Chapter Twenty
Once Upon a Time in F.H.
Rinoa's Surprise Birthday Party
After visiting the old lady, who ran the flower shop in Winhill the following day and advising her of Akemi's death, Selphie and Quistis walked out of Winhill toward the Ragnarok.
"Man, that was really sad," expressed Selphie.
Quistis nodded as she wiped a few random leftover tears from her eyes.
"Why don't we treat ourselves to some lunch in Timber? We've already missed lunch at the Garden," said Selphie.
Quistis quickly agreed and they flew the Ragnarok to Timber.
After eating lunch at the Hamptons in Timber, Selphie suggested they visit the Timber Maniacs Building in order for her to further her search for any lost Laguna articles. Quistis, feeling at loose ends since her sad experience in Winhill, quickly agreed because she had no interest in returning to the Garden any time soon that day.
After searching through past issues of many prior years for over an hour, Selphie excitedly exclaimed, "Here's one I've never seen!"
Quistis responded, "Oh, how exciting for you."
Selphie settled down on the floor and began to reach the article. A few minutes later, she completed her reading and placed the magazine face down on the floor.
"Well?" Quistis asked. "What's it about?"
"Here" replied Selphie tersely, handing Quistis the magazine indicating she should read it for herself.
Quistis discovered Laguna had written of his early days in Esthar before the capturing of Sorceress Adel. The main subject of the article was the resistance organization he had initially headed of which many of the Esthar scientific community had been a part. One of the scientists mentioned was Robert Dobe, who was referred to as a 'leading energy research scientist.'
It wasn't until Quistis neared the end of the article in her reading that she discovered what affected Selphie so. Laguna wrote of Robert Dobe and his wife having an infant named Selphie during the reign of Sorceress Adel and being so frightened of possible repercussions to the entire family, if he were discovered as a member of the underground resistance by Sorceress Adel, they made the momentous decision to give their daughter up for adoption and had her smuggled out of Esthar.
Quistis closed the magazine and asked, "Selphie, you don't suppose this is you, do you?"
"I don't know," answered Selphie weakly.
"Do you think this is Mayor Dobe?" Quistis persisted.
"I don't know what I think," Selphie snapped.
"Well, it does make sense" Quistis said speaking more to herself than to Selphie. "He's described as a leading energy research scientist and there are those solar panels in F.H."
Quistis suddenly suggested, "I know who can help with this."
"Who?" Selphie asked suddenly more interested.
"Xu was reading a book on the solar panel the other day when I visited her. Let's go ask her," Quistis suggested.
Selphie quickly agreed and as the two young, beautiful SeeDs hurried through Timber on their way to the Ragnarok, Selphie's mind was reeling.
When they entered the Garden, Quistis suddenly remembered Cid had requested of her that she speak to the three Trepies concerning their recent disturbing, if not totally bizarre, behavior of the past week. Begging off from visiting Xu at that time, Quistis hurried off.
Feeling emotionally abandoned, Selphie decided to enlist the services of Irvine in her endeavor and a few minutes later, Selphie and Irvine entered Xu's room in the clinic.
"Xu" Selphie began to say.
"Hey, Xu," Irvine interrupted, "Is it true when you were rescued by Seifer, he had torn off your blouse and your bra was destroyed?"
Xu blushed deeply and falteringly replied, "I really can't say."
Selphie shouted "Irvine!" and turned and pushed him roughly.
Turning back to Xu, Selphie explained, "You'll have to excuse Irvine. His mind, or at least what's left of it, is always in the gutter."
Selphie asked, "Xu, would you mind reading this" while handing her the Timber Maniacs.
A few minutes later Xu had finished her reading and setting the magazine on the bedside table, she looked up at Selphie and replied, "Yes, the man in this article and Mayor Dobe are one and the same."
Selphie asked tentatively, "Uh, do you think...he could be my father?"
Xu answered, "Yes, I think it's more than likely he is your paterfamilias."
"Oh Great Shiva!" Selphie exclaimed, while turning deathly pale and beginning to wobble on her feet.
"Irvine, fetch Selphie that stool!" Xu commanded. Xu had to admit she had never seen Irvine move with more alacrity. Selphie sat stunned on the stool for a few moments and then said, "I guess I should go visit him, huh?"
"That's what I would do," agreed Xu.
Turning to Irvine, Selphie asked, "Will go with me?"
"Don't you know I will, Sefie?" replied Irvine quietly, no longer the laughing buffoon.
As Doctor Kadowaki stepped into Xu's clinic room to check on her recuperation, she realized Xu appeared extremely unhappy.
"What's wrong, Xu?" the doctor asked.
"How was I dressed, when I was carried into the Garden, after the Missile Base exploded?" questioned Xu.
"Uh, oh" Doctor Kadowaki said. "Who told you?"
"Irvine" Xu replied. "Why couldn't have, at least, a sheet been placed over me?!" she demanded.
The doctor explained, "Xu, it was touch and go whether you were going to live another five minutes. I began working on you as soon as you were carried into the main part of the Garden. We couldn't spare any time to waste on social proprieties! Besides you certainly didn't appear erotic drenched in your own blood."
When Xu chose to remain silent, the doctor continued, "Xu, allow me to offer you some advice. Find someone to love and settle down and pump out some babies. Remember, your biological clock is ticking!"
When Xu continued to say nothing, Doctor Kadowaki stated, "I'll return later to change your dressing" and she turned and left the small room.
After the doctor had left, Xu thought to herself, "Easy for her to say! Where am I going to meet someone around here?"
After she and Irvine left Xu, Selphie decided, before traveling the distance to F.H. from Trabia in the Ragnarok, to discuss this issue with Edea. Discovering Irvine agreeable to this, she warned him to behave himself in front of Matron.
Selphie and Irvine met Edea, as she was just leaving her and Cid's small apartment on the third floor. Edea explained to them she was on her way to the baths and asked was Selphie willing to talk there. Selphie quickly agreed and informed Irvine he should wait for her in the coffee shop, as he was not allowed in the women's bath.
After Selphie and Edea walked down to the sub-floor and down the long corridor leading to the baths, they entered the women's dressing area and quickly stripped off their clothing. Wrapped in large towels, they made their way to the baths.
Throwing off their towels by the side of the tub, they eased themselves down into the warm water. Blushing slightly, Selphie couldn't help, but notice Edea's substantial breasts.
As if reading Selphie's mind, Edea promised, "Yours will be this big someday, Selphie."
Now blushing furiously and totally embarrassed from being caught out, Selphie asked "Do you possibly remember who brought me to the orphanage?"
"Why, yes I do" Edea answered. "It was a resistance fighter from Esthar. But why do you ask at this late date?"
"Because," Selphie explained, "I was reading an old article by Laguna and I may have discovered who my father is."
"Who is it, if I might ask?"
"Mayor Dobe of F.H." Selphie explained.
"Yes, I believe a Robert Dobe was the man who brought you," confirmed Edea.
"I'm going to visit him right now!" Selpie decided quickly climbing from the bath and dashing toward the dressing room.
"Selphie?" Edea called out.
Selphie paused and turned towards Edea as she continued, "You're forgetting your towel." As she raced back to retrieve her towel, Edea cautioned, "And don't forget to get dressed, you don't want to cause Irvine to act any worse than he already does."
Blushing, Selphie left the bath area to the sound of Edea's chuckling.
Exiting the Ragnarok after landing at F.H., Selphie and Irvine were immediately confronted by the sight of the Mayor's abode. Now that she was this close to possibly meeting her parents, Selphie began to experience free-floating anxiety and began to move hesitantly with some trepidation.
Irvine, noticing this, encouraged, "Come on, Sefie. It'll be fine."
Selphie smiled at him. "Arigato" she replied.
The Mayor's house was an odd shaped metal structure having the appearance of being created haphazardly.
There was no need to knock on the door of the Mayor's quarters, because he and his wife lived on the second floor and were seldom on the first floor, which held such diverse items as a large ship steering wheel on one wall with a large window directly in front of it, as if the building had been a ship in the past. There was a table with charts and an overhead light. There was a large, green blackboard with a chalk written message in a foreign tongue hanging off a partially sawed limb of an old tree that appeared to be growing through the floor! There was a huge coil of unknown origins hanging down from the ceiling. There was some sort of a device producing electrical power in the corner.
As she and Irvine walked up the curving metal staircase that led to the second floor, Selphie realized the first floor was one of the oddest places she had ever observed. "What kind of people are these?" she thought to herself.
Reaching the second floor and stepping out into the center of the room, Selphie observed there was various oddities here also, such as, model airplanes hanging from the high ceiling and an old truck tire lying on the floor. There was no furniture present in the room, although a number of odd-looking machines lined the walls.
As usual, Mayor Dobe and his wife, Flo, were seated on the floor.
Mayor Dobe spoke harshly "You're some of those people from that Garden. What do you want here?"
"Uh, oh, not a good start," Irvine thought.
Selphie asked, "May we sit down?"
"Do whatever you wish, as long as you don't kill anybody," the Mayor retorted.
After seating themselves on the floor, Selphie asked, "You are the Robert Dobe, who was a famous research scientist?"
The Mayor became suddenly guarded. "What if I am?" he asked.
"And you and your wife had a baby named Selphie?" she asked.
The Mayor suddenly appeared very leery of the question. "Yes" he admitted.
Selphie questioned, "Where did you send your baby, when you had her smuggled out of Esthar?"
"Why are you asking me these questions?!" the Mayor loudly expostulated. "Is this some kind of a Garden plot?" he demanded.
When tears began rolling down Selphie's face, the Mayor's wife reached over and touched his arm saying, "You're frightening her, dear" and turning to Selphie she asked, "What is it you need to ask us?"
Selphie answered, "Did you send your daughter to the orphanage run by Edea Kramer in Centra."
"Yes, we did" Flo, the Mayor's wife, answered with surprise in her voice. "How did you know that?" she asked.
Selphie blurted out "Because I was raised there and I'm seventeen years old and my name is Selphie Tilmitt."
Flo, leaping to her feet excitedly, exclaimed "Oh Great Hyne, Robert! It's our little baby!"
The Mayor replied disgrunted "We do not have a Garden baby."
"Of course we do!" exclaimed Flo. Stepping quickly toward Selphie, Flo declared, "Robert, you pretentious fop! This is our long lost daughter. We chose the name Tilmitt for her!"
Flo reached down and scooped Selphie up in a mammoth hug. Flo suggested, "Selphie, let's go for a walk." And the two women left the second floor and went out into F.H. leaving Irvine uncomfortably sitting across from Mayor Dobe.
"Now what in the hell am I supposed to do?" thought Irvine.
As Selphie was piloting the Ragnarok in their return to Trabia, Irvine asked, "How do you feel?"
"Totally overwhelmed, but wonderful" answered Selphie.
"How did it go with your mother?" Irvine wondered.
"Really good, and she said my father has always been an asshole, but that he'll come around eventually."
"Selphie!" Irvine exclaimed acting as though he was scandalized, but he was actually secretly amused.
"But that's what she said," Selphie declared. "She said he's always been an asshole, but she loves him anyway" Selphie insisted.
Selphie asked, "Irvine, could you be cool with not telling anyone about this, until I have a chance to talk with Xu and Matron?"
"Why certainly, Sefie" Irvine cooed, "Anything for my little darling."
"Yeah, whatever" was Selphie's sarcastic response. Selphie had still not forgiven Irvine for his tryst with Trepie #2.
Irvine suggested, "Selphie, could you step on it? I don't want to miss dinner."
The following morning Zell, Selphie, Irvine and the pigtail girl were sitting around an early morning coffee shop table, when Rinoa walked in.
"Whoa!" Irvine exclaimed, surprised. "What's Rinoa doing here so early?"
Selphie said, "It's her birthday, stupid." Selphie had continued to be highly upset over Irvine's liaison with Trepie #2, even though he insisted it hadn't been consummated.
Selphie continued, "She's come to remind us of her birthday. I guarantee you the second thing out of her mouth will be some reference to it."
Zell chimed in, "There's a surprise party this evening."
Selphie shot him a withering glance, as she quickly said "Shh! Here she comes now."
Rinoa approached the table and loudly greeted "Good Morning, everybody" and displayed her award winning smile. As Rinoa sat down, Selphie noticed Rinoa was still wearing her relatively new SeeD uniform everywhere. Selphie thought cattily, "I bet the only time she takes it off is when she's with Squall."
Rinoa said "Guess what? Today's my birthday."
"Oh, that's nice," responded Irvine. "How old are you?"
Selphie gave Irvine such a deadly kick beneath the table that he quickly stood up and replied, "Well, I've got to go" and limped off from the table.
Zell, taking his girlfriend by the arm, stood up with her and said, "We need to get going too."
Selphie looked at Rinoa, who was sitting with her mouth open poised to answer Irvine's question and explained, "I've got to run too. Ja Ne" said Selphie, as she arose and exited the coffee shop.
Rinoa thought to herself, "Well, how do you like that? What was that all about?"
As Squall and Rinoa were eating lunch in the cafeteria, Rinoa spoke disheartened "I can't believe it. Not one of my friends wished me a happy birthday this morning."
Squall leaned over and kissed her cheek and grinned, "Happy Birthday."
"Oh, I don't mean you" she retorted.
"Never mind about them," suggested Squall. "Cid said we could use his apartment all night, since your father has been relocated in Xu's room until she is released from the clinic and he and Edea are spending the night at Trabia Garden for some reason."
"Oh, Squall," gushed Rinoa. "That'll be wonderful. That's a great birthday present for us to be able to spend a night together out of that tiny room of yours."
Squall began thinking of the immense logistics involved with procuring enough cake and ice cream for all the people he had invited for Rinoa's surprise birthday party. There was even people coming from Trabia Garden. And he had to remember the punch for the upper-classmen and the liquor for the adults!
Rinoa promised, "I'll wear something incredibly sexy this evening."
"Oh, good" Squall replied distractedly, while wondering where he could locate all the tables he was going to need.
Rinoa was in Cid's apartment a few minutes before seven o'clock in the evening. Squall had informed her he would meet her at seven and she wanted to be prepared for him. She quickly stripped off her SeeD uniform and then her bra and panties. She had promised him she would wear something incredibly sexy and she didn't know anything sexier, than her body au naturel.
Rinoa hurried to the bathroom in order to brush and groom her hair and apply fresh makeup. She was just finishing when she heard Squall knock on the apartment door and ask, "Rinoa, come out here for a minute, will you?"
The totally nude leggy brunette hurried toward the door thinking, "Boy, is he going to be surprised!"
Throwing open the door and stepping into Cid's office, Rinoa suddenly became horror struck, as she observed about a hundred people staring at her beautiful stark naked body and shouting "Surprise!"
"Oh, Squall! How could you?!" Rinoa cried out in anguish.
Rinoa literally went into a state of shock and was having a great deal of difficulty in thinking clearly. The blood began to pound in her temples and her ears were ringing as adrenaline began to race through her body. She just wasn't able to comprehend how a quiet evening with Squall had turned into her standing completely naked in front of a room of fully dressed people; some of them almost complete strangers.
Rinoa felt as though she was caught in a hideous nightmare and she just couldn't seem to make herself wake up. "This is Squall's fault!" Rinoa thought desperately. "He should have known what I meant, when I said I was going to wear something incredibly sexy for him."
Rinoa stood, in total shock, unable to move with her legs spread apart, brazenly displaying her nudity and gawked with horror at the invited guests, who were beginning to display different emotions on their faces ranging from surprise to shock to outright appreciation.
As Rinoa gazed across the room from left to right, she observed Cid and Edea, of course. She distinguished Selphie, who appeared judgmental, standing with Irvine, who stared at her salaciously, and Zell, blushing furiously, was with the pigtail girl, who was hiding her head in her hands. She observed Quistis, holding her right hand up to her face laughing behind it, standing by a tall, attractive blonde, male SeeD, who Rinoa knew slightly and was obviously Quistis's date for the evening. She perceived Quistis's friend, Melissa Jenkins, who appeared very sad for some unknown reason and a group of Trabia Garden SeeDs and upper-classmen. She glimpsed Zone staring at her with raw lust evident on his features. She gazed upon Seifer, Raijin and Fujin watching her bemusedly. She distinguished Doctor Kadowaki, who was standing next to Xu, who was on crutches. She observed Mishima, who appeared amused and Shinji, who gazed at her in appreciation and Kasumi, who seemed horrified. She perceived the Trepies, who were laughing. She observed a number of SeeDs and upper-classmen from the Garden, including two young women she had never seen before. She saw the library and the kitchen staff. She suddenly glimpsed her father. The look of total concern on his face finally snapped Rinoa out of her fugue state and she fled the room slamming the apartment door behind her.
The two young women, who Rinoa had not recognized, were two new upper-classmen named Corey and Sara. Corey, a tastefully dressed, long legged beauty with auburn hair, commented "You know, I think I could really like Rinoa, if she didn't act as if she were shooting salad all the time." Sara, an attractive petite blonde, who was wearing an extremely short, green see-through dress, consisting mostly of holes, replied, "Oh, I couldn't. She just has no fashion sense, plus I think she's an exhibitionist."
Squall wrapped up the fiasco by saying "That's our show for tonight, folks. Thanks for coming and be careful going home." And he also fled the room into the sanctuary of Cid's apartment.