By Kristen Gupton-Williams

Chapter 100! Thanks.

After Tifa’s exam, Dr. Arlin gave her a clean bill of health. She simply ordered her patient to finish the antibiotics that Tifa had been prescribed after the attack on the airship, knowing that they would protect her from infection after Hojo’s surgery. Her only other recommendation was for Tifa to go to her room and get some sleep.

As exhausted as Tifa was, she knew that she wouldn’t be able to sleep knowing that Vincent was lying alone in a hospital bed. She produced a weak smile. "I don’t think I’d be able to rest."

Dr. Arlin looked at Tifa over the top of her glasses. She disappeared for a moment, only to reemerge with a small vial of pills. "Take two of these, they’ll help you relax."

"Oh, no, I don’t want any drugs." Tifa said, putting her hands up in defense.

"No, they’re not anything bad, Tifa." The doctor pushed the vial into one of Tifa’s palms. "They’re just antihistamines, like you would take for allergies."

"But those always make me drowsy, and I don’t have any sinus problems today." Tifa replied, unable to make the connection in her own spent mind.

"Exactly, that’s the point." The doctor said turning away.

"Oh…" Tifa looked down at the vial of small powder blue pills and shook it slightly. She couldn’t really object to the doctor’s order of sleep knowing that she did need it. But first she would have to see Vincent one last time.

The doctor had for the moment disappeared back into her office to arrange for the orthopedic surgeon to come down and help pin the Turk’s leg back together, leaving Tifa free to roam the infirmary. She pushed back the curtain that the doctor had again pulled around Vincent’s bed and went to his side.

He was apparently asleep again; or at least his eyes were closed for the time being. An extra blanket had been pulled over him and he was only visible from the shoulders up. Tifa reached out and ran a hand through his hair. "Oh Vincent, I want you to come back."

There didn’t seem to be any reaction from him at her words, but he did hear. Somewhere deep within, Vincent was fighting to reclaim his mind.

Tifa sighed deeply and leaned forward, allowing her lips to meet his own. Although she figured she was just imagining it, she thought that he hadn’t remained completely passive through it. Slowly she stood back and looked back down upon him. "I’m gonna go get a little rest for a while, but I’ll be back for you, all right? I love you, Vincent."

Tifa turned away and shuffled to her room. Upon entering she suddenly felt very alone. She had spent so much time over the last several days thinking about what was happening to Vincent that she had given scant thought to what she herself had gone through. Somewhere in a dark, rat-infested lab in a burned out reactor, Hojo was creating the child that she had so desperately wanted. She knew that there was no way that Tseng was going to allow Hojo to carry on the project and Tifa hoped that they would manage to stop him before he had a chance to start the growth of a child mothered by her and fathered by the madman. Somehow, Tifa already knew that it was too late. When they went to stop him there would be a baby of some stage of development that would have to be dealt with. While in the lab she had thought that if faced with such a child she would kill it, not wishing to allow Hojo to propagate himself, but now her resolve didn’t seem so certain. Even if Hojo was the father of such a child, once he was gone there was every chance that she would be able to raise the baby to a normal adulthood. She knew Vincent would have reservations about raising another man’s child, especially Hojo’s but if he truly loved her he would understand.

Needing to free her mind from these torturous thoughts, Tifa opened the vial that Dr. Arlin had given her and dumped two of the small blue pills into her hand. She set the vial on the dresser and picked up the water bottle she had sitting there. After placing the two bitter pills upon her tongue, she took a swig from the bottle and forced them down. It would take twenty minutes or so for her to notice the effect of the drug and she went into the bathroom to take a much needed shower before the grogginess set in.

***

After seeing that Porter was going to be all right, Angel had slipped from the infirmary to take Rayna and D somewhere quiet. She led them to the cafeteria knowing that Rayna would need to eat after all that had happened. Rayna landed heavily in a seat and D laid down under the table as Angel went to retrieve their food. She soon returned and placed a tray upon the table. Angel picked up one plate of plain roast beef from the tray and set it down upon the floor, allowing the dog to have it.

Rayna stared at her own meal, knowing that she needed it but not feeling much like eating. Her mind was still torn up over the image of Porter writhing and bleeding upon the helicopter’s floor.

Angel could see the pain in the other woman’s face and reached across the table patting her hand. "He’s all right now, Rayna. Dr. Arlin will have someone come down tomorrow to do his surgery and he’ll be fine. The best thing you can do for him is to take care of yourself now."

Rayna smiled faintly in response to Angel’s kind words. "Okay."

Angel nodded in approval as her tablemate slowly began to eat the food presented to her. She felt as though she should go and check in with Tifa, but knew that Dr. Arlin was ordering her to rest. Rayna seemed to need her right now anyway. "So, how long had you been working for Shin Ra?"

Rayna swallowed her mouthful. "I got a job for them just after I got my accounting degree, I guess it’s been about four years."

"Oh, and Porter?" She asked.

"He’s been a Turk for three." Rayna smiled briefly. "I really don’t know all that much about him beyond that."

"So you haven’t been with him that long?" Angel wondered.

"We’ve been going out for several weeks." Rayna looked away. "But he’s kind of shy and doesn’t talk about himself much. And of course, being a Turk he’s not allowed to talk about work beyond the basics."

"You two seem to care for one another very much, though." Angel grinned.

Rayna visibly blushed. "I love him, and he says he loves me. It’s strange; I’ve never really felt like this for anyone in my life. The fact that he risked his own life to see that I was kept safe by turning to you guys and getting that implant out of me… is kind of mind boggling."

Angel laughed quietly. "Yeah, love’s funny that way."

"So, do you have anyone?" Rayna felt the need to turn the conversation away from herself.

"Yes." Angel smiled brightly. "Reno and I are married."

"The red head?" Rayna asked.

"Yeah."

Rayna had thought him a little too crude for her liking. "Oh, I see. It can’t be any worse than being involved with a Turk, I guess."

The fact that Rayna hadn’t yet been won over by Reno’s finer charms was obvious, but not a surprise to Angel. No one ever seemed to like her husband from the start. "Well, Reno was a Turk."

"Really?" Rayna’s eyes went wide in surprise. "A former Turk working for ASRIO?"

Angel set down her fork and leaned forward. "You don’t know a lot about ASRIO, do you?"

She shook her head. "No, I’m afraid not."

"Well, there are several Turks here." Angel sat back up. "Reno, Vincent, and Tseng."

"Who’s Tseng?" Rayna asked.

It was clear to Angel that Rayna knew nothing about this organization. "Tseng is the leader of ASRIO. He was a Turk to President Shin Ra and later his son Rufus. He is also Vincent’s brother."

Rayna’s eyes went wide with understanding. "Oh, no wonder they came back to get him out of the lab then."

"Tseng wouldn’t have let anyone remain there, his brother or not, but this has all been a little hard on him, especially in light of his recent bypass surgery." Angel sighed.

"God, that must be terribly stressful for him with a heart condition and all. Is he all right?" She asked.

"Nothing could keep my uncle down." Angel smiled.

More realization crossed Rayna’s face. "If he’s your uncle, then is Vincent..?"

"My father?" Angel nodded. "Yes, he is."

"How can that be?" Rayna had no understanding of Vincent’s past. "He isn’t old enough."

"Hojo grew me in an accelerator, and Vincent is seven years older than Tseng." Angel’s expression fell. "He was asleep for thirty years, and he doesn’t age due to some of the things that Hojo did to him in the past."

Rayna dropped her gaze down to the tabletop. She filled with pity for Angel and her family. Somehow her own problems didn’t seem so big anymore. "Oh, I’m sorry."

"Well, what’s done is done." Angel said, her voice tinged with remorse.

Reno walked into the room after being ordered from the infirmary by the doctor. He spotted Angel and Rayna and sat down next to his wife, giving her tablemate a wink and a grin. "So, Rayna, you have a thing for Turks, huh?"

Angel slapped him in the arm. "Not now, Reno. She’s had a rough day."

Rayna smiled weakly and looked away, amused that Angel didn’t pull any punches when it came to keeping her husband in line.

Reno turned his eyes to Angel, a deep look of annoyance upon his face. He reached up without thinking and touched his lip where it was still aching from Tifa’s blow earlier. "What the fuck? Is it beat the shit out of Reno day or what? I wish someone would have given me a copy of the memo."

Angel laughed, mocking Reno’s false anguish. "Oh, you earn every slap, kick, and punch you get."

"Great, now I’m a victim of spousal abuse." Reno shook his head and looked back over at Rayna. "Do you see the shit I have to deal with?"

Rayna couldn’t help herself. "I kind of have to side with Angel on this one. I haven’t known you very long, but you seem to have a way of saying the wrong thing."

"Oh, so she already got to you." Reno rolled his eyes. "This is just my fucking day. So the doc thinks your man’s gonna be all right?"

Rayna’s relief was clear. "That’s what Angel said. I owe you all a debt of thanks for taking care of him."

"Well, he helped us get Vinny, it’s the least we could do." Reno smiled kindly. He then leaned back and put his arm around Angel. "Tseng’s doing good. He came and saw me and Tifa a little while ago."

"Oh, I haven’t gotten to see him yet." Angel stared into Reno’s eyes. "And how’s Tifa?"

"She’s a big girl." Reno reached out and grabbed Angel’s small bag of chips from the table. "She’s fine."

Their conversation had to be halted momentarily as Reno wrestled with the cellophane bag rather loudly until he had achieved his goal and dumped several of the chips into his mouth. After finishing those, he reached forward and took Angel’s soda from the table drinking it all down and setting the empty glass back on the table. That done, he looked back over at Angel. "Jaras came running into the infirmary while Tseng and I were talking to Tifa. He was really freaked out."

"What do you mean?" Angel asked, suddenly very concerned.

Reno shrugged. "He’s starting to remember things."

"Oh, poor Jaras." Angel hung her head. "It must have been going to Midgar and seeing the inside of a lab that did it. Tseng never should have let him go."

"Maybe, maybe not, we don’t really know." He sighed. "Besides, he never would have taken no for an answer. He’s got the same God damned stubborn and stupid streak as his daddy and sis."

His comment hit Rayna hard. "Jaras is related too?"

Angel looked up at her. "Yes, he is."

"Oh, this is strange, but I kind of kept thinking that he was… Sephiroth." Rayna hung her head, "but I guess that just sounds silly."

Angel smiled. "No, it doesn’t. He is."

Rayna gawked in shock. "He is? Why…"

"Why is he here?" Angel finished for her.

"Yeah." She was awestruck.

"After Meteor, he fell into the life-stream and was stripped of his memory. He washed up in Mideel and started a new life. We only just recently found him and he wished to join us." She answered quietly.

Rayna was speechless. The thought that she had spent the last several hours sitting to the once most feared man in the world on the helicopter was unbelievable. As all of the things that she had been through and learned over the last twenty-four hours sank in, she started to feel very tired. Her shoulders slumped and she sighed deeply.

Angel cocked an eyebrow at the young woman before her. "Are you all right?"

Rayna sighed again. "I’m just really tired, that’s all."

"You want to go get a room?" Angel asked, already standing up from the table.

"Sure." Rayna got up, taking one more bite of her lunch before going. D followed behind his temporary master, also looking forward to the prospect of some rest.

***

Tifa had collapsed onto her bed right after her shower, and had remained asleep for untold hours. Thanks to the medication that the doctor had given Tifa, her rest was extremely deep and without dreams. When she finally awoke, Tifa sat up and looked at the clock sitting on the dresser. The blue numbers shone out 10:45. Now whether it was morning or night, the same day or the next she did not know.

Tifa slid out of the bed and stretched, before going over to the dresser and getting something on. Deciding that she was extraordinarily hungry, she walked from her room to the cafeteria and got a plain ham sandwich. The place was fairly deserted at the time, and Tifa finally realized that it was the morning of the following day. She ate the rather dry sandwich quickly, wanting to get to Vincent’s bedside as soon as possible.

Feeling better for having eaten, Tifa got up and strode from the room. The corridors of the subterranean base were cooler than normal and she wrapped her arms around herself as she went.

Finally she reached the doors of the infirmary and went in. The spot in the corner where Vincent’s bed had been was vacated, and Tifa at once filled with fear and flew to the door of Dr. Arlin’s office.

"Where is he?" Tifa asked, nearing panic.

She smiled, knowing what was worrying her friend. "He’s fine, Tifa. I just had one of the nurses take him to your quarters. I was hoping that being in more comfortable surroundings might bring out some response from him."

Tifa ran out without so much as a goodbye and made her way quickly to their room. When she reached is, she found the door open. The male nurse was sitting on the couch watching television with Vincent sitting in a wheelchair, wrapped in a bathrobe. His paralyzed arms and legs were strapped down to keep him from falling. He was staring with the same blank expression in the general direction of the television, but it was obvious that he wasn’t really paying any attention to it.

Once the nurse noticed Tifa, he got up. "If you feel up to watching him, I’ll go. I just took him to the bathroom, so he should be fine until I come back in a few hours."

Tifa nodded silently as the nurse walked past her and out. She was too focused on the pathetic sight before her to offer any real response. The nurse’s words had struck something within her, and she knew that Vincent would be dying of embarrassment at the indignities he was having to suffer through.

After a few moments, she steeled herself and went to kneel beside Vincent. If he was noticing that she was there, he wasn’t showing it. She reached up and pushed a few tendrils of hair away from his face. His complexion was ghastly, and there was a vacancy within his eyes not unlike what she had witnessed in Cloud’s dead expression.

She forced a smile for his sake, although he wasn’t even looking at her to see it. "Vincent, are you in there?"

He just blinked, continuing to gaze off into space.

Tifa sighed deeply, disappointed that he had yet to improve. "I talked with Dr. Arlin last night. She said you are suffering from something called Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. It’s supposed to happen to some soldiers after seeing the horrors of war, but I guess what you went through is just as bad, heck, probably worse."

Again, there was no response.

Tifa’s eyes burned with tears, and she rested her head against his shoulder. "She says that most people eventually come out of it, but sometimes they… remain like this… forever." Her voice was choked off by the tightness of her throat. Several minutes later, she managed to utter, "I want you to come back, Vincent. I love you."