Chapter Nine

Inside the infirmary lobby, Rinoa and Damien sat on the ground on both ends of the coffee-table and played an entertaining game of 'go fish'. Rinoa stared, focusing, at the two cards in her hands and slowly glared up determinedly at Damien, who did the same. He curled up his lower lip, as if pretending to be a thug, as Rinoa tapped the underneath of her fingers on the back of her two cards held in front of her face.
"You got any... 2's?" Damien asked slowly. Rinoa's face dulled sadly as she closed her eyes to take a two out from her hand and toss it towards him. With the cards still flipped and falling towards him, Damien victoriously reached up, grabbed them, and threw her cards including his own onto the table and yelled, "HAHA! I won again!"
Rinoa annoying crossed her arms and leaned lazily against the table, "It's a stupid game anyway..."
Damien giggled as he slid all the scattered cards together into one big pile on the table, "You just need practice!"
Rinoa stared dully at him with her arms still folded, "... Practice 'go fish'? I didn't know there was a technique..."
"Oh there is! You just have to find it," Damien responded with a victorious grin. Rinoa sighed and groaned at the thought of losing to a six- year-old to a simple card-game.
Just as the two had finished their simple card game, Dr. Kadowaki entered into the waiting room from inside the resting area. Rinoa, upon catching her in the corner of her eye, stood up and turned to face her.
"It's a good thing that you brought her to me when you did," She began as she folded her hands behind her. Damien arose from the ground and walked up behind Rinoa to hold onto her long blue cloth coat.
"Is she alright, Dr. Kadowaki?" Rinoa asked slowly, her face growing dimmer.
"Of course she is, dear! That woman in there is probably one of the toughest girls that I've ever had the pleasure of meeting! She is beaten up pretty badly, as is Squall. But they are very stubborn to break under heavy injury. Besides," she said as she placed her hand upon Rinoa's left shoulder, "It's nothing that a good Elixir couldn't cure."
Rinoa smiled, "Thank you very much, Dr. Kadowaki. Can we go see them now?"
Dr. Kadowaki smiled and laughed a bit, "You may, but they're a little out of it at the moment! Squall is the first room to your left and you can find Quistis in the last room to your right."
"Let's go!" Damien giggled as he grabbed onto Rinoa's hand to pull her through the doors of the hallway of patient rooms.
"Wait, Damien," Rinoa said quietly as she paused in front of Squall's closed door. Damien paused, still holding onto Rinoa's hand, and turned around to look up curiously up at Rinoa. She smiled and bent over a bit, "Go on ahead of me. I'll catch up in a little bit, k?" Damien smiled and nodded as he released her hand to turn and run down the brightly lit hallway. Rinoa watched him, her face a little darker than usual, and straightened up and turned to open the door when she saw him disappear into Quistis' room.
Rinoa found Squall sitting up in his bed, staring blankly down at his white blankets that covered his legs and waist. His arms were bandaged, and his face was bruised and scraped from Quistis' chain whip. Upon hearing the door open, he looked and saw Rinoa standing, almost frozen, in the doorway. Upon almost opening his mouth to speak, he experienced a reality-check and realized the situation that he was in and lowered his head in shame. He couldn't look at her, he could only look away.
"Squall..."Rinoa whispered quietly as she entered more into the room. Squall sighed deeply and continued to look away from her.
"I didn't mean to fall asleep that night, I didn't mean to forget about you-"
"This isn't about that, Squall!" Rinoa quietly snapped, interrupting him. Squall paused and lifted his head to look up at Rinoa. "Squall, why did you do this? Why did you bring Quistis into this?"
Squall paused, almost seeming to be scrambling to find an answer, "I was worried about you… I knew that I had hurt you, so I tried to find you. I looked everywhere, but you had literally disappeared. I figured since you and her have been together so much lately, she would know where to find you. I just… I overreacted."
Rinoa waited a few moments before walking over to the side of Squall's bed to sit down on the mattress. The room was silent for a while before Squall reached over and gently took Rinoa's hand into his own.
"I'm sorry..." he whispered. Rinoa could only look forward, almost as if she had looked at him, she would've began crying. "I don't mean to come home late, I don't mean to leave home early, and I don't mean to make you feel ignored. Ever since I have been placed in charge of most of the Garden, live has just been chaos for me. I am always so busy, I'm always so tired, and I don't mean to put you on the side. And I just love you so much, I don't mean to hurt you..."
Rinoa closed her eyes tightly as she heard this. A single tear trickled down her face as she held tightly onto Squall's hand. Rinoa took a deep breath and turned towards Squall and leaned down close to his face.
"I love you too, Squall..." she said before lightly kissing him gently upon the lips, "...But I can't be with you while your first love is the Garden..." Upon saying this, Rinoa quickly sat up from the bed, releasing Squall's hand, and walked steadily out from the room.
Squall sat in his bed, speechless, as he watched Rinoa close the door behind her to leave him alone. He slowly raised his hand towards his face to wipe away a tear that had fallen from Rinoa's eye while she had kissed him. He pulled his hand away and looked down at the wet tear as it rolled off of his fingertips. He slowly leaned his head back to rest it upon the wooden top of the bed.
"When we both fell... she called out her name, not mine..." he whispered as he closed his eyes as the tear on his fingers dried and disappeared.