Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Du, Du hast, Du Hasst Mich ❯ Five ( Chapter 5 )

After seeing Vincent have a real attack -bolting upright, eyes wide open but not seeing anything, reaching for his own neck, and then just suddenly stopping- Shera finally convinced Cid that there was nothing he could do. She still had to practically drag him out of the room and back home; persuading him to get some sleep was another thing entirely.

Despite the fact that he was the boss, Cid decided to take time off from his job. He was far too shaken up about Vincent to be trusted to fly, and he paid very little attention when people tried to ask him questions. Needless to say, it was bad for company morale, even when Shera took over for Cid. It didn't make them worry any less about their boss, or about Vincent.

Shera had remembered to bring the surviving belongings home with her. Only his shoes and his wallet; the Death Penalty hadn't been found and Vincent's clothes had all been cut off of him by the paramedics.

Cid had spent the night staring at a picture in Vincent's wallet until he finally fell asleep. "I never thought he'd kept this," he had mumbled. The picture had been from Vincent's birthday, they'd all celebrated it at the Gold Saucer, from before he'd come back. It was Cid, with a goofy expression on his face and giving the camera in the booth the peace sign. Vincent was trying to squirm out of Cid's headlock, but he was unmistakably smiling.

Ignoring Shera's protests that there was nothing he could do and he was only going to make himself miserable, he went back to see Vincent the next day.

Cid stopped in the doorway of the room upon seeing someone else inside. It was definitely no doctor.

"Who the fuck are-oh, it's you, Reeve. Sorry."

"Still think of me as Cait?" Reeve asked, gently holding Vincent's limp hand. "I was there at his birthday."

"…Uh, yeah. I wasn't really paying attention at the time."

"I noticed."

"This isn't some publicity stunt, is it?" Cid asked. Shera did say she had called everybody about what happened, but he hadn't expected anyone else to show up, let alone someone straight from Midgar, let alone Reeve. It seemed rather suspicious.

"No, it's me visiting a friend in a time of need."

"I was talking about you."

"Me? What's wrong with me?"

"Other than the fact that you broke a vending machine in a fit of rage, nothing. I said 'need,' Highwind."

"It was already broken," Cid mumbled.

"He certainly seems to be an expert at getting himself into disasters." Reeve started, then sighed, not letting go of Vincent's hand. "The police found his gun. They've practically figured out everything: speed, projectile, trajectory, angle … everything except why he was there in the first place. Until they analyzed the blood."

"Blood?" Cid asked, sitting on the chair. It seemed to be one of those speeches.

"There was a large stain of blood, along with… some other pieces of a human body. At first they were very suspicious about him until the results came back. The DNA isn't on any recent record and they went back through the files of the last five years. They did find heavy amounts of Jenova cells in it, though.

"You're friend has gone from potential murder suspect to harbinger of doom and changed a small town murder mystery into a worldwide manhunt. All while unconscious.

"Neither the police, nor the doctors want the information released to the public yet."

"Yeah, sounds like them."

"And I went through the paperwork and I'm paying for his medical insurance."

"That sound-what the hell?"

"I've already cost you one life. I'm going to do my best to save this one," Reeve said, placing Vincent's hand down on the bed. He turned to leave. "I'm tired of withholding information. I thought you needed to know about this. Both of you."