Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ In the City at Night ❯ Tension ( Chapter 9 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Tension

"Why is your leg all bloody?" Chai hissed at Jordan as she moved into the bedroom, staring at her boyfriend's wounded leg. "What happened?"

"Shifton is claiming that he bought a condo with the money, which puts Jon back on the chopping block," Jordan returned, wiping at the wound somewhat slowly, since it hurt. He glanced up and studied her amethyst eyes, then shrugged a bit. "The swat was coming in the front door and we went out the back door. We seemed to have to move really fast after that."

"We also jumped fire-escapes," Heero agreed, moving into the room behind her. "You all right?"

"I'll be fine in a minute," Jordan reassured him, pressing the cloth against the wound. "What do we do now?"

"Wait for Une to call," Heero shrugged. "I play innocent-like, and we might have to take Jon in."

Jordan looked up to his old friend.

"If he runs and they realize it, they'll think he's the one who orchestrated it. Do you want that? Do you want us to not be able to clear his name? Unfortunately, he might have to do some time while we figure out what really happened...if he didn't do it himself."

"I told you..."

"I said if," Heero noted darkly. "I'm an officer of the law, Jordan. I have to look at it from all angles. Currently, the best plan is for him to go in."

Jordan ran his hands down his face, shaking his head.

"Listen," Heero muttered, moving around Chai to sit on the bed with the man. "I know you don't like this. I don't like this...and I don't honestly get the feeling that he had anything to do with the attempt. But someone did, and the only lead we have right now is Breer. We'll have to look into his enemies, his dealings, and his own loyalties. The fact that you like him gives him more credibility than you know, but we can't use that because you'd have to go to Une. I've been duped before. You're the only one Une'll just listen to."

Jordan met his eyes, blinking at him.

"I know you don't want to," Heero added, "But...maybe you should come in with us."

"I don't..."

"I know you don't want to, Jordan, but you don't hear her. She misses you! She's always comparing us to you...it's annoying as all fuck, but I don't honestly think she'll court-martial...especially if you offer to help on this case...and it's Jon we're saving the ass of. I know he's not the most respectable primate in the zoo, but you consider him a friend, don't you?"

"Get me my pills," Jordan said quietly without looking at him. "My leg hurts and I should sleep."

Heero sighed, pulling some from his pocket as Chai went silently to get water. The silence continued as they left the room to look at the rest of the pilots.

"Well?" Quatre asked seriously.

"I put the idea in his head," Heero returned, moving to collapse into the chair as Trowa stood so Chai could have a seat. "The rest is up to him."

X x X x X

"We've been here in Rico's apartment all day," Heero noted to Une. "He's got the charm, I'll tell you that much." The soldier grinned slightly, then sighed, looking to the ceiling. After a few moments he started to nod, then sighed. "You sent in swat? Why didn't you just call me? That was...sometimes I swear you're stupid," he noted. "Oh yeah, get all pissed and hang up on me, jackass...what do you mean? Shifton says he used the money on a flat...and you...verified it?" Heero looked up to Jon, blinking. "You can account for every money exchange?"

"What's going on?" Jon demanded, staring at his friend in amazement.

Heero gestured him off, turning away...as the handle to Jordan's room started to turn. The soldier checked his watch, realizing that the painkillers would be wearing off again. "I know...it's just...there are some things you just shouldn't..."

Every thought in his mind ended as the door swung the entire way open. Every single thing he'd been deciding to say vanished.

"Holy shit," Wufei half gasped.

Jordan was standing tall and proud in the doorway...with his braid in his left hand, and scissors in his right.

The hair was no longer attached to his hand.

"Heero?" Une demanded.

Heero stared at Jordan a long moment, "I...I...gotta go," he muttered, hitting the end button as the former pilot moved from the room with his newly shorn hair brushing his shoulders.

"My god," Jon breathed, rising to his feet, "How high were you?"

Jordan ignored his friend, tossing the braid at Heero's feet, then looking around to the others. "I need to go to a salon or something."

Heero bent over slowly, retrieving the long hair and running his eyes over the length of it.

"It looks good on you," Jon complimented happily as Chai moved around the room from the kitchen to blink at him in amazement.

"I'm going in with you," Jordan informed them all quietly. He pointed at the kingpin, "You tell me now if you did this deed or not," he said quietly. "Because if you did set up the assassination and I find out about it later, you'll wish you were dead."

"I...I wouldn't, Jordan," Jonathan breathed, realizing that something serious had happened.

"You don't understand the gravity of this, do you?" Quatre asked, moving around the man to take the braid from Heero. He looked it over a long moment, then looked to Jon again. "Duo was raised a street orphan. The nun of his orphanage braided his hair for him when he refused to let her cut it. No scissors have touched his hair for more than a trim in his entire life." The blond looked slowly to the now braid-less male, "I don't understand. How does cutting this off equate?"

"I was going to run," Jordan explained, moving from the room and messing with his hair. "Heero pointed out how much different I'd look without the braid and I realized how I could run...but Jon can't run. He can't disappear." The man's eyes moved slowly to Heero's face, studying him silently, "If Une will still accept my word, I can keep him from the worst of the punishments."

"Oh, she will," Tro noted, rolling his eyes. "God, you show up and you'll be her golden boy again."

"If only a bit skinnier and unhealthy looking," Quatre agreed, looking the male over.

That got him a look.

"What? Live in hell, look like hell...no offense intended."

Chai flashed him a slight grin, then crossed her arms. "What about me?"

"You'll come," Jordan returned. "I'll get the pair of us a room on the base. You'll be safe. I'll work this case and opt-out a legal way."

"What if she won't let you?" Chai demanded, feeling a slight surge of jealousy.

"Then we'll run again," Jordan focused on her, tilting his head. "She can't keep me if I don't want to stay."

"Your hair is absolutely frightening," Wufei muttered, moving around the others to tug at the shortened length of it. He shoved the former pilot bodily toward the kitchen, taking the scissors as he did so.

"And now you can cut hair?" Chai demanded almost sarcastically.

"Of course I can," Wufei muttered distantly, turning the man so the light was proper. "I have an idea for a look for him...one that will suit his personality if we get him a black leather jacket."

"I've got gel," Tro noted, turning and darting into the bedroom the four other pilots had their things in.

"Your hair isn't stiff as cement anymore, though, you sure it's strong enough?" Quatre's expression was naughty.

"Hahaha," Tro retorted, smacking the guy's forehead lightly as he passed again, offering the bottle to Wufei.

"It'll be so much easier to take care of," Wufei added, cutting quickly with the scissors, then grabbed a handful of it and yanked the guy's head back so they were meeting eyes, "And you won't look like a girl."

"Haha," Jordan retorted, kicking his old friend lightly in the knee.

"Why do I feel like I'm missing a lot more of this than the rest of you?" Jon asked almost nervously. "And what are we doing?"

"You're going to spend a week or two in the base internment," Heero returned. "You'll be able to wander the compound freely, but I suggest you call your generals."

Jon focused on him sharply.

"You won't want to do your...business...while on base, because every call you make will be recorded. You'll be allowed to do anything you want to, aside from leaving. You'll want to confine yourself to the more legal aspect of your business dealings...and as soon as we can figure everything out, you'll be released again. But we have to find out who tried to kill Zechs before they do it again."

"I didn't do it," Jon muttered, looking down.

"Q?" Wufei asked.

"He's...sincere," Quatre returned, studying the man seriously. "But I can't go beyond that."

"So he might know how to block you?"

"It's happened before," Quatre agreed, looking around.

"Block you?" Chai asked as Jordan started cursing at Wufei.

"I'm an empath," Quatre explained, realizing that he hadn't told her the information before. "I can...sense...things from people."

"I didn't think that was real," Jon noted.

"It's not common, anyway," Quatre shrugged, "it gets me in more trouble than it helps me, too."

"There," Wufei decided, shoving Jordan a step forward...the group turned to focus on him and stopped again.

"Wow," Jon muttered, blinking several times.

"You see what I mean about the jacket?" Wufei appealed to the kingpin. "You've gotta see it..."

Chai sniggered evilly.

"That's not very reassuring, love," Jordan noted to her.

His hair was spiked in loose chunks, and much shorter than it had been. The effect of the gel was to stand bits of it on end randomly across his head. Coupled with his Streak Red pants and borrowed Streak Red shirt, he looked almost like a fashion model...if a bit less healthy looking...and limping.

"It looks good," Chai reassured him, moving forward to grab his hand and look him over with a slight smirk.

"Are we leaving tonight?" Heero asked, looking around.

"What about Carter?" Jon protested, "You were going to go take out Lamb for me."

Heero focused on him, raising an eyebrow.

"Well...come on, he's a real business rival...and he might still try to get me." The man looked from one side of the room to the other without moving his head, "When I'm on a military base...surrounded by soldiers..."

Chai sniggered, "Give it up."

"But I want him gone legally!" Jon pouted at her. "If he goes away I'll get his section of town!"

"Actually," Jordan muttered to his friends, "that would behoove the entire area in the end."

"I'm not an assassin, Duo," Heero informed him.

"And I'm not Duo, Chance," Jordan returned sweetly.

Heero stopped, blinking at him. He'd thought Jordan had been looped when he'd muttered about his choice of names, and really hadn't expected it to be remembered, let alone used.

"I want to be Clyde," Quatre muttered around to everyone. He focused on Chai, "You can be Bonnie."

Trowa groaned, smacking his own forehead.

"What?" Chai asked, blinking at him uncertainly.

Quatre smiled sweetly at her, then looked around to his pained-appearing brethren. "I don't care what you say, that was funny, damn it."

"You just keep telling yourself that," Jordan reassured him. "You might even be able to believe it."

"I don't get it," Chai protested, frowning more.

Jordan sighed, meeting her eyes, "When we're heading into base, I'll tell you all about it, all right?"

She gave him a disgusted look, then focused on the others.

"We should leave in the morning," Jon noted. "I want to pack some stuff from my place and set my ducks in a row."

"Ducks stray," Wufei noted, raising an eyebrow.

"Ah, but then the hunters get them," Jon made a placating gesture. "I have my ducks well trained."

Heero's cell phone started ringing and he jumped hard, raising it to his ear, then blinked several times. "I...think I have a surprise for you," he noted, studying Jordan seriously. "But you'll have to wait until morning. If you send the swat in here I'll give them a nice contradictory order that they won't be able to ignore. Just trust me." He listened a long moment, then snorted, "Yeah, see you bright'n fuckin' early...promise."

X x X x X

"You said early," Une noted, slamming the file of papers she'd been leafing through closed without looking at the group of men that had entered her office. "When you say early, I expect you to follow through."

"Ah, you didn't appreciate my sarcasm?" Heero pouted at her, moving slowly forward as Jordan waited with butterflies in his stomach. "We had to stop at Streak Red."

Une raised her eyes to his in disbelief.

"It was Wufei's idea," Heero agreed with nothing in particular, dropping into the chair. "We would have been here an hour ago if not."

Une turned annoyed eyes onto Wufei, then noticed Chai and blinked at her...and focused on Jordan.

No one moved.

"Oh...my...god," she gasped, rising to her feet as she stared at him. "Oh my...Duo?"

The group moved away from him in mass as he studied his former commander wordlessly.

"You're...you're alive!" she choked, moving around the desk to throw herself at him and pull him into a tight hug. She pulled back when he didn't immediately respond, though, pulling his shirt up to stare at his stomach, then grab his biceps...and burst into tears.

In that one moment, she realized that he'd been living like a pauper to avoid her. He'd lost any semblance of weight he'd ever achieved...and looked tired. The expression on his face and set of his shoulders looked weighed down...and it was all because of her. She clung to him until he finally hugged her reassuringly, offering her a slightly wan smile as he pushed her away.

"Yeah...Rico decided to pay you a call," Heero noted to the woman, grabbing a piece of candy from the dish on her desk and unwrapping it with a single-minded focus. "I guess he and Breer are fairly good friends."

Une stopped completely, glancing to the man a moment, then looked back to Jordan. "You're nothing but skin and bones...where have you been? Oh...your hair...oh...Duo..." She turned to the door and threw it open, "Get two meals in here now!" she shouted to the building in general. "Get me some protein, assholes. Two servings!"

"Une..." Jordan started, moving toward her.

"I can't believe how thin you are!" she half shouted, then noticed he was limping and focused on him with a narrow-eyed accusatory look.

"I got shot the other day," he snapped before she could say more. "I'm not here for you to coddle me."

"You got shot?" she snapped, "Duo..."

"My name," he cut her off sharply, "Is Jordan, Une."

She blinked at him.

"Never call me Duo again. This is my girlfriend, Chai." He indicated her as Une blinked again, focusing on her as well. "We've been living in Angels," the former-soldier added. The words caused Une to freeze. "And like I said," he continued, "I'm not here for you to coddle me. I vouch that Jonathan Breer did not hire the assassin who attempted to take the life of Zechs Marquise. I vouch that he has no political motives whatsoever, and I'll prove it."

She mouthed at him, looking to the kingpin—Jon was also staring at him.

"To keep me...and Breer around, you might want to get me and Chai a place to stay and get me my badges. Get your hands out of my money, too. I want a car, and get Chai on a health plan."

Chai was blinking at him, noting that manner in him that she'd always seen but never understood.

"But...Duo..." Une attempted to protest.

"Jordan," he informed her coldly, narrowing his eyes. "My name is Jordan."

She stared at him in disbelief as the door to the office swung open and a man entered quickly carrying two plates of food.

"Thanks," Jordan muttered, taking them both from him and passing one to Chai.

"That was...for you," Une muttered almost uncertainly.

Jordan passed the girl the silverware provided and turned to give the woman a long dark look, "Don't you have some calls to make? Or would you rather I piss you off again?"

Heero laughed evilly, sucking on his candy, "I told you I had a surprise for you."

X x X x X

Things weren't going like they were supposed to.

Une glowered at the sheet of paper she'd been making notes on. When Duo returned...Jordan. When Jordan returned, he was supposed to sit with her and tell her his stories. He was supposed to make her start laughing helplessly with some stupid incident that had kept him from coming home. He wasn't supposed to have a girlfriend and definitely not some docile perfect thing.

What kind of name was Chai anyway?

She broke the tip of her pencil, tossing it across the room and grabbing another from her jar. Chai wasn't good enough for Duo. He needed some pretty debutante who'd stimulate him mentally and had the perfect chemistry for. He wasn't supposed to be with some Angels slut who would never be able to keep up to his mental abilities. What was he going to do when he lost interest in that little cutie? Send her on the street so she could go back home?

The second pencil broke and she stopped to control her irritation.

It didn't help that she seemed perfect for him. She'd come out of nowhere, why did he have to want to be with her? There were plenty of better girls for Duo...Jordan...to get with.

Where the hell had Jordan come from, anyway?

"Doesn't anyone ever knock?" Une half-screeched as the door to her office opened.

"I don't knock," Jordan retorted, shutting the door behind himself and sliding his hands into his pockets. "That's one thing that'll never change."

Une blinked at him, again noting the shocking difference the length of his hair made.

"You okay?" he muttered, moving to drop into the chair across from her.

She narrowed her eyes at him, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Don't try to play coy with me," he ordered. "I saw the looks you were directing at Chai."

"What is she going to do when you leave her?" Une demanded, setting the pencil down pointedly as she studied him. "It's not fair of you to take her into luxury."

"Luxury?" Jordan retorted sarcastically, sitting forward. "And what are you talking about, me leaving her? What makes you think I'll leave her?"

The woman half-snorted, sitting back in her own seat as she gestured at him uncertainly.

"I've been with her for the past four years, Une...and we only just became a couple about a week ago."

Une blinked, taken aback by that.

"I'm not going to leave her."

"But she's trash!"

Jordan was on his feet before he realized what he was doing, stopping himself from throwing the jar of pencils in his hands at the woman as the white-hot flash of rage melted away. It didn't help that Une had flinched back from him—she always flinched back from him....

She pursed her lips, looking away from him.

"I don't get you," he muttered, slamming the jar back onto the desktop. "I don't understand why you let me treat you like this..." he stopped that thought process before it could go further, shaking his head. "I'll be at my place, thanks for the nice little house."

She didn't look at him.

He started to turn away, then looked back to her until she met his eyes. The former soldier shook his head slightly, not quite meeting her eyes. "I'm sorry."

"If you ever hit me," she told him quietly, "I swear I'll break your arm."

He snorted, meeting her eyes, "You always say that."