Do You Know Me?
Kracken
"How is he?" Heero felt himself trembling as he stood stiffly before his fellow agents, facing Duo's partner, specifically.
"Like Gundanium, as usual," the agent snorted. "Nothing takes
that bastard down. Doc says he'll be poppin' the bad guys again in a month, or
two."
"Month or two?" Heero repeated, fear making his heart hammer painfully
in his chest. His face was like stone, though, showing the man nothing. "Injuries?"
"Blast broke his collar bone," the man rattled off, obviously impressed
and proud of his partner. "Couple of fingers broken, concussion, black eyes,
a few ribs, some pins in his ankle. Lucky to be drawing breath, if you ask me."
"Down time in the hospital?" Heero asked, hands balling into tight
fists in his effort to control his emotions.
"A week to stabilize," the man replied with a shrug, as if he was surprised
that it was so short a time. "Dumb ass wants to leave, now, or course. When
I wouldn't help him, he told me to get his cell phone and then get the hell out
of his face."
"I'll give Commander Une my report, then," Heero told him. "Make
sure that you file your complete report of the terrorist incident as soon as
possible."
"Yes, sir," the man replied respectfully, but then said to his fellow
agents, as Heero turned on his heel and walked several yards down the hospital
hallway, "See that? Like talking to space. He's one cold guy. Would he care
if we all dropped dead, or would he just file more paperwork?"
Heero reached into his pocket and drew out his cell phone. He cradled
it in one hand, thumb caressing it, but didn't make his call until
he was
out of
the hospital and in his car. When Duo answered, he sighed in
relief.
"Love?" Heero said with all the warmth that he could put into that
one word.
"Who else?" Duo replied, his voice rough and exhausted sounding, but
his ever present good humor still coming through.
Heero smiled shakily and sank down into his seat. He closed
his eyes and tried to imagine Duo there, before him, close
enough
to touch. "You scared the
hell out of me."
"Wasn't the plan," Duo replied with a self deprecating tone. "It
was supposed to be easy. Easy as pie, I said, right before it all went to hell."
"Your partner said that you would be a week in the hospital," Heero
said worriedly. "Why that long?"
"We aren't in the war anymore, Heero, love," Duo replied. "They
actually have rules, now, about taking care of the injured. No more patching
us up and sending us back out to fight. They think I might have cracked my skull.
They're still doing scans. They want me where they can watch me for awhile, that's
all."
"I want to be with you!" Heero groaned into the phone, unable to help
his welling of frustration and fear for Duo.
"I know, I know, love," Duo soothed anxiously. "But you know those
same rules say that we can't be in Preventers and hooking up, too. We both love
our careers. We both know that getting the bad guy is what we want to do for
the rest of our lives. They just don't want people like us..."
"What?" Heero demanded bitterly. "Loving each other? Caring? How
can that threaten anyone? How can that effect how we do our jobs?"
"I don't think it does, but they..." Duo searched for words. "I
guess we gross them out as bad as we'd be grossed out by, say, Commander Une
flashing us her tits."
"She wouldn't do that on duty," Heero growled back.
Duo laughed and then made a sound of pain.
"Duo? Are you all right?" Heero demanded anxiously.
"Yeah," Duo replied after a moment, but sounded weaker. "Ribs
don't like me laughing."
"I'm sorry," Heero said contritely. "I shouldn't argue, shouldn't
talk about this. Not now." When only small pants came from Duo's side of
the line, Heero began to panic. "Duo? I'm coming, love! Fuck rules. You
need me!"
"NO!" Duo replied sharply as if he could hardly get the words out. "You
can't come here. They can't know. I'm calling the nurse. She'll give me some
pain pills and I'll be all right."
"Duo?" Heero shivered and then said tightly, "When you're out
of there, we need to talk about this. I can't live this way. I can't pretend
that I don't love you!"
"Our careers-" Duo began
"Duo, if they can't accept us for who we are, then they never accepted us
at all. If we have to, we'll find another way to fight, another way to use our
skills. Please... don't make me live this way any more."
Duo's reply was long in coming,
but he sounded stronger, as he
said, "Maybe
you're right. Maybe, this is all bullshit and we shouldn't go along with it...
even if we do get sacked. I want you here, too. I don't want to be alone. Let
me think about it, though. Give me some time to figure out what we're going
to do if this all blows up in our face."
"Whatever happens, we'll have love, Duo," Heero replied. "That's
all I need."
"Christmas party," Duo said and his voice was suddenly full of humor
again, suddenly sure of itself.
"What?" Heero replied in confusion.
"If we do this, we'll tell them at the Preventer Christmas party," Duo
snickered , warming to the plan. "We'll blow up our careers in front of
everyone."
Heero found a laugh,
even though he was feeling
the
tightness
of trepidation in his
gut for that kind
of public announcement. "You never do anything
quietly."
"Nope, never," Duo chuckled. "You with me on this?"
"I'm with you forever, love," Heero promised.
End
Merry Christmas