A/N: Sorry this took so long. My muse wanted to work on other things. I'm hoping it will let me work in this story a little more now. Enjoy.

Chapter 49

Wufei frowned as he read over the reports Une had given him. It was, unfortunately, what he expected. L2 had also had a spike in female suicide victims over the course of the last 30 years. Other areas had smaller spikes of female suicides.

"What's this?" he muttered to himself.

Male suicides in San Francisco followed the same patterns as the female suicides on L2. He picked up the phone. "Heero. I think I found another possible lead."

Cathy took a deep breath as she left the main tent. She'd finally gotten a tricky move right and she was ready to incorporate it into her act.

"Cathy, good morning!"

Cathy smiled. "Good morning, Manager!"

"Have you seen Johnson anywhere?"

Cathy shook her head. She'd been rehearsing all morning.

"Well, if you see him, will you let him know I need to speak to him?"

Cathy nodded. "Of course, Manager."

If she had to guess, Cathy would say that Paul was likely to be in the animal tent somewhere. She wanted to see how Kiri was doing this morning anyway, so Cathy headed for the horse enclosure.

As she walked, Cathy thought about how much the girl had changed in such a short time. Kiri's clothes didn't threaten to fall off her frame anymore. They were still a little big, but she'd filled out nicely. Her bruises were gone and she wasn't as hesitant to smile. She was very pretty when she chose to smile. Her hair was growing out as well. Cathy hadn't asked if she wanted to cut it yet. She wanted to let the healthy hair that was growing in get a bit of length so that Kiri wouldn't end up with a pageboy cut as her only option. Cathy reminded herself to call Trowa and give him an update.

Trowa took a moment to stretch out the kinks in his back as he looked over the circus grounds. He guessed that Cathy would be rehearsing in the main tent. Quatre followed him, looking around. It had been some time since Quatre had been to the circus. It hadn't changed much over the years, but it was still fun to see if anything new had been added.

Trowa heard Cathy before he saw her.

"Kiri! Where did you go?"

Trowa frowned a little. Who was Kiri? If she was a new hire he'd have Cathy introduce him. It would be good to keep tabs on any new additions while the girl was hiding out here. With as many twists and turns as this case was taking he didn't want to take any chances with her.

A girl came out from the horse enclosure and headed over to Cathy. Trowa smirked to himself. He gestured for Quatre to be quiet and follow his lead. He crept up quietly behind Cathy.

"There you are! Have you seen Johnson anywhere?"

Kiri shook her head.

"Well, if you happen to see him, let him know the manager's looking for him."

Kiri nodded.

Trowa silently dashed up behind Cathy, grabbed her and swung her around.

It took a moment before Cathy found her voice.

"PUT ME—Oh! Trowa! You didn't tell me you were coming!"

Trowa set Cathy down and gave her a hug.

"Sally sent us to check on the girl," Quatre explained as he walked up. That wasn't entirely false. True, Quatre had told Trowa that he wanted to check on the girl for Colonel Une, but Sally had mentioned in passing that she wondered how the girl was really doing and wished that she could see her to make sure she was healing well.

"Hello, Quatre." Cathy's tone was flat. Why had Trowa brought him here? She couldn't understand how her brother could trust Quatre after what he'd done.

"Hello, Catherine," Quatre said. He took a deep breath and tried to stay calm. Cathy hated him, he knew that. He also knew that she wasn't likely to physically attack him, but her temper scared him. She could give a tongue lashing like nobody else he'd ever met.

"Cathy—" Trowa started with a warning tone. He'd talked to her about this and she had promised that she would try to be better about being nice to Quatre.

Cathy sighed and put her hands up in a gesture of surrender. "You're right, I'm sorry. One of these days I'll be over it." She didn't add that she had no intentions of making it any time soon. The blonde had nearly killed Trowa and that wasn't something she could just let go.

"It's okay, Cathy," Quatre said quickly. He didn't want to be the cause of Trowa and Cathy having another argument. He could feel curiosity being aimed at him and looked around, trying to figure out who was watching their little interaction.

"So where is she?" Trowa asked, hoping that the change in subject would spare Quatre from Cathy's wrath.

"She was just—" Cathy turned to find Kiri standing as if she was unsure if she ought to be there. Cathy smiled at her so she would know she wasn't in trouble. "There you are, Kiri."

Quatre and Trowa stared at the girl. Was it possible for this to be the same frightened girl Trowa had dropped off in the middle of the night? She looked so…different. But it wasn't in a bad way. Her eyes weren't as haunted. Her face wasn't as gaunt. She looked healthy and relatively happy.

"She told you her name?!" Trowa blurted out just as Quatre said, "I never would have recognized her!"

They both started asking questions at the same time.

"Has she told you anything else?"
"When did this happen?"

"Whoa! HOLD IT! One at a time!" Cathy yelled. She smiled at Kiri. "Shall we go inside and fill them in?"

Kiri gave a shy nod and Cathy laughed.

"Come on, then."

Duo quietly shut the door to the room Hilde was resting in. She'd finally fallen asleep and he was more than happy to let her rest. Rashid would be arriving soon and Duo was determined to get Hilde away safely. He wandered through Quatre's safe house to the study so he could check the security feed. He frowned as he saw a man walking towards the front door. He followed the man's progress through the lower level of the safe house, the part designed to look like an abandoned building.

"HILDE! I KNOW YOU'RE HERE! COME OUT NOW!"

Duo swore under his breath. How did that jerk find them? Duo had driven Hilde's car a few blocks away and parked it so that it wouldn't be immediately obvious where they were hiding.

"HILDE! DON'T MAKE ME HUNT YOU DOWN YOU STUPID BITCH!"

Duo was grateful that the real entrance was so well hidden. But he knew that if Hilde's ex found it, they'd need to get out fast. He went into the bedroom and gently shook Hilde awake.

"Duo? Is Rashid here?" Hilde asked groggily.

"No. But we need to be ready to run, just in case."

"Run?"

Duo bit his lip. He didn't want to stress Hilde out but she needed to know what was going on. "Well…you see…" He took a deep breath. "Gabe's downstairs."

Hilde paled. "How did he find us?" she whispered.

"I don't know. I don't think he'll find the door but we should be ready to go in case he does."

"O-okay." Hilde got off the bed and her cell phone dropped to the floor.

Duo picked it up and looked at it. "Why'd you bring this? I thought you couldn't make calls on it."

Hilde shrugged. "Habit, I guess."

Duo swore. "He messed with this, right?"

Hilde nodded.

"This is how he found us."

Hilde gasped. "Are you sure?"

Duo nodded. "Change of plans. I'm going to hide you and then I'm going to deal with him."

"Duo! You can't!"

Duo smirked. "Sure I can. Don't worry and don't come out until I come get you, okay?"

"Duo…please don't do this," Hilde begged. "I couldn't stand it if he killed you."

Duo hugged her. "It's okay," he soothed. "I promise that nothing will happen to me. And this way we'll know for sure that he can't come after you." Duo kissed Hilde's forehead and led her to the closet. "There's a false wall behind this closet."

Duo fumbled around until he found the catch. The back wall opened up to reveal a small but comfortable space. It had a small bed, a small plush armchair, a flat screen television and a small collection of books and movies. There was also a small refrigerator and a shelf of nonperishable food. It looked like the supplies would last for about a week.

"Nice," Duo said with a grin. "You just relax in here and I'll be back before you know it. Quatre told me that Rashid knows to check in here if he can't find us anywhere else in this place. So if he comes before I do, go with him and get out of here. Rashid can have Quatre contact me after you're out of harm's way.

Hilde bit her lip and nodded. Duo knew she wasn't happy about the way things were going but he wasn't about to let someone like Gabe get away with treating his friend like a punching bag. If the man was controlling enough to track Hilde through her phone as well as hiring a goon to follow her, he wasn't going to stop just because Duo sent her away. Besides that, Hilde had said something about Gabe frequenting a brothel and Duo wanted to know if it was the property owned by Carruthers. It wouldn't surprise him at all to know that Hilde's ex was involved in something like that.

Once he got Hilde hidden away behind the closet, Duo rolled his shoulders and cracked his knuckles. "Ready or not, here I come."

Cathy led the way into the trailer. "Do you guys want something to drink?"

Kiri nodded and pulled a pitcher of lemonade out of the refrigerator. She gestured with it towards Trowa and Quatre.

"I'd love some, Kiri," Quatre told her and Trowa nodded.

"Sit down," Cathy said as she pulled glasses out of the cupboard. She let Kiri pour the drinks. Cathy took a drink to Trowa. She purposely didn't give a drink to Quatre, but Kiri didn't notice. Cathy had told Trowa she was working on forgiving the blonde but at the same time she wasn't ready to let it all go yet. Quatre had nearly killed Trowa and Cathy didn't feel that he had earned her trust back yet. She knew that would take a lot of time.

"When did you tell Cathy your name?" Trowa asked Kiri. He was surprised when Cathy answered for her.

"She hasn't," Cathy said. "Torvald started calling her Kirimek and the rest of us picked it up and shortened it a bit."

Trowa was disappointed. He'd hoped that the girl had started talking. It bothered him that she was still so…broken was the term that came to mind.

Quatre broke Trowa's train of thought. "Does it mean something?"

"Torvald says it means 'Hush' in Azerbaijani," Cathy said before taking another sip of her lemonade. She would be civil and answer Quatre's questions but that didn't mean that she had to elaborate if she didn't feel like it.

Quatre directed his next question at Kiri. "Do you like it?"

The girl nodded and he grinned.

"It suits you."

Kiri blushed and sipped at her lemonade.

"So, Kiri, Sally wants an update on your condition. Is your back better?" Trowa asked. He could tell that Cathy was keeping her answers as short as possible when Quatre asked his questions so he decided he would ask the important questions.

Kiri's cheeks were still a little pink as she nodded. Quatre kept his thoughts to himself. He wondered if Kiri was developing deeper feelings for Trowa or if it was just a passing crush. He wasn't going to call her out on it, though. He didn't want to embarrass her.

"It's mostly healed over," Cathy told Trowa. "And it didn't scar as badly as we thought it would."

Trowa nodded. At least that was good news. "And your shoulder?"

"Good as new," Cathy said.

"Well you definitely look better than you did," Quatre told the girl. "Circus life seems to agree with you."

"She's been a great help running messages for us. Even Johnson's taken to her," Cathy admitted.

Trowa raised an eyebrow. Did Cathy know about Johnson? Quatre subtly shook his head. He wasn't picking up any suspicion from Cathy. In fact, she almost seemed surprised that Johnson was willing to have anything to do with the girl.

Trowa turned his attention back to Kiri. "Are you okay with staying here a while longer?"

Kiri nodded. Her disappointment was obvious.

"I'm sorry we haven't been able to nab him yet. It's been nearly impossible to get anything on him. He covered his tracks pretty thoroughly." Trowa felt guilty. He hadn't intended for her to stay here this long and now she had to stay even longer. It didn't matter that Cathy enjoyed having her around. She deserved the freedom to make decisions based on what she wanted to do, not just because it's what would keep her hidden away.

Kiri sighed.

"Kiri? Are you sure you're okay staying here?" Quatre asked. He could feel the disappointment rolling off her. If she didn't want to stay with the circus he would find her somewhere else to stay. It wouldn't be easy, but it was doable.

Kiri nodded. It only took her a moment to write out her thoughts. 'I just wish he was off the streets so he can't hurt anyone.'

Quatre nodded. "Me, too." He quickly weighed the possibility of Kiri reverting to how they found her before carefully adding, "You know, if you could give us a statement it might be enough to get a warrant."

Kiri looked down at her paper. Quatre worried that he'd pushed her too hard. She wasn't ready to talk yet but they needed her to tell them what happened to her. Une had been lenient about it only because she knew Kiri was sick and hurt. Once she found out that the girl was fine, she'd start pushing for it.

Kiri picked up the pen and wrote, 'Can I give you a written one?'

"I don't see a problem with that, do you, Trowa?"

"Une should be okay with that."

Quatre was glad they were able to find a compromise. They'd get Une her statement and Kiri wouldn't be forced to talk before she was ready.

A knock on the door made Kiri jump. Trowa got up to answer it. He knew he was being a little paranoid but if it was someone who meant Cathy or Kiri harm, they'd have to go through him first and he knew Quatre would back him up if it became necessary.

It was the Manager. He smiled when he saw Trowa. "Ah, Trowa, I was told that you were here. Can I have a quick talk with you?"