Waking Up In Vegas

Chapter 42

#

It took a few minutes for her to fight through the fog, but eventually she woke up. It took a few more minutes, but eventually she became aware of her surroundings. The hospital bed beneath her. The IV feeding into her arm. The tube feeding oxygen into her nose. She blinked open her eyes again.

Her mother was collapsed with her sister on a cot a little ways off. Her father was asleep, too, sitting up in a chair right beside her bed. The longer she stayed sober, the more she noticed how she ached. Her foot felt like it had been sliced open with a cheese grater. Her back hurt. Breathing wasn't too hard... but it was a labor that it shouldn't have regularly been.

Cathy.

The word popped into her mind and she awoke completely, looking around the room. It wasn't a private room, and... there. Another bed, another figure asleep in it. She could see white gauze peeking out from beneath bright red curls.

Cathy.

Feeling as if her arms were about to fall off, Delana lifted the oxygen feed off of her head. Thanking goodness she wasn't hooked into heart monitor, Delana decided ot leave the IV in; she could probably do with some morphine soon. As quietly as she could, she sat up and lowered the rail on the bed. Using the steel IV pole for support, she stood up on shaking legs that almost gave out on her. As it was, it took her four tries before she could stand up. The sling her left arm was in wasn't helping much, either.

And then, she made her painful way across the room.

"Cathy," she whispered, looking down at the woman. Burns here and there. Gauze on various cuts and scrapes. An IV, a oxygen feed.

As quietly and carefully as she could, she lowered herself onto the left side of the bed, resting her weight on her right side, instead of the badly hurting left side. She winced as tender skin stretched, but she settled down with a soft smile and let the darkness claim her again.

#

Cecilia didn't know what had woken her, but she figured she'd best get up. Maybe wake Howard and let him lay down for a while on the cot. She slipped away and walked towards the bed... and immediately panicked.

"Delana!" she gasped, noticing her daughter was missing. Howard startled awake.

"Cecilia?" He asked, then saw what was amiss. "Lana..." He stood up abruptly... looking around the room. And then he sighed in relief. "Cecilia... look," he said with a soft smile.

Cecilia turned around and saw what her husband was looking at. Delana curled up on her side, her left arm, still in it's sling, resting gingerly across Cathy's chest. Cecilia felt relief wash through her. Her baby girl was still safe... and had apparently woken up at some point.

"Y'think it's something in the water?" Howard muttered with a grin, looking at his oldest daughter.

"Hmm?" Cecilia came close enough for her husband to wrap his arms around her.

"Well. First Duo. Then Trowa goes and gets hitched to his blond fellow. And now... look, Cecilia. They've always been close, I know... but look closer."

"The look more like lovers than sisters," Cecilia whispered.

"Yeah."

"Are you disappointed?" Cecilia asked, looking at her husband.

"What? Disapointed? Why?" He looked truly confused.

"Your only son is gay," she said quietly. "Your oldest daughter is apparently a lesbian. And you already know Hilde's bi. She admitted it."

"Silly woman," Howard chuckled. "I'm not disappointed. I'm proud. My son has a good husband. An honest and righteous young man. And they've just got us a beautiful granddaughter to boot. Delana couldn't have done much better if she'd tried. I already think of Catherine as our daughter, just the same as I think of Trowa as ours. It's happy I am to know she's found a good lover," he smirked. "Can't get much better'n one of ours. And I trust Hilde's judgement. Whomever she chooses to love will be worthy of her love. I'm not disappointed, love. I'm proud."

Cecilia looked over her sleeping daughter, holding tight to the woman she'd risked life and limb to save.

Yeah. How could someone be disappointed when they'd raised such brave and loving children?

Proud. Cecilia was proud of her children.

#

"Duo! SLOW DOWN! Zhou ma! Duo!"

Wufei finally understood why Delana had always called them 'Oh, Shit!' bars as he clung to the small handle above the passenger side door. He was eternally grateful he'd always had a strong stomach... well. He was pretty sure it was strong. He'd left it behind when Duo had hit the interstate.

And Duo hadn't slowed down since.

"Duo, love, please," Wufei begged as Duo took a sharp right onto the road that would lead them into their small town. Duo! Watch out! A silver car, speeding as well, swerved to miss them, coming to an abrupt halt half across each otherwise empty lane.

Duo slammed on the breaks, skidding, almost careening off the road. Wufei took it back. He still had his stomach... otherwise his breakfast wouldn't be wanting to come back up right now.

"Zhou ma," Wufei cursed, but a man was already coming out of the passenger seat of the other car. His chocolate hair was wild, his blue eyes like a cold fire- Wufei placed his name as Heero. He'd claimed to be a friend of Quatre's during the rushed few minutes they'd met as the ambulance had arrived. Little Emily stumbled from the backseat... and suddenly, Duo was gone. The next thing Wufei, staggering from the vehicle, knew, his husband had the other man threw up against the car.

"Duo!" He called out, running forward.

"What the hell is happening!" Duo demanded. "Tell me why the fucking hell my sister's in the hospital and my daughter's in Alabama after someone broke into my home looking for that blond bastard?"

"Coincidence?"Midii asked, stepping from the car.

"Shut the fuck up, Une. Or I'll finish what Cathy and Delana started. Since they can't do it themselves because they're in the hospital!" Duo shoved, pushing Heero back against the car. Wufei noted that the other man... who looked about as built as a pro wrestler... wasn't fighting back.

"Get your hands off me," the man gritted out.

"Not until I get some damn answers."

Heero hooked his leg behind Duo's and jerked, pushing back up as he did so, sending the slender architect sprawling to the ground.

"Quatre is not a bastard. The bastards are the one's who've kidnapped my sister and who're looking to kill Quatre."

Duo blinked up at him. "What the hell is going on?" Wufei demanded, placing himself between Heero and Duo. He glared at Heero.

"Enough!" Everyone looked at Emily, standing there, hazel eyes sparkling. "Enough of this. Enough fighting. I'm sick of it! We shouldn't be fighting! We're all on the same side here. We all want the same thing."

"And what is that?" Wufei demanded.

she shrugged. "Listen, Wufei... Duo. Things are happening that are bigger than any of us. Much bigger. Epic. As in world domination and World War Three type epic. We *have* to stop this."

"What the fuck?" Duo asked, standing back up. "What the hell are you going on about? How do you know that? And just how are *you* going to be able to stop a war of any kind? You're just a kid!"

"Not just me," she said. "Together. All of us. Long story short... A while back Quatre invented a machine. It was supposed to be used to help people, but the Military figured out how to use it as a weapon. Now there is a psychotic dude from France who's stole the machine."

"He didn't have the access codes or the knowledge to use it," Heero added softly. "Me, Quatre and my sister are the only ones who do."

"And they have hit men out to kill Quatre," Midii said. "And Trowa."

"And they've kidnapped my sister," Heero put in.

"And not to mention my aunt is head of a secret agency out to prevent the war by killing everyone who knows anything about this machine," Emily added. "Which puts Heero, Quatre, and Jezzy all on another hit list. Since I'm helping the so called 'enemy'... chances are I've been added to this list, now, too."

"We all have our own reasons for fighting," Midii said firmly. "But we're all working towards the same goal. Saving life and preventing war."

"This is so fucking messed up," Duo said, head swimming as he tried to coalate and process all that he'd just heard. "So... what's the plan to do all of this? To save the world?"

"First things first," Emily said. "We're heading to the airport. Heero's friends have a small plane waiting on us. Private flight straight to New York. We have to find Quatre and Trowa, keep them safe. And we have to figure out where they're holding Jezzy... which is probably the same place they're keeping the Wing Zero."

Heero glared at the two men. "So? Are you going to help us? Or are you going to get out of our way so we can go do what needs to be done."

Wufei and Duo exchanged a look. And each nodded.

Wufei looked to Heero.

"So? Your car or mine?"

#

"Treize?"

Annika 'Lady' Une looked at her lover as she stepped into the office. And her heart dropped in her chest at the sight of a manila envelope in his hands, a few pages held over. She could see a part of a picture clipped to the first page... a familiar picture. Of her. Glasses on her face... hair twisted into buns, a cold look on her face.

A picture she'd hoped to never see again.

"Treize..."

Hazel eyes blinked up to her. Confusion was written on his face. Worry, curiosity, bewilderment. Love... but a certain amount of... disdain.

"*Annabella*?" he questioned. She winced at the soft thread of contempt in his voice.

"It seemed... prudent... to change my name, afterwards." She lifted her chin just a bit, her just past shoulder length hair falling back. "I did what I *had* to do. You'd know that if you knew the whole story."

"So... you lied? When I asked you if you knew the Midii girl my nephew as dating? You lied... it says... she's your sister?"

Her eyes glowed. "Did it tell you what he did to her? To *me*? That bastard deserved what she did to him, and more. Do you know how long it took me to accept it? To get over it?"

Treize lifted his eyes. He'd scoured this information over when he'd found it just sitting on his desk, thinking it was some cruel joke. But no... everything was too perfect. It fit too well. Then anger... at Annika- *Annabella*- then finally it settled into an anger for the man who'd died at her sister's hands, not long before Annabella had committed herself to a psychiatric hospital of her own free will.

And now, meeting his lover's eyes... it settled into a hatred. A hatred for the person out there... somewhere... trying to destroy his love's life. Trying to shatter his world... and possibly that of his family too.

Treize stood up... knowing that somehow, someone, somewhere... someone was going to pay for this.

Nobody fucked with Treize Kushrenada and lived to tell the tale.