Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Family Ties ❯ Chapter 38 ( Chapter 38 )

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 38

 

 

Another two hours of debating had passed and the group were no closer to coming to a decision than when they had started. Une was fed up of the constant arguing and bickering amongst the delegates and decided that enough was enough.

 

 

“Ladies and gentlemen, will you all just shut up for a moment, please?” she barked when a moment of silence allowed her to speak.

 

 

All the delegates turned in her direction, wide eyed and a little miffed that someone should have interrupted them and in such a rude fashion.

 

 

“Thank you. This constant back and forth arguing isn't getting us anywhere. If what I have heard thus far is true, then all the colonies were receiving the same amount of funding, correct?”

 

 

“Yes, but...”

 

 

Before the senator could say any more Une cut him off. “This person is demanding funding for the L2 cluster, stating that L2 is being left behind, not getting the same funding as the other colonies. Have any of you thought why he would be saying this and demanding more funds?”

 

 

“Well...”

 

 

“I thought not,” Une said sharply, cutting off any chance of protest. “Wouldn't it make sense then to check the funding portfolio? Surely you have a committee set up to monitor and run this operation?”

 

 

“Well, yes, we do...”

 

 

“Then I suggest you contact the committee and take a look at the portfolio, see what funding has been allocated and to where. Who is in charge of this committee?”

 

 

“Now look here, commander...”

 

 

“I think the commander has a valid point,” Relena interrupted. “There has to be some reason for this person to think that L2 isn't getting the same funding. I'd suggest we take the commander's advice and check the funding portfolio, see where the funds are going and what has been spent on each colony and where. Once we have that information and this person contacts us back, we can then present all the facts and figures, proving that L2 is getting just as much as the other colonies.”

 

 

Une flashed the woman a grateful smile. Maybe now they would start to get somewhere.

 

 

There were a few muttered words amongst the remaining senators but no one could come up with a valid argument not to do as suggested. Grudgingly, they agreed.

 

 

“Who is in charge of the rebuilding scheme?” Une asked.

 

 

Relena scanned through the files she'd brought with her. “I believe it's Senator Wainright,” she announced after locating what she wanted in the files.

“Does anyone have any objection to asking the senator to bring in the files associated with the rebuilding scheme?” Une asked.

 

 

Despite a few mumbles, no one opposed the proposal.

 

 

“Good.” Une turned her attention back to Relena. “Would you mind asking the senator to bring the relevant files to a meeting with us all where we can check them over, please?”

 

 

“No problem. I'll see to it right away.” Relena stood and exited the conference room to place a call. Une leaned back in her seat, aware of the tension in the room and the cat she'd just tossed in amongst the pigeons.

 

 

* * *

 

 

Wufei leaned a little closer to the screen as Heero slipped the disc into the computer and brought up the contents. He'd located the files Duo had stored his information on and currently had them loading up.

 

 

“Is this anything to do with the ESUN database?” Wufei asked.

 

 

“Not that I know of,” Heero replied. “Duo did mention something to me about the lack of rebuilding currently taking place on L2, he said he didn't think L2 was getting enough funding and was going to look into it a bit further. He hadn't told me if he'd found anything and the scanning programs we were using hadn't come up with anything as yet that I know of, so I assumed he was still investigating.”

 

 

“He contacted me in regards to the funding,” Quatre said.

 

 

Heero frowned. “I don't recall him saying anything about involving you specifically, Quatre.”

 

 

“He probably didn't. Knowing Duo, he'd wait until he felt he had something to work with before letting you know what he was investigating,” Quatre stated.

 

 

“What exactly did he say about the funding?” Wufei asked, getting the topic back on track.

 

 

“He said he'd been looking into some of the paperwork Relena had managed to get for him and wanted to know if I could double check on the invoices for Sandrock Construction. It's a company I own and it's been a vital part of the rebuilding scheme in delivering supplies and other necessities for the colonies to rebuild. I did and I couldn't find anything amiss. Trowa looked into it too and all the invoices matched with the outgoing supplies. I also mentioned that Winner Enterprises, along with the Sanq Foundation was one of the largest donors to the rebuilding fund. I sent through, at his request, copies of all the donations Winner Enterprises had made. I'm assuming from that disc, that Relena did the same.”

 

 

“Hn,” Heero grunted and all eyes turned back to him. He scanned over the information Duo had on the files, confirming in his own mind what he thought Duo was on to before saying anything to the others. “Duo was definitely looking into the funding,” he stated.

 

 

Wufei moved closer, Quatre and Trowa also coming to stand directly behind and to the other side of Heero. All eyes were trained on the computer screen and the information displayed.

 

 

“This is a complete list of all funds allocated and the purchases made for the scheme,” Heero said.

 

 

“Where did he get that from?” Wufei inquired. He had a pretty good idea, but wanted to see if Heero would confirm his suspicions.

 

 

“Remember when we went to the ESUN to investigate the murder of the security guard and the infiltrator?”

 

 

Wufei nodded.

 

 

“Duo had asked Relena if she could possibly obtain a copy of the colony rebuilding portfolio so he could check the inventories, see where the funds were allocated, what was purchased and match it against what was delivered to the colonies.”

 

 

“I see.”

 

 

“Whilst we were there, Relena gave him a copy of the files.”

 

 

“Ah.”

 

 

“From what I can tell, the inventories all match with the allocated funds, purchases and deliveries.”

 

 

Quatre leaned a little closer and ran a skilled eye over the figures on the screen. Both Trowa and himself had a basic idea of what Duo suspected and was investigating, but they didn't know the whole story. Seemed they were getting an information dump. “I agree with you, Heero. All figures match.”

Heero minimized the window and brought up those with the disc information on them. “I have a hunch,” he stated quietly and began to scroll down the screen, typing commands as he went.

 

 

“Hunch?” Wufei questioned.

 

 

“Duo isn't one to investigate things if he's not pretty sure there's something funny going on. I have a hunch he wasn't convinced with the figures from the files, especially after seeing first hand the slowness of the rebuilding on L2. Compared to the rate of improvement on the other three colonies, L2 is quite a way behind, even I could see that. I'm guessing he wanted to compare the donations to the fund with the amounts spent thus far. I have a pretty good idea he was thinking along the same track I am now; that the other colonies are receiving more from the donations than what L2 is.” Heero continued to type away as he spoke.

 

 

“Sounds logical to me,” Quatre said.

 

 

“Bingo,” Heero announced quietly. Immediately the other three were hovering over his shoulder, eyes taking in the information displayed.

 

 

“Shit!” Wufei's eyes widened.

 

 

“I think we have something here,” Heero said softly.

 

 

“If that is correct, then there's several thousand credits unaccounted for,” Quatre commented as he did some fast, mental calculations.

 

 

“Hn.” Heero typed away again. “It seems, no matter which way you add this up, the total amounts of the donations do not equal the funds that appear in the files.”

 

 

“Yet the allocated funds equal the purchases,” Wufei said.

 

 

“So somewhere between the donations and the allocations, several thousand credits have disappeared,” Trowa finished off.

 

 

“Yuy, did you manage to finish hacking into the ESUN database?” Wufei questioned.

 

 

“No, I haven't.”

 

 

Wufei frowned a little as he thought.

 

 

“Why would you want to hack the ESUN database?” Quatre asked.

 

 

Heero looked to Wufei, the unspoken request to let Trowa and Quatre know what they were investigating written in his eyes. Wufei nodded his consent. Whilst it wasn't allowable under the Preventer rules and regulations for cases to be discussed with anyone other than those agents assigned to the case, both Quatre and Trowa weren't ordinary people. Neither man would breathe a word, besides, they just might be able to give a fresh view on the case.

 

 

With the permission granted, Heero informed the two of their current investigation and their reasons for wanting to hack the database.

 

 

* * *

 

 

“Yes?” Wainright spoke into the intercom system, his voice a little irritated at being interrupted.

 

 

The secretary ignored the tone and informed the senator of the committee's request for the files on the colony rebuilding scheme.

 

 

“They want them now?” Wainright said, stalling for time.

 

 

“That was the request, sir.”

 

 

“It will take me a short while to get it all together. Please let the committee know I'll have the files to them as quickly as I can.”

 

 

“I'll pass that information on, sir.”

 

 

The intercom went silent and Wainright sat back in his chair, a worried frown on his face. He thought long and hard on the situation and then, having made his decision, he picked up his 'phone and called Evans.

 

 

“Evans here.”

 

 

“Evans, we have a slight problem.” Wainright explained to Evans what the committee wanted.

 

 

“What are you going to do?”

 

 

“Give them the files, of course,” Wainright stated.

 

 

“But...”

 

 

“Evans, the files I will be giving them are the files we've been using all along. All the other files have been successfully copied to disc and then deleted from my computer. I trust you have completed the same task?”

 

 

“Yes, I have. The computer is clean.”

 

 

“Good. I intend to take my time over delivering these files, by the time they have them, there won't be much of the day left for them to look into them too deeply. They will have to wait until tomorrow to go through them in depth. By the time they do that, we will both be long gone.”

 

 

Evans gave a smirk. “I like your thinking.”

 

 

“Just sit tight, wait the rest of the day out and I will see you this evening as arranged.”

 

 

“Will do.”

 

 

“If they should ask you for your copies of the files, delay as much as possible.”

 

 

“Understood.”

 

 

“Until tonight.” Wainright cut the call and sat back in his chair once more, this time there was a satisfied smirk on his face. “Won't be long now and all you so called peacekeepers will be exposed for the frauds that you really are,” he muttered to the four walls.

 

 

* * *

 

 

Duo had managed to dig away a bit more of the mortar, however he was still a long way from being able to remove the woodwork and bars from the tiny window. Even if he was successful, he had yet to figure out how he was going to get all three of them safely out and away. If it had just been himself, he would have been long gone, but he had his son and the nanny to think about and there was no way Duo would endanger either of them if he could help it.

 

 

Nurse Brown gave a groan and Duo immediately stopped his assault on the masonry to see what was wrong.

 

 

“Here, let me do that,” he said quietly to the nurse who was trying to change Keitaro's diaper with only one hand.

 

 

“Thank you, Duo,” Margaret replied. “I'm sorry I'm not much help.”

 

 

Duo gave the woman a soft smile. “Not your fault. Under the circumstances I think you're coping extremely well.” He quickly changed his son and then set about getting a bottle for the infant.

 

 

Nurse Brown sat in the chair and watched. Her heart was heavy, body tired, mind continuously running in circles and her wrist was beginning to hurt a lot more than she was letting on. She continued to think about their situation and the more she did, the more convinced she became that the decision she had made was the right one. “Duo?”

 

 

“Yes?” Duo looked up from where he was feeding Keitaro the cool formula; Keitaro had objected at first, but then his hunger overcame the desire for warm food and he sucked greedily at the bottle. It tore at Duo's heart that he couldn't give his son what the child needed and added another mark to the mounting score he had to settle with these idiots that dared to touch what was his.

 

 

“Duo, as soon as you manage to get that hole or window open enough for you to get through, I want you to go. Take Keitaro with you and get out of here.”

 

 

Duo's eyes widened and then narrowed. “No. I will not leave you behind.”

 

 

The nurse sighed. “Look, I'm a lot bigger than you so it will take longer to get that hole big enough for me to get through and I will only slow you down with this broken wrist. You will stand a much better chance at escaping if you haven't got to worry about an old biddy like me, I can't move as fast as you.” It made perfect sense to the nurse that the young man should take his son and make a break for it when the opportunity arose.

 

 

“No. Either we all go, or none of us goes. I won't leave you behind and have these assholes hurt you again.” He didn't say 'kill', there was no need to. They both knew what the terrorists would do, they'd already shown that they meant business by breaking the nanny's wrist. Duo knew they wouldn't hesitate to kill nurse Brown, they had made that painfully clear and Duo had enough blood on his hands from the war. No way was he going to add another innocent to that tally.

 

 

“But, Duo, please try to see sense here. You can get away a lot faster without me, get help and come back with re-enforcements.”

 

 

Duo knew the nanny was putting on a brave face, but there was no way he would leave her behind and she was just going to have to accept that. “I will not leave you behind and that's the end of the discussion,” he stated in a tone of finality. “Besides, I'm pretty sure that Heero won't be too far off in locating us. I did leave behind a couple of clues for him when I...” Duo hesitated for a moment, then continued, “when I had to do that job yesterday. I can only hope he has been involved in the case and if he has, you can bet he's tearing apart this entire planet to find us.”

 

 

Nurse Brown smiled. The love the two men had for each other was stronger than any love she'd seen in a while and she didn't doubt for a second that Heero would locate them. But would he be in time? She sighed in defeat. “Okay.”

 

 

“Good.” Duo gave her what he hoped was a reassuring grin. “Wrist hurting?”

 

 

“A little,” the nurse lied.

 

 

“Let me take a look at it and then I'll give you some more panadol.” Duo set Keitaro down on the bed, the baby more than happy to sit and watch what was going on around him. Taking the nurse's wrist, he noted the attempt to disguise the flinch of pain as he carefully unwrapped the makeshift bandage.

 

 

Gritting her teeth, Margaret allowed the young man to check out her injury. It throbbed and ached continuously and despite the panadol, the pain really didn't ease much.

 

 

Duo frowned as he took in the state of the nurse's wrist. It was swollen a lot more than he would have liked to see. The surrounding flesh was vivid shades of red, purple and blue, indicating how bad the bruising was. It still sat at a slightly abnormal angle and Duo knew it needed surgery to correct. All he could hope for was that it didn't get the chance to heal too much in that position - which meant getting out of here as soon as possible. Short of trying to straighten the wrist himself, with nothing but brute force, and that wasn't something he was willing to put the nurse through, the best he could do for now was to bind the wrist as tightly as possible, keep up with the panadol and hope for a miracle.

 

 

“It's not looking good, is it?” the nurse asked, even though she already knew the answer.

 

 

“No, it isn't,” Duo replied honestly.

 

 

“It's okay, Duo. Just strap it as tight as you can.”

 

 

“Okay. I'll be as gentle as I can.” Duo proceeded to bind the wrist again, wrapping the cloth around as firmly as he dared. The nurse gave a soft moan of pain and flinched a couple of times, but otherwise remained still.

 

 

“Thank you,” Margaret said as Duo placed the bound wrist back into the sling he'd rigged up.

 

 

Duo fetched another couple of the panadol pills and handed them over, the nurse duly swallowing them and then settling onto the bed next to the baby. She did her best to forget the pain by concentrating on Keitaro and keeping the little one amused.

 

 

Duo returned to the window and mortar with renewed vigor.

 

 

* * *

 

 

It was late afternoon by the time the ESUN delegates received the files in the colony rebuilding portfolio - too late for them to really consider what information they held. All the senators had their minds on other things - such as going home to their respective families and enjoying dinner.

Une could see it was hopeless trying to convince them to remain; they wouldn't make much headway at all if none of the delegates' minds were on the job. Grudgingly she agreed for the meeting to be adjourned and resume at eight the following morning. Once all the delegates had left the conference room and only Relena and herself remained, Une picked up the portfolio and glanced at it. Having taken a quick flick through, she could see there was quite a bit of work involved in going through it all. She sighed and looked at Relena.

 

 

“Mind if I take this home and study it tonight ready for tomorrow's meeting?” she asked the other woman.

 

 

“Not at all,” Relena replied and then went silent, deep in thought.

 

 

Une raised an eyebrow. She could see there was something on the woman's mind. “Relena? Is there something bothering you? Anything you'd like to talk about? I can promise you that anything you say to me will be kept in the strictest of confidence.”

 

 

Relena sighed and her shoulders slumped a little. She raised her blue eyes to meet with the commander's. “There's something I think you should know, commander. I don't know if this is relevant at all, or if you're already aware of it - if you are, please stop me.”

 

 

“Relena, just tell me what's on your mind,” Une said in a soft tone.

 

 

“Okay. A couple of weeks ago I had a call from Agent Night - Duo. He was asking about the colony rebuilding scheme and asked me if I could obtain a copy of the files for him. He didn't say what he was looking for, sort of vaguely hinted that it was for a case or something he was working on. I managed to get a copy and handed it over to him. I don't know if he found what he was looking for, I didn't say anything more about it and he hasn't either. I don't know if it might be relevant to this or not, but I thought you should know.”

 

 

Une's mind was ticking over with the information. “Thank you, Relena. No, I wasn't aware of Agent Night's request, or exactly what he wanted the files for. I will look into this a little more though.”

 

 

“I hope I'm not getting him into any trouble.”

 

 

“No, Relena. In fact, this information could help a lot.”

 

 

“Good. I'll bid you good night then.”

 

 

“Good night, Relena.” Une watched as the young woman left, then she shook herself, checked she had all the files and left to return to Preventer HQ. It was going to be a long night.

 

 

* * *

 

 

Agent Summer checked over all the reports again, making certain he had all the facts there in front of him. He shook his head in disbelief at the results. Taking the reports through to his office he dumped them on the desk and went to fetch himself a coffee.

 

 

Reading over the reports and findings again, he was satisfied they had covered everything they possibly could. Reaching for the 'phone, he placed a call to the commander.

 

 

“Commander Une.”

 

 

“Commander, it's Agent Summer here. I have the results from the forensic testing we've done from the case involving the vehicle and child's stroller.”

 

 

“And?”

 

 

“The only prints we can find are those belonging to the people immediately involved; that is the child, nanny, council workers and such. There are no prints unaccounted for. Also there wasn't anything usable for DNA testing.”

 

 

“I see.”

 

 

“Commander?”

 

 

“Yes?”

 

 

“I also have the DNA results on the strands of hair found in the hand of the deceased L1 ambassador.”

 

 

Une swallowed. “Go on.”

 

 

“Commander, the DNA testing shows that the hair found matches the DNA profile of one of our Preventer agents. In fact it is that of one Agent Night.”

 

 

~ * ~

 

 

tbc...