As we approached the doorway, I reigned Charger in and slowed him to a walk, then jumped off his back without ever calling a full stop. Instead, I used Charger's momentum to propel me to the door.
In shows and movies, the doctor always asks questions and runs tests straight away, but in real life there wasn't time for any of that. Instead, Sally merely propelled me toward the downstairs bathroom, where a slightly warm shower was already running. I took the both of us in without hesitating, fully dressed and aware that I couldn't really get any more wet.
The water felt warm against my skin, which meant that it would be almost cold to anyone else. Still, it was warm enough to start Duo shivering convulsively, and cool enough to let him adjust. But there wasn't time to relax yet. In the next moment, Sally, who had followed us into the bathroom, was guiding me out of the shower. Another set of hands pulled Duo from my arms and I had to fight the urge to grab him back, and only seeing that Wufei was taking my burden allowed me to. Sally must have prepared Wufei well, for he instantly carried Duo into the medical room, laid him on the table, and began to undress him, with Sally stepping in to help him only a moment later. I watched them through the open doorway, not daring to step away from the bathroom wall for fear that my legs would give out.
Quatre came in as Sally and Wufei were pulling off Duo's shirt, with my jacket already lying lifelessly on the floor. Quatre's cheeks were red with cold, his green jacket throwing rivets of water on the floor as he quickly shucked it off and dropped it into a heap as he rushed to the bed beside Sally and Wufei.
"Is he going to be okay?" Quatre asked, his eyes wide with worry as he took in Duo's pale skin and blue lips.
"It's touch and go, but I think he'll be alright if we can get him warmed up. Here, you help me get Duo out of these clothes. Wufei, get Zechs out of those wet clothes and into something dry, then bring him back downstairs so I can keep an eye on him."
"Sally, I'm fine," I protested as Wufei moved away from Duo toward me. Wufei snorted.
"You'd say that even if you were flat on your back and frozen to the floor. Come on, superman, let's get you warmed up before you fall down," he teased, putting my arms over his shoulder and guiding me up the stairs. I don't think he realized just how worn out I was until he felt how much weight I couldn't help but put on him. By the time we reached the top of the stairs, Wufei was nearly dragging me. If he had been any bigger, or had I been any smaller, I have no doubt he would have picked me up and carried me to the room, and I wouldn't have had the energy to do a damn thing about it.
Once in the bedroom, I was ashamed, but not surprised, to find that my hands were shaking too hard to take off my clothes. Luckily enough, I was too tired to feel embraced as Wufei helped me undress and redressed me in loose sweat pants and a long sleeve sweater. I was glad that Wufei and I had already been intimate, otherwise I was certain I would have been mortified once I worked up the energy for it.
Dressing was pretty slow going, as Wufei was getting very little help from me, and what little help I did try to lend usually made things more difficult because of the uncontrollable shivers running through my body. All I wanted to do was pull Wufei to me, curl up in the middle of the bed, and sleep forever, but my worry for Duo would not allow that, so I didn't protest as Wufei pulled me to my feet and helped me downstairs to the couch in the den. Once there I dropped, unceremoniously, to the couch, where Wufei wrapped me in the thickest sleeping bag in the house.
"I love you," I whispered to him as he wrapped me tightly. Wufei chuckled.
"If you love me for a sleeping bag, what are you going to do when Quatre brings you your tea?" he teased.
"Tea? Oh, don't toy with my emotions, cruel sprite."
"Who's toying with what?" Quatre asked, entering with a tray of mugs. "I just have tea."
"Quatre, I would not be more pleased if that tray were filled with gold, diamonds, and the key to the city," I gushed as Quatre deposited the tray on the table.
"Well that's good, because we're not even in a city," he teased in response.
"Ah, right you are. Uh, Wufei? Could you do me a favor? Go check how Duo's doing, please."
"Of course," Wufei said, going directly into the adjacent room to check on Duo for me. I wasn't really concerned, because I honestly trusted Sally's skills, it was just… I couldn't help that nagging sense of worry. I had worked as a medic. I had scene men with close to nothing wrong with them fall over dead. I had seen situations of tranquility plunge into complete chaos for no reason. So… you must excuse me if I was just a teensy bit overprotective.
My worry was somewhat placated as Wufei departed, for I was sure that once Wufei had agreed to complete a task, not even savage grizzly bears and tornado winds would keep him from his mission. I was able to relax back against the couch cushions and close my eyes for a moment, until Quatre sat down beside me on the couch and reminded me of the awaiting tea. I opened my eyes and sat up straighter, only to find that my hands, though no longer shaking, just didn't have the strength to grip the cup. In the aftermath of a day full of terror and strain, I was completely helpless.
Luckily, Quatre was able to sense to my predicament, or perhaps he could merely see how drained I was, for he moved to sit on my lap and, resting his head on my shoulder. From that position, Quatre managed to feed me the tea, turning it into some kind of some kind of semi-erotic bonding moment that I have no idea how he managed with me three steps to the right of dead.
We spent several moments in silence, with my focus being entirely on the tea passing my lips and warming my body. It wasn't until the tea was gone and the warmth in my belly had permeated the rest of my body that I realized just how long it was taking Wufei to return with news of Duo.
"Wufei?" I called, pushing myself up and partially dislodging Quatre from my lap. "Wufei? What's going on?"
"Hold your horses," he called back, and I heard a shuffling of movement in the other room, then heavy footsteps. In another moment, Wufei entered, his arms full of blanket and one very cold teen, but I smiled as the long, wet braid falling from the mass of fabric. Quatre politely sacrificed his seat, and I tossed back the blanket and made room for Wufei to place Duo against me, then sat quietly as he wrapped the both of us in the blankets.
"He came around for a couple minutes in the other room, but he fainted again right after. Sally wants the both of you watched until your body temperatures are normal, so she suggested that we put you together."
"That's fine. Is she leaving soon?"
"She was packing up her things when I left."
"Would you mind showing her out and making sure she can get her car out of the mud? Take Quatre with you, just in case she needs a push. I'd offer to help you myself but…"
"As though Sally would let you make it past the door anyway. You move off of that couch and you'll find yourself sedated so fast your head will spin. You lay there, Quatre and I can show the good doctor out."
"Thank you," I sighed, letting my eyes fall closed. I was so tired, but the leftover adrenaline and emotions made sleep impossible, at least for now. Perhaps when Duo awoke I would be able to crash, but probably not before then.
As I stared at Duo, his head resting against my shoulder as his cool body lay against mine, tucked safely under the thick blankets and quickly regaining warmth, I couldn't help but think about how far we had come, and how far we had left to go. Even without his attempted escape, Duo was far from stable, and if I were honest I would have to blame only myself for not foreseeing this attempt. Was it really that farfetched, to imagine that a notorious escape artist might once again attempt to escape? Perhaps I was the one being delusional, for thinking I could given him enough that he wouldn't want to run from me. Was I fooling myself, to think that I could heal him? Or any of them?
But I had felt that we had been making progress. Things weren't perfect, of course, but we had been happy, hadn't we? Or perhaps I was the only one who had been happy. After all, these boys had been trained to make their masters happy. Perhaps I had merely allowed them to make me happy, without truly seeing how unhappy they all were in this gilded cage. Could that be it? It was the only explanation I could come up with for Duo's escape. Even if he and Heero had been fighting, how could he be willing to give up all this if he had really been as happy as I had thought he was? And if he was so miserable that he would risk death to get away from me, how could I try to keep him here?
But I couldn't let him go. Even if the boys weren't as happy as I had hoped they were, their life here with me was certainly better than anything they could hope for, either in Collar or on the run. So I was stuck. I couldn't let him go, and he wouldn't let me close enough to fix it.
I sighed again, belatedly realizing that I had begun to stroke Duo's hair. I combed his bangs away from his face gently, feeling an unexpected surge of tenderness towards him.
"Such problem you cause for me, little demon," I whispered, a sigh in my voice and a half-smile on my face.
It was only then that I noticed the hint of violet peaking between almost-closed lashes, and the hot tear creeping down Duo's cheek.