Part 3
Heero was waiting for him when he returned to the safe house.
The other pilot was sitting on the couch in what was, for him, a somewhat relaxed manner. Others might have described him by saying he was lounging, but Duo had trouble reconciling any word that suggested laziness or relaxation with his image of Heero. He had obviously been waiting for Duo's arrival, and he wasted no time in asking, "Well? What's the report on Wing?"
"Well, it's gonna be a little while yet. The joints need to be worked on, and they found a glitch in the computer system."
Sharp, blue eyes were drilling into him, and Duo felt himself starting to squirm. He wasn't sure if Heero suspected that he had tampered with the system, or whether this was just his guilty conscience tormenting him, but the look in the other pilot's eyes seemed accusing. He tried to comfort himself by thinking that he hadn't actually _lied_ to Heero. Yet.
/It's for his own good,/ he told himself firmly. /Once Wing's finished, he'll start piloting again, even if he's not ready. It's not like I'm destroying Wing or anything; I'm just buying him time./
"Well," he said quickly, "I'm gonna go upstairs and chill, 'kay? It's been a long day." And he was gone before Heero could answer. It was dumb to leave so quickly, and he knew it, but he had to escape that burning blue gaze. The guilt was back in force.
Once he had reached his own room and was free for those blazing eyes, he calmed down a bit. The word apoptosis came back to his mind, and he considered simply asking Heero what it meant, but quickly dismissed that idea. Most likely, Heero would refuse to tell him, and then the other pilot would know that Duo had messed with his computer system. He couldn't ask the other pilots for fear Heero would hear. That left him on his own.
~*~*~
The small clock read midnight when Wufei finally went to bed and left Duo alone in the living room to conduct his search. It was not that he had anything to be ashamed of, but since he wasn't currently attending school, the other pilots might think it odd if he started randomly searching the dictionary.
The problem was that the dictionary didn't help. He searched through the entire A section, questioning his memory of the spelling of the word the whole time, but for all his efforts, the word refused to be found. Finally, he gave up and put the dictionary back.
As he stared around the room, considering where to look next, his eyes fell on a stack of books. Wufei, who was always looking for ways to go back to his scholarly way of life, had brought a pile of text books with him and left them in the living room. No doubt, some of them had come from high school libraries, and Wufei had simply never returned them, probably deeming it not worth the effort considering the short length of time he would be staying there.
Duo brightened. If the word was obscure and technical, the dictionary wouldn't have it, but one of these books might. Grabbing the physics book, which was, in his opinion, the most logical place to start, Duo flipped through to the glossary.
Two text books later, as he sat with a biology book on his lap, Duo found what he was looking for. His mouth went dry and his blood ran cold as he read the definition.
Apoptosis: Programmed cell death brought about by signals that trigger the activation of a cascade of "suicide" proteins in the cells destined to die. (1)
Cell suicide? Why would there be an operation named after that? Unless. . . Duo looked back at the page and mentally substituted "Heero" in place of the word "cell" in the first part of the definition.
Suddenly, Heero's self-destruction made sense. The definition answered several questions, but raised several more. Why would Heero get orders to kill himself? Were such order so important that they warranted an operation code name? How could anyone claim to have that much power over another person? Why would Heero follow such orders?
Duo suddenly felt sick to his stomach. Closing the book, he carefully replaced it in the stack. Then, turning off the lights, he headed up to bed. On the way past Heero's room, he stopped and looked in. The other pilot was sleeping soundly, unaware of his discovery. Duo tore himself away from the doorway and went to his own room, throwing himself on the bed. Sleep wasn't going to come easily that night.
This definition comes out of to glossary in my biology text book, so I'd better site it properly. Campbell, Neil A., Jane B. Reece, and Lawrence G. Mitchell, Biology: Fifth Edition, Menlo Park: Addison Wesley Longman Inc., 1999
Heero was waiting for him when he returned to the safe house.
The other pilot was sitting on the couch in what was, for him, a somewhat relaxed manner. Others might have described him by saying he was lounging, but Duo had trouble reconciling any word that suggested laziness or relaxation with his image of Heero. He had obviously been waiting for Duo's arrival, and he wasted no time in asking, "Well? What's the report on Wing?"
"Well, it's gonna be a little while yet. The joints need to be worked on, and they found a glitch in the computer system."
Sharp, blue eyes were drilling into him, and Duo felt himself starting to squirm. He wasn't sure if Heero suspected that he had tampered with the system, or whether this was just his guilty conscience tormenting him, but the look in the other pilot's eyes seemed accusing. He tried to comfort himself by thinking that he hadn't actually _lied_ to Heero. Yet.
/It's for his own good,/ he told himself firmly. /Once Wing's finished, he'll start piloting again, even if he's not ready. It's not like I'm destroying Wing or anything; I'm just buying him time./
"Well," he said quickly, "I'm gonna go upstairs and chill, 'kay? It's been a long day." And he was gone before Heero could answer. It was dumb to leave so quickly, and he knew it, but he had to escape that burning blue gaze. The guilt was back in force.
Once he had reached his own room and was free for those blazing eyes, he calmed down a bit. The word apoptosis came back to his mind, and he considered simply asking Heero what it meant, but quickly dismissed that idea. Most likely, Heero would refuse to tell him, and then the other pilot would know that Duo had messed with his computer system. He couldn't ask the other pilots for fear Heero would hear. That left him on his own.
~*~*~
The small clock read midnight when Wufei finally went to bed and left Duo alone in the living room to conduct his search. It was not that he had anything to be ashamed of, but since he wasn't currently attending school, the other pilots might think it odd if he started randomly searching the dictionary.
The problem was that the dictionary didn't help. He searched through the entire A section, questioning his memory of the spelling of the word the whole time, but for all his efforts, the word refused to be found. Finally, he gave up and put the dictionary back.
As he stared around the room, considering where to look next, his eyes fell on a stack of books. Wufei, who was always looking for ways to go back to his scholarly way of life, had brought a pile of text books with him and left them in the living room. No doubt, some of them had come from high school libraries, and Wufei had simply never returned them, probably deeming it not worth the effort considering the short length of time he would be staying there.
Duo brightened. If the word was obscure and technical, the dictionary wouldn't have it, but one of these books might. Grabbing the physics book, which was, in his opinion, the most logical place to start, Duo flipped through to the glossary.
Two text books later, as he sat with a biology book on his lap, Duo found what he was looking for. His mouth went dry and his blood ran cold as he read the definition.
Apoptosis: Programmed cell death brought about by signals that trigger the activation of a cascade of "suicide" proteins in the cells destined to die. (1)
Cell suicide? Why would there be an operation named after that? Unless. . . Duo looked back at the page and mentally substituted "Heero" in place of the word "cell" in the first part of the definition.
Suddenly, Heero's self-destruction made sense. The definition answered several questions, but raised several more. Why would Heero get orders to kill himself? Were such order so important that they warranted an operation code name? How could anyone claim to have that much power over another person? Why would Heero follow such orders?
Duo suddenly felt sick to his stomach. Closing the book, he carefully replaced it in the stack. Then, turning off the lights, he headed up to bed. On the way past Heero's room, he stopped and looked in. The other pilot was sleeping soundly, unaware of his discovery. Duo tore himself away from the doorway and went to his own room, throwing himself on the bed. Sleep wasn't going to come easily that night.
This definition comes out of to glossary in my biology text book, so I'd better site it properly. Campbell, Neil A., Jane B. Reece, and Lawrence G. Mitchell, Biology: Fifth Edition, Menlo Park: Addison Wesley Longman Inc., 1999