Chapter Sixteen

"Uncle Duo?"

"Yes?"

"When do you think Daddy will come back?"  Natalie looked up at him as he tucked her in goodnight.  She smiled as she put her hands up, stopping him from pulling her blankets up to her nose. 

"I don't know," Duo answered truthfully.

"Uncle Duo?"

"What is it?"

"Do you think Quatre is all right?"

Duo paused, forgetting his good-natured smile and adopting an air of seriousness.  "I don't know about that either," he admitted, smoothing out the blankets around Trowa's daughter.  "I hope he's all right."

"Me too," the little girl said, closing her eyes and rolling onto her side to get more comfortable.  She was almost asleep when she murmured, "Big Sister will take care of him until he gets to come back home." 

Duo patted her little head before the turned to leave her bedroom.  The kids were taking this amazingly well, considering the disturbing fact that Little Quat and Kaori had been taken during the attack on the Academy.  Luckily for him, they didn't press questions about the explosion, so he didn't have to feel worse and worse for lying to them.

"Big Sister?" Duo asked the blonde man leaning in the doorway, the blonde man who'd watched as he tucked in their good friend's little girl. 

"Nat's called Kaori that since she was a baby, when Trowa still lived here at the Academy," Quatre answered.  "I don't think she's called Kaori that in a long time."

"So what does it mean now?"

Quatre shrugged.  "Hopefully it means that she feels Quatre is safe with Kaori, safe like they used to be when they were little."

"Hopefully," Duo repeated, scowling.

"Are you mad at me about something?" Quatre asked, closing the door to Natalie's bedroom.  Duo shook his head no.  "Then what is bothering you?"

"I don't like having to lie to our own chil…"

"Dad?" Luke interrupted, showing himself from the darkness of the living room.  "Hade says there's a call for you in Colonel Yuy's, I mean Uncle Heero's apartment."  Luke moved aside as his father and Quatre brushed past him.  He quietly followed them next door, only stopping as Quatre checked on Catherine and Roddy who slept in the other bedroom of his father's apartment. 

"Move aside, Son," Duo said, pushing Hayden out of the chair in Heero's apartment and sitting in the vacated seat.  "Trowa?" he asked, looking at the monitor.

"Duo," a voice said. 

"What's going on?  Why are you calling Heero's apartment?  Have you found…?" Duo let his question hang, conscious of his two boys in the room and his promise to keep the real reason behind the explosion in the Academy a secret.  He was aware of Quatre coming behind him, placing a hand on his shoulder to await any news Trowa might tell them.

"The List has been cancelled," Trowa said, monotone as usual.

"And what about Kaori and…and Little Quat?" Duo asked, unable to ignore the fact that Trowa had only mentioned good news about the list, and left out details about the kidnapped children.

"We're working on it.  I'll keep you up to date." 

Duo barely had time to reach up and press the tracer button on Heero's communicator before Trowa closed the connection.  Within seconds, a stream of letters and numbers filed across the blank monitor screen that revealed the time and originating location of the most recent call.  Duo grabbed a napkin and scribbled down the geographic name and magnetic coordinates of Trowa's end of the call. 

"Well, he's one cryptic bastard, isn't he?" Duo said, tossing a smile behind him at Quatre.  "But not too cryptic to figure out."

"They don't know where Junior is," Quatre stated, obviously upset. 

"But they killed the List.  That's good news," Duo countered, trying to stay optimistic.  "And we know where they are now.  Perhaps we should go…"

"No, we aren't going.  Heero told us to stay here," Quatre countered.

"Go where?" Luke interrupted.

Duo swallowed hard and glanced aside at Quatre, who looked less than helpful.

"Hey," he said with a shrug.  "I wasn't the one who promised Heero not to tell my kids.  Junior already knew.  You're the one who takes responsibility for this one."  The blonde left Heero's apartment, heading to where Catherine and Roddy were asleep. 

"Take responsibility for what, Dad?" Hade asked, a bit of doubt creeping into his voice.  "We know we've been left in the dark during all of this.  And we know that you're the ones who lied to us.  What's going on, Dad?"

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

The horses slowed their pace, twisting and turning in the dense undergrowth of the forest.  Loud rumbling sounds from the pursuing jeeps faded into the distance, and Quatre could hear the chirping of birds and rustling of small animals as they trekked through the woods.  He was starting to feel peaceful again.  His legs hurt from riding in a saddle, a feat he wasn't used to, but he was really feeling at home with his animal and the nature around him.

Until he saw Kaori slump over the neck of her horse, coming close to falling off completely. 

"Kaori!" he yelled out, hoping that she was just asleep.  "Kaori!"

She shook her head and looked back at him.  Her red-violet eyes were glazed over and hazy, and they didn't focus on him correctly.  That's when he noticed the blood on her horse.  The blood that ran down the sides of her horse, originating from the rider. 

"Kaori, you have to stop us!" he said, loudly and not caring if soldiers were close enough to hear.  She was bleeding too much, and being caught by the bad guys seemed like a good idea if they'd patch her up and stop the red liquid from running down the sides of the horse and staining the fallen leaves on the forest floor. 

Luckily, she had half a mind still working, and Kaori pulled gently on the reins of her dark chestnut horse and came to a stop.  She promptly fell off the horse and onto the ground.  Little Quat didn't know how to correctly dismount, so he flung himself off the high back of his horse, landing unceremoniously on the ground between the two large animals. 

He rushed to her side, putting his hands on either side of her face to get a feel for what she was thinking, what she was feeling and whether or not she was still alive.  A wave of pain hit him as Kaori came back to consciousness.  She blocked it almost immediately, and Little Quat was left breathless as he tried to recover from it.

"Do you hear it?" she whispered to him.  "Can you hear it?"

"Hear what?" he asked, completely confused. 

"The water.  There is a stream nearby."  Kaori drifted in and out of consciousness, opening and closing her eyes as she fought to stay awake.  It looked like she was just taking really long blinks.  Quatre was quiet and listened as hard as he could for any sound of running water.  He strained and strained.  He could hear the horse above him snort and stamp its foot, probably more than irritated at having to keep its saddle on when it didn't have a rider.  He could hear a nest of birds off to the right.  And he could hear the faint whisper of water over rocks.  A stream. 

"I hear it," he told her, trying to drag her to a sitting position.  But a small boy was no match for Kaori's muscular dead-weight.  "You have to wake up, I can't lift you."

"I can walk," she said, startling him with her voice.  He had expected her to be unconscious again.  "Help me to my feet and let me lean on the horse," she instructed, struggling to get her feet under her body. 

Finally Little Quat was able to get her to her feet and he draped one of her arms over the neck of the dark horse and the other arm over his own shoulders.  Together, they made their way through the trees to the stream.

The horses drank deeply from the cool, clear water.  Quatre, too, gave in to a moment's length of personal embellishment and stuck his whole head under the water to get a few gulps of fresh water.  He pulled off his t-shirt, dunking it in the water and ringing out the excess liquid.

"This is cold," he warned before he put the shirt on Kaori's bleeding right hand.  She'd torn the stitches and was exposing open bone.  Infection would be hard to fight off.  Quatre Junior's hopes faded as he tugged off Kaori's shirt, seeing the extent of the bruises and split skin.  No wonder she'd been bleeding so much, he thought as he stole a glance at the dark horse nearby.  Kaori's blood stained its sides and its neck, gleaming a bright red against its deep brown hide. 

Working as quickly as possible, Little Quatre sponged Kaori's aching and bleeding body with his t-shirt.  He didn't want her to be shirtless out here in the open for long.  Even a loose shirt would help prevent some infection or bothersome insects from attempting to embed in her flesh.  He shuddered.  He didn't want to think about that.  Throughout most of her washing, Kaori remained limp and accepting of Quatre's care.  One time she'd opened her eyes and told Hayden to stay away from her or else she'd hurt him, but other than that, no incidents occurred.  He laid her down on the soft mossy bank of the stream after giving her a handful of water to drink.  She went to sleep immediately.

Little Quatre wondered about his father as he pulled the chestnut colored horse closer to the water.  He splashed its sides and rinsed away as much blood as he could.  The stream diluted Kaori's blood into light pink and carried it down the rocks to some other place.  He wondered if his father was worried about him.  He wondered if they'd ever be found.

*   *   *   *   *   *   * 

"I wonder if we'll ever find them," Jin whispered into Heero's ear.  Trowa and Wufei were currently talking with the local law officials, getting their cooperation in the detainment and imprisonment of the captured soldiers.  Heero slipped a strong arm around her shoulders and pulled her close.

"Of course we'll find them," he assured her.  Wufei was getting testy, saying something about the dishonorable acts of the soldiers they'd captured and the need for these soldiers to be aptly punished.  If he mentioned justice, Heero would have to intervene. 

"Do you feel her?" Jin asked, her voice shaking.

"No."  Heero had been worried about that, too.  Normally, he had a sense of Kaori's being, a kind of connection with her that she allowed him to have.  Since the kidnapping, he'd been cut off from the sense of Kaori that normally occupied a small corner of his mind.  And no one could sever that connection but Kaori herself.  His daughter was out there, injured and taking care of Quatre's son, hunted by soldiers.  And now that night was coming on, she was soon to be hunted by more vicious predators than slipshot soldiers from Relena's military camp. 

"She's not contacting you?" Jin asked, repeating the question just to be sure. 

"No, she's not." 

"There's no way to know if she's alive or dead then," Jin said with finality.  Heero wrapped his arms tighter around his wife and held her so close that he could feel her heart beating against his chest. 

"She's alive."

"…you mean, "No proof"?  I'm telling you that these men are responsible for an attempt to reinstate Relena Dorlian-Peacecraft as Queen of the World and destroy the current government.  Do you not trust a former Gundam Pilot?  What is this injustice!?"

"That's my cue," Heero said, hearing Wufei's argument with the local law enforcement.  "I need to settle him down."  Jin only nodded, but remained standing where she was as Heero made his way across the large entry room to where the commotion was collected.

"I'm sorry Mr. Chang, but we can't just take orders from you and…" the rookie deputy looked around at Trowa and Heero, "…your friends.  Even if you were a Gundam pilot…"

"Listen," Trowa said, breaking the argument with his soft and strong voice.  "We are in need of your assistance.  If you are not willing to grant us the use of your local jail cells, then we shall have to deal with the matter in our own way."

The young deputy looked up at Trowa, then at Wufei, then at Heero.  "Your own way?" he asked, shaking a little. 

"That's right," Heero said in his most threatening monotone, taking a small step forward to seem more menacing.  "I would hope you'd assist in our endeavor."

"All right then," the deputy said, stuttering.  "We'll take these…men off of your hands.  Is there anything else we can do for you?"

"Nothing else, thank you.  Why don't we go and process these misguided soldiers?" Trowa suggested, walking away with the deputy. 

Wufei spun and confronted Heero.  "You didn't have to babysit me like that," he hissed.  "I'm more than capable of handling myself in a tense situation."

"I know that," Heero said, not at all surprised by Wufei's accusations.  "I was just on hand in case you decided to make your point with a little more force.  Ouch."

Both Wufei and Jin snapped their heads up to look at Heero.

"What did you say "ouch" for?" Wufei asked warily.

Heero's brows knitted together as he thought.  "I feel pain," he said.  "But I'm not hurt, am I?"  Jin ran her hands skillfully and quickly down Heero's body, feeling for broken ribs or unnoticed bullet holes.  She shook her head no.  "But I feel hurt.  My hand hurts."  He looked down at his right hand, opening and closing his fist a few times, his joints moving stiffly.  "And my ribs hurt, like they're broken," he said between shallow breaths.  Deep breaths disturbed any injured ribs and made them hurt more. 

Suddenly, Heero doubled over, falling to the ground on his knees.  He rocked back and forth, nearly hitting his head on the metal floor as he writhed.  Jin was at his side immediately, holding him as best she could.

"What is wrong, Heero?" she asked over and over.  "What's wrong?"

Wufei helped hold Heero still, trying to get him to stop contorting long enough to answer the question.  He fought against them, telling them that his arms hurt, his ribs hurt, his legs hurt, and his back hurt.  When they touched him, it hurt him more. 

"Kaori hurts!" Heero screamed out.  "I can feel her.  She is in pain!"

As suddenly as the pain racked Heero's body, it left again.  He sprung up from his position on the floor and looked with teary eyes at his friend and his wife.  Kaori had contacted him, long enough to let him know that she was still alive somewhere and that they should keep looking for her.  But Kaori was in too much pain to form any kind of complete thought.  She was in so much pain.