Frayed Edges

Kassidy: Here's Chapter Two, right behind the first one.

Kandice: And remember, we don't own GW!

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Chapter Two

Not a Psychic

"Why don't you try one of those psychic people?"

Heero looked up at his girlfriend. Her honey hair shone in the afternoon light. He and Duo were sitting outside on the steps of the PD, enjoying the sandwiches Releena had brought them. She was always doing things like that. One of the reasons Heero loved her whereas he'd never loved another human being.

She was beautiful, innocent, and maybe a bit naive. But she was intelligent, brave, and incredibly loving and giving. Duo blinked at her.

"Huh?"

"A psychic. Y'know, like on that TV show Medium? I mean, nothing else has worked, so what is there to loose? My cousin Dorothy knows someone like that. She said he helped them solve a case or two in New York."

"Dorothy's the lawyer from Manhattan, right?" Heero asked. Releena nodded, her sky blue eyes soft and bright.

"Y'know, she's gotta point, 'Ro," Duo said, mulling it over. "We don't have anything to loose. This is a seven year old case with no fingerprints, no DNA. We don't even know who she is. It might be a crack, but it could pay to look into this idea."

Heero nodded silently. Releena smiled. "Dorothy's coming for Mr. Merquis's conference Friday. I already talked her into bringing her psychic friend."

Duo grinned. "Girl... are you always two steps ahead of us?"

Releena's smile was blinding.

"Of course. What are girlfriends for?"

________________________

Three days later found Heero and Duo waiting at the quite local bar at a secluded table. Each had a water, forgoing liquor since they were technically still on duty. It was Friday, and Dorothy's friend- a professional criminal profiler that might have helped them anyway- was supposed to be meeting them in only a few minutes.

Heero kept his eyes open for their help. Duo, however, was drifting off to the lull of the background music. His mind meandered from thing to thing, picking out odd little details. Like the fact that O'Connels, an Irish pub, was playing a soft New Orleans jazz. He noticed how the window was cracked in the bottom left hand corner. He pondered the mix-matched bar stools and polished silver chandeliers. He wondered briefly why the bartender was wearing driving gloves, but the caramel haired man was soon forgotten as a blond appeared in his way.

"Dectectives Yuy and Maxwell?"

Duo blinked up into blue eyes. No... blue-green. There was a faint ring of green around the outside of the iris.

"Yes?" Heero asked, unphased.

The blond held out his hand.

"Quatre Raberba Winner. My good friend Dorothy Catalonia said you might could use my services on an cold case."

"Lord, could we!" Duo exclaimed, shaking the offered hand. Heero ignored it. Quatre sat down across from them.

"I've heard alot about mediums. Maybe you can help us." Heero commented.

Quatre laughed. "Maybe. Except I'm not a medium. Mediums communicate with the dead. I don't do that. I can't do that."

"Alright. Psychic, then," Duo said.

Another light laugh. "Not a psychic either," Quatre said. "Psychics, like clairvoyants and such, see things. I don't."

"Well," Heero said, annoyed. "If you can't do anything, why did Miss Catalonia and Relena Darlian recommend you?"

"Because I am an empath. A fairly strong one."

"A whats-eth?" Duo asked. "Like a telepath? You can read my thoughts?"

"No," Quatre shook his head, slightly annoyed and slightly bemused. "I feel emotions. Telepaths hear your exact thoughts at that moment. I feel the emotions associated with it. In some ways it's better. Some ways, it's not. You have to be a fairly good at reading people anyway, else it's deceptive, because one's thoughts don't always match one's emotions. I've never actually tested my range, but it's quite larger than most, I think. And I usually try to block everyone, so I can at least act normal. And like I said, I'm a fairly strong empath. Probably the strongest one known at the moment. Sometimes, I can get a clearer reception of someone and it's almost, almost like telepathy. I can use emotions to piece together a person's thoughts, and overall personality sometimes."

"Prove it," Duo dared.

Quatre sighed, then nodded. "Fine. All I have to do is focus on someone. Just think really hard about one thing."

Duo schooled his features, closed his eyes, and with every bit of mental power he had, focused solely on his wife, Hilde.

"Love and happiness," Quatre supplied almost immidiately. "Using that, I'd guess it's probably the woman who put that ring on your finger."

"Anyone could guess that," Heero pointed out.

"I'm not done," Quatre frowned sharply. "There's regret along with it. Tiny hints of anger and dis-content. Passion, devotion, in equal amounts. But it's all overshadowed by the love. I'd say that maybe she doesn't like something. Your job? Maybe your friends or something? And maybe there's something she did you didn't agree with. Little things, normal things. But it's growing bigger, and you need to stop it before it gets out of hand. The love overshadows it all now, but eventually, somethings going to give."

Duo opened his eyes. They were dark and troubled. "He got it a hole-in-one, 'Ro," he whispered. Heero knew about Hilde's dislike of his job, and his own regret that he couldn't find it in himself to quite the force.

"I think this guy's for real," Duo surmised.

Heero nodded, and the two took turns in relating the case they wanted to re-open. Quatre nodded, following along. When they finished, Quatre frowned and shook his head.

"I don't see how I can help. The other cases I worked on... they already had suspects. I could pick out which one was feeling guilty. Which ones were angry. That's how I helped them. I just did a reading on their suspects, like a human lie detector. You don't have any suspects. Technically, you don't even have a name for your victim."

"We've called her Jane," Duo added. "Jane Doe."

"Maybe you would come by the precinct and look at the file?" Heero prompted. "Even if your empathic abilities can't help, maybe you could piece together what kind of person would do this? Who we should be looking for in our suspects?"

Quatre nodded. "Of course. I'd be happy too."

"Good. Duo... you and I need to return. We still have other cases to work on."

"I'll be by tomorrow. It's late, and I'm feeling a bit hungry," Quatre said. "How's the food here?"

"Pretty good," Duo nodded as he rose. "If you like hot stuff, try their wings. If not, they've got killer subs."

"Soup's good," Heero commented absently as he and his partner left the blond standing beside the now vacant table.

Quatre sighed, and made his way to the bar.

tbc....