Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Remember when... ❯ Life loves a tragedy ( Chapter 1 )

We do not own the rights to GW! Never have and never will!

Warnings: Angst, language, slight OOC

Archived at: AFF, MM, and www.templeofthegoddess.com

Remember when…Life loves a tragedy part one by Sparkling Diamond PG-SSM & Saiyajin_Raven69

July 24 of 199 A.C.

"Duo, you have to stop doing this! You don't have the time or the money to keep picking up every kid on the streets!" Duo huffed in annoyance, swiveling himself around in his dilapidated desk chair to face the blonde on his vid-phone screen.

"If I had known you would turn this into a huge affair, Quat, I wouldn't have called you! I just need a little to pay next month's rent, and to get food for the girls."

"Duo, you have to see things from my perspective. You're barely nineteen years old. You're going to college, and live in a tiny apartment. How are you going to afford the bills on this one?"

"Stop talking like they're inanimate objects! The girls are both human and need help, which I'm going to give them. Don't make me bring up what Tro brings home every week!"

"That's different! Stray animals are different, Duo…"

"Bullshit! Your damn mansion is turning into the pet menagerie from hell! I'm just surprised it hasn't been turned into a wildlife preserve yet. You get Trowa to get rid of all those animals and I'll get rid of the babies." Duo grinned widely into the screen knowing fully well that Trowa would not get rid of a single critter, and Quatre knew this. The blonde sighed, lifting a hand to his head to rub at a throbbing headache that was starting. Duo had him once again, and here he thought he was the strategist of the group.

"I can't, Duo. You know what Heero will do to me if he finds out that I'm sending you money again? He'll flip out and won't talk to me for a week!"

"Then don't tell him, Quat. Please I need just a little. I've been working my ass off with two jobs, going to school and taking care of the babies. I promise to pay you back once I get my degree! You know I'm good for it. Please…"

"I'll see what I can do, but I'm not promising anything."

"Thanks, Quat! Look, I have to go, but I will talk with you soon. Tell Trowa and Heero I say hello." Duo cut the connection before his friend could get another word out. He didn't want to make the call, but things weren't coming together as Duo had planned. He only had one more year in college before getting his teaching degree, but with things the way they were at the moment, he wasn't sure if he was going to graduate on time.

_____________________

"What did Duo want now?" The question startled the young billionaire from his thoughts. Quatre thought he was alone today, but evidently Trowa had been there all along.

"Nothing much. Just a few thousand credits to tide him over for a bit. You know the deal." The blonde shrugged his shoulders before picking up pieces of paper off the desk and organizing them. There was no way he was going to be able to transfer that money into Duo's bank account now. Once Trowa knew, Heero would know shortly after. There were no secrets between them.

After the wars, Trowa had moved in with Quatre while going to college. Deep friendship proved to be more than what it seemed, and they soon became lovers. The third partner of the relationship didn't come until after the Mariemaia Incident. Heero would have disappeared forever if it wasn't for both Trowa and Quatre asking for the solider to move in with them. After eight months of subtle hints, Heero became the lover of both teens. Lives and secrets were shared along with the hurt, pain and joy they'd had in their short lives.

"Heero isn't going to like you sending money to Duo again. He's going to have to learn to make it on his own." Trowa replied entering the room further to stand in front of a window that over looked the enormous backyard. He heard the casters on the chair glide back, and the presence of his lover behind him before two strong arms wrapped themselves around his chest.

"I know that, Trowa. It's just…he needs the help and I can't deny him! He's a good friend, and he's making something of his life, something good." The blonde answered, laying his head against Trowa's back, soaking in the warmth the taller teen seemed to radiate.

"We all are, Quat. Wufei is still working for the Preventers. Heero is doing great as the head of your security team. I'm sure Duo is going to be a great teacher. I know he enjoys working with kids." Trowa twisted in the entangled limbs that hugged him closely to look at his lover. He was sure Quat wasn't telling him everything, but he didn't need to be psychic to figure it out.

"What did he name this one?" Quat's head shot up, eyes huge at the question. He was sure no one was in the room when he was talking with their braided friend.

"You knew?"

"No, you just confirmed it though." Trowa chuckled, tightening his hold on his lover. Quatre bit his bottom lip, mentally berating himself. It seemed so easy for Trowa to get answers from him. How pathetic was that?

"I'm not sure. I didn't ask."

_______________

Duo hadn't realized he was so late for classes when he hung up on his friend. He rushed around the small apartment looking for books and folders, while trying to pack a small diaper bag for the two infant girls that shared his small home with him. Aleana, the eight month old, and the first baby he had taken in was squalling for her binky, while the still nameless babe was snoozing in an infant seat near the couch.

"I'm coming Aleana, Daddy's coming. I know I saw that dang thing around here some place. Ah ha!" The braided teen cried out in triumph, finding the lost pacifier under the end table. He turned with a smile placing the found object at the small redhead's quivering lips.

"Shhhh, I found it. But we have to go. Mrs. Gregory is probably waiting for us by now, and I'm already late for my first class." Duo picked up Aleana, settling her on his hip, while he picked up the overly stuffed diaper and book bag over his other shoulder. Slipping his keys into his coat pocket, Duo picked up the baby seat with the sleeping infant that had to be no older than a month, and slipped out the door of his apartment.

The elevator was broken once again, but Duo took his time on the stairs, nimbly making his way down the ancient steps with the girls. Thank God he was still young, and could handle everything that he was carrying. Once street level, the sounds of the city assaulted young ears, making Aleana whimper, and the new baby wake with a howl, not happy to be awakened by the sounds of cars and loud voices.

"It's all right. We're almost there." Duo said in a soothing voice, smiling as his oldest buried her small face against his neck.

"Mr. Maxwell! You're running late!" An elderly looking lady scolded the teen from the front porch of a neighboring building.

"I know Mrs. Gregory. I'm sorry, but I got caught up talking to a friend. I have to work late tonight, but I promise to be back to get both of them as soon as I can." Duo said quickly, following the woman into her first floor apartment.

"It's all right dear. I'm sure everything will go just fine. Don't worry at all, I have things under control. Go now, before you're too late." Mrs. Gregory shooed the teen away with a sweep of her old hand.

"Everything should be in the diaper bag. I also left some extra credits in there just in case."

"Duo!" The woman scolded him again, pinning him with a gaze that would scare even Heero.

"I'm going! Thank you, Mrs. Gregory!" Duo called out, his long braid trailing behind him as he ran.

_______________________________

Duo sighed, looking over his books on the large desk in front of him. The time seemed to fly by earlier in the day, but since eight o'clock, time seemed to stand still as he worked. The stupid tie around his neck bothered him, and so did the freaking idiot looking hat he had to wear as part of his uniform, but a job was a job. Even if he had to take a measly security job at an office building to make a few extra credits.

"Man, I should have told Frank I wouldn't work this damn shift for him. I could be at home with the girls…" He flipped his pen down on the desk, glancing from monitor to monitor finding nothing out of the ordinary…like usual.

"Yo, Maxwell. You have a phone call." Duo looked pointedly at the middle-aged man that came into the security room.

"Are you sure? Damn it." Duo cursed under his breath with the confirming nod. Who could it be? He was praying it wasn't Heero calling to tell him to leave Quat alone and to stop begging for money…again. He'd already heard that speech once, and that was enough for him.

"Hello? Duo Maxwell speaking…" He started his usual spiel, but was interrupted by a hysterical woman on the other end. His face paled visibly, his knees shaking as he rose from the desk chair.

"Oh no. Oh god, I'm on my way, Mrs. Gregory." Duo didn't say a word as he gathered up his coat and books, before fleeing the room.

____________________________

Heero grumbled loudly, throwing an arm over the top of his head to block out the annoying tone of the vid-phone going off. It seemed the other two in bed with him were not going to get up to answer it, why should he? Who ever it was trying to call would get bored and hang up, eventually. At the twentieth ring, Heero threw back the blankets, grabbing his robe from the floor in a huff. The person on the other end was going to know where to shove it.

"What?" Heero had answered before taking a seat in front of the screen, not caring one way or the other who it was, or what they might need.

"Heero? Is that you?"

"Duo, you better have a good reason to be calling at two o'clock in the morning." Heero bit out angrily, his eyes finally focusing on the teen on the the screen. Duo looked disheveled, his braid coming undone, his uniform rumpled, his tie draped around his neck.

"Look, I need to speak with Quat. It's an emergency."

"What's the emergency?" The mere word striking the ex-pilot's curiosity.

"I'm at the hospital here, and I need some money or something. They won't treat her because I don't have insurance on her!" Duo said frantically.

"You called because you need money, or the influence of the Winner name?"

"Yes, now please get Quat for me…"

"No."

"Heero? Please, I need to speak with him."

"I said no."

"Please? She's going to die without treatment, Heero. Please? I won't ask for another thing for the rest of my life…"

"Deal with it, Duo. I'm going back to bed." With those curt words, Heero hung up.

Thousands and thousands of miles away, Duo bit back a strangled cry. How could his friend just hang up on him in his time of need? His fingers clenched tightly in his hair, knuckles white with frustration.

"Damn it!" The teen chocked out, one hand slamming into the wall beside the vid-phone screen.

He just couldn't believe the day he was having. He was late for classes; he spilled coffee all over a businessman at his first job, as waiter at a little coffee house near the financial district. He wasn't even supposed to be working his security job tonight, but he figured he could use the extra money since finding the new baby just days ago. The call from a frantic Mrs. Gregory changed his day from not going well, to downright terrifying.

There wasn't much he could do but wait for news when he arrived at the hospital. The nameless baby he had picked up a few days ago now had a name, courtesy of Mrs. Gregory. The doctors needed a name, so the old woman named her Miranda Paige Maxwell. Duo frowned at the name, but it didn't matter much when the doctors came out to deliver the news. Whomever had dumped the baby to die knew something was wrong. The infant had dire heart and lung problems from what Duo could catch from all the technical words that were flying out of the older doctor's mouth. Her kidneys were failing as well…'oh god, no.'

The doctors had all agreed to treat the baby, but that would take money; a lot of it. Money that Duo didn't have. Insurance? Sure he had it…but only for himself, nothing for Aleana or Miranda. No insurance, no money, no treatment. One nurse asked him if he would just sign the papers to let her die.

Duo had begged the doctors to take her, promising that the hospital would have their money for the treatment. He didn't care what they had to do, just save 'his' baby from dying. He cursed himself. It would have been easier to part with the child if he didn't have emotional attachments already. He shook his head. He'd already fallen in love with the baby.

"There is only one last person to call. I hope he doesn't turn me away…"

_______________________________

Commander Chang Wufei woke with a start at the sound of his vid-phone ringing at quarter to four in the morning. Heaving a deep sigh, he crawled out of his warm and comfortable bed to answer. He was not looking forward to being called into work on his remaining day off this week.

He slid slowly into his desk chair, pressing the on button while swiping at some of his loose hair to get it out of his dark eyes.

"Hello?" he breathily answered, wiping the sleep from his eyes.

"Wu? Please, don't hang up on me!"

"Duo?" Wufei asked, his eyes widening a little to taken in Duo's frantic looking state.

"I need a favor, man. Heero is severely pissed at me, and won't let me talk with Quat."

"Slow down. What's going on? What favor do you need from me? Last time I checked, I wasn't high on your 'friends' list." The Chinese man snorted out, shaking his head.

"Don't even start that, Wu. I didn't want to call you, but I need help. Please." Red rimmed blue-violet eyes locked with dark sleepy eyes for a moment, the tone in Duo's words making Wufei pay more attention to his once comrade in arms.

"What do you need? Have you been crying?" a small sniffle was all Wufei heard, a slight shaking of Duo's shoulders as the chestnut haired man bowed his head away from the screen.

"Look, if you can't help me, just say so. I…"

"I'll help you, Maxwell. Just tell me where you are, and what you need." Duo raised his face towards the screen, relief flooding his eyes. Finally, someone that would help him.

"Granger Hospital in California. I need money, Wu. My little girl will die if I don't have it." Wufei bit back a gasp of surprise. 'When did Duo have a child?'

"I'm not far from you. I'll be there, Duo. Just calm down and relax. You can tell me everything once I get there."

"You don't know how much this means to me…"

"I'm sure I don't, Maxwell. See you in a few hours." The Chinese man cut the connection quickly, mentally thinking of things he would need to take on his emergency trip.

_________________

Wufei arrived at Granger Hospital shortly after 10 a.m. after a short plane ride to a nearby airport. The main floor was quiet, with a scattering of nurses and other hospital employees coming and going. His first mission was to find Duo, then find out what had the teen so upset that he would call him so damn early in the morning. Spotting an admitting desk off of a small waiting room, Wufei adjusted his backpack as he walked towards it.

"Can I help you?" The clerk, wearing far too much make up, asked sourly as he approached her desk.

"I'm looking for a friend. His name is…"

"You'll have to go to the desk down the hall to find out where patient's rooms are."

"He's not a patient, but his daughter is. He called…"

"I told you, you have to go to the desk down the hall, young man." She said, turning away from him to type at her computer.

The Chinese teen exhaled loudly through his nose, his fingers biting into the fabric of his backpack. "Listen. My friend called me early this morning, telling me that this institution would not treat his daughter without proof that he could pay for her treatment. I'm here to take responsibility for any charges incurred. Can you help me with that, or should I ask to see your supervisor?" He snarled at the woman, as he laid his wallet on the desk, prominently displaying his Preventers' badge.

_________________

Muttering a few choice words under his breath, he made his way down the white tiled hallway toward another desk, hoping that not all the staff were as rude as the woman he'd just encountered.

He found the clerk at the reception desk to be a lot more helpful than the woman in registration. He was directed to Duo within a matter of minutes after conversing with the receptionist. He found the boy looking very small, huddled in a chair in an otherwise empty waiting room, near Pediatric Intensive Care.

The braided teen hadn't slept in over twenty-four hours, and his eyes were fighting with him to close, while his brain told him to keep them open. He didn't want to miss Wufei when he finally arrived, and he sure as hell didn't want to miss any doctor or nurse that would bring him information.

"How long am I going to have to wait?" Duo sighed out, burying his face in his hands.

"For me, or for those people you call doctors?" Wufei smirked, leaning against the doorframe, watching Duo's face flitter with several different emotions before settling on one that seemed to be almost disbelief. 'Was he afraid I wasn't going to show up when I said I was?'

"You're here…"

"I said I would be. I would never dishonor myself by lying to you. Now tell me what's going on." The question floated unanswered for a moment, Duo watching his friend taking a seat directly across from him.

"Umm, well…I'm not really sure where to start, Wu. I mean…"

"How about the beginning? That always works for me."

Duo spent the next fifteen minutes telling his friend about how he had found, and taken in both children. He told Wufei of his working two jobs to pay the bills, and keep them all fed, while still working toward his degree in teaching. By the time he had related the events of the past few hours, the braided boy was visibly exhausted.

"I wasn't really paying much attention to the doctors as they rattled off all this shit. When Mrs. Gregory called me, the baby was having trouble breathing, and was acting lethargic. Damn it, I wish I understood what was going on."

"Have they come by to brief you lately?" Duo shook his head, his fingers fiddling absently with the navy blue tie that was draped around his neck.

"I will see what is going on then. Maybe if I pull a few strings, these people will get their asses moving."

"Don't threaten them with your Preventers' badge or anything. I just want to know if there is anything that can be done to save her…God, I don't want to lose her, Wu. I don't wanna…"

Wu knelt down in front of the other boy, hesitating slightly before wrapping his arms around him.

"Shhhh, I'm sure everything will be fine."

________________________________

Less than six hours after reassuring Duo Maxwell that the orphan baby he had come to care for would be fine, Wufei stood cursing himself for muttering those words. Things were not fine, only becoming steadily worse at the hours ticked by.

The nurses had allowed Duo to visit for just a few moments, but it seemed to increase the stress Duo was under, rather than lessen it. The braided teen had worried over the countless wires and tubes running from the tiny body. For the first time in years, Duo had fallen to his knees and prayed to a God that he had long ago deemed not to exist.

Mrs. Gregory stopped by with Aleana to check on Duo, and to bring him some dinner that she had prepared just for him. They only stayed forty-five minutes before the red haired infant started squalling. Duo had tried in vain to quiet the babe, but his nerves were frazzled, and his normally cheery disposition just wouldn't surface to calm her.

The Chinese boy sat silently, watching everything that happened around him. He had remembered the brash young man that called himself 'The God of Death', but that name didn't seem to fit him any longer. Duo had grown up, literally, in the two years since he had seen him last. He was taking responsibility for two abandoned babies, working two jobs while going to school. Wufei allowed a small smile; he thought that Duo would end up working in that damn salvage yard with Hilde until he died. He decided that there was certainly more to Maxwell than what meets the eye.

"Mr. Maxwell?" A young looking doctor called out, his nose buried in files that he held in his arms. Duo frowned, not recognizing the man that had stepped into the waiting room calling his name.

"Yes?"

"Would you like us to call a priest to have last rites performed?"

TBC…