Disclaimer - I don't own Gundam Wing. This is totally for fun.

Ever Decreasing Circles:

Getting to the hospital was like one of those nightmares where everything happens in slow motion. I'd already been running out of Preventers HQ when Wufei was on the phone, telling me what had happened to them; I'd planned to take the first car I saw, but there was a taxi just pulling up at the door, and the driver was more than happy to drive me to the Light of Dawn Private Hospital in half the usual time, for twice the usual fare. It meant I could spend the journey talking to 'Fei, apart from a brief pause when I called Noin's number to fill her up and request urgent medical assistance.

We ended up taking a maze of side streets to avoid road-works, and some big anti-ESUN demonstration, and the whole thing took forever.

I'd had to show my ID three times at the hospital, and that was before I even got up to the floor where Zechs was. Preventer agents seemed to be coming out of the woodwork, as well as an assortment of tough-looking characters wearing in the uniform of some private security company and the hospital's own security guards.

'Excuse me? Mr. Maxwell?' Not a security guard for once, but a dark-haired young woman eyeing me uncertainly. 'I'm Dr Noor al-Hamid. I'm one of the doctors treating his highness and I wondered if I could have a quick word about your friend.'

'What? I thought he was stable.'

'His highness is doing remarkably well,' she assured me, and filled me in quickly on Zechs' condition. 'I'm a little worried about Mr. Chang, however.'

'Wufei?' I swung around to look at her. 'No one said he was hurt.'

'He claims he isn't,' she swallowed. 'But he is covered in blood, and he has some cuts from flying glass. He is refusing to let anyone examine him and I believe he may be in shock. Apparently, he had to … kill some people to protect himself and Prince Milliardo, and he won't discuss it. We do have several highly-trained therapists on our staff; I know any of them would happily talk to Mr. Chang.'

'I'll talk to him,' I promised hurriedly. Wufei had had - issues dealing with things he'd done during the War; we all had. Taking out the bastards who'd tried to hurt Zechs, on the other hand, wouldn't have cost him a moment's regret, save maybe that he hadn't made it been slower and more painful. I wasn't quite sure how to explain any of that to the softly-spoken young woman in front of me.

'Thank you. I would appreciate that.' She hesitated. 'Be careful. Our Chief Consultant, Dr. Badawi, already tried to convince Mr. Chang to let a doctor examine him and he waved a gun at him.' She hesitated. 'Do you think maybe I should call Security?'

'No, don't do that. Please. I'll talk to him. Ah, where exactly is he?'

She pointed down a corridor. 'He is just outside the operating theatre and he refuses to leave.'

Well, that figured. Of course he wasn't going to leave Zechs after everything that had happened.

'Hey, 'Fei.' He glanced up as I walked over and I actually flinched at the look of desolation in his eyes.

'Oh, Duo. I thought he was going to die. I thought he would die with me holding him and there was nothing I could do to save him.'

'I know,' I whispered, meaning it. I knew exactly how he felt. I still had nightmares, sometimes, about the times I'd thought I'd lost Heero during the War. When we'd been together, I used to wake up and check his pulse during the night, just in case. 'But he's alive,' I soothed, pulling him into a hug. 'And he's going to be fine. I just talked to one of his doctors. They're really impressed with how he's doing.'

His head jerked up. 'Does that mean I can see him now?'

'Not for a bit. They're still draining the air out of his lung; there's too much risk of infection.'

'Oh, gods.' He slumped back down again. 'It's all my fault. We were having a row, and he got me to stop the car. So stupid. We were just sitting targets.'

'Stop that.' I gave him a little shake. 'Are you channelling Quatre or something? Of course it's not your fault, you moron. If it's anyone's fault, it's mine, for coming here in the first place. Or Quat's, for starting all this.'

'I wish he were here. It seems wrong to be on L4 and not have Quatre with us.'

'Doesn't it?' I'd been half aware of that ever since we'd landed, even if I'd never put it into words. God, how much weirder must it be for Tro? 'None of this is your fault, 'Fei. You're the one who saved his life! It sounds like you really kicked ass out there.'

'I was hopeless,' he denied shakily. 'I couldn't even think properly, I was so sure he was going to die. It took me three tries to hit one target and it wasn't even moving very fast. Oh, God. He could hardly breathe, Duo. The bullet nicked his right lung and there was so much blood.'

'You weren't hopeless! You saved his life, and it sounds like you really kicked ass out there.What happened to those other guys you said were with you? Who exactly are they?'

'They're … old friends of Zechs'. One of them stayed out in the desert; he called just before you got here. Apparently, one of the attackers is still alive, but he's unconscious right now. The other one just left a minute ago; you probably saw him on your way in.'

'A guy with red hair? Cute?' He nodded; stupid question, really. All of Zechs' 'old friends' - code for ex-Specials - are cute. I think Treize handpicked them for looks as well as everything else.

'What was the row about, anyway?'

'It was so stupid! He was offering to get me an engagement ring, and I refused and I just - I panicked, Duo. I can't believe I was so stupid. It's only a piece of jewellery, and if it makes him happy, of course I'll wear one.' He swallowed, hard. 'I'll do anything, if he gets better. I'll wear a veil and a tiara if he wants me to.'

'God, you'd better not say that in front of him! Seriously, you know he has some pretty weird fantasies; he'd probably take you up on it. Just tell him about Meiran, and that you haven't had the best experience of the whole wedding thing. He'll understand. It's not like he doesn't know you were married before.'

'I know,' Wufei took produced a handkerchief and blew his nose resolutely. 'I'll talk to him. Once they let me see him'

'Listen, OK? The doctor I talked to, she's really worried about you. She wants you to let one of the docs check you out, and get you to clean up a little.'

'Clean up?' He glanced down at himself, as if noticing his bloody clothes for the first time. I doubted he even listened to what the doctors had been saying to him, unless it was directly related to Zechs.

'Yeah. If Zechs sees you covered in blood like that, he'll freak out, and that isn't going to help his recovery. It'll be another half hour at least before you can see him; why don't you let the doc have a quick look at you?'

'I'm not leaving him,' he said firmly, one hand clenching around the gun he'd been waving around earlier. 'Absolutely not.'

'Right, how about this? There's a shopping concourse on the ground floor; if I run down and get you some fresh things, you could go and take a shower and I'll take over guard duty. Is that OK?'

'I - suppose,' he agreed, a bit hesitantly.

'Cool. I'll only be a few minutes. By the way, have you called 'Lena yet?'

He shook his head. 'I never even thought of it.'

'I'll do it, OK? The press is going to be all over this and I'd rather 'Lena didn't hear it on the news. Can you lend me your 'phone for a sec? I need to get her private line.'

He nodded, handing it over. 'Thanks, Duo. Just in case - are you armed?'

'Yeah.' I touched the gun at my hip, and he nodded. I felt a bit bad about that, actually. Marlie hadn't even noticed me taking it as I ran past her on my way out the door. I hoped she wasn't going to get into too much trouble for that.

'Hey, 'Lena, it's me. Duo.' There was silence on the other end of the line, not that surprising really. I don't think I'd ever actually called her before and she was probably wondering how some stranger had managed to get through to her personal number. 'Duo Maxwell.'

'Duo! I'm so sorry, I've been attending a parliamentary discussion about fishery quotas all morning and my head is still full of facts and figures.'

Nice save, Relena. All that money her foster-parents must have spent on expensive boarding schools certainly hadn't gone to waste, had it? Then there was another little pause as she realised that I probably wouldn't just have called her up out of the blue. 'Duo? What's the matter?'

God, where to start? 'It's Zechs. You knew he was coming to L4, right? There's been a bit of trouble here, and he and 'Fei were attacked.'

'Tell me what happened.'

'Fei saved his life, from what I've heard.' I ended my account. 'He managed to stop the bleeding and he fought off the attackers.'

'Thank God,' she whispered, and then won herself a major gold star from me by asking how 'Fei himself was.

'He's not hurt. He's got a few scratches from the broken glass but that's all. He's just worried about Zechs, even though the doctors are saying he'll be fine.'

'Oh.' I could hear her talking to someone else; then 'Duo, I'll be there as soon as I can. I've just told Dorothy I need a shuttle urgently.'

'Lena, I'm not sure that's the best idea right now. No, listen. There's some damn weird stuff going on here; we still don't know what happened to Quat, you must have seen the news about the Preventer shuttle that got blown up, and now what's happened to Zechs and Wufei. It's probably not the safest place for you right now.'

'I don't care about any of that,' she told me in an imperious tone that sounded exactly like her brother's. She's always been too damn careless of her own safety, that girl, right from the first time I'd met her and she'd yelled at me for trying to save her from Heero. 'If Milliardo's hurt, I'm going to him and nothing's going to stop me.'

She hung up before I could say anything else; she was right, though. There wasn't a huge amount I could do to stop her. In her place, I'd probably do exactly the same.

I hadn't meet her until they'd been together for nearly a year. Zechs had asked 'Fei and me to the first exhibition of his paintings to be held in Sanque, and we were both to stay in the palace - where Relena was also in residence, naturally.

I think Zechs had made it very clear to her beforehand that I came as a non-negotiable part of the Chang Wufei deal, and she was going damn well going to have to be polite. Not being stupid, it didn't take her long to recognise just how her brother felt about his new boyfriend, and to accept that, if she ever wanted to stay a part of Zechs' life she'd better not alienate said boyfriend, or his best friend.

For his part, Wufei had sat me down before we ever accepted the invitation and we'd had a long Relena-centric talk. She wasn't one of his favourite people, by any means, and he knew I had very definite issues with her, but he was in love with her brother. Given how 'Fei feels about family, he didn't want to be the reason for Zechs falling out with the one close relation he possessed. He also knew Zechs wanted us both to be there for him, but he felt we should refuse Zechs' invitation if there were going to be a problems of the Relena variety.

What could I have said except that I'd try my very hardest to behave myself?

I'd had serious issues with her back then. Even though she and Heero had broken up, he was still escorting her to occasional glitzy functions, and there was non-stop media speculation that they'd get back together when he finished his studies, and she stopped jet-setting around the universe as ESUN ambassador, and settled down in Sanque.

It took a few more visits for us to get beyond the stage of mutual frosty politeness. She'd actually offered me a stilted little apology, that first time, but I think by then, I'd pretty much realised most of it wasn't her fault. Sure, she hadn't helped, but it wasn't like we'd been particularly happy, anyway, Heero and I. She'd been only one of our problems.

Maybe Heero and I might have got back together for a little bit, if it hadn't been for her, but it probably would have been the same shit once the honeymoon had worn off.

In the end, neither of us had got the guy, and that was that.

She was a damn hard person to get to know, and sometimes I'd wondered if there was anything there at all, underneath all those layers of courtesy and charm that had been instilled by her foster parents and her expensive education and all that diplomatic training.

I'd never expected to like her, much less feel sorry for her. She had everything, hadn't she? She was the beautiful princess who was universally worshipped and adored. Well, apart from me. She'd even got Heero in the end, and they were still friends, even if, according to Zechs, the romance between them had petered out after a few months. That made it almost worse, somehow. Like I'd given him up so they could have a quick fling and find out they weren't actually suited.

I'd never, never expected to find we had anything in common. Heero apart.

But she'd lost her parents when she was still very young. She'd lost her adopted father, whom she'd adored, in the War. She'd actually seen him die. She'd been only two when Sanque was attacked, but she'd spent her whole life having inexplicable nightmares about fires and explosions.

I sometimes wondered if that wasn't the cause of all that ruthless pacifism, that she never wanted another child to have to live through that sort of experience.

And she was lonely; sure she spent her whole life surrounded by servants and sycophants but she didn't seem to have any close friends. She wasn't great at dealing with people her own age. Oh, she could spend hours discussing some new ESUN regulation and she could have patented her own line of small talk for receptions and parties, but I'd never been able to imagine sitting down with a group of girlfriends and yakking about clothes and guys and the latest chick-flick.

Another thing; she tended to be a bit nervous with men who weren't old enough to be her grandfather, and I'd wondered if maybe she'd had some sort of unpleasant experience at some point.

'What did she say?' I looked up to find Wufei standing over me. 'Is something else wrong?'

'Not exactly. She says she's coming here. Maybe you could call her in a bit and tell her it's not the best idea right now? Anyway, I'll go and get you some stuff. Back in a sec, OK?'

Most hospitals have a little gift shop where you can buy cards and balloons and stuffed animals. This one had designer boutiques and a couple of galleries. Nothing like a spot of retail therapy when your nearest and dearest are at death's door.

The assistant in the first shop I went into kindly lent me his charger to power up my cellphone, while I found a pair of jeans in Wufei's size and a cashmere sweater in deep burgundy. It was cold in the hospital with the air-con on full blast, and Zechs likes Wufei in red. I refused the complimentary gift-wrapping service, and the chance to be added to their mailing list, and was just on the way back to the ward when I met Trowa stepping out of an elevator.

'I guessed you'd be here. Is Zechs all right? Where's 'Fei? '

'Zechy's doing pretty well and I….'

'Listen, Duo.' He interrupted. 'Heero's going frantic about you; you need to call him.'

'About me?' I blinked at him. 'Why? Nothing's happened to me.'

'You realise no one had any idea where you went when you ran off? Once we heard about Zechs, I guessed you'd be here, but Heero thought he'd done something wrong and made you run off.'

'But that doesn't make any sense! I called Noin. I told her where I was going. I think.'

'You called her to say the guys had been attacked in the desert somewhere, and needed serious help. No one knew exactly where you'd gone; just that you'd rushed out of the building. Heero's dragged half the agents in the force off Quat's case to see if they could find you on the CCTV tapes around the building. Then Noin told us about Wufei and Zechs and we realised what was going on.'

Oops. Well done, Duo.

'I'll call him now. Tro, can you give these to 'Fei? And tell him I'll look out for Zechs.'

'Hey. Heero? It's me. I'm sorry.'

'Duo! I'm so glad you called. I thought I'd pushed you too hard and scared you off.'

'No,' I assured him hastily. 'Not at all. You didn't push me anywhere I didn't want to be pushed.' OK, that conjured up a pretty weird image. 'I'm sorry, 'Ro. Really. I just didn't think of anything but getting to the hospital, and then my 'phone was dying and I needed to keep a bit of power in case 'Fei tried to call me.'

'All right,' he said quietly. 'Do you think, in future, you could maybe leave a message? Just so I know where you are.'

'I will,' I promised.

'Do you want me to come over?'

'Yes,' I breathed, shocked by how very much I did want him. 'But it's - probably not the best idea right now.'

Not 'til Wufei calms down a bit and maybe stops waving his gun around.

'I understand. If you need me, just call. For anything.'

'Thanks. Actually, maybe you could do me a favour? I just talked to 'Lena and she's determined to fly out and see Zechs and I'm not sure how safe it is. Is there any chance you could give her a call and try to persuade her not to? Heero, it's not funny!'

'What's funny, my sweet,' he informed me, still chuckling, 'is you telling me off for over-protectiveness, and then proceeding to do the exact same.'

'Not the same thing. I can look after myself; 'Lena can't.'

'I'll talk to her. I can't promise anything though. She's very fond of Milliardo.'

'I guess.' I twirled the end of my braid around one finger. 'Oh, there's one other thing you could do, if you get a chance. I called Lucca a while ago to check up on something and he never got back. I'm not sure if he forgot but maybe you could call him.'

'He won't have forgotten,' Heero assured me, 'but I'll certainly call him. What did you ask him to do?'

'It's this company on L3, a subsidiary of WEI called Triton Holdings. Marlie - she's the Preventer agent who's looking after the kids - pulled up a list of WEI companies and the name just jumped out at me. It's probably nothing.'

'All right. Anything else?'

'Would you mind checking up on the kids for me? While you're in the building? I just ran out on them when 'Fei called.'

'I've already been there,' he said quietly. 'When Trowa and I came out of our meeting, I went to see you, and Agent Franklin said you'd got a 'phone call and just dashed off. I think you should call them if you get a chance; Nathan seemed rather upset that you'd left like that. I can give you Agent Franklins' number.'

'I'll call them now.' Damn. Stupid Duo. I hadn't done much to help them so far, had I? Just got them dragged off the street and then abandoned them. Great way to be responsible for them. I had to wonder if 'Ro would mind me adopting three kids at some point. 'Heero. We're - OK, aren't we?'

'Oh, Duo.' He hesitated and I had a sudden moment of panic that he was about to tell me it was all over. 'You are my life's love, you always have been, and nothing will ever change that. I promise.'

Oh. He's always been so damn eloquent with this stuff; I find it hard enough in person, let alone speaking into a 'phone. 'I, um, feel the same way about you.'

'Good.' We were silent for a few minutes; it was actually nice just to listen to him breathe, to know he was there. 'I'll go and call Lucca. Take care, and call me if you need anything. Please. Even just to talk?'

'I will,' I promised. 'I'll see you soon.'

'You are my life's love.'

Wow.

OK, time to ring Marlie.

'Duo! Is everything all right?'

'Fine. I'm sorry about earlier, you know. Rushing off and taking your gun and everything.'

'I understand. I would have given it to you if you'd asked me. And Heero said he'd talk to Colonel Noin.' She lowered her voice slightly. 'Just so you know, it's registered to Preventers, so if you do have to use it, it'll be traceable.'

'I'll bear that in mind before I shoot anyone,' I said solemnly. 'Marlie, d'you think I could talk to Nat for a sec?'

OK, Heero had said he was upset, and I couldn't blame him really.

'You said you were going to help us. And you just left us here. I should never have even talked to you! Ali was right; I shouldn't have got involved with all your shit.'

'I know. Nat, I'm really sorry that I had to run off like that. But one of my best friends got hurt, and I had to go to the hospital. I should have explained, you're perfectly right, but I just panicked. Can you understand that?'

'I guess,' he muttered. 'Why did you never tell me you're Duo Maxwell? Shit, you were a Gundam Pilot.'

Damn. That's the worst of having a dark past; you never know quite when it's going to come and bite you in the ass. 'Because that was all years ago when I was about your age. Believe me, in ten years' time, you probably won't to be telling people what you were doing at fifteen. Who told you, Marlie?'

'Yeah. She's got a serious thing for you, you know?'

'Mm.' I seriously hoped she wasn't listening to this. 'I'm sorry I didn't tell you about the Gundam thing. You don't have a problem with it?'

'Nah. It's pretty cool.' I let out the breath I hadn't even realised I was holding. It's the worst thing about meeting new people; not knowing if I'd somehow been responsible for screwing up their lives during the War with the things I'd done. 'Can you take me flying sometime?'

'I don't pilot anymore.' Damn, it still hurt saying that. It's not recommended for people who suffer from intermittent panic attacks to pilot their own craft. 'But I'll try to find someone who will?'

'When?'

'I'm not sure. Probably not for a while, though. You know, a shuttle got blown up earlier. It's not so safe.'

'What am I supposed to do then? The girls are drawing and stuff. I'm just supposed to sit and look at the walls?'

'You know anything about computers? No? Well, ask Marlie to show you. There should be some games and stuff on the PC in your room, and she can log you on to the internet.'

'OK. Listen, you know that guy, Heero. He was Pilot 01, right? The cool one?'

'Sure.'

Thanks a lot, Nat. well, I suppose Heero had saved the world and all; that probably rated a 'cool'.

'You should call him. He was bricking it earlier, when he found out you'd run off.'

Wonderful. Just what I needed; relationship advice from a teenage hooker.

'I called him already. I've apologised.'

'Is he your boyfriend?'

'Yes.' Maybe, if I said it often enough, I'd actually start to believe it was true. 'Look, Nat, I've got to go. I'll call you later. And you've got my number if you need anything, right?'

I hung up and took the chair Wufei had been sitting in. There was no sign of Trowa and I couldn't help being a little bit glad about not having to make conversation with him.

Apart from anything else, I still hadn't totally processed what had happened to Zechs, that we'd so nearly lost him.

It was over three years since the disruptive, blond firework called Zechs Merquise had exploded into our nice, orderly lives, based around classes and assignment dates and trips to L4 to see Quat and Tro.

We hadn't made it easy for him, either of us. I'd actually encouraged Wufei to go on the first date with him, mainly because I thought it would be good for 'Fei to go out with a sexy, attractive guy whose idea of a good time wouldn't be to take my friend to some ancient collection of books.

I hadn't envisaged they'd fall for each other; Zechs hard, painfully and all too obviously and Wufei very tentatively.

At the start, neither of us was all that sure of his motives for hanging around two ex-Gundam Pilots, especially when Wufei made it very clear that sex wasn't going to be on the agenda in the immediate future.

I think I'd actually mellowed first, just because I'd liked him from the start. Heero had always admired him, and then Zechs had been nice to me at the Embassy party, the first time we'd met, and he was so patently crazy about 'Fei that it was hard not to feel just a bit sorry for him.

Because 'Fei wasn't giving him an inch. Quat and I spent hours trying to convince him that everything he was feeling was normal and natural and that it was OK to be nervous and uncertain and all the rest of it, but he'd never been in love before. It terrified him, just how much he was starting to care about Zechsy.

It was hard, now, to imagine either of them without the other. Hard to imagine either of our lives without Zechs, period.

He'd better not die on us.

Damn, I hate hospitals. Way too many bad memories. I don't think I'd ever been in a hospital before Quat had tried to kill himself, except the one I'd busted Heero out of.

Then there'd been those couple of times after I'd gone to live with 'Fei and I'd picked up some guy and let things go a bit too far. Those months after my accident….that especially. Waking up to find I'd lost months of my life.

Waking up without Heero.