Love-child fic Part 3
"Shit!"
I took off at a flat out run, knowing Heero was gaping after me as I dived into the engine room, thanking all the gods I could think of that it wasn't that far away.
I was even happier it wasn't that far away when just as I reached the door the ship lurched- sending me right into the wall- bad knee first. Yep, that was the autopilot going out... I pushed away from the wall and felt pain flare up from my knee, nearly sending me face-first into the floor. Just as I caught myself the ship lurched again.
Murphy hates me, I know he does.
"Duo!" Heero was in the doorway, his hands reaching out for me.
"It's the autopilot! Take manual control!" I shouted, hoping Heero wouldn't argue. I heard him run back down the hallway and sighed in relief. A minute later, the ship stopped rocking and I was able to move again.
I managed to limp over to the right control panel, but it hurt like hell and I relieved my feeling by cursing a blue streak as I worked.
Luckily it was a quick fix- and I had learned to keep the supplies I needed right by some of the parts that tended to be quirky. Once I finished I limped over to the door.
"Turn the autopilot back on!"
"It's on!" Heero called a moment later. I waited, hanging onto the doorframe, but the ship seemed to be behaving. I sighed in relief.
I limped down the hallway making a mental note to adjust the gravity. I had it on full, but maybe Heero wouldn't mind going half for a bit- at least until my knee stopped hurting.
"What the hell?" Heero demanded as I reached the main cabin. "What's wrong with your leg?"
"Autopilot?"
"It's fine. Working normally again. Unlike your leg. What happened?"
"I hit the wall."
"Knee first?"
"Pretty much."
He swore and reached for the gravity control. "Half?" He asked me and I nodded, relieved.
"It'd be easier."
"Zero would be easier, but you'd more than likely collide with a wall again." Heero snorted and adjusted the gravity. The pain receded a little as my weight eased off. I sighed and headed for my chair, but Heero grabbed my wrist.
"What are you doing?" I asked as he nearly lifted me all the way off my feet.
"We're going to take care of your knee," he informed me and started to tug me down the hallway to my cabin.
"I'm okay!"
"It's swelling."
"It's..." I looked down at it. Damn it. "Okay, yeah, but it's not bad!"
"Duo-" he looked at me over his shoulder. "Shut up."
The expression on his face told me that I wouldn't win, so I did as he asked and closed my mouth. Once we reached my cabin Heero deposited me on my bed and frowned. "Ice or heat?"
"Heat. I have a pad somewhere..." I leaned over to open a drawer, but Heero batted my hands away. The pad was found and dropped on my bed. I thought he'd leave me alone, so I was a little surprised when he reached for my belt buckle.
"What are you doing?" I yelped and tried to move out of range.
"What does it look like?" He asked as he caught me by a belt loop and undid the buckle. "I'm undressing you so I can reach your knee."
"I can undress myself!" I protested, squashing a strange feeling of disappointment.
"It's going to hurt pulling these off over your knee," he countered as he yanked off my belt. I moved my hand in the way before he could get to the zipper. I admit I'd had quite a few fantasies about Heero undressing me but this was nothing like I pictured.
Okay, so the 'determined to get the clothing off no matter what' part was close, but still...
"I can really handle it from here!" I grumped as I slid my jeans off over my hips, thankful that I had put underwear on. Sure enough, the jeans got stuck right above my knee. It had swollen up pretty badly. I was tempted to just leave them on, but Heero just snorted and gently helped me get the jeans off the rest of the way. "Why are you being so pushy?" I asked him; mostly to forget about the fact I was sitting half naked on my bed with Heero less than a foot away. Knee or no knee, the rest of me was pretty happy with the situation. Damn hormones.
"You were going to ignore your injury," he said as he wrapped the heating pad around my knee and switched it on. "That would've made things worse." He straightened up, grabbing my blanket as he did so and tossed it over me. Thank god. "Stay here, don't move. I've got things under control. If you need to move, call me."
For a moment I considered asking him when he had turned into such a mother hen. But I was pretty fond of my liver and didn't want him tearing it out through my throat, so I kept the question to myself. "I'll be fine in a few hours." I told him and he raised an eyebrow at me.
"We'll see." He said and vanished down the hallway.
I flopped back on my bed, wanting to sulk, but at the same time feeling oddly- happy? How silly was that? Just because Heero showed some concern for me. He was just taking his job as copilot seriously, that's all. Showing me how well he did the job. That's all it was.
I sighed and let my eyes rest on the scribbled ceiling above me.
"-What power would hell have if those imprisoned here would not be able to dream of heaven?"
How often had I dreamed of having Heero with me? Wanted him here? I should be grateful to have what I could. Wishing for anything else was useless.
I must've dozed off, because the next thing I knew, Heero was leaning over me shaking my shoulder.
"What?" I blinked up at him. "What's wrong?"
"How's your knee?" Flipping back the blankets, he glared at my offending joint.
"Fine," I said and then winced as he poked at it. "Better," I amended and he scowled. "How are things going?"
"Well, there's a weird noise coming from the cargo hold- should I be worried or is that normal?"
"What kind of weird noise?" The cargo hold didn't have any problems that I knew about. I started to slide to the edge of the bed, but Heero put himself in the way.
"Scratching. I checked all panels- everything says status is normal. Even checked the speakers to see if there was a problem with them. Nothing."
"Did you go in?"
"It's on a coded lock."
"Right." I had forgotten about that. Sometimes I traveled without pressurizing the cargo hold, so regulations said it needed to be on a coded lock- just in case someone wanted to go for a walk in the wrong area.
"I'll come unlock it."
"Or you could just give me the code." Heero cast a glance at my knee. "I am the copilot, right?"
"Ah right. Sorry- I just- I'm still getting used to the idea." I felt like an idiot. Giving Heero the code did make the most sense- and it wasn't like he'd misuse it. I rattled it off and he got to his feet.
"Eat your lunch, I'll be right back."
But he wasn't. I expected him to be back in five minutes. At fifteen I decided to go look for him. Was something wrong with the ship? Heero didn't know all of her quirks yet. Was he trying to fix her? Had something gone wrong? I was all too aware of how easy it was to die out here...
Unwrapping my knee I made my careful way down the corridor. My knee hurt like hell, but it was a familiar pain. One I could block out if needed.
Heero was in the cargo hold staring at the crate. He turned at my step and I saw his eyes go wide. "Duo! What are you doing?"
"You didn't come back!"
"Sorry," he apologized as he moved quickly to my side. "I was just trying to track down the sound. Do you hear it?"
We stood silently for a moment and I strained my ears. Sure enough- it was a scratching noise.
"What the hell is that?"
Heero frowned. "I don't know, but it's coming from inside the crate."
TBC...
** Sandman quote
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