Rufus lay still and silent as ever when Reno rushed back into the room. Immediately, he felt like a fool for hurrying back.
"Hope I didn't miss anything," he mumbled, haphazardly dropping into the chair at the side of the bed. He longed, as he often did, for one of Rufus' signature sarcastic comebacks. The silence was worse than an insult.
He took the remainder of his shift to replay his outing in his memory. How had he allowed Valentine to get so close? How had he failed to notice his presence? Reno cursed himself again, repeating the conclusion: I could have been killed.
As the scene replayed, his mind eventually shifted focus. He realized he could hardly recall the expression on Vincent's face. He could not remember what he was wearing beneath the red cloak. The fog of sleep and endless shifts at the lodge left his senses dull. He could hear the deep voice, but not the words it had spoken. He knew about the red eyes, but could not recall looking at them. The few seconds of contact had left him with more questions than answers.
When the fingers closed on his shoulder, Reno shot up out of his chair and backed against the white wall. Rude stepped backward and raised his palms in peaceful protest.
"Chill, brother. You were hardly in the room. Something happen?" Rude asked, watching Reno smooth his jacket in a physical display of calming his own nerves.
"Yes. No," he closed his eyes to regain control of his tongue. "Yes, I was spacing out. No, nothing happened." His eyes returned to Rufus to confirm his line.
"If you say so. Get out of here. Tseng has a meeting scheduled for tomorrow at noon."
"Tell me it's in Edge. Dear Rude, lie to me and tell me it's anywhere but here," Reno pleaded comically. The sliver of true desperation was not lost on his partner.
"Sorry. I would think if he wakes up, you, of all people, would want to be here."
Reno bristled slightly at the indirect reference to his past with Rufus.
"Yeah, yeah. I'm out of here," he replied, giving Rufus one last glance before heading for the door. Rude silently let him leave.
As Reno slinked down the outer stairs toward the street, his thoughts returned to his afternoon trip. His head turned involuntarily toward the waterfall, his chest tight as he realized he wanted to catch a glimpse of the intruder in the distance. He did not. Instead, he shook his head, laughed at himself, slid into his sleek black car, and headed for home.

Sleep did not come easily to Reno as he lay in his darkened bedroom listening to the light traffic of Edge buzz by several floors below. Instead, each time he closed his eyes he saw flashes of red crossing through the darkness. Odd memories floated to the surface of his consciousness, waiting until he was just slipping off the edge of sleep to drag him back.

"It's not that I haven't thought about it, I just don't know who I can trust to take the company in the right direction. But, I should have years to think about it, right?" Rufus asked coyly, wrapping his arms around Reno's stomach from behind. His chin rested on the Turk's shoulder lazily.
"You should. That doesn't mean you do. We'll always have your back, but who can guarantee that will be enough with madmen like Sephiroth and Avalanche running around?"
"Neither party has long. I can feel it. They've turned on one another, you know. And when they finally meet, each will take the other out. I get exactly what I need, without any of the blood on my hands," Rufus explained, his voice low and dark, sending an involuntary chill through Reno.
"I just want to make sure you realize I'm not on duty right now. If someone comes in here, I'm not taking that bullet. Off the clock is off the clock," Reno joked. Rufus slid his arms away with a drastic nod.
"Of course I understand that. I was the one worried that you'd be expecting overtime pay for these visits," he shot back smoothly, crossing the large living room to an antique record player. "Baroque or Romantic tonight?"
"How about Grunge or Alternative?" Reno suggested, turning back toward the kitchen to hunt for leftovers.
As he walked the hallway toward the kitchen, his ears zeroed in on the sound of metal scraping against granite. The sound circled, as the metal dragged lightly against a surface in a swift rotation. It grew in volume as he approached the kitchen door, and he realized someone was spinning what sounded like a metal rod on the countertop.
He reached for his gun, but found it missing. Adrenaline pumped through his veins, preparing him for a fight. After a deep breath, he rounded the corner and stopped dead in his tracks.
Looking back at him from the counter, spinning his own EMR with a single brassy finger, sat Vincent Valentine. The red eyes burned into him.
Reno bolted upright in his bed, legs twisted in gray sheets. He cursed, rubbing his eyes, and recognized his inability to sleep. Accepting the fact for what it was, he left the bedroom for the living room, and passed the night in front of mindless television programs.
Though the night seemed to drag on, his eyes leaving the T.V. set for the shadowy corners of his apartment on a regular basis, the morning passed far too quickly once the sun rose. He dressed in too much of a rush to worry about wrinkles, or even lint-rolling. Tie-less, exhausted, and short-fused, he slinked out of his apartment and headed reluctantly back to Healin.

"So, the proposition of a Board of Executives has been officially accepted. The press conference is set for this evening." Tseng took a sip of coffee as he let the information settle over the Turks.
"And you were okay with this?" Reno finally asked.
"What would you have us do, Reno?" Tseng dared to indulge.
"I wouldn't go public. You're sweeping Rufus' legs out from under him. He'll never get control back from those people," Reno exclaimed bitterly. Elena, sitting to Reno's right, rolled her eyes. Tseng, unsurprisingly, remained calm.
"Rufus is incapacitated. He would want his executives to take over for him. Or should we let the company run into the ground?"
"I'm just wondering why the public has to know about it. We haven't confirmed or denied anything about Rufus; why not let it stay that way until he can make his own statement?"
The room fell silent and tense. Reno looked to his co-workers, who avoided eye-contact. Even Tseng took a long pause to reflect before finally meeting his flustered gaze. The words were written plainly on his face, causing Reno to rise from his chair.
"How the hell can you sit here like fucking watchdogs for a man that you already have in the grave? What are you doing here? Just waiting? Killing time until your new master arrives? Gaia, you give up easily for calling yourselves Turks." His cheeks burned with anger at the revelation that his coworkers had mentally and emotionally abandoned their leader.
"Reno, this is a temporary solution. He'll be back; we are simply bridging the gap," Tseng answered unconvincingly.
With no argument left to make, Reno shook his head and headed for the door, steaming.
"You don't need me here for this. I'll serve whoever gives the orders," he shot back dryly before exiting the building. Elena shivered.

He had not given any thought to the destination, but simply let his legs carry him. The realization did not strike until a drop of water landed on his hot cheek. The waterfall separated him from his anger for just long enough to acknowledge the sadness that had burrowed beneath. He should see this. When he walks again. If he walks again...When he wakes up. If he wakes up... A rough shake of the head stopped the spiraling thoughts short.
Reno distracted himself by recollecting his wild dreams from the previous night. The red eyes had somehow hooked into his memory, refusing to fade away, even in his exhaustion. As he stepped into the small cave behind the waterfall, he analyzed his dream further, trying to determine what kind of information a psychic might try to sell him. Perhaps one of the many street-corner gypsies might comment on the gunner's very intrusion. He had slipped into Reno's subconscious, that much Reno knew. But what of the dream itself? What of the intrusion into Rufus' home? What of spinning the EMR like a toy?
Recalling the details of the brief dream made Reno long for the sleep he had lost. The cool ground appeared just as inviting as the day before. Walking out of the meeting meant he was off duty for the rest of the day, and a nap in the arms of Nature proved too difficult to refuse. He only briefly acknowledged a twinge of hope that his visitor might show up again before rolling his eyes at himself and lowering to the ground.

Sleep poured over Reno almost instantly and held him for an hour before reality began to tug at him. The cave was silent as he cracked open an eye and glanced around. His jaw lowered in a yawn. A quiet cough cut the yawn short, drawing his attention to the back corner of the cave. His heart sped slightly at the guest.

"You're back," Reno stated more than asked. Vincent nodded once.

"Aren't we both?"

"How long have you been there?"

"Long enough to conclude that I would never hire you."

The remark stung, and yet drew a smirk from Reno.

"I'm off the clock today. Didn't I tell you to stay away from the lodge?" he asked, risking pushing Vincent away, and internally cursing himself for it. Deep red eyes narrowed, tinted with amusement.

"Do you think me a threat? I can assure you, I have no interest in pulling that plug."

"There's no fucking plug," Reno spat back before he could stop himself. The tension that followed was one-sided as he beat himself up for the comment. In avoiding eye contact, Reno missed a twitch of Vincent's lips.

"My mistake."

"So, how come you hang out here? This your hideout or somethin'?" Reno asked, changing the topic quickly.

"From what might I be hiding?"

"I don't know what you do all day, now that you've 'saved the world.' Maybe you've made enemies. Maybe you're afraid of the city," Reno speculated, surprising himself with the sudden flow of possibilities. He continued, more darkly, "Maybe you're planning something else."

"I am drawn to waterfalls, it appears."
Reno thought he knew a story about Vincent and a waterfall, but his memory kept it out of reach, giving his features a look of perplexity. Vincent exhaled heavily at the silence that answered him and walked toward the far exit of the cave.
"Wait," Reno called after, again surprising himself.
The answer was delivered in a level and factual tone. "No." And wait he did not. Reno ran after him.
"Well, do you need a ride? Where are you going?"
Vincent shook his head without looking back.
"Do you want to get a drink?"
That stopped him short, though he kept his back turned.
"Excuse me?"
"I mean, I don't know what you're doing today, but...I gotta get away from those people, and I know a place in Edge..." As Reno spoke, his voice weakened, eventually sinking back down his throat into a choked sigh. His cheeks burned, but he stood still, waiting for a definitive answer. "We don't have to be enemies anymore, right?" he joked, attempting to break the icy silence. For a painfully long moment, he failed. Then, red eyes peered over a red-clad shoulder.
"Fine."
"The bar at the south end of new construction. Been there?"
"No."
Immediately, he regretted inviting the virtual stranger to his favorite bar, and yet he wanted to celebrate the fact that Vincent had agreed to join him.