Chapter 46: Follow the Light

Me I'm on the longest road

Where everything's overload

But I've got my heart and soul

So don't throw me overboard

Cos it's alright

Just follow the light

And don't be afraid of the dark

In the moonlight

You'll dance til you fall and always be here in my heart

Cos it's alright

Just follow the light

And don't be afraid of the dark

In the moonlight

You'll dance til you fall

And always be here in my heart

Cos it's alright now

And you're alright

Yeah we're alright now

Follow the Light – Travis

She could hear a beeping noise. Steady, regular beeping. It was… reassuring, though she couldn't remember why this might be. She felt peculiar. Numb. She had a feeling that the numbness was fading and once it did there would be pain. A lot of it.

"…Two days…" a voice said, someone nearby. She wondered who it was. The voice sounded strangely familiar. Who was it…?

"…Wake… soon…" Another familiar voice. Female this time. A name snapped into place. That second voice was Tifa. The first…? Cloud. Yes, it was definitely Cloud. What were they doing here? And then it occurred to Aeris that she didn't actually know where 'here' was. Now that was strange. A person should know where they are.

"Guys, she's waking up!" Yuffie's voice. Aeris frowned slightly. The numbness was almost gone and the pain was setting in. Slowly, painfully slowly, she opened her eyes. At first the light was terribly bright and she closed her eyes again. Then she tried opening them again. It wasn't as bad this time. There were blurry faces. She blinked a couple of times and they came into focus. Her Mom and Dad. Tifa, Cloud, Yuffie, Reeve and Barret too, sitting next to the bed. Infalna stroked the hair across her forehead.

"Hey baby. How are you feeling?"

"I…" Aeris tried to speak but her voice didn't seem to be working. She swallowed and licked lips before trying again.

"It hurts…everything hurts…"

"I'm not surprised." Matthew said, stroking his daughter's hand.

"What… what happened? I don't… remember."

"Your car… the engine blew out. It had been tampered with. But we'll explain it later."

Aeris closed her eyes, trying to remember. They had been driving along the road…

"We're nearly there. Another fifteen minutes maybe."

"I wanna know where we're going!"

"And I'm not going to tell you. You'll have to wait."

"Urgh, if I didn't love you so much I'd hit you!"

"It's never stopped you before." Vincent said, looking at her sideways. Vincent pulling the steering wheel, Vincent shouting as the car tumbled over. Vincent… Vincent…

"Vincent!" Aeris cried aloud. Infalna held her hand.

"Shh… Aeris, stay still. You're not well."

"Where is he? Where's Vincent? He was shouting… he was shouting…" Aeris said, her voice raspy.

"Aeris, stay calm-"

"Where is he?" She cried hysterically. Everyone looked at each other and slowly to Aeris' right. She turned her head carefully, not sure if it could go too far. And then she gasped.

Lying in the next bed over was Vincent. He was asleep. Tubes were running into him, and various machines were giving off readings. His pale skin looked completely white next to the sheets. Aeris felt a sob rise in her chest and tears blurred her vision. She let out a weak sob and tried to lean closer but was held back by Cloud.

"Aeris, the doctor will be here in a moment. You've been here for two days already."

"Two days…" Aeris whispered, eyes still fixed on Vincent. She licked her dry lips again and her body convulsed as another sob was released.

"Oh, darling, don't cry." Infalna said, looking as if she was about to cry.

The door opened and a doctor entered. He looked around.

"There are too many people in this room. Immediate family only, please." The others trekked out and the doctor smiled down at Aeris.

"Hello Miss Gainsborough. You've been through the wars."

"This is Doctor Spencer. He's the very best available." Matthew assured Aeris. Doctor Spencer flicked through a clipboard.

"Now then… I'll give you the run-through. A broken wrist, on your left side. Damaged tendons on your left lower leg. A few broken toes, a broken rib on your right. Lots of cuts and bruises and a slight lung infection from the fumes. It was a bit touch and go for a while, especially with your weakened immune system. But we reckon you're going to make a full recovery."

"What about Vincent?" Aeris pleaded.

Doctor Spencer's jovial face went extremely serious.

"I'm afraid we can't give any certain verdicts. Mr Hojo is-"

"Valentine. His name is Valentine." Aeris muttered. Doctor Spencer continued.

"He's in bad shape. Several broken limbs, head trauma and spinal damage. He took in a lot of fumes. From what I understand, after the car crashed he got out and went back for you. The car exploded while the pair of you were still in the area. Frankly, he's lucky to be alive right now. But he is, and that's incredibly promising."

The doctor carried on talking, but Aeris wasn't listening. Her eyes were back on the figure to the right of her bed and a tight, ice-cold fist had tightened around her heart.

After the doctor had given her a check up, he allowed the visitors to go back in for fifteen minutes before she got some rest. Tifa smiled at her.

"How you doing?"

"I'm tired." Aeris whispered. Cloud smiled, patting her hand.

"Well, at least you'll have lots of casts for us to sign. Hey, once you're better you can auction them off to your fans!"

Aeris laughed weakly and instantly felt a sharp pain in her side. Then she frowned.

"Tifa, what happened to your eye?"

"I got attacked a couple of nights ago. No big deal. He took my bag but they got it back for me."

"When was it?"

"Saturday night."

Aeris blinked hard. Her head felt swimmy and strange. Yuffie grinned.

"We'll let ya get some sleep, 'k?"

"Thanks…" Aeris said, although she wasn't sure they heard it. Her eyes closed and within minutes she was fast asleep.

They sat in the waiting room of Midgar Hospital. Infalna and Matthew were back in with their daughter. Cloud paced the waiting room. Tifa and Yuffie were talking quietly. Barret and Reeve were sitting in silence. Aeris was awake. But Vincent was close to death.

The rest of the waiting room was deserted. A couple of nurses were chatting behind the desk. Tifa said,

"I can't believe this happened. How could someone have tampered with the car like that? It just seems impossible."

"Actually it's quite simple. The explosive was fitted in with the mile gauge. Whoever put it in the car had set it to go off after the car had driven a certain number of miles." Reeve explained. He scratched his head.

"But it doesn't make sense… it was only a small explosive."

"What difference does it make?!" Cloud demanded. Reeve looked at his room mate.

"A lot. Palmer, if it was him, could have put in a much bigger explosive. No one would have been able to trace it back to him. It would have been a tragic accident."

"Are you getting to a point?" Yuffie asked.

"My point is, Palmer didn't want Aeris killed. At least not yet. My guess is that this is a warning. My guess is that Palmer isn't going to do this quickly. He's going to do this slowly. He doesn't want Aeris dead, he wants her money. He can't get the money if she's dead. He wants to scare her. And he just gave her a huge fright." Reeve explained darkly.

Yuffie stared at him.

"Wow. You're smart."

"So he's toying with her?" Barret said.

"Just a guess. But he's powerful. Huge guy in the underworld. He can get away with murder. And he almost did."

"But you just said-"

"No, not Aeris. Eric Gainsborough. He wasn't supposed to live." Reeve explained. He rested his chin on his hand.

"This is only the start. Things are going to get worse for Aeris. A lot worse, by my reckoning."

There was a crack. Everyone looked up in surprise. Cloud was staring at the wall. Or, to be more exact, the hand that was now embedded in the wall. Nobody said anything. Eventually Cloud said,

"My god, that's some shoddy craftsmanship." He looked at the wall his hand had punctured when he'd hit it.

"Cloud… your hand." Tifa said, getting up and walking to the wall. The nurses rushed down, carrying bandages.

"You hit the wall?" Yuffie said incredulously. Cloud shrugged and winced as the blood trickled down his hand.

"I got mad."

"At the wall?"

"No. I'll… pay for that." He said sheepishly to the nurses.

Infalna and Matthew emerged from the room a few minutes later.

"We're going to get some rest. They said they'd call us if there's any change."

"Cloud, your hand!" Infalna said, staring at the bandaged knuckle.

"He got mad at the wall." Yuffie said.

"I didn't get mad at the wall!" Cloud said. Barret turned to the Gasts.

"Have you booked in anywhere?"

"Not yet."

"You can stay at my place. It's close to the hospital and I've got plenty of room."

"Thank you, Mr Wallace."

"It's Barret. And don't mention it."

Aeris slept through until the middle of the night when she woke for no apparent reason. She rubbed her eyes with her right hand. The left was encased in plaster and seemed unbearably heavy. She looked over at figure in the next bed. There were a couple of small lights on so she could just make him out.

"Vincent?" she whispered. There was no reply. She knew there wouldn't be. She sniffed hard, feeling tears well up. Despite the fact that she had just slept for hours, she felt exhausted, both physically and mentally. Every inch of her hurt. She could feel a throbbing in her wrist and her leg, and it hurt terribly when she breathed.

"Vincent, please wake up. I need you to wake up. You promised you'd stay with me. Remember? At Christmas. You gave me the ring and you promised you'd stay with me…" She stopped as coughs racked her body. The pain was almost unbearable.

"You promised. Please don't leave me. I'm not ready for you to leave me." She cried. And then her heart froze. The steady beeping that was emanating from the machine had stopped. Instead there was just one long continuous beep.

Barret woke roughly as the telephone rang. He looked around wildly and then grabbed the phone by his bed.

"Yeah?"

"Mr Wallace? This is Doctor Spencer."

"What's happened?"

"We'd like Mr and Mrs Gast to come in to the hospital. Vincent has been taken into emergency surgery and Aeris is worrying herself."

"I'll get them straight over."

"Thank you."

Barret pulled on a shirt and trousers and went to the spare room where Infalna and Matthew were sleeping.

"Barret? What is it?" Matthew said, waking almost instantly.

"It's Vincent. He's been taken into emergency surgery and Aeris is panicking. You need to get to the hospital."

"Of course! Infalna, get up."

Aeris was crying hysterically when her parents and Barret rushed in. She looked up.

"It was beeping! The machine, it was beeping!"

"Aeris, it's OK."

"He's going to die!"

"Aeris, stop it! Vincent is in surgery now, receiving the best help available." Infalna said sharply, not trying to be harsh. She was trying to make Aeris calm down. Her daughter clutched at her sleeve.

"You won't let him die?"

"We're doing our best."

A nurse came in carrying a syringe.

"Aeris, we'd like to give you a tranquiliser. It'll help you stay calm."

"No."

"Come on, sweetie. There's no use panicking. Let the nurse help you." Matthew said rubbing his daughter's right hand. The nurse pushed the needle into Aeris' arm. She winced as the tranquiliser came out. Infalna lay her down.

"It'll be fine. I promise." Everything went hazy. Aeris struggled to keep her eyes open but darkness was overpowering her. Only the small light over her head shone through. As she fell asleep the light faded away.

Vincent…

(A/N: First things first, I'm sorry about the lack of page breaks. For some reason it isn't let me put them in. Grr, I hate that. I'll try to reupload it with the breaks later.Thanks for the reviews guys! You're all lovely. And I was so pleased that you didn't know whether to feel glad or pleased about Eric! It's something that my English Teacher said that stuck with me. To have a truly believable character, the reader can't decide on how to feel about them. If you just label characters as good or bad, it makes them more 2D. So yay! Or so, I believe. So thanks everyone. Hope you enjoy this chapter! Next one will be up very soon since I've nearly finished it already!)