I do not own Gundam Wing.  This fan fiction has no commercial value and I am not making any kind of profit or income off of this.  

Chapter 10

            Heero stood up from where he had been kneeling by the bed.  She seemed to be breathing fine, but her heartbeat was erratic.  “I promised I would protect you, Relena….” His hands clenched into fists as the room remained silent.  His eyes glinted dangerously.  He looked at the different expressions on the faces of the occupants of his dorm room.  Mike was fearful, of death or Duo’s gun, Heero wasn’t certain.  Brian just seemed extremely sad.  Duo’s eyes were cast downward; he was hiding his face behind his long bangs.  Wu-fei glared at him angrily from in front of the window, blocking Heero’s escape.  “Out of my way, Chang.”

            “You’re not leaving, Yuy.  I won’t let you turn her over to the enemy.  I’ll kill you first.”

            Heero snarled at the hatred burning in the depths of those dark brown eyes.  Everything in Wu-fei’s world was black and white.  Heero wished for a moment his world could be that clear-cut, but he was unfortunately always being called on to make difficult judgments such as the one facing him now.  He took up a fighting stance and dared his chosen opponent to make a move.

            “Heero, if you’d set up a secure connection, I could talk to Quatre and he could send a doctor and a shuttle.  He could probably have someone here by morning,” Duo suggested, trying to calm the situation. 

            “No,” was Heero’s only response.  He easily dodged Wu-fei’s punch, and counter-attacked.  He threw the Preventer over his shoulder, and Wu-fei landed on the ground with a loud thud.  Heero lunged for the window, but Duo rushed over and grabbed his shoulders.  Heero backhanded him, and hefted up the windowpane. 

            Wu-fei climbed to his feet and rushed over to stop him.  He slammed the pane back down, and was rewarded with a solid punch to his face.  He staggered back, then charged at Heero, knocking him down to the ground.  They wrestled on the floor. 

            Wu-fei had the upper hand, his Preventers training being much more strenuous than Heero’s soccer regimen, which concentrated more on endurance than brute strength.  As he suffered another punch to his face, Heero remembered the gun in his waistband.  He pulled it out and aimed it at the Chinese man, disengaging the safety.  Wu-fei instantly stopped, placing his hands over his head in a gesture of surrender.  He wasn’t sure he was ready to die just yet.

            Heero staggered to his feet, blood trickling down the side of his face, and one cheek already swollen.  He motioned for them to step back, as he moved to the window.  “Brian, you’re coming with me.  Pick her up – we’re going.”

            Mike interrupted, “Without knowing the extent of her head injury, I would advise you not to move her, unless it is on a stretcher of some sort, with her neck properly stabilized.”

            “Fine.  She’ll stay.  But you two,” Heero said, pointing at Duo and Wu-fei, “had better not move her, either.  Mike here says she needs to stay where she is.”  His voice was cold.

            Duo nodded as he grasped the item in his hand tighter and waited for his chance to strike.  Heero backed up toward the window, but had to turn around to lift the windowpane once again.  Duo seized the opportunity to deliver a crushing blow with his pistol to the back of his friend’s head.

            As Heero slumped to the ground, Duo let out the breath he had been holding.  “Sorry I had to do that, buddy,” he said with a twinge of regret.  He knew he would be in deep shit when Heero woke up.

            Wu-fei kicked the body lying on the floor.  “You’ve become weak, Yuy.”

            “Wufei, stop.  We have to contact Quatre.  She does need medical attention, and we need to get her out of here fast,” he said glancing over at the two young men watching them intently.

            Wu-fei grunted in response, and moved to Heero’s desk.  He opened the laptop and broke the security codes to access the communications setup.  He used his Preventers clearance to set up a direct line to the Winner residence on L4. 

Duo and Brian picked Heero up off the floor and moved him onto Brian’s bed.  Duo didn’t miss the strange looks he was receiving from the blond-haired young man.  He had some questions for Brian, too.  “But first things first,” Duo decided.  He addressed Mike, “Is there any more that you can do for her?”

The young man turned a wide-eyed expression to the strange boy who had threatened him and then knocked out his friend.  “Uh, no….”  He said, taking a step back.

Duo fished out some bills from his pocket – emergency money Quatre had given him.  He handed one to Mike, crushing it into his palm, with a menacing smirk.  “Then we will no longer be needing your services.  Get lost and remember nothing.  Capisce?”

Mike nodded, gathered his stuff, and ran from the room. 

Duo turned around at the sound of Quatre’s voice.  He and Trowa appeared on the laptop screen.  Duo grabbed Brian, and suggested they take a little ‘walk’. 

Once outside, Duo started the conversation.  “So, how much did he tell you?”

“No…nothing,” Brian stuttered slightly while trying to keep up with Duo’s fast gait.

“Then how’d you know about Relena?”

“He told me that, but nothing else.”

“My friend isn’t exactly the talkative type, I find it hard to believe he would volunteer information to anyone.”

“Well, he probably would never have told me, if I hadn’t found her picture in his desk drawer and recognized her.”  Brian said quietly.

Duo smiled inwardly.  “Ah.  Okay, well that makes sense.” 

Brian looked relieved.

“One more question,” Duo said, coming to a stop.

“Yes?”  Brian asked.  He stopped a few steps ahead of Duo and turned around to face him.  He froze when he came face-to-face with a gun barrel instead.

“What did you mean by, ‘he told me that, but nothing else’?  What would that ‘nothing else’ be that he didn’t tell you?”  Duo glared at him.

“I….I…I”

“Come on, you can tell me.”  Duo’s voice was threatening.

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t expect me to believe that do you?  Obviously you think there is something else he didn’t tell you.”

“Well, um…he’s just secretive.  I don’t know.  I really don’t know anything, I swear!”

“But you think you do.”  Duo said tightening his finger on the trigger.  The gesture was not missed by Brian, who gasped in fear.

 “You think you know something that you don’t.  Understand?  Whatever it is that you have assumed based on tonight’s events is wrong.  Got it?”

Brian nodded quickly.  Duo tucked away his gun, and clapped Brian on the back.  He steered him back in the direction of the dorm.  “So, tell me more about this picture,” Duo said grinning conspiratorially. 

Brain felt relief wash over him.  “They were dancing…”

“What are you doing there, Wu-fei?  I thought you were on assignment this weekend,” Trowa asked.

“Lady-Une suspected trouble, and this was my mission,” came the terse reply.

Trowa’s eyebrow lifted with surprise, but he didn’t question. 

Quatre came back onscreen.  “Okay, my personal physician is on his way to the shuttle hangar.  Trowa will fly him to the location that you will transmit just after take-off.”

“How long?”  Wu-fei asked flatly.

Quatre looked worried, “I can get the shuttle off the ground in about ninety minutes.  That’s the best I can do.  I wasn’t prepared….”

Wu-fei nodded solemnly.  “I understand.”

“Is she still unconscious?”

“Yes, she woke up only briefly while I was fighting with Yuy.”

“Heero’s there?”  Quatre asked, surprise showing on his face.

“Yeah, I didn’t have anyplace to bring her, so I contacted Maxwell.  We brought her to Yuy’s dorm room.”

            “Then why were you fighting?”

“He kept insisting we take her to the hospital.  Duo had to knock him out to stop his foolishness.”

“Did Relena see him?”

Wu-fei scowled, “Your fixation on her is unhealthy, Quatre.  But yes, she did.  I picked her up outside a restaurant where she left him standing on the sidewalk.  It was apparent that they were having a conversation before I pulled up.  As to what it was about I have no idea.”

Quatre nodded.  “Keep us posted on her condition, when you can, Wu-fei.  I have to make a few calls.  Zeches deserves to know what’s going on, and I’ll see what I can find out about the present ‘situation’.”

Wu-fei nodded silently.

“And I think it would be better if we leave Heero out of this as much as possible.  No good can come out of his being around, and possibly ruining his career.”

“I couldn’t agree more.”