Disclaimer:i don't own ff8. shocking huh?

Note:ok, well here is another chapter of weird random story. In this we find a little more about the mystery forest girl. more chapters coming soon. Thanks to wayne for all his support, thanks to Renegade seraph too am glad someones enjoyin the story and of course as i promised her, this hannah is dedicated to my oh so superb plot bunny helper and best mate hannah. you rock girl!!!! enjoy the story everyone xx

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The next morning Squall woke up with the events of the previous night still fresh in his mind and his muscles still aching and throbbing. He had after all carried a girl for over 15 minutes last night, and while she wasn't exactly heavy, she wasn't light as a feather.

Deciding to forgo training that morning, Squall headed for the cafeteria to get some coffee, but on his way he was cornered by Headmaster Cid

"Ahh, Squall good morning"

"Morning sir" Squall mumbled, still not fully awake.

"Where you planning on stopping by the infirmary today?"

Squall shrugged

"Well please do, Dr Kadowaki asked me to tell you to stop by"

Squall couldn't decide whether or not he was happy about this. It certainly hadn't been his plan, in fact he'd hope to just forget all about the strange night he'd had, but in a way he was also a little happy that he got to check up on the mysterious girl without seeming too interested.

Arriving at the infirmary, he walked in to see Dr Kadowaki sitting behind her desk frowning

"You wanted to see me for something?" Squall asked

"Ahh squall yes" The doctor said "you see…the girl has woken up but unfortunately we can't get anything out of her, not even a name. She just stays completely silent. I'm very concerned about it all. I'm not sure she's entirely… stable"

"She's probably just scared"

"Yes I suppose that's true. But its just the silence. I was examining her last night and I noticed something, well quite worrying. She had some very deep cuts on her wrists, they were fairly old, not from last night and most likely self inflicted. That's why I'm worried. If she was already…troubled, then last night may have pushed her over the edge. We really need to get her to talk to us before we can help her. that's why I asked you to come here. I was hoping you would talk to her"

"Me? W-why would I talk to her?"

"Well, she may feel less scared by someone closer to her age, less like she is being interrogated. Would you try. At least for a name?"

"I'll try, for a little bit" Squall conceded

He walked into the little room and saw that the girl was sitting up at the end of the bed, holding her knees tightly to her chest and resting her head on them. She did not acknowledge-or simply did not notice-Squall entering the room.

"Hey" he said unsure of how else to get her attention.

The girl very slowly lifted her head and looked at him. There was a look of recognition that flashed across her face

"you…" she said "You…were there last night"

Squall nodded. "Are you ok?"

The girl stayed silent for a while before slowly saying "Where am I?"

"Balamb Garden"

"Ok" the girl said quietly

Squall leaned against the door frame. This seem like it was going to be a long job. This girl sure didn't seem keen to offer up any details at all.

"Do you have a name?" Squall asked the girl

From the look on the girls face it seemed she was debating whether or not she should tell Squall her name or not. Finally she nodded. "Rinoa. Rinoa Heartilly"

Squall felt like he was getting somewhere even if it was in very small steps. A name was more than anyone else had got so far.

"I'm Squall" he said trying to make the girl feel slightly more comfortable

"Leonheart" the girl finished without looking at him "you're Squall Leonheart right?"

'Ok' Squall thought to himself 'How the hell did she know my name?'

"How'd you know that?" he asked her, a mixture of suspicion and confusion.

"I heard the Doctor and that man Cid talking about you." Squall found something very strange in the way this girl spoke. She said things in an almost absent-minded way, as if she was reading lines from something, but talking to no one in particular, while her thoughts were obviously off somewhere else entirely. "The man was saying that there had to be a way to get me to talk, but the Doctor said she'd tried already and then he said that they'd have to find someone who I would talk to. And then the woman said that perhaps they should find Squall Leonheart. Which is you. So I guess you're here to try and get information from me"

"Kind of. Why wouldn't you tell Kadowaki anything?"

She shrugged "I didn't want to get into trouble"

"Why would you get into trouble?" Squall asked becoming more and more confused by the random responses he was receiving from this girl

The girl shrugged again.

"All right, you're probably still scared and upset, I get that. But you have to tell me what happened, how the hell did you end up in that situation last night?"

"I don't want to get in trouble I told you" the girl whispered

Now Squall was just completely confused. He wondered if Kadowaki had been right and this girl really was on the unstable side. "Look you're not going to get into trouble, I promise. Just tell me"

The girl breathed deeply "I ran away". It was evident from her accent that she was not from around Balamb, but Squall was still unsure how this really answered his question.

"you ran away" he repeated

"yes. A few days ago. I ran away from Deling city. So the farthest I could get with what money I had was Balamb. I was going to try and settle in the town, you know nice and quiet place. But somehow when I got off the train I managed to get lost in a forest. And it was like so scary. And there were these guys, and they grabbed me and I had no idea what to do 'cause they…."she stopped to wipe a few tears from her eyes. Squall felt a sudden stab of sympathy for the girl. Whatever had happened was obviously not something the girl found it particularly easy to talk about. She seemed to speak every word slowly and carefully as if she were trying to put together a story.

"What did these people do?" Squall felt guilty trying to prise information from someone who was very clearly very upset, but he didn't really have much of a choice, they needed to know what had happened

"they took everything I had. Everything I brought with me, my money, my jewellery, everything, then they just knocked me around a bit. Then I ran, and they chased me…but I'm lucky I guess."

"Lucky" Squall echoed. Nothing about what had happened seemed lucky to him.

"I'm lucky that you were there. Who knows what else they would of done if you weren't there. I mean ..well I don't actually remember anything after I saw you."

"You passed out" Squall told the girl, remembering the events of last night

"y-you probably saved my life" the girl said

Something about those words and the sweetness and vulnerability with which they were spoken made them echo in Squalls head.

"ok well I'm just going to go and tell the Doctor ok so we can find out what to do next" he turned and headed for the door

"Squall" Rinoa said. He turned around to look at her, and her eyes looking down to the floor she said softly and quietly "Thank you"………….

Squall stood at Kadowakis' desk explaining the situation to her. "So I don't know what we do" he concluded after telling her all of the facts.

"Well" Kadowaki said sitting down at her desk "We have a name now which helps greatly. Once I've checked her out, for any serious injuries, we can look her up, find her family and let them know were she is"

"Ok. Can I go now?" Squall asked. This had not been at all how he'd planned to spend his day. He had had no intention of becoming in any which way involved in this girls situation, but he could feel himself getting pulled further into it. He thought it best that he leave before this girl got into his head anymore than he was realising she already had.

"Actually Squall, Cid asked me to fill him in when we knew anything more, I'd better go and find him, so I don't suppose you could go and tell the girl what's happening."

Squall sighed "Fine".

He headed back into the little room were the girl was now sitting on the end of the bed with her back to the door humming to herself quietly.

"S'cuse me" he said to get the girls attention again

Rinoa turned around, her dark hair whipping behind her, and Squall was amazed at just how beautiful she was. There was something about her almond shaped eyes and delicate cheek bones that struck Squall as being almost angelic.

"Hey again" she said quietly

"Ok, we know what's happening now. Ok we're going to look up your family and then once Kadowaki's checked that none of your injuries our serious, we'll call them and they can come get you"

Suddenly the girl jumped up "You can't do that!"

"What? Why?"

"you just cant!" she cried

"there's not actually much else we can do, it's our only option"

"Please listen to me Squall. You can not call my family" tears were starting to glimmer in her eyes. Squall could not quite place what he found so incredibly intriguing about this girl but there was definitely something.

"Why not?' he asked her again hoping he might get a proper answer this time

"because…because my family is my father. And I do not want him to know were I am. Like I told you, I was running away. Well it was him I was running away from"

"Well, I don't think we have any other choice Rinoa"

"Then I'm leaving right now" she said trying to push past squall who was standing in the doorway

"I'm not letting you leave. We can't just let you go wandering off again. You're too young and its not safe and it wouldn't be a good idea"

"I'm not too young I'm17 and I can take care of myself"

"Looking at last night, evidently you can't"

"Fine. But please Squall…" there was a rising desperation in her voice. A that moment footsteps, and the familiar voices of Cid and Dr Kadowaki could be heard approaching the room. Rinoa reached out and grabbed Squall by the arm "please, don't let them call my father, he'll…he'll… just please don't. I'm begging you Squall"

Squall was about to answer her when Kadowaki and Cid appeared in the room.

"hello Miss Heartilly. I assume you know what's happening now. We're going to contact your family once the doctor has done a proper examination to check you're all well healthy"

"Um, I really don't need examining" the girl protested

"It's procedure I'm afraid. Now" the doctor turned to Squall and Cid, out you two, the quicker we start the quicker we can get Miss Heartilly home"

Cid stepped out of the room and Squall did the same but just before he left he turned quickly and looked at the girl, catching her eyes exactly. He could see they were full of desperation and tears waiting to fall. Looking directly in to his eyes the girl mouthed "Please" before closing her eyes and dropping her head. And for once in a very long time Squall had absolutely no idea what to do next.

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well in the next chapter we see things from Rinoas point of view, including the meeting of the gardens bad boy; seifer almasy!!!!!!!!!!!