Slow and Steady 3

Slow and Steady Part 3

Duo didn't want to pry, and besides, he was still sleeping off the time difference the next morning. The morning after that, however, he managed to arrange to pick Heero up for lunch, and maybe he showed up a little early on purpose, just to scope out Heero's morning session.

The main hospital complex was two blocks over from the Preventers office. Between the two were the hospital's ancillary services, among which was physical therapy. Duo found the right door with little difficulty. It was easily accessible from the outside. He paced around the front for a while before finally finding a spot that put him in just the right place, and then he waited for Heero to notice him, and in the meantime, he watched.

Heero had been wearing long pants the last couple of days when Duo had hung out with him. Understandable, with the temperature controls set to winter simulation. But he was wearing shorts now, and Duo had opportunity to observe his bared legs. The muscle atrophy was not surprising, but he hadn't really thought about it. He wondered how bad it'd gotten, how much muscle they had already put back, or maybe Heero had just had plenty of muscle to lose to begin with.

He lay on his back doing leg exercises under the watchful gaze of his two physical therapists. Once or twice, his leg did not seem to do quite what he asked it to, and he got that little frown on his face, the narrowing of his eyes, the set of his jaw, as he forced it to comply with his will.

One of his PTs waved her hand, signaling the end of the exercise. She asked him a couple of questions, demonstrated something with his foot, and then moved off to say something to the other PT. Heero stretched out slowly before moving to sit up, and in the process, caught sight of Duo in a mirror.

Duo took his raised eyebrow as an invitation to come in. The male PT was just noticing him when Heero spoke. "You're early."

He shrugged, came to within easy speaking distance. "Yeah, well, you know. There isn't a bloody thing to do at my place. And I didn't feel like invading yours." Well, no, there was a TV, and an oddly generous stock of coffee, but he'd had his fill of the morning news feed, and he didn't think Heero would appreciate him showing up hopped up on caffeine.

Heero seemed to concede to the inevitable and gestured over to his PTs. "Krista. Ari. Duo."

Krista smiled widely at the two of them. "Oh, Duo? One of your friends from home, right?"

Duo suppressed a surprised smirk. "My reputation precedes me. Nice to meet you, Krista, Ari."

Ari nodded, extended a hand for a handshake, which Duo accepted. Krista continued. "It's so nice that you came to visit him." She threw a look of some significance at Heero.

"Business trip," Heero answered blandly.

"Hope you don't mind me hanging around for a few minutes." He faced Krista as he said it, but his eyes flicked over to Heero for a moment. Heero let out a little huff as he swung his legs off the low table, which Duo interpreted as a soft sound of amusement.

"As long as Heero doesn't. No? Okay. We're almost done here. Don't think we'll let you get off early."

Heero snorted again. As if he'd ask such a ridiculous favor.

Duo wandered over to the far side of the room to at least pretend to give him some privacy, though he was almost certain Heero knew he'd be watching. After a minute, Krista left the other two to the stretching exercise and wandered over to his side of the room with the pretext of adjusting some equipment for their next patient. Duo obediently started some idle chatter. "So... you two have been working with him since the beginning?"

"Yep. Heero's made amazing progress. It's been pretty awesome to be a part of that."

"Yeah? That's... uh, that's our Heero."

"He said you're here for work? You're with the Preventers, too, then, right?"

"Yup."

"Oh, so... Was this a surprise visit?"

"Yeah. Well, it was a bit last-minute, otherwise I probably would have let him know in advance."

"So was it a surprise for you, too?" she asked, her volume dropping a notch.

Were they talking about a sensitive topic now? Duo dropped his volume to match. "Yeah, you could say that."

"I'm glad you've come," she replied, more softly still. "Well, not that... Heero's been a real trooper this whole time. But it's always good to have the support of friends."

"Yeah, well... he coulda had it sooner if..." He decided against airing his grievances to this woman. Heero seemed pretty comfortable with the two therapists, but still.

She seemed to know a bit of the story anyway. "If it makes you feel better, I think he would have told you soon. If you hadn't showed up. I think he was ready. But it's good you didn't give him the chance to chicken out," she added with a small smile.

He shared a little chuckle with her, but he didn't think they were laughing about the same thing. 'Chicken' was not an epithet commonly applied to Heero Yuy. Though one couldn't help but notice that Heero had somehow managed to avoid mentioning his pet elephant all these months. Was the correct epithet in this case actually 'stubborn ass'? "So hey, I'm gonna be around for the next couple of weeks, probably hanging out with Heero for most of it. He have any bad habits I should discourage or anything?"

"Not that I know of. He's actually been really great."

"Really? Hasn't been pushing too hard or anything?"

"Heh, I can see that you know him well. He's been pushing hard, that's for sure. But rather amazingly, he hasn't pushed anything over the edge yet."

"So... no landmines? No sore points? Nothing?"

"'Fraid not. At least, not now that the cat's out of the bag."

"And you don't need me to convince him of anything? Anything like that?"

"Nope. Everything's under control."

He found himself wondering if Heero had hit his head. "How boring."

She laughed. "He knows it's a marathon, not a sprint."

"Have you ever seen Heero run a marathon?"

"No, but he assures us we will, one day."

Heero coughed his way into the conversation, rolling up in his chair, once more clad in pants. "If you two are done gossiping about me?"