By Kristen Gupton-Williams

The flight to Rocket took all of the night, and Tifa drifted off to sleep only waking up when the constant drone of the helicopter began to wane. She opened her eyes to find the faint glow of the dawn on the horizon. Brad had brought them down in the field just to the west of Cid’s house, where the Shin Ra rocket had once stood.

Brad smiled over at her. "Go on, give the old bastard Hell for me."

As Tifa shrugged off the last of her tiredness, she looked over at him. "Don’t you want to come say hi for a minute?"

"Naw," he smiled, "Tseng wants me to get back as soon as possible. I’ll see him when I come back to pick you up."

"Oh, okay." Tifa sighed, getting up. She grabbed her bag and got out of the chopper. After retreating to a safe distance Tifa turned back to wave as Brad powered up the helicopter and rose back into the sky.

The early morning air was sharp and she regretted not having dressed more warmly. It was probably only five in the morning or so, and she knew that Cid wouldn’t be up for another hour. Nonetheless, she started to walk to his house, not knowing where else to go.

As she neared, she made out a figure standing outside the front door, and when she was closer she could see that it was Cid himself.

He stood in the cold air in nothing more than a tank top and jeans. Although Tifa at first thought that he was smoking he wasn’t. The would-be smoke was nothing more that the vapor from his breath.

Growing closed, Tifa went faster. Something must be wrong for Cid to be up this early. Very few things could make Cid alter his habits.

He noticed her approach and turned to face her. His expression wasn’t one of happiness or recognition. Something was weighing too heavily on him for that. Cid looked much older than his thirty-nine years at the moment. "Tifa."

She closed the gap between them and dropped her bag to the ground. Despite the way he had greeted her, Tifa was still very excited to see him and she threw her arms around him.

Then something very strange happened; something Tifa never would have expected. Instead of putting his arms around her briefly and clapping her on the back like he always did, Cid seemed to grab onto her for dear life. He buried his face into the nape of her neck and she felt his breaths grow jagged and his shoulders start to heave.

This wasn’t Cid, and Tifa grew terrified to realize he was crying. Cid Highwind was actually crying. "Oh God, Cid, what’s wrong?"

He was unable to respond in the least, just continuing to sob as he held her close.

Not knowing what else to do, Tifa held him tightly, comforting him as best she could. The familiarity of his embrace and scent was the only thing good she was taking from this, but even the way he smelled was different. The constant and overpowering smell of cigarette smoke was strangely absent. Realizing this, Tifa was even more worried. "Cid?"

He finally managed to capture some measure of composure, but not much. "Tifa… I’m so glad you’re here…"

"What’s wrong?" She asked, scared to know what the answer was.

"Shera… she’s sick." Cid whispered, still clinging to her.

"Oh God, what’s wrong?" Tifa dreaded what was happening. "Did she lose the baby?"

After another brief bout of tears, Cid answered. "The baby… they don’t know… The doctor is in there with her right now. They won’t let me in."

It wasn’t until then that Tifa noticed the emergency vehicles parked near the back entrance to the house. There was no real hospital in Rocket, and the doctor and paramedics had to do all their work within the confines of the house.

"What happened?" Tifa asked, still searching for answers.

"She got up a few hours ago… Shera hasn’t been feeling well for several days, but I didn’t know it was this serious. I was still in bed and I heard a crash… She had collapsed in the kitchen. There was blood running out of her…" He nuzzled back down against her neck, unable to go on.

Tifa now was down right mortified. For Cid to be this upset was unheard of. Somehow, Cid must already know what the ultimate outcome of this situation was going to be. Cid must truly be fearing that Shera wasn’t going to make it.

It was at that moment that the door to the house opened and the female paramedic that had been assisting the doctor came out. "Mr. Highwind, the doctor needs to speak to you."

Cid immediately grabbed Tifa’s hand and pulled her along with him as he followed the paramedic into the house.

The doctor was sitting at the kitchen table with a blanketed bundle in his arms. "Mr. Highwind, you need to sit down."

Whether it was the doctor’s order or the simple fact that he lost all of his remaining strength was unclear but he fell back into a chair. Tifa took up the seat next to him. The doctor’s deadpan expression along with the fact that all the color was gone from Cid’s skin made Tifa feel sick.

Cid wanted desperately to ask about Shera, but the words refused to come out.

The doctor sighed deeply. "Mr. Highwind, I’m sorry, but your wife didn’t make it."

There didn’t appear to be any reaction from Cid at all as he heard this. He just sat there staring at the doctor.

Tifa gasped in disbelief and brought her hands up to her mouth. She may have not spent a large amount of time with Shera, but she had grown very attached to her nonetheless.

"But the baby is fine." The doctor said as he got up and extended the bundled newborn to its father. "A boy."

Cid’s hands trembled horribly as he reached up to take his son. Slowly he brought the infant down and held him against his chest. He pulled the blanket back a bit to see the child’s face. A smile crossed Cid’s lips upon seeing his boy for the first time, but it immediately fell as the terrible price that had been paid crushed in on him.

"I’m sorry, Cid." The doctor said taking another step forward and placing a hand on his shoulder.

Cid drew in a sharp breath and tore his tear filled eyes away from the baby. "I want to see her."

The doctor furrowed his brow. "I don’t know if you want to do that. Maybe you should let us clean up a little first."

Cid got up and handed his son to Tifa, then turning back to the doctor. "No, I want to see her now."

The doctor’s continued protests fell upon deaf ears as Cid walked off purposefully to the bedroom where Shera had been worked on.

He held his breath and opened the door, afraid to look up at first. He took a step in before finally managing to bring his gaze up from the floor. The once white sheets of his bed were now stained with broad streaks of crimson. They had pulled a sheet up over Shera, and her ghastly form lay motionless. There was another red stain across the portion of the sheet that covered her abdomen.

Tears ran freely down Cid’s weathered face and he didn’t try in the least to hide them. Cid got to the edge of the bed and sat down next to Shera. After steeling himself, he reached out and pulled at the sheet covering her. Her once rosy cheeks were now as white as the pillow she rested upon, and her lips had an unnatural blue tint to them. Her eyes were only half closed, but no longer seeing.

A loud sob escaped Cid as he broke down. Not knowing what else to do, he bent down putting his arms around her. The coldness of her skin against him stripped him of any doubt over the situation. How he was going to go on without her he did not know. Shera was the only woman he had ever loved in his nearly forty years. To suffer his first heartbreak this way assured that he wouldn’t love again for a long time, if ever.

A sudden wave of nausea over came him and he immediately threw himself off the bed and onto the floor on all fours. Mercifully there wasn’t anything in his stomach and it passed quickly. As it subsided he got back to his knees and turned to Shera again. In his mad dash from the bed he had managed to pull the sheet completely off of her, exposing the rest of her body. Now the source of the stain that had marked the sheet over her abdomen was made clear.

In an emergency attempt to save the baby after Shera’s death, the doctor had given her a hasty caesarian section. The incision had yet to be closed, and the sight of his dead wife in this state was more than he could take. He collapsed onto the floor and cried with abandon. Had it not been for the knowledge that he now had a son to raise, Cid may have chosen to give up completely at that moment.

Upon hearing his cries, Tifa got up from where she was sitting in the kitchen and went to his side with the baby still in her arms. When she found him in a heap upon the floor, Tifa’s heart broke. It was an unbearable sight to witness the great and gutsy pilot in such a state of despair. She knelt next to him with tears in her eyes and stroked his back with one hand as the infant was held in her other arm. "Cid, I’m so sorry."

He didn’t respond right away, and when he did it was only to reach around his side and grab a hold of the hand she had been touching him with. As he continued to cry, he held onto her like she was his last anchor to sanity. Despite all his crude talk and nonchalant attitude towards her, Shera had been his life, and now without her he was lost.

It was nearly half an hour before Cid managed to at least get up to his knees, and only then did he do it because his son was beginning to cry. He looked at the infant as Tifa held it, suddenly feeling an overwhelming need to take the child into his own arms.

Tifa readily handed the baby over, knowing that it was now the most important thing in Cid’s life. She smiled at the new father, despite the tragic circumstances. "Do you have a name for him?"

Cid managed the feeblest smile that Tifa had ever seen. "We were… are going to name him Cid Augustus Highwind the Third."

Tifa smiled back at him, trying her best to ignore the dead woman lying upon the bed. "That’s a long name for such a little guy."

"Heh, yeah." Cid said, admiring his son through his tear blurred eyes. "I was thinking I could just call him Little Cid for short."

Tifa gave a slight laugh. Talking about the infant was bringing Cid out of his despairing state. "That’s cute."

Cid looked up at Tifa as the baby continued to cry. "What do you think he wants?"

She shrugged. "I don’t know, maybe he’s hungry."

"Oh." He looked thoughtful. "Some company sent us some formula stuff free in the mail. Maybe he’d like that."

"Okay, let’s go try." Tifa said, getting up, and extending a hand to Cid.

He rose up shakily with her help, but continued to hold his child tightly. They made their way back out to the kitchen where the doctor was still waiting.

As Cid went over to the cupboard to pull out the formula and a bottle, the doctor approached Tifa. "If it’s all right, we’d like to go take her body to the morgue now."

Tifa nodded slightly and responded in a hush. "Yes, I think he’s done now."

"Good." The doctor looked over to where Cid was struggling to get the top unscrewed from the empty bottle while still having the baby in his arms. "Will you be able to see that he gets organized?"

"Sure." Tifa sighed. "I was going to stay for a few days anyway. I’ve helped lots of friends with babies, and I think I can get him together here."

"Okay." The doctor turned and headed off with the paramedics to clean up the room and remove Shera’s body from the house.