"Don't shoot him!"

Heero looked up at her in surprise and she could hear Duo remark

"What is it with this girl and saving people who want to kill her?"

Relena rushed up to check on the attacker, fearing that she'd accidentally wounded him badly. She didn't like the way his head was angled.

"That kind of justice is for those with the proper authority to dispense it. I won't have you killing him needlessly Heero. I-"

As a Gundam pilot, Heero KNEW when someone no longer numbered among the living. The man (who could have been his twin) sprawled at his feet was one such. Heero tried to move in time to prevent Relena from catching sight of-

Too late.

Relena looked down at the form lying so still on the pavement. He wasn't breathing, his eyes were staring...

The not-Heero and, now that she looked around, his compatriots were all not moving. At all. Could they be-? It looked like they were all...dead. Dead. They were all dead.

The blood drained from her face, leaving it an unbelievable pale chalk-white. The realization of exactly what she was staring at hit her. Heero had worked throughout the wars to save her from that terrible knowledge, now it looked like all of his efforts were in vain. She looked so fragile, standing there.

<I don't want to see this. I don't want to see this. Please don't let me see this. Oh, god please don't let them be->

Relena was trembling, staring at the lifeless body of the man she had just killed.

<Oh God. OhGod. Ohgodohgodohgodohgod...> her mind babbled and she stared at his dead eyes helplessly. <I don't want to see this. I don't want to see this. I don't want to see this.I don't want to see this. I don't want to see this. I don't want to see this.>

Unconciously, Relena had wrapped her arma around herself and started rocking and shaking uncontrolably. She was going into shock.

Heero saw this and moved to cure it the best way he knew how. Direct physical stimulation.

He slapped her.

Not hard enough to hurt her, just hard enough to get her attention. Then he gently turned her face away from the sight of the corpse cooling on the asphalt. The spell broken, Relena burrowed into the closest source of comfort she could find. She buried her head in Heero's shoulder trying to escape the image burned into her eyelids. But the expected relieving tears did not come.

"Why'd you hit me?" she asked, her voice sounding small and lost almost child-like, muffled by his denim jacket.

"You were going into shock," he said succinctly. He could feel her body shaking.

"Is he really dead?"

Heero looked over her head at Noin for confirmation. Noin nodded, but gestured Heero to wait a minute, it looked like she had a haunch. Noin opened the mouth of the nearedt victim and shone a flashlight in.

"Cynide capsules," she muttered. "I'd recognize that almond smell anywhere. 'Nothing like the lunatic fringe to make a hard job even worse. By the looks of it, the blows delivered by Miss Relena were only just barely enough to render them unconcious, not kill them. It looks like it was a suicide squad."

"Oh, how wonderful," Relena muttered into Heero's jacket. "Someone hates me enough to hire the professionals."

Heero smirked, she was appently feeling well enough to make remarks so she must be getting better. Oddly enough, part of him was reluctant to let go of her so soon. Not that he could have, Relena was holding him in a death grip. It would have taken a crow-bar and a miracle to get her to release her grip on him at that very moment (not that he was complaining!)

"Heero, take ojousan inside," said Duo. "The police are gonna want to file a report so they'll have some questions for her. Besides, it's cold out here and I don't want her catching her d-"

Heero glared. "Don't say it. Not right now."

"Right. Sorry," said Duo. He was privately grinning inside. Heero might say that he didn't care about Relena beyond that of her occupation, but look who was treating her oh-so-gently.

Relena seemed to gather herself up as she was moved from the runway back into the Headquarters building. By the time she reached the doorway she had roused enough strength to lift her head from Heero's shoulder and meet his gaze. Her eyes were filled with soulful anguish. She knew that the man was dead because of her. She still looked fragile, like she could be borne away by the slightest puff of wind. Heero had never wanted to protect anyone or anything so badly in all of his life.

"I think..." her voice was still lost and trembling. She cleared her throat and tried again. "I think I can answer the questions now. I-I had better get it over with. Soonest started is soonest finished after-all. Ooooh, my papers!" she exclaimed slapping her head with the heel of her hand. "I need them for the conference tomorrow, and I had that bill and those addendums to review and-"

"You're not going anywhere tomorrow," Heero said firmly. He knew what she was doing. She was covering up her inner turmoil and fear by concentrating on her work. It was another form of bravado, and she wasn't fooling him so easily.

"The petition for Recognition from The Nation of Nissleson," continued not even hearing him. Her voice was filled with false cheer, she was also close to babbling. "And there's still the matter of the problem in scheduling that Unified Council session so close to the annual World Environmental Meeting, I promised them all I'd reveiw their agendas and help them come up with a way to accomodate-"

"You aren't going anywhere tomorrow," Heero repeated.

"Whyever not?" she asked glancing up at him. Her face was still devoid of blood and her mouth tight around the edges. Relena was still in bad shape.

"You were just nearly killed tonight," he began.

"Oh I'm always being 'just nearly killed' I'll be fine in the morning," she said, trying for a tremulous smile at her own joke. She looked more like she was going to start bawling at any minute.

"This case is different and you know it. You're going to stay inside under supervision until I say otherwise."

"Oh, really?" apparently being told that she was not allowed to work, even by him, made her rebellious. When Heero glanced over at her, she was wearing The Look. Her eyes were narrowed, her chin was set, her shoulders were back...She was taking on the FULL and awesome authority of Relena Peacecraft, Deputy Foriegn Minister to Earth and the Colonies, Princess of the Sanc Kingdom, Protector of the Ideals of Total Pacifism and Defender of the Faithful. She only wore that look when she was about to plow into some poor hapless idiot stupid enough to try to disrupt her peace by starting talk of war and retribution.

<Uh-oh. All hands, man your battle stations,> thought Heero with some small amount of dismay.

"Well, I don't recall asking for your permission to continue my work and i don't see any reason why I should. I'm going to be fine. Now I have a lot of work yet to do and-"

"If I have to have you locked inside your quarters I will," he told her, his tone conveying that he was not about to back down on this one.

"You wouldn't dare."

"Watch me."

By now the two of them were facing off with each other, in the middle of the hallway no less, with everyone else standing there watching it all (two of the officers were quietly placing bets on the outcome). Relena suddenly became aware of the situation. Here she was, not two minutes in the presence of her beloved, and she was about to pick a fight with him.

She suddenly started laughing. Okay, the laughs were borderline hysterics, but still...

"Here we are, we haven't even said hello to each other and we're about to lock wills over a situation that can be resolved easily with a little compromise," she said snapping into Relena the Diplomat mode.

"I don't compromise. You're staying here," he said flatly.

"Now now, don't be unreasonable," she chided. "I have every right to return to work tomorrow. I have not been injured, and as far as anyone can tell there will be no further attacks for quite some time. But I'm willing to humor you and meet you half way. I'll tell you what, I'll have Miss Belise reschedule all of my morning appointments and a few of my afternoon ones so that I can sleep in. Will that satify you?"

"You are /staying/ here. Tomorrow. All day and for most of the rest of the week if I have anything to say about it."

"Which you don't," she retorted.

Relena took a deep breath and regained her temper. Tonight had not been her night. Even /her/ patience was begining to fray and snap. She certainly didn't want to be around Heero, or anyone else for that matter, when all of the stress and emotions she had just supressed came bubbling to the surface. She hated to lose it in front of people, greif was a very private thing for her. Perhaps it would be wisest just to give in, it was only one day after all.

<That's not the point, it's the priciple of the thing.>

"Heero," she said trying a different tactic. "Please. I NEED to work right now. My work is important to me, it's my anchor and I need something to focus on, especially now."

<Oh, Oh not that,>thought Heero. <Anything but that.> Relena was hauling out the big guns.

Two beautiful blue eyes the color of the sea on a clear day pleaded at him from under long dark eyelashes.

<She does NOT fight fair,> he reflected. The gaze intensified a notch and heero did the only thing he could do. Strategic retreat.

"We'll discuss this in the morning," he said.

"You're just stalling for time to put all of your peices into place," said Relena bluntly. Then she turned on her heel and marched off to her quarters (where she could fall apart in privacy and no one would ever have to know).

"'S true," he murmured imperturbely at her departing backside.

The End...or is it?

*****************************************

Wow! Where the heck did this come from? It just wrote itself. My muse literally took possession of my body and would not let me leave my keyboard until it was finished. It looks like the universe just did another drive-by creation. Well, I hope all of you enjoyed this! I have been sitting in this chair for over four hours, and I have lost the feeling in my lower extremities. I'll be writing again soon. ~Nightheart.