Mission Aftermath 

-----part 1-----

"Heero," Duo pleaded from his bed as Heero worked at his laptop. "Hold me, 
please?"

"Hn." Heero continued to work. 

"Heero! Please?" Duo's plea had a tone of urgency to it, but Heero ignored it 
all the same. "Okay... never mind. I thought I meant something to you." he 
coughed, softly, keeping his mouth shut, swallowing the blood that rose into his 
mouth.

"You should do something for your cold." Heero observed. "Don't want you getting 
sick and ruining the next mission, too."

"Of course we don't." Duo agreed. 

"Duo, you should be more careful during missions, too. You could've been killed."

"I was." Duo whispered as he closed his eyes.

-----part 2-----

"Baka," Heero grumbled as he closed his laptop and turned, "if you'd been killed 
during the mission, you wouldn't..." 

His words froze in his throat as he saw Duo lying there, head lolled to one side, 
blood trickling out of his mouth. "NO!" he screamed. 

He raced to the nearest phone and called Quatre's medical team. Then he raced 
back over to the bed. He slapped Duo, urgently trying to wake him up. //If I can 
wake him up, he'll be okay.// he told himself. "Please, wake up, Duo!"

Quatre jolted awake, sensing that the usually too-calm Perfect Soldier was on 
the verge of an emotional breakdown. He wondered why for a moment, then it 
clicked. "Oh no." he said, mostly to himself, though Trowa could hear, "Duo." 

He got out of bed and raced to Heero and Duo's room with Trowa following just 
behind.

The noise woke Wufei who joined them, complaining about the injustice of his 
sleep being interrupted. They converged at Duo's and Heero's room.

"I sensed Heero earlier," Quatre explained, "I think something might be wrong 
with Duo. We all saw Deathscythe get hit in the battle today. I did see Duo 
staggering, but I thought he was just dazed from getting knocked around in the 
cockpit of his Gundam."

"So did I." Trowa agreed as he and Wufei followed Quatre into the bedroom.

Heero spun around. "Quatre," he said. "for a moment I thought you might be the 
medical team I called."

Quatre saw the blood and closed his eyes, feeling for Duo's presence. At first, 
he couldn't feel it, then he did, faint but still there. 

"We have to hurry." he told the others. "I can barely sense him." 

-----TBC-----