What’s Really In The Dark Of Night

 

Chapter 10

 

Time stood still for a second as I watched Duo’s eyes roll slightly and her body become limp. I moved forward to catch her but I was too late, Wufei had already caught her before she hit the floor and was on his knees cradling her neck.

 

“Is she okay?” Quatre cried, scrambling off his artist’s stool and almost falling over in the process of getting to her.

 

“She’s fainted,” Trowa said. Of course he had to state the obvious, but at least he was making himself useful and grabbing the first aid kit to look for some smelling salts to wake her up.

 

“Duo?” I said, shaking her a little, “Wake up, Duo.”

 

She didn’t wake up and Trowa was taking longer to find what he was looking for than I would have liked.

 

Just then, I saw the ghost of Helen appear, looking very angry. She was yelling at Morrigan, but I couldn’t hear them talk. What had Morrigan said? I didn’t understand.

 

I placed my hand on Duo’s shoulder then to try and hear them, but I only caught the tail end of their conversation.

“WHAT?!” Helen screamed then looked at me, her eyes cold and calculating.

 

“I don’t understand, what’s going on?” I asked them.

 

“That’s what we’d like to know,” Wufei said, not knowing I was talking to the two older ladies in the room.

 

Helen just huffed and disappeared, not saying a word to me and Morrigan shrugged and floated away just as Trowa waved a little bottle of something under Duo’s nose to wake her up.

 

“nnn… I feel like I’ve been run over by the pink brigade…” Duo said as she came to, sitting up with all of us crowded around her.

 

“Are you okay, Duo?” Quatre asked in concern, “You really scared us.”

 

“Sorry, Q, I didn’t mean to scare you,” she apologized.

 

“Would someone mind telling me what happened?!” Wufei yelled, getting fed up with not knowing what was going on. “Why did Maxwell faint?”

 

“I wish I knew,” I said honestly. “It had something to do with Morrigan touching me, but I couldn’t hear what she said. I’m just as clueless as the rest of you about it.”

 

“How did you know she said anything?” Trowa asked.

 

“Well, obviously because Maxwell answered her,” Wufei huffed. There was more to it, but I didn’t want to reveal myself just yet.

 

“Will you stop talking about me as if I weren’t here?” Duo said, pushing Wufei away from her. “I don’t want to talk about what just happened right now. Lets just eat our food and get on with our lives, okay?”

 

None of us objected, and no one doubted Duo’s ability to commune with the dead. The events we’d witnessed and/or experienced put an end to the question of Duo’s dubious sanity.

 

The rest of the afternoon had gone pleasantly well and very few arguments broke out between Wufei and Duo.  It seemed that since Duo was a girl, Wufei wasn’t going to pick on her as much… at least not today. He said something about it being dishonorable to harass a lady in the company of gentlemen, and no one bothered to mention that he’d done it every day since he’d first crossed paths with her.

 

After school, Duo and I were walking to our cars when Relena came by again, planting herself right in our path.

 

“Is there something I can do for you, Relena?” Duo asked sweetly.

 

“Yes,” she said bitterly, “You can take your slimy little paws off my Heero. You can say what you will but Heero is mine!”

 

“You wish he was yours,” Duo spat. “All this time you spend chasing him, he’s been trying to run away from you. Don’t you get it? Heero doesn’t like you.”

 

“Oh what, you think he likes you?” Relena sneered, “You, who like to dress like a boy? You, who runs around getting sweaty and dirty? You, who talks to yourself more often than not? Why would Heero like you?”

 

“Girls, that’s enough,” I said, getting between them to break things up.

 

“Well, he sure likes me better than he does you! I may be crazy, but I’m no psycho!” Duo yelled.

 

“You’re also no lady!” Relena yelled back. “You don’t fool me, you’re good at playing dress-up, but I can see right through you. You don’t deserve him.”

 

“Why you-” Duo tried to jump on Relena but I caught her around the waist, just barely managing to keep her from attacking Miss Pink.

 

“EEP!” Relena squeaked as she ran off, “ You DO deserve to get locked up. You belong in the loony bin, getting electroshock therapy, confined in a straightjacket, and living in solitary confinement in a padded cell!”

 

“ I really don’t like that girl,” Duo growled.

 

“I can tell…” I said, walking her to her car.

 

“I don’t even know what I ever did to her for her to treat me like that…” Duo said, her voice trailing off.

 

“Don’t listen to her,” I said, trying to comfort her. “You’re the sanest person I know. Just because others don’t know the truth, they’re too quick to judge.”

 

“Thanks, Heero.”

 

“Don’t mention it.”

 

We walked slowly to our cars, letting the silence settle between us for a while.

 

“Duo?”

 

“Yeah?”

 

“What did Morrigan say to you?” I asked.

 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Duo said, trying to avoid the question.

 

“You know very well what I’m talking about. What did she say before you passed out?”

 

“Oh… that…” She said, stalling.

“Spill.”

 

“Heero, I really don’t want to talk about it now. I’ll tell you soon, I promise… I just need to… I need time to think, okay?”

 

I watched her for a minute, noticing the tenseness of her voice and posture. I noticed how she nervously twisted the silver ring she wore around her middle finger and how she avoided my eyes before nodding in agreement.

 

“Alright,” I finally said as we reached our cars. “I’ll give you your space.”

 

“Thank you, Heero.”

 

I opened her door and helped her take a seat then closed her door. She turned the keys in the ignition then turned to look at me. I tapped the glass of her window, asking her to lower the glass. As she did, I bent over, my hand resting against the roof of her car.

 

“I’ll give you time, just promise you’ll call me if and when you need to talk, okay?” I said, pleading.

 

“I’ll call, Heero. I promise.”

 

With that, I watched her roll up her window again and pull out of the parking lot. I really wanted to know what had passed between Morrigan and Duo, but I’d promised to wait.