Dreams Won't Let Go Part 4
Realization
Heero lay on the sofa staring at the ceiling. The vodka's influence had deserted him, leaving him bombarded by guilt and his brain bewildered with questions of why and why not.
His mind and his heart debated for or against a sexual union. The prominent erection straining against his boxers urged him to return to the bedroom but hormonal desire was never a good reason to do anything.
Heero was certain of one fact; this passion wasn't recently born but had developed slowly over time and almost losing Duo had forced everything to the surface.
It wasn't until the gunman was seconds away from taking Duo's life that Heero realized just how much the man christened Shinigami meant to him and how lost he'd be without him.
It was obvious Duo felt the same way but had his brush with death also become problematic in putting his feelings in their proper prospective?
Again the argument concerning lust or love nagged Heero's thoughts.
"Better to wait." he decided as the moon slithered between the clouds. "In the morning we'll both have clearer heads then we'll talk."
*********
Minutes advanced at a snail's pace. The only sounds were the wind whistling through the trees and the air exchange system hissing.
Duo wondered if Heero was also lying awake staring at the same shadowy patterns dancing on the wall as the moon played hide and seek with billowy clouds.
But he resisted the urge to go to Heero, nervous that he might be awake and they'd have to delve into matters of the heart he wasn't ready to share.
"Coward." Duo growled out his self-loathing.
*********
Eyes closed, Duo lay still and took inventory of his physical condition. A dull ache nagged at his temples. Inquiring fingers confirmed that his right cheek was puffy and sore to the touch. A twinge of discomfort, a souvenir of his hairline fractured rib, was a reminder to move carefully.
But there'd be no complaints or grumbled cruses, his injuries could've been a lot worse. He could've woken up in the hospital rather than at Heero's house.
"Heero's house." Duo repeated aloud. "Heero's bed." he whispered as the memory of the fleeting kiss caused his lips to tingle.
Duo opened his eyes and was greeted by rosy shades of dawn brightening the bedroom. With a heavy sigh he braced his elbows and pushed into a seated position. Shoulders and back protested stiffly but cautious stretching worked out the kinks.
By measured degrees, legs were draped over the bed, bare feet settled on the cool wooden floor and he quickly discovered that the borrowed boxers and tee shirt were woefully inadequate to counter the early morning chill.
"Where in the hell are my clothes?" Duo mumbled as he wrapped the quilted comforter around his shivering body and shuffled off to the bathroom.
After emptying his bladder and finding no evidence of his absent garments, he pulled the comforter tighter then paused at the bedroom door to summon up the courage to face Heero.
"This is going to be awkward."
As Duo navigated through the sitting area it seemed that Heero had also gone AWOL. There was no place to hide in the open floor plan, except the foyer closet and Duo couldn't image his Preventer partner taking refuge among the coats and jackets just to avoid him.
An insistent rumble in his stomach reminded Duo he'd refused supper the previous night so he put finding his clothing on his "to do later" list and made a straightway path for the kitchen.
A yellow legal pad sheet, secured on the refrigerator door with a magnet advertising "The Pizza Palace" complete with a phone number printed in bright red caught Duo attention.
The message, printed in Heero's all-caps handwriting, read:
Had to report to Po for debriefing and update on your condition. Coffee maker is set up, press start. Strawberry muffins in Tupperware container beside cereal on counter. Milk, orange juice, margarine in the fridge. Washed your cloths, they're folded on the dryer. Should be home around 5:00. Eat a good breakfast.
"Yes mother." Duo wisecracked as he surveyed the cereal. Cheerios and Raisin Bran weren't a surprise but Fruit Loops did raise an eyebrow.
The coffeemaker gurgling, Duo gathered his freshly laundered outfit, changed in the bedroom and made the bed. The aroma of freshly brewed beans wafted down the hall just as he finished combing and braiding his hair which took longer with inflexible joints and uncooperative fingers.
Black coffee, with enough sugar to jump-start Duo's sluggish brain, was poured into a "I Don't Do Mornings" mug. A glass of juice, a bowl of Raisin Bran swimming in milk and a plate of two muffins slathered with margarine joined the coffee on the kitchen table.
On his way from the bedroom Duo had retrieved the TV remote. Dividing his attention between spoonfuls of cereal and bites of muffin he scrutinized the 8:00am local news on Channel Seven.
Jim and Nicole, smartly attired and much too chatty for such an early hour, took turns recounting the top stories.
There was a three alarm fire on the corner of Walnut Avenue and 7th Street. A woman suffering from smoke inhalation was sent to the hospital. A fireman was also treated for minor injuries.
Police were investigating a 2:00am robbery at the Stop-N-Save Convenience Store. The perpetrator's description gleaned from a security camera of a white male wearing faded jeans and a navy blue hooded sweatshirt made Duo snicker.
"Add sunglasses and that could've been me last Tuesday." he commented on the generic clothing worn for undercover operations.
Maria in the Sky Watch helicopter, with the thump, thump, thump of the rotors beating overhead, hovered over an accident on the Daleville Expressway that had traffic tied up in both northbound lanes. She suggested using Alternate Route 37 to bypass the mess.
City Council voted themselves another salary increase, to which Duo mumbled around a mouthful of muffin. "Greedy bastards".
Finally Robert, the meteorologist, promised sunny skies with temperatures ranging from seventy-two at noon to an overnight low of fifty-five and a 40% chance of rain on Friday. Duo made a mental note of the five-day forecast as he loaded the dishwasher and wiped off the table and counter.
Flopping down in the recliner, he winced from his ribs' rude response. The Med-Center doctor had provided a support girdle that resembled a medieval torture devise, but the wide clothe belt, reinforced with elastic bands and secured with Velcro fasteners, was more of a bother than the tenderness radiating across his chest.
After wiggling into a comfortable posture, he pulled up the programming grid then debated whether to watch the Earth-Colony Entertainment Uplink, a perky girl in skimpy leotards bounce around to freakin' awful oldies tunes or a vintage movie about two cowboys herding a bunch of sheep on some mountain in Wyoming.
"TV will rot your brain." Duo declared as he switched off the cable and opted for a selection from Heero's paperback collection.
Running his thumb along the book's creased spine, Duo sighed as the title "Great Expectations" put him in mind of his host's uncharacteristic indecisiveness the night before.
*********
The telephone ringing roused Duo where he slept in the recliner, opened book flattened against his chest. The first two chapters had been interesting, but he hadn't realized how he'd taxed his stamina until the seductive Sandman lulled him to sleep.
It was the third ring before Duo reclaimed enough sleep-addled wits to reach for the phone. "Hello." was said huskily.
Not wasting words, Heero inquired, "Are you all right?"
"Yeah, just fell asleep while reading."
"Sorry I woke you."
Duo rubbed his eyes and stifled a yawn. "It's okay. If I sleep during the day I don't rest well at night. How are you doin'?"
"I finished with the Commander then continued searching for clues in our "wolf among the sheep" situation.
With Heero's promising pronouncement Duo perked up. "Got any leads?"
"Not yet. Did you find everything you needed this morning?"
"Had breakfast and tidied up like a proper wife." Duo teased. "Thanks for washing my clothes."
"You're welcome. See you around five o'clock."
*********
Waning sunlight fluttered through four sugar maples flanking the curbside. Late afternoon shadows tinted the foyer's white walls blue-gray. The microwave clock changed to 5:47pm.
"Hey." Duo called from the kitchen as Heero stepped through the front door.
Approximately ten hours apart had given Duo time to analyze what had prompted the perplexing kiss and Heero's equally perplexing reaction.
Duo reasoned his partner's emotional control had been destabilized by the carnage at the abandoned apartment and his worry over his injuries. He'd also decided his own defenses had been weakened by the horrid dream that seemed so real.
However putting the extenuating circumstances in proper perspective hadn't kept him from wondering what the atmosphere would be like when Heero got home.
But when Duo's greeting was acknowledged with a parroted "Hey" there was not one trace of residual tension or passion in Heero's voice.
"Typical stoicism Yuy." Duo muttered to himself. "Don't deal with something and maybe it'll go away."
Heero hung up his uniform jacket then toed off his official Preventer shoes and nudged them among black leather hiking boots, scuffed running shoes with grass stained laces and the ragged canvas slip-ons he'd been intending to throw away.
While Heero booted up his laptop on the kitchen table, Duo served coffee in sage green mugs then set the Mr. Coffee pot on a copper trivet beside the sugar bowl and a bottle of liquid creamer flavored with "a delicate hint of French vanilla" or so the label promised.
Heero plugged in a Flash Drive, located the desired information concerning his previous night's unauthorized snooping into the supposedly secure records and situated the computer so Duo could see the screen.
"I remembered one man saying they had to wait for Largo. At the time I assumed Largo was a person."
Directing Duo's attention to the inconclusive listings, Heero admitted. "Now I have to wonder if I'm on the right track. There are no references in either the criminal database or the personnel files. Are you sure Largo was a name and not a location?"
Duo settled back in his chair and replayed the watchers' conversation in his mind. "Yeah, I'm sure they referred to Largo as a person."
"Then our mystery man must not be a Preverter." Heero asserted.
Duo played the devil's advocate. "He could've falsified his credentials; we did that all the time during the war." With a sly grin gracing his lips he added. "Still do when it suits our purposes."
For numerous minutes both agents sat in contemplative silence mulling over the probable association between Largo and the pair of thugs residing in the morgue.
Heero berated himself for killing the men, but not because of any legal or moral code violation. What few ethical principles Odin Lowe had managed to instill during his and young Heero's brief time together had been expertly exorcised by Doctor J.
No, Heero's self-imposed reprimand stemmed from the fact that's its damned impossible to interrogate the dead. Then again if he was ever presented with identical circumstances, with Duo's life was on the line, he knew the end results would be identical.
Finally Duo broke the silence. "Maybe we're looking at this from the wrong angle."
Heero raised an eyebrow in a "How do you figure that?" expression.
Duo drained the last of his vanilla spiked coffee then addressed his partner's voiceless request for an explanation. "What if someone on the outside was exerting pressure on someone on the inside?"
Heero took up the line of thought. "Then we need to look for anything that doesn't ring true, such as an employee living above his means or an agent who frequently volunteers for solo assignments, especially to the colonies."
*********
Duo wasn't surprised to find The Pizza Palace on speed dial. "This is goin' to be a long night." he'd declared as he waited for the call to go through.
The cork pried from a bottle of Black Swam Chardonnay made a soft pop and, since Heero couldn't justify purchasing pricey stemware, two plain water glasses were filled with the pale wine.
The large extra cheese pizza, half pepperoni, green peppers and mushrooms for Heero, half ham and pineapple for Duo, would be consumed, quite indelicately, directly from the box.
A marginally heated dispute as to the whether the slices should be folded when eaten; with Duo's negative argument being that folding made the toppings ooze out was settled when each man agreed to disagree.
Heero alternated between hacking into the Preventer financial records, tracking deposits and withdrawals while wiping his fingers to keep the keyboard clean and sipping his wine.
Unlike the previous evening spent swigging Smirnoff with the goal of tipsy euphoria, he wisely opted for a clearer head.
*********
Eight o'clock.
Crumpled pizza box and empty Chardonnay bottle discarded in the trash.
Heero decided on a shower so Duo took over the laptop. Soon endless dates and numbers waterlogged his brain and he mentally began exploring coping techniques for keeping his head above the surging flood.
"Gin and tonic or whiskey or sex."
The list of daydreamed distractions grew longer. "How about that premium marijuana confiscated in Tuesday's raid on the Red Dragon Clan? After all," he reasoned, "liquor, sex and a joint now and then had dulled his pain on L2 and the same various pleasurable diversions sure as hell had gotten him through the war."
"Duo." Heero called over his partner's shoulder. He had shed his uniform for red and black plaid lounging pants and a red tee shirt.
It wasn't until water trickling off Heero's hair splashed on Duo's cheek did the former God of Death reluctantly return to reality.
"SHIT!" was hissed as additional chilly droplets plopped on Duo's nose and ran over his chin. "Damn it you're drippin' all over."
Heero ignored his partner's profanity and nodded at the screen. "David Austin."
"What about him?"
Claiming the chair beside his partner-in-hacking, Heero used the towel draped around his neck to blot his drippy hair. "Wasn't Austin censured and threatened with expulsion a month ago for gambling?"
"Yeah, it was rumored Austin was in debt up to his ass to a loan shark. What was that guy's name?" Duo paused then recalled, "Sanchez, yeah, Antonio Sanchez."
Heero leaned closer. He smelled like a heady mixture of the Old Spice Soap-on-a-Rope Duo had given him for his eighteenth birthday, Herbal Essence shampoo and his unique pheromone-infused scent that evoked additional X Rated urges.
Duo drew in a shaky breath, willed his anatomy below the waist to calm down and finally centered his attention on the laptop's screen. "What does Austin's financial dilemma have to do with a possible mole in Preventer?"
"According to Sanchez's dossier, he's one ruthless son of a bitch that never forgives a balance due." Heero stated. "He's been investigated for extortion, tax evasion, numbers running and four counts of murder, but the local authorities, FBI and Colonial Enforcement Agency hasn't been able to make any charges stick."
Duo continued the review. "There was that case last year when IRS Agent Williams went missing forty-eight hours before he was scheduled to testify. His disappearance had Sanchez's modus operandi written all over it."
"That's why Austin's records don't make any sense." Heero stated. "The Preventer Review Board ordered him to pay off his markers or face immediate dismissal and Sanchez never offers amnesty for failure to pay; so why hasn't there been any recent withdrawals in Austin's account?"
Suddenly all the puzzle pieces fell into place to reveal the entire picture and Duo's eyes sparkled. "Because somebody else paid off his tab."
TBC...
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