Chapter 15

The pub that evening was unusually quiet and lacking the normal activity. There only five other people, two of which were seated at the bar front sharing conversation. Gast sat back and readjusted his round glasses while he watched his assistant shuffle the cards.

"I never thought you were one to gamble." He stated. Lucrecia flashed him a small smile.

"I get that alot. And then again, people don't see practicing science that same way." She began to deal out the cards between her, the Professor and the Turk. Vincent glanced down at the bag of peanuts sitting near Lucrecia's elbow.

"A snack by chance, Doctor?"

Lucrecia ignored his question for a second until she finished dealing. "I thought I would be nice, so we bet with peanuts."

Vincent raised an eyebrow. 'Being nice huh? Or you think I would actually get my money back and then some?'

Gast picked up one of nuts and inspect it before breaking one open and popped the nutmeat into his mouth.

Lucrecia looked over hand and tried not to frown. Once again she had a rotten hand and she had little hope of gaining any improvement. After a moment of time, dealing additional cards, Vincent began and set the initial ante with Lucrecia and Gast following suit.

After several hands, it became apparent that Vincent was once again making his haul, but not at easily had he had thought it would. He found Gast was easy to read; especially the frown crease would furl with even the small of thought. And then again, Gast also had a habit of rubbing at his dark mustache. However, Gast was quick to catch on and began to give false signals. Vincent was amused.

A waitress came and placed several plates of food and the pitcher of ale that Gast had ordered along with a round of drinks served in glass pints. Gast had tried to get Hojo to join them, but he was only brushed off with the excuse that he had "better things to do with his precious time then waste it at some dive of a pub".

Despite Lucrecia's protest of not liking to drink, he insisted that he wanted to treat everyone to something he liked. Gast certainly enjoyed a good drink at the end of the day. Lucrecia could not help but wonder if he had spent too much with the archaeologists. She glanced up to find Vincent had a similar expression, which faded as he looked back at his hand. Holding her pint up in a thankful gesture, she took a drink.

"I think I have an idea of the unknown in Jenova's stomach." Gast stated as he threw a few peanuts into the middle of the table.

"You mentioned something about a root that Cetrans ate?" Lucrecia half asked and half stated as she met the ante. Vincent forced himself not to listen as the two scientists began to discuss the ancient partially digested stomach contents of Jenova.

"It's a bulb they would harvest once a year." Gast looked at his card before throw out a few more peanuts. "If that is the bulb in her gut, then this simple find will be amazing. Especially since the camas bulb was also used in ritual before warriors went into battle."

"I was under the impression that the Cetrans were peaceful people?" Vincent asked offhand. Gast blinked.

"Good point Mr. Valentine. Cetran were overall peaceful people, but they did have their fights between each other, stemming back to ancient traditions of their fathers. There are some points where the warrior class would merge with those of the shaman." Realizing it was his turn; the professor threw out a few more peanuts from his pile.

Lucrecia took another a quick drink from her glass. " So I guess the answer is yes and no, Mr. Valentine." She stated. The Turk could not help but chuckle.

Gast placed his hand down. "Back to the camas bulb, I was wondering if you could help me with a minor task."

Lucrecia glanced over at the professor. "Let me guess, you want me to find you a bulb?"

Gast pushed his glasses up. "And this is why you are my assistant. Now I know there are some around here."

Lucrecia waved his trailing comment. "Of course, sir. I can do that after dinner if you like."

Gast peeked at his cards and tried hard not to sigh. "That would be fine, Honestas. Though I would suggest you take the Mr. Valentine with you. I don't want you to get hurt on my accord."

He looked over at the Turk who nodded in return.

Vincent glanced over at Lucrecia and found no signal of what she had. He then caught a brief moment where she touched her cards to her lower lip.

Vincent threw a few more peanuts to the middle.

" Full house." Vincent placed his cards down.

Gast sighed and laid his hand down. " Four of Kings."

The Turk's eyes went wide for a moment. 'Damn.'

"What color are you looking for again?" Vincent asked as they stood on a small dirty path just behind the mansion walls.

"We are looking for the blue camas flowers. There is also a white version, but it is poisonous."

Vincent's eyes glanced over the hall grass. "So the only way to tell the difference which is poisonous or not is when they are in bloom?"

Lucrecia nodded. "Exactly." They continued to walk, searching through the bright clusters of summer flowers. Normally camas only bloomed during the early to late spring months, but being so close to the mountains and a higher elevation, the flowers bloomed later. "I don't see why Gast could have done this. He is better with plants then I." Lucrecia looked at the exposed stone of hills and cliffs. "Despite my biology background and all my work with medicine, I have a terrible black thumb when it comes to plants."

Vincent was quickly reminded of the probably long since dead plant on his kitchen counter.

Her blue eyes caught the slight glimmer of blue one of the cliff ledges near the edge of the woods. "There!" Lucrecia picked up her pace in order to reach the flowers. Vincent had little problem keeping up even though he could feet the slick surface of his shoes slipping on the grass.

Though once she reached the ledge, she found she could reach the edge and neither pulled herself up nor was anything particularly close for her to grab.

"Need a boost?" Vincent finally offered. There had been many a time during assignments he had to give his partner a boost over a wall or into a window. At least this was legit task.

Lucrecia nodded her head. Freeing her hands, the placed the short strap of the kit bag between her teeth and bit down. After giving her a quick boost, Lucrecia had only a short climb to the ledge. Vincent stood silently watching her slowly make her way to the small patch of flowers.

Lucrecia reached out and pulled herself over to the patch of grass and flowers and took a deep breath. 'I hate high place, but I know hate is not a strong enough word. Sure I can distract myself on a flight, even with the help of some liquid courage.' She swallowed forcing her eyes away from the fact she was high enough for it to hurt if she fell, or at least it felt like it. Lucrecia fought the urge to cry and instead focused her attention at the task at hand. Opening the kit, she pulled out a small trowel and began to dig up several of the blue flowers. 'Such simple things: four pedals and yellow stamens. I wonder how well they would take to being in a vase?' Lucrecia plunged her hands into the dark, red loamy soil and withdrew several bulbs and placed them into in a paper lunch sack.

"I'm almost done." Lucrecia announced. Her mind still reeled from what the Turk did last evening. 'Not it was something off a movie screen, but he does certainly have the ability to make me forget my middle name if I am not cautious.' Placing the trowel back into the small kit, she secured the latch and sat back on her heels.

Working up the courage, she looked over the edge and found Vincent looked up at her waiting. "Catch." She lowered it down as far as she could before dropping it. The Turk caught hold of it with ease and stood by waiting for her to come down. 'Now I got up here, how on earth am I getting back down?' She looked back to the way she had come and found it a little unnerving. It was a steep drop and she knew the footing would be tricky.' Like hell a little phobia is going to get the better of me.' Determined, Lucrecia began to make her way back down.

The climb was slow and Lucrecia quietly began to hum to herself hoping to keep herself calm as she continued her descent. Finding the ground was only feet away brought a sudden surge of relief until she felt her foot slip and she slid the rest of the way down. After what felt like an eternity to her, Lucrecia finally landed hard on her butt, her eyes squeezed shut.

"Lucrecia?"

Hearing her name startled her back into reality. Who called her by her first name? She opened on eye and found Vincent watching her with an amount of uncertainty and concern. Lucrecia start there staring at him for a moment before she realized what she was doing and shook her head.

"I'm fine, I just wasn't sure how far that was... we should get those samples back to the professor." Lucrecia bumbled awkwardly with her words as she stood up and dusted her pants off. He handed the kit back to her and they began to walk, skirting the outer edges of the evergreen woods. Lucrecia' mind scrambled realizing if she wanted to talk to him, now would be the time.

"We need to talk about last night." Lucrecia suddenly blurted out. Vincent glanced over at her and nodded.

"What is there to be discussed?"

Lucrecia swallowed. "I wanted to make sure we were on the same page about 'thing' last night I certainly think there is something there and if there is, it would be of our best interest to explore that in detail."

Vincent fought a smile that teased at his face. Lucrecia was normally quite apt with her words, but for some reason she seemed almost clumsy as though she were trying to throw stones that were too large and cumbersome.

"Of course. Is there something specifically you are concerned about?"

Lucrecia folded her arms signaling a sense of discomfort. 'I just don't want this to be a flash in a pan. I want something more.' "I just worried about mixing our duties with our desires...whatever what those maybe."

"I could not agree more. But I scarcely see this as something we really need to spend much time discussing. Whatever boundaries you set, I will respect."

Lucrecia's eyes flickered to the darkening boughs of the trees. 'Will you hold to your word or are you giving me lip service?' She looked back at him and found his eyes were serious, no flicker of mischievousness or malice. 'Blessed! You are serious.'

"Thank you." Was all she could say. Lucrecia caught the brief flash of Vincent's understated smile. In the distance, she could hear the town's children laughter followed by the barking of a dog. As they walked around toward the mansion, it quickly cut off the sounds from town. All that was left were the fading echoes of bird songs and crickets.

Lucrecia played with the handle on the kit. "Since when did you think it was proper to call me by my first name?" She goaded.

Vincent stopped at and glanced at her. "If you prefer otherwise, I will call you doctor." His lack of emotional response almost made seem he never recognized her attempt at humor.

Lucrecia smiled to herself. "I would rather you leave formalities in the lab. And while we are on the subject of names all I know is your last name. I assume you do have a first name?"

He was silent for a moment, as though he was giving it some thought.

"And don't tell me that's confidential as well." Lucrecia quickly added.

"No, I was going to say if I told you, I would have to shoot you."

She frowned. "That's not very funny."

Vincent sighed, taking note of his error. "I agree." He admitted in defeat. 'It sounded amusing in my head, but I suppose I could say that about a lot of things.' He continued to walk while Lucrecia remained standing in the middle of the deer path they walked along. Vincent stopped. "The name's Valentine, Vincent Valentine." He threw casually over his shoulder.

Lucrecia could not help but to roll her eyes. 'Gees, I just hope he doesn't start with the cheesy one liners.' They continued on their way. She could not help but to think about his name. 'A suiting name for him, I suppose. A proper name for a mannered man perchance?' She walked up and once with him began once again walk. Taking the opportunity, Lucrecia reached out and grabbed his hand. At first he hesitated in his step thinking it was a signal for him to stop, but when he turned he found it was on the contrary. The young scientist looked at him and then to their hands and squeezed. He glanced at her and merely squeezed her hand in return.

Vincent watched the dark canopy of the woods as they walked. It was though something or rather someone was watching them. He hated the feeling of being watched. Part of him could not help but feel exposed. 'I am supposed to be the one doing the watching, not the one being watched.' His eyes peered at the shadows hoping to find any hint of presence, but found nothing. Even the sudden silence of the forest added to his disquieted comfort of their situation. Pausing, he dropped Lucrecia's hand and stepped closer to the thickening cluster of trees.

Finding the encroaching darkness only inhibited his senses; he turned back to his female companion. Vincent found she also sensed something, her blue eyes scanning the woods, but he wondered how much of it was because of his behavior.

Placing an arm around Lucrecia's shoulder, he gently moved her away. She glanced over her shoulder and could not help but wonder what he was worried about. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end as her eyes hung on the trees. 'Is there actually something in there?' Blinking, Lucrecia turned her attention away and followed Vincent's lead.

"Should I shoot, sir?"

One of the soldiers dropped his binoculars down.

"Hold your fire. They seem to be leaving."

The rifle's nose dropped down. "Are you sure sir? The man is armed."

"Do you know who they are? That woman is Gast's assistant. Hojo would certainly have your ass on a platter if you shot her."

The soldier lowered his gun.