Destination Unknown

-----part 1-----

Dr. G finished his examination and went over to his desk.

"Well, you seem to be in perfect physical health, Duo." he said. "There's something I wanted to ask you before you leave, however."

"Sure." Duo sounded as cheerful as ever. "What do you want to know?"

"How do you feel about Heero Yuy?"

Duo lowered his eyes. "I love him. I know you probably think poorly of me for it, but I do."

"I'm glad." Dr. G smiled. "Would you consider bearing his child?"

Duo blinked.

"We have cells taken from Heero Yuy that we could use to make a clone of him. However, I think we might get better results if we combined his cells with yours. However, if we keep it here in the lab, it could be destroyed if the lab was attacked. Since the child is to be half-yours genetically, I thought you had the right to bear it."

Duo thought it over. Heero's baby. His and Heero's. A child with the one he truly loved. He imagined him and Heero taking the baby to the park, watching the infant's first steps, hearing the infant's first words.

"Duo?" Dr. G asked.

Duo nodded. "I'll do it." he agreed.

Dr. G smiled as he went over to Duo and injected the contents of a syringe into his arm. "Just a little something so you'll sleep during the operation."

*****

Duo woke from the anesthetic a few hours later.

"How'd it go?" he asked, still sounding a bit sleepy.

"Congratulations." Dr. G smiled.

"I'm...?" Duo asked, sounding a bit awestruck..

"Pregnant." Dr. G confirmed, still smiling . He gave Duo some pills. "Vitamins and anti-rejection pills." he explained. "You take one of each every day. Don't worry The anti-rejection pill won't hurt the baby. Now just rest a bit and then you can go home."

*****

"So, how'd everything go?" Quatre asked, turning from the pantry he was fishing through as Duo walked into the safehouse.

Duo smiled. "Healthy as ever." he beamed. "Hey, where's Heero?"

"Working on Wing." Quatre verbally shrugged. "Can't wait to see him again, eh?"

"You know it!" Duo laughed, cheerfully, as headed out to where the Gundams were being stored. He couldn't wait to tell Heero the good news. Heero would be so pleased!

As Duo entered the hangar, he could hear Heero and Wufei in conversation as they worked on their Gundams.

"...about the school?" Wufei was asking. "Total injustice that was. All those students being pulled from their classes just to be shot by those OZ troops."

"That's why I'd rather not have kids right now." Heero sighed as he worked. "The world's not the kind of place I'd like to bring a child into."

Duo's heart sank. He'd been looking forward to telling Heero of his pregnancy. But now he just couldn't. He backed toward the door, intending to slip out quietly, but he was too dismayed to watch where he was going and knocked over a set of tools.

Heero turnned. "Duo?"

Duo turned and bolted from the hangar.

Heero followed. "Duo?! Where are you going?!"

Duo didn't answer or even turn. He ran to a bus stop and got on the next bus. It didn't matter where it went. He had to get away from Heero and the others. He wanted the baby. He loved Heero and wanted to have it. But if Heero found out...

"Duo, you have to get rid of it." Heero said, in Duo's mind's eye. "This is no world to bring a baby into."

Other visions came to mind. Quatre insisting that he abort the pregnancy because of the danger to Duo. Wufei claiming that the world was too full of injustice for a baby to be happy in it. Trowa not saying a word against it, but not offering support either.

Heero reached the bus stop just as the bus was pulling away. "Duo?" he was confused. Why would Duo get on a bus? Where was it headed? 

Heero ran back inside. He was leafing through the phone directory, when he realized he didn't know which company the bus Duo had boarded belonged to.

He hurled the phone directory across the room, just as Quatre walked in from the kitchen.

"Heero? What's wrong?" Quatre was gravely concerned.

"Duo just took off." Heero replied. "He took a bus, but I don't know which bus or where it's going to."

"He probably just needs some time alone." Quatre decided. "Look, he'll come back where he's ready to."

"Hn...." Heero agreed as he headed back out to finish working on Wing. 

-----part 2-----

"Hey, kid." the driver shook Duo. "Last stop. Time to get off the bus."

Duo opened his eyes. "Thanks." he said. "Guess I dozed off."

"Cried yourself to sleep 'cordin' to the woman who was sitting next to you."

"Did not." Duo glared.

The driver smiled. "Suit yourself. Well, hope everything turns out okay."

"Thanks." Duo stepped off the bus then paused.

"I'll take you back where you started. No charge." the driver offered. 

Duo considered. He felt a little lonely without the others. But if he went back, they'd find out and... "No thanks." he said after a pause. "I'll stay here."

"Very well, then." the driver told him. "In that case there's a hotel down that street." he pointed. "It's not the best in the world, but it's inexpensive and the staff is very nice."

Duo thanked the man and headed in the direction of the hotel.

*****

"It's been nine hours, Quatre," Trowa said as Heero poured a bowl of cereal for himself and stomped over to the table. "shouldn't Duo be back by now."

"I'm worried, too." Quatre admitted. "But we don't know where he went. A search, even with Heero's laptop, could take days."

"He hasn't been captured." Heero grumbled.

"Did you and Duo have a fight?" Trowa asked, concernedly.

"No." Heero replied. 

"He just took off for no apparent reason." Wufei confirmed.

"He seemed very happy when he got here." Quatre mused. "I wonder what changed that."

*****

"No suitcase?" the bellhop asked as he showed Duo to his hotel room.

"Yeah. But I left it at home." Duo shrugged.

"We have a mini-mall in the lobby. You can get some clothes there." the bellhop offered. "Here's the room, and the keycard. Should I have room service send up some breakfast?"

"Sure, thanks." Duo smiled. He gave the bellhop a fairly generous tip and settled into the room to wait for room service and watch TV.

"...Kushrenada today announced his engagement to famed OZ pilot Zechs Merquise..."

Duo wasn't in the mood to listen to engagement news, especially OZ engagements.

"If it weren't for this stupid war, Heero would be happy about me carrying his child." he told himself. "This is all OZ's fault. I hate them."

There was a knock on the door followed by the words "Room service." from the other side.

Duo looked through the peephole. There was a woman standing there with a tray of various foods. He opened the door and she brought the tray inside. "We didn't know what you wanted so we brought up a selection."

"Just leave it and I'll put it outside later."

"All of it?" the woman raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah. I'm starving." Duo smiled.

The woman set the tray on the bureau and left, after receiving payment for the large meal and a rather nice tip from Duo.

Duo connected to the computer that was hooked up in the room and made a few inquiries. After about an hour, he'd found a house for sale. He wanted more than an apartment since he needed for his child to move around and wanted to be able to do laundry without having to pay for it every time he put in a wash load. He contacted the owner online and, after hacking into one of OZ's accounts, bought the house from the man who was so happy to finally sell it that he didn't question where the money was coming from.

Duo agreed to meet the man that afternoon to get the keys for the house. All the papers for it were online and had already been transferred to him.

He picked up some clothes in the mini-mall, then went back up to his room to shower and change.

*****

//Where the hell is he?// Heero wondered. //Baka should be back by now. I wonder if he's back at the safehouse yet. What the hell did he take off like that for anyhow? I didn't even say anything to him.//

"Heero! Look out! Bogey at ten o'clock!"

Heero snapped out of it and fired on the Aries. "Duo no baka." he muttered, as the enemy fighter exploded. "Thanks, Trowa."

"No problem." Trowa replied. "Let's head home. Maybe Duo's there?"

"Hn..." Heero grumbled. "Go ahead. I want to get in some training time."

//You want to look for your lost love.// Quatre thought, but didn't say. "We'll meet you back at the safehouse." he said instead.

HeavyArms and Shenlong followed Sandrock back to the safehouse while Wing, and its pilot Heero Yuy, sped off in the general direction the bus had gone the night before.

//Duo,// Heero thought //I don't know why you ran away, but I will find you and when I do...// he took a diamond solitaire ring from his pocket and smiled a rare smile at it. //I'll make sure I never lose you again.//

-----part 3-----

Duo walked into the house that now belonged to him carrying four shopping bags with him. The house was furnished, which he was grateful for. 

The previous owner had not been there. Instead, he'd had an attorney give Duo the keys and an apology for his absence.

Duo graciously accepted both and the attorney had departed, leaving Duo to get accustomed to his new home. He had finished working out some ideas for interior decorating and was about to check the yard when he noticed there was mail in the box.

He took it out and looked at it, curious to know the name of the previous owner.

His eyes went wide when he read the name on the envelope.

Zechs Merquise.

"Oh shit." he whispered.

*****

"I sold that old house." Zechs told Treize as they ate lunch together at the OZ base. 

"You finally unloaded that old place?" Treize smiled. "I was wondering if that place would ever sell. So, what's the new owner like?"

"I didn't get to meet them." Zechs shrugged. "But it's sold and I don't have to worry about it anymore. Now we can concentrate on the wedding."

Treize leaned forward, gripping the back of Zechs's head and pressing his lips to those of his pale-haired fiancé.

Zechs purred contentedly as he returned the kiss.

*****

Heero trudged into the safehouse and yawned.

"Still haven't found him?" Quatre asked from the top of the stairs. He was in his pajamas and looked like he'd just woken up.

"Hn..." Heero growled walking up the stairs and past Quatre.

Quatre watched, deciding not to press the issue.

Heero sat at his laptop and began trying to trace Duo.

Nothing.

Except a mission statement from Dr. J. 

They were to infiltrate OZ while Zechs and Treize were busy getting married and liberate several blueprints from the base.

-----part 4-----

Duo walked into the kitchen carrying two bags that were packed with groceries and other items. He unpacked everything, then stored the empty bags under the sink. He started cooking dinner and went to the cupboard to get out the dishes he'd bought earlier. He started to take out five plates, then stopped.

"It's just me right now." he reminded himself, a tear running down his face. "Damn it, Duo. You didn't get into a fight with them. They're still your friends. You're just staying away so they won't talk you into getting rid of the baby. Once the kid's born you can go back and..."

//And what? Heero will make you give it up. You know that. You can't ever go back.//

"So be it."

*****

Zechs Merquise-Kushrenada danced, gracefully, in the arms of his new husband, his lips close to the other man's right ear.

'It's been almost perfect, my love."

Treize raised an eyebrow.

"Almost?"

Zechs sighed and rested his head on Treize's shoulder. "Those two dances that popped up in the middle of the list were a little... well... too silly for my tastes."

"Ah yes. The Hokey Pokey and the Chicken Dance." Treize recalled. "If they bother you so much, why did you include them."

"I thought you did." Zechs gave Treize a bewildered look.

*****

"You did *what*?!" Heero was incredulous. He was looking in one set of file cabinets.

"Well, I wanted to buy us some extra time, so I added the Hokey Pokey and the Chicken Dance to the wedding band's request list." Quatre reiterated as he searched another set.

"Justice has been served." Wufei declared, checking the desk drawers.

"Hey, I think this is it." Trowa called from the closet files. "Yeah. This is it."

"Hey! Who's in there?!" A voice demanded from doorway. "Open up!"

"Sir," Quatre replied, politely opening the door and handing the man some office supplies. "There you go. Was there anything else you wanted? Pencils? Pens?"

"Staples." the man requested, so taken off guard by Quatre's trick that he completely forgot the real reason he was there.

Quatre handed him a box of staples then watched the man thank him and head back the way he'd come.

The four pilots found themselves chuckling at the guard's stupidity for a few minutes.

"Let's get out of here before he comes back." Trowa suggested, calming down a bit.. 

A moment later they heard footsteps.

"He's come back." Quatre pointed out.

"Hey, you! You're not an office worker!" the man said, pulling his gun.

Trowa fired his own gun at the man, the blast setting off the sound-activated alarm system.

The four pilots blasted their way out of complex, barely making it out with their lives.

*****

Duo finished washing dishes and settled down to watch TV. He nearly died with laughing as he watched a short clip from Treize and Zechs's wedding. It was of the happy couple doing the legendary Chicken Dance.

There was another report later that evening that Duo heard as he was getting ready for bed, that the news team was looking for a new field correspondent.

-----Owari-----

Duo: OWARI?!

Sephiroth: Don't panic. There's a sequel.

Duo: Oh. Okay.