24 Aug 2000
Category: Angsty romance
Pairings: (1x2)+R
Disclaimers: I don't own these delightful people (Sunrise and the
Sotsu Agency do, and Bandai has a license to pass them around), nor
do I intend to infringe upon the rights of their owners.
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Much angst. Sap. References to shounen-ai.
Feedback: Always welcome!
<> denotes thoughts.
As it turned out, even the off-planet news caught up with the story faster than anyone would have liked, despite attempts to keep it quiet.
When Quatre's call (the result of many dedicated staffers working very fast) came through almost a week later, it was Heero who answered. He didn't sound surprised that they had tracked him down--or, perhaps, he was too distracted for surprise.
"O-ohayo. Heero. I'm calling to talk to Duo."
"You'll have to talk to me. He's--not awake."
"Then wake him up. This is important."
"He already knows. It was on the news last night. You are talking about Relena, aren't you?"
His voice was so controlled that Quatre could have cursed at him--except for the way he hesitated over Relena's name.
"I wasn't home," Heero continued. "He--when I got here, he was pretty incoherent. I don't know how much he drank, but it was a lot. Don't know where he got it. He's been out for a few hours."
It was a long speech, at least for Heero, but Quatre needed more information. "I need to know if he's planning to come back. Any time soon. Things are not exactly running smoothly here."
"I already packed his things. I think he'll want to come, when he wakes up."
"Good. Are you coming, too?"
"I think I'd better."
The long exile was going to end, it appeared. Quatre shook his head. At what price, Relena?
"Quatre."
"What?"
"The news was...not consistent. One channel is saying she's in a coma. The other said she was dead."
Oh, Duo. "Tell him she's alive. The first channel was right, or at least closer to correct. Get him moving as soon as you can. I'll send my shuttle--it'll be faster."
Even with the Winner shuttle, and the Winner influences, it still took them the better part of a week to make the trip, and another week to clear quarantine. And they still had to face Nina, who seemed to have managed to get at least two of the other former pilots on her side. Quatre had been running interference the entire time they were en route, but Wufei and even Trowa seemed convinced that the two delinquents shouldn't be allowed anywhere near the hospital.
"She's not even conscious, Maxwell. And her list of visitors is very limited. I'm glad you came back," Wufei assured him as they stood together in the hospital lobby, "but now is perhaps not the best time to push the issue."
He regretted having to say it; Maxwell looked like he was hanging on to sanity by the thinnest of threads. Demolished. Sickeningly pale, hollow-eyed, he was an absolute wreck. Swaying as if it took effort to remain standing, he began, "I just want to look at her--"
"Absolutely not." Nina was quivering with rage. She had hoped she would never see that man again, but now that the actual confrontation was here, it felt good to finally get the chance to strike out at him. "Over my dead body. Or would you prefer hers?"
Duo made a strangled sound of protest, bowing his head. Heero stepped silently forward to him, his encircling arm transferring what strength he could offer. His eyes blazed a warning.
Looking from one glaring group to the other, Quatre tried for peace. "Maybe not now. But soon. They've been able to step down the induced coma, after all. She might wake up any day."
"Or she might never wake up at all. Don't leave that part out." Nina whirled on Duo. "You knew, you know what it did to her when-- when he left. You were there. How could you do it to her again? Do you know how much worse it was the second time? This time I was the only one here to see it. Oh, she smiled for the cameras, but every night I had to hide her medications." Her lips were trembling so badly she could barely speak, and the waiting sobs clutched at her throat. "You fooled all of us good, I guess--I can't believe I actually liked you, you selfish, lying--"
His head came up. "I didn't lie to her. I never--"
"You said you'd come back. You promised. And then months went by, and no word ever came. I thought she meant something to you. You--you were everything to her. Everything." Nina was weeping unashamedly.
He wished he could share her tears--he didn't have any left. There were no words, either, no explanation he could offer. No excuse. It might as well have been him holding that gun to her head. Heero's arm around his shoulder was the only thing holding him up, and he had never been so glad of its strength.
"Nina, that's enough. You're exhausted." Quatre's voice was firm. "Going for Duo's throat won't undo what happened, and she wouldn't want you putting yourself through this. Or him. Remember how much has gone right--in spite of everything, she's alive." He knew better than to try to send Nina home, but he would try to coax her to dinner. "Why don't you two get some rest, too," he said pointedly to Heero, "and we'll see how things look tomorrow." A truce, at least for the time being.
No one saw Relena that night--she spiked a fever, and her flock of doctors fluttered around her off-limits room with more than their usual urgency. It was several days before her support group could return to their regular visits; now that the greatest danger was over, the goal was to wake up the comatose celebrity. The nurse shook her head at their dedication--one or another of those young people was in that room at any given time, trying everything they could think of to get through to her. One read aloud, one just talked quietly, one (the intense young woman they'd thought was her sister, but turned out to be her secretary--such loyalty!) actually brought finger puppets. Two of them didn't ever go in, but stood in the hallway looking in whenever the others weren't around. And the slender blond man brought his violin.
As luck would have it, the violin was what did it. At least, Quatre happened to be playing when Sleeping Beauty woke up.
End of Part 8.
To be continued, of course. Oh, the suspense!
(:./lilias/complicated8)
