Go back and read Chapter 48 if you haven't.

Chapter 49

Vincent was with Tifa and the baby the following day, having breakfast in a restaurant in Costa. He knit his brow and looked at his wife. "What do you want us to do?"

"I thought we were going home today?" Tifa met his gaze, wondering what was on his mind.

"That's what I intended, but now…I mean, if they have the cure, I want to be here when it's ready. Maybe it won't take Quigley that long to get it sorted out." Vincent pushed back his plate, done.

"I can't believe poor Quigley has just gone back to work in the lab already. I would have thought he'd take a few days off to sort through his feelings. He's really messed up over this whole Porter thing." Tifa blinked momentarily, pushing back the tears.

"I know, but maybe it's all he can do to function right now. Some people do that, they keep themselves busy after things like this so that they don't have to think about it." Vincent looked down at the baby who was next to his seat in her carrier.

"I guess."

"So, do you wish for us to stay or to go home?" Vincent asked.

With Vincent still needing, at the very least, some more treatments of the original Anti-Chaos drug and with Cid in the base as well, she was reluctant to go just yet. "Well, maybe we should give it a few days. I'd really like you to get the rest of your injections here rather then at home."

He nodded slightly. "Then we will remain."

"I called Aaron this morning."

Vincent met his wife's gaze once more. "Is he doing all right?"

"He sounded fine." Tifa picked up her napkin from the table and began to shred it. "I miss him, though."

"I think we'll be able to have him come back to us soon, Tifa." Vincent reached over and took one of her hands. "So far, things have been…easier."

She nodded in agreement. Both Vincent and herself had been on their good behavior. "They have."

They got up and paid the bill before stepping outside. As they walked toward the base, Tifa recognized someone coming their way. "Hey, that's Rayna…"

Vincent spotted the woman in question, just in time to see her walk through the door to a doctor's office. "I hope she's all right."

Tifa read the name on the door that Rayna had gone through, noticing that the letters R.E. followed the rest of the doctor's credentials. "I wonder what that means?"

Vincent hadn't the slightest clue, and didn't really care all that much. "I don't know."

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Reno was sitting at his desk in the main room of the ASRIO base, Rude taking up the chair that sat before it. They were immersed in a brief silence, which the redhead eventually broke. "So, what do you think?"

Never having been inside the base before arriving with the mission team, Rude had already come to a conclusion. "Not bad, but it's a little claustrophobic."

"Well, that's the price you pay to live underground." Reno offered his friend his lopsided smile.

"I suppose." Rude shrugged. "It seems fairly secure, though."

"Yeah, we haven't had any trouble, although I think it's more than a little amusing that Shinra hasn't come to bust our ass since surely they know where we are after that whole thing with Vinny and Sephiroth." Reno leaned back in his chair and put his feet up on his desk.

"Well, there's a reason for that." Rude produced a faint smile for his friend. "Sephiroth never bothered to disclose the location of the base to Dr. Methius before coming back here with Vincent under the guise of having escaped the lab."

"What?" Reno knit his brow, a painful maneuver in light of his recent injury. "So he, Vinny, and Spence were turned loose to come here and try and get the names of my people, but they never told Dr. Methius where here was?"

"Isn't that just what I said?" Rude crossed his arms over his chest. "Sephiroth withheld that information to use as leverage for a later time, I would imagine."

The way that luck sometimes strangely went in Reno's favor made him grin. "That's real fuckin' good to know, Rude."

"I'm full of all kinds of insight." Rude got up from his seat. "So, have you given any thought to who is going to replace Porter as your second in command?"

Reno's expression fell instantly. "Well, the two obvious choices were Ericson or Quigley, but…"

"But what?" Rude cocked his head to the side.

"Well, Quigley isn't really one to want such a job." Reno shifted his position in his seat. "And Ericson…well hell, Ericson lives to go on missions. I'd never be able to keep him off of a team so, I'd sorta always be in the bad position of having a second that was in danger, you know. I mean, back in the day, both Tseng and I would go in on missions together, but since he died and things have happened, well, I figure having both first and second going into danger is a bad idea."

Something about this hit Rude hard. It was the fact that Reno had, at least on some level, become responsible. "You need someone who wouldn't be interested in going on missions, then?"

"Yup."

"And someone who knows how the operation works?" Rude leaned forward slightly.

"Uh-huh."

"And preferably someone who also understands a good deal about Shinra?" His eyes narrowed behind his glasses.

"Right." Reno sighed deeply. "I just don't fuckin' know… We've got a lot of people in ASRIO, but there are few that I know really well-- at least, good enough to know that I can trust them with that sort of position."

The left corner of Rude's mouth tugged down into an annoyed frown. Reno was, apparently, still an idiot on many levels. "What about m--"

Reno bolted up from his seat, his eye wide. "Oh my God! How about you, Rude? You wanna?"

The larger man huffed and shook his head. Reno had always been about a half step behind the group. A smile came to his lips. "I'd be honored."

"Cool!" Reno reached over and picked his phone up from the desk. "I'm going to tell Angel."

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Angel was with Cid in the infirmary, administering his daily injection. He'd handled that morning's dose with more bravado than before and was sitting on the edge of a bed, holding a small bandage over the injection site.

Vincent and Tifa stopped in, having learned from Jin that Cid was here. The pilot had apparently refused to let his wife come along with him, not wanting her to see him if he were to get light headed again.

When Cid's eyes landed upon Tifa, he offered her a smile. "Hey."

"Good morning, Cid." She went up to his side, Vincent right behind her. "Already done?"

He nodded. "Yeah."

Tifa spotted Angel on the other side of the room. "Angel? If a doctor has the letters R.E. after their name, what's that mean?"

"Reproductive endocrinologist," she said back, walking over. "Fertility specialist."

Tifa's eyes went wide, "Oh, okay."

"Why do you ask?" Angel was curious.

"We saw Rayna out this morning, and she went into an office that had that on the door," she replied.

Angel nodded knowingly. "Do you know that she and Porter were looking into trying to have a baby?"

Tifa and Vincent both nodded in unison, aware of this.

"Well, it was something that Janice, Quigley, and the R.E. up in town were all working on. Since Janice left, though, the R.E. has taken the whole thing over." Angel came over and checked Cid's arm, making sure that it hadn't been bruised from the injection.

"So…are you saying that even though Porter's dead…she's still going to go through with trying?" Tifa crossed her arms over her chest.

Angel raised her eyebrows and shrugged. "They already had his sample on ice…"

Tifa shuddered at the thought. The idea of conceiving and then carrying the baby of someone deceased seemed unappealing to her. "But…if it works, the baby won't have a father. That's sad…"

"I know, but it's honestly her choice and she was already undergoing the hormone treatments to help her ovulate so they could do an egg collection. She talked to me about it a little this morning and she told me that she'll go through the first round of in vitro fertilization and if it works, then great, if not, she'll let it go." Angel freed Cid's arm and turned to the other woman. "She's hurting right now, and doing this is something to help her get her mind off of what happened. That's what it amounts to. Chances are, it won't work on the first try, so, you know."

"Poor Rayna." Tifa slipped her arm around Vincent's waist, once more feeling the pain she'd experienced when she'd been told that he'd been killed.

Vincent looked down into her eyes. "We should probably go feed the baby."

"Okay." Tifa gave him a smile before looking at Cid. "See you later."

Cid nodded. "Yeah, okay."

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Quigley was sitting at his desk, a small vial filled with a blue liquid sitting before him. It was the very vial of ferium that had been taken from his brother prior to his death. Now, Quigley was wondering exactly what it was like to be on the drug, since its claim to fame was the annihilation of emotions. That was something that he honestly felt he could use at the moment.

Reno rushed in, leaving the door open behind him. He scanned Quigley's desk and grabbed the vial before the researcher had a chance to hide it away. "What the fuck, Quiggers?"

It seemed as through Reno had somehow known what he was contemplating and had come in just for the purpose of stopping him. "Nothing, it was just still here from Spencer."

"Bullshit!" Reno threw the vial down and to the concrete floor, shattering it. "He fuckin' told me that you were in here about to do something stupid!"

Quigley knit his brow. He'd been alone in the lab all day and there was no one that could have been aware of what he was considering. "Who told you what?"

Reno, in his upset state, had allowed the previous statement to spew forth, without having given thought to the way it would sound to others. "No one…I just had a feeling that you'd try something like this. I know you're pretty fucked up right now, but getting hooked on that stuff isn't going to do you any good."

"I wasn't actually going to use the ferium, Reno." Quigley had an unsettled feeling. Reno just didn't seem right.

"Well, Tseng and Por-- er, I, uh…" Reno's train of thought became completely derailed in his over emotional state and he realized that he'd almost just flat out told the researcher that both Tseng and Porter had seen him with the ferium and were worried.

"Reno, are you doing okay?" Quigley asked, slowly standing up from behind his desk.

"Yeah, I'm just…you know. The mission and all." Reno turned away, knowing that the other man was looking at him like he rode the short bus.

Quigley, struggling with his own misery over having watched Porter die in his arms could accept that as an answer. "Seriously, Reno, I wasn't going to use it. I was just thinking, that's all."

"Well, just for the hell of it, do you still have the vial that was confiscated from Vincent here?" Reno relaxed, feeling that Quigley was probably telling the truth.

The blond nodded and then went over to a locked cabinet. He opened it and pulled out the second and last vial. "Do you want the honors?"

"You know, it was kind of a stress reliever to do it, I think you should give it a try." Reno offered him a smile.

Quigley knit his brow and stepped out into an open area of floor, then hurling the vial to the ground as Reno had done before. The small glass item shattered, its liquid contents wetting the floor. Upon doing this, Quigley sighed heavily. "Of course, now I have to clean this mess up."

"Don't worry about it." Reno went over to a counter and grabbed a handful of paper towels and one of the lab's small wastebaskets. He knelt on the floor and got to the task of picking up the bits of broken glass and wiping up the ferium.

Quigley watched him do this in silence, never having seen Reno do such a thing.

After a few minutes, the messes from the broken vials were taken care of and Reno stood back up. "There."

"Reno?"

He looked up in the researcher's brown eyes. "Yeah?"

Quigley walked over toward the compounding machine. "I plugged the formula for the cure into the machine last night. It's making the drug right now."

The ASRIO leader was amazed. "All ready? Are you serious? You managed to break down the formula and get it programmed in overnight?"

Quigley nodded. "I did."

"Holy fuck, man!" Reno was beyond amazed. "How long until the machine has it made?"

He reached out and ran his hand along the top of the compounder. "A day, maybe less. I've made it to work on Vincent. He told me that he wanted to be the first to try it. If it works on him, I'll make up a batch specific for the glitch in Cid's DNA, then Aaron. After that, we'll have to find someone with cancer, and get a DNA sample from one of their tumors and we can go on to see if it does what it's supposed to do there, too."

"This is amazing, Quiggers." Reno went forward and placed his hand on the blonde's shoulder. "Really amazing."

He drew in a jagged breath. "Well, I just wanted to get this underway. If it works, if it really works on those damn demons and then on cancer…then after we release the formulation, I…"

"You what?" Reno urged him on, letting his hand fall back to his side.

"I'm taking Amy and we're leaving." Quigley shrugged. "I don't think I can stand being here after that, and Amy…well, after what she saw and had done to her while in the Junon facility, she's done, too."

Reno bit his bottom lip. Losing Quigley was going to be a huge blow to the organization-- the man was a genius. However, he understood that everyone had their limits and Quigley had, justifiably so, reached his. "I'm not really surprised to hear that, Quiggers, but I'll hate to see you go."

"Well, if you ever get in a bind or need help with something, I'll make sure that you always can get a hold of me. I'll still offer my knowledge when I can, but I can't be in this base…in this lab much longer." His eyes burned with tears, as he switched his gaze over to Porter's desk, still sitting as it had when he'd last been there.

Reno saw the depression around the other man deepen. "You and Port…you guys were real fuckin' close…"

"Yeah," Quigley turned away from his boss and wiped his eyes, "I don't think that other than Rayna anyone really knows how close. He…he was the best damned friend I've ever had-- that I'll ever have."

"I'm sorry, Quig." Reno wanted to do something to comfort him, but suddenly was overwhelmed with his usual awkwardness in such situations. He looked away from the blond and spotted Porter standing over in the corner.

Porter knit his brow, knowing what Quigley needed. "Give him a hug, Reno."

"No!" Reno shook his head, getting used to being haunted and thus, coming to the point where he didn't think much of replying. "I already had one panic attack when you told me to come here earlier so--"

Quigley slowly turned around and looked at the ASIRO leader. "Reno? Who are you talking to?"

Reno wondered exactly how far he should push his luck, but he felt like not telling was going to drive him insane-- if he wasn't already. "Okay, here's the thing."

Quigley crossed his arms over his chest, waiting for the explanation.

"You're not going to believe me when I say this, but," Reno swallowed hard and motioned over toward where Porter was still standing in the shadows. "I…I see him, Quigley. I see him and I see Tseng. I see them all the fuckin' time."

Quigley figured this was just one of Reno's tasteless and ill timed jokes. "Oh, haha, yeah. Nice. You see dead people. Very good, Reno. I've seen the Sixth Sense. Boy, what a knee slapper."

Reno frowned. "He's right the fuck over there, Quiggers. I'm not messing with you!"

Quigley huffed and went over toward where Reno was pointing. "Over here?"

"Yeah, he's right behind you."

The researcher rolled his eyes and took a step back, occupying the corner. As he did so, a chill came over his skin and he suddenly felt cold. There was a presence around him and it was more than a little unsettling. Quickly, he stepped away. "Oh fuck, now I'm losing my mind, too. Thanks."

"You felt him, didn't you?" Reno moved a little closer, not having expected Quigley to react as he had when walking into Porter's ghost.

Quigley, confounded and scared by something that he had no logical explanation for, slowly extended his right hand into the space where he'd just made contact with some unseen force. The chill returned to his skin as he did this, but when he withdrew his hand again, it stopped. "This…this isn't happening." He turned to Reno. "Please tell me your messing with me and I'm not really feeling him…"

Reno made a strange expression and shrugged a little. "Well, you are, but I'm not sure he wants you to go sticking your hand in the middle of his chest again."

"Okay, that's it." Quigley backed up from the corner. "I…This is fucked up. I know you're just messing with me and because I'm so damned stressed…my mind's making stuff up. I'm going to bed for a while."

"Quig!" Reno wanted to stop the researcher from just walking out, but failed to get to him before he managed out the door. He looked over at Porter. "Great. Someone's going to find out about this, now, and I'm going to be committed."

Porter simply vanished.

"Gah!" Reno threw up his hands in his frustration. "Would someone just shoot me and do it right?"