The doctor, a professional yet personable woman of about thirty named Sally Po, arrived within ten minutes. She raised an eyebrow at Duo's wound and looked questioningly at Wufei, who merely stared back at her. With a sigh, she sat down and started seeing to Duo's wound. He hissed at the sanitizer, grunted when the knife was pulled out, and cursed as unitelligibly as Donald Duck when she injected the anesthesia.

"It didn't hit the bone or do any serious damage. You're slipping Wufei," she said with a twinkle in her ice-blue eyes.

He narrowed his own eyes at her. "I wasn't aiming for him, he jumped in the way."

"Hmm Mmm," she replied absently, as if she didn't believe him and began stitching the wound up. "Now, these should be in for 10-14 days. I'll check up on you about a week from now and see how're you're doing. I'm going to give you a brace so you don't move that shoulder too much and avoid getting it wet." Sally slapped his hand when he lifted it to scratch absently at the de-numbing skin. "And don't pick at it either," she added sternly. She showed him how to take the brace on and off.

"Thank you," Quatre told her as she was packing up her supplies. She smiled warmly at him.

"It's my job, I'm glad I could help." Wufei walked her to the door; there she paused and looked at the young man with a concerned expression. "Are you sure about this Wufei? Taking in two strangers hired to kill you as bodyguards? You don't know anything about them!"

"They had the chance to kill me and didn't. They spoke frankly and behaved honorably." He gazed searingly at her, his onyx eyes mesmerizing. "You advocate your 'woman's intuition'. Tell me, what did it tell you about them?"

Sally sighed. "They're nice boys, caught up in someone else's plans. Fine, but I'll be waiting for your call when Meilan finds out about this."

Wufei's expression became a dark scowl, and Sally smiled back, unaffected.

"That--that brat hasn't been able to lay a finger on me in years," he asserted tersely.

"Ah, but she just got back from her intensive training. I hear she's greatly improved. Hao yun," Sally waved at him, then dissappeared into the night. Wufei scowled after her. What impertinince! No matter what training his fiancé had been through, she would not be good enough to defeat him!

Shaking off the mixed emotions thinking of Meilan always instilled in him, Wufei returned to his new employees. Before he the door to the guestroom, he heard low talking. He paused out of sight to listen in.

"Promise me you won't do anything like that again." The small blonde one, Quatre. His voice was subdued and worried, soft, yet reproachful.

"Sorry, can't do that Q-man." that was Duo, the one with the ridiculously long hair. He sounded awfully cheery for someone who'd been stabbed in the shoulder not half-an-hour ago.

"Duo-"

"I'm not gonna make a promise I'm not gonna be able to keep," Duo's voice gentled, became more serious. "I couldn't let you get hurt."

"I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself, Duo Maxwell," Quatre clipped out. "Besides, how do you think I feel when you do that?"

"Loved? Cherished? Protected? Honored?" Duo quipped.

There was an irritated, defeated sigh. "Try guilty, concerned, patronized and scared," he replied. There was a moment of silence. "I don't want you to get hurt anymore than you want me to. Just...trust me to take care of myself..."

"I'm sorry...I just did it without thinking. I'll try not to in the future, but I'm not promising."

"That'll do for now."

There was another silence, but this one seemed thicker, more intimate. His conscience warred briefly with his curiousity, and Wufei managed to resist looking around the doorjam. It would not be right, an invasion of privacy. Not that the eavesdropping hadn't been, but that was slightly different. He considered that gathering intelligence on possible threats; he wasn't going to completely trust them right away after all.

Judging that he'd given the two enough time to finish thier little moment, Wufei straightened and entered the room, neutral mask in place. Duo and Quatre were sitting next to each other on the bed. and looked at him with mildly curious expressions.

"I thought that since it was so late, you might spend the night and we could discuss salaries and more permanent arrangements tomorrow. "

Quatre dipped his head in respect. "A reasonable offer. Thank you."

Wufei nodded. "Very well. I will bid you good night and leave you to your own devices." he dipped his own head and left.

As he settled in for sleep, he thought of his clan's reaction to the new bodyguards. There would probably be talk of rash behavior, but no serious reprecussions. Not unless Grandfather Meng found out about thier romantic involvement. While it didn't particularly bother Wufei, the head of the Chang clan was stern and very old fashioned.

Well, that wasn't very likely to happen and passing the thought out of his mind, Wufei drifted off to sleep.