In the morning, Lightning was the first up. She goes into the kitchen and made herself some coffee. While she's waiting for the coffee to be made, she starts to think about Hope, the poor defenseless young boy at the hospital, who recently lost his mother in the Purge war, and now lost his Father.

Lightning remembers the helpless little wimp Hope was when they first became l'Cie. It's like seeing him that way all over again. Lightning returns to her senses when she hears the ding from the coffee machine.

Lightning pours some coffee into her cup and starts drinking, that's when Snow wakes up and walks into the kitchen. "Oh hey, si-" Snow becomes quickly interrupted when Lightning holds her Gunblade in front of Snow's face, ready to shoot. Snow gets really nervous. "Uh, uh...Hey...Lightning."

Lightning lowers her weapon. "That's better."

Snow exhales in relief. "So, what are we gonna do about Hope?"

"I was thinking we empty out that storage room so Hope can use it." Lightning takes another sip of her coffee.

"But where are we gonna put all that stuff?" Snow asks.

"We'll move them into the shed in the backyard." Lightning says.

"We don't have a shed." Snow says.

"Then build one with your silly gang." Lightning says.

"Okay, okay." Snow says.

After Lightning finishes her coffee, she leaves her house and makes her way to the hospital in New Palumpolum. When she arrives, Lightning makes her way to the receptionist.

"I'm here for a patient. Hope Estheim." Lightning says.

The receptionist nods. "Yes. Mr. Estheim. Room 15."

Lightning nods and makes her way to Hope's room. She arrives at his room, to her surprise, the young boy is still asleep. Lightning walks up to Hope and sits beside him, she couldn't help but smile, he looks so peaceful asleep. Lightning gently strokes his hair, being careful not to wake him.

Hope moans and shifts in his sleep, trying to get more comfortable. The doctor suddenly comes in, he's surprised to see Lightning's here.

"Excuse me?" Lightning turns to face the doctor. "Please don't disturb the patient."

"I'm not disturbing him, I'm just visiting.' Lightning walks to the doctor. "I'm his caretaker, Lightning Farron."

"Oh, my apologizes. Mr. Estheim is all set for leave." Lightning nods and the doctor leaves. Lightning returns to Hopes side.

After about twenty minutes, Hope finally wakes up. He's a little surprised to see Lightning. "Good morning." Lightning whispers.

"Morning." Hope says. "How long have you been here?"

"Not long. How did you sleep?"

"Not well." Hope says. "I kept having nightmares about my dad. I got really scared." Lightning feels bad for the young boy. "I probably should have asked you to stay."

"I'm sorry you had a rough night." Lightning says. "Anyways, whenever your ready, we can leave."

"I'm ready now if that's okay."

Lightning nods. She helps Hope get on his feet, he's able to stand, but his walking is a little rough. Lightning and Hope leaves the hospital, and Lightning drives them back to Hope's home. She parks the car in the driveway.

"I'm gonna leave you here so you can pack up. I'm gonna came pick you up after work." Lightning tells him.

Hope gets out of the car. He makes his way to the house. Lightning drives out of Hopes house and makes her way back at New Bodhum. In about thirty minutes, Lightning makes it to the Guardian Corps military base.

When she enters the building, she was greeted by her lieutenant. "You're late, Farron. I expect more from you." Amodar says.

"Sorry lieutenant." Lightning says, saluting. "I was looking after Hope."

"The Estheim kid?" Lightning nods. "I see. Actually, Farron, I've been meaning to talk to you about him." Amodar escorts Lightning into his office. Amodar sits at his desk and Lightning takes a sit right in front of him. "I'm sure that you are aware that mr. Hope Estheim is a motherless child."

Lightning nods. "Yes, lieutenant."

"Well, now that he's father is in prison, and Hope has no other relatives and he's too young to be on his own, I'm afraid he'll be placed in an Orphanage."

Lightning is surprised to hear that. "But, Lieutenant, I already told Hope that he could come live with me."

"I'm sure you did, but I'm afraid there's no other choice, Ms. Farron." Amodar says.

"What if I adopt him?" Lightning asks.

"Are you sure you want to do that?" Amodar asks. "I mean, no offense, but don't you already have your hands full looking after yourself and your sister."

"Yes, and unfortunately Snow too." Lightning says. "But I know Hope, and he's not going to be that much of trouble."

Amodar sighs. "Very well. I'll hand you the adoption papers for the boy after work." Lightning nods. "Now head to the training rooms, the new recruits are waiting for you."

Lightning stands and salutes. "Yes, sir."

Lightning makes her way to the training room. When she resigned to the Guardian Corps, Lightning was in charge of training new recruits. It can be an annoying job since most of the rookies are usually goofing off or not even bothering to learn how to work a sword or a gun. She still handled it, she's dealt with Snow.

On her way, Lightning walks by the prison hold that Bartholomew is held in. Lightning locked her eyes on the drunk man as she walks by him, then looks forward after passing the cell.

"Pathetic." She says under her breath.

Lightning enters the training room. She's right now starting the day with her first trainee, Squall from FFVIII.

"All right, rookie. Let's see what you can do." Lightning says.

"I don't get why I need to train." Squall says, taking out his gunblade. "I'm already an excellent fighter and an expert of the gunblade."

"Yeah, well it's required. Don't complain." Lightning tells him.

Lightning spends her day training the new recruits. Some she's really proud off, few she's ticked off with. At the end of the day, Lightning picked up the adoption papers.

"All you need to do is have the kid sign them." Amodar says. "Have a nice week off, Farron."

"Thank you, sir." Lightning says, as calm as she could be. Amodar decided for Lightning to take a vacation, boy does she really need it, especially since there's the fact Hope is moving in and he'll need her around the house help him recover from his wounds, emotional wounds that is.

Lightning makes her leave from work. She's pretty upset at the training sessions with the fool rookies, one of them almost shoot Lightning in the head. If he was any worse then Snow, she would have killed him.

When Lightning reaches to her car, she takes a deep breathing, trying to calm her emotions. She has to go pick up Hope and she doesn't want to get him in a bad mood.

Lightning drives all the way to New Palumpolum, by the time she arrives, it was very cloudy, and soft thunder strikes, Lightning can tell it's gonna rain. Lightning parks her car in front of Hope's house. She walks up the front steps and knocks on the door. Hope answers the door with a small sorrow expression.

"Hey, you ready to go?" Lightning asks.

"Almost. I'm just finishing up." Hope says. Lightning walks right in, and Hope shows Lightning the packages in the living room. "There's the stuff I've already packed. If you don't mind carrying them into the car."

Lightning nods, Hope returns to his room while Lightning takes care of loading up the car. What Hope packed are his clothes, stuff, posters, a few antiques that belonged to his mother. By the time Lightning finished loading up the car, it started to drizzle. She had to dig into the trunk of the car for the umbrella.

Lightning rushes into the house. She doesn't see Hope in the living room, she figured he's still in his room. She makes her way to Hopes room. There, she finds him sitting in front of his last package.

"Everything's in the car." Hope doesn't say anything, he doesn't even look at Lightning, as if he didn't hear her. Lightning walks up to Hope, move behind him. She looks to see he's staring at a picture, a picture of him and his parents. Lightning puts a hand on his shoulder. "Hey." Hope looks up at Lightning, with a tear escaping from his eye. "Everything's going to be okay...you'll see."

Hope slowly nods. "I know..." Hope gently lays the picture in the box, then closes it. Lightning escorts Hope to her car, since she has the carry the umbrella and have to keep Hope dry while he's carrying his box.

They get into the car and Lightning drives off. While they're driving, Lightning looks at Hope constantly, since she has to keep her eyes on the road (You go, Lightning!) Hope is just looking down, staring into space with a sad expression. Lightning sighs quietly. Lightning drives into an ice cream parlor and parks into the parking lot.

"You want some ice cream?" Lightning asks. Hope looks at Lightning with a slight confusion. "I just thought it might help you feel better. Come on, it'll be my treat."

Hope hesitates for a moment to answer. "Yeah...okay, some ice cream does sound good."

Lightning comes out of the car. She makes it to Hopes side and opens his door, she wants him to stay dry from the rain, had to make him wait for her to come to his side with the umbrella.

Hope and Lightning enters the ice cream parlor. Hope orders a chocolate milkshake, as soon as he gets it, he and Lightning returns to the car. Lightning drives home while Hope eats some of his ice cream.

In about an hour, Lightning arrives at her house. As usual, she gets out with the umbrella and moves to Hope's side. Hope walks right into the house with Lightning. They enter the house to find it dark and quiet.

Lightning closes the umbrella and sets it by the door. "I guess Serah and Snow are out tonight." Lightning says. Lightning walks into the kitchen, Hope follows her from behind. Lightning opens the fridge. "Well, we have plenty of leftovers. What do you want? Behemoth stew, some salad, stir fry?"

"The stir fry would be nice." Hope says.

Lightning takes the stir fry and some leftover stuffed chicken. She reheats the food, then she and Hope sits on the table, eating in silence. While their eating, Serah and Snow walks right into the house, they're laughing and smiling. Of course that ends when they see Lightning and Hope in the dinning room.

Lightning looks ahead to see her sister and Snow. "You guys back already?" Lightning asks.

"Yeah." Serah answers. Serah sits on the chair next to Hope. "Hey, Hope. You feeling okay?"

Hope doesn't bother to look at Serah, just stare down at his dinner. "Yeah."

Snow places his hands on Hopes shoulders. The impact makes Hope shake a little. "Hey, sorry about your dad, man."

Lightning glares at Snow. "Snow!" Lightning says in a loud whisper.

Hope looks up at Lightning. "No, Lightning. It's okay." Hope looks back down at his dinner. "It's fine."

After dinner, Hope leaves the table. Lightning stands up as well, Lightning shows Hope the bathroom so he could take a shower. Afterwards, Lightning joins Serah and Snow in the living room.

"Would you two mind helping me unload the car?" Lightning asks.

Serah and Snow agrees to help out. Everyone unloads all of Hope's packages from the car, and place them in the corner of the living room. They did got really soaked from facing mother nature's tears. Lightning found a suitcase that's carrying Hope's clothes. She takes them to the bathroom Hope's in, she opens the door, but only a creek. "Hope!" Lightning yells loud enough for Hope to hear over the roaring sound of the shower. "I have your clothes outside the bathroom door!"

"Okay!" Hope yells back. Lightning closes the door. Serah and Snow returns inside with the last of Hope's belongings. Serah sits on the couch, shivering.

"Hey, you cold?" Snow asks.

Serah looks up at Snow, forcing a smile under all that cold shivering. "Y-y-yeah."

Snow sits next to Serah and wraps his arms around her, that's, unfortunately, when Lightning comes in, with a pillow and a cover, and sees them snuggling. "Aww, don't worry. I'll keep you warm, baby."

Serah smile and blushes. "Aww, aren't you a sweetheart, Snow."

Lightning can feel herself throwing up in her mouth. "If you two are going to get all lovey-dovey, can you do it when I'm not around?"

Snow and Serah were startled from Lightning. "Oh, come on, Lightning. Go easy on us." Snow says.

"I let you marry my sister, didn't I?" Lightning says. Snow and Serah frowns at Lightning. Lightning just rolls her eyes and sighs. "Just don't do it on the couch, that's where Hope's gonna lay."

"No problem." Snow stands up, Serah was about to get off the couch, but then Snow carries her off of the couch. Serah was certainly surprised. She laughs as she wraps her arms around Snows neck and he carries her past Lightning and up the stairs.

Lightning just sighs and shook her head. When they were out of sight, that's when Hope starts walking down the stairs, in his pajamas. Lightning takes Hope to the living room couch.

"Here's the deal, we have a spare room, but it's currently being used for storage." Lightning and Hope stands in front of the couch, where Lightning puts the pillow in place and lays the cover over the couch. "It's going to take a while to handle everything, in the meantime, you're going have to sleep on the couch." Lightning looks at Hope. "Unless you prefer to share my bed."

Hope shook his head. "No thanks, the couch is fine."

Lightning smiles then ruffles the young boys hair. "Good to hear that. If you need anything, come see me. My room's at the end of the hallway upstairs." Hope nods. "Well, good night."

"Good night." Lightning makes her way to her room. Hope just stands there and watches her until she was out of sight, then he lays down on the couch. He just lays on the couch, staring at the ceiling. He could hardly fall asleep, until finally slumber overwhelms him.

Later at night, Hope is tossing and turning, moaning in his sleep. In his dreams, Hope's in no where but darkness. He just stands there, wondering where he or anyone is, until the darkness clears and he finds himself at the broken bridge of the Hanging Edge. Hope walks to the edge of the bridge, he looks down to see something he didn't want to happen: His mother dangling from the bridge.

Hope tries to reach down for her. "Mom!"

Nora looks up, she gives a smile with a sad expression. "Hope..." Nora loses her grip and falls to her death, Hope screams in horror at the sight of his mother falling into the darkness. After she's gone, Hope sits down, curling up in despair, that's when he becomes surrounded by a ring of fire.

"It's your fault! YOUR FAULT SHE'S GONE!" A deep, loud voice echoes. Bartholomew raises from the fire, growing large. Hope turns around to see his dad and crawls back in fear. Bartholomew takes out the knife. "This is for Nora!" Bartholomew stabs the dagger into the ground, causing a quake. It rushes towards Hope, until the crack widens open enough for Hope to fall in.

Hope falls into the darkness, until he crash lands on the ground. Hope looks around to see he's in the Vile Peaks, on the bridge where he and Lightning fought Odin. Hope tries to get up, but there's some powerful force that's holding him down. He looks ahead to see Lightning is walking away from him.

"Lightning! Please, help me!" Hope pleads.

"This isn't working." Lightning's voice echoes. "You're a liability. You'll just slow me down." Hope starts to worry hearing that, then Lightning turns around, looking mad and her eyes are just all white. "You want to get tough!?" Lightning takes out her Gunblade and points it at Hope. Lightnings voice on the next sentence sounds like a blast of thunder. "DO IT ON YOUR OWN!"

Lightning jumps high in the air, she falls towards Hope, with her weapon hold in front of her as she dives down at the helpless boy, that's where she stabs him right in the heart. Hope screams in agony, then in fear when he wakes up. Hope pants and sweats. He gets a grip on his chest, where Lightning stabbed him. After a moment, he notices he's back at her house, he starts to calm down realizing it was only a nightmare, then tears starts to escape from his eyes and slide down on his cheeks.

Hope decided to get off the couch and go see Lightning. He goes upstairs, head to the end of the hall where Lightning's room is at. He just stands in front of her door, looking at it, he's starting to have second thoughts of bothering Lightning, remembering what happened to her in his dream. Even under all that, he still needed her comfort. Hope shallows hard and slowly reaches for the knob, in hope that nightmare doesn't some true.

Hope slowly enters Lightning room, only to find the soldier asleep in her bed. Hope slowly, quietly walks up to Lightning beside her bed. "Li-li...Light?"

Lightning slightly opens her eyes. In the darkness, she sees the scared silver hair boy. "Hope?" Lightning reaches for the switch on the lamp and turns it on, brightening the room. "What is it?"

Hope looks down in shame and scarce, mostly scared. "I-I...had a nightmare."

Lightning's expression softens. She moves aside, making room. Lightning pats on the extra space on the bed. Hope hesitates, but he decided to get on the bed. Lightning sits up as Hope sits next to her. "What happened? Do you want to talk about it?"

"I was...I was there." Hope answers. Lightning doesn't understand what he means, then realizes what he's talking about. "I was there when she died." Hope looks up at Lightning. "Then my dad came. He yelled at me. 'It's your fault! Your fault she's gone.'" Lightning tries hard to resist the urge to comfort the poor boy, for him to finish his story. "He jammed that knife into the ground, causing a fissure for me to fall in. When I land...I was at the Vile Peaks. I couldn't move, could barely breath. When I asked you for help...you." Hope slowly looks down with worry. "You called me a liability. And then you...you."

Hope couldn't say what happened next. Instead, he grips at his chest and starts crying. Lightning can tell from the gripping what happened next, realizing that, she hugs hope, pulling the poor boy close to her. "It was a nightmare, Hope. It's okay. It's over now."

"I know, but...I'm still scared." Hope says.

"It's okay, Hope. It's okay." Lightning whispers in a gentle tone. "You don't have to be scared. It wasn't your fault Nora died. It was the Sanctums. You're father's not going to hurt you. You are not a liability. I'm sorry I ever called you that, I didn't mean it."

"I know, Light. I know you didn't mean it. But, I'm just...I'm scared." Hope grabs hold of Lightning around her waist. "I've lost my mom, now my dad. I just...I don't want to lose you." Hope looks up at Lightning with tears in his eyes. "You're all I have left. I don't know what I'll do if-"

"Shhh." Lightning wipes the tears from Hope's cheeks. "Say no more. I'm not going anywhere, Hope. I'm right here for you." Lightning hugs Hope. "You're not alone, we're all here for you. Serah, Snow, Sazh. Vanille and Fang too." Lightning shifts her hand to Hope's hair, gently stroking it. "You're safe now, nothing's ever gonna change it."

Hope lays his head on Lightnings shoulder, crying. Lightning tries to comfort him. They sit in silence for a few minutes, until Hope speaks. "Can I lay with you? I don't think I can sleep alone just yet." Lightning doesn't say anything. "I-I promise, it'll just be tonight."

Lightning shook her head. "No, you don't have to promise that. You're always welcome to lay with me, I honestly don't mind, Hope."

Hope sniffles. "Thanks, Lightning."

Lightning smiles. "Clair." Hope looks up at Lightning with confusion. "Call me Clair."

"Why?" Hope asks.

"It's my real name, before I became Lightning." Lightning says. "You're apart of this family now, Hope. You can call me by my first name."

Hope smiles at Lightning. "Okay, thanks." Hope starts to yawn.

Lightning just laughs at the tired boy. "Okay, time to go to sleep." Lightning and Hope lays down on the bed. Lightning pulls the cover up to their shoulders. Hope lays close to Lightning. Lightning turns off the lamp, then she hugs the boy as he lays his head on her chest. "Hope, do you remember what I said in Palumpolum?" Hope slowly nods. "I still mean it, I'll always keep you safe."

Hope blushes a little, suddenly feeling really warm. "Thanks...Good night, Clair."

Hope falls asleep as Lightning gives him a kiss on the forehead. "Good night, Hope. Sweet dreams."