Alright, I just can't seem to keep up with posting this story and doing college work. So we're going to go back to posting a bunch of chapters once a month. Please, please, please review, and it would be best if you reviewed every chapter. I need to know what you all like and dislike. But, anyway, enjoy, but remember that I'm not going to post again until next month. Sorry, but I'm trying.

The ambulance didn't have to turn its lights on for Duo, but it certainly didn't go the speed limit. But then, what cop would pull over an ambulance? And I knew the man behind the wheel was capable, and his partner seemed just as reliable as he tended to Duo. Still, I was anxious to get my slave to the hospital and into Sally's hands.

This operation, as with most covert operations, was painfully complicated, but with good reason. The only reason I was admitted to Collar was because of my background, my wealth, and because I had no visible connection with Preventers. I was, more or less, a spy. And, because I could not have any visible connection with Preventers, only those undercover agents who were not known to be from Preventers and those who only had a known passing association with Preventers were allowed on the case. The agents who surrounded and guarded myself and the boys had no backgrounds and no way to identify them. They had changed names months ago, changed their looks, and joined my staff. Sally, who had worked briefly for Preventers, had put in for a transfer to a private hospital that I frequented. But she and I had been friends for a long time, so it wouldn't seem unusual for me to trust her. Even the men who had remodeled the house had been specially selected by Preventers before my staff could contact them with the details of the project. It all had to be done quietly, secretly, and stealthily.

As Duo's eyes opened and he looked anxiously around, I could only wish Heero were around. But I knew he could not be, because I could not risk that kind of exposure to him. It was imperative that no one asked questions about them, and the safest way to keep that from happening was to keep them hidden. If some haphazard journalist should take a snapshot of them and start asking questions about their backgrounds, the results could be disastrous. I wasn't like the corrupt officials who could pay off or assassinate those who got in their way. On a mission of this importance, the utmost caution was taken.

Still, I knew Heero could have vanquished the nervousness from Duo's features in a heartbeat and put him right back to sleep. I, on the other had, was uncertain if my presence would calm him or panic him. We didn't have what you would call a solid relationship, he and I. But I had to do something, so I leaned into his range of vision and waved my hand, hoping to get his attention without startling him. His eyes jumped to me, and I could see him trying to swallow around the awkward tube in his throat.

"We'll be at the hospital in a few minutes," I told him calmly. He nodded, which was really the only thing he could do at the time, then looked around pointedly. "Heero couldn't come with us. I had to send him to the house with the others. You'll see him in a few days, when you get out of the hospital." At this, Duo glared pointedly at me. "There's no use getting angry. It was too risky to let Heero come, and, anyway, Heero doesn't do well with crowds. You wouldn't want him to get hurt, now would you?" I asked. Duo tried to stay mad, but, whether due to conscience or exhaustion, he soon lost the strength needed for a proper glare and settled on giving me a huffy mope. It was actually kind of cute, and I smiled and shifted his bangs away from his eyes. I'd have to remember to tell Sally not to cut his hair, or she would be likely to shave his head instead of dealing with that mop. Sally was too straightforward to deal with anyone but soldiers, but she was one hell of a medic. She could fix anyone with rubber bands, horse hair, and a pint of vodka.

I sighed as Duo began to fall back to sleep. We were out of the woods now, but the worst was far from over. Now was simply the calm before the storm, while Duo rested from the trip and Sally waited, impatiently, for hospital staff to clear out so she could send Duo for the myriad of tests she would undeniably want done. Of course, Duo was under the same restraints as Heero in that I needed him to be seen by the least amount of people possible. Then, once the hospital was clear, would come operations, medication, and a possibly extended stay in the hospital. Finally, once he was home, there would still be medications and therapy sessions for months, possibly up until we returned to Collar. So, while I was extremely optimistic about Duo's recovery, I knew just what a long a rocky road we would be on.

But, really, I was faced with the same road for all of the boys. Slavery was a disease, and it had infected them, and now it was up to me to make them better. They had been stripped of any sense of self, stripped of a sense of play, stripped of choice. All that they understood was money, power, looks, and sex. It wouldn't be easy or quicky to take that out of them, but it was my responsibility to do so.

So, it seemed I was at a sort of paradox. For it was my mission to make them better slaves, in order to win Collar and destroy the practice of human slavery. On the other hand, could I fight enslavement, while allowing those closest to me to be enslaved? Would I be worthy of the position I held, if I could stand such injustice even for a moment longer? I would make them my companions, my soldiers, and my lovers, but I would not enslave them. I could not.

But they would never know, at least not until it was too late. What would happen after Collar was something that I would prepare the boys for, but I could not prepare myself. I would attempt to normalize them, with hopes that they would survive this battle, but I could not plan. To plan for a normal life with them, only to have one of them die, would certainly undo me. Already I was too close to them, and were this a normal mission I would remove myself at once, but it was not a normal mission, and abnormal tactics were required.

Duo would be the hardest to teach, if he were teachable at all. He was both afraid and angry when it came to me, and there was nothing I could do to completely alleviate these feelings. He needed to be somewhat afraid of me, afraid of the punishments I could give him. Not terrified, of course, but all good soldiers were somewhat afraid of their commander. It kept them in line and on their toes, respectful and alert. And I couldn't very well expect him not to be angry with me, for I was almost angry at myself. I was his master, his overlord, and his jailer. Without blowing my cover I could not change his perspective of me in that sense. I could only hope that the other slaves, especially Heero, could convince Duo that not all masters were bad. Just most... Almost all of them... All except one. And sometimes, I wasn't certain about myself either, for how easily I could stumble and become a monster like the others. How fragile each of the boys were in some ways, yet like tempered steel in others. Heero's determination, Duo's spirit, Quatre's sympathy, Trowa's gentleness, Wufei's pride. A thousand pounds of weight had been put on each of their shoulders and they had survived, and yet I knew I could break them in a heartbeat.

"You seem deep in thought," Sally said, a small grin on her face as I jumped. I had been thinking so deeply that I hadn't noticed her come in.

"Just thinking of what a long road it will be with him," I replied, and her grin faded at once.

"We'll know just how long a road in a few hours. I really want to get his chest x-rayed and see what the damage is. He hasn't been coughing up blood lately, has he?"

"When he was first injured he did, but I think he suffered some minor strangulation, so there might have been some damage to his throat."

"Hm. I'll have to take a thorough look."

"With the camera?"

"No, I have x-ray vision. Yes, with the camera."

"He won't like that. Having someone stick a tiny camera down your throat is bad enough, but Duo is also afraid of suffocation."

"He's not going to suffocate."

"I have no fear of that, but I am afraid he'll struggle."

"We'll see. When he wakes up I'll explain it to him, and if he seems too upset we'll sedate him, but I'd really rather not. There's no need to put extra drugs in his system if we can avoid it. But it doesn't really matter right now. We'll have to get his chest x-rayed first, and then we'll go from there. I have to fix his lungs before I can worry about his throat."

"Is there anything I can do?"

"For now, just brief him about what we'll be doing. I'm sure you know about chest x-rays and I'd rather not waste time explaining it to him if I don't have to. Other than that, just try to keep him calm, and don't let him pull out that tube. There's no way I can know, but it might be the only thing that's keeping him breathing. We're lowering drugs he's being given as well, since it seems the doctor put him on a higher dose to keep him calm on the plane. Hopefully he'll be a bit more lucid now."

"Any pain?"

"There shouldn't be much, if any. I can't guarantee complete comfort, but if he seems too bothered we'll give him something stronger."

"Alright then. I'll make sure he knows about the x-ray procedures."

"See that you do. Now, I'm off to harass some employees into taking the night off early."

I smiled as Sally left, knowing that she would do exactly as she had promised. Still, the smile faded quickly. It was hard to feel happy with Duo so badly hurt. There hadn't been much love lost between us, but he was still one of my boys. It had been my job to protect him, and I had failed.

It wasn't long before Duo woke up, and he did seem more lucid, though I couldn't tell exactly how lucid without his voice, for we had only really ever interacted through the exchange of barbs and punishment. Heero would have been able to tell instantly what Duo's condition was just by looking at his eyes, but I already knew the reasons Heero could not be present. So I would have to take it upon myself to care for Duo.

"Are you awake?" I asked, wondering from his glazed eyes if he might not be truly conscious. At my words, though, his eyes cleared and focused on me, so I knew he was now, if not before, conscious.

"Don't try to talk," I warned him quickly, knowing how effortlessly the boy before me could speak. "You still have a tube down your throat and we can't remove it until after your x-ray. So, first I want to ask you some questions, and you can squeeze my hand once for yes and twice for no," I said, and reached to take his hand. He, however, had different ideas, and pulled his hand away before I could touch it. This annoyed me, mainly because I was trying to help him but also because it showed he still didn't trust me. Still, looking in his eyes I saw almost a sheepish kind of nervousness. It seemed almost like he was embarrassed about it. In any case, I decided to let it go, mainly because it wouldn't do any good to get upset at a sick person.

"Alright, then, how about one finger for yes and two for no. Can you do that?" I asked. In response Duo extended one finger. I had to look down at his hand, because he was not yet strong enough to lift it, but it seemed a clear and deliberate movement, so I decided it would be alright to proceed.

"Firstly, are you in any pain?" I asked. His hand went back into a ball and then he again extended one finger.

"Is it more than you can handle?"

Two fingers. No.

"Is there any particular place that hurts?"

One finger.

"Is it your chest?"

One finger.

"Is there any where else that hurts significantly?"

Two fingers.

"Have you ever had an x-ray before?"

At this, Duo hesitated, then held up a completely open palm. Either he didn't understand the question or, more likely, he didn't know if he'd ever had an x-ray done before. I doubted the doctors at Collar, as good as they were, had followed proper hospital procedure when working on their patients.

"Have you ever had a broken bone?" I asked instead.

One finger.

"Do you remember how they took pictures of the bone to see that it was broken?"

One finger.

"Have you ever broken a bone in your chest?"

Duo started to put out two fingers, then abruptly stopped, hesitated for a moment, then opened his palm. I wondered at it for a moment, but it wasn't hard to see what he probably meant based on his treatment at Collar. He may very well have broken ribs, but it was unlikely his masters would have let him be treated for it.

"Has a doctor ever looked at your chest to see if you had broken a bone?"

A solid two fingers, which wasn't technically true. The doctors at Collar had done an x-ray on his chest, but he probably hadn't been conscious. Still, their equipment hadn't managed to see anything through the swelling anyway, which was the main reason for this second x-ray.

"Alright then, can you listen while I explain the procedure?" I asked him. I received one finger in response, but it was the middle finger. Duo must be feeling better.

"The first thing they'll do is to inject an ink into your I.V. It won't hurt you, but it will make the x-rays more visible. Then comes the worst part; they'll have to wheel you down the hall and transfer you to another bed. You may feel pretty good now, but there aren't a whole lot of drugs strong enough to touch pain when you're moving, and Sally's got a rule about whining. The good news is once you're on the table they just have to turn on the machine, you'll hear a bunch of clicks, and then it's over. Honestly, the worst part is going to be getting you down there and back."

Duo seemed to ponder that for a moment, blinking lethargically, then took his hand and deliberately pointed toward his throat.

"No, I don't know when they're going to take that out, but I'm sure it won't be until after the x-ray, so don't play with it."

He pouted as well as he could given the circumstances, but our "talk" had exhausted him and his eyes began to slip shut. In a few moment he was sound asleep. Feeling like a weight had been lifted from my chest, I decided to get a coffee. I was quick about it, despite my sudden surge in confidence for Duo's condition, because even seeing that he was improving could not totally wipe out the fear that I would fail him again.

The x-rays went well, despite all the machinery and tubes Duo had been hooked up to. It was, as I had promised, somewhat painful for Duo, though Sally and I attempted to make it as comfortable as possible. Once it was over, I returned with Duo to his room while Sally went to develop the pictures. Duo, upon arriving, fell immediately asleep, and I was left to wait anxiously for Sally.

"Well, let's see what we've got," she pronounced, barging in and hanging the pictures on the light screen, just as anxious as I was to see what had been dome to him. She flicked the light on and we each spent a moment examining the damaged torso in front of us.

"Isn't that strange?" Sally wondered. "None of his ribs have broken, but his left lung collapsed."

"Not so strange, considering that amount of damage done to his chest. More strange is the fact that his ribs didn't break under that much stress. But we should have known it was the lung."

"Ah yes, because it would be so easy to see a small lowered spot and a slightly blue tint under the large swollen spot and blatantly purple section."

"I suppose you're right. Still, if that's all the damage this really won't be as bad as we thought."

"There's still a long track ahead of him, but granting that the operation to get his lung inflated goes well and we can repair the damage to his throat, it won't be nearly as long a road as previously suspected."

"When will you operate?"

"Tomorrow morning. I can't do a procedure like this alone and you aren't cleared to help me. So, until then, you should go home. I'm sure your other boys need you."

"I think I should stay," I told her, leaning over the rail of the bed to look at Duo's bruised face.

"Here isn't like there. He's no safer anywhere else in the world than he is here. There's a security camera in his room, and two guards and three nurses watching him at all times. He'll be fine. Besides, you can't leave the others alone the entire time he's in the hospital."

"I suppose you're right," I said, and with one last look at Duo, I headed out, knowing there would only be more problems to deal with once I got home.

When had my life gotten so complicated?