AN: I know, I know. ::looks at empty audience:: Everybody left. ::sigh:: Ah well, I deserve it, I suppose. Not submitting anything for several weeks isn't exactly the way to keep readers happy. " But I'm back, and I promise Incog will be done absolutely as soon as possible…and that's because I have a Christmassy, sweet little fluffy idea for a fic that I want to start on!! But Incog's been taking too long, but I don't want to waste the ending ('cause it's good ) so I'll finish it in these next couple of weeks. My excuse for not updating? School. What else? Oh, and the fact that I got - gasp - braces. ::shudder:: Let's not discuss it. On with the story!!
Chapter 12
As it turned out, they didn't have a chance to catch Charles Maclemury. The four Gundam pilots spent the next two days searching for the elusive politician, until they were met with yet another distraction: Saturday night, at promptly 5:40 pm, Sally gave birth to a son she and Wufei named Brandon.
Relena had never felt so terrible in her entire life. The last conversation she had had with Heero, on Friday morning just after breakfast, had ended with him yelling, "Well, then I just won't bother to call anymore!" and punching the 'end' button just as his other hand slammed the contents of a desk to the ground. The rage was sudden, hot, and almost tangible; now, no longer was Relena simply unsettled and hurt by her husband's strange behavior, but she was frightened, too.
She had no idea what to do.
10 DECEMBER 293 - WEDNESDAY22:32 PM
The television blared loudly from the living room, where eight children were glued to the screen. Relena stuck her head in the doorway and said, "Hey, guys, turn it down a bit, will you?"
Her niece, ten-year-old Ashlyn, picked herself up from the couch and clambered over the blanket where her three-year-old brothers lay. Caleb and Carter were entranced with whatever was happening on the screen, identical dark brown eyes wide and attentive. Ashlyn twisted down the volume and returned to the couch, where she was sitting next to Amy, Kylie, Lira, Callie, and Samuel. Without moving their eyes from the television, they scooted over again to make room for her.
Watching the scene from where she sat in the kitchen, Rebecca had to smile. She was holding her other daughter, Tess, while she and Relena discussed, in quiet tones, the troubles of the past week.
The women were at Relena's house, watching the children, while the husbands were off on some 'mission' - they hadn't really explained much. Rebecca and Relena were seated in the living room, to keep an eye on the children, while Hilde and Dorothy were upstairs nursing their babies and Sally was at the hospital with Wufei and their newborn.
Relena sat at the living room table, keeping one eye on the kids, and spoke to Rebecca in low tones. They were discussing the recent events, and how the four pilots on Earth had been acting very strange lately.
"…and just the other day," said Rebecca thoughtfully, "Trowa came home late and didn't - "
Crash!
There was a chorus of shrieks and screams. Relena leaped to her feet and dashed into the living room, where the kids immediately ran to her, the twins sobbing and clutching her pant leg. She glanced quickly around the room, and at first didn't see anything out of the ordinary, until -
There. A window in the back corner of the room had been shattered; glass lay all over the carpet.
Relena had seen it just in time to catch a glimpse of a dark head of hair jump to the side, out of view.
Rebecca, coming up behind, saw the same thing she did. Herding the kids into the kitchen in comforting tones, she nodded to Relena.
Knowing the kids were safe, Relena took off after the intruder. She raced outside, pausing only to stop and grab a pistol Heero kept hidden in the entryway closet. Creeping stealthily through the dark, she carefully placed her feet and listened as she rounded the corner to the broken window.
All was silent - and then, very faintly, her ears straining, Relena picked up the sound of very, very light breathing. She dropped slowly to the ground, and peeked around the corner.
There was a dark form crouched directly under the broken window, out of view from anyone in the house. It wasn't moving, just keeping very still beneath the window, and Relena realized with a chill that the intruder was waiting for them to leave the house.
Over my dead body. A fierce protectiveness for her home welled up in Relena, and in one fluid motion she had stood, stepped around the corner, and aimed the pistol directly at the still form below the window.
"Stand up," she commanded, thanking God that Heero had forced her - the pacifist - into shooting lessons. "Hands where I can see them."
The figure had turned sharply in surprise, then froze as the warm light from the window glinted off the cold metal in Relena's hands. Whoever it was didn't move.
"Stand up," Relena repeated angrily. "I will not hesitate to shoot you."
Extremely slowly, they obeyed, standing straight in the light of the window. As the warm glow of the living room illuminated the face, Relena felt a twinge of surprise.
It was a female. And a familiar one, at that…where had she seen those dark eyes, dark hair, before…?
An unsettling smile spread across the strange woman's face, and she took a few steps forward. Her walk was slinky, catlike; she wore tight-fitting black pants and a black leather top that fit over her model's body perfectly. Relena felt incredibly inferior to this gorgeous raven-haired beauty, which was odd, because the only other person she felt like that around was -
Hilde.
"Stop," Relena said, surprise evident in her voice. "You're - you're the sister…"
A perfectly formed eyebrow was raised. "I do believe we've met, madam," the woman said in a throaty, rich voice, "in fact, I believe you fed me from your very table."
"Katja." She remembered the name.
The woman took a step forward, and Relena lifted the gun again. "Do not move," she said. "What are you doing on my property?"
Katja Schbeiker, who had accompanied Charles Maclemury to dinner at the Yuy's house exactly six weeks ago, leaned against the wall, her hands on her tiny waist. "Looking around," she murmured, smirking.
Relena was just about to reply, when Katja's fingers suddenly pulled something from the waistband of her pants and aimed it at Relena.
"However," she drawled in her rich voice, "I believe I'm finished. I'll be going now."
She backed up slowly, and Relena, very much aware of the pistol pointed directly between her eyes, didn't move.
"Pity," Katja murmured as she knelt by the window to pick up a backpack of some kind. "Your husband isn't here to save you."
Pause.
"I wonder if Tavera's teaching him well?"
22:34 PM
"…his name is my name too - "
"I swear, if he doesn't shut up, I will personally call off this entire - "
" - whenever I go out, the people always shout - "
"I will give you the braid, Maxwell!"
" - Charles Maclemury the Third!"
"Duo."
This was Trowa. With Wufei it was one thing; when it was Trowa, Duo obeyed.
"You didn't have to come, you know," Braid Boy said sulkily, making a face at Wufei in the backseat of Quatre's car. "Quatre even said you should stay at the hospital."
Wufei lifted his chin and said calmly, "I was well aware of the fact that you cannot possibly complete this operation without my assistance."
Duo snorted. Trowa acknowledged Wufei with a nod.
"Well, you did find the address for us, Wufei," Quatre agreed. "That tricky bit of hacking earns you the highest spot on any mission involving Maclemury."
They were driving down a very well-to-do street, where the lamplights were ornate and dim and the houses were a good acre back from the road. The largest mansion on the street, down at the far end, was where Trowa was steering the car.
"And how are we going to cover for his disappearance?" Wufei asked.
Trowa responded quietly, "I've already dispatched an email from his home account to his office, stating that he's taken a well-deserved break to a remote island paradise."
Staring at the solemn pilot in approval, Duo murmured, "Wow, romantic."
"Quatre thought of it."
They parked two houses down, a good block and a half from Charles' house, just to be safe. Already, they had studied the blueprints and security patterns, and knew the house inside and out. This would be a piece of cake.
Wufei and Quatre disabled the electrical gate by laptop, and snuck up the front walk while Duo and Trowa hopped the fence. They met at the front door for a brief rendezvous before splitting up, each taking a window.
Trowa had shut down all security alerts for an interim of five minutes - just short enough for none of the guards to notice, and long enough for them to get into the house, get Charles, and get back out…quickly. Speed was of the essence.
They entered from different windows and began scouring the mansion, avoiding the odd security guard that patrolled past. The only near encounter was when Duo made a brief detour into the kitchen to grab some "grub", where the cook was sleeping with his head on the counter. By the time the clanging cupboards had awoken the poor employee, Duo was gone, nothing but a trail of cookie crumbs to give away his position.
It was Trowa who found Charles first. He had made his way up to the top floor and found the study, and there, sitting on a huge leather chair and typing furiously on a computer, was Charles Maclemury the Third.
Ducking back into the hall, Trowa radioed the others, and soon Quatre and Wufei were next to him. They waited a minute more for Duo, who was stuffing pastries into his mouth as fast as humanly possible, and then they got to work.
Quatre pulled out the special weapon: a small, oblong object with a pin on one end, looking uncomfortably like a grenade. Duo eyed it warily until Trowa murmured, "Stun gas, that's it."
Duo cackled. The others exchanged rather disturbed looks as he whispered, "Let me chuck it, please!"
Wufei was shaking his head, but Quatre shrugged, seeing no harm in it. Eagerly Duo took the object, released the pin, and threw with all his might.
It hit Charles squarely on the back of the head, knocking him out immediately. As a pale yellowish gas flooded the room, Trowa strapped on his gas mask amid Duo's laughter and Wufei's growling.
"Two birds with one stone, Wuffie!"
The Chinese pilot helped Trowa lift Charles and exit by way of the window, making a face at the offender and muttering, "I'm going to stone you, you annoying, braided little - "
22:36 PM
Relena could not believe her ears. She very nearly dropped the gun as Katja's words rang throughout her head.
"W-what?"
"I said," the gorgeous German repeated, perfectly calm, "I hope Tavera's teaching him well."
What in the world… Relena's mind was spinning. Did the pilots have it wrong? Did Charles have nothing to do with this, after all? True, his fingerprint had been on Amy's windowsill, but maybe he was an accomplice in a plot forged by none other than Hilde's own sister…
It didn't matter how she was involved; she was involved. Relena could not let her get away.
Keep the subject talking.
Heero's voice whispered in her mind. "How do you know about Tavera?" Relena inquired, as she rapidly considered her options. She had a gun in her hand and the skill to use it, but also a pistol pointed directly between her eyes. She was at a perfect impasse…
"Let's just say I know Mr. Tavera and his family…intimately," Katja murmured, a lock of wavy, thick dark hair falling over her forehead.
"Good," said Relena, suddenly decided. "Then you can help me."
She leapt forward, saw the surprise flash through the German's wide dark eyes, and watched Katja's slim finger pull the trigger just as Relena fired her pistol and twisted out of the way.
Relena landed to the right, unharmed, and heard Katja hiss in pain as she fell to her knees. In the fall, the pistol had dropped from Relena's hands and slid some five feet away.
An injured enemy can be the most dangerous.
Panicked, Relena fumbled to reach the gun, but not before she felt the cold steel of Katja's gun against her temple.
"I have long wanted to do this, Miss Peacecraft," the German said through gritted teeth. "You were supposed to be dead years ago."
Relena closed her eyes and held her breath. She had only one worry, one care, running through her mind, and that was for her family.
But the shot never came. Instead, the pressure on the side of her head eased, and Relena sensed Katja stand up very slowly. She dared to open her eyes.
What she saw brought her to her feet in an instant.
Katja was standing with her hands raised above her head, her gun at her feet. To her left, standing in the broken window, was Dorothy, a pistol in her hand, glaring furiously at the intruder…and on Katja's right, having just snuck out from around the side of the house, stood Rebecca, training another firearm on Katja's head.
"Good evening," Dorothy said, smiling silkily. "You do know that trespassing is against the law?"
23:45 PM
Rebecca took a long breath and sank down on the leather couch in the living room; Relena and Dorothy were already relaxing, on an armchair and a loveseat, respectively. Without opening her eyes, Relena muttered, "They go to sleep okay?"
"Ashlyn was a little overexcited…other than that, they were all pretty good. Any movement from the basement?"
"She's conscious."
"And angry," Dorothy added.
"I'm sure."
"I can't believe we're holding someone hostage," Relena murmured, her eyes closed, taking long breaths.
"It's legal," Dorothy assured her. "I'm part-time Preventer and I can account for us…besides, I'm sure Sally will be one-hundred percent behind this, and you don't get much higher up the ladder."
Relena whispered into the stillness, "We're lucky Hilde fell asleep."
There was a very uncomfortable pause, until Rebecca asked, "So we aren't telling her?"
"I think…" Dorothy muttered, "that it would make things very unnecessarily difficult. We don't tell her, then there's no biased emotion involved. Hilde would demand to be present at interrogations; it'd make things hard. It'll be better if we just keep her away from your house for a while, Relena."
A pause, and then Rebecca: "How do we account for a missing person?"
Relena gave a very unladylike snort. "None of us had any idea she existed. If she's involved in this - which I know she is - then she'll have a ton of aliases, disguises, and so on…I'm sure a missing persons report won't give us trouble."
"Great," Dorothy mumbled. "Now just to figure out what to do with her."
"Yeah…" Relena whispered, more to herself than anyone else in the room. "Good question."
23 DECEMBER 293 - MONDAY
17:13 PM
He had never found the Colony sewers to be very comforting, even though the other criminals and "organization" members that he passed had begun to salute or nod to him as they walked by. Because walking the streets of L1 reminded him painfully of Relena, Heero had taken to getting anywhere he needed to go by the sewer route.
He hadn't seen his wife in person for nearly two months, and it had been three weeks since they're last vidcam conversation - which had been an utter disaster. He hadn't spoken to his daughter for five weeks, and the only people he had associated with were criminals and mercenaries. To say the least, Heero had been a little down in the dumps the past while.
Exiting out of sewer gate #574, he walked down an alleyway onto Superstition Boulevard and was suddenly assaulted by a wave of noise, colorful blinking lights, and the vision of hundreds of last-minute Christmas shoppers making final purchases. Pulling his jacket tighter around his shoulders, Heero dodged onto the sidewalk and began the strategic maneuvering required to survive the stream of holiday shoppers.
People passing him on the sidewalk didn't give him a second glance, but Heero preferred it that way. Walking at his own pace, glancing at the stores he passed, he finally stopped at a window display in a small toy store.
Hands shoved in his pockets, blond hair slightly damp from the falling snow, Heero stood in the middle of the busy sidewalk and gazed at the array of dolls in the window. For a second, he was back home, last Christmas, standing in the doorway of the living room while he watched Relena and Amy play with their daughter's biggest Christmas gift: a box set of all her favorite dolls, not a hair out of place, each outfit pressed and neat. Relena, flushed from the excitement of the holiday, had gazed at him with love in her eyes and a laugh in her voice as she held up a redhead in a princess dress and offered, "Want to be the sister?"
"Hey, buddy, keep it moving!"
Heero was jolted out of the memory as someone shoved him from the side, nearly knocking him over. "Sorry," he muttered, and then abruptly turned from the window and continued down the street.
This year, he couldn't even send Amy a present: too risky. Unless something changed drastically in the next few days - no, day - he would be spending Christmas alone, without his family, light years away, surrounded by people who would kill him for a few extra dollars and without a second thought.
He hadn't been on a 'mission' in three weeks. After that first time Tavera had pulled him aside and excluded him from the squadron briefing, Heero had been confined to what the boss called the 'planning' committee. In short, he "helped" plan the missions - or rather, offered his opinions when asked, which was rarely. No matter what tactic he tried, what approach he took, he couldn't get anything out of either Tavera or Roberts, or any of the other members, for that matter. He felt completely useless, and helpless; he had no idea what to do. Heero had seriously been debating returning to Earth, but then would always change his mind - Amy's safety was at stake, and he was the only one who could protect her.
Rounding the last corner, Heero came upon a small café sandwiched between a bookstore and a diner - it was Brian's home and where his wife worked daily for the other half of their income. Heero hadn't met Brian's wife, but they had invited him to a Christmas dinner, if he felt up to it. Personally, Heero knew Brian hadn't believed he would come; he had seen how down Heero had been lately, and how much he seemed to love keeping to himself in his dorm. So he essentially wasn't expected, but a late-night, Christmastime bite of loneliness had spurred him out onto the Colony streets.
He entered the café and breathed in the strong smell of peppermint hot chocolate. Brian had told him to look for a back staircase, which he quickly did, and climb without hesitation.
The TV must've been on pretty loud, because as Heero was climbing, all he could hear was people yelling. A guy and a girl, it sounded like - hardly Christmastime network fare, but then again, Heero didn't watch TV much; he was probably out of the loop. He reached the top floor, turned a corner, and, to his surprise, found the door to Brian's apartment wide open.
The yelling was coming from the next room over, and now, Heero realized it wasn't the TV. He entered warily, his foot brushing against something metal: an empty bottle of beer.
His heart skipped a beat as he glanced around: the room was littered with glass bottles. Dreading what he was about to see, Heero pressed his back against the wall and glanced around the corner.
"…told you that it's worth it!"
The voice belonged to Brian. The cheerful redhead had an expression on his face Heero had never seen before, and he was standing over a cowering woman with long dark hair…and his fist was raised.
"Are you going to sit there and tell me that I do nothing for you?!"
The room reeked of beer, and Brian was swaying slightly on his feet. Heero stared as he suddenly saw the bruises on the woman's face and arms, and the blood trickling slowly down from a cut just above her eyebrow. The blood mixed slowly with tears as it made its way down her bruised cheeks.
"Answer me!" Brian bellowed, and the hand was brought down - hard. There was a small cry of pain from the woman, and then she turned her face away from Heero; he couldn't see the damage.
"I just - "she began, her voice quavering. She was raising her hands slowly above her head, and Heero could see her fingers trembling, and the black and blue of her forearms. "I just thought…maybe we could be together for Christmas - "
" - and I told you I had to work! You don't seem to appreciate the fact that I bring home the money in this family! Do you even care? All you think about is yourself, what you want!"
A sob escaped her throat, and the fist was brought down again…and again…and again.
Heero's body was lit with fire, but he stood in the doorway, watching the horrific spectacle, and for some reason, he could not move. Something about seeing this cheerful, kind person transform into a brutal, cruel monster had frozen him in his tracks.
Nothing in his world was right anymore.
Suddenly, Heero heard many footsteps on the stairs leading up to the loft apartment. It registered somewhere in his brain that he definitely did not want to be subjected to the publicity of testifying in a legal court, and before he could think about right or wrong, he had ducked into a dark hallway and crouched low to the ground.
Five men stampeded into the apartment, five men that Heero, surprisingly, recognized.
Their leader was none other than Tavera.
They stopped short at the door to Brian and his wife's bedroom, where all movement had suddenly come to a halt. Then, Heero heard Tavera say, in a low and lethal voice, "Brian Hackett, please come with us."
There was dead silence for several moments, during which Heero detected no movement from anyone, even the woman. The terrible picture kept replaying in his mind, over and over again, and suddenly he realized that he had to get out, and now.
Tavera's voice came again, commandingly. "Men, chain him, please. We'll help him out and back down to headquarters. There we will place him in a holding cell until his sentence can be deduced."
There was a small groan from Brian, and then the men were moving. Heero, seeing his chance, rose and stealthily slipped from the loft and hurried down the stairs.
It wasn't until he was safely outside and fifty yards away that he began to breathe again. Feeling his heart thumping wildly against his chest, the blood pounding against his temples, his thoughts in turmoil, Heero all of a sudden turned his head to get one last glance at the loft apartment.
Tavera was standing in the window, staring straight at him.
A wave of panic rushed through his body, and Heero whirled and continued walking, trying to look normal. The minute he walked through the sewer gate, he decided he had never felt more relieved in his entire life.
19:24 PM
This was a very bad situation.
Heero had spent the past two hours in his quarters, mostly pacing, thoughts racing through his head. What he had witnessed in Brian's apartment had shaken him deeply; the one shred of humanity, of compassion, he had found among his life up here, had suddenly and terribly taken a very large turn for the worst.
But what made it even more terrible was the fact that he knew how Roberts and Tavera served their ironic justice in the "organization." Anything that the members did wrong that might possibly threaten the secrecy of the group was punishable by death. A fair trial consisted of the accused, the accusers, and that was it. The defendant wasn't permitted a lawyer; he was simply allowed one witness to speak for him. And all it took was one witness on the accuser's side to overrule what was said, and the sentence would be decided.
Heero didn't know if Tavera had seen him, but the last thing he wanted to do was take the chance of testifying against Brian, condemning him to death…though it might be what he deserved, Heero didn't think he could bear to do that to the one man he had befriended up here.
He didn't know what to do.
Heero stopped pacing for moment, turned and looked around the room at a loss. His eyes rested on the vidcam screen, and suddenly he was assaulted by an overwhelming urge to talk to Relena…to hear her calm voice, listen to her sound advice…but he couldn't.
Not up here, anyway…
And then he had it. He didn't have to be up here. He could leave word around the headquarters that he needed to leave for a few days, and would be back soon. Nothing was scheduled, the week was free - it was perfect.
He could go home…see Amy - and Relena. For Christmas.
Without another thought, Heero picked up his jacket and left.
24 DECEMBER 293 - WEDNESDAY - CHRISTMAS EVE
06:59 AM
"Hark, the heral angels si-ing, glory to the new-bun king…piece of earth and more seed mild, gone are sinners wreck and styled…"
Coming down the stairs and passing the living room, Relena paused in slight puzzlement. She was still groggy from her sleep - or rather, lack of it - and the tune Amy was singing was familiar, but the words…
"Joyful all ye nations ride, join the triump of the guys, with angelic hose broke lame, Christ is born in Bethlehem…"
"'Angelic hosts proclaim,' sweetheart," Relena mumbled on her way past. Amy glanced up from the where she was sitting next to the Christmas tree, taking an inventory of her presents.
"Morning, Mom!" she said cheerfully. "Uncle Duo taught me a song last night. It's a Christmas one, wanna hear?"
Continuing to the kitchen, Relena threw over her shoulder, "Sure, honey."
"Okay! Listen to this: 'Joy to the world, my teacher's dead! I barbecued her head! What happened to the body, I flushed it down the potty, and 'round and 'round it goes, and 'round - '"
"Amy!"
"What?"
"How about you sing - "
Ding-dong!
Relena glanced up from her bowl of cereal. "Was that the doorbell? At seven o'clock in the morning?"
Amy didn't respond; she had already dashed down the hallway toward the front door.
A thought flew through Relena's mind - a crazy thought. Could he possibly… Shoving her excitement down, she stood and went to unfasten the deadbolt.
But the man who stood on the doorstep was definitely not her husband.
"Brad!" Relena exclaimed, immediately mortified. "Oh my gosh - what are you doing here?"
The old senator gave her a gentle smile. "Thought I'd surprise you with a Christmas Eve breakfast, my dear."
Amy gave a cry of delight and hugged him fiercely around the legs
"Oh my gosh," Relena repeated. "I - I haven't taken a shower, or put on makeup, or - or - "
Brad laughed. "Don't worry about it, my dear. Let's go enjoy some of my special Christmas French toast, shall we?"
09:49 AM
Heero had never imagined that the sight of his home could fill him with such feelings as he was experiencing now. Just walking up the driveway, seeing that sprawling house, picking out his and Relena's window, Amy's room, the balcony…made him feel as if he could just slip away from all the evil and corruption he had been living among for the past two months and be among everything good and clean again.
There was a strange car in the driveway - probably one of Relena's coworkers…or maybe someone had gotten a new car. He wouldn't know - he hadn't spoken to any of them for so long…
Heero had just reached the front door when he suddenly realized that he didn't have a key. He hadn't kept one up on L1, for fear someone would take it and figure out what it was used for…and the door was - he tried it - locked.
Feeling a bit strange, an odd nervousness rising up in his stomach, Heero lifted a fist and knocked.
He waited a moment. It was almost silent inside, but he thought - maybe? - he could detect the very faint sound of running water…
"Mr. Yuy?" came an incredulous voice.
Heero whirled around. Behind him, standing just below the front porch next to the unfamiliar car, was an old man Heero recognized. He was staring at Heero with an odd expression on his face. "Why, I had absolutely no idea you were returning home so soon."
The name came to him in a flash. "…Brad Wilshaw, right?" Heero said, smiling. The man Relena had expressed such love and gratitude for…
The old man smiled. "That's me. Are you looking for Relena? Oh, of course you are."
"Is she…not here?"
"I'm afraid not. She had an emergency meeting this morning, had to leave very quickly. You…don't have a key?"
Heero shook his head, immensely disappointed.
"Then come with me, young man. You can stay at my place until she's finished, if that's all right with you."
He saw no other option. Giving the older man a tired smile, Heero nodded and climbed into the car.
----------------
"I swear, Mom, I'm not lying!"
Relena gave her daughter a look. "Amy, it's not funny to joke about someone being at the door."
"But I wasn't joking!"
Sighing, Relena undid the deadbolt. Her wet hair was in a towel, her damp body wrapped in a robe. Hiding behind the door, she pulled it open and glanced outside.
She just barely caught sight of Brad's car pulling out of her driveway.
"See, Amy? No one there."
AN: liddle blue box in da corner?? maybe? )
And I PROMISE the next update will come a LOT sooner...so sorry!