Barton's Legacy
By West Wind
Rating: PG
Summary: Two Preventer agents show up to inform Catherine that Trowa was injured in an accident during a training outing, but there is more to it than a mere accident.
Disclaimer: Don't own the world of Gundam Wing just like to visit.
~ Chapter 2 ~
Quatre walked back to Lady Une's office, and her secretary informed him that she was in a conference for the next hour. Quatre nodded and changed his goal to the forensic department to see what he could learn.
Quatre pushed open the door marked forensic lab and casually entered.
"Quatre, nice to see you," Mark greeted looking up from his microscope and smiling at the blond.
"Hey, Mark. How are thing going?" Quatre asked the man in the white lab coat.
"Busy all of the sudden, and I bet that is what has brought you down to my hidden domain," Mark smiled. "People only venture here when they need something."
"I have come down numerous times just to chat," Quatre voiced his defense.
"That you have, Quatre, my boy," agreed the older man. "But, you have that look about you today of I need info."
"There you would be correct," sighed Quatre. "Do I even have to tell you what I want to know?"
"No," said Mark as he got off his stool and walked to his desk.
After riffling through a stack of folders, Mark pulled out the one he was looking for. He opened it on the island lab bench in the center of the room.
"I figured you or one of the others would be down here eventually, so I put together the info I currently have," Mark said spreading the information out. "Here are photos of the area of the explosion, and here is one of the devices. Most of it was destroyed in the blast, but you can see here and here," he used his pencil to point out the items of interest, "where the signal receiver was and the ignition mechanism. My guess is that the bomber created the device to produce just enough energy to set off the rest of the ammo in the truck, like a fire in with the fireworks. BOOM! No real control of the direction of the explosion, but if someone is close enough, that does not matter. They will be caught in the blast like your friend."
Quatre nodded at Mark's explanation.
"Any information on the parts used to make the device?" Quatre asked.
"I have a list of the items used or that I suspected were used," Mark said. "The list with any information to the part is in the folder."
"Anything else you can tell me?"
"The person was not a professional but knew enough to accomplish his goal. The device was more a scrap together at home concoction than what someone doing this kind of thing day in and day out would use. The receiver was taken out of a standard communication device. Much like we use on the field."
"Really," said Quatre contemplatingly.
"I think the other information in here is self explanatory," Mark said as he gathered up the papers and handed Quatre the file.
"Thanks," said Quatre accepting the item. "I never asked you anything about this," Quatre added with a wink.
"You never do," Mark returned. "Just stopped by for a visit."
Quatre smiled before heading back out the way he had entered. He glanced at his watch. Lady Une should be out of her meeting any time now. He would try getting in to see her again.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Duo escorted Catherine to the hospital. The guards allowed them to enter Trowa's room.
There was no change in Trowa's condition, and Catherine seemed almost disappointed. He still lay there pale and attached to a variety of items. His breathing was steady, but that was the only physical sign to indicate he lived.
Catherine took a seat by Trowa's bed. In a sisterly manner, she pushed the errant strands of hair into their original homes. Her fingers lingered over his bruising cheek.
"You just would not believe all that has happened at the circus," she began pulling her hand away from his face and placing it over his. "We stopped at some new places. The people loved us! We performed sold out shows for three nights at the new colony within L1.
"Then there are the new acts," she said and launched into a detailed explanation of them for the unconscious man.
Duo claimed a second chair and took up his watch of the two. He watched for any sign of danger and listened to the sounds from the hall isolating and analyzing before dismissing those that sounded suspicious. He found the rest of his attention being caught up in Catherine's account of daily circus life. At first, he thought it odd, but the more he considered it, it made since. It was a means to one - let Trowa know she was here, and two - keep herself from dwelling on the state of her brother. Her talking kept her occupied and not having to focus on the looming problem she could do nothing about. It was something Duo knew too well how to do.
Footsteps neared the door. Duo readied himself to pull his gun if needed, but he eased his hand away as the doctor entered.
"Any new news?" Catherine halted her narrative to ask the man.
"Mr. Barton appears to be well on his way to recovery, and the worst is probably over. It just remains to be seen when he will regain consciousness."
Sorrow filled Catherine's eyes at the news, but she forced a smile on her face.
"Thank you for the update."
Duo could see how this was grieving the woman, yet she stood up under the adversity with strength Duo admired. She was determined to not let it get to her, and there was a small speck of hope about her.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Quatre slipped into Lady Une's office. She smiled at the blond as he closed the door. He slipped behind her chair and wrapped his arms around her before placing a kiss on her cheek.
"Hello, love," he whispered in her ear.
Lady Une sighed contently in his embrace before cutting to the main reason her fiancé was here.
"It is in here," she said tapping the data disk with the tip of her finger. "There is a list of those with Trowa and copies of their statements, at least the ones that have been currently questioned."
Quatre softly laughed.
"Always anticipating what will be needed next," he teased.
"It goes with the job," she explained with a smile.
Quatre shifted to sit on the corner of her desk.
"So what do you think is going on?" he asked her.
She leaned back in her chair regarding Quatre with a pondering look.
"I'm not sure. We have no hint of any movement trying to organize against the established government. No one has claimed responsibility. There are just none of our usual indicators about this. It falls more into the lone gunman category," she sighed perplexed.
"An individual with a grudge, a score to settle, or a point to make," summarized Quatre resting his chin in one hand pondering. "But, is it personal."
"It's always personal in some way," Lady Une said.
Quatre nodded. There was always a personal reason for such acts whether it was the individual's sense of right and wrong, supremacy, desire for power, or desire to protect others.
"The next question is who or what is the target? Is it all Preventer agents, the Gundam pilots, or only someone in Trowa's group? But, they think Trowa's presence was the key to the detonation," Quatre continued to analyze possibilities. "Why? We are left with a lot of questions that need answered," he sighed and picked up the data disk. "I'll take a look at this and see whom I might need to visit," he smiled innocently, batting his big blue eyes.
Even in his early thirties, Quatre retained some of his youthful innocent appearance and knew how to use it to his advantage when needed, often using it on his fiancée.
Quatre pulled Lady Une's chair closer, leaned down, and placed a kiss on her lips.
"You're incorrigible," she said smiling as she gave him a push to get out of her office.
Quatre gave her a smile and casually strolled out the door with the new information.
As Lady Une watched him leave, she knew she was a very lucky woman.
"And to think, at one time I was out to kill him and his friends," she softly chuckled to herself. "Life is full of surprises."
She had worshiped Treize in her younger days and did what she thought was right to achieve his goals. She often resorted to brutality to fulfill the idealism. For such actions, Treize reprimanded her misguided actions and pointed out the error of her way on a couple of occasions. Une took the reprimands to heart and tried to understand the man better.
She had thought she was in love with him, and she was. However, it was the love and respect for a mentor and teacher. She was more in awe with him than love. Even to this day she tried to honor Treize's memory. She had raised his daughter the best she knew how, and she believed Treize would be pleased with the young woman Marimeia had become.
After Treize's death, Lady Une thought she would never love again, but she was wrong….
Seven years after the last war, Wufei and Sally uncovered a group massing arms to attack the now peaceful world. It was large, and Wufei recruited his fellow ex-pilots to help take it down. The five swiftly and efficiently took them out using Quatre's plan. After that, they all became fulltime.
Their addition was a blessing to the agency. Not only were they great field agents, but they were also good trainers. If a group could hold their own pitted against the five Gundam pilots, then they were ready to be sent out on assignment.
As for her and Quatre, he had always been kind and friendly to her, as he was with all people. If she had to pin down a moment when their friendship started to head down the road to romance, it had to be the Monday after she had sent Marimeia off to college. The weekend had been wonderful and sad. Lady Une was so proud of her daughter as she took her next step to independence, yet it saddened her to know that her little girl she loved so much was growing up. The empty house waiting for Anna Une only brought out the dark depressed feelings she was having. Those feelings followed her to work the next day
~~ Flash Back ~~
Lady Une sat the cafeteria tray down the table. She had chosen an empty table and sat. She absentmindedly poked at her food as she continued to fight with her gloomy emotions. She knew Marimeia had to step out on her own. That was the way of life, but it did not keep Anna from mourning the loss of that part of her life.
She heard someone sit beside her.
"I should have eaten lunch in my office," she thought since she wanted to be alone.
"Feeling lost without Marimeia?" questioned a kind voice.
Anna looked surprised into Quatre's concerned smiling face.
"That obvious," she sighed.
Quatre nodded.
"Want to talk about it?" he asked.
At first, she was going to refuse, but the indescribable look of care, compassion, and understanding in his eyes compelled her to talk. She found herself pouring her soul out to Quatre who understandingly nodded and offered support. She was amazed at how much better she felt after talking to him.
"You should take up a hobby, get out and visit people," he suggested. "Duo and I are going to a movie on Wednesday. Want to go with us?" he invited.
Lady Une had always tried to keep herself from socializing a lot with those under her, but this time she tossed that rule aside and agreed to go.
~~ End Flash Back ~~
That one movie outing led to other outings with Quatre. They talked and laughed. Anna found that she enjoyed his friendship. Being with him made her happy. She found him filling her thoughts more each day till the day she realized she was falling in love with him.
"Lady Une, your next appointment is here to see you," buzzed the intercom.
Her secretary's voice called Lady Une back to the present and the task at hand.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wufei scanned the security tapes and querying reports from the last two weeks looking for something unusual. He particularly focused on the areas where Trowa's group would have been. The probability of him finding something was close to nil, but they currently had few leads and were grasping at straws.
The ammo truck sat securely in its garage. Trowa assigned a group of the trainees to load the truck. The group of five started carrying the explosives onto the truck. There was nothing unusual about it. Wufei hit the fast forward. The cadets moved quickly back and forth with the playback speed. They finished the task and closed up for the night. The lights dimmed and Wufei watched for movement around the truck.
He growled and hit the rewind button. He directed the recording to move forward slowly with eyes focussed on the screen. There it was. There was definite movement within the truck then it stopped. Wufei watched for signs of the intruder leaving but found none. He watched it once more before turning to the recordings from other cameras near by.
All he found was possible lurkers in the shadows. Perplexed, Wufei opted to change tactics and pulled up the access codes used to enter the building.
"There," Wufei muttered finding a code used not long after midnight.
He cross-referenced the code with the records. It was Trowa's.
Wufei tossed his hands in the air with frustration of the dead end. He leaned back in his chair running his hands over his smoothly pulled back hair.
He jumped startled when his phone rang. He pulled it from his belt.
"Chang," he answered.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Snapping his phone closed, Heero turned it off so it would not interrupt him anymore. He turned back to his keyboard and examined the set of three screens before him. There was something not right, and he could not put his finger on it. Every time he got close, he was interrupted. He started quickly moving through the information. He moved from screen to screen cross checking information. He hit the enter key. Something was not right. He pulled up the section of the file he had just been looking at and compared it to information on the other two.
There was something amiss, and he started a search based on the item of discrepancy he had found. Unlike the other oddities he had found this one had promise. It had all the earmarks of a hack job. He crossed his fingers and waited for the information search to complete.
"This is where you are hiding," said Sally as she poked her head into the room.
Heero smiled up at his wife as she entered closing the door behind her.
"And, it does not look like you will be living anytime soon either," she said observing the screens full of information and the running search. "Problem?"
"Possibly," he answered.
"Security breach?" she asked.
"Not sure yet," he replied.
"Well, I guess you won't be home for dinner," she sighed.
"Probably not," he agreed catching her hand and bringing it to his lips.
She grinned down at him.
"Just get home before I have to put Lydia to bed. She will want to see her daddy and have him read her a story."
"I'll be there, and once I get her to bed, we can have some time together."
Sally bent over and placed a kiss on top of his unruly locks.
"I'll see you when you get home," she said with a sensual smirk.
She slowly pulled her hand from Heero's grasp. The tips of their fingers lingering before she pulled away and headed out the door.
Heero watched her leave and returned back to his computer screens to examine the search results.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The light from the setting sun spilled through the hospital window catching Duo in the face. He glanced at he watch and his stomach rumbled. Catherine had spent the entire afternoon at Trowa's bedside talking to him.
"Are you getting hungry?" Duo asked Catherine more concerned about his hunger than hers.
She regarded him with red rimmed eyes. She had been silently crying, and he had not noticed. He felt like such a heel, yet what could he do.
"Now that you mention it, I am," she responded catching an escaping tear with her sleeve.
"I need to make a call before we leave," Duo said as he pulled out his phone.
He punched in some numbers and received no answer. He tried another number with success.
"Wu-man!" Duo happily chirped.
"Maxwell," growled Wufei, "what do you want?"
"Catherine and I thought we would grab a bit to eat. You want to take next watch?"
Wufei grumbled but decided he needed to get out of the cramped dim lit screening room.
"I'll be there in a few minutes," he assented before hanging up.
Duo put his phone away and smiled at Catherine.
"So, what do you want to do for dinner?" Duo asked.
"I don't know. About anything I guess," she answered pulling her light jacket on.
"When Wufei gets here, we will go," Duo informed her.
Catherine nodded before walking to the window to watch what she could see of the setting sun.
Wufei entered the room some time later and glanced over at the unconscious Trowa. Wufei was obviously taken aback by Trowa's condition but said nothing.
"Are you wanting to come back after eating?" Duo asked Catherine after Wufei entered.
"No, we can just go home," she answered drained.
"I can come back after taking Catherine home," Duo said turning to Wufei, "so you can get back to you wife."
"Quatre said he would be in later, so don't worry about it," Wufei assured.
Duo offered Catherine an arm and escorted her out.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Duo held the door of the quaint local dinner. From its appearance, it was nothing special, but the food was good and reasonably priced. Catherine entered and her eyes roamed the small seating area.
Tables, chairs, and booths lined the walls with a row of tables between. The small dinner could probably only hold fifty people or so. A long stool lined bar stretched off to the left of the cash register in the middle of the room. The chalkboard behind the counter displayed the day's special in colored lettering, and a "please seat yourself" sign stood before them.
"Over there," said Duo as he identified an empty booth in the well filled restaurant and guiding her in the right direction with a hand at the small of her back.
Catherine spotted the table and proceeded to it. She slid across the cool plastic bench and glanced at the place mat before her. It was filled with advertisements for local businesses.
"Hi 'a, Duo," smiled the waitress as she placed the menu's before them.
She was an older woman with silver hair cut just above her shoulders. Her wire-rimmed glasses were sliding down her nose, and she absentmindedly pushed them back in place. Her light colored blouse showed evidence of her job with various well set food stains.
"Evening, Char," Duo chimed.
"Hot date?" she asked with a friendly wink at Catherine.
Duo actually blushed slightly at the suggestion.
"No," he corrected. "This is Catherine, Trowa's sister."
"So you're Catherine," Char grinned while chopping on her gum. "He told me of you. I'm glad to see you finally made it for a visit. Where is tall, silent, and hansom?" she asked of Duo.
"Um, he had some complications at work that are keeping him from joining us," Duo honestly answered.
"It happens," Char said. "Watch ya' having to drink?"
"Water," answered Catherine.
"Ice tea," said Duo.
"I got it. Be back later for your order," Char said.
"I take it you guys come here often," said Catherine.
"Once or twice a week," answered Duo as he scanned the menu. "Usually for lunch."
Catherine glanced over her menu and decided she would order the special of fish with a roll and two sides.
Char came back with their drinks and took their order. After Char left, Catherine turned her head and watched the traffic pass on the other side of the window. Her mind drifting back to Trowa and not what she was watching.
"Thinking about Trowa?" asked Duo softly.
The look of concern that had settled across her face morphed into a polite smile as she slowly tuned her head to regard Duo.
"Yes," she answered. "There were times today there I thought he was going to come around," she sighed and rested her chin in her hand.
"The doctor said that was normal. Trowa will drift in and out of consciousness for a while," Duo said. "Don't worry, he will pull through," Duo smiled while he placed a consoling hand over hers.
The warmth he radiated felt good on her cold hand.
"That's what I am hopping," she said solemnly.
Duo pulled back his hand after a reassuring squeeze and turned the topic of discussion to other topics.
"How's the circus?" he inquired.
"It's doing well," she answered.
Catherine proceeded to tell him of the places they had visited on their travels till Char returned with their food.
Dinner was good, and Duo took Catherine home afterwards.
"I'm going to bed," she announced hiding a yawn behind her hand.
"Good night Catherine," Duo called as she walked up the stairs.
"Hello, Catherine," greeted Quatre passing her as he descended the stairs and buttoning his cuffs. "Duo, have a moment?"
Duo looked up at his blond housemate who had obviously just showered. Strands of damp blond hair clung to the sides of his face. He was dressed in a crisp white shirt with a gray vest and just as crisply pressed black pants.
"Going out?" Duo asked.
"I'm meeting Anna for a late dinner before relieving Wufei," he explained.
Duo nodded.
With a quick guarded look, Quatre glanced up the stairway before pulling Duo into one of the other room.
"Both Wufei and Heero have found possible leads," Quatre told Duo in a hushed voice.
Duo's violet eyes widened excitedly.
"Do we know who?" he asked.
Quatre shook his head no.
"They are still trying to sort out their leads," Quatre informed. "Wufei wanted you to check out what he found," said Quatre handing the previously un-noticed information disk case with the surveillance video on it to Duo.
Duo looked at the case after accepting it from Quatre.
"Heero wanted to have a meeting tomorrow morning to cover what we have found. Well, got to go," cheerfully called the blond before dashing out the door.
Duo watched Quatre leave before letting out a tired sigh. He made sure the house was locked up and went to see what was on the disk. Popping the plastic disk into the computer, Duo sat back and waited for Wufei's findings to come up and read the note Wufei had in the case. Duo quickly decided he needed to see this on a larger screen and hooked the computer to the TV. He played the clips over and over watching for different things each time.
A knowing smile stretched across the braided man's face as something caught his eye. He replayed it, zoomed in, and knew he was right. He had to be. He knew how the person had got in. Satisfaction filled Duo as he put things back the way they should be and secured the disk. He would tell the others in their meeting tomorrow.
It was late, and Duo trudged up the stairs to grab some sleep. He did a quick check on Catherine, who was sound asleep. He pushed his door closed and started discarding his clothing letting it land where it may. Striped down to his boxers, he crawled into the alluring bed. He rolled onto his side, pulled the blankets to his chin, and quickly drifted off to sleep.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Heero unhunched himself from over the keyboard and rolled his shoulders to get the kinks out. He glanced at the time on the computer screen. It was closing in on seven. He was going to head home. There was nothing more he was going to find tonight.
Once he got the results from the search on the discrepancy he earlier discovery, he started trying to follow the leads it gave him. It had not taken him long to modify one of his existing "ferret" programs to search through the old records for records accessed on the date and time of the infiltration. He also added information accessed under Trowa's ID code because of what Wufei had found.
Wufei had stopped by on his way out. He gave Heero the highlight of his afternoon of video viewing. The interesting bit of information was the use of Trowa's code to enter the building.
Obviously the man setting the explosions had some how accessed Trowa's pass code, and Heero wanted to know what else the code was used to access.
Heero did not know if the two incidents had anything to do with each other. However, that made for two security breaches into their system, and he wanted to find the culprit of both.
It had taken him longer to set up a few watchdog and tracking programs incase they tried to get into the system again. He crafted them so their addition would not be obvious. As for the rest of the computer security, he did not want to change anything obvious that might warn the intruders that their traipsing through the Preventer computer system had been discovered.
Heero made sure the search program was going well before he turned off the lights and locked up.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Daddy!" delightedly shouted Lydia as her father entered the house.
The four-year-old dashed to Heero. He dropped his jacket into the nearby chair with one arm and scooped her up with the other. She wrapped arms around his neck and legs around his body clinging to him like she had not seen him in a month.
"Your home, your home, your home," she chanted before breaking into her day events at pre-school.
"And Sammy brought a frog for show and tell. It escaped at recess, and we chased it aaallover the room." She tilted her little head back and inhaled as she extended the all in allover. She continued to animatedly move her head back and forth with her story. Her blond curls bopped with her movement. "We had to stay in because it was raining," she pouted. "We finally found Lee."
"Who's Lee?" asked Heero.
"The FROG," Lydia said indignantly at her father's ignorance.
If her hands were not locked around Heero's neck, they would be on her hips in one of her imitations of her mother when flustered.
"Teacher was mad that we let Lee escape. She does not like frogs very much."
"You're dinner is heating up," Sally informed Heero as he entered the kitchen with his energetic daughter.
Heero acknowledged Sally with a smile before sitting at the table, all the while Lydia keep up her stream of talking.
"And after school," she said as she settled into the seat next to Heero, "Sammy and I went out in his back yard and played in the mud puddles till his sister told on us. Then Sammy's mom put a stop to it and made us clean up. I think we essazpirate her," Lydia fumbled trying to get her mouth around the word exasperate.
Heero chuckled softly. They should take Hilde out for dinner or something for watching Lydia in the afternoons after school while he and Sally worked. Once they found out that Sammy and Lydia were in the same class, Hilde offered to take Lydia home with her when she picked up Sammy on the days Sally worked. In return, Sally would watch the kids on the one or two afternoons she was off per week.
Sally placed the plate of food before Heero before returning to the laundry in the other room.
"Can I have some?" Lydia asked eyeing the plate on the table.
Heero nodded, and she snagged a cooked carrot off the plate and started munching.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Heero pulled the door shut behind him.
"She is in bed," he said as he sat down beside his wife on the sofa.
Heero had spent the past hour playing and entertaining his daughter before getting her ready for bed. He read her a bedtime story till she drifted off to sleep, which did not take long after her busy day.
Sally leaned her head on Heero's shoulder and enjoyed the brief moment they had together.
"It sounds like Hilde and Wufei's son is a handful," Heero observed.
"And our daughter is right up there with him," Sally pointed out with a small laugh.
Heero wrapped his arm around her and placed a kiss on her forehead.
"I know, but she is ours," he said with a hint of how deeply he cared for his family and pride in those few words.
"How would you feel about another one?" Sally asked looking up at him with her large blue eyes.
A smile pulled at her lips.
"The doctor verified today that I am pregnant."
Heero always being a man of action showed her with a kiss how he felt about their new addition to the family.