A/N: Whoo! More reviews! Thank you sooo so much for them! This isn't the last chapter, but it's coming up very shortly, so give me your love before it's too late! lol, this is a very important chapter, as well as long too, so hopefully you'll enjoy it.
Tuesday, August 21st, 2003
3:32 pm
Luca Apartment Complex; apartment 3A
Rikku spent the rest of that day thinking about Tidus, as well as the following day, too. Not only about solving his case, but about the comment he'd made when she was leaving as well. She couldn't figure out what he meant by it. Well, maybe it wasn't a matter of what he meant. That was a little on the obvious side. But it was more like why he'd said it that was a puzzle to her. Was he really starting to feel something for her? And a better question was… was she starting to feel something in return?
She shook her head at her own thoughts. How could that be? Falling in love with a slaughterer? …But there was something about him that made her think he wasn't all bad. Something that he wasn't telling her. And something that she was going to have to find out on her own.
The phone suddenly rang, interrupting her thoughts. She gladly welcomed it, and answered it promptly. "Hello?"
"Rikku? This is Greg."
She felt a little apprehensive. Greg usually only called her when he was going to be the bearer of bad news. She hoped this time, this one time, was different.
"Auron told me everything. Mitch was arrested, as was Auron, but I have a feeling Auron's case is going to turn out okay. Mitch on the other hand, will probably end up serving quite a few years."
Rikku was silent at first, then sighed and spoke. "Greg… you didn't call me up just to talk to me about Auron and Mitch… did you?"
Now it was his turn to hesitate. "No, no I didn't. I also have something very important to tell you about Tidus's case."
Now her interest was sparked. "What is it?"
"You have until tomorrow to get a report in. If you don't, the case will be terminated, and Tidus will most likely be executed."
Her eyes widened and she almost dropped the phone. "What do you mean I have until tomorrow?!" she shrieked.
Greg sighed. "I'm sorry, Rikku, but your time is up. This case has been taking up all your time, and I'd like you to give something else a try. I believe you've done all you can do with him."
"No!" she cried. "I haven't! There's still something I can do! I know if I just had a little more time, I could change everything. I don't need much time, but certainly more than a day."
Greg was quiet for a few moments. "Rikku, I'm sorry. This isn't up to me. If you have any objections, you have to take it to the higher-ups. They're the ones running the show for real."
"Then I will," came the haughty response.
Greg's gravelly voice became more forceful. "You're not hearing me, Rikku. They aren't going to budge either."
"Then what am I supposed to do?" Rikku asked, throwing her free hand into the air. "Sit around and do nothing? Just give up?"
"Rikku, even other administrators and I have discussed this extensively. We've been noticing you're becoming emotionally wrapped up in this case, and we'd like to end this as soon as possible. We'd like to get you onto other things."
"Which means letting someone who might just need a little extra help in his situation die, am I right?"
"Rikku…"
"Go to hell, Greg." The sound of the phone slamming down onto the hook was the only sound Greg heard next, before the hollow dial tone.
There was only one thing left to do now. She had to go talk to Yuna. Whether she provided her with any help or not, she had to give it a shot. She was her last hope. If doing so turned out to be a waste of time, Rikku really would have to throw in the towel.
Wednesday, August 22nd, 2003
5:43 pm
Tidus and Yuna's residence; Besaid
Rikku gingerly approached the small town house where Yuna lived, alone at this point. She hadn't spoken to the girl at all since her visits with Tidus started, and she could only imagine what their meeting would be like at this point.
She didn't know much about Yuna or her relationship with Tidus, but as far as she did know, they were very close for two years. Considering that fact, Yuna must be taking the fact that Tidus's life was on the line very hard.
Ascending the small set of steps and reaching the front door, Rikku took a deep breath and pushed the doorbell button. It wasn't long before a young woman answered the door, looking miserable and even a little rundown. She stared into Rikku's eyes for a few moments before speaking.
"Can I help you?"
Rikku tried not to hesitate, but it was difficult. She couldn't help feeling a little awkard, although she couldn't be completely sure why. Was it because of Tidus's comment as she was leaving? And now, being here talking to his girlfriend… Shaking the thoughts, she replied, "I'm Rikku, the criminal psychologist that's working on Tidus's case." She left out the 'student' part, afraid it would make her look inexperienced.
Yuna was silent for a while, just nodding. "What do you want from me?" came the quiet inquiry.
"I… I don't know if you've heard, but… I need to find out the reason behind the murders by tomorrow, otherwise -- "
"They'll kill him." Yuna was quick to finish Rikku's sentence, not wanting to hear it from anyone else other than her own vocal chords.
Rikku was taken back a little, but nodded slowly. "Well, yes." She paused. "I was hoping you'd be able to tell me something he won't. I might be able to get it right from him with time, but… that's something I don't have much of."
More hesitation came from Yuna, but eventually she stepped aside, allowing the blonde girl to come in. She did, and looked around at the living room she was now in. It was small, but cozy. A couch was set in the middle of the room facing a television set. Tables and an armchair were scattered about as well, but that was basically it. Rikku went and sat on the couch, while Yuna sat on the armchair nearby.
"I already told the police everything I know," she said. "I gave them a report the day they caught him."
Rikku nodded. "I know, I read that report. But there's… nothing else you'd like to tell me?"
Yuna was quick and precise to reply. A little too quick and precise in Rikku's opinion. "Of course not. Do you think if I knew something that could save Tidus's life, I'd keep it to myself?"
Rikku shook her head. "No," she told her. "But there's another reason you might be hiding something. You're afraid, aren't you, Yuna?"
The brunette's brow furrowed. "What are you talking about?" she asked. "What would I be afraid of?"
"Him," came the low response. "You're afraid that if you say something to help save him, he'll be a little too close for comfort. And that's okay, Yuna. But he has the capacity to get better. Believe me, I know. And you telling me what you haven't told anyone yet isn't going to let him free so he can commit horrible murders all over again. It's going to get him off death row and into a place where he can get the help he needs. The help he deserves."
More silence came from Yuna, but eventually, she asked, "You're sure he won't…"
Rikku smiled on the inside. She was glad there had been something Yuna knew, because now she had a real chance at helping him. There was hope again. But she wasn't glad Yuna was so petrified to save him, so she said, "I'm positive. It's just getting him off death row. That's all it is, Yuna, I promise."
She nodded and stood up from her seated position slowly. "Come with me. There's something I want to show you first, Rikku."
Rikku looked puzzled, but stood as well and followed Yuna towards the back of the house until they reached the bedroom. Yuna approached one of the dressers and pulled open the second drawer. Instead of there being clothing inside like Rikku had expected, there were stacks of papers. They looked like mail and bills, but Yuna was more interested on what was at the very bottom of the drawer.
After rooting around for a while, she finally pulled out a thick manila envelope. Turning to Rikku, she said, "Here. Look at this."
Rikku took the envelope as Yuna sat down on the edge of the bed watching her. She slowly opened the envelope and pulled out a few sheets of paper that had been folded up bulkily and saw the heading read, 'Kilika General Hospital.'
As she read further down the pages, she saw it was a long list of hospitalization records. Most of them were for numerous broken bones, but a few were for more serious injuries, such as a ruptured spleen, a collapsed lung, and a severe concussion. "I don't understand," Rikku said as she shook her head. "What is this?"
"Those are Tidus's medical records from when he was younger, about six or seven."
Rikku's jaw dropped. "This is all for Tidus?" she asked in bewilderment.
Yuna nodded slowly. "Every single one of them."
"This is unbelievable… Why wasn't this on his file when we did a background check on him?"
Yuna sighed. "It was his father… Jecht."
Rikku's eyes widened even further at the mention of the man's name. She'd suspected him before, and now her suspicions were proved correct. "What do you mean? What does he have to do with any of this?"
"He took all those hospitalization records off file."
"…Why?"
"Well, you know how Jecht was a big blitzball superstar, right?"
Rikku nodded, remembering how both the file and Tidus had told he that.
"Because of that, everyone in the community loved him. He was well-liked and basically a celebrity in Zanarkand. So when he did that, he had it erased from both his and Tidus's file."
"Wait a minute… You're telling me Jecht did all this to Tidus?"
Yuna nodded. "Tidus was abused by him for a really long time. A few years."
"So Jecht didn't want to ruin his reputation and had all this deleted and acted like it never happened," Rikku surmised.
"Right," Yuna confirmed. "And all of those medical bills cost a lot of money. Jecht had a lot of it in the bank and -- "
"That explains the withdrawals of money that were on Jecht's file!" Rikku cried.
"But there was no record of that money being spent, was there?"
Rikku shook her head. "No, there wasn't. Did Jecht have that taken care of too?"
"He did," Yuna told her. "So all of this was going on and all Jecht had to was talk to the right people and it was just forgotten."
Rikku shook her head. "That's awful…" Now she felt more pity for him than ever. "But hang on… Okay, so Tidus was abused by his father, who cleared every trace of it because of his reputation. That's what caused him to commit those murders?" She'd heard of people becoming mentally unstable from abuse, and she'd even heard of those people committing murders. But the scale of the Tidus's murders was just so large… She knew there had to be something else.
"Not exactly," Yuna told her. "Jecht was… He wasn't only physically abusive. He abused Tidus mentally, too. He always told Tidus that he wasn't a man and that he would never be one, he was a baby, things like that. It may not sound like much, but it must've been so awful…"
Rikku nodded. "I understand," she said. "Go on."
"Well, among other things, Jecht also told him that the only way to be a man was to kill. If you could take someone's like, you had power and valiance. It made you a real man. I think… that's why Tidus did all those things. He wants to prove to Jecht that he really is the man he said he never would be."
"Oh my God…" Rikku breathed.
There was silence, until Yuna asked, "So… is this going to help him? You think this is enough?"
"Oh, it's more than enough," Rikku replied. "Thank you, Yuna. You're saving this man's life."
