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"Operation Operative Operation"Written By: Asymphototropic
Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam wing. Author: Asymphototropic (attracted toward the
light, but never quite arrives there) Email: asymphototropic@aol.com Rating: R Warnings: Language Summary: Someone wants to steal Duo's appendix. While its still in him? Pairings: 1 + 2 + 3
"Operation Operative Operation "
Part 8. Duo Maxwell was surrounded. He pulled the blanket up to his nose and unabashedly hid. The GE surgeon had asked whether he wished to listen in on the "nuts-and-bolts" discussion of his case. Maxwell now felt he had been "nuts" to say "yes", and he certainly wished that he could "bolt". This was his first time as a patient in a teaching hospital. Each of the medical teams here had a senior, experienced doctor, called the "attending physician". Under this person's command was a young but well trained doctor called a "fellow". And under his command was a crowd of residents, interns and medical students with progressively lesser amounts of training and more amounts of eagerness and determination to become experienced. What Duo hadn't counted on was the number of "curbside consults" his case had attracted. Anesthesiology had been consulted quite early over the patient's resistance to pharmaceuticals. Maxwell listened to the discussion of his "squirrely induction kinetics." He gathered that they were referring to his history of being damned hard to put to sleep, but even harder to awaken. This latter had scared the shit out of prior doctors he had known, and resulted in multiple emphatic notes from Sally Po entered into his medical record. The Anesthesiology attending had side stepped into a fascinating dialogue with her fellow on the subject of wartime meddling with the physiology of certain key personnel, and her skepticism that these "top secret" medical interventions were anything other than apocryphal. Then there was the Oncology team, who had been addressed upon the topic of cancers lurking in chronic appendicitis specimens. And the Infectious Disease team, who were absolutely fascinated by the possibility of exotic, drug-resistant L2 parasites. And the Pathology team who were preparing to interact with the Oncology and ID people to give a mid-surgery diagnosis on both topics. "How are you holding up, Mr Maxwell?" the GE Surgery attending asked in kindly tones. "Great," Duo responded, peeking out from under the covers. Well, it was interesting in an "I don't want to look at the gore but got to" kind of morbidly fascinating way. Warmly smiling, the GE attending then launched into a discussion of laparoscopic versus open laparotomy approach. The possibility of abscess pockets and unlikely need for partial cecectomy. Which induced the Radiology team to toss in their two cents worth on imagery, retrocecal position, and even more exotic locations where appendices might lurk. How and when these guys had managed to squeeze into the room, Duo wasn't at all sure. And ultimately, the surgeons' fascination came out about extremely lean muscularity being more of a suturing challenge than extreme adiposity in a patient. Duo assumed he fell into the former category. Nobody had ever accused him of being fat. Especially not immediately before sticking him with a knife.
"Doctors. By the truckload," Heero commented wryly. "Guess the surgeons finally caught up with Maxwell. We'll have to delay our little fun time with him," Trowa shrugged. "Rats! Just when it was getting good," Trowa's cock added. "Back to the comp closet," Yuy suggested. "Yes. I have a couple of fascinating tidbits to share with you," Barton's enthusiasm for the investigation became newly invigorated. He was eager to get his friend's input on his most recent discovery.
Barton rested his hand on Yuy's thigh. Heero didn't bat an eyelash. "I was talking to a patient, last name Berssar. He'll be on the hospital inpatient log for today under Elective Surgery. You can call him up, and back track him." "No problem," Yuy smiled slightly. "What do you want to know about him? Shoe size? Paternal great grandmother's maiden name? How many goldfish he owns?" "His chain of command for starters. The man was here for a 'field-readiness' elective appendectomy." "And?" Yuy's smile was marginally wider. "He's a middle aged, out of shape, desk bound paper pusher. Cutting into him for no good reason is bad medical practice. According to him, one or more of his superiors is pushing the entire command, a whole battalion, toward 'field-readiness', which could mean one hundred percent of them getting elective appendectomies." Yuy whistled. "Exactly. Preventers is the largest unified military force ever assembled in the history of Earth. If even a moderate percentage of its personnel come in for unnecessary appendectomies, the hospital system's resources will be overwhelmed." "So we need to discover which of the brass gave the idiotic command that his battalion was to be one hundred percent 'field ready'. That should be simple. I'll just start with the posted Preventers memos, and search for that phrase." "Its a start," Trowa stated, gently stroking the firm muscular curve of Yuy's leg. "I'm still not sure where there's any money in it. To be made unscrupulously, I mean. But we can certainly tell Commander Po where her budget is going bust up." "Which leaves Commander Une's question. What is the source of rumors about a scam being pulled here?" "Find the dirty money associated with appendectomies and find the scam. It still doesn't make any sense to me, monetarily." Trowa was finding the curve of Heero's neck enticing. He nuzzled it. Then licked it. Yuy, still typing at the comp keyboard, tilted his head to give better access. "Damn, its good to see you again," Trowa murmured into Yuy's flesh. "Likewise. We should have resisted Une's insistence on separating us, perhaps. Especially Duo." "Oh?" Barton wanted to hear what had happened there. "Yeah. I feel pretty guilty about that. Une had been carping at me constantly to draft Maxwell. I doubt if he would have joined Preventers, except for wanting us to be together. Being a small cog in a large machine is definitely not to his liking. He made an assumption we would be a team. I probably encouraged that idea. But Une snapped him up and blasted him off to Dickerson's command. I volunteered for the L2 service. And Une said 'no', quite emphatically. The United Earth Sphere Alliance does not like the sight of two or more gundam pilots in the same place. Feels threatened by the suggestion of gathered force, I guess. I'm not sure Maxwell realizes our being separated is Une's idea, not mine. He seems really pissed at me." "I thought he seemed glad to see you." "So that he could bite me?" "Hmm. Maybe so," Trowa laughed. "You should tell him. Explain about Une." "I will. Next chance I get." Yuy turned his face toward a full Barton lip lock. For several moments, there was nothing but damp sucking sounds. "Yum," Trowa's cock exclaimed. "Duo had an idea," Trowa muttered, when they broke for much needed inhalation.
" 'Tono Bungay', by HG Wells. I don't know the story. He thought it pertinent to Operation Elective Surgery. I've been meaning to look it up. But things keep intervening. Have you read it?" "No. Lets look it up now." Yuy clacked away at the keys as Barton unbuttoned Heero's shirt. Trowa's long, slender fingers played across Yuy's pectoral curves. As the edges of his nails raked lightly over heating nipples, the other's hands slowed at their work. "I never used to be able to distract you from work," Trowa whispered into the trim hairline at the back of Heero's neck, causing the silky stuff to stir upon his exhalation. "Its been too long, I guess," Heero confessed. "Some things can never be too long." Trowa's cock demonstrated this principle with a distinct lengthening process. " 'Tono Bungay' by HG Wells," Yuy read from the screen in a rather luxuriating voice, as Barton licked from his neck to his jaw line. "Perhaps the author's finest writing. (Embarrassing not to have read it, then.)" "You, too, huh?" "Looks like Maxwell tops us both this time." "We'll have to see what we can do about putting him back in his proper place, then." "Sounds like a worthy goal. Ahem. As I was saying. This novel describes its hero, young George Ponderevo's rise to extreme wealth, selling a quack patent medicine to a gullible public. Depicted upon the backdrop of decadent Victorian English society..." Groaning, Trowa drew away from Heero's body. "Snake oil salesmen. And elective appendectomy. What would the public want with other folks' amputated appendices? Too much of a leap, even for my agile imagination." Now Heero turned away from the screen. He grasped two handfuls of Trowa's hair and leaned in to lick his luscious lower lip. "We should take a hint from the auction site. Stem cells." "Search engine. Human appendix. Stem cells. Do it," Trowa moaned into Heero's mouth. "Do it?" Yuy muttered somewhat distractedly. Trowa reached across to type the key words. "Hit 'enter'," he coaxed, immediately before sucking Yuy's clavicular prominence. "Enter? Oh. Hell, yes. Enter," Heero agreed, managing to find and strike the appropriate key before returning full attention to the other's writhing anatomy. "Shit. Will you look at that?" Astonished at the number of hits his search yielded, Barton pried himself away, to turn full attention to the glowing computer screen. "I don't believe it." He clicked on site after site. "Yuck. These idiots sound like they're actually mainlining, shooting-up with live human appendix cells. Injecting themselves." "It does sound rather disgusting," Heero agreed, shuddering. For a moment the two highly trained agents wore the facial expressions of two grossed-out school boys. Yuy was the first to recover. "I suppose its no worse than getting a blood transfusion. What's it supposed to do for you?" Trowa snorted. "Cure all manner of chronic diseases. Preserve suppleness and beauty indefinitely. Give your body vast energy supplies. Ponce de Leon finds the Fountain of Youth." "Can you believe anyone would pay big money for someone's slightly used appendix?" "Not really. But then, medical history is full of quack cures. People used to purposely infect themselves with tapeworms so that they could eat huge amounts of food without gaining weight." "Blech. But then, I recall something about phen-fen?" "Oh, yeah. Long after it had been shown to be dangerous for the heart and lungs, right up to and including lethal, people were still madly trying to buy the stuff and inflict it on their bodies. And then there was Laetrile. Remember how many cancer patients bought that stuff? Metabolic side products of the drug included cyanide. Oh. I find the subject of quack medicine depressing. It seems to me its just plain cruel, making money off of people's desperation." "Taking advantage of human weakness. Reprehensible," Yuy agreed. "Now you've done it," Trowa's cock sighed. "Mood killers." "Well, even taking into account a certain level of appendix stem cell-hysteria out there in la-la land. Can you believe anyone would pay a million credits for Duo Maxwell's appendix?" Barton raised an eyebrow. "Apparently the owners of that auction site thought the market would bear that as an opening bid. Maybe its a combination of the fame of the 'L2 Kid'. And Duo being such a damned amazing survivor. I mean if you really believed human appendix stem cells were life-prolonging. And believing in it, you wanted to mainline someone's appendix cells. Well, Maxwell would be a logical choice for donor, wouldn't he?" Yuy smiled as his mind dwelt affectionately on some of Duo's more sterling qualities. "What worries me is how the sellers would prove the appendix belonged to Maxwell. I mean, you could take any fresh surgical specimen of appendix out of this hospital, claim it belonged to Duo, and how could anyone prove it didn't? And if you were spending a million credits to buy such a thing, wouldn't you want some sort of certification beyond bona fide?" Barton responded. "The fact is, they could hardly prove it was his, without bringing Maxwell along for the ride. Maybe we'd better put guarding a certain appendectomy patient at the top of Operation Elective Surgery's priority list," Yuy stated, rising from his chair, opening the closet door, and striding briskly to Barton's hospital room. Heero found the room empty. He hoped his sudden sense of panic was entirely unwarranted. Duo Maxwell was nowhere to be seen. ~ * ~ |
