Promises
Duo ran up the stairs and taunted back to Heero, "You'll never catch me!" "Well what do you expect, I'm carrying four bags of groceries and he is only carrying one," Heero thought as he continued his hurried pace up the stairs. Duo stuck his head over the railing, "I win! I'll beat you to the door too!" His head disappeared from the railing and Heero could hear him unlocking the door. "Hey! What are you doing!" Duo was screaming at someone. "What the hell? Who could he possibly be screaming at? No one is there…SHIT!" Heero thought quickly as he suddenly heard three gunshots. He dropped is bags and ran as fast as he could up the remaining stairs. Duo was lying in a rapidly growing pool of his own blood. Heero knelt beside him and looked into the apartment to see the gunman look up at him on his way back out of one of the windows, he burned the image of the mans face into his mind before he turned back to Duo. He tore off pieces of his shirt to press over Duo's wounds as he called for an ambulance. "Please hurry, he's been shot three times, we'll be waiting downstairs for you!" He yelled into the phone.
Heero looked down into Duo's eyes and saw pain and sadness. "Duo, you're going to be fine, the ambulance is on the way. It doesn't look like anything vital was hit but you are losing a lot of blood." Duo grabbed Heero's hand and held it tight. "If they don't make it in time I want you to know that I love you and please, keep your promise." Heero looked up at the ceiling and felt the warmth of tears, as he shut his eyes he could feel them run down his face. "I love you too Duo, I'll do my best." He felt Duo's grip relax and his eyes shot open and he looked down at him. "Christ, he's going into shock," He thought as he picked Duo up and began his run down the stairs.
The ambulance pulled up as he ran across the lobby towards the door. The paramedics ran to him with a stretcher and he gently laid Duo's limp body on it. "He lost a lot of blood and he went into shock before I could bring him down here. Take him to Cedar's Sinai." Heero climbed into the back with the paramedics and grabbed Duo's hand and held on tight. "Stay strong my love, because if you leave me I won't be far behind." He heard the monitor beep and watched as the sine wave went flat. Despite all of his training as a soldier and all of the death he had seen in his life he felt his heart in his throat and the tears starting to well up in his eyes.
Both paramedics looked at the monitor the same time. One grabbed the paddles as the other put gel on it. "CLEAR!" Duo's body lurched from the electricity that coursed through it. Beep. "Charge…CLEAR!" His body lurched again. The monitor resumed the horribly slow, steady beeping once again. The paramedic who seemed to be in charge looked to the other, "Call ahead and tell them we need an O.R. cleared stat, we'll lose him if we don't get him into surgery as soon as we get there." One of the paramedics picked up a radio and relayed the message to the hospital.
The ambulance screeched to a halt and everyone piled out. The paramedics rushed the stretcher inside with Heero right beside still holding Duo's hand. He leaned close and whispered into Duo's ear. "I'll be here waiting for you. Please don't leave me." He had to let go of his hand as they wheeled him through double doors to an operating room. He looked down at his hands which were covered with Duo's blood. He took out a handkerchief and wiped them off the best he could. He collapsed into one of the chair against the wall and sank into his thoughts.
"Sir. Excuse me, Sir!" He jumped out of sleep and reached for his gun, the gun he stopped carrying a year ago at Duo's request. "Yeah?" He asked who he now realized was a policeman. "Sir, are you the partner of one Duo Maxwell?" He blinked, "I am, my name is Heero, can I help you?" "I just came from your apartment and it was ransacked, it looked like someone was looking for something, can you shed any light on this?" Heero looked up at him, "I'm not really sure what happened, but the man I saw leaving seems really familiar to me. I'll be happy to sketch you a picture if you will bring me a pencil and pad. No, I can't think of anything anyone would be after. I work in software security and my partner Duo is a programmer." Heero looked back down at the floor. "Thank you, if you would just give the officer at the desk the sketch when you finish he can fax it to us, I don't have any more questions right now." The officer handed him a pencil and sketch pad and walked away.