Chapter 44

Frankie Ritchie, M.D. was an older man, in his early sixties, yet still active and full of life. His bright red hair had never grayed, and rivaled even Reno's in intensity of color. The doctor's steel blue eyes sparkled, reflecting the amused smile that was always upon his lips.

However, that smile was missing this morning. He'd arrived at the ASRIO base the night before, and had begun to muddle through things as they had been left. Janice's style of so-called organization he found dismal and his first task had been to get all of the various files that had been left scattered around her office put in their proper places. Now, at five the next morning, he found himself elbow deep in the entrails of a man that had been dead and in the freezer for nearly a day. Although autopsies were something that came with the territory of his job, it wasn't his favorite thing to do, and surely not this early in the morning.

He looked up from the task at hand when he heard someone enter the surgery suite. "Reno, it's a little early for you to be out and about isn't it?"

"Well, I heard that my favorite doc was finally in, so I decided to rattle your cage," Reno replied. The truth was that he hadn't yet gone to bed from the day before as he was trying to get things set for the mission coming up.

"Favorite doctor, yeah right," Frankie chuckled back, preparing to close up the body before him. He immediately saw the change in Reno's appearance, but made no comment about it. Angel had told him the story the night before, and he didn't wish to make Reno self conscious about it.

Reno looked a little disgusted when he bothered to look at what the doctor was doing, but quickly brought his gaze back up and away from the dead man. "So, uh, any verdict on this guy?"

Frankie nodded. "Actually, yeah. Poor old fella had two cards played against him. He suffered a minor myocardial infarction shortly before death, but what killed him was a pulmonary embolism."

"Huh?" Reno crossed his arms over his chest.

"He had a small heart attack, but that didn't kill him. There was a massive blood clot in his lungs, and that did him in. He probably had trouble breathing prior to death, but since he was clearly a chain smoker for most of his life, I'm guessing he didn't read to much into it." Frankie shook his head sadly.

"If there had been a doctor on hand when he'd gone down, could he have been saved?" Reno asked, needing to know if he was responsible in some small way because he'd driven Janice off.

Dr. Ritchie shrugged. "By the time he went down, it was pretty much too late. If he'd sought help when he'd first started feeling something, and I'm guessing that he didn't feel too great for at least a few hours prior to this, yeah, he might have been helped. Once that blood clot was lodged where it was, there would have been little that could have been done. This condition kills a lot of people out of the blue. At least it's relatively fast."

"That sucks." Reno shoved his hands into his pockets.

"Indeed it does." Frankie looked up at the ASRIO leader. "I've just got to get him closed up and then he's going to be cremated, right?"

"That's what I heard," Reno said quietly.

"Good enough." Frankie continued to look at the other man. "Just so you know, I can stay here as long as you need. I closed down my own practice two months ago so I have no other obligations. Retirement was proving to be boring anyway."

"I really appreciate that, Frankie." Reno smiled. "I really don't know if Janice is coming back."

Familiar with the woman in question, Frankie didn't dare speculate. "She can be moody. Maybe the bee in her bonnet will settle down later."

"Maybe."

"If not, like I said, I can help out as long as needed." He turned his attention back to getting the elder Highwind's body readied.

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Jaras awoke and looked around. He'd fallen asleep on the couch the night before, having sat up late talking with his little brother. Aaron was still asleep, nestled into his side, apparently comfortable.

Jeanine was up and about, and she was sitting in a chair close by, reading a novel. Upon seeing Jaras stir, she looked over at him. "Hey."

He offered his wife a broad smile, seeing that she looked like she was feeling better than she had been in previous days. "Hey yourself."

"I heard you two talking out here pretty late."

Jaras nodded, stroking his sleeping brother's hair gently. "Yeah, we were. He's been through a lot lately, and he needed to vent and get it all out."

"Is he going to be all right?" she asked quietly.

Jaras carefully moved from the couch, managing to get up without waking Aaron and laying him down comfortably. He then motioned for his wife to follow him out into the kitchen so they could talk without disturbing the boy. Jaras leaned against the counter as Jeanine got to making some coffee.

He watched her moving about. "I think he'll be all right when all's said and done, assuming that Tifa and my father work everything out. He was put through Hell."

"I feel so bad for him. At least he has you to fall back on. I think you've always been Aaron's favorite person in the world," Jeanine said back with a smile.

Jaras knit his brow and frowned. "Well, he told me that if things don't work out between his mother and our father…that he doesn't want to go home at all."

Jeanine's eyes went wide. "Oh, uh, really?"

"I know, you probably wouldn't be all right with him living with us permanently, and I don't think that Tifa or Dad would let him do that, but… I don't know. I just don't think it's fair for him to be tossed around." He dropped his gaze away from her.

"Well, I guess we'll just have to see what happens." Jeanine offered him a smile.

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Cid was awakened by a pounding on his room door. He looked over seeing that Jin had no intention of getting up and answering, and so slid out of bed, pulled on his boxers and opened the door.

Quigley was standing there with Angel. The researcher held up a loaded syringe. "It's time for your treatment."

Cid scowled. "You had to wake me up for that? Couldn't maybe wait a little while?"

Quigley shook his head. "No, we prefer not to take any risks with you. Whatever you turned into was pretty bad and…well, you were able to beat down Chaos and that makes you about the most dangerous thing I can think of."

"Damn it." Cid ran his hands over his face, trying to lose the last of his tiredness. "You want me to go with you guys to the infirmary for this or what?"

"That would probably be a good idea," Angel said.

"Okay, fine." Cid looked back over his shoulder. "I'm hopin' that you'll at least let me get dressed first."

"I think we can allow that," Angel said, nudging Quigley in the side as she did so.

"Fine." With that, Cid closed the door and got to the task of putting his clothes on. A few minutes later, he emerged out into the hall, finding Quigley and Angel still waiting for him. He went with them to the infirmary, but as they tried to enter, some men pushing a gurney with an occupied body bag upon it emerged, forcing them all to stand aside.

Cid watched it pass by silently, knowing in his heart that it was his father. Angel knew this, too, and saw Cid's expression fall upon his realization. Not knowing what else to do, she reached out and took the pilot's hand into her own.

Cid didn't mind, actually appreciating the gesture and he held her hand tight as his father's body was carried out of view. Once the way was clear, he let go of Angel and went forward into the infirmary.

Dr. Ritchie, having spent the better part of the morning working on Cid's father, was startled when the doors to the infirmary opened and Cid walked in. "Oh dear God!"

Cid knit his brow and stared at the new doctor, who was looking back at him agape. "What?"

"N…nothing." Frankie shrugged it off, realizing that he wasn't actually being faced with a ghost once Angel and Quigley followed the man in.

Angel saw the look that the doctor was wearing and knew what was up. "Dr. Ritchie, this is Cid Highwind Junior."

"Oh…okay." He seemed to relax and came over, extending his hand. "I'm Dr. Ritchie, but most people just call me Frankie."

Cid smiled politely and accepted the handshake. "Hey."

Quigley stepped forward. "We need to give him an injection and there's a possibility that it might give him a seizure, so we thought it best to do it in here."

The doctor nodded knowingly and motioned toward a vacant bed. "Well, you seem to have things under control. Do what you need to, and I'll be in my office writing some things up if you need me."

Cid went over and landed heavily on the indicated bed, glaring at the researcher. "Every fuckin' day?"

"I'm sorry, but we don't really have a choice." Quigley stepped closer, pulling the syringe and a tourniquet forth.

Angel went over to a cabinet and got out some medication to combat any seizure that Cid might suffer. "Like Vincent, though, each successive injection should have less of an impact on you."

Cid didn't much care about that. The truth of it was that he was just unhappy with the notion of the needle about to go into his arm. Deep down inside, he was slightly phobic about such things, but would never be up to admitting it to anyone.

Quigley took Cid's left arm and got the tourniquet cinched down around it. That done, he found the pilot's vein and slid the needle beneath his skin.

Cid didn't even wince as this happened, focusing as best he was able on what Angel was doing a short way off. Suddenly, his head began to swim and he felt a cold sweat break upon his skin. Without warning, he collapsed over onto his side upon the bed, momentarily losing consciousness.

Quigley looked back over his shoulder at Angel. "He passed out."

Angel had noticed the color leaving Cid's face before the needle had even been put into his arm and couldn't help but smile. "I don't think it has anything to do with the drug." She came forward and checked the unconscious man's pulse, and found it to be completely normal.

Quigley helped her lay Cid out on the bed properly, and within just a few seconds, Cid's eyes flew back open.

He tried to sit up, embarrassed, but Angel held him down. "You need to just lay there for a few minutes, otherwise you're going to just hit the floor."

"Damn it…" Cid crossed his arms over his chest, disregarding the discomfort this act caused him thanks to the small bandage the Quigley had placed over the injection site.

"I never would have imagined you to have been the type to lose it from something like that," Angel said to him jokingly, enjoying herself perhaps a little too much.

"Never used to until I had to get those needle biopsies taken because of the cancer a few weeks back. That hurt like hell and messed me all up." Cid's tone was more of a growl, as his shame washed over him.

"If you want, tomorrow we can put an I.V. catheter back in your arm and then you wouldn't have to go through an actual needle stick every time," she offered.

"Hell no." Cid wasn't in the mood to comply with anything. Mostly, he just wanted to get out of the infirmary.

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Vincent sat in the base's cafeteria with Tifa on the opposite side of the table from him. He ate in silence, going over various things in his mind.

Tifa was growing anxious in his silence and lack of expression and finally cracked. "Vincent?"

He met her gaze.

"What are you thinking about?" Tifa set down her fork and rested her elbows upon the table.

"Nothing."

Tifa smiled and shook her head. "You're lying."

Vincent averted his gaze from her. "I am."

"So? What are you thinking about?" Tifa asked again.

He sighed and pushed back his plate. "The mission. If they really are going to find something that can fix Aaron and I."

"And Cid," Tifa added, feeling a little awkward for doing so when Vincent's left eye twitched slightly upon hearing the pilot's name.

"Yes, and Cid." Vincent frowned briefly. "If they can, great, but if it proves to be a trick again… I just can't stand not knowing. I want to go and get it myself and to get this all over with."

"Vincent, you agreed last night that you weren't going," Tifa said gently, reaching across the table and covering his right hand with hers.

He scowled and looked at the table. "I know."

Tifa hung her head and sighed. She knew he was going to be absolutely miserable until the mission team returned with the formulation for the cure. There was nothing she could do about it, though, and realized that she was just going to have to tolerate his mood for the next day.

Charlotte began to cry in her infant seat next to where Vincent was sitting and he turned and picked up the baby. He held her close for a moment, but knew that he couldn't take care of her present need. His crimson eyes met Tifa's. "She's hungry."

Tifa extended her arms over the table and took the infant. "Hand me the blanket out of her seat."

Vincent did as ordered and watched as Tifa draped the blanket over her shoulder and covered the baby with it. He didn't understand how she could be dexterous enough to get things situated with one hand and manage to feed the baby without exposing anything. "You make that look easy."

She laughed to herself as they baby's needs were met and her crying stopped. "Well, I did it for a year with Aaron, I guess practice makes perfect."

Vincent just shook his head a little and then scanned the room around them. "I wonder what Aaron's doing?"

"He's probably up already, you could call." Tifa offered a faint smile.

"My phone is under several inches of snow up in the mountains at the moment." Vincent remembered Cid dropping it next to his plane.

"Oh…" Tifa had known this, but it had slipped her mind. "Right."

"I can pick up a new one in town." Vincent leaned back. "It was getting old anyway."

Tifa knew that he was just trying to distract himself from thoughts about the mission. "Vincent, you said yesterday that you wanted us to just go home."

"I intend for us to do so yet." He looked into her eyes again. "We will stay until after the mission. That way they can give me a second dose of the anti-Chaos drug tomorrow and then I can just finish off with the last injections myself."

Tifa raised her eyebrows. "It's going to be awfully quiet at the house without Aaron."

Vincent made an odd expression and smirked. "It's awfully quiet around the house with him there, too."

Tifa outright laughed. "Yeah, I know. I just miss him."

"Well, once things are looking like they are going to level out, he'll come home. He needs this break from us." Vincent dropped his gaze away.

"I feel so bad. What I put that boy through…I should be shot." Her shame welled up, bringing tears to her eyes.

Vincent met her stare again. "Tifa, no one person bears the blame. There's no use hurting yourself now over the past. I've learned at least that much in my years. All we can do is make the effort to have a better outlook from here forward. And like I told Cid at the beginning of this whole deal, I don't make a habit of shooting people that I'm attached to."

Tifa couldn't suppress her need to laugh at his halfhearted joke. "That's good to know."

"Actually, I shouldn't have said that. It was a little off color in light of what I did to Reno." Vincent's expression turned dark.

Tifa shook her head. "See? You already forgot what you just said to me. Don't let the past eat at you."

Vincent nodded. "I know. I just wish there were some way for me to make it up to him. I never would have pegged him for the type of person to forgive someone for doing something like that, but he did."

"You'd be surprised, Vincent." Tifa smiled faintly. "Reno fought for you like you'd not believe. He was pulling for you all along."

"I don't understand him. I never will, but I do appreciate him." Vincent's mouth pulled up into what would have to pass as a grin.

"Don't look like it physically hurts you to say that, Vincent," Tifa said with levity.

He laughed quietly at that and hung his head. Vincent was then startled when he felt someone's hand upon his shoulder and he looked up.

"Hey, Sue." Cid let go of him and sat to his left. "What're you guys up to this morning?"

"Where's Jin?" Tifa asked, curious.

"Still sleepin'. Doesn't like to get up early most of the time." Cid crossed his arms over his chest. "I had to get another fuckin' shot and so Angel and Quig pulled me out of bed bright and early."

"And how did you handle that?" Vincent asked, making the effort to be civil.

Cid felt his cheeks go red and he looked away, opting to lie. "Just super. So, what are you two plannin' for today?"

Vincent shrugged. "I need a new phone…"

Cid nodded knowingly. "Right, I guess it's still up there with my plane, huh?"

"Yes."

"Well, I'll pay for it, since I'm the one who dropped it in the snow," Cid offered seriously.

"I was about to tear you apart, I think you had good reason to drop it." Vincent almost smiled.

"Well, yeah, that's true." Cid also grinned.

Tifa sat, watching the two men interacting, realizing that somehow, they had managed to work things out between them.

Vincent and Cid both turned their eyes to her, seeing the strange expression that she wore. In unison, they asked, "What?"

Tifa shook her head and allowed a smile to come to her lips. "Nothing."

Cid nudged Vincent in the side. "I think she's laughin' at us, Sue."

"I do believe you are correct." Vincent narrowed his eyes.

"I'd just get up and leave right now, but the baby's plugged in," Tifa huffed back, feigning anger.

"Come on, Sunshine." Cid stood up. "Let's leave her to stew for a while."

Vincent cocked an eyebrow and got up as well. "Fine."

Tifa's eyes went wide. "Vincent, you're not honestly going to go out with Cid, right?"

His red eyes switched over to the pilot for a second before turning to Tifa again. "You've complained in the past that Cid and I don't do enough together. Surely you're not now criticizing me for doing so?"

Tifa was at a loss for words. The two men before her would never cease to amaze her. She watched as Vincent picked his cloak up off the back of his chair, threw it around his shoulders and then walked off with the pilot, leaving her alone.

Cid shoved his hands down into his pockets as he left the cafeteria with Vincent. "So, what is it we're doin'?"

"I thought you had a plan," Vincent said back quietly.

"Naw, I was just fuckin' with her." Cid's expression fell and he stopped walking, turning to Vincent. "I'm sorry, bad choice of words."

Vincent shrugged it off and started walking again. "And just for that, I will let you buy me that new phone."

"Fair enough." Cid let himself smile and followed.

They exited the base and went into town. Vincent located a store that catered to his cell carrier and entered, the pilot going along with him. After going up to the counter and explaining to the salesman that his last phone had been lost and giving over his account information, Vincent was shown the various phones that he could replace his old one with. Just for the sake of doing so, he opted to take the most expensive one that he was shown. It's not that he cared that it took pictures, sent text messages, shot up to ten minutes of video, or had over fifty different games on it-- rather, he was just wanting to make it as painful for the pilot's wallet as possible. Eventually, they left the store, Vincent with a new phone in his pocket, and Cid's pocket two hundred and fifty gil lighter. The pilot wasn't pleased, but held his tongue. After all, he'd taken the guy's arm off.

Cid realized that Vincent wasn't taking him back to the base. "Where we headin', Sue?"

Vincent smiled, still finding amusement in the fact that Cid's drawl had worsened so much over the past few days. "You know, your accent--"

"Shut the fuck up. I know." Cid scowled. "Like I said before, being around the old man…"

Vincent hung his head. "I'm sorry."

"It's all right." Cid laughed to himself quietly. "It's all right. But really, where we goin'?"

"As you were informed yesterday, I intend to marry Tifa again. I need to find someone to do that." Vincent felt self-conscious as hell about the whole thing and at once regretted having made the request of Cid to be a part of it, but that's how it had to be. He knew it would make Tifa happy. After all, past indiscretions or not, Cid was Tifa's best friend and had walked her down the aisle during their first wedding. Quietly, he mused, "You're Tifa's best friend."

"Yeah, so?"

"Maid of honor." Vincent smiled, keeping his eyes fixed on the sidewalk before him.

"Come again?" Cid turned his head so he could look at the other man.

"You should be the maid of honor. We could get you a dress." Vincent's grin widened.

Despite his better judgement, Cid reached over and whacked Vincent in the back of the head hard enough to make him stumble forward a few steps. "You ain't funny."

"I am to myself." Vincent reached back and rubbed his head, trying to alleviate the sting there.

"So, are we looking for a judge or what?" Cid asked, opting to move the conversation on.

"Actually…I was going to try and find a minister. Tifa did grow up in a religious home, and it might mean more to her if we went that way." Vincent glanced over at Cid. "I think she would appreciate it."

"That's…thoughtful," Cid replied quietly, not used to saying such things. "She'll be tickled shitless."

"Nice way to put it, Highwind."

"Yeah, well…" The pilot shrugged. "Then what? Where are you doing this?"

Vincent had given thought to that, and remembered the place on the beach where he and Tifa had shared a few intimate moments seven years back. "On the beach, hopefully. There's a place that Tifa and I like."

"That's good, I guess. What time?"

"Sunset." Vincent smiled again.

"You're downright Mr. Fuckin' Romantic all the sudden." Cid smirked. "You're really gonna give this bein' a better man an honest go for her, huh?"

"I have to. If I don't, you're standing in the wings."

Cid stopped walking and grabbed Vincent's arm, causing him to halt, too. "Look, Sue, don't you ever worry about that again. I'm over and done with that. We've had this discussion."

"I know, it's just that whole trust issue." Vincent scowled. "Apparently, I need to work on that, but…"

"Yeah, you've been fucked over too many times. I know what that's like. Sometimes, though, you just have to get the hell over it and believe people. Even the ones that let you down." Cid looked into his eyes, his cat like pupils dilated wide. "I'm not gonna ever do anything against you again, guy."

Vincent could literally feel the sincerity coming from his friend. "Okay."

"Now, where the fuck are we gonna find this minister or whatever?" Cid asked, needing to break the tension that had fallen over them.

Vincent raised his left hand and pointed at a church spire that towered above the other buildings in town. "Well, I suppose that would be our best bet."

"Fair enough." Cid followed along as Vincent began walking once more.

"Reno's men are going on a mission tomorrow," Vincent said, half to himself as they went.

"For?"

"To get the real cure for cancer." His red eyes narrowed.

"Oh." Cid nodded. "That's worth goin' after."

"Yes," Vincent sighed, "and it's good for something else."

"What's that?"

Vincent turned his head and looked into the pilot's gold eyes. "Well, the formulation for it can be altered, making it capable of making us, you, I, and Aaron, normal."

"No shit?" Cid knit his brow. "But which of the three of us is gonna be the guinea pig for this? I mean, you might recall that the last time I was given an experimental drug, things didn't go so well for me."

"I appreciate that, and it's the reason that I will go first once they get the formula."

Cid stopped once more. "You sure you wanna do that, Sue?"

"I have no choice. I can't go on the mission and help that way, so letting myself be the first one to get the drug seems like the best thing that I can do." Vincent produced a faint smile.

Cid huffed a little at this. "Well, okay."

"I know that you'll be a little leery to get the drug after what happened to you, but just remember, that if you hadn't gotten that drug that put…pardon me, Mr. Snuggles…into you," Vincent had to pause to stifle his giggle, "that you would either be dead or dying from the cancer."

"Yeah, I know." Cid cocked an eyebrow. "But you'd have your arm still."

"I'm willing to suffer the loss of my arm if the alternative is for you to be dead." Vincent started walking again, hoping that the pilot wouldn't stop them anymore.

"Yeah, right," Cid scoffed.

"I'm not messing with you." Vincent fixed his gaze upon the sidewalk.

Cid just shook his head and went along in silence. How or why Vincent was still willing to be his friend perplexed him, but he would accept it.