Chapter 8:Let's keep it that way!
Jade felt herself drifting back into consciousness, as if waking up from a long sleep. There was shuffling. Papers? Footsteps growing softer, and finally a door closing.
Jade didn't want to get up, not really, but she knew she had to. The longer she was down, the more likely people were to worry and figure out her problem. She counted to three and opened her eyes, but quickly squeezed them back shut to block out the blinding light. The next around time she took her time opening her eyes.
Still adjusting to the light, Jade began to look around. By the looks of the medical supplies, she was in the ship's infirmary. She shivered, the chip was still off, but thankfully she had stopped shaking. Was the air conditioning on full blast in this room? Rubbing her arms she realized that she was only in her tank top, her sweatshirt was missing.
Jade sat up and saw her sweatshirt sitting on the chair next to the bed. She climbed out of the bed, glad there were no IVs to pull out, and pulled her sweatshirt on. As she was finishing Sally walked into the room.
"Glad to see you up," she smiled.
Jade chuckled, Sally had a way of making her feel more at ease. She was discreet having worked with the Gundam pilots for years. "Aren't you supposed to be telling me to take it easy?"
"I would, but I figure you take after Heero in more than one way."
"You would be right."
Sally smiled at Jade and picked up a clipboard. "Well, I guess I should give you the run down. You hit your head pretty hard when you fell. I did a scan though and you don't appear to have a concussion, but you will have one hell of a head-ache."
Jade couldn't help but laugh. "I already had that."
Ignoring Jade's comment, Sally continued, "I haven't figured out what caused the seizure yet, but based on your reaction to all of this, I can assume that you know." Jade nodded her head. "Mind filling me in?"
"It's nothing, just another stupid side effect of having this stupid chip in my head."
"Funny, no one briefed me on this. I am the doctor, it seems like I should know."
"Well, that may be because no body else knows. I can handle it. Don't worry."
"I wouldn't be so su..."
"So how long was I out?"
Sally glance at her watch, "About 2 hours."
Jade winced, that was a fairly long time. Heero could already know by now and that would be a bad bad thing. "Did you tell my brother yet?"
Sally shook her head, "It's a pretty big ship. I haven't found him yet."
"Well, let's keep it that way."
"Why?"
"Because he doesn't know yet, and I'd like to keep it that way."
"But, what about Wufei? I mean he brought you here. He's going to want to know what happened."
"I don't really care what you tell him, just as long as we are clear that Heero does not find out."
"But, why?"
Jade walked over to the door, "He doesn't need to worry about something that I've got handled."
"But he never worries about anything."
"Let's keep it that way."
"But I don't think..."
Jade opened the door, "This is the part where you tell me to 'take it easy'."
Sally stood silent, then nodded, "Take it easy."
Done with that, Jade walked down the hall with no where to really go. In one hallway she passed Wufei who gave her a look of surprise, and what else was it? Pity?
"What the hell are you looking at Wuffles?" she shot at him as she passed by. The last thing she needed was his pity!
QQQ
Trowa was standing in Conference Room B looking at a map laid out on the table when Heero walked in.
"Have you figured out where they are yet?" Heero asked glancing at the map.
Trowa shook his head. He had been working on this project all day, and although he was closer than when he started, he couldn't pin-point a location. "I've narrowed it down to within a 25 mile radius of the capital of the L2 colony cluster," he explained. "Once we get there we can try running a scan to get an exact location, but the chances are slim. More than likely they will be running some sort of interference."
Heero nodded as he walked over to the window and glanced out into space. Trowa walked over to join him. There was something else that was bugging Trowa. "Heero, do you think that they could possibly start another war?"
"Anything is possible," Heero shortly replied.
"What could they be doing?"
A slight sigh was heard from Heero, although his face remained unchanged. "My first guess would be that they've built at least one more Gundam and have at least one new kid with a zero chip to pilot it. Neither of which is good."
"Yeah, the sooner we get to work the better. When are we scheduled to arrive?"
"Around 8 tomorrow morning."
"Great, and it's only 4 o'clock now. We haven't even had dinner yet."
QQQ
"Checkin' my e-mail, checkin' my e-mail, check, check, check, check, checking my e-mail," Duo sung to himself as he logged onto the computer.
Opening his e-mail account up, he laughed some more. "I've got mail." 4 new messages. This was all he got after being off for days.
He opened the first message and laughed. It was from his physics teacher, Dr. Kelling.
Mr. Maxwell,
I understand that you are friends with the college president, but if you would be so kind as to show up to my class this year. Call it a personal favor, as I don't want to have you in my class, yet again, next year.
-Dr. Kelling, Professor of Physics, Peacecraft College
The nerve of the guy. Duo thought, School hasn't even started yet. Does he actually think I like his class that much? Jezze, just because I've taken it twice already!
Duo clicked on the second e-mail and found an ad. Deleting it, he moved on to the third e-mail. It was from his friend, Keith, whom he use to run with in the street gang as a kid. Keith had recently been down to earth to visit Duo. It was only about a week ago that he left, although to Duo that seemed like a year ago.
Hey there just dropping ya a line to let ya know I got back okay. Steve's still upset that he couldn't make it down to see you. Anyways gots ta go.
Lata,
K.
Duo checked the date on the e-mail. It was sent on the 3rd. The same say that Jade came around. Wow it really had been a long time since he had signed on.
Finally, Duo clicked on the 4th e-mail, which was from Hilde, and sent today.
Hey Duo, where are you?
I tried to call your place earlier but you weren't there. Your roommate, Fred, said that you left a couple of days ago in a hurry. Just packed your bags, and left. Duo is something wrong? Should I worry? That really isn't like you. You may just be at a friends place, I don't know. I tried calling Heero, Relena, and Quatre but all I got was voicemails on all accounts. Anyways, I hope you're okay. Just contact me ya know.
Hilde
P.S. Max sends his regards.
Duo laughed, "Max sends his regards. Yep that sounds like him."
Duo then typed her back a quick e-mail. He wrote that he had decided to take a quick world tour before school started, and apologized for worrying her. He hadn't lied, after all he had been to Germany, and was currently heading to the colonies. She didn't need all the details, there was nothing she could do anyways. Duo wasn't even sure if there was anything he could do.