AU: Heeheehee…I'm ba-ack. :-) Second chapter to the sequel to Godspeed, and I have to admit that, at least in the drafts, this was my favorite! Hope you enjoy! Please, please review - criticism is appreciated and praise is loved! Thanks guys!

A Shot in the Dark:

Chapter 2

One stop at an ice cream parlor and eight hours later, Relena and Case were safe at home. Case was seated at the table, happily eating his dinner – Waffle Crisps, with Fruity Pebbles for seconds as long as his mom stayed out of sight – and watching Pagan, their butler and cook, fix something a bit more dignified for his mother….adding comments and cheerful criticisms as he saw fit, of course.

Relena was in the vidcam room, talking to Hilde about the day's events. The door was shut, and the expression on Hilde's face was priceless.

"He was THERE?" she yelled, absolutely astounded.

"Shh," Relena hushed her. "Case is eating, keep it down."

"What, you're not going to tell him?" Hilde had leaped out of her chair and was now setting the Olympic world speed record for pacing. "His dad just decides to show up for the first time in six years and you're not going to – "

"I will," Relena said, still shushing her. "Just please keep it – "

"What about Case's dad?" Duo's head popped into the vidcam screen, braid swinging. Hilde turned indignantly to her husband. "You idiot! Can't you see that Relena and I are having a nice personal talk? Get out of here!"

"Okay, sure, honey," Duo told her, then promptly turned to Relena again. "What about Heero?"

Relena said, before Hilde could get a word in, "At the speech today – "

"Oh yeah, congratulations on that," Duo said, breaking into a broad grin. "Heard it completely blew 'em away, that you're on contract for another four years."

Startled out of her story, Relena gave him a shaky smile, "Oh – thanks, yeah."

"Would you let her tell her story?" Hilde burst. "For heaven's sake, Case saw Heero at the speech today!"

Duo's grin disappeared, and he turned to Relena in utter amazement.

Quivering slightly – as she had been since the limousine ride home – Relena gave a tremulous smile and said, "Case talked to a man standing in the back, in the shadows. He said he had dark hair that fell in his eyes, and was tall, and – " her voice caught, then she bravely continued, " – and had eyes just like him."

Duo was silent, staring at her.

"Not a very promising description, I know," Relena said hurriedly, eager to show him that she wasn't just overreacting. "But I – I don't know, Duo…I just…feel it somehow. He was there today, and he – " she had to stop; the tears were back. Relena took a long, shuddering breath, and then whispered, "He spoke with his son."

Now Hilde's eyes were filling with tears, and Duo's face softened slightly.

"Oh, Re…" Hilde murmured.

"I don't believe it," Duo whispered, just loud enough for Relena to hear him. "I've been tearing the Colonies and Earth apart for six years trying to find him. I've investigated every possible nook and cranny, I've searched the databases, the monitor systems, the – the apartments, for heaven's sake! And all the time he – he's here, going to your speeches…"

"This could've been the first time," Hilde put in.

Duo shook his head, braid swinging. "Of course it wasn't. I can't believe I was such an idiot…"

"About what?" Relena whispered.

"All this time," Duo said, his own voice unsteady now, "I've been looking on ships and Colonies and places halfway across the world…when all this time – " his eyes lifted to Relena " – he's been right here with you."

She recoiled as if she had been struck. "What?" she breathed.

"I can't believe I didn't realize this…" Duo was pacing now, back and forth across his vidcam room. "I was overlooking the most important detail."

"Which is?" Hilde demanded impatiently.

Duo stopped, lifted his head, looked at Hilde. "That he can't leave her alone."

The words hit her hard, and Relena sat down in the vidcam chair, feeling completely winded. "Wha - what?" she managed to stammer.

"I should've known…I was wondering why I couldn't find any trace of him at all in the Colonies…but he can't leave you, Re. He can't. He doesn't trust anyone else with your security, so he's been following you, watching you…" Duo's voice trailed off, and Hilde quietly picked it up where he had left off. "Protecting you," she murmured.

The tears were trickling down Relena's cheeks. "I can't believe that," she whispered. "Why would he be so near us, but stay so far away?"

"I don't know," Hilde said, much too grave for her usual personality.

"I do," Duo answered softly. The women's gazes flew to him. His eyes were focused on a picture on the wall, a picture that had been taken in those blissful, carefree days before Relena had gotten pregnant and Heero had disappeared. It was a photograph of the entire gang, from Zechs to Wufei, Relena to Catherine, all taken by surprise by Duo's camera shot. They had been in the midst of laughing at a joke Hide had cracked, and what Relena loved about that picture was that fact that Heero was smiling. She remembered the day vividly - it was the next week that she had learned she was pregnant - and Relena recalled twisting around to smile at Heero after the flash had come and gone, and feeling slightly disappointed that he hadn't been laughing. She didn't realize he had had a smile on his face - the first true smile she'd seen in public with him - until three weeks later, when Heero was declared officially missing and Duo had brought her the picture. Looking down at that picture, where Heero's arms were wrapped protectively around her, the smile on his face, Relena had cried more tears than ever before in her entire life.

"He's scared," Duo continued, his voice just audible enough to be heard, his eyes riveted on the photo. "That's it. That's the reason he's just hidden in the shadows all the time: the man is scared."

"Of what?" Relena burst, feeling the ever-present tears threatening again. "What is he afraid of? All we would do…" a single teardrop trickled down her cheek, and her voice lowered as she whispered, "…is love him."

--------------

The call didn't go on much longer. Eventually Hilde and Duo had to get their own three children to sleep, and Relena was dragged back into her world of responsibility and little blond boys. She found a very patient Pagan in the kitchen, and a very critical Case seated at the table, and saved the old butler-slash-cook by firmly taking Case by the hand and leading him upstairs to bed. Case, of course, completely oblivious to the fact that his neverending questions might grow to be annoying, skipped cheerfully up the stairs.

It was pitch black outside, and the rainclouds had finally burst. A steady downfall was pounding on the roof, and as Case climbed into bed, he said, "I like the rain, Mom. It makes me feel really good inside, all nice and peaceful."

There was a sudden, brief flash of memory in her mind -

"I love the rain, Relena." His eyes were calm, happy, an expression she adored seeing in his normally hard eyes. "I love the steadiness of it, the comfort."

Relena smiled slightly as she banished the memory, then closed the door, gave Case a kiss on the forehead and tucked him in, and took her customary place on the windowsill. Case reached up a hand and flicked off the lamp on his nightstand, and in the darkness mumbled sleepily, "Will you sing to me, Mommy?"

"Of course, sweetie," Relena replied, gazing out the window. A glance back at the little boy, however, told her that he wouldn't last through the first verse. Obliging him anyway, Relena sang the first line softly, and then watched as her exhausted son slipped right off into a peaceful sleep.

"That was fast," she remarked wryly, then turned to the window again.

Only about a week ago she had sat at this very windowsill, during another spring thunderstorm, and sung Case a lullaby. As she sang she had quietly sifted through all her old memories, all the emotions welling up inside her day by day, and had ended up out on the balcony. Now, however, the confusion seemed to have been multiplied threefold. So Heero was here…out there, somewhere, but so much closer than she had previously thought.

The concept was hard to grasp. She had gone so long thinking he was light years away, that to come face-to-face with this new idea was too much for her.

Would he return? Oh, Heero…Relena thought. Silently, she turned away from the window as the tears began to fall. How she needed him…

She couldn't stop crying. Suddenly all Relena wanted was someone to hold her, to tell her everything would be all right, to comfort and encourage and reassure…but there was no one there. No one except a blissfully unaware little six-year-old.

But he was all she had left, and so, tears streaming down her face, Relena crossed the room and climbed into bed beside her son. She cried for a long while, burying her face in the pillow so as not to wake Case, relishing the gentle warmth emanating from his little body, and then finally she slipped into sleep.

-----------------

This was bad.

He was certainly one for risks, but he had never before had an idea, or thought, or possible plan, that would be so dangerous and risky and - and just not right - as this one. It would be contrary to everything he had worked for and told himself for six years. All the effort he had put into this 'mission' would go down the drain in one swift, absurd movement.

But he couldn't get past this; it nagged at him, kept pulling at his mind and heart until he was nearly crazy with indecision.

He had spoken with his son.

His son.

The pure incredulity of that fact struck him full force, for the umpteenth time that day, and he was shocked so badly that he felt his hands began to tremble ever so slightly. His son. The little boy that bore his genes, his eyes, his traits, his personality…the little boy that belonged to him.

No, he told himself forcefully. There is nothing that belongs to you, and certainly not him. Which was true, because he certainly didn't deserve to live himself, much less have the blessing of caring for another human being. And certainly not Relena - for with Case came Relena, and there was no way he could ever face her again.

There. It was settled. He would stay right where he was - directly underneath the second-story balcony, to be precise, expertly hidden and completely out of sight - and wait out the night.

He settled back against the wall, closed his eyes and focused on his hearing, totally intent on completing this mission.

"She works really hard, you know, because her job is helping other people and that takes a lot of time…but it's worth it."

No, no, no…he shook his head violently, desperately trying to get rid of the innocent voice replaying over and over again in his head.

"We have lots of fun, we go get ice cream and stuff like that."

Without realizing what he was doing, he straightened his back and leaned forward, looking upwards at the balcony. That owner of that sweet, unsuspecting voice was just yards away…

"When she doesn't have meetings."

That settled it. As the slight tones of longing and sadness came quietly back into his mind, he found himself moving, climbing swiftly and silently up the large trellis festooned with vines, bowing his head against the onslaught of rain. He didn't know what he would say, what he would do, just knew that he had to see that little boy -

And then the trellis ended, and he was on the balcony, staring into the room.

There the boy was, asleep on the bed, facing the balcony door. The hair was splayed out in every direction on the pillow, the fair complexion was slightly colored from the excitement of the dreams the child was having, and the long lashes lay like soft dark snowflakes on the pale cheeks.

Without him realizing what was happening, his hand crept up and outwards and slowly - ever so slowly - pulled the terrace door outwards. It swung silently and steadily, but the rain instantly entered the room, and now he was stuck; he couldn't push it shut and face the chance of them seeing him - he would have to push, and run - and he steadied himself for the jump -

But then, unwillingly, he caught another glimpse of the little boy, and instead of pushing and jumping, he found himself slipping quietly into the room and pulling the door shut.

As the sound of the rain disappeared outside and he fully realized what he was doing, his body froze, fighting the urge to dash, to get out of such a vulnerable situation, and for the longest moment he stood staring at that little boy…now just feet away, so incredibly close he could hear the soft, rhythmic breaths -

Something was wrong, though, something was different…he shook his head, aghast at how inept he was becoming tonight, and studied the scene in his mind. It only took him a split second to realize what it was: there were three people drawing breath in that room, not two.

It didn't take a genius to know what he had missed. As the realization hit him full force, he staggered backwards a step, narrowly missing a toy box full of Legos in the darkness. She was there, in that room, just feet - inches - two arm lengths away, so tantalizingly close -

Once again, he didn't seem to have control over his limbs. They moved automatically, though with surety and silence, but even as his mind screamed the word No! over and over again, his heart - and limbs - did not obey. Step by step, inch by inch, he came around the side of the bed, and closer and closer to the woman that he feared, longed for, dreaded, and dreamed about more than anything else in the world.

She was lying there, next to the little boy, fast asleep and, for the first time that he had seen in six years, her face was smooth and peaceful, an angelic little smile gracing her features. The pillow looked damp, and he knew in a snap that she had been crying…his heart twisted involuntarily, and he took a steadying breath. Being so close to her was intoxicating, overwhelming, absolutely -

Wonderful.

A hand reached out - his hand - and his mind was screaming bloody murder again, bellowing a constant warning that this was going to be his destruction - but it was too late. He brushed her cheek, and at the warmth he felt there, he realized that he was helpless. This close to her, and he lost all control, all the perfect authority and rule he had over his emotions.

And then, as his hand slipped away from her face, the worst thing that could possibly happen happened.

Her eyelids flickered, and then slowly - agonizingly slowly - came open.

Now, everything was screeching at him to run, to leave, to jump out the window, bust through the door, do something, anything, to get away -

But sky-blue sapphire met dark Prussian blue, and he was helpless.

"Heero?"

His heart melted.