Disclaimers: Don't own it, want it (with of course a billion dollars) but'll never have it

Disclaimers: Don't own it, want it (with of course a billion dollars) but'll never have it.

Authors Notes: I really must be getting bad or something, I had 30 reviews on chapter one but only 16 on chapter two. Did it all of the sudden suck or something? ::sigh:: NEway, here's chapter three. Couple of things: I know that Hilde is always said not to have any parents just like Duo, but in this one she does okay? It just helps get rid of those Maxwell brats while the adults have all of the fun! ^_~ Second, I know Heero seems way OOC, but I have to point out that this happens eight years after the show ends. People change and stay the same at the same time. Heero lost his wife, lived without her for five years, blames himself the whole time for her death, and one day walks in his house to find his "dead" wife alive and thinking he lost his marbles. I think that's enough to push anyone to the edge, don't you? So sorry if he does seem OOC (I will try to keep most of his character in tact) but he's gonna bend k?? Third, I don't know Relena's real birthday except that she was born AC180. If anyone does know please tell me so that I can fix it! And finally, thank you all who reviewed lately. It has really gotten me out of a little pit I seem to keep digging myself into. Chapter four will be out as soon as I can find a computer to type it on, so till then, jya!!! ^.~

PS. Gomen that these last chapters have been going so slow, the next ones won't be all emotions but Heero and gang kicking butt and hopefully some humor. Okay? ^_~ Buh bye!!

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Never Let Go: Chapter Three

By Jadet

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Relena was confused to say the least. She didn't know why her husband was acting like this. Usually when he came home from his missions he was silent yes, going over every thing he did during the mission in his head, and would normally just ignore her for about an hour. But nothing like this. He seemed to be acting almost like he had seen a ghost. He also looked like was trying to control himself a few times but he kept looking back at her and the shaking would worsen. He had only been gone two days though, not even enough time to lose her scent. What in the world had happened while he was gone to make him act like this?

Relena frowned worriedly when a thought popped into her head. What if he had gotten hit on the head, or hurt while he was gone?

Worry began to knaw at her heart, and without another thought to why he was acting this way, she scooted off the bed and ran over to him, kneeling by his side. Reaching a hand out, Relena began to tenderly probe his arms and chest for injuries. Not finding any except for a few on the palms of his hands, she bit her bottom lip thoughtfully and began to probe his head lightly, pushing his wild chocolate hair aside. Why was he acting like this? He didn't look hurt.

Heero trembled slightly under her gentle ministrations, ashamed that he was letting himself look so weak. His mind kept yelling at his body to stand up and demand answers, but his body wouldn't listen, it was too busy trying to calm down his racing heart. His heart just didn't want to however, and beat painfully when Relena, not satisfied after looking at his head, lowered her head to look into his eyes, a searching look in her sea blue depths. Memories once again flooded his mind, memories of sights and smells he thought he had buried with her.

Heero growled inwardly and shook himself. This just couldn't be real. She was dead, DEAD. The dead just didn't show up on the anniversaries of their deaths as if nothing had happened. They left their loved ones behind to suffer without them, to feel the loneliness and pain that followed their departure. They just didn't show up after five years of being dead, like a flower popping back up after the winter snow had melted.

Yet here she was, kneeling by his side with a worried expression on her face, looking no different than the day he left five years ago.

That should have been impossible. Relena was buried under a tree right on his property, not looking back at him from tear glazed worried eyes that still held the love for him and only him. He knew death, having been there himself a few times and sending others to meet it. And death didn't just let one of it's victims go out of the blue years later without a tell tale mark or scratch on them. Which should have meant this wasn't really Relena. But...

Heero focused for the first time in five minutes. But it had to be. She was everything he remembered, even the little dimple in her left cheek when she chewed on her lip nervously.

Heero stood up abruptly, clenching his fists at his side, leaving his gun at his feet. Relena followed him up and took a step back, wringing her hands nervously in front of her. Surprisingly it was that that helped him clear his mind. Stepping forward, Heero reached out a tentative hand to her cheek, expecting his hand to pass through her or to feel something cold or even to wake up. Instead his fingers tips touched warm silk and Heero couldn't help but widen his eyes in amazement.

"You're alive," he whispered in awe, caressing her cheek lightly.

Relena was too shocked by the look in his eyes to really pay attention to what he was saying. She had never seen such raw pain in anyone's eyes before. Nor had she seen so much fear, hope, and doubt. An oldness came to his eyes then and Relena couldn't help but tremble slightly under his touch. That look, it was of someone who had experienced too much and wanted to go to sleep and never wake up. What had happened while he was out with Duo? An urge to suddenly wrap her arms around him and comfort him overwhelmed her but stopped when Heero's hand froze on her cheek, more doubt filling his eyes. Realizing he had taken her shivering the wrong way, she hurriedly placed one hand on his and the other on his chest, letting out a sigh when she felt his heart beat comfortably under her hand. She wasn't sure what was wrong with him, but she wasn't going to leave him alone now. Something must have gone wrong while he was gone, something terrible.

"Heero, what's wrong?"

Heero frowned but did not remove his hand from her touch. "You're dead."

Relena crinkled up her nose. "No I'm not, I'm very much alive," Relena retorted and removed her hand from his chest to lay it on his forehead, frowning thoughtfully. Nope, cool as a cucumber. "Did something happen during your mission?"

Heero raised an eyebrow. Mission? What mission? He hadn't had a mission for over a year, not that she knew that of course, but what mission was she talking about?

Relena looked perplexed. "Don't tell me you were gone two days with Duo fooling around!"

Duo? What did Duo have to do with... Heero frowned then when everything fell into place. He and Duo had left for a special mission to a foreign base five years ago, he had left her here and when he came home two days later he had been told she had been killed the day before. Or supposedly she had. She had drowned in the lake to the left of their house. A simple mistake really, was ice skating and skated over a thin patch of ice. No one could have heard her scream for help, and in freezing water would have quickly gone down. They had found her body, or what they thought was her, a week later, fish eaten and frozen beyond all hope. If he had been here he would have been able to save her, but that wasn't true now was it? She was standing right next to him, alive and not buried under their tree. It did make a weird sort of sense, someone could have kidnapped her and placed a look alike body in the lake in her clothes, making it look like she drowned. No one would have had the thought or right state of mind to check. But why then didn't Relena remember any of the last five years?

Frowning determinedly, Heero grabbed hold of her hand and dragged her out of the room and down the stairs.

Relena stumbled behind him, trying to keep up. "Heero, what are you doing?" Heero ignored her and walked to the front door, opening it forcefully. Relena's eyes widened when he realized what he was about to do. "Heero! Are you crazy?! It's 15 degrees outside, this is no time to be going for a walk!"

Heero turned for a second to gather their snow shoes and forcefully began to put hers on. "Just trust me." Done with hers he turned to do his own. Relena opened her mouth to reply but the look in his eyes stopped her. They were filled with determination and his normal cold steel, but behind that she could see the hope and doubt eating at him. This was important to him for some strange reason, and she was never one to deny him anything.

Relena nodded mutely. "I trust you."

"Hn."

Making sure she had another jacket on, Heero led them outside into the swirling snow, their breaths steaming. Relena grasped his hand tighter and Heero smiled in spite of himself. They quickly made their way through the snow towards his destination.

Relena shivered from the cold in spite of the coats she had on and looked curiously around. Her eyes caught sight of a strange car and a deep confusion worked it's way into her stomach. Where was his black truck? For as long as they had been married he had always had a comfy black truck that they used all the time for everything. Now in its place stood a red jaguar. Relena furrowed her eyebrows and tugged on Heero's hand.

"Heero?"

"What?"

"When did you get that car?"

Heero turned to look and frowned before leading them on. "Two years ago."

Relena narrowed her eyes. Two years ago? How could that be? Wouldn't she have known if he had gotten that car? A bad feeling replaced the confused one. Something wasn't right. Except when he went on his missions he and Relena were together constantly, enjoying each other and each other's company. She would have known if he had gotten a fancy car like that. Relena then shrugged. Heero would explain it all soon she was sure.

They finally reached where he had wanted to go and Relena stared at the large oak with a raised eyebrow. Why would he come here? The oak and the little hill it sat on overlooking their property had a gorgeous view true, but it was so dark she couldn't see anything except Heero in front of her. What was the point of coming here?

"Relena look at that."

Relena turned her gaze from him long enough to see a large stone sitting where they always sat during the summer, covered in snow. Almost as if drawn she let go of his hand and kneeled before the stone, brushing snow off it. An angel peeked out from underneath the snow, and without uncovering anymore, Relena knew what it was. She turned to stare at Heero, dread squeezing at her heart.

"Heero this is a tombstone, what is it doing here?" She asked. Heero shook his head.

"Look."

Relena reluctantly nodded her head and turned back to face the angel. She almost felt sorry for it, arms reaching up towards the heavens, wings hanging dejectedly at her sides, as if begging to be let back in. With hesitation Relena uncovered the rest of the tombstone and felt her heart stop in her breast.

"Heero...."

"Relena Peacecraft Yuy, Born July 3rd AC180, Died December 27th AC203, Loved by all people of earth, loved more by her friends, family, and husband. Will be missed," Heero read, crouching beside her in the snow. Running a tender hand over the letters, he looked at her blankly. "You died the day before I got home. If I had been here I could have saved you, but instead I was out on a mission with Duo in Europe. That was five years ago today."

Relena shook her head. What was this, some sort of sick joke? Relena turned to look at Heero and found him looking at her with a serious expression, devoid of any emotion. The perfect solider when the feelings became too much to handle. Relena knew then it wasn't a joke, and turned back towards her grave, mouth gaping.

How... how could this be? She hadn't been gone for five years, dead to the world! She had only gone out to go ice skating this morning and had come back as soon as she was done. She knew it had been two days ago that Heero had kissed her goodbye before getting in the car with Duo, as she knew that it was yesterday that she had baked Heero's favorite cookies, laughing to herself that no matter how much he denied it, the cookies were all gone the next day except for the chocolate stains in his office. She knew they had happened, she could still feel his kiss and still remember the smell of the cookies. It had to have happened!

Yet now everything made sense. When she had come home today everything had been moved around, pictures taken and put in drawers. Her stuff, still out, had been crammed into corners while his stuff overflowed. The car, no longer a black truck. And his eyes. The pain and the haunted look he got whenever he looked at her, his reaction when he saw her. It all made sense.

But if she had been gone for five years, where had she been? She couldn't remember a thing besides what she thought had happened the last two days, except a memory of....

Pain erupted in her head, blinding her when stars burst behind her eyes. Swallowing a scream, Relena fell forward, clutching her head. Vaguely she could hear Heero asking what was wrong, raising in volume when she didn't answer. It wasn't that she didn't want to, but now it seemed as if she was floating outside of her body, watching Heero shake her. Anguish tore at her heart when Heero begged her in a gruff voice not to leave him alone again, not after she had just come back. She didn't, couldn't respond so Heero lifted her effortlessly in his arms and began to run back to their house. Relena followed silently.

As silly as it was, she felt sorry for Heero at the moment. She had caused him so much pain, not meaning to or even knowing she had, and now she was worrying him all over again. He was strong though, he would be okay after all of this, she already knew that. If the roles had been reversed she knew she wouldn't have been able to live without him, but Heero.... Heero was strong in a way that she could never be, always the wall against the wind. Still, Relena thought, she couldn't leave him alone again. She hadn't meant to the first time, she hadn't even known! She just went ice skating on the pond, trying to think of a way to tell Heero that he was going to be a father in about six months, and had come home to find she had been gone five years. It just didn't make sense!

But this wasn't the time to be wondering about everything, she had to reassure her husband.

Relena frowned and forced herself to go back into her body, wincing when the pain came back full force. She felt Heero's arms tighten around her when she winced visibly and smiled in spite of the pain.

"You'll be okay Relena, hold on."

Relena nodded as best she could and struggled to get the words to reassure him from her dry mouth. "I'll... never let... go... of you... Heero...." Blackness then washed over her and Relena thankfully sank into it, away from the pain and the confusion.

Heero felt the alien feeling of his throat constricting and kept running toward their cabin, watching as it got closer and closer with every step.

"Neither will I Relena, neither will I." Slamming the door open, Heero ran over the threshold.

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Duo yawned loudly and mumbled into his pillow when he saw the clock next to his bedside. "3 a.m. in the morning? Doesn't anyone have the decency to call at decent hours anymore?" Next to him Hilde muttered under her breath and turned on her other side as much as her stomach would allow, taking the covers with her.

Duo yawned again and reached out a sleepy hand to the ringing telephone.

"'Lo?"

"Duo."

Duo rubbed his eyes. "Heero, as much as I love getting phone calls from you, couldn't you have called at a later hour? Like, I don't know, 11...."

"Shut up and listen."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm listening...." Yawn.

"I need you to get a hold of everyone for me and get you all over here, even Sally and Hilde, by 10."

Duo blinked and sat up in confusion. "Wha...? Why Heero?"

"...Please Duo."

Duo was too surprised at Heero to object. "Sure... no problem. But why the sudden need to see all of us? And so early in the morning...?"

"I..." Duo raised an eyebrow when Heero cleared his throat nervously before answering. "She's back Duo."

"Who's back?"

"Relena."

Duo could feel his mouth drop open in the darkness, and shook his head in denial. Relena, back? Wasn't that slightly impossible?! But... but if Heero said she was, she had to be! Normally Duo wouldn't believe anything so far fetched, jokers don't fall for their own jokes, but this was Heero. Heero never kidded about these types of things. Heck, Heero never kidded period! So if he said she was back then she was back, right? Right? Duo frowned at the doubt nagging at him.

"Uh... Heero, are you sure? I know yesterday was kinda tough for you 'n all, but usually the dead don't come back to life...."

"She's back Duo."

It was Heero's no nonsense tone of voice that finally convinced Duo. "Okay man, guess we'll see you at 10 huh?"

"Hn." Click.

Duo clumsily placed the phone back in its cradle. Relena? Back from the dead? How? Shaking his head, Duo leaned over his wife and shook her shoulder gently. "Hey Hilde, wake up. We gotta get dressed."

Hilde mumbled into her pillow and looked up sleepily, rubbing her eyes with one hand and covering a yawn with the other. "Why?"

"Heero needs us to get to his house by 10 a.m., so we have to leave soon. Do you think your mom could take the kids?"

Hilde blinked. "I think, but why are we going to go see Heero? Is something wrong?"

Duo shrugged and got out of bed. "Dunno. Could be its a bad thing or it could be a good thing."

"Huh?"

"My words exactly."

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"Doctor!"

"What? I'm busy right now analyzing the patients blood sample and asked not to be disturbed!"

"I know sir, but that's what I came to tell you! The patient, sir, she's gone! The boy too!"

"WHAT?! When did this happen?!"

"I don't know sir, it was just reported a few minutes ago and...."

"I want them FOUND!! Do you hear me? I want them found now!! She can't miss her medication, it could jeopardize everything we've worked for!"

"Ye... yes Doctor."

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End of Chapter Three

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Notes: Okay, FINALLY we are getting somewhere where we get to meet the bad guys!! I wonder what's happening to Relena and who that woman and the boy are??? ^_^ Teeheehee!! Remember, if you don't review and tell me to get my butt in gear, the next part won't be out for awhile!! (I'm lazy, what can I say?) Jya!! ^.~