Disclaimer: These crazy characters...see, they don't belong to me. I just think of funny situations to put them in. Or not so funny. Whatever;)
Author's Notes: Thanks for continuing to read. I used to be unsure of this story, and it makes me very happy to see people into it.
****
Some Kind of Wonderful
by Kristen Elizabeth
****
"Come mothers and fathers, throughout the land. And don't criticize what you can't understand. Your sons and your daughters are beyond your command; your old road is rapidly agin'. Please get out of the new one if you can't lend a hand, for the times, they are a'changin'." -Bob Dylan
****
Washington D.C.
Duo wasn't exactly sure how the protest had gotten out of control, but it seemed to be just before Relena had been pushed into the crowd and carried away towards the heavily guarded line around the Pentagon entrance. It should have been inevitable, he supposed, that fifty thousand people with such strong convictions wouldn't be happy being held at bay by a handful of military policemen.
But he hadn't realized what a drastic turn the day had taken until he felt handcuffs being slapped around his wrists.
All he and Quatre had been trying to do was get to Relena. They had lost sight of her within the throngs of people swarming towards the building. It was almost as though she had been caught in an undertow. Once they realized that she was powerless to fight her way back to them, they had gone after her, following the flow of the people.
By the time they caught up, the violence had exploded. Twenty or thirty people had burst past the military police in their attempt to reach the Pentagon vestabule. Blood colored the white marble of the building from the injured protestors.
"Relena!" Duo called out. His voice barely carried over the din.
Next to him, Quatre shook his head. "I don't see her. Where could she have...hey!!" He was cut off by a military policeman who grabbed his wrists. "What the hell?!"
"You're under arrest," the uniformed man announced.
Duo's own hands had been twisted behind his back; the metal handcuffs dug into his flesh. "This is fucking insane! We're just trying to find our friend!!"
His words were ignored as he and Quatre were pulled down the steps by the cuffs around their wrists. A flash of honey blonde caught Duo's eye. His eyes grew wide. It was Relena, unconscious. Blood stained her peasant blouse and matted her hair. She was being carried down the steps by a soldier, but already there were handcuffs on her wrists.
"Hey! Hey!!" Duo struggled against his escort. "What did you bastards do to her?!"
Quatre pulled at his restraints. "Where are you taking her?! Let go of Relena! She's hurt!!"
The men carting them away continued to ignore them. Soon, they both found themselves being pushed into an old-fashioned paddy wagon, presumably to be carted off to either the military or county jail.
Once inside and seated amongst a dozen other arrested protesters, Duo looked at Quatre. "They've got to be taking her to a hospital."
"Let's hope."
The vehicle lurched forward. "I'll have to call her brother. Hopefully, he'll take pity and bail me out of this. What about you, Winner?"
Quatre looked down at the metal floor. "I can post my own bail."
"Don't want to call the folks?" Duo shrugged. "Can't blame you, I guess."
The blond man attempted a smile. "The only thing of my father's that I've seen since I graduated from high school is his money. He doesn't...approve of my politics." Quatre's chin rested on his chest. "She had better be all right. If they do anything to her..."
Duo used his shoulder to soothe an itch on the underside of his jaw. He stopped cold when he saw the raw emotion on Quatre's face. "You love her, don't you?"
"Would you object if I said I did?"
He let out a long sigh. "Relena has been in love with Heero since they were eight years old. Right now, she's recovering from what she thinks was losing him. I'm not so convinced that they're over, but I have to go with whatever makes Relena happy. And if you make her happy...I can't object."
Quatre nodded. "I appreciate that. And I will make her happy. If she'll let me." Another pause followed as the vehicle hit several potholes, jolting them every which way. "Did he love her back?"
"Did he love her?" Duo snorted softly. "She's the only thing that's ever mattered in his entire life."
****
Vietnam
She wasn't sure what had drawn her to and kept her at Corporal Wufei Chang's bedside, but when Sally came to after a long night of endless surgeries, she woke to the sight of the man's bare torso, swaddled in bandages. His skin was smooth and deeply tanned, a mark of his heritage and a sign that he had been living outside for a good while. Sally gave herself a mental slap on the wrist. Now was not the time to admire his physical features.
To her relief, his chest rose and fell with steady breath; his life was out of danger. Standing up, Sally stretched her cramped, over-worked muscles. A cup of extremely strong coffee was what she needed, but first there were rounds to be made. Giving her patient a final look, she prepared to walk away.
A hand grasped her wrist. Sally spun back around and found herself looking down at the open, bottomless black eyes that had stared at her last night in a panicked, drugged state. Now, they were more relaxed, but still, she had to note, intense.
"Take it easy," she told him, easing out of his grip. "You'll pull all those stitches I had to put into you."
Wufei frowned. "Who are you?" His voice was dry, a lingering effect of the morphine.
"Doctor Po. Sally." She sat back down. "Are you in any pain?"
"I can tolerate it."
"It'd be very easy to give you another shot of morphine. You had two serious gunshot..."
He cut her off abruptly. "I'm fine. Where's Heero?"
She bit her lip, unsure of how to break the news to him. "Are you sure about the morphine? It'll help you sleep, and you need a lot of rest to.."
"Woman." Wufei's eyes narrowed. "Where did they take Heero? Corporal Heero Yuy of the 23rd Infantry?"
Sally's first instinct was to snap back on the manner in which he addressed her, but let it slide. What she was about to tell him was far more punishment than he deserved. "Corporal Chang..." She licked her lips. "Your friend, Private Barton...he had to get back to the squad...what's left of it, but he told me to tell you..." She stopped for a moment. "They've been unable to locate your friend's body." A second passed; realization failed to register on her patient's face. "In all likelihood, he was...destroyed by a hand grenade. I'm very sorry."
Wufei blinked several times. "No dog tags?"
"Not that I know of."
"Dog tags would have survived a grenade."
Sally tucked a curl behind her ear. "Not if the heat of the blast was intense enough to melt the metal."
Wufei started shaking his head. "Heero weighs 170. A grenade can't decimate 170 pounds of flesh."
"I'm not an expert, but I've seen men, bigger than that, who have been hit by grenades." Sally grimaced, remembering. The scorched flesh, black and crisp in some areas, but deadly red in others. Faces melted away. Bare, charred bones. "There wasn't much left of them to work on."
He touched the bandages on his leg, wincing ever so slightly. "Until I see proof...he is not dead."
"I hope you're right," she replied. "But officially, he's MIA. Presumed KIA. I have to write out the certificate sometime today. The telegram goes out to his family tomorrow."
Wufei turned his head away from her. "I don't believe it."
Something propelled her to take his hand, the same force, she assumed, that had kept her at his side throughout the night. "I'm really very sorry for your loss."
He didn't squeeze her fingers in recognition, but neither did he push her away. "It's not a loss." Wufei looked back up at her. "Heero Yuy would not let himself die without seeing Relena Peacecraft again. It's as simple as that."
Sally stood up. "Get some rest. I'll be back to check on you."
"Don't let them send that telegram, woman." His hand held onto hers, preventing her from leaving.
"I'm sorry," she replied. "I don't have a choice. As far as the US Army is concerned, your friend is gone."
****
Washington D.C.
"Why did you let this happen?" Millardo Peacecraft spoke through teeth clenched as tight as his hands were on the steering wheel. "Duo? I thought you were taking care of her."
In the backseat of Millardo's car, Duo sighed. In the thirty minutes since Millardo and his fiancee had posted Duo's bail, and Quatre had dipped into his trust fund for his, he had been subjected to this same question no less than a dozen times. And every time, Duo had replied, "It was a peaceful protest. It just got out of hand."
As they approached the hospital where they had been told all wounded protesters had been taken, Millardo shook his head. "I can't believe Relena allowed herself to get caught up in all this shit."
Lucrezia Noin gave her fiancee a look from the seat next to him. It was a look that only came from her complete love and devotion, as well as her understanding of his moods and characteristics. It had been she who convinced him not to hang up on Duo when he called from the D.C. jail. And it was only through her persuasion that Millardo had agreed to spring for the boy's bail.
"My peacekeeper," he had called her. Lucrezia didn't mind the title; there were worse ones to bear. The truth was, if she had been a few years younger and a lot less settled, she might have been on the steps of the Pentagon with the rest of them.
She covered his hand which rested on the stick shift. "The main thing is making sure Relena is all right," she reminded him. "There will be plenty of time for reprimands later."
Millardo gave a muted grunt of agreement. He glanced in the rear view mirror, watching Duo as the braided boy watched the city zipping by. "Who is this Quatre? And why is he following us?"
Duo didn't respond for a second. "He's a friend of ours. He's worried about her."
"Really? And just how well do you know this friend who's so concerned about my little sister?"
"He's a junior Political Science major from Raleigh. He heads up NC State's chapter of SDS. He's about five foot ten, I'd guess 150 pounds. A Taurus vegetarian, he enjoys..."
Millardo cut Duo off. "Haven't gotten rid of that smart mouth, have you?"
Duo met the man's cool blue eyes in the reflection of the mirror. "Never."
"Well..." Relena's brother turned a corner, heading up a small road that would put them directly in front of the hospital entrance. "At least she's getting over Yuy."
He let Millardo's comment slide in the wake of his concern over Relena's well-being. Turning his head, he caught a glimpse of the taxi Quatre had hailed, following close behind. Suddenly, his head pounded. Duo pulled Rebecca's head band off his forehead, hoping it was the source of the pain.
She had been exciting and different. The first girl he had slept with since Hilde. The thrill of being in a tent, with their classmates just outside, trying to keep quiet in the middle of the night...it should have been enough to drive away all thoughts of his dark-haired pixie. But it hadn't. And he had found himself biting his lip and drawing blood to keep from crying her name when he let himself go in Rebecca's arms.
He pushed the memory away. Dwelling on it wasn't going to do Relena any good. And when they entered the hospital and were led to the exam room where she was being held, Duo realized just how much of all their thoughts, hopes and, possibly, prayers his best friend was going to need.
Relena had slipped into a deep, dangerous coma.
****
It took a good deal of money and influence, but when he finally gave in and agreed to let Quatre Winner cover some of the expenses, Millardo arranged to have Relena transferred to the Community Hospital in Peacecraft.
For Duo and Quatre, classes were completely forgotten; both filed incompletes for the semester. Duo moved back into his parent's house. He doubted they even noticed. Quatre took up residence in the only decent hotel the town offered, but most of his time was spent in the long-term care wing of the hospital.
Relena hovered on the border between the realm of reality and what lay just beyond it. Some days, Duo was absolutely convinced that if he talked long enough and loud enough, she would sit up and tell him to put a sock in it. But days passed like the footsteps of a snail, and still she remained motionless.
On the eighth day after the protest, Millardo entered his sister's room with an expression as heavy as lead. A light piece of paper in his hand seemed to be the source of his burden. Both Duo and Quatre looked up as he came in; they each held one of Relena's hands.
"Anything?" Millardo asked, his voice hoarse.
Duo shook his head. "I thought I saw her eyelids flutter, but...I guess it was just wishful thinking."
Her brother nodded before looking down at the letter in his hand. "Mrs. Yuy....Heero's mother...she brought this over to me this morning." He rubbed the back of his other hand across his mouth. "I just left her down in the emergency room. Shock..."
Duo watched the paper as though it were a snake that could inflict poison. "Is that..." His vocal chords gave out, unable to form the words.
Millardo nodded. "Last week....his platoon came under attack. They haven't been able to...to find his body. But they've gone ahead and declared him..."
Relena's room suddenly contained no air. Or perhaps he just couldn't breathe. The lump in Duo's throat was cutting off his air supply. Heero. His first friend ever. The one who had helped him beat up the sixth grade bullies, the one who had let him have his chocolate milk when Duo's parents forgot to buy food. He had been the first to hear about Duo's undying passion for Hilde, the first to tell him to shut up or get one in the eye.
The first person in the entire world who had given a damn about him.
Tears that he thought he could only spend for Hilde threatened to reveal themselves. Duo lowered his head and let them fall, out of sight, onto his black, embroidered peasant shirt, a birthday present from Relena. Relena. When she woke up....if she woke up....who was going to tell her? How could anyone tell her such a thing?
He felt a hand on his shoulder. It was Quatre's; he leaned over Relena to comfort him. "I'm truly sorry," he said sincerely.
Duo nodded. Suddenly, he inhaled sharply.
"What is it?" Quatre asked.
His head shot up. "Relena..." Just as quickly, he glanced back down, this time at the hand that held Relena's. "Her fingers moved! I swear to god, Millardo....she tried to squeeze my hand!!"
Relena's brother ran to the side of the bed. A gracious Quatre stepped out of the way. "'Lena?" Millardo gently stroked the top of his sister's head. "Open your eyes, sweetie. Please...open them."
A moment passed before she responded. Her forehead wrinkled and her hand jerked in Duo's once again. "She's waking up!" Duo declared.
Quatre started for the door. "I'll get a doctor."
When he was gone, Millardo leaned over further as though saying the words closer to her ear would help her wake up. "Come on, Relena. Open your eyes...open them now, Relena. I'm right here and I want to see you open your eyes."
Duo held his breath. He expelled it loudly a moment later when her eyelids twitched and slowly opened. Millardo grinned. It was the happiest Duo could ever remember seeing him. "Relena...don't try to talk. We're getting a doctor to..."
The tip of her pink tongue ran around the inside of her lips. She blinked her eyes a few times before they would stay open. Against Millardo's order, she tried to form a word. Duo reached for the water that sat on a high tray next to the bed, and after he helped her take a sip, she tried again. "I want..." Relena let out a little whimper.
"Princess...shhh." Duo put a finger to her cracked lips. "Save your energy."
Her head shook ever so slightly; she grimaced from the pain the motion brought. "I want..." she began again. "I want..."
"What, Relena? More water?" Millardo took her hand. "Are you hungry?"
"Heero," Relena finally managed to say. Her eyes closed briefly. "I want Heero."
****
To Be Continued
Author's Notes: Thanks for continuing to read. I used to be unsure of this story, and it makes me very happy to see people into it.
****
Some Kind of Wonderful
by Kristen Elizabeth
****
"Come mothers and fathers, throughout the land. And don't criticize what you can't understand. Your sons and your daughters are beyond your command; your old road is rapidly agin'. Please get out of the new one if you can't lend a hand, for the times, they are a'changin'." -Bob Dylan
****
Washington D.C.
Duo wasn't exactly sure how the protest had gotten out of control, but it seemed to be just before Relena had been pushed into the crowd and carried away towards the heavily guarded line around the Pentagon entrance. It should have been inevitable, he supposed, that fifty thousand people with such strong convictions wouldn't be happy being held at bay by a handful of military policemen.
But he hadn't realized what a drastic turn the day had taken until he felt handcuffs being slapped around his wrists.
All he and Quatre had been trying to do was get to Relena. They had lost sight of her within the throngs of people swarming towards the building. It was almost as though she had been caught in an undertow. Once they realized that she was powerless to fight her way back to them, they had gone after her, following the flow of the people.
By the time they caught up, the violence had exploded. Twenty or thirty people had burst past the military police in their attempt to reach the Pentagon vestabule. Blood colored the white marble of the building from the injured protestors.
"Relena!" Duo called out. His voice barely carried over the din.
Next to him, Quatre shook his head. "I don't see her. Where could she have...hey!!" He was cut off by a military policeman who grabbed his wrists. "What the hell?!"
"You're under arrest," the uniformed man announced.
Duo's own hands had been twisted behind his back; the metal handcuffs dug into his flesh. "This is fucking insane! We're just trying to find our friend!!"
His words were ignored as he and Quatre were pulled down the steps by the cuffs around their wrists. A flash of honey blonde caught Duo's eye. His eyes grew wide. It was Relena, unconscious. Blood stained her peasant blouse and matted her hair. She was being carried down the steps by a soldier, but already there were handcuffs on her wrists.
"Hey! Hey!!" Duo struggled against his escort. "What did you bastards do to her?!"
Quatre pulled at his restraints. "Where are you taking her?! Let go of Relena! She's hurt!!"
The men carting them away continued to ignore them. Soon, they both found themselves being pushed into an old-fashioned paddy wagon, presumably to be carted off to either the military or county jail.
Once inside and seated amongst a dozen other arrested protesters, Duo looked at Quatre. "They've got to be taking her to a hospital."
"Let's hope."
The vehicle lurched forward. "I'll have to call her brother. Hopefully, he'll take pity and bail me out of this. What about you, Winner?"
Quatre looked down at the metal floor. "I can post my own bail."
"Don't want to call the folks?" Duo shrugged. "Can't blame you, I guess."
The blond man attempted a smile. "The only thing of my father's that I've seen since I graduated from high school is his money. He doesn't...approve of my politics." Quatre's chin rested on his chest. "She had better be all right. If they do anything to her..."
Duo used his shoulder to soothe an itch on the underside of his jaw. He stopped cold when he saw the raw emotion on Quatre's face. "You love her, don't you?"
"Would you object if I said I did?"
He let out a long sigh. "Relena has been in love with Heero since they were eight years old. Right now, she's recovering from what she thinks was losing him. I'm not so convinced that they're over, but I have to go with whatever makes Relena happy. And if you make her happy...I can't object."
Quatre nodded. "I appreciate that. And I will make her happy. If she'll let me." Another pause followed as the vehicle hit several potholes, jolting them every which way. "Did he love her back?"
"Did he love her?" Duo snorted softly. "She's the only thing that's ever mattered in his entire life."
****
Vietnam
She wasn't sure what had drawn her to and kept her at Corporal Wufei Chang's bedside, but when Sally came to after a long night of endless surgeries, she woke to the sight of the man's bare torso, swaddled in bandages. His skin was smooth and deeply tanned, a mark of his heritage and a sign that he had been living outside for a good while. Sally gave herself a mental slap on the wrist. Now was not the time to admire his physical features.
To her relief, his chest rose and fell with steady breath; his life was out of danger. Standing up, Sally stretched her cramped, over-worked muscles. A cup of extremely strong coffee was what she needed, but first there were rounds to be made. Giving her patient a final look, she prepared to walk away.
A hand grasped her wrist. Sally spun back around and found herself looking down at the open, bottomless black eyes that had stared at her last night in a panicked, drugged state. Now, they were more relaxed, but still, she had to note, intense.
"Take it easy," she told him, easing out of his grip. "You'll pull all those stitches I had to put into you."
Wufei frowned. "Who are you?" His voice was dry, a lingering effect of the morphine.
"Doctor Po. Sally." She sat back down. "Are you in any pain?"
"I can tolerate it."
"It'd be very easy to give you another shot of morphine. You had two serious gunshot..."
He cut her off abruptly. "I'm fine. Where's Heero?"
She bit her lip, unsure of how to break the news to him. "Are you sure about the morphine? It'll help you sleep, and you need a lot of rest to.."
"Woman." Wufei's eyes narrowed. "Where did they take Heero? Corporal Heero Yuy of the 23rd Infantry?"
Sally's first instinct was to snap back on the manner in which he addressed her, but let it slide. What she was about to tell him was far more punishment than he deserved. "Corporal Chang..." She licked her lips. "Your friend, Private Barton...he had to get back to the squad...what's left of it, but he told me to tell you..." She stopped for a moment. "They've been unable to locate your friend's body." A second passed; realization failed to register on her patient's face. "In all likelihood, he was...destroyed by a hand grenade. I'm very sorry."
Wufei blinked several times. "No dog tags?"
"Not that I know of."
"Dog tags would have survived a grenade."
Sally tucked a curl behind her ear. "Not if the heat of the blast was intense enough to melt the metal."
Wufei started shaking his head. "Heero weighs 170. A grenade can't decimate 170 pounds of flesh."
"I'm not an expert, but I've seen men, bigger than that, who have been hit by grenades." Sally grimaced, remembering. The scorched flesh, black and crisp in some areas, but deadly red in others. Faces melted away. Bare, charred bones. "There wasn't much left of them to work on."
He touched the bandages on his leg, wincing ever so slightly. "Until I see proof...he is not dead."
"I hope you're right," she replied. "But officially, he's MIA. Presumed KIA. I have to write out the certificate sometime today. The telegram goes out to his family tomorrow."
Wufei turned his head away from her. "I don't believe it."
Something propelled her to take his hand, the same force, she assumed, that had kept her at his side throughout the night. "I'm really very sorry for your loss."
He didn't squeeze her fingers in recognition, but neither did he push her away. "It's not a loss." Wufei looked back up at her. "Heero Yuy would not let himself die without seeing Relena Peacecraft again. It's as simple as that."
Sally stood up. "Get some rest. I'll be back to check on you."
"Don't let them send that telegram, woman." His hand held onto hers, preventing her from leaving.
"I'm sorry," she replied. "I don't have a choice. As far as the US Army is concerned, your friend is gone."
****
Washington D.C.
"Why did you let this happen?" Millardo Peacecraft spoke through teeth clenched as tight as his hands were on the steering wheel. "Duo? I thought you were taking care of her."
In the backseat of Millardo's car, Duo sighed. In the thirty minutes since Millardo and his fiancee had posted Duo's bail, and Quatre had dipped into his trust fund for his, he had been subjected to this same question no less than a dozen times. And every time, Duo had replied, "It was a peaceful protest. It just got out of hand."
As they approached the hospital where they had been told all wounded protesters had been taken, Millardo shook his head. "I can't believe Relena allowed herself to get caught up in all this shit."
Lucrezia Noin gave her fiancee a look from the seat next to him. It was a look that only came from her complete love and devotion, as well as her understanding of his moods and characteristics. It had been she who convinced him not to hang up on Duo when he called from the D.C. jail. And it was only through her persuasion that Millardo had agreed to spring for the boy's bail.
"My peacekeeper," he had called her. Lucrezia didn't mind the title; there were worse ones to bear. The truth was, if she had been a few years younger and a lot less settled, she might have been on the steps of the Pentagon with the rest of them.
She covered his hand which rested on the stick shift. "The main thing is making sure Relena is all right," she reminded him. "There will be plenty of time for reprimands later."
Millardo gave a muted grunt of agreement. He glanced in the rear view mirror, watching Duo as the braided boy watched the city zipping by. "Who is this Quatre? And why is he following us?"
Duo didn't respond for a second. "He's a friend of ours. He's worried about her."
"Really? And just how well do you know this friend who's so concerned about my little sister?"
"He's a junior Political Science major from Raleigh. He heads up NC State's chapter of SDS. He's about five foot ten, I'd guess 150 pounds. A Taurus vegetarian, he enjoys..."
Millardo cut Duo off. "Haven't gotten rid of that smart mouth, have you?"
Duo met the man's cool blue eyes in the reflection of the mirror. "Never."
"Well..." Relena's brother turned a corner, heading up a small road that would put them directly in front of the hospital entrance. "At least she's getting over Yuy."
He let Millardo's comment slide in the wake of his concern over Relena's well-being. Turning his head, he caught a glimpse of the taxi Quatre had hailed, following close behind. Suddenly, his head pounded. Duo pulled Rebecca's head band off his forehead, hoping it was the source of the pain.
She had been exciting and different. The first girl he had slept with since Hilde. The thrill of being in a tent, with their classmates just outside, trying to keep quiet in the middle of the night...it should have been enough to drive away all thoughts of his dark-haired pixie. But it hadn't. And he had found himself biting his lip and drawing blood to keep from crying her name when he let himself go in Rebecca's arms.
He pushed the memory away. Dwelling on it wasn't going to do Relena any good. And when they entered the hospital and were led to the exam room where she was being held, Duo realized just how much of all their thoughts, hopes and, possibly, prayers his best friend was going to need.
Relena had slipped into a deep, dangerous coma.
****
It took a good deal of money and influence, but when he finally gave in and agreed to let Quatre Winner cover some of the expenses, Millardo arranged to have Relena transferred to the Community Hospital in Peacecraft.
For Duo and Quatre, classes were completely forgotten; both filed incompletes for the semester. Duo moved back into his parent's house. He doubted they even noticed. Quatre took up residence in the only decent hotel the town offered, but most of his time was spent in the long-term care wing of the hospital.
Relena hovered on the border between the realm of reality and what lay just beyond it. Some days, Duo was absolutely convinced that if he talked long enough and loud enough, she would sit up and tell him to put a sock in it. But days passed like the footsteps of a snail, and still she remained motionless.
On the eighth day after the protest, Millardo entered his sister's room with an expression as heavy as lead. A light piece of paper in his hand seemed to be the source of his burden. Both Duo and Quatre looked up as he came in; they each held one of Relena's hands.
"Anything?" Millardo asked, his voice hoarse.
Duo shook his head. "I thought I saw her eyelids flutter, but...I guess it was just wishful thinking."
Her brother nodded before looking down at the letter in his hand. "Mrs. Yuy....Heero's mother...she brought this over to me this morning." He rubbed the back of his other hand across his mouth. "I just left her down in the emergency room. Shock..."
Duo watched the paper as though it were a snake that could inflict poison. "Is that..." His vocal chords gave out, unable to form the words.
Millardo nodded. "Last week....his platoon came under attack. They haven't been able to...to find his body. But they've gone ahead and declared him..."
Relena's room suddenly contained no air. Or perhaps he just couldn't breathe. The lump in Duo's throat was cutting off his air supply. Heero. His first friend ever. The one who had helped him beat up the sixth grade bullies, the one who had let him have his chocolate milk when Duo's parents forgot to buy food. He had been the first to hear about Duo's undying passion for Hilde, the first to tell him to shut up or get one in the eye.
The first person in the entire world who had given a damn about him.
Tears that he thought he could only spend for Hilde threatened to reveal themselves. Duo lowered his head and let them fall, out of sight, onto his black, embroidered peasant shirt, a birthday present from Relena. Relena. When she woke up....if she woke up....who was going to tell her? How could anyone tell her such a thing?
He felt a hand on his shoulder. It was Quatre's; he leaned over Relena to comfort him. "I'm truly sorry," he said sincerely.
Duo nodded. Suddenly, he inhaled sharply.
"What is it?" Quatre asked.
His head shot up. "Relena..." Just as quickly, he glanced back down, this time at the hand that held Relena's. "Her fingers moved! I swear to god, Millardo....she tried to squeeze my hand!!"
Relena's brother ran to the side of the bed. A gracious Quatre stepped out of the way. "'Lena?" Millardo gently stroked the top of his sister's head. "Open your eyes, sweetie. Please...open them."
A moment passed before she responded. Her forehead wrinkled and her hand jerked in Duo's once again. "She's waking up!" Duo declared.
Quatre started for the door. "I'll get a doctor."
When he was gone, Millardo leaned over further as though saying the words closer to her ear would help her wake up. "Come on, Relena. Open your eyes...open them now, Relena. I'm right here and I want to see you open your eyes."
Duo held his breath. He expelled it loudly a moment later when her eyelids twitched and slowly opened. Millardo grinned. It was the happiest Duo could ever remember seeing him. "Relena...don't try to talk. We're getting a doctor to..."
The tip of her pink tongue ran around the inside of her lips. She blinked her eyes a few times before they would stay open. Against Millardo's order, she tried to form a word. Duo reached for the water that sat on a high tray next to the bed, and after he helped her take a sip, she tried again. "I want..." Relena let out a little whimper.
"Princess...shhh." Duo put a finger to her cracked lips. "Save your energy."
Her head shook ever so slightly; she grimaced from the pain the motion brought. "I want..." she began again. "I want..."
"What, Relena? More water?" Millardo took her hand. "Are you hungry?"
"Heero," Relena finally managed to say. Her eyes closed briefly. "I want Heero."
****
To Be Continued