~ Jessica ~

After leaving Bridget to her filing, I made my way back to the office where Heero and I were code-cracking. This was fairly easy for me, and apparently, for him, too. I was glad I had been paired with an intelligent Gundam; however, his lack of speech unnerved me. I tend to talk. A lot. I sat down at my computer and sighed. Heero looked up at me. I turned to face him.

"Do you ever talk?"

"When I feel the need to," he replied, wearing a pokerface. I was thoughtful.

"You never just chat with people? Talk for the sake of talking? Discuss ideas?" He sighed and replied that, yes, he does that, just not as often as some people. Stung, I turned back to my work. I know I talk a lot, but it's not a bad thing! *hmph*

After a few moments of silence, I clicked enter and broke into a triumphant grin. "Got it." Heero looked at me, startled.

"You cracked the code?" He seemed like he didn't believe me and leaned over my desk to check my screen. His mouth hung open. I shrugged, ducked under his arm and stood up to stretch. "Should we take it to Lady Une's office?" He asked. I nodded and rang her office over the comm. A few minutes later we were standing in the office.

"Heero and I have deciphered the terrorist code, Lady Une," I stated, and passed her the print-outs. We were then dismissed. I headed to my room and flopped on my bed.

~ How can he be the head of the Gundams? He seems so... distant to everyone. Although I guess that makes it easier to command people. Not that he's doing that here. ~ I felt the need to go for a walk, and after putting on my coat (it was crisp out!) I headed outdoors. For some reason, I felt depressed. I didn't know why. I began to sing softly to myself, it sometimes cheers me up. Or at least, lets me express how I feel...

"You were once my friend and father, you were all that mattered, you were once my one companion, then my world was shattered. Wishing you were somehow here again, wishing you were somehow near...." Phantom of the Opera is one of my favorite musicals. I like a lot of musicals, but a handful stand out in my list, and this is definitely one of them. I continued with the song, not realizing how loud I was till the part, "too many years, fighting back tears, why can't the past just die?" Then I heard a noise behind me and turned in fighting stance to face.... Heero. He back away as I dropped my stance.

"Sorry, I didn't know anyone was here," I said softly.

"It's ok, I'm sorry I bothered you," his voice was equally soft. He turned quickly and left. I was surprised that he hadn't said something about my being so loud, that he had even said anything at all. The boy confused me, and I am not easily confused.

~ Heero ~

Preventor Tsunami... er, Jessica... and I had been working on the terrorist code for at least two hours when she finally just left the room. She was extremely intelligent from what I'd heard and seen. Working with her would prove a challenge I certainly felt up to. She talked a lot, it didn't really bother me, as much as amaze me. How can someone ramble like that? I stretched and returned to my work as she came back in and resumed her typing. Then she asked me about my lack of speech. My answers apparently didn't satisfy her, but she didn't pursue it.

After a while, Jessica broke into a grin and said, "Got it." I didn't believe her that she'd cracked the code, but she had. ~No way. I was near to cracking it, she couldn't have beaten me to it. This girl is something else. They said she was smart but to beat even me to the solution? Wow.~ She had gotten up and soon we had presented the entire code to Lady Une. I searched for, and finally found, Bridget and Kat and helped them with their filing a little. The weather was nice and cold, and I headed outside after a while. The leaves had just begun changing on the trees, it was peaceful. Then I heard singing, it was a faint sound, but it grew louder as the song continued, and I walked toward the music. I turned a corner and found myself on a little bit of a cliff, looking out over a panaramic view of the valley. In the middle of it was Jessica, bundled up tightly against the wind, singing. Her voice was amazing, and full of emotion. I felt like I had walked into the middle of something private but I couldn't bring myself to turn around. Just then, she did, and as she did, she put herself into a combative stance. I instinctively backed up. She loosened when she saw it was me, and I apologized and hurried away.

I couldn't get her voice out of my head, it was haunting how she had sung. There was something behind it, something deep that I didn't want to try and figure out. She had seemed so upset, but that wasn't quite right. The words of the song were melancholy; that must've been why she seemed upset. I tried to block the whole thing from my mind and focus on the filing I was helping Bridget and Kat finish.

I knew being a Preventor would be a challenge, but I didn't think it was anything the Gundams couldn't handle. This would be interesting, indeed.