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"That Which Mends"Written By: SkyLark Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing, or its characters. I just love playing with them. Pairings: 2x1x2, past 2xOC, 5xOC, 3x4 Warnings: Angst, Violence, Sap, Lemons/Limes, AU Archives: http://www.gundam-wing-diaries.150m.com/gw/SkyLark/gwSkyLark.htm
and http://www.mizunoamy.bravepages.com/skylark/skylarkfics.html Summary: Heero is a straight A student studying Psychology and finds his world turned upside down when he attends a Frat party.
"That Which Mends" [We all begin with good intent, Love was raw and
young -Lyrics to 'Fallen' performed by Sarah Mclachlan] Part 22
"Okay. That should do it." Brushing his hands together, Duo appraised his living room after readjusting the pillows on the ends of the long couch to an arrangement he was finally happy with. Even though he always kept his spacious apartment tidy, he had cleaned every room from top-to-bottom since learning that he was going to have company for a little over a week. And today was the day said company would be moving in.
He was nervous. Why he was nervous he didn't know... but he was more nervous than he had been in a long time.
Maxwell let out a long puff of air as he rubbed the back of his neck and checked the wall clock over his shoulder. "Oh shit," he muttered in noting the hour. Scrambling for the front door, he stepped into his laced sneakers and grabbed keys on his way out.
* * * *
Zipping his duffle bag closed, Heero slung it over his shoulder and took hold of the case carrying his digital pad and laptop.
Today was a big day, if he allowed himself to thing of it as such. This would be the first time he would be rooming with anyone who was not family... let alone the fact that his host happened to be the only person he'd ever slept with.
What the next nine days would entail were a mystery. Yuy typically despised mysteries, but there was something intriguing about this venture out of his comfort zone. There was the same allure as a certain pair of violet eyes and a swinging braid that had pulled him into the haphazard existence he was now learning to roll with.
Looking to his watch and figuring in how much time he had to secure his belongings in his car and make it to his first exam promptly, the psych major realized he needed to move. With one last, long scan of his private dorm room and the comforting predictability of the life he had there, he stepped out into the hallway and locked up for the mid-term break.
* * * *
Wufei snorted when he looked up from his computer to watch Duo emerge from behind the elevator column and head for his work station. "I was starting to wonder if you were going to bother coming in at all, Maxwell," the team leader grumbled.
"I've been later than this," the braided agent grinned in his weak defense. Taking his desk chair, he booted up his computer as he shrugged, "Besides, I worked late last night while securing that lead, so I was due to have a little time to get my stuff in order."
To the chorus of laughter from his teammates, Duo didn't miss a beat in his typing to free a hand that he held up at Barton to flip him off.
Anna had her head propped up on the edge of Quatre's desk, where the pair had been comparing notes in their paging through police reports when Scythe looked to her with a small frown. The redhead gave him an encouraging smile and a wink that instantly put him at ease while everyone fell back into their work.
Stepping out of her office, Lady Une folded her arms as she approached the desk cluster. "Listen up, everyone," she called to order.
Once the team turned and righted themselves to face her, the Commander took a deep breath and announced, "Given the gravity of what that Gundanium could mean and because we're unable to narrow down potential targets, I was obligated to spread news of our findings beyond national borders. At this time, word is reaching the highest levels of security worldwide."
Smiling when she sensed the tension from her charges, Middie reassured, "You're the best of the best. I have no doubt that you'll get to the bottom of this. And no one is suggesting that they get involved or take this investigation into their own hands. This will stay your case until it's closed. However, having a few more eyes and ears open for potential leads couldn't hurt either. Beyond that, you all still have the wheel in driving this one home."
"No pressure, right?" Chang snorted with a small grin. His fellow Preventers snickered as the thick air loosened up a bit at his sentiment.
A lopsided spreading on her face, Lady Une nodded firmly, "Right."
The sound of a bright ring pierced the floor to decree the meeting adjourned. Taking up the receiver of his phone to cradle it on his shoulder after quickly checking the caller ID screen, Wufei greeted, "Good morning, Catherine." He listened in to the receptionist for a few beats, humming an affirmative and closing, "Okay. Thank you. I'll be down in a minute to bring him up."
Hanging up the receiver, the Chinese agent rose to his feet with a nod to Maxwell. "He's here," was all he said. There was no need to elaborate on who 'he' was or why he was at the office.
* * * *
Meanwhile...
Heero read over his responses to the questions of his Behavior Studies class as he softly tapped the end of his pen on the edge of the desk he was occupying. It was really a formality that he was even bothering to glance over his answers so as to not turn in the blue books he had filled too soon.
This was going to be an easy A for him, like all of the others. But then, few were as prepared as he was. All around him, his classmates were writing feverishly or reading and rereading the questions nervously.
Grinning, Heero replied, "Thank you, Professor J." That said, he headed out of the classroom and stuffed his hands into the pockets of his jean shorts.
Out in the hallway, the Preventers' intern walked off to kill the time until his next exam. Removing his cell phone to turn it on, he blinked in surprise at the blue notification light that was flashing.
When he accessed his text messages, he opened the new one waiting for him and couldn't help but smile at recognizing the phone number. "Hey, Heero. Good luck on your tests today, though you probably don't need it. See you soon. Love ya," he read aloud. The note was finished off with nearly a dozen smiley faces. Chuckling quietly, he shook his head in amusement.
Sincerely touched by the gesture and the thought behind it, Yuy punched into the phone's digital keyboard and typed, 'Thank you, Anna. So far so good. Talk to you later." At the end of his text, he came to a halt as he weighted out how to properly salute his message.
The emotion icon option on his keypad was one that the scholar never bothered with up to that time, but he decided that this was a fitting time to put it to use. Using the first smiley face he saw, he pressed 'Send'. Perhaps he kept it to one icon, but he knew if anyone would appreciate the gravity of his going that far, he knew Downs would.
~ ~ ~ ~
Hearing her phone vibrating in her desk's top drawer, Anna finished typing away and fished it out. Silently reading the text that welcomed her, she giggled softly, "I wonder if he even knew he had emotion icons on his phone before now."
The grin on her face fading, she peered over to the closed off conference room and continued to wish she were a fly to know how the meeting inside was going.
On the other side of the door, Lady Une say between Agent Wolf and Agent Scythe as she conducted the interview with their guest sitting across from them that the long table that served as the only furnishing in the room.
"Mister Dawton, I want you realize that the offer of full immunity from any and all charges related to this investigation as well as any other offenses tied to your manufacturing false plates for revenue is... rare, to put it mildly," the Commander commented, a disgruntled tone in her voice.
Glancing at the Preventer team leader to her right, she was not surprised that Chang sat without any sign of regret as he continued to stare ahead at their guest. Duo, on the other hand, anxiously fiddled with the end of his braid under the table.
She reined in her frustration before she looked back to the old man and sighed, "However, it was extended and I cannot take that act of kindness back, so I do hope that you appreciate it enough that you honor your end by cooperating with us to the fullest extent."
Without hesitating, the mechanic nodded, "Yes, ma'am. I'll tell you everything I know."
~ ~ ~ ~
Three hours later...
Ducking his head, Heero chuckled deeply and waved at his friends on his way to his desk. "Thanks, everyone," he smirked. As the accolade died down while he booted his computer up, he asked, "Any news in the case today?" Scanning the desk cluster and empty rec area, he frowned, "Where are Duo and Wufei?" Winner tilted his head towards the conference room, answering, "They're in there with Lady Une and the resource Agent Scythe tracked down yesterday. It's going on almost four hours and there hasn't been any sign of life since they started."
"Must be a pretty good lead, then," the scholar murmured to himself, prussian eyes locked on the closed door.
How it came to be someone like Maxwell to pull off finding such a contact was a surprise, but then Yuy had known the braided young man to be full of such surprises. Perhaps more time with the mysterious officer might shed some light on what made him tick... that was so long as Duo allowed his guards down enough for the psych major to pick up on some telling signs.
Before Heero could mull over that line of thought for long, the conference room opened up and captured everyone's attention. Maxwell was the first to step out onto the floor followed by an old man with white hair that stuck out of the circumference of his otherwise bald head. Dressed in a colorful Hawaiian shirt and tan shorts, the visitor placed a pair of prescription sunglasses onto the bridge of his nose and followed his braided escort to the elevators as they conversed quietly.
Neither one of them so much as acknowledged the others during their departure and the Preventers covered up their curiosity by diving back into their research. Vanishing behind the elevator column, the arrival and departure bell sounded before long... and there was still no sign of Lady Une or Wufei.
Anna was the first to peer up and stare at the opened room and she swallowed hard in concern when he door closed again.
Pinching the bridge of her nose, Middie closed her eyes and took a couple of deep breaths to calm herself when she and her team leader were alone. "I understand your reasons for agreeing to the deal you made for Duo's friend," she began slowly, her words measured so as to not raise her voice. Dropping her hand, she studied Wolf and shook her head, "But I wish you would have spoken to me first."
"You wouldn't have agreed to those terms," Chang shrugged matter-of-factly.
Her brown eyes narrowing, the Commander threw her arms in the air, snapping, "Of course I wouldn't have agreed! That man willingly manufactured and sold dirty license plates! No one buying dirty plates is after them with good intentions!"
Wufei remained unfazed as he stood there, taking her frustration on without so much as batting an eye. "Lady Une, you entrusted me to lead the Preventers and make difficult decisions such as this," he stated.
Nodding, he went on, "Yes, Duo would have accepted my charging his friend. But in the long run, I believe it would have hurt his trust in coming forward with anyone else in future situations like this. What's more, Howard is a man of dignity in every other aspect of his life by taking kids in off the streets, by offering them sound employment and a place to stay. I could not, in good conscience, overlook that."
The Chinese agent paused for a heartbeat before adding softly, "Especially since I know first-hand how some people deserve a second chance."
His superior officer's jaw fell open and her eyes grew at that as a heavy guilt washed over her.
Gulping, Middie sighed deeply as her entire body sagged. "Alright," she relented. "You make a valid point. And I always have trusted your judgment, Agent Wolf. I apologize for not simply going along with your call. That will not happen again."
She chewed on the inside of her cheek and warned, "But now that this investigation has reached a scale greater than any other we've encountered, we need to tread even more carefully than before. Everything we do is going to be looked at under a microscope, so we cannot afford any slips or choices that would put the integrity of this division into question."
In little more than a whisper, she commented, "You know that if anything were to go wrong and your name were to come up to the powers that be-" "Yeah," Chang stopped her short, still almost disinterested. "I'll be the one to take the blame and I'll be forced to resign since I was only reinstated by the skin of my teeth." Shoulders rolling back, he held his head high and declared, "I know the risks involved and I stand by my decision without regret. Should anything bad come out of this, or any other choice I make, I will take full responsibility and accept whatever my fate will be for it."
Few things really got to Lady Une that caused her emotions to get the better of her. But seeing the conviction in her team leader, she was helpless in preventing the sting in her eyes.
She had hand-picked Wufei out of a league of suitable candidates for his role. Over the years that he had served, she watched him excel beyond her high expectations while also witnessing him endure incredibly difficult times with more grace and strength than what most people would possess in their lifetimes.
It was impossible for Middie to feel any prouder of him than she did in that moment.
The corner of his lip turning up, Wufei nodded firmly one last time and turned on his heels to step out of the room as the door opened to him. As soon as he was out on the floor and the conference room was sealed at his back, he let out the breath that he had been holding in a long sigh, his shoulders slumping.
Dry-washing his face, he forced his racing heart to settle back down. When he felt at ease, he lowered his hands and gazed over to his team. All but one of his fellow agents were too focused on their reports to notice that he had joined them.
Taking in the one smiling face that had greeted him, he felt the tension that had built up in him melt away in an instant as a grin of his own spread across his face.
* * * *
[Flashback]
"So, do you know what you're going to do?"
That was the question Chang had been expecting for some time. It came as no shock that it was Anna to ask it when he had woken from his brief nap. Over the last four solid days that he had spent at her hospital bedside while resting and pulling himself together, his friends had been patient in allowing him time to mull over his options.
Leading up to that afternoon, Wufei had been unsure as to what he wanted to do with himself. The board was already going through the reports involving the recovery mission that had gone wrong and were waiting for how he was going to proceed. They wouldn't make it easy for him to come back into the fold, let alone keep his role as team lead.
The easy call would be to resign and start over in a new field. He would be given an honorable bow out and even a series of medals for his services over the years.
But in the end, Agent Wolf knew that would just mean he would be walking away from what made him happy. He had a purpose in life that he could stand behind. And no matter what might have happened, he was still damned good at what he did.
Now, lying on his side in Downs' bed as he stared off at the wall across from him past her, he finally came to a conclusion that he had half expected he would make all along. Fingers gently ran over the bruised knuckles of his hand that was draped between them to politely urge a response to the inquiry.
"I want stay on as a Preventer," Wufei heard himself decree. Meeting the blue eyes watching him, he said, ""It's going to be a challenge, but... I want to fight."
The fingers that was lightly touching his knuckles took hold of his whole hand in a firm squeeze. "Then we fight," Anna replied determinedly, a relieved smirk tugging the corners of her lips.
Chang smiled, feeling more like himself for the first time in days.
[End Flashback]
* * * *
Anna bit her lip as she entered her lover's private office. Waiting for the door to close behind her, she asked, "Is everything o-" She cut herself off when Chang turned to face her and pulled her into a tight hug.
"Everything's fine," Chang chuckled. Kissing the redhead's temple, he pulled back so that they were at arm's length as he told her sincerely, "But I appreciate the concern." He sighed, "Lady Une just has a lot on her mind now that this case is blowing into something bigger than we'd all anticipated. She just wants to make sure everything we say and do is to the letter of what's expected of us." Instantly piecing the rest of what he hadn't said together, Downs frowned, "In other words, she was reminding you of what it would mean for your position if we fuck up."
Shaking his head, Wolf snickered, "Maybe not in those words exactly, but yes." He shrugged, "It's all par for the course. I'm not at all worried about us fucking this up, as you so eloquently put it. And because we won't, we have no reason to think of what repercussions would come of it."
Her nerves ebbing, Anna nodded, "Right." A sheepish grin spreading across her face, she giggled, "Sorry. It's just... this case and everything must be getting to me, too. It's almost a good thing that it's the weekend in a couple of hours so we can all reset and hit the ground running when there's not so much going on."
"I couldn't agree more," Wufei concurred. Loosely looping his arms around the weapon's expert, he shared, "Duo's lead came through and now we have a lot more to go on our search. On Monday, we'll be able to hit the ground running and we should have pretty smooth sailing going forward."
* * * *
Zechs slammed his fist onto his desk at the completion of his read through the report that had been handed to him by his supervisors. It was the third time he had gone over the information that was going through the chains of every major security division... and it only infuriated him all the more as the reality of the situation set in.
His closest cohorts were standing across from him with equally perturbed expressions on their face. "How in the hell are those little peons in charge of something this big?" Noin snarled between her gritted teeth. "We should be the ones handling the investigation."
Rolling his eyes, Mueller snorted, "There's no way they'll be able to hack this one. They might have been lucky in their other cases, but they'll crack under the pressure since they've bitten off more than they could chew." Alex growled, "Yeah, but by the time that happens, these bastards they're looking for will slip away and pull off whatever they're up to."
Following a long pause, Zechs' head fell back as he laughed. "I knew there was a reason we kept you on, Clark. That's brilliant," he praised.
* * * *
"Closing time, 'Ro," Duo called over to the intern beside him. "Riveting as the hateful messages and threats we're going over might be, I need to unplug from this for a while."
However, there was only so far he was able to go and he was due for a break from it all.
Following the example of his friends, Heero secured the documents that he had been in charge of, locked his computer and stepped out with the agents to officially end their long week.
Minutes later, good nights and wishes for a good weekend were exchanged between the Preventers as they stepped out of the building. Grabbing his keys from his shorts' pocket on the way to their cars that they had purposely parked side-by-side in the lot, Duo faced his soon-to-be-roommate and asked, "Ready?" "Ready," Yuy nodded firmly.
Whatever he was getting 'ready' for remained to be seen, but it would be revealed to him in no time. And there was no going back now.
TBC |
