Waking Up In Vegas

Chapter Twenty Six

Heero startled awake, his breathing heavy. Sapphire eyes snapped open, taking in what was happening... where he was. Oh.

The plane.

"Heero?" Relena was next to him, her hands on his shoulder, baby blue eyes worried. She'd been asleep, her head pillowed on his shoulder. But the tension in his body woke her... the almost undetectable tremors coursing through him.

"What's wrong?"

"Nightmare," he admitted.

Her eyes narrowed. "Nightmare? Or memory?"

"Both," he said with a lift of his shoulder. "Neither. Either or. It's all the same."

Relena sank back into her seat with a sigh. There was no getting through to him sometimes. What would it take to get him to confide in her? More than the 'just friends' as they were now. What would it take?

"Heero? Do you remember the dinner at Tsubarov's?"

"Hn." Truthfully, most of it was rather a blur for him. All he could concentrate on was the fact that *she* was alive. Jezzy. The girl who'd been like a sister to him. The very last gift his father had ever given him... and possibly the greatest...

"The man told me to search for a hero," the little girl had said with a shrug of her thin shoulders. "So? Do you know what that means? How do you find a hero?"

He'd tilted his head. "What man?"

"The man who picked me up from the foster home. Really tall. He was wearing cam... cama...camofluge?"

"Camoflage?"

"That's the word. All green and brown and everything. His eyes were blue. Like yours! He dropped me off here and told me to go search for a hero... that a hero would save me and protect me."

"That was my father... Odin."

"Okay. So... do you know where I can find a hero?"

"He meant me. He didn't mean *a* hero. He meant me... my *name* is Heero Yuy."

She'd tilted her head and observed him, as if making judgement. "Okay," she'd smiled, with all the conviction of her tender age.

"You can be my hero."

"Heero? Heero?" Relena's hand waved in front of his face. "Hello? Earth to Heero."

"Hn."

"You spaced out again. You've done that alot today. "What'cha thinking of so hard? Our mysterious mystery?"

"No," he said, unable to lie. He settled back further into the plane seat and checked his watch. Only another hour until they landed in Huntsville. From there, it would probably be about an hour or so drive.

"Then whatcha thinking about?" Despite her rather chipper tone, her sky colored eyes betrayed her worry.

Heero turned his eyes out to the sky that perfectly matched her eyes passing by them, unable to lie... and unable to speak the truth.

"Just someone," he said, settling on avoidance.

Relena opened her mouth, then thought better of it. Obviously he didn't want to talk... and Relena knew better than to push the subject. Instead she smiled and tapped his arm.

"What I was saying about Tsubarov's, was didn't you notice Mr. Winner? He's a very good actor, but I could tell he was scared to be there. Something about those men made him nervous. Extremely so."

"Then why was he there?" He had no ties to Tsubarov or Quinze. Or Dekim or Dermail. So what was Sayid Winner's stake in all of this?

Relena's smile turned to a frown. "I don't know. It is unusual. Heero... I think he's being forced into something. Blackmailed or something. He just doesn't fit in with the rest of the scheme."

Truthfully, Heero admitted to himself, Relena didn't know the rest of the scheme. But she was right none-the-less. Sayid Winner did not fit into what Heero knew. Pondering it, Heero fell silent once more, his eyes turning back to the window.

Relena mentally growled. He would not ignore her. Smiling, she tapped his arm again and waited for him to turn to her.

"I spy something blue," she said, trying to draw him into the game.

"The sky," Heero sighed. He knew better than to ignore Relena.

"Nope," Relena giggled. He'd never guess it. He'd never think of how blue his eyes were. How amazingly deep blue, like the sapphire depths of the darkest ocean... or maybe the color of a cloudless night sky. She would do her best to take his mind off of whatever was depressing him.

And Relena at her best... was both amazing and scary.

Heero should have been worried.

Very, very worried.

"I'm afraid I must admit to some confusion, my lady," the man admitted.

Her brown hair was pulled into a perfectly coiffed bun, her aqua eyes glittering and hard as stone. Her posture, even across the video conference link, was straight and perfect. Her clothes were smart and impeccable in cream and soft dove gray. She sighed, closing her eyes for a moment. She reached up and plucked the small glasses from her nose, then opened her eyes once more.

"I hope I won't have to explain myself again. Your childish games are not working. The only way to get him back to New York is to *take* him to New York. Manipulation does not work on him. Every plan you have has backfired; you can't get him to sell if you can't even get him to go to a different state. I can get you the location of the Wing, but location of a machine does nothing if you don't have a way to get *into* the system you need.

"Couldn't we turn our attention to the other? Heero Yuy. He's the one who had controlled this system. Don't we need him, as well?"

The lady nodded. "Of course. Do what you can to get him. He actually is much more valuable alive than the other."

"And what of Quatre Winner? If we don't need him..."

The lady smirked, her face twisting into an evil and cruel smile. "... then he is useless. I don't care about whoever leads this stupid war... but Sandrock Industries and Winner Enterprises will be *mine*. And that won't happen until that blond idiot and his redneck excuse for a husband is out of the way. Will you take him out of my way?"

The man returned her smile, though a trifle uneasy. "Of course, my lady; my men can be there and set up in less than a week. Consider it done."

"Excellent."

"I'm worried," Cecilia said softly as she watched her children scatter. Delana dragged Cathy upstairs; Trowa had taken off for privacy with Quatre some two hours ago. Hilde, who'd just got home from working that morning, had begged Wufei to let her walk Nataku- who often hung around the ranch to play with all the other animals. And Duo'd had a brilliant idea he'd needed to get on paper, so Wufei had been carried off back to their house to keep tabs on his husband. Maia and Vanny were congregated on the couch with the laptop looking up heaven knows what.

"You're such a mother hen," Howard said, coming up behind her and resting his chin on her shoulder as his arms wrapped around her and held her close. They watched the afternoon sun move across the sky from their back porch.

"I can't help it," she said, eyes closing. "I love them all so much, and yet there's so many millions of ways for them to get hurt. I can't stand it."

"They need to make their own choices, Sil. They've gotta make their own mistakes and live their own lives. Parent's can't rule their children's lives."

"Why not?" She demanded softly.

Howard chuckled. "If they could and did... then our four little gifts wouldn't be running around this world, making their own lives. If you parent's could have stopped you from marrying me..."

"I know," she replied with a smile. "And look at how much trouble we got ourselves into before settling down."

"Nah. Trouble's part of the fun. I swear, we should have named those kids 'Trouble 1, 2, 3, and 4.'"

Cecilia laughed as her husband's lips moved to drift over her skin, sending electric little tingles down her spine. "If I recall, Duane was *your* idea. As was Hilde. Delana and Vanessa are much more practical names."

"Practical names for practical children. Duo and Hilde are anything *but* practical," Howard pointed out, trying to distract his love. Well over twenty five years and they still had that spark. Hmm. Speaking of sparks... all the children were occupied. Hmm. And that upstairs bedroom was calling his name. Hmm. How to get Cecilia up there, though?

"Duo and Hilde take after *you*. Vanny and Delana are down to earth. They're my children through and through."

Howard chuckled. "You, my dear," he stated, spinning her in his arms. "Are anything *but* practical and down to earth. And *I* am going to prove it to you."

And locking his lips to hers, he proceeded to do just that.