The Stand Still

By: SukiNora

Disclaimer: Sadly, I don't own them, I just like to play with them.

Pairings: 1+2, 3X4, 5x?

Warnings: Heero POV

A.N. I think this is it. The last chapter.

Chapter 11

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"Don't make this any harder than it needs to be," Wufei growled out, slamming his hand down on the desk in front of him. Une stood behind him, her arms crossed with a dark expression gracing her face. It was clear that more than just my job was on the line. Apparently they decided they also wanted to play good cop bad cop. I was fine with it. Whatever made them feel better about not getting the answer they wanted to hear.

"I'm not," I said sharply, leaning in a bit. "I did not see anything."

"You didn't see anything," Une laughed out in disbelief, shaking her head side to side.

"I didn't see Duo shoot anyone," I clarified. "Polygraph me if you don't believe me. I turned around, heard the gun shot and when I turned back, the man was dead."

Wufei glared at me and moved to sit on the desk in front of me. Apparently I still had enough rights as an agent not to be questioned in the interrogation room. For that I was thankful. At least there were no cameras in our offices. "You could lose your job for this," he whispered, his back facing Une. "You could go to jail for protecting him."

I met his glare, my gaze unfaltering. "I'm not protecting him. I did not see anything," I said firmly, my eyes locked into his.

His lip quivered in frustration and he finally leaned back from his crouched position to rub his temples. Clearly, I wasn't the only one who was getting a headache from the situation. We'd spent nearly an hour saying the same thing back and forth. You saw something. No I didn't. Yes you did. No I didn't.

"Can we have a moment alone?" Wufei grumbled to Une, who sighed in the background but waved her hand dismissively.

"Sure," she replied. "Probably won't do any good anyway."

She stalked past us, shooting one last frustrated glare at me before opening the door to the interrogation room and shutting it loudly behind her. She hadn't said much throughout the questioning. She just sat there glaring with this kind of ashamed look. I wondered if she regretted letting Duo and I work for her.

The silence that proceeded was deafening.

"Why are you doing this?" Wufei finally asked, his eye twitching a bit.

"Not that I'm doing anything dishonest," I replied. "But it's hard for me to believe that if our roles were reversed you wouldn't do the same thing for the person you thought you were in love with."

Wufei stared at me, looking unsure of what to say. "So you've told each other then," he decided on.

"It wasn't planned," I sighed out. I leaned back in my chair and ran my hand through my hair. "It just came up."

"I'm not sure whether or not that's something I should congratulate given the current circumstance."

I chuckled a bit. "I'm not sure myself either."

Wufei sighed, grabbing a chair and pulling it in front of me. "You may not have seen anything," he began hesitantly. "But we both know Duo murdered that man."

"Are you telling me he didn't deserve to die?" I asked carefully. I could tell that Wufei was torn between two senses of duty. His job protocol, and his own morals. As far as I was concerned, what Duo did was well within the realm of justice.

"You know that's not it," he said harshly. "I do not want to see my friends court marshaled for the death of that," he groped for the right word. "Monster. If you cooperate we could get you both a plea bargain."

"Do you really think anyone will fight us on this? That he deserved to die? Why wouldn't people believe that Duo was just protecting that girl."

"It's not that simple," Wufei continued. "The Preventers let this man get away after murdering children, and one of our own trainees. There's no way people wont call this some kind of vendetta for Duo."

Slowly I nodded. As much as I hated to admit it, I could see why that may make the public uncomfortable. A gundam pilot enacting his own revenge outside of the law was bound to make anyone nervous.

Wufei and I sat in silence for a moment, staring at each other. His eyes pleading me to condemn Duo, mine a stone wall, unfaltering in my support of him.

"Wufei," I said slowly. "I understand protocol, and I understand what the stakes are. But after all I've been through in my life, and after all I've done to protect Duo and keep him alive, believe me when I tell you that it will take a lot more than you and Une to keep him away from me."

"We aren't trying to do that, we're trying to save you both," he said quietly.

"I will not lie." I said firmly. "I did not see Duo kill anyone. As far as I'm concerned, that asshole jumped at him and Duo defended himself. With no proof, there's no way that story won't hold up in court if it comes to that."

"They'll polygraph you both, truth serum you. If even one person in the department of justice doesn't like this, they won't let it go until they have the truth."

"I'm not lying," I said firmly.

"Duo doesn't lie," he reminded me.

I stood up from my chair and walked to the door. I was done talking. Wufei didn't stand to follow me. "I guess he'll just have to learn how."

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"Where the fuck are my badges," Duo muttered, rummaging around in his side drawer.

He was sitting on his bed, searching for the rest of his Preventers uniform. His shirt wasn't tucked in at the right places, his tie hung loosely around his neck. I stared at him as he swore and searched for his badges. Not unlike Wufei had said, there was an investigation. No citizen wanted to risk a rogue Preventer, they were too afraid of another war. While I understood, I couldn't help but feel cheated.

Today was the day we'd be forced to make a statement. Due to the fact that we were Gundam Pilots, and had already done so much to prevent war, the public decided that, pending a truth serum accompanied by a poly graph, they would take the results of that on blind faith. It would be aired all over the Earth Sphere.

The truth serum wasn't really a problem. What the public didn't know was all the anti-serums the doctors had pumped us full of during the war. It wouldn't be logical to have your weapon be able to divulge all your secrets if they were ever captured. They'd taken steps to prevent that. I was fairly certain they would still be in effect.

The real problem was the poly graph. I'm not actually certain Duo has ever told an actual lie in his whole life. Staying calm and beating that test would be Duo's problem. We'd been practicing his lying, and at the beginning it wasn't looking good. He'd broken into hives the first time he told me that he had never killed anyone.

"Your medals wont make them less inclined to give you the death sentence if you tell them what really happened."

"You don't know that," he shot back, glaring at me from his place on the bed. "I still can't believe you aren't wearing yours. It's like you're trying to throw me under the guillotine," he muttered quietly after.

"Nothing will happen to you, Duo," I repeated firmly. It felt as though I'd been saying that twenty times a day for the past two weeks. For the time being, both of us had been suspended from duty, leaving us at home, and giving Duo plenty of time to panic.

"How can you be so sure?" He said roughly, shoving the drawer back into the end table with unnecessary force. "How can you even be with me after what I've done," he said softly, looking to the ground.

I was tempted to roll my eyes. Things could never just be with Duo. First he's out for cold blooded revenge, now he feels sorry it. Part of me just wanted to shake him and tell him to pick one.

"It would be somewhat naive to believe that the God of Death has never murdered someone before," I replied firmly, leaning against the door frame. "At least this time you had a good reason for doing so."

That got a small laugh out of him.

"I'm shocked you aren't telling me 'I told you so,'" he grumbled.

I chuckled and sat down on the bed next to him. "We both knew it wouldn't do any good. And nothing I could have said would have stopped you. You like to think more with your emotions than your head."

"I had emotions for you. I should have listened when they said to let it go. Now things are just starting and they're already ending," he trailed off, staring at a blank spot on his wall.

"I will not let anything happen to you," I said firmly, grabbing his chin and forcing him to look at me. "No matter what comes out of your mouth today, the truth or anything else."

"You shouldn't have to run with me," Duo whispered, leaning into my hand. "I'm sorry I got you into this mess."

I sighed, wrapping my arms around him and pulling him to me. "I know I said I was tired of running Duo. But I've realized that I'm just tired of running after you. I'll be okay as long as we're running together."

He buried his face in my chest and wrapped his arms around my waist.

"Why do you put up with me," he asked quietly.

I smiled. "You're just worth the trouble I guess," I whispered.

The others met us at the courthouse. Quatre still gave me the evil eye whenever we were in the same room together, and it was somewhat comforting to think that even though I hadn't been the one to the pull the trigger, Quatre would always blame me for what happened. I was glad, I didn't want Duo to have to carry that burden even though he was the one who deserved to carry it.

"I see you didn't wear your uniform," Quatre spat out. I glanced at the others and found that I was the only one dressed in a white shirt, black slacks, and a tie. The others were completely decked out in Preventer apparel.

"There was no need to dress up," I said, putting my arm around Duo's shoulders. "You're making him more nervous than he needs to be."

Quatre glared at me in response before huffing out a big breath of air and stormed ahead of us into the courthouse.

Duo sighed as he watched his friend walk away from him. "I still don't understand why he's not mad at me," he trailed off.

"It doesn't matter," I said firmly. I turned to our other friends, standing awkwardly next to each other looking unsure of whether or not to say anything. "Can you both give us a minute?"

They turned to consult with each other for a moment before nodding. "We'll see you in there," Wufei stated.

"Good luck, Duo," Trowa added, he shot a sympathetic look towards me. We hadn't spoken much since they'd found out what happened. Somehow I think Quatre was to blame for that, but I still couldn't find it in my heart to be mad at him. I'd probably act the same way if I were in his situation.

Duo watched the two of them walk away, and it wasn't until they were both completely out of sight that he let his true nerves show.

"Maybe they'll just throw the book at me," he mumbled. He nervously scratched his arm before looking up at me with scared eyes. It didn't suit him. "If they go for an execution make sure to get my priests outfit. I don't want to go in anything but that."

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. "You are not going to be executed."

"My cross too. Don't let them take that away from me." He was nervously ranting. Not listening to a word I said. I looked into Duo's flighty eyes and let out a small sigh. He was still going on about his execution apparel when I reached out and cupped his cheek with my hand.

Immediately, he went silent. Drawing his eyes up from the spot they'd been staring at on my tie, we locked eyes. As we stared at each other, I felt his breath becoming unsteady. I moved my hand to the back of his neck and pulled his head toward me.

It was much better than our first kiss. It was the kind of kiss I saw in movies. The kind that said everything that needed to be said without saying anything at all.

I pulled away and rested my forhead against his. His breathing was shallow against my face. I thought I saw tears welling up in his eyes, but he closed them before I could tell. It wouldn't matter. Duo would never cry. He was too strong for that.

I placed my hand under his chin and brought his face up to look at me. "You did what you did in self defense," I said firmly. His eyes widened. "He reached for a weapon, and you fired in self defense. When this is over, we are going to go home and have a feast on every piece of junk food you could ever want. We'll watch bad action movies and sleep in the living room. We'll learn how to let go of the past and start living. What we have will eventually become a relationship, a real one, and someday we'll move into a house with a yard." He didn't try to say anything in response, so I took a deep breath to keep my voice level and continued. "Maybe not right away, but someday, I'm going to learn how to tell you how much you mean to me. We're going to be happy. We'll be so happy that we put Trowa and Quatre to shame."

Duo stared at me, his mouth open slightly. I couldn't tell if he looked sad or scared.

"It's too bad you can't lie for me," he said finally, averting his eyes.

I gave him a slight smile and took his face into my hands. I pressed my lips softly against him again. When we pulled away I smiled softly at him and shook my head. "I'm not lying, Duo. I'm telling you the truth."

The End