Disclaimer: The GW characters do not belong to me.

Note: Many thanks to KS, for slogging through this one with me, and to everyone who hasn't forgotten this story. A couple of people have asked for a synopsis of the story to date: I think this chapter fills in most of the major past events, but if you'd like a copy of the timeline, let me know.

Implausible Scenarios:

Some uniformed footman tried to show me out after my chat with Quat, but I hopped in front of him at a strategic point as we were rounding a corner. I didn't need some flunky in shiny brass buttons to take me around this house; it had been my second home for years.

That first year after the war, I'd visited every month or so, once or twice with Heero, but usually by myself. While Heero and I had been on our trial separation, or whatever it had been, I'd stayed here.

The odd thing was that I had happy memories of that particular period; December 196, before everything had gone wrong. Heero had only been able to accompany me to L4 a couple of times, so not having him there was normal more than anything. We'd spoken several times a day, and we'd had a month of getting on together. Of actual talking about our lives and our futures.

He'd already been accepted by several universities, to study for his law degree, and we'd had fun debating where we'd prefer to live for the next few years. I'd wanted him to go with his first preference of Tokyo, but he hadn't wanted to drag me off to a new country where I knew no one and didn't speak the language. I don't think it ever occurred to me to think what I'd be doing while he was caught up in his studies. Back then, I'd probably imagined him attending the odd class, and being with me the rest of the time.

After I'd more or less recovered from the incident, after my doctors had cleared me for space travel, I'd stayed in this house for nearly three months. Wu had taught me to swim while I was living with him, and I'd spent hours in Quatre's pool, or tucked away in the library.

I probably would never have left, except that Wufei had dragged me back to Earth to start the university course my friends had chosen for me.

For all the house's grandeur, it was still clearly a place where a family had grown up. There were photographs on every remotely flat surface, and every room bore some testimony to the girls' artistic efforts; splashy watercolour paintings and embroidered cushions and hand-painted porcelain ornaments.

There wasn't much evidence of the only son and heir; he appeared in a few carefully posed photographs, usually with his father. Such a direct contrast to all the carefree, laughing shots of his sisters.

When Quatre and I had first met, we'd exchanged carefully edited versions of our childhood. He'd grown up surrounded by a huge, loving family, and I'd made growing up on L2 sound like this great adventure.

It wasn't 'til much later that we'd actually started to confide in each other. To be honest, at the very start, I hadn't thought we'd ever get to be friends. I'd known from the start that he and Trowa were together - that much was pretty damn obvious - so it wasn't like he'd want me for sex.

Heero and Trowa were both doing the jobs they'd spent their whole lives training for, and Wufei was totally wrapped up in avenging his clan. Quat was like me, though; just a kid who'd got caught up in it all. Someone else who believed he was damaged and was desperately trying to hide it, although in his case, it was buried deep under those beautifully formal manners.

He was the first person I'd ever met who'd wanted to know me properly, who'd cared what I actually thought about things. Who didn't need anything from me but friendship, pure and simple. Sure, I could kid myself that Sister Helen had thought I was special; I guess in her own way she'd thought we were all special. But she hadn't been my mother; I'd been another of dozens, hundreds of kids who'd been through the orphanage.

Everyone in my life thought I had Quatre Winner on a solid gold pedestal, but it wasn't really true. Not totally.

We'd gone through an incredible, impossible year together when we were just fifteen.

During one of our worst rows, Heero had yelled at me that I was in love with Quat, and I'd hurled the accusation right back. I think we both had been, sort of.

I'd had Heero, Quat had had Trowa. A perfectly balanced equation of four, and those two fit so perfectly. They just fit. Quatre glowed like a sunbeam whenever Trowa was so much as mentioned; Trowa had always been less obvious, but it was still pretty clear that he believed the sun shone out of his boyfriend's ass. Or maybe he'd just liked looking at that particular part of Quat's anatomy.

As far as Quatre was concerned, the house had been the place where he'd grown up, and he lived there because he was the head of the Winner family, and it was expected of him. He had the cottage, and a penthouse suite in his office building, and he considered both places to be home.

Never this house.

The place was like an armed camp. Correction, the place could have given seminars to armed camps. There were probably anti-aircraft missiles in the gazebo and mobile suits lurking behind the topiary. To get in, we'd had to undergo retinal scans, fingerprint checks, and DNA tests.

If anyone else wanted to get at Quatre, they'd have to go through his personal army.

Which was a bit of a problem for me, actually.

I'd been sent off with a full protective detail, courtesy of Zechs; Jack driving, Mason as Official Bodyguard in Chief, a couple of embassy guards on motorbikes as outriders. I'd been sort of scared to look up as we drove, just in case there was air support as well.

'So…'I slid into the passenger seat. 'Where now? Back to the embassy? Or can we go for a spin?'

Jack grinned at me. 'Oh, no. I have very specific orders from the Commander. We're going straight back to the embassy.'

OK, I hadn't really expected any different. 'The Commander? How come you're calling him that?'

'Must be a habit I've picked up.' He swung the car in a semi-circle around the front of the house, accelerating as he passed the first check point.

'Slow down a bit, OK? We're not in any hurry.' I twisted my head to look at Mason in the back. 'Do you guys still do courses in Hostage Extraction as part of training?' I knew they did, even before he nodded. I'd never been privileged to wear the Preventer uniform myself – well, only for a couple of hours before Une fired me – but I'd lived with Heero and Wufei. I knew.

'Jack? Any experience in that area?'

'A little.' He sounded a bit uncomfortable about it. 'Why?'

'Just curious. Listen, when we get back to the embassy, I want you guys to write a report each on the defences in this place.'

'Why?'

'You sound like a five year old,' I gave Jack my most disarming smile. 'Quatre Winner's my best friend. I want to make sure he's safe, that there aren't any breaches in his security. Come on, it'll give you both something to do, right?'

They both nodded, Jack looking a bit suspicious and Mason eagerly. The guy probably thought if he aced his assignment, I'd tell Heero how brilliant he was. Poor sap. Just to forestall any more questions, I switched on the radio.

Back home, they both trailed me to the front of the house from the garage. Hell, I'd acquired an entourage. Well, that was going to have to stop right now.

'Jack, do me a favour. Mason's going to be staying here for a day or so; can you find someone inside to get a room ready for him?'

'Of course. Or he's welcome to share mine, if he'd prefer.' Jack gave the blushing Mason a long, appraising look that probably had him wishing his Preventer uniform was a little less fitted. They seemed to be getting tighter these days; I didn't have the clearest recollections of 196, but I didn't remember Heero wearing anything quite so tight-fitting. Oh, well, he'd have to toughen up a bit if he was going to stay around. At this rate, he'd self combust if Zechs so much as looked at him.

The two of them vanished inside and Marlie popped around the side of the house. She looked different in jeans instead of a Preventer uniform, with her hair loose; like a normal person, but I still got the impression that the Maxwell glamour hadn't worn off.

'Hi! Listen, d'you know a guy called Mason?'

'Anthony Mason? Yes, I know him. We did basic training together.'

'He's going to be staying here for a day or so. Maybe you could have a word with him? I don't think he's overly keen on me, and Heero's got him playing bodyguard for a while. Can you please reassure him that I don't have horns and a tail?'

Marlie gasped, the blush intensifying just a little bit. Maybe not on my account this time. Interesting, maybe our two Preventers could get together and try starting something instead. 'Duo, he thinks you're amazing! I've been to his apartment; he has Deathscythe magnets all over his fridge and everything.'

'You can get those? Seriously? Wow, that's sort of cool! And what were you doing in his kitchen?'

'He invited everyone over for dinner one evening during the course.'

'So he cooks too?' I grinned at her, noticing one of her hands was busily twisting itself in her hair. Always a give-away when girls like someone. Or guys, if their hair is long enough. Ahem. 'I've sent him inside with Jack? Would you mind checking on them?'

There; who says men aren't capable of multi-tasking? Bring two lonely hearts together, plus give the two Preventers something to keep them occupied. I didn't want either of them listening to what I was about to tell the others.

Zechs and Wufei were on the terrace, drinking tea out of nice porcelain cups, with Zechs' art stuff scattered around and a seriously weird painting on the easel. A riot of rainbow coloured llamas cavorted around the canvas, all sporting wings.

Lots of weirdness everywhere.

'Duo!' Wufei looked up and smiled. 'How is he?' He'd wanted to come with me, and I'd managed to convince him to stay and spend some quality time with his poor, injured fiancé.

'Alive. Weird.' I plopped down in a chair and tilted it back, looking at Zechs. 'How much can I trust Jack?'

Zechs put his cup down. 'With your life. Although possibly not with your money or your virtue.'

'I don't have any money and my virtue's a pretty negligible quality at this stage.'

He grinned, and then Wufei cut in. 'Why exactly are you asking?'

Hmmm. Good question. Wufei was the one I'd have to convince; Zechs would go along with his partner.

'Duo?' Wufei again. 'What happened with Quatre?'

OK.

Showtime.

'There's something seriously wrong. I mean, seriously, 'Fei. I don't really get what's going on but we have to get him out of there. No, listen,' I was talking faster and faster as they geared themselves up to interrupt. 'He's scared stiff about something. And he was acting really weird, like he didn't really know what was going on, or didn't much care. I mean, I asked him about those WEI buildings that got blown up and he never batted an eyelid.'

'In the circumstances…' Wufei began, and I shook my head.

'In the circumstances, nothing. You know Quat. He doesn't just…close down. And he's taken your painting, that scroll you did for them, off the wall. He said it had somehow got broken and he hadn't got around it fixing it, or having it replaced.'

My major, world-stopping, gob-smacking revelation won me a couple of blank stares.

'Duo, I hardly think that Quatre Winner's taste in art is relevant to any of this.'

'After the War,' I cut in, 'your boyfriend painted three calligraphy scrolls, in a very ancient Chinese script that hadn't been used on Earth in centuries, but was still known on L5. The one he kept is over our fireplace in the lounge at home; the one he gave me and Heero is on my bedroom wall, and the other one used to hang in Trowa and Quatre's bedroom. If it's broken, it's irreplaceable. If it's broken, he would not have dismissed it as casually as he did.'

'The characters meant peace,' Wufei said softly.

'Yeah, peace,' I echoed, just as quietly. 'Broken, according to Quatre.'

Zechs looked at Wufei; Wufei looked at Zechs. Wufei apparently got first dibs on reasoning with poor, deluded Duo.

'Quatre and I haven't exactly been on the best of terms lately,' he said quietly. 'Not given the way he's been treating you and Trowa. It's hardly a surprise if he broke something that had been a gift from me.'

'Not that,' I said positively. 'Wu, it's one of his most precious possessions.'

'Well, maybe it was an accident.' Wufei had apparently decided to adopt a calm, reasoning tone to placate the friend who had suddenly gone doolally.

'No!' I snapped back. 'He was trying to tell me something; that something is really, really wrong. He's scared of something, or someone. That's why he couldn't tell me out straight; they must have the house bugged and that's why he had to tell me in code. I mean, come on he's been acting weird for God knows how long; there's obviously something behind it. I'm not imagining all of this, 'Fei. You think I'm making it all up?'

'No. No, I don't. But I know how attached you are to Quatre, how much you've always valued his friendship.' He took a deep breath. 'Duo, he's has behaved abominably towards you for months. I think, possibly, you are manufacturing excuses for him rather than accepting the facts. He is in his home, surrounded by the Maguanacs. It's probably the safest place in the universe right now. There is absolutely no reason why he should feel remotely threatened.'

'Which is precisely why it's so weird that he does! Plus he's cutting himself again.'

Zechs looked mystified; Wufei's eyes widened. 'After all, he's been through, it's hardly surprising.'

'No,' I shook my head firmly. 'He's only ever done that when he's under serious emotional strain.' He'd always tried so hard to keep it a secret; of course, we'd all known. 'Is he likely to do that now that he's back home, supposedly safe, with the Maguanacs to protect him?'

'I have no idea,' Wufei said flatly. 'I don't think I know anything about him any more. Did you even talk to him about how he's been behaving? About how he's trying to have you committed, and set you up to have sex with a total stranger and then had it shown on global TV? Did you?'

God, I'd totally forgotten about the sex thing. Well, it was hard to keep track of everything.

'Sort of. Look, he's really sorry for all that shit. He just lost it when Trowa walked out. He didn't know what he was doing. I can identify with that; I didn't care what I did when Heero left me.'

'You're being ridiculous. It was Quatre's own fault if Trowa left him. And you didn't insult your friends, you never treated us like dirt, you never tried to ruin our lives.'

'I tried to end my own.' I said it very quietly, but it shut him up. I'd never admitted it aloud before, never really acknowledged it. I'd admitted to accidents, or a couple of hardcore sexual encounters that had somehow gone wrong, but the fact was that after Heero had left, I had very badly wanted to die.

'Oh, Duo.' I suddenly had Wufei wrapped around me.

'No, it's OK. I'm fine. Look, can we just concentrate on Quatre for now.'

'Fine.' He gave me one last squeeze, and sat back down. 'What exactly do you think is wrong with him?'

'I don't exactly know,' I said reluctantly. 'Just that it's got to be something big. Seriously big and important. Come on, he's been acting weird for months. And now he can't even talk openly in his own home, with the Maguanacs guarding him. That's why we've got to break him out and take him somewhere that's really safe, so we can talk to him properly.'

The guys were really missing all their cues today. Wufei looked simply appalled at the idea; Zechs just looked slightly pitying. Neither of them knew just what to say.

'You think I'm mad. You do think I'm making this up, as some sort of elaborate excuse for how he's been behaving. Don't you?'

'It is….possible. Duo, I'm sorry. But you have absolutely no evidence and Quatre has always been very skilled at manipulating people and…' his voice trailed off, letting me fill in the rest of it.

'And I'm very good at constructing elaborate fantasies,' I finished for him. Yeah. I'd convinced myself that I was just fine after the War, as I'd slowly been self-destructing. I'd convinced myself that Heero and I would be together forever, ever as I'd found new ways to drive us apart. Great, Duo.

I took a deep breath.

'You didn't see him, Wufei. There's something going on and he's shit scared of whatever it is, and it would explain how he's changed lately. I mean, all the stuff that's been happening, the girl and the bodyguards getting killed, maybe it was all just a warning of some sort, to make him do something.' No, they still weren't buying it. 'Right. You don't believe me. Tell me what you think is going on then.'

They both, very carefully, didn't look at each other. 'Duo,' Wufei said quietly. 'Lucrezia called just before you got back. The Preventers…have an alternative theory.'

I glanced up just in time to see the look that passed between them. 'Oh, fucking no! No way! They think he's doing all this himself?'

'Duo.' Wufei leaned over and put one hand on my arm. 'Just listen to us? We've listened to you; now it's your turn. You said yourself, he's been behaving very oddly for the last year or more. The way he's been behaving to Trowa; to all of us.' He hesitated. 'We've seen the Preventers' report on the abduction; it's very odd. There are absolutely no signs of any struggle; somebody got close enough to take out two armed, highly competent bodyguards and presumably disable Quatre in the process. Whoever killed them wasn't just someone they knew, but trusted implicitly, or they would have reacted somehow. They were both shot at point-blank range, between the eyes. Whoever did was right in front of them.'

'No. That doesn't mean it was Quat.'

'You asked Theo to have Quatre watched.' Zechs' turn. 'Remember? I know the man who was assigned the job. He was good. And someone took him out; again, at point blank range with no signs that he'd tried to get away.'

'This is all just conjecture.' I forced myself to speak calmly. 'You have no proof, and Quat has absolutely no motive for any of this.'

'It's possible that he noticed Theo's man watching him, Blakeny his name was.'

I nodded; Jack had told me that.

'If he did, it's possible that he assumed the man was a threat and … reacted.'

I swallowed. I did not, in any way, want that to be true. If it was, I'd literally sent the guy to his death. I'd called Theo Fichtner and got him to have someone keep an eye on Quat.

'Why the hell does Une think he would he do any of this? Why would he shoot his own bodyguards and that poor girl and what? Blow up his own company's buildings?'

Wufei rubbed the bridge of his nose with one finger; always a sign of stress. Not that I could talk; without realising it, I'd torn a page out of Zechs' sketchpad, and was methodically shredding it between two fingers. I hoped I hadn't ruined a good picture.

'They have profilers, Duo. They've spoken to the Quatre's staff, to some of the Maguanacs. They believe he became very upset after Trowa left, and that at some point he blamed the girl, and, Duo…you know Quatre. You know what he's like when he gets caught up in emotions, in losing people who are close to him.'

Zero.

He didn't even have to say it. We all knew what Quatre Raberba Winner, following the death of his father, to whom he had never been close, had done.

'If he believed he'd lost Trowa –'

'No.' It was hardly a whisper. 'He wouldn't. It's not possible. And why would he blow up his own offices? Or attack you and Zechs?

'It's possible that he saw WEI as being partly the cause of losing Trowa.' Wufei shrugged. 'Duo, we're all just hypothesising at this point. It's possible that the people who attacked us had nothing to do with Quatre. It's not as if either of us is particularly popular on this colony. You know that.'

'No!' I snapped suddenly. 'Quatre is our friend. He's not some unbalanced maniac. There's no way he's responsible for any of this. I was talking to him an hour ago, 'Fei. He was thrilled about your engagement; he was joking about some newspaper he'd seen calling you Zechsy's exotic toy boy or something.'

Wufei looked over at his partner, brows snapping together. 'Milliardo, you assured me that that article wouldn't be reprinted.'

'I did, darling,' Zechs said hastily. 'I spoke to the palace press office; they promised me no other journalists would ever use that particular wording.'

'You can do that? What about the freedom of the press and all that? And what article are you talking about?'

Zechs grinned. 'Reporters tend to become rather co-operative if one threatens not to update their particular publications on events concerning one of the last royal families in Europe. The Sanque Times published a brief story on Sunday in their society pages. They'd picked up on the fact that Wufei had applied for Sanque citizenship, and were speculating that it might mean a proposal was in the offing. Wufei was a little … upset, over some of the terms used by the author, so I contacted Relena's press office, and they spoke to the media.'

'So…' I said slowly. 'It's Friday today. Quat's been missing for a week. He's been drugged and injured and concussed and God knows what. Do you honestly think that he's had time to sit down and read a celebrity gossip column?'

'He could have seen it since he got back,' Wufei argued. 'You know Quatre. The first thing he'd want to do is to catch up with what's been going on.'

'Yeah, and he starts off by reading the weekend social supplement in a newspaper that's almost a week old, and that's published on the other side of the universe and probably not even available on the Colonies? Get real, 'Fei. Shit!'

'Ooh! You said a bad word,' piped up a voice, and I turned to see Gemma and Lily at my elbow. Great; two little girls had managed to sneak up on the three of us.

'Flying horsie!' Lily was chanting as she scrambled up on to my knee. Gemma, as always, hung back a little, but I caught the quick glimmer of a smile as she looked at the painting.

'Where's Nathan?'

Wufei shrugged. 'I did something stupid. Nathan mentioned he enjoyed martial arts films this morning, so I suggested showing him some basic katas. He agreed, but he apparently thought I'd meant something different and then he walked into the gym as I was getting changed and he ….reacted rather badly. Duo, I'm sorry. I never even thought…'

'Hey,' I tipped the little girl off my lap and grabbed him in a quick hug. 'It's OK. You didn't know; you were just trying to be nice.'

'Stop mauling my fiancé, Maxwell,' Zechs put in. 'You wouldn't do that if Heero were here.'

'Wouldn't want to do it if Heero were here.' I gave Wufei's pony tail a little tug and then let him go. 'Don't worry, 'Fei.'

'Flying horsie!' Lily insisted loudly, tugging my hand to come and look.

'Flying llamas,' I grinned down at her, trying to remember what was important about a flying horsie. Damn, I'd forgotten that sex with Heero, that being in the remote vicinity of Heero sent all the little Maxwell brain cells scurrying off to another part of my anatomy entirely. What had flying horses got to do with anything?

Shit. Out of respect for the young ladies present, I didn't say it out loud.

''Fei,' I swung Lily in circle and dumped her, still giggling, on the grass at my feet. 'What happened to that report we gave Preventers that the girl saw that van taking Quatre away?'

He sighed. 'They've chosen to disregard it, in the face of their new theory.'

'They disregarded an eye witness account?' I asked incredulously. 'Tell me you're joking.'

He sighed, lowering his voice. 'It's L4. No one's interested in what a little homeless girl may or may not have seen. Lucrezia did say she'd look into it, but I think what with Quatre reappearing, she probably hasn't had a chance.'

'Probably,' I said idly. 'Lily, can you do something for me, please?' She bounced to her feet, nodding enthusiastically.

'Good girl! Remember the night before I met you guys? You saw the dark-coloured van with the flying horsie picture. Do you think you could tell Zechs just what it looked like?' I'd done a quick sketch, a couple of days ago, but I'd lost it.

'He's a prince!' She sounded shocked. 'You have to say His Highness.'

'Oh, right. Sorry. Do you think you could tell His Most Gracious and Serene Highness what the horsie was like? Pretty please?'

Lily giggled. 'OK. He was standing on his back legs and he had wings. Two pretty wings.'

'What sort of wings?' Zechs asked, reaching for his sketchpad. 'Like a butterfly? Or a dragon?'

'No! Like an angel! All feathery and swoopy!'

Zechs drew quickly adding flourishes in graceful swirls. 'Like this?'

'Yeah! He's beautiful. Can I have it? Please.'

'In a minute. 'Fei, can I borrow your laptop for a sec? Let's see what we can find about flying horsies.'

I pulled up the search engine, typing in L4+Pegasus, just to see what that would give us.

Souhef Limited. It wasn't even a surprise.

I'd met the guy, according to Zechs, at some art exhibition somewhere. He'd apparently fancied me. I had no recollection of it though. He was a friend, or at least an acquaintance of Quatre's. Trowa didn't like him. I scanned down his bio briefly, flicking past of the picture of a pretty wife and two little boys. MBA from Harvard, old family firm on L4, marriage, philanthropic work with orphans and street kids. Yeah. Sure. The nice, glowing report didn't mention that he'd been screwing those street kids, and that two of them were mysteriously, horribly dead.

'Whatever's going on,' I said flatly, 'this guy is in it up to his balls. I promise you that. And he's just walking around because he owns whatever part of this colony the Winners don't. It's insane.'

'There is no definite proof,' Wufei interrupted. 'The van could have been stolen, or used by an employee without anyone knowing. No court is going to accept the word of a small child in any case. And he may have been Ali's lover, but that doesn't imply he had any part in the boy's death.'

'Jack and Theo gave us Souhef's name, remember? They got it from those guys who tried to kill you in the desert.'

'And it's totally inadmissible. Duo, you know that. He may be somehow involved but…'

'He bloody well is involved,' I muttered, nibbling the end of my braid. 'I know he is.' I glanced back over the information on screen. 'The Preventers seriously haven't even looked into the possibility of this guy being a part of this?'

'Gods, Duo.' Wufei slouched back in his chair, suddenly looking exhausted. 'We don't have a clue what's going on. Une is determined to pin on all of this on Quatre; she's not even considering any other possibilities. The other Preventers just want to find out who's responsible for blowing up one of their own shuttles and killing twelve agents.'

'You can't possibly believe Quat did something like that!'

'It doesn't matter what I happen to believe. Une's sure Quat's behind all of this. and he's not exactly helping himself, claiming he doesn't remember anything, and then appearing on TV and implying the Preventers are in some way responsible. They think he staged this whole thing, with the help of David Souhef, as a way to discredit the Preventers, and thereby the ESUN and so far it's damn well working. You probably haven't seen the news for a couple of hours, but there are anti ESUN demonstrations taking part on all the Colonies, and in some cities on Earth. And at some point, Une is going to come up with enough evidence to pin a conviction on Quatre and then all hell is going to break loose.'

Zechs cleared his throat. 'And of course tomorrow's date doesn't really help.'

I had to think for a second, to work out the date.

Oops.

I said that aloud, making Lily giggle.

Tomorrow would be April the 7th.