To Heal a Broken Heart

Chapter Twenty Nine - Slipping Up

Disclaimer: I do not own FF7, its characters, settings, etc. These words, however, are mine.


"Oh my god, Reno." Tifa laughed. "What did you do? Throw yourself into a nearby hole and find dragon grass? You're back so soon."

Reno scowled and crossed his arms over his chest, shaking his head a little to get his long red hair to fall back over his back. "Throw myself into a hole?" He shook his head. "It's not like we didn't have the equipment and shit to get to where we needed to go. Finding it was almost too fuckin' easy, though."

"Well, I knew you'd be able to do it." Tifa smiled, thinking of Elena waiting in her hospital room for them. "So are we going to head off now...?"

"Well, we are. You and your boyfriend can follow whenever you want." He smirked when her features contorted, leaving her glaring at the man in front of her. "What? I've seen the sly looks and the hormones! Just find yourself a bed and get it over with already." He said, walking away down the hall. Rude, who had been standing silent as ever at his side, watching the exchange between the pair, followed after him.

"Buddy, no." She heard Reno talking to Rude before she shut the door with a soft click. Sighing, she hung her head and ran her hands through her hair.

Wasting no time, she made her way around the room, grabbing everything she needed, eating the rest of the breakfast she'd been enjoying before she'd been interrupted by the ex-Turks and finally, after fifteen minutes, she was out the door and on her way. She was both excited and fearful of heading to the hospital; if the dragon grass worked, Elena would be up and walking and the tension that she could feel radiating off of her companions would lessen, if not completely disappear and they would be leaving Mideel, getting back to their lives. However, if it didn't work, she wasn't sure what was going to happen to her said companions or what they would do next.

'Such terrible thoughts,' she scolded herself, pushing the glass doors forward and entering the sterile-smelling facility.

She didn't need to be directed any longer to where Elena's room was, she'd been here often enough to know her way around. Closing the door, she watched with a slight hesitation as Reno, Rude and Rufus, whom had left her a note earlier this morning saying he was coming here, and the doctor conferred with each other.

"Dragon grass is safe for humans?" Rufus asked the doctor, the same question he'd asked upon the day they got the results of Elena's case.

The doctor nodded. "It is not safe being ingested as it is, but as I said last time, with some testing and some modifications, it will cause Miss Elena no harm whatsoever. Now, if you will excuse me... We mustn't waste time." Turning on his heel, he left the room, shooting Tifa a soft and reassuring smile as he passed by her.

"She doesn't look much different." Reno sighed, situating himself on the stool beside her bed.

"Of course she doesn't, Reno." Rufus said, rolling his eyes. "She can't exactly freshen herself up everyday."

"Haha." The young man replied sarcastically. "You know what I mean."

The momentary silence gave Tifa time to walk up to stand with the group without feeling as though she was intruding upon a private moment and conversation; not that staying silent on the other side of the room and listening to everything being said was any better.

"It should work..." Tifa thought aloud. "And then we can finally see her run around, smashing Reno's head in with a frying pan when he makes her angry."

Nobody made any remark to her comment, simply feeling better to just sit in peace, waiting for the doctor.

They'd been sitting and waiting for over an hour before the doctor finally came back with a syringe, walking right over to Elena's IV line and sticking it with the needle, emptying it's contents into her system. "I doubt we'll see a change until later in the day... You may stay if you like, but it will be a while and if you decide to leave you can just leave your numbers with the nurse and she'll call you as soon as we see a change."

Reno looked reluctant, as did Rude and they decided they would stay; they had nothing better to do, except maybe get drunk, but they didn't want to take the chance that they might miss the call. Tifa was surprised then, when Rufus stood up and announced that he had somewhere to be.

'The invitation -- the dinner party.' Tifa thought and she herself stood, looking over at Elena and her two friends sympathetically. "I'm afraid I have somewhere to go as well... But Reno, please, please call me, okay?"

Reno was instantly suspicious. "Where are you two going?"

"I have something that needs to be taken care of." Rufus answered.

"It's nothing too important, but I don't want to delay doing it, I'm sorry." Tifa said at the same time, glaring at Rufus when he rolled his eyes.

"Bye." The pair said simultaneously, not wanting to be badgered with more questions to stop their departure. Closing the door behind them, Tifa sighed but she didn't have time to do much else before Rufus was jumping down her throat.

"I told you I didn't want you to come with me. Is one simple instruction really so difficult to follow?" He scowled.

Tifa sniffed and started to walk away. "Sorry god, I forgot you run the show around here. Please," she mock pleaded, clasping her hands in front of her. "Tell me what to do now, I'm so lost without your guidance."

"Nice, but you have some work to do." He teased, though with no humor.

"I believe that in our last conversation, we established that I was an adult. You know what that is, right? Exactly the opposite of what you are being right now. Why," Tifa raged, throwing her hands in the air, "would I let you go alone? And really, aside from the fact that I myself could be poisoned based on your paranoia about Elena's unfortunate situation, not to mention it actually happening to yourself, what else is there at a bar that's so bad that I'm just not allowed to go? You do remember I actually own a bar of my own, right?"

"Remember the last time you visited a bar?" He snapped, grabbing her arm and spinning her around to face him.

"Tifa..." He started but she twirled around to face him and all but fell against him. She pressed herself up against him completely and smiled as best she could, a strange sparkle in her eye. He had no choice but to hold her upright and that only served to bring her up closer to him.

Strange... He didn't seem to mind. In fact, he enjoyed it. Not like he would with other women...

No, this was different.

Of course, seeing her so out of it only put him off wanting to...

Stop it.

Before he knew what was happening her face was inches from his and she laid her head against his chest. "You mean a lot to me... You know that?" She whispered, lifting herself up as best she could and kissing him full on the lips.

Tifa pushed the memory back and shook her head. "I was... Out of control that night." She said, rubbing her arms absently.

"And if it happened tonight? And I couldn't do anything to stop it, seeing as how you're an adult, so, what? I'm hardly going to say 'yes, Tifa, please come tonight so I can babysit you.'"

"One night hardly counts to label me as needing someone to watch over my every step!"

"Sorry for actually giving a damn. I mean, I know how much you're used to Cloud and his oh-so-caring personality, maybe I should just become a carbon copy of him."

Tifa stopped cold in her tracks, disbelieving that he'd actually just said what he had to her. She knew it was true though -- he had made it clear several times during their conversations that he was only interested in looking out for her. Sure, he teased her endlessly, but she returned it all jubilantly enough. They insulted each other to such a degree one might wonder why they stuck around each other.

She supposed she should be grateful for the concern.

But she was more offended by it and wanting to show him and everyone else who thought she could rely on nobody but Cloud, think of nobody but Cloud, devote herself to nobody but Cloud that she was capable of taking care of herself.

"I don't know how we went from one subject to another completely different one..." She blew out a breath, shaking her head. "I'm coming with you because I want to make sure that you're going to be okay, the same reason you don't want me to come. But what use is it if what you're scared is going to happen to me happens to you and there's nobody around but a bunch of drunk idiots?"

He didn't grace her with a response, instead fixing her with an intense stare that caused her to wonder if he could read every thought in her head.

"And are we really going to keep coming back to Cloud? You keep throwing his name and the baggage that lies behind it in my face every chance you get when he isn't even a part of the problem."

He looked troubled then, almost scared, unsure of what to say to her next. Why was he being like this? Why was he like this every day, finding every excuse possible to bring up the past with her and Cloud, to constantly hint at their growing relationship. Why was he so evasive of her questions that were filled with more than the simple words used to make them?

Why didn't he want her to go?

"I don't buy all that bullshit you just tried to feed me about needing to babysit me since we both know that that isn't the case. There was a reason I was upset and drinking a lot back in Costa Del Sol and it led me to do something I wouldn't normally have done under the circumstances. So," she paused, stepping closer to him. "And I want honesty here, you owe me that courtesy, okay? Why do you really not want me to go?"

A myriad of emotions seemed to flicker through his eyes but he settled for the resolved and detached look in the end and her heart fell to her feet when she realized she was never going to know why he didn't want her to go.

'Why can't this just be cut and dry? I love you... Do you love me?'

"Fine, if you want to come so badly, you can. But watch what you're doing." And with that, he turned on his heel and walked away from her, in every sense of the word.

At least, that was what it felt like.


"Whatever happened with Strife?"

The first words he'd spoken to her since they'd arrived at the party and they weren't what she'd been expecting. Focusing her eyes elsewhere, she shrugged and took a sip of her drink. "He called me and we talked... He said he wouldn't do it again. What more could I say to him?"

The 'party' was not exactly a party at all -- more like a big get-together-and-bitch-about-your-problems night. Which was what had happened. It was a closed event, meaning that only invitee's could get in but apparently both Rufus and Tifa's thoughts about what could possibly happen were ill-placed. They had been drinking for over an hour and nothing out of the ordinary had happened yet; Tifa's guard was slowly falling as she decided this was nothing more than what it seemed.

Whatever that was exactly.

"Something more than what you may have said to him."

Tifa closed her eyes and counted to ten, trying to douse her growing temper.

"Sorry, touchy subject?" He queried, gazing at her with nothing short of irritability. His hand was clenched around his glass so tightly she was surprised it hadn't yet shattered within his grip.

"Yeah, I was about to ask you the same thing." She shot back. "Why are you being so miserable?"

"Why are you so hung up on him?" He wondered aloud. "I really don't get it. I don't." He waved his hand that was holding the glass around in the air for a moment before bringing it back to his lips and taking a gulp, throwing it back down on the counter and asking the frumpy looking bartender for another.

"Who said I was hung up on Cloud?"

"Are you?"

Tifa watched him curiously. "And if I said I was, what would you say?"

"I would say you're a damn fool. You deserve a lot better than someone who thinks you're nothing more than a little dirt on his shoe." He spat with venom, snatching his glass that was just refilled back, taking another mouthful of it. Tifa was beginning to wonder if she should take it away from him.

And he said that she would need a babysitter?

Ever since they'd gotten here he'd fallen into a foul mood, especially at the lack of information that could tell them anything about what happened to Elena. He'd slipped further and further into it as he drank more and more, not looking to stop anytime soon and for the first time she wondered if he maybe felt threatened by Cloud.

But what would that mean on a greater scale?

Why did he feel threatened?

"Rufus, I'm not hung up on Cloud." She said to him quietly. She tried again after seeing that his dark expression didn't change. "I admit that it's been really hard to put him behind me... But of course it was, Rufus, he and I had known each other for years and I've never been as close to anyone as I had been to him."

"You don't need to explain anything to me as if I might care." Rufus cut her off. "I just wanted to know if you were still pining after him."

Narrowing her eyes at his indifference, feigned or not, her mouth started working before her head could process the words properly. "I do not and did not pine after Cloud, Rufus. I don't love him anymore."

"Oh? I'm not the only one who thinks you still hold a torch for Strife." He smirked lazily, not caring if he was hurting her in any way. "The way you talk about him as though he's some great man when he's nothing but a lost little puppy..." He chuckled darkly. "It's pitiful, pathetic, degrading... Don't you think anything of yourself!?"

"Of course I do! I'm so sorry I'm not moving forward at your damn pace!" She yelled.

"You're right, you aren't. It's a shame."

Everything in her screamed at her to stop while she was ahead, to assess the situation because she was missing something vital at that moment, but she didn't. She couldn't. "Oh, and where exactly should I be right now?"

His eyes hardened with determination and just a little fear and she could almost see the gears turning in his head as he wondered if he should say what was so obviously on the tip of his tongue.

The question she'd asked not only herself, but her friends, finally had an answer.

"Moving on with someone else. Trying to. Not running away."

"And who might that be, you?" She scoffed, laughing at nothing in particular, just feeling the need to do so. She could feel the prick of tears in her eyes and she wondered why fate was so cruel to her -- would she ever get a god damned chance? Her voice sounded no less than throaty, choked up with the tears that had just now started to trail down her cheeks. Standing, she asked him, "what is such a shame, Rufus? That I'm not in love with you?" By now, they had quite an audience within the bar and everything was silent.

He only stared at her, offering her nothing.

And that hurt more than she ever thought it could.

Choking back a sob, she shook her head, squeezing her eyes shut. "No, you know what's such a shame, Rufus?"

'Don't hold it in like you did with Cloud -- that might end up being your biggest mistake.'

"That fact that you can't see that I am in love with you."

And then she did exactly what he had accused her of.

She ran away before she could have her heart crushed all over again.