Chapter 40

Lilly woke up as the morning light began streaming in through the bedroom window. She rolled over, seeing that Brad had returned at some point in the night. Gently, she reached over and touched his face. "Brad?"

He groaned quietly and then opened his eyes, looking over at her. "Morning, Lil."

"Where were you last night?" she asked, having missed him at dinnertime.

Brad sat up and then ran his hands over his face. It was time to come clean to his wife. "Lilly, I need to tell you something."

Her eyes went wide, and she felt her heart race. "Oh God, you're having an affair, aren't you?"

The chopper pilot outright laughed and shook his head. "No, nothing like that. I can barely keep up with one woman."

Her relief was immediately clear. "Oh, I'm sorry, it's just the way you said that…"

"No." He moved closer to her. "My dad showed up last night."

She rolled her eyes and groaned. Brad's dislike for the man had leached into her over the years. "Are you serious?"

"I am." Brad's shoulders slumped. "He came with Cid."

Lilly smiled, she already knew what he was about to say. "Let me guess, all of that crap about how you told me that your dad and Cid having the same exact names simply out of coincidence is bullshit, and he's actually your half brother?"

Brad cocked an eyebrow at her.

"Come on, Brad." Lilly shook her head. "I've known that was a lie from the get go. Having seen both your dad and Cid, I could tell that they had more than just their names in common. Give me some credit for brains."

"I'm sorry, it's just that I've tried to separate the two in my mind since I met Cid, not wanting to associate him with our dad, since he hated him, too. And I just kept up the lie for you because I didn't want you to dislike Cid because he was so much like the old man." Brad was ashamed of having carried on trying to convince his wife of this flimsy falsity over the years.

"Well, I've never really liked Cid, and it has nothing to do with your father, Brad." She smiled again. "I don't like him because he's an ass, but I've tolerated him because you like him so much. So, I'm guessing you're only coming clean about this because Cid finally learned the truth about you and he being brothers?"

"Yup." Brad only now realized that his charade over the years to Lilly had been pathetically lame. He knew that she was too smart to have ever honestly fallen for it. "But here's the thing. I guess Cid and Dad have reconciled, and after talking to him last night, well, I'm feeling a lot better about him now, too."

Lilly reached over and placed her hand on his leg. "That's good to hear, Brad."

He leaned over and gave her a quick kiss, before getting up from the bed and dressing. Since he hoped that things with Cid would get taken care of today, he opted not to get into anything else about the situation.

Once clothed, he turned back to her. "I'm going back to the base to go take care of some things."

"All right. Will you be back for dinner tonight?"

Brad offered her a smile. "I'll do my damnedest. If I'm going to be late, I'll call."

"Okay." Lilly got out of bed, gave him a kiss, and then disappeared into the bathroom.

Brad left the house and went to the base. Once inside, he went straight to the infirmary, finding his father already at Cid's beside. His brother was sleeping, and Janice was in the room as well, over next to Vincent. She seemed to be checking out his injuries from the day before. The doctor gave absolutely no regard to the chopper pilot's entrance.

Cid Sr. looked over at his son. "Bradley, how goes it?"

"Fine." He pulled a chair over to his brother's bedside. "Has he woken up at all?"

The old man frowned and shook his head. "Naw, he's been out since I got here a while ago."

"Oh," Brad sighed, sitting down. His attention was then drawn over to the infirmary doors as they were thrown open.

Reno appeared. He lifted his cane and pointed it at Brad. "You," he then pointed over at Janice, "and you, now."

Brad looked over at the doctor, who was looking at him in turn. He got up and went with Janice over to Reno. "What's up?"

He narrowed his eye, and firmly planted his cane back on the ground. "Come with me."

The chopper pilot and doctor both knew from Reno's lack of humor that they were in the doghouse for something, and they followed him at a slight distance as he led them away. He took them to Tseng's old room, opened the door, and then motioned for them to enter. They did so, and then Reno came in and locked the door behind them.

Reno turned to face them. "Sit."

Janice and Brad went over to the couch and landed. They had no idea what was going on.

Reno came over and stood before them. "This is about Vinny."

They both suddenly looked guilty.

He considered his two employees for a moment. "Now, I appreciate that a lot of shit happened, but God damn it, if I say we're going to trust someone, we're going to trust them."

"But Reno--" Janice started, but found herself cut off.

"Shut the fuck up! I already had it out with Porter over this same fuckin' thing last night, and now I'm gonna say it to you two. And you, Brad, we already had this discussion back when we pulled Vinny out of that damned cave! I thought you were onboard with me." Reno backed up and sat on the edge of Tseng's bed.

"Look, he fooled us once, okay?" Janice wasn't going to just take being reprimanded, especially not by someone considerably younger than her. "Maybe you're too blind to him because you married his daughter, but the rest of us aren't going to just forget!"

Reno flared with anger and got up again. He reached up and tore away his eye patch and pushed back his hair, revealing his gruesome injury to the both of them. "Look at me, God damn it! He did this to me, not you! I had my fuckin' face blown off! I had my mind messed up! I almost fuckin' died! If there's anyone who should hold doubts about him, it should be me, but you know what? I don't, and do you know why?"

They just stared back at him blankly.

"It's because I know Vinny, and I know what he would or wouldn't do on his own!" Reno let his hair fall back down over the right side of his face, and his hand came back to his side. "I'm gonna tell you what I told Porter last night-- if I ever hear either of you two or anyone doubt Vinny again, you will find your asses out on the street, you got me?"

Brad hung his head in submission. "All right."

Janice, however, wasn't going to just bend to her boss's will that easily. She got up and took a few steps toward Reno. "Yeah, I am aware of what he did to you. I'm the one that had to try and put your brains back into your head and keep you alive, you ungrateful bastard! He wanted to kill you, and if you'll recall, he did kill Spencer! So pardon the fuck out of me if I'm a little leery of the situation!"

"Back off, Janice!" Reno was getting incredibly pissed. "I said you are going to stop treating Vinny like shit and doubting him, and that is exactly what you're going to do!"

"Oh, am I?" Janice crossed her arms over her chest.

Reno narrowed his eye. "You sure as fuck are."

She smiled, she actually smiled. "Tseng never would have talked to me like this. You're a pathetic fucking excuse for a leader. Well, have a nice fucking time finding another doctor to work in his hell hole."

Reno felt his heart race. "Are you telling me that you're quitting?"

"You're God damned right I am! I don't need this shit." Janice turned and started for the door.

Part of Reno wished to apologize and implore her to stay, but he didn't want her here if she was going to doubt Vincent, and there was also the issue of his pride getting in the way. "Don't let the door hit you in the ass on your way out."

Janice exited and slammed the door.

Brad knew that things had just gotten out of hand. "Oh shit…"

Reno looked over at the chopper pilot. "What about you?"

He raised his hands defensively. Brad knew that the bit about Vincent having actually killed Spencer was probably off limits for anyone to know, so he let that slide right off. "If I don't work here, I don't get to fly. You're not getting rid of me. I'm sorry for what I said about Vincent."

"Okay," the ASRIO leader sighed. "I've got to go get another doctor…"

"Who?" Brad asked.

"Well," Reno thought for a moment, "I guess I'll call Dr. Ritchie."

"He's the guy that's filled in for her a couple of times?" Brad asked, already knowing the answer. Said doctor had relocated his shoulder once when he'd fallen in the hanger and snapped it out of place.

Reno just nodded. "Yeah. Well, you can go back to Cid now. I know you're pretty worried about him being your best friend, and all."

The chopper pilot smiled to himself, knowing that Reno was still oblivious to the fact he and Cid were brothers. Brad got up and headed for the door. He looked back at Reno, seeing that the other man looked to be on the verge of tears. "I'm sorry…are you okay?"

He turned his gaze from the other man and waved at him, indicating that Brad should just leave.

The chopper pilot understood and departed, knowing that Reno needed to be alone.

Once Brad had shut the door behind him, Reno went over to the couch and sat. He leaned forward and placed his head into his hands. "Shit…what am I gonna do?"

"You can't afford to lose Janice, Reno."

He lifted his head to see Tseng sitting on the bed across from him. "You heard what just went on. I…"

"Angel warned you about Dr. Arlin's recent mood, did she not?" Tseng asked, crossing his legs.

"Yeah, she did." Reno hung his head again. "But damn it, I can't stand going around thinkin' that everyone hates Vinny."

"They're just scared, Reno. It's a normal, human thing to do." Tseng shrugged slightly. "Even though they had expressed reservations about him, they have all helped him, haven't they?"

Reno snapped to attention upon hearing this and looked over at his dead partner. "Holy shit, you're right. Brad took me to get Vinny, Janice patched him up after this little thing, and Porter…aw fuck…"

"Give Janice a little while to cool off, then go talk to her. She'll come back." Tseng got up from the bed and walked right before Reno. "Everything will work out as it is meant to."

Reno brought his gaze up and offered Tseng a weak smile. "Okay, thanks, Boss."

"No problem. Go out there and deal with the living now, Reno," he said gently.

After looking away for a second while steeling his resolve, Reno looked up again, seeing that Tseng was no longer there. He sighed heavily and then got up from the couch and left the room.

When he stepped into the hall, he ran into Porter.

Porter, still a little ashamed of his encounter with Reno the night before didn't make eye contact, but he still had something to say. "Reno, I spoke with Quigley and informed him of the need for him to go on the next mission."

Reno was grateful that he'd been spared that task. "Oh, and what did he say?"

"He said he's game to do it. Quig feels that it'll help make up for him having caused some of this in the first place." He shoved his hands down into his pockets.

"Really? I thought Quiggers would go all chicken shit about it." Reno was impressed.

"He's feeling really bad right now, and I don't know if it's his depression over recent events or what, but yeah, he agreed to go like it was no big deal." Porter finally brought himself to look into Reno's gaze. "But, I have a condition regarding the mission myself."

"What's that?" Reno asked.

"I'm going, too."

Reno shook his head. "No fuckin' way! Uh-uh. Nope."

"Yes, I am." Porter crossed his arms over his chest. "I'm not letting my best friend go on some damned mission without going along."

"And I'm not willing to lose all three men on one mission who can work in ASRIO as Second." Reno lifted his cane up and rested it against his shoulder.

Porter knit his brow. "What?"

"Look, you're Second in Command. If something happens to you, the line of accession that I've got drawn up goes you, Ericson, then Quigley. If all three of you are on this mission and don't make it, I'm kinda screwed, because Angel doesn't want the fuckin' job back. I mean, it's bad enough that I have to send Quigley and Ericson in together, but I can't risk throwin' you in, too." Reno looked away.

"It's not negotiable." Porter's mind was made up-- he was going.

Already having lost Janice this morning, Reno realized that he shouldn't push his luck. In an uncharacteristic move, he relented. "Fine, but you have to swear to me that you'll come back."

Porter offered him a smile. "I'll do my damnedest."

Reno nodded in agreement, and then he felt color come to his cheeks as he realized he needed to tell Porter something. "Oh, and uh, Janice is going to be gone for a while."

His green eyes narrowed. "What do you mean? Where's she going?"

"I, uh, got into a fight with her a little while ago. I told her not to dish Vinny any shit, and she sorta blew up." Reno shifted where he stood. "She basically told me to go fuck myself and then she bailed."

"That's not good…" Porter ran a hand through his hair.

"I know, but I'm thinking that I'll be able to talk to her in a few days and maybe smooth things out." He shrugged. "In the meanwhile, I'm going to go see if Dr. Ritchie can fill in."

Porter smiled at the thought of the older man. "Frankie's a good guy, I'm sure he'll come in to help."

"That's what I'm hoping." Reno offered a weak smile. "In any event, I guess we should head to the infirmary to check on old Vinny and Cid, huh?"

"Sure." Porter turned and started to walk toward their destination.

Reno followed along at a distance, thinking about some things. After the incident with Janice, he felt bad for how he'd handled himself with Porter the night before. "Hey, Port?"

He stopped and looked back. "Yeah?"

"I'm sorry, all right?" Reno met his gaze. "We cool?"

Porter offered him a weak smile and shrugged. "I had it coming. We're cool."

Reno grinned. "Thanks."

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

Quigley was awakened by a beeping sound. He opened his eyes, seeing that the compounding machine before him was signaling that it was finished with what he was making up for Cid. Sighing heavily, he reached forward and hit the off button for the machine, silencing it. He glanced at his watch, seeing that it was around nine in the morning.

He rose from his seat and stretched, instantly realizing the soreness in his body from having slept in the chair. Quigley flipped open the door on the front of the compounder and pulled out the small vial within. He slipped it into his pocket and made his way to the infirmary.

When he stepped in, Quigley found Porter, Reno, Angel, Tifa, Cid Sr., and Brad within, along with the two patients. All eyes instantly turned to him.

Quigley shifted uncomfortably under the stare of the crowd. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the drug he'd made up for Cid and held it up. "Got it."

There was a group sigh of relief.

Quigley looked around. "We can give it to Cid and give Vincent his, too. Hey, where's Janice?"

Reno tensed his jaw. He hadn't yet broken the news to anyone other than Porter. "Uh, she's…taking a break from being here."

Angel immediately flared and slugged him in the shoulder. "I told you to be careful with her! What did you say to piss her off?"

He turned to his wife, trying to look innocent. "Nothing! I just told her to lay off Vinny! She'll be back! I'll get her to come back!"

"Damn it, Reno." Angel shook her head and turned away. She'd taken it upon herself to examine both Cid and Vincent when she'd arrived, and had seen that their injuries had healed. It was time for them to receive their respective drugs. "Just a second, Quig, I need to get some things together before we get going with the treatments."

A hush fell over the room as everyone tried to accept the fact that Dr. Arlin was gone.

A few minutes later, Angel returned with the syringe of the drug that Quigley had brought for Vincent the night before, as well as several doses of diazapam, in case the injections sent either Cid or Vincent into seizures as the drug had done to Vincent in the past. She went straight to Cid's beside first, understanding that the situation with him was more serious.

Quigley went with her and stood on the other side of his bed, looking over at her. He pulled a syringe out of his pocket and drew up the appropriate dose of the anti-demon drug that he'd made. "Okay, this is it."

"Go ahead," she urged him, motioning for Cid's intravenous line.

He swallowed hard and picked up the line, driving the needle into the injection port. Slowly, he dispensed the contents of the syringe into the pilot.

Cid, still being sedated, didn't have any reaction at first. After a few seconds, however, his eyes flew open and he produced a pained cry, as the drug coursed through his veins. He clenched his teeth, baring his canines, that were already elongating as his demon struggled to fight its way to the surface through the sedation Cid had been infused with for the last several hours.

Brad, standing next to Quigley, saw that Cid was in danger of throwing himself from the bed. He moved to place his hands upon his brother's shoulders, in an attempt to hold him down.

As the drug began to work, Cid started to seize as Angel had feared, and she took one of her syringes of diazapam and reached over, grabbing Cid's I.V. line, and dosing him with the medication.

By the time his seizure began to abate, not only was Brad holding the pilot down, but Quigley, Porter, and Reno also had their hands upon him. As he relaxed and fell back under the effects of the sedation, they slowly backed away.

Angel looked over at Quigley. "And you said we're going to have to do this to him daily?"

"With as quickly as his demon developed, I don't see an alternative. But, it shouldn't be as bad, if we keep on top of it." Quigley met her gaze. "We have to do what we have to do."

She nodded at him and then looked at Brad and Cid Sr. "You two, stay with him and make sure he's going to be all right. We need to go take care of Vincent now."

They agreed and she moved over to Vincent's bedside, where Tifa had remained, not wanting to see Cid go though his injection.

Tifa looked at Angel. "Is Cid all right?"

"Yeah, he's going to be fine." Angel offered her a smile. "Are you ready for us to take care of Vincent?"

"Not really," Tifa said, with a hint of a laugh in her voice, "but I don't really have a choice in the matter now, do I?"

Angel shook her head. "No, not really."

Tifa bent down and kissed Vincent's lips gently before backing away. "Just get it over with."

Angel pulled the syringe of the anti-Chaos drug from her pocket and picked up her father's intravenous line. Thinking better of it, she set that syringe down for a moment and took out one of the ones loaded with diazapam and injected him with that first, hoping to avoid him having a seizure. That done, she then went ahead with the Chaos drug.

Vincent, well sedated and having received the diazapam first, reacted only slightly upon injection. His body went rigid for a few seconds, before he went limp again upon the bed. His cybernetic arm twitched a few times, but it's movements quickly ceased as well.

Angel looked up at Tifa and gave her a nod. "There. That wasn't so bad."

Tifa stepped back up to his bedside and picked up his right hand. "No, I guess not. I need to go get Aaron so he can see his dad."

With that, Tifa turned and walked away, going back to her room. She found Aaron and Charlotte there with Rayna. As she tried to shut the door, she realized someone was behind her.

Tifa spun around and found herself looking at Reno. "Oh, hey."

"I talked to Jaras," Reno said, pushing his way past her and into the room.

"What did he say?" Tifa closed the door and then turned to face him.

Reno went over and sat on the couch next to Aaron. "He said he's game to watch Mini Vinny here."

Aaron's eyes lit up. "Really?"

"Yeah," Reno sighed, looking over at the boy. "He'd do anything for you."

"Mom, you are going to let me go, right?" Aaron asked his mother, his expression hopeful.

It was a bittersweet moment for her. Although she wanted Aaron to be happy and to be spared any possible fighting between she and Vincent, Tifa wasn't that thrilled about her son leaving. She forced herself to smile. "Yes, I'll let you go see Jaras."

"Cool." Aaron stood up from the couch. "Can I see Dad now?"

Tifa extended her hand toward the boy. "Come on."

Reno remained on the couch as Tifa left the room with her son. Once they were gone, he looked over, realizing that he'd been left with Rayna. "What's up, Rayna?"

She shrugged slightly, not overly happy with the man at the moment. Rayna shifted Charlotte in her arms and briefly met his gaze. "I'm all right. Did you have to hit my husband last night?"

His cheeks flushed with color. "Uh, it was more of a slap…"

Rayna got up from the edge of the bed where she was sitting and came over to his side. Once situated next to him, she turned to face him. "Reno, are you okay?"

It had been rare that he'd ever spoken to the woman beside him, as she tended to keep to herself. Rayna had been helping ASRIO with some of their payroll needs since her arrival with Porter some years before, but Reno tried to stay as uninvolved with those things as he could. He wasn't really sure what he should or shouldn't get into with her. "I'm coping."

"You've been…angry." Rayna looked at the baby in her arms. "I mean, I can't blame you, after all that's taken place, but you seem like you're on the brink."

His lone teal eye narrowed. "The brink of what?"

Rayna looked into his eyes. "The brink of snapping, what do you think? You're going to have a nervous break down."

Suddenly feeling the threat of tears, he turned away from her and got up. Rayna may not have spoken to him that often, but she'd been able to see what was going on with him well enough. "Naw…"

Rayna sighed. "Reno, you are and you know it."

"I've…I've got shit to go take care of." He quickly walked toward the door and exited. Reno went and locked himself back into Tseng's room and threw himself down onto the bed. Within a few minutes, he felt someone's hand upon his back.

"Reno, are you all right?"

"Do I look like I'm all fuckin' right?" Reno said, his voice betraying the fact he was on the verge of crying.

"Talk to me about it," Tseng said quietly.

Reno soon felt two hands upon his back, kneading his shoulders firmly. "Hey, Tseng?"

"Yes?"

"You ain't getting all gay on me, right?" Reno turned his head and looked over his shoulder, seeing his old friend sitting at his side.

Tseng laughed. "You never turned me on, Reno. I liked blondes."

"Okay then. Keep at it." Reno rested his head upon the pillow and closed his eye. "Tseng, I can't help but feel like I'm fuckin' this whole operation of yours up."

"How so?"

"Everything's getting…" Reno felt an unfamiliar tightness in his throat.

"Fucked up?" Tseng finished for him, a smile reflected in his voice.

"Yeah." He sighed heavily. "I mean, if it hadn't been for Jaras getting that CD from Vinny a while back, Shinra would have had everyone's head on a platter. Since then, things are just a mess. I don't know…fuck it."

"That's the way things go," he replied quietly. "It's the burden of being the boss, I'm afraid."

Reno was beginning to relax somewhat from Tseng's continued touch. "I don't know, I'm just burned out right now, I guess."

"That's normal. I got that way more than once myself." Tseng paused for a moment. "I had a hard time coping a few times."

Reno rolled onto his back, ending his free massage. "Like when? You always were cool about things."

"No, I most certainly wasn't. Don't you recall?" Tseng looked away. "How about when Zale died? I wasn't doing too well then, was I?"

"Well, but that was for a pretty good reason, Boss." Reno placed his hands back behind his head as he stared up at the ceiling. "You kinda loved the guy."

"Ah, it went a little beyond 'kinda', Reno." Tseng smiled to himself. "But I also was under a lot of pressure when we were doing our damnedest to save you from Shinra, and if you'll recall, I was fairly strained when we were tracking down Vincent."

Reno's mouth pulled down into a frown. "That's true. How'd you keep from losing it?"

He shrugged. "I just kept reminding myself that it would all end eventually."

"Yeah, well, I don't want to die to get out of this, thank you very much." Reno propped himself up on his elbows.

"Well, it wasn't my intent to die to escape anything, but what happened, happened."

"Yeah." The current ASRIO leader sat up. "Of course, the argument could be made that I've already lost it, since I can actually see, feel, and hear you now."

"What's more disturbing, though? Sitting there imagining that you're speaking with me, or actually having me here as far as you're concerned?" Tseng met his gaze.

"I don't know, I guess I am nuts. I mean, here you are, and I'm not freaked out about it, although I think seeing you when I was having that out of body experience or whatever helped me accept that you're still around." Reno stared back at him.

"Reno, haven't you noticed that I only say things that you already honestly know?" Tseng crossed his arms over his chest. "If I were really a ghost and still myself, don't you think I'd be telling you things that maybe you didn't know?"

"What are you saying?" Reno sat up.

"I'm just a figment of your imagination." Tseng got up from the bed and stood.

"So, I'm crazy?" Reno grew frustrated. "Is that it? I'm fuckin' nuts?"

"You have multiple bullet fragments lodged in your brain, Reno." Tseng looked down at him. "Some of them affected your senses."

Then it happened. That dreaded sting returned to Reno's eye and the lump returned in his throat. He hung his head and his shoulders heaved as the tears refused to be held back any longer. "Oh God, I'm insane… I've lost my fuckin' mind…"

Tseng just remained where he was, gazing down upon him. "Let it out, Reno."

The former Turk collapsed over onto his side and grabbed the blankets to the bed, pulling them up to his face. "I thought I was doin' so well… I mean, I got shot in the head and I thought I was just fine afterward…"

"It was a life changing event."

"Yeah…" Reno fell silent for a few moments while he tried to gather some composure. "I've got another baby on the way… I've got a little girl… My wife… shit, by the sheer fact of what I'm involved in, they're in danger all the time."

"Reno, think about that for a moment." Tseng sat back down on the edge of the bed.

"About what?" He opened his eye and pushed the blanket from his face.

"Your family." Tseng locked gazes with him. "That's what it boils down to right now. The reality of how dangerous this all is and how that puts some risk on those you love…that's what's honestly eating at you right now, isn't it?"

Reno opened his mouth to say something for a moment, but then shut it again quickly. The thought of the children all caught up with what was presently taking place had been burning in the back of his mind for some time. Especially after seeing what had happened to Aaron. "Oh, fuck…"

"Yes," Tseng sighed. "Your whole family is in this together. Aaron, Dana, Jaras, Vincent, Angel, Tifa, Cid, and his son, too."

Reno shook his head. "Wait, those last two are involved, but Cid and his kid ain't family."

Tseng smiled and cocked an eyebrow. "They aren't? Are you certain about that?"

"Yeah, I've never heard anything to imply they were." Reno sat up once more.

"Perhaps you should ask." Tseng reached out and patted him on the shoulder. "I'll see you later."

Reno blinked and Tseng was gone. "Wait! If I find out that Cid is somehow related to the rest of this fuckin' clan, then that means you just told me something that I didn't know!"

Although Tseng was no longer visible, his voice still replied. "Oh, my mistake."

Reno smiled to himself while he dried his tears. Feeling better, he left the room a short while later and resolved to get things taken care of.