A/N: Chapters begin to overlap one another in this part of the story. This one is centering on how Squall arrived home. The next will be how Rinoa did. Confusing? I hope not. Any questions, send me an e-mail or ask them in your review!
Chapter 12—Buried deep
Squall sat in the back of the helicopter, feeling depressed. The meeting hadn't gone all too smoothly, and once again it had been up to him to take up the fight on his father's behalf. Eventually, he had won, and Esthar was now going to be allowed to train their soldiers with SeeD in their own country. A commander of the new Esthar Garden had not yet been decided, and since he had graduated long ago, despite complications of a certain mission, he had hopes that he might be able to take the position himself. Rinoa's words about her father didn't seem too far off the mark; he could see why she disliked him. He was proud, much too formal, and rude--nothing at all like his daughter.
Quistis sat beside him for this part of the journey. It was her job to review her notes with him and discuss how the talks went. Today she had little to say. Everyone seemed to be clear on the agenda and didn't need her recaps. She instead shifted the hem on her skirt and thought about taking it up a little. Squall watched her shift her skirt around until it became boring and looked out of the window. Nobody else was doing anything interesting, and his eyes shifted back to Quistis, who was now adjusting her watchstrap. He wondered briefly how she managed to get all her clothes to match like they did, then contemplated asking her and decided against it. Such a question would be so random in the silence that it would break the silence into becoming uncomfortable. Maybe he'd ask some other time.
Squall hadn't told any of his family about Rinoa's new story, mainly because he knew little about it himself. But when she had told him she had sounded fairly excited, so he hoped it was going well. He had no idea when she was going to do this story. In fact, all of their communications were a little vague. He also realized that he hadn't told her how long his trip was going to take, but they usually lasted about a day, so he supposed Rinoa had guessed already. Either that or she had telephoned the palace staff and asked.
Laguna was fidgeting with his own clothes that had twisted themselves around him and now refused to straighten.
"Oh, damn this shirt. Why did you let me buy it Squall?" he asked, shifting and making it worse.
"I didn't let you buy it. You ordered it through the TV, like you did the broken coffee machine, the broken toaster, the broken radio..."
"The curtains that fell down after two days, the lampshade that caught fire, the tea pot that blew up..." Quistis continued on the end of Squall's list. Laguna folded his arms in a sulk.
"That teapot was not my fault. Ellone bought that," he said moodily. Quistis laughed.
"A glow in the dark teapot...I doubt Ell would have bought that," Quistis said, smiling.
"Ok, ok, fine. I did buy the teapot, but the advert for it was really good. There were these two dogs, and one cat, a budgie, and...."
The president continued to tell them about the advert, while on the other side of the world, a certain young woman was being told about something quite different.
"We're nearly there now," Squall said, stopping Laguna mid-flow and preventing a detailed description of how the dog made a cup of tea in the dark. "I think I will ask them to remove that teapot advert from the TV," Squall added, after the silence crept back in.
"NO!" Laguna protested. "What happens when you need a cup of tea in the middle of the night? Huh? Huh?"
"Err...you switch on a light?" Squall answered, confused. Laguna opened his mouth to reply then shut it again.
"Ha, hadn't thought of that," he admitted quietly.
Squall's fears for his sanity just went up by one point.
"I can see the helipad, guys," Quistis remarked, looking out of the window. "There is a lot of people down there," she added in a worried tone. "I hope we don't land on anybody! Oh, I can't watch!" she squealed, burying her head in her lap. Squall frowned at her.
"We won't land on anyone," he said confidently. A grin appeared on his face, he was obviously imagining landing on someone. In a perfect world, they'd squash that weird Seifer fellow. Squall wondered what had happened to him, but then decided he really didn't care. "Which is a shame, a lot of problems could be resolved that way. I can think of a few people I'd like to drop a helicopter on," Squall added, mainly to himself.
"That's not very nice," Quistis scolded. Squall grinned again.
"Wooh! Here comes the best part!" Laguna shouted, jumping up and down on his seat. Squall rolled his eyes. Personally, he hated the landing part, especially when this particular pilot was flying. Quickly, he fastened his safety belt and looked at his watch. They were later than expected.
The helicopter touched the floor with a bump and lifted again before gently touching down.
"Yeah! That was a good landing!" Laguna said, jumping off of his seat and stretching.
Squall hadn't thought it had been a good landing. In fact, he wondered whether that pilot was really sober. Quistis looked worriedly out of the window for signs of squashed people, but the crowds were further back than she'd thought, and the possibility of anyone actually getting close enough to be squashed was extremely small.
"See, no dead people," Squall said, standing and grabbing his jacket. Quistis frowned.
"Well, there might have been," she said, following him out of the helicopter. "Besides, I don't trust that pilot."
"You too?" Squall asked sarcastically.
A car was waiting to pick them up, and crowds of waving people stood behind barriers on either side of it. It was times like these that Squall realized just how well liked his father was. Laguna was hopping around and talking to people who had stood waiting for their arrival. Squall wondered what he talked to them about; he knew he'd never be able to easily take up a conversation like his father did. Slowly he began to walk towards the car, when suddenly he was surrounded by bodyguards.
"What's happening?" he asked annoyed, suddenly, no one seemed to want to explain.
"The church belfry now, go, go!" The head of security shouted.
A shot was suddenly fired from somewhere high. It zoomed over the heads of the spectators and sparked across the car, finally hitting Squall and making him fall.
Squall felt something bite into the top of his leg and the next thing he knew he was fighting the black blobs forming over his eyes. People were screaming and crying around him, and he was vaguely aware that he was being lifted into a vehicle. With so many people gathered in one place, there were already ambulances watching from the background, and Squall realized that it was into one of these ambulances that was being lifted. Laguna was being pulled into a car along with Quistis, and was desperately trying to get to Squall. Another shot rang out but hit the pavement and another hit the helicopter.
***
The man in the belfry lined up his shot and fired. He watched as it hit Squall, and he quickly lined up again, knowing that he wouldn't have long until they found him. However, they discovered him a lot quicker than he'd expected. Two more shots were fired from his gun by a slip of his hand before he was finally wrestled to the ground and handcuffed.
"We have the sniper. Lock down the area," The head of security said into his radio. He looked at the shooter and let his fist connect with the man's jaw in an abrupt way. "Are you the only one?"
The man mumbled.
"He asked you a question," shouted another.
"Yes...I am the only one," The shooter said, flinching away from the man who had hit him.
"Take him away."
***
Squall tried to sit up, but someone was pushing him down. A mask with oxygen was placed over his face, and he fought to push it away. He was panicking, and he knew that he shouldn't. He'd been shot, knew he had, he could remember what it felt like. The pain in his leg heightened, now that he was thinking about it, and he suddenly felt sick. The hands were forcing the mask over his face once again, despite his protests and he began gasping for air. Finally they noticed something was wrong, and let him remove the mask.
"You must breathe this," a lady said, pushing it back on his face. Squall finally stopped panicking long enough to realize the reason he was feeling so sick was that he was breathing anything. After taking a deep breath he began to relax and almost fell asleep but the lady kept him awake, much to his annoyance.
The more she kept him awake the more he began to shake and become frightened again. By the time they got to the hospital he was beginning to go into shock. As soon as he was through the doors, he was quickly rushed to surgery.
Squall awoke five hours later in a ward filled with bright lights. Someone was there beside him holding his hand and whoever it was, was resting their head on the bed.
"Ouch," Squall mumbled.
"Squall!"
"Rinoa? When did you..." Squall asked, struggling to move.
"Shh, Squall. You need to rest," she said quietly. She placed her finger over his mouth to silence him and pushed him back down.
"How did you know?" he asked, refusing to be quiet.
"I'll explain everything later. Now, Squall please, the surgeons are coming to see you later, you must rest in the meantime," Rinoa said, stoking his hand and speaking softly. Squall nodded and lay his head back down. "Are you in any pain, Squall?"
"No, I'm just fine," he said, forcing a smile. Of course he was in pain, but he wasn't about to tell Rinoa that. He knew there was very little anyone could do, anyway. They'd only inject him with something to knock him out, or fill him with strange pills. At the moment the pain was bearable. Besides, it wasn't as bad as some of the things he'd gone through before.
He was still confused about how Rinoa had gotten here so soon after he had. But she was right, he really needed to rest, and slowly he began to fall back asleep.
"Squall?" Rinoa whispered.
"Hmm?"
"I need to go home to change. But I'll be right back--I promise. Besides, I think Ellone wants to sit with you," Rinoa explained.
"Alright," Squall replied quietly, his breathing becoming heavier, signalling sleep. Rinoa kissed him gently on the forehead and stood up to leave.
She found Ellone waiting outside, her head in her hands and staring at the floor.
"You can go in now. I'm just going home to change, I'll be back soon," Rinoa said softly. Ellone looked up, tears in her eyes.
"I wish you'd tell me what's happening. I know you know. Why won't you tell me?" Ellone asked in a way that made Rinoa feel guilty.
"It's not for me to say. I wasn't supposed to know anything; I just seemed to get sucked into it by accident," Rinoa explained. Ellone sobbed again and looked back at the floor. "Listen," Rinoa said, bending down. "Remember you said something happened to him at Garden, and he never recovered?"
Ellone nodded.
"Never recovered until he met you," she sniffed.
"Well, it's happening all over again, and he's going to need all the support you can give. I'm sorry I can't tell you more, but it's really not up to me," Rinoa said sadly. Ellone nodded.
"I understand," she said finally after a long pause. "You go on now."
Rinoa nodded and left. She wasn't sure whether what she had said to Ellone had helped or not, only that she felt better now for saying something, at least.
Now, without any form or transport at all, Rinoa waved for a taxi and used the last of her money to get home.
A/N: Thank you everyone who reviewed.
Chrono-Maku, Lady Yevon, omnitoad, The Angel of the Lion, La Senioriza, remote mime, Rinoa Heartilly-Leonhart, Mariko, AngelPrinczess29, FFgal.
And a special thank you to Bianka-Chan for beta-ing, and helping me to get these chapters out a lot sooner that I would alone. :)