Duo knew he was driving his motorcycle too recklessly again, but he didn't care. He didn't care much about anything these days. Except that Shelby had been missing for a month now. As expected, the memories of their last time together filled his mind. The great joy he felt at hearing her say she loved him. I know I didn't dream it. Then the devastation at waking up alone the next morning with all traces of her removed from the hotel room. He remembered how he raged and harassed the front desk staff when they told him 'Ms. Kit' had paid her bill and checked out a few hours ago.

That was the first time he realized something was wrong with her since their first meeting. Why does she live under false names? If she was a criminal why not stiff him with the hotel bill? Was she married and saw him as a little side fun? Why did she run from him? The last question never seemed to leave his mind. A part of him couldn't shake the feeling she was in some kind of trouble. Not that she trusted me enough to confide in me. Oh Christ, he hurt so much. It was like the hangover he woke up with that morning decided to lodge itself in his chest and stay there throbbing in time with his pulse.   

Duo had changed over the past month. The people he worked with were treating him like the plague. Even Hilde threatened to send him out an airlock if he didn't check his attitude. Instead she placed him on waste recycling duty. It was a dirty, smelly, isolated job that had to be rotated every three or four days to avoid worker stress. The fact that Duo had been placed on it for sixteen days straight was very telling about how popular his new short-tempered mood swings were with his co-workers.

Duo parked his bike and started up to his apartment, but was stopped by two tall figures standing in his way. One was only slightly shorter than Duo with a similar build to him. His platinum blond hair was ruffling in the artificial wind. The taller man was long and lean, and staring at him with emerald eyes.

"Trowa? Quatre?"  Duo asked, not quite believing his eyes. For Duo it was like he'd lived a month long nightmare that his friends just woke him up from.

"Trowa! Quatre!"  He repeated with more confidence. "It's good to see you!" he made as if to hug them, but Quatre held up a hand stopping him.

With his nose wrinkled in disgust Quatre said "It's good to see you too Duo, but I think I'll wait 'til you wash up before I greet you." Trowa had his hand covering his mouth and nose nodding in agreement. Duo suddenly became aware that he probably smelled like a giant sewer rat, with god knows what in his hair and on his clothes. He couldn't believe his obsession with Shelby made him forget how much he hated being dirty.   

"Right." And without another word or looking back to see if they followed, he went straight up to his apartment and straight into his bathroom for a very long, very hot shower.

**************

Quatre was shocked at the state of Duo's apartment. Contrary to common belief, Duo was actually very meticulous about his living environment. While they were in school together, neither Quatre nor Trowa had to lecture Duo even once about dirty dishes or laundry lying around.

"Perhaps there's some truth to the rumors after all." Trowa said, gazing over the chaos and trash in the apartment.

"That Duo got his heart broken? He's usually the heart breaker, but something is clearly upsetting him. How about I take the kitchen, you take the living room and we'll see if we can't keep his apartment from becoming a major bio-hazard." Quatre was already gathering dirty dishes while he said it.

"Agreed" and Trowa went off to the other room.

Quatre quickly loaded the dishes into the washer and dumped the mountain of take out food containers into the garbage. A quick glance at the fridge and cupboards told him Duo probably hadn't bought groceries in a few weeks. He grabbed anything that appeared expired or rotten, and tossed them all out. While he was working he couldn't stop looking over at Duo's computer. His mind waged a little war between his curiosity and his conscience. His curiosity won.

Most of the files were easy to hack into. The only difficult one was a file called 'SAM'. Quatre went through the easy files first. While scrolling through the Duo's financial records, his eyes fell on a paperweight next to the computer. Pushing it he saw and image of Duo looking cocky as ever with his arms wrapped around the waist of the redheaded woman in front of him. It was the woman who drew Quatre's focus.

"So you're the cause of all this trouble." And he proceeded to hack into the SAM file.

The first thing he saw was a death certificate for Shelby Allyce McGuire who died at the age of six. The next thing he saw was an old news clip about how a six year old girl with the same name miraculously survived a car crash when everyone else in her family died. The clip showed a picture of the girl. Bright carrot red hair, her smile showed off her missing a front tooth. Quatre took a good look at the picture of the girl, and compared it to the holo of the woman. There was no doubt they had to be the same person. Interesting, thought Quatre did she fake her death willingly? Or did someone fake it for her?

"She's quite pretty for a dead woman." Trowa said from behind him "A little more classy than his usual type." A little ashamed to be caught snooping, Quatre nodded in agreement. Duo had a habit of dating the cheap trashy kind. Trowa gave him a nudge on the shoulder "Hurry up the water's stopped running." Quatre shut off the computer and the two waited for Duo to emerge from his shower.

Duo came out with a towel slung round his hips and a second one trying to dry his extensive length of hair.

"So guys, to what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?" Duo asked. His tone fell well short of his usual charming and carefree manner.

Quatre gave Duo a meaningful glare. "If you'd returned any of our messages, you would know we were trying to ask you if you wanted to come with us on our visit to earth."

"You're going to earth?" a fanatical intensity colored Duo's features. It gave both his friends the creeps.

"If you had taken the time to contact any of us over the past several weeks you would have known that Relena is having one of her parties and has invited us all to attend. It seems she and Heero have finally resolved whatever was wrong with their on-again/off-again relationship. They appear to be a solid couple now." Quatre got the impression that Duo was only half listening.

"Yeah, well sorry about not calling. I've been a little preoccupied. So Heero and Relena are happy in love. Isn't that just too peachy for words." He didn't even try to control the bitter tone in his voice.

"Speaking of love and happiness" Trowa added quietly, "who's this?" Quatre looked over at Trowa who was holding Duo's sketchpad open to a sketch of Duo and his mystery woman. Quatre wanted to wince at Trowa's tactless broach of the subject, but he was too shocked by the picture.

The picture showed Duo sitting with his legs folded under him. The woman was facing away from him straddling his lap. Her head was arched back and resting on his shoulder, an expression of pure pleasure on her face. Duo's head was bent down so only the top was visible. His trademark braid falling between her breasts. The sketch should have been lewd, but the positioning of Duo's hands across her breasts and cupping between her legs made it seem loving. Very few people new about Duo's habit for sketching out his thoughts and feelings; this sketch spoke volumes.  

Duo's was livid. "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING? Do you think you can just walk in here and invade my privacy?" he snatched the pad away from Trowa.

Trying to keep peace, Quatre jumped between them. "Duo we've been worried about you. We're your closest friends, yet you haven't talked to us. We had to go through Hilde to find you. And you don't want to know what she had to say about you." Quatre managed to control his guilt at snooping into what was a very private matter for Duo. "Look, you don't have to tell us who she is or what happened between you. We'll wait until you're ready. In the meantime, why don't you come with us to earth for some fun."

Duo had already made up his mind to go to earth days ago. The more he thought about it, the more he was convinced something was wrong. He was convinced Shelby was in trouble, and he needed to find her.

He looked up at his friends. He knew he could tell them anything without fear of being ridiculed or judged. He found he wasn't ready to confess his vulnerability to his friends despite his confidence in them. On the other hand, earth was a big place to find one woman. Their help would go a long way. Practicality won.  

"Her name is Shelby." Duo stared fixedly at his sketch. "We met about a month ago."

He told them everything. Initially he had meant to give them just the basic information they would need to help him. It was as if all the pain and insecurities that had been haunting him for the past month forced its way out. The only part he kept to himself was the memories of their lovemaking.

"With all these false identities of hers I can't help getting the feeling she's in trouble." Duo finished. They were all sitting in his living room. Duo was still wearing a towel.

Quatre leaned forward "So you don't have any idea where she might be? That's going to make it very difficult to find her."

"Tell me something I don't know. She's on earth. That's all I'm sure of."

"I still can't figure how she made that jump off the building." Trowa added puzzled.

"That one stumped me too. I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't see it." Duo replied.

"Did you actually see her land on the truck? Maybe she had some sort of equipment. I can't believe you didn't ask her about it while you were together."  

Trust Trowa to obsess over the weirdest details. "Well buddy, you can go ahead and ask her when we find her."

"I take it you are going to come with us to earth?" Quatre asked.

"Definitely"

He would find Shelby, and he wouldn't let her go until he discovered every secret she held.