The second to last chapter. I hope you enjoy!

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Middle of May

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It was dark and chilly that night when I locked up the store. Jack had called to say that his brother had taken a turn for the worse and he wasn't moving until his brother woke up and asked if I could lock up. No biggie, I was used to those things, and the bus stop wasn't far from the store so I wasn't worried about muggers or anything. It was my neighborhood after all.

But that night there was something different. I'm not sure what it was, but it made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I was being followed, but this was different than the usual mugger, or one of my friends playing a prank. It was just…different somehow, and I didn't like it.

I lashed out backhanded, hitting my pursuer in the jaw and sending him reeling. His companion tried to clock me on the side of my head, so I countered with a backwards kick which, from the groan I heard, hit him in the groin. I whirled around, ready to face them and more, when I felt a prick on my arm. Immediately out of reflex I slapped the spot, and pulled away a small needle dart. I only had time to look up in surprise before I passed out.

I woke up after who knows how long with a splitting headache. The floor that I was on was hard and cold, most likely cement. I sat up, taking slow breaths since I felt like passing out again. I heard the scraping of a chair against the floor, and looked toward it to find a man as old if not older than my father sitting in it, staring at me. I immediately tried to back away, only to find that I was chained to the floor by my ankles, and it wasn't a very long chain. He smiled, and it made me sick to my stomach.

"Finally awake are you? Good, then we can get things going." He said.

"Where the hell am I?" I demanded.

"You are under my protection, and so long as you cooperate you will stay under my protection." I set my jaw tightly. I didn't like the sound of that.

"What is it you want." I asked through clenched teeth.

"It's simple really. We know that your brother is a Preventer Agent who was sent undercover into our organization. He stole some information from us, and we want it back."

"So why would you want me? He doesn't send me shit like that."

"We think that this time he did. It was to risky for him to contact his partner with the information, and it was less risky for him to send you something since you are his little sister and it did not raise suspicion at the time. So where is it?"

"I already told you, he doesn't send me shit like that." The guy backhanded me across the face, redefining the pain from my headache.

"Do not play games with me girl, I won't be nice for very long." I spat out some blood at him.

"My life has never been very nice; see if you can do better." I snarled. Boy was I being brave, at least that's how I hoped I was appearing. Inside I was scared shitless, but I was following advice from my brother: 'Even if you're scared out of your wits, never let the other person see it. It will only let them know that they've won.' Well, I sure as hell wasn't going to let this bastard know that he was getting to me. The man growled at me and picked me up by the hair.

"Tell me where the package is that your brother sent you."

"Eat shit." He never got to respond, as explosions started to go off throughout the…I guess compound will have to do since I didn't know exactly where I was. He dropped me and ran out of the room, slamming the heavy metal door behind him. I stuck my tongue out at him in a purely childish manner, then set about picking the lock on my chains. It was something that I had never been especially good at, but living in the part of town that I did you pick up a few things out of boredom, so after a few minutes I smiled in triumph as the locks came open and I was free. From one set of chains at least. I was still in the…uh…cell, so I began to push at the door, hoping but not really expecting the man to have forgotten to lock it. He hadn't forgotten, so I kicked at the door in frustration, wondering what the hell to do now.

I jumped when three swift kicks answered me, and stared at the door before kicking it three times and then backing away. I didn't really know why, but something told me that this could be a way out. I mean, who else would deliberately kick a cell door other than to find out if there's anyone behind it?

I covered my head reflexively when the door was blasted open, and shouted in surprise and glee when I looked up to see my older brother standing there. I glomped him happily, and he hugged me back just as tightly.

"Oh my God Kevin, I don't believe this! I thought you were still in Germany?" I said excitedly, completely forgetting that we were in a hostile situation. Kevin smiled and gave me another hug.

"All explanations later sis, right now we have to get out of here. You good to run?" I crossed my eyes at him; I was always good to run.

"Course I am idiot." I felt more than saw a figure drop down in front of us, and stared in amazement as Trowa uncoiled himself to stand up straight. "Wha…wait a…what?" I stuttered. Trowa had that damnable small smile on his face as he took in my confusion.

"As your brother said, explanation later. C'mon, Heero's already secured an escape route for us." He took off down the corridor, and my brother had to tug on my arm to get me to start moving. After that it was a matter of staying ahead of the explosions, which wasn't difficult since most of them were remote detonated after we had cleared the area. It only took a few minutes for us to reach the exit, where I was immediately swamped with EMTs, and my brother and Trowa were talking with others in Preventer Uniforms, probably giving their report.

After they had finished rounding up the terrorists and the EMTs had pronounced me all right I ran once again into my brothers arms, then stepped back and hit him in the shoulder.

"Ow, hey, what was that for?" He whined, just like he used to when we were kids and he would let me get away with hitting him.

"For not sending me anything since before Christmas, that's what! Do you know how worried I was about you?" Tears began to well up in my eyes, and he folded me in a gentle hug.

"I'm sorry sis, but it was too risky. They were starting to suspect me, and I was afraid that they would think I was leaking information on them to you through e-mails. And I did send you those dolls." He said.

"Ones that I already had, and with no note." I tried to snap, but it came out more as a hurt whisper. He wiped the tears from my eyes.

"It was the only way to let you know that I was all right. I didn't know that they would kidnap you, thinking that there was a computer chip in the dolls." I blinked my eyes at him.

"That's what they thought? Really?" Kevin nodded, and I started to giggle. "Like I would have known what to do with a computer chip if you had sent it to me." I said between giggles. Once I calmed down I turned to face Trowa and the Gang, who were all standing in the shadows so as not to get caught by the news cameras. (How do they always know where to show up anyway?) "And what the hell are you all doing here?" I demanded, still somewhat energized from the excitement. They all just smiled.

"Isn't it obvious? We were undercover." Wufei said gruffly.

"But you're my age."

"Hazards of war." I sighed in frustration and threw my hands up in the air.

"And I'm not allowed to tell anyone, am I?"

"We'd prefer it if you didn't." Trowa said.

"Dammit!" They all laughed at my playful madness, and it was then that I noticed Duo was elbowing Heero and giving him these looks like he expected Heero to do or say something and Heero didn't want to do it. I looked at them curiously. "Um, what's going on?" I asked. Duo started laughing, Heero just glared at him, so I and my brother turned to the others for an explanation. The three of them sighed, and Quatre started talking.

"It partly has to do with a bet that Heero lost."

"A bet?"

"What was bet on isn't important; but what Heero had to do because he lost was dress up as Santa and surprise you with your brother. This whole thing was supposed to be over by Christmas after all."

"But since it's not Christmas, I shouldn't have to go through with it." Heero said, still glaring daggers at Duo. I just looked at him, and it was one of those silent moments where something funny was just said or did and you haven't started laughing yet but when you do it's like a damn breaking. I wiped the tears from my eyes when I had finished.

"That's just…that was…oh that was funny." I said. "The thought was sweet, but you don't have to do that Heero. I'm just glad that my brother's back." The look of relief on Heero's face showed me just how much he had been dreading that, but the mischievous look in Duo's eyes set us all on edge. Heero began to back away slowly, and Duo basically started to stalk him.

"You still have to pay up on the bet Heero." Heero just turned and ran, with Duo following. The rest of us laughed. I turned to the others.

"Hey, so, are you guys going to finish out the school year? There's only about a month left." They looked at each other and shrugged.

"We haven't decided yet." Wufei said.

"You know that Une is going to insist we finish so that we get our diplomas." Trowa said. Kevin put his arm around my shoulders.

"C'mon sis, let's go home.

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Isn't that sweet? Next and final chapter: the graduation speech! I know that some of you have been waiting for it, and I hope that it lives up to expectations.