(A/N – This is long, but please read it. Ok, I know and I am sure that no one remembers this story and maybe not even sailor moon or gundam wing, and yes, I know its 2009 and 4 years have gone by since this story was last updated. I have been checking in on this story every now and then and I really wanted to continue it. That's why I picked up this moldy story and decided to finish it, even if I am the only person who reads it. It is more satisfying to me to know that 6 years ago I started it and 6 years later, I picked it back up to work on finishing it. It has been a long time since I have wrote a story like this, so if my writing style is different, than I am sorry, but as your personality changes, your writing style changes with it. I went from being slightly depressed to happy go lucky, hehe. I cannot help it, just a fact of writing. On with the story!)
The Screen Behind the Mirror – Out From the Deep
Thoughts (without quotes)
"Talking"
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I think we go through life thinking we are alone… We go through life thinking we are the only ones who have ever felt pain. It is all a lie… If we only took the time to open our eyes, then we would realize that there are people right in front of us who have formed bonds with us… people who care so much that they will lay down their own life….
Ami… I did not want to realize this too late, but I am afraid I have…
Please forgive me….
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Ami
The wordless sounds from the TV went unnoticed to everyone… We haven't heard from Hotaru and the other pilots and I was starting to pick up that Heero and especially Duo were worried.
"Look, lets just go to the park and see if we can find them, I have a feeling something bad happened, it isn't like them to go this long without any contact with us," I said hoping to get through to them.
There was short period of silence until Heero spoke up.
"It's best to stay here, they will be here soon." I couldn't believe that even after all this time has passed, Heero is still telling us to stay here! I started to get angry and was about to speak up when I heard an unexpected reaction from Duo
"Stay Here!? We left them at 6:00 in the evening, it is 1:00 in the morning and you are still telling us to stay here!?" My eyes widened… I looked in Duos eyes and saw an expression I haven't seen, or maybe didn't want to see before… He really did care. Feeling that I finally had someone on my side, I found myself butting into their argument unable to stay silent.
"I don't know and frankly I don't care if you are or are not worried about the other pilots Heero, but Hotaru has been in the park for too long, I cannot just sit on my butt knowing that no one has been able to contact us! If you aren't going to check on them than I-" I was interrupted by Duo.
"Ami, you stay here…Honestly, I am not that worried about the pilots… They can take care of themselves… I am worried about Hotaru. She didn't seem like her self… I barely know her and even I could tell that… you might get hurt if you-"
"Look, you can't tell me to sit here any longer and just wait for her, I am not as weak as you think. How can you say you care about Hotaru when every single time I tried to tell you guys to check up on her you always gave me an excuse… Now you're telling me that you are worried about her? You expect me to believe that!?"
I know I sounded mean… I didn't want to because I knew Duo really did care about Hotaru and Me a lot. I never saw it until now, but something inside me knew that he was worried. I looked over at Heero and really started to realize that his face never did show any sort of emotion.
"I'm sorry Ami…" Duo grabbed his coat and was about to go out the door until, we were interrupted by a phone call… Duo stopped in his tracks and looked at Heero… Heero answered the phone and for the first time… I started to shiver violently…
Something is wrong…
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Trowa, Quatre, and Wufei
"Is she asleep?" Trowa asked while driving.
"More like knocked out…. I can't believe this happened…" Wufei said with a deep sigh.
"Her injuries are so bad… I don't know what could have happened to her. All that time, I tried to downplay her injuries so she wouldn't be worried…" Quatre said while looking out the window.
"Damn! It doesn't make any sense… We checked the forest up and down, every little inch. I was starting to think that she just snuck home, but it's like she appeared out of nowhere..." Wufei said obviously annoyed at the circumstances.
"I don't like this… It isn't going to be easy to go back to Ami with Hotaru in this condition…" Trowa said while looking in his rear-view mirror.
"I told Ami we would protect Hotaru… Hotaru may not have been our mission… but I really wanted to protect her…Now look…This isn't going to be an easy one… Hotaru needs a doctor, fast" Quatre said.
"Hmph, I don't understand why five pilots are needed to protect one girl, when the one who appears to be in the most danger is sitting here bleeding right in front of our eyes… Is it even possible to bring a magic user to a doctor…" Wufei said in a quieter tone.
Silence…
"We need to take her to Ami first, she won't like what she sees, but that's our only choice, we can't expose a magic user to civilians… who knows what would happen…" Trowa said after a long silence.
Quatre looked at his cell phone and knew what had to be done… "It looks like Heero and Duo have already tried to reach us… I guess I'll do the honors…sigh"
The phone's ring sounded throughout the car. It was finally ended with an emotionless "Hello".
"Heero, this is Quatre… We have some bad news…"
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Ami
Heero picked up the phone while Duo and I went to the counter, but all we could hear from Heero's end of the conversation was a bunch or "mmm hmms". Heero didn't show any emotion until one statement that caused even the emotionless Heero to say a slightly shocked…"What?" Heero hung up the phone than looked at Duo, than me.
"Ami, I know you were trained in the Medical field… Do you have any medical supplies?" Heero said in a serious tone.
"M-medical supplies…? What happened!" I stumbled… I knew it… I just knew it, something happened. I said as I stared at Heero and saw how Duo looked on wide-eyed in disbelief
"Hotaru… They don't know what happened… The whole afternoon they looked in the park for her. Apparently, she just "appeared" out of nowhere. Quatre said by looking at her wounds, it doesn't look like it was inflicted by humans or animals…" Heero's voice was emotionless and I… for the first time… found myself for a loss of words…Tears began to form at the back of my eyes, Duo looked at me with pity and worry and finally snapped out of it and spoke up.
"what kind of injuries were they than? Do they know what did it?"
"That's the problem… they can't really identify…" Heero stopped and looked at the door.
In came Trowa… than Quatre, and finally, to my horror, I saw Wufei carrying an unconscious and bloody Hotaru… the tears finally began to fall down my face…
"W-why… You all promised that you would protect her… Y-you all are failures… you lied to me…"
I slowly snapped out of it and signaled Wufei to take Hotaru to my bedroom and ran to get medical supplies… I thought back and realized that I couldn't remember the last time I cried… I didn't know or care how the pilots looked at me after that moment, but I knew I could sense a heavy load of guilt flowing through all of them.
Wufei laid Hotaru on the bed and I got the supplies and finally took a good look at her… and before I knew it… I fell to my knees and burst out crying along her bedside… Gathering my strength to save my best friends life, I held her hand and luckily felt her pulse was faint but still there. Blood seeped through her clothes and knew what had to be done. I started cleaning her wounds and signaled the guys out while I changed Hotaru into a small, white and pink nightgown (which caused only a slight and quick smile from me, since I could just hear her protesting about it when she woke up). Regardless, It was all I had and I knew it would make things easier when I needed to change her bandages…
I now know that you never know how much someone means to you until they are nearly taken away…
I can't let this happen again… I won't…
The tears at the back of my eyes threatened to fall again, but I was motivated by a newfound strength… I looked at Hotaru and saw she was fighting back… I knew she was going to make it.
I never saw it before… but I realized just how strong Hotaru is… I didn't know what happened to her at the park, but I knew… It was something out of this world…
While Hotaru laid there resting peacefully, I thought about the gundam pilots in the other room… I knew they were not leaving and I couldn't coop myself inside hoping they would. I washed my face, but still noticed my red eyes didn't go away. I finally remembered calling them failures and started to feel a bit of anxiety going back into the living room to give them and update. I took a deep breath, walked in and slowly saw five pairs of eyes glance at me with curiosity and guilt…
Please God... Give me strength…
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(A/N - Well that's it for now, I have a pretty good Idea how the next chapter is going to go, so I think I should have it out pretty soon. I have to say that I will prob put couples or at least imply romance in this story. I know I said in the past that I wouldn't, but I changed my mind =b. If you read the story and liked it, or didn't like it, I would ask if you would review so I have an idea if this story is really worth resurrecting (knowing me, ill resurrect it anyway). Hope you enjoyed the read and I'll try to get the next chapter out soon =b )