Alright people! This is the second update in two weeks. Be proud! It's a little more cumbersome with less action, but still it has it's place in the story.

What I would like from all of you are reviews to tell me what you think! A lot of people seem to read the story and not review which is slightly disappointing. Even if it's a 'yo' That's not bad. It keeps me motivated to write. And that lets me continue updating on a weekly-ish basis.

For those that do review. I heart you very much. If nothing else I would give you candy if I ever met you.

Sorry for the half-rant. On with the fic!

Ch18

Heero was waiting outside the operating room for Trowa to come out of surgery. A quick X-ray had shown that his cheek bone had been broken and forced inwards. He was in with the surgeon who was resetting it with an injectable compound that would easily repair the damage with minimal change to the bone structure of his face. The swelling would take some time to dissipate as would the discoloration, but eventually he would be the same Trowa they all recognized. Heero's current task was to obtain Trowa's report on the events and to find out how he had encountered Wufei. He had volunteered for the task after all his months of attempting to locate Wufei; he wanted to know any pertinent information as quickly as possible. It would make it easier to find the reason, someone to put in his place behind bars.

In the interim Une had taken command of the prison break investigation from local authorities citing that several of the escaped prisoners were of interest to global peace and were in fact placed there by the Preventers. She was having a selection of staff pull every single file from the last year or so they could find, both physical and electronic, to go through and see what was happening within the prison system. Also so she could compile a list of prisoners who were recaptured or not recaptured within the facilities. The final information was a list of all those who had worked within the prison for the last year and a half. Any information would be of obvious help in locating those that had fled during the escape as well as locating Wufei. They had been denying that he was in the facility for months. This obviously incorrect now that Trowa had seen him.

Quatre was busy with the political end of things, contacting Relena and other representatives they had that had been attempting to aid in the search for Wufei over the last year to add the new information that he had been hidden within the same prison he had been initially assigned. Quatre had been hitting walls within the government over the last year, not specifically because the people he talked to were interested in keeping Wufei in prison, but because they did not understand why he was putting in such effort to find this one person when they had a world to rehabilitate from years of fighting and war. When someone presented that as an idea it made sense. Why bother with one person in the grand scheme of things? But Wufei had been their comrade and brother. Duo called him a friend. It may not be important in the grand scheme of things. One person did not necessarily change the outcome of the universe. That had been their reasoning.

It was ironic that they would say such a thing when Heero was in the conference once and had been a key factor in the war. After all, earth would have been completely decimated and left for dust if it had not been for Heero Yuy when Libra fell. It was strange how quickly people forgot the impact one person could make in the grand scheme of things.

Heero maintained his quiet glare when he had heard the man speaking, but hadn't left. Just stood there silently as they discussed things with an air of philosophy. That had been five months and thirteen days ago.

Heero saw through the window of the operating room that the doctor was moving away from the operating table and the staff was cleaning up. Trowa was wheeled out of the room and already seemed to be waking up from the mild sedative. The only signs of surgery were two small crosses of stiches below his right eye with a trickle of blood running from them. The surgeon spoke to him and said, "He's doing well. Everything went fine. He will be waking up shortly." Heero nodded to him and followed the staff as they placed him in the recovery room. He would wait for Trowa to wake up enough to get the details of what happened.

Duo had already been called back from the colonies. He was going to be needed they were almost positive. He was on a shuttle inbound for the Detroit post. There were plans that needed to be discussed and with the new escapees he would no doubt need to become involved using his many contacts.

Trowa began drifting awake and blinking his good eye open. The other side was well swollen shut. Heero shifted closer on that side and stated, "Surgery went well your face will look better after a while." Heero automatically handed him a cup of water swirl in his mouth and spit into. He knew well the uncomfortable gooey-dryness that your mouth felt after an operation or unconsciousness of any kind.

Trowa spit into the cup and it came out pinkish. He had been bleeding. Probably had a tooth knocked loose. At least none had come out. He got a fresh cup and swallowed it with a wince and sat up a little further in the bed. He was ready to talk.

"What happened?"

Trowa scanned his eye over Heero ready for the usual abruptness. "I was assigned to infiltrate the prison. I had been planning to anyways, but Une asked me to wait a while longer while Quatre finished out all the possible political pathways that we could have validly used as a means of finding Wufei. When all of those failed I got the go ahead for this mission." He paused and closed his eye. It seemed to be easier that way. He was obviously still tired from what happened.

"I entered into the trainee program three months prior to yesterday and I've been going through all the training. And finally Une had enough assistance from someone, Relena I'd guess, to switch the guards. I was sent in as an undercover operative to find out if Wufei had been there all along."

Heero knew most of this, but still sat quietly, while Trowa sorted through the events in his head. It was hard to move in and out of cover so quickly if you were far immersed in a character for long term operations. Almost like a second skin or personality would be covering over you. It was not healthy to have to switch out so suddenly. "I was on my first day of assignment as a trainee and I didn't think that I would have any chance of getting into the prison that day so I maintained my post in the visitor wing. The alarms started blaring shortly after lunch. I heard gun fire in the corridor outside the visitor area. I was not expecting the surge of prisoners that came through, but thought I would be able to handle any situation, but I saw him..."

He inhaled deeply and forced him to relax again, "I saw him and I froze. It had been so long since I last saw him and he had been there the entire time. It looks as if he had been the one to organize the break out. He..." Trowa paused. "He promptly punched me into unconsciousness and I awoke in a helicopter with him and a few other people in it. He took me over a lake and he dropped me into it. Handcuffed."

Heero nodded. He had guessed that Wufei had been the one to organize the escape and caught Trowa. No one else could have really done it as well as it had been carried out.

"From there I was able to get to the surface and shore. I stayed there thinking that that was where you would find me. At some point another inmate found me and tried to take me out. He approached on the side of my face that was already badly swollen, but I was able to take him out after he got a couple of hits in. Fighting one eyed and handcuffed is not the easiest. And that's where you found me."

Heero nodded. "What did Wufei's status seem to you?"

Trowa was quiet for a while as he thought about the question Heero was asking. He knew what he was asking, but the information he wanted was something different entirely. Trowa started with, "I didn't check his physical status because I was so focused on the fact that he was there in front of me. I was more looking at his face at that point." He swallowed and blinked his eye open at Heero, "I think that he was angry. There was the possibility that he was trying to protect me. But... It just didn't seem to fit." Trowa's voice faded at the end as he was trying to think things through.

"Would you recognize the people on the helicopter if you saw pictures of the inmates?" Heero asked as a last minute question. Trowa nodded on the pillow. He looked like he was going to be drifting off again soon.

Heero got up and left the room in search of Une. He wanted to know what she had found and report what Trowa had said to him. Wufei would have known that Trowa was there to help as soon as he saw him. That meant that he would have helped in some way. That was where the lake drop came in. Wufei was trying to leave Trowa in a safe place. That had to be it.

Trowa was just imagining the disregard for him.

Une was in her office with Quatre. She had brought in a table for all the data sheets that they had been getting from the field team all afternoon. Heero came to report what Trowa had said post-surgery and his status. He walked into a flurry of activity as Quatre had pulled two people to assist with the filing and many others were wandering in and out bringing new files or updates from the site. Heero stood off to the side, before heading to an administrative office to type out a summary. They would not have time to hear his limited report. There wasn't much variance from what he thought had happened or would have happened either.

Once he printed it out and delivered it to Quatre he asked if there was anything else he could do. Quatre looked up at him and said calmly, "Heero we are still trying to compile what we have and cross reference it. We don't have any other tasks that need to be taken care of at this time and we should wait for Duo to give the full report of actions anyways. You look awful. Go to one of the Preventer's temporary housing units and take a break. I'll call you if we get any leads."

With that Heero was dismissed from the room and from attention. Une was still on the phone and more people came in carrying files from trials and individual inmates. Heero exited quickly and found his way to the quarters that Preventers had set aside for agents that were not living in the area and need to stay overnight. He was given a key by the staff there and set up his laptop in the quiet room in the corner. He still heard cars moving off and on the premises that were moving to and from the prison site. It was close to nineteen hundred hours so anyone remaining in the compound was with the Preventers.

Heero surveyed the simple room with a desk in the corner a bed and a bathroom attached through a door. It was functional which Heero appreciated. He opened his laptop and logged into his secured wartime email network that all the Gundam pilots were on.

He composed a brief email to Wufei:

Glad you are out. Contact me ASAP.

And he left his phone numbers in the email. Heero nodded. At least now Wufei would return the message and he would be able to tell him everything that had gone wrong. How he wasn't supposed to be there for that long. How he was indeed at fault for sending him there in the first place.

Heero shut his laptop satisfied with his message and lay back on his bed. He drifted off to sleep listening to the engines of field teams coming to and from the base. Tomorrow there would be more information and a plan of action. He would be ready.

It was the first time in months he was able to sleep through the night.

TBC...

So there you have it! I hope you enjoyed. Not as action packed as usual as I said, but still some possible interesting points for future plot movement.

Now please review! Because I dont' like ranting. I'll beg, but I won't like it. Please please please please please please please please please please please please...

-Silverserpent