Author: KatiKat
Warnings: AU, chibis, angst
Rating: PG
Pairings: 1+2
Archives: KatiKat and Friends
Disclaimer: All standard disclaimers apply here.
Notes: This is another part of my Orphanage Kids series. It's a direct sequel to 'One Moment in Time' since I thought that the fic seemed kinda incomplete, that the kids wouldn't be able to just bounce back from this one. So I thought about completing this plot before moving to another one. My big thank you goes to my wonderful beta - DMx04 :)
Hurting
"Ah, Mary... I really don't know what I should do anymore," Helen sighed, her voice tired and sad. She was standing by the window, where she could overlook the small garden that laid behind the orphanage. There under the big oak tree, her two favourite boys sat. Just looking at them made her heart ache.
The other occupant of the room, a tall, sophisticated woman dressed in grey flannel, with her hair tied in a bun on the nape of her neck - came closer. She stood next to her friend and looked out of the window too. "You are doing everything you can, my friend."
Helen looked at her. "Am I?"
Mary touched the nun's shoulder. "Helen, you love them, you are there for them, you would die for them. There is nothing more you could do."
Helen shook her head and looked down at the boys again. Heero sat in a comfortable padded chair, bundled up in blankets. Even from this distance, she could see how pale he still was. Next to him on a plain wooden chair, his best friend, Duo Maxwell sat. But everything that was Duo - his brightness and cheerfulness - was gone now. His face as pale as his friend's, drawn, no smile in sight except the ones he gave his friend. Seeing Duo glare at one of the boys who was playing with a ball and came too close to them, she sighed. "It's not enough. I can't reach them. Heero isn't responding to anybody but Duo. He didn't say a word to me or anybody else since he got out of the hospital. Not even the psychologists we brought him to know what to do with him anymore. And Duo? He won't move away from Heero. He has to have him in sight at all times. They are like Siamese twins. They were inseparable before but now... When I came to the hospital for Duo because they'd discharged him...I've never seen him so angry, furious. He was screaming and fighting me. He didn't want to leave Heero. Heavens, Mary, he tore away from me and ran out into the street," she said, her throat painfully tight. "He doesn't care anymore for anything besides Heero. When we sent him to school, it was a disaster. The Principal called us to come for him because he beat up some boy. He broke the boy's nose, Mary!" She blinked a couple of times to get rid of the tears that gathered in her eyes. She turned her head and looked out of the window. "The boy's parents demanded that he be expelled immediately. Said he is dangerous. Fortunately, the Principal managed to explain what happened. They understood, but demanded he not come back until his problems are solved, otherwise they will sue the school." She sighed again and pressed her forehead against the cool glass.
"Duo reacts really strongly to everything that happened. What about Heero?" Mary asked. She was studying the two boys in the shade, watching Duo fuss over his friend.
"It's hard to say. He keeps everything hidden. The only reaction you can get out of him is when you separate him from Duo. The last time that happened, he was on the verge of a panic attack. It's as if they lived in their own world, you know, completely separated from the outside, where only the two of them exist."
"What did the other therapists say?" Mary folded her hands on her chest.
"Nothing much. Something about typical signs of PTSD, but that was all. Every time they thought they made a breakthrough, they hit another wall." The frustration was clearly palpable in Helen's voice.
"Why didn't you continue to visit them? You know how substantial professional help is in these cases," Mary gently reprimanded her friend.
"I know but... The boys reacted badly to them. Duo got hostile and Heero just clamped down." She shook her head. "You are my last hope, Mary." Helen turned to the other woman. "They know you. They trust you and you are an excellent psychologist. I know that you are not practicing anymore, but you were there when Heero was brought here. You know his background and Duo's too." Helen reached out and touched her friend's shoulder. "You are the only one Duo talked to after Solo died..." she reminded her.
Mary sighed. She knew that Helen was probably right. She remembered how she took care of Duo after his friend, the boy he called brother, Solo died of cancer. Unfortunately, it was him who discovered the dead boy. Her heart still ached when she remembered being brought to the distraught boy who refused to let go of his friend, urging him to wake up over and over again. It took a lot out of her to put the broken boy back together. And now they were back almost in the same situation.
"Helen, I would like to help, but I too consider these boys my family. I might be too emotionally involved to be objective enough. There are excellent specialists I can recommend you..."
"Mary please..." the nun interrupted her. "Please talk to them. Just try it, okay? If it doesn't work, I will do everything you will say. Just... I'm desperate here... Please."
Mary regarded her old friend, then looked out of the window at the two small boys damaged by an experience that had the power to destroy an adult and not just two 6-year-olds. Her heart went out to them.
"All right. I will try," she gave in.
~*~
Mary crossed the lawn, and headed in the direction of the big oak tree standing proudly in the middle of the garden. Some of the children shouted a greeting to her and she waved to them. When she came closer to the tree, she slowed her pace deliberately but still she saw Duo move closer to his injured friend and Heero glare at her. This wouldn't be easy... but she didn't expect it to be.
When she got to them, she smiled gently and dropped to her knees, heedless of the stains that immediately appeared on her light grey trousers. "Hello, Heero. Hello, Duo," she greeted them. "Do you remember me?"
For a long moment the boys just looked at her, then Duo nodded slowly. "'f course, Mrs. Mary," he said quietly. "You had the cute stuffed puppy in y'r office."
She nodded, remembering the big black and white stuffed puppy with long floppy ears she used in her therapy sessions. "Bonzo. He misses you. Would you like to visit Bonzo again?" she asked, holding her breath.
Duo frowned. "'ro doesn't know Bonzo. 'e said 'e wasn't there when 'e was there."
"Bonzo was with his friends at that time, but now he is back. Would you like to introduce Bonzo to Heero?" She looked at Heero, and saw the tiny flicker of interest pass through his eyes. Maybe...
Duo looked at his friend, then at her, then back to him. "I think 'ro 'uld like to meet Bonzo," he said reluctantly in the end.
She smiled, and turned to the pale looking Japanese boy. "What do you think, Heero? Would you like to meet Bonzo?"
She noticed how much effort he put into maintaining the scowl on his face. After a while when she didn't push or insist, the scowl lifted just a little to reveal the true hurting boy beneath it. "'kay..." he whispered finally, looking away immediately.
She smiled again. The first step - no matter how small - had been made. But the journey ahead of them was long.
OWARI
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