[GW] - [FIC] [WIP] Top of the World Falls on You - ch.3
okay... i have no hope of catching up with misanagi in the gundam_herald challenge... haha! okay, but i'm going to try? here's an "updated fiction" entry for today too!
Rating: R overall?
Genre: Melodrama, Amnesia!fic
Pairings: 1x2x1
Warnings: no, seriously... melodrama.
“I don’t understand. Heero and I have been living together for five years which, if I’m not mistaken, more than qualifies us for common law spousal rights…”
Doctor Ailon shrugged apologetically and looked over Duo’s shoulder at where Relena and Wufei were standing as if silently asking for help.
“Please,” Duo said softly, pulling the doctor’s attention back to himself. “If you can’t tell me what’s wrong with him, can you just… tell me if he’s going to be okay?”
As soon as Heero had woken, the room had suddenly filled with people. Alerted by the change in his EEG reports, nurses, doctors, porters, all rushed in to whisk him off for a round of mysterious tests.
A couple bullet wounds should not have created such a fuss, though. And Duo was worried.
Not two minutes after Heero had woken up, the hospital’s chief of staff came by personally to discuss Heero’s “treatment” with his “family”.
Duo had never been in this particular hospital before but he found this development quite odd.
And what was odder still, was that the doctor was not particularly inclined to talk to Duo who, he claimed, was not an ‘immediate family member’ of the patient’s.
Duo had tried to explain himself, but everyone was talking over everyone else and no one was listening to him.
“Maxwell,” Heero’s voice was weak, but firm, “just leave, already.”
Duo sat down heavily in the chair next to Heero’s bed and gripped the armrests tightly. He cast belligerent looks at the nurses who were swarming around both himself and Heero’s bed as they readied Heero to be moved for a CAT scan.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Maxwell. I’m afraid I can only discuss Mr. Yuy’s condition with himself and his spouse,” Dr. Ailon said for about the fiftieth time as Heero was being wheeled out of the room.
“*I* am his spouse!” Duo bellowed, leaping to his feet and slamming the heartrate monitor to the ground in his anger and frustration.
“Duo!” Relena took a step forward but Wufei held her back.
The doctor merely sighed and adjusted the collar of his coat. He gave no indication that he was in any way moved by, or inclined to change his mind due to, Duo’s outburst. Instead, he simply closed his clipboard and completely ignored Duo altogether. The doctor sidestepped him like he was an inanimate object, much like the one he’d just knocked over, and spoke quietly with Relena for a minute.
Relena shook her head repeatedly and gestured to Duo and Wufei several times as if to indicate that what the doctor could say to one of them, he could say to all of them.
Finally looking a bit put out, Doctor Ailon withdrew abruptly from the room.
Silence descended on the three remaining occupants. Duo was staring fixedly at the shattered machine lying at his feet. Relena was staring at Duo, one hand pressed to her chest, the other held tightly by Wufei. And Wufei seemed torn between staring at Duo and trying to discreetly catch Relena’s attention.
He opened his mouth to speak just as Duo looked up to apologize for his temper.
But both men were interrupted by the arrival of a young nurse with an apologetic look on her face.
“I’m sorry, but Dr. Ailon asked me to tell you that we’ll be billing Mr. Maxwell for the damaged equipment and that he’d like to see Mrs. Yuy in his office when she’s ready to discuss her husband’s condition in a calmer environment.”
Duo froze.
“Don’t worry, Duo, we’ll take care of the bill…”
Duo stared at Wufei like he’d grown another head.
“Are you fucking- What the hell-” Duo couldn’t even articulate what he was feeling.
He didn’t know which incidence of idiocy he should address first, the nurse’s or Wufei’s. He settled for gaping and gesturing wildly. There was just nothing he could do that could express the incredible mix of emotions running through him at this moment.
He wanted to hit something.
Someone.
Possibly himself.
This all had to be a dream.
And, if nothing else, Duo figured that the pain from hitting himself would probably give him something to focus on.
He felt a bit lightheaded.
“Duo… Duo, please look at me!”
Relena had shaken off Wufei’s protective hold and rushed forward to clasp both of Duo’s hands in hers. He couldn’t help but look down at their intertwined hands. Relena’s touch was gentle, but strong. Her hands were small and feminine. She was…soft, comforting, so easy to love. She had a sparkly ring on her fourth finger, where Duo did not.
It wasn’t that he doubted Heero.
But…
He’d lied to him.
And he’d told the hospital… what?
Duo’s hands clenched into fists under Relena’s grasp.
“Duo, you don’t understand. Please! Just look at me?” Relena pleaded. “It’s not what you think. Heero loves you!”
Duo blinked at her.
Of course Heero loved him.
He did.
But…
Relena blushed suddenly and Duo thought that maybe he wanted to hit her instead of himself.
He tried to keep that urge throttled.
“Why won’t you just tell me what’s going on?” he bellowed.
“Enough!” Wufei deftly inserted himself between Duo and Relena. “I will explain and Relena will go talk to the doctor.”
“But-”
“Trust me.”
Relena started forward, her lips parted, but no sound emerged. Her breath hitched and she made a small sound of anguish and frustration before turning on her heel and fleeing from the room.
“Look, I know you’re upset and this is kind of confusing-”
Duo found that he couldn’t control himself any longer and he swung a fist at Wufei.
It was lucky for Wufei that he had quick reflexes and was able to side step Duo’s swing. However, it was unlucky for Wufei that Duo was fast and he was, really, very, very frustrated.
The second hit knocked Wufei flat on his ass.
“I have had enough.” Duo’s voice sounded eerily calm, quiet, flat. “Start talking.”
Scowling up at his friend, Wufei looked inclined to just walk away. But Duo stood his ground and refused to apologize. He was sick of being kept on edge by his friends. He was sick of being worried. He was sick of whatever the hell it was that was going on. Duo swore to himself that Wufei had to the count of ten before he kicked him as well.
“I *was* talking but you interrupted me with your temper tantrum,” Wufei grumbled as he stood up and dusted himself off. “I was trying to be tactful. You’re the one who always says I need to work on my social interaction skills and now-”
Duo raised his fist again.
“Fine! Leaving aside why we’re on L2 and why the hospital thinks that Relena is “Mrs. Yuy”, Heero took three shots to the upper body, was knocked backward, and hit his head on a very solid concrete planter. Nothing is life threatening; however, they are keeping a close eye on him for possible brain damage.”
It was hard for Duo to listen past that first sentence. After all, how could anyone expect him to discount the fact that Heero had lied to him for no good reason and now apparently was too ashamed… too delusional… too… something… or maybe it was “just didn’t love him enough” to name him as his spouse on his hospital admittance forms? The physical injuries Duo could deal with. Like he’d been telling himself all day, Heero was a survivor, hard headed, a fast healer, and ridiculously tenacious when it came to staying alive. In all honesty, Duo would not have been worried at all if Heero had been shot five times and fallen off a building. It was sort of amusing that Wufei chose to reassure him that Heero would *live* first.
Probably because the other thing, the thing that everyone was being so careful about keeping from him, it was so very much worse.
“What’re the… preliminary tests saying about the brain damage?” he asked, a little shaky.
Was Heero going to be blind? Mute? Illiterate? Paralyzed? Was he going to suffer from diminished mental capacity? Would he be…
Duo tried to focus his rapidly escalating thoughts onto one solid statement of fact: Heero Yuy was alive and he was going to stay alive.
“We’re sorry, Duo. We didn’t want to tell you over the phone and I can see that we’ve made you worry too much. The thing is… Well, you heard Dr. Ailon. Heero thinks that he and Relena are married.” Wufei barreled forward now that the ball had been set in motion. “We’ve both spoken with him and… he’s really adamant that he’s in love with Relena. He doesn’t… He doesn’t want to talk about you. At all.”
Duo sat down, right where he was, on the floor.
Of all the things that Duo could have imagined Wufei and Relena telling him, this had not even once crossed his mind. He almost understood why they hadn’t wanted to tell him over the phone. How was he supposed to react to this news? Was he relieved that it wasn’t anything worse? At least Heero was alive, right? Was he devastated that his boyfriend, his partner, the love and light of his life didn’t remember him? Well, but… at least he was alive, right?
Why the hell did Heero think that he was married to fuckin’ Relena of all people?
“No one knows, Duo… But it’s not Relena’s fault. She didn’t want this and she’s been really upset on your behalf.”
Duo realized, too late, that he’d asked the last question out loud.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to… I shouldn’t take it out on her.”
Wufei touched his shoulder.
“This is upsetting news-”
Duo laughed.
And Wufei patted his shoulder awkwardly.
It took longer than Duo cared to admit to calm down and get his minor hysteria under control.
When it looked like he wasn’t going to hit or break anything again, Wufei told Duo the whole story. He told him why they were on L2. He told him about the protests… and riots. He told him about the firefight… and Relena’s inadvertent error. He told him about scene in the emergency room when Heero insisted that Relena was his next of kin and the nurses insisted that Relena sign the papers as such even though she denied it over and over.
“Heero was tearing the place apart. He was bleeding everywhere, he couldn’t stand straight, he was erratic and angry. And Relena was scared so she went along with him. Please don’t blame her. This is just temporary, Duo. The doctors are doing everything they can to diagnose the source of the amnesia. If they can’t cure it, we’re going to get him the best therapy possible. Relena’s paying for all of it. We’re going to get you your Heero back.”
There was silence.
“Duo, say something… Please…”
“The amnesia’s temporary?”
Wufei couldn’t meet Duo’s gaze.
“Well, Heero’s had a lot of head trauma in his life and he’s never suffered from amnesia before, so, going by his medical history, this is an anomaly.”
Duo sighed.
“And, if it makes you feel better, he called you by name when he woke up,” Wufei tried to sound cheerful, “so whatever is going on, it’s not like he’s forgotten you completely.”
In an uncharacteristic move, Wufei suddenly wrapped his arms about Duo’s shoulders and gave him a hard hug. Duo didn’t want to be comforted by anyone other than Heero at that moment, but it was nice that Wufei was trying.
At the moment, Duo honestly could not say if he was relieved, distressed, or just… nauseated.
Heero remembered him, knew him, called him by name and let him kiss him, but he believed that he was in love with Relena.
TBC
Rating: R overall?
Genre: Melodrama, Amnesia!fic
Pairings: 1x2x1
Warnings: no, seriously... melodrama.
“I don’t understand. Heero and I have been living together for five years which, if I’m not mistaken, more than qualifies us for common law spousal rights…”
Doctor Ailon shrugged apologetically and looked over Duo’s shoulder at where Relena and Wufei were standing as if silently asking for help.
“Please,” Duo said softly, pulling the doctor’s attention back to himself. “If you can’t tell me what’s wrong with him, can you just… tell me if he’s going to be okay?”
As soon as Heero had woken, the room had suddenly filled with people. Alerted by the change in his EEG reports, nurses, doctors, porters, all rushed in to whisk him off for a round of mysterious tests.
A couple bullet wounds should not have created such a fuss, though. And Duo was worried.
Not two minutes after Heero had woken up, the hospital’s chief of staff came by personally to discuss Heero’s “treatment” with his “family”.
Duo had never been in this particular hospital before but he found this development quite odd.
And what was odder still, was that the doctor was not particularly inclined to talk to Duo who, he claimed, was not an ‘immediate family member’ of the patient’s.
Duo had tried to explain himself, but everyone was talking over everyone else and no one was listening to him.
“Maxwell,” Heero’s voice was weak, but firm, “just leave, already.”
Duo sat down heavily in the chair next to Heero’s bed and gripped the armrests tightly. He cast belligerent looks at the nurses who were swarming around both himself and Heero’s bed as they readied Heero to be moved for a CAT scan.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Maxwell. I’m afraid I can only discuss Mr. Yuy’s condition with himself and his spouse,” Dr. Ailon said for about the fiftieth time as Heero was being wheeled out of the room.
“*I* am his spouse!” Duo bellowed, leaping to his feet and slamming the heartrate monitor to the ground in his anger and frustration.
“Duo!” Relena took a step forward but Wufei held her back.
The doctor merely sighed and adjusted the collar of his coat. He gave no indication that he was in any way moved by, or inclined to change his mind due to, Duo’s outburst. Instead, he simply closed his clipboard and completely ignored Duo altogether. The doctor sidestepped him like he was an inanimate object, much like the one he’d just knocked over, and spoke quietly with Relena for a minute.
Relena shook her head repeatedly and gestured to Duo and Wufei several times as if to indicate that what the doctor could say to one of them, he could say to all of them.
Finally looking a bit put out, Doctor Ailon withdrew abruptly from the room.
Silence descended on the three remaining occupants. Duo was staring fixedly at the shattered machine lying at his feet. Relena was staring at Duo, one hand pressed to her chest, the other held tightly by Wufei. And Wufei seemed torn between staring at Duo and trying to discreetly catch Relena’s attention.
He opened his mouth to speak just as Duo looked up to apologize for his temper.
But both men were interrupted by the arrival of a young nurse with an apologetic look on her face.
“I’m sorry, but Dr. Ailon asked me to tell you that we’ll be billing Mr. Maxwell for the damaged equipment and that he’d like to see Mrs. Yuy in his office when she’s ready to discuss her husband’s condition in a calmer environment.”
Duo froze.
“Don’t worry, Duo, we’ll take care of the bill…”
Duo stared at Wufei like he’d grown another head.
“Are you fucking- What the hell-” Duo couldn’t even articulate what he was feeling.
He didn’t know which incidence of idiocy he should address first, the nurse’s or Wufei’s. He settled for gaping and gesturing wildly. There was just nothing he could do that could express the incredible mix of emotions running through him at this moment.
He wanted to hit something.
Someone.
Possibly himself.
This all had to be a dream.
And, if nothing else, Duo figured that the pain from hitting himself would probably give him something to focus on.
He felt a bit lightheaded.
“Duo… Duo, please look at me!”
Relena had shaken off Wufei’s protective hold and rushed forward to clasp both of Duo’s hands in hers. He couldn’t help but look down at their intertwined hands. Relena’s touch was gentle, but strong. Her hands were small and feminine. She was…soft, comforting, so easy to love. She had a sparkly ring on her fourth finger, where Duo did not.
It wasn’t that he doubted Heero.
But…
He’d lied to him.
And he’d told the hospital… what?
Duo’s hands clenched into fists under Relena’s grasp.
“Duo, you don’t understand. Please! Just look at me?” Relena pleaded. “It’s not what you think. Heero loves you!”
Duo blinked at her.
Of course Heero loved him.
He did.
But…
Relena blushed suddenly and Duo thought that maybe he wanted to hit her instead of himself.
He tried to keep that urge throttled.
“Why won’t you just tell me what’s going on?” he bellowed.
“Enough!” Wufei deftly inserted himself between Duo and Relena. “I will explain and Relena will go talk to the doctor.”
“But-”
“Trust me.”
Relena started forward, her lips parted, but no sound emerged. Her breath hitched and she made a small sound of anguish and frustration before turning on her heel and fleeing from the room.
“Look, I know you’re upset and this is kind of confusing-”
Duo found that he couldn’t control himself any longer and he swung a fist at Wufei.
It was lucky for Wufei that he had quick reflexes and was able to side step Duo’s swing. However, it was unlucky for Wufei that Duo was fast and he was, really, very, very frustrated.
The second hit knocked Wufei flat on his ass.
“I have had enough.” Duo’s voice sounded eerily calm, quiet, flat. “Start talking.”
Scowling up at his friend, Wufei looked inclined to just walk away. But Duo stood his ground and refused to apologize. He was sick of being kept on edge by his friends. He was sick of being worried. He was sick of whatever the hell it was that was going on. Duo swore to himself that Wufei had to the count of ten before he kicked him as well.
“I *was* talking but you interrupted me with your temper tantrum,” Wufei grumbled as he stood up and dusted himself off. “I was trying to be tactful. You’re the one who always says I need to work on my social interaction skills and now-”
Duo raised his fist again.
“Fine! Leaving aside why we’re on L2 and why the hospital thinks that Relena is “Mrs. Yuy”, Heero took three shots to the upper body, was knocked backward, and hit his head on a very solid concrete planter. Nothing is life threatening; however, they are keeping a close eye on him for possible brain damage.”
It was hard for Duo to listen past that first sentence. After all, how could anyone expect him to discount the fact that Heero had lied to him for no good reason and now apparently was too ashamed… too delusional… too… something… or maybe it was “just didn’t love him enough” to name him as his spouse on his hospital admittance forms? The physical injuries Duo could deal with. Like he’d been telling himself all day, Heero was a survivor, hard headed, a fast healer, and ridiculously tenacious when it came to staying alive. In all honesty, Duo would not have been worried at all if Heero had been shot five times and fallen off a building. It was sort of amusing that Wufei chose to reassure him that Heero would *live* first.
Probably because the other thing, the thing that everyone was being so careful about keeping from him, it was so very much worse.
“What’re the… preliminary tests saying about the brain damage?” he asked, a little shaky.
Was Heero going to be blind? Mute? Illiterate? Paralyzed? Was he going to suffer from diminished mental capacity? Would he be…
Duo tried to focus his rapidly escalating thoughts onto one solid statement of fact: Heero Yuy was alive and he was going to stay alive.
“We’re sorry, Duo. We didn’t want to tell you over the phone and I can see that we’ve made you worry too much. The thing is… Well, you heard Dr. Ailon. Heero thinks that he and Relena are married.” Wufei barreled forward now that the ball had been set in motion. “We’ve both spoken with him and… he’s really adamant that he’s in love with Relena. He doesn’t… He doesn’t want to talk about you. At all.”
Duo sat down, right where he was, on the floor.
Of all the things that Duo could have imagined Wufei and Relena telling him, this had not even once crossed his mind. He almost understood why they hadn’t wanted to tell him over the phone. How was he supposed to react to this news? Was he relieved that it wasn’t anything worse? At least Heero was alive, right? Was he devastated that his boyfriend, his partner, the love and light of his life didn’t remember him? Well, but… at least he was alive, right?
Why the hell did Heero think that he was married to fuckin’ Relena of all people?
“No one knows, Duo… But it’s not Relena’s fault. She didn’t want this and she’s been really upset on your behalf.”
Duo realized, too late, that he’d asked the last question out loud.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to… I shouldn’t take it out on her.”
Wufei touched his shoulder.
“This is upsetting news-”
Duo laughed.
And Wufei patted his shoulder awkwardly.
It took longer than Duo cared to admit to calm down and get his minor hysteria under control.
When it looked like he wasn’t going to hit or break anything again, Wufei told Duo the whole story. He told him why they were on L2. He told him about the protests… and riots. He told him about the firefight… and Relena’s inadvertent error. He told him about scene in the emergency room when Heero insisted that Relena was his next of kin and the nurses insisted that Relena sign the papers as such even though she denied it over and over.
“Heero was tearing the place apart. He was bleeding everywhere, he couldn’t stand straight, he was erratic and angry. And Relena was scared so she went along with him. Please don’t blame her. This is just temporary, Duo. The doctors are doing everything they can to diagnose the source of the amnesia. If they can’t cure it, we’re going to get him the best therapy possible. Relena’s paying for all of it. We’re going to get you your Heero back.”
There was silence.
“Duo, say something… Please…”
“The amnesia’s temporary?”
Wufei couldn’t meet Duo’s gaze.
“Well, Heero’s had a lot of head trauma in his life and he’s never suffered from amnesia before, so, going by his medical history, this is an anomaly.”
Duo sighed.
“And, if it makes you feel better, he called you by name when he woke up,” Wufei tried to sound cheerful, “so whatever is going on, it’s not like he’s forgotten you completely.”
In an uncharacteristic move, Wufei suddenly wrapped his arms about Duo’s shoulders and gave him a hard hug. Duo didn’t want to be comforted by anyone other than Heero at that moment, but it was nice that Wufei was trying.
At the moment, Duo honestly could not say if he was relieved, distressed, or just… nauseated.
Heero remembered him, knew him, called him by name and let him kiss him, but he believed that he was in love with Relena.
TBC