Chapter 12
Grabbing the last printout, Sophia stuffed all the papers and pictures into a file folder and marched out of the research room, heading straight toward Lady Une’s office. Sophia knocked briskly on the door and counted to five before knocking again.
"Enter."
Flinging open the door, Sophia marched up to Lady Une’s desk and threw the folder on top of the newspaper the Lady had been reading. Lady Une pushed her glasses off the top of her head to stare coolly at Sophia. She flipped open the cover of the folder and took one long look at the image inside.
"This is the doctor treating Quatre, correct?" Lady Une inquired.
"Ma’am, if you would please turn to the next printout, you will see what the problem is."
Doing so, all movement stopped in her body. She flipped from one image to the other and a frown crossed her face.
"Bring her here. Now."
"Yes ma’am." ***************************************************************************
Sophia turned off the ignition in the hospital’s visitor parking lot. She pulled the keys out of the ignition of her Explorer and opened the door. Duo turned to her as she was climbing out of the driver’s seat.
"Why do you drive this monstrosity?"
She threw him a level stare and said with no infliction, "I like big things." Sophia then closed her door.
Choosing to ignore her not-so-subtle innuendo, he jogged to meet up with her as she slipped on her sunglasses.
"Why are we the only ones getting her again?"
Sophia looked at him for a moment, then thought. "Well, Trowa would be too quiet. He might scare her off. Heero would drive up to the door like a lunatic, wave a gun around, scream ‘Omae o korosu’ and be himself. You can, of course, see the problem there. Wufei would scream for justice and then wind up on a rant. So you see," Sophia concluded with a wave of her hands, "you were the only logical choice."
Duo nodded in agreement as the doors slid open, a blast of hospital air hitting him in the face. "I see your point."
They walked up to the reception area where Mary met them with a smile.
"Hey, kids! Mr. Winner was moved from critical to ma regular room a few hours ago. He’s in 408."
Duo and Sophia grabbed a few visitors passes and thanked her before walking to the elevator. Punching in the 4th floor button, Sophia leaned back against the mirrored wall of the elevator. Duo was rocking back and forth on his heels and staring at the door. When the little number for the floor finally lit up and the ding sounded, Duo basically ran through the doors and into the room Quatre was in. Sophia followed him in a close second, and closed the door and flipped the lock. Duo pulled the curtains close and turned the intercom off as Quatre looked on with a confused look.
"Clear?"
"Yeah," Duo said, unzipping his jacket and revealing a shoulder holster with 2 Preventer issue guns. Sophia did the same, only she had her preferred Colt revolvers. They both pulled chairs up to Quatre’s bedside and sat down.
"Quatre, you know who Dr. Malloy is, right?"
Quatre nodded quickly, his eyes lighting up with warmth.
"Yeah…she’s treating Mariemaia at Khushrenada Memorial as well," Sophia continued.
Quatre’s eyes lost all sparkle and he began struggling to get up and reach for one of Duo’s guns.
"Hey, man! No killing!"
Sophia put a hand on his shoulder and pushed him back down into the pillow. His eyes blazed a harsh aquamarine, but he complied and lay back down. He then raised his right eyebrow, the only one visible through the bandages, in a quizzical manner that urged Sophia and Duo to explain.
Sophia pilled out a piece of paper from her pocket with the security camera image of Noelani O’Brien at the New Base talking to Mariemaia. On the bottom half of the page, there was the picture of Ara Malloy. She held it up for Quatre to see and his eyes narrowed.
"She’s working at both hospitals, Quatre. Do you remember her not being in this one at all?"
Quatre nodded in the affirmative and motioned with his hands for a pen and paper. Receiving it, he scribbled and then handed it to Sophia.
"Yesterday she was gone all day," she read aloud for Duo’s benefit.
Duo frowned at Sophia. "Which is a definite proof of her whereabouts."
"Yeah, now we just need to get her. Quatre," Sophia said, turning to him. "Do you know how much longer you’ll be in here?"
Quatre nodded as he wrote. He then handed it to Duo.
"Another week. They didn’t use sutures, they used a glue type stuff. Dr. Malloy said that the skin grafting was a relatively minor case, but too severe not to have it. I’ll be out soon."
Sophia nodded. "We’ve seen her in the base surveillance cameras. We believe she can tell us what’s wrong with Mariemaia."
"Let’s just pull the bitch in for a little chat, shall we?" Duo said, slipping a gun out of his shoulder holster and clicked off the safety. The both slipped back on their coats, leaving them unbuttoned for easy access. Duo slid the gun up the sleeve of his coat and they walked to the intercom, turned it on, and then went to the door.
"See you in a little while, Quatre," Sophia said with a smile.
"Later!"
Quatre nodded his farewell, and the two left the room. The two made their way to the reception area and went over to Mary.
"Mary, could you do us a real big favor? Page Dr. Malloy for us, let her know we’ll be in the waiting room over there. 1A. Thanks!" Sophia said with a wave as she pulled Duo over to the room. They went in, closed the door, and Sophia pulled a 3 chairs to the middle of the room. She sat in the one facing the door, and pulled out one of her revolvers. Sophia placed it in her lap and covered it with her left hand as Duo stepped behind the door, gun at the ready.
A few minutes later, a brisk tap sounded at the door.
Sophia and Duo smiled at each other.
"Enter," Sophia called out. When Dr. Ara Malloy breezed into the room, Sophia let out her winning smile. Dr. Malloy smiled back and closed the door. She was oblivious to Duo’s presence.
"A pleasure to see you again, Miss Inazuma," the doctor said politely, extending a hand to shake.
Sophia grinned at the woman and lifted the gun, cocking it as she raised it level to Dr. Malloy’s head. "Please, the pleasure’s all mine."