Disclaimer: The characters belong to Sotsu, Sunrise, Bandai Entertainment, I neither claim them nor certainly make any money off them!
Pairing: 6x2
Rating: Lemony in places
Time Setting: Post-series, three years later (minus events in Ground Zero, Blind Target, Endless Waltz as when I started this, I hadn't seen or read about these yet)
Summary: A chance meeting leads to the recovery of a wounded heart.
Ginger Lyons left "Mr. Maxwell" in her office to start looking through the children's records, then went to a separate office to make a phone call. When the other party answered, she said curtly, "I need to speak to the Gardener."
A man's voice replied after a long pause. "I'm here."
"Sir. We have a Mr. Maxwell visiting here from the Justice Department on Earth for an audit."
"Damn. All right, well, we have prepared for this. You know the plan."
"Yes, sir."
"Maxwell... hmmm, heard that name recently. Oh, yeah... new employee on C-241. Not a coincidence, I'm thinking."
"A plant?" Ginger sounded startled. Were the children in danger? Despite her political affiliation, she was concerned about the orphans above all other considerations.
"Sounds like it. Damn. We don't have anyone on C-241 yet. Is the boss there right now?"
"Supposed to be. But you know how he is."
"Too well." The man's voice turned grim. "Well, see what you can do."
"One thing you need to know," Ginger said, her voice turning equally grim. "This Maxwell knows Peacecraft."
A pause. When the man spoke again, he sounded alarmed. "How? How well? Who is he?"
"I don't know, I couldn't ask him that! He said he had a great deal of respect for him, but strongly disagreed with some of his decisions."
The man snorted. "He's from Earth, of course he would say that. Anything else you can tell me about him?"
Ginger shrugged. She wasn't fond of the double role she held, but the long term goal seemed sound. "He's very young... but a professional, that much is certain. Nobody's fool. I don't think he sits behind a desk much."
In the other office, Heero had already tapped into the orphanage's computer network. He had perhaps a minute before the woman came back, so his fingers flew over the keyboard like frenzied birds. [Interesting,] he thought as he discovered something unusual. [Parallel files system... a backup? But one doesn't backup to the same server...] In seconds, he saw... and his heart sank. [Should have known... but it may not be as it appears. This is too little to go on... I suspect layers of things going on.] He shut the computer down and reopened a child's file folder in front of him. When Ginger returned, he appeared to be reading a profile of the child's medical history.
"Very complete records," Heero said smoothly when she came in. "Were you able to contact Mr. Peacecraft?"
Ginger sighed. "No, not yet. I was just about to get some coffee, would you like some?"
"Thank you, no," Heero murmured.
She picked up the phone and dialed. "I'll try the orphanage on C-241 again," she lied. "I didn't get an answer before."
Duo picked up the phone. "Peacegarden," he muttered, tapping at the keyboard in front of him, trying to wade through the orphanage's accounting program.
There was a pause - Ginger didn't recognize the voice. The new employee? "May I please speak to Mr. Peacecraft?"
"Who's calling, please?" Duo asked automatically as Cherry had instructed him. He had desk duty two hours a day.
"This is Miss Lyons from Peacegarden on C-125. I have a Mr. Maxwell here from the Justice Department on Earth to speak to Mr. Peacecraft." [Let's see if he flinches...]
"Hey, my name is Maxwell!" Duo chuckled. "No relation, I'm certain of that! Um, Justice Department, huh? What, is he being investigated or something?"
"Is he there or not?" Ginger sighed. [Where'd they get HIM?]
"No, not here today or tomorrow or next week," Duo replied blithely, still tapping at the keyboard. "Left the colony."
"He left the colony?" Ginger echoed, bewildered.
"Didn't I just say that?" Duo snickered. "Or else there's an echo in this phone..."
"You must contact him and have him call us," Ginger retorted.
"Can't do that. He didn't leave a number," Duo muttered. [Zechs, you better call soon... besides, I just want to hear your voice...]
"That's highly irregular..."
"Sorry, it's the best I can do. Although if it helps, he went to another colony to begin another orphanage."
"Which one?"
[The one that I'd be on this second, with him, if I knew,] Duo thought to himself morosely. "He didn't say." [And besides, lady, you're starting to piss me off...]
Heero reached for the phone. "May I?"
Ginger shrugged and handed over the receiver. Heero spoke into it, expecting a slow-witted secretary. "This is Maxwell of the Justice Department. If we don't speak to Mr. Peacecraft as soon as possible, the future of your organization may be in jeopardy and there will be arrests for obstruction of justice. Am I being clear enough?"
Duo hadn't heard most of what the man said. He held the receiver out and stared at it. "Heero?" he muttered, stunned. [The guy sounds just like Heero!]
Heero froze. [How...? Whoever it is, recognized my voice! How could that be?] "Hello? Do you understand, sir?" he said again more loudly.
Duo recovered quickly. "Yeah, yeah... you know, Maxwell, you sound just like this guy I know... and while we're chatting, my name is Maxwell, too. But, sorry, I really don't know where Peacecraft is."
[Duo!] Heero barely managed to keep his composure before the woman as he recognized the voice. [What the HELL is he doing there??] "I see," he murmured, his voice under perfect control. "Well, I will be visiting your facility next. We'll see then how your memory is doing. Here is Miss Lyons again." He handed over the receiver quickly. [Gotta contact him separately. How could he possibly be mixed up in all this? What if...? No... he'd never collaborate with them... would he?]
"Better get your records in order," Ginger was telling the person on the other end. "Talk to you later."
[Not if I can help it, bitch,] Duo thought as he hung up the phone. "Man, did that ever sound like... nah..." he muttered. Then he remembered - [That one school - Heero used my name... oh, shit, could that really have been him? Sure, and he's working for HER, the princess... oh, SHIT!]
While Heero Yuy pored over records and the accounting database Ginger made available to him on C-125, Duo Maxwell told Miss Cherry about the phone call.
"What's really weird, though," he added, running a hand over his face, "I think I know that guy. It really sounded like someone I used to know."
Cherry hardly heard him. "An investigation, oh, no! Why can't they leave us alone? There's nothing wrong going on here..."
"And that's what they'll find," Duo reassured her with a pat on the shoulder. "They really seemed eager to get ahold of Mr. Peacecraft, though."
"I'll have to call him," Cherry murmured. "We have an emergency communication system set up; I don't think the other facilities have anything similar. I insisted on it."
"You can call him now?" Duo's heart lifted, his face lighting up. [Maybe I'll get to talk to him!]
"Yeah, think I'd better," Cherry said, and pulled a box out from under her desk. She removed what Duo immediately recognized as the type of short-wave transmitter necessary to communicate between colonies. "This will activate his pager - oh, I hope he's wearing it. That man! I'll input a code to display on it, then he'll call us. Cross your fingers!"
To their relief, within five minutes the phone was ringing. Duo itched to answer it, but deferred to his supervisor.
"Mr. Peacecraft?" Cherry asked, then grinned when her boss's voice responded. "Sorry to interrupt you, but something important has come up. Here's Duo to tell you about it." She handed the phone receiver over, winking at the young man who gaped at her, startled. Then she heard a shout from a child down the hall. "Ooops, I'd better check on that!"
On C-152, Zechs paled in shock. Duo! What was he doing at the orphanage?? [I should be there myself,] he thought, recalling that the Children's Services director for the colony was still getting arrangements made to go there, though it was over a week later now. "Duo," he breathed into the phone, the emotions flooding back of their own volition. [Damn... I do want to see him...] "What are you doing there? What's going on?"
"Zechs..." Duo breathed in relief, glad he had a few moments to talk privately. "I stayed. Cherry has me doing all sorts of stuff, said you were short, I like the kids, you know, a job! Anyway, we needed to tell you that Peacegarden - all of the places, I guess - is under investigation from Earth."
Zechs was glad he was alone in his hotel room, and not sitting cooling his heels again in the Director's office. "What?! Great, that's going to jeopardize our application for a new orphanage on C-152..." Then he gritted his teeth as a thought occurred to him. "Relena!"
"Huh? Oh, her, yeah, you know, I'm pretty sure the investigator is Heero. He didn't identify himself, but it sounded just like him... and he's calling himself 'Maxwell'. Heh, he's done that before..."
"Heero!" Zechs was further stunned. "Well, it's not like I have anything to hide. Relena must have gotten word that I was alive. She'd trust Heero to find out. I trust him, Duo. He'll be thorough and will reassure her that her crazy brother isn't still an evil bastard. Hmph."
Duo heard the note of self-derision. "Which you *aren't*... listen, I hope you're not too pissed that I weaseled my way in here..."
"Why should I be?" Zechs asked, genuinely surprised, to Duo's relief. "I'm... honored you joined our little enterprise there. I know you'll be good with the children. I... trust you with them." Again the emotion. [I shouldn't care so much about him,] Zechs thought, hating himself for losing control of his heart so completely.
Duo heard the nuance, and felt a twinge of empathy... and love. "Zechs... I..." [Oh, damn, don't tell him! He's not ready...] "I... I'm honored, too." He shut up before he said anything to drive Zechs further away. [You won't let me love you yet, Zechs,] he thought, his head bowed over the phone as he rocked in the chair. [But, oh, I want to...]
[His voice,] Zechs wondered, hearing the unspoken plea. [Is it too late? Has he fallen for me? Damn it... I didn't want this to happen. Oh, sweet Duo...] "Don't worry about the investigation," he murmured. "I will return in a couple days at the most. The director of Children's Services here on C-152 wants to visit, though I might be able to stall her visit until this is over. They're always so wary at first... you'd think I'd get used to it..." Again, the self-derision.
"Don't talk like that!" Duo snapped. Then he fell silent, appalled that he'd raised his voice.
Zechs took a deep breath, then murmured, "There's a better way to do this."
Duo jumped as a beeping came from the computer. It was the transmission program. Gulping, Duo hoped his hair wasn't too all over the place as he answered the video call.
"Duo," Zechs breathed as the young face of the former Gundam pilot came on his screen. "It is good to see you. I regret... my precipitous departure."
The boy drank in the sight of the man he was coming to love so deeply. "Zechs, ah, hi... yeah, good to see you, too. They kinda miss you around here." [But not half as much as I do... I'd just started to get to know you!]
"And I miss everyone there." There was a slight emphasis on "everyone". Zechs smiled. "You're plenty lively enough to keep up with the children for me, even Deener."
Duo found himself blushing. [Lively! Well, in bed, he matched me for "liveliness" right down the line - erk, Maxwell, don't think about that now!] "So how do you think your sister found out you were alive?"
"I have no idea," Zechs murmured, sighing. "It doesn't matter. I have always known this was inevitable. It's why I have a central accounting system for all of my facilities. So that the books could be kept current to the minute."
"Heh, no wonder I wasn't having any luck with it," Duo chuckled. "Cherry had asked me to input some stuff for her, but I think she forgot to give me a password." When the other man looked down suddenly, a look of worry on his lean, handsome face, Duo frowned and unconsciously leaned closer. "Zechs, do you really trust Heero? I mean, you and he..."
Zechs blew out his breath and nodded, looking back up again. His internal difficulty did not lie with the investigation, his sister, or Heero Yuy, but with the beauty on his viewscreen. [I want to love him so much...] "Yes, we were enemies, fighting against one another... but I spared his life... then he spared mine... then I saved his life... and he saved the Earth. All disharmony between us had been swept away. I trust him intrinsically... and I know that were I to meet him face to face right now, I would speak only the truth to him and Heero Yuy would believe me."
"Sounds kinda... metaphysical to me," Duo murmured. [Huh, it almost sounds like there was something else between them. What if... Nah... no way!]
"It is," Zechs answered simply. There was no other explanation. Heero was his complete equal and match as a soldier and fighter pilot. It was as if they were twinned in spirit somehow. "Do you know him well, Duo?" [Perhaps Heero could give my sweet Duo the love he deserves, the love I dare not give him...]
[Oh, shit, there *is* something more between them!] Duo thought, his heart sinking. [Damn - how can I compete with Heero?] "Eh, well enough to know the guy's barely human," he replied casually. [Heh, he doesn't know the Heero I know - the one who is so far from normal, he might as well be a robot sometimes... and who is way too anal about his missions...] "What do you need to know?"
Zechs looked puzzled. "Me? Nothing, I told you I trust him." [Why haven't they hooked up together before this?] "But I'm wondering..." He wasn't sure if he should dare to suggest it, but he had to know. "I'm surprised you and Heero aren't... together."
Duo gaped at the screen. "Me? With HIM?" Then he threw back his head and started to laugh, although half of it was a put on. "Heero with ANYONE is just too ludicrous for words! Hee, hee, tell me another good one, Zechs!"
"Duo..." Zechs whispered.
The boy sobered instantly and looked at the screen again. "Z...Zechs?"
The sorrow on the man's face was almost more than he could bear. "I guess I was hoping... that there might be someone out there who could give you the love you deserve, Duo." There was a brief, intense look of longing, then the beautiful crystalline eyes closed.
Duo gulped, his eyes wide. [There is, there is! I have to tell him now...] "There is," he whispered back, fingertips touching the screen reverently. "And I'm looking at him."
"No... you mustn't!" Zechs snapped, then his face transformed into something Duo had never seen. "You mustn't love *me*, Duo Maxwell! There can be no love for the likes of me, not now, not *ever*!" He was up to a roar by now. "Good-bye!"
Far from dismayed, Duo sat back in the chair, smirking to himself as he shut off the transmission. "Looks like the battle has just begun... Heero, I may need to count on you for a little favor, old buddy..."