Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing…not yet at least.

Author Note: I'd like to start this author note with a big THANK YOU to my reviewers: Bigsister2, SkittleGoddess and Amber Dreams!!!!!! You guys really are the greatest especially to read this after I so shamelessly begged in my other story. I hope that this chapter is up to standard and enjoyable for you!

::Important Note PLEASE READ::

Okay, so the last chapter was of course from someone's POV but I tried my best not to reveal who is was exactly. Now, this chapter is from third person POV. The reason that this chapter is from third person was for dramatic purposes and to give more background info on all of the pilots and their relationship as of now with the pilot who was speaking in the last chapter. (hope that made sense…don't wanna give it away before you get the chance to read it) Remember that this does take place after Endless Waltz and everything in the series so this chapter tells what the pilots have been up to until now.

I really want this story to be darker and different from my other stories but don't worry, there will still be fun moments and all that even if it's because I simply can't resist cute moments between these boys.

Warnings: This story contains trigger content! Not so much in this chapter but later on definitely. This chapter does have mention of yaoi couplings including 1x2 and previous 3x4 (as mentioned in the summary) Also, mild cursing.

Okay, another long note out of the way. Enjoy the chapter!

Chapter One

"Yes, how may I help you boys?"

Heero Yuy stood in front of three of his good friends and former Gundam pilots staring angrily at the nurse before them. He wanted to respond to her confused and scared expression but his mind was racing out of control with thoughts of the events leading to their going to the hospital. The frustrated brunette, trying to be at least somewhat courteous, moved his upsetting gaze from the nurse to the desk in front her, clenching his fists tighter with each passing moment. He wasn't mad at her after all, just mad in general. Noticing his friend's demeanor, Trowa Barton stepped forth from behind him and looked to the nurse sadly. She still looked somewhat disturbed but welcomed his calmer expression.

"Is there something I can do for you four?" She spoke softly, obviously terrified of the angry man to her left but still wanting to help them. Trowa looked back at the miserable faces of his comrades before replying quietly.

"Yes ma'am, we're here to see Chang Wufei."

Heero's glare intensified as the sentence left Trowa's mouth and immediately his thoughts were drifting again.

------------------Flashback-------------------

Hesitatingly slightly, Heero nodded to himself once more before closing his laptop and standing from his desk chair. Before he could change his mind, he willed himself from the room and walked down the hallway meeting up with Duo in the kitchen. Duo, who was making popcorn at the time, immediately smiled when the cobalt-eyed teen entered the room.

"So, you finally decided to take a night off for once, huh Hee-chan? You can finally fit us into your extremely exclusively busy schedule?" Heero rolled his eyes at Duo's condescending tone but upon getting close enough, leaned in to kiss his boyfriend on the cheek anyway. Duo smiled still as Heero walked past him heading for the living room.

"Don't get too used to it but yeah, I'm taking a break." Heero continued walking into the living room finding Trowa setting up the movie for the evening and Quatre talking with Wufei behind the couch.

"Are you sure you don't want to watch the movie? We can be fun to hang out with you know." Wufei smiled slightly to Quatre's comment but shook his head.

"No thanks. I think that I am just going to take a shower and call it a night but you guys have fun without me." Heero thought he heard something strange in Wufei's tone and Trowa seemed to notice as well.

"Are you sure you're feeling well Wufei?" The Chinese teen waved the question off as he began walking away.

"I'm just tired is all…don't worry about me." Again, Heero heard something off but couldn't question it further as Wufei disappeared into the darkness of the hallway. Shortly after Wufei had left, Duo appeared with two giant bowls of popcorn and a pout on his face.

"No Wufei this time?" Quatre shook his head at Duo looking worriedly but Duo did his best to lift the mood.

"Well, it's his loss I guess. I popped the popcorn perfectly." Heero's lips curled into a smile as Duo held the popcorn before him and offered a bowl to Quatre for him and Trowa to share. Duo then turned to Heero and grabbed his hand, forcefully pulling him to sit next to him on the couch. Once everyone was settled, Trowa hit the play button and the movie began.

The four pilots found the movie to be quite entertaining despite its sappy undertones. Things got especially interesting when Duo began inserting his own commentary for the actors…let's just say it got to a point where Heero had to kiss him in order to shut him up. Quatre just laughed at the two and Trowa smiled thoughtfully at them but unexpectedly the happy times were cut short. About an hour into the movie, Quatre suddenly began breathing heavily and raggedly. Duo, who was sitting next him, immediately noticed. He turned to the blonde with a sarcastic comment ready but stopped short with one look at the pained expression on Quatre's face.

"Quatre? What's wrong?" Both Heero and Trowa tore their eyes from the movie to look at Quatre who was now clutching his shirt and leaning forward in pain. Duo squeezed Heero's hand harder as Trowa had instantly moved to Quatre's side kneeling on the floor next to him and asking him what was wrong. Heero stared intensely at his friend feeling his own heartbeat speed up. Quatre grunted in pain as he fell to his knees on the floor next to Trowa breathing even heavier. Trowa wrapped his arms around him not knowing what else to do while Duo moved to Quatre's other side, questioning him a noticeable fear laced in his voice.

"Quatre, what's going on? What's hurting?" With his eyes still shut tightly, Quatre was able to speak two pained words that he hoped would help before it was too late.

"He's…dying…" Everyone furrowed their brow at this and Trowa gathered Quatre into his arms trying to calm him down.

"Quatre what do you mean?"

Heero's eyes grew wide suddenly and he instantly pushed himself off the couch, almost stumbling he was moving so quickly, and began running down the hallway. He faintly heard Duo calling after him as he finally reached Wufei's room and threw open the large door. Once the door had opened light from the hallway flooded into the dark space and everything seemed to hit Heero all at once. He stared into the room seeing a barely conscious and bleeding Wufei lying on the ground before him. His feet carried him to his friend's side as he observed the wounds more closely and the blood-stained knife sitting not too far away. His eyes stopped on the Chinese teen's tear-covered stare and his mind went into overdrive with the emotions he was feeling.

"Shit…" Heero looked back finding Duo standing in the doorway with his hand over his mouth and his mind returned for the moment.

"Call an ambulance now!" Turning back to Wufei, Heero noticed his wheezing breaths and wrapped his arms around him firmly trying his best to gently get him out of the room.

The rest had been a blur; Quatre's horrified face and tears, Trowa's sad yet pensive appearance and Duo's intensely emotionless stare. At first when they were waiting for the ambulance, Heero was more concerned but soon, as his thoughts meandered, he could feel the anger brewing until eventually it had taken him over. He was again awoken by Duo's voice and hand pulling him to the car. Heero's expression softened at Duo's fearful tone of voice and he knew that he had to be there for his boyfriend but he also knew his anger would not be calmed so easily.

-------------------End Flashback--------------------

Heero focused back on the nurse in front of him as she typed away on her computer. He could hear Quatre sniffling behind him and mentally tried to will the nurse to move faster.

"Okay, here it is…Chang Wufei…he's actually not out of surgery yet so I'm afraid you'll have to wait in the waiting room. I'll alert the doctors working on him that he has guests though. They'll come and talk to you once things have settled down. You can fill out guest paperwork later." The nurse smiled sadly to the four boys and Trowa nodded his thanks before they began trudging towards the waiting room.

Trowa, who seemed to be the most clear-headed of the group, led the way to the waiting room and held the door open until everyone was inside. Fortunately, for the pilots, no one else was currently occupying the room so they could have time to themselves to think. Choosing to sit almost opposite the door, the green-eyed teen sat quietly in his chair and his expression returned to its previously pensive state. Trowa and Wufei had actually become closer since the end of the war because they had both decided to become part of the Preventers. Even though it was hard for Trowa to leave Cathy behind, they don't call it a traveling circus for nothing; he knew that they would see each other again. So, under Lady Une's command, he and Wufei were assigned as partners and even shared an office together. They still didn't talk to each other very much but rather they understood each other a lot better, which was why Trowa was pensive in the first place. It had been truly shocking for everyone to see Heero carrying the barely aware Wufei from his room and watch him be placed into an ambulance; however, Trowa was not worried about whether or not Wufei would survive. He was almost positive, in fact, that the Chinese would make it through; his concern was placed more on why Wufei tried to kill himself in the first place. To his knowledge, Trowa had not known of any problems Wufei was going through and he didn't think that any of the other pilots knew what was wrong either especially considering their faces now as he looked around the room. Trowa was especially worried about his blonde ex-boyfriend.

Deciding to seat himself between Trowa and Duo, Quatre continually rubbed his puffy red eyes as he impatiently waited. Physically, Quatre was certainly the worst of the group having suffered from his empathic attack and now looking as though he had been crying for days. Outside of all this, Quatre, of course, was running WEI and held a very steady position over the company; he had already done many things to improve conditions all over the universe though he much better enjoyed the time he spent with his fellow pilots. He always knew that after a stressful day at work, he could come home to their friendly faces. Now, one of those friends was in the hospital. More tears found their way to Quatre's eyes at the thought of losing Wufei…he prayed that the day would never come and especially not now. Quatre thought that the Chinese teen had softened since the end of the war but no one else really saw it. Even though they didn't talk much, Quatre still felt very comfortable talking with him about anything and he always knew that Wufei would be honest with him no matter what. Quatre just held that too dear to his heart to let it fade away now. Looking to his left and right, the blonde knew that he would never let any of his friends fade away. Noticing that more tears were falling down his face, Quatre swiped them away before feeling Trowa's eyes towards him. He nodded to his friend and watched as Trowa's hand moved to rest on his leg softly to comfort him, which Quatre appreciated but he focused more on other things such as Duo's outwardly lost expression beside him.

After plopping down into his very uncomfortable seat, Duo had immediately distracted himself by running various recipes through his head. After the war, Duo hadn't a clue of what to do with his life and, after seeing an advertisement on television, he decided to take a cooking class just to learn the basics. He ended up falling in love; of course, he had always loved food and eating it but he found every aspect of food to be glorious after his class. Now the other pilots insisted that he cook for them instead of dreading it, which only made Duo happier. However, Duo's sad thoughts could only be held at bay by cakes and candies for so long. As he stared blankly across the waiting room, Duo only felt numb. He had been completely shocked at the entire situation from the moment Quatre had begun breathing heavy to the moment when he looked into Wufei's room and saw his friend's body motionless on the ground; he was completely baffled by it. 'How could this happen to any of us?' was the only question Duo could form in his mind. And especially to Wufei. They had survived so much before this; Duo just couldn't wrap his head around it. The braided teen closed his eyes at the thought of his friend. Duo and Wufei had grown a lot closer after the war but, as they do, things changed between them and recently they had drifted apart. Duo only hoped that now he could have another chance to fix his mistakes.

Last in the row of pilots was Heero who, upon sitting down next to Duo, had instinctively grabbed and held his hand attempting to comfort them both. Once he and his other friends had settled into their home on Earth, Heero had somewhat surprisingly become a photographer for a local magazine and soon afterward, it was obvious to the other pilots that he and Duo were more than friends. No one minded, especially since Trowa and Quatre had already become a couple as well, and they thought that it was a good match to mellow out Heero somewhat. Moreover, Heero had indefinitely grown to enjoy his new life as he grew close to the pilots. Heero glared at the wall in front of him though upon thinking of Wufei lying helpless on the floor of his room; the two had an unspoken and powerful friendship but also some tension between them.

Yet, despite his newfound love and friendship, Heero still had one secret left to hide from his friends…one final mission that he was determined to complete.

Everyone's thoughts were interrupted when the door to the waiting room opened revealing a doctor dressed in light blue scrubs. He was not much taller than Trowa but was obviously muscular and looked around thirty years old with brown tufts of hair sticking out from underneath his medical cap. He shot a look to the boys silently saying that he had something to tell them. Knowing that he was the only one fit to speak to someone without mauling them completely, Trowa stood from his chair and walked over to the doctor gracefully. Duo squeezed Heero's hand tightly while moving his other hand to Quatre's leg, giving it a gentle squeeze as well. Quatre only sniffled in return trying to focus on something as to prevent himself from moving to shake the doctor's shoulders violently demanding the status of his friend. Heero merely watched intently but as much as he strained could not hear what either was saying. After a few moments, the doctor looked at Trowa sympathetically and put a hand on his shoulder before turning to walk away. Nodding his thanks, Trowa turned away from the doctor and could not hide the look of horror on his face. The others stood as Trowa approached them and looked to him fearfully. Their green-eyed friend blinked and sighed heavily before looking to his friends sadly.

"I'm afraid that I have some…appalling news." Trowa's voice was obviously quivering as he spoke but the pilots just waited patiently.

"Wufei…he…he has scars of the same variety…all over his body." Trowa paused desperately trying to breathe correctly but his shivering would not cease. Quatre gasped putting his hand over his mouth as more tears rolled down his cheeks and heard as Duo inhaled heavily before turning and hugging Heero roughly. Heero merely glared at the ground but almost naturally, his arms wrapped around Duo's back. Trowa continued.

"The doctors want to…check his mental stability." Trowa jumped slightly when Heero looked him dead in the eye, still glaring angrily.

"How long?" Trowa understood the question but didn't want to answer it knowing the implications that were ahead. Heero didn't budge though, only looking at Trowa more sternly. Eventually, Trowa gave in.

"They think…years." Trowa barely whispered the last part before Quatre pulled him into a hug. They all heard as Heero spat a curse word. Trowa kept his gaze on Heero knowing that something just wasn't right and didn't find it surprising when, the moment Duo had let go of him to comfort Quatre, Heero instantly dashed out the doorway.

"Heero! Where the hell is he going?" Duo stared after his lover confused and looked to Trowa who frowned.

"He's going to interrogate him…" It was Quatre's turn to curse loudly before he separated himself from the other two.

"We have to go after him…doesn't he know that this is no time to do that?" Trowa smiled ever-so-softly as Quatre changed his demeanor into 'leader-mode' and the blonde looked to his friends expectantly.

"How did Heero even get the room number?" Duo was still a bit baffled; he hoped that it was because of his frazzled emotions.

"He can read lips you know." With that said, Trowa revealed the room number to the others and they were on Heero's tail through the hospital hallways.

Well? Tell me what you think of chapter one! Was it horrible? It's kind of a cliffy and it has a lot of stuff in it that will be discussed and answered later (like why Heero is so dang angry!), don't worry, but I hope that it was enjoyable and understandable. Next chapter and probably the rest of them will be first-person again and you'll get to learn what led to all of this.

And, just because I'm saying it in all of my most recent updates, I am going to try my best to update as quickly as possible but I am back in school now so it might not be quite as frequent. Thank you!

Please Review! I love reviews :-D