Whiskey Lullaby
by Diane Kelley
Disclaimer: I own neither FF7, nor the Turks, just this particular version of their universe. Yes, I will be posting the rest of the fic this came from, just let me get it up. chuckles.
Summary: sometimes, for all your trying, things just don't work out. When it happens and all your strength is gone, what can on do, really?
Rude put him out like the burnin' end of a midnight cigarette
He broke his heart he spent his whole life tryin' to forget
We watched him drink his pain away a little at a time
But he never could get drunk enough to get Rude off his mind
Until the night
It had been four months. Four months since Rude had walked out of the door of the hospital room he'd been in that day saying "I'll return to you when I'm safe for you". But he never had, They'd spoken twice since then, but it wasn't enough. Rennan too was gone, given to Tifa because he knew he was in no shape to raise his son. Hell, he was barely in any shape to take care of himself. Then he'd discovered from Sam that Rude had been at the ward again, and what the doctors had caught Rude doing. ..well it had broken his heart. He'd had enough, he could take no more.
He put that bottle to his head and pulled the trigger
And finally drank away Rude's memory
Life is short but this time it was bigger
Than the strength he had to get up off his knees
We found him with his face down in the pillow
With a note that said I'll love him till I die
And when we buried him beneath the willow
The angels sang a whiskey lullaby
It was Elena that found his body the next morning, face down in the pillow of the bed he and Rude had once shared, Livewire whimpering as he sniffed the body, looking up at her with despondant crystal blue eyes as if to ask if she had some kind of magic that would make his master live again. She picked up the note next to his body that said "I'm sorry, Laney. ..pleae don't be angry, I just had nothin' left to get back up off m'knees with. Tell Rude I'll love him for eternity an' beyond." There was a trail of blood that dripped down the side of it, mixing with the red hair the surrounded the hole in his temple.
The rumors flew but nobody knew how much Rude blamed himself
For years and years he tried to hide the whiskey on his breath
He finally drank his pain away a little at a time
But he never could get drunk enough to get him off his mind
Until the night
It was his fault. He always told himself that. The way he'd withdrawn because of his own fear, then the stupid mistake he'd made when he'd gone to visit his ex after a heavy night of drinking. The sex with Josh had been as astounding as it ever had been.. until the doctor had walked in on them. That had led to Rude spilling his guts to Sam. When Reno had asked him, Sam of course had told him. Rude had somehow known his brother would. Then had come the news of Reno's suicide, and Rude just began to sink deeper and deeper into the liquor bottle as guilt ate away at him.
Rude put that bottle to his head and pulled the trigger
And finally drank away his memory
Life is short but this time it was bigger
Than the strength he had to get up off his knees
We found his with his face down in the pillow
Clinging onto Reno's picture for dear life
We laid Rude next to him beneath the willow
While the angels sang a whiskey lullaby
Elena when she had found Rude's body really couldn't say she was too surprised. He had held the photograph Tifa had taken with he and Reno and Rennan and Livewire clutched in his upturned hand, dried salt trails mixing with the blood from the hole in the side of his head. Now, she stood under the willow tree in the house that Reno had lived in and waited for his husband in, looking at the two crosses embedded in the ground underneath it as she took a shot of Rude's Glenlivvit first, then Reno's Jack daniels, softly singing out a lullaby before turning and going back inside.