a/n I think you guys will absolutely adore me after this chapter. Seriously. Thank you to Deplora for giving me an idea a LONG while back! And thanks to all the reviewers who have been waiting patiently for this! FINALLY, it is done!

disclaimer I don't own anything recognizable. The song is "Some Kind of Miracle" by Kelly Clarkson.

ENJOY!


Yuffie took a quick step backwards so that Squall could not grab her. The air rushed past her, and she fell with speed. Freedom from her troubles rushed through her veins, and she smiled slightly. No more Rinoa... no more Squall... it was all going to be okay. She imagined herself as one of the stones.

Falling... falling... falling... falling.

But her plan was foiled. And there was one man who would be eternally grateful for that.

As luck would have it, the ducklings were passing by at that moment, delivering furniture to the Dalmatians' home in the Second District. Yuffie plummeted to the ground, but her fall was broken and slowed by a sofa. Squall heard wood shattering with a loud crack, and there was a piteous cry arising from the accident. He raced to the ladder and climbed down, hurrying towards the scene.

The ducklings were ogling over the ninja, and she was fairly screaming with her sobs. Squall ran to her and hacked at the sofa's frame with his Gunblade, the great wood further breaking. He pulled the pieces away from Yuffie. Her cries quieted somewhat when she saw him, but it was obvious that she was in pain. Great pain, by the expression on her face.

"Yuffie… Yuffie…" Squall breathed in relief; tears coming to his own eyes in shear joy for her life. "What hurts? What's wrong?" He asked her quickly, taking out a hi-potion from a small pouch at his waist. She turned her head and shuddered.

"Everything…" Yuffie cried. "I can't move my lower body at all, Squall…" great, swelling drops of salty tears spilled down her cheeks in torrents. "I was supposed to die."

Squall moved closer to her, positioning himself around her so that he could pick her up and get her to the hospital. "But you didn't. You stupid ninja that I love…" he murmured. "This is for your own good," he told her, then cuffed her on the side of her head pretty hard. She blacked out, and Squall thanked all the gods for her life. He picked up her body and ran.

Sure they were a spectacle. Yuffie was bloody, which transferred over to Squall. They looked battered, the ninja was broken, and the man had a wild look in his eyes. But no one messed with them. No one dared, for fear that the lion would kill them. He certainly seemed about ready to murder anyone who hindered their progress.

Squall rushed into the hospital Emergency Room entrance. The few nurses that lingered there took immediate action, getting a gurney and urging Squall to put the young woman on it. "What happened? How long ago? What's wrong with her?" Squall followed the four nurses down the hallways that they pushed Yuffie through.

"She fell from a very great height, but she landed on a sofa – luckily. It was just a few minutes ago… I got her here as soon as I possibly could. Before she lost consciousness, she told me that everything hurt and that she couldn't move her lower body at all."

A doctor had joined the group in their progress, and she looked at the nurse who had established himself as the leader. The doctor turned her head to Squall and shook her head. "She probably broke bones in her back, maybe legs, and perhaps her hip. She might be paralyzed for life. For now we're going to get her stabilized and send her for x-rays. Please go with Nurse Joy here and she'll take care of you."

A pretty young woman with dyed black hair appeared next to them and grabbed Squall's arm, pulling him down another hallway. She had long, digging black fingernails, and he followed her only so that he wasn't scratched.

"Will I see her soon?" Squall called back to the doctor and nurses. But no one answered him, and they disappeared from his sight.


The Gunblade wielder waited for hours in that cramped waiting room with other people. They were all sitting their, anticipating the time when someone would come out and fetch them to see their loved ones. Squall was no exception.

He didn't call Rinoa to tell her what happened.

The lion didn't know why he ever left Yuffie. Why he couldn't see that he needed her. It was a mystery to him, and he only hoped that Yuffie would recover. He wanted her to be safe and healthy, able to be her ninja self and run around crazy, jump from one building to another, fight the Heartless. He berated himself for being so stupid.

It was soon becoming later and later into the nighttime hours. Squall fought back the exhaustion that was so present in his body. He hadn't washed himself of Yuffie's blood yet either. It marked him in the sins that he had committed against her.

Squall walked up to the nurse – Nurse Joy's replacement only an hour ago – and demanded answers of her. She shook her head and sighed, obviously tired of the concerned people who pestered her with questions about the afflicted.

"Look, Mr. Leonhart, Miss Kisaragi is under the very capable hands of one of our best ER doctors. You'll just have to trust that she'll be alright. I guarantee that you will be the first one they tell when she is stable and they know what's wrong. There are some blankets in a basket on the side of the couch. Why don't you try sleeping, Mr. Leonhart? You look a fright." With that, the nurse turned back to what she had been doing before Squall had so rudely interrupted her.

The man, feeling defeated, sat down in a chair and folded his arms across his knees, resting his head on his arms. I'm sorry, Yuffie, he thought. I am so sorry. Please recover, Yuffie. I don't want to have ruined your life. He hoped that someone would come and tell him about Yuffie's status soon.

Prayed for an angel
To come in the night
Turn some sweet light on me
Found only strangers

A woman shook Squall awake in the early hours of the morning with a gentle smile on her face. He blinked the sleep out of his eyes and stood up. She stopped his questions by putting up her hand and nodding. She seemed slightly different from the others he had seen in this hospital. Not quite normal… not quite average. Almost inhuman. She seemed to glow with a light, but he put these thoughts in the back of his mind and attributed them to his lack of sleep. He trailed behind the woman through wide hallways and doctors and nurses walking quickly or discussing something among themselves. Squall and the woman walked through a huge pair of double doors into a quieter, calmer area.

One of the doors in the hall was opened, and Squall was ushered in. The woman left him there, walking back the way they had come. A nurse was making Yuffie comfortable on the bed, adjusting her position so that her lower-body cast wasn't any more irritating than it already was.

Yuffie's head turned tiredly when she heard the quiet click of the door closing. Her eyes widened significantly, and she immediately turned away. The nurse noticed this and raised her eyebrows, but said nothing. She departed from the room, leaving the pair in there alone.

"Yuffie…" Squall said quietly. He walked to her bedside and looked down at her. She didn't meet his gaze. He gently moved his hand down to touch at her cheek, wiping the tears away that had begun to flow.

"Yuffie… I am so sorry. I was an idiot and a jerk. I should have realized that you were right. I do love you, Yuffie. I love you more than anything in the world, and you scared me half to death. If you had died today… I think I would have taken my own life just to be with you. I told you I would never leave you. I just needed to be reminded of my promise." Yuffie remained silent, slowly breathing in and out. "Yuffie? Please say something…" Squall pleaded.

She turned her head around sharply. "Yeah, I'll say something. I'm still angry with you, you selfish jerk. You shouldn't have had to witness my near death to see how utterly wrong you were. You should have just known. It's going to take me a while to get over that, Squall."

"And what about Rinoa? I thought you loved her. You were certainly acting lovey-dovey enough whenever I saw you together. You slept with her; you were completely devoted to her. I was nothing to you when she was around. How do I know that when you see her again, I will fade into the background again?" Yuffie asked him harshly.

Squall sighed raggedly. "I'm sorry I made you feel that way Yuffie, and I'm sorry that I did those things. I may have loved her before, but I know that I was just grasping for my past. Yuffie, you are the only person I need in my future. I need you. I don't know what I'd do without you."

"Kill yourself," Yuffie mumbled. "Now you know how I felt, Squall," she told him louder. "I can't lie to you… I do still love you. I said that before I fell, and I still feel that way about you. But… I need time to forgive you. I need to see that you really meant what you said. I need to trust that you'll never break my heart again, Squall."

"But I do love you."

Just when I'd given up
You gave me love
My world was crumbling down
You turned it around

Before Squall could answer her, the doctor her had seen earlier came in smiling at him and Yuffie. She brought a clipboard with her, and he assumed it held information about Yuffie's condition.

The doctor shook Squall's hand. "Good morning. My name is Dr. Grace Mendez, and I have been overseeing Miss Kisaragi's progress."

"Well, Miss Kisaragi was extremely fortunate in her fall. She could have become paralyzed, and at first we thought that might be the case. We weren't getting reflex response from her legs, which worried us. But it seems the problem corrected itself, and we can now say that you will be walking someday." Yuffie and Squall both breathed out a sigh of relief.

"Now, the bad news. Miss Kisaragi broke both legs in several places, along with her hip and bones in her lower back. She put some stress on the muscles in her upper body, but nothing there was broken. When those heal, you may have a permanent limp. We could perform surgery, but that's a long, painful process that you probably don't want to go through. The odds of your developing problems with your legs are quite high, but they should not pose serious health risks. It just means that you won't be running any marathons any time soon." The doctor smiled sympathetically, and Squall squeezed Yuffie's hand, which had found its way into his own.

"We'll keep you here for the rest of the morning, Miss Kisaragi. Then we can let you go home. Is this man your…?"

Squall filled in for her, "Boyfriend. We have a place in the Hotel."

Dr. Mendez nodded and smiled. "Will you be able to give her constant care? I'll prescribe a nurse to come around and check twice a week, but I can make that for every day if you can't stick around all the time…?"

The lion shook his head. "That won't be necessary – for a nurse to come around every day. I plan to be around twenty-four seven." This time Yuffie squeezed his hand, and he turned his head to see her smile at him. He had missed her smile.

Dr. Mendez wrote something down on her clipboard, then came forward and shook Squall's hand once more. "I'll send these down to the pharmacist and all the drugs she needs will be ready when she leaves, as well as instructions on how to take care of her. The nurse back in the lobby will have you sign some forms for us."

After the doctor had left, Squall remained at Yuffie's side. She smiled at him, and while she was still angry with the man, she loved him dearly. This was shown through her eyes as she gazed into his sapphire orbs. His eyes misted over in tears.

Sweet revelation
That look in your eyes
Your touch in the night
I find the sweetest salvation
In your arms, baby

"Kiss me?" Yuffie asked innocently. Squall nodded solemnly, a gentle look in his eyes. He bent over her slowly, and his lips met hers oh-so softly. It was a sweet, slow, innocent kiss, and it left them wanting nothing. She brushed a tear from his cheek.

Yuffie yawned loudly. "You need to sleep, Yuffs. You've had a really big day," Squall murmured. She laughed slightly and nodded. Squall turned to leave, but she reached out and grabbed his arm.

"Stay with me until I go to sleep?" Yuffie pleaded. Squall smiled and pulled up a chair, sitting there with her. She smiled and drifted off to sleep easily. Her face was angelic in the light, and he kissed her on the forehead before standing and leaving the room.

You are
You're some kind of miracle
You are
You're a miracle to me


Fine