Chapter 11: Advice

"How'd it go?" Duo asked as Aiden came into the kitchen late that same night. Maxwell was sitting at the counter, drinking decaf coffee, and Aiden sat down beside him.

"Found the sniper."

"I figured," Duo chuckled. There was a moment of silence. "He alive?"

"No."

"Painful death?"

"Very."

"Much information?"

"Enough." Silence fell over them again, thickly, like a blanket. "How's Kia?"

It took Duo a moment to reply, and he didn't look up from his coffee. "Alive. Still out though."

Aiden cursed, balling his fist up on the counter. "I should have protected her! I should have . . . paid more attention, I should have . . ." he slammed his fist down, tears welling up in his eyes, "I should have done something," he whispered hoarsely.

A small intake of breath stopped his tirade, and he tried to get control of himself.

Duo turned around. "Hey Ojousan," he said softly.

"I'm sorry," Relena said. "I'll go if you want."

Aiden turned slightly to glance at her. She was hovering uncertainly in the kitchen doorway, eyes everywhere but on Aiden.

"No," Duo said, smiling gently, "I was just leaving." He squeezed Aiden's shoulder as he stood, moving past Relena and out of the room.

She came slowly over and paused by Aiden. "Duo told you about Kia?"

He nodded. "When this job is over, I'm taking my family back to L1."

He wasn't looking at her, and something tense in his voice and posture combined skillfully with that one line to tell her everything.

She stilled. He wasn't coming back. He didn't want to come back, because it would put his family in danger and he couldn't do that to them – he loved them too much.

Relena gave an odd little laugh. "At least you told me this time," she murmured when he looked at her. Her eyes were dark in the ill-lighted room, and though her tone was soft and smiling, those eyes told of her pain.

Aiden touched her arm gently. "Go to bed, Relena." She paused, then turned, nodded, and left. After she was gone, Aiden bowed his head and stood, grabbing the jacket he had put on a nearby chair. Setting off at a brisk pace, he went under the grand staircase, slipping through the door nestled under the second sweep of stairs, and into a small dark area, the only light provided by a small number panel by a plain white door. He punched in the correct code and waited a moment before the door whisked open to allow him through. He took a moment to let his eyes adjust to the dim lights of the inner sanctuary and stepped in, glancing around the silent offices. He headed back past all the dark, abandoned rooms to a lighted one at the end of the hallway, and glanced inside. A woman sat with her back to him, hair falling out of the two sandy twists they were up in from long hours of work. He knocked lightly on the door and she turned around, blue eyes bleary from lack of sleep.

"Heero," she murmured, eyebrows coming together in concern and understanding. "She's in the back; Trowa's watching her."

"Arigato," he murmured, and turned out of the office to head farther back into the compound. He went through a pair of double doors and walked down an ill-lighted hallway until he found an open door. Entering, he saw by the light of a low lamp a small form lying on a white, sterile bed, hooked up to an IV.

A figure beside the bed looked up and stood.

"Trowa," Aiden walked over to the man and clasped his hand. "Thank you."

Trowa shook his head. "Thank Sally. She did some amazing emergency work on the kid."

Aiden smiled wryly. "I'll send her flowers." He sobered. "Honestly, though. Thank you for staying with her."

"No problem. She's a cute kid. I wouldn't want her waking up alone in a strange place."

Aiden moved to the side of the bed, sitting in a hard plastic chair and leaning forward, head down and hands clasped between his knees. "I should have grabbed her when the lights went out."

Trowa bowed his own head, then looked up from under his bangs, assessing his friend. The slim, tall body folded into the chair, muscles less pronounced with years out of training and the wars far behind him, but still trim, indicating that he did manual labor regularly. His hair was a bit longer in back, shaggier, and was ruffled from the walk back to the mansion, giving him an air of pleasant dishevelment. But for all his tousled beauty, his eyes struck Trowa like a blow. Their normally hard blue depths were open, and filled with nothing but cruel black pain. The anguish he found there, the self-hatred, made Trowa step back in fear and concern.

Heero was in trouble.

Trowa stepped forward, slowly, as if not sure whether he could safely approach the man with a demon's eyes, and held out one hand as a sort of peace offering. "Heero." That awful gaze transferred from the unmoving child to Trowa, but it was unseeing. "It was a mistake. You can't dwell on it like this; everyone makes mistakes. Let it go and just be glad that she's alive now."

Aiden's gaze hardened, focused, and he gave Trowa a terrible glare, worse than any of his past because of the horrible pain held behind it. "You haven't almost killed an innocent," he grated, something raw and heart-wrenching in his voice. Something familiar, and it struck a cord in Trowa.

"No, I haven't," he shook his head, then looked Aiden straight in the eye. "But someone we know has killed innocents. A whole colony of them."

Aiden's eyes clouded over as he remembered – they had both been there, fighting. No one else knew what it had been like to see one of their own comrades turn, but they had been there. They had seen the devil break free."Talk to him. He might be able to help," Trowa suggested, taking his seat beside the bed again, looking at Aiden across the child. Aiden nodded, glanced at his sister one last time, and left.