They'd Ride In Silence (Part 2)

Not a word did Relena want to speak. Just get something cold down her throat. Relena however stopped eating her cold gelatin when she saw, of all people, her brother coming towards her. He was still concerned about her health? She was fine. He didn't say anything as he looked around her room. He looked under her bed. Then, he looked in the closet.

There was a young lady in the closet, hiding and petrified. She was holding something odd in her hand which Zeches had grabbed. He held her there, calling for assistance.

"Vice-Foreign Minister Dorlain!"

Oh no. She could hear the press coming for her. Now was not the time, she couldn't speak. She tried to indicate to Milliardo to hold them back but? Everything happened so quickly. This wasn't the usual push and pull.

This was different.

"Heero Yuy!"

They were calling for Heero too? Relena watched as they flooded the room against the hospital's codes.

"Vice-Foreign Minister! Is it true that your lover is bearing down on an innocent group called Revenge of The Lost?"

"Vice-Foreign Minister! What do you say to the allegations that you were having a baby with Heero Yuy, a Gundam Pilot?"

"Ma'am!" Someone got in front of the already scared nurse. "Do you know if it's true that Vice-Foreign Minster Dorlain was attempting an abortion?"

Relena looked over at all sides. What? The accusations flying everywhere were insane.

"Vice-Foreign Minster Dorlain, are you still carrying Heero Yuy's child?"

"Vice-Foreign Minister, is it true you came to the secluded colony for a secret abortion?"

"Is it true you had surgery two months ago for health problems as well? Vice-Foreign Minister, is your health at stake? Did you have all proper authority for this abortion? If you did, why are you here in the colonies?"

"Is it true Heero Yuy was raised in the colonies by a man named Odin Lowe?"

"Is it true Odin Lowe was responsible for killing the original leader of the colonies, Heero Yuy, and that he named his child after the fallen leader?"

Milliardo was trying to control the crowd, but it needed more. It was told lies, several of them. She had no idea about all of them, but the abortion was certainly a lie. She wasn't even pregnant. Heero Yuy as her lover? Who was telling the media these lies? "Stop," she managed to choke. Ow. She touched her throat as the press handled the medical board near her. And to top it all off? Her doctor started to lie. He said she would have an abortion after the tonsillectomy, and that they came too early. She was still pregnant and they could check her themselves.

Relena watched as things moved from the press to authorities coming in.

"Vice-Foreign Minister Relena Dorlain." The authorities addressed her, moved her from the bed, made her face the wall, and cuffed her.

They were cuffing her? "I'm not even." Ow. "Pregnant." Ow! "Milliardo!" He tried to keep making them check the main records. They did.

They continued. After seeing her work, they were still continuing with this? The lie should have been exposed.

Pictures started to snap of her, not something she was unused to, but at that moment? Being led away in cuffs as others accused her again. This couldn't be happening. This wasn't possible? Why was this still-?"

---

Not happening. The damage was done, and it was his fault. Heero would take the blame for it. On the way to the hospital, he heard the news break about Relena having a secret abortion. He turned around when he realized she was in another hospital away from that area. He moved as fast as he could to his temporary rental car. He sped as fast as he could as he heard the news break audibly, no time to look at the visuals, but he could imagine it. RTL was dragging Relena down. They'd set everything up to make it look like the tonsillectomy was a cover up to an abortion that would take place afterward. If she hadn't been pregnant, then the lie would have been exposed. There had been no exposure though. Which meant.

Not only was the pregnancy real, but Relena couldn't prove the intent to abort was fake. He stopped as he got to the hospital and ran in. Her time as Vice-Foreign Minister was over. She was about to go to jail, and with political influence in such a charged situation, she could be in prison for a long time.

He raced inside through the back and saw her coming around the corner. The authorities had been unprepared and the press were more keen to ask questions than to stop him. He took out the two officers there, and then grabbed her, flinging her over his shoulder. Her hands were cuffed behind, she couldn't do anything. He had stolen a pair of keys too, but there was no time to figure out which one he needed. He knew that position on him in those cuffs would hurt as well as embarrassing in her hospital gown, but there was no choice. She hadn't ran through a trial, but she'd be found guilty. RTL didn't lose.

When Heero got to the car, he quickly put her in and got in on the other side. He started the car and got out as fast as he could, hearing others after him again. He glanced back toward her. Yeah. She wanted to know the strange facts she was missing. "There were lies mixed with truth." He concentrated on the road as he tried to get out as far as he could from the area. "You had an earlier operation not showing in your medical records." He heard the audio. He heard those questions. He grabbed a piece of paper and a pencil from the console. A must he made sure to have if he had to see her. He pulled out the keys and quickly investigated which one would be to the cuffs. "Come closer." She turned her back toward him and he unlocked the cuffs. He gestured back to the paper and pencil.

Relena wasn't writing at first. She was stroking her wrists and looked dazed. She was still pulling facts together. She looked behind her, and then back to the paper. She wrote down on it and gave it back.

Heero looked at it. No wonder Zeches was following her on her hospital visits. She had a mass removed from her side. Benign. She had already had surgery. This tonsillectomy? "Your medical records were compromised by the doctor. It doesn't say just tonsillectomy." She was thrusting her hand to the back of her. "I know you want to go back and explain. It won't work." She'd be imprisoned. That would lead to the end of everything for her.

She was trying to write on the memo pad, but he wouldn't change his mind. "You had a surgery earlier and you had a surgery now." She gestured to her throat vehemently. There was no pain nowhere else, just in her throat. He knew that. "The tonsillectomy was there, before the proceeding."

She wrote down more stuff. More pleading. More trying to convince him if she just went back to let them examine her more closely, everything would be set right. Only because she didn't know. "When was your last period, Relena?" Write that down. She wasn't moving very fast. She wrote down something, but it wasn't with the same conviction as before. He looked at the paper. From the previous surgery, the doctor said it would affect her.

RTL wouldn't risk their plan not working, they knew an exam would be involved. That's why it was for after the tonsillectomy. "Confirmed. You're pregnant, Relena. You've been pregnant since your last operation."

She didn't write anything else down. She just stared at the paper. She knew what that meant. "Whyyy?" She managed to screech.

"RTL. A rebel group called Revenge of the Lost. They punish those they deem wicked. Their enemies." No slowing down now. Couldn't risk fingerprints. She had to go as deep undercover in her life as he had been. To survive, she would have to become as untraceable as he had been. Which wouldn't be easy since RTL just gave a boatload of information from his past to the press too. On the audio, he heard it. They were mentioning real names, including Odin. What was real and what was not would get tossed around, but they had a general enough idea. It was only a matter of time before they dug up activities on his previous missions. Anything to deepen their stories for their channels. "Don't talk. It won't help." He didn't trust the medicine he took from Dorothy Catalonia. He would need to get to a trusting doctor to look at her.

He didn't know a trusting medical doctor, but he trusted the previous gundam pilots. He had to. He dialed up the one he knew could help the most right now.

"Quatre," he heard at the other end.

"Quatre," Heero said into the phone. "Confirmation, the pregnancy is real. Relena and I are about to make the news. I need you to find an excuse to bring a shuttle up to where I am. Then, I need a doctor to look at Relena. She has no medicine. I yanked her out of the hospital after her tonsillectomy."

"Heero, you're running with Vice-Foreign Minister Dorlain?"

"That name won't be used for much longer," he said. "Dorothy Catalonia is up here too. You should tell her and have her looked at. Her medication might not have been safe. Tell Wufei and Trowa to make a move toward the other women, now." Before RTL's trap was set for them. If he hadn't been there in time, if RTL's trap had gone off without a hitch? Relena, imprisoned. It wouldn't happen. He looked over toward her. She was still having trouble gripping the new reality around her. He didn't blame her.

They'd ride in silence. He was fine with that.