Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ War Angels ❯ Chapter Five ( Chapter 5 )

Disclaimer - It's not mine. Never was. The only thing I own are the characters not seen or mentioned before in the Gundam Universe. Song lyrics belong to Alabama.

A/N - This was my favorite chapter to write. I hope you guys like it as well. Later.

Time frame - This is after Hilde gets the information from Libra and brings it to Duo and the other pilots on Peacemillion. She's in the hospital wing of the ship, still unconscious, and Duo's feeling a little guilty for dragging her into the mess.

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--Oh, I believe there are angels among us.--

--Sent down to us from somewhere up above.--

--They come to you and me in our darkest hours--

--To show us how to live--

--To teach us how to give--

--To guide us with a light of love--

War Angels

Chapter Five

"She's going to be alright, Mr. Maxwell." came a kind female voice from the door of the room. "She just needs some rest." Duo Maxwell, pilot of the Gundam Deathscythe looked up into the face of a young doctor that had entered into Hilde's recovery room. The young woman set a kind hand on his shoulder and sighed. "You need to get some rest as well, Mr. Maxwell. You've been in here since she was admitted."

"I'm not leaving Hilde here by herself." the braided boy said, remembering Hilde's terrified screams for help as the programmed Mercurious and Vayeate dolls attacked her hours before.

"Mr. Maxwell." the doctor said. "I heard about what she did, what she risked, to bring the information about Libra to you and the other pilots. But we all have a hard battle coming up, and this little lady's depending on you. And if you don't rest up, you could falter on the battlefield. You don't want to let her down, do you?" Duo just shook his head.

"She never should have done this!" he said fiercely. "I'm the one who is supposed to fight, not her! I fight so the colonists don't have to! Why couldn't she understand that? Stubborn girl!"

"Oh, I'm sure she understands." The woman said quietly, folding her arms. "But she doesn't exactly seem like the type to just sit back and watch this war go on without doing something." There was total silence for a few moments as the physician assessed Hilde's unconscious form.

"Doc, do you believe in God?" he asked.

"Yes, I do, Mr. Maxwell." she said. "Why do you ask?"

"He's supposed to be a merciful guy, right? A bringer of peace...a healer."

"So I've been led to believe, yes."

"Then why is he letting this happen?" Duo asked, turning his sorrowful eyes to the woman in the white lab coat."Why has he let Hilde be hurt, and let so many other people die? Why hasn't he stopped this before it escalated so far? Why?" The doctor sat down on the chair in front of Duo and looked right at him, her calmness a reassurance for Duo's stressed out nerves.

"Mr. Maxwell, I don't pretend to know why God does or does not do what he does." She said gently. "But I do know that we are human, and perfectly capable of making mistakes. Perhaps God is not interfering because he wants us to learn from the mistakes we've made that has led us up to this point."

"So whose side is the big guy taking?" Earth, or the colonies?" Duo asked. "Exactly whose side are us Gundam pilots taking?"

"That's a question you have to ask yourself." she said. "The Gundam pilots were sent to Earth from the colonies to take revenge for the death of Heero Yuy. But now you're protecting the Earth from a group of colonists bent on literally destroying it."

"What Zechs and the White Fang are doing is not what all the colonist want." Duo said. "So we're protecting the colonies..."

"By fighting some of the same people that probably helped send you to Earth to begin with." she said, shaking her head. "Irony at it's worse, isn't it?"

"You're telling me." Duo grumbled. "I don't know what to do now. Everything is so crazy."

"Follow your heart, Mr. Maxwell." she said, getting up from the chair. "If you live by your feelings, then nothing you do will be a waste." Duo looked a the ground and frowned. The doctor kneeled in front of him and smiled warmly. "I know with long battles like this, soldiers and pilots begin to question their selves, often times completely forgetting what they're fighting for. They become shells of the people they were because they forget that there are people how love and support them. Don't do that, Duo. There are people who love you and support what you pilot's are doing."

"Really...who?"Duo asked. "Seems to me like all people are doing to us right now is turning their backs on us."

"Me. The other colonists not associated with the White Fang. Your fellow pilots. Hilde."

"Hilde?"

"Yes. This young lady believes in you and what you are doing." The doctor said. "She cared enough to do what she did, and bring the information to you guys. Which, if my hunch is right, will result in one young woman being saved, and another young man's humanity from completely disappearing." Silence enveloped them for a moment until the doctor stood and gave Duo a reassuring hug holding him as if he was a mere child.

Duo just rested his head on the woman's shoulder as a warm, content feeling flowed through him, something he had not really felt since he was a young child and Sister Helen had hugged him. It had been so long since someone had hugged him, that he had forgotten what it felt like.

"Hilde is a fighter, and she will make it through this. You just have to make it through, so you can see her afterwards." The young woman hugged him tighter for a few seconds, but finally let go and stepped back, a caring smile on her face. "You should get cleaned up and rest. Your hair's poking out all over the place. Looks like you could use a hair cut."

"No." Duo said, automatically grabbing his hear. "No one touches the braid."

"I figured you'd say that." she chuckled. "You do seem awful attached to it." She picked up a clipboard, scrawled something on the top page and hung it at the foot of Hilde's bed, turning to leave. "Get some rest, Mr. Maxwell."

"I...Thanks, Doc." he said, nodding. "I needed that."

"I do my best." she said. Duo turned back too look at Hilde for a few seconds before realizing that he didn't even know the doctor's name.

"What's your name, anyways, Doc?" he asked. "I've never seen you before." Unfortunately, the young doctor had disappeared without a sound. Duo just shrugged and took on last lingering look at Hilde before leaving to get some food, a shower, and some sleep. "I'll find out later. It's not like she's going anywheres anytime soon."

Had he enough sense to realize it, the woman had left her signature on the clipboard at the foot of Hilde's bed, her name on the bottom of the top page. But then again, if he had seen it, he might have wound up in the bed next to Hilde, suffering from a heart attack.

On the bottom of the page of the clipboard was the neat handwriting of the kind doctor, naming her as Helen Maxwell MD.

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A/N - Okay, if you don't know who Sister Helen was, she was a nun at the Maxwell orphanage Duo grew up in. She was the one that threatened to cut Duo's hair, but wound up braiding it instead. She was close to Duo, and when she died, he was greatly upset.

Remember to leave a review. I want to know what you guys are thinking.

Later,

A.A.