Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ 3 Ties That Bind ❯ Twenty-Six ( Chapter 26 )

“Zechs!”

I flew into my brother’s arms as Lucratzia moved around to hug me hard.

“Thanks for calling,” he snapped in extreme irritation. “What the hell is going on around here?”

“Who did call you?” I asked blankly, blinking up at him.

Hilde, Selena, and I had gathered in Hilde’s apartment. We weren’t sure why, but Trowa’s apartment seemed safest.

The kids were playing in the very small courtyard between the side of the apartment and the main wing of the castle, and I had to wonder who’d had the ingenious idea of trying to build an apartment without windows before realizing it wouldn’t work and altering the plans so the area was there. The castle itself didn’t have windows for the privacy of whatever lucky person lived in the apartment…but Trowa and Hilde had decided they wanted the thing and that had been the end of it.

At any rate, the area was big enough for three seven year olds and two puppies, and there were guards across the roof accesses.

“I called,” Hilde noted, looking up from where she was diapering Mikhail. “You were pulling out your hair because Heero was telling you they’d actually gotten the order not to move, and Selena was off making sure the kingdom was safe with Jacob…and it occurred to me that I was more than just a babysitter.”

I smiled embarrassedly at her.

“So what’s up? Where are the girls?” Zechs muttered, looking around.

“Tasia is sleeping,” I returned, pointing toward one of the bassinettes, “and Faye is playing with Ash and Dusty.”

“Okay,” Zechs muttered, looking to Hilde, who only met his eyes a moment. “Where are the older girls?”

I closed my eyes, realizing why Hilde was saying nothing.

“Relena?” Zechs demanded.

“What’s going on?” Lucratzia added, moving around me slightly. “What do you mean, an order not to move?”

“Jun…Jun Martin got Alex and Lea,” I returned, swallowing.

This was going to be one damn long conversation.

- -

“Okay,” I hissed as Marlea climbed carefully out the window. She yanked at the rope and pushed a bit away from the building and I caught her…sort of…around the waste so she could land right.

The rope thing slithered out after us and we exchanged a scared look as she wound the thing around her arm and crammed it back into the pocket of her pants.

We both started moving along the slanted roof-top until we reached the edge of the rather large house and stopped. I ducked my head forward to look at ground level, seeing a couple men standing by a fire-place dish thing at the front corner. I pursed my lips, moving back as my cousin looked around me.

“Now what?” I hissed at her.

“What would Duo do?” she asked.

“Go over there and kick their asses,” I returned.

She frowned and met my eyes. “What would Wufei do?”

“Go over there and insult them, then kick their asses.”

She grinned at that as a car drove by the road and the men looked toward the road with interest.

We both grabbed the lattice against the building without hesitation and darted across the grass. There were shrubs along the outer fence, and we dived for those, swallowing hard as she pressed ourselves flat against the brick wall.

Marlea nodded with her head toward the far corner of the yard, and we both started quietly down the fence.

“What the hell, who opened the flood-gates?” someone demanded irritably.

“Flood-gates?” there was definite fear in that voice.

Another car drove by…and then another.

Someone laughed. “Poor colony boys…”

“I’ll show you boy, your wife won’t be calling me no boy…”

“Wife?” the person guffawed. “My guy’s gonna worry about her…shit…”

There was more raucous laughter at that as we reached the back corner.

“Hold up,” the colony boy muttered.

We froze.

I heard steps coming slightly toward us, even though there were several hundred yards between us and them…and a flash-light beam shone up the yard.

“Oh, whatever!” someone else laughed more. “You’re really sheltered up there, aren’t you? You’re all freaked out that Rodney has a boyfriend.”

That got more laughter, but the flashlight went off and the person they were teasing started bitching.

“Help me up,” Marlea whispered as the guys laughed even more.

I clasped my fingers together and bent over as my cousin stepped into that, and then I tried to lift her. She was kinda heavy, and then she scrambled up the bricks. It took her a moment to heave herself onto the fence top, and the commentary from the men was getting a bit more lewd.

“There’s a post,” she whispered. “I’ll get the rope.”

It took a few moments for the black thing to be dropped for me. It was hard to climb it, but as soon as I got into arm’s reach, Lea grabbed me as best she could and helped haul me up.

“Let’s go,” she whispered. “Find a taxi or a bus or something, huh?”

“Yeah,” I agreed, taking the rope with me as we dropped into someone’s back yard…and ran for the far fence.

- -

“Oh, come now,” Jun protested via vid at Heero. “You can wait a few more hours, can’t you? I mean, really, go have breakfast and the money will be available.”

“There’s something about you having the girls that sets my teeth on edge and ruins my appetite,” Ro retorted.

“The girls like pastries, right?” Jun asked, looking beyond Heero. Heero was the only one standing by a machine, but he had told us not to go anywhere. We’d claimed that Duo’s behavior over the phone and vid had made us worry about our children’s safety, so Duo was outside pacing

“As long as you’ve gotten them toothbrushes,” I retorted.

Jun’s eyes widened. “Oh, damn…I have to go. I wanted to wake them up with cinnamon rolls, yeah?”

“They like them,” Trowa said coldly.

“It’s eight,” Jun added, looking to his watch. “I told them I’d wake them up at eight.”

I’d just had the longest night of my life. I’d always thought those nights with soldiers looking for me would be considered the longest, but then my daughter was gone and there was just no end to the night…

“I’ll let you gentlemen go and have the young ladies check in, huh?” he noted…and disconnected.

I rubbed hard at my eyes.

Duo, Wufei, and Keith had gone to Branton. They’d taken Som with them. I was dying, knowing that this separation had to happen, but there was something about my daughter being gone and half of my protective group being gone that made my stomach sour.

Heero paced back to us, running his hands through his hair. “He’s stopped saying anything about Wufei.”

“He probably doesn’t think about it as much,” I noted, rubbing at my eyes. “He mainly only said it to Duo…I think you’re right. I think he’d just want him to kill Duo.”

Heero nodded, and then started shaking his head.

- -

“No, it’s like what we did with you,” Duo snapped to the backseat where the Ryu boy and Wufei were sitting. “I came up, I checked on you, I told you were coming and I got out.”

“So you’ll just leave the girls?” Wufei demanded back.

“Of course not,” Duo snapped. “There are more of us and it’s not thirty stories up.”

“So how is it like with me?” Wufei demanded irritably.

“We have an inside man,” Duo said darkly. “He may not be able to get us in, but he can at least distract some of the guards.”

“It’s a half-assed job,” I noted to my brother-in-law. “They have one set in front and every now and again someone will wander into the backyard, but the girls are in a second story room as far as I could tell—I told Jun what I did with Fei, though,” I added. “I woulda gotten in again, but he knows I was double-crossing him.”

“What?” Ryu’s son demanded.

I groaned, looking to Duo in irritation. “How could you fuck him?”

“Don’t be an ass,” he reprimanded, rolling his eyes. “It was really easy, just to let you know.”

“I know I’m easy,” Som muttered, looking down.

“No, he meant fucking you was easy,” Wufei returned.

“Why do you care?” I demanded of them both in annoyance. “Shit, he was hired to kill you!”

“I said I was sorry,” the kid muttered.

“I was looking down the barrel of his gun, Ace,” Duo snapped back. “He fired the gun. He’s not a bad aim…and it didn’t hit me.”

“Ace?” Som repeated.

Wufei looked to the boy, then smirked slightly. “What do you know, boy?”

“I thought you loved my sister,” I grumbled at Duo.

“I do love your sister,” he retorted.

“Fine way of showing it.”

“Back in November when she was pregnant?” he snapped back.

Really?

“You know, I was kidding when I told her you should fuck him,” I noted.

“Oh haha,” Duo grumbled, looking out the window.

“I shouldn’t have come,” Som muttered.

“Shut up,” I retorted, rolling my eyes. “My issues isn’t with you, it’s with my damned brother-in-law. You did what you hired for.”

“I did not!” he protested at me in a half wail.

“Som, please,” Duo muttered, turning to look at him. His tone was pleading and heartfelt, and more reassuring.

I hit him in the arm.

- -

“Oh, he didn’t,” I muttered, resting my face in one hand.

“Yeah, he did,” Trowa returned.

“Oh…damn it…”

“They should be getting there soon,” Trowa added. “They said they’d call. We’re waiting for the girls to check in.”

“Great,” I muttered, my stomach twisting.

“Selena?” Trowa muttered.

“Yeah?” I asked quietly.

“You have the money?”

“Yeah,” I returned.

“You can take it from my account,” he informed me. “We don’t have to have a deficit here totally…”

“Trowa,” I reprimanded.

“It’s just…”

“Duo’s going there now,” I snapped. “Even if we transfer the money we’ll have it back by sunset.”

Trowa didn’t say anything.

“I’ve gotta go,” I noted. “Zechs and Lucretzia showed up last night, and some chick named Dorothy came waltzing in this morning when the news broke it.”

“Dorothy? Seriously?” Trowa sounded startled.

“I’ve gathered she had something to do with the wars…she’s marching the guards around here like a slave driver and barking at the heels of the intelligence service.” I smiled slightly.

Keith had found them.

Maybe now he and Duo could get over their bullshit—but just as easily, he and Duo could get down to the kill or be killed part.

“Keith and Duo are going to fight,” I noted. “Duo’s owning up to that shit with Som with everyone…”

“And you’re twins,” Trowa agreed. “Yeah, no matter how serious our conversations or planning could get, Keith would end up focusing on Som and snapping at Duo. The two of them are bickering like high school boys over a girl.”

“Mrs. Maxwell!” Dorothy called.

“I’ve gotta go,” I noted, grinning slightly. “Things will work out, be at ease.”

“At ease,” he retorted, snorting…and hung up.

“Mrs. Maxwell,” Dorothy’s blond head poked into the room and she frowned at me.

“Trowa,” I explained, showing her my phone. “He was checking on the process of the money.”

“Ah,” she muttered, nodding. “Come along, we have a lot to do and not enough time to sit around and chitter at pretty boys.”

“Chitter at pretty boys?” I asked her dryly. “Do you know Mr. Trowa? He’s hardly a boy.”

“Mr. Trowa?” she repeated blankly.

I grinned at that, moving from the bedroom I’d claimed of Trowa’s apartment rooms. “Let’s go.”

- -

I bit my lip as Alex and I moved from the taxi. We’d decided to go to a mall where there’d be lots of people and pay phones.

We didn’t want to call our parents, because Jun would be watching their lines, and if my dad or Trowa were still in Sabgia, they wouldn’t be able to get to us before Jun’s goons found us.

Jesse was living across the border in a city called Marsh, and the statute of limitations on his warrant had expired in January.

Our trip from Branton to Garrison had taken hours. When we’d reached the main area of Branton, there’d been no taxis to speak of and the public transportation had closed down. We’d barely managed, for twenty dollars, to catch the last shuttle train out. It’d been a two hour ride with stops here and there…which put us at five A.M., and then we’d walked from the train station for more than an hour before any taxi at all had shown up.

I hoped Tad was all right.

The mall was fifteen minutes away from the border, and if we could actually get ahold of Jesse, he’d know what to do.

We hadn’t seen any of Wufei’s Garrisons, or even Duo’s force-main. We hadn’t been able to find the local Armory, either.

“There,” I muttered, pointing to a far corner of the room. It was almost eight.

“And now to our late breaking story,” a television in the food court caught my attention as a sweeping helicopter view panned over a very long stretch of military vehicles. “Concerning the kidnap and ransom of Alexia Barton and Marlea Winner…”

I tugged at my cousin’s shirt, pointing at that.

We could just go to the police.

“…no new information has been found,” the person reporting noted as pictures of us flashed up.

I sniggered at that as Alex guffawed.

That was kinda a let down.

“The king and his knights are…” she went on, but Alex had activated the vid screen. She typed in Jesse’s assumed name and we waited as it searched the local area…before popping up an unkempt picture of him and asking if this was the person whom we’d intended.

I touched the screen before she could move, and it flashed a request for five dollars. She fed the money into the machine and it flashed the connecting symbol before the beeping that implied ringing started.

“What?” Jesse asked, looking pensive, then stared at us.

“Hi, uncle,” Alex muttered as I pursed my lips. “We’re at the Fort Honor Mall in Garrison.”

“Are you, really?” he asked. “What a very odd thing,” he gestured to his right. “I could have sworn you were in the clutches of a bad man.”

“Daddy taught me not to talk to strangers, and Uncle Duo taught me to run good,” Alex agreed in a sweetly innocent tone.

“And you told us we could count on you,” I agreed.

“Wonderful,” he said with a smile. “I was just about to come pick you up.”

It was the kinda thing Duo’d say to Selena when she told him to do something.

We grinned at him.

He grinned back, considering it. “They’re in Sabgia. If you’re in Garrison there’s no way in hell they’d get to you before the goons did. I think the police would be in over their heads if you went to them because they’d just announce it. Garrison, despite its name, doesn’t have a garrison, you realize that, don’t you?”

“It’s kinda why we called you, mister twenty-minutes-away.”

He smirked at that. “Unless you want the citizens to rescue you, I suggest you hide out somewhere. My warrant better be dead.” He was rising as he muttered more to himself…and disconnected.

I looked to Alex.

“So…where should we wait?”

“The people would save us,” she noted, looking over the mall.

“Or Jun’s people would get to us before Dad’s.”

“But we don’t know where anyone is,” she protested. “Come on, the entire kingdom is loyal to Relena and Heero.”

“Mass generalization. If we go to the local authority they’d have to transport us to wherever else.”

“And Jesse won’t?”

“Jesse won’t announce it to the press that we’re here, and if Jun’s people are already close, we’re screwed anyway.”

“You’re so optimistic,” she retorted.

“There’s a time to be bold and a time to hide, and I think two sixteen year old girls who ran away from their kidnappers might want to hide.”

“Let’s at least get breakfast,” she muttered, looking toward the food court again.

“The idea of staying hidden is completely foreign to you, isn’t it?” I demanded.

She gave me a look.

I pointed at a vending machine not far from where we were.

She sighed, and led the way.