Day of Last Communication

Duo threw his duffle over his shoulder, jogging down the stairs two at a time on his way to work. He liked to walk when Heero was out of town, gave him some time to occupy his mind with something other than loneliness. Sure, he'd made plans tonight with some of the other trainers after work so he'd have something to do, but it wasn't the same as having Heero there. And recently Heero had been out of town so frequently that it was really getting him down. Honestly Duo suspected the aggressive schedule was getting to Heero as well and was a big factor in his impromptu marriage proposal. They'd been together long enough that Duo knew Heero sought out something he could hold on to tangibly when he was feeling uncertain.

Not that he would change his answer in any way regardless of why Heero asked. He never really considered marriage because it never really mattered to him – as long as he was with Heero, he was happy. So the request of a ring and a proper proposal was an attempt to buy them some time to ease into the idea more than anything – because he did want that. Wanted it more than he'd ever realized he would before being asked.

And really, Duo knew it wasn't just the traveling that had Heero nervous and needy. He glanced around, noting the stickers and flyers and posters for the upcoming primary – Quatre Winner's face and name standing out prominently to Duo as he'd once campaigned for him, had dinner with him, laughed with him, believed in him. But he couldn't any more – not after his last trip out to DC. He felt like ripping his fair face off of every flyer he passed, those smiling lips and kind eyes a blatant lie. If only he'd known, he never would've agreed to this, the vaccine. They could've made it through some other way. Not like this. Not when so many people could die and they all fucking knew it and wouldn't do anything.

He wasn't voting this year – that was for damn sure. Maybe he wouldn't vote ever again.

When Duo caught sight of his scowl as he passed by the long sheet glass of the shops on the street, he stopped, tried to at least straighten his face into something remotely presentable to his clients. He hated to be negative while he was trying to motivate people to do something they typically didn't really want to do, but sometimes it was difficult to separate his personal life from his trainer persona.

He was just about to the gym when his phone rang, the dumb tone he'd programmed in for Heero chiming and his brows furrowed, puzzled. Heero knew his schedule and would never call this close to the start of his shift. It wasn't like Heero to be confused and that worried him.

"Hey babe," he greeted as he held the phone to his ear. "Everything okay out there?"

"No, everything is not okay." Heero's voice was strained and panicky, his breath coming in pants and Duo's chest constricted painfully as every horrifying scenario Heero had recounted to him over the past several months immediately flashed through his mind all at once, clouding his ability to think, and he stopped mid-stride in the middle of the street, begging his hands to stop shaking.

"It's happening. It's happening now." He was breathless and Duo's heart started racing. Heero was in fucking Washington DC, almost three thousand miles away. This couldn't be happening – not now.

"What?" Duo interjected, hoping with what he knew was futility that Heero was just exaggerating. But Heero wasn't the type to exaggerate.

"I don't know – bombings, I think. They're evacuating now. The plane – shit!" Static crackled through the line for a minute and Duo's eyes widened in shock as he repeated Heero's name several times, desperate for that not to be it, not to be last time he heard Heero's voice.

"Sorry, there's – get to a safe place. Surely they'll hit LA." Heero was pleading, the distress in his voice causing a sympathetic reaction in Duo.

"What about you?" The fact that Heero intentionally omitted whatever it was he was going to say made panic rise in his throat and the fact that the question didn't come out several pitches higher was an accomplishment.

"I'm almost at a fallout shelter," Heero assured him but Duo's terror was rising regardless.

"I want you home," he begged quietly, knowing there was nothing he could do to change the situation.

"I know, I wish I was home too, but listen to me," Heero said, voice unwavering and serious, calming him despite the situation. "Stay where you are. I will find you. You understand me? I will find you. I lo –"

And then without any warning the line died. Duo started at the phone, immediately trying to redial but all he got was Heero's voicemail.

"Fuck!" he shouted, completely ignoring everyone on the street as he shook his phone in his hand, wanting to smash it against the ground in frustration. He didn't even get to say goodbye. Heero could be fucking dead for all he knew. DC could've been blasted off the face of the map and everyone was just walking around like nothing had happened, like nothing had changed.

He stared at the people walking down the street – confused, unsure of what he should do. Going back to their apartment seemed foolish as it wasn't even ground floor and didn't offer any particular amount of protection and he wasn't sure LA even had a fallout shelter – at least he'd never seen one.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck," he muttered under his breath, frustrated, staring around at everything in desperation, willing some kind of plan to come to him, gathering a few curious looks from passersby. And then he thought of the showers at work, located in the center of the building on the ground floor – no windows, no outside facing doors, just concrete and tile enclosures safe from the outside. As safe as anywhere else he could go.

Duo's mind raced as he maneuvered through the street, back ramrod straight, single-minded purpose obvious in his long stride. Heero's voice slammed through his brain, his last 'I love you' cut off and destroyed. He wondered how long it would be before whatever was happening there would happen here. He wondered how long it would be before people started to die.

He threw open the doors to the gym and the first thing he noticed was that everyone's eyes were glued to the television screens. There were no pictures inside the city, the video was filmed from a distant point outside DC, but it looked like the whole skyline was on fire, dark, billowing smoke clouding out the sky. The TV was turned up – unusual but warranted – as the anchor described the attack in vague and uncertain terms, obviously having no real information and instead just repeating to stay tuned as they tried to get updates from inside the city.

"We have to get to the showers," Duo announced to his teammates and then all eyes turned towards him in a mix of fear, apprehension, uncertainty, and surprise.

"Duo…?" asked Susan, twisting her long brown hair nervously in her fingers, no one knowing what else to say, still in shock from the capital being attacked by an unknown source.

It was like 9/11 all over again but Duo wasn't a kid anymore and his future husband was in that city and it fucking mattered to him. They stood there like sheep, blinking in confusion, and he was just trying to hold himself together and not think about how Heero could never have survived that smoke filled screen, how any minute they could be blown to kingdom-fucking-come, how even if they survived the initial attack there would be a plague and people would die anyway – they would all fucking die anyway.

"We have to get to the showers. They're gonna bomb us too."

Disbelief was the overriding expression he got back and he wanted to stomp his feet, scream, tell them they were all idiots but he felt defeated then and he didn't care. It didn't matter. Maybe LA wouldn't even be hit. Maybe it would just be DC and it would just be Heero and Quatre was wrong and life would go on for everyone but him –

But he couldn't let himself think like that. He had to hold his shit together. He was the only one who really had half a shot at surviving this and he knew it.

"How could you know that?" Steve challenged and Duo wanted to punch him right in his chiseled fucking face. He always had to challenge every damn thing…

"I just fucking do, okay?" he demanded and just as the words left his mouth, the TVs went dark, the lights shut off, and every piece of technology in the building stopped functioning completely. And all Duo could think was 'well, fuck.'

Immediately the expressions of his co-workers shifted to understanding and they all seemed to move as one in a mad rush towards the showers, just as Duo had originally suggested. There weren't many clients but the ones that were there were obviously smart enough to figure out some kind of shit was going down and they followed without question. Susan clung to him and they hunkered down in the shower together with a few other girls and he wrapped her up in his arms as they waited, resting his chin on her head and holding her tight.

For one desperate moment he could pretend that she was Heero, that Heero was safe, that they were there together, about to face whatever may come together, even though it was a lie. He squeezed her a little harder, bit down on his lip, willed himself maintain some damn control and not think about DC, not think about what could've happened to Heero, and instead focus on his promise – that he would find him. Heero didn't use words lightly and he wouldn't have said that if he didn't mean it, if he didn't think it were possible. He wouldn't give Duo false hope.

Maybe Heero's cell phone just died like the TVs did and he still had a few minutes before the bombs, just like they did now. Heero had said he was near a fallout shelter. Surely he made it in time. Heero was nothing if not damned determined.

"Duo?" Susan asked quietly and they felt the ground shake under them, ever so slightly, just a small tremor like the beginnings of earthquakes they'd all felt an innumerable number of times living on a fault line. "How did you know?"

His frame shook in the same small way the ground did but it was of its own accord and he felt rocked to his core, as though a bomb had hit him instead of the city.

"Heero called me," he whispered, barely able to speak without breaking into spontaneous tears as he considered the words he was about to say. "Heero is in DC."