Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Eternal Promises ❯ Part 17 ( Chapter 17 )

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing, or any of its associated characters, much to my dismay and pain.  Of course, while I cannot claim them, I do claim ownership of this particular story and any original characters I happen to throw in. . Eternal Promises By Eden   Part 17   Duo silently made his way through the darkened, deserted hallways of the Peacecraft mansion.  His footsteps and any sound they many have produced was effectively muffled by the thick floor runner.  The deep red color was only distinguishable directly under the dim lamps that were mounted on the walls every few feet, and whose main purpose was to avoid accidents by people wandering around at night.  Duo himself had no need of them, in fact he was quite comfortable in the dark, but he couldn't help appreciating the nice touch they made to the mansion.   He had been up for a couple hours already and still had an hour or so to kill before he had to go and relieve Wufei for his watch outside Relena's door.  He was refreshed, (from the eight hour 'nap' he'd managed to get that afternoon and night) he was fed, (having been surprised when he had opened the refrigerator that evening to see Pagan had made him a plate full of food just waiting to be heated up) and now he was board.   Usually when he was faced with this dilemma, Duo found someone he knew who could entertain him in some fashion, but all the really good people were busy with other things currently.  Heero was with Relena, he thought with a lopsided smile, Zecks should be sleeping somewhere; Wufei would just up and let him start his shift early if he tried to bug him, and Hildi was up on L2.    Duo stopped walking long enough to turn himself around and back track his steps.  That last thought got him thinking.  The last time he had talked to Hildi was before they had gone to get Relena, and he was sure that it was past time to give her another call.  He had long since learned that tempting the patience of the female gender was not something you wanted to make a habit of.  They could make a man’s life living Hell in so many ways . . .   He rounded a hallway corner and found himself in front of a partially open door.  After flipping on the overhead light, and a quick inspection of the room inside, Duo found that it was exactly what he had been looking for.  It was a spare office, quite possibly used by any guests who stayed in the mansion to conduct business while away from their normal place of work.  It had all the basic furnishings, an oak desk with a soft looking leather chair behind it, bookshelf’s filled with different sorts of reference books, and on the desk, the thing he was after, was the vid-phone.   Grinning slightly at his success, Duo closed the door before moving behind the desk and sitting down in the comfortable plush chair.  With a few well-practiced keystrokes, he turned the machine on and had dialed the number for the home Hildi and he had shared for the last 4 years.   As he leaned back in the chair, he counted the rings.   Three, . . . fore, . . .. Just one ring left till the answering message picked up—   Suddenly Hildi’s dark, tousled head appeared on the screen.   “Duo!” She cried with a large smile, “I knew you would call.”   The braided man chuckled. “If you knew I was going to call, then why did it take you so long to answer the phone?”   “Well it’s not my fault I expected you to call earlier.”  The young woman narrowed her eyes slightly, “I fell asleep waiting for you.”   “Sorry babe, I would’ve called earlier, but I’m not exactly keeping normal hours right now.”   “I figured as much.”  Hildi smiled, “So tell me, how did it go getting Miss Relena from the drop off point?  She’s okay isn’t she?”   “Yeah, she’s okay.  Actually things went well.  There wasn’t anyone guarding her, waiting to ambush us when we came to pick her up.  It was all done just the way the kidnappers had said they would do it.”  Duo crossed his arms as he leaned back in the soft chair, his eyes lowered so they were no longer focused on the woman staring out of the screen at him.  “Everything went just like it was supposed to.”   He was silent for a few moments as he contemplated the diplomat’s retrieval.  Duo stopped his contemplation only once Hildi’s voice broke through the silence.   “So that bothers you, doesn’t it?”   Letting out a haggard sigh, Duo returned his gaze to the young woman’s eyes.  “I hate to say it because it worked out so well, but yeah.  It does bother me.  It was a little too perfect that they didn’t put up much of a fight, but actually gave Relena back without any problems.  Even if she wasn’t the person they were interested in, they still managed to get a hold of a valuable bargaining chip, its strange they would give her back without any demands whatsoever.”   “The kidnappers didn’t mention wanting Relena at all?” Hildi looked as though she was beginning to loose herself to the subject as well.   “No, they didn’t.”   “But you know something your not telling me, don’t you?”   Duo looked up, trying not to give away his surprise in his face.  Damn this woman was good.  He supposed that she just knew him too well.  He ran his hand through his bangs as he tried to think of the best way to get around the subject without really answering her question.  “Well, I’m not really sure what I know, Zechs brought up the only logical choice first.  He said it was either Heero or him the kidnappers could possibly be after, but the more I think about it, the more I think it has to be Heero.”   On the screen, Duo watched as Hildi placed her elbows on the table in front of her, and rested her chin on her hands.  “That would be the most reasonable assumption, considering that no one was sure if Zechs was even still alive after all of the fighting.  The kidnappers would’ve been taking a huge chance if it had been Zechs they were trying to pull out of hiding.”  She tilted her head so that her cheek was resting more fully in the palm of her left hand.  She contemplated for a moment.  “I doubt anyone kidnapping Relena would want to take such a chance that the person they were wanting to draw out may not even be alive.”   “Oh your defiantly right on that one.”  Duo rubbed his eyes with the heals of his hands.   “So you guys have been checking up on all the temporary staff that has come into Relena’s home and office over the last six months or so, right? Doing background checks and such, trying to see if any of them may have been involved with an illegal organization, or just a rebel military faction.  I mean, its only been a couple of days, but still, you guys should’ve come up with at least a couple suspicious people.”   Duo lowered his hands from his eyes slowly, “Oh yeah,” he said in what he hoped was a nonchalant tone.  “We started that even before we brought Relena back from Brussels.  We’ve had a few hits, a couple of them look promising.”   He glanced up at the screen just in time to see a grin flash across Hildi’s eleven features.  “Well then, all you have to do now is check them out more, and wait for the results to come in.  I mean, whoever did arrange for Relena’s kidnapping must’ve had some kind of surveillance installed inside the building, or insiders working at keeping tabs on everyone, learning schedules and security patterns, looking for the best time for an infiltration.  It would’ve been an extremely well laid out plan.”   Trying to keep his face stoic Duo nodded, and leaned back in his chair.   “Sooo,” The dark haired girl leaned closer to the screen and smiled wickedly, “Are you going to tell me about these leads you have? I mean, maybe I could help you out!”   “Oh Hildi, how you tempt me, but you know that’s classified.  Really hush hush like.”   “I’ll bet you don’t have anything to go on.”   He looked at her, shocked at her accusation. “You wound me!  Do you really think I would’ve forgotten to check something as simple as backgrounds for previous staff?”   She laughed “Yeah, your right.  I mean, you may be forgetful, but this is the stuff you know best, right?  I’m sure you’ll catch who your looking for in no time.”   “Darn right we will.”   *~=~*~=~*~=~*~=~*   It was about half an hour after his conversation with Hildi had ended pleasantly that Duo sauntered down the hallway towards Relena’s room.  As expected, Wufei was in position on the chair placed directly beside the doorway, and just as expected was the tight look he was now receiving from the former Shenlong pilot.   “Your late, Maxwell.”   Duo stretched his hands up in the air and casually crossed them behind his head. “I was busy, sorry.”   A snort, or something that sounder suspiciously like it could be the beginnings of laughter escaped from the normally serious Chinese man.  “Busy?  With what?  Trashing the kitchen like you did last night when you were hungry?  Don’t try to deny it, I saw the mess you left this morning.”   “I didn’t trash the kitchen!” Duo protested adamantly, “I just made myself something to eat! Its not my fault that I didn’t know where they kept the measuring cup.”   Wufei let out another snort of almost-laughter.   “But for your information, no I wasn’t in the kitchen.  I was working on something that might help us find out who the kidnappers were.”   Abruptly Wufei narrowed his eyes.  “Excuse me if I have a hard time believing that one.”   Without responding, Duo lowered his arms from above his head and slipped a disc out of his pants pocket.  He held it up to the dim light the hallway had to offer, as though checking to be sure it was the right one, then flipped it over to Wufei.   The Chinese man caught it easily and flipped it over in his hand for a moment. “What is this?”   “It’s a list of all the temporary staff that have been employed by Relena for work in her home and office for the last six months.  The list includes any employees that are part of contracted companies and basically anyone who had access to either of these buildings.”   “So you hacked into the security database.”   “Really, I’m surprised the Preventers hadn’t thought of this sooner.”  Duo returned himself back to his previous stance, with both his hands behind his head.   Wufei narrowed his eyes.  “I don’t believe you came up with this on your own.  Who have you been talking too?”   Simply ignoring the question, Duo went on. “Someone needs to run detailed background checks on everyone on that list.  Anything that looks slightly suspicious needs to be checked out and followed up on.  Are you in?”   “Do you have any idea how long it will take to do that?  We’re not talking about a couple hours of work here, this could take days.”   The braided man shrugged, and lowered his hands once more, this time to reach for the disc still held loosely in Wufei’s hand.  “Well If your not up for it, I suppose I could always wake up Quatre or ask Heero.  You know how Heero is, he’ll stay up working on it until he has a definite answer.”  His hand had just closed over the disc, and was about to pull it out of Wufei’s grasp when Duo felt it jerked out of his own hand.   “I’ll do it.”   “But Wu-man, you know how long its gonna take, you said it yourself.  Let me just ask Heero, he’ll won’t rest till he’s got an answer for us.”  Duo sighed tragicly, “I’d do it myself, but I’ve gotta sit here till morning, and I think that’s just time wasted if this is left in my hands.”   “I said I’d do it.”  Wufei said getting up from the wooden chair and beginning to walk down the hallway the way Duo had come.   “I knew you’d be good for it, Wu-man.  Thanks.”   Wufei grumbled in response as Duo lost sight of him down the hallway.   He grinned to himself.  Sucker.   *~=~*~=~*~=~*~=~*              As Heero felt the soft morning sunlight touch his face he turned over onto his other side and pulled the blankets up to his eyes.  He was feeling too incredibly comfortable to get up just yet and face the day.  His mind was still functioning laggardly due to the fact that Mother Nature had only just disturbed him from his first dreamless sleep in as long as he could remember.   Without opening his eyes, Heero breathed in and let out a long sigh.  With one hand he slowly reached out across the sheets and found them to be empty and still slightly warm, as though the person who had been occupying them had only just vacated them.  Dimly, he wondered where the other person had gone; he knew it was something important he should know.   As his still tired mind struggled to formulate an answer for his confusion, his body appreciated the comfortable feeling of the soft mattress and bedding he was laying in.  If the warm sunlight against his back proved anything, it was that he was most defiantly not in his bed on the Mars Base.  Even the simulated sun in the most advanced colonies could never compare to the way the real thing felt first thing in the morning.   That’s right, he was on Earth.  But why was he on Earth?  Heero vaguely remembered the shuttle trip with Zecks and Noin.  He had come here with them for a reason; on an important mission; and important reason . . . if he could only—   Suddenly his eyes popped open and he shot up startled in the bed he was laying in: Relena’s bed.  His mind seemed to suddenly light up, and he remembered everything; including how he had ended up laying down in said bed to start with.   Of course; Relena had been with him last night, now the other half of the bed was empty with nothing to show she had ever been there, except for the still slightly warm sheets.  Now that his mind was functioning normally, he was able to rationalize that she had gotten up only recently.   Without wasting another moment, Heero pushed the heavy comforter off of his legs and brought his feet to the floor.  His eyes quickly scanned the room, and found it to be exactly the way it had been last night.  Lowering his gaze, he trained his ears for any sounds coming from anywhere in the room that may indicate where Relena was, but was met with only silence.  He scowled as he quickly jammed his feet into his shoes he’d left beside the bed.  She was defiantly not looking for something to wear in the closet, as indicated by the closed door, or in the bathroom, he concluded as he passed it on the way towards the hallway door.   Suddenly he paused and turned to head back towards to balcony doors.  Heero was positive that Relena hadn’t been taken against her will; there was no sign of struggle in the room; but she said that the first time she had been taken, the kidnappers had used chloroform.  If she had been sleeping, struggling wouldn’t have been an issue.   Heero felt a knot grow tight in his stomach.  He knew it had been a bad idea to lay with Relena in her bed last night.  He knew he should’ve listened to the nagging feeling at the back of his mind that might’ve seemed a little paranoid; but had never steered him wrong.   His feet stopped in front of the glass doors and he proceeded to scrutinize them for any sign of the forced entrance he feared.  Even as he did so he continued to berate himself for allowing Relena to convince him to go against his better judgment.  When had he changed so much?  There used to be a time when it would’ve been the simplest thing to turn her down, and completely focus on the mission at hand.  It wouldn’t have mattered to him if she had been hurt or disappointed, as long as the mission assigned to him was followed through.   But that itself was exactly the problem; Heero realized as he confirmed that the doors hadn’t been tampered with.  What he’d failed to take into account was one simple fact: he cared.  He cared so much; and his feelings were in so deep at this point that he didn’t think he could distance himself from Relena any longer if he tried.  There was no turning back now, no matter how complicated and frustrating things got.   Frowning he turned on his heel and headed back towards the hallway door.  Things had been so much simpler when he hadn’t cared at all.   It only took Heero a moment to open the door and step into the hallway.  The first thing he noticed was the empty chair beside the door where Wufei had been the night before, and where Duo should’ve been now.  As his mind took into account this new information; he began to come up with new possible scenarios as to what had happened to Relena.  None of them were looking good; for him.   His feet started moving down the hallway in the direction of the kitchen and dining room.  With each footstep, his dread of facing the knowing smiles and nods he would undoubtedly get if Relena had just gone down to breakfast without him grew.  The last thing he needed was more people with a hidden interest in his personal life.  Heero sped up his pace.   When he reached the top of the stairs leading down to the front foyer, Heero stopped and felt his insides clench up again.  Relena was slowly making her way up the stairs, balancing a tray full of food she was still wearing her nightgown, but had covered it up with a warm looking robe.  Her honey hair, still slightly tussled from sleep, glinted in the morning sunshine coming in through the large windows.  As his eyes continued to take in all the subtle things about her appearance; she looked up the stairs and caught sight of him.   A smile formed on her lips.  “Good morning, Heero.”   Heero faintly realized he was still frowning as he nodded his head slightly to acknowledge the greeting.  He also noticed that his facial expression didn’t seem to faze Relena, who continued to carefully make her way up the stairway with the heavy looking tray.   It actually seemed as though it might be too heavy for her.  The last thing that he wanted was her hurting herself over a tray.  As soon as she made it up the last step, he lifted the tray from her grasp.  She faltered for a second; tried to protest; but then smiled up at him.  “Thank you, Heero.”   He grunted his reply as he prepared to continue following her back to her room.  But to his surprise; she turned and took a few steps back down the stairway and met Duo, who Heero had failed to notice a moment ago, on his way up.   “Thank you, Duo.”  She said giving the other man a polite smile.   “Do you need help with anything else, Miss Relena?  ‘Cause if you don’t I was thinking about, . . .”  His words trailed off into a grin.   Relena laughed and waved a hand at him as she turned to walk back up the stairs.  “I’m sure Heero and I will be fine, go and eat already.”  As she made it to the top and passed by Heero she turned to him and smiled. “I’m ready, lets go.”  She continued to smile as she started ahead of him down the hallway towards her bedroom.           Heero was just about to follow after Relena when he heard a chuckle come from the stairs.  He turned and sent a glare towards Duo, who was now standing with his hands behind his neck, a huge grin plastered on his face.   When he caught Duo’s eyes, he was less then pleased to see the grin on his face get wider.  Never the less, he continued to stare down the braided man until he relented at last, . . . in a manner of speaking.   “Don’t worry Heero ol’ buddy,” Duo reassured, lowering his hands to rest on his hips.  “Your secret is safe with me.  No one will ever know that you were sleeping with your job.”  His tone was dripping with barely contained glee, and to Heero’s absolute horror, the braided man winked before turning and heading back down the stairs.  “Enjoy your breakfast Heero, Relena brought some good stuff.”   Relena chose that exact moment to call down the hallway, “Heero, are you coming?”   Sending one last scathing look towards Duo’s retreating back, Heero turned to follow after Relena.  As he did so, he could hear contented chuckling coming up from the bottom of the stairs.     It only took a few moments to catch up with Relena, and once he did, Heero found that she had already opened up her bedroom door and gone inside.  He frowned as he entered the room, spotting her instantly as she busily moved a small table into the sunlight in front of the balcony doors.   Relena looked up at him as soon as she had adjusted the table to her liking, and smiled.  “I thought it might be nice to eat up here this morning.  The sun is so gorgeous.” She patted the tabletop, indicating that he could put the tray down on top of it.   After lowering the heavy tray to the smooth tabletop, he straitened his back and crossed his arms across his chest.   “I brought a few different things.” Relena said, not wasting anytime in lifting the silver lid off of the tray, revealing a stack of fluffy pancakes, golden eggs, buttered toast, crispy bacon, steaming sausage and more.  “I wasn’t sure what you liked to eat in the morning.”  She grinned, “I may have over-done it though for just the two of us.”   “Hn.”   To Heero, his standard response sounded angry, or at least harder then usual.  Relena didn’t seem to notice the added emotion though as she continued to set out two plates that had been stacked underneath the full ones on the tray.   “In case you haven’t noticed,” Relena said as she placed flatware on the table, “I’m not going to let you get away with just having coffee this morning.”   Needless to say Heero had indeed noticed that right away, and had been trying to formulate a plan to get his much needed morning brew in the back of his mind.  Unconsciously, he’d deduced that Relena may not mind him having any, but he was fairly certain that he would have to submit himself to eating what she deemed to be a proper breakfast first.   Once she’d finished setting the table, Relena looked up towards him.  Heero could pinpoint the exact moment in her eyes when she realized the expression on his face wasn’t his normal indifferent look.  He watched as her bright smile slowly melted off her lips.    “What is it, Heero?”  Relena’s voice had lost its cheery tone.  It was enough to make Heero regret what he was going to say; but it wasn’t going to stop him.    He had gone over it a few times in his head already; and he was fully aware of how petty and how truly unimportant it was now; but there was a part of him that just wouldn’t let it rest.   “Why didn’t you wake me up this morning before you left?  I should’ve gone with you.”   A slim blond eyebrow on Relena's forehead rose as she regarded him for a moment before speaking.  “Truthfully, you were sleeping so soundly that I didn’t have the heart to wake you.  I figured that I would be able to make it to the kitchen and come back before you woke up.”   Narrowing his eyes at the answer he received; Heero replied, “That’s not really the point.  Your not supposed to be going anywhere on your own.”   In an instant a smile had returned to Relena’s perfect lips. “Heero, it’s a bright and beautiful morning.  The entire house is up, and there are staff and Preventer agents everywhere.  I highly doubt that there’s much change of getting whisked away by kidnappers between my bedroom and the kitchen.”  She walked over to the balcony doors and unlatched them, letting the sounds and smells of the morning come spilling into the room. “Besides,” She said as she closed her eyes and tilted her face up towards the warm sunshine, “Duo did come with me, I wasn’t alone.”   “I still would’ve preferred that you had woken me up.”   It seemed for a moment that Relena hadn’t heard that last bit.  In all honesty, Heero wasn’t that disappointed.  It wasn’t that important now anyways.   Just as he was about to call her attention back to all the food she had brought, Relena opened her eyes and turned to face him.  The corner of her lips turned up slightly.   “You didn’t want anyone to know that you fell asleep last night?  Why?”   He was more then a little shocked that she had figured out the reason why he was not happy with her leaving, besides the fact that he didn’t want her to be on her own without protection, and tried to cover just how shocked he was by turning his back to her and heading back towards the chair he had begun sitting in last night.  “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”   Relena’s laughter was like dainty bells ringing in his ears.  “You can tell me, Heero.  I promise I won’t tell anyone.”  She had turned away from the sunshine now, and headed towards the chair that he was now seated in.   Heero crossed his arms across his chest, clearly showing the answer to her question.   She stopped in front of him and grasped one of his immobile arms, Relena's lips still turned up in a playful smile.  “Well, if you wont tell me the real reason why you wanted me to wake you up this morning, then at least come and eat some breakfast with me.”   Contemplating the proposal for a moment, he looked up into Relena’s eyes.  They were filled with such warmth, and laughter.  This woman was teasing him, was playing withhim.  It was an entirely new thing for him, and if he was completely honest with himself, he wasn’t minding in the slightest.   *~=~*~=~*~=~*~=~*~=~*   A/N : Well here it is guys!  Its been six months, but I hope those of you still reading like what I’ve been able to put together.  I like to think that while Heero and Relena seem to be stuck in a temporary happy bubble, the world around them is still functioning, and moving towards finding out what’s really going on.    Again, I do apologize for the long wait, but for this chapter I felt I needed to go back and re-acquaint myself with the story I’ve done so far.  I started this so long ago, and some of the chapters I’ve put out I wrote over 2 years ago. Oo  Its hard to believe I’m still writing this sometimes, and that I still have a drive to, but I suppose I just don’t want to leave this unfinished, no matter how long its going to take me to get to the end.  I just hope some of you want to stick around for the ride ;P   Thanks again for all your patience, I can’t say this enough, you guys are great.  All the reviews I receive I thoroughly enjoy, even the constructive criticisms ^^ I truly appreciate hearing from those of you reading, and always will.   Ta ta for now ^^   ~Eden