Lowell stared out the shuttle window at the stars. For all their cold beauty, he found himself wishing he were looking at them on his way back to Earth. It was hard, he mused silently, to imagine that less than three days ago his main concern had been to draw out a serial killer with a monkey fetish. Now he was here, far from anything familiar and trapped on crowded shuttle with no less than four ex-gundam pilots and the former Queen of the World.
"Robert..." As if his thoughts had drawn her to him, Relena sat down in the seat across from him and held out a protein bar.
"Lowell," He answered quietly as he took the food, glancing around to see that everyone conscious enough to eat had already been given a breakfast of sorts. The three kids were still in their nest of blankets near his feet. The eldest still looked wary, but the younger ones had relaxed enough to respond when Relena had led the only other child on board the shuttle towards them. They were playing some sort of game, and had even managed to coax a few tentative smiles out of the younger, heavily bandaged child.
"What?" She blinked in confusion, and he realized she was afraid of having offended him.
"Call me Lowell." He managed a faintly rueful smile. "Only my grandmother calls me Robert." The mention of his grandmother brought the members of Purgatory to mind, and he found himself wishing once again to be back in Sanck with them.
"Lowell." She nodded. "But only if you call me Relena."
"I'll try, Senator." Lowell laughed softly at the annoyed scowl on her face before she realized he was teasing her.
After a moment, she smiled as well. "Well, I see working with Zechs' hasn't cost you your sense of humor yet."
"No," he shrugged, then frowned to see the old Sweeper staring at him in something like surprise. "Not yet."
"You work with Zechs?" Howard asked, his cup of coffee forgotten in one hand as he sat down near them. "You must have been the backup, then, on this last case?"
"Yes." Lowell tensed slightly, keeping his expression blank with an effort. It had taken only a few weeks at Preventers HQ to figure out that the members of Purgatory were something like pariahs to the rest of their fellow agents. Other than Dr. Po and Commander Une, no one spoke to them directly, but a great many rumors spread in their wake. He expected the curse would extend onto him as soon as it was known he was officially part of their team.
As for the three Homicide agents, they ignored their fellows as if they were the only three agents in the city. The attitude had annoyed him when he first joined the Preventers. After working with Dorothy in Geneva, he couldn't really blame the three for enforcing their isolation; and to be fair, they had accepted him into their ranks surprisingly easily considering the opinions of most of their fellow Preventers. Since the mission to Geneva, he'd based many of his opinions of his fellow agents on their behavior towards the Homicide division. He'd also learned to hold his silence in discussions about them, and was kicking himself for speaking of Zechs even as much as he had.
"Interesting," Howard grinned. "I see you survived the experience, though. Congratulations."
Lowell shrugged. "Is that such a surprise?" To his surprise, Howard looked more pleased than upset at his somewhat hostile tone.
"Not at all." The old man took sip of coffee. "I'm glad they finally realized they need more partners that can still hold a gun."
Lowell froze, wondering just what the man knew about the members of Purgatory. Beside him, Relena was staring at both of them in confusion. He forced himself to relax a little, taking a bite of his own breakfast to avoid having to respond.
"We're less than an hour out from L6," Trowa said quietly, as he, Heero and Quatre emerged from the cockpit to join them. "Howard, can those of your people that aren't injured take care of refueling the shuttle while we escort the others to the medical center?"
The old man frowned, glancing around to where the other seven sweepers were sitting nearby listening quietly. At the nod from one of them, Howard sighed. "We can handle that, I suppose."
"Thanks, Howard."
"Though even an incomplete colony like L6 should have dock crews to handle that sort of thing."
"You would think," Quatre muttered, scowling down at his boots.
The old man stared at them for a moment. "What's wrong?"
"We...don't know yet." Heero, surprisingly, was the one to answer that question. To Lowell's surprise, the three moved a little closer, dropping their voices so that none of the rescued colonists could hear the conversation. "Probably nothing."
"But?" Howard pressed.
"But we can't reach anyone actually on L6, right now."
"What?" Howard blinked, then looked from one to the other of the pilots in surprise.
"It's probably just a problem with the communication array," Quatre sighed. "We're picking up the beacons just fine, so it's not that the station is... gone or anything. We just can't hear any radio chatter, and there was no response to our initial docking announcements. But we can talk to Ahmed, so the problem isn't on our end either."
"That doesn't sound promising," Howard muttered. "What the hell is going on out here?"
"We should know in an hour," Heero said grimly. "But now that we know the colonies have been systematically sabotaged, I think we should consider L6 to be hostile territory until we know why they aren't responding."
"I would personally prefer to know what's going on before we get there," Howard growled. "Too bad we don't have anyone here that can still see the future." He threw the three ex-gundam pilots an odd look, then looked at Lowell and sighed.
"Speaking of seeing the future..." Quatre frowned slowly. "That is something that's been bothering me. How the hell did Catalonia know there was going to be a second explosion? And what was she doing on the line in the first place?"
Lowell winced as the last bite he'd taken of his breakfast lodged uncomfortably in his throat. The members of Purgatory had not actually told him anything about why Dorothy was with them, but he had been able to make a few guesses since the night Duo had collapsed in the alley. He hadn't forgotten the fact that she'd pressed the two grenades into his hand as he and Duo were leaving for the streets that last night. And two weeks of oddly stilted conversations had begun to make an odd sort of sense to him now.
Howard choked on his coffee, then yelped as the hot drink drenched his pants leg and soaked into the hem of his bright Hawaiian shirt.
"Howard!" Relena moved quickly to help him blot up the mess. "Are you okay?"
"Just getting old, dear," He sighed, though Lowell could see the odd tension in the old man as he moved. "Never used to be this clumsy, especially around such an attractive young lady."
Now all three former gundam pilots were staring at the Sweeper.
"Howard?" Trowa asked cautiously. "Are you okay?"
"Fine, fine... what were we talking about?"
"Dorothy Catalonia's rather timely saving of our asses." The tall pilot seemed to have picked up on the tension in both Howard and Lowell, and his green eyes were traveling slowly from one to the other.
"Oh, right. That," Howard sighed. "No big mystery there."
"Then perhaps you'd like to share it with us?" Quatre said coldly. "I myself found it rather odd."
"Only because it was Dorothy that saved your boyfriend's life," Howard snorted. "She's been assisting the sweepers with a side project- debugging a new computer since Yuy here's been a little occupied with riots. Melvin was relaying readings from the colony to her computer, since none of us really had the time to spare to keep an eye on them. No doubt, she noticed energy spikes like those that kept showing up in Quadrant 2."
"No doubt," Trowa said slowly, as Lowell forced himself to relax. "That is the only reasonable explanation, since she's been on Earth this whole time, and couldn't possibly have planted explosives in the control room."
"I wouldn't put it past her to have tried," Quatre muttered harshly, and Lowell could feel himself tensing again as he tried to restrain the desire to punch the blond pilot; even knowing that that would have been a suicidal move, and undoubtedly his last. To his surprise, Relena put a hand on his shoulder silently.
"Quat," Trowa growled, "she's a Preventer now. Save the anger for our enemies."
"She is my enemy. It'll take more than a uniform to change her into a decent human being."
"Not that you would notice anyway." Lowell stood up with a scowl at the blond. "For someone with a functioning set of eyes, you have to be the blindest person I've ever had the misfortune to meet. If you will excuse me, Senator?" He turned away without waiting for a response, only to freeze as her hand tightened painfully on his shoulder.
"Quatre Raberba Winner..." Relena's voice was ice cold, but seemed to contain none of the restraint that he was trying desperately to hold onto. He couldn't help looking back at her in surprise. "I understand you and Dorothy do not like each other. However, she is my friend, and I would prefer that you not speak of her so- especially since she is not here to defend herself."
Quatre flinched slightly, and then seemed to realize that he had made the comment in front of Dorothy's partner as well.
"I apologize," he finally admitted grudgingly. "I was being unprofessional."
"You were being a prick." Relena rolled her eyes, then pushed past Lowell to head for the back of the shuttle. After a moment, Lowell followed her, though he waited until his back was to them again to grin at her words. Ignoring the four sets of eyes on his back, he followed Relena towards the back of the shuttle, where a wide-eyed Frost had been avidly watching the scene.
"Well... that was unpleasant," Relena sighed, as Lowell leaned wearily against the wall. "Though I've been saying the same damn thing to myself for weeks now, and it was nice to actually say it out loud to someone else."
He grunted noncommittally.
"I suppose you've heard that sort of thing a lot, being her partner?"
"Yes." Lowell sighed, looking at her ruefully. "Thank you, by the way. If I'd tried to say that... I probably would have punched him."
"And gotten yourself killed for your trouble," Howard said as he moved over to join them. Trowa was speaking quietly to several of the Preventers, but Heero and Quatre had vanished into the cockpit.
"That thought had occurred to me also."
"I hadn't realized it had gotten so bad," Relena said sadly. "Is it-do people feel that way about M...about Zechs?"
"They don't have a lot of friends," Lowell admitted slowly. "Mostly, they ignore what people say about them."
"And are you a friend?" Howard asked, eyeing Lowell over the top of his sunglasses.
"I... like to think so. Now, anyway." He shrugged a little. "Not when we first met, though." Lowell glanced up. "Are you?"
"I suppose I do qualify," Howard grinned.
"Don't let him fool you." Relena rolled her eyes again, before heading back for her seat. "He's the closest thing to a father Duo's ever had."
"Thank you for answering that question back there." Lowell eyed the older man evenly once they were alone. "I...was trying to think of something plausible."
"Well, I could hardly tell them the whole truth." Howard frowned. "I... assume you do know the truth, being their partner and all?"
"Some of it," Lowell admitted. "I don't know a lot, but I know enough to understand your comment about partners that can no longer hold guns."
Some of the tension left the old man. "Good. I rather thought you'd gotten that one. So how's my boy?"
"Your boy?"
"Duo. She wasn't kidding about him being family to me." The old man chuckled. "But last time I stopped by to see him, he was out in the field with you."
"He's alright." Lowell rubbed his head wearily, beginning to wish he knew a little more about his partners' interactions with this group. "We both got a little banged up, but we got the bad guys, so it was worth it."
"I thought you were walking a little stiffly earlier."
"Bullet graze." Lowell shrugged. "Duo had-mostly bruises."
"Mostly?" One gray eyebrow arched. "What aren't you telling me, boy?"
"What isn't my business to tell."
"Ah. Then I'm assuming he touched something he shouldn't have?" Howard sighed. "And you're right... that is something that should not be discussed here, not with so many ears to hear."
Lowell just stared at him in surprise, then nodded
"Well. Since they obviously trust you enough to share a few secrets, then I will trust that you are telling me the truth about Duo's condition."
"He... was tired but well enough, when I saw him a day ago."
"Thanks." Howard paused. "And don't worry too much about those four. Trowa is a good man to have at your back, and much as I hate to admit it, the others are all good at what they do. They just have the people skills of a yak that's been dead for four days."
"I'll keep that in mind." Lowell grinned ruefully.
Wufei raised one eyebrow as Quatre slammed into the co-pilot's seat, a scowl on his face.
"Something the matter?"
"No."
"Ah." Wufei glanced over his shoulder to see Heero slipping into the seat behind Quatre. "So what happened?"
"Quatre just got into an argument with Relena, Howard and Lowell." Heero shrugged.
"It was not an argument," Quatre growled.
"So what was the non-argument about?"
"Whether of not Catalonia has any redeeming qualities," Heero answered calmly, with the first traces of a smirk on his lips. "It would appear that she and Relena have made peace, anyway."
"Ah." Wufei shook his head. "I might have guessed it had something to do with her."
"Any luck getting through to someone at the colony?" Heero asked, changing the subject as he slipped the headset on.
"Nothing so far. Just that damn beacon."
"Odd."
Wufei just grunted an affirmative, then frowned thoughtfully. "You don't suppose there's any way to get hold of the diagrams and schematics for this station before we get there?"
"Howard might be able to manage that. Why?" Quatre snapped out of his sulk to focus on the problem at hand.
"It might be a good idea to figure out the fastest route to the medical center- and the control room- before we get there." Wufei glanced back at Heero. "Have Tro take a look at them. It certainly helped at the... at L2-v08997."
"Right." The headset landed on the console with a clatter as Heero vanished back out of the cockpit.
"So..." Wufei glanced back over at his lover. "How did the subject of Catalonia come up, anyway?"
TBC