Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Half Cocked ❯ Eight ( Chapter 8 )

Eight

Duo opened his eyes slowly, blinking at the ceiling above him before raising his hand to rub at his face. He stopped, though, blinking at his wrist.

There was gauze around it.

He stared at that a long moment, then raised his other hand to look at his other wrist...so, they'd taken the cuffs off.

It took a moment for his memory to clear, and as it did, he remembered how bad it'd hurt when they were taking those cuffs off. They'd had some metal clipper things, so they'd pulled the edge of the cuff up as far as they could...which had made the other edge dig back into his skin. It'd hurt like hell and he'd woken up to it.

Why hadn't they numbed him first?

Or had they?

He blinked a few times, then looked back to his arms. They were clean...and there were only a few bruises on the upper parts.

Well, that was a plus...why had he been tortured again? Oh, yeah, right.

He was a dumbass.

Duo pushed himself into a sitting position and listened to the quiet room. He'd had an I.V. in at some point, if the mark on the back of his hand meant anything...and...wow, he had to pee.

Moving into the main hospital room, Duo blinked at the various men and women who were laying on the beds. From what he could tell, most of the beds were newly vacated.

A nurse looked up to him...and fear crossed her face.

"Brigadier!" one of the soldiers from the transport muttered, hopping instantly to his feet to salute.

Some of the patients shifted uncomfortably, shifting where they sat.

"What time is it?" Duo muttered, rubbing at his face as he looked around for the signs that'd show him the rest room.

"It's nine, sir," the man returned as the other two rose to salute as well. "Can we get you anything?"

"Let me pee, then we can talk," he retorted, starting for the one sign.

The men followed him.

He turned and looked at them over his shoulder in disbelief.

"Brigadier Yuy ordered us to keep you safe," the man explained quickly.

"Oh my god," Duo ran a hand through his hair and gestured for them to wait. "I order you to knock it off."

The man stopped and stared at him.

"Oh, come on..." one of the others groaned. "Make up your damned minds..."

"I'm sure he wanted me protected while unconscious," Duo retorted. "I'm conscious and can take care of myself now. Go find a bed and a shower or something."

The men sighed irritably to each other, then moved closer together, starting to talk quietly.

That was the only problem with finding intelligent people, Duo shook his head as he moved into the bathroom. They were going to figure out together the happy medium of the two orders they'd been given. That meant that probably one of them would "choose" to hang out with him.

It didn't take him long to relieve himself, and he took a moment to wash his hands and rinse his face off.

"Sir," the soldier who hadn't spoken saluted him with a grin as he came out. "I'd like to spend some time with you."

"Oh, don't feed me the line," Duo retorted, moving past him. "Just stay with me and don't get in my way."

"Of course not, sir," the man gave him an amused look. "My name is Wayne Lyer. 'm second class ops."

"Second class?" Duo asked, interested. "That's nearly first."

"Do you have any idea how much harder I'd have to work to become a frickin' first class ops? It's bad enough that I can be sent on six month missions. First class can get tossed out for a year...and go back."

Duo grinned at him and shook his head. "I'm just teasing, don't mind me."

The man gave him a sour look. "I suppose we fail on tricking you into thinking we're just hanging out, huh?"

"It's the position I put you in," Duo shrugged. "You can't go against Yuy's orders without a clear from him, but you can't go against mine, either. How did you get around that, anyway?"

"I sat at the door until a couple hours ago. I was only in there to bring the others water."

"Nice," Duo complimented.

"How are you feeling? You look ten times better."

"I'm still sore," Duo muttered, displaying some of his more severe bruises and shaking his head. "I'd love a shower, too."

"I can show you the facility," Lyer offered.

"Hold that thought," Duo suggested, stopping near the nurse and studying her face.

"Can I help you?" she asked in a mildly quavering voice—she was trying hard to keep it from getting worse. There'd been a hesitation at the end of her question, too, like she'd been about to call him sir.

"I need you to get me a write up of supplies," Duo returned easily.

"With all due respect," she noted, her tone sharpening. "I don't have to obey you."

"Well, if they aren't going to cooperate," Duo noted to his shadow, turning for the doors. "I suppose I should just contact the ESA and note the hostility. About how long do you expect it'd take to blow up this ship?"

"It couldn't take too long," Lyer reassured him happily.

The woman had her hands on her hips as she stopped behind them, glaring at Duo a long moment. "I'll have it by lunch."

"Wonderful," Duo smiled happily at her, then turned and started away. "I'll wait for it with bated breath."

Lyer grinned as they left the hospital area. "They distributed the Remalene last night while you were out. A lot of the people who thought they had another week of waiting here were able to get out this morning. The food supply is low, though, so most people have taken to eating twice a day."

"Wonderful," Duo muttered dryly, following the other. "I'm starving but they have limited supplies."

"The injured eat three times," the guy reassured him. "At least the ones who were verging on critical. I guess they had a bunch of deaths when they left Rab."

"Gerrange," Duo corrected.

"Rab...Gerrange...whatever, it's the same man," the man shrugged.

"Aren't I like...ranking...here?" Duo demanded.

"You're ranking everywhere," the guy retorted. "I haven't been told to break cover, just told to get away from the base."

Duo rolled his eyes.

"Maxwell."

Duo looked up at Rin and grinned at him. He couldn't remember the last time he'd talked to someone who was able to sustain his jokes.

"I was just coming to see if I could make your men shoot me," he noted happily, indicating Lyer. "They were going to last night."

"We were ordered to kill anyone who fucked with Maxwell," Lyer retorted dryly.

"So where were you when they cut the cuffs off?" Duo retorted, rubbing at his wrists.

"You look like you tried suicide," Rin noted, studying his wrists. "Just not very hard."

"I think what I did was a form of suicide," Duo retorted. "I feel awfully rank, so I'm gonna find a shower."

"Good for you?" the man gave him an interested look, then grinned. "We can wash your clothes, but until then we have nothing to put you in. Our stores didn't include clothes."

"Get me a list of your stores," Duo returned easily.

"Why? So you can see how fast we're sinking?" Rin rolled his eyes. "Don't worry, you don't have to get anyone out here to..." he hesitated as two little boys went running between them with sticks. "...attack us. Wait long enough and we'll all just starve."

The two boys met with a handful more, pretending to shoot each other before running down another hall.

Duo stared.

They had children?

"What?" Rin asked blankly. "You so high and mighty you'll get offended by a bunch of kids?"

"Why the fuck are there kids?" Duo demanded, focusing on him with wide eyes. "Why the fuck do you have kids on here?"

"Everyone on this ship left Rab's camp for their own reasons," Rin noted in a low voice. "The kids just stayed with their parents."

Duo stared at him, then looked back to Lyer. He was relieved to see the same alarmed expression in his eyes.

Those kids had run through gun-fire to get on the ship?

"Anyway," Rin noted, rolling his eyes and started up the hall again. "We don't have clothes to put you in."

"I have some pants you can wear," Lyer muttered, considering his body. "Probably be tight...but I'm the biggest of us three."

"Wonderful, commando in another man's pants," he looked to Rin. "My boyfriend will be thrilled."

Rin's eyes sparkled.

Duo rubbed at his hair and shuddered slightly. "How bad do I reek?"

"Not too bad," Rin reassured him quite happily. "I don't have to hold my nose—though I think I need to go find you a toothbrush."

Duo laughed at that and exhaled at the man...which he got smacked for before Rin froze and stared at him.

"I'm not gonna kill you when I'm being an ass," Duo retorted, rolling his eyes.

"Showers there," Rin muttered, giving him a mildly nervous look.

They turned into the bathroom area, which was a twisted hall that opened into a locker room. The men who'd been in the area laughing and talking together fell silent as they saw him, and quite a few of them avoided eyes.

"Did I get hit with the ugly stick?" Duo demanded of his companions as he strutted toward an empty bench.

"Not that...I...can tell," Rin noted, looking him over almost skeptically.

Duo smirked at him and pulled his shirt off.

"Holy shit," Lyer muttered in disbelief...and poked his back.

"Ouch!" Duo danced away from that, swatting at the man. "What the hell was that?"

"Fuck," Rin muttered, stopping Duo's motion with hands on his shoulders. "You have bruises here," he outlined the sore areas of Duo's back lightly. "And they look deep."

Duo stretched his neck, taking a long slow breath. He wasn't going to complain after his pain had been cut more than in half...but that spot ached again, and it hadn't really been catching his attention before.

Rin pushed on one of his shoulders, considering his chest and arms, before indicating his pants and looking up to Duo.

"You just wanna see my junk," Duo muttered dryly, dropping to pull his boots off. He wasn't entirely sure why he hadn't been stripped. The boots still being on his feet was weird—but at the same time, they weren't laced how he'd had them done.

His feet probably stank.

The notion made him grin as he kicked them toward the lockers and pushed himself back up. No matter what he said, Quatre wouldn't accept him dropping his boxers for another man, so he slipped out of his pants carefully before and considered his own legs.

Damn that was deep bruising.

"What the hell happened to you?" one of the men asked, sounding half-awed.

"I got caught by my enemies," Duo noted dryly, looking up to consider his face. "This is mild compared to some of the shit that's happened to me."

"You're Maxwell, right?" another man asked quietly. "Brigadier Maxwell?"

"I'd demand a salute, but then things'd get uncomfortable," Duo retorted, opening the locker to make sure it was empty.

"What are you doing out here?" the first man asked blankly. "We aren't doing anything."

"You're still associated with the terrorists," Duo retorted, giving him a look.

They both looked away from him.

Duo snickered, looking back to Rin, who was frowning. "Oh, come on," Duo protested, gesturing at the men. "That was funny."

"With all due respect," Rin noted, crossing his arms and starting to shake his head. "It's really not."

Duo laughed at that, knowing he was being a dick, then stripped out of his boxers.

"I'll get your toiletries, sir," Lyer muttered, his head bowed as he moved around.

"If you're going to walk around saying shit like that, I'm gonna have to ask you to stay in your quarters aside from medical attention," Rin noted quietly. "It's scary enough to have you on the ship without you implying that we're the same as Rabid fucking Marsh."

"Aren't you?" Duo asked. "We've been getting remarkably little on what you actually are."

Rin frowned at him.

Duo grinned, starting for the showers—two or three cleared rather quickly. "Listen, I'm here as a fucking refugee, alright? I hadn't meant to come out here at all, I'd just been debating if I wanted to take the transport back to my people when the girls and them showed up," he flicked the water on, then gestured at Lyer. "Thanks."

The man nodded, then turned and headed back to the locker area.

"I'm not asking for a list of your supplies to see how much time we've got before you die. I'm asking for your supplies so I can get them to reimburse you for my presence."

The soldiers nearest looked to each other nervously.

"Give me a few minutes so I can get clean," Duo added, running his hands through his hair and shuddering as stuff started coming loose.

Rin nodded thoughtfully at that and moved away from him, thinking as the other soldiers watched him go.

Washing up was both heaven and hell. His hair seemed to be layered in dirt, grime, and dried blood. Clumps of blood would fall out and wash down the drain...the water coming off of him wasn't clear, either. He felt like he'd rolled in a pig-sty and washed his hair in chicken blood. He was glad the soldiers were giving him space, because he was sure he was a walking fuckin' bio hazard.

He knew for sure that the ship had a water-intake and treatment center, and it was running off of solar heat. If he hadn't known that, though, he would have hurried...

Ouch.

Duo cringed as his finger touched a wound in his head—Tannit had slammed his head against the wall a couple times when he was leaving. It hadn't concussed him, but it'd certainly broken skin.

He hoped the others had killed Tannit.

Ouch...ouch ouch ouch...

It was hard to work himself into putting the soap in his hair, and after he'd managed that and scrubbed his scalp, he started laughing weakly.

He was bleeding again.

"Uh...you're...um...he's bleeding," one of the soldiers who'd moved into the shower called back over his shoulder.

"What?" Rin demanded, moving into the area with a towel in his hand.

"I'm fine," Duo reassured him. "Just gross...I have a cut on my head."

Rin groaned, tossing him what turned out to be a hand-towel. "Why are you still bleeding?"

"Torture does weird things," Duo retorted, dropping back against the wall so that held the towel to the damn wound. "One dose of Remalene is stellar, but not enough."

"Are you okay?" Rin demanded pointedly. "Are you okay?"

"I'm okay," Duo reassured him, pulling away from the wall and sighing. "I now get to wash one-handed...but I'm alright."

"Mentally?"

"I'm fine," Duo repeated. "Are you washing my clothes, or what?"

"Your man took them down to the wash room," Rin gestured with his head in the direction. "For some reason he thinks you're safe."

"You're too nice to gang up on me at once," Duo reassured him, looking the various men over. "Besides, one or two men against twenty?"

"So...he copped out?" Rin perked up.

Duo grinned at that, focusing on his task. He was going to have to rinse his hair out again, which might start the bleeding again...why was it that tender after Remalene?

The blood must have dried on it and created a sort of seal...and washing had removed that...

It was easier once he'd stemmed the bleeding. He kept the towel at hand, though, and scrubbed the rest of his body over twice for good measure...then started at the stubble all over his face in exasperation.

He didn't want to shave, damn it...and that was what? Four days now? Four days growth.

Maybe he'd leave it...see what Quatre thought of it if he kept it trimmed up...kinda gave him a rouge-ish look...

Quatre would flip seeing him like this.

Duo went back to washing, figuring it'd probably be easier to filch a couple more doses of Remalene from them—and food. There'd been a request made to provide them with food anyway. If he was there and mooching off them, the officials would be more inclined to paying them back.

"You drowning yourself or what?" Rin called when most of the showers had emptied out. The entire area had quieted down.

"I don't want to borrow Lyer's clothes, for some reason," Duo returned, turning to look at the man. "He back yet?"

"Not quite...you use up all that soap?"

"Nearly," Duo showed the man the bottle with a grin. "I was locked up for three fuckin' days with no shower available. I still feel gross...and I hurt."

"We can go back down to the infirmary," the man noted. "I'm sure Amy will get you some analgesic creams...and something to put on your head. You think it'd need stitches?"

"No..." Duo fingered the spot. "Maybe a butterfly or two...a protective something or other, too."

Rin considered his face a long moment, then indicated his wrists.

Duo sighed and ripped the gauze off of the first one. The water touching it through the gauze had hurt, and the water falling onto it stung. He shook his head, focusing on washing that. It had healed beyond bleeding, at least.

"Sir?" Lyer moved back into the room. "Your clothes are clean...and dried."

"Awesome, thank you," Duo muttered, looking up to him. "Can you get me something to eat?"

"Right...coffee?"

"No...that'd be a bad idea. Just water...maybe a pepsi."

The man grinned at him and disappeared again.

Rin sighed, moving over to grab a towel from the shelf of clean ones...as a woman moved in with her two boys.

He was the last man in the shower—he hadn't realized that.

Her cheeks colored instantly, and she averted her eyes as her boys stared at his bruises in disbelief.

"Sorry," Duo muttered, moving over to take the towel and wrap it around his waist quickly. "I won't be much longer."

"It's fine," she muttered, still not looking at him. "I apologize myself...I know this is the men's, but the women...and..."

"I'm not horribly worried that you saw me," Duo noted in amusement...as Rin half shoved a tooth-brush in his face. He started laughing, taking the thing from the man and moving to the long sink to do that. His mouth felt gross. He brushed twice for good measure, then moved to sit next to his clothes. He pressed the hand-towel back to his head and appreciated a moment of quiet and clean.

The woman had gone into another set of lockers, so he decided to dry off and get dressed—really, that was the thing to do, wasn't it? He had to laugh, though, as Rin sprayed his boots with a neutralizing spray.

The man gave him a look.

"Timorre must love you," he noted in amusement. "You must like, clean up after him and shit."

"There are children in the room, Maxwell," Rin retorted. "Please watch your language."

Duo laughed at that, pulling his pants on over his boxers. He sat then, pulling the socks on. "Don't take me wrong here...but we really need to know what you're doing, how you stand...and what you'll do next. If your supplies are running as low as they seem to be...how are you going to take care of these people? The only reason you haven't been boarded yet is because this is no-man's land."

"Jaden's trying to figure that out now," Rin shrugged, sitting next to him—he was occasionally spraying the spray into the boots.

"They don't smell that bad, do they?" Duo demanded blankly.

The man shrugged, starting to fiddle with the can. "You have to understand, Maxwell. We all went with Rab for a reason."

"Gerrange is a charismatic psycho. If he hadn't gone into the military, he'd probably have started a cult," Duo pulled his shirt on, then raised the hand-towel to his head again as he considered the other man. "Obviously something didn't go the way people wanted...though I still haven't figured out how independence would fix that."

"The ESA is far too dictatorial," Rin met his eyes. "They decided things arbitrarily with the least amount of information possible. It gets old."

"So you...follow a sociopath, hack the military database and steal high-class information, fuck up the satellites...and run away?"

"We were saving Matt," Rin pointed out.

"Because we couldn't," Duo noted pointedly. "And you expect me to just agree with you?"

"You were right there, weren't you?" Rin hissed, leaning toward him. "Well...You and Chang were in the suits—why the fuck isn't that machine destroyed, by the way...but Yuy, Winner, and Barton were right there, and we got Matt right from under their noses."

Duo narrowed his eyes at the man...and felt a vague satisfaction when he recoiled and nearly stood. "We didn't think of Timorre as an enemy," he growled in a low voice. "Not until he made himself one."

Rin looked away.

Duo shook his head and pulled the boots to himself. It didn't take him long to pull them on and get them laced, and he stood. He was sore...that was so annoying...but at least he wasn't confined. He could do anything on the ship.

He inhaled slowly as the boys, who were in the water, started laughing.

"What happened after I passed out?" he demanded.

Rin, who hadn't stood, shook his head. "We don't know, really," he muttered. "We don't get updates from the military; we get them from whatever television channel we pick up with news on—at least now. Before we had people who'd go in and out a bit. You came in with the last of our people last night."

"Then I'm gonna need to get to a vid," he noted, looking to the bloody towel a moment. He couldn't just throw that in the dirties. That was unsanitary—it was bad enough he'd gotten blood in the shower.

He wadded it up and looked back to Rin. "Let's go back to the infirmary."

"I have your food, sir," Lyer came in with two plates. He had two bottles of pepsi dangling, too. "Where do you want to eat?"

"Thanks," Duo took his stuff and tucked the bottle into a pocket. He took a moment to open the carton, then started to eat as he left the shower area. "I'm gonna get the nurse to look at my head," he noted to the young man as he ate. "And then I'm gonna find a vid...then probably sleep. What do you think, Rin? Can you spare me another dose of Remalene?"

"The ladies last night brought in plenty—and if you think you need it," the man shrugged. "We're not going to piss off the ESA if we can help it."

"That's why I want a list of your supplies," Duo retorted. "I feel almost human again..." he muttered sidelong to Lyer. "Do I look it yet?"

"Mm...maybe," Lyer reassured him. "You don't stink, at least."

Duo laughed at that...and went back to eating.

- -

"Hello?" Quatre muttered, rubbing at his eyes. They felt sandy from lack of sleep and stress.

"Hey, lover," Duo muttered happily. "You still alive over there?"

"Duo?" Quatre gasped as tears filled his eyes, then closed them tightly. "Oh god...are you back to base yet?"

"Not yet," Duo returned almost carefully. "I was sleeping until a bit ago. I showered and ate, then called Heero...he told me you don't have a vid, and I'm not nearly healed enough to want you to see me yet."

"That's not funny," Quatre muttered back, dropping over where he lay.

"I only had Heero tell me you were all alive and accounted for," the other muttered. "You wanna give me the update? I just want to hear your voice."

Quatre swallowed the lump in his throat, focusing on the ceiling of the humvee for a long moment, then licked his lips. "They ran...scattered like fucking cockroaches. We spent last night trying to protect the towns closest to the base."

Duo didn't respond.

"We have no idea where Gerrange got to, either. He was trying to bluff that he still had you and Wufei and Trowa hung up on him...and that was that. We took out that base entirely. The building is gone...but the men who could got away in the vehicles there. Not many were left behind, and they were cursing about some explosion."

Duo sniggered a bit. "I took out at least two when I was leaving. I wanted more fireworks to put them into chaos, but it just didn't happen."

"Nice," Quatre groaned. "So what's going on with you? Why aren't you back on land? Matty insisted Jaden doesn't even want you there..."

"I told you," Duo persisted. "I only woke up at about nine, then went and showered. They washed my clothes and I stole some toiletries...when I got done, I got their nurse to look me over. I'm gonna take some more Remalene here when we're done talking, though. I still have a few...abrasions."

"You took a dose and passed out," Quatre noted pointedly. "And even with that, you want another dose. Duo...are you okay?"

"I have a gash on my head and some pretty deep bruising. It's nothing to worry about. All I need right now is sleep. I'm gathering information and stuff, so I get something for being out here. Are you okay? Heero mentioned you were having issues with me gone...and whatever possessed you to even consider getting Sandrock?"

Quatre made a noise at him and closed his eyes.

"That bad, huh?" Duo sighed. "Fine. Let's get something out here right now. If you ever get Sandrock out...if you ever put power into that thing, I will be pissed."

"How else am I supposed to get you out?" Quatre exploded, fighting back tears. "I'm not like you guys...I'm not..."

"You're not alone," Duo snapped. "You are not alone."

Quatre fought of the tears again. "I can't live without you," he half-choked. "I won't."

Duo fell silent a long moment, but the agitation was alive in his voice. "I'm not going to die that easy, and you know it. If you want to do some fucking damage, then go do it. Don't pull that machine out when it drove you fucking nuts!"

Quatre had to focus hard to keep from crying, the anger in his lover's voice was almost too much for him to deal with. "I love you," he muttered. "I do."

Duo took a long breath and swallowed himself. "I love you too," he agreed. "I'm totally pulling you off to our own room when we all get back to base...and it's not even to fuck."

Quatre smiled slightly at that.

Duo sighed. "Quatre, I want you to take the time right now to think, alright? I want you to...to think about where I am now, and how I got here. I want you to consider why I stayed with Gerrange for three days, putting up with that shit...when we hang up, I want you to think about that."

"Heero told you more than that we were all accounted for," Quatre noted tiredly, considering how he'd been feeling the past few days.

"Of course he did," Duo said quietly. "He didn't say where anyone was or anything like that, he just said you were...upset."

Quatre snorted at that.

"Right now, though...you said they scattered? They're attacking cities?"

"Yes," Quatre agreed tiredly. "Well...not attacking precisely...I think they're trying to find somewhere to re-group and defend. Timorre might be interested to note that there were food supplies in the base that we stock-piled by the river's edge so we can pick it up when there's less going on. The guard is mostly on the other edge of the area."

"That is an interesting tidbit," Duo mused. "So tell me what happened...in detail. I can't wait to hold you again."

"So come in," Quatre said quietly. "Come back to the base...and...and come with me back to Peru."

"Not yet," Duo said quietly. "I really want to know what's going on here, and that won't happen if I leave. So talk to me...just...tell me."