Well, i wrote this for Sapphiregamgee over on Deviantart... thought i'd post it here. here's the link to the picture it's from, minus the spaces of course http://sapphiregamgee. /art/ Broken-Leg- 58138784
Enjoy!
Heero jolted awake.
A terrible scream of agony was echoing through the safe-house, coming from downstairs.
The Japanese teen leapt out of bed and hurried into the hall, where Trowa, Quatre and Wufei were as well.
Where's Duo?
Wait… don't tell me…?
The four rushed towards the stairs, instinctively knowing where the screams were coming from.
Heero sped down the first flight of stairs, taking them two at a time. When he got to the turn in the stairwell, he stopped dead for a moment, forcing the others to come to a halt as well.
At the foot of the stairs, lay Duo. He was doubled over, clutching his left leg, which was a bloodied mess. The braided pilot continued to let out strangled cries, unable to control the agony exploding within his leg.
So much blood…
Within the next heartbeat, Heero was at the bottom of the stairwell, kneeling next to Duo. He put his hands on the American's shoulders, trying to calm him down. "Duo! What's wrong? What happened?!"
Duo took no notice; he simply continued to cry out in agony.
Then Trowa, Quatre and Wufei were next to Heero.
In one swift movement, Wufei was behind Duo, attempting to hold the writhing teen still. He grabbed Duo's wrists, pulling his hands away from the wound. He forced the other pilot to lean against him.
Meanwhile, Trowa was situating himself to hold down Duo's leg. He tore away the bloodied pant-leg, using it as a compress. Quatre, who was doing his best to not panic, grabbed onto Duo's ankle.
The two did their best to get Duo's broken bone straight. However, the American was simply too strong, writhing against them.
A wave of uselessness crashed over Heero for a moment, before Wufei called out over Duo's screams.
"Don't just sit there, baka! Call 911!"
Heero blinked, then jumped up and bolted upstairs to grab his cell phone. Once he grabbed the tiny flip-phone, he dialed the three numbers as fast as his hands would allow.
When the bored operator answered, Heero nearly exploded into the phone.
"I need an ambulance, quick! My friend's been seriously hurt, we don't know how… but send an ambulance, hurry!" Heero didn't quite know how to handle the sudden rushes of fear and anger. He was always prepared for every situation, but something like this… his stoic mind had never given it a single thought.
The operator sounded barely interested, "Alright, if you like, need one that badly." She yawned, "Tell me where you are and I'll like have one right over, m'kay?"
Heero quickly sputtered out the address of the safe-house. Once the operator had boredly assured him that the ambulance would only take a few minutes to arrive, the pilot finally hung up and bolted back downstairs.
It wasn't until he made it to the bottom of the stairs, that Heero noticed that Duo was no longer screaming in agony. The other pilots were still holding onto him tightly, but the American was limp in their grasp.
"The ambulance is on its way… what happened to him?" asked Heero.
Trowa looked up, his chest covered in blood. "He passed out. Must've lost too much blood."
Heero knelt down by the four, looking at Duo.
The braided pilot was deathly pale. His body was tense and trembling; his face contorted in an expression of pain.
Guilt suddenly came over Heero at seeing Duo's terrible state. He knew that simply falling down the stairs could never do damage like this; which meant that something else must have done it.
Suddenly, there was a loud banging on the front door. Heero stood, running to unlock it. As soon as the pilot had pulled open the door, three men rushed in, pulling a large stretcher.
The men asked no questions as the loaded Duo onto the stretcher. It was finally, as they were wheeling him out the door, one man asked, "One of you may ride in the ambulance with your friend. Who's going to come?"
The four pilots glanced back and forth at one another, unsure.
After a moment, Quatre spoke up, his voice troubled, "Heero, you're the only one not covered in blood. You go."
As the others nodded in agreement, the Wing pilot muttered a quick "ok" before following the medics out of the safe-house.
Just as he was closing the front door, Quatre called, "We'll meet you there!"
--
A few moments later had the three medics hurriedly pushing Duo's stretcher through the Emergency Room. Heero intended to follow the men deeper into the hospital, but when a nurse said he 'must wait patiently,' the pilot was forced to remain in the waiting room.
With a huff of exasperation, Heero gave one last look at the door the injured Deathscythe pilot had disappeared through. He then turned on his heel, retreating to the farthest corner of the waiting room.
Heero curled up in the hard chair, pulling his knees to his chest. Duo's tortured screams kept running through his head, along with the images of his friend writhing on the floor. His emotionless mind couldn't handle this.
The Wing pilot hadn't been there for more than twenty minutes when he heard the ER door slide open. He looked up to see Quatre, Trowa and Wufei running in. Quatre took a seat next to Heero, while the others sat across from them.
"We got here as fast as we could," Said the Sandrock pilot, slightly out of breath.
"Here," Trowa handed Heero what looked like a small wad of clothing.
The Wing pilot took the blue cloth, finding that it was one of his shirts. It was then that he noticed, that each of the other boys had changed into clean clothes, albeit pajamas, but still a top and bottoms.
To add on another emotion, Heero felt a bit strange in only a pair of sweats. He quickly pulled on the soft shirt.
It was then that Quatre put a hand on the Wing pilot's shoulder, noticing something Heero himself, had not. "Heero… are you crying…?"
Heero blinked, putting a hand to his cheek. It was wet. The Wing pilot instantly averted his eyes to the ground.
"Winner," Wufei spoke up, his usual annoyed tone present. "Enough, tell us what you found already!"
"Huh?" Quatre blinked, forgetting the very item he had clutched so tightly in his hands. "Oh, right… I think I found what did… that to Duo. I found it close to where he had been."
The Sandrock pilot unraveled what looked like an old towel to reveal a small, shiny dart. The device was about six inches long, and it tapered from needle-sharp on one end, to about an inch wide on the other. The dart had four small, metal pieces protruding from near the bottom at an angle; most likely to make it spin as it flew through the air. Had it not been stained with blood, the thing would have been a pale gray; the same gray as the safe-house walls. Upon closer inspection, the boys noticed a small, familiar inscription on the dart. It read "OZ."
"Damn them!" cussed Heero, barely able to keep himself from yelling. Now, all he felt was anger; an anger so strong his body was trembling at the need to destroy the evil bastards who had hurt his dear friend. The Wing pilot curled into himself again, feeling the hot tears once more.
For some time, the four remained silent, lost in their own thoughts; or more likely: devising plans on how to blow OZ to hell and back.
Each boy startled when a doctor came up to them hours later, looking quite relieved.
"I-is Duo ok?!" asked Quatre, speaking everybody's mind.
The doctor nodded, smiling, "Your friend is going to be alright," he said in a gruff, yet kind voice. He pushed up his thick-framed glasses, "Both his tibia and fibula are basically shattered, however, so it's going to take quite some time to heal; most likely about four to five months. Your friend also lost a lot of blood; if he had bled much more, his chances of survival would have been greatly compromised. Thankfully, though, we managed to get him stabilized and out of the ICU in no time. That boy is quite the fighter."
Each boy nodded, silently thanking every god they knew of that they had not lost their comrade.
"Can we see him?" asked Heero.
The doctor nodded, "You may. He's still unconscious, though, and he probably will be for quite sometime."
Silently, each boy rose, and followed the doctor through the brightly lit halls of the hospital. Finally, after weaving through the sanitary maze, they came to a stop in front of Duo's room.
The doctor led them through the open door into the bright room. He quietly checked over Duo's vitals before leaving the boys and their wounded comrade.
"Oh my…" gasped Quatre upon seeing the mass of wires and tubes surrounding Duo.
The Deathscythe pilot's left leg was in a very thick white cast, suspended over the bed. A clear oxygen tube was at his nose and an IV drip in his arm. There were several other wires, monitoring his heart-rate, body temperature and such.
Each boy quickly went over to the bed, two on each side. Neither of them said anything as they stared at their wounded friend.
Duo's normally pale skin was much lighter; save for flushed cheeks, his skin seemed as white as the sheets of the hospital bed. His body was deathly still, his only the movement the slow rise and fall of his chest.
After several moments of silence, Wufei was the first to speak, "We need a plan to blow OZ to hell for this…" Even though his voice remained emotionless, his anger was clearly glinting in his black eyes.
Heero nodded, "Yes. This gives us an excuse to destroy that OZ base outside of town ahead of time."
Quatre felt the same, "Heero's right. I was originally planning that we go in undercover without our Gundams, and destroy them from within, but a full-out ambush seems more appropriate right now. And we all know that their mobile suits are no match for our Gundams, even the mobile dolls are barely formidable. I don't think we'll have a problem with this plan."
"I agree," nodded Trowa.
The other conscious pilots nodded as well, and the four began to discus their plan of attack.
--
A few hours later had the four Gundam pilots starting up their huge mobile suits. Each of them sadly eyed Deathscythe as they entered the giant cave where the Gundams were hidden. They all knew that this mission had to succeed for Duo; he had to be avenged.
As the four pilots came up to the large OZ base, each prepared the strongest of their weapons. Heero: his buster rifle, Trowa: his multiple cannons and machineguns, Quatre: his dual blades, and Wufei: his beam-spear.
As soon as the first attacks were delivered, sirens rent through the military complex, and it was only a matter of time before enemy mobile suits would be deployed.
In only moments, Heero found himself surrounded by at least two dozen Taurus's. They were all firing at him simultaneously with high powered blasters, so much that Wing Zero almost couldn't handle it.
Struggling against the blasts, Heero raised his buster rifle, firing several shots. Many of the Taurus's went down, but not all of them had taken critical damage, if any at all. Cussing, Gundam pilot 01 unsheathed his beam saber, slicing down the remaining mobile suits within his reach.
However, there were many, many more to come.
Trowa shot down several Leos and Taurus's, careful to conserve his ammo. It wasn't long, however, until he received an unexpected attack. Heavyarms fell to the side, having received a direct hit from the left.
Trowa cried out in shock, sparks flying in his Gundam's cockpit. He had no time to react before something heavy from within the paneling fell, crashing into his arm.
As the large debris fell away, blood began to ooze from the wound in Trowa's forearm. The pain that accompanied it was terrible, but not unbearable.
"Trowa! Are you alright?" called Quatre through the comm. link.
"Yeah, I'm fine…" grunted the Heavyarms pilot.
At the moment, Quatre wasn't having much trouble in his end of the battle. However, that was about to change.
The moment the blonde pilot had taken his attention from Trowa's situation, he was overcome by blasts from several Taurus's.
His Gundam stumbled back, taking many direct hits. Without hesitation, Quatre dashed forward, swiping his dual blades. He took out several of the mobile suits.
Tossing the two curved swords, he destroyed the remaining Taurus's. Quatre then moved on to battle another group of Leos.
Wufei was having little trouble, his agile Gundam taking down all that was thrown at him.
However, a single blast managed to slip past, hitting the cockpit dead on.
Nataku fell back, its pilot taking a great deal of the force of the attack. Several of the screens within the cockpit became static for many moments. However, Wufei took no notice as he stared ahead dazedly, blood trickling down his forehead.
After several minutes, the voices of the other pilots through the comm. Link reached his ears.
"Wufei! Get a hold of yourself!"
"Wufei!"
"Chang, get up and help us!"
The Chinese pilot blinked several times, regaining his senses. He brought up his Gundam, expecting to find several enemy mobile suits waiting to attack him.
However, he found Sandrock standing before him, having taken out the other Taurus's. The blonde pilot turned to face him for a moment.
"Be more careful!" said Quatre, before taking off to fight more OZ troops.
There weren't many more casualties on the Gundam side as they decimated the rest of the enemy mobile suits. Even then, Heero had sustained a painful blow to the head and Quatre had several nasty bruises.
Through blurred vision, Heero aimed his buster rifle at the building he knew was the core of the OZ base. He fired several shots, blowing up the structure.
Using the computer in his Gundam, Quatre hacked into the OZ mainframe. Through this, he took control of the few mobile dolls they had not deployed and set them to self destruct.
With that, the four Gundam pilots fled the scene, watching the explosion from a distance. They then retreated to the cave they had hidden their mobile suits in before.
As the four climbed into the car to get back to the hospital, Quatre, who was the most unscathed, declared that he would be driving. There were no protests.
By the time they had reached the large medical building, both Heero and Wufei had lost consciousness due to their injuries. Trowa was clutching his wounded arm, holding it tight against his chest.
Neither pilot had expected this ambush to turn out as it did, but it had succeeded in the very least.
As Quatre and Trowa stepped into the hospital ER, each pilot supporting one of their unconscious comrades, several nurses took them for treatment without delay.
With both Heero and Wufei in wheelchairs, the four were led to the emergency clinic. All four boys were treated immediately, considering that there weren't many more patients at the moment.
Eventually, Heero and Wufei both had thick bandages wrapped around their heads, Trowa had his arm in a sling, and the worst of Quatre's bruises were bandaged.
--
When Heero awoke, he found that he was lying in a hospital bed next to Duo. As he tried to sit up, a wave of sudden dizziness pushed him back down.
"Good to see you're back in the world of the living," commented Trowa from across the room.
Heero eyed the other pilot's injured arm, "What's the worst of the damage…?" he asked, secretly scared to know how terrible the outcomes of their ambush were.
Quatre, who had been sitting in between Duo and Heero, turned to face the Wing Zero pilot, "Nothing worse than a few concussions, which both you and Wufei ended up with."
"Hn," Heero leaned back on the uncomfortable hospital bed. Turning the other way, he saw Wufei lying in the bed next to his, still out of it.
--
"You know," said Quatre several hours later, "OZ is probably going to make a big deal about us blowing up one of their bases again…"
Gundam pilots 01, 03 and 05 all looked at the blonde, knowing that his words were true, without a doubt.
"What else is new…?" grumbled Wufei, closing his onyx eyes.
--
A whole day passed and the boys were still in the hospital, waiting for their friend to come back from the oblivions of unconsciousness.
Duo, however, was still lost to them. The only physical sign that told them he was still alive was the occasional twitch, but even that was rare.
It wasn't until late on the second day, that the Deathscythe pilot let out a low moan, signaling that he was coming to. The four other boys rushed to his side, watching anxiously as their comrade's eyes fluttered open halfway.
Duo stared up blankly, dazed mind unable to make sense of the four figures looming over him. They were talking to him, asking him how he felt, but he couldn't get himself to reply.
After a few moments, Duo's vision started to clear, and he could see that it was Heero, Trowa, Quatre and Wufei leaning over him. However, he couldn't imagine why they looked so worried.
"Duo, are you alright?" asked Quatre yet again, hoping he would get a reply.
Finally, the Deathscythe pilot was able to push through the haze enough to respond. "Yeah… Why wouldn't… I be?" he asked, his voice heavy.
The four other pilots exchanged nervous glances.
"Duo…" started Heero. "Can you feel your left leg?" The Wing Zero pilot looked genuinely worried; which was something that Duo knew was very uncommon.
The Deathscythe pilot concentrated, trying to move his leg, but it was to no avail. All he got in return was a burning pain in said limb. Duo grit his teeth against the hurt, his hands balling into tight fists. He had definitely not expected that.
"Wha… how did this… happen?" murmured Duo as the pain began to subside.
"An OZ probe went through your leg," began Quatre, quite bluntly, "the other night we found you on the floor of the safe house with a hole right through your leg. I found a small dart, that OZ was most likely going to use to spy on us, covered in your blood." The blonde then went on to explain the events of the past few days.
Duo stared at Quatre blankly, trying to comprehend all that he had just heard. "Wow…" he mumbled. Everything felt so distant to the injured pilot, like his body and mind weren't exactly connected and he was watching everything from afar.
After a few moments, Duo began trying to pull himself up into a sitting position. However, before the other pilots could even get him to lie back down, the braided teen fell back against the bed; he was still too weak.
Pain was flooding through Duo's leg again, and from what the others had told him, the Deathscythe pilot knew that it would be like this for some time.
He hated how the other pilots had gone to destroy the OZ base without him, only to come back hurt. If they had just waited…
Eventually, Duo was pulled back down into unconsciousness, his body forcing itself to rest. As his violet eyes began to slide closed, the four other pilots, who were still at his bedside, looked at him worriedly. They were terrified of losing him.
--
The four Gundam pilots could only watch as their friend began to fade. They knew that he needed to rest, but the small possibility of him never waking up terrified each of them to their very core.
Heero was the first to turn away from Duo, his steely cobalt eyes full of worry. He hated being useless like this, unable to help his dear friend. All he could do was sit there and watch him; and he knew the other pilots felt the same.
Quatre sighed, looking up at Heero, "Seems like all we can do is wait…"
--
A week passed, and Duo was still in terrible condition. He spent most of his time asleep, which the doctors said was a good thing. However, the four other boys were worried sick.
Whenever the wounded Deathscythe pilot would come to, they would rush to his side, asking if he was ok. He would always give them the same response, saying that he was fine, even though they could clearly see the pain clouding his violet eyes. After that, he'd lay there for a while, staring ahead blankly. Duo would eventually fall asleep again, and the cycle would restart.
Finally, after a solid two weeks, Duo was able to stay with them for the better part of the day. But by then, of course, the boys were only aloud to see him during visiting hours, with only one of the four staying over night.
On the night that it was Quatre's turn to stay at the hospital overnight, Duo looked at him, his smiling façade not in place, for once.
"So, how long did they say it'll be until I get to go home?" he asked, sounding beyond bored.
Quatre smiled lightly, "About another week or two, but it's not gonna be much more fun back at the safe house."
Duo fell back against the bed, "Two weeks? I'll probably go crazy after that long! Anything is better than staying in this sanitary hole."
"Ha, ha well I'm sure we can get the doctors to let you out sooner. But you're not gonna be able to walk normal for a long time, so don't get your hopes up. You're just gonna have to stay in bed for a while," said Quatre, knowing that the other pilot was planning to ignore all the doctor's orders as soon as he left the hospital.
Duo turned his head, smirking at Quatre, "Yeah, but who says I'm actually gonna?"
"I say so. And I'm sure Heero and the others will agree," said the blonde pilot, looking smug. However, he was unable to hide the smile glinting in his eyes.
Duo smiled, for the first time in what seemed to be a very long while, "We'll see."
--
Quatre was true to his word, and in another week's time, Duo was no longer lying in a hospital bed. Instead, he was banished to his own bed, back at the safe house. It had taken a full month for him to get out of that place.
Knowing that the Deathscythe pilot most likely would not being staying in bed, like he was supposed to, if he was alone, one of the four other boys was with him at all times. At least until he finally gave in, swearing that he wouldn't try to walk around yet, even if it was with crutches.
Finally, after two more weeks of doing nothing but lying around, Duo was able to hobble around on a pair of crutches. But still, Heero himself had strictly forbidden the Deathscythe pilot from going anywhere near the stairs.
"If you even go within five feet of that staircase, I'll personally make sure you'll end up back in the hospital," ordered Heero, monotone full of seriousness.
Duo, who had just been getting used to the crutches at the time, smirked, but he knew that the Wing Zero pilot meant what he said. And that was the last thing Duo wanted.
Quatre, who had been leaning against the foot of Duo's bed, nodded, "I agree with Heero. You're still hurt, and you need to take care of yourself if you want to heal. This is serious."
"Alright! Alright! I get it. No stairs for me," defended Duo, "Don't be so serious about it, I can take care of myself."
And Duo kept his promise, avoiding the stairs for the next month, even though he was slowly dying from boredom.
By now, it had been about two and a half months since the incident, but it had seemed like so much longer. When they told Duo he had full mobility with the crutches, the light in his violet eyes, which had been fading again, lit up so bright, they couldn't help but smile with him.
He instantly began playing tricks on the other boys and telling jokes again, and none of them minded. It was good to have the old Duo back.
After all this time, Duo had gotten quite good at using the crutches. In fact, he could quite easily sneak up on the other pilots. At one point, Trowa had been watching TV, and Duo had snuck up behind him without a sound. He had stood there for several moments, and the other hadn't even noticed him.
Duo had then taken his braid and dangled it in front of Trowa's face. This had startled the green eyed pilot so badly, that he had almost attacked whoever did it, until he realized it was only another of Duo's tricks.
Another month went by before the boys even knew it, and Duo had finally upgraded from a cast to a leg brace. He still had to stay on crutches for a few weeks though.
But that time went quickly, and Duo could use his leg again, for the most part.
Three and a half months since the incident. Duo's leg was almost healed.
Duo was highly anticipating the day he got the brace off, and as the days crawled by, he found that he could think of nothing else.
Finally, the last three weeks passed, and the teen was finally able to walk without too much of a limp. However, it took him a while to get used to walking on his own leg again. It still hurt, to put too much weight on the healing bones, though, so he couldn't stand for very long. But by now, he was used to that.
Eventually, after walking or running every day till leg couldn't stand it, he was back at 100%.
It had taken a good six months for the disaster caused by that tiny dart to be completely mended, and all the Gundam pilots were so glad when it came to an end.
"I'm so glad this whole thing's finally over," stated Duo, looking up with a crooked smile.
END