Chapter 6

Learning

A/N: Still no real recognition coming from this. To my one and only faithful reader, Kurokineko, thank you for making me feel like this story is worth my limited free time. You're the best!

When Illiana arrived at Barnaby's swanky apartment complex she was disturbed to find her heart beating a mile a minute. She was sure it had nothing to do with being in the handsome blonde's fancy apartment, but more to do with the fact that she was finally gonna find some answers. She wanted to now about his parents and much as he did.

She had barely knocked once when the door swung open and Barnaby politely ushered her in. The woman took note of the lack of furniture and followed him to the kitchen.

"I ordered dinner if you don't mind."

He said it so matter-of-factly that she felt she really had no choice, "That's fine." Illiana placed a folder on the table, "But there is no need in stalling."

The hero's steely blue gaze bore into her as he glared. Barnaby was trying to be civil but hostility was all he could feel, after all, she had lied to him. "Why did you lie to me before?"

She frowned, "Yuri told me too."

"Do you do everything Judge Petrov tells you?"

"Yes." she answered without thinking.

Barnaby tried to analyze her situation, "I hope you'll tell me why."

His sincerity made her smile, "If you want."

Barnaby gave her a little smile in return and got comfortable in his seat. He reached out and grabbed the folder, only turning it over in his hands and staring at the flap. Illiana frowned, "You want to know so badly... I suggest you start."

As he reached in and started to pull out the information, he looked to the woman who was holding her lip in her mouth and reminded himself, "This is her life too."

Yuri stared at the pictures, upon files, upon notes that were laid out on his desk. His father's grinning, masked, face stared back at him almost mockingly. He sighed and shuffled the papers, grabbing everything he had on Barnaby Brooks Jr.

He scoffed to himself; he couldn't understand Illiana's near obsession with him. He had been someone hell bent on revenge and couldn't even really do anything for anyone but himself. He was another Mr. Legend waiting to happen.

His innocent Anna was too desperate to dig into his past and ultimately hers. She had the heart of an officer after all, the heart of a hero. She knew that the Brooks and even her father were killed for something far greater than mere information.

Yuri reached for the phone; it would be nice to hear her voice.

Her ringing cell phone made her turn away from being awed by Barnaby's rapt attention to the information in front of him. But even still she didn't answer it. His sparkling blue eyes darting along sentences and across the faces in pictures at the time seemed a lot more inviting. He would occasionally stop to ask a question, and then he would dive back into it.

"None of this really tells me why they were killed."

"I know. I just... I just grabbed what I knew I could get away with."

"What?"

"I think Yuri has more since he became Judge. Police records, crime scene photos, phone records..."

"But?"

"I can't just take them... Can you live with that for now?"

Barnaby nodded and looked back down at the hospital record that had the woman's name down for a heart transplant. "How did my parents fix you?"

"When they heard about my condition, they knew that another human heart would just fail like my own. My body doesn't recognize the muscle and attacks it... They figured why not give me something my body wouldn't attack?"

"An artificial heart."

She nodded, "Your parents saved my life. They spent a year researching and building… They meant a lot to me."

Barnaby nodded and hung his head, hiding his wet, blue, orbs from the female. Illiana sighed and moved her chair closer to his. He flinched when she reached for his hand but he let her encase it in her own never the less.

She jumped as her cell rang again, "It's Yuri."

Barnaby watched her stand from the table and wander back to the living room before trying to memorize the faces in the pictures one more time.

"Yuri?"

"Why didn't you answer before?"

"I'm sorry Yuri. I was looking into something."

"Into what?"

"Equipment records." she chuckled, "The heroes could use a little training. You never know, something could happen to me."

"Don't speak like that."

Illiana could hear his frail voice trembling, "Yuri... I'm sorry." she fell into the only chair in the vast living room and the television flickered on.

"Just come home now."

The woman stared wide-eyed at the pictures and articles that flickered to life on the screen. Among the Ouroboros Signs and articles there were pictures and old clippings of the Sternbuild newspaper. "Yuri I just have one more thing to do."

His protest was cut short as she hung up the phone and stood to storm back into the kitchen.

Barnaby was already standing next to the chair. She motioned to the screen, "What is that?"

"It's you and your father."

Her brown eyes narrowed, "Did you find what you were looking for?"

He frowned at her, a little ashamed, "No."

"Too bad."

Barnaby followed after her, grabbing her arm, much like he had in the restaurant the first time they tried to talk. "I'm sorry. I just needed to know..."

She shook her head, "I respected your part of this. Why couldn't you respect mine?"

He let her go and walked back to the screen. Possibly the biggest clip had been one from the day of her father's death. His body in the driveway of their home, covered with a tarp. The headline read, "Police Commissioner Found Dead; Motive Unknown."

Barnaby sighed and turned off the screen, he had been so close.

"Are you going to tell me what you were really doing?"

Illiana ignored Yuri standing in the door of the guest room in his house, and continued to shed her coat, "Not really."

"Anna."

"What!" She turned to him with tears in her eyes and sighed, "What do you want?"

Yuri entered the room and walk up to her, enveloping her in his arms. She hugged him back and rested her arms around his thin waist. He rested a hand on her head "I want to protect you Anna."

"I know. I guess it would be worth it if I listened to you."

"What did you tell him?"

"Just about my surgery." she buried her head in his chest, "I swear."

He sighed and held her a bit tighter and she snuffled and looked back up at him, "I thought he understood, but he dug into things I don't want to remember."

"I'm sorry to hear that. But there is a reason for what I tell you."

"So what now?" She pulled away from him and walked to the window, "He knows that I know something."

"You're going to have to figure that out on your own."

"You've never left me to figure anything out by myself. I've always had you."

Yuri tucked his hair behind his ear and watched her watch him. Her chocolate gaze was full of so much authority, the same authority that predated her when she was younger. "You can't depend on me."

"I don't know how not to."

"Then you need to learn."

Illiana ran from the window to stop him from leaving the room, "All you've ever done is protect me. Now you're leaving me to figure out life. I'm starting to think this isn't about me."

"It's not."

"Then let me help you."

"You can't help me. I have to prove my motive to him on my own."

The woman was confused and it showed on her face, "To who Yuri?"

The man touched his scar with his fingertips, "…my father…"