I Tried – Chapter 26
Count Me In

Tifa felt like she was falling forward. Jerking awake she smacked her head against Reno's wall. The short curse that left her mouth was hushed; she'd been sitting. Placing a hand behind her head she turned to look over at Reno. His brows knitted together and Tifa stood. He'd been drifting in and out of consciousness for the better part of two days, though today Reno had been honestly sleeping. They'd removed a lot other than a bullet from his ribcage. Though Reno kept muttering about glass, they never found any.

She pushed his hair out of his face and adjusted his covers.

Reno opened his eyes then, lifting his hand to cover hers.

Tifa smiled, sighing in relief. "Are you alright?"

In response Reno shook his head, his hand slid up to her elbow.

Tifa climbed into the bed next to him. He didn't need to say anything, it may have ruined the moment if he had. She rested her chin on the top of his head and pulled him close. Though the steady breathing told Tifa that Reno was asleep, she talked anyway. "Re, I know you wanted me to stay out of it-" she yawned "- but I can't. I am going to stop this, one of these days…" She was asleep before the rest of the sentence left her mouth.

It was days later when Reno finally woke up. Rolling to his stomach made hair fall into his face. Reno became aware of three things. One, he was in his bed, therefore he was safe. Two, he was starving to death and lastly, he smelled. He smelled really, really bad.

Sitting on the edge of the bed, Reno stretched and tried to get his thoughts in order despite his roaring stomach. Nothing came to mind. Jenova, a hissing laugh, Sephiroth… why couldn't he focus? Sephiroth- it had been the real one, Reno was absolutely sure- was right there. Right there, yet, if Reno was going to believe his own recollection of the events before he got back to his bed, Sephiroth had helped him. There was no way he would have survived that glass in his lung for… god, four days according to the clock.

There you are, little dirty thing… her voice. What was she talking about? Was she talking to him?

Reno pushed himself off the bed and tottered. A deep centering breath escaped his mouth before he strode to the bathroom for a shower. The shower was long, hot, and made him somehow even hungrier. Head resting against the wall under the shower head, Reno could swear that he smelled food drifting up on the steam.

The shower helped his mobility greatly, though he still felt like there was a hole in his ribcage. Reno knew it would only take a few days now to get back up to his usual shape, but it was far from his mind at the moment. He was too hungry to think of much besides becoming not hungry.

Rude looked up at him from the kitchen, a beer in one hand and a fork in the other. He nodded down to the food that Reno smelled and then back to the couch where a large piece of lasagna steamed. "At the daycare." Rude responded before taking a bite, answering Reno's unanswered question on his daughter.

Gods, food felt so good, he didn't taste the first two pieces, and was well into his third before Reno realized he past full. Rude and he hadn't said a word; they just watched the television and ate in silence. This was comfortable, though with anyone else, Reno'd probably fidget. Rude and he had developed a silent form of communication, mostly through the larger man's attention to detail. At least it had finally rubbed off on Reno.

They stood up and walked to the balcony to have an after dinner smoke. It was then that Rude raised his eyebrow.

"I dunno man…" Reno muttered around the cigarette. And at the other's barely audible snort he continued. "I'm serious, I have absolutely no idea what just happened, why it happened or anything. It's a big, black space in my memory." He sucked the tobacco down to the filter and flung it over the balcony.

Rude offered another one, and after Reno lit it, he nodded. "We think they drugged you."

"He." Reno responded. "It was Sephiroth…" and then Reno cracked. He fell to his chair with a deep sigh and told Rude everything. The hearing voices, Hojo's extra comments, and lastly, Sephiroth. None of it made sense and it sounded crazier after it had been said than it did rattling around his subconscious.

Rude only nodded his head, as if Reno had been talking about any other bar-fight or something of that low importance. "Better ask Reeve 'bout that."

It felt decidedly good, Reno thought, to finally tell someone that and then crack a smile and not be told he was crazy.

Turks - Reno knew that well by then – were not allowed time off. They only had breaks if they could no longer move. As a result, a still sore Reno was making his way down the slum allies. At least this job wouldn't be hard; he was trading Tseng detail with the Ancient. Cetra, they were called, though Reno didn't remember where he'd heard that before. Probably the same child's story his mother had told him, that one that had Jenova in it.

Tseng told Reno quite a bit about Aeris Gainsborough. It was hard not to miss the fondness in the Wutain's voice. That fondness was more pronounced because Tseng was rarely fond of anyone. Reno smiled a bit, Aeris seemed like a nice person, so not only was he getting an easy job, he was kill time till Reeve got back to Midgar.

He was screwing also Hojo over by "looking for the Cetra" and he was going to get information about his father and Sephiroth from Reeve. It was going to be a good night.

Living with Padre had taught Reno at least a little reverence for a church. When he walked in, his hand reached instinctually to a dry holy water draught. Blinking at the action and a little shocked at himself for it, Reno scanned the church. She was easy to find, dressed in pink and crouched in the center of her church. Her back was turned to him.

There was no real door to the church; she couldn't have heard him come in. He was about to say something to the effect of "be careful" when she opened with a rather unfelt hello. "Good evening, Renald…"

"How did you know that?" He snapped, grated at being noticed, and more grated that she knew his name. Tseng told her that? Reno shoved a cigarette in his mouth with agitation.

She stood and turned, frowning at him. "Don't smoke in here." Reno's teeth clenched the filter while she continued. "I was told your name, but Tseng didn't tell me."

"Then who?"

Aeris strode up to him then, green eyes almost as haunted as a Turk's. She had the look of someone about to die, but not ready for it yet. Thin hands clenched into fists at her side. Aeris surveyed him with an expression that clearly read she was expecting more from him. "It doesn't matter, you wouldn't believe me."

"Se said ya should lay low a while, Hojo's got a lot of guys looking for ya." He stated flatly, for someone that Tseng was so infatuated with, she certainly was less than friendly as far as Reno was concerned.

"It doesn't matter." She snorted and walked past him to look into the drought. It was as though Reno's entrance had reminded her it was there. "It should be you…not me."

The cigarette tumbled to the ground, rolling under the pews from Reno's open mouth. There was more than venom in her words. It wasn't hate, but it wanted to be. It was almost as if she sounded jealous. His mouth worked, but words wouldn't form.

"But it won't be you. You're the one, but it won't be you, you aren't even listening to them." She whirled again, with harsh, resigned eyes. "But they are making me… I'm the one that-" she shook her head. At first, Aeris looked almost as though she wanted to be sorry, but that faded. "Tell Se I am not going anywhere. I don't want to see you again."

Reno shoved another cigarette in his mouth to cover up the words he wanted to say and lit it. He'd promised not to yell at Aeris, and he wouldn't. Instead, he spilled a cloud of smoke out of his mouth at her. As Aeris waved the cloud away and coughed delicately, Reno spun on heel. "The pleasure was all mine, I a-fucking-sure you."

Reno had to catch his front door in mid close, trying to keep it from slamming shut. It pinched his knuckles in the process, earning a yelp that he was able to muffle without waking Trigger. After the door clicked shut he pressed his red hand against his mouth. If anything else was going to go wrong, Reno prayed it would be later, after he'd slept.

"Re? We really need to talk."

Tifa? Reno spun around and shook his hand out. She was sitting on the couch, staring at a cup of tea. She looked nervous; he wasn't used to seeing that. Something bunched up in his gut before he spoke. "What do you mean?"

She stood, wringing her hands. "I- I don't want you to be upset, I really don't want to lose your friendship over this…" Tifa crossed in front of him and poured Reno a cup of tea. He stood in stunned silence, watching her add in sugar and the lemon before crossing back in front of him and placing the cup next to hers. "Please, sit down first?"

That thing in his gut twisted again. Wherever this was going, Reno already didn't like it. He was half afraid that she was going to tell him she had a boyfriend… but that shouldn't really matter much. Reno took a breath before removing his shoes and sitting next to her. "What is going on?"

Tifa didn't really look at him; she was staring at the blank television. She inched a bit closer to him, sliding their cups next to each other. He could smell her hair now, even though it was dry. Tifa slid a note over to him without a word, placing it directly in front of the teacups. When Reno's hand reached out to pick it up, she covered it with hers. She shook a bit when she let go of his hand to take a sip of tea.

Re

I know you tell me not to get involved, but I did. I did, and I'm not sorry for it. There's this group called AVALANCHE, their leader, Barret, lost his arm in Corel. He's serious about this. All he needs is someone on the inside, someone that is close enough to get into ShinRa.

I'm not going to lie, they are terrorists, but they aren't worse than ShinRa are they? They want to cut off the power cores, the mako towers, all around the city. They can do it, I just have this feeling that they can stop all of this.

I'm going to help them.

Reno dropped the piece of paper- it'd been erased and rewritten several times from the looks of things- and stared owlishly at her. He looked down at the paper and back again. Reno's heart started thumping too loudly for comfort; she had no idea what she just did. She told a Turk that she was going to attack ShinRa, no, she was claiming to try to stop them.

It took all of his power to not scream at her right there, to not reach over and shake her or something. He'd never so much as raised his voice at her, but Tifa didn't know what she was doing. She was going to get them both killed. He wanted to yank her to her feet and beg her never to ever think of something that foolish again. Talking right now was dangerous, however. ShinRa could have his apartment bugged; there was no telling who would hear them.

They needed background noise; it was too quiet not to be suspect. He turned the TV on, flipping it to the news and picked the note up off the floor. Before he could motion for it, Tifa already had a small notebook and a pencil in front of him.

Teef, no. Just, don't go back there.

The notebook passed silently back to Tifa, who wrote while biting her lip.

Re, this is what we WANTED. Isn't it? Do you WANT to do this your whole life?

It wasn't what he wanted, but gods, he knew what Hojo was capable of, he didn't want to subject Tifa to that, if they found out they'd have her killed in the worst way.

This isn't about my life. It's about YOU and about Trigg. I won't let you do something that is going to end up getting you or her killed.

Have some faith in me! She responded. I promise, Re, I'll be careful, you taught me how to be careful, I'll listen to anything you say, I can't do this without you. We could do this. I know we could, and then we could all go somewhere quiet. Wouldn't that be nice? Trigg could go to school, we could change our names, just disappear. ALL of us.

His hand was shaking too as it ran through his hair. The Turks would never rat on him, if anyone was going to take down the company they'd need Turk help. If the spies were the ones in on it, then the danger would definitely be cut a bit. But it was still there, if Rufus found out there would be no second chances. They'd have to bypass securities, they'd have to steal ID cards, implement other people in the crimes…

…he was already planning it.

The odds of this working out were a thousand to one, was that quiet life worth it? Reno didn't write anything, instead he stood. Reeve was going to be home soon, and they had to go to the graveyard to talk in peace. He'd have to bring it up to Reeve… gods how the hell were they going to do this? It was borderline suicide.

Tifa blinked up at him, eyes wide.

She took his hand when he offered it to help her stand. They looked at each other for what felt like forever. Reno moved first, putting his arm around her waist and pulling her to him. She was the one who kissed him first, it wasn't long, he stepped away too soon. "We will talk when I get back."

She watched him put his shoes on and open the door. "Re, I love you."

"I love you too, Teef." Reno said, shutting the door behind him.

Reno paced the cemetery, smoke billowing over his head from the cigarette in his mouth. Midgar had made actual burials illegal years ago; they simply ran out of places to put the bodies. Instead, mazes of walls, all lined with names were all that was left of the dead. He was around the "V" section, awaiting Reeve and not knowing what to tell the other man.

"You don't look very relaxed…" Reeve commented, walking past Reno to a particular name plate.

Reno's eyes darted to the dusty plate that Reeve was wiping off. "V V Valentine" it read. He blinked at the name before looking at Reeve. "Valentine?" It was a pretty common name, Reno assumed.

"Yeah." Reeve sighed, lighting a cigarette. "You've got questions, so let's hear them."

Thousands cluttered Reno's mind. More then thousands, he took a whole cigarette to sort through them, file them and finally choose one to start out with. "Why didn't Sephiroth kill me?"

Reeve closed his eyes as if he didn't want to start there, but he'd made a promise. Sliding down to sit against the V wall, he motioned for Reno to sit on the one across from him. After they both relit cigarettes, Reeve said lowly. "Well, I can't tell you the exact reason for that Reno, but I can tell you that you and he have a connection, and maybe that could be it."

"And that is?" Reno started tapping his fingers on the cement below him. It was strange to look up these thin walls and see the stars, otherwise, he'd feel like he was in the slums again.

"You and he are cousins."

The cigarette fell from Reno's hand. "Yer shittin me?"

"No." A cloud of smoke trailed from Reeve's mouth. "I'm not, but I don't think that is too much to worry about, for the time being at least. And what else?"

Reno scooped the smoke up and shoved it back into his mouth. From around the item he ground out, "all of it, from the fuckin' beginning."

The sun was rising before Reno made it back home. His head was spinning, the things he already knew about his own father had been expanded on, and the new extended family he had acquired wasn't much of a concern. One thing boiled him. One little detail nagged him, despite the confusing trail of questions that Reeve simply couldn't answer.

ShinRa did this. They fucked him hard, his whole family, his mother, his father, hell, Sephiroth probably never had a chance to be sane. And whose fault was it really? ShinRa's.

They'd used other people for all they could. It wasn't going to end unless someone ended it by force. His chance at a normal life was taken before he was even born. The whole of the slums was even the fault of a company that used humanity as a resource.

When he opened the door, Tifa was still sitting on the couch. Coffee steamed in her cup now, instead of tea. He locked eyes with her and said firmly, "I'm in."

A/N: Sorry that this took so long, guys. I've got a good, happy reason though. My husband, Cloud (not his real name) just got a promotion! We were only given a week before he started the new job, four hours away from home. So, as a result, I've been working on packing, selling our current home, and traveling between here and Columbus to see him/find an apartment/find a new job. All the details on this can be found on my live journal, I'm "drakonlily" there too.

Things are calming down, if only slightly, and I'm still going to be writing, I love this story too much to just stop it. I'm going to try to get another chapter up next week, but no promises. Thank you all so much for reading; I never thought this story would make me as many friends as it did.

Love ya guys!
Kas