"This Beautiful Life"

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing or its characters

Rating: R

Warnings: Romance & Friendship

Pairings: 2x5, others will be present but subtle.

Summary: 3 years after cutting ties with everyone from the war, WuFei Chang gets into a car accident in his way home from a company Christmas party and wakes up to another life.

"This Beautiful Life"

Chapter 9

Finished with the bandages, Duo left to put the first aid kit away. He retrieved their jackets, they loaded into the truck, and drove to the hospital. As they sat in the waiting room, Duo flipped through a magazine, and WuFei watched the people around them: a few small children played with toys in one corner, an elderly couple chatted in whispers, a young woman read a book on gardening. Sally appeared.

"Morning boys. How are you feeling today, WuFei?" she greeted.

WuFei scowled, "I'd like to get this over with."

Sally looked to Duo for help. He flopped the magazine down, slapped his hands on his knees, leaning forward in preparation to stand and declared, "His memory is still wonky."

"My memory is fine," WuFei began to protest, standing, he recalled all of the surmounting evidence otherwise and sighed, "Maybe. Jury is still out."

WuFei paused on the way into the clinic area, giving Duo an uncertain glance. The other boy was following but it didn't take him long to realize what the look on WuFei's face meant. He forced a smile, rubbing a sheepish hand over the back of his neck.

"I'll wait out here."

"Are you sure, Duo?" Sally said, surprise slowly replaced by realization that wasn't fast enough to save Duo from the awkward moment. He snatched up a magazine and waved it at her.

"Oh yeah, you guys have a copy of Womanhood Daily with an article on casseroles. You know, casseroles are every busy housewife's best friend and I'm always looking for an easy way to make a hearty meal that'll keep my man full and satisfied," he said, emphatically plopping in a chair and opening the magazine. He made a grand show of reading, though anyone could easily see he wasn't looking at the words on the page.

Sally led WuFei beyond the door that separated waiting room from clinic, and into a smaller room towards the back. She shut the door and they both took up seats. The room had all the usual accoutrements of a medical office – a sink, cabinets hiding things like tongue depressors and bandages, plastic bin for throwing away biomaterials, a box of latex gloves, posters detailing symptoms of various common yet horrific ailments.

"So, your memory is still a bit foggy," she started with the elephant.

"I'm still not convinced the problem is my memory," WuFei replied, crossing his arms and turning a cheek towards her. She continued unabated.

"You're a man of logic, WuFei, you have been in all the time I've known you. If you remember events one way, and everyone else remembers them another way – it's Ockham's Razor. What is the best explanation?"

"Everyone has lost their minds except me."

"Or?"

"This is an elaborate prank orchestrated by everyone from my past for reasons I haven't yet determined."

Sally tapped her fingers across her arm, "Or?"

"I'm dead and this is hell," WuFei glared at her.

"Okay," Sally folded her hands in her lap and leaned forward, peering intent at WuFei, "Let's talk about the other memories then. If this is your idea of hell, I take it you were happy in that other life."

Happy. WuFei gave up on happiness a long time ago – long before he went to war, before he could barely walk. Happiness was the razor-sharp end of his sword pointed at the throat of a worthy opponent. Happiness was the smell from charred remains of a laser canon blast. Happiness was a warm gun.

"You weren't in contact with anyone from this life. Your friends from the war, your fellow Gundam pilots, Duo? I'm curious, why? Why did you leave the Preventers? Why did you stop talking to the people who cared most about you?" Sally straightened, her brow drawing together as passion grew in her voice, "Why did you stop talking to the people you cared the most about?"

"Cared?" WuFei repeated, the word tasted foreign in his mouth. He thought back to the last time he could remember seeing those people from the past, those people that Sally proclaimed cared so deeply for him. The scathing looks, their disregard, their feigned ignorance to his presence. Duo's last words three years ago echoed in his mind as he saw himself reflected in that boy's eyes, deadened with hate for an allegedly peace filled world.

"Why is this hell, WuFei?"

Why, indeed. WuFei couldn't answer her. He thought of Duo sitting outside in the waiting room pretending to read a magazine. Duo, making breakfast that morning in his pajamas from the night before, his hair still somewhat mussed. Duo, struggling to leave WuFei alone in the bedroom. Their bedroom.

The rest of his checkup with Sally didn't last much longer than that, and then WuFei was taken to change into an uncomfortable hospital gown. A technician loaded him up into an MRI machine, and the scanning took several tens of minutes from there. WuFei took the opportunity to meditate and turn the conversation with Sally over in his head.

Ockham's Razor.

In the waiting area, WuFei found Duo bouncing restless from chair to chair, picking up magazines and putting them down, and causing general annoyance in the others around him waiting. He hopped to his feet as soon as he saw WuFei, a grin rushing into place. WuFei's heart caught a moment at the sight and the idea of someone waiting for him. He shook the feeling away.

"Sally's going to look over the MRI results later today, and if she gets off in time she'll swing by for dinner. She says you look good otherwise but the MRI will tell us more," Duo rattled off as soon as WuFei was near enough. He led the way back out to the truck. They climbed in and Duo turned the key in the ignition. He let it sit in idle, warming up the cabin.

"Did you think about what you wanted to do before we have to go meet with Trowa?"

WuFei had nearly forgotten their scheduled lunch with Trowa Barton. He felt inexplicably nervous. He couldn't fathom how a friendship had formed between himself and the former Heavyarms pilot, he wondered that he might...disappoint the other boy. Tired of waiting, Duo pulled the truck out of the parking lot and pointed it home.

"What do we usually do together?" WuFei asked. Duo smirked, and seemed to consider his next words carefully. He let the smirk pass, and WuFei blushed at the thought of every possible crude reply Duo could've mustered to answer that question.

"I don't know. Different things. When we're not working, we might go see a show, wander downtown, shop, we've taken some classes together at the community center – that's where you got me enrolled for art. A few weeks ago we took a class on setting up a greenhouse and growing from seeds. You were making plans for your garden come spring. We started building a couple weeks ago. We could always work on that. Hell, we got a lot of renovation projects to work on around the house..."

"My garden? I garden?" WuFei knew some of the basics, he'd learned from his grandmother as a child watching her tend her flowers, but as an adult he had never even owned a houseplant.

"You don't remember gardening?"

Duo gaped just long enough to almost crash into the car in front of them. He slammed the breaks, and WuFei caught himself on the dashboard.

"Not remembering me is one thing, but you don't even remember your garden! You left the Preventers, you sold your bike, you cut all ties with everyone from the war, and you don't garden. Sheesh, just what kind of life were you living in Bergonia?"

"I was an accountant," WuFei said, as if that explained everything.

Traffic started moving again. The two boys fell silent and Duo reached for the radio. He fixed it on a talk show – some loud, obnoxious shock-jock making political commentary, riffing on the President, her counsel, he got on the topic of Vice Foreign Minister Darlian which captivated Duo's interest. At one point he started arguing with the radio, rebuffing the criticisms that jock lodged Relena's way. WuFei let his mind drift, leaning against the door and watching out the window.

"I'd like to go there," WuFei said.

Duo frowned at him, "Go where, babe?"

"Home. Bergonia. I want to go there to see...I don't know what but I know I have to see it for myself," WuFei answered, and as a distant afterthought, "Don't call me that."

"We don't have time to drive all the way out there and make it back for lunch with Trowa," Duo turned along the streets that still seemed an alien landscape to WuFei, "Maybe we can plan on it tomorrow, okay? It'd be a nice road trip. We've only been out there once before on a mission."

WuFei let the last comment slide. He didn't know anymore what to believe. Sally was right, if he remembered things one way and everyone around him remembered them another, whose memories were the right ones?

~ * ~

Chapter 10

Back to Single Authors Index

Back to GW Authors Index.