"Manifestations"
By Isis
Chapter 7

"War fatigue," the folder landed on the desk with a thud.

"He's been in and out of mental facilities for months now," Sally Po stated as the three agents stood in front of Commander Une's desk.

"No other explanations?" the Commander asked, her chin on her folded hands in front of her.

"None likely," Wufei answered. "The guy was not all there. He smuggled the gun in with a recording device that contained nothing but his own ramblings for why he wanted the President dead."

The other sighed, "Well I can't say that I'm unhappy to hear it's that simple." She rose from her seat and looked them over. "The President wanted me to express his gratitude to the three of you especially. I've managed to talk him out of a public award ceremony, just in case." She turned to regard Heero directly. "I'm sure he will want to make an official thank you sometime though," she smiled.

"That's unnecessary," he stated.

"But it's good for politics," she added.

"Yeah, don't knock it," Sally nudged his side.

"I'm grateful to all of you," the Commander stated. "You're dismissed."

"At 0700, the decoy vehicle will leave her residence as usual and make the regular rounds to the Government building. Vehicle 01 will arrive to pick up Relena at 0730. Vehicle 02 will engage pursuit at the point designated. This trip does not, and will not, show up on any of her schedules. House command will run regular routines through the weekend. Questions?" Heero paused to look over the group.

"Wouldn't Miss Relena be better off with a majority of us?"

"That would be expected," …and he wouldn't have to deal with any of them for at least six hours during this trip.

"We know you can take care of yourself," Alli added with a wink.

"Ah, face it babe," Ry slithered an arm around her chair back, "we're just meant to be together."

"Permission to walk, Sir."

"Denied."

Alli sighed before inching away from him. "Permission to stick him in the back seat with shielding?"

"Oh, you think a bulletproof, soundproof, airtight bubble is going to hold me, Petite?" he schmoozed.

"Granted."

Alli laughed in victory and Delano breathed a "thank you."

"Conduct will remain the same," he continued.

"I have a recommendation," Delano added, surprising him. "The last time we accompanied Miss Relena home, I think we caused her a lot of unneeded attention."

Alli nodded, "I agree."

Heero blinked at the two of them, waiting for the explanation.

"Four uniformed officers following around one person tends to look a bit out of place," she added.

"Miss Relena loses all efforts at being incognito with us trailing her around in full garb."

Assessing their reasoning was easy enough. They were right; un-do attention would not only give away her cover, but could put her into unforeseen situations. It would also alert the hordes of press and media.

"Agreed. We will switch to a plain clothes operation." The group cheered their approval. "Badges and IDs at all times," he admonished.

"You know, I still say we need to dye her hair and put her in some puffy sweaters and actually get her out of the house this time," Ry grumbled.

"She's visiting her mother, not showing you the sights," Alli shot back.

Heero just closed his eyes.

"Oh come on, she probably hasn't seen the beach in years."

"Something tells me it still looks a lot like water and sand."

"You're so anti-poetic."

"Anti-what?"

"You heard me."

Sigh.

"Permission to walk, Sir?"

"I'll consider it."

"Hey!" He turned to glare at Alli, "Sore looser."

"Whatever."

"I'm going to have to request to drive more often." Relena was busily staring out the window as they passed down the two-lane, waterfront road. It was only a three-hour drive from the capital to her hometown, which was no accident considering her father had held this position for almost nine years.

"Alli may not be able to take it."

She turned to regard Heero as he easily coasted the car around one of the many turns. She hadn't realized how accustomed she had become to the brown and charcoal uniform on him until he had shown up this morning in jeans and a long-sleeve button-down. "Why is that?" she asked instead, feeling a bit shy over being so cozy with him alone in the car.

"Ry Noland."

She smiled at the comment and giggled to herself. "It's probably good you didn't leave those two by themselves. They'd be in a ditch by now."

He nodded solemnly, eyes still on the road.

"They aren't so bad, once you get use to them," she commented, smiling out the window at the passing scenery.

"Hn."

Relena didn't think that sounded like an agreeable grunt. She looked back from the corner of her eye, trying to read an expression that she knew wouldn't be there. Now and again she slightly worried over Ry teasing, or annoying, just far enough to get himself face to face with a rather pissed off Heero Yuy…. That is, if Heero ever got that outwardly emotional over anything.

"Well, I guess you can't blame the guy for trying," she mumbled instead, decisively not letting her mind wonder in that direction.

"Can't take a hint."

She was a bit surprised by the comment, at least coming from him. But she laughed to herself again and shook her head, thinking about the two. "If he got the hint he'd be trying harder."

Heero actually took his eyes off the road enough to glance at her.

She gasped and then covered her mouth with one hand, knowing it was too late. "I shouldn't have said that," she mumbled through it.

He blinked, "Alli?"

Figuring a secret was probably safer with Heero then it obviously was with her, she removed the hand and smiled instead. "Lt. Dave had a way of…" she stopped and looked over at him, "Well, you've talked to him, the man can't 'veil' anything delicately." He nodded, eyes fully back to scanning the road. "He made comments when they first arrived with the team that he'd be happy to reassign them to a desk job if they let a relationship interfere."

Heero nodded again, and she wondered if Lt. Dave had told him the same thing.

"Well, I think Alli took that to heart. Besides, I think she enjoys the hard-to-get stuff," she smiled to herself.

There was a long pause, and Relena had decided to give up the conversation, before he slowly turned back to her. "…Alli?"

The slightly befuddled look was comical at best. "Yes. What's so wrong with that?"

He blinked at the road ahead and shook his head, saying nothing.

Relena smiled at him, "You guys just don't get it." She turned back to her own window, specifically not watching for a reaction to that, if there was one.

The two cars pulled into the driveway of the Darlian estate at a quarter till eleven. Relena was the first one out, not waiting for a quick security inspection. Racing up the steps she opened the door and nearly ran over Pegan who was coming to greet them. She threw her arms around the old butler and didn't let go of him until the team had most of the luggage removed from the trunks.

"Forgive me, Miss Relena, but I must help your friends with their things. Besides," he smiled at her and he held her by the shoulders, "your mother is waiting for you in the backyard."

Relena nodded to him, but then led him out onto the front step. The rest of the team was already walking up with luggage in hand. A round of hellos were heard as they slowly drifted inside.

Heero easily hefted both his and Relena's luggage out of the first car and made his way towards the entrance. "Pegan, I'd like to introduce to you Agent Heero Yuy," she said with a sideways glance toward the rest of the retreating team.

"Ah, Agent Yuy, good to finally make your acquaintance."

Heero set down a suitcase to shake the hand the older man had offered. The old companion knew a great deal more about his past than he would have liked, not only due to his stay at Relena's Sanq school. And he was sure that the man wasn't as happy to "finally" meet him as he said he was. "You as well," he stated instead.

"Heero, let me take some of these. I don't need to let you two to do all the work," she stated, successfully breaking the awkward re-introduction.

The two waved her off, and Pegan reminded her that her mother was still waiting. So, with a quick peck to older man's check she left them. Heero managed to make it through the door as well before he was nearly commanded to let the other gentlemen assist him. Nodding, he handed over Relena's things, and allowed the butler to show him into the house, rejoining his team.

"If you would all follow me, please," he announced to them as he mounted the stairs. "I will show you to your rooms."

The entry hall of the Darlian household was large, acting as a meeting place as well a stately lounge or party room with what appeared to be a banquet room through two double door sets along the far wall. Two grand staircases on either side of the room wrapped themselves together on the second floor, creating a semicircle with their banisters.

Heero following along with the others, attempting to seem unknowledgeable of the layout of the house, when in fact, he had studied the blueprints to it nearly two years ago when…. Well, when he had thought it may be of some use to him in order to acquire his objective at the time.

Once they were all shown to their own guestroom, Pegan suggested that they take whatever time they needed to get settled in. Heero, however, didn't let the butler leave after showing him to the last door in the hallway, which he did not believe was by accident.

"I will also need to check in with the security command center."

"Of course, Agent Yuy. I will show you to the operations room." The other man bowed slightly, his gray eyebrows hiding the expression in his eyes.

Heero followed him up to the third floor and into a small room, which had probably started life as a closet. The monitors all showed live scenes from around the grounds and sensors were functional and relaying to Relena's command center.

"Will there be anything else you require, Agent Yuy?"

"Just one thing," he began. He crossed his arms and leaned back against the far wall, allowing Pegan most of the space in the one-man room. The other apparently understood and he nodded as he closed the door behind himself. "I appreciate your help with my cover."

"Miss Relena made it very clear that I was never to reveal anything I may know about you. Now is no different."

Heero looked at him coolly. He hadn't thought of what exactly the butler/confidant had been doing with the knowledge he had possessed all this time. In truth, he had been keeping this a secret far longer than anyone else had. "What you know of my past is not… flattering," he mumbled.

The other smiled tightly. "It does not matter, Agent Yuy. Miss Relena believes in you, and I learned long ago that she has far better judgment of character than I."

Heero blinked at the older man. He wasn't sure what to expect from the beloved butler, but this wasn't it.

The other bowed again, "I will do my best to follow her wishes." He straightened. "If there is nothing else, Sir?"

He shook his head as the other turned and let himself out.

Once Pegan was gone, he stayed in the command center long enough to set the systems to his specification and change the alarm frequency to his pager.

Leaving, he made his way down the stairs and out one of the back patio doors. He found Relena and her mother, surrounded by Delano and Alli, talking on the main deck. Seeing that the two had already been disturbed, he walked along the house toward them.

Relena sat on a patio bench next to her mother who had a thin blanket thrown over her legs against the slight chill that still hung in the late March air. Mrs. Darlian was a beautiful woman, her hair pinned back into a bun with a high-collared blouse on. If it hadn't been for Mr. Darlian's dying revelation that Relena had been adopted, he doubted anyone would have ever suspected.

The outside door opened behind him and he heard Ry jog up beside him. "Hey, anything we need to set up?"

Heero shook his head to the other as they walked casually up the side stairs to the raised patio. "Mother, you remember Ry," the lady nodded with a smile to him. "And this is Agent Heero Yuy, he's new to my team."

"Welcome, Agent Yuy."

"Ma'am," he bowed to her.

She smiled back to him and he could easily see where Relena's mannerisms came from, at the very least.

"Mrs. Darlian, you've out done yourself on these flowers," Ry commented, being the first to take a seat around the table in front of the two. "They're all green and, well, bushy," he waved a hand around at the patches of dirt, carefully planted with little rows of… 'stuffs.'

"Where's your mom this morning?"

"She has a tea and luncheon with the church group today."

Ry looked up from his slumped position over the chess pieces in front of him. "So for the other half of us, means?"

Relena finished her move and took one of his knights off the board. "It means she'll be there until some time this afternoon."

Ry picked his chin up off the table enough to look over the board. "That's too bad," he mumbled, sliding a pawn up and taking one of hers. He triumphantly picked it up and set off to the side.

"It's all right, I can't expect her to stop everything when I come on short notice." Relena moved her rook from its place behind where the newly triumphant pawn had sat and slid it down inside his defensives. "Check."

He slumped down, putting his chin back on the table, sliding a pawn out to block his exposed king.

"You are a lesson in futility," Alli noted from the couch beside their game table. She was quietly braiding down the length of her still-wet hair.

"Quiet Petite, or I'll challenge you to a game of basketball."

Alli promptly stuck her tongue out at her partner, and Heero again tried vainly to put his mind back into cross-referencing the company name. So far, with Trowa's timely help, they had cracked the first four messages, and had been rewarded with an average looking financial sheet from a company on the colony in question. However, having the last shift of the night, he was able to get a few hours of source checking done before the others came down.

"Checkmate."

Heero barely succeeded in keeping the smile off of his face.

"Oh, fine. I quit."

"Now how are you going to get better with that attitude?"

"My mother always told me not to have an attitude."

"You had a mother?" Alli piped up.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

Heero officially gave up and closed down the laptop. The two slowly moved off, arguing over the idea of manners being a genetic trait. The other three watched them go without attempting to intervene until they began meandering through the bookcases on the far side of the library, possibly in search of an encyclopedia set.

Delano returned to his book, sitting in an overstuffed chair in the corner, and Relena busied herself with resetting the chessboard. The ivory pieces sliding softly against the ornate marble topped game table. Out of sheer abandon Heero stood and walked over to her, taking Ry's vacated seat. "May I?"

Relena looked up, and smiled at him. "Of course!"

She finished out the board, and moved her first white pawn onto the playing field. He matched her first four moves, advancing his little carved soldiers into hers. She smiled ruefully at him, "You could have warned me that you actually know how to play."

"I know how to play," he answered back, a slight drip of humor in his voice.

She chuckled at the comment, removing one of her knights from harm's way. But opening up her left rook to his advancing queen. Taking it off the board, she paused her quick play and tapped her nails against the table. Stealing a look at her, he could see the quick contemplation in her eyes as they scouted out each possible move.

When she reached her decision, she moved her bishop four squares. Without really looking at the board he immediately moved his knight to an outside square, and watched her eyes. Her gaze locked onto that knight for a split second before she moved on, rounding her bishop to her sparse side.

He turned his attention back to the board again and advanced his queen, setting up a strike on her knight again. And again she parried, moving her knight and sacrificing a pawn in its place. A few more moves and she paused as she looked over the board. He noticed the smile creep onto her lips as she contemplated the move.

"I should have expected this," she gave him a small smile, a secret look to her eyes, that he easily matched. "You're being overly aggressive," she observed.

"You're too defensive," he commented, glancing over to his knight that he had purposefully left open to her bishop.

"I thought that was a sloppy mistake," she said, resting her chin against her folded hands.

"You didn't take it."

"Too far out, I would have been pinned there for at least two more moves."

He broke a small, genuine smile as he simply watched her eyes pick over the board in front of her. It was a perfect display of her character, a stubborn defense, unwilling to sacrifice her players for too small of an advantage.

She moved again, resuming her own tactics, and tightening her line against his assault.

"Miss Relena, you never said your mother scrap-booked," Ry's cheery voice broke into the solemn scraping of ivory against marble.

"I'm not sure she does much any more," she said, not looking up as Heero managed to take her last knight from the board. "Dang."

It was another three moves before Heero noted that the other officer had closed the book he had apparently found somewhere in the library, and was now silently watching their match. Well, at least he was being quiet.

Another few moves and Alli had joined them, a book in her hand as well, as she stared down at the table. By the time the board was sparsely littered with the remaining pieces, even Delano had taken a position next to them.

Growing bolder as the board cleared itself out, Relena started to advance a little at a time, fending off his on slot with quick rearrangements. Swinging her last rook down, she captured his knight, and set herself up for a strike on his bishop…. And finally fell for the trap. Dragging his queen up from the back corner he captured the bishop that she had been using as the best defense to her king.

"No!" she squeaked, clamping both hands over his on the board so he couldn't remove the captured piece. "No, no, no, no, no," she whimpered as she wilted forward and put her head on the table.

The rest of the group laughed at her expense, and he couldn't contain the mild chuckle as she tried to wrestle the little piece from his hand one finger at a time.

With a pout she finally gave up and flicked her king just hard enough to teeter the thing over on its side. "I concede," she sighed, trying vainly to give him a hurt stare with the others applauding. He gave her smirk until her expression finally cracked and she started laughing.

"It's all right, Relena, we still love you," Ry patted her on the shoulder consolingly.

"I'm going to have to stick with you for rematches," she said instead, smiling brightly.

"No way!" he backed off. "I'm staying away from you too."

She crossed her arms and slumped forward. "Figures," she mumbled.

"Besides, we have to start counting our fortunes as soon as the paparazzi calls us back…."

Ry and Alli walked off again, reopening the books that they had been carrying. The three watched after them, confused, until Relena gasped and bolted from her seat. A near silent, "Scrapbooks!" escaped before she ran after the two. "No!"

Heero instinctively grabbed the table to steady it as she brushed past at full tilt, managing to save most of the remaining pieces. Turning around, he and Delano watched them argue and run vainly around the room about the offending books. The two exchanged a look, and Del finally shrugged and shook his head, walking back to his reading chair.

Breakfast was… mortifying, to say the least.

"'Little Relena enjoys peas and fish sticks.' Peas?"

Relena stabbed vengefully at her eggs, taking a bite before she took a bite out of Ry. He sat beside her at the family dinning table with the rest of the team, slowly flipping through the scrapbook, and making comments between bites. Possibly worse was that Alli sat across the table between Heero and Del as she flipped through hers, chuckling merrily.

The other two had enough sense to keep their comments to a minimum, as they acted much less interested then the two instigators. However, it didn't help that Pegan kept popping in and out, easily retelling the stories captured by the pictures. The man had been here far too long.

The blush had worn off a half an hour ago. There was nothing to be done but grin and bear it… and seriously berate her mother for ever having invented these stupid books to begin with.

"We need to time-capsule this one," Alli commented, putting down her orange juice. "'Relena Darlian accepted the award for Junior Leadership Achievement at St. Gabriel's Elementary School today, in recognition of her exemplary skills in academic, extra curricular and service projects.' See, you're a natural!" she winked at her.

"So nice of you to notice," she sighed.

"Is there anything you didn't have 'exemplary skills' in? You've got more trophy pictures than anyone I know."

She gave up on the eggs and instead propped up her chin with an elbow on the table. "Figure skating."

"What, did you get second?" he nudged her side.

"No, broke my ankle."

"Ow."

"Skiing. Fractured my arm."

Ry put down the book and gave her a sympathetic look.

"I also stunk at pretty much anything that involved a ball."

"Ah, not the sports star, huh?" He reached an arm around her shoulders and shook her back and forth in a hug. "Well, that's ok. Dance class was good to you," he commented flipping the page.

"Dance, gymnastics, tap, ballet, drill team, cheerleading—that didn't last long," she mussed.

She stared at her juice glass and let him give her an incorrigible glance. "Is there anything you haven't done?"

She looked over at him and shrugged, "Skydiving."

The rest of the team laughed with her and she felt slightly better with the whole situation.

He flipped on to vacation shots, and Relena mildly paid attention to the images. Her father's smiling face brought back enough happy memories that she didn't mind the invasion of privacy so much.

"Hey, the beach." Ry abruptly closed the book and looked around the table. "I know what we should do today." He looked down at her, squishing her with the arm still wrapped around her shoulders. "Your mother's out, we have most of the day to ourselves, we should get you out for some fresh air!"

All eyes turned to Heero as he mildly set down his juice glass, giving the group a once-over. "No unnecessary risks," he reminded them.

"Now wait. No one knows Miss Relena is here. We can easily disguise her, and no one will recognize the rest of us," Alli piped up.

"Well, maybe one of us," Del added.

"Wait, what?" Ry and Alli stared at him.

He looked up and shrugged. "Well, Agent Yuy has been here before," he mumbled. "Don't you two ever read the files?"

Relena poised herself, sealing away the little fear that the comment brought up.

Heero didn't flinch as he looked over the two staring at him. "I attended school here," he explained.

"At St. Gabriel's?"

He nodded.

"Wait, what?" Ry glanced back down to her. "We're just finding out about this now?"

She blinked up at him. "I didn't realize it was important."

"So…" Alli looked back and forth between the two. "You would have been classmates."

Ry paused, "What?"

The group heard her kick him under the table. "Don't you ever read the files?"

"Well, apparently as well as you did."

"I at least knew they're the same age."

"Really?" He looked between the two again, "Wow, I feel old."

Alli rolled her eyes. "So you two really knew each other, then?"

She shrugged, displacing Ry's arm at the same time. "Somewhat," she answered nonchalantly. "It was only a few weeks before the school closed."

Heero nodded absently, unfazed by the conversation.

"Talk about bad timing," Ry muttered. "But anyway, this is perfect! We've got two people that know their way around, what could possibly go wrong!"

"Agent Yuy, you have to admit that risk assessment on this is very small," Alli chimed in.

Ry elbowed her sharply and she got the point. "Please, Heero?" she added, folding her hands together, more than happy to steer the conversation a different way.

He met her eyes humorlessly, until he finally sighed quietly and nodded.

She smiled brightly, standing up and walking around to pull him up by the elbow. "Don't worry so much. If anyone asks, I didn't leave the house the whole time, right?" she teased.

"Yeah, says the worst liar in political history."

She shot Ry a look, "Do you want to go or not?"

"I'll be good!"

"A good friend can tell you what is the matter with you in a minute. He may not seem such a good friend after telling." – Arther Brisbane

Proofed by: Lay Hime. Thank you!