A/N: Thanks once again for all reviews!! You're great and you make my effort worthwhile! Now, back to the fic:

Chapter Ten

Trowa had never felt so impotent and frustrated in his life. He had had enough of people telling him what to do and had wanted to say so in front of the French governor but, he had not even been allowed to speak.

He was leaving, together with Milliardo and Treize, the French governor's house when, lifting his head saw his sister waiting for him next to his horse.

"Catherine? What are you doing here?" Trowa asked surprised to see his sister there.

"I know where Relena is…she's in that Chinese guide's house and…I think she's also very sick…that Chinese man took Sally with him…" Catherine replied trying to hide the anger that, seeing her brother's sombre expression, provoked.

"What? That bloody bastard!!" said Milliardo before turning round to get his horse.

Treize followed him and Trowa, before doing the same, and speaking to his sister said:

"You better go back home, thank you for telling us…".

"But…" Catherine started saying.

"Please, Cathy, don't argue with me…not now…" Trowa said before leaving so she would not have time to reply.

"Catherine, let's go home…there is no need for us here…" Lucrezia said putting an arm around Trowa's sister's shoulders and taking her to the carriage.

"And we're going to go to our home…" Quatre said feeling that the occasion called for a quiet retreat.

"But darling…" Dorothy said not wanting to miss the fun.

"Dorothy…this is not a circus…we're going to go home and we'll just stay there till we're needed…" said Quatre firmly surprising his wife with his unaccustomed tone of voice.

With this, Dorothy and Quatre boarded their own carriage and following Catherine's, started their way home.

Meanwhile, Sally and Wu Fei had arrived to the Chinese man's house. Her heart was beating faster and faster. Malaria. Why, from all the diseases that punished this side of the planet, Relena had to get malaria.

As soon as they entered the room where Relena and Heero were, the latter got up and said:

"She's been shivering all the time, I've been putting a wet piece of cloth on her forehead but it doesn't seem to help…" said Heero with a tone of voice that to someone that didn't know him appeared detached but, Wu Fei knew that Heero was suffering quite a lot.

"Don't worry…I will take care of her…" said Sally hoping she sounded a lot surer than she felt. Although it was true what she had told Relena regarding her husband, as a doctor it had caused her an enormous amount of pain seeing a patient die. Since then, she had tried to stay away from that disease.

Heero observed Sally work. She was preparing some solution he identified as quinine, soon she started giving it to Relena with a spoon trying to get her to swallow as much as possible. Meanwhile Heero kept renewing the wet cloth.

"You've done very well with that cloth…it has probably kept the temperature more or less stable..." Sally said trying to smile. Heero detected some fear in her eyes but decided to ignore it.

Relena started mumbling incomprehensible things. Heero tried to soothe her by saying something in Japanese. Sally didn't speak the language so she couldn't make up the exact words but, using her instinct, she understood roughly what Heero had said.

"When did you fall in love with her?" asked Sally directly.

"When I saw her strength…she's got more courage than I have…I saw she was prepared to fight whatever life put in her way…I felt I wanted to fight it with her…" Heero said not lifting his eyes from Relena.

"Well, it was pretty quick, wasn't it? I guess it's true what people say: there isn't a set amount of time for these kind of things. But please tell me one thing, what happened last night?" Sally asked wanting to know exactly how come Relena had ended up there.

"Relena escaped from the mansion and Wu Fei found her on the street trying to find me…he took her here and she told me we had to leave…so we left…" Heero said like if it was a normal thing to do for a lady to run away in the middle of the night.

"What are you doing here?" suddenly, Heero and Sally heard Wu Fei's voice from the room next door where he had decided to go to get out of the way.

"Where is my sister?" that voice…Heero remembered that voice…it was the guy that had hired them to take Relena and Sally to Hanoi. The Japanese man knew that his presence there meant bad news.

Sally looked at Heero and he exchanged it briefly before moving it up to face an enraged Milliardo Peacecraft that had entered the room where Relena was ignoring Wu Fei's protests.

"Who the hell are you?" Milliardo shouted.

"He's Heero Yuy, you hired him to take your sister and I to Hanoi, remember?" Sally replied in his place knowing that Heero was more than prepared to fight him.

"So…now I get the picture…you're the bastard that has convinced my sister to run away…probably you used your time well during your trip here getting in her head the stupid notion that she was in love with you…I hope for your own good you have not laid a finger on my sister…" Milliardo said getting very close to Heero, Sally realised that Milliardo would probably hit Heero and, was thinking of something to do when Treize intervened stopping any possible fight.

"What's your name?" he said asking the question to Heero.

"My name is Heero Yuy…" replied the Japanese man facing Treize but not losing sight of Milliardo.

"Is it true that you and Miss Peacecraft tried to run away last night?" Treize asked keeping his voice so neutral that it was to make up whether he was angry or nor.

"Yes it is true…" Heero replied finally getting up so he would face the two, taller men better. Although he was very tall for the Japanese average, the two English gentlemen were a lot taller than he was.

"Then I'm very sorry but I'm going to have to arrest you…" Treize said not actually sounding sad at all.

"What?" asked Sally shocked.

"You know the law Sally…now we better take Relena back home so we can take care of her properly…" Milliardo said happy to see that Heero would end up in prison.

"You can't do that…" said Trowa suddenly making Heero realise that the French man was also there.

"Pardon me?" said Treize surprised.

"This is not a British colony, we will have to wait to see what the French governor decides…" Trowa said in a desperate attempt to buy some time having figured out that the Japanese man was who Relena had described as being the object of her affections. And, it was also pretty clear to Trowa that, as Relena had hoped, Heero returned those feelings.

"Well, in this case, I'll have you to know that your dear governor has granted me all the authority to proceed as I see fit…so, he is under arrest…" Treize said crushing Trowa's hopes.

Then Heero, taking the chance that Trowa had given him distracting Treize, pushed his way through the door knocking both Treize and Milliardo to the ground.

Treize was the first to react:

"Guards! Get that man or I'll have you court marshalled!" .

Wu Fei fled outside and saw Heero fighting against the eight soldiers that had followed the British governor. He took one step to help but he heard a voice behind him saying:

"If you help him you'll be arrested as well…" it was Trowa who had spoken, then, in a very small voice, he added: "I have a plan…and I need you to be free…".

Heero fought really well but, he had not slept in over twenty four hours, hadn't eaten since the previous evening and had ridden for almost seven hours non stop so, even for a samurai, unarmed samurai, eight fully equipped British soldiers were a bit too much.

Finally, one of the soldiers hit him with the back of his rifle making Heero drop unconscious on the ground.

Wu Fei winced like if he had been slapped. There was only one thing that made him absolutely furious, and that was injustice.

"She came looking for him! He's not guilty…" Wu Fei said trying to defend his friend.

"Even so, she's under Milliardo's custody…and she's a woman…it's hardly possible that she would be allowed to take a decision by herself…" replied Treize. Wu Fei, hearing the sexist comment hated himself for, once upon a time, he would have said pretty much the same thing. But two women, first Mei Lan and later Sally, had made him change his mind regarding the supposed weakness of the so-called feeble sex.

Sally was shocked by all the things that she had been forced to witness but, hearing what Treize had said, she thought that her opinion would be of little or no value to the British governor.

In any case, Milliardo went inside once he had seen Heero being handcuffed and put on a horse, still unconscious, and got his sister in his arms. Then, talking to Trowa, said:

"We need to take her to your house…".

With this, Milliardo started to walk to the carriage that Sally had used to get there.

Placing Relena inside with the maximum care, ordered Trowa and Sally to get on the carriage. Then, looking at Treize, said:

"Old friend…I take you'll punish that bastard like he deserves…".

"Sure…count on it…" Treize replied ordering his soldiers to get moving.

"I'll see you tonight…Une is dying to see your wife to show off her new dress…" Treize added before leaving with Heero and his soldiers.

Sally was repulsed by this new and completely unknown side of Milliardo. He had always been a caring person but, now he had been…abominable. She then looked at Trowa and when he returned the look, Sally found a very strange message in those emerald green eyes of his.

They were trying to say 'don't worry, everything will be alright'. Unfortunately Sally just didn't know how this mess could be sorted out.

Sally saw Wu Fei standing by his house's door, then, when Milliardo got the carriage moving, the Anglo-Chinese doctor looked at the back of it and seeing Relena's closed eyes, she thought how lucky the girl was not having had to see her love being taken away. Yet again, Sally thought of the pain it would cause Relena when she would find out. That was, of course, if she recovered…

END OF CHAPTER TEN