Heero struggled to plan an escape as O'Doul led him down the barren hallway, the gun digging none too gently into his spine. His sleeplessness had finally caught up with him; even when he was a gundam pilot, he had needed rest. He had never managed to function a week without any.
The part of his brain devoted to survival had shut down, and the adrenaline and anger that had fueled him had worn off under this new threat. He even stumbled once or twice as they descended the stairs. Disgraceful!
As if reading his mind, O'Doul sighed. "Didn't I tell ye to get some sleep? Egads, man, do ye have some complex that keeps ye from..."
Heero tuned O'Doul's ramblings out. His enemy was distracted, and he knew he should take advantage of it. But every time he tried to concentrate on an idea, O'Doul's voice would break through and distract him. He doubted that he could even walk and chew gum at the same time in the state he was in.
As they passed through the sanctuary, Heero noticed the nun still sitting in the front pew. He opened his mouth to call to her, but thought better of it. How would involving her help? If he did, he would probably end up getting them both killed.
They shouldered their way outside, and O'Doul patted him on the head. "Good boy. I would've had to shoot her if ye'd said anythin'. And I would have hated so much to kill a nun."
Heero grunted, only partially listening. He was more concerned with the steep set of stairs they now had to tackle and how to avoid stumbling and falling all the way to the bottom.
Suddenly he had a plan.
Heero safely maneuvered the first dozen steps before his foot missed a step in a stumble not entirely feigned. He started to fall and reached backwards for O'Doul's arm, dragging the Irishman down with him. Every step he hit jarred pain through his body, and he knew that he would have a nice collection of bruises if he survived.
His plan had been fairly simple. Fall, take O'Doul with him, and hope the bastard hit his head or broke his neck somewhere along the way. Luck, however, was not on his side.
As he lay at the base of the steps, staring up at the noonday sun and marveling at the wonderful blue of the sky, O'Doul entered his sight, gun in hand, and an angry frown on his face.
"Nice move, but your follow-through needs work." He kicked Heero's side. Heero used the force of the kick to roll away and tried to get his feet under him. His right obeyed; but when he placed weight on his left, it buckled, agony shooting up from his knee. Something was most definitely broken.
O'Doul clucked his tongue, shaking his head and aiming at Heero. "I'm not about to drag a lame man with me, so I guess this is where we part ways."
Heero heard the gunshot and braced himself for the bullet. Feeling nothing, he opened his eyes.
O'Doul was bent over, clutching his left thigh and breathing heavily. A second shot rang out, and he dropped the gun, hissing in pain.
Heero turned towards the source of the shots. The nun from inside was standing on the steps, holding a gun aimed at O'Doul, and now that Heero had time to study her, he realized she wasn't a nun. She wasn't even a she. "Duo?"
Duo grinned and tossed his braid over his shoulder. "Hey, Heero buddy! Bet you're glad we're here." He dropped the gun into a pocket of his habit and skipped down the remainder of the stairs.
O'Doul, seizing the opportunity to run, whirled around. But came to a crashing halt at the sight of the gun pointed at his forehead.
Wufei smirked at him over the barrel. "I don't think so."
Heero stood with Duo's help and nodded to Wufei. "Thanks."
Duo protested, "Hey! It was my idea to follow you!"
The barest hint of a smile touched Heero's lips, but he slumped forward, unconscious, before he could reply.
Six weeks later-
The Harley sped through traffic, coming dangerously close to other vehicles as it weaved in and out of lanes. Heero ignored the screamed obscenities and rude gestures that resulted. Life was too good to be ruined by inconsequential things like that.
After O'Doul had been questioned, the reason behind the attacks on Relena and Dorothy had been revealed. The original attack, Relena's failed assassination, was actually supposed to kill Dorothy. Relena had simply had the misfortune of stepping into the bullet's path. O'Doul had given them the name of the sniper, and within hours, he had been arrested.
O'Doul had originally claimed he wanted Dorothy dead to regain the glory of the White Fang, but after further questioning, he admitted that although he was slightly miffed for Dorothy's actions on Libra, he had basically been bored and had figured that the death of a former White Fang leader would jump-start his flagging mercenary career.
Heero curled his lip in disgust. O'Doul had almost killed Dorothy out of boredom. It really was too bad that Une had decided to turn the question of O'Doul's sentencing over to a civil court. He could have come up with some interesting punishments that would have been painful to O'Doul and would have satisfied his need for revenge. Oh well, one can't have everything.
Heero's mood lightened considerably as his thoughts turned to Dorothy. She was being released today, and the first thing he was going to do was sweep her into his arms and kiss her, all the while telling her how much he loved her... Or well, maybe not. But at the very least, he was going to give her some flowers. In fact, he was on his way to the florist's right now. Now what to get... daisies? No, not a Dorothy flower. Carnations? Weren't they used for funerals? Roses maybe? No, too strong a message...
A faint ringing reached his ears, and Heero pulled off the road to answer his cell phone. "Heero Yuy."
"Sir," a cool, yet not unkind, female voice spoke, "I'm calling about Miss Catalonia. She's had... I'm sorry, sir. If you could come to the hospital immediately..."
Heero switched the cell phone off and drove back onto the road, whipping around in a U-turn and causing more cursing and blaring horns. Amazingly enough, he avoided any collisions (partially due to the large berth drivers were giving him).
He reached the hospital and ran in, not bothering to park. He ran up to Dorothy's room, now so familiar because of his daily visits, halting abruptly at the sight that greeted him.
A white sheet covered the form on the bed. Heero moved forward haltingly. "Dorothy, no," he breathed. "How-? I'm sorry, so sorry." He reached out to take hold of the edge of the sheet and jumped when it was suddenly thrown back.
Dorothy smirked at him as she sat up. "An apology form Heero Yuy. I never thought I'd live to hear it." She tilted her head to the side and chewed on her bottom lip. "Although I suppose I did have to die."
Heero scowled. "They let patients make prank calls from hospital phones?"
"Oh, Heero! I was just trying to get you here as soon as possible. Besides, I didn't call."
Laughter behind him caused Heero to turn. Sally Po grinned at him from the doorway, Duo's mischievous face visible over her shoulder. "I will admit that I was the one who called. Duo put me up to it though."
A pout replaced Duo's smile. "That's it! Place all the blame on me! I'm hurt!"
Dorothy grabbed Heero's arm and used it to pull herself to her feet. "I'm curious. What exactly were you apologizing for?"
Heero regarded her in silence for a moment. "Well..." He looked away. "The kiss..."
Dorothy sighed. "You're still hung up over that? Geez, Heero, and I thought you kept coming here because you hated me. In hindsight, I rather enjoyed it. Now I'm tired of hospital food, you can treat me to lunch, and we can discuss the dynamics of our relationship. And you can kiss me some more if you so choose..." Dorothy and Heero wandered out of the room and down the hall, Dorothy's voice fading as soon as they reached the elevator.
Duo stared after them. "They have a... strange relationship."
Sally shrugged. "Yeah, but they were working together under strange circumstances."
Duo nodded. "So, lunch?"
"Sure." Sally took his arm, and they sauntered after Dorothy and Heero.
AN: How was that for sappy? Heero thinking of flowers? Come on, I am so lame! ^_^ Um... well, the ending was pseuso-inspired by Street Fighter... well, actually the whole "dead body" under the sheet and reckless driving was directly taken from it, but hey! At least Heero didn't jump on Dorothy and start tickling her. (At least, I think that's what happened...) Oh yeah, PSA time... Children, always drive responsibly. Don't exceed the speed limit and don't purposely cause other drivers coronaries. ^_^
Um... I think that's about it. It's over, please just send me some form of criticism telling how me how terrible I am. Go on, shoo, go away, it's over. Nothing more to see here. Move along, move along...
Lady Pyro