Disclaimer: I don't own any Weiss Kruez characters.

CHAPTER THREE

Gretchen came back to her apartment to find her bed had become an examining table. A serious-faced female Japanese doctor was bent over Aya, working on him. Gretchen swallowed and tried not to look as she entered through the doorway carrying grocery bags.

"Let me help with those," said the pleasant fair-haired man from the hospital, getting up from where he was sitting with a really pretty Japanese lady who smiled politely at her as she stood to bow.

Gretchen blinked, bemused and not sure if she should bow back.

Taking advantage of her momentary confusion, the man, Yohji, took the bags from her and put them over on the kitchen counter.

"Uh, thanks, Yohji!" she called after him, and smiled back at the Japanese lady who cocked her head inquiringly and said something in Japanese to Yohji.

Oh right, hadn't Yohji said in the car that he was calling his wife? Those two must be married. Gretchen sighed happily as she watched Yohji come back over to the woman and sit down on the sofa, drawing her next to him. They looked so sweet together.

"I'm done."

Gretchen looked over at the other Japanese woman, the doctor, who was putting some instruments and blood soaked gauze in her bag. Aya was lying quiet and white-faced on the bed.

Yohji stood up and began thanking the woman.

"It's my job. A job that would have been much easier at the hospital."

She directed the last comment to Aya, whose only indication that he'd heard was a slight upturn to his lips.

Gretchen felt relieved. If Aya could smile then he'd be all right.

"I'm going home," the doctor said abruptly.

There was a flurry of Japanese from the other lady and Yohji. Gretchen thought of her two years of Spanish in high school and sighed. She could barely remember a thing. Was everyone bilingual but her?

The doctor seemed to be agreeing to something, then she moved toward the door.

"Let me walk you out!" Gretchen called out. This may have been the weirdest night of her life, but she wasn't about to forget her manners. Ignoring the woman's protests, she went out the door with her, grabbing her keys so she could let herself back in.

They walked down the steps together. Now that they were alone, Gretchen was reaching for something to say.

"So you're a doctor?"

The other woman raised her eyebrows, but answered. "Yes."

"Do you like it?"

"Some days more than others," she answered with a dark humor.

Encouraged, Gretchen plunged on, even though she knew what she was about to say would sound rude. "Look, you won't tell anyone where Aya is, will you? There was a guy with a gun at the hospital and he might come here and try to get him."

"And if that happens, exactly what will you do?"

Gretchen took her eyes off the ill-lit steps to find the doctor looking at her sharply.

"Me? Uh, I don't know. I just hope he won't come by."

The doctor sighed. "You really don't know anything about this guy, do you?"

"That's not true." Gretchen bristled. "I know he goes to church and gives money to the orphan fund because I saw him give a package to Sister Mary after services and later I went by her office and she was counting money to pay bills with."

"Orphan loving philanthropists don't usually end up with knife wounds," the doctor said baldly. "What else do you know about him? Why are you helping him?"

"Why are you?"

Tired of being on the defensive, Gretchen decided to go on the offensive. If she didn't, she'd have to answer the question and saying, 'I'm helping him because I thought he was the most handsome man I ever saw and whenever he's in church I get so tied up in knots inside that I can't remember the sermon afterwards' would make her sound like a complete idiot.

"I'm only helping him as a favor to Asuka."

"Asuka? You mean Yohji's wife?"

"Yohji?" The doctor paused on the step then kept going. "Is that his real name then? He has amnesia. Anyway, Asuka saved my life once, so I owe her. Aya's secret is safe with me. If any gun toting criminals knock on your door, it won't be because they learned anything from me."

"Saved your life?" They were at the bottom of the last flight of stairs, but Gretchen couldn't bear to let the doctor go without explaining herself.

The lady sighed.

"I was studying for my m-cats, the entrance exams for medical school. It was our last year of college, and I started taking uppers to stay awake so I could study. Asuka found them and flushed them all down the toilet one day. The next morning I found out that the guy I'd bought them from had spiked them. Another med student I knew who bought from him died. Since then I've owed her my life."

Gretchen stared, slack jawed.

The doctor laughed at Gretchen's expression, then sobered. "Everyone has secrets, hidden things from their past that haunt them. That's one of mine."

"Not me," Gretchen said dully, still in shock over the doctor's revelation. "My life's been really boring."

Then she blushed, realizing that her statement was no longer true. Upstairs in her apartment was a man with a knife wound in his gut and a murderer after him. She shivered, and brought her hands up to rub her arms, cold all of a sudden.

The doctor's eyes took on a motherly look of concern. "If you need anything, or if you have any questions, call me."

She hunted around in her bag, pulled out a business card, and wrote a phone number on it.

"This is my cell phone," she said, handing the card to Gretchen. "Call me. Especially if he refuses to take his medication." An alarming glint entered her eye. "I'll have a few choice words to say to him if necessary."

Then she nodded briskly, pulled open the building's main door, and disappeared into the snow.

o-o-o

Yohji and Asuka stood in silence by the door of the hotel room, her suitcase on the floor. It stood between them like a wall.

It was a week later, the end of their stay in New York. They were supposed to be going home together. Asuka was going, but Yohji…

"You will come back, won't you?" Asuka was fighting tears.

Yohji saw it, and hated the fact that he was the cause.

He nodded. "Of course I will. If you still want me."

He'd told her everything he knew from Aya, that he was an assassin, that he'd killed – not for money or for personal motives, but he'd killed just the same. She'd been shocked, and was quiet for a long time after that. He wished he could take back the words, the knowledge that had hurt her, but he owed her the truth. To shield her from it because it was unpleasant would be to tell her that he didn't trust her, that he didn't think her able to bear it. To treat her like a child, rather than a wife was an insult to her, and she'd have known it. She knew him so well, the him that he was now. Could she accept the person he'd once been?

If she weren't able to, then he'd have to let her go. The thought of that eventuality nearly ripped his heart out. Life with Asuka was good; life without her was unthinkable. He stilled, and braced himself for the blow.

Asuka's shoulders heaved as she bit back a sob. "Of course I want you. I don't care about your past. I never did."

She ran to him, shoving the suitcase out of her way, and fell into his arms. "I don't care who you were. I know who you are now. I love you." Her eyes, bright with unshed tears, softened. "I love you," she said again.

"Asuka," her name escaped from him in a breath as he bent his head to kiss her joyously.

After a highly satisfactory interval, Yohji moved away, and bent to pick up his wife's fallen suitcase. Asuka had dropped her purse while they were kissing, so she reached down to grab it from the floor and they found themselves nose to nose.

Asuka grinned, and Yohji couldn't help smiling back.

They rose and stared at each other, the tension gone.

"I'll be home as soon as I've helped Aya," he promised.

Asuka nodded. "I understand. If Hitomi was in trouble, I'd want to stay and help her too."

She stepped up to him and kissed him lightly on the lips. "I'll be waiting for you at home," she said. Then she took the handle of her suitcase from his grip, opened the door, and left.

Yohji let his hand rest on the door after she'd gone, missing her presence already. Of course Asuka would help Hitomi if Hitomi needed it. Asuka was a good person, loyal and kind. She and Hitomi were friends.

Friends.

Yohji leaned his back against the door and crossed his arms. Why was he doing this? Staying in New York when his heart was in Japan with Asuka? Why risk everything, his marriage, his sanity, and perhaps even his life to help a man he didn't remember?

Yohji thought back to that night in the hospital. When Aya shouted his name, he'd reacted instinctively. The man in the trench coat was neutralized and shoved behind the laundry cart so smoothly that no one in the crowded hallway even noticed. Part of that might have been due to the New Yorkers' busy oblivious nature, but the other part was sheer professionalism.

Aya needed help, and he'd responded. He'd responded as he'd been trained to do.

Until he got to the bottom of this instinct to protect Aya, he couldn't leave. The man's knife wound was a little over a week old, and already he was planning to leave the safety of Gretchen's apartment.

Yohji'd been back to visit the enigmatic redhead several times when Asuka and Hitomi had been off visiting. With Gretchen in the room, Aya hadn't said much. The girl didn't seem to mind Aya's reticence, but it drove Yohji crazy not being able to ask the questions he wanted. Even if Gretchen hadn't been there, he wasn't sure Aya would have answered him. The man was incredibly close-mouthed.

He'd even run errands for Aya, going out and buying a cell phone from a man on a street corner that Aya described to him in detail. Yohji knew without being told that the cell phone was 'hot'. The strangest errand of all had been to an antique weapons dealer. The man was definitely shady, and had complained about Aya's 'special order item' being difficult to make on short notice. The packages Yohji had carried back from the shop were odd shapes, and difficult to juggle, but he'd managed it.

He glanced down at his watch. It was time.

A/N: Sorry this chapter was so short! I needed a bridge between the last chapter and the action of the next – which will be longer and much more eventful, I promise!

Note to reviewers:

Dane – I'm not real happy with dubs right now either! I keep making mistakes because I watched the dubbed version. I definitely agree with you about Gluhen's ending. Aya dead? Not in my universe!

Anendee – You get to watch anime at your job? I'm so jealous! I'm glad you're liking Dr. Hitomi, she's a lot of fun to write.

Ayabyssinian / Kim – Thanks, and I liked your story too!

Elven-girl10 – Sorry, no Schwarz in this story. I just couldn't figure out how to fit them in, since it's mostly about Aya and Yohji crossing paths again. To answer you question, Yes, there IS an English dubbed version of Gluhen, but I wish now I'd watched the subbed version instead!

Nekotsuki – A STALKER? Eep! That's horrible! Can you find out his/her email address and sign them up for spam? Or even worse, pop-up ads? Of course that might drive them even further around the bend. Pop-up ads are a plague I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy, but a stalker…? Definitely! Can you get your email account to block the creep? I think it's do-able, but I don't know how. I'm glad you're liking the X-1999 script. I had a blast pointing out the logical inconsistencies! Hope your stalker falls off the face of the earth, or gets a life and decides to leave you alone!

Heta Noitio – Thanks for the tip about 'moshi moshi' and 'Crashers' (Darn that dubbed version of Gluhen!) Try not to be too upset with Gretchen. She is, after all, a good Catholic girl so of course she wouldn't want Aya to be gay, especially since she's attracted to him – in her own unique, bumbling way. I'm glad Aya isn't coming across as being heartless. He's so stoic and low-key most of the time that it's hard to convey that he's a really caring person inside too.

BakaBokken – Yipes! I'm afraid I am spoiling a lot of the series with my story – though it's more about Gluhen rather than the original Weiss Kreuz series. Sorry about that. Most people end up liking the original series rather than the Gluhen series anyhow, so maybe I haven't done too much damage. I'm just so happy that you think enough of my writing to want to read a story from a series you aren't really familiar with. Aya does bear a few similarities to another redhead we both know who carries a sword and has an 'I'm not worthy of happiness' complex! Thanks for reviewing!