Disclaimer: This is fanfiction, this is for my amusement. Don't own Gundam Wing and you don't have to read it if you don't like it.

Annnnd I'm a bad person. Jeeze I miss writing, con life has taken over my actual life (that and Tumblr). It's been so long since I've written anything, let alone fanfiction. but let's try and jump back in, shall we?

Beyond the Grave

Chapter 40: Hope

Heero heard the doorbell, it snuck in past the warmth of the covers and the body next to him. Hammered into him really, and shattered the peace he'd wrapped around himself. He wasn't groggy when he opened his eyes. Or disoriented. Just awake.

And staring at Duo's feet.

Heero started to push himself up to see where the rest of Duo was and his back none-to-subtly reminded him that the pills he'd taken the day before were now completely worn off. So he let himself back down and reached out to gently stroke Duo's ankle.

Distantly he heard voices down stairs as Duo stirred, people talking and walking about. But with the curtains drawn and the room suspended in twilight, he had no grasp on what time it was.

"Huh?" Duo's voice asked as the feet shifted and left Heero's view. A moment later the bed shifted and Heero was looking up at Duo sitting tailor style in the place his knees had just occupied.

"How are you feeling?" Duo asked him, shoving his hair out of his face with an absent gesture, watching him with bright but wary eyes.

"That's my question." Heero muttered, he wanted to sit up, but knew the movement would cost him. "Why were you upside down?"

Duo looked down at the foot of the bed and then back at him. He gave Heero a half smile and shrugged. Heero was struck by how familiar that shrug was, it pulled him straight back to the short time he'd been granted to live with Duo, to wake up and find him already in the kitchen with coffee and cereal. To find a smiling face waiting for him with bed head in the morning light, and a casual shrug that answered no question, but hinted that Duo had been up to something.

Heero did try and sit up then, and the sharp intake of breath at the pain it caused made Duo move into action, to come out of his relaxed state to help Heero get up and out from under the covers.

"Duo, are you ok?" Heero asked, a little out of breath. That frustrated him and made the question come out more like a demand. He hated being injured, hated it when his body betrayed him like this.

But before Duo could be made to answer, they both heard the pounding footsteps of someone climbing the stairs in a hurry. Heero turned towards the door just as the knocking came.

"Come in Fei." Duo called to the knocker and Heero looked away from Wu Fei's entrance to stare at him, his attention suddenly focused. Something was going on here, something had changed while he'd slept. Even four and a half years apart were not enough to erase these old habits and small triggers that Heero knew so well. Whatever Duo went through, his core remained the same and something was different. In a small amount of time Duo had gone from confused and time line jumping, upset and on the verge of giving up, to something more like what he'd been five years ago.

Someone who had a handle on everything around him, and though a bit awkward and goofy at times, someone who was dangerous under a very thin mask.

"It's almost noon." Wu Fei told them first off as he came in, though he paused when he realized Heero wasn't looking at him. And now neither was Duo, he was looking back at Heero. Meeting his confused and disgruntled gaze with a half smile that belied a secret.

"What is it? What's wrong?" Wu Fei demanded. Trying to come round to the foot of the bed so that he could see them both.

"I'm not sure." Heero replied, but he didn't take his eyes off Duo.

"Nothings wrong." Duo said, a little confusion sneaking into his voice. Then he turned sharply to Wu Fei. "Unless something is. Is Trowa ok?"

Heero's mind whipped away from this puzzle in his bed to his friend in the hospital. He also turned to Wu Fei, who seemed both relieved and startled to have both his friends attention so suddenly.

"Yes, Trowa is doing alright. He is being held for observation another day, but the doctors said he'll be fine." Wu Fei explained.

"How's... how is Quatre doing?" Duo asked, Heero could hear a bit of reluctance in his voice, but he was all there. Aware of the world around him, current with events, and acting way too normal.

"He is still very upset." Wu Fei said, Heero was starting to see how tired he was, it was probably safe to bet that the man had been up all night. He saw Duo flinch out of the corner of his eye and saw Wu Fei respond to it. "He does not blame you Duo. So please don't blame yourself."

Duo looked down at his hands. "I'll try Fei, but I'm not making promises."

Both Heero and Wu Fei were now staring at him, blatantly confused and concerned.

"Duo, what's going on?" Heero demanded. "Why are you so..." He couldn't think of a nice and easy way to ask. Any way he thought of made Duo sound crazy.

"Why am I so normal today?" Duo took the decision out of his hands. "I don't know. To be perfectly honest, I'm terrified it's not going to last." Duo's confession worried him enough to reach out, and it was a double edged blade of relief and more worry when Duo took his hand. "But everything's so clear right now. I'm still tired, I'm still anxious and I have a small headache, but it's like someone pulled back curtains somewhere and I can see now."

Heero exchanged a worried look with Wu Fei. "Maybe we should get breakfast." Heero suggested. "And you can tell us what happened?"

Wu Fei nodded. "Sounds like a good idea. I'll wait downstairs and get things started." He looked at Heero, "Should I send someone up to help you?"

"No." Duo answered him, getting off the bed and pushing his hair out of his face again. "I can help him." He gave Wu Fei and smile and went into the bathroom.

Wu Fei paused and looked to Heero for confirmation.

"It's alright. Go ahead." Heero nodded towards the door. In the bathroom the shower started and he heard Duo humming.

Wu Fei nodded, but also glanced at the bathroom door, as if to silently ask Heero to figure out what was going on with their friend.

He left and Duo finished his shower quickly, coming out in just his boxers and opening the closet, his now short hair slicked back, still wet. Heero watched his every move, as if waiting for something to happen, though he didn't know what.

"Is my being normal that strange?" Duo asked, turning around with pants in his hands.

"Well no, except that you were very upset yesterday." Heero pointed out. There had never been any cause to dance around a subject between them before, so why start now?

"Yeah, I was." Duo agreed, pulling up his pants and buttoning them. "It's weird though, I remember it, but not properly, there's a lot of other memories mixed in with it."

"You were confused for a while, you had some flashbacks." Heero told him, he knew he'd want to know if their roles had been reversed.

"Makes sense." Duo nodded and then came over to help Heero stand up. "I don't think we should attempt a shower, but let's get you some fresh clothes."

Heero hated when nurses or maids had to help him dress, but with Duo it was almost natural. It had been awkward the first two times, when Heero had first helped Duo during the war. And then again a few weeks later when he'd had to accept help. But by now it was just another thing that happened when one of them got hurt. A natural rhythm they settled into, adjusting to something that wasn't unfamiliar to them.

"I'm worried about you recovering so fast. You seemed so lost yesterday." Heero said plainly. "I'm worried something's wrong and you're not telling me because I'm injured."

Duo looked up from where he'd kneeled in front of Heero to help him step out of his pants and into a new pair. His smile was gone and his eyes were a little sad, but determined all the same.

"I'm worried too. I don't know why sleep helped so much. Maybe I rebooted like a computer." Duo attempted to smile at his own joke but it fell flatter than a pancake and the smile disappeared quickly. "I don't know what to tell you." Duo stood slowly, letting Heero button his own pants and then turning to find a shirt while Heero pulled the back of the collar over his head with the rest of the shirt following.

Duo held up a shirt and Heero nodded slightly and held out his arms so that Duo could start to pull it on. He lost sight of Duo.

"Except... Well, I can read the label on this shirt." Heero felt like he needed to breathe deeper, but the angle he was at wouldn't allow it. So he had a moment of slight dizziness. "And I know there's no way I could have told you what it said yesterday. And i'm pretty sure that's a good thing, except that I think you and Wu Fei will find a way to make it bad."

Heero wanted to instantly deny that, except that his bring was already doing just that. Trying to figure out if Duo recovering his reading ability was somehow a clue that something had gone wrong.

Had the doctor said that was permanent, or that Duo might recover it one day? Or that if he started learning, it might all come back suddenly? Weren't doctors always unsure about bring abnormalities? Weren't there a lot of unresolved cases that were never explained properly because doctors simply had no clue about why something had happened?

Duo pulled the shirt down and the collar popped down over Heero's head, returning eye contact to them.

"I also think that I may have a clue." Duo said, keeping eye contact and reaching out to run his fingers lightly down Heero's arm from elbow to wrist. "But I'm worried you and Wu Fei will shuffle me off to the therapist and try and exclude me from where this clue is going to take us."

Heero started to open his mouth, to demand an answer, to know what this clue was and how Duo had come across it. He intended to do just what Duo had said, he'd get Duo on the road to recovery, take care of everything that had been going wrong lately and put them back on the right track to living their lives peacefully. He had to fix things. Had Duo forgotten something he'd seen yesterday in his confusion. Was it the man Wu Fei had told him Duo had gotten his hands on. What was this clue, he needed it, he needed to get down stairs, he needed to... he needed to sit down again as his back reminded him that he wasn't running anywhere. No matter how much he wished it.

"Don't I have a right to help?" Duo asked, guiding him towards the bed as he watched Heero's face. Probably seeing the new light sheen of sweat and the pain he was trying to hide. "Don't I have a right to know what's going on? To face these bastards just as much as you do? To get my life back."

Heero felt guilt rearing up to hang heavily around his neck, adding to the pain.

"At the very least to get closure." Duo smiled at him, letting it become a joke.

Heero sighed heavily, he hated the idea that right now Duo would be more helpful anyway. He was grounded with his injured back. And the shoot out had shown him just that, driving home just how useless he'd be were they attacked again.

"You do deserve all that Duo." Heero leaned slightly against Duo when he sat down next to him. for the support and also just so he'd be touching him. "But I don't want you hurt, in any way. And I'm worried about this sudden recovery as well."

"Hey, it's not like I'm completely fixed, I'm still broken inside. Just like you." Duo grabbed Heero's hand and gave it a light squeeze. "But I 'm not time jumping anymore and perfectly capable of helping."

Heero nodded. True that Duo seemed to have stopped the flashback, and a good nights rest had done him wonders. But he didn't think it was unreasonable of him to demand that Duo stay here today so he could keep an eye on him. To make sure that things were back on track to where they'd been headed before Trowa had been taken.

So he asked just that, watching Duo's face. It made sense that horrible situations would trigger memory jumps, sometimes it happened to him too, but coming back out of those and learning to live with the flashbacks took longer than a night or even a few months to handle.

Duo nodded, he could see the practicality behind Heero's reasoning. But he did look a little ruffled about it. Still, in true Duo fashion, he brushed it off and stood with a sigh.

"Come on, let's get you down stairs. I'm hungry, you probably are, and I'm worried Wu Fei is about to send a search party with pancake shields and cereal bowl helmets." Duo gently helped Heero to his feet and they started towards the door. Heero dreaded the stairs, and he'd have to come back up them later.

"Oh don't look like that. I'm here to help you." Duo suddenly said, bringing Heero's hand up to his lips and dropping a light kiss there. Then he looked away, beet red as if the kiss had been an involuntary action he couldn't stop.

Heero let him talk the whole way down, cover his actions and embarrassment with words and jokes. But he couldn't stop himself from smiling and hoping that the kiss had meant that Duo truly was moving forward again. That yesterday and not completely unraveled all the progress they'd made.

***EDIT***

This story is not done. I am still writing it. However, I have now switched to AO3 and have started editing/rewriting. If you would like to read it, or see how it ends, I am using the same screen name.