040. Wake

(This is pretty much directly roleplay style literature here, "----" signifying a POV change. Co-written by my dear friend Reno as... erm... Reno.)

(Continuation of Coma, Nervous, Quit...)


Her first thought was that the sun needed to be immediately removed from the sky and stashed away, never to be heard from again. The light from a window was shining through her eyes like lasers, even through tightly closed lids.

Her second thought was pain. Her mouth opened, though she found that feat trickier than it should have been, and a mangled and broken groan freed itself from low in her throat. The sound was awful and made her head pound with the hard pangs that felt like a sledgehammer.

She didn't have time to dwell on her horrid sounding voice, nor the ache in her head, before she realized that it hurt to breathe, having to gasp after her cry of misery.

Oh god, make it stop.

Her eyes shot open and she quickly regretted it, her pupils fully dilated and unable to focus, seized with nothing but knife-like light.

She heard frantic footsteps clammer into the room and someone with a grainy grandmother voice telling her to relax.

"Fuck you," Aerith rasped, her throat stinging as her eyes shut tightly against the nauseating waves of entirely too many afflictions. She was furious. And how was she supposed to relax when she felt nothing but intense jolts of pain through every portion of her body? Blinding, incapacitating, agonizing...

...blissful, euphoric paradise.

She was out cold in seconds after the injection.


When she came to a while later, the pain was more bearable, and there was a pair of tearful garnet-brown eyes peering down at her from a few inches away.

Her instinct was to grab her knife, but found she was just too tired and her muscles felt like jelly.

"If you're here to kill me..." she whispered, "...alright."

"Aerith!" Tifa cried, giving the bedridden woman a hug as gently as she could and sobbing into her hair.

Aerith blinked a few times, her eyes finally absorbing her surroundings, and somewhat more alert from the pain she felt while this crying girl tried to maul her. Or... not.

It was then she registered the voice.

"Tifa?" She whispered, though she'd intended to make more sound. Her throat was painfully raw.

She heard a sniffle before Tifa lifted her head and smiled down at her, tears falling rapidly down her cheeks.

"They... t-told me you... were awake... but... I didn't believe..."

She broke off again, fresh sobs shaking her as she bent down to hug her dear, formerly comatose friend again.

"T-..." Aerith tried to breathe, but she was already winded. "Tif-... what... happened?" Please stop hugging me.

She could tell by now that she was in the hospital, and she was more than likely hooked up to a morphine drip from the way she was feeling. She remembered how bad it hurt when she woke up the first time, but this was far more manageable.

Tifa pulled back, her expression of tearful joy melting into one of tearful distress as she plopped down into a chair and began stammering through sobs.

Aerith couldn't understand a single word.

She managed to make her hand work, albeit very slowly, and finally held it up to get Tifa to stop, wanting to spare herself the pain of using her throat again.

It didn't work.

"Tifa," she whispered harshly, the sound coming out in a hiss. "Calm... no... calm down... good. That's it. Now... get someone... that can... form sentences... and tell me... what happened."

All her effort was wasted as Tifa burst into more wailing ramblings of... someone... no, everyone.. being gone... for some... tournament... in the Gold Saucer?

Wha...?

Everyone?!

Great.

The doctors could give her a laundry list of injuries, she was sure, but it was doubtful they knew just how she ended up this way.

Maybe they'd all given her up for dead and moved on with their lives. No problem. But just how long had she been here? She looked down at herself, significanly more gaunt than she last remembered being, and she could tell it had at least been a couple of weeks. Probably not much longer.

She certainly wasn't about to get the answer out of Tifa, who was mumbling something about Ash having to leave to take care of Momo, but that he knew she was awake. It wasn't surprising that he'd stay away for a while until he was ready to see her.

Had Sef given her up, too? And Reno? The rest of ShinRa? It was true she wasn't really one of them, more like just a contractor, really, but they all knew each other well. Some more than others...

She swallowed as she thought of Reno. She could swear she recalled hearing his voice, somewhat recently, but with the clarity of a long passed dream. She wanted to see him. Just make sure that he was alright. Who knows what had happened to her to get her this way? What if he'd been there with her?

Her eyes shifted back to Tifa and she cleared her throat, wincing at the wretched sting. "Tifa... call... Reno."

He and the rest of them at least deserved to know she was awake, if they were all intact, that was. She knew Tifa wouldn't be surprised. Tifa knew of Aerith's business with ShinRa, and that she and Reno were regular drinking buddies.

Tifa wiped her tears away, though Aerith couldn't figure out why, since they were still spilling over without any sign of stopping. The martial artist drew her PHS and shakily dialed a number.

When Tifa began speaking into the phone, Aerith rolled her eyes. Tifa was crying hysterically again, and Aerith couldn't understand one word past the first one. "Aerith." Likely Reno wouldn't either. She couldn't even tell if he'd answered or she'd gotten his voicemail, knowing he rarely exerted the effort into answering the damn thing, but as Tifa's ramblings continued, Aerith felt the urge to laugh for the first time since she'd awoken. She could imagine Reno staring with an incredibly exasperated scowl at his phone as he listened to her.

Painful as it was, she burst into a fit of laughter, the sound hoarse, but at least she knew her voice still worked.

"Jesus, Tifa, don't frighten the poor guy," she chuckled, her eyelids gradually lowering again as more morphine trickled through her. "Just... mm... come... see me."

Tifa sniffled and grinned at her sheepishly, clicking off the phone.

Aerith smiled in return, forcing herself to stay awake, and just waited with slow-blinking eyes.

----

ShinRa Co. was re-established. Everyone knew this although its name was still tarnished. The people no longer truly trusted it, but with the aid of Reeve things were slowly starting to make a comeback. Rufus ShinRa still had heaps of money, all of which was being funded to the men of WRO. Of course, the most loyal of the Corporation still lingered; the Turks. Reno had been up on the rightful floor where the Turks resided, his head buried in his arms. It had been thirteen straight hours of nothing but paperwork. The new orders of Reeve's were being processed and all the Turks had their share in overlooking then passing it on to the next higher up.

He fought with the fax machine all day today, ready to break out the metal bat on it. He had been ignoring all calls as well, not wanting anything else to be added on his piling list of things to do. He sighed and heard the vibration of his PHS by his side, but he didn't bother to look at the number. A few moments later the remains of his voicemail screamed out its presence. He sighed and grasped the device in his hand, flipping it open and pressing the pass code that followed.

"You have reached Red-Hot's Voicemail, please type in your password." And he did what he was told; his ShinRa Turk number.

"You have one new message, ten saved messages. To listen to your messages press seven," the monotone voice stated and Reno listened intently to the message that wasn't anything more than sobs and incoherent words. He did know one thing, it was Tifa and her uncontrollable sobbing that he often heard ever since Cloud went MIA again. He rolled his eyes and knew this was probably some sort of pity phone call again. He didn't have time for this. He heard the name, though, that sputtered from her lips; Aerith.

Instantly a small wave of shock gathered over his senses. Did something happen? And why would Tifa call him exactly? He tried to recollect his thoughts, almost ignoring the voice in the background. It was faint and he had to go through and repeat the whole message again to get it correct. The tone, although low and barely audible, was that of Aerith's.

It wasn't long before he clicked the phone down and placed it within the pocket of his pants. He grabbed his jacket and flung it over his shoulder, announcing his departure on other serious issues at hand.

No one questioned him. By the expression on his face they knew not to question a Senior Turk when he had something urgent come up. In no time he was already making his way across the parking lot and reaching his POS rust burdened Jeep. Squealing wheels brought him out of the garage area and out on the streets. The hospital was located on the top plate, no doubt, and he knew that it wouldn't take long before he circled into the parking lot of the hospital.

That same stoic expression settled on his face, snubbing off all the doctors that glanced at him with their fake smiles. He hated them. ALL of them.

When finally reaching the door where she resided in, he took a deep breath and shuffled in. His eyes adverting instantly to her once more, a soft smile gracing his lips. She still looked like hell, but at least now he could see the skin tone back in her cheeks.

"Aerith." He couldn't think of anything other than her name to escape from his lips and all he could muster was to stand by her bed. He brought his hand up to rub his neck idly, it had been sometime since he even heard her voice and he waited patiently for that soft-spoken timbre. He had left his jacket in the car, only being in his formal oxford shirt that still was unbuttoned a good ways down. His hands were shoved inside his pockets, fumbling with his lighter while keeping his eyes on her face.

----

Emerald eyes, tired and bloodshot from not being used so heavily in weeks, were merely half lidded when the Turk entered the room and she turned her head to face the visitor. Upon sight of the familiar unkempt array of fire red hair, her eyes widened and she attempted to sit up, but winced as pain shot through her again.

She swallowed as she settled back again, her eyes glued to his, not even noticing as Tifa slipped from the room with a small smile on her face.

She managed to pull her eyes away to look over him for any sign of injury. He seemed okay. Thank God. Even more miraculous was that he'd actually gotten Tifa's call in a reasonable amount of time. And understood it.

Her eyes fixed on his again and she opened her mouth to speak, her voice only slightly better than it was before. "Tiger... god, you scared me."

She figured it might not make sense to him, but it was the foremost thought on her mind and the only thing she could think of to say. Well, other than things she wasn't sure he wanted to hear so soon since her awakening.

----

He slid his eyes towards the brunette with a small smile, she seemed to have the right idea to leave. He noted her eyes were still rimmed with redness. She really was sobbing uncontrollably on the phone and it was amazing he could make out what she said. However his eyes darted back to his drinking buddy, quite astonished about her wordplay.

He scared her? He let a playful roll of the eyes settle forth before walking beside her bed. His hands curling around the railing, his head leaning downwards in order to avoid the machines that loomed over him. They still held their constant pattern of beeps.

"Let me get this straight. You are here.. in a coma.. lookin'.. -- " he stopped himself. No one ever liked hearing WHAT the looked like in the hospital. So for once he held his tongue on the sarcastic remarks. Instead he shook his head and forced a smile on his lips. "You are the one in the hospital babe, not me. You scared me.. well, a lot of people at that." He sent his eyes downwards, tracing the tube that held her morphine. He ignored where it settled into her vein.

----

A smirk formed on her lips. God, what a mess she must look like. She didn't even want to think about the fact that he was seeing her in such atrocious shape. She'd seen how pale and thin she'd become, and still hadn't even seen her own face yet. Hell, she still had no idea what had even happened to her. She was sure of one thing, though. Tifa knew. Surely everyone must have by now. They didn't want to tell her who had done this.

She cleared her throat, biting back a groan of pain as she looked up to Reno's eyes, the familiar aquamarine hue she'd been wanting to see since she'd woken up.

"I... was scared that something happened. I was afraid that you... were with me... and... "

She pursed her lips against uninvited emotion. It was stupid, and she was in a chemically induced haze that was making her a little overactive, though she was still fairly cognizant.

She drew in a breath, blinking tears away that had involuntarily formed, and slowly lifted a frail hand to touch one of his own that clung to the rail. "I don't remember what happened."

----

His eyes never moved from her own as she trembled with her choice in words. He wondered what she had been thinking, if the brain was allowed to think when in a coma. He truthfully didn't remember one thing about being out cold those weeks when he was in critical care himself. A sigh slipped through his lips as he shook his head, trying best to comfort her in any form.

He felt that he was failing. The tears that slowly filled her eyes sent his eyebrows to lift upwards. He didn't want her to cry, he never wanted that. "Hey hey.. I'm alright. No one is hurt.. well.. heh." He tried to play out his normal ways, how he made mostly everything a joke or twisted it in some form to induce a smile. "It's alright.. "

It was probably best she didn't know what happened to her. But in reality it was only logical that she did ask such questions. She was in the hospital right? He brought his hand to slip from her frail hold on him, bringing it up and lightly touching the side of her face with his knuckles.

"Rudo found you.. Surprisin' eh?" He forced out a smile, his eyes never leaving from her own jade ones.

----

She chuckled a bit, her head tilting a little towards the hand that grazed over her face, repeating Rude's name in amusement.

Drowsiness began to settle in and she looked down to the vein in her arm that was deeply punctured by the obnoxiously oversized needle. She examined it, then glanced up at the source of the drip and slowly began to extract the IV.

She wanted to be fully conscious for this conversation. She winced, but managed to send Reno a reassuring smile that didn't quite reach her eyes.

"Tell me..." she breathed through gritted teeth, still pulling at the needle. Christ, how long was this thing? "Do you know...? And... how long have I been here?"

----

He noted her winces and shot his eyes downwards to her actions.

"Jesus Christ!" He pulled his hand away and gripped onto her own frail wrists, however he made sure not to apply that much pressure. "Will you stop?! You need that shit or you'll be pullin' that needle next to my throat for help." He kept his hand on her own, making sure she didn't try to even pull it out even more.

"You don't need all these answers. You just need rest. .. Just stop." He groaned, knowing well she wouldn't comply to his wishes until she found out everything she wanted to know. She was just stubborn like that. "Just.. stop pullin' that nasty thing out.." He didn't care for needles much, well, when they were in other people's arms. He had no trouble pushing narcotics in his own veins.

".. I'll tell you if you stop hurtin' yourself. Just .. lie back will you?"

----

Aerith sighed and gave in with a nod of her head. She freed one arm from his gentle grasp and reached up the reduce the drip on the apparatus itself, before sinking back against the inclined mattress.

Her eyes slid up to meet his once more and she offered a remorseful smile. "Sorry, Tiger."

She hurt like hell, but she'd deal with it. She was already plotting the death of whatever unfortunate soul had done this to her. But first she had to know just how bad it was, and she had her own trust issues when it came to doctors. She wanted it from the lips of someone she trusted implicitly, and someone who might actually know something useful.

Her fingers idly toyed with his, bracing herself for the worst.

----

He cantered out a sigh when she finally stopped the pulling of the needle. He wasn't satisfied with her shutting off her only source of release from the pain, but he knew he couldn't do anything else to stop her. She was always so stubborn, all those bottle fights that she just had to win..

He shook the thought from his mind and focused back on her pale features. He needn't say too much, just one simple name would be enough.

"Sephiroth."

It took sometime to collect that information. He actually had to do some undercover work himself. ShinRa held secrets, even from their employees. Sephiroth was still an extremely touchy subject and only a select few were granted such access. The Turks were not to get involved in this case but Reno took it upon himself to retrieve the information.

"But enough about that. You just.. need to get some rest alright? Get better soon so I won't be all alone with just a bottle of Jack Daniels. It's no fun drinkin' alone, ya know."

----

The news had jolted her, but she panicked inwardly at his words, figuring that it meant he was leaving. She didn't want to be alone. Sephiroth had been her best friend, and pain was seeping back into her, though she wasn't sure if it was merely a figment of her mind, maybe a recollection of what had happened. Or if the morphine was wearing off already.

It didn't matter.

"Reno," she spoke softly, grasping his hand as firmly as her weakened muscles would allow. "Don't."

She swallowed, blinking up at him. "You... came to see me, didn't you?"

----

He smiled softly at her question as his hand was brought upwards to lightly graze the side of her face. He shook his head while tugging his lips into a grin. "No babe, I came here to see all the old people on their bedpans." Of course he came to see her, he didn't screech out of the parking lot for nothing almost hitting a few rookie Turks on the way.

While he kept his vision on her, he snaked his free arm upwards so that release was made for her morphine. She was making herself suffer and if he got away with this act, he would be happy to see her finally slumber in a well given rest.

"Of course I came to see you. Why else am I here?"

----

She didn't have to look to know that he was releasing the drip again, but merely stuck her tongue out at him. "Meanie."

A gentle smile curled her lips and she let her head fall back against the pillow, her hand rising to touch his own against her face. She knew his actions were quite the opposite.

"...that's not what I meant. I mean... while I was... comatose." The drugs were coursing through her veins again and her eyes began to blink slowly, but never leaving his. "I... thought... I heard you."

Her hand fell limply and her eyes closed, but she fought sleep. She didn't want him to leave her yet. She wished she could remember what she'd heard, but she was certain it had been his voice. Although, to learn she was completely delusional would be just what she needed to top off this excessively pleasant experience.

----

Aquamarine eyes watched her fight against the inevitable sleep that was slowly draining her body. Upon hearing her question he simply kept that smile. His body leaning down as she slowly started to succumb to the effects of the drug. He didn't answer her, instead he pressed his lips to her forehead in a silent form of answering her question.

"I won't leave darlin'.." he whispered so very close to her ear. And he knew he wouldn't leave, not until her mind was at ease. If he could grant her at least that.