LIFE, LOVE AND FAMILY REUNION
BY THE ORACLE AT DELPHI
The thunder shook the building. The rain plummeted against the windows. The lightening lit up the sky as the storm continued to rage outside. But inside…
Duo slammed his hand down on the table, "What the hell is going on?" as he stood up knocking his chair over.
"So, how long has Cathy been a Preventer?" Trowa asked as he rubbed his temples to ward off the on coming headache.
"What in the hell was she thinking?" Quatre said irate.
"Where were they headed?" Heero calmly asked.
Relena sighed greatful that they took the news so well. "One question at a time. Duo, Hilde was a spy when you first met her. Her mission was to infiltrate OZ and gather intelligence from the inside. She knew who you were when she met you. She jeopardized her mission by helping you escape from OZ. As for the Libra incident, it was her mission to get that data unfortunately she was not very good at piloting a mobile suit."
Duo picked up his chair, sat down and crossed his arms frowning.
"Trowa" he paused rubbing his temples to give her his full attention, "Catherine became a spy right after OZ attacked the colony the circus was on. It was easy for her to complete her missions because you were always away completing yours."
"Quatre" he snapped his head toward Relena, "Kellee became a spy right after the death of your father. She wanted to fight for the colonies just as you did but in her own way."
"And Heero" she sighed glad to be almost finished explaining, "Jai told me they were going on a mission but didn’t say where. She left me an envelope to be opened if they were not back in four days. Inside I found instructions to revel their secret and to send a weird message to somebody I don’t know."
"What was the message?" Heero asked.
"Get out of the hen house."
"Did you get a reply?"
"Flying the coupe."
Heero nodded his response.
"What the hell does that mean?" Wufei asked confused.
Heero didn’t answer.
"Well Heero" a goofy grin plastered Duo’s face, "looks like you went and got yourself a little Onna."
"She NOT his little ONNA!" Relena yelled at Duo.
Everyone was taken back by Relena’s outburst.
‘ I will not blush, I will not blush, I will not blush’ she repeated over and over to herself as everyone stared at her.
"Oh…k." Duo said glad he wasn’t sitting next to Relena.
Heero gave Duo a death glare, "As if its any of your business, she’s my sister. Since they’re not back yet, something’s wrong. Jai has NEVER failed a mission."
"You’re right Heero." Everyone turned to see Lady Une enter the room and close the door behind her.
"The Furies have never failed a mission and they have never failed to check back in." Lady Une walked to the front of the table.
"The Furies joined the Preventers at its conception. They are the best spies in the business and they were already a team when they joined. They are mistresses of disguise. They could be right in front of your face and you wouldn’t even know it. Don’t let their sweet smiles fool you. They are ruthless and they always get their man. Let’s just say you don’t want to piss them off."
Lady Une shot a glare directly at Wufei.
"There methods are shall we say…unique but they work. They get in, complete the mission objective and get out. That’s what’s got me worried. They have never been gone this long. Now that you guys know who to look for, I’ll brief you on the situation…"
***IN THE MEDICAL LAB***
The wind howled and scattered papers around as the door open. Four weary souls came tumbling in and closed the door. In the darkness zippers, unzipped and grunts and groans were heard as wet jumpsuits were shed. The jumpsuits were tossed with a squish, splat sound as they hit the floor. One soul went to find the light. The next went for the first aid kit and the last two stumbled in the dark and collapsed on two gurneys as the light came on. The light illuminated four women clad in only biker shorts in sports bras. The med lab was a large, white room that was divided by a hanging curtain for patient privacy. It had two gurneys, two chairs and a desk on each side.
"I’m cold!"
"I’m tired!"
"I’m hungry!"
"Shut up!"
"We’re home." Catherine sing songed as she walked away from the light switch to slump in a chair next to a desk. Jai walked over to the gurney that Hilde was laying on.
"Let me clean your gun shot." Jai said in her monotone voice as she began to remove the make shift bandage from Hilde’s leg.
Hilde frowned, ‘Great. She’s still in "perfect soldier" mode.’
"There’s no exit, the bullet is going to have to be removed." Jai stated in her monotone voice.
Hilde sat up, "Well I’ll be damn if you do it."
Jai gave her a death glare "Don’t worry. Sally’ll do it"
Jai poured antiseptic over the wound.
"EEEEEEEEE YOW DAMN IT JAI. LET A SISTER KNOW WHEN YOU’RE GONNA INFLCIT PAIN ON THEM."
Jai just looked at her. "Baby.", and continued to clean the wound.
**** In the meeting room****
"Did you hear something?"
****Back in the med lab****
"Cath, let me take a look at your wound", Kellee said as she got off of her gurney to get the first aid kit from Jai.
"It’s just a scratch", Catherine replied referring to the gunshot wound on her temple.
"It still has to be cleaned," Kellee stated as she set the first aid kit down on the desk and tilted Catherine’s head to get a better look at her wound.
Catherine hissed as Kellee applied the antiseptic to her cut.
"You’ll be happy to know that you won’t be needing any stitches." Kellee said as she finished bandaging the cut.
Jai staggered over to the chair on the wall, picked up her backpack she placed on it earlier and dragged the chair over to the table. She sat down, put her feet up on the table and sunk down in the chair until her head rested on the back of the chair dangling her hair over it. She closed her eyes.
"Jai" Kellee said," I need to clean those wounds of yours."
Jai held out her arm to Kellee so she could tend to the two gunshots wounds there and Catherine went to work on the one on her leg.
"Ooh, ooh. Let me help" Hilde said as she moved to get up from her gurney.
"HELL NO!" Jai replied, "You don’t know how to be gentle." She added with a sarcastic smile her monotone voice gone.
"Bitch. Well at least your coming out of battle mode." Hilde said as she laid back down on her gurney.
Jai gave her a small smile.
**** In the meeting room****
"Did ya hear that?"
****Back in the med lab****
Catherine and Kellee finished cleaning Jai’s wounds. Kellee laid down on her gurney and Catherine sat in her chair opposite Jai and put her head down on the desk.
"SHIT! Iria’s gonna kill me!" Kellee said as she shot up from her gurney.
"Why?" Hilde asked.
"Because its my turn to find a date for Quatre and I don’t know who its gonna be."
"You know according to Trowa, Quatre is not at all happy with you guys playing matchmaker."
"Well when Iria gets in my ass, I have to get in his." Kellee stated matter of fact.
"You can always take out a personal ad: RICH MAN NEEDS AN HEIR AND A SPARE!" Jai said as she started to laugh.
Hilde looked at Jai confused, "Heir and a spare?"
"Yeah one kid to sit on the throne and the other kid to flush it."
"Ha ha very funny bitch. If killing bores you, you can always try stand-up." Kellee replied.
"Poor guy. I’m glad Heero’s not trying to fix me up with anybody."
Hilde said, "How’s he gonna fix your love life, when he can’t figure his out."
"Ha. YOU should talk." Jai shot back at her.
Hilde frowned but said nothing.
"So if it’s your turn, I’ll assume the last 28 dates didn’t go anywhere." Jai said.
"That’s an understatement. You know Quatre, he was nice and polite to them but afterwards", Kellee flinched "we’ll just say he wasn’t pleasant to be around."
Hilde looked at Kellee astonished "Quatre. Pissed. Ha, I’d like to see that."
"Oh no you don’t. It ain’t pretty."
"Well there’s always Dorothy Catalonia." Catherine said.
***CLICK***
Catherine looked up only to find herself was staring down the barrel of Kellee’s gun.
"Never mind."
Kellee replaced the safety and put her gun away.
"Well good luck" Jai said.
Kellee looked at Jai and a maniacal smile crossed her face. "Jai, you seem to be sympatric to Quatre’s cause"
"Your point?"
"Well you could go out with him!"
Jai’s eyes shot open.
"WHAT!!!" Jai yelled.
**** In the meeting room****
All heads turned toward the med lab.
****Back in the med lab****
"AW Come on Jai"
"No"
"Please"
"NO"
"Pretty please with sugar on top." Kellee whined.
"NO!"
"But why?" Kellee asked in her best whinny voice.
"First. I. Don’t. Date. Second. What am I going to do with a blushing Gundam pilot?"
"He’s 22 years old. He doesn’t blush any more." Kellee said defending her little brother.
"Well you could always cook him dinner and wear that sexy black off the shoulder dress with the thigh high split." Hilde suggested.
"Now that will make him blush." Catherine chimed in.
Kellee shot Catherine her own death glare.
"My cooking sucks."
"Oh yeah. I forgot" Hilde said defeated.
"OO. OO." Catherine said getting excited. "You could make love to him hanging from Sandrocks heat shorters."
The girls looked at Catherine amazed.
"What’s wrong with you?" Kellee asked still shocked.
"I can’t help it if I’m sexually creative."
"You mean sexually deprived." Jai said.
Hilde said as she started laughing "Sex from Sandrocks Heat Shorters, now that would make him faint."
The others began to laugh as well except for Kellee who didn’t want to think about her brothers’ sex life.
"YUCK" Kellee said disgusted.
Jai got a wicked gleam in her eye and her mouth twitched to match it.
"I’ll make you a deal. If you can get Trowa Barton to take you out on a date, I’ll go out with Quatre."
Kellee thought for a moment and an equally wicked grin crossed her face, "Mission Accepted."
"You’ll never get my brother to go out with you. You talk too much"
Jai’s grin widened. She knew Trowa wouldn’t be able to take 2 seconds with Kellee. She talked more in one minute than he did in one year.
‘Yep, she’ll never be able to pull it off.’ Jai thought as her eyes slid close again satisfied.
"Yeah, Kellee" Hilde added "Your chances of getting Trowa to take you out is less than slim to none."
"I’m a Gundam Pilot and a spy. Those are pretty good odds"
**** In the meeting room****
"I’d know that voice anywhere. They’re back." Relena said as a smile lit up her face and relief washed through her.
Sally jumped up out of her chair and ran to the lab door with the others hot on her tail.
****Back in the med lab****
"Oh my God", Catherine exclaimed.
"What’s wrong now?" Jai asked annoyed.
"I need a really good story to explain my disappearance to Trowa."
"Try the truth." Jai replied
The girls were so engrossed in their conversation they didn’t even hear the door open on the other side of the curtain.
"Oh I can see his reaction now", Catherine said and in her soft sweet voice she began the tale.
"Oh Hi Trowa. I’m sorry I’ve been gone for so long but I was on a mission. You see I am Preventer Artemis member of The Furies and well we went on what was supposed to be a simple mission but when we got there they were waiting for us. WE got CAPTURED can you believe it and they locked us in a NAAASTY little cell. Any way we were there two days before we made our escape. During our escape Jai took two shots in her arm and one in her leg, Hilde got shot in her leg and the bullet got stuck, I got nicked in the head and Kellee got away unscathed, the bitch.
Kellee stuck her tongue out at Catherine. Jai and Hilde smirked.
Quatre took a step away from Trowa. He swore he saw steam coming form the pilots’ ears. Everyone else was shocked.
Catherine continued. "Then those same goons tried to chase us down after we got off of the base. We spent the last two days playing hide and seek with them until Jai stole a car from some poor sap but don’t worry Kellee apologized to him before we left him stranded."
Jai, Hilde, Kellee started laughing.
"Good manners run in my family", Kellee said as she stuck her nose up in the air.
Duo, Sally, Lady Une and Relena were trying to contain their laughter. Noin was holding Duce’s hand, her shoulders shaking. Heero and Wufei smirked although no one else saw it. Trowa was still fuming and Quatre’s mouth was hanging open.
Catherine continued, "We finally arrive back at Preventer HQ where Sally patched us back up and sent us on our way. Oh Trowa. A soldiers work is never done."
Catherine was now laughing with Jai, Hilde and Kellee.
"Well Jai that’s the truth. Would you believe that bull shit? Do you think Trowa will?"
Then Kellee said between fits of laughter, "Yeah Jai…what do you think he is…A CLOWN!!"
Laughter erupted from everywhere. Heero and Wufei's shoulders were shaking from trying to contain their laughter. Duo was on the floor laughing his ass off. Lady Une remained standing trying not to laugh but failing. Noin let go of Duce’s hand to hold her stomach as she doubled over from laughing so hard. Sally and Relena were leaning on each other laughing. Quatre was looking at Trowa suddenly afraid of what he was going to do. Hilde and Kellee almost fell off their gurneys’. Jai nearly slid off her chair.
***RRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIPPPPPPPP***
Laughing immediately stopped as all eyes flew to a pissed off Trowa with what use to be a curtain in his hand.
"TROWA!!!"
"Surprise, Surprise", Trowa said in a too calm voice.
"WOW! Mr. Trowa" Duce said excitedly tugging on Trowa’s pant leg, "Are you really a clown? I love clowns!"
"Oh K, young man time for bed." Noin said as she picked up Duce and made a hasty retreat to her quarters.
Catherine was scared. "I can explain" she began.
"I already heard" His eyes boring into hers.
Trowa looked his sister up and down trying to figure out what the hell she was wearing.
Quatre ran to Kellee.
"Are you alright?" he asked as he gave his sister a fierce hug and wrapped a sheet around her shoulders.
"I’m fine" as she returned his embrace and ripped the sheet off.
Duo got up off of the floor and walked over to Hilde.
"Your shot" Duo said not knowing what he should say her.
"That’s what I like about you Duo, you don’t miss shit." She sarcastically replied.
"I missed you" Duo said his tone serious.
A smile slowly crept across her face "Why?"
‘Why? WHY? What kind of question is that’
"I don’t know. I just did." Duo replied exasperated.
The smile vanished from her face and was replaced with a scowl. "GO AWAY DUO!"
"DAMN! When did you get THIS body?" Duo said taking in Hilde’s attire.
"When the hell did you get yours?" Hilde shot back.
‘Why are Gundam Pilots bakas?’ Jai asked herself as she over heard the conversation between Duo and Hilde.
Heero walked over to were his sister who was still sitting in her chair fighting the urge to put his jacket on her. That would surely piss her off.
"Heero"
"Jai"
"Here I brought you a gift" she reached in her backpack, brought out a silver disk and handed it to him.
"Something for you to do while you watch me as I sleep", she said with a smile.
Heero nodded and put the disk in his jacket
‘I’ll get you to crack yet’
Just then Relena ran over and gave Jai a bear hug.
"Ow wow wow wow wow wow."
"Sorry Jai" as she released the girl " I was so worried about you all."
"Did you send my message?"
Relena nodded.
"What was the reply?"
"Flying the coupe."
Jai nodded.
Catherine tore her gaze away from Trowa and Kellee released Quatre and they went to have a group hug with Relena.
"Hello. Did you forget about me" Hilde said sounding hurt. The girls minus Jai ran over to Hilde knocking Duo out of the way to have another group hug.
"Where are my manners" looking at the people she didn’t know, "I’m Kellee Deanna Winner"
"Quatre Raberba Winner"
"Heero Yuy, pleasure"
"Janai Yuy, like wise"
"Trowa Barton"
"Catherine Bloom"
"Maxwell. Duo Maxwell"
"Hilde Schiebecker"
"Chang Wufei"
"And I’m Relena Peacecraft" and she curtsied.
Everyone looked at her like she was nuts.
"Well I was feeling left out" she said with a pout.
Everyone rolled their eyes.
"Relena what have I told about being the butt of the joke?" Hilde said smiling and shaking her head.
"Well, now that we all know each other, I guess I’d better start "patching" you guys up." Sally said with a chuckle. "So who’s first?"
"Hilde" Jai replied, "She needs to have that bullet removed. Cath was just nicked and Kellee as always came out of the scuffle unscratched."
"What about you?"
"I’m fine"
Sally shook her head and sighed. She looked at the other girls, "Report."
Hilde started, "Jai took two shots her arm and one I her leg."
"They all passed through. Catherine and I cleaned them", Kellee stated.
"She’s lost a lot of blood and hasn’t slept or rested in four days. And she hasn’t moved from that chair since we got here." Catherine finished.
Sally rubbed at her temples. Jai was always the patient from hell. Right now she wanted to give the girl a sedative to knock her so she would get some rest and not give Sally a headache.
"Heero get a wheel chair and take you sister to her quarters" Sally said.
Heero nodded and went to get the wheel chair.
"I can walk DOCTOR. Thank you." Jai stated flatly.
Jai stood up took three steps and staggered.
"Are you sure you can make it?"
Jai turned her head and saw the most beautiful eyes she had ever seen.
"Are you alright?" the voice asked.
Jai shook her head to focus on the source of the voice and those eyes…Quatre
"I’m fine", she said.
She took a few more steps. The world turned upside down and went black. Quatre caught her before she hit the ground.
"Quatre! Take that…that GIRL to her quarters! And the rest of you do the same. You can all talk in the morning. Now MOVE IT!" Sally commanded pissed. Jai always over did it. She counted backwards from 10 to 1 to calm herself and then went to remove the bullet from Hilde’s leg.
Relena led Quatre to Jai’s quarters followed by Heero. Relena pulled back the sheets and Quatre placed her in the middle of her bed. Relena remove her boots, pulled the sheets up and tucked her in.
‘She looks like an angel when she’s asleep…but then again, she looks like an angel when she’s awake.’ Quatre thought as he thought about how she looked in her outfit.
"Well I guess I’ll go check on the others before I turn in" Relena said as she headed toward the door.
"I’ll go with you" Quatre said as he followed Relena out. "See you in the morning, Heero."
Heero nodded and closed the door. He then walked over to his sleeping sister. He brushed her unruly bangs off her forehead and gave her a kiss on her forehead. He refused to let anyone see his soft side…well maybe he’ll show it to Relena.
Heero went to the desk that held Jai’s laptop, sat down and inserted the disk she given him.
"Alright let’s open up my present" and he began typing furiously on the laptop.
***In the hallway***
‘Does she EVER stop talking’
Trowa was walking Catherine and Kellee to their quarters and Kellee was talking nonstop.
"Trowa? Trowa?!"
Trowa snapped his head toward Kellee.
"Trowa. I’m sorry if I offended you with my little joke."
"Don’t mention it"
"But I really am sorry."
"I meant it. Don’t. Mention. It."
"FINE!" Kellee snapped.
"Hey. What’s up?" Relena asked as she and Quatre emerged from Jai’s quarters.
"How’s Jai?" Catherine asked trying to change the subject and ease the tension building between Kellee and Trowa.
"She’s resting." Quatre answered.
They arrived at the girls’ quarters. Jai stayed in the first, Kellee the second, Catherine the third, Hilde the fourth and Relena the last.
"Good night ladies." Quatre said giving his sister a kiss on the cheek and Relena a hug.
"We’ll talk later." Trowa said giving Catherine a hug himself
Kellee looked at Trowa and said in a low voice, "Ingrate"
"Blabber mouth" Trowa shot back.
"Am I missing something?" Quatre asked staring at his best friend and his sister.
"NO!" came the mutual reply as Kellee slam her door shut and Trowa walked away.
Catherine shrugged her shoulders and went into her quarters. Quatre dumbfounded followed Trowa back toward their quarters.
****Back in the med lab****
Sally finished removing the bullet from Hilde’s leg. Duo had been leaning against he wall while Sally removed the bullet.
"All done." Sally sing songed. "Now go to bed"
"Yes. Sir" Hilde said and did a mock salute.
Hilde swung her legs over the side of the bed and let out a low hiss as the pain shot up her leg. Duo walked over and picked her up off the bed.
"Duo? What the hell are you doing?"
"Carrying you to your quarters. What does it look like?" he replied as he left the med lab with Hilde in his arms and headed toward her quarters.
"Hmph. He’s in love with that women and doesn’t even know it."
Sally spun around to see Wufei sitting in a chair at the desk.
"I thought you went to your quarters, Wufei"
"I will as soon as you’re done here"
"Why Wufei, I didn’t know you cared" Sally said in a southern country voice and smiled.
"Are you finished woman?" Wufei growled.
"Yeah, yeah" as she finished cleaning her mess up. "Let’s go groucho"
Wufei growled. Sally chuckled and turned out the lights.
****Noin’s Quarters****
"….and they lived happily ever after"
Noin closed the book she was reading to Duce, tucked him under the covers and kissed him goodnight. She walked into her bedroom and fell across her bed. She turned her head toward her nightstand and pick up the picture frame. She lightly ran her fingers over the image.
"Oh Zechs. I miss you"
Then she kissed his picture and held it close to her heart as she had done every night for the past six years.
****Hilde’s Quarters****
Duo arrived at Hilde’s door. Hilde reached down and turned the knob to open it.
"You can put me down now, Duo"
Duo ignored her and carried her into her bedroom. He sat down on her bed with her still in his lap.
"Why did you leave?" He asked her in a serious low tone.
Hilde felt his warm breath on her neck and shuddered. She turned her head and looked straight into his violet orbs.
"Why were you looking for me?"
He gazed into her blue eyes and could not come up with an answer.
"Duo. When you figure out why you were looking for me then maybe you’ll know why I left."
She slid off of his lap and got under her covers. Duo got off of her bed and left.
The tears fell down her face as she heard the click of the door as it closed.