Respect between Enemies – The BetanWerecat

Gundam Seed: "Descending Sword" and after. OCs with appearances by canon characters. The actions of Kira, Athrun, and the others have far reaching effects. Ah, interpersonal relationships! What joys they are. Rated T for language and off screen activity. (Reviews are welcomed but not required. This is written only for my own enjoyment. Flaming me will get you ignored.)

Part Three of Ito meets the Grayhawks. This is more Yuri has Opinions though. Oh, and yes, the new people do have a reason for being there.

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Seed.


Lance Thoms strode briskly through the main doors of the Ito Project's central reception hall. He was getting tired of the silence coming from Earth. His executive officer and two of his best people had landed in North America five days ago. There had been no word since then. The situation was unacceptable. Dr. Ito was damned well going to talk to him! Adrian was his Second, damn it! The old man had no right to close up like an emergency air seal during a hull breach!

He was three strides past the door when he realized things were very abnormal. There was no one at the receptionist's station and both guard booths were also empty. The three people who should be manning those stations were searching through the heavy plantings that decorated the vast space that was the main reception area. There were two nurses and Dr. Serin Ito principal assistant, Dr. Leah Sakarov helping in the search.

Serin herself was with a small group of women and children at the back of the area. There appeared to be three or four civilians, maybe as many children and a half dozen of the medical staff there with her. He stopped, uncertain what he should do.

"Dr. Ito, ma'am! He doesn't seem to be up here." One of the nurses called.

Serin walked up quickly. "He has to be here somewhere. The security cameras haven't caught him leaving the area."

"I understand Doctor, but he isn't up here. We've searched this section thoroughly." The nurse replied.

Serin hissed in frustration and then seemed to notice Lance for the first time. Her eyes lit up. He had the sudden feeling he should have left while the going was good. That look did not suggest anything he was going to enjoy.

"Ah, Commander, how fortunate you dropped by just now. I need someone to guard this end of the room while I have the team extend the search toward the back. Just sing out if you see him and I'll take care of the rest."

"If I see who, Serin?" Lance asked. "Are they armed, dangerous, insane, or simply determined not to take some medication you think they need?"

She stopped and blinked at him. "Eh, why, no, none of those. He's about three, thin for a child that age, is under a meter tall, has dark chocolate hair and deep topaz eyes. He's from Earth and is very confused and afraid of Coordinators even though he is one of us. It's a long story. Will you just keep an eye out to make sure he doesn't go dashing off down one of the corridors please?"

A Coordinator child from Earth who was afraid of other Coordinators? That didn't make any sense at all. However, he just nodded agreement and took up a parade rest stance right where he was. He could see all three of the front exits leading off the hall from this spot so there was no logical point to moving.

The search beat its way through the decorative plants toward the back of the hall. To Lance Thom's experienced eye, it was something less than as thorough as the participants wanted to think it was. Especially if the target being sought really was a small child. Too many of the searchers were overlooking spots they themselves couldn't fit into to hide, ignoring the fact the child could.

So the Commander was not at all surprised when he noticed a few plants on his left quivering a bit. He didn't turn his head at all but even so, he had no trouble following the child's progress through the vegetation. He was being careful but there were a lot of plants in those beds and he was touching some of them no matter how he tried not to.

Lance very carefully looked away just far enough to make the child think he couldn't see him when he reached the end of one bed and had to cross to another. In fact, he really couldn't. But he could catch the impression of movement from the corner of his eye: thus he knew when the little boy had made the crossing and it was safe to turn his head back again.

He let the child move four times. The fourth time, he chose a bed that was both relatively small and fairly isolated from the rest of the plantings. When the boy bumped one large brushy plant hard enough to make the branches openly wave, Lance let himself notice it.

He could just make out the broken outline of the child buried in the vegetation. He had gone very still just as soon as Lance had turned his head toward the waving bush. Unable to actually see the boy, the Commander was also unable to really judge how to best approach him. He settled for going straight in.

He walked over in a calm, unhurried manner. About three meters or so from the raised platform of the bed of decorative plants, he stopped and went down on one knee. He left his right hand on his raised right knee and let the left fall to rest on his belt.

From down here the boy was mostly visible. He matched Serin's description perfectly except for one detail. She hadn't mentioned that he was frightened half to death.

"Hello, I'm Commander Thoms. What's your name?" It was inane and childish but it might not add to the fright if he did something so very normal.

The boy didn't answer. Lance just waited. He didn't stare at the child, that would only make him more nervous than he already was, but he did watch him while pretending to be 'looking' at the plants around him.

After about ten minutes of this, the child was visibly calmer. He'd even stepped forward once so he could see around a rather large cluster of leaves. He seemed to be searching for something in Lance, something he clearly wasn't finding. Whatever it was, the lack was plainly both baffling and somewhat reassuring him at the same time.

"You're a ZAFT!" The announcement was an interesting mix of denunciation and question.

"Yes," Lance agreed gently, not sure where this was going but quite sure only the truth would do here. "I'm a Commander in the ZAFT."

"But Daddy said . . . .," he faltered, openly confused now. "Daddy said ZAFT are space monsters! How come you're a ZAFT? You aren't a monster, are you?"

Lance could feel his eyes widening in shock. Serin had told him this child was a Coordinator! What Coordinator parent told their child the ZAFT was made up of space monsters? That was something he'd expect from the radicals of Blue Cosmos!

"Ah, no, not that I know of." Lance replied, too startled to think of anything better.

Suddenly the child came out of the flowering bushes to stand on the bricks that edged the top of the bed's rim. He glanced back, as though astonished to find himself out of his cover. When he looked forward again, the Commander was not surprised to see tears standing in the topaz eyes. Whatever was going on here, it was putting this little boy through a very rough emotional ride right now.

"Daddy, my Daddy, he's a sojer in the Erf Force! He fights space monsters so the erf will always be blue and pure." The child faltered, then suddenly sat down on the rim of the bed, tears falling.

"But my sister, she broke her arm and the doctor said she was a space monster! An' then he said Mommy was one too! An' then he said I was! An', . . . . an' . . . ."

As the boy collapsed into heartbroken sobs, everything suddenly made sense. Lance moved fairly slowly but the child was too far gone in misery to notice him any longer. He gently picked the boy up and held him, letting him cry into his shoulder.

His father was an EA soldier. One with strong Blue Cosmos leanings apparently. How or why such a man would marry a Coordinator girl was something he couldn't fathom but apparently he had. Maybe she hadn't told him what she was. On Earth lately, keeping your mouth shut could save your life after all. But then how had she arranged for the children to be made Coordinators too?

"You found him I see." Serin Ito said quietly.

"Yes," Lance agreed heavily. "What is the story here? He's told me his father's in the EA and pretty Blue Cosmos sympathetic. Why did he marry the mother? And how did she arrange to make the children Coordinators?"

"We don't have all the details yet but apparently she was orphaned quite young and later adopted. Her adoptive family was Natural and very, very traditional in outlook. She was raised to play a gender role we usually regard as having been obsolete for a hundred years or more. No one seems to have known she was a Coordinator and the way she was brought up worked to suppress any expression of her abilities. Her adoptive father more or less arranged the marriage to a young officer three years her junior. She agreed to it since he was handsome and, at least at that point, kind." Serin sighed and shook her head.

"That last didn't last unfortunately. He seems to be one of those people who has to have someone to take out their frustrations on and once married, she became that outlet. His family offered some protection whenever they visited and she became friends with a couple of them. So when their daughter was injured and discovered to be a Coordinator, followed by checks that turned up her heritage and the boy's, it was to her husband's oldest sister that she turned for help when he became violently abusive and dangerous to the children. The sister put her in touch with the network that smuggles our people out of North America and gets them up here to the Plants. I haven't been able to get any more out of her yet, not even her real name."

"How did she make them Coordinators then?" Lance asked, puzzled.

"She swears she didn't." Serin replied.

He raised one eyebrow in doubtful question. While his conversations with old Roland had taught him it was possible for a Natural/Coordinator cross to produce Coordinator children without help, it had also taught him just how long the odds against it were. He might be able to believe one of the kids was a Coordinator, but not that it had happened twice. Even if they should be twins, the gender split assured they came from two different conception events. The odds of that happening were so long it wasn't worth discussing.

Serin for her part arched an eyebrow right back at him. "Tell me, did you read the copy of that old genetics book I sent you?"

"The one by that Dr. Morrison? Yes, I did. Why?"

"The father appears to be from a Morrison Plan family. I haven't done any kind of work-up yet but the simple screening we did to verify the three of them are, indeed, Coordinators turned up the almost frighteningly clean genetics of a Morrison line as the other half of the children. And as we learned with Adrian and his Kayla, when you cross Coordinator and Morrison lines, the odds of getting Coordinator children suddenly rise to close to one hundred percent."

More pieces abruptly fell into place. Now he understood how the girl could have married a man with such Blue Cosmos leanings and how the kids came out Coordinators despite that. No wonder their father had turned dangerous on them! If he really believed any of that crap those rabid dogs put out, well, finding himself married to a 'space monster' and the father of two more must have just about pushed the man over the edge.

"What's his name?" Lance asked as he stood up, the now cried out and almost asleep child still on his shoulder.

"His real name is still unknown but he's going by Howie. His mother is calling herself Lynn and the sister is supposed to be Sarah but she forgets to answer to it."

"I see."

He followed Serin Ito to the very back of the reception hall and a smallish conversation area there. Four women sat there whose dress said they weren't from any Plant. None of them looked to be more than mid twenties at the oldest and two were probably still in their teens. Three children sat with them.

Lance had no trouble deciding which family was little Howie's. The little girl looked to be the same age and had the same dark chocolate hair. Her eyes were a bright chestnut brown instead of her brother's topaz but the shape of the face was almost identical otherwise.

Her mother looked to be the oldest of the women in the group, which still probably made her three or four years younger than Lance was. She had the same chocolate hair as the children but her eyes were a pure sapphire blue. She was slender, and had the look of a frightened fawn. He found himself wanting to make that go away. There was a much stronger woman in there, he knew it. She wouldn't have succeeded in bringing her children to the Plants if she was as weak as her expression suggested.

She jumped to her feet when she realized he was carrying her son. Lance was not surprised any longer to see the mix of fear and longing in her eyes. She was afraid of him but she clearly wanted the boy back.

"Please, . . ." she started to say when he held up his free hand to stop her.

"He's asleep." The Commander said softly. "If you keep your voice down, he may stay that way. He's had a very tiring day."

"Oh, yes, thank you." She replied just as softly as she reached out for him.

Lance carefully transferred the sleeping boy from his shoulder to his mother's arms. He muttered something once, then snuggled down happily. Thoms reached over and smoothed the tousled hair. He smiled at the girl.

"He's a good boy. He reminds me of my son at that age."

"Oh, you have children?" She looked confused, as though the idea of children in the Plants had never occurred to her. Perhaps it hadn't. He'd heard enough completely stupid stories while stationed down there to understand why an Earth-raised girl, especially one who grew up thinking she was a Natural, might be that ignorant.

"Just the one." He replied. "I don't spend as much time with him as I should. Maybe with peace coming that will change."

"Peace, yes, we all hope for something better with this peace."

Lance nodded. "Yes, we do. Well, I'll be going. You have the boy back safe and sound now."

He gave her a small bow and turned away.

"Wait!" She called softly. "Please, I don't even know who to thank."

"Commander Lance Thoms, Thoms Team."

"Thank you, Commander." She smiled tentatively.

"You're welcome, Miss?"

"Re, ah, Lynn, Lynn Daws." She fumbled the name.

"You're welcome Miss. Daws." Lance returned as though he'd not noticed the stumble over the name.

This time he did leave. He'd come here for a reason and it did not involve fascinating young Coordinator women from Earth and their frightened children. He was here to see Roland Ito about his silence. But it was the face of 'Lynn Daws' that followed him up to the old man's office.


The universe was moving in slow motion. Yuri had all the time in the world, now that it was too late to matter. The pieces of the stupid guard's cheap, breakdown rifle were still spinning lazily through the air and his unconscious body hadn't quite reached the floor yet. A tall, lean young man with the unmistakable look of the Grayhawks, handsome face contorted with rage, was bringing some kind of pistol to up to bear on Kayla. And neither he nor Voril were going to be able to get there in time to stop him. They had come all this way, only to lose at the very end!

It took a second for the movement to register. Then he realized Adrian was awake and was going to do something. His heart jumped, hope flaring for an instant. It was replaced by horror only moments later as he recognized just what his friend and commander intended to do.

But just as he was too far away to stop the shooter, he was also too far to save Adrian Ito. He could only watch, as he jumped toward the slaughter, as his friend stopped all four rounds the bastard fired, saving what mattered more to him than his own life. He saw Adrian turn and look up at Kayla and the shock of recognition and understanding that passed over her face before loss dominated everything else there. And he saw his friend suddenly go that peculiar bonelessly limp that he associated with only one thing.

"ADRIAN!" Kayla's scream filled the room to the exclusion of all other sound.

Yuri was suddenly back in normal time. Adrian's body was still falling. Filled with an irrational need to prevent any more damage to it from hitting the floor, Yuri threw himself to his knees and slid under Adrian's head and shoulders before they could strike the ground. He stared down into the amber eyes but they were empty now and there was neither breath nor heartbeat that he could find under his frantic fingers.

"'RIN!" He shouted. "Damn it 'Rin!"

The sharp sound of someone being slapped abruptly cut off Kayla's screaming. Yuri looked up, enraged, to find an equally angry old woman standing over him. She had her hand back just in case she needed to do it a second time.

"Shut up!" The crone snapped. "Or are you so damn blind you can't see there's no blood? Those bullets didn't go through! They didn't even get into him! Now get out of the way! First Kay and I need room to work!"

She looked up and caught sight of Voril glaring daggers at her. "You, boy, come get this silly girl and take her over there! Set her down and keep her out of the way! He isn't dead yet but he doesn't have much time and it's being wasted right now!"

There was a second old woman suddenly beside him, kneeling at Adrian's side. She was carefully but quickly undoing his belt and then the black uniform tunic. Voril, still pissed but grasping the situation and understanding it wasn't the time to start a fight with the old bat, was helping a stumbling Kayla toward a large, heavily overstuffed chair nearby.

The second old lady, having gotten the tunic open, startled Yuri by undoing Adrian's belt and unzipping his pants. The first one was now down on the other side. As soon as the fly was open, she grabbed the dark blue undertunic and cut it right up the front from waist band to collar. They both peeled back the half on their side of Adrian's body.

Yuri stared at what lay there. He'd forgotten about the large silver disc the old shaman had pawned off on Adrian. It lay on his chest now, badly distorted, with four bullets splashed on it. None of them had managed to penetrate it. His 'spirit talisman' lay just above it, touching the top rim.

"Well, I see you boys stopped at Charlie's place coming up here." The second old woman, had the other one called her First Kay, said grimly. "Be glad you did, he'd be dead now without that."

"He may yet." The other one growled. "That was four shots from a Lugar at point blank range. Charlie's talisman's are damn good but they aren't foolproof. He's still taken the impact straight on, right over the heart and lungs. The talisman will have spread it some but still, he's been hammered."

She looked at the disc. "I still don't see how it managed to stop all four. He's been living right."

"No, that's not it." First Kay said suddenly, shock and no little awe in her voice. "Look at his spirit talisman! He had help, sister."

The angry eyes turned to the smaller piece. Yuri looked at it as well. It looked no different from the last time he'd seen it. But the old woman rocked back on her heels, eyes going very round.

"Coyote!"

"Who?" A good-looking older man demanded, shock in his voice.

"Coyote! The Trickster's power is all over this talisman!"

"Oh," Yuri said thoughtfully, "maybe that's what that crazy old shaman was talking about."

Both women were bent over Adrian, gently poking and prodding as they tried to determine the extent of his injuries. But they clearly heard his remark as they glanced at each other briefly before returning to their patient. They did lift the battered silver disc off and over his head though and laid it beside Yuri's left knee.

"Just what did Charlie tell you about Coyote?" First Kay asked suddenly.

"That he'd come by during our Journey's to talk to Adrian and that dealing with him was either very dangerous or quite a blessing. He said there's not a middle ground with this Coyote. He also said spirit power is real and that while he had no idea why your Coyote was interested in the Captain, that from now on these spirits would be making sure he was wherever they needed him to be when they needed him there." The one eyed ex-pilot just shook his head. "It didn't sound like a very good deal to me."

"Why would the Spirits be interested in one of you?"

The question was just short of hostile. So were the eyes of the tall Colonel who had asked it. This was yet another of the Grayhawks by his looks and not as pragmatic an individual as the General. Yuri noted the mobile suit insignia on his collar and considered not answering him. This one had likely been at Second Jachin Due, and perhaps even as an escort for the nuke group. His one eye went very cold.

"He said he didn't know. That this Coyote didn't tell him."

"Your . . ." The Colonel began accusingly when the other crone interrupted him.

"Jamie, shut up! You want a fight, you wait until we're done! We need his help right now."

"I, . . . All right Gran." He glared at Yuri. "Later, you."

"What do you think, Maria?" First Kay asked.

"Well, they've beaten him half to death, the sternum's cracked, I'd say at least three ribs a side are as well and I can't determine how bad the rest of the internal damage may be."

"Your call, but we're running out of time if we're going to even try to get his heart and lungs going again."

"We don't have any choice in this. He's still here because Coyote wants him to be here. We have to try. You pump the heart once and I'll inflate the lungs."

"Let me know when you're ready."

"I will. Be very careful. Too much in that pump and the sternum will split."

"I know, I felt that crack myself."

The old crone called Maria tipped Adrian's head back and checked to make sure his airway was unobstructed. Yuri didn't want her to do this but there was no other means available and so he kept his mouth shut. She pinched Adrian's nostrils closed, sealed her mouth over his and waved her fingers.

First Kay came up and over the Captain's chest as Yuri slid his knees out from under Adrian and carefully lowered him until he was flat on the floor. He held his head steady as the old woman demonstrated an unexpected degree of skill at external heart stimulation. The instant she lifted her hands, the Maria crone exhaled in one long, steady breath into his still lungs.

Yuri felt the pulse First Kay's single pump sent through Adrian's body. For several seconds it was alone, then he felt another, one she had no hand in. His head came up and his eye opened wide as it would go. Long seconds passed, there was a third, more seconds, a fourth. The heart was coming back.

The lungs took longer. Maria had to repeat her inflation several times before there was any hint that they were going to try to work on their own. First Kay took over when the repetitions began to make the other old woman dizzy. On her fifth inflation, Adrian finally began to breathe on his own again.

By that time the heart was beating steadily if slowly. Also by that time, the rest of the family had done rough and ready first aid on the Blue Cosmos gang. They had also tied them up after nearly stripping them down in a very thorough weapons search. Someone had found a heavy piece of plywood and some plastic for a seal and had closed the hole where the broken windows had been. It was almost back to warm in here again. Others had cleaned up the shattered glass and straightened the furniture. Oh, and the law had arrived too.

When Yuri finally looked up, he found several members of the family scattered around the two rooms, each sitting across from a pair of official looking types, apparently describing the events as they had seen them. A lean Caucasian in a recognizable police style uniform was talking to the older man who had been so shocked to hear about Coyote earlier. He wore the famed six-point star in a circle that was supposed to be the traditional badge of the law in this area and he carried the equally famed gray Stetson hat. The Coordinator suddenly felt like he was caught up on someone's vid shoot set.

Another man came striding into sight. This one was built along the same kind of lines as a ZAFT GINN. And he looked just as competent too.

"Sheriff Rennie, Howard," He nodded to the two. "Well I've had a look around and I've been able to account for all the darts taken from my office. They fired nine of the twelve. Judging from what I found, six of the nine hit someone and three were clean misses. Whoever was hit, if they all hit the same person, got about two and a tenth doses injected into them. Given what we found when we got here, the likeliest victim is that Coordinator boy over there on the floor. I'll need to get a blood sample to run some tests to verify that though if you plan to use it in court."

The Sheriff nodded. "Doc Hughes is on his way over right now. He'll be able to get your sample. From what I've seen, they drugged him until he was helpless, then beat the living shit out of the kid. Truth is, I'm kinda surprised he's still alive. Or that he even lived long enough to get his fool self shot. Yeah, I know these Coordinators are hard to kill but even so, this one shouldn't have made it. Not with what was done to him."

"I gather he didn't even do anything to start the trouble." The powerfully build man said thoughtfully.

"Not according to Ada Rockbell. She said she saw the six of them pulled off in their trucks and had just identified them when a van drove up the road. It didn't stop or even pause and none of the occupants even seemed to notice the trucks. They must have though because they suddenly stepped on the gas. That's when Ada says the Blue Cosmos gang took off after them, whooping, hollering, and shooting at the tires."

The Sheriff shook his head in disgust. "I ask you, who shoots at tires any more? You can't deflate the things these days and they don't explode either. Talk about stupid. Anyway, Ada rode right back to the house and called me just as soon as they were out of sight."

"When are you getting that trash out of my house?" Howard asked grimly.

"I've got ambulances coming. There's not a one on them that can go back in a squad you know. Nope, we want any charges to stick we've got to make sure everything is done by the book and all rights due the accused are granted to them. When your 'rescue team' got around to business, it didn't mess around with leaving any walking wounded behind 'em."

"Just as well they didn't." Howard replied flatly.

Yuri looked over and noted Kayla was still in the chair her grandmother had exiled her to when this began. Maria had finally gotten around to telling him who she and First Kay were, which made taking orders from them much easier for him. It also made it possible for him to forgive her for slapping Kayla earlier as well. Voril was still standing guard too, in the odd kind of parade rest stance they'd been taught by the real Dreyfus operative back in Aube to use in times like these.

"White Jay, we'll need some last help here." First Kay said quietly. "We have to get these damaged ribs and that cracked sternum supported. So even though he's bruised and swelling, we have to tape the rib cage. Maria and I have rubbed in bruise ointment as best we can under the circumstances since we really can't put any real pressure on him in a spot as small as fingers working creams into the skin right now. We're going to sit him up. We need you to help hold him up, keep his arms away from his sides and don't let his head flop."

"We need more than just me then." Yuri replied. "I don't have enough hands."

"You have a shoulder, let his head rest there." Maria told him absently as she focused on smoothing yet more cream onto the Captain's right side. "Lift him now!"

Between the three of them, they got Adrian close to upright. Yuri ended up at a fairly awkward angle as he held both his friend's wrists collarbone high with his arms folded across his chest. At the same time, he had to keep his own body back far enough for the two women to pass the bandages between him and Adrian's back and support the Captain's head on his own shoulder.

They managed it all. Including coating all the back that was going under the bandages with yet more of the bruise cream. Yuri noted that the taping wasn't as tight as it could have been but it did look firm enough to provide support without causing dangerous restriction of his breathing if the beaten flesh did continue to try to swell under it.

When they laid him back down, Yuri was startled to find a low cot beside them now; a cot well padded with sheepskins. There were also three young Grayhawk boys standing by to help lift Adrian onto it. The four of them got him up in the air and Maria slid the cot under him. As they lowered him though, Yuri realized his head was going to be sticking off the end.

"All right, I've got him." First Kay told him. "You get out of there now."

"But . . ."

"He's got a cut on his head somewhere under that dirt, Jay." Maria said wearily. "We have to wash his hair and find it. Now move, all right?"

Yuri slid out of the way. For the first time since the car chase began however many hours ago, he was aware of how tired he was. Then there was a hand in front of him, a silent offer of help to get up off the floor. Yuri looked at the sleeve of the Earth Forces Navy uniform that came with that hand and decided it no longer mattered. He took the offered help and was nearly dragged to his feet. Considering how readily his knees wanted to give out under him just as soon as he was up, he was glad to have the help.

"You look about pegged into the ground. When did you eat last?"

Yuri looked over to find his helping hand still standing beside him. He was yet one more of the Grayhawks, late teens to early twenties at a guess, the uniform said Navy Lieutenant and the collar pin said mobile suits. But unlike the other, older officer, this one wasn't hostile.

"Food?" The EA pilot tried again.

"Breakfast, sometime around eleven, one pumpkin pie." Yuri finally managed to reply.

Bright sea-green eyes lit up with amusement. "You had a whole pumpkin pie for breakfast and nothing else?"

"Ah, yes."

"And the kid on guard duty? He have anything better to eat than you did?"

"No, that's what we all had." Yuri admitted.

"No wonder you're fading into the floorboards. One huge sugar high and nothing to back it up." He shook his head. "I'm Doug Grayhawk by the way. You guys got names you're willing to share?"

"Yuri Lubbek." He waved at himself, then pointed to the other two. "Voril Joule, Adrian Ito."

Doug nodded. "Thanks. Look, there's leftovers still in the fridge in the kitchen. Lets do a bit of raiding. You look like you really need some calories right about now and I doubt the other guy, Voril Joule did you say, would turn them down."

"Voril wouldn't turn down a chance to eat a dinner for thirty all by himself." Yuri said wearily.

The Navy pilot snickered and led the way back to the kitchen. He parked Yuri on a stool and gathered up some flat, cooked meat patties and a few sausages, found buns for them and some condiments for flavoring. He also found some rather limp looking things that might have been fried at one time and scavenged a generous pile of them too. He tossed the meats in one heater and the limp fried things in another.

"All right, the burgers and the brats will come out just fine. I don't know about the fries though. Haven't ever tried reheating those like this before. But we'll just put some butter and salt on 'em and they should be at least eatable. They're just over-greased potatoes after all. Now, where did Gran put that leftover cake?"

Minutes later, Yuri found himself following Doug back out to the main room with plates, cups, napkins and forks in his hands. Doug had all the food on a large tray, including a jug of some liquid that wasn't water and a large chunk of rather tasty looking cake of some kind. Voril saw them coming and produced several small folding tables from a corner, proving he'd been paying attention to his surroundings.

"What are you doing?" It was the suspicious older Colonel.

"Feeding the starving Jamie. They haven't eaten since breakfast and they did save your kids. Now butt out."

"Douglas, be civil to your brother. Jamie, Sheriff Rennie would like to speak to you now. Howard! Doc Davies is ready to go now, you want to cover any last items before he leaves? And did you get his official vet death certificate for both the horses?"

"Yes Mom." The brothers said in perfect synchronization, speaking to her back as the striking woman stalked away after her husband and the veterinarian who so resembled a GINN.

The food was good, even the odd, limp fries. And the cake was almost as good as pumpkin pie. He hadn't realized how hungry he was until he found himself eyeing a third of the 'brat' things and thinking he still had space for it. He took a last drink of the home made 'root beer' and settled back.

They had moved the Captain to a bedroom now. The cut on his head hadn't been serious but like most head wounds it had bled like it was a major trauma. The local medical doctor had come and gone while they were eating as well. Apparently he was only there to take the blood sample the law required. It seemed no one questioned the doctoring skills of Maria or First Kay.

Nor did they try to suggest moving the Captain to any local hospital either. No one said it directly but it was understood that he was safer here, where there were no Blue Cosmos sympathizers around than he would be there where that couldn't be assured. Howard Grayhawk made it very plain that he was going to shelter the three Coordinators as long as they needed it. They had helped his family, he would help them. No one was silly enough to argue with him.

Yuri and Voril gave their statements to the local authorities. Both sides were very careful about what questions were asked and how they were answered. At no time was there even the slightest hint put forward that any of them might have any connections to the Plants other than Yuri's professional ones. The word ZAFT was never mentioned.

So here they were, guests in the Grayhawk house. Bowing to both Kayla's suggestion and his and Voril's concern, they were all sharing one very large room. Adrian had the real bed while they both had big cots set well to the side. There was a night light on in the room and there would be someone by the Captain's bedside all through the night, keeping watch for any trouble. By order of Maria, neither he nor Voril would be sharing that duty tonight. They were under orders to get some real sleep so they could be of some use again in the morning.

"Yuri."

"Yes?"

"How did we end up in this mess?"

"I'm not going to get into that can of worms tonight. We're supposed to go to sleep. We'll be up all night if we start on that one."

"You have a point."

He pulled the amazingly soft wool blanket up around his shoulders. It was made of pure Merino wool, their own wool. He made a mental note to discuss not only wool but these blankets with the Grayhawk patriarch in the morning. These would sell in the Plants quite nicely. Controlled environment or not, it wasn't always warm everywhere.

"Yuri."

"Go to sleep."

"I just want you to know, the Blue Cosmos nut aside, I like these people."

"Even Colonel Jamie?"

"Yes. He's only doing what so many of our people are, trying to keep his family and friends safe. I don't think he's ever met one of us off the battlefield before. We bother him when we don't behave like the propaganda says we should. I watched him with his wife and children. He's a good man. All he needs is a chance to find out how wrong his image is."

"Voril, have you ever heard of a story called Pollyanna?"

"No, why, is it important?"

"Look it up sometime. There are moments when it is the perfect description of you. How did you ever have a relative like Yzak and come out like this? Didn't he teach you any pragmatism at all?"

"Yzak doesn't want to like people and I do. He lives in fear of being somehow disgraced by someone, sometime, somehow for something he did or maybe didn't do. I could just kick Aunt Ezaria sometimes. She's made a real mess of him."

"Yes, and you pet rattlesnakes too."

"That was an accident!"

"Go to sleep!"

"It was an accident!"

"Fine, it was an accident, now go to sleep."

"And I still like the Grayhawks."

"Yes," Yuri agreed softly, talking only to the blanket lest he too, would have to admit to Pollyanna tendencies. "So do I."