AN: Sorry that this chapter took awhile. I had a moment of writers block, then I got way too busy. I want to thank everyone that reviewed the last chapter. And a big thanks and hug to those of you that have been reading and reviewing the whole story.

Disclaimer - Gundam Wing doesn't belong to me plain and simple, and I make no money or other profit off of this story.

To Protect Until the End  

Daniel quickly moved down the hallway where he was told, as soon as he got out of surgery, that Relena was supposed to be. She had just gotten out of surgery herself a half hour ago. He stopped when he saw a nurse heading down the hall toward him. 

"Where's the Vice Foreign Minister?"

The Nurse quickly pointed. "She's in the third room....down the hall." Daniel took off running before she got a chance to finish. The nurse shrugged her shoulders and hurried back to what she was doing.

As soon as he approached the room he saw a Preventer officer stepping out of the room. If Daniel remembered correctly the man was Wufei Chang.

Wufei stared at Daniel as he came down the hall toward him. As soon as the other man was standing in front of him, Wufei spoke. "Where have you been? The woman has been asking for you." Wufei glared at Daniel as he walked into Relena's room without saying a word to him.

Daniel stood in the doorway watching a nurse help Relena to get comfortable. Upon Daniel entering Relena glance up and saw him and called out his name. Daniel quickly covered the distance to her side and kissed her forehead. 

"Daniel where have you been? I've been asking for you ever since I got here."

"I just got out of a very long surgery." Daniel smiled at her and took her hand in his and gave it a light squeeze. "How are you?"

Relena glanced at her shoulder that was held up in a sling. "The bullet was just lodged in my muscle, the doctors were thinking something must have slowed the force of the bullet before impact."

'More like someone slowed it down.' Daniel thought then nodded. "Well, that's a good thing then." Relena closed her eyes and after a few moments of silence Daniel thought that she might have passed back out from the painkillers that were still in her system. He was about to leave when he saw her eyes open again. 

"Heero...is he ok? Do you know if he is alright?" Her voice trembled slightly as she fought off the tears that were threatening to form. She had been afraid to ask at first, but she had to know.

"He's going to be fine."

"Are you sure, how do you know? Have you seen him?" 

"I help perform his surgery, he's in ICU right now. He's still in critical condition, but I'm more than sure that he's going to pull through just fine." Daniel wasn't about to go into detail that they thought that they had lost Heero at one point, but Heero had amazed everyone in that room, including Daniel, when his vitals returned to normal levels. 

Relena let the tears come this time, and she let herself cry of relief. 

"Why don't you get some rest and I'll come back and see you in a few hours. I have a few rounds that I have to make."

Relena shook her head. "No, I want to see him."

"Relena, you need your rest, besides only direct family can be in ICU." He felt terrible for saying it when he saw the hurt in her eyes.

"Daniel you know that Heero has no family. His friends and I are his family."

Daniel sighed. "Ok, tell you what. You get some rest, and I'll get you in to see him in a few hours. Heero needs his rest as well right now."

It looked like Relena was about to protest again, but she soon nodded. Daniel stood up and gave her a gentle kiss before backing away.

"If anything happens..."

"I'll let you know." Daniel finished for her and then left her room. He didn't even take two steps outside Relena's door when he felt someone grab him and slam him against the wall across the hallway.

"Nothing better happen to Yuy, or I'll make sure that justice is done."

Daniel looked into the onyx eyes of the Chinese man in front of him, the fury that was seen in his eyes was enough to let Daniel know not to provoke the man. "He's fine. Heero is going to be ok, I'll state my life on that."

"I'll collect on it, if things turn for the worse."

Daniel swallowed hard as Wufei let go of him. "If you're assuming that I would purposely..."

"I'm not assuming anything." Wufei cut him off. 

Daniel straightened his clothes. "Well, I have some patients to check on. If you'll excuse me." He could still feel Wufei's glare on him while he walked down the hallway. He breathed a sigh of relief when he finally turned the corner to the elevators, and was out of Wufei's site.

  <<<<<<<>>>>>>>

It wasn't until nearly eight hours later that Daniel took Relena to Heero's room. Daniel watched as Relena rushed to Heero's bedside and pulled up a chair and sat down, taking his hand in hers.  Looking around his bedside Relena felt her stomach become weak as she looked at the tubes and machinery around him. "Has he woken up yet?"

"No. He's a strong person, so I don't think he'll be under much longer." Daniel had no idea what to think about when he watched Relena reach out and move a lock of hair out of Heero's face, then trail her fingers down his cheek.

"Can I stay with him tonight?"

"I'll have to see if I can pull a few strings, but I can't promise anything. You know you should be worrying about yourself right now."

Relena nodded to his response, never taking her eyes off of Heero. 

Daniel crossed his arms and watched Relena quietly. He could tell by the way that she was acting that it wasn't one of concern, but one of love. Daniel quietly slipped out of the room to give Relena some privacy. And deep within his heart he knew that she was slipping away from him. He had always known that there was something a bit more between those two than just a friendship. And the night that he overheard Quatre and Heero talking in Relena's study only made the his thoughts a reality.

Relena leaned forward in her seat, gazing at Heero. She could still hear Heero's words, and see the look in his eyes when he told her that he loved her. She had waited along time to hear those words and to see the endless unemotional void of his Prussian eyes to show one spark of love. She had thought as she held him in her arms as the medical crew rushed to them that she had lost him, or would loose him once they reached the hospital. "You made my life very complicated, do you know that. I have no idea what to do without one of you becoming hurt in the process."

Relena smirked and touched her lips. "You didn't really kiss me that day to shut me up did you?" She wished that he would wake up. She had to talk to him, she had run into a slight problem and she needed her best friend to help her through it. "Please wake up. I need to talk to you, about a bunch of stuff." 

Relena yawned and rested her head on Heero's thigh, and gave his hand a gentle squeeze. She was tired because she had found it impossible to sleep earlier due to her being worried about Heero. Relena closed her eyes, deciding to get some rest. Just being near Heero made her worries lessen.

  <<<<<<<>>>>>>>

When Heero had finally woken he found himself in a dimly lit hospital room. He tried to move and squeezed his eyes tight as a wave of pain hit him. When he opened his eyes again he found a nurse entering the room. 

"Hi there honey, how are you feeling? Are you in any pain?" 

Heero shook his head. He would be damned if he let anyone know that his chest hurt like hell.

The blond woman crossed the room to his bed site. "It's about time you woke up, you have quite a bit of worried people waiting to see you." Heero remained silent and tired once again to get up, only to have the nurse place both hands on his shoulders and push him back on the bed. Heero glared at her actions to let her know to back off.

"Just where do you think your going?" The nurse returned the glare with almost enough force to make Heero wonder what the woman was capable of. "Tell me what you want sweetie and I'll get it for you, ok. You were shot, so you need to get plenty of rest." 

"The woman that was at the conference with me, I need to know if she's ok."

"Is she kind of petite with honey blond hair, and has a glare that can out rival the one that you just gave me?"

Heero smirked slightly. "Yeah."

"She's fine." The nurse patted his hand and pointed to his left. "She's asleep over there." 

Heero turned his head and saw Relena sleeping on a cot set up not far from his bed. He felt himself flooded with relief that she was ok.

"Would you like me to wake her?"

"No." Heero shook his head, never taking his eyes off of Relena.

"You're lucky to have someone like her. She refused to leave the room, even though she had been injured herself. She must love you very much. Well, I'm going to go and fetch you Doctor so we can get you on same pain medication. I'll be back in a bit." The nurse quietly left the room.

As Heero stared at Relena he got lost in thought thinking about what his future may hold. He knew of Relena's past feelings for him before they built the strong friendship they had. He could only wonder now if those feelings were still in her heart.  Heero came out of his thoughts as he heard Relena groan quietly and stretch as she woke up. Heero smirked as he watched her. The instant that Relena's eye's locked with his she sat up.

"Heero." Relena got out of the bed, minding her right arm that was placed in a sling, and quickly went to Heero's side. "How long have you been awake?"

"Not long." Heero felt slightly shocked as Relena took a hold of his hand and smiled. Heero watched Relena entwine their fingers and sit on the edge of the bed and pull his hand in her lap.

"I was worried about you Heero."   

"You shouldn't." Heero watched her with intensity. Her eyes had started to tear over as she took his hand. 

"But I do, I always will."

Heero knew that there was something wrong with Relena, something that didn't involve what had happened earlier. It was a habit to know when something was upsetting her. It was something that he learned to pick up on over the years of being her bodyguard and friend. "What's wrong?"

Relena bowed her head and traced her fingers along the palm of his hand. Taking a deep breath she continued to look down as she spoke. "My life at this point in time has become very difficult. Part of it is because I care for two men very deeply, and I'm confused as to what my actions should be."

"And what's the other reason?" Heero watched Relena close her eyes. She was starting to act peculiar and Heero was becoming worried that whatever she had to tell him wasn't good. Relena shifted slightly and hissed quietly in pain. "Rleena, I'm going to call the nurse and have her bring some pain medication for you."

"No!" Relena's left hand shot out and grasped his hand that went for the nurses call button. As soon as Relena came into contact with him she saw a flash of confusion in Heero's eyes at her outburst. "I'm fine Heero, I just took a few pills two hours ago. My shoulder's a bit sore, but it's not bad enough to be demanding more drugs."