A/N: This chapter is a little short, but I wanted to get something posted because I won't be posting again for the rest of the year. :)

Anyway, I hope you enjoy it!

Chapter 35

Duo yawned as the vid feed played. He finally understood the phrase "bored to tears." He started to spin circles in the office chair, staring at the ceiling as he did so. This was more fun.

He almost fell out of the chair when it came to an abrupt halt. Heero glared at him.

"Having fun?"

"Not anymore," Duo replied.

"Get serious, Duo. The sooner we get this done the sooner we can get some sleep."

Duo noticed that Heero deliberately refused to say "go to bed." In Duo's mind, there was a difference and Heero knew it. Duo was really getting tired of being at Relena's already. Heero turned into a totally different person when he was around her. It was like he shut down and reverted to his original factory settings.

Duo sighed and focused on the screen. Heero was fast forwarding through the feed, trying to get through it faster. He slowed it down each time a person appeared. Each time, it wasn't the one they were looking for.

"Didn't they have a time frame so we could narrow this down a bit?" Duo asked.

"Yes. It happened between 3pm on Friday and 8pm Sunday. Relena was at a conference that weekend. The car was parked in the hotel lot the entire time. When the note was found, Pagan asked the hotel staff if they had seen who left it and nobody had."

"You know, if it was in a hotel lot I'm surprised we didn't get more prints on the car."

Heero nodded. "I would have thought so as well. But after watching this feed, I'm not surprised. Nobody gets close enough to the car to touch it."

After a few more minutes of fast forwarding, Duo was ready to call it quits. There was nothing. He started spinning in his chair again, wondering how long Heero would let him before getting mad again.

"What the hell?"

Duo stopped spinning and turned back to the screen. "What?"

Heero glared at Duo. "Haven't you been paying attention? The feed went black."

"Oh…right. It's not the end of the tape?"

Heero rolled his eyes. "No."

"Well…does the feed come back?"

Heero grunted and hit the fast forward button again. Eventually, the feed returned. Now there was an envelope on the windshield of the car but no one in sight.

Heero swore and slammed his fist on the desk before letting off a string of curses.

Duo's jaw dropped and he was speechless. Heero had never lost his cool like this before. He was even more surprised when Heero abruptly stood up and stormed out of the room. Duo heard a door slam down the hall.

Duo ran a hand through his bangs. Now what?

"Is everything okay?"

Duo looked up to see Relena standing in the doorway. "I think Ro's a little frustrated. Every time we think we have a lead, it runs right into a brick wall. Give him a bit of time to cool off."

"Oh. Okay," Relena said with a disappointed look on her face.

"Did you need something?"

"It isn't important. I was just going to go over the schedule for my press conference."

"It might be better to go over it tomorrow when we're not so tired."

Relena nodded. "Well…good night then."

Duo waited until she'd gone to turn off the equipment in the room. There was no point in trying to find a way around the blacked out video tonight. Heero was too pissed and Duo was too tired. He stretched and headed to his room which was across the hall from Heero's. Duo hadn't been too pleased with the arrangement but he couldn't do anything about it without bringing up a lot of questions that he and Heero didn't want to answer.

He sighed and changed into his pajamas. He was just settling into bed when there was a loud crash from across the hall.

"Thanks for watching her again, Torvald."

"I am happy to help. I think she is getting better."

Cathy smiled. "I think so, too."

Torvald had watched the girl while Cathy was performing for the last three days. Each day he warmed up soup and fed the girl before Cathy got back. The girl's temperature was falling and Cathy had high hopes that the girl would recover soon.

After her conversation with Trowa, Cathy had worried about the possibility of the girl being addicted to something, but the worry was soon put to rest. Sally had personally called Cathy to assure her that she had checked the girl's blood for every drug she could think of and it had come out clean. The girl was just sick. Since Cathy hadn't felt it necessary to take her to a doctor, Sally had requested that Cathy let her know if there were any changes.

In fact, Sally and Cathy had talked every day. They started out talking about the girl but the conversation eventually veered off onto more personal topics. Cathy and Sally had already decided that they needed to get together and have a girl's day as soon as their schedules would allow it.

Torvald left and Cathy went in to check on the girl. Her fever was almost back to normal and she seemed to be sleeping more peacefully. Cathy wondered how long it would be until the girl had nightmares for company again.

Cathy gently brushed the girl's bangs out of her face. The bruises were fading, though Cathy was surprised that they weren't fading faster. The girl sighed and rolled over in her sleep. Cathy decided to leave her alone. Sally had said that it would be okay to wake up the girl if Cathy wanted to but Cathy felt that letting the girl wake up on her own would be better. Cathy had decided to wake the girl up if she didn't wake on her own in the next couple of days but she hoped she wouldn't have to.

Wufei turned off his computer and stood, stretching out the kinks in his back. He was due to relieve Quatre at the hospital. As he headed over, he wondered just how long they were expected to keep up this charade. It wasn't like it was doing them any favors. Sure, pretending the girl had been on the verge of death offered them cover to get her to safety, but she'd been gone for almost a week. Wufei couldn't help but wonder just how long Chase would be stupid enough to buy it.

Wufei glanced around as he walked up to the girl's room. He was trying to be subtle, but in truth, he was looking for Sally. She was the bright spot in all of this for him. He may have to stay in an empty room and pretend to be busy for hours on end but at least he got to see Sally every day.

Wufei knocked on the door and waited for Quatre to open it for him.

"Good evening, Wufei," Quatre greeted the Chinese pilot.

"Good evening, Quatre. How are things going?"

Quatre handed Wufei a folder. "This is all the information I was able to dig up on Angus Carruthers. It isn't much. The man owns four properties, three on Earth and one on L2."

Wufei frowned.

"The taxes on the properties are automatically paid from an account listed under Figaro de Seville. No points for guessing it's an alias."

"Not a subtle one at that. It's like they wanted that account to be found."

Quatre nodded. "Yes. I'm going to see where the funds for the account are coming from and go from there."

"Thank you Quatre. I hope to have all this information compiled by the time Heero and Duo are done at Relena's. Maybe then we can make some actual progress instead of running around in circles."

"That would be nice. Have there been any problems with Chase wanting to meet with the girl again?"

"Not that I'm aware of. It would be ideal if we could take him into custody the next time he shows up but…" Wufei didn't have to tell Quatre that a snowball had a better chance in Hell than they did of making that happen. Every lead led them in circles. Wufei wasn't the only one frustrated by it, either.

"Maybe Trowa will have better luck or maybe something will just click," Quatre said.

Wufei wanted to roll his eyes at the blonde's optimism. He supposed that Quatre could be right, but his hopefulness required more coincidence than Wufei wanted to put his trust in.

"I suppose it's always possible, Quatre. I won't keep you. Let me know if you find anything of interest."

Quatre nodded. "Good night, Wufei."

With the blonde gone, Wufei settled onto the bed, adjusted it so he was comfortable, and began to read the file.

Duo jumped out of bed and dashed into the hall. Relena was standing outside of Heero's room.

"What happened?" Duo demanded.

"I don't know. I was going to ask if Heero needed anything before I retired for the evening but before I could even knock there was a loud crash from inside his room."

Duo frowned. "I thought I told you to let him cool off tonight."

Relena sighed and hung her head. "Yes. You did. I thought I'd given him enough time."

Duo sighed. "Let me go in and see what's going on. Wait out here until I tell you it's safe. If he's flashing, it won't be pretty."

Relena nodded and stepped back. Duo went over to the door and gave it a tentative knock.

"Ro? I'm comin' in."

Duo cautiously opened the door and slipped inside the room. It was dark. Duo stepped carefully around the broken vase.

"Ro?"

"Identify yourself."

Duo mentally cursed. Heero was definitely flashing and he was hiding in the room somewhere. "Gundam Deathscythe Pilot, Duo Maxwell AKA Pilot Zero-Two," Duo said carefully.

"Why aren't you on your assigned mission?" Heero demanded.

Duo zeroed in on Heero's voice. It was coming from the other side of the bed. He silently moved towards it. "My mission is complete so I thought I'd back you up. What's your status?"

Duo suddenly found himself pushed back on the bed with Heero above him. Duo wasn't sure if he could overpower Heero in this position and his mind scrambled for an escape tactic that wouldn't result in Heero freaking out worse.

Heero put his face close to Duo's. "Needy."

Duo blinked. "Huh?"

Heero kissed Duo.

"H-Heero?" Duo got out when his lips were released. He was completely confused. "What's going on?"

"I need you. Being here has driven me insane and I need you." Heero started kissing Duo again.

"'Ro…hang on a second," Duo hissed, trying to keep his voice down so Relena wouldn't hear. "You planned this?"

Heero smirked. "It was a bit spontaneous but…yeah."

Duo's lips twitched as he tried not to smile. "Okay but can you put it on hold for a minute? Relena's in the hall waiting for me to tell her that I've got the situation under control."

Heero rolled his eyes and let Duo up.

Duo forced himself to get his grin in check and went to the door. He took a deep breath to center himself before opening it. "Relena?"

"Is Heero okay?"

Duo felt a little bad about deceiving Relena. She looked really concerned. "He's fine. I'm gonna stay with him tonight to make sure he doesn't flash again. Sometimes stress'll do that."

"Oh…okay. Do you want me to have another bed brought in?"

"Naw. The bed's big enough for the both of us. It won't be the first time we've had to share. You should see some of the places we got stuck sharing during the wars. It's not a big deal."

"Are you sure? It isn't a problem."

"I'm sure. Relax. He'll be right as rain by morning. I promise."

Relena nodded. "In that case, good night and good luck."

"Thanks." Duo shut the door and went back to his boyfriend. "All clear."

Heero smirked as he pushed Duo back on the bed and kissed his boyfriend senseless.