26

Seifer tended the wound on Ellone's cheek as Selphie and Laguna removed Zell from his chains. Ellone was quiet and no longer crying, but Seifer was wary of the far-away look in her eye and the way she didn't look at him directly.

The wound would leave a scar. In time, it would fade to a hairline, but it would always be there to remind her.

He ignored the ugly pain back-building in his chest and wiped the blood from her skin. Hyne willing, this would be the last time. Now, more than ever, and though the fight was done, the sight of her blood brought out a fierce and protective instinct in him. Thalia was most definitely dead, but that didn't stop Seifer from wishing to kill her all over again.

"He needs an ambulance," Selphie said of Zell. "He's lost a bunch of blood."

Seifer looked away from Ellone and to Zell, prone on the ground and deathly pale. He got to his feet and almost passed out as his heart hammered out a strange, unhealthy beat.

He knelt beside Zell and surveyed the damage. Most of his wounds were not grave, and many barely broke the skin, but the one in his abdomen was deep and likely mortal if he didn't get treatment. Potions would stem the flow of blood, but they couldn't replace what was lost.

Zell's heartbeat was fast, but weak. Seifer leaned down and placed his ear against Zell's chest and heard a tell-tale rattle with each slow breath.

"If we wait for an ambulance, he's gonna drown in his own blood," Seifer said.

He might not make it anyway, but their best option was to load him into one of their cars and drive like hell to the hospital in town.

"Help me get him up," Seifer said to Laguna and tossed his keys to Selphie. "Tilmitt, you're driving."

Selphie's grim expression turned into a broad smile, and Seifer paused for a half a second to consider his decision. She was the one that rammed the Lunatic Pandora with an airship. If she drove even remotely like she flew, there was a better than average chance they wouldn't make it to town alive.

"Just get us there without wrecking," Seifer said.

He hooked one of Zell's limp arms around his shoulders and hoisted him up from the ground.

Together, Seifer and Laguna half-carried, half-dragged Zell down the stairs, into the lobby and out to Seifer's car. They stuffed him into the back seat and Seifer checked his pulse again.

It would be a miracle if they got him to the emergency room alive. He didn't say it out loud, but one look at Ellone said he didn't need to.

As he opened the passenger door to get in the car, Ellone swayed, sank to her knees and slumped to the ground. Seifer bolted to her side, and a particularly nasty pain ripped through his chest. It radiated through his shoulder and down his left arm, but he dropped down beside Ellone, jaw clenched against the pressure in his rib cage.

He lifted Ellone up into a sitting position and found something slick and warm on her side. When he pulled his hand away, it was wet with blood.

"Shit, Elle," he said and peeled away the protective vest and lifted her t-shirt to reveal her entire side was soaked in blood. "Damn you. Why didn't you tell me?"

Just below the hem of her bra was a deep puncture wound. In removing the vest, he took away the pressure that kept her from bleeding worse. Now that it was gone, the wound bled freely and profusely. He cursed under his breath and poured their last potion into the wound.

The potion slowed the bleeding, but didn't stop it enough to satisfy him.

"Tilmitt, give me a hand."

Selphie crouched down beside Ellone and offered him the cardigan she left in Laguna's car. Seifer used it to bind the wound, then Selphie helped him refasten the vest over it. With any luck, it would be enough to keep her alive.

The pain in his chest was excruciating, but he pretended it wasn't there as he lifted Ellone into his arms and climbed inside the car. He bundled her into his lap in the front seat, his arms wrapped tight around her waist. In the back, Zell lay silent and motionless.

If they were still connected, Seifer could be convinced his pain was Ellone's, that he felt it the way he felt Edea's and Ultimecia's, but that connection broke when he lost consciousness in the Training Center.

This was something different. He knew the signs and figured if it ever came to this, he would be a much older man with hardened arteries and a shitty diet to blame for it. He figured it would be his reckless lifestyle choices, years down the road, that led to something like this, not a fucking spider.

What irony.

"You okay?" Selphie asked from the driver's seat as she stepped on the gas too hard and squealed the tires. "You look weird."

"Naw, I'm not," he said breathlessly. "I'm having a fucking heart attack."

"I know! All this is super stressful," Selphie said. "I expected someone to get hurt, but this is a lot."

There was a behemoth sitting on his chest. Ground glass in his heart, in his veins, his nerve endings.

"No, Tilmitt, I mean that in the l-literal sense, as in my heart is actually trying to kill me, so drive fucking faster and shut your t-trap, w-will ya?"

They lay tangled together on the couch as a fire burned low in the hearth. Squall's head rested against Rinoa's shoulder and he watched the flames dance as she massaged the muscles of his neck. He couldn't remember the last time he felt this safe.

It was true he didn't completely trust this reality. He wagered it might be a long time before there wasn't a part of him that braced for the worst, but he was almost entirely sure the arms around him belonged to his wife, that the roof over his head would not come crashing down around him, and that he would wake tomorrow a free man and in the company of people who loved him.

That small part that still doubted was toxic. It poisoned his perception to one degree or another.

How long before that stopped?

For the last hour, they lay like this, occasionally exchanging kisses or gentle touches, but neither spoke as they waited for the phone to ring or for headlights and the rumble of an engine in the driveway.

This was a perfect opportunity to tell Rinoa everything, from start to finish, but he couldn't find the words and he didn't know if he'd make any sense. It was half fever dream, half nightmare. If he talked about it now, he would unravel again.

"Rin, I -" he began but trailed off when he noticed the photographs, dozens of them, of himself alongside the newer photos of Zell and Selphie and Laguna and the kids. "When did you put those back out?"

"What?"

"The pictures of me."

Rinoa turned her face to the mantle, where the new mingled among the old.

"About a week or so after they brought you home. Why?"

Thalia still held some power over him, didn't she? She manipulated his perception of home, of family in subtle, yet cruel ways. The photos were there all along, and she didn't let him see them. She let him believe Rinoa scrubbed all evidence of his existence from the house.

"I guess I just didn't notice," he lied.

What did it mean that he now saw it as it was? Was it just acceptance finally dawning on him, or did Thalia loosen her hold?

Did that mean she was dead?

He checked his watch. Almost two hours since Laguna and Selphie left to aid Ellone and Seifer. Reluctant though he was to break Rinoa's embrace, he sat up and checked his phone for any messages he missed.

Nothing.

"Do you think they're okay?" Rinoa asked.

"No news is good news."

"Not always," Rinoa said.

"Not always," he agreed. "But they'll call if something's wrong."

"I can't stand waiting," she said. "I'd rather be doing."

"Look at it this way," Squall said, "we're protecting our home and family. That's just as important."

Rinoa's gaze was unimpressed. "Don't placate me, Squall. It doesn't help."

He took her hand and held on as he watched the fire in silence. It was a long time before he broke it.

"I've been thinking about where to go from here," he said. "What to do with myself now that I don't have a job..."

"Good riddance to it," Rinoa said. "I don't know what I would do if it was there for you to go back to."

She'd always resented SeeD, and perhaps with good reason. It was all Squall knew, and even when forced into a role that did not suit him, there was no other choice but to take it. She understood, but it didn't stop her from resenting Cid and the organization itself, for what it was, for the burden they put upon him, and for all the things it took from him.

"...I'm not sure I would go back," he admitted. "Or that they would have me back like this."

Rinoa ran her fingertips over the scars on his wrist. "So what, then?"

He bit his lip and leaned back into the couch cushion, his eyes fixed on a photo of Ella holding Ari.

"... I was thinking, for now, maybe it would be best if you ran the store and I..."

"Play housewife?"

Squall frowned. "I was going to say run the household, but if that's what you prefer to call it, then yes."

Rinoa didn't get angry, she didn't laugh, she just looked at him.

"Are you ready to handle it?" she asked. "I mean, physically speaking. It doesn't seem like a lot, but the kids alone can take it out of you - "

"I just want to take some of the burden off your shoulders until we're ready for the next step. It'll give me a chance to make it up to the kids, for being gone."

"We could give it a try," Rinoa agreed after a minute of consideration. "But I don't want you to overexert yourself, either. I want you to get stronger, not get overwhelmed trying to make up for lost time."

"I'll take it slow," he promised. "I just need something to focus on, and family seems like a good option."

"Okay," she said. "But you have to swear to me, if it ever seems like too much, you'll tell me and not try to do everything by yourself."

"Only if you swear to me you'll tell me if you need a break from the store," Squall said. "I know you've been working seven days a week for a long time. If you need a break, I can cover it."

His phone rang and his gut clenched when his father's number came up on the display. If all was well, he anticipated they would come to the house. A phone call meant things did not go as planned.

"Heya, son," Laguna said. "It's me."

"I know. What happened?"

"Well...

"Laguna."

"I prefer dad."

"Laguna, spit it out."

"We're on our way to the hospital," Laguna said. "Zell, he... And Elle."

Squall pressed a hand to his forehead. "Zell and Elle what?"

"They were both injured," Laguna said. "We didn't know about Elle. She didn't tell us. And that woman got a hold of Zell... He's in bad shape. He may not make it, son."

Squall stood and limped to the foyer. He ignored Rinoa's questioning look as he stuffed his feet into his trainers and reached for his jacket.

"And Thalia?" he asked tightly.

"She's deader than a chocobo with no front legs."

That was a comparison Squall didn't even try to make sense of. He got the point.

"You sure?"

"Positive. Ellone took care of it herself."

Rinoa woke the kids as Squall started the car. He let it idle in the driveway, the heat blasting to warm the interior, and only then did guilt set in. For not being able to assist, and at the thought of Zell in Thalia's hands. None of it was Zell's fault, not even the beating he dished out during their last conversation.

Rinoa emerged from the house, Ari bundled in blankets rather than in a jacket and Stella in a coat over her pajamas. Though Squall was impatient to go, he waited in silence as Rinoa buckled them both into the back seat.

"What's going on?" Stella asked.

"Your Uncle Zell and Aunt Ellone got hurt," Squall said. "We're going to the hospital."

"Are they going to die?"

"I don't know, kiddo," he said.

"Squall..." Rinoa scolded from the passenger seat.

"We made a deal, didn't we Stella Raine?" he asked as he backed out of the drive.

"Dad will always tell the truth," Stella said.

He felt Rinoa's gaze on him and he counted on a conversation about what was and wasn't an appropriate truth to tell later, but Squall didn't see the point of lying after Rinoa hauled their daughter out of bed to go to the hospital where she would figure out things were not okay.

And things were not okay when they arrived. Laguna paced the waiting room while Selphie sat on a nearby couch and fiddled with her boots as if there wasn't blood smeared across the front of her shirt. Seifer was nowhere to be seen.

"Zell and Elle are both in surgery," Laguna said. "Seifer was admitted for chest pains, even though he didn't want to be."

Laguna gave a quick synopsis of what he knew, which wasn't much, except that all three of them suffered various injuries, ranging from a venomous spider bite to puncture wounds to massive internal bleeding.

"We thought Ellone was fine," Laguna said. "Then she passed out and when Seifer tried to bring her around, he figured out she'd been stabbed. Blade went in at the seam of her vest and when he took it off, she started bleeding really bad."

"She didn't say anything about it?"

Laguna shook his head.

"Not a word," Laguna said, "but killing that woman... It took a lot out of her."

The thought of Ellone doing the deed was incomprehensible to Squall. While he was aware Seifer trained her, it was difficult to picture his sassy but ultimately kind sister as a vengeful killer. He would hate Seifer till the day he died if it left her damaged in some way.

"And Zell?"

"He's fighting for his life right now," Laguna said and turned his gaze to the floor. "He wasn't breathing when we brought him in."

"No," Rinoa whispered. "He said he was fine."

"I don't know when you talked to him, but it looked like Thalia had him for a while when we got there."

Rinoa's face crumpled and Squall gathered her into his chest. Her face was pale, angry, and no doubt she believed this could have been avoided if she'd joined the fray. Maybe so, maybe so, but if there was anything Squall didn't regret about the whole situation, it was keeping Rinoa at home.

"I can help," she said. "I can fix them."

"I don't know if the doctor will agree to that," Laguna said.

"I don't care!" Rinoa shouted. "You all keep leaving me out and keeping things from me and I'm sick of it! I'm not going to stand aside and do nothing while the rest of you make decisions for me. I can help him, so let me!"

Squall agreed. Speaking from experience, there was no better way to heal a person than a Sorceress' magic. Curatives, para-magic, not even medical expertise and a skilled surgeon could compare to what Rinoa was capable of. If she couldn't save Zell, nothing could.

Zell died twice on the operating table, his blood pressure too low and the internal bleeding too bad to sustain a heartbeat, but he fought hard to stay alive. Twice, he died and twice, he came back, but by the time Laguna convinced the doctors to let Rinoa in, Zell's death was an inevitability. Rinoa was now a last resort.

That was fine with her. Better to be a last resort than not get a chance to help at all. At least, she could say she tried. And if it didn't help, at least she could say she was with him in the end.

She took in his waxy, pale complexion and the awful wound just below his sternum. Zell was small in stature, but he never looked so fragile as he did now.

It would be so easy to fall apart, but Zell could not afford anything but her complete focus.

Through her eyes were filled with tears, she did not give into panic or premature grief. There was still a chance. Beside her, Squall held the Odine bangle, more to reassure the doctors it would go back on when she was finished than anything else.

Squall laid his hand against the small of her back as she pressed her palm against the wound and took Zell's hand with the other.

She would never love him the way he loved her, but that didn't mean she loved him any less. He was important to her, he mattered, and Rinoa could not imagine her life without him in it.

Best friend, confidant, co-conspirator, anchor, family.

The magic poured out of her in waves of pure white light and into Zell's chest. She closed her eyes and pictured flesh kitting itself back together, and willed the damaged tissue to repair itself. She willed his heart to beat strong and steady under her hand.

No matter what struggle lay ahead of them, if there was any struggle to be had at all, Zell needed to live. There was too much left for him to do and too many things he had yet to experience.

At first, nothing happened. She could feel the flow of blood from the transfusion in his veins, and the damage come undone as her magic filled his body. Then, the smaller cuts faded before her eyes, sealing themselves closed. On the monitor beside the bed, his erratic heartbeat steadied. Color returned to his cheeks.

She scanned him and found while he was still in poor shape, he was no longer in grave danger. He would be in pain when he woke up, but he would wake up.

When the magic dissipated, Rinoa sat back in her chair, drained of energy. The doctor checked Zell over, then nodded to herself.

"Impressive," the doctor said. "You ever consider the medical field, Mrs. Leonhart?"

"I'm a Sorcerss, not a doctor," she said. "There's a reason I don't do this often."

"The verdict?" Squall asked.

"Provided there are no other complications, I'd say he should make a full recovery in about a week's time," she said. "Possibly sooner."

"And Ellone?"

"She's resting comfortably. We've sedated her to keep her calm. She became quite agitated at one point," the doctor said. "I suppose it wouldn't hurt to allow a little magic to speed along her recovery as well, if you're up for it."

Of course she was up for it. If this was what she could do to help, then she would without question.

"What about Seifer?" Rinoa asked.

"That one will die of sheer pig-headed stubbornness," the doctor said. "He'll be fine now that we've figured out he wasn't having a heart attack. The pain he experienced was a result of his body healing itself, something we've never seen before."

"Anything I can do to help him?"

"Convince him that he's not invincible and you'll have my complete and total surrender should you ever decide to take over the world," the doctor said.

"My power only goes so far," Rinoa said. "I doubt anything I say or do will keep him in bed if he doesn't want to be there."

"I'll talk to him," Squall said. "Is it all right if Rinoa tends to Ellone by herself? I'll leave the bangle with you if you prefer."

The doctor consented and Squall left Rinoa with a kiss on the cheek.

By leaps and bounds, her husband was returning to her.

Seifer looked like crap when Squall entered his room. Laguna was already there, but clearly out of his depth as Seifer tore off the oxygen mask and tossed it aside.

"Finally, a rational person," Seifer said. "Will you please tell them I'm fine now? I don't need any tests, I need to get out of this bed."

Squall snorted and eased into the chair Laguna vacated just as a harassed-looking nurse injected Seifer with what Squall assumed was a tranquilizer or pain medication of some sort. Squall doubted the man actually needed it for pain management, and it said a lot about how annoying a patient he'd been thus far that he needed to be drugged.

"I swear to Hyne, if you stick me with anything else, I'm going to stab you in the heart with it," Seifer growled at the nurse.

The nurse leveled him with a cool, wordless stare, unmoved by his threat.

"Ignore him," Squall advised. "He's all bark."

Squall didn't mention the part where Seifer was as likely to bark as bite.

"They're just doing their job, son," Laguna said to Seifer. "No need to get all worked up."

"I'll get all worked up if I want to," Seifer snapped. "And furthermore, you're not my fath-"

He broke off and looked away from Laguna's crestfallen expression.

"I know I'm not your dad," Laguna said, "but I consider you family, whether or not you feel the same way, son."

Seifer stared at his hands, his cheeks redder than Squall had ever seen them outside of training.

"Didn't mean it."

Laguna patted his leg.

"I make a pretty lousy patient myself, or so someone once told me," Laguna said. "I'll let the two of you talk. I'm gonna go check on Elle."

"Rinoa's with her now," Squall said.

Seifer lifted his eyes from his lap and turned them on Squall. "How is she?"

"She's fine," Squall said. "Rinoa will take care of the rest."

"Hmm. Good."

Laguna excused himself and Seifer settled back into the pillows, no longer agitated, just weary.

"She the reason you were all but ready to rip the needles out of your arm?" Squall asked.

Seifer nodded at the wall across from him.

"Why?" Squall asked.

"You know why."

"You love her."

"Yep."

Squall suspected as much, but wondered if Ellone felt the same way. She was fond of Seifer, that was obvious, but for the life of him, Squall couldn't figure out what Ellone saw in him. He always figured if Ellone were to settle down, it would be with someone kinder and gentler than Seifer Almasy.

Then again, there was a lot more to Seifer than what he let the world see. Ellone probably knew things about Seifer that no one else did. Maybe, even things Seifer didn't know about himself.

"Spare me the over-protective little brother act, will ya?" Seifer said. "Not really in the mood and it's not necessary."

"No?" Squall wondered.

"Look, if I ever do anything to hurt her, she'll kick my ass herself," Seifer said. "She doesn't need you to do it for her."

"Fair point," Squall said. "But -"

"Besides," Seifer interrupted, "It won't be me that bails, it'll be the other way around. I can't even get a straight answer from her half the time. Hell, she can't even decide where we're going on vacation."

Seifer laughed softly to himself and his eyelids slipped shut.

"I don't want her to go," Seifer said drowsily. "They always leave..."

Squall frowned. That was a little too much information, but very telling just the same. Who would ever guess, deep down, Seifer was so vulnerable? Or that he harbored his own issues with abandonment?

"Should get her somethin' nice," Seifer said. "Maybe then, she'll say yes."

Squall was careful to keep his expression neutral, but on the inside, he was screaming.

"You didn't ask her to marry you, did you?"

"Naw," Seifer said. "She'd never say yes, even if I actually wanted to jump off that bridge..."

Seifer snickered and turned his head toward Squall.

"She won't even call me her boyfriend," he said with a big, dopey grin. He sobered, but his eyes went a little unfocused. "You would have been real proud of her today, Squall. She took Blackheart out, all by herself, no help from me. If I coulda, a woulda. Goddamn spider..."

Seifer yawned and his eyes slid shut again.

"...her ass looks great in tactical pants..." he murmured.

"Careful, Almasy. That's my sister you're talking about," Squall said, but Seifer shrugged it off.

"Kinda miss her bein' in my head," he muttered and his dopey grin returned. "Too damn quiet without her sassin' me an tellin' me what to do."

Seifer let Ellone in his head? Willingly? After Ultimecia, Squall assumed Seifer wouldn't want anything to do with things that reminded him of her. Furthermore, Ellone hated being inside other people's heads and avoided it unless there wasn't another option.

It said a lot about how much trust there was between them.

And how much more there was to it than Squall ever suspected.

When Seifer woke, the clock on the wall over the door read a quarter to five. It was still dark outside the window, so he assumed it was morning. Still groggy from the harpy of a nurse's drugs, Seifer sat up and hoisted his legs over the edge of the bed. He removed the heartbeat monitor from his finger, then unplugged the machine from the wall when the steady beep became an obnoxious flat-line.

He surveyed the needles in his arm, decided to leave them where they were, and grasped the stand connected to the baggies of glucose and got to his feet. He found his belongings in a plastic bag in a chair beside the door, dressed in spite of the dried blood on his shirt and discarded the hospital gown in the trash.

At the door, he surveyed the hall, but there was no one around. To his right was the nurse's station and the lobby. To his left, more rooms and the operating theater.

On sock-clad feet, he hung a left and went off in search of Ellone. Squall said she was fine, but he wanted to confirm that for himself. He found her three rooms down, hooked up to the same equipment he just abandoned.

He wheeled the IV stand ahead of him and sat down beside the bed. There was an oxygen mask over her face, but a bruise bloomed on her cheek above the scar Thalia's blade left. Seifer brushed his fingers over it and found comfort in the steady pulse on the monitor on the other side of the bed.

Seifer didn't know why, but he couldn't shake the suspicion that she would leave now that the fight was done.

I don't need to be your girlfriend.

Can I think about it?

"What are you running from, Elle?" he wondered.

Somewhere out in the hall, a doctor was paged to the emergency room. Ellone didn't give him his answer.

He dropped his hand to hers and watched the steady rise and fall of her breathing for a while.

It would figure, the one woman in the entire world who wasn't afraid of him, the one woman he fell head over heels for was the one who wouldn't commit. A younger Seifer would take that as a challenge, but the man he was now didn't want to dick around. Not when he finally found someone who got him, all the way through.

The sun was on the horizon, and Seifer half asleep when Ellone woke with a sharp cry. She sat up, her eyes wild and her chest heaving, both hands on the rail of the bed as though she planned to climb over the side and run for her life.

Seifer scooted his chair closer and stayed her hands as her heavy breaths fogged the oxygen mask.

"Stop it. You're all right," he promised. "You're safe."

Her gaze shifted around the room and she lifted the mask away from her face. In her hands, Seifer felt her trembling. It was then he understood.

"This isn't O-Lab, Elle," he said. "You're in Balamb."

She blinked at him, cast her eyes to the door, then down to his hands. Her panicked breaths slowed and the tension in her shoulders relaxed.

"It's over, Elle," he said.

She turned her face to the ceiling and Seifer dropped the rail on the bed so he could get closer. He sat on the edge of the mattress and brushed her hair away from her face. She swallowed hard and closed her eyes at his touch.

"She's really gone?"

"She's really gone," he promised.

Seifer stayed where he was until a nurse bustled into the room and flicked on the light. She frowned at him and put her hands on her hips.

"Sir, you can't -"

"Aww, spare me the lecture," he said as he got up and returned to the chair. "Do what you gotta do. I'm not leaving."

Ellone cut her eyes at him, but she didn't say anything as the nurse took her vitals and wrote something on a clip-board. The wound on her side was examined by a doctor shortly thereafter. The scar was much worse than the one on her cheek, but it was healed.

Seifer stayed put until an hour later, when the doctor gave Ellone clearance to be released, but not without strict orders to take it easy for a few days. In the car back to the hotel, she stared out the window, too quiet for Seifer's liking. He didn't expect a celebration, but her distance concerned him.

"Why didn't you tell us she stabbed you?" he demanded.

"I didn't know," Ellone said. "It felt like... Like she punched me. I thought maybe she broke a rib."

"You could have died, Elle."

"Wouldn't be the first time," she said softly. "Would it?"

There was nothing Seifer could say to that.

As they rounded the corner to the hotel, in the distance, the outline of a familiar ship was moored just off the harbor. White rear-facing sails, long and sleek and built for speed.

The White SeeDs.

Edea.

Ellone was going to leave him.

Notes: I know I said a few chapters back there were only a couple chapters left, but the remaining ones were really, really long. As much as I want to put this one to bed, I've broken them into shorter, more digestible bits for readability sake. A 15k chapter is a tough read.

I'm sorry to those reviewers I didn't get back to last chapter – I've been down with a stomach bug and basically spent most of the week in bed. But thank you guys for your comments and thoughtful reviews – they're always appreciated!

(Also, I do not apologize for the blatant Star Trek reference. Thumbs high if you caught it.)