Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Second Chance at Life ❯ Stupid Hospitals..... ( Chapter 1 )

Disclaimer: Alas, I don't own or have anything to do with the creation of Final Fantasy 8, that goes to SquareEnix…. and we all should bow to there mightiness. So no one needs to sue this poor fanfic writer. I do own Cleo and Kim and her family.

Final Fantasy 8

Second Chance at Life

By: Lainnavi01

Chapter 1: Stupid Hospitals……..

"Dum Dee Dum Dum, Dum Dee Dum……." Cleo paused in her humming, "You know that tune really is quite catchy." She stated to the girl sitting in front of her at the end of the bed.

"What, the theme for Jeopardy? You mean you actually watch it." The other girl said raising her eyebrow in question. She looked at her friend strangely and back at the blank T.V. on the wall. Currently there was nothing on the television at the time, or at least nothing that interested the two girls.

"Kim, Kim, Kim…you think nothing good is on unless it's a cable show or some reality show. There is more out there that is stimulating and makes the brain think." Cleo nodded her head with a serious look on her face. It only lasted for a second when her friend erupted into laughter. Tears were streaming down her eyes and it took a couple of seconds for her to calm down.

"Oh, my god….!" Kim exclaimed. "I think you've been here for too long girlfriend, it's making you crazy."

"………."

"Oh, don't gimme that look Cleo. I'm not gonna baby you just `cause your sick, and spend most of your time in the hospital. At least cancer hasn't taken your sense of humor…I hear it's the first to go."

"Whatever….I…" Cleo stopped at cocked her head to one side listening. "I think you're gonna have to go. I hear `The Enforcer' on her way…..visiting hours have been over for about and hour and half so…"

"I believe that's my cue to vamoose." Kim hopped off the hospital bed and collected her stuff. She looked around the room and than at the girl sitting in the bed.

Cleopatra Seifer did not look sick, considering her cancer has been in remission. Good heath was returning to her. She was 5 years old when she was diagnosed with leukemia, putting her in and out of the hospital. According to Cleo, when she was born and until she was two her hair had been a white blond and very fine. The kind of hair you can never get out of a bottle, but like most people it got darker as she got older. When she started chemo-therapy it resulted in times of her hair falling out and took awhile to grow back. When she was 11, the chemo was stopped and she went into a remission. It took her four years to grow her hair back. Only it grew back to the same white blond from when she was born, and it hasn't gotten darker over the years. Currently it's very wavy and touches her shoulder. Cleo says she's trying to grow it as long as Kim's; her hair is past her waist. Cleo was pale from not being in the sun much. She was short, only 5'1 and has a small amount of freckles around her nose and cheeks. Kim calls her a little pixie.

Kim and Cleo are as different as night and day. Cleo is light, whereas Kim is dark. She is a full blooded Native American of the Navajo Nation and is proud of it. Kimberlee Anise Rainstorm was wearing the current fashion of the times; very short shorts and a pink camisole top showing her belly with a light weight button down white top over it; unbutton of course. Her body is well pierced, this includes her belly button, eyebrow, Nose and ears (6 holes total in her ears). The night Kim came home with these piercing was the night that summer vacation was shot, her parents did not approve. Around her neck was a choker with a Navajo decal on it and she has a silver ring on her ring finger with the same design. All in all, she was very chic looking.

"Well, what time do you want us to come and get you tomorrow?" Kim asked as she collected her stuff. Before Cleo could answer the door to the room opened and the nurse walked in. She was very mean looking and big, with gray hair pulled back tightly and carrying a clip bored. She looked every bit as an enforcer as they had called her earlier; than she spoke.

"Good evening girls!"

She spoke softly and cheerfully to them both. As the old saying goes, looks can be deceiving, and her case a lot deceiving. Nurse Eddison was the nicest nurse in the hospital and everyone loved her. Calling her the Enforcer was a joke and she loved it.

"Kim dear, I see your getting ready to go." She looked at the chart in her hand. According to it, Cleo was being discharged tomorrow morning. She had been in the hospital for two weeks after passing out in school. So far all of her tests came back fine and there was no sign that her cancer was coming back, but still she had been a sick little girl.

"Hi! Mrs. Eddison!" Cleo smiled at her, of all the doctors and nurses that came though her life, Maria Eddison was her favorite and has been with her the longest. She was the grandmother she never had. Cleo's grandparents on both sides were dead along with her parents. Cleo had no living relatives left alive, she was an orphan.

When she was 9 her parents left the hospital from visiting her. She had pneumonia so she was hospitalized, nothing to serious but better safe than sorry. It had been raining all day and the roads were slick. Since it was December it got dark by 5, so by 8pm when they left it was night, making driving just a little dangerous. The car that came at them was going 80mph. The driver was drunk. Her Dad tried to swerve out of the way but with the slick roads he lost control. They spun completely around and struck a guard rail, there was a steep cliff on the other side, but they didn't go over. From eyewitness reports the car rested there for a few seconds until the drunk that almost hit them, hit yet another car causing it to go out of control and smashing into her parent's car. The cars were sent over the guard rail and crashed to the bottom of the ravine, an explosion erupted as soon as they stuck ground; no one survived. Cleo cried for a week, than no more. She never blamed herself, although some adults were afraid she might. They had been going to see her after all and young minds do tend to think that way. Cleo never did, she knew her parents loved her and that they would have been to see even in a blizzard, it was who they were.

She stayed in the hospital until they released her into the care of the Rainstorms. Kim and Cleo met when they were 7. Kim was having her appendix removed and shared the same room. They have been friends ever since. Unknown to either of them, Cleo's parents asked the Rainstorms to be her guardian if anything should happen, and they agreed. So for the past 7 years Cleo has been in the Rainstorm's care. Although money had been left to Cleo, Jacob Rainstorm won't let her touch it until she goes to college. She is treated like another daughter. They have seven children but to them more the merrier. Cleo knows that if she died; heaven forbid, she will be mourned.

"I'll be leaving…" she signs, "again, tomorrow morning." Cleo looked at Kim saying, "And as soon as you can get her Kim."

"Gotcha…Mom had a fit when I said she didn't need to come this time, so I better tell her that you're ready to be free!" She said throwing on her jacket and grabbing her purse.

"Oh, and as soon as we get home we can play Final Fantasy 8!" she exclaimed and left the room.

"Final what…?" Cleo looked back at the closed door.

"I believe it's a video game Cleo dear, my grandson also has it." Nurse Eddison told her as she took her nightly vitals.

"Oh, I live with her, but I never got into video games. She thinks I'm weird. After being inside all the time you'd think I would have, but I never did. I got active, so I really don't need to play that kind of game. Can I get back to gymnastics and karate when I get outta here?" The nurse smiled at her and nodded her head.

"Hmmm….this game seems fun, kinda like playing a story instead of just reading it, or at least my grandson claims. Now be a dear and go to sleep if you want to leave early." She gave her a grandmotherly kiss goodnight and left the room.

Alone, Cleo flopped on her bed, already bored. This last fainting spell scared her, although the testes said nothing was wrong. Cleo just knew it was coming back. She didn't want to go back to being weak and sick, not after feeling good for 5 years. Feeling tired, although she wouldn't admit it to anyone, she laid her head on the pillow.

"I just wish I could be some where that I wouldn't be sick….anywhere." She whispered to herself, after a few minutes she was a sleep.

A bright light appeared in her room and two figures appeared, they were just shadowy beings if anyone looked at them.

"Are you sure she's the one….she is sick."

"I am very sure and she will not be sick when she is in their world."

"He is unsure of himself and may not be ready for her."

"There is no time, she must go now. The other power is growing and we can not stop it, only the chosen may."

"He is older and being difficult, a savior he is not."

"Give him time, the other one before was also the same."

"I still believe….."

"Do not worry, she will be good for him, she has his name"

"So be it, the other will go with her so she will not be alone. But a time will come and she will have to choose were she will live…if she lives."

"Oh, live, she will. That I have no worry of."

"We leave now. The next day she and her friend will go."

A second later a flash of light and the beings were gone and the room was silent with only the breathing of Cleo sleeping.