked.
"Mariemaia."
"No way, that's not possible." Quatre said. "The Mariemaia I knew had bright red hair and that girl had brown."
"Wufei said that it was colored."
"Who is she working for?" Trowa wondered out loud.
"That's what we need to find out." Heero said.
'Well what if she was kidnapped like our kids?" Quatre asked.
"She would be like, what? 25, 26 now? It's kind of hard to kidnap someone that age!" Heero said.
"Besides, we would have heard something of it." Trowa said.
"You're right. So that means that she was working for whomever by will." Quatre said.
"Well Une is flying in tonight and when she gets to the hospital Wufei is going to call us. I'd really like to talk to her." Heero said.
Quatre and Trowa both nodded in agreement.
"...so then the guy got mad at me and I was like, dude, I work here! Go away!" The group of teenagers broke into laughter at what Shane had said. Shane laughed too and stole one of Bryant's fries.
Aaron leaned over to Ashleigh and pointed at the half empty carton. "Shane has taken at least half and Bryant still hasn't noticed."
Ashleigh then reached over herself and stole one of Bryant's fries.
Kari smiled a little as she had seen all the times someone had taken a fry; she then took one for herself. After the laughter died down a little bit Bryant reached for one of his fries and realized that half of them were missing.
"Alright, who took my fries?" Bryant asked looking around the room.
"It was Aaron." Shane said.
"What? Dude, you did it first!" Aaron said pointing a fry at Shane.
"It was both." Ashleigh whispered to Bryant.
"Oh yeah, and one other!" Aaron and Shane said together looking right at Ashleigh.
"You can't prove it!" Ashleigh said, popping one of Aaron's fries in her mouth.
"Well prove this!" Aaron said taking a fry covered in ketchup and drawing a streak across Ashleigh's cheek.
"Uh! I can't believe you just did that! Fine, we'll play your way." Ashleigh said smearing honey mustard on Aaron's nose.
"Now that was uncalled for." Aaron said.
"No, this is uncalled for!" Shane said squeezing a whole packet of ketchup onto Aaron's head. "I challenge you to a duel!" Shane said, standing on the bed that he and Aaron and Ashleigh had been sitting on.
"You're on! Whoever wins gets the pretty lady!" Aaron said pointing to Ashleigh.
The other 4 teenagers began to laugh and Ashleigh quickly climbed off the bed before the fight began.
"You know Quatre, I think Aaron might have a thing for Ashleigh." Heero said as the 3 adults watched Shane and Aaron hit each other with pillows.
"What? No, you're just imagining it." Quatre said. "Ashleigh is not allowed to like boys."
"Haha, welcome to the future!" Trowa said. "It's obvious."
"Well I don't like teenage boys and Ashleigh isn't allowed to like them either until she's 30...at least!" Quatre said, the 'father of a daughter' side of him showing.
"Aaron's a good boy, I don't think you'll have to worry about anything." Heero said.
"Well I'm glad it's your son and not some random guy at her school or something." Quatre said with a smile.
"They grow up fast." Trowa said.
"Amen to that!" Quatre agreed.
"Which is why we must do everything we can to keep them safe." Heero concluded.
To Be Continued...
Authors note: Oh boy...what have I gotten myself in to! Well the happy parts I promised were delivered! I know the plot didn't really go anywhere in this chapter but, oh well! Not much I can do now! Hope you enjoyed it! Don't forget to review!! (the person with the longest review gets another chapter...wait, everyone who reviews gets another chapter...shoot, everyone gets another chapter anyway! But if you review I feel better about my self and don't have to go to counseling...did I just say that out loud? Haha, j/k!)
Reviewer response:
Part 7
Wet and tiered, three fathers and six teenagers checked into a run down hotel. Quatre and Trowa went out to get some food since they weren't able to eat any of the dinner that Wufei had gotten. All the kids crashed together in one of the three rooms hat had been rented and turned on the TV while Heero called Wufei in the room one over. Ashleigh fell asleep right away on one of the double beds in the room while Kari and Bryant sat on the other. Shane, Aaron, and Justin were on the floor with a few pillows and after a while Shane started snoring. Heero walked back in and announced that he was going to take a shower. A few minutes later Heero emerged from the bathroom and grumbled something about there not being any hot water.
"Listen kids, I'm gonna go take a shower in the other room if you need me." Heero said.
"Okay dad." Aaron said.
"Keep the door locked. Quatre, Trowa and I all have keys so we wont knock, if someone knocks don't answer it because it isn't one of us."
"Okay dad." Aaron answered once again.
"Don't leave this room for any reason." Heero waited for the 'okay dad' from his son but it never came. "Aaron?" Heero said a second later.
"Okay dad." Aaron said his eyes never leaving the TV screen.
"Teenagers!" Heero grumbled as he turned to leave.
"Okay dad!" Aaron said as his father left the room.
"Very funny Aaron." Heero yelled back right before he shut the door. Heero's last words to his son woke Shane up.
"What?" What did I miss?" Shane asked.
"Nothing." Aaron said. "Just my dad lecturing us on not leaving the room."
"Oh..." Shane said sitting up a little and balling up the pillow he was lying on before he laid back down on it.
Watching Shane reminded Aaron of how uncomfortable he was on the floor so he stood up and sat on the edge of the bed. The bed sank a lot and a blonde head rolled into Aaron's back. Ashleigh had fallen asleep lying on the bed from side to side instead of top to bottom. The extra weight on the bed caused her head to roll over to one side and she woke up. Aaron turned and looked at Ashleigh as she opened her eyes.
"Oh I'm sorry, did I wake you up?" Aaron asked, standing up.
"No, it's okay." Ashleigh said sitting up.
"Are you sure because I can move back onto the floor." Aaron said.
"No really, it's okay." Ashleigh said as she scooted up and sat on the edge of the bed.
Aaron nodded and sat back down beside Ashleigh. A few minutes later Ashleigh got up and walked toward the door.
"Where are you going? We're not supposed to leave the room." Aaron said.
"Oh...well I have a headache, do you have any Tylenol?"
"No, my dad might but he's in the shower and I wouldn't know where it would be."
"Well I'll be okay. It's just one room over. I'll be back in 5 minutes." Ashleigh said as she opened the door a crack.
Aaron got up. "Well I'll go with you just to be safe."
"You don't have to."
"Yes I do, cause I'd feel really bad if something happened to you because I let you leave the room when I wasn't supposed to. Besides, it's always good for young ladies to have strong young men to protect them." Aaron said as he made a show of flexing his 16-year-old muscles.
Ashleigh smiled and rolled her eyes as she and Aaron walked out the door.
Quatre and Trowa returned about the same time Heero got out of the shower.
"We picked up Wendy's for everyone, I hope that's okay." Quatre said.
"Oh food, I'm starving!" Shane said as soon as his teenage boy food radar woke up him.
"Where's Ashleigh?" Quatre asked after a quick sweep of the room.
"Oh she and Aaron went to her room to get something." Shane said between mouthfuls.
"I told him not to leave the room." Heero said as he and Quatre hurried out the door.
Aaron waited by the door while Ashleigh took 2 Tylenol with a glass of water in the bathroom.
"Are you okay?" Aaron asked when Ashleigh came out.
"Yeah, I'll be fine as soon as the medicine kicks in."
"You know, I was thinking...um...maybe when this is all over, you might like to...well...uh...go out sometime?" Aaron stumbled through the question quickly.
Ashleigh smiled. "Well you'll have to talk to my dad about that..."
Aaron looked confused. He wasn't sure if that was a 'yes' or a 'no' and he wasn't sure if he should really ask her dad or just drop it.
"But I'll try to nudge him the right direction." Ashleigh said with a wink.
Aaron smiled and walked with Ashleigh back to the other room but both were taken by surprise when they ran into their fathers on the sidewalk outside.
"Aaron! What are you doing? I told you specifically not to leave the room!" Heero said, scolding his son.
"Ashleigh, you know better than to disobey." Quatre said.
"I'm sorry dad but I had a headache and I really needed medicine and I was going to go by my self but Aaron offered to come with so me so that I wouldn't have to go alone."
"It couldn't wait until I got back?"
"Well I didn't know how long you were going to be and I was sleepy so I wasn't thinking straight."
"Yeah, sorry dad, I was just trying to do the right thing." Aaron said to his father.
"If it makes you feel any better, he tried to talk me out of going." Ashleigh said to Heero as she tried to stick up for Aaron.
"It's okay." Quatre said, hugging his daughter. "Just be more careful next time."
"Yeah, it was good for 2 of you to go together but next time, if you really have to leave without an adult, go in a larger group." Heero said.
"Come on, we have Wendy's in the room." Quatre said walking back into the room.
The kids were now wide-awake, food will do that to teenagers, and they were talking loudly and all were gathered on both of the beds. Heero, Quatre, and Trowa all crowded around the small table near the door.
"So Heero, did you talk to Wufei?" Quatre asked.
"Oh yes, he said that Duo is fine and that they will release him sometime tonight so we should expect them back. And they know the identity of the attacker."
"Who is it?" Trowa asked.
"Mariemaia."
"No way, that's not possible." Quatre said. "The Mariemaia I knew had bright red hair and that girl had brown."
"Wufei said that it was colored."
"Who is she working for?" Trowa wondered out loud.
"That's what we need to find out." Heero said.
'Well what if she was kidnapped like our kids?" Quatre asked.
"She would be like, what? 25, 26 now? It's kind of hard to kidnap someone that age!" Heero said.
"Besides, we would have heard something of it." Trowa said.
"You're right. So that means that she was working for whomever by will." Quatre said.
"Well Une is flying in tonight and when she gets to the hospital Wufei is going to call us. I'd really like to talk to her." Heero said.
Quatre and Trowa both nodded in agreement.
"...so then the guy got mad at me and I was like, dude, I work here! Go away!" The group of teenagers broke into laughter at what Shane had said. Shane laughed too and stole one of Bryant's fries.
Aaron leaned over to Ashleigh and pointed at the half empty carton. "Shane has taken at least half and Bryant still hasn't noticed."
Ashleigh then reached over herself and stole one of Bryant's fries.
Kari smiled a little as she had seen all the times someone had taken a fry; she then took one for herself. After the laughter died down a little bit Bryant reached for one of his fries and realized that half of them were missing.
"Alright, who took my fries?" Bryant asked looking around the room.
"It was Aaron." Shane said.
"What? Dude, you did it first!" Aaron said pointing a fry at Shane.
"It was both." Ashleigh whispered to Bryant.
"Oh yeah, and one other!" Aaron and Shane said together looking right at Ashleigh.
"You can't prove it!" Ashleigh said, popping one of Aaron's fries in her mouth.
"Well prove this!" Aaron said taking a fry covered in ketchup and drawing a streak across Ashleigh's cheek.
"Uh! I can't believe you just did that! Fine, we'll play your way." Ashleigh said smearing honey mustard on Aaron's nose.
"Now that was uncalled for." Aaron said.
"No, this is uncalled for!" Shane said squeezing a whole packet of ketchup onto Aaron's head. "I challenge you to a duel!" Shane said, standing on the bed that he and Aaron and Ashleigh had been sitting on.
"You're on! Whoever wins gets the pretty lady!" Aaron said pointing to Ashleigh.
The other 4 teenagers began to laugh and Ashleigh quickly climbed off the bed before the fight began.
"You know Quatre, I think Aaron might have a thing for Ashleigh." Heero said as the 3 adults watched Shane and Aaron hit each other with pillows.
"What? No, you're just imagining it." Quatre said. "Ashleigh is not allowed to like boys."
"Haha, welcome to the future!" Trowa said. "It's obvious."
"Well I don't like teenage boys and Ashleigh isn't allowed to like them either until she's 30...at least!" Quatre said, the 'father of a daughter' side of him showing.
"Aaron's a good boy, I don't think you'll have to worry about anything." Heero said.
"Well I'm glad it's your son and not some random guy at her school or something." Quatre said with a smile.
"They grow up fast." Trowa said.
"Amen to that!" Quatre agreed.
"Which is why we must do everything we can to keep them safe." Heero concluded.
To Be Continued...
Authors note: Oh boy...what have I gotten myself in to! Well the happy parts I promised were delivered! I know the plot didn't really go anywhere in this chapter but, oh well! Not much I can do now! Hope you enjoyed it! Don't forget to review!! (the person with the longest review gets another chapter...wait, everyone who reviews gets another chapter...shoot, everyone gets another chapter anyway! But if you review I feel better about my self and don't have to go to counseling...did I just say that out loud? Haha, j/k!)
Reviewer response: