The Re-Education of Zechs Merquise:
Just Fly Away (Continued)
By: Madisonne
Part: 14 / ?
Disclaimer: For some reason, the people at Bandai keep on forgetting to return my calls... So, no, I don't own them yet. Operative word: YET! MWA HA HA HA HA!!! Ahem... Don't steal, or else I'll sic my demon-chibis on you. Stop laughing! They can strip a cow of its meat in one minute! Or is that piranhas? Hmmm...
Warnings: Angst, injury
Notes: None
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After he tipped the cab driver quite generously, the man was quite happy to help him manoeuvre the patient into the building. Once they reached the security check, the driver left them and Treize ventured on into the residence hall.
Now inside, he took a moment to get his bearings back, then set off for the lift. On the third floor, he hunted down the door he had never visited hoping against hope that his memory was as good as he supposed it was.
Treize wrapped an arm around the lieutenant's waist and knocked with his free hand.
"Who is it?"
"It's Merquise, he..."
"Zechs?!! What the hell are you doing out of the hos..." She jerked open the door, but stopped speaking when she saw the unconscious young man Treize was supporting. In slightly stunned silence, she shooed them inside the apartment and tossed a few papers on the ground from their scattered state on the couch and helped Treize ease the patient onto the cushion. "What is he doing here?"
Treize sighed. "The doctor was... Less than helpful. He was getting worse, not better."
"But, here?!! Are you sure that's the best idea? There are other hospitals..."
He shook his head emphatically. "I won't risk him being treated like that again." Frowning a bit, he continued. "Unless you mind..."
"No, no, not at all. I mean, you can't go back to your quarters, that's the first place they'd look for him..." By her unnaturally white complexion, the general could tell she still hadn't gotten over the shock of having the patient show up on her door-step. "Do you know of another doctor...?"
"I was just going to call Doctor Wertmer, he's been the family doctor for years." Treize spoke even as he pulled open his comm-unit.
While the general was on the phone, Noin tried to calm down. 'I'm amazed he made it this far... I don't think he's ever been here before.' Her gaze turned to the young man on the couch and she frowned, noting that the young man did indeed look like he'd regressed since she'd last seen him; he'd definitely lost weight - not that he had much to lose to begin with - and his skin was an eerie off-white, bluish colour.
"He'll be here in a few minutes." Treize spoke, ending the call. "It's lucky he still lives here."
"He's so... Ill..." She said, lacking the words into which she could pour the disdain she felt for the hospital and for the situation in general. "He looks so much in pain."
"I know." He responded simply, gently rearranging the patient's limbs and IV drip to a presumably more comfortable arrangement.
She was quite uncomfortable with the almost fatal silence in the room. "Have you eaten?"
Treize was slightly taken aback at the question, not anticipating it in the slightest. "I don't remember..."
"When was the last time you remember eating?" She was already turning to "nurture" mode, needing something to pamper to get her mind off of... Things.
He shrugged.
"Pasta okay?"
He shrugged again and gave a weak smile that barely reached his mouth, much less his eyes.
She was grateful to escape that suffocatingly silent room and into the kitchen, where she felt at least some semblance of normalcy.
Only ten minutes or so passed before the aging doctor found his way into the apartment, immediately going to the patient on the couch and checking his vitals.
Noin stopped cooking and stood in the doorway, eager to hear what the man would say about the lieutenant passed out on her furniture. 'Please let him be okay...'
Treize, as it happened, was thinking much the same, only less politely. 'If he's not okay, I swear that bastard of a doctor...' His train of thought splintered off when the doctor stood up from his perch next to the patient.
"He's okay, just unconscious." He sighed and rubbed wrinkled hands together. "However, young Khushrenada, I'm sure I don't need to tell you I'm not quite pleased that you took him out of the hospital."
"I had to..."
A long look from those aged eyes into the young ones so familiar to him let him know all that he needed. "Just take care of him, okay? I'll have some IV's sent up once I leave, but for now, you just need to make sure he's breathing okay and everything. I'll come back tomorrow morning and do some basic physical therapy with him, but you're going to have to hire a real therapist soon - I'm not trained to properly give him anything but the basics."
Treize nodded. "Thank you."
The old man smiled at him. "Anything for my favourite Khushrenada. Just make sure you eat, okay? And get some sleep?"
The general laughed lightly and shook his head. "You always worried too much."
Noin spoke up. "Hell, I'd be worried, Mr. I-don't-need-to-eat-or-sleep-until-Zechs-is-better."
Doctor Wertmer gave her a conspiratorial wink. "Well, if he doesn't behave himself, you have every right to spank him like the disobedient young man he is."
She laughed and blushed lightly at the instructions. "We'll see about that, sir."
As he let the doctor out of the room, Treize tried to press a wad of credits into the man's hand, but he smiled and refused the money. "Just help him, he's good for you, after all." And, with that, he left the apartment.
Treize sighed heavily and returned to the chair he'd pulled up beside Zechs.
"He's right, you know." She commented lightly.
"About what?"
"You don't eat or sleep enough. And he is good for you."
He frowned at the first, but replied. "So I've been told." Glancing back at the lieutenant, he was reminded of his obligation. "I need to call Doctor Martin... And Doctor Adriel."
She nodded and turned back to the kitchen, determined to do all she could to help the lieutenant, even if the only thing she was able to do was make sure the general stopped trying to subsist on water and coffee alone. One last glance over her shoulder caused a smile to grow on her face.
Treize had taken Zechs' hand into his own and was watching the other breathe intently, as if his own life depended on it.
She turned back to her cooking. 'I wonder if they know...'
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