Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Bitter ❯ Chapter 5

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Standard Disclaimer: Don't own GW or it's characters, but I do this fanfic. ^_~
Warning: Not for children!!
*Denotes personal POV

Bitter by Kuno-baby

Chapter 5

Fractured skull...bleeding on the brain...possible brain damage...coma...

Quatre cried in anguish as the doctors reports became grimmer day by day, not caring about his anxious friends surrounding him. Dorothy's life was hanging by a thread and it was all senseless. So damn senseless! Three weeks since her brutal attack and she couldn't-wouldn't wake up. She showed signs of brain activity, so there was that small hope, but how damaged would she be if she came out of the coma? Would she be the same Dorothy? My Dorothy? Or had the attack done irreversible damaged? He couldn't go on without her. He just could not cope.

"Quatre?" Relena whispered, clasping her hands on his heaving shoulders. Her eyes were already filling with tears seeing his pain. They all felt it and sympathized, after all Dorothy was important to them too.

Shrugging off her hand, he pulled away to walk next to the large hospital window. He didn't need their sympathy, what he needed was his Dorothy back.

*My empathic abilities to feel others emotions just makes me sick now as I have to contend not only with my grief , but theirs also. They are worried for me and my sanity...they probably had a reason for it, but I don't care.*

"I need to be alone. P-Please." I sighed, wiping at my eyes. Gazing out the window at the scenic view of the city, it truly was such a beautiful day, but to him it meant nothing.

Heero immediately nodded, ushering a noticeably subdued Relena from the room. Knowing she was pregnant, Quatre knew Heero would be extra careful when it came to the health of his wife and unborn child. Visiting Dorothy and watching over me had to be stressful to her, but she never failed to visit.

He felt selfish for his cold behavior, but he just didn't have the patience to be concerned about the others hurt feelings at the moment. This painful bedside vigil was the only thing keeping him sane at the moment. Looking behind him, his eyes landed on his beautiful Dorothy. Hair spread out on her pillow, she looked like an angel. He wanted her awake and complaining about the hideous gray hospital gown the nurses had dressed her in. Or cracking jokes about her accommodations. But her eyes remained close. Her normal sardonic expression was smoothed away, gentled by sleep. If not for the constant beeping of medical equipment, wires connecting to something or another, she'd look like she was just napping. Hell, if only it were that simple as a nap.

Walking back to her bed, he sat down in the lazy-boy like chair Rashid had brought and grasped her left hand. It felt so cold. Quatre felt a sharp pain in his heart as he prayed for her to open her eyes. All he wanted was to see her gorgeous blue eyes. Hell, even a sarcastic remark would be a gift from Allah.

"Please, wake up. Damnit Dorothy! Please?" Quatre pleaded, before dissolving into tears, grasping her hand tightly to his lips, afraid to let go.

**************

After being 'kicked' out of Dorothy's room, Heero steered a noticeably tired Relena to the private hospital waiting room assigned just for the Winner guests, that and the fact that Relena was the Vice Foreign Minister. The room was nicely decorated in a peach wallpaper with flowers at the trim, an abundant amount of fresh red and yellow tulips centered around the spacious room, and large couch like chairs. Heero grunted surveying the place and knew other waiting rooms in the hospital were nowhere near as lavish as this one.

"I'm fine Heero. Stop mothering me." Relena sighed as he promptly, but gently pushed her down in the first seat he could find.

"You're not fine. You exhausted and it's not good for the baby." Heero firmly stated, sitting in the seat next to hers. He breathed a sigh of relief when she gave no arguments. Since finding out about they were expecting, he'd won more arguments with her by just reminding her of the pregnancy. She'd cut her works hours, made sure to eat her three meals a day-no junk foods and take naps when she got tired. But she also insisted on visiting Dorothy every other day. Even clothed in a short blue maternity dress, she radiated calm like the politician she was, but he saw the little dark circles under her eyes and the tension in her face. The stress wasn't good for her and their baby and he had to constantly put his foot down. Not that it worked all the time, though. Hell, if it took a baby to slow her down, he'd keep her pregnant!

"I know, I'll be good warden." Relena gave a smile, albeit a weak one. She'd tried to keep her spirits up, but it was just so hard to see another in so much grief. Rubbing what she lovingly referred to as the bump, she stroked her swelling belly. It had such a calming effect on her and surprisingly Heero also. He placed his left hand over hers as they touched her stomach, sitting in silence.

She was so afraid Dorothy wouldn't make it-and if she didn't, neither would Quatre.

"She'll make it." Heero replied, startling Relena, who had began to get sleepy from the quiet in the waiting room.

*I don't know how he does that, but hearing him speak with such conviction, I know she'll pull through.* Relena smiled gratefully to her husband before laying her head against his shoulder. It didn't take long before she was sound asleep. Thinking back to when she'd been shot and almost died, Heero wrapped his arms around her and held her close, grateful for everything in his life.

*************

Meanwhile, at the Preventer's headquarters twelve blocks away from St. Mary Immaculate hospital where Dorothy was hospitalized, the agents assigned to her case where having somewhat of a breakthrough in finding out the reason for her attack. Commander Une, leader of the Preventer's, had been livid when news of the attack had gotten to her. And Duo Maxwell's shooting and killing of her attacker on the Preventer's government property had been cause for another investigation. She'd been so adamant her operative wasn't in the wrong, the inquiry had been quickly dropped and he and Hilde were assigned to finding out who or what was responsible for Dorothy's murder attempt.

In a small back office on the tenth floor Duo and his partner/girlfriend were going over piles of info on her attacker's criminal record. It wasn't any surprise it was virtually a mile long. The room was littered with discarded take-out cartons and bags, paper work and file cabinets. It was cluttered, disorganized...a home away from home.

"None of this shit makes sense! There was no reason why this asshole would sneak into a government building to mug some stranger. We're missing something, but what?" Duo snarled, slamming his fist on his already damaged wooden desk. He rocked back in his black roll away chair anxiously.

"I know, it smells fishy to me also. I mean, he was a career criminal. He could have just robbed anyone off the streets, why enter this particular building? Why Dorothy? And why, if he was planning to rob her, would he take the time to nearly beat her to death and not just take her money or car?" Hilde questioned, leaning forward in her chair from the opposite side of his desk.

"A hit is all I can think off, but who and why ? Dorothy has a radical personality, but it's not enough to want her dead. But that's the only thing that makes sense to me, Hil." Duo sighed.

"It all goes back to this guy. He had to be after her specifically. We have to find out who if anybody was paying him to off Dorothy. If that is the case." Hilde replied.

Shaking his head grimly, he couldn't help but feel angry and guilty about Dorothy. If only he'd walked her to her car all the way and not have let her talk him out of it. He could barely visit the hospital...see Quatre's broken face without wanting to scream.

"My fault she's in-" Duo whispered.

"There's nothing you could have done, Duo. No one knows the future. You couldn't have known she would be attacked right as you left." Hilde interrupted, watching her boyfriend berate himself over and over again. Ever since the incident, Duo had been eating himself alive with guilt. His normal jovial mood had been absent since and even his chestnut colored braid seemed to droop about him.

"I should have walked her the entire way. That bastard would never gotten to her if I had." he snapped.

"Maybe. He would have just waited for another time, Duo. What you need to be doing is taking all your anger and frustration out to finding who hired him and why. That's the person who you need to focus your rage upon." Hilde announced.

She jumped up from her seat and started shuffling papers aside in a large stack at the corner of his desk.

"What are you doing?" Duo questioned his fiery partner. Looking at her short black hair, pretty pixie like face and blue eyes, she looked out of place in such a hard working environment, but he knew she was in her element.

Pulling a white sheet of paper from the pile, she handed it to him. "This is a list of family, friends and acquaintances of Dorothy's. I say we need to go over this again with a fine tooth comb. In crimes of passion, isn't it usually someone the victim knows who perpetrates the crime?"

"Yeah, but most of the people on the list are people we know. Relena, Heero, Une. Hell, I don't see anyone of them having a beef with Dorothy." Duo replied, going over all the names.

"No, neither do I. But there is her butler, her mother and people we don't know personally and can't vouch for. I say we check again. Alibies be damned, I know in here is the connection we need." Hilde said, pointing to the list and looking more serious than he'd ever seen her.

"All right. Let's go talk to these people again and check out their alibies and see what we can dig up." Duo said. He got out of his chair with a renewed vigor. Finding the scum responsible would finally help him sleep at night... and finally help him face Quatre again.

************

Knocking twice on the door, the nurse entered the room to check her patients vitals. Tall and gangly, an older woman in her fifties with short brown hair and eyes, Nurse Hutchins sighed as she saw the poor bedraggled young man standing vigil over his girlfriends bed. She worked the day shift and wasn't surprised to see him so early in the day. He was usually in the room before visiting hours began. He didn't even take his eyes off the girl for a second. Poor thing. His blond hair was wild and uncombed. And his expensive looking green silk shirt and corduroy pants were horribly wrinkled. In other words he looked a mess and nothing like she'd imagine a billionaire would look. She felt so sorry for him. The news wasn't good for the Catalona girl. Even with the signs of brain activity, she had a small margin of recovery, the damage had been so severe.

"Hello Mr. Winner. How are you feeling today?" she questioned, smiling pleasantly.

"I'm all right. Thank you. How are you?" He replied politely, even though he was halfheartedly inquiring.

She rambled on a bit as she checked Dorothy's vitals, made sure she was getting her nutrients from her IV drip, while Quatre watched her carefully. Feeling his eyes follow her movements, she checked and doubled checked everything even as she hurried to make her rounds. Anything to do with Dorothy's care was carefully scrutinized and he could tell he made her nervous.

Writing the information collected down on her chart, she smiled wanly as she left the room. Quatre sighed, feeling slightly bad for his behavior. Nurse Hutchins was a nice nurse, always pleasant to him and he had pretty much ran her from the room.

Quatre jerked from his musing as a soft moan came from Dorothy's lips and she squeezed his hand weakly.

"Dorothy!" he shouted in shock and delight. He closely watched her face anxiously awaiting her eyes opening. But after a few minutes nothing happened. Shaking her left hand roughly, he waited for a response.

Nothing. No moan, no hand squeeze. Nothing. Her eyes remained closed and the only sound in the rom was the eerily musical beeping of her heart monitor.

Okay, that was kind of depressing...forgive me! Well, this isn't called Bitter for nothing. Hope you all enjoyed. Hit me up with some reviews and tell me what you think should happen next. I can't promise to use any ideas, but if I do, I'll give props where they are due. ^_~