Silencing The Secrets
Part 5
"ummmmmm….. " the figure on the bed moaned softly. "Trowa?" The voice, raw from the respiration tube used during surgery, startled
Trowa.
"Quatre? Koibito?!? Are you awake?" He was amazed beyond belief.
"Yes, Trowa," the voice gasped. "I think so or maybe this is just another dream."
"No! It's not a dream, Quatre! I'm here and you're awake!" Trowa's attempt to prevent the tears collapsed as happiness overwhelmed
him.
"Love, I feel so tired, what happened?" A shiver ran through the small frame and his blood pressure started to rise, alarming Trowa who
urgently called the doctor over.
While Akuma examined her patient, Trowa tried to calm him down. "Take it easy, koi, you were hurt, you needed surgery, but you're
doing better. Just relax, you're pushing your body too hard."
"Trowa! I can't see! What's wrong with my eyes?!?" He was panicking and the doctor took over.
"Mr. Winner, calm down!" She commanded, gently but firmly. "I am Dr. Akuma, your physician. Everything will be taken care of, but
you must calm down! We can go over exactly what happened later, but now you need to rest. I've just added a light sedative to your
IV, you'll probably begin to feel it soon. Now don't worry about your eyes, they are covered in protective bandages, that's why you
can't see. Now, talk to Trowa before you fall asleep again, he has some things to tell you." Trowa looked at the woman in total
confusion. She smiled back and made a heart-shape in the air with her fingers and stood back as the young man nodded his
understanding.
"Quatre, listen to me, okay, angel?" Trowa spoke gently, soothingly, wishing he could hold his fiancé in his arms and somehow heal him.
Quatre tried to agree, but it was slurred and turned into a sweet tiny smile, just for Trowa. "I'm glad you woke up, koi, really I am, but
now you need to rest some more. I need you to sleep knowing how much I love you and how much everyone is glad that you are going
to be all right. I'm not leaving here until you're safely asleep again and then I'll be back as often as they let me come here. I love you with
all of my heart and soul, Quatre. I always have and I always will and I want everything to be wonderful when you are healthy again. So,
get better, love, I'll be waiting for you." Seeing his beloved had drifted into a light sleep, he leaned forward and kissed the now smooth
forehead, so barren without the blond locks, yet beautiful nonetheless.
"Hmm, g'night, koi," Quatre mumbled happily as he sank into a deep healing slumber.
Trowa turned to see Dr. Akuma was grinning broadly as she motioned him back out of the room pulling the door shut behind them.
Suddenly, she grabbed the lanky teen in a tight hug. "That was great!" She practically cheered. "You have no idea how incredible that is
for speeding healing! He came out of anesthesia ahead of schedule, his vitals are fabulous, and if anyone ever gave a better 'get well
because I love you' speech I've never heard it!" She was elated.
Trowa blushed. He'd forgotten the woman was even there when he had professed his heartfelt love for the Arabian, and now he felt
somewhat embarrassed by the display of good cheer because of what he had said. Akuma, however, laughed, hugged him again, then
asked, "So, what else can we do to cheer him up when he finally is alert enough for us to tell him what really happened? We never lie to
our patients, but it is preferable not to mention 'cancer' to a patient who doesn't even know that was the diagnosis until they are strong
enough to handle it. Are there any family members we can get here for him, besides you, of course?"
Trowa, finally regaining his senses somewhat, had a small grin on his face. "Well," the grin broadened as an idea came to mind. "I know
of one person who would definitely cheer him up and she's right here in this hospital, somewhere."
"Really? Who's that?" She asked innocently.
"Our 'daughter'." He replied solemnly and turned to go retrieve the one person he had every confidence would make Quatre more than
happy. After all, if one fairly soft-spoken green-eyed brunette could do this much for Quatre, imagine what a bubbly little blue-eyed
strawberry-blond could do!
After leaving a startled doctor in his wake, Trowa made his way to the emergency room looking for Laurel.
If she had been discharged he would have been notified, so he was certain she was either there or had been admitted. As he made his
way there, he recalled what Heero had told him about their needing to do surgery on the child's feet to remove the remaining glass
fragments and he detoured to an information screen. He keyed in her name and found she had indeed been moved to a pediatric ward.
Quickly, he jotted down the room number and then looked for Duo. To his dismay, he found that his long-time friend had also been
admitted, however it was to the restricted access psychiatric wing. He recorded phone numbers for information on both, then cleared the
screen and headed for an in-house phone.
"Pediatric ward, this is the duty nurse speaking, how may I assist you?"
"I'm Trowa Barton, I'm calling to check on one of your patients. Her name is Laurel Springfield and I'm her guardian. What is her
status?"
"Just a moment please, I'll check." The obnoxious sound of out of tune muzak played in his ear briefly. "Mr. Barton? I've just checked
and she's sleeping, sir. Apparently they have had a hard time keeping her awake for any length of time, but it is a natural sleep and the
doctors felt it was best to let her continue to sleep as long as necessary. Will you be coming here to check on her soon, sir? We can try
to awaken her if you want."
"No, don't do that just now." Trowa paused wondering what his next step should be when his stomach rather noisily pointed out it had
been ignored since the previous day's pastries. "I believe I'll take care of a couple other things and let her sleep a bit longer. But I'll be
there within the hour. Thank you."
Trowa sensibly went to the cafeteria and got something to eat and a cup of coffee. He considered his next steps and when he was done,
he headed for the gift shop.
//Chances of them having chocolate covered macadamia nuts is approximately zero,// he thought with an inward smile, //But I'm sure
there's some flowers around here. They always were something my baby liked! Oh, and crayons, too. She'll probably like crayons and
paper. Then I'll see if there's anything else that looks interesting.//
A full smile graced his lips and Trowa finally felt better than he had for what had felt like a painful eternity. Quatre was doing better than
anyone expected and now he could actually be with Laurel once more. The bleak quality of his world had lightened immensely as he felt
hope stream back into his world knowing their small family would be reunited again soon even if it wasn't permanent yet.
Once his mission was accomplished, Trowa held a nice bouquet of colorful flowers with a little teddy bear as well as a few crayons and
a coloring book, pretty much the closest thing they had to what he wanted. As he stepped off the elevator at the pediatric floor, he heard
a very welcome sound---giggling! Not just any giggling, but the kind he hadn't heard since before the terrible day Laurel's dreams of
Heero had seemingly destroyed her.
Turning the corner of the room he'd indicated on his notes was hers, Trowa pulled up short as he quietly observed a scene that was
worth more to him than anything short of Quatre's own recovery.
"Stop that!" A bubbly voice giggled, "It tickles!"
Another voice, musical with an interesting accent floated past. "Oh no, my pretty! You must get cleaned up now!" A gentle chuckle ran
in harmony with the giggling. "There's a special young *man* coming to see you, dear lady, and don't you want to look your best for
him?"
The giggling subsided a bit without stopping. "Hmph! I don't know," Laurel tried to sound serious and failed. "I don't know who this
mystery man is and as long as you won't tell me, Dr. Syn, why should I worry about getting all this stuff done?"
"Oh now, the little lady is picky about her male callers, now, is she? Well, if he's half as cute as the nurse said he sounded, I for one
would want to look nice!" The doctor had finished cleaning up the now freshly replaced bandages and was straightening the girl's hospital
gown, still terribly large on her tiny frame, but it was the best they could do.
"Well," Laurel grinned looking as 'haughty' as a 7 year-old could manage under the circumstances, "Why shouldn't I be picky? There's
only a few men I want to see right now and if it isn't one of them, well, I'll, um, what do I do when I don't want a boy to visit me?" She
whispered the last part since she didn't know.
The pediatrician laughed gently, "Well, then, missy, you just tell him to take a hike!"
Laurel, suddenly remembered something and her face lit up brightly. "Yes, so if I don't care for him, I'll just kick him out!" Giggles
overtook her and the pediatrician once more.
Hearing his cue, Trowa allowed the thespian within him full rein and dramatically stepped into full view. "Well, then, Miss Springfield, I
certainly hope you won't kick *me* out!"
"Trowa-daddy!!!" She screamed in delight seeing him. "You're really here?!?"
Luckily the doctor was there to keep the child in place or she would have jumped out of bed to run to the young man in the doorway,
further hurting herself, but she wouldn't have cared. Trowa rushed to her instead, placing his gifts negligently on a table and scooping her
into his arms. "My Baby!" He proclaimed loudly and twirled her around bringing another happy outburst of giggles before he felt her
arms tighten around his neck as she kissed his cheek over and over. "Oh, Laurel, I'm so very happy to see you, baby." Trowa sat down
on the bed with his precious armload.
"So, little missy, I assume this is one of the men you *want* to see?" The doctor smiled and winked at Laurel as she prepared to leave.
"He *is* pretty cute, too! I'll be making rounds, call if you need anything!" Smiling, she walked away.
Staring straight into emerald eyes, ice-blue eyes glittering with tears of joy seemed to have found completion. "Daddy! My Daddy!! I
missed you so badly!" She snuggled against his chest and little sniffles of happiness were the finest music Trowa had heard in what now
felt like a lifetime. After several minutes of blissful reunion she pulled back and looked at him a bit frightened, "Daddy? Is Quatre-daddy
okay?" The sniffles were trying to come back, but she wouldn't let them, at least not yet.
"Sweetheart," he murmured into her soft hair. "Quatre is going to be okay, honey, and it's all thanks to you." He hugged the child fiercely.
"The surgery wasn't as bad as your dream sounded. They found another way, but he still needs a lot of love to get better. Do you want
to help give him some love, sweetie?"
"Oh, yes, Daddy! Yes, very much!" She smiled blinking back the tears which threatened to return. "But, Daddy, I'm still scared. The
dream never promised he'd get all better, are you sure he's going to be all better?" The little clairvoyant was insistent on this score.
Trowa had to admit finally, "Well, Laurel, we aren't really sure he'll be completely better, you're right. But we do know he would have
died if you hadn't called us the way you did. You were so very brave, baby, to do what you did. But," He looked at her very seriously,
"Now you are hurt, too, and that needs to be fixed. You know that, right?"
She looked away, not wanting to answer. Despite the happiness and joy of being reunited, she was still disturbed by many things.
"Daddy, I don't care if I'm hurt or not. I don't care if I need to let them cut my feet open like they say they do. I don't even care if I can't
walk for awhile. I just care about Quatre-daddy, and I want to go see him soon. Can I go see him soon, Daddy, can I, please?" Her
eyes were begging him for something he didn't understand but she continued. "I hate my dreams now, Daddy. They are scary all the
time, but I did have one that showed me it's really important that I see him while he's in this scary room with a bunch of things that beep a
lot. At first I didn't know it was him, his pretty hair was gone and he can't see, but his heart hurt and he was crying. He needed you,
Daddy, but he needed me, too. Can we go see him? Please?"
Trowa, stunned, answered easily, "Of course, baby. If you saw that in a dream, of course we'll go see him together. But not just yet,
okay? I can't visit him again for another half-hour, but I'll see if you can come with me when I go, all right?"
She threw her arms around his neck again and squeezed tightly. "I love you, Daddy! Yes, that'll be perfect. But there's someone else in
trouble, isn't there? I had a scary dream about Uncle Duo but he didn't recognize me any more. He, well, he was all different, Daddy."
She was distinctly troubled yet was giving no indications why.
Uncertain what to say to one so young about gross medical misconduct leading to Duo's drastic personality change as well as his terrible
drug addiction problems, he simply hugged her close.
"He's all messed up inside after all." She sighed. "I had hoped it was one of the scary fake dreams that I have all the time now. I dreamed
he was hurt really badly inside by a bad man who made him take all these pills. Then the bad man made him think he hated Mr. Heero,
and that's not right, Daddy, Mr. Heero loves him, but Uncle Duo forgot that and started to do what the bad man told him. Then," she
started sobbing again, "Mr. Heero decided that if Uncle Duo didn't love him anymore there wasn't anything worth loving either and he
went away and never came back. And when he never came back, Uncle Duo never got better either and they both were sad
and-and-and Uncle Duo died!!!"
She collapsed in his arms as Trowa's mind quickly tried to rectify what she had said and what had happened so far. Yes, Duo had
indeed been hurt by Smith, the "bad man" she kept mentioning. Yes, there were misunderstandings between Duo and Heero, but what
had happened before Duo's collapse did not match what she had seen. "Laurel, shh, honey, listen." He got her to look him in the eyes. "I
think part of your dream was right but part was wrong. Yes, honey, Duo did get hurt by a bad man like you said, but we stopped him
before it got too far. Heero still loves Duo, he told me so, and yes, Heero had to go away, but Duo is here, baby, in the hospital and
we're going to try to get him better, too, just like you and Quatre, okay?"
Rubbing a hand across her eyes to wipe away the tears, she looked at him hopefully. "So, you think it was only half right, Daddy? That
would be good. I don't want to lose them, Daddy. I love them and Quatre-daddy loves them and he needs all of us to get better, doesn't
he?"
He hugged her tightly, "Yes, baby, he does need all of us, and we'll be there, won't we?"
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