Chapter 11
Boots clattered at a blistering pace down the linoleum hallway of Preventer Headquarters. Sophia lead the group as they turned into the cafeteria. She and Duo immediately headed toward the coffee machine and poured themselves large cups, black, and consumed half of the beverage where they stood. Duo looked at Sophia as she stared into her cup.
"Wanna…ummm…eat breakfast with me?" /I sound like a stuttering schoolboy./
Sophia looked up at him. "Yeah, sure. I’ll go, uh, get…something…yeah."
Duo stared after her as Heero came up next to him and poured a small cup of coffee, adding enough cream and sugar to feed a small army. Mixing the concoction with a slow, deliberate stroke, he turned and they both watched Sophia argue with the cafeteria lady about there not being anymore cinnamon twists. Heero set down his cup and reached into his pocket, pulled out a slightly crumpled paper, and handed it to Duo. He picked up his coffee as Duo once again was met with "the picture."
Heero sipped as Duo seethed and he seemed to be searching for the right words. Apparently finding them, he murmured to Duo as they continued to stare at Sophia.
"What the fuck happened?" Duo whipped his stare to his fellow pilot. "We kissed." He spoke slowly and through clenched teeth, and Heero sensed the anger behind the words.
"Sure. Enjoy your breakfast."
And with that, Heero Yuy sat down with Trowa, who was busy shoveling runny scrambled eggs into his mouth.
"I got what the cafeteria says is food. I think some of it is a sugar based product," Sophia said, appearing next to Duo and holding a tray under his nose. He smiled at her and smelled the pastries.
"Hey! We’re in luck; they smell like sugar coated cardboard!"
He pulled her to the corner of a nearby table and sat facing each other. Both started talking at the same time.
Sophia looked at him, hands clutching her coffee cup. "Look, I didn’t mean for what happened in the room this morning—"
Duo started by talking to the table and slowly lifted his gaze to hers. "I didn’t mean for it to go that far, I feel really—"
Both stopped and laughed softly. (AN: You all know that laugh. Yeah, the one where something weird happens, and both people try to apologize at the same time and then they both start giggling that GIGGLE. Well, anyway…the story again.)
Duo shot out his carefree grin and Sophia felt a small tug her heart. He took one of her hands and spoke softly.
"I hope that the…kiss didn’t put you off this morning. I didn’t mean to frighten you or anything."
"Duo, that wasn’t the first time I’ve been kissed. Don’t worry about it."
"I’m not," he said quickly, seeing Sally walk up to them. "I just wish that she would cool her jets about the whole incident. It was our private affair…I mean, moment."
Sophia nodded in understanding when Sally propped a hip onto the table and took a bite out of a banana. (AN: the FRUIT, people, the FRUIT).
"So," Sally began around a mouthful of banana. "What’s shakin’ you guys?"
Sophia glared at her over the cinnamon roll she had just bitten into. Sally just smiled and chewed the banana thoughtfully. Swallowing quickly, she licked at her upper lip as if to get some invisible fruit piece off of it. Sally slid off the tabletop and sat next to Sophia.
Duo glanced at her and then at the clock. "My, my, look at the time," he said rising to his feet. Sophia did the same, and Duo picked up the tray of breakfast while Sophia carried the two coffees. "We were supposed to be in the research room 10 minutes ago. Gotta go, Sal. We’ll do lunch."
Sally smirked. "Why do you have to make up a lame excuse for leaving. You got a hot date or something?"
Sophia leaned down and hissed in her ear. "Not nearly as hot as you and Wufei were last night."
Sally deadpanned, and then realizing her mistake, took another bite of banana.
Duo smiled, and almost feral grin gracing his angelic face. "Why, Sally. Don’t the others know about you and Wufei? Or do we get the privilege of telling everyone the happy news?"
Sally swallowed again, although this time she seemed to have swallowed her voice as well. "See y’all later."
Duo and Sophia walked in companionable silence out of the cafeteria. They headed back to the research room and laid down their meal. Finishing it at a startling pace, the two drank what Duo described as "the worst brew of what people called coffee he had ever tasted."
"Yeah," Sophia agreed. "I think it just burned a hole in my stomach."
"So what do we do?"
Sophia looked up and realized Duo was talking about the Mariemaia case and not that morning’s encounter. "Well, I think a good start would be to have Heero and Trowa watch over the tapes of the base surveillance. Those two never miss a detail. They might see someone familiar. And then have Wufei and Sally gather pictures of people from the base surveillance, because they deserve to suffer with a job, and then you and I could work on matching those faces with names. Or looking at their name tags on their lapels…either way."
"Sounds good."
With a few quick phone calls, Sophia had the whole operatives team in the research room and beginning their assignments.
"Why are you having us comb through this damn tape, onna," Wufei demanded of Sophia, his eyes never leaving the screen.
He would pause the frame every few seconds in order to get a close up of a face and transfer it to Duo’s computer. Duo was, at the moment, up to his ass in alligators matching up faces with names. Sophia watched Sally scowl at Wufei as he told her to change frames too quickly, so they were soon in the middle of a heated argument. Trowa and Heero never even blinked as they stared at a screen. Sophia sat in a corner, hacked into the Khushrenada Memorial Hospital’s records. Names and images floated on the screen, with small bios next to the pictures.
After opening one particular name file, a woman with startling gray eyes and hair the color of spun gold appeared on screen. Sophia felt something was familiar about the woman, who’s bio held the name Noelani O’Brien, MD.
"Hey Duo," Sophia murmured, clicking on the photo ID to enlarge the image. "C’mere."
Duo saved another image that Wufei had just sent him, and pushed back his seat. He stood behind her and stared at Dr. O’Brien.
"Does she look familiar to you?"
"Yeah," Duo said, turning to stare at her. "Where do you think from."
Suddenly, Heero’s voice echoed through the room.
"Freeze frame."
Five heads swiveled in his direction. He tapped out a few instructions on the keys in front of him and a slightly distorted image of a woman appeared on screen. She had long black hair and was standing next to Mariemaia in the base infirmary.
"Look who it is. Our good friend Dr. Malloy is in on it."
"That’s it!" Sophia shouted, launching her chair backwards as she stood in her excitement. "Dr. Ara Malloy is Dr. Noelani O’Brien. That’s how they connect with Mariemaia!"