18-May-2003
Title: Seasonal Drift Part III
Author: Ebonydove
Archived: aenai.steelsong.com & Team Rocket at Shinigami's Castle.
Spoilers: none from the series that actually give anything away.
Rating: PG
Warnings: Violence, language, shonen-ai, mild sap, slight OOC, mild angst.
Pairings: 2+1
Author's Notes: Told in Duo's POV.
Disclaimer: Surely there are bigger fish to fry out there than me...
Even with my hands tucked safely away from view in my pockets I couldn't repress the full body shiver that ran through me as I walked into the brightly lit entrance to the hospital and caught the first whiff of that smell. A wave of urine and vomit stench hidden under a harsh antiseptic hit me like a train and I suddenly felt dizzy again. I braced myself against the wall in the foyer and leaned my head back against it, shutting my eyes, and trying to concentrate on not getting sick.
"Excuse me sir, are you all right?"
I opened my eyes to find myself looking into the concerned blue stare of a middle-aged woman donning a nurse's pink smock. She was frowning fiercely at me and looking a tad bit panicky. "Yeah, I'm fine."
"Are you sure? Because I could find someone for you... "
"That's all right nurse. He's with us, thank you." Trowa actually smiled pleasantly at her; prompting her to move on down the hall. He looked at me then with that critical eye of his, not too differently than the nurse had just been and folded his arms across his chest. "You're in shock, Duo. You need to come sit down."
That was absurd. I knew what it was to be in shock and I was far from it. Dizziness, nausea, shaking...
"Duo." He tugged my arm gently and I slowly pushed away from the wall to follow him into the waiting area. "Sit here. I'll be right back."
I looked around the small space at the other people in the chairs as Trowa walked off in the direction I had seen Wufei last in. There was a woman with a baby; looking stressed as the child squirmed and played with her car keys. Another couple stood next to a window talking quietly as two kids raced around the set of chairs in the very back near the wall. And finally, an older man who looked to be dozing sat in a seat closest to where I was standing.
I sat down next to him leaving a vacant chair between us and watched as the nurses and orderlies scurried back and forth as they checked their files and patients behind the white and blue curtains in the ER. The old guy twitched when I first sat down but in the next moment was softly snoring again. I clutched my hands together in my lap and tried to take what deep breaths I could given the smell of the place. It just made the shaking worse. I was about to get up and find a men's room when a cup of hot coffee was shoved unceremoniously into my line of sight.
"Your partner told me to give this you and that you are to drink it."
I glanced up at the nurse who had questioned my condition in the doorway and frowned darkly at her. Then I scanned the room for Trowa or Wufei. I finally caught Trowa's eyes and watched him nod and raise an eyebrow as if to question my unhappy expression. I sighed and took the cup from her. I hadn't noticed the blanket until it had been thrown around my shoulders almost causing me to drop the cup. "Hey! What are you... ?"
"Never you mind. The doctor will be over in just a moment."
She gave me a stern little wag of her finger which made me feel more like a petulant child than a lethal member of the most specialized fighting force in the universe. "Yes ma'am."
"Good. You just try to relax and he doctor he'll be over to check on you in just a moment sweetie."
She turned on her heel and marched back to her station, clicking her pen on her chart as she went and tisking to herself like I was some kind of wounded dog. I shrugged the blanket off and sat back sipping the hot drink and continued to flash Trowa and Wufei dark looks from where I sat. But they were ignoring me, so after a few minutes I gave up. I tried to take another breath and closed my eyes for another second or two. The harsh fluorescent lights were really starting to give me a headache, but at least the dizziness and nausea had stopped.
I felt a light shake and opened my eyes. "W-what?" I sat up from where I had somehow managed to slouch almost into a prone position in the chairs to find Wufei regarding me silently. His dark eyes seemed gentle which immediately made my hackles rise. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing. You fell asleep and I just didn't want to alarm you."
He smirked at me, then sat back in the seat beside mine. The old guy was gone and so was the couple with the kids, but the mother with the baby was now standing swaying the child back and forth as a nurse instructed her on how to administer the antibiotics she had been given. The blanket that I had shrugged off earlier was tucked around me and my coffee had been replaced with a glass of water. "How long?"
"About an hour or so."
It felt like two minutes to me. I rolled my head around to lessen the tightness in my neck and went to stand up only to have Wufei tug me back down into my seat. "What the hell, Wu?"
He just glanced up and it was then I realized that Trowa and a doctor was standing in front of us waiting for me to notice them. I scratched my head a little and quirked a grin. "Hey, Tro. What's this?"
"Agent Maxwell, I'm Dr. McNeill. I just want to check you out. You were in shock when your partner brought you in."
Trowa cleared his throat and looked calmly at me. "I was not in shock, Doc. And he's not my partner. My partner's is the guy we followed here." It didn't really matter what I was saying it seemed because the guy was too busy flashing his pen light in my eyes and checking my pulse to hear a damn word I was saying. Trowa looked slightly amused from where he was standing, and I didn't even want to acknowledge the smug expression on Wufei's face as the doctor poked and prodded. "All right, already. I'm good, see? Just fine. Now where 's Heero?"
The doctor stood back, made some notes in a chart I could only assume was for me and ignored my question completely. He then turned to Trowa and Wufei who stood up to hear the consultation. I just huffed out my aggravation at the two of them, and drank my water.
" ...mild shock that seems to have dissipated. But he should take it easy for the next several hours."
"Thank you Doctor McNeill." Wufei said as he shook his hand.
If I could have I would have kicked Wufei for the parental tone he was using.
"When can I see Heero?" I snarled from me seat.
"He's still having testing done. They are performing a CAT scan now. It'll be a few more hours until they know anything for certain."
It was Trowa who answered me as he stretched his arms high about his head. It was early evening and they had been with me non-stop since arriving at the apartment to find us. It was the first time I had realized how worn out they both looked. I was suddenly a little humbled by their obvious concern for me and stopped glaring at them so hard. "I'm sorry guys."
They both gave me an odd perplexed look like I need to explain. I sighed and rolled my eyes at them. "I was a little out of it, I guess. I didn't mean to be so snappy."
"It's to be expected." Wufei shrugged and sat back down next to me. "The crime scene has been secured and Trowa and I have put our best team on the case. Une gave us free reign to get to the bottom of this. When I find who did this... " I must have been staring because his expression changed rapidly from barely contained anger to something... else. "I apologize Maxwell."
It was my turn to be perplexed then, but Wufei didn't say anything more to explain just what he was apologizing for. Then he stood rather abruptly and stalked off in the direction of the gift shop leaving me to pose my question to Trowa. "Why do I feel like I missed something important just now?"
Trowa frowned slightly and took the seat that Wufei had just vacated. "Wufei was aware of the stalker that had been harassing Heero for the past several weeks, but thought it was something Heero could handle on his own. He blames himself for what happened today."
The nausea returned with dizzying force and I found myself practically panting for breath. Stalker? What stalker? How did I not know about this?
"Duo?"
I ignored the alarmed tone and gripped at Trowa's forearm. "I need... air."
He dragged me from the waiting area and outside, dodging us around an incoming guerney and ambulance crew before pausing once we reached the side of the building. "Duo? I thought you knew about the problems Heero was having. I'm sorry, I should have told when you had settled down."
I braced myself against the brick wall with both hands and took some long, deep breaths. The blanket was dangling off my shoulders and I shrugged to get its stifling weight off me. As I hung my head, my braid slid down from where it had been tucked under the blanket and swung back and forth like a pendulum as I breathed and stared at the concrete. I almost passed out when I glanced at it and noticed several pleats were stained with dark, rusty-brown patches and spatterings of... other material. "Tro?" My voice sounded terribly unsteady as shut my eyes tightly.
"Yeah, Duo."
I felt his palm on the middle of my back and shivered at the warmth of it. "Can we go? I need to go now."
"Sure Duo. Come on." He gently rubbed a few soothing circles at the spot between my shoulder blades before taking my elbow and pulling me away from the wall.
"What about Wufei?"
"I'll call him once we get to the car."
I turned around and quickly brushed away the beginnings of tears with my free hand, before practically running towards the parking lot. Trowa was hovering within inches of me, but let go of my elbow.
I refused to look at him. I didn't want him to see through me. And I knew he could if I let him right then. How long had Heero been keeping me in the dark about what was going on with him? Weeks? It had been weeks Trowa said. And they all certainly knew about it. Wufei had known enough details about it to feel responsible for Christ's sake. Did Q know too? Why not me? I was goddamn partner wasn't I? "What the fuck?!"
Trowa started next to me like I had just tried to hit him or something. He froze and stood staring at me with this unreadable expression on his face as I gaged just what had spilled out of my mouth. Then he frowned and looked almost... angry with me. Which for Trowa to show; was damn scary. His fists were balled up against his sides and he looked as if he was about to explode with whatever it was he wanted to say, so I swallowed hard and pressed him to speak. "Trowa, tell me."
"He said he could handle it."
Well that made sense. "Of course Heero said he could handle it. Heero thinks he can handle everything on his own. But today certainly proved that theory wrong, didn't it? I'm his goddamn partner and he didn't even tell me! Since when did he not see me as trustworthy enough for something like this, huh? I mean Christ, Trowa he should have... "
"What? Told you so you could go off half cocked like you always do?!"
The heat behind the words surprised the hell outta me and cut off the little rant I had started. I just stood dumbstruck as he continued to yell at me in the middle of the parking lot. "Why does everything always have to be about you, Duo? Didn't it ever occur to you that he didn't tell you because he wanted to keep you out of it?!"
I swallowed hard at the lump in my throat and tried to still my chin as it started to tremble. "But... why? I'm his partner. I'm his... friend."
All the tension in Trowa suddenly disappeared as placed his hands on my shoulders. "It's because you are friends that he didn't tell you, Duo. You seem to be under the impression that everyone else knew but you and that simply isn't the case. Wufei and I only knew what Heero hinted at and it wasn't much. He didn't want us to get involved, and he certainly didn't want you to know because of how you react to things like this."
He had a point. How I was behaving now just reinforced the fact that when it came to Heero all bets were off. My logic just flies out of my brain and is replaced by plain, raw emotion. If I had taken the time to notice how odd he'd been acting lately and focused on him instead of what it was doing to me, I may have been able to be there for him. I should have been a better friend.
Trowa was absolutely right and I was at a loss as to what to do next. "So, what should I do, Tro?"
"Let's get you home and cleaned up. Once we have something to eat and you take a quick nap, we'll get together with the other guys and talk things out. Between the four of us we should be able to come up with a gameplan on how to proceed."
Good ol' reliable Trowa. Always level headed in every situation. But even he had shown how shaken he had been by all this. "Trowa?"
"Yeah?"
"Thanks, man. I just... I'm just worried for Heero."
"I know Duo. I am too."
End Part 3
(:./ebony/drift3)
