The Remedy
by Merith
The palace was unusually somber, but he was admitted immediately and directed up the stairs. He took them two and three at a time in his hurry. Relena rarely called for him these days, and then only in dire emergencies. He could not imagine what this meant.
Her room was dark, the curtains drawn against the sun. Relena lay on top her still made bed, a light coverlet draped over her sleeping body. Heero paused at the doorway, his eyes scanned the room looking for the other familiar presence. When it was not sensed, he frowned and moved forward. In the gloom, he could just make out her features, her face drawn and tear streaked. Something major must have happened then.
His hand touched her shoulder gently shaking her. "Relena, I'm here," he whispered softly.
She stirred, stretching out of the crouched fetal position she'd been laying in before focusing on him. "Oh Heero!" She sat up instantly, tossing her long hair over her shoulder. "I'm so glad you came." Jumping from the bed, she threw herself into his arms, holding him tight.
Heero stood still, staring down at the girl he held, his hands going automatically around her. When the sobs came, he rubbed her back, trying in vain to understand what had happened, and what Relena - and the whole household - was upset about. "Here. Let's sit down, and you tell me about it. Maybe I can help."
He guided her to back to the bed, sitting next to her on its edge. Her eyes were bright, twin spots of color held high on her cheeks. Her tears hadn't masked the beauty she'd become, and he smiled in spite of himself. She clutched at his shirt, her fingers dug into the fabric, making it pull tight across his back.
"I did it," she breathed, a glitter behind her eyes.
Slightly alarmed, Heero pulled on her hands, holding them in his own. "You did ...what?"
"What you wanted... what you asked me to do," she replied, bewilderedly. She pulled away from him, her lip trembled and her hands fussed with her skirt, smoothing it down over her legs.
"What did I asked you to do, Relena? I'm not sure I understand."
She rose, and paced the room. Turning to stare at him, her hands fluttered like trapped birds. "I killed him." Though low to the point of almost not hearing her, the shock was apparent in her voice.
"Who?" Heero stood, trying to clear the fog suddenly crowding his brain.
"You'd said if it wasn't for him, we might have had a chance. That we could be together. And I did it. I did it for us." She drifted closer. Her hand reached out for him beseechingly. "It's going to be all right, isn't it? We can be together now?"
"Relena," he floundered. He cast his mind back to what he could have possibly said to lead her to commit murder. His visits had been few, both work and personal life keeping him busy. She'd asked on one of the few encounters why they couldn't spend more time together, like they used to do. His response had been truthful, that her being a wife and mother left her very little time as well. "David? You... killed David, Relena?"
Her gaze went to the neither distance between them, her voice overriding his. "He was sleeping. And I went into his room, and put the pillow over his face..."
"God, Relena..." He sat suddenly on the bed, his legs giving out on him. He had noticed the girl had been moody since the baby, and though her marriage had never been one of love, he never thought the peace-loving woman, the figurehead of pasificism, would ever take a life, let alone her husband's.
"His little body struggled for a moment and then was still. He looked like he was sleeping. Such an angel. A beautiful little angel."
The words hit him like a sludge hammer. "The baby! You killed the baby?" he shouted jumping to his feet once again.
His shout seemed to snap her out of stasis. Her head shot up, her eyes wide and piercing, she groped for him. "Heero... don't look at me like that! I did it for you... for us. So we could be together."
Backing away from her, Heero struggled with the concept of his ideal of her, and the madness he now witnessed. "Relena, how could you? Your own baby... what have you done?"
She rushed towards him, fingers digging into this shirt. "But it was for you." Her lunge had pushed him off balance, and he felt himself falling...
Heero woke, his heart pounding wildly. He scanned his surroundings without moving, getting the feel of where he was. Home. He relaxed back into the pillow cradling his head. It'd been another dream. This one seemed more bizarre than the usual. Reaching a hand out, he shook the shoulder of the lump next to him.
When the answering mumble came, he said, "Duo, the hot chocolate remedy didn't work. This was the worst."
A half snort, mixed with a part yawn, the still mostly asleep young man rolled over and blinked at his lover. "That bad, huh?"
Nodding, he added, "Why plays, though?"
Duo's eyes closed. He mumbled out before pulling the covers up to his nose, "All the World's a Stage and all that crap..."
Heero sighed and settled back into bed. "But why Tennessee Williams?"
"So, your life's a Southern Drama. Mine's a Greek Tragedy. Get over it... go to sleep." His voice already faded and muffled.
He stared up at the ceiling, thinking of the dream and what it meant, if it meant anything at all. So real, he still felt the shock of Relena's confession. If it hadn't been so early in the morning in Sanc, he would have called her to confirm all was well there. The differences in the dream and life were there. For one, Relena was very much in love with her husband, and their young daughter was hardly an infant. For another, Relena would laugh at the notion of her dreaming of the two of them together. And then there was Duo.
A sudden thought and his hand reached out once more. "Hey, does that mean you're sleeping with your mother or your father?"
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