Possession-Ch.4

Thoughts/Dreams Serena's writing

Possession: Ch 4

Last time:

Glaring, Heero pulled out his gun. "Now, I'll ask you one more time. Who. Do. You. Work. For." In one suave move, Heero took the safety off. Serena squeezed her eyes shut.

"BAM."

Trapped

Serena squeezed her eyes tightly shut as she expected to feel the piercing pain of a bullet in her being. When she felt nothing, she looked up towards her assailant. He stood there, clutching his hand, which was now bleeding quite profusely. Holding a still slightly smoking gun, a tall braided man looked at Heero incredulously.

"Hee-man, I thought we had been over this before. It's not nice to point guns at pretty young ladies. Christ." Noticing Serena, Duo promptly introduced himself. "Why, hello there pretty lady! Duo Maxwell, at your service." Giving a little bow, Duo smiled cheekily at her. Staring, Serena got up from her cot and walked over to Heero. Taking his hand in hers, she examined the cut. Giving Heero a long, hard look, she silently walked over to a tray of bandages.

Duo let out a huff of breath. "Geez, what is it with you and girls Heero? You keep on trying to kill them, and they keep on trying to take care of you." Then, under his breath, "Hopefully this one won't turn out to be a stalker…." Serena turned around and glared at Duo. Stunned by the force of her glare, Duo backed up a step and tripped over the stool that had been resting near the door. Giggling to herself, Serena bandaged Heero's hand (an action that he had tried mightily to prevent), and sighed inwardly. When she was done, Serena started towards the door to go and find Sally, only to be stopped by Heero. Serena shuddered and turned fearful eyes towards Heero. He was just about to say something to her when Sally burst through the door.

"Heero! Just what the hell do you think you're doing? This girl's been through enough, do you hear me? She doesn't need anyone, perfect soldier or not, firing a gun at her! How dare you! I want you out, right now. You heard me! Get out!" Duo smiled and waved sheepishly at Sally.

"Uh, actually Sally, I was the one who fired the gun." When Sally turned her glare towards him, Duo was quick to redeem himself. "But uh, that was just because Heero was threatening Serena! I shot his hand, see? Look there, see the bandages?" When Sally just glared at him even more, Duo muttered under his breath "Damnit, I just can't win. Uh, yea, Sally? I gotta go, uhm, check on some stuff. Yea, that's it. I need to go and um…uh…check on Trowa! You know Trowa, always the kidder. He needs someone to watch him all the time…might get into trouble…anyways, bye everyone!" And with those eloquent words, Duo promptly ran out of the room. Serena giggled silently, and placed a hand on Sally's shoulder. Sighing, Sally turned towards Heero.

"Heero, please don't threaten the girl. She doesn't work for anyone, ok? I honestly think that you're blowing things way out of proportion." Sighing slightly, Sally grabbed Heero's arm and hauled him outside the room. "She's been through the ringer, ok Heero? Her family's dead, she can't speak, and although her body is healed, she'll have scars that will last her the rest of her life. Physically and mentally. So just go easy on her, ok Heero?"

"Sally, she took Quatre out."

"She didn't mean to. Heero, she's an empath, just like Quatre is. He'll be ok; he's just deprived of energy right now. All he needs is some sleep. Now I want you to go in and apologize to Serena, she didn't deserve the way you treated her. She's under our protection, Heero. No harm can come to her, do you understand me? I need you boys to watch after her." Frowning slightly, Heero turned his back on Sally. She thought he was angry with her, when she heard two words escape his mouth.

"Mission accepted." With that, Heero walked off to go and chaperone Duo, while Sally walked back into the room to explain things to Serena.

Half an hour later, Serena stood ramrod straight and stared at Sally. Furiously scribbling a message onto a tablet, Serena shoved her message into Sally's face.

No! I absolutely will not, under any circumstances, stay in a house with that…that monster! He tried to shoot me, Sally. Isn't there anywhere else I can stay? Somewhere with bodyguards that are more…female?

Sighing slightly, Sally looked at Serena and explained things one more time to her.

"Serena, these boys are the best at what they do. They can protect you far better than anyone else I have. I've spoken to Heero, and he understands how things stand between you and he. He is not to, under any circumstances, harm or threaten you. I can assure you that he is," at this Sally gave a slight snicker, "very professional, as are the rest of the boys. Chiba is still on the loose, and we need to apprehend him. Until that time, you need to be placed into protective custody." Ignoring Serena's glare, Sally continued, "This is the best I can do for you, Serena. I'll come to visit you once a week, to check up on your injuries, and Noin will visit on occasion as well. You're going to have to deal with it, Serena. Relena and Zechs, the people you were supposed to meet with, have agreed to postpone your meeting with them until further notice." Smiling, Sally handed Serena a pair of jeans and a blue shirt. "Put those on, I'm afraid that you'll have to leave soon."

Eyes, widening, Serena wrote in alarm, Now? I leave now? Reading Serena's message, Sally chuckled.

"Afraid so, Serena. The boys want to get you situated as soon as possible. You'll be happy to hear that I've received news that Quatre is awake," at this Serena looked over to the adjacent bed to find it empty, "and he will be one of the boys responsible for protecting you." Looking up at a knock on the door, Sally smiled as Duo made his way into the room.

"Hello pretty lady! How ya feeling? Anyways, Sally, Heero says that it's time we got a move on, so anytime you're ready…"

"Yes, of course Duo. Serena and I were just discussing that. She just needs to change, and then she'll be ready to leave."

"Alrighty then! I'll go and tell the guys that, then." With a bright sunny smile, and a wave of his braid, Duo was out the door.

"Well, you heard the man, Serena." Handing Serena her clothing, Sally stepped outside the door to let her change. After about ten minutes, Sally walked back in, only to see Serena staring at her back in a nearby mirror. A wave of emotion and pity welled up within Sally, and she said,

"Regen tanks are wonderful for healing the body, but the cuts had been burned into your skin quite deeply. It was impossible for us to remove the scarring. Within time, it should fade." Listening to Sally's words with half an ear, Serena continued to stare at her back in the mirror. The image that she saw both intrigued and terrified her.

On the entire length of her back, starting at the shoulderblades, and endingat the tailbone,was the image of a rose. A true piece of art, burned into her skin by hate and rage. A few tears fell from Serena's eyes, but she refused to cry. She had spent far too many tears on Darien Chiba. Straightening her back, Serena yanked on her shirt and turned to Sally. Walking past the taller woman, Serena pressed a note into her hand.

Sally bent down to read the note, and was both stunned and horrified at what she read.

Make sure he suffers.

AN: Well, here's another chapter. I had to re-do it, because the files that it was saved to got destroyed (don't ask how…the computer hates me). I'm not feeling too thrilled about this chapter, and I re-read the other three chapters, and realized that I can re-write them so that they flow better with the story. So I'm probably going to end up re-writing the first three chapters. But, since all of you so kindly reviewed, and I was getting frustrated with the extraordinarily long lull in the updates on this story (…sorry bout that…), I decided to crank out another chappie. All will be explained in due time. Hope you enjoyed! As always, R&R!