Author's Note: Ok, so if anyone has noticed or gotten confused about the number change on the chapters, that's because I went back and removed any that were just notes. Another quick note, to avoid confusion, I'm just going to go ahead and point out that any time the writing in here is separated by a line or sorts, it denotes a drastic change in time, or a change in perspective. The time part is really more important for the point I'm at now in the story, because I'm too impatient to write the entire healing process in real time, and you guys would get bored of it anyway. =P So I skip a couple days here and there, but you should be able to tell by the line and subtle hints in the actual writing. So yes. xD Alrighty, I believe that is all...please enjoy and review! =D
"How's he doing?" Elena asked at once, directing her question to Rude who was settled in a chair with a stack of paperwork in his lap. She went straight to Reno though, who appeared to be sleeping.
"Fine," Rude answered, "The doctor started giving him pain meds last night and he fell asleep not long after that. Been out since. I imagine he's pretty much exhausted and he can finally rest now that he's not in pain."
"That's good," Elena sat back in her chair, speaking quietly even though the redhead was sound asleep.
"I'm going to go back to my office to do this," Rude said, motioning to the paperwork he held in his hand, "Now that you're here."
"Go ahead, I'm not going anywhere," she answered, happily watching Reno sleep. His breathing seemed more steady, and deeper now too. He was covered up warmly by blankets, but his right arm, with the IV in it, laid on top. His messy hair fell over his eyes, especially since it wasn't being held back by the usual black goggles. Elena reached out to hold his hand, which lay in an awkward position to avoid putting pressure on the broken bones.
"Good morning," the doctor said quietly, walking into the room with his ever-present clipboard and a pillow tucked under one arm.
"Morning," Elena replied, smiling at the man who could easily be the reason Reno was alive right now, "How is he?"
"Healing well," the doctor answered, "It took awhile for him to start showing improvement, but he's fighting his way back from the edge of the grave now. I apologize if my imagery startles you," the man quickly added, seeing the alarmed look on Elena's face at the mention of Reno and graves together, "Your…friend is extremely lucky. And stubborn. I'm convinced that if he chose not to die, he might just become invincible. But don't tell him I said that. He'd probably go test it." Elena laughed slightly and shook her heard, knowing Reno was very likely to do something of the sort. "I'm just worried about keeping him still long enough to heal properly. Especially now that he's on pain medication, it's going to be a chore to keep him resting before long. And the pain medication is another thing," the doctor sighed, "I suppose you know a bit about his history." Elena nodded sadly, looking down at Reno's calm face as he slept. "To be honest, I don't know what I'm going to do about that. He's got to be on medication for now at least. I'm not letting him suffer through all that without any help. But that could present…issues later." The doctor sighed again, and rubbed his tired eyes. "Here," the man set the clipboard down and picked Reno's left hand up, setting the pillow underneath it and carefully putting Reno's hand back down, making sure all the fingers were kept straight. "I want to be sure those heal correctly. Otherwise we might have to re-break them."
"Should we get a pillow for this one too?" Elena asked, alarmed and motioning to Reno's other hand, which she was holding gently. The doctor nodded.
"I'll bring one back with me later. I have other patients to check on for now. When he wakes up, make sure he stays as still as possible. I don't want any of his gashes re-opening."
"Ok," Elena nodded swiftly, "I'll take good care of him."
"I'm sure you will," the doctor answered promptly, a knowing smile on his face as he left the room.
Elena almost fell asleep herself, sitting silently in her chair. Eventually, Reno began to stir, sleepily bringing a hand up to rub his face. As soon as his sore fingers bent against his face, he cringed, causing the cuts along his cheek bones to sting and pulled his hand away. Blinking his eyes open confusedly, Reno stared at his hand, held up in the air in front of him and bound completely in soft, white gauze.
"Shit," Reno muttered to himself as realization finally came to him. Clearly his mind was taking a bit to catch up and remember what had happened, but it was understandable since he had just woken up and was on strong pain drugs anyway.
"Hi," Elena decided to speak, reaching out and putting his hand back down on the pillow carefully. He turned to look at her, a slightly dazed look on his face, but he was smiling.
"Hey," Reno replied, "How long ya been here?"
"Not too long," she shook her head, "You were sleeping."
"Yeah, morphine really knocks ya out," he grinned, "I feel good." His words were a bit slurred and dragged out and he looked around the room idly.
"You are so high, Reno," Elena laughed, unable to keep a straight face.
"Well at least I'm not…" he began to reply but then his voice trailed off and he blinked, "Dammit, I forgot what I was gonna say. Oh yeah, well at least not on purpose! Well wait…yeah it is on purpose. Umm…"
"I know what you mean," Elena smiled, patting his arm. He looked relieved.
"The effect gets less as time goes on," Reno pointed out, "So enjoy it while you can."
"Ok," Elena nodded, "Did you sleep well?" She didn't really have to ask, but she wanted to see what he would say.
"Oh yeah," he replied enthusiastically, "I dreamed Tseng was a penguin, Rude was…Rude, and you," Reno paused, looking at her with a strange expression on his face, "You were a stripper."
"Oh my," she was quite surprised by this, but intensely amused all the same, "So what happened?"
"We put Tseng in the freezer, Rude did paperwork about it, and you…stripped," Reno smirked, "Good dream."
"Oh," Elena replied, finding the situation a mite awkward and hoping he wouldn't remember either the dream or this conversation. Still, she couldn't help but laugh. Bending over, she pressed a quick kiss to his surprised lips.
"Hey!" he sounded annoyed.
"What?" It was Elena's turn to be surprised. She didn't think he'd be upset with her kissing him.
"That was mean," he frowned at her, moving to cross his arms, and then quickly deciding better of it as the various wounds involved in the motion complained, "It's like giving someone a cookie and then taking it away before they even get any. They're like 'No shit! I got a cookie!' and then two seconds later you snatch it away before they even get to enjoy it! Dammit, I was hardly past the point of realizing what was happening!"
"Oh, I see," Elena suppressed her huge smile, "I'm very sorry, can I make it up to you?"
"Well you can try, but it's going to take a lot," the redhead looked very sly beneath his disgruntled air, and in his drugged state he probably imagined he was being incredibly subtle.
"Alright, here we go," Elena rubbed her hands together and scooted her chair closer, taking his free hand and looking at him very solemnly, "I promise to bake you a batch of cookies as an apology for cheating you out of pleasure." She knew she shouldn't be teasing drugged, hurt people, but the situation was too perfect and she couldn't pass it up. The resulting look on his face was priceless.
"I'm not talking to you anymore," Reno declared stubbornly, like a child, turning his head the other way.
"Suit yourself," Elena shrugged calmly, settling back in her chair and counting to see how long it was before he spoke again. Seconds ticked by in loaded silence.
"Dammit, kiss me!" Reno turned back fiercely, a scowl on his face as he lightly pounded his fist on the pillow for emphasis. As it turned out, this was a bad move and his lips, angrily pressed tightly closed, broke open, emitting a small, involuntary cry.
Unable to resist the combined factors of his shouting 'Dammit, kiss me!' and the natural desire to comfort him, Elena jumped up and carefully smoothed out his fingers with one hand while she put the other gently on his bare chest, bending over to kiss him with all the passion his demand required. Finally breaking apart, Elena kept her face barely an inch from his to whisper a number.
"Seven," she whispered, feeling his hot breath on her face, "You lasted seven seconds of not speaking to me."
"Well what can I say?" Reno whispered back, "I always was bad at denying myself things." Elena smiled, hardly moving to brush the most delicate kiss possible on his lips. The touch was tantalizingly light to his trembling lips that hungered for more.
"Well that was unexpected," Rufus Shinra showed nothing other than a mild surprise as he walked calmly into the room, "So sorry to interrupt. Hmm, you're awake." He sounded less than thrilled and a bit nervous when he made this observation about Reno.
"Yeah, I'm awake," Reno was too drugged to care much about Rufus's poor timing.
"I'll just go and let you get back to what you were doing," the man smiled and quickly began to back out the door.
"Hang on," Reno waved the man over with a shaky hand, "We have things to discuss."
"Really?" Rufus approached almost cautiously, trying not to look Reno in the eye, "I would have thought you really wouldn't want to talk much right now."
"Yeah, my situation does kind of suck right now," Reno smiled, reveling in the knowledge that he was in charge of this conversation, "This is the second time I've ended up in the hospital in the past six months. I hate the hospital, Rufus. I hate feelin' like I've been run over by a truck repeatedly. But hey, somebody's gotta do your dirty work."
"Um, yes, and it's much appreciated," Rufus assured him, trying to end the conversation as soon as possible, "I just stepped in for a moment really, to make sure you were doing ok. And you are! So wonderful, I'll be on my way."
"I deserve a raise, Rufus," Reno said bluntly.
"How about a mild bonus instead?" Rufus attempted to bargain, but he sounded defeated already.
"Ok," Reno surprised the President by agreeing, "I want a Ferrari."
"What?" Rufus looked startled. Evidently the vehicle was easily within the company's means, but Rufus was definitely a lover of money and it hurt him to part with it.
"Black," Reno specified, smiling pleasantly.
"But…that's a bit extravagant," Rufus desperately tried to haggle. Reno sighed and rolled his eyes.
"Rufus, a man with enough followers and brains to blow up two of your mako reactors spent a whole day asking me where you actually lived." The redhead held up his hand and stiffly wiggled his fingers as much as he could, attempting to mask the pain. "The last thing he did before I got the hell outta there was to break every single finger on both hands. Can I have a Ferrari, please?" He carefully kept any emotion out of his voice, although Elena knew was terribly bitter about his fingers especially.
"Yes, you can have a Ferrari," Rufus sighed, giving in, "They wanted to know where I lived you say?" Rufus frowned.
"Yup," Reno looked a tad smug, having won his Ferrari, "Some other crap too just about Shinra. The kind of stuff ya can't hear on the streets. Real interested in you though."
"Hmm," Rufus didn't look the slightest bit unnerved. That tended to be the case when one was protected by the best of the best of everything. "I'll have to get Tseng to do something about this man and his group very soon."
"He's not goin' anywhere without me!" Reno demanded fiercely, "Just hold on. I'll be outta here before long and I'm not lettin' them have all the fun."
"Alright, but if the situation becomes worse we'll have to do something about it sooner," Rufus promised, heading for the door before the redhead dragged anymore promises out of him.
"I'm gettin' a Ferrari," Reno turned happily to Elena.
"Yes, I heard," Elena smiled.
"I'm bored," he complained, switching topic instantly, "Can I get up?"
"Are you deranged?" the doctor walked in just at that moment, another pillow in his hand. He looked at Reno sternly.
"But I've been just layin' here forever! I feel fine! Just a bit tired," the redhead whined.
"You feel fine because you're completely high on morphine, Reno," the doctor carefully settled the other pillow in the same way as he had the first, so Reno's fingers would be kept carefully aligned, "In case you haven't noticed, that morphine is only going to keep you feeling good as long as you are careful. If you start moving excessively it will hurt."
"How do you know?" Reno demanded, glaring at the man. He was naturally impatient and stubborn, and these traits were only intensified by the pain medication.
"I'm a doctor," he replied, "It's my job to know. If you don't believe me, just try and move. See if I'm right." The doctor was easily as stubborn as Reno. He crossed his arms and looked expectantly at the redhead.
Staring challengingly at the doctor, Reno moved to sit up, making it half way before he grimaced and leaned back on his elbow, not making a sound but breathing heavily. His hand instinctively moved over the deep stab wound in his abs, painfully disturbed by the use of the muscles. Frozen sitting half way up, Reno gasped as the pain shot through his sore, bruised, broken, and slashed abdomen.
Shaking his head grimly, the doctor carefully pushed Reno back down, moving the bandaged hands back to their respective pillows.
"If you don't start being careful with your hands, your fingers are going to heal wrong," the doctor pointed out, "There's a chance I could fix it by re-breaking them, but it would be easier for you to just be careful the first time around, no?"
Reno looked at the man and gave a brief nod, a slight sweat, really nothing more than a dampness, appearing on his forehead as the waves of gripping pain subsided agonizingly slow.
"Do you believe me now?" the doctor asked, earning another quick nod from the redhead.
"Why can't you just listen?" Elena asked, her heart stinging with a fraction of the pain he felt. He looked at her and gave a weak nod. It seemed that was about all he could manage at the moment. Once the redhead had relaxed again, the doctor picked up one of his hands.
"I want to see how those cuts are healing," he explained, carefully unwrapping the soft gauze that completely encased Reno's hands, while leaving the gauze that tightly wrapped the fingers alone. "All fifty thousand of them." The doctor spoke sarcastically.
"Probably a pretty accurate number," Reno commented, not appearing to care very much.
"How did that happen anyway?" the doctor asked, morbidly curious. Reno shrugged slightly, careful not to disturb the gash above his heart.
"They wanted to know stuff and I didn't want to tell 'em," Reno replied, "He told me that's what they would do, but hey, we've all figured out I'm a bad listener."
"It's not funny, Reno," Elena complained, feeling scared for him all over again.
"I'm on meds, 'Laney, everything is funny," he commented, grinning hazily at her. The joviality reached an abrupt halt when Hojo walked haughtily into the room. Elena could have sworn Reno turned a good shade or two paler and seemed to shrink back, feeling vulnerable in his condition. Hojo was evidently no match for Reno normally, but the redhead could hardly move without crippling pain attacking every nerve in his body.
"I have an idea on how to make those heal faster, almost instantly, possibly," Hojo announced, pointing to Reno's fingers, "All the wounds actually." The scientist spoke to the doctor, ignoring Reno completely.
"Oh yeah?" the doctor put Reno's hand back down carefully, unwrapped to reveal hundreds of thin, red slits that were his healing cuts, "I suppose this is another of your theoretical experiments?" Hojo bristled, a clear signal that the doctor was right.
"It's true, I have not tried this on anything before, but I have strong reason to believe it will work! And he's the perfect specimen for it!" Hojo argued, speaking condescendingly and with an exasperated tone as if he were talking to dumb children.
"For one thing, quite calling Reno a specimen!" Elena was thoroughly mad with this scientist. She'd only ever heard about him before working with Shinra, but in a short amount of time she'd learned to hate the man. "And you're not doing any experiments on him. Not now, not ever!" Hojo looked at her blankly and blinked.
"Who is that?" he asked the doctor, apparently unwilling to speak to anyone who wasn't even remotely in the field of science. He didn't wait for an answer, cutting the doctor off before he even began to speak. "Irrelevant. What's important is that my theories strongly support this experiment and if it does work it can be extremely helpful."
"Look at him!" the doctor pointed furiously at the redhead who watched the scientist warily, "Does he look in any condition to be experimented upon? Go get some lab rats and leave your human test subjects alone."
"Look, doctor," Hojo glared angrily, not backing down easily now that there were so few present to oppose him, "I have a quantity of liquid mako here," the scientist pulled the glowing green syringe out of his lab coat pocket, causing Reno to flinch ever so slightly from bad memories, "I strongly believe that if I inject this, it will, in very simplified terms of course, briefly 'super-charge' his body, causing his wounds to be healed very quickly. If it works as planned, with no side-effects, this could be used widely throughout SOLDIER. Even you must see it's vast benefits."
"I don't give a shit about vast benefits, you are not experimenting on any human beings under my watch," the doctor stated, getting so angry he turned calm, "Besides, Reno was given an injection of mako before to stop the fever and it didn't do a thing to accelerate the healing of his wounds."
"Of course," Hojo looked annoyed at having to explain this, "This dosage is different. It's more concentrated, and much stronger. It's very close to what was originally administered. You may want to leave," Hojo turned to Elena, "It's not going to be pretty."
"Get him out," Reno's hand brushed against Elena's arm, drawing her attention to his words, whispered through clenched teeth, "Get him away from me." Elena nodded vigorously, and, as the doctor and the scientist continued to argue, she pulled out her phone and sent a brief text.
"Why do you continually insist on impeding science?" Hojo was shouting now, "I was given permission long ago to conduct an experiment on this specimen, and that permission still applies! This is the same experiment, only further down the road! You wouldn't dare forcefully prevent me from doing anything!" The scientist took a deliberate step toward the redhead. Reno looked like he might panic, the combination of not being able to defend himself in the slightest, horrific memories of mako and Hojo in general, and the confusing element added to it all from the drugs driving him mad.
The door slammed open suddenly, admitting a very quickly moving Rude. The man didn't miss a beat. He reached the scientist in a single step and grabbed the man by the collar, turning and literally throwing him out the door all in the space of a second or two. Hojo hit the wall in the hall with a bit of a thud, sputtering and growing red with anger. Reno and the doctor were speechless.
"You will not get away with that!" Hojo almost screamed, his voice oddly high pitched when he was angry. The image was almost comical. "You can expect to be in severe trouble very soon!"
"Go to hell!" Rude shouted at the small scientist, slamming the door closed in the man's face.
"That was timely," the doctor mentioned, his mouth set in a grim line as he calmly went back to his previous occupation of examining one of Reno's hands.
"Elena texted me," Rude explained, "I came as fast as I could. Tseng will probably show up shortly. He'll be wondering why I ran off."
"These seem to be healing well, considering the amount of damage your body is trying to recover from," the doctor procured some fresh gauze to wrap Reno's hand back up.
Reno hadn't said anything, just looking a bit blankly down at his hand as the doctor messed with it. Elena felt his other hand, the one near her, trembling ever so slightly against her leg as she stood next to the bed. Sitting back down, she took it gently but firmly, so as not to hurt him but to stop the trembling.
"What is going on?" Tseng demanded, coming into the room with a confused look.
"Hojo had a new idea," Elena explained, "He was thinking that if he gave Reno a super-dose of mako it would heal his wounds almost instantly. He wanted to see if it would work, and if there would be any side-effects before having it used for SOLDIER. I texted Rude to come help."
"I forgive you for running away from me when I was speaking to you," Tseng said to Rude, than spoke to them all generally, "I suppose this means I have to go do some explaining to Rufus." They all nodded.
"The whiny bastard is probably up there complaining right now," Rude pointed out, "I didn't waste any time getting rid of him."
"No, I'm sure you didn't," Tseng said proudly, "Reno?"
"Yeah?" the redhead looked ok now, just a bit disturbed.
"You're alright?"
"I'm good," Reno nodded quickly, letting Elena hold his limp hand securely.
"Well I'll be off to patch this little incident up," Tseng sighed and walked off determinedly.
"I wish I could hold a gun," Reno muttered, glancing at his useless hands, then frowning as something struck him, "Hey, what happened to our stuff? That we left in the hotel?" He looked at Elena for answers.
"Oh, Yuffie's looking after it for us. She's also keeping tabs on those ninjas so we can find them again," Elena answered, realizing that she too had forgotten about it.
"Hope ya didn't have anythin' shiny in your bag," Reno grinned, "She'll take it in the blink of an eye."
"Well if she wants to dig through my stuff she'll be disappointed," Elena smiled, "Nothing shiny."
The brunette ninja was indeed looking after their things. After the helicopter had left, Yuffie had returned immediately to the place they'd just escaped from to watch the movements of their captors. It wasn't long before the ninjas were on their way, leaving hardly a trace of their presence. Luckily, they were unnerved by the uncanny escape of their prisoners and in a rush so she was able to follow them quite easily, thanks to her not limited ninja skills. Once she saw them settled nicely into a new town, not far off, Yuffie had gone back to collect the Turks' bags.
"Messy, messy, messy," she muttered happily to herself, shaking her head at the random piles here and there that constituted the things Reno had brought with him. "Now you know this is a woman's bag." Yuffie looked appreciatively at Elena's neat bag. "I wonder…" she unzipped it quickly, just to see what was inside, "They asked me to look after it. The least they can do is let me look at their stuff." She was disappointed to find nothing shiny or sparkly to catch her interest. Yuffie smiled evilly, getting an idea to cheer her up.
Humming cheerfully to herself, the young ninja carefully collected all the lingerie Elena had packed and tucked it away in the bottom of Reno's bag. She then zipped Elena's back up, and proceeded to put the rest of Reno's things in his bag, on top of the lingerie.
"What kind of mission did she think this was?" Yuffie wondered aloud, casting a confused glance at the black lace that was quickly disappearing under handfuls of Reno's things, "Maybe she's just the type who wears sexy underwear all the time…hmm." Yuffie speculated about this deep subject for a few moments more, but it wasn't long before she was distracted by the arsenal of weaponry Reno had brought with him.
"Didn't do ya much good now, did it?" Yuffie smirked, not without sympathy for the man, "Crazy redhead." She stared blankly at the grenade in her hand before tossing it into the bag as well with a shrug. Of all the various knives and handguns left to her care, Yuffie was attracted by nothing, but as she neared the end of her packing, a certain small, plastic, rectangle made her eyes go wide.
"Oooh," she delicately rubbed her fingers over the shiny, black surface of the Shinra credit card that had been given to Reno to cover their necessary travel costs. Needless to say, the credit card found a comfy new home in Yuffie's pocket, as opposed to Reno's bag.
Reno had spent several days doing nothing more than recovering, and it bored him tremendously. Elena spent all the time she could with him, but she had to go back to working eventually. There were no missions at the time, thankfully, but as always, plenty of paperwork. Reno was impatient, and kept causing himself needless pain by trying to force himself better. Still, he remained in an impeccably good mood.
"I have a surprise," Elena announced, walking into the hospital room with her hands hiding behind her back. Reno looked up, a smile instantly on his face. He was able to sit up now, as long as countless pillows propped him up so almost no stress was put on his muscles.
"You really are a stripper?" the redhead guessed, a smirk playing about the corners of his mouth.
"You still having those dreams?" Elena had become better at not being phased by his sometimes perverted humor, although she still turned quite pink in the cheeks.
"Yup," Reno nodded happily, "Not my fault, these pain meds are crazy."
"Uh huh," Elena laughed quietly, "Well, you didn't guess right, but I'll still let you have your surprise. Ice cream!" She pulled the pint-sized container and a spoon our from behind her back, presenting them to the incredibly pleased redhead in front of her. He actually seemed a lot happier than she had expected.
"Awesome, thanks," he grinned, then frowned slightly, "You wanna open that for me?" While the cuts on his hands were doing much better, his broken fingers would take significantly longer to heal.
"Oh, yeah, let me get that," she opened it quickly and handed the container to him, along with the spoon. He took both of them awkwardly, trying not to bend his fingers as much as possible. Elena settled herself in her usual chair that stayed right next to Reno's bed all the time. Reno stared with his tiny frown at the ice cream container and spoon in his hand before shrugging almost imperceptibly and giving it a shot. Silence prevailed as Elena watched Reno fumble clumsily with the spoon. She spent an intense moment wavering between wanted to help and not wanting to offend his pride, when Reno solved the problem by handing the ice cream and spoon back to her.
"It seems my fingers still aren't working," he commented, doing his best to mask the unadulterated bitterness he felt about this, "You're going to have to feed me because I am going to eat that ice cream." He seemed very determined on this point and Elena smiled to herself as she wordlessly obeyed.
It wasn't long before Reno's attention was brought away from his fingers by the ice cream and Elena's conversation. She was quite amused, for reasons she didn't bother trying to comprehend, by feeding Reno spoonfuls of ice cream.
"I can't even use a damned spoon," Reno went back to the topic of his fingers, which was never far from his mind, "And I hate the hospital."
"I know," Elena sympathized, "And it hasn't been that long since you were in here last was it? It must suck being all…beat up again, and with your fingers broken too this time. Don't you ever feel like life sucks?" She herself was quite depressed for him at the moment. Reno looked genuinely surprised.
"No," he answered, as if it were obvious, "I've got you." Reno's answer was simple, but captured perfectly everything he felt for her.
Elena sat comfortably in her chair, watching Reno sleep. He was regaining his strength well but still required huge amounts of sleep. He probably doesn't sleep enough normally, Elena reflected, trying to remember the last time she knew Reno had gotten plenty of sleep. She soon gave up, after tracing all the way back to before the second mako reactor explosion. Critically eyeing his skinny frame, she noted that he probably didn't eat enough either. There was no particular reason why the redhead didn't eat or sleep enough, he just…didn't. Probably needs someone to take care of him, Elena thought happily to herself, having long ago decided that she would do exactly that.
The doctor walked in, interrupting her protective and caring train of thought.
"Oh good, he's asleep," the man spoke in a half-whisper and quickly moved to the arm with the IV in it.
"Yeah, he's been napping for awhile," Elena answered, a little confused about the doctor's reaction, almost excitement.
"I've been backing off the dosage of morphine while he sleeps so he won't know," the doctor explained without her even asking, "He needs to come off it as soon as possible." The doctor gave a short, mirthless laugh, "What he needed was to not be on it at all, but that wouldn't have worked. So we'll have to settle for taking him off the meds early, and backing them off even earlier. I've been decreasing the dose for a few days now and I don't think he's noticed too much. If he does, he'll give me hell. Why do I always get stuck with the problem patients?" The doctor muttered the last part of his speech to himself, finishing adjusting the dosage of morphine.
"Hey," Elena was frowning at her hands, thinking about something she had wondered about for a long time, "You all keep mentioning this 'history of addiction'…" She let the sentence hang there, hoping the doctor would explain without further prompting.
The man looked at her and raised his eyebrows, showing slight surprise.
"You don't know?" The doctor said it almost more as a realization than an actual question. "You're going to have to ask him." He gestured towards Reno who was still fast asleep. "I'm not saying anything about it." The doctor gave her a sympathetic smile and left, leaving Elena a bit annoyed with him. Why did people have to be so…good, right when you needed someone to gossip a little? She had her theories, and a good bit of evidence to go with them, but there was a difference between an educated guess and actually knowing. She resolved to ask Reno whenever he woke up, but then started worrying over how to phrase such a question.
Destiny was not smiling on Elena that day, as Reno woke up within a matter of minutes, giving her dreadfully insufficient time to ponder what to say. Shifting to face her, Reno blinked sleepily and muttered something unintelligible.
"What?" Elena asked, pretty sure he wasn't saying anything important. He tended to mutter random things when he woke up.
"What's the matter?" Reno spoke more clearly now and watched her calmly enough, but closer than he normally did, "You look like somethin's wrong."
"Oh," Elena made a mental note to work on her poker face and, with a bit of a sinking feeling, went on with her resolution, "Nothing's wrong really, I just…wanted to ask you something."
"Well?" he asked expectantly, that bit of a smile that always hung around his mouth growing as he watched her.
"Why doesn't the doctor let you have the normal dosage of painkillers, and why do people keep mentioning a 'history of addiction', and why wouldn't you take even just a normal painkiller when you got that huge bruise after the mako reactor explosion?" Elena spoke a little hurriedly in her attempt to get it over with, but she knew he understood because all traces of his smile vanished after the first few words. He sighed heavily and turned his face so she couldn't look directly into his aquamarine eyes. An awkward, and slightly tense, silence pervaded the room for a few moments.
"I don't suppose it would suffice just to say I was in a lot of shit before Tseng stumbled across me?" Reno didn't sound angry or annoyed at her questions, just regretful with a touch of reluctance. He saved her from having to find an answer to that by continuing at once, "I never really wanted ya to hear this…but I guess it's for the best. I was a dumbass druggie pickpocket. Had learned enough to stay alive in the slums of Midgar, but it didn't really matter 'cause I was slowly killin' myself anyway. I knew it too. Didn't care though. Had nothin' to loose." There were distinct traces of bitterness in Reno's tone, which changed as he went on, showing almost marveling wonder as he looked back on a particular moment in his life. "And then…and then I ran into Tseng that day. You've already heard that story. I like to think he saved my life. Actually I hated him for it for awhile. Everythin' was so easy before. I'd do whatever and just not care. Spent all my time on one hell of a high, knowing it would kill me sooner or later. Personally I'd always hoped it would be sooner." It clearly pained him to say all this, remember it, have Elena hear it. "Hell, I already said I had nothin' to loose. But then…suddenly I did. I had real friends, almost like a family. I had…a home, a place I belonged. And I was so mad at Tseng. Because then it wasn't easy. Ya couldn't just throw it all to hell and do whatever. People cared. And I started to care. A lot of people think they'll be stronger with nothin' to loose, but they don't know shit. I've never been stronger than I am now, when I've got friends, and a home, and someone very, very precious to loose," Reno turned back to look at Elena, his eyes showing a moving mix of seriousness and love. Elena had long since teared up at his story, told in such simple words but with such powerful meaning. She hardly let a second pass once he had finished before she got up and hugged him as best she could, which was surprisingly well taking all facts into consideration. Reno hugged her back, his weak arms holding her around the waist while his face pressed against her smooth neck. She felt him take a slightly shaky breath, and she blinked away the tears from her eyes, not allowing any of them to fall.
"You're not going to loose me, Reno," she whispered, "Not ever."
"Reno, I have exciting news," Tseng announced, somehow sounding more determined than excited. It had now been a little over a week since their rescue, and Reno was doing significantly better. Elena, as usual, was barely a few feet from Reno's side, settled in a chair.
"What?" Reno questioned warily, looking suspicious. He was sitting up, propped against several pillows for support.
"We made a group decision while you were …detained here in the hospital and we have a wonderful surprise for you." By this point, it was clear Tseng was simply stalling instead of building up hype. Rude had followed the man in and stood by tugging at his collar nervously.
"What?" Reno asked again, narrowing his eyes.
"It's great, fantastic, you'll love it!"
"What the hell is 'it'?" Reno demanded impatiently.
"Rufus decided you needed to move to a new apartment, closer to the rest of us and Shinra," Tseng blurted out, the 'group decision' turning into 'Rufus said', "So while you were resting here we've moved all your things to the new place Rufus picked. He said it was the least he could do."
Reno was frowning and looked annoyed. He opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, Tseng interrupted.
"Yes, we were very careful with your piano."
Reno paused, but then opened his mouth to speak again. Tseng cut him off once more.
"And yes, there still is a brand new Ferrari waiting for you in the parking garage. Rufus has the keys."
"Solid black, shiny, tinted windows," Rude threw in, trying to stave off the redhead's wrath. He'd obstinately stayed living as much in the slums as he could get away with, despite their continued protests. When the opportunity had presented itself, they'd simply taken advantage of it.
"And what makes any of you think I wanted to leave my old apartment?" Reno complained, "I could have moved any day if I had wanted to!"
"You're less than a block away from Elena," Rude pointed out calmly. Reno didn't say anything, actually quite pleased to hear this, but trying to hide it.
"Well, now that that's settled," Tseng moved on quickly, trying to get that particular issue behind them, "How are you feeling, Reno?"
"Fine, I guess," he muttered grumpily. He'd been a little edgy the past day or so, and they all assumed it was because the doctor continually lowered the morphine dosage but none of them said anything about it, since they were still trying to hide the fact from Reno.
"Excellent. Not feeling any pain?"
"I'm on pain meds, remember?" Reno said, not really answering Tseng's question.
"Well, how's that working out then?" Tseng went on, a little awkwardly. Reno paused, and glanced with slight annoyance at the man.
"What are you trying to ask?" Reno demanded, his face clearly showing he knew exactly what Tseng wanted to know, but was going to be difficult.
"Do you think it was a good idea to let you have the painkillers, or will it be more trouble than it's worth in the long run?" Tseng had no problem being more clear, it wasn't his feelings he was trying to protect.
"I dunno," Reno answered evasively, "Wait until the doctor won't give me anymore and see if I go into withdrawal or not." The redhead was becoming increasingly irritable and his words were sharp enough to cut something.
"Alright then," Tseng answered curtly, his temper wearing thin, "I'll just be off then. I have work to do."
"Yeah? Got more houses to shuffle? Playin' musical apartments? Hey, how about you move Rude next! Put him closer to Rufus. Oh, excuse me, one of Rufus's many homes that he doesn't actually live in! It'll be like a decoy. Lure those ninja bastards into thinking they've found the President's real house," Reno went on, raising his voice as Tseng continued to leave, until he was yelling and Tseng was in the hall.
"Reno, be quiet," Elena demanded, exasperated, swiftly taking his face in her hands and pressing a kiss to his lips to shut him up.
"Huh, good idea," Rude stood by, nodding appreciatively at Elena's clever thinking.
"Well, you know, whatever works," Elena mentioned jokingly, sitting back in her chair while Reno focused on trying to still look annoyed.
Author's Note: So we had some fluff, and some interesting/sad/depressing backstory...fairly balanced chapter. =P Please review and let me know what you think, ok? Oh, one last thing. I shall be otherwise occupied next Friday night, so I will update Thursday night instead. xD Ok, that's all. Hope you enjoyed this chapter! REVIEW! xD