Okay, I fixed my MySpace account, I really should come up as Sipesh now. Be my friend! I need constant social validation! Yeah…

Oh, and sorry, this is another short one. I was busy getting a new dog this weekend! YAY!

I still miss Porter : (

Chapter 39

Angel made her way to the room that she and Reno had once shared in the base. She'd called Dana's friend's family to ask if her daughter could spend the night and was told yes. With her child thusly cared for, she opened the door to the room and entered.

Reno was sitting waiting for her on the bed. He'd been thoughtful enough to go and get something for her to eat, and had her meal waiting for her in styrofoam containers upon the bed. "Hey, Babe."

Angel offered him a pathetic smile and kicked off her shoes before going over and sitting on the bed. Having helped Dr. Arlin for the last several hours in surgery, she was exhausted and not feeling that well. "Thanks for getting me some food."

"No problem. I figured you'd be pretty starved." Reno climbed over and knelt behind her upon the bed. He placed his hands upon Angel's back and started to massage her.

Angel sighed as she reached over and picked up one of the food containers, opening it. He'd gotten her fettuccini. "This looks good."

"Yeah, you were sayin' before that you wanted that tonight. Of course, that was before the shit hit the fan." Reno continued to work her back carefully.

Although what he was doing felt good, Angel looked back over her shoulder at him. She figured he was only doing so as some kind of prelude to sex, and she felt in no way up to the act. "Reno, hun, I really don't feel like getting frisky tonight."

"I figured, Babe. I'm not trying to start anything, I just remembered how much you said your back hurt you all the time when you were pregnant with Dana, that's all." He let his hands drop away from her.

Angel offered him a smile. "I know you better than that, Reno."

Reno moved and sat beside her. "I'm being honest, Babe. I sure as hell don't feel much like doin' it tonight myself."

Now, Angel was just worried. Reno never said such things. "What's wrong?"

"All of this." He hung his head. "I don't know what I'm supposed to do. Things were going along great, I thought everything was super, and then all of this. I was talking about how we have to go into the Junon lab and get the real cancer cure, since it can also be used to fix Vinny, Aaron, and Cid. Porter told me that he thinks we'll have to send Quigley in with the team since he'd be the only one who'd know what in the fuck we're looking for."

"Oh, I guess he would have to go." Angel picked up a plastic fork and started eating.

"Yeah." Reno shrugged. "And then…Porter sorta called into question Vinny's…damn it, what's that word that means what side you're playing for?"

Angel smiled and glanced at him. "Allegiance?"

"Oh, that's a better word that the one I was thinkin' of. But yeah, he called into question Vinny's allegiance." Reno looked ashamed and turned to face his wife. "I got really pissed at that and I, uh, kinda smacked him."

She nearly choked on her mouthful. "You smacked Porter?"

Reno made a gesture of the action with his right hand. "Yeah, popped him a good one. I just couldn't help myself. I'm getting sick of people having doubts about him."

"I know, Brad and Janice said some things in the infirmary, too." Angel shook her head and then reached over opening the other container, seeing that it held a few pieces of garlic bread. She picked two of them up and held one over to Reno.

Reno grabbed the bread and took a bite. "Yeah, Porter clued me in about those two thinking that Vinny might be dangerous, too. I'm going to talk to the both of them in the morning."

"Just be careful about how you come off to Janice, all right?" She locked gazes with him. "She's been in a really bad mood lately, and I don't want us to be out our doctor."

"Janice wouldn't quit. You know that."

Angel kept looking at him. "Reno, I don't know. She's been unhappy about something for a long time. Maybe it's something in her personal life that she's bringing here with her, but something is definitely wrong with the woman."

As Reno thought about it, he realized that Janice had been a little bitchier than usual lately. "Okay, I'll be nice about it. It just really irks me that people can think that Vinny did things because he wanted to. I don't like him being doubted, and I know he wouldn't be all that thrilled about it if he knew, either."

"I know." Angel offered him a smile before turning her attention back to her dinner again. She thought for a moment about telling him how Tifa came unglued after seeing that Vincent had been given a cybernetic arm, but opted not to. Reno was burdened enough with things, and didn't need any more crap dished to him. "Reno?"

He looked over at her. "Yeah?"

Angel reached over and placed a hand on the side of his face. "I love you."

"I love you, too, Babe." Reno took her hand and covered it with his own, then pulling it toward his lips and placing a kiss upon it.

Suddenly, Angel's resolve to not partake in a physical escapade with her husband withered. She quickly finished her dinner and then took the empty boxes over to the trash. With them thrown away, she looked over her shoulder. "I think a long, hot shower would be great before bed, don't you?"

Reno perked to attention. "You inviting me?"

She offered him a wink and then disappeared into the bathroom. Reno stood up from the bed and stripped hastily before following her. She had the water running and was getting undressed by the time he got into the bathroom.

Reno leaned back against the door after closing it, watching her. "Hey, Babe."

She looked over her shoulder at him as her last article of clothing hit the floor. "Hey yourself."

Reno went over and opened the shower door, seeing that the water was now running warm enough. He stepped inside and Angel followed him. Reno immediately took her into his arms and kissed her. They would forget their problems, if just for a while. Without having to worry about Dana walking in on them or listening, they made love with abandon.

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Cid awoke at around four in the morning, or at least that's what the clock on the wall in the infirmary said. The pain he was in was still intense, but it was better than before. His inner demon was allowing his body to begin healing. His eyes searched through the dimly lit room, until they fell upon the only other person present. "Hey, Sue?"

Vincent was out, and didn't respond.

Cid huffed to himself, wanting desperately to speak with his friend. He called out again, just a little louder. "Sue?"

Vincent moved slightly, but didn't awake.

Now Cid was just frustrated. He turned his head, spotting a small plastic bowl sitting on his bedside table. In a last ditch effort to get Vincent to rouse, he reached over, picked up the bowl, and then hurled it across the room.

It hit Vincent square in the head and his eyes flew open. His drug-clouded mind didn't fire up right away. "Hey…what?"

"You up?" Cid asked, sounding innocent enough.

Vincent brought up his right hand and rubbed the side of his head, frowning. "Did…did you just throw something at me?"

Cid snickered to himself, regretting it instantly as it hurt to laugh. "Naw."

Vincent realized that there was a bowl sitting on his pillow next to his head. He grabbed it and held it up. "You threw this at me, didn't you?"

Again, Cid laughed, although it hurt terribly.

Vincent tossed the bowl away, letting it hit the floor. "Fuck you, Cid."

"Hey, I just wanted to talk to you." He bunched up his pillow behind his neck so that he could see Vincent easier.

"Cid…I'm tired and by all accounts, you should be, too." Vincent managed to roll onto his right side, not minding too much the pain in his neck and left arm as he did so.

"I am, but I wanted to see how much you remembered, and I needed to know if you're okay." Cid's voice reflected his sincerity.

"I'll be fine, Cid. Go to sleep." Vincent honestly wasn't in the mood to get into any sort of discussion with the pilot.

Cid carried on as though Vincent did want to talk. "I don't remember anything after becoming whatever in the hell it was I turned into. What did I do to you?"

He sighed heavily. "A cat."

"What?" Cid didn't follow.

Vincent raised his head for a moment and looked over at him. "A cat, a big damned cat, with wings. That's what you turned into."

"Really?" Cid scowled. "I hate cats."

"I know." Vincent let his head hit the pillow once more. "Karma's a bitch."

Cid pondered what he must have looked like, but couldn't quite get his mind around it. "What did I do to you? I hurt you, right?"

Vincent closed his eyes and clenched his teeth as he managed to pull his left arm out from beneath the covers and he raised it up, so that Cid could see. "You tore off my arm. Now I've got one of these things again, thank you very much."

Cid literally felt nauseous. "Oh fuck, Sue… I'm sorry!"

Vincent carefully lowered his arm back to his side. "You didn't do it on purpose."

Vincent heard a loud groan and had to look. He saw that Cid had somehow managed to push himself up into a sitting position, and had his face covered with his hands. When he saw the pilot's entire body shake, Vincent realized that Cid was crying. Not knowing what else to do, Vincent struggled and sat up, facing his friend. "Cid?"

"I'm so fuckin' sorry…" Cid was ashamed at himself not only for what he'd done to Vincent, but for his display of emotion in front of the other man. "God damn it, Sunshine…"

"Cid, it's all right. I know it wasn't your fault. Trust me, I understand and it's all right. After you took my arm, I let Chaos come out and fight you, to keep you in the base so you wouldn't escape." Vincent regretted the fact that he was hooked up to monitors and fluids, otherwise he would have gone to Cid's side.

Cid let his hands fall away from his face. "You kept me here after I ripped your damn arm off?"

"Of course. Having you running around out in the open was the last thing we needed." Vincent reached up with his right hand and tore away the bandage on his neck, knowing that it would be healed enough by now to let him get away from doing so.

The fact that Vincent still gave attention to what was best for him after he'd taken his arm got Cid's notice. "Sue?"

"Cid, really, I just want to sleep."

"Why do you keep helpin' me? I mean, I keep fuckin' up your life and still you do things for me. Why?" Cid figured if their roles were reversed, he would have just killed the guy and gotten it over with.

Vincent closed his eyes and hung his head. "Because, Cid, that's what friends do. We went over this crap in the cave."

"You're too damn forgiving," Cid said quietly.

Vincent cocked an eyebrow. "Cid, if you had done true evil, I can promise you that I wouldn't be willing to forgive. Having seen true evil in the actions of Hojo, I know the difference. To intentionally hurt me was not what you set out to do, either with this attack, or with what transpired between Tifa and yourself. I forgive, because I know what it's like to be unforgivable. You've not earned that.

Cid dried his eyes and looked over at Vincent. "You're one helluva guy, you know that?"

"Well thank you for finally acknowledging the fact that I'm a male." Vincent moved to lie down again. "Let's go to sleep now, okay?"

"All right." Cid carefully lowered himself back down. "Goodnight, Sue."

"Goodnight, you amazing pain in the ass." Vincent closed his eyes and pulled the sheets around him tightly. Within minutes, he was asleep again.

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Quigley had remained in the lab since helping install the cybernetic arm onto Vincent. He'd felt bad in doing so, not only for the fact that he knew that Vincent would hate it, but because he personally took the blame for what had happened with Cid in the first place, causing all of this to occur.

He'd been sitting in front of the compounding machine for hours, more or less mentally beating himself up when he felt a hand upon his shoulder, startling him out of his state. Quigley looked back, seeing Porter standing behind him. "Oh, hey Port."

"Quig." Porter pulled up a chair next to his friend's. He'd been with Rayna in their room for a while, but had decided to check on Quigley when he hadn't been able to fall asleep. "Aren't you going to go to bed at some point tonight?"

Quigley sat back and ran his hands down his face. "I couldn't sleep right now if I wanted to. Amy came by a while ago to try and get me to leave, but until this drug for Cid is made up…I'm not going to be able to relax."

Porter moved his seat closer to the researcher's and placed his hand upon Quigley's knee. "Quig, don't do this to yourself. You're going to get sick."

"Port, don't you get it? All of this is happening because I screwed up! I got cocky, thinking that everything was going great, forgetting that life likes to bite me in the ass whenever it gets the chance." Quigley looked away from Porter. "I lost my brother, I turned Cid into some sort of monster, and now I've cost Vincent his arm. I mean, God damn."

Realizing that there was little he could do to alleviate his companion's depression, Porter wondered about warning Quigley about any upcoming mission. "Quig, what if I told you that you might just end up being the most important asset ASRIO has for what we have to do next?"

Quigley turned his gaze back to the other man. "How's that?"

"Remember how the computer says that Shinra actually does have the formula for the cancer cure and how it can also be used to cure what's been done to Cid?" Porter asked.

"Yeah, of course, and we decided that we need to get our hands on that as soon as possible." Quigley narrowed his eyes.

"Right." Porter leaned a little closer to him. "We're going to have to send a team into the Shinra lab to get it, and Quig, we need you to go with them."

His eyes went wide. "Me? Go in on a mission?"

"You're the only one who'll know how to get it out of the computer, and you'd be the only one who'd know what in the hell we're looking for anyway." Porter's sincerity was obvious from his tone.

Quigley got up and walked a few steps away. The thought of going into a lab on a mission team was absolutely terrifying. Although the danger of doing so had appealed to his little brother, Quigley hadn't shared that quality with Spencer. Still, he knew he couldn't refuse. He was the one best qualified to look up and secure the formula, and in a way, it might somehow make up for what he felt he'd done wrong.

Resolving that he would go without any argument, Quigley turned back to Porter. "Okay, when do we go?"

Porter stood up from his seat and went to Quigley's side. "I thought…"

"You thought I'd try and get out of it?" Quigley locked into his gaze. "You thought I'd be too spineless to ever set foot back into a Shinra lab again after the shit I saw Hojo pull? That's it, isn't it?"

Porter smiled despite himself. "Well, sort of."

Quigley's mouth pulled down and he shook his head. "Well, that isn't how it is. I'm going. I'm going and I will get that damned cure and take care of all of this."

He knew better than to say anything in response. Porter had never seen Quigley like he was right now, and on some level, he was scared. All he could do was step closer to the researcher, place a hand upon his shoulder for a moment, offer him a smile, and then walk from the room. Before he got to the door, though, he hesitated and looked back. "Quig?"

He brought his bloodshot eyes up to meet his friend's. "Yeah?"

Porter looked down at the floor, considering the decision he was about to make, before steeling his resolve. He then met Quigley's gaze. "If you're going into that lab on the mission, then I'm going with you. I'll take care of you."

Quigley's first instinct to this was to argue, since Porter hadn't been in action since his Turk days, and then only on a limited basis. Not to mention the fact that Porter had never completely recovered from the gunshot wound he'd sustained seven years ago. Still, something about having Porter with him when he went in was comforting. "Okay."

Porter nodded at him before looking away. "Goodnight, Quig."

He watched the former Turk leave. "Goodnight, Port."

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At five in the morning, Janice slipped back into the infirmary, finding both of her patients sleeping. Quietly, she went about getting two large syringes filled with sedatives. She then went first to Cid and injected the contents of one of the syringes into his I.V. bag, and then went over and did the same for Vincent. With that, she knew that both men would remain unconscious as the drug was administered to them along with their I.V. fluids. If nothing else, there was no way that she was going to risk letting these two awaken before they received what they needed so suppress their inner demons.

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"Jeanine?"

She stirred from her sleep and opened her eyes. At first, Jeanine didn't recognize where she was and in her confusion, she sat up. She realized that she was lying on one of the bed's in her father's clinic and that Jaras was in the bed next to her.

He offered her a weak smile. "Hey, Jeanie."

Jeanine couldn't help but smile. He hadn't called her Jeanie since being kidnapped by Shinra. She examined him, seeing that his pallor was ghastly, and his eyes clearly displayed his exhaustion, but he was looking at her steadily, not shaking and no longer sweating. "Are you feeling better?"

"Yeah," Jaras sat up and swung his legs over the edge of the bed. "I think I finally stopped throwing up at around three this morning."

Being incredibly tired from her pregnancy, Jeanine had collapsed onto the bed next to her husband's about half past one. She had felt terrible about sleeping while he still felt so poorly, but her body just wasn't up to staying awake any longer. As her father had promised, though, Jaras had apparently pulled through it. "Are you going to be able to stand going through that once a week for three more weeks?"

Jaras' expression fell. "I don't really have a choice. I've got to get this damned Jenova out of me once and for all."

"You were so sick…" Jeanine got up from her bed and went over to him, placing her hands upon his shoulders. "I was scared for you."

"Well, I was too busy feeling like crap to be scared," he said back, offering her another of his smiles. Jaras reached up and tucked an errant strand of her hair behind her right ear. "Don't be scared. You know your dad would never do anything that he wasn't sure of."

"I can't help it, Jaras." Jeanine looked into his eyes, able to appreciate the current lack of their usual luster. "I love you."

He pulled her close for an embrace. "I love you, too, Jeanie."

At that moment, Jeanine's cell phone began to ring. She stepped away from Jaras and pulled it out of her pocket. "Hello?"

"Hey, I need to talk to Jaras."

"Reno? Is that you?" she asked, looking over at her husband.

"Yeah, I need to talk to Jaras," the ASRIO leader replied flatly.

Seeing that Reno wasn't obviously willing to speak with her, Jeanine held to phone out to her husband. "It's Reno."

Jaras took the phone and cocked an eyebrow at her. He put it to his ear. "Reno?"

"Hey, Jaras. I need to talk to you about something." Reno was standing in the hallway right outside of his old room in the base. Angel was still in bed, and he didn't want to disturb her.

"Sure, what's going on?" Jaras knit his brow and leaned forward, picking up on the concern coming from the other man.

"Well, I'm calling about Aaron."

Jaras' eyes went wide. "Is something wrong with him?"

"Not physically." Reno knew that he'd scared Jaras with what he'd said. "Vinny and the whole family came back to the base. Turns out that Cid's got something kinda like Chaos…well, a little fuzzier than Chaos…in him and he came back here for us to help him, but he asked Vinny and his clan out here to be with him. So, right after getting here, Cid and Vinny got into it and fought, landing both Cid and your dad in the infirmary."

Jaras interrupted. "Oh my God, is Dad okay?"

Reno clenched his teeth. "Well…he'll be all right."

He wasn't exactly satisfied with this answer. "Reno, tell me."

"Okay, it's like this-- at some point in the fight, Vinny more or less…got his arm bit off." Reno braced for Jaras' reaction.

"You're fucking me, right?"

Knowing that Jaras didn't make a habit of cursing, let Reno know how unwell he was with the situation. "I wish I was…no, wait, that sounds wrong. I wish I were joking, how about that? And we can clone him a new arm some point down the road."

"He's all right otherwise, though?" Jaras had forgotten the original purpose for this call, as his father's plight was the only thing on his mind now.

"Yeah, I already said that he'll be super." Reno leaned against the corridor's wall. "But I'm calling about Aaron."

"What happened to him?" Jaras asked.

"Well, with Vinny in the infirmary last night, Tifa went to go sit with him and I stayed and babysat the kids." Reno stared down at the floor, reaching up with his free hand and adjusting his eye patch. "Mini Vinny started talkin' to me, and he basically vented all of his worries about Tifa and Vinny not being able to work things out."

Jaras nodded knowingly. During some of his recent conversations with Aaron, his little brother had expressed such fears. "Right."

"Well, he told me flat out that he would rather not live with Vinny and Tifa for a little while, so that they could iron things out alone. That way, if they start fighting again, he won't have to hear it, he said." Reno's heart grew heavy at the memory of his talk with the boy the night before. "Specifically, he told me that he'd like to stay with you. I think you're his favorite person on this Earth, to be real honest with you."

"Oh…wow, uh," Jaras thought for a moment, "I need to run it by Jeanine, and I'm going to be going through some treatments over the next couple of weeks that make me sick for a day or so each time…"

"Hey, if you can't, you can't, I just promised him that I'd ask." Reno was disappointed.

"I'm not saying I can't, it's just that I need to ask my wife, hold on a sec." Jaras lowered the phone and looked at Jeanine. "Uh, Aaron's asking if he could stay with us while Tifa and my father try and reconcile. He doesn't want to be around if they're going to start fighting again."

Jeanine came over and sat next to her husband upon the bed. "That's completely fine with me, if you feel up to it with these treatments you're going to get and all."

Jaras was pensive for a few more seconds. When it got down to it, he just loved his little brother too much to refuse to help him out. He brought the phone back up. "Reno?"

"Yeah?"

"We can watch him for a while, that's fine." Jaras smiled as he related this.

Reno also grinned, knowing how happy it would make Aaron. "That's great, Jaras. He's gonna be thrilled."

"Well, I'd do anything for him. It is all right with Tifa and Dad, correct?"

Reno was quiet for just a second. "Yeah, they're okay with it."

"Good enough." Jaras looked over at Jeanine. "When can we expect him and how's he getting here?"

"I'll have Brad fly him down, maybe tonight or tomorrow." Reno straightened back up, getting ready to hang up.

"Okay, well, we'll be around either at home or at the store." Jaras suddenly remembered something. "Oh, and Reno?"

"Yeah?"

"Look, I'm really sorry about pulling my sword on you the other day." Jaras closed his eyes.

Reno laughed. "Yeah, well, I had it coming, I guess. I shouldn't have walked in on you like that. Hey, I'm gonna go. Talk to you later."

"Okay, thanks. Bye." Jaras turned off the phone and handed it back to his wife. "We need to get the guest room cleaned out, then."

She offered him a warm smile. "We can go home and you just take it easy. I'll get things ready for your brother."

Jaras stood up and stretched. "I'm all right, Jeanie. Let's go."