Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Friends Will Be Friends ❯ What You Need Is A Rest ( Chapter 13 )

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

What you need is a rest

The room Quatre was in started to fill up rapidly in the following hours. The first two men who appeared were sedated, and I couldn't tell what was wrong with them. The fourth occupant had bandages swathed around most of his head and chest, and the fifth I recognised as one of our fellow Preventers.

He was drowsily awake, which was more than enough for me to go over and try and get information out of him.

"Peterson," I greeted him, nodding at the bandages on his chest.

"Yuy. Broken ribs, I wouldn't let them put me under so they did it under a local, then gave me sedatives." he glared at the IV.

"Painfull. What happened?"

"We raided a warehouse. You should have seen the shit there Yuy, they had women, men, kids, all kept in these dark dingy cells. I've never seen anything like it in my life. They found your buddy by the way, I saw him working triage with Po. He was moving a bit stiffly but didn't seem to be hurt otherwise. " I was indescribably relieved at that news, and I think I felt my breathing get easier. Trowa was alright, or at least mobile. If he was mobile, we could deal with any cuts or scrapes later.

"And you?" I felt obliged to ask.
"One of the kids wasn't too happy at being rescued. They've brainwashed them, they thought we were there to you know, do more shit to them. He took me by surprise, and got a few good blows in." Brainwashing, that would be something else to consider. I hoped they hadn't tried that on Trowa! Then again, They would have only had him a couple of days. Not that you can't do a lot of damage in a few days, but retraining neural networks tends to take longer.

I left Peterson to doze shortly afterwards and returned to Quatre with the news. Quatre urged me to go and find Trowa and make sure he was alright, or to at least check in with Lady Une and I took his orders reluctantly. I would have rather stayed with him, but this did make more sense.

*****

Once in hospital we checked in with the Preventers already present and then started gathering information on our various victims. This wasn't the only hospital people had been sent to, but this was the one most of the more serious cases had been sent.

Duo and myself found several people still waiting to be seen to. They were mostly confused, and social services was overworked. We stopped by and took details where Duo could pry them loose. For some reason I seemed to scare most of the victims, something that upset me greatly.

Intellectually I realised it had nothing to do with myself that they were scared of me, but that didn't help me feel any less unwelcome. Duo on the other hand, was acting all of fifteen most of the time, but he seemed to have a soft touch, especially with the women. I've watched him, and I can't figure it out. He doesn't flirt with them, he doesn't pay them undivided attention and he doesn't seem to obviously pay attention to anything else either. But for some reason they were scared of me and not of him.

By the time we had done this for all the victims in the accident and emergency department who were still concious, I was scowling. I know I was, and I know it looks unattractive as well as it being dishonorable to be envious of someone elses natural abilities, but I was.

We walked into one of the small rooms that serve as bereavement offices for the hospital morgue. We had commandeered it as an office, it being the least essential space near by accident and emergency currently. I sat down heavily on one of the chairs, and finally had the chance to strip off the bulky armor, when Duo came over to me, and smiled an old fasioned, full blown out smile at me. Damn, but that boy doesn't know what he's doing when he does that. He's playing with fire, that's what he's doing. I scowled at him to hide my reaction. He looked good, and my body was waking up to that fact.

He leaned forward, so his face was almost directly opposite mine, and for a moment I hoped, almost prayed that he was going to kiss me, impossibly unlikely as it seemed. He didn't though. He put his index finger on my nose, and pressed it gently.
"Carry on like that 'Fei, and your face will set like that." He told me lightly.

"My name is Wufei." I told him, with a longsuffering sigh. I didn't really mind. Much. Then I looked at him again.
"Take off the armor, it looks like it's been chafing." I ordered him.

"Already trying to get me to strip, Wu-man?" Duo said, then laughed.
"Sally never told me you were that eager!"

I turned scarlet, I am sure. If I had have known what dating Sally last year had have done in the amount of teasing I was going to get, I would never have done it.
"I don't know what that woman has been telling you, but it is untrue. I am trying to assess wether you are injured Maxwell." I told him gruffly.

He was already taking off his armor, and I could see patches on his shirt indicating the skin had been rubbed raw underneath. We may have been in a hospital, but I saw no need to bother medical personel with such minor injuries. They would cause Duo some discomfort, but they wouldn't scar or cause any disability. We were all perfectly competent at caring for scrapes such as these.

His shirt stuck to one of the patches across the shoulder as he tried to take it off and he swore.
"Actually Sally told me you were a perfect gentleman. That you insisted in asking her father before courting her even. She was very impressed. Why didn't you two get together?" he asked curiously as he winced and peeled away the shirt just as I moved to help.

I turned away as he finished stripping the shirt. It was after all, only polite to let people undress without staring at them though I was itching to turn around and watch.

"I did not know enough about Sally when I asked her father for permission to court her. It was my oversight. She is a fine and upstanding woman, but we would have been incompatible." I hoped he wasn't going to ask for elaboration.

"What about your wife, how did you know she and you were compatible?" Duo asked as I turned to him with one of our first aid kits in my hand. I motioned him to sit.

"I didn't know. My parents arranged our marriage when I was young. It was expected that I would learn to love her." I took out some antiseptic scrubbers and a spraycan of neoskin, latex gloves and anything else I thought I might need.
"As the heir of the clan, I was expected to make a political marriage. It would have been my duty, and it was assumed that I would learn to love my wife. I did care for her, but we did not have time to let it develop." I explained, as I started to clean out one of the raw patches with a scrubber.

Duo winced and made all sorts of verbal exclamations about how I was bullying him and how it hurt, but he sat motionless under my minstrations. I was as gentle as I could but antiseptic will sting in open wounds and wounds that aren't cleaned properly will infect. As I tended him, I could see more clearly where he had lost weight. His ribs were now clearly visible, as was each knob on his spine. His muscles were still clearly defined, but he could definately stand a few good home cooked meals.

"If you stop your complaining then when we are finished here, you'll come to my flat and I'll make you a chinese meal that will make your mouth water." I bribed him, and he turned around, a large smile on his face.
"Wufei, I do believe you just asked me on a date!" he exclaimed, apparently over the moon.

I should have known Maxwell would have made a joke about it, but it was just a little too close to my feelings for me to laugh about it.

"I could never do that. As an heir to the Clan I would never have been allowed a male companion. That would be a strictly lowerclass thing to do." I told him.

What I hadn't expected was the stricken look on his face, one that was hidden by that ever-present smile within a few seconds and then he turned away.

"Strictly lower-class huh? I guess that's what I am, just L2 gutter-trash." He said, something un-identifyable in his tone as he stood up and slipped his shirt on before I had a chance to spray on the neoskin.

"I guess I would have never stood a chance with an heir of the Clan, regardless of my gender." he said snidely as he walked out.

I sat down on a chair. I don't know how we went from discussing my Clan's customs and me offering him a meal to him to him getting upset with me. I would need to think this through, and maybe consult Quatre. He understood Duo, or used to.

******

Sally pulled up in one of the designated Doctor bays in front of the Accident and Emergency, and I opened my eyes as the car stopped. It might have only been a few minutes, but a few minutes of sleep does me the world of good. It was a habit I had cultivated as a mercenary, and one that served me in good stead as a pilot.

I stretched as I got up, and as I got out Marie did as well, still wrapping the blanket around her like a cloak and still padding around on bare feet. Sally was already getting a wheelchair for her, and I pushed it inside to get us admitted while Sally took off to report wherever Doctors report to when they go on duty.

The nurse on duty appeared to be aware of the fact that some of us were coming in with pitifully little information, and she accepted Marie without much more than a first name. I however, was able to give her more personal information, and she happily recorded it all.

We were directed towards the A&E waiting room. We were to walk down a long hall, and then at the end into the room. As I walked, and pushed Marie, I heard a familiar voice. No, two familiar voices and I was overjoyed to hear Duo was one of them. My hand was already raised to knock on the door when it was stayed by what I heard.

"Already trying to get me to strip, Wu-man?" I could hear Duo say, and then his laughter.
"Sally never told me you were that eager!"

I didn't need to hear more, I knew enough. Duo was safe, and he was happy by the sound of it. I quickly moved on, ignoring Marie's question about why we stopped.

We got to the waiting room. It was crowded with Preventers with more minor than we could easily deal with injuries, as well as people we had rescued. To be fair, the rescue-ees outnumbered the rescue-ers vastly, but there were a few of us on hand to keep order, and a few with broken bones or wounds that required stitching. I found us two seats together, and once there helped Marie sit down on one of the plastic chairs, then moved the wheelchair out the way.

I sat back on the other chair, barely keeping the discomfort of pressure on my back from showing. Marie took one look, decided my lap was more comfortable, and climbed on to it, her feet dangling onto her chair as she sat with her head nestled against my chest. I put an arm around her and drew up her blanket. Suddenly, in the face of the caring she unknowingly showed me, I didn't care any more about the wounds on my back. They became immaterial.

She put things in perspective for me, crawling up against my chest like that. We had, in the long run, won. Yes, I may have betrayed my friends and collegues, and I would be reporting that the moment I saw Lady Une, but Marie and a good deal of the other people I could see here were safe. They were safe. We could prosecute Walden and his cronies, and any information I had given them could be invalidated or safeguarded against. My back would heal and I even leaned back as Marie put her thumb in her mouth and snuggled in against me.

I sat back, just holding her, as she slowly fell asleep in my lap there in that waiting room. I mulled over what I knew. Duo was safe, and by the sound of it flirting with Wufei. Wufei must have been interested in him to ask him to strip, after all he is an honourable individual. This was unlikely to be a spur of the moment thing or a one night stand. Where Quatre and Heero were, I didn't know but they were undoubtably safe as well otherwise I am sure Wufei or Duo would have come and found me. And I had a little girl who had been horribly mistreated but who still found the courage to trust someone asleep in my arms.

All around me things were well with my Universe. Now all I had to do was quiet my own mind and appease my heart.