The Lantern Holder

Chapter 9

By Aryn

Three days later....

Nari could feel the muscles in her arms straining as she tried to hold herself up on the horizontal steer bars. Beads of sweat ran down the side of her face. Sliding her hands down the polished steel, she forced her feet to follow. One agonizing step after another, she had made it a few feet. She was thankful for being given the chance of being human once again, but the pain she could do without. Her sense had dulled to their normal level and she was beginning to find life more bearable. A drop of saltwater found it's way into her eye, which was just the distration she needed. Instictively, she raised a hand to wipe her eye, but by doing so she lost her balance. She was already heading for the ground when she realized her mistake. A pair of strong arms wrapped around her waist and stopped her pulmet.

Quatre heard her sigh, but couldn't tell if it was due to frustration or relief. Pulling her back up on shaky legs, he still kept hold of her waist to steady her. He wished there was a better way to regain walking ability, but Iria had assured him that this was the only way.

"Are you alright?" he asked her.

Nari jumped a little due to his voice right next to her ear. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"Do you want to stop? You've been at this for the past hour."

"No, I want to keep going."

"Alright, but first do me a favor." Quatre said. "Take a five minute rest."

"Okay." she agreed, flopping down in her wheelchair. The blond was under strict instructions from both his sister and Sally Po, not to help Nari unless it was absolutely nesseccary. She had to relearn everything, and if Quatre did anything to help her, it would only take longer to learn. He watched her as she wiped the sweat off her face and brushed back the strands of hair that had fallen out of her ponytail. Green eyes caught him staring at her over the towel and he could see a slight smile creep across her face that was still hidden behind the terrycloth.

"What?" he asked innocently.

Nari just shook her head and laughed. "I don't know what to do with you Quatre Winner."

"Answer me a question?" he asked, sitting down next to her on the floor.

"Sure, just give me a minute." she said. He looked up to see she had slid out of her chair and sat down next to him on the floor. "Okay, what's your question?"

"Why are you pushing yourself so much? You've been out of the hospital room for one day. You can't possibly learn how to walk in that amount of time."

"I'm doing this for two reasons. One, I don't want to be a detriment to anyone if Javin and Inazuma come back. It wouldn't be fair to you or any of the others."

Quatre waited silently for her to continue. But when she didn't, he prompted her. "What's your second reason?"

"It's really stupid." she shrugged, looking down at the floor.

"Now come on. You said you had two reasons, and I want to hear both of them."

Nari remained intent on the floor, as the sun threw it's rays across the polished wood. "I want to walk on the beach, feel the sand under my feet, and the water around my legs. I've never felt that."

"You guys are sure working hard." a bright voice said from the doorway.

Quatre hid a look of aggitation and greeted Duo.

"Hey Duo." he called.

"Sup?" Duo answered as he sauntered over to the couple. "How's the physical therapy going?"

"Going well." Nari spoke up.

"By this time tomorrow, she'll be walking on her own." Quatre said.

"No way." Duo teased. "Well, I came to deliever a message. Quatre, your sister wants to see you in the med lab. I can help Nari finish up her exercise."

Quatre looked over at Nari, who just smiled and shrugged. "Okay." he said getting up. "Just don't-"

"I know, I know." Duo said. "Don't let her over due it and don't let her fall. I got it covered."

"I'm in safe hands." Nari said, patting Quatre's shin.

"Alright. I'll be back soon." Quatre said before leaving.

Duo plopped down on the floor next to Nari. "Now this is the kind of therapy that I can deal with."

"I'm sure you are an expert at this." Nari teased.

"But how's it going? Are you in a lot of pain?" Duo asked, genuinely concerned.

"No, it doesn't hurt that much." she admitted. "But how are you doing?"

"Just fine." he shrugged, beforing falling silent.

Nari looked around the room, searching for something to spark up a conversation. Usually when she talked to Duo, she didn't need to start a conversation. Duo just kind of took over. But he was unusally pensive now.

"Uh, Nari." he started. "I never thanked you for saving my life in the cave. I think's a long time overdue."

Nari remained silent, but inside she was so relieved. She had heard Duo's comment to Trowa in the cave, saying that he wouldn't thank her till he knew who's side she was on.

"I'm glad I saved you." she told him.

"Yeah," he laughed, "Me too."

_____________________________

Iria looked at the blood sample again, hoping that somehow, it had changed. Much to her dismay, it hadn't. The disease was still there. She hung her head in dismay. All they went through, the hard work, the research, the planning. All destroyed by this. What a waste.

"Waste of time, waste of effort," she mummbled to herself. Then looking up at the name on the blood sample, a tug of sadness came over her. "Waste of a life."

"You wanted to see me, Iria?" Quatre asked from the doorway.

Immediately, Iria stood up and straightened her shoulders. But by the time she had turned to face her brother, she could tell from his face that he already had noticed that something was wrong.

"There's something that we found in Nari's blood that we needed to tell you about." Iria told him.

Worry creased the young Arabian's forehead and his eyes seemed to narrow slightly. "What is it?"

"Sit down." she told him.

"Iria, tell me please. Is it serious?" he asked, not moving a muscle.

Iria sighed and gathered up her courage. "Quatre, Nari has Tucker's Syndrome. The tests we ran on the human body showed no signs of the disease. It most likely was dormant while the body was in stasus."

"What's Tucker's Syndrome?" Quatre asked.

Iria flinched at the hollowness of her brother's voice. "It's a disease that takes years to run it's course. Judgeing from the development now, Nari has a good twenty years to live. And who knows, maybe by then a cure will have been found."

"What does the disease do?"

She really didn't want to tell him. She could already see the denile backed behind his blue eyes. Taking a deep breath, she gave the textbook definition. "It starts by attacking the organs. Slowly, over the progression of years, the organs begin to break down till everything just shuts off."

Quatre sunk into the chair and dropped his head into his hands. "There's no cure?"

"Not right now, no." Iria walked over to her brother and wrapped her arms around him. "I'm sorry Quatre. There was no evidence of this disease when she placed in the body."

Quatre hugged his sister back, trying to fight back tears, and failing. "What will happen to Nari?"

Iria tightened her embrace. "I'm so sorry Quatre, but I'm afraid she dying."