Disclaimer- I do not own Gundam Wing or any of the characters from the series and will never claim to own them. However, the plot, Anita, Blaine, and the little children all belong to me.

A/N- Please don't flame me if you don't like the story. If the characters are OOC, that's something that's almost unavoidable as none of the Gundam Wing characters belong to me, and they never will. Basically, if you don't like what you're reading, stop reading it and hit the back button on your browser. I don't want to hear your fussing just because something isn't to your liking. Fuss to yourself, not me.

Also, please note that the characters are kind of a lot a bit older than in the series. And please also take note that I honestly never really thought about where this story was taking place, so just think of it as where ever. Thanks and enjoy~

By the time Duo had caught up to Anita, she was in a panic. The air was filled with thick and heavy smoke and the crackling of a fire could be heard somewhere beyond the corner. There was no running water and no other way to put out the fire. Even worse, the fire had started where the children were sleeping. Without even taking the time to think of her own safety, Anita tried to go into the blaze, but something caught her and pulled her back.

"Are you insane?" Duo snapped. "You'll be killed if you try to go in that!"

"But the kids!" She screamed, struggling to try and break free of his grip. "They're in there! I have to save them! They're too young to die! I can't just-!"

"Stop and think about what you're trying to do!" He demanded as he forced her to turn around and face him. "Do you hear screaming? If they were back there, wouldn't they be screaming because they were scared? Is there anywhere else that they would be?"

"My room." She said, choking back her tears. "Sometimes the younger ones go in there to sleep because they have bad dreams."

"Okay." He replied, pulling her along away from the fire that was slowly growing closer. "Where's your room? Lead me to it, quickly!"

She nodded slowly before heading off down the opposite end of the hall. She led Duo to a set of double doors at the end of the hall and threw them open only to reveal an empty room. It was at that moment that her heart sank and her legs gave out of her. Surely the kids had to be somewhere, but wouldn't they have come looking for her the moment the fire started? Or had they just been too far in their sleep that they ended up suffocating on the smoke before they even got a chance to wake up and cry out for help?

The very thought of that made Anita's stomach very upset and caused her to bring her hand up to her mouth in an attempt to keep down what little food she'd actually had that day down. This was like some awful nightmare that she couldn't wake up from and it almost seemed like it wasn't going to end. Things were just going to get worse and worse and there was nothing she could do. But clearly this was her fault because she hadn't paid enough attention to what was going on that day and she hadn't reacted soon enough. All the rational thoughts that were in her head just moments ago were now being swallowed whole by thoughts of allowing the fire to take her life, too, but there was someone there that wasn't just going to let her get away with that.

"Get up!" Duo said as he pulled the young woman to her feet. "We're about to get trapped down here. We need to get moving!"

"Leave me here, then!" She cried. "Let me burn with this building. It's the only thing I can do to make up for allowing those children to die. I was careless and I let my guard down just long enough to let this happen, so-!"

A loud explosion from the other end of the building made the ground rumble under their feet and they both ended up on the floor. Smoke came barreling down the hallway and the air grew thin. There was no time to go looking anywhere else. They had to get out of there now or else they'd be on the list of casualties, as well. Duo, being the only sensible person between the two of them at the moment, grabbed Anita and pulled her into the room before closing the two doors.

Smoke seeped in through the gaps, but there was a window on the other side of the room that they could escape from. There was no way he was going to be able to get her to agree to leave with him, so Duo threw Anita over his shoulder and charged at the window. His feet crunched under the broken glass as he made his way toward a truck parked a little ways off.

"Put me down!" Anita screeched. "I don't deserve this! Let me go back!"

"Like hell!" Duo snapped. "Maybe they got out. That Blaine guy, he could have gotten them all out of there before the fire got bad. "

"Then why didn't we see them!"

Duo provided no answer for her as he shoved her into the cab and locked the doors to keep her from getting out and getting herself killed. He wanted so badly to blame himself for everything that had just happened. If he hadn't showed up like he did then maybe things wouldn't have turned out this way, but that was a silly thought creeping up on him from his past and right now wasn't the time to be dwelling over such things. He focused all of his attention on the truck and, lucky for him, there were keys still in the ignition. Anita must have turned the truck off when she came back earlier and left the keys because she'd been more focused on what was going on inside. He quickly buckled up before the engine roared to life and he floored the gas pedal.

"Buckle up!" He demanded, glancing over at Anita for a split second. "And I'm sorry. You can hate me all you want, but I wasn't just going to let you kill yourself."

There was no response from the young woman other than loud sobbing. He wanted to try and find a way to calm her down, but there was nothing he could do at that minute. All he could do was keep driving and hope that she cried herself to sleep or just stopped crying on her own. Most of the drive was made in complete silence, aside from the engine of the truck and Anita's sobbing, but she'd calmed down a little while ago and was just sitting there running her fingers over the lock on the door. There were several times when she'd thought about trying to force the door open, but something was keeping her inside that cab and she wasn't entirely sure what that something was yet.

"We're almost out of gas." Duo said suddenly, eying the gas meter. "There's a gas station just up ahead, so we'll stop in there and refill the tank. If you're hungry, I can get you a bag of chips or something."

"Don't bother." Anita replied. "I'm not hungry."

And suddenly it was silent again as the truck rolled to a stop beside a gas pump. Duo pulled the keys from the ignition before looking at Anita one more time as he got out. If she was going to run, this was her chance and he wasn't going to stop her. He honestly wished she would stay put as he filled the tank and went inside to get something to eat and pay for the gas, but she could do what she wanted now. He was extremely surprised to find her still sitting there when he got back, but didn't let it show on his face as he got in and started the truck up again.

"I got something for you anyway." He said as he put his seatbelt on. "I don't really know what kind of food you like, so I bought a bag of plain potato chips for you if you want them."

He was actually quite relieved when she grabbed the bag of chips and began to eat a few of them. At least that was a start. Hopefully she'd cheer up just a little bit after she ate something. But that was just a silly wish of his and it wasn't likely to come true. It was just really stifling being in a vehicle with someone who was had just sunken down so low that they'd forgotten how to swim back up to the surface and catch some air.

"Where are you taking me?" She asked suddenly.

"I don't really know." He admitted. "I have a friend who's staying somewhere around here."

"I don't want to go around socializing with your friends." She deadpanned. "And, on that note, you don't even sound so sure of where he is. So why bother?"

"Hey, don't be that way." Duo replied. "I think he can help you. At least, just a little bit."

"How's he supposed to help me?" Anita questioned, pressing her face against the window. "I don't think there's anyone on the face of the Earth or in any of the colonies that can bring people back to life. So really, how the hell is he supposed to help me?"

Duo opened his mouth to say something, but quickly shut it so that Anita didn't get another chance snap at him for trying to be helpful. At this point, he wasn't even sure why he was still trying to help her. Maybe it would be better to just pull off to the side of the road and just get out and go off on his own, but something was keeping him from doing that. He had a sneaking hunch that it was guilt over what had happened a few hours ago since this ungrateful woman was the only one he was actually able to make sure lived to see the light of tomorrow.

"Just go to sleep or something." He said after a long silence. "I'll wake you up when we get somewhere. If we actually get somewhere."

"Who are you to boss me around!" She snapped.

"It was just a suggestion." He groaned. "Would you please stop yelling at me? You're not making this any better for either of us."

"Sorry, I just…" But her sentence was never finished, leaving Duo curious as to what she was going to say.

"You just what?" He asked. "You can talk to me, you know. I may not be one of the people you want to be driving around with, but at least I'm someone, right?"

"Yeah." She mumbled. "No. I just… don't know what I mean to say, really. I'm hurt and confused and I feel sick and I'm being eaten away at by so much guilt that I feel like I'm going to go mad. I'm sick of the people I grow even slightly attached to getting taken away or killed or something. Hell, I was married once, but I'm a widow at the age of twenty-four. That's not how life's supposed to go!"

"You were married?" Duo asked, and it almost seemed like that was the only thing he'd heard.

Anita decided it best not to answer him and give him any of the details. Quite honestly, that just kind of slipped from her mouth before she got a chance to think about what she was even saying. She'd practically said too much about herself already, so that was the stopping point. If she said anymore, she wouldn't feel safe with him anymore and would bale out at the next chance she was given. And she really didn't want to do that just yet because he was the steadiest thing in her life at that very moment and she really needed that.

"Where are you from?" She asked, quickly changing the topic in hopes of him following along with her.

"The L2 Colony Cluster." He replied, catching on to her need to change the topic. "What about you?"

"France."