Duo finally caught up with Relena once she reached her car. Her driver left the door open for him to get in as well, thinking that he was with her. Once Duo sat down, and the driver closed the door, he gently placed a hand on her arm.
"Relena I'm sorry."
She looked at him anger sounding in her voice. "What right do the two of you have to decided who I should be with?"
"I.....none." Duo removed his hand from her arm and looked down at his knees.
"I can't believe that you were willing to just hand me over! What is this, a game to the two of you!" she balled up her fists and started to hit him on the chest. Duo grabbed her hands and held them gently but firmly. Relena started to cry. She didn't hold back the sobs and the tears. She wanted him to know that he hurt her, that they both had hurt her. She felt Duo pull her against him and he let go of her hands and held her.
"You're right Relena. I'm sorry. I have no right to decided things that involve your heart. I don't deserve you. Hell, Heero and I both don't deserve you." Relena just continued to cry quietly and Duo tightened his embrace on her. "Relena I'm sorry. You were never meant to hear what was said between Heero and I in that room."
She quickly pushed away from him. "So if he had asked you to step aside so he could have a chance with me you would have done so?" she snapped at him. He didn't answer her. "I take your silence as a yes." her voice sounding in disgust.
Duo couldn't look at her in the eyes. Her words and the sound of her voice was enough to stab at his heart. "I'm sorry" was all he was able to think of.
"Get out." she yelled at him
"Relena please...."
"I need some time to think Duo."
Duo looked at her. She was staring at her hands. "I love you Relena." he barley got out at a normal voice.
She looked at him with a weak smile and placed her hand gently on his face. "Please go Duo."
He looked at her for a few seconds and slowly got out of her car. Relena then told the drive to leave the hospital parking lot and to head back to her office. And Duo stood still watching until he couldn't see her car anymore. He then started toward the parking lot to get his car to head home to be alone with his aching heart.
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Heero sat up and swung his legs over the side of the bed. He knew that he should stay until he was relesed, but just staying here in this room was driving him nuts. He pulled the IV out of his hand and stood up and walked over to the closet. Just his luck, there wasnít a change of clothes in site. He walked over to the phone and thought of the phone number that he needed and dialed the number.
About a half hour later there was a knock on the door and Quatre walked in dressed in his usual getup. "Hi Heero. I went over to your place and picked up the stuff you wanted." He walked over to the bed and sat a bag down. "Heero do you really think that you should be leaving? You've only been awake for a couple of hours now."
"I'm fine. I just need to get the hell out of here and off this damn planet." Heero got out of the chair he was sitting in and grabbed the bag off the bed and went into the bathroom closing the door behind him.
"So where are you planning on going?" Quatre talked loud enough for Heero to hear threw the door.
"Wherever."
Quatre started to feel uncomfortable. He has never really been close to Heero. So when Heero called him and asked him to pick up a change of clothes for him it was shocking. Quatre walked around the room and stopped at the table by Heero's bed. He glanced down at the papers on the table. He knew that it was being noisy, but when he see the words terraforming and Mars he had a hard time pulling his eyes away. He could hear Heero whimper quietly in pain in the bathroom. A few minutes later Heero walked out dressed in a pair of jeans and a blue shirt that made his eyes stand out.
"Sounds interesting doesn't it? Heero walked over to Quatre.
Quatre nodded. "Are you thinking about doing this?"
"Yes."
Quatre picked up the papers "I have always wondered what it would be like to do something like this."
"Quatre, could I ask another favor of you?"
Quatre smiled and handed the papers to Heero. "Sure."
"Can you drop me off at my apartment?" Quatre nodded.
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The next day Heero headed to Preventer Headquarters and put in his resignation to Lady Une. News about it spread fast threw out the Preventer offices. Duo, who seemed to be the last to find out the information, found out from a laughing Wufei asking how he managed to chase Heero off.. Duo glared at him and took off to Heero's office, He found him sitting behind the computer typing.
"What in the hell are you doing out of the hospital?" Duo yelled at him from the doorway causing a few people passing by to stare at him.
Heero looked up at him. "Duo close the damn door."
Duo stepped into his office and closed the door behind him. "What's this that I hear about you resigning your position?"
Heero finished typing on the keyboard and then saved the information on a disk. "I told you at the hospital that once I got out that I was going to leave. Besides it was never a temporary position. Lady Une knew and agreed that I could leave at any time."
"Why?" Duo yelled.
"Come on Duo you know damn well why. It's not that I hate you or Relena. It just that it hurts knowing that it could have been me. You both deserve happiness. I have no right to try to take that away from either one of you. None of us needs to have a broken heart."
Duo locked eyes with Heero "What about you? It's not like it can be easy to just walk away from what you're heart wants."
Heero smiled. "Like it would have been easier for you to just walk away. The two of you have shared each others heart. How could you want to walk away from that? You two are happy and it makes me feel better knowing that she is with someone who will protect her and love her the way that she deserves to be treated."
Duo looked down at the floor. "What about you?"
Heero stood up and took the disk out of the computer and grabbed his carry bag that he packed what little stuff he had in the office and walked to stand in front of Duo. "I never had her love."
Duo looked back up at Heero. "No your wrong. You always had her love and her heart. You just never saw what she was trying to share with you."
Heero reached out and took Duo's hand and placed the disk in his hand.
Duo looked down at his hand "What's this?"
Heero placed a hand on Duo's shoulder. "Take care of Relena Duo." He then walked, opened the door and left the room.
Duo quickly ran to the doorway "Heero wait! Where are you going?"
"Just read what's on the disk." he said as he continued to walk down the hallway without looking back.
Duo held the disk up to take a good look at it. He sighed and looked back down the hallway only to see that Heero was gone. Duo turned and walked back toward his office. Once he got there he closed the door behind him and headed toward his desk. He sat down and put the disk in the computer and opened the file. It was a letter or a very short and to the point one.
Duo,
You know damn well that I am not good at words or emotions. Even after getting what little help I got from that shrink I still can't stand in front of you or Relena and tell you what I really want to say. I thought that this way would be easier for me to express myself.
After I left the hospital I stayed up most of the night thinking about everything that has happened in the past six weeks. I came up with the conclusion that I am a total jerk. And youíre right. I am a coward. And I was already to late to realize what I could have had with her. I'm sorry about the tension that I put in your relationship.
The night of her party, as I watched the two of you I knew by the way that you held her, and the way the that the two of you smiled at each other, just how much you loved each other. And to tell you the truth I am glad that itís you instead of some other man. I know that you will protect her. All that I ask of you is to love her. Fill her world with happiness and I will always consider you a friend.
Heero
Duo sat in silence for a few minutes reading the last line over and over. "You will always be a friend to me as well, Heero."
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Relena sat down at her desk and laid her head down to rest her eyes for a few minutes. She has had a miserable week so far, with everything that was going on between the three of them. And with all of her continuous meetings she was thinking about hiding in her room all next week. She sat up and swung her chair around to look out her window. She then heard a knock on the door. "Come in." she quietly groaned. What jerk wanted to ruin her moment of peace? She heard the door close and someone walk. She slowly turned her chair around to face her visitor and she suddenly felt her heart start to race. "Heero." she just barely managed to say his name above a whisper.
"Relena."
"What are you doing here? Shouldn't you still be resting? And in the hospital."
"I'm fine." He crossed his arms.
Relena stood up from her chair and walked around the desk to stand in front of him. She crossed her arms and glared at him. "I know damn well that youíre not feeling better. What did you come here for? To talk more about passing me around? Playing games with my heart!"
Heero looked at her eyes to let her know that he was serious. "No Relena. I wouldn't want to hurt you more than I already have. I just wanted to tell you that I'm leaving."
"Leaving!" She yelled at him "You're pretty good at that aren't you Heero?"
"Your right. You have every right to be angry with me. I just wish that I wouldn't have hurt you like I did. I should have told you where I was going, and what I was going to do. But I had my mind set on a mission. And I wasn't going to do anything to jeopardize that mission. And that included contacting you and letting you know where I was."
She now looked confused and yelled. "Mission?"
Heero nodded. "My mission was to get help. So I could feel again. To experience the emotions that were erased from my soul and my heart, so I wouldn't hurt you. Only I ended up hurting you anyway."
Relena couldn't hold back the heartache anymore that he caused so she decided to let him know. "Didn't it ever occur to you about my feelings and emotions? How your little decision affected my life? I thought that you just decided not to care about me anymore. You left without a goodbye. I had no idea what happened. I never pushed you. I never tried to get you to say or do anything that you didn't want to. I couldn't understand why you left. And it killed me. I slowly started to die on the inside. That's when Duo save me. He showed me the love and affection that I was dying for you to show me. I can't believe that I cried myself to sleep at night over you." She stopped yelling at him when she seen Heero do something that she never thought that she would ever see. He was actually crying.
"I'm sorry." He whispered
Relena just stood there staring at him. She didn't know what to say to him. So she acted out instead. She closed the gap between them and wrapped her arms around him and hugged him. She never knew that her words would have affected him in such a way. Maybe whatever help he did get did change him to the person he wanted to become for her.
Heero smiled and hugged her back. "I'm sorry for everything." They stayed in each others arms for a few seconds longer then Heero broke the embrace and stepped back from her. "Relena, I felt that this time before I left you deserved a goodbye."
"Where are you planning on going?" She had a feeling that this time he would let her know.
"Zechs invited me to help out with the terraforming project. I think that I'll give it a try for awhile."
She smiled at him. "You and my brother working together. That is a strange thought." They stood in silence for a few minutes. "Heero promise me something. Promise me that you will be careful and watch out for my brother. There has be a lot of accidents with that project so far and a few people have lost their lives. I just don't want to hear that something has happened to either one of you."
He nodded his head. "I promise."
She turned her back to him. She didn't want to see him leave. "Goodbye Heero." There were a few moments of silence before she herd his footsteps and the sound of the door opening and closing. Then silence filled the room again.
A short time later she finished up with her work and closed her office. And let Leann, her secretary off early. Relena went home. She had come to a decision about her relationship with Duo and wanted to get some sleep before she could face him. Only when she got there Duo was sitting on her front steps. She stopped and stared at him. He had his head resting in his hands and his elbows resting on his knees. He looked up when she walked up to him. They just stayed there staring at each other.
"Heero left." Duo finally managed to say.
"I know."
They were silent again. "Duo I know that what you tried to do was out of you love for me. I am grateful that you considered my feelings for the both of you. But..." He tried to say something but she placed a finger on his lips. "But something like that is my decision and my decision alone. I know that you were also trying to be a friend to Heero by considering his feelings as well. You are a very kind and caring person Duo. You will make some lady very happy to have you as her husband someday."
Duo took her hand in his and squeezed it. He understood what she was trying to tell him "I am very sorry for what happened. I just hope that we will be able to have a friendship."
She smiled at him. "Perhaps one day we can get to that point."
Duo stood up and hugged her. "Take care of yourself Relena."
"Same to you."
He then broke the embrace. "Are you going to be ok?"
She nodded. "Are you?"
"Yah, as long as I know that you're okay." He then turned and slowly walked away.
Relena watched him leave this time. Once he was gone from view she walked into her house and closed the door on the heartache that lived outside her front door.