Chapter 41

"There you go, hon." Cathy put away the first aid kit. The cut on Kirimek's hand wasn't as bad as it had originally looked, which was a relief for Cathy. She'd made sure to slather it with antibacterial ointment so it wouldn't get infected.

Kirimek looked at the bandage on her hand. Cathy wished she knew what the girl was thinking.

"Why don't we get some lunch? After that I'll introduce you to some more of the circus members, okay?"

The girl nodded and silently followed Cathy to the kitchen. Kirimek sat and stared at the table. Cathy made sandwiches, letting her mind wander. She had hoped that the girl would open up by now or at least be comfortable enough to give one word answers. Instead, she seemed to be just as scared as ever. And getting hurt hadn't helped anything.

The girl shuddered as Cathy set a plate of food in front of her.

"Hon? What's wrong?" Cathy asked gently.

Kirimek shook her head, still looking down.

"I don't believe that nothing's wrong," Cathy told her. "You can tell me. You're not in trouble but I can't help if I don't know how."

Kirimek looked up. There were tears streaming down her cheeks and she looked absolutely miserable.

"Oh, Kirimek," Cathy said gently as she wrapped an arm around the girl. She knew that look. Trowa had that look whenever he was coming out of a flashback. Cathy hated that the girl had that look. Cathy wasn't sure that Kirimek had had a flashback before. Maybe that was why she was upset. It would be something new and scary all at the same time. Cathy wanted to let her know that flashbacks weren't her fault and that she didn't need to worry about getting in trouble for them.

"Are you remembering things from before?" Cathy asked softly.

Kirimek nodded.

Cathy held the trembling girl. "Do you want to talk about it?"

The girl shook her head.

"It's okay. You don't have to. But if you feel like it, I'm here and I'll listen, okay?"

A sob escaped Kirimek's throat as she leaned into Cathy.

"Everything's okay. You don't need to be upset. Nobody's mad at you. You're not in trouble. You're safe here. I know Paul was really upset that you got hurt when he was supposed to be watching you but he isn't mad at you. None of us wanted you to get hurt." Cathy paused to let that sink in before continuing. "I'll bet falling scared you, didn't it?"

Kirimek nodded.

"That's okay. I get scared, too, sometimes. It's natural and nobody thinks less of you for it."

Cathy held Kirimek until she was able to get herself under control.

"That's better," Cathy said with a smile as the girl wiped the tears from her eyes. "I know it'll be hard for you but try to remember that you're safe here. Nobody's going to hit you and if they yell at you, they'll have me to deal with, okay?"

Kirimek nodded with a sniff.

Cathy pushed the plate of food over to her. "Eat up, hon. Everything is going to be just fine."

"Thank you, Colonel Une. I'll have Agent Barton stop by and pick up the papers this afternoon."

"Agent Chang are you going to fill me in on what's going on?"

Wufei cleared his throat. "Not just yet, Colonel. We don't want any of our leads compromised."

"You think I would compromise your leads?"

"No, Colonel. But I don't know that my line is secure and I would hate to inadvertently give out sensitive information."

"Very well, Agent Chang. Is there anything you can tell me?"

"We are making progress, but it's slow. And Chase has been sniffing around. He told Winner that he had clearance from you to see the girl. We should keep tabs on him if possible."

"Wufei, tell me straight, is there something wrong with the girl?"

"Colonel, I am not at liberty to say."

Colonel Une sighed. "Fine. I expect an update in a week. One of your team will report to my office so as not to 'compromise your leads'."

"Yes, Ma'am. I'm sure that we will have sufficient information to appease you by then."

Duo rubbed his face and stretched before checking his watch. The bugs hadn't turned up anything they could use yet. It was all just casual conversation between Whitaker and Jason, mostly revolving around tea and cookies. Duo had given up trying to figure out if it was code for something. They weren't giving anything away.

"This isn't going to turn anything up," Heero said, shutting off the recordings. "I'll ask the others to check these out. Even if something comes up, we won't really be able to leave to check it out until we get another team set up here."

"Good point," Duo said as he stifled a yawn.

"Duo? Have you had a chance to look into Sylvia Noventa yet?" Heero asked quietly.

Duo sighed. "Yeah."

"Well?" Heero demanded when Duo wasn't forthcoming with the information.

"It seems that she was registered for university on L4. She's been going but…"

"But?"

"But one of her classes took a trip to L2 and according to the school's confidential files, she didn't return with the rest of her class."

Heero swore. "And they didn't tell her grandmother?"

"According to the note on her record, she'd told a friend that she wanted to stay to visit family and would tell her grandmother herself. I know you probably don't want to, but I think we need to ask Mrs. Noventa for an address to contact Sylvia. I can have Hilde check it out for us. If she's there, then we know. But if she isn't…"

Heero nodded. "I will contact Mrs. Noventa right away. I'm sure she'll give me the address."

Duo slipped over and sat on Heero's lap, wrapping his arms around his boyfriend. "'Ro, I know that this is stressing you out. You'll be sure to tell me if it gets to be too much, won't you?"

Heero gave his boyfriend a chaste kiss on the lips. "I promise. Thank you for looking out for me, Duo."

Duo smiled. "I'd do anything for you, 'Ro, you know that."

Heero smiled back. "Anything?"

"Of course, 'Ro. I love you."

"Then be sure to shave in the morning. You're getting scruffy."

Duo's jaw dropped. "Really, Heero? You ruin a perfectly good moment by complaining that I need to shave? Way to kill the mood."

Heero laughed and kissed Duo again. "I could pretend to have a flashback again if you want."

Duo smirked. "As much fun as that would be, if we do it too often Relena's likely to get suspicious. But I promise I'll shave in the morning."

Heero reached up and rubbed his hand along Duo's stubble. "You know, sometimes I wonder what you'd look like with a full beard and mustache." Heero had never been able to grow facial hair. He was okay with it because it meant that shaving was one less thing he'd have to do.

"You do realize that if I did that I'd have a scratchy face for weeks until it grew out enough to be soft, right?"

"Hm…" Heero reached around and pulled Duo's braid in front of his face. He pressed the braid up under Duo's nose to create a mustache. "Nope. I think I like you just the way you are."

Duo snorted and flipped his braid over his shoulder before leaning in to kiss Heero again. "We should get to bed. It's late and I'm tired."

Heero kissed the tip of Duo's nose. "You're right. We can start forming Relena's new security team tomorrow. I'm not sure there's much more we can accomplish on this case from here."

Cathy quietly stepped out of her trailer and silently closed the door. She took her cup of coffee and went over to her truck so she could sit on the tailgate. She needed to clear her head. She stared up at the stars as she thought about the day.

After lunch she'd taken Kirimek over to the side show tent to start introducing her to the other members of the circus. She'd decided to start there because Torvald was there and Cathy thought that since Kirimek was comfortable with Torvald, it would help her to not be so nervous.

The girl had seemed glad to see Torvald. She'd even been okay with meeting Millie and Melody. They were Siamese twins who couldn't be separated because they shared too many vital organs. Tristan had definitely startled Kirimek, though. He was a contortionist and had himself twisted into a pretzel when they'd shown up.

Cathy sighed. Maybe she should have stopped there. Kirimek lost enthusiasm with each new face. She'd definitely been overwhelmed. Cathy hated that she hadn't paid better attention to Kirimek's needs. Apparently word had gotten around that the girl was out and about and everyone found an excuse to come and meet her.

"I should have just told them to take it easy," Cathy muttered to herself.

But she hadn't. She'd just introduced each member of the troupe as they showed up. It was Torvald who finally shooed everyone away and got after Cathy for being so inconsiderate. Cathy had insisted Kirimek was fine and Torvald disagreed. The girl had gotten upset that they were fighting and ran out.

When Cathy finally found her, Kirimek was sitting in Buttercup's stall, crying. The horse was sniffing the girl, probably looking for a treat but Kirimek didn't seem to mind. She was absently petting the horse with one hand while wiping away tears with the other.

When she went into the stall to get Kirimek, Buttercup nipped at Cathy. Cathy had gotten Paul, afraid that the horse would turn on the girl and hurt her. Instead, Paul had insisted that Cathy leave Kirimek alone for a while.

"She's fine. She can get up and leave whenever she wants. She wants to be there," Paul had said.

"She could get trampled! Buttercup nipped at me. What if she bites Kirimek?" Cathy had countered.

Paul had only laughed at that. "Buttercup obviously thinks she's protecting Kirimek. That mare wouldn't hurt a fly."

"Fine," Cathy huffed. "Do me a favor and keep an eye on her then. And bring her back to the trailer when she's ready. I don't want her getting lost or accosted by everyone."

"She'll be fine, Cathy. I won't let anything happen to her," Paul had assured her.

Cathy looked at her watch. That was nearly eight hours ago and Paul hadn't brought her home yet. Cathy wanted to go check on her but was afraid of smothering her. She didn't know what to do, so here she sat at ten pm, drinking decaf coffee and waiting for the teenager to come home.

"Hey, kid. You doing okay?" Paul asked gently. He'd been keeping an eye on Kirimek as he promised but it was getting late. He wanted to go to bed soon and the fact that the girl hadn't left Buttercup's stall for anything more than to use the bathroom when she needed to worried him. He'd brought her some food when he had his dinner but she hadn't eaten much. Paul wondered if his cooking was really that bad or if she just wasn't hungry. He'd apologized for putting her on Goliath and letting her fall off, but she hadn't answered him. She just kept petting Buttercup.

Kirimek looked up at him but didn't answer.

Paul crouched down, patting Buttercup's side as he did so. "I know that you got upset earlier, but I think Cathy's upset, too. She feels bad about everything that happened today."

Kirimek looked down and Buttercup gently butted the girl's hand with her head. The horse apparently enjoyed all the attention.

"You're not mad at us are you?" Paul asked.

Kirimek shook her head but didn't look at him.

"We're not mad at you either."

That made Kirimek look at him. The look in her eyes said she didn't believe him.

"Honest. Nobody's mad at you, Kirimek. Say, do you mind if I shorten your name a bit? Kirimek's such a mouthful. Would you mind if I just call you Kiri?"

Kirimek shrugged.

"Okay, Kiri. Here's the deal. We've never had anyone like you with the circus before. Sure, people have had a rough go of life but nobody's had it quite so tough as you. And you can't even tell us what happened to you so we're stuck guessing."

Kiri's eyes filled with tears.

"Hang on! I don't mean to upset you. I just want you to understand that we're doing the best we can. All we know is that Trowa brought you to us and he'll come get you when he can." Trowa hadn't said Kiri could know he was an agent so he decided not to tell her. "I'm sure that it's scary for you and we're sorry about that. No one here is going to hurt you. I promise. You should know that Torvald told everyone today to leave you alone until you can adjust to being around so many people. If anyone gives you a hard time I want you to come straight to me or Torvald and let us handle it, okay?"

Kiri nodded.

"And don't be so hard on Cathy. She's doing the best she can. You know, Trowa is her little brother but they were separated as children because of the wars. They didn't find each other again until Trowa was fifteen and he never really needed looking after. She hasn't got a lot of experience looking after anyone and she gets a little…well…she's easily sidetracked, I guess is the best way to put that. She means well and she really wants you to be able to be happy here."

Kiri looked away as she thought that over.

Paul gave her a minute before speaking again. "It's late, you know. You should probably get some sleep. I'd like you to groom Rocky for me tomorrow if you're up to it. He's a bit more rambunctious than Buttercup but I think he'd like to have you pay as much attention to him as you gave to Buttercup today."

Kiri looked at him and gave him a shy nod.

Paul smiled at her. "Would you like me to take you back to Cathy's now?"

Kiri nodded and let Paul help her up. He led her through the circus grounds over to Cathy's trailer.

"You know we're going to start touring soon and I'll need your help with the horses. They get a little nervous at being in new places sometimes. Do you think you can help me keep them calm sometimes? All you'd really have to do is pet them like you did with Buttercup today."

Kiri nodded.

Cathy saw them coming and she jumped off the tailgate and met them.

"Oh, Kirimek! Are you okay? Are you hurt at all?"

"She's fine, Cathy. She just needed a bit of time to herself, didn't you, Kiri?"

Kiri nodded.

"Thank goodness," Cathy said. "Are you hungry Kirimek?"

Kiri shook her head.

"Oh…okay."

"I brought her some dinner earlier," Paul explained. "We had a nice chat, too. I'll see you in the morning, Kiri."

Kiri nodded and headed into Cathy's trailer.

"Cathy?"

"Yes, Paul?"

"Don't be hard on her. She didn't mean to upset you. I think she just didn't know what else to do when it got to be too much for her today."

"I get that, Paul," Cathy said. "I'm just…frustrated because it seems like everything I do backfires."

"It'll get better, Cathy. I promise. This situation is an adjustment for everyone and we all just need to be patient with each other."

Cathy nodded. "Thank you, Paul."

Paul smiled at her. "My pleasure, Cathy. Let me know if you need anything."

"I will. Good night." Cathy went into her trailer.

"Good night," Paul whispered. He shook his head and went to his own trailer. He wondered if Trowa would mind if he asked Cathy out on a date sometime.