A/N: Here's chapter 4 :)

Today was his day for figuring stuff out. A week had passed since Rude had called him and told him to turn on the news, but this was the first time in those seven days that he'd had time to think clearly. He had stayed at Sandra's the night of the crash, sleeping on her sofa. He hadn't wanted her to be alone, Adam and Becca had each other to confide in; Sandra had few people to lean on besides Ryan.

The funerals had been two days ago. Sandra had asked him to help carry her son's coffin ... that was something Reno never wanted to do again. He had gone through a lot in his life and experienced many things in his career as a Turk, but nothing came close to the pain he'd felt in his chest carrying Ryan's coffin down the aisle. Sandra had left to stay with her sister in Wutai yesterday, leaving him the spare key to her apartment. Something told him, she wouldn't be rushing back to Costa del Sol anytime soon ... he could hardly blame her though. She needed some time to come to terms with things.

The Turk hid a yawn behind his hand as he stepped through the front door of Costa del Sol's Secondary School. He was figuring out this whole teacher/cell number thing today. It had annoyed him with a full week now and he was adamant he that he was getting to the bottom of it before it drove him insane. He was going to figure out why some teacher had brought Arleen to the hospital and not Kelly. Then he was going to pay Kelly a visit, which would probably lead to an argument. Whenever that finished, he would go to the hospital to see Arleen.

Reno had contemplated calling Tseng to explain where he had been with the last week, but he'd decided to leave it. Rude had probably given some form of an explanation, if he tried to explain himself right now, he'd just confuse the situation more. He just hoped he still had a job whenever he got back to Edge.

He took his Turk role for granted sometimes ... the stack of paperwork alongside his desk only stood as testament to that fact. He spent more time slacking off in the Turks' Lounge than he spent in his own office. But he had never missed a day of work. He had stood by ShinRa when the who planet hadn't. He'd stuck by the company as it had dragged itself from the mud and he liked being a Turk. He didn't take his role in missions lightly and he knew his place withing ShinRa. That, and the wages were a nice bonus.

Reno walked to the secretary's office; three or four teenagers were sitting outside, probably waiting to be called into the Principal's office, one by one. He didn't envy them, he knew from experience with Arleen that their Principal wasn't the most lenient of men. He knocked lightly on the open door before stepping into the office.

A young woman with blonde hair, tied up in a loose bun, looked up from her computer as a knock came to the door. She took a breath to tell the student that Principal Ruwen would call them in when he was ready, but stopped short as a familiar face stepped through the door.

"Reno ... how's Arleen?"

The man leaned back against the photocopier as his eyes scanned the office; a filing cabinet stood behind the open door, files were strewn across Leanne's desk, a first-aid kit peeped out from its perch atop a shelf, small notes were pinned to a notice board alongside her desk ... his office back at ShinRa was more organised than this, though it did help that he rarely used his office.

"She's doing okay. The swelling in her brain's gone down so they took her off some meds yesterday, just waiting for her to come back around on her own."

He was lucky, he got to say that his daughter would be okay. The MRI scan had shown bruising and swelling on her brain from the crash. The doctors had put her on some drugs to keep her asleep and reduce the swelling. She had some cuts, scrapes and a broken arm too, but she'd be okay. She was lucky, Ryan and Toni hadn't been so lucky.

They said Toni had been killed when the car had collided with the truck, the girl hadn't been wearing her seatbelt and had felt the full impact of the crash. Ryan's injuries had been too much for his body to cope with; internal bleeding had taken him before the doctors could stabilise him. Reno pushed himself from the the photocopier, he didn't want to dwell on that kind of stuff. It wasn't right. He turned his attention back to Leanne.

"One of the teachers here brought Arleen to the hospital a few weeks back, d'you know who?"

Leanne nodded quickly, she scanned over an email she had typed before answering the Turk. She ignored how tired the man looked and how he had just spaced out; he had enough things on his plate without her questioning him. As for the teacher, that would be Anthony. He was the only teacher Arleen listened to. He didn't have any classes today, but he was still in the school, going through the storeroom and listing what materials they were low on.

"That would be her Engineering teacher, he's in the Engineering room now if you want to speak to him. Go down the corridor and it's the last door on your right."

"Thanks, Leanne."

Reno walked down the main corridor of the school, cringing as the bell left out a shrill ring and the place filled with teenagers, all of which were walking the opposite way of him. He ignored the odd looks he garnered from the small first years, some of which only reached his waist in height. He didn't care what anyone said, he had never been that short at their age. He nodded in acknowledgment as he passed some of the older students, recognising Cian amidst the throng of tall youths. He ignored more confused looks as he turned the corner and walked through the door of the Engineering room, kicking it shut behind him.

He didn't know why this guy had taken his daughter to the hospital. He didn't know what had happened to Arleen, for man to feel the need to bring her. He had known her old Engineering teacher to see him, but he had yet to meet this man. He and Arleen rarely discussed school, unless she was in serious trouble. He didn't tend to waste what little time he had with her talking about school and teachers.

Reno followed the sound of scraping metal towards a small door at the back of the large room. He assumed that was where the materials were kept. He took a breath to introduce himself, but stopped short as the teacher turned around to face him. The term mouth-hitting-the-floor shot to his mind. Reno stared in silence for a moment, trying to remember whether Arleen had ever actually mentioned her teacher's name in conversation. He knew she hadn't though. But at least now he knew why her teacher had taken on the responsibility of bringing her to the hospital.

"Anthony Clarkson – how the hell did you get a teaching qualification?"

"Could ask you the same bout those tags, Red."

Reno smirked as he held the man's gaze, while slipping his work-tags back inside his t-shirt. That was a good comeback, it looked like he hadn't forgotten the Slums either. However, time changed things. He might have bad-mouthed the Turks throughout his younger years, but he'd been smart enough to know they'd been his only route out of the Slums.

The Turk back-tracked into the main classroom as Anthony walked by him. He felt like laughing or waking up right now. The same dirty-blond hair, the same clear blue eyes ... coincidence was one way of describing this, freak occurrence was another. Reno hoisted himself up onto one of the student workbenches as he tried to figure out this latest turn of events.

He'd guessed that Reno would eventually show up. He half hoped he would. Anthony hadn't seen him since he'd left to join the Turks. It seemed like a whole age ago now, but there was no mistaking Reno. The teacher leaned back against his desk as he watched the Turk with a bemused smirk; sitting on one of the workbenches with one knee drawn up to the edge and his chin resting on it, the Turk was a picture of confusion.

"You look confused."

"Because I am."

Reno furrowed his brow, still trying to figure out what had happened to Anthony after he'd left the Slums. They'd been friends back then, he'd saved the younger man's butt on countless occasions and had helped him out of tight spots. The Slums hadn't been a safe place to grow up without another person to watch your back. Anthony had been the one watching his back. But then he had decided to join the Turks and they'd lost touch. The last he'd heard, Anthony's parents had divorced. Anthony had stayed in the Slums with his Dad, while his Mom and Kelly had ... Reno's eyes widened as realization dawned on him, he looked back to his old friend with astonishment.

"You never told Arleen about Kelly and you?"

Anthony shook his head. Nope, he hadn't. Kelly wasn't even away he was in Costa del Sol. He had been teaching Arleen with about a year and a half and Kelly had never once shown up for a parent-teacher meeting. He'd been a fool to think she'd grown up since leaving the Slums.

"No. Kelly doesn't even know I'm working here. I haven't seen her since Mom and her moved away."

Reno sat back on the workbench, idly scratching the back of his head as he looked to the man again. Life had a funny way of playing tricks on him in the last week. He knew Anthony and Kelly had never had a normal brother-sister relationship. If it hadn't been for her being such a bitch to her younger brother in the first place, he wouldn't have met Anthony. He wouldn't have met Kelly. That was a good and bad thing though. Good in the sense he would have saved himself a lot of headaches and worn patience, but bad because he wouldn't have Arleen right now.

"Why didn't you tell Arleen that you were her uncle? You must've known who her Mom was."

He had, but it hadn't been as simple as that. If he had told Arleen, then she would have had more questions, ones that he didn't have the answers for. Kelly had the answers as to why the teenager had never met any of her extended family. However, if his sister was anything like how she'd been in the Slums, then she wasn't worth asking.

"And say what? It's easier to play by Kelly's rules, Reno. I heard that you and her had a kid together. I didn't know where she was living or how old the kid was. I got offered a job here and took it. It didn't take a genius to figure out you and Arleen are related, her surname gave away who her Mom was."

Reno nodded and sat forward on the bench. He was right. He'd wasted enough of his life in a relationship with Kelly to know that it was easier to play by her rules. But he'd also wasted enough of his life on those rules, he was done playing the way she liked.

He still didn't understand how a brother and sister could be so genuinely different. Kelly had been mouthy and a real bitch in her younger years. He figured that was why he' liked her; she'd been a challenge for him. Anthony, on the other hand, had been quieter than her and the intelligent of the two.

Reno shook his head and stood, he still hadn't figured out what he'd come here for. Though it made more sense now, knowing that Anthony had been the one to take Arleen to the hospital and now some random teacher, he still didn't know why she'd needed medical treatment to start with. The Turk pulled his phone from his pocket and glanced the screen quickly, before pocketing it again; he was making sure he dadn't missed a call from the hospital.

"Getting to the point – why did you bring Arleen to the hospital a few weeks ago?"

"How d-"

"Cell number."

That had been a stupid question, even he had to admit that much. Reno was far from stupid and leaving his cell number was almost as good as leaving his signature on Arleen's records Anthony stopped for a moment, silently weighing up his options. Arleen had made him promise not to say a word to anyone and he had agreed. But he was her uncle, she might not be away of that, but that didn't make it any less true. Didn't that somehow give him a responsibility to look after her? He had an obligation to make sure she didn't get hurt again.

Not that he needed much persuasion, Anthony had known from the day Arleen had told him that he would, at some point, end up blowing the whistle on the man or pointing Reno in the right direction. He knew exactly how his old friend would react, another person might have thought better knowing such, but Anthony wasn't about to dumb his words down or blunt the truth to help someone who had hurt his niece.

"Since I've started here, Arleen has come into school with bruises on her arms, cuts, even a split lip once or twice. No one asked her how she got them, so I asked. She said they'd been from training, so I let it slide for a while. This room can get pretty noisy when the power is on. With two CNC lathes, centre lathes, milling machines , drills and hand tools ... it gets kinda hard to keep tabs on everyone. Cian Layna came to me a few weeks ago during class, he said Arleen was in the storeroom and that he thought I should go talk to her. I shut down the power and left the rest of the class out early for lunch. When I got to the storeroom, Arleen was sitting on the bottom shelf of the material rack and she'd been crying. She took one look at me and told me she was going to kill Cian for not keeping his mouth shut."

Reno smirked despite Anthony's serious tone; that was Arleen's way of dealing with crying, she just got angry instead. She hated crying, he didn't know why, but she always had, if she cried, she got angry and frustrated with herself afterwards. He turned his attention back to his friend as he continued to explain.

"I asked her what was wrong and got a rather colourful answer. I told her I knew the bruises on her arms and stuff weren't from sparring matches at the boxing club. I asked if someone had hurt her ..."

His sense of humour disappeared as he pushed himself away from the edge of the bench. Arleen was more than capable of looking after herself; she did boxing in one of Chris's gyms. She'd asked him to sign the permission form a few years ago when Kelly had first started going out with Chris. Who had hurt his daughter?

Anthony eyed the Turk before continuing. It might have been years since they'd seen each other, but he knew how Reno's mind worked. He had a pretty good idea of what he'd do once he found out who had hurt Arleen, but he wasn't going to stop him either.

"She nodded and I asked if it was a boyfriend. She said no, then tried to stand up; she staggered and cried out again, clutching her side. I asked what had happened and she lifted the side of her shirt. That's why I brought her to the hospital, Reno. Two of her ribs were broken ... Kelly's guy has been hurting her since he moved in with them. She's petrified of the man."

Anthony did little to hide his smirk as the door of the classroom swung shut with a bang. Some people would call him an instigator, but at least he didn't pick on teenage girls. Reno had a dangerous tempter, he always had. It had come in useful when they'd been kids. It looked like it had served him well in adulthood too. He was second in command of the Turks ... the same suited people he used to hurl abuse at whenever they game down to the Slums. He was one to speak, he'd bunked off school more than any other person in his year, and yet here he was now, a teacher. Time had a weird habit of coming full circle, hopefully it would do the same for that guy Kelly was with.

Again with the rain? He was sick of getting drenched at this stage; he'd almost forgotten what dry socks felt like. A whole week and this sorry excuse for a mother hadn't even called him or went to the hospital, and she was the one with custody? He was lazy at work sometimes, he slacked off, he liked to curse, he liked to get drunk at the weekends, he enjoyed annoying the living daylights out of some people, he knew he tested Tseng's patience to its limits at times, but he would never let anyone lay a finger on his daughter if he could help it.

Reno opened the frong door and stepped through, not bothering to ring the door bell or knock. He took the stairs two at a time, then walked through the first door on his left. He looked around quickly and spotted a gear-bag peeking out of the wardrobe's door, he grabbed it and narrowly avoided landing on his butt as a stray sneaker tried to trip him up. This may not have been one of this brightest ideas, but what other option did he have? He wasn't about to leave Arleen come back here.

He had never seen eye to eye with Chris, but they had always been civil towards each other. He was with Kelly ... Reno reckoned the man needed his head checked, but that was his decision. He wanted to believe that Anthony had been wrong, but he had never lied to him in the past, so why start now.

He didn't want to believe that he had over-looked things. Sure, he'd asked Arleen about the bruises and stuff, but she'd just shrugged and said training. He'd believed her. Reno was angry, he wanted to kill Chris then and there, but he knew it would probably come back to bit him in the butt. He was also angry with himself; a senior Turk and he couldn't even notice when his own daughter had lied to him ... he hadn't even noticed that someone had been hurting her all along.

He grabbed the sneaker and tossed into the bag along with its counter-part as he heard footsteps running up the stairs. He didn't have the patience to put up with Kelly right now. It was her house, yes, but Arleen was his daughter too. Reno smirked and rolled his eyes; 3 ... 2 ...

"What the hell d'you think you're doing?"

Reno looked up quickly as he tossed more of Arleen's clothes into the bag; bleached tresses, tied up in a ponytail, a model-worthy physique, her make-up in place, of course, along with what he assumed were designer jeans. Kelly McKenzie was as predictable as they came. She cared more about what was staring back at her from the mirror each morning, than how her own daughter was getting on at school. She wrecked his head, he'd cared about her once, but those feelings were dead and buried a long time ago.

"Go away, Kelly. I am not in a good mood."

Kelly looked from her ex to the bag he was filling with clothes; he had some cheek to just walk through her front door like that, not that she would have left him in if he'd knocked or anything. Despite how angry she was at his intrusion, he confusion was quickly taking the lead as he bent down to grab a framed photo from the bedside table, along with several notebooks.

"Reno – what're you playing at?"

He was trying very hard not to lose his temper before he left the house. He was getting his daughter's clothes and some of her belongings now, so that she wouldn't have to come back here before going to Edge with him. That way he wouldn't have to listen to Kelly any longer than was necessary. He was planning ahead and the plan had nothing to do with her of that thing she called her fiancé.

"I'm taking Arleen to Edge."

Kelly shook her head, no he wasn't. She had custody of Arleen. She always had; he was allowed one visit per month. That way, she still got to be in control, he wasn't allowed to take that piece of control away from her. He didn't know the first thing about living with a hormonal teenager. She regretted him having a part in Arleen's life as it was, she regretted her past relationship with the assassin. She decided who got to stay in control, not him.

"You don't have custody, I d-"

Reno spun as she successfully pushed his last button. Anger flared in his eyes as he rounded on the woman and pushed her against the bedroom wall. She was not going to stop him. She hadn't called him to say Arleen was in the hospital. She hadn't shown up once to see Arleen. She had ignored calls from the hospital. She hadn't shown her fact at Toni and Ryan's funerals. She hadn't once phoned the hospital or him to ask about Arleen and she was going to stand there and defend herself in spite of everything?

"Stop while you still can Kells. Custody ... I had to find out about the crash from a news report. I've been here since the night of the crash, where have you been, huh? Get your fucking hands off me!"

The Turk spun as arms pulled him away from Kelly. He looked up and met the acidic green eyes of her fiancé, Chris. He should have walked away, he knew that was the right thing to do. But Anthony's words were still ringing in his ears, Arleen was petrified of this guy. He'd broken her ribs and beaten her up. He'd threatened her and frightened her. Reno smirked and dropped the bag he'd been packing. The correct decision would be to leave it go and deal with it later, but he had never been known for picking the easy option. Reno stepped forward quickly and landed a punch square on the man's jaw.

He grimaced as he shook out his fist, pain flaring along his knuckles. He bent down and picked up the bag he had packed. Reno side-stepped a shaken-looking Kelly as he shot her fiancé a stony glare. He walked out the door and on several more steps before turning on his heel and facing the two of them once more.

"I know you knew what he was doing, Kelly. Touch my daughter again and I swear, I'll make you pay, Chris."

Kelly took a shaky breath and stood out from where she'd remained against the wall. He wasn't right in the head. He was dangerous. He had forced his way into her home, threatened her and assaulted Chris. He'd had a tough childhood, big deal. ShinRa had turned him into something much worse than what he'd been in the Slums. He was responsible for the deaths of thousands; he'd been the one behind the Sector 7 collapse ... and yet he was allowed to walk free. He should have been thrown in jail and left there to rot.

"Get out or I'll call the police!"

Reno laughed sarcastically as he walked down the stairs. This was generally how his and Kelly's conversations went. He didn't usually end up hitting her fiancé, but the arguing and shouting were par for the course when they spoke. The both of them had always enjoyed trying to break the other. That was the only reason Kelly had custody of Arleen, because she knew it bugged him. Right now, he had to leave before he did something stupid. She was as bad as the man she was marrying.

"Call them, tell them to take that bastard with them while you're at it!"

A/N: A little different from the original, but I feel that it fits better with Reno's character. Thank-you all so much for the reviews so far, it really means a lot :)

Last revision: 28/04/11