Chapter 10: Flotsam
Zell stared at the comm. light on the instrument panel, worried. It had been hours since he'd left Balamb in the Ragnarok, with the thought that Squall and the Garden, with everyone in it, would be arriving just a few hours later. But it had been ten hours. Squall should have arrived long before now. He was almost never late, and when he said he'd be somewhere, then he'd be there. Unless something had happened.
He tried calling Squall's cell phone and frowned at the lack of reception he was getting. The storm was obviously fully involved now, and had disrupted communications. Cellular and conventional communications apparently were down; and Zell wondered about radio communications.
Opening the commlink, Zell tried Balamb Garden's channel and got nothing but static. Trying another channel, he got the same thing. Static. Flipping through the channels, he encountered the same thing on each of them…but one. A snatch of a voice obliterated by static made him switch back to the channel he'd just passed.
"Hello? Hello?" he said, adjusting the signal for more clarity and listening hard.
"….thar Airstation….calling?" came the response, all but obliterated with static.
Esthar Airstation? How the hell… Zell thought, then shrugged. Maybe he could get them to call Irvine at Galbadia Garden or something.
Keying the comm. again, Zell answered, "This is the Ragnarok, Zell Dincht piloting."
"…arok…channel 1165…" Zell could barely make out the response, but decided to try the channel code they gave him. Zell typed in the code and listened, as the comm. hissed and sputtered, then seemed to clear up a little.
Then a voice said, "Squall? Is that you? I've been trying to call you for hours, is everything okay?" The atmospheric interference had distorted the voice and it still faded in and out, but Zell recognized who it was.
"No, Mr. President, this is Zell Dincht. Squall put me in charge of the Ragnarok while he was Commanding Garden." Zell answered.
"Zell? Is Squall there? He's supposed to move the Garden to Trabia, right?" Laguna asked, concerned.
"No, sir, he's not here. And yeah, he was supposed to bring the Garden to Trabia to escape the storm. He should be here by now..." Zell said.
"The storm is fully involved now, so wherever they are, if they're still in Balamb, they just have to ride it out." Laguna said grimly.
"Yeah. You're right. I was thinking about doing a flyover once the storm's cleared up, see if I can locate them." Zell said.
"Let me know what you find when you do." Laguna requested.
"Will do." Zell answered, preparing to sign off. Laguna's next question however made him pause.
"How's Rinoa doing? Do you know?" Laguna asked.
"No, I'm assuming she's fine. Squall left her with Irvine and Selphie so she wouldn't be alone." Zell answered, puzzled.
Laguna's sigh of relief was audible, "Good. I was worried that she'd be left alone at their house. I know Squall was being careful with her and the security system he installed was a good one, but the pressure of dealing with the evacuation and trying to counter that threat to Rinoa…"
"I'm sure she's fine Laguna. If you want, I can give you Irvine's number so you can call and check on her." Zell offered.
"Yes, I want that very much Zell, thank you." Laguna said gratefully.
"Don't mention it. Hey, when you get Irvine on the line, give him an update on our status here, but don't tell Rinoa. I don't want her to worry. I'm sure Squall's fine wherever he is, he's tough as they come and Garden's pretty solid." Zell said.
"She's probably already worried Zell, it comes with the territory. But I'll do my best not to add to it." Laguna replied.
"Thanks man. Once I get in contact with Squall, I'll let you know." Zell said.
"Good. Thank you, Zell." Laguna said.
"No problem." Zell responded. The channel went dead and Zell got up and stretched, wondering what to do next. Pacing the empty corridors of the airship, he reflected that he should have brought his girlfriend with him. It would make the empty hours pass much more quickly and pleasantly than they were now.
Unfortunately, he'd had to leave in such a rush it didn't occur to him to do that until he'd already landed in Trabia. Go figure.
Well, maybe when things settled down he could talk Squall into letting him jet off somewhere with his girl for a little R&R.
The insistent ringing of his phone woke Irvine out of a sound sleep and he rolled over, groaning quietly, reaching blindly for the phone.
" 'lo?" he answered, voice husky from sleep. Next to him on the bed, Selphie shifted closer to him, her arm sliding across his belly. He pulled her closer and caressed her hair.
"Hi Irvine? Oh, gosh, I forgot it's the middle of the night over there isn't it? I'm sorry…" it was Laguna's voice.
Irvine sat up, wide awake and said, "No, it's okay. I was actually planning on calling you earlier today but I got confused on the time zone thing." He leaned back against the headboard and Selphie shifted her position again, sighing.
"You…were going to call me? Why? Is Rinoa okay?" Laguna asked, dread creeping up his spine.
"I don't know. She… they attacked Squall's house, Laguna. Selphie did her best, she fought them as long as she could…" Irvine said, still feeling a little shaky at his wife's close call and Rinoa's loss.
"Wait. What are you talking about Irvine? Who attacked Squall's house? What happened?" Laguna demanded, alarm in his voice.
Irvine took a deep breath. He'd been dreading telling Laguna about Rinoa's abduction. About as much or even more than he'd dreaded telling General Caraway about it earlier, for different reasons. Caraway was a respected general, and Irvine had grown up in Galbadia with the idea that if he couldn't make it as a SeeD, there was always the G-army. No one could argue that the Galbadian army at one time had been the most feared and skilled army in the world, an army that only Esthar could challenge. He had a great deal of respect for General Caraway as commander of that army, more so once he'd learned from Rinoa what the man had endured under Deling.
Laguna however was just an all around nice guy, one that you felt horrible telling bad news to. It would be easier to kick a puppy. Intellectually, he knew Laguna wasn't just a happy-go-lucky, slightly air-headed, big-hearted leader. He'd seen hints of steel in the man's spine; you couldn't lead a country as large as Esthar for two decades without it. Laguna wasn't a weakling, despite the image that played up his softer qualities.
But Irvine still felt like he was about to kick a puppy when he raked his hand through his hair and told Laguna, "Selphie and Rinoa went back to Squall's house earlier today to look at some baby things that Squall and Rinoa had bought yesterday and…. the house was attacked. Squall's trapped by the hurricane and out of touch, and I guess they saw that as an opportunity. Selphie fought them off the best she could but there were too many of them. They shot her and Angelo, and took Rinoa with them." There was dead silence on the other end of the line, and Irvine rubbed at his eyes, wondering how Laguna was handling the news.
"Oh, my God..." Laguna whispered, shaken. Up until this moment, there had been a small, sneaky part of him that had thought Squall was being a little overly protective of Rinoa. Until he'd gotten proof positive that she was in danger. The fact that despite everything Squall had tried to do, all of his preparations, she had been kidnapped anyway, hit him like a sucker punch in the gut. And Selphie…
"They shot Selphie? Is she okay?" God, please be okay… Laguna asked, closing his eyes and aching for the young man on the other end of the line. Hoping to hell he wasn't talking to a widower, like himself.
"She's… she's fine Laguna. Rinoa dropped some healing potions near her as they led her out. She saved Selphie's life; she wouldn't have made it otherwise. She'd been shot three times…" Irvine replied. He'd be forever grateful to Rinoa for that. He hoped he'd be able to tell her that face to face. He glanced down at Selphie's still sleeping form and stroked her hair again.
"Well, that's good, I'm glad to hear that. What about Angelo?" Laguna asked.
"Angelo's dead. Selphie told me he'd attacked and killed one of the men that threatened Rinoa, and when he went for another one, he was shot and killed." Irvine told him.
"Aw, damn." Laguna sighed, "This is my fault. If I'd warned Squall earlier…."
"What are you talking about? Squall already knew about this, that's why he asked Selphie and me to back him up. He couldn't be in two places at once. If anything, I'm the one that should be at fault here. I should have insisted that Selphie take me along with her if she and Rinoa had to go somewhere, or made sure that they stayed put, or something…I'm the one that failed him Laguna, not you." It hurt, admitting that. Try as he might however, Irvine couldn't figure out where they'd gone wrong. And he had to, because if a similar situation arose again, he needed to know how to answer it.
"No, that's not what I'm talking about. Squall had asked me to look into some things for him, and I found something out that he'd overlooked. I tried to call him but I was pulled away at the last moment and by the time I was able to try again, he was out of reach." Laguna explained.
Irvine frowned, asking, "What did he overlook?"
"The alarm system that Squall installed on his house? Dr. Odine designed it. He sold the designs to the company that installed and monitored it." Laguna said.
"Oh, wow…" Irvine whispered. That was why the police didn't come when Squall's home had been attacked. The alarm had been disabled. Not that it would have made a difference anyway. By the time the police would have shown up, Rinoa would have been gone and Selphie dead or injured.
"That was my reaction too. It was tough to dig that information up. When a design concept is sold, the only information you normally see when it's put into production is who manufactured it. The only way I found that out is I started checking into Dr. Odine's personal finances, at Squall's suggestion, and I found the proceeds from the sale and was able to backtrack it. Or rather, a forensic accountant I have on staff was able to do it." Laguna said.
"Well, while that information is significant, I don't think it would have made any difference. These guys were pros.… in and out fast enough that even if the alarm had gone off, Rinoa would still have been kidnapped." Irvine said.
Laguna was silent for a moment, letting that statement seep in.
Then he asked, " What other information do you have about them?"
"Well, we're still analyzing the evidence, not that there was much; Selphie told me she was sure that between her, Rinoa and Angelo, they had to have killed at least five of their men, if not more. But all that was left behind was a big mess and a lot of blood. They took their dead with them, to make it harder to figure out who they are and who hired them." Irvine said, and then added, "From what Selphie told me, they sound like either a mercenary unit kind of like SeeD or a private security group. Maybe former army, some of them; they certainly were very quick, efficient, and coordinated. They worked as a unit. They even wore uniforms of a sort, but not anything that Selphie recognized. Not military, that's for sure… just a kind of drab, nondescript brown. No insignias of any sort."
"Nothing that would identify them or their employer." Laguna said.
"Right." Irvine said. "But we did figure a few things out."
"What?" Laguna asked.
"Well, they were definitely from Esthar. Selphie recognized the accents from some of the men that attacked, plus the bullets we dug out of the walls, and…Angelo… well, they're unique to Esthar." Irvine said.
"Unique to Esthar…Oh! Right! The alloy!" Laguna exclaimed.
"Right. You guys don't make bullets out of lead there. Esthar's lead-poor, so you use a steel alloy. That's why bullets there are so damned expensive. Which means whoever hired these guys has a fat bankroll." Irvine said.
"Well, it's still not concrete enough to link to Dr. Odine, but I'll check into the high level security angle, see if I can't trace anything back to Odine and maybe even get a possible location where they may be taking Rinoa." Laguna said, already thinking hard about the different agencies that existed in Esthar and what they specialized in. And how he could legally obtain confidential client information from said companies, who were notorious for being discreet about who hired them.
Of course, there were advantages to being the head of the country's government… then Laguna sobered. He had to tread very carefully. Squall was his son, but Laguna was the President of Esthar. There were ethical issues that he had to consider very carefully. If it looked like he was abusing his power even a little… it could jeopardize everything he'd worked for over two decades to build.
"Call me if you find anything. I'll do the same, I'm going to be checking into things here, see if I can't get at least a lead for when Squall gets back." Irvine said.
"You're not going to wait for him to get back to go after her, are you?" Laguna asked, worried. Rinoa might not have that much time…if it was Odine that had engineered the kidnapping, Laguna wasn't completely certain that he'd let her go once he'd gotten what he wanted…. not alive, anyway. The only thing Laguna knew for certain about Odine was the fact that he was never sentimental about any of his test subjects. No matter who or what they were.
"No. He wouldn't want me to wait. He'd want me to go as soon as I have a lead. And I will. If he gets back soon enough, then I'll point him in the right direction and get out of his way. Until then, I'm taking the lead on this." Irvine said firmly.
"Good." Laguna said, relieved. Then he smiled slightly as he heard Irvine yawn on the other end of the line.
"I'd better let you get back to sleep. Give Selphie a hug for me. I'm glad to hear she made it through all right." Laguna said.
"I'll right. I'll keep in touch." Irvine promised.
"Here, let me give you my direct number, the switchboard system in the Presidential Palace is a nightmare, according to Squall. Beats me why he won't at least program my direct number into his phone if he can't memorize it." Laguna said, giving Irvine the number.
After writing it down, Irvine commented, "Squall's got a lot of things in his mind. Remembering a phone number with all of that going on might be a little difficult for him."
Laguna frowned at the odd phrasing before he remembered: Squall used GF's. A lot. There was still a bit of controversy about that, there were some that maintained that they caused memory loss. Empirical studies of that however were inconclusive. No one could say with any certainty that it actually did or would occur and to what extent, and if the person junctioned to the Guardian did experience memory loss, if it would be permanent.
"I wish he'd stop using the GF's. He's not active now, he shouldn't need them..." Laguna said, frowning.
Irvine sighed, silently agreeing with his friend's father, saying, "Well, he'd stopped for about six months give or take while training for the SeeD games, and only just recently started using them again when this threat to Rinoa surfaced." Having come from a philosophy that didn't rely as heavily upon the Guardians as the Balamb-trained SeeDs did, Irvine tended not to use them as often, fearing the side effects that he'd seen firsthand.
However, Irvine also had firsthand experience with the fact that the memory loss that tended to occur was not in fact, permanent. The memories, it turned out, weren't erased but set aside, access to them blocked by the Guardians. When the junction was dropped, the mind slowly began to re-establish that access.
Slowly, Irvine said, "I don't know if this will make you feel better about Squall using the Guardians or not, but the memory loss isn't permanent. He told me that after he'd been un-junctioned for a while, a lot of old memories that he'd thought completely gone surfaced. Apparently, memories can't be permanently eradicated. The mind doesn't work that way."
"And I know to Squall, the tradeoff is worth it. Face it, he doesn't have enough happy memories to care about possibly losing them." Laguna said, sadly.
"Maybe that was true in the past. Not so much now. He has a lot more to lose now." Irvine said.
"Yeah, that's true." Laguna said. Irvine was right. Squall did have a lot more to lose at this point in his life, and he knew that it wasn't just memories that Irvine was referring to.
"Well, we'll do all we can to help him bring Rinoa home." Irvine said.
"I know you will. So will I. In fact, I think I know of something that might help." Laguna said.
"What?" Irvine asked.
"I think we need to go public with this. Someone had to have seen something. If she left the country, it could only have been either by train or boat. If it was by train, someone had to have seen her getting on or off. We can set up a hotline. Maybe we can track where she was taken if enough people call in…" Laguna said, warming to the idea.
"That's a good idea, but who's going to man the hotline? I'm gonna have all the SeeDs I can talk into helping me working on following her trail. We're going to start with interviewing the neighbors to see if anyone saw anything." Irvine said.
"Don't worry about that. I'll call Caraway…" Laguna frowned, asking, "Did you tell him?"
"Yeah, I did." Irvine answered. Caraway's reaction to the news had been unexpected, at least to Irvine. He knew that Rinoa and her father had managed a reconciliation of sorts over the last year or so, but seeing Caraway's face turn ashen and aged right before Irvine's eyes at the news had been startling.
"How'd he take it?" Laguna asked quietly.
"Not well. Worse than I thought he would." Irvine said.
Laguna sighed, and suggested "Well, why don't you go ahead and go back to sleep, and I'll give you an update later on all of that."
"All right. Good night…. or day… or whatever it is there." Irvine yawned.
Laguna chuckled, "Good night Irvine." Then he disconnected the line.
Irvine laid the phone back onto the nightstand, settling back into bed, curling himself around Selphie's still sleeping form. Throughout the protracted conversation he'd had with Laguna, she hadn't awakened once, despite the fact that Laguna was one of her favorite people.
Kissing the back of her neck gently, Irvine wrapped his arms around her and thanked all of the powers that existed that she'd not only survived the attack, but that she'd come out of the emergency surgery following it as well as she had.
When Irvine had sent her to Dr. Curran to be checked out, neither he nor Selphie had had any idea that she still had three bullets inside of her, one of which threatened Selphie's heart if it shifted even a little. The healing potions had taken care of the damage caused by the bullets, but not the bullets themselves. They still had to come out.
So she'd undergone emergency surgery, and endured another dose of the healing elixir Rinoa had left for her to recover from it. The end result had left her pale and exhausted.
Irvine knew that she only needed a good night's rest and she'd be back to her normal, spunky self. Tears stung his eyes at the thought of losing her; the relief that he'd felt at learning that she would be fine and with him that same night made him feel weak. He couldn't imagine what Squall was going through; assuming he knew that Rinoa had been kidnapped, he had to be going out of his mind at his inability to search for her and bring her home. It was up to Irvine then, to find Rinoa and bring her back to Squall so they could be together when their babies were born.
He'd do everything he could to make that happen. He wouldn't fail Squall again.
Gray dawn broke over an uneasy sea, the heaving deck of the houseboat making even Seifer begin to feel queasy. The night had been hellish, no sleep for anyone. He, Fujin and Raijin had battled the sea the entire night, riding the pounding waves, hoping against hope that their boat was sturdy enough not to founder as the storm worsened.
Yes, they were on the lee side of the continent, shielded in part by the Guarg Mountains; but the hurricane was so massive that even partially blocked by the mountain range, enough of the wind and rain overtopped them that everyone on the seas that night were in for the fight of their lives. The storm they endured wasn't quite hurricane strength, but it was damn close.
Not everyone made it. Two of the trawlers had either strayed too close to the treacherous rocks in the shallows or had taken on too much water and were lost. Seifer had coordinated the remaining fishing vessels to rescue the survivors; he himself had taken on four. But two sailors were unaccounted for and presumed dead.
As the dawn progressed however, Seifer saw hope. The swells were calming, and the wind had blown itself out hours ago. All that remained was a fitful breeze that was helping to gently shred the clouds to tatters.
"STORM'S OVER." Fujin said. She still held the wheel to the Fire Cross in a death grip, smiling tiredly up at Seifer as he gently kissed her cheek on her blind side.
"Looks that way." Seifer replied, sighing. They'd survived the storm, but now the real work would begin; clean up, recovery, restoring power to Balamb and the outlying areas…
Raijin came in then, interrupting Seifer's thoughts by saying, "So, whatta we do now, ya know? I mean, Fire Cross came outta the storm okay but the decks are awash and we lost half of our lines, ya know? And all of our fishing tackle." That last bit of information was delivered with a sigh and a frown. Raijin's passion for fishing led Seifer to believe that the man should have chosen a job as a fisherman rather than as a SeeD. Fortunately, despite his somewhat simple image, Raijin was actually quite adept at both jobs. Of course, to Raijin, fishing wasn't so much a job or hobby as it was an obsession.
"How are the bilges?" Seifer asked him.
"Need pumpin'." Raijin reported.
"Get on it then." Seifer ordered him.
"Aye, aye captain!" Raijin said with a mock salute. Seifer flung a halfhearted backhand slap at him that he easily avoided, laughing. Fujin smiled at the interplay.
Sighing, he wrapped his arms around Fujin and leaned his head against hers, saying, "God, I'm so tired I can barely think. I'd go to bed but the boat's still tossing too much for me to sleep."
Fujin snorted quietly and offered, "TIE YOU DOWN?"
"Don't tempt me." Seifer said, yawning. While Fujin's offer conjured some rather risqué imagery in his mind, Seifer knew he was much too tired to do anything but sleep. Of course, the day he slept through being tied down and left to Fujin's whims was the day she'd have to start planning his funeral.
Scratching at his hair he said, "I guess I could check in with Garden, let 'em know we survived." Fujin nodded agreement.
Sighing, he tried Squall's cell phone and got dead air; the same with Quistis' phone. The main number at Garden was no different. Frowning in frustration, he tried Zell. Nothing.
"Well, no cell reception. Towers must be down or damaged." Seifer said.
"RADIO?" Fujin asked.
"Could try it I guess…" Seifer said, reaching for the radio mike and turning it on. Radio reception was pretty iffy in general, although since the big tower in Dollet had been repaired and later improved upon, it had gotten better. Other large towers like it had started to appear on mountaintops, improving cellular and satellite reception. Progress since the last Sorceress War had apparently marched on.
Adjusting the frequency until he found a clear channel, Seifer keyed the mike and said, "This is Fire Cross, Seifer Almasy commanding. Anyone out there?" Seifer waited for a response, and heard nothing but static. Switching to another channel, he tried again. When no response came from that channel, he tried another, and another, until he heard a response. It was so garbled as to be unintelligible, so he adjusted the signal again until it was a little clearer.
"This is Seifer Almasy. Please repeat your response." The crackling static on the radio had faded a bit, and the voice coming through was clearer, but still unintelligible. After fiddling with the dial for several minutes, he gave up in frustration.
"I'm not getting anything." Seifer growled.
Raijin popped his head into the cabin of the boat at that moment and asked, "Not getting what?"
"Signal. I'm trying to raise Squall or Zell or anybody on the radio. We can communicate okay between ships, but I'm not getting anybody else." Seifer stood, rubbing at his burning eyes and trying without much success to fight the fatigue that dragged at him.
"Maybe ya need to get closer to 'em, ya know?" Raijin suggested.
Seifer stared at him, suddenly feeling about three feet thick. Why hadn't he thought of that? Because you haven't slept for twenty-eight hours, that's why, he thought. Raking his hands through his hair he stood, trying to scrub the exhaustion off his face and rub it from his eyes with no success.
Stepping out onto the still lurching deck of his boat, he closed his eyes and let the freshening breeze wash over him. While the seas were still tossing and turning, they were gradually flattening out, the boat tossing much less now than it had just moments ago. She seemed sound enough, despite the storm, and really, they had no other choice. Their refugees were going to need to go someplace; there was no room for them on Seifer's boat, and only enough food for the three of them.
Going back to Balamb was out of the question. At least, not at the present time; nobody would be there. If everything had gone according to plan, the entire community would have been evacuated and Garden moved from the path of the storm. They had to go where Garden was.
Turning back to the cabin, he re-entered and told Fujin, "Fujin, steer us toward southern Trabia. Maybe if we're closer to them we'll be able to raise them on the radio."
Fujin nodded and spun the wheel, turning the boat.
As the vessel bobbed and tossed its way toward the new heading that Seifer had directed, Fujin speared him with a glare from her red-rimmed eye and said harshly, "YOU SLEEP NOW."
Seifer gave her a tired smile and kissed her cheek gently, saying, "Yes dear. You coming to join me?"
Fujin smiled slightly and replied, "LATER." She sighed as Seifer wrapped his arms around her from behind, hugging her close.
"Have I told you lately how absolutely amazing I think you are?" Seifer whispered into her hair.
"NO." She said, her smile broadening.
"Then I am remiss, and I apologize. I love you Fu. Come join me soon, okay? You need rest too." Seifer said softly, turning her to face him and kissing her deeply.
"OKAY." She said, turning her attention back to the wheel and the boat she was currently operating. Seifer knew Raijin was more than competent at the wheel; they'd all taken turns spelling each other during the night. Once the bilges were pumped out, Seifer hoped that Fujin had Raijin take over for a while so they could both sleep.
A knock at the door woke Rinoa from a sound sleep, leaving her disoriented and wondering why she was sleeping alone in an FH hotel room. Then tears stung her eyes as she remembered. The kidnapping. Selphie. Angelo. Squall, I miss you so much…
The knock sounded again, louder.
"Sorceress? Er, Rinoa? Are you awake?" the voice of one of her captors sounded from the other side of the door. Rinoa thought she recognized the voice of the young man on the train that'd been… well; he'd been nice to her. Or at least treated her like a human being and not baggage.
Yawning and groaning, Rinoa considered not answering. Mornings weren't usually her thing anyway, and she was definitely not in the mood to be cooperative with her captors. Then it occurred to her that they might simply come into the room and haul her bodily out of bed.
She considered putting up a fight simply out of pique, but then remembered Squall's directive: Don't fight. Don't give them a reason to hurt you.
Yesterday, she had been in shock. Tired, afraid, grieving; her behavior had reflected that. She'd been quiet and docile, and had given her captors no trouble whatsoever. Today however, she had slept and was rested; she had also come out of her shock and what was left was anger.
No, she wouldn't physically challenge her captors. She wasn't stupid. But she also was not going to be cooperative any longer. The trick would be making it appear that she was cooperating, when in fact she was doing everything in her power to slow her captors down. If it also afforded her the opportunity to leave a clue for Squall, so much the better.
Besides, she really, really wanted a shower and clean clothes.
Getting out of bed, she padded over to the door and opened it, startling the young man on the other side. He blinked at her, and then frowned slightly. Rinoa gave him an ironic half-smile. She knew what she must look like. Hair uncombed and sticking in all directions, skin oily, clothes wrinkled from having been slept in.
"Ah…Sor...Rinoa, um, we need to get ready to go." He said, hesitantly.
Rinoa gave him a falsely sweet smile and asked, "What's your name?"
He frowned, confused, "My…name? Renn. It's Renn."
"Renn?" She asked, using a saccharine tone, "Did you manage to take a shower this morning? You look very put together and tidy."
"Uh, yes, ma'am, I did…" he answered, still confused. He couldn't put his finger on it, but something in her tone made him a little uneasy. Maybe it was just discomfort at seeing the young sorceress in such a disheveled state, when it was obviously not her preference.
"Clean uniform too, if I'm not mistaken." Rinoa commented. Renn nodded.
"Well, Renn," Rinoa said, still smiling sweetly. "I would dearly love to also have a shower and clean clothes to wear. If you could help me with that, I would be very grateful to you."
"Bu…But our train's leaving in a half-hour. I was sent to get you so you could eat breakfast…" Renn said, feeling helpless. Now what was he supposed to do?
"Renn, if you could just get me some clean clothes, I would feel sooo much better and less inclined to force you to carry me out of the hotel, kicking and screaming, attracting all kinds of attention, putting undue stress on me and the babies…" Rinoa said, still using that same sweet tone. She met the young man's eyes, letting him know in no uncertain terms that she was not kidding.
Renn swallowed, realizing he'd been outmaneuvered and unsure of just exactly how that had happened, and said, "I'll…. see what I can do."
He left, to return a few moments later, instructing her, "Leave your clothes outside the door here and we'll have them laundered by the hotel. Go ahead and take your shower in the meantime."
Rinoa gave him a genuine smile of relief and Renn blinked, surprised at its brilliance. The door closed as Rinoa ducked back into the room, and Renn stared at it for a moment, cheeks warm. Trying hard not to think of the young sorceress undressing on the other side.
Rinoa meanwhile had found a soft terrycloth robe, apparently supplied along with the assorted toiletries that this suite boasted. After stripping, she put on the robe, bundled her clothes together and deposited them onto the floor outside her door.
Then she went into the small in suite bathroom and started the water, adjusting the temperature to her liking before doffing the robe and stepping under the spray. While she would have loved a bath… her cheeks grew warm at the memory of the last time she'd had a bath…it felt so good to finally have a shower and to be clean.
But she couldn't stop her mind from replaying that night, was it just days ago? It seemed as if a year had passed since she last felt Squall's hands caressing her body, tasted his lips upon hers, drowned in his scent and lost herself in passion with him.
Tears leaked from her eyes again as she tilted her face into the spray, missing her husband with a desperate ache.
She raked her hands through her hair as she took advantage of the provided toiletries and washed it. It was while she was rinsing the conditioner out that she noticed a good bit of her hair coming out and catching in her fingers. It wasn't anything unusual; she always lost a bit of hair while showering. But it seemed she was losing more than usual, possibly due to stress. But it gave her an idea.
She kept raking her hands through her hair, pulling more and more of the strands free, and carefully laying them aside to dry. She did likewise with the comb after she'd finished her shower and dried off.
Rinoa studied the results critically. She'd managed to gather up a respectable amount of hair, though it was actually less than she'd feared it would be, and definitely less than she wanted. Still, it was enough for what she intended.
Wrapping herself up in the robe, she took the hank of hair, and deftly worked it into a thin braid, and then into a knot. A specific knot.
"What are you doing?" Rinoa asked the silent young SeeD that had been assigned to her.
"Tying a knot." He'd answered tersely.
"I can see that," Rinoa said patiently, then asked, "why?" Squall didn't answer her. Instead, he showed her the knot, an intricate loop at one end of the rope he was holding. Then he slipped it over the top of the support pole that projected through the grommet at the front of the tent she was using. Pulling it tight, he tied another of the intricate loops at the other end of the rope and slipped it over the tent peg that was partially buried in the loamy soil, pounding it the rest of the way into the dirt to secure the rope.
Finally, he answered, "So I can pitch your tent."
Placing a hand at his hip, he asked her, " Any other questions?"
"What kind of knot is it? Can you teach me how to tie it?" she'd asked him. She'd smiled inwardly at his wary look, hoping her ploy would work. As the silence stretched, she began to worry that he'd simply glare at her and walk away, which was what he normally did when she tried to talk to him.
She didn't understand him. When she'd danced with him that night at the SeeD graduation ball, she'd seen something in his eyes, something that led her to try and break through the shell he'd erected around himself. She caught flashes of it from time to time, when he thought she wasn't paying attention. It was interest. He was INTERESTED…
Well, so was she. So, maybe he'd teach her about the knot he'd used, and she'd be able to prove to him that she wasn't just useless baggage…
Finally, he nodded and said, "It's called a bowline. And you start like this…."
She'd finished the knot as a knocking at the door alerted her that her time was up. She studied the results critically. The hair had been worked into an identifiable bowline knot, which she slipped over the bedpost at the head of the right side…the side she normally slept on in the bed she shared with Squall.
Then she opened the door and thanked the young guard, Renn, for bringing her laundered clothing to her.
She felt so good at having clean clothes on that she met the dour expressions of her jailers with a bright smile when she entered the main room of the suite.
Then she asked them, "So, what's for breakfast?"