Chapter 11: A Working Holiday

"Did Miss Relena and Mr. Milliardo NOT come with you? I do hope they can still make it." Dorothy Catalonia inquires pleasantly enough to Cathrine. She didn't notice that Hilde wasn't paying attention to her as much as she herself was ignoring Hilde.

"Oh, well, they had to meet the--umm, umm--head of 'integral security' this morning." Cathrine finds herself stuttering under Dorothy's intense gaze.

"'Internal security' surely is what you must mean." Dorothy corrects in her overpowering way. Now even Cathrine blushes at her own naivete.

How sweet and simple you are. Dorothy smiles at this young girl who had just changed into a long white wraparound skirt, very becoming to her long, circus-star legs.

"Oh yes! How silly of me!" Cathrine's giggling chuckle was likable enough though. Even Dorothy couldn't help but want to overlook her, in Dorothy's mind, "simpleness", because of it.

"Let me see...uhh, Miss...Une, called for them just as we were leaving the hotel lobby. She must be someone important because Miss Relena took the phone and said she'd catch up with us later. She didn't meet us at the airport though. But Quatre said we should go on anyway. After all, she was with her brother and his wife."

"Hmm.....if Lady's involved, there must be something mysterious going on. After all, we all have a lot of hope riding on Miss Relena, don't we?" Dorothy mutters, more to herself, into the bureau mirror ominously.

"Mysterious? What do you mean by that?" Cathrine's big, lilac and violet eyes open wide as she twiddles a long wavy hair curl on a long nailed finger.

"Nothing, dear. It's just the little inconveniences in life that one becomes accustomed to when they're in powerful and influential circles." Dorothy trails off, considering her "powerful and influential" self in her vanity mirror with vain pleasure.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was precisely this kind of powerful and influential circle that one Chang Wufei wished himself never to be a party to ever again if he had any say in the matter.

But he didn't. The commander of his organization did all the saying in all the matters---and Wufei didn't like that either. After all, she was just a woman.

Rolling his eyes, Wufei had been glad (to say the least) that he, unlike all the other poor saps present, would neither be required, nor invited to go to a certain evil eyebrowed senator's vacation island.

Strange how one phone call could change an entire weekend's outlook.

"Why'd you have to tell her, stupid woman?" Wufei mumbles under his breath, feigning sleep in the jet's cockpit co-pilot seat all this while. His partner in crime flew the craft. The cloaking shield was switched on, so Sally Po could not see any reason for her not to take this opportunity to answer that muttered challenge meant for her ears to hear his discontent.

And a challenge from Wufei must never go unanswered.

"It's called 'duty,' Wufei. Get that in your head. If an important personage such as Vice Foreign Minister Darlian needs an escort, we will provide--without questioning our superiors, thank you very much." Sally's own eyes roll now. She could imagine just what a day at undelectable Senator Catalonia's ritzy beach resort would be like, especially having to spend it with an old-stick-in-the-mud like Wufei...

Sally blames the smile creeping up around her lips entirely to the pleasant girl rattling on and on behind her to one bored as-all-get-out brother and his more courteous wife.

Sally figured there wouldn't be much trouble today--of the dangerous sort anyway.

But you never can be too sure, Colonel Une would say. Better to be safe than sorry.

She focuses on the air ahead with her planeload of precious cargo on her mind.

"Peacecrafts...Pacifists..." Wufei mutters over again, shaking his head at those seated in the passengers' deck.

"I can't understand why we couldn't simply join the others on Quatre's private plane. I think Miss Une is just overreacting. I'm certain politicians and film stars and other people in the public eye all get death threats like those ridiculous letters. Why would anyone want to harm me? It doesn't make any sense, Milliardo. See?" Relena Darlian was indeed the daughter of both political speaker and orator King and it showed in her long-winded speeches--even to members of her own family.

"You're right on all three counts, Relena. One. Lady Une does overreact. Two--." Milliardo's husky voice was filled with only the consternation older brothers had for headstrong little sisters. "--you did receive those threatening letters." Zechs gives Noin a quick glance. Their eyes connect at the seriousness of the epistles that had been sent to the Vice Minister's office and thusly screened by the Preventers Unit that Lady Une had assigned to keep guard of Relena's office. Colonel Une had brought the letters to Zechs and Noin's attention this morning via videophone, seeing as how they were former staff and close contact to the vivacious Miss Darlian. "And three," Milliardo's see-through blue eyes soften ever so slightly as they finally rest on Relena's, "--I AM your big brother and now I'm not going to sleep nights worrying about your safety."

"Oh, Milliardo!" Half-frustrated, half-adoring of her elder sibling, Relena shows that, despite being the world's foremost political figure of the day, she was still a young girl.

Noin revelled in her innocence as she watches Relena give Zechs a big bear head and leans her head to his wide chest from the seat beside him.

"Big brothers are so worrisome. Don't lose sleep over me. I've got lots of good people watching out for me. Lady Une, all her Preventers, Miss Sally, Mr. Chang, and--" Relena's encouraging smile phases out to a pair of crystal blue eyes melding into the depths of the crystal blue sky. The name, unwhispered on her lips as her eyes look up through the clouds. It was something that Lucrezia Noin herself was familiar with. Relena was in love with someone out there--reaching for him, far beyond the stars...

"I'm going to see if we're almost there yet." Relena, after giving her unresponsive, caught-slightly-off-guard brother one more big hug and sweet kiss on the cheek, jumps up to her feet and walks down the aisle to the cockpit, not a care of death threats in the world on her peaceful face as she hums along.

"She's something else, isn't she? A pillar of strength." Noin says, taking Relena's seat beside her husband.

"Yes she is." Milliardo agrees with eyes proud as he is sure his father would be of his youngest child.

"So," Noin playfully tries to take Zechs' mind off Relena's safety as she pushes some strands of his long, platinum hair into place that had caught on his little sister's jacket button. "...we'll just have to find you something to idle yourself with on all those long, sleepless nights, Zechs." She coos at him.

Zechs saw what kind of day this was going to be...

"Hello? Excuse me, Miss Sally? Oh? Is Mr. Chang sleeping? Oh, I'm so sorry...I didn't mean to disturb you or him or anything. I'll just go back to my seat." Relena, embarrassed, says as she backs out of the cockpit upon peeking in, seeing the Chinese boy's in the one seat's eyes closed tightly. He was totally unmoving, with his arms crossed, and with an only slightly breathing chest.

"Oh, no, that's all right. He's not sleeping. Just...meditating." Sally's low tones indicate that she was amused by something, but Relena couldn't understand exactly what.

"We'll be arriving momentarily on the island." Sally says when Relena's voice escapes her. "That is what you came to check up on, isn't it?" Sally's laughing eyes smile over her shoulder at the quiet girl.

"Yes, thank you." Relena whispers back, so as not to awaken Wufei. She turns and leaves as silently as possible.

"We're almost there, Wufei." Sally says in her normal low voice. "You don't have to pretend for me. I know you're wide awake, Mister. You don't have to be afraid of them, you know." Sally says drolly, giving Wufei a sideways glance.

"We'll be on land soon and you'll be safe from the 'pacifist's cootie germs.'" She giggles at her male partner's discomfort at being in so close range to the despised, amoeba-like creatures--so-called pacifists.

"I FEAR NO PACIFISTS!!" From sound asleep to wide awake in .02 seconds, Wufei Chang's growling face would've been a frightening reflection in Sally's glass windshield, if the stunning view of sea, land and air before her was not so breathtaking.

As the plane breaks through the last barrier of clouds, they take a clear look at the beautiful ocean and picturesque island of Catalina below.