"No."

"And why not?!" Dasnic said with a feral growl in her voice. "I need to make sure that he's fine to still do the climb."

"He's fine. You checked who knows how many times." Burton growled also, getting tired of the argument of deciding whether or not to send the teen back to base camp and contact Xtreme.

"But—"

"Just tell them what happened in your prognosis and he'll be fine. If X tells us not to then we won't. I won't listen to your orders."

"Aren't you in the least bit worried?!" She cried, slamming her fists down into the table, not noticing the shadowed person outside listening to the entire conversation.

I thought there was something fishy here. At least Heero's all right… Howard thought as he crouched in the shadows. It had been almost a heart attack for him when he heard the news. Then, he heard the good news that Heero was going to be all right.

"Yes, but I won't jeopardize the whole mission for what you think is a serious case. The kid is perfectly fine."

"Only because he was a former Gundam pilot." Dasnic growled out as she clenched her hands again. "He's only doing this because he doesn't have a choice."

"He did and he chose this path."

"Only because that girl was involved. He didn't want to loose her again." Dasnic snarled angrily, narrowing her eyes into slits. When she wanted to, she could be a really witch, or bitch in Burton's view, and if she had to do something of this extreme to ensure Heero's safety, she would.

"Stop contradicting yourself; you're the one who made the bloody machine. 'It's for the good of the world' my ass." Burton slammed his fist into the table, leaving a slightly indent. "The mission first."

"Even if it means some kids life?"

"No, obviously he's not dead yet. X wouldn't put him here first if they knew he didn't have skills." He drawled out with boredom, still making his point. "Any other questions or comments, Ms. Dasnic?"

"Yes," Dasnic said, accepting the defeat for now. This wasn't over; he won the battle but it didn't mean that he won the war. "It seems that Heero knows one of the Sherpas."

"…So?" Burton questioned with growing suspicion. "Should we be cautious or does this problem need to be fixed?"

"Neither, let's just see what happens."

"Somehow I have a problem believing you." Burton growled as he exhaled heavily, almost to the point of it being a sigh. "I suppose you didn't come in here just to chew me out, eh?"

"No, we've discovered that his friends have been looking for him. Luckily, the stupid bastards that kidnapped him crashed the car so it couldn't be tracked. X can really do much better than that." She looked at her fingernails, "What about you?"

Kidnapped?! Howard questioned, getting a gut feeling that since he was hearing all of this stuff he was way over his head. 'Heero…what have you gotten yourself into?' He wondered with some worry.

"Not much, but I do have his next mission after he finishes this one." Burton grinned.

"Well, what is it? Don't say you're not going to tell me. You've never done that before. If you didn't want me to know then you wouldn't have told me it in the first place, now would you?"

"Well…" He whispered something in Dasnic's ear and she threw a punch at him as soon as she heard the next mission.

"You're a son of a—"

"Sure, but remember that I only take orders from everyone but you and myself." He reminded, walking towards the tent's opening. "I don't really have a choice either, now do I?"

He opened the door and walked out—right past Howard, not knowing that the young doctor Dasnic had actually seen him listening in on the whole conversation.

TBC

Author's note: Thanks everyone for the reviews!!