Jaras' Reclamation

by KSipesh

COMPLETE The sequel to Guilt's Cost. Do not open this story unless you have finished Guilt's Cost and Guilt's Cost Continued. Six years after GC, Jaras is discovered, and happily ever after is over... I will not tolerate grief for this story.

3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

Jaras felt the van come to a stop and he heard the doors opening. Although he had no real appreciation of what time it could be, he was fairly certain that it was late at night. At the very least, he felt like he'd been lying in that horribly uncomfortable position for five or six hours.

The SOLDIER that had scared him earlier by his lewd tone again spoke right into Jaras' ear. "We're stopping for the night. When we pull you out of this van, your going to be cooperative and silent. One sound out of you and you'll regret it, you got me?"

Jaras just nodded as best he could in his current position, indicating that he wasn't about to do anything to make this man upset. Soon, he felt himself pulled from the van's floor. As the stress was finally taken off of his shoulders and arms, the pain that shot through him was excruciating. He clenched his teeth to prevent himself from making any sort of sound. Jaras felt himself carried by several men from the van and into some sort of room. From the smell within, he knew that they had just brought him into some sort of cheap motel. Apparently, they were spending the night here.

Instead of finding himself placed onto a bed as he would have hoped, Jaras felt himself dropped onto the floor. They had put him down on his stomach, which was at least a change from being on his back.

The SOLDIERs began to speak. He heard the leader' voice. "Okay, we've got two rooms here. I'm staying in this one with the prisoner and Hatley. You and Gorrin take the other."

Jaras listened as he heard some movement around him and then the door to the room opened, closed, and locked.

"So, we gonna have some fun with this one?" the man staying with the leader in the room asked. To Jaras' horror, it was the man who'd spoken to him on the van.

The leader laughed cruelly. "Hell yeah, why do you think I got another room for the guys?"

Jaras whimpered despite himself. His stomach knotted painfully and he felt like he was going to throw up-- of course, that's the last thing he wanted to do while gagged as it were.

The two SOLDIERs came to Jaras and maneuvered him over to one of the beds and threw him over the edge of it, his knees resting on the floor. He began to shake again in his fear over what was going on, and it seemed to excite them.

"Fucking Sephiroth… this is great!" Hatley laughed, placing the muzzle of his sidearm against the back of Jaras' neck, making sure that he stayed in the position they'd put him in.

Jaras felt the cold metal dig into the back of his neck. He felt the other SOLDIER move behind him and reach around him. His jeans were being undone and he couldn't help himself from trying to say something to get them to stop, but all he got out was a muffled groan through the fabric that'd been crammed in his mouth.

"I said for you to not make any noise!" Hatley growled, shoving the gun against his neck harder.

The other man finally got the waist to Jaras' pants undone and pulled on them, exposing him. "Bet he's a fuckin' virgin."

Hatley laughed. "Not for long he ain't."

"You got that gun oil in your pack?" the leader asked of the other man.

"Yeah."

Jaras heard the zipper of a pack being undone. He knew exactly what was about to happen to him, and for a moment, he actually wished that he were still Sephiroth. No one would have been able to do something like this to him back then. They would have found themselves dead for the mere thought.

-------------------

It was only about five in the morning when Cid fired up the engines of his plane. His normal routine would have precluded him from getting out of bed until six, but he'd been up all night and had just given up and decided to head to Tifa and Vincent's house early.

He glanced over at his seven-year-old son and smiled. "Alright, you ready?"

The kid was sitting in the copilot's seat, and had the control stick in his hands. "Yes, Sir."

Cid motioned toward the end of the runway. "Well, get on with it, then."

L.C. smiled at his father, his blue eyes gleaming, and guided the plane down the runway. Cid had been letting the boy fly a little at a time since he'd only been five. Now, at seven, L.C. was more than capable of handling the entire flight from Rocket to the outskirts of Kalm with no problems. Within a few short seconds, they were in the air.

Cid looked over at his boy approvingly. Being rocked by the plane's gentle vibrations, he felt his sleeplessness catch up with him. "You think you can handle this if I try and get some rest?"

"Hell yeah," the boy replied, sounding an awful lot like his father. "Take a nap, old man."

"Good enough." Cid settled back in his seat and dozed off. He had no doubts in his son's ability to fly the plane while he slept. His boy was just like him.

-------------------

Tifa was standing in the kitchen, going through the motions of washing the breakfast dishes, but not really putting any thought into it. Cid would arrive soon, and the anxiety within her was growing. It had been seven and a half months since she'd seen her old friend. Rarely had that much time passed between his visits, but this time there'd been good reason. While he and Tifa were willing to talk on the phone, they hadn't been able to bring themselves to face each other. Now, they were being forced to do so. Vincent had possessed nothing but good intentions in asking the pilot to look after his wife while he went to ASRIO. He had no idea of the tension that had settled between Tifa and Cid. They had kept the secret from him well enough.

As she sat the last cleaned plate in the drying rack and turned off the faucet, she heard the unmistakable drone of a plane's engines overhead. Tifa closed her eyes and sighed. There would be no more avoiding the inevitable now.

Vincent looked up from the book he'd been reading at the table and glanced over at his wife. "That's him."

"I know."

Vincent narrowed his eyes. Generally, when Cid had come by in the past, she'd run out the door to greet him before the plane hit the ground. This time, though, she was just remaining before the sink, her posture one of distress. "Tifa? Is something wrong?"

Realizing that he was seeing right through her, she did her best to pull off her usual happy air. "I'm just tired from being pregnant, that's all."

Vincent decided to take this answer at face value. She'd been miserable during the last two months of her previous pregnancy and this one was shaping up to be about the same. He closed his book and stood up. "Come on, let's go see him."

Tifa forced a smile and took his hand, letting him lead her from the house.

-------------------

The plane made a somewhat rough landing, bouncing twice before sticking. Cid looked over at his son with a cocked eyebrow. "I taught you better than that, kid."

The boy rolled his eyes. "I'm landing in a crosswind, Dad. Give me a break."

He reached over and mussed his son's disheveled blond hair for a moment. "I'm just messing with 'ya. You did good."

L.C. brought the plane to a stop and cut the engines. "I know. I'm the best there's ever been."

"Only after I'm dead," Cid said, the morbidity of his words only hitting him afterward. The smile he'd been wearing at once faded.

"Dad?" L.C. asked, not accustomed to seeing his father look so down. "Something wrong?"

"Naw." Cid unhooked his seatbelt and got up. "Let's go."

They picked up their bags and opened the door on the side of the plane. L.C. ran out first, spotting Aaron standing shyly behind his parents. The two boys quickly made their way back to the house. They both had certain social inadequacies that tended to get them ridiculed by other kids, but the two of them got along with one another as best friends.

Cid then disembarked. He kept his gaze on the ground as he approached Vincent and Tifa. He was too ashamed to look Vincent in the eyes as he neared him. "Hey."

Vincent could tell that there was something profoundly wrong with Cid. In fact, the way both his wife and the pilot seemed to ignore each other for the moment worried him to some extent. Then again, Tifa was under a lot of stress at the moment, and Cid had already sounded disturbed last night when he'd spoken to him. "I'm glad you came."

"Sure." Cid shifted his pack from one shoulder to the other, finally looking over at Tifa. He examined her for a moment. "You doing all right?"

She just nodded.

"Okay." Cid walked between them and toward the house. He wanted to go throw his stuff in the guestroom.

Vincent looked over at his wife. "Is there something going on that I should know about?"

Tifa shook her head and forced a smile. "I think we're all just worried about Jaras, Vincent."

He narrowed his eyes. While he and Tifa may have been worried about Jaras, he wasn't exactly sure that his son's plight would bother the pilot so much. "Right."

Without another word, Tifa turned toward the house and started walking. Vincent wasn't stupid, and if she didn't get her attitude under control quickly, he was going to figure things out for himself. That was the last thing she needed at the moment.

Vincent followed her. It seemed that everyone was miserable, including himself. Why things could never be simple he didn't know.

Once inside, Cid tossed his things onto the guest bed and then went back to the family room. He landed on the couch, staring at the floor before him. Tifa and Vincent entered the room. Tifa sat next to Cid and Vincent went over to his chair.

"So, they got Jaras, huh?" Cid asked, knowing that Vincent was trying to see into him.

"Yeah." Vincent settled back in his seat. "I'm hoping we can get him back soon enough."

Cid nodded and finally brought himself to meet the other man's gaze. "I'm sorry that it happened, guy."

Vincent shrugged. "Well, it's not as though it was completely unexpected. Like Tseng had told Jaras seven years back, sooner or later someone was bound to recognize him for who he was."

The mention of Vincent's dead brother sent a chill down Cid's spine. "Sure."

"I didn't want to leave Tifa here by herself, being thirty-four weeks and all," Vincent said, wanting to get his mind off of Jaras.

Cid perked to attention and narrowed his eyes. He turned to Tifa. "Thirty-four?"

She instantly flushed red and stammered, "Y…yes."

The pilot leaned back into the cushions of the couch and continued to stare at her, some color coming to his own cheeks.

Vincent knit his brow for a second before excusing himself from the room. He'd forgotten his manners and knew that he should have offered Cid a drink. After he went to check on the boys, he'd go to the kitchen and get some tea on.

Now alone, Cid tensed his jaw for a moment before speaking. "Thirty-four weeks? You want to explain that one to me? You told me last week that it was only thirty-one, which was right in line with your story all along. I'm guessing that you haven't exactly been tellin' me the truth."

Embarrassed to have been caught in a lie, Tifa's anxiety got worse. "I didn't want you to worry about it, Cid."

"Well, it's sorta been in the back of my mind the whole time anyway, Tif. I know you said you got pregnant several weeks later, but I've still wondered." Cid crossed his arms over his chest.

Tifa closed her eyes and sighed. Seven and a half months ago, Vincent had left town to go spend some time with Angel. While he was away, Cid had come by to keep her company. While the two of them had always had a tendency to cling to each other a little too much, nothing had ever really happened until that last time.

-------------------

It had been late at night and Cid had gotten up to go get a drink, finding Tifa sitting at the kitchen table. She had been upset about something, and he sat beside her.

"Tifa, what's wrong?" he asked.

She looked at him with tear dimmed eyes. "Sometimes, I can't remember why I married him, Cid."

Being well aware of the fact that Vincent and Tifa had argued often, he quickly realized that Vincent and her must have gotten into it right before he'd left. Unfortunately, due to the seven beers he'd had earlier, he spoke honestly. "I wish you hadn't."

She looked up at him. "Really?"

"Yeah," Cid admitted, flushing immediately.

"Why? You still have issues with him after all this time?"

"No." Cid moved closer to her and put his arm around her. "I wish you hadn't married him because things would have been a lot simpler for me."

Her eyes narrowed at this statement and she leaned just slightly closer to him. "What do you mean?"

"Tifa, you know I've been in love with you for a long time." He looked away. "I loved you when I was married to Shera, I loved you when you married Vincent, and I've loved you all this time I've been seeing Jin."

She was speechless. Tifa had always possessed feelings for the pilot as well, but since he'd always adamantly denied any sort of serious desire for her, she'd kept it under wraps. Now things were more complicated and she had found herself wishing that she'd ended up with Cid instead.

He saw the change in her expression and leaned toward her, until their lips met.

They both gave into it, having kept their mutual feelings about one another bottled for fourteen years. Cid moved from the chair he was sitting in and knelt beside hers. Tifa, meanwhile, had turned in her seat to face him straight on, so he was now kneeling between her knees as their lips continued to linger against each other's.

Cid ran a hand up her right leg, quickly realizing that she was wearing the nightshirt and nothing else. With the alcohol in his system, he hadn't possessed the ability to stop himself from what happened next.

Tifa let her hands trail against his body, and she soon knew that he was aroused. When his lips momentarily broke away from hers so that his mouth could go on to explore the contours of her neck, she whispered, "Cid, you can, if you want."

There was no way he could refuse in his current condition. Within a flash, he reached down and freed himself from his boxers, driving into her without hesitation.

Tifa gasped, not really believing that he had given in. She closed her eyes as he thrust at her for several minutes before putting her hands on his shoulders and pushing him back. "No… oh God, Cid? What are we doing?"

Embarrassed, he got his boxers back up and moved over to the chair he'd been in before. He couldn't believe what had just happened, but he ached with the fact that it had not gotten finished. Since they'd already started, he saw no good reason now why they shouldn't see it to the end. "Tifa…"

"Cid, we can't!" Tears had come to her eyes.

"I may be wrong here, Tifa, but I think we already did." He leaned toward her again, hoping that she would let him get back to it. His level of arousal was beyond painful now-- the few minutes he'd been inside her doing no more than making him worse off.

"Vincent…" she said to herself, covering her face with her hands.

"No, Tifa, don't get like that. This is all my fault. I shouldn't have said what I said, and I sure as hell should have known better than to touch you," Cid replied, giving into the realization that he wasn't going to finish the act with Tifa, now or ever.

-------------------

Cid coughed, bringing Tifa out of the memory of their brief encounter. She looked into his eyes, seeing the question that was there. "It's not yours, if that's what you're wondering."

Since he hadn't finished the night they were together, he figured that the chances that it was were pretty slim, but then again, it wasn't beyond the realm of possibility. "How can you be so sure? Were you and Vincent actually trying for this one?"

"No," she said quietly, not knowing when Vincent was going to return to the room. "I'd stopped taking birth control since I did want another kid, but he'd taken to using protection, since he wasn't big on the idea."

Cid scowled. "What happens when you push that kid out and it's blond like me, Tifa? Don't you think he's going to be a little suspicious?"

Further discussion of the subject was cut short when Vincent returned, balancing three cups of tea in his hands. He glanced between his wife and the pilot as he handed them their cups, seeing that whatever they had been talking about had been serious. "Should I come back later?"

Tifa forced a pathetic smile. "Don't be silly."

He gave them a dubious expression before taking his teacup and moving back toward his chair again. Sometimes, he hated the fact that Tifa and Cid seemed to have things going on between them that he wasn't a part of. Whenever the pilot was around, Vincent generally felt as though he was the odd man out.

Cid took a sip of the tea that Vincent had offered him and immediately made a face. "Damn strong tea you make, Sunshine."

Vincent smiled faintly. "That's because it's real, unlike that crap you buy at the store. It's from Wutai."

The pilot set his cup down on the coffee table, not sure that he could stand what Vincent had given him.

Tifa, in the meanwhile, continued to sip at hers, used to the tea after living with Vincent for so long.

"So, is there any sort of plan for getting Jaras back, or are you just going with Reno's usual smash and grab?" Cid asked, feeling a need to keep the conversation going.

"We don't even know where he is at the moment." Vincent swirled his drink. "Hopefully, it won't be long before ASRIO gets his position."

Cid considered this for a moment. "I see."

"I promised Tifa that I'd be back in four weeks, regardless," Vincent said quietly.

"He don't want to miss the birth of your kid, huh?" Cid shot toward Tifa, with a little more edge to it than he had intended.

Vincent knit his brow at looked over at his friend. Whatever it was that was going on with Cid and Tifa, he'd had enough. He finished his tea, ignoring the fact that he burned his tongue by swallowing it too quickly. After, he set the cup down and locked gazes with Tifa. "You two tell me what's going on right now. I'm not stupid. The both of you have been acting strangely."

Cid looked over at Tifa. He didn't know what he was supposed to do. "Tif?"

With Vincent calling them on it, she couldn't keep up the lie anymore. Her composure broke and she covered her face with her hands. "Damn it…"

Vincent felt his heart accelerate. Something was very uncomfortable in the air and he turned to Cid for answers. "What in the hell is going on?"

Cid got up from the couch and took a few steps forward. "Come on, Sue, we need to go talk."

Vincent got up, feeling himself begin to shake as he did so. The expression that the pilot wore was cutting through him and he was getting scared.

Cid stepped out of the house and onto the front porch, Vincent following him silently. Tifa remained on the couch in the house, knowing that she would be of no help as the truth was revealed to her husband.

Cid sat on the porch railing and faced Vincent. "Okay, I just want to tell you right off the bat that I like you, Vincent. I really do, and that I'm aware that what I'm about to say is going to end our friendship."

Vincent leaned back against the wall of the house, feeling sick. "Just tell me."

Cid sighed heavily and looked out over the front yard. "You know I like Tifa."

"You don't like Tifa, Cid, you love her and have for years," Vincent corrected, having been aware of this from the outset, but never having been threatened by it.

"Yeah," the pilot shifted and went on, "well, I sorta let my feelings get the better of me the last time I was here."

Vincent narrowed his eyes. "What?"

"It's not something that I planned or anything, it just sort of happened."

"What happened?" Vincent clenched his fists, needing to know exactly what the pilot was trying to convey.

"Tifa and I…" Cid forced himself to look at Vincent. He realized that there was a good chance the former Turk would kill him in the next few minutes. "I, uh, sort of was with her."

Vincent stopped breathing, hoping that he was misunderstanding the situation. "You had an affair with my wife?"

"Not really an affair, Sue." Cid dropped his gaze away. "The whole thing lasted maybe five minutes before she told me to stop. Hell, I didn't--" He stopped himself, realizing that the knowledge of whether or not he'd come or not during the event wasn't going to help Vincent on any level.

Vincent pulled back his lips slightly, baring his teeth, but continued to otherwise remain perfectly still. He couldn't believe what he'd just been told. "You…you fucked my wife?"

Cid continued to look away. "More or less, yeah."

The irony that he now found himself in the position that he'd imposed upon Hojo well over forty years back didn't go unnoticed. He realized that the time frame of Cid's last visit and Tifa's onset of pregnancy had been awfully close. Vincent hadn't wanted another child, and had taken steps to try and ensure that Tifa wouldn't get pregnant. When she'd announced that she was, however, he'd thought it strange that she'd conceived, but had just racked it up to the fact that birth control wasn't one hundred percent effective. "It's your baby?"

"I don't know." Cid slipped his jacket off, growing hot in his embarrassment. "It shouldn't be. I didn't get to finish if you know what I mean, so it's probably yours."

Vincent tightened his fists, feeling his nails dig into his palms. An old, familiar urge was rearing up within him. "How could you? I trusted you to be with her when I wasn't around, Cid."

The pilot was silent. He wasn't proud of it in the least.

Vincent couldn't hold himself back and he charged Cid, knocking him from the railing and out onto the lawn. He stood on the porch, glaring down where Cid had landed.

With the wind knocked out of him from the fall, Cid lay there staring up at the sky for several moments. He watched as Vincent hopped over the railing and came beside him. He looked up at the man looming over him. "I'm sorry, Vincent."

That wasn't enough, nothing would be enough. Vincent hauled off and kicked Cid in the side as hard as he could, cracking one of the pilot's ribs.

Back in the house, Tifa heard Cid cry out when Vincent had kicked him and she flew up from the couch and ran outside, seeing the two men fighting.

Cid had struggled up to his feet, despite the horrible pain in his chest. At forty-six years of age and with a medical condition to boot, his movements were sluggish. He swung out at Vincent, just missing him.

"I'm going to kill you, Cid," Vincent growled as he dodged the blow.

"So I sorta figured," the pilot retorted, realizing that he was no match for the other man.

Tifa stood on the porch, not knowing what to do. "Stop it!"

Vincent disregarded his wife, not being particularly thrilled with her at the moment, either. He struck out at Cid, nailing him square in the jaw, sending the pilot back down onto the lawn.

Cid struggled to try and get up, tasting blood in his mouth. He saw Vincent preparing to pin him down and finish him off, and he kicked up as hard as he could with his left leg, connecting with Vincent's chest, throwing him back and away.

Tifa ran off the porch and to where Vincent had landed, gasping for air. "Vincent, stop this!"

He attempted to get up, but wouldn't be able to until he caught his breath. There were questions that he needed to ask her, but they could wait until Cid was taken care of.

Not knowing what else to do, Tifa pushed him flat onto his back, opting to not let him up. Even pregnant, she was still a strong woman and holding him down when the wind had been knocked from him wasn't all that hard. "I said stop it!"

Cid, in the meanwhile, managed to get up, holding his side where Vincent had initially kicked him. He looked over to the porch, seeing that at some point, L.C. and Aaron had emerged. "Shit."

The two boys stood together, staring at the scene. L.C., looking just like Cid, and Aaron, exactly like Vincent. They had no idea why their fathers were fighting, and they were scared. They had their arms around each other, trying to provide some comfort for one another in their fear.

Tifa and Vincent also looked over, seeing that they kids were there. Instantly, everyone regretted the situation that much more. It would be these two boys that would suffer the most for what had happened. Children always bore the greatest burden for the actions of their parents.

Cid looked away from the kids, hanging his head. "What have I done?"

Vincent moved his gaze back to the pilot. His anger hadn't disappeared, but for the moment it was having to share center stage with shame and disappointment. Although he wasn't aware of it, his right arm started to draw up over his chest.

Tifa saw this movement and her eyes grew wide. "Vincent? Are you okay?"

His attempt at a response was cut off as he felt the all too familiar sensation of a seizure coming on.

She looked back over toward where the boys were still standing. If nothing else, she didn't want the kids to watch what was about to happen. "Aaron, take L.C. inside, okay?"

They didn't move, still too shocked from watching the earlier fight.

"Do it!" Tifa shouted, knowing that it wouldn't be long before Vincent's attack came on.

The kids grudgingly complied, retreating back into the house and locking themselves in Aaron's room.

With them gone, Tifa turned her attention back to her husband. She put her hands on his shoulders, pushing him down onto the lawn in a vain attempt to hold him in place once the seizure started. His eyes were growing distant as he felt conscious control of his body slip away. Vincent's legs kicked out and quickly his whole body was enveloped by a grand mal.

Hearing the choked and animalistic sounds coming from Vincent, Cid looked over. He was confused for a moment, until he realized what was going on. Quickly, he went over to Tifa's side, seeing that she was in no shape to hold Vincent down as he flailed madly. He did his best to get his hands on Vincent as well, and he looked to Tifa for an answer. "What the fuck is wrong with him?"

Through her clenched teeth, she replied, "He gets seizures, Cid."

The pilot had never been aware of this, as Vincent had insisted that no one ever be told of his problems. "Shit, I didn't know."

"No one did but me." Tifa did her best to keep Vincent from hurting himself as he continued to spasm.

Cid remembered seeing Vincent have drug induced fits way back when, and wondered how long this was going to go on. "How long 'til he knocks this the hell off?"

"Sometimes it lasts for a few minutes." Tifa, seeing that Cid was doing more of the restraining than her, bent down to get closer to Vincent's face. "Come on, Vincent, it's okay."

He couldn't hear her at the moment. The one merciful thing about his seizures was that he was left with no memory of them. His body's convulsions seemed to be weakening.

Feeling that he was on the down side of the attack, Tifa stroked his hair. "That's good, just calm down."

Cid watched as she tried to reach out to him. Even with all that had transpired, he could see that she did love Vincent, as it was obvious in the way she handled him.

Vincent's eyes came back to stare forward, and he became aware of Tifa speaking softly to him.

"There, you're fine, Vincent." Tifa moved her other hand to rest against his cheek. "Look at me."

He complied.

She looked over at Cid. "You can let go of him now."

The pilot backed off, not sure that he wanted Vincent to realize that he'd been touching him. He sat on the lawn at Vincent's side, not willing to go too far in case his episode wasn't truly over. "Is he okay?"

Tifa smiled, looking down into Vincent's tired eyes. "He's okay now."

Vincent, now feeling in control, sat up. He met Tifa's gaze for a moment, but when he felt tears in his eyes, he hurriedly got up and went back into the house.

Tifa was left with Cid again. "Are you okay?"

He lied. "Yeah, I'm all right."

Tifa got up to her feet, resting her hands upon her stomach. "I should probably go talk to him."

Cid got up as well, grabbing her by the arm as she started to walk past. "Tifa, you don't think there's any chance that he's going to hurt you, right?"

No matter how bad their arguments had gotten over the years, the one thing she had never feared since the disappearance of Chaos was Vincent becoming physically violent toward her. "He's never hit me, Cid."

"He's never been this upset, I'd bet."

"Vincent wouldn't hurt me." Tifa gently pulled her arm from Cid's grasp. "I'm not even remotely fearful of that. I'll go get him and he and I can go talk somewhere. You can stay with the boys and make sure that they're okay, right?"

Cid knew that he needed to try and reassure the kids that everything was fine. Whether or not he and Vincent couldn't bear each other's presence any longer, the boys were best friends and they needed to know that they weren't going to be forced apart. "Sure thing."

Tifa smiled at him faintly and went back into the house. She found Vincent sitting on the bed in their room. After going inside, she closed and locked the door.

Vincent was sitting there, his head in his hands. The heaving of his shoulders and the sounds he was producing betrayed the fact that he was crying. Tifa hadn't seen him do this in six years and it tore her up. "Vincent?"

Not able to get a grip on himself, he just continued to break down. The knowledge that Tifa would cheat had emotionally destroyed him. Never would he have thought she would do such a thing. Then again, he had always known that she and the pilot were close, in some ways too close, but both Cid and Tifa had reassured him time and again that it was just friendship. He'd believed them. Now, Vincent admonished himself for having trusted them. His love of Tifa had made him blind and he hated it. Vincent felt that he should have known better than to trust anyone, especially after the bullshit that Lucrecia had put him through. He should have known better than to have expected a happy ending.

Tifa went over and sat beside him, placing her arm around his shoulders. "Please talk to me."

Vincent wanted to recoil from her touch, but didn't have the strength. "Why…why did you do it?"

Tifa sighed. "I think we should leave the house and talk about this, Vincent. You know, away from the kids. They've been put through enough today."

Vincent nodded weakly and got up from the bed. He strolled over to the door, his posture slouched and his head hung, so his long hair obscured his tear marked face.

Tifa followed him as he grabbed the car keys and exited the house. She got into the passenger seat of the vehicle and rode along in silence as he took them away from the house. Vincent didn't look at her once as they went along, keeping his eyes fixed on the road. Tifa watched him the whole time, seeing that the tears still rolled down his cheeks during trip. Ten minutes later, they were at the bar Vincent had become familiar with.

They exited the car, went in, and took up a dark booth in the corner. Luckily, at this hour, the place was more or less empty.

The waitress came over. "What'll it be?"

Vincent never looked at their server. "Bottle of vodka, one glass."

"And you?"

Tifa placed her hands on her belly. "Just a soda."

"Okay." The waitress went off to get their order.

Vincent kept staring down at the surface of the table. "So, why, Tifa?"

She swallowed hard, knowing that this was going to be awful. "I don't know, it just sort of happened."

"I'm not taking 'I don't know' as an answer," he said coldly.

The waitress set Tifa's soda down, as well as the bottle of vodka and the shot glass before retreating again.

"Vincent, we've had some rough times in our marriage." Tifa wrapped her hands around her glass.

Vincent poured the vodka into his shot glass and downed it. "I'm aware of that fact, and I don't see how screwing Cid could help the situation."

"Well, there have been some times when I've wondered if marrying you was the right thing to do," she confessed quietly.

Vincent quickly got himself another shot, his heart breaking. "Okay."

"We're both sort of touchy people, Vincent. I love you, I do, but sometimes I just get so frustrated with you that I think we make each other miserable more often than not." Tifa took a sip from her drink, her throat threatening to close up.

"If you wanted to split up, Tifa, I would have appreciated you just telling me before you did something like this." Vincent had now downed three drinks.

"But I didn't want to split up. I already have one failed marriage under my belt, Vincent. I didn't want two." Her shoulders drooped.

"If you didn't want to split up, then why did you cheat on me? That's not the sort of thing that a wife generally does when she wants to stand by her husband." Vincent felt the warmth of the alcohol wash over him, making it momentarily easier to keep from crying.

"It's not like that, Vincent. It was an accident."

He cocked an eyebrow. "An accident? Tifa, don't try and make it sound like the guy was walking across the room and tripped, accidentally ending up with his cock--"

Tifa slammed her hand down onto the table, cutting him off. "Vincent, stop it!"

"I wish you could have told Cid the same thing thirty four weeks ago," he shot back, his voice more of a growl.

"Do you really want to talk about it, or are you going to sit here and just berate and mock me, Vincent? Because if that's all this is going to boil down to, then we don't have a chance." Tifa leaned closer to him, wanting him to get the point across.

He knit his brow and looked down at his empty glass. "Then tell me what really happened, Tifa."

"Okay." She took another sip, going back in her mind to that night. "It was when you left for your annual trip with Angel to Wutai."

Vincent nodded. He and Angel had begun a tradition, or rather, his daughter had forced him into one, of the two of them going to Wutai once a year as some sort of father-daughter bonding thing. "So I figured."

"Right before you left, we'd had another argument."

This, too, was something he was aware of. "I know."

"Well, I was really upset about it. Cid had come by with L.C. to stay for a few days. We hung out all day like we usually do, and then after the kids went to bed, we had a few beers. Afterward, we went to bed for the night, except I couldn't go sleep, since I was still thinking about our argument." She grabbed one of the small napkins that had been placed on the table and started to fidget with it.

The fact that their little tiff before he'd left had disturbed her that much made him frown. "You were that upset about it?"

She met his gaze. "The fact that you'd scoffed as you'd walked out the door, telling me that I was stupid for wanting to bring another kid into our quote 'fucked up relationship', was what was getting to me."

Suddenly, the entire argument came back. She had asked him the night before not to resort to using a condom when they'd made love, setting him off. Although he had been aware that she desperately wanted another baby, he hadn't been willing to comply. He hadn't felt that they should be bringing another child into the mix considering how things had been going between them. His off handed remark as he'd departed hadn't been something he'd dwelt upon. The fact that it had hurt her that much bit something within him. He had been a jerk to her, and had ended up getting what he'd deserved.

Tifa could tell by the change in his posture that he regretted his comment. "Anyway, I got up and was sitting in the kitchen. A little while later, Cid came in as well, wanting a drink or something. We started talking, since he could see that I was upset. Cid asked me what was wrong, and I told him. I said that sometimes I wondered if marrying you had been the right thing to do. Maybe it was the alcohol that was still in his system, but he sat there and told me flat out that he wished I hadn't."

The fact that they had said these things to one another behind his back hurt, but again, he felt that he'd earned it by what he had said while leaving. "And?"

"Well, then he kissed me." Tifa had, by now, shredded the napkin in her grasp. "He got out of his chair and knelt before me."

Vincent just nodded. He didn't want to hear this, but knew that he had to. His grip was tightening around the shot glass, and he found himself compelled to fill it again.

"As I sat in the kitchen chair with him there before me, it just sort of happened." Tifa wiped the tears away from her eyes.

"I doubt he just did it without you giving him explicit permission first, Tifa." Vincent gave up on the shot glass and just took the bottle into his hands, taking a large hit from it.

She nodded. "You're right. I told him he could."

With his suspicion confirmed, he felt his bottom lip quiver. He tried to steel himself beyond crying anymore, but was losing the fight.

"But after just a few minutes, I forced him away. I'd started thinking about you, and couldn't let it continue." Tifa threw the fragments of paper in her hands onto the center of the table.

The fact that she'd stopped it only after it had begun was of little comfort to Vincent. He took one more sizable swig from the bottle, before replacing its cap and setting it on the edge of the table. "And that's it?"

"Yeah." She looked at him, searching for any sign.

He had managed to push back the tears again, and he narrowed his eyes. "Would you rather be with Cid?"

"I've thought about it, Vincent. I'm not going to lie." Tifa reached across the table and grabbed one of his hands. "But I love you. I have feelings for Cid, but somehow, I don't think it would work."

"I'd hardly say it's working between us as it is," Vincent sighed, turning his hand in her grip so that he could interlace his fingers with hers. "And is this the real reason why Jin and Cid broke up?"

"As far as I know, he never told her. They were sort of on a break at the time, although it was his guilt about it that made him ask her to marry him a few months later." Tifa gazed at where their hands were touching, relieved by this one small gesture.

Vincent knit his brow, "So now what? If this baby turns out to be Cid's, what then?"

"I don't want you to leave me, Vincent." Tifa held his hand tighter. The thought of losing him was unbearable. "If the baby is his or not, I want to be with you. Like I said, it was a mistake."

"I'd never leave you unless you asked me to, Tifa. You know that. After all the misery I've put you through, I deserved this." Vincent, in his usual way, was now going to twist the situation as to where he was the responsible party. Still, the thought of potentially raising Cid's child bothered him. He thought back to the time before he'd had his surgery, and Tifa and Cid had discussed having children between the two of them if Vincent hadn't been able to get her pregnant. Part of him wondered if that was why Tifa had submitted to Cid, since he'd not been willing to have a second child with her. He knew that on some subconscious level, that this was most likely the answer.

"Would you want me to give the baby up?" Tifa asked, knowing that if it came down to it, she wouldn't be able to.

He shook his head. "You know I could never ask that of you. Tifa, you were attached to that baby from the day you found out you were pregnant. You already love it."

His insight was touching. "I do."

"The question is, how will Cid feel? Will he let you raise the baby with me, or is he going to want it?" Vincent brought his other hand to the table, taking her free hand within it.

"Cid never wanted any more kids, Vincent." She almost smiled. "Besides, he'd offered a long time back to get me pregnant if you couldn't, if you'll recall."

To hear her bring this up confirmed his earlier suspicion. "Is that why you did it? Were you that desperate to have another baby?"

Tifa hung her head, willing to admit the truth. "Yeah, for a moment that's exactly what I was thinking. I know you can't understand it, but when I started to want another baby, the drive to have it…it's not like anything else. It takes over."

Vincent knew what it was like to not be in control of one's self. "It makes plenty of sense, Tifa. I should have talked to you about the whole second baby thing instead of just doing what I did. It's just that I really did think that with as rocky as things had been between us, I wasn't sure that another baby was a good idea. Besides, on some level, I was scared."

"Scared of what?" Tifa asked.

"That the next baby might come out with problems. I mean, I'm aware that the seizures I'm having are from the surgery I underwent, but what if they really were something coming from my genetics? I didn't want to have a kid that could end up with what I have to deal with."

"You never told me that, Vincent." She leaned toward him. "We've got to learn to talk to one another without arguing."

"I know." Vincent was starting to feel the extent of his exhaustion. He was at fault for many of the arguments they'd been having, and he knew why. It wasn't something he was prepared to address quite yet, though.

"Even with that concern, you've seemed fairly confident all along that this baby was going to be just as perfect as Aaron." Tifa studied his expression.

Vincent hung his head. "Because once you actually got pregnant, I just knew that this baby was going to be fine. Whether it's mine or not."

"Did you suspect that it might not be?" she dared to ask.

He shrugged. "No, it never crossed my mind."

"When it's born, we can have a test run to find out for sure, if you want to." Tifa's voice was quiet.

Vincent actually produced a small laugh. "I think it'll be obvious if I'm not the father, Tifa. Cid and me couldn't be more different. If the kid hits the ground with fair hair and blue eyes, then I'll know I have a reason to kill Cid."

The lighter tone to his voice told Tifa that for the time being, they were out of danger of arguing. "Were you really going to kill him earlier?"

"The man had just told me he fucked my wife. How was I supposed to react?" Vincent met her gaze.

The way Vincent referred to the situation didn't sit well with her. "Vincent, can you not say it like that, please?"

"Sorry."

"It's okay. I don't really have a leg to stand on in light of the circumstances." Tifa saw how tired he was beginning to look. "Let's go home, you look wasted. It's still early enough that Cid can get home before nightfall."

Vincent frowned. "No, he doesn't have to go home."

"What?" Tifa was more than surprised to hear this.

"He can stay while I'm gone. I'm going to talk to him before I have to leave, but he can stay. Just promise me, Tifa, that nothing else is going to happen between the two of you again." Vincent's eyes burned with emotion.

Tifa quickly complied. "I swear, Vincent, that nothing will ever happen between Cid and I again."

"Good enough. Let's go home." Vincent took out his wallet, threw enough cash to cover their drinks on the table, and then left. As they went back to the car, he took Tifa's hand into his.

He pulled out his car keys, but Tifa quickly snagged them from his hand. "Hey!"

She shook her head and went to the driver's side of the car. "Sorry, Vincent, but you're not driving after drinking like that. You finished half that bottle."

Sighing, Vincent resigned to her logic and got into the passenger side of the car. When Tifa got in, she moved to put the keys in the ignition, but Vincent reached over and grabbed her arm. He may have drank a lot, but he was still in a fair amount of control.

Tifa looked over at him. "What are you doing?"

"A long time ago, you made me promise you that there wouldn't be anymore secrets between us." He let his hand fall away from her, seeing that she wasn't going to start the vehicle.

She turned to look him straight on. "I know, and I know I blew that."

"No, this isn't about you." Vincent sank back into his seat. "If we're going to try to stay together, we've got to stick by that like we did in the beginning."

Tifa wondered what was on his mind, and reached over, placing a hand on his leg. "What is it?"

"I'm sure you've noticed how I tend to disappear when I'm upset."

"Yeah."

Vincent locked into her gaze, his confession painful. "I've been coming here."

"To this bar?"

"Yes."

Tifa sat there and looked at him. This was news to her. "But it doesn't seem like you have been. I mean, when you come back home, you're never drunk."

"That's why I stay gone so long. I wait for that to pass before returning. Besides, by the time I get back, you're usually asleep and I stay out on the couch so you can't really tell." Vincent frowned. "Back when I was a Turk, I used to do the same thing. I drank all the time. Whenever I got upset about anything, I'd go off alone and do it. I did the same thing back after you found me fourteen years ago. I didn't do it after we got married for a long time, feeling like I had some sort of obligation to control myself and fight it, but once I began having the seizures and started running from our fights, I started drinking again."

She considered him for a moment. "That's how you've been coping?"

"I'd hardly say it's coping, Tifa. It's the reason for a lot more of our arguments than you could possibly know. Sometimes, it's like I try to start something with you, just so I have an excuse." Vincent felt himself flush.

Tifa felt her heart race. "So what are you saying, Vincent?"

"That I'm an alcoholic, Tifa, and…" He couldn't go on. Vincent's disappointment in himself for his vice was too great.

"And you need help?" she asked, feeling the burn of tears in her eyes.

He just nodded, not able to say it.

So now she had an answer. There had been a reason for all the troubled they'd suffered. Tifa actually felt herself smile, despite the news she'd just received.

Vincent caught her expression and cocked his head to the side. He didn't understand why she would be grinning at a time like this. "Is something funny?"

She shook her head. "No, Vincent… We finally can start working on fixing what's wrong between us. If your problem has been the root of some of our issues, then it's something we can get taken care of. I thought over the last few years that maybe you'd started to shut me out and push me away because you didn't love me, but maybe it was just this instead."

"I love you." Vincent donned a strange expression. "Tifa, I never stopped loving you."

"Vincent," Tifa's expression changed, and tears came to her eyes. It had been a long time since he'd told her that and sounded sincere. "I'm so sorry for what happened."

Despite the awkwardness of it, he reached over and embraced her. They both just sat there and cried for several minutes, the reality of what had happened to both of them settling in. Their marriage had almost ended, and for no other reason than the fact that they'd stopped being open to one another.

After a while, they made their way back to the house. Cid was sitting out on the porch, nursing a beer he'd helped himself to. The boys were playing out on the lawn with the old pilot watching over them.

Once the car was parked, Vincent and Tifa emerged. Vincent looked at his wife. "Watch the kids. I'm going to talk to Cid."

She looked worried. "You're not going to fight with him again, right?'

"I don't think he could survive two fights in one day," Vincent said, not really serious.

Tifa smiled. "Okay. Go in the house with him and I'll stay out here with the boys."

He nodded and started over to where Cid was sitting. Vincent was not fond of the feeling within him at the moment, and it showed in his expression.

Cid watched the other man's approach, his ingrained fear of Vincent surfacing. His grip around the bottle in his hands tightened.

Vincent walked right past him, saying quietly, "Come with me."

The pilot got up and followed, wondering what was on Vincent's mind. He looked back over his shoulder at his son and Aaron, sitting on the lawn with Tifa.

Vincent came to a stop in the family room and turned around. Cid stopped about six feet away, well out of Vincent's reach. He took another swig from his bottle before letting it dangle at his side.

Vincent knit his brow and then dropped his gaze to the floor. "So, Tifa told me what exactly happened."

Cid scratched the back of his head. "Yeah."

"I know why she did it, so now I want to know from you." Vincent forced himself to look into Cid's eyes.

"Shit." Cid went over and landed on the couch.

Vincent remained standing. "Tell me, you owe me that much."

Cid nodded and set his bottle down on the coffee table. "You've figured out how I feel about Tifa."

"Yes, I've always known you love her. But you also once told me it wasn't in quote, 'any sort of throw her over the kitchen table sort of way', although apparently you didn't throw her over the table." Vincent's eyes narrowed as he remembered this conversation from six years before.

"Well, that wasn't entirely the truth." Cid leaned back into the cushions of the couch. "But I guess you know that now, too."

"Why were you able to keep yourself under control for all this time, only to give in now?" Vincent asked.

"I don't know. Part of it was that I never thought Tifa would go for it. Part of it was that I didn't want to cheat on Shera or Jin. Mostly, though, I was just fucking terrified of you," the pilot admitted.

"So what changed?"

"The fact that for the first time in all the years since you'd married her, that she seemed to be really regretting it. I'd never let her know exactly how I felt, and I'd wondered over the years if things would have been different had I told her. I'd wanted her all along. After Shera died, I wanted Tifa for myself so badly that it hurt. I then fell in love with Jin, but my feelings for Tifa…well, they never went away." Cid scowled for a moment. "Tifa has been upset for a while with you, I knew at least that much. It seemed to me that you just kept hurting her over and over again. That's killed me over the years, you know. First, it was all the shit you put her through with Chaos and then the surgery, then over the years, she would call me after you'd high tail it during your arguments. You've been a real bastard to her, Vincent."

To hear Cid address him with his actual name let Vincent know how serious he was. "I'm aware of that."

"So, I just had to spill it to her. I was sort of at a point where I felt I had nothing to lose. I couldn't stand the thought of her being with you anymore in light of everything. I wanted to show her that I loved her." His face was red from emotion. Cid was in no way comfortable discussing this with the husband of the woman he loved.

"Telling her how you feel would have been one thing, but you just immediately got to fucking her, Cid. Normally, those two events have a little time between them." Vincent cringed to hear himself say this, knowing that Tifa had already asked him not to say it so crudely.

"I know, Vincent. But I've felt like this for a long God damned time, guy. I'm getting old, I couldn't just sit around and wait for another fourteen years to go by. The fact that I was drunk to some extend didn't help my resolve to keep my hands off of her. Besides, she told me I could." Cid broke eye contact again.

"So she said to me." Vincent crossed his arms over his chest. "How did you feel about it afterward?"

"Once she pushed me away, I was upset, of course, that I hadn't gotten to finish. It didn't take me long to see, though, that she was immediately guilt stricken about cheating on you. Despite all that you'd put her through, she still felt bad. I couldn't believe it, but that's how she felt and there was nothing I could do about it. Then, I just felt bad for going that far. I'd made her all guilty over you, and that was the last thing I'd wanted." He reached forward and took his beer back into his hands.

"You only felt bad for making her more upset?"

"Yeah." Cid finished his drink. "Look, you and I are friends, we have been for a long time, but I was mad at you for treating her like you had. You've got the most wonderful woman in the world, Vincent, and you've really pulled her through the mud. I never would have been like that to her. You never deserved her, and I don't think you've really appreciated her on any level for a long time. You've earned everything that's happened to you, Vince. I was wrong in what I did, but you had it coming."

Vincent hung his head in shame. Cid was dead on. He had deserved everything that had happened. "All right."

"So, I'm guessing that's it, then? You'll want me to go and never come back, right?" Cid dropped his gaze to the floor.

"No."

Cid knit his brow and looked up at the other man. "What?"

"You mean more to Tifa than anyone, Cid. I know that. What happened between the two of you didn't change that." Vincent went over and sat in his chair. "I'm still going to go get Jaras, and I don't want her alone. She needs you."

The fact that Vincent was willing to allow him to remain with Tifa in light of what had happened seemed odd to him. "Really?"

"Yeah." He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. "Besides, if she's already carrying your baby, what damage can you do?"

"I don't think it's mine, Sue."

"Well, I can tell you that it isn't likely to be mine, Cid." He looked over at the pilot.

"But you're married to her. Surely you'd been sleeping with her, right?" Cid narrowed his eyes.

"I had, but I'd been using protection ever since she'd gone off the pill, Cid. I didn't want another kid. So, it's a crap shoot who's baby she's carrying." Vincent looked away again.

Cid recalled when Tifa had told him this earlier. "Protection every time?"

Vincent nodded. "Yes."

"This sucks." The pilot slouched. "This is all my fault. God damn it, Vincent, I'm really sorry I fucked up your life."

"I fucked up my own life, Cid." Vincent sighed, "I did this myself."

An uncomfortable silence came over them for a few minutes before Cid spoke up again. "Vincent, what if it is mine?"

He shrugged. "Then it's between you and Tifa what to do."

"I'm not trying to be a loser here, but I never wanted any more kids, Vince." Cid frowned. "Would you be willing to raise it even if it wasn't yours?"

"I would do whatever Tifa wants." Vincent smiled. "She's been so excited about this baby…it's been the only thing that's brought her any sort of happiness lately. Besides, there's more to being a father than impregnating a woman."

Cid nodded, thinking about L.C. "Tell me about it."

"If it's not mine, then I won't have to worry about it coming up with any of my problems. You seem perfectly fine physically, anyway." Vincent smiled.

Cid's expression fell and he looked away. "Yeah."

Vincent saw the pilot's reaction. "Cid?"

He'd wanted to talk to Tifa about this, not Vincent. "Actually, do me a favor and go get Tifa, okay?"

Seeing that something serious was on the other man's mind, Vincent quickly got up and called Tifa in. He returned within a few seconds with his wife in tow.

Tifa sat on the couch next to Cid, and Vincent again went back to his chair.

Cid's eyes had gotten red, making it look like he was in danger of crying. "Okay, you two are the only friends I've got, despite all that came out today, so there's something really important that I need to ask you."

Vincent and Tifa just stared at him, waiting for whatever it was.

"I, uh, need to ask you guys to take care of L.C." He stared down at his empty beer bottle.

"For how long?" Tifa asked, more than willing to take on the boy for as long as needed.

"Forever."

Vincent and Tifa both didn't want to accept what he'd just said, and Tifa placed her hand on the pilot's shoulder. "Why?"

"I got some bad news yesterday, Tifa." He turned to face her. "I had a cold a few weeks ago, but couldn't seem to shake the cough that I developed afterward. I went to the doctor to see if they could do anything, but I wasn't coughing from the cold."

Tifa already had tears in her eyes, knowing what he was about to say. "No…"

"Yeah, turns out I might as well have kept right on smoking all this time." Cid wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. "Cancer. I've got fucking cancer."

"There's nothing they can do?" Tifa asked in a wavering voice.

"No, it's too far gone already. They told me I've only got about four months." Cid moved closer to Tifa, needing comfort.

Vincent closed his eyes and hung his head, feeling horrible about having attacked the other man earlier. "Oh man…"

Tifa broke down, and threw her arms around him. Cid embraced her, but looked over at Vincent for his approval. Seeing that he had it, he nuzzled down against Tifa's neck, and whispered, "So, will you take care of L.C.?"

"Of course we will." She pulled back a little and glanced at Vincent. "Won't we?"

"We can take him," Vincent replied quietly.

"Thanks." Cid let his arms fall away from Tifa, not wanting to cling to her too much in Vincent's presence. "He doesn't know yet. I was going to wait to tell him until after I knew who he'd end up with. I didn't want him to have to worry about that. Being that he and Aaron are best friends, I thought this might be the right place for him."

"Sure thing, don't worry about it. We'd love to have him, Cid." Tifa forced herself to smile. The thought that her best friend wasn't going to be around forever pained her in a way she'd never known.

Vincent tensed his jaw several times, not knowing what he was supposed to say. The fear that had settled into him about Tifa leaving him for the pilot was now pointless to hold on to. Cid wouldn't be around for Tifa to leave him for. He felt awful for the whole thing. "I'm sorry, Cid."

Cid forced a smile and gathered back what he could of his bravado. "Well, don't worry about it. Four months…it's a long time, right? I mean, it's not like I'm going to die tomorrow."

They just stared at him. Apparently, Cid Highwind wasn't going to give death the satisfaction of rattling him too much.