Disclaimer:
Can you believe I forgot to disclaim the other chapters?? *hits herself* Anyway.
Nope. Don't own GW.
Author's notes: Here's another chapter folks, hope
it's okay....I'm going to be focusing quite a bit on the other characters as
well as Sally & Wu, but they're the main backbone of the story. The plot's
quite complicated and I haven't quite sussed it all out yet but beware of twists
and turns. Hopefully, I'll make it as clear as I can. This is gonna be quite a
long fic so bear with me....
*********************
“Look, Noin, we
have to go back to the main headquarters tomorrow,” Zechs reminded her two days
later. “Une wants us on to assist with the administration work. And what about
that recruiting schedule we volunteered to oversee?”
“I know but I’m not
sure Sally will be okay if left here...” Noin replied hesitantly. “I know she
said she wanted to stay when we told her, but...”
“She’ll be strong,”
Zechs replied. “You know all this fuss and concern is getting to her. It’s best
if she stays here with the pilots. I have every confidence they’ll take care of
her, though she’s capable of taking care of herself, you know that Noin. She
said it was okay if we went anyway, so there’s nothing to fret
about.”
Lucrezia nodded, half convinced.
***
“We’re here to
see Wufei Chang,” Duo Maxwell declared to the receptionist in the hospital. The
other three youths shadowed him, each in their Preventer attire.
The
woman on the reception pushed a lock of wiry black hair from her eyes and
repositioned her spectacles. “Oh...Wufei...yes...you boys from
Preventers...right?”
Duo sighed a little too loud. The woman was
obviously not fluent in English. He flashed his ID card. “Yup, we came to visit
here yesterday too. Wufei is in the intensive care unit. Is it okay if we go on
up?”
The woman, satisfied they weren’t trouble causers, and well aware
she should comply to the requests of a Preventer agent, hurriedly searched the
files on the hospital database. She stopped when she came across Wufei’s
name.
“Ah...he been moved. It is not serious, doctors say. Just
unconscious. They think he will wake soon.”
“That’s a relief!” Duo
gasped. “I knew Wufei wouldn’t be a quitter.”
“Where shall we find him?”
Trowa asked, stepping forward, whilst Duo fiddled with one of the exotic trees
on display. Heero and Quatre remained silent, though there was a spark of relief
in Quatre’s aqua eyes. Heero looked sullen, somehow, as if he hadn’t been
listening to any of the dialogue.
“Second floor, first corridor...third
room on your left,” the receptionist said in answer to Trowa’s
question.
“He isn’t in a ward?” Quatre spoke up.
“No..no...it’s
been quiet here recently. He got a private room. Just until he
wakes.”
“Thank you,” Trowa replied. “We’ll use the elevator.”
The
telephone began to sound, and the receptionist promptly busied herself answering
the call, while the four Preventers in the reception made their way through to
one of the elevators.
***
A few nurses and patients passing
focused their stares on the young men marching up one of the hospital corridors.
Preventer agents in the area weren’t an every day occurrence and a few wondered
whether there might be some dilemma aside from that of usual visitors. Many
hadn’t recalled their previous visits to Wufei’s bedside as up until now, he’d
been in the intensive care unit.
“We’re just here to visit a friend,”
Quatre assured anyone who stared long enough to warrant an explanation. “There’s
no need to worry...”
“Look, I’m positive I know the right room!” Duo
argued, adamant he was correct. “The lady said second floor_first
corridor_FOURTH_room_on_the_RIGHT!”
“No, Duo,” Quatre replied calmly.
“You were too busy admiring the potted plants. She said third room on the left.
” He turned towards Heero and Trowa, “Didn’t she?”
“Hn,” Heero responded.
“Whatever. Just find it okay? Why does everyone always look to me for the
answers?”
Trowa’s brow furrowed for a second, on seeing the clenched jaw
of his Japanese comrade. “Are you all right, Heero?” he asked discreetly. “You
seem distracted - “
“I’m fine.”
In the space of a few minutes,
Quatre and Trowa’s word against Duo’s meant they tried the correct door. The
four took in deep breaths as they entered the room in which their Chinese friend
was laying under the white hospital sheets. He was still attached to a monitor
and an IV drip, but somehow his sleeping face radiated more life than it had
done even yesterday.
Duo perched on the edge of the bed and gazed
affectionately at Wufei. “Man, he won’t know what’s hit him when he wakes up to
this smell. Hospitals stink, right?”
He chuckled and Quatre managed a
smile. “It’s great the doctors think he’ll pull through. He looks better already
to me.”
“Yeah, very soon he’ll be his own ranting and raving self,” Duo
snickered. “And we’ll be like...ooh, Wu’s back!”
Heero rolled his eyes
and turned his head away from where the other three were bent over Wufei’s
resting form. Somehow he just couldn’t share in the others’ release. It wasn’t
that he didn’t care - he cared deeply for his friend and wanted nothing more
than for him to make a full recovery. But he had his own reasons for feeling
alienated.
Quatre reached to touch Wufei’s arm, but Trowa stopped him.
“Don’t, he’s broken his shoulder, the nurse told us yesterday. She said it would
probably take about six weeks to heal, but the X-rays showed no operation was
necessary. Should heal itself if left alone.”
“I remember,” recalled
Quatre. “How could I forget? He looks a sight in that ‘collar and cuff’ sling he
has on there. Poor Wufei. And his sprained wrist, too. He’s really in the
wars...”
“Yeah, Sally’s really taken it bad,” Duo mused. “But I know
she’s gonna improve when she finds out Wufei’s on the mend. But let’s not jump
the gun.” He glanced over at Heero, “Pardon the pun.”
Heero didn’t smile.
He stared at Wufei’s face achingly, wanting to talk to him yet knowing he’d
never have the nerve to voice his thoughts. Not this time. Since the time of
Zechs and Noin’s wedding a month ago, he and Wufei had become a little closer as
companions, beginning to open up to each other, sharing the feelings they kept
closely within themselves. About war....about love....
“Hey, you guys, I
know he can be a pain sometimes, but I’d really miss Wu if he were never
around,” Quatre spoke up, cutting through Heero’s train of thought. “I think
we’ve come so far since the Eve Wars, it’s like we’re starting to be human
again. It’s like we’ve never known what a Gundam even is...”
“Yeah, going
to school helped a little,” Duo added. “Socialising. All those
girls...”
He grinned inwardly, remembering. At age eighteen, the five of
them had worked a few terms in the year as Preventers, and the rest of the time,
they’d attended college to help them integrate with other teenagers who hadn’t
shared their remarkably dark experiences. It had been Lady Une’s generous
idea.
Duo had taken to school like a duck to water - not to the lessons -
but to the social side of things. Rolling into his dormitory blind drunk at two
o’ clock in the morning, with Harry and Eric from his homeroom. Detentions never
deterred the gregarious American. He’d even had the nerve to pretend his old
house mate Hilde was his sister when questioned as to why she sent him e-mails.
Of course, this would add Duo’s popularity with his growing female fan club if
they saw him as available.
Trowa and Quatre, making the most of their
time in education, had joined the college musicians club, who were astounded at
their musical abilities, especially Quatre’s skills as a violinist. The two had
been asked on numerous occasions by the music department to perform on the stage
during school productions. Trowa disliked the spotlight, yet he’d forced himself
to come out of his shell a little for Quatre’s sake. Quatre loved to bless
others with his music.
Duo, who wasn’t too happy at not being the centre
of attention, had also joined the band, claiming to be a professional with a
trombone. Only after a few days his talent - or lack of it - resulted in his
immediate expulsion from the club.
Heero and Wufei’s short time at the
school had been considerably different. It was only since he’d later gotten
talking to Wufei, that Heero had properly understood why. Whilst Duo, Quatre and
occasionally Trowa had attempted to socialise, Wufei preferred to stay brooding
his dorm, or burying himself in his college assignments.
It wasn’t that
he didn’t appreciate girls, it was just he’d later admitted to Heero that he
found girls his age so insipid, and completely lacking in their ability to see
past his exterior and really understand him. And after all, he’d said, only a
weak person relied on love anyway. Heero had understood perfectly. He felt a
similar way about women. It would take more than the average person in college
to ever reach his scarred heart. He might have seemed like a student then, but
sometimes he wondered if the core of him would always be a soldier. It made him
reflect on the times he’d caught glimpses of Relena on the news in the school
common room. Had he really watched the screen longer than necessary,
perhaps?
Those times seemed a whole world away now. The five of them, now
nineteen, had finished their short period in education and were back to being
regular Preventer agents, except for when they were given leave to visit friends
or family. This suited Heero better; missions gave him more of a purpose. And he
didn’t want to let himself think of Relena. Never again. For her
sake.
Heero’s rueful gaze fell onto Wufei again. Quatre was smoothing
some of the creases out of the sheets, always the perfectionist. The Japanese
Preventer could see real care in the blonde’s expression. Duo seemed chirpy and
Trowa appeared to be content. Just the five of them together in one room seemed
right. The way things should be. But Heero tore his eyes away from the scene,
knowing it could never be right. They could never be those five young boys
united in their experiences and friendship. They were adults now, capable of
more damage than ever before. Emotional damage. And as far as Heero Yuy was
concerned...he shouldn’t be there.
It was Duo’s voice which interrupted
Heero’s thoughts this time. “Wufei’s got a nice side, ya know,” he was saying
earnestly to Trowa and Quatre. “When you two were away on L4 a few days before
Zechs and Noin got married, Wu and me caught a mild virus and when we began to
perk up a bit, one of the rookies gave us a TV for our bedroom....”
Heero
screwed his eyes closed and tried not to listen to Duo’s
babble.
“....Heero was on a mission to Colony L3, I think....and so Wufei
took his bed in our dorm.....”
The mission on L3. Heero found himself
secretly sweating, and wiped his clammy palms down the sides of his
pants.
“....we watched some martial arts movies, and then some of the
stuff I liked, and we actually laughed a few times,” Duo was continuing, in the
same merry tone, “...Wu can be good company when he’s forced to be. He tried to
teach me some Chinese. Too bad Heero came back from his mission a day early to
spoil the fun.”
The mission on L3. A day early. Heero’s heart
lurched.
“Hey, Heero.”
Heero found Duo’s violet-blue eyes were
turned in his direction. “Hmm?”
“Who went with you to L3?”
He
swallowed hesitantly. “No-one. I went by myself.”
“On a mission by
yourself? I thought Lady Une didn’t allow that.”
“She did this
time.”
Heero felt this skin on the back of his neck begin to creep
uncomfortably. He rubbed a hand over his forehead.
“Well I suppose it’s
not like you can’t take care of yourself. You were, after all, the Perfect
Soldier,” Duo said almost enviously, “All of us are capable of looking after
ourselves, we’ve had enough practise being Gundam Pilots and everything....” His
voice trailed off as he realised an intruder had entered the
room.
“Gundam Pilot, hm?” asked the new addition to the scene, who
happened to be a strange looking doctor with wild, raven hair. It was the ugly
creases in his sallow face which gave him such a peculiar appearance. “The
patient, Mr...Chang - was he really a Gundam Pilot?”
“Er...yeah...,” Duo
stammered. “I mean...no..noooo....of course not.”
The doctor clearly
believed Duo’s former statement and nibbled his bottom lip thoughtfully, his
brow creased in a pensive manner.
“Is something wrong?” Quatre asked
warily, trying to ignore the furious looks Trowa and Heero were directing at
Duo.
“Oh, not at all,” the doctor replied, with a crooked smile which
seemed cheerful yet insincere at the same time. His eyes, like tiny pieces of
coal, were almost hidden by the crinkles on his face as he beamed. “My name is
Doctor Julius, and from now on, I am going to be overseeing your friend’s
progress. I was just coming in here to do a routine check on him. But everything
seems okay. You may have a few more moments with the patient.”
He cast
another pondering look at Wufei, then each of the patient’s friends in turn.
With that, he nodded politely and made his exit.
“He’s seems like a
freak,” Duo chuckled with a slight sneer. “I dunno, like an eccentric scientist
or something.”
“He’s a doctor,” Quatre answered plainly. “And more
importantly, Duo, you’re gonna have to be more careful about what you say. You
can’t just talk so loosely about us being Gundam Pilots. We’re not supposed to
let the average person know. For our own sake more than anything. We’re supposed
to be flushing ourselves of those times.”
“Cut me some slack. I didn’t
know anyone was there, did I?” Duo said with a flick of his braid, quietly
annoyed at himself for being too careless, though he wasn’t going to reveal that
to the others. “Ooh, paranoia’s getting to you, eh?”
“Come on, I think
it’s time we left,” Heero spoke up firmly. “Wufei’s clearly okay for now. Let’s
get going.”
“What’s the rush?” Duo quarrelled. “Oh well, I suppose we can
let Sally know Wufei’s probably gonna recover. She’ll be glad. Poor woman, she’s
been real messed-up since his accident...and it’s not even like Sally to be that
way....”
“I said let’s get going.”
Heero scowled, stalking off in
the direction of the elevator. Without another word, Trowa and Quatre followed
his lead, both snatching sympathetic looks at their bed-ridden friend. Duo
trailed along behind too, dragging his feet. He was irritated by Heero’s harsh
attitude. He thought Heero had changed for the better, so why recently was he so
distant and prickly? ‘Regression’ Duo decided bitterly.
***
Noin
and Zechs were sitting tensely on the couch watching television when the four
ex-pilots entered the apartment. Zechs’ intense stare was fixed on the screen in
front of him, one arm draped loosely around his wife’s shoulders, whilst the
other rested against the side of his face.
“Just catching up on world
events,” Noin remarked, gesturing to the news reporter present on the screen.
“How’s Wufei doing?”
Duo’s face split into a gentle grin. “The doctors
think he’ll pull through. He’s been moved from intensive care now. We reckon
he’s gonna be fine.”
“That’s a big relief,” Lucrezia said with a gasp,
slapping her knee as she rose. Zechs simply nodded.
“Where’s Sally?”
Quatre inquired, seeing she wasn’t anywhere nearby.
“In bed,” Zechs
responded nonchalantly, “She said something about feeling ill, but I think it’s
just that she’d rather be alone.”
“Well that’s gonna change now Wufei’s
on the mend,” Duo piped up, plonking himself down in one of the
armchairs.
“Let’s not get too excited too early,” Heero remarked quietly.
Duo shot him a ‘don’t be so cynical’ glare.
Noin strode over to one of
the bedroom doors and tapped on it with her fingernails. “Sally?” she called
without entering, yet loud enough to alert her friend. “The boys are back.
Wufei’s doing much better. You gonna come out?”
There wasn’t an answer.
With that, Noin went to the kitchen cupboard and extracted a tumbler, filling it
with some orange squash, then diluting it with bottled water. It was a known
fact that running water in that area was much less purified. She took a few sips
of the drink, and Quatre politely asked if he may have one too.
“I had
time to do some shopping whilst you were out today,” Noin told them, handing the
second drink to Quatre, who thanked her. “And I managed to get Sally to come
too, though she’s spent the rest of the afternoon in that pokey bedroom. I
haven’t said much to her at all. She’s still not really herself...”
“That
can be expected,” Heero commented darkly. Zechs looked over at him, then nodded
in acknowledgement of Heero’s words.
Presently, the creak of a door
interrupted the quiet of the room, save for the drone of television. Sally
emerged, her face bleary and her hair tangled. She was dressed in her uniform,
minus the jacket. The shirt she had on appeared creased from where she had been
lying down. Her eyes blinked as they became accustomed to the light, and the
sight of Zechs, Noin and the four others seated in various places in the room
watching the TV screen.
“Oh, you’re up,” Noin greeted her, trying to
judge how she should act by the expression on her companion’s face. Sally wasn’t
really wearing an expression, she just appeared tired.
“Uh...yeah..”
Sally replied groggily.
Noin patted the space on the couch beside her,
motioning for Sally to sit down. The tawny-haired woman seated herself
obediently. Noin gave her friend’s shoulders a light squeeze. “Didn’t you hear
me, Sal? I told you that the doctors have said Wufei’s got a great chance of
pulling through.”
“Sorry, I didn’t hear you. I was
sleeping.”
“Well aren’t you happier now?”
Quatre and Duo watched
the woman’s face intently, waiting for her answer. Trowa’s eyes darted to and
fro, not sure where to rest. Heero kept his eyes focused on the TV. He didn’t
estimate Sally would want to be gawked at.
“Sally?” Noin
pressed.
“Oh...yeah. Sorry, I was miles away there. That’s great. Has
Wufei woken up yet?”
“No, but he probably will soon,” Quatre interjected
brightly. “At least he’s not in too much danger. It’s not as if he has internal
bleeding or anything.”
“I’m so glad,” Sally replied softly. “But it
doesn’t take away what I’ve done.”
Heero’s eyes snapped to hers and she
glanced back. “No-one can blame you, Sally. It was an accident,” he said through
gritted teeth.
“An accident I could have avoided if I’d have been more
responsible,” she answered moodily, her pale blue eyes fixed grimly on his.
“Perhaps it was an accident, but it doesn’t take it off my conscience. I can’t
understand people who can do terrible things and can carry on
regardless.”
Heero swallowed and clenched his jaw, inwardly refusing to
let her icy gaze defeat him. “Neither can I.”
“Let’s try and lighten
things up a little,” Duo remarked with a shudder. “The atmosphere is so heavy in
here. Jeez, anyone would think they’d given Wufei an hour to live the look on
both your faces!”
After a few moments, the seven of them took to watching
the TV without any further conversation. The news round had finished and now
there was some documentary on talking about the crime and living conditions on
parts of colonies L2 and L3.
“Those places have really gone down the
drain,” Zechs said with a sneer. “Drugs, gangs, the lot.”
“You get that
anywhere,” Noin reminded him, sensibly. “Even so, there’s still nice parts on
those colonies. It’s not all doom and gloom. And after the violence each one of
us here have witnessed, a few street fights seem so trivial.”
“It
shouldn’t be that way,” Trowa spoke up. “All fights should be taken seriously.
When people deliberately hurt each other, I don’t think it can be categorised in
importance.”
“You may be right, Trowa,” Quatre agreed. “Maybe I’m just
too ignorant, but I wouldn’t like to go to one of those areas alone. But you
managed it on L3, didn’t you, Heero?”
Heero snapped out of his temporary
trance. “Hn?”
“Your mission,” the blonde continued patiently. “To L3. You
were okay and you went alone, right?”
Noin’s brow furrowed. “I thought
you went with Sally on that mission - when Duo and Wufei were sick or
something.”
“No, he went by himself,” Sally replied
defensively.
“But you told me you two were taking a shuttle out together
as temporary partners,” Noin insisted. “I’m sure that’s what you told
me.”
Sally inhaled deeply. “Er - yeah. I was going to but then Lady Une
needed me to assist the desert training with the rookies. So Heero went alone.
Right, Heero?”
“Yeah,” he answered, his focus on the
documentary.
“You were probably just too busy with your wedding
preparations. After all, you got married a few days later,” Sally added
casually. “Anyway, no harm done.”
“None at all,” Heero
echoed.
Authors note: Well, how's it going? Is this too short? Reviews
welcome ^_^
