By Kristen Gupton-Williams

Cid was more than a little tired by the time he managed to walk from his ‘landing’ site to the airfield. As far as he could see, the airport was quiet and after trying to open the door into the ASRIO base and finding it locked he looked around for any sign of life. There was a hanger not too far off and from between the slightly parted doors there was light. Not seeing any other options of places to look for help, Cid headed off toward it.

Once at the hanger he placed his baby into his left arm and pushed the doors open a little more so that he could enter. After his eyes adjusted to the brightness of the overhead lights, he found himself standing before a very old and considerably worn military helicopter. He couldn’t help but mutter to himself, "That is one fucked up bird."

"Highwind you old bastard, is that you?" Brad called out from the other side of the chopper, at once recognizing the voice of his former military partner.

Cid smiled widely as Brad stepped into his line of view. "I’ll be damned, Tifa told me you were working for this outfit."

"Yeah, it pays the bills and more importantly it lets me fly." Brad continued forward until he and Cid met in a brief embrace.

"But look what you fly." Cid looked back over at the helicopter. "I don’t know why you always went for these noisy pieces of shit. Everyone knows that airships and fixed wing crafts are the only way to fly."

"Blow it out your ass, old man." Brad suddenly turned serious. "Hey guy, I’m real sorry about Shera."

Cid dropped his gaze to the floor and held his son just a little closer. "Thanks, it’s been hard."

"Yeah, I bet." The chopper pilot shrugged. "I don’t know what I would do if anything ever happened to Lilly."

Seeing a way out of the depressive subject, Cid nodded. "How is the old lady?"

"Good," Brad grinned, "now that the kids are grown up, she’s gone back to work and is loving it."

"Damn, your kids are grown?" Cid raised his eyebrows. "Last I heard they were what, three and six?"

"Yeah, go figure." He leaned against his helicopter. "Casey is married and has two kids of her own, and Felix now flies airships for Junon Air Cruises."

"I’ll be." Cid shook his head. "Goes by fast, huh?"

"I’ll say." Brad straightened back up. "So let’s see your kid already."

Cid obliged and pulled the blanket away from the sleeping infant’s face. "That’s my boy."

Brad could literally feel the pride coming from his comrade. "Oh no, poor little bastard looks like you!"

"You think?" Cid considered his son’s features for a moment. "All I ever see in him is Shera."

"Hell yeah, trying to ignore the obvious." Brad laughed. "Poor kid."

"Aw, fuck you." Cid smiled. He and Brad had always given each other a hard time, although none of it was ever taken seriously.

Brad changed the subject. "What in the Hell are you doing here anyway?"

"Well, I was just going to hang out for a while, see if I could help out Tifa and Vince in any sort of way." He sighed, embarrassed to some extent.

"How’d you get here? I didn’t hear your piece of crap plane land." Brad asked.

"Had to take her down in the middle of town. I hit something and it fucked up one of the engines." Cid grimaced at the fate of his beloved plane.

"So you’re telling me that you just left your plane in the middle of town?" Brad knit his brows, surprised that Cid would walk away from his machine. Furthermore, he knew exactly what it was that Cid had collided with and he most certainly wasn’t going to be the first to tell him.

"Didn’t really see much of a choice." Cid shrugged. "I couldn’t just sit out all night with the kid and all."

"You might be lucky." He thought for a moment. "With it not being tourist season and also the middle of the night, no one may have noticed. I’ll call up some of my guys and have them take the flat bed out and pick it up. Maybe we can put that shit heap you call a plane back into running order again."

"That’d be great." Cid shifted the baby in his arms, growing tired of holding him for over an hour now. "Think you can get me into the base first?"

"Sure thing, come on." Brad turned around and led Cid toward the tower.