All the way to Reno
By Crimson
*****


CHAPTER 3: Slum-bags

Reno tried to dress himself up, in fact he always tried to do what Elena told him; it was the only way to stay on her good side. Even so, everything he'd been doing lately had been wrong, according to her. He was anticipating another entire day of public scolding, and he wasn't far wrong. How could she expect him to do everything she'd just asked in half an hour? Reno was a laid back guy, and that just wasn't like him. All the same, he did the best he could. After waiting by the elevator for five minutes and getting no luck, he decided to jog down the stairs. By the time he reached the lobby, he was exhausted.

"Ten minutes late," Elena tutted. "And is it me or do you look worse now?"
Reno tried to shrug the insults aside: he was used to them.
"At least I'm here, babe," he replied casually. "C'mon, let's go. Taxi!"
A car pulled up, and he shunted Elena in.
"Where we going?"
Elena looked at him disapprovingly.
"To the edge of Sector 7, please."
"You sure, ma'am?"
"Sure."

Elena sat back, but Reno looked confused.
"Why to the edge? Why not straight to the bar?"
"Don't you know anything?" she complained. "It's a rough neighbourhood. Turning up in a taxi won't exactly make us popular with the locals. Everyone in Sector 7 is a slum-bag. Everyone."

Reno turned to look out of the window. Great, so Elena didn't even like Tifa. Why were they meeting up? He had to admit, he was stumped when it came to understanding how Elena's mind worked. He supposed Elena thought she was doing the polite thing by feigning interest in people she'd never liked, but he knew Tifa was too smart to fall for it. She was probably suspecting a trick. Even Reno himself had begun to suspect the same thing lately. Elena had been acting strangely… enough for Reno to notice, which was a lot. He was getting bored of feigning interest in Elena, as well. One of these days, he'd break away…

*****

"Shit, shit, shit," muttered Tifa as a bottle flew from the side of the bar and shattered on the floor. She grabbed the dustpan to sweep it away, but she was shaking too much for it to be useful. She tried to relax, but ended up sitting with her back to the bar and the rest of the world, quivering.

Barret, having heard the noise, ran up to her and grabbed her shoulder.
"Tif, you okay?"
She was staring into the distance, her eyes wide, still shaking.
"Shit. MARLENE," he yelled. "FETCH SOME WATER!"
As the young girl complied, Barret kept talking to Tifa.
"C'mon, girl, c'mon. You're okay. There's no customers here yet, just relax, try to calm down."
Marlene appeared with the water.
"We're closed, right?"
She took the hint, and switched the sign on the door to deter any morning drinkers.
"But dad?"
Barret looked at her.
"Yeh?"
"Reno and Elena are coming here today. We can't stay closed."

At the mention of the Turks, Tifa's body tensed. Barret finally grasped what was wrong.
"It don't matter, Marlene. You wanna be a big girl and mix the drinks for them?"
"I can do that!" she said proudly.
"Okay then, go downstairs and do your hair all nicely," he encouraged, still shaking Tifa. Her eyes suddenly came into focus, and she stared at the disappearing head of Marlene.

"B-Barret?"
"I'm here, it's okay." Tifa's body went limp.
"Are they coming here? I don't know what happened, a bottle fell and then I was down here, I couldn't move, all I could see was Cloud, and the Turks were behind him, and they shot him, and…" Barret couldn't make out any more, she was sobbing too much. "Oh Barret, it was awful." She collapsed against him.
"Shh, Tif, it's okay. It wasn't real. It was just…"

But he didn't know what it was. Not a dream, not even a nightmare; maybe just a hallucination. But whatever it was, it had almost killed Tifa, and he wasn't going to let that happen again.

"Don't worry, Tif," he told her. "Marlene's going to sort out the drinks today, okay? You go downstairs and lie down."
She sniffed, and looked up at him.
"Okay."
She stood up, but her knees buckled. Barret threw out an arm, and caught her just in time.
"I'll carry you."

She nodded in compliance, and allowed herself to be lifted up and taken downstairs. Barret laid her on her bed.
"You get some sleep."

Marlene was doing her hair in the mirror, and her reflection smiled at Tifa. She tried her hardest to smile back, but the exertion was too much. Closing her eyes, she instantly fell into a deep sleep.

"C'mon, 'Lene," whispered Barret. "We've got a bar to run."