Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Family Ties ❯ Chapter 21 ( Chapter 21 )

Disclaimer: I don't own the G Boys, I just borrow them from time to time and return them a whole lot happier. I do own the plot line and any other characters that appear here that are not in the Gundam Wing Universe; please do not take them without permission. Written for pleasure not profit.

 

Warnings: Angst, sap, fluff, violence, Mpreg.

 

Rating: NC 17

 

Pairings: 1x2x1, 3x4x3, 5xS, HxOC

 

Summary: Sequel to Chimaera. Life in the Maxwell -Yuy household has undergone some big changes when Duo brings Keitaro home from the hospital. Hilde's wedding is approaching and the guys find there's more to this baby business than they thought. Struggling to raise a child, work at Preventer and keep the home happy is certainly a trial for both guys. Add an assassin's threats to prominent government officials' lives and both men find their lives are suddenly changed. Just how far will one go to protect the ones he loves?

 

Dedication: to all my lovely readers out there who enjoyed Chimaera and have since begged, threatened, pleaded, bribed and blackmailed me for a sequel. ^_^

 

 

"Family Ties"

 

January. 2007 ShenLong

 

 

Chapter 21

 

Over the course of the next few days, Heero and Duo were kept busy researching an assignment for Wufei. Une was still waiting for the police to send through an updated report on the ESUN incident and until they did, she couldn't advance their own possible investigation. Duo's bleeding stopped after three days and he duly reported back to Sally with the record she'd asked him to keep.

 

All seemed to be well with the braided man and Sally saw no reason for him not to continue on with active duty. She prescribed another course of iron tablets to help bring his low levels back up and advised him to let her know when he next bled. Hopefully they would be able to figure out his cycle from the information.

 

Life in general seemed to take on a regular routine. Duo still couldn't shake the gut feeling he had and despite checking the disc again, he couldn't fine anything to base his instinct on. Relena was doing her best to get him the funding records; as was Quatre. Unfortunately they couldn't just go in and grab them, there were protocols to follow and the usual red tape to get through and it all took time; more so in Relena's case.

 

Five days after the ESUN incident, Une got the updated report and was quick to call her agents in to review the information. Wufei, Heero and Duo all duly reported to the commander's office, eager to find out what the police had finally come up with. When they entered the office, they were met with a grim looking Une - and that didn't do anything to boost their confidence.

 

“Please be seated, gentlemen,” Une stated softly.

 

The three agents sat and looked expectantly at their commander.

 

I've printed out copies of the final police report for you all to read. I'd appreciate your comments.” Une handed over three copies and sat back to wait whilst her agents read them.

 

It only took the three a few minutes to read the documents and Une noted the disapproving frowns forming on their faces as they did. Duo seemed to sum it all up.

 

“This is a load of crap. There's nothing really added to this than was in their original report.”

 

“I agree,” Wufei said as he tossed the papers back to Une's desk in disgust.

 

“What I can't follow is why the security tapes didn't show anything,” Heero stated.

 

“Did they even look at them?” Duo asked sarcastically. “For a police report, you have to admit, it's pretty piss weak.”

 

“Agent Night! Watch your language,” Une snapped.

 

“Ah, sorry,” Duo rubbed the back of his neck.

 

Une accepted the apology and then looked at her agents. “I happen to agree with you all that this investigation doesn't really show up much of anything. Considering the extent of the breech into the ESUN I have asked my superiors to allow Preventer to investigate this further. If someone can infiltrate to this point then I believe the politicians, senators and other government officials' safety could be compromised and as such it is Preventers best interests to find out exactly what happened. If we only come up with the same information as the police investigation, then there is nothing lost; if we find something else though...”

 

“This all smells like yesterday's laundry to me. It simply screams to be looked into further,” Duo muttered.

 

“Good, I'm glad you see it that way because I'm assigning the three of you to investigate further. I have contacted the local police and they will have the file on this case all ready for you to pick up. The ESUN has also been notified and they will assist you in any way they can.”

 

“The tapes?” Wufei asked.

 

“They will also be waiting for you at the police station.”

 

The three men thought for a moment before Heero spoke up. “Will the ESUN allow us access to their mainframe?”

 

“They have indicated they will help all they can. As for the mainframe, I'm not completely sure, but I would imagine so. I will speak with their head tech and obtain clearance for you. Now, does any one have any further questions?”

 

Duo shook his head, Heero was lost in thought, Wufei just scowled.

 

“Right. As of now you are on the case. Agent Fire, as the superior officer, will be in charge. Good luck, gentlemen, and please keep me updated. Dismissed.”

 

The three trooped from the room and made their way back to Heero and Duo's office. Duo did a side trip to the lunch room and brought them all a coffee; well, a green tea for Wufei. Once inside the office they began to talk about the case amongst themselves.

 

“The first thing we need to do is get the file and tapes from the police. Once we have that we can go through all the evidence they collected, add it to what we know and then find the loopholes, the things they didn't pick up on and go from there,” Wufei stated as he sipped his tea.

 

“I'd like to get inside that computer mainframe and see what this fellow was up to,” Heero said. “Does anyone else but me find it strange that there was no mention of this guy's name or where he was from, or who he was working for?”

 

“I thought that was a little suspicious myself,” Duo replied. “Surely they would have identified him by now.”

 

“Unless they specifically left that out of their report,” Wufei mused.

 

“Why would they want to do that?”

 

“That's what we need to find out.” Wufei placed his tea cup on Duo's desk. “I want you two to go and get those files and tapes. Bring them back here and we will look at them together.”

 

“On our way, Wu-man.”

 

“It's Wufei!”

 

“Yeah, yeah. Come on, Heero. We got us some evidence to collect.” Duo snagged his jacket and with a grin, left the office, Heero in tow.

 

* * *

 

Farrow's eyes narrowed as he stared at the screen. He checked and rechecked, scribbled some notes on a piece of paper and checked again. He still came up with the same result. Leaning back in his chair he folded his arms across his chest and let his mind wander over the data. Allowing his thoughts free rein was the best way to make sense of them all. At least, it usually worked for him.

 

This time was no different. Soon the jumbled mess began to form into something a little more coherent and Farrow was quick to jot down his mind's wanderings. When he'd finished, he checked it all and measured it against what he'd found. He was even more certain now that he had something to work with. Pulling the cell phone from his pocket, he pushed speed dial.

 

“Yes?”

 

“Nolen, it's Farrow. I have a theory I'd like you to take a look at.”

 

“Theory?”

 

“Well, a sort of theory, pretty much based on what I've managed to piece together.”

 

“Okay. I'll be there shortly.”

 

Closing the cell, Farrow smiled to himself. “I think we have you, you slimy bastards.”

 

* * *

 

Having reached the police station, Heero parked the car and the pair of them donned their Preventer jackets and entered the building. Heero strode to the front desk where a pretty brunette gave them a smile.

 

“Can I help you, gentlemen?” she asked and batted her eyelashes.

 

Duo rolled his eyes but made sure to move closer to his husband. “We're here from Preventer to collect some evidence in a case the police were investigating but has now been handed over to Preventer.”

 

“I believe a Detective White will know what we're talking about,” added Heero.

 

“Just one moment please.” The brunette moved towards an intercom system and pushed a couple of buttons. “Detective White? I have two agents from Preventer here asking for you.” There were obviously some words passed back before the brunette replied, “Thank you, Detective. I'll let them know.” She pushed another button and returned to the desk. “If you would care to take a seat, the detective will be with you in a moment.”

 

“Thank you.” Heero turned and with Duo following, went to sit on the long bench. They only waited a few moments before a tall, balding man with thin spectacles perched on the end of his nose appeared.

 

“Preventer agent?” he asked as he walked over towards Heero and Duo.

 

Heero stood and fetched his ID from his pocket. “Preventer Agent Day. This is my partner, Agent Night. You must be Detective White?”

 

“Yes, yes I am.” The mad took a moment to scrutinize the ID from both agents and satisfied, he grunted. “Follow me, please.” Turning on his heel, he led the way back behind the front desk and along a corridor.

 

Duo pulled funny faces behind his back, Heero elbowed his partner, Duo scowled.

 

White stopped at a door and then opened it, Heero and Duo followed inside. It was an average sized room with roughly eight desks arranged four down each side. Three of the desks were occupied, the people who worked at the others obviously out on some case or another. White led them down the middle to stop at the third desk on the right. Whilst he looked through a filing cabinet, Duo took a moment to glance around.

 

It was quite crowded despite the size of the room. Filing cabinets and bookcases took up what space the desks left over and everywhere you looked there were files and papers. The other three people in the room didn't spare them a glance, continuing on with their work and completely ignoring the two agents.

 

White removed a folder and slapped it down on the desk before returning to the cabinet and locating the security tape. That was added to the top of the file and White faced the pair.

 

“I don't see why Preventer has to get involved with all this. The case has been investigated and closed, it was a clear cut murder - suicide with the motive being the disabling of the ESUN database,” White sneered.

 

Heero picked up the file and tape, returning the man's sneer with one of his own. “Preventer obviously disagrees with your findings.”

 

“Feel free to run yourselves into the ground, you won't find anything that isn't already covered in the files,” White snapped.

 

“I think we'll be the judge of that,” Duo replied coolly.

 

“We will let your superior know of our findings,” Heero stated and then turning, continued, “Thank you for the information, we will see ourselves out.” With one last glare at the detective, Heero strode quickly from the room, Duo right behind him.

 

“I wonder what crawled up his ass and died?” Duo muttered as they walked back past the front desk and out into the street.

 

“You know that the police don't like anyone else, especially Preventer, taking one of their cases, solved or not.”

 

“Can we help it if we find stuff they missed?”

 

“In this case, I really hope we do, that jackass needs taking down a peg or two,” Heero replied as he unlocked the car and got in.

 

Duo agreed.

 

* * *

 

Returning to Preventer headquarters, the pair immediately headed for their office and informed Wufei of their return. Moments later the Chinese agent joined them and they began the task of sifting through the evidence.

 

“I suggest we watch that tape first. According to this report on it, they say the deceased disabled the tape and prevented any recording of the crime,” Heero said as he skimmed through the section of the report regarding the tape.

 

“Good idea,” Wufei replied and picked up the tape. The three went through to the audio room and set themselves up in one of the many booths. Wufei slipped the tape into the machine and turned both the machine and small television set on. The tape started off as usual, picking up on Johnson at his station looking bored. The next several minutes of tape contained nothing of importance and Duo found himself getting bored.

 

Then the tape picked up on someone exiting the elevator and walking over to talk with Johnson. It was the person who had attempted to hack the system. Immediately all three men were riveted to the screen. They watched as the man exchanged a few words with Johnson and then entered the mainframe area. Seconds later the screen went blank.

 

“What the hell?!” Duo exclaimed.

 

“Be patient, Maxwell. I'm sure it will start again.” Wufei frowned at the screen.

 

It took several minutes before the screen flickered to life again, and when it did, Johnson and the other person were dead. Wufei hit the stop button and all three agents sat in silence for a moment.

 

“Can you rewind that and play it again from where the guy comes out of the elevator?” Duo asked.

 

“You on to something?” Heero asked his partner.

 

“Not sure.”

 

“What I find unusual,” began Wufei, “Is if he disabled the security tape, why are there several minutes of blank screen? From my knowledge of such systems, when you disable a security camera or system, the tape stops recording. If that's what he did, then the tape should only be blank for a moment before resuming and I'd say picking up from where the guy has shot himself or is about to shoot himself.”

 

“I agree with you,” Heero said. “The tape could easily be programmed to start up again after a period of time, but if disabled, it stops recording.”

 

“Which means there was a third person involved,” Duo stated with a frown. “Stop the tape, Wufei.”

 

Wufei did as requested and gave Duo a questioning look.

 

“Take it back a few frames, good; now, can you advance it frame by frame, please?”

 

Wufei complied and watched with an equally mystified Yuy.

 

“There! Stop it there!” Duo shouted.

 

Hitting the pause button, Wufei stared at the screen. “What, Maxwell?”

 

“Look,” Duo took the remote off Wufei and sent the tape back a few more frames, then let it roll forward. “Look carefully at our bad guy.”

 

Heero and Wufei both scrutinized each frame as it passed onto the screen.

 

“There!” Duo cried. “You see it?”

 

“See what, Maxwell,” growled Wufei. He really was getting sick of these games.

 

“Look at the bad dude's hand.”

 

“Ah. I see it,” Heero said as he looked closer.

 

“He was carrying his own equipment, I'm sure of it,” Duo said with a smug tone.

 

The closer Wufei looked, the easier it became to see what Duo was going on about. The bad guy was indeed carrying something in his hand, although what exactly it was, was hard to determine as the camera only picked up on the top, left hand bit of it.

 

“I thought he would need to have his own equipment with him in order to hack the system so quickly and to upload a virus,” Duo said. Then mentally added, 'If that's what his intention was'.

 

“There was no trace of any equipment with him when the other security guard went to relieve Johnson and found the bodies,” Wufei stated.

 

“Combine that with the unaccounted extra blank time on the security tape and you have all the makings of a third person intervention,' Duo said and leaned back in his chair.

 

“I have to agree there,” Heero said thoughtfully. “If a third person were involved, that would explain the missing gear and tape time.”

 

“I'm still betting this was no suicide. This was a murder.” Duo continued to search his mind for the scene he'd witnessed when first arriving in the mainframe section of the ESUN. “I said it before that the angle of the body in relation to the gunshot wound didn't look right to me for a suicide.”

 

“But why would anyone want to shoot this guy, or the guard? And where is the gear he was supposedly carrying?' Wufei questioned.

 

“I'd say the answer to that lies in the ESUN mainframe. This is my theory,” Duo began, “this guy was after something, something of importance that's stored on that mainframe. When he's hacked his way in, someone has been alerted, and that someone doesn't want whatever it is to become common knowledge. Therefore they decided to take out the hacker and killed the guard as well to make it look like a murder - suicide. They removed the guy's gear and erased the tapes of any evidence.”

 

“And the only way to prove your theory is to have access to the mainframe,” Heero stated as his eyebrows knotted in thought.

 

“How long is the tape running blank for?” Duo asked.

 

“I'll time it,” Wufei replied and rewound the tape. They let it play and recorded the length of time the time stayed blank for. “I make it just over five minutes.”

 

“Five minutes, hmmm.” Duo lost himself in thought again.

 

“What I would suggest, gentlemen, in order to get a proper time frame on this to see if a third person could have been involved, we should do a sort of reenactment,” Wufei said.

 

“That sounds like a good idea,” Heero agreed.

 

“We will need to clear it with Une first,” Duo said.

 

“I'll go speak with her now and bring her up to speed on what we have found thus far,” Wufei replied as he stood. “Take the tape back to your office and start combing through the report. I'll be with you shortly.” Wufei left to speak with Une, Heero and Duo collected the tape and went back to their office.

 

* * *

 

“Comfortable?” Nurse Brown questioned the child as she strapped Keitaro firmly in his pusher.

 

The infant gurgled and waved his chubby hands.

 

“Good, let's go.” The nurse took a firm hold on the pusher's handles and began to push the infant away from the car and into the park. Now that Keitaro was five months old, the nurse had begun to take him out a little, usually to the local shops and once a week to the big park in the center of town. She would push the baby around, walking along the shaded paths, stopping from time to time to admire some of the many flowers that bloomed. Sometimes she would bring some bread scraps with her and they would sit by the big lake and feed the ducks.

 

Keitaro loved watching the birds. They way they quacked and swam about, each determined to get a piece of bread. His little face would light up into a grin and he'd squeal happily.

 

The sun was warm sending dappling over the cement pathway as it filtered through the tree canopy. Nurse Brown strolled along enjoying the peace and quiet. There were a few other people about enjoying the day. Some were taking a lunch break, sitting on a bench and eating whilst relaxing in the sun's warmth. Others were strolling around, a couple of joggers went by and there were other couples with children scattered here and there.

 

Nurse Brown made her way towards the lake and located an empty bench. Sitting down she pulled the pusher beside her, put the brake on and then dipped into her bag to retrieve the small, paper bag with the bread crusts in it.

 

Breaking off a piece, she tossed it into the water and immediately the ducks came swimming over. A few more bits were tossed, Keitaro letting his own pleasure at watching be known with a series of chuckles and gurgles.

 

“Would you like to try?” the nurse asked the babe.

 

Keitaro just chuckled again.

 

Carefully, the nurse gave him a piece of bread. Being as young as he was, Keitaro wouldn't understand what he was meant to do with the bit of bread - other than try to shove it into his own mouth, but Nurse Brown also knew from experience that babies tended to wave their hands around, a lot, and usually if they had something in their grasp, it would fly out.

 

Keitaro studied the piece of bread in his hand and was about to put it in his mouth when a duck gave a loud quack. He immediately turned his attention to the noisy bird, flinging his hand in the air in excitement and thus tossing the piece of bread.

 

The duck gobbled up the bread in an instant.

 

Keitaro's eyes were wide. Nurse Brown laughed. She passed another piece of bread to the child and the pair of them 'fed' the ducks.

 

Back on the path a lone figure watched the scene from behind a newspaper.

 

~ * ~

 

tbc...