Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Stolen Memories ❯ Chapter Nine ( Chapter 9 )

Chapter Nine

Relena finished looking over the press release. She frowned. She was sure that she was doing the correct thing, war criminals had to be held accountable for their actions. She owed at least that much to the memory of her father. The Gundam pilots were responsible, Lady Une had proved that to her. They ought to be bought to justice for at least that crime. So why did she feel so guilty?

She opened a file that had been sitting on her desk all week. Inside were photographs of all five pilots. Relena had been surprised to find that Quatre Winner from L1 had been the pilot of Sandrock. Who would have thought that such a seemingly gentle man could be a cold blooded killer. Relena flicked through the other photographs, trying to memorise features and names. Trowa Barton, Chang Wufei - both very serious and stern, Duo Maxwell's face grinned cheerfully his absurdly long hair braided. And then Heero Yuy. Dark brown hair falling over his narrowed glaring eyes which were so blue. Relena gazed long and hard at this picture and felt her heart start to race. Why did she get such a reaction from this picture.

Despite what the press hinted, Relena had never met these men. The one time she came close was the day that her father had been assassinated. Yuy had set off an explosion in the room where her father was in a meeting. Lady Une had saved Relena's life and she was very, very grateful to the Lady. Relena's fingers traced around the outline of Yuy's face. She wondered what it would be like to touch his face in reality, would his eyes soften, would he touch her in return. Relena's eyes flashed open.

"Oh, your sick!" she whispered to herself and closed the dossier quickly.

A knock at the door made her tear her eyes away from the closed file, her secretary put her head around the door and announced that Basil had arrived to see her. Basil pushed past the secretary smiling broadly at her, and Relena smiled back happy to see her fiancé.

"Hello darling." Basil greeted her with his sexy English accent. "Your looking tired my love. Have you had your tablets?"

"No dear." Relena walked around the desk and gave him a kiss. "I will as soon as I get home, I promise. This is a lovely surprise, I thought you were going to busy today."

"I am." Basil laughed. "I am just on my way to see Lady Une, and thought that I would take a minute or two to see you. Have you seen to the press release?"

Relena felt her uneasiness return. "Umm, not yet." She lied, looking down not wanting to meet Basil's trusting eyes. "There are a few points I need to verify…" She felt Basil's hand stroke the side of her face and lift her chin so that she was forced to look at him.

"I think that you ought to go home early, Relena." He said seriously. "You look tired and you have missed your medication. I know how important this war crime tribunal is to us, but it is not the only important issue. Remember Lady Une is relying on you to get the increased funding through for the Preventors."

Relena nodded slowly almost hypnotised by his sweet relaxing voice. She smiled and hugged him, nestling close to his body enjoying his warmth and scent.

"I'll walk you down to your car." Basil said, Relena nodded again turned and got her bag. She put the files from her desk into it, slipped on her jacket, and then accepted Basil's arm around her again. They walked slowly down to the lobby of the ministry and down the steps at the front to where her car was waiting for her. Basil opened the rear passenger door, gave her a kiss which she returned with ardour. Relena got into the car and threw the bag on the seat beside her.

"See you at home Darling." Basil said and shut the door. He waved to her and then ran back up the steps, Relena supposed he was in a hurry to make the appointment with Lady Une.

Smiling, she gave an instruction to her driver to take her home, and as the car pulled away from the kerb, she leaned her head back and closed her eyes smiling in the memory of the kiss she had received. As she relaxed she found that it was difficult to open her eyes again. God, I must be tired, she thought. Her hand patted her bag stuffed with files. Oh well, she thought, they can wait till later. Once I have had my vitamins I will feel more up to work.

Relena started musing about the problem with the pilots again. She still felt such uneasiness when she considered them. She just couldn't explain it. Why did they invoke such a reaction in her? Relena felt the motion of the car slow, and she opened her eyes slowly. Surely they couldn't have made it back to her home so quickly, had she fallen asleep? She blinked several times trying to clear her blurry vision and saw that the car was pulling into a car park in a part of town that she couldn't identify.

"What…?" Relena looked around "Where are we driver?" For the first time she looked at her chauffeur. From the back seat she was having trouble identifying who the driver was today, his cap was askew on his head as if it was too small and he seemed to be ignoring her. Relena suddenly had a suspicion as to why the hat looked so ludicrous and felt herself go cold. Her hand reached out slowly as the car was coming to a stop and she pulled the hat from the driver's head. A light brown braid tumbled down the drivers back, and he looked around gave her a grin and wink.

"Hiya Lena!" he said cheerfully.

"Shit, your…your…." Relena grabbed her bag and fumbled with the door trying to exit the vehicle, but as she clumsily pulled the lever, the doors on either side of her opened. A man slid in on her right, reached across and pulled her towards him allowing room for a man to enter and sit on her left. The doors were closed and the car speeded up heading out of the car park all in a matter of seconds.

The man on her left nodded at her but kept quiet, looking around to see if anyone had observed them entering the car. Relena blinked in shock recognising him from the photos she had been looking at only an hour before. This was Trowa Barton, and the man in the front was Duo Maxwell. Two of the five men she had ordered on trial. Relena then became aware of an arm still snaked around her waist and that she was pressed up hard against another man. She turned her head slowly and looked up into deep blue eyes regarding her coldly. She swallowed in fear as he uttered her name softly.

"…Relena…"