Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing, and I don't own the song or song title "Bed of Roses" by Mindless Self Indulgence. Any little characters thrown in are totally mine (probably for my own evil amusement).
AN: I hope my readers can forgive me -sweatdrop- and this chapter is okay.
' ' are Thoughts
Italics are Past events
Italics in bold are Song lyrics
Bed of Roses
Chapter 11: "Weighty Circumstances"
"Screw you, the sentiment's the same my friend"
"Everything fine over there with Wufei, Heero?" Duo asked without warning, breaking the silence Heero had ordered him to honor.
"Yes; why?" Heero asked with some annoyance, fiddling with his microphone before his eyes suddenly widened in both alarm and fury.
"Damn you Zechs Marquise!" Heero shouted abruptly and Duo turned to him with surprise.
"What? Is that name of a mosquito that bit you just now Heero? What's wrong?" Duo asked him in bewilderment.
"That idiot! He—damn it, I've got to go in there now. Duo, I'm leaving you here to monitor both Wufei and Hilde. Good luck," Heero said shortly, and with that he unplugged his micro-mini microphone to make it run on its battery, tore open the van door, and ran out into the pitch-black darkness in a matter of seconds.
Duo stared after him in shock, before something caught his eye on his own monitor. Duo looked from Heero to the monitor frantically.
"Whoa! Wait Heero! Heero you got to hold on! Something funny is happening with Hilde too, but I'm not sure; you've got to look at this! Heero!" Duo called after him as quietly as he could several times through the van door before finally giving up and settling back inside.
"Man oh man, what in the hell am I going to do? Hilde is totally going off course, but then again it isn't so bad. I heard the ambulance just pull up so she probably got caught in the mess. I just hope she can get herself out of it."
"Well Duo Maxwell, seems like you're going to be sitting in here for quite some time. At least I know Mr. Straight and Narrow is going to stay on course."
"She seems to be having trouble breathing. Nurse, bag her please," the red-haired doctor commanded, looking straight into Hilde's face.
Hilde gulped, touching the long black-hair of her wig nervously, but soon the simple term came to her and she inwardly sighed in relief.
"Okay, yes, I will put her on the respirator now!" Hilde exclaimed, quickly dislodging the equipment and putting it over the hyperventilating woman's mouth.
"You don't have to say it, just do it nurse," the red-haired doctor muttered, pressing the "open" button for the elevator to rush the stretcher inside.
Hilde silently sighed in relief. Now all she had to do was accompany this woman to surgery—something that would hopefully be fairly trouble-free—and then she could skedaddle.
"Miss? Did you hear me? What is your name again? I don't think we've met and I'm always trapped in this building. I'd like to know who I am working with," the redheaded doctor explained, offering Hilde her hand and breaking the awkward silence of the elevator ride.
Hilde jumped. "Oh, oh sorry. I'm nurse—" and for just moment Hilde found herself racking her brain for the last name of the medical professional she was supposed to be replacing.
"Nurse Han-Granger. Pleased to meet you," Hilde finally remembered and took the doctor's proffered hand, shaking it firmly.
Dr. Sawyer smiled. "The pleasure's all mine. Good work on bagging her. And here we are. Let's move people!"
Hilde felt cold anxiety constrict her chest as all three off them rushed the stretcher towards the OR.
Wufei's arrival on the 5th floor was fairly uneventful compared to earlier. He narrowed his eyes glanced down to the left and then the right of the long corridor.
'Clear.'
He gingerly stepped out of the elevator then marched confidently onward to room 510. He frowned as he only saw Trowa inside, taking Dorothy off the steadily beeping machinery.
"Is that alright?" Wufei skeptically asked.
"Yes. I double-checked that she had her round of antibiotics for the day," Trowa answered without turning around. "And I will be taking a few things with me of course."
"Where are the nurses?"
Trowa finished his final needle removal and turned to look at Wufei. He smirked briefly before answering.
"Once they saw me, they found it appropriate to leave me be and go on their break. You need to isolate the Han-Granger nurse. Where is Hilde by the way?"
Wufei scowled further. "Don't smirk at me. Your outfit is even more ridiculous than mine."
Trowa smirked harder.
"Anyway, I don't know where that woman is, but her arrival better be on time. I guess she has some time now that I have to find that confounded nurse…" Wufei finished more to himself.
"Alright. Get to it. They can't come back here and find this bed empty before we're all gone."
Wufei sighed, turning on his heel to march out once again.
Trowa turned back to Dorothy and paused for a moment just to examine her. She was paler than usual and uncomfortably thin. Trowa's brow furrowed briefly, hoping the rapid loss in weight was due to her being on a liquid diet and nothing more. Trowa had already examined and taken note of the various liquids being pumped into Dorothy's body for his personal research later.
Trowa carefully bent down and slowly rose with her in his arms. She groaned and mumbled incoherently. Tonight, Trowa was glad they had apparently knocked her out with a hodgepodge of meds.
"Stop right there Barton."
Trowa momentarily tensed, anticipating this.
Heero rushed through the automatically sliding doors of the front of the hospital building, nearly barreling over a young woman and her son.
"Hey! Watch where you're going!" the mother shrieked.
Heero ignored her and merely gritted his teeth in anger. 'Trust that idiot to deviate off course.'
"Sir! Sir! You need a guest pass! Where do you think you're going!?" screeched the woman at the desk who had easily let Milliardo and Noin through earlier. He ignored her and slammed his finger onto the "open" button for the elevator repeatedly. When that didn't work within a millisecond, he spun away to race up the stairs, taking them two at a time.
"Security! Security! Get that man!" the check-in clerk continued to scream, repeatedly slamming the red button underneath her desk for security.
Heero couldn't hear anything except for the blood rushing in his ears. He was pissed-off and nothing could stop him now. He reached the fifth floor in a minute and was already coming up beside Milliardo and Noin as they stood within the doorway of 510. He half-heard Milliardo commanding Trowa to stop what he was doing.
Heero stopped just paces away from them. "Shut up Zechs. This isn't a part of the plan. Don't screw it up now," he commanded angrily.
"You shut up, Heero. I have something I need to do here that will greatly benefit this operation—the one you tried to keep me out of," Zechs spat back, turning to look at his longtime nemesis with narrowed eyes.
Trowa sighed, crossing his arms and glancing at his watch as the two bickered like children. 'I hope Wufei's pulling it together on his end. Where is Hilde?'
Heero finished stalking over to him and Noin. "We don't have time for your sulkiness. Just say what it is you want to do or get out and stop wasting our time," Heero argued back.
"How about we just all calm down? Okay?" Noin asked with beseeching eyes, sliding between the two men to create some space before the fists started flying.
"I need a blood sample from Dorothy," Zechs said shortly. With that, he turned away and entered the room.
"Where do you think—" Heero started, moving around Noin who was also hurriedly reaching after Zechs'.
"You sir!" a booming voice interrupted and Heero momentarily froze, snapping his head to the threatening call. It was the large voice of 6' 4", rotund man who also happened to be the head of security. Four more security guards were behind him.
"You don't have the right to be in that room without proper documentation!"
"Get what you need. Leave them to me," Heero growled, and with one quick glare at Milliardo and another quick glance at the five guys in blue, Heero wordlessly bolted down the hall.
"Hey! Stop right there!" the leader of security shouted again and raced after Heero with his team behind him. They didn't even notice Zechs and Noin, the latter of which was already closing the double doors of the patient's room.
A slight expression of annoyance still graced Wufei's features as he headed towards the nurses' dining area around the corner.
A male doctor with a clipboard glanced up as he walked passed, giving Wufei a quick once over.
"Hello, nurse? Do you have a minute? Are you from 510?"
Wufei had continued haughtily past the eyeglass-wearing doctor, but at the mention of the room "510" he stopped without turning around.
"Yes, what of it?" he asked in the best woman's voice he could muster.
The doctor frowned, not used to such terseness from the nurses. He decided to walk over and see just exactly who this was. Once Wufei heard him walk toward him, he heaved an impatient sigh and turned around.
"Yes?" Wufei questioned with his arms crossed and a glower.
"Cadia?" the doctor said with surprise, nearly dropping his clipboard as he reached one hand out toward Wufei. At "Cadia's" expression he quickly returned his hand to his side.
Wufei narrowed his eyes and pursed his lips. "Cadia?"
"Yeah, I'm-I'm sorry about the other night—" the doctor began but Wufei quickly cut him off.
"Is that all or did you actually stop me for something medically related?"
"Oh y-yes, I've been put in charge of watching over the patient in 510, and I just have so many rounds, so I just thought, I'd ask one of the nurses," he said, abruptly stopping to clear his throat as he realized he was rambling, "and find out how she was doing—Ms. Catalonia is it?" he concluded.
Wufei's face darkened. "She's fine, stable, there's no need to stop in Dr.—?" Wufei broke off questioningly.
"Wang…but you know you can call me Edward, Cadia," he admonished in a whisper, half flirting as he smiled with confusion at Wufei—or "Cadia" so he thought.
Wufei huffed and turned around, ready to walk on when his target emerged around the corner; her head was bowed in conversation with one of 510's other nurses.
'Curses!' Wufei bellowed in his head. Thinking quickly, he turned and grabbed the doctor's arm, dragging him into the women's bathroom just in front of them. He didn't need the doctor causing a scene after seeing double.
"What are you doing—" Dr. Wang began with another confused grin, one tinged with interest.
"You know, we can't do that here," he smirked for a second time, speaking in a conspirator's whisper as Wufei swiftly kicked the door shut behind them, pushing Edward back behind.
Wufei ignored him and sidled up to the door, pressing his ear to the cool wood to try and catch anything of interest from the chattering nurses.
Suddenly he felt slim arms begin to snake around his waist. "Cadia—" But Edward was promptly silenced as Wufei first elbowed him in the solar plexus, abruptly knocking the air out of him so he couldn't scream.
Wufei then turned and swiftly punched him across the jaw, putting him out cold. Poor Edward could only let out a wheezing grunt as he head slammed into the tiled wall and he slid down slowly, eyeglasses tumbling off his face and into his lap.
"Fool," Wufei sniffed and quickly stepped back up to the door. The women we're rapidly approaching, but stopped just short of the restroom.
'If I could just separate the two…'
"Maria, I'm just going to go use the bathroom real quick. You go on ahead."
'If the other is Maria, the one coming into the bathroom must be the target,' Wufei surmised and quickly fled into the first stall.
'This is beyond dishonorable,' Wufei grumbled with embarassment.
He was just quick enough, because just after closing the stall door, his target entered the bathroom. He took out a handkerchief soaked in chloroform, crushing it into his fist until he was ready. Wufei had told the others earlier he positively was not going to hit a woman.
"Gray skies are gonna clear up… put on a happy face…" Cadia sang softly, swinging open the door and clicking in her low heels towards the bathroom stalls.
Wufei heard her stop in front of his stall and he scooted back to allow her to open his door with ease. She didn't bother checking if his stall was occupied and casually pushed the door open.
"Take off the gloomy mask of tragedy…"
"Quiet," Wufei said, and dived forward, covering her face with the chemical soaked cloth and hastily shutting her up.
"Wha—" was all Cadia had time for, as Wufei spun her around and hugged her to him, the cloth pressed tightly over her nose and mouth. She soon slumped in his arms.
"Women. Too easy."
"Wow, everyone seems to be screwed right now," Duo laughed, speaking out loud to no one. He leaned back in his seat, watching the four small television screens reveal just how screwed everyone was.
"Duo! What is going on?"
Duo jumped as he heard Heero's harsh voice crackle through the mic in his ear.
"Well I can see that you've got the cops on you; Hilde is stuck in surgery; Wu-man got stuck in the bathroom—though he did finally get the target. Milliardo's doing whatever the hell he's doing, but he's with Noin and Trowa, and the coast is clear so far annnndd—yeah that's it. But I've got to go buddy."
"What? Go? Go where?! Duo! Stay in the vehicle! Stay in the vehicle!"
"No can do buddy."
"Duo—" But Heero's words never reached him as he abruptly shut off his mic.
Hilde thanked the heavens she didn't have to do much more than prep the patient for surgery and hand over a few instruments. She finished washing her hands and wiped the sweat from her brow. She didn't see Dr. Sawyer walk in.
"Hey there," Sawyer called out and Hilde looked up and smiled. "Hey there Dr. Sawyer."
"You can call me Jeannie," Sawyer smiled. "Well that one was a no-brainer," she continued conversationally as she came up beside Hilde to wash her hands as well. Hilde just nodded, moving off to tear away a couple paper towels to dry her hands. She rolled down her sleeves and headed towards the door.
"Going so soon?" Jeannie asked, looking at Hilde's retreating back with some disappointment.
Hilde turned and smiled with a little wave. "Unfortunately, yes. I'm due back with another patient. I am not usually in the ER. I just happened to be on hand. Sorry."
"No need to be sorry," Jeannie smiled warmly once more. "Which patient? I might know them."
"Uh, room 510?" Hilde said cautiously, not sure how much would be safe to give away.
"Ah, the Catalonia heir," Jeannie nodded, drying her hands, suddenly losing her smile. "Bad case of whiplash. Neurology's case. I see. Well I hope she'll be alright," she said, looking up to give Hilde another bright smile.
Hilde eyed her face quizzically during her words, but shook her head, chalking up her rapid seriousness to the gravity of Dorothy's injuries. Hilde nonetheless felt anxious.
'I must have put the mission so behind schedule by now,' she inwardly groaned.
"Well…I'll be going now," Hilde smiled, wringing her hands and turning to go again.
Jeannie nodded, going for her long, white coat off the hook nearby. "See you around, hopefully. Thanks again."
"Sure, it's just my job!" Hilde called out behind her, then pushed the swing door open to hurry down the hall.
'Shit, shit, shit,' she silently berated herself.
Hilde remembered they were on the third floor so she just decided to take the stairs up the last two flights to 510. She quickly rushed through the metal door to the stairwell, but as she just as she began to run up, she saw Heero coming rapidly down toward her.
"You're not going to get out of here unscathed if you keep it up! Now stop running!"
"Heero?" Hilde asked with wide eyes as she heard the commotion of Heero's assailants.
"No time! Get up there already!" Heero whispered quickly as he leapt up onto the railing beside her and jumped down the stairs, landing in a crouch before repeating the maneuver until he reached the bottom of the stairs.
Hilde glanced down at Heero's retreating figure and when she looked up again the five security guards were barreling down on her.
"Oh God—" Hilde choked out, seemingly frozen in place, but she suddenly felt herself being jerked through the fourth floor doorway and out of harm's way.
"What the hell?" she breathed, as she tumbled into a pair of muscular arms and a hard chest.
"Just in the nick of time. Hey babe."
"Wha-what? Duo? What are you doing here?" Hilde stuttered, looking up with a grin.
"I came to rescue you," he grinned. He had fashioned a look-a-like security guard uniform out of one of their old junkyard outfits for a disguise.
"You should continue on upstairs while I go rescue Heero," he said, grinning wider, and with that, let her go and ran back through the metal exit door.
Hilde shook her head, stunned for a second, but then realized she was late for her own part of the mission. She darted through the door Duo had just gone through and bound up the last flight of stairs to the fifth floor.
"I hear footsteps," Trowa declared, and Milliardo glanced up apprehensively. He said nothing and latched shut the cooler-like container holding a sample of Dorothy's blood.
Noin held up a hand, quickly moving to the door. "I'll take care of this," she assured, going outside to meet the unwelcome guest.
As she stepped out, Noin took a deep breath with her head bowed. 'What exactly am I going to say to this—'
"Oof, sorry," Noin apologized, bumping into someone outside the door as she blindly moved forward. She quickly realized it had been a nurse approaching and graced the young woman with a smile.
"Oh no, I'm sorry!" the nurse Maria apologized back. "Are you okay?"
"I'm so glad to have run into you Maria," Noin said, offering her hand, and remembering her face from their information folder. "I just need to ask you a few questions…" And without waiting for an answer, Noin led Maria right back down the hall for a mock interrogation session.
As she walked down the hall with the nurse, Noin spotted Wufei coming out of the women's bathroom.
'What the…? I'm not even going to ask...' Noin snorted, smothering a grin as she walked passed.
Wufei glared at her and moved passed quickly as well, reentering 510.
"I'm here," he declared but Milliardo and Trowa both ignored him, engaged in a heated debate over Dorothy's sleeping form.
"I can guarantee you no one cares more about this woman right now than me," Milliardo said heatedly.
"No, that man isn't here right now," Trowa disagreed, calmly crossing his arms in defiance.
Before Milliardo could respond, Hilde showed up breathless.
"I'm…finally…here," Hilde gasped, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath to relax. "So sorry I'm late."
"Actually, you're right on time woman," Wufei declared, already tearing off the offensive dress and going for Trowa's modest priest satchel that held his normal clothes.
Milliardo and Trowa both turned to Hilde with an annoyed look and she thought they were mad at her. "Hey, I said I'm sorry," she repeated with her hands up in surrender.
"Sorry Hilde, you're not the problem. Zechs here won't let us close the mission by allowing me to take Dorothy out of here as planned," Trowa explained.
"Well, where's Noin? I'm sure she could—" Hilde started but soon a fuming Heero and a grinning Duo entered the room.
"What's up guys?" Duo asked, laughingly clapping Heero on the back. Heero shrugged him off.
"The doctors are not here. There was no point in the switch. We need to leave before anyone comes to suspect anything. We took care of the security away from the building, so we need to leave now. Sorry Wufei," Heero ended, noticing Wufei's smothered outraged as he realized he had suffered through this night for naught.
"They aren't here?" Hilde asked in bewilderment. "But where could they be?"
"We're not sure yet babe, but we're going to find out," Duo answered with a smile.
"Hey all, back. I've arranged for transport of our Dorothy to home care. Sally supplied me with the paperwork and they've agreed to do it quietly due to the high profile of the patient. With Hilde here as one of the nurses, it should be fine," Noin declared proudly as she walked through the door.
"I suggest the rest of you troublemakers see yourselves out as covertly as possible," Noin teased with one eyebrow raised, giving each of the guys a look.
"That seems deceptively too easy, along with the doctors disappearance..." Heero considered aloud, but Hilde had had enough.
"Well that solves everything," Hilde sighed with relief and Noin gave her a puzzled look. Hilde simply shook her head, clasping a hand on Noin's shoulder.
"I agree with Hilde," Duo said happily, already walking out the door.
"Why? What's wrong?" Noin questioned as everyone moved past her.
"I'll explain later; too much freakin' testosterone," Hilde replied, slipping an arm about the taller woman's middle to walk her out.
Review pretty please~
Angel of Mirth