Guilt’s Cost: Part XIX

Recovery

The quiet of the room was broken and Tifa roused from her sleep. She sat up, and examined her surroundings. In the bed next to her, Tseng was snoring quietly; his EKG monitor beeping with his heart rate.

Tifa looked to her other side, seeing Vincent being moved into the bed to her left. The three nurses that had brought him in slid him gently off the stretcher, and proceeded to hook him up to a monitor and I.V. fluids. He lay motionless still heavily sedated.

As they finished and prepared to leave, Tifa waved one of them over. "How is he?"

The nurse smiled. "Mr. Valentine is doing better. Dr. Arlin found where the bleeding was coming from and was able to get it stopped. She also was able to remove the bullet from his shoulder. There is a lot of tissue damage, but he should recover and be able to use his arm just as well as before."

Tifa took some comfort in this news. "Good, I was so worried."

The nurse looked back over at Vincent. "Yeah, the only trouble the doctor had was with his skin when she was closing up. She said she’d never seen anything like that before. She said it was like trying to suture an alligator, and I don’t know how many needles she bent trying to get it done."

Tifa stood up and straightened herself up. "Thank you."

"If anything happens, hit the call button on the wall." The nurse started to walk out. "The doctor needs a break, and I’ve got to go clean the surgery suite."

Slowly, Tifa made her way to Vincent, not certain what she would find. She stared down at him, his body covered with a sheet, only his face visible. He looked so tired to her; there was no color at all in his skin, and the thin lines of his lips were almost blue. Tifa reached out and touched his cheek, surprised to find it very cold. He trembled slightly with each slow breath, fighting the remaining anesthesia and postoperative hypothermia.

Tifa steeled herself and pulled back the sheet to look at the rest of him. His right arm was bound tightly to prevent him from moving his damaged shoulder. There was a dressing laid on his chest that ran the entire length of the front of his rib cage. She gently lifted the dressing to see what it hid. She pulled in a jagged breath as she saw the incision that ran down his chest. In an attempt to see where the bleeding was coming from, they had opened his chest up. Tifa put the dressing back in place, no longer able to bear looking at the wound.

His shivering was getting worse, and she drew the sheet back up over him, tucking it down around him. Thinking that this wasn’t enough, she proceeded to pull blankets off some of the other beds and covered him with those as well.

Once convinced that he would finally be warm enough, Tifa sat on the edge of his bed and reached up to touch his cheek again. As she did so, his eyes drew half open.

She smiled, relieved to see some sign of life from him again. "Vincent, how do you feel?"

Despite the heavy amount of medication in his blood stream, he was still in agony. With every breath he drew it felt as though his chest was being crushed. For her sake, he lied. "Fine."

His voice was harsh from the irritation of the endotracheal tube that had been put in his throat during the surgery so he could breathe.

Although she was doing her best to put on a happy face for him, her sadness still shone through.

With his cybernetic arm, he grabbed her hand. "I’ll be fine, Tifa. How’s Tseng?"

Tifa pointed across the room to where Tseng slept. "He’s over there. I think he’s doing well, I was talking to him before he fell asleep. He says you saved him."

Vincent’s memories of the mission were faulty at best, and once Chaos had taken over, he remembered nothing. "I don’t recall much."

He closed his eyes again, as a wave of pain ran through him. Then, the memories of the events on the helicopter and those that followed when he got to the infirmary surfaced. He again felt the fear of being harmed; the fear that he had learned when he had been at Hojo’s mercy so long ago.

Tifa frowned as an expression of shame came to Vincent’s face. "Vincent, what’s wrong?"

He was embarrassed for having lost his composure as the doctor and nurses had sought to help him. His blatant display of cowardice made him wither. "Sorry I made such an ass of myself when they were trying to work on me."

Tifa shook her head. "No, Vincent, don’t apologize! No one can blame you for feeling uncomfortable when things like that are happening!"

"I felt like I was back in the lab again." Vincent sighed, still not able to look Tifa in the eye. "Just like it was thirty some odd years ago."

"Vincent, anyone would have a fear of doctors and medical stuff after an experience like that." Tifa brought up and kissed his metal hand.

It was now late at night, and Angel came into the infirmary looking quite sleep deprived. She came over to Tifa and Vincent and pulled up a chair. She bent over and gave her father a brief kiss and then landed heavily in her seat. Her head was splitting from stress. The expression that she wore let every one know that she had bad news to share.

"Tifa", Angel sighed, "I’m afraid I’ve got something disturbing to tell you."

Tifa couldn’t imagine what could possibly be any worse than what she had already been through tonight. "What is it?"

Angel leaned back in her chair. "We’ve got some news from Nibelhiem. After we tipped the authorities off to Cloud’s suicide, they went to the house to retrieve the body, but they couldn’t find it."

In her exhausted state, a wave of confusion washed over Tifa. "Couldn’t find it? He was upstairs, right by the bed. I know he was dead!"

Angel was not up to speculating as to where Cloud’s body might have gone or why. "I’m sorry, but it wasn’t there."

Tifa looked at Vincent, searching for any answers, but found none.

Reno came into the room, and after going to Tseng’s side for a moment, he walked over to where Angel sat. "Hey."

Angel looked up at him, and patted the hand he had placed on her shoulder. "Hi, I’m almost done here."

Vincent tried to sit up, hurting himself in the process. "Get your hand off her, Reno."

Angel stood up and stepped closer to her father. "Reno’s not hurting me. We live together."

"Over my dead body!" Vincent found moving impossible, but desperately wished to have a go at Reno.

Reno smirked and grabbed the cord going into the outlet near Vincent’s bed. "That can be arranged."

Everyone stood looking at Reno as he ripped the cord from the wall. Vincent’s monitor went dead.

Angel glared at Reno in annoyance. "He’s not on life support, moron."

Reno mumbled to himself as he shoved the plug back into the outlet. "You guys really need to lighten the fuck up."

Angel gave Vincent another kiss. "I’ve got to go now. I’ll see you in the morning."

Vincent fumed as he watched Angel leave with Reno. Before the door shut behind them, Reno turned back and stuck his tongue out at Vincent.

Tifa smiled to herself at seeing Vincent turn red in anger. "Typical dad."

He glared at Tifa. "What the Hell is that supposed to mean?"

"It means that no matter who she choose to live with, you’d disapprove." Tifa smiled, finding it cute that Vincent was reacting this way.

"Yeah, well I hated that dumb fuck a long time before I even knew I had a daughter." Vincent sank down into his pillow.

"Whoa there, Vincent. Calm down. Angel’s a smart girl." Tifa laughed.

"She must be a genius to be able to find some sort of redeeming quality in Reno." He pouted.