Chapter 16 Bad News

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A/N: Sorry it's taken so long for a new chapter but I had to figure out the direction this story is headed.

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Quistis opened her eyes. It was still dark and she frowned, wondering what had woken her. Then she heard it.

"No." Seifer moved restlessly. "No…I don't…"

She rolled over and gently touched his cheek. "Seifer?" He gasped and his eyes flew open. "Seifer, you're ok. It was just a dream." He looked at her a moment, disoriented. "Just a dream," she repeated pulling him close.

"Sorry" he mumbled resting his cheek against her shoulder.

Quistis stroked her fingers through his golden hair until he relaxed back into sleep.

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The next thing Quistis knew it was morning and the phones persistent ringing pulled her awake. She quickly reached for it. "Hello."

"Quistis, it's Xu. Headmaster Cid would like to see you in his office this morning."

"When?" Quistis asked.

"About half an hour," Xu replied.

"Ok, sure I'll be there," Quistis said with a yawn.

"Oh and one more thing. Could you see if you can find Seifer and bring him with you. I tried to ring his room but he's already out."

Quistis looked over at the sleeping man. "Sure, I'll try to find him. Bye." She hung up the receiver and turned to the sleeping man.

"Seifer?" Quistis nudged his shoulder. He didn't move. "Seifer, wake up" she said again leaning closer.

Seifer cracked an eye open "Wha…?"

"Seifer, we have to get up." Now she was leaning over him. Seifer reached up quickly and grabbed her, pulling her down on top of him. Surprised, she let out a shriek.

"Got ya" he growled silkily. Then he nibbled on her ear sending tingles down her spine.

"Seifer" she said weakly "we…" She was having trouble concentrating as he ran his tongue down her neck. "…have to go…" now he was kissing her shoulder "…to Cid's office."

He dropped his head back to the pillow and sighed. "Well that's inconvenient." He gave her a sexy smile "so, who do you have to go find?"

Quistis laughed "so you were awake. Xu wanted me to find you. Apparently you weren't in your room when she called."

"Imagine that" he said looking up at her. She tried to pull herself out of his arms.

"Not so fast, my little captive." He rolled over taking her with him until he had her trapped under him. And at his mercy.

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"Seifer hurry up. We're already late." Quistis said looking for her other shoe. When she found it she sat down to put it on.

Seifer came out of the bathroom running a towel over his damp hair. "Relax Quis. I'm almost ready."

She jumped up and headed for the door pulling her hair into a twist and clipping it up as she went. She stopped before opening the door. "Oh god" she groaned "They're gonna know."

Seifer put his hand on her back and turned her towards him. "They're not going to know. Just don't act guilty. Works every time. Trust me." With that he gave her a quick kiss and opened the door. Quistis followed him out into the hallway.

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Xu greeted them, well Quistis. Seifer, she gave a cool nod. "I see you found him," Xu said as she opened Cid's door. He just raised an eyebrow and smirked as they followed her into Cid's office.

"Ah, here you both are." Cid exclaimed as they entered the room. "Please sit down." He gestured to chairs on the other side of his desk before seating himself.

Seifer sauntered over to one of the offered chairs and sat, stretching out his legs in front of him. Quistis took another chair and looked questioningly at Cid.

"Thank you for coming. We have several things to discuss this morning." Cid looked up as Xu came back in with a tray. "Ah thank you, Xu." She set the tray down on the side table and left.

"Please help yourselves," Cid said gesturing to the coffee. When they were settled once again Cid started "First on the list, eternal problems. As you may know Squall and Zell were in my office yesterday."

Quistis looked over at Seifer and then back at Cid "I told them to talk to you. They were quite upset when they saw that Seifer was back at garden," Quistis explained.

"Yes I was informed by garden staff of the incident," Cid told her then continued turning to Seifer "I'm sorry Seifer that they weren't informed of your return before a confrontation occurred."

Seifer, who had been listening, looked up from the cup in his hand "I handled it."

"Yes well, now they know that you're back and that I wont put up with any hostile actions regarding your return. Which now brings me to the second reason I called this meeting." Cid paused, swiveling in his chair to look out the window for a minute, "Warden Perry escaped."

Quistis looked over at Seifer quickly after Cid dropped that piece of bad news. She saw Seifer's face turn pale and his grip tighten on the cup he held.

"What did you say?" Seifer asked incredibly.

At that moment there was a knock at the door. "Come in," Cid requested. Quistis looked up to see whom the newcomer was. "Special Agent Anders. Thank you for joining us this morning."

Seifer's mind was reeling. 'Perry free? How could this happen? They told me that Perry would pay for what he'd done, but now he was out there. And no one knows where.' Seifer felt a shiver race up his spine.

As Anders walked towards them, Seifer looked up shaking off his thoughts and noticed the other man for the first time. He jumped up and before Ian could react pushed him into the closed door pinning him with his forearm. "You people let him escape," Seifer yelled, furiously "how the fuck could you let him escape? Don't you know what he's done?"

Quistis jumped up and grabbed Seifer's arm. She could see he was losing control. "Seifer. Stop. Now." She pulled at his arm. "Please."

Seifer looked at her, panic in his eyes, for a moment before dropping his arm. Ian cleared his throat and pushed Seifer away.

"Seifer, sit down," Quistis said softly, touching his hand as he stood looking blankly into space. "Sorry Ian," she said looking at the other man. He nodded before moving to a chair and seating himself.

Cid had stood up as Seifer went after the other man. He then watched as Quistis calmed the blonde man down. 'Interesting' Cid thought 'they seem closer'. He tucked that piece of information away to examine later. "Seifer, I don't…" Cid started sternly.

Ian held up his hand, interrupting Cid "It's alright, Headmaster. I understand why Mr. Almasy is upset. I've seen some of what Perry's done."

At that comment Seifer who had been sitting, staring at the floor let his eyes slide up to the other man. Understanding passed silently between them.

"So what are you going to do?" Quistis asked looking over at Cid.

"We are in contact with Ian's people and will be sending SeeD's to help track this man down. From everything I've been told he is very dangerous and does have supporters that are helping him." Cid sighed before continuing, "Because of this I will only be sending experienced SeeD's to…"

Seifer jumped up "I'm going."

"I can't let you do that," Cid said shaking his head "too much has happened, you can't be objective."

"I will go after him," Seifer snarled glaring at the man behind the desk. Then he turned and stormed out of Cid's office.

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Author notes: Thanks again to everybody reading my story and even more thanks to those also reviewing it.

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