True North
Chapter 5
Pairing: 2x1
Category: AU
Warning: OC kid
Gundam Wing copyright Bandai, Sunrise, and Sotsu Agency. "Eien no
Rhapsody" copyright Midori Saiha/Ringo Zaidan. "Da Dip" copyright
Freak Nasty. "Extraordinary" copyright Liz Phair.

Much thanks to Diamroyal for beta reading and giving me info on how
cons are run, and to Rich for supplying me with the idea in the first
place and giving extra help as I went along.

"I put my hand upon yo' hip, when I dip, you dip, we dip..."

"Honey, could you turn that off for a sec? I need to talk to you for
a moment." Duo stood in the doorway of Moira's room, leaning against
the doorjamb. He'd heard that song—an old, old one—played over and
over for the past September, and much as he considered himself
laid-back, it was extremely disturbing to see his daughter listening
to a song that encouraged the listeners to have a good old makeout
session right on the dance floor.

He was turning thirty-one next month. Technically, that was in the
prime of his life, but feeling disturbed about that song made him feel
a lot older.

"Hold on," Moira said. Her fingers typed furiously on her laptop for
a few seconds. "There. Needed to get that done. What is it?"

"Well," Duo began, walking into her room, "you know about the con
that's coming up in a week or so, right?"

"Uh-huh..." Moira's eyes looked wary. "What about it? Is there
something you want me to do while you two are gone?" The middle finger
of her right hand tapped nervously on the steel desk where she was
sitting.

"You're almost right," Duo said. "This time," he held one finger up
in the air, "you're going with us."

Moira's middle finger stopped in mid-air. "What?"

Duo put both hands on the edge of the desk and leaned over to look
her in the eyes. He needed her full attention for this. "You're in
college now, Moira, and it's a good time for you to start networking.
This is one of the biggest cons, and there are tons of good contacts
to pick up. It's gonna be real important for your future."

"But..." Moira said, "that's when my fall break is. Are we going to
be gone for the entire time?" She kept her voice modulated, but Duo
could tell that she wasn't too happy.

"Yes, we are," Duo shrugged, surveying the room. "Is that a problem?"
Moira was messier than usual today. Normally she was tidy, with
everything more or less in place—definitely something she'd gotten
from Heero—but right now her room resembled a war zone right after a
tornado had taken place. Her sneakers were right next to Duo's feet,
carelessly kicked off from the looks of it, papers and the special
e-books for her classes were scattered all over the entire desk, and
in the middle was the laptop, which still looked okay, but if she kept
taking her coffee upstairs, would probably have some nasty spills on
the keyboard. The quilt Relena had made for her was tossed aside, some
of it spilling onto the floor and some of it crumpled up on the mattress.

The growing heap of clothes near her dresser was the highlight. A few
more days, Duo estimated, and there wouldn't be any visible floor
space in here at all.

Finally, Moira sighed, leaning back in her chair and cracking her
knuckles. "I've just been busy lately. I thought it'd be a good idea
to take a rest before midterms come up."

"Sorry, kiddo." Duo patted her upper arm, squeezing it through the
sleeve of her cardigan. "See if you can hold out, okay? Oh, and clean
up your room."

"I would, but I'm busy," Moira grumbled. Duo shrugged again, gave
her one final pat, and then left. She'd come around when it was time
to go, and if she didn't, well, she'd come with them anyway, because
this was an opportunity not to be passed up.

Heero found Moira up on the roof, with her laptop instead of the
guitar this time. Despite the cool weather, she didn't have a jacket
on; only her polo and cargo pants, with her sneakers at her knees.

"Shouldn't you be asleep?" he asked. He didn't climb up onto the
roof, after all, he wasn't one to try and invade her space if she
didn't want it.

"It's fine, Papa," Moira replied absentmindedly. She seemed intrigued
by whatever it was on the laptop, judging by her intense stare.

"It's not fine. Come inside," Heero said. That got her to only cock
her head in his direction, with the expression that usually meant she
was in deep thought. It meant she was about to ask some questions that
he might not want to answer. He'd seen it on Duo before.

"Can I ask you something? What made you so happy in that picture?"
Moira asked.

"What picture?"

"The one that's hanging up at the labs you established. You know,
this one," she said, turning the laptop around. The screen showed the
portrait they'd taken of Heero when the labs had started running.
Moira circled her index finger around the portrait's face and handed
it over to him. "Look at that. You look like you couldn't be happier.
What did that?"

Heero took the laptop, gazing at the picture thoughtfully for a few
seconds. "Duo came into the room at that moment. I was happy to see
him," he finally said. "The photographer asked me to smile, but I told
him that wasn't necessary and Duo walked in. That's all." He shut the
laptop. "Now, will you come inside?"

"So Dad makes you happy?" Moira asked.

Heero sighed. "Of course he does. Why wouldn't he?"

"Well, I haven't really seen you smile since you've been here," she
pointed out, scooting closer to the windowsill.

"I'm not that sort of person, Moira." The truth was that sometimes he
thought he was dreaming; that it couldn't possibly be true that now he
had more time, that he was able to see Duo again, and that he was
healthy. He always had to assure himself that this was real, that he
was here, and that he wouldn't wake up from this. It was some odd form
of logic; if he acted too happy, then either he, Duo or Moira would
disappear.

"I know that," she said, her face serious in the moonlight, and for a
moment, Heero thought he was looking at his reflection, the
resemblance was so uncanny. "I guess there's been a lot to deal with
since you've woken up. Maybe because it's sixty-five years ahead of
your time, maybe it's because you're still recovering from Dad's gene
therapy, and maybe it's because of me."

"That's not true and you know it," Heero snapped. "I'm not as
expressive as Duo and that's that."

"I don't know," she replied. There wasn't a trace of her usual
impishness; no quirk of the lips or eyebrows; a grave, watchful
expression had taken its place. "If I did, I wouldn't ask."

"Why do you want to know? Moreover, what makes you think this has to
do with you?"

"Because you don't seem to like me." Moira was now sitting on the
windowsill, dangling her legs inside. "Because if Dad makes you
happy," she pointed at Heero, "then you'd be happy. Screw
expressiveness, people would be able to tell. But if Dad's here and
you're not happy, then it's got to be something else."

She paused, looking at Heero thoughtfully for a few seconds with an
unblinking stare, tilting her head this way and that. He found it
unnerving.

"You're healthy," she began slowly, "so that leaves the disease out.
But you've never really talked to me unless you had to, and I swear to
God I've seen you look at me like you wouldn't know what to do with me
at all. And I'm not saying it has to be a happy family reunion, but
where's the love?"

He didn't know what to do with Moira, he realized. It had been
simple when she was a baby and he could cradle her in his arms, feed
her, or bounce her up and down to keep her occupied. She was teething
and sitting up on her own when he was put into coldsleep, and he'd
woken up to find a teenage girl in her place with no hint of the baby
he'd left behind. And since, really, he was a teenager himself, he
didn't know where to start with her and actually be a father. Hell, it
probably wasn't possible.

"I don't know what to do with you. But that doesn't mean you should
take it personally," he said, placing the laptop in her hands.

"That smile of yours is really something," she said, just as he was
about to walk off.

"Moira, it's late and we're leaving for the convention tomorrow."

"Yeah, I know." Moira slid off the windowsill, sneakers in one hand
and the laptop in the other. "But I was so captivated by that
picture. Your smile really has an effect on people, y'know? I can't
describe it, but there's this warmth that I felt that made me want
to smile too. And I thought that I'd be able to see the real thing
from you." There was a wistfulness to her voice that he hadn't heard
before.

"But if I don't make you happy, I suppose I was wrong. You learn
something new every day," she said. "I'm turning in now. Good night."
With that, Moira slipped past Heero, out of his room, and down the hall.

All he could do was stare after her, long after their conversation
had ended. There was something wrong, and he had a feeling that if he
didn't figure it out soon, the tension between them would come to a
head, and when that happened, there was a possibility that the
resulting damage would be irreparable.

"Here we are." Duo slipped the keycard into the lock of the hotel
room. The light on the lock's screen turned blue, accompanied with a
soft musical tinkle, and the door slid open.

The hotel room was spacious, with two queen-sized beds side by side,
with a desk and television set across from them. The far wall had a
large window that displayed a sprawling view of L3. Duo whistled. This
was a very nice hotel that they'd gotten to lodge in, all because he
was the featured speaker for the convention. Unfortunately, since it
was overbooked, the entire family had to stay in one room. Moira
hadn't been too happy when she heard that.

"So, what do you think?" Duo asked, turning to the other two. Moira
didn't say anything, but walked right past him, thumping her bags onto
the bed closest to the window.

"It's nice," Heero muttered, blinking rapidly. He was still getting
used to the colored contacts that Duo had suggested getting. Heero
wanted to go investigate the lectures that this con had in great
detail, but if he was going to talk with some of the theory professors
that would be in attendance, he couldn't go as who he was. They
planned to announce his revival shortly after Duo's lecture, but in
the meantime, Heero needed to disguise himself. For that, he'd not
only gotten brown colored contacts to disguise his eye color, but Duo
had made him go without shaving for a week before they'd left for L3.
Luckily, the glasses he'd worn before when working in the labs were
still around thanks to Relena, so those had come along with some of
Duo's old clothes for him to wear.

Duo thought about telling Heero that the beard was coming off as soon
as he gave the lecture. It wasn't very flattering on him. He guessed
Moira thought the same thing, given her suppressed giggles throughout
the entire trip.

"You can take out the contacts after dinner, you know. We all gotta
rest, and I need to start looking over my notes for the lecture," Duo
said, gesturing Heero to move ahead. They'd need to start thinking
about dinner right about now, Duo thought. He was hungry, and if they
didn't get something to eat, his stomach was going to make sure
everyone knew that. But just as he was about to suggest that, he heard
a scraping sound against the wall. As he walked further inside, he saw
Moira adjusting the painting that hung between the two beds.

"Moira, what are you doing?" he asked, exasperated.

"This picture isn't straight." She sounded peeved, concentrating on
tilting the frame more to the left.

"It looks fine to me," Heero said.

Moira snorted. "No, it's not. It's three degrees to the right. Well,
it was," she corrected, examining her handiwork.

"How do you know it's exactly three degrees? It could have been four
or two."

"Whoa, whoa. Let's get something to eat, all right?" Duo made a
"time-out" gesture with his hands, just as Moira had opened her mouth
for what would have likely been a smartass remark. "It's been a long
ride in the shuttle to L3, and I know," he turned to Heero, "that
those contacts are really bothering you, and," turning to Moira,
"you're on the worst day of your period, so let's find some dinner and
go to bed, because we've got three big days ahead of us. Okay?"

Heero shrugged. "Fine." Moira just huffed and tossed her head.

"Just because you're on your time of the month doesn't excuse your
attitude, young lady. Change it," Duo warned, shaking a finger in her
face. "Let's all get washed up, and head downstairs to the hotel
restaurant. Then everyone gets a shower and bed." He left for the
bathroom, leaving his gaping daughter behind. The sooner they were all
in bed, the better. He was exhausted from the shuttle ride just as
much as the other two were, and if he was going to be in any condition
to talk with all those high-up theorists and scientists on the first
day, he was going to need all the rest he could get.

The first day hadn't gone well. Duo had been amazed by the sheer
amount of people that had been there in the convention hall; he hadn't
realized that there would be so many in attendance, but then again, it
was one of the most famous science conventions everywhere. Still, he
hadn't thought that it'd be crawling from top to bottom with people.

The opening speech had been from Rob Bollman, one of the most
respected scientists who'd just become an emeritus in the University
of L4. Bollman was responsible for research that had made great leaps
and bounds towards a possible cure for Parkinson's disease. For
someone who had been one of the highest mucky-mucks in the field
according to Dr. J, Duo had been pleasantly surprised by his
down-to-earth attitude; it was a welcome change from previous
conventions where the opening speakers had spent time droning on and
on while he could feel their arrogance coming off of them like
cartoon stink waves. With Bollman, both he and Heero had had their
eyes riveted to the podium, the man had been so excited about his
work, and even Moira perked up when he'd literally bounded onto the
stage. For someone in his seventies, Rob Bollman was going to be
around for a long, long time if his energy was any indication.

After that, the three of them had gone their separate ways, planning
to meet up at one in the afternoon for lunch. Duo had been barraged
almost immediately by the theorists from the top universities on Earth
and the colonies, so all he could do was watch as Heero and Moira
wandered off in opposite directions.

With the exception of two people, the theorists had been absolutely
excruciating to talk to. Because it was a convention, they were all
smiles, but every now and then, Duo got veiled remarks that tried to
poke his research apart, like asking for viable results, or any
evidence that he would happen to have on him that they could look at.
He had to keep his tone pleasant and modulated while telling them that
if they were that interested, they were more than welcome to attend
the presentation he was giving on the last day. When he'd said that,
one of them, a rotund man in his fifties, smirked and asked him if
this was the first one that he'd given in his entire life. By the time
Duo was through with them, he'd learned something else; pettiness
never went away, no matter how old you got.

Never mind getting his research poked apart; Duo needed more than his
fingers and toes to count how many jabs he'd gotten for discovering
the cure for a disease at the age of thirty. Just before he'd managed
to get through the crowd, an old woman pulled him aside with a tight
little smile and whispered, "Don't let the bastards get you down, son."

Duo had smiled gratefully and said, "Thanks, I'll remember that,"
before rushing off to a lecture on his program that was starting down
the hall, with the crowd following him. He'd only managed to glance at
that one abstract in the schedule right after the opening speech
before he'd been mobbed.

Now back in the hotel room, he snorted to himself. Maybe he needed
a disguise too, he thought, looking at Heero, who had just come out of
the bathroom rubbing his eyes furiously.

"Contacts still bothering you?" Duo asked. "They're the soft kind,
you know."

"I don't like them," Heero grumbled. He sat down on the edge of the
bed that he and Duo shared, picking up his schedule on the nightstand.

"Looks like you really got around today, huh?" Duo scooted over,
trying to look over Heero's shoulder. "Where did you go?"

His answer was an elbow to the ribs. "If you're patient, I'll let you
see some handouts once I'm done. I haven't been able to read some of
them yet, thanks to those stupid contacts. Did you know that I nearly
tripped and fell down the stairs today?"

"What, because of your eyes?" Duo flopped onto his side and turned
the TV on for the news. He decided that he could wait a little bit
before hopping in for a shower and then heading off to bed. His hair
felt like it could use a good rinsing.

"That, and wearing clothes that don't fit." Heero flopped an
oversized sleeve in Duo's face. "Your size and mine are at least two
apart."

Duo grinned, flopping it back. "At least you've grown. If you hadn't,
I'd just put you in Moira's clothes. You two were about the same size
for a while."

Heero punched Duo hard on the shoulder while Moira, who was on the
other bed, looked up from her laptop and yelled, "Dad, that's sick!"

"Honey, I know you own at least one pair of pants that aren't bootcut
and at least one shirt that's not form-fitting," Duo said, giving her
a cursory glance in her direction before turning back to grin up at
Heero.

"You wouldn't," Heero said dangerously as Moira howled in the
background. His fist was up again, prepared to strike Duo if he said
"Yes, I would." Duo gave him a level stare for a few seconds before
shrugging and turning towards the TV screen.

"Well, not now, of course, but before you were a half-inch shorter
than Moira, you know. I never saw you happier than the day you found
out you could finally see over the top of her head," he said, ignoring
yet another anguished squawk from his daughter. The TV was on
commercial, displaying an ad for a local department store.

"It wasn't right," Heero muttered. At this point, he seemed really
interested in his schedule for the lectures he'd attended, or, judging
by some of the dates he'd circled within its numerous pages, would
attend tomorrow. The lecture Duo had managed to go to before stumbling
over to meet the others for lunch had talked about blue roses and how
the researchers were trying to get them to grow in other shades beside
sky blue. It had been interesting, to say the least, because so far,
Relena had an entire bush of the things growing in her garden, and he
knew that she'd be tickled to learn that they were planning on making
more in different tones.

That, and it was also one of the only lectures he could attend that
wasn't by someone who was a jealous prick due to his research.

Finally, the news came on, with a pretty Indian anchor lady at the
desk reporting on a story about a scandal on L4; the local branch of
Wong Industries had been caught in an embezzlement scheme that had
possible leads to its home location on Earth. Wong was a company that
dealt in Earth-colony trade. This wasn't the first time that they'd
been caught in a scandal; two years ago they'd been nabbed for
importing counterfeit food products.

At least they weren't covering the convention, Duo thought. He didn't
need the media following him around too.

The report changed to the weather forecast. The weather machines with
colonies were always random with rain and snow to create an Earth-like
atmosphere, except there weren't any storms or tornadoes. If there was
a blizzard, it meant that the weather machine needed to be fixed. As
he'd spent more time on Earth, Duo had found the whole colony weather
thing a bit crazy.

"So," he asked Heero, "what lectures did you attend today?"

Heero paused, picking up his notebook, also lying on the nightstand,
and then riffling through it. "These," he said, pulling out a few
handouts and giving them to Duo. He skimmed them, looking at the
titles, and whistled. Heero had gotten a lot done with catching up; so
far, the lectures he'd attended were the latest developments in botany
and medicine. Duo knew that if he glanced at the notebook in Heero's
hands, the pages would be filled from edge to edge with notes.

"How far have you caught up?" he asked. The news had now gone on to
sports; but since they hadn't covered American football yet, Duo
wasn't really paying attention.

"I can't say," Heero replied, absentmindedly. "There's still at least
a ten year gap, but it's closing in. I learned a great deal, though,
so I think I'll be prepared for retaking cert by April."

Duo nodded approvingly. "I didn't think you'd have much trouble. Maybe
tomorrow I'll be able to attend some lectures myself," he said. He
groaned, as the TV displayed a fumble for one of the American football
teams. "Oh, come on! You can do better than that!"

With that, the program ended, only to segue into the Late Show with
Ron Holkins. Duo turned the TV off, because anything that came out of
Ron's mouth was usually crap, along with the unfunniest stuff he'd
seen in his life. He liked Erick Geffen a lot better, but that wasn't
coming on for another hour, and he felt dead tired.

"You know, I sat in on a lecture that talked about the physics in
football," Moira began. "It was pretty cool, but hunting down the
assistants was really hard work."

"Terrific," Duo said, lurching off the bed and stumbling towards the
bathroom. Man, was he ever exhausted. Tomorrow had got to be better.

"I wasn't finished yet," Moira snapped.

Heero's hand was still gripping Moira's elbow as the two of them got
to the hotel room, despite the girl's frequent attempts to break free.
Even though it had taken some getting used to, he now saw that the
extra height and weight that he had gained as an advantage; without
either, there was no way he'd have been able to drag her all the way
down one flight of stairs, out of the convention hall, down a few
blocks to the hotel, and then up the elevator to their room.

"You can let me go now," Moira grumbled, twisting her arm this way
and that.

Heero waited until he'd unlocked the door before releasing her. She
stalked past him and plopped down on the foot of her bed in a huff,
rubbing her arm. "What the hell was that for?"

"You could have damaged your reputation. You know that," he said
quietly, taking off his glasses.

"I didn't say anything," Moira said peevishly, taking out her
digital camera and scanning through the pictures on the tiny
viewfinder screen on its back.

"Maybe not, but if I hadn't gotten there in time, you probably would
have." He polished one of the lenses with the hem of his polo shirt
and then shuffled into the bathroom. The contacts needed to come out
now because his eyes felt wretched. Heero hadn't even looked in the
mirror yet, but he knew that they'd probably be bloodshot by now.

The lectures he'd attended today focused on the latest medical
research; yesterday, he'd attended ones that had been more
general—they'd just focused on biology as a whole. Tomorrow, he'd zone
in further on the medical research, because that was when Duo was
giving his lecture on curing what was now dubbed Yuy Disease, and
while he'd had firsthand knowledge of what the whole thing was all
about, Duo had had some notes on how this could lead to curing Sudden
Infant Death Syndrome, which was a stronger variant of it.

Duo had said that they hadn't found out about the connection until
about AC 212 or so, and that while they'd been able to develop a test
to administer on babies for both diseases, there still wasn't a cure
for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. This was his next research project,
and he'd asked Heero to partner up with him as soon as he'd been
recertified.

Luckily, today's lectures had proven to be very enlightening and like
yesterday, he'd gained a better understanding of what he'd been
looking through in all those old science journals he'd gotten in the
library or online on Duo's laptop. He'd taken so many notes that there
was only a quarter of the notebook's pages left blank.

There. Now both the contacts were out and floating in their individual
capsules, and he hadn't dropped one on the floor like yesterday. He'd
found the missing lens hanging on the edge of the countertop, and
almost forgot to clean it off before putting it in. Heero sighed in
relief and rubbed his eyes. This was the last time he was wearing
them, and the last time he'd be keeping the stubble on his chin; he
wanted a shave, and badly.

Tomorrow, Duo was going to announce that he'd been revived shortly
after the lecture. They'd both decided that was best because then it
would keep mobs down to a minimum, though obviously, there would be at
least one press conference with the media to contend with.

As for Moira, Heero had found her on the verge of a heated argument
with one of the assistants from an astrophysics lecture. He'd come in
right when said assistant, a man in his thirties, was making some
crude remarks about Moira's age while she was trying to ask him some
questions about the lecture with her handouts in front of her. She'd
managed to keep calm for a while, but when the guy had told her to go
back to kindergarten and leave the big kids' sandbox, Heero noticed
her entire body tense, like a coiled spring. That was when he made his
way through, grabbed Moira and muttered, "Let's go" before turning the
other way and taking her along with him.

It was a good thing that he'd gotten there in time before she'd come
up with a smart-aleck retort; much as that man deserved it—and he
did—Moira couldn't risk damaging her reputation this early, even
though she'd been trying very hard to keep a low profile here with who
her parents were. Of course, Moira hadn't appreciated it at all. She'd
muttered angrily about how she was able to take care of herself the
entire way back. And maybe she would have been able to, but it
wasn't something Heero wanted to risk at this point.

"See me jump through hoops for you, you stand there watching me
performing...what exactly do you do..." Heero had heard Moira playing
that song on her guitar often, while she was taking a study break. Of
course, now she was listening to it on the Seashell and singing along;
he'd seen that, along with the compact stack of mp3 sticks, in her bag
when they'd left for the spaceport.

The door to the bedroom slid open, and he heard Duo come in with a
loud, satisfied "Ahhhh."

"You're back," Heero said.

"That I am, and it's been a better day than yesterday." Duo walked
into the bathroom, putting his hands on Heero's shoulders and
massaging them. "I talked to business people, and when they weren't
trying to compete for my attention, they were terrific. I've got more
offers than I know what to do with."

"Are you going to take any of th—ow, that hurts." Heero winced; Duo's
fingers were pressing too deeply into his shoulders.

"Sorry." Duo grinned sheepishly and lightened the pressure. "I still
need to look over what I got and then decide, you know? Got approached
by universities and private companies, and the amounts they're
offering for funding are unbelievable. The best part, though, was that
I got to attend more than one lecture today. Finally!" He grinned
again, ear-to-ear, and gave Heero an enthusiastic bear hug.

Once he could breathe again, Heero asked, "Will there be time for you
to prepare for yours tomorrow?"

"My what? Oh, my lecture. Yeah, I don't see why not. I'll need to go
over my notes tonight, but I don't present until about five tomorrow,
and I've got until then to prepare, really. I think I can do it." Duo
shrugged. "I want to look over the notes on the lectures I attended
today first, though. So, what about you? I suppose you're enjoying the
con."

"It was like yesterday. I covered a lot of ground. If you want, you
can take a look at my notes, they're inside the schedule on the
nightstand."

"Oooh, I think I'll do that, then we can go to dinner." Duo rubbed his
hands together excitedly and left the bathroom.

"When can I shave?" Heero rubbed his chin, scowling at his reflection
in the mirror; even though he'd gone unshaven for five days, there
wasn't that much growth, but it was definitely visible and
definitely irritating.

"Not now," Duo said from outside. He could hear him flipping the
schedule's pages rapidly. "You can go without the contacts, I think,
but keep the beard until we get back from dinner unless you're
planning to use the pool or take a walk around the hotel."

"That'll do."

"Good. Give me some time to look over these and we'll pick a place to
eat." The mattress creaked as he heard Duo sit down and lean back. A
glance at his watch told Heero that if Duo wanted to have time to go
over notes for tomorrow's lecture, they had to start looking for a
restaurant in thirty-five minutes.

"I'm so glad that's over with," Duo said, putting down his glass of
water after taking a long, deep drink. "I thought they'd never let us
out of that convention hall. You'd think that one press conference
would have made em happy, but..."

"At least we got out," Heero pointed out. Duo groaned, glancing at
the dark sky outside their window. It was almost ten and they'd just
finished eating; that's how late the mobs had kept them. He'd nearly
passed out from hunger when they'd entered the restaurant in the
hotel, and the other two hadn't been much better. In fact, Moira had
pretty much collapsed face first at the table once they'd found seats.

"Yeah, well, I hope that's it." Duo leaned back in his chair. The
mobbing had reached its peak on the last day of the con, and he hadn't
fully realized it until he saw the lecture hall packed from corner to
corner with audience members, and probably a lot more outside trying
to hear him.

The lecture itself went off without a hitch. He'd been a bit nervous,
especially after the other scientists were at least ten to twenty
years older and giving him the evil eye. Duo would have thought he'd
imagined it if he hadn't known any better. And of course, most of them
had to be sitting in the front row with a look that said, "I'm
watching you, Maxwell."

But then he spotted the theorist who'd talked to him on the first day
sitting in one of the middle rows and remembered what she'd told him.
Then he'd spotted Heero a few rows behind her and finally decided that
whatever a few bitter old men and women thought wasn't worth a damn.

He'd planned two and a half hours for the lecture: one and a half for
the lecture itself and the remaining hour for the question and answer
session. The lecture had sped by, since he'd spent forever earlier
today going over and over things again, making sure the projection
equipment worked, and formulating answers to any odd questions that
could come up. The real thing made him feel like he was doing it in
his sleep. Even now he couldn't really remember what it was like up
there. The same could be said for the question and answer session. He
could weep with joy over how smoothly it went. Even the old bastards
in the front didn't give him any trouble.

No, it was the announcement of Heero's revival that had started
causing the ruckus. They had both braced themselves for the reaction
among those present, but it still was, as a dazed Moira put it,
"absofuckinglutely batshit insane." Once they'd managed to get out of
the lecture hall, there'd been an ocean of people barraging them with
so many questions that Duo couldn't understand anything. He felt like
he'd get knocked down by the sheer amount of sound that these people
produced if not trampled outright.

Within an hour they'd already had the major news networks staging a
press conference. After an hour, though, Heero had had enough and
broke it off. The three of them had to literally swim through the
crowd to get to an exit and haul ass to the hotel, where, thankfully,
they finally got to eat some dinner at nine.

They'd known that there was going to be a press conference, but Duo
had somehow forgotten what a pain in the ass they could be. There was
something very irritating about having to answer the same questions
over and over again for different people. Duo couldn't blame Heero for
ending it so abruptly. While he'd gotten less spontaneously aggressive
with age, by the time the interviews were over he was ready to hit
something. The only thing preventing that from actually happening was
the imaginary headline "Maxwell Goes Berserk At Press Conference"
flashing in his head.

The waitress came by to pick up their empty plates. After she left,
Duo rose from the table and headed to the card swiper next to the
entrance, taking out the labs' payment card and sliding it through.
The total that appeared on the swiper display made him flinch; he was
damn glad that this wasn't on his own tab, because while they hadn't
had any choice for where to eat, it was a hell of a lot more than he'd
ever be prepared to pay for.

He waved Heero and Moira over from their table. Now they could go back
to their room, but there was still the issue of packing. They had to
leave for the spaceport at nine in the morning, so everything had to
be done tonight.

Of course, Duo hadn't counted on Moira immediately locking herself in
the bathroom, only to emerge in a huge plush bathrobe with an equally
plush towel over her arm.

"Stop right there, kiddo. Where do you think /you're/ going?"

Moira exhaled loudly in that way only teenagers—or those who thought
they were still teenagers—could, and said, "To the hot tub. I thought
I'd soak in it before it closes."

"Honey," Duo began, "we need to pack, because tomorrow morning we're
going straight for the spaceport. We don't have much time."

"I can pack my things in less than half an hour, so don't worry about
me," Moira retorted, one hand on her hip.

"Moira—"

"Look, it's been a hard day for everyone here. And I know you're going
to say that you and Papa had it the worst. But in case you've
forgotten, I'm still here and I was still involved in all the chaos
that ensued, and I am tired," Moira said, clenching both fists. "I
have been quiet about this whole thing, not really complaining about
it even though I told you that I was in need of a break from
college. Well, this is the only time I'm going to have it before I go
back to my labs, classes and nine-to-five schedule, and I'm taking it
now." She stabbed a finger at the ground.

"I've gotten contacts, I've learned more about physics, so yes, I do
appreciate the educational value of the con, but if I don't get to
soak in that hot tub there is going to be hell to pay, so help me
God." With that, she spun on her heel and stomped out of their room,
leaving Duo dumbfounded.

"That's the most I've heard her talk since we came here," Heero said
dryly, going to the doorway. He'd apparently been quietly packing
during the whole thing; Duo saw the sleeves of a shirt tossed over his
forearms.

"It'll blow over," he finally said, waving a hand dismissively. "Just
watch, she'll come back all relaxed from the hot tub and pack and
it'll be like the whole thing never happened. Speaking of relaxing,"
he took the shirt from Heero, "why don't you let me pack? Go take a
nice shower or something. You deserve it."

"Duo..."

"C'mon," Duo pushed Heero towards the bathroom. "Leave it to me. I'll
be fine, honest."

He'd be damn fine. The convention was finally over, leaving the
knowledge that he'd never have to do that again for a long time in its
wake.