A/N: I am so so so so so so sorry that this took so long to get out. I've had serious writer's block with it and I'm hoping that I've gotten my muse to cooperate. As a reward for waiting so patiently, I made this chapter nice and long.

Chapter 63

Trowa knocked softly on Kiri's door and waited for the agent inside to open it before leading Catherine in.

"Agent Wind, good to see you," Trowa greeted the agent.

"You as well, Agent Barton. Is this your lovely sister that I've heard so much about?"

Trowa nodded. "Cathy, this is Agent Wind."

"Pleased to meet you," Cathy said, holding out her hand.

Wind bowed and placed a kiss on Cathy's knuckles. "The pleasure is mine."

Cathy was surprised. She'd expected to shake his hand, not have him kiss hers. "Um…how is Kiri doing?"

"She is still asleep. She hasn't stirred the entire time I've been here," Wind reported.

"Thank you, Agent Wind," Trowa said. "If you'd like to go I can take over now."

Wind nodded. "I think I shall take my leave. Have a pleasant afternoon."

"You as well. Give my regards to your wife."

Wind nodded and let himself out of the room. Cathy stood next to the bed and gently pushed Kiri's hair away from her face.

"Do you really think she'll be okay?"

Trowa wanted to say yes but if he was honest with himself, he was worried that Kiri would be set back a bit. "Sally is doing everything she can for her."

A soft knock on the door caught their attention. Trowa opened it to find Wufei.

"I'll be taking this shift," he said as he came inside. "You can stay longer if you like," he added as he settled himself in the chair with a book.

"I thought Duo was supposed to take this shift," Trowa said with a frown. "What happened?"

Wufei took a moment before he answered. "Colonel Une got a report from Agent Cresswell on L2. She had the estimated numbers from the raid and some more information about the L2 property. It wasn't pretty." Wufei glanced at Cathy, silently telling Trowa that he didn't think she should know.

"It isn't like I'm going to tell anyone," Cathy said, not missing the look. "But if you don't want me to know I'll go wait in the hall."

"If you think you want to hear it then you can stay," Wufei told her. "But it isn't something that I take any pleasure in reporting."

Cathy nodded and stayed where she was.

"Agent Cresswell was with Duo when they did the raid," Wufei explained. "The day of the raid, they found a room where the girls had been caged like animals and poisoned. There were 37 girls. But after digging around a little more, Agent Cresswell's team uncovered a back room much like the attic of the house where we found Kiri."

Cathy's hand flew to her mouth. Trowa had said there were boxes of body parts in the attic of that house.

"The L2 forensics team is guessing that they have somewhere around 250 girls to piece together."

Trowa swore. Cathy paled.

"There's more. Agent Cresswell was assigned to help Duo with that raid after Agent Larkspur was removed from command at L2 for refusing to adequately assist Duo. Apparently Larkspur was the one who tipped the location off about the raid."

Trowa let off a string of colorful swears and Cathy didn't even bother to get after him for it. She felt the same way.

"He's being charged with the deaths of the 37 girls that were poisoned," Wufei said with a grim smile on his face. "Because if he hadn't tipped them off there was a good chance that Duo's team would have found them and gotten them out alive."

"I take it that Duo didn't take this information very well," Trowa said.

Wufei shook his head. "He had a total breakdown. Heero is taking him to see the psychiatrist and then he'll take him home."

Cathy bit her lip, trying not to cry. The idea that those men had killed nearly 600 girls and Kiri should have been among them made her sick. And those were just the girls that they knew about. How many other locations with decapitated girls did the Preventers still need to find? Was Kiri really going to be the only survivor? Cathy didn't want to know the answers to either of those questions.

"Speaking of the psychiatrist, we ought to stop by and get you an appointment," Trowa said, interrupting Cathy's gloomy thoughts. "If we can get you in soon then you'll be cleared to go back to the circus as soon as Paul is allowed to return."

Cathy nodded. She bent down and gave Kiri a kiss on the forehead. "You're safe now, hon. Just get better and you'll be back with me at the circus before you know it," she murmured to the sleeping girl. Cathy straightened and turned to her brother. "Okay, let's get going." She turned to Wufei. "Will you call me if she wakes up?"

Wufei frowned but seeing Trowa's small nod he agreed. "I'll call Trowa if she wakes up," he promised.

Cathy followed Trowa down to the psychiatric wing, where Trowa explained what Colonel Une ordered for Cathy. While they were waiting for the secretary to scroll through the appointments on her computer for an empty slot, Duo and Heero came out of the back room.

Duo was pale and had obviously been crying. His eyes and nose were red and he had a handful of tissues. He saw Trowa and looked down, not wanting to engage in a conversation with anyone, even a good friend.

Trowa didn't say anything, just nodded a greeting to Heero and turned his attention back to the secretary. There was an opening the next morning and Cathy agreed to take it.

"I'm supposed to be watching Kiri then," Trowa said with a frown. "Do you want me to trade with someone so I can go with you?"

Cathy shook her head. "I'll be fine. I'd rather you were with Kiri, to be honest. At least then I know she'll be safe."

Trowa frowned. "The others keep her safe, too."

"Like they kept you safe during the wars?"

"Cathy…oh, drop it. Let's go back to my place. You'll want to be well-rested for your session tomorrow."

When Heero got Duo home, Duo went straight into the bedroom and shut the door. Heero, knowing that Duo needed a little time to himself, went into the kitchen to put dinner together. When the food was ready, Heero knocked on the bedroom door. Duo didn't answer. Heero knocked again. When Duo still didn't answer, Heero opened the door.

"Duo?"

Duo was curled up on the bed with his back to the door.

"What?" Duo asked.

Heero could tell by his tone that Duo was still very upset. "Are you hungry?"

"No."

Heero frowned. Duo was always hungry. He went over to the bed and sat down. "Want to talk about it?"

"No."

Heero wasn't entirely sure what to do. "Duo…you know I hate seeing you upset. Is there anything I can do to help you?"

"I don't know," Duo whispered.

Heero laid down next to Duo and pulled him into his arms, spooning him. "It wasn't your fault."

Duo didn't answer Heero. Heero decided to let the silence be for the moment. Duo needed support, and pushing him into functioning would only cause him to retreat further.

Duo rolled over and returned Heero's embrace, but he didn't look him in the face. "Thanks, 'Ro," he whispered. "But you're wrong."

Heero's eyes widened. "How can you even think that, Duo?"

"Because it's my fault Larkspur got fired. If I hadn't said anything to Trowa then Une wouldn't have found out and then Larkspur wouldn't have—"

"Duo you listen to me," Heero interrupted. "What Larkspur did was not your fault. It was not because of anything you did. And you are not going to sit here and blame yourself for it."

"But if I—"

"No, Duo!" Heero growled. "Larkspur was listed on the clientele list. He was using those girls. That's why he didn't want you to do the raid in the first place and why he was refusing to help you. Youdidn't do anything wrong and you are not going to make yourself believe that you did. Do you understand me?"

Duo looked up at Heero and tears started down his cheeks. "Oh, 'Ro!" Duo buried his face into Heero's chest and cried.

Heero held Duo tightly and let him cry. "That's it," he murmured into Duo's hair. "Let it out."

Heero held Duo until he cried himself to sleep. Then Heero carefully disentangled himself and covered Duo with a blanket. He hated that Duo was taking all of this so personally. It wasn't the first time they'd lost victims. It made Heero wonder how many of those deaths Duo blamed himself for as well.

Heero went into the kitchen to clean up. He put the food into the fridge and got himself a drink. He wasn't overly hungry at the moment and he hoped that when Duo woke up, his boyfriend would feel more like himself and want dinner. He was just about to check on Duo again when his phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Yuy, how's Maxwell?"

"He could be better, Colonel," Heero answered truthfully. "He's sleeping at the moment but he still blames himself for what happened to those girls."

"Make him go to the psychiatrist as many times as he needs to in order to deal with this," Une told him. "This is going to sound harsher than I mean for it to but he needs to function after incidents like this if he's going to stay a field agent."

Heero nodded. "I understand what you mean. I'll be sure to discuss it with him."

"Good. I need to meet with you so we can discuss the next move for the girl."

"Do we have to meet tonight?" Heero asked. He wasn't sure he wanted to leave Duo alone.

"I was thinking of first thing in the morning. Does 0800 work for you?"

"That should be fine," Heero answered.

"I'll see you tomorrow. Have a good evening."

Heero hung up his phone and looked up to see Duo standing in the doorway.

"Who are you meeting?" Duo asked.

"Colonel Une wants to discuss what our next move with the girl should be. I'll meet with her tomorrow morning. How are you feeling?"

"Hungry."

Heero smiled. "Okay. What do you want to eat?"

Duo shrugged.

"I made a casserole. We could heat it up or we could go get something. Whatever you want."

Duo sighed. "Heero, you don't need to cater to me. You went to all the effort of making a casserole and I probably ruined it by refusing to eat when it was ready. I'm sorry that I'm so selfish."

Heero frowned. "You're not being selfish, Duo. And you didn't ruin the casserole by not eating it earlier. If you want something else to eat just tell me. I'm really okay with it."

Duo ran a hand through his bangs but didn't answer Heero.

"Duo. Tell me what you want to eat."

"I don't know what I want to eat!"

Heero blinked. "It's okay. Does anything sound good to you?"

"NO, Heero, I don't know…nothing sounds good. I'm going back to bed."

Duo shut the door to their bedroom and Heero sighed. He hadn't meant to push Duo away again. He also didn't want to upset Duo further by discussing what Colonel Une had said about Duo not acting this way. He knew that Duo probably wanted to be left alone but Heero wanted to make sure that he was okay so he knocked on the bedroom door again.

"What do you want?" Duo snapped from the other side of the door.

"I wanted to make sure you were okay," Heero said. "I'm sorry for pushing you. Come out when you're ready."

Duo pulled the door open and threw himself into Heero's arms before Heero knew what was happening.

"I'm sorry, 'Ro!"

Heero wrapped his arms around his boyfriend. "It's okay, Duo."

Duo was crying again. Heero hated seeing Duo like this. He knew that Duo didn't want to be this way but he didn't know what to do about it.

"I think you should see the psychiatrist again, Duo."

"Okay." Duo sniffled.

Heero frowned. "Okay? Just like that? No pretending that you're fine? No putting on a show and smiling through it?"

"I can't keep doing this Heero. I hate getting like this."

Heero kissed the top of Duo's head. "Okay."

They held each other for a few minutes. Duo needed Heero's strength and comfort. He counted himself fortunate to have found someone like Heero.

"Would you like me to order a pizza?" Heero knew that pizza was Duo's "go-to" comfort food. He never turned down pizza.

Duo shrugged. "We can heat up the casserole you made. I feel bad that you went to all that trouble and I'm not sure I want to wait for a pizza."

Heero was about to ask if that was really what Duo wanted when Duo's stomach growled.

Heero chuckled. "If that's what you want."

Sally came in twice to check on Kiri while Wufei was on guard duty.

"No change, Sally," Wufei informed her when she came in the second time. He was in the chair, reading a thick book on Mayan ruins.

Sally sighed. "I figured as much. How are you holding up?"

"I'm fine, Sally," he said with a frown as he stood up. "What's got you so rattled?"

It was unusual for Sally to be so obsessed with how a patient was recovering. Her behavior might have gone unnoticed by everyone else but Wufei could tell when she was agitated. That knowledge had kept him on her good side on more than one occasion.

"I honestly don't know. I'm just restless."

Her arms dropped to her sides as Wufei wrapped her into his strong embrace. She allowed herself to melt against him and just let him hold her.

"Thank you," she murmured.

"Anytime," he murmured back.

Duo was not happy about having to see Colonel Une again.

"Why did I have to come?" he whined as he followed Heero into the Preventer building.

Heero knew his real reason would piss off the braided pilot. He didn't want to leave Duo alone to wallow in self-pity. He was certain that Duo wouldn't resort to self-harm but he wasn't about to take any unnecessary risks.

Instead, Heero told him, "You need to set up your next appointment with the psychiatrist. You can do that while I speak with Une."

Duo sighed and nodded. "Fine. I'll go do that and then meet you back here."

Heero knew that Duo wouldn't fight him on this, not after last night. So he discreetly patted Duo's arm, not daring any more intimate displays of affection right under Une's nose, and headed for Une's office. Duo sighed again and left for the psychiatrist's office to set up another appointment.

"Good to see you, Agent Yuy," Colonel Une greeted him as he entered her office. "How is Maxwell?"

"He's setting up another appointment with the psychiatrist. After this assignment is complete I'm going to insist on a vacation for everyone on my team. They're all working too hard and I think it's starting to get to some of them."

"You did know that Barton is planning to submit his resignation after this assignment, didn't you?"

Heero nodded. "I know. But the stress is starting to show on Winner, even though he's trying to hide it and I suspect Chang is more stressed than he's letting on as well. I don't want anything to happen to any of them just because they all refuse to take a break when they need it."

Une nodded. "Fine. As soon as this assignment is put to rest I'll grant a month vacation for each of you. Heaven knows you've earned it."

"I'll hold you to that, Colonel. What was it you wanted to discuss today?"

"We need to decide what to do next. All of our leads seem to have dried up."

Heero nodded, his expression grave. "Yes. I had planned to go over some of our earlier leads and see if there was something that we missed."

"I thought we might try the girl's parents again."

Heero frowned. "They were too high to talk to us last time. I don't think they'll be reliable sources of information."

"I understand, but I thought that maybe we should try a different approach."

"What did you have in mind?"

"What if we have the girl talk to her parents?"

Heero frowned. "Why would they tell her anything?"

"I'd be willing to bet that those two weren't as high as they let you think they were. If it's just the girl then their guards will be down and they'll probably brag about how they fooled the Preventers."

"You want to send her in with a wire."

"Yes. We'll be able to monitor the situation and extract her as soon as we have the information we need."

"Barton and Winner won't like this."

Une waved a hand. "They'll have to get over it. We need to use the girl to get this investigation moving again."

Heero frowned. "With all due respect, I'm not sure I approve of this plan, Colonel. That girl is recovering from serious injuries. She still isn't talking. If she goes to her parents how can she get them to talk when she can't ask them any questions?"

"I will speak to Dr. Po and see how the girl is recovering. We will, of course, wait until she is recovered from this latest injury before implementing this maneuver. Perhaps by then she will agree to speak to us."

"And if she doesn't?" Heero pressed. The girl had refused to speak with anyone so far and he wasn't going to hold his breath while he waited for her to start. She was stubborn, that was for sure.

"Then I'll talk to her and tell her what we expect from her. I'm sure that she'll see reason."

Heero could see the sense in Une's plan. They had no other leads and he wasn't about to wait around for another building full of dead girls to appear. These men needed to be stopped.

"Okay, Colonel. I will speak to my team today so that we're all on the same page."

"They're not going to like this, you know."

"I know, Duo," Heero said as he straightened his desk.

Duo was leaning against the wall, arms crossed, as he watched his partner. Heero's desk was already well organized. Heero only obsessively cleaned like this when he was stressed.

"Do you have to tell them? I mean…can't you just change Une's mind?"

Heero shook his head. "I tried that already. There's nothing we can do but follow orders."

Duo sighed. "Okay. Who do you want me to bring in first?"

"Wufei. He isn't as emotionally attached as the other two so he'll be easier to tell. And he can be used as backup with the others if necessary."

Duo nodded and sent Wufei a text message. "Do you want me to have Quatre or Trowa on standby?"

"Have Quatre come next. Trowa is a little too attached to the girl," Heero said slowly. "I think he'll be the most upset about this and I'd like to have time to let him get over it if necessary."

"Right. Neither one of them is going to be easy to deal with but if you tell them at the same time, they might gang up on ya."

Heero nodded. "I considered that. But I think if I tell them separately then any concerns they have can be discussed immediately and dealt with before any real issues can cause problems."

A knock on the door was followed by Wufei sticking his head inside. "You wanted to see me?"

"Yes. I'll be meeting with Quatre and Trowa as well. Come in." Heero waited until Wufei was inside and the door was secure. "Colonel Une has decided that the girl will be sent home and we will ask her to wear a wire so that we can see if her parents provide her with a new lead for us."

Wufei frowned. "That seems a little risky considering that the girl doesn't speak. How can we get her to get information from her parents if she won't speak to them? Given what we saw last time, I'd be surprised if they were smart enough to read the notes she writes."

Duo snorted. "That could be entertaining to watch."

"Colonel Une wants to talk to the girl and see if she can get her to talk."

"Hmmm." Wufei put a finger to his mouth as he thought. "And what happens if she still won't talk?"

"Colonel Une seems pretty sure that she can get her to talk. I don't think she's considered a scenario where the girl refuses."

Wufei nodded slowly. "I guess that we shall have to let this mission take its course. I don't imagine that Quatre and Trowa will approve and I don't think Sally will be too pleased with it, either. However, orders are orders. Let me know what you need me to do and I will see it gets done."

"I do not know when this part of the mission will happen. The girl is still unconscious and she will need to recover from her injuries before we take this step."

"Understood."

"Good. Is Quatre watching the girl right now?"

"I believe so. Trowa will be relieving him in the next hour or so."

"In that case, I want you to watch the girl while I speak to Quatre. I'll catch Trowa after he comes on his shift with the girl. Once Quatre returns to watch the girl, you are free to go. Do not discuss this with either of them until after they've spoken to me. I think it would be best for them to hear it from me, especially considering their relationships with the girl. I don't particularly like this plan so I'm sure that they won't. I'll be in touch if I learn anything else."

Wufei left and Heero turned to Duo. "That wasn't so bad."

"No, but Quatre isn't going to take it that well."

Heero sighed. "I know."

"So…I've got a session in a bit. I don't know if I'll have to leave before you finish talking with Quatre but I think it might be a good idea to wait until I'm done to talk to Trowa. Depending on how Quatre takes it we might be able to tell how bad Trowa's going to take it."

Heero nodded. "I may wait to tell Trowa, if only so that you can watch the girl while I do. But I don't want him to hear about this from Quatre or Wufei. It's better if I tell him."

"Yeah, okay."

A knock on the door signaled a new arrival.

"Speak of the devil," Duo said softly.

"Come in," Heero said.

Quatre entered and closed the door behind him. "What's going on, Heero?"

"Sit down, Quatre. I've just spoken with Colonel Une about the next step we need to take in this investigation. She seems to think that the girl can be convinced to talk to us so she will meet with her and attempt to do so. Furthermore, the Colonel has decided that we need to speak with the girl's parents again."

"Do you think they'll be more cooperative this time?" Quatre asked with a frown.

Heero glanced at Duo before plunging on. "Une would like the girl to speak to her parents."

"WHAT?!" Quatre jumped to his feet. "That's the worst idea I've ever heard! It's ridiculous! There's no way that Kiri is going to start talking, especially not to those people! You know how upset she was when she found out that they were siding with Chase!"

"Quatre, calm down," Heero said. "I do understand your frustration with this. Colonel Une wants to wait until she is recovered from her injuries so we have a little time to get her to talk. And she will be wearing a wire; we'll know everything that goes on even while we're not with her."

"You can't seriously be considering leaving her alone with them for any length of time! They're dangerous! They'll sell her again! Just how long do you think it'd take to spirit her away and hide her in the trunk of a car? She's small enough that she'll fit no matter the make."

"Quat, calm down buddy," Duo sad. "We're not gonna let anything happen to her."

Quatre sighed. "That isn't what I think and you know it. If she ends up in Carter's clutches again she may withdraw and I don't think we'd get her back. Is there no other way, Heero?"

Heero shook his head. "Une has ordered it. I couldn't change her mind."

Quatre sighed again and nodded. "Fine then. You know Trowa isn't going to like this."

"Yeah, we know," Duo said. "Heero's gonna tell him. He's already told Wufei."

"If Colonel Une is going to try and get the girl to talk, she'll have to be careful not to scare her. Maybe one of us should be there just in case."

"I will be with Colonel Une," Heero told him.

Quatre wasn't sure that was going to help. If Heero lost his patience with Kiri then the poor girl would have two angry Preventers to deal with on her own.

"If Kiri says she won't do it, promise me you won't let Colonel Une bully her into it."

"Quatre, I can't promise that. I will try to keep Une from forcing her but you know as well as I do how stubborn that woman can be. And she outranks all of us so it isn't like I can just go against her orders."

"Fine," Quatre huffed. "I guess if that's the best you can do then that's what we're stuck with."

"Quat you're not being fair," Duo butt in. "I don't see you tryin' to change Une's mind. And I know that Heero argued with her long and hard about it."

Quatre was silent for a moment as he thought. His brow furrowed and he frowned. Suddenly his expression changed to one of sweet understanding. "If we can't change Colonel Une's mind, perhaps Cathy can."

"You really think that you can get Cathy to talk to Une?" Duo asked dubiously.

"It shouldn't be hard," Quatre said. "All I have to do is tell her that it's for Kiri and she'll be all for it."

"If you want to set Cathy on Colonel Une, be my guest," Heero said. "But don't say anything to her until after I've had a chance to talk to Trowa or we'll have problems. You know the first thing Cathy will do is complain to Trowa and ask him to make Une change her mind. If he tells her that we've already tried then maybe that will make her mad enough to go after Une and make her change the orders."

"When will you be speaking to Trowa?"

"He's on duty to watch the girl next, isn't he?" Heero asked.

Quatre nodded.

"I'll speak to him sometime during his shift. Duo will watch the girl while I do so it will have to wait until he gets out of a meeting."

Quatre could feel Duo's embarrassment so he elected not to ask what meeting Duo had. "Fine. I will wait for Trowa to arrive as I'm sure he'll bring Cathy with him. Once he is in your office I will set my own agenda in motion."

A/N: I hope everyone has a safe and happy New Year!