Chapter Three
Two months had passed since the five women had joined the Preventers, and Earth and space were still at peace. Things had been fairly quiet leaving the women a chance to get to know the people they were working with. It didn't take long to realize that Chi and Wufei were not to be left in the same room together without chaperones or else there would be carnage. They were just too different. Cleo and Heero got along well just fine, and Chi and Senshi seemed to fit in easily with the close-knit group Hilde, Duo, Kirou and Tenshi had formed.
Chi sat in the cockpit of an old Aries suit doing a system check, humming quietly to herself. Other than Heero and Howard she was the only one in the hangar. The mood was quiet, peaceful, "HEY CHI," completely ruined.
With a low growl, Chi got up and poked her head out of the open cockpit door and looked down. Standing directly below her, dresses in civvies and wearing a shit-eating grin was Duo. "Can I help you?"
"I'm running into town to get some stuffs, wondering if you wanted to come."
"Duo, as my presence in the hangar may have given away, I have a job and am doing it... unlike some people." She said, looking pointedly at him.
"Hey chill girl. I'm not slacking off. I was early shift today, got off three hours ago. I thought you had early today as well. We normally have the same shift."
"I switched with Ally this morning, she wasn't feeling too hot."
"Damn, so that's a no for going into town?"
"Unless you want to explain why I went AWOL, then yeah that's a no."
"Too bad. Do you want me to pick you up something?"
"Ooo, could you pick me up a bottle of coke?"
"No prob girly. I'll see you later."
"See yeah Duo." Chi called as she ducked back into the cockpit.
She went back to her job, quietly humming as continued the system check. She could hear the faint noise and see the sparks over where Heero and Howard, but other than that everything was quiet. She stopped humming when she saw a quick flash of fire. "What the fuck?" She demanded, poking her head out of the cockpit and looking around. Nothing seemed out of order, nothing was on fire. Drawing her eyebrows down in confusion, she ducked back into the suit. Maybe it was just a trick of the light. She had just sat down when a vision of an explosion and Duo's battered body flashed before her eyes.
Chi gasped and gripped the armrests. "No..." She moaned. "No, not again." Once her head cleared she hopped on the lift line and dropped to the ground.
"Chi are you okay?" Howard asked when he caught sight of the distressed woman. Chi just ignored him and bolted out of the hangar at top speed.
"Garage, he's going to be headed to the garage." She mumbled to herself as she ran across the compound.
She entered the garage just as Duo was starting up the SUV he and Hilde shared. "Duo! WAIT!" She yelled.
Duo grinned and rolled down the window. "Hey girly, you decided..." His grin automatically dropped when he saw her distresses look. "Hey what's wrong Chi?"
Chi ran up to the vehicle, tears brimming her eyes. "Duo, don't go into town. Wait until tomorrow. Please." She pleaded.
"Chi, what's going on?" Duo demanded.
"Just trust me. I can't explain, but if you go into town today you'll killed."
"Chi..."
"Promise me Duo!" Chi yelled.
"Hey, hey, calm down. I won't go."
Chi breathed a sigh of relief and dropped her head into her hands, taking a deep shuddering breath.
"Hey, you going to be okay?" Duo asked quietly.
"Yeah, I'll be fine." Chi replied distantly. "I... I need to get back to the hangar, Heero and Howard are probably wondering where I am."
"Let me walk you back."
"No I'm fine." Chi insisted. She hadn't even taken five steps before she crumpled into a heap on the floor.
"CHI!!!" Duo yelled, jumping out of the SUV and rushing to the fallen woman. "Come on Chi wake up. Wake up girly." He pleaded, holding the violently shaking woman off of the hard cement.
"Duo?" A voice asked.
Duo turned to see Quatre standing in the doorway looking at them with a peculiar expression. "Duo, what's going on?" He asked.
"I don't know!" Duo cried in frustration. "She just comes running in here begging me not to go into town and then collapses and I can't wake her up!"
"Come on get up. We'll take her to Sally."
"Sally isn't here. She went on a mission with Fei and some of the others."
"Hilde has medical training right?"
"Yeah..."
"Then we'll take her to Hilde. Come on get up. Freaking out isn't going to help her any."
Duo nodded and got to his feet careful not to jostle Chi too much.
They got odd looks as they made their way across the compound over to the main building, but Duo didn't care. He couldn't lose another friend, especially not someone he hadn't gotten the chance to know well. He was dimly aware of Quatre calling Hilde on her cell phone, but he was too busy trying to keep Chi from falling out of his arms, her body still going through violent tremors that were practically shaking her out of his arms.
They made it down to the medical wing and were immediately swarmed by doctors asking questions and trying to take Chi from Duo. Duo held on stubbornly, and only let go when they brought a gurney for him to place her down on.
"What happened to her?" One of the nurses asked.
"She just collapsed." Quatre told him, leaving out the part about her telling Duo not to go into town. They didn't need to know that, they wouldn't know what to do with that information.
"Has anything like this happened before?"
"Not that we know of, we've only known her for two months."
"Is she on any medications, or has any allergies?"
"I don't know."
The nurse shooed them out into the waiting room, clearly annoyed with their lack of knowledge.
Quatre resisted the urge to stick his tongue out at him.
They had been waiting a few minutes when Hilde came racing down the hall. "I'll let you know as soon as I know something." She promised and disappeared into the ER.
"Never a dull moment when the God of Death is around." Duo muttered.
"Stop that." Quatre hissed. "You know just as well as I do that this isn't you're fault."
Duo glared at his companion but didn't say anything. He knew better than to get Quatre mad. They sat for what seemed forever in a tense silence until Hilde banged through the ER doors.
"How is she?" Quatre asked, sitting up straighter.
"Well she's stopped shaking, but she has a fever. The doctors are working on getting that down right now. She should be fine, but they're all baffled about why it happened. She has no record of any illness that might have brought it on and she's not taking any medication."
"That's really weird. Do you think that they're going to do a drug test to see if that's the case?"
"God I hope that's not necessary. Anyways, I'm going to be staying with her until she wakes up so if you guys wanna go you're free. I'll give you a call if anything changes."
"Thanks Hilde." Duo said standing up an kissing her on the cheek.
"And Duo, it's not your fault so don't blame yourself okay?"
"Okay." Duo said quietly.
"Hey." Hilde whispered. "You did good, she's going to be okay."
Duo only nodded and left silently with Quatre.
When Chi woke up later it was to mind numbing pain in her head and blinding light.
"Fuck." She cursed. "I am not dead I refuse to be dead. I still have to many people to torment to be dead." She muttered opening her eyes to see Hilde hovering over her, "And you must be the angel of death?" She guessed.
"Nah, just your nurse. How you feeling?"
"Like shit thanks." Chi groaned. "Who ran over my head?"
"You hit it when you collapsed." Hilde explained as she elevated the top end of the bed. "Here you go." She said, handing Chi two aspirins and a glass of water.
"I correct myself, you're the Angel of Mercy." She said with a grin, and downed the asprin.
"So what happened?" Hilde asked. "Duo said, you came into the garage freaking out and then just collapsed. Wanna explain this to me?"
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you, trust me." Chi muttered, sliding her legs off the gurney.
"Is it a medical thing? Cause if it is you have to put it in your medical records so we know what to do next time it happens."
"No it's nothing medical. Don't worry about it, there's nothing you can do." She said as she got up.
"Hey, plant your ass back on that gurney, you're not going anywhere until you have the doctor look you over again."
"Aw come Hilde. Can't you do it? I just want to get out of here."
"Not a chance. Wait until you have the doctor's okay, then you can go. Just be patient for another couple of minutes and I'll go get her okay."
"Fine." Chi sighed and flopped back on the bed.
"Look Hilde, I know the doctor told you to accompany me to my room, but is it really necessary? I'm not gonna pass out I promise, and I'm sure you have better things to be doing."
"Normally I would agree with you, but since said doctor is a higher rank than me, I'm going to do as she says so I don't get in shit. So you have to put up with me for another couple minutes. Now march, I'm not leaving you alone until I see your ass in your bed."
"You do realize I'm a higher rank than both you and the doctor."
"Doctors orders over rule yours, nice try."
"Well damn."
"No way..." Hilde whispered a minute later.
"Hmm? Ooo hottie." Chi murmured, spotting the tall blonde man Hilde was looking at.
Hilde just ignored her companion. "Relena!" She yelled.
It was only then that Chi spotted the shorter blonde woman beside the man she had been ogling. "Well I'll be god damned." She muttered when Relena Darlian turned around and grinned at Hilde.
"Hilde, it's good to see you again." Relena said, embracing her friend.
Chi just stood there, jaw somewhere in the vicinity of her waist. Man, what an odd group I've fallen into. She thought to herself as they rounded the corner. Lucrezia was at the opposite end of the hall, and Chi almost burst into giggles at the size her eyes went when she saw Relena and her companion.
"ZECHS!" She cried, and practically jumped on the man. "I missed you, I missed you, I missed you." She murmured, covering his face with kisses. "You're early, you weren't supposed to be back until the day after tomorrow."
"The conference didn't run as long as anticipated." Relena answered for her brother. "Hi Lucy."
Lucrezia smiled and gave her soon to be sister-in-law a small hug.
Finally she caught sight of Hilde and Chi. "Didn't the doctor put you on bed rest Midori?" She demanded.
Chi glared at Hilde who put her hands up in surrender. "It wasn't me!" She protested.
"Midori? Chi Midori?" Relena asked, looking at Chi curiously.
"I was wondering if you would recognize me Miss Darlian." Chi said with a smile.
"I almost didn't, you look much different now. What are you doing here?"
"I work here." Chi said plainly.
Hilde and Lucrezia looked back and forth between the women. "Did we miss something?" Lucrezia asked.
"Miss Midori and I used to go to school together." Relena told them simply. "The rumor going around was that she was dead."
"Not dead, just in exile. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a throbbing headache." Chi muttered, and slowly walked away.
"What's up with her?" Zechs asked, watching the retreating figure.
"We don't quite know. She freaked out earlier, ran after Duo into the garage and told him not to go into town then after he agreed she just passed out. Smacked her head on the cement. Luckily she doesn't have a concussion."
"Excuse me." Relena mumbled, and ran after Chi.
"May I speak to you?" She whispered, grabbing the younger woman by the arm.
"Whatever."
"It happened again didn't it?" Relena demanded.
"Look Miss Darlian, I have no clue what..."
"The same thing that happened when you knew there was going to be an attack on the school. The same thing happened then as what happened today. Don't lie to me Miss Midori, I can see through lies like I can see through air."
Chi glared at the woman before crossing her arms over her chest in a show of self-comfort. "Yeah, it was the same thing as at the school." She hissed. "Are you happy now?"
"What did you see?" Relena demanded. "If some harm can come to my friends I have the right to know."
"You have no right to know what goes on inside my head Vice Foreign Minister. Your friends are safe now, that's all that matters." Chi said quietly before turning on her heel and stalking away.