Quistis sighed as the automatic doors slid open to the hospital bay. At the sight of her, the two Esther officers saluted and left through the same door she'd entered. As they marched past her, Quistis could see a sullen teen perched on the side of the side of the hospital bed, his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands.

"Commander," She saluted. Squall looked up. His eyes were dark with lack of sleep, and his deep frown seemed to emphasise the vivid, red scar between his eyes. Quistis was not unaware of how she's picked him up from a hospital bed just over a year ago when he'd received the fateful blow to his face. But Seifer wasn't the trouble this time.

"We need to leave quickly. You've caused enough trouble as it is and we're going to be late." Her voice was curt and she couldn't help but feel like a teacher scolding her pupil again. Squall was her superior now, but he took the comment silently, rising from the bed and picking up his jacket from the bed. His brow furrowed twitched when he slipped it on as his newly-bandaged ribs throbbed.

They left the hospital building swiftly, and although Quistis marched through the Esther streets almost at a jog, Squall didn't complain. He didn't speak at all and they were soon aboard the Ragnarok and airborne. Quistis buckled herself into the other passenger seat next to Squall and took out the stack of files and list she should have been working on before she'd been called out of bed to sort out this whole sorry mess. And even then, no-one had even explained to her what was happening- she was just told to fetch Squall from the Esther medical centre. It was clear when she arrived that he'd gotten himself into some sort of fight. It's wasn't until she saw the soldiers posted throughout the centre that she really worried- they weren't there for Squall's protection. She just hoped he hadn't done something really stupid to would damage the Garden's reputation.

She gave Squall a sidelong look and saw he was asleep in his seat. Dawn was breaking over the Esther plains, beautifully highlighting the lack eye blooming on his face. Ragnarok's engine rumbled gently into life and Nida, in the cockpit above, slowly took the airship into the sky and to its, destination: Balamb. Quistis sighed and went back to work.

Squall's eyes opened as Ragnarok began its descent and he was out of his seat and waiting by the loading door before it touched ground. Quistis hurried to question him, but in her haste to follow him, stood up too quickly and scattered her papers on the floor. As she crouched to gather them up again, Squall was already walking towards Garden and Balamb town it was parked beside.

The new autumn sky was cool and clear, but it did nothing to clear Squall's head of alcohol, fury and shame. He marched through the gates before anyone had a chance to stop him and quickly made his way to the dormitories, and his room.

Quistis, Xu and Nida had thought that the new Commander should have quarters to reflect his new status. However, space at Garden was at a premium and what this actually accounted to was a dorm which was very slightly larger than average, but had the bonus of an en suite bathroom, as opposed to the communal bathrooms SeeDs and students used.

When he swiped is keycard, Squall saw that his room was not unoccupied. Working as quietly as possible so as not to wake Rinoa, he took his fresh SeeD uniform from the closet and hung it up in the bathroom while he ran the shower and tried to do something about his face in front of the mirror.

Rinoa stretched in the weak sun filtering through the blinds and rolled over to check Squall's alarm clock: 7:13 AM.

"Squall? Why are you up so early?" She rubbed her eyes and burrowed deeper into the sheets, looking for him at the bathroom door. Squall closed the door. Rinoa frowned, seeing that yesterday's clothes on the floor were only her own. Only her side of the single bed had been slept in too. Lying on her side with the sheets pooled comfortingly around her, she tried to remember what had happened last night.

It had been a good night, the newly- graduated SeeDs had a lot to celebrate, and a new future full of possibilities to carve for Garden. In gratitude for Garden's assistance in defeating Ultimecia, Esther had been very welcoming to the SeeDs, and had opened their great Presidential Palace as the venue for the graduation party. Food and drink was plentiful and everyone was fantastically drunk. It occurred to Rinoa that she'd never seen anyone play as hard as Balamb SeeDs. It'd been fantastic to catch up with all the familiar faces- Kiros, Ward and Laguna were particularly revered among the new SeeDs. She'd even danced with Squall for half of the night, and she was thrilled with how open he was with her when they danced. It was this time on the dance floor that she first seriously thought she might be falling in love with him. But then something had changed and Squall had disappeared before the end of the party. And now she was waking up alone with a boyfriend who had obviously just arrived home in the early hours.

Rinoa heard the shower turn off.

"Squall?" She called in a carefully casual voice, lying back and playing with the ring around her neck. "Where did you go last night?" His ring.

There was no answer and as Rinoa sat upright, unable to help but feel confused and hurt, the bathroom door opened and Squall, dressed in his smart SeeD uniform and very obviously beaten up face, stepped out. He made as if he was fastening his cuff button as he left the dorm, but Rinoa had already seen. As Squall left his room, the cry of "What the hell happened to your face?" followed him into he corridor.