Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ First Person Plural ❯ Chapter 2

"Right, and so far everything appears to be leaning that way. Quatre, what was the weather report?"

The blonde head lifts slowly from the map and the blue eyes focus on Heero's emotionless face. "The last report said light snow for the next two days and then a heavier storm Friday night, everything slowing down again to something more pleasant the following day."

"Of course, we must factor in human error, in the reporting of the information, the gathering, of course the weather, and many other aspects that cannot be seen. I say we draw up three contingency plans and have those committed to memory in the event that something unlikely does occur. I have the mission objectives typed up and printed here for you, and changes made have been penciled in, as I'm no longer near a printer. Here they are."

Heero settles four brown folders on the tabletop that can't contain more than five or six sheets of paper. "Everything seems rather cut and dry, granted," he continues. "But it is always best to see things on paper. It would be best if these are burned tonight, we have a fireplace, and it should be used effectively. We may be too busy because of other reasons as the days move closer for us to remember to dispose of these, no evidence is the best way to go."

Kind of laying it on there thick, aren't you buddy?

Professionalism. One can never have enough.

And one can never have enough cleanliness either.

*Sigh*

"Duo, have you decided yet?"

Decided? Decided what?

I tilt my head a mere fraction to the left and try not to look at him as if I have no clue where that question came from. I can only hope he will take the movement for a confirmation and not pursue it any farther.

"Have you decided?" He now sounds aggravated. "I need to know before we can go much farther on this. It is important, you would know that if you had taken the time away from your daydreaming to notice."

Quatre is now looking up at me, eyes curious and questioning. I swallow slightly and show them a grin. "Yeah, I've decided," I lie through my teeth, hoping the answer is generic enough not to be off. "I'll go with what seems the best."

His amazingly cool cobalt eyes flicker a moment, then narrow, and his mouth drops down in a slight frown. I decide that that must be tolerable, that he's frowning, not scowling. "That's good, and what in your opinion is the best?"

If I didn't know any better I would think the guy is trying to bait me.

Maybe he is…

Nah, not Stoneface.

I wince inside and go for the gold of stupidity. "What you suggested…"

He lifts an eyebrow and I give a weak laugh. Maybe I can pull this off as teasing if someone gets their act together and HELPS ME OUT!

If someone gets their act together? As if this can't be any of your own fault, right?

Obviously not.

I can't do anything; I'm pretty much as clueless as you for the moment…

Aren't you supposed to be omni knowing, the head cheese, the Big Man, -

"Duo." His voice is just sharp and cold enough to drag me back violently to the realm of the material and I blink at him in what I hope isn't a dazed manner, but something endearing. Obviously not by the look on his face.

He has a hand settled heavily on my shoulder, and he gives me another shake. I wonder if that's concern behind that mask or if it's simply annoyance. "Duo, I didn't suggest anything at all to you, I gave a choice," he states, hand still heavy and warm on my shoulder. It feels like it's bearing me down, holding me in place, and I want to look away from his piercing eyes before he breaks the surface and sees something he shouldn't, but I can't.

Thank you, that's all I wanted.

A slightly disorienting feeling, being sucked away in a vacuum of thought, the distant words spoken as if underwater, and then I'm staring at him as he's withdrawing his hand, nodding, now seemingly perplexed.

"All right, you'll take the east entrance and leave by the north. Now that I have that I can work on the rest of the mission. After dinner we should sit down and talk again."

Quatre stands and yawns, holding a hand out to help Trowa up, not that he needs it I note. Then Quatre falls in step beside him, leaning in to murmur something about the importance of this base we're about to infiltrate.

I look over at Heero and see him standing by the map on the far right, trailing a finger up from one point marked with a tack to another. I stand up myself, stretching slowly until I feel the crack moving along my spine, and then head to the kitchen when Heero stops me.

I turn to look at him but his back is the only thing facing me, and he doesn't show any signs of turning as he picks up a pencil and traces a slow line to and around something. "This is our second day here and you're still as scatterbrained as you were yesterday. You explained that as travel fatigue, which honestly I feel isn't something one of us can afford to suffer from, but you've made it this far. I can't and won't believe that today though, and as I told you yesterday I have to know if you can do this or not by tomorrow morning. After that we may lose track of the other pilot, or he may be doing something else, or unwilling to work with us on short notice. I have to know what you're status is."

Fucking crazy. Absolutely mental. Total basket case.

"I will be fine."

Liar.

He turns at that to look at me. "You will be? Is that saying you're not fine now?"

"No, I'm fine now."

Pity you've never noticed. *Pout*

Cut it out!

"Good." He tilts his head marginally to the left to study me. "You didn't seem to sleep well last night, maybe you should just get some rest."

I blink at that, not quite expecting it, and then give a slight nod.

"Good." He turns back to the map again, picking up a pad of paper and a calculator and doing some calculation.

He likes us. He really likes us.

Hah.

I can feel a dull ache in my head that signals a headache coming, and out of all the medication that I have brought with me a painkiller can be taken with little aftereffects and even less questioning. That's my first stop, the kitchen to get bottled water, and then to the room that Heero and I are now sharing. That was the source of sleeplessness last night. It's rough sleeping well when you can't trust that you'll behave while you're asleep.

Especially with such an obvious distraction sleeping right next to us all night long. Oh god…I just want to reach out…and touch him…and…

I sigh for myself and pull out the small bag that is one of the few items remaining in the smaller duffel. Opening that up I pull out the bottles there and line them up along the night table, picking up the one to my farthest left and opening it, bringing out two small pills that I knock back with several swallows of water. Setting the bottle down I study the other bottles.

It would be so easy.

Risperdone, taken to block several receptors on nerves and basically slow down the body, making the messages that go from one part of the body to another more sluggish. Serax, used to cut back the levels of anxiety. Zoloft, an antidepressant. Ambien, a strong sleeping aid.

It would be so easy, maybe take a little Serax, help me relax a little, or one Risperdone, how would that hurt?

I settle the half full water bottle on the edge of the night table and swallow nervously, glancing at the door. Heero would know though, he's not human.

Besides, it's not the wisest choice to be taking such heavy medication before an assignment like this, with so many people counting on you. What if something were to go wrong?

Something will go wrong. Let's just end your misery now, shall we?

I see in a foggy state my hand reaching out toward the Ambien, then stopping and hovering over the headache pills, before moving back over and finally picking up the Serax. It slowly dawns on me the danger that will come of this as I see my hands working awkwardly with the childproof cap, and then it's twisting off and falling on the bed beside us. Reaching for the water, tipping the medicine bottle over slowly.

I jerk back to myself and fling the bottle across the room, not caring that it's open, this followed shortly by the cap and then the water bottle. My hands are shaking. Close call…close call…

There must be something that can be done.

After an uneasy moment or so I stand slowly, moving across the floor on uncertain feet and dropping to my hands and knees to pick up the small pills that have scattered on the carpet.

Careful, find them all, wipe them down before you put them back in the bottle. Look at the bottle, a prescription of 60. How many have you taken already?

He's taken 12.

All right, so how many does that mean has to be found?

48.

Count them. How many is that? 36. Over there, under the closet door, two more. 38.

Is that one?

Yeah, how did it manage over there?

"I don't know," I whisper, plucking one of them from under the strap of Heero's bag. Sitting up to look around I notice the bag is open slightly and with a fearful glance at the door I pull back the edge and peer inside for a cursory glance, and find nothing that seems out of place.

Thick, thick carpet fibers. There's one imbedded in the carpet, better check the carpet. Better clean them good.

39…40…42…45… There, one under your palm. 46. Two more…

There's one, which makes 47.

I settle back on my heels after about ten minutes of careful and meticulous searching, which resulted in combing the carpet fibers with my fingertips, and plant my palms on my thighs, looking over the carpet.

"Are you sure it was only twelve?" I ask under my breath, thinking aloud.

Only 12.

My eyes settle on Heero's bag just as I hear his shuffling step in the hall. It sounds like he's stopped abruptly, like he's dropped something. There's another sound, cloth rubbing against cloth, as if he's moving his body differently than he had been. Yes, must have dropped something. I look over to the door, freezing, and then find myself rising slowly and putting the top back on the orange bottle, picking it up as well as the others and dropping them in my bag, scooting that under the table.

Cool water dripping down my fingers from where the condensation built up on the bottle and I'm sipping the water as Heero comes in.

"I thought I told you to take a nap," he says, settling on one knee to place something in his bag. I swallow as he looks to me and hold the water up for him to see, as if it's the explanation as to why I'm not asleep yet, not that I've been on my hands and knees searching for little pills that have been scattered around the room.

With one still missing…

Heero stands and pushes his bag aside, then comes around the side of the bed and takes the water bottle. He places this on the table and glances in at the two books stacked inside, giving me a curious look.

"Hides the gun," I explain weakly, moving to show him although that is more than not necessary. Really I just want to make sure he can't see into the bag under the night table. With no warning I find myself lifted off the carpet and it dawns on me only as Heero has placed a knee on the bed and settled me down that he had picked me up and relocated me.

Guess he's serious about this nap business, huh?

Must be…

He pushes me down, dragging the sheet out from under me and then lightly tossing it over me, moving over to the blinds to pull them down. Oddly this darkens the room considerably. Or it seems odd in my state. The world seems to have dimmed, everything feels fuzzy. I realize he's speaking.

"I don't want you to be all scatterbrained tonight. The other two were pulled in last minute, you know more than they do, and you even have some information that I might not, for varying reasons. Get some rest and if it is just excessive travel exhaustion, or if not, then we'll know by tonight and we'll find a solution."

He gives a slight nod and pulls the door to the room shut, further darkening.

Heh. Have him find a solution to Multiple Personality. I'd love to see him try.

He's pretty close to perfect, he might be able to…

Isn't it called Dissociative Identity Disorder now? I thought it was. I could be wrong you know, but I thought it was.

Nobody's that perfect, not even spandex wearing psycho boy.

He's not wearing spandex right now; he's wearing jeans that I feel rather nicely sculpt his rear.

That's only because it's cold.

One cannot fault practicality.

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

He's certainly not perfect, doesn't even now how to cover someone up correctly.

I sure didn't mind the picking up part…

Ara wants Heero, Ara wants Heero, Ara wants Heero.

"Oh god, don't any of you ever shut up?" I groan, rolling over onto my stomach and holding the pillow over my head. I know it won't shut them out. It's the thought that counts…