Roaring down the dirt road, Sally headed for HQ.
Out of the corner of her eye, Sally saw Wufei looking down at her boots and socks, which were lying on the floorboard next to his feet. "I didn't have time to put them back on after I heard my pager go off."
Ignoring the odd feelings of the pedals underneath her bare feet and her damp pants legs rolled up to her knees, she kept her attention on the street as they entered traffic.
"So what's the emergency?" Wufei inquired, putting his seat belt on.
"What? Didn't you hear it over the radio?" Sally asked. She saw the movement of Wufei shaking his head "I wasn't standing close enough to the car."
"I didn't catch everything being said. Just enough to know that Lady Une was calling for all Preventers still on Earth to go to HQ."
Narrowing her eyes Sally pondered what could have made Lady Une take such actions. 'I'll know soon enough.'
Looking once more at her partner, she noted that he had the same look as any other time when being called to duty and action. 'He doesn't seem to suspect a thing,' she thought with more than a small amount of relief. 'With Wufei, there's no telling what he'd do if he found out.'
Reaching their destination, Sally pulled into her usual parking space. "This place is so full! It's a wonder this slot is still empty" She stated calmly, turning the engine off.
"Go in ahead of me," Sally said, leaning over to grab her shoes "I'll be in A.S.A.P."
"Sure" Wufei said, tossing her socks in her direction. "Find any shells?" he asked, getting out.
Sally blinked at her partner not knowing what he was talking about. "What shells?"
"At the beach, did you get any shells?" A small smile pulled at the edges of his lips as he glanced down at her pant legs.
"Uh..." Sally yanked on a sock once again wondering if he knew. "No, but... hey you better get in there"
Turning with one last smile Wufei headed into the building, where he'd most likely find the source of the emergency.
After getting her last sock and shoes on, Sally began to role her pants legs down.
The sound of an old car backfiring brought her head up with her right hand ready to pull out her gun, which was holstered on her left hip.
An old model 179 AC car pulled in. It was missing a back bumper, but Sally recognized it as an old classic. She also knew she had seen Wufei standing by it before they had left the beach. 'Who does it belong to?' she questioned silently in her mind.
Making sure her uniform was in fairly good condition, she got out of her car. The black car parked a few parking spaces behind her. Not waiting to see who got out, Sally headed straight for the building.
Practically jumping out of Hilde's car, Duo wondered if he should shout for Sally to wait up. 'Nah, I'll see her inside' he thought.
"Thanks for the lift! I'll call you at home if I can." Duo said to Hilde.
Hilde's grip on the steering wheel tightened. He knew she wanted to go in with him, to go plunging head first into whatever danger awaited him, and anything that would endanger the peace of Earth and the colonies.
"Go home. I'll keep you as updated as I can with out breaking the rules." Duo hoped his voice was firm with out being too pushy.
"This is exactly why I should join the Preventers!" Hilde said, looking him straight in to his eyes. "You know I'd be just as good as the next guy, and then I wouldn't have to be sitting at home while my friend is risking his life!"
Duo sighed. They had been through this before. "You're not a Preventer right now, so let me go and do my job with out having to worry about you."
Hilde nodded, but it was clear that the conversation was not over, just on hold.
"What? A joke?" Wufei said dumbly, looking at Quatre.
Quatre nodded. "You weren't the only one to come here for nothing. Trowa was baby-sitting some kid from the circus for Catherine. When Trowa turned his back for one minute the kid had snuck into the dispatch room and began calling for everyone. Using Lady Une's name helped convince some people that it was real."
Eyes dancing with some amusement, Quatre took a sip of his coffee.
Wufei couldn't see any humor in the situation at all.
Turning to see what Quatre was looking at over his shoulder, he spotted Sally. She was running in, her boots making strange squishing sounds, her hair slightly messed up from the ocean's spray, and her face flushed.
Sally stopped in front of them trying to catch her breath. "Wha...." she gasped a little, holding her side. "What happened?"
Before Wufei could say any thing Quatre had a chair pulled out "Have a seat Ma'am."
Her face speaking volumes of gratitude Sally sat down. "Well, what happened?" She asked when she had her breath back.
Duo came up behind her, he too look liked he had ran the whole way, 'and through water too' Wufei noted as water dripped from Duos pants.
"Yeah, what's going on?" Duo asked, echoing Sally's question.
As Quatre went into the story one more time, Wufei walked over to his desk, his mind on his two wet friends.
Wufei took a peek out of his office window. The sun was shining just as brightly as it had when he was walking on the beach, talking to Hilde, and then having his nose cleaned.
"Hilde Schbeiker" he said quietly. It was a nice sound.
A loud "Cerblung!" caused him to look down into the parking lot. A black car that looked ready to break down was pulling out. "It looks like Hannah, even missing a bumper!" He said, speaking to himself.
"Hmm?" Sally asked, sitting down at her desk across from him.
"Nothing," He replied looking to where the car was driving off. 'Did she follow me? Why would she do that?' Pushing the thought away for the time being, Wufei sat down to finish the paper work from that morning, before he had gone on that bizarre coffee break with Sally. 'I'll just have to find out later.'