Cid was a person who knew how and when to take risks in his career.
Being a special agent was all about that, but only the most experienced knew that there was a right time and a wrong time.
Shera knew this as well. She had signed a formal agreement with the FBI that would allow them to investigate with NCIS on the case. This meant there was a better chance of finding Lucrecia.
As she set her glasses down for the day, her eyes caught sight of Zack watching her from the door. She flicked her bangs aside and smiled at him.
"Is there something you need, Zack?" she asked politely. Zack stepped inside, carefully closing the door. He placed a file on her desk. Shera looked confused, giving him a strange look. Zack chuckled.
"Witness Protection for Aerith Gainsborough," he told her. "I'd give them to Elena, but she's out." Shera muttered a soft "oh" and nodded. She took the file and opened it, putting her glasses on again to read them.
"Was this Cid's idea?" Zack nodded. "Wouldn't it be better if we kept her at the Agency?" Zack was about to respond, when Cid barged into the room.
"I wouldn't think leaving her here when a psycho computer genius is roaming about is such a good idea," he said briefly, walking up next to Zack. He smiled mysteriously. "Would it, Madam Director?" The look in his eyes seemed to tell her he had everything under control, but Shera knew better than to tempt fate and question that. She smirked, looking at him over the brim of her glasses.
"No it wouldn't, Agent Highwind." She handed the file back to Zack, standing up. "Could you give us a minute, Zack?"
Cid eyes widened unnoticeably as she said Zack's name. He glanced over at his agent. Zack smiled at Shera, but ceased as he realized his boss was watching. He grinned nervously.
"Sure," he said. He turned around to go, but shot one last glance over his shoulder. "Bye Shera." Shera smiled.
"Bye."
Cid watched him leave, amusement in his eyes. He then looked back at Shera. She shrugged. "What?" Cid raised his eyebrow.
Ever since he took that vacation about a month ago for personal reasons, forcing Zack to replace him as Supervisory temporarily, he had noticed something going on between him and Shera.
Zack was involved in an ongoing operation run by Shera, which was of personal importance to her. As they were keeping secrets, they developed a strong level of trust, which was hard to do without faith in the other person. Cid's absence also allowed Zack to become closer because he was able to interact with the Director much more when he took Cid's job. This made Cid slightly suspicious.
"Since when did you call each other by first names?" he asked. Shera sat back down at her desk and laughed.
"Don't get ideas, Cid," she said. "We're just colleagues." Cid smiled to himself.
"That thought never even applied to me." He slowly moved over behind her, reading the file in her hand. Shera seemed a little uncomfortable with this, so she sat very still.
"So you're planning to keep Ms Gainsborough in Witness Protection?"
"Well… it's not exactly as strict as witness protection." Shera raised an eyebrow. "I just think she should be under surveillance."
"With who? An agent? One of your agent?" Cid straightened up, shrugging.
"What's wrong with that?" he said innocently. Shera scoffed.
"Who?" Cid shrugged again.
"I'll decide on it." The director merely rolled her eyes. Never a straight answer, but she expected as much.
"Okay, whatever you say, Cid." She flicked through her files. "And what about Sephiroth? Isn't he of even more risk than Aerith is?"
"Yeah," Cid said, nodded. "Tifa's bringing him in." Shera tilted her head to him as he made his way towards the door.
"And he'll come face-to-face with Aerith?" Cid stopped and turned around. He let out a sigh.
"I think it's best if he and his people know that this woman isn't the murderer."
Following Cid's orders before, Cloud was asked to look after Aerith for the rest of the day. He didn't really know what other way there was, so he just kept her around in the office with him as he worked.
They were alone in the office, but neither of them spoke. Cloud worked at his computer as Aerith sat at Zack's desk, fiddling with some pencils, her thoughts a thousand miles away. Cloud looked up from his monitor.
"You okay?" Aerith just nodded, not looking at him.
"Yeah," she muttered. "I'm just thinking." Cloud let out a soft sigh and pushed himself away from his desk.
"You're thinking about Lucrecia, aren't you?" Aerith didn't reply, but then again she didn't have to. He smiled. "Don't worry about her. We'll find her." Aerith shook her head, tilting her head to his direction. She seemed worried nonetheless.
"It's not that," she said softly. "I'm just scared what will happen when I finally meet her." She exhaled deeply, leaning back on Zack's chair. "I mean, I have a sister." Cloud sensed what she might be thinking about, and it wasn't good. He stood up and walked over to her desk.
"You can't feel sorry for her just because she's your sister, Aerith," he said. "Trust me, you might believe it's right, but it's not." Aerith's chair buckled forward and she glared at the blonde man.
"Maybe she didn't mean to kill all those people," she said in a harsh but hurt voice. "Maybe she just wanted to find her family, so she could feel loved!" Cloud shook his head.
"Calm down, Miss Gainsborough…" Aerith knew now that Cloud has descended back to formal term, she was going too far. but she didn't care. Aerith shot up from her seat.
"I know I've never met her, Agent Strife," she said shakily. "But she is my sister and I will love her, no matter what she's done." She took a few deep breaths, calming herself from the brink of tears. "She's my family." Her eyes drifted to the ground, drooping her shoulders.
She didn't know why, but she meant every word she said. Lucrecia, even though she knew nothing about her, she was still family. And family was everything.
Cloud put his hand to her chin and gently brought her face up to him. He tilted his head to the side sympathetically and smiled.
"We will find her." A tear fell from Aerith's eye, but she nodded anyway. She sighed wearily and sat back down, resuming back to the pencils. Cloud chuckled a little. He turned away and took out a gemmed necklace from his pocket. He examined the pendant for a moment, turning it around to look at the back.
The gem in the back flashed dimly, but it wasn't like a gem would. It was how an LED would.
Cloud quickly applied a cover over the GPS device, and then turned back around to Aerith. He smiled again.
"I got you a little something." Her face lit up a little as she saw the necklace.
"For me?" Cloud nodded. Aerith stood up and turned around, pulled her hair out of the way as he put it on for her. She turned back around and beamed at him, touching the pendant thoughtfully.
"It's beautiful," she said, smiling. "Thanks." Cloud blushed.
Just then, Zack came down from upstairs, heading straight to his desk. He smirked as he saw Aerith.
"Hey there," he said, pushing Cloud aside carelessly. He eyed the necklace. "Wow, nice bling." Aerith chuckled.
"Thanks. Cloud got it for me." Zack shot an annoyed-looking Cloud a quick glance for about a nanosecond before looking back at Aerith. He sat down on the desk, grinning smugly. He stared deeply, and almost sentimentally, into her eyes.
"You know," he said "Your eyes are the same colour as my Mercedes." Aerith almost burst out laughing.
"You have a green car?" Zack laughed, nodding. He moved closer to her.
"One of many. I'll show you them all if you want." Aerith smirked. "Maybe… I could buy you a drink or something?" Aerith glanced over at Cloud, giving him a Is-he-always-like-this look. Cloud muffled a laugh and nodded.
Just then, the entrance doors slid open, and Tifa emerged, followed by Sephiroth and Loz. Cloud was the first to spot them, and his shocked look immediately alerted Zack, and then Aerith. Her sweet face crumpled into a hard and venomous glare.
Sephiroth and Loz stopped dead in their tracks as they saw Aerith.
"Oh my god," Aerith breathed. "It's you…" She was breathing so hard, all the memories of what Sephiroth had done to her parents came rushing back, as well as her anger and hatred. Forgetting everything around, she launched herself at him, only held back by Zack as he realized what she was attempting to do. Loz saw this as well, and he quickly knocked Tifa and Sephiroth over to a safe corner as he reached for his gun. Aerith continued to struggle to pull free from Zack, and now Cloud, as if under a trance. Tifa jumped to her feet and pulled out her own gun, aiming it at Loz.
"Drop your weapon," she said in a cold monotone. Cid and Shera came rushing down from her office, but they stopped as they saw the scene. Cid pulled out his gun and also aimed it at Loz.
"You don't want to shoot that girl, son," he said loudly. Loz snapped out of it and looked over at him and Shera. Cid smirked. "That isn't the girl you're looking for." Sephiroth sat up from his position, staring at Aerith with icy hatred. Cloud and Zack managed to calm her down, but her eyes remained locked onto Sephiroth's.
"What the hell is going on?" he muttered. Loz finally dropped his gun, letting Tifa pick it up and putting it away. She sighed with relief.
"Long story." Cloud pulled Aerith over to his desk, which was furthest away from Sephiroth and Loz. She glared at him.
"What is going on?" she hissed. "What are they doing here?"
"The Director decided they would be safer here until Lucrecia is caught." Aerith scoffed, crossing her arms. She glanced back at them as they were led away.
"Well, if they're staying here, I'm definitely not."
"And you're not," said a voice behind her. The couple turned around to see Cid. Cloud frowned.
"What do you mean, boss?" This also seemed to confuse Zack and Tifa.
"Are you saying we have to watch her?" Tifa asked. Cid shook his head.
"Not all of you." He smiled. "One of you." The ducklings shared a look. Shera noticed the obvious bafflement, so she decided to sort it out herself.
"Miss Gainsborough is to spend a night under an NCIS agent's surveillance, undercover, so Lucrecia Crescent will not be able to find her. We don't know specifically what will happen when she does, so we can't take any chances." Cid nodded in agreement.
"Yuffie's researched more about our suspect, and we've come to conclusion that she probably has this place wired." He looked at Aerith. "We can't take that chance, because she's probably looking for you, now that you know she's your twin sister. We don't know what she's capable of." Aerith firmly shook her head.
"I want to talk to her," she said breathlessly. "Please… she's probably really scared and confused…" Tifa placed a hand on her shoulder.
"She's schizophrenic, Aerith." she said. "She doesn't know right from wrong. It's too dangerous for you to presume what she's going through." Aerith began to cry. Tifa hugged her closely.
Cid shared a grim look with Shera, exhaling deeply. He turned back to the ducklings.
"She needs to go now." Tifa stepped up first, setting a broken Aerith down on a chair.
"I'll take care of her," she whispered. Both Cid and Shera shook their heads.
"You're too close to her, Agent Lockhart," Shera muttered. "Lucrecia will find her easily that way." Cid looked over to the other two.
Zack's face lit up, putting on a dazzling smile as Cid looked at him. He opened his mouth to say something, but Cid stopped him.
"No." Zack blinked, confused.
"What?"
"I said no," Cid muttered again. He then turned to Cloud. "It's you, Strife." Cloud's eyes widened.
"Me?" he said, stunned. Cid nodded. "But… why?"
"Because you're more likely not to jump our innocent than Fair." Zack let out a scoff, crossing his arms in a sulk. Tifa giggled at him.
"But…" Cloud began. "But I let you down last time." Shera shook her head.
"Last time was not your fault. It wasn't even Miss Gainsborough, so technically you never did anything wrong." She cast a sad look at Aerith, who was still crying. She went over and placed a hand on her back. Aerith looked up at her, a little shocked. She smiled. "Agent Strife took good care of you last time. you'll be safe with him." Aerith dropped her gaze from her, but nodded. Shera stepped away and placed a black jacket, a hat and a pair of sunglasses on the table. She looked over at Cloud.
"Make sure no one sees you leave." Cloud obeyed. He silently helped Aerith out of her seat and applied the items to her. He untied her hair, hiding it under her coat and set the hat on top of her head, and the glasses over her eyes.
She was almost unrecognizable.
Tifa gave both Cloud and Aerith a hug for good luck, and they both left without a word out the door. Cid watched them for a moment, then turned to face Zack and Tifa with the usual Cid glare.
"What are you two still doing? Get back to work and find this psycho!" The ducklings immediately jumped back to their desks and started work straight away. Shera gave Cid a smirk.
"You never lose that touch, do you?" Cid merely chuckled, and he went back upstairs to the Director's office. Shera gazed at him for a moment before following.
Once outside, Aerith suddenly felt that presence again. The one she got when inside the cell and when she was at home. It felt like someone was watching her. She stopped just a few feet away from the car. Cloud reached for the door to let her in. He glanced at her, frowning.
"Sweetheart," he called out. He didn't know what else to call her, now that they were in public. Aerith snapped out of it and looked at him. "Are you okay?" Aerith plastered on a smiled and nodded. She adjusted her hat.
"Yeah," she replied, hugging herself. She went over to him. "Just a little cold." She stepped into the car, and he closed the door for her. She looked continued to look around the area, unable to shake off the feeling. Cloud jumped into the car and started the engine.
Little did he know, that someone really was watching them. In a far corner in the bushes, Lucrecia watched. She could barely breathe in the small space she was in, but she remained quiet. She watched as Aerith got in the car, still scanning around for something, and she watched the car drive off. Lucrecia let out a sad sigh.
"Sis…" She reached out her hand, as if wanting the car to just stop, but it didn't. Her green eyes saddened for a moment, but she managed a smile. She opened up her jacket and stared at the file, the precious, precious file before zipping it back up. She gazed upwards at the sky.
It was getting dark.