Decision

Decision

Duo was having a sleepless night. The pain in his stomach was keeping him up all night. He tried not to disturb Heero who was sleeping soundly next to him. He got up slowly from the bed and headed for the bathroom.

Duo washed his face with the cold water and held tightly onto the basin.

"Is this supposed to be part of pregnancy?"

He touched the bulge on his stomach and whispered softly, "Are you all right in there, my child? What is wrong?"

Suddenly he felt sharp stab of pain in his stomach and grimaced.

The pain was getting unbearable.

"Heero……Heero!" Duo cried out.

Heero bolted out of bed immediately and ran into the bathroom. Seeing Duo crouched at the bathroom floor, Heero rushed over to his side.

"Duo, are you all right?"

Duo shook his head and rasped, "I feel terrible, pain…..very painful."

Heero held him close. "Is it the baby?"

Duo began to gasp for breath and winced as he felt another sharp stab of pain.

"I…I don't know. I'm scared, Heero."

"Don't worry, I will take you to the hospital now."

Heero picked Duo up in his arms and rushed out of the house.

=============

Heero stood at the corridor outside the emergency room in distress as he watched the doctors and nurses running in and out of Duo's ward. He had wanted to follow Duo into the ward but the nurses chased him out.

"Please wait outside, we will take care of him. Please don't get in our way."

Heero had never felt this worried before. He was scared. 'What is happening to Duo and the baby?'

"Excuse me, you are Heero Yuy, patient Duo Maxwell's er….next-of-kin?"

Heero looked up to see a doctor standing before him and nodded solemnly.

"I am Doctor Maria, a gynecologist of this hospital. Mr. Maxwell is in a very critical and unstable condition now."

"What happened?"

"Well, the baby's position is wrong. This might cause a stillborn and could endanger the patient's life. We will have to perform a Caesarian now to take out the baby." the gynecologist explained.

"But the baby is only seven months now, not full term yet. Taking it out now means….."

"There are chances that the baby might survived. But I want to make it very clear to you that there are risks involved, especially since the patient is a…male. I hope you understand what I mean. So, if complication arises, we need to know who do you want us to give priority to."

Heero stared at the doctor in confusion.

"You…you mean you can only save one of them?"

"If the condition of the patient is critical, I'm afraid that is all we can do," the doctor said in a sad voice.

Heero sank wearily onto a bench nearby.

The doctor observed the teenager closely. Although his face betrayed no emotions, she knew that he was actually very nervous and worried and she thought she saw a frown crossed his face briefly. She felt pity for him.

"I know this is a very tough decision to make but we need your answer. Tell you what, I will go and check on the patient again while you decide. But please make it fast."

The doctor disappeared into the ward again.

Heero's mind was in a torment. 'Why this?'

He had been skeptical about having a child because he didn't want to put Duo into any form of danger since the male pregnancy technology was still new, still under evaluation but Duo insisted. He was very adamant about the decision to have the baby. Heero understood that Duo had longed for a child very much. But now……

"What should I do? Who should I save? Duo loves the baby very much, he would hate me if I give up the child. But I got to save Duo's life as well." Heero groaned and clutched at his head helplessly.

Images of their happy times together flashed in his mind. It took them two wars for them to finally be together, two years for Heero to finally opened up his heart to Duo. He couldn't lose him now, not ever.

"I got to save Duo. We can always have another baby." Heero reasoned.

The doctor rushed up to Heero again.

"Mr. Yuy, have you come to a decision? We can't delay this any longer."

"Please save Duo if things don't turn out right." the Japanese boy instructed solemnly.

The doctor nodded in acknowledgement.

"Here, I need you to sign this consent paper for the operation."

Heero stared at the paper and put down his signature with a heavy heart.

"Don't worry, we will do our best to save both of them."

"Please do."

=============

Hours had passed, dawn was approaching. The first light of the day was breaking across the night sky. To Heero who was waiting impatiently outside the operation theatre, that was the longest time of his life. He hated the hospital and he hated these long waits.

Just some eight months ago, he was also waiting outside an operation theatre at the medical research center. He had accompanied Duo to the medical research center for the implant of the embryo. Duo was very pleased with the results of the implant and he had taken great care of the growing life form in him. He had even abandoned his love for junk food and started eating nutritious food for the sake of the baby.

'You mustn't leave me now, Duo. You will survive this, you must.'

After what seemed to be eternity, the operation theatre's doors suddenly burst opened and the doctor walked out excitedly, pushing a cart-like thing towards Heero.

"Congratulations, Mr. Yuy! It's a girl!" the doctor said, beaming.

Heero looked at the tiny little baby who was sleeping soundly in the incubator, skin still red and wrinkled, eyes closed tightly.

"This….this is my daughter?"

"Yes. This is your bundle of joy. Isn't she beautiful?"

"What about Duo? What happened to him?" Heero asked in anguished voice.

"He is all right. We managed to save both of them."

"He is all right? Both of them?" Heero stared at the baby again. He had never seen anything so tiny, so vulnerable before.

"Yes, we will push him to his ward shortly. Meanwhile, this little angel will have to stay in the nursery for sometime for our observation. She is after all a premature baby and we need to keep her under constant observation until we are sure that she is stable." the doctor explained excitedly. This was her first experience in delivering a baby from a pregnant male patient.

Heero could only nod, he was speechless. He had never felt more relieved.

'Like Duo would have said, this is a miracle.'

=============

It had been an hour since the anesthetic had passed but Duo has not woke up yet. Heero kept vigil by his bed. He brushed Duo's bangs from his forehead and caressed his cheek lovingly. The baby looked just like Duo when she was sleeping. So peaceful, so angelic. Heero hated the thought of losing Duo. Without him, he would be lost forever.

He heard a soft moan and sprang up immediately.

"Duo?"

The American boy opened his eyes slowly. The anesthetic still caused him some grogginess. Slowly, his vision began to focus and he saw Heero's worried-stricken face.

"Hi, lover." Duo called out softly, grinning a little.

"Hi, how are you feeling?" Heero smiled at his cheerfulness.

"A little groggy and a slight pain. Otherwise, ok I guess."

"Glad to hear that." Heero kissed his forehead. Duo smiled at that gesture. Heero was not one who will display his affection openly but he had always tried to lavish them on Duo.

Then Duo realized something.

"Oh, where is the baby? What happened to my baby?" Duo asked anxiously, feeling the bulge on his stomach gone. He tried to get up.

Heero held him down.

"Calm down, Duo. She is in the nursery, she is doing fine."

"She? It's a girl?"

"Yes. A beautiful angel, just like you."

Duo lay back down on his bed and stared at the ceiling with a dreamy look in his eyes.

"A girl, my daughter."

"Duo?"

"Hmm..." Duo turned and saw Heero slipping a ring onto his ring finger.

"What is this for?"

Heero held his hand. "You promised to marry me after the child is born. So, this is it."

Duo looked at the gleaming ring on his finger. He had waited so long for this but …….

"Are you sure? You really want me?"

Heero blinked at him for a moment before turning perplexed.

"Baka, of course I want you. You still doubt my feelings for you? You promised me. You are not thinking of backing out, are you?" A hint of panic crept into his voice.

Duo smiled and shook his head. "No, I'm not. I just want to be sure. I don't want to be an unwed parent and I definitely wouldn't want my baby to be considered as a child born out of wedlock."

Heero kissed him softly on the lips. "You are such a baka."

Duo licked at his lips and grinned. "I know, I'm always your baka."

Heero scowled at him in mock annoyance.

"Heero, I want to see the baby."

"You are still weak, you need to rest. I will take you to see her tomorrow."

"No, I want to see her now. Please, Heero." Duo begged.

Heero looked at the pleading violet eyes and knew that he could never denied this lovely boy anything.

"All right, I will go get a wheelchair."

=============

Heero pushed Duo in a wheelchair towards the baby's nursery. As they approached the nursery, they heard babies' cries filled the air.

"Such tiny lungs but such loud cries." Heero smirked. These baby things were still a wonder to him.

Duo could hardly sit still, anxious to see his precious little darling. The nurse-in-charge looked up as they entered the nursery.

"What are you doing here? You just had an operation, you should be resting." the nurse frowned disapprovingly at them.

"Oh, I only wanted to see my baby. I won't take long, just a look will do. Please?" Duo turned his puppy pleading eyes to the nurse.

The nurse relented. "All right but only for a while. I don't want to be caught by the matron."

"Thank you, you are most kind."

Once again, Duo Maxwell's charms had worked. Heero smirked again as he pushed Duo towards the incubator.

Duo pushed himself up from the wheelchair to peek into the incubator. Heero put his arm around Duo's waist and supported him up.

Duo held his breath and whispered, "She is beautiful. Heero, look at her, she is so sweet."

Duo turned to Heero, his eyes brimmed with tears of joy.

Heero tightened his hold on Duo. "Yes, she is. I told you she is just like you."

"Our daughter, our baby." Duo muttered softly.

"What are you going to name her?" Heero chuckled as the baby kicked a little in her sleep with the cute little mittens and booties on her hands and feet.

"How about Rachel? Naive and innocent."

"Innocent?"

"Yeah, she is the innocent part of our lives, the part that is not smeared by war or sorrow. I don't ever want her to suffer any of the horrors of the war that we went through."

"I will never let her suffer any of those. I will protect her with all of my life." Heero vowed silently in his heart.

=============

Heero crawled under the covers and hugged Duo tightly to him. Duo snuggled closer, wrapping his arm around Heero. They had a very tiring day fussing over the baby, went out shopping for diapers, baby formula, pacifier, etc. Duo laughed when Heero bought the baby a lovely romper.

"Heero, she has to be at least one before she can wear that."

Suddenly, Rachel began to wail in her crib. Duo nudged at Heero.

"Heero, wake up. Rachel is crying. Go see what she wants."

"You go." Heero muttered sleepily.

Duo frowned. "I thought we had agreed on this. I will take care of her on Monday, Wednesday and Friday while you will tend to her on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. We share the load on Sunday. Today is Thursday, so it's your turn. Go now."

Heero got up from the bed grumpily and walked to the crib.

"Rachel, what's wrong? Are you hungry? Oh, you dropped your pacifier. Here it is." Heero placed the pacifier in the baby's mouth and the baby quiet down immediately.

Duo watched from the bed and smiled as Heero rocked the crib, coaxing the baby to sleep.

"He is going to be a great daddy."

~~ The End ~~