Wufei and the Shanghai Terror
Chapter 5
Dinner with Winner
(AN: Sorry kitty lovers, neither Shanghai Lu nor Wufei is in this chapter. However, it fits perfectly within the story and I couldn't resist writing it, just to have Heero inadvertently make the worst joke I've ever written. Get ready to groan.)
Sally was just stepping out of the shower when the vidphone in her hotel buzzed.
Selecting audio only, she answered, "Yes, Dr. Po-Chang here?"
"Hello Sal!" came a familiar voice.
"Quatre!" she exclaimed. "I'd put you on visual, but I just got out of the shower."
"Ah, well," said Quatre with a fake melodramatic sigh, "Denied once again."
"Quatre!" she admonished, laughing. "We don't want to make Trowa jealous, now, do we?"
"I think he's secure enough to handle it," chuckled Quatre.
"Is he there?" asked Sally. "I want to say hello if he is."
"I'm here," said another familiar voice.
"Hello, Trowa," she promptly said. "Everything all right?"
"Fine," said Trowa. Sally had to smile at his familiar succinctness of expression.
"Wufei told me about the hijacking," said Sally. "And the rest of it."
"Ah, I might have known," said Quatre. "I heard from Heero you were on L4 for the medical conference. We should hook up and have dinner this evening before you go."
"That'd be great," Sally said. "I miss you guys."
"Heero is here, you know," said Trowa.
"Really?" said Sally. "Invite him too."
"He's here on Preventor business, but since it partly involves me, I think we can persuade him to come, especially if he thinks he's protecting me from the bad guys," said Quatre.
Sally thought she heard Trowa laugh under his breath, an almost indiscernible sound.
"Is that Trowa?" she asked.
"I merely find it "tres amuseant" that Heero feels the need to protect someone who not only carries a 6 inch knife on his leg and a revolver under his jacket, but is a crack shot," explained Trowa.
"And I beat the pants off you playing racquetball this morning too," said Quatre, laughing.
"I let you beat the pants off of me," said Trowa. "You offer such welcome incentives for losing, mon amour." There was silence for a few seconds except for heavy breathing sounds.
Sally laughed. "Hey, just because I have the visual disconnected doesn't mean I don't have an imagination."
"Oh, right," said Quatre's voice, a little hoarse. He cleared his throat. "How about 6:30 this evening? You'll be all done by then, I assume?"
"Just gives me enough time to get back here, make myself presentable."
"We'll pick you up then," said Quatre. "Good, um, not seeing you," said Quatre, awkwardly.
"Oh, I'll turn on the visual for hell's sake," said Sally. "I have my robe on, but I look like something the cat dragged in."
Flipping on the visual, she was treated to the sight of her two friends.
"Quatre, my darling, you've grown!" said Sally. Quatre gave her a facetious dirty look. "I'm 21, of course I've grown!" he said indignantly. It lasted about one second and he gave her a dazzling smile.
"No one ever says that about me," said Trowa, pouting. Sally laughed. "You've gotten more handsome, then," she said in a conciliatory tone.
Trowa nodded slightly, and averted his eyes. "You made him blush, Sal, I thought only I could do that," said Quatre evilly.
"You look great, Sal," he added. "Don't forget, I have 29 sisters. I've seen so much worse than a woman with her hair in a towel and a bathrobe." He grinned at her. "Hair curlers, fake eyelashes, facials, leg waxing," he shuddered delicately.
"Oh, you're such a gentleman," exclaimed Sally. "If I looked like a mud fence you'd say that. But, it is good to see you."
"Same here," said Trowa. "How's Wufei?"
"Same as always," said Sally. "Handsome, clever, brave, and just. My hero." She sighed like damsel in distress and clasped her hand to her forehead dramatically.
"You forgot critical, overbearing and volatile," said Quatre helpfully. Trowa gave him a light smack on the back of his head. "Be nice," he said sternly. Quatre pouted at him.
"Oh, that too," said Sally, grinning. "Although I'm softening him up. He hasn't threatened to run someone through for a whole month now. A new record."
"Good to hear it," said Trowa, with a deadpan expression, but his verdant colored eyes were twinkling merrily.
"I hate to break this up," said Quatre, "but tempis fugit and I'm going to be late for a meeting unless I run now." He shrugged. "It's not always great to be wanted."
"Speak for yourself," said Trowa, raising a visible brow. "I like it."
"Present company excepted, of course," said Quatre apologetically, grabbing Trowa's hand and kissing the back of it gallantly.
"Bye you two," said Sally, "See you later."
As Quatre bent slightly to end the connection, she heard him yelp slightly as Trowa gave his rear a surreptitious grope. The last thing she saw was Quatre flashing a look of indignation at his partner, who was perfectly feigning total innocence. Sally wasn't sure she was intended to see that last or not, so she ignored it and smiled blankly.
Shaking her hair free of the towel, she looked at the time and ran into the bathroom to dry her hair.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"By all that's holy, Heero, would you sit down?" asked Quatre plaintively, pointing at an empty chair.
"I have a better vantage point if I remain standing, thank you," said Heero gravely.
"Yes, but you're embarrassing the hell out of us," said Sally. "Everyone's staring wondering why you're standing there with your hand under your jacket!"
"Not exactly blending in," said Trowa, shaking his head slowly.
"How are you going to eat like that, anyway?" asked Quatre. "I won't be able to eat my dinner in peace with you just standing there!"
He folded his arms in imitation of Heero's stance and gave him a baleful glare.
"Very well," said Heero, casting his eyes about before sitting on the indicated chair. "But I won't be held responsible if something happens."
"I appreciate your concern," said Quatre, "but I'm not exactly unprepared." He quickly held open the camel's hair jacket he was wearing and displayed a revolver in a holster. "Feel better now?"
Trowa pulled a handful of throwing knives from somewhere under the table and quirked up a corner of his mouth. Just as quickly, they disappeared again.
"And I have a flame thrower in my purse," quipped Sally. Heero stared at her levelly for a full 5 seconds without blinking, and she quit grinning and gulped.
"Well, I DO have mace, a knife and tranquilizer hypo," she said defensively, crossing her green clad legs.
"We took out whole bases with less," said Trowa, giving Heero a pointed look from beneath his red-brown fringe.
"Relax," said Quatre. "I don't intend to let a bunch of deluded criminals ruin my evening with my friends. If I can't enjoy life, then the bastards have already won."
Heero nodded once curtly. "Agreed," he said.
"Now, what are we all having?" said Quatre, determinedly changing the subject. "The roast duck here is wonderful; they have this raspberry/orange sauce that will give you a glimpse of paradise."
After a few moments of purely food-oriented conversation, a waiter came to take their order.
"And what will you be having, Mr. Winner?" asked the waiter, a rather burly individual with a mustache.
"The duck I think," said Quatre.
"Duck!" said Heero, grabbing Sally by the arm and forcing her under the table. He came back up a millisecond later with his revolver drawn directly at the waiter.
Quatre opened his mouth to protest, when Trowa grabbed him pushed him down just before shots rang out.
"What the hell?" asked Quatre in Trowa's ear, under the table.
"Ever see a French waiter with a tattoo of a red fist on his wrist?" asked Trowa, pulling his own gun and aiming it at the "waiter" while Heero rolled amongst the few screaming patrons and began shooting in various directions.
"Shit!" Quatre said, pulling his revolver with one hand. Pulling up his pant leg, he pulled a large knife from a holster buckled to his calf with the other.
"Here," whispered Sally, sliding up next to Trowa. "Stick this in his leg." The "waiter" who had frozen when Heero pointed his revolver at him was within arms reach, and Trowa reached out and plunged the hypo into his thigh. He crumpled to the floor seconds later.
"I'm going to help Heero," said Quatre, peeking out from under the overturned tables around them.
"Be careful," said Trowa, "I'll cover you."
"Sally's unarmed," said Quatre, "You'll have to stay with her."
They nodded at each other and Quatre rolled out from behind the table as Trowa fired cover. From his vantage on one knee behind a nearby half-wall, Quatre saw Heero pinned down behind a water fountain and another overturned table. Two gunmen were firing from opposite directions.
Crawling on his stomach behind chairs and tables, he slowly made his way over behind one of the armed men firing at Heero.
"Hey, asshole!" he shouted, causing the man to turn around. Quatre threw a plate of food at him from one of the overturned tables, causing the man to drop his gun as he instinctively as he shielded himself against the flying object.
Quatre pointed his gun directly at the man's head. "Don't move," he said. "Let's get those hands up where we can see them, shall we?"
Heero, having only one gunman to contend with now, made short work of him by shooting him in his gun arm. The man sunk to the floor howling, holding his shattered upper arm.
"Very nice," said Heero, coming out from behind the now wildly squirting fountain.
"Why thank you," said Quatre, giving a small bow, but never taking his eyes off the man he was holding his gun on.
"You're bleeding!" he said to Heero, when he glanced over in his direction.
"I suppose," said Heero shrugging. He looked down at a small stain of blood spreading on his right pants leg.
"Trowa, call an ambulance!" yelled Quatre. "Already done," said the quiet man, putting away his cell phone.
"Let me look at that," said Sally standing up and walking over to Heero.
"It's nothing," he said quietly.
"Sit down," growled Sally. "I swear, you're worse than Wufei."
"Just a graze, I think," said Heero, sitting down on the chair that Sally pulle up for him.
The man Quatre held his gun on fidgeted a bit, and Quatre said, "That's a no-no!" with an evil smile, causing the man to widen his eyes and stand still.
"Got something we can tie this guy up with?" asked Quatre. "My arm is getting tired."
"Here," said Heero, throwing him a pair of handcuffs. Quatre gave him a questioning look.
"Never leave home without them," said Heero, his lips curving up slightly.
Quatre went over to the man and said to Trowa, "Hold your gun on him while I cuff him."
Trowa nodded and came over, holding his revolver on the man.
"Hands behind your back," said Quatre roughly, sticking his knee in the small of the man's back. The man grunted, but complied. Quatre snapped on the cuffs, after looping them around the back of a nearby chair.
"Run, and you'll be dragging that with you," he said in the man's face.
"We shall prevail in spite of your decadence!" the man spat in his face.
"Yeah right," said Quatre wearily, sitting backward on a chair he'd pulled up. "Pull the other one."
"I have another hypo, if you think it'd help," offered Sally.
"Anything so we don't have to listen to this crap," said Heero.
Sally smiled and walking over to the captive gunman gleefully stuck a hypo in his arm.
"I hope you have nightmares," she said as he slumped to the floor.
Chapter 5
Dinner with Winner
(AN: Sorry kitty lovers, neither Shanghai Lu nor Wufei is in this chapter. However, it fits perfectly within the story and I couldn't resist writing it, just to have Heero inadvertently make the worst joke I've ever written. Get ready to groan.)
Sally was just stepping out of the shower when the vidphone in her hotel buzzed.
Selecting audio only, she answered, "Yes, Dr. Po-Chang here?"
"Hello Sal!" came a familiar voice.
"Quatre!" she exclaimed. "I'd put you on visual, but I just got out of the shower."
"Ah, well," said Quatre with a fake melodramatic sigh, "Denied once again."
"Quatre!" she admonished, laughing. "We don't want to make Trowa jealous, now, do we?"
"I think he's secure enough to handle it," chuckled Quatre.
"Is he there?" asked Sally. "I want to say hello if he is."
"I'm here," said another familiar voice.
"Hello, Trowa," she promptly said. "Everything all right?"
"Fine," said Trowa. Sally had to smile at his familiar succinctness of expression.
"Wufei told me about the hijacking," said Sally. "And the rest of it."
"Ah, I might have known," said Quatre. "I heard from Heero you were on L4 for the medical conference. We should hook up and have dinner this evening before you go."
"That'd be great," Sally said. "I miss you guys."
"Heero is here, you know," said Trowa.
"Really?" said Sally. "Invite him too."
"He's here on Preventor business, but since it partly involves me, I think we can persuade him to come, especially if he thinks he's protecting me from the bad guys," said Quatre.
Sally thought she heard Trowa laugh under his breath, an almost indiscernible sound.
"Is that Trowa?" she asked.
"I merely find it "tres amuseant" that Heero feels the need to protect someone who not only carries a 6 inch knife on his leg and a revolver under his jacket, but is a crack shot," explained Trowa.
"And I beat the pants off you playing racquetball this morning too," said Quatre, laughing.
"I let you beat the pants off of me," said Trowa. "You offer such welcome incentives for losing, mon amour." There was silence for a few seconds except for heavy breathing sounds.
Sally laughed. "Hey, just because I have the visual disconnected doesn't mean I don't have an imagination."
"Oh, right," said Quatre's voice, a little hoarse. He cleared his throat. "How about 6:30 this evening? You'll be all done by then, I assume?"
"Just gives me enough time to get back here, make myself presentable."
"We'll pick you up then," said Quatre. "Good, um, not seeing you," said Quatre, awkwardly.
"Oh, I'll turn on the visual for hell's sake," said Sally. "I have my robe on, but I look like something the cat dragged in."
Flipping on the visual, she was treated to the sight of her two friends.
"Quatre, my darling, you've grown!" said Sally. Quatre gave her a facetious dirty look. "I'm 21, of course I've grown!" he said indignantly. It lasted about one second and he gave her a dazzling smile.
"No one ever says that about me," said Trowa, pouting. Sally laughed. "You've gotten more handsome, then," she said in a conciliatory tone.
Trowa nodded slightly, and averted his eyes. "You made him blush, Sal, I thought only I could do that," said Quatre evilly.
"You look great, Sal," he added. "Don't forget, I have 29 sisters. I've seen so much worse than a woman with her hair in a towel and a bathrobe." He grinned at her. "Hair curlers, fake eyelashes, facials, leg waxing," he shuddered delicately.
"Oh, you're such a gentleman," exclaimed Sally. "If I looked like a mud fence you'd say that. But, it is good to see you."
"Same here," said Trowa. "How's Wufei?"
"Same as always," said Sally. "Handsome, clever, brave, and just. My hero." She sighed like damsel in distress and clasped her hand to her forehead dramatically.
"You forgot critical, overbearing and volatile," said Quatre helpfully. Trowa gave him a light smack on the back of his head. "Be nice," he said sternly. Quatre pouted at him.
"Oh, that too," said Sally, grinning. "Although I'm softening him up. He hasn't threatened to run someone through for a whole month now. A new record."
"Good to hear it," said Trowa, with a deadpan expression, but his verdant colored eyes were twinkling merrily.
"I hate to break this up," said Quatre, "but tempis fugit and I'm going to be late for a meeting unless I run now." He shrugged. "It's not always great to be wanted."
"Speak for yourself," said Trowa, raising a visible brow. "I like it."
"Present company excepted, of course," said Quatre apologetically, grabbing Trowa's hand and kissing the back of it gallantly.
"Bye you two," said Sally, "See you later."
As Quatre bent slightly to end the connection, she heard him yelp slightly as Trowa gave his rear a surreptitious grope. The last thing she saw was Quatre flashing a look of indignation at his partner, who was perfectly feigning total innocence. Sally wasn't sure she was intended to see that last or not, so she ignored it and smiled blankly.
Shaking her hair free of the towel, she looked at the time and ran into the bathroom to dry her hair.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"By all that's holy, Heero, would you sit down?" asked Quatre plaintively, pointing at an empty chair.
"I have a better vantage point if I remain standing, thank you," said Heero gravely.
"Yes, but you're embarrassing the hell out of us," said Sally. "Everyone's staring wondering why you're standing there with your hand under your jacket!"
"Not exactly blending in," said Trowa, shaking his head slowly.
"How are you going to eat like that, anyway?" asked Quatre. "I won't be able to eat my dinner in peace with you just standing there!"
He folded his arms in imitation of Heero's stance and gave him a baleful glare.
"Very well," said Heero, casting his eyes about before sitting on the indicated chair. "But I won't be held responsible if something happens."
"I appreciate your concern," said Quatre, "but I'm not exactly unprepared." He quickly held open the camel's hair jacket he was wearing and displayed a revolver in a holster. "Feel better now?"
Trowa pulled a handful of throwing knives from somewhere under the table and quirked up a corner of his mouth. Just as quickly, they disappeared again.
"And I have a flame thrower in my purse," quipped Sally. Heero stared at her levelly for a full 5 seconds without blinking, and she quit grinning and gulped.
"Well, I DO have mace, a knife and tranquilizer hypo," she said defensively, crossing her green clad legs.
"We took out whole bases with less," said Trowa, giving Heero a pointed look from beneath his red-brown fringe.
"Relax," said Quatre. "I don't intend to let a bunch of deluded criminals ruin my evening with my friends. If I can't enjoy life, then the bastards have already won."
Heero nodded once curtly. "Agreed," he said.
"Now, what are we all having?" said Quatre, determinedly changing the subject. "The roast duck here is wonderful; they have this raspberry/orange sauce that will give you a glimpse of paradise."
After a few moments of purely food-oriented conversation, a waiter came to take their order.
"And what will you be having, Mr. Winner?" asked the waiter, a rather burly individual with a mustache.
"The duck I think," said Quatre.
"Duck!" said Heero, grabbing Sally by the arm and forcing her under the table. He came back up a millisecond later with his revolver drawn directly at the waiter.
Quatre opened his mouth to protest, when Trowa grabbed him pushed him down just before shots rang out.
"What the hell?" asked Quatre in Trowa's ear, under the table.
"Ever see a French waiter with a tattoo of a red fist on his wrist?" asked Trowa, pulling his own gun and aiming it at the "waiter" while Heero rolled amongst the few screaming patrons and began shooting in various directions.
"Shit!" Quatre said, pulling his revolver with one hand. Pulling up his pant leg, he pulled a large knife from a holster buckled to his calf with the other.
"Here," whispered Sally, sliding up next to Trowa. "Stick this in his leg." The "waiter" who had frozen when Heero pointed his revolver at him was within arms reach, and Trowa reached out and plunged the hypo into his thigh. He crumpled to the floor seconds later.
"I'm going to help Heero," said Quatre, peeking out from under the overturned tables around them.
"Be careful," said Trowa, "I'll cover you."
"Sally's unarmed," said Quatre, "You'll have to stay with her."
They nodded at each other and Quatre rolled out from behind the table as Trowa fired cover. From his vantage on one knee behind a nearby half-wall, Quatre saw Heero pinned down behind a water fountain and another overturned table. Two gunmen were firing from opposite directions.
Crawling on his stomach behind chairs and tables, he slowly made his way over behind one of the armed men firing at Heero.
"Hey, asshole!" he shouted, causing the man to turn around. Quatre threw a plate of food at him from one of the overturned tables, causing the man to drop his gun as he instinctively as he shielded himself against the flying object.
Quatre pointed his gun directly at the man's head. "Don't move," he said. "Let's get those hands up where we can see them, shall we?"
Heero, having only one gunman to contend with now, made short work of him by shooting him in his gun arm. The man sunk to the floor howling, holding his shattered upper arm.
"Very nice," said Heero, coming out from behind the now wildly squirting fountain.
"Why thank you," said Quatre, giving a small bow, but never taking his eyes off the man he was holding his gun on.
"You're bleeding!" he said to Heero, when he glanced over in his direction.
"I suppose," said Heero shrugging. He looked down at a small stain of blood spreading on his right pants leg.
"Trowa, call an ambulance!" yelled Quatre. "Already done," said the quiet man, putting away his cell phone.
"Let me look at that," said Sally standing up and walking over to Heero.
"It's nothing," he said quietly.
"Sit down," growled Sally. "I swear, you're worse than Wufei."
"Just a graze, I think," said Heero, sitting down on the chair that Sally pulle up for him.
The man Quatre held his gun on fidgeted a bit, and Quatre said, "That's a no-no!" with an evil smile, causing the man to widen his eyes and stand still.
"Got something we can tie this guy up with?" asked Quatre. "My arm is getting tired."
"Here," said Heero, throwing him a pair of handcuffs. Quatre gave him a questioning look.
"Never leave home without them," said Heero, his lips curving up slightly.
Quatre went over to the man and said to Trowa, "Hold your gun on him while I cuff him."
Trowa nodded and came over, holding his revolver on the man.
"Hands behind your back," said Quatre roughly, sticking his knee in the small of the man's back. The man grunted, but complied. Quatre snapped on the cuffs, after looping them around the back of a nearby chair.
"Run, and you'll be dragging that with you," he said in the man's face.
"We shall prevail in spite of your decadence!" the man spat in his face.
"Yeah right," said Quatre wearily, sitting backward on a chair he'd pulled up. "Pull the other one."
"I have another hypo, if you think it'd help," offered Sally.
"Anything so we don't have to listen to this crap," said Heero.
Sally smiled and walking over to the captive gunman gleefully stuck a hypo in his arm.
"I hope you have nightmares," she said as he slumped to the floor.