Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Family Ties ❯ Chapter 48 ( Chapter 48 )

“Family Ties”

 

January 2007 ShenLong

 

Chapter 48

 

“Agent Day?” Une echoed as Heero's voice came down the line.

 

“Hai. Wufei and I have hacked the hard drive of Wainright's computer and there are several thousand credits skimmed off from many of the donations.”

 

“We already knew that, Yuy,” Une snapped. “Do you have anything further to add?”

 

“We do, and it's not looking too good. I think you should come down here, commander, and see for yourself what we've found.”

 

Une's head was starting to ache. “I'll be there shortly, Yuy. I have something else to attend to first and I'm afraid it can't wait.”

 

“Oh? Anything we should know about?”

 

“Jefferies is dead.”

 

Heero swallowed. “I see. How?”

 

“Car accident, or at least that's what it appears to be. Agent Star, the agent assigned as his bodyguard, has just called in with the news. I'm about to send a forensics team out there.”

 

“Anything we can help with?” Heero couldn't help the gut feeling that Jefferies' death was no accident.

 

“I'll wait for forensics to report first. Once I have that information and know what's what, I'll let you know if I need you or Chang for further investigation.”

 

“Okay.”

 

“I'll be with you shortly. Une out.”

 

Heero hung up the phone and relayed the information to Wufei, the Chinese agent agreeing with Heero that the senator's death seemed very fishy.

 

Having discussed the senator's demise, they both turned back to their respective computers and proceeded to try and dig further into what they'd found.

 

* * *

 

Une called up the forensics team and quickly briefed them, the unit scrambling and setting off for the accident scene within minutes of being summoned. With that taken care of, Une stopped for a moment to swallow a couple of headache pills and fetch a strong coffee. She had a feeling she was going to need the caffeine to get through the remaining day.

 

Coffee mug in hand, she informed her secretary of where she was headed, checked she had her pager on her and exited the office.

 

* * *

 

No one spoke in the car on the way back to the hideout, Murphy concentrated on driving, Duric mused about what the ESUN would do now that they had a second body to deal with. Duo was doing his best to remain calm and ignore the nausea that refused to leave him.

 

Duo's ankle ached like a bitch and he wondered what his chances would be of getting some form of medical supplies to treat himself with. Probably none. His mind switched back to the computer in the ambassador's office and he smiled inwardly.

 

He had no idea how the guards had been alerted to him; all he could assume was the butler may have discovered the body and sounded the alarm. When Duo had entered the grounds there had been no sign of any dogs, the guards possibly only using them from time to time.

 

Deciding it was all too much this thinking, Duo let his mind drift and dozed lightly.

 

* * *

 

The butler was ready to retire for the night, all he had left to do was check on the ambassador to see if the man required anything else before he could finish his shift. With thoughts of his bed and the mystery novel he was currently reading foremost in his mind, the butler knocked on the study door and then entered.

 

“Sir, is there anything...” The butler stopped dead in his tracks, words frozen in his throat as his eyes widened upon the scene before him. “Oh my God!” The words were whispered as the butler's eyes fixated on the growing, red stain that was appearing on the carpet. Reluctantly, he inched forward until he was level with the ambassador and reached a shaking hand out to touch the shoulder. The body moved and toppled forward, head landing on the desk with a loud thump. It was all the butler could do not to scream.

 

Spinning on his heel, the butler ran from the room and headed directly to the 'phone in the hallway. Picking up the handset, he punched in a code and waited. Within two rings the call was answered.

 

“Security.”

 

“Get your ass up here now! The ambassador's been murdered,” the butler yelled down the line.

 

“Shit! On our way. Any sign of the perpetrator?”

 

“No, nothing, but I don't think they can be too far off as the blood is still flowing,” the butler replied as he tried to keep his dinner in his stomach, the reminder of the visual was not what he really wanted right now, it had been bad enough seeing it the first time, and reruns, even mental ones, were not welcome.

 

“Don't touch anything, guards should be there any second. Security out.”

 

The butler hung up and remained staring at the 'phone. In the distance he could hear a dog barking and the sounds of men running, the floodlights suddenly lit up the estate and the butler blinked at the harshness of the light. There came an insistent knocking on the door and the butler jerked as he realized the guards were there and made haste to let them in.

 

* * *

 

Having received such a startling call, the security chief immediately dispatched guards in various directions, calling for the dog to be let loose too. With his officers running in whatever directions they were heading, he grabbed his gun, checked the clip and took off after the outside guards.

 

He could hear the dog barking and one of the officers yell out for someone to stop so he veered off in that direction. When he arrived at the scene it was to see four officers scouring the ground whilst the dog was barking and scrabbling madly at the wall.

 

“Did you get them?” he demanded.

 

“No, sir. As we got here the perp disappeared over the wall.”

 

“Well, don't just stand here, get outside and check all around the wall. Take the dog with you!” the chief snapped.

 

“Sir! Yes, sir,” the four responded and one immediately put a leash on the dog and ran after the other three for the gates to lead them outside.

 

“Idiots!” the chief muttered to himself before turning and making his way hastily to the residence and the rest of his team.

 

* * *

 

Une arrived at the lab, coffee mug almost empty and the headache put on hold with the pills she'd taken. Entering the section where Chang and Yuy were working, she ordered one of the techs to fetch her another coffee and made her way through to the agents.

 

“What have you managed to find?” she asked as the agents looked up when she entered. “I take it I'm not going to be very happy?”

 

“Actually, I think you will be most interested in this, commander.”

 

Une raised an eyebrow. “Fill me in,” she demanded.

 

Yuy shifted slightly as Wufei pulled a chair over for the commander. With Une seated, Chang standing behind and Heero in the other seat, they got down to business.

 

Heero patiently 'walked' the commander through the computer data, showing her exactly what they had found and how they had traced things.

 

“We managed to locate the missing funds, they had been deposited into a bank account on L1 in the name of Barton,” Yuy informed.

 

“Had?” Une questioned, noting the use of past tense.

 

“Hai. The funds have since been withdrawn and the account closed.”

 

“I see.”

 

“I hacked the bank's database,” Yuy confessed and took a sly peek at his commander to see if he was going to get bawled out for that. Une's face remained the same so Heero guessed he was spared the psychotic side of his boss for the moment at least.

 

“Have you managed to locate where the funds have gone?”

 

“Yes,” Wufei replied, taking over the narrative. “All funds have been dispersed in the form of payments,” Wufei paused for a moment as Heero brought the information up on the computer screen for Une to see. “Payments for armaments.”

 

“Well shit!” Une's eyes widened as she read the information. When she'd finished her reading, she turned to the agents. “These armaments, they aren't your usual firepower,” she stated.

 

“No, they're not,” Heero agreed.

 

“That's the sort of stuff you buy when fitting out and arming mobile suits,” Wufei added quietly.

 

* * *

 

The car slowed and pulled into the garage, Murphy cutting the engine once they were safely inside.

 

Duric poked Duo in the ribs. “Wake up,” he sneered.

 

Duo winced as the poke landed on sore ribs, barely catching his fist as it automatically went to knock Duric's block off.

 

“Get out,” Duric hissed and Duo complied, albeit a little stiffly.

 

“What's up with you?” Murphy asked as he came around to unlock the side entrance to their hideout.

 

“Twisted my ankle,” Duo muttered as he limped through the door.

 

Duric handed Murphy the gun. “Take him back to the others and lock him up. I'm going to see the boss.”

 

Murphy nodded and took the gun. “Move,” he said flatly.

 

Duo limped through the hallway and towards the door that would take him back to the basement and his son. “I guess asking for medical supplies is out of the question,” he snipped.

 

Murphy grunted. “I'll see what I can do,” he growled. Producing a key and keeping the gun trained on Duo, Murphy unlocked the door and motioned for Duo to enter.

 

Wincing as he tried to take most of the weight on his good ankle, Duo made his way down the steps and into the basement, the door locking behind him.

 

“Duo? Is that you?” the nurse's voice came from the corner where the bed was located.

 

“Yeah, I'm back,” Duo ground out.

 

The nurse appeared through the dim lighting and gasped. “Duo! You're hurt. What happened? Here, let me help you.” Margaret moved across to put Duo's arm around her shoulders and take some of his weight as she assisted him across the room to the chair.

 

Reaching the chair, Duo sank gratefully into it. “Thanks.”

 

“What happened?” the nurse repeated as she took in the state of the young man. His shirt was ripped, dried blood caking it in places. It was obvious too he'd done something to his ankle.

 

Swallowing the bile yet again, Duo replied, trying to spare the nurse the gory details. “I, I had to take out two targets,” he whispered.

 

Margaret shook her head, sorrow clouding her face as she looked at the distressed man. “Duo, I'm so sorry.”

 

Knowing the nurse was about to blame herself yet again for their predicament, Duo was quick to cut her off. “It's not your fault,” he stated firmly.

 

Knowing she wouldn't be able to convince Duo otherwise, Margaret wisely changed tack. “How did you hurt yourself? And let me take a look.”

 

“I was on my way out when the guards were alerted. I sort of fell over a wall and landed in a bush,” he replied.

 

“Hmm,” Margaret muttered as she listened and did her best to ease the shirt from Duo's torso. Duo jumped and flinched a couple of times as the fabric peeled away from where it had stuck to the wounds. Finally the shirt was off and the nurse could inspect the damage. Fortunately, it wasn't too bad, mainly superficial cuts and scrapes with some interesting bruises starting to appear.

 

“I should be able to clean those up a bit with water,” she said and fetched the thermos. She poured some of the hot water into a mug and picked up a paper napkin. “Let me check your ankle while we wait for the water to cool a bit.”

 

Dutifully, Duo raised his injured leg, resting it on the knee of his other leg and tried to prize the boot off. The ankle had swollen quite a bit so it was no easy feat to persuade the boot to depart. After much coaxing and teeth gritting on Duo's part, the boot was finally removed, the sock following and leaving the ankle bare to the air and inspection.

 

Gently running the fingers of her uninjured hand over the lower calf, ankle and tendon, Margaret's brow creased. She carefully flexed the ankle one way and then another, seeing exactly how much movement Duo had. There wasn't anything in the way of bruising, but there was a lot of swelling. With the restrictions of the boot now removed, the ankle began to swell rapidly and Duo knew he would have difficulty walking without some form of support.

 

Before the nurse could fully appraise the situation, the sound of a key in the lock diverted their attention and they both looked up as Murphy entered the room. He came down the steps carrying a tray, gun still held in one hand and assisting to balance the tray.

 

Setting the tray down on the table, Murphy looked to the pair. “Some food,” he stated and then looked thoughtful for a moment before speaking again. “What's the damage?”

 

Nurse Brown replied in Duo's stead, her voice calm but clipped. “A severely sprained ankle, several lacerations to the chest and bruising.”

 

“I see.” Murphy reached into his pocket and brought out a couple of things, tossing them to the table. “They might help,” he said and then turned on his heel and left.

 

Once they were alone again, both Margaret and Duo immediately checked out what Murphy had deposited for them. It was a tube of antiseptic cream, some gauze and a couple of bandages.

 

Duo gave a soft grin. “At least now we can bandage your wrist properly.”

 

The nurse snorted. “My wrist is fine with what it has, these will do nicely for your ankle and ribs.”

 

“No. You need them more than I do,” Duo argued.

 

“Piffle,” came the short reply.

 

Duo blinked and then snickered. “How about we have one each?” he questioned with a raised eyebrow.

 

Seeing she wasn't going to win and a compromise would be the only possible outcome, Margaret agreed. “Okay.”

 

“The gauze will be enough to cover the scratches, I'm not that bad that I need a bandage on my chest,” Duo stated. “I agree that one on the ankle for support would probably be a good idea, but you also need one for that wrist of yours.”

 

“Okay, we'll share. Now, let me clean you up.”

 

Knowing he wasn't going to get out of this, Duo relented and sat back, letting the nurse do her worst.

 

* * *

 

Agent Star gave a relieved sigh when he spotted the Preventer forensic vehicles coming down the road. The police and ambulance were currently in attendance, the ambulance officers waited patiently by their rig; they'd already given the victim the 'once over' and knew there was nothing they could do medically for the man. He was dead and nothing short of divine intervention would be bringing him back. They were now merely a form of transport for the deceased to the Preventer morgue. The police were directing any traffic that happened along the road and shooting Agent Star nasty looks from time to time. They had not been happy campers when informed their skills would not be needed, that Preventer would be handling the case.

 

Not that Star took much notice of the glares, he had bigger problems to worry about, such as what his commander would say when she knew Jefferies had given him the slip and ended up dead.

 

The forensics team pulled up to the side and exited their vehicles. Star met the commander of the team and briefed him on what he knew before leaving the men to get on with their work. It was quite interesting to watch. Agents milled around, setting up equipment, checking the road surface, examining the wreck and also the body. Unable to leave the scene until the bulk of the examination was over with, Star resigned himself to spending several more hours there and called his wife to tell her not to expect him home for dinner. If he was lucky, he might make it for breakfast.

 

* * *

 

With his ankle firmly wrapped, and cuts seen to, Duo felt a bit more comfortable. He re-bandaged the nurse's wrist for her, frowning at the state of the skin and bones. He knew she would need corrective surgery to fix the break. With the medical side taken care of, the pair set about unpacking the tray and seeing what was for supper.

 

Duo changed Keitaro who had woken from his light slumber and sat the infant on his knee whilst he tried to eat something. His stomach wasn't very happy with him and his appetite had left, but he knew he had to try and eat something - if only to keep his strength up, and keep the nurse off his back. Unfortunately, nothing slipped past the nurse.

 

“Not hungry?” Margaret questioned.

 

“No, not really,” Duo replied.

 

“How's your stomach and the nausea?”

 

“Nausea is still there,” Duo said with a wan smile.

 

Collecting her thoughts, the nurse felt she needed to broach the subject that was on her mind with the long haired man and satisfy herself once and for all about Duo's condition. “Duo?”

 

“Yes?”

 

“I know you're not going to like what I'm about to talk about, but I think you need to hear this and also be honest about your thoughts and responses.”

 

“Oh?” Duo was pretty confused.

 

Deciding to just go straight for the jugular, Margaret began to speak. “You remember earlier, when you were vomiting and we had our discussion about your bleeding?”

 

“Yes,” Duo said cautiously.

 

“You said it had been several weeks since your last, errr... period. Correct?”

 

Duo was blushing bright red by this stage. “Ummm... It would be several weeks, but as you know and I said before, we still haven't worked out exactly what my cycle is.”

 

“I'm well aware of that, but,” the nurse paused, looking for the right words. “Duo, there's no easy way to say this, but the nausea you're experiencing, plus the length of time since your last bleed leads me to one conclusion.”

 

The dots all began to join up in Duo's mind and his jaw fell open, skin paling as the picture appeared. “You think I might be pregnant again?”

 

Margaret nodded.

 

“But, I can't be!”

 

“Oh? You have to admit, all these symptoms seem to point to that conclusion.“

 

Duo shook his head. “No, no way. Heero's been the uke each time, except for once.”

 

“Duo, I hate to tell you this, but you can fall pregnant even if you're the uke only once.”

 

“But, but we used protection. Heero used a condom so there's no way I could have conceived.”

 

“Well, without proper equipment there's no way to tell for sure either way. If you're not, then that's good in one way, but it also means you've possibly picked up a virus and if that's the case then both myself and Keitaro are likely to catch it too. If you are...” the nurse swallowed. “Then that's a completely different kettle of fish.”

 

“Shit.”

 

“Duo? If you are pregnant, then we need to get out of here somehow and fast. Your body is at serious risk with another pregnancy so soon after Keitaro.” Whilst she really didn't want to scare the man, Margaret felt he needed to know the ramifications of a pregnancy so soon after Keitaro. “Your body is still healing inside. A cesarean section like you had is major abdominal surgery and those scars are going to be weak for quite some time. Oh, you're fit enough for most everyday things and even a lot of what you need to do physically for your job. However, given your unusual make up, those scars could rip and tear with the pressure of another pregnancy.”

 

The nurse's words sank into Duo's mind and he lost himself in thought for a moment. Surfacing, he noted Keitaro had fallen asleep in his arms and he carefully stood up, hobbling to the bed and lay his son down.

 

Nurse Brown watched him, seeming to know that words were no longer necessary, that Duo needed time to digest the information.

 

Having settled his son, Duo hobbled back to the table and grabbed the transistor radio on his way. He turned the unit on, looking to the nurse as he fiddled with the machine. “I need some time to think,” he said quietly.

 

“I understand,” Margaret replied and reached across to squeeze his arm. “I'm here when you want to talk, for now though, I think I'll go to bed too.”

 

With the nurse lying next to Keitaro and drifting off, Duo allowed his mind to roam freely over the information whilst his fingers began to tap out the code once more on the small radio.

 

* * *

 

In the communications room, Trowa and Quatre were steadily sorting through the loops and twists of the terrorists' call. They were getting very close now. In the other room Agent Sky continued to monitor the communications going on through the Preventer network.

 

A soft, almost inaudible tapping sound came down the sound waves and Sky's brow furrowed. He twiddled the dials on the scanner, trying to get a clearer sound. He didn't recognize the sound at first, then, after a few times it began to register that it must be a code of some sort as it followed a loop.

 

“Sun?”

 

“Yeah?” the agent looked up from where he was working with Trowa and Quatre.

 

“I'm getting some sort of code or message coming through. I've never heard anything like it before though.”

 

With a grunt Sun pushed his chair back and went to get up. Trowa and Quatre couldn't help overhearing the conversation and both men stood too, following Sun through to the main room.

 

“Here, listen,” Sky said and removed his earphones, switching the machine to speaker mode.

 

A tapping sound came over the airwaves, a seemingly random jumble of clicks that after a moment or two of listening to actually began to form some sort of pattern.

 

Trowa listened carefully, then his face changed, his eyes widened and his mouth curled into a grin.

 

“That's a code Yuy and Maxwell used sometimes during the war.”

 

~ * ~

 

tbc...