Relena was waiting, but for what, she didn't know.

Trowa's look-alike had deposited her in what appeared to be a nursery, with baby cribs and a collection of rather sorry-looking toys and weathered old books scattered about. At least there was also a small bathroom so Relena could see to her needs. By her estimation, as it was growing dark outside the windows, she had been missing for nearly a full day. And she still had no idea who had taken her, or what they wanted from her.

"Trowa" had simply grunted that he'd deal with her later, and locked her in this room without bothering to restrain her. Perhaps he wasn't worried about her attempting suicide, as the one window had safety bars on it that she couldn't loosen for the life of her. And none of the toys were sharp enough to do any real damage. Of course, Relena didn't want to die, but she didn't necessarily want to stick around and see whatever fate might await her.

She was trying the bars again, just for the hell of it, when the door opened, and the false Trowa stepped inside, his expression steely.

"Trying to escape?" He sounded slightly amused. It was odd, but Relena noticed a slight change in tone. She studied him for a beat as he approached her. Something…was different about him. For one thing, he didn't look half as rumpled as he'd been after their struggle. And maybe it was the fluorescent lighting, but was his suit a different color? A lighter gray, maybe?

Relena looked down at his hands, and gasped. The angry red scratches she'd embedded on the back of his hands were…gone.

She looked back up at his face, and tried to discern any other minor details that might differentiate him from the man she'd faced earlier.

"Relena…" he started, taking a step toward her.

She took a step back. Maybe…maybe he really was Trowa. He had found her. But how could she know for sure? What if there were dozens of Trowa clones running around?

"Stay back!" she warned, reaching for the closest object. She would have grabbed one of her shoes again, but the "other" Trowa had taken them. Instead her hands closed around… a teddy bear. Her shoulders slumped in defeat.

To her chagrin, this Trowa started laughing. "Unless that bear has a bomb in it, you'll have to do better than that." His one green eye glimmered with mirth. "Although, to be honest, when I first heard that Heero had given you a teddy bear, I thought maybe it was a bomb…"

Relena set the bear down where she'd found it, staring hard at him. "Trowa…is that really you?"

He put a finger to his lips, and, with his other hand, motioned for her to come toward him. Relena hesitated and stayed where she was.

"I'm not coming anywhere near you," she said sharply.

"All right," he answered her softly, raising both of his hands in a gesture of surrender. "Fair enough. I just don't want to risk us being overheard."

Her heart began to pound faster. "How can I be sure it's really you?"

He smiled wryly at her. "Do you expect someone like Aiden Wardwell to know about Heero and his penchant for bizarre gift-giving?"

Relena flushed. Well. That certainly sounded like the sardonic Trowa she knew. But…

She crossed her arms over her chest. "Who is Aiden Wardwell?"

"The man holding you captive," Trowa said casually. Relena gaped at him.

"You mean... " She looked him up and down. "He's your…twin? Or your clone?"

"I'm not sure, to be honest," Trowa said. "It doesn't particularly matter. I'm here to apprehend him and get you out of here."

Relena peered at him, sensing he was hiding something. But then the Preventers were always hiding something.

"What else?" she pressed him. "He's plotting something, isn't he?"

"Nothing for you to worry about," Trowa said flippantly, turning toward the door. Relena stared at his retreating back.

"Wait, where are you going?!"

"To find Aiden," he said, looking at her over his shoulder. "You'll be safe in here for now. I'll come back for you after I've taken care of him." He placed his hand on the doorknob.

"Wait!" she all but shrieked, rushing over to him, her desperation overriding her sense of self-preservation. "First, I need to be sure it's really you."

Trowa frowned at her, but stayed put. "All right…"

"Give me your hands," Relena instructed, holding out her own. Trowa arched a brow, but complied. Relena took her hands in his, examining them more closely for scratches; there were none. Then she turned each one over and felt his palms.

Calloused. All the way up to his fingertips.

She beamed at him. "It really is you," she breathed.

"Uh…yeah, it is. I could prove it to you further, I'm sure, but…" Trowa's brow creased. He looked somewhat flustered, and Relena couldn't help but find that adorable, despite the strange situation they were in.

"Do you have an extra gun?" she asked him with a smile. He balked at her.

"Yes, but–"

She released his hands but kept hers open, palm up. "Give one to me."

"All right. I suppose it would be better to leave you here armed."

Relena was shocked by how quickly he complied, reaching inside his waistband and handing her a GLOCK pistol. She smiled gratefully at him and tucked the gun inside her skirt.

"Thank you."

"Now," Trowa turned back to the door, "I'll be back soon. Just–"

"Oh, no you don't Barton." Relena splayed her hand on the door, inches from Trowa's face. "I'm going with you."

He huffed a laugh. "No, you're not. It's too dangerous."

"I've had training."

"Not enough."

"I've had more than enough to take Aiden down myself." Relena rolled his eyes. "Wait'll you see what a lousy shot he is."

"Irrelevant," Trowa snipped, sounding annoyingly like Heero. "We don't know how many others are with him."

"And who's to say they won't corner me in here all at once?" Relena retorted.

Trowa's nostrils flared. She could tell she had him.

"At least we could cover for one another," she added.

"All right," he grumbled. "Fine. But you'd better stick close."

She gave him her most reassuring smile. "Of course."

"Stay behind me," he said, then pushed the door open, slowly.

Relena did as she was told, following Trowa out into the darkened hall. Her bare feet made her footfalls nearly silent, and she mimicked Trowa's stance as he crept along. Like Trowa, she withdrew her gun and kept it close to her chest, ready to aim it at a potential attacker.

After a moment, they heard commotion up ahead. It sounded like the heavy front doors were opening, and people were ambling inside. Soon, the halls reverberated with the sound of voices. Trowa braced a hand against Relena and pressed her back against the wall, doing his best to make himself look invisible. She did her best to shrink against the wall as well, praying that no one would surprise them in the hall.

But the sounds were still relatively far away from them, at the other end of the building. Maybe they were all headed to the sanctuary, for some sort of service.

They waited in place for a few more minutes. Eventually, the sound of voices singing began to waft toward them. Relena couldn't quite make out the words, but thought she recognized the tune, so her mind supplied the lyrics.

"A mighty fortress is our God… A bulwark never failing…"

No instruments accompanied the voices, but judging from the nursery and the looks of the sanctuary she'd woken up in earlier, the building was in disrepair. It was doubtful the piano or organ were in working order.

However, the sounds of the singing parishioners suggested that church was very much in session.

"Our helper He, amid the flood...of mortal ills prevailing…"

Trowa began to move again, so Relena followed him. He stopped and reached up to the ceiling, pushing gingerly until a panel gave way. Relena watched as Trowa pushed it all the way open, then reached up with both hands and lifted himself up.

Inside a vent.

Relena gaped up at him from the floor. "Um…"

He reached for her hand, saying nothing. She could barely make out his facial expression in the near-darkness, but she doubted he was expressing much sympathy for her plight. She had insisted on coming with him, after all.

She reached up and took his hand, and he pulled her clear off the ground, up into the vent with him.

God, he was strong.

And then he was army-crawling away from her. At least he was going ahead of her; Relena hadn't anticipated doing this kind of activity in a skirt. Resigning herself to endure this bizarre situation as long as possible, Relena laid down on her stomach and crawled after Trowa.

The acapella singing was growing louder as Trowa crawled along, Relena shuffling behind him. He stopped when he came to an opening and looked down into the church sanctuary. A small group of people were clustered near the front, holding hymn books and singing. So, some sort of choir rehearsal, maybe?

Based on the intel Trowa had received, tonight's service was going to be a big deal, so there would probably be a lot more people. Whatever this was…they hadn't gotten started yet.

Relena was silent behind him, but Trowa could feel the warmth of another body in such close proximity, and hear her breathing. Otherwise, neither of them made a sound.

And then Trowa heard his own voice speaking. Or, rather, Aiden's. He strained to make out the exact words, but could barely make anything out over the singing. He caught the words "tonight," "virgin" and – most disturbing of all – "sacrifice."

Shit.

Just like that, Trowa shifted his mission objective. All he could think about now was getting Relena out of there; he could come back for Aiden and search for the nuke later. No way could he leave Relena with these barbarians; not for a split second. He was glad, now, that she had insisted on coming with him. At first he worried she would be a liability, but now he felt sick imagining what might have happened to her if he'd left her behind.

He began to shimmy backward, and felt his leg brush against Relena. He hoped he didn't hurt her, but she quickly got the message and began to retreat backward, to where they'd climbed up into the vent. He scanned the hallway below before dropping down as silently as he could. Then he reached for Relena; she leaned down and braced her hands on his shoulders, and he secured her waist, pulling her down until their bodies were flush against each other. Their faces, too, were close for an awkward moment, until they managed to disentangle themselves. But Trowa grabbed Relena's hand and pulled her through an open door as soon as he saw one, shutting and locking the door behind them.

The room was dark, and he didn't dare turn on any lights. Both of them were breathing hard. Trowa worked to still his rapidly beating heart, and pulled Relena to his chest. He heard her suck in a deep, shaky breath as he brought his lips close to her ear.

"I'm going to get you out of here, now," he whispered. "But it's going to be dangerous. You need to stay close to me." He felt her nod, so he continued. "We'll escape out one of these windows. I have a car parked several blocks away; we'll be going on foot. You're going to take that car and drive the hell away from here, as fast as you can. The car has a tracker on it so the others will be able to find you. All right?"

Relena nodded again. Trowa felt her tremble slightly in his grasp, and suddenly, the need to protect her swelled in his chest. He couldn't help holding her a little tighter, wanting to comfort her from this whole ordeal.

"Are you all right?" he whispered. "Did anyone hurt you?"

She shook her head.

"I promise, you'll make it out of here alive."

"What about you?" she whispered into his ear. Her breath was hot on his skin, ticking his neck.

"Don't worry about me; I'll be fine."

"Why aren't you coming with me?"

"I have to come back here and stop Aiden."

"Tell me what he's planning."

"Not now," Trowa whispered harshly. "There isn't time."

"Trowa," she huffed. "I want to help."

She was impossible. He wondered how Heero had put up with her all this time.

"You're not an agent," Trowa argued.

"I don't need to be," she retorted.

"This isn't up for discussion." He broke away from her and strode to the back of the room, to a set of windows that overlooked the church parking lot. None of the windows had bars on them like the ones in the nursery, so Trowa set about opening the one closest to the back of the church, and farthest away from the sanctuary.

Relena lingered behind him, cross with him, no doubt. But her feelings were none of his concern. Her safety wasn't even supposed to be his concern, but he'd found her before finding Aiden and… what was he supposed to do? Leave her as a sitting duck?

He asked himself what Heero would do in this situation, and the answer was obvious.

Trowa opened the window, then wrenched up the storm window behind it. The nighttime breeze wafted in, and even though it was spring in New England, there was ice on the wind. He heard Relena shiver. Without thinking, he shrugged out of the blazer he was wearing – part of his Aiden disguise – and wrapped it around Relena's shoulders. She shook her head and shrugged it off.

"You'll need this more than I will," she whispered.

"Just take it," Trowa hissed.

"We're going to run and it will only slow me down!" she hissed right back at him.

"Fine." Trowa took the jacket back and yanked it back on, his temper flaring. Then again, he didn't know why he was even getting annoyed with her. They were just arguing about stupid semantics in a potentially deadly situation; that was all.

He couldn't let these feelings, annoyance or impatience or whatever, distract him from his current objective. And so he reached for Relena again, and all but shoved her out the window. Normally he would go first, but they were on the first floor so there wasn't much of a drop. And anyway, he just wanted to get her out of that church, once and for all.

Only problem was, the window was narrow, and even for two slim bodies, there wasn't much of an opening.

"Shit," Relena hissed as she tried to wedge herself into the small space. Trowa realized he'd never heard her swear before. "Help," she gritted out.

She wriggled around until her head and torso were out the window, but her…ass was stuck. Trowa took in her shapely backside, for just a split second. He could see right up her short skirt, and in the moonlight, he could make out her lacy thong. It took him aback, but he quickly recovered. He was on a mission, and had no business ogling the person he was trying to protect. Even if her nearly-bare ass was right in his face…

Once again, he found himself asking, "What would Heero do?"

He knew Relena wouldn't like the answer. It wasn't Trowa's place. But she had asked him for help, so…

Trowa placed his hands on her bum and gave her a push, but she was still stuck.

"Trowa," she groaned. And something about her tone of voice – the strain, the desperation – made his body react.

"Shit," he muttered. This was the world's worst timing for–

Light flooded the room, and Trowa froze, his hands still gripping Relena's bottom.

"Well, well, well," his own voice sounded from behind him. "What do we have here?"

A/N: Dun dun dunnn... ;)

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Hugs!

- RFP