By Kristen Gupton-Williams

Vincent followed Jaras below deck as they went to go find Tifa and Jeanine. They quickly ran into the two women by going to the bridge.

Everyone on the bridge of the airship was staring at Cid who had taken it upon himself to sit in the captain's chair, baby held tightly in his arms. He was presently barking out orders to the flight crew even though he actually lacked the authority to do so. However, even without having any authority over them, they were quickly doing what was asked, somehow knowing that this man knew what he was talking about.

Reno was there but since he knew nothing about flying, he didn't intervene and allowed Cid to continue calling the shots. He simply saw it as less work for himself as this would prevent the crew from asking him questions that he didn't have answers for.

Tifa and Jeanine were standing oblivious to the pilot's outbursts, instead staring out the window at the world passing below them.

Jaras and Vincent reached the women, and Jaras pulled Jeanine aside. "Hey, is there any chance you could do me a huge favor?"

Jeanine smiled up at him, glad to do anything for her companion. "Sure, what's up?"

"It's my father." Jaras kept his voice quiet, wanting to keep this just between them. "I think he could really use some counseling."

"Oh." Jeanine nodded, not minding the request at all. "I'd be happy to."

Jaras had expected her to agree, but he still openly displayed his gratitude. "That's great. When do you want to do it?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "Anytime's fine with me. How about now?"

Jaras raised his eyebrows. "Sure, I think he would be for it."

Vincent had draped one of his arms around Tifa's shoulders, trying his best to remain warm and open for her, no matter how much he wanted to slink off into the shadows.

Jaras came over. "Jeanine wants to talk to you now, if you want."

Vincent looked at him, "Okay."

Tifa didn't know what was going on. "Talk to you about what?"

"She's a psychiatrist." Vincent said flatly.

Tifa's eyes went wide, in disbelief. "You're really going to talk to her… like as in getting professional help?"

Vincent was a little embarrassed and cast his gaze down to the floor. "Yes."

She threw her arms around her husband, knowing that it was an enormous step for Vincent to do something like this voluntarily. "I'm so proud of you!"

Vincent knit his brow and gave her an expression that plainly demanded that she curb her enthusiasm.

Tifa immediately became sheepish. "Sorry."

Vincent sighed. "I'm sure Jaras and you can kill some time, right?"

"Sure." She nodded, knowing that Vincent needed to get his session underway before he backed out.

Jaras looked at Jeanine. "Why don't you just go with Vincent to his own cabin? That should give you two some privacy."

Vincent nodded once and then started walking. Jeanine took this cue to follow him down to his quarters.

With Vincent and Jeanine gone, Jaras turned to Tifa, his expression instantly becoming shy. "So…"

Tifa took a step closer to him, smiling broadly. "Jeanine is great!"

He grinned back. "Yes she certainly is."

"I'm happy for you." Tifa put her hands behind her back, giddy with excitement for him.

"Well, we're just friends right now." Jaras was trying not to stare at Tifa. Jeanine or not, he still found her attractive and didn't want her to know that he still did. "But who knows?"

"Well, she likes you." Tifa giggled. "I saw the way she looks at you."

Jaras laughed to himself as Tifa playfully socked him in the arm. They stood silent together for a moment before Reno came over to intervene. "What, are we swapping partners? I saw Vinny and Jeanine take off together. Where do I sign up?"

"Reno!" Tifa rolled her eyes. "Honestly!"

"Come on, it'd be fun!" Reno shot back, seeming just a little too serious.

"If you take Tifa, then I'm left with Angel, and since she's my sister I don't think it would be all that great of an idea." Jaras added, also sounding serious.

Tifa stared at him agape. "Jaras! Not you too!"

Reno laughed. "Yeah, you're right. I guess I don't want to send my wife to bed with her brother; that'd just be too damn weird. But hey, I'll still give you a ride, Tifa."

Tifa didn't pull the punch that she at once threw at Reno. Her fist contacted him in the center of the chest, instantly causing him to bend over in pain. The wind had been cleanly knocked out of him and although he wanted to fight back verbally, for the moment he was silenced.

She didn't regret hitting him at all. Reno needed to have some sense knocked into him every once in a while. Plus she was fairly sure that if Angel had been here to hear his last comment, that she would have hit him herself. "I'm going to teach you."

Jaras stared on at Reno as the redhead continued to try and catch his breath. "Tifa, I think you just about killed him. I thought Turks were supposed to be tough. Look at him, one hit from a girl and he's beaten."

Reno forced himself to look up at Jaras. His face had darkened from this inability to draw a normal breath. He retorted with a strangled voice. "Fuck you."

Jaras raised his hands defensively. "I know Tifa just turned you down, but I'm not like that."

Beaten at his own game, Reno grew frustrated and after shaking off the last of his pain, walked away from the two of them.

Tifa and Jaras broke out in laughter, pleased with how they had just shot down Reno with their tag-team harassment of him.

***

Vincent held the door open to the small room as Jeanine entered. Once they were both safely inside, he locked the door to prevent them from having any interruptions. Jeanine sat on the single chair in the room and motioned for Vincent to take a seat on the bed.

Vincent did as ordered, feeling more than a little apprehension about this meeting. He had absolutely no idea where to start or what to say.

Jeanine smiled sweetly at him and got comfortable in her seat. "So, it is your brother's funeral that we are going to, am I right?"

"Yes." Vincent said back, betraying no feeling whatsoever.

"What was your relationship to him?"

"I loved him very much. He and I were separated for a number of years and we were only reunited a few months ago." Vincent's face was blank and his voice quiet.

"And what are you feeling now that he's passed?"

Vincent hung his head, in his first display of emotion. "Guilty."

"Why?"

"Because I killed him."

"That's not my understanding of what happened." Jeanine's words were produced with a kind tone.

"You weren't there." He snapped back.

Jeanine was getting more from his body language than his words. "You're right, I wasn't. However, are you sure that it's guilt that's causing you the feelings you're having now?"

He looked up at her and narrowed his eyes. "Yes, what else would I feel? I'm guilty and depressed, that's all there is to it."

"I don't think that's right." Jeanine leaned forward, locking gazes with him. "You're not acting like someone who's trying to hide guilt."

Vincent's jaw tensed. He wasn't thrilled with the ease at which she was drilling into him. Although he again tried to maintain his appearance of stoicism, there were subtle signs he was giving her that he wasn't aware of.

Jeanine watched him for a moment, noticing the tension he was carrying in his posture as well as the nervous way he kept squeezing the mattress beneath his right hand. There was also an occasional twitch at the corners of his mouth, hinting at a grimace that he was suppressing. "Vincent?"

He knit his brow. "What?"

"What are you really feeling?" Jeanine had heard of his constant fluctuations in personality and moodiness from Jaras and in the half-hour that she had known him, she had seen this for herself. "You don't look like a man who's suffering depression from guilt."

"Really?" The biting tone with which he spat this out betrayed the truth.

"I think you're angry." Jeanine leaned back again, folding her hands in her lap.

"I'm not angry, not anymore. I used to get that way when Chaos was a part of me, but I'm not angry now." Vincent defended himself.

"Just because you're not acting out violently or having your temper ripped out of your control by some inward demon doesn't mean that you aren't mad." Jeanine cocked her head to the side. "You are suppressing whatever anger is inside of you, opting to mask it with this depressed and introverted exterior. You're very inconsistent with your behavior. I hate to say this, but you act rather bi-polar."

Vincent wasn't aware how much force he was producing with his right hand at the moment until he felt his fingers tear through the comforter he sat upon and sink into the filling of the mattress. He turned and looked down at his hand, seemingly surprised.

Jeanine watched this and saw a chance to point something out. "See, just because you're not aware of something that you're doing, doesn't mean its not happening."

Vincent brought his eyes up to meet hers. As much as he hated to admit it, even to himself, she had just hit upon something.

Jeanine smiled, as if to show him it was all right. "Why do you call your anger guilt?"

He thought for a moment. "Anger implies that you are out of control."

"Anger is perfectly normal." She let her smile relax. "It's all right to get angry, Vincent."

"Anger isn't something you're supposed to go around showing." He said in response, dropping his gaze to the ground.

"You're Wutain, aren't you?" Jeanine asked, already knowing the answer from Jaras.

"Yes." He cocked an eyebrow, not knowing quite where this fit in.

"It's Wutain society's effect on you. You were raised to think that any display of anger was a sign of weakness and lack of control. It's not your fault you feel that way, it's just the belief system you were raised with." She said softly.

He nodded slowly, well aware that Wutain culture was a subdued and restrictive one. He was interested to see where this was going.

"When did you first feel what you call guilt?" She asked.

Vincent thought again, remembering it very well. "After my father and stepmother were killed and I was taken to Midgar while Tseng was left in Wutai."

"Why would that make you feel guilty?"

"Because my little brother shouldn't have been left alone like that." Vincent answered.

"Now, can you give me any reasons why that situation might have made you angry?"

"Because I had no control over what was happening. I was mad that we were being pulled apart even further than we already had been because of what happened to our parents." Vincent had never discussed his feelings on this in such a way.

"So really, you weren't guilty, because guilt implies that you had some sort of control over something and failed. Am I right?" Jeanine knew this was sinking into her patient.

"Stated that way, no, I wasn't guilty."

"You actually were angry then, weren't you?" She leaned forward again.

"Yes."

"And you're angry now too, aren't you?"

"Yes."

"Why?" Jeanine's eyes narrowed in anticipation of Vincent's answer.

"Because I only got to be with him for such a short time before he died." Vincent broke off eye contact with her. "It's not fair… we were apart for so long and then when we finally found each other, he was just taken away."

"Vincent, that's completely normal." Jeanine smiled again.

He looked back up at her, blinking as he thought. "As a kid I was told anger was wrong, and as an adult Chaos fed off of my anger, so I tried to turn everything into guilt since I already had enough of that within me over Lucretia that a little more didn't seem to hurt. Even with that though, I was really pissed at Hojo for the things he did."

She just nodded, knowing that he had to talk this out for himself. Jeanine knew nothing about Lucretia or Hojo, but it didn't matter. It was clear that for all of his emotional instability that Vincent was an intelligent man and would be able to help himself with a little guidance.

He tensed his jaw a few more times before saying anything else. "So now what do I do?"

"Scream maybe? Break some dishes?" Jeanine tilted her head. "Be mad and know that it's okay. Get it out and then let it go. Just stop keeping it bottled up. Don't let it come between you and those you care about. I think you try to put on a cold outward appearance so people will stay away and not find out what's really going on."

She was right. Vincent knew it and did an odd thing; he laughed. Not just a nervous snicker, but full out laughed, hard enough to make him keel over onto his left side.

Aware that everyone had a different way of coping with feelings, Jeanine had expected him to do something but seeing Vincent busting up like he was, wasn't quite what she had thought would happen. "Vincent?"

He finally got enough control over himself to look at her as he laid on the bed. "Yes?"

"Are you okay?" She asked, somewhat worried that something had snapped between his ears.

Vincent rolled onto his back and stared up at the ceiling. "Yes."

"I think we've gone as far today as we should." Jeanine got up from her seat, knowing that any further deep conversation with Vincent wouldn't be productive. "I do want us to talk again in a few days, to see how you're doing."

"Sure." He sighed back, closing his eyes.

"I'll go get Tifa for you." Jeanine started to walk for the door.

"Hey," Vincent craned his neck to see her go.

She looked back over her shoulder, "Yeah?"

"Thanks." Vincent said, before closing his eyes again.

Jeanine unlocked the door and left, heading to the bridge, suspecting that Tifa and Jaras would still be there.

Meanwhile, Vincent suddenly became very tired. The fact that he hadn't slept the night before crashed in on him, and he was out cold by the time Tifa crept back into the room.