Awww, I've done it again and gone off to disappear for another two weeks. I'm sorry, guys! The reasons for my delay were:

1. I went to a week long sleepaway camp.

2. I'm taking a summer prep course, so I have less time these past few weeks.

3. I've been writing some stuff for groups on , which is why you may or may not have seen all this Kingdom Hearts writing from me. Don't worry, I'm not ditching my FFXIII stories. (I'm Yuxume on deviantart, as well, if you want to check my page. I have pretty much the same stories on my fanfiction account, though.)

I promise I'll try to return to a normal schedule! Thanks for putting up with all of that.

FFLightXHopeTifaXCloud- Thanks for the corrections and the beach idea! I'll be sure to put that one in. After all, every family needs to go on a vacation together, eh? ^^ Don't worry, my FFIX story is actually pretty much on hold until I get at least one of my FFXIII stories done. (Probably Inner Conflicts, since New Dreams is more of a continuous story.) I may do a FFVII short story. TifaXCloud is a pairing I support, but unfortunately I've always been more of a AerithXCloud fan. Please don't hurt me? :b Hahaha.

QTXAdsy- Don't worry about not being able to review! I'm pretty busy myself. That picture is one of my favorites. xD I'll be sure to incorporate that little line into the story, no worries. ^^ It may even be a recurring theme. As for the children growing up, that might be a separate story for those who are interested. :) Thanks for the review!

kimaloy94 - Hehe, sorry! I haven't updated in awhile, but read the above part for details on that. Anyways, here's that chapter!

AssasinZAssasin- Nah, don't worry about it. I can see where they're coming from, since I pulled that ending in the last chapter. I also haven't updated in awhile, so it's fine. If you don't want me to call you Johnny, I can stop. But, I'm sure you'll get used to it. :) Mwahaha. Thank you for the grammatical corrections! FFLightXHopeTifaXCloud is one of my beta's, but I'd love it if you could be one, as well. I'm really flattered and honored that you enjoy reviewing my stories. Thanks again!

Mr steve jr- Oh, that's alright. Thank you for reading! :D

tootsiepopgurl- Ehh, she doesn't have anything like those illnesses, but it is something threatening? Haha, thank you so much! I'm really happy that your first review was on one of my writings! As for the name Chok, in the game Dajh had stitching on his clothes that read "CHOK" in Cocoon script.

Andrea Ye- I think it's all a matter of opinion on whether it's serious or not. xD Thank you for reading!

K11Lou- Thank you so much! I'm not sure if it's the same plot twist. Hopefully it's just as good, though! :)


Hope, his face as pale as his hair, strode through the hospital hallways. Aidan grimly hurried alongside his father, trotting to keep up with the man's longer strides. Vanille clung to Hope, her face buried in his shoulder. The cloth of his shirt was already wet from her silent tears.

It was a small comfort to the family that the hospital was not one of the cliché, stereotypical, and dark places that appeared in horror films. The hospital was actually a rather bright place. The nurses, doctors, and surgeons walked through the white halls, chatting with each other in their spare time, going over their various charts, and speaking with patients and their families. The patients resided in either a single room or a room with two or three other patients. When they were admitted into the hospital, they or their relatives were able to choose either. If their situation was dire enough, emergency patients were required to stay in a room alone.

It was because of this that Hope was relieved when he burst through the door to find Lightning sitting up in her bed, speaking with two other patients. It meant that her situation wasn't too bad.

Light was pale, but smiling gently at the old woman in the bed to her right. Across from her was a brown-haired young boy. To the left of the boy was an empty bed, it's clean sheets spread neatly across the mattress with nary a wrinkle. There were chairs on either side of all the beds. Serah, whose head rested on her arms as she slept at her elder sister's side, occupied the seat closest to Lightning. An old man- Hope presumed it was the woman's brother due to the resemblance between the two- sat by the elderly woman's side.

Vanille released Hope, squirming so violently that he actually had to drop her. The little girl dropped lightly to the floor and scrambled, sobbing, to clamber onto Lightning's lap and sob into her chest. Her words were choked and indistinguishable amid the wet tears and rather runny nose.

Aidan was much quieter about the whole thing. He only sat on the edge of the bed to lean against his mother's shoulder and closed his eyes. The old woman chuckled fondly, her aged face crinkled up in a smile and the man asked, "Your children, Claire?"

Lightning nodded and took Hope's hand as he sat down heavily beside Serah, who was still snoozing away, even in the commotion. Hope grasped Lightning's hand with both of his and remained silent for quite awhile. Finally, he managed to say, "I'm glad you're okay, Light…"

Light smiled. "Sorry for making you worry. This is Patty, Marshall," Lightning indicated the two seniors, "and Faus." She nodded at the young boy across from her, who waved. "And these are my children, Aidan and Vanille, and my husband, Hope." She introduced the group.

Hope smiled and stood to shake hands and Patty chortled once again. "Look, Marshall," she joked, "Hope has white hair to rival ours." Her voice was warm and almost familiar, and Hope rather liked it.

Faus looked to be about Aidan's young age, and he accepted Hope's hand shyly. Aidan's eyes popped opened and he said, "It's nice to meet you all," politely, as he had been instructed many times by his parents. Usually, Vanille copied her brother, but at the moment she was a bit too preoccupied to do anything.

"Vanille, I'm fine…" Lightning smoothed her daughter's hair. "Stop crying already."

"H-Hospitals are sc-sc-scary!" Vanille wailed. "It's where people die…!" Faus flinched slightly.

"Vanille!" Lightning snapped. "Why would you say that? People get healed here. That's rude! Apologize now."

Vanille sniffled, but slowly moved to the very edge of the bed and said, in a choked voice, "I'm sorry…"

Patty held up her hands, "Now now, Claire," She said soothingly, "The child doesn't know much better. It is a common misconception."

Hope tilted his head questioningly at Light, who blinked and then shrugged. "Well, I had to give my real name and maiden name to the doctor, didn't I? Claire Farron Estheim. Patty and Marshall heard the doctor say it, so they just call me that now. Faus calls me Mrs. Estheim."

"Ah," Hope said, sitting the still sobbing Vanille on his lap. Aidan sighed, shifted, and accidently stepped on Serah's hand, which was lying on the covers near him.

"Oops. Sorry, Auntie," Aidan quickly moved his foot away as Serah's eyes opened.

"…Aidan?" The woman sat up. "Oh, everyone's here! That's good!"

"Thanks for caring for Light, Serah." Hope smiled. "But what happened?"

"Ah… Well, I went to the bathroom for awhile, and when I came back, Sis was on the floor…" Serah's expression darkened. "She wouldn't wake up, even though I shook her and called her name. So I called for an ambulance. I may have overreacted, but…" She sighed, "I'm glad her case wasn't too bad…"

Lightning was silent during this exchange, and Hope noticed that her hands were clenched on top of her sheets. "…Light?" Hope tapped her shoulder.

At first, she didn't respond, but then she raised her head. "…Yes?"

"What's wrong?"

Lightning didn't respond. Instead, she shifted her gaze behind Hope as a voice boomed out, "Good afternoon. I presume you are Claire's family."

Hope turned to see a dark-skinned doctor walk into the room. "Yes, I'm Hope Estheim, Claire's husband. These are our children."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, sir. My name's Dr. Rian," The man extended a hand to Hope and the two shook hands. "About Claire's condition, she should be able to leave the hospital tomorrow morning. Her case isn't severe, but we want to keep her here."

Serah's phone, the sound muffled slightly, rang in her purse. "Oh, excuse me," She murmured, bending over to take the call. "Hello? Oh, hi, Sazh. Yeah, sure." She handed the phone over to Lightning, who gave her sister a startled look before taking the phone.

"Hello? Hi… Yes, I'm fine. No, not really."

"Don't mind it, doctor, please continue," Hope regained the doctor's attention, and the man coughed. "Oh, yes, of course. Anyways, we aren't exactly sure what Claire's case is, but we find that it's similar to her mother's."

Hope drew in a sharp intake of breath. Hope's mother had passed away when Lightning was fifteen. "But, then…"

Dr. Rian inspected Hope's face. "No, Mr. Estheim. We haven't confirmed that your wife's illness is fatal. By "similar," I mean that Mrs. Farron, Claire and Serah's mother, also had a severe fever. One that was enough to make her faint and come to the hospital. The doctors who inspected her could find nothing wrong and dismissed it as just an extremely high fever.

"I did not tell you this to make you worry. All I'm trying to tell you is that for about two months, Claire should not attempt to do anything extremely stressing or physically strenuous."

"Thank you, Dr. Rian." Hope shook the man's hand again before the doctor left, then sat down beside Serah, his expression dazed.

"I'll be able to come to the picnic. Yes, yes, I'd hardly call that stressing. Sazh," Lightning's tone with the man on the other end of the phone grew impatient. "I already said, I'll be fine. I'll be home tomorrow morning. Yes… No, that's not needed. Good bye."

Lightning handed back the phone with a huff. "You'd think I was ten years old." She was about to say something else, but stopped when Aidan got off the edge of her bed and took Vanille's hand, leading her over to Faus' bed.

Aidan sat Vanille in one of the chairs and then took the seat beside her. "Hi." The boy's greeting was short, but friendly.

"H-Hi," the boy replied, smiling shyly. "You're Aidan, right…? Mrs. Estheim's son? And you're… V-Vanille?"

Vanille sniffed, wiping at her nose with her sleeve. Aidan rolled her eyes and snatched a tissue from a box on Faus' bedside table. "Ew, blow your nose with a tissue, not your sleeve." He scolded.

Vanille did as she was told, and after she had cleaned her nose, she nodded. "It's nice to meet you. My name's Vanille," she murmured politely. Then, she dropped the extremely formal tone and a little bit of her energy returned. Vanille sat on the edge of her chair, her white hair falling off her shoulders and dangling in front of her as the excitement of meeting someone new overcame her.

"So you're Faus? How old are you? You look like you're my big brother's age. Do you two go to the same school? Are you okay? Why are you in the hospital?" The questions poured from Vanille until Aidan gave her a light whack on the head to make her stop.

Faus put his hands over his ears in a joking fashion and shook his head from side to side. "Augh, too many questions! Slow down!" Laughing, he removed his hands and began to answer the numerous questions asked of him.

"Yeah, my name's Faus. I'm in your brother's grade, and I do go to your brother's school. We just haven't really talked before. I'm okay. I get sick really easily. My body's weak, so I don't see your brother a lot."

The adults watched the children converse quietly, finding a sense of contentment in observing the innocent chatter between the young ones. Suddenly, Hope turned to Patty and Marshall to ask "Would you two, and you and your parents, Faus, like to join our family and friends on a picnic this weekend?"

Vanille bounced up, leaning close to Faus excitedly. "Yes, come with us!" Aidan stayed seated, but nodded enthusiastically.

"You've been very kind to me," Light directed at the old couple. "We would be happy to have you."

"Lightning… Well, Claire, she isn't always very sincere with her feelings. It's quite rare that she expresses herself like this." Hope grinned cheekily while Light glared at him from the hospital bed. "Can I ask why," Hope asked Patty, his expression becoming a serious one, "you are here in the hospital?"

Patty waved a hand. "Oh, don't worry, my dear. I'm just very weak in my old age, and I collapsed one day. Thank goodness it wasn't a heart attack. I'll ask my doctor if I can leave the hospital by then."

"And I'll ask my parents," Faus told them. His cheeks were flushed, excited at the prospect of spending an afternoon with newfound friends.

"Then it's settled. We should ask Sazh, too, though, since he planned the whole thing." Hope looked at Serah. "Serah, could you please bring the kids to your house? I'll pick them up later, but I'm just going to stay here for awhile, okay?"

Serah nodded, but the children whined and grumbled for a while before they reluctantly said their goodbyes and left, but not before kissing their mother on the cheek. Soon afterwards, Faus left the room, guided by a kind nurse, for a checkup. Martha and Patty fell asleep. Apparently, the old man pretty much lived with his wife when she was in the hospital.

And so it was that Light and Hope were left, speaking quietly about what had gone on that day, or about things in general. Finally, Light told Hope that he should probably go pick the kids up. The white-haired man nodded and stood, but didn't move. Lightning looked at him questioningly. Hope sat back down and took Lightning's hand. "Lightning…" Hope looked at her sadly.

"Wh-What, Hope?" Lightning asked, even as she began to tremble. She had never been one to cry, but her voice still shook slightly.

Hope pulled her head onto his shoulder. "It's okay, Light." He said, soothingly. "It's fine. It was just a high fever."

"If I do have something like my mother…" Her voice steadied suddenly, which worried Hope. To be honest, he would've rather had her burst into tears, instead of suddenly becoming calm. "If I have something like my mother, will I just get ill and die…? When Aidan and Vanille are high schoolers."

"Don't say that, Light… That won't happen. We're all here for you." Hope continued to murmur to Light until the woman finally snapped him back to his senses, sending him off to get the kids.


Much later, at night, Hope lay alone. It felt a little lonely, not having Lightning beside him. But he was just being a big baby. He rolled over on his side. Ever since he had known her, Lightning had been the strong soldier who was always the strong and collected one. She had her caring side though, and that was one aspect of Lightning that some people didn't understand. To see her sitting in the hospital bed had been shocking, in all honesty.

The door to his room creaked open. Hope sat up to see a rusty-red haired head slowly peer around the edge of the door. Aidan's green eyes examined his father curiously. Below him, Vanille's white hair glowed in the light from the window as she copied her older brother. Seeing that their father was awake, they tumbled from the doorway and piled onto his bed.

"Daddy, let us sleep with you tonight!" Vanille fluffed up a pillow she had brought with her and lay down on one side of Hope.

"We thought you'd be lonely," commented Aidan as he did the same on the other side of Hope. The two kids snuggled into their parent.

Hope smiled and put an arm around each of his kids. What he had told Lightning was true. Everyone was together. There would be hope.


As always, if you've got an idea for me and my stories, run it by me in PMs! Thank you for reading! ^w^