Disclaimer: Still don't own Gundam Wing, still wish I did
The Lost Girl
Part 12
Everything hurt. I could feel my entire body, and all of it ached with a steady throbbing that wasn't seeming to diminish with time as I woke up. I waited a moment more, then finally tried to open my eyes. I blinked a couple of times, seeing only the blur of the white ceiling above me. My vision slowly began to focus a bit more, although there was still a misty sort of haze that seemed to hang in front of my eyes,
I could hear the soft, intermittent beeping of an EKG somewhere to my left, as well as the steady buzzing of overhead lights. The room was so bright that it was nearly too painful to keep my eyes open. My neck, although sore, seemed to be willing to work, and I swiveled my head to the left, trying to see where exactly I was and what was going on.
There was a bed next to mine, and in it a boy was sitting, staring at a tray of food and holding a fork. He didn't particularly look like he wanted to eat whatever it was that had been placed before him. I laid there, squinting at him. Something about him was off
"What are you staring at?" he asked in a sullen, low voice; he had not turned his head, nor even actually moved at all. How he knew I was looking at him in the first place was beyond me.
He turned his head slowly, looking at me with an icy-blue stare that could've frozen the blood in my veins. His left eye was puffy and bruised, a black eye more impressive than any I could have imagined.
"Nothing," I replied; he sounded like he was wound up pretty tight, and I didn't want to be the one to set him off. Something in the back of my head was very sure of that.
Well, of course I didn't want to set him off. This was Heero Yuy we were talking about, after all.
I blinked.
Heero.
I felt a very small smile tempt my lips. Heero Yuy. With a black eye. Who'da thought?
"I'm not looking at anything," I said softly, smiling.
"Then stop it."
I turned my gaze back to the ceiling, not wanting to deal with him at the moment. I'd just have to laugh at him later. And figure out how the "perfect soldier" had ended up with such a beautifully perfect black eye.
"Sorry," I apologized softly, but he didn't reply.
The ceiling was, just as before, white and too bright, and I closed my eyes. The dull pain raking my body was constant and unrelenting, and I was beginning to wish that I wasn't awake.
Just then, the door burst open; I opened my eyes to see two boys and two bouquets of flowers barge in.
A blond, carrying daffodils, and a brunette, with a cast on his left arm, carrying lilies.
Quatre Raberba Winner, and Duo Maxwell.
"Alison! You're awake!" Quatre's voice sounded both joyful and relieved; he ran over to hug me as I managed to just barely push myself into a sitting position.
Wow. I felt as battered as a rag doll as his arms encircled me, squeezing me tightly to him.
"I'm so glad you're all right!" he exclaimed, pulling away. "Here!" He set the flowers on the table beside my bed. "We'll find you a vase in a minute. You're awake!" he repeated, as if he couldn't believe it.
Duo was still standing there, just looking at me.
Then, "Don't you go trying to pull that on me again!" he said firmly, pressing the flowers into my hands.
"I I won't"
"Good!" he snapped. Then he brightened, and pulled a lily out of the bunch.
"And Yuy!" he said, taking a step towards Heero's bed and shoving the flower at him so quickly that the other boy actually took it on impulse. "Here's for being such a good sport!"
Heero looked at the flower in his hand, and fumed. For a second I thought the flower was going to wilt and die, a blackened cinder under his gaze.
"You wonder how he got that black eye?" Quatre whispered to me, a spark of something mischievous in his eyes.
No suddenly, I didn't wonder. Suddenly it was almost hilarious.
"So! I'm going to get you some vases, all right? Get well soon so you can come home!" Quatre said louder, brightly, and cast a grin at Heero before leaving the room.
"I'm leaving before I kill you all," Heero announced, sliding off his bed and heading out the door, somewhat dizzily-looking. I was suddenly sure he wasn't supposed to be leaving, but obviously he wasn't going to let something like that stop him.
Duo crossed the small space back to my bed. I set the flowers on the table beside Quatre's and looked at him, a bit confused, a bit scared.
He suddenly leaned over me, squeezing me into a tighter hug than Quatre had, a hug that hurt like hell but felt like heaven at the same time. I managed to get my weak arms around him as he rested his cheek on my shoulder; I found myself burying my face in his neck, stray strands of his hair tickling my nose. He was still very thin, I noticed, and his left arm was held like he was favoring it.
"I'm so glad you're awake," he whispered, mouth close to my ear. "I can't believe I almost lost you again."
"Duo" I began, but then I noticed something.
He was crying...?
I shoved him away lightly and looked at his face as he straightened up; there were no visible tears but his eyes were bright and wet in the harsh overhead lights, and he was smiling like it hurt him to do so.
"I'm so glad you're awake," he whispered again, and I bit my lip. Something inside me hurt - a lot - to see him like this. More than it had hurt when I'd been afraid that he was going to die, than when Heero and Wufei had spat "traitor" like they would never look back.
"Duo, please. It's okay. I'm fine."
He shook his head, braid swinging violently behind him as he did so. "I don't care. I thought I was going to lose you for good. They weren't sure if they could do anything, you'd lost so much blood and your broken ribs and your head... They didn't think you'd pull through."
"Well, how else would I be able to keep on annoying you?" I asked weakly, and his smile spread just a bit.
"You scared me," he said. "Bad girl."
"I know," I said softly. "I won't do it again."
"Promise?" he whispered, the question soft yet begging, blown away on the air.
"Promise," I said, although I inwardly cringed at the obvious lie behind my answer. I couldn't promise him that, not when it just seemed to keep happening to me.
He seemed to know that. "Liar," he said, pressing one finger to the tip of my nose.
"Yeah, well. I can promise that I'll try to stay safe," I offered. "No more adventures for me anytime soon."
He nodded. "Good enough."
There was a sudden knock on the door, and a nurse I didn't recognize stuck her head in. "Time to go, Maxwell. She needs rest, and you know it. Out - hey," her eyes narrowed as she saw the empty bed beside me. "Where's Yuy?"
Duo shrugged, a grin spreading across his face. "I dunno. Guess he skipped out on ya."
The nurse sighed, exasperated, and I couldn't help but smile. "That damn kid!" Then she looked back at Duo. "One minute, Mr. Maxwell." And she was gone.
He sighed, then looked at me again, a shadow of his regular smile creeping back onto his face. "Listen, you get better for real this time, y'hear?"
I smiled back. "Yes, sir."
"Good."
And then his eyes darted about the room for a moment, and he glanced from side to side -
And he bent down and kissed the top of my head, barely a movement at all before straightening up and turning on his heel, making his way to the door.
"Get some rest. I'll see you again soon."
All I could do was sit there, and try to believe that I wasn't dead.
* * *
"Duo?" I called, opening the door to our joint room and pocketing the keycard as I walked into the room. I hadn't seen him again soon - the doctors had cordoned me off and I wasn't allowed nearly any visitors, and it had been almost two weeks since I was brought in. I had just been discharged, and sent back home with strict orders not to do anything even almost strenuous for at least another week. Not something I was looking forward to.
And my memory was gone for good. There was no way to retrieve anything before the first day I could really remember - past where this had all begun. There had been endless tests, endless CAT scans and endless other procedures.
Something had worked - something that had caused memories of circuits, wires, and panels to begin trickling back into existence. Sometimes faces, sometimes voices.
But no real memories would ever come back, they told me. The pathways had been too far degraded by the OZ neuro-inhibitors and whatever they had done to me beforehand, months or years ago. My past was lost.
I didn't know how I felt - on the one hand, I wanted to know what my life had been like "before" - even if I had been a spy, I hadn't known it, and I had had some life here with the pilots before any of this happened.
On the other hand, part of me was okay with the loss. I didn't know what I was missing so I didn't miss it as much, or something like that.
But this whole Duo thing. not to mention the fact that Heero hadn't really spoken to me, and I hadn't even seen Wufei at all. Trowa had stopped by once, and I was sure he would've been in trouble had he been caught, smiling just a bit and telling me he was glad I was finally back. He'd said Wufei was sorry in his own way, that he had mostly forgiven me and he didn't hate my guts. That he was still, in his own way, my friend. That Heero was too - he hadn't made any more attempts on my life, had he?
In Heero's way, that said it would be okay.
"Al?" I heard him ask, and I stepped out into the living room to see him rise from the couch and bound over, enveloping me in another tight hug despite the cast still on his arm, only this one didn't hurt quite so much and I was able to return it much more easily.
He pulled away and held me at arm's length, looking me over as if sizing me up. "You need food," he announced - I thought this was almost funny coming from him, who still looked a tiny bit too thin from his time spent on that base - then headed for the kitchen. I sighed and followed him, entering the tiny room to see him digging through the fridge, shoving aside pizza boxes and the like. Boys. You leave them alone for two weeks and they forget how to prepare their own food, I thought. At least he'd be gaining that lost weight back quickly.
"Here," he said, straightening up and turning around, handing me a Tupperware containing macaroni and cheese.
I grinned. "Thanks!"
He grinned back and found me a fork, pointing towards the table. I sat and began eating; he sat across from me and just watched me.
It got uncomfortable after about thirty seconds, and I put down the fork to look at him.
"What?"
"Duo"
He sighed, and dug his fingers in his hair. "Look. I I'm sorry about Hell, I don't even know what I'm sorry for. But - " He paused, then took a breath.
"Look, this whole thing was just so weird. I thought I'd lost you for good, I thought I was dead. And then Heero showed up, and you showed up, and I thought everything was gonna be okay, but then it wasn't and he - I thought he killed you.
"We barely got out of there alive. I didn't know if I wanted to get out alive, then. They just kept shooting at us until the Wing Zero was so disabled all Heero could do was fly it back. And when we got back I think I tried to kill him - I beat him up and gave him that black eye and a concussion before Trowa and Wufei pulled me off And Quatre said we were going after you, because he didn't believe all that traitor bullshit, and"
He trailed off, looking down, his eyes falling for a second on the white scar on my wrist before finding the wood grain of the table.
"I know part of you is gone for good, spy or no spy or whatever the hell any of this was about before," he said.
Then he looked up, and he was Duo again, grinning like an idiot, ready to face the world with a badass Gundam and a smartass remark. "But welcome home."
"I you mean it?" Something was breaking through, some kind of hope, this time for real. Maybe I had a place, and maybe it was with them.
"Pfft, hell yeah! My poor Deathscythe went down with that base - I need a new Gundam! Who else is gonna build it for me?"
The End
AN: Thanks to everyone who reviewed it, loved it, etc.! The great reviews meant a lot to me and I'm glad for anyone who enjoyed this. Thanks again! :)