Chapter Twelve

Trowa pressed the buzzer for the nurse and waited all of twenty seconds before two nurses and a doctor entered the room.

"She woke up," Trowa told them and gestured to Dorothy, who was trying to pull the weird tube thing from her nose.

The doctor and nurses bustled around, one of the nurses going in and out of the room constantly to go and get various apparatus. Trowa stood in a corner and let them work, while Dorothy didn't bother to contain her abhorrence of the situation she found herself in.

"Trowa?" She finally managed to ask once most of the tubes blocking her face were removed. "Why am I in the hospital with all of this crap plugged into me?"

Trowa smiled. At least she was back to her usual self. Dorothy had a very … unique personality to say the least. "I'll tell you later, once you've been deemed all right."

She tried to cross her arms and glare at him, but the nurse wouldn't let her move her arms, so she settled for sticking her tongue out. "Fine, but you better have a few more good stories to tell me while you're at it." She grinned mischievously and Trowa gulped. He knew, even without being a very close friend, what that grin meant and he knew exactly what she was referring to when she mentioned 'stories'.

Once the extra machines were gone and Dorothy had been moved to another location out of ICU, then could the two teens finally talk without interruption.

"So, again, why am in hospital?"

"You don't remember anything?"

"Obviously not."

"All right. Wufei told me that you were on your way to a movie with him and Meiran and a car hit you while you were crossing a main road."

"That's it?" Dorothy looked disappointed. "A motor accident? Nothing spectacular like a bank robbery or a terrorist attack?" Trowa looked at the only girl who could ever be disappointed by the fact that she wasn't held up at gunpoint so someone could get her money. "How boring!"

Trowa looked at her in amazement. /This girl is nuts!/ "Uh, Dorothy, does it really matter that it wasn't as dramatic as you wanted it to be?"

"Trowa, that's not the point," she whined. "Nothing extraordinary ever happens to me."

"Well, I'd say fighting for your life after a near-death experience qualifies as extraordinary."

Dorothy stuck out her lower lip. "It's still not as heroic as getting injured in the line of duty or something."

/I forgot how slightly morbid Dorothy is,/ Trowa thought as he stared at the sulking girl. /Or maybe it's the extra morphine in her system that's making her act this way./ He looked at her again. /I hope it's the morphine./

"Let's just forget about my depressing circumstances for a bit and move onto something different." Dorothy looked pointedly at Trowa. "Don't you have something to tell me?"

Trowa looked around nervously. "Not really."

"Oh?" Dorothy raised an eyebrow.

"Nope, nothing to tell." Trowa started to sweat under that gaze.

"Really?"

"Maybe."

"Go on."

"Well … I think … maybe … I might have … upset Quatre a bit."

"Continue."

Trowa started babbling, something very unusual for him, but Dorothy could be a very persuasive person when she wanted to be. "See, Wufei said something about being worried about Quatre and it got me thinking. Quatre had hinted that something had happened to him that he didn't want me to know about just yet and when Wufei told him that his father was coming here to see him Quatre kind of freaked. When I tried to ask, Quatre told me he didn't trust me enough to tell me about it. That sort of hurt, but it didn't matter because Quatre was upset, so I comforted him, completely unconditionally, he doesn't have to tell me anything if he doesn't want to, but I didn't want him hurting either. But he was still so sad and I was just over some with such empathy for him, I couldn't stand seeing him like that, I wanted to make everything go away. I just had this sudden urge to help him, but I don't think I carried it out in the right way. I tried to kiss him. It was probably the absolute worst thing to do in the situation, but I just followed my feelings. It started to work, he seemed to want to, but then … he totally freaked and ran out of the room saying 'I can't, not again'. I have no idea what to do now." Trowa paused and looked at Dorothy, waiting for her reaction to the story.

Dorothy laughed.

"What?" Trowa asked irritably.

"I've never heard you talk so much before, it's unusual."

"These past few days have been really screwy. Everything's been going wrong. I'm just really surprised that I haven't gone insane yet."

"Give it time," Dorothy advised seriously.

Trowa couldn't help it. He started laughing.

"Don't you feel better now?"

"Yes," Trowa admitted after her stopped laughing. "Thank you. So tell me, what should I do?"

"Don't push Quatre, he'll tell you in his own time, but, considering the circumstance, I'm not sure if he will. You screwed up royally Barton."

Trowa sighed and slumped down in his chair. "I know, and I wish I could do something to make it better."

"Give it time."

Trowa raised an eyebrow. "Is that like your motto or something?"

"Something like that." Dorothy grinned. "I have lots of mottoes."

"What's your favourite?"

"Everything happens for a reason."

"That sounds like what you said to me when you woke up."

Dorothy shrugged. "It's true though. What you did had a reason behind it, even if you didn't know it. There's a reason why Quatre ran away, just as there is a reason why things in the future will happen because of your actions. You can't escape fate, so just go with the flow."

"So you're saying I shouldn't worry, it's not my fault?"

"Your actions are completely your fault, but there's a reason why *you* did it and not someone else."

Trowa thought about this. "I'm going to go find Quatre. Will you be all right alone?"

Dorothy smiled. "Give him a kiss for me." She laughed evilly as Trowa blushed and walked out of the room.

/I'm never going to live that down./ Trowa grimaced slightly then went in search of Quatre.

Unfortunately for him, the hospital was huge, but there were only a few places he could be. Trowa checked the cafeteria, knowing that Quatre would most likely not be there, and he was right. Then he decided to check the gardens, thinking he'd have more luck there.

In a small rose garden, Trowa found Quatre.

He was staring intently at a tiny yellow bud he'd picked, studying it from every angle. Trowa was suddenly reminded of that day when they first met and Quatre offered him his friendship with a yellow rose. Quatre was also thinking of that day. He knew that Trowa had entered the garden and was simply watching him. He knew every time when Trowa was near.

"Do you know that you're the only person besides Dorothy I've ever given flowers to?" Quatre looked up as Trowa approached and sat down beside him.

"No, I didn't."

"Do you know that I've only ever been in one relationship in my life?"

Trowa shook his head.

Quatre smiled. "I'm surprised, you were friends with Odin after all."

Trowa frowned. "What does he have to do with this?" /Wait … no he couldn't mean …/

"Iie, I did not date Odin." Quatre looked at Trowa in amusement as he let out a relived sigh. That would have been too much for him to handle. "But Odin does know my secret."

Trowa inhaled sharply. /Is he really going to tell me?/

Quatre looked down at the ground. "Please Trowa, what I am about to tell you goes no further than this garden. Only a few people know this, my family and my closest friends."

"And Odin."

Quatre winced. "Yes, him too, but I didn't willingly tell him, he already knew." Quatre took a deep breath and started his story.

"Last year I went to a party for my father's company. There's a special group within the company that Rashid controls called the Maganac Corp, you may have heard of them. There are forty men working within that Corp and each are considered to be family to the others. I consider them family.

"At this party the whole Corp was there and I would be meeting some of them for the first time. Some I knew, like Rashid, Ahmad, Abdoul and Auda, a few were new to the Corp.

"One of the newcomers I met for the first time at that party. He was only a few years older than me and we got along pretty well. Rashid saw how well we got along and decided to bring him over sometimes like he did Ahmad and the others. We started to spend a bit more time with each other, I introduced him to my friends and he hung out with us on occasion, but most of the time, it was only me and him.

"I fell for him, to put it simply. When he found out, he kissed me and asked me out. I was so thrilled. Then one day, he asked me to go to a party with him. It was being held by some other friends he knew. I agreed, thinking there would be no harm.

"With someone like Duo as a friend, it's hard to avoid the lure of sneaking a bit of alcohol on occasion, so it's not like I'd never drunk before, but I'd never come into contact with drugs until that night." Quatre shuddered here then steeled himself and continued.

"I had already had a few drinks before I was given my first drugged one. Things were a blur after that. He seemed to concerned about everything that happened that I didn't even consider that he could have been behind it all, so when he asked me to go to another party, I agreed. He promised that he'd try to look after me at this party, but it happened again. I was really out of it, but this time I remembered a few things. I actually tried things of my own will, or so I thought. Later I found out that what was in my drinks were drugs that inhibited will, but at the time, I had no idea.

"It happened quite a few times more before I finally refused to go to another party. He agreed. Next time I saw him, he invited me over his place, he said it was going to be just us, but every few minutes friends of his happened to 'drop by to say hi'. Of course he couldn't be a bad host and refuse to see them, so he offered drinks and everyone got talking and soon, there was a nice little party going on." Quatre struggled to contain the bitterness in his voice.

"Needless to say, I ended up on the floor. He helped me up to his room so I could rest while he party went on. He gave me another drink, just water this time, or so he said, and said he was going to stay with me for a bit. I thought it was so sweet of him." Quatre started to cry.

"Oh, Gods, Quatre." Trowa moved closer and put his arm around him, holding him close in comfort. Quatre broke down then.

"Do you have any idea what it feels like being completely helpless, Trowa? I had absolutely no control over anything then, not even myself." Quatre sobbed onto Trowa's shoulder. "The next day, I told tousan everything. He and Rashid were furious, at him, at me and most of all at themselves. They knew about every party I went to, they trusted him, he was Maganac, family and he betrayed me and them. My father's been so over-protective ever since then, everyone worries about me constantly, sometimes it's too overwhelming."

"What happened to him?" Trowa asked hesitantly.

"He's serving time for a few charges, not only mine. It turns out that I wasn't the only one of his victims at the parties."

"What kind of charges?" Quatre looked away, tears forming again and Trowa dropped the subject. He just sat cradling Quatre in his arms in silence for a while, the scent of roses surrounding them and calming them both.

"There's still one thing I don't quite get," Trowa said, frowning. "How does Odin know about this?"

Quatre's eyes hardened. "Odin was a close friend of my ex-boyfriend."

Trowa froze. Quatre's tone of voice was so cold. "Did … did Odin have anything to do with this?" he asked almost fearfully.

Quatre nodded. "Not a big part, but he was in on the game."

"A game, this was all a game to them?" Quatre nodded again. "Those sick bastards! How could anyone do that?" Trowa cut off as he felt Quatre shaking. "Quatre? Are you okay?"

Quatre nodded. "Hai, but do you mean that? Aren't you disgusted by me?"

Trowa looked horrified. "No, of course not. How could you even think that? Why should you be considered disgusting for something you had no control over?"

"Trowa." Quatre hugged the taller boy tightly. "Gomen nasai. I should never have been angry with you." Trowa could feel the tears seeping through his shirt once again.

"There's no reason to be sorry, I understand why you wouldn't want to tell me something like this." Trowa smiled reassuringly at the angel in his arms.

"Arigato, Trowa." Quatre returned his smile. "This really helped a lot."

Trowa smiled and looked around at the garden. "I know it's very beautiful here, but do you want to go back in now? There's someone waiting to see you."

Quatre looked up with wide eyes, hardly daring to believe it. "Dorothy's awake?"