Yay, more madness from your friendly neighbourhood weirdo! Lol. Ok, Chapter two, let's hope it turns out ok, and I keep Vincent in character (I am working on Children, this is just shorter and easier to write) Anyway, read and enjoy.

Flying Free

Vincent had spent a restless night, but too his great surprise only a small part of it had to do with Lucretia. Yes, he had gone over how he could have been so much of a fool, how he could not have known what was going on, and was appropriately disgusted with himself. But a larger part of him was actually taken up with worrying, yes worrying about the hazards of travelling with a child in tow. After all, being attacked was dangerous, everyone knew how to fight off the creatures that lurked in the countryside, you learned or you died, so he was reasonably certain that Karen could probably fight if required, but the boy; that would be difficult.

He was up early, and resigned himself to wait for Karen and her son to wake much later. While he would prefer to leave immediately, there was actually no rush, he had taken two weeks off to spend here with Lucretia, so leaving a little later would make no difference. But he didn't really want to stay any longer than he needed to.

He was surprised however to find the blonde woman and her son sitting in the most shadowed corner of the inns eatery, the bruises had faded some, but a new one, delivered last night most likely was blooming sickly on her cheek. The boy looked marginally better, but the dark coloured marks around his neck stood out sharply. He made his way over and took a seat; the boy startled a little, but settled when he saw it was Vincent and not his father.

"We've already eaten." Karen told him, stroking her son's hair.

"You're lying." Vincent stated, and saw her winch a little. With an inward sigh he motioned over the serving girl, ordering three breakfasts. When the girl moved away he turned back to look, but was arrested by the look of awe and wonder in the little boys face, he met his blue eyes squarely and waited for the characteristic bowing of the head and look of wary fear that tended to cross young children's faces when an adult looked too long and too hard.

All the boy did was blink and scramble to his feet on the chair until more than his head could be seen over the tabletop and stuck out a hand. "I'm Cid." He said, his voice raspy thanks to the bruises.

Vincent couldn't stop the slight smirking smile that lifted a corner of his mouth at the sight. This was an interesting child. He took the hand and shook it gently yet firmly. "Pleasure Cid, I'm Vincent." He held the boys gaze for a long time, wondering just what he was searching for in his eyes.

Finally Cid smiled and sat back down. "I know, Mama said you were the one who stopped Papa hurting us. I can't 'member much cause I was really tired, and my neck hurts, see?" he pulled down his collar to show Vincent the marks more clearly. "Mama said I didn't hafta be called Cidney no more. That's good," he said it so earnestly, "because I never did like it, so I got to pick my own name, and I picked Cid. Cid's a cool name; don't you think so Mr. Vincent?"

Vincent shot a glance over to Karen, who was hiding a smile behind her hand before looking back at Cid. "Yes, Cid is a very 'cool' name." he responded, a little bewildered.

"Mama say's your gonna take us to see Auntie May. She lives over the sea you know. We have to get a boat to go there. I never seen the sea before. Have you Mr. Vincent?" It took a moment for Vincent to realise he was actually supposed to answer that, so he nodded. It seemed more than enough response for Cid though and he continued. "Wow, is it nice? Mama told me it's really big, and has lots of fishes in it, have you ever seen the fishes in it? I saw a picture of one; do they look lie they do in the pictures?"

Vincent blinked, but was saved from answering, and potentially spurring the boy on further, by the food arriving. Karen quickly quietened her son and set him to eating. He stood on the chair again while he did.

"Sorry." She apologised. "He's never usually so talkative. Not that I blame him really, normally it's just me, his father wasn't exactly the talking type."

Vincent ignored the apology, weren't all little children supposed to talk too much? Instead he lifted the fork that had been left beside his plate and pointed it at hers. "You might want to eat that, it's going to be a long journey."

She blushed and looked down. Vincent noted that Cid had stopped eating too, waiting for something. "I can't pay you back; I only have enough for the passage to Junon."

Vincent was silent, frowning slightly at her downcast face. "Eat." He told her, and started eating himself.

He bought some extra supplies from the early morning vendors before leaving town. Finding that he felt somewhat responsible for the two now, and he had only known them a handful of hours at most. The further they got from the town he noticed that Karen seemed to open up, playing eye spy with Cid, who clung to her shoulders, supported on her back with a piece of cloth. Vincent had wordlessly slowed his pace when Cid had expressed a desire to walk as well, reminding himself that he had two weeks to get back, but the two to three day journey to Costa del Sol was looking to take about a week of that time.

Surprisingly he found he didn't mind, having company was an interesting change for him on this journey. He kept a watchful eye out for any creature likely to attack, but their first day passed without incident.

When Cid had taken it into his head to search the tall grass on either side of the path for interesting small bugs, Vincent found himself walking beside Karen with very little to say. She seemed to share his awkward silence. Usually he found silence a welcome companion, but for some reason right now it seemed like an enemy.

"Why did you stay so long?" he asked suddenly, eyes widening fractionally when he realised just what he had asked. He had often wondered why his mother had stayed so long with his father, but he had learned quickly that such questions would be met by either stony silence or hysterical tears, and he really didn't think he could handle the woman if she started crying.

Karen looked at him, surprised, but she didn't look as if she was about to burst into tears, or ignore his question. She shrugged slightly. "It just sort of happened." She told him.

"Happened?" Vincent asked, raising an eyebrow.

Karen laughed a little, and Vincent found it a little amazing how much she had changed as the miles grew between her and her old life, she didn't seem afraid of him like most women who were abused were of men, in fact, he recalled she had not been afraid for herself last night either, only for her son.

"He was fine up until Cid was born. And when he was woken up one to many times during the night he just seemed to lose it."

"So you stayed?" Vincent asked, sensing she was a lot stronger than that. "You didn't honestly think it would stop did you?"

She shook her head. "No, I never expected it to. I've been trying for almost two years to get out of that house, but he always seemed to be one step ahead of me, and he threatened Cid. I would not have preferred getting out alive if it meant my son was killed for it."

Vincent nodded, not really understanding, but he considered that perhaps it was his Turk training that had driven that out of him; sometimes it was just necessary for someone to die for someone else to live. Granted even he balked a little at the idea of living ff the death of an innocent child, but obviously it was just the type of person Karen was.

They continued on in silence, but it was a somewhat more companionable one now, broken only when Cid returned to them to show off what he had found.

Ok, yes, it seems very, very slow right now, but with any luck it will pick up in the next chapter. Please review, I would love to know what you think of this story. Cid isn't very Cidish, but he is only two years old, so forgive him that. I'm trying my best to make my OC believable, and to have her get under Vincent's skin with the same kind of ease I imagine Cid does in the game (Hell, Vincent actually wanted to room with him in the game). Anyway, black to point, please review, no flames.