Thanks once again to our favorite reviewer, sparda219. We love you! :)

Sorry about the longer wait between chapters. We would probably post a lot faster if we got more reviews... ::wink, wink, nudge, nudge::

Kazoku
by ReySolo and Tori Sakana

~~~~~~~~
Chapter 5 (In which Sifir gets a well-earned cuddle)
~~~~~~~~

After several hours, the cell door opened, and Sifir walked in, followed by Dr. White. Duo ran his eyes over his son, checking for the tiniest sign of injury. Finding none, he felt a slight sense of relief. He thought he saw a similar look of relief in his son's eyes upon seeing him, as well.

"You did well today, Sifir," the doctor said. "You'll have a few more tests tomorrow, and we should be able to start training soon."

The boy turned around to face her. "So is my behavior based only on punishment, or do I get rewarded for doing well, too?"

She looked impressed. "That depends. What reward did you have in mind?"

Sifir looked at Duo. "I know you're not going to let my dad go, but could you just look at his injury, at least give him something to make it feel better?"

Duo stared at his son. Not only was he solely concerned with his father's well-being, he obviously could also tell that the throbbing headache was still bothering him.

Dr. White gave Sifir a small smile. "I suppose we could manage something," she replied, exiting the room.

Duo warily watched her departure. He didn't trust that woman at all, even after the smile she gave Sifir. Perhaps even because of it. It appeared she was attempting to gain the boy's trust, and Duo knew that, especially at such an early age, trust could be quickly followed by obedience.

He turned to face his son. "What did they make you do?"

Sifir shrugged. "Some easy computer stuff, and basic reading and math and stuff."

Duo knew his son would have done quite well on that; Sifir was gifted even in comparison to his older siblings. He wasn't surprised that Dr. White had seemed impressed by his performance.

"She said the physical stuff is gonna be tomorrow," the boy added.

Stiffening, Duo glared at the door, as if the door itself was responsible for their predicament. Physical stuff. From what Dr. White had told them as yet, he had a fair idea what that was going to involve, and it scared him. He didn't fear that his son wouldn't be able to take it; the boy was stronger than he looked. But what exactly would follow the testing and training… "Sifir, I need you to promise me something."

His son looked at him, waiting for him to continue.

"I need you to promise that no matter what, you will not do anything to endanger yourself or any innocents, do you understand? And you will only even consider harming anyone if your own life is at stake."

Sifir stared at him, expressionless. "What about your life?"

Duo sighed, looking at his son seriously. "I can take care of myself. Hey, I was a Gundam pilot, a war hero, remember?"

The boy nodded hesitantly.

"You can go along with what they tell you for now. But if at any point your own life is in danger, don't think about me. Just get yourself out of the situation any way you can."

Sifir looked down at his feet.

"Promise me, Sifir," Duo pleaded.

The boy just shook his head.

"Promise me."

Sifir finally looked up, and Duo was shocked to see tears starting to form in his son's eyes. "Tousan told me never to make a promise that I might not be able to keep!" he burst out.

Duo winced, taking in a shaky breath. "Then plan to keep this one," he said firmly.

His son shook his head. "I can't, Dad." The tears began streaming down his face. "I don't want to lose you!"

His resolve melting at the sight of his son crying, Duo gave up on the subject for now. He got down on his knees and hugged his son tightly. "It's okay, Sifir. It's gonna be okay." He was close to tears himself.

Sifir's arms were wrapped around his father just as tightly. "Don't go anywhere, okay, Dad?"

"I won't," Duo assured his son. "I will do everything in my power to get us both out of here. I promise." He made a vow to himself that he would keep that promise. He would save his son and get them out of here. Or my name isn't Shinigami. [1]

~~~~~~~~

"The boy is weak."

Dr. White looked up from the screen displaying the activity in the cell, to her superior. "He's a four-year-old boy, who has just been taken against his will, forced to cooperate with complete strangers, and had his father's life threatened. I think crying is well within his rights." Realizing she may have been slightly overstepping her bounds, she added, "Sir."

The tall man with blond crew-cut hair raised an eyebrow. "Starting to become attached to the boy, are you, Doctor? Should I give this assignment to someone else?"

"No," she replied, hating how desperate her voice sounded to her own ears. Continuing more calmly, she continued, "No, he's used to me, I think I've started to earn his trust."

"After one day?" he asked disbelievingly.

"That's one extra day you'll have to spend if you assign him to someone else," she returned.

Her superior shrugged. "You will remain his trainer. For now. But if you continue to become more attached…"

Dr. White nodded. "I understand."

~~~~~~~~

Heero could tell Ventuno and Juuni were getting tired. They'd been walking through this forest for over an hour now, following Juuni's directions, and they'd not found a single hint of anyone or anything out of the ordinary. Juuni was walking slower and slower, her eyes getting less focused. Ven was trying to look like he could easily walk for another ten hours, but Heero could tell the exertion and stress were wearing on him as well.

Heero had called for several breaks already, and at this point he was almost ready to call this hunt to a stop entirely. While they had to find Duo and Sifir, this might not be the way to do it. What if this all ended up just being a wild goose chase? He didn't have the heart to tell his daughter her plan wasn't working, however.

He was about to call for another break, when Juuni suddenly stopped. Ven, who'd been walking close behind, almost bumped into her, losing his balance when he pulled to an abrupt halt. "Juuni, don't do that! You could've told me you were gonna stop!" he complained.

"Well, you shouldn't have been so close behind me, anyway!" she snapped back.

Heero sighed. The stress and frustration were definitely making the two more moody than usual. It didn't help that Duo was usually the one to take care of these two. Heero winced as he realized the implications of that thought. They didn't quite play favorites, but he realized he really did spend more time with Sifir than with the other two kids. It was just that Duo was more suited to deal with Juuni and Ven's antics, while he and Sifir had their own kind of rapport.

But now he had to deal with the older two, in order to find Duo and Sifir. That in mind, he turned to his daughter. "Juuni, why did you stop?"

She'd been looking around at the endless trees around them, and turned to her tousan when he spoke. Her eyes looked desperate. "It… it stops here. The signal says they should be right here!" She began to look around more frantically.

Heero felt his heart sink, but he tried to hold onto hope. He saw three possibilities: either there was some sort of underground facility, the signal really had been leading nowhere all along, or the device had been found and discarded somewhere around here. While the first option offered some hope, he found it very unlikely, especially since there was a high probability that being underground would entirely block any transmissions anyway.

Without replying, Heero began to look around the ground, under leaves, behind bushes, to find any indication of either an underground facility or the transmitter itself. Ven had apparently made some of the same conclusions, as he appeared to be doing the same thing. Juuni just looked around desperately, then began pounding on the receiver, trying to get it to tell her something more.

After a few minutes, Ven stood up slowly. "Is this it?" he asked solemnly, holding up a small flat disk.

Juuni took one look at it and burst into tears.

Ven looked stricken, and slowly reached out to put an arm around his sister. Heero watched them, realizing he'd never really had to comfort a crying child before. The last time he'd had to deal with one of them crying was when they were babies, and all that took was getting a bottle or walking them around the house a bit. Since then Duo had dealt with the older kids more, and Sifir just didn't cry.

Juuni took a deep breath and tried to stop crying. "I'm sorry, I'm being such a girl. I shouldn't cry like this, I'm so weak."

Ven squeezed her shoulders. "Hey, stop that. You've been spending too much time with Uncle Wuffie."

She laughed, brushing away most of her tears with her sleeve. Looking up at Heero, she asked, "What do we do now, Tousan?"

He put a comforting hand on Juuni's shoulder. "I know this seems like a dead end, but it isn't really. I can't see them going quite that far out of their way to throw us off, so this is probably a lot closer than we were before. We just have to pick up the trail again…" Noticing his daughter starting to lean more weight into her brother's arm, and Ven's stomach making suspicious noises, Heero continued, "But we'll do that tomorrow. We need to get some food and some sleep before we do anything more."

Ven looked ready to argue for a moment, but then a yawn interrupted him, and he nodded in resignation. "So where are we gonna go? We're hours from home."

Heero sighed, thinking for a moment. "We passed a small town not long before stopping to walk. We'll hike back to the car and then hopefully find a motel or something there." He looked at the sky through the trees, grateful that it was summer and it wouldn't be getting too dark before they got back to the car.

"And we'll find them tomorrow?" Juuni asked.

Heero gave her a sad smile. "We'll look for them again tomorrow," he answered, not willing to promise more than that.

The trio began their journey back to the car.

~~~~~~~~

When the door next opened, a gruff-looking man in a white lab coat entered. "I'm here to look at your head," he said without introduction.

Duo glared at him. "About time."

The doctor raised an eyebrow. "You are here because of that kid," he said bluntly, pointing at Sifir, who stared at him coldly. The doctor was unaffected. "They don't particularly care if you have a little headache."

"Yeah, that's what they tell me," Duo grumbled.

The man roughly looked him over, checking his pupils for dilation, having him answer a few simple questions. When he was done, the doctor announced, "It's not a concussion."

After a moment of silence, Sifir spoke up for the first time. "It still hurts him; can't you give him something to make it feel better?"

The doctor sighed, as if the mere thought of relieving Duo's pain was too much effort on his part. "Yeah, yeah… But only because they need you to cooperate, kid. Remember that."

The boy nodded, glaring at him.

The man pulled out a small bottle of pills. Violet eyes fixed on the bottle, Duo's glare vanishing instantly. His mouth was practically watering at the sight of that salvation from the constant pain.

The doctor opened the bottle and handed him two pills.

Duo was about to drop them down his throat and swallow them dry, when he froze. The glare returned, a suspicious quality in it this time. "How do I know they're pain relievers and not poison or something?"

"If they wanted you dead, they'd have shot you by now." When the braided man still appeared slightly wary, he shrugged, "Look, take them or don't; it's your headache."

That convinced him, and he popped the pills into his mouth and swallowed. As the doctor started to turn toward the door, Duo asked, "What if I need more later?"

"I'll give them to the guards to give you every few hours. They don't want you to have access to the whole bottle at once."

Realizing the implications of that statement, Duo shuddered. They think that I'd… that I'd leave Sifir here alone just to stop being used against him? Don't they think I'd realize that would probably traumatize him even more? He nodded.

"I'll be back soon with your dinner and some blankets," the doctor stated as he left. Speaking loudly enough for the prisoners to hear, he muttered, "Don't know why they give me these chores. I'm a doctor, not a babysitter…"

Duo's and Sifir's cold glares remained on him until he was out the door. [2]

~~~~~~~~

Heero parked the car in the parking lot of a small motel just as the last remnants of light were vanishing from the sky. They had made it back to the town, then stopped for a quick dinner; now Heero was going to make sure the kids got enough sleep before beginning the search anew.

When they entered the hotel lobby, Juuni was leaning on her brother's arm. Ven himself looked like the only thing keeping him awake was the knowledge that he was his sister's support.

Walking up to the desk, Heero noticed the clerk watching his children intently. He cleared his throat, looking at the man distrustfully.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Sir," the clerk apologized. "I just couldn't help but notice how tired your kids look. Had a hard day?"

Heero just glared at the man. "One room, two beds, one night."

The clerk nodded. "Of course, Sir. Can I get your name?"

"No," came the blunt reply. "I'll pay cash in advance. How much?"

The man raised his eyebrows. "Well, we do like to have a name for insurance purposes…"

"John Smith." They want a name, I'll give them a name. "How much?"

The clerk looked at him calculatingly, then typed something in on the ancient computer sitting on his desk. "Eighty dollars."

Heero was sure that was more than a cheap motel like this usually charged, but at this point he didn't care. He pulled out his wallet and handed over the specified amount of money.

"Room 106." The clerk handed him a key, and the three weary travelers headed off to their room. "Have a pleasant night, Mr. Smith!"

~~~~~~~~

The instant the three were out of the lobby, the clerk picked up the phone, dialing a number he had memorized. "They just got in," he told the voice that answered. "…Yeah, he had the girl and another kid with him. Do you want me to…? Okay, when do I get paid? … That's not the amount we agreed on! … I know, but… Fine. I'll call again when they leave tomorrow." He hung up the phone.

~~~~~~~~
TBC
~~~~~~~~

Footnotes:

[1] Heero: But your name isn't Shinigami…
Duo: Shut up, it was supposed to be dramatic. Besides, my name isn't exactly "Duo Maxwell," either…
Heero: Oh. Right.

[2] Originally, there was a different doctor, but he was just being too nice, and since Dr. White was already being nicer than I had intended, Tori and I decided we had to get rid of him. His name was Dr. McKay (if anyone knows that reference, they'll get a gold star—and no, it's not Star Trek... Though I suppose the "I'm a doctor, not a babysitter" was rather McCoy-ish...), and I've determined that he's still a doctor somewhere around the bad guys' facilities, he just doesn't manage to find his way into the story. :)

Co-author Rant: La li ho! It's Tori, your wonderful talented co-author who didn't actually write a single word! Except this rant. It counts. Anyway, I'm working on a new fanart for this fic, but I haven't made any progress because I'm bored and I'm tired and no one loves me. Except our one lone faithful reviewer, to whom I'm going to dedicate the art if I ever get it done. Ah, well. Tis better for a fic to be written and unread than never written at all. I dearly hope. That's it for now. Viszlat! (Excuse the Hungarian. It's Rey's fault.)