Chapter 82
Colonel Une was waiting when Kiri's ambulance pulled up to the hospital.
"I want to know exactly what happened out there," she said as Duo and Quatre climbed out of the back of the ambulance. They stood out of the way as the medical personnel got Kiri's gurney out of the ambulance and transported her inside.
"Where are Chang, Yuy, and Barton?" Une asked with a frown as she realized they were not also inside the ambulance.
"They're coming in the other ambulance," Quatre said. "Trowa was shot while trying to protect Kiri and he insisted that we transport her back first as she is in worse condition than he is."
Duo's phone chirruped and he read the text. "Oh wow! Wufei and Trowa are on their way back but Heero stayed because they found the surveillance room! Wufei said he'll report in more detail when he gets in but it looks like it has everything we need!"
"That's great!" Quatre exclaimed. "Now we can get everyone in jail and Kiri can really get on with her life. She won't have anything to worry about anymore."
"What about Chase and Decart? Will we be able to track them down if they figure out that we've found their location?" Une asked.
"Well, uh," Duo started as he scratched the back of his head. "See…I kind of shot Chase. He's dead. So it's really only Decart we gotta worry about trackin' down. But we've got some leads on him and I think the videos might give us some clues as well. Heero said that the surveillance videos from the Whitaker place had the same digital signature as the videos where we found Kiri. So I'm willing to bet that those videos got sent to the same place. If they recorded everything like I think they did, we'll be able to track 'em down."
"I expect a full written report Maxwell. I'll need one from everyone, so you might as well get started now while you remember what happened. I'll speak to Chang and Barton when they get in and Yuy when he reports."
"Yes, Ma'am," the two agents answered in unison.
Une left and Duo slumped.
"Man, I hate paperwork."
Quatre chuckled. "I know but it will give you something to do until Heero gets back. Besides, if we finish before they get back we can go get something to eat while we wait for Sally to let us know how Kiri's doing. Maybe we can bring her a treat or something."
"Yeah. I hope she doesn't end up having nightmares about me shooting Chase. I mean, I literally shot at him over her shoulder. Now that I think about it, it was a dumb thing to do. If she would'a moved her head just the wrong way I could'a killed her. I'll be surprised if I didn't damage her hearing." Duo ran a hand through his bangs. "Trowa'll kill me if he realizes that."
"I think Trowa will forgive you," Quatre said. "I think he'll be more concerned about how Kiri's doing than whether or not you should have shot Chase when you did."
"True. Come on, Quat, let's get our homework done so we can get something to eat."
Duo was just putting the finishing touches on his report when Quatre came into his office.
"Wufei and Trowa are back," he said. "I'm going to go over and see how Trowa is. Want to come?"
"Yeah. Give me just a second to save this." Duo saved the document and closed his laptop. "Let's go. I wanna hear about what they found after we left."
They met up with Wufei in the hospital lobby.
"How's Trowa?" Quatre asked.
"He'll be fine. Sally's worried about nerve damage so she's put him on bed rest for a few weeks. I think she admitted him to the hospital so that he would have an excuse to be here when Kiri comes around."
Quatre chuckled. "Yeah, well, Sally's not completely oblivious to how he feels about her. And I think it saves us the trouble of explaining to Une why he's here all the time."
Wufei nodded. "Come on, I'll show you where his room is. I can show you where Kiri is as well. She's just down the hall from Trowa."
"So, he's on the same floor as Kiri," Duo commented as they got off the elevator.
"Yes, Sally wanted to minimize Trowa's excursion distance," Wufei said. "However, she drew the line at putting their rooms next to each other. She didn't want to invite trouble where it could be avoided."
Quatre and Duo shared a knowing look. Trowa was getting in deeper with each passing day whether he realized it or not.
"Well, let's go see how he is," Duo said. "And you can tell us all about the surveillance room."
Wufei knocked on the door before opening it and sticking his head in. "Are you decent yet?"
"Very funny, Wufei. Come in."
"I brought some company for you."
"How are you Trowa?" Quatre asked as he and Duo filed into the room.
"According to Sally I am very lucky to still have the use of my arm. She's immobilized it to let the nerves heal."
"Well you listen to her and do as she says so you can get back up to full speed," Quatre said. "You know that Catherine won't be happy if you can't go back to the circus when you're done here."
"Yeah," Trowa said slowly. "Let's all agree not to tell her about this until my shoulder is better. I don't need her coming here to try and baby me."
"Or to yell at us for letting you get shot," Duo added. "I ain't gonna say anything to her."
"So tell us what was in that surveillance room," Quatre said to Wufei, changing the subject.
"Everything."
"Can you be more specific?" Duo asked.
"There were video feeds from every location Chase and Decart run. It will take a team months to go through everything. The footage goes back more than twenty years."
Duo let out a low whistle. "Heero suspected this has been going on for a while. How did we not pick up on this sooner?"
"They were pretty good at covering their tracks," Wufei said. "But I bet as soon as we start looking at all the evidence we'll be able to find a pattern."
Quatre was frowning at the ground.
"What's wrong, Quatre?" Trowa asked.
"It's just…if they killed all the girls they took…" He bit his lip. "That's just a lot of women that had their lives cut short. I don't know if we should tell Kiri about it. It will upset her."
"We may not be able to keep the information from her," Wufei said. "I'm sure it will make headlines once we start charging the perpetrators."
"So will we need to set up supervision for Kiri again or do you think she'll be fine without us this time?" Duo asked.
Wufei thought for a moment. "I think it might be a good idea to continue guarding her. We don't know who was working with Chase and he may have mentioned that she was here before. If he told someone that she was still alive and they figure out that we have her back in our custody, it makes sense that they might come here looking for her."
Quatre nodded. "We can set up a guard schedule. It won't be much different than what we did before."
"On the subject of Kiri, we have to decide what to tell her," Trowa said.
"What do you mean?" Duo asked. "About what?"
"I really think that Kiri thought she pulled that trigger," Trowa said. "I don't think she would have been as upset about Chase dying in front of her like that if that hadn't been the case. She didn't even know Duo was there until he took the gun away from her. But I don't want her afraid of Duo because he killed someone."
"That's true," Duo said. "I guess we can ask her when she wakes up how she feels about me killing him."
"I wouldn't word it like that, Duo," Quatre said. "But maybe we should let her think she did pull the trigger."
"Why would we do that?" Trowa asked. "Wouldn't that upset her?"
"Maybe," Quatre admitted. "But it also might empower her. We can help her to understand that she can decide what happens to her and influence the outcome."
"By killing people?" Trowa asked with a frown. "I feel like that sends the wrong message."
"That's rich, coming from us," Wufei quipped.
Quatre rolled his eyes. "That isn't what I mean and you know it. She's spent the last five years being manipulated and abused. She isn't in that situation anymore. She can choose things for herself now and she needs the confidence to make the changes in her life that will help her to move forward and let go of her past."
"Isn't there another way we could do that?" Trowa asked. "I don't like lying to her."
"It isn't a one hundred percent complete lie," Quatre reasoned. "She did keep his attention and distract him long enough for Duo to shoot him. If she had just gone along with what he wanted, that wouldn't have happened."
"Oh, well when you put it that way, it's just a lie that she pulled the trigger herself," Duo said. "I'm sure that's so much better."
"Will you stop being so picky about the details? Don't you think Kiri will heal better if she doesn't have to be afraid anymore?"
"Yes," Trowa agreed. "But what about dealing with the guilt? We know better than most that killing people comes with a price. It isn't fair to make her pay that when she didn't do anything wrong."
Quatre sighed. "I get that, Trowa. How about this: I will monitor her emotions and if the guilt gets to be too much for her I'll come clean with her and let her off the hook, okay?"
"I guess that could work. But if she finds out we lied to her she won't trust us anymore."
"That's a risk I'm willing to take," Quatre said. "I will take the blame for the lie and apologize to her if it comes down to that. But I really think that this will be better for her in the long run."
Trowa, Wufei and Duo looked at each other. Duo shrugged.
"Fine, Quatre. Have it your way," Trowa said with a sigh. "But if we're going to do this we all have to agree to stick to the same story or she'll get suspicious. She's smart and won't appreciate being manipulated."
"I'll let Heero know," Quatre promised. "You get some rest. As soon as Kiri's awake I'm sure she'll want to see you and if you're not well enough to visit her she'll worry."
Trowa nodded but he waited until the others were gone to before he sat up and scowled at the floor. He was not happy about lying to Kiri. He was sure this would backfire somehow but the blonde was almost impossible to contend with when he got an idea in his head.
"I hope Kiri doesn't hate us for this."
Heero was later than he expected to be. He hoped that Duo wasn't angry with him but there had been so much information to collect that it took more time than he'd anticipated. He'd also looked at some of the video feeds from the house where they'd found Kiri.
His curiosity had gotten the better of him and he regretted looking at part of Kiri's last two days at that house. It had made him sick to his stomach to watch Chase beat the hell out of her. He'd turned it off after that, unable to watch what had happened between the beating and their raiding the place. He still felt guilty for thinking that she'd been playing them, even though he knew better now.
He'd driven straight home without stopping to eat because he wasn't sure he could keep anything down. He hoped by morning he'd be better able to deal with it all.
"Duo? Sorry I'm late," Heero called as he came through the door.
Duo jumped up from the couch and dashed over, giving Heero an enthusiastic hug and planting a kiss on his lips.
"No problem, babe. Wufei told us what you found." Duo frowned. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing serious, I just…happened to look at one of the tapes to make sure it was what we were after and…"
"What was on it?" Duo prompted when Heero didn't finish his sentence.
Heero took a deep breath. "Chase beating Kiri the night before we found her. I…don't know how she survived it, to be honest."
"Oh, 'Ro." Duo wrapped Heero into his warm embrace. "I'm so sorry. I'm sure that's not what you expected to see."
Heero didn't say anything and he didn't need to. He just clung to Duo and let his boyfriend comfort him.
"Did you eat dinner?" Duo asked after a while.
"No. I wasn't sure I'd keep anything down."
Duo frowned. "It was that bad?"
Heero nodded.
"Do you want me to make you something?"
Heero pulled out of Duo's embrace. "I can just throw together a sandwich. Why don't you pick out a movie and we'll relax tonight."
"Don't you need to fill out a report?"
"I can do it tomorrow, after I've had a chance to sleep. I don't think I could focus on it tonight."
Duo smiled. "Okay. Wanna throw some popcorn in the microwave while you're makin' your sandwich?"
Heero smiled and gave Duo a kiss on the tip of his nose. "Sure."