"Guardian Angel"

Chapter Two

What was once only talk, quickly turned into the media's facts. Which would eventually turn into a part of permanent history for the After Colony era. An attempt on the President's life during her inauguration was not unheard of. However, it would be the first attempt on an ESUN President's life. And even though the entire known universe was incorporated within the ESUN, many parties did not identify with this nation. For example, the colonies. Distrust and animosity over lost lives turned all of Earth's eyes towards the colonies. Some eyes observing silently, some questioningly and some burning with accusation.

"However…" Preventer Po, codenamed Preventer Water, glanced up quickly towards her partner, Chang, before glancing back to the road as she drove, "no one has any leads on who might have pulled off a stunt like that. For all they know, or care, the assassin was simply a lunatic gone crazy in a big crowd of people, which just happened to take place during the ESUN's second inauguration. We have no identification for the guy, and his prints don't match any on the criminal or citizen profile records."

Wufei wrinkled up his nose in a quiet expression of disgust, "You mean those "Watch Dog" records? Those are pathetically useless for what we're trying to do."

"Watch Dog" records: a system of records put together by the government which holds all, or most, information on ESUN citizens, including criminal records. These records include both Earth and colony citizens. These records are highly opposed in debates due to the fact that they invade an individual's privacy without any obvious reason to.

Sally smirked, "I think I know were you're going with this. But you do know those old War files have been sealed…Alliance, White Fang, and OZ alike. It's going take a lot of convincing for the vote to pass in order to open those." They were both quiet for a moment, as Sally suddenly began to understand what Wufei wanted to do. "Oh…" she shook her head, smiling, "I see. And how exactly do you propose we go about doing this?"

"I never said we can go about sneaking around into government War files…" Wufei protested, trying to deny that he ever would consider something that might go against his integrity. "You assume too much, Po." Sally bit back a loud chuckle, but she couldn't help a small one from escaping.

"Of course Wufei. I don't know how I could have ever possibly have thought differently about you. I'll just talk to Heero about it, and see what he says."

"If he's even alive…" muttered Wufei.

"Oh, he's alive. I can guarantee it."

"Well, he's alive, that's for sure. Not really talkative, but then again, he never has been. So, I'd say he's as good as ever, Miss. Relena." Duo winked at the new President, but found himself discouraged with her worried eyes and deep frown.

"The doctors still say he hasn't regained consciousness, Duo…How can you joke about such things? Heero is our friend, and he's in danger!" Relena's distress clearly showed for everyone to see, but luckily there was no audience to observe their new leader's outbursts. "He could have died!" Sighing, Duo lightly scratched the back of his head, for lack of anything else to do with his hands, and looked down at the white tiled flooring of the hospital.

"But…" he looked back up to make sure she was listening, which she was, "you knew he wasn't going to die. You believe in that crazy guy way too much to ever think that." Folding her arms in the most reserved position Duo had ever seen her in, she closed her eyes and turned away from him, facing the wall.

"He's not immortal. He can die." She said quietly, 'And I don't want to be the cause of his fall.'

The two of them stood there, for a good sixty seconds, not saying anything. Heero Yuy lay a little less than ten feet from them, apparently under stable, but unconscious, conditions. A thick, white, gauzy bandage covered much of the back of head and neck, where the bullet had grazed his skull. According to Dr. Tanner, or at least what she had told Relena, all of his brain functions and nervous systems hadn't been severely damaged. Though, she suggested intensive therapy, so Relena still didn't understand just how serious this was. When he had tackled her down, but remained unresponsive even after the chaos was over, she had thought he was dead. But his heart had still pounded within his chest, and his breathing remained as it did now. But Duo was right; there wasn't any way Heero Yuy could die. Not like this, at least.

"You know…" Duo said, walking over to her, all the while looking on at his best friend lying on the hospital bed, "that guy would do anything for you, anything at all. All you would have to do is say it, and believe it or not, he'd jump up and find someway of doing it." He watched as she slowly turned around, and noticed new tears in her eyes, though they seemed to be disappearing with his words. "I think that's how much he loves you, whether you, or he, know it." He glanced back towards Heero, "He's not one to analyze what he's feeling. He'll think about it, but, he doesn't try to understand it the way he does a piece of machinery or a new computer program. He's smart, he can see the difference between the two."

Relena nodded, but before she could say anything, a nurse opened the door with a clipboard full of stat. sheets, and other medical jargon.

"Oh, hello!" she said in a bubbly voice that didn't suite the conversation between Duo and Relena very well, "I'm just here to check up on our patient…" she glanced at her clipboard, "Heero Yuy. Hmm, nice name." she mumbled and went about her nurse duties. Relena, temporarily ignoring Duo and his strong words, turned to the nurse and bowed, saying that they had better get going so they wouldn't be in her way at all.

"Thank you, dear." Apparently, Relena's face hadn't become famous enough after her four years in politics, but Relena was grateful for this and left quickly, with Duo right behind her.

"Well, think about what I said, okay? It's true. The guy really does care about you that much, honest." Duo smiled a little, deciding that he wasn't going to get much else out of her, in the way of words, about the matter.

"Thank you, Duo." She smiled a little as she spoke, "I understand that you're concerned, and I thank you for your worries, but there's no need for them." Duo cocked his head a little, wondering why she was acting so formal and polite around him. They weren't aquatics. In fact, they were more like best friends, than anything. He'd seen her drunk, crying, laughing, angry…all of that, and had come to realize that her politeness wasn't some natural grace she carried, it was a way of distancing herself.

"All right…I get it. I'm not gonna talk anymore, okay?" she nodded, probably knowing exactly what they were thinking, and sat down in one the many chair resting in the waiting room.

'He'd do anything for you, Relena…And I know you'd do the same.'

It was like a fuddled daze, and nothing ordinary seemed to greet his eyes. The woman staring at him had no familiarity, and the room he was in held nothing of importance, except, he noted, the IV tubes and other medical equipment connected to various parts of his body.

"Where the hell am I?" he muttered, staring right into the nurses eyes. She seemed shocked, but by what, he didn't know, or care.

"You were shot…You're in a hospital. Do you feel alright?" Ignoring her question, he came back with his own small interrogation.

"Where's the current President?" she shook her head frantically, apparently frightened with his increased tone. "I was protecting her! Tell me where she is!"

"I, uh…Let me go get them…" the nurse scurried away for a few moments, and the door re-opened, but this time it was Duo.

"So," he said in his usual, casual, non-committal sort of way, "I see you're awake."

"Duo," he muttered in monotone, "where's Relena?"

"Ladies room. She'll be back in a few." With that, it appeared Heero's anxiety level dropped back down to it's usual state as he lay back further into the pillow behind him. "So I hear you took a bullet to the head to protect the President. Pretty courageous." Sighing, Heero looked over to the guy most would say was his best friend (who he currently wanted to pummble) and flipped him off. Duo chuckled a bit at his friend's reaction and sat down in the chair beside the bed.

"I've just been shot in the head, you say, and now you're trying to make lame conversation. What the hell? Just shut up."

"Ahahaha…You're freaken' funny, man. I was only gonna tell you what the hell happened out there. Jesus…you're so damn moody." Heero didn't bother to say much anything after that, and just continued to stare at the starchy, white ceiling with his arms crossed. It seemed as though he could care less about what had "happened" out there, as Duo said, but Heero figured he had already experienced it, why hear about it again. Except…

"Did anyone find out where that shot came from?"

Duo nodded, "Yup. But the thing is, we have no record on the damn guy…He doesn't match any records in the Watch Dog data base, so Preventer. Po, or Sally…whatever, can't track him down and figure out all the details. Chang said that there might be some information located in the old War files. But since they're sealed, and can't be opened without a "proper democratic vote" aka "the vote that will take forever to pass", no offence to Relena or anything, we were kinda hoping on taking a different 'rout'…" Duo winked at his friend, "If you know what I mean."

"Hn."

"I assume you're up to the job? All we need is the full go-ahead from Une, and then we're set." Heero lay there for a few moments, studying the ceiling patterns carefully, but in his mind, really weighing the pros and cons to hacking government files. Relena couldn't know, that's for sure. If she knew, and it leaked that she held such knowledge, it could ruin her career. He doubted Une would approve at all, being as she was the official leader of Preventer, which was supposed to be an anti-terror organization closely affiliated with the government. If people found out she had known about something like this and let it go, none the less gave the go-ahead, for it to happen, she could lose her job. He wasn't sure it could be ideally pulled off. This was when he really hated being a part of the government…Too many people needed to get approval for something that had to be done.

"Forget Une." Heero said suddenly.

"What? Forget her? Why for?"

"She's not gonna approve, and if she does, she's a fool. It'll cost her job if people find out she knew about something like this happening."

"Ohh…" Duo chuckled, almost shyly as if her were embarrassed at not thinking that, "Yeah…Good point."

"Hn. So I take it you guys want me in for the job?"

"Yeah. We were kinda hoping for that. And I though I might give you a hand, if needed, but Sally was pretty convinced you had it all covered."

Heero nodded, and said, "Yeah, I got it all covered," just as Relena walked intro the room. Heero sat up a little straighter with her presence, and found himself automatically checking her for any injuries she may received from the assassination attempt. But she appeared to be as if she had never been through such a thing. "Relena." He murmured.

She visibly sighed with relief and hurried over to his bed side. To Duo, the two of them staring at each other eye-to-eye was an obvious sign of romantic attraction.

'But then again,' he thought, 'maybe I just don't get it all the way.'

"You're awake, Heero…" she smiled down at him and reached for his hand that had been tucked into the crook of his elbow up until now. To Duo's surprise, he willingly held hers back in his much larger palm, and as she mothered the wound on the back of his head, he didn't stiffen uncomfortably. "I was worried about you," she said as she pulled away from inspecting his wound, "but I knew you'd pull through, just like you always do." He nodded a bit, saying,

"I take it you're fine, too, right?"

"Yeah," she said very softly, "I'm okay."

"Good."

Duo looked on towards them, as Relena told him everything she knew about his wound (Since she knew that he didn't like being kept in the dark about his physical condition.) and asked him how he felt. They seemed like a normal pair of people, never mind that one was in the hospital due to the fact that he was shot in head attempting to protect the other from an assassination attempt.

The nurse popped back in quickly, just to notify them that Dr. Tanner was to arrive any second.

"I need to get out of here." Heero announced just as the doctor strode in.

"Hm." The older blond woman smiled at him as if to silently say, 'I don't think so.' Duo chuckled a little as he watched the doctor do to Heero what Relena had previously done, except this time Heero wore a scowl over his features. "You do realize you suffered a bullet graze to the back of your skull. You could have received any amount of brain damage, but surprisingly," then she glanced at his medical records of the past twelve months, "or not so surprisingly, you've managed to come out the other end barely scathed. Though, I do recommend some therapy for you, just in case."

"I don't need any therapy. I'm fine." Heero bit out in his old, cold tone that he appeared to use with anyone who decided they knew better than he, especially about something such as his own health. But the doctor ignored him and continued jotting down some notes after reading his temperature and other vital signs; nothing out of the ordinary. She looked down at him, and pasted over her mouth a tight smile that could never be conceived as friendly.

"Believe me, Mr. Yuy, when I say you really do need some therapy for your recent injury. I'm a qualified doctor in this area; I know what I'm talking about." Instead of glaring back at her, he simply closed his eyes and folded his arms over his chest; completely ignoring her.

"He'll be fine doc," Heero heard Duo say, "It's just how he is."

Out of habit he grunted in a low tone and began grinding his teeth. In the past few years, he had come to recognize his teeth grinding as being a form of frustration, and he had also noticed it really only bothered him when it came to the people he was close with, like Relena…Or in this case, Duo. After a few more last words from the doctor about how he needed to stay, but due to the fact that he was a high ranking Preventer, he had final say on his medical condition.

"So I guess that means we're going home now, huh?" Duo asked rhetorically as he grabbed for his Preventer jacket hung up against the nearby coat rack.

"Heero," Relena began, but she could tell he already knew what she was going to say, and that he didn't to hear any of it. But she decided to voice her opinion anyway, "don't you think it would be wise just to stay her for a little bit, and let your body fully recover? You're not superhuman," Heero could hear Duo chuckle lightly at her words, "you were shot, and in the head at that, no one could expect you to come awake so soon and perform your regular duties as Preventer." Sighing, Heero reached for the Preventer uniform he had been wearing the day he was shot, only to realize they had been washed and pressed. Biting back the urge to growl at finding out someone else had washed his clothes, which he hated to no end, he picked up the uniform and turned back around to face the two of them.

"You mind?"

Relena stared back and forth between the change of clothes and Heero for a moment, before giving him an annoyed glance at his decision to leave, and the headed out the door with Duo right behind.

"Didn't think you'd mind her seeing you…" Before Duo could even finish his sentence he began bursting out in tears of laughter, and so his jibe at his two friend's "relationship" went unnoticed by the Preventer Homeland Security agent as he began to change out of the starchy, paper hospital gown, into his more comfortable and familiar uniform. As he did the last button to the stiff, green Preventer dress shirt, he reached into his pants pocket for his cell phone on habit to check for any missed calls or messages. On opening the flip phone, he was greeted with a neon arrow pointing at the INBOX icon. He moved the phone's cursor over and it the enter key, to see CHANG as his only unread message. Attached to the message was a voice recording, and the only text in the message said "Urgent, open ASAP." Raising his eye brow slightly, with the slightest peak of curiosity, he held the phone to his ear and pressed the enter key again, to activate it.

"Preventer Yuy, this is Preventer Chang, recording this message at 0800 hours on the second day of February, 201 A.C. Information concerning the terrorist and his attempt on the President's life is very limited at this time. We need your…" and at this time, Heero could tell this wasn't Chang's idea all of his own, "assistance regarding retrieval of information on the terrorist. Contact me back, and we'll talk further. This is Chang, out." Heero quickly pulled the phone away from his ear, and dialed Wufei's number. It rang for about two times before it was picked up.

"Chang here." Was all he said.

"Chang, Yuy here, I got your message. So what's your plan?"

"Oh, so I see you're alive. Po didn't doubt it, but I wasn't sure." Heero rolled his eyes at the Preventer's words, "Plan is this, if Duo hadn't told you-"

"I want it right from the source, which is you. Duo could' a left something out."

"Right. Well, the plan is to basically "view the closed War files" and then put them back the way we found them. As you already know, they're sealed and it would take way too long for the vote to pass to get them opened again. So we gotta take this into our own hands. Po was counting on your assistance on "opening them"."

"Sure. I'm getting out of the hospital right now. Meet you at your office?"

"That's where I'm at right now. See you in twenty minutes."

"Right." Change disconnected just as Heero opened the door to leave his anesthetic smelling hospital room. "Duo," Heero looked to Relena for a few moments, and then to the other Preventer, "take Relena back to her office,"

"What?" Relena protested.

"And stay with her. Relena, I'm sure you've missed a lot of work to be here…with me," if he hadn't' been Heero, it would have looked as if he were becoming shy suddenly, "…and I thank you for that. However, I need to do something quickly and you guys should just go back to whatever you have to do."

"Heero…" Relena said and reached out to touch his shoulder.

"I gotta go." Rather than shrugging of her touch, like he might have in the past, he carefully took his other hand and pulled hers off his shoulder. "See you." He muttered as he hurried off down the hallway.

"Heero!" she called after, but he didn't turn around at all.