Sorry it took me so stinking long to put this chapter up. I have a
lot going on in my personal life right now. But won't talk about it here. I
wrote a little more than I normally write for a chapter. Mind you I stayed
up till 1:30 AM to finish this chapter last night, even when I knew I had
to go to work early this morning.
I would like to thank all who reviewed I enjoyed reading them. You must be a little more patient, Rin6, for a story to be good it needs enough content to be in it.
Disclaimer: I do not and probably will never own Gundam Wing. ... Crud.
Expressed Actions and Written Words
Chapter 9: Right Under His Nose.
*~*~*~
Heero followed Sam around the house to a set of concrete steps that led down into the basement. She reached into her jeans and pulled out her keys to the apartment, and opened the door. He trailed behind as she went in. She was right, it was tiny.
"Are ye hungry Mr. Yuy?" Sam asked as she opened the small fridge. She looked through it and saw that nothing suited her tastebuds.
"Yeah." Heero said monotoned as he sat on the couch and unfolded his laptop, which he had previously removed from his over night pack. He knew it was going to be a long night. Sam grabbed the phone.
"What soun's good t' ye, 'cause I'm 'rdering out." She told him.
"Chinese." He simply answered.
"No of any rest'runts in the area?" Sam asked. Heero reached for the phone in answer and made the order himself.
"What do you want?" He asked after he put his hand over the phone to keep the people on the other end from listening.
"Sweet-n-Sour Chicken an' Pork Fried Rice soun's fine t' me." Sam answered. He told them her order and listened for a bit. They each paid for their order. Heero set up his laptop to display on the TV and opened a few files to a picture. Or at least that is what she thought, as he stared at the screen for about an hour without a word. Relena sat in the wood chair in the corner, and was now nodding in and out of sleep. That was until she heard a noise coming from the TV. The shot open her eyes to she hat the noise was. She could see movement in the picture now. several guys were tearing through the place that the TV screen was showing. She turned her head to look at Heero and noticed that he had fallen asleep.
"Mr. Yuy, wake up." She nudged in the shoulder.
"Wha... What is it Sam?" Heero startled awake. Sam pointed to the screen. It took him a while to focus his eyes to see what Sam was pointing to. When he did, a smirk ran across his lips.
"I was expecting this, these guys have been following me for a while. They probably blew up Preventers. But I don't know why." Heero explained, "But I now know for sure that they are after me." Sam realized that this was Heero's apartment that they were going through, and that he had set up surveillance cameras to keep an eye on it when needed. He panned the outside camera down to the parking lot. Sam saw a familiar car there.
"Tha' is terrorists' getaway car!" She exclaimed.
"Where?" Heero said scanning the screen.
"There." Sam said pointing to the small car in the corner of the screen. Heero zoomed in enough for them to see the license plate. It was the same number that she had given them earlier. Heero quickly scanned over the guy's faces and input them into the Preventers Data base to see if there was any match. Two of the group didn't check out, but the third did. Heero read out the name of this terrorist.
"Oshoko Daisaki, age 34. Wife: Ayumu Daisaki, murdered....." From what was input into the Database, he was part of the threat a month before, and had escaped from capture. What other facts Heero found interesting was, he was involved with the White Fang and Mariemaia Army. From what they found on the guy was quite a track record of rebellions, fighting and discord.
Relena started to get a little nervous. If Heero had this program all along he could easily find her.
"Um... Mr. Yuy..." she started and Heero directed his eyes toward her, " Coul' ye find miss Darlian using that program?" Sam asked.
"No it doesn't have the capabilities of tracking down civilians, politician or otherwise. Plus Relena's file is highly classified; I can barely get to it by hacking. I did I would set off the defense system of the Preventer's database that would permanently prohibit this computer from getting back into the database, so I wouldn't even dare it." Heero told Sam.
"Oh." Relena made sure to sound a little disappointed even though she was actually happy that the program had its flaws.
While looking at one of the other two men, something clicked in Heero's mind. Oshoko's accomplice was a Preventer. He checked this guy with any matches among the Preventer Employee list. The profile came up almost immediately.
"Trent Andlur. He's is part of the Preventer's Informations Bureau. Hired two months ago. Just before I realized that I was being followed." Heero then took Trent's profile picture and actually found out that there was something on him, only under a different name.
"Grant Freedman, my don't he 'ave quite a dir'y li'l past." Sam commented looking over Heero's shoulder.
"Various different robberies, drug possession, carrying illegal artillery, hacking charges, no wonder Duo complained about someone hacking into his files two months ago. Wait what is this? According to the record, he is supposed to be dead." Heero continued as he typed away. He quickly picked up his phone, using the radio, "This is Zero calling Queen Bee..." Relena had a hard time keeping a straight face at this codename Une chose.
"Queen Bee here... go ahead Zero, the line is secure."
"We have located the three persons responsible for the explosion. They are located in my apartment. How many preventers can you get there within five minutes."
"Twenty-Three."
"That would be plenty, tell them to come prepared, they're armed." Heero said
"Okay, Zero what do you plan on doing with Shamrock? She is not exactly trained." Une voice questioned. Heero looked back to Sam. Her face had a questioning look on it as well. He turned his face back around to the radio/cellphone.
"She has some good eyes, of which I plan on putting to good use. Don't worry I do not plan to put her in any danger. She will be working in a different area, watching over the action."
"........Okay. Goodluck Zero. Over and out...." Une's voice said after a long silence. Heero stood up and went over to his pack and pulled out a small, slim case. He opened it and put a small little item on his ear. He threw another at her and she opened her hand to see what it was. It was an earphone.
"Put that in your ear so we can keep in contact at all time during the mission. Also keep your eyes on that screen. It's up to you to be to keep me out of trouble. Got it?" Heero told her as he pulled a gun and a box from his pack. He opened the box to reveal bullets. He removed the empty gun clip from the gun and loaded it full. He also pulled another clip from his pack and filled it too.
"Aye, loud an' clare." She sounded as she stood up straight to salute.
"Can I use your bike?" he asked placing the gun clip in his jacket pocket for safekeeping.
"Just as long as ye don' wreck it. 'r ye will owe me a new one." With that Heero grabbed the keys off the counter.
"Got it." He assured her as he headed for the door. "Oh and by the way, we're agents, not soldiers. There is no need to salute." He said and went out the door.
"Boy are you going to be surprised when you find out that your assigned partner is the woman you are looking for, Heero Yuy." Relena whispered to herself. She still hadn't put her earphone in. Heero had told her how he had found out about the partnership that they had been put in.
*~*~*~ Flashback (In Heero's words) *~*~*~
I called Une after I situated myself in one of the passenger seats of Quatre's plane.
"Une what's with the urgent message." I asked.
"Preventer HQ has suffered from a terrorist bombing." Une told me. Once I repaeted the words that Une had said to Quatre and Trowa, it seemed that the plane was going at a faster speed than it was.
"Heero..." Une said directing my attention to the sound of her voice. "Duo has been injured in the blast. And from the looks of it he's out of commision."
"I am going need someone's help, at least."
"Heero, I have reassigned your partner. But she is not quite trained yet. But she seemed to have met you before."
"Sam O'Malley. She insisted on helping me find Relena back in Bantry Bay."
"Well, Sam has shown that she knows first-aid, and how to get injured people out of a burning building. She was the who pulled Duo out." Une stated.
"She seems to know a bit more than a normal cadet in training." I replied.
"I want you to teach her what she needs to know. Not to mention find out who did this." Une commanded.
"Mission accepted." I said and we both hung up.
*~*~*~ End of Flashback *~*~*~
Sam placed the earphone in her ear.
"Sam are you there." Heero's deep voice came to her in surprise.
"Aye."
"Good I am approaching my apartment building. Can you see me yet?" Heero asked. Relena turned her head to look at the screen. She couldn't see any one coming.
"No, No, Not ye'. Wait thare ye are. Me see ye." She said.
"Are they still there?"
"Aye, they tearin' all o'er the place like crazy an' sorts! They seem t' be lookin' fer somethin'." She admitted.
"I think that it will be their undoing." He said as she watched him park the motorcycle on the sidewalk and walk into the parking lot where he stopped by the suspect's car. Sam couldn't see what he was doing but she quickly managed to find how to zoom in and out. Just then she heard a loud hissing coming from her earphone.
"Owi, wha's goin' on o'er thare, Yuy?" Sam asked as she held her ears from the loud sounds that were bombarding them.
"Slashed their tires, they won't be able to get away easily." Heero stated. He had sabotaged their car. Relena had to chuckle. He was the same old Heero Yuy when it came to missions. Sam then noticed some black figures filing into the parking lot.
"Be careful, Yuy, someone be comin', no clue weather be friend 'r foe." She said. Her eyes darting back and forth on the screen, keeping a good eye on all things. Heero looked around and saw some familiar faces with the group that was filing into the parking lot. They all looked a little tired, but they weren't going to stop until this mission was finished. Heero led them in to the building through an unknown passage. Sam watched as they filed out of the elevator. Relena knew the tactic "silent till dead", or in this case, captured. It was always Heero's favorite. Very little ammo was used in this tactic, which proved efficient.
"Where are the suspects located exactly?" He questioned. Heero had one third of the support group that Une had sent. Trowa's group was scaling the building, to cut off any escape roots. Quatre's group was placed throughout the building to either secure the building or to calm and reassure tenants of the apartment complex.
"Th'are goin' through the be'room."
"'Kay." He replied. Sam could see them enter the apartment cautiously. From what she could see Heero's apartment was in shambles and it was going to get worse before the night was over. Due to the various different camera pictures giving her feedback at the same time she could see that the man named Oshoko noticed the small noise when the apartment door opened and closed. He got the attention of his partners and they all got their guns ready.
"Yuy, Be car'ful, they know yer thare, and thare guns 're ready." She told him urgently. When she said this she could see him put his hand to his ear, look in the direction of the camera and nod in response. She had to admit, it was nice seeing the whole picture of what was going on, to avoid an awful outcome. Heero whispered something to his team that sounded a lot like, "Let them come out first, I'll get the guns away and then you jump them. Just make sure they don't get away." The team nodded in quick response. It was a long wait that took half an hour, but eventually the suspects put their guns away thinking that they were alone and went out of the room into a Preventers' attack. They all quickly pulled out their guns only to have them shot away by Heero. The rest took them down to the ground. Sam saw that one of the Preventers got slugged right eye.
"Tha's gonna leave a shin'r." Sam said aloud as Heero confiscated the guns. Sam could see that the group that had been put in charge of Oshoko was having a hard time trying to hold him down. In the end, he managed to escape them and crash through the window to fall from the high level. But just when everyone had thought he had gotten away Oshoko was flung back into the room hitting the wall facing the window and was knocked unconscious. The group looked back to the window to see Trowa. With that Heero started to laugh.
"Sam get a hold of Une to send in the clean up crew." Heero said. Sam did as asked and Heero switched off his receiver. Since it was 4 am, Sam stretched and headed for her bed. But before she could fall asleep Heero returned. She had remembered that he asked if her could stay at her place that night, since his own place was in shambles, she let him stay.
*~*~*~
The later morning hours were descending through the tiny windows of the small apartment as Heero tried to sleep on the small couch that wasn't long enough for his tall frame. There he lay shirtless, not wanting to be constricted by any shirt when he tossed and turned. Sam provided him with a blanket. Heero had that strange feeling, which he always got around Sam. He got a feeling that he was still at the surface of knowing her and her personality. She definitely looked as if she had a secret. In short, Heero felt that she was hiding something. He knew she couldn't be Relena. The letter that Sam had left him proved that. He had already compared the handwriting of the letter to that of Relena's diary. With Relena's smooth cursive and Sam's choppy capitals, it was a definite no match. He thought to himself, 'If Sam really is Relena, then that is the greatest identity change that I have ever known.' With that thought, he fell into a deep, satisfying sleep.
*~*~*~
Sam awoke with the afternoon sun shining in her eyes through the small basement window. A shower felt good at the time, so she grabbed the towel off the back of her bedroom door. She was going to make an L-shaped pattern for the bathroom but temptation had to steer off the intended pattern when she heard heavy breathing coming from the couch that Heero slept on. She watched him sleep. He looked so innocent and childlike. Relena just wanted to reach out and touch him but reality hit when she realized that she wasn't ready to reveal herself just yet.
Heero awoke with the feeling that someone was watching him, he opened his eyes to see Sam staring down at him. Her features were slightly softened than what he was used to. It didn't last long, though. Soon after he opened his eyes and noticed this, she realized what she was doing and looked away which made her features go back to normal.
Relena panicked a little but quickly found something to say.
"Do ye wan somethin' t' eat since it be...." She paused to look at the clock, "...1 p.m. in the af'erno'n?" Heero hadn't realized until now that he had slept this late into the day! He was usually up at the early morning hours. But the events of the night came back to remind him why he had slept in so long.
"Do you have any Mac-n-Cheese?" Heero asked. Sam opened the cupboard.
"Luc'ly, I have a box o' instan' Mac-n-Cheese." She said as she pulled it out. She handed him a bowl to make himself and then went for the bathroom to shower, "Now, if ye'll 'scuse me, I'll be gittin' cleaned up."
*~*~*~
She removed her hazel contacts and climbed into the shower. In a matter of minutes she could feel all the penned up tension relax as the water flowed down her back. She had quite a close call there. Especially when she had to hold back the urge to scream out that she was Relena. Is this the life she wanted? A life of hiding and secrecy. A life without Heero knowing that she was there. A life without Heero. If she went back, she would have to go back to the life of politics and meetings. She didn't want to go back to that. She told herself to grin and bare it weather she liked the idea or not. She climbed out the steamy shower and stared at her reflection in the mirror. She could definitely see Relena emerge from the identity change without having the contacts in. Her aqua green eyes almost seemed to glow in the mist that the shower had created. It almost seemed surreal. She quickly replaced the contacts into her eyes, blinked and saw Relena disappear once again.
*~*~*~
Heero couldn't ignore the image that kept popping into his head; that image of Sam staring at him. The scenario played over and over in his head and it was driving him crazy. He heard the bathroom door open and within a split second he heard another door close. He knew it was Sam. He prepared his Mac-n-Cheese and sat down in front of the TV to watch the news. It was about the events that had happened the previous day. Sam came out wearing her regular t-shirt and jeans. She sat down next to him as she towel-dried her black hair.
"Mr. Yuy, bathroom is free if ye wan' t' use it." She told him. Heero decided against eye contact for a while.
"'Kay." He answered blandly, swallowing the last of his Mac-n-Cheese and picked up his pack making way for the bathroom.
"Thare be a clean t'wel on the rack in thare." She replied as she looked at him. He didn't look back, only waved in response as he quickly hurried to the bathroom. She noticed this behavior and realized that he was avoiding looking at her.
"Crud." Sam whispered to herself as soon as the bathroom door shut. "Must learn to keep Relena's emotions in check." She said as she referred herself as two people. She quickly made herself a late lunch of Raman Noodles and sat on the couch with bowl as she watched an infomercial.
"How m'ny times must I see the Ronco's electric R'tisserie, Peelar, Mixar, an' Julienne Slicer. The guy is dead fer heaven's sake!" Sam yelled out in frustration just as Heero opened the door to the bathroom but quickly shut it again once he heard this outburst.
(Atn: Set it and forget it!
-I just had to do that. It was soooooo tempting.^_~)
*~*~*~
In the weeks to come, Preventers HQ was quickly stripped of all damages and repaired. Heero trained Sam well in the art of being a Preventer, though Sam had a lot to learn still. Heero mentioned to Une that Sam could not shoot anything to save her life and that she would just panic. Duo was placed into a hospital for two weeks, afterward he was sent home on sick leave at Une's orders. Several Preventers were out of commission for a few weeks, including Chang and Po. Eight were confirmed dead. Things started to settle back into the normal way again.
*~*~*~ Author's Note*~*~*~
Plllleeeezzzzzzzzzzeeeeee review, While I try to hammer out Chapter10: Uprooting Again. Thanks Duck3 for your help on Chapter 8.
I would like to thank all who reviewed I enjoyed reading them. You must be a little more patient, Rin6, for a story to be good it needs enough content to be in it.
Disclaimer: I do not and probably will never own Gundam Wing. ... Crud.
Expressed Actions and Written Words
Chapter 9: Right Under His Nose.
*~*~*~
Heero followed Sam around the house to a set of concrete steps that led down into the basement. She reached into her jeans and pulled out her keys to the apartment, and opened the door. He trailed behind as she went in. She was right, it was tiny.
"Are ye hungry Mr. Yuy?" Sam asked as she opened the small fridge. She looked through it and saw that nothing suited her tastebuds.
"Yeah." Heero said monotoned as he sat on the couch and unfolded his laptop, which he had previously removed from his over night pack. He knew it was going to be a long night. Sam grabbed the phone.
"What soun's good t' ye, 'cause I'm 'rdering out." She told him.
"Chinese." He simply answered.
"No of any rest'runts in the area?" Sam asked. Heero reached for the phone in answer and made the order himself.
"What do you want?" He asked after he put his hand over the phone to keep the people on the other end from listening.
"Sweet-n-Sour Chicken an' Pork Fried Rice soun's fine t' me." Sam answered. He told them her order and listened for a bit. They each paid for their order. Heero set up his laptop to display on the TV and opened a few files to a picture. Or at least that is what she thought, as he stared at the screen for about an hour without a word. Relena sat in the wood chair in the corner, and was now nodding in and out of sleep. That was until she heard a noise coming from the TV. The shot open her eyes to she hat the noise was. She could see movement in the picture now. several guys were tearing through the place that the TV screen was showing. She turned her head to look at Heero and noticed that he had fallen asleep.
"Mr. Yuy, wake up." She nudged in the shoulder.
"Wha... What is it Sam?" Heero startled awake. Sam pointed to the screen. It took him a while to focus his eyes to see what Sam was pointing to. When he did, a smirk ran across his lips.
"I was expecting this, these guys have been following me for a while. They probably blew up Preventers. But I don't know why." Heero explained, "But I now know for sure that they are after me." Sam realized that this was Heero's apartment that they were going through, and that he had set up surveillance cameras to keep an eye on it when needed. He panned the outside camera down to the parking lot. Sam saw a familiar car there.
"Tha' is terrorists' getaway car!" She exclaimed.
"Where?" Heero said scanning the screen.
"There." Sam said pointing to the small car in the corner of the screen. Heero zoomed in enough for them to see the license plate. It was the same number that she had given them earlier. Heero quickly scanned over the guy's faces and input them into the Preventers Data base to see if there was any match. Two of the group didn't check out, but the third did. Heero read out the name of this terrorist.
"Oshoko Daisaki, age 34. Wife: Ayumu Daisaki, murdered....." From what was input into the Database, he was part of the threat a month before, and had escaped from capture. What other facts Heero found interesting was, he was involved with the White Fang and Mariemaia Army. From what they found on the guy was quite a track record of rebellions, fighting and discord.
Relena started to get a little nervous. If Heero had this program all along he could easily find her.
"Um... Mr. Yuy..." she started and Heero directed his eyes toward her, " Coul' ye find miss Darlian using that program?" Sam asked.
"No it doesn't have the capabilities of tracking down civilians, politician or otherwise. Plus Relena's file is highly classified; I can barely get to it by hacking. I did I would set off the defense system of the Preventer's database that would permanently prohibit this computer from getting back into the database, so I wouldn't even dare it." Heero told Sam.
"Oh." Relena made sure to sound a little disappointed even though she was actually happy that the program had its flaws.
While looking at one of the other two men, something clicked in Heero's mind. Oshoko's accomplice was a Preventer. He checked this guy with any matches among the Preventer Employee list. The profile came up almost immediately.
"Trent Andlur. He's is part of the Preventer's Informations Bureau. Hired two months ago. Just before I realized that I was being followed." Heero then took Trent's profile picture and actually found out that there was something on him, only under a different name.
"Grant Freedman, my don't he 'ave quite a dir'y li'l past." Sam commented looking over Heero's shoulder.
"Various different robberies, drug possession, carrying illegal artillery, hacking charges, no wonder Duo complained about someone hacking into his files two months ago. Wait what is this? According to the record, he is supposed to be dead." Heero continued as he typed away. He quickly picked up his phone, using the radio, "This is Zero calling Queen Bee..." Relena had a hard time keeping a straight face at this codename Une chose.
"Queen Bee here... go ahead Zero, the line is secure."
"We have located the three persons responsible for the explosion. They are located in my apartment. How many preventers can you get there within five minutes."
"Twenty-Three."
"That would be plenty, tell them to come prepared, they're armed." Heero said
"Okay, Zero what do you plan on doing with Shamrock? She is not exactly trained." Une voice questioned. Heero looked back to Sam. Her face had a questioning look on it as well. He turned his face back around to the radio/cellphone.
"She has some good eyes, of which I plan on putting to good use. Don't worry I do not plan to put her in any danger. She will be working in a different area, watching over the action."
"........Okay. Goodluck Zero. Over and out...." Une's voice said after a long silence. Heero stood up and went over to his pack and pulled out a small, slim case. He opened it and put a small little item on his ear. He threw another at her and she opened her hand to see what it was. It was an earphone.
"Put that in your ear so we can keep in contact at all time during the mission. Also keep your eyes on that screen. It's up to you to be to keep me out of trouble. Got it?" Heero told her as he pulled a gun and a box from his pack. He opened the box to reveal bullets. He removed the empty gun clip from the gun and loaded it full. He also pulled another clip from his pack and filled it too.
"Aye, loud an' clare." She sounded as she stood up straight to salute.
"Can I use your bike?" he asked placing the gun clip in his jacket pocket for safekeeping.
"Just as long as ye don' wreck it. 'r ye will owe me a new one." With that Heero grabbed the keys off the counter.
"Got it." He assured her as he headed for the door. "Oh and by the way, we're agents, not soldiers. There is no need to salute." He said and went out the door.
"Boy are you going to be surprised when you find out that your assigned partner is the woman you are looking for, Heero Yuy." Relena whispered to herself. She still hadn't put her earphone in. Heero had told her how he had found out about the partnership that they had been put in.
*~*~*~ Flashback (In Heero's words) *~*~*~
I called Une after I situated myself in one of the passenger seats of Quatre's plane.
"Une what's with the urgent message." I asked.
"Preventer HQ has suffered from a terrorist bombing." Une told me. Once I repaeted the words that Une had said to Quatre and Trowa, it seemed that the plane was going at a faster speed than it was.
"Heero..." Une said directing my attention to the sound of her voice. "Duo has been injured in the blast. And from the looks of it he's out of commision."
"I am going need someone's help, at least."
"Heero, I have reassigned your partner. But she is not quite trained yet. But she seemed to have met you before."
"Sam O'Malley. She insisted on helping me find Relena back in Bantry Bay."
"Well, Sam has shown that she knows first-aid, and how to get injured people out of a burning building. She was the who pulled Duo out." Une stated.
"She seems to know a bit more than a normal cadet in training." I replied.
"I want you to teach her what she needs to know. Not to mention find out who did this." Une commanded.
"Mission accepted." I said and we both hung up.
*~*~*~ End of Flashback *~*~*~
Sam placed the earphone in her ear.
"Sam are you there." Heero's deep voice came to her in surprise.
"Aye."
"Good I am approaching my apartment building. Can you see me yet?" Heero asked. Relena turned her head to look at the screen. She couldn't see any one coming.
"No, No, Not ye'. Wait thare ye are. Me see ye." She said.
"Are they still there?"
"Aye, they tearin' all o'er the place like crazy an' sorts! They seem t' be lookin' fer somethin'." She admitted.
"I think that it will be their undoing." He said as she watched him park the motorcycle on the sidewalk and walk into the parking lot where he stopped by the suspect's car. Sam couldn't see what he was doing but she quickly managed to find how to zoom in and out. Just then she heard a loud hissing coming from her earphone.
"Owi, wha's goin' on o'er thare, Yuy?" Sam asked as she held her ears from the loud sounds that were bombarding them.
"Slashed their tires, they won't be able to get away easily." Heero stated. He had sabotaged their car. Relena had to chuckle. He was the same old Heero Yuy when it came to missions. Sam then noticed some black figures filing into the parking lot.
"Be careful, Yuy, someone be comin', no clue weather be friend 'r foe." She said. Her eyes darting back and forth on the screen, keeping a good eye on all things. Heero looked around and saw some familiar faces with the group that was filing into the parking lot. They all looked a little tired, but they weren't going to stop until this mission was finished. Heero led them in to the building through an unknown passage. Sam watched as they filed out of the elevator. Relena knew the tactic "silent till dead", or in this case, captured. It was always Heero's favorite. Very little ammo was used in this tactic, which proved efficient.
"Where are the suspects located exactly?" He questioned. Heero had one third of the support group that Une had sent. Trowa's group was scaling the building, to cut off any escape roots. Quatre's group was placed throughout the building to either secure the building or to calm and reassure tenants of the apartment complex.
"Th'are goin' through the be'room."
"'Kay." He replied. Sam could see them enter the apartment cautiously. From what she could see Heero's apartment was in shambles and it was going to get worse before the night was over. Due to the various different camera pictures giving her feedback at the same time she could see that the man named Oshoko noticed the small noise when the apartment door opened and closed. He got the attention of his partners and they all got their guns ready.
"Yuy, Be car'ful, they know yer thare, and thare guns 're ready." She told him urgently. When she said this she could see him put his hand to his ear, look in the direction of the camera and nod in response. She had to admit, it was nice seeing the whole picture of what was going on, to avoid an awful outcome. Heero whispered something to his team that sounded a lot like, "Let them come out first, I'll get the guns away and then you jump them. Just make sure they don't get away." The team nodded in quick response. It was a long wait that took half an hour, but eventually the suspects put their guns away thinking that they were alone and went out of the room into a Preventers' attack. They all quickly pulled out their guns only to have them shot away by Heero. The rest took them down to the ground. Sam saw that one of the Preventers got slugged right eye.
"Tha's gonna leave a shin'r." Sam said aloud as Heero confiscated the guns. Sam could see that the group that had been put in charge of Oshoko was having a hard time trying to hold him down. In the end, he managed to escape them and crash through the window to fall from the high level. But just when everyone had thought he had gotten away Oshoko was flung back into the room hitting the wall facing the window and was knocked unconscious. The group looked back to the window to see Trowa. With that Heero started to laugh.
"Sam get a hold of Une to send in the clean up crew." Heero said. Sam did as asked and Heero switched off his receiver. Since it was 4 am, Sam stretched and headed for her bed. But before she could fall asleep Heero returned. She had remembered that he asked if her could stay at her place that night, since his own place was in shambles, she let him stay.
*~*~*~
The later morning hours were descending through the tiny windows of the small apartment as Heero tried to sleep on the small couch that wasn't long enough for his tall frame. There he lay shirtless, not wanting to be constricted by any shirt when he tossed and turned. Sam provided him with a blanket. Heero had that strange feeling, which he always got around Sam. He got a feeling that he was still at the surface of knowing her and her personality. She definitely looked as if she had a secret. In short, Heero felt that she was hiding something. He knew she couldn't be Relena. The letter that Sam had left him proved that. He had already compared the handwriting of the letter to that of Relena's diary. With Relena's smooth cursive and Sam's choppy capitals, it was a definite no match. He thought to himself, 'If Sam really is Relena, then that is the greatest identity change that I have ever known.' With that thought, he fell into a deep, satisfying sleep.
*~*~*~
Sam awoke with the afternoon sun shining in her eyes through the small basement window. A shower felt good at the time, so she grabbed the towel off the back of her bedroom door. She was going to make an L-shaped pattern for the bathroom but temptation had to steer off the intended pattern when she heard heavy breathing coming from the couch that Heero slept on. She watched him sleep. He looked so innocent and childlike. Relena just wanted to reach out and touch him but reality hit when she realized that she wasn't ready to reveal herself just yet.
Heero awoke with the feeling that someone was watching him, he opened his eyes to see Sam staring down at him. Her features were slightly softened than what he was used to. It didn't last long, though. Soon after he opened his eyes and noticed this, she realized what she was doing and looked away which made her features go back to normal.
Relena panicked a little but quickly found something to say.
"Do ye wan somethin' t' eat since it be...." She paused to look at the clock, "...1 p.m. in the af'erno'n?" Heero hadn't realized until now that he had slept this late into the day! He was usually up at the early morning hours. But the events of the night came back to remind him why he had slept in so long.
"Do you have any Mac-n-Cheese?" Heero asked. Sam opened the cupboard.
"Luc'ly, I have a box o' instan' Mac-n-Cheese." She said as she pulled it out. She handed him a bowl to make himself and then went for the bathroom to shower, "Now, if ye'll 'scuse me, I'll be gittin' cleaned up."
*~*~*~
She removed her hazel contacts and climbed into the shower. In a matter of minutes she could feel all the penned up tension relax as the water flowed down her back. She had quite a close call there. Especially when she had to hold back the urge to scream out that she was Relena. Is this the life she wanted? A life of hiding and secrecy. A life without Heero knowing that she was there. A life without Heero. If she went back, she would have to go back to the life of politics and meetings. She didn't want to go back to that. She told herself to grin and bare it weather she liked the idea or not. She climbed out the steamy shower and stared at her reflection in the mirror. She could definitely see Relena emerge from the identity change without having the contacts in. Her aqua green eyes almost seemed to glow in the mist that the shower had created. It almost seemed surreal. She quickly replaced the contacts into her eyes, blinked and saw Relena disappear once again.
*~*~*~
Heero couldn't ignore the image that kept popping into his head; that image of Sam staring at him. The scenario played over and over in his head and it was driving him crazy. He heard the bathroom door open and within a split second he heard another door close. He knew it was Sam. He prepared his Mac-n-Cheese and sat down in front of the TV to watch the news. It was about the events that had happened the previous day. Sam came out wearing her regular t-shirt and jeans. She sat down next to him as she towel-dried her black hair.
"Mr. Yuy, bathroom is free if ye wan' t' use it." She told him. Heero decided against eye contact for a while.
"'Kay." He answered blandly, swallowing the last of his Mac-n-Cheese and picked up his pack making way for the bathroom.
"Thare be a clean t'wel on the rack in thare." She replied as she looked at him. He didn't look back, only waved in response as he quickly hurried to the bathroom. She noticed this behavior and realized that he was avoiding looking at her.
"Crud." Sam whispered to herself as soon as the bathroom door shut. "Must learn to keep Relena's emotions in check." She said as she referred herself as two people. She quickly made herself a late lunch of Raman Noodles and sat on the couch with bowl as she watched an infomercial.
"How m'ny times must I see the Ronco's electric R'tisserie, Peelar, Mixar, an' Julienne Slicer. The guy is dead fer heaven's sake!" Sam yelled out in frustration just as Heero opened the door to the bathroom but quickly shut it again once he heard this outburst.
(Atn: Set it and forget it!
-I just had to do that. It was soooooo tempting.^_~)
*~*~*~
In the weeks to come, Preventers HQ was quickly stripped of all damages and repaired. Heero trained Sam well in the art of being a Preventer, though Sam had a lot to learn still. Heero mentioned to Une that Sam could not shoot anything to save her life and that she would just panic. Duo was placed into a hospital for two weeks, afterward he was sent home on sick leave at Une's orders. Several Preventers were out of commission for a few weeks, including Chang and Po. Eight were confirmed dead. Things started to settle back into the normal way again.
*~*~*~ Author's Note*~*~*~
Plllleeeezzzzzzzzzzeeeeee review, While I try to hammer out Chapter10: Uprooting Again. Thanks Duck3 for your help on Chapter 8.