Chapter 3
minus 214 days
Wufei had been in the bathroom for 20 minutes when the guards went to check on him. And all the hell broke loose. He was moved immediately to the hospital ward. Wufei was unconscious the whole time, when they pumped his stomach and did everything they could to keep him breathing and the pregnancy going. Finally they managed to stabilise him and he shifted from deep unconscious state to drugged sleep. The danger was over but they continued to monitor the fetus. The most dangerous substance that Wufei had digested had actually been the soap, which produced a high fever, making him tremble under the blankets.
The scientists kept an emergency meeting and made a decision to add a strong anti-depressant in the subject's medication. The medication was already heavier than originally planned, with vitamins, anti-nausea medication, anti-rejection meds, cortisone, muscle relaxants and a loadful of hormones that spread slowly in the subject's blood from the capsules planted under his skin. Anti-depressant was still better than sedatives, because he should be kept mobile and active as long as possible for the sake of the child.
minus 206 days
Wufei woke up slowly. The lights hurt. Everything hurt. He tried to lift his hand to shadow his eyes just to find out that they were secured in the bed rails. Oh shit. Something was deeply wrong here. Something he was supposed to do. Then he remembered. Oh fuck. It didn't work, then. Too little time to digest the shit. He lifted his head when he heard steps. It was the bitch again.
"Hi, Wufei. I'm glad to find you awake."
She sat down in Wufei's bed. She seemed to be lost in words.
"I'm very disappointed, Wufei. I thought you were in high spirits. How could you try something like that?"
Wufei had enough of acting. He turned his eyes to the bitch.
"How could I not? You really think I would let you tamper me without doing something about it. You stupid bitch! Who do you think you are coming here and saying how disappointed you are! Well, I'm disappointed, too, because I didn't succeed. Now get out of my sight, bitch!"
A moment she looked like she would cry, but then her face hardened.
"You fool! I was just trying to be nice! You are an evil man and should be punished of what you almost did! I hope you never see the baby when it is born!"
She stormed out of the room. Wufei sighted. What a foolish woman. Like he wanted to see the thing.
minus 204 days
He felt tired and couldn't concentrate on anything. He just lay on the hospital bed, fidgeting and pulling constantly his restrains. He was asked to stop. In other case, they would not have cared, but the restlessness raised his blood pressure. Finally they had to decide about either removing the restrains or putting him on sedatives for the time he had to spend in the hospital facility. The psychiatrist and Wufei's support liaison, Electra, voted for removal of the restrains. They put him on sedatives.
Wufei was returned to his room after two weeks. He had a high fewer for eating soap and his throat was very sore from the tube they forced down it for pumping his stomach. The fetus was monitored constantly and it seemed that it had probably not suffered anything permanent from Wufei's attempt. The room was cleaned throughout from anything remotely suspicious, which included almost everything that wasn't bolted on the floor. A security camera were added in his bathroom and he was watched very carefully while he took his medications.
He was introduced to another "specialist", a military psychiatrist, with who he was supposed to talk an hour a day. That did not start well. Wufei refused to make a conversation and after few times she got impatient with him.
"How are you feeling today?"
"Fine."
"Anything else?"
"..."
"You haven't washed your hair today"
"..."
"I have never seen it open before. .. Okay, that's it." She rose to leave.
A second Wufei felt panicked. "Don't go. Stay."
The psychiatrist looked actually relieved. "If you want me to stay, you have to talk to me. I'm not here to entertain you."
" I... Talking is hard."
"I know. Maybe we could start small. What did you have for breakfast this morning?"
"I had-" He had to actually think of that a moment. When every day was the same, the memories blurred." I had oatmeal today. How about you?"
They continued talking, just this and that. They talked the whole hour and continued the next day. In time the topics grew more serious, like the fact that the medical personnel systematically refused to talk to him when ever it was possible. He didn't particularly enjoy the conversations with the shrink, but they helped him to keep his mind clear. For him and the scientists behind the glass, the conversations fulfilled their purpose.
minus 185 days
Wufei continued his self-made training exercises. After many weeks, he noticed how his growing stomach started to affect his balance. Wufei reasoned with the psychiatrist that there was no justice in hurting the thing and promised to subdue to testing and not to try anything like the previous incident. The only thing that made him still freak out was the photograph documentation in every ten days. Most days he was calm, but, -like in children and women- he had his bad days, too. He knew now that it was because the massive amount of hormones he ate. The knowledge of that didn't make the irrational behaviour any more tolerable.
He realised how judging he had been stating that only women and men could form an union. What right he had to judge other pairings or determinate women with only their ability to reproduce? Everybody should have freedom to love whoever they choose and have a choice either to have children or not. Still he thought that bearing children was only for women. World was still very pathriarcal and chauvinistic. If men could produce offspring, what would happen to women?
minus 177 days
He was practising his katas like every morning. The previously soothing exercise made him now agitated and tired. He felt that his balance was really off of what it had been before, now that his stomach shifted his balance point. Beside that he felt clumsy and not with ease with his body. Mentally, he had find a fragile peace. He felt like a calm weather before the storm. When he thought it afterwards, he could not imagine why he had tried to kill himself. He could not see honour in that. He tried to concentrate. This morning his stomach muscles ached with constant pain. Suddenly he fell on the floor when a sudden cramp made him curl up. The cramping was so painful he had never experienced anything like that. His breathing came out harshly with a weeping noise and tears were running down his cheeks. He would do anything for the pain to stop! When the medics were running in his room, the last thought in his mind was that he had finally discovered the torturing method to make any man talk...
Wufei woke up with a sore throat and a headache that told him immediately that he had been in the surgery. Again. He opened his eyes and saw that he was not in his room but in another sterile looking pseudo-hospital room. There was nobody else here. Maybe he could sneak his way out of this hole... His hopes were crashed when he tried to move the rest of his body. His entire midsection was on fire. The tightnes in his stomach. He could tell that there were stitches, a lot of them. maybe they were forced to take the thing out? Probably not, he thought. He had developed a "feel" of the thing and the feeling was still there. He closed his eyes. They had explained their actions for him before, probably to lessen his stress level. They probably would explain this to him too. How great part they bothered to explain and what they kept from him, nowadays, he just didn't have the energy to care.
minus 176 days
"So, you are awake, that's good."
Oh great, the bitch again. He hated her but when the psychiatrist came to talk to him only twice a week now, she was his only line to real human interaction and little information. They talked almost every day now. She was naive and Wufei liked to made fun of her. They talked this and that and managed not to end up fighting over half of the times. After fighting with the Bitch - Electra, Wufei reminded himself - she punished him by leaving him by himself for a couple of days. Wufei new that for his sanity's sake, he got to have all the human contact he could have in this sterile enviroment.
She looked relieved.
"Now, Wufei, we had to perform a surgery on you. Your stomach muscles just couldn't handle the strain from the pregnancy so they cramped. We were expecting that and you had been consuming muscle relaxants for that for a quite while now. When you cramped as badly as you did yesterday, well, that showed us that it wasn't enough. In the surgery we cut some of your stomach muscles, so your stomach would have space to grow. The good news is, that now we are possibly able to restrict your muscle relaxants so you will be more energetic. Isn't that great?"
Wufei stared at the sealing. First time he had a feeling that he was so deep in this that there wasn't going back. His body would never be the same. He was weak now and maybe he would later get back in shape, but he would never again rise back in the level he had been before this mess. And what if the thing would somehow live? Maybe he could burn it with the biological vaste...He tugged his ponytail nervously. Those hormones really fucked your mind over. Somehow he had savoured the thought that maybe everything would be the same after this. Now it could not be possible. Cutting the muscles were such a mutilation that it would never be repaired for as good as it was before.
minus 151 days
"Good morning!"
How the Bitch bothered? Wufei groaned and pulled his blanket over his head. He was tired and his back ached. Usually they let him sleep as long as he wanted and waking him up meant some alternation in the routine. A month ago he would had been secretly thrilled to be taken out his prison room to anywhere else, anything would be better than the same four walls. The thrill comes from the possible chance of an escape, he told himself, but a tiny voice in his head told that he could now get the same thrill from looking a green wall instead of a white one. He had thought himself before as a some kind of friend of a monotonous and unchanging life, but only a few months in the same little room had changed that. Now he felt that he hadn't got a strength to be even thrilled anymore.
"Go away. Let me sleep."
The perky Bitch would not give up. "But today is very special day, Wufei!"
Groaning he got up and went to the bathroom to change his pyjamas to a grey sweatshirt and trousers. He had become very body-shy and he pretended not to notice the security camera, although he felt the presence of the digital eye every time he was in the bathroom. He came out silent, not caring of what was supposed to be so important.
He was led to the room where they made the examinations in every three days. He was first weighted, just like always, but after that, he was told to just lay there and relax. The male doctor with the cold hands, -he was the only one who did not use surgical gloves when examining him and he did not want to know why- , pulled his shirt up and lowered his loose trousers to expose his stomach. He was always as humiliated by this as the first time they did it. It was somehow worse than the actual touching, the clinical exposing. But this time the Cold Hand did not only touch. Wufei woke up from his slumber and opened his eyes in surprise. Cold -something- on his stomach. Gel. Cold Hand had spread bluish gel on his torso. Wufei hold his breath. This was like that awful video in the sex education class he was forced to take in a school they where undercover at one time. In the video a loving couple had hold hands and cried for joy of seeing their offspring in a fuzzy grey picture in a computer screen. Ultrasound. That was the name of the operation. He looked at his side and saw a monitor. Shit. Thank gods he couldn�t see the screen from where he lay. Cold Hands placed some microphone-looking devise in his stomach and moved it slowly. The bitch beamed and stared at the screen like a lunatic.
"Oh, this is so wonderful! Isn't it, Wufei?"
Wonderful? This? How? He could not imagine why this was supposed to be so heavenly. He remained silent and looked away from the monitor.
"...Aaand everything is looking good", Cold Hands stated.Yes, speak only for your selves...
"Could I listen to the heart?" The manic bitch was acting like they were a couple and she was the fussing father. Had the scientists yet noticed that she had lost some marbles, fantacizin about a happy family?
"Certainly."
A soft noise filled the room. He had never heard the sound like that before. It was like in times you got water in your ears, but this came with a fast rhythm. He did not want to hear it. He concentrated to his breathing and hoped this would end soon. He wanted back in his own room, to safety.
Chapter 4
minus 145 days
There was a sound of a great explosion. Screaming. Coming towards his room. He sat on his bed and waited something to happen. He wished, wished, wished... The door slammed open. Heero! He slipped back in the soldier mode of thinking in seconds. Heero spared one over-all glance at him to search if he was in shape to manage on his own. If he was surprised by what he saw, he didn't say it. They ran to the labyrinth of corridors, moving as efficiently and quietly as they could. Heero didn't stop once to think which way to turn. There were broken glass and debris on the floor, but Wufei was so overwhelmed by the adrenaline surge rushing trough him that he didn't even feel the glass cutting his feet.
Suddenly Heero halted in the corner and Wufei slammed into him, unable to stop his movement in time. Heero glanced from behind the corner, got ready and jumped to shoot. The shots startled Wufei, who had to calm himself down a second before rushing after Heero.
In the corridor were one soldier, a scientist and the bitch. All were down, the soldier was dead. Wufei stopped his movement to watch them intensively. Heero heard something and rose his gun.
"Wufei!" Duo and Trowa rushed towards them. "You're okay? Quickly, the path is clear now!"
Duo and Trowa saw that Wufei was not in his full capacity and came to his aid. They ran by the kneeling man and woman. The scientist didn't dare to even rise his head to look at the terrorists, the soldiers blood splattered in his face was good enough reason for him to freeze and pray. The woman was not that smart.
"You can't leave me! What about the baby? We were supposed to be so happy!"
Wufei made a full stop and Trowa and Duo who were supporting him were forced to turn around with him. He gathered his strength and faced the bitch for the last time.
"You are mad, Bitch. I hope you die." He said in even voice.
Duo and Trowa were startled by that, but they kept it in themselves. There was a lot more important things to consider, mainly to how they all could get out of here intact.
Duo crabbed tighter hold of Wufei's arm and pulled him with him.
"Let's go already!"
They ran in to the compound and straight to the fence. Somehow Wufei had thought he was still in the same estate where he got captured, but now he saw that he wasn't. He had probably been transported immediately while he was unconscious for that first time. He tried to listen if the power was on in the fence, but noticed then that it didn't matter when he saw the escape route. The fence just wasn't there anymore in the length of twenty meters. They ran through to the escape vehicle, where Quatre was already waiting.
It was only in the safehouse they allowed themselves to breathe. Everybody's attention was now towards Wufei, they wanted to ensure for themselves that he really was standing there, after months of searching. But there was something different.
Duo got closer to him. "What's wrong with him? Is he sick?"
Quatre looked at him closer and almost poked his mid section. "What's happened to his stomach?"
Wufei crossed his hand over his stomach protectively. "Nothing's wrong with me. And Stop talking like I�m not in the room." I had enough of that lately.
They continued to gawk at him. Trowa was the one who fist came back to reality. "Isn't it kinda obvious? So, when is it due?"
The others just stared, at shock.
minus 144 days
They arrived in a bigger safehouse, which was actually one of Quatre's mansions. They had alerted Sally Po, who was already waiting for them. Sally hugged Wufei. And looked straight to his eyes.
"Hi, sweety. We missed you. I know that you are tired but could I make an medical examination on you? It will only take a moment."
As much as he would have liked to, he could not refuse. He nodded and quietly followed her.
She performed the examination as quickly as he could, keeping the air of professionalism in the small room meant for first aid. Wufei was embarrassed and couldn't stop fidgeting, answering her questions as calmly as he could and consentrating on keeping still while she treated his feet. She could not make an internal examination for obvious reasons, but she had somehow got an ultrasound machine. Wufei doubted that it was a standard apparatus in the manor and couldn't figure out where they had got it. He felt like refusing, but that would have looked so.. ..childish. So he endured. After that Sally let him go and he sneaked out of the room relieved. He felt that Sally had now some kind of power over him, her being a woman and a doctor. Now, he was the weak one. This is so unfair! Fuck! Why did this happened to him? He felt the self pity setting in. Oh, get a grip of yourself! Stop whining!
The other pilots were waiting for him.
Duo decided to take care of the obvious. "Hm. You must be hungry. We all are. Lets rob the kitchen, ne?"
They invaded the huge kitchen and raided the cabinets, looking their favourite foods. Carbohydrates were such a good relaxant. A moment later there was rice, cheesecake, biscuits, dark bread, danishes, sushi and noodles in the table. Duo loaded the coffee maker while trying not to chip a tooth on a half frozen chocolate cake.
"Take a chair, everybody! Let's eat!"
They managed to eat and have a light conversation without pressure. That would come later. Wufei smiled shyly and ate all the sweet, unhealthy foods that he had missed. A while later he coughed to catch their attention.
"I just wanted to say thank you to you all. I would never had survived without you. And thank you for rescuing me." He just had to add it. "And for keeping my privacy." That was a hint for not bugging him for their questions if anything was.
Quatre beamed at him. "I think that I can say this for all of us: You are welcome. We are glad to have you back!"
Wufei felt yet again relived. They actually rescued me. He was so helpless that he could not escape and he had to be rescued. In the other hand... They really cared him to execute a rescue mission. There was nothing for them from it, they knew that he would have rather died than told anything to the enemy.. So the reason for their mission was he and nothing else.
Those welcomed words were the only formalities he got and he was grateful for it. He retreated to his room and fell into the bed, falling into sleep immediately.
After finishing her notes Sally went to peek in Wufei's room, making sure he was alright. She turned to leave and bumped into Duo.
"What are you doing here?"
Duo flashed a smile at her. "The same as you are, it looks like."
"Well, he's fine. Unless.. Could you stay this night with him, just to be sure? I wouldn't like to leave him alone this soon, when we don't know anything about his... Condition."
"Yeah, sure. No problem." He tapped into the room and took a chair, sitting down comfortably and started to watch Wufei. He enjoyed every minute of it.
Sally felt safe to leave Duo watch over the sleeping boy and she went to find the one person she knew would have the information about this mess, if anyone had. She went straight to Heero's room. Heero was busy with his laptop, Trowa was sitting quietly in the bed. They both were not surprised to see her.
"You destroyed the files."
Heero nodded for answer.
"But not before you took the copies." That was not a question, that was a statement.
Heero nodded again and rose to let Sally sit in front of the computer.
"It's best for Wufei that you can reach his medical files".
Sally was already busy reading the documents. She was horrified and faschinated at the same time. Heero let her read in peace, after all, he had read it all already.
Se read forward. He had had at least two major surgeries. It was obvious that the pregnancy couldn't be terminated when it was continued this far.
"Those capsules in his arms... We cant take them out. They release hormones that are important to the ..baby." She smiled a tiny smile. Wufei had been a real pain in the ass according to the scientists logs.
"With those hormones, no wonder that he has acted like such a bitch." Se realised that that was not a funny joke but she could not help herself. When she read the report of intoxication, she got serious.
"He tried to took his life, or at least the child's life. That is not at all like him. They got him on antidepressant after that and he has been taking them since. Maybe we should continue giving him them."
Both Heero and Trowa nodded in response.
"And about that attempt.. I don't think that Duo and Quatre would feel comfortable with the knowledge of that..."
The boys nodded again. After the file would be read, it would be destroyed. Sally wouldn't say a word as a doctor and Heero and Trowa did not want to share this intimate information with the rest of the team. It would be Wufei's decision to tell, if ever. She quickly looked through the photo documents. The boy subjected to the documentation surely didn�t look much like proud Wufei but some anonymous victim, the camera seeing not the person but a body. She felt like trespassing on his privacy by just looking at them. These would be destroyed next.
The boys had been silent, but now Trowa raised his voice. "What about the father... uh, parent.. um, the other participant... Shit." He couldn't see fatherhood, parenthood nor any kind of participation in the situation. He made a frustrated gesture. "Well, you know..?"
Sally looked through the files, but Heero answered him first. "No name, only description. European, tall, no genetically inherited diseases, IQ over 230."
That was it. No more information could be found. With these they couldn't find out the other genetic parent. Not that they would want to, but what if the other one knew of Wufei more than they knew of him?
minus 143 days
Wufei made himself comfortable in his room, witch had been waiting for him those four moths. He returned in his old habits as much as he could, pretending that life hadn't changed a bit. He thought that after all that boredom he would be thrilled to do something new or what ever he wanted, but much to his surprise, as well as the others, he looked for safety in documents. The stability fit well with the others, as they wanted to protect him as much as they could. Only Sally worried about it, because she thought that Wufei's manners where a reflection of the problems that prevented him from acting like his normal self. He studied all the missions done while he was gone, including his rescue mission. He learned that after he was kidnapped, he had just disappeared, period. The others had searched for him a long time, all in vain. Finally, after four months, they had received an anonymous hint of the whereabouts of him. Wufei suspected that it came from one of the scientists, but he couldn't be sure.
Wanted he or not, Wufei was constantly supervised. Trowa was secretly shamed of their hovering around. They acted natural, but they looked at him. That intrigued, faschinated look you could not control, like watching a child with serious birth defects, child which you love but can't stop looking with a horrid fashination. The thought depressed him and he made a point of acting natural around Wufei, in which he failed miserably. Of course, no-one noticed that, including Wufei.
Quatre admitted to himself that he almost envied Wufei. He would never experience the same as he, and would probably never have a child of his own flesh. Sometimes he wanted to scream to Wufei and accuse him of dismissing the treasure he carried. He knew it was childish and he tried hard to control himself around Wufei. They never talked about it, but Trowa seemed to sense what he was thinking, always dragging him away before he would explode.
To Heero, everything was quite the same. Wufei was Wufei and that's about it. He had always felt responsible for the others, so now in Wufei's case, the responsibility had just doubled. It was not like he would question Wufei's capabilities to handle this mission.
Duo was so happy to have Wufei back after months of uncertainty that he didn't care to worry about little things.
minus 122 days
It was very late hours, Duo noticed. He had again stayed up too late. Well, few minutes more won't kill me. Duo tapped yawning to the kitchen to grab a bite. He stopped before the closed door. There was a wonderful smell in the air and it was coming from the kitchen. Cinnamon and butter. He opened the door and peeked in. What the--! He could not have been more surprised. Wufei was making pancaces, in the middle of the night, clothed only in boxers and a tanktop too tight around stomach. Duo just stand and stared.
Wufei turned around with a frying pan in his hand.
"What? I just liked to have pancaces so I made them. Want some?"
Duo nodded and sat down while Wufei put a plate before him. Duo was still confused.
"I didn't know you knew how to cook." He tasted one cake. "Cinnamon and apple! Heavenly!"
Wufei poured maple syrup, honey and chocolate sauce in his pancakes and started munching.
"I don't, but how hard can it be to take a cake mix and add some graded apple and cinnamon in it. I think these taste just fine."
Duo smiled. "I couldn't have done it", he said, catching himself before he got to ask why was Wufei playing domestic in the middle in the night and how on earth he tasted anything beneath the amount of syrup and sugar. Not too domestic, though, he pointed out to himself, since the kitchen was as messy as ever, dirty dishes everywhere. How could someone make a mess as big as this just making pancakes from a cake mix? Duo sighed and made a mental note to be late for breakfast next morning to avoid cleaning up the mess. Wufei would not do it, he knew that much about his friend.