AN: To all my adoring readers... I LOVE YOU! Please... don't kill me! You'll never know what happens if you kill me!
Waking Up In Vegas
Chapter 47
Noin observed her friend. She'd never seen the cool, calm, collected blond this distraught before. He'd weathered mergers and his father's wrath... he'd even dealt with attempted assassinations before. But never had she seen his smooth polish so dull and listless... those deep teal eyes in so much turmoil.
"You love him," she said. It wasn't a question, but a statement.
Zechs raised his head from where he was bent over the desk and looked from his girlfriend to his boss.
"Quatre?" He asked, looking for confirmation.
"I..." Quatre sighed. "I don't know... No. I *do* know." He sighed again, a resigned sigh. "I do love him. I have absolutely no reasoning behind it. But I do. Somewhere between Vegas and here and now... I fell in love with him."
"Love usually doesn't follow reason. It had a nasty habit of being *un*reasonable," Zechs pointed out.
"Are you calling me unreasonable?" Noin asked sweetly.
Quatre and Zechs both chuckled.
"I don't know why, but... his opinion of me matters. More than anything, I want him to be happy and to be proud of me, of what I am and what I've done." Quatre frowned. "I... I thought he was. He *said* what I'd done didn't matter. I told him about that village... and he'd just comforted me. Not judging or anything. He accepted it."
"Maybe he has his reasons," Noin said. "I meet him for all of five minutes, but I got the impression he isn't one to give trust very easily."
"He isn't," Quatre agreed.
"He seemed upset over you not being willing to destroy Epyon," Zechs added.
Quatre's lips tilted in a sad smile. "No. He wasn't. You... you don't understand how they live down there. It's like it's not touched by the world at all. So calm and peaceful... Everyone is family. War isn't something they understand. Hell... even I don't like war, but I understand it. War brings nothing but sorrow. But... we must fight to keep our loved one's from sorrow. It's so damn complicated, Zechs. Why can't life ever be simple?"
"Life *is* simple," Noin said. "It's *us* that are complicated, and we complicate life."
"That makes little sense, Lu," Quatre said wryly.
"Makes more sense than you going on about war," she shrugged. "My advice is to talk. Communication is key in relationships. Talk and see how far you go towards understanding each other. Because that's the important thing. Each other."
"When did you get so wise?" Quatre asked, looking up at her.
She lifted a shoulder in another elegant shrug. "When the almighty workaholic decided to go on vacation with his husband," she smirked.
"Haha."
"Professor Gee just called," Zechs lifted his head from the phone. "Epyon is ready. Shall we go?"
Quatre nodded. "Yes."
Sandrock HQ was quiet as they made their way down to the first floor. It was after-hours and they were the only people left in the building, save for Kim at the front desk. That's why Quatre's survival instinct kicked into overdrive.
He dropped to the ground as the first shot was fired.
"Quatre!" Zechs yelled.
"There's three of them!" Noin said.
"MOVE IT!" Quatre shouted, tugging her arm. And off they went, three men in quick pursuit of them.
#
"That was way too easy," Duo lamented as he and the other three stepped through the door of Sandrock Headquarters.
"Don't complain," Wufei said, uneasily shifting the backpack on his shoulders.
"Don't talk yet," Emily said, stepping between the two lovers. "Show ain't over 'til the fat lady si..."
"Duo? Wufei?" Quatre was running headlong down the hall, right towards them. A woman and man were beside him. Their faces were panicked. "RUN!"
Midii and Emily, sensible people they were, listened. Emily yanked on the arm of the stunned secretary standing beside the desk. Then they turned and bolted back out of the doors. Duo just stood staring stupidly, and Wufei braced himself. It wasn't until Quatre and the other two were closer that they saw the reason for the panic.
Three men were hot on Quatre's heels. One man raised a gun, and fired off a shot. Duo instinctively ducked as the glass window behind him shattered.
"Hot damn! What the fuck have we gotten ourselves into, 'Fei?" Duo demanded.
"RUN, DAMNIT!" The man with Quatre screamed, his long platinum blond hair streaming out behind him. Wufei and Duo took a dive, skidding behind the front desk as bullets pinged all around them.
Wufei paused for only a moment. Then he dropped to his knee, and pulled of the backpack, peering in it. Heero had said... Eureka!
"Shit, man," Duo exclaimed as Wufei withdrew two glocks from the bag. "He had you carrying around *guns*!"
"Shut up, Duo," Wufei said, handing Duo a gun. "Shut up and *fight*."
"I can't use a gun," Duo looked at Wufei like he was crazy.
"I've seen you use your Dad's Remington!"
"Hunting guns! Rifles, shotguns! Not like shooting at someone else!"
Wufei grunted, easily loaded the gun and stood up to look over the counter and fire off two shots.
Quatre dove around the desk as the other two with him ducked into the elevator, closing themselves off from the fight.
"Where did *you* learn to shoot?" Quatre asked breathlessly as Wufei handed him a pistol.
"Police academy, back in high school," Wufei said, firing another shot to cover as Quatre's friends escaped out the door, and with Duo firing a rather shaky first shot, forcing the three men back into the hall, though they still poked around the corner to fire off shots.
"Apparently he decided history teaching was a better profession than 'Serving and Protecting'," Duo smirked. Quatre ducked and flinched as a volley of bullets hit around them, then leaned up to fire off three well-aimed shots in quick succession.
"Self defense," Quatre explained in reply to Duo's raised eyebrow. "Zechs thought it best I knew how to defend myself in any given situation."
"Smart man," Duo said. His second and third shots were much more steadier as he compared the handgun to what he knew about hunting with shotguns.
Wufei looked towards the exit. "Think we can make it out of here?"
"If we had cover fire, one person at a time," Quatre nodded. "Duo first. Then you, Wufei. Then I'll go."
"Quatre first, then Duo, then me," Wufei argued. "Duo's not as good a shot. We need someone on both sides for cover."
Quatre nodded agreement.
"Sounds like a plan," Duo said. "On the count of three. One... Two... Three."
Quatre took off for the door as Wufei and Duo provided cover fire. As soon as Quatre was in a safe position to fire... Duo began another countdown. "One... Two..." A small round canister landed in front of him.
"Oh, fuck," he lamented as he stared at it.
"Duo?" Wufei turned to look at his husband. "What...?"
"This is so uncool..." Duo finished as the canister exploded.
#
"I can't believe Dr. Po agreed with this," Hilde muttered as she supported Delana, helping her older sister to sit down on the bed.
"Shut up," Cathy mumbled from where Howard and Alejandro were settling her down on the other side of the bed. "'Dun like hospitals. Never have."
"I don't like this," Howard said, pacing back and forth. "You should both still be in the hospital."
"Nothing's really wrong with us," Delana argued. "Just a little banged and bruised. The burns aren't even really that bad."
"You stopped breathing," Hilde deadpanned. "And that's 'nothing really wrong?'"
Delana waved her away. "Asphyxiation. A bit too much smoke. I'm fine. We're fine. Everythings fine. I just want a little more sleep," she admitted, noticing Cathy had already fallen back into slumber. Really. Her family could be very overprotective something. But she couldn't complain. She'd done the exact same thing when hher father... when her brother... when ANYONE came home from the hospital.
"Juice!" Mei proclaimed, the little girl arriving with two carefully held cups. Maia and Vanny were right behind her.
"Miss Megan said juice *always* make you feel better," Mei said, sitting a cup beside her aunt.
Delana smiled. "Does she now? Well, Miss Megan should know her stuff," she took a sip of the juice. "Thank you, darling. Now how about you take Gran'ma downstairs and tell her all about Timmy and the others? I think she might have a present for you, too."
Mei glanced warily at the woman. "Present?"
Cecilia held out her hand and held her breath. "Yes. We've all been waiting for you for a long time, Meilan."
Mei looked from Delana to Cecilia, and reluctantly she took the woman's hand and smiled up at her. "You're my Gran'ma?"
Cecilia nodded, tears in her eyes. "I'm your Grandma, darling. You'll always have family from now on."
#
Heero and Trowa jumped out of the cab the moment it stopped. Heero tossed the money at the driver. "Get as far away from here as you can," Heero advised.
The cab pulled away and the two men looked up at the warehouse in front of them. It was clearly abandoned, but there were construction materials around, and numerous dumpsters lining the street around them... and it had a sign in front of it. Some French construction team for some type of office building.
"Dermail," Heero hissed, noting the French wording. "I should have known he was behind this."
"I take it that this Dermail is..."
At that moment, the door at the front of the building burst open, four men pouring out in a dead run.
Heero's gun was up and out before anyone could blink or even think. "Dermail! Freeze! You're under arrest for kidnapping and international conspiracy."
The man skidded to a stop, a confused look on his face... and then he broke out laughing.
"Yuy? Oh, this is priceless!"
"Duke Dermail... you're insane," Heero noted. "And you're going to jail."
The old man just laughed. "No, no. I'm going to die. And so are you... and so is that genius of a sister of yours.
"You're crazy," Heero reiterated. Then, after a quick though. "I kill crazy people."
"Oh, this is priceless," the man chuckled madly. "She thought she was saving you! And... oh, god, you're going to die, too! We're all going to die! Hahahaha!"
"What the fuck?" Trowa asked. He was so confused it wasn't even funny. What the hell was going on?
It wasn't until then that they heard it. Trowa looked up to the darkening sky, making out the single object that was making the noise. "Um... Heero? Is that a..."
"DUCK!" Heero yelled, jerking Trowa's arm. They dove out into the street and behind a dumpster as the missile hit the building. The shockwave pushed them and everything around them further away, even as the warehouse exploded in a loud and fiery explosion.
"JEZZY!" Heero screamed in horror as he struggled to sit up, only for Trowa to pull him back down. The warehouse was no more... nothing but a pile of burning rubble crumbled in upon itself.
Heero's arms wrapped around himself as he fell to his knees, tears on his face.
"NO! JEZZY!"