Title: Damaged People

Rating: M for suggestive themes, language, and violence/abuse.

Summary: A/U. After Lightning is left with severe and debilitating injuries, she returns to her childhood home to heal. But there is a terrible secret to uncover, and the only way Lightning can move on is if she discovers the true nature of that fateful night. Eventual Light x Noel. Rated for suggestive themes, language, and violence/abuse.

About the setting: As with my previous stories, it takes place in a modern day universe much like our own, completely separate from the game. Pulse and Cocoon are two individual continents on the planet. All the locations from the game (Sun'leth, Eden, Oerba, etc) are cities/towns.

Part One

One

"Finally," Serah remarked, stretching her arms over her head within the confines of the truck. "Feels good to leave that city behind."

Lightning watched Eden's skyline recede in the side view mirror, then tore her gaze away. She was already feeling carsick as the larg picked its way up the mountain. The road's shoulder dropped off rather sharply on the right, and while Lightning had every ounce of confidence in her sister's ability to not send them tumbling off the sheer cliff, the view could be dizzying. She closed her eyes against the sight of it, drawing a deep breath.

"Are you okay, Light?" Serah fretted, reaching for her sister's hand. "You're not having a seizure or something, right?"

Lightning's eyes flew open. "I haven't had a seizure in months," she snapped.

"Okay," Serah said, drawing her hand away. "Sorry."

Lightning exhaled slowly. "It's okay," she said quietly. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to yell at you."

Serah gave her a wane smile, then turned her eyes back to the road.

Lightning huddled against the window, pressing her forehead to the glass. She caught sight of her vague reflection in the side view mirror and frowned.

"Snow's excited to see you," Serah said after a few minutes of silence.

"I bet he is," Lightning said. "He's excited to see anyone. He's like a big, moronic dog."

"Be nice, okay? He still thinks of you like a sister regardless."

Lightning rubbed her eyes. "Yeah. Okay."

"Is it too much to extract a promise from you?"

The corner's of Lightning's mouth quirked as she glanced at her sister. "It might be. I'll try, okay? I can't really…well, you know. But I'll try."

Serah's tone softened. "I know. Trying is good. I can accept that." She pushed down on the accelerator as the road steepened considerably, and the truck's engine became a low roar. "Everyone's excited to see you, really."

"Who is everyone?"

"You'll see."

Lightning sighed. "Please tell me you didn't organize some surprise welcome home party."

"Okay, I won't."

Lightning glared at Serah from the corner of her eye, but her face was impassive. Sighing again, she pulled down the passenger side visor and inspected herself in the mirror, pressing her fingers against the faint scars that crisscrossed her face. It had easily taken hundreds of stitches to put it all back together again. The pupil in her right eye was permanently blown, the sphincter muscles too badly torn to be repaired, and as a result her depth perception was very poor. While it was true she hadn't had a seizure in since after she was hospitalized eight months ago, she still suffered from occasional tremors, and any pace faster than a walk tended to be a feat she was incapable of. Her fine motor skills were still not quite up to par, either. This was all after months of physical therapy.

Brain damage.

Only 25 years old and I'm practically an invalid.

"No one is going to notice those, Light," Serah said quietly.

"Doesn't mean they won't be looking," Lightning said, folding the visor up. "What did you tell everyone, anyway?"

"You mean, what happened? I said you had an accident. Only Snow knows what actually happened." Serah's mouth was a thin line.

"What kind of accident?"

"I was purposely vague."

Lightning slumped down in her seat, folding her arms. "Great. I was hoping you explained everything to them beforehand. I'm sure people will be asking."

"I didn't know if you wanted me to. And anyway, you don't owe anyone an explanation."

"I know." Lightning's cell phone buzzed in her jeans pocket, signaling she had a text message. She fumbled to extract the phone from her pocket, then opened the message.

I still want to see you before you leave. -CR

Using the voice recognition program installed on the phone, Lightning murmured, "Too late," in reply. The program, while not exactly the best way to have a private conversation, saved her the long and painful minutes it took her to actually type out a message. Her coordination was garbage, even for such a minor task. Moments after she sent it, her phone rang.

"Who is that?" Serah asked.

She looked up at Serah. "Who do you think?"

"Don't answer it."

Lightning picked up anyway. "Hello?"

"Lightning, you said you would meet with me before you left," Cid said, a thread of desperation in his normally composed tone.

"No. I said - " Lightning pressed her thumb and forefinger into her eyes. "I said I would think about it. I thought about it, and decided it was a bad idea."

"Why? We both need this closure."

"I don't need anything from you," Lightning flared. "Nor do I want anything from you. Look, I'm just trying to move on with my life, or what remains of it. You should do the same. I graciously gave you that chance to do so."

Serah leaned across the console and snatched the phone out of her sister's grasp. "Listen, you son of a bitch. Leave my sister alone or I promise you will regret it. You've done enough. Goodbye. Forever." She hung up and tossed the device back into Lightning's lap, who was staring at her, dumbfounded. "He won't call again if he knows what's good for him."

"I'll say," Lightning said, bemused.

"Were you really going to see him before you left, Light?"

Lightning shrugged. "I thought about it very briefly."

Serah hesitated, then said, "I'm a pretty firm believer in second chances. But not for him." She turned back to the road.

Lightning didn't answer, just leaned her head back against the window and shut her eyes.

She was awoken a half hour later by the truck rumbling over the rough driveway into the farm.

"I was about to wake you," Serah said with a smile. "We're here."

Lightning gazed out the window. On either side of the mile long driveway, fenced in fields enclosing cattle, sheep, and horses stretched as far as the eye could see. They grazed with careless abandon, only the animals closest to the drive even giving the truck a passing glance. Lightning's lips twitched slightly; she hadn't been home in nearly seven years.

As soon as she graduated high school, she had enlisted in the Guardian Corps so that she could make enough money to support Serah and keep the farm afloat without having to dip into the money their parents had left behind when they had died. Serah had stayed behind, making the hour long commute to the University of Eden and earning her teaching degree.

And then she had married Snow Villiers, high school sweetheart, bane of Lightning's existence.

It's not that he was so bad. It was just that Lightning knew Serah could do and deserved better. But he worked hard, at least, and he was nice enough - that, and he made her sister happy.

They pulled up to the long, low farm house. It was an older affair, the majority of its construction by stone, and surrounded by a similar wall. Sitting about a mile back on the property there was a matching guest house. A tanned, shirtless young man was bent over the open hood of an old pick up, and they parked beside him.

"Who is that?" Lightning asked as Serah pulled the keys from the ignition.

"Oh, that's Noel," she replied. "Noel Kreiss. Our full time farmhand. He lives in the guest house out back."

As they exited the vehicle, the man straightened and smiled, wiping grease from his hands. "Hey," he greeted. "I was wondering when you would be back. You must be Lightning," he addressed her, holding out his hand. She hesitated a moment, then accepted the handshake. "I've heard a lot about you," he said warmly.

She shot a sidelong glance at Serah, then back to Noel. "I wonder how much, exactly."

He laughed. "All good, I promise." Turning to Serah, he said, "You want me to unload the truck for you?"

"Where is Snow?" she asked.

"He's running one of the back fence lines, fixing a hole. I offered to go, but he insisted. He said he'd be back around lunch."

Serah looked at her watch. "Alright then," she said. "Then yeah, that'd be great. Thank you." She took Lightning's arm and started leading her into the house.

"I got your old room all set up for you," Serah said as they walked through the kitchen.

"Bunk beds and all?" Lightning questioned, wary.

"Of course not. I upgraded your bedding." Serah rolled her eyes and smiled. "We thought about getting you a loft bed as a joke, but…well, we weren't sure if that would be practical for your condition."

Lightning cleared her throat. "Yeah. Keep it simple."

Serah opened the door to Lightning's old bedroom, and it was like stepping back in time. Though the queen sized bed occupied the wall where the bunk bed once was, and the furniture had been upgraded, it was the same otherwise. Her posters, bulletin board, and collection of ribbons, medals and trophies from various sporting events - horse shows, soccer, softball - still adorned the walls.

"Does it suit?" Serah asked.

"It suits," Lightning said with a small smile.

Noel came in behind them, carrying her pile of luggage with effortless grace. He'd acquired a shirt at some point. "Do you want help putting all this away?" he said as he set it down by the dresser.

Serah clapped her hands together. "That'd be fantastic. I mean, unless you have something to do."

"I've got an hour."

"Serah," Lightning said quietly. "I want to do it myself."

Serah blinked. "Hey," she said, trying to make her tone playful. "Let the man earn his keep. I mean, you…"

"Just let me," Lightning interrupted, glancing at Noel. "If I need help, I'll ask."

"Okay," Serah said, biting her lip. "I guess I'll go get started on lunch, then. Noel, you want to join us?"

He rubbed the back of his neck. "Sure. I'll just run back to the house and get a quick shower."

"It won't take me that long to make," Serah said. "Just wash up here."

"Yes ma'am," he said with a grin, following her out of the room.

Lightning shut her door behind them, then thought better of it, leaving it open a crack instead. She bent over her first bag and unzipped it, reaching in to pull out the folded laundry. She began to carefully place the clothing into the dresser drawers. It wasn't so hard; it wasn't a task that required the fine dexterity that she no longer possessed. Her physical therapist said that it would all improve with time, and that eight months was not a long time at all to recover from the traumatic brain injuries she had sustained.

She could walk, though. She was grateful for that aspect.

Once she had put all her clothing away, she moved to the next bag. The first thing she pulled out of that was a bloodstained towel.

Lightning stared at it, gripping it with numb fingers. A fine tremor developed in her hands, and she dropped the towel.

Serah would not have packed it. She would've thrown it away, no questions asked. So who did? Cid hadn't lived in their apartment for months, so it couldn't have been him, could it? And why would he even want to?

The door creaking open startled her and she jerked her head up. Noel leaned against the door way, arms folded across his chest. Lightning's eyes lit on the old white scars that criss-crossed both of his well-muscled forearms, so intricate that they almost seemed intentional. His hair was still wet from his shower, and the scent of whatever body wash he had used wafted through the room in a pleasant wave.

"Hey," he said. "I just wanted to tell you something."

Lightning jammed her hands in her pockets. The shaking was worse now, and she knew she'd have to take her meds before lunch if she was to actually hold a fork. "What?" she asked.

"Just that…" He gestured towards her. "I kind of understand what you're going through. If you ever want to talk, I'm a good listener." The corner of his mouth quirked up in a half-smile.

So Serah had told him, a virtual stranger, someone Lightning didn't even know. She wanted to be mad, but she knew it was practical. Noel lived on the property, and if he found her convulsing in a ditch or something he should probably know what was wrong with her.

"Kind of?" she finally replied, raising an eyebrow.

"Well. I won't presume that our experiences are exactly alike. But I had a bad accident when I was fifteen and had to go through intensive therapy." He shrugged. "I just wanted to put that out there. You can take it or leave it. Just want to help, if I can."

"You want to help?" Lightning reached down and picked up the towel, balling it up. Walking towards him, she thrust it into is chest with trembling hands. "Burn this." She pushed past him, their shoulders brushing, and walked down the hall.