Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing, it belongs to Bandai, Sotsu and associated parties. I just borrow the guys from time to time and return them a whole lot happier. I do own the plot and any other characters, especially the equines, that you will find in this fic. Please do not take them without permission. Written for pleasure not profit.
Pairing: 2x1x2, 3x4, 13x6, H+C
Warnings: Yaoi, lemon, sap, angst, vet themes, AU
Rating: NC 17
Betaed by Karina *snugs*
Summary: Set 2 years after Equus and Heero is doing so well in his own business that he's taken June on as a working pupil. The qualifying shows for the International teams are well underway and it looks like it will be a good year for Heero, his pupils and horses... until Mother Nature steps in.
AN: This fic, although a complete work of fiction is based partially on fact. I will add notes at the end of chapters where necessary to clarify events and provide links where needed.
Dedication: To Leslie and Karina. Leslie for giving me the original idea for Equinity and encouraging and supporting me through the writing of all the fics thus far in the arc. And Karina for not just taking over as my much needed beta, (poor woman needs a medal!), but for also poking and prodding Fred until he went on strike, refusing to work on anything at all until I let him start this. Needless to say, we managed to come to a compromise... Fred gets to write a chapter of this one week... the next week he has to write a chapter of 'Bound'... Did I ever tell you all I hate my muse? :-)
Fic 5 in the Equine Intervention Arc.
Commenced December 2013 – ShenLong
Thanks for the kind comments and apologies from Fred (the muse) for the angst - unfortunately there's a little more angst to go before this gets better. I do promise that happy ending... just got to get there. :-)
"Rival Riders"
Chapter 42
It was all the three men in the stable could do to stop their tears from falling. The heart wrenching neigh that Angel had given tore through each and every one of them. Several of the other horses in the stables returned Angel's call with whinnies and neighs. Outside, Zero let fly with an ear piercing cry of his own.
The stallion moved restlessly around his small yard and stable. He could scent the air, knew there was a birth going on and also tell that something wasn't quite right. When Angel's anguished cry came through the air, Zero returned the call. He continued to 'converse' with the mare, doing his best to reassure his mare that he was there and always would be for her.
The realization that her baby was dead hit Angel hard. The returned calls of her fellow equines, especially the handsome gray stallion that was her mate did help to ease her pain a little. She lowered her head once more to the bundle that lay lifeless in the shavings and nuzzled it.
"What now?" Heero whispered from his corner of the stables. He was having a hard time holding onto his composure.
Duo was similarly fighting a losing battle with his own emotions and unable to respond for the moment.
Zechs, although he also felt the emotion of the moment, wasn't as strongly affected as the other two. With Heero being the mare's owner and Duo also having more than a veterinary interest in the mare's life it stood to common sense that they would feel this more. It didn't mean that Zechs didn't care though. Noting how affected the other two were, Zechs stepped in and took charge of the situation.
"The afterbirth should be delivered any minute now. Once it is I'll collect it up and remove it. I'd suggest we then leave Angel alone with the foal for about half an hour, give her time to grieve her loss."
"Okay," Heero replied, his voice cracking. Feeling a hand on his elbow, Heero turned to see Duo's tear filled eyes looking at him and trying to coax him out of the stable. Numbly he let his husband lead him out and into the breezeway.
"Heero..." Duo didn't get any further, Heero seemed to slump in on himself. Duo's arms wound around his partner, supporting him and holding him close.
With his head buried in the crook of Duo's shoulder and the vet's strong arms wrapped around him, Heero let go of the emotion he'd been doing his best to keep on a tight leash. The sobs broke forth, his body shaking with the force of his grief and tears broke over eyelids to run unchecked down his face and into the fabric of Duo's shirt.
His lover didn't say anything, simply held him close and let him cry out his anguish. Warm hands gently moved in circles around his back, soothing and comforting in their own way. Duo's own tears ran freely down his face, but he didn't care. His lover was more important at the moment; Duo could give vent to his own distress later.
Back in the stable, Zechs kept a close eye on the gray mare. He didn't interfere in any way with her attempts to coax some form of life from her baby, knowing it was for the best that she discover for herself that there was no possible hope that the foal would get up.
Raising her head, Angel gave another grunt and deposited the afterbirth into the shavings before dropping her head once more to snuffle around the unresponsive foal.
Quietly picking up the bucket and putting on a pair of gloves, Zechs moved slowly inside the stable to retrieve the all important afterbirth. They would learn a lot from it in regards to the EI and the effect it had had on Angel's pregnancy and subsequent death of her foal in-utero. With the bloody mess now in the bucket, Zechs stepped outside the stable, figuring his friends should be over the worst of the shock by now.
Duo looked up as he spotted Zechs coming out of the stable. He raised an eyebrow in question when he spotted the bucket. 'Afterbirth' Zechs mouthed to him and he nodded in response. Feeling the shaking of his lover beginning to slow and settle, Duo gently eased the rider from his shoulder and looked into sorrowful, blue eyes.
"Sorry about that," Heero sniffled, doing his best to get himself back under control.
"No need for apologies, Heero. I feel exactly the same," Duo replied softly. He placed a gentle kiss to Heero's lips. Bringing a hand up, he stroked a thumb across Heero's cheek, wiping away the salty trails. "Why don't we all go and get a cup of tea?"
Overhearing the words, Zechs finished putting the bucket to one side and cleared his throat. "Why don't you both come into the farm house, I'll make us all a hot drink."
Duo looked at Heero who nodded. "Thanks, Zechs, that would be good." To be honest, Duo wasn't sure if Heero's legs - or his own - would make the walk back through the paddocks to the cottage right now.
"Come on then," Zechs smiled and led the way from the stables to the back door of the farm house he rented from Heero.
Stepping inside the warm kitchen, both men removed their boots and padded across the stone flagged floor to take a seat at the wooden table. Zechs busied himself putting the kettle on to boil, fetching a teapot and setting out mugs. Sugar bowl and milk jug appeared on the table along with a plate of biscuits. The kettle boiled, Zechs pouring the water over the tea leaves and setting the pot to steep.
Once the tea had steeped enough, Zechs poured out three mugs of the brown liquid, passing one each to Duo and Heero before taking his own and sitting himself down opposite the pair. "Help yourselves to milk and sugar," he informed.
Both men added their desired sugar and milk, stirring the drink before taking respective sips. It did help to soothe their emotional turmoil quite a bit and Duo wondered just what it was about tea that seemed to do that.
After several minutes of sitting in silence, Heero broke the quiet. "What happens now?"
"Now we sit and recover for a little while and give Angel time to come to terms with her loss. Then we go back to the stables and if you don't mind, move Angel to the other stable for a short while whilst Duo and I remove the foal. The stable will need to be cleaned up a bit before you can bring Angel back into it," Zechs replied.
"Okay. Then what?"
"Zechs and I will take the foal and the afterbirth up to the surgery stables where we will need to do some tests and learn exactly what it was the EI virus did to the placenta," Duo said.
"The foal?" Heero's voice cracked a little.
"We will need to do an autopsy on it, Heero. I promise you though, we will be very careful and respectful. All our findings will need to be submitted to the veterinary board and also the Department of Agriculture as this is related to the EI infection." Duo knew he was being blunt, but he'd learned over the years that he had to be open and completely honest with Heero.
"I see. Once you've done the autopsy..." Heero paused for a moment to steady himself. "What will happen to the foal's b – body?"
"If you wish, I can dispose of the foal for you, or if you would prefer to do that yourself then that's not a problem either." Duo fell silent, his own voice threatening to crack on him.
"I'd like to have the body back and bury it, if you don't mind."
"That's fine, Heero."
The three men sat again in silence, each lost in their own thoughts of what lay ahead. Zechs glanced at the clock and deemed enough time had passed. "I think we should return to the stables," he said and got up from the table. Carrying his mug across to the sink, he took both Heero's and Duo's from them as the pair helped to clean up.
#
Stepping back into the stables Heero couldn't help but notice how quiet it all was. The horses seemed to know that something bad had happened and all were silent in their stables. That seemed to unnerve Heero a touch. A hand on his shoulder had him turning to look into his husband's violet eyes.
"The horses all know, Heero. Don't ask me how I know that or how they know it either, it's just something about animals and the time I've spent with them over the years..."
Heero nodded in reply. He could remember Duo saying something along similar lines a few years ago when he'd lost Scythe.
Reaching Angel's door, Heero stopped and cautiously looked inside. Angel was standing over her baby, head lowered and eyes half closed. She looked miserable, but seemed to have accepted that her foal was no longer with her. She raised her head when she saw her master and gave a low whinny.
"Heero, I think it would be best if you moved her to the other stable for the moment and stay with her. Try to keep her focused on you and not what's happening in this stable," Zechs said.
"Okay. I'll just grab some wipes and carrots." Heero disappeared into the tack room and then feed shed, emerging after a couple of minutes with gloves, wipes and carrots in his pocket. Picking up the lead rope from the stable door, he slid the bolt back and entered.
"Hey, Angel," he said quietly as he moved towards the mare.
Angel looked up as her master approached. She let him come up to her and clip the lead rope to her halter. The soft pats and reassuring words did help to soothe the turmoil going through her right now and she pressed her forehead against her human's chest in an attempt to show him she appreciated his comfort.
"Come on, girl, let's take you out of here and into another stable for a few minutes," Heero said softly and offered her a carrot. Angel lipped at it listlessly and took her time crunching it up. "Come on, Angel, it's for the best," Heero soothed and began to step towards the door. He pulled gently on the lead rope, Angel not moving for a moment.
The mare resisted the pull to move and lowered her head one last time to her baby. She gave the small body a snuffle over followed by a lick. Blowing softly through her nostrils she closed her eyes, gave a soft grunt before opening her eyes again and following her master.
Duo watched silently as Angel appeared to say 'goodbye' to her foal and then followed Heero from the stable. Once the pair were safely inside the other stable Duo followed Zechs inside.
Zechs went straight to the corner and pulled out the plastic sheet he'd brought with him. Carrying it over to the foal he lay it down on the shavings. "Can you give me a hand to move the foal to the sheet please?' he asked. "It will be much easier to remove and carry the foal to the surgery stables this way."
Nodding, Duo moved to the hind end as Zechs was by the foal's head. Between the two of them they lifted the lifeless body onto the sheet. With the foal now being just over thirty minutes old, the fluids had dried and the rest of the amniotic sac had fallen away or been pulled away by Angel. With being at the hind end, Duo could see that the foal would have been another colt to add to Heero's rapidly growing 'herd'.
Closing his eyes for a moment, Duo did his best to emotionally detach himself from the situation. He had a job to do and he would be professional in every aspect of that job. He could let the emotion seep in later.
With the foal's body now centered on the plastic sheet, Zechs was quick to fold it expertly up, concealing it from sight. "I'll go get my car," he informed Duo.
"Car?" Duo echoed with a quizzical look.
"Yes. We can put the foal in the trunk and drive it to the surgery stables. It's too heavy for us both to carry that far," Zechs explained.
"Ah," Duo nodded in understanding. "Just wait here with it for a moment. I won't be long." Zechs walked out of the stables to fetch the car as promised.
While Zechs was absent, Duo gathered together all their things and placed them by the stable door; moments later Zechs was back.
Between the two of them they carried the wrapped bundle to the open trunk of Zechs' car and lay the small body down. They fetched the rest of their gear and placed that in the trunk too. Leaving Zechs to wash the tires down with betadine before driving to the surgery stables, Duo slipped back inside to give Heero a hand to clean up Angel's stable so the mare could go back into it.
"Are you going to do the autopsy now?" Heero asked as he forked another pile of shavings into the wheelbarrow.
"Zechs and I will go back to the surgery stables and do the autopsy. It will probably take a couple of hours. I can let you know when we're finished."
"Okay. Thank you." Heero continued with his cleaning up.
Duo let him be, he knew he couldn't say or do anything further to ease his husband's grief – only time would do that.
Between the two of them it didn't take long to have the stable freshened up. Zechs reappeared, having disinfected the car so as not to transmit any of the Virus to Duo's surgery stables and gave the pair a hand to finish up. With the stable all cleaned up Heero brought Angel back into it.
The mare sniffed around for a few moments, seeming to accept that her baby had gone once she'd done a thorough search of the stable. It tore Heero apart to watch her.
"Will you be okay?"
The words broke through Heero's confused mind and he looked to see his husband watching him with concerned eyes. "I'll be fine," he replied automatically. "I've got my rounds of the sick horses to do so that will keep me busy for a while. I also need to give Wing a little work."
"Okay. I'll come and find you once we're done." Duo wrapped his arms around Heero and gave his lover a tender kiss.
"Thanks, Duo," Heero whispered.
"I'll be back soon." With one last kiss, Duo left his lover to join Zechs once he'd disinfected his hands and shoes.
#
Wearing disposable coveralls, plastic boots, masks and gloves, the two vets lay the body of the foal out on the operating table. Duo didn't have any proper 'autopsy' facilities so the operating theater would have to suffice.
The microscope was set up, slides and chemicals set out in readiness. Two sets of surgical instruments were placed onto trolleys along with several kidney dishes and a couple of bowls. Surgical cloths also sat to one side, should they be needed.
With everything now set in place, there was nothing left to distract Duo from the job at hand.
"If you would prefer not to do this, I can do the autopsy by myself."
Duo looked up sharply into Zechs' sapphire blue eyes and read the sincerity there. He shook his head. "Thanks for the offer, Zechs and not that I don't appreciate it, but I have to do this; for Heero, for Angel."
"I understand," Zechs replied.
"I would be fine with taking the minor role though, if you're happy to do the major part?"
"Of course. I'll explain what I'm doing as we proceed if that's alright with you?"
"That works for me."
"Okay, we'd better get started then." Zechs pulled a trolley closer to the operating table. "I'll start by checking the internal organs and such, whilst I'm doing that would you mind taking some blood samples and then tissue samples from the bits of organ I pass to you?"
"No problem." Leaving Zechs to start his autopsy, Duo fetched a few vials and grabbed a needle and syringe to start taking his samples.
With several vials of blood now sealed, Duo filled out the paperwork and stuck the labels to the vials. He placed them to one side on the bench by the microscope to be looked at afterwards. Returning to the table, he noted Zechs had begun to check the foal's insides. Averting his eyes from the 'surgery' currently taking place, Duo studied the foal a little closer.
Now that the amniotic fluids had dried up, he could see from the pigmentation of the skin and what hair had begun to coat the body, the foal would have been either a chestnut or a roan. He already knew it was a colt and from the bone structure and knowledge he'd gained from listening to Heero all these years, it looked like it would have had a very nice conformation too.
"Duo?"
Hearing his name being called, Duo raised his eyes and dragged his mind back to the job at hand. "Huh?"
"Are you okay?" Zechs asked, frowning slightly behind his mask.
"Uh, yeah. Sorry, I was miles away."
"I asked if you could take these samples and seal them for the moment for me, please."
"Sure." Duo reached for the kidney dish Zechs held out to him.
"That's the stomach..."
Half an hour later, Duo had several small dishes all labeled with the various tissue samples lined up on the bench. "Is that all?" he asked, returning to where Zechs appeared to be finished.
"Yes. That's all we need. I'll stitch up the wound now and Heero can have the body back whenever he's ready," Zechs replied.
"Placenta?"
"Once I'm done here we'll take a look at the placenta and take some samples from that too. I want to check it to see how much separation there was, any damage to the placenta and umbilical cord and also just what infection, bacteria and such are present in the tissues."
"Okay. I'll go get it out of the bucket and start to sort it out for us if you're okay to finish up there by yourself?"
"That would be good, Duo."
"No problem." Duo turned his back to the operating table and went to fetch the bucket and afterbirth contained within. The placenta and umbilical cord were removed and Duo placed them in the small sink to wash off the shavings and stable material that had clung to it when Angel had delivered it. Placenta now cleaned up, he fetched a sterile cloth and laid it out.
With Zechs still finishing up with his stitching job, Duo took the time he had to begin a preliminary examination of the placenta. It was completely intact which was a good thing as Duo really didn't fancy having to give Angel an internal to remove anything left behind. The mare had suffered enough as it was.
"What have you found?"
Duo turned slightly and met Zechs' eyes. "The placenta is completely intact, the umbilical cord is also. I have noticed a slight discoloration on the edge of the placenta just here." Duo pointed to a slightly darker section of the afterbirth. "I'd say that's where it had started to separate from the uterine wall."
"I agree. Judging by the degree of darker tissue it had started to separate about four to five days ago," Zechs stated, eyes scanning the piece of tissue.
"Yeah, that's what I would have guessed too. I'm pretty sure if we take a sample from there and look at it under the microscope we'd find traces of the EI Virus there."
"Most likely. I'll grab a clean scalpel and we can do the test now." Zechs moved to the bench and opened a drawer where the scalpel blades were kept.
"What did you find with the autopsy?' Duo asked as he readied the chemicals to do their tests.
"Without having the results from the tests we still need to do on the tissue samples and blood you took, I found that the internal organs were all almost completely formed and matured. The brain and heart though showed obvious signs of oxygen depravation which as you know would have been caused by the placenta dying off. At this point in time I'd put the cause of death down as placental abruption. The tests we do should clarify that the abruption can be directly related to infection from the EI virus."
"I'm sure we're right in our diagnosis, but having the test results confirm it all will make me feel a little better," Duo sighed. "I just wish it had never come to this."
"So do I, Duo. So do I."
#
"That's the last of them," Duo said as he passed Zechs the last slide with the tissue sample on it.
Zechs rubbed his tired eyes and then took the offered slide to place it on the microscope staging area. "Thank goodness for that, I don't think I can see straight for much longer." He peered down the microscope and studied the microscopic world for a few seconds. Adding the chemicals to the slide, he again took a look before sitting back up and letting Duo peer down the sights.
"Another positive," Duo muttered and stood up.
"Well, there's no doubt about it. The Equine Influenza Virus is definitely responsible for the death of this foal; all the test results confirm its presence in the foal's tissues." Zechs looked to his colleague. "We will need to advise the Departments of our findings as soon as possible."
"Yeah," Duo sighed. "I'll contact them after I've spoken to Heero in regards to the autopsy and results. I'll clean up here first though and place the remaining tissue and blood samples in the fridge. I'm betting the Department will want samples so they can do their own testing just to confirm our results."
"Most likely they will," Zechs replied. "I'll start filling out the paperwork while you're telling Heero; but first I'll give you a hand to clean up here."
"I'll need to give the operating theater a complete go over with disinfectant too. Don't need any of that virus hanging around."
"I'll help you with that too."
"Thanks, Zechs."
"Anytime, Duo."
# # #
Despite his knowing that there was absolutely nothing that could have been done to help Angel's foal, Heero still couldn't help the feeling of despair that ran through him. He'd gone over everything in his head whilst Duo and Zechs had been at the surgery performing the autopsy, looked at all the things he'd done over the past few days, desperately trying to find something, anything he could have possibly done to prevent this from happening.
The end result was still the same.
He wiped away a few stray tears and pulled back from the embrace his lover currently had him in. "Thank you, Duo. It's still difficult to accept and it will take me some time to come to terms with it, but I know that you and Zechs have been very thorough in your investigations and that makes it a little bit easier."
"I just wish there was more we could have done," Duo reiterated yet again.
"Stop it, Duo. I know that you both did everything within your power to help Angel and stop this from happening; but we have to face it, there wasn't anything anyone could have done. I'm grateful for what you did do and at the end of it all, I may have lost the foal, but at least we still have Angel. It could have been a lot worse."
Duo fell silent, knowing what Heero said was true. They had at least managed to save Angel and there would be other foals down the track.
"I guess we have to learn and move on from this and do our best to ensure that Comet and her foal remain as safe as we can make them," Duo said softly.
"Hai, that we do."
After a few more minutes of holding each other, Duo began to move. "I really need to get back to the surgery stables and contact the various departments."
"I understand."
"Will you be okay for a while?"
"Hai, I'll be fine, Duo. I need to do my rounds anyway, clean noses, dispense cough medicine and such." Heero managed a small smile for his husband.
"I'll come back here then once I'm finished with all the paperwork and other stuff."
"Thanks, Duo."
Duo placed a sweet kiss to his husband's lips before departing to finish up with all the necessary paperwork required to report the passing of the foal due to the EI.
tbc...