Chapter Twenty

Healing words: I love you?

PPPPPPPP

Sally was flipping through the charts on her desk when she came across another rape victim. But she stopped—no—almost rape victim, she corrected. Sally made it a point to talk to these girls personally—the emotional strain of such situations was often too much for these girls to handle. Boys had it even harder sometimes, she thought, because they were supposed to be tough and never cry. But that was always violent and strictly physical and somehow easier to cope with mentally, but not easy by any means. Yet these girls—they always seemed to blame themselves for the oddest things. It wasn't just a physical beating for them, it killed their spirits.

Getting up, she noted the room the girl was staying in. She knocked on the door firmly but there was no answer. Quietly, she opened the door and looked in. The girl wasn't in her bed. Sally walked in and looked around when she found her huddled on the floor in the miniature bathroom shaking.

"Kiki, Kiki honey, can you hear me?" she asked softly, gently touching her shoulder. The dark head bobbed and she shivered away from her touch. Sally dropped to her knees and tried to lift the girl's head.

But she backed up against the wall and gaped at her with frightened doe eyes. "Kiki? I'm Sally. I'm a doctor. I'm here to help you. Will you talk to me?" It was like conversing with a wall. The girl gave no sign that she had heard Sally. So she resorted to drastic measures.

The girl seemed so wasted at the moment that it wasn't very difficult for Sally to pick her up. Kiki didn't struggle against her at all as she put her back into bed. She got a plastic cup of water and tried to force it down Kiki's throat, but she wouldn't take it. So she gently shook her until she reacted. And react she did.

"WHO ARE YOU? WHAT THE…."

Sally interrupted her yelling and flailing arms. "Kiki, calm down."

"I WILL NOT CALM DOWN!!" she screamed throwing a roll of toilet paper in Sally's general direction.

"I'm here to help. I'm a doctor. My name is Sally," she pleaded with the girl. Kiki glared at her and plopped down heavily on the bed, her declaration of being a doctor seemed to calm her a bit.

"Fine then. What do you want?" Kiki spat angrily.

"I just want to talk to you. Is that alright?" she inquired delicately.

"Are you a shrink?" Kiki asked, cocking a suspicious eyebrow. It looked painful, to do that, or manipulate her face into any expression at all for that matter with all the bruising.

"I'm not a psychyatrist. But I'm the head of the infirmary and I like to visit all the patients here, even if they aren't specifically under my care. How are your wounds? Are they healing alright?"

"They're fine."

"Do you want to talk about what happened?"

"Do I look like I want to? No, I don't think that I do, if you don't mind," Kiki snapped as she edged her way around the room, as close to the wall as she could get, and as far away from Sally.

Sally shrugged. "Fair enough." Then she tried a different tactic. "I noticed that you are still a private. Are you going through basic training?"

"I was, yes. For the specials."

"Wow. You must be good, starting out there."

"No. They just allowed that as an option to begin with. I don't know why though. I thought you had to be in the force for a while for that."

"Well, we've lost quite a few soldiers as of late. I think they want to get as many people as highly trained as is humanly possible."

"The rumors are true then," the girl said flatly.

Sally smiled sadly. "I'm afraid that I think so. It's unfortunate, but that's life. So we must get through it. Who was your trainer?"

"What does it matter?" Kiki was turning apathetic now.

"Well, I might know him or her. I was just curious."

"Chang Wufei."

Sally laughed out loud and Kiki seemed to snap out of her melancholy a little. "What's so funny about that?"

"Well, let's just say that he and I have been very good friends for years and I know how he must have reacted to such an assignment. He's a bit of a lone wolf elitist. I believe at his first meeting with Lieutenant Noin, he lectured her on being a mere weak woman."

"He told Lieutenant Noin that?" Sally couldn't suppress her small smile. She was finally getting this girl to talk a little. She nodded in response to the question. "So if he's such a lone wolf, what does he normally do?"

"Oh, he's got…special talents. And he's only been working alone for a little while, at least he has since we quit being partners. We were a very…efficient partnership and Wufei resents being paired with anyone else, as if it's beneath him."

"Why did you guys get separated if you worked so well together?"

"Well, I got married and decided to have a family so I requested transfer. And Wufei's no doctor so he couldn't come with me." But Sally noticed the girl's curiosity about Wufei. Maybe she should stick to this topic, she seemed less volital somehow. She'd even worked her way to sitting down on her bed. "Has Wufei been notified that you are here?" She knew it was a dumb question, but it was useful for conversation.

Kiki nodded slowly. "He was the one who found me and brought me here."

"Has he talked to you at all about it?" Sally retreated to the back of the room and seated herself in a folding chair. A chip of beige paint flicked to the floor.

She shook her head.

"So, what are you going to do now?"

Kiki's mouth opened a little, then she closed it again. It was evident from her face that she hadn't thought of that at all.

"You can't hide here forever. You're going to have to go out there and face all those boys sooner or later. But no one would blame you if you quit."

Something crossed that pained bruised face and she screwed up her mouth into a tight little knot. "Never. I'd never give anyone the satisfaction of knowing that they beat me. Besides, it happened less than a week ago, so I'm not hiding. Get off my case," she snapped crossly. "I just don't know…."

"You don't know what?"

"I don't know if I can do anything anymore. I'm not good enough for it."

Now they were getting somewhere. "What aren't you good enough for?"

"Anything. I'm just a weak, undeserving…" Kiki stopped and looked up. She seemed to have remembered that she was confiding in an absolute stranger and it made her uncomfortable.

"Kiki, I want to be honest with you. I have dealt with several rape victims in my lifetime," Sally began.

Kiki sputtered at that.

"I know that you weren't actually raped but considering the similarities of the situation I think that you have to know something," Sally bulldozed on. "The kinds of men who will do something like this to a girl are the weak ones. Many times they are either drunk, high, otherwise incapacitated, have emotional hang-ups, or any combination of all of that. Don't let such scum get you down. Don't let them tell you what you are worth nor what you can and cannot do. Only you can decide that. So, on that note, I leave you to decide. Are you going to let some worthless spineless human being tear you down and force you into hiding? Or are you going to spit in his face and get up on your feet and move on. Only you can decide that. What you say is contradictory—you say you won't let people have the satisfaction on knowing that they got you down, yet you say you are worthless. Those two don't jive. I suggest you reconcile them and make something of yourself. Don't let your life stop here." Sally stopped and smiled at the girl. "Maybe I'll see you later Kiki." And she left, suppressing the erg to give the girl a large smirk. She was a tough cookie.

PPPPPPPP

When Tai came home that day, Relena wasn't in the living room, which he was glad of. She usually was sprawled out on the couch. He would ask her what would have happened if he had been Donny. Oddly enough she would shrug and smile and say that she'd tell Donny that he, Tai, had been out partying brought her back.

But not today.

He put his stuff in the living room and decided he had better find her, make sure she hadn't taken it upon herself to take a little afternoon stroll.

In his room, she was writing furiously in a notebook.

"Relena…." he greeted softly.

She glanced up at him but continued in her work. "How was your day?" She said it almost vindictively.

"Fine. What's wrong?" he asked cautiously, coming to sit down on the edge of his bed.

She flung her pencil down and rubbed her forehead furiously, as if to shed it. She didn't know what was wrong. How the heck was she supposed to know! What did she know about anything? Apparently nothing! Because no one was listening to her and the world was falling apart and she couldn't do anything to stop it!

"Relena?"

"Don't Relena me!" she yelled and jumped up, but then fell over, a pain shooting up her injured leg. Then she grasped her side and stopped breathing for a second. She stared at him and his shocked eyes and melted as he reached down to pick her up off the floor. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to yell…it's just that…I don't know…I'm just…."

"Frustrated?"

"I don't know. The world's going crazy and I try so hard but all I seem to be doing is accelerating problems. If it wasn't against every fiber of my being I'd just take a back seat and watch it all. I watched the news and everything was…it was too much."

They were now sitting on her bed, but he hadn't let her go. She sat comfortably on his lap, head on his chest, both of his arms around her.

"Everything is so futile and I especially can't do anything right now, injured and all…it's so…"

"Frustrating?"

"You sure like that word, don't you?" But she grinned and looked up him. He was rubbing his hand up and down her back and it felt wonderful. She settled back down and wrapped both her arms around his neck. "I don't know sometimes what I'm even trying to accomplish. I get confused and everything looks the same after a while." A painful stitch was developing in her side so she shifted slightly.

"Peace and unity."

She laughed sardonically. "Except everyone has a different definition of those words. I think I myself have about fifty different definitions and the only real unity and peace I ever see is in personal homes, with families…" she trailed off and stared off at a spot on the wall.

"I feel peace right here. Don't you? Isn't the home a good start?"

She couldn't help but smile. He tried so hard to make her smile and happy, but at this point in their friendship he'd tried everything at least once before. Still, it was sweet.

"And I thank you for that," she murmured into his neck. His hands worked their way up to her neck and pulled her way from him so that he could see her face.

"Are you happy here with me? Honestly? You like just being here cooped up with me?"

What was he getting at? She narrowed her eyes. "Of course I like being here with you."

Then they were nose to nose, she could feel his warm breath on her cheek. She stared into his eyes for a moment—he didn't look away. It was a bit like staring down a tiger, except she wanted him to come at her, not leave her.

"Tai, w-" but she was cut off by his lips, as he closed the gap between them. It was slow and soft and hesitant as if he wasn't sure what to do, but she wasn't sure either, except that she didn't want it to end.

His hands moved up to her hair, holding her firmly, his mouth never leaving hers, only pulsing softly. They clung to each other closer and she felt forbidden emotions exploding and filling her to intoxication, clouding her mind. Memories and emotions she'd banished years ago flooded back and pulsed through her—random kindnesses and little smiles. They parted for a brief moment but her eyes stayed closed. She felt him trace her jaw delicately as they sat, breathing hard, until it was too painful to remain apart. This time she kissed him first and it was no little innocent kiss. Her arms created a vice around his neck as she sealed him to her.

And she remembered all the pains of her many realizations and partings, and now this overshadowed it all. Loving familiar hands held her and traced her shoulder blades, trailing down her spine, and she lost herself completely. Her mind was vague and open and she kept repeating to herself in a sluggish muttering inner voice, unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable…. Then she began to cry.

He pulled away and she cried harder. Feeling ridiculous, she tried to turn away and hide her face. The retarded boy had finally kissed her and she had to go and start bawling.

"What is it?" he asked her gently, wiping away a stray tear on her cheek. "Can you breathe?"

"Yes, I can breathe just fine—my ribs are fine. I just don't want to ever lose you again…" her voice faded to a whisper and she buried her face in his shoulder again. "I died a little each time I said goodbye to you, then when you…left…I never thought I could be whole again. Everyday I woke up and knew you were gone forever—I was sure there was nothing more painful. And then you came back and we had to say goodbye again. It about finished me to say goodbye to you at Huy and Kieko's wedding. I never dreamed anything could be more painful than thinking you were dead, but I was wrong. It was infinitely worse knowing that you were there, alive, wanting to be with me, and yet we couldn't be together. I don't ever want to say it again, Tai. Please don't make me or let me ever say goodbye again…everything's lonely and stupid without you…."

He caught her face in his hands and forced her to look at him. "You won't have to and I won't let you even if you try. Not now," he told her, holding her fiercely.

PPPPPPPP

"Juliano?" Wufei asked, unceremoniously waltzing into the room. He was startled at the expression on her face. She looked like she was preparing to go to war with such a grimace on it.

"Yes?"

"You've passed training. I have an assignment for you. Get dressed and meet me in the hall."

She nodded and he turned to leave. After several minutes of standing imitation-flamingo style and waiting in the hallway, she came out in a crisp uniform and stood stiffly erect. "Direct me o captain…sir."

He kept his face expressionless but couldn't help commending her on her courage. She was a tough after all, he couldn't help but think, noting the obvious injuries on her face and neck. Sally had told him to be careful with her when she found out what Juliano's new assignment would be. But Juliano seemed fine to him.

They walked in silence to the elevator and then went down several floors. Once they entered the garage area he began to explain things to her.

"Juliano, I'm bringing you onto the biggest project of the century. Zechs Marquis is leading an attack on a small time soon to be big time group of colonists. We want you to help build the aircrafts that we'll be using. Are you in?"

She looked at him blankly for a moment. "It doesn't matter that I'm only a private?"

"No. We choose those with talents we need. Will you do it? I need to know and have you sign a confidentiality form before I take you any further."

"I already signed one!"

He cocked an eyebrow at her.

"Sir," she amended.

He nodded. "Yes, but it's an extra precaution. Something Zechs insists on." He noted her curious look at him at calling his superior by first name, or maybe it was suspicion about this extra precaution. Either way, she would be an excellent addition to the group if she was as good as she said she was. "What say you? You can refuse this kind of assignment, not a luxury allowed very often."

She nodded. "I'll do it."

"Then follow me." He led her down a hallway and unlocked a door on the right side. She avidly watched all the workers around her, running the controls from inside. While he got a form for her to sign, she went over to the window and looked down on a sleek, unpainted aircraft.

Her jaw dropped slightly as she gazed down on them. It was beautiful…

Wufei smirked at her absorption in the surroundings. "Pretty incredible, isn't it? Unfortunately, we can't get it off the ground. That's what we need you for. Sign here," he instructed, handing her a paper and pen. She put the paper to the window, never taking her eyes off the machine below her, and signed.

"I'll introduce you to some people you'll be working with…."

Somewhere in the back of her mind, something clicked. If she had choice of doing this, this probably wasn't an operation was exactly on record. Kiki almost changed her mind, but then glared inwardly at herself with determination and continued on.

PPPPPPPPP

"So do you any of you remember how the spleen kills the red blood cells?" Vince asked. He sounded as worn out as the rest of them. Having the clinicals and still studying for a few actual classes was not an easy thing to balance. Well, Tai and Siduri were doing that. The other three had to study for another little while to retake the exams before they could start clinicals. They'd been in the library for five hours now. Compounded with Siduri not looking at him, it was becoming a tiring and awkward study session.

Emi sighed and rubbed his eyes. "Vey aren't killed by ve spleen, vey just go vere TO die."

Emily was twirling her glossy hair around her finger and pausing to nibble on her pen from time to time. "Here," she said, pressing her notes to him. "I need you to quiz me on this."

"'K. Just a second." He was just about to finish his sentence he was reading when Siduri piped up.

"Give it here. I'll do it if Mr. Inconciderate won't," she said slightly irritably.

He glanced up and saw Vince giving him a funny look. "Siduri, I was going to do it. I just needed to finish my sentence," he explained in what he hoped was a calm voice.

"Oh? So do you find what you're doing more important than Emily? Do you always put school before friends? Do you always insist on finishing everything?"

Tai felt his jaw dangle just a little and saw Emi's doing the same thing.

Emily quit twirling her hair and tried to step in and calm things. "I don't have a problem with waiting two seconds for his help. It's fine, Siduri," she said gently.

"You know, not everything's about you, slut!" she fumed and got up and stomped out.

"That was uncalled for," Emily sputtered. "What did I do?"

"Don't worry, Em," Vince patted her arm as he forced his face out of his "in shock" expression. "She's just been jilted," he said pointedly at Tai.

Emily seemed to catch on and Emi realized he'd been missing something. The three were all bearing down on Tai. "Fine, I'll go talk to her…"

This was not going to be fun. He grumbled to himself as he sauntered out of the library and down the hall looking for the fuming brunette. But he didn't have to look long—he heard her before he saw her. She was stomping in circles by a water fountain.

"Siduri?"

Her head snapped up as she acknowledged his voice and then she started to take off again, but not before he grabbed her arm. "Siduri, we need to talk."

"No we don't," she yanked her arm away from him, speaking so forcefully that she was spitting.

"Yes we do. You're making everyone in the group miserable and I doubt you're doing much better in clinicals. What's going on? This isn't about the other week is it? Because if it is I'm sorry—"

"Don't be egotistical," she snapped, effectively cutting him off. "This is all about you, isn't it? You and your-"

It was his turn to cut her off. "Grow up Siduri," and he walked calmly back to the library leaving her to glare after him. But suddenly he heard her chase after him. Kindly, he stopped and waited for her to catch up with him.

"I was being a real cow in there, wasn't I?"

"Pretty much," he told her bluntly. She groaned.

"I'm sorry, I don't know. I'm just stressed and…embarrassed. You didn't tell any of them what…what I told you?"

Maybe it was a weakness, but Tai never ever lied. He couldn't do it. And in a case like this, it might be better if he could. "Vince knows, but he's the only one."

She sighed and kneaded her forehead. "Well, that's better than all of them knowing. I'm sorry. I'm making this all awkward and weird."

"Don't worry about it. Just chill out and come back in when you're ready. I don't think Emily can take much abuse."

"Yah…" Then he left her again. This time she was scrunched down on the floor looking at her feet intently. His head hurt and it was emotionally draining. So when he finally got to drive home, he felt nothing but relief and freedom. And he could think of Relena. That made him smile. It made him smile that he could make her smile. It was a wonderful feeling to know that you could help people like that, but she helped him to. After being alone for so long, and even though he now had a family which helped immensely, he'd still have a hole in his personal universe. But it didn't feel like such a gaping void anymore, more like a butterfly net. Parking on the side of the road, he checked his mailbox before unlocking to door and going in.

Junk, junk…he thought, flipping through the envelopes of ads. But there was one thing interesting—travel agency advertising cruses. That got him thinking….

Inside he could hear Relena in the kitchen. She'd recently taken to cooking. He told her not to, but she insisted on it explaining she never got to cook at home and she thought it was fun. They'd had a few interesting dishes, but for the most part she was pretty good at it.

But when he put the mail on the counter she had her mysterious "I'm-laughing-inside-at-something-that-you-have-no-clue-about" look plastered on her face. And it warmed him even more inside.

Nevertheless, he decided to humor her and asked, "What?"

"You were humming."

"I was not!" He cringed inside—there was no way he would ever, ever, ever in a million bazillion years be a hummer, one of those annoying people who always sang to themselves! They strolled through the Walmart parking lot as if they owned the world and hummed away giving smug looks to all the passers-by—never!

She was still grinning at him, but it was more for his expression. She took his disgruntled face in her hands, pushing his straggly hair from his eyes. "Don't be so sour. You're cuter when you smile!"

"I'm going to change out of these scrubs," he said shortly, leaving her smiling. Only then, with his back turned did he allow himself to smile. How could he not? When she was happy, so was he.

He pulled out a t-shirt and jeans to change into and thought back to his bright idea from before….

In the kitchen, Relena let out a little spurt of laughter even though she was completely alone now and felt a little foolish for it. But hearing him hum was so startling and funny at the same time! It warmed her insides.

She stopped and checked the bread sticks in the oven, then panicked and dropped everything to pull them out as quickly as she could. She could have burned them!

In her zeal she tripped on her own feet, but Tai caught her, having just come back. "Careful," he admonished her as he propped her in the upright position.

"You're just in time," she went on, ignoring his rebuke. "Dinner's ready."

It was kind of strange, she reflected looking at him eat across the table. She felt like an old married couple from the eighteen hundreds. But it was so comfortable, so normal. Man goes to work, woman stays home with the household. They have dinner together and watch the news (except that Tai had banished her from it for the past couple days because he thought it was bad for her mental health so they'd watched some other shows together the nights he was home).

She caught Tai smiling slyly at his plate. "What are you thinking?"

"You'll find out," he said evasively.

She pestered him about all through dinner but he just kept smiling so she assumed she wasn't annoying him. Thus she plunged on. It was fun! He insisted on doing the dishes and she sat on the couch, watching him and talking intermittently. Then he joined her and she curled up to him as he flicked on the television.

And her eyes grew heavy, head beneath his chin and one of her hands enveloped in one of his, the other curled under her own chin.

PPPPPPPPPPPP

Tai yawned at eight o'clock. He was exhausted, but luckily so was Relena. She was already asleep.

He picked her up carefully and laid her on his bed, awkwardly tucking her in. She hadn't been wearing any shoes for him to take off so that made it easier. He got his own sleeping attire and shut the door quietly behind him.

Laying down on the couch he grinned again. Tomorrow as going to be fun. His first Saturday off from school and the hospital….

At five, his alarm went off and he got up and showered and dressed quickly as quietly as he could. Relena was still asleep. He rummaged through the refrigerator and put together a plastic bag full of sandwiches, broccoli, apples, and juice.

Just as he shut the door he heard Relena sleepily walk in. "What, (yawn) are you doing so early? (yawn)"

He smiled and kissed her on the forehead. "Get dressed. We're taking a trip."

She looked nonplussed, but limped back to the bedroom to get dressed. Ten minutes later she was wrapped up in a large beach towel as he hauled her up the stairs and put her in his back seat, still covered. Then he put the plastic bags on the floor of the back seat.

He turned on the radio and she called from the back, "Can I sit up yet?"

"No. Keep covered. I'll tell you when."

"This is kind of silly, Tai. A talking beach towel?"

"Would you rather be back in the apartment?"

"No."

"Then don't complain," he scolded lightly.

"My ribs are cramping up!"

"So," he changed the subject. "About those petunias my old lady planted the other day, they sure are pretty…."

She allowed a laugh since he couldn't see her smile.

"Well, I do happen to think they're pretty," he told her mock innocently.

"I like violets better. Or irises!" Then Relena went into raptures describing all of her favorite flowers. And Tai felt himself grow a little sad. She was such a normal little girl at heart—cooking, flowers--excepting giggling fits. She laughed once in a while, but mostly she did a lot of quiet smiling, like she was always thinking of something else that was far away. But he liked that about her—he couldn't have tolerated it if she was a giggler. Instead, she was quiet, beautiful, serious Relena.

He pulled onto the highway and told her she could get up if she wanted to. She sat up slowly and buckled her seatbelt, looking avidly around her. Her face was bright as if she'd never seen anything like it. It was beautiful. One of the last of the autumn sunrises gleamed on everything, transforming it into a golden haze. The deciduous trees were aglow with their bright fall makeover—bright yellow maples, brilliant reds and oranges colored the hillsides. For miles around, it was all she could see.

"Where are we going?" she asked after a moment of awed silence.

"A little lake about a half-hour away. They have nice picnic spots and a friend of mine has a canoe stowed away. It thought we'd take a day up there."

"Can you afford to miss time from studying?"

He nodded. "Don't worry about that. I've got it all taken care of."

"You always do…"

Some time later he parked in front of a little cabin hidden away behind some conifers. He opened the door for her as she unbuckled her seatbelt, much to her surprise, and helped her out. They limped up to the cabin and Tai reached under a loose board on the top step, pulling out a key. Walking to the back of the house by the lake's shore, he unlocked a little shed and rummaged around while Relena stood at the shore gazing at the lake before her. The sun was almost completely up so the clouds were lined with delicate pink and everything looked misty and clean.

A noise behind her startled her back into reality and she turned to see Tai dragging a canoe to the shoreline. He walked back to the trunk and pulled out a couple plastic bags and put them in the middle of the canoe.

"Come on! Let's go!" he called to her, smiling. She grinned back and limped over to him as fast as she dared to. She didn't want to risk bleeding all over the place.

He instructed her to sit in the front and he'd get in the back, so he could steer, he told her. She'd be the power. She looked at him as if he was nuts when the told her that, but he assured her that she'd be fine. They didn't need that much power, they weren't running any races.

"It'll be your fault if I start bleeding again!"

"You know I'd never risk that. Now let's go," and he pushed off the shore and hopped in.

The water was very clear and while they were still in the relatively shallow areas she could see clear to the bottom. "Did you ever wonder what it would be like to be a sea creature?"

"Nope," he told her, flipping his paddle to the other side so that they turned.

She sighed. "You don't wonder very much, do you?"

"Nope. I know."

She turned to give him a silly look. He was so unbelievably confident sometimes.

They had rowed around the lake nearly an hour when Tai guided them down a rather deep little creek to a small island. "My friend showed a group of us this place last year. Nice, huh?"

"It's amazing…."

Tai beached the canoe and helped Relena out. They wandered around the small island; it was only a hundred yards or so long. He pulled out beach towels and they lay on the rocky, grassy beach and watched the sun rise higher into the sky. Eventually they had their lunch and intermittently waded, attempted several sand castles with the rocky sparse sand (the castles all failed miserably), and wandered.

But it was bliss for Relena to be out of the confines of the apartment, and in such a beautiful place. As she lay on her back on her towel she glanced over at Tai. He was reading and she could see his eyes starting to droop a little. She smiled and pulled herself over, worming her way under his arm. He didn't even look up as he lifted his arm and pulled her to his side. She lay her head on his chest and fell asleep almost instantly.

When she woke again, it was beginning to grow dark. Tai was staring up at the sky where there stars were beginning to come out. She pulled herself up and planted a little kiss on his relaxed mouth and waited for his response. He blinked and grinned at her. "You're awake."

"Uh-huh. What do we do now?"

"I can think of a few things." He grinned and held her face in a firm kiss. Then turned back over to stare at the sky. "Orion's already out…."

She raised an eyebrow at him. "The old stargazing trick huh?"

"What stargazing trick?"

"That's one of the typical tricks guys use to get girls to a private place to make out."

"Well, I wasn't thinking that, but now that you mention it…."

PPPPPPPPPPPPP

When they got home, the answering machine was beeping at him loudly.

"You have fifteen new messages," its robotic voice told him.

He began to play them as he put various things away. Relena headed off to take the shower she'd missed that morning.

"Tai—I'm just reminding you about our study group today," Vince's voice said. Then Siduri yelled about ten times "Where are you?!?!" He shrugged and deleted them, one by one. And smiled to no one in particular. Feeling a little foolish, Tai shook himself from his little reverie and put the beach towels in his dirty clothes pile.

"Anybody home?" Donny called.

Tai shot up like a rocket and hit his head on the underside of an open upper cupboard door where he'd been putting a knife away. "Yah."

"Oh, I thought you were in the shower."

"No I…maybe I left the water on…." He hurried out nervously leaving Donny to look at him oddly.

He knocked softly on the bathroom door in his bedroom. Relena turned off the water and yelled out, "What?" He cringed.

"Donny's home."

There was dead silence so he turned and left, finding Donny standing in his bedroom doorway.

"What's going on?"

"Nothing. How was work? You're home early…." He rambled, trying to grab Donny's arm and direct him away from the room.

"You aren't putting me off. You've got a girl in your shower."

"Don't be ridiculous!" Tai felt like a moron. He'd been too lax. He shouldn't have been so careless.

Suddenly Relena limped out with one of his t-shirts on, the dirty one he'd left on the floor that morning….

"Oh hi honey," she said, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing his cheek. The towel rode up so that the bandages on her thigh were obvious. This must have looked so ridiculously fake that it could have passed for soap opera material. She winked at Donny and grinned the fakest grin he'd ever seen. Her hair was wet and falling everywhere. She could almost pass for a street-side slut right now. But just maybe, with a LOT of luck, Donny would fall for it. Not everyone knew very well what Relena Darlian looked like. Not enough to recognize her in such attire.

"Ms. Darlian?"

Nope—crap.

"Tai, what's going on?" Donny asked. Relena had let go of him and was limping away, grunting with effort.

"Well, I tried!" she said cheerfully shrugging her thin shoulders.

"I'm hiding Relena until she's well enough to move easily on her own," Tai explained as Relena fished around on the floor for a duffle bag and pulled out some clothes.

"This is insane. Why are you charged with taking care of her? Marquis actually put her in your care?" Donny asked, flabbergasted.

"Yes."

"Tai and I have known each other since we were fifteen. Milliardo knows and respects him. And Tai knows a fair amount about medicine. My brother thought he would be the best for the job," Relena explained from behind the closed bathroom door.

"We all thought you were dead, Ms Darlian!" Donny told her in an awed voice, rather loudly since he had to communicate through a closed door.

"Well, I'm not. Surprise, surprise. And please call me Relena!" She came out in her usual, shorts and an oversized t-shirt.

Donny was shaking his head in disbelief. "Man, you must have been in deep, really deep in the Eve Wars to get in with this kind of stuff."

"You have no idea…" But Tai had no intention of reliving any of it for his friend.

Donny seemed to have had enough because shortly after that he got up and left muttering, "I'm going to bed. My head hurts."

Relena sighed and sat down on the bed. "Well, now I can roam around more freely, can't I?"

Tai sighed in resignation and plopped down next to her. "I'm slipping if I allowed that to happen. What's wrong with me?" he asked himself, laying down on his back.

"Don't be so hard on yourself. You're not a soldier."

He looked up at her smiling face from between his interlaced fingers. That's right…he wasn't…this was so weird….

PPPPPPPPP

Kiki sat down at her desk and pulled out the copies of the aircrafts she'd been given. She spread them out and held them down with various heavy objects she gathered from around the room. It was huge—this was going to take forever. The man who'd designed this, Quatre Winner, and from her understanding he had help from another man, was obviously brilliant. He'd done some incredible things, things which gave it better gas mileage and greater turning speeds at sharper angles and so forth. But something must be terribly wrong fundamentally with it for it to have such problems. How to find out what that was would be nearly impossible.

She scratched her forehead and mentally berated herself—that hurt. The bruises were still tender.

The workers around her were bustling around busily working on the smaller working parts. But this was why Chang had brought her here. She had to figure this out.

After three days of intense study and very little sleep, she still hadn't found it and her brain was tired. But she kept pushing herself. It was a worthwhile cause and it kept her mind off of other things….

A door closed quietly and she jumped. It was one in the morning, only two guards were still here—even Chang and Marquis had gone.

A young blond man came in. He was fairly short, clean shaven, and had a nice face, in that pretty-boyish way. His uniform was that of a private.

"Mind if I sit down?" he asked pleasantly.

She was a little nervous but told herself to quit being silly.

"Suit yourself," she told him.

He smiled such a genuine smile that Kiki couldn't help but relax, at the same time it made her nervous that he could do such a thing.

"You've been staring at that thing forever. Going blind yet?"

"No, but I've looked at it an infinite number of times and calculated so many things. It all looks the same now. It blends together and now it's nearly impossible for me to figure out what's wrong with this thing." She didn't know why she was actually airing her frustrations with this stranger but he seemed to not mind because he nodded kindly in understanding.

"That's why we had to find someone else to look at it. That's what happens when you work on something so long. You become numb to everything. But I actually came to tell you about something we noticed today, it might help you. We heard a high-pitched scraping noise coming from the left rear slat area."

She blinked down at the blueprint at had nearly fused with her desk. "High pitched?" Resting a hand on her chin, she looked hard at it some more. "What if…."

"It seems that that did help. Try to get some sleep tonight. You aren't much good if you kill yourself working, especially in your already injured state."

Something riveted through her. What made him think he could talk about that? Who told him what happened….

"Who are you anyway?" she asked sharply.

"Quatre Winner. I believe you are Kristina Juliano?"

"Kiki," she told him automatically.

"I'm usually just Quatre. Goodnight Ms Kiki." And he left.

She looked down at the complex drawing before her then in the direction the young man had just left. She utterly refused to believe that a millionaire colonist could be so young and do so much. It was inhuman, completely inhuman….

There were voices around her. It was a minute or two before she registered what they were saying.

"Shh…keep it down. This is probably the first time that girls slept since she got here!"

"What's wrong with her anyway? You seen all those bruises and stitches?"

"I heard she was attacked by some idiot kid in basic training."

"Yeesh…"

She turned over and wanted to hide her face, but then she'd squish one injury or another of hers and that hurt a lot.

"Sir!" she heard them chorus as a door opened. Couldn't they leave so she could gracefully leave without embarrassing herself or them?

"How long has she been here?" she heard Chang snap. Well, what was he doing here, she retorted, though silently.

"About three, maybe four days, sir," one of the men answered.

Chang must have gestured at them because then he snapped, "Well quit standing around! Get moving!"

There were several "Sir, yes sir!"s and the door opened and closed again. Someone settled down in the chair that Mr. Winner had occupied early that morning. She was terrified it was Chang.

"You going to keep pretending to be asleep or are you actually going to get up now?"

Crud. It was him.

There was no point in pretending with him though. So she sat up and tried to face him. "Good morning, sir."

"Good morning, Juliano. Have you forgotten where your bunk is located?"

She swallowed the smart remark her first instincts told her to make and answered curtly. "No sir."

"Then why do you insist on sleeping in here?"

"Because I wanted to figure this out as soon as possible, sir." She felt her face reddening. This was ridiculous. Why did this man always make her feel about three inches tall? Maybe it was something about Asians—but her dad hadn't been Asian….

"And you think killing yourself will help in this pursuit?" he snapped.

She blinked. Was he concerned about her? "No sir."

"Then I suggest you get to your bunk Juliano."

"I will sir. But first I need to speak to someone who can implement what I've figured out."

"You know what's wrong?" She felt a ripple of her old self react to his surprised remark. Yes, she thought, I may have figured it out—what of it? Her inner voice was feeling very snotty today.

"Yes sir."

"Come on."

She gathered up several papers and the blueprint and got up and followed him out of the room and back up to the office they'd first entered upon her joining the project. But instead of talking to one of the technicians, they walked to the back of the room and Chang wrapped on the door.

A curt voice allowed them entry.

A relatively young man with very, very long and very, very blond hair sat behind a large oak desk. Zechs Marquis. He was even more intimidating in person than on TV or pictures. Four chairs were scattered around the room, and three of them were occupied. Mr. Winner sat smiling in one, and another two men about his age were also there. One had a very long braid and the other rather assertive bangs.

"Yes?" Marquis asked. There was definitely something in this man's manner that said, I'm in charge so don't try me.

"Juliano, have a seat," Chang told her from behind as he shut the door. She jumped imperceptibly at the noise. She was practically quivering with terror as she realized that these men were probably the source of the entire project. "Juliano just informed me that she thinks she might have found what the problem is," he explained for her. But he didn't sound as if he was mocking her as he did so. He was almost gentle….

"Let's see what you've found," Mr. Winner motioned for her to show her papers. She hesitated, not knowing where to spread out the papers, when Marquis scooted back and shoved several files out of the way. She nodded at him and lay the blueprint out with her notes down one side. Everyone but Chang gathered around her as she started to explain, but she didn't get very far before Winner and the other two men she didn't know took over having realized her suggestion. They talked with a familiarity that suggested years and years of working together, which seem utterly ridiculous, at least in Winner's case—how could he possibly have had that much to do with Marquis with his business?

She slipped out of the throng and sat down quietly in her chair again and watched them talking animatedly.

"Looks like you did well, Juliano," Chang said serenely from behind her.

"T-thank you, sir," she whispered back. Why was she still so scared? The other four hadn't noticed her.

"By the way," he said, squatting down beside her chair and motioned toward the men around Marquis' desk. "The blond is Quatre Winner," he told her unnecessarily, but she wasn't about to interrupt him. "He designed the ships. The man with the bangs," she silently laughed at his description, "Is Trowa Barton. He helped design it a little but mostly directs construction. And the braided one is Duo Maxwell, he supplies us with our materials and also assists in construction."

"What do you do?"

He grinned an almost playful grin. "I'll pilot one. I also pick the other pilots, train them, and lead the attack."

Something wasn't right…something was missing. She was quiet for a minute before she realized what it was. "So, do you just use an old OS? Surely they couldn't handle such advanced machinery. They just wouldn't react fast enough."

"We have someone else work on that." His face was oddly closed about his. This sounded like one of those deep secrets only the top dogs knew. Strange….

She jumped at hearing her name from the group at the desk. "Juliano," Marquis was addressing her. "Do you want to help work on this or would you prefer to take a break? As I understand it, you've spent quite a bit of time here…"

Good grief, did everyone know she'd spent the night here? Was it really that unusual? She thought these guys were the serious workers! But she wasn't feeling very well at the moment. She hated to admit her weakness, but there was no pretending it. And those blue eyes were penetrating her, there was no avoiding them. He saw everything. "I think I'd better go to my bunk for a bit…."

He nodded and smiled. Maxwell and Winner grinned at her, Barton gave her a small smile. She got up and left. It was several minutes before she realized that Change was following.

"If you don't mind my asking, sir, why are you accompanying me? Sir?" she asked hesitantly.

"Why, I want to make sure you don't faint in the hallway." He sounded almost playful. Kiki was grateful when they got to her door. "Rest up, Juliano. We've still got a lot of work for you." Then he turned heel and walked away.

She shook her head in confusion at him then went to bed. It was calling her name in an enchanted hypnotic kind of voice.

PPPPPPPPPPPPPPP

"Where did you find that girl again, Wufei? She's sharp!" Duo was commenting later, as they set up for another test. Wufei was suited up and buckling himself into the ship. He was just going to hover for a minute to see if it worked. This would also be a chance to use Heero's OS. They were going to run him through a simulation battle. The first time he'd see it.

"She was in that group of kids I trained," he told Duo noncommittally.

"Is she a good pilot?"

"Decent, but not great by any means. Lock me in." Duo pulled down the top of the aircraft—they hadn't gotten around to automating it yet.

Wufei pulled his helmate on. "Zero, you there?" a voice called to him. It was strange being call that. But he was zero, for this model.

"This is zero."

"Are you ready?"

Wufei watched the controls around him light up. He flicked on his computer and scanned the screen. Nothing surprising in the OS yet. Subconsciously he was expecting some nasty surprise similar to the Zero system, or worse, Epyon. But he hadn't done any actual simulations of battles yet.

"Ready."

"Prepare for take off."

Wufei snorted. Some take off this was going to be. It was automatic for him now. Push this, do that, go here, go there. A minute later he was hovering in the trial room. He watched the heat sensors carefully. No overheating yet…that girl must have done it.

He heard cheering in his speakers and grinned as he landed. But now the real work could begin. They still had to finish this aircraft and build all the others.

"Prepare for battle," the voice told him.

The simulation…he'd almost forgotten. This could be interesting.

He watched all the little fake fights blip onto his screen. And he converted totally into the fighting mode. They flew faster and faster from all sides. He whipped around—if this piece of junk could maneuver as fast as this program allowed for, it'd be amazing!

Thirty minutes of fighting later, Wufei felt the adrenaline still pumping through his veins. He pulled a sneaky maneuver attaching a cable to two fighter jets and sent them crashing into each other. Then it turned off. Wufei fell forward, panting and heaving. He was exhausted.

Maybe he'd have to put the pilots he chose through a G's test—or else they'd be doing the funky chicken all over the place. This was incredible….

As he climbed out amongst all the cheering of the workers, he vaguely noticed Juliano in the crowd. She looked much better having rested. His legs were shaky—crazy what your brain could do to you. Duo ran forward and caught him before his knees collapsed. That'd be just great, go ahead and fall on your face Wufei….

But he couldn't get the stupid grin off his face. For the first time Wufei believed Zechs might actually pull this thing off….

PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP

A/N I'm officially no longer a teenager! Yea! I'm a big fat wappin 20 years old now! I teach a class of 6 and 7 year olds once a week—they told me I'm old.

Sorry I took so long! But I still have them coming! I hope it was worth the wait. Thank you everyone for all the reviews! I really appreciate them.

NoneOfYourBwax: Tell your cousin I said "hi!" back.

KatsyKat: I like flattery—thanks so much! Maybe someday I can write my completely original ideas…who knows…. It would be nice, but we don't always get to do what we really want to do.

WolfCry17: I tried to email you to explain a little about the situation, but it got returned to me so I decided to answer here. Basically, there are terrorist type guys who feel Earth is the seat of all evil and want it gone. Not very creative nor complicated, but it's not really the entire point of the fic. I'm not very good at that kind of stuff. Hopefully it's believable.