20-Feb-2002
Title: Running With the Devil/part five
Author: Ebonydove
Warnings: violence, language.
Author's note: Quatre POV. Takes place during the series but no spoilers. For
you Quatre fans out there, this may leave a bad taste in your mouth, but I don't
regret it. Feedback appreciated, but apologies not guaranteed.
Pairings: hints of 3+4/1+2
I woke from sleeping feeling like something had changed. I was warm. Very warm, and I could feel Duo's breathing strong against my ear where I had rested my head on his chest. In fact it was almost bouncy. The smell of dustiness from the couch was missing though, and I couldn't hear the snapping and popping of the woodstove that had lulled me to sleep anymore. I figured I'd better get up and throw another log or two on it if it had died down while we slept.
When I went to get up though a strong arm held me in place. Then I smelled it. A scent that was earthy and masculine, but pleasant and made me weak in the knees. I lifted my head enough to look up into Trowa's bright green eyes.
"Hello Sunshine."
"Wha? Where's Duo?" I suddenly realized I was snuggled against Trowa, not Duo and the bounciness I had felt was because we were in the back of a car. I struggled to get unwrapped from Trowa's arms and the heavy blankets I was under. I was dressed, in thermals and flannel and was almost sweating. My toes were tingling and my cheeks felt hot. The pain in my hand was only a dull throb and was carefully wrapped in gaze and splinted.
"Calm down Quatre. He's here." Trowa turned my face with his hand so I could see that Duo was cocooned in a very similar fashion to the way I had been against Trowa, only against Heero in the seat behind us. He was still out cold. I glanced to see Sally driving us and smiling in the rear view mirror with Wufei in the passenger side seat. I felt myself relax and let out a deep breath as I shut my eyes. Duo was going to be okay. We were safe.
"I didn't think we were going to make it." I whispered finding my throat dry and sore. "Thank Allah Heero came for us."
I heard Trowa chuckle that made me reopen my eyes and look at him. "Heero didn't find you. Wufei came across you guys two days ago." I was so confused. It had only been three days since we left for our mission. One spent on recon, one on the run, and now we were here.
"After you failed to report in, Wufei and I set out to find you. We saw that the first safehouse had been compromised but picked up a tail when looking for the car. We had to lay low for a day before tracking you." Heero said, speaking in a quiet voice over the top of Duo's head.
"It took us two more days to find which road you took to get to the cabin, and with the snow storm had to wait for the third day at a motel until it blew over." Wufei added.
Now I was really confused. How was it possible for me to lose four days? "But the transmitter, I set it off as soon as we found the cabin."
I saw the concerned look Trowa shot to Heero. "Quatre, we didn't find the transmitter with you."
I sat up a bit more, my head spinning with the movement. I didn't mean to get huffy but I remembered what I did. "I put it right next to the couch in front of the woodstove. You couldn't have missed it. You would have practically had to trip over it to get to me and Duo."
"What is he rambling about Barton?" Wufei shot a look to Trowa then Sally who shrugged her shoulders and frowned.
"Quatre, we found you and Duo in a mangled station wagon. You both were about frozen stiff. You never made it out of the car. The only thing that kept you alive was the fact you never turned the ignition off and the battery kept running the heat until it died."
Wufei was talking to me like I was a two-year-old, but it hadn't mattered. What he said made my head swim. I remember pulling Duo out of the car, trudging through the snow and Duo's singing. I remembered telling him how I had been molested and how tenderly he had kissed me in the falling snow. I remember almost losing him when he wouldn't get up out of the snow. How cold his skin was and how bright the blood looked against his pale face and blue tinted lips. And the cabin. I found it, and once we were inside, I lit the fire and found the transmitter.
"It's amazing that Oz didn't find you boys first or that you both didn't die of carbon monoxide poisoning." Sally added.
"I'm so confused. Duo was dying in the snow. I couldn't get him to get up. I screamed at him that we weren't going to be friends anymore if he didn't. We found the cabin. I made a fire, I found the soup." I grabbed a fist full of Trowa's sweater and turned again to see Duo.
"Quatre calm down. It's okay. You and Duo are safe now. Just rest." Trowa put his hand on my head and gently pushed it down to rest on his shoulder.
I shut my eyes and tried to remember everything that happened from the time that we hit the bridge. It was like watching a movie in my head. I even remembered the way the oil had smelled when I poured it into the woodstove. It couldn't have been a dream. All these things were swirling around in my aching head as I drifted back to sleep.
When I woke up again I was in a bed. Duo and I had been brought back to our makeshift home base and for a minute I thought the whole thing was a dream and we had never left for our mission in the first place. My throbbing head and my broken hand soon squashed that thought. I looked around my room and saw the pink shirt and my other gear on the floor. What made me think I was truly insane was the fact that the pink shirt was shredded. Shredded because I had used it to wrap my hand after duo and I had reached the cabin. If what the others said was true then how in the hell had it gotten torn?
I picked it up and made my way down the hall to where Duo's room was. I heard the sniffling and voices speaking softly and when I got there I found Heero curled around Duo in his bed and Trowa, Wufei, and Sally standing over them. Heero was crying softly into Duo's shoulder and Sally was sniffling back tears as well.
"What's going on?" I yelled as they all turned to look at me.
Trowa looked at me with eyes full of unshed tears. I clutched at the wall and felt the world spinning again. My stomach twisted and I felt as if I was falling. "Duo didn't make it Quatre. He just slipped away in his sleep. I'm sorry. We were just too late." The last thing I remember was hearing Heero's voice asking me if I was okay. After that it was only pitch black.
End Part 6
(:./ebony/running6)
