Waking Up In Vegas

Chapter Thirty One

*Ding.... ring.... ding.... ring...*

"I'll get it!" Vanny cried, hopping up as the doorbell rang. Maia was beside her, Hilde and her parents all helping gather up the things in the boxes. Duo'd *told* his mother not to, but Cecilia had had a good feeling about this year. She'd bought up a load of cute little clothes for her granddaughter... her first granddaughter.

Her heart swelled with pride as she watched her youngest child run through the house towards the front door.

"Hello?" Vanny asked, swinging the front door open. And her mouth fell open. She didn't pay attention to the slender woman in front of her... her attention was focused on the guy next to her. Oh... wow....

"Yummy," she said without thinking. The woman laughed, bringing Vanny's attention back to her.

"Yes, he is very yummy. May we speak to Cecilia or Howard?" The woman asked.

Vanny blinked. "MAMA!!!!!!!!!!"

"Vanessa," her mother scolded coming up behind her. "Ma'am, I'm sorry." Cecilia smiled at her daughter, shooing her back inside. "Kids. Can't live with them and can't live without them."

"Of course. We were told to ask a Cecilia about our friend Quatre."

Cecilia smiled brightly. "You're friends of Quatre's? Come in, come in." she ushered them in. "Quatre's such a sweet person. I think he and our Trowa will be good for each other."

"So you know about the marriage," the woman prompted.

"Yes, yes. I think it's wonderful. I'm Cecilia Maxwell, by the way. Trowa's pretty much my adopted son. Me and Trowa's mother were very close. Our children were always at each other's homes."

"Ah. My name's Relena Darlian, and this is Heero Yuy."

"Relena Darlian? Like that lady that gave that speech at the white house about conservation?"

Relena blushed. "That was me."

"How nice. We get all sorts 'round here."

"Pardon?" Relena blinked. She was used to people fawning when they found out who she was. Sometimes even before they found out. But this woman had barely nodded, dismissing it like Relena'd said she was a maid or a dog catcher.

Cecilia laughed. "What I mean is... my son is an award winning architect. Quatre's CEO of whatever business it is he does. Our Trowa is an artist. Did you know one of his paintings- a landscape- hangs in the governor's mansion? Me and my daughter are both internationally known. Well, at least in Equestrian sports, at least. So we don't really base anything off of standing in this home."

She showed them into a living room. Maia and Vanny were both sitting a box of clothes down by the door.

"Oh, and little Maia here's set to inherit her father's business. This house is certainly no stranger to influential people."

Cecilia could not say she liked the way the man... Heero... glared at Maia when she'd dropped that bit of information.

"Ah. Okay. Was there something you were needing?" Cecilia asked as she motioned her guests to the couch. When Heero moved, she saw the distinct shape of a handgun at his waist, under his shirt. Aha... so that was where she'd heard that name before.

"We have very important business to discuss with Quatre," Heero said. "We heard you might know where he was."

Cecilia nodded. "Yes, I do. He's in Nashville right now. My son and his husband just found out their adoption papers went through. I'm a grandmother, now, y'know?" She gave a silly little smile. "That's what we're doing right now. We have some things we're going to go set up tomorrow. Y'know, they will probably be back sometime around eleven or so. Have you tried calling Quatre?"

Heero shook his head. "The things we need to discuss can't be talked about over the phone."

Cecilia nodded. "Of course."

Then the phone rang. A dark haired teenage girl dashed past the door. "I got it!" she called out. Abruptly the ringing cut off.

"Hey," Heero heard. "Yeah. Of course.... what? She did?"

Cecilia turned her attention to the girl, who walked into the room her eyes wide.

"He did *what*?"

Cecilia blinked. "Hilde?" she demanded.

The girl placed her hand over the phone, staring her mother. "It's 'Lana," she told her. Heero and Relena looked back and forth between them. "Midii showed up at Megan's," she explained, eyes twinkling.

"And that's a good thing, why?" Vanny asked. The way she spat it left no doubt as to the fact this family didn't like whoever this 'Midii' was, Heero noted. Maybe more research would have been a good thing.

The older girl laughed. "Kitty-Cat slapped the shit out of her!"

Cecilia's eyes widened. "Language, Hilde," she warned. the girl shrugged.

Heero and Relena exchanged a glance. Kitty-Cat could possibly be someone else, but Heero's gut instinct told him that it was in reference to Quatre. Who was Quatre slapping? More importantly, why?

Vanessa laughed brightly. "I bet Cathy was ticked that he beat her to it, huh?"

Cecilia nodded. "Nessa, Hilde, Maia. Please take the phone to the other room. I'd like to talk to our guests."

All three girls left, and Cecilia stood. "I'm judging by the looks on your faces that Quatre is not prone to slapping women?"

"No. Quatre is the least violent person I know," Relena assured.

The woman turned back to him. Her chestnut hair bobbed in curls around her face as she stared at them with indigo-violet eyes.

"Then tell me, dear... why does he... and why does an avid supporter of peace like yourself, keep company with a discharged Army officer? Special Ops officer at that? One who's carrying a gun into my home?"

The two blinked in surprise.

"Do you know me?" Heero demanded.

"I know of you, son," she snapped. I watch the news y'know? Heero Yuy. Took me a minute to recognize where I'd heard it before. You were tried for botching a mission and getting a girl killed."

Heero was up in a flash.

"Who the hell are you to tell me who I am?"

Violet eyes flashed. "Will you deny it?"

Heero remained silent.

"See? You won't deny it. You were acquitted from the charges. Bad intel apparently, am I right? But she's still dead, isn't she?"

Heero's hands were at Cecilia's throat in an instant, his muscles quivering in rage as Relena gasped, and leaped up, trying in vain to talk him down and pull him back.

"She was my sister," he snarled. "Did the TV tell you that? She was my fucking baby sister."

The woman stood with a straight back, looking deep into Prussian blue eyes.

"I just want to know what my son-in-law is into. I want to know how he knows such a person as you."

Relena gasped again, and Heero heard the unmistakable sound of a gun clicking. He darted his eyes from the woman, towards the sound. The man standing there in the doorway to the room was thin, with a sharp angular face. He looked a bit older than the woman; his hair was completely gray, and half of it was gone, whereas her's only showed streaks here and there. His garish Hawaiian print shirt was open, revealing a white tank underneath it. A pair of Sunglasses were perched on top of his head, and Heero was staring into sapphire eyes so dark they were almost black.

"Hands off my wife," the man said. The hunting rifle in his hands let Heero know he better do what the man said.

Heero laughed. "I could snap her neck before you could fire, old man," he said.

"But you'd still be dead," Cecilia pointed out, still frighteningly calm under his hand.

"And what's to stop me from putting *you* between me and the gun?" he hissed.

"Can you block both sides?" A girl's voice demanded. Heero darted his eyes to the other side, at the staircase the girls had disappeared up. And almost laughed. Hilde stood there on the stairs, a bright yellow bow strung in her hands, a red arrow notched. She had it expertly drawn, the string almost touching her ear. The way she held it spoke of much practice and expertise with the weapon.

"Nice bluff," Heero laughed. "But that's nothing but a practice arrow. The tips blunt and round. It couldn't kill me."

"But she's not aiming to kill you," Vanessa pointed out from the step above her sister; Maia was clutching a quiver of bows in her hand, looking suitably shaken. Vanny had another bow in her hand. It was loaded, but she hadn't drawn it yet. She was still just a kid, and as such, Heero guessed, she probably couldn't have held the bow drawn for as long as her older sister. "From this range," Vanessa continued, "even a blunt arrow will break skin. I'm pretty sure it's gonna hurt you."

"We're pretty protective of our own," Howard input. "Quatre's one of us now, savvy? And we don't take too kindly in this household to people who kill without meaning."

Heero turned cold eyes to the old man.

"Without meaning? I have never killed without meaning."

Cecilia's eyebrow lifted. "I find that hard to believe. A seasoned Special Ops officer?"

"I've fought and killed for my beliefs. To prevent war, to protect the people I love and the home I cherish. That's not without 'meaning'. It has meaning to me."

"And your sister's death?" Cecilia asked quietly.

Heero jerked his hands away from her, stumbling away. Relena was there to catch him, steady him. "It was an accident. No one was supposed to be in there, and she didn't die so what did it matter!??!?" He screamed. Silence permeated the house.

Relena looked at him, her mouth agap, her baby blues wide open.

"What?" she whispered, taking a step back.

Heero winced at the step she took as he met her eyes.

"Jezzy," he silently said. "She... she's not dead." He lifted his head and straightened his back with the confidence that came from knowing he wasn't alone anymore. He was never alone. And he couldn't fail his mission... not if his sister was helping him, too.

"She's alive."