Chapter Thirteen
In the morning, Tifa awoke. Aaron was lying beside her, already awake. He'd spent the night in his mother's bed, too afraid to be alone after what had happened to him. He offered her a weak smile.
In this morning light, Tifa could truly appreciate the color his eyes had become. They were the exact same blood red as Vincent's had once been, both beautiful and terrible at the same time. How this could be happening to her son was beyond her, but she had great hope that ASRIO would be able to do something. "Are you okay, Aaron?"
He gave her a slight nod and then sat up. "Yeah."
"It's Saturday, you don't have to worry about school."
Aaron slid off of the bed and stood. He wouldn't have wanted to go anyway. The kids gave him a hard time as it was, and he didn't suppose that having red eyes like his now were would help that. "I'm gonna go get dressed."
"Me, too." Tifa got out of the bed and went to take a shower.
Once ready for the day, Aaron went out to the kitchen to have a bowl of cereal. He saw that Cid and L.C. were already there. The boy gave them passing regard as he went about his business.
Cid turned in his seat and watched Aaron go about making his breakfast. He wondered exactly how much like Vincent Aaron was going to prove to be. The pilot was not comfortable with the idea that this kid could be another Chaos in the making.
Aaron felt the man's eyes upon him, even though his back was turned and he stopped moving as the voice spoke up again. He's thinking about what a freak you are, Aaron.
I know. Aaron sighed heavily. "Don't stare at me, Cid."
How the boy could know that he'd been watching him was beyond him. This kid was spooky. Cid turned back around in his chair and locked gazes with his son. "Remember what I said this morning, L.C."
The pilot's son hung his head and frowned. Before Aaron had arrived, his father had strictly forbidden him from being alone with Aaron anymore. L.C. didn't understand this. He couldn't comprehend the potential danger lurking within his best friend's mind. "Okay."
Aaron slammed the spoon he'd just pulled from a drawer down upon the counter. He was well aware of what was going on between Cid and his son, even without the demon lurking within him discussing it. He closed his eyes and his shoulders heaved. "It's bad enough that I just lost my dad for you, Cid, but now you're going to take away my best friend, too?"
Cid slowly turned in his seat. Had he not known better, he would have sworn that it was Vincent himself speaking. He spotted the boy glaring back at him with those damn red eyes. "Look, I'm not tryin' to make your life miserable, Aaron, I just don't want anyone getting hurt."
Aaron cocked his head. "And you think I would actually hurt someone?"
"You don't know what that thing inside you is capable of, kid." Cid couldn't believe that he was having this discussion with a six-year-old. Aaron was far too advanced for his age. He was just a miniature version of Vincent, and apparently a copy possessing the same flaws as the original. Cid suddenly realized that he didn't like Aaron all that much.
He hates you, Aaron. Just like he hates your father. He's going to push you out of this family just like he did Vincent. L.C. is your replacement. The demon was doing it's best to sway Aaron's mind-- and it was working.
Keeping his gaze locked with Cid, Aaron felt anger begin to well up inside of him. He wished that Cid would just go home, so maybe his father would come back.
Tifa walked in on the tense silence that had fallen over the scene. She switched her gaze between her son and Cid. "What's going on?"
Cid turned to face her, embarrassed that he had been on the verge of getting into it with the boy. "Nothing."
Aaron, now calming down, got back to the task of making his breakfast.
Tifa sat at Cid's side. She kept her voice low, not wanting her son to hear. "Just because his eyes changed color last night doesn't mean that you can start treating him like you used to treat Vincent when he had Chaos inside of him."
Cid scoffed. Sometimes, Tifa was beyond stupid. "I gave Vincent a hard time back then because I was afraid that he was going to hurt someone, and need I remind you that he did hurt you. And if Aaron's goin' down that same fucking path, I ain't letting my son get hurt by being around him the first time he flips out and sprouts wings."
Aaron, realizing that the adults were talking about him, picked up his prepared bowl of cereal from the counter and carried it out into the family room. He just wanted to be alone.
As his mother, Tifa couldn't stand to hear Cid talk about her son like this and she got angry. "You watch what you say around him, Cid! I love that boy more than anything in the world, and I will throw you out of this house if I ever hear you say anything cruel to him. Vincent put up with a lot of shit from you, but Aaron isn't going to have to do that. He's still just a little boy, for God's sake!"
L.C., not wanting to watch the adults fight, slid out of his chair and went to go sit with Aaron.
Cid, seeing that his own son was now gone, turned in his seat to face Tifa square on. "Yeah, he may be a little boy, Tifa, but that thing inside him sure as hell isn't. And you can just forget right here and now about kickin' me out, Tiff, 'cause there ain't no way I'm leaving you alone with that kid, either. You're stuck with me."
Tifa lost her anger. Cid was just scared, and she knew full well that he tended to be a jerk when he was afraid of something. "Fine, but please watch what you say to him, Cid. Maybe he has something living inside of him, but he's still my son…he's all I really have now."
Cid realized that this last statement was meant for him. Although he wanted to be with Tifa still, he had promised himself that he wouldn't pursue anything else with her since it would be just doomed to failure-- thanks to Tifa's complete lack of ability to let go of the past. Besides, as close as Cid and she were, he knew that there was just some other profound bond between her and Vincent that they never had. Vincent and Tifa, for whatever it was worth, seemed destined to commiserate for the rest of time, whether they were together as lovers or separated by hundreds of miles. They were, in a way, perfect for each other, and Cid knew it. They both just thrived on misery too much. "I'll try to watch it. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to piss you off."
She flashed him a weak smile. "It's okay. Hungry?"
Now, the conversation was going in a direction that he actually wanted to be a part of. "Hell yeah. I could go for some pancakes. I like the way you make them, Tiff."
Tifa rolled her eyes and got up from her seat. She would indulge him.
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L.C. shuffled out into the family room and spotted Aaron sitting on the floor in front of the television, although it was off. He went and sat beside his friend. "Spaz?"
Aaron turned his eyes to L.C. "Yeah?"
Not having gotten a good look at Aaron's eyes until now, L.C. smiled. "Wow, Aaron…"
He dropped his stare back to the bowl of cereal sitting on the floor before him. "They're different, huh?"
"Yeah, look at me again."
Aaron complied, and glanced up at his friend.
L.C.'s grin widened. "Those are cool."
He couldn't help but smile in return. "Yeah, they kinda are, huh?"
"You bet they are." L.C. was glad to finally see some sort of a crack in the mood that Aaron had been in for the last several days. "Spaz?"
He kept locked into his companion's blue eyes. "Yeah?"
"You sorta scared me last night," L.C. confessed, not usually one to admit any fear.
"I'm sorry." Aaron shoveled another spoonful of cereal into his mouth. "I'm feeling better this morning."
"Good. Wanna go outside when you're done? We could go look for more bugs to feed your mom's chickens." This had become their favorite pass time.
Aaron nodded, and answered with his mouth full. "Sure."
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Vincent walked the halls of the ASRIO base, too bored to stay in his room any longer. As he came around a corner, he nearly knocked down Reno, who had his arms laden with several papers and binders.
"Vinny! I was just gonna dig you up." Reno offered the best smile he could at this early an hour.
Be nice, Vincent.
"Hey Reno." He grabbed a binder off of the pile in the ASRIO leader's arms, as it was about to fall to the floor. "What did you want me for?"
"Thanks." Reno shifted the bulk of his load. "Time for you to get your lazy ass to work, that's what. Follow me."
It's about time.
Vincent produced a smile and walked along behind his son-in-law. He found himself taken to the main control room of the base. Reno's desk was in a rear corner here, and he took Vincent to another desk directly to the left of it.
Reno dropped all of the papers in his arms onto the desk that held nothing other than a computer. "Here ya' go, Vinny! Now, get to work you lazy bitch!"
He looked at Reno. "What am I supposed to do with all of that?"
Reno went and landed in his chair behind his desk close by. "Stuff."
"Seriously, Reno." Vincent sat in the chair behind his own desk. This was a lot of paper, and he had no idea what it was for.
"Well, since I can trust you, I'm giving you the job of keeping track of the expenses of transporting our agents around. Those are lists of who we've sent where lately, and how much it cost to get them there. Our finances have gotten a little fucked up lately, and we need to keep better track of that sort of thing. It was supposed to be one of the things I take care of, but you know, being boss and all, I'm way to busy for that shit. I figured you can do simple data entry just as good as me, right?" Reno put his feet up on his desk.
"Sounds exciting." Vincent opened one of the binders and saw that it was full of notebook paper hastily written upon in Reno's sloppy handwriting. It would take months for him to get through this. Vincent actually felt a wave of gratitude for only having to do this until he pirated out the information he needed to get to Shinra. "Do I need a password to get into the computer?"
"Oh, yeah." Reno reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper that he then hurled at Vincent.
With his reaction times lacking thanks to his surgery all those years before, Vincent didn't have a chance to catch the wadded up note, and it hit him in the head before falling to the floor.
Reno laughed. "You're so fucking slow now!"
"I'm glad you're amused." Annoyed, Vincent reached down and picked up the paper. He unfolded it and looked at what it said.
User name- Fuzzy Bunny
Password- ILIKEMEN
Chaos reared up. That's it. We're killing him when we leave this fucking dump.
Vincent glared over at Reno. He never gave Vincent a break. "I'm assuming that I can change these once I log on, right?"
Dying of laughter, Reno shook his head. "Hell no! I'm the only one who can reset user names and passwords. What you got you have for life!"
"Thanks." Vincent turned his attention to the computer on his desk and powered it on. He waited for it to boot up, and it took a long time. "I see you've given me a new computer that comes right up, too."
"Yeah, that's the piece of shit from--" Reno stopped himself, suddenly looking down.
Vincent narrowed his eyes. It wasn't like Reno to edit himself. "What is it?"
"Nothing." He took his feet off of his desk and turned his own computer on. "It was from Spencer's desk. He never really used it so he didn't ever ask for a better one."
"Oh." Vincent looked over and saw that the login screen had finally come up. He grudgingly entered in his information.
"If that isn't too hard for you to remember, destroy that paper, Vinny." Reno logged on to his own account. "Don't let anyone else see it."
Vincent cocked an eyebrow at him. "Do you honestly think I would let anyone see this?"
Reno snickered. "No, I guess you wouldn't. But yeah, don't let it out and never leave your computer logged on when you're not at your desk. I gave you access to pretty much everything, Vinny."
"I understand." Vincent smiled. This was going to be far too easy.
"And there's a couple of blank CD's in one of your drawers there. I'm having a laptop ordered for you, so you can do some of your work in your room or wherever.
"I appreciate that." Vincent opened the top drawer to his desk and spotted the blank writable CD's. He now had a way to get the information out of the base once he found it. All he had to do was search the computer and wait for Reno to leave his desk so he could save it to a disk. His mission could now be completed within days.
-----------------------
Jeanine sat in the base's cafeteria, staring across the table at her husband. The fact that he was Sephiroth and not Jaras still seemed surreal. If, however, this was how Sephiroth had been before going insane, then she realized that he had gotten a bad wrap. Then again, he had confessed to only caring about her and no one else.
He looked up from his lunch and noticed her stare. Sephiroth cocked his head to the side. "Yes?"
Now that she knew what was going on within him, she was able to appreciate the subtle differences. His musculature was becoming more defined although he wasn't working out as the Jenova cells began to strengthen him. "Nothing, I was just admiring you."
Sephiroth offered her a fleeting smile and then reached across the table, grabbing one of her hands. "The way you look at me even though we've been together for all of these years…I like it."
"Well, you're the best looking man I've ever known, Jaras…or not." She grinned. Inside, Jeanine hurt to know that he was different, but he was still here, and after having thought she'd lost him in that lab, she would take what she would get.
Her flattery had always embarrassed him slightly, and even as Sephiroth, some color came to his cheeks. "I don't know about that…"
Jeanine gripped his hand tighter. "Deal with it."
"If you were scared of me, you'd be honest and let me know, right?" he asked.
She lost herself in his emerald eyes. "I would, yes."
"And if you saw me starting to change for the worse, you'd let me know that as well, right? I mean, when I started to lose it before, I was never really aware that it was happening. Not that there was anyone in my life at the time that I would have listened to if they'd told me." He dropped his gaze away.
"I would do whatever I could to help you and keep you." Jeanine picked up his hand and gave it a kiss.
This sort of comfort was not something he'd felt during his previous life as Sephiroth. He wondered if it would have made a difference in the way things had turned out for him if he'd had someone like Jeanine back then.
-----------------------
Tifa was in the kitchen getting lunch together for everyone. Once lunch was done, she was going to call Reno and see if they could help Aaron. She had intended to do this earlier, but the day had proven…difficult.
Cid had loosened up a little as the day had gone on, as his resolve to keep from being with Tifa eroded away. His heart just wasn't going to listen to his logic.
As she pulled a frozen pizza from the freezer, she felt a terrible pain run through her. She fell to her knees and put her hands on the sides of her stomach. At thirty-five weeks, the baby could be born now and survive, but Tifa realized that she would need to get to the hospital in time. While this contraction continued, her water broke, indicating that the baby was coming no matter what.
When the pain let up enough, she cried out. "Cid!"
He heard her from the front porch and ran into the house. When he found her on the kitchen floor, he immediately felt sick. This was just how things had started with Shera. Cid knelt at her side and placed his hands upon her shoulders. "Tifa? What's going on?"
"Get the boys…we need to go to the hospital now…" she gasped.
"Shit!" He helped her up and nearly carried her out of the house. As he made his way toward the car with her hanging from him, he yelled out at the boys. "Come on! Get in the car!"
Aaron and L.C. came running, instantly knowing that something was wrong. They climbed into the back seat of the car as ordered.
Cid got Tifa into the passenger seat and then went around to the driver's side. He'd grabbed the keys on the way out of the house and got the car started. Within moments, they were racing down the road.
"There's a blue house on the left soon, Cid." Tifa said, for the moment not suffering through a contraction. "Stop there. The lady that lives there agreed to watch Aaron when I had the baby. She'll be willing to take L.C., too."
Cid wasn't eager to stop anywhere, but having the kids along while Tifa gave birth wasn't a thought that sat well with him. When he saw the house in question, he quickly pulled over. "Okay kids, get out and behave."
Aaron, familiar with this house and the woman within, got out of the car and took L.C.'s hand, pulling him along behind him as he went up to the door.
Tifa and Cid remained in the car until they saw the woman open the door and let the boys in. She waved at Tifa in the car, understanding that she needed to be on her way.
Knowing that the boys were safe for the moment, Cid hit the gas and burned down the road. The drive to the hospital in Kalm normally took around and hour. Cid had the car parked before the entrance doors within thirty-five minutes. The fact that they hadn't been stopped for speeding was a miracle.
Tifa was having contractions frequent enough as to be unable to walk. Cid scooped her up from the front seat of the car and carried her inside. "Someone! She's having a fucking baby!"
His outburst got the attention of everyone around, and a nurse quickly appeared with a wheelchair for Tifa, and they were taken to the labor and delivery ward.
As Tifa was situated in a bed and examined by the doctor present, a nurse pulled Cid aside. "I need her name. I hope you guys pre-registered already."
Tifa heard this from the bed. "I…I registered with the hospital about a week ago. Tifa Vatatsi."
The nurse quickly wrote this down and then looked at Cid again. "And are you the father?"
Cid wasn't sure what to say. "Maybe…uh, I don't know."
In this day and age, this wasn't the first time the nurse had heard such a reply. "I'll just put you down as birth coach, then. Your name?"
"Cid Highwind. Wait, what? You mean…I have to stay in here for this?" Cid looked back over at Tifa, seeing that she was in the midst of another contraction and in pain.
Through her agony, she managed to open her eyes and look at the pilot. Although she'd had a baby before, she was still scared, and there was no way she felt that she could go through it alone. If Vincent couldn't be here, then Cid had to be. "Please, Cid…I need you!"
He rolled his eyes and then went to her side. Another nurse was getting an I.V. into Tifa's arm on the opposite side of the bed from Cid.
In her fear and pain, Tifa took a hold of one of Cid's hands, and held on for all she was worth.
Cid couldn't bear to see her suffering like this. "Ain't someone gonna give her something for pain?"
"The anesthesiologist is on his way, Sir. She'll get an epidural once he's here," the nurse said as she finished taping the I.V. line to Tifa's arm.
The doctor that had just examined Tifa spoke up. "Mrs. Vatatsi, you're nine centimeters and fully effaced. I'm going to check you as soon as your epidural is in and you'll probably be ready to push."
She just nodded, trying her best to brace herself for the next contraction as it came on. The pain of childbirth is all encompassing. One's mind does not wander from the task at hand.
The anesthesiologist arrived and Tifa was made to sit up and lean forward with Cid holding on to her. He got the epidural placed within minutes and Tifa quickly felt relief from her pain. She was allowed to lie down again, but she kept one of Cid's hands in her own.
The obstetrician checked her once more. "All right, you're ready to push, Mrs. Vatatsi."
Tifa met Cid's gaze one last time before closing her eyes and getting to work. She pushed with every contraction, the nurses present counting to ten each time. Cid felt completely useless and in the way, but it was clear that Tifa wasn't going to let him go.
After thirty minutes of hard work, the moment finally arrived.
"All right, one more push and the baby will be out," the doctor announced.
Tifa gave it her best effort, and the child was finally free of her. She let her head fall back to the pillow exhausted, but she was eager to be given her baby.
The doctor quickly suctioned out the infant's mouth and nose, and then reached over and placed the baby on Tifa's stomach. Despite being somewhat premature, the baby was of a good size and not seeming to have any trouble breathing. "Congratulations, you have a daughter."
Tifa placed her arms around the baby, staring down at her tiny face. She was absolutely perfect.
The doctor held up a pair of scissors toward Cid. "Do you want to cut the cord?"
Cid, for the only time in his life, immediately went pale and hit the floor.
Tifa saw him drop and looked over, seeing him passed out. "Cid!"
The nurses, accustomed to fainting men, rushed to his side and tended to him. Within a few moments, he was conscious again and cursing for everyone to "leave him the fuck alone."
After he managed back to his feet, he examined the baby girl that Tifa was holding. Neither of them had mentioned it yet, but now that the baby had been towel dried, it was obvious.
She was blond.
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Hours had gone by, but Vincent hadn't yet gotten a chance to look up the information that he needed, as Reno had never left his desk. So, Vincent had just been dutifully sifting through all of the papers that Reno had provided him with.
In the meanwhile, Reno sat at his desk, bantering with Vincent, and doing things on his own computer. He wasn't really working-- most of his time had been spent either playing solitaire or cruising through his spam email folder for porn links.
Vincent's cell phone rang and he pulled it from his pocket.
The ASRIO leader looked over at him. "First day on the job and you're gonna start making personal phone calls on my time?"
"You're not paying me, Reno." Vincent disregarded him. He didn't recognize the number that the call was coming from, but chose to answer anyway. "Hello?"
There was no reply from the other end right away, but there was a sound-- that of a newborn infant crying.
Vincent felt his heart race. "Tifa? Is that you?"
She handed the baby off to Cid and finally responded. "Vincent…"
"What's going on?" Vincent already knew.
"I had the baby."
He hung his head. It had been several hours since his last dose of ferium and his emotions were getting close to the surface. Vincent felt tears in his eyes. "It was too early, though. Is everything all right?"
"Yes, even though she was early, she's doing all right. They're going to keep us here for two days just to make sure, but they don't anticipate any problems." Tifa smiled as she looked over at Cid holding the infant. He was great with babies.
Vincent's eyes went wide. "She?"
Tifa laughed, tears in her own eyes. "Yeah, I had a little girl."
"And?" Vincent asked.
"And?" Tifa knit her brow.
"Who does it look like, Tifa." Vincent slouched in his chair. He shouldn't care about this anymore, but it was beyond his control.
"We won't really know until she's a little older, Vince," she said, wiping the tears away from her eyes, already convinced that it was Cid's.
Her denial confirmed his worst fear. "So she looks like Cid?"
Tifa broke down crying. "Just come and see her, Vincent! We can have a test run--"
He didn't want to deal with it anymore and he hung up.
Cid looked over from where he was sitting with the baby. "Tiff?"
She turned her eyes to him. "He…he just hung up on me…"
"Damn it." Cid got up and came back to her side, sitting on the edge of her hospital bed. He handed her the baby, knowing that it would make her feel better. "He knows it's mine, right?"
"It might be yours, we don't know." Tifa wasn't going to base the child's parentage on hair and eye color alone.
Cid kept his gaze fixed on the little girl. "I think it's mine, Tiff. Vincent's Wutain for God's sake. Do you think he could throw a kid that color? She don't look nothing like Aaron."
Tifa had to admit the obvious. "I know…she looks like L.C."
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Vincent threw his phone onto his desk and leaned back in his chair, running his hands down his face, pushing back the tears. He needed to go get another fix of ferium, but he wanted to get his composure together before walking through the base.
Reno had just watched the entire conversation, but only having heard Vincent's side, he didn't really know what was going on. "Vinny?"
He glanced over at his son-in-law. "What?"
"You okay?"
"No."
"What happened?" Reno asked.
Vincent closed his eyes for a moment. "Tifa had the baby."
"Oh shit! Everything's okay, right?" Reno got up from his chair and came over, sitting on Vincent's desk.
"Everything's fine, aside from the fact that it's not my baby." Vincent slammed his hand down onto the desk. "It's not mine!"
Reno was completely thrown. "What?"
"It's Cid's."
The ASRIO leader stood back up and put his hands on his hips. "So…so Cid got her pregnant?"
How have you dealt with someone this fucking stupid over the years, Vincent? Chaos asked.
"It would seem that way." Vincent got up from his desk. "If you don't mind, I'm going to go take a break. Don't tell Angel about any of this."
"Okay…" Reno put his hand on Vincent's shoulder. "Are you gonna be all right?"
Vincent forced a false smile. "I'll be fine, Reno. I always am."
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As it got toward evening, Sephiroth excused himself from Jeanine and went to go see his father. He knocked on Vincent's door, but there was no answer. Sephiroth put his ear against the door and listened. He heard something within, and decided to see if the door was locked. It wasn't.
Sephiroth stepped inside and turned on the light.
Vincent was lying on the floor beside the bed, his body weakly convulsing. Chaos had kept him seizing off and on for hours, in an attempt to keep Vincent alive. When he had returned to his room after getting the news that the baby had been born, Vincent had intentionally overdosed. His goal had been to kill himself, but Chaos wasn't letting him go without a fight. Yet, after the last several hours, Vincent's body was tiring and Chaos was losing the fight to keep him alive.
Sephiroth quickly went over and knelt at Vincent's side, rolling him onto his back. "Vincent?"
His eyes were rolled back and his breathing was painfully slow. Vincent's skin was soaked in a cold sweat, and his color was ashen. At some point during the seizures that Chaos had forced him through, Vincent had vomited.
Sephiroth was able to shut out the gross details of Vincent's present condition. He was in a dilemma.
On one hand, he felt that he should just walk out of the room right now and lock the door. If Vincent died, that would stop him from carrying out the mission, thus sparing Jeanine from having her name taken to Shinra along with everyone else's in ASRIO. This would be the simplest thing to do.
However, Sephiroth had now had the Jenova in him long enough for one of its side effects to have kicked in. The so-called Jenova preservation drive within him was rearing. It had been this unconscious compulsion to save those genetically close to him that had made him save Tseng's life so many years ago, and it was even stronger when it came to Vincent. He had no control over this-- he had to save his father.
Resenting his instincts for making him do it, Sephiroth took Vincent's unresponsive body up into his arms and went into the bathroom. He got the water running in the shower and placed Vincent within it, letting the water run cold over him.
Vincent groaned as the shock of the cold got him to the surface of consciousness.
Sephiroth reached forward, himself getting soaked by the water, and pulled Vincent's soiled shirt off of him.
Vincent's eyes fluttered open for a moment. He was in a profound state of euphoria thanks to all of the ferium in his blood-- he felt better than he ever had, despite his present physical state.
With his mind not working normally, he saw Sephiroth before him, but in his delusional state, he saw Sephiroth as an angel, complete with wings-- or at least, one. A smile came to his lips.
Sephiroth saw the expression that Vincent was wearing as he stared at him. Seeing that his father was at least conscious, he turned off the water and then picked Vincent up, disregarding the fact that he was wet.
As Sephiroth carried him, Vincent closed his eyes and continued to smile. I've never seen an angel before…I must really be dead this time. I wonder where he's carrying me? God, I feel so good right now…
Once beside the bed, Sephiroth unceremoniously dropped Vincent upon it.
Being dropped so rudely snapped Vincent out of his hallucination. He realized he was freezing and staring up at his son. "Sephiroth?"
Annoyed by the entire situation and the fact that he was nearly as wet as Vincent, Sephiroth crossed his arms over his chest. "Idiot."
You better thank him, Vincent. You were just about to die. You are an idiot. Chaos, exhausted from having kept Vincent alive for the last few hours, then went dormant, needing to rest.
Vincent tried to sit up, but he was physically too weak and the attempt did no more than flop him over onto his side. "Damn it."
"How much of your precious ferium did you just waste with that little trick?" Sephiroth asked, sitting on the edge of the bed.
"As much as it should have taken to kill me." Vincent resolved that he couldn't move for the time being and just went limp.
"And what prompted this suicide attempt, if I may be so bold as to ask?"
"Tifa had her baby, and it looks like Cid." Vincent closed his eyes.
"You're supposedly beyond caring about her and all of that thanks to the ferium, I thought." Sephiroth wondered if Vincent was perhaps more feeling than he had let on.
"It had been a long time since I'd had a dose. I let my feelings get the better of me. I won't make that mistake again," Vincent replied quietly.
"Which is to say you still intend to finish the mission given to you?" Sephiroth asked.
"Yes."
Damn it. Sephiroth took a deep breath. "Well, don't try it again, or at least if you do, make it quicker."
"Fine." Vincent was tired and wanted no more than to sleep.
Seeing that his father was drifting off, Sephiroth got up. "I will leave you alone. Be more careful."
"Okay." Vincent managed to reach out and pull a pillow closer to him.
Sephiroth turned off the light and left the room. As he went back to Jeanine, he admonished himself for not just letting Vincent die. He wanted to believe that his drive to save him had been no more than the compulsion given to him by the Jenova in his body, but that wasn't the entire truth, even though Sephiroth wasn't yet willing to admit it.
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Visiting hours at the hospital were ending, and Cid began feeling pressured by the nurses to leave. He had sat all day long with Tifa and the baby, and intended to stay until someone came by to get the information for the birth certificate. He hadn't asked Tifa what she planned on naming the baby, but he wanted to know.
Finally, someone arrived with the paperwork. "Congratulations on your new baby."
Tifa smiled, presently holding the infant to her chest. "Thanks."
"Okay, so I have down on the record that she weighed six pounds, one ounce, sixteen inches long, born at one-forty-seven in the afternoon. Is that all correct?" She asked, setting the papers out before her on a table in the room.
"Yes," Tifa replied.
"All right, and since it says on your admission papers that you're married, I assume that her last name is Vatatsi?" She looked over at Tifa.
She felt her cheeks go red and she looked at Cid. "Uh…"
If this was really his baby, then he wanted her to have his last name. "Tifa…"
Tifa knit her brow and looked over at the woman. "No, her father's last name is Highwind."
The woman set her pen down. "Your husband isn't the father?"
Tifa's shame was obvious. "No, we don't think so."
"By law, if the parentage of a child is in question, we are required to run a paternity test," she said flatly.
Tifa, never having bothered to learn about the local laws regarding such things, was caught off guard. "Oh…"
"Such a test would take a few days to complete. The birth certificate has to be filled out within forty-eight hours of the child's birth. If I were you, I would put your own last name on the form, Mrs. Vatatsi. If the paternity test comes back showing that someone other than your husband is the father, you can change the baby's name at anytime during the next two weeks." She shuffled through the papers she'd brought, pulling out a pamphlet regarding paternity testing, which she handed to Tifa.
"All right, we'll do that, then." Tifa set the information she'd just been given down on the bed beside her.
"Good." The woman picked her pen back up. "And what is her first name?"
Tifa felt the sting of tears in her eyes. She would at least make one small gesture toward Vincent. "Charlotte."
"I like that," the woman said, writing it down. "And a middle name?"
Tifa openly smiled, and glanced over at her friend. "Cidelle."
"All right, Charlotte Cidelle Vatatsi, it is, unless you change your mind." She picked up her papers and left the room.
Cid stood at Tifa's bedside and stroked her cheek. "Cidelle, huh? Where'd you come up with that?"
She laughed quietly to herself, not wanting to wake the baby that had now fallen asleep. "I haven't the slightest idea."
"When the test comes up with me as the father, are you going to change her last name?" Cid asked.
"Yeah."
Cid smiled. "Cool. If you're okay, I think I'll head to the house and get the boys. I'll be back in the morning."
She reached up and pulled him down for a brief kiss. "Okay, I'll see you in the morning, then."
He gave her a smile and then bent down once more, giving the baby a kiss on the top of the head. "Bye."
Before he left the room, he stopped and looked back over his shoulder. He wanted to take this mental image of Tifa there holding his newborn daughter with him. Unable to stop himself, he spoke up. "Tiff?"
She still had her eyes upon him. "Yeah?"
Cid nodded slightly to himself. "I love you."
Tifa grinned. "I love you, too."
-----------------------
Cid pulled up to the house where they'd dropped the boys off earlier. As he made his way to the door, he felt a small spike of fear. In all the excitement of the day, he'd completely forgotten what had happened with Aaron the night before. He hoped that everything had gone well.
He knocked on the door, and an old woman answered. Cid gave her a polite smile. "I'm here to pick up the kids."
She nodded. Tifa had called from the hospital to let her know that he was on his way. "Oh, you're Tifa's friend. Just a moment, I'll go get the boys."
Feeling relieved that nothing had probably happened, Cid waited out on the porch. A few seconds later, the boys appeared and they made their way toward the car. Cid turned to follow them, but the woman stopped him. "Mr. Highwind, is it?"
He turned and faced her as Aaron and L.C. climbed into the car. "Yeah?"
She took a few steps closer to him. "Vincent's off on some sort of business trip, Tifa said."
Cid scratched the back of his head and shrugged. He would go along with Tifa's lie. "Sure."
"Well, I'm glad you could be with her." She smiled briefly, and then motioned toward the car. "Not to be nosey or anything, but Aaron's eyes…well, I was wondering what happened?"
Think quick! You can't tell her that the little fucker has a demon running around inside his head, Cid. He looked over at the car, seeing the boys already strapped into the back seat. "Yeah, uh, we're takin' him to the eye doctor to go get that checked."
"Oh, I see." She seemed to accept the answer. "Well, if you need me to look after them again, just stop by. I'm always here."
"Okay, thanks." Cid made his way back to the car and got in.
"Well?" Aaron asked, breaking the silence as they went down the road.
Cid glanced up into the rearview mirror, seeing Aaron sitting behind him with his arms folded over his chest. "What's up, kid?"
"How's my mom?"
"Oh," Cid sighed, "she's doing just fine. She had a little girl."
You know what you have to ask him, Aaron, his inner demon growled.
Aaron kept his gaze fixed on Cid's back. He wasn't going to simply ask, he was going to flat out say it in his own way. "So, L.C. and I are big brothers, then?"
L.C. scowled and looked at Aaron. "Shut up, Spaz. I ain't got no sister."
Aaron's red eyes narrowed. "I bet you do."
Cid pulled the car over and put it in park, then turning around to face Aaron. "You think you're real fucking clever, don't you?"
Aaron cocked his head to the side. "Look Cid, I know, and your reaction more or less confirms it. You're my sister's dad, aren't you?"
L.C. swatted Aaron in the arm. "Don't talk to my dad like that! He's not your sister's dad!"
Cid couldn't blatantly lie in front of his own son and he hung his head. "Look boys, you're all going to live together with Tifa after I'm gone so you're all going to be in the same family. You're all gonna be siblings more or less anyway."
L.C., not being as painfully intelligent as Aaron, didn't exactly get the connotation. "Yeah, but she still ain't really my sister."
Cid met his son's gaze, his disappointment in himself evident. "L.C., I know this is messed up and hard for you to understand, but she is your sister, kid."
The blond boy looked over at his friend, searching for help.
Aaron slowly turned to face him. "I told you, I saw your dad and my mom doing it, L.C. He got her pregnant. That's your sister."
L.C. felt tears in his eyes. He had never been ashamed of his father before, and didn't know how to handle it. Although he was young, he knew that all of this was still wrong-- very wrong. "Dad? How could you do something like this?"
Cid dropped his gaze away. "I'm sorry, L.C. I didn't do it to hurt you."
"But you have hurt him, Cid," Aaron shot back as he watched his friend begin crying.
Aaron was working on Cid's last nerve. Instead of seeing him as a little boy, the pilot thought of him as nothing more than a smaller, but equally trying version of Vincent, and he was not in the mood. "Shut up you little fucker."
Aaron cocked an eyebrow. "Very nice, way to talk to a kid."
Cid had to fight the urge to reach back and smack the boy. "I've had enough of you, Aaron. When we get home, you're going to your God damned room and you're staying there."
"And now you're going to try and order me around as though you were my father and had some sort of authority over me? Could this get any better?" Aaron's anger was being bolstered by the demon within him, making him far bolder than he normally was.
Cid snapped and he moved to reach back and strike Aaron.
L.C. saw this and shrieked, "Dad! Stop it!"
Catching himself just in time, Cid turned back around, placing both of his hands upon the steering wheel. He was shaking in his frustration and shame. The pilot had never been one to hit a kid, and even when L.C. had gotten in real trouble over the years, he'd found it incredibly hard to spank him in punishment. The realization that he had almost just hauled off and decked a six-year-old cut through him. What am I fucking doing? He's not Vincent, God damn it. He's just a kid whose confused and hurt right now. I don't want to be around this little bastard, though. He hates me and he's gonna keep trying to piss me off just for the fun of it like his old man. I can't handle this right now.
Cid put the car back in drive and started back down the road. He just wanted to get to the house.
Aaron's inner demon was giving him a power over adults that he'd never enjoyed before, and he smiled.