Guilt’s Cost: Part CIV

Consciousness

The nurse was sent into Vincent and Tifa’s room shortly after she had left for Rocket. Vincent, who had displayed his first sign of consciousness after Tifa’s departure was still awake staring up at the ceiling.

The nurse, who Tifa had discovered over the last few days was named Kyle, walked over to where Vincent was lying and looked down at him. "I guess I should take you to the bathroom one more time before turning in."

Kyle jumped with a start when Vincent turned his eyes up to him and scowled. "I’m fine. Leave me alone."

"You’re wake!" Kyle said, taking a step back. "This is great… I’ll go get Tseng right away."

"No." Vincent picked his head up from the pillow, distraught to discover that he still had no control over his limbs. "Just leave me alone for the night. Bring him by in the morning."

"But he will want to know that you’ve come back." The nurse stated, remembering that Tseng had given him an order to let him know if anything changed with Vincent.

"Look, just in case I don’t stay this way I don’t want to get them all excited over nothing. I’m very much aware of everything that has taken place around me since we got back to the base, and I know what he said to you." Vincent let his head fall back to the pillow. "But let’s just see if I can keep this up before we get anyone else involved."

The nurse nodded slightly, still in disbelief that Vincent was talking to him. "Okay."

Pleased to see that the nurse was actually going to obey him, Vincent produced a weak smile. "Thank you. You may go now."

"But Tseng ordered me to stay here." Kyle stated matter of factly.

"And I am ordering you to leave." Vincent replied, little patience in his voice.

The nurse stood there looking at his unwilling patient for a few moments. If Tseng caught sight of him leaving the room there would be trouble. A reprimand from the boss was the last thing he wanted. As far as Kyle was concerned, he was already pushing his luck by not updating Tseng on Vincent’s condition. "No, I can’t do that."

Vincent clenched his teeth in annoyance. Able to move or not, he didn’t want a babysitter. As he moved his head to look at the nurse again, the pain of the intravenous line in his neck stopped him. He decided to make the nurse a deal. "Get this fucking thing out of my neck and you can sleep on the couch."

"Dr. Arlin would get really pissed if I took that out and you went back into your state." The nurse folded his arms across his chest. "If you do that, you’re getting a feeding tube placed in you, you know."

"So I heard." Vincent again let his lead fall back to the pillow. "I don’t care, get this thing out of my neck now."

Kyle shrugged to himself, resigning himself to being ordered around by his charge. He sat on the edge of the bed next to Vincent and started to peel away the tape holding the line against Vincent’s neck.

Vincent’s eyes closed, as the pain of the tape being pulled from his skin burned at him. Doing his best to remain calm as the nurse continued to mess with the I.V. site, Vincent pulled his bottom lip between his teeth and bit. This action turned out to be a little more uncomfortable that he had been expecting as his lip was still cut from his fall in the Shin Ra lab several days before. The lack of his immediate healing abilities was going to take some getting used to.

After a few moments, the nurse removed the catheter from Vincent’s neck and pressed with a finger against the insertion site in an attempt to curb any bleeding and to prevent bruising. "There, just let me hold this off for a few minutes and then you’re all set."

Once the nurse moved away to throw the remains of the catheter in the garbage, Vincent opened his eyes again. He suddenly realized that he shouldn’t be pushing his luck with the person who was taking care of him at the moment. "Thank you."

After dropping his handful into the trash, Kyle turned around and smiled. "You’re welcome. I’m just relieved to know that you’re getting better. I know that Tifa and Tseng will be even happier."

Vincent produced a small smile and then glanced over at the clock next to the bed. "It’s late."

Kyle, already exhausted from a full day’s work in the infirmary couldn’t agree more. "So I get to sleep on the couch, huh?"

"Yes." Vincent said flatly, knowing that Tifa would be the only one he would ever share his bed with, even when it just came to sleep as in sleep.

"Okay, but in the morning if you’re still doing well, I’m getting Tseng." He said as he flipped off the light switch and then went over to the couch and sat heavily.

"So be it." Vincent said, closing his eyes, feeling a deep tiredness wash over him. "And I want so clothes, too."

"That shouldn’t be a problem." Kyle said while attempting to get comfortable on the narrow couch.