The First Gift

Trowa's Hiding Residence

When he got there, he opened the door. It was unlocked. "Middie." He started to search to make sure she wasn't just hiding. Did she leave a note where she went, or a clue? Maybe she got paranoid and saw something and left?

Then, he picked up something. A sound, a strangled sound from far away. Trowa headed outward and watched a car start to speed off. He quickly jumped in his. She must have risked getting loose for one second, risked the consequences to make the sound.

It was a huge van, something that wasn't made for speed, so Trowa did have that over them. They probably threw Middie right in the back of it. He punched it further, deciding how he should handle this.

As he watched the passenger woman shoot out toward him with absolute hate in her eyes? "Shoot at me, you are showing enemy colors, no longer just a person who is mistaken!" Taking Middie, a six-month pregnant woman and intent on killing her, that was not a mistake. He grabbed his gun and waited for it. He felt the same kind of anger probably stirring within Duo, except he also had details.

Middie and he knew all of the things they wanted to try on her if they caught her. Death would be the release from the pain if they did it. He watched out for it carefully, and when the passenger tried to take another shot, he was ready this time.

He heard a scream. Definitely nicked her. As he turned the corner, he knew he almost had them, but not very far he saw a group of women stretched out along the road.

Each woman had their arms linked like they were playing red rover. "I have no time for you." He went off the side of the road, knowing he couldn't barrel through people with his car. The women lined far though, much farther than he thought.

He stopped and got out. No one was firing at him, just keeping their hands linked, like they were the ones who were righteous. He wouldn't kill, but he would get them out of the way. He shot at one of them in the foot. They screamed and others came to help, but the line sealed back up against him.

None of them were shooting or going after his car.

"Support of the Loss knows who you are!" Someone finally cried out. "You won't hurt anyone else."

Support of the Loss. "Revenge of the Lost is lying to you," Trowa said to them. "I am trying to save someone, not hurt them." He had just shot someone in the foot, they wouldn't believe him. "Damn." He had no choice. These weren't the bad women, these were the confused group of Support of the Loss, being lied to. He couldn't hurt them anymore, but he couldn't let Middie just go.

He got back in his car, and sped as fast as he could. There were a lot of people in Support of the Loss, but there would eventually be a break and he could get back around.

When he did get to the end, he turned into the empty space, and headed back to the road. It was a long distance, and by the time he got back to the road, he just gunned it as fast as he could.

There wasn't a sign of the vehicle but he couldn't give up. He called up Duo. "Duo, I lost track of Middie. RTL was using STL to create a block against me for too long. Where are you and how can we meet?" Most likely, they would end up taking her to the same spot they took Hilde. He had to join Duo if he had any chance of getting Middie back.

—-

Quatre and Wufei's Hideout

She had done her best. A smile. A cunning look away just right. Her and Quatre had done it, been so fake. They faked it even if they knew they were caught, because faking it was nicer. It was a nice denial when things got rough. It was better.

Dorothy had felt it stirring inside, some part of her knowing since the beginning. The flowers were a nice touch, nothing like a little hope to get the human heart churning to possibilities.

Although it had been a surprise the day she was being arrested, a part of her had hoped that they must know what was wrong with her. When Quatre confessed what it was about, she surely wanted to believe it was the pregnancy that felt wrong. Even then.

Even then. Before they found out the revenge would be the way mothers died, she had told him about only a possible future with them. In reality, she felt no possible future. Every time she coughed, she excused herself like a lady. She tried to hide her feelings, and Quatre tried to play the pretend game too.

The pretend game was always funner with more than one. But? This time, as soon as Quatre walked in and she saw those eyes. Those definite honest eyes that assuredly saw something without the denial of what it was seeing anymore? "Is our game over now?"

Quatre was taken aback slightly, he usually had been. Sometimes he enjoyed their open communication, while at times, it scared him. It scared him because he didn't even have words formed in his head for what he wanted to say. "My personal doctor is coming from the colonies."

Oh? "Well, I guess I couldn't play the part of feeling well good enough?" she asked politely. No answer. Poor Quatre's tender heart. "Keep your doctor near. If I pass from this world, Sand Rock Catalonia Winner has a good chance if there is intervention soon enough."

"It's not fair!" His voice was loud, but not straight, several painful curvatures in the vibration from the crying. "It's not fair, Miss Dorothy, it's not fair."

"Since when has life been fair?" she pointed out. "Every time we smile and see each other, we have felt it. I felt it before you even grabbed me, Quatre Raberba Winner." She felt no such difference in her fate.

"There are some experimental things we can try," Quatre said to her, "and you are all trying all of them, because I can't just lose you like this! It's not right, there's got to be a way to fight back! I'm going to take you to the Maguanacs to meet with my doctor, so I know what's the truth. I am trying to make contact with two other doctors who have successfully had people live over eight months out, and one curing it as late as six months for one person."

"Ooh, the big time spending only a Winner can afford," she teased. That's what it would be.

"We are not giving up. I don't care what it takes, or how I feel, or how we've felt! No more fake smiles."

"Oh, what a pity. I loved the fake smiles," she said honestly. "It's better than tears of sadness every time you look at me. That display you've been trying to hide since the beginning. Quatre." No more fake smiles. "I have felt no difference deep inside, and neither have you."

"I didn't want to risk getting caught, the more I bring you to the attention of everyone, the worse my chances. But, I don't care anymore! How can I not risk getting caught, if it means losing you and Sandrock before I've ever met them?!"

Quatre.

"You had evidence to clear your name. I sent that so you are free, Dorothy," he said. "You know that. I didn't want you to go back because it isn't safe, RTL could still get you."

"RTL doesn't need me. They already won," Dorothy pointed out. "Unless they want to add some kind of torture to everything, which would be tacky, but knowing the source, reasonable to assume they want as well." That didn't make him feel any better. "Just one possible future. It was just a dandelion being blown into the wind." His eyes, were so hurt. "I am hanging on as tight as I can, Quatre. This wheel of life won't knock me off without a fight, and I want to see what my beloved Sandrock looks like too." Well, it only made sense that the name would eventually join Sand and Rock. The child might even just go by Sand, but officially, it would be Sandrock. A legendary child, that she wanted to live long enough to see. That she hoped had not been poisoned too much to see its own grand future.

Ooh? That was a strange gesture. Dorothy looked at the ring on her finger. "My, what a beautiful ring you seem to want to give me. An odd time to fall deeply in love and pronounce marriage, when one is dying. Almost tactless, Mister Winner. Not even flowers or chocolates?"

"No worries," Quatre remarked. "All honors. If you go early, I'll make sure the world doesn't know you as the role you were here as my platinum blondie, you'll be Mrs. Winner, with the reputation to go along with it."

"That's very kind of you. Reputation can mean a great a deal." She took the silly ring off. "That does seem like a foolish thing you would do. Marry as a kind gesture." She pulled herself out of bed. "I'm not accepting some death bed gift, I am still able to walk and talk. Still able to eat, to get around, and still able to enjoy living." She curtsied. "I can even still dance, though I miss it so much." She would take that. "I would much rather have that than a costly ring. Is that a deal, Mister Quatre Raberba Winner?"

She grabbed his hands and started to sway him around. The place wasn't the biggest, so she ducked him through the front room and they danced around the couch. Wufei and Mae-Lin gave them both the oddest look as she navigated them toward the kitchen to find more room.

Anywhere could become a grand ball, if someone knew how to dance just right, and Quatre Raberba Winner had been taught that skill with his noble name. Around the island of the kitchen, dancing around Mei-Lin's odd look, and back toward the room. "Such a lovely dance." Drained though. Too drained. "No regrets at all."

---

Quatre caught her before she fell. Wufei came in. "She's okay, she's just drained. She's always more drained of energy, she just always tried to hide it." He picked her up and put her in bed. He went to the side of the bed where the ring fell, and slid it back on her. "I'm sure you probably think it's silly too, don't you?"

"Not at all," Wufei answered. "Honor is never silly. Are we eating before we head to the Maguanacs? She needs more rest than food. She is pregnant and stressed."

"I'll take food along with us, she'll need extra rest," Quatre admitted. He was just too scared, he didn't feel any better, even with the tea. Neither did she. It was weighing everything down, and he needed to get her seen by real doctors he trusted. He would start with his personal doctor coming down and visiting them over by the Maguanacs. After that, he would get more if he had to. Wufei and Mae-Lin agreed to come too. Wufei was coping with what happened, it wasn't his first tragedy. He didn't even know she was alive, but that clearly didn't help his hurt.

Mei-Lin and him had become more reserved. Mei-Lin never even met his mother, but she seemed to go out of her way to make sure Wufei was taken care of. She cleaned more, she didn't create any arguments, and she'd even prepared special meals for him for the last two days.

The last two days. Trowa had lost Middie Une in the last two days. Wufei's mother had been found and then dying with her last words to him in the last two days. And Dorothy, was lying down a lot more, not talking as much, and overall not showing good signs for a brighter tomorrow.

He had to take a chance to have his doctor look at her. Quatre held her hand. "Never thought I would really experience what my dad must have felt like before I was born." His hands trembled. "Never even knowing if it would happen, or if my mother . . ."

"Not one thing except a name," Wufei said to Quatre. "Six months along, and you never even bought a simple shirt to welcome your own child. With your heart, you would have bought it ages ago if you felt it would actually happen."

Ah, Wufei just had to say it! It cracked Quatre that much more. Six months was a decent amount of time, so why couldn't he believe? "How can I welcome someone into the world when I don't know whether or not they will ever really make it?" He hated to say it. He tried for so long and so hard. "It was even - I mean it's even six months along. Why couldn't I ever just . . .?"

"Aah." Wufei looked shocked. "I get it. There is a reason it was Dorothy Catalonia after all," Wufei said to Quatre. "I didn't see it at first. You two barely even speak to each other and understand things between you."

"Why would that mean it had to be her?" Quatre asked. "I don't understand."

"You two can't grasp the future, you just grasp your emotions," Wufei told him. "Her fear is building in you, and you reflect it right back to her, only increasing it. The more you two have been around each other, the less confident either of you have felt. Break the chain. Strive for it, Quatre." His voice grew. "Change what you feel! Her body is still a body, and treatment is still treatment. Doctors can see her, and things can change! She is not gone from this world yet, she is right here. Still breathing. Still talking. She is even still dancing. You can't just give up because you feel nothing positive from her, you must feel positive and feed that back to her! It could be the stress of this and being pregnant that is affecting her health instead."

Quatre watched Wufei toss a small shirt to him. A very small shirt.

"I fight for what I believe, and I don't think you've nearly fought to the end yet," Wufei told him.

Such a small shirt. "You bought a shirt for Sandrock." The first shirt. The first thing anyone gave. He closed his eyes and brought it close.

"Peace in the war was a bigger illusion than Dorothy dying," Wufei told Quatre. "Don't get your fears mixed up with reality. You have been treating her every day. Don't think anything until you see a real doctor."

Sometimes. Just, sometimes? "You're right, thanks, Wufei." He couldn't see the future, and neither could Dorothy. Their emotions, they were feeding into their own fears. Quatre really needed to hear that. "Nothing's been looked into. No doctors have ever really looked at her since the pregnancy. We are just feeding our own apprehension into each other." Positive. He had to stay positive.

This wasn't over.