Disclaimer: Most characters contained within do not belong to me. Unless we were all Communists. Then they would belong to everyone.
Author's Notes: Experimenting with not finishing a story before I start posting its chapters. Usually I wait until at least three quarters of the plot is hammered out. Not this time. Whoo-hoo...unchartered territory. Kinda scary.
Dedication: To Liz-chan and all her abnormalities. 'Cause once you create a religion centered around bishounen ai, you no longer get to call yourself 'normal'.
****
A Thing More Precious
by Kristen Elizabeth
****
"Have you completed all your missions?"
"Yep."
"Teeth cleaned?"
"Yep."
"Face washed?"
"Yep."
Heero Yuy thought for a minute. "Is that it?"
The little girl tucked into the bed shook her head, dark curls spreading across her pillow. Instead of replying, she held her arms up towards him. He bent his head and let his six year old daughter's arms circle his neck. He placed a light kiss on her forehead. "Goodnight, Ame."
Ame looked back up at him with wide blue eyes. "When is Mommy coming home?"
"Tonight", Heero replied. "You'll see her when you wake up."
"Why can't I stay up with you, Daddy?"
Heero did not have to think of a reply. "Because your bedtime is eight PM. And it is now..." He looked at his watch. "Eight o' nine."
Ame pouted. "Mommy lets me stay up when you go away, Daddy."
"Unfair, isn't it?" Heero stood up. "Go to sleep."
"Daddy!!", she called out as he reached the door. "I love you."
Heero glanced back at his daughter. Nodding his head, he turned the light off and gently closed the door to Ame's room behind him. In the hallway, the part time nurse, Nancy, stood waiting for him; nestled in her arms was Ame's little sister, Sara. "Ah...Mr. Yuy. I was just coming to get you." Nancy rocked the baby gently. "She won't take the bottle. It took me forever to get her calmed down."
"She wants Relena", Heero replied, glancing at his watch again. "She should be here in twenty minutes."
Nancy held the baby out to him. "Until then...maybe a dose of daddy is what the little one needs."
Heero took the child, with only a bit of lingering awkwardness. He held his youngest daughter against his shoulder. She whimpered, threatening to cry. Heero placed his hand against her tiny back; upon the instant of the comforting touch, Sara calmed down. Her little fists curled up handfuls of Heero's shirt.
The nurse studied father and daughter. "I was right. All she needed was her daddy."
"Should we try the bottle again?", Heero asked. "She has to eat."
"Twenty minutes won't hurt her." Nancy took a soft, flannel cloth off her shoulder and draped it over Heero's. "She'll be ready for Miss Relena, though. Poor tyke's been without her mommy for...what? A week now?"
Heero readjusted his daughter's little body. "No one expected the conference to drag on this long." He continued in a low voice, as if he had forgotten the nurse was still there. "I can't believe they didn't broadcast *any* of the conference meetings. No one has any idea what they're even talking about."
"They shouldn't have made Miss Relena go at all." Nancy clicked her tongue, disapprovingly. "It's hardly been a month since she gave birth. Didn't even give her proper maternity leave."
He kept silent. The woman couldn't possibly understand....the job Relena held, namely the protector of peace throughout the galaxy, did not come with benefits. "Relena is tough." Heero touched the wisps of blond hair on his daughter's head. "She'll be fine."
"Well...", Nancy put her hands on her hips. "Next time she gets called into an emergency session of the legislature, tell her to pump a lot more..."
Heero cut her off before she could finish her sentence. "You can go home now, if you want. Everything is under control here."
Nancy nodded. "See you tomorrow, Mr. Yuy." She started down the main staircase. After a minute, the door closed behind her. The noise startled Sara; she began to cry. It was not a little whimper, as before; the little girl scrunched up her face, opened her mouth and let loose with a torrent of high pitched screams. Heero closed his eyes.
"Daddy." Holding onto his wailing daughter, Heero turned around, only to see his other daughter, very much awake and very much out of bed. She held her hands over her ears. "Why does Sara make so much noise?"
"She's a baby", Heero replied, raising his voice to be heard over Sara's cries. "Babies cry."
Ame scowled. "Tell her to be quiet. She's hurting my ears."
"That makes two of us." Heero patted Sara's back, but she gave no sign of quieting down. "What are you doing up, Ame? I told you to go to sleep."
His daughter folded her arms across her pink nightgown, tipping her nose up haughtily. "I can't sleep with all this..." She tested out a word she had learned from her very favorite honorary uncle, Duo. "...crap."
Heero silently cursed the man with the braid. "Don't use that word, Ame."
"Why not?", his daughter challenged.
He thought long and hard but could not come up with a better answer than, "Because I said so." Sara continued to scream into his ear.
Ame reached for his free hand, tugging on it. "Daddy...I don't want a little sister anymore. I want a puppy."
Before Heero could reply, the front door opened. Relief flooded him upon seeing his wife of nine years, Relena Peacecraft-Yuy, enter the foyer wearily. She winced, hearing her youngest daughter's screams and looked up at the hallway, visible from the first floor. "Bad time or just in the nick of time?", she asked.
"Mommy!!" Ame flew down the staircase and pounced on her mother. "You're back!! Did you get me a present? Where's Mr. Duo? Can we trade Sara for a puppy?"
Relena's head spun. Instead of answering her daughter's questions, she hugged the girl for a long minute before straightening up. She gripped the banister as she started up the stairs towards her husband and their baby. "Heero...is she all right?"
"She's hungry", Heero replied. He wanted to kiss his wife, welcome her home, but the children came first. He passed Sara to her mother. "Rejected the bottle."
"Shh...sweetie..." Relena gently rocked the baby. "Mommy missed you, too....and she's going to feed you, just as soon as..."
A loud voice bounced off the foyer walls. "I got the bags, Relena!" Duo stepped into the house, ladden with Relena's matching luggage. He cocked his head to the side upon hearing Sara. "Small Fry's upset?"
Ame threw her arms around his legs. "Mr. Duo!!!"
"Small Lady!" Duo picked the girl up. "Older and wiser sister of Small Fry! What on earth are you doing up?"
"Daddy let me wait up for you", Ame lied, grinning broadly. "Did you have fun at the meeting, Mr. Duo?"
"Wouldn't call it fun, Small Lady." Duo set her back down. "I kinda had to work, you know. Keeping your mom safe and all." He placed a hand over his heart, melodramatically. "It's a tough job, but someone's got to do it." He amended the phrase. "When your dad can't."
Relena had managed to calm the baby a bit. She looked at Heero. "I'll get Ame back in bed and feed Sara."
Heero nodded. "You should go to bed, too." He touched her cheek. "You look exhausted."
"I am." Relena stared into space for a second before blinking and returning her attention to her children. "Ame....get up here, missy."
Sulking, the little girl left Duo's side and grudgingly climbed the stairs. Relena took her hand and with Sara still crying against her breast, started for Ame's bedroom. "Goodnight, Duo", she called out. "Thank you!"
Duo cupped his hand around his mouth and yelled back, "Anytime, princess." After Relena and the girls disappeared from sight, he looked up at his old friend with much amusment. "How goes it, Daddy dearest?"
Hands shoved into his pockets, Heero started down the staircase. "What happened at the conference?"
"That daughter of yours has some *powerful* lungs, buddy. I see opera singer or umpire in her future." Duo sidestepped Heero's question.
"What happened at the conference, Duo?"
Duo cleared his throat as Heero reached the bottom of the stairs. He pointed at the flannel rag on Heero's shoulder. "Spit cloth? How the mighty have fallen...."
Heero balled up the cloth. "Are you going to tell me or will I have to force it out of you?"
There was a long pause. "It's not good, Heero." Duo took a deep breath. "If ever there was a time to panic, it would be now."
"You mean...this was all about...." Duo nodded. Heero looked at the flannel in his hands. "It didn't..."
"No. Not yet. She's fighting it." Duo ran a hand down his face. "I can't tell if she's winning or losing."
"Relena never loses", Heero replied after a minute.
His oldest friend lowered his eyes in acknowledgement. "Then...we shouldn't worry." He plastered his trademark smile back onto his face. "Well, I'm going to go home and have sex with my wife. I suggest you do the same....if she's anything like Hilde in this area, she's going to need to..."
"Is nothing sacred with you?" Heero gave him a hard look.
Duo thought for a moment. "Nope. Nothing." Grabbing his own suitcase from the floor, he flicked a salute at his friend. "Night, night!"
After the door closed, Heero locked it, double checking to make sure the house was secure for the night. He flipped off the downstairs lights and picked up his wife's luggage. After dropping it off in the master bedroom, he walked back to Ame's room. Inside, Ame was curled up in her bed, fast asleep. Relena sat in a rocking chair in the corner with Sara situated at her breast. She glanced up when she felt him watching. "Hi", she whispered.
Heero marveled at the calm that had settled over the house, merely because of her presence. "Hey", he replied, quietly slipping into the room.
Relena looked back down at their baby as she fed. "I missed you."
He nodded, his way of indicating that he felt the same. "Do you want to talk about the conference?"
"No." She lifted Sara up and turned her around. "Not yet."
Heero let the subject drop. "She's falling asleep."
"Yeah..." Relena gave up trying to get the little girl to take her other breast. "I'll put her to bed and then..."
"I'll do it."
She blinked. "Are you sure?"
Heero lowered his head. "The mighty have fallen?"
Relena smiled. "No. The mighty have gotten stronger." She stood up and carried Sara over to him. The baby barely stirred as she was transferred from one parent to the other. "I think I'm going to take a bath. And after that..." She took a breath. "...we're going to have to talk."
"About?"
"The future."
****
He was already in bed when she left the bathroom. Relena glanced at the clock; she had been soaking in the tub for half an hour. Heero was sitting up against the antique, carved oak headboard; a pillow scrunched under his neck. His eyes were closed and his bare chest rose and fell rythmically.
Relena's eyes watered. Her overwhelming love for him frightened her. She felt, in that moment, that if anything ever happened to him, she would die. She wiped at her eyes and cleared her throat. Nothing was going to happen to him. She would not allow it.
She shrugged out of her robe, leaving it on the floor, and undid the clip holding up her hair. It fell in long, golden waves down around her full breasts. Relena approached the bed. "Heero", she whispered.
His eyes opened, revealing twin pools of deep ocean blue. He blinked at seeing her, naked and luminescent in the moonlight, standing over him. She felt his gaze flicker down to her breasts, then back up to meet her gaze. There was hunger in her eyes. Desire flooded his own thoughts. "I thought we were going to talk", he said.
Relena crawled over him and swung one leg around, sitting on his lap. "We can talk in bed."
He held himself still, but every unconcious wiggle made it more and more clear that talking was the last thing she wanted to do. "Relena..." Heero gently gripped her hips. "What happened at the conference?"
Some of the desire in her cooled. She looked down at the toned muscles of his stomach, but her thoughts were back in the board rooms she had spent the last week in. "They proposed the bill to the legislature."
"I see", he replied after a long minute. His hands remained on her hips, enjoying the smooth skin, still damp from her bath. "What does that mean for us?"
Her gaze sparked. "Nothing! It won't *ever* pass", she said, vehemently. "I won't let it pass."
"Relena...would it be so bad for us to..."
She cut him off. "To what? To be arrested? Tried for war crimes? Do you know what's listed in war crimes, Heero? Assault, terrorism, armed robbery, rape, attempted murder, murder...and that's just the big ones!"
"Relena..."
But she was beyond hearing him. "They'll charge all of you with every single one of those things, Heero!! As many counts as they can get away with. They don't care whether you actually committed every single one. And they don't care that they're guilty of the same things! They want to put a 'sealed' stamp on the war files and feel like they've done something to make reparations. They don't realize that reparations do not come about by spilling the blood of former soldiers."
"You don't think we should stand up and face our actions?" Heero lifted her chin, forcing her to stare into his eyes as she answered.
Relena was a long time in replying. "You do face your actions", she whispered. "Everytime you wake up in the middle of the night from a horrible dream...everytime you can't fall back asleep...everytime you shy away from human contact...you face your actions, Heero." She swallowed. "When *don't* you face them?"
He looked off to the side. "When I'm right here."
Her throat closed up with emotion. Cupping his face in her cool hands, she turned his head and lowered her mouth to his. Her tongue traced his lips; the kiss grew in intensity as Heero met her tongue with his own, beginning a very familiar, very welcome dance. His hands slid under her hair, drawing her down to his body. Relena adjusted herself until she was lying on him; her breasts pressed against the hard plane of his chest. She let out a muffled cry into his mouth.
Heero rolled their bodies over and lifted himself up over her. "Sore?", he whispered, cupping one breast in his hand. She nodded. He kissed her throat and slid down her body until his mouth was directly over one plump mound. His lips brushed over one rosy peak; his tongue delicately tripped over the milky flesh. He did not suckle at her, as he knew she liked under other circumstances. Instead, he lightly licked, soothing her sore nipples.
"Oh!" She squirmed under him. "That feels good..."
He kissed his way back up her body. "I think we had it better before." To explain himself, he pulled her up and sat up straight, seating her on his lap. Their arms wrapped around each other, holding onto the moment. His arousal pressed into her heated flesh through the comforter.
"Can we do this?", he asked into her shoulder. Her skin was warm against his lips. "Sally said five weeks before..."
Relena's hands played over his perfectly muscled back. "I'm fine, Heero. I want this. I need you to..." She stopped; years of forced propriety often made it hard for her to talk to him so intimately. Biting her lip, she continued on. "I need you...inside me."
The tension left his shoulders. Had she said the word, he would have stopped immediately and held her for the rest of the night. But she wanted to go on...and he wasn't about to say no. For the safety of the baby, they had not done this for two months before Sara was born. After three months of abstinence, they were both ravenous for each other.
They made love with all the tenderness and passion of their first time together, combined with the knowledge of each other's bodies that they had gained after nine years of marriage, the skills to bring each other the greatest pleasure possible...and the lust that had been building up for three months. After they both stepped off the pinnacle of ecstasy, they lay intwined in their bed, enjoying the afterglow.
It was a long time before Relena lifted her head and looked up at her husband. Heero's eyes were closed again; his body was relaxed and pliant in sleep. She curled against him tighter.
"I love you", she whispered. "It's my turn to protect you now." She closed her own eyes. "I hope you'll let me."
****
"Minster Graham?"
"A definite yes."
"Minister Boyland? Is he still holding out?"
"He's a yes. He came on board after I reminded him of his son's untimely death on the Barge."
"All right....who's left?"
The acne-scarred aide looked at his papers nervously. "Um...well, sir....there's really just..."
"Her."
"Yes, sir."
His boss stood up and looked out the windows. "No luck whatsoever?"
"None. She's very...unwavering on this issue." The boy cleared his throat. "She...um...said she'd, and I quote, 'fight this with every breath in her body'. End quote."
The older man sighed. "Some people just don't understand. Her sympathy for the war criminals is neither admirable, nor forgivable."
"I agree. But sir...she is the Foriegn Minister. Her popularity on the colonies is unmatched. So much so that they could side with her on this. If we don't have colonial support, our cause will never be realized."
"She's one woman. She doesn't have the power to stop this on her own."
"Like I said, sir....where she goes, the colonies will go. And I don't think I need to remind you how much the Earth does not want another war with the colonies. If they don't back the proposal in space, the Earth is likely not to either. We will have lost all our support, sir. And the war criminals will go unpunished."
"All because of her." The boy's boss thought for a moment. "It's simple. Eliminate her."
The aide winced. "Sir, that is not advisable. An assasination would turn her into a martyr for her cause."
"What do you propose, then?"
"Um...I could try to talk to her again. Perhaps she'll..."
The older man shook his head. "No, she's determined to see this through. She's a stubborn bitch...always has been." He pulled at his beard, thinking once again. "Do you have children, Wilson?"
Wilson looked confused. "I'm not married, sir."
"Children are life. One would do just about *anything* for them. They are more valuable than money...and more precious than principles."
"I don't follow, sir."
"You will, Wilson. You will."
****
"I'd like to propose a toast!" Duo raised his champagne glass. "It's been exactly nine years since I last did this...on that fateful day when Relena *finally* got Heero off his spandexed ass..." He made a face. "...and up to the altar! I can't seem to remember exactly what I said that day, so if this is just the same speech over again....grin and bear it." He cleared his throat. "To Heero and Relena!"
Chang Wufei blinked. "That's it?"
Duo lowered his glass before he could take a sip. "What? What's wrong with that?"
"No long-winded diatribes? No highly elaborated anecdotes?", Wufei continued.
Quatre Raberba Winner blushed. "Not even a dirty limerick?"
"You're slipping, Maxwell." Trowa Barton shook his head, sadly.
"Good thing", Heero commented.
Duo threw up his free hand. "I'm damned if I do and I'm damned if I don't!! Doesn't anything please you people??"
Relena put a hand to her mouth to cover her laughter. "Duo, I think you did just fine. Thank you very much."
Duo's wife, Hilde, lifted her champagne glass. "To Heero and Relena", she echoed her husband's toast. "Happy Anniversary."
After everyone seated around the large table had repeated the toast, the waiter began to serve the main course. Relena felt for her husband's hand under the table; his fingers laced with hers and squeezed gently. She glanced over at him and smiled upon seeing him staring at her profile. Leaning a bit towards him, she whispered, "Happy Anniversary."
Heero nodded. "Are you all right? You look a little tired."
"I'm always tired, Heero." She smiled. "It's no reason not to have a good time."
He was about to reply, when Quatre cleared his throat. "Where are the babies tonight?"
"Shipped 'em back to the baby farm", Duo replied. "Figured we'd see if we could trade 'em all in for models that don't have vocal cords."
Hilde slapped his arm. "Talk like that could send our children into therapy someday."
"Their father is the self-proclaimed God of Death", Wufei muttered. "Therapy's been in their future since the day they were concieved."
"Ha!" Duo stabbed at his fish. "Don't let Sally catch you talking like that! Speaking of....what is the *real* reason why she couldn't come tonight?"
Wufei shrugged casually. "She's on duty at the medical bay. Why, what were you thinking?"
"Nothing", Duo replied, far too innocently.
Heero set down his water glass. "The children, all of them, are with the nurse. And one of the Preventer's sharp-shooters."
"Again, I have to ask if that was really necessary?" Relena sighed. "It's bad enough to subject our own children to a life of constant military protection, but Hunter and Greta, too?"
"It's all right, Relena", Hilde assured her friend. "They'll survive. Actually, I feel a lot better knowing they're that heavily protected."
"Everyone's on edge", Quatre said, quietly. "The conference..."
A silence fell over the dinner table until Trowa lifted his head. "What is going on with that?"
Relena looked down at the napkin in her lap. "It's at a standstill", she replied in a soft tone. "In order to pass the legislation that would allow for the arrest and arraignment of..." She hesitated. "...war criminals, the Earth-Colony Alliance members need to be unanimously for it. And so far....we're not."
"It's all a pathetically weak excuse to keep the war going in people's hearts", Wufei tossed in his two cents.
Duo poked at his salad, as though he had never encountered one before. "I think it's more of a way for Minister Houghton to prove that he has a bigger..." Hilde pinched him. "...gun than anyone else." He glanced around. "It won't pass. Princess won't let it."
"The Earth faction of the ECA knows better than to alienate the 'C' part of the alliance", Heero summed things up. "If Relena doesn't sign off on the bill, it will die before it hits the floor."
Quatre bit his lip. "I wonder what we ever did to Minister Houghton to make him hate us so much."
"That's just the problem, Quatre." Relena's chin wobbled, but she kept her tears back. "It's not you. Or any of you...specifically. In fact...you're nothing to him. He's not after people; he's after principles. And that's much more frightening."
"No one likes a fundamentalist", Duo muttered.
Trowa cleared his throat. "So, what do we do in the meantime?"
Relena smiled. "Exactly what you should do....live your life. Let me take care of it."
Wufei raised an eyebrow. Duo took a long sip of champagne. Quatre chewed on his lower lip. Trowa stared blankly at his plate. Heero nodded. "We will", he replied for the rest of them. "We trust you."
Before Relena could reply, a waiter approached her from behind with an old-fashioned hand-held phone. "Minister Peacecraft, there's a call for you."
She accepted the phone and brought it up to her ear, awkwardly. "Hello?" For a long moment, she heard nothing on the other end. "Is anyone there?", she asked.
Heero glanced up from his plate. "Who is it?"
Relena raised her shoulders. "Hello?", she repeated into the phone.
"Miss Relena?" The voice that finally came through the phone was weak and broken.
"Nancy?" Relena recognized the nurse after a few seconds. "Nancy...what is it?" Heero's back straightened. He dropped his fork and concentrated entirely on his wife.
Nancy took a long, shaky breath. "I was...putting them all to bed...and the doorbell rang..." She stopped.
Relena switched the phone to her other ear. "What happened, Nancy? You're scaring me."
"Ame...Ame ran downstairs to answer it...." Nancy choked back a sob. "They were waiting for her..."
Her heart was in her throat. The hands holding the phone trembled. "Nancy...the children..."
"They took them...Ame and Sara...." Nancy began to cry. "They're gone..."
****
"Single blow to the back of his skull." Wufei lowered the white sheet back over the body of one of the Preventer's best sharp-shooters. "He probably didn't even see it coming."
Quatre hugged his arms across his chest. "The poor boy...."
Trowa glanced at the front door of the Peacecraft Manor. "So...they killed the guard...then came in the front door....took the kids..." He turned around and looked at the gated driveway. "In and out in less than ten minutes. This was well-planned."
"An inside job?", Wufei suggested. "Someone who knew the layout of the grounds, the capabilities of a Preventer..."
"And knew that Heero and Relena would be gone for the night", Trowa mused. "Definitely an inside..."
"Can this wait?" Quatre's eyes were watery. "I mean...right now doesn't seem the best time to..." He gestured to the house. "...when they're in there...and the kids are..."
Trowa looked at his lover with concern, but an air of practicality. "We have to think about all of this now. We can't afford to wait...not if we want to get the children back. We have to think of who could have done this, how they did it..."
"Why they did it." Wufei crossed his arms. "Why they grabbed Heero's kids and left Duo's behind."
"It's obvious." Duo joined his friends from the shadows created by the house. "My kids aren't that valuable. Not like the offspring of the Foriegn Minister, anyways."
Quatre lowered his eyes. "Where is she?"
"Inside", Duo replied. "Heero and Hilde are with her. She's actually doing pretty well....I mean...you know...." He stuck his hands in his pockets.
Trowa took another look at the unfortunate Preventer at his feet and signaled for the coroner to come and retrieve the boy's body. "Let's go inside. The sooner we can figure out who did this, the greater the chance that we can find the children...." He stopped before he could finish his sentence with the word "alive".
****
"Ame is six. She has dark brown hair and blue eyes..." Relena's voice was soft but steady as she spoke the chief Preventer on the scene. "She's...very talkative...she never quiets down, actually." Her eyes filled with tears. "Oh god...what if she says something that makes whoever took her angry? What if they hurt her??"
Heero's hand gripped hers. "They won't hurt her, Relena. There wouldn't be any reason to."
Nodding, Relena took a breath and continued. "Sara is a month old. She's...she's a baby...she's just a baby..." The tears spilled over onto her cheeks. "She needs me...Sara won't take a bottle. What if she won't eat? What if they don't even try to feed her?? Oh god...." Sobs racked her frame.
Chief Addams looked up from his notes. He cleared his throat lightly. "Minister Peacecraft...your children were taken for a reason. Whoever has them knows that in order to get whatever they want...most likely money...that they can not hurt either child. Now...do you have recent pictures of your children?"
Relena nodded. "We have some here....and they're on file with any newspaper or magazine, especially Ame. We try to keep them out of the public eye...but it's hard...." Her voice gave out.
"All right. We'll get those out to every law enforcement agency. We're going to post guards at all spaceports, to keep the kidnappers from leaving Earth. A guard is going to stay here to monitor your communicator in case they try to get in contact with you about ransom."
Heero's voice was low and grave. "You don't really think this is about money, do you?"
"What else would it be about?", Addams asked his fellow Preventer.
Hilde had been quiet up until then, sitting on a couch across the parlor, holding her children, five year old Hunter and two year old Greta, tightly in her arms. "If it was money...why didn't they take all the children?", she asked, hoarsely.
The chief Preventer was quiet for a minute, as though he refused to acknowledge any scenario he himself did not come up with. "We're still talking to your nurse about the incident. After we're done, we'll drive her home. I suggest you get as much sleep as possible. The next seventy two hours are crucial. You'll need all your energy, Minister Peacecraft."
Relena nodded, tears still streaming down her cheeks. Heero's hand held hers tight, promising to never let go. "Thank you", she whispered.
Addams stood to go. "Oh...one more thing. We're going to keep this out of the press for as long as we can, but eventually it will leak out. You're too high profile, Minister Peacecraft. When it does, what sort of statement would you like us to make?"
After a moment of thought, Relena looked up at the chief with a lifeless stare. "Someone took my babies. Our babies." Her eyes closed. "I just want them home again...I'll do anything. Absolutely anything...to get them back."
****
"We'll be around the house at every entrance, Commander Yuy. If they call, let us know right away."
Heero nodded at the younger man. When the boy saluted, Heero returned the gesture and closed the front door. Sally Po, Chief Medical Officer for the Preventers, approached him, hand in hand with her on-again, off-again boyfriend, Wufei. A medical bag was in her other hand. "How is she?", Heero asked Sally.
She sighed. "Well, I tried to get her to take something to help her sleep, but she refused. Said she wanted to be awake when the kidnappers called. I left the bottle in your room though. Try to get her to take at least one pill. She needs to sleep."
"I will", Heero assured her. "Thank you."
Sally smiled sadly. "It's quite alright." She glanced around the foyer. "I'm so sorry, Heero. But I know they're going to be found very soon." There was a pause. "They just have to be."
Heero nodded and opened the door. "Goodnight."
As the couple passed by him, Wufei stopped for a brief second. "Duo's house?" Heero replied with another, cryptic nod. The door closed behind them.
Turning slowly, Heero glanced around the foyer. The marble tiled room was deadly quiet. Immaculately clean....Relena had insisted on having every bit of fingerprint dust cleaned away after it had served its purpose. Clean, but quiet. Heero looked up the stairs as though he expected his daughter to run down it at any second, arms flung wide for a hug. His chest ached. Swallowing heavily, he started up the silent stairs.
Relena was standing just outside the doorway to the nursery, her arms crossed tightly over the evening dress she had yet to change out of. She flinched when she sensed him approach. Heero touched her shoulder. "Koibito...", he began, using his special name for her. As gently as possible, he turned her around to face him. "Don't do this to yourself."
Tears spilled over her cheeks. "It's so quiet, Heero." Her eyes closed. "I hate it!! It's too quiet...."
He reached around her and closed the nursery door. His arms folded around her. "Come on." Heero urged her down the hallway towards their room. "Sally wants you to sleep."
She pulled away from him. "No...no, I can't sleep. What if they call and I miss it?? I don't need to sleep, Heero. I'm fine."
"All right." Heero thought for a moment. "Will you consent to a bath?" Relena hesitated before nodding. "Start your bath and I'll bring you something to drink." He watched his wife slowly walk to their room. When she was out of his sight, he started back down the stairs to the kitchen. It only took a few minutes to boil water and locate Relena's favorite tea.
He took the tray with the teapot and one cup back up the stairs. He could hear the water running as he came into the bedroom. The door to the bathroom was ajar. Quickly, he set the tray down and reached for the tiny bottle Sally had left on the dresser. Without hesitation, he dropped two of the tiny pills into the cup and poured hot tea over them, watching them dissolve.
Relena was sitting on the edge of the tub, a dark blue towel wrapped around her body when he entered with the cup of tea. She glanced up as he came in; there were dark circles under her eyes that had not been nearly as pronounced five hours ago. "I feel pampered", she said, attempting a smile.
Heero turned the water off and tested it with one finger. "Get in", he gently instructed. Relena stood and let the towel fall. She slipped into the hot water with a little sigh of pleasure. Instantly, she felt guilty. Here she was, luxuriating in a bath with her husband by her side...while her children were being held captive by God-only-knew who. Her eyes closed again; her forehead crinkled.
"Stop." Heero seemed to read her mind. "Drink this."
She took the cup with trembling hands. Heero reached for a hairband and pulled her hair off her shoulders. The feeling of his fingers at the base of her neck sent a shiver down her spine. She took a sip of tea and tried to relax her shoulders. "Thank you, Heero."
He took a washcloth from the towel rack and dipped it into the water. Kneeling beside the tub, he wrung the cloth out over her shoulder. Water cascaded down her skin. He repeated the process, gently bathing his wife. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched as she continued to sip her tea.
When the cup was nearly empty, Relena set it aside and reached for his hand. She brought his wet fingers up to her mouth, kissing them softly. "I love you."
Heero nodded and stroked her cheek. "We will find them, Relena."
Fresh tears flooded her eyes. "What if we don't? What if they get hurt? There's a million bad things that could be happening to our babies and there's absolutely nothing we can do about it!"
"Hey..." He caught her chin. "We will find them. Not 'probably'. Not 'maybe'. Not 'someday'. We *will* find them."
Her face was still troubled, but her body was relaxing more and more by the second. "Do you promise?", she whispered.
"I promise", he replied simply.
Relena's eyelids were becoming very heavy. "I'm just going to close...my eyes...just for a minute..." After another second, her eyes shut and her head fell. Heero set down the washcloth and lifted his wife from the tub. After he dried her off, he carried her to their bed and covered her with the comforter. He fought the very strong urge to lie down next to her and wrap his arms around her deeply asleep body. "I'm sorry, koibito", he said, softly kissing her forehead. "I hope you'll forgive me in the morning."
Leaving her to her dreams, Heero packed a small bag, filling it with the few things he would absolutely need. Taking a last look at his sleeping wife, he closed the door behind him and started out of the house.
****
****
~Overheard at JACON 2001~
"Capitalism sucks!!"
Random fan-girl: "Heero!! Hee-chan!! Smile!!"
Eric (as Heero): "I don't smile....do I? Kristen, do I smile? I don't think I'm supposed to smile."
"I am Tuxedo Pimp. Sailor ladies...."
Me, to con-worker at door, while looking for Liz-chan: "Have you seen Duo?"
Con-worker: "Which one?"
Sean Schimmel, the voice of Goku: "Hi! I'm Goku and I have to pee!"
"If you don't take my picture with Sephiroth, I'll die."
Driving to the con in heavy I4 traffic, listening to Gundam Wing battle music: "Hmm....what would Heero do?" *Screeching tires as Kristen pulls around a semi-truck.* (This is a philosophy I think more people should embrace. WWHD? Try it next time you're in a sticky situation. Don't blame me if you're arrested.)
Me, looking for my brother: "I've lost my Trunks."
Clifton (Teaching Eric to walk like the Perfect Soldier): "No, it's great, Eric. I just never realized Heero walked like that...."
Random fan-girl: "Can I take yall's picture?"
Katie (as Relena): "Even me?"
(Random fan-girl nods, everyone poses. Random fan-girl draws sword and points at Katie's throat.)
Katie: "Help!"
"I WANT SEX!!!!" (At least, that's what we think the person was yelling. It could have been 'Zechs'.)
Guy dressed as Biker Neko Duo-chan: "I didn't just want to dress as Duo again like last year. So I thought long and hard and the one thing that seemed to make sense was Neko-Duo. Biker Neko Duo. Cause you see all these cat-girls running around this place. But I'm the only cat-boy...."
Me: "Okay....so far I've seen ten Duo's, three Wufei's, Heero and Relena are on their way, and I heard a rumor that there's a Quatre and a Trowa running around somewhere. I *will* have my cast photo....." ~Evil laughter~
My parade-raining little brother: "But what about Zechs?"
"It was surreal...."
To the Japanese Animation Club of Orlando....thank you for putting on another fantastic convention!! Here's to the next one where Liz and Eric (as Duo and Heero) will up that PG-13 rating on their Cosplay scene to a solid R, with Katie's permission, of course.
Author's Notes: Experimenting with not finishing a story before I start posting its chapters. Usually I wait until at least three quarters of the plot is hammered out. Not this time. Whoo-hoo...unchartered territory. Kinda scary.
Dedication: To Liz-chan and all her abnormalities. 'Cause once you create a religion centered around bishounen ai, you no longer get to call yourself 'normal'.
****
A Thing More Precious
by Kristen Elizabeth
****
"Have you completed all your missions?"
"Yep."
"Teeth cleaned?"
"Yep."
"Face washed?"
"Yep."
Heero Yuy thought for a minute. "Is that it?"
The little girl tucked into the bed shook her head, dark curls spreading across her pillow. Instead of replying, she held her arms up towards him. He bent his head and let his six year old daughter's arms circle his neck. He placed a light kiss on her forehead. "Goodnight, Ame."
Ame looked back up at him with wide blue eyes. "When is Mommy coming home?"
"Tonight", Heero replied. "You'll see her when you wake up."
"Why can't I stay up with you, Daddy?"
Heero did not have to think of a reply. "Because your bedtime is eight PM. And it is now..." He looked at his watch. "Eight o' nine."
Ame pouted. "Mommy lets me stay up when you go away, Daddy."
"Unfair, isn't it?" Heero stood up. "Go to sleep."
"Daddy!!", she called out as he reached the door. "I love you."
Heero glanced back at his daughter. Nodding his head, he turned the light off and gently closed the door to Ame's room behind him. In the hallway, the part time nurse, Nancy, stood waiting for him; nestled in her arms was Ame's little sister, Sara. "Ah...Mr. Yuy. I was just coming to get you." Nancy rocked the baby gently. "She won't take the bottle. It took me forever to get her calmed down."
"She wants Relena", Heero replied, glancing at his watch again. "She should be here in twenty minutes."
Nancy held the baby out to him. "Until then...maybe a dose of daddy is what the little one needs."
Heero took the child, with only a bit of lingering awkwardness. He held his youngest daughter against his shoulder. She whimpered, threatening to cry. Heero placed his hand against her tiny back; upon the instant of the comforting touch, Sara calmed down. Her little fists curled up handfuls of Heero's shirt.
The nurse studied father and daughter. "I was right. All she needed was her daddy."
"Should we try the bottle again?", Heero asked. "She has to eat."
"Twenty minutes won't hurt her." Nancy took a soft, flannel cloth off her shoulder and draped it over Heero's. "She'll be ready for Miss Relena, though. Poor tyke's been without her mommy for...what? A week now?"
Heero readjusted his daughter's little body. "No one expected the conference to drag on this long." He continued in a low voice, as if he had forgotten the nurse was still there. "I can't believe they didn't broadcast *any* of the conference meetings. No one has any idea what they're even talking about."
"They shouldn't have made Miss Relena go at all." Nancy clicked her tongue, disapprovingly. "It's hardly been a month since she gave birth. Didn't even give her proper maternity leave."
He kept silent. The woman couldn't possibly understand....the job Relena held, namely the protector of peace throughout the galaxy, did not come with benefits. "Relena is tough." Heero touched the wisps of blond hair on his daughter's head. "She'll be fine."
"Well...", Nancy put her hands on her hips. "Next time she gets called into an emergency session of the legislature, tell her to pump a lot more..."
Heero cut her off before she could finish her sentence. "You can go home now, if you want. Everything is under control here."
Nancy nodded. "See you tomorrow, Mr. Yuy." She started down the main staircase. After a minute, the door closed behind her. The noise startled Sara; she began to cry. It was not a little whimper, as before; the little girl scrunched up her face, opened her mouth and let loose with a torrent of high pitched screams. Heero closed his eyes.
"Daddy." Holding onto his wailing daughter, Heero turned around, only to see his other daughter, very much awake and very much out of bed. She held her hands over her ears. "Why does Sara make so much noise?"
"She's a baby", Heero replied, raising his voice to be heard over Sara's cries. "Babies cry."
Ame scowled. "Tell her to be quiet. She's hurting my ears."
"That makes two of us." Heero patted Sara's back, but she gave no sign of quieting down. "What are you doing up, Ame? I told you to go to sleep."
His daughter folded her arms across her pink nightgown, tipping her nose up haughtily. "I can't sleep with all this..." She tested out a word she had learned from her very favorite honorary uncle, Duo. "...crap."
Heero silently cursed the man with the braid. "Don't use that word, Ame."
"Why not?", his daughter challenged.
He thought long and hard but could not come up with a better answer than, "Because I said so." Sara continued to scream into his ear.
Ame reached for his free hand, tugging on it. "Daddy...I don't want a little sister anymore. I want a puppy."
Before Heero could reply, the front door opened. Relief flooded him upon seeing his wife of nine years, Relena Peacecraft-Yuy, enter the foyer wearily. She winced, hearing her youngest daughter's screams and looked up at the hallway, visible from the first floor. "Bad time or just in the nick of time?", she asked.
"Mommy!!" Ame flew down the staircase and pounced on her mother. "You're back!! Did you get me a present? Where's Mr. Duo? Can we trade Sara for a puppy?"
Relena's head spun. Instead of answering her daughter's questions, she hugged the girl for a long minute before straightening up. She gripped the banister as she started up the stairs towards her husband and their baby. "Heero...is she all right?"
"She's hungry", Heero replied. He wanted to kiss his wife, welcome her home, but the children came first. He passed Sara to her mother. "Rejected the bottle."
"Shh...sweetie..." Relena gently rocked the baby. "Mommy missed you, too....and she's going to feed you, just as soon as..."
A loud voice bounced off the foyer walls. "I got the bags, Relena!" Duo stepped into the house, ladden with Relena's matching luggage. He cocked his head to the side upon hearing Sara. "Small Fry's upset?"
Ame threw her arms around his legs. "Mr. Duo!!!"
"Small Lady!" Duo picked the girl up. "Older and wiser sister of Small Fry! What on earth are you doing up?"
"Daddy let me wait up for you", Ame lied, grinning broadly. "Did you have fun at the meeting, Mr. Duo?"
"Wouldn't call it fun, Small Lady." Duo set her back down. "I kinda had to work, you know. Keeping your mom safe and all." He placed a hand over his heart, melodramatically. "It's a tough job, but someone's got to do it." He amended the phrase. "When your dad can't."
Relena had managed to calm the baby a bit. She looked at Heero. "I'll get Ame back in bed and feed Sara."
Heero nodded. "You should go to bed, too." He touched her cheek. "You look exhausted."
"I am." Relena stared into space for a second before blinking and returning her attention to her children. "Ame....get up here, missy."
Sulking, the little girl left Duo's side and grudgingly climbed the stairs. Relena took her hand and with Sara still crying against her breast, started for Ame's bedroom. "Goodnight, Duo", she called out. "Thank you!"
Duo cupped his hand around his mouth and yelled back, "Anytime, princess." After Relena and the girls disappeared from sight, he looked up at his old friend with much amusment. "How goes it, Daddy dearest?"
Hands shoved into his pockets, Heero started down the staircase. "What happened at the conference?"
"That daughter of yours has some *powerful* lungs, buddy. I see opera singer or umpire in her future." Duo sidestepped Heero's question.
"What happened at the conference, Duo?"
Duo cleared his throat as Heero reached the bottom of the stairs. He pointed at the flannel rag on Heero's shoulder. "Spit cloth? How the mighty have fallen...."
Heero balled up the cloth. "Are you going to tell me or will I have to force it out of you?"
There was a long pause. "It's not good, Heero." Duo took a deep breath. "If ever there was a time to panic, it would be now."
"You mean...this was all about...." Duo nodded. Heero looked at the flannel in his hands. "It didn't..."
"No. Not yet. She's fighting it." Duo ran a hand down his face. "I can't tell if she's winning or losing."
"Relena never loses", Heero replied after a minute.
His oldest friend lowered his eyes in acknowledgement. "Then...we shouldn't worry." He plastered his trademark smile back onto his face. "Well, I'm going to go home and have sex with my wife. I suggest you do the same....if she's anything like Hilde in this area, she's going to need to..."
"Is nothing sacred with you?" Heero gave him a hard look.
Duo thought for a moment. "Nope. Nothing." Grabbing his own suitcase from the floor, he flicked a salute at his friend. "Night, night!"
After the door closed, Heero locked it, double checking to make sure the house was secure for the night. He flipped off the downstairs lights and picked up his wife's luggage. After dropping it off in the master bedroom, he walked back to Ame's room. Inside, Ame was curled up in her bed, fast asleep. Relena sat in a rocking chair in the corner with Sara situated at her breast. She glanced up when she felt him watching. "Hi", she whispered.
Heero marveled at the calm that had settled over the house, merely because of her presence. "Hey", he replied, quietly slipping into the room.
Relena looked back down at their baby as she fed. "I missed you."
He nodded, his way of indicating that he felt the same. "Do you want to talk about the conference?"
"No." She lifted Sara up and turned her around. "Not yet."
Heero let the subject drop. "She's falling asleep."
"Yeah..." Relena gave up trying to get the little girl to take her other breast. "I'll put her to bed and then..."
"I'll do it."
She blinked. "Are you sure?"
Heero lowered his head. "The mighty have fallen?"
Relena smiled. "No. The mighty have gotten stronger." She stood up and carried Sara over to him. The baby barely stirred as she was transferred from one parent to the other. "I think I'm going to take a bath. And after that..." She took a breath. "...we're going to have to talk."
"About?"
"The future."
****
He was already in bed when she left the bathroom. Relena glanced at the clock; she had been soaking in the tub for half an hour. Heero was sitting up against the antique, carved oak headboard; a pillow scrunched under his neck. His eyes were closed and his bare chest rose and fell rythmically.
Relena's eyes watered. Her overwhelming love for him frightened her. She felt, in that moment, that if anything ever happened to him, she would die. She wiped at her eyes and cleared her throat. Nothing was going to happen to him. She would not allow it.
She shrugged out of her robe, leaving it on the floor, and undid the clip holding up her hair. It fell in long, golden waves down around her full breasts. Relena approached the bed. "Heero", she whispered.
His eyes opened, revealing twin pools of deep ocean blue. He blinked at seeing her, naked and luminescent in the moonlight, standing over him. She felt his gaze flicker down to her breasts, then back up to meet her gaze. There was hunger in her eyes. Desire flooded his own thoughts. "I thought we were going to talk", he said.
Relena crawled over him and swung one leg around, sitting on his lap. "We can talk in bed."
He held himself still, but every unconcious wiggle made it more and more clear that talking was the last thing she wanted to do. "Relena..." Heero gently gripped her hips. "What happened at the conference?"
Some of the desire in her cooled. She looked down at the toned muscles of his stomach, but her thoughts were back in the board rooms she had spent the last week in. "They proposed the bill to the legislature."
"I see", he replied after a long minute. His hands remained on her hips, enjoying the smooth skin, still damp from her bath. "What does that mean for us?"
Her gaze sparked. "Nothing! It won't *ever* pass", she said, vehemently. "I won't let it pass."
"Relena...would it be so bad for us to..."
She cut him off. "To what? To be arrested? Tried for war crimes? Do you know what's listed in war crimes, Heero? Assault, terrorism, armed robbery, rape, attempted murder, murder...and that's just the big ones!"
"Relena..."
But she was beyond hearing him. "They'll charge all of you with every single one of those things, Heero!! As many counts as they can get away with. They don't care whether you actually committed every single one. And they don't care that they're guilty of the same things! They want to put a 'sealed' stamp on the war files and feel like they've done something to make reparations. They don't realize that reparations do not come about by spilling the blood of former soldiers."
"You don't think we should stand up and face our actions?" Heero lifted her chin, forcing her to stare into his eyes as she answered.
Relena was a long time in replying. "You do face your actions", she whispered. "Everytime you wake up in the middle of the night from a horrible dream...everytime you can't fall back asleep...everytime you shy away from human contact...you face your actions, Heero." She swallowed. "When *don't* you face them?"
He looked off to the side. "When I'm right here."
Her throat closed up with emotion. Cupping his face in her cool hands, she turned his head and lowered her mouth to his. Her tongue traced his lips; the kiss grew in intensity as Heero met her tongue with his own, beginning a very familiar, very welcome dance. His hands slid under her hair, drawing her down to his body. Relena adjusted herself until she was lying on him; her breasts pressed against the hard plane of his chest. She let out a muffled cry into his mouth.
Heero rolled their bodies over and lifted himself up over her. "Sore?", he whispered, cupping one breast in his hand. She nodded. He kissed her throat and slid down her body until his mouth was directly over one plump mound. His lips brushed over one rosy peak; his tongue delicately tripped over the milky flesh. He did not suckle at her, as he knew she liked under other circumstances. Instead, he lightly licked, soothing her sore nipples.
"Oh!" She squirmed under him. "That feels good..."
He kissed his way back up her body. "I think we had it better before." To explain himself, he pulled her up and sat up straight, seating her on his lap. Their arms wrapped around each other, holding onto the moment. His arousal pressed into her heated flesh through the comforter.
"Can we do this?", he asked into her shoulder. Her skin was warm against his lips. "Sally said five weeks before..."
Relena's hands played over his perfectly muscled back. "I'm fine, Heero. I want this. I need you to..." She stopped; years of forced propriety often made it hard for her to talk to him so intimately. Biting her lip, she continued on. "I need you...inside me."
The tension left his shoulders. Had she said the word, he would have stopped immediately and held her for the rest of the night. But she wanted to go on...and he wasn't about to say no. For the safety of the baby, they had not done this for two months before Sara was born. After three months of abstinence, they were both ravenous for each other.
They made love with all the tenderness and passion of their first time together, combined with the knowledge of each other's bodies that they had gained after nine years of marriage, the skills to bring each other the greatest pleasure possible...and the lust that had been building up for three months. After they both stepped off the pinnacle of ecstasy, they lay intwined in their bed, enjoying the afterglow.
It was a long time before Relena lifted her head and looked up at her husband. Heero's eyes were closed again; his body was relaxed and pliant in sleep. She curled against him tighter.
"I love you", she whispered. "It's my turn to protect you now." She closed her own eyes. "I hope you'll let me."
****
"Minster Graham?"
"A definite yes."
"Minister Boyland? Is he still holding out?"
"He's a yes. He came on board after I reminded him of his son's untimely death on the Barge."
"All right....who's left?"
The acne-scarred aide looked at his papers nervously. "Um...well, sir....there's really just..."
"Her."
"Yes, sir."
His boss stood up and looked out the windows. "No luck whatsoever?"
"None. She's very...unwavering on this issue." The boy cleared his throat. "She...um...said she'd, and I quote, 'fight this with every breath in her body'. End quote."
The older man sighed. "Some people just don't understand. Her sympathy for the war criminals is neither admirable, nor forgivable."
"I agree. But sir...she is the Foriegn Minister. Her popularity on the colonies is unmatched. So much so that they could side with her on this. If we don't have colonial support, our cause will never be realized."
"She's one woman. She doesn't have the power to stop this on her own."
"Like I said, sir....where she goes, the colonies will go. And I don't think I need to remind you how much the Earth does not want another war with the colonies. If they don't back the proposal in space, the Earth is likely not to either. We will have lost all our support, sir. And the war criminals will go unpunished."
"All because of her." The boy's boss thought for a moment. "It's simple. Eliminate her."
The aide winced. "Sir, that is not advisable. An assasination would turn her into a martyr for her cause."
"What do you propose, then?"
"Um...I could try to talk to her again. Perhaps she'll..."
The older man shook his head. "No, she's determined to see this through. She's a stubborn bitch...always has been." He pulled at his beard, thinking once again. "Do you have children, Wilson?"
Wilson looked confused. "I'm not married, sir."
"Children are life. One would do just about *anything* for them. They are more valuable than money...and more precious than principles."
"I don't follow, sir."
"You will, Wilson. You will."
****
"I'd like to propose a toast!" Duo raised his champagne glass. "It's been exactly nine years since I last did this...on that fateful day when Relena *finally* got Heero off his spandexed ass..." He made a face. "...and up to the altar! I can't seem to remember exactly what I said that day, so if this is just the same speech over again....grin and bear it." He cleared his throat. "To Heero and Relena!"
Chang Wufei blinked. "That's it?"
Duo lowered his glass before he could take a sip. "What? What's wrong with that?"
"No long-winded diatribes? No highly elaborated anecdotes?", Wufei continued.
Quatre Raberba Winner blushed. "Not even a dirty limerick?"
"You're slipping, Maxwell." Trowa Barton shook his head, sadly.
"Good thing", Heero commented.
Duo threw up his free hand. "I'm damned if I do and I'm damned if I don't!! Doesn't anything please you people??"
Relena put a hand to her mouth to cover her laughter. "Duo, I think you did just fine. Thank you very much."
Duo's wife, Hilde, lifted her champagne glass. "To Heero and Relena", she echoed her husband's toast. "Happy Anniversary."
After everyone seated around the large table had repeated the toast, the waiter began to serve the main course. Relena felt for her husband's hand under the table; his fingers laced with hers and squeezed gently. She glanced over at him and smiled upon seeing him staring at her profile. Leaning a bit towards him, she whispered, "Happy Anniversary."
Heero nodded. "Are you all right? You look a little tired."
"I'm always tired, Heero." She smiled. "It's no reason not to have a good time."
He was about to reply, when Quatre cleared his throat. "Where are the babies tonight?"
"Shipped 'em back to the baby farm", Duo replied. "Figured we'd see if we could trade 'em all in for models that don't have vocal cords."
Hilde slapped his arm. "Talk like that could send our children into therapy someday."
"Their father is the self-proclaimed God of Death", Wufei muttered. "Therapy's been in their future since the day they were concieved."
"Ha!" Duo stabbed at his fish. "Don't let Sally catch you talking like that! Speaking of....what is the *real* reason why she couldn't come tonight?"
Wufei shrugged casually. "She's on duty at the medical bay. Why, what were you thinking?"
"Nothing", Duo replied, far too innocently.
Heero set down his water glass. "The children, all of them, are with the nurse. And one of the Preventer's sharp-shooters."
"Again, I have to ask if that was really necessary?" Relena sighed. "It's bad enough to subject our own children to a life of constant military protection, but Hunter and Greta, too?"
"It's all right, Relena", Hilde assured her friend. "They'll survive. Actually, I feel a lot better knowing they're that heavily protected."
"Everyone's on edge", Quatre said, quietly. "The conference..."
A silence fell over the dinner table until Trowa lifted his head. "What is going on with that?"
Relena looked down at the napkin in her lap. "It's at a standstill", she replied in a soft tone. "In order to pass the legislation that would allow for the arrest and arraignment of..." She hesitated. "...war criminals, the Earth-Colony Alliance members need to be unanimously for it. And so far....we're not."
"It's all a pathetically weak excuse to keep the war going in people's hearts", Wufei tossed in his two cents.
Duo poked at his salad, as though he had never encountered one before. "I think it's more of a way for Minister Houghton to prove that he has a bigger..." Hilde pinched him. "...gun than anyone else." He glanced around. "It won't pass. Princess won't let it."
"The Earth faction of the ECA knows better than to alienate the 'C' part of the alliance", Heero summed things up. "If Relena doesn't sign off on the bill, it will die before it hits the floor."
Quatre bit his lip. "I wonder what we ever did to Minister Houghton to make him hate us so much."
"That's just the problem, Quatre." Relena's chin wobbled, but she kept her tears back. "It's not you. Or any of you...specifically. In fact...you're nothing to him. He's not after people; he's after principles. And that's much more frightening."
"No one likes a fundamentalist", Duo muttered.
Trowa cleared his throat. "So, what do we do in the meantime?"
Relena smiled. "Exactly what you should do....live your life. Let me take care of it."
Wufei raised an eyebrow. Duo took a long sip of champagne. Quatre chewed on his lower lip. Trowa stared blankly at his plate. Heero nodded. "We will", he replied for the rest of them. "We trust you."
Before Relena could reply, a waiter approached her from behind with an old-fashioned hand-held phone. "Minister Peacecraft, there's a call for you."
She accepted the phone and brought it up to her ear, awkwardly. "Hello?" For a long moment, she heard nothing on the other end. "Is anyone there?", she asked.
Heero glanced up from his plate. "Who is it?"
Relena raised her shoulders. "Hello?", she repeated into the phone.
"Miss Relena?" The voice that finally came through the phone was weak and broken.
"Nancy?" Relena recognized the nurse after a few seconds. "Nancy...what is it?" Heero's back straightened. He dropped his fork and concentrated entirely on his wife.
Nancy took a long, shaky breath. "I was...putting them all to bed...and the doorbell rang..." She stopped.
Relena switched the phone to her other ear. "What happened, Nancy? You're scaring me."
"Ame...Ame ran downstairs to answer it...." Nancy choked back a sob. "They were waiting for her..."
Her heart was in her throat. The hands holding the phone trembled. "Nancy...the children..."
"They took them...Ame and Sara...." Nancy began to cry. "They're gone..."
****
"Single blow to the back of his skull." Wufei lowered the white sheet back over the body of one of the Preventer's best sharp-shooters. "He probably didn't even see it coming."
Quatre hugged his arms across his chest. "The poor boy...."
Trowa glanced at the front door of the Peacecraft Manor. "So...they killed the guard...then came in the front door....took the kids..." He turned around and looked at the gated driveway. "In and out in less than ten minutes. This was well-planned."
"An inside job?", Wufei suggested. "Someone who knew the layout of the grounds, the capabilities of a Preventer..."
"And knew that Heero and Relena would be gone for the night", Trowa mused. "Definitely an inside..."
"Can this wait?" Quatre's eyes were watery. "I mean...right now doesn't seem the best time to..." He gestured to the house. "...when they're in there...and the kids are..."
Trowa looked at his lover with concern, but an air of practicality. "We have to think about all of this now. We can't afford to wait...not if we want to get the children back. We have to think of who could have done this, how they did it..."
"Why they did it." Wufei crossed his arms. "Why they grabbed Heero's kids and left Duo's behind."
"It's obvious." Duo joined his friends from the shadows created by the house. "My kids aren't that valuable. Not like the offspring of the Foriegn Minister, anyways."
Quatre lowered his eyes. "Where is she?"
"Inside", Duo replied. "Heero and Hilde are with her. She's actually doing pretty well....I mean...you know...." He stuck his hands in his pockets.
Trowa took another look at the unfortunate Preventer at his feet and signaled for the coroner to come and retrieve the boy's body. "Let's go inside. The sooner we can figure out who did this, the greater the chance that we can find the children...." He stopped before he could finish his sentence with the word "alive".
****
"Ame is six. She has dark brown hair and blue eyes..." Relena's voice was soft but steady as she spoke the chief Preventer on the scene. "She's...very talkative...she never quiets down, actually." Her eyes filled with tears. "Oh god...what if she says something that makes whoever took her angry? What if they hurt her??"
Heero's hand gripped hers. "They won't hurt her, Relena. There wouldn't be any reason to."
Nodding, Relena took a breath and continued. "Sara is a month old. She's...she's a baby...she's just a baby..." The tears spilled over onto her cheeks. "She needs me...Sara won't take a bottle. What if she won't eat? What if they don't even try to feed her?? Oh god...." Sobs racked her frame.
Chief Addams looked up from his notes. He cleared his throat lightly. "Minister Peacecraft...your children were taken for a reason. Whoever has them knows that in order to get whatever they want...most likely money...that they can not hurt either child. Now...do you have recent pictures of your children?"
Relena nodded. "We have some here....and they're on file with any newspaper or magazine, especially Ame. We try to keep them out of the public eye...but it's hard...." Her voice gave out.
"All right. We'll get those out to every law enforcement agency. We're going to post guards at all spaceports, to keep the kidnappers from leaving Earth. A guard is going to stay here to monitor your communicator in case they try to get in contact with you about ransom."
Heero's voice was low and grave. "You don't really think this is about money, do you?"
"What else would it be about?", Addams asked his fellow Preventer.
Hilde had been quiet up until then, sitting on a couch across the parlor, holding her children, five year old Hunter and two year old Greta, tightly in her arms. "If it was money...why didn't they take all the children?", she asked, hoarsely.
The chief Preventer was quiet for a minute, as though he refused to acknowledge any scenario he himself did not come up with. "We're still talking to your nurse about the incident. After we're done, we'll drive her home. I suggest you get as much sleep as possible. The next seventy two hours are crucial. You'll need all your energy, Minister Peacecraft."
Relena nodded, tears still streaming down her cheeks. Heero's hand held hers tight, promising to never let go. "Thank you", she whispered.
Addams stood to go. "Oh...one more thing. We're going to keep this out of the press for as long as we can, but eventually it will leak out. You're too high profile, Minister Peacecraft. When it does, what sort of statement would you like us to make?"
After a moment of thought, Relena looked up at the chief with a lifeless stare. "Someone took my babies. Our babies." Her eyes closed. "I just want them home again...I'll do anything. Absolutely anything...to get them back."
****
"We'll be around the house at every entrance, Commander Yuy. If they call, let us know right away."
Heero nodded at the younger man. When the boy saluted, Heero returned the gesture and closed the front door. Sally Po, Chief Medical Officer for the Preventers, approached him, hand in hand with her on-again, off-again boyfriend, Wufei. A medical bag was in her other hand. "How is she?", Heero asked Sally.
She sighed. "Well, I tried to get her to take something to help her sleep, but she refused. Said she wanted to be awake when the kidnappers called. I left the bottle in your room though. Try to get her to take at least one pill. She needs to sleep."
"I will", Heero assured her. "Thank you."
Sally smiled sadly. "It's quite alright." She glanced around the foyer. "I'm so sorry, Heero. But I know they're going to be found very soon." There was a pause. "They just have to be."
Heero nodded and opened the door. "Goodnight."
As the couple passed by him, Wufei stopped for a brief second. "Duo's house?" Heero replied with another, cryptic nod. The door closed behind them.
Turning slowly, Heero glanced around the foyer. The marble tiled room was deadly quiet. Immaculately clean....Relena had insisted on having every bit of fingerprint dust cleaned away after it had served its purpose. Clean, but quiet. Heero looked up the stairs as though he expected his daughter to run down it at any second, arms flung wide for a hug. His chest ached. Swallowing heavily, he started up the silent stairs.
Relena was standing just outside the doorway to the nursery, her arms crossed tightly over the evening dress she had yet to change out of. She flinched when she sensed him approach. Heero touched her shoulder. "Koibito...", he began, using his special name for her. As gently as possible, he turned her around to face him. "Don't do this to yourself."
Tears spilled over her cheeks. "It's so quiet, Heero." Her eyes closed. "I hate it!! It's too quiet...."
He reached around her and closed the nursery door. His arms folded around her. "Come on." Heero urged her down the hallway towards their room. "Sally wants you to sleep."
She pulled away from him. "No...no, I can't sleep. What if they call and I miss it?? I don't need to sleep, Heero. I'm fine."
"All right." Heero thought for a moment. "Will you consent to a bath?" Relena hesitated before nodding. "Start your bath and I'll bring you something to drink." He watched his wife slowly walk to their room. When she was out of his sight, he started back down the stairs to the kitchen. It only took a few minutes to boil water and locate Relena's favorite tea.
He took the tray with the teapot and one cup back up the stairs. He could hear the water running as he came into the bedroom. The door to the bathroom was ajar. Quickly, he set the tray down and reached for the tiny bottle Sally had left on the dresser. Without hesitation, he dropped two of the tiny pills into the cup and poured hot tea over them, watching them dissolve.
Relena was sitting on the edge of the tub, a dark blue towel wrapped around her body when he entered with the cup of tea. She glanced up as he came in; there were dark circles under her eyes that had not been nearly as pronounced five hours ago. "I feel pampered", she said, attempting a smile.
Heero turned the water off and tested it with one finger. "Get in", he gently instructed. Relena stood and let the towel fall. She slipped into the hot water with a little sigh of pleasure. Instantly, she felt guilty. Here she was, luxuriating in a bath with her husband by her side...while her children were being held captive by God-only-knew who. Her eyes closed again; her forehead crinkled.
"Stop." Heero seemed to read her mind. "Drink this."
She took the cup with trembling hands. Heero reached for a hairband and pulled her hair off her shoulders. The feeling of his fingers at the base of her neck sent a shiver down her spine. She took a sip of tea and tried to relax her shoulders. "Thank you, Heero."
He took a washcloth from the towel rack and dipped it into the water. Kneeling beside the tub, he wrung the cloth out over her shoulder. Water cascaded down her skin. He repeated the process, gently bathing his wife. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched as she continued to sip her tea.
When the cup was nearly empty, Relena set it aside and reached for his hand. She brought his wet fingers up to her mouth, kissing them softly. "I love you."
Heero nodded and stroked her cheek. "We will find them, Relena."
Fresh tears flooded her eyes. "What if we don't? What if they get hurt? There's a million bad things that could be happening to our babies and there's absolutely nothing we can do about it!"
"Hey..." He caught her chin. "We will find them. Not 'probably'. Not 'maybe'. Not 'someday'. We *will* find them."
Her face was still troubled, but her body was relaxing more and more by the second. "Do you promise?", she whispered.
"I promise", he replied simply.
Relena's eyelids were becoming very heavy. "I'm just going to close...my eyes...just for a minute..." After another second, her eyes shut and her head fell. Heero set down the washcloth and lifted his wife from the tub. After he dried her off, he carried her to their bed and covered her with the comforter. He fought the very strong urge to lie down next to her and wrap his arms around her deeply asleep body. "I'm sorry, koibito", he said, softly kissing her forehead. "I hope you'll forgive me in the morning."
Leaving her to her dreams, Heero packed a small bag, filling it with the few things he would absolutely need. Taking a last look at his sleeping wife, he closed the door behind him and started out of the house.
****
****
~Overheard at JACON 2001~
"Capitalism sucks!!"
Random fan-girl: "Heero!! Hee-chan!! Smile!!"
Eric (as Heero): "I don't smile....do I? Kristen, do I smile? I don't think I'm supposed to smile."
"I am Tuxedo Pimp. Sailor ladies...."
Me, to con-worker at door, while looking for Liz-chan: "Have you seen Duo?"
Con-worker: "Which one?"
Sean Schimmel, the voice of Goku: "Hi! I'm Goku and I have to pee!"
"If you don't take my picture with Sephiroth, I'll die."
Driving to the con in heavy I4 traffic, listening to Gundam Wing battle music: "Hmm....what would Heero do?" *Screeching tires as Kristen pulls around a semi-truck.* (This is a philosophy I think more people should embrace. WWHD? Try it next time you're in a sticky situation. Don't blame me if you're arrested.)
Me, looking for my brother: "I've lost my Trunks."
Clifton (Teaching Eric to walk like the Perfect Soldier): "No, it's great, Eric. I just never realized Heero walked like that...."
Random fan-girl: "Can I take yall's picture?"
Katie (as Relena): "Even me?"
(Random fan-girl nods, everyone poses. Random fan-girl draws sword and points at Katie's throat.)
Katie: "Help!"
"I WANT SEX!!!!" (At least, that's what we think the person was yelling. It could have been 'Zechs'.)
Guy dressed as Biker Neko Duo-chan: "I didn't just want to dress as Duo again like last year. So I thought long and hard and the one thing that seemed to make sense was Neko-Duo. Biker Neko Duo. Cause you see all these cat-girls running around this place. But I'm the only cat-boy...."
Me: "Okay....so far I've seen ten Duo's, three Wufei's, Heero and Relena are on their way, and I heard a rumor that there's a Quatre and a Trowa running around somewhere. I *will* have my cast photo....." ~Evil laughter~
My parade-raining little brother: "But what about Zechs?"
"It was surreal...."
To the Japanese Animation Club of Orlando....thank you for putting on another fantastic convention!! Here's to the next one where Liz and Eric (as Duo and Heero) will up that PG-13 rating on their Cosplay scene to a solid R, with Katie's permission, of course.