Warnings: Slight angst, Kleenex beneficial for some, but not required for all. Oh yes! and...Hilde's Motives Revealed!!!...finally. =^_~=
Disclaimer: In a town called Perfect where there's a Walgreen's on every street corner, every author and authoress has their own set of Gundam pilots to love and to squeeze and to show off to all their friends. But we don't live anywhere near Perfect. *realizes she just ripped off a commercial to explain that she's not ripping off a tv show* Dangit.
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Episode Forty: Fever "When I was a child, I caught a fleeting glimpse,Out of the corner of my eye, I turned to look, but it was gone, I cannot put my finger on it now, The child is grown, the dream is gone." ~Pink Floyd, "Comfortably Numb" March 16th, 1902 The first two days Duo and Heero spent in the cottage together were bliss beyond bliss. It was as if all their worldly troubles were suspended in time--no duties, no pressures, no mission, and especially no Peacecrafts. They talked so long that their voices nearly gave out several times, and spent their evenings curled up in front of the fire with a mug of throat-soothing hot cocoa each and one warm woolen blanket to share between them. It was such an enjoyable time that Heero hardly remembered the appointment with Lord Jeffrhyss that he was missing on purpose. On the third day, he got a nasty reminder. Heero woke up with little appetite for breakfast, and he knew that the long withdrawal process he'd been dreading had finally begun. Sally, who had been checking in on them twice a day, moved out of the bed and breakfast and into one of the spare bedrooms of the cottage, and Heero explained as well as he could to her, and to Duo, about the strange smoke treatments he'd been receiving for the past four months. It didn't take Duo long to make the connection between the start of the treatments and the date of his trial, and on some level, he had always known that Heero made some kind of personal sacrifice to save him from prison, he just didn't know what until that day. To spare Heero's feelings, he opted not to make a big deal out of it, yet. In the days that followed, Heero's condition deteriorated as his system reacted to the lack of chemicals it was craving. It started as simple stomach cramps and a lack of appetite, but fatigue, dizziness, a high temperature and more severe pain soon followed. Sally took numerous blood samples and ran them through her personally-designed gauntlet of glassware and chemicals, trying to identify what it was he needed, as well as a way to alleviate his symptoms, but to little success. Once Hilde had finished smuggling Heero's belongings out of the house, she volunteered for extra duties, and she and Duo took turns sitting up with Heero and daubing his face and neck with cool cloths as he lay suffering in Duo's bed. After several days, he began slipping in and out of consciousness, and his keepers were very worried. Duo woke up on the sofa in his borrowed room, with a kink in his back and a crick in his neck, and immediately sat up and looked at the familiar scene before him. Heero was asleep but in poor shape, having been unable to eat for some time; even at rest, he was glazed in sweat, with his shirt unbuttoned to the waist and a pained expression crimping his closed eyes. Hilde saw that Duo was awake, but kept her eyes on her patient. She had been sitting upright in a hard wooden chair all night, and seemed to have enough vigilance for a hundred more nights like it. "I used to have dreams like this," she whispered. "They'd always start with the three of us, living happily somewhere...I used to dream about taking care of you both. I'd do all the cleaning, you'd do all the cooking, and Heero would have some important job somewhere...maybe a bank manager, or a city councillor or something...and I dreamt that I'd take care of you when you got sick, and that I'd be sitting by your bedsides, pressing cool cloths to your foreheads, opening and closing the curtains for you, bringing you water, just like I'm doing now. I know I could be happy if it was just the three of us. You two would have your own room, and I'd have mine, and it'd be okay...much better than choosing one of you and not seeing the other, or turning conservative and losing you both." She sighed lightly, holding back tears. "It's all gone wrong, Duo...we're being punished..." "No, we're not," Duo insisted, rising to comfort her. Satisfied that he wouldn't disturb Heero in the slightest, he sat down on the bed facing her. "This is only one man's fault, and since he's not here for us to yell at, you're blaming yourself instead." Hilde shook her head. "When I met you, I was too young to know what I wanted. When you found me last year and got me this job, I felt confused. Then I met Heero, and I saw the way you two were with each other, and suddenly my own feelings made sense. I've never really needed to get married or have children, and I'm not sure that I ever will, and that's why I convinced myself that I'd be perfectly happy living with you guys and basking in whatever glow you created together. It felt safe because I wouldn't be committing to either one of you, and yet I could admire you both from afar...and if you were...together...it meant that no other woman could have you." She sniffled and brushed at her eyes with the back of her hand. "I was being so selfish!" Duo took her hand and squeezed it, propping one foot up on the bed and wrapping his free arm around his knee. "Look...you can't call this divine retribution because it was going on long before either of us met him. His boss is the one you should be mad at. I sure as hell am..." Duo was glad of her help, but felt edgy telling her anything about Jeffrhyss, even his name. Nevertheless, once she saw how sick Heero was, she insisted on looking after him from time to time so Duo could get some sleep, and she had to be told something. "You're just saying these things because you're tired. You go on back to the house, before they notice you're not at the breakfast table. I'll do the late shift tonight, you get some rest." Hilde rose painfully from her chair, well aware of what those late nights of playing nursemaid on that stiff wooden perch were doing to her back. Massaging the side of her neck with a yawn, she looked down at Heero and sighed. "Do you think he can hear us?" Duo followed her gaze with uncertainty. Heero had been teetering back and forth on the edge between peaceful sleep and feverish delirium for the past three days, and even if Duo said something directly to him, he couldn't always understand what was being said. At the moment, he appeared to be asleep, but one could never tell. "Who knows? Even if he can hear us, it might sound like gibberish to him anyway. I had a bad fever once when I was little, and nothing I saw or heard made sense. It was real scary." Hilde leaned down and gave Heero a quick goodbye kiss on the forehead. His skin was burning hot and oddly clammy at the same time, and the natural tan he had only a week ago was blanched clean. "I wonder what he's seeing and hearing right now..." **********Heero was wandering around a plain room with plain walls, a little hungry and very bored. In the room were some chairs, but they were all too big for him to climb into. There were also two men in matching clothes standing on either side of the door, but they couldn't understand Heero and Heero couldn't understand them. The men didn't seem concerned with this, however, so Heero wasn't bothered with it either. He'd been in that little room for a long time with nothing to do. There were a few things on the walls to look at, but they were much too high. In fact, everything in the room was too high; it certainly wasn't designed with little people like Heero in mind. The table was so tall that he could walk right underneath it without touching the underside with the top of his head, so he did so. The two men chuckled and said something to each other. Heero looked up at them, but they only smirked. Heero then looked up at the table. The top of it was see-through, like a window pane, and there were a lot of boring things sitting on it--papers, books, an ink well, and a glass of water. In between two piles of paper, Heero could see a little fuzzy blob, brightly coloured in orange, yellow, white, and black. It was his little stuffed tiger, the one he brought from home. He wanted it, so he reached up to grab it, but his hand knocked against the glass and stopped. The two men laughed again. One of them walked up to the table, picked up the little tiger, and pitched it underneath to Heero. It hit the floor and bounced happily. Heero picked it up, sat down on the floor, and cuddled it, making little growling noises and marching it back and forth across an invisible line. Heero and his tiger were busily hunting imaginary rabbits when the door opened, and someone walked in. It was the man with no feet, and he came over with a 'clunk-clunk-thud, clunk-clunk-thud.' The two wooden legs and the cane always made that sound. The man spoke Heero's name in a gravelly voice and held a hand out under the table. That was another peculiar thing about the man with no feet, he only had one hand; the other was a hook. Heero obediently took the hand and crawled out from under the table, allowing himself to be led out of the room, still clutching his little stuffed tiger. They walked very slowly down a long hallway with a concrete floor. It smelled dank and musty, and there wasn't very much light. Finally, they reached a door with two more men standing beside it, wearing the same clothes as the first two men. They opened the door and entered a kind of tiny amphitheatre full of men in suits and long white coats. There was a large area of floor with a heavy desk and office chair, antiques with an ugly wax build-up, and there was a half-circle of seats behind a wooden barrier that arched up towards the back corner of the room, like a lecture hall. Almost every seat was filled, and they were all looking at Heero. It made him very nervous. He raised his tiger hand and started gnawing on his thumbnail, looking shyly up at all those pairs of eyes...studying him...evaluating him... The man with no legs pulled the hand away from Heero's mouth and gave it a little smack. Heero dropped his tiger and whimpered. "Gentlemen," the gravelly voice boomed, "this is what I brought you here to see. I have just acquired this child, and you have all been summoned here to meet him, for he represents everything we have always dreamed of achieving. No longer will we lose our best agents to personality defects, for we will be able to mould new personalities to suit our purpose. This agent will be perfect from the very beginning...obedient, efficient, incapable of error. This boy is our future." The men in the semicircle of arena seats started grumbling and murmuring, looking at Heero with disapproval. He picked up his tiger and hugged it to him for protection, made even more nervous by all the strangers talking in gibberish. Suddenly, a new voice cut through the din, snide and confident. "How exactly did you 'acquire' him? Are we going to be seeing his face on posters all over Europe now?" Heads turned all around the gallery to give unpleasant glares to a man in the back row, cloaked in darkness except for a thin plume of grey smoke. "How did you get in!?" the man with no legs shouted. Heero shrank away and shuddered; he didn't know what the man said, but he sounded angry. Heero wondered if he'd done something wrong. "This meeting was intended for my private associates, not spies from rival factions!" "Would you relax?" the shadowed man said. "You're going to give yourself a coronary. I'm not here as one of The Five, I'm here as a concerned citizen who wouldn't dream of copying your methods, this time. Frankly, I'm appalled. I mean, look at him! He's barely out of his crib and you've got him pegged as an agent already? Give the kid a break!" "Starting an agent's training this early is, thus far, the best way to guarantee success. Loyalty and stability are two things which have been sorely lacking in my recent experiments, and I intend to correct this starting today!" The room erupted into a dozen different arguments for and against what the man with no legs had said. Heero didn't like it; all those angry men yelling all at once were scaring him. He squeezed his tiger tight and tried to slip his hand away from the man's, but he wouldn't let go. The yelling got louder, and Heero's bright blue eyes began to water. He wanted his mother. He wanted to go home. "Hapo?" Heero called out in a pathetic little child's voice. He kept looking around for his mother, but she wasn't there. Heero thought then that he hadn't seen her for days. Where was she? "Hapo? Ehunak an?" Some of the men quieted themselves. One in the first row looked down the end of his nose at the boy and squinted. "Unusual...what language is he speaking?" The man with no legs looked down at his charge briefly. "I don't know. He speaks Japanese as well, but seems more comfortable with this backwater dialect. Not to worry. I'll break him of it soon enough. His energy would be better used elsewhere." "It's like nothing I've ever heard!" a second man in the gallery whispered. "Yes, let him speak! We want to hear more!" a third piped up. Now they were all staring at him, ravenously hungry scientists, the lot of them. Heero's lower lip trembled, and the first of many tears broke free and rolled down his cheek. "Hapo?" he cried sadly. "Tane kuhosipi rusuy...entura wa enkore...Hapo? Ehunak an?" He was suddenly terrified that his mother had gone home without him. She must have left him, otherwise, wouldn't she have been there? Why would she go without saying goodbye? Had he done something bad? Didn't she love him anymore? Heero started to cry. The shadowed man way in the back breathed out a big puff of smoke and clucked his tongue at the others. "Now see what you've done. You big bullies..." A few men around him chuckled, but the rest of them kept staring at little Heero with their frightening glares and contemptuous frowns, and it only made him cry harder. Soon, he couldn't stop. **********Duo wanted to wake Sally when Heero began tossing and turning fitfully, but something told him not to. A few minutes later, Heero started talking in his sleep, uttering strange sounds that Duo had never heard before. He knew that he should have called Sally in from the guest room, but again, something stopped him. Instead, he grabbed pencil and paper from the kitchen and tried to write down the mutterings. Heero looked terrible, deathly pale, slick with sweat, with deep circles under his eyes and the same mind-bending fever as he had earlier. He was tucked in bed up to his waist but was very lightly thrashing as if in the grip of a terrible nightmare, retaining at least a fraction of his dignity while being torn to shreds by delirium. His fists were twitching around handfuls of the bedsheets, his head lolled back and forth on his pillow, and his breathing was uncomfortably ragged. Both eyes were clenched shut in some kind of pain, and he kept whispering the same words over and over. ".....tane kuhosipi rusuy.....entura wa enkore.......tane kuhosipi rusuy..." Duo scribbled madly, trying to capture the verbal essence of Heero's dream before it vanished, but as soon as he had it copied down, he couldn't stand to see Heero in such agony, and shook him awake. Heero very nearly choked as he was dragged back to reality; he shot straight up, eyes wide, and Duo jerked away sharply, very much startled. It took them both a moment to calm down, after which Heero gave Duo a tired and questioning look. "You were having a nightmare," Duo said softly. Heero nodded, unusually coherent for once, and looked at himself and the overall state of his health. "From the look of things, I'm still in it." He tossed off the sheets and swung his legs over the side of the bed, and just as he was looking down at a pair of trousers that he didn't think he was wearing before, and wondering what day it was, Duo spoke up again. "What were you dreaming about?" Heero propped himself up heavily and struggled to remember whatever vision Duo was talking about, but it had long since turned to dust. "I have no idea." "Well...you were talking in your sleep...and it didn't sound like English..." The same force that stopped Duo from calling Sally in from the next room also stopped him from showing Heero the paper on which was written the best approximation of his words that Duo could make. He touched a hand to the boy's forehead while slipping the paper into his pocket with his other hand, and Heero shut his eyes and wobbled a bit. "You've still got a bad fever. Do you think you could manage a little juice for breakfast?" Heero shook his head weakly. "No? ...okay, I'll bring Sally in as soon as she wakes up." He helped Heero lie back down and tucked him in, but the brave face he'd been putting on all week was wearing thinner every day. Heero told them to expect some kind of illness, but it couldn't be over soon enough; instead of getting better, it was getting worse. Duo shut the bedroom door very quietly on his way out to the kitchen. **********Starting the night of the hunt ball, Relena isolated herself from the rest of the household. No one except Doris was allowed near her bedroom suite, and she was only permitted to leave the girl's meals on a tray outside her door. Treize showed little interest in approaching her to ask what was wrong, for he had called in a telephone repairman at his own expense and was spending the lion's share of his time on it. Dorothy tried once, the day after the ball when Relena hadn't shown up for breakfast or lunch, but Relena politely told her that she needed time to think, alone. Otto avoided the situation altogether because, in his opinion, if Heero disappeared and broke her heart, it was her own fault for trusting a total stranger. The only other instruction Relena left with the staff was that the morning mail should be brought directly to her room without delay. Each day, she separated out the household bills and the social invitations, and fairly often, there was one letter left over. Someone was still writing to Heero, and she kept everything with his name on it in a dresser drawer, safe from prying eyes; on this day, however, the leftover letter wasn't what she expected. It was addressed to Duo. Unlike Heero's letters, which were sent directly to Sutherby Hall in Hampshire, this letter was sent to Bridlewood and was forwarded post haste. It didn't appear to have had a smooth journey, however, as it was missing the postcode and spent nearly two months bouncing from one sorting office to another, judging by the postmarks, stamped messages, and hand-written notes all over the envelope. Relena decided to put it in the drawer with the others, and took one last look at the postmark before doing so. I wonder who he knows in Ireland, she thought on a reflex. No, I don't wonder. I don't care, not one bit. She sat on her bed and resumed her much-needed thinking, but a recurrent theme kept popping into her head no matter how hard she tried to shove it out--the mental image of Heero running away with Violet. The more she thought about it, the more her eyes shifted to the dresser drawer with Duo's letter in it, and an even more disturbing picture formed. She was just contemplating the implications of that picture when she heard frantic voices approaching her heavy chamber door. "...left orders not to be disturbed by anyone!" "This is too important! She needs to know!" "I shouldn't have even told you! How is it that you always, always know who's got something to hide!?" The voices were quelled, and a soft knocking took their place. "Miss Relena?" It sounded like Quatre, but Relena didn't feel like talking to anyone, even him. "We need to speak with you. May we come in?" Weighed against the prospect of dwelling on Duo and Violet, however, having a few visitors in suddenly didn't seem that bad. "Come in," she said, getting up tiredly. The door swung open with a squeak and a groan, revealing Trowa, Quatre, and Hilde, who had formed some kind of inseparable clique while Relena wasn't looking. They filed in and lined up before her, like good servants always did, but Quatre broke formation within seconds and stood directly in front of her. "We know where Heero is. Are you interested?" The deliberation was brief. "Not really." "Please, you can't leave it like this," said Quatre. "You have every right to be angry at him for vanishing like that, but you also have a right to know where you stand. You need closure. I just found out this minute that he's in one of the cottages on the grounds, and that he's fallen ill. It could be an act, I really don't know...but don't you owe it to yourself to confront him?" Relena's eyes darted to the dresser, and again she thought of the letter to Duo inside. She considered asking them, her loyal servants, whether they had seen the girl named Violet at the ball, whether they had noticed anything strange about her, whether they had seen the way Heero paid attention to her, but thought again, and decided the answer wouldn't be worth the effort of asking the question. "I think I already know where I stand. If he wants to apologize, he can come and see me." Quatre bowed stiffly from the waist. "M'lady..." He led the delegation out and shut the bedroom door, then turned immediately to Hilde. "Take us to him," he whispered. "I should've kept my mouth shut," Hilde sputtered. "This could already get me into so much trouble..." "Now that I know he's here, it's only a matter of time until I find him," Quatre replied harshly. "There are things that need to be settled with him, and if she won't do it, I will. All I'm asking is for you to skim a few hours off my search time so I can get back indoors with Trowa where I know I'm safe, but make no mistake, I can find him with or without your help." Hilde glanced over at Trowa for support, but he shook his head. "Don't look at me. When he gets in a mood like this, there's no prying that bone from between his teeth. Just roll with it." The housemaid sighed and turned down the hall towards the stairs. "Alright, follow me..." **********Duo sat by Heero's bedside for even more uncountable minutes and seconds while he waited for Sally's latest status report. The Doctor had set up a temporary laboratory in the sitting room, with beakers and bottles and jars of brown and white powders, but all her paraphernalia couldn't bring her any closer to a solution. In the meantime, Heero had fallen unconscious again, and while they were alone, Duo indulged himself in a detailed study of his friend, secure in the knowledge that Heero wasn't about to wake up and shoo him away. He had picked up one of Heero's hands and was poring over his palm, tracing every line with his own fingers. Night after night while they were apart, Duo had dreamed of those hands. They were two of the most captivating things about Heero, solid steel instruments of death that were still capable of such unerring gentleness, proof that his humanity hadn't been totally stripped from him yet. Duo wrapped both of his hands around that one of Heero's and squeezed it. The boy's hand was getting cold as he plunged from fever to chills. Duo pressed the cool hand against the side of his face and shut his eyes in worry and grief. In the distance, he heard a knock at the door, and dropped the hand back on the bed in an instant. Sally was closer, so she got to the door first, but Duo left the bedroom at the same time to see who it was. He almost wished he'd stayed in the bedroom when Sally stepped aside to reveal their guests. "Whaddaya think you're doing!? This place was supposed to be a secret!" Hilde slouched and picked at her fingernails. "They made me tell! They were getting ready to break out the thumbscrews, I swear! What else could I do?" "Morning, Duo," Trowa said, scooting inside and scoping out the brunch possibilities. "I need to talk to Heero," Quatre said pointedly while Hilde followed Trowa inside. "Yeah, well, he's not in a talking mood," Duo replied. "He's sick, and you two shouldn't be here." "If he's that sick, maybe you and Hilde shouldn't be here either." Duo winced, moaned, slumped, and crashed against the doorframe, all in about three seconds. "Alright, alright, get in! Just don't let anybody see you!" he griped, yanking Quatre in by the arm and slamming the door. Soon the five of them were standing around in the kitchen, waiting for the show to start. Hilde and Trowa were looking curiously at Sally, who had her arms folded over a simple blouse, under a blue suede belt, over a pair of tailored trousers in a blue-grey gabardine. Being the open-minded, progressive youngsters that they were, the two of them were mildly surprised to see a woman in pants, but not offended. Quatre ignored all three of them and stared at Duo, waiting for him to explain himself. Duo exchanged hopeless looks with Sally and shrugged. "I guess you want to have a look at him first." He led them to his bedroom, opened the door, and let Trowa and Quatre see for themselves. The two boys gaped in shock at the sight. Even in the dim light tinted blue by the curtains, Heero looked gaunt and pale beyond their worst expectations. Quatre dropped the veil of anger he'd been hiding under all morning and finally felt the thick fog of worry blanketing the cottage. He clutched a hand to his heart and staggered forward to examine him more closely. "What's wrong with him?" Sally gave Duo the nod to tell them whatever he liked. "I'll just be a minute. I've got a different mixture of herbs I want to try." She excused herself to her makeshift laboratory, and Hilde wandered over to the sofa under the window. Duo wrung his braid as he looked over the audience of two in front of him. There's no way to explain this but with the truth, he decided, swallowing. "Remember when all that stuff came out about Treize, and about Lord Peacecraft's death? And you, Quat, you just guessed last week that Heero was sent here specifically to investigate?" Trowa nodded numbly, never taking his eyes off Heero, while Quatre stood still as stone. "What are you saying...that this is Treize's idea of retaliation?" "Not...exactly. He was ordered to watch Treize, but not by the authorities. He's a spy, working for a big international conglomerate, and they wanted information on Treize so they sent him here to make friends with Relena, because it was the only way he could keep an eye on the jerk without drawing attention to himself. It got out of hand with the engagement and everything, and he never intended to hurt her, but he didn't have much of a choice." Quatre reached down and gingerly felt around Heero's wrist for a pulse, only to draw back uncomfortably when he actually found it. "But why is he so sick?" Just as Quatre spoke, Sally returned with a red satin pouch embroidered with a colourful dragon and sat down next to the bed. "I can field that one. Since approximately early November of last year, Heero's employer has been administering some kind of drug to him, for what, I don't know. Without a sample, I can't be sure even what chemical it is, but last week, Heero rebelled against his organization by not returning for any more doses, and this is the result. Whatever he was being given is highly addictive, and he's been suffering withdrawal symptoms for several days. I'm doing what I can to make him more comfortable, but at the moment, that's all I can do." Trowa had to sit down. "This is...unfathomable! Spies, drugs, secret organizations? It defies belief!" "I was so awful to him," Quatre moaned, half-burying his face in his hands. "When I caught him drinking on the morning of the hunt, I chewed him out for toying with Relena's feeling...I didn't imagine anything like this...I couldn't have...oh, it can't be true, it just can't!" "But it is," a stranger's voice said confidently. They all turned their heads to the bedroom door, all except Heero. A figure in white stepped through the shadows and into the dim pool of light. It was Wufei. "It's all true, and I promise you, it gets much worse." He turned to Duo and smirked. "And lock your front door next time." **********Treize had no qualms about letting Dorothy listen in on his telephone conversations, because few of them were conducted in either English or Italian. The one he was engrossed in while she happened to be passing by the lounge, she judged, must have been very good news to result in such a gleefully evil grin on his face. Curious and bored, she sauntered in and plunked herself down in the chair opposite him, listening to the one-sided banter in a foreign tongue. Eventually Treize hung up the phone and smiled. "You're going to love this." "Well, I'd better," the Baroness quipped. "There's even less to do out here in the country than there was in London." "I know where the gold is." That got Dorothy's attention at light speed. "Where is it!?" Treize chuckled at his own ingenuity. "It never left Bridlewood. Four of my men were watching the estate long after the others left and saw that boy, Wufei, leaving the property late last night. He seemed to have been hiding in the carpenter's cottage all this time." Dorothy gasped. "But...how does that tell you where the gold is?" "Simple. My men converged on the cottage, and found the carpenter there alone. They said he was quite unhelpful at first, but after some...gentle persuasion...he revealed the location to them." "You...they didn't...kill him, did they...?" Treize was horribly slow to answer, and his smile wanted to do all the talking for him. "No, he'll live...but he'll also learn to be a little more polite to guests that come knocking at his door." Dorothy looked away uncomfortably. Sure, the old carpenter was uncouth, lower class, and all the rest of it, but she couldn't imagine anyone harming him, not even for gold. It made Quatre's gold especially more attractive because if she played her cards right, she could still make out like a bandit without personally spilling anyone's blood. "Well...where is it, then?" "Ah, now if I told you that, you wouldn't need me, would you?" Dorothy scowled, and Treize laughed heartily as she got up and marched out of the lounge in a newly-formed sour mood. It was turning out to be a wonderful day after all. And now, he thought, picking up the phone again, I'll make another inquiry as to whether or not Captain Peacecraft has had his little 'mishap' yet. That would really make my day... **********It took the rookies less than a minute to figure out that Wufei was much more than their friendly neighbourhood interior decorator. Duo was just glad to see that the boy had brought the rest of his belongings, especially his box of recipe cards, but Wufei's stern expression and severe tone erased what little good cheer was left in the cottage. Wufei set his duffel bag and Duo's carpet bag on the walnut floor and straightened his white buttoned suit. "Jeffrhyss has his men patrolling the immediate ten miles around the Peacecraft estate. He's looking for you." Duo's eyes bulged. "What!? He wasn't supposed to come after us if Heero left the house of his own accord!" "I met your 'professor' friend," Wufei snorted. "Your little plan didn't work. Jeffrhyss wants Heero back in whatever condition he's in, and he wants him now. That Giorgenson person is running all over the county throwing Jeffrhyss' agents off the scent to keep your hideout a secret, but he can't keep it up forever. I checked in with Jeffrhyss on my way to find you, and he instructed me to inform him if I found either of you, but...considering our past partnership...I don't see that it's immediately necessary." Duo slouched and sighed. "Thanks, man. I owe you several." Wufei raised an eyebrow. "No argument here." "Is this someone we should know about?" Trowa asked, obviously meaning Jeffrhyss. "He calls himself Lord Jeffrhyss," Wufei said. "Heero and I work for him, but on different assignments. He's a powerful and dangerous man, and now that you know of his existence, you're all in danger too." Quatre felt Hilde shiver with fear across the room and went to the sofa to comfort her. Duo pulled a chair up to Trowa's, sat down, and gave him a sympathetic look. Sally had no time to waste worrying about their collective circumstance, as she was busily pulling glass vials out of the red satin pouch and mixing their contents with a mortar and pestle. Wufei stared at her. "I don't believe we've been introduced." "Sally Poole, nice to meet you," she said without looking up. Wufei looked her over more carefully, especially her eyes, and her bottles and jars, and lastly the red satin pouch, glaring a highly calculated glare. "Ni jiao shen-me ming-zi?" Sally paused, looked up at him briefly, then went back to grinding her ingredients as if she couldn't understand him. "Beg your pardon?" "You heard me," Wufei said crossly, "and you understood as well. I could see it in your eyes. Who are you?" The Doctor sighed with exasperation and thought quickly. Might as well get it over with. I don't have time to waste on mind games. "My father's name is Po, and he comes from Penglai. Wo shi Zhongguo ren. Happy now?" Again, she went back to work. Now they were all staring at her. A flurry of questions hit her, about as tactfully as she expected. "You're Chinese?" "Why don't you look it?" "And why didn't you tell us sooner?" "Can you teach me to make won-ton soup?" Sally couldn't help but feel motherly amusement at their curiosity, but Wufei still hadn't offered an opinion. From the look on his face, it wasn't going to be a happy one. "You dishonour your ancestors by adopting a Western name, yangren." The faces of Duo, Trowa, Quatre, and Hilde fell all at once. Sally wasn't about to be told off by a smarmy teenager who didn't have all the facts, though. "Look...I'm only half Chinese, and my parents really couldn't give a flying fig what I do with my name, and I'm sure all my dead ancestors don't have much to say about it either. I had to take another name because..." She gave up on the mortar and pestle, putting them down until her story was finished. "I left home wanting to be a doctor, but it's pretty miserable trying to find a school that takes girls in any field, least of all medicine. Once I paid for my degree and all my equipment, I hardly had any money left for non-essentials like food and lodging, so I had to take what space I could get. My home and my office are in a rough corner of London that just happened to have a man named Po already living there, only he ran an opium den out of his basement. I was already struggling to make a living, and getting myself confused with the neighbourhood drug pusher wouldn't have helped my trade any, so I fudged my name a little bit. What's the harm?" "...well..." Wufei still didn't look happy, but if her deception served a higher purpose, perhaps it was marginally excusable. "Maybe there is none." "Thank you," Sally heaved, picking up the mortar and pestle again. "One good thing about living in that rat's nest, I got to practice on a lot of withdrawal cases, and it's prepared me well to treat Heero. Some of his symptoms, I've seen many times before." Duo sat forward on the edge of his chair, wringing his braid again. "You think it's opium addiction?" "I wish I could say for sure," Sally said, "but only some of the symptoms are consistent with opium withdrawal. Looking at the whole picture makes me suspect there were other ingredients mixed into whatever Jeffrhyss was forcing on him. If only I had a sample of it..." A grim silence fell upon the bedroom. Getting a sample of Jeffrhyss' top-secret obedience narcotic would be like trying to tie a bell around the neck of a forty-foot cat with poison claws. Blindly treating each individual withdrawal symptom was hardly the most efficient way to make Heero well, but it would have to do. As she had been doing for days already, Sally continued blending the leaves and powders from her red satin pouch in search of the magic bullet that would bring a quicker end to the boy's suffering. Softening slightly, Wufei perused her selection of bottled herbs from over her shoulder. "What have you been giving him?" "Haung-chin for detoxification, Pu-gong-ying to cleanse the blood, Da-quing-ye to lower his fever, and some Dang-shen root, because he looked like he needed it," Sally said. "And now that his fever's broken, I'm substituting in Bai-guo-ye and Ma-huang." Wufei looked down at the mixture and frowned. "Ma-huang? Are you sure that administering ephedrine is the right choice? Have you checked for signs of hypertension? How can you mix an alkaloid with a compound intended to stimulate circulation to the brain without knowing whether natural circulation has been compromised?" Now they were all staring at Wufei instead. This time, Sally raised an eyebrow. "Secret agent, decorator, part-time herbalist...you are a jack of all trades, aren't you?" "I'm just making sure you don't screw up and cost our organization one of its most valuable agents," Wufei snarled, stomping over to a bare corner of the room in a huff. Maybe it was all the eyes singeing away his resolve particle by particle, or maybe it was guilt, but he half-turned and offered his advice a little more nicely. "Put that stuff away and use Sheng-di-huang instead," he said quietly. Sally smirked at her satin bag. "I would if I had some..." The mood in the room deflated further. Not knowing why, Wufei looked at Duo, and was met by a hopeful, desperate stare. He'd seen that look before, right after Wufei had ratted him out in court about kissing Heero by the railroad tracks. For as much as he thought they were deviant weirdos, the pair of them, Wufei was not immune to the hurt in Duo's eyes, because he knew what it was like to lose one's best friend and soul mate. "I can get some for you," he told Sally over his shoulder. Duo smiled at the gesture. Over by the window, Quatre was feeling like they'd all worn out their welcome, himself in particular, after the way he'd railed on Heero for what turned out to be no reason at all. "Maybe...we ought to get out of the way," he said in Trowa's general direction, "let Heero rest...let Sally work..." "We have got work of our own to do," Hilde added gently," and there's not much we can do here right now..." Trowa and Duo got up from their chairs simultaneously and faced each other. Behind eyes of normally the most joyful emerald, Trowa was in a dense fog, still trying to assimilate the torrent of information, and he still wasn't sure who he could trust. "No more secrets," he said. Duo nodded solemnly and watched the three of them file out, leaving Sally and Wufei in the suddenly less crowded bedroom. Sally was both impressed and unimpressed by the upstart, smart-mouthed boy herbalist, and showed it by keeping her back to him and continuing her work. Duo retreated to the sofa, leaving Wufei more or less alone with her mighty ego, and again, not knowing why, Wufei felt compelled to be gracious about it and rebuild the feeble bridge between them. "Penglai, hm? That's in Shandong province, correct?" "Mm-hm," Sally hummed. Almost imperceptibly, Wufei slouched. "I've always wanted to see the northern country...is it beautiful?" "Very." A tiny moan captured their attention, and soon after, Heero magically turned his head to face her, his eyes no more than thin slits ringed in darkness. "...knew you...weren't British..." he whispered between breaths. Faster than cheetahs, Duo was crouched at the opposite side of the bed, grinning. Sally gave her patient a good-natured smirk. "I shouldn't have expected to fool you for one minute." Heero tried to smile, then winced and clutched a hand to his waist. "Is the pain back?" He nodded. "I'll get you some more of that Lion's Tail, it helped last time." She went back to the sitting room, and Duo helped Heero prop himself up against a stack of pillows. Duo saw that Wufei was looking for a tactful escape to fetch the herbs Sally needed, glanced briefly at Heero, and begged his attention. "Can you take a message to Lord Jeffrhyss on your way back, without telling him where we are?" Wufei thought about it. "I can concoct a plausible story to explain it, I'm sure. Duo looked expectantly at Heero. This is your chance. Tell him you quit. Tell him you're never going near Jeffrhyss again. Tell him this whole scheme of his was a stupid idea from the start, and you'll see him in hell! Tell him! Heero took a deep breath, corralling his remaining strength. "Tell him I'm on strike." Duo gawked. "On what?" Wufei said, befuddled. "On str--.....it's a concept," Heero said with a shrug. "It means I'm not going back to work until the conditions of my employment are drastically improved." "Heero, back up!" Duo exclaimed. "What happened to all that stuff we talked about? Like how this was your one chance to get rid of Jeffrhyss for good, so we could get on with our lives!? We spent hours on this! Why are you caving in now!?" Heero tugged Duo a little closer and leaned back on the boy's shoulder. "He's already going to be furious with me for disappearing. I...just don't think I should exacerbate a situation that's already out of control. He'd only take it out on you, and you have no idea how cruel he can be." Duo's puppy dog eyes had no effect on Heero as he looked back at Wufei and gave him his decision. "Tell him what I said. Those are my final words." Wufei conceded to Heero's wishes and promised to relay the message as it was given to him. On his way out, he also told Sally he'd try to obtain a sample of the narcotic blend from Jeffrhyss' compound, although he had no idea where it was or what it looked like. Once he was gone, Duo sighed miserably and leaned his head against Heero's. "I thought we agreed. You were going to quit. And don't give me that song and dance about protecting me from his almighty wrath anymore. I also thought you knew that I can take care of myself now." Heero fell silent again, as he drifted back into a dazed semi-consciousness, still sitting up and leaning back against Duo. He always looked so irritatingly innocent just when Duo wanted to throttle him. Dammit, why'd you have to do that? You may never get another shot at escaping this rotten excuse for a life! You should've jumped on it! By the time Sally returned with the dried Lion's Tail leaves, Heero was asleep again. Duo laid him back down and tucked him in, then went and sulked deeply into the sofa to prolong his snit as long as possible. Sally went back to her work in the sitting room, and with nothing else to do for the rest of the afternoon, Duo was desperately craving a nap, especially to prepare himself for the long night ahead. No matter how he positioned himself on the sofa, however, he couldn't sleep with the midday sun beating down on him from under the bottom hem of the curtains. He found himself very hungry for the obvious alternative. Being careful not to disturb Heero, he curled up next to him on the bed, on top of the covers, carefully snatching a pillow for himself. He laid comfortably on his right side, so he could watch Heero until he fell asleep. What really cast a dark cloud over him now, more than his friend being weak and sick all the time, was the worrisome thought that he had just thrown away his only hope of a normal life. In his last wakeful moments, Duo prayed for a second chance. |
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Next, in Episode Forty-One: Strange as it may seem, Lord Jeffrhyss isn't the least bit worried about Heero's rebellious attitude, and there must be a reason why. Likewise, Treize isn't bothered about getting his hands on the Peacecraft gold just yet. Both of them are waiting for something, and only they know what that something is, for now. Heero's recovery continues, but takes a disturbing turn that has everyone questioning his loyalties, and Noin adds her own strategy to the cause.
Another disclaimer: It may turn out that I don't know jack about Chinese herbal remedies, so please DON'T try to treat your own fever, headache, stomachache, thinning hair, pidgeon toes, or any other ailment with the herbs I mentioned unless you get the thumbs-up from your doctor. Having said that, there's a lot to think about in this episode! =^_^= And you'll have a few days to think about it...*looks at calendar*...for we shall resume on March 25th.
NOW THEN...just to make sure you're paying attention, it's Quiz Time. =^_~= That mysterious language Heero was speaking? It ain't Japanese. Identify the language correctly, and you get a gold star. If you get that far, you may find a way to translate the words he was mumbling in his sleep. (The truth IS out there.) Give me the general gist of what he was saying, and you get two gold stars. And just for a bonus, remember the words painted on the door to Giorgenson's office? Correctly identify what those words mean, plus Heero's native tongue, plus a rough translation of his words, and you get THREE gold stars. Make me proud, people. If you think you know the answers, send them to me at koujonemitsugi@hotmail.com, or use the feedback form on my website. Get those stars! =^_~=