~*~
It was eleven o'clock on that cloudy morning, one dim as twilight, when Edgar arrived at Selphie and Tidus's modest house. He had been stalking around his own small hut since dawn, scooping up various newspapers or books from his collection and then discarding them just as fast. He tried working on his latest invention, but it was in vain. He hadn't had the amount of concentration needed for such a delicate task.
He hadn't had any concentration at all.
There was probably a large indentation in the wall near his desk where he had released his frustration through a series of punches.
Someone he cared about was injured—and he could do nothing at all about it?
Inside his heart had been aching. It wasn't akin to the anger he had harbored for his parents. It was a different feeling. Against his parents the one he had been protecting was himself, from a realm he viewed as evil and corrupt. The feeling now wasn't about him at all.
Eleven was the time he had decided on. Some people ate lunch as early as that. Right?
He rapped the door with his knuckles three precisely spaced times.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
No response. He waited around two minutes and then knocked twice more.
He went around to the back. No response. No one home…
At last Edgar stopped to listen. The man heard nothing. This sound set him off at a jog for the big house on the hill, the one that was partially a living tree, the one set apart from the main village. The quiet resounded loudly in his ears, burying the crunching and sliding noises of his feet hitting against the sand at closer and closer intervals.
He pounded on the door of the kitchen. The curtains were drawn over the huge windows on either side of him. It was dark and quiet inside as well. The only sign was a flickering light in one of the rooms within, a sign that allowed the dying hope inside his heart to keep itself from the grave.
It seemed no one would answer him. He touched the knob and in a moment found himself stumbling inside. "Hello?"
"It's Edgar," he heard a voice say from the next room.
"Has something happened?" Edgar asked, and it was a foolish question. If nothing had happened, why would Nadia be sitting on her own couch with her head down—be back in her own house and not overwhelmed with seething contempt by having to share the same breathing air as Sora? Why would Jalen be occupying the rest of the couch in a horizontal position, stirring frequently as if from a nightmare?
Nadia glanced up, her expression somewhat one of permanent astonishment. She was pale and red-eyed. Sleep-deprived and upset.
"It's too early," she murmured into her hands.
"What do you mean?" Edgar pressed gently, approaching her and touching her shoulder with sympathy.
It was of no use; Nadia's head had gone back down. She was gripping the sides of her head tightly. A few of her fingers stuck up through masses of dark red hair.
"Somethin's wrong with Aunt Kairi's baby," said a young female voice. Edgar's eyes searched for the owner, and quickly found her. Crawling out of a sleeping bag in the darkened corner was a beanpole of a young girl with a mop of brown hair and a handful of freckles splashed over a thin, round face.
"Rinny?" Edgar wondered, recalling the name of Selphie and Tidus's daughter.
She nodded.
"Daddy went ta get the doctor."
"When was that?"
"Last night… Middle of the night," Rinny lisped quietly, as if remembering something unpleasant. She reached under her thick, short hair and scratched behind one ear, tilting her head to the side. She was studying Edgar, he realized, perhaps to see if he was trustworthy or not.
"So the doctor wasn't on the island..."
"No. Daddy took his boat."
Edgar approached her with slow steps and crouched down. As part of his final years of schooling, he had worked with the younger children as an assistant teacher. He was accustomed to their shyness.
"It was scaaawie," the girl moaned quietly. "Poundin' on the door, shoutin'. Uncle Sora came ta our house…middle of the night…"
Edgar nodded his head to encourage her.
"…I woke up—well, I was just goin' ta sleep, but I'm s'pposed ta be asleep by nine, Mommy said—you won't tell Mommy, will you?"
"No."
"I like ta look at my books with Daddy at night when he's home," she explained desperately. "He reads ta me."
"I won't tell your mother. I promise. Now what happened last night?"
"Ev'rybody was yellin' real loud." She clasped her hands over her ears to demonstrate. "They said 'Kairi's in twouble!' and ev'rybody was runnin' around. Uncle Sora was yellin' at Daddy ta get the doctor an' then Mommy was too and Daddy ran out ta get his boat and Mommy took me here."
"So Sora and your mother are in with Kairi now?"
Rinny pointed at the bottom of the stairs. "Up there. Mommy said I had ta stay downstairs."
Edgar straightened.
"Hello? I'm back! We're here!" cried a deep male voice from the kitchen after Edgar heard the back door creak and then slam shut again.
"Daddy!"
Tidus came into the light, breathing hard. His deeply tanned skin had a distinct pink undertone and sweat sparkled all over his naked chest, arms, and sandaled feet. A pair of shorts, his only item of clothing, was soaked with sweat, too—or seawater. The man smelled strongly of both.
Edgar realized that the blonde man must have made the trip between islands in less than half the usual time, and with only the light of a flickering lantern to guide him—at best. His body, sweaty and pink, was evidence of the effort.
Behind Tidus was a cloaked, balding man with black hair and a large bag. His eyes were narrowed slightly as he examined his surroundings, but his lips failed to produce a word.
Something thundered on the stairs. Edgar looked over to see it who the frantic person was.
Sora…
"You're finally back—Please, Doctor! Hurry! This way! Right up these stairs here! Hurry, my wife's—" He was already turning around and hurrying back up, gesturing madly. "Hurry!"
The doctor made a trail of quick, short steps to the stairway and began to climb, bending his knees at precise right angles. Tidus followed far less robotically, his body drooping with fatigue.
Rinny looped her arms around Edgar's leg as the noise upstairs mounted. Talking and yelling and the pounding of footsteps. Edgar checked the couch and yes, Nadia was still unresponsive. Jalen's face was set in a deep frown, but his eyes were still closed and the lids fluttered as in sleep.
Finally, there was more stumbling at the bottom of the stairs. It was Sora, pulling his hand through long brown hair over and over. His face was pale and his eyes huge and disbelieving.
It was then that Nadia moved—flinched—and not a second before.
"—and don't you come back up here until you can do something useful!" Selphie's voice came shrieking down the stairs.
Sora paused to stare over his shoulder for a moment before walking into the room and falling into a chair.
"Is Aunt Kairi gonna be okay?" Rinny was the first who dared to speak, still squeezing Edgar's leg.
"She…" Sora ran his fingers through his hair again, serving to make it even more unkempt (if that was even possible). He looked at Edgar, then, and the boy didn't understand quite why. Perhaps because the question Rinny asked was the same as the one in Edgar's eyes.
Sora explained in broken sentences that Kairi seemed to have prematurely gone into labor, but not much was happening. She was going back and forth between being awake and asleep, but never appeared to fully be either. Selphie, who knew something of midwifery and had assisted during Jalen's birth, was doing all she could for Kairi, but there was not much more to try without a doctor.
This had been the situation for over ten hours.
Tidus came down, saying that Selphie had sent him for boiled water. He disappeared into the kitchen once Sora told him where the kettle was.
"It's more than a month too early," Sora murmured.
Perhaps all that stress building up was too much for Kairi's body to take, Edgar thought. That means Selphie was right, and…
"Damn, it's all my fault," Nadia growled softly, sounding a bit like a wounded lion.
Sora stood. He shook his head and insisted, "No. No, it's everything I did. I should never have come back to this island."
"I didn't even think about the baby when I blew up like that…"
"All of this happened because of me!"
"No, it was me!"
"Nadia, it's my fault—"
"Will you two just listen to yourselves?!" screamed an angry voice.
It was Tidus, still exhausted, but this time breathing hard with anger. He was clenching a wooden bucket of steaming water in one heavily blistered fist, and looked very much like he would like to throw it on the two arguing people in front of him.
"I can't believe the two of you, sitting here bickering about whose fault it was! How selfish can you get? You're so wrapped up in self-pity!"
"Tidus, we were only—"
"Do you even realize that we could lose Kairi and the baby any moment now?"
"Mom," moaned Nadia softly, hugging herself.
Selphie's high-pitched commands were back. "Tidus! We need that water right now!"
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Sorry this chapter is a little short. The last two were longish, so…
