Chapter Text
Heero lowered himself onto a chair in the cool shade of Cathy’s trailer, with a groan of relief. He’d been working with Wufei in the grass for over an hour with those small ping-pong balls before Relena had interrupted.
‘Kinda wish she hadn’t…’ Heero winced. Slouching down in his seat, Heero closed his eyes, letting his head rest against the back.
“I’m sorry,” Relena said softly, and he sensed her moving towards him a second before her cool fingers trail along his temple and into his hair.
Heero tipped his head into her hand, opening his eyes a crack. Relena leaned over the arm of her chair next to him. Her concern for him flowed prominently through their bond and pulled her eyebrows together as she watched him.
“Not your fault,” he muttered.
“No,” Wufei said, clipped tone in clear agreement as he stepped out of Cathy’s trailer. “It’s yours,” that last he directed entirely at Heero as he passed him a cold bottle of water.
Heero accepted both the bottle and the chastisement without comment. He hadn’t gone into this lesson with Wufei, intending to push himself too far. ‘OZ demanded so much more than this…’ he thought with disgust, as he brought the sweaty bottle to his left temple.
‘They never asked for a light touch…’ Heero reasoned, although still unable to swallow back his disappointment with himself entirely.
Cracking the seal on the bottle, Heero forced himself to sit straighter as he brought the plastic to his lips. He swallowed the icy liquid quickly, that first sip awakening a thirst he’d somehow ignored. A gasp escaped Heero when Relena reached over to press her own bottle against the side of his neck.
The warmth of Relena’s affection for him was still an odd sensation for Heero. But perhaps odder still, was that feeling which he recognized now as concern. Being able to sense Relena’s emotions within himself, Heero knew what he saw in her expression was genuine.
Looking into Relena’s aqua coloured eyes, Heero saw the way her lips tip up in a smile just for him. That expression ignited his pulse, and he brought the water bottle back to his temple. He couldn’t remember a time in his life that he’d seen genuine concern on the face of anyone dealing directly with him.
Relena leaned a little closer to his face, peering into his eyes, before she suddenly withdrew her water bottle from his neck and shifted to the edge of her seat. “Wait here,” she said with a note of authority in her voice.
As Relena made her way up the stairs to go inside Cathy’s trailer, Heero heard Wufei clear his throat, and he looked over. Wufei was sitting on the edge of his chair, still partially in the sun, as the shadows slowly elongated with the setting sun. Dark eyes regarded Heero critically, “I told you control takes patience, didn’t I?” he asked with a raised brow.
Heero took a slow pull from his bottle of water before mutely nodding his head.
“Pushing yourself past your limits won’t get you there faster,” Wufei continued with a pointed look. “And this isn’t just a lecture,” he continued, briefly pointing a finger Heero’s way. “I’ve pushed myself past limits trying to rush to get somewhere I thought I needed to be.”
Shifting in his seat, Heero drew a breath. “It wasn’t intentional,” he admitted. When Wufei had explained what it was he’d wanted, Heero had nearly rolled his eyes with impatience. He hadn’t realized until they’d started passing the ping-pong balls back and forth how much effort and concentration the act would actually take.
Wufei got up only to shift his chair into the shadows, so he could more easily look at Heero. “It doesn’t need to be intentional, for it to set you back,” Wufei said with all seriousness, but his expression softened a little, one side of his mouth pulling up in a slight smirk. “I’m speaking from personal experience.”
“I joined the military straight out of high school,” Wufei explained, relaxing back in his seat, “I can admit now, I had a bit of a chip on my shoulder.” His expression grew a little distant, his mouth twisting into what Heero thought might have been an amused smile. “I was always rather small for my age, and felt because of that I needed to outlast everyone around me, prove that I deserved to be there.”
Heero listened curiously, watching Wufei intently as he spoke. Once again, seeing a new side to this often stern looking man.
Wufei drew a breath, his dark eyes suddenly staring at Heero’s face. “I remember one time specifically well,” his mouth compressed like he’d suddenly remember a foul taste, “probably because it was a hard lesson to swallow. There was this course, a difficult trek through a mountainous section of forest.” Wufei pointed a finger towards Heero. “Full pack,” he added with a smirk.
“They gave us six hours to make it from start to finish, the record for that course being just under five hours. I was convinced I needed to complete it in less.” Wufei took a drink from his own water bottle, and as he pulled the sweating plastic from his lips, he stared at the clear liquid for a moment.
“I wasn’t told until well after that the record holder for that course had only managed it by ignoring what his body needed, and nearly killing himself.” Wufei huffed a dry laugh. “It’s not a record I’m proud to have broken, but it taught me a valuable lesson. Listen to your body and what it needs. Don’t try to impress the people around you, or worry about disappointing them if you somehow think you can’t live up to expectations.”
Heero considered the other man’s words for a moment. ‘Is that what happened?’ He looked across the way to the patch of grass where they'd been working. ‘Was I afraid of falling short?’ His mind cast back unbidden to the ‘exercises’ OZ had demanded of him in the beginning, and he shivered at the memory.
“I…” Heero began, but halted when he felt a swell of affection and concern flare in the back of his mind from Relena. Glancing towards the door to Cathy’s trailer, he watched as she came back outside carrying a white cloth in her right hand.
Relena smiled as she came to a stop beside him and draped what he quickly realized was a cold, damp cloth across the back of his neck, pressing it there firmly with her hand. “Cold always helps my headaches,” she said with a smile.
Heero shivered from the cold of the cloth, but immediately found that he appreciated its presence on the back of his neck. “Thanks,” he told her softly, and saw her eyes sparkle with the pleasure he could feel radiate from her. Trailing her fingers lightly through his hair, Relena retook her seat between himself and Wufei.
“You were saying?” the other man prompted after a moment of silence.
Blinking, Heero drew a breath, his mind once more drawing up memories he’d just as soon forget. “I didn’t realize,” Heero began again, voice hollow sounding to his own ears, “how much harder it is to not crush something…”
Wufei nodded in understanding, “When you’re used to flexing a muscle to its limit, it takes a conscious effort to dial it back, and just use what the occasion calls for.”
Relena’s hand came to rest on Heero’s wrist, drawing his eyes to her. She was watching him thoughtfully, and he thought the emotions at the back of his mind—faded by the headache—were curious. “It’s not like you have no control,” she said, giving him a knowing look and a sweet smile.
He knew immediately what she was referring to. Even without the aid of her feelings spiking with excitement in his head. Or the way her heart rate rose at the memory of how he’d lifted her in that motel room. Heero stared at her. He’d done that with far more ease than handling the ping-pong balls that Wufei tossed over.
“Control,” Wufei said, leaning back in his chair with a thoughtful expression, “can come in flashes, but it takes work to learn it fully and maintain it.” He glanced Heero’s way, “Which is precisely why I chose ping-pong balls.”
“Because they’re so easy to crush?” Heero asked, slouching back down in his chair, and trapping the damp cloth against his neck. It was slowly warming against his skin, but still pleasant with his headache.
Wufei chuckled softly, “I was going to say, because they’re plentiful here, and inexpensive.” He sobered quickly and levelled Heero with a stern look, “You didn’t crush any today, but I don’t want you to take it as a defeat if later you do.”
Heero let his eyes fall closed, the pain in his head flaring a little more aggressively. “Failure…” he muttered, unable to forget his more recent failures at the hands of OZ. ‘They always wanted more. It wasn’t enough that I could kill and destroy. They needed more every time.’ Heero’s left hand clenched on the edge of the armrest.
“Never liked the word failure,” Wufei said with a thoughtful note to his voice. “Too often it just makes people give up, rather than keep trying. You’re learning, so don’t put further pressure on yourself by having to be perfect all the time.”
“I won’t,” Heero said after a moment. Relaxing his left hand, he brought it to his forehead to massage his brow. The cloth Relena had brought out to him no longer felt cold at all. Pain, which had been ignorable, was now building to something Heero couldn’t push aside.
He heard the door to Trowa’s trailer open and pried open an eye to watch as Sally came down the steps. The doctor crossed the short distance to where they sat and stopped directly in front of Heero. Her blue eyes regarding him critically.
“Looks like you’ve given yourself a superb headache,” Sally said, leaning closer. Heero pulled himself a straighter in his seat, wondering how it was she could tell. “Here,” she added, holding out a small white bottle, “It’s just Tylenol, but it should help a little.”
Heero opened his mouth to reply, but Wufei’s voice spoke up first. “He doesn’t need that,” the other man said firmly. He reached across Relena to pull Sally’s hand back. “What he does need is to listen to his body,” Wufei said pointedly, sending a level look Heero’s way. “Let this be a reminder,” he added, leaning back in his chair again.
“That’s not fair,” Relena said with some surprise to her voice, and Heero could feel both her shock and concern for him flare in his mind.
Wufei’s chuckle was smooth and deep. “Life is almost never fair,” he told Relena calmly.
Heero could feel Relena readying herself to argue with Wufei on his behalf. He could sense her indignation and determination, along with a healthy dose of that concern for him. ‘She truly cares,’ the thought struck Heero profoundly. Reaching across his body with his left hand, Heero drew Relena’s attention to him, just as she was about to speak.
“I’m alright,” he told her, letting his lips tip up in a smile as he spoke. Glancing at Wufei, Heero couldn’t imagine an argument that would change the other man’s mind, at least if the set of Wufei’s jaw was any sign.
Relena turned away from Wufei to give Heero an unexpectedly level look. “You thought you were alright a half hour ago,” she told him bluntly, but her lips turned up in a slight smile as she looked into his eyes.
“His headache isn’t hurting you is it?” Sally asked as she dragged a fourth chair into the stretching shade, putting herself close to Wufei but in front of Heero and Relena.
The question brought Heero up a little, and he looked from the doctor to Relena. Heero could not close the door in his mind that let Relena in, and while he’d stopped trying after the first few days, he felt his heart rate pick up a little at the thought that his pain could hurt her. But Relena offered him another smile and slowly shook her head before looking at her friend.
“I don’t feel the physical pain of it,” she said, like this connection he’d forced on her was the most normal thing in the world. “But I know it’s there, and I can tell it’s a pretty bad one,” she added, looking back to Heero and squeezing his arm.
Heero shifted in his chair, pushing himself up straight. Bringing his water bottle to his lips, he swallowed down a few cooling mouthfuls. “Maybe you ought to lie down for a bit,” Relena suggested, her eyes watching him intently.
He considered the suggestion for a moment. ‘Is it worth getting up?’ Heero suspected that would get his head pounding again. He glanced through his lashes at the people sitting around him, all watching him.
Finally, Heero tipped his chin towards his chest and shifted to the edge of his seat. Getting up made his head pound in time with his heart, and Heero was vaguely aware of Relena coming to her feet beside him.
Making his way up the stairs to Cathy’s trailer, Heero was a step inside when he realized Relena was right behind him. He stopped, looking back at her. “I’ll be alright,” he assured her, letting a little of the warmth he felt for Relena show on his face.
She smiled at him, and stepped closer, nudging him back towards the room they’d been sharing since arriving at the circus. “Of that I have no doubt,” Relena told him softly, “but the least I can do is make sure you’re as comfortable as possible.”
There was something about Relena’s expression as she continued nudging him, and Heero smirked at her, allowing himself to be directed towards the bed. He didn’t need to be told to remove his shoes before he sat down on the edge of the mattress. Relena climbed on with him, though she immediately shifted around behind him.
The sound of her heart filled Heero’s mind for a moment, her affection for him, overriding the pain of his headache for a brief time as Relena placed a hand on either shoulder and leaned in close to his left ear. “Take off your shirt,” she whispered, voice huskier than Heero remembered. Her lips brushed against the edge of his ear.
Heero shivered at the contact, so lightly ghosting, but he reached for the collar of his shirt and drew it over his head. While his arms were still inside the material, Relena’s hands came to rest on his neck. Warm fingers began massaging at the skin around the base of his neck, and Heero shut his eyes tipping his head forward to give Relena better access.
He wasn’t sure how long he sat there, Relena’s fingers massaging at his neck. Her touch was gentle at first, soft skin pressing at muscles hard and knotted, and Heero groaned as Relena worked at a tight area.
It felt good, the pain in his head ebbing away. Heero could focus more easily on the pleasure Relena was feeling, her emotions fuelled no doubt by his decreased pain levels. And that only fed back into his pleasure.
It was an endless loop where Relena was concerned. Heero was never sure whose emotions were stronger in his own mind at moments like this, his own, or Relena’s. Each seemed to amplify the other.
Heero sat a little straighter when he felt Relena’s lips press lightly against the back of his neck, her hands shifting down to his shoulders. She kissed him again, her lips moving just a touch lower on his neck before she lifted them and kissed him a third time. The touch was so light and yet somehow made his entire body zing with electricity.
“Lay down,” Relena breathed, lips back at his ear again, and he could both hear and feel the pleased smile of her lips.
Turning towards her face, Heero met Relena’s lips with his own. He kissed her, and in that moment, he poured his appreciation for Relena into the bond they shared. Her lips turn up into a smile against Heero’s mouth a second before she pulled back. Relena stared deeply into his eyes. “Lay down,” she encouraged again, and Heero shifted to obey.
He stretched out on his stomach, head turned towards his right shoulder, while Relena knelt by his left side. Her warm hands were soon working the muscles at the base of his neck and out across his shoulders. Heero lay there, listening to the sound of Relena’s heart, and losing himself in the feel of her hands slowly working out the knots in his neck and shoulders.
Heero drew in a shuddered breath when Relena’s lips ghosted from the base of his neck, slowly down between his shoulder blades. She pressed a smile against the middle of his back before lightly kissing him again. “I like knowing just how much you enjoy this,” she breathed, the warmth of her breaths electrifying his entire body.
Relena’s heightened emotions swirled inside Heero’s head, feeding into his own pleasure and desire. A fire burned inside him. Deep, smouldering flames, fanned to life by Relena’s touch, urged him into action.
Unable to lie still any longer, Heero lifted his head from the pillow and twisted towards Relena. Her eyes widened in surprise, a soft gasp escaping her, as Heero moved to place himself over her.
“Hey,” she pouted, looking up at him, “I wasn’t finished yet,” she admonished, her cheeks flushing with a rosy colour.
Heero stared into her eyes, hearing the thundering of her heart. It beat nearly in time with his own. “I’m feeling much better now,” he told her in voice, rough with the desire he could no longer contain, “thanks.”
“So I can see….” Relena chuckled a little, tipping her head to one side for a moment as though listening. “And feel,” she added, looking at him through her lashes.
The rush of Relena’s emotions, twisting through his own, embolden Heero, and he lowered himself a little closer to Relena’s face. “It’s my turn,” he told her with a slight smirk.
Relena’s hands came up to rest on his sides, her fingers lightly trailing along his skin, causing him to shiver again. “Your turn,” she said, looking up into his eyes, “for what?”
“To feel your enjoyment,” he told her, lowering himself to her waiting lips, and was unsurprised when Relena rose to meet him.
Trowa leaned back from his computer, stretching arms out in front of him, interlocking his fingers until his joints popped. He’d spent much of the afternoon and evening digging through various reports and files from about ten years back. Anything and everything he could find that this Dr. Null had worked on even peripherally.
The man was a rather little known military doctor, at least at first glance. Trowa got the feeling Dr. Null did much to keep his name from circulating as far as it rightly should have, given all the projects he worked on, and some ideas he sparked in other people’s works. Frequency training for soldiers was really just the tip of the iceberg that Trowa uncovered.
“Interesting reading?” Sally asked from the end of the table where she’d been enjoying a cold beer, while Wufei prepared dinner for the three of them.
“You could say that,” he replied mildly, and saw Sally immediately roll her eyes towards the ceiling. Trowa smirked internally. It was just too easy to get a rise out of her. Leaning back in his seat, Trowa regarded the doctor with a calm expression. “Do you recall what part you played in Dr. Null’s study, beyond reading the proposal?”
Sally chewed her lip for a moment in thought. “Hard to say,” she admitted after a moment. “I may have been the one to perform entrance exams for the soldiers they were looking to study. But it was ten years ago…”
“They say memory is the first thing to go…” Trowa commented dryly.
Receiving a glare from Sally, and a, “Tread softly, Barton,” from Wufei.
“There were about sixty soldiers in this study, mostly Black Ops,” Trowa reminded Sally, and explain to Wufei. “They split the sixty into three groups, one for control, and they separated the other two so they could test two theories Dr. Null had. The first being that soldiers could be trained to respond to a certain frequency and deescalate, to calm them during or after a tough mission.”
Trowa’s mouth twisted as his eyes looked back at his laptop’s screen, “The second theory was to use frequency training, but rather than aim for calming a soldier, he was exploring using it more like a shock collar.”
“How so?” Sally asked, leaning her arms on the table, expression intense. “I know frequency unheard by the ear can still have a significant effect on the human body,” she added, propping her chin on her left hand.
“Dr. Null was attempting to condition the soldiers, to have a strong aversion to a very specific frequency. One that could force them to stop and pull back when heard.” Trowa pulled a hand down his face, glancing towards Wufei who had turned to face them.
“A lot of soldiers went too far, in the name of justice…” Wufei said bitterly, before turning back to what he was cooking.
Sally reached out a hand across the way, whisking her fingers down the outside of Wufei’s right arm. Trowa saw his friend extending his fingers a little to touch Sally’s hand as it passed. For Wufei, that was as much as anyone else hugging a person tight.
“I’m assuming this practice never made it past the first study,” Sally said, turning her attention back to Trowa, “or I’d be more familiar with it than I am.”
“No, the concern was, what if our enemies discovered this frequency?” Trowa lifted a hand, in a mild shrug, “It would leave our soldiers vulnerable. And in the end I get the distinct impression, the higher ups weren’t so concerned about the occasional loss of civilian life, if they took their target out…”
Wufei muttered something dark under his breath at that and began serving up the meal onto plates. Trowa accepted his placing it down beside his laptop, but didn’t immediately eat. “I found one other thing in my search that especially caught my eyes,” he said, glancing towards Sally, who shifted aside to make some room for Wufei to sit down with his own meal.
“Which is?” she asked briefly, leaning her shoulder into Wufei’s before picking up her fork.
“You said Heero heals remarkably fast,” Trowa began. It had been one of the first things Wufei had told him about the strange young man, just after the signal jammer had somehow caused him to lose consciousness.
Sally nodded, her lips compressing in a line. “If I had to estimate how much faster…” she shrugged a little, “it’s got to be close to ten times faster than any of us here.”
Trowa reached for his laptop, fingers dancing over the keys before his left index finger settled on the touchpad. “I found a report that mentioned something about advanced healing. It was much harder to find than anything else Dr. Null’s name’s attached to so far, and perhaps more interesting. What I’ve uncovered is heavily redacted.”
“I thought you prided yourself on being able to find the original copy of anything…” Wufei took a slight jab at his friend.
“Hmmm…” Trowa muttered, eyeing the other man for one unimpressed minute before his attention returned to his computer screen. “What I can piece together is Dr. Null was doing something that increased the body’s ability to heal.”
“Does it mention anything about the body experiencing a fever?” Sally asked rather suddenly.
Trowa eyed her, “You’ve read the report?” he asked, leaning back in his seat. “That surprises me. You didn’t have clearance for this.”
Sally shook her head slightly. “I only have a vague memory of finding a report once on my desk, among other documents I’d requested,” she explained. “Ever since that first motel, I’ve been trying to remember more of the report, but really just one line stands out.”
“Subject exhibits low grade pyrexia, thirty-six hours after first incision?” Trowa asked, not needing to read off the screen the sentence that fit the bill.
“Yes,” she said, voice holding evident surprise.
Trowa shrugged, “There really isn’t much beyond that sentence which makes much sense, so they have redacted much of it.” Sliding out from the table, Trowa stepped over to his fridge and withdrew a bottle of beer. “Anyone else want one?” he asked, just as Wufei reached across the table to snag the bottle Trowa was holding.
“Don’t mind if I do,” his friend said dryly, as he opened the bottle.
Returning to the table with his own drink, Trowa could see the wheels turning in Sally’s expression. Her hand was shifting the food on her plate absently, “It couldn’t be a coincidence, this Dr. Null’s work, and what they did to Heero…” she blinked, glancing from Trowa to Wufei and back again. “Could it?”
“I tend not to believe in coincidences,” Trowa said mildly, before opening his beer and taking a refreshing pull. “I take it Heero exhibited a fever on top of the fast healing?” he asked, though he already assumed the answer was yes.
No surprise Sally nodded her head, “Seemed to be a mild one. I tried asking him if that was a normal experience for him. But got little in the way of an answer out of him.” She shook her head. “I have no idea what all Heero even knows about what they did to him, given the fact that he didn’t realize his healing was abnormal….” she trailed off, glancing at Wufei. “has he said anything to you?”
“I haven’t been prying,” Wufei replied, pushing aside his empty plate, “I’ve just been teaching him control.”
Sally’s eyes came back to Trowa, and she dropped her fork. “Can you find out where Dr. Null is now?” she asked intently.
Trowa placed his own fork aside and took up his beer bottle again. “Possibly,” he replied vaguely, taking a sip of his beer. He didn’t bother telling Sally he’d already begun the search. Curiosity was a powerful motivator.
“My gut tells me Dr. Null either knows, or could shed some light on Heero,” Sally said, brow knitting together in thought.
“Maybe you’re just hungry…” Trowa suggested as he retook up his own fork. Wufei’s talents in the kitchen were excellent. The struggle was getting him to put out the effort.
‘If looks could kill,’ Trowa mused, lips turning up in a satisfied smile. ‘I might just be mortally wounded…’ He took a drink of his own beer.
“You continue to be hilarious…” Sally muttered with a dangerous note in her voice.
Trowa nodded his head, in acceptance of the compliment, “I do what I can,” he told her honestly, and watched lips twitching to smile as Sally tossed up her hands in utter frustration.
“That report on frequency training,” Wufei spoke up into the tense silence that followed. “Does it say which frequencies they used?”
Trowa glanced at his laptop’s screen, though it wasn’t necessary for him to remember what he’d read on the report. He nodded his head again. “They were experimenting with various frequencies to elicit a calming effect for the first group of soldiers,” he replied.
“What about the ‘shock collar’ as you called it?” Wufei asked, leaning back in his seat, right hand idly twisting his bottle of beer on the table.
“That was more specific, a targeted frequency of 1.9GHz,” Trowa replied, taking a sip of his drink.
Wufei’s expression was thoughtful as he glanced towards the counter and some of Trowa’s equipment. “That’s similar to what your signal jammer puts out, isn’t it?” he asked, looking back at Trowa.
He glanced over to the device in his stack near the sink, and Trowa felt an eyebrow rise on his face. But it was Sally who spoke up. “What kept you from putting that together?”
Letting her comment slide without reaction, Trowa considered what they knew so far. There was no question Heero had had a strong adverse reaction that first night, and it had seemed to pass the two separate times Trowa turned the jammer off. ‘Could still possibly be a coincidence,’ he mused. Rarely did two occurrences establish anything as fact.
“We knew they had to have some way of keeping control of him,” Trowa mused aloud, eyes still looking at the stack of equipment.
“Did you find any potential connections between Dr. Null and OZ?” Wufei asked calmly.
Trowa looked over to his friend, “Nothing so concrete as his name on their payroll,” he quipped dryly. “But the man was receiving funding from more than just the military for his research. I haven’t taken the time to backtrack the sources, but I’ve seen enough of shell games over the years to recognize them pretty quick.”
“The military was probably more than happy to accept funding from OZ,” Wufei said with obvious bitterness, “doubt they’d have even asked a single question…”
Wufei’s cynicism towards the military was no surprise to Trowa. Nor to Sally who, leaned a little closer to Wufei letting their shoulders touch, comfortably. “You said that first night,” Sally began, blue eyes seeking Trowa’s face, “that OZ was attempting to recreate humanity, specifically to create weapons?”
Trowa shrugged, “Anyone who believes their motives are pure is deluding themselves.”
“If Heero was truly their first and only success,” Sally mused thoughtfully, “there must be something unique about him.”
“You can’t study him,” Wufei said bluntly, though there was no heat to his words.
“Not like I have any of the equipment I’d need anyway,” the doctor returned dryly.
Wufei looked at her pointedly, “And if you did?” he asked, but didn’t give her a chance to reply. “Don’t you think he’s been through enough already?”
“I’m not suggesting that what was done to him should be studied so it can be done again,” Sally was quick to say. “But what sort of stress is placed on his mind and body because of what he can do?” she shook her head slowly. “I don’t want to turn him into a test subject, but I can’t deny I want to understand what he does and what it does to him.”
Trowa eyed the doctor for a moment, “I get the impression, he’s not exactly comfortable in your presence. Doctors all look the same to him, perhaps?” he asked with a raised brow.
It was Wufei’s turn to smirk, “Don’t think that’s entirely the problem,” he began bumping his shoulder lightly against Sally’s. “She tried to separate him from Relena before we got here.”
Sally’s brow knit together into a healthy frown and she shot a dangerous look Wufei’s way, who seemed as unaffected as Trowa felt on the receiving end. “I have legitimate concerns about the two of them,” she defended.
Glancing towards the door of his trailer, Trowa’s eyes focused through the screen to Cathy’s home across the way, and the lights he could see on in her windows. She’d been more than happy to take the young couple into her home and look after them. Trowa was a little concerned about how attached Cathy was becoming to Heero and Relena.
‘At least she isn’t sharing some mental link with either of them.’ As strange as it had been to see Heero levitate a bottle that first night, finding out Relena could somehow sense what Heero was feeling had seemed that much stranger.
‘Heero’s the one who had his brain messed with. But somehow he creates a link with Relena? Could he do it with anyone?’ Trowa rubbed a hand against his cheek, eyes narrowing in thought.
There had been actual relief—not that he would ever have admitted it—when Trowa realized Heero wasn’t actually telepathic. ‘Don’t think he would have cared for my appraisal of Relena…’
“That connection they share…..” Trowa muttered softly, speaking mostly to himself.
“Right?!” Sally agreed, her tone drawing Trowa’s attention back to the far end of the room. “I need to understand what’s happening there,” the doctor said adamantly. “Relena’s far more open about what she experiences than Heero’s been, but I don’t think she’s taking this seriously enough.”
“It hasn’t appeared to hurt either of them,” Wufei reasoned slowly. “If anything, I think it’s been beneficial, at least where Heero’s concerned,” he shrugged his right shoulder slightly.
Sally eyed Wufei, looking less than pleased, before she released a breath and leaned back from the table. “What do you have planned for tomorrow?” she asked him.
Wufei took a drink from his beer, appearing to consider the question for a moment. “After what happened today, I wasn’t planning on letting him do anything too strenuous,” he replied, fingers of his left hand absently fussing at the bottle’s label. “Why? What did you have in mind?”
“I’d like to try speaking to him,” she said with some determination, “but I suspect it’ll go easier if you do more of the talking.”
“You want me to be the middleman…” Wufei said flatly, and Trowa knew from experience just how much his friend loathed that position.
The doctor huffed a breath. “Don’t make this sound so awful,” she fumed with a shake of her head. “It’s not like I won’t speak to him myself. If I thought he’d be comfortable enough to answer my questions, you know I’d be the one asking them.”
“True,” Wufei concede, before finally nodded his head. “I’m actually a little surprised you haven’t tried on your own already. You used to be very good at handling difficult patients,” he told her with a small smirk.
Sally’s lips tipped up into a smile as she leaned against Wufei’s shoulder. “Some are more difficult than others.”