Hey peoples me again. May I poke you and direct you to Tainted Blood by Lestatsdarkrose. She also has alot of good works. Umm, there was another story I was gonna surgest to ya's but I forget the title.

Disclaimer I do not own FF8



A week has passed, Squall still remained restrained in the infirmary. Several times he almost crashed, and he cried out apologizing to Rin for his actions when he was awake. The thought of what he did helping him to fight the spell on him. Rin's hand had been reconstructed the best it could be. The piece of arm bone and the hand bones all replaced by prosthetics, but her fingers remained gone. Three fingers totally gone, no chance of rebuilding.

Walking down the hall, Ellone makes her way to the infirmary. Seifer followed five paces behind her. Ti had been awhile since he was welcomed back to this school and it was obvious that some people still didn't want him here. He was the sorceress's knight, who could blame him. Ellone stops ahead of him and turns around. Something in her eyes made him stop to.

"You know, it was not your fault. You followed your heart and did what you believed what was right." Ellone says softly and respectfully. "You did what you thought was right, and when time came you admitted your mistakes. A lot of people don't do that, I respect your decision."

Seifer stood stunned, it never dawned on him she knew what he was thinking. If he knew that he wouldn't have been thinking about what he was thinking about earlier. Ellone walks up to Seifer and puts a hand on his shoulder respectfully.

"Don't worry I won't say anything about your son, but you should." Ellone scolds.

"I know, but can we drop it?"

"Seifer y-"

"Seifer, Ellone!" Zell calls out his son in tow.

"Thank goodness for Zell." Seifer mumbles, for once really thankful for Zell.

"Hi Zell, how have you been."

"Great, oh I'd like you to meet Junior." Zell pulls his son forward.

"Hi, I'm Zell."

"You look like you father Zell, minus the tattoo."

"Yeah well, that's gonna change."

"Uh, yeah, where's Cid, he wanted me to take care of Rin." Seifer breaks in.

"Yeah, Cid's in a meeting. It's better to just go by Rin. She's pretty much locked herself in her room." Zell scratches the back of his head.

"I'll bring him dad, you fill Ellone in K?" Zell pops up in the air.

"Okay Junior you do that."

Zell JR grabs Seifer's arms and pulls him down the hall. Zell watches at his son drags a surprised Seifer down the hall. Did he think that Zell JR. was more hyper then him? Zell hopes not, he had a reputation to live up to. Smiling he looks at Ellone who was standing there quietly hands folded in front. Years didn't affect her age at all, she still looked like they day he last saw her.

"This way Ellone, tell me, how have you been?"

Ellone walks beside Zell, "I've been fine. Same with Laguna, unaffected by the heart attack he had last year. But the doctor said his ticker was just fine. Partly cause he met someone when he was in the hospital, but he'll never admit he's in love."

"That must suck." Zell mumbles.

"Don't worry," Ellone chuckles. "I've been playing match maker."

"What's her name?"

"Estrella." Ellone answers.

"What an interesting name." Zell states.

Zell opens the door for the infirmary. Ellone walks in and shyly looks around. She could hear screaming and cursing from the other room and knew where Squall was. Remaining calm she walks in by Squall and sits down. Gently she brushes the hair of his sweaty brow. Squall's eyes open and look at her, a strange feeling fills his body and he closes his eyes again till it passes. When his eyes open it's the same old Squall everyone knew.

"Sister." Squall says weakly.

"Hey, I've been hearing you've been having some problems."

"If they say some there leaving some fine print out." Squall mumbles.

"I can tell." Ellone moves her hand to Squall's shoulder ."It's not your fault, your being controlled."

Squall closes his eyes. Vaguely he remembers the force that was being implanted in his mind by that resoluteing chant. It was evil and consuming his mind with every word. For some reason it coward to the recesses of his mind when Ellone came around. He would loose control again, Squall was certain of that. Ellone would leave and it's come back. Squall opens his eyes and meets gazes with Ellone.

"How long?" Squall asks about his sane time.

"Till I leave Squall, you know that." Ellone answers.

"Rin?"

"With Seifer."

Squall's face tightens and he looks away. "Can I?"

"Yes, if your strong enough."

"For Rin I can be."

Ellone watches Squall slip off into a sleep. His face relaxes and for once he looked like a peaceful child. He was so weak from the fight to remain him. The least Ellone could do is to sit by him as he slept. She pushes the hair out of Squall's face. At least he'd get a couple hours in untroubled sleep. Raine would have loved to see him today. She was so proud when Squall was born. Still though, her broken heart couldn't recover.

****

Zell JR left Seifer outside of Squall and Rin's tiny sized school apartment. Ones for families in high positions so the commanders can always be on call. Reasonable considering the times they are living in. Quietly Seifer knocks on the door. Hoping that someone would answer, but his knocks fail to rouse a response. The only thing to respond to the knocks was it's echo's off the walls. Seifer rubs the back of his head, he gives up. Making a fist he pounds on the door as loud as he can. He'd wake the dead if he had to.

Yet still no one answers the door Rin was obviously ignoring him. Trying the door Seifer realizes she had it locked. Looking around he couldn't see any place to hide they key so he did what he could. He backs up and kicks open the door, but that door caught on trash. Using his weight Seifer pushes open the door.

Left over food lay here and there, looking around Seifer notices Rin sitting slumped on the couch. Her eyes glued forward in a trance, and her feet on the coffee table. Seifer pushes harder on the door and slips in. He growls, not even wanting to wonder what crunched under his feet. It was obvious Rin was inside of herself, and angry at the world. Seifer looks at the layer of horse radish on the bottom of his shoe. This will now do.

"Hey Rinny, how are you?" Seifer asks kicking away some old food. "Looks like you need some help cleaning this place up."

Without breaking her stair Rin raises her hand and flicks off Seifer. Anger fills Seifer and reaches his peak. He grabs Rin's arms and pulls her off the couch. Rin opens her eyes wide and stares at him surprised. No one ever dared be this mean to her as of lately, how dare he.

"Rin go take a shower," Seifer orders. "I have to clean of this mess and you look a fright."

Rin pulls her arm away and give Seifer that if it could, it would freeze ice. Seifer felt the urge to slap her and give her a what for. But her face was already bruised and a nasty scar marred the bottom of her chin. Rin's face saddened and grew glum, and Seifer cooled it. Rin was hurting a lot and it would not help if he lost it right now.

"You dad will be fine, if anybody can make it through this it'll be him." Seifer lets out a breath. "Not to mention Ellone is with him now."

Rin looks at Seifer, she never herd of the person Ellone. Except maybe here and there in distant conversations when she was a little girl.

"Ellone is your aunt Rin, now go take a shower." Seifer looks around. "I'll find someone to bring you a clean towel, and clean clothes."

Rin obeys, lost in thought and done conversing with her future father-in-law. Seifer raises his arms frustrated. This was not how he wanted this day to go. Bu then when did any day ever go right. Man he missed his wife. Right now she'd know what to do. Disdainfully he grabs a garbage bag and starts to clean up the mess. Probably find his son to

Soon a tapping on Rin's window draws him over. Cautiously he walks over and opens the window and gasps at who was there.

***

OOOOO suspenseful