Author's Note: :::nervous laughter::: I know a lot of you guys are ready to KILL me. But, hopefully, since I'm getting this chapter out BEFORE the next chapter of HAT, you'll forgive me, right? :::sigh:::

Disclaimer: I don't own them. I only borrow them. If I could, I would have Squall locked in my room forevermore, but I can't.

Chapter Four: Raining Red Glass

The sudden presence of light in the darkened bathroom caused Yuffie to blink a few times, but she hardly noticed it as all of her attention was focused on the pain in her stomach. She was still standing in the bathroom, expecting the comforting caresses on her back from Squall while she was sick. He always stayed with her when she was sick and rubbed her back to try and ease the nausea.

But, something was different tonight for it had been a few minutes since he had turned the light on and he had yet to approach her. "Squall?" Yuffie groaned, clutching her stomach and nearly doubling over with the sudden pain that hit her. She slowly turned her head, wondering if he was in the room after all. He was. But what she saw terrified her.

He still stood in the doorway, staring at her with wide eyes and his face completely devoid of color. His left hand was still on the light switch, as though he had been frozen in place as soon as he had turned the light on. There was an almost dead look to his face, to his eyes, and she found herself shivering as she looked at him.

"Squall?" Yuffie called out tentatively, clenching her eyes shut at the pain that assaulted her. She slowly opened them again, this time her eyes falling upon the bright red stains upon the white tiled floor. Sudden fear took over her and she unwillingly followed the blood trail to the puddle at her feet and very suddenly became aware of the hot liquid running down her legs. The world around her began to blur and she felt herself slowly falling forward, as though someone had put the world on slow motion. The last thing she saw was the blood stained floor rushing up to meet her.

Coming out of his shocked state, Squall watched as Yuffie began to pitch forward, his legs still unwillingly to move as he tried to rush towards her and catch her. She hit the floor with a soft thud and he found his legs suddenly working again. "Oh God!" Squall murmured, running to her and kneeling on the floor beside her, fingers already moving to her wrist to check for a pulse. "Please," he pleaded, not knowing or caring who he was pleading with as long as there was still life in his ninja.

It was there, not beating as quickly or as loudly as he would have liked, but it was there. Tears came to his eyes, something he hadn't felt in so very long, and he was unable to stop them as a few slipped past their dams and spilled down his cheeks. "Yuffie," he rasped, gently cradling her head and trying not to see all the blood on both the floor and her legs. But there was so much and he try as he may, he could not wake himself up from this apparent nightmare he had fallen into.

Finally snapping back into reality, Squall realized he had to do something. There was so much blood already and more was pooling beneath her. Grabbing one of the huge towels they kept in their bathroom, he carefully wrapped Yuffie up within, wincing when he noticed that the blood was already seeping through and staining the white towel.

Squall cradled her to his chest, racing out of the bathroom and down the hall towards the room Aerith and Cloud had taken. Aerith was the only one in the castle who had any previous medical experience and hopefully she would know what to do. He spared a glance down at the too still girl in his arms, noticing that her face was looking far too pale and her breathing was shallow.

He increased his pace, trying not to jar Yuffie too much as he did so. But the only thought running through his head were that if he didn't get to Aerith soon enough, the ninja might very well bleed to death. He knew it was probably too late for the baby and that thought tore him up inside, but the thought that he might lose Yuffie as well nearly killed him. And if he did lose her, he knew that he would die as well.

The door to the flower girl's room came into sight, and there was still a soft glow coming from the crack beneath the door, signaling that its occupants were still awake. That thought alone gave the swordsman slight relief as Aerith wouldn't have to roused to consciousness.

Upon reaching the solid oaken door, Squall balanced himself and Yuffie precariously on one foot while he beat on the door with the other, bellowing for Aerith at the same time. "Aerith, open the damn door!" he hollered, still kicking at the bottom of the door with his booted foot.

The sound of footsteps scurrying across the floor met his ears and the door was quickly pulled open to reveal the flower girl pulling a pink robe around herself. "Leon, what is going–," she began angrily, her eyes narrowed into tiny slits, but widening quite suddenly upon seeing the pale ninja wrapped within the blood stained towel. Her hand was slowly brought over her mouth as she gasped and stared at the blood that also stained Leon's once white shirt and covered the arm that rested beneath Yuffie's legs. "Oh my God!" she gasped, opening the door all the way and stepping out of the way for Squall to carry Yuffie into the room.

As Squall gingerly lay his ninja down upon the bed, Aerith ran to the connecting bathroom in the room to grab a few fresh towels. She ignored the protests the showering Cloud gave to her rude interruption and quickly gave him a rushed explanation as she dashed back out of the bathroom. Moments later, a still half wet Cloud emerged from the bathroom to find his and Aerith's bed a myriad of blood stained towels and Leon hovering over the too still Yuffie while Aerith did what she could with cure spells. But cure spells could only do so much.

"Leon, please, you're going to have to move," the flower girl insisted, trying to push the swordsman out of her way. He refused to budge. "Leon, you need to move," Aerith tried again. But he only moved a scant inch. "Cloud! Get him out of here!"

The blonde put his hand on Squall's shoulder, gently pulling him away from the bed so Aerith could better tend to Yuffie. "Come on, Leon," he muttered, pushing him towards the hall door. "It might be better for us to wait outside."

Squall stopped walking to turn around and glare at Cloud, his eyes narrowed into dangerous slits that signaled he meant business. "I'm not leaving this room until Yuffie does," he seethed in a deadly hiss, already walking back towards the bed, but this time staying out of the flower girl's way. He pulled a small chair over to the bedside and sat down, his elbows rested on his knees and his face buried in his hands.

Time seemed to stand still for the swordsman, minutes drifting into hours with hardly any meaning for him. He barely even registered when Aerith had told him that Yuffie would be okay, only felt the relief that washed over him. And what Aerith had told him next, he had already known from the moment he had seen all the blood, that Yuffie would survive but the fetus would not.

Fetus. Squall loathed that word for it had been more than just a fetus to both him and Yuffie. It had been a baby and now it was gone. But, to help distance himself from the pain, he embraced the word. For if it was a baby, the pain was fresh and like a knife cutting through him. However, the word fetus had no emotions attached to it. And, thus, no pain.

Blinking her eyes a few times, Yuffie tried to clear the fuzziness out of her head and get her vision to focus. Her brain just felt so muddled right now... as though she were on drugs or something. It reminded her of the time she broke her arm and Aerith had put her on painkillers so she could set it without too much of a fuss from the ninja.

Yuffie brought her hand wearily up to rub her eyes, wondering why her arm felt so heavy. She was halfway through a yawn when she very suddenly remembered the horrible nightmare she had had the night before. Turning her head, she saw a tangled mess of mahogany locks resting on the edge of the bed and briefly wondered why Squall would be sleeping in a chair and not in the bed. His hand loosely held hers, and she instinctively curled her fingers around his.

"Squall?" she rasped, finding that she needed to clear her throat to get rid of the scratchiness of it. She called his name again and felt the grip on her hand tighten and saw him wearily lift his head and look at her with bloodshot eyes.

Running a hand through his hair and stifling the yawn that threatened him, Squall stared at his ninja, glad to see that she was finally awake. She had been unconscious for the last fifteen hours and they had been fifteen hours of hell for him. Even with Aerith's reassurance that she would be okay, he was still terrified of losing her. "Yuffie," he murmured softly, a catch in his voice as he remembered the sudden loss of their baby. No, fetus, he roughly reminded himself.

The ninja gave him her love a confused smile, ignoring the weariness in her arms to reach out and touch his cheek. "You don't look too good," she whispered, noticing not only the red-rimmed eyes, but also the complete paleness of his face. "You look like death warmed over."

"Yuffie," Squall murmured again, wincing as he realized that she apparently didn't remember what had happened the night before and he would have to be the one to break the news to her, as much as he was loathe to do. "Yuffie, do you remember what happened last night?"

The pained looked on the swordsman face threw her as she tried to remember what all had happened that night. "We had dinner and I got mad because you took my place," she admitted sheepishly, blushing slightly at the memory of her inexcusable behavior. "And then I was feeling sick so I went to bed."

"You don't remember anything else?" Squall asked painfully, keeping his eyes down on the comforter and bringing up his other hand to clasp hers between both of his.

"Well, I had a nightmare about losing the baby..." she began, trailing off when she saw Squall slowly bring his gaze up to hers, a wetness appearing behind his eyes that wasn't normally there. And, frankly, it terrified her. Then she suddenly became aware of the fact that she wasn't in her room, but in Aerith and Cloud's. "Tell me it was a nightmare, Squall!" she moaned, not wanting to believe what she was seeing in his eyes.

His hands tightened around hers and he willed his eyes not to shed the tears that were building up behind them. "I-I'm... sorry, Yuffie," he rasped, finding it hard to talk around the lump forming in his throat.

Yuffie clenched her eyes shut, praying that this was only some evil trick her mind was playing on her, Hoping that any minute now she would wake up and find out it was all but a dream. "And the baby?" she whispered, frightened of what his answer would be, but needing to know even though she was fairly certain she had already read it in his eyes. She slowly opened her eyes, keeping the tears in check until she had heard his answer.

Squall painfully shut his eyes, a few tears escaping them and trickling down his cheeks as he tried to chose his words. But there were only so many ways to tell her and all them would hurt her just the same. "It was too late for... for... it," he finally managed, unable to call it a baby any longer as it hurt too much.

The keening wail that met his ears was answer enough for how Yuffie was taking the noise. Never in his life had he heard something sound so full of pain. The ninja pulled her hand out from between his, rolling over to curl into a ball with her back facing his. And the wailing soon softened to sobs that wracked her small frame so much that he thought it would rent her in two.

Burying her face in her pillow, Yuffie let the tears have free reign and allowed the sobs to do as they would. Nothing else mattered right now... just the fact that she had lost the baby. That she and she alone had lost the baby. A soft hand fell onto her shoulder, but even knowing that it was Squall's, she still shuddered under the touch. So deep in self-blame that she was sure everyone else would blame her as well, even Squall.

The want and need of just holding Yuffie right now was almost a physical ache for Squall at the moment. But he restrained himself after feeling the shudder underneath his touch. And it hurt him deeply that she didn't want him right now, hurt him more deeply than he ever thought possible. So, not knowing what else to do and since she apparently wanted to be alone, he reluctantly left the room, shutting the door behind him. Leaning against it, he slowly sank to the floor, his head in his hands and a million thoughts running through his head.

Back inside the bedroom, the sound of the door closing had jarred enough to cause her to look up and find that Squall had left her. She knew that it must have hurt him when she shuddered beneath his touch, but she couldn't help it. And now he had left her alone with her thoughts.

What have I done wrong? Yuffie painfully wondered as she thought about the loss of the baby.

Why didn't I take care of her? Squall asked himself, pondering if perhaps he had taken Yuffie to Aerith when she first felt ill last night, the outcome would have been different.

I shouldn't have done all those things, Yuffie insisted to herself, remembering all the times Squall would tell her not to lift something and she would anyways.

I shouldn't have suffocated her like that, Squall told himself, thinking about all the times he would shadow her just to make sure she didn't exert herself.

What happened? Why did I lose it? Yuffie asked herself for the hundredth time in just the past few moments since she had found out what had happened.

Why did I get her pregnant? Why wasn't I more careful? Squall internally questioned, realizing how young Yuffie actually was and what a pregnancy could do to her at that relatively young age.

It's all MY fault, both Yuffie and Squall unanimously thought, though it were unknown to both of them that the other felt the same way. Both of them taking the blame and believing the other blame them as well according to their reactions. Because Yuffie had turned away from him and shuddered when he touched her, Squall believed that she blamed him while Yuffie believed that Squall blamed her since he had left her alone in the room. And, so, with Yuffie still on the bed and Squall leaning on the outside of the door, both mentally berated themselves over what was really neither's fault.

Author's Note: I know you must really hate me now. And all I can say is I'm sorry and I'm just as sad as you guys are... maybe even sadder since I'm the one doing this to them. But, the secondary genre is angst, so it's to be expected. Anyways, it's late and I'm going to bed as soon as I post this. So, make me as happy as I can be considering the chapter I just wrote and give me a review.