Haunted Life
Part 6
by: Tigress Pern
Archive: GW Addiction (thanks Tyr!)
Warnings: Alternate Universe
Disclaimer: I don't own GW.
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Part Six

Pacing back and forth in tempo with the music he was
listening to, Heero thought. What was up with Trowa?
He'd come home that day looking like someone had
slammed him in the face with a two by four. Heero had
been in the kitchen fixing himself a snack when he
heard the front door open. A moment later he saw
Trowa head to his room. The boy looked more pale than
usual. Heero didn't like that. He hated to admit it,
but he liked Catherine and Trowa. It was nice to have
a family again, even if he wasn't really a member. It
was nice to pretend though. The last time he'd felt
like this was when his grandfather was still alive,
before the money had come rolling in.
His father had hit it big on the stock market. It
had been a gamble and it had paid off. Heero could
remember the exact date everything changed. November
13th, 1993, 3:21 PM. He paused wondering if Trowa or
Catherine Barton knew exactly how much money he was
entitled to when he turned 21. Probably not. He kept
very quiet about that. Grandfather hadn't been a
slouch in his life. He'd built up a large portfolio
of stocks, most of which were now in Heero's name.
Yet he'd never let money interfere with his life.
Heero wished his parents had taken lessons. Money
doesn't buy happiness, nor does it solve all the
world's problems.
"You figured me out - I'm lost and I'm hopeless
I'm bleeding and broken - though I've never spoken
I come undone…" Heero sang along with his CD. The
music helped ease away all the anger and regret that
was welling up inside him. He walked over to his
stereo to turn up the volume just as the phone rang.
He could hear it in the kitchen. Not bothering to
wait for Trowa to answer it, he opened his bedroom
door and stalked up the stairs. Grabbing a hold of
the ivory plastic covered ringing annoyance; he
briefly wondered why Trowa hadn't come out. Something
caught his attention in the corner of his eye.
Something moved and was gone before he could turn.
"Hello?" a worried voice said on the other end
snapping Heero back.
"Hello. May I ask who this is?"
"This is Quatre Winner. I'm Trowa's friend. Listen,
did he make it home all right? He…wasn't feeling
well. I thought I'd check on him." The tension in
the air was thick and Heero wondered what had
happened.
"He came home and went to his room. That was an hour
ago. I haven't seen him since. I can check if you'll
hang on." Heero offered. There was a moment of
silence.
"Would you?" Heero put the receiver down and went to
knock on Trowa's door. There was no response. He
knocked again. Once more there was nothing. He
opened the door and looked about, Trowa wasn't in.
Heero felt the temperature in the room drop. He
shivered and his heart raced. The ghost, he thought.
Quickly he returned to inform Quatre of Trowa's
absence.
"Gone? Oh,….oh….no. I need to find him. I need to
talk to him. I should…." Quatre's words were coming
fast and fearful. "I'm skipping the rest of my violin
lesson. I was taking a break and thought I'd call.
Shit…I never thought. Heero, he probably went out
walking. See if you can find him and bring him back
to the house." Heero didn't understand what was going
on, but he understood fear and panic.
"I'll do that."
"Thank you. I'll meet you out front of the house in
fifteen minutes." He hung up, leaving Heero holding
the receiver and feeling worried. The logical thing
was to search the house first, he told himself. It
took him ten minutes to check every room and call for
Trowa. The entire time he was dogged by a cold
anxious breeze that didn't care what it was doing. It
blew open doors that Heero touched and nearly slammed
open the windows. Heero knew it was the ghost, but he
didn't understand what it was doing. Was it helping
or getting in the way? It didn't compute with what
his grandfather had told him over and over again about
Duo Maxwell.
Grabbing his coat, Heero hurried outside. The chilly
October afternoon seemed almost warm after dealing
with the spirit breeze. He was just opening the front
gate when a blond came huffing up the road. Quatre
had been running, his face red from the strain. He
obviously wasn't a long distance runner, but he didn't
appear to care.
"Have you found him?" Quatre demanded between gasps.
Heero shook his head. "Kuso!"
"What happened?" Heero asked sternly.
"It's complicated."
"So is life. Spill." Quatre stared at Heero with
wide eyes. He glared back at Quatre, his entire
posture commanding Quatre to tell him everything.
Could he trust Heero? Something about his concerned
look told him he could.
"Let's start walking." Heero nodded and they
headed off down the road. Heero kept the pace slow at
first so that Quatre could catch his breath. Also he
hoped that the boy would tell him what was going on.
It wasn't like his employer to go running off, at
least he hoped not.
"It happened about a year and a half ago. Trowa's
mother had been told she had cancer. The doctors
didn't give her much time to live. The family was
devastated. Trowa would come over to my place and
spend the night because he couldn't stand to see his
mother in pain. We always knew when her health got
worse because he would ask to come over.
"One evening, it was really late and he'd been
particularly miserable, we were talking. I don't
remember how we got onto the topic of crushes, but we
did. I remember him saying that he thought I was a
wonderful friend and that he wished we could be more.
The comment blew over my head, I'd missed it
completely until he said he thought I was very good
looking. I joked with him about if he were asking me
out and laughed. He was deathly quiet. Something
told me it wasn't a joke. I reacted badly. I got
defensive. Neither of us slept well and he left first
thing in the morning. I didn't know what to think.
We stopped talking.
"He avoided me in the hallways and withdrew. His
mother's cancer got worse. It was horrible; I can't
imagine how he felt at that time. Somehow I managed
to sum up enough courage to talk to him again. I
avoided the topic of that night; he didn't seem to
mind. After a while I convinced myself that it was
just the strain of his mother's illness. When she
died, he became even more of a ghost. He just
wandered about his day like it was a dream. Then his
father was killed only two months later. It was just
so horrible that I couldn't abandon my friend. He was
and is my friend.
"Up until today, I was still firm in my belief that
the confession was just something he did as an attempt
to reach out for help."
"What happened today?"
"I showed him a picture of a boy and he stated that
the boy was gorgeous." Heero arched one dark eyebrow
at him. "He turned white and withdrew, turning back
into the ghost he'd been almost all of last year. I
should have dealt with Trowa's confession better. If
I had, he wouldn't be out there doing God knows what!
We acted like nothing had happened. With one
accidental, if not truthful, remark he's shattered the
illusion. An illusion created by both of us, but has
mainly hurt him."
Quatre was shaking from anger. Anger that he had not
done something earlier and had just let the wound
fester. Heero watched him with sad eyes.
"We'll find him." he reassured.

* * *

Trowa walked in the front door. It had been locked,
but he didn't remember locking it. He wondered if
Heero had gone out. Right now he didn't care, he was
exhausted both physically and mentally. The walk had
helped clear his head. He would have to talk to
Quatre sooner or later, but maybe it was better for
Quatre to stay in his protective shell. One year and
two months ago he'd admitted he'd had a crush on him
and nearly destroyed their friendship. He wasn't
about to do that again. He didn't know what he'd say,
but he would have to phrase it carefully. He had so
few friends and he planned on keeping the ones he had.
Suddenly Trowa felt as if he was tackled. His body
was slammed backwards with such a force that it nearly
knocked the wind out of him. As he struggled to
regain his breathing he realized how cold it was in
the house.
"You scared me half to death!" Duo's voice proclaimed
loudly. Trowa felt the pressure on his chest shift
but it didn't release him.
"Nani?"
"Don't nani me! You know perfectly well what you
did!"
"No, I don't."
"You come home looking all white, pace about your
room looking like a frightened mouse and mutter things
like 'Oh my God, what am I to do?' and 'I can't fix
this, I've screwed up big this time.' You then go
charging out of here without even telling Heero where
you were going!"
"You were worried?" Trowa inquired not completely
comprehending the ghost.
"You bet your ass I was worried! Can't you tell by
the way that I came flying down the hallway and
tackled you? Of course it would be have been more
dramatic if you could actually see me."
"You know, for a ghost, you're heavy." Trowa groaned.
The pressure fidgeted.
"I am not moving until you apologize. If Catherine
were here, she would insist on one as well." Duo
replied haughtily. Trowa relented.
"I'm sorry to make you worry."
"You made Heero worry too and Quatre. He called,
they went out looking for you about twenty minutes
ago."
"Quatre was worried?" Trowa inquired in disbelief.
"Of course he is. He's your friend. God, what is
your problem?"
"I saw a picture of what you looked like alive."
There was dead silence. The pressure moved off of
Trowa enough to let him stand. He walked towards his
room. Duo didn't say anything.
"How did you get a picture of me?"
"Quatre's grandmother was a senior at the high school
when you died. Your picture was in the yearbook. He
borrowed it from her."
"What is her name?"
"Carol, I believe."
"Carol what?"
"I don't know. But she was a member of the glee
club. Dark blond hair and sea-green eyes."
"I think I remember her." There was a long pause.
"I was a bit eccentric, but I got along with people."
"You had very long hair." Trowa could almost imagine
Duo fiddling with the end of his braid. He wished
he'd been there to see how Duo had looked when he was
alive. His hair had probably been silky soft.
"Yes. I wanted to be like Samson from the old
biblical story. You know Samson and Delilah. He was
strong and powerful because he never cut his hair. I
thought he was so cool. So I never cut it. My
parents didn't care, but the school nearly made me cut
it. My father pointed out there was no rule against
it and they quieted down."
"You were handsome too. I bet you were very popular
with the girls." Trowa added the last bit quickly. He
wasn't sure he should tell Duo all his secrets.
"They were all trying for my class ring. Every
sophomore girl wanted to go steady with me. I didn't
like the idea though." Duo replied. "You thought I
was handsome?" Trowa nodded.
"Thanks, you have no idea how much that means to me."
With that Duo was gone. Trowa felt the air
temperature rise. Strange, he thought. Why did he
leave like that?

* * *

Trowa was safe and at home. Quatre had stayed
through dinner, which seemed to make Trowa nervous.
Heero didn't know what to think about the entire
thing. Quatre seemed like a nice guy and Heero was
already thinking of Trowa as family. When had that
occurred? He'd only been in the house a week and
already he felt like a member of the family. Maybe it
was Catherine's good nature and the way she treated
him exactly like Trowa. Or maybe it was the house.
The breaks slammed on in Heero's mind.
He'd promised his grandfather to protect the next
owners of the house and that was what he was doing.
There was only 'bad karma' in the house and until Duo
Maxwell was gone, it would continue to fester. He'd
already seen it's handy work. Causing Trowa to act
without thinking that day. It had probably affected
Quatre too, but not nearly to the extent it had Trowa.
No, Duo Maxwell's spirit had to go before it caused
irreversible damage.

* * *

Meiran smiled and greeted Trowa as she and Wufei
walked through the doors. It was Saturday and the
four friends were about to conduct another séance.
Meiran hoped that some of the questions she had would
be answered. As they climbed the stairs to the third
floor, they found a glowering Heero waiting for them
at the door.
"Catherine wants us to clean all the rooms on this
floor." He announced. Trowa looked surprised. This
was the first he'd heard about it.
"Catherine?" he called, there wasn't an answer for a
moment, then Catherine poked her head out of Duo's old
room.
"Oh hello everyone. I hope this won't inconvenience
your get together, but these rooms up here really need
to be cleaned. If I could have your help, then it
would go quicker." Trowa couldn't believe his sister.
She knew he planned to spend time with his friends
today, why was she pulling this now? "Look, I
wouldn't ask you, but a friend of mine is coming by to
make suggestions for redecorating the rooms. He is
going out of town for a week on Tuesday, so Monday is
the only time I can get him to come over. It'll only
take a few hours. Please say yes. I mean you've
already done a wonderful job with this room."
Wufei looked at Meiran, who looked to Quatre, and
then all three looked at Trowa.
"It doesn't bother me much." Meiran told Trowa. "I'd
be doing chores at home anyway. At least my mother
can't say I didn't do anything useful today."
"I can stay until dinner." Wufei informed them.
"Same here." Quatre said. Catherine clasped her
hands together.
"Oh, thank you! You don't know how much this means
to us."
"I just hope you plan to make it up to us." Wufei
said snidely. Meiran elbowed him in the ribs.
Catherine smiled.
The cleaning process took most of the afternoon.
Everyone talked easily, occasionally breaking the
monotony of their tasks with silly little games.
Meiran even chased Wufei with a broom, swatting him
for being a jerk. It was all in good fun. Even the
stone faced Heero had to smile at the sight. Trowa
caught his eye and smiled back. Maybe he could
convince Heero that Duo wasn't that bad of a spirit.
After all, he didn't seem to be that bad of a person.
Unfortunately, for all their hard work in the end
they couldn't hold the séance. Catherine, when was
asked if she believed in ghosts since it was nearing
Halloween, told them flat out no. In fact, she didn't
believe in anything supernatural. Therefore, since
she wasn't about to leave them alone, they weren't
able to do any communicating with the dead. Catherine
did say she would get something special for them for
all their hard work that day. She just didn't say
what. Wufei thought it would be great to hold a
Halloween party, but Trowa wasn't so sure. Although,
the idea did have appeal. Trowa showed his friends
out the door and apologized for his sister.
"Don't worry about it Trowa." Meiran assured him.
"Sometimes things just don't go as you planned. See
you on Monday and I hope we fair better on Wednesday."
If not, I can at least talk to him, Trowa reminded
himself.

On to Part 7

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