I Tried-Chapter 16
Things worth Fighting For

Reno looked over the various plans set in front of him. They were schematics, outlining cameras of a hallway, next to them, was a time sheet, and next to that, a floor plan of an extremely large ballroom. He felt a bit overwhelmed with all the information, when he had pictured killing someone he hadn't expected to get up close and personal with them.

When he looked up, He noticed Reeve was standing on the other side of the charts from Scarlet. Tseng was sitting on the side of the table, reading a printout. Reno took a deep breath, feeling a bit out of sorts, like a small fish in a pool of sharks. "Okay," he started, "so the short of it is I am supposed to kill someone, but the long of it isn't 'Okay kid here's a sniper sit here and wait', is it?"

Scarlet looked, for a moment, like she felt for him. Reno wouldn't call the look "sympathy", it was more empathy and understanding. "It is much more complicated then that. If we could have sniped him, it would have been Tseng on the roof." She tucked a loose bang behind her ears and pivoted a bit so she could see both the plans and Reno. "You will go to the check-in desk and introduce yourself as Riley Mollinar, the pianist from Junon. Don't go out of your way to be noticed or not to be noticed, they aren't important, but it would be nice if they just brushed you off after showing you to the piano."

Reno bit his tongue, while he was curious how exactly, they learned that he played the piano, He knew better then to ask questions.

Reeve pulled his attention from his own thoughts back to the plans of the ballroom. He used a pen to point at the map. Though his voice and eyes were still serious, his relaxed smile was at odds from the matter at hand. It was as though he has this "Turk business" that he did because he had to or was good at it, while another part of him would have been just as happy sitting at the bar talking about nothing of consequence. "Here comes the hard part-"

Tseng snorted, but said nothing else, earning a half laugh from Reeve who continued as though he hadn't been interrupted.

"Given the target, it shouldn't be hard to accomplish, but this will be hard on you, personally." Ignoring Reno's eyebrow raise, Reeve forged onward. "Be on the lookout for this woman, she's your first objective."

While Reeve talked, Tseng slid a set of photographs across the table to Reno.

Reno picked them up and started looking them over. The woman was very poster girl pretty. Though the skin was too tan and the chest too separated to be real, Reno could easily see how someone could find her attractive. She had thin arms and a slim midsection, her hair was blonde, unnaturally so with her darkly bronzed skin. "So uhm, you want me to find Costa Del Sol Barbie?" he quipped.

This time all three Turks barked laughs. Reno felt a bit more at ease; they weren't that bad as far as people went, not that he was starting to like them. He watched Reeve dig out a pack of cigarettes, prompting everyone else in the room to do the same. They passed the oldest- though that was just a guess on Reno's part, none of them looked a day over twenty-five- Turk's lighter around, Reno catching it as Tseng tossed it at him. Reno ran his thumb over the engraved "E.M." on the silver zippo.

"You should buy a drink for Mrs. Collider," Reeve stressed her name, "after you are done playing. It's a classical venue, should be no sweat, just two hours. Your goal is to get into her bedroom."

"Into her wha?" Reno interjected. "Woah wait wait… what the hell? I don't think so and even if I did, you DO know the age of consent here is eighteen right?" He knew how he must sound, a sixteen year old kid turning DOWN the chance to sleep with a supermodel look alike. However, he was a sixteen year old father, and it didn't sit right.

"ShinRa has never concerned itself one way or the other with legalities." Reeve responded. "In fact, you can try a trick. My full name is Emmerson Nathanial Reeve, my social ID is 2345-434-99. Look me up, you won't find anything." A smile hit Reeve's face at the look Reno threw him. "Furthermore, let us not forget that we are contracting a murder for hire, the statutory suit is small in comparison."

Reno took an extra long drag of the cigarette. He didn't feel like he could do that. Part of him was afraid, he'd admit, the other part of him was still attached to Bethany. He wasn't ready for something like this, even if it didn't mean anything. He'd been with a few assorted people in his short life, yes, but he knew them all, he was at least friends with them. Reeve was asking him to do something that he'd never done before. "Why do I have to do that? Can't I just cap the guy? What's she got to do with it?"

Scarlet frowned and moved to sit across the table from Reno. "Listen Reno, it isn't easy, but it has to work this way. The living quarters of this hotel are on lockdown, you can't get to that section of rooms without her. I understand how you feel, I really do, but some things need to be done. And don't worry about her asking you how old you are," Scarlet then snorted disdainfully. "The bitch won't even ask you what your name is."

Reno blinked at her tone. It was right then that he noticed it, the Turks didn't have haunted looks in their eyes. No, that look he saw in Scarlet's eyes wasn't haunt, it was dead. There was nothing there, it hurt to look at. The gravity of the situation sent a chill through him. They stared at each other for a moment, Reno's haunted eyes into Scarlet's dead ones. He wanted to run from the building, he almost did.

If he did that though, what about Mariah?

Reno sighed, touched the bridge of his nose with his hand, and nodded. "Okay continue."

Reeve nodded sharply, "you should keep her busy as long as possible. At around three AM or so, offer her a cigarette, it will have a drug in it that will totally knock her out for the next thirty minutes. From there, take the key to her husband's room-" Reeve stopped, noting Reno's look of confusion. "They don't sleep together, she's eye candy, he's a rich prick. He'll be with prostitutes most-likely."

"And people call me a tramp." Reno growled. "Okay, so go to his room, make sure he's alone, kill him and then what?"

"You'll meet all kinds." Reeve commented simply.

At this Reno barked a laugh. "No, I won't. I'm doing this 'cause I need the money. No offence, but the last thing I want is to feel like I'm dead while I'm walking."

Tseng spoke up then, his tone was unreadable. "Boy, you don't know the half of it."

For the first time in his life, Reno found something that he never wanted to know.

Mariah was finally at the hospital. Finally, she was getting the help that she needed. The doctors never asked him where the money came from, they weren't polite, they weren't rude, but they weren't exactly hopeful either. Regardless, Reno needed to try.

He walked Padre back to the church. The older man was silent the entire time, though Reno caught him looking at him. Reno could feel the questions coming off Padre. Reno didn't know how to answer them. Trying to get around talking to Padre, Reno made up an excuse and started walking the slums.

There were times when he wished that he could cry. People always said that crying made you less of a man. But some days he didn't care, he was only sixteen, not a man yet so he was told. He still could feel the pressure of tears behind his eyes. Drugs, running, all of those things helped in little ways. This time, however, he felt as though he earned the pain.

He found his way to the gates, passing out of Midgar. Even though the plate wasn't above him anymore, Reno didn't bother to look up; there was nothing but smog to see anyway. The ground was mangled here, dirty and covered with cans, cigarettes, muck and mire. Tire grooves ran so deep that there were places that needed boards to cover them to keep trucks and cars from getting stuck.

There was a junk yard, outside of the city, and it was there that Reno was headed. There were few people there, the yard had been abandoned at this point. One day, Reno thought, junk would wrap its way totally around Midgar, an impenetrable wall of filth, the perfect gate for the city.

The moon was barely a disc through the smog, casting a dim light through the browning curtain of haze. It helped Reno pick his way around the trash and the rubble, to a place against the real wall of Midgar. Plants started to grow here, sturdy, bent things that had flowers as sharp as thorns. Though, somehow, in the center of the plants, there was a patch of grass, protected from the harsher elements by a busted cargo car.

When Bethany was alive, they would come here. Reno didn't think that anyone else knew about it, though it was more likely that no one else cared about the place. No one in Midgar had use for something silly like grass and a bramble patch.

Had he wanted to talk to her? Maybe, though now, sitting there he really didn't know what to say. Reno had come because the place reminded him of Bethany, but now that he was there, he could only think about his daughter. After more then an hour of staring into nothing, Reno made himself say something. "Beth, I'm sorry, about everything. I never meant for this, but, I can't let something happen to Mar, not after I just lost you. And with the extra money, maybe, fuck, I don't know. I won't let Trigg do anything like this, I promise."

It was almost morning when Reno made his way back home; Padre was sitting at the coffee table waiting for him. Reno helped himself to the coffee, knowing that he would have to be leaving in a few hours to meet Reeve. They sat in silence, both sipping the coffee. "Where did you get that kind of money?" The pastor asked finally.

"I can't talk about it Padre. I agreed to take care of some things for some people, that's all I can tell you." Reno got up to leave the table. "I have to leave in a few hours." He walked to the door and took a deep breath, as if he was going to say something, but after a glance over his shoulder, he started up the stairs.

Padre looked into his coffee and sighed. "Reno, what have you gotten yourself into?" He asked no one in particular.

Suzanna. The baby seemed so small when he held her, fragile. She had no idea what it was like to carry the sort of guilt that Reno had and she wouldn't. Not if her father could do anything about it. Reno curled up on the bed, using an extra pillow to make sure Suzanna wouldn't fall. He didn't think that he would be sleeping much anyway, but something made him need to know that she was there with him.

His mind still raced, the Turks weren't saying he was going to end up with them, but they were giving him the impression that he had little choice in what they ended up doing with him. Would it be a bad thing? Working for them? If the money that Reeve tossed around was any indication, it would mean that he would be able to afford to send Suzanna to school, keep her away from the life that he had forced on him.

Did keeping her safe mean he would have to break a promise he made himself years ago? He was going to become something cheap and used, if just for an evening. Was it worth it? For Mariah, for his daughter?

Reno felt his eyes close finally. Yes, it was worth it.