Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ I Almost Lost You ❯ I Almost Lost You ( One-Shot )

I Almost Lost You

By: Cece Williams

((Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters from "Gundam Wing" except for Caitlin. This is a drama/romance story, and I hope you really like it.))

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

Caitlin Maxwell walked into the house that she shared with her older brother, Duo. A whole day of school was behind her. She flopped on the couch, propping her slim legs on the arm of the couch, as her body sank into the cushions. She turned on the TV, as she didn't have any homework; all that was on was that OZ was trying its hardest to get to the colony.

She turned off the TV and found a gun under one of the cushions. She cocked it and loaded it, getting prepared if anything were to happen. After walking home from school, she was tired. She started to go to sleep.

An hour later, the doorknob rattled, causing her blue eyes to open suddenly and grab the gun next to her. As the door opened, she aimed it at the person entering the house. "I got a gun, and I'm not afraid to use it," she said.

"Caitlin, it's just me," her brother's voice came to her ears.

She focused her eyes and saw the long braid that belonged to her brother. "Duo, you scared me," she said as he sat on an easy chair. "I thought that you were an OZ soldier or something."

"If I were, I probably would have killed you by now," he answered her. He noticed that Caitlin had probably been asleep. "Sis, that's the last time I let you play video games after 10."

Caitlin laughed. "Yeah, I guess that's a hard habit to break," she said.

"Just got home?" he asked her.

"About an hour ago," she answered. She sat up on the couch, just realizing that she was still holding the gun. Caitlin looked at it and set it on the coffee table. "You know, I could have shot you."

Duo shook his head, laughing. "No, you wouldn't," he said. "Because the safety was on the whole time."

Caitlin smiled at her brother. "Blessing in disguise, right?" she asked.

"Yeah," he answered. He grabbed the remote and turned on the TV. Now, it was all soap operas until he turned it to an old movie The Crow: Stairway to Heaven. "Caitlin, you ever see this before?"

She nodded, her bangs flapping into her eyes. "Yeah," she answered. "It's really good. It's about a guy who was murdered along with his fiancé; he comes back a year later to avenge her death."

Duo raised an eyebrow. He didn't know that Caitlin liked that movie. "Sounds good," he said, looking at his sister.

Caitlin pulled out her cell phone and placed that on the coffee table as well. "Yeah, it's really good," she answered him.

During a commercial, Caitlin went upstairs to change out of her school uniform and changed into a cream-colored baby tee with light blue jeans and brown sandals. After she let her long brown hair down, she came back downstairs again.

She sat back on the couch just as soon as her cell phone rang. She picked up her phone. "Hello?"

"Hey, beautiful," a familiar voice said into her phone.

Caitlin looked at Duo, who was watching the movie with confusion but interest. "Hey, Quatre," she answered. "What are you doing?"

"Other than talking to a beautiful girl like you, nothing," he answered. "What are you doing?"

"Well, Duo's watching The Crow: Stairway to Heaven and I'm just talking to you," she answered, laughing.

"Caitlin, have I told you lately that I love you?" he asked her.

"Um, about three hours ago," she answered teasingly.

Quatre laughed. "You've still got that sense of humor," he answered.

"Well, don't blame Duo," she answered him. "I got it from him, after all."

"I'm not," he said. Suddenly, his voice was serious. "Caitlin, I got to go."

Caitlin looked surprised. Normally, Quatre and her would talk so long; the cell phone bill would be up through the roof. "Quatre, what's going on?" she asked him.

"I can't tell you," he answered. "I want you to know that I love you; I love you more than even I can think of loving you."

Caitlin got up from the couch again and sat on the bottom stair. "I love you, too," she said to him. "I just want you to be careful."

"Always," he answered. "I'll call you back, okay?"

"Okay," she answered him. "Talk to you later." She hung up, closing her eyes again, sighing heavily. After composing herself, she walked back into the living room and sat back down on the couch.

Duo looked up at Caitlin, who had sat back on the couch. He could tell that she was stressed out. "Are you okay, kid?" he asked her.

Caitlin placed her cell phone on the coffee table and looked at her brother. "Yeah, I'm fine," she answered, watching a commercial.

Before he could ask her what was really wrong, the phone rang. Duo got up from his chair and went into the kitchen. "Yeah?" he answered the phone. "Okay, I'll be right there in a few minutes." He walked back into the living room.

"Duo, what is it?" she asked him.

"I got to leave for right now, okay?" he answered her. "Lock the door after I leave and don't open it unless it's one of us."

Caitlin nodded as she stood up and walked to the door. Her brother hugged her, told her he loved her, and left. She locked the door behind him. She then leaned against it, sighing heavily again.

A few minutes later, Duo got to the base. He walked in, looking at Noin, who was Caitlin's best friend and "big sister." "Okay, so what was so important to keep Caitlin at home?" he asked.

Noin brushed the purple bangs out of her eyes, only to have them fall in her face again. "Quatre went off on a mission," she answered. "But you can't tell Caitlin what I'm about to tell you." She swallowed. "The mission called for Quatre to pretend he was killed so he could infiltrate the moon base."

Duo just stood there, speechless. He knew that Caitlin would ask about Quatre, but he promised Noin he wouldn't tell her. "How do I explain it to her?" he asked her.

"Just tell her that Quatre went on a trip, and he'll be back soon," she answered. "But don't tell her about what really happened, because I don't know what Caitlin will be capable of if that were to happen."

Meanwhile, back home, Caitlin turned on the TV, where she saw the news. "Boring," she said, walking into the kitchen to get her something to eat. As she grabbed a glass, she heard the reporter talk about breaking news. The news made her drop the glass, shattering itself as it hit the floor. Her entire body shook with anger and depression as Quatre's "death" came to her ears.

She ran back into the living room, turning off the TV, and ran to her room, where she grabbed her pillow and held it to her face. Tears fell from her blue eyes and wet the pillow over her face. "I didn't even say goodbye," she said.

When Duo got home, he opened the door and looked in. "Caitlin?" he called out. He closed the door behind him and walked in the living room and into the kitchen, where he stepped on something; he had just stepped on glass. "Caitlin? Where are you?" He started walking again, up the stairs, down the hall, where he heard crying.

He opened her bedroom door and found his sister, lying in bed, crying. The sight tore his heart in two; he walked over to her and sat on her bed next to her. "Caitlin, what's the matter?" he asked her, laying one hand on her shoulder.

She looked up into her brother's eyes, sniffling with one hand drying her eyes. "It was on the news," she answered, sitting up in her bed. "He got killed."

In his mind, he was going to strangle the reporter who caused her heartache. Before Duo could react, she grabbed onto him as if he were the only person left on the colony. He held her, feeling the young girl tremble in his embrace. "It's gonna be okay," he said, stroking her long hair.

"It's never going to be okay," she said to him, her voice choking with tears. She sniffled again. "It won't be the same without him."

"I know," he said to her. "I know it won't be the same without him here." He held her closer to him; he knew the truth, but he was promised not to tell her. He knew that he had to play along until they got him back.

Only ten minutes after holding her, she fell asleep.

He pulled her back onto her pillow and wrapped her up, her comforter up to her shoulders. He left her room and headed into the living room. "That poor kid," he said. "If you only knew the truth."

Four hours later, at 8:30pm, Caitlin walked downstairs, her face looking calmer. She sat on the couch again.

The sudden noise from the couch jolted him up. "Caitlin, hey," he said. "Did you, uh, sleep well?"

"As well as I could expect," she answered meekly. She looked at her brother. Before she could say anything else, she heard the phone ring. She got up and answered it from the kitchen. After a few minutes, she brought the phone in the living room for her brother. "Noin wants to talk to you."

When Duo sat up in his chair after talking to her for a few minutes, Caitlin looked at him curiously. "Noin, wait a minute," he was saying. "You're telling me that there was contact from the moon base?"

Caitlin's ears perked up, thinking that maybe Quatre wasn't dead after all.

Duo hung up the phone, standing to his feet. "Caitlin, I got to go," he said, patting his sister on the head.

Caitlin stood to her feet. "I'm going with you," she said. As she started to walk away from him, he grabbed her arm.

"You're not going anywhere, Caitlin," he answered her, keeping his grip on her arm. "I don't need you to go run off and get yourself killed." He turned her around for her to meet his eyes. "I almost lost you at that base, and I'm not going to let that happen again."

Although Caitlin looked angry at what Duo was asking her to do, she conceded. "Okay," she said in a low voice. "I'll stay here like a good girl." She looked into his eyes, her eyes softening. "If you'll promise me you'll be careful," she added.

Duo laughed, shaking his head. "I'm going to be fine, kiddo," he said, fussing up her brown hair. He opened the door, winked at her, and then left.

Caitlin heard the music playing from her room; she went back upstairs after locking the door and heard her radio playing a slow song. She lay on her bed and picked up her copy of R&J. The memories of them reading to each other from Shakespeare took Caitlin from her own world.

A long five hours later, Duo unlocked the door and walked inside the house, with a surprise walking in after him. "Hey, Caitlin!" he said, walking to the stairs.

"Maybe we shouldn't wake her," his companion said as he followed Duo up the stairs to her room.

Duo looked in her bedroom and found Caitlin, lying in her bed asleep, holding a Shakespeare book in her hand. Shaking his head, he pulled the girl back on her bed and pulled the comforter over her shoulders. He walked out of her room and closed the door. "She's asleep," he said as they walked down the stairs and sat on the couch.

"Caitlin still looks great when she's asleep," he answered him. "She looks like nothing is wrong with her." He jerked up. "Wait a minute; would she know that I'm okay?"

"Yeah, she'll know," he answered him. "Why don't you take my bedroom and I'll sleep on the couch? You look like hell."

"Maybe you're right," he answered, starting to go up the stairs. He stopped by her room and peered in. She was still asleep, so peaceful, without a care in the world. He smiled, closing her bedroom door and heading into her brother's room.

Back downstairs, Duo was watching TV, turning it to another old movie, Ringmaster. He laughed to himself as Jerry Springer got what was coming to him, but mostly, he was laughing because he knew how surprised Caitlin was going to be about her surprise. After an hour, he fell asleep, the TV still on.

The next morning, he woke up, seeing the TV still on. Groggily, he sat up on the couch and turned it off. He stood to his feet and went upstairs to his sister's room. He found her wide-awake, reading Romeo and Juliet. "Hey, kiddo," he said, tapping on her door.

Caitlin looked at him. "Morning, bro," she said, her blue eyes back to normal. "I was just catching up on my reading."

"With Shakespeare?" he asked her, raising an eyebrow.

"Hey, I do go to school, you know," she answered, looking at her bedside clock. "And speaking of which, I got to get dressed." She got out of her bed and went to her closet to find her uniform. She looked at her brother. "You're still standing here. Is there something I should know?"

Duo looked at Caitlin. "No, nothing at all, sis," he answered. "Look, I know that everything's been hectic lately, but we'll get through this."

"Well, if you're planning to talk, I'll be in your room," she said, grabbing her uniform and walking across the hall. She opened the door and walked in, closing it behind her. She got out of her nightshirt and pulled on her uniform skirt, then finally her shirt. She looked around. "Damn, I forgot my brush."

"Caitlin, is that you?"

She turned around again, seeing a person standing almost twenty feet away from her. "Who are you, and what are you doing in my brother's room?" she asked him.

As the person stepped up to her, her face went into shock. "Caitlin, don't tell me you don't remember me," he answered her.

She walked very slowly towards the person, tears forming in her eyes again. The blond hair was a giveaway. "Quatre, you're alive?" she asked.

He held his hands to her face. "Sweetheart, of course I'm alive," he answered her. "What ever gave you the idea that I wasn't?"

"It was on the news yesterday," she answered, feeling his hand reach into her hair. "I thought it was true, that you were taken from me."

He brought her closer to him. "I promise you that will never happen until I'm old and gray," he answered her. He heard her sniffling. "And that won't happen anytime soon."

Caitlin hugged him as tight as she could, leaning her head on his shoulder. "Quatre, I thought I lost you," she said.

He grabbed her shoulders and pulled her up to meet her eyes. "You don't have to worry about that," he answered, pulling her closer to him. Finally, he kissed her fully.

She kissed him back, missing him more than anyone else would know. "Quatre, you do know that I have school today, right?" she asked him.

"Yeah, and I don't want you to be late," he answered, walking Caitlin to the door. They walked out together, where Duo stood in the hallway.

"Surprised?" he asked her.

Caitlin rolled her eyes. "What was your first clue?" she asked him back. Suddenly, a thought struck her. "Duo Maxwell, you tried to make it look like Quatre died, didn't you?"

"Just wanted to see if you could make it without him if that happened," he answered.

"Looks like she passed that with flying colors," Quatre added.

"Speaking of 'flying', I think Duo's going to take a trip," she answered them, pretending to strangle her own brother.

Watching them fight in front of him made Quatre start laughing. "Those two will never change," he said to himself.

Both of them stood to her feet. "Tie," they said at the same time, laughing as Caitlin went into her room and found her knee-high socks and her black shoes. She finally got dressed, adding two silver hair clips in her hair. She grabbed her backpack and met them all in the hallway again, Duo piggybacking her down the stairs.

As soon as she was let off, the car horn honked. "That's my ride," she said, looking to her brother and her boyfriend, smiling. "I'll be back home sometime. I love you." With that, she walked out, closing the door behind her.

Quatre smiled to himself. "Was Caitlin too much for you to handle?"

"No, and you better not be getting any ideas about that," Duo answered him. "You got that?"

"Don't worry about that," he answered. Unbeknownst to Duo, Quatre had crossed his fingers behind his back.