Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Cat's Paw ❯ Chapter Eight: Free Range Patients ( Chapter 8 )

Lots of thank you's this time around! In no particular order... or, if you want to be anal, in the order of reviews... Penny, Tokyo-Rose, Shaman Dani of the Flamingos, Elfy the Fearful, Emily Hato (who I hope enjoyed her breakfast), firestorm, Dirge (times four), Dyna, Unknown-Wisdom, Skulled, and Ace. Somehow ^_^ just doesn't cut it anymore. ^______^

Cat's Paw 08

"Die, bitch, die!" I cackle, my thumbs furiously pressing buttons on the Game Cube controller. Heero and I were upgraded to Free Range Patients as of Monday and are now allowed to roam around the floor in our wheelchairs -as long as we tell someone where we're going. Heero has one of those cool motorized wheelchairs and can get himself around with the touch of a button, but mine is manual. I guess I'm supposed to be exercising. Screw that. Pushing wheelchairs is what candy-stripers are for. I'll exercise when I don't need to sleep fourteen hours a day, thank you very much. [1]

The mobility is a huge improvement over sitting in our room all day and, even if I do have to take naps with annoying frequency, it's well worth the effort. Heero likes it, too. I can tell that he hates having to use the wheelchair, but hates being stuck in one room even more. He's been chipper -for him- ever since we were mechanized.

If only the cops would stop tailing us. You just can't get away from them. Every time you think they're gone, you turn around and, oh! There they are! They're leaning against the wall just as casual as you please, pretending to look everywhere but at you. It's really getting on my nerves. I'm considering bribing a candy-striper to "accidentally" run over a police man's foot with my wheelchair. Not that it would hurt very much, since I'm about as heavy as an anorexic hamster, but it would make me feel better.

We'd spent our first day getting to know the other patients. Or rather, I had. Heero had just kind of followed me from room to room, hovering in the background as I familiarized myself with the current clientele. There really aren't that many kids on the ward right now, thankfully. Out of the hundred available beds, around forty of them are empty. Still, it took an entire day to visit all the rooms. While some kids had parents that managed to stay with them around the clock, others were lonely and craving company. Expecting this, I'd brought some of my doodle pads and pencils along. Tic tac toe and Hangman never fail to amuse the younger kids. As for the older ones, my unending supply of magazines proved an adequate source of entertainment.

Heero and I had spent the next day watching movies with our new friends in the mini theater the Winner family had had installed off of the rec room. It's really cool. There's a small movie screen and a projector and even real movie theater seats. The film selection is a bit limited -only G movies allowed- but it was fun to relive all the traditional childhood favorites. I'd missed some of them the first time around. "Robin Hood" was my newly-discovered personal favorite. Although he initially denied liking any of them, under duress Heero admitted that "Mulan" wasn't half-bad. Of course, I teased him for the rest of the day about having a crush on the movie's heroine. He refused to dignify the accusation with a response.

Today we're playing video games. At first I'd been reluctant. Heero's hand only just came out of the Ace bandage and his other is, of course, still encased in that smelly cast. However, he insisted he could play one-handed. I was dubious, but agreed to play a combat game with him. It took him a bit to get used to the controller, but now that he has... I'm losing. Big time. And I have use of both hands.

"NOOOOOOOOOO!" I dramatically moan. "Not again! That was my last life! You killed me! I am slain! Time of death, 10:42AM."

"If it was real, you would only have had one life. You would have died an hour ago," Heero says bluntly. His voice is still that irritating monotone. I'd hoped initially that it was simply a byproduct of the drugs he was on, but time had proven that to be a false assumption. He refuses to take anything now besides antibiotics and then they're the nondrowsy kind.

"Well! Excuse me for being mortal!" I mutter. To my surprise, my comment amuses Heero. His lips start to twitch and, although he fights it, he starts to laugh.

I wish he'd stop. It is beyond a doubt the most disturbing sound I've ever heard. He sounds like a psychotic orangutan that's choking to death. I'm getting the idea that Heero is one of those people who isn't used to dealing with their emotions and, when he's forced to, is not quite sure how to handle them. The kind of person who needs to practice sneezing just so it looks natural.

-end chapter eight-

Footnotes

[1] Duo really should be exercising, even if he's only just doing yoga or something...

Zooie-notes

I am so sorry it's this short, but that's just how it broke up the best. This was written as one long, flowing narrative and breaking it into chapters has forced me to be a little creative at times. Sorry!!! >_<