Guilt's Cost: Part 195

Commitments

By Kristen William

 

            Cid was just finishing up packing when he heard the unmistakable drone of the airship's engines flying overhead.  He slung his heavily loaded pack onto one shoulder, and then reached down and picked up the baby's bag of supplies and threw that over the other.  Now with a good forty pounds of clothes, diapers, and baby formula burdening him, he stooped down one more time to grab his son's infant carrier.  Cid sighed and looked around the house one more time before walking outside.  Even though months had passed since Shera's death, there was something crushingly lonely about being in his home anymore.  Although it was happening less often now, he would occasionally hear something in the house, and he would instinctively turn, expecting to see Shera there.

            He went to where the airship was waiting for him and boarded.  Some of the crew members who had remembered the rules Cid had lain down for them the last few times he was onboard greeted him and instinctively saluted.  Cid did his best to reciprocate, considering his burden of carry-ons.  Some of the crew then came forward to help him with his bags and in a rare moment of letting go of his pride, Cid actually let them.  He was shown to his room and allowed to settle in for a few moments, but as quickly as he could manage Cid made his way to the bridge.

            The captain of the ship cringed upon seeing the old pilot stroll in.  He knew from his previous run ins with Cid that there was no hope of maintaining control of his vessel while Highwind was here, and so grudgingly got up and sulked out of the bridge.  Cid, with his son in his arms fell into the now vacated captain's chair and smiled.  This was about as good as it got for him.  The command of a ship this big was good for his ego.  At once he set out to get the crew back into shape.  As time passed, he started to fidget with the COM buttons on the armrest and eventually, he pushed the one to the engine room.

            Within a few seconds, a woman's voice responded, "Yeah?"

            Cid smiled to himself before replying, "Hey old lady, what's going on?"

            She laughed.  "Highwind?  Is that you?"

            "Yeah."  He lowered his voice, not wanting everyone on the bridge to be privy to the giddiness he felt at speaking with Jin.  "How the hell have you been?"

            "Fine, yourself?"

            "I'm getting by."  Cid sighed.  "What time are you getting off today?"

            "Six, should I be expecting you then?"  She herself was more than a little excited to see the pilot again.

            "Sure."  With that, he let go of the button and straightened back up.  Immediately he noticed that several of the crewmembers were staring at him and he felt himself blush despite his attempt to not respond.  "Mind your own God damned business and get back to work!"

 

***

 

            After two days of taking her sleeping pills before bed, Tifa had to admit to herself that she was feeling a lot better.  It was good timing too, because now Vincent's facade was finally cracking and he was getting nervous.  There weren't any glaring signs of his anxiety, but Tifa knew what to look for and saw enough to let her know what he was thinking.

            She entered their room after having gone out to buy some baby shower gifts for Angel, to find Vincent sitting on the couch reading as he often did.  However, as he sat reading, his left leg was nervously swinging back and forth.  Vincent was never one for unconscious fidgeting, but he was doing so a lot more now.  Tifa also couldn't help but notice that an errant thread that had been sticking out of the couch's arm for the last few months had been tugged on, and now it hung down over the arm of the couch a good fourteen inches.  Every page in the book he was reading had had its bottom corner torn off and small fragments of paper littered the floor.

            She placed her hands on her hips and smiled.  "Vincent, are you all right?"

            He closed his book and sat it down beside him.  "Yeah, of course."

            Tifa smiled to herself, knowing that there was no way that Vincent would ever openly admit that he wasn't.  "What's with the paper all over the floor?"

            Vincent hadn't been aware that he had been dismantling his book, and he looked down to see the dozens of paper bits scattered around him.  "Huh, I don't know."

            "It's all right."  She came over and sat beside him.  "You're getting nervous, aren't you?"

            He shrugged.  "I don't think so."

            "I've been watching you and I think you are.  You have some really quirky nervous traits, you know," Tifa said, almost laughing.

            He brushed some of the bits of paper that had landed on his lap to the ground.  "Like what?"

            "Are you joking?  You're tearing your precious books to ribbons!"  Tifa motioned at the mess around them.

            "It's just the corners…" Vincent knew that he couldn't really talk his way out of this one, but he was determined to try.  "It's not like I'm taking out entire pages or anything."

            "Not yet."  Tifa placed her head on his shoulder.  "Just a few days ago you were still supposed to have two weeks to wait, but now that Porter and Quigley have decided that everything is ready to go on Tuesday, that only leaves five more days."

            "Counting down, are you?"  Vincent closed his eyes.

            "Like your not?"  Tifa smiled.  "Cid is supposed to get here tonight, you know."

            "That's what Reno told me this morning," Vincent replied, glad that the pilot would be around for Tifa's sake soon.  "So, how does a nice girl like you end up with such a bastard for a best friend?"

            Tifa straightened up and shoved him playfully.  "Oh come on, you know you like him too."

            He scoffed, but he did appreciate Cid.  "Think what you will."

            "I wonder if he's still interested in Jin?" Tifa mused.

            "I have no idea."

            A knock came to their door, and Vincent got up to answer.  He was surprised to see Porter there, dressed in a tux.  "Porter, what are you doing here?"

            "If you don't have any plans for the moment, I was wondering if you and Tifa would be so good as to accompany Rayna and I to the courthouse?" Porter asked.

            Tifa immediately got the gist of what he was saying and flew across the room.  "Oh my God, you two are getting married?"

            Porter blushed a little and looked down at his dog.  "Well, yeah.  It's kind of spur of the moment, but we talked about it and decided that it was the thing to do."

            "Okay, just let us change and we'll be right out!"  Tifa clapped her hands together in her excitement.

            Vincent closed the door and looked at his wife.  "Didn't give anyone much warning, did they?"

            Tifa was already digging through the closet for a dress.  "Not really.  Come on, get something nice on."

            Vincent rolled his eyes and too went to the closet.  The only "nice" thing he had to wear was the suit that he had gotten for his brother's funeral and so he chose to wear that.

            After only about ten minutes, Tifa and Vincent were ready and they headed up to Costa del Sol and went to the courthouse.  Once there, they saw that much of the ASRIO staff had arrived for the occasion.  They had even managed to find a photographer on such short notice and he was going around snapping pictures of the guests. 

Porter came up to them.  "I was wondering if the two of you would be our witnesses and sign the marriage license?"

Tifa was absolutely giddy with excitement.  "Of course, we would be honored!"

"I figured it was the least Rayna and I could do, since you guys basically saved both her and I from Shin Ra."  Porter smiled meekly.

            Rayna finally arrived via a limo that Reno had provided for the occasion and got out in her rather simple wedding dress.  She quickly found Porter and everyone was ushered into the courthouse's interior and into the small civil ceremonies room.  Tifa and Vincent got to stand beside Rayna and Porter as the judge entered and recited the ceremony. 

            It was short and to the point, and after just a few minutes, Porter and Rayna were wed.  Vincent and Tifa signed the marriage certificate as instructed and then everyone headed to the restaurant where the reception was being held.  Once inside, Tifa and Vincent sat at the table where Rayna, Porter, Reno, and Angel were assigned.

            Tifa shook her head as she looked at Rayna and Porter.  "How in the world did you guys manage to pull this off with such little time?"

            Porter laughed.  "Mostly thanks to Reno and a few calls he made, actually.  Rayna and I decided that we wanted to go ahead and do this as of this morning.  We happened to tell Reno at breakfast and bam, before I knew it, he came up and told us that everything was ready!"

            "Reno, that was really nice of you!" Tifa said over to him excitedly.

            The truth was that Reno had been in a relatively good mood lately thanks in part to the fact that Angel was pregnant and they had managed to talk to him during one of his generous moments.  "It's no big deal.  I figure, we get everyone in the base paired off and married as quickly as possible and we won't have to deal with any of that dating drama bullshit around the place anymore."

            Quigley came up.  "Congratulations you two."

            "Thanks Quig," Porter replied.  "I'm glad we were able to pull you out of the lab for a few minutes."

            Quigley laughed.  "You aren't kidding.  I forgot there was even a town up here."

            Angel leaned forward.  "So, you guys didn't have any family or anything that you wanted to have attend?"

            Rayna shook her head.  "Porter and I both don't really have any relatives living anymore.  I think that the only people we would have really wanted here were Rude and Kimo, and considering that they both still work for Shin Ra, that would have been a little hard to get away with."

            Angel nodded in understanding.  "Well, I'm sure that we can get word to them somehow or another to let them know that you're married, can't we, Reno?"

            "Yeah, probably."  Reno, too would have liked to have had Rude here, but it would have been too risky.  The Turk had already taken a big risk by showing up to Tseng's funeral a few months earlier.

 

***

 

            As sunset approached, the reception began to wind down.  Tifa and Vincent took their leave and strolled around town.  Eventually, they ended up on a spot on the beach where the two had been once before under the cover of darkness.  They sat in the sand on the deserted beach and stared out at the waves.

            "Well, that was a good way to spend the afternoon," Tifa said, half to herself.

            "Yes."

            "Remember the last time we were here?" Tifa asked, a sly tone to her voice.

            Vincent couldn't help but smile, remembering back.  That had been unlike him to do something so intimate out in the open.  "Of course."

            Tifa giggled.  "What do you say that after your surgery is all done and over with, that we come back to this very spot and do that again?"

            Vincent cocked an eyebrow and looked over at her.  "Sure… you really don't mind doing that outside very much, do you?"

            Tifa blushed and her mouth dropped open, knowing very good and well that he was referring to the incident at the North Crater prior to their encounter with Sephiroth.  She and Cloud had "frolicked" around that night, not knowing that everyone on the Highwind could see them.  "Vincent!"

            "What?  I heard Cid and everyone up on deck and I went out to see what they were looking at.  I didn't stand there and watch the whole thing, unlike some of them," Vincent answered slyly.

            Her jaw dropped.  "I had completely forgotten about that embarrassing moment, thank you very much!"

            Vincent outright laughed.  "Oh come on, you know no one minded seeing that, well, except for Yuffie, but I think she was just jealous."

            Tifa broke out in laughter.  "God that was so embarrassing the next morning when everyone on the bridge started cat calling at Cloud and I!"

            "It was one of the few fun moments during the whole quest."

            "At my expense, no less."  Tifa crossed her arms, trying to feign anger.

            "No, I think it was more at Cloud."  Vincent nudged her.

            "Well in that case, I guess it was fine."  Tifa shook her head.  "I have never, ever talked about that since it happened with anyone, you know."

            "I didn't figure it would be something that you would share with the general public."  Vincent grinned.  "I'm surprised that the whole event didn't give Cid a heart attack."

            "Oh come on, Vincent," Tifa retorted, "he wasn't that old at the time."

            "All that smoking and beer drinking must have already done some damage by then, though."  Vincent sighed.

            As if on cue, the airship appeared on the horizon. 

Tifa jumped up.  "He's here!"