Author's Note: I realize that this has been done before and by no means will this be the last, but I wanted to throw my own story out there, too. This is in fact the product of letting my mind wonder while reading someone else's version of this scenario! I hope you all enjoy.

Catch

Officials from the International Monetary Fund and Gaian Central Bank were due in on Monday June 14th to discuss details of another aid package intended to help the victims of Meteor who are still living in the desolate areas around Midgar, the old capital, and contribute to the expansion of Edge, the new capital, and the stabilisation of its economy. Talks are predicted...

And so the radio rattled on.

Tifa reached across the bar to polish another glass, and then another, and another, and yet another. She wasn't sure if she was really listening to the radio any more, it all sounded the same after a while. In the end Midgar was gone, many people were gone, many lives had been ruined beyond repair and now Edge, the little city that was rapidly expanding into a metropolis in its own right, was attempting to succeed in its place.

She sighed. A few soft footsteps padded down the stairs and she turned to look at the boy who emerged.

"Hey, Tifa?"

It was Denzel. He was peering at her through his scruffy mop of brown hair. His pyjamas were all screwed up from sleeping and he was clutching his forehead lightly with his hands. Tifa's maternal side welled up inside of her.

"Does it hurt?" she asked.

He nodded. She bit her lip slightly and then ushered him back upstairs to the bathroom. She hated knowing he was in pain, but there was nothing more she could do other than nurse him as his real mother would have done.

She soaked a cloth and rubbed it gently over the dark mark spreading across his forehead. He winced every now and then and she wasn't sure how to be more gentle with him without avoiding touching the stimga at all. He hissed, and seeing his hand reach up suddenly, reflexively to the pain she caught it with her own and held it in place. He held her hand very tightly in turn to distract himself from what was making him wince, from this horrible, incurable and destructive disease eating away at him.

She dabbed away the residual water with another cloth and then lowered his hand in hers, gently releasing it.

"Better?" she asked softly.

He nodded, as he always nodded, in the way that reminded her of Cloud. He remained quiet, but thankful, and ambled back to his and Marlene's bedroom. She'd check on him again in a few minutes to see that he'd got back to bed. He had hardly been sleeping recently.

"How's Denzel been?" Cloud asked as he watched Tifa hurry around the kitchen.

"He was asleep for at least five hours today," she tried to say cheerfully.

His intense eyes relaxed a little and then he focused himself more on her.

"And you, have you been okay?"

"I'm fine, Cloud. I'm just glad he's not getting significantly worse at the moment."

Cloud was quiet for a moment.

"You haven't been feeling... light-headed or anything?"

She promptly reached for a large pan on the wall behind him and set it down on a hot ring on the stove.

"No, Cloud. Really, I'm fine. I really don't think it's contagious or we'd all have it by now," she smiled.

He nodded.

"I'll... get out of your way then," he tried to excuse himself awkwardly.

"Cloud," she said in her sweet tone, reaching for his arm and then embracing him. "Welcome home."

She felt his body relax under her own while his arms locked themselves firmly behind the small of her back.

"I'm glad to be home."

They parted and then Cloud walked out of the kitchen, a cute smile still playing on the corners of his mouth as he absent-mindedly scratched the back of his head. Ever since he had told her at the end of the Jenova War that things were going to be different now that he had her with him and, he made sure to clarify, in a way different from before, things had progressed rapidly between them and now they were properly together. Though in rare moments, at times when they got close, he was still the slightly nervous Cloud she'd known as a young girl - which wasn't necessarily a bad thing – and really, she didn't mind the awkward way he could still be because no matter how he acted he was still Cloud, and having him around made her feel happy and safe; although she was still concerned that sometimes, just sometimes, he actually appeared to be becoming more distant from her. At least when Denzel had arrived things had gone back to the way they had been before. She had even swept the last few arguments she and Cloud had had before Denzel had come to the back of her mind. After Denzel's arrival all of them had also felt more like a real family, and Tifa hadn't minded that at all.

She was washing the dishes again.

She was listening to the radio again.

"Tifa?" Marlene's voice called from upstairs.

"Yes?"

There was a slight pause before she heard an answer. As she was waiting Tifa suddenly felt a small jolt in her side. She quickly pulled her fingers away from the taps. It had felt like a small static electric shock.

"Is Cloud coming back tonight?"

"I think so," was her answer.

There was another pause.

"Okay."

Tifa pursed her lips a little as she took back up her cloth and polished down the sink. She then felt the jolt again, it was powerful, sickening, as if she had been kicked or thwacked in the side violently with a heavy metal bar. It struck hard at her bones. Her shoulders twitched inwards. She clutched to the left of her waist with both her hands, feeling herself sink to the floor agonisingly slowly, inch by inch, while the the bar's interior was abruptly sucked of all its color revealing a blurry mess of blacks, whites and grays merging with each other at chaotic intervals in her vision. She couldn't breath, there was no air. It had been crushed from her chest. Everything real was sucked into the hungry chasm in her side. She was going to be sick, all she could taste and smell was a vile, putrid gunk pushing through her flesh. She was afraid, she couldn't think; she was terrified.

The pain stopped.

She let out a large breath which turned into a desperate pant. She steadied her breathing and then observed her position: she was half on the floor, half on her knees, clutching desperately at her side. She took another deep breath, reaching up with her elbow to rub away the small beads of sweat now on her forehead. She froze. A sticky, thick and vile ooze was clinging to her fingertips, wrists and down her forearms. The feeling of nausea arose again and she had to turn away before she gagged. Turning back to look at it properly she already knew what it was and what it meant. Her world stopped. Three heavy, sinking thuds of her heart and the whole room had changed, become colder. The air was deadly still. She stood up carefully, regaining her composure, keeping her hands at her side.

"Marlene?" she called calmly.

"Yeah?"

"Why don't you call Barrett? You can use my phone, it's in my room. Let Denzel chat to him, too."

"Okay then," Marlene called back down cheerfully.

Tifa knew Marlene loved talking to her dad. She also knew that Marlene would stay in that room, her and Denzel's room, while she chatted to him. If Denzel knew he could speak to him too he'd also stay in there, the chances of him leaving to wonder around the bar being much less. That was all that mattered, that was all she needed.

With almost a bow down to cursed fate she turned carefully on her heels and walked calmly from the bar, up the stairs, and to the bathroom. Not once did she lose her collectedness. She showered like it was nothing; she washed her hair like it was nothing; she brushed her teeth like it was nothing, and then she wrapped a bandage around her waist as she watched herself in the mirror. She felt as if she had been thrown out of reality when she saw the dark, grayish, no longer oozing mark blemishing her otherwise pale, healthy skin.

It can't be helped, she thought to herself, and that would be the end of that, she decided. She swore to herself that she wouldn't think about it unless she had to, in times when she knew she'd have to act in order to hide it. It was a comfort that she'd at least she'd be able to hide the bandages with a slightly longer tank top since she knew she could never reveal her sudden sickness to Cloud or the children. It was her burden and her burden alone, and there was no point in worrying her new-found family, especially Cloud considering how protective he was of her. She was the glue for them all and she knew it.

The glue can never fall apart, or else everything will fall apart along with it.