I must have fallen asleep, because the next thing I knew I was sitting in the car alone. I glanced out of the window to see that we were at a motel. I heard some talking, was that Spanish? I poked my head out of the window to try and hear better. Duo was speaking to the manager, at least I assumed that's who he was, and he was fluently speaking in Spanish. They shook hands and then Duo walked over to the car.

"Hey sleeping beauty." I smiled sheepishly and he beamed down at me.

"I didn't know you spoke Spanish."

He laughed lightly. "There's a lot of things you don't know about me."

"Yes, I suppose you're right. So, what was that all about?"

"He's agreed to let us use one of the rooms for a few hours so that we can shower and stuff." He said while pointing to the man as he entered his office.

"Thank God! I don't think I could have gone any longer without a shower."

Duo laughed as he reached into the car and grabbed his bag. I got out of the car and began to follow him as he walked over to one of the rooms.

The room was filthy, no surprise there. "Well, at least we don't have to sleep here." Duo said positively. He made his way to the bathroom, flicked its light on then quickly turned around, slamming the door shut behind him. "Umm, I'll go first, maybe I can clean it up a little..." He said with a weak smile as he leaned against the door. Before he went in the bathroom again he locked the room up and ordered me not to leave.

Oddly, he grabbed one of the pillows from the bed then cautiously entered the bathroom with it, shutting the door behind him. A lot of strange noises came from behind the closed door, it sounded like he was running into the walls. I placed my ear up against the door, I could make out a few muffled swear words. What was that hissing sound? What in the world was going on in there?

I jumped back as he opened the door, coming out with a now heavy pillow slung over his one shoulder. He looked at me. "Umm, yeah. Just a little visitor I'm showing out." He looked away as he unlocked one of the windows and heaved the pillow out of it. I heard a distinct thud as it hit the ground and then he closed the window. After locking the window back up he shivered and made a disgusted sound. "Okay, now time for that shower."

After a while, longer than I had anticipated, Duo exited the bathroom. He had his black pants on, no shirt. Water caused his well-formed chest and arms to glisten. Resting in the center of his chest was a large plain cross. He had a towel hanging around his neck, his hair, no longer braided, fell about him in long ringlets. He was holding a smaller towel against his wounds as he crossed the room.

"Sorry, it's hard to shower with this," he motioned to the wounds "and the hair is a pain in the ass."

"I'm sure it is." Now that we were closer I could see the exhaustion in his face. He needed sleep, and I was going to make sure he got it.

"Well, the showers all yours, it's not that bad now."

When I got out Duo was sitting on the double bed. His shirt was still off, but his wounds were now bandaged. He was working on his hair, rhythmically braiding it. As I dried my hair off with the towel I walked over and sat on the end of the bed. "Have you always had long hair?" He finished up the braid.

"Yup." He gave a weak smile. "It's sorta like my security blanket."

"How so?"

"Well, umm," he fought for words, "It's…" I could tell he gave up, meekly stating "it's the only constant thing in my life." Clearly embarrassed, I dropped it and continued to dry my hair in silence.

While Duo thanked the manager, I slid over to the driver's seat. When he reached for the driver's door he stopped when he saw me sitting there. He was about to say something, most likely 'no' but I cut him off.

"Tell me where to go, I'm driving, you are going to sleep." He shook his head no.

"Relena, I'm driving, I don't need to sleep. Remember, I was up-"

"For six and a half days, but that's not necessary now." I said, cutting him off for the second time. "Now get in." I started the car to signify that I meant to drive, and I was going to. He stared at me for a moment, then with an aggravated sigh he went around the car and got into the passenger's seat. He gave me the directions, which weren't difficult.

"We should be there in nine hours."

"Good, then you can sleep for nine hours."

He rolled his eyes. "Yes mother."

A half-hour later he was passed out. His head was slanted to the side, facing me. His mouth was slightly open and his arms limply laid across his chest as it raised slowly up and down as he breathed.

After an hour I was utterly bored. Guilt began to sink in as I imagined Duo driving for hours while I slept. He must have been going insane, I knew I certainly was ready to. I now understood why he had been so adamant to play 'I Spy.'

The sun had set. Unfortunately, it was behind us, so I didn't even have that to look at for entertainment. At least we would be entering a city in a couple of miles, then I would have something to look at other than fields of dirt. After we cut through the city we would only have a few hours left until we were at the safe house. I could finally see Heero! God, talk about a major detour in seeing him. I wondered what he'll do when he sees that Duo had to bring me with him. Duo sniffled. I turned to look at him as he rolled his head over so that now I saw the back of it. I hoped Heero wouldn't get mad at him.

I saw the lights of the city breaking through the dark. Thank the heavens! Just as I was quietly rejoicing to myself headlights came on behind us form out of nowhere. I squinted my eyes; the bastards had their brights on. Before I knew it, they sped up and rammed into the back of us. I screamed as I tried to regain control of the car. Duo fell forward with the impact and slammed into the dashboard.

"Duo!" I looked to the side of me at a lifeless Duo; half on the floor and half sprawled out on the seat. I reached over and vigorously shook him. The car ran into us again from the back. "Duo, wake up!" His eyes fluttered slowly open.

"Oy." He grabbed his head then scooted up into his seat. "What the hell?" Another pair of headlights appeared. "Oh fuck!" He looked out the window to see who was on us. "Oh fuck!" He said again then turned to me. "You have to keep driving Relena. Head into the city, that's our only hope in losing them." I nodded my head yes because I was afraid my voice would squeak if I used it.

Duo reached into the back and pulled the bag out. He quickly removed the gun form it and rolled down his window. "Keep heading for the city." He said before the upper half of his body was outside the window. He began to shoot at one of the cars behind us. I could tell he was aiming for their tires because the car was swerving back and forth, like a fish on a hook, and I could see small sparks of light appear in front of their tires.

The other car came up to my side. "Duo!" I screamed as the car rammed into the side of us. Duo clung to the side of the door, keeping himself from flying out of the window. I tightened my grip on the steering wheel, not allowing my hands to shake.

"Go faster!" Duo shouted while he continued to fire at the other car.

"I have the pedal to the damn floor!" The car started to come at my side again. "Oh no you don't!" I slammed on the break, sending Duo crashing into the side of the door.

"Relena!"

I swerved to the left, positioning myself behind the other car. "My turn." I said as I accelerated and slammed into the back of the car. Duo looked at me, pure shock written all over his face. Gunfire from behind us broke his stare. I released a small whimper. Why oh why did I not let Duo drive?!

"You're gonna have to swerve to avoid fire. Just move around a lot, but don't make any sort of a pattern." Duo instructed me. He looked down at my waist then reached over me. He grabbed my seat belt and pulled it over me, buckling me in. I nearly laughed, we had bullets flying at us and he was buckling me in.

A bullet crashed through our back window. I screamed as I swerved the car, trying to avoid any more shots. Duo flopped back and forth, like a fish out of water, as he crawled into the back seat. He kicked the rest of the back window out with his one foot and began to fire out of it. I thought my eardrums were going to explode form the noise.

I swerved, causing Duo to tumble over, to avoid another collision with the one car. He looked like a child being rolled around in a barrel. "Duo! We're going to be entering the city!" I shouted, straining my voice over all the noise. He began to shake his head no.

"Can't! They're not going to hold back the gunfire. We'll put too many people in danger." I huffed, causing my bangs to fly up then fall back down.

"What do you want me to do then?"

"Just keep driving around." He opened fire again.

Oh goody, just like a little joyride, I thought sarcastically.

"It's about damn time!" He shouted as one of the tires of the car behind us blew out. "One down, one ta go."

"Ah, Duo? You might want to make that four."

"What?" He looked out of the front window to see three more cars in front of us. "Oh, that's just lovely! Can't I get a freakin break?!" he crowed.

I slammed on the breaks and turned the wheel hard to the left, spinning us around. They were right behind, no swerving or maneuverability was going to help us out of this. I just wasn't capable of do anything like that. Duo continued to fire at them, he was now aiming for the drivers.

"Duo!" I screamed, as the one car slammed into our right rear end, causing us to spin out and crash into the other car, stopping us completely.

My head slammed down on the steering wheel. Duo was thrown from the backseat and flew out of the front window. I fought to stay conscious as I heard men running around us, surrounding us, trapping us. I raised my head; the throbbing was so intense I almost threw up, but I forced myself to focus on Duo. He laid lifeless on the ground.

"Duo!" The men jerked opened my car door and yanked me out. Everyone had their guns aimed at us. I was frightened to do anything.

"Miss Relena, I trust that you will not resist and will cooperate." An officer said as he began to lead me away. An officer's shouting had me spinning back around. He was shouting at Duo, yelling at him to get up. When Duo said nothing to them the one man bent down and viciously yanked him up. I screamed as he held Duo up by his collar. The man who had spoken to me grabbed hold of my arms to lead me away. I fought him, kicking and screaming for Duo.