Disclaimer: Don't own Gundam Wing, or any Gundams. Robots that big haven't been invented yet.

Ok, it's kind of sad that I still can't remember my plans for BtG! And now I really want to remember instead of coming up with something else! So since this one is off to a good start, we'll keep it going. At least until I can remember where I wanted BtG to go.

10-56A

Chapter 3: Why Are You Here?

Heero kept a close watch as Duo finally peeked through his drug haze and looked back at him. It would be an amazing transformation to watch, if it hadn't been the man he'd been so desperately in love with for so many years.

"Uh, Heero?" Duo finally put the pen down and sat back in the extra chair, looking around as if for the first time. "Can I go home now?"

Heero had the grace to look ashamed, "Sorry, no. I'm supposed to keep you here." Heero nervously explained.

"Oh" Duo looked taken aback. "Can I ask why?"

Heero really wondered how much Duo remembered. "Um… you were standing out on a ledge of a very tall building." Heero explained.

Duo looked as if he'd just remembered something, but underneath it Heero could see the doubt, the uncertainty. He'd seen it a dozen times during the war, Duo has always been good at hiding fear, at hiding his lack of knowledge. And there it was, behind his eyes as Duo smiled at him.

"So, they try and put me in a ward yet?"

"No, I'm keeping you here until we can get that taken care of." Heero was surprised as how firm his voice was, and apparently so was Duo.

"Heero, it's standard procedure, you can't just wipe 'crazy' off the record and expect no one to notice." Duo smiled at him sadly.

"I'll fix this." Heero tried to reassure him.

"Heero-" Duo started to argue when there was a loud bang of a door outside followed by loud voice arguing.

"Just let me see him, you're supposed to release him when I come to get him." A female voice that Heero didn't know, followed by Ember's.

"We're holding him right now, we have to keep him in custody due to circumstances-"

"Oh screw your circumstances." The door to Heero's office swung open. "Duo, get up, we're leaving."

Heero stared, in had walked a blonde woman, just a few years older than Duo, her hair pulled back in a very messy pony tail, clothes hanging off of her, a button down white shirt and black pants, both clearly dirty. Her shoes were on, but not tied with mismatched socks peeking out from under her pants. There were dark marks under her eyes and she had shifty, right green eyes and a slight twitch to her that had her in almost constant movement.

Duo actually started to stand up and Heero was very surprised to see a look of relief on his face.

"I told you he can't leave." Ember reached out and grabbed the arm of Kitty Phillips who then twisted her arm out of the hard grasp.

"Duo, we're going." Kitty reached out to grab Duo and Heero found himself suddenly standing and everyone looking at him when his chair slammed back on the floor.

He recovered quickly. "He's not leaving."

"Yes. He. Is." Kitty leaned forward and took a hold of Duo and started to pull them both back towards the door.

Ember stepped in front of them and blocked the path. Heero came around the desk and came to stand next to Duo, and being suddenly in her proximity he could smell the smoke on her that wasn't cigarettes. Heero made the connection, Kitty wasn't just Duo's roommate, she was his dealer.

"Ember, I think Miss Phillips here needs some coffee, I still have to pull up Duo's records, why don't you…" Heero paused as he realized he'd need Ember for the report since she'd been the Lead on site.

Celeste's head appeared behind Ember. "I'll take her."

Both Ember and Heero turned towards Celeste as she pushed her way into the room, a shy smile on her face, looking only at Kitty. Ember looked at Heero and they exchanged a look, Ember raising one eyebrow, Heero really surprised. Celeste's attention for Kitty practically screaming her intentions.

"Sure Celeste, why don't you take Kitty here to the break room." Ember couldn't help the small smile as Celeste swept her arm out to escort Kitty out of the room and didn't even bother to hide it as she watched Kitty's ass as they left.

Heero didn't know how to react to suddenly finding that out about Celeste, so he just went back to the problem at hand and his own love life. "Duo," He got Duo looking back at him now from staring after Kitty kind of like a life line that had just been pulled out of his grasp.

"Yeah?" Duo asked as he put on a mask so fast that Heero almost hadn't caught it, but he recognized the tactic. He'd had too much practice from watching Duo throughout the war, when he'd thought he'd never live to see the end of the fighting. Now the war was over, an still he hadn't made any move to…

"I need you to pay attention while we go over this report." Heero directed as Ember came around with a file and they both started going over the report. No use dwelling on it now. Right now Duo needed him as a Preventor agent, but Duo's actions were any indication, he couldn't ignore things in his personal life anymore.

Duo realized about half way through that they were smudging stuff over and changing things so that Duo wasn't about to be required to have a psyche evaluation. And though he felt guilty for letting Heero do this for him, while he knew it wasn't right, he also really didn't want to end up in a nut house. So he let them, let them save him from a padded room and just filled out the forms as they asked him to.

Duo started to feel the burn as they were going over the last few papers in the report. It started in his gut and behind his eyes. A kind of hungry feeling in his stomach and a sting in his eyes that made his eyes want to water, made him want to close them against the harsh light. Things around him focused in and out of clarity, but he ignored it as Heero passed him the last papers to sign. He knew these symptoms all too well and knew that they'd only go away if he got out of here and got a dose from Kitty. So he signed papers and wrote down his address and his contact info one last time while he hid his cravings from the people standing over him.

"Please tell me that's the last one." Duo laughed as he pushed the signed paper back at Heero across the desk and set the pen down.

Heero picked it up distractedly and filed it with the rest of the papers, tapping them on the desk to align the edges. "Yes… that should be it."

"So then…I can go?" Duo pushed, feeling the urge in him tighten his gut and make a tremor start in his hands that he was going to have a hard time hiding if he stayed too long.

Ember and Heero looked up at him at the same time with the same expressions. "What?" Ember asked at the same time Heero said a firm "No."

"But, you said-" Duo started to protest.

"I said I would fix it so you wouldn't need a psyche evaluation, I didn't say you could just go back to this… this… lifestyle you've chosen as if nothing had happened." Heero surprised even himself as his volume increased as he spoke.

Duo stared at Heero, he couldn't remember seeing Heero so upset, ever. He'd seen him mad, sure, but this was different. Heero never lost it like this, even when he'd punched Duo he'd still maintained a calm exterior. This was just… weird.

"Heero, I have to go home. I do have a job to get to." Duo tried giving Heero an easy smile to assure him, to ease the tension, but it only seemed to piss Heero off more.

"No, you can't go to work, you can't leave. We need to talk." Heero slammed his hand down on his desk to emphasize his point.

"And that sounds fun, but you can't keep me here. I really have to go Heero. But it was great seeing you again." Duo very quickly stood up and bolted for the door. Ember and Heero were left staring at a swinging door and an empty chair.

"Shit." Ember cursed as both she and Heero took off after him.

They ran, Ember following Heero's lead, hoping that he knew where Duo was going to go. It was a big building, lots of places to back track and lose someone.

"Duo, damnit!" Heero shouted as he caught the end of a braid jerking around the edge of a corner in the hallway. Duo was actually full out running. "Don't do this! Please!" Heero called after him. And he thought he saw Duo falter, but a moment later Duo was running even faster and Heero was about to lose him to a stairwell.

Then they saw the door ahead of Duo open and Kitty was holding it wide, a big smile across her face, urging Duo on to were the stairs would lead them down and out of Preventor Headquarters.

"Duo." Heero called out, trying one last time to keep Duo there, he just needed to talk to him, if he could just put aside his pride, his fear, and tell Duo that he loved him, if he could just…

Duo disappeared through the door as it slammed after him and a loud bang assured Heero, even before he reached the door, that they wouldn't be following after him.

Duo ran with Kitty, down the stairs and out the building. Ran to Kitty's car and jumped in so that Kitty could get them out of there.

"How'd you ditch your guard?" Duo asked as he breathed heavily and glanced behind them for a tail.

"Asked where I could make a call and locked her in the room." Kitty smirked at Duo. "A shame she's a Preventor, she was… sweet."

Duo laughed, Kitty was hellfire in leather boots, he almost pitied the woman who she would end up with.

"How ya doin'?" Kitty asked as she turned the car south, back towards their apartment. "That was some morning stroll you took."

"Fine. I'm fine." Duo assured her, scratching the inside of his elbow as he looked out the window, away from Kitty.

"Don't pull that shit with me, you're thirsty," Kitty's word for a craving. Duo didn't make eye contact, he was distracted. Heero had said 'please.'

"Just wait a little bit hon, I didn't bring any with me just in case, so everything is back at the apartment just now. You know, you owe me big this time for…" Kitty's voice trailed off as Duo lost interest after she admitted to not having anything on her. Which made sense, she'd come to get him at Preventor HQ, if they'd found anything on her, well, it would have been a stupid move to bring a stash, no matter how bad Duo was crashing.

But Heero had said 'please', he'd sounded… desperate? No, that wasn't right. He'd sounded… sad? Maybe. Any emotion was odd for Heero. But apparently not anymore. That was baffling. The last time Duo had seen Heero… well, it'd been awkward. At least for him. Duo felt shame at the memory, he felt his jaw clench even as he thought about it. Why was he always saying things he didn't mean to!? Was there no filter between his brain and mouth?

Duo slammed his head back on the seats headrest and let Kitty's voice drone on, almost like music in the background. Or like hearing someone from a different room, only hearing the sound of their voice, not their words. It would have done him no good to stay and talk with Heero, there was nothing to talk about. Duo told himself firmly so he wouldn't spend the rest of the day thinking about it. Even if Heero had changed, it wouldn't ever be enough. Heero would never change that much…

Duo swallowed hard and closed his eyes against the afternoon sun. What he really needed to do was to figure out a way to stop ending up on top of buildings, or in construction sites, or on the dock, or places where his drug haze always seemed to take him these days. It was getting ridiculous, and dangerous.

Duo pushed down feelings that sprung up when he thought too hard about why he kept ending up in these places. He was fine. Perfectly fine on his own, he didn't need Heero anymore. Not his friendship or his charity. Duo was fine, with Kitty, and he was going to be late to work, but that was a completely different matter.

"Damnit!" Heero slammed his fists down on his desk, feeling it shudder under him with a little satisfaction. Ember was gone, trying to get a picture of Kitty's plates so they could track her car.

"What's wrong?" A low, calm voice asked from the doorway. Heero looked up and met Trowa's eyes. He didn't say anything at first, was still too upset. But Trowa deserved to know.

"I saw Duo today." Heero admitted and watched as Trowa's visible eyebrow shot up, the only clue that he was surprised.

"Is he alright?" Trowa asked, instantly clued in to how upset he was.

"No." Heero shook his head, "No, he's not alright. And now he's gone." Heero waited for Trowa to say something, but he just walked further into the room and leaned against the edge of Heero's desk.

"What am I going to do?" Heero finally asked, not really expecting an answer.

"Help him." Trowa answered, almost automatically.

"And if he won't accept my help?" Heero asked, running his hands through his messy hair.

"None of us ever wants to accept help. Even if we know we need it." Trowa smiled quietly. "There's a lot of pride there. But I'm sure you'll figure it out. He always did call you his best friend."

"Yes, until I messed everything up." Heero mulled.

Trowa reached out and put a strong hand on his friend's shoulder, comforting. "You'll figure it out." He reassured Heero, who just sighed and tried to brush it off. But Trowa knew his friend. And he knew Duo, and he smiled to himself thinking: it's about time.