Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Friends Will Be Friends ❯ Pride and Dignity ( Chapter 11 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Apologies people, I'd left in a few mistakes.

Author: Caitilin

Title: "Pride and Dignity"
Arc: Friends will be Friends (11/?)
Previous parts: Hiding in Plain Sight, Bitter Tears Raining down on me, One
shaft of Light, Bound to Lose, Another Tricky situation, Open your Eyes,
Fight from the Inside Look up to the Skies and See, Hammer to Fall, Fighting
and Free

Rating: series: nc-17
Pairings: 1x4/4x1, 2x5/5x2, 2x3/3x2, possibly 3x5/5x3, 2x3x5 and/or 1x3x4
Warnings: Angst and generally bad situations
Thanks to Kai for allowing me to bounce idea's of her for all these parts!
Thanks to Anastasia for doing a smack-dab job at changing my English to real
English.


I peeked around the edge of the door, Marie's hand still firmly in
mine. The fates seemed to be smiling on us, as the hall was empty, as
was the next one, and the next. By this time I was getting urgent
signals from my bladder, and was wishing I'd never drunk the water
Walden had offered me. When I did see a men's room, I made for it.
Opening the door, I saw there was already someone at one of the
urinals. A young man, maybe a few years older than me with red hair
and freckles. One of the guards of the level we were on.
He looked us up and down, and caught sight of the
loincloth I'd pilfered, then Marie in her shift.

"Wild man captures daughter of civilization eh? I hadn't thought of
that one yet."

That told me all I needed to know about this pervert.

"Indeed." I agreed calmly, walking up to him. Marie had let go, and
was standing by the door.

"You have something on your jacket." I told him, looking over his left
shoulder.

"Oh? Where?" he asked, brushing at it. There was nothing to brush off
of course.

"Just here." I reached over and pressed a combination of nerves
guaranteed to knock him out in less than three seconds.

He looked at me, gasped, and his eyes rolled back as he dropped to the
floor.

Normally I would have killed him, but I didn't want Marie to see me
kill yet another person. It's time that stopped, at least for her. Who
knows, with enough counselling she might be able to get out of this
without becoming the borderline psychopaths we all were.

Stripping him, I shed the loincloth and quickly dressed in his clothes,
then shielded Marie from the sight of me relieving myself. When I was
finished, she was entertaining herself by reading a few comments on the
walls, and I was strangely relieved by the semblance of privacy she
had given me.

When she acknowledged we were done here, I addressed her.
"Marie, this is very important. We need to get enough evidence so
these men and women can be put in jail for a long time. The best
place to do that is the computer room. Do you know where that is?"
She thought for a moment, and then nodded.

"Walk as if you've been sent to take me somewhere. I'll squeeze twice
for right, once for left." she said, slipping her hand in mine.
Together we walked through the halls unchallenged by several people we
passed. Most of them were wearing the same clothes I was, but some of
them were in the formless shifts captives seemed to wear, or dressed
up in various ways. It was pretty clear who was here by choice and who
was here by force though.

We entered the computer room easily enough as it wasn't even locked. I
would correct that shortly. There was one person inside, an engineer
by the look of it as he had one of the computers dismantled and was
poking around inside it. I crept up behind him and knocked him out the
same way I had earlier, and searched him quickly. No gun,
unfortunately. Sitting behind the computer, I asked Marie to lock the
door and started hacking.

***********

I asked Duo to scrounge me a large bag, while I collected the evidence
and put them in evidence bags. We've all grown used to carrying a few
of them around, and for smaller items they are invaluable. However,
the guns were not small items and there were several of them.

Duo managed to convince one of the airhostesses to give us several
new promotional bags, and we used them, packing up everything we
thought might have fingerprints on them. He held the bags while I did
the work. I'm rather certain Lady Une would have objected to have a
non-Preventer handle the evidence and I did not want to have that
discussion.

When we were done, I let my colleagues from the forensic teams on
board, and I took Duo with me. He was still taking everything in, but
was for once blessedly quiet. I couldn't help but look at him though;
he looked very different with blue eyes and short hair. I was
very relieved that it was his own choice to cut it. If it hadn't been,
I would have felt obliged to run someone through with my sword. Or
worse. That didn't mean I didn't miss it though, it had been used to
seeing it. Duo without it looked odd - naked even though he was
fully dressed.

Looking at him again, you could clearly see the weight he had lost,
and I resolved that I would be getting food into him shortly. I didn't
have to drag him to the car; he came quite willingly when I walked
that way, something that pleased me immensely. He did, however, take a
good long look at some of the passengers being coddled by the
paramedics.

"I guess it's different if you've never seen war from the front line."
he said as he looked.

"True. That is one reason why innocents should be protected from this
kind of thing." I agreed.

"And women?" Duo asked. Ah, he'd been talking to Sally.

"I'm not a misogynist. I simply prefer the women to be at home,
defending the important things like the house and the children. "I
shrugged.

"Men, we're expendable. So are boys. The girls and the women though, they
are our future, andshould be protected at all costs. Guards, Preventers,
soldiers, we're the first line of defence. The men are the second line of
defence and the boys and women the third line. That's not to say that women
can't fight, they can be more ferocious than most men when their
children are threatened, that is to say they should be protected from
having to fight. They can afford to lose us; we can't afford to
lose them. Meiran was trained both with the woman's weapons as well as
the standard ones."

I was getting a bit fed up by now with the way everyone seemed to
believe I was a misogynist, after all, my wife was the one who should
have been the Gundam Pilot, not me. That was hardly going to happen if
we weren't equals at the very least!

I opened the car door and dumped the evidence in the back, then sat
down in the driver's seat and slammed the door, hard. It hurt to think
that the other pilots really had such a low opinion of me, especially
Duo.

I drove off, and tried to get my temper under control as we moved off
the apron.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean it that way." Duo told me from the seat next to
me.

"It doesn't matter Maxwell. If even my friends are saying it, then it
must be true." I snarled.

"I was just kidding."

"I was not."

We drove in silence. I was stewing gently, and Duo was sitting next to me.

"Maybe this was a bad idea." he said as we pulled into the Preventers
garage.

"I've barely been back an hour and already managed to upset
you, and Une probably isn't going to be too happy that I helped
either."

"Tough luck. I'm not facing her alone. Besides, are you going to leave
Trowa hanging?" I asked.

Duo deflated a bit more and it hurt to see him like that even if
all I could see was the back of his head as he looked out the window.
I just didn't know what I could do to make it better. He seemed
different now, more mature.

"No, I guess not." He sighed, and got out as I closed my door.

We stowed the evidence in secure lockup in one piece, not bothering to
unpack. It would be there waiting for us to do that when we got back.
Right now though, getting Duo signed up and getting Trowa back was
more important, and that meant confronting Lady Une.

We waited a short while with Une's secretary, Hazel, until several
people left her office. Most of them where in Preventer uniform,
though there were a few suits as well.

When we were let in the first thing I noticed was the huge mounds of
papers that seem to have grown on Une's desk. The second was how tired
she looked.

"Gentlemen." she greeted us. She sounded tired too.

"Lady Une. I believe you know Duo Maxwell?" I started. Yes, of course
she knew Duo; I just had no clue how to get her to the point of
wanting to hire him. Polite civilities are always a good fallback.

"Yes, I believe I do. I'm assuming from the fact that he is here that
he wants to join?" Came her tart reply. Definitely not in a good mood.

"Got it in one!" Duo answered cheerfully. His moods are mercurial. Or
maybe he just acts like they are.

"Give me one good reason why I should hire you, Maxwell. You're a
loose cannon; you were even when you were a pilot." Une
demanded.

"Lady, I can give you more than one," somehow he didn't make 'lady'
sound like a title. "Let's start with that one. I was a Gundam
pilot and a damned good one. "

"That just means you can blow things up. We've got plenty of soldiers
applying, a lot of whom are not as crazy as yourself. That is not a
good reason."

"It means more than just being able to blow things up and you know it.
You at least must have some degree of appreciation of all the effort
it took us to sneak into your bases to blow them up, not to mention
the planning, logistics and the skills to evade your troops and traps."

"Again, I fail to see why these skills would be useable by the Preventers."

"Because in the same way Winner's tactical skill can be used to plan
attacks on your bases, it can also be used to plan anything else. In
the same way that Yuy's hacking skills not to mention his ability to
complete any mission can be used both ways, or Barton's ability to
blend in, or Chang's ability to kick booty. My skills can be used for
whatever I chose."

"So you would choose to be bound by the Preventers rules?"

"I could choose to be bound by Preventer rules. And while we're on
that subject, what is Trowa's status? As put simply, if you chose not
to make use of my rules you need to be aware of two other things.
First, that I intend on going after Trowa, with or without your
approval and information. Second, that if you don't hire me today,
you're going to get a lot of trouble and might well be sued by the
gentlemen and lady we just subdued on the shuttle in the name of
peace."

"Are you threatening me?" Une asked, her words bitten off at the end.

She was furious. Oh-oh.
Duo wisely picked up on it.

"Nope. Just trying to save you a whole heap of trouble. So, whadya
say, got some papers for me to sign?"

Une looked at him appraisingly, and then turned to me.

"Chang. You will take him down to Admin and get all the papers signed.
Then you will get him outfitted. Provided he passes his probationary
period and passes the physical and mental evaluations inherent to that
probationary period, he's on. You will mentor him; any mistakes he
makes are your responsibility to correct. Understood? When you're done
report to meeting room C on the double. We've got a raid and rescue to
plan. "

"Understood." I replied, and then grabbed Duo before he could blow
it. After all, I wasn't going to turn my nose up at working with Duo
intensively for the next three months, though I wasn't quite certain
why I wanted to. After all, he can be noisy, aggravating, annoying and
prone to practical jokes.

I dragged Duo down to admin, where he flirted with everyone, pulled
silly faces for his personnel photo and generally made a fuss about
everything. He did, however, sign all the papers after reading them.
Outfitting took a little longer as he insisted on fitting everything,
even if it was just standard issue clothes. Three changes of size
later, we finally left and went to meeting room C.

Once there, we found we were not the last ones. We were only slightly
earlier than Lady Une herself.

The briefing was quite dull and centred on how the analysts had
followed the trail of information Trowa had provided and postulated
the likelihood of this being the right building, yadda yadda yadda.

"Agent Yuy informs he and Agent Winner will be unavailable. Agent
Chang will therefore be in charge of Preventers on the ground. Doctor
Po will be in charge of triage. Anyone injured or anyone recovered is
to be brought to her.

Agent Bealing, you're in charge of securing the triage site. Anyone
capturing suspected perpetrators is to zip cord them before escorting
them to triage, were either Doctor Po or Agent Bealing will take
charge of them. Some of the victims may not be cooperating as well but
please remember they have most likely been brutalized by either or
both sexes and may be hostile towards anyone trying to approach or
rescue them. If you cannot handle a situation, call for backup. Agents
Chang, Bealing, Po, and Maxwell, stay behind. We move out in twenty
minutes. That's all folks. Be careful out there. "

Just as almost everyone was leaving, a small, slender girl came in.
One of the junior officers from Telecommunications, I seemed to recall
but I couldn't remember her name.

She saluted Lady Une smartly, and handed over a few sheets of paper.
"Ma'am, Agent Barton contacted us on the emergency codes. We verified
his identity as far as is possible, and he sent us this."
Lady Une scanned the page.

"Gentlemen, it appears Agent Barton or someone pretending to be Barton
is alive and well. And sending us a complete database, as well as a
location and requesting backup. "

I breathed a sigh of relief, and Duo whooped loudly at that news. It
was indeed the best I had had all day.
We cleared up a few details and as we walked down to the vehicles I
left a message for Yuy and one for Winner informing them of the
developments.

"Maxwell. Stay close to me, understand? Lady Une is sticking her neck
out by allowing you on this raid already; I don't want her to come
down on me for it. Stay behind me and stay safe." I ordered him as I
double checked the straps on the vest he was wearing. It was a bit
loose on him, but it was the smallest one we still had in stock.

"We'll have to get that properly fitted or you to fill out some
more."

Duo shrugged. "But I'll lose my slender girlish figure then!"

"No, you'll gain back some of the muscle tone you've been losing." I
corrected him as we got in. Two others joined us, and we drove out.

*****

I carried Quatre out onto the apron before the others could object, or
say anything. It's not that I didn't trust them to take care of him,
or that I thought that they were incompetent - it was quite simply
that I was his partner, and therefore I would take care of him.
Though, if you want to get technical, ex-Gundam Preventers are not
expected to have partners. We're still very much working the way we
used to, doing missions on our own most of the time. However, if any
two of us have to work together, it is most often Quatre and Trowa,
though how that equation will change with Duo on board I don't know.

However, Trowa was not here and I was and Quatre and I are the second
most common pairing.

Quatre and I are often paired together when a mission is in its
planning stages or a pattern, or a MO needs finding. If we can't find
it between the two of us, then it is not a pattern, it is random
chance. When he's paired with Trowa though, he is magic. He works like
he did before, in all fields. He's still our tactical mastermind, but
he's also a superb agent. I envied Trowa for it - that he sees that
side of Quatre. Fortunately, the missions Quatre goes on are rare, and
far between as he is only a part-timer. However, my current mission
was to get my partner, and that sounded so right, to the hospital.
We were approached just as we descended from the shuttle, Quatre
safely cradled into my arms.

"Gentlemen, my name is James White, I'm one of the paramedics. What
appears to be the problem?"

The man asking us was a little older than us, with dark hair and
sparkling hazel eyes. He was charismatic and set my hackles on end.

"My partner," I emphasized the word partner slightly "has a closed
displaced fracture to the right leg."

His blinked twice, possibly due to the tone, possibly not expecting
such exact information. Well, if he didn't want it he shouldn't have
asked. He then addressed Quatre.

"Right, in that case, let's get you onto a stretcher and off to the
hospital. Wait here, then I'll get one."

Most of the stretchers were a few hundred yards further, past the safe
zone established by the Preventers.

"No, I'll carry him." I told White.

"You don't have to. I can hop along, I must be getting heavy." Quatre
said softly.

"Negative, if you hop you'll jar the leg and possibly cause more
damage. Stay put." I told him. It was true, and a good excuse for me
to carry on holding him close.

He just sighed and shifted slightly, resting his head in the crook of
my neck. That made me strangely happy, and I was reluctant to put him
down on the stretcher when we got to the ambulances. Most of the
paramedics were talking to passengers, and a few passengers appeared
to be distressed but nothing serious luckily. They weren't strapping
Quatre down luckily, and he was taking it all in with interest. I made
to follow him into the ambulance once White had loaded it up, but he
blocked my way.

"I'm sorry Sir, but you'll have to follow us. We don't have room in
the ambulance for you."

"He's my partner. I can help." I was not happy. In all the old TV
shows the cops partner always gets to ride with them.

"I'm sorry but you'll have to follow us. We're going to United
Hospital." He said, and jumped in. I stepped forwards.

"Quatre?" I was not moving if he wasn't happy with it.
He waved me off. "I'll meet you there."

As the doors to the ambulance closed I hoped he would be alright, then
shook my head. It was a simple broken leg; of course he would be
alright. He had sustained worse injuries during the wars. Looking
around, I found one of the Preventers I recognized , and
commandeered the keys to his car. Starting it, I followed the
ambulance as it pulled away, intent on sticking to it like glue.

****

I sat on the stretcher as White put a portable cast around my leg and
his partner reached over to take my blood pressure.

"A bit low," White commented and I looked at the display. 109 over 65,
pretty close to my normal blood pressure.

"That's normal for me. It usually ranges from 113 over 67 to 102 over
62." I told them. One of the others had bought me a little electronic
heart rate and blood pressure meter just after the wars, when I was
complaining about meetings sending my blood pressure high. Come to
think of it, that was Heero too. He said he wanted to know if it was
true. I've put it to good use ever since.

"I keep track of it." I told them and shrugged. They took some basic
information about me, and when they asked who my next of kin was I
didn't hesitate to nominate Heero. After all, he'd be in the hospital
and quite able to make any decisions needed.

"Where did you get that black eye?" White asked suddenly.
I hadn't even realized I had one!

"I'm not quite sure." I replied, and he noted that down on the form too.
It wasn't long before we arrived at United Hospital, one of the
government's new super-hospitals. They're supposed to make things
better, or so they say. They wheeled me in and into a cubicle, where
James told me to lie back and relax, and then pulled the curtain.

It wasn't long before Heero opened it again. He must have been almost
directly behind the ambulance.

"Status?" he asked.
I shrugged. "It's a broken leg. It's going to ache for a while." Not
totally true, it was hurting worse now than before. I think the
bruising was building up and putting pressure on it.

Heero took the plastic chair next to the stretcher and sat down on it,
and for a while we sat in silence but I got bored.

"Thanks for coming with me. Any news about Trowa yet?" I asked.

"I called outside the hospital. Une is in meetings and they had no
further news. I've asked Wufei to keep us posted when he gets back to
Preventer HQ."

I lay back for a few more moments, but the tiles on the ceiling were
no more interesting than before and I had already taken in the medical
equipment, so I fidgeted.

"Bored?" Heero asked me, slouching down in the chair.

"I keep feeling as if I should be doing something." I admitted with a
smile.

"We're in an unsecured location, so discussing work is out." Heero pointed
out.

"How about you tell me a story then?" I dared him. Heero is usually
taciturn, but if you can get him talking, you often learn a lot about
him. About his childhood and Odin Lowe, as well as J. Interesting
stuff, but he rarely slips up and tells us anything. It's not really
important, but I want to know more about him.

"A story?" Heero questioned.

"A story. Anything, something you heard, saw, did, or something you
make up. Anything. Just no fairytales Grim or Arabian nights, I know
them." I told him. There, that gave him fewer choices.

"Once upon a time, there was a little boy. For the purposes of this
story, we can call him Heero." Heero started out. Well, this could be
interesting.

"Heero grew up without parents, with an assassin called Odin Lowe. He
learned to look at the world as an adult, and to make all his
decisions with his head and not his heart. When he was a bit older, he
went to live with a scientist called J, who fostered that ability, and
trained him to not respond to his feelings. Between the two of them
Heero was very effective at what he did but he had a hard time
relating to people. Then Heero hit puberty, and J introduced him -"
Heero stopped as a nurse came in. Shame, that looked like the makings
of an interesting story. Heero glared at her.

"Ah, Mister Winner. A broken leg and some contusions, I believe? The
doctor has asked if I can get you down to x-ray so we can take some
photo's." she told us as she took the brakes of the bed I was sitting
on. It wasn't much more comfortable to ride in than the stretcher had
been, but at least it was wider. She was quite competent at steering
it though, and got me through the halls without any trouble. Heero
followed her and me, until we got to the x-ray table and she shooed
him away. Something about excess radiation, but we both knew the
damage that could do so he went.

The only thing I wonder is why they have to twist a broken leg several
times to get good photos, especially when it's clear what has
happened, but I supposed that keeps them happy.

By the time they were done and had wheeled me back to the cubicle, and
left me and Heero alone we were almost an hour further. Usually they
are quicker, but I'm guessing today was busy. Of course, both the
other times I had been here there had been several other Preventers
being treated at the same time, so that may have had something to do
with it.

As Heero sat down, I was determined to get the rest of that story out of
him.

"You were telling me about a little boy called Heero, I believe?" I asked.

Heero looked down at his hands, squared his shoulders and looked me
straight in the eye.

"Before I go on, I need to know. Are you happy with Trowa? Is he good to
you? "
What? Did he really think me and Trowa were together?

"Unless I missed a newsflash, Trowa and I aren't a couple." I told him
gently. Not that I would have minded, but Trowa never picked up on the
flirting I had done with him. I suspect he was straight and just not
picking up on my signals. Besides, lately I had found myself more
drawn to Heero. I do like the strong and silent types.

"Hmm… I am mistaken then." Heero commented. I felt the need to
explain a bit further.

"I think Trowa's straight. I tried flirting a bit with him about a
year back and he never responded." I shrugged and laid back. It didn't
really matter. Nobody cared, unless you were on or from L5, where
homosexuality was still frowned upon. The rest of the colonies all
accepted it as natural, to one another extent.

"I think Wufei is straight as well. But with the way you and Trowa
were cuddled up on the sofa a few weeks ago, I assumed you were a
couple.

"Wufei was married to Meiran." I pointed out.

"And I like cuddling. Trowa...well, you know about my space heart,
right? I find it harder to control when I'm touching someone. Usually
I can block people's feelings but when I am touching them I have a
hard time. Trowa has very good natural shields. It's easy to touch him
and not have to work at keeping my feelings separate, and I still get
my quota of touchy-feelies. "

Heero raised an eyebrow.

"Touchy-feelies?"

I looked away. I know it's a girly thing.

"Some of us feel better for the odd hug or touch. I happen to be one
of those people. I like physical contact." I explained.

"But only with people with good shields you said. What is a shield?"

"It makes it easier, that's for certain. I don't know exactly how
Trowa built his up; I suspect he's had them for a long time as they
are quite formidable. Duo has them too. I think it's got something to
do with how they hide in proverbial plain sight." It's hard to
quantify shields. They just are or aren't.

"What about mine?"

"I've never been in physical contact with you or Wufei long enough to
determine." I answered.

"I think I owe Trowa and apology." Heero admitted after a few minutes.

Just as I went to ask it had had anything to do with is behaviour
before we left, the curtain opened and a doctor walked in followed by
a woman with a clipboard.

"Ah, Mister Winner, and Mister Yuy was it?" He turned to Heero and
Heero nodded. He then turned to the light boxes on the walls and
hung the x-ray photos on them.

Even from this distance I could see that my leg was broken as well as
displaced. What I wasn't too happy about though, was the fragments of
bone I could see around the bone. That wasn't normal.

Looking at the photos of my own leg was at the same time fascinating
and morbid, and I couldn't help but glance down on it.

"What caused this?" the doctor asked, as he examined it.
"I got kicked in the leg just as I was taking a running leap." I
admitted. I couldn't give away too much as the case was still running.

"I see. Well, Mister Winner, I'm afraid we're going to have to operate
on that leg of yours. These fragments here," he pointed at the x-ray
"and here, and here" are going to hinder it healing. What I suggest is
that we put you under, remove the fragments and clean up the area a
bit, then set the bone while you're still under and put on a regen
unit. Considering the nature of the break, it will take two or three
weeks to heal, but after that you should be as good as new. If you
agree, I'll get a nurse to come by to get you formally admitted."

"How long will I be unable to walk on it?" I asked. I hated having to
sit around.

"You'll be allowed to walk around on crutches after the first week,
and without them once the regen unit comes off. Until then I'm afraid
you'll be confined to a bed or wheelchair. "

I frowned. That did not sit well with me, especially not with Trowa
still AWOL, but I didn't see any other options right now.

"In that case, I'd like to be admitted."

"Good, good. Now, if Mister Yuy could come with me, my colleague would
like a word with you in private." He motioned for Heero to go with
him.

Heero cast me a backwards glance, but I waved him off. After all, what
was one woman with a clipboard going to do, papercut me to death?

"Now, Mister Winner, may I call you Quatre?" I winced at the way she
mangled my name.

"Only if you say it correctly. It's Quatre." I told her.

"Very well, Quatre. Hospital records indicate you've been admitted
several times in the last two years, in fact this is your fifth
admittance in two years and you're second in this year alone. Is
that correct?"

"Yes, that is correct. But I always pay the bills, so I don't see the
problem, Miss...?" I asked, wondering where exactly this was
leading.

"Bolger, Emma Bolger. There's no shame in admitting you need help you
know." She told me, snootily.

"That's why I'm here and the doctor is operating, isn't it?" I
returned, getting annoyed. What was this woman on about?

"No, I mean with your partner. He's brought you in four times now, and
a friend of yours brought you in the other time, all with contusions,
lacerations and broken bones. Don't you think it is about time this
abuse stopped?"

Abuse? I was speechless. She thought I was being abused?

"Lady, I'm not being abused by anyone." I told her, none too gently.
Just because I'm small and blonde does not mean I'm easy!

"You can stop covering from him, he's not here. You don't have to be
afraid of what Yuy has done to you. We can help you, if you just sign
these papers," she thrust her clipboard in front of my nose "we can
prosecute him. We can get you somewhere safe where he can't hurt you
again. Quatre, you deserve to live somewhere where you don't have to
be afraid of your partner hurting you. "

I winced again at the mangling of my name, but that wasn't as serious
as the rest of the issue.

"Are you aware of the definition of libel, Miss Bolger?"
I asked, furiously. "You have just accused my partner, Heero Yuy of
abusing me. Let me tell you some things, Lady, and I use that term
very loosely. Heero Yuy would never hurt me, or any of his friends,
let alone abuse them. Heero is one of Preventer top agents and -"

"Yes, and we know the statistics on abuse in the police force, and the
ones for Preventers are likely to be similar." She cut in. She just
doesn't know when to stop, does she?

"Heero is neither gay, nor bi, and even if he was, he wouldn't stoop
as low as to abuse any partner he had. And he definitely wouldn't be
interested in me as a partner; I believe he goes more for the leggy
types. He is my partner at work and at work only. All these injuries?"
I tapped her clipboard "were all obtained in the line of duties as I
am a Preventer myself, and I can get verification from Preventer for
that. You didn't know that? Maybe you should have done your research.
I am also head of one of the largest businesses around, and if I
needed to have a safe place, a personal body guard, or even a security
force to keep me safe I could hire one just like that." I snapped my
fingers."

"But Lady, I don't need to. I am completely safe with Heero, or any
of my other friends. Now, please leave before I consider contacting my
lawyers about this."

She stood there, white faced, and for a moment I felt slightly sorry
for her. After all, there is still a lot of spousal abuse out there.
However, the thought that she would accuse Heero of something so
despicable set my blood boiling again and I glared at her. She fled.

Seconds later the curtain rustled, and I was about to glare again when
a little Asian looking nurse popped in.

"Mister Winner? We just need to get these forms filled in and then we
can get you into surgery, is that alright?" Yep, she'd definitely
heard the tail end of that discussion.

I smiled at her. She was cute, if you go for small, Asian and female.
I prefer small, Asian and male but I'm really not that picky.

Actually, I'm not that picky period. Everyone has something
love-worthy in them...well, except Emma Bolger. And whoever had Trowa.
But as a generality, most people have something beautiful inside them
that makes them loveable and that is irregardless of gender, sex or
looks. The other pilots each have it, in their own sweet way. Relena
has it, now she's matured some. Lady Une… well, she's under a lot
of pressure, so I can understand why her loveable side doesn't come
out much. This nurse? She definitely had it. I think it was her smile.

"Come on in. What do you need to know?" In invited her.

"We've got most of the information off your previous forms, can you
just check it is still up to date?"

She handed me a clipboard and I saw they had indeed copied most of the
information over. I crossed out the next of kin which was still listed
as Trowa, and put Heero down. After all, he was there. Though hadn't I
done this in the ambulance as well?
I handed them back.

"Now, I know it's a bit of a bother but there are a few questions I
need to ask so we're certain we're up to date with your
information."

She still seemed a bit nervous

I nodded. I don't bite, honestly!

"Are you taking, or have you taken any medication in the last
forty-eight hours?"

"No."

"Have you eaten anything in the last four hours?"

"No" I hadn't bothered with the shuttle food. It had looked inedible
from a distance.

"Are you generally feeling well?"

"Well, I feel a bit rough around the leg-area, but aside from that I
feel fine." I nodded at the leg.

"Aside from that then." She smiled at me, and relaxed a bit.

"I'm assuming you're not pregnant either?"

"Not unless medical science has advanced a lot further than I know
about." I answered. Yes, I was feeling in a bit of a silly mood, but
it was a silly question!"

"You've had no fits, seizures, or other periods of unexplained loss of
consciousness?"

I thought for a moment about the times I'd been in the hands of Oz,
then shrugged it off.

"I don't suffer from any of those unless I've been under medical
supervision." I told her. Close enough to the truth.

"Have you ever had any of them as a result of surgery?" she asked.

"No. I was a soldier Miss, and some of the things that happened during
the war weren't pretty. "

"I'm sorry to hear that. My brother was a soldier too." she said.

"On that note, I have a favour to ask of you. Some of my reflexes
are, well simply put dangerous. There should already be a note to that
effect in my file, but I would feel a lot better if my partner, Heero,
could be there at all times. He's used to handling them. He can stop
me hurting anyone. We're also with the Preventers, and I believe it's
mandatory that a fellow Preventer is present when we're put under."

I tapped my head. " Lot of stuff that needs to be kept classified.
Heero is also my next-of-kin for anything that requires a decision. "

"There is a note in your file to that effect, as well as one saying
you have an unusual reaction to most medication. We can't allow your
partner within the sterile field of the surgery, but he will be in the
same room, is that sufficient?" she asked me.

I smiled again. That was exactly what I wanted. I'd had to fight long
and hard with Une to get us these privileges, but they meant we were
actually prepared to go under if we had to without a huge fight. None
of us were very trusting, even now and hospitals and doctors as a
whole still put us all on edge.

"I'll go and get him and get him some scrubs then, and then we'll get
you to surgery. Can you put this gown on?" she asked me and handed me
an industrial strength paper gown. Joy. At my face, she smiled.

"It's just for surgery, and then we'll get you into something more
comfortable."

"Go, I'll be good boy and change." I waved her out and changed
quickly, having the foresight to tie up the laces before I slipped it
on. There, that wasn't too drafty now. Slightly loose, but not too
bad.

Heero came in, and put a package on the chair and stripped, totally
unselfconsciously.

"The nurse, Mai Lee said I was to accompany you." He told me.

"Yeah, the changes I requested from Lady Une have taken effect. I've
also listed you as my next of kin. You know my wishes, and if anything
unexpected happens, decide what you think is best." I told him. That
was another thing, we had all sat together one evening and made out
our wills, such as they were and made each other aware of our wishes
should anything happen. We hadn't thought about it during the war, but
it was mandatory every Preventer had a will on file. Not that I
thought anything would happen, but there is always a risk with
surgery.

"Don't kill anyone until they're done, ok?" I joked with Heero. Bad
joke, but I was getting nervous. I don't like being helpless. And
looking at Heero's naked backside as he was changing wasn't helping me
either. I think most of my synapses had stopped firing. He really
has got a nice backside, one I could just bite into, yum.
Heero nodded.

"Understood." Oh my, what had I done? I shook myself
from contemplating Heero's arse just as he slipped on the bottom half
of the scrubs.

Mai Lee asked to come in from the other side of the curtain, and we
granted her access.
After that things went quickly, she wheeled me into the pre-op room
which was decorated with children's cartoons, Heero still following
me.

"Desmond will be your anaesthetist for today." she introduced a masked
man, who put a blood pressure cuff on me.
155 over 127, wow, that had gone up. Not surprisingly though, as I was
feeling quite nervous now. Still, I knew they saw a great deal higher
quite often.

"Hi Desmond." I nodded at the cuff. "Will the patient live?" I joked.

"I think so. Now, your notes say you are unusually resistant to most
of the drugs we use, so I'm going to try a new combination on you.
Hopefully it should keep you knocked out for the entire surgery as
well as about an hour or two afterwards as well as preventing nausea
but I can't guarantee the last one. It should be a better combination
than the previous one we gave you though." Yeah, I remembered that
previous one. I had woken up in the middle of them taking out my
appendix. Man, that had hurt!

"Do it." I told him and he inserted a needle into the back of my hand.

And please, don't let me wake up during surgery, I prayed. Just as I
said that, another masked man walked in and Desmond turned away,
messing with some drugs on a tray.

"Mister Winner? I'm Doctor Frosh, I'm you're surgeon." He introduced
himself.

"Hiya" I started to say when I felt my eyelids drooping and my muscles
losing their tension. As I fell backwards onto the pillows my last
thought was that Desmond was one smooth chappie, I never even felt
those drugs entering my system.