The Police Officer

Why couldn't her friend be just as organized as she is? She was already running late when her friend called her and asked Quistis to take her backpack with her. In her hurry Selphie had, of course, forgotten to take her backpack with her and she would need it later. The good friend Quistis is, she told Selphie she would bring her backpack, but that was easier said than done.

While her room is neat and tidy, Selphie's room looks like a bomb has exploded inside. Not only her belongings are spread around the room, but her walls are painted in all the colors of the rainbow in a disorganized pattern. When Selphie had told her she was going to repaint her room Quistis would have never thought that Selphie would fill dozens off balloons with paint and throw them at the walls. While it was fun to help her with re-decorating her room, Quistis is glad she had stopped Selphie from doing the same to the living room.

Pulling away some clothes she finds the yellow lapel of Selphie's much beloved backpack, complete with a moogle keychain. Proud at herself that she found Selphie's backpack, what is almost impossible in this mess, in no more than four minutes, she pets herself on the shoulder before leaving Selphie's room. On her way out she grabs her gun and badge and walks to the plaza.

Their house isn't that far from the plaza and she walks at a brisk pace to make up for the time she lost while searching through rainbow-hell. As you can imagine she didn't pay to much attention at and she didn't see the blond man until she knocked right into him. Well, Selphie's back did the hitting part, but she was stopped to a halt in the progress. Apologizing to the man their eyes lock for one second before she resumes her brisk pace to the plaza. Normally she would have made sure whomever she ran into was fine before walking away, but today she didn't and she doesn't know why she didn't.

At the entrance she shows the officer her badge and he asks her if she is armed. She lifts up her shirt slightly so he can see her gun and he turns off the detector so that she can pass without sounding the alarm. She thanks him with a smile and she spots her friend standing near one of the pillars, but she isn't alone. Her ex-boyfriend is leaning close to her and if she didn't know better she would have thought they were kissing. While she is confused at why he is here, Quistis is glad that he leaves Selphie alone so she can get rid of this heavy backpack.

"What is he doing here?" She asks Selphie while holding out her backpack to her, but not without letting go of its lapels.

"Nothing."

"I thought you didn't want to see him again?" Quistis was relieved when Selphie had decided to dump Irvine, she had never liked that big flirt.

"I didn't." Selphie tugs lightly at her backpack and Quistis releases her hold on it. Selphie slings it over her right shoulder while keeping her eyes on Irvine's retreating back. "We just bumped into each other."

Quistis didn't believe her, but she didn't mention it.

The minutes thick by while nothing happens on stage, but next to her Selphie is looking nervously. "Are you alright?" She asks her friend.

Selphie nods her head and points to the stage, "It looks like you've got to start working."

Indeed, mayor Dobe, has just entered the stage. Thankfully Quistis didn't need to leave her spot to do her job, she was undercover and she had a perfect view from here.

She has heard Dobe's speech so many times the last few days that she could almost recite every single word of it. While she is a cop, she is more like Dobe's personal guard. She was a rookie back in FH, she was fourteen when she had walked away from her adoptive parents and she had made it all the way to FH before she collapsed. Dobe and Flo helped Quistis getting through this rough time by taken her under his wing. The Mayor and his wife became the parents she never had. She was happy in FH until the whole town burned down in flames four years ago. The whole population of FH moved to Timber and again she had to adjust her life. Together they picked up their life again and she had increased in the ranks of the cops fast. While Dobe became the Mayor of this town.

Thinking back about FH still hurts Quistis, the guilt is pushing heavily on her shoulders. Quistis knows she should have done more too safe her hometown, but everyone tells her she did everything that she could. While she is grateful for their support, it doesn't make the guilt go away.

Nor does thinking about it. Quistis scolds herself. She needs to focus on her job here, protecting the mayor.

Next to her Selphie is looking quite bored while still leaning against the pillar, but Quistis notices the way Selphie is clutching her backpack. Tense, and is it fear in her eyes?

Before she has the chance to ask Selphie, she hears a single gunshot sizzling through the air.

=XXX=

She was glued to the spot when she saw president Loire fall backwards. She felt bad about thinking that she was glad that the president was shot, and not the mayor, the only father-figure she ever had in her life.

But the shot could have been for the mayor, or the next one can be. Taking her gun out of her holster she walks towards the stage but she is stopped by the strong grip of her friend.

"Get out of here," Selphie said to her.

Of course she wouldn't leave, at least not without the mayor and his wife. But the way Selphie told her to go, she didn't like it. "I have to protect the mayor."

"Get out of here," Selphie repeated but Quistis wouldn't hear it.

Quistis shrugs Selphie's hand from her shoulder and she had expected for Selphie to get away from here without her, but she was going in the same direction as she is, towards the stage.

She knows she has to protect the mayor, but there are already enough cops at the stage that they don't need one more. She stops to look around and when she sees Selphie continue on she is curious at what Selphie is doing.

With large steps her petit friend walks to the stage and throws her backpack underneath it.

What are you doing Selphie?

Selphie walks back the same way she came from and she walks past Quistis without even looking at her. Quistis noticed the blank look in her eyes and the remote control in her hand.

What have you done Selphie? What have you made me do?

Suddenly the realization hit her hard, Selphie had used her. Used her to do something terrible,but it isn't too late yet, she can still undo her wronging.

Running at the stage she wants to slide under it to retrieve Selphie's backpack but she is stopped by two strong arms.

"What do you think you're doing?" His green eyes stare hard into hers and she stares right back at him.

"I'm a Cop, I need to protect the mayor." She hissed back, she wasn't about to tell this man about the bomb. She didn't want anybody to know, she doesn't want anybody to know that she smuggled the bomb inside and that her friend probably made this bomb. Quistis knows how to dismantle a bomb and she is certain she can dismantle this on, but therefore she must be near the bomb. "Let me go."

"I don't trust you," He said. If Quistis could she would have liked to pull her hair out of her head, but the man had her pinned down and she can't move.

She has to hurry if she wants to dismantle the bomb and she knows she can't keep this secret for her anymore. Sighing softly she tells to the blond man, "There is a bomb under the stage, I can dismantle it but you have to let me go!"

"A bomb?" He huffs. "Do you think we are stupid? We have turned this place up-side-down. There is no bomb here."

Why are all men so stubborn? This isn't the first time that men don't listen to her, nor will it be the last.

But help came from an unexpected source.

"Seifer, what if she speaks the truth?"

She had the feeling that this man with his stormy eyes understood her, he would listen to her, she knows it. If only this tall blond man with his piercing green eyes would let her go, then she could…

She could….

"If she does, we need to-"

Too late.

=XXX=

She should be thankful for the Federal agent's large body, it protected her from the blast of the bomb. Looking around she notices the devastated power of this dirty bomb. The dirty bomb she had, unknowingly, smuggled inside a highly protected place.

She shrugs the man of her and she is glad she can still hear him breathing, he was a pain in the ass but she didn't want to see more people die because of a mistake she made. Well, she would even have thanked him if he wasn't so stubborn. She knows the chance of her to dismantle the bomb in such a short of time would be difficult, but know she will never know if she could or not. Nor will the people who died here today.

Quistis knows she is in trouble, and it would be unwisely to stay here any longer. Dusting herself up she un-holsters her gun and runs away.

But Quistis doesn't see it as running away, she is running towards someone. Someone she believed was a friend of her, she wants to know why Selphie betrayed her trust like this. There must be more to it, she has known Selphie for three years and she has never shown any signs of aggression or revenge or anything. She always has been the happiest person she knows and she would have never thought she was capable of doing this.

She needs to know why, so she runs away from the crime scene to search for her friend.

=XXX=

Timber isn't that large a city, but with the summit in town it attracted a lot of people from the nearby towns and all these people make it impossible for Quistis to find her friend.

She stops running at the crossroad, and, if by pure luck, she spots Selphie's well-worn yellow dress. She steps into a van and, to her shock, Selphie's ex-boyfriend is behind the steering wheel.

What else have you been keeping from me?

She runs to the van and she tightens her grip on her hand-gun. She slips around the back of the van and she points the gun at Selphie. Selphie looks at her with the same blank look from before and Quistis has the feeling something is terribly wrong with Selphie.

"What have you done Selphie?" Lowering her gun Quistis asks softly, "What is wrong with you?"

Slowly Selphie turns her head and her lips are moving, like she is trying to speak, but no sound comes out. Shocked Quistis takes one step back and Irvine uses this moment to speed away.

As in an afterthought Quistis shoots at the tires of the van, but to no avail. They are gone and they have taken their answers with them. She could have stopped them, demanded them to tell her what happened, but instead she just let them go.

Just another failure to add to her list.

TBC