Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Devil's Due ❯ -13 - ( Chapter 13 )

— 13 —

November 8, A.C. 204. Base. 4pm

"Hello, Miss Huang?"

"Speaking," Shin noted into her cell, sitting back from the box she’d been packing while Zachary napped.

"Hi," the man said happily. "This is Dr. Morris from the base..."

"Oh, hello," Shin muttered back.

"I just got the records of Zachary’s care," Morris explained. "And I’ve noticed that there are several tests on the boy that haven’t been done yet."

"Tests?" Shin asked, sitting back against the bed. "What sort of tests?"

"Oh, you know...T.B., gene prognosis, paternity, immunity...just a few tests we run on children early on in their lives."

"Oh," Shin blinked again.

"I wanted to make him an appointment," Morris noted. "Get these tests run...I’ll need your signature on a few."

"That’s fine," Shin reassured him, still startled. "Um...do you usually call patients yourself?"

"No, but I liked you and I like your fiancé, so I decided it was a special case," he laughed a bit.

"All right...what were those tests again?" she grabbed a piece of paper–she wanted to runt he stuff by Chance first-off.

"T.B.," he repeated, "gene prognosis...immunity. I can call Heero if you want me to."

"His name is Chance," Shin reprimanded sweetly.

"Yuy, I said Yuy, what are you talking about?" he laughed again.

Shin smiled. "All right. I’ll talk to Chance tonight and we can call tomorrow to make the appointment, right?"

"All right, that’d be wonderful," Morris agreed. "Have a good evening."

"Thank you," she returned, smiling slightly as she looked around for more stuff to pack. He made a happy sort of noise and hung up.

Shin shook her head, closing her phone and starting to grab things up again.

Wait...had he said paternity?

She looked back to her list and blinked, wondering about that a moment.

She must have been hearing things.

- -

November 12, A.C. 204. Base. 10am

"You’re doing what?" Jordan demanded of Xane irritably.

"I’m going back to Remington to pick up a few computers that were donated to the center," Xane repeated in exasperation.

"You’ve been running around for Chance all week," Jordan protested, slamming a file on top of the outbox.

There were more in the inbox than in the outbox.

Xane studied him a long moment, then pointed at the inbox.

"What?" Jordan demanded irritably.

"You’ve been doing it yourself again?" Xane demanded.

Jordan looked to the pile, then up at his second.

Xane rolled his eyes, then turned and pulled the office door open. "Jennings!"

"Yeah?" a soldier called back, running up from down the hall.

"I have this wonderful job for you," Xane noted seriously, studying the guy as he saluted Jordan quickly. "Every day, when you have free time, you come read through as many as these reports as you can," Xane pointed at the inbox. "Fill out the comment sheet and return them to the desk."

"Yes, sir," Jennings said happily, bouncing in and grabbing a few off the pile before saluting Jordan again...and disappearing.

"Damn it, Xane," Jordan started.

"Bower!" Xane shouted down the hall, ignoring his superior.

A second soldier came up, saluting them both.

"When you have free time, you read as many as these files as you can. It’s up to you and Jennings to get through as many as these as possible so Maxwell can get home to Chai on time. You got me?"

"Yes, sir," the guy noted, smiling at him and taking another small pile off the top.

"Don’t forget to fill in the comment cards," Xane added. "And we’ll get a third basket set up so you can just dump them there."

"Yes, sir," the guy repeated, saluting Jordan again, then disappeared down the hall.

Jordan gave Xane a very level look.

"Oh yeah, I’m your second, three-star," Xane noted in amusement. "By default I outrank all sorts of people, ha!"

...and with that, he turned and bounced from the office.

Jordan glowered after him, taking one of the remaining files and shaking his head.

His second was thoroughly annoying.

- -

November 13, A.C. 204. Base. 10am

"Hey, Yuy," Morris muttered happily. "Get your ass to the med-tent."

"Why?" Chance asked blankly.

"I want to run another test on you," Morris explained dryly.

"You said you did them all already," Chance protested.

"Oh, just come in with Chip and we can do you both. Then you can see how brave that little boy is while he sees you chicken out."

Chance snorted at that, but the idea of showing the boy that shots were okay was appealing. "Whatever, if I have to wait when you call him back I’ll be pissed."

"Don’t be stupid, that girl of yours will need to give you a big hug to keep you from crying, so I’ll just do you both here really fast."

Chance snorted again, rising to his feet. He hadn’t been intending to go with Shin to get the boy’s testing done, but it would probably help.

"Where are you going?" Une asked curiously, stopping just beyond him.

"Ma’am," he saluted her quickly. "Morris wants to do some more tests on me and Shin is taking Chip in. I’ll be back."

She blinked at him.

Chance shrugged. "It was an order, you want to counter?"

She gave him a look and passed him a file. "Just put that in your inbox and read it before tomorrow."

"Yes, ma’am," he reassured her, tossing the file onto his desk. "Was that everything?"

"Yeah, see you later," she returned, turning and starting away.

Chance saluted her again, then turned and started for his car.

- -

November 13, A.C. 204. Base. 10:30am

"Yuy! Just sign them," Morris muttered irritably to Chance as he moved back into the room. "Honestly, you do this every time."

"This one seems thicker," Chance retorted, looking up.

Shin smiled at the doctor and passed him her forms.

"Hi, Zachary," Morris greeted the little boy, moving to meet his eyes. "How are you?"

"I’m good," Zach returned with a nod of his head before he smiled at the doctor.

Chance studied that a moment, then sighed and started flipping through the pages to the signature spots. He knew Morris wouldn’t screw him over, and he did have other stuff to do than read a bunch of legal mumbo-jumbo.

"Thank you," Morris said, flashing him a slightly naughty grin as he took the paperwork. "Come on," he added, gesturing for them to follow.

"You’re impatient," Chance noted speculatively as he followed his fiancé. "What’s up your sleeve, old man?"

"I’m gonna use some of your blood to compare to an empath’s," Morris shrugged. "Last form."

"Hey!" Chance protested at him, though he was amused. "You did that on purpose."

"Yep, I’m bad like that...worse, even," he flashed the guy another grin.

Chance rolled his eyes, moving into the room.

"Okay, big-man," Morris muttered, swinging Zach around onto the exam table. "I want to do the bravest first."

Zachary giggled, then pointed at Chance.

Chance moved to sit next to the boy, rolling his eyes and extending his arm.

"Hm," Morris looked between them when Zachary hesitantly followed suit. "Innie, minie, miney...moe," he pointed at Chance and shrugged.

Zachary giggled more.

"He did it on purpose," Chance noted to the boy in a whisper.

Zach grinned at him.

"Okay, baby," Shin muttered, moving in front of her fiancé. "I want you to be brave, and you’ll get a sucker when you’re done."

...which got the little boy to start giggling again.

Morris turned back to Chance with a needle in hand, showing it to his patient briefly before swapping a spot on the man’s arm.

"If you’d tie my arm off, it’d help," Chance informed him pointedly.

"Oh, fine," Morris grumbled, pulling the little thing from his pocket and wrapping it around Chance’s arm. He flicked the vein a few times, then sank the needle in.

Chip’s eyes rounded.

Chance sighed, bringing the boy’s attention to the fact that he wasn’t upset. "How many vials are you gonna take?"

"Two," the man noted, pulling the first out and setting it aside.

"You gonna tell me why?" Chance asked, looking to his arm as the man pressed cotton to it.

"I hadn’t intended to, no," Morris grinned at him.

"Is this because my tests before or something?"

"No, I wanna test a few things, that’s all," Morris shrugged dismissively.

Chance blinked at him as he filled the second vial.

"There we go," he added, turning with the things and setting them carefully in a tray. "Now for you, little man," he muttered as he untied the little tourniquet thing and wrapped the cotton balls to Chance’s arm with tape. "I only need a little one. You wanna look for the ducky?"

"No, it’s okay," the boy refused, looking back to his dad a moment.

Chance nodded approvingly at him as he fixed his sleeve.

"Okay, here we go," Morris noted, wrapping the tourniquet around his arm. "I’m gonna make this quick, all right?" he swabbed the spot and met the boy’s eyes.

Chance slid off the table, re-gathering his uniform jacket and sliding it on as the boy watched. He did-up the buttons quickly, then met the boy’s eyes with a smile.

"Ow," Chip muttered, looking down quickly and blinking.

"It’s only a little ow," Chance noted, moving up to his side. "You’re all right."

Zachary looked like he really wanted to cry, and his lower lip trembled very slightly as the needle was removed.

"You’re all done," Morris noted happily, showing him the bandaids.

"Hey, I didn’t get those!" Chance protested at the man, hoping to keep the kid from crying.

"You’re a big boy," Morris informed him sarcastically. "You got a big boy bandaid."

That amused the child, though he didn’t laugh as he pointed at a bandaid that didn’t have anything on it, watching as Morris put it on him.

"You’re so brave," Chance congratulated him, picking him up and hugging him as Shin smiled.

"Am I really?" Chip asked hesitantly.

"Oh, yeah, most little boys start crying," Chance reassured him, spinning with him. "You did it just like me!"

Chip smiled proudly at that...and Chance met eyes with Morris, who was watching with his secretive little smirk.

"What?" Chance asked the man, raising an eyebrow.

"I didn’t say anything," Morris noted, turning to put the vial on the holder.

"You were giving me a look, why were you giving me a look?"

"You’re cute," Shin noted in amusement, moving to take her son. "Right, Dr. Morris?"

Morris grinned at her, then offered a hand to Chance.

Chance rolled his eyes slightly and shook it, blinking when the man formally saluted him. He returned the gesture as the nurse pushed into the room and blinked, then noticed his rank tag. She stood at attention herself, saluting him formally as he passed with Shin.

It seemed to spread from there. The personnel all seemed to see each other making the gesture, and as Chance led Shin from the building, everyone in it seemed to stop and salute him.

He wasn’t used to that much respect from anyone. He only used his rank when he had to, so it unnerved him to be so respected for no other reason than his presence.

"You really are a three star general," she noted quietly, touching the rank tag on his chest as they stopped at his car.

"I have been for a few years now," he noted, raising an eyebrow. "I believe I told you about it when I got the upgrade."

"I know," she returned. "It didn’t mean anything before, though."

He blinked at that, then took Zach from her and set him in his booster in the back seat as she climbed in.

He left the med-tent with an eerie feeling that something more than he’d expected had happened in that visit. He’d noticed that the labels for his and Zach’s blood had been somewhat the same, but he hadn’t focused on the actual tests. The secretive smile the man had worn also suggested something more had happened than his blood being all but stolen for testing against empaths. Further, the fact that the man hadn’t explained the tests...well, it could have been because of Shin, but Chance figured he wouldn’t have called them in at the same time if it were something like that...so what was it?

"What did he say? When he called you?" he asked the woman.

"Morris?" she returned, then shrugged. "He wanted to do some gene prognosis and stuff...I guess they’re normal tests."

"That makes sense," he muttered, thinking about it. "What else?"

"I don’t recall exactly. I showed you what he said to me. Why?"

"He usually tells me why he’s testing me," Chance explained, then looked at the child in the review mirror. "You wanna go to the canteen?"

Chip perked up, then nodded.

"Let’s get something to snack on," Chance added to his fiancé.

"All right," she returned. "Are you done yet?"

"No, Une has something she wants me to read and return to her. It won’t take me long, I’m sure. We can get a snack, I’ll drop you at the house, and then I’ll finish that up. Are you staying tonight?"

"I want to!" Chip exclaimed excitedly, sitting up. "I want to move in now!"

Shin turned to look at him a moment, then ginned and shrugged at her almost husband. "The man of the house has spoken."

Chance grinned in return, and wondered if it was just him, or if the overcast clouds really were pretty.