Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Duo's Dilemma ❯ Chapter 4

Disclaimers- It's not mine. Never was. The only characters I own are the ones that have not originally appeared in the Gundam Wing universe.

A/N - Here's the next chapter for you guys. Hope you're enjoying.

Later,

A.A.

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Duo's Dilemma

Chapter 4

The next morning was the Monday Relena had been dreading. As she climbed out of the huge bed in the guestroom, she could already smell the enticing aroma of breakfast wafting up the stairs from the kitchen. She walked over to the closet and pulled out the suit she was going to wear that day, all the while thinking about the significance of the meetings she would be attending today and the next three weeks.

Things had been relatively quiet for some time between Earth and the colonies. Other than a few minor rebellious groups that had been taken care of prematurely by the Preventors, things had been peaceful. Unfortunately, some of the greedier Earth businessmen had decided to try and capitalize off of the now stable colony economy, and things were starting to heat up to a very threatening degree.

Even though the colonies were usually considered autonomous, developers from Earth were starting to intrude on the businesses that had originally been established by colony citizens who were willing to take the initial risks. The three biggest debates were gong to be centered around the government regulation of import/export taxes, the increase in space mining, and the harbor and port trade agreements.

Relena already knew how she stood on each issue and sincerely hoped she would be able to sway the opinions of some of the more cankerous Senators and dignitaries. As far as she was concerned, most of the business to be discussed could be left up to the space port harbor masters, and individual businesses. Her focus was on keeping tempers in check and acting as mediator between the colony delegation and Earth's representatives and Senate members.

"This is going to be harder than I thought." she mumbled, resting her head on the doorframe.

"You're too worried about it." came a smooth masculine voice from somewhere out the shadows. "You'll be fine." Relena smiled in the partial darkness when she felt Heero's hands circle around her from behind and hug her lightly to his chest.

"I'm glad you think so." she said, leaning back against him. "Sometimes even I doubt myself."

"Don't." he answered so emphatically that she was momentarily taken aback. But she smiled and rested her hands on his. It had only been a few months since he'd come back to Earth on Zech's request, and even fewer since she'd found out he was back, but it made no difference to either of them. He still had a perchance to answer her in monosyllabic words, and hide in the shadows, and let her iniate and contact between the two of them, but she could live with that. He wouldn't change over night, and she realized that. But she was happy with what she had now. He wasn't running away from her anymore, and that was better than anything she could have hoped for. It was reassuring to have him by her side, no matter what the situation.

"I was wondering where you had gone." she said quietly. "You weren't in bed when I woke up."

"Had to check on something Maxwell'd seen." he said, holding her lightly and nuzzling her hair.

"Anything to it?"

"Just Covington's two dogs acting up." he said. "Once your friend Belladonna brought them some food, they quieted down."

"What set them off? Dogs don't bark for no reason." Relena answered, turning around in his arms.

"Don't know." he answered. "Everything was quiet."

"Sounds like you are slipping, Preventor Yuy." she said, mock seriously, pointing an accusing finger at him. Heero cut his eye at her and frowned. Relena felt his grip tighten on her.

"There was nothing there." he said firmly, not catching her playful tone. "I'd have found it."

"I was teasing." Relena said placatingly, smoothing down some of his fly-away hair out of his eyes. "Calm down. Did you let Duo go to get some rest? He's been up all night."

"He can sleep after we leave." Heero said. "That's why I put him on night watch. He can sleep while we're at the conferences, and stay out of trouble." Relena smiled once again and broke out of Heero's arms. Despite the way he acted, she knew Heero was worried about Duo. It seemed that

"I need to get dressed." she said. "Or we're going to be late."

"Only Belladonna is up right now." Heero said. "The other three are still asleep."

"What about Wufei?" Relena asked.

"Already awake." Heero said, slipping out of the closet behind Relena. "Sally woke him up about an hour ago when she called his cell phone." Relena nodded and rummaged through her belongings.

"I'll be down in half an hour." she said. "Why don't you go get some breakfast before Duo devours all of it."

"I can wait." he said, leaning up against the wall and folding his arms over his chest, his customary position when he was waiting on her..

"That's fine." Relena said, grabbing her toiletries and heading for the bathroom. She knew better than to argue with him. Anytime she went somewhere, he was never far behind her, but it never really bother her. She had actually welcomed it after being away from him for so long. She smiled and pulled the shower curtain back.

Yep, things were good, at least for the time being.

-------------------------------------Downstairs, 2 hours later...--------------------------

"Daddy! If you don't come on already, you're going to be late!" Bella called up the stairs

as her father came stumbling out of his room, trying to comb his hair and fix his tie at the same time. "And you know those old codgers are impatient! And incontenence comes with impatience, so we don't want them to have to change their pants!"

"Where's Marguerite and Rita?" he asked, descending the last step, still struggling to get ready. Bella tried to suppress a grin and motioned for him to bend down. He did so, and she deftly fixed his tie, and tidied his hair.

"They left twenty minutes ago." she answered, smoothing his shirt and handing him his suit jacket.

"Relena?"

"Relena and the Preventors Yuy and Chang are waiting for you out front." she said. "Now, here's your briefcase. She handed him the case and waited as he shuffled through the contents, quickly checking on a few things.

"Senator Covington?" came Duo's voice from the doorway. "They're waiting on you."

"I'm coming." he answered. Duo nodded and walked out, having delivered the message Heero had sent with him. "You going into town today, baby?"

"I've got to run to the office to drop some stuff off to Daniel and Corey." she said, shrugging. "Then I'm going to the grocery store. Did you or Rita need something?"

"No. Just be careful." he said. "Traffic is going to be horrible. Where is the...."

"The copy of the proposal for the space mining's in the back of the folder, daddy. I put it there last night before I went to sleep."

"What about Benelli's...."

"Front compartment." she said. "In the blue folder. And SaucierCorp.'s documented standings on the issues is in the manilla folder, just like I promised. Anything else?" Her father smiled down at her and shook his head.

"What would I do without you, pumpkin?" her father asked, ruffling her hair like a little girl's. The man loved his children, and Bella held a special place in his heart.

"You'd be a lot more disorganized and late." she said, shooing him out of the room. "Go now, and make me proud." He smiled and took off towards the front door, passing Duo on the way out.

"Disorganized, isn't he?" Duo asked, grinning at her.

"You have no idea." Bella said, rolling her eyes and smiling. "You'd think a grown man could keep up with his stuff, wouldn't you?"

"BELLA?" her dad's voice rang out again. "WHERE'S MY COFFEE MUG??!!" The woman in front of Duo shrugged and gave him a 'see what I mean' look before turning towards the door her dad had exited only moments before.

"IT'S ON THE DINING ROOM TABLE!" she yelled. "RIGHT NEXT TO YOUR WALLET AND THE IDENTIFICATION ACCESS CARDS YOU NEED TO GET INTO THE CONFERENCE HALLS!"

"THANKS, PUMPKIN!!" her father called out a few moments later. Bella waited until she heard her dad's SUV crank up and pull out before she turned and looked at the clock on the wall.

"I might as well get busy." she said, more to herself than anyone else. "Traffic's gonna be hell if I wait to leave any longer."

"Leave?" Duo asked, walking over to her. "Where ya' going?" Bella looked over at the breakfast nook and grinned at Duo's curious face. The braided Preventor had been awake ll night doing the evening/night patrol, yet he did not look any worse for wear. She had taken an instant liking to the young man, and often distracted her younger sister in order for him to get away from the unwanted attention Marguerite gave him.

"I've got to go into town and drop of some paperwork." she said as they walked into the kitchen. "Then go to the grocery store."

"Mind if I ride?" he asked. He wasn't really all that sleepy, and he did want to see the downtown portion of the city where Bella's office was. She looked up from pouring herself a cup of coffee and frowned.

"Can you stay awake that long?" she asked, eyeing him critically. "You were up all night, weren't you?"

"I'll be fine." he said, waving it off. "Just need some java." Bella nodded and shrugged, pulling out another ceramic mug and pouring him some coffee. After pouring liberal amounts of sugar and cream into it, Duo drank it down.

"I'm leaving in ten minutes." she said, getting up from the table. "I'll meet you outside." Duo nodded and poured another cup of coffee before going to change out of his Preventor uniform and into civilian clothes. If the caffeine didn't keep him up, then he was sure that the resulting sugar buzz would keep him awake for a couple more hours at least.

By the time Bella came back down, dressed in blue jeans and a dark blue hoodie and sneakers, Duo was sufficiently doused with enough sugar to sweeten the Great Lakes. He had changed into jeans and a sweatshirt to guard against the cold February weather.

"Ready?" Bella asked, grabbing her keys and cell phone.

"Yep." Duo answered, looking as wide awake as her.

"Let's go then." she said. "Traffic's likely to be hell downtown." They walked out of the plantation house and Bella locked the doors. They climbed into he black SUV and started out the driveway when her cell phone rang. She quickly placed it in a holder on the dashboard and pressed a button that activated a speaker phone in the vehicle.

"Bella." she said.

"Boss, we've got a problem." came a man's voice. "A big problem."

"What happened, Danny? Your date with the redhead went down the drain and you didn't get lucky last night?" she dead panned. There was a few moments of silence before the man recovered enough to form a retort.

"You're a cruel woman, Belladonna Saucier." he mumbled. "A very cruel woman."

"I'm also your boss." she said with a grin at Duo. "As such, I'm allowed to do that. So, what's going on, Danny-boy?"

"You know the new network system our computers were set up on?" he asked.

"Yeah."

"Well, it's not working." he said. "We were hacked into last night and over half our backup files have been deleted on the main server."

"DO WHAT??!!!" she asked. "How the hell did that happen? Where's Corey? She's our tech support."

"I'm working on it, Belle." came a strident female voice in the background. "Someone's gotten in here and made a right mess of everything. They mutilated our codes, and the main driver systems."

"Who was it?" she asked. "And can you fix it?"

"Don't know who it was." the woman said exasperatingly. "And as for fixing it....well...I'm doing what I can at the moment given the situation." Bella shook her head and Duo wondered if the damage that had been caused was irreparable.

"Do what you can." Bella said, turning onto the main road outside her dad's house. "I'm on my way down there."

"You do have the back up server at your house, right?" Danny asked hopefully. "I know you make duplicates of everything and send them to your home computer. Are they up to date?"

"I've got it." she grumbled. "I'll have to go get it, though. I just left my dad's house. Just do what you can until I get there."

"What do you want me to tell everyone else?" Danny asked. "There's not much they can do with the computer system down."

"Keep them busy doing what they can manually. They don't need the computers to organize the month end reports." she said. "They can input the other information when we get everything up and running again. There's no need to close everything down because of technical difficulties. I'll be there as soon as I can."

"If we get it up and running within the next century." came Corey's voice from the background.

"Like I said, do what you can." Bella said.

"Hell of a way to start your vacation, huh Boss?" Danny said.

"You said it, hon." Bella said.

"Later, Boss. I'll get right on it." he chuckled. With a 'click' the man named Danny hung up and Bella let out a string of curses that consisted of words Duo had never expected to hear come out of her mouth, interspaced with what he vaguely recognized as the old Cajun-French/Creole dialect that was common in the area. When she finally stopped for a breath, Duo looked over at her and raised his eyebrows in amusement.

"Calm down, yet?" he asked. Bella just glared at him and pulled over onto the side of the road.

"No. But thanks for your concern, anyhow." she said. "Look, this' s gonna take longer than I thought. Sure you still wanna go?" Duo shrugged and debated on whether or not he should go ahead. True, he'd been up all night, but he could make it on a couple hours sleep. He'd done it before.

"Yeah, sure." he grinned. "I might be able to help ya' out a little."

"How?" Bella asked, pulling the vehicle back onto the road. "We've got to make a pit stop at my house first, to get the spare server and my hard drive from my home computer."

"My skills with computers are better than you may think." he said, winking at her. "Betcha I can fix whatever's wrong with it."

"I'll believe that when I see it." Bella said, rolling her eyes. This had happened a few times before to her networking systems, but never this bad.

"Aww, come on now." Duo whined, pulling out the puppy dog eyes. "I'm really good, I promise."

"We'll see." she said, pulling off onto a road that would bypass the city and lead her straight through the surrounding swampland and into the outskirts of the town where her house was.

The half hour ride to her house was pleasant for both occupants after Duo managed to get her to calm down a little. He managed to get her out of her sour mood by regaling her with stories of his more well known pranks of Wufei at Preventor Headquarters, even going as far as imitating the Chinese Preventors' didactic tones and threatening insults. Bella told him of some of the things she'd done at St. Gabriel's to the more snobbish students no one really liked. By the time she'd finished telling him about her exploits on Marguerite, Duo was laughing so hard there were tears in his eyes.

They pulled up to a large set of gates and Bella punched a button her keyring, making the electric gates swing open on their own. As she drove up the graveled driveway, Du spotted a two story house sitting on the edge of the fence line. It wasn't all that big, and the outside was white and gray brick. There was a large porch on the front where two long bench swings were swaying in the wind. All around the yard, barren magnolia and oak trees were interspaced among towering pine trees. To the left of the house, Duo could see what remained of what had been a small flower garden during the summer. And to the right was a fish pond with a fountain of water spurting from the center. It was all in all, a nice little place to live, at least to Duo's assessment.

Bella parked the SUV and got out, motioning for Duo to come with her as she picked out her house key from the various keys on her keychain.

"Come on in, Duo." she said. "It'll take me a few minutes to unhook the equipment, so make yourself at home." They walked into the house and Duo looked around. Everything was decorated in warm earthy colors from what he could see. A large couch set across from him, with an entertainment center in front of it. As he looked around, he didn't notice Bella head straight for a small door on the other side of the living room. "And don't mind Mordred and Damian. They won't bite you." She called back. Duo whirled around to ask her who Mordred and Damian were, when the question was answered for him by a set of loud growls coming from the top of the banister to his left. Duo looked up and gulped as his heart started racing.

At the top of the banister were two dogs. Full grown Rottweiler's from what he could tell by their coloring. Each dog looked at least 125 lbs, easily. And they were currently eyeing hm like he was their next meal.

"Jesus, Joseph and Mary!" Duo said, eyeing the snarling dogs and slowly backing away from them, only to have them descend the staircase. "Hehe...hi there, fellas." He said, taking another step back to where Bella had disappeared. "Ho..how ya doin'?" His only response was another set of growls as the dogs came even close to him, teeth bared and jaws snapping. Now normally, Duo could handle dogs. In fact, he liked them a good deal. But these two monsters were making him reconsider his preferences. Duo was just about to make a break for the vehicle when Bella poked her head in and saw the two dogs.

"Mordred! Damian!" she called. "Come here, my baby boys!" The dogs immediately lost their threatening demeanor and ran past Duo to their mistress, practically knocking him over as they went.

"Babies?" Duo mumbled. "Those aren't babies! Those are Satan's hell hounds!" He watched as the two monstrous dogs licked Bella's face in welcome and happiness. It was quite the sight to see, a woman no taller than five foot and two inches being welcomed and played with by a set of dogs who were probably taller than she was when they stood up on their hind legs.

"You been good, my babies?" she cooed to the dogs. "Yes, you have. You been watching and guarding our house, huh? That's my boys, always looking out for mama, huh?" The dogs just yelped and yipped at her, trying to knock her over from where she was squatting on the floor. She scratched their ears and stood up, only to almost burst out laughing at Duo's shocked expression. "You alright over there, Mr. Maxwell?"

"Those," he said, pointing at the dogs sitting at her feet, "are NOT babies!"

"I apologize if they scared you." she said. "They are rather intimidating. They don't know you either, which doesn't help."

"Obviously." Duo commented. Bella smiled and turned to her pets, backing up to where Duo was standing.

"Give me your hand." she said gently, looking up at him.

"What? Why?"

"You don't want to be puppy chow, do ya?" she asked, frowning. "Because right now, they think you are their next meal, and are just waiting for me to turn my back before they chow down." Duo paled and shook his head. He complied immediately and held out his hand. Bella took his wrist with one hand and snapped her fingers with the other, calling the dogs to her side. "Kneel down to their level." she instructed.

"If they bit me," she joked half heartedly. "I'll sue."

"They won't hurt you when I'm here." she said, grabbing their collars and leading them to Duo's outstretched hand. "My babies only bit people who they don't like, don't trust, or that stink."

"Stink?" Duo asked.

"Yep. Stink." she said with a grin. "You did take a bath this morning, right?" Duo nodded in ascent and tried to grin back at her. The two dogs sniffed at his had, familiarizing themselves with their mistress' friend's scent. They backed up and went to Bella's side, sitting down on their haunches and looking at each other as if they were in the middle of a deep discussion.

"So, did I pass inspection?" he asked her.

"Well, if you didn't, you'd know by now." she said cryptically. Duo gulped and seriously considered relocating himself to the SUV when the dogs got up and walked over to him, tails wagging and whimpering for attention.

"Well, congratulations, Duo." Bella smiled. "You passed."

"I'm honored." he mumbled, awkwardly scratching their heads.

"You should be." she said, standing up and walking to the door of the office she had exited a few minutes before. "The last guy I had in the house almost wound up as chop suey. Come to think of it ....the four before him did as well. Go figure, maybe you broke that streak for me."

"Like I said, I'm honored." Duo mumbled. "So where's that equipment?"

"In here." she motioned, waling into the office with Duo and the dogs on her heels. It didn't take long to dismantle the equipment and put it in the SUV. Bella said goodbye to her 'babies', locked the doors, and they left for her office.....and the disaster that it contained.

--------------------- 45 minutes later ---------------------------------

"I don't even want to go in here." Bella mumbled, grabbing her keys, and popping the truck to get the server and backup hard drive out. "There's no telling what's happened this time." Duo frowned and grabbed the box before Bella did, motioning for her to lead the way in.

"This has happened before?" he asked, walking up the steps with the box in his arms.

"Once before." Bella said. "'Bout six months ago. That's why I started making duplicates of everything and sending it to my house. It's easier to transfer data from one place to another, than having to recover it all together."

"Makes sense." he said, walking through the sliding doors and into the lobby, Bella right beside him. There were people all over, everyone of them in business suits and carrying stacks of printouts. No one paid them any attention since they looked more like a couple of college students instead of a C.E.O. and a Preventor, and Bella walked over to the elevator and punched the up arrow. A few second later, they were on their way to the top floor of the huge building.

"Well, it's time to go into 'bitch mode'." she mumbled.

"Say what?" Duo asked.

"You're about to see why people call me 'Belladonna the Bitch'." she grinned.

"You?" he asked. "This ought to be fun to see. Where's the popcorn?" Bella smiled and shook her head. Duo had heard that the woman was ruthless with her employees, but he had a hard time fitting that picture to the little woman beside him.

"Just watch. My security team's about to get chewed another ass-hole." she said. "They assured me this wouldn't happen again." The elevator stopped and Bella steeled herself to deal with the chaos.

As soon as the doors were opened, Bella was confronted with half a dozen or more people reporting that the entire network was down, and the system was shutting down, and all the other problems currently residing in the building. The noise level in the office was thunderous with ringing phones, whirring fax machines, and beeping pagers, combined with people yelling out information across the room to each other and the general racket that occurred when a large group of people were enclosed in a central area.

Duo just followed along with Bella, watching a she calmly handled the panicked employees, sending them off on different errands. He had to give her credit, she could handle people well enough, even though it looked like a significant number of them were considerably older than her. He drew up a comparison with Quatre, and found that Bella had many of the same qualities as the blonde, Arabian Gundam-pilot-turned-business-guru. When they finally got to the end of the room, Bella led him through a door that went to the waiting room outside her office.

Behind the large circular desk, a frazzled woman in a chocolate colored suit ,in her late thirties sat, penning a note on a post-it paper, then hanging up.

"Any messages, Gracie?" Bella asked, cringing at the look the older woman shot her.

"Where do you want me to start, honey?" she groaned. "This phone's been ringing non-stop since I got here." She picked up a legal pad and walked out from behind the desk. "Daniel and Corey are in you office, trying to salvage what they can." She finally noticed Duo and smiled warmly. "Who's your friend, Bella? Not a new boyfriend you haven't told me about, is he?" Duo grinned and wrapped his free arm around Bella, bringing her closer to him.

"You mean you haven't told them about me, love?" he asked, pouting. "I'm hurt." Bella shook her head and tried to suppress a laugh at his childish antics. Gracie looked at her boss and waited for an explanation, a small smile on her lips.

"Gracie, this is Duo Maxwell." Bella said. "A friend of mine. Duo, this is Gracie. My overly nosey, bit irreplacable secretary." The woman chuckled and shook hands with Duo.

"Pleasure to meet you, sir." she said.

"Same here, ma'am." Duo said, grinning at her. Belladonna walked over to the door of her office and walked in, finding two people already in there, Corey Schiro and Daniel Marks, her tech specialist and senior vice-president.

"What's the damage report, Corey?" Belladonna asked. Corey, a thin woman with wavy, dirty blonde hair, deep set brown eyes, and thin framed wire rimmed glasses, swirled around and shook her head.

"What's that phrase you coined last time this happened?" she asked.

"We're up shit's creek without a paddle?" Bella asked.

"Yeah, that one." the blonde said, rubbing her temples.

"That bad?"

"Shugah, we're not only without a paddle this time, but we don't even have a boat, a raft, a pirout, or a kayak in sight." she dead panned.

"Damn it all to hell." Bella said, sitting down on the desktop.

"That's only the beginning, Boss." came Daniel Marks' grave voice. "I just got off the vidcam with the plant supervisors at the refining plants on L2, L4, and NRS110159."

"And?" she asked, looking over at the man who easily stood six foot or more, and had shocking red hair.

"They've had to shut down the plant due to a viral infection in the main databases." he said. "The plants almost imploded last night."

"What else?" Bella asked, her temper steadily rising. "Gracie?"

"The equipment sheds on the bases on NRS-091589, NRS-030441, and NRS-072238 were ransacked last night by vandals." she said solemnly, reading off the legal pad in her hand. "The mining equipment was stolen and what couldn't be taken or destroyed was vandalized."

"What about the transport carriers?" Bella asked.

"The two on L5 are fine, and so are the four that were in transit." Gracie said. "But the ones docked at L1 and L3 were vandalized. The hoses to the fuel pumps and jet propulsion packs were cut, crossed, and reattached."

"And the research labs and stations?" she asked, sighing in frustration.

"Unharmed as of yet." Daniel said, pushing his shock red hair out of his face. "The lunar laboratory and L2 research lab, as well as the laboratory in Baton Rouge are fine."

"And the University laboratory?" she asked.

"Someone got into their system and deleted the research." Gracie said. "It's all gone, but the head of the department assures me that his graduate students have enough notes on the new data to replace what was lost." Bella groaned in pure frustration and felt like bursting out crying.

"Sounds like someone's out to get you, Bella." Duo commented dryly, pulling the attention in the room to himself. "Or just trying to shut you down at least."

"How observant of you, Duo." she said sarcastically. "Now tell me something I don't know."

"Who are you?" Corey asked, cocking her head to the side and look at the Preventor.

"Duo Maxwell." he said easily.

"And why are you here?" Daniel asked, eyeing him suspiciously. "I've never seen you before, and you don't work here."

"He's a friend of mine." Bella said firmly. "And if he's as good as he says he is, he's gonna help Corey get up back up and running."

"I'm open for suggestions." the blonde woman said, shrugging her shoulders. "Welcome aboard."

"The server and hard drive from my home computer and laptop will give us back what we lost, as least the important stuff." Bella said, taking charge. "See what you can do to fix it, Duo, Corey."

"On it, Belle." Corey said, pulling up another chair for Duo while booting up Bella's laptop, and Duo was hooking up the hard drive of her home computer to another spare monitor.

"Danny," she said, turning to her vice-president. "Send word that everyone can have the day off. I don't want anyone in this building unless I know about it."

"Even the janitors?" he asked.

"Yes." she said. "Even them. Tell the employees that the system has failed. But don't tell them about everything else. No need to get them in a panic. After you relay the message, I need you back up here A.S.A.P."

"Yes, ma'am." he said, leaving out the room to relay the messages.

"Gracie?"

"Yes?"

"Get a hold of my plant supervisors, research laboratory directors, and mining contractors." she said. "Tell them it's an emergency and to clear their schedules from noon this time until. I'm calling an emergency meeting. I'll get a hold of the Board of Directors, so don't worry about that."

"Anything else?" the secretary asked.

"Yes." she ground out. "Get Neil Fleck here immediately, along with the rest of his so-called infallible security team. I've got a few things to tell that arrogant bastard."

"Should I look for a new security specialist while I'm at it?" she asked.

"No." Bella said. "You can be looking for Fleck a funeral director, cause he's gonna need it when I get finished with him!"

-----------Five hours, twenty-seven minutes, and one fired security specialist later------------

Duo rubbed his eyes from the glare on the computer screen. He and Corey had been working for the past five hours straight, but had managed to restore the network and clear the system of the virus that had been planted. They had also managed to trace the location of the hacker to a small apartment complex outside the city limits. The original server had been hooked up again, and Corey was running a diagnostics test to check for any remaining problems.

At the moment, Bella and Daniel were in the middle of a conference via vidcam, and Duo sincerely hoped she wouldn't lose her temper with those guys like she had with the security guy Neil Fleck. He really did not blame her for blowing her top with the arrogant man. Fleck was a short guy, maybe reaching five and a half feet, with short, dirty blonde hair, a mustache, and beady eyes. He also had an attitude problem that needed to be readjusted, from what Duo could tell. When he had gotten to the office, Bella had pulled him into the conference room, and raged at him for nearly half an our until he had stormed out of the office, slamming the door and calling Bell a number names that not even Duo wanted to repeat. The guy had been mad beyond all reason, but when Bella had exited the room, she looked calm and collected.

Duo was seriously starting to wonder if this woman had split personalities or something.

"It's all clear, Mr. Maxwell." Corey said. "Everything checked out clean. You sure know what you're doing, don't you?"

"I try." Duo grinned, sitting on the desktop. "Did you set up the new security parameters?"

"Sure did. I even added that little surprise for anymore would-be hackers." she grinned. The phone suddenly rang and Corey punched the speaker phone button on the console.

"SaucierCorp. Ms. Saucier's office. Corey speaking. How can I help you?" she asked.

"Corey? Is Bella there?" came a man's voice.

"She's in an emergency meeting right now, Mr. Covington, sir." Corey said. "Something I can do for you?"

"No." he said. "That's okay. I had heard that you guys were having some problems, and thought I'd call to see if everything was okay. I heard that the refining plants were in some trouble, and the transport carriers."

"We're having some problems alright." Corey said. "How'd you find out?"

"Marguerite told me."

"She did, did she?" Corey asked, rolling her eyes. "Well, I'll be."

"Is Bella alright, though?"

"Just madder than a hornet right now. Now that I really blame her."

"Well, when she gets out, tell her I called, will you?"

"I will, sir." Corey said. "Have a good evening."

"You too, Corey." he answered, hanging up the phone.

"How in the Hell did she find out about this?" Corey fumed. "No one else knew about the plants and the carriers except us." Duo shrugged and was about to say something when the door to the conference room opened and Bella and her Vice President came out.

"Well, what's the verdict?" Corey asked.

"Things are getting back to normal." Bella said. "The corruptions in the databases at the refining plants were fixed. Security has been doubled at all space ports and docking ramps, and the research labs are on red alert."

"How're things here?" Daniel asked.

"Back up and ready to go, thanks to Mr. Maxwell." Corey said. "This guy knows what he's doing, Belle. He even managed to track down the hacker who done all this."

"Did you notify the authorities?" Daniel asked quickly.

"Of course." Duo said. "Why wouldn't we?"

"Good." Bella said. "I don't know how much help they'll be, but it's better than not reporting it."

"Your dad called, Belle." Corey said. "Just a second ago."

"What'd he want?"

"Nothing. Marguerite told him there had been problems here and at the refining plants, and he wanted to see if everything was alright."

"How'd my snake of a sister know about that?" Bella asked,"They're on the other side of town and she's supposedly been in meetings all day."

"Don't know." Corey said. "But your dad wanted to talk to you. You might want to call him back." Bella looked over at the wall clock and frowned.

"They're back in evening meetings." she said. "I don't want to disturb him."

"Well, seeing as how, we've got things settled here," Daniel said, "I'm going downstairs to get something from the vending machines. You guys want something while I'm going?"

"I'm fine." Duo said.

"Belle?"

"I don't want anything either." she said.

"Corey?"

"I'll go with you." she said, standing from the chair and stretching. "I'm tired of sitting down." The two people exited the room and Bella sat down in her chair, her head lying on her hands, which were on the desk.

"You alright, Bella?" Duo asked, looking at her carefully.

"I'm fine." she said, her voice muffled against the desk top. "Exhausted, but fine. I've still got mountains of work to do before I go home though." She looked up at Duo and frowned. "Why don't you take my vehicle and head back to the house. I know Heero's got you on night patrol. You need to get some rest before they get back, don't you? I'll take a cab back later tonight."

"I'll be okay." he said. "I've pulled all nighters before. How much longer you going to be here?"

"All night." she said, slumping down into her chair.

"You're going to spend the night here?" he asked.

"Sure, I've done it before." she answered, shrugging. "It's nothing new to me." Duo just sat down in a chair as he watched her sort through a stack of paperwork on her desk. This little woman was something else. She might be small, but the amount of respect she commanded impressed him. Duo was good with handling disasters, but he was not too good with handling panicking people. And the way she had handled her employees had genuinely impressed him earlier. After another half hour or so, the door to the office came open and Daniel and Corey walked in, carrying two cups of coffee.

"What are you doing now, Boss?" Daniel asked, looking at Bella and frowning.

"Just going through the printouts." she said easily. "I'm afraid it's going to take us a while to figure out how the hell this happened."

"Uh, boss?" Daniel said. "You're on vacation time now."

"What?"

"You know. A vacation." Corey said. "The time you take off once a year when you do absolutely no work whatsoever."

"If you think I'm leaving this building to go on a vacation after what just happened, you're both dead wrong." she said, glaring at them. "What if it happens again?"

"It won't." Daniel said. "You said yourself that the security has been upped. No one in their right mind would try to do this again." Bella looked at her vice-president and frowned.

"I'm not taking a vacation." she said. "I'll reschedule it for later."

"Like Hell you're not!" Corey said. "You got us back on our feet, now let Daniel and I handle things until you get back."

"No!"

"Yes!"

"No!" she said. "And that's final!"

"Help us out here, Mr. Maxwell." Daniel asked, turning to Duo. "What are the odds of another attack happening within the next three weeks?"

"Less than slim." Duo answered. "With the increase in security, not to mention what we did to the computer system, no one's going to be able to get through for a good while. Trust me, I know what I'm talking about." He looked over at Bella and nodded, knowing that she caught onto the hidden meaning in that. They had kept it under wraps that Duo was actually a Preventor assigned to protect the Vice Foreign Minister, passing him over as an old college friend of Belladonna's.

"Gang up on me, why don't you." Bella muttered, shifting more papers around. Corey walked over and took the papers out of her hands, pulled her up from the chair and pushed her towards the Duo.

"Get her out of here." she ordered Duo. "And don't let her come back into this building for three weeks, do you understand me?" Duo nodded, a grin on his face at seeing Bella seething with anger at her employee and friend.

"Benedict Arnold." Bella muttered.

"Nope. My name is Corey Schiro." she said with a grin. "And he's Daniel Marks." She pointed to the red headed man to her left. "And we're the acting bosses of this company until our beloved C.E.O. and wonderful boss, the esteemed Ms. Saucier returns from her vacation."

"You're outnumbered, Belladonna." Duo laughed, slinging an arm around the shorter woman. "Might as well give it up. They mean it."

"But...."

"If anything happens, we'll call you immediately." Daniel said, reassuring her. "Things will start up first thing in the morning, and everything will be fine. So get out!"

"Quit telling me what to do." Bella said. "I'm still your boss, and I can still fire you."

"My boss is on vacation, and therefore off the company clock." he pointed out. "So she can't fire me until she gets back on the clock, which won't happen for another three weeks. Sorry." Bella growled and made for her laptop, determined to bring it with her if nothing else, but Corey intercepted her and shut the lid, placing the notebook in the desk drawer, away from its owner.

"Corey!" she yelled frustratingly.

"Bella!" Corey and Daniel said simultaneously. Duo grinned and shook his head.

"Let's go, Belladonna." he said. "They're not going to back down, and you know it."

"Fine." Bella said huffily, grabbing her keychain and her cell phone. "Let's go, Duo. And I swear that if anything, and I mean ANYTHING, happens again, you had better call me. Or both of you will be without jobs when I get back. Is that understood?"

"Perfectly." Daniel said.

"Crystal." Corey chimed in. "Now get her out of here, Mr. Maxwell."

"Gladly." Duo said, easily picking her up and slinging her over his shoulder. "Bye ya'll. Nice meeting you."

"DUO! PUT ME DOWN THIS INSTANT!" she yelled, pounding on his back with her fists. "YOU'RE GOING TO DROP ME!"

"Aww, be quiet, Bella." he said, shutting the door and walking past Gracie in the waiting room. "You're not heavy enough for me to drop."

"Have a good vacation, Belladonna." Gracie laughed, waving at her boss. Duo pushed the down button on the elevator and walked in when the doors slid open.

"Maxwell, I swear if you don't put me down, you're going to regret it." she threatened, punctuating her threat with a sharp pound on his back.

"Now, where are those keys?" Duo asked, patting her jean pockets, completely ignoring her. "Ah! Here they are." He felt the outline of the key in her back pocket and quickly reached in her pocket and retrieved it.

"Think you can keep your hands to yourself?" she bit out.

"Think you can calm yourself down now?" he asked her, laughing as she started cursing him again. "You've got to learn to control that temper, missy." he teased her. "That's just not healthy to have that much anger inside you. Reminds me of Wufei."

"Are you going to put me down now, Maxwell?" she asked as he stepped out of the elevator and onto the first floor.

"Are you going to quit cursing me and any of my offspring born in the next two centuries?" he asked back. Bella growled and went slack in his arms.

"Fine." she said. "I apologize."

"That's better." Duo said. "And after all I done for you today. You were being so mean to me." He pouted playfully and Bella shook her head.

"You asked for it, mister." Bella said, crossing her arms over her chest irritably. Duo just shook his head. She was in that sour mood again, and it looked like it was worse this time around.

"Come on." he said. "You've got to go to the grocery store, right?" Bella nodded and they headed out of the building, with Bella giving the directions to the nearest supermarket.

By the time they got out of the supermarket and back to the plantation house, Bella had cooled off and had about an hour to fix dinner. Duo went off to bed to try and catch a few hours sleep before he had to take the evening watch, and Bella promised to leave him some food on the counter he could warm up before starting his shift, so he was happy.

When her father got home that evening with Relena and the rest of the household and guests, Bella refrained from mentioning the problems she had encountered that day at the office. Surprisingly, Marguerite mentioned nothing, and a dinner of spaghetti and garlic bread was quickly devoured. The talk of the evening revolved around the meetings and the impact many of the representatives from the colonies were having on the Senator's views and ideas. Bella, who usually kept up with what was being said, drifted off into her own little world, trying to figure out who in the hell had decided to attack her company. Later on, Rita volunteered to clean the kitchen up, and Bella held no argument. She just wanted to go to bed and get some rest. It had been a horrible day, and sleep was the first thing on her 'to do' list.

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A/N - Okay, the problems have begun. Wonder what's going to happen next? Stay tuned and you'll find out sooner than you think.

Later,

A.A.

Oh, and remember to leave me a review. I want to know what you guys think about this story. Later. :)