Surely as the Sun
Chapter Four
This is rated PG-13.
?Beauty is life when life unveils her holy face.
But you are life and you are the veil.
Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror.
But you are eternity and you are the mirror. ?
Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet
Duo awoke to the smell of lavender, Hilde?s glossy black hair muffled into his face. He had slept breathing her in. She lay next to him now, the entirety of her back anatomy pressed into the front of his as his left arm draped across her ribs and waist. He stared at the side of her face as she slept quietly next to him, her chest rising and falling with even breaths, the tips of her long lashes grazing the pale skin under her eyes. She was small and skinny, but strong. And she fit his slender and somewhat tall frame none the less.
Last night had been so unexpected. The light painkillers Sally had sent him home on had made his reasoning slightly inhibited, and he was intent on going straight to the bed to go to sleep when he saw her in the kitchen. Duo was not certain where their marriage was heading?he loved Hilde more than life itself, and he tried showing her that, but she would not understand him. The loss of their baby had put a stunt in their growth. They could not move forward, could not move past it. He wanted to, tried to. But she seemed filled with apathy. Until last night.
He subconsciously tightened his hold on her, and she mumbled something in her sleep. He dipped his face into the crook of her neck and inhaled deeply, lightly pressing his lips to the flesh there. Goosebumps arose on her neck and he closed his eyes and grinned, for once in his life not using it to hide something.
The fact was, she had issued forth divorce papers, and he could not expect one night to change everything. Her mind was so fragile now, and perhaps he should not have taken advantage of her in such a fragile state?but the way she had cried out his name last night had caused him to hope again. He had been praying for a miracle?asking God to help her love him again. Up until then he had been answered with silence.
Now, he was more confused than ever. What if she was angry when she woke up? What if she never learned how to move past the horrible things that had happened to them? What if she decided to stay married, but was miserable for the rest of her life? He had seen Hilde so bruised and broken physically, he seriously doubted she was going to live. During the war, he had seen that. He had been angry, and it was then that she had wrapped her pretty arms around his heart and torn it right out of chest, demanding that he love her whether he chose to or not. She had brought to life a part of himself he thought had died so long ago, when he was a child. She was strong. She could pull through any sort of physical pain. But this devastation?it seemed to have killed her on the inside to know that she could not ever have children, to think that she had been considering abortion.
It was time he saved her. She had been saving him all this time, and she no longer had the strength to hold both of them up. He would be strong for her. He would love her until it consumed him. Until it consumed them both.
---
Mariemeia stood in the center of a humongous amphitheatre, the slick wooden floor glaring under her feet from the shining chandeliers that adorned the entire ceiling of the building. She stared down at her file, the front page a map of the entire campus. In front of her students were chattering loudly in their seats that faced the stage, all of them with high pitched voices and giggling madly. All girls. All estrogen. Pink assaulted her vision as they went back and forth to gossip among their friends.
She was going to be sick.
She glanced once more at the highlighted section of the amphitheatre map, her seat smack dab in the front center of the building. She rolled her eyes at Une?s overprotective strategies meant to seem inconspicuous to her but not to anyone else in Preventors. She was smarter than most of them, anyway. Behind her, the huge doors began to creak as they were closed by the principle and?Trowa?
She glared at him and he, as if feeling her anger, turned and looked right at her. If she hadn?t spent so much time with him as her bodyguard she wouldn?t have noticed the grin that he allowed to grace his mouth for about .032 of a second. She placed one hand on her hip and shook her head at him, at which point he turned back around and ignored her completely. Taking his cue to not let anyone know they knew each other, she turned around quickly to make her way to her seat but failed to see the black high heeled shoe in her pathway until it was too late. Her papers flew out of her hands as she went careening towards the floor, and as she scrambled to try and brace herself for the impact of wood with skinned knees and elbows, she was saved by a pair of strong arms around her waist. Her face smashed into a hard chest and her hands grabbed hold of two broad shoulders as someone held her up, her legs wobbling beneath her.
She faintly heard giggling in the back of her mind, and she turned her head to look behind her and see who exactly had a bloody nose coming to them but was stopped as she saw a pair of big brown eyes staring down at her. Dark hair framed his tanned face, and he smiled unsurely down at her.
?Are you alright??
She mumbled some kind of affirmation to him as she tried to find her feet, a blush rising to her cheeks. It deepened as she turned around to pick up her things but realized his hands were still placed loosely on her hips. He seemed to realize this and laughed, his hands finally coming off of her and running through his hair nervously. She bent down to pick up her things and heard, for the first time, the most annoying voice she had ever heard in her life.
?Really, Kale, I don?t understand why you have to be the hero for every damsel in distress here. It?s not like you have competition.?
It sounded like Miss Piggy on sedatives. As she stood up she recognized the same black heels connected to a pair of tanned, slender legs that came up to a petit frame wrapped in some kind of pink fluorescent?tarp. Well, it looked like a tarp on her. Big blonde hair framed an equally tanned face and the girl looked like something out of a Disney movie. She glared at Mariemeia, her swarm of friends spreading out on either side of her, looking like a massive pink tsunami.
?Chill out Jodi. What?s your name, anyway??
She turned to look at him.
?Meia. I thought this camp was only for girls??
?It is. I don?t actually come here for school ? I do a lot of the building and jobs the girls can?t do around here. Plus, my dad is one of the teachers, so I live here with him. Are you from the colonies??
?I, um, yeah?well, sort of??
?Why are we wasting our time here? Let?s go check out the stage, Kale. The new girl obviously doesn?t know how to speak correct English??
Mariemeia whirled around. ?Listen up, Barbie, we can go ahead and sort this out right here just so we can conclude that the new girl doesn?t put up with your limited vocabulary of outdated insults.?
It seemed like all conversation in the entire amphitheatre came to a stand still, and the girls in front of her stared at one another nervously as Jodi?s mouth fell open.
?No? Nothing? Can?t come up with anything for the new girl? Which, by the way, we?re all new girls here, genius.? She heard Kale snort behind her and turned to face him when she realized the dumbfounded look on Jodi?s face wasn?t coming off anytime soon. ? I guess I?ll just leave you to your?gossiping about makeup and clothes and?nail polish, or whatever. It was nice to meet you, Kale.? She said, before casually strolling off to her dorm.
---
?Commander Une.?
?I need a few minutes alone with these two, Jane.?
?I know, but??
Une ignored her with the turn of her head, walking at her unusually fast pace through the building of Preventors. When she reached her office she pushed open the door and resisted the urge to roll her eyes when Jane, her ever-faithful secretary of five years now, followed her in. Normally she wouldn?t have been so annoyed by her except that in this case, Wufei and Sally were sitting in her office chairs with a report they explained to her in a very brief conversation through their wired mics she would be ?very interested in receiving? not but an hour ago.
?Alright. You have five minutes. Go.?
Wufei stood and handed a file over to her, the picture inside of Alexei Patrenko.
?We have an in.? He said, grinning at her. Une barely constrained the urge to throw her hands around his neck and settled for a smile herself. Sally took a step back and pulled out a wired camera within her factory uniform. She clicked it on, and immediately a holographic vid comm lit up wherever he pointed the camera. Sally shut off the lights as she focused the camera against the wall. She fast forwarded through several hours of her simply working in the ethanol extraction sight, before she slowed down. The camera was focused on the corn husks and Sally?s gloved hands as she stripped them, but the screen suddenly shook as something rammed into Sally and sent her crashing into the ground.
When Sally turned around and faced the intruder, the last thing Une expected to see was Alexei Patrenko screaming at her with blood all over his white doctor?s coat. Sally stayed still for a moment in shock as Alexei started barking orders at her, not even waiting to see if Sally was following him as he turned around and took off towards the medical lab. Sally ran after him as Alexei started punching in codes to the vaulted doors, the pattern clearly legible.
?Get someone on recording that code.? Une mumbled to Jane, who stood transfixed by the doorway.
?Commander, I really think you?ll want - ?
?Shh!?
Sally raised the volume as the camera entered inside the medical lab. She followed the doctor through several hallways, each filled with doorways that required more codes to get in to. Doctor Patrenko was nervously racing through the halls, his bloody hands typing codes into a very large vaulted door when he reached the end of the hallway. Condensation fogged up the glass of the camera, but as it began to clear away, she was able to catch a glimpse of Elliot Benja layed out on a stretcher, blood pooling around the floor. The doctor, as if realizing something, stood in front of Sally with a stern look on his face. Almost desperate.
?What you see here must be kept confidential. I chose you to help as a last resort, because you were the first person I ran in to with any substantial medical background, but if you can help me and keep this a secret, I can guarantee you a very large salary raise. If we have an understanding.? He said, stuffing a wad of money into Sally?s pocket. Sally nodded a confirmation and set to work on Elliot, but jumped back when something crashed into one of the bullet-proof containment areas connected to the medical lab. When she turned to face the source of the sound, Une?s stomach dropped.
The glass cracked as Heero Yuy wailed against it. His eyes were wild, almost primitive, and he was screaming inside the chamber. No recognition dawned in his eyes as he saw her. In fact, her mere presence seemed to make him angrier as he paused to take her in. When he looked and saw Alexei he started pounding even harder against the glass. He was terrifying.
?We have to get him out of here, now!? Alexei barked at her, and she jumped to attention. She grabbed hold of every IV and any other wire connected to Elliot Benja?s body as Alexei started pushing the stretcher out of the room. As they reached the door, the glass shattered, and the last thing seen on the camera was Heero climbing over the glass module as Alexei slammed the vaulted doors shut.
Wufei flipped the lights back on and Une turned to face Sally, her arms folded across her chest. Sally stared blankly back at her.
?Well?? She barked, and Jane squealed in the corner.
?There?s nothing else.? Sally said, slipping the camera back into her jacket. ?I helped him get Elliot stabilized, and he sent me home. He wouldn?t give me any information about what happened, and I couldn?t let on that I recognized Heero, so?I just come back in tomorrow morning to act as Elliot?s nurse. I?m not even sure what they did with Heero after I left.?
?Well what is he doing there?? She yelled, and Sally winced. Leaning against the wall, Wufei eyes her precariously and nodded towards Jane, who had backed into the corner. When Une turned around quickly to face her, the stack of files and cell phone she held in her hand fell to the ground, and she scrambled to pick them up. Une walked over to her and placed her hands on her hips, tapping her heeled shoes impatiently against the floor.
?Jane. Was there something you wanted to tell me??
?You have a c-call?from Mr. Winner, he says it?s an emergency??
Une sighed and snatched the phone off the ground. ?Quatre? Yes, it?s me. What?what? Quatre, this had better be an emergency, or so help me?fine.?
Une flipped a TV on in the corner of the room and turned to the news channel. The phone clattered to the ground as the news anchor?s voice broke out in near hysterics.
?Oh my God.?
---
Relena and Duo walked the streets slowly, talking to one another in hushed tones as the people around them went about their days in torrid motion. People now didn?t stop to enjoy things anymore ? they couldn?t. There was no point to life, since it would all end with their generation more than likely, and surviving claimed all occupancy of their minds. But Relena had learned to live again, to hope, even though that hope was fragile. Duo simply loved her enough to allow the agony of her belief in it, and found himself believing in it as he told her what had happened the night before.
?That?s wonderful, Duo. I know that you are probably very confused, and I?m sure she is too, but you have both got to learn to let this go. There is no point in dwelling over things that are too far gone. Love?well, it never fails. It can?t. It??
They both stopped mid-stride and Duo felt the familiar adrenaline rush begin as Relena started to hyperventilate. She reached up to her chest and started breathing quickly as she stared at something in the distance. He reached for his phone, but her hand reached out and grasped his as she shuttered out an ?I?m fine? to him, then pointed in the other direction.
He turned to look and would have not seen anything had his eyes not been so trained. In the alley behind the same restaurant they were in before, he saw Heero embracing a woman. His back was to them, and by the looks of things they were getting it on right there as her arms clawed at his back and he dipped his face down to hers, her legs lifting and wrapping around his hips. Relena whispered his name softly, and somehow, he knew. He turned his face to look at her and his eyes grew dangerous, calculating both of them. Duo took a step toward them, but came to a dead stand still as he saw Hilde across the street, striding toward him with a smile on her face.
He motioned for her to stop and she paused in her walk, realizing too late that she had already stepped out onto the road. A biker came speeding by and clipped her right there on the corner, and Duo watched in horror as she somersaulted across the road from the force of the blow and landed face down several yards away. Relena?s scream registered in his mind, but he choked on his voice and his eyes started to burn. He lost all coherent thought as his body rushed of its own accord toward her, reaching down and pulling her into his arms. He pulled his hand away from the back of her head and it came back smeared with blood.
---
Heero crushed the woman to his chest as a cry gurgled forth out of her throat. He felt several bones cracking within his hold on her and sucked in his breath as he tightened his hold around her once more. He heard someone say his name and snapped his face around to see who had discovered him. Across the street, he saw them both. Recognition flitted across his mind for a moment but then he forgot what it was he had remembered, and when he was satisfied the woman had stopped breathing, he let her fall and slide down to the ground, lifeless.
She had been sent to kill him. He had accomplished his mission, and it was time to go back.
---
When Duo reached the hospital, the paramedics wouldn?t let him see her. He screamed at them and threatened to kill them if they didn?t let him back there, and Relena, surprisingly, was doing the same thing. Zechs and Noin had gathered in the waiting room, as well as Quatre and Dorothy, silent and red-eyed.
He noticed the photographers after about two hours of pacing back and forth. They had crowded around the hospital, and the doctors motioned for him to come in before things got out of hand. He had expected to see Hilde, but was met with a bright, smiling face of the surgeon.
?Tell me what is going on. Why can?t I see my wife? And why are there news vans parked outside? Let me see her!?
?Mr. Maxwell, please. Your wife is in very fragile condition and we will let you see her as soon as she is stabilized. Mr. Maxwell, we ran some tests??
?My name is Duo. What is wrong with her? Is she going to be alright??
?Her injuries were very severe, but we believe she will survive. You need to be made aware of something, however.?
A thousand thoughts flew through his mind. Had she been without oxygen for too long? Was she paralyzed? Was she?
?Duo. Mr. Maxwell. Hello?? The doctor waved his hand in front of his face worriedly, and Duo snapped out of his trance and glared at him.
?Your wife is pregnant.?
