Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ V Lucid Engagements ❯ Come Too Soon ( Chapter 6 )

Come Too Soon

Going under was the most terrifying experience of my life.

It was worse than the retraining, worse than being caught...worse than Duo leaving me...because it was all those things almost at once. It made me feel helpless and weak utterly out of control...there was nothing I could do...

"Yuy..."

That voice was familiar...comforting...it allowed me to take that emotional step back.

"Yuy?"

I took a slight breath, realizing my heart was still hammering in my chest. I focused on that with interest. It'd been a long time since my heart rate had accelerated when I hadn't chosen to let it...

"Yuy? You all right?"

Trowa?

I opened my eyes at the voice, focusing on my friend in confusion—something seemed off with his appearance, but there was no mistaking that it was him.

Lucien was sitting in his chair with very wide eyes. He looked a little pale, and he was so severely Caucasian to begin with that he looked more like a ghost than a human.

What was going on?

I looked around the office blankly, noting with some distaste that my clothes were wet from sweat—cold sweat. How nasty...

"Come on," Trowa persisted, moving forward to help me to sit up. "Say something."

"Huh?" I asked him blankly, looking around again.

Was this a dream? Why was Trowa in Lucien's office?

"He said you were hypnotized," Trowa explained—had I said that out loud? "I guess he asked you a question that triggered a loss of control. You decked him, huh?"

I looked back to my psychiatrist in confusion, noting that there was a large discoloration on his cheek.

"You with us yet?" Trowa asked curiously.

"I...yeah...um..." I shook my head slightly...and the fear slammed into my stomach.

I looked around the room in confusion, my mind running subconscious checks of security and assessing the level of threat Lucien was.

"You gonna be okay?" Trowa's voice was still calm and soothing.

I focused on him, realizing my eyes were very wide.

"You're gonna be okay," he muttered, sitting next to me on the couch. "We're fine here, remember? This is safe."

"That was...terrifying," I returned, my mind running over the fears.

"What did you ask him?" Trowa snapped at Lucien.

His tone of voice was a lot less comforting there.

"Uh..." the man glanced at his clipboard. "I asked what he was scared of..." he looked between us. "It's a common question! It helps get a basis of fears so we can avoid the triggers!"

He was too defensive...it probably wasn't really such a common question to ask.

I looked around again, then took a deep breath and calmed myself back down. In a moment, my heart rate had returned into its normal beat, and even my breathing had calmed.

Wait, they were still arguing.

I looked back to Trowa, considering his black hair. It didn't make any sense to me why I'd known it was him...wait, no, his voice. He'd said my name. I'd known it was him before the visual cue of his facial structure.

Trowa looked back to me with interest.

I licked my lips nervously, scooting down the couch to give him more sitting room. We'd been shoulder to shoulder, I'd been able to feel his heart beat. We weren't normally that comfortable with each other.

"If you're going to hypnotize him again, make sure I'm here," Trowa noted pointedly. "And you're running out of time for that."

"You're not even..." Lucien started.

"Don't even start that shit," Trowa cut him off irritably. "If that were a real issue with you I wouldn't have been called in here to help you after he punched you..."

"I punched you?" I asked, focusing on the guy as my mind properly caught up with everything going on.

He nodded slowly, studying my eyes. "I was trying to calm you..."

"We've been tortured before, Cap'n," Trowa noted sardonically. "When we feel helpless we take steps to protect ourselves."

"I didn't mean any harm," the man muttered, rubbing his hand across his probably-aching cheek. It was a disconsolate sort of notice, and probably didn't have anything to do with the actual situation.

"Sorry," I muttered, rubbing at my eyes as the memory of the fear hit me again. It hadn't struck me as fear when most of it had started happening though. Most of it had been adrenaline rushes that I'd used to diffuse the situation...all of it but the idea of Duo leaving us...the notion of us not being five That, I'd had to reflect on. I'd had to figure out how far it extended through my mind and find the source...and then come to terms with fear.

Strange that the first thing that had scared me consciously had been us not being together.

"I'm sorry," Lucien muttered, sitting back in his chair. "I thought I'd figure out what scared you so I could avoid it in our discussions. I wasn't expecting that sort of reaction."

I nodded at him, taking a long and slow breath as I recovered my composure fully, looking around to Trowa.

"Acton put me under," Trowa noted easily. "Kinda scary, isn't it?"

I nodded glumly, looking back to the plush carpeting.

"He brought me up earlier than he intended to," Trowa added. "I guess I was getting agitated."

I grinned at that; the idea of the normally severely-calm Trowa getting "agitated" amused me on several levels.

Trowa grinned back at me.

Lucian passed a hand across his face, then shook his head. "I did manage to ask you some other questions before," he noted tiredly. "I got to ask you several key questions. I'll consider this information. We may not need to put you under again."

I narrowed my eyes very slightly at him, glancing around to the clock on the wall.

It was almost noon.

We'd started the process at about ten-thirty. That was more than an hour.

"Some questions?" I asked calmly.

He looked up at me, then glanced at the clock. An expression of worry crossed his face very briefly before he nodded at me and made a gesture at me to leave.

"What?" Trowa asked, looking back to me with interest.

"We started the process at ten-thirty," I explained, rising slowly to my feet.

"Some questions?" Trowa demanded in a more severe tone than my own. "Were his responses long-winded?"

Lucien glared at both of us.

"Why did you ask me what I was scared of?" I snapped at him. "And why would that question make me actually think of my fears?"

"Actually, it had to do with your previous responses," he snapped angrily. "I was letting you lead the questioning since you were the one who wanted to do this."

"Was he, really?" Trowa asked sweetly. "Or are you just mincing words? Come on, Heero, let's go get lunch."

"Yeah," I agreed, moving toward the door after him and wondering about the experience. "Later, Lucien."

"Yeah," the man agreed in a tone that suggested he was annoyed.

I wasn't overly pleased to find out that I'd punched the man. I didn't actually consider him a physical threat...that probably meant we'd covered some topics that had severely bothered me...

And considering the fear that I could almost taste on my tongue...that didn't really surprise me.

- -

"Hello, this is Dr. Bastor from the Anjer-Baen Assistance Facility, I'm calling to speak with um...Chang Wufei?"

"Hold on just a moment," Quatre muttered, blinking slightly as he pulled the phone away from his mouth. "Fei? It's Heero's doctor."

Wufei blinked at him, setting down the box he'd been carrying in and moving across the room to take the phone. "Hello?"

"Mr. Chang? This is Dr. Bastor...I hope this isn't an inconvenient time?"

"Its fine," Wufei muttered, looking around the room a moment as Juki carried a box in and gave him an interested look. "How can I help you?" he asked, making a gesture at the pair in apology.

"Well, as Mr. Yuy's advocate, I felt obliged to let you know that we had a hypnosis session today."

Wufei raised an eyebrow. "Shouldn't I have been forewarned?"

"My apologies, of course. I don't consider Heero in a state not to make his own decisions."

"That's promising, isn't it?"

"He has made some considerable progress," the man agreed easily. "I'm definitely under the impression his further stay with us here will be limited...but I'll get to that after a while. Have you spoken to Heero today?"

"Uh, no," Wufei muttered, wondering at his urge to pull out a cigarette as he leaned against the railing of the balcony. He'd kicked that habit, what the hell? "I'm heading over for a visit this evening."

"Ah," the man's voice was neither pleased nor bothered. "Well, Mr. Yuy has been suggesting hypnosis off and on from the beginning of his time here...I put him under, like I was saying...and managed to ask him many key questions. His responses to those questions were promising...unfortunately I misunderstood some of his cues. I followed his line of thought to the point of asking him what scared him and he became...agitated."

To actually have touched on his fears?

Wufei was amazed the man wasn't in traction.

"I understand," Wufei noted.

"When I moved to soothe him," the man sounded like he'd flinched, "he, uh...punched me..."

"He's not in trouble for that is he?" Wufei demanded. "You can hardly make him responsible for defensive actions while he was under hypnosis..."

"No! No!" the man reassured him quickly. "Not at all, most definitely...I was just making the note of what had happened. I had to call Mr. Barton in to genuinely calm him again, and I'm afraid they both seem angry with me about the incident."

"If you managed to make Heero deck you," Wufei muttered in mild amusement, "then there's plenty for them both to be angry about." Heero had a control over his temper and physical actions that'd make a wall jealous—aside from when Duo'd...but that had stopped. That was never going to happen again.

The man laughed almost nervously at his statement. "Well, um...like I was saying, his responses were promising. I think we'll have him another week before releasing him into your custody, similar to Mr. Winner...unless that's too much..."

"No, not at all," Wufei reassured him quickly. "As you said before, he's not in a state to make his own decisions...um...you say a week? Why are you waiting?"

"Acton will need to speak with him again...I foresee no difficulties, as long as Mr. Yuy continues meeting with a therapist. However, I'm not the one to make that final call. I fully intend to apologize to Heero, Mr. Chang," he added almost like an afterthought, but too quick to really be considered one. "I hadn't realized the full extent of his worries."

"Worries?" Wufei asked, raising an eyebrow at the building across the street from them. Behind him, Amelia and Quatre were brining up boxes.

"Ah...it seems he's severely disturbed about what happened with Mr. Maxwell."

"Understandably," Wufei agreed, still somewhat skeptical.

"He informed me...under hypnosis...that he's been getting physically ill with guilt for some time now."

"Oh dear," Wufei muttered, blinking.

"I'd like to set him up with a physical," Lucien explained his actual reason for calling. "I'd like to get him set up with someone who can check his stomach for ulcers and the like. I need your permission, also, to access his records from his admittance to the Healing Center."

"Why?"

"If he's been ill," the man explained, "he may have lost weight. Do you get that impression?"

"Not horribly," Wufei muttered, thinking back. Heero'd dropped weight at a worrisome rate when Duo'd disappeared...but he hadn't seemed to since changing to Baen. "I don't see a problem with you looking at those records," he added. "The final decision will be up to Heero, however. I consider his discretion valid at this point."

"That's perfectly fine," the man returned. "Reasonable...ah, you're living in an apartment, are you not?"

"I am," Wufei agreed, looking back at the fairly large building...as it occurred to him that he would have Trowa, Amelia, and Juki.

"Is there ample room for Mr. Yuy to move in as well?"

"If he and Quatre are fine with sharing a room," Wufei returned. "I'll ask him this evening when I go see him. If not, we'll be moving again," he grimaced to himself. He'd thought it a possibility, but hadn't expected it to come up before they'd lived in their new place a month.

Juki was going to love that...

"Very well," Lucien muttered happily. "I'll let you go, then. We'll contact you with more specific information after Acton and I have had a conference."

"Of course," Wufei returned, grinning very slightly. "Thank you for calling."

"Have a good day, Mr. Chang," the man returned...and hung up.

Wufei smirked, ending the call as he considered the railing.

Interesting development, actually.

"Fei?" Quatre asked curiously, moving to stand in the door. "What did they want?"

"He was telling me a couple things," Wufei returned, turning to head into the building. "First of which was that he'd hypnotized Heero and got decked for the effort."

Quatre smirked at that, heading toward the door.

"Second being that Heero will probably get out next week."

Quatre stopped, turning to look at him.

Wufei grinned back.

"Damn," Quatre whispered, moving aside as Juki carried another box up.

"So my question for you," Wufei added, moving around his friend toward the stairs, "is are you willing to share your room with him until they take him out of my custody...because if you say no, we're going to be moving again."

"Will it be a place with a yard?" Quatre asked skeptically.

"No," Wufei retorted, starting down the stairs.

Quatre laughed slightly at that, following after.

He'd have to talk to Heero.

- -

"Hey, son," Duo muttered when Vasu had answered the phone. "Can I talk to Natalie?"

"Mom is here," Vasu muttered in vague confusion.

"I'll talk to her in a minute," Duo reassured him. "I'm running late."

Vasu didn't make a response, just moved to give the phone to the woman in question as Nas looked at him in confusion.

"Hello?" Natalie asked.

"Hey, Nat, it's me," he muttered in Portuguese. "I wanted to let you know I'm going to run another hour or more. We won't get to see Heero until six or seven."

"Oh," she sounded slightly disheartened.

"I know, I'm sorry," he muttered. "Visiting hours end at eight, so you may not get time...but I can't get away here."

"All right," she muttered, smiling even though she didn't fully feel it. "It's perfectly fine, Duo. I'll live for one day...if...if you have to run later."

"Yeah," Duo agreed glumly. "Let me talk to my wife."

Natalie made a noise at that and passed the phone to the other woman.

"Duo?" Nas asked, torn between confusion and concern.

"Hilde's being a slave driver," Duo explained dryly, switching back to English.

Hilde, who was across the room from him, gave him a very dangerous look.

"We have to finish this paper and some other organization crap. It's going to take me an hour or something."

"You're not the only one left are you?" Nas demanded darkly.

"No," Duo muttered, looking around at his companions—they were all calling home and explaining the situation to their spouses or whomever. "We're all here."

"Great," Nas grumped. "What am I going to do for supper?"

"Order pizza," Duo retorted...which brought a lot of attention to him.

Hilde made a kind of happy gesture at him, turning to her phone.

"It looks like Hilde is going to," he noted, frowning slightly. "If I say I'll eat here will you have my balls?"

"I'll think about it," Nas grumped, rolling her eyes. "I think me and Nat will take the boys out...are you asking me to take her to him?"

"I may be annoying to you, my love," Duo retorted, "but I'm not stupid or homicidal."

Nas had to grin slightly at that.

"I'll get this through as fast as I can manage it, all right? I'm sorry."

"Tell her I'm sorry," Hilde ordered.

"You're hardly the one who needs to apologize," Nas noted at the same time.

Duo grinned at his boss, who still had the phone to her ear. "Hilde apologized, too. I'm gonna go for now...if things start taking too long I'll call again so you can come rescue me."

Hilde gave him a look.

Nas sniggered.

"Love you, huh?"

"I suppose you do," Nassaiya retorted.

"Hey!" Duo protested, grinning very slightly.

Nas laughed lightly again, shaking her head. "I love you, too."

"It's not that hard to say, is it?" Duo teased.

Nassaiya laughed. "I'll see you when you get home."

"All right," he muttered, listening as she ended the call. He looked around, noting that only one person remained on their phone aside from Hilde, then grimaced. "So...how fast do you think we can do this?"

"Shouldn't take too long," Bartel muttered, running a hand over his head. "Why, hot date?"

Duo grimaced again. "I wish."

"Why don't you tell them what you're doing?" Hilde asked darkly, having already ordered their food.

"Because they wouldn't understand why it annoys you," Duo retorted pointedly. "I suggest you get over it."

"That'll happen, sure," she fake laughed, then rolled her eyes and noticed everyone giving her concerned looks. "Sorry," she smiled warmly at them. "Let's just get this done."

Duo sighed as people started shuffling papers and grumbling. There hadn't been a rush on the work until earlier in the day, when the papers were demanded by Hilde's supervisor, one Zechs Marquise—God willing, the man would get hemorrhoids—so they'd spent the afternoon trying their damndest to get the information in a reasonable order.

"A pounding in your head, want your relief? Just come to me instead..."

Duo—and just about everyone else—jumped hard as his phone began vibrating across the table-top.

"Come to your knees, your pleasure a tease..."

Duo snatched the phone up, feeling himself reddening slightly. The music was hard and fast...and loud. He didn't even have the volume up and it was loud...and having all of his coworkers hear what he had set for Wufei's ringtone left him a bit flustered.

There were nervous titters up and down the table as he flipped open the phone. "I can't talk right now."

"Duo?" Wufei sounded confused. "Don't hang up yet..."

Duo stopped in the process of doing just that.

"I got a call from Dr. Bastor earlier today," Wufei explained quickly. "Why? What's going on? Are you at work?"

"Yeah," Duo returned quickly. "We're staying late today."

It was the only reason his phone had even rung. He had a timer set to keep the calls silent during normal work hours.

"Oh, sorry," Wufei muttered. "Well...I'll just let you know and let you go. Dr. Bastor said that Heero will probably be getting out in the next week."

Something inside Duo's stomach twisted and sank, shrinking into a ball.

"I suppose you would be speechless," Wufei laughed lightly. "I'll let you go now...call me when you're done."

"Yeah," Duo muttered, blinking blankly at the tabletop.

"All right...bye," Wufei added...and ended the call.

Duo swallowed slightly, closing his phone and setting it back on the table. He put a smile on, looking around at his coworkers, all of whom were watching him with interest. "I'm sorry, ladies and gentlemen," he muttered. "I have the work-timer on...and it's after work hours."

"Interesting ringtone," Bartel teased with a grin. "Care to enlighten us as to who that was?"

Duo smirked back at him, feeling himself calm again. "Only Chang Wufei."

That got an almost disbelieving silence.

Duo sniggered and spun his phone where it sat. "I kind of have things to do tonight, gentlemen...shall we get on with this?"

Hilde was studying his face very seriously, and nodded slightly to indicate her agreement. She flicked the wall-screen back on and pulled out the pointer. "If we get in the groove," she muttered, "by the time the pizza gets here we'll be good to go."

Duo nodded along with everyone else, focusing toward the windows that lined the side of the room a moment.

If Heero was about ready to get out of the clinic, then he was better, right? Duo didn't relish the idea of the man being free, but things had changed on all sides.

He could do this...he had to do this.

Besides, it wasn't like he had a choice.