(I don't own Final Fantasy or its characters. This is just for fun.)

Chapter 3

The Garden Infirmary was a lonely place at night. During the day it was short staffed, but at night it was all but abandoned. It was empty and it felt hollow without the sounds of people. Machines whirred and beeped, the clock ticked.

As long as a patient wasn't in a critical stage, they were mostly left alone in the infirmary after hours. They would have to wait until morning for somebody to come and tend to them. Monitoring equipment kept watch over them when medical staff weren't there. Any physical emergency would call the doctor, but before then, they were on their own. Just the bare minimum for the bodies, and nothing for their minds. No comfort.

Soldiers didn't need comfort.

Squall exhaled deeply as he sat on his chair. How long had he been there? The infirmary clock kept ticking overhead. During the day he never would have noticed the small sound, but he didn't have any daytime distractions at this hour. His eyebrows furrowed in irritation. Tick. Tick. Tick.

He turned and looked towards where Rinoa was. Her body was only covered by a thin sheet as she slept on the hospital bed. She looked pale, and the sparse fluorescent lighting cast deep shadows on her face. Her bright and expressive eyes were closed and her normally rosy cheeks looked a strange and sickly yellow color. The lighting wasn't flattering, it made her look much worse than she was. That's what he hoped. Rinoa couldn't be sick, not really. Maybe she was just suffering from exhaustion, but she'd be better after resting.

Squall didn't want Rinoa to wake up without somebody there for her. He promised her that he'd stay as long as he could. At least, that's what he'd thought to himself. It wasn't that she knew he'd made this promise to her. She was unaware, but a promise was a promise he figured. He hoped she'd wake up and he'd be there for her. She'd be fine and everything would go back to normal. That was his wish. Even with all her tests, Dr. Kadowaki hadn't been able to find anything wrong with Rinoa. She would be free to go as soon as she was able to walk out of there herself. So his wish wasn't that implausible. It was barely a wish at all. It was more of an eventual expectation. It would happen, he just didn't know when. Just as soon as she opened her eyes everything would go back to normal.

He held onto these vague thoughts as the night went on with no changes. Hours dragged by. His mind had been filled with worry, but now his thoughts faded into a haze of dull boredom. All he could do was wait.

Squall crossed his arms tightly over his chest. He shifted his weight to one side and stretched out his neck. He turned and shifted again. It didn't matter, he couldn't get comfortable. His chair wasn't meant for long term sitting. No matter what position, the hard plastic chair dug into him. Discomfort kept him awake for the time being. Pain would be better. He stretched out his callused hands and dug his nails into his thighs. Spikes of pain made his eyes focus briefly, but he quickly went back to slumping in his chair.

Would there be any change in Rinoa's condition tonight? It could be days. He wondered if and when he should give up his vigil by her bedside. He decided to stick it out for longer. He stared out into space and continued to wait.

The steady sound of machines hummed in his ears. Quiet white noise lulled him closer to sleep. His head started tipping forward as his eyelids slowly closed. The transition from sleepy to asleep was indistinguishable to him. An oblivion enveloped him.

The clock ticked on, but he was unaware of it.

A slight noise caused his head to jerk back suddenly. His nerves were hair trigger sensitive. He ran his hand over his forehead as he chastised himself for drifting off to sleep. Had it been a few minutes or a few hours? He didn't know. His eyes blinked rapidly to fight off his weariness. What had awoken him so suddenly?

He thought he heard something. This time he was sure that was what had woken him up. It sounded like crisp bed sheets stirring. Could it be Rinoa?

He jumped up off his chair and turned towards Rinoa's examination room. His tried to push down the hope that was stirring in his chest. Was she waking up or was he just imagining it? Were his wishes causing him to hear things?

He stared at her intently while holding his breath. She looked as still as she had hours before. Did she move? He didn't even want to blink in case he missed something. He waited.

Her leg moved and her fingers twitched suddenly. A deep intake of breath made her chest rise and fall.

He carefully walked towards her as she let out a whimper.

"Mmmm..." she murmured.

"Rinoa," he said while starting to reach for her fingers. He saw the IV secured with tape into the top of her hand, and a slight smear of blood near the tape caught his eye. He pulled his own hand back.

She slowly opened her eyes and her pupils narrowed at the single florescent light that had been kept on overnight. She moved her arms tentatively. Her movements were stiff. She looked down at her IV line with confusion while trying to wiggle her fingertips.

"What?" she asked. Her voice was dry and raspy. The word came out thickly. "Where am I? What's going on?"

Summoned, he quickly leaned in towards her. He licked his lips before answering.

"It's Squall. You're in Balamb Garden's infirmary. You're going to be fine," he responded softly. He was sure of exactly two of those statements.

"I feel weird. I wanna go home Squall," she said in a small voice.

Home? What did she mean? Where was her home? Did she mean the Caraway Mansion? A train car? Her guest dorm room?

He hoped she meant her Balamb Garden dorm room. He didn't want her to leave where he lived, and in a practical sense, it was the closest.

"Okay," he said slowly. "I'll help you back to your dorm room. You can rest there."

He reached for her hand and took out her IV line and started disentangling her from the monitors. A loud beeping emitted from the machines as Rinoa was disconnected. Squall's hand shot out to hit the silence button. He turned off the alarms. He didn't need the doctor to come check on her now. Nothing Kadowaki had done had helped her much anyways. The tests yielded no conclusive results. At least the IV had kept her hydrated, but she could leave now.

She started to sit up, but she swayed slightly. Squall helped her steady herself. He took her by the elbows and helped her to her feet. She stretched carefully and tested her weight. They started walking towards the exit.

Rinoa thought that her body felt empty, but also heavy and strange. It was like she was weighted to the earth differently, as if gravity had a greater pull on her than it did before. She was glad for his help because she needed it, but she didn't want to say so. She didn't want him to know how weird she felt. Why add to his worries?

Rinoa moved slowly, but Squall was filled with relief that she was awake at all. In a few minutes she'd be back in her room and she'd sleep this strange illness off. Everything was going to go back to normal, starting now. His facial muscles relaxed as they left the infirmary.


Selphie woke up and she felt light headed, but not in a bad way. Light, very light. Like she could fly. Float away on a cloud. Buoyed up by something other than faked optimism. And it felt good. Really good. Like she was junctioned to the biggest and strongest GF imaginable. Maybe all the GFs ever, and all at once.

She sat up slowly and took in her surroundings. A bright fluorescent light shone overhead. The smell of antiseptic permeated the air. She was in the infirmary at Garden. The last thing she remembered was falling over in that strange Trabian crater.

How'd she get here? Why did she feel so odd? Where were her friends? Those were the things she should have been thinking. Normal questions a normal person would have asked in this situation, but this situation was not normal and neither was she.

So many strange things had happened to her in her short life. Some of them were more explainable than others. She'd learned to just roll with things. Why ask questions now when she could just figure it out on the way? Like Garden ever answered questions anyways.

She was adaptable, you had to be to survive.

She swung her legs over the side of the bed and got up and walked out on her own. Her finger tips trailed lightly on the wall. If anybody had been around, they would have seen the faint glow of butterfly wings growing out of her back and then disappearing.


Author's notes: Another short little chapter. When I started this last September, I thought it'd just be a short story that I'd finish in a few weeks or a month or two. Lots of life stuff happening, I guess. Please read and review.