-1Author's note
Good Morning,
Okay, yes, it's Tuesday, but I'm sick at home and bored stupid, so a-posting-we-shall-go.
I kind of like this chapter, despite the way it turned out, a lot differently from what I imagined, and I have to thank my two little stars Yilun and Waterlilylf for their huge help with this one!
Be aware that there may be another small gap between this chapter and the next as it's still deeply entrenched in editing stage, so don't say I didn't warn you all.
Again I beg for feedback, especially dying like I am right now…go on, make a writer happy…
Foreseeable Future, by Hikishi
Disclaimer: Gundam Wing does not belong to me. This displeases me but hey, what can I do? So please, save your breath and don't sue.
Pairings: ?
Warnings: Blood, Violence, Swearing (of course), Death (though not anyone important)
Genres: Angst, Drama, Action, Hurt/Comfort.
Foreseeable Future
Chapter Seven
Forcing The Issue
The angelic blond appeared within the hour, toting fresh bagels and a cardboard carry tray of hot drinks. Heero held the door open and gestured gratefully for him to come in, taking the bagel bag and cups from him.
"Where is he?"
"Lounge." Heero ushered him in that direction and retreated to the safety of the kitchen to watch the miracle of bringing Duo around.
Quatre murmured a greeting and touched Duo's shoulder lightly. The young man flinched as if wounded and Winner leaned down to converse with him in soft tones. Heero stood at the kitchen island and blinked in surprise as the psychic shot to his feet and started pacing, looking for all the world like a caged tiger.
"He's got me afraid to go home Quat!" Came the half furious, half panicked tone. Duo whirled around to face the blond, eyes flashing. "He's ruining my life!"
"What happened to Maxwell's Demon?" Quatre suddenly challenged, making Yuy frown. Why was the profiler goading his witness. "I thought Shinigami was afraid of nothing."
"You don't get it Q! I can't! It's too much!" He buried his face in the blond's broad shoulder, shaking. The taller man embraced him tightly, before pushing him bask to hold him at arms length.
"Duo, listen to me." He gave the young psychic a shake when his eyes wouldn't meet his. "listen to me! You can do this, I know you can. Running and hiding from this will not make it go away. Don't give in, that's what he wants."
"Christ Quat, I'm losing my mind!" He muttered in reply, indigo eyes pained. The blond tensed and his eyes became hardened, like strengthened glass.
"I know. So do something about it! Like Solo always said, Duo Maxwell ain't afraid of shit!"
Heero's eyebrows climbed in surprise. Winner had never used crass language or spoken so plainly. The worst the Preventer had ever heard him utter was an 'oh my gosh'.
"Quatre Raberba!" Duo mock admonished with a shocked giggle. "Such a foul mouth."
"You can only blame yourself." The reply was matter of fact. "Who was the one to teach me how to swear in the first place, then? Who dragged me into bar fights, hmm?"
"That was one time-"
"Bar fights?" Heero interrupted.
"Just a teensy, weensy smidge of an argument." The witness refuted, indicating with his thumb and forefinger.
"Duo, I had to lock you in the back room!"
"True. It's worse though when you don't have to."
Duo giggled shortly, then stopped, looking shocked that he'd managed to enjoy a moment of levity. Quatre took his hand.
"I swear Duo, we'll catch him. I swear it."
Quatre turned out to be exactly what Duo needed. The psychic visibly relaxed and slid to sit at the table, whilst the Profiler waved Heero over.
"How are we going to catch him Quat?" Duo sighed heavily after a moment's silence. "We haven't even profiled him yet."
"That's because up until now, you've been in no fit state to give me anything solid to go on. I was hoping that you would be able to give me something today."
"Okay…" He breathed, then looked up, indigo eyes sparkling with renewed interest. "Okay."
Heero watched from the sidelines as the Profiler set his briefcase on the table and within thirty seconds his dining room had been transformed into an office.
"What do you need a video camera for?" Duo enquired curiously, and Quatre laughed lightly.
"You know I always record my interviews." Came the simple reply, but Heero could see Winner's smile and noted that there must be another reason for this. He made a mental note to grill him more on the subject later on, preferably when the psychic would be nowhere within earshot.
They got down to business quickly and Heero found himself sitting at the dining table also. Quatre seemed to have drafted him as some sort of pacifier for the young witness as he recounted what he remembered a third time, which wasn't much at all.
"It's all really….fuzzy," He admitted with a shake of his head, an hour and forty five minutes in. "I don't know whether it was the drug or the fact that I was scared shitless, but I can't - I can't make out his face." Duo screwed his eyes shut and a heavy breath whooshed out of his mouth.
"He's got you, Duo." Quatre said firmly, his gaze fixed unrelentingly on his friend's face. "He's taken you from the bright lights of the sidewalk, you're not safe."
"I…I don't know."
Heero noted the stutter in his tone.
"He has you Duo. It's all dark, you're somewhere far away from people. He's going to hurt you. No one's going to be able to help you."
"Don't…"There was a hitched gasp.
"He's holding you. It hurts. Bruises. He's going to kill you. You have to get away Duo."
"I can't, he's hurting me!" Eyes moved rapidly under their closed lids.
"You need to run. Move, before he kills you." The profiler pushed more urgently. Heero was seconds away from calling a halt to this whole thing.
"Ohshitohshitohshit…" Duo whimpered, beginning to quake. "I see her - ohholyfuck, ohjesus, He's gonna kill me!"
"He's got a KNIFE!"
BAM!
Duo jerked violently as the blond's clenched fist slammed down onto the table with a resounding bang, and his eyes wrenched open to stare blankly into nothing.
A few seconds of silence followed. Heero opened his mouth to ask what the hell Winner thought he was playing at but was met and subdued quickly with an upflung hand along with a quick gesture for silence. The Preventer did as he was ordered, scowling deeply. The next moment Duo was speaking in a murmur.
"He didn't want me. He wanted a woman. Oz is mad now. I messed up his project. He wants me to die, so he can fix it."
Those luminous eyes stayed vacant.
"That's why he did it differently with Tina. He was angry. Next Oz is going to kill someone unusual."
"He's deviating." Quatre said under his breath to Heero. "Duo was meant to be a female. The fact that he wasn't has made the killer angry even to start deviating from his patterns. This is going to get very messy."
"It already is messy." Heero hissed in reply.
"He wants that fucking nosy bitch from the next-door apartment dead." The psychic began to sneer. "She nearly saw him dropping off his present."
Winner and Yuy exchanged surprised glances, before panicked realisation settled on the profiler's features.
"Shit! The emotion's pulling him under!" He blurted and reached across the table to grab Duo's hand.
"Stacey….so sweet….so dead." The young man continued in a nasty tone. "He didn't even have the time to get to know her. Too busy making her pretty for the cameras…"
"Duo-DUO!" The blonde shook his hand trying to snap him out of it. Heero just watched in horror, as he sunk deeper into the killer's psyche.
"He's going to have to do something special this time, something to really get attention. Maybe two victims this time, the way it would have been if that little bastard hadn't gotten away-"
CRACK!
Quatre had stretched across the table and given Duo a hard slap across the cheek. It had happened so quickly Yuy hadn't had the chance to even see it, just a blur of motion passing his line of sight. It served its purpose though, and had snapped the young witness out of his fugue. Duo's hand went to his cheek in shock as his indigo eyes refocused on the Winner heir.
"What the hell was that for Quat?!" He demanded, looking very hurt. A smear of blood marred his lips and his fingers from where the profiler's beautifully manicured nails had caught the corner of his mouth and ripped skin.
"Oh, Duo, I'm so sorry!" Came an apologetic gasp. "You had some sort of vision, but it wasn't like the others, you were inside the killer's head and it was awful-"
The brunette held up his hands to stall his friend's nervous babble.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, Quat! Vision? Are you nuts buddy?"
"He's right." Heero finally interjected calmly. "You had an episode and he couldn't bring you out of it."
"Not this again!" Duo growled in annoyance, a scowl sliding into place. "For god's sake people, I do not have any magical powers!" He slapped his hands down on the table. "Visions. What a load of shit! Christ, get a grip already! There's no such thing as psychics. Your commander said so herself."
Heero stared in disbelief.
"How the hell can you deny it? Fucking hell Duo, take a look at the goddamn clock. When you sat down, it was a quarter to three. It's now half past. Can you account for the last ten minutes?"
Maxwell blinked as if stupefied by the question.
"Why the hell would I need to?" He retorted angrily. Heero took his turn to slam his own palms on the table, making the other two jump.
"Show him the tape Winner."
"What? No!"
"I said show him!"
Duo glared at each of them in turn as they ignored him to lock gazes and argue.
"If he sees that recording, it could do irreparable damage."
"The fact that he doesn't even remember is damage enough don't you think?" Heero folded his arms and glared at the Profiler. "You can't keep it a secret anymore. He's got to face it. Show. Him. The. Tape."
When the blond didn't move, Yuy snatched the camcorder off the table and fiddled about with it, ignoring his colleague cursing him. He fiddled with it briefly, then managed to get the playback. He dumped the camcorder into Duo's hands and grunted.
"Watch."
The psychic gave him a narrow look but when Heero switched his glare to full force he grumbled and began to watch the little screen on the side of the device. Heero watched the myriad of expressions run over the heart shaped face as the video played, the sound loud in the silent room. Frustration, followed by a disbelieving frown. Then shock, and fear, rounded off with a dismayed cry as Duo flung the most likely expensive recorder away from himself and jolted to his feet. He was white as a ghost, and breathing like a two hundred metre sprinter at the end of a race.
Quatre opened his mouth to speak but The witness beat him to the punch.
"Holy shit." He breathed. "Holy motherjesusfuck!" His hands went again to his mouth and his eyes darted to each of them in turn. "That's crazy. That…that…Holy fuck."
"Duo-"
"How long?" He demanded, desperation in is tone. "How long have you known?"
Quatre winced as if physically hit.
"Since…since I met you." He lifted his gaze quickly. "I've tried to tell you before, but every time I brought it up you got so angry! You didn't believe me, and you were really agitated, I had to leave it!"
"And you?" Heero was suddenly and uncomfortably caught in Duo's attention. "You know?"
He found it in himself to shrug with an almost casual air.
"You had a vision the first day I met you, in the hospital."
"Christ! I'm going insane." He muttered with a little distressed chuckle. "Completely losing it. I'm psychic? God, my week just keeps getting better and better."
"Look Duo, now is not the time to have a sudden emotional crisis." The Preventer snapped. He was just about at the end of his tether. "In case you've forgotten, there is a killer on the loose, and he wants you dead. So if you could pull your head out of your own ass for twenty seconds I for one would be extremely grateful."
This seemed to be exactly what the young man needed, his head whipped around, braid flying behind him as he leveled Heero with a stare that could only be described as scorching.
"Were you born an asshole? Or was it something you grew into, because it seems a couple of sizes too small." He sneered.
"At least I'm not running from myself." Came the sharp retort and Duo reeled back as if he'd been slapped again.
"How the hell am I supposed to know I'm psychic? I can't even remember what the hell happened!"
"Well maybe if you stopped being such a child about it you would remember. This is a murder investigation, Maxwell, And in case you haven't noticed, you are the star witness!"
"Hello? Also in imminent danger here!" Was the heavily laden sarcastic reply.
"Will you two shut up!"
Quatre's strident tones stopped them in their tracks.
"Thank you." The Profiler straightened his clothes a little and sat again, prompting the Heero to do the same. Duo apparently, had other ideas, and turned to face the window, arms crossed tightly over his chest. Trying to hold something in or keep something out, Heero wasn't sure. "Now, Duo, we need to start the session again. You got pulled under before and I'd like to try and get some more solid infor-"
The brown haired man interrupted him softly, not turning around.
"No, Quat. Enough for today."
"But Duo…."
"Please."
The single word was so softly spoken that Heero had to strain to hear it. Quatre heaved a colossal sigh and nodded once, sharply.
"Okay."
Duo's shoulder's slumped in abject relief, but tensed up again as the blond velvet covered steel tones graced the air once more.
"Don't think I'm giving in Duo Maxwell, because I'm not. We will be sitting down again tomorrow and we will be profiling this psycho." He picked up the camcorder and closed the viewer with a quiet snick, keeping his eyes resolutely on the young witness. "We need to catch up to him Duo. Before he catches up and kills you."
