Black Roses 1/8
11/24/01 to 12/22/01
Relative disclaimers apply. Remember...this is sad and not for children.

Doctor Enyo exhaled before looking at the pale-faced couple sitting across from him.

"I'm very sorry, Relena. I sent the tests back twice for verification and they came here positive each time."

Relena had Heero's arm in a deathgrip. Neither of them noticed.

Heero winced.

"It's true, then," he whispered.

"Oh GOD!"

Relena shuddered.

"It can't be. No! No..."

Heero scooped her up as she fainted and carefully stood up straight.

The doctor winced.

"I'm so sorry. Would you like me to—"

Heero shook his head slowly and walked towards the door.

"No. We'll take care of everything. Thank you, Doctor."

"But don't you want to know how long—"

"No, thank you."

The door clicked shut behind Heero.

Doctor Enyo shook his head slowly.

"I don't understand."

He wondered if he should have told the couple what else the tests had revealed.

"Thomas, we need a comment for our story!"

"Sir, Miss Relena hasn't been seen in over two months! The people need an explanation!"

"Is it true that this thing snuck up on her suddenly, that it's inoperable? How is that possible? Don't we have the best medical technology available these days?"

"We need a comment!"

"I told all of you, NO COMMENT! Now please leave these premises or I'll have you all thrown in jail!"

Relena had barely eaten her meals and was weak from her ordeal, but she was strong enough to issue commands from the bed and turn off the television via remote control.

Heero refused to leave her side, though he dreaded the one command that she had issued to him, one that he couldn't refuse to obey.

"They want to know what's wrong with me," she whispered.

Heero grunted.

"Too bad."

He took one pale hand between his.

"Relena..."

Tears flowed down her cheeks as she watched him lower his head to kiss her fingers.

"Heero. Is everything in order?"

He nodded.

"Yes."

Their eyes met.

"Remember your promise."

He swallowed hard and realized then that he was crying.

This isn't how it was supposed to end.

"I've never forgotten it."

She reached out for a kiss, which he willingly gave her.

"He'll be okay?" she asked, concerned.

He stroked her cheek with the backs of a few fingers.

"He'll be well taken care of."

"And..."

"He won't know if everyone does their jobs right. But you know how determined he is."

She nodded.

"Just like you."

"And as pigheaded as you."

She looked away and exhaled, then fixed her gaze on his.

"It's time. Do it, Heero."

He winced, nodded, and reached for his gun.

Fourteen-year-old Heero Darlian was nearly literally zooming through a trigonometry quiz. The dark-brown-haired, blue-eyed young man had failed the calculus test by three points and so was placed in a class he had a consistent 96 average in.

It didn't bother him too much. He was certain that he would grab his dream of being an electromechanical engineer one day. But he had to admit, his patience was being tested.

His father's infamous scowl appeared as he reached a question that needed a version of the quadratic equation to solve it.

Nuts! This thing trips me up every time.

The scowl became replaced by a furrowed brow as he tackled the equation.

Suddenly, a flash of pain stung his heart and his head jerked up.

Mother? Father?

His teacher looked up from her romance novel as his eyes widened until it seemed they would fall out of his head.

"Heero? Are you all right?"

His classmates nervously turned to look at him, but he noticed neither them nor the teacher, who was coming over to check on him.

Tears stung his eyes.

They're gone.

"Heero, answer me!"

He remembered where he was. Without looking at her, he grabbed the teacher's forearm.

"I have to go home. Now."

He couldn't get home quickly enough, and he lost his Day Excused pass somewhere along the way.

He didn't care. He was on a mission.

"You can't go in there, young sir!"

"The hell I can't!"

"Stop him!"

"Let me go this instant! I command you!"

"You're not in a state of mind to command anything!"

"I have to see them!"

He didn't care who he hurt as he shoved, kicked and punched his way through the human barriers between himself and his parents' bedroom. He was on a mission.

But he was forced to stop short at the closed door itself, because Thomas was guarding it.

It figured.

Thomas was crying so much that only his will kept him on his feet, but he still managed to poke a finger in young Heero's chest.

"Are you sure that you want to go in there?"

"What the hell do you think I'm here for?" the teenager blasted the butler, then exhaled. "I'm sorry. Yes. I have to see them."

Despite the roar of protest from the hallways and stairs, Thomas turned around and opened the door.

"I'm sorry, sir. I never really hated your father, you know."

"Give it a rest."

Young Heero pushed Thomas aside and steeled himself.

"I have to say my goodbyes..."

His knees wobbled. A choked gasp came out of him and a palm flew over his heart.

Three surgeons from Peacecraft General Hospital were having a heated discussion over two white-sheet nearly completely covered bodies each lying in a stretcher while a team of maids discussed completely changing the basic look of the bedroom.

The sight of the maids fretting over what new color the walls should be brought Young Heero from sorrow to anger.

"Why bother? I'm not going to forget who slept in here! And this is my house now. Get out! Get the hell out!"

"Young Master Heero, please calm down!"

Thomas reached for him, but Young Heero shoved him away without looking at him.

"You get the hell out too!"

"Calm down!"

"Cover up their faces! Don't you know whose body is whose? Damn it!"

The anger faded away as suddenly as it had come to him. His body drooped and he felt exhausted, as if his yelling had drained his energy.

"Father. Mother. You didn't say goodbye to me!"

He felt himself sliding downwards. He reached a shaking hand out to them, as though for support.

"You just died on me! How could you leave me - us - alone like this? But here I am, as a child should be, out of respect...but I...I....Daddy! Mama!"

As he fainted, he noticed that Heero's left hand was tightly wrapped around Relena's right hand.

To the very end...you stayed by her side...

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