Chapter 10
Tifa was surprised to see someone still at the front desk when she entered the ShinRa building. It was pretty late when she got back, way past nine o'clock. The lady appeared to be straightening up the desk before leaving. She smiled at Tifa as she walked by.
Tifa pushed a round button beside the elevator and it glowed a soft blue at her touch. It opened almost immediately after she had pressed the button and she stepped on. When the glossy metal doors shut a weary sigh escaped her lips.
A steamy shower and a pickle sandwich would be quite pleasing at the moment...
Tifa never really had to tolerate Reno for more than a couple of hours before. At the bar he was never functional longer than an hour before Rude had to drag him out to his car. After the day's Renofied shopping trip, Tifa was more than a little tired.
Leaning back against the transparent walls of the elevator, the day's events finally begin to stack themselves on Tifa's weary form. It was early afternoon when she left HQ to help Reno (why she even bothered was still her question of the day.) Now it was nearing ten o'clock and all she had to show for the day was agitated nerves and an empty stomach. Reno hadn't even thanked her.
Her mouth drooped uncharacteristically into a frown. Dark clouds coated the smoky night sky of Midgar, foreshadowing the next day's forecast.
/It will probably rain tomorrow, Tifa thought dismally./
Tifa looked up when the elevator halted and chimed, signaling the entrance of another passenger.
Reno...
Just when she thought she was through dealing with the irritable redhead, he joined her on the elevator, his PHS pressed to his ear. He looked just as surprised to see her but the expected mischievous smirk was nowhere to be found.
Reno glanced at her in what appeared like annoyance before pressing the correct floor for Reeve's office.
What was biting him?
Maybe he was angry because she refused a ride from him back to HQ...
Somehow Tifa doubted that.
Tifa was more than ready to voice her mental inquiry but figured it best to wait until he was done talking.
"I don't know...Strife didn't know until I asked him where the hell she was."
There was what sounded like Rude's phone-warped reply before Reno continued on in an exasperated tone.
"He doesn't know either, nobody knows fucking anything!" he answered, throwing his free hand up in desperation. The action startled Tifa but she continued to wait and pretend to not pay attention to his conversation.
"Yeah, I *better* get some damn answers."
Rude replied something unintelligible from where Tifa stood.
"Ok, you two can find me in Reeve's office."
After Reno grumbled something in the way of a 'good bye' he snapped the PHS shut and shoved it in his pocket testily. He ran his slender fingers through his molten locks in what Tifa had come to recognize as frustration, then brought his fist down on the glass wall of the elevator so hard Tifa thought it would shatter.
Damn bastards...couldn't let me have her back for two goddamn days.
He closed his eyes, allowing the gentle hum of the elevator gears calm his seething anger.
There was no way she was gone. He just got her back after twenty years. Life couldn't be that cruel...
...or maybe it could.
He was a skilled killer with no remorse...one of the best at what he did. What made him think for a second that fate should be any kinder to him than she was to his victims?
A bitter smile formed on his lips.
Reno, you deserve every ounce of dissension you get for what you've brought on others. Did you honestly think life was that sweet?
I guess not...
"Reno...?" Tifa's timid inquiry severed his mental battery. Caught up in his negative thoughts, he had pretty much forgotten Tifa was there. Startled, he turned to her.
"What?" he replied with more annoyance than he intended.
Tifa hesitated at the agitated reply but continued anyway. "What's wrong?"
He glared at her a moment longer, still angry to have his thoughts interrupted. But he wasn't really mad at her, somehow he didn't think he would ever be angry with Tifa. He was more frustrated with himself than anything for not protecting his mother.
He let out a long sigh of tension. "Sh...she's gone," he answered, confirming the devastating truth more to himself than to her.
Tifa's brow creased in confusion, "Who is gone?"
"Mo...Giovanna is gone... again." He spoke the last word under his breath.
"Since when? I talked to Cloud on my way down and he didn't say anything was wrong."
"I'm not sure...she was gone when I got here. Cloud was the only one here, but he doesn't know anything, he never does..."
Tifa winced a little at his words. She already knew Reno seemed to harbor a natural hate for the blonde, and vise versa. The latest events probably didn't help the tense relationship.
"What about Casca? Is she alright?"
"What about her!?" he snapped suddenly.
At the hurt look she held Reno turned away towards the elevator doors. He was being selfish and he knew it. He was worried beyond words about his mother but Casca still mattered. Reno tried to ignore the ache in his chest and guilt slowly made its way into his conscience, or lack there of...
He kept his back to her as he answered much more calmly.
"She's fine...they only took Giovanna."
After measuring his response and ascertaining whether or not he was calm again, she spoke.
"It couldn't have happened very long ago. We'll get her back," Tifa urged optimistically. She knew what Reno had to be going through.
/If we don't get her back it will kill him.../ Tifa thought with worry.
"With Strife as the only one here the bastards probably walked right past him. Damn goodfornothing..."
"Reno, the blame game isn't going to solve this. Besides," she began shifting her weight from one hip to the other, "Whether you want to believe it or not, Cloud wouldn't have let anything happen to her purposely."
"You don't understand," he started nearly inaudibly, "It isn't just Cloud. *I* was supposed to be there. *I* was supposed to protect her."
The elevator chimed their arrival at the forty-seventh floor and Reno left without looking back at her. There was a split second of contemplation before Tifa followed him off. Hurrying after his long strides she caught up to him.
"Reno..."
"Drop it Tifa," he deadpanned before she could even attempt anything in the way of sympathy.
He entered Reeve's office leaving her at the door.
"This isn't your fault..." she whispered when he was out of hearing range.
Lightning flickered threateningly within the smoky clouds outside.
Tifa put a shaky hand through her hair.
/Correction: It will probably storm...tonight./
**
///
"Please Mommy? One more time?"
"Reno hun, it's getting late..."
"I only want to go down one more time. I'll be quick, I pwomise!" he begged.
His mother let out a short sigh of defeat, "Ok, just one more..."
"Yay!" he squealed, blissfully running back over to the moogle slide. She checked her watch impatiently as her son climbed the slide's ladder. It was nearing five o'clock. It grew dark very quickly in the slums, and now the shadows were returning.
His high-pitched whoop of joy reached her ears as he went zooming down the metal slide. She went over to meet him on his way down and took his hand. He smiled up at her and she couldn't resist returning the action.
"We'll come back soon, sweetie. Maybe even after work tomorrow...that is, if you're good for the sitter."
He nodded fiercely, "Uh huh, I'll be real good!"
"We'll see, Reno. We'll see..."
///
Her eyes flickered. Somewhere miles away there was a rhythmic beeping. She tried to lift her weighty eyelids and sharp white fluorescent light poured in...
...and it hurt.
Opening her eyes fully she was hit with the full blast of clinical white light. She blinked until her eyes adjusted some, then took in her surroundings.
It wasn't her room at the clinic. Although the room was familiar in the sense that almost everything was white, there was something unsettling about it.
For starters, she was lying on a hard metal dissection table. Her wrists and ankles were restrained tightly to the table.
/How did I get here? /
Well, where was *here*?
The embryo of a headache was developing behind her eyes. That insistent beeping seemed to pound her skull as she wracked her brain for answers. The last thing she remembered was that black-haired nurse giving her a shot...of what, she couldn't remember being told. Then she blacked out almost instantly. Female intuition told her something was very wrong.
"Hey Lao! She's up now!" a booming male voice startled her out of her thoughts and heightened the strength of her headache.
There was the rhythmic clopping of high-heeled shoes and Giovanna strained her neck to see who it was. The footsteps stopped right behind her.
"It's Lao-Anne," an impatient voice corrected. "It's about time she woke up."
The clopping started again until she stood at Giovanna's side where she could see her.
"Rise and shine Specimen B! We have a lot to do," she said with mock cheer.
"Nurse?"
Lao-Anne let out a short round of laughter that passed more as a cackle.
"I was that convincing, huh? Sometimes I question my calling..." She turned away and went to look at a panel of monitors.
"If you aren't a nurse then who are you and why did you bring me here?" she inquired to Lao-Anne's back.
She didn't answer immediately, but collected a few printed papers and snapped them to a clipboard. She slowly made her way back to Giovanna's table without looking up from she was reading.
"Aren't we a little demanding, Miss Hstadin?" She finally lifted her gaze from the papers and removed her wire-framed glasses. After giving the bridge of her thin nose a good massage she put them back on and looked at Giovanna. "You are here so that I can finished what my brother started. From the looks of these readings you are in great shape, so we can get started right away."
Lao-Anne went over to a table against the wall and picked up a cotton ball and a rather large syringe of some pink substance. She made her way back over to the now wide-eyed Giovanna.
"As far as names go," she began smiling sadistically at her, "you may address me as Professor Hojo.
Author's Cackle:
Well this one sure took me awhile to pull out the oven...sowwie. I was a little caught up in the first week of summer vacation. But now I'm back in gear and the next one won't take so long...hopefully. I've also busied myself with a little project: A WEB PAGE!! If ff.net goes on the fritz and you can't get to my stories you can read them there now. The link to it is on my profile page here at ff.net so feel free to stop by. It isn't finished yet, mind you.
Enough yack...
Thanx for the reviews!!
~::DrunkpoOdle::~