IMPORTANT!!!: I have added this chapter between 5 and what was 6 (and now is 7, with a few minor revisions). Hope you enjoy. This chapter just came to me and I thought it worked better in this order. Sorry for any confusion!

A/N: Yes, I know I'm horrible at updating, Blah, Blah, Blah. But it would be nice if everyone would Read & Review to encourage me to write more sooner!

Disclaimer: All unoriginal characters are not mine; please realize I don't make any money off of this.

Chapter 6 – All Together Now

You can only watch someone sleeping for so long. Or, in Duo's case, watch someone lie unconscious in a hospital bed. It had been more than a week, and, although Heero's condition had stabilized, Heero showed no signs of regaining consciousness. Duo, along with the others, had agreed to watch over Heero in shifts, both to watch in case Heero woke up and also to protect him in case whoever had tried to kill Heero – and had succeeded in killing Dr. J – came back to finish the job.

Duo glanced up from the magazine which he had liberated from the waiting room after the countless hours had slowly taught him that Heero's occasional twitches were not precursors to impending consciousness. More likely, he was dreaming, if Heero can dream that is. Duo got up and checked Heero's vitals, not relying on the machines. Heero could fool machines, but never him.

How could Heero fool him when he was shining a pen light into those Prussian blue orbs. Brain waves, he could give Heero credit for learning to control. Pupil dilation – not so much. Everything normal, for a gundam pilot in a coma anyway. He returned to his chair behind the door. It was incredibly irritating to have the only available chair in the room situated directly behind the door and bolted to the floor so you couldn't move it. Sitting in the chair, Duo couldn't sit anywhere near Heero and had absolutely no vantage point on the hallway acting as a doorstop as he was.

All there was for him to do was continue to wait and hope.

oOooOooOo

Demyan growled at his computer before swearing profusely. It was almost as if the other pilots had simply ceased to exist! How was someone as important as the head of Winner Enterprises able to simply disappear? The only pilot with any sort of active trail was in a severe coma, logged as an active patient at the hospital where he was being cared for; the rest had no plane tickets, travel plans, or even credit card charges.

Well, start where you can I guess, Demyan thought as he grabbed his bag and headed for the hospital. There was a sick patient whom he needed to visit.

Apparently the fire hadn't killed Heero Yuy after all. A pity because now Demyan would have to go back and finish the job. Dr. M would have been very disappointed – all that training, just to prevent mistakes like this, right out the metaphorical window at the first stage of the mission. He'd completely neglected to return to J's warehouse and follow up on the fire to make sure that the lives intended to be taken had been; a follow up that was, clearly, necessary in light of the recently acquired information. Better late than never, at least. It would be simple, he could see it now; the medical file placed Heero in a coma, one that he most likely would never awaken from – and one that Demyan intended to make permanent.

oOooOooOo The next day, back at the hospital…

Again with this stupid chair. Duo resigned himself to the uncomfortableness of it all. The hours seemed to drag on and on until his complaints drifted toward the back of his mind and his eyelids wouldn't seem to stay open. The fitful slumber wasn't any better or worse than the rest he had been getting at the safehouse, always worried about Heero or disturbed by one of the other guys, but any sleep is better than none at all. And surely Heero was more than making up for any and all of Duo's many sleepless nights.

At first, Demyan's footsteps didn't disturb Duo's fitful nap, he had grown used to the soft tap tap tap of nurses shoes hurrying back and forth to see to other patients' needs and the somewhat slower, heavier footsteps of visitors coming to wish well their loved ones. Demyan's barely audible footsteps stopped as he reached Heero's room, pausing hesitantly and listening carefully to the steady rhythm of beeping from the machines before stepping silently over the threshold. He took three steps into the room and over to the bed where Heero lay to stare at the unmoving young man dispassionately. Seconds later, he reached into his jacket and removed a pistol and its silencer, completely unaware of Duo's presence in the room. Another mistake for Dr. M's record books, not clearing the room before commencing with the mission, very sloppy.

While Demyan screwed the silencer onto the barrel of his pistol, Duo, who was not completely conscious, employed all of his incredible skill and expertise in the field of stealth to remove himself from the before-accursed chair and draw his own standard-issue revolver. After retrieving said pistol, Duo quickly raised the weapon and locked his aim on the intruder before breaking the silence with a soft "Drop the gun and raise your hands above your head, you bastard. If you don't, I will shoot you and I will shoot to kill."

"Oh, really?" Demyan's reply was almost sarcastic in its tone.

"Don't mess with me, pally. I've killed better men than you without blinking so if you don't drop the gun, I'll have to add you to my list of less-accomplished men that I've killed. I will kill you, don't doubt that." Duo's response was equally acidic, despite the almost genial tone which he said it in.

Demyan trusted his instincts and wisely chose to heed Duo's warnings and carefully removed his finger from the trigger while silently cursing his inefficiency. Twice in a row he had screwed up this mission. This was something he had been trained for all of his life, and yet here he was making the exact mistakes that had been meticulously trained out of him. What was happening to him? Demyan quickly covered his emotions with a mask of neutrality as he put his hands up and began to turn towards his captor.

As the unknown assassin turned away from Heero's bedside, Duo observed every calculated movement and his estimation of the man skyrocketed. This was no ordinary assassin, the man moved more like a soldier, no, not a soldier – like a gundam pilot!

The corner of Demyan's mouth pulled up in a smirk as he completed the turn and said, "Ah, Duo Maxwell, I was wondering where you were."

oOooOo

A/N: That's it. Not the greatest, but let me know what you think, regardless!