Author's note: Woo! The next chapter didn't take so long to write! I did it in a hour tops (or two?)! Yeah! I did this because I needed to vent. I think Page-chan agrees with me that some people in our English class are real egotistical mondodismals (a man who takes advantage of a woman; 'Romancing the Stone') when it comes to some things! Gr…okay, here's the next chapter
Note: This chapter is the bridge for twelve to thirteen, which is what the flashbacks are.
Note: Things in italics are flashbacks!
Innocence Taken"How could I be such an idiot!" Duo mentally berated himself, "I knew something was wrong but—but I—" His voice choked, tears threatening to spill as he buried his head in arms tightly. 'I was such a bastard—I'm supposed to be his best friend and be there for him but I…' His body racked with sobs and shook, the light drizzle from the clouds hitting the windows lightly like his tears.
"Duo," Relena questioned, "Why don't we come with you? You know, moral support?" Duo shook his head and flashed her a bright smile while ignoring her request.
"But why, Duo?" Quatre now looked at him with concern reflecting in his confused eyes, "We could help…"
"Heero's never been the most stable of us all, perhaps Duo is wise in going alone." Trowa commented, his eyes softening as he looked at Quatre who was looking like a helpless puppy and nibbling on his lower lip. "Perhaps he can calm him down."
"I am, after all, his best friend!" Duo proclaimed, getting a reluctant nod from Quatre and Relena whom wanted to help.
Duo wrapped his built arms around his lithe body, shivering against the sudden chill in the air. The mix of antiseptic and other medicines invaded his senses, wrapping him around the chemical's finger like a drug. He snapped out of his reverie and shivered again and muffling another sob trying to make it's way up his throat.
"I'll be fine, I'm going to get the truth out of him is all." Duo said with a cheeky smile, waving goodbye to his friends and he made his way to Heero's. The sun seemed to be hiding from him, rain clouds starting to loom over the darkening sky.
"I'll get to the bottom of this." He whispered to himself, still keeping pace as he made his way to his set goal. "Nobody deserves to have something like this happen to them…" He closed his eyes, trying to get over the morbidly depressing mood that suddenly set over him. "…Not even you, Heero."
"…Duo?" An apprehensive voice reached his ears and the braided youth barely turned with the energy he once held. It was all gone, replaced by a sudden inanimate person whose feelings of guilt and the burden weighted him down.
"Oh, Duo!" Quatre ran up and enveloped the quivering boy in a motherly embrace, holding him tightly and letting him sob into his shoulder. "Shh…sh…" He soothed, rubbing imaginary circles in Duo's back. "Everything is going to be all right."
"No it's not…" His voice choked again, "…There was so much blood, Quat…he-he was barely breathing! He—he…!"
"Get a stretcher over here!" A shadowed doctor yelled, pointing at a startled paramedic nearby, who hurried to complete the task.
Blood, Heero's blood, congealed on the carpet, staining it an ugly brown color as it seeped from the deadly puncture wound. Duo's numb hands dumbly tried to press down on the wound to stop the blood flow. But it did nothing to stop the red lifeblood from staining his shirt, pants, and hands.
"Blood temperature is dropping!" A doctor shouted .as he tried to stabilize the unfortunate boy. The bruises and other numerous wounds covering his body was a sad sight to all the paramedics helping to save a life. It was obvious the boy had been abused.
"His pulse's weakening!" Another declared, trying to rescue the boy as much as he could and stop the possibility of death.
"Get some blood over here!" A doctor called as a stretcher rolled in and the doctor's quickly transferred the teen onto it, compressing the wound as they tried to stop more blood from leaking from his chest. His other wounds, like slash marks that were inflamed with infection had opened, blood leaking out with pus.
"Is he gonna be okay…?" Duo questioned, tugging lightly on the doctor's white lab coat. The man turned, giving a slow and depressed smile. Duo shook his head, blinking back tears as he seemed to get the point, 'They don't know…'
"Come on, let's get you into the car." He led the boy into another nearby medical vehicle, tailing the one holding the next patient to the hospital.
"Don't worry, Duo." Trowa added, putting a reassuring hand on both Duo's shoulder and the nearly hysterical Relena's. His presence seemed to calm him a little bit.
As soon as they had gotten word from Duo about what happened, all of them let with a gut feeling it must have been bad. The braided pilot merely said, 'Come to the hospital' and that was all. Too bad news traveled fast and the police cars in front of Heero's house did nothing to quell the ominous feeling they had.
"We're loosing him!" The EEG of the heart beat monitor went blank as they hit a rough spot on the road, the car accelerating even more as they raced against time.
"He's not breathing!" A doctor bent forward sharply, breathing into Heero's mouth as he held his nose. He bent up again, doing compressions as he pushed against the boy's chest despite the still flowing wound, 1…2…3…4…5…breathe! He repeated over and over again, trying to resurrect the teen. 1…2…3…4…5…breathe!
"Get a defibrillator system over here!" A female shouted, pointed at a medic who handed her electrical paddles quickly, turning the machine on as the doctor doing the rescue breathing stopped, getting short gasps as the heart slowed down once more from lack of blood.
"Stop!" A doctor shouted, pushing the paddles away from the shaking boy's chest. "Don't—you'll end up hurting him even more!"
"B-but!" The doctor looked aghast, paddles in mid air as the other medic flipped the switch off.
"He's going into shock!" All heads turned to the patient, eager to help save the boy's life.
Two double white doors opened and all of the four pilots and Relena turned to look at a weary, and obviously exhausted, doctor walk out of the room, shuffling his feet weakly on the cold tile. His shoulder's sagged before he stood rigid once more, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose as he looked at his clipboard.
"…Doctor?" Relena asked in a meek and weak voice, no one able to suspect she was indeed the strong politician Relena Darlain with her sudden change in personality and behavior.
"Mr. Maxwell and company, I presume?" He questioned, getting a nodding head from all the group members. "We have an update on Mr. Yuy's condition." They could tell from the look in his eyes the news wasn't good.
Dread filled her and she cursed the missed chances to tell him everything. She never even had the chance to tell him she loved him Relena fell to her knees, choking back tears and cries of anguish that were pulled from her soul…
"Even if we can save him, I'm sure that he would need a lot of time to...adjust without the sort of environment he was stuck in. There are self-inflicted wounds on his wrists also which bring some concern to all of us working to care him." The doctor stated, not giving note of the boy's condition and ignoring the sobbing heap of a flaxen haired girl.
"…So?" Duo questioned with a confused shake of his head.
"He'll most likely need some help, therapy, counseling, and possibly even stronger means of treatment." Duo didn't like the sound of that, Heero would rather die than be treated like that. He'd probably get in flashbacks about his training for the war.
"Is there anything other than that possible? Our friend hasn't had the best care at treatment facilities." Quatre replied, lowering his head with guilt and worry to the reckless Japanese brunette.
"I'm afraid not." The doctor aid with a sad shake of his head. He sighed heavily, "We're currently doing the best that we can."
Wufei muttered, "Those bastards that did this will pay." His eyes burned with rage, shoulder's stiff and broad unlike Quatre, Duo, and Relena's whose were sagged and hunched as they felt the pain weight upon them.
The doctor ignored the last statement made and then turned around, walking back through the double doors he had come through. The stench of blood hitting them before drifting away when the doors stopped slamming past one another and stopped moving.
The doctor's words seemed to echo in the awkwardly quiet room, bouncing off the walls and reverberating through each of the party member's minds.
Duo's once cheerful eyes were now downcast and solemn, sorrow tinged deep in his irises like his heart. "But is that enough…?" He whispered to no one in particular.
TBC
Author's note:
I found this chapter so lala (so-so im Deutsche ). This is the bridge to the last chapter (twelve to thirteen) only I planned on doing flashbacks and stuff! I hope it made sense!
Thanks everyone for the great reviews for the last chapter! This story should be coming to an end rather shortly I guess. Perhaps I should put Heero in therapy…? I'd like to see a therapist deal with the past he's lived through.
Anyhow, thanks for the reviews again and Lockea, I hope you get better soon (as I said in Wings of Eternity). Auf Weidersehen!