Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Reprieve ❯ Chapter 14 ( Chapter 14 )

Chapter 14

Voices. Lots of voices, all telling him what to do, where to go, how, when, where, why….

Duo sat bolt upright in bed and stared at the far wall, somewhere ahead in the dark, terrified.

*

Wufei woke grudgingly. He felt a shiver across his shoulder and a dull ache in his leg where he guessed Sally had stitched up his leg and he wanted nothing more than to go back to sleep where he could heal in peace. But something had woken him.

Blinking open weary eyes, Wufei reached out instinctively but his hand hit a barrier much sooner than expected. Startled, Wufei pulled his hand back immediately, but his mind kicked in and he began actually seeing the situation. Something had woken him. Duo as not lying down, and Duo's skin was ice cold. Trying not to sigh, Wufei sat up slowly and tapped the lamplight at the side of the bed once to give a small hint of light to see by. He studied Duo in the soft light.

Eyes wide, skin ashen and covered with a dry layer of sweat, panting softly, shivering in the cold of space not quite concealed by the ship's heating systems. It all added up to one thing in Wufei's still slightly sleep-infested mind; Duo had a nightmare.

"Duo? You okay?"

No response. That in itself was a little odd. Usually if Duo didn't feel like talking he would at least acknowledge you had spoken, but there was simply no reaction. Feeling unease once again twist his gut, Wufei sat up further and reached out a hand, resting it on Duo's shoulder, hoping the sudden contact wouldn't startle him too much. He needn't have worried; Duo didn't move.

"Duo?" Wufei shook him a little to no avail. The eyes were turned inward, seeing something Wufei probably didn't want to know about. What did another see in their darkest moments between sleep and wakefulness? If it was anything like he saw it was not something shared easily. Not something shared at all.

Not sure what to do, Wufei waved a hand in front of Duo's eyes and nearly fell off the side of the bed when Duo blinked. He kept forgetting they were now on the Peacemillion and not in the recovery room he had become accustomed to.

"They're in Scythe…they're all trapped in Scythe!" Duo's face twisted in pain and he threw himself off the bed and slammed the door open, rushing out in only his pajama bottoms. Wufei sat in shock for a full ten seconds before swearing loudly and following as quickly as his leg would allow without the stitches popping open.

It was not hard to follow Duo; all Wufei had to do was follow the line of shocked Sweepers left in his wake. It wasn't until he got to the door of the hanger and found Mickey following Duo's progress like a hawk that Wufei felt even the smallest hint of relief.

"Mickey…" The Sweeper turned to study hi carefully, eyes scraping over the exact paces he had been injured not only in the last battle but when Duo self-destructed as well. Whatever he saw was apparently not what he wanted because he scowled darkly.

"You should be in bed."

"I was," Wufei groused back, eyes narrowing. He was definitely not so sure he wanted to have been so completely adopted into the Sweeper family, and still had little idea how it happened. He blamed Sally Po, though deep down he knew it was his own fault. He got involved with Duo and that was that. Involved…Wufei stopped dead still, mouth slightly ajar as he considered his choice o that word. It was right and yet…too right…The implications were slightly devastating to him, and at the same time…right…

"Wufei, are you alright?" A hand came under his elbow to support him and Wufei realised he had been on his way to hitting the floor. He nodded dazedly but the hand did not go away, a fact Wufei was not sorry about as he found he suddenly found he needed the support. He could not sort out his thoughts. What was he thinking? How `involved' did he believe himself to be with Duo Maxwell? His fingers twitched as he considered it, longing to reach out and feel a pulse…Wufei swallowed dryly, feeling dizzy.

"You really don't look good," Mickey groaned. "I'm taking you to Po."

"Duo…" Wufei objected, eyes scanning the hanger for his companion…the one he was `involved with…They snagged on the scantily clad figure, still shivering, now under the dark gaze of Deathscythe. Mickey seemed to catch onto the same thing and he sighed heavily.

"Nightmare. He hasn't had one of those in a while. YUY!"

Wufei watched in shock as Heero's head popped out of Deathscythe's open hatch and looked out at Mickey. He studied them carefully for a moment then his eyes dove unerringly to Deathscythe's feet and Duo. Wufei saw his shoulders stiffen then relax, resigned as he put down whatever he had been working on and made his way down Deathsythe's side. Wufei wasn't sure he trusted Yuy to do what needed to be done, but Mickey seemed to trust him completely and it occurred to Wufei that this really wasn't the first time this had happened. Nor was it the first time Heero had been around to take care of it.

An emotion Wufei did not want to acknowledge rose and he turned sharply away from the scene with Mickey, letting the man drag him off to Sally's office. She was not pleased to see him as they stumbled through the door.

"Why aren't you in bed? I told you to stay there until I took those stitches out of your leg and not before unless you had my permission! Can't you ever take orders from anyone else?" She continued ranting as Mickey deftly helped him to a chair and left the room, leaving Wufei at the mercy of the would-be Nazi-general.

"So, why aren't you in bed?"

"I was following Duo. He…he had a nightmare."

Even Sally stopped her poking and prodding at that, knowing how completely out of character it was. Even if Wufei felt obligated to team up with someone, he would never take it upon himself to comfort them after a nightmare. That was too…personal. And Wufei worked alone; they both knew it.

"Wufei…"

"I was thinking about it, when I realized what I was doing…in the hangar. I think…it's like…All I wanted was to reach out and…know he was still breathing. But…I don't…what does that mean, exactly?"

Sally had the strangest look on her face as she sat down in a chair just across from him. It was a mixture of disbelief and relief, stunned amusement and immediate acceptance.

"I saw it, but…I didn't think you ever would." A grin broke out on Sally's face as she turned to face him completely. "What do you think it means, exactly?"

"I…I'm not sure," Wufei replied, as honest in that moment as he had ever been before. "I think…I think I'm jealous that Heero is with him now and not me; that right now Heero might know what he needs more than I do. I think…I don't like seeing Duo in pain, and at the same time…when he's injured I can take care of him…"

Sally laughed at that but waved her hand begging him to continue.

"I think…I don't want to go to sleep unless I know he's right there…that I can reach out and put my hand over his heart and feel it beating. I think it means…it means…it means I can't fight alone anymore."

Sally smiled, a little sadly, to hear that. She knew it was true; had apparently known it for quite some time. She leaned forward and took Wufei's hands in her own.

"Howard spoke to me…about Duo's nightmares. It was in his medical records and I wanted to know why."

Wufei didn't pull his hands away as he once would have. It was yet another sign to his psyche that he was changed somehow, perhaps irrevocably. He just had to know more.

"He's always had them. Afterwards…if you try to interfere…try to touch him…he tends to lash out, violently. He doesn't really know where he is and it takes time to realize. Heero…he is strong compared to Duo and is able to…restrain him."

Restrain…Duo…The very concept made Wufei sick. He was no longer jealous; he was furious. He flung himself out of the chair and loosened himself from Sally's grip.

"Wufei! Sit down!"

"I can't, Sal. You say he lashes out? I touched him. I touched him, shook him, almost reached him! He didn't lay a finger on me!" He pushed his way past her easily and hurried out the door, aware of Sally on his heels. She didn't try to stop him, only hovered in case he needed her help, which she would give whether he liked it or not, he knew from experience.

He wasn't even in the hanger when he heard voices.

"STOP IT! Lemme go, lemme go, lemme go!"

"Stop hitting me and I will!" Heero retorted. Wufei ran faster, bursting into the hanger, past a shocked Mickey and straight for the two struggling figures still at the base of Deathscythe. Apparently Duo refused to leave the suit and Wufei remembered him saying something about Deatchscythe when he had first woken.

`They're in Scythe…they're all trapped in Scythe'; that was it. But who had he meant? Wufei thought it probably had something to do with whatever the doctor's had done to the Gundam on the moon base, but he wasn't sure so he did the only thing he could.

Wufei ran straight up behind Heero and hauled him back with all his strength, tossing him to one side as he lunged forward and threw his arms around Duo, holding the struggling form as still as he could.

"Duo," He pleaded in his friend's ear, and as if answering his plea Duo went perfectly still. His arms didn't come up, but his forehead came down to rest under Wufei's chin and he could have sworn he felt a warm trickle run down his chest, except he had never seen Duo cry. He had come close but it was almost as if he couldn't. Even now, if he was not deceived, it was a single tear.

"Bugger me," Mickey's shocked voice came from nearby, followed by a grunt from Heero. It made Wufei oddly pleased, to know he could do this where no one else could. It only strengthened his belief that he was `involved' beyond his own ability to disentangle himself.

"Duo…Who are trapped in Scythe?" Wufei whispered, not wanting anyone else to hear. This was personal and it would stay that way.

Duo was still for so long Wufei thought he wasn't going to answer, but then his head rose and Duo's arms circled his waist, pressing their bodies harder together and Wufei understood; he needed an anchor, proof this was real.

"My dead."

*

Heero watched Wufei take Duo from the hanger in annoyance. Why had Duo smashed him several times in the gut but not retaliated against Wufei? Heero had seen Duo hit even Howard in one of his rages, so why was Wufei so special?

Not that that really mattered right now anyway. Heero had been close enough to hear Wufei's whispered query and the hesitant response. He also knew there might just be an element of truth to the answer.

The system in Deathscythe was an incredible design. As far as Heero could tell it was meant to show all the possible battle data in order of its probability of success. If the pilot acted immediately on the most probable outcome then he was practically assured victory. The problem came when a pilot hesitated and the other possibilities came into play. You could be shown the death of everything you cared for, and even your own downfall. Heero had been testing the system for hours and had a splitting headache long before he had figured out how to manipulate the system. He knew there had been no time for Duo to do the same. Add to that the fact the way Duo had rewired the system was practically mental suicide and it was remarkable the baka wasn't a blithering idiot by now.

`My dead'. Heero could imagine how the programming would have used mental material already in existence to try and `convince' Duo to do as it wished, and he any weakness would have been exploited. If Duo had dead family…'My dead' was not such an unbelievable concept after all.

Collecting the data he had gathered on the new system, Heero headed for the bridge, collecting Trowa and Quatre on his way. They had work to do before the next mission came in. If, he reminded himself, the doctors still trusted them enough to give them missions. If they didn't, Heero intended to make some. He wanted to know just who Zechs Marquise was, and what the properties of the unidentified Gundam were. And who piloted it. He had to…had to try.

*

Duo let Wufei lead him back to their room; let him put him down on the bed and tuck him in like some small child. He even let Wufei crawl in beside him and pull him against his side where his head could rest on his bruised shoulder. He didn't know why he let Wufei do these things, he knew only that he didn't want to stop Wufei. Maybe couldn't. Probably wouldn't.

"Duo? You okay?"

He didn't want to answer, so he just nodded, letting his hand fall on Wufei's chest, fingertips sensing the beat of a heart beneath them. It was soothing somehow, to feel that beat and know it wasn't about to stop. He let it calm him. Let it become reality.

He felt a touch at the back of his neck and stiffened, watching closely as Wufei lifted his braid over his shoulder, curling the end about his rest and settling his hand on his stomach. It was an action that would normally result in someone's death, and yet…

`It looks…right…' Duo thought, staring at the braid in Wufei's fist as his muscles relaxed.

"Fei…Did I hurt you?" Duo traced the line of the bandage under Wufei's trousers, suddenly aware he was leaning his head on a dark bruise.

Wufei just held him in place until he relaxed again, a funny little smile on his face.

"You wouldn't know how. Now go to sleep."

Completely dumbfounded, knowing he had injured Wufei, however unintentionally, several times, Duo gave up and followed his orders. He went to sleep. There were no dreams…no mares in the night.