Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Completing the Silence ❯ Promise Made ( Chapter 15 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

LSE // 7-25-02
(Completing the Silence - Chapter Fifteen: Promise Made)
rated: PG13 - violence, language, content
shounen-ai/yaoi

Promise Made




There's a comfortable weight on my chest. I don't know how long I
drift in the haze of unconsciousness, but soon I hear whispered
voices. Rising through the haze to hear them, I feel the edges of
pain and slip back, deeper, to the very verge of awareness.

The weight leaves me and I feel an intense sense of longing, but
another gentle hold takes my hand and I lay like that for a long
time, taking comfort from whoever is holding my hand.

At last, I shove through the haze, allowing the pain to swirl up and
take me. I moan and whoever is holding my hand stirs. "Duo?"

Heero...? No, that isn't Heero. Heero... How much of what I can
remember was a dream? Pain, I remember the pain. Different pain. New
pain, old pain. Heero... I remember seeing Heero, but was that real?
I remember stumbling through the snow...it hurts too much to think...

"Duo?"

I'm alone, whoever it was has left me. I want to retreat away from
this awareness, this pain I feel. Footsteps, I hear them as they race
up the stairs and...

Stairs.

Fucking stairs. There are no stairs in hospitals, not ones that I
could hear footsteps on.

"Duo!"

Heero.

I'm falling into nothingness. Heero. I'm so sorry, Heero...

Shinigami.

------------------------------------- ---------------------------------

"He's awake," was all Trowa said.

Heero bolted, tearing up the stairs. Quatre started to follow, but
Trowa reached out and stopped him, shaking his head slightly. "He's
lost a lot of blood, Quatre."

Eyes widening in horror, Quatre stared up into the one emerald eye
he could see. "What?" he whispered, "What are you trying to say?"

"I don't know if he'll make it."

Tears rapidly blurred out his view of Trowa. The taller man embraced
him into a hug, "He needs a doctor, Quatre. A real one. But if we
take him to the hospital..."

Quatre nodded against Trowa's chest, "They'll take him away."

A disgusted snort from behind them shook them back to the real word
and Quatre separated from Trowa, a bright blush growing across his
cheeks. "Wufei."

The Chinese man in question closed the door and took off his shoes
and coat. He started to say something, but stopped at the look on
Quatre's face, "Is something wrong?"

Trowa took him aside and briefed him on everything they knew up to
that point. Wufei's eyes got bigger and bigger until finally they
looked ready to pop out of his head. "Maxwell did that?"

Quatre nodded. "He needs a doctor."

"Sally Po," Wufei said. "We can trust her."

"But, Wufei, she's so far away...."

He shook his head, and for a moment Quatre thought he saw a slight
blush across his cheeks. "No, I just ran into her. She was in town
for a conference, but with this snow she's not going anywhere. I...
I know where her hotel room is."

Wufei carefully avoided meeting the equally startled pairs of eyes
focused on him and instead stared at the floor. He frowned, "There's
still blood, Winner."

Looking down, Quatre saw a faint speck of blood, which he quickly
wiped away with the edge of his shirt. "How are we going to get Duo
into the hotel without anyone seeing him?"

"We'd have to use the main entrance."

Quatre thought about it for a moment, then nodded, a plan forming in
his head, "Trowa and I will go in and distract whoever is on staff.
Wufei, you and Heero will get Duo up to Sally's room. Once we see
you safely in the elevator, we'll leave the hotel and come up the
fire escape."

"We'll need blankets," Trowa said, turning to go find the linen
closet.

"I'll drive," Wufei offered, "it's really bad out there, the roads
are slicked over and snow's narrowed visibility to nothing."

Quatre nodded and went upstairs to fill Heero in on the plan. He
found him sitting beside Duo, holding his hand. The lamp illuminated
a small puddle of light beside them, casting Duo's features into
sharp relief.

Walking over, Quatre started to tug the blanket over Duo's exposed
chest, but stopped. The swirl of color he'd mistaken for shadows
earlier were clearly visible in the lamp's light. Bruises. From the
looks of them, they were made with a fist.

At the hospital, he'd notice Duo's black eye and cut lip, but Duo'd
smoothly avoiding the subject completely. "Allah," Quatre breathed,
gently reaching down and touching one of the marks.

Heero looked up at him with eyes tortured by guilt, "What happened to
him in there, Quatre?"

Quatre simply shook his head and looked away.

"According to Wufei, Sally Po's in town. We thought it'd be best to
get Duo over to her..."

Heero nodded and stood just as Trowa walked in with several warm
fleece blankets. Duo moaned slightly when they moved him, and a look
of pain crossed over Heero's face briefly before it turned into
carved stone once more. Quatre breathed a sigh of relief Duo was
still with them enough to feel pain, horrible as that was.

Once they had him warmly wrapped, Heero effortlessly lifted him into
his arms. "Hn."

Quatre looked at him questioningly.

"He's lost weight."

--------------------------------------------------------- -------------

I'm no longer laying in a bed. I can feel the vibrations that tell me
I'm in a moving car. I start to let myself move into the blackness,
but I stop when my ears register a slight whispering above me.

Heero.

I fight the blackness away, struggling towards the painful sensations
that tell me I live. Arms tighten around me and I can hear what
Heero's saying, and it sounds like a prayer. But Heero doesn't pray.

"Duo?" he asks, feeling me stir. "Please, Duo, open your eyes."

Because Heero asked me to--he even said please!--I force my eyelids
open a crack. "Where...?" I whisper, trying to focus on the blurs
around me. My eyes refuse to cooperate.

"We're taking you to a doctor," Quatre says from the other side of me.

Doctors.

Hospitals.

My eyes open fully and I struggle to move, but I'm wrapped tightly in
blankets and laying across the back-seat of the car, my head in
Heero's lap. I cry out as my elbow jabs into my side, nearly on top
of the bullet wound. I collapse back against Heero's legs.

"You've been shot, Duo, you need a doctor."

"They'll take me back there..." I mutter, my head rolling weakly to
one side.

"No," Quatre puts in, trying to lean over as much as he can with my
legs across him. "We're not going to let them have you. Right, Heero?"

I force myself to look directly at Heero. He brushes my bangs from
my eyes and nods, meeting my gaze.

Heero...

He's the last thing I see.

------------------------------------------------------------- ---------

It's quiet. Dark. I don't like the dark anymore. It's always dark.

I open my eyes and it's still dark, but not as much. Muted sunlight
fights with the blinds for access into the room. I don't recognize
where I am. I'm in a bed, and it looks like a bedroom, but it's not
my bedroom.

"Duo?"

I look over, struggling to make out who it is in this dark lighting.
It's a familiar voice. The last thing I remember clearly is... I
seem to recall being in the car with Heero. Surely that was a dream,
because Heero abandoned me.

"Duo?"

But that's Heero's voice. I start to sit up, but he presses gently on
my chest, pushing me back down. "Baka, don't move."

He clicks on the lamp beside him and I look at him in surprise. "You
look terrible," I say. He looks like he hasn't slept in days.

To my greater surprise, he actually smiles. Smiles! How much of what
I can remember was a dream? "Where am I?"

"Sally Po's hotel room."

Okay, I wasn't expecting that. "What?" I say, trying to sit up again.

Heero pushes me back down again, glaring daggers, "You've been out
for nearly two days. How do you feel?"

"Two days!"

He nods, then suddenly looks at me oddly, "Don't you remember?"

I think back carefully. I answer him slowly, rolling each event over
in my head, "I got shot...then, did I really make it home?"

He laughs slightly in relief, bending over to look me in the eye.
"You gave us all a big scare, baka. Sally didn't think you'd..." he
stops talking before his voice chokes.

"You forgave me," I whisper suddenly, sorting through the scattered
thoughts that make up my memory of everything after I passed out in
the entry hall.

"You forgave me," Heero replies, stroking my cheek tenderly.

"Heero, I..."

He tried to shush me, but I have to tell him, about everything.
Starting with the alley, I work my way through everything. When I
tell him about the attacks he squeezes my hand gently, but he looks
ready to start blowing heads off. By the time I reach the end we've
both shed some tears.

I choke up telling him about Natasha's death, and he nods
sympathetically. "I met her," he says.

"I know. I saw you talking to her."

"I went to your room, and she was there."

"Really? What'd she say?"

Heero wipes the tears off my cheeks, "She told me I'd only get one
more chance with you, and I shouldn't blow it."

"She told me I should forgive you," I whisper. My conversations with
Natasha the day before she died are suddenly cast into a whole
different light.

"On the news, they're saying she killed those two orderlies... The
ones that...did that to you?" he says roughly, like he wishes they
were still around so he could kill them all over again.

I nod, "She wouldn't eat, because she was convinced the hospital was
trying to poison her. She was right, you know. That's how she died.
Poison."

He gives me an awkward hug, because I'm still laying down, and tells
me everything that had happened since I blacked out. I'm nearly moved
to tears by hearing how my friends protected me from the police.

"What are we going to do, Heero?"

"Quatre thinks he can get us into space," he looks at me and I nod.
"Once there, we can get new identities..." he trails off.

"You always wanted for us to get a place of our own," I offer with a
slight smile. He returns it. "I'm really sorry I fucked everything
up, Heero. I..."

He shakes his head, "Don't. It doesn't matter." He takes my hand and
holds it to his chest, bending his head to lightly kiss the
knuckles. "Even though you might not trust me, I can promise you, I
won't give up this time. But you have to promise me you'll get help."

"What kind of help?" I ask warily. I never want to see another
psychologist as long as I live.

"At least read a self-help book..."

I laugh slightly and nod. "Deal."

---------------------------------------------------------- ------------

Looking out the window of the space shuttle, I pretend to wave to
Quatre, Trowa and Wufei, but they're safely away from the launch pad
by now. I sit back in my seat and look over to Heero, who's reading
a the label on the bottle of pain killers Sally stuck me on.

I start to bend over and fetch the book I brought, but I wince. Even
though the good Doc made me wait a full week before letting me leave
the planet, I still can't function at one hundred percent.
Apparently, bending over and retrieving paperbacks is still a skill
I can't do.

Heero rolls his eyes at me and gets the book for me, handing it to
me with a slight smile. I don't read it yet, but instead I look out
the window once more. As they often have over the last few days, my
thoughts are on the entire nightmare I've resolved to fix and put
behind me.

I take Heero's hand into my own, and he shoots me a slightly annoyed
look. I grin back and see a slight twist to the his lips before he
looks away.

Heero claims I look different now, older, more mature. The only
noticeable differences I can see is a fading scar above my eye and a
new necklace around my neck.

I insisted on getting rid of the clothes I wore on my wild escape,
but not before I rescued the black queen from the pant's pocket. The
chess piece hangs beside my cross on a fine gold chain I brought. I
don't care if it looks girly, because the chain is something I know
Natasha would like.

I had the keepsake modified so I can store a small rolled up slip of
paper inside. "For you to remember me" with the rubbing of her
compact. The words are faded. They were nearly destroyed by snow,
blood and pain, but they survived.

Like me.



~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*


Author's Notes: Thirteen days after I started, I finally finish...
I'm extraordinarily pleased with how this 'fic turned out. I was
blown away by how well the readers at FF.net received this 'fic and
embr aced my writing. I'd just like to extend the deepest of thanks
to everyone who took the time to read this story and leave me a
review. Special thanks to Forever 1X2, Ryoko-onee, BlueXViolet goblz
and everyone else who followed me on the journey. Thank you, thank you
so much! You're comments kept me going when I'd lost faith in myself
and the story.
More thanks to my muses, Katie and Savie, and again to Savie for
beta-reading and cheering me on.
Please stick around and read the epilogue to "Completing the Silence"
I'm working on it even as I finish wrapping up this chapter... Trust
me, you'll want to read this epilogue!

Also, work has already gone underway for my second big Gundam 'fic,
"Manifestation of Will." Either check FF.net or my website for it
when I get the first chapter written, or... PLEASE feel free to send
me an email (ManzokuBiscuit@aol.com) and I'll add you to my Update ML.

Feedback/reviews are very much appreciated!
copyright 2002 - Gundam Wing and characters copyright other people.
LSE - "Violet" (ManzokuBiscuit@aol.com)
www.geocities.com/manzokubiscuit/index.html