There Were Roses:
And the Tears of the People Rain Together in the Rain
(Part Two)
By: Madisonne
Part: 2/?
Warnings: Angst, yaoi, reference to citrus-y activities...
Disclaimer: Gundam Wing does NOT belong to me... (Damn, damn, damn...) No infringement on the rights of the owners of said anime intended. Don't sue me, suing isn't nice. As for the fic, don't steal it! Criticism accepted, flames laughed at.
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The shuttle-attendant shook the Winner heir's shoulders. "Sir, sir, the shuttle has landed. Sir!"
Slowly, the young man opened his eyes.
"We have arrived, sir." The shuttle-attendant's eyes flickered to the bandaged young man who was curled up in the Winner heir's arms. "You and your friend were sound asleep..."
"Sorry." The angelic young man smiled apologetically. "Heero? Heero?"
The bandaged young man woke suddenly, eyes wide with fright. "What? What?!!"
"It's okay, Heero, it's just me. We've landed near my father's estate. DO you think you can walk?"
Heero blinked. "H-hai."
Rubbing his eyes, Quatre stood up and grabbed his bag of hastily packed clothes, both his and Heero's.
* * * * *
Quatre noticed Heero's eyes drooping as the pilot struggled to stay awake. Finally, Heero fell asleep, leaning on the arm of the chair, his brown hair falling across his face.
Quatre excused himself and his companion from the table and walked over to Heero's chair, gathering the slumbering pilot in his arms.
Heero showed no signs of awakening, other than burying his face into Quatre's shoulder.
Smiling slightly, Quatre carried the sleeping fighter to the room the servants had quickly prepared for his guest. Moving silently, Quatre slid the unconscious pilot into the bed, tucking the sheets gently around his friend. He tiptoed out of the room and into his own across the hall.
The blonde pilot changed into cotton shorts and a long sleeved tee shirt. Yawning, he got into bed and fell fast asleep.
* * * * *
Quatre awoke with a gasp, not quite sure what had thrown him out of sleep. Then, through the silence of the night, a piercing scream echoed through the house. Panicking, Quatre ran to Heero's room, picking up a gun on his way out.
Heero was tossing around in his bed, pain flickering across his face and closed eyes, which issued a stream of tears.
"Heero, Heero, wake up! Heero!" Quatre shook the thrashing pilot's shoulders.
Heero convulsed in pain and slammed his arm across Quatre's cheek, sending the small pilot tumbling off the bed and slamming him into the dresser.
Heero awoke suddenly, panting furiously. He looked around the room in terror, finding only Quatre, lying on the floor beside his bed. "Quatre?" He asked, his voice rough from crying.
Quatre looked up, "Heero?" He scrambled to his feet and sat on he the edge of his friend's bed.
Hesitantly, Heero reached up and touched his fellow pilot's red cheek with his fingertips. "W-what happened?"
"I-it... Was an accident... Are you okay?" Quatre reached up and pulled Heero's hand away from his face and held it in both of his.
Heero nodded slowly.
"Are you sure? Do you want to talk about it?"
Heero shook his head violently. "No!"
Quatre wiped the tears off of Heero's face with the sleeve of his shirt. "It's okay. You don't have to. Just, if you ever need someone to be there for you, if you need someone to talk to, I'll be there for you, I promise." He stood up and started to walk out the door, only to be stopped by a cold hand on his wrist. "Nani?" He asked, turning back around.
Heero looked up at him, a pleading expression in his eyes. "D-don't leave me al-alone... Onegai? St-stay here? Onegai?"
Quatre gave in immediately, and sat back down on the bed.
Heero sighed softly and closed his eyes again. Moments later, he was asleep.
* * * * *
Quatre clicked on his laptop and tapped in his password. The laptop chimed and a mechanical voice said, "Authorization complete".
The Arab clicked once and started to type.
Two hours later saw Quatre slumping in his chair, one hand propping his chin up, the other scrolling down, his eyes scanning across the page rapidly. All of the sudden, Quatre gasped and clicked once with his mouse. His eyes scanned the page quickly, growing wider as he read the contents.
"Mission number 58432 was considered highly dangerous to the psyche of the agent. But, 02 pulled through and completed the mission with a higher rate of success than could ever be expected from such a novice to the elements of torture."
Quatre gasped and scrolled down more.
"The mission lasted two months, occurring before the pre-arranged meeting of Gundam pilots 01 and 02. Originally, the mission was meant for pilot 01, but was given to 02 on the premise that 01 would have no part in a bondage and torture situation."
The blonde pilot had to laugh softly at the childish way that Duo had written his report, praising himself entirely.
"Unfortunately, some of the doctors' assumptions were not correct. Unexpectedly, the young pilot turned quickly to the hobby of sadism, or the sometimes sexual enjoyment of seeing others in pain."
Quatre inhaled sharply. "So Duo, this is where it all began..." He scanned the next few pages, which were based mainly on the braided pilots monomania of torture. He rubbed his aching eyes and shut down the computer.
Biting the edge of his lip, Quatre considered his next move. With a nod of his head, he decided on a course of action and scurried down the hall. He stopped at a non-descript door and knocked hesitantly on the wood.
His knock was answered by one of his many older sisters, a taller brown haired, gray-eyed girl who was rather thin, and had almost an ethereal quality to her. "Quatre! What do you need?" The girl asked as she stepped aside to allow him into the small room filled with bookshelves.
Quatre smiled at her and walked into the room, seating himself, and waiting very poignantly for her to shut the door before he began to speak. "Lilliana, I've got a problem for you..."
The brunette sat cross-legged in an armchair. "Fire away, whatcha got for me?"
Quatre bit his lip. "What would you do, or... How would you help a victim of abuse?"
Lilliana nodded, "What kind of abuse? Abuse in a relationship? A family?"
Quatre hesitated, undecided as to whether he should tell the truth, "Uh, a relationship."
She nodded again. "What kind of a relationship?"
"Uh... A boyfriend/girlfriend type of relationship." He quickly lied.
She paled, "You aren't coming here to help a situation you're in, are you?"
Quatre shook his head, "No, no of course not! It's... A friend."
"Well good. I'd have to beat the gal who hurtcha. This 'friend' might not happen to be the one you brought in last night, was it?"
Quatre sighed and nodded.
She smiled slightly. "I thought so. Well, what kind of abuse and how bad do you think it is?" She picked up a pad of paper and started jotting down notes as Quatre talked.
"Well... Both physical and sexual, I think... I know about the physical. I've seen it all too many times. At first I thought he was telling me the truth, but then, as the days went on, one can only faint and hit one's head on the sink so many times, right? So I started to put two and two together, and sickeningly enough, I was right." Quatre stood up and looked out the window.
"How long would you say this has been going on?"
"About... Two, three months?"
His sister nodded. "You did the right thing in coming to me. I know it's hard, sometimes, to trust someone outside of the situation."
Quatre turned back around, "Do you really think I did the right thing?"
"Of course. Now, to make a full analysis, I must see the patient, you understand."
Quatre cut her off, "No! I mean, that might not be the best solution."
"I'm afraid it's the only way for me to make an accurate diagnosis." Lilliana smiled apologetically.
Quatre nodded. "I understand... He might not want to, though... I haven't talked to him about since last night, and he was reluctant to talk about it, even as tired as he was."
"You must understand that I cannot guarantee that anything I do or say can help him. All I can tell you is that you have my full assurance that I will do everything in my power to see that your friend is on the track of healing."
Quatre smiled sadly at her. "Thanks. I'll go see if I can find him."
Lilliana smiled back. "Shoo."
Quatre followed her half-serious reply and walked down the hall in search of his friend. A quick scan of the room the servants had prepared for his guest showed that his guest was not currently enjoying the relative safety of this room.
Ten minutes later, as he was running out of places to send servants to look for the pilot, Quatre began to get worried. In last minute desperation, he dashed outside. At first, he did not see the silent young man, then a slower scan proved Heero to be sitting on a bench underneath a screen of roses growing strong over the iron bars.
Quatre scampered over to the silent pilot and stood in front of him. The only indication that Heero gave of his knowing that Quatre was there was a slight movement of the eyes towards him.
"Hey, how are you doing?"
No response.
"Uh, I've got someone inside that I'd like you to talk to. You can talk to her as much or as little as you want to, just as long as you go see her."
Heero was about to refuse when he reconsidered his position. His friend had saved him, with little thought for his own well being, from a fate he deserved more than any other that whatever force was up there could have devised. But, on the other hand, if he refused to go, how would that reflect... He shook his head to clear his mind and stood up, gesturing for the blond pilot to lead the way, which he did. After a few seconds, the other pilot followed him.
Quatre led Heero to the door of his sister's study. He rapped on the wood two times before entering. "Lilliana, this is Heero, my friend." He then quickly exited the room, shutting the door behind him.
Heero jumped as he heard the door slam behind him, leaving him alone with Lilliana.
Lilliana smiled at him, "Please take a seat." As she gracefully occupied one of her own. "So... Let's start at the beginning."
Silence.
"Okay... The beginning's always a little boring anyways... Uh, let's see... Why didn't you leave after your partner started to hurt you?"
Heero snapped his head up, wondering just how much Quatre had told her. Lilliana, on the other hand, showed no reaction, and watched him, expecting an answer.
"He didn't."
Lilliana looked confused. "What?"
"He didn't hurt me."
Lilliana raised one eyebrow. "But, then..."
"I did it to myself."
Quatre's sister looked a trifle bit sick. "You hurt... Yourself."
Heero started to correct her, then decided that would suffice for an answer, and instead nodded.
Lilliana looked confused. "But, that's not what..."
Heero stood up suddenly. "I don't give a damn what he said." With that, the angry pilot stormed out of the room, leaving Lilliana looking very, very lost.
"Uh... Same time tomorrow?" She called after the retreating figure. "Well, crap. That went great." Lilliana sighed and sat back down in a chair, rubbing her eyes with her hand. She looked up as she heard footsteps approaching.
Her little brother walked in, with a slightly quizzical expression on his face. "What happened?" Quatre asked.
Lilliana shrugged. "He kept on insisting that he had hurt himself, and when I tried to explain that you had told me otherwise, he stormed out. Very temperamental, isn't he..."
Quatre snorted at her half-question. "Very." He started to walk out the door.
"By the way," Lilliana added, "You never told me he was gay."
Quatre just shrugged and walked out of the door.
"I should have known. It's always the cute ones. Damn." With that, she turned to her vast collection of books to try and find some answers.
* * * * *
Quatre walked out of his sister's study and went down the hall and into the main library. Once there, he pulled a random book off the shelf and threw himself down into a chair. He carelessly flipped the book open to a random page and sat there, staring at the words, but not actually reading. He had been frozen like that, his brain working like mad, for about twenty minutes, when his relative peace was interrupted by the sound of another chair being drawn towards him. He opened his eyes to find yet another sister looking at him. This one was slightly tall for her age with pure white skin and bobbed black hair. She was one of his oldest older sisters and had gotten a doctorate in medicine two years ago.
"What's wrong?" She asked.
"Nothing, Llesil..." Quatre lied.
"You're lying to me."
Silence. "How did you know?"
She grinned, "You were glaring at the page with a sort of far-off look, and you had been looking at the same spot on the same page of the same book for over ten minutes. That implies that something's wrong in my book."
Quatre sighed. "It's just... My friend, you know the one I brought here last night, is suffering, but he won't let anyone help him or anything. He won't even talk about it."
Llesil grimaced. "Yuck, that's an awful situation to be in."
Quatre groaned. "You're telling me..."
"Is there anything I can do?"
"I don't know... Lilliana already tried to talk to him, but he ran off after a few questions."
"Frustrating, isn't it?"
"You have no idea."
"Well... I can do a physical if you'd like?"
Quatre sighed. "I don't know how much he'd take to having a physical... He won't even talk about what happened, much less... I don't know..."
Llesil was silent for a moment. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but he seems to be the sort that likes to get back into the 'groove' of things, if you understand my meaning. Maybe if I took that standpoint..."
Quatre looked up. "That's it! Here, I've got a plan..."
* * * * *
Llesil knocked on the doorframe of one of the many guest bedrooms. Receiving no answer, she timidly walked in.
Heero sat with his back to her, half staring out the window, half lost in thoughts. He turned as he heard footsteps behind him. "Who are you? What do you want?"
"Hi! I'm Llesil." She stuck out her hand, then withdrew it after about ten seconds, in which the silent youth glared at her. "Uh, I got a message from some doctor, and he asked me to tell you that you should get a physical before coming back to pilot? Does that sound right?"
Heero nodded.
"Well, I'm a doctor, so if you'd like, I can give you a physical right now, I mean, I have no patients or anything now..." Llesil became very nervous as the young man glared at her.
"Who sent you here?"
Llesil quickly lied. "I told you, that doctor."
"Was he serious?"
"Quite serious, he said I wasn't even allowed to let you leave the mansion before you got a physical. He seemed a bit worried, like something was wrong..." Llesil had an inside party as Heero reacted to the final piece of incentive she gave him.
The young man stood up and walked towards the door. "How long does it take you to do a physical?"
"An hour, two at tops."
Heero nodded and held the door for Llesil.
"Right this way, please."
* * * * *
"Llesil? This is Liliana. How bad was it? Uh huh... Okay, send me over a set of hydensythine, please. Yeah, I'm sure. It's the only way. Uh huh... Thanks!" Liliana hung up the phone just as someone knocked on her door. "Come in!"
Quatre walked in, looking rather desolate.
"Hey, Llesil just finished the physical, she's gonna send over some stats in a while." Liliana shuffled through some papers. "Uhm, this is a very delicate case, you realize that?"
Quatre sighed and nodded.
"And you know that I'm going to do my best to help your friend, right?"
Again, he nodded.
"Then I'm going to need complete cooperation from you. And, most importantly, don't ask questions, just do what I say."
"But..."
"But nothing. I'm sorry, but this is a very very delicate case. Anything could set your friend off..."
"Wait, "anything could set my friend off", what do you mean by that?"
Liliana looked down at her hands. "In most cases of abuse we find that the abused feel the need to funnel the anger and guilt and fear and pain they feel into another person by hurting them. It's a sort of vicious cycle, I'm afraid."
"So, what are you saying, that he's going to try and hurt me?"
Liliana nodded.
"That's ridiculous! I mean, he would never do something like that!"
"I'm sure that's exactly what your friend told himself when his 'friend' started to abuse him."
Quatre bowed his head. "Okay. What do you need me to do?"
"Nothing for right now, but just I need to know that you trust me to do what's best for your friend, and to do the most I can to help him."
He sighed and rubbed his eyes. "Okay..."
"Llesil should also be sending over something that I think might help to, uh, help elucidate the problem."
Immediately suspicious, he looked up into her eyes. "Like what?"
"Uh..." Lilliana searched for an explanation, then decided to tell the truth. "Like hydensythine."
"What is that?"
"It's a very quick working, very potent drug, only to be administered by and under the care of a trained health professional, and used only as a last resort."
"What does it do?"
"It impairs, for a while, its user's ability to withhold information, and lowers their inhibitions..."
"Like hell you'll use that!" He interrupted.
"Just listen to me. It's our only way of helping him before he hurts someone else... Or himself." Lilliana persuaded.
Quatre sulked for a moment, then looked back up. "How long does it last?"
"Usually around three to four hours, up to ten, in a couple reported cases."
"Any long lasting effects?"
"None whatsoever. The next morning he isn't likely to remember anything about the night before."
Quatre sighed and shook his head. "I don't know... This seems unfair... Sneaky too."
Lilliana sighed and rubbed her eyes. "I know. I understand completely. But you must know that this is the only way we can help him. If there were any other way..."
Quatre nodded. "I know, you'd tell me. It still seems, well, wrong."
"Hmm. Well, it's your decision." Lilliana looked up as a knock came from the door. "The stuff's here." She walked over to and opened the door, taking from the maid a manila envelope. Thanking the maid, she shut the door and went back to her seat. "Here," She opened the envelope and tossed the cartridge inside to her younger brother. She then took out a stack of papers and went through them carefully.
Quatre looked up. "How bad is it?"
"Pretty bad... He's beat up and run down. His body is rejecting the harsh treatments, which is very usual, it has been receiving. He's starting to get some sort of sickness from fatigue and stress, both emotional and physical." Lilliana looked up. "When he's under, Llesil can do a more thorough examination."
He sighed and tossed the cartridge back to her. "Okay. Fine, use your potion."
"One more thing. When he's under, you have the option of using a PERK unit."
"What's that?"
"When he's under examination, we collect evidence of the identity of the perpetrator. This can be used to prosecute him, but using it does not mean that you have to prosecute. I'm assuming you know who did this?"
He nodded.
"Then the only reason to use a PERK unit would to be to gather evidence."
"No, don't use it. We'll deal with this personally."
"Uh, I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that last remark. You need to be careful what you say around whom. You start talking like that, and if you do anything to him, even so much as look at him cross-eyed, it's more likely they'll charge it as premeditated."
"Whatever. Look, I'm tired and I'm hungry. When do you want to use that stuff?"
"The sooner the better."
"So, how do you get it into the person?"
"Drinking it works, so if you can get it into his water or something, that would be great. I have a feeling he's going to trust a drink that you prepared more than one I prepared..."
"Hnn." Quatre grabbed the cylinder and left the room.
Lilliana sighed and picked up the phone, pressing in a code. "Hey, Llesil? Yeah, it's me. I just finished talking with him and he's going to use the stuff tonight, is that okay? 'Kay, just wanted to make sure. Be there in a minute." Lilliana put the phone back down in its cradle and left the room.
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Author's Note: Rape and abuse are serious problems in today's society. Victims may not be easy to recognize as they fear the reaction of their abuser if they find out, but please, if you sense that someone you know and/or care about is being abused, contact someone, anyone. Their parents, your school counselor, the local S.A.R.A. chapter, anyone. Just don't ignore the problem. Victims are scared, depressed, and very vulnerable. Sometimes the "tough-guy" act is really a cry of pain for help.