Chapter Eleven
Heero stood at attention in front of Noin's desk, listening absentmindedly as Lt. Commander West gave reason after reason for Kaori to be expelled from the Academy. Again. He had to go through this exact same ritual two years ago, when West got Kaori expelled the first time. He was not about to go through it again. Getting restless, he shifted his weight from one foot to the other. A slight movement, but he was sure Noin caught it.
"General Noin," West continued, getting to the important part of the speech. She'd had this speech on reserve in her mind for weeks, just waiting for Yuy to mess up and give her a reason to add a final infraction to her long list. "This morning, the episode with the gym mirror, is inexcusable. Cadet Yuy has destroyed property of the Preventors, causing us to have to replace the very expensive glass." She paused for dramatic effect. "But more importantly than monetary damage, Cadet Yuy has proven herself to be unstable, in the most basic mental sense…"
"Stop now, Commander," Noin said, holding up her hand in the universal gesture for "halt." Noin glanced at the hurt eyes of her friend, her employee, the father of the girl in question before continuing, "The mental status of Cadet Yuy is not to be assessed by you. Only a complete psychological evaluation can determine whether or not she is stable, as you put it, to continue as a student in my Academy. Your plea has been heard. You are dismissed."
"But, General Noin, the girl is insane…" West insisted.
"You are dismissed," Noin repeated, her voice more stern. West took the hint and saluted sharply before leaving Noin's office. Without another thought of the pushy woman, Noin turned her attention to Heero. "Stop pretending," she said. The commanding tone was gone from her presence, leaving nothing but a friend.
Heero slouched immediately, his shoulders slumping as he sat heavily in one of the chairs arranged around Noin's desk. He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees and holding his worried head in his hands.
"What do you think?" she asked him.
"I don't know what I think anymore," Heero answered. His voice conveyed nothing but tired sadness. "I just don't know."
Noin leaned forward, setting her elbows on her desk. "Obviously more is going on than you're telling me, Heero. Trowa and Quatre show up suddenly with their families in tow. You are all armed, and I don't mind lending the weapons, so don't ask…" she added when Heero looked like he was about to apologize for stealing the handguns. "Your daughter is even carrying your pistol, Heero. What is going on?"
Heero sighed. He'd have to tell Noin. She could be trusted, couldn't she? She could, he decided. "Jin found a List. That's why she hasn't come back. That's why Tro and Quat are here. That's why we're all on edge, stressed, and armed."
Noin's eyes grew wide with surprise. A List?! It explained the strangeness of Trowa and Quatre coming here unannounced. It explained why her friends were so on edge and upset. "Are you all on it?" she asked.
Heero nodded his head affirmatively. "And our families."
This time, Noin couldn't conceal her gasp. "Your families too? This is horrible." They sat in silence for a while. After the shock had worn off, Noin turned back to her serious soldier self. "What precautions have you taken? Your plans?"
"Few precautions, save for being armed. And we have no plans. Jin has yet to contact us again." Heero slipped into soldier mode as well.
"I feared the worst when we discovered the shuttle remains, but I never would have imagined that someone was hunting Jin. Or the rest of you." Noin was quiet for a while. "What can I do to help, Heero?"
He was quiet for a moment. "Leave Kaori alone for now. Let this List thing solve before you even consider her expulsion. She needs as little problems as possible right now."
Noin thought for a moment. Should she ignore the troubles Kaori was causing with her destructive behavior? Or should she stay true to her commitments as the Dean in charge of the Academy? Heero's deep blue eyes begged her silently to overlook the incident in the gym. She smiled. "Whatever you need from me, Heero, I'll give it. Kaori's problems within the Academy will be postponed until your current family situation is alleviated. But I suggest you consider her psychological problems when you place your friend's families under her protection. Having someone like Kaori around may not be the wisest choice in this problem. You need someone you can trust on your side, Heero. Can you trust Kaori to act when you need her?"
Heero stood up without answering Noin. He simply smiled and mumbled a thank you before leaving her office. Noin watched him go, noticing the way his demeanor changed when she mentioned her reservations about Kaori's mental health.
He stalked down the hallway, too angry with the world to notice the students scatter from him as he made his way to his office. This morning's events replayed through his mind as he walked.
Kaori's shoulder was put back into place fairly easily, and she was now sleeping soundly under Heero's watchful eye. Sally had bandaged her hand after stitching her wounds closed and used more gauze to wrap her arm to her chest, immobilizing it during this sensitive first stage of healing as well as successfully immobilizing her sore shoulder.
"She'll be alright," he heard Duo say behind him. "We should all talk now." Duo led the way out of Sally's lab, down the hall, and into Sally's office. Trowa, Quatre, and Wufei were waiting there. All had stern looks on their faces. Something told him that they'd already come to a decision of some kind, and they were just all there to inform him.
"What is it?" Heero asked. His eyes scanned their faces. Trowa was as still as stone, and, as always, impossible to read. Quatre on the other hand was an open book. His large eyes shimmering with unshed tears and he unconsciously clutched Trowa's arm for support. Wufei's face was stern, but his eyes, too, were saddened as they gazed upon him. Beside him, Duo was already crying and making no effort to hide his emotions.
Trowa stepped forward, having been delegated to deliver the news to Heero. "We've come to a decision," he announced, "that we cannot trust Kaori." Heero's mouth dropped open slightly, but the usually quiet ex-pilot continued. "Her behavior this morning had led us all to doubt her reliability when it comes to protecting our families' lives." Heero looked heart-broken, and Trowa took a deep breath.
"Unless you can guarantee us that she won't do this kind of thing again," Duo said, speaking his own personal opinion. He knew that Wufei and Trowa were closed to the option of reinstating Kaori as bodyguard over Natalie and Quatre Jr. But Duo would trust Kaori with his own sons' lives as long as Heero still believed in her.
"She's failed after one such guarantee," Wufei growled. "Or did you happen to forget the last time she snapped you promised that it wouldn't happen again?!" Wufei's voice grew uncomfortably loud as he spoke. "Kaori's problems were supposed to go away the last time this happened. You were supposed to take care of it, Heero! You promised she wouldn't do this again and now she has. How can we trust her again?"
"I TRUST HER!" Heero screamed, as loud as he possibly could. "I would put my life in her hands, no matter how damaged they were! She WILL NOT fail in her responsibilities." Heero's outburst caused Quatre to cling closer to Trowa, and Wufei stepped back like he had been hit in the face. Heero turned to Duo. "She would never hurt anyone," he said softly, sinking into Duo's arms.
Heero slammed his fist into his office door, throwing it open with the force of his blow. He sank into his chair, trying to rid his head of the memories. The memories of his friends' doubts, of his superior's uncertainties, of his daughter's failures.
"There's this invention called a doorknob that is much more effective when you try to open doors," Duo's voice said. Heero looked up to see him there, running his hand over the nice dent Heero had put on his office door. "I see where she gets this urge to punch flat surfaces comes from…" Duo mused.
"Not funny," Heero told him. But Duo's broad teasing smile wouldn't let Heero stay mad at the braided fool for long. "What do you want?" he asked with a much nicer tone of voice.
"Just to check on you, buddy. The kids came by my office a while ago. They said that your class had been cancelled."
"Had a meeting with Noin," Heero explained in response to Duo's unasked question. "She agreed to overlook this whole…mess…until we deal with the other mess we're in."
"There's just mess all over," Duo joked. He actually elicited a laugh from the Perfect Soldier. "By the way, the kids are fine. Kaori's in her room and still asleep, Mei says. Sally didn't tell us, but I suspect that she gave Kaori a little something extra in that steroid injection."
Heero nodded. "I thought so too." He booted up his laptop. "Well, back to work," he announced, meaning to do some research, otherwise known as hacking, regarding the List he was currently a member of. "And you have a class soon," he reminded Duo. "Lunch is almost over."
Duo nodded and said goodbye to Heero, hoping he'd feel better soon. Meanwhile, it was up to him to keep spirits high. With a spring in his step and a friendly whistle on his lips, Duo went to his classroom.
Some students were already there. Mei and Luke were in their usual back row seats, leaning in close while they talked. Duo smiled a little at the way his son was hitting on the Chinese girl. Wufei was going to flip. More and more of the class filed in before the bell rang. Duo was not surprised when Kaori neglected to come to class. She was probably still under the influence of Sally's secretive drugging. He was surprised, however, when Hades never came to class.
* * * * * * *
He lay next to her on the bed, his arm pillowing her head as she drowsily rambled on about nothingness. An effect of the drugs that Sally had slipped in her system. He was on her left side, of course, and above the covers while she was snuggled beneath to keep warm. Kaori was singing now…something about forsaken, suicide, and angels. He didn't catch all the words.
"You know," she said, a little more clearly. "This morning when I woke up and saw you, your bangs were all fuzzy and around your face. The sun was coming in through this window." She pointed to the large window next to her bed. "And it made your hair all shiny and beautiful. I thought you looked like an angel." Kaori smiled a little and moved her head off of Hayden's shoulder and onto the pillow – a signal she wanted to sleep.
"An angel?" Hayden asked, moving his arm away so she could get more comfortable. He started to get up off the bed, but her uninjured left hand stopped him.
"Warm," she said simply, her eyes heavy and closing. "A very beautiful, warm angel…" Kaori rolled onto her left side, curling a little as she settled again on the stiff mattress.
Hayden glanced over at the chronometer, seeing that Chang's class was almost over. Mei and Luke would be up here soon to check on Kaori. Catherine and Roddy had come, without the kids, right after lunch. None of the pilots had come to see her. Not even his father.
The door clicked, opening.
Hayden jumped off of the bed, sliding quickly into the chair set up next to the bed. Whether Colonel Yuy saw him in bed with his daughter or not, Heero never made any sign of it to Hayden. He got up from the chair when Heero got closer to the bed, meaning to leave father and daughter alone to talk about…about whatever it was they needed to talk about.
"Don't go," Col. Yuy said to him, holding out a hand to stop the retreating Maxwell. "I won't be here long. Just need to give her some information."
"Daddy?" Kaori asked from the bed, responding to her father's voice.
"I have to tell you something, Kaori," Heero said, sitting on the edge of her bed. Kaori opened her eyes and rolled her head up to see him more clearly. He had her attention, despite the drowsiness of the drugs. "I'm leaving. I found some things today. I found your mother. And she found the author of our little List," he said quickly. He hoped this was sinking in. With Duo's kid here, he didn't want to reveal too much even though he was pretty sure Mei and the Maxwell boys had figured things out.
"You're going?" Heero's heart pulled. She sounded heart-broken. "Let me go."
"No," Heero said with a smile. "I have another assignment for you."
At that moment, a little blonde head poked out from around the door.
"Can I come in yet, Uncle Heero?" the boy asked.
Heero nodded and accepted the energetic blonde into his lap, holding him close so that he wouldn't reach down and touch Kaori's injuries.
"We're leaving ASAP," he told Kaori. "And any time Junior isn't with Senior or Duo, you're to stick with him like glue."
Kaori smiled at the figure of her father, holding the blonde boy in his lap. They looked so different, as she was sure she looked with the child. Her father's tanned and strict face with dark locks and deep blue eyes seemed opposite Little Quat's light blonde hair, bright aquamarine eyes, fair skin, and cute smiling face. "I understand, Father," she said.
"We're trusting you, Kaori. I'm trusting you." Heero set Quatre Jr. on the floor and leaned close to kiss his daughter goodbye. "I love you," he whispered before pressing his lips to her forehead.
"Me too," Kaori replied softly. "I won't fail you, Dad," she said louder as he was leaving the room.
"I know you won't." Heero looked down at Little Quat, putting a hand on his head to keep the bubbly person in one place long enough to speak to him. "Remember what I told you, Quatre. Don't ever go anywhere unless your dad, Hayden's dad, or Kaori are with you," he instructed. Quatre Jr. nodded furiously. Heero nodded goodbye to Hayden and said to Kaori, "Be safe," before closing the door and leaving.
