Duo kept a hold of Relena's wrist until they rounded a corner that led down a different hallway. He threw himself against the wall and pulled out his gun then slowly peeked around the corner to see that the hallway was clear. Duo sighed in relief that Heero never decided to give pursuit. When he looked over at Relena her eyes were wide with shock staring at his gun.

"He didn't follow. I think that he just wanted to scare you." He quickly put the gun away when he saw the way that she was looking at it. "I couldn't come here without some sort of protection."

Relena looked across the hallway, looking out the window. "Then it true...that he, and Hilde?"

"Yeah." Duo reached out and took her in his arms just before she collapsed. He then slowly sat down on the floor and pulled her closer to him.

She let all of her heartache out while she cried onto Duo's shoulder. "Oh God Duo, what am I going to do?" He just gave her a squeeze. "Hilde, is she ok? Did Heero make her?"

Duo pulled her away so they could look eye to eye. He wiped a few of her tears away. "No they.." He got silent not wanting to finish the sentence.

"What?"  

He took a deep breath and answered her. "He didn't force her to do anything she didn't want. She was honest with me."

Relena placed her hands gently on his cheeks. "I'm so sorry Duo. I'm sorry."

"No Relena, you have no reason to be sorry. You and I did nothing wrong."

The sound of a gunshot followed by the shattering of glass rang down the hallway.

"Oh God Heero!" Relena quickly got up and started to run back toward Heero's office. Duo reached out and grabbed her by the waist before she slipped by him.

"No Relena. Don't be stupid and go back there, he doesn't want to be around anyone right now."

"Let go Duo! Let me go! I have got to see if he's ok." She felt Duo tighten his grip. "Please Duo let me go!"

Duo reached up with one arm to try to grab her by the wrist. It was enough for Relena to squeeze out of his grasp and to take off down the hallway. 

Duo quickly scrambled to his feet and took off after her. "Relena! Don't go in there!" He watched as she walked into the office. Duo picked up speed. He needed to make sure that there wasn't a homicidal manic in there ready to kill her. He pulled out his gun as he entered the office to see Relena standing by the desk. The curtains were pulled back and one of the large windows was opened.  Heero was nowhere to be seen. Duo quickly put the gun away, not wanting Relena to see it again.

Glancing around the room he saw that the large mirror that was once hanging on the wall was shattered. Pieces were covering the floor and a few scattered pieced were lying on the desk. Duo looked at Relena to see that she was staring at the desk. He walked over to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Relena." She never took her eyes off of the desk. Duo looked down to see that there was a piece of glass that was lying down near the chair that was covered in blood. Duo wrapped an arm around her shoulders and turned her to led her out of the office.

"Relena, you shouldn't stay here. Pack some things and go to your brothers for a few days. I would ask you to stay with me but I have a few things that I need to discuss with Hilde when I get home."

Relena nodded her head as Duo led her to her room.

Duo drove Relena over to her brothers house. After helping her with her things they sat down and talked. He told her everything that he knew. He was right on the outcome that the whole mess would have on her heart. As she cried on his shoulder, he offered her all the support he could and he stayed with her all night. Once Duo knew that Relena was going to be ok he left and went back to his hotel room and checked out. It was early the next morning and he had a flight to catch. He went straight to the shuttle port to catch his flight back to L2. He took a seat in the waiting area and thought about what happened. He was worried about where Heero went and what he might do.

 He had no idea what he was going to say to Hilde when he got home. He thought about what Hilde had told him about that day. His eyes suddenly went wide when he remembered that she had said that Heero had threatened to kill her if she told him. 

"Oh no."

He jumped up and ran over to the counter. "How much longer until the shuttle to L2?"

"Another half an hour."

"Shit, Hilde." He took off to find a phone to call her.

L2

The morning after Duo left, and the day that she knew he would be confronting Heero, Hilde watched the last strips of the sheet that was on the bed burn in the flames of the fireplace. It felt somewhat good to get rid of any reminder to her of what she did. Hilde had stripped the bed and shredded the sheets and blanket in an attempt to feel better. It did give her a sense of satisfaction, but it didn't last for long. That is when she gathered all the pieces up and started a fire and burned what was remaining.

She walked back up the stairs and rummaged through her things and carried armfuls over to the spare bedroom. She threw everything down on the bed and proceeded to make it her room. 

Duo had specifically asked her to stay here and she would, but she couldn't sleep in their room or on the couch, it was too uncomfortable. The rest of the day she had finished moving her things over. Once she was finished she collapsed on the bed and cried herself to sleep, wondering if Duo was ok and what was going to happen when he came home.

She awoke the next morning deciding that she was going to get out of the house for a few hours. After taking a shower and getting dressed she started to walk down the steps and froze in place when she saw a gun pointed at her from the bottom of the stairs. Hilde's eyes locked with the Prussian blue that stared back at her. She then closed her eyes knowing what was to come. He came here to finish his threat. A few moments passed by and she opened her eyes to see that he was still standing at the bottom of the stairs with the gun still pointed at her. She wanted to scream at him, to tell him if he was going to do it to just get it over with or leave. 

The sound of the phone ringing disrupted the silence throughout the house. Hilde held her spot. She so badly wanted to run and get to the phone upstairs, to beg whoever it was to help her.  Heero never took his eyes off of her, and because of the way that he was looking at her she was too frightened to get her feet to move.

Heero continued to point his gun at her not knowing what he wanted to do. He told her that he would kill her. He could hear the voices telling him that she pushed it and she deserved what was coming to her. He could feel his hand start to shake and he slowly let the gun slip out of his hand and fall to the wooden floor. He couldn't kill her. He couldn't make things even worse than it already were.

Hilde stared at the gun on the floor then looked at Heero as he collapsed on his knees at the foot of her stairs. She was still too afraid to move because the gun was within his reach. It look like he was starting to break down and one wrong move would probably set him off.

"I was wrong." His voice carried up the stairs. "I hurt you. I hurt myself. I was wrong. I'm sorry."

Hilde slowly lowered herself so she could sit down. She was hurt and angry with herself, and with this man. She didn't want him here. Every second that passed by she prayed that he would just get up and leave. And when those seconds turned into minutes, she no longer feared for her life. If he was here to kill her then he would have been done and left by now. 

"It wasn't just you. I had a part in it too. I could have said no." She watched as he shook his head.

"No, I took advantage of the situation. I knew how you felt, and I used that in a fit of revenge against Duo. I'm sorry for what I did to you Hilde."

"Revenge against Duo? What did he do to make you want to do this to get back at him?"

"Nothing.... he did nothing but be a friend to Relena when she needed one." He looked up the stairs at her. "Tell Duo that I'm sorry. I'm sorry for the mistake that I made. Have him tell Relena that." He stood up and watched her for a few minutes. He reached into his jacket pocket and dropped their house key on the floor next to his gun "Find a better spot for that." He then walked out of the house closing the door behind him.

Hilde continued to sit and stare at the front door. She closed her eyes and let out a choking sob. "Duo please come home."