Through The Vortex
Chapter 25
When Trowa arrived home from work that evening, he was greeted by three smiling faces. Without going into the details of the day and all the decisions that we'd made, the four of us shared a pleasant evening meal together with Trowa's eyes shifting back and forth between Heero and myself and then to Quatre, hoping for an explanation for the sudden reunion. Quatre, wearing a smile that wouldn't quit, couldn't hold it in any longer, and in a rush he informed his lover that Heero would be moving in with us immediately. Then looking like he was about to jump out of his skin, he announced that after the babies were born Heero and I were going to become legal partners and that Heero intended to adopt the babies, becoming their second father. The evening became one of celebration with everyone in high spirits, that is until Quatre caught a glimpse of my swollen hands and announced that I'd been up too long and needed to lie down. Heero turned to me with a worried expression on his face and I explained to him what toxemia was.
When Sally came for her regular visit on Sunday, she didn't seem very surprised to see Heero by my side with a list of questions he'd prepared for her regarding my condition and care. It was kind of embarrassing to have Heero observing Sally check me over, but the encouraging smile he gave me helped soften my discomfort.
As Sally packed her bag, I couldn't help but notice her frown and neither did Heero. "What is it?" he asked, shifting his eyes to me and looking worried. "Other than Duo's blood pressure being stubborn about going down, I'm concerned that Wufei is going to be hurt at being left in the dark about this." She looked to me, her expression pleading. "Now that the four of you share Duo's secret, can't you trust him with it also? You know that he would keep your secret, even from Director Une if you ask him to."
I looked from her to Heero and he gave me a slight nod of his head. "All right. Why don't you bring him over for dinner tomorrow night and we'll tell him then. I've missed him," I added. "It's been hard to only communicate with him over the internet and vid phone and to mislead him about why I couldn't leave the house."
"He's about to storm the place, much like Heero did," Sally said, with a slight grin of affection as she referred to her younger husband. "He respects the fact that you requested time and space to readjust to being back, but he's thinking enough is enough. And now that he knows you and Heero have reconciled, he thinks it's time for him to be welcomed here also, as your friend and former partner."
"He's right. Enough is enough," I said, feeling guilty.
"He's missed you," she said. "I'll bring him for dinner then. What time?"
"Seven," I said. "We'll break the news as soon as he arrives, put the smelling salts under his nose and then eat dinner," I joked, causing Heero tp snort and Sally to laugh.
"I'll wager that he'll remain conscious and merely blink his eyes when you tell him," Sally chuckled.
"I think he'll hyperventilate," Heero said. "I know I nearly did."
"He'll probably get mad and rant about me being so stupid for not using protection," I said, teasing. That got me another laugh from the other two. Sally left shortly after that and I was glad we'd decided to tell Wufei. I could see that my decision had made Sally happy as well.
Since Heero's arrival, he displayed his dedication to me by sleeping each night in the king-size bed next to me and The Belly. I knew it wasn't an easy thing for him to do because with my added girth, I had become a restless sleeper, shifting my bulky belly constantly during the night, trying to find a comfortable position. I told him he should find another room to sleep in so he would be rested for work, but he refused, saying we'd already spent too much time apart.
When I woke up that Monday morning, I could hear the shower going in the bathroom. Heero was getting ready for work, and that thought brought a lazy smile of contentment to my face. I stretched like a cat after a long nap and relished the idea that I was no longer alone. Despite everything that had happened, Heero was with me again and it looked as if everything was going to be all right.
I shifted my cumbersome body slightly and even without looking I could tell by the tightness of my skin and numb sensation in my lower extremities that my feet and ankles were swollen. Opening my eyes, I glanced down at my hands and saw they were in the same sorry state. I figured I must have overdone it sitting up the night before playing poker with my three house mates. I sighed, forlornly and resigned, knowing that I'd be spending the entire day in bed, my feet slightly elevated and Quatre fussing over me, wearing a worried expression on his face.
The sounds coming from the shower suddenly stilled and I turned my head towards the door, anticipating Heero's exit. I wasn't disappointed when a few moments later he appeared with his wet hair sticking out in every direction as a result of a vigorous towel drying. Heero walked into the bedroom with only a towel wrapped around his slender hips, looking sexier than ever. As his eyes met mine, we shared a warm smile.
Moving to the bed, Heero climbed up on it to lie next to me, and as he drew closer I could smell the floral scent of my shampoo on his damp hair as his head came to rest on my pillow.
"Morning," he said in his deep, sexy bedroom voice. Despite my condition, my body began to react to that suggestive tone and the way Heero's hand stroked my thigh didn't help me one bit at trying to keep my libido in check.
"Come on, Heero," I moaned. "Have a little pity here."
"Where? Here?" he asked teasingly while redirecting his hand to caress the growing bulge under my enormous boxers.
"I... I.." I could only gasp and then let out a long, drawn-out moan replace what I was intending to say. It felt so good to have Heero touching me again, but I wasn't sure I was capable of doing much in my condition. Then the memory of Tradell came to me, of how sexually active he'd been on his last day of pregnancy. Sure, we didn't try penetration, but hand stimulation worked just fine and it didn't seem to have any adverse effect on him or the baby he carried. With that reassurance in mind, I decided to just enjoy anything Heero might want to try.
"This is okay, isn't it?" he asked. I only had the ability to nod my head. Then my lover's mouth became as equally active as his hand, and I found it hard to catch my breath as my body responded to the titillating touch. Somewhere along the way Heero lost his towel, further exciting me by his own obvious state of arousal, which was pressed against my upper thigh. It had been too long since we'd been together and within moments I came in Heero's hand with a long, deep moan, dulled slightly by Heero's mouth covering my own. Heero's gasp came a moment later and the boxers I was wearing became uncomfortably wet and sticky, inside and out.
Heero settled next to me, uncaring about the mess he'd caused as he showered me with grateful kisses on any part of my neck and face that he could reach. For my part, I could only gasp, trying to get air into my lungs and willing the dizziness that came with my orgasm to go away.
"It's been so long," Heero whispered into my ear, and I could only reply with a nod of my head. "How long before we can be together, more intimately?" he asked.
"I don't know," I answered breathlessly. "We'll have to ask Sally." I closed my eyes as the room continued spinning, my stomach with it. "I'm going to have my stomach cut open, and we're not quite sure what it will entail until Sally gets in there to remove the babies and then the A.U."
"Are you all right?" Heero asked, sounding concerned.
I forced a smile but couldn't manage at the moment to open my eyes. "You just take my breath away," I joked.
There was a pause before Heero spoke again. "We'll need to change your boxers and the sheets before Quatre brings up your breakfast."
"Hiding the evidence?" I chuckled. Heero had always been very private about our love life, so I wasn't really surprised by his wanting us to clean up a bit. "The sheets are in the linen closet down the hall, next to Quatre's bedroom," I told him. "I'll roll myself out of bed and strip it... and me."
After one more brief kiss from Heero, the warmth of his body next to mine disappeared. Opening one eye cautiously, I was grateful that the room seemed to be coming close to a stand still. Damn, but I was feeling odd that morning. I struggled to my side and eased myself off the bed. The long, extra-large T-shirt I wore to bed at night had a wet spot on it also. It would have to be washed along with the sheets and my boxers. Taking the corner of the blankets, I pulled them down to the bottom of the bed, then tugged at the top sheet, pulling it out, then worked at freeing the fitted corners of the bottom sheet. I stopped short as the room began to spin again and I felt a surge of heat racing through my body. Black spots filled in my vision and I barely managed to call out in a strangled voice for Heero before I was overcome and collapsed to the floor.
I was told later by Heero what had happened after he'd left me to go to the linen closet, intent on collecting the softest sheets possible for our bed. Clad in only his bathrobe, he said he was feeling unbelievably happy again, and vowed to himself that nothing would come between us again if he could help it. He was pondering the long months that had passed, that had, at times, been sheer hell for him, thinking I had been taken from him, maybe forever. He'd worked himself to exhaustion in badgering and coercing the scientists at Leavesly Laboratories to re-create the experiment that had taken me by rebuilding their machine and the exact conditions that had created the vortex. He told me he'd almost broken down in front of Wufei and the scientists surrounding us after I'd been delivered back to Earth, something the private and stoic man would have fought to keep from doing. And then, just when he thought his life had been righted, I'd accused him of having an affair with Trowa and then disappeared with Quatre. The night he'd snuck into the house to talk to me was painful for him to recall, and he chose to try and not to think of it at all. He was devastated, hurt and furious after learning that I'd taken on two lovers during my absence.
When Heero began to emerge from his anger weeks later, he realized that no one had seen or heard from me since my return. His bitterness slowly turned to curiosity and he began inquiring after me. His curiosity became concern when he learned that no one, other than Sally, Quatre, Trowa and one brief visit from Wufei right after I left the hospital, had seen me. Fearing that something might have happened and that the other's were purposely keeping it from him, he knew he'd not rest if he didn't go to Quatre's house and get the answers for himself. It was that unannounced and fortuitous visit that had brought about the shocking revelation about my condition and the reason why he was now living at the house with me back in his arms.
Closing the linen closet door, Heero returned to the bedroom, hearing faint sounds coming from downstairs, from the kitchen. He was thinking about Wufei's visit that night and felt relieved that we were going to include our friend in on the secret reason for my confinement. He wondered how Sally had managed to keep her weekly visits with me a secret and Wufei from visiting.
He entered the bedroom again, only to find it empty. "Duo?" he called out. Setting the sheets on the partially stripped bed, he went to the bathroom to see if I was there. Seeing it empty, he wondered where I could have gone. Sally had forbidden me to take the stairs alone, so he didn't think I'd go down to the kitchen by myself, especially knowing Quatre would be bringing my meal up to me. "Duo?" he called out again, in the hallway this time, and he frowned when he didn't get an answer.
He walked back to the nearly unmade bed with the intent of stripping it completely and then remaking it. With a sigh he began to strip off the bottom sheet from the side he'd slept on. He moved to the other side of the bed and found me lying unconscious on the floor. He called out to me, panicked, and fell to his knees next to my prone body and began to examine me for injuries. He noted my pulse was rapid and my face was flushed. Turning his head, he yelled towards the doorway, "Quatre, come here now!" Within moments the blond man came bursting through the bedroom door. Heero told me that Quatre's eyes were wide with panic.
"What's wrong?" he gasped.
"Duo's fainted. Call Sally." If he hadn't been so concerned by my current state, Heero said he might have been impressed that even in his pajamas and bathrobe, Quatre was prepared, having had his cell phone on him. No sooner had he flipped it open and hit a few numbers than he was speaking to the good doctor.
Heero kept an ear to the conversation, but his thoughts were concentrated on me, partially cradled in his arms. He pulled the top blanket off the bed and wrapped it around me. "You'll be all right," he'd whispered, brushing back the strands of hair that covered my eyes. "Nothing is going to happen to you. I won't let it."
"Sally wants to know if we can bring him to the hospital or if we need an ambulance," Quatre relayed his conversation, speaking quickly. "She says the least amount of people involved, the better. She'll arrange for a private room and have the surgical unit ready with a nurse from Preventers that she says she trusts implicitly to be discrete. She'll also have an anesthesiologist on hand and will try to hide the fact that Duo's a male."
Heero nodded. "Go bring your car out front then come back and help me carry him down the stairs. I don't want to take a chance of dropping him."
"Got it!" Still holding the phone to his ear, Quatre relayed their plans to Sally even as he flew out of the bedroom, his robe fluttering behind him.
He was back five minutes later, dressed in pair of wrinkled slacks, one of Trowa's shirts and a jacket that he'd hastily thrown on before getting the car out of the garage and pulling it up to the front of the house. "How is he? Any change?"
"No," Heero answered, his eyes shifting briefly from me to the blond. "Come hold him while I get dressed, then we'll leave."
"Right!" Quatre came and switched positions with Heero and kept his eyes on me while my lover rushed to throw on some clothing. Heero was ready in moments, and the two of them managed to get me off the floor and secured between them as they worked together to carry me down the staircase and out the front door. The blanket covering my large belly kept me from being seen by any bystander observing them as they maneuvered me into the back seat of the car, my upper body cradled once again in Heero's arms.
Quatre told me later that he drove like a bat out of hell as he rushed us to the hospital, and that the silence in the car felt oppressive as the two of them worried about my condition.
I came to a few minutes before we arrived at the hospital. With a slight moan from the massive headache I had, my eyes fluttered open to see Heero above me, looking like he was about to cry. "You fainted," he told me in a choked voice. "We're on our way to the hospital. Sally's going to meet us there."
"The babies?" I asked. Frantic for their well-being, my hands went immediately to my stomach.
"I'm sure they're fine," he answered me, though the look in his eyes told me he was worried about them as well.
I suddenly felt more afraid than I'd been in a long time. "Heero?" There was so much fear in my voice, and I could that see my lover was at a loss as to how he could ease it. "If something happens to me, I put it in my will that Quatre's to have custody of the babies, if they survive. I'm sorry, but you weren't in the picture when I made it out."
"They'll be fine, Duo, and so will you. Nothing is going to take you away from me again," my lover said in a firm, don't contradict me manner.
"Listen, Heero." I reached a hand out of the blanket to clutch at his shirt. "If I'm not around, will you help raise my kids? Be a part of their lives and tell them about me and how much we loved each other?"
"You're not going anywhere, Duo. Do you hear me? You will not leave me behind again." With his eyes welling with tears and his lips were pressed tightly together. I found it hard to tell whether Heero was angry, afraid or just determined that what he said was true.
"Please, Heero. They're a part of me, and I want them to know you, to see why you were my only love."
Heero leaned over me and buried his face in my hair. "Don't leave me, Duo. Be strong for yourself, for the babies and me."
"I'll try, Heero," I whispered, even as Quatre announced that we'd reached the hospital. "But if something does go wrong, promise me you'll be a part of their lives."
As Heero held me, tight enough to make me believe he'd never let me go, I felt him nod his head, giving me the answer I needed... but lying all the same. During the war, Heero used to take his life lightly, seeing himself as a tool to be used and then discarded. But when he discovered he had feelings for me and that they were reciprocated in full, he later said he'd found a reason to live, to see past the pain and constant struggle. He told me, just days before my fainting spell, that losing me to the vortex had nearly killed him, that only thing that kept him going, after he'd learned that Duwan wasn't me, was the hope that he could re-create the experiment and possibly retrieve me. We both knew he couldn't go through that again. If I died, the ultimate no return scenario, I felt in my sinking heart that he'd follow soon after. Even the prospect of caring for the two infants I carried, or that fact that I wanted him to live a long, full and happy life, was probably not enough incentive for him to endure a life without the only love he'd ever known. How the hell could I have ever doubted his love for me?
The car stopped and Quatre turned his head, tears coursing unchecked down his pale cheeks. It was obvious that he'd overheard our conversation. Heero looked out the window to see Sally approaching the car from the emergency room doors with a nurse, a Preventers' insignia on her pink uniform, standing beside a gurney. Quatre was out of the driver's seat and opening the back door, ready to help me out of the back seat. It took the three of them to remove me from the car and get me up on the bed with wheels. Sally rushed us into the hospital, past nurses' desks and medical personnel who got out of the way as we sped down the corridor.
Once I was secured in a private room, Sally's exam began. Her expression was troubled as she took my vitals and did an ultra sound to check the babies.
She pulled the blanket from my body and it was obvious that my ankles and feet were more swollen then they'd been before. "The toxemia is getting out of hand," she announced, draping her stethoscope around her neck. "Your blood pressure is dangerously high and you're close to having a stroke, which could very well be life threatening."
Thinking back, the only good thing about the serious discussion was that everyone seemed to ignore the fact that my boxers and T-shirt were wet with spots of white cum on them. Despite my concern for myself and babies, I was ridiculously embarrassed and made an effort to cover myself up after Sally's examination of my stomach and ankles.
"So what do we do?" Heero asked, his face stony.
"We need to take them out now," Sally replied solemnly and all eyes in the room turned to look at me. Then a smile grew on her lips. "Ready to be the first man to deliver twins from an artificial womb?" she asked, and there was something about her sudden change in manner that buoyed my spirits and made me think that everything was going to be all right.
"If you're sure they'll be okay, then let's do it," I answered, with a shaky smile of my own.
"All right. I'll be back after I make sure the surgical room is free. I won't be long." And then she was gone.
"I'll call Trowa," Quatre said in the background as Heero reached for my hand and brought it to his lips, his fear for me taking away his ability to speak.
"Call Wufei," I said, my eyes not leaving Heero's. "Tell him what's going on once he gets here."
"I'll do it," Quarte said, now closer to the bed. "Is there anything else I can do?"
"Just stay close, Quat," I told my friend, once again feeling fearful about so many things. And as the blond moved closer, on the side of the bed opposite Heero, I held my hand out to him, my steadfast friend. "Thanks for everything. If something should go wrong.."
"No!" Quatre stopped me from going further by putting his fingertips to my lips. "There will be no ifs. I'm here for you and so is Heero. You'll be fine, trust me."
A tear gathered at the corner of my right eye and leaked out. "I trust you," I said, my voice a breathy whisper. "Both of you. Guess I'm just... scared."
Quatre smiled down on me with a look of understanding. "You've survived the streets of L-2, losing everyone you cared about and came out a winner after two wars. Then you took a trip to another world and came back with two lives growing inside of you. You're not going to let a little thing like giving birth to twins bother you, are you? Women do it all the time, and so can you."
I couldn't help the chocked laugh that came from his pep talk. I gave Quatre a grateful smile. "Nah. Hell, if Tradell and Herron could give birth to one baby, I can easily do two." I turned my head to look at Heero, his face was still grave. "Isn't that right, Heero?"
"You can do anything you set your mind to," my dark haired lover replied somberly.
"We're all set," Sally announced the moment she stepped into the room. "Let's go."
Quatre helped her and the nurse to move the bed back out the door while I kept a firm hold on Heero's hand, determined not tp let go until we reached the doors to the surgical area.
"You'll need to stay here, Heero," Sally said gently to my pale-faced lover as we reached the double doors leading to the surgical wing. "We're going to put Duo out completely because it might take a while before I figure out how to get the A.U. out of his body. But I'll send word to you as soon as the babies are delivered."
Heero nodded, then looked to me. "Do you have names chosen for them?"
"Yeah," I answered. "Our daughter is to be Hillary and our son..." I paused a moment as an idea came to me. "I want you to name him, Heero. He'll be your son, too. You can tell me what you've chosen when I see you again, all right?"
Heero leaned over the bed rail to bring his face mere inches from my own, looking at me as if he were memorizing every aspect of my face. "Don't you dare leave me again, Duo," he said in a tense whisper. "I need you every bit as much as your children do." He then closed the distance between us for a brief kiss, then reluctantly straightened. He held onto my hand until the last minute, and as the double doors of the surgery section of the hospital closed behind us, I kept my eyes locked onto his face as he peered through the small inlaid window in the door. Just before we turned into the operating room, I glimpsed Quatre coming to stand close to him, also looking through the small window as he spoke to Heero. I could only imagine that Quat was reassuring him that everything was going to be all right.
TBC
Sorry for the wait. >shrugs > The holidays, you know. Heads up, there's only one more chapter to go.