Chapter 32 - The Separation Part 1

A week later

Relena POV

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Relena walked to the well and dropped the bucket inside. After a few seconds, she heard the sound of splashing water from below. When she leaned over the hole, she felt a draught of pleasant, cold air from the depth, so refreshing and soothing in the ubiquitous heat of the early afternoon. She brushed her bangs off her sweaty forehead, then leaned over the well and pulled the rope.

"Ugh… so heavy," she sighed softly under her breath, but clenched fingers on the rope, slowly pulling the bucket up.

"Relena, do you need help?"

Relena glanced over her shoulder at the group of young men - Sally's patients, standing in the shade near the hospital barrack. They were smiling impishly at her. She made a sigh; her back as she leaned over the well in her shorts was probably a pleasant sight for them.

"No, thanks, I can handle it," she replied back, pulling the bucket up to the edge of the well. Icy water spouted from the bucket, pleasantly cooling her hands. She wiped her forehead again, unstrapped the bucket, and headed in the hospital's direction.

One of the staring men, with dark jet-black shoulder-length hair and one hand in a sling, left the group and ran to her.

"Give it to me," he said, unexpectedly tearing the bucket out of her hand with his healthy one. Relena looked up at him and smiled.

"Thanks, Jared," she replied, massaging her sore fingers as she continued walking next to him. "It's the third one today, little Joe is still feverish."

"Poor lad, it has to be knackering in such a heat."

Relena ran up and opened the hospital door before Jared, then quickly walked through the corridor. "Put this bucket here," she pointed to a small table at the entrance to one of the two hospital rooms. Jared picked up the bucket himself and set it with a slight buzz on the table. "Thanks."

"Sure thing," Jared smiled at her, brushing dark hair back. He measured her with his green, grass-like eyes so carelessly and defiantly that Relena felt a slight shiver over her neck and looked away. "You know that you can always count on me."

"Appreciate it," Relena replied, then tilted the bucket and poured some water into a smaller bowl, then tore white rags into smaller pieces. When she looked up, Jared was still standing in the same place, smiling knowingly at her. Relena felt a nervous smile crawl over her face. "Can I help you with anything?"

"Maybe…"

He scanned her form from head to toes, maybe even through her clothes. Seeing Jared's face, so evidently flirtatious, Relena snorted and laughed, feeling an unpleasant twinge in her heart at the same time.

"Knock it off, Jared," she mumbled, then lifted the bowl and headed for the hall with the rags. "Keep your smiles for the evening when we change your dressing. Maybe Sally will blow on the wound, so it doesn't hurt."

Jared moaned at the memory of painful surgery on his wounded shoulder. "It hurts less when you do it!"

Relena laughed nervously as she walked into the room and closed the door behind her, then sighed deeply.

Jared was a nice guy. Like all Evergreen residents, she practically had no reason to complain about him or others. As the days passed, however, Relena had the impression that some guys started behaving too confidential and unambiguous towards her. It wasn't insistent though, she didn't feel threatened, only embarrassed. So far, they kept their hands to themselves.

Every window in the room was opened, so a pleasant draft was filling the room. Windows were covered by curtains, and hardly any sunlight came in. Relena passed three beds standing next to each other, two of which were empty. In the third, a teenage girl with braided red hair was sleeping peacefully. Relena threw a cautious glance at her, then walked up to a bed at the very end, against the wall, and set the bowl on the bedside table.

"Joe," she whispered gently, sitting on the edge.

The little boy was dozing, lying on his side, facing the wall. Relena reached out to touch him and narrowed her eyes with anxiety; he was sweaty, and his forehead was still hot to the touch. She shook his shoulder gently. "Joe, baby, wake up."

The boy purred his disapproval almost unconsciously, then slowly rolled onto his back. Relena lifted him by his armpits and seated him on the bed. He still didn't open his eyes and felt limp in her arms.

"You poor thing, you're all drenched with sweat," she sighed, brushing his wet bangs aside. "You think you can help me change you into fresh clothes?"

Joe eventually lifted his eyelids, revealing his glassy, feverish eyes, but said nothing. When he lifted his arms slightly up, Relena smiled to him, then took off his sweaty shirt, quickly putting on a dry one.

"Atta boy. Come to me…" she whispered reassuringly, taking a baby boy in her arms and lifting him off the bed. The boy's skin was warm and smelled of chamomile. He wrapped his small arms around her neck, nuzzling into her. With her spare hand, Relena turned over the bedding on the other side and laid the boy back to bed, covering him with a new quilt. Then she dipped a rag in the water from the bowl, and carefully rested a cold compress on the boy's forehead.

"It hurts…" the boy mumbled, holding his belly with one hand.

"I know, honey. It'll pass soon, I promise."

She smiled comfortingly to him, stroking his hair. It was already the second day when Joe was suffering after he had eaten poisoned berries. Fortunately, he hadn't eaten many of them, but his body was already exhausted by the fight against intoxication. Sally had given him her most active laxative herbs; throughout the first day, the kid was almost continually vomiting. Today he was only feverish.

"Try to get some sleep, ok?"

"Don't go," Joe squealed plaintively, narrowing his eyebrows. "I don't want to be alone."

"I won't," Relena shook her head with a gentle smile. "I'll stay here with you."

Joe nodded, then closed his eyes, but hesitantly. While Relena was sitting at Joe's side, caressing his cheeks and holding his little hand, watching his little chest fall and rise with each breath, she realized that she already liked this poor baby boy.

He had beautiful, cold-blue eyes. Just like Heero.

Relena realized that she hadn't had much to do with children before. They hadn't been almost any in the zone, but here they were a lot of them. Hence, she was surprised by the intensity of the caring instinct that she developed here, helping these little patients.

Relena reached and stroked Joe's wet hair again, the image of Heero still lingering in her thoughts. Especially, the expression on his face as he climbed the horse and turned to her last time kept coming back before her eyes. He was calm as usual, but in that look of his..., she sensed something had changed. She wondered what he was doing now…

When Joe's breath evened, Relena left a gentle kiss on the boy's forehead and got up. Before she left, she checked by the red-head girl, but she was still sleeping peacefully.

When she left the room, she ran straight into wired Sally.

"There you are!" the woman gasped, grabbing Relena by the arm. "Grab all the water we have and heat it. Prepare clean rags."

"What happened?"

A loud, female moaning coming from one of the rooms suddenly interrupted their conversation.

"Is that...?" Relena muttered, feeling her stomach squeeze from sudden stress.

"Yes," Sally nodded, "Evelyn started giving birth. Get ready!"

x x x

Heero POV

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The campfire had long since gone out - now it was just a pile of glowing, red coals and a pillar of thin smoke floating toward the sky. The forest was plunged in grave silence; there was no roar of animals, no chirping of birds, no rustle of wind in the high branches. Between the high treetops, the sky was gradually changing its color - from black and dark blue to light blue, with a lick of a pink glow in the East.

Heero slowly opened his eyes, waking up from his short, dreamless rest, then lifted himself to a sitting position from a makeshift bed of his own jacket spread across the bare ground. The cold soil smelled of pine needles, his clothes were damp of the dew, he felt his shoulders and knees chilled. A freezing chill ran through his body. Although days were hot to the limit, the forest at four in the morning was acutely cold and humid.

He looked around, carefully examining the surroundings. The whole group seemed to be still sleeping; everyone was so exhausted that they wouldn't even snore. He noticed only one figure at the campfire. Heero got up and, after shaking a jacket out of dry grass and pine pins, ambled between sleeping companions and horses to the campfire.

Trowa was rubbing his frozen hands, kneeling by the dying fire. When he heard the rustle of Heero's feet on the dry grass, he looked up, measuring him with green eyes. Heero glared in silence at the man, then kneeled down next to the fire, moving his hands closer to the heat.

"I've just checked the ravine," Trowa said, looking down at the campfire. "The infected took the bait. They're starting to gather there."

Heero nodded knowingly.

Only a few hundred meters away from them, the narrow gorge turned out to be the perfect ambush spot for at least a dozen infected. It was a simple trick: bring them there from a nearby village, first by using noise and then with the help of a freshly shot doe. After all, it was way easier to shoot multiple targets from above, from behind the trees.

"We'll wait until dawn," Trowa muttered, flexing his fingers. "I hope this time we'll do without any major complications."

Meaning: zero deaths. Quatre's dream was just too naïve to be true.

Since they left Evergreen, two of their men were down already. Harry and Trenton. They perished in Centerville. Twenty-year-old Trenton was supposedly "lucky"; Clicker lunged at him and almost bit his head off. He died fast. In contrast, eighteen-year-old Harry had been bitten in the hand while defending himself against Runner. After the fight, he had shot himself in the head, afraid of a turn.

"Now it's your shift," Trowa muttered with a cold voice, eyeing Heero. "If something happens, come back and report immediately."

Heero stood up without a word and walked over to Zero, taking his rifle off the saddle. The horse wasn't particularly interested in the arrival of its master; he opened lazily one eye, then hung his head again, resting standing.

"…could you at least give me the slightest sign that you've understood what I was saying to you?" Heero heard Trowa's irritated voice behind but ignored him. He shouldered his rifle and headed into the dark thicket, away from the camp.

He moved slowly and carefully through the labyrinth of high trees, trying to wander through the dried-out forest undergrowth as silently as possible. As he was walking further away from the camp, he bent his knees and passed under low-growing branches, his hearing and eyes strained on the faintest move or noise.

Finally, in the silence of the forest, he heard the familiar, sinister sound. He felt his blood chill, but he didn't slow down. The sounds of clicking and wheezing bounced off around the forest, echoing between the dry tree trunks. They were getting louder and louder with each step he took.

Approaching the ravine, Heero laid himself flat on the ground and slowly crawled across the grass forward, grasping his rifle in front of him. Stopping just before the edge, he carefully lifted himself on his elbows, looking through the grass down at a group of infected on the bottom of the ravine.

There were over a dozen of them, certainly about twenty. The dead deer's body had been devoured to the bone long ago. The monsters moved chaotically around the closed space of the ravine as if remaining in a state of strange suspension. Unaware of the ambush awaiting them with the coming of morning. Unaware that they'll all be dead by the sunrise.

Heero placed his weapon on the ground in front of him and rested his chin on crossed arms, watching the bloodthirsty group from above the grass line. He narrowed his eyebrows. Some of the infected looked fresh. As if they had turned quite recently. They were wearing uncluttered clothes, they still had faces...

After several minutes, seeing that the infected were still calm, Heero rolled onto his side and then onto his back. The blades of grass tickled the back of his neck, and sensing the chill from the ground transferring to his body once more, he crossed arms over his chest to keep warm. He gazed high above, at the patch of sky between the treetops. The sky was already colored in bright blue and pink, the last stars started fading in the distance. He heard birds twittering somewhere deep in the forest. Soon the first rays of the sun will begin to break through the dense branches.

In such moments, just before dawn, no matter where he was or what he was doing, he was always thinking about Relena.

x x x

Relena POV

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Just before she entered the building, she felt a strange tingling at the back of her neck, as if someone was watching her. Relena turned around, but there was no one behind her in the square. She sighed, then smiled a sad smile to herself.

I miss you too. So much, she thought, staring at the last disappearing stars on the navy sky. The glow of day was already flickering, the light was fighting the final accord in its battle against darkness. I hope you're safe, Heero.

As soon as she entered her room, she threw herself on the bed, making a loud sigh.

"Where were you?" she heard Catherine's concerned voice. She was surprised; she thought her friend was already asleep.

"Evelyn gave birth. It took her all day and night..."

"Oh, God. Is everything all right now?"

Relena chuckled. "It's at best. The baby's doing very well. So is the mother."

"What a relief," Catherine sighed, sitting up on her bed.

"So those were her screams we heard all the time," Silvia added from the corner of the room. "It was scary."

"Childbirth's nothing pleasant," Catherine sighed.

"Tell me about it," Relena hissed, covering her face with both hands. "I've never seen so much blood in my life."

"Okay, shut up now, I want to sleep," Silvia muttered in her usual, nasty tone, rolling on the other side, toward the wall.

Relena sat upright on the bed with a soft sigh. Catherine gazed at her with a smile, then started getting up from her bed. "Good job, then. You were brave," she whispered.

"Not me, Evelyn was brave," Relena gasped, true to her words. "You're not going to sleep?"

"I've got enough sleep already. But you're probably exhausted," Catherine said, then sat next to the window, reaching for a piece of cloth, needle, and scissors. "Sleep well, I'll just sew a hole in my shirt."

Relena fell down onto her pillow, laid on her side, then closed her eyes. After a moment, however, she remembered something she always wanted to ask Catherine.

"You know, Catherine," Relena whispered, "I've been thinking for days about that. All these restrictions with different bedrooms for men and women… and yet… there are so many children here."

Catherine sent her a smile tilting her head up from over her work. "Yeah. No mystery in that. They are born out of love that breaks all rules." She hung her voice as if she mulled over her words, then added in a sad voice: "There's love here. We all love."

Relena eyes her friend with curiosity then grinned playfully.

"Whom do you love, Catherine? I'm sure you do too."

Catherine smiled back so sadly that Relena probably hadn't seen any sadder smile in her life. "I do," she whispered. "But, it's not mutual."

Relena felt her smile disappear from her face as she realized what an awkward subject she had touched by her careless question. "Catherine…"

"Sleep, Relena," Catherine interrupted her with her usual, merry voice. "Quatre said that he'll arrange a horseback riding practice for you tomorrow. Well, technically… today. You have to rest at least a bit."

Relena muttered something in agreement. She bowed her head, feeling powerless against the apparent Catherine's suffering, but decided to respect her right to leave it for herself. She slowly turned onto her side and faced the wall. But she didn't want to sleep.

Trying to stay soundless, she reached and pulled out from under her pillow long, glassy vial, wrapped in a crumpled piece of paper. As if it was the most precious relic, Relena gently unwrapped the paper and spread it on the mattress, smoothing the wrinkled texture with her fingers, careful not to blur the already fading message. As her fingertips ran over the angular letters, she felt warmth radiating onto her body through their meaning. As if a part of him was enchanted in his handwriting.

When she drew her hand back, shy light of the morning lightened up the text she'd read repeatedly since Heero had pressed the vaccine vial with the attached note into her hand, right before he had left:

Relena

I'll keep my promise. Wait for me

and keep this safe.

You know that I love you

H.

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TBC

I want to take this place to recommend to all of you, who don't know The Last of Us, to discover this series.

Also, I would like to thank all of you for your reviews! Each of your comments is a signal to me that this story deserves to be pulled to the end. Thank you again for your support!

Yes, Heero finally said the "L" word. Well, technically speaking… he wrote it. And, also technically speaking, he didn't say it directly but simply stated that it was something Relena had to know. Well, that's how I imagine his confession. After all, Relena knows him so well, maybe better than he knows himself... she always read flawlessly everything that tattered him. Could he suppose that it would be different when it comes to this humble affection he had for her?

Well, for now, Dorothy and her gang aren't attacking Evergreen... Does this mean that Relena is safe? Maybe yes, maybe no... You will find out in the following chapters.

I have to say it is hard for me to write the fragments where they are separated. I feel for them and feel this pain of their separation almost tangibly. It is surprising, after all, in the original story, the separation was an integral part of their lives.

I need to apologize for something. In the previous chapter, it apparently wasn't much clearly defined, from whose perspective I write the beginning - the flashback. As a rule, all flashbacks in this story were from Heero's perspective, and that hasn't changed. To be sincere, it's mainly the story told from his POV, Relena's part is much smaller, though continue to develop. However, I noticed that the fact that the phrase "Heero POV" appeared after this passage caused some of you to think that this flashback actually wasn't from Heero's perspective. I have already corrected the mistake, sorry for the misunderstanding.

In later chapters you will get clarifications in this regard, but not yet. The only thing I can say right now is that Heero's past in this universe is also full of black cards. He was dragged into battle on various sides from an early age, trying to survive. Life didn't spare him, and this moment presented in the last flashback is actually his darkest moment.

O shoot, when did this afterword turned so long? I need to wrap it.

Stay safe,

~enelle89