Tonsillectomy (Part 2)

Dorothy Catalonia's Home

Dorothy watched as Relena came toward her lovely outdoor table. "Good morning, Miss Relena. How are you?" As always, Relena didn't share much about any of those trivialities. She needed help with something else. "What may I help you with?"

"What do you know of the Zhang colony?" Relena sat down at the table. "I am trying to keep peace, but they want to execute a woman."

Execution. That would surely be causing Relena stress. Political was tough to deal with, but for religion? "What is it she has done?"

"She was pregnant with another man's child," Relena said, "while she was promised to another." Stress and anger. "The morning of the wedding when she would confess, there was a man found dead in her home."

"Oh. I would have said she knew what she was getting into before you said the last part." Dear oh dear. "A man dead in her home? Have you tried a confession?"

"She didn't do anything." Relena shook her head, looking out toward the beautiful view. "This isn't the first case I've worked with in this way. Once I've guaranteed their lives, I have almost always got a written confession of the truth." She crossed her legs. "I can't get that because I believe she has told it. I believe someone did this on purpose to her. All of it."

"Foul play? Unusual for this." Dorothy sipped on her tea. Normally she offered her tea, but it was iced tea. She'd just had her own tonsillectomy. Once Relena left, she would head back inside again. "Did someone want her husband? Who was next in line?"

"Someone named Mei-Hua." Relena didn't look well herself. "I need to find a way to prove someone else was in the wrong, or an innocent woman is going to die."

"I would speak to this Mei-Hua. It's all I can offer." Dorothy watched Relena stand back up. Huh. Usually she was less abrupt than that.

"Yes, you're right. I will look into that angle. There just aren't many left to expose." She walked off, deep in thought.

Poor Relena. Always trying to save the world. When she herself was clearly sick.

---

"Let me see in your throat, Relena," her family doctor said as he came over to see her personally.

"I shouldn't be here. I have important work to get done." Unfortunately, health didn't care. Relena kept burning up with fevers, on and off for days. She tried to ignore it to keep going, but eventually she had to take action before it got worse. "What is it, Doctor? Is it the same thing again?"

He seemed to be quieter than usual. "I recommend a tonsillectomy. It won't take long and you'll be better in a few days." He started to write it down in his memo pad.

"Are you okay, Doctor?" He didn't look so well. Was it only her tonsils? Were they only one side of a potential problem? The constant fever and being tired, was it really all just from tonsils?

"Here is an ear, eye, nose, throat specialist." Her doctor handed her the paper. "Go see them as quickly as you can. Get this taken care of before you are in a bed for days due to running fevers."

Then she wouldn't be able to help anyone. "I will." If anything was wrong too, she would schedule for the soonest surgery she could. The world didn't wait for her to get better, she needed to stay up with the world. Even if she was in pain in her mouth, she could still travel.

---

Noin picked up her phone, seeing the restricted number. Most numbers could be identified on her signals. "Noin here."

"Hello, this is Quatre Raberba Winner."

"Oh, Quatre." One of the previous Gundam pilots. He wouldn't be calling her for no reason at all. "Is there something you need?"

"Just, touching base," Quatre said. "I called Lady Une too. Duo, the previous pilot of Deathscythe. There's some suspected foul play, probably not related to anything, but we're just being cautious."

"Caution is always a smart idea," Noin said. She placed her phone on speaker and turned to her memo pad on it. "What's the caution?"

"Duo's friend, she got pregnant, but she didn't do anything. They both suspect foul play from a doctor when she had surgery."

Noin looked at the memo area on her phone. What should she even put? "He sure she's just not telling him a lie?"

"We looked at it all. The footage disappeared. She's his best friend and he trusts her. He's now on Earth, with her. He's staying until after it's born and it's safe to go back to their colony."

Noin scratched her head. "How long ago? Did this just happen?"

"Well? Duo wanted a week with his friend on Earth, just in case you did want to drop by and ask questions," Quatre said.

"Oh." She wrote down 'Duo's Friend Got Pregnant in Surgery Supposedly' on her memo and left it at that. "I can see how you didn't jump to tell us."

"I know, but it doesn't feel like its right. Like it's over? This just, it doesn't say . . . you hurt someone I love and so this is what you get? Do you understand what I mean?"

"Very true." Noin agreed. "I've got it down. Most likely, it's . . ." This friend probably had too much fun and was lying her butt off. "It doesn't seem like it's nothing to do much with us, but I'll inform the others. Thanks."

---

Hospital. Earth.

It took every cent she had, and more she didn't. Middie Une watched the nurse give her the okay to go in the back. She had needed the surgery for months now, but money wasn't a luxury she had. Unfortunately, things like going to work with the fevers also weren't working. Her boss forced her to come and get something worked out. She ended up selling everything she could and a man she worked with loaned her the rest. Afterwards, she would have to work overtime to pay him back, but right now? She couldn't keep her hours. She was getting fevers more and more. It felt like she could barely even swallow or eat half the time, and now she was starting to have trouble with her breathing at night.

Her breathing. It was absurd that tonsils could be the cause of so much misery. She walked toward the room.

After today, she could recover, and then no more worries of missing work. Just worries about how she was going to pay back that money fast enough and still survive her own rent. ///Middie: I may have to get desperate enough to find another way./// She would try though. She would try the good girl way.

On the outside, she looked like a good girl. With her blonde hair and beautiful big eyes with a wide smile. Anyone would think that. She'd performed unspeakable acts in war though, becoming a spy with those qualities. Trust and innocence. Only a disguise, and the man who lent her the money knew it. Expected it. For her to be a bad girl, to pay that money off.

She wouldn't quickly pick that role up. She didn't like it, it wasn't a favorite. But, it was one she could play and play well when she had to.